Category Archives: News to use

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

Conventions are canceling plans, citing Texas ending its mask mandate | The Texas Tribune (Me: double shot Texas Gov – risk deaths and kill business at same time!!)

At least four organizations canceled conferences or conventions in Austin citing health concerns after Texas ended its statewide mask mandate earlier this month. The cancellations cost the Austin Hilton hotel $350,000 of revenue, according to Austin Convention Enterprises, a city-created corporation that owns and manages the hotel.

“These were rooms that were already on the books and largely, what we saw was fallout, ironically, from the governor opening the economy,” said Joe Bolash, Hilton Austin general manager, during a March 16 Austin Convention Enterprises board meeting. “It was groups that were not comfortable returning to a fully-opened economy where there was no mask mandate in place.”

Gov. Greg Abbott ended the statewide mask mandate and capacity limits on business on March 10, pointing toward fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases in the state. Public health experts and political opponents lamented the move, saying it was too soon before the majority of the state was vaccinated against the virus or even eligible for a shot.

Source: Conventions are canceling plans, citing Texas ending its mask mandate | The Texas Tribune

Supreme Court makes it harder for police to shoot people with impunity – Vox

“We hold that the application of physical force to the body of a person with intent to restrain is a seizure,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, “even if the person does not submit and is not subdued.”

Roberts’s opinion was joined by his three liberal colleagues, plus Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Source: Supreme Court makes it harder for police to shoot people with impunity – Vox

Man arrested outside hospital with body armor, explosive and firearms | TheHill

Police in Lexington, Ky., on Thursday arrested a man outside of the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital after being tipped off by nearby authorities that a possibly armed and dangerous man was coming to the premises.

NBC News and local news affiliate WKYT reported that a man identified as Bryan Carroll was arrested at the hospital without incident; police told reporters that he had multiple weapons and body armor on his person, and they found “suspected explosive devices” in his vehicle.

“He will be charged with multiple state charges as well as pending federal charges,” said University of Kentucky Police Chief Joe Monroe, according to NBC.

Source: Man arrested outside hospital with body armor, explosive and firearms | TheHill

Most Americans Now Say They’ve Gotten At Least One Dose of a COVID-19 Vaccine or Want to Get Vaccinated As Soon As Possible, with Enthusiasm Rising Across Racial, Ethnic and Partisan Groups | KFF

Black and Hispanic Adults and Those Under Age 30 Remain Most Likely to Want to “Wait and See;” Roughly One in Four Among “Wait and See” Say They Would Be More Likely to Get Vaccinated if Only One Shot Were Required While Enthusiasm Rises, a Persistent Minority Say They Definitely Will Not Get Vaccinated; Republicans,…More

Source: Most Americans Now Say They’ve Gotten At Least One Dose of a COVID-19 Vaccine or Want to Get Vaccinated As Soon As Possible, with Enthusiasm Rising Across Racial, Ethnic and Partisan Groups | KFF

Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP (Me: TYS – told you so)

At the same time that CDC officials were updating school policy, they were also warning that B117, a variant strain 50% more transmissible than the wild-type virus, would likely become the dominant strain in the United States by April. In some states, such as Florida and California, the variant, which was first detected in the United Kingdom, already accounts for 25% of cases.

Now several experts are concerned that schools may be opening during an inflection point in the pandemic and are being misguided about how to do so.

Source: Experts: 3-foot rule in schools problematic in light of COVID variants | CIDRAP

Facebook has been autogenerating pages for white supremacists | Ars Technica

Researchers at the Tech Transparency Project found that Facebook created dozens of pages for groups like the “Universal Aryan Brotherhood Movement” when a user did something as simple as listing it as their employer. Some of the autogenerated pages garnered thousands of likes by the time they were discovered by researchers. TTP also discovered four Facebook groups that had been created by users. The researchers shared their findings with Facebook, which removed most of the pages. Yet, two of the autogenerated pages and all four Facebook groups remained active when the group published its findings. Source: Facebook has been autogenerating pages for white supremacists | Ars Technica