Post by mhbruin on Jun 3, 2021 9:13:00 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 298 Million Shots
HALF THE US ADULT POPULATION IS FULLY VACCINATED!
One-half of the US population will has received at least one dose.
CALIFORNIA
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The NFL Will No Longer Assume Blacks are Dumber
The NFL has said it will stop settling concussion lawsuits using a race-based formula that assumes black players have a lower level of cognitive function.
America's top-flight football league also pledged to review previous brain injury claims that have been settled via the practice known as race-norming.
Two black players filed a civil rights lawsuit over the practice. One black player involved in the litigation called the policy "classic system racism".
More than 2,000 former NFL players have lodged dementia claims, but fewer than 600 have received compensation.
Lawyers say more than half of NFL retirees are black.
Attorneys have requested details on how NFL brain injury payouts have been apportioned along racial lines, but are yet to receive any details.
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The Forgers are Literally Profiting from Killing People
A German police force has set up a special team to combat a growing black market in forged vaccine certificates.
Police in Cologne told the broadcaster ARD that fraudsters were communicating via an encrypted messenger service which makes investigations difficult.
They are still trying to determine the scale of the problem nationally. Some people are duped into paying about €100 (£86; $122), then get nothing.
Covid "passports" to ease travel are being rolled out now across the EU.
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What's Weird About This Picture? (Answer at the End)
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Dodging the Subpoena Server - A Profile in Courage
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks is avoiding a lawsuit from his Democratic colleague Rep. Eric Swalwell that seeks to hold him accountable for the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- so much so that Swalwell's attorneys hired a private investigator to find him.
The detail comes in a court filing Wednesday in which Swalwell's attorneys describe difficulty in serving Brooks with the lawsuit. CNN has reached out to Brooks' office for comment.
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It's Good PR, But It Won't Bring the QOP on Board
President Joe Biden offered to bring his price tag on an infrastructure package down to $1 trillion but wants to ensure it amounts to "new money" -- not redirected from funding already approved by Congress as Senate Republicans have been demanding, a GOP source briefed on the talks said.
Biden also reiterated his call for new taxes to pay for much of his plan, the source said. It's the latest sign of the major gulf between the two parties as they try to cut an infrastructure deal.
Two sources familiar with Wednesday's discussion between Biden and Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who is leading negotiations on behalf of Senate Republicans, said any new infrastructure money would be on top of a baseline of $400 billion over five years, putting the total at $1.4 trillion. The White House declined to comment.
The offer made to Capito amounts to a reduction of the Biden administration's $1.7 trillion proposal but a dramatic increase from the latest offer made by Republican senators. Capito and her group of fellow Senate Republicans have proposed a $928 billion infrastructure package, with $257 billion in new spending.
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The Incredible Shrinking Pandemic - But Unvaccinated People are Still at Risk
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have fallen to levels not seen since March 2020, according to an NBC News analysis — and experts say they expect case counts to stay low through the summer.
Cases first surged in March last year, driven by a wave in New York City. That first surge peaked in April, then gradually decreased to a seven-day average of 19,000 cases June 1, 2020 — and would not fall below that threshold for the next year. On Wednesday, the seven-day average was 16,860, the lowest since March 29, 2020.
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The Power of the Hijab...To Scare People
A Muslim woman from Dallas-Fort Worth is the focus of a religious discrimination complaint filed against Southwest Airlines on Tuesday after she said a flight attendant targeted her because she was wearing a hijab.
A Muslim woman, who introduced herself as Fatima at a press conference on Tuesday, said a flight attendant insisted she did not speak English even when she responded to her and told her she could.
On the flight, Fatima went to sit in an exit row seat beside her sister, but the flight attendant told Fatima she could not sit in the exit row because she could not speak English. Fatima and her sister had been speaking to one another in Arabic as they got onto the plane, but Fatima told the flight attendant that she did speak English.
The attendant insisted Fatima’s sister, who was not wearing a hijab, could sit in the same seat, but Fatima could not, she said.
The flight attendant said if Fatima sat in the seat she “would bring the whole plane down in an emergency” because she did not speak English, according to the complaint.
“That made me look like I was some kind of terrorist,” Fatima said at the press conference, which was held at her attorney’s office in Plano. “I am not.”
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Oh No! Don't Mock Us!
A Stanford Law graduate mocked the right-wing group The Federalist Society, so the student chapter is suing him and filed a complaint against him.
Slate.com reported Wednesday that the Stanford law student, Nicholas Wallace, sent a satirical flyer to a student listserv that was for debate and political commentary. It promoted a satirical event that would discuss the legal case for inciting an insurrection hosted by the local chapter of the Federalist Society.
While satire is covered in the First Amendment, the right-wing group wasn't laughing and they blocked the student from getting his law degree. The group is also suing Wallace saying that the satire "defamed" them and caused "harm."
What a Bunch of Babies
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The Incredible Shrinking QOP
The Republican base is shrinking. Indeed, 74% of Republicans are still Trump sycophants. It is also true that a Republican likely cannot win a Republican primary by defying Trump. But let’s remember basic math. Republicans only make up 25% of the voting population. This means that Trump’s real support is just (.74 X 25%). In other words 18.5% of the population. While Republicans need Trump adoration to get through their primaries, Republicans need voter suppression, fraud, and a defective constitutional process to win.
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The Incredible Growing GaetzGate
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is being investigated for possible obstruction of justice during a phone call with a witness in an ongoing probe, Politico reported late Wednesday.
Citing two sources, Politico said Gaetz took part in a call with an ex-girlfriend and the witness. That witness reportedly later spoke with prosecutors, who are now exploring whether Gaetz suggested that the person lie or mislead investigators, which would be a crime.
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Sinema Needs a History Lesson
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday reiterated her support for the Senate filibuster despite growing pressure to eliminate the chamber’s longstanding supermajority requirement for passing legislation.
“It is a tool that protects the democracy of our nation. Rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years back and forth between policies, the idea of the filibuster was created by those who came before to create comity and to encourage bipartisanship and work together,” Sinema told reporters at an event with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in Tucson, according to The Arizona Republic.
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Given that the Sonic Boom is Considered a Big Problem for a SST, I Am Not Sure this Company Picked the Right Name
United Airlines said it wants to bring back commercial supersonic air travel, which would mark a first since British Airways retired its Concorde service in 2003. United on Thursday said it has an agreement to purchase 15 supersonic aircraft from startup Boom Supersonic.
Boom, a Denver-based startup, said its Overture supersonic aircraft will be capable of flying between New York and London in 3 hours and 30 minutes, shaving three hours from the typical flight time. United has an option to buy an additional 35 aircraft from Boom, which has raised $240 million in venture capital to develop its plane.
United said the supersonic aircraft is expected to carry passengers by 2029. The Overture plane will be designed to run entirely on sustainable fuel and produce "net-zero" carbon emissions, according to the companies.
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But Here's a Good Boom: The Biden Boom
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fifth straight week to a new pandemic low, the latest evidence that the U.S. job market is regaining its health as the economy further reopens.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 385,000, down 20,000 from the week before. The number of weekly applications for unemployment aid, which generally reflects the pace of layoffs, has fallen steadily all year, though it remains high by historical standards.
The decline in applications reflects a swift rebound in economic growth and the job market's steady recovery from the coronavirus recession. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine out and congregate at entertainment venues. All that renewed spending has led companies to seek new workers.
Employers have added 1.8 million jobs this year — an average of more than 450,000 a month — and the government's May jobs report on Friday is expected to show that they added an additional 656,000 last month, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The economy remains down 8.2 million jobs from its level in February 2020, just before the virus tore through the economy.
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Aren't Graduations Supposed to Be Deathly Dull?
The valedictorian at a Texas high school went off-script while delivering her graduation speech, criticising the state’s extreme abortion ban in an address that has since been widely shared on social media.
School administrators had signed off on Paxton Smith’s pre-written speech on how TV and media have shaped her worldview. But, when it came time to address the graduating class of Lake Highlands high school, she pivoted.
“In light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state,” she said, her voice shaking as she began.
“Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest,” Smith said.
“I have dreams, hopes and ambitions,” Smith said. “Every girl here does. We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us.”
“I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I’m raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant,” she added. “I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.”
The speech has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and drew the attention of prominent political figures. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 presidential candidate and longtime activist for women’s rights, tweeted: “This took guts. Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton.”
Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic Texas congressman, thanked Smith “for having the courage of your convictions and inspiring Texas with your refusal to accept injustice as the price of participation in civic life”.
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They Are Further Apart Than Biden and the QOP
Derek Chauvin asked a judge to sentence him to a term of probation or a shorter prison term than suggested by Minnesota guidelines in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday. The memo cites Chauvin's lack of previous criminal history, his previous work as a police officer and the risk he could be victimized in prison as factors the judge should consider as he weighs a sentence.
But in another memorandum filed Wednesday, prosecutors asked for a sentence of 30 years for the convicted former Minneapolis officer, a term they said would "properly account for the profound impact of [Chauvin's] conduct on the victim, the victim's family, and the community."
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He Was Dying to Be an ATO
Fifteen men who belonged to a Washington State University fraternity were charged Wednesday in connection with the alcohol-poisoning death of a 19-year-old pledge two years ago, officials said.
Whitman County prosecutors charged the former members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity with furnishing liquor to one or more minors, a gross misdemeanor that carries a jail sentence of up to a year and a $5,000 fine.
The charges are related to the investigation of the death of Sam Martinez, a pledge at the fraternity who died of alcohol poisoning in November 2019 after participating in an "event that was part of an initiation process at the fraternity," the Whitman County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a statement.
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Auschwitz on the Colorado River
Arizona intends to resume executing death row inmates in gas chambers with Nazi-era chemicals, according to a report.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry has spent thousands of dollars "refurbishing" gas chambers for executions, according to a report in The Guardian, which obtained government documents through public records requests.
Among the purchases, the documents showed, was $2,000 to buy the ingredients to make hydrogen cyanide -- a gas used by Nazis at Auschwitz.
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Death in the Forest
A massive fire in California last year may have destroyed up to a tenth of the world’s mature giant sequoia population, according to a draft report produced by scientists working for the National Park Service.
From August to December 2020, the Castle fire tore through Sequoia national park, burning through thousands of the ancient redwoods, the world’s largest tree. By the time the blaze was contained, it had consumed 175,000 acres of parkland. NPS scientists now estimate that between 7,500 and 10,000 mature giant sequoias went up in flames.
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A Warning For All You Bug Eaters
The cicadas are back, and with them a warning from the Food and Drug Administration: Don't eat these critters if you have a seafood allergy.
"Yep! We have to say it! Don't eat #cicadas if you're allergic to seafood as these insects share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters," the agency tweeted Wednesday.
Since the cicadas have emerged, recipes have popped up across the internet, as some describe the critters as a rare gourmet treat.
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Didn't I See a Horror Movie About Squids From Outer Space?
More than 100 baby squid and 5,000 microscopic animals are set to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
The creatures, along with other equipment for experiments, will head to the ISS aboard Space X's Falcon 9 rocket.
Its hoped that the experiments will be able to help scientists understand the effects of spaceflight.
The 128 baby bobtail squid will be used as part of research into the effects of spaceflight on beneficial interactions between microbes and animals.
The squid have an immune system which is similar to that of humans.
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This Was Poorly Worded, but I Agree With Bobb's Idea
Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had "an insatiable appetite for war and killing".
In a post about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resurfaced this week, Kamau Bobb also claimed Jewish people had an "insensitivity" to suffering.
The post has now been deleted.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Google told the BBC that Mr Bobb would "no longer be part of our diversity team going forward".
In the post titled 'If I were a Jew', Mr Bobb described how he believed Jewish people should feel about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the Times of Israel reports.
"If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defence of myself," he wrote.
"Self-defence is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others."
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The Orangutan is Climbing Up
A mind-bending photograph of an orangutan with the sky reflected in water has won first prize in the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2021 competition.
Mr Vijayan took the photo in Borneo, where he selected a tree that was in the water so he could get a good reflection of the sky and create the upside-down effect.
"This image means a lot to me because presently the orangutan population is reducing at an alarming rate," he said.
"Trees over 1,000 years old - which are a major asset to our planet - are being cut down for palm oil plantation.
"As humans we have a lot of alternative choices to replace the oil, but the orangutans don't have any options other than losing their home."
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HALF THE US ADULT POPULATION IS FULLY VACCINATED!
One-half of the US population will has received at least one dose.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | |
| Jun 3 | 1,215,518 | 169,090,262 | 136,644,618 |
| Jun 2 | 1,303,431 | 168,734,435 | 136,155,250 |
| Jun 1 | 1,359,049 | 168,489,729 | 135,867,425 |
| May 30 | 1,315,466 | 167,733,972 | 135,087,319 |
| May 29 | 1,394,832 | 167,157,043 | 134,418,748 |
| May 28 | 1,500,632 | 166,388,129 | 133,532,544 |
| May 27 | 1,618,194 | 165,718,717 | 132,769,894 |
| May 26 | 1,703,162 | 165,074,907 | 131,850,089 |
| May 25 | 1,750,524 | 164,378,258 | 131,078,608 |
| May 24 | 1,782,714 | 163,907,827 | 130,615,797 |
| May 23 | 1,827,882 | 163,309,414 | 130,014,175 |
| May 22 | 1,872,697 | 162,470,794 | 129,006,463 |
| May 21 | 1,879,526 | 161,278,336 | 127,778,250 |
| May 20 | 1,828,681 | 160,177,820 | 126,605,166 |
| May 19 | 1,801,333 | 159,174,963 | 125,453,423 |
| May 18 | 1,771,807 | 158,365,411 | 124,455,693 |
| May 17 | 1,830,360 | 157,827,208 | 123,828,224 |
| May 16 | 1,886,917 | 157,132,234 | 122,999,721 |
| May 15 | 1,926,448 | 156,217,367 | 121,768,268 |
| May 14 | 1,951,333 | 155,251,852 | 120,258,637 |
| May 13 | 2,088,962 | 154,624,231 | 118,987,308 |
| May 12 | 2,159,146 | 153,986,312 | 117,647,439 |
| May 11 | 2,194,787 | 153,448,316 | 116,576,359 |
| May 10 | 2,117,025 | 152,819,904 | 115,530,780 |
| May 9 | 2,085,022 | 152,116,936 | 114,258,244 |
| May 8 | 1,983,391 | 151,315,505 | 112,626,771 |
| May 7 | 2,088,522 | 150,416,559 | 110,874,920 |
| May 6 | 2,087,608 | 149,462,265 | 108,926,627 |
| May 5 | 2,132,487 | 148,562,891 | 107,346,533 |
| May 4 | 2,194,483 | 147,894,671 | 106,168,588 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | |
| % of Total Population | 50.9% | 41.2% |
| % of Population 12+ | 60.3% | 48.8% |
| % of Population 18+ | 63.0% | 52.0% |
| % of Population 65+ | 86.0% | 75.0% |
CALIFORNIA
7-Day Average Administered | |
| Jun 3 | 165,225 |
| Jun 2 | 170,223 |
| Jun 1 | 179,213 |
| May 30 | 173,351 |
| May 29 | 193,204 |
| May 28 | 213,796 |
| May 27 | 230,733 |
| May 26 | 244,708 |
| May 25 | 258,249 |
| May 24 | 268,071 |
| May 23 | 276,166 |
| May 22 | 285,578 |
| May 21 | 293,987 |
| May 20 | 281,184 |
| May 19 | 278,632 |
| May 18 | 269,324 |
| May 17 | 271,943 |
| May 16 | 286,457 |
| May 15 | 279,347 |
| May 14 | 278,877 |
| May 13 | 298,328 |
| May 12 | 306,629 |
| May 11 | 309,119 |
| May 10 | 292,285 |
| May 9 | 286,170 |
| May 8 | 277,007 |
| May 7 | 306,331 |
| May 6 | 291,408 |
| May 5 | 290,114 |
| May 4 | 299,430 |
| Mar 1 | 214,579 |
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The NFL Will No Longer Assume Blacks are Dumber
The NFL has said it will stop settling concussion lawsuits using a race-based formula that assumes black players have a lower level of cognitive function.
America's top-flight football league also pledged to review previous brain injury claims that have been settled via the practice known as race-norming.
Two black players filed a civil rights lawsuit over the practice. One black player involved in the litigation called the policy "classic system racism".
More than 2,000 former NFL players have lodged dementia claims, but fewer than 600 have received compensation.
Lawyers say more than half of NFL retirees are black.
Attorneys have requested details on how NFL brain injury payouts have been apportioned along racial lines, but are yet to receive any details.
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The Forgers are Literally Profiting from Killing People
A German police force has set up a special team to combat a growing black market in forged vaccine certificates.
Police in Cologne told the broadcaster ARD that fraudsters were communicating via an encrypted messenger service which makes investigations difficult.
They are still trying to determine the scale of the problem nationally. Some people are duped into paying about €100 (£86; $122), then get nothing.
Covid "passports" to ease travel are being rolled out now across the EU.
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What's Weird About This Picture? (Answer at the End)
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Dodging the Subpoena Server - A Profile in Courage
Republican Rep. Mo Brooks is avoiding a lawsuit from his Democratic colleague Rep. Eric Swalwell that seeks to hold him accountable for the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- so much so that Swalwell's attorneys hired a private investigator to find him.
The detail comes in a court filing Wednesday in which Swalwell's attorneys describe difficulty in serving Brooks with the lawsuit. CNN has reached out to Brooks' office for comment.
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It's Good PR, But It Won't Bring the QOP on Board
President Joe Biden offered to bring his price tag on an infrastructure package down to $1 trillion but wants to ensure it amounts to "new money" -- not redirected from funding already approved by Congress as Senate Republicans have been demanding, a GOP source briefed on the talks said.
Biden also reiterated his call for new taxes to pay for much of his plan, the source said. It's the latest sign of the major gulf between the two parties as they try to cut an infrastructure deal.
Two sources familiar with Wednesday's discussion between Biden and Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who is leading negotiations on behalf of Senate Republicans, said any new infrastructure money would be on top of a baseline of $400 billion over five years, putting the total at $1.4 trillion. The White House declined to comment.
The offer made to Capito amounts to a reduction of the Biden administration's $1.7 trillion proposal but a dramatic increase from the latest offer made by Republican senators. Capito and her group of fellow Senate Republicans have proposed a $928 billion infrastructure package, with $257 billion in new spending.
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The Incredible Shrinking Pandemic - But Unvaccinated People are Still at Risk
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States have fallen to levels not seen since March 2020, according to an NBC News analysis — and experts say they expect case counts to stay low through the summer.
Cases first surged in March last year, driven by a wave in New York City. That first surge peaked in April, then gradually decreased to a seven-day average of 19,000 cases June 1, 2020 — and would not fall below that threshold for the next year. On Wednesday, the seven-day average was 16,860, the lowest since March 29, 2020.
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The Power of the Hijab...To Scare People
A Muslim woman from Dallas-Fort Worth is the focus of a religious discrimination complaint filed against Southwest Airlines on Tuesday after she said a flight attendant targeted her because she was wearing a hijab.
A Muslim woman, who introduced herself as Fatima at a press conference on Tuesday, said a flight attendant insisted she did not speak English even when she responded to her and told her she could.
On the flight, Fatima went to sit in an exit row seat beside her sister, but the flight attendant told Fatima she could not sit in the exit row because she could not speak English. Fatima and her sister had been speaking to one another in Arabic as they got onto the plane, but Fatima told the flight attendant that she did speak English.
The attendant insisted Fatima’s sister, who was not wearing a hijab, could sit in the same seat, but Fatima could not, she said.
The flight attendant said if Fatima sat in the seat she “would bring the whole plane down in an emergency” because she did not speak English, according to the complaint.
“That made me look like I was some kind of terrorist,” Fatima said at the press conference, which was held at her attorney’s office in Plano. “I am not.”
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Oh No! Don't Mock Us!
A Stanford Law graduate mocked the right-wing group The Federalist Society, so the student chapter is suing him and filed a complaint against him.
Slate.com reported Wednesday that the Stanford law student, Nicholas Wallace, sent a satirical flyer to a student listserv that was for debate and political commentary. It promoted a satirical event that would discuss the legal case for inciting an insurrection hosted by the local chapter of the Federalist Society.
While satire is covered in the First Amendment, the right-wing group wasn't laughing and they blocked the student from getting his law degree. The group is also suing Wallace saying that the satire "defamed" them and caused "harm."
What a Bunch of Babies
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The Incredible Shrinking QOP
The Republican base is shrinking. Indeed, 74% of Republicans are still Trump sycophants. It is also true that a Republican likely cannot win a Republican primary by defying Trump. But let’s remember basic math. Republicans only make up 25% of the voting population. This means that Trump’s real support is just (.74 X 25%). In other words 18.5% of the population. While Republicans need Trump adoration to get through their primaries, Republicans need voter suppression, fraud, and a defective constitutional process to win.
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The Incredible Growing GaetzGate
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is being investigated for possible obstruction of justice during a phone call with a witness in an ongoing probe, Politico reported late Wednesday.
Citing two sources, Politico said Gaetz took part in a call with an ex-girlfriend and the witness. That witness reportedly later spoke with prosecutors, who are now exploring whether Gaetz suggested that the person lie or mislead investigators, which would be a crime.
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Sinema Needs a History Lesson
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday reiterated her support for the Senate filibuster despite growing pressure to eliminate the chamber’s longstanding supermajority requirement for passing legislation.
“It is a tool that protects the democracy of our nation. Rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years back and forth between policies, the idea of the filibuster was created by those who came before to create comity and to encourage bipartisanship and work together,” Sinema told reporters at an event with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in Tucson, according to The Arizona Republic.
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Given that the Sonic Boom is Considered a Big Problem for a SST, I Am Not Sure this Company Picked the Right Name
United Airlines said it wants to bring back commercial supersonic air travel, which would mark a first since British Airways retired its Concorde service in 2003. United on Thursday said it has an agreement to purchase 15 supersonic aircraft from startup Boom Supersonic.
Boom, a Denver-based startup, said its Overture supersonic aircraft will be capable of flying between New York and London in 3 hours and 30 minutes, shaving three hours from the typical flight time. United has an option to buy an additional 35 aircraft from Boom, which has raised $240 million in venture capital to develop its plane.
United said the supersonic aircraft is expected to carry passengers by 2029. The Overture plane will be designed to run entirely on sustainable fuel and produce "net-zero" carbon emissions, according to the companies.
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But Here's a Good Boom: The Biden Boom
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fifth straight week to a new pandemic low, the latest evidence that the U.S. job market is regaining its health as the economy further reopens.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 385,000, down 20,000 from the week before. The number of weekly applications for unemployment aid, which generally reflects the pace of layoffs, has fallen steadily all year, though it remains high by historical standards.
The decline in applications reflects a swift rebound in economic growth and the job market's steady recovery from the coronavirus recession. More Americans are venturing out to shop, travel, dine out and congregate at entertainment venues. All that renewed spending has led companies to seek new workers.
Employers have added 1.8 million jobs this year — an average of more than 450,000 a month — and the government's May jobs report on Friday is expected to show that they added an additional 656,000 last month, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet. The economy remains down 8.2 million jobs from its level in February 2020, just before the virus tore through the economy.
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Aren't Graduations Supposed to Be Deathly Dull?
The valedictorian at a Texas high school went off-script while delivering her graduation speech, criticising the state’s extreme abortion ban in an address that has since been widely shared on social media.
School administrators had signed off on Paxton Smith’s pre-written speech on how TV and media have shaped her worldview. But, when it came time to address the graduating class of Lake Highlands high school, she pivoted.
“In light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state,” she said, her voice shaking as she began.
“Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest,” Smith said.
“I have dreams, hopes and ambitions,” Smith said. “Every girl here does. We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us.”
“I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I’m raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant,” she added. “I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.”
The speech has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and drew the attention of prominent political figures. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 presidential candidate and longtime activist for women’s rights, tweeted: “This took guts. Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton.”
Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic Texas congressman, thanked Smith “for having the courage of your convictions and inspiring Texas with your refusal to accept injustice as the price of participation in civic life”.
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They Are Further Apart Than Biden and the QOP
Derek Chauvin asked a judge to sentence him to a term of probation or a shorter prison term than suggested by Minnesota guidelines in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday. The memo cites Chauvin's lack of previous criminal history, his previous work as a police officer and the risk he could be victimized in prison as factors the judge should consider as he weighs a sentence.
But in another memorandum filed Wednesday, prosecutors asked for a sentence of 30 years for the convicted former Minneapolis officer, a term they said would "properly account for the profound impact of [Chauvin's] conduct on the victim, the victim's family, and the community."
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He Was Dying to Be an ATO
Fifteen men who belonged to a Washington State University fraternity were charged Wednesday in connection with the alcohol-poisoning death of a 19-year-old pledge two years ago, officials said.
Whitman County prosecutors charged the former members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity with furnishing liquor to one or more minors, a gross misdemeanor that carries a jail sentence of up to a year and a $5,000 fine.
The charges are related to the investigation of the death of Sam Martinez, a pledge at the fraternity who died of alcohol poisoning in November 2019 after participating in an "event that was part of an initiation process at the fraternity," the Whitman County Prosecuting Attorney's Office said in a statement.
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Auschwitz on the Colorado River
Arizona intends to resume executing death row inmates in gas chambers with Nazi-era chemicals, according to a report.
The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry has spent thousands of dollars "refurbishing" gas chambers for executions, according to a report in The Guardian, which obtained government documents through public records requests.
Among the purchases, the documents showed, was $2,000 to buy the ingredients to make hydrogen cyanide -- a gas used by Nazis at Auschwitz.
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Death in the Forest
A massive fire in California last year may have destroyed up to a tenth of the world’s mature giant sequoia population, according to a draft report produced by scientists working for the National Park Service.
From August to December 2020, the Castle fire tore through Sequoia national park, burning through thousands of the ancient redwoods, the world’s largest tree. By the time the blaze was contained, it had consumed 175,000 acres of parkland. NPS scientists now estimate that between 7,500 and 10,000 mature giant sequoias went up in flames.
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A Warning For All You Bug Eaters
The cicadas are back, and with them a warning from the Food and Drug Administration: Don't eat these critters if you have a seafood allergy.
"Yep! We have to say it! Don't eat #cicadas if you're allergic to seafood as these insects share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters," the agency tweeted Wednesday.
Since the cicadas have emerged, recipes have popped up across the internet, as some describe the critters as a rare gourmet treat.
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Didn't I See a Horror Movie About Squids From Outer Space?
More than 100 baby squid and 5,000 microscopic animals are set to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
The creatures, along with other equipment for experiments, will head to the ISS aboard Space X's Falcon 9 rocket.
Its hoped that the experiments will be able to help scientists understand the effects of spaceflight.
The 128 baby bobtail squid will be used as part of research into the effects of spaceflight on beneficial interactions between microbes and animals.
The squid have an immune system which is similar to that of humans.
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This Was Poorly Worded, but I Agree With Bobb's Idea
Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had "an insatiable appetite for war and killing".
In a post about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that resurfaced this week, Kamau Bobb also claimed Jewish people had an "insensitivity" to suffering.
The post has now been deleted.
On Thursday, a spokesperson for Google told the BBC that Mr Bobb would "no longer be part of our diversity team going forward".
In the post titled 'If I were a Jew', Mr Bobb described how he believed Jewish people should feel about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the Times of Israel reports.
"If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defence of myself," he wrote.
"Self-defence is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others."
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The Orangutan is Climbing Up
A mind-bending photograph of an orangutan with the sky reflected in water has won first prize in the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year 2021 competition.
Mr Vijayan took the photo in Borneo, where he selected a tree that was in the water so he could get a good reflection of the sky and create the upside-down effect.
"This image means a lot to me because presently the orangutan population is reducing at an alarming rate," he said.
"Trees over 1,000 years old - which are a major asset to our planet - are being cut down for palm oil plantation.
"As humans we have a lot of alternative choices to replace the oil, but the orangutans don't have any options other than losing their home."
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