Category Archives: News to use

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

‘It’s Numbing’: Nine Retired Nuns in Michigan Die of Covid-19

The deaths add to what is becoming a familiar trend in the spread of the virus as it devastates religious congregate communities by infecting retired, aging populations of nuns and sisters.

Texas can’t legally secede from the U.S., despite popular myth

In the 1869 case Texas v. White, the court held that individual states could not unilaterally secede from the Union and that the acts of the insurgent Texas Legislature — even if ratified by a majority of Texans — were “absolutely null.”
The Texas and U.S. flag wave in the wind outside of the John Reagan State Office building on Jan. 15, 2020.

The Texas and U.S. flags wave outside the John H. Reagan State Office Building.

Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Every few months, the question seems to come up: If Texas wanted to, could it secede from the United States?

Simply put, the answer is no. Historical and legal precedents make it clear that Texas could not leave the Union — at least not legally.

The idea is most often raised by conservatives in the state who are angry over some kind of policy coming from the federal government — and the calls seem to become more frequent when a Democrat is occupying the White House. State Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, filed a bill Tuesday to create a referendum election on whether Texans should create a joint legislative committee “to develop a plan for achieving Texas independence.”

“It is now time that the People of Texas are allowed the right to decide their own future,” he said in a statement announcing the legislation.

The bill doesn’t appear to have much of a chance. And even if it did, experts say, Texas can’t just secede.

“The legality of seceding is problematic,” Eric McDaniel, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Texas Tribune in 2016. “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues.”

Many historians believe that when the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, the idea of secession was also defeated, McDaniel said. The Union’s victory set a precedent that states could not legally secede.

Some have pointed to Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union as an example. But it’s important to note that the European Union is a loose association of compound states with preexisting protocols for a nation to exit. In contrast, the U.S. Constitution contains procedures for admitting new states into the nation, but none for a state to leave.

Yet the myth that Texas can easily secede persists, in part, because of the state’s history of independence.

Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836 and spent the next nine years as its own nation. While the young country’s leaders first expressed interest in becoming a state in 1836, the Republic of Texas did not join the United States until 1845, when Congress approved the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States.

This resolution, which stipulated that Texas could, in the future, choose to divide itself into “New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas” is often a cause of confusion about the state’s ability to secede. But the language of the resolution is clear: Texas can split itself into five new states. It says nothing of splitting apart from the United States.

In the years after Texas joined the United States, tensions over slavery and states’ rights mounted. A state convention in 1861 voted 166-8 in favor of secession — a measure that was then ratified by a popular vote, making Texas the seventh state to secede from the Union.

After the Civil War, Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870.

Yet even before Texas formally rejoined the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that secession was not legal, and thus, even during the rebellion, Texas continued to be a state. In the 1869 case Texas v. White, the court held that individual states could not unilaterally secede from the Union and that the acts of the insurgent Texas Legislature — even if ratified by a majority of Texans — were “absolutely null.”

If there were any doubt remaining after that, late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia set it to rest more than a century later with his response to a letter from a screenwriter in 2006 asking if there is a legal basis for secession.

“The answer is clear,” Scalia wrote. “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘one Nation, indivisible.’)”

Matthew Watkins contributed reporting.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally published in 2016.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

14251142.gif

Should I double mask for coronavirus safety?

As new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus float around Southern California, doctors and scientists have started to recommend doubling-down on your mask game.

If your usual mask is thin, you should probably upgrade to something more substantive — a two-layer cloth mask with a filter pocket works great, but the widely available KN95 mask is even better. And an N95 mask, sometimes harder to get for the general public, is among the best options you can find.

But combining two cloth masks — or even better, a cloth mask over a KN95/N95 — could be the golden ticket as long as the fit is comfortable, snug and you can breathe.

That’s according to Dr. Kim Shriner, infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital, who echoed statements from scientists and doctors around the country. Many have started voicing support for double-masking, citing data that shows it can be substantively more effective at blocking virus particles.

“The principle of double-masking is simple,” Shriner said in an interview on Friday, Jan. 29. “You that many more barriers between you and the virus.”

Masks are effective because they create a “maze” of fibers that virus particles have to travel through, Shriner said. KN95 and N95 masks are designed with a dense fabric mesh to physically “trap molecules in the netting of the mask. That’s why they’re so effective.”

An N95 mask is more effective than a KN95, but the latter is more comfortable than the former.

“The most effective mask should be the one that’s closest to your face,” Shriner said.

Shriner didn’t recommend wearing two KN95s or N95s because the fit would likely be too bulky and the masks wouldn’t fit well. Pairing one of those masks with a cloth mask can fit more comfortably and will provide extra protection.

“But no mask is effective if you wear it below your nose,” Shriner said. “That’s defeating the purpose.”

Whatever you choose, it needs to fit well, but stay away from gators and bandanas, which “are not very good,” Shriner said, explaining that they may “cleave” the viral particles in two, potentially making it easier to spread.

She especially urged the public not to wear them in grocery stores “which is a rather perilous thing now,” given the still-elevated case rates and more contagious variants that are spreading.

“You want to pick a mask that fits well and that’s comfortable so you’ll actually wear it,” Shriner said.

She doesn’t think you need to be wearing two masks all the time — going for a walk, for instance — but when you’re taking essential trips to the grocery store, that’s when you want a few layers. Same for any visits to public places where people might be gathered, even if it’s outside.

While exercising, Shriner suggests having a mask around your neck so you can pull it up when other people are around. Personally, she wears a single KN95 while walking her dog and an N95 plus a cloth mask in grocery stores.

“It does get a little harder to breath with two masks,” Shriner said. “You don’t want to be so layered that you’re passing out.”

Alongside many of her colleagues, Shriner wears two masks while working at Huntington Hospital

“It’s very clear that good masking makes an enormous difference,” she said. “It’s such an inexpensive, safe way of preventing infection. How it got politicized is beyond me, but I hope it will fade away as people realize it’s the best way to protect themselves.”

Related links

There’s a growing body of research that has shown time and time again that masks reduce the likelihood of someone spreading the disease — some studies found an 80% reduction, according to the Centers for Disease Control — but more studies are emerging that show wearing a mask can also protect the wearer from breathing in viral particles, too.

N95 masks are particularly effective at protecting the wearer; KN95 masks are slightly less effective, but still much better than cloth masks.

Two face-hugging cloth masks stacked on top of one another can provide comparable protection, according to Dr. Linsey Marr, an expert in virus transmission at Virginia Tech and an author on a recent commentary laying out the science behind mask-wearing, who spoke to the New York Times.

Another option is to buy a face-hugging cloth mask with a filter pocket between the layers; Shriner recommended purchasing replaceable HEPA filters for these masks, not using vacuum filters or coffee filters “which aren’t all that effective,” she said.

Coronavirus tracker: California’s hospitalizations and new cases continue to decline as of Jan. 28

Both hospitalizations and new cases have been seeing rapid declines around the state.

According to Thursday’s end-of-day totals from California public health websites, there were 562 fewer hospitalizations from the previous day, for a total of 16,581 hospitalizations. That’s a 24.4% decline from the Jan. 1 high of 21,938 people hospitalized from COVID-related infections.

The 14-day average of 26,694 new cases Thursday was a 37% decline from the Jan. 16 high of 42,468.

California communities reported 19,661 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,252,973. There were 591 new deaths reported Thursday, for a total number of 39,545 people who have died from the virus.

RELATED: What public health leaders mean by ‘0% ICU beds available

OCR-l-STATE-TRACKER-0130-map.jpg?fit=620

OCR-l-STATE-TRACKER-0130-tab.jpg?fit=620

-L-ST

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Johns Hopkins University, the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health, The Associated Press, reporting counties and news sources

Related Articles