Tracker

Damn. That's nearly their average IQ.

Florida Faces Deadliest Phase Of COVID-19 Yet. As of mid-August, the state was averaging 244 deaths per day, up from just 23 a day in late June and eclipsing the previous peak of 227 during the summer of 2020. Funeral director Wayne Bright has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. A woman died of the virus, and as her family was planning the funeral, her mother was also struck down. An aunt took over arrangements for the double funeral, only to die of COVID-19 herself two weeks afterward. “That was one of the most devastating things ever,” said Bright, who also arranged the funeral last week of one of his closest friends. Wayne Bright, funeral director at Wilson Funeral Home, has seen grief piled upon grief during the latest COVID-19 surge. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara) Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, a disaster driven by the highly contagious delta variant. While Florida’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average, the Sunshine State has an outsize population of elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to the virus; a vibrant party scene; and a Republican governor who has taken a hard line against mask requirements, vaccine passports and business shutdowns. As of mid-August, the state was averaging 244 deaths per day, up from just 23 a day in late June and eclipsing the previous peak of 227 during the summer of 2020. (Because of both the way deaths are logged in Florida and lags in reporting, more recent figures on fatalities per day are incomplete.) Hospitals have had to rent refrigerated trucks to store more bodies. Funeral homes have been overwhelmed. MIAMI (AP)

Lemon-flavoured pancake....mmmmm

Given the nature of wrestling in this context, it would be very appropriate for the mods to change the title of this thread to "Rasslin'"

Why Satanists may be the last, best hope to save abortion rights in Texas. The "nontheistic" organization joins the fray with a last-ditch legal maneuver to save abortion rights in Texas As pro-choice and reproductive health groups are scrambling to make sense of Texas' new, near-total abortion ban that went into effect this week, it appears their efforts to skirt the law are getting an unexpected boost from one organization in particular: The Satanic Temple. The Supreme Court on Wednesday night allowed the state to implement a ban on the procedures after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant, with no carve-outs for rape or incest. Until it is blocked or overturned, the law effectively nullifies the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision — which established abortion as a constitutional right — in Texas. Enter The Satanic Temple. The "nontheistic" organization, which is headquartered in Salem, Massachusetts, joined the legal fray this week by sending a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration demanding access to abortion pills for its members. The group has established an "abortion ritual," and is attempting to use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (which was created to allow Native Americans access to peyote for religious rituals) to argue that its members should be allowed access to abortion drugs like Misoprostol and Mifepristone for religious purposes. "I am sure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who famously spends a good deal of his time composing press releases about Religious Liberty issues in other states—will be proud to see that Texas's robust Religious Liberty laws, which he so vociferously champions, will prevent future Abortion Rituals from being interrupted by superfluous government restrictions meant only to shame and harass those seeking an abortion," Satanic Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves told the San Antonio Current. "The battle for abortion rights is largely a battle of competing religious viewpoints, and our viewpoint that the nonviable fetus is part of the impregnated host is fortunately protected under Religious Liberty laws," he added. Why Satanists may be the last, best hope to save abortion rights in Texas | Salon.com (Can we say "irony") ?

15 Miami-Dade Public School Staff Members Die Of COVID In Just 10 Days A 30-year teaching veteran was one of 15 Miami-Dade County public school staff members who died of COVID-19 in just 10 days as Florida continues to reel amid the continuing, overwhelming toll of an unfettered pandemic. “It’s a tremendous loss,” said a school official, referring to the death of longtime teacher Abe Coleman, 55, earlier this week. “The number of lives that he impacted are countless. So many young men had the benefit of him intervening in their lives and pointing them in the right direction,” Marcus Bright, who works with a local education program 5000 Role Models of Excellence, told NBC-6 TV. Coleman taught at Holmes Elementary School in Miami’s Liberty City area, which is a primarily Black neighborhood with 42% of the population living below the poverty line. Local education officials haven’t released the identities of the other teachers or staff members. “The loss of any of our employees is one that is always profoundly felt as every member of this organization is considered a part of Miami-Dade County Public Schools family,” the district said in a statement. “We extend our hearts and prayers to the loved ones of those whose lives have recently been lost.” 15 Miami-Dade Public School Staff Members Die Of COVID In Just 10 Days | HuffPost DeSantis 'triples down' on fight to protect virus, $5,000 fines for schools that require vaccination For decades, Florida schools have required vaccinations. The Florida Department of Health currently lists vaccinations against at least seven different diseases that are required for both public schools, private schools, and even daycare facilities. Both students and teachers are required to be vaccinated against everything from polio and pertussis to chickenpox and hepatitis B. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has informed these same schools—along with every government agency and private business in the state—that they will be fined $5,000 it they ask for proof of vaccination against COVID-19. As WJXT in Jacksonville explains, DeSantis says he doesn't want a "biomedical security state" in which people are forced to produce proof of vaccination. To underscore this desire, Florida's Republican-dominated legislature passed, and DeSantis signed, a bill saying that no business, school, or agency can "require patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination." The maximum fine that bill allows is $5,000. Letters sent this week have made it clear that DeSantis intends to begin fining people the maximum amount immediately. Meanwhile, as WFLA reports, two children died in Florida from COVID-19 on Thursday—including a newborn who was just two weeks old. The director of a pediatric intensive care unit confirmed that children "do get severe conditions and we are seeing more and more of them in the ICU." DeSantis 'triples down' on fight to protect virus, $5,000 fines for schools that require vaccination - Alternet.org

Three Schools Forced Into Lockdown After Anti-Masker Proud Boys Try to Infiltrate -Getty Three schools in Vancouver, Washington went into lockdown Friday after a group of anti-mask protesters that included the Proud Boys attempted to gain entry and disrupt the school day. Skyview High School, Alki Middle School, and Chinook Elementary were on high alert after local members of the Proud Boys extremist gang, frustrated parents of students, and other anti-maskers rallied against the requirement that students, staff, and teachers wear face coverings. The incident is just the latest example of the Proud Boys teaming up with anti-maskers to threaten school boards, from Florida to New Hampshire, over COVID mandates. On Friday, the Proud Boys attempted to escort a freshman student seeking a medical exemption from the mask mandate into the Vancouver school, according to witnesses cited by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The attempted incursion prompted the call for lockdown. The freshman’s mom, Megan Gabriel, had claimed that the mask could trigger panic attacks in her daughter. The school had declined the request. Patriot Prayer, a local far-right group, rallied supporters by saying that students would be arrested if they refused to comply with the mask mandate, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The claim was untrue. Carrying signs that read “Masking kids=abuse” and “Medical choice: Your body, your choice,” demonstrators rallied in front of the schools and on the sidewalks near buses. Some protesters shouted slurs at female students, security guards told OPB.

That would be a Gray area....

Then he ought to be sat down in favour of someone who can contribute. If the opposing defence does not respect him enough to cover him, he is of no use.

Take an anti-emetic beforehand,

There is every indication that most of the right-wing adherents have no interest in anything except complete compliance with their agendas. Wooing them is a waste of time, money and energy.

Everything we know about the mu variant, the latest coronavirus mutation A study published last month established that Americans, after years of being pounded with creationist propaganda, had decisively rejected pseudoscience and accepted evolution. While the shift in public opinion had been years in the making, there was a certain poetry to the timing of that study's release. We have watched with bated breath as SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that brought the world to its knees by causing the COVID-19 pandemic — has evolved over and over again into something more effective at spreading through the human population. We have had the delta variant and the lambda variant and the hybrid B.1.429, to name only a few. Whenever a new strain pops up, public health officials try to strike a note between caution and reassurance. Now we come to the mu variant, also known as B.1.621. On Monday the World Health Organization (WHO) officially labeled the mu variant as a "variant of interest," a designation that indicates a need for further study about possible dangers while falling short of the more serious classification, "variant of concern." Variants of concern are regarded as a top priority because they are more immunity-resistant, contagious or deadly than other strains. Currently the WHO considers four strains to meet those criteria: alpha, beta, gamma and delta (the variant most prevalent in the United States). The WHO reports that the earliest documented samples of the mu variant came from Colombia in January; the strain now makes up 39 percent of all the cases there. It has also been detected in dozens of other countries, most commonly popping up in the United States, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador. A British risk assessment released last month suggests that the mu variant could be at least as resistant to vaccine-based immunity as the beta strain, although more research needs to be done. The mu variant contains several mutations that have been associated with resistance to immunity, such as E484K and K417N, as well a mutation known as P681H that has been linked to accelerated transmission. "This variant has a constellation of mutations that suggests that it would evade certain antibodies, not only monoclonal antibodies, but vaccine- and convalescent serum-induced antibodies," President Joe Biden's COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters on Thursday. "But there isn't a lot of clinical data to suggest that. It is mostly laboratory in-vitro data." Everything we know about the mu variant, the latest coronavirus mutation | Salon.com

I agree. We're scrooged.

Peterman looking like a primo receiver. Davis looking better than I ever remember him. Huh.

Time for RedBlacks to invoke their safe word.

Prediction: in the 4th quarter, the Alouettes will kick sand in the faces of the RedBlacks.

SHHHH!! You'll ruin it for the rest of us.

Dedmon running.

Looks like half of the Village People.

That's what you have when a team doesn't have a training camp. They didn't did they? Only by comparison.

Angry Men With Zip-Ties Ambush School Principal After COVID Masking Request Police arrested a 40-year-old Arizona dad after he stormed into an elementary school principal’s office with a friend wielding plastic handcuffs, insisting the administration broke the law by asking his child and six others to wear a mask and quarantine after being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. “I can tell you the end result of that incident was we did make one arrest for trespassing,” Sgt. Richard Gradillas of the Tucson, Arizona, Police Department told The Daily Beast, identifying the dad arrested as Rishi Rambaran. Two men accompanied Rambaran on Thursday as he ambushed Principal Diane Vargo while she sat with another educator at the Mesquite Elementary School in Tucson. One of the men, Kelly Walker, livestreamed the incident on Instagram, explaining that Rambaran, who is also known as “Reese,” had called him and asked him to be there in case he needed backup. The third man, who has not been identified, stood in the doorway of Vargo’s office with a fistful of “law enforcement-grade” zip ties at the ready—as the trio was prepared to make a citizen’s arrest, Walker said. “When this kind of coercion and bullying is perpetrated by school administrators, breaking the law, a citizens’ arrest is an option worth looking into,” Walker wrote on Facebook. Gradillas told the Beast that in his 14 years on the force, he’s “never seen a citizens’ arrest.” The Vail School District’s COVID policy follows public health guidance issued by Pima County, which requires students to quarantine at home for at least a week after exposure. The school in fact was abiding by Pima’s rules, and had not violated any laws by asking the students to mask up or quarantine. Arizona Dad Rishi Rambaran Arrested After Angry Trio Threatens to Zip-Tie Principal Over COVID Rules (thedailybeast.com)

Remington Subpoenas Report Cards Of Children Killed At Sandy Hook Remington Arms subpoenaed the report cards, attendance and employment records for five children and four educators killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School as part of a lawsuit brought by the victims’ families. Lawyers for the families filed a motion to seal the information on Thursday, citing a previous order that kept Remington’s proprietary business information from being shared in the course of the proceedings. The filing argues that sharing the records ― which the school district has released to Remington’s lawyers ― amounts to an insensitive invasion of privacy. “We have no explanation for why Remington subpoenaed the Newtown Public School District to obtain the kindergarten and first-grade academic, attendance and disciplinary records of these five school children,” the families’ lead attorney, Josh Koskoff, said in a statement to HuffPost. Remington Subpoenas Report Cards Of Children Killed At Sandy Hook | HuffPost