Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Wake-UP Call: U-S Passes 800,000 COVID-19 Deaths

The U.S. reached another grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic yesterday, passing 800,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University's count. Health experts note the tragic circumstance that more than 200,000 of those deaths came after Covid vaccines became widely available to all U.S. adults this past spring. Just over 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. 



The U.S. has the highest reported death toll of any country, making up about 15 percent of the world's 5.3 million known deaths, while accounting for only four percent of the global population. The latest sad news comes as cases and hospitalizations on the rise again, continuing to be driven by the delta variant, and as the omicron variant is gaining a foothold. (AP Photo)

🌪OVER 100 PEOPLE STILL UNACCOUNTED FOR IN KENTUCKY AFTER TORNADOES: Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Tuesday that more than 100 people in the state are still unaccounted for after tornadoes barreled through it and several other states Friday night. That is in addition to the 74 people in Kentucky who are confirmed dead, the largest part of the 88 people known dead in the affected states. Search and rescue operations were continuing. Meanwhile, five people who worked in a candle factory in the town of Mayfield that was destroyed and where eight people died have said supervisors warned employees that they would be fired if they left their shifts early to seek shelter. Company officials denied the allegations. President Biden is traveling to Kentucky today to meet with local officials and residents and survey damage.


💰CONGRESS SENDS LEGISLATION TO BIDEN TO RAISE DEBT LIMIT, AVOIDING DEFAULT: Congress is sending legislation to President Biden to raise the debt limit, avoiding a catastrophic debt default, after the Democratic-led House passed the measure on a near-party-line vote early this morning. The $2.5 trillion increase had earlier been passed in the Senate, after Republican Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for a workaround, avoiding a Republican filibuster to allow it to pass on a simple majority vote in the Democratic-led chamber.

➤HOUSE VOTES TO HOLD MEADOWS IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS: The House voted yesterday to hold former President Donald Trump's last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in contempt of Congress after he stopped cooperating with the House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. The vote, in which just two Republicans -- Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two GOPers on the January 6th committee -- voted with the Democrats came the day after the committee had voted for contempt. This comes after the House voted in October to also hold former Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. The Justice Department will now consider whether to move forward with the contempt cases. Meadows has sued the committee, asking a court to find two subpoenas were "overly broad and unduly burdensome."

📖ETHICS PANEL ORDERS CUOMO TO RETURN BOOK EARNINGS: New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics yesterday ordered former Governor Andrew Cuomo to turn over millions of dollars he made from the book he wrote last year about his response to the coronavirus pandemic. The order came after the commission voted last month to rescind the ethics approval it had given Cuomo for the $5.1 million book deal in July 2020 after the then-governor's counsel said Cuomo agreed not to use any state personnel or resources on the book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, and that he would write it on his own time. But there were later complaints that state property, resources and personnel were used for the book. Cuomo claimed the state employees had volunteered their private time. 

The commission claims their revocation of approval means Cuomo isn't "legally entitled" to keep the money. The book was published in October 2020, months before Cuomo resigned over sexual harassment allegations. Cuomo attorney Jim McGuire vowed to fight the commission's order, saying, "[The commission's] actions today are unconstitutional, exceed its own authority and appear to be driven by political interests rather than the facts and the law."

➤DIET SODA NOT BEING CALLED THAT ANYMORE: Diet soda is still popular, but it's not being called "diet soda" as much anymore. The no-calorie sodas are now being labeled "zero sugar" instead, because younger people, Millennials and those in Gen Z in particular, don't like the use of the word "diet," according to CNN. Whatever they're being called, they're selling, with diet soda sales up nearly 20 percent from 2018, compared to just over eight percent for regular soda over the same period.

➤STUDY FINDS RAPPER LOGIC'S ANTI-SUICIDE SONG MAY HAVE SAVED LIVES: A new study suggests that rapper Logic's anti-suicide song, "1-800-273-8255," from his 2017 album, Everybody, may have saved lives. The song, whose name is the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, tells the story of someone calling the hotline who says they want to end their life, and then someone on the other end telling the caller they want them to be alive and saying why, and the caller at the end realizing life is worth living. The song was on the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks after it was released in April 2017, reaching as high as the third spot. The study looked at periods after the song's release, the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, and the 2018 Grammy Awards, where the song was performed. During the 34 days when the events received the most attention, the Lifeline saw a 6.9 percent increase in calls, and suicides decreased 5.5 percent, representing an estimated 245 people. They note it doesn't prove the connection, but it suggests there could have been one.

🕇PERCENTAGE OF AMERICAN WHO SAY THEY DON'T HAVE A RELIGION CONTINUES TO GROW: The decline of religious affiliation in the America is continuing, with a new survey out yesterday from the Pew Research Center finding that people who say they are atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular" -- dubbed the "nones" -- now make up 29 percent of U.S. adults, up from 23 percent in 2016 and 19 percent a decade ago in 2011. Professor Elizabeth Drescher of Santa Clara University told AP, "If the unaffiliated were a religion, they’d be the largest religious group in the United States." The Pew poll found that the none's growth has largely come at the expense of Protestants, with 40 percent of adults now saying they are Protestant, down from 50 percent a decade ago. However, the nones are not themselves uniform. A recent Associated Press-NORC Center poll found that 30 percent of them feel some connection to God or a higher power, 28 percent say they are spiritual but not religious, 19 percent say religion has some importance to them even though they have no religious affiliation, and about 12 percent describe themselves as religious and spiritual.

🏀CURRY BREAKS NBA'S THREE-POINT RECORD: Golden State's Stephen Curry broke the NBA's three-point record last night, reaching the mark in the first quarter of the Warriors' 105-96 win over the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden. He did it with his 2,974th three-pointer, breaking the record held by Ray Allen for 10 years, who himself broke Reggie Miller's record. Both of them were at the game last night, and they presented Curry with a jersey with "2,974" on the back.

➤NBA, NFL, NHL ALL DEALING WITH COVID SURGES: The NBA, NFL and NHL are all dealing with surges of players testing positive for Covid-19, with coaches, team officials also affected.
  • NBA: The Chicago Bulls have had a few games canceled, with 10 players in Covid protocols. The Brooklyn Nets were missing seven players Tuesday (December 14th). Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo won’t play today, and the L.A. Lakers canceled practice with two players in the protocols.
  • NFL: After the NFL had a single-day high of positives Monday with 37, the L.A. Rams added nine players to the Covid reserve list Tuesday, while the Cleveland Browns had eight players, including four starters, on the list. As of yesterday, the league's Covid reserve list had jumped up to nearly 100 players, and it's expected to climb over the week.
  • NHL: The Carolina Hurricanes had a game postponed as four more players were put in the Covid protocol yesterday, the fourth NHL team this season to have games postponed due to a Covid outbreak. Additionally, Calgary’s games on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday were called off, with the Flames now with nine players in the protocol. The Canucks had two players test positive yesterday, and the Boston Bruins put two players in the protocol.
🏈REPORT: WFT OWNER SYNDER INTIMIDATED, TRIED TO KEEP WITNESSES FROM TALKING TO INVESTIGATOR: The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder allegedly intimidated witnesses and tried to block them from speaking to investigators who were carrying out a probe into allegations of sexual misconduct in the organization that also implicated Snyder. The Post reported that Beth Wilkinson, who carried out the investigation, discovered in July 2020 that Snyder had reached a $1.6 million settlement with an ex-employee who described sexual misconduct by him. Snyder's attorneys also allegedly attempted to prevent Wilkinson from speaking with the woman, according to the Post. His attorneys deny it. The Post also said Snyder allegedly had private investigators go to the homes of former employees who'd spoken to the newspaper and contacted their friends. Wilkinson finished her report in July, but the findings were not made public.

🏈AUTOPSY REVEALS EX-NFL PLAYER ACCUSED OF KILLING SIX HAD 'UNUSUALLY SEVERE' CTE: An autopsy has revealed that former NFL player Phillip Adams, who's accused of killing six people in South Carolina in April before killing himself, had an unusually severe case of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Dr. Ann McKee, who examined the 32-year-old's brain, said his 20 years of football, quote, "definitively . . . gave rise" to the CTE. The degenerative disease is linked to head trauma and concussions and has been shown to cause symptoms including violent mood swings and memory loss. Adams' sister told USA Today after the killings that her brother's mental health had, quote, "degraded fast and terribly bad" in recent years.

☔POWERFUL STORMS HITS CALIFORNIA:  A powerful storm walloped California with heavy rain and snow on Tuesday, as several inches of rain fell in the Los Angeles area and feet of snow were reported the Sierra Nevada.  The storm wreaked travel havoc across the state due to the rain and snow. It also raised the threat of mudslides in areas scarred by wildfires, prompting evacuation orders in southern California. Nearly 7 inches of rain fell before dawn in one area of Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles, the National Weather Service said. The ongoing heavy rain will continue to create areas of flash flooding, with urban areas, roads and small streams the most vulnerable, the Weather Service said.




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