Tuesday, February 23, 2021

And another day of shots, forbidding mandatory mask wearing, answering to allegations, fighting online radicalization, black runner’s stress, resignations, investigations, and the extinction of a third of freshwater fish comes to a close:

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” -- Bertrand Russell

Deaths

US: 514,996 (+2406)

World: 2,496,666 (+11,302)

Cases

US: 28,897,718 (+71,411)

World: 112,649,905 (+388,578)

The U.S. is currently administering over 1.6 million coronavirus vaccine shots a day. Here's a look at how your state is doing:

North Dakota House passes bill forbidding mandatory mask wearing.

Trump may soon have to answer rape allegations under oath. Zervos and Carroll are among more than two dozen women who have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct that they say occurred in the years before he became president...If the dress does contain traces of Trump’s DNA, it would not prove his guilt. But a match could be used as evidence that he had contact with the dress and to help disprove his claims that he never met Carroll...Carroll said she’s confident the DNA on the dress belongs to Trump and wants her day in court. She said she now sleeps with a gun next to her bed because she has received death threats since publicly accusing Trump. “This defamation suit is not about me,” said Carroll, who meets regularly with other women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. It’s about every woman “who can’t speak up.”

'You are not alone': Former far-right activists launch project to fight online radicalization. The group's goal is to provide an off-ramp for far-right extremists who were radicalized online in the same ways they themselves once were.

A year after Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot while jogging in Georgia, Black runners all over the country are still feeling the effects. "His tragic death changed everything for Black runners," said Kevin O. Davis, a member of the Plano Running Club in Texas, which has 2,000 members, almost all of them white. "I have changed everything. I've seen people in their car slow down as I run and look at me in their rearview mirror to make sure I was not robbing their house. I have come up on white ladies who scream just because they see me run by them. Once, when I stopped running at a light, this white guy rolled down his window and sprayed insecticide in my face — for no reason. I thought I was going blind.”..."It's fascinating, because we think of trauma and stress with soldiers in a combat situation," Holloway said. "But what about the stress of ... what happened to Ahmaud Arbery? It's about how you process a situation that impacts you. But the fact that Black people have those kinds of instances and thoughts of 'it could happen to you' speaks to the prominence of racism."

Four energy board members to resign after catastrophic Texas blackouts during winter storm. The board chairwoman and vice chairman of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, along with two other board members, issued a joint statement announcing their intention to resign at a meeting Wednesday, according to a filing with the Texas Public Utility Commission.

Independent investigation faults police, paramedics in 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

Man dies after police kneel on his neck for nearly 5 minutes, family says in wrongful death claim. A 30-year-old Northern California man undergoing a mental health episode died days after police officers kneeled on the back of his neck for nearly five minutes to subdue him, lawyers for his family said.

Child care workers, crucial to economic recovery, earn poverty wages in 40 states.

Southern Baptists oust 2 churches over LGBTQ inclusion. The Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee voted Tuesday to oust four of its churches, two over policies deemed to be too inclusive of LGBTQ people and two more for employing pastors convicted of sex offenses.

Nearly 1,000 girls become first female Eagle Scouts.

Extinction threatens third of freshwater fish species, report finds. "The World’s Forgotten Fishes" says that 80 freshwater species — which make up more than half of all the world’s species — have already been declared extinct, with 16 disappearing in 2020 alone.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.