Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Puerto Rico to open vaccinations to all amid COVID-19 spike – The Washington Post

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor announced Wednesday that officials will start vaccinating all those 16 years and older beginning Monday, prompting celebrations across a U.S. territory facing a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Currently, only people 50 years and older as well as anyone 35 to 49 with chronic health conditions are authorized to receive a vaccine. More than 1 million vaccines have been administered since inoculations on the island of 3.2 million began in December.

During his first state of the territory address, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi also announced he would sign a new executive order implementing more stringent measures to fight a recent surge in COVID-19 cases. A curfew that has remained in place for more than a year was expanded and will run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. starting Friday. In addition, businesses will be forced to close by 9 p.m., two hours earlier than currently allowed.

Source: Puerto Rico to open vaccinations to all amid COVID-19 spike – The Washington Post

Scientists come together in Jamaica to launch the H3ECaribbean Initiative – Petchary’s Blog

“Through H3ECaribbean, we will create incredible global research opportunities for our faculty, students, and trainees throughout the region,” commented Dr. Tomlin Paul, Dean, FMS, UWI, Mona, Jamaica, “matched by the kind of training and faculty development that will allow Caribbean investigators to participate in global genomics and health research as equal partners with our colleagues in the US and Europe.” 

“With respect to cancer, for example, people across the small island nations of the Caribbean may have unique environmental influences that lead them to have different mutations driving the growth of cancers in the Caribbean than the white middle-class Americans who currently comprise the vast majority of the discovery data sets used to develop novel therapies,” said Alexandra E. Shields, PhD, Director, Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities and co-founder of JACCRI. Inclusion in the discovery data sets used to develop novel therapies is ultimately about social justice. We need to ensure that persons in the Caribbean benefit equitably from advances in global genomics and global genomics research.”  

Source: Scientists come together in Jamaica to launch the H3ECaribbean Initiative – Petchary’s Blog

Kentucky tax preparer says couples welcome, but ‘homosexual marriage not recognized’ – Scotties Toy Box

If you can say no homosexuals allowed then you can say no blacks allowed.    If this guy refused to do the taxes of a black couple, would everyone still be OK with it.    This is 2021, same sex marriage has been legal around the world for 20 years.   This is what religious freedom has become, not the right to worship a deity of your choice, but to have the right to discriminate against those who are different from you.   I am so tired of this fight.   Yet we must keep fighting because it is a growing cancer on our country. Source: Kentucky tax preparer says couples welcome, but ‘homosexual marriage not recognized’ – Scotties Toy Box

Thailand Has Told Myanmar to Reduce Violence, PM Says — Radio Free Asia

“We cannot do anything we want, because we have common borders [with Myanmar] and we rely on each other for many things. But we certainly do not agree with violence and we have said so to them, and have kept telling them to reduce [violence].” Source: Thailand Has Told Myanmar to Reduce Violence, PM Says — Radio Free Asia

12 Protesters Killed as Troops Attack Pocket of Resistance in Northwest Myanmar — Radio Free Asia

12 Protesters Killed as Troops Attack Pocket of Resistance in Northwest Myanmar

Military junta forces fired rocket launchers and grenades to dismantle a protest camp in a city near Myanmar’s border with India Wednesday, killing 12 protesters in a region of northwest Myanmar where civilians have inflicted casualties on troops.

In a heavy crackdown that started before sunrise in the Sagaing region city of Kalay, security forces used heavy weaponry to smash the protester encampment dubbed “Fort Tahan” built to shield anti-coup demonstrators from gunfire by police and soldiers.

Witnesses said at least 12 local residents, including protesters, were killed, and many others were injured in Kalay. They were among at least 26 civilians killed Wednesday during nationwide crackdowns by Myanmar security forces on Wednesday, witnesses in various locations said.

Source: 12 Protesters Killed as Troops Attack Pocket of Resistance in Northwest Myanmar — Radio Free Asia

New Mexico ends qualified immunity | TheHill

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed a bill on Wednesday ending qualified immunity for all government workers, including police. 

Grisham signed the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which ends the use of qualified immunity as a defense for depriving a person of their civil rights, her office said.

Qualified immunity shields state and local police from civil suits unless they violated a clearly established constitutional right, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

New Mexico is the first state to end qualified immunity for all public bodies, the New Mexico House Democrats said on Twitter. However, it is not the only state to end the practice in some capacity. 

Source: New Mexico ends qualified immunity | TheHill