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First-Time Freshmen Scholarships Virginia Union University
New Jersey recorded 1,009 new COVID-19 positive tests on Saturday for the second time in a week. The state has now received 907,249 positive COVID-19 test results since the pandemic began. The figure does not include PCR tests.
About 20% of the new positive cases in the state are for children and teens under the age of 18. In the 0 to 4 age group, there were 26 new positives on Saturday, and in the 5 to 17 age group, there were 137 new positive test results recorded on Saturday.
The CDC is recommending that people in 10 New Jersey counties wear masks in public indoor settings including the gym, the grocery store, and restaurants. Those counties are: Atlantic, Burlington, Bergen, Essex, Gloucester Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, and Union. The CDC has recommended that everyone, including the vaccinated, wear masks in high-risk indoor settings.
The rate of tCOVID-19 transmission in New Jersey was 1.46, which is slightly lower than the previous day.
Nine more people in the state have died as a result of complications due to COVID-19, and another three deaths in the past 24 hours are suspected to be related to the virus, but this still needs to be confirmed via testing. Since the pandemic began, a total of 23,883 deaths in the state have been confirmed to be related to complications due to COVID-19.
The COVID test positivity rates in North, Central, and South New Jersey are 3.05%, 3.6%, and 3.5% respectively.
On Friday, 22,000 first vaccine doses and 16,000 second doses were administered across the state. As of Saturday morning, 10.84 million vaccine doses have been administered in New Jersey. About 5.29 million doses are second doses, with 395,000 of those doses being single-dose J&J vaccines. A total of 323,000 young people ages 12 to 15 and 239,000 people ages 16 and 17 have been vaccinated to date in New Jersey.
A total of 425 patients were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s hospitals on Friday night, which is lower than the previous day’s 485 patients. Eighty-two patients were in critical or intensive care, with 30 patients on ventilators. A total of 69 COVID-19 patients were discharged, while 10 new patients were admitted to hospitals.
At long-term care facilities in the state, seven new COVID-19 cases were recorded for residents on Saturday, and nine staff members at long-term care facilities tested positive for COVID-19. One more resident of a long-term care facility died, bringing the official total of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities to 7,879.
Middlesex County – 95 new positives
Mercer County – 28 new positives
Monmouth County – 141 new positives
Hunterdon County – 19 new positives
Somerset County – 32 new positives
In the United States, 35.68 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 to date, an increase of 97,000 people since Friday. Total confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in the United State are 629,000 to date, an increase of 528 people since Friday.
Kevin Durant became the leading scorer in U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball history as Team USA defeated the Czech Republic 119-84 in its final group play game of the Tokyo Olympics.
Durant finished with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and added eight rebounds and six assists. With a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter, he passed Carmelo Anthony (336 points) for the top spot on the list and now has 354 points.
This is the third Olympics for Durant, who was USA Basketball’s leading scorer for the gold medal winning teams in both London and Rio. If the U.S. wins gold in Tokyo as well, Durant will match Anthony’s record of three Olympic men’s basketball gold medals.
“I just think about all the players that played in this program and (it’s) pretty cool to be amongst names like that,” said Durant. “Carmelo is a guy that I played on two Olympic teams with, and I've seen his approach to these games, and I try to steal some of his techniques and approach. I don’t know, it is still pretty weird for me to do stuff like this, because I play a team sport and I try my hardest to make it about the group. But it is special to do something like that. And scoring is something that I worked on my whole career and something that I've expanded my whole career and to consistently do it is pretty cool.”
Men's @usabasketball has a new ALL-TIME OLYMPICS LEADING SCORER!!!
@KDTrey5 pic.twitter.com/CFpJFfgBxX
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) July 31, 2021
The win over the Czech Republic was the second straight rout for the American men after they dropped their Olympic opener to France. They advance to the knockout round that begins with the quarterfinals on Aug. 3, although the first of those four games will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Aug. 2.
Durant, twice the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year, is one of only two players on the roster with Olympic experience, along with Draymond Green.
“It’s basketball at the end of the day, and these guys are all world talents, all-stars, guys who've been the best players on their teams,” said Durant. “So, I don’t say much to them. It's just a simple game at the end of the day. But a lot of guys do actually ask me about the experience. For example, a lot of guys asked me about the Opening Ceremony. They ask me about the teams we played back then. But it's not like giving them strategy or telling them technique. It’s basketball at the end of the day, and these guys know it. They’re high IQ players. Just giving them my past experiences, telling a couple stories here and there, I guess that's really what it would have been like. But I try to just lead by example by just going out there and being a great teammate in practice, working as hard as I can and just leaving it at that.”
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Sounders lose to San Jose Earthquakes for the first time since 2015, snapping another impressive streak The Seattle Times
SEATTLE, WASH. – After its first home loss of the season last weekend vs. Sporting Kansas City, Sounders FC hosts the San Jose Earthquakes in a Saturday afternoon matchup at Lumen Field (2:00 p.m. PT / JOEtv, Prime Video, 950 KJR AM, El Rey 1360 AM). This marks the second meeting between the two sides this season, following a 1-0 Seattle road win on May 12 in which wingback Alex Roldan closed the match out in goal after a late injury to Stefan Frei.
Tacoma Defiance players Obed Vargas and Alex Villanueva are available for the club's match today vs. San Jose via Short-Term Agreements. International callups and injuries to players on Seattle's roster have made the club eligible for Extreme Hardship. As a result, the Rave Green have signed the two players from the club's USL Championship affiliate to short-term loans, making them available today.
In MLS regular-season play, Seattle is 14-10-8 all-time against San Jose. Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the May 12 win in San Jose tied a club record for the longest unbeaten streak versus a single opponent in Sounders FC history. Seattle has not lost to the Quakes in 14 matches (8-0-6), equaling the 14-match unbeaten run the Rave Green once held against Chivas USA (10-0-4). This current streak against the Quakes is also tied for fourth-longest in MLS history.
With the club’s lone strike in a 3-1 loss to SKC last weekend, Fredy Montero became the first Sounders FC player to score 50 goals in MLS regular-season play. His 63 goals across all competitions are also first in franchise history. Sounders FC forward Raúl Ruidíaz’s 11 goals this season currently rank first in MLS, while João Paulo leads the club with five assists. Defender Yeimar Gómez Andrade leads the league with 48 interceptions, spearheading a defensive effort that ranks first in MLS with seven shutouts.
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Short ARKK ETF To Bet Against Cathie Wood's Fund Markets Insider
U.S. men's basketball has a new all-time Olympic scoring leader at 339 points and counting.
Kevin Durant passed Carmelo Anthony, who previously sat atop the list with 336 points, on Saturday as Team USA faced off against the Czech Republic. Coming into Saturday's game with 331 points, Durant needed only six points to make history.
And he did so in the second quarter, lofting up a three-point jumper to push Team USA ahead.
Durant has played in a total of 19 Olympic games that span from the 2012 London Games, 2016 Rio Games and 2020 Tokyo Games. He has scored in double digits in all of them, scoring over 20 points six times and was the team's leading scorer in 2012 and 2016.
While he previously sat behind Anthony as the all-time Olympic scoring leader, he leads USA's all-time career Olympics stats for points averaged (18.9), fourth in games played, fourth in rebounds (88), third in most field goals, first for three-point field goal attempts (203), first in three-point field goals made (60) and tied for sixth in three-post shooting percentage (.526).
Team USA currently leads the Czech Republic 34-33 in the second quarter.
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We’re well into gardening season and you may have some questions. For answers, turn to Ask an Expert, an online question-and-answer tool from Oregon State University’s Extension Service. OSU Extension faculty and Master Gardeners reply to queries within two business days, usually less. To ask a question, simply go to the OSU Extension website, type it in and include the county where you live. Here are some questions asked by other gardeners. What’s yours?
Q: Our mature saucer magnolia (Magnolia soulangeana) tree is having a second bloom cycle. It has an abnormally high number of blooms covering the tree. It started at the top and is working down. It also seems to have many more large buds that seem days away from opening. They are slightly smaller and shorter-lived blooms than springtime.
The tree is adjacent to a large concrete driveway that heated up excessively during the heat dome occurrence. The tree itself is very healthy and pushing growth. Two questions: '
Is this extra bloom cycle coming at expense of next year’s blooms?
Will fresh new excessive growth harden in time to avoid heavy freeze damage? – Multnomah County
A: The basic answer to your question about the magnolia blooming a second time and new growth appearing now is “time will tell.” The heat dome was extraordinary and the coming winter may also be unusual. There is nothing you can do now to either speed up the new foliage hardening off, or change the spring blooming level.
The Oregon State Landscape Plants page for your tree, here, lists it as hardy in zone 5 and even 4. You are likely in zone 8, so frost damage isn’t expected, but it can occur on tender new growth if cold is extreme or occurs unusually early, late, or with drying winds.
Blooming again in the year is termed “remontant” flowering. Enjoy it now, and realize there might be fewer blooms next spring.
Here’s a quote from an Ohio State blog node1376, “A downside of remontant blooms is a slight reduction in overall flower numbers for the next year’s floral display, depending on the number of flowers that actually bloomed out of season. Rarely will remontant plants be totally without any flowers during their typical bloom time. So, just get out there and enjoy that “wacky, blooming plant.” – Jacki Dougan, OSU Extension Master Gardener
Hemlock heat damageOSU Extension Service
Q: The weeping hemlocks in our front, south-facing yard have an alarming number of brown needles. I see one spider web, but don’t think spider mites are the problem because the web is in just one area and the brown needles are in many areas. The needles that are affected the most are on the top of the plant. However, there are some branches were the needle group at the tip of the branch is brown.
Was it the hot, dry weather? A combo? What are your recommendations for next steps? If this is a disease/bug, could it affect other plants in my yard? – Marion County
A: This looks like classic heat damage based on the pattern and appearance of the dead needles. At this point you should give it good TLC to help the shrub pull through the rest of the hot, dry summer. Check your irrigation system and make sure the root zone is getting adequate moisture. Give a little extra attention to watering this week as it is going to be in the upper 90s.
Also, consider shading the plant during the hottest part of the day. You can purchase shade cloth from a garden center or even use a patio umbrella or bed sheets – anything held above the foliage to deflect the direct sun.
Here is some info that you might find helpful. It’s on hydrangeas but has good general plant recovery info that you can use. – Brooke Edmunds, OSU Extension horticulturist
Daylilly flower budsOSU Extension Service
Q: My daylilies and marionberries for two years have had deformed flower buds. This year I picked them off as I saw it happening and destroyed them. It helped, but what is it in the first place? How to stop it from recurring? – Clatsop County
A: Both of these could be due to botrytis gray mold. It can occur when plants are wet for six to 12 hours and temperatures are between 50-65 degrees F – day or night. Flowers and/or buds develop tan or brown sections. Here is some information.
The following cultural controls are recommended:
There is another possibility for the daylily symptoms – the daylily gall midge. While the foliage of the daylily can be lush, the buds can become infested with the larvae of the daylily gall midge. The larvae are semi-transparent, white, legless maggots that grow up to 3 mm long. Alluding to the pest’s common name, the midge overwinters in the soil with the adults emerging during May-June, when the greyish-brown female fly lays eggs on the developing flower buds of the daylilies. Flower buds infected by this fly can host hundreds of tiny larvae that, from within, chew up the bud causing it to become uncharacteristically squat and swollen. The affected buds fail to open and either dry up or rot. The internal petals of the buds can be abnormally swollen and crinkled. After feeding on the buds, the larvae leave the buds returning to the soil where they overwinter inside silk cocoons.
To try to verify if this is the gall midge, you can collect the effected buds into a sealed bag or container. Wait to see if the tiny maggots exit the bud. Dispose of the sealed bag or container into the garbage. By doing that. you will disrupt this pest’s life cycle. Do not compost infested buds.
Here is some additional information from Washington State Extension. – Bill Hutmacher, OSU Extension Master Gardener
CotinusOSU Extension Service
Q: My multi-stemmed smoke tree (Cotinus obovate), which has been in the ground three years, has developed on one stem a die-back from the base toward the meristem of the sub-laterals in the course of three days. The rest of the small and young tree appears normal. It is planted in a rock-mulched area. There was no evidence of reaction to the extreme heat in June and it was putting on new growth. And a PMJ rhody has also developed die back on ½ of the very young plant about 2 years old planted in the ground this past winter. I hesitate to cut out the dying parts.
Another PMJ totally succumbed and I checked the roots. In my opinion the roots looked dead. Both PMJ rhodies had recovered from the extreme heat and were showing new growth. – Lane County
A: The American smoke tree (Cotinus obovatus) is usually quite sturdy. It does not tolerate wet soil or mulch touching the stems. Unfortunately, a sudden die-back does often indicate verticillium wilt, a disease of the vascular system. Short of girdling damage that would usually be the answer.
As to the PMJ rhody, the picture does look like excess heat damage. Many rhodies were damaged in the last heat wave and now we have another on the way this week. Set up a shade cloth over the young plants, an umbrella, a sheet held away from the plant by stakes, etc. Be sure these plants are well-watered in the morning this week to get past the temperatures in the high 90s to 100s.
WASHINGTON – A federal judge is giving former President Donald Trump time to challenge a Department of Justice order that said the IRS must surrender his income tax returns to Congress.
U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Trevor McFadden said that Trump and his lawyers have until Wednesday to issue a response.
Neither Trump nor his lawyers have said if they will challenge Friday's order.
On Friday, the Department of Justice said that the former president's tax returns must be released by the IRS to Congress, a reversal from its position held during the Trump administration.
The DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel said in a 39-page opinion that the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee had made a request with a legitimate legislative purpose to see Trump's tax returns, with a stated objective of assessing how the IRS audits presidents' tax returns.
Trump's lawyers did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Friday's decision comes more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court said that Trump's tax returns had to be turned over by his longtime accountants to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., because of a subpoena issued as part of criminal probe.
In July, the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg were charged by Vance with crimes related to a "sweeping and audacious" scheme since 2005 to avoid the payment of taxes on compensation.
Trump, who broke decades of precedent set by candidates and former presidents by refusing to release his income tax returns, repeatedly said that his filings were under audit by the IRS.
However, taxpayers are allowed to release their returns to the public while under audit.
—CNBC's Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report from New York.
DULUTH, Minn.- One male suspect is in custody following an early morning shooting in Duluth’s Spirit Valley neighborhood, and a standoff in Morgan Park Saturday, according to the Duluth Police Department.
According to a spokesperson with the Department, around 2:30 a.m. Saturday officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 4700 block of Grand Ave.
At the scene, shell casings were located along with witnesses of the incident.
After speaking with witnesses, investigators determined the 46-year-old male suspect shot at a victim after a dispute.
The suspect left the scene, the spokesperson said, and “walked to his home in Morgan Park where a short standoff ensued.”
He eventually surrendered, and was arrested without incident on pending charges of 2nd Degree Assault, Reckless Discharge, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
No injuries were reported. The incident is under investigation by the Duluth Police Department’s Violent Crimes Unit.
She was a home-birth midwife. I had all my kids at the hospital.
She was deeply religious. Me, not so much.
She lived in northern Minnesota, I live in the southeast.
But as I reported a series of stories about home birth in 2019, I kept hearing about this one midwife who had delivered hundreds of babies and who traveled hundreds of miles weekly to help new moms in their most joyful, scary and vulnerable moments.
I finally connected with Rebekah on the phone one day — she was driving to a prenatal appointment — and we ended up talking for an hour.
“I live in Fertile, Minnesota,” she told me, and I knew I had to meet this lady.
Rebekah died Tuesday, July 27, after her car crashed into a semitrailer in Spring Prairie Township near Moorhead, Minnesota. She was 41.
For a long day in August of 2019, I drove with Rebekah around northwestern Minnesota in the Detroit Lakes area. That summer alone she had put 21,000 miles on her baby blue Buick LeSabre, which was packed with blood pressure cuffs, swaddles and other gear she’d need to deliver or care for a baby.
All day, we bounced between appointments. We visited a woman who’d just had a baby earlier in the week, a woman who’d just had a miscarriage, a woman due any day and two Amish mothers — one newly pregnant and one with a newborn.
At every step of the way, I saw someone who scattered kindness, joy and advice wherever she went, with patience and without judgment.
And she spoke candidly about the hardest parts of her job: stillborn babies, mothers who hemorrhaged during childbirth and needed a speedy transfer to the hospital and the perpetual stress and fatigue of being so needed by so many people, all the time.
Despite that stress, she had a great sense of humor.
"Women want to be treated with respect,” she told me. “With a home birth, we're trying to make it as peaceful and intimate as when you created that baby,” which may not be the case at the hospital.
“You usually don't invite 20 people to be there when you make the baby,” she deadpanned.
I treasure that day with Rebekah because it embodies what I love most about my job: I met someone whose life is dramatically different from mine, and yet the threads of what makes us all so similar were hard to miss as I peeked inside this foreign world — love of cute babies, the joy of a good joke, the value of being kind, the fragility of life and finality of death.
Rebekah was unmarried and had no children of her own. She leaves behind her parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters. Friends and loved ones are sharing memories of her on Facebook. They’ve also created a GoFundMe page to help cover expenses associated with her midwifery practice.
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TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - Adam Peaty summed up the secret to Britain's swimming success in one word -- 'belief' -- after helping bring home 4x100m mixed medley relay gold in world record time at the Tokyo Games on Saturday.
The quartet of Kathleen Dawson, Peaty, James Guy and Anna Hopkin smashed China's previous mark by 0.83 seconds as the event made its Olympic debut and the women joined the men on the podium.
Freya Anderson also collected a gold after swimming the freestyle leg in the heats.
Britain have now taken four golds from the Tokyo pool, and seven medals, matching their best haul at the 1908 London Games.
They can add to the tally in the final men's 4x100 medley on Sunday.
"One word has changed the whole team and it's 'belief'," declared Peaty, who swam the second breaststroke leg with an astonishing split of 56.78 and now has three career Olympic golds.
"We've got champions who believe we can win. We have champions who believe we can get world records. If you've got more belief, you can build everything around that. We've shown it now. We were a second under the world record nearly.
"I never thought I could be a three-time gold medal winner being a breaststroker. I just want to jump, I have so much energy."
Team mate Guy credited Peaty -- a not-so 'secret weapon' -- with providing much of that belief in the first place.
"He's changed British swimming massively," said the 25-year-old, who swam the butterfly leg in 50.00 -- his fastest ever split -- after pulling out of the individual butterfly to save his energies.
"We know that Adam's going to win, we know Adam's going to deliver.
"And when we saw him win the 100 breast for the second time at an Olympic Games, that's when for us it really started."
Backstroker Dawson slipped on the wall at the start, with Ryan Murphy putting the United States into the lead at 50 metres, and handed over to Peaty with Britain in sixth place.
The breaststroke champion lifted the team to fourth, while Lydia Jacoby of the United States lost her goggles, and Guy romped into the lead to give Hopkin a big enough margin for victory.
In a novel twist, the mighty 100m freestyle champion Caeleb Dressel swam the final stretch against seven women but could not make up the ground, the United States ending up fifth.
China and Australia took silver and bronze, with Italy fourth.
"I beat Dressel," exclaimed Hopkin, who swum the 100m in 52.00 and joined Dawson and Anderson as Britain's first female gold medallists in swimming since Rebecca Adlington in 2008. "I tried not to look at where he was."
Dressel was generous in defeat: "That was an insane world record, they hit every split perfect. They had the pieces today so we got beat by the better team it seems," he said.
Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, additional reporting by Aaron Sheldrick and Martin Petty, editing by Peter Rutherford
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The military is trying to navigate how to get more service members to take the shot without issuing an order.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Three soldiers in camouflage were crowded around a table at a popular burrito place near Fort Carson on Friday, chewing over the announcement that the military might soon require all troops to get vaccinated for coronavirus. Two of the soldiers had already gotten the shot. One had not.
The military had ordered her to get a quiver of other vaccines, including the annual flu shot. The big difference with this one was that she finally had a choice.
“Honestly, if the Army wants you to do something, they’ll make you. It was still voluntary, so I just put it off,” the unvaccinated soldier said, adding that a busy schedule and fear of side effects had encouraged her delay.
The soldier declined to give her name because she was not authorized to speak to the news media but said although most of the soldiers she knows in the post’s 25,000 active duty troops are vaccinated, others have concerns and are taking advantage of a rare piece of discretion not often granted to the rank and file.
That may soon change. Late Thursday night, the Pentagon announced that all military and civilian employees would be asked to prove they were vaccinated or submit to mandatory masks, physically distancing and regular testing, as well as travel restrictions, just as President Biden demanded of the rest of federal civilian employees. The new requirements take the armed forces one step closer to a mandate.
Compulsory shots are standard operating procedure for the military, which, starting in boot camp, requires troops to get vaccinated for at least a dozen diseases. For now, though, the military is trying to navigate how to get more troops to take the shot without simply issuing an order.
Of the 1,336,000 active-duty members of the military, about 64 percent are fully vaccinated, above the 60 percent of Americans over 18 who are fully vaccinated. But for the military, that rate is unacceptably low, because it is difficult to deploy troops who have not been vaccinated to countries with stringent local restrictions, and because a surge of the virus among troops can cripple readiness.
Military leaders cannot require the shots because the coronavirus vaccines are not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and are authorized only on an emergency basis. Mr. Biden could order mandatory vaccination for troops, but has been reluctant to exercise that authority, and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has previously said he would not be comfortable with a mandate until the vaccines are fully approved.
Though coronavirus vaccines have become a political flash point in the civilian population, several military leaders said they did not expect much resistance if an order was issued because troops were accustomed to getting mandatory shots. But, they added, while following orders is central to military culture, so too is the soldier’s axiom “never volunteer for anything.”
At the same time, the U.S. military knows how deadly infectious diseases can be because it has been battling them for centuries.
In the winter of 1777, smallpox was savaging the Continental Army to the point that the ability to continue to fight was in doubt. Gen. George Washington proposed the first-ever mass inoculation by infecting healthy troops with the pus of their suffering comrades. The practice, which often led to illness but cut deaths drastically, was deeply polarizing. Many colonists viewed it as a plot of the devil, or worse, the crown. Some colonies banned the practice, and in Virginia rioters attacked doctors who offered the treatment.
But Washington felt he had no choice, telling one of his medical officers that “necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure.”
The mass inoculation ended the epidemic and may have been crucial to winning the war, said Carol R. Byerly, a military medicine historian.
“It was the beginning of the recognition that public health is a strategic weapon — and the military has been a leader in the field ever since,” Ms. Byerly said.
As new conflicts pushed U.S. troops into new corners of the world, diseases often killed far more people than the enemy did. Military doctors raced to develop ways to battle afflictions like typhoid and yellow fever. The troops, who to some extent were used as guinea pigs, were typically given no say.
“There has always been protest,” Ms. Byerly said, pointing to World War I, when many soldiers and their families started a letter-writing campaign against a newly developed smallpox vaccine that became the first universally compulsory vaccination in the Army. “But the military knows vaccines are the best weapon, so even if there is controversy, leaders thought it was worthwhile.”
But ordering compulsory vaccination carries its own risks to military readiness. In the 1990s, the military tried to inoculate the entire force against the anthrax virus. Clusters of troops refused to comply. Hundreds were punished — some with other-than-honorable discharges. Others quit in protest. In one Air National Guard squadron, a quarter of the pilots quit rather than take the vaccine, sapping the unit’s ability to operate.
The anthrax vaccination effort was hampered by court cases and supply issues, and was eventually scaled down to only a small portion of high-risk troops.
Short of an order, the service branches are attempting to encourage members who are reluctant to take the coronavirus vaccine in ways they feel address their specific concerns.
Navy leaders have found that talking about the vaccine as both a weapon and agent of readiness is most effective. “Our sailors understand that if they go into a hostile environment or dangerous environment, they have to wear protective equipment,” said Rear Adm. Bruce L. Gillingham, the surgeon general of the Navy. “It’s biologic body armor.”
At Fort Bragg, N.C., a weekly podcast has featured troops talking with Army medical leaders about their concerns with the vaccine.
In a recent conversation, Sgt. Colt Joiner and Lt. Col. Owen Price discussed a frequent misconception raised by young soldiers: that they face greater risk of dying from the side effects from a shot than from Covid-19. It is a belief that is increasingly worrying military commanders as data on the Delta variant shows high rates of serious illness among young unvaccinated people.
“Me being a 24-year-old guy,” Sergeant Joiner said, “I think at this time it’s not as much a risk to me. Right now I just don’t see it as a priority.”
The idea that the coronavirus is a threat only to older Americans “is eroding,” Colonel Price told him. “The percentage of people your age seeing those effects are going up.”
At Fort Carson this week, an officer in a brigade getting ready to deploy proudly said its vaccination rate was 71 percent, well above the Army average. Success, he said, was about providing leadership — having senior enlisted soldiers and officers get the shot, explain their choice to junior soldiers and encourage them to volunteer.
But was that volunteering actually “voluntelling” — the cherished Army tradition of leaders telling troops that they are absolutely expected to do something that is technically voluntary?
When asked, the officer laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “There’s probably a little of that.”
Dave Philipps reported from Colorado Springs, and Jennifer Steinhauer from Washington.
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U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - Some U.S. lawmakers and environmental and health groups spoke out on Friday for more funding for electric vehicles and charging stations, complaining the a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal unveiled this week fell short of what President Joe Biden sought.
The deal unveiled includes $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations and the White House noted it was the first-ever national investment but still only half of what Biden had called for to build a national network of 500,000 stations.
One big issue over the last week is how Congress would allocate $7.5 billion for electric school buses and other clean transit projects. The final deal also cut some funding for public transit systems.
But the groups and lawmakers hold out hope Congress will do more to address climate issues and boost electric vehicles in a separate measure without Republican support that could total $3.5 trillion.
Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, won concessions to allow zero-emission buses to qualify for $5 billion of the $7.5 billion fund, aides said.
"I fought every step of the way to ensure that this legislation doesn’t put more dirty diesel buses on the roads—and you can be sure I’ll be working to fund more clean transportation investments in the days and weeks to come," Carper said Friday.
A White House official told Reuters the Biden administration "intends to continue pushing for investments in Electric Vehicles.. including expanding tax credits for electric vehicles, creation of a clean energy accelerator, and other loan and investment programs."
The American Lung Association said it wants $20 billion for electric school buses, saying it was "disappointed by the level of funding proposed for zero-emission electric school buses. It is also discouraging to see that the proposal includes funding to perpetuate the use of combustion fuels for new school buses."
The group noted "the 25 million students riding school buses in this country inhale dangerous diesel exhaust fumes."
Biden has called for $100 billion in government subsidies for electric vehicles and that issue is expected to be addressed in a larger separate funding.
In May, a Senate panel advanced legislation to boost electric vehicle tax credits to as much as $12,500 for EVs that are assembled by union workers in the United States.
The bipartisan infrastructure deal was expected to include funding to back another $7.5 billion in low-cost government loans for charging stations through an infrastructure bank, but that was dropped during negotiations.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
House Democratic leaders failed to round up enough votes on Friday to pass legislation extending the federal ban on evictions just two days before it is set to expire, ultimately adjourning the chamber for a long summer recess with no path forward on the issue.
After hours of inactivity on the House floor as Democratic leaders worked to corral support for legislative action, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
Steny Hamilton HoyerTop Democrat: 'A lot of spin' coming from White House on infrastructure House passes sprawling spending bill ahead of fall shutdown fight Senate passes .1 billion Capitol security bill MORE (D-Md.) tried to pass a bill by unanimous consent that would have renewed the moratorium through Oct. 18, but Republicans objected.
While Republicans objected to the bill’s passage on the floor, the House’s inability to advance legislation was also a result of Democrats’ inability to unite around the best path forward — a failure they blamed on the short, one-day notice they’d been given by the Biden administration.
"We only learned of this yesterday — not enough time to socialize it within our caucus as well as to build the consensus, especially in a time of COVID,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiCapitol riot defendants have started a jail newsletter: report On The Money: Biden asks Congress to extend eviction ban with days until expiration | Economic growth rose to 6.5 percent annual rate in second quarter Top Democrat: 'A lot of spin' coming from White House on infrastructure MORE (D-Calif.) explained after the failed vote.
Party leaders are now vowing to keep working on the legislation to win more Democratic support, with designs to vote on the bill in the coming weeks, when the House may reconvene to deal with a budget package under consideration in the Senate.
“We have advised members that they may well be back here in a fashion ... which would keep this issue very much alive [and] very much in our focus and ready to act," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
The diplomatic sentiments from party leaders disguised the underlying internal tensions that hounded the day’s debate and will now carry into the August break.
Moderate Democrats, eager to leave Washington, were fuming at leadership for keeping the caucus in town until late in the day.
Liberals, fighting for the most robust renter protections they could muster, were furious with the Biden administration for waiting so long to request a congressional fix; with moderates, for prioritizing the vacation over the renter assistance; and with leadership, for adjourning the chamber without adopting a fix.
And even party leaders — loath to break with President Biden
Joe BidenFirst lady leaves Walter Reed after foot procedure Biden backs effort to include immigration in budget package MyPillow CEO to pull ads from Fox News MORE — were notably agitated with the administration for its 11th hour entreaty that Congress act before a deadline that all parties knew for weeks was coming.
Pelosi couldn’t quite find the right word to describe her feelings toward the White House, but others were happy to help out.
"Unfortunate," said Hoyer.
"Inconvenient," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).
And liberals were even more fierce.
“The fact that this statement came out just yesterday is unacceptable,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-CortezThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - A huge win for Biden, centrist senators Ocasio-Cortez, Bush criticize lack of diversity among negotiators on latest infrastructure deal Fetterman slams Sinema over infrastructure: 'Democrats need to vote like Democrats' MORE (D-N.Y.). “I want to make that very clear. Because the excuses that we've been hearing about it, I do not accept them."
Rep. Maxine Waters
Maxine Moore WatersBipartisan bill will help level the playing field for small businesses Republicans hammer HUD chief over sluggish rental aid Key GOP lawmaker backs Powell for another term as Fed chief MORE (D-Calif.), the head of the House Financial Services Committee and author of the eviction moratorium bill, took the remarkable step of breaking with Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn by refusing to endorse their strategy of rushing the bill to the floor by unanimous consent — a gambit doomed from the start. Waters wanted the bill to go through the regular order and receive a recorded vote.
“I did not sign on to the statement or join any of them because I just thought that we should have fought harder,” a frustrated Waters told reporters just off the chamber floor. “I agree that we didn’t have the votes. But what I did not agree to was that we didn’t take it up.”
Just steps away, looking on as she spoke, were Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn.
Researchers at the Aspen Institute estimated this week that as many as 15 million people could be at risk of facing evictions with the expiration of the federal moratorium, which ends on Sunday. And liberal members of the "squad" were irate that the House was leaving town without helping them.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who lived out of her car for a time and has been evicted three times, pressed her colleagues to show more empathy for people at risk of eviction.
"I know firsthand the trauma and devastation that comes with the violence of being evicted, and we have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent this trauma from being inflicted on our neighbors and communities," she wrote in a letter to colleagues.
Democrats were caught by surprise on Thursday when Biden urged Congress to extend the eviction ban, which has been in place since last September and was renewed as recently as June 24.
Biden insisted that his administration no longer has the authority to unilaterally extend the moratorium due to a Supreme Court ruling last month.
That left House Democratic leaders scrambling to round up enough votes in their own caucus, given Republican opposition to extending the moratorium.
Even if House Democrats had passed a bill, it would have all but certainly failed in the Senate due to widespread opposition from Republicans — a dynamic that seemed to contribute to Pelosi’s decision to adjourn Friday without a deal.
“The prospect in the Senate did not look too good,” she said.
Shortly before the House adjourned, Biden issued a statement Friday calling on state and local governments "to take all possible steps to immediately disburse" emergency rental assistance funds.
"Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can," Biden said.
Pelosi and her team initially pushed for an extension that would last until Dec. 31. But the vote count fell far short amid resistance from moderates and housing industry groups.
House Democrats can currently afford only three defections and still pass bills on their own without support from Republicans. Democratic sources said Friday they were short by more than a dozen votes, which proved to be insurmountable despite more than a day of persuasion attempts by party leaders.
Pelosi later proposed a compromise of only extending the eviction ban to Oct. 18, in part to appease centrists who preferred ending the moratorium by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The Oct. 18 date would have coincided with the end of the public health emergency declaration issued by the Biden administration.
Lawmakers expressed frustration that the $46.5 billion in rental aid allocated by Congress by pandemic relief measures is still largely unspent, with only $3 billion distributed to renters by state and local governments thus far. Indeed, Clyburn, the whip, said that issue was the single greatest barrier to achieving a deal on Friday.
"A lot of the members were very concerned that this money's all bottled up. And they want to know: what can we do to get the money out of these offices and into the landlords' and tenants' pockets? You can extend it, and it's still bottled up,” Clyburn said. “That gave our members more angst than anything else."
But Democrats pushing to extend the moratorium argued that renters shouldn’t be evicted in the meantime as a result of bureaucratic failures.
“There cannot be mass evictions right now,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
The National Association of Realtors urged lawmakers to direct rental assistance toward housing providers in a statement opposing another extension of the eviction moratorium.
"Nearly half of all rental housing in America is a mom-and-pop operation, and these providers cannot continue to live in a state of financial hardship," said Shannon McGahn, chief advocacy officer for the group.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) renewed the eviction ban on June 24 through the end of July, saying it would be the last extension.
The Supreme Court warned the Biden administration on June 29 that the CDC did not have the authority to issue the ban and that any further extensions would need to be enacted by Congress.
With the increased threat of the delta variant of the coronavirus, the White House pushed for another extension of the eviction ban on Thursday.
“Given the recent spread of the delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki
Jen PsakiOn The Money: Biden asks Congress to extend eviction ban with days until expiration | Economic growth rose to 6.5 percent annual rate in second quarter Biden calls on Congress to extend eviction ban with days until expiration Why in the world are White House reporters being told to mask up again? MORE said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available," she added.
The eviction moratorium bill wasn’t the only measure scrapped from Friday’s House floor schedule due to Democratic leaders' inability to round up enough votes in their caucus.
The House was also set to possibly consider an annual appropriations bill this week to fund the departments of Justice and Commerce in the next fiscal year. But Democrats couldn't secure enough votes due to internal divisions over police reform.
“This is a balance between providing the resources that we need for our police and our police departments, and making sure that there are the safeguards in terms of making sure that we're moving in the direction of reform,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro
Rosa DeLauroHouse clears .1 billion Capitol security bill, sending to Biden House passes sprawling spending bill ahead of fall shutdown fight House passes spending bill to boost Capitol Police and Hill staffer pay MORE (D-Conn.) told The Hill.
Updated at 8:30 p.m.
What’s a multibillionaire to do if his gift to the city becomes a suicide launch pad? Yesterday, a 14-year-old boy became the fourth person in two years to throw himself off the Vessel, the Hudson Yards sculpture that the man who ordered it, Stephen Ross, once compared to the Trevi Fountain and the Eiffel Tower. Ross had a point, though not the one he was trying to make: Hundreds of people have ended their lives by jumping from Paris’s great folly; at one point, before barriers were installed, the rate was nearly one a month. The Vessel’s not in that league yet.
Designed by the gifted fantasist Thomas Heatherwick, the steel folly has had a rough time adapting to reality. The basket of stairs was meant to be open for everyone to clamber over and around, although in fact not everyone is capable of clambering. Anyone with a disability (or even just iffy knees) must skip the essential physical experience, take an elevator to a landing, look around, and ride back down. Admission was originally free, but after the third suicide, the Related Companies, which built and controls Hudson Yards, imposed a $10 entrance fee and a buddy rule. That only made the horror worse, because the boy who jumped yesterday did so in front of his family. The structure’s only purpose was to offer a climb and a view. The problem is that the adjacent shopping mall (no stairs or entry fee required) offers a similar view, and the observation deck 1,000 feet above puts them both to shame. (The vessel’s westward panorama will also eventually disappear once another set of towers goes up over the western portion of the rail yards.)
Monuments accumulate associations, both triumphal and tragic. The Vessel’s civic failings have helped make its attraction as a suicide spot one of the salient facts about it. Maybe over time that reputation can be overcome; for now, despite its Instagrammability, it’s famous largely as a place of death. So, what now? As a public artwork on land controlled by a private company, it’s one of the most undemocratic civic monuments in New York: Ross has sole power to determine its fate. He now faces a range of options, none of them good. He could do nothing and accept the predictable future toll. That would make the Vessel uninsurable and dramatically increase the company’s exposure to massive lawsuits. He could do the conventional thing and add higher barriers, which Heatherwick Studios reportedly designed and were never installed. Those should dissuade people from killing themselves on Related property, though they may not actually prevent any deaths. He might also make the temporary shutdown permanent, leaving the Vessel as a big dumb bibelot that can only be beheld from a safe distance.
But the most definitive solution, the one that would solve its contradictions as a civic gesture and remove at least one temptation for the self-destructive, would be for Ross to cut his losses and scrap the whole thing. The shiny stairway modules might be separated and recycled as pedestrian bridges, viewing platforms, fire lookouts. When an icon fails, iconoclasm is the only reasonable response.
TOKYO, July 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning on August 1st, Branded Shorts, Japan's only international branded movie competition, will begin accepting submissions for the 2022 Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, one of Asia's biggest international short film festivals and accredited by the Academy Awards®.
URL https://www.shortshorts.org/en/creators/_branded.php
Branded Shorts, established in 2016, calls out for short films produced by companies and organizations around the world. Judges from a variety of industries, including the advertising and film industries, will award the "Branded Shorts of the Year".
Branded Shorts 2021, which was held in June, also focused on theme on recruiting (Human Resources) an important aspect that companies are paying great attention to. In addition, we announced the establishment of the Deloitte Digital Award calling out for short films that combine the "digital" world with the "human" world to bring into light the future of the digital world. The Deloitte Digital Award will be de based on five criteria: Purpose, New directions, Design, Human Experience, and Engagement. Each award will be presented at the Branded Shorts event during the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2022.
＜Branded Shorts 2022 Submission Guideline＞
■Period：Sunday, August 1, 2021 to Monday, February 28, 2022
■Submission：Please refer to Branded Shorts 2022 website
https://www.shortshorts.org/en/creators/_branded.php
■Announcement：Short List which will be candidates for the final nomination will be announced every month at Branded Shorts website. All the final nominations will be announced by the end of April in 2022.
■Inquiry for submission：[email protected]
Statement from Deloitte Digital Japan Lead Go Miyashita
As interest in social significance in addition to economic value increases, expectations for branded movies are rising as a communication tool between companies and society. With this award, I hope that this will be an opportunity to create a "New" way of delivering the message that companies and society want to convey, and to expand the possibilities of branded movies. We look forward to receiving submissions from many creators.
About Deloitte Digital
Deloitte Digital helps companies create new growth by elevating the human experience — with connected ideas, technology and talent. Our ambition is to make the best customer-oriented organizations in the world. Alongside all of Deloitte, we foster the connections necessary to shape a better future for our clients, our culture, our society and our planet. In Japan, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting, a member of the Deloitte Tohmatsu Group, provides Deloitte Digital 's services. Visit www.deloittedigital.com to learn more.
Contact:
Fuyumi Tanaka
+81-3-5474-8201
[email protected]
SOURCE Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia
First Canada overtook the United States in the vaccination race. Now the European Union has done so. Even poor European countries such as Greece, Lithuania, and Poland have surpassed vaccine-resistant U.S. states such as Ohio, Arkansas, and Missouri.
Why is this happening? Facebook exists on the other side of the Atlantic as much as it does on ours. Europeans do not lack for far-right political parties swayed by Russian misinformation. They are not better educated: Most EU countries send fewer of their young people to postsecondary institutions than the United States does. Anybody who has ever visited a European pharmacy has seen that Europeans are at least as susceptible to quack medicine as Americans.
One big difference between the U.S. and the EU is that European governments have been readier than U.S. governments to impose direct consequences on those who refuse vaccines. On July 1, the European Union adopted a digital pass confirming one’s vaccinated status, and individual member states are restricting access to public facilities for those who do not carry the pass. In Italy, for example, after August 6, anyone over the age of 12 who wants to enter a restaurant, gym, swimming pool, or cinema will need to have their green pass scanned at the door.
The EU system turns proof of vaccination into a QR code that EU citizens can store on their phone. The same code works in all EU countries and is available free of charge to EU citizens in both their national language and English.
By contrast, U.S. governments have been very reluctant to go the proof-of-vaccination route. Many Republican-governed states have gone out of their way to protect the right to infect. And even if a state were to try to roll out such a mandate, how would it do so? My CDC-issued proof of vaccination is a piece of cardboard inscribed with a nurse’s handwriting. I can scan it with my phone and instantly email it anywhere on Earth—but the document itself remains the product of Depression-era library-card technology.
The COVID-denial policies of so many state governments did not result from inattention or incompetence. They were intentionally adopted to serve influential constituencies and uphold powerful ideologies. They are not mistakes. They are plans. But if ideologically deformed local government defines 21st-century America, so too does the ingenuity and adaptability of the private sector. Science did its part by developing the vaccines in record time. The federal government and many state governments did their part by getting vaccines into willing arms.
Now here’s where markets get to do their part.
Thanks to gerrymandering and the overrepresentation of rural areas in legislatures and Congress, unvaccinated America exerts disproportionate political power. Vaccinated America, however, has more market power. And it’s time for individual consumers to start using it.
Ordering an Uber or a Lyft? Ask the driver whether he is vaccinated. If not, refuse the ride. If the company tries to charge you for the refusal, complain. Pretty soon, Uber and Lyft will require that their drivers be vaccinated.
Contemplating a holiday? Cruises departing from Florida are forbidden to require proof of vaccination from passengers. Cruises departing from almost all other ports do require it. Plan accordingly.
Hundreds of bars and restaurants in New York, San Francisco, and other cities require proof of vaccination from their patrons. When making your next reservation, ask whether that establishment does too.
Even consumer pressure can only do so much, though. Private businesses need to do their part as well. New York State has created a phone-based digital pass. Businesses elsewhere in the United States can pressure their governments to create similar voluntary systems, or they can band together to create their own. Two centuries ago, Alexis de Tocqueville remarked that whereas in France new initiatives were habitually launched by the government, in the United States it was private associations that led the way. There’s no reason that can’t hold true today.
Underneath the right-wing outrage against Big Tech is the angry recognition that America’s most dynamic and fastest-growing companies all recognize that, when they must choose, choosing the values of metropolitan America is just better business. The Pride flag is more lucrative than the Confederate flag, and nobody knows that better than the Confederate flag’s last standard-bearers.
Over the early summer, conservative governors such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis struck first, deploying the power of state government to impose their values on recalcitrant businesses. Now it’s time for public-health-conscious consumers to strike back, just as they would if the state of Florida tried to junk its fire codes or abolish food-safety rules or forbid cruise ships at Florida ports from carrying lifeboats.
The Biden administration’s preference on COVID-19 rules has been to move slowly—to follow public opinion rather than force it. That makes political sense. But COVID-conscious America has a friend and ally that can move faster. Say hello to Mr. Market.
lonk.indah.link T he gunman who opened fire on a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Ill., seriously considered ...
