Friday, August 7, 2020

In the news, Monday, July 27, 2020


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JUL 26      INDEX      JUL 28
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from ABC News (& affiliates)
TV Network in New York, New York

Wealthy donors pour millions into fight over mail-in voting
Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Donald Trump's fate in the November election. ... The massive effort by political parties, super PACs and other organizations to fight over whether Americans can vote by mail is remarkable considering the practice has long been noncontroversial. But the coronavirus is forcing changes to the way states conduct elections and prompting activists across the political spectrum to seek an advantage, recognizing the contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden could hinge on whether voters have an alternative to standing in lines at polling places during a public health crisis. Some groups are even raising money to prepare for election-related violence.

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from AP (Associated Press)
LEFT-CENTER BIASED, VERY HIGH, News Agency in New York City

On Portland's streets: Anger, fear, and a fence that divides
The party at the Salmon Street Springs fountain, a riverfront landmark in the heart of Portland, was just getting started. Dozens of drummers beat out entrancing rhythms and a crowd of hundreds danced joyfully as the setting sun cast a soft pink glow on distant Mount Hood. Poster boards bearing the names of dozens of Black men and women killed by police stirred in a gentle breeze as the energy built to fever pitch and more and more people poured into the square. ... A few minutes later, as night fell, the music stopped — and the march to the federal courthouse began. Two blocks west and one block south, the several dozen federal law enforcement agents guarding the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse could hear the protesters coming. Under orders to protect the courthouse — federal property that has been increasingly targeted as the city’s protests against racial injustice march on — the agents were accustomed to the drill. But tonight, the crowd was huge, estimated at 4,000 people at its peak and the largest they had seen.

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from Competitive Enterprise Institute

Trump’s Drug Price Control Orders Are Bound to Backfire
At a White House gathering last Friday, President Trump announced four new executive orders intended to restrict the ways pharmaceutical companies set the price of prescription drugs. He signed and issued three that day and promised to issue a fourth if drug industry representatives don’t agree to massive price controls at a meeting tomorrow. Seemingly oblivious to the fact that just eight days earlier he staged a highly publicized press conference to explain how regulation often does more harm than good and portray himself as a slasher of federal red tape, Trump boasted Friday about adding to that burden. But, just as the president often warns, those new rules are likely to backfire. They may produce modestly lower prices for some patients in the short term, but everyone will bear the burden of higher prices and fewer treatment options in the long run.

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

One of Ayn Rand's lesser-known works of fiction paints a disturbingly familiar picture.
Recent legislators, activists, and education reformers have promised to lead us into a new world of equity. No longer will some groups have a different lifestyle from others. No longer will some groups have a different education from others. There will be reform or else, Hawk Newsome warns, “we will burn down this system and replace it.” For a preview of these glories, we have only to open Ayn Rand’s Anthem. In this dystopian novella, collectivists achieve their ideal by burning cities and books, then implementing central planning. Now everyone is equal: equally poor, equally housed, equally limited in what they can say and do and think.

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from Fox News (& affiliates)

Who's ready for a $5,826 Social Security benefit cut?
For most Americans, relying on Social Security income during retirement is the expectation. Surveys conducted by national pollster Gallup earlier this year found that 88% of future retirees expect to lean on Social Security income, to some degree, to make ends meet. For nonretirees, this represents an all-time high, dating back through two decades of surveys. It's an equally important source of income for current retirees, with Social Security Administration data showing that better than 3 in 5 seniors leans on their monthly stipend to account for at least half of their income. In other words, it's an indispensable program that's singlehandedly responsible for keeping more than 22 million people a year out of poverty.

American Airlines passenger claims 'HIPAA rights' over refusing to wear mask, divulge medical condition
Conservative author and podcast host David J. Harris Jr. reportedly delayed an American Airlines flight on Saturday after he refused to wear a mask because of medical issues and refused to answer crew member’s questions about his condition because he claimed it violated his HIPAA rights.

US attorney for Oregon blasts Portland officials in blistering interview: 'Nonsensical, political theater'
Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams told The Oregonian over the weekend that Portland officials were engaged in "nonsensical, political theater" by banning city police from working with federal law enforcement and swore that the federal government would not be abandoning any of the federal buildings in the city. "Anyone who thinks we’re just going to give up the courthouse, Hatfield, Pioneer (Courthouse) or any other federal facility downtown, that’s not going to happen," Williams said in the interview, according to the paper. "We’re not leaving."

Salmonella outbreak hits 23 states, source unknown: CDC
A total of 212 people have been infected with a strain of Salmonella Newport in 23 states. Since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) last update on July 21, 87 new cases have been reported, including 38 from eight new states, Florida, Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, Idaho, Arizona and Nebraska. The CDC said 31 people have been hospitalized but to date, no deaths have been reported. “This outbreak is rapidly growing in size," the CDC stated in a release Friday, noting that a specific food item, grocery store or restaurant chain has not been identified as the source of infections.

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from The Guardian (UK)
LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK

Ghislaine Maxwell: lawyers ask judge to stop accusers from posting evidence online
Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to stop her accusers from using evidence in the criminal case to boost civil lawsuits by posting materials to the internet. The lawyers say attorneys for women who claim Maxwell recruited and abused them should be subject to the same secrecy rules as prosecutors and Maxwell’s defense lawyers.

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from The Jerusalem Post

Groundbreaking blood test can detect cancer years before symptoms appear
A new blood test can detect various types of cancer years before previously possible with traditional detection methods, according to a new research published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. Early detection of cancer has the potential to significantly decrease death rates caused by the disease. Scientists have tried for years to develop a cancer screening-test that would reliably detect malignancy potential before tumor cells have the chance to spread, making treatment more effective. But until today, most attempts were unsuccessful or had partial results at best.  Developed by a Sino-US startup, the groundbreaking new blood test is referred to as PanSeer. It was developed by an international team of scientists at the University of California, who were successfully able to diagnose five different types of cancer long before symptoms appeared in the patients it tested. The five types of cancer that PanSeer can currently detect are stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, bowel cancer, lung cancer and liver cancer, all fairly common.

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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

THE DECLINE OF CELEBRITY PASTORS
Contemporary evangelicalism has always been adept at using technology to advance its missionary outreach. The latest iteration of this aptitude has been the way evangelicals turned on a dime to harness technology to continue providing worship services, Bible studies, small groups, prayer meetings, and so on during this season of sheltering in place and social distancing. But this is nothing new for evangelicals.

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from NBC News (& affiliates)
LEFT-CENTER BIAS

Coronavirus relief will include $1,200 checks and extension of eviction moratorium, Kudlow says
The next round of coronavirus relief will include $1,200 stimulus payments, and the Trump administration will lengthen the federal eviction moratorium, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday. “There’s a $1,200 check coming, that’s going to be part of the new package,” Kudlow said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” ... The $600 weekly supplement to state unemployment checks that was imposed in March ended over the weekend. Democrats want to extend the aid while Republicans are set to reduce the subsidy, arguing that extended aid is a disincentive for unemployed Americans to find work.

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from The New American Magazine
RIGHT BIAS: John Birch Society

Weekend Rocked by BLM-related Violence; DHS Blasts Democrat Leaders
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Sunday defended the federal government’s response to persistent rioting, vandalism, and violence in Portland, criticizing local leaders for continuing to refer to the instigators as “peaceful protesters.” During an appearance on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Features, Wolf said the protesters seen in Portland are different from the “normal criminal activity” witnessed in places such as Chicago and Kansas City. “They’re coming armed with rocks, bottles, baseball bats, power tools, commercial grade fireworks, eliciting that violence and targeting their violence on federal courthouses and federal law enforcement officers,” Wolf said of Portland agitators.

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from Northwest Public Broadcasting
News & Media Website in Pullman, WA

Diary Of A Long-Hauler: Correspondent Anna King’s 7-Week Fight With COVID-19
Anna King is based in Washington’s Tri-Cities. On Wednesday morning, June 3, she felt fine. Then, fever came on like a train — 104 degrees. She feared she had COVID-19. Early that Saturday, she headed to the emergency room. Here’s part of Anna’s seven-week diary.

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from Science-Based Medicine

Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19: Evidence can’t seem to kill it
Despite the accumulating negative evidence showing that hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work against COVID-19, activists continue to promote it as a way out of the pandemic. This week, the AAPS and a Yale epidemiologist joined the fray with embarrassingly bad arguments.

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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Getting There: Group to push new passenger rail from Spokane even as study finds significant obstacles
You head downtown in the morning, hop on a train, pass through Pasco, Toppenish, Yakima, Cle Elum and Auburn, and arrive in Seattle by the early afternoon. Or, if you miss that train, another leaves Spokane midday and arrives in the Emerald City that evening. That was the most complete of numerous scenarios for expanding rail service in Eastern Washington that the state Legislature paid a transportation consultancy group a quarter-million dollars to analyze over the past year. What they found in a report produced last month wasn’t, at first glance, exactly encouraging, even if it did conclude that the “introduction of daylight passenger rail service along the Stampede Pass route is physically and operationally feasible.” For one thing, the study found, adding a new rail line for a twice-daily round trip would require “significant upfront costs” of nearly $390 million in infrastructure improvements and equipment. Operating the line would take nearly $30 million a year.

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from The Washington Post
Newspaper in Washington, D.C.

The world is realizing the U.S. is no longer committed to basic standards of decency
NOT SO long ago, asylum seekers turned to the United States, seeking refuge from repressive states. Now the United States is one of those repressive states. That’s the gist of a Canadian federal court ruling, which would scrap a 16-year-old bilateral treaty called the Safe Third Country Agreement, under which Canada and the United States each recognize the other as a safe place to seek refuge. Justice Ann Marie McDonald ruled that Canada’s practice of turning back third-country refugees who try to cross at official points of entry along the U.S.-Canada frontier — on the theory that they have already reached a safe harbor in the United States — no longer makes sense given the atrocious treatment to which they are subjected south of the border. Canada, she wrote, can no longer turn a blind eye to the reality that the United States denies decent and dignified treatment to asylum seekers.

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from Western Journal
 RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, Media/News Company in Phoenix, Arizona



Nashville Fire Department Captain Tracy Turner isn’t exactly a deep political thinker. Neither are most people on social media — but in Turner’s case, that could cost him his job. Turner has some particularly strong views on the Black Lives Matter movement, race, the recent protest movements and whether or not you should use face masks in public places. None of them are particularly deep and some of them are bound to anger people. In Nashville, Tennessee, members of the fire department are required to make clear their opinions on social media are theirs alone and have been strongly encouraged not to make controversial social media statements. Prominent voices in the community want Turner fired — although not because he breached those regulations. They just don’t like what he had to say.

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