Sunday, October 17, 2021

And another day of Manchin, new maps in TX, Republican donors, voting for Planet Earth, child marriages in the US, police seizing property, CBD oil shrinking tumors, and opting out of math hurts adolescent neural development comes to a close:

"My journey on our precious planet is nearing an end, but I think of my children, my grandchildren, and the countless billions just starting life and those yet unborn. What kind of world will they inherit?" -- Dan Rather

“Sometimes the truth becomes inconvenient for some people.” -- Dr. Anthony Fauci

“Fox hosts aren’t lunatics or fanatics. They are merely amoral opportunists who are willing to kill their viewers to gain ratings.” — Max Boot

Deaths

US: 744,546 (+2653 over three days)

World: 4,914,092 (+16,865 over three days)

Cases

US: 45,792,532 (+153,520 over three days)

World: 241,471,559 (+1,095,612 over three days)

Major climate program likely to be nixed from spending package amid opposition from Manchin: reports. The program in question is called the Clean Electricity Payment Program, which would incentivize utilities to shift toward clean sources of energy using a mix of grants and fines.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has told the White House the child tax credit must include a firm work requirement and family income cap in the $60,000 range. While Manchin’s demands would dramatically weaken one of President Biden’s signature programs to help working families, they also would reduce the package’s overall costs. -- Manchin is the best thing to happen to Republicans this year.

Texas GOP advances new maps that would tighten slipping grip. Texas Republicans on Saturday night closed in on redrawn U.S. House maps that would shore up their eroding dominance as voters peel away from the GOP in the state’s booming suburbs.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s new big donors from September? Republicans.

Will We Vote For Planet Earth? I must confess that as a journalist and a citizen, I came too late to a full grappling of the scope of our global climate crisis.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Rome to protest rising fascism in Italy. The action comes a week after right-wing groups stormed trade union headquarters.

Apple fires employee who raised awareness of workplace misconduct allegations at the company. The #AppleToo movement has led to testimonials from more than 500 employees, accusing the company of erecting "an opaque, intimidating fortress" that tolerates "racism, sexism, discrimination, retaliation, bullying, sexual and other forms of harassment.”

Pregnant at 15, married at 16: She's speaking out to end child marriages. An estimated 300,000 children under the age of 18 legally wed in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018, according to the nonprofit Unchained at Last. Roughly 86 percent of the children were girls and nearly 60,000 of the marriages involved an age difference such that the younger spouse could have been considered a victim of a sex crime...“Even when a teen enters into a marriage willingly, that still creates a nightmarish legal trap,” said Reiss. “Because once you're in a marriage, you should have the right to get out of it. So the adult spouse at any point wants to file for divorce, retain an attorney, get a protective order, get into a domestic violence shelter, that adult spouse has those options. The minor in that marriage, they have to wait until 18.” Reiss said the minor would need the consent of a parent or legal guardian to take any of those actions. -- This is total bullshit. End child marriage.

It has become what some say is a pattern​ in South Korea​: One female​​ ​soldier after another has taken ​her own life ​in recent years after they reported being sexually assaulted in the military.

Riders watched as a woman was raped on a SEPTA train but no one called 911, police say. Surveillance video captured the entirety of the assault, giving investigators enough evidence to charge Ngoy with rape and assault, Bernhardt told NBC Philadelphia. The video also shows how riders, who also witnessed the attack, did nothing to help the woman being assaulted.

'Highway robbers': How a trip to buy farmland ended with police taking all his cash. Federal and local law enforcement have broad authority in many parts of the country to seize a person’s property if it is suspected to be linked to criminal activity. Civil asset forfeiture allows the authorities to confiscate items like cash and cars even without charging the people forced to give up their property. Defenders of the practice say it’s a vital tool in fighting drug traffickers, who are known to hide ill-gotten cash in vehicles and other items. But critics across the political spectrum argue that it violates constitutional rights and disproportionately impacts minorities and low-income people who are more likely to be profiled by police and less likely to have the resources to challenge the seizures. -- In many cases, police have way too much power.

After Woman's Tumor Unexpectedly Shrinks, Her Doctors Wonder If CBD Oil Played a Role. Doctors in the UK say they’ve come across an unusual case of cancer recovery: A woman in her 80s whose lung cancer began to shrink without any conventional treatment, after she started taking daily doses of CBD/THC oil. Though its far from clear that the oil actually affected her tumor, the doctors argue that cannabis and its primary ingredients merit further research as a possible cancer treatment.

Opting out of advanced math education alters adolescents’ neural development, study finds. Young adults who had chosen not to pursue advanced math had lower levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) within the middle frontal gyrus when compared to students who were continuing their math education. Importantly, these changes were not evident prior to students’ decision to continue math or not.

RIP Betty Lynn. She was 95.

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

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