NYC Offers To Help Families Apply For The Federal Child Tax Credit – Gothamist

New York City families who were not automatically enrolled in the Biden administration’s expanded monthly child tax credit can call 311 to make an appointment for one-on-one help, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.

Under an agreement reached under the federal stimulus deal, eligible U.S. families can receive monthly payments of $250 to $300 per child. The program, which has been touted as President Biden’s “biggest anti-poverty plan,” covers all but the richest families—single parents who earn up to $112,500 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 are eligible for the full benefit. The benefit phases out for high-income households making over $480,000.

All told, New York City families could get an estimated $3 billion through the program, which has been projected as having the potential to cut child poverty in half. 

Source: NYC Offers To Help Families Apply For The Federal Child Tax Credit – Gothamist

Coronavirus: ‘Hong Kong delays plan to ease rules on vaccinated arrivals, fears move will jeopardise cross-border travel with mainland China’ | South China Morning Post

  • The government was last week preparing to allow arrivals from high-risk places to enter the city, provided they had reliable proof of vaccination
  • But officials have postponed the idea, which critics had warned could undermine talks with Beijing on resuming quarantine-free cross-border travel

Source: Coronavirus: ‘Hong Kong delays plan to ease rules on vaccinated arrivals, fears move will jeopardise cross-border travel with mainland China’ | South China Morning Post

Third wave of COVID-19 is waiting at your doorstep. But don’t let it in!

Beyond The Lines

The third wave has already arrived, claims Dr. Vipin Paul (physicist) pro-vice-chancellor, University of Hyderabad. Dr. Paul said July 4 recorded a similar trend like the beginning of the 2nd wave saw. While the data may be true there’s a lack of evidence to back the declaration.

AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleriahas said that the third wave can be more severe than the second wave“If an immuno-escape variant of the virus emerges and all restrictions are eased”.

On the other hand Dr Samiran Panda, Head of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research has said“that while the third wave is inevitable, it may hit the nation by August-end, but will be of less intensity than the second wave”.He however added that if the virus mutates further, India could see almost 1 lakh cases every single day with the onset of the third…

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Tom Barrack, Trump inaugural committee head, accused of being UAE agent – Chicago Tribune

The chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging he secretly conspired to influence U.S. policy to benefit the United Arab Emirates, even while he was seeking a position as an American diplomat.

Tom Barrack, 74, of Santa Monica, California, was among three men charged in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, with acting as unregistered foreign agents as they tried to influence U.S. policy on the UAE’s behalf while Trump was running in 2016 and later while he was president.

Besides conspiracy, Barrack was charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements during a June 2019 interview with federal agents. Also charged in a seven-count indictment were Matthew Grimes, 27, of Aspen, Colorado, who is a former executive at Barrack’s company, and Rashid al Malik, 43, a businessman from the United Arab Emirates who prosecutors said acted as a conduit to that nation’s rulers.

Prosecutors said the crimes struck at “the very heart of our democracy.”

Source: Tom Barrack, Trump inaugural committee head, accused of being UAE agent – Chicago Tribune

More than 200 people being tracked for possible monkeypox exposure

Monkeypox

More than 200 people in 27 states are being monitored for possible exposure to monkeypox after they had contact with an individual who contracted the disease in Nigeria before traveling to the United States this month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To date, no additional cases have been detected.

State and local health authorities are working with the CDC to identify and assess the individuals, and follow up with them daily until late this month, said Andrea McCollum, who leads the poxvirus epidemiology unit at the agency’s National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases.

“It is a lot of people,” McCollum acknowledged.

The efforts stem from the discovery that a U.S. resident infected with monkeypox traveled from Lagos, Nigeria, on an overnight flight to Atlanta that arrived on July 9; the person then traveled the same day to Dallas. On July 15, the individual sought care at a Dallas hospital emergency room, where the diagnosis of monkeypox was made.

Source: More than 200 people being tracked for possible monkeypox exposure

Day 54/67 of GED in Five Months, Equations of a line, and making a bee line to Save The Bees

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

So, why do you think that equations of a straight line, aka linear equations, may be related to bees, transportation, and bee lines?  And why do they call it a bee line, when bees never seem to move in a straight line, or do they? 

Today’s reading comes from a well-known source that is citing two major secondary sources: can you agree with the authority of the two sources cited?

“… the Christian Social Union, which had not been at the forefront of climate change conversations and tended to resist serious environmental protection measures, responded by voting into law what the petition called for. The law commits the government to preserve the environment, support organic farming, increase the number of natural meadows, prevent further losses of biodiversity, protect clean water and limit pesticide use. Along with saving the bees, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and wild herbs are to be protected.

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Pasadena to require COVID vaccines for all city employees – Los Angeles Times

City Manager Steve Mermell announced the requirement at a City Council meeting Tuesday, in tandem with another new rule that will again require people in Pasadena to wear masks in public settings indoors.

“When a police officer arrives at your home, a firefighter arrives at your home because you need our assistance, you don’t get to choose if we send the vaccinated ones or the nonvaccinated ones,” Mermell said. “The public has to come into contact with city employees. We want the city employees to be healthy, we want the public not to get ill.”

The new vaccination requirement comes days after approximately a dozen workers tested positive for COVID-19 and several others were forced to quarantine, city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said.

Source: Pasadena to require COVID vaccines for all city employees – Los Angeles Times

Ex-DEA agent from California charged in U.S. Capitol insurrection – Los Angeles Times

Multiple photos show Ibrahim posing with his Drug Enforcement Administration badge and gun on his hip as he stands among others waving pro-Trump banners, according to court documents made public Tuesday.

A broad spectrum of extremists — including members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters — joined with hundreds of former President Trump’s most ardent supporters on Jan. 6 to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of President Biden’s election, after Trump spent months promoting unfounded claims of election theft. More than 150 officers reported injuries, some permanent, with three officers dying in the aftermath of the melee.

Source: Ex-DEA agent from California charged in U.S. Capitol insurrection – Los Angeles Times

Tears Of Shame … Yet Again

Filosofa's Word

Over the past few weeks, we have read with horror about the discovery of unmarked graves at Canada’s boarding schools that housed indigenous children a century ago.  But guess what, folks?  We may well find the same here.  The U.S. does NOT have clean hands when it comes to the treatment of the original settlers in this land, the Native Americans.  The New York Times has presented a moving article that frankly brought tears to my eyes when I read it last night, so I have decided to share it with you, my friends.


Lost Lives, Lost Culture: The Forgotten History of Indigenous Boarding Schools

Thousands of Native American children attended U.S. boarding schools designed to “civilize the savage.” Many died. Many who lived are reclaiming their identity.

The last day Dzabahe remembers praying in the way of her ancestors was on the morning in the 1950s when she was…

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