Category Archives: Viva!

Vice President Pence, Detached from Reality, Says Florida, Texas, and Arizona Covid-19 Outbreaks Are Improving

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During a rare Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence tried to suggest that the worst of covid-19 is behind the United States.

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‘A Bad Dream’: New York Children Who’ve Lost Parents to COVID-19 Face Hardships Beyond Grief

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By Rosa Goldensohn, THE CITY

This article was originally published on Jul 6 at 5:11pm EDT by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.

Photo by Kat Jayne from Pexels

Catherine Abear has one family photo of the four of them: herself, her husband Ray, and their 2-year-old son and then 1-month daughter, all together, taken on Christmas Eve.
Three months later, COVID moved Ray into the basement of their Jamaica, Queens, house, to quarantine. He was there for nine days, and then for four in the hospital, where he died.
“It seems like a bad dream still,” Catherine Abear said.
Ray Abear, a 43-year-old NYPD detective, was among the untold number of mothers, fathers and other primary caregivers whom the coronavirus has claimed since tearing through the city this spring. 
There is no official count of New…

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L.A. reopening of K-12 schools at risk from COVID-19 spike – Los Angeles Times

“Every single school district at this point needs to have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time,” Ferrer said told officials from both public and private schools. “We would be irresponsible if we didn’t say to you that you have to have the back-up plan ready.” Ferrer also said she remained hopeful that campuses could reopen as anticipated and said administrators should continue to develop those plans as well. There are 80 school districts in L.A. County serving about 1.5 million children. And even if campuses cannot reopen to start the school year, the delay might be for weeks rather than a longer period.

Source: L.A. reopening of K-12 schools at risk from COVID-19 spike – Los Angeles Times

Supreme Court Deals Massive Blow To Birth Control Access

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Today, the Supreme Court ruled against free and comprehensive access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act, a long-term project of the Religious Right and a decision that will immediately prevent hundreds of thousands of women from accessing free reproductive care. The decision upholds a Trump Administration…

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The Supreme Court Just Ruled to Let Religious Employers Deny Workers Birth Control

Vote Blue in November. Stop oppression of women’s rights!

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The Trump administration is free to let employers deny their workers birth control coverage if they have religious or moral objections, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The 7-2 decision caps off years of lawsuits over the Affordable Care Act’s so-called “birth control mandate.” Ever since the Obama administration required employers to offer their workers contraceptive coverage nearly a decade ago, religious liberty proponents and reproductive rights advocates have been locked in a fight over which employers should be exempt from that requirement. Over the years, the government has given churches and other houses of worship, as well as some other employers, ways to skirt that requirement.

But in 2017, the Trump administration issued new rules that expanded the number of organizations who can refuse to cover their employees’ birth control. Under those rules, private employers with sincerely held religious and moral objections are exempt from the mandate.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued over those rules, and won in a lower court. But the Trump administration and the Little Sisters of the Poor — a Catholic religious group and an icon among conservatives for their opposition to the birth control mandate — asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.

In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas ruled that the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury did have the authority to carve out those exemptions.

“The only question we face today is what the plain language of the statute authorizes,” Thomas wrote. “And the plain language of the statute clearly allows the Departments to create the preventive care standards as well as the religious and moral exemptions.”

The reliably conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh all joined Thomas’ opinion, as did Chief Justice John Roberts (who recently sided with the liberals in multiple cases).

Justice Elena Kagan also voted with the majority but wrote a separate opinion to explain why. Justice Stephen Breyer joined her opinion. Both of those justices typically vote with the liberal wing of the court.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, meanwhile, dissented in an opinion joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In that dissent, Ginsburg pointed out the government has estimated between 70,500 and 126,400 women could lose their “no-cost contraceptive services” if more employers were exempt from providing it.

“This court leaves women workers to fend for themselves, to seek contraceptive coverage from sources other than their employer’s insurer, and, absent another available source of funding, to pay for contraceptive services out of their own pockets,” she wrote.

Ginsburg made history back in May, when she called into the arguments over the case — held over the phone, due to the coronavirus pandemic — from the hospital. At the time, she was recovering from a “non-surgical treatment” for a benign gallbladder condition.

Ginsburg wasted no time making it clear where she stood on the case.

“You are shifting the employer’s religious beliefs — the cost of them — onto the employees,” Ginsburg told then-Solicitor General Noel Francisco. Women who lose birth control coverage, she added, will likely be forced to hunt for coverage from government programs like Medicaid or pay for their health care out of pocket. “The women end up getting nothing.”

Cover: In this Aug. 26, 2016, file photo, a one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Celebrating Caribbean Literature Day (Online) — Petchary’s Blog

What is Caribbean literature, who is writing – and where? This weekend, tune in to two online sessions celebrating Caribbean Literature Day. Yes, this is a “first”! And a wonderful concept. See the information below… And thanks to National Librarian Beverley Lashley for letting me know about this. By the way, I have reviewed a […]

Celebrating Caribbean Literature Day (Online) — Petchary’s Blog