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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 7:28:58 GMT -8
These are things people actually said in court.
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ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
Working 9 to 5, What a Way to Make a Living
High interest rates, a recent banking crisis and Washington’s fight over the debt ceiling may have shaken the US economy recently, but the US jobs market continues to show signs of strength.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 339,000 jobs were added in May, surpassing forecasts that predicted the increase would be approximately 190,000 jobs and a sign of continued growth from the jobs market despite the Federal Reserve’s continuing efforts to cool the economy. Growth in the labor market has fluctuated over the last few months, dipping down to 165,000 jobs in March and coming back up to 253,000 jobs in April. The number of jobs added is still down compared with this time last year, when 390,000 jobs were added to the economy.
Despite more jobs being added to the economy compared to the previous month, the unemployment rate in May went up 0.3% to 3.7%. The 3.4% unemployment rate in April was the lowest seen since 1969.
The leisure and hospitality industry continued to add more jobs as the warmer weather has seen more people traveling and eating at restaurants. Construction, transportation and warehousing and social assistance also saw an increase in jobs this month.
Reports from earlier in the week indicated that while growth is slowing, the labor market remains hot. The payroll company ADP’s report of private payrolls in May showed an increase of 278,000 jobs, surpassing forecasts of 180,000. BLS’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that job openings unexpectedly rose in April, from 9.7m openings in March to 10.1m openings in April.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 7:52:03 GMT -8
Don't We All Want to Help Creepy BIllionaires?
A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office released Thursday estimates that the $21.4 billion in IRS funding cuts that Republicans and the Biden White House agreed to enact as part of their debt ceiling agreement would result in $40.4 billion in lost tax revenue—adding to the federal budget deficit.
The CBO provided its estimate to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who said in a statement that "after holding our entire economy hostage and threatening to trigger a global financial meltdown, Republicans protected wealthy tax cheats and creepy billionaires."
"Republicans' fealty to their megadonors is on full display, as is the hypocrisy of forcing cuts to the IRS that add $19 billion to the deficit," said Whitehouse, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee. "By contrast, President Biden's budget would have cracked down on wealthy tax cheats while making pro-growth investments in workers, families, and small business—and reduced the deficit by $3 trillion."
"There's a sharp contrast there," the senator added, "and the best explanation is Republican fealty to their dark-money megadonors."
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 7:53:50 GMT -8
But How Safe are Human Drivers?
For anyone who likes to complain about North Texas drivers, it might sound alarming to know that soon they will be sharing the highways with transport trucks that don’t have a driver at all.
The Metroplex has quietly become the new frontier for the development of autonomous trucking, with several companies from around the world setting up operations here — and using North Texas highways for real-world testing.
For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Clubs, Krogers and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. Soon, that will no longer be the case.
The worsening shortage of people to fill trucking jobs is fueling a race among companies to bring to market a dominant driverless technology for the future of moving goods on the nation’s highways. Several of the largest industry players are now in North Texas, lured by the region’s central location on the transportation network and the state’s looser regulations.
But that also has some experts worried about just how safe driverless trucks really are, given the technology is so new. An added concern for North Texas is that the companies are testing their trucks on highways here.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 7:56:32 GMT -8
A Good Manager Needs to Know How to Use Scissors
Federal officials reported the former owner of the Olean Domino’s franchise will pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit over race-based harassment.
Announced in February, the lawsuit against the former owner of the Olean and Bradford, Pa., pizza restaurants alleged race-based harassment against Black employees since at least 2019.
The EEOC accused the company of subjecting its African American employees to a race-based hostile work environment. The alleged mistreatment included two managers’ regular and open use of slurs such as the “n-word” and “boy” during every shift.
The agency alleges that Black employees complained about the harassment and the complaints were met only with further harassment and intimidation. As an example, upon overhearing an African American employee tell a white co-worker not to use the N-word, a manager allegedly got close to the Black employee’s face and, in a threatening manner, said the N-word. And when an employee complained to the owner of Parris Pizza, one of the managers allegedly threatened the employee with a pair of scissors.
According to the EEOC’s complaint, Parris Pizza took no disciplinary action against the harassers, instead promoting one and giving the other a pay raise. Because of the harassment he had experienced, and Parris Pizza’s failure to protect him from discrimination, the employee was compelled to resign.
Parris Pizza officials could not be reached for comment. A message for Domino's corporate communications was not immediately returned.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:43:40 GMT -8
It Must Be a Mistake. A Moment of Sanity in Texas.
Texas lawmakers have voted to reverse an expensive state law requiring election officials to replace all their current vote-counting equipment with technology that doesn’t exist.
An unprecedented mandate the Legislature passed in 2021, without fully realizing its consequences, would have decertified equipment that counties currently use to count votes, to be replaced by machines on which data “once written, cannot be modified,” at an estimated cost of more than $100 million.
The bill amending the requirement is now headed to the governor’s desk. It will allow counties to use the equipment they already have.
The initial measure, aimed at preventing the tampering of vote data, passed in 2021 on a voice vote without debate, largely unnoticed, tucked into the sweeping voting law Senate Bill 1.
In February, Votebeat reported on the problems with the mandate and election officials’ growing concerns. This year’s legislative session was the best opportunity to amend the proposal before it took effect for the 2026 elections.
In March, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican, and other lawmakers filed legislation to amend the law, which, according to the secretary of state’s office, would have also required the purchase of new equipment for each election.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:47:06 GMT -8
What Does It Mean If You Are Hot Blooded?A blood test for more than 50 types of cancer has shown real promise in a major NHS trial, researchers say. The test correctly revealed two out of every three cancers among 5,000 people who had visited their GP with suspected symptoms, in England or Wales. In 85% of those positive cases, it also pinpointed the original site of cancer. The Galleri test looks for distinct changes in bits of genetic code that leak from different cancers. Spotting treatable cancer early can save lives. What is the Galleri test? NHS launches world first trial of blood test for 50 cancer types The test remains very much a "work in progress", the researchers, from Oxford University, say, but could increase the number of cancers identified. Often, patients have symptoms, such as weight loss, with a range of possible causes and require multiple tests and hospital visits. More than 350 of those in the study - the biggest of its kind in patients with suspected cancer symptoms - were subsequently diagnosed with cancer, using traditional methods such as scans and biopsies. About: 75% of those testing positive on the blood test were found to have cancer 2.5% of those testing negative were found to have cancer Although not accurate enough to "rule in or rule out cancer", the test was really useful for patients lead researcher Prof Mark Middleton told BBC News. "The test was 85% accurate in detecting the source of the cancer - and that can be really helpful because so many times it is not immediately obvious when you have got the patient in front of you what test is needed to see whether their symptoms are down to cancer," he said. Multi-cancer blood test shows real promise in NHS study
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:48:22 GMT -8
I Don't Think DeathSentence Will Miss Them
Dozens of transgender people in Florida have turned to crowdfunding appeals to help them leave the state after the passage of new legislation that targets the LGBTQ community, including a law that curtails access to gender-affirming care for adults and bans it for minors.
For Sage Chelf, the decision to leave hardly felt like a choice, but she didn’t have the funds to cover a move. The 30-year-old trans woman, who lives in the Orlando area, was nearly out of one medication when she found out the clinic that had been prescribing her hormone therapy was ending all treatment for trans patients.
“I don’t want to go back to the person that I was forced to be at the time,” Chelf said, of the years before she transitioned in 2021. “It was a very dark time in my life. I would rather just not be alive, I guess, then have to go back to living not trans.”
Chelf was among dozens who made an appeal for donations online, saying they needed help to leave Florida in anticipation of or in reaction to a law that took effect May 17. In addition to banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, the law places new restrictions on adults seeking treatment.
The number of people seeking help online is a fraction of the 94,900 transgender adults estimated to live in Florida by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, which looked at state-level, population-based surveys. Many, if not most, will stay.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:49:46 GMT -8
I Imagine Some Rich QOP Guy Will Make up the Difference
Oregon Senate Democrats plan to start fining their absent colleagues amid a month-long Republican walkout, a move they hope will pressure boycotting lawmakers to return to the chamber as hundreds of bills languish amid the partisan stalemate.
In a procedural move Thursday, Democrats voted to fine senators $325 every time their absence denies the chamber the two-thirds quorum it needs to conduct business. The amount reflects lawmakers’ average daily pay, according to the office of Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner.
“Oregonians work for a living every day, and they don’t get paid when they don’t show up,” Wagner said while addressing the Senate. “We have a huge stack of bills sitting right over there on that cart, just waiting for us to take them up, to debate and to vote.”
The month-long Republican walkout — the longest-ever in the Oregon Legislature — once again prevented the Senate from reaching a quorum on Thursday. But Democratic Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, citing an article in the state constitution, requested that the Senate compel absent members to attend and fine absentees $325 for every day a quorum isn’t reached. Her request was voted on and approved by the other Democrats present on the Senate floor.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:51:15 GMT -8
The Food and Water Riots are Coming
Extreme heat waves and drought due to climate change have the potential to shock the global food supply and send prices soaring, according to a new study.
The research, published Friday in the journal npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, assesses a worst-case scenario in which extreme weather hits two breadbasket regions in the same year, hammering winter wheat crops in both the U.S. Midwest and northeastern China.
Winter wheat is planted in the fall, goes dormant in winter cold, then gets harvested in early summer. The study found that the extreme weather conditions that would push those wheat crops beyond their physiological tolerances are becoming more likely. If such weather affected multiple regions at once — a scenario possible in today’s climate — it could stress the global food system in dangerous ways.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:53:03 GMT -8
Is This a Bridge Too Far?
The man who famously disassembled Sen. Marco Rubio on a Republican presidential debate stage in 2016 may be prevented from doing the same to coup-attempting former President Donald Trump under rules being considered by the Republican National Committee for its 2024 primary debates.
Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and loyal Trump supporter who broke from him over his words and deeds after the 2020 election, is expected to announce his presidential campaign next week. He has openly said he plans to confront Trump about his “stolen” election lies and his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, even as other candidates have shied away from criticizing Trump at all.
“If it takes a bully to beat a bully?” said one Christie adviser on condition of anonymity, acknowledging the criticisms of his brash personality. “At least Chris believes in the system. He’s read the Constitution.”
But such a showdown may not come to pass because of a proposed requirement that candidates must have at least 40,000 unique donors to make the first scheduled debate in August ― a threshold Christie, who had difficulty raising small-dollar donations when he ran in 2016, may not be able to meet in just two months.
“I definitely think the RNC rules were built to help Trump,” said Tim Miller, a former RNC communications director.
“In 2020, the RNC canceled 22 primaries and caucuses to protect their king,” said Joe Walsh, the former Republican congressman who ran against Trump in the 2020 primary. “This time around they can’t cancel primaries and caucuses, but they’ll still do all they can do to protect their king, like making it as hard as possible for challengers to debate him. Yes, the RNC will do all they can to keep Christie and any other Trump-critical candidate off that stage.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:55:12 GMT -8
Cause of Death? The QOP?The country’s life expectancy problem gained renewed attention in recent years after seeing the largest drop since World War II during the COVID-19 pandemic. As U.S. life expectancy continues to plummet, a new report found the country has been at a life expectancy disadvantage since the 1950s, and it has only gotten worse since then. The study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, also shows more than 50 countries have surpassed the U.S. in life expectancy since the 1930s and a handful of states may be partly responsible. Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. “The scale of the problem is bigger than we ever thought . . . older than we thought (and) the number of countries outperforming the United States is much larger than we thought,” said study author Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. US life expectancy problem is ‘bigger than we ever thought,’ report finds
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 13:56:33 GMT -8
Eat a Steak. Kill a TreeMore than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation, despite dire warnings about the forest’s importance in fighting the climate crisis. A data-driven investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and Forbidden Stories shows systematic and vast forest loss linked to cattle farming. The beef industry in Brazil has consistently pledged to avoid farms linked to deforestation. However, the data suggests that 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) of the Amazon was destroyed near meat plants exporting beef around the world. More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 15:03:58 GMT -8
There are Few People Who Helped the Union Win the Civil War More than Confederate General Braxton Bragg
North Carolina’s Fort Bragg is now Fort Liberty, as the US Army on Friday redesignated one of the largest military installations in the world.
The renaming was formalized in a ceremony on Friday morning.
The change follows a branch-wide push to rename bases that bear the name of Confederate leaders. It is currently named after Gen. Braxton Bragg, an unpopular Confederate general who garnered a lot of criticism for his hot temper, combative personality and often subpar performance on the field.
Fort Bragg was among nine bases that a congressional commission proposed renaming, but while the others have been – or are expected to be – redesignated after notable people, Fort Liberty will be the only facility named after a value.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 2, 2023 15:05:06 GMT -8
No Bunp. Just a Slump.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was surely hoping for a bump from his presidential campaign launch last week. But a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows no sign of improvement.
In fact, the survey of 1,520 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 25-30, suggests that DeSantis may have actually lost ground against frontrunner and former President Donald Trump since officially entering the race for the 2024 GOP nomination during a glitchy Twitter Spaces event with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk.
Among potential Republican primary voters — registered voters who identify as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents — Trump now leads the full field of seven declared candidates with 53%. That’s up from 48% in early May, before DeSantis threw his hat in the ring. And DeSantis now lags further behind than he did just a few weeks ago; his 25% is down from 28% in early May.
Put another way, DeSantis trailed Trump by 20 points in the previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll. Today, he trails by 28 points.
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