Post by mhbruin on Feb 8, 2022 9:15:52 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 543 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 2)
There has been no significant rain since the first week in January. There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast. After a great start, this could still turn out to be a bad season.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
We've Had the Singing Nun and the Flying Nun. Now We Have the Thieving Nun
She wore a habit while hiding a bad habit.
Mary Margaret Kreuper, a retired nun, admitted that she had broken her vow of poverty by stealing $835,000 (£616,000) from a California school where she worked to fund her gambling.
Kreuper, 80, will spend a year and a day in prison for wire fraud and money laundering.
"I have sinned, I have broken the law and I have no excuses," she said at her sentencing in Los Angeles.
For over a decade, Kreuper embezzled funds from tuition and donations to the St James Catholic School where she was principal.
SCOTUS'S White People Say It's OK for White People To Take Power Away From Minorities
Supreme Court lets GOP-drawn Alabama congressional map that critics say dilutes power of Black voters stay in place
The Supreme Court's action late Monday in an Alabama redistricting case foreshadows a new threat to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and electoral opportunities for Blacks and other racial minorities nationwide.
The justices announced they would revisit a key section of the landmark law in upcoming months and in a 5-4 vote reinstated an Alabama congressional map that a lower court found had diluted the voting power of Blacks in the state.
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court's conservative majority in 2013 eviscerated a key section of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing election rules.
The new controversy could lead to a further hollowing out of a separate provision -- known as Section 2 and barring practices that racially discriminate -- specifically in the context of redistricting maps.
Combined, the court's actions could mean the reach of the Voting Rights Act is dramatically limited by the 2024 presidential election.
When Will They Ever Learn?
In normal times, a politician could hardly do something less controversial than pose for a photo with kids. But these are not normal times.
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat making her second run for governor, faced intense blowback Monday after sharing — and then quickly deleting — a photo of her smiling unmasked face surrounded by masked elementary school children.
Abrams visited a Decatur elementary school to promote reading and Black History Month.
Abrams, who supports school mask mandates, was immediately accused of hypocritically violating the school's mask policy and pilloried by Republican politicians and conservative media outlets.
Nikki Acts Haley-er Than Thou
Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump, was roasted on Twitter Monday for comments she made on Fox News in defense of her old boss.
Haley slammed former Vice President Mike Pence, who last week criticized Trump for pressuring him to overturn the 2020 election results. She did so with an odd choice of words, given her former employer’s tendencies:
“Mike Pence is a good man,” Haley said. “He’s an honest man. I think he did what he thought was right on that day. But I will always say, I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans.”
It wasn’t lost on her critics that in attacking Pence, she herself had become a Republican going after a Republican.
QANON Ron Says "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Jobs!"
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson just told his constituents in Wisconsin that he won’t fight for high-paying jobs for them because, “It’s not like we don’t have enough jobs here in Wisconsin.”
Yep. He really said that. He’s not working to get Oshkosh Corp. to build U.S. Postal Service vehicles, creating about 1,000 jobs, because Wisconsin ... already has jobs. “The biggest problem we have in Wisconsin right now is employers not being able to find enough workers,” he said, sticking to the GOP narrative that President Joe Biden has destroyed everything because COVID, inflation, and the deficit.
“I wouldn’t insert myself to demand that anything be manufactured here using federal funds in Wisconsin,” Johnson told Wisconsin reporters after an event in Wisconsin. “Obviously, I’m supportive of it. But in the end, I think when using federal tax dollars, you want to spend those in the most efficient way and if it’s more efficient, more effective to spend those in other states, I don’t have a real problem with that.”
Noah Takes on Rogan - It's Long, But Worth Watching, Which Is More Than I Can Say For Rogan's Stuff.
Rumble Wants to Take on Rogan.
Social media platform Rumble has offered Joe Rogan $100 million to bring his popular podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" to its video platform amid controversy surrounding his show on Spotify.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski wrote in an open letter on Monday that he stands with Rogan, who is facing blowback for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his show and his past use of racial slurs.
“We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation,” Pavlovski said in his letter.
“So we’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place. How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years?” he added.
“This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit,” Pavlovski said.
It's a Good Thing He Didn't Steal a Slice of Pizza. He Could Be Looking at Hard Time. Since He's White, He'll Probably Be Out in 3 Months.
A Chicago banker was sentenced on Monday to a year in prison for his conviction in a scheme to make $16 million in loans to Paul Manafort to gain influence in the Trump administration.
Manafort served as a campaign manager to former President Donald Trump for a key stretch from June to early August 2016.
--------------
Does This Count As Cross-Dressing
The Jews dressing as Muslims to get around a prayer ban
Some extremist Jews reveal that they've been dressing as Muslims to enter and worship at a bitterly contested holy site, Temple Mount or the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
After Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, a delicate status quo remained: non-Muslims can visit the complex but must not pray there.
The BBC has been speaking to Jewish Israeli activist, Raphael Morris, who leads a fringe group called "Returning to the Mount", which advocates prayer at the site he calls Temple Mount and to a Palestinian Muslim activist, Hanady Halawani who says she will defend al-Aqsa Mosque.
--------------
If It's Too Cold for the Swedes, It's Really Cold
Athletes have been hitting out at Olympic organisers, with complaints about freezing conditions and quarantine rules pouring in.
Beijing kicked off the Winter Games four days ago, promising it would be "streamlined, safe and splendid".
Some have lauded China's efforts to ensure a relatively virus-free Games.
But some participants say they are living and training in dismal conditions, prompting them to lobby organisers for improvements.
The Swedish delegation called for cross-country skiing events to be held earlier in the day to protect athletes from freezing temperatures - after Swedish athlete Frida Karlsson was seen shaking and close to collapse at the end of her women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon on Saturday.
Under the International Ski Federation rules, competitions are not allowed to take place when temperatures dive below -20C (-4F).
Temperatures measured -13C when Karlsson competed on Saturday, but Swedish team boss Anders Bystroem told reporters that temperatures were closer to -31C with wind chill taken into consideration.
"We have the cold limits, but I do not know if they also measure the wind effect," Mr Bystroem told Reuters news agency on Sunday.
--------------
Ms. Irey Returns
This is the best labor market most workers have ever experienced in their lives. So why are so many Americans feeling gloomy about the state of the US economy?
The simple answer is inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, which is showing the fastest rate of price increases in nearly 40 years. To see how much economic pain that is causing, it's useful to look at another economic measure from that earlier era -- the misery index.
The misery index was created by Arthur Okun, a top economic adviser to President Lyndon Johnson. It became more widely known in the 1970s and early 1980s. It adds together two measures of economic pain -- the unemployment rate and the CPI's measure of inflation -- to create a single number. The lower the number, the happier consumers -- and voters -- were likely to be. The higher, the more unhappy.
Right now the measure stands at a level American hasn't consistently seen since the Great Recession and the years that followed.
--------------
I Hope They Enjoyed Their 3 Days of Freedom
Two of three Tennessee inmates who escaped a county jail through the HVAC air vent system are now dead, and the hunt for the third is ongoing, authorities announced.
Tobias Wayne Carr, 38; Johnny Shane Brown, 50; and Timothy Allen Sarver, 45, escaped from the Sullivan County Jail in Tennessee on Friday morning, leaving through the vent on the roof.
Carr and Sarver were "confirmed deceased" in Wilmington, North Carolina, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said in an update Monday afternoon.
Officials did not disclose how Carr and Sarver died.
Meanwhile, the search for Johnny Brown continues.
--------------
We're Still Waiting on Molasses Merrick
Kimmel also noted news this week that the National Archives had to retrieve 15 boxes of White House documents that Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago, which comes on the heels of reports he routinely tore up official documents.
The late night host noted it was a violation of U.S. code, which not only makes it a crime to “conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, or destroy” official records, but also sets a very specific penalty: forfeit of office, and disqualification from holding any office.
“This is exactly what he did, right?” Kimmel asked of Trump. “What are we waiting for? Disqualify away! Bring in the disquali-firing squad, for God’s sake.”
It's An Open and Shut Case
--------------
A Quarter of a Billion Dollars for a Clerical Error -- A Clerical Error That Killed 26 People
A federal judge in Texas ruled Monday that the Air Force must pay more than $230 million to survivors and victims' families for the church shooting that killed over two dozen people.
The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, should not have been able to buy a gun since he received a bad conduct discharge after pleading guilty to two counts of domestic violence.
But the Air Force failed to enter his name into the National Criminal Information Center, and Kelley was able to pass a background check and buy at least two guns because of this failure.
The verdict will compensate more than 80 family members of victims and survivors who filed suit against the government.
--------------
Don't We Already Have a Digital Currency? I Don't Carry Cash Anymore?
India is planning to launch a digital version of the rupee, becoming the latest country to join the rush to create state-backed virtual currencies.
The country's central bank expects to introduce the currency "using blockchain and other technologies" some time in the new fiscal year, which begins in April, according to Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Presenting India's annual budget to parliament on Tuesday, Sitharaman said the digital rupee would "give a big boost to the digital economy." She did not give any further details about what the launch would entail, how widely a digital rupee might be used initially, or what impact it might have.
Digital payments have grown dramatically in popularity in India since late 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned the country's two biggest rupee bank notes. Apart from homegrown players such as Paytm, some of the world's biggest tech companies, including Google and Facebook, have joined India's cashless payments boom.
The announcement comes as other major economies move forward with their own plans to launch virtual versions of their own currencies. China has been trialing its digital yuan in major cities for the last two years. It's one of only three payment methods available to athletes, officials and journalists attending the Beijing Winter Olympics this month.
Europe and the United States have also been exploring the possibilities for a digital euro and digital dollar, though both have stressed the importance of mitigating financial risk presented by any e-currency.
--------------
I'm Not Letting People See My Face Any Time Soon. I'm Sure Many People Are Grateful.
California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Monday amid rapidly falling coronavirus cases.
After Feb. 15, unvaccinated people still will be required to be masked indoors, and everyone — vaccinated or not — will have to wear masks in higher-risk areas like public transit and nursing homes and other congregate living facilities, officials said. Local governments can continue their own indoor masking requirements and last week Los Angeles County’s health officials said they intend to keep theirs in place beyond the state deadline.
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CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People 2 or More Doses | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Feb 9 | |||||
| Feb 8 | |||||
| Feb 7 | 611,742 | 251,176,199 | 212,920,278 | ||
| Feb 6 | 627,161 | 251,070,439 | 212,806,521 | 291,471 | 2,294 |
| Feb 5 | 655,591 | 250,915,858 | 212,657,682 | 298,890 | 2,331 |
| Feb 4 | 680,135 | 250,731,754 | 212,481,465 | 313,117 | 2,404 |
| Feb 3 | 719,986 | 250,593,665 | 212,336,183 | 343,563 | 2,371 |
| Feb 2 | 494,092 | 250,378,993 | 212,130,684 | 378,015 | 2,403 |
| Feb 1 | 510,477 | 250,184,240 | 211,954,555 | 415,552 | 2,369 |
| Jan 31 | 575,732 | 250,029,773 | 211,818,885 | 446,355 | 2,287 |
| Jan 30 | 603,030 | 249,892,470 | 211,695,131 | 497,296 | 2,234 |
| Jan 29 | 595,871 | 249,695,301 | 211,533,229 | 522,626 | 2,261 |
| Jan 28 | 626,946 | 249,473,925 | 211,343,818 | 543,016 | 2,265 |
| Jan 27 | 643,725 | 249,267,851 (I don't know why) | 211,162,083 | 577,748 | 2,300 |
| Jan 26 | 962,958 | 251,518,114 | 210,850,212 | 596,859 | 2,288 |
| Jan 25 | 1,011,603 | 251,289,667 | 210,682,471 | 627,294 | 2,246 |
| Jan 24 | 1,201,186 | 250,964,433 | 210,459,963 | 692,359 | 2,166 |
| Jan 23 | 1,101,405 | 250,763,600 | 210,358,008 | 663,908 | 1,936 |
| Jan 22 | 1,002,322 | 250,568,431 | 210,229,586 | 686,715 | 1,939 |
| Jan 21 | 1,035,111 | 250,262,153 | 210,021,766 | 716,829 | 1,974 |
| Jan 20 | 1,094,988 | 250,028,635 | 209,842,610 | 726,870 | 1,843 |
| Jan 19 | 1,135,453 | 249,702,939 | 209,509,297 | 744,615 | 1,749 |
| Jan 18 | 1,158,537 | 249,393,487 | 209,312,770 | 755,095 | 1,669 |
| Jan 17 | No Data | 736,350 | 1,746 | ||
| Jan 16 | No Data | 771,131 | 1,851 | ||
| Jan 15 | 1,268,202 | 248,707,432 | 208,995,438 | 788,628 | 1,858 |
| Jan 14 | 1,286,773 | 248,338,448 | 208,791,862 | 798,335 | 1,784 |
| Jan 13 | 1,291,013 | 247,987,225 | 208,564,894 | 794,587 | 1,730 |
| Jan 12 | 1,234,672 | 247,695,845 | 208,182,657 | 782,765 | 1,729 |
| Jan 11 | 1,213,113 | 247,321,023 | 207,954,605 | 761,535 | 1,656 |
| Jan 10 | 1,307,445 | 247,051,363 | 207,796,335 | 750,996 | 1,633 |
| Jan 9 | 1,331,635 | 246,812,939 | 207,662,071 | 674,406 | 1,552 |
| Jan 8 | 1,286,783 | 246,447,823 | 207,452,448 | 680,330 | 1,544 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 75.7% | 64.1% | 42.3% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.4% | 68.2% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.4% | 72.8% | 43.6% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.2% | 74.4% | 45.5% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.5% | 65.0% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 2)
There has been no significant rain since the first week in January. There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast. After a great start, this could still turn out to be a bad season.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 4 Weeks ago | 5 Weeks ago | 6 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 113% | 124% | 134% | 149% | 158% | 170% | |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 99% | 110% | 121% | 138% | 156% | 170% | |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 91% | 101% | 112% | 127% | 145% | 151% | |
| Snow Water Content - North | 89% | 117% | 128% | 135% | 134% | ||
| Snow Water Content - Central | 89% | 114% | 129% | 148% | 148% | ||
| Snow Water Content - South | 92% | 121% | 135% | 160% | 158% |
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
We've Had the Singing Nun and the Flying Nun. Now We Have the Thieving Nun
She wore a habit while hiding a bad habit.
Mary Margaret Kreuper, a retired nun, admitted that she had broken her vow of poverty by stealing $835,000 (£616,000) from a California school where she worked to fund her gambling.
Kreuper, 80, will spend a year and a day in prison for wire fraud and money laundering.
"I have sinned, I have broken the law and I have no excuses," she said at her sentencing in Los Angeles.
For over a decade, Kreuper embezzled funds from tuition and donations to the St James Catholic School where she was principal.
SCOTUS'S White People Say It's OK for White People To Take Power Away From Minorities
Supreme Court lets GOP-drawn Alabama congressional map that critics say dilutes power of Black voters stay in place
The Supreme Court's action late Monday in an Alabama redistricting case foreshadows a new threat to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and electoral opportunities for Blacks and other racial minorities nationwide.
The justices announced they would revisit a key section of the landmark law in upcoming months and in a 5-4 vote reinstated an Alabama congressional map that a lower court found had diluted the voting power of Blacks in the state.
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court's conservative majority in 2013 eviscerated a key section of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of discrimination to obtain federal approval before changing election rules.
The new controversy could lead to a further hollowing out of a separate provision -- known as Section 2 and barring practices that racially discriminate -- specifically in the context of redistricting maps.
Combined, the court's actions could mean the reach of the Voting Rights Act is dramatically limited by the 2024 presidential election.
When Will They Ever Learn?
In normal times, a politician could hardly do something less controversial than pose for a photo with kids. But these are not normal times.
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat making her second run for governor, faced intense blowback Monday after sharing — and then quickly deleting — a photo of her smiling unmasked face surrounded by masked elementary school children.
Abrams visited a Decatur elementary school to promote reading and Black History Month.
Abrams, who supports school mask mandates, was immediately accused of hypocritically violating the school's mask policy and pilloried by Republican politicians and conservative media outlets.
Nikki Acts Haley-er Than Thou
Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump, was roasted on Twitter Monday for comments she made on Fox News in defense of her old boss.
Haley slammed former Vice President Mike Pence, who last week criticized Trump for pressuring him to overturn the 2020 election results. She did so with an odd choice of words, given her former employer’s tendencies:
“Mike Pence is a good man,” Haley said. “He’s an honest man. I think he did what he thought was right on that day. But I will always say, I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans.”
It wasn’t lost on her critics that in attacking Pence, she herself had become a Republican going after a Republican.
QANON Ron Says "We Don't Need No Stinkin' Jobs!"
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson just told his constituents in Wisconsin that he won’t fight for high-paying jobs for them because, “It’s not like we don’t have enough jobs here in Wisconsin.”
Yep. He really said that. He’s not working to get Oshkosh Corp. to build U.S. Postal Service vehicles, creating about 1,000 jobs, because Wisconsin ... already has jobs. “The biggest problem we have in Wisconsin right now is employers not being able to find enough workers,” he said, sticking to the GOP narrative that President Joe Biden has destroyed everything because COVID, inflation, and the deficit.
“I wouldn’t insert myself to demand that anything be manufactured here using federal funds in Wisconsin,” Johnson told Wisconsin reporters after an event in Wisconsin. “Obviously, I’m supportive of it. But in the end, I think when using federal tax dollars, you want to spend those in the most efficient way and if it’s more efficient, more effective to spend those in other states, I don’t have a real problem with that.”
Noah Takes on Rogan - It's Long, But Worth Watching, Which Is More Than I Can Say For Rogan's Stuff.
Rumble Wants to Take on Rogan.
Social media platform Rumble has offered Joe Rogan $100 million to bring his popular podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" to its video platform amid controversy surrounding his show on Spotify.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski wrote in an open letter on Monday that he stands with Rogan, who is facing blowback for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his show and his past use of racial slurs.
“We stand with you, your guests, and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation,” Pavlovski said in his letter.
“So we’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place. How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years?” he added.
“This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit,” Pavlovski said.
It's a Good Thing He Didn't Steal a Slice of Pizza. He Could Be Looking at Hard Time. Since He's White, He'll Probably Be Out in 3 Months.
A Chicago banker was sentenced on Monday to a year in prison for his conviction in a scheme to make $16 million in loans to Paul Manafort to gain influence in the Trump administration.
Manafort served as a campaign manager to former President Donald Trump for a key stretch from June to early August 2016.
--------------
Does This Count As Cross-Dressing
The Jews dressing as Muslims to get around a prayer ban
Some extremist Jews reveal that they've been dressing as Muslims to enter and worship at a bitterly contested holy site, Temple Mount or the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
After Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, a delicate status quo remained: non-Muslims can visit the complex but must not pray there.
The BBC has been speaking to Jewish Israeli activist, Raphael Morris, who leads a fringe group called "Returning to the Mount", which advocates prayer at the site he calls Temple Mount and to a Palestinian Muslim activist, Hanady Halawani who says she will defend al-Aqsa Mosque.
--------------
If It's Too Cold for the Swedes, It's Really Cold
Athletes have been hitting out at Olympic organisers, with complaints about freezing conditions and quarantine rules pouring in.
Beijing kicked off the Winter Games four days ago, promising it would be "streamlined, safe and splendid".
Some have lauded China's efforts to ensure a relatively virus-free Games.
But some participants say they are living and training in dismal conditions, prompting them to lobby organisers for improvements.
The Swedish delegation called for cross-country skiing events to be held earlier in the day to protect athletes from freezing temperatures - after Swedish athlete Frida Karlsson was seen shaking and close to collapse at the end of her women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon on Saturday.
Under the International Ski Federation rules, competitions are not allowed to take place when temperatures dive below -20C (-4F).
Temperatures measured -13C when Karlsson competed on Saturday, but Swedish team boss Anders Bystroem told reporters that temperatures were closer to -31C with wind chill taken into consideration.
"We have the cold limits, but I do not know if they also measure the wind effect," Mr Bystroem told Reuters news agency on Sunday.
--------------
Ms. Irey Returns
This is the best labor market most workers have ever experienced in their lives. So why are so many Americans feeling gloomy about the state of the US economy?
The simple answer is inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, which is showing the fastest rate of price increases in nearly 40 years. To see how much economic pain that is causing, it's useful to look at another economic measure from that earlier era -- the misery index.
The misery index was created by Arthur Okun, a top economic adviser to President Lyndon Johnson. It became more widely known in the 1970s and early 1980s. It adds together two measures of economic pain -- the unemployment rate and the CPI's measure of inflation -- to create a single number. The lower the number, the happier consumers -- and voters -- were likely to be. The higher, the more unhappy.
Right now the measure stands at a level American hasn't consistently seen since the Great Recession and the years that followed.
--------------
I Hope They Enjoyed Their 3 Days of Freedom
Two of three Tennessee inmates who escaped a county jail through the HVAC air vent system are now dead, and the hunt for the third is ongoing, authorities announced.
Tobias Wayne Carr, 38; Johnny Shane Brown, 50; and Timothy Allen Sarver, 45, escaped from the Sullivan County Jail in Tennessee on Friday morning, leaving through the vent on the roof.
Carr and Sarver were "confirmed deceased" in Wilmington, North Carolina, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said in an update Monday afternoon.
Officials did not disclose how Carr and Sarver died.
Meanwhile, the search for Johnny Brown continues.
--------------
We're Still Waiting on Molasses Merrick
Kimmel also noted news this week that the National Archives had to retrieve 15 boxes of White House documents that Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago, which comes on the heels of reports he routinely tore up official documents.
The late night host noted it was a violation of U.S. code, which not only makes it a crime to “conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, or destroy” official records, but also sets a very specific penalty: forfeit of office, and disqualification from holding any office.
“This is exactly what he did, right?” Kimmel asked of Trump. “What are we waiting for? Disqualify away! Bring in the disquali-firing squad, for God’s sake.”
It's An Open and Shut Case
--------------
A Quarter of a Billion Dollars for a Clerical Error -- A Clerical Error That Killed 26 People
A federal judge in Texas ruled Monday that the Air Force must pay more than $230 million to survivors and victims' families for the church shooting that killed over two dozen people.
The shooter, Devin Patrick Kelley, should not have been able to buy a gun since he received a bad conduct discharge after pleading guilty to two counts of domestic violence.
But the Air Force failed to enter his name into the National Criminal Information Center, and Kelley was able to pass a background check and buy at least two guns because of this failure.
The verdict will compensate more than 80 family members of victims and survivors who filed suit against the government.
--------------
Don't We Already Have a Digital Currency? I Don't Carry Cash Anymore?
India is planning to launch a digital version of the rupee, becoming the latest country to join the rush to create state-backed virtual currencies.
The country's central bank expects to introduce the currency "using blockchain and other technologies" some time in the new fiscal year, which begins in April, according to Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Presenting India's annual budget to parliament on Tuesday, Sitharaman said the digital rupee would "give a big boost to the digital economy." She did not give any further details about what the launch would entail, how widely a digital rupee might be used initially, or what impact it might have.
Digital payments have grown dramatically in popularity in India since late 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned the country's two biggest rupee bank notes. Apart from homegrown players such as Paytm, some of the world's biggest tech companies, including Google and Facebook, have joined India's cashless payments boom.
The announcement comes as other major economies move forward with their own plans to launch virtual versions of their own currencies. China has been trialing its digital yuan in major cities for the last two years. It's one of only three payment methods available to athletes, officials and journalists attending the Beijing Winter Olympics this month.
Europe and the United States have also been exploring the possibilities for a digital euro and digital dollar, though both have stressed the importance of mitigating financial risk presented by any e-currency.
--------------
I'm Not Letting People See My Face Any Time Soon. I'm Sure Many People Are Grateful.
California will end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week but masks still are the rule for schoolchildren, state health officials announced Monday amid rapidly falling coronavirus cases.
After Feb. 15, unvaccinated people still will be required to be masked indoors, and everyone — vaccinated or not — will have to wear masks in higher-risk areas like public transit and nursing homes and other congregate living facilities, officials said. Local governments can continue their own indoor masking requirements and last week Los Angeles County’s health officials said they intend to keep theirs in place beyond the state deadline.
--------------