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from Daily Mail
China now has to fight coronavirus AND bird flu: 'Highly pathogenic' avian influenza hits two Chinese provinces near Hubei
Some 1,840 fowl were killed by the H5N6 virus in Sichuan, China said yesterday. 4,500 chickens had died of the H5N1 bug in Hunan, officials reported on Feb. 1. Four cases of bird flu outbreaks were also recorded in Xinjiang in January alone. The news comes as Beijing drains all its medical resources to fight coronavirus. The disease has killed at least 910 people and infected over 40,640 globally. Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
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from The Guardian (UK)
Storm Ciara batters Europe – in pictures
Storm Ciara, one of the most violent for years, has left a trail of destruction in Europe. One man was killed and another reported missing in southern Sweden when their boat capsized. Another man was killed in the UK when a tree fell on to his car.
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Monnery: Human Progress in Cuba and Hong Kong, Pt. 1
Sixty years of outstanding human progress in Hong Kong.
Whatever the future may hold for Hong Kong, the period since World War II should receive more attention than it does. It is perhaps the best example of policies delivering human progress and prosperity that we have seen to date. As World War II drew to a close, few visitors to Hong Kong would have predicted that this “barren island” would be the setting for one of the most impressive surges of human progress that the world has yet seen. Four years of Japanese occupation had more than halved the population, left factories stripped bare, and ended normal commercial activity. Although a British colony, the mother-country had no resources to provide any meaningful financial support. All it could offer was the rule or law, good governance, and a willingness to get out of the way of those people who were trying to rebuild their businesses. Happily, that was enough, and the people of Hong Kong quickly re-established the entrepôt trade with China. The population rebounded and incomes per capita rose back to their pre-war level.
from HumanProgress.org Education Website
Monnery: Human Progress in Cuba and Hong Kong, Pt. 1
Sixty years of outstanding human progress in Hong Kong.
Whatever the future may hold for Hong Kong, the period since World War II should receive more attention than it does. It is perhaps the best example of policies delivering human progress and prosperity that we have seen to date. As World War II drew to a close, few visitors to Hong Kong would have predicted that this “barren island” would be the setting for one of the most impressive surges of human progress that the world has yet seen. Four years of Japanese occupation had more than halved the population, left factories stripped bare, and ended normal commercial activity. Although a British colony, the mother-country had no resources to provide any meaningful financial support. All it could offer was the rule or law, good governance, and a willingness to get out of the way of those people who were trying to rebuild their businesses. Happily, that was enough, and the people of Hong Kong quickly re-established the entrepôt trade with China. The population rebounded and incomes per capita rose back to their pre-war level.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Faith and Values: The problem with tolerance
By Tracy Simmons: Recently I was chatting with a friend when the silly question came up, “If you had to wear one T-shirt for a whole year with only one word on it, what would it say?” After thinking about it, my friend responded, “Tolerance.” I pushed back.
Then and Now: Old City Hall
Now called the “old” City Hall, the building at Wall Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard was erected after the city agreed to sell their 1894 City Hall to railroad companies who were developing a new downtown train station. The 1913 City Hall building at the corner of Wall St. and Spokane Falls Boulevard housed city offices from its opening until employees moved across the street to the new City Hall, which was the former Montgomery Ward department store building, in 1982. This building, designed by Hermann Preusse and Julius Zittel, was planned and built somewhat hastily as the city had a deadline to move out of the first city hall built in 1894.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: GOP playing the game by different rules
Someone should explain that to the right-wing political establishment, whose members are up in arms over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up a copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address moments after he finished delivering it. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, that tower of Jell-O that walks like a man, pronounced this “pathetic.” Rep. Lee Zeldin called it “disgusting.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dubbed it “petty.” And so on. Which is, of course, hypocrisy on a galactic scale. A Trump enabler has about as much business criticizing a breach of decorum as Bill Cosby does teaching sex ed. Indeed, they have zero standing to lecture the rest of us on any question of right and wrong.
Inslee signs B&O tax surcharge to pay for expanded college aid
A change in state tax law that will hit many professional firms and tech businesses while it helps to pay for Washington’s expanded college scholarship programs was signed Monday by Gov. Jay Inslee. The business and occupation tax surcharge was the first bill to pass both chambers of the Legislature this year, in part because it was needed to correct problems with the original law passed last year in the closing days of the 2019 session.
Federal attorneys fire opening shot in fight over immigration enforcement restrictions in state of Washington
Federal attorneys in Seattle filed what may be an opening shot in a battle with the state on immigration policies and their enforcement. On its face, the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle seems narrow. It challenges the ability of King County to ban flights involving deportations into Boeing Field, which the county operates.
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Faith and Values: The problem with tolerance
By Tracy Simmons: Recently I was chatting with a friend when the silly question came up, “If you had to wear one T-shirt for a whole year with only one word on it, what would it say?” After thinking about it, my friend responded, “Tolerance.” I pushed back.
Then and Now: Old City Hall
Now called the “old” City Hall, the building at Wall Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard was erected after the city agreed to sell their 1894 City Hall to railroad companies who were developing a new downtown train station. The 1913 City Hall building at the corner of Wall St. and Spokane Falls Boulevard housed city offices from its opening until employees moved across the street to the new City Hall, which was the former Montgomery Ward department store building, in 1982. This building, designed by Hermann Preusse and Julius Zittel, was planned and built somewhat hastily as the city had a deadline to move out of the first city hall built in 1894.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: GOP playing the game by different rules
Someone should explain that to the right-wing political establishment, whose members are up in arms over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up a copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address moments after he finished delivering it. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, that tower of Jell-O that walks like a man, pronounced this “pathetic.” Rep. Lee Zeldin called it “disgusting.” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dubbed it “petty.” And so on. Which is, of course, hypocrisy on a galactic scale. A Trump enabler has about as much business criticizing a breach of decorum as Bill Cosby does teaching sex ed. Indeed, they have zero standing to lecture the rest of us on any question of right and wrong.
Inslee signs B&O tax surcharge to pay for expanded college aid
A change in state tax law that will hit many professional firms and tech businesses while it helps to pay for Washington’s expanded college scholarship programs was signed Monday by Gov. Jay Inslee. The business and occupation tax surcharge was the first bill to pass both chambers of the Legislature this year, in part because it was needed to correct problems with the original law passed last year in the closing days of the 2019 session.
Federal attorneys fire opening shot in fight over immigration enforcement restrictions in state of Washington
Federal attorneys in Seattle filed what may be an opening shot in a battle with the state on immigration policies and their enforcement. On its face, the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle seems narrow. It challenges the ability of King County to ban flights involving deportations into Boeing Field, which the county operates.
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