Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Wake-Up Call: President To Visit Scene Of Condo Collapse


One more body was recovered from the rubble yesterday of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, increasing the confirmed death toll to 12 and leaving 149 people still unaccounted for. The search for survivors is going into a seventh day today since the partial collapse of the 12-study building in the early morning hours last Thursday. Meanwhile, it was reported that the president of the condo's board had written to residents in April about the major work that needed to be done on the building. He said that structural problems found in a 2018 inspection had, quote, "gotten significantly worse," writing, "The concrete deterioration is accelerating."

The White House announced that President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Surfside Thursday to meet with family members.


➤DOZEN DEATHS IN WASHINGTON, OREGON MAY BE DUE TO HISTORIC HEAT WAVE: About a dozen deaths that took place in the last few days in Washington state and Oregon may have been due to the historic heat wave the region's been experiencing. There were also reporters of potentially dozens of heat-related deaths in western Canada, which was being affected by the same "heat dome." The extreme temperatures in cities like Seattle and Portland that were near or over 110 degrees in the past couple of days eased yesterday. However, the dangerous heat moved inland to Spokane, eastern Oregon and Idaho. It reached 109 degrees in Spokane, the highest temperatures ever recorded there.


➤SUPREME COURT LETS EVICTION MORATORIUM REMAIN: The Supreme Court yesterday let the pandemic-related ban on evictions remain, rejecting the request by landlords to end the moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on evicting people who can't pay their rent due to the pandemic. The moratorium, which began last year, was just extended by one month until the end of July, but the CDC said it's expected that will be the final extension. The court voted 5-4 to let the moratorium remain, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the high court's liberals.

➤KIM JONG UN FIRES SENIOR NORTH KOREAN OFFICIALS, WARNS OF 'GRAVE CONSEQUENCES' RELATED TO PANDEMIC: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fired several senior officials who failed to enforce the country's strict Covid-19 prevention measures, saying it will have, quote, "grave consequences" for the isolated nation, state media reported yesterday. The unspecified incident was called a "great crisis" by Kim. North Korea hasn't publicly acknowledged having any Covid cases, although experts believe that's unlikely. However, , the North has been able to prevent a major outbreak due to very strict measures, and having an outbreak could be disastrous for the impoverished country that has poor health care infrastructure.
 

➤GAS STATIONS ARE RUNNING OUT OF GAS AHEAD OF THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND:  If you’re planning to travel over the upcoming holiday weekend you better make sure you can find some gas. The national average price for a gallon of regular stands at $3.10, the highest since October 2014. It’s also 2% higher than it was on Memorial Day, and 42 percent higher than it was a year ago. At the same time, many gas stations don’t have gas at all. It has nothing to do with the price, or even the supply, of gasoline—it’s due to a shortage of tank truck drivers coupled with rising demand that is causing supply chain bottlenecks and shortages. Experts add that a number of stations are reporting that they are simply not able to get gas delivered for any price. This comes as the AAA forecasts that 43.6 million Americans will travel by car this Fourth of July weekend.

➤"BORING NEWS" CYCLE HURTING MEDIA: Axios said in a new analysis of publishers’ readership and engagement trends that what it calls a "boring news cycle" has hurt media companies readership levels in the months since former President Donald Trump left office. The analysis of Web traffic, social media engagement, and app user sessions further found that outlets that rely most on partisanship and controversy on the left and the right have been particularly hurt, with right-wing outlets seeing some of the biggest drops. 


Mainstream publishers have also seen declines, but they've generally been the ones that have had readership fall the least. There's been debate over policy and issues during the Biden administration, but when it comes to personality-based controversy, Rodney Benson, chair of New York University's Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, told Axios of President Biden, "He's not giving the opposition a lot to attack." Axios also said the slower political news cycle has put attention on breaking new stories that might not have gotten as much attention during the Trump presidency.

➤EXPERTS..STAYING UP ALL NIGHT COULD HELP BEAT INSOMNIA:  Many people with insomnia try various medications, but it turns out there’s another treatment called chronotherapy that could help. It’s the process of “resetting” the body clock, and it’s said to improve sleep and in turn improve mood. The process takes five days—the first night the patient stays up all night; and then in the following days they go to bed early, but progressively later; and finally on the fifth and subsequent nights they sleep between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. People who undergo chronotherapy also wear light-filtering amber goggles before their early bedtimes to stimulate the release of the sleep hormone melatonin, and then when they wake up their eyes and faces are exposed to bright light from a light box. British psychiatrist Professor David Veale says chronotherapy is like resetting your computer using the “control, alt, delete” mechanism, which lets you close out faulty programs. He also says the effects of chronotherapy are much more immediate compared to taking medications, or even doing talk therapy—both of which can take five or six weeks to begin to work.

🛫UNITED AIRLINES PLACES BIGGEST PLANE ORDER IN ITS HISTORY: United Airlines believes travel is going to bounce back big from the pandemic -- which it has so far -- and has showed it by placing the biggest plane order in its history, buying 270 new single-aisle planes from Boeing and Airbus. Two hundred of the planes will come from Boeing. The order is also the biggest for any U.S. airline since 2011. United is looking to both replace some its aging jets and increase the overall size of its fleet.

➤EXPERT..LISTENING TO CLASSICAL MUSIC PROVIDES ‘A SOUND OF REASSURANCE’ ON ADS:  It turns out there are some advantages to using classical music in an advertisement. Southern Methodist University researcher and musicologist Peter Kupfer studied the context in which the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was used in 19 advertisements that aired in the U.S. between 2009 and 2019. He found that Bach’s music is used to signify prestige or class, or used to convey humor, but most-commonly it’s used to foster the idea of a “reassurance that one’s product choices will lead to happier, healthier and safer lives.” As a result, Kupfer says these commercials often “have ‘built-in’ extra-musical associations that advertisers can exploit.” 

🏀YOUNG DOESN'T PLAY, GIANNIS INJURED AS HAWKS TOP BUCKS 110-88: The Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 110-88 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals last night, getting the victory to tie the series at 2-2 without star Trae Young, who was kept out by the bone bruise on his foot he suffered in Game 3 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered his own injury, leaving the game after hurting his knee in the third quarter when he landed awkwardly after trying to block a dunk. He was diagnosed with a hyperextended knee, and now both him and Young are uncertain for Game 5 on Thursday.

 
🏀NBA PLAYOFFS: Results from Conference Finals yesterday:
  • Atlanta Hawks 110, Milwaukee Bucks 88 - Series tied at 2-2

🎾SERENA WILLIAMS EXITS WIMBLEDON AFTER INJURED IN FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Serena Williams was forced to exit the Wimbledon tournament Tuesday (June 29th) after injuring her right leg in the first set of her first-round match when she lost her footing. Williams attempted to continue as she tried to hold back tears, but her legs buckled as she tried to reach a shot by 100th-ranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus and she fell to her knees. After standing up with the help of her racket, a limping Williams conceded. She said in a statement later, "I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today." Winners on Day Two yesterday included top women's seed Ash Barty, Roger Federer, second-seeded men's player Daniil Medvedev and Williams' sister Venus Williams.

 
⚾MISS. STATE BEATS VANDERBILT 13-2 IN COLLEGE WORLD SERIES FINAL, FORCING DECIDING GAME 3: Mississippi State beat Vanderbilt 13-2 in Game 2 of the College World Series final last night, forcing a deciding Game 3 tonight. Pitchers Houston Harding and Preston Johnson combined on a four-hitter for MSU.

⚾WOMAN ACCUSES DODGERS PITCHER BAUER OF ASSAULT: A woman has accused L.A. Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer of assault related to a sexual encounter in mid-May. Pasadena police are investigating and the woman was granted a domestic violence restraining order against Bauer. Her attorney, Marc Garelick, said his client suffered, quote, "severe physical and emotional pain" as a result of the alleged assault. Bauer's agent, Jon Fetterolf, denied any wrongdoing by his client, saying in a statement that the two had a, quote, "brief and wholly consensual sexual relationship." He stated, "We have messages that show [the woman] repeatedly asking for 'rough' sexual encounters involving requests to be 'choked out' and slapped in the face."

⚾MARINERS' SANTIAGO SUSPENDED 10 GAMES UNDER MLB'S FOREIGN SUBSTANCES CRACKDOWN: Seattle Mariners pitcher Hector Santiago was suspended for 10 days yesterday, two days after he was ejected from a game against the Chicago White Sox after umpires said he had a foreign substance in his glove. Santiago is the first player who's been disciplined under MLB's new crackdown on grip-enhancing foreign substances. Seattle manager Scott Servais insisted yesterday that the substance on Santiago's glove was just rosin, saying, "It was rosin and rosin is behind the pitcher’s mound, so it’s not foreign."

🏒McDAVID WINS NHL'S MVP AWARD: The Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid won the NHL's MVP award, the Hart Trophy, yesterday (June 29th), becoming just the second unanimous selection, along with Wayne Gretzky in 1982. McDavid got all 100 first-place votes from members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association for his second MVP, after also winning in 2017. The 24-year-old also won the Ted Lindsay Award as the most outstanding player, an honor that's voted on by the NHL players. Also yesterday, the Minnesota Wild's Kirill Kaprizov won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year.
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