Post by mhbruin on Mar 25, 2022 13:59:41 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 559 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
↓ 11.6% Cases, two-week change
↓ 35.0% Deaths, two-week change
979.515 Total confirmed deaths
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 22)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
--------------
The Decline in COVID Cases Has Basically Stopped, Also ...
Flu cases tick upward as Covid restrictions ease.
The flu didn't surge back this season, but doctors remain concerned about what could happen in the fall as our flu immunity fades.
Is the UK the Canary in the Coal Mine?
Covid cases have climbed by a million in a week in the UK, data from the Office for National Statistics reveals.
Swab tests suggest about one in every 16 people is infected, as the contagious Omicron variant BA.2 continues to spread.
That's just under 4.3 million people, up from 3.3 million the week before.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
This Rich Nigerian Is Not a Scam. Just a Criminal.
A US lawmaker could face expulsion from Congress for lying about funding ties to an African billionaire.
Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska, lied to the FBI about taking illegal donations from Gilbert Chagoury, a high-flying Nigerian businessman, a federal jury found.
He could be sentenced to 15 years in prison on three felony counts.
The case has also renewed attention on the access of foreign influencers on US politics.
It is illegal for foreign nationals to make political contributions, but Mr Chagoury, 75, has made several. In 2019, he was fined $1.8m (£1.4m) by the US government, and some recipients of his donations were investigated.
In 2016, he illegally donated $30,000 (£22,736) in 2016 to Fortenberry, funnelling the funds to the congressman through donors at a Los Angeles event.
A Paris-based industrialist, Mr Chagoury had a high profile. His name adorns a wing of the Louvre Museum, and he was once denied a US visa for alleged ties to Hezbollah militants.
He was once a top advisor to Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha, who was later found to have stolen billions from the country as its head of state in the 1990s.
Clarence & Ginny, Sitting in DC, S-c-r-e-wing (the Idea of Justice).
When ex-President Donald Trump sued to block the release of White House documents and communications sought by the House committee investigating his effort to overturn the 2020 election, there was only one member of the Supreme Court to take his side: Justice Clarence Thomas.
Thomas did not disclose it at the time, but we now know that he had a significant conflict of interest in this and related cases.
His wife, Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, repeatedly communicated with White House officials in her effort to improperly overturn Joe Biden’s election win, according to a new report by CBS News and The Washington Post. She disclosed in a March 14 interview with the conservative Washington Free Beacon that she attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the Ellipse, but said she got cold and left before it turned into a violent insurrection aimed at stopping Congress’ certification of electoral votes.
Ginni Thomas’ messages to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reveal she was more than just a rally attendee. She sent Meadows outlandish and false conspiracy theories promoted by lawyer Sidney Powell, claiming widespread election fraud that implicated hundreds of people, if not thousands, around the globe, including long-dead Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Thomas even sent Meadows a text quoting a far-right conspiracy theory falsely claiming that the “Biden crime family” had been arrested and were en route to the extrajudicial U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Yes Virginia, There is a Supoena Clause. I Wonder If Her Husband Will Rule on It's Validity.
It’s going to be a long weekend for Ginni Thomas.
The right-wing activist and Q-Anon conspiracy theory-spouting wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is reportedly on the cusp of receiving a subpoena from Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, CBS reported Friday.
Revelations about her strident efforts to have the 2020 election certification delayed or stopped were made known only 24 hours ago in the wake of a report first published by The Washington Post. Some 29 text messages—and others are expected to exist—were exposed in that report, showing how Thomas plied former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows with debunked election fraud claims and fervent pleas to keep Trump in office.
Did Previous Guy Write This for the Russians?
So It Was Only 21 Women, Or Was It 23? How Do You Keep Count?
Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson Denies Sexually Assaulting 22 Women
All The Suckers Giving Money to Previous Guy Are Making Scummy Lawyers Rich
A new lawsuit filed Thursday by former President Donald Trump has been torn apart on Twitter by legal experts.
Trump is suing 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and 26 others that he claims conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by “fabricating” a narrative that he colluded with Russia to win the election.
Years later, Trump continues to rail against what he calls the “Russia hoax,” even though multiple investigations found that Russia worked to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Many accusations in the 108-page lawsuit were already debunked in a 2020 bipartisan report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
Multiple past lawsuits filed by Trump have been ridiculed for myriad spelling and grammatical errors, flimsy legal arguments and self-implicating admissions. Several prominent lawyers highlighted flaws in the new lawsuit.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, said, “It’s difficult to put into words just how deeply flawed and utterly hopeless this lawsuit is.”
But Somebody Is Being Paid to Write This Garbage.
He Feels Sorry. I Wonder How the Investors Feel
Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was previously convicted on campaign finance charges, pleaded guilty Friday to a wire fraud conspiracy charge that resulted from his work at a startup insurance company he co-founded.
Federal prosecutors accused 50-year-old Parnas of duping investors in Fraud Guarantee, a company he established in Florida with a co-defendant, David Correia, who previously pleaded guilty.
Parnas appeared by video in front of U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan and said "between approximately 2012 and 2019 I agreed with another person to give false information" to potential investors.
"I'm extremely sorry for my actions, your honor," Parnas said.
Today's Investment Tip: Don't Put You Money in a Company with "Fraud" in the Name
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Sometimes Government Officials Nail the Truth
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
They Don't Want No Stinkin' Russian Gas
The US and the EU have announced a major deal on liquified natural gas, in an attempt to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy.
The agreement will see the US provide the EU with extra gas, equivalent to around 10% of the gas it currently gets from Russia, by the end of the year.
The bloc has already said it will cut Russian gas use in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia currently supplies about 40% of the EU's gas needs.
The new deal will involve the US and other countries supplying an extra 15 billion cubic metres of gas on top of last year's 22 billion cubic metres.
The new total will represent around 24% of the gas currently imported from Russia.
The eventual aim is for the US and international partners to provide about 50 billion cubic metres per year to the EU.
Cutting reliance on Russia will mean generating more renewable energy and improving energy efficiency as well as increasing imports.
Russia Won't Hear *NSYNC Sing "Bye, Bye, Bye" Because Spotify is Saying "Bye, Bye, Bye"
Spotify is pulling out of Russia citing a new law that threatens jail for spreading "fake news" about the country's armed forces.
The music streaming company said safety concerns about staff and "possibly even our listeners" had pushed it to fully suspend its free service.
Spotify shut its office in Russia earlier in March.
But it said it had wanted to keep its service operational to provide "independent news" to the country.
"Spotify has continued to believe that it's critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information from the region," Spotify said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and criminalizing certain types of news puts the safety of Spotify's employees and the possibility of even our listeners at risk."
They Never Really Wanted Kyiv and Kharkiv In the First Place. The 15,000 Dead Russians Were Part of Misdirection.
A top Russian general gave some of the most detailed public remarks to date on Russia's military strategy in Ukraine, claiming on Friday that the "first stage" of Russia's military plan is now complete, with their primary focus now centered on eastern Ukraine.
"In general, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed," Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said in a Friday briefing. "The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, allowing us, I emphasize again, to focus the main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbas."
Rudskoy's remarks come as Russia's advances appear to have stalled around major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv. Russia has also failed to achieve air superiority in Ukraine and has suffered heavy losses of personnel since the start of the invasion.
Did He Die Pretending They Were Trying to Take Kyiv?
It appears that another high ranking Russian general has been killed in Ukraine. According the the Ukranian People's Deputy Oleksii Honcharenko Lieutenant General Yakov Ryazantsev, commander of the 49th General Army of the Southern Military District of Russia was killed by Ukranian military forces today.
This has not yet been picked up or verified by US media, but is also being reported by multiple Indian media sources including The Hindu and Khaleej Times
--------------
A Minor Tragedy in the Scheme of Things, But This Guy Got Conned.
One such person is Martin Joseph Anglehart of Fort Mackay in Alberta, Canada. Anglehart is living out of his SUV these days after he says he gave his life savings to supporting the Canadian trucker protests.
Speaking to Canada’s CBC, Anglehart said that while he didn’t have particularly strong feelings about mandates, he had been moved to donate to online fundraisers for the truckers after a friend of his died in Montreal. According to Anglehart, restrictions that prohibited him from visiting his friend as he suffered in the ICU with COVID-19 prompted his position supporting the truckers.
--------------
What Happens In East Antarctica Doesn't Stay in East Antarctica
An ice shelf the size of New York City has collapsed in East Antarctica, an area long thought to be stable and not hit much by climate change, concerned scientists said Friday.
The collapse, captured by satellite images, marked the first time in human history that the frigid region had an ice shelf collapse. It happened at the beginning of a freakish warm spell last week when temperatures soared more than 70 degrees (40 Celsius) warmer than normal in some spots of East Antarctica. Satellite photos show the area had been shrinking rapidly the last couple of years, and now scientists wonder if they have been overestimating East Antarctica’s stability and resistance to global warming that has been melting ice rapidly on the smaller western side and the vulnerable peninsula.
--------------
New Orleans Kids Can Cut Loose, Footloose
The New Orleans school board has unanimously reversed a little known but century-old ban on jazz in schools in a city which played a huge role in developing jazz and where it is still played nightly at various venues.
“I’m very glad that we can rescind this policy. I want to acknowledge it. It was rooted in racism,” Orleans Parish School Board President Olin Parker said during the meeting Thursday night. “And I also want to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of our students and especially of our band directors, whose legacy continues from 1922 through present day.”
The board’s resolution said it wanted “to correct the previous action of the School Board and to encourage jazz music and jazz dance in schools.”
Board minutes from March 24, 1922, said “it was decided that jazz music and jazz dancing would be abolished in the public schools.” One member — who walked out on a special meeting called at the end of the session because reporters were not allowed to cover it — abstained from voting on jazz.
Officials told The Times Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate that the 1922 board members were trying to distance students from a genre with African American origins.
A copy of a news clipping from 1922, posted on the newspaper’s website, did not mention race. It quoted the resolution’s sponsor, “Mrs. A. Baumgartner,” as saying she had seen “a lot of rough dancing” at after-school events. “This cheek-to-cheek dancing is terrible," she said.
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↓ 11.6% Cases, two-week change
↓ 35.0% Deaths, two-week change
979.515 Total confirmed deaths
New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Mar 24 | 27,784 | 732 |
| Mar 23 | 27,134 | 753 |
| Mar 22 | 27,545 | 787 |
| Mar 21 | 28,657 | 861 |
| Mar 20 | 27,786 | 901 |
| Mar 19 | 27,747 | 909 |
| Mar 18 | 28,274 | 972 |
| Mar 17 | 29,317 | 1,035 |
| Mar 16 | 30,040 | 1,052 |
| Mar 15 | 30,934 | 1,107 |
| Mar 14 | 32,458 | 1,186 |
| Mar 13 | 34,113 | 1,187 |
| Mar 12 | 34,253 | 1,210 |
| Mar 11 | 34,805 | 1,198 |
| Mar 10 | 35,269 | 1,197 |
| Mar 9 | 37,146 | 1,179 |
| Mar 8 | 37,879 | 1,161 |
| Mar 7 | 40,433 | 1,208 |
| Mar 6 | 42,204 | 1,259 |
| Mar 5 | 43,665 | 1,281 |
| Mar 4 | 45,555 | 1,319 |
| Mar 3 | 49,888 | 1,413 |
| Mar 2 | 53,016 | 1,558 |
| Mar 1 | 56,253 | 1,674 |
| Feb 28 | 68,480 | 1,832 |
| Feb 27 | 62,556 | 1,686 |
| Feb 26 | 66,053 | 1,719 |
| Feb 25 | 69,203 | 1,751 |
| Feb 24 | 72,111 | 1,720 |
| Feb 23 | 75,208 | 1,674 |
| Feb 22 | 79,539 | 1,602 |
| Feb 21 | 78,306 | 1,872 |
| Feb 20 | 98,012 | 1,872 |
| Feb 19 | 100,129 | 1,890 |
| Feb 18 | 103,462 | 1,920 |
| Feb 17 | 112,653 | 1,998 |
| Feb 16 | 121,664 | 2,020 |
| Feb 15 | 134,468 | 2,100 |
| Feb 14 | 146,921 | 2,208 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 76.6% | 65.2% | 44.2% |
| % of Population 5+ | 81.4% | 69.3% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 86.3% | 73.6% | 45.8% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.1% | 75.2% | 47.6% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.9% | 66.7% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 22)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
| Percent of Average for this Date | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 79% (62% of full season average) | 84% (61%) | 87% (60%) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 69% (54%) | 74% (53%) | 76% (51%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 65% (51%) | 71% (51%) | 70% (48%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 46% | 55% (52%) | 59% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 55% | 59% (64%) | 58% (66%) |
| Snow Water Content - South | 52% | 60% (66%) | 54% (63%) |
The Decline in COVID Cases Has Basically Stopped, Also ...
Flu cases tick upward as Covid restrictions ease.
The flu didn't surge back this season, but doctors remain concerned about what could happen in the fall as our flu immunity fades.
Is the UK the Canary in the Coal Mine?
Covid cases have climbed by a million in a week in the UK, data from the Office for National Statistics reveals.
Swab tests suggest about one in every 16 people is infected, as the contagious Omicron variant BA.2 continues to spread.
That's just under 4.3 million people, up from 3.3 million the week before.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
This Rich Nigerian Is Not a Scam. Just a Criminal.
A US lawmaker could face expulsion from Congress for lying about funding ties to an African billionaire.
Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska, lied to the FBI about taking illegal donations from Gilbert Chagoury, a high-flying Nigerian businessman, a federal jury found.
He could be sentenced to 15 years in prison on three felony counts.
The case has also renewed attention on the access of foreign influencers on US politics.
It is illegal for foreign nationals to make political contributions, but Mr Chagoury, 75, has made several. In 2019, he was fined $1.8m (£1.4m) by the US government, and some recipients of his donations were investigated.
In 2016, he illegally donated $30,000 (£22,736) in 2016 to Fortenberry, funnelling the funds to the congressman through donors at a Los Angeles event.
A Paris-based industrialist, Mr Chagoury had a high profile. His name adorns a wing of the Louvre Museum, and he was once denied a US visa for alleged ties to Hezbollah militants.
He was once a top advisor to Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha, who was later found to have stolen billions from the country as its head of state in the 1990s.
Clarence & Ginny, Sitting in DC, S-c-r-e-wing (the Idea of Justice).
When ex-President Donald Trump sued to block the release of White House documents and communications sought by the House committee investigating his effort to overturn the 2020 election, there was only one member of the Supreme Court to take his side: Justice Clarence Thomas.
Thomas did not disclose it at the time, but we now know that he had a significant conflict of interest in this and related cases.
His wife, Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, repeatedly communicated with White House officials in her effort to improperly overturn Joe Biden’s election win, according to a new report by CBS News and The Washington Post. She disclosed in a March 14 interview with the conservative Washington Free Beacon that she attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the Ellipse, but said she got cold and left before it turned into a violent insurrection aimed at stopping Congress’ certification of electoral votes.
Ginni Thomas’ messages to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reveal she was more than just a rally attendee. She sent Meadows outlandish and false conspiracy theories promoted by lawyer Sidney Powell, claiming widespread election fraud that implicated hundreds of people, if not thousands, around the globe, including long-dead Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Thomas even sent Meadows a text quoting a far-right conspiracy theory falsely claiming that the “Biden crime family” had been arrested and were en route to the extrajudicial U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Yes Virginia, There is a Supoena Clause. I Wonder If Her Husband Will Rule on It's Validity.
It’s going to be a long weekend for Ginni Thomas.
The right-wing activist and Q-Anon conspiracy theory-spouting wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is reportedly on the cusp of receiving a subpoena from Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, CBS reported Friday.
Revelations about her strident efforts to have the 2020 election certification delayed or stopped were made known only 24 hours ago in the wake of a report first published by The Washington Post. Some 29 text messages—and others are expected to exist—were exposed in that report, showing how Thomas plied former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows with debunked election fraud claims and fervent pleas to keep Trump in office.
Did Previous Guy Write This for the Russians?
So It Was Only 21 Women, Or Was It 23? How Do You Keep Count?
Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson Denies Sexually Assaulting 22 Women
All The Suckers Giving Money to Previous Guy Are Making Scummy Lawyers Rich
A new lawsuit filed Thursday by former President Donald Trump has been torn apart on Twitter by legal experts.
Trump is suing 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and 26 others that he claims conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by “fabricating” a narrative that he colluded with Russia to win the election.
Years later, Trump continues to rail against what he calls the “Russia hoax,” even though multiple investigations found that Russia worked to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Many accusations in the 108-page lawsuit were already debunked in a 2020 bipartisan report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
Multiple past lawsuits filed by Trump have been ridiculed for myriad spelling and grammatical errors, flimsy legal arguments and self-implicating admissions. Several prominent lawyers highlighted flaws in the new lawsuit.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, said, “It’s difficult to put into words just how deeply flawed and utterly hopeless this lawsuit is.”
But Somebody Is Being Paid to Write This Garbage.
He Feels Sorry. I Wonder How the Investors Feel
Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was previously convicted on campaign finance charges, pleaded guilty Friday to a wire fraud conspiracy charge that resulted from his work at a startup insurance company he co-founded.
Federal prosecutors accused 50-year-old Parnas of duping investors in Fraud Guarantee, a company he established in Florida with a co-defendant, David Correia, who previously pleaded guilty.
Parnas appeared by video in front of U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan and said "between approximately 2012 and 2019 I agreed with another person to give false information" to potential investors.
"I'm extremely sorry for my actions, your honor," Parnas said.
Today's Investment Tip: Don't Put You Money in a Company with "Fraud" in the Name
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Sometimes Government Officials Nail the Truth
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
They Don't Want No Stinkin' Russian Gas
The US and the EU have announced a major deal on liquified natural gas, in an attempt to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy.
The agreement will see the US provide the EU with extra gas, equivalent to around 10% of the gas it currently gets from Russia, by the end of the year.
The bloc has already said it will cut Russian gas use in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russia currently supplies about 40% of the EU's gas needs.
The new deal will involve the US and other countries supplying an extra 15 billion cubic metres of gas on top of last year's 22 billion cubic metres.
The new total will represent around 24% of the gas currently imported from Russia.
The eventual aim is for the US and international partners to provide about 50 billion cubic metres per year to the EU.
Cutting reliance on Russia will mean generating more renewable energy and improving energy efficiency as well as increasing imports.
Russia Won't Hear *NSYNC Sing "Bye, Bye, Bye" Because Spotify is Saying "Bye, Bye, Bye"
Spotify is pulling out of Russia citing a new law that threatens jail for spreading "fake news" about the country's armed forces.
The music streaming company said safety concerns about staff and "possibly even our listeners" had pushed it to fully suspend its free service.
Spotify shut its office in Russia earlier in March.
But it said it had wanted to keep its service operational to provide "independent news" to the country.
"Spotify has continued to believe that it's critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information from the region," Spotify said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and criminalizing certain types of news puts the safety of Spotify's employees and the possibility of even our listeners at risk."
They Never Really Wanted Kyiv and Kharkiv In the First Place. The 15,000 Dead Russians Were Part of Misdirection.
A top Russian general gave some of the most detailed public remarks to date on Russia's military strategy in Ukraine, claiming on Friday that the "first stage" of Russia's military plan is now complete, with their primary focus now centered on eastern Ukraine.
"In general, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed," Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said in a Friday briefing. "The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, allowing us, I emphasize again, to focus the main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbas."
Rudskoy's remarks come as Russia's advances appear to have stalled around major Ukrainian cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv. Russia has also failed to achieve air superiority in Ukraine and has suffered heavy losses of personnel since the start of the invasion.
Did He Die Pretending They Were Trying to Take Kyiv?
It appears that another high ranking Russian general has been killed in Ukraine. According the the Ukranian People's Deputy Oleksii Honcharenko Lieutenant General Yakov Ryazantsev, commander of the 49th General Army of the Southern Military District of Russia was killed by Ukranian military forces today.
This has not yet been picked up or verified by US media, but is also being reported by multiple Indian media sources including The Hindu and Khaleej Times
--------------
A Minor Tragedy in the Scheme of Things, But This Guy Got Conned.
One such person is Martin Joseph Anglehart of Fort Mackay in Alberta, Canada. Anglehart is living out of his SUV these days after he says he gave his life savings to supporting the Canadian trucker protests.
Speaking to Canada’s CBC, Anglehart said that while he didn’t have particularly strong feelings about mandates, he had been moved to donate to online fundraisers for the truckers after a friend of his died in Montreal. According to Anglehart, restrictions that prohibited him from visiting his friend as he suffered in the ICU with COVID-19 prompted his position supporting the truckers.
--------------
What Happens In East Antarctica Doesn't Stay in East Antarctica
An ice shelf the size of New York City has collapsed in East Antarctica, an area long thought to be stable and not hit much by climate change, concerned scientists said Friday.
The collapse, captured by satellite images, marked the first time in human history that the frigid region had an ice shelf collapse. It happened at the beginning of a freakish warm spell last week when temperatures soared more than 70 degrees (40 Celsius) warmer than normal in some spots of East Antarctica. Satellite photos show the area had been shrinking rapidly the last couple of years, and now scientists wonder if they have been overestimating East Antarctica’s stability and resistance to global warming that has been melting ice rapidly on the smaller western side and the vulnerable peninsula.
--------------
New Orleans Kids Can Cut Loose, Footloose
The New Orleans school board has unanimously reversed a little known but century-old ban on jazz in schools in a city which played a huge role in developing jazz and where it is still played nightly at various venues.
“I’m very glad that we can rescind this policy. I want to acknowledge it. It was rooted in racism,” Orleans Parish School Board President Olin Parker said during the meeting Thursday night. “And I also want to acknowledge the tremendous contributions of our students and especially of our band directors, whose legacy continues from 1922 through present day.”
The board’s resolution said it wanted “to correct the previous action of the School Board and to encourage jazz music and jazz dance in schools.”
Board minutes from March 24, 1922, said “it was decided that jazz music and jazz dancing would be abolished in the public schools.” One member — who walked out on a special meeting called at the end of the session because reporters were not allowed to cover it — abstained from voting on jazz.
Officials told The Times Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate that the 1922 board members were trying to distance students from a genre with African American origins.
A copy of a news clipping from 1922, posted on the newspaper’s website, did not mention race. It quoted the resolution’s sponsor, “Mrs. A. Baumgartner,” as saying she had seen “a lot of rough dancing” at after-school events. “This cheek-to-cheek dancing is terrible," she said.
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