| What is CHS? Marijuana advocates warn of a little-known condition affecting heavy users Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS, causes severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting among some heavy marijuana users — symptoms that, strangely, can be eased by taking very hot showers.
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| Limbaugh draws bipartisan criticism for Buttigieg 'kissing' remarks Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  The conservative talk show host claimed Americans won't elect Pete Buttigieg president because he's been "kissing his husband" in public view.
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| Mexican demonstrators splash presidential palace red in protest over murder of women Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:19 AM PST  Demonstrators daubed the words "femicide state" in blood-red on Mexico's presidential palace on Friday, before marching in heavy rain to the offices of newspaper La Prensa to protest against the recent publication of a gruesome image of a murder victim. The Valentine's Day demonstration, led by women, was sparked by the killing of 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla in Mexico City and the publication of graphic photos of her mutilated corpse in newspapers. The protesters, numbering at least 200 and comprised mostly of women, burned vehicles belonging to La Prensa and briefly clashed with security forces who prevented them from entering the newspaper's offices.
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| Mike Bloomberg once said taking too much money from the rich and giving it to the poor was a bigger problem than income inequality Posted: 14 Feb 2020 07:19 AM PST  "I think income inequality is a very big problem. But the bigger problem is, you can take money from the rich and move it over to the poor," he said.
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| Sherpas upset by plan to collect trash – and bodies – on Everest Posted: 13 Feb 2020 08:13 PM PST  Nepal's government plans to have the army clean up 77,000 pounds of waste on Mount Everest, BBC Nepali reports.
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| I Am Watching China Wage a 'People's War' Against Coronavirus (65,000 Cases and Growing) Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:46 AM PST  Our latest on-the-ground reporting as the world's emerging superpower tackles an unprecedented challenge.
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| The US Air Force has updated and broadened its dress code to allow turbans, beards, and hijabs Posted: 14 Feb 2020 08:34 AM PST  Airmen were previously allowed to make a request for religious accommodations, but they were granted on a case-by-case basis.
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| 9 Democratic senators, including Warren and Sanders, formally call for Barr's resignation Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has formalized her call for the resignation of Attorney General William Barr.Following up on her Wednesday insistence that Barr resign over his apparent interference in the criminal case against Roger Stone, Warren led eight other Democratic senators in a formal letter calling for Barr's departure on Friday. "We are writing to express our alarm about and opposition to the unethical political intervention" by Barr and the Justice Department in the case of President Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone, the senators, including fellow 2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) claim in their letter to Barr. "The interference ... is a clear violation of your duty to defend fair, impartial, and equal justice for all Americans," and "we call on you to resign immediately," the senators wrote to Barr.> 9 Sen Ds have sent a ltr to AG Barr calling on him to resign for what they call "a clear violation of your duty to defend fair, impartial, & equal justice" in relation to Roger Stone case.> > 9 who signed: > Warren > Blumenthal > Markey > Murray > Merkley > Van Hollen > Wyden > Sanders > Hirono pic.twitter.com/V0fVKVighL> > — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) February 14, 2020Trump quickly tweeted his opposition to the 7–9 year prison sentence federal prosecutors recommended Monday for Stone, a convicted criminal. The DOJ stepped in to lighten the recommendation, though Barr insisted in a Thursday interview that Trump's tweets had nothing to do with it.More stories from theweek.com The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Former CBP commissioner says deployment of elite Border Patrol units to sanctuary cities is a 'significant mistake' Giuliani claims he can 'prove' a 'Democratic scam' in Ukraine with iPad full of 'reports' he never actually shares
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| Classmates rally, help release woman from immigration detention Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:03 PM PST  Meidy Guzman's release means returning to school, and possibly graduating with her classmates, while also seeking asylum and battling possible deportation.
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| Are Turkey and Syria Close to Starting a War? Posted: 14 Feb 2020 05:00 PM PST  For now Turkish and Syrian ground forces appear bound on a collision course.
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| Angry protests in Mexico after woman's gruesome killing Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:18 AM PST  Angry demonstrations broke out in Mexico City on Friday as hundreds of women protested the gruesome slaying and mutilation of a young woman, a case that has come to personify outrage over the rising incidence of gender-related killings, or femicides. In the morning, dozens of protesters spray-painted slogans such as "We won't be silenced" on the facade and doorway of the capital's National Palace as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was holding his daily news conference inside. Some spray-painted the plastic shields of riot officers as the crowd chanted "Not one more murdered!" and "Justice!" Police unleashed pepper spray.
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| Baby with heart condition dies from mould exposure at hospital after open heart surgery Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:22 PM PST  A baby with a serious heart condition has died after she received an infection from mould in a Seattle hospital's operating room, her mother says.Elizabeth Hutt was born with a heart condition that she battled for the entirety of her six-month-long life. The young child underwent three open heart surgeries, and after the third one is when it's believed she contracted an Aspergillus mould infection in the hospital's operating room.
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| Beijing’s Deadly Mistakes on Coronavirus Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:15 AM PST  HONG KONG—Entire economies are stalling in distant parts of the world because of what's going on in China. In a matter of weeks, the novel coronavirus first sighted in the central Chinese city of Wuhan less than two months ago, when it is believed to have made the leap from animal hosts to humans, has traveled to many continents. And the outbreak has changed the world in ways nobody had foreseen. Coronavirus Keeps Spreading With New Cases in California and TexasThe vast, fast-spreading contagion is a classic example of what Nassim Taleb years ago dubbed a "black swan": an event that is highly improbable and unpredicted, a surprise that reshapes history, and is then subject to "retrospective distortion," when everyone says they should have seen it coming.If there is a difference, it's that the initial reaction of the Chinese Communist Party was to deny in real time that anything very important was happening at all until the evidence was quite literally overwhelming. So the question has become, to put it colorfully, whether the black swan will vanquish the red dragon, or the other way around, and as the battle continues how great will the impact be on the rest of the globe.* * *BEIJING QUARANTINES* * *As of Saturday in China, around 35 million people are living in cities that have been placed under mass quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak. That's almost as many people as in California, the most populous state in America.For more than three weeks, people in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital, have been confined to their homes except for medical emergencies or quick supply runs. Police, drones, and zealous apparatchiks have been deployed around the country to maintain various levels of lockdowns.The economy is slowing down, with a dramatic effect on global oil prices, manufacturing supply chains on the far side of the world, and, of course, questions about public health in the many countries that have seen confirmed cases of the sickness. On Friday, the central government declared that all residents of Beijing returning from the Chinese New Year holidays endure a 14-day "self-quarantine or go to designated venues to quarantine."Things look dire, and it's unclear when the viral outbreak will subside.Time and time again during the crisis, people have seen that the Chinese Communist Party, with its readiness to mobilize an enormous security apparatus that fuses waves of manpower with cutting-edge technological accoutrements, still lacks reasonable plans to handle this critical, nationwide emergency.While it's hard to say what the actual toll on China's population is so far—official numbers describing diagnoses and deaths don't reflect conditions on the ground—what's clear is the virus' unexpected emergence and swift spread around the globe has changed how Chinese people express their views about their government.* * *XI TO THE RESCUE?* * *Chinese leader Xi Jinping has stated that officials need to hit economic growth targets for this year even though many businesses have ground to a halt. He expects them to make "adjustments" to minimize the virus' impact on China's economic standing. State-owned enterprises are meant to have zero infections within their ranks. It's unclear how people are to avoid infection and sickness if they're being ordered to head back to work.Heads are rolling in Hubei. Top officials in the province have been sacked and replaced by Xi Jinping's protégés. The message broadcast by the party is clear: Rogue officials are responsible for this mess. The central authorities have come to your rescue.State-run media already are spinning legends about the medical workers who have been dispatched to Wuhan and the rest of Hubei, as well as well-meaning individuals who have poured their savings and supplies into donation funds. There is footage of nurses who worked until they collapsed circulating on Douyin, the domestic equivalent of the viral video app TikTok. Video of quarantined patients dancing in a convention center now used to warehouse patients portrays a rosy picture of sick people feeling better, recovering, having fun. Surely, then, things are looking up.Yet the party's propagandists can't pave over the numbers that every household in China is following. As of Saturday morning, there were nearly 66,600 confirmed coronavirus diagnoses in China. More than 1,500 have been recorded as killed by the virus. These are the official statistics issued by China's National Health Commission. Doctors in Hubei and medical experts around the world believe the figures to be far higher. But by using the numbers for a rough calculation involving only the 9,600 cases where we know the outcome (or failure) of treatment, we can see that while 8,100 people have been reported as "recovered," given that 1,500 are dead the coronavirus has a tremendously high kill rate of between 15 and 16 percent—nearly eightfold the 2 percent lethality cited by Chinese authorities.On Friday, the National Health Commission said that more than 1,700 medical workers have been infected with the coronavirus. Six of them have died.In a feeble attempt to calm the public, the state-run news agency Xinhua tole people this week, "Don't be terrified by the sharp increase in new cases."Officials are redoubling efforts to round up sick people in Hubei and house them in designated quarantine spaces. Suspected carriers are being placed in isolation in hotels and schools that have been outfitted for that purpose. Health officials working in Wuhan estimate that by Feb. 20 they will need 200,000 more beds for patients, including people who are suspected of carrying the coronavirus.And in the southeastern corner of China, more than 1,000 kilometers from Wuhan, the city governments of Guangzhou and Shenzhen issued decrees to requisition private property, including housing and vehicles, that can be utilized to contain the outbreak. It's the first time for local governments to activate an emergency law that was passed in 2007.Starting on Sunday, all passengers of the Shenzhen subway will have to register their identities before rides so that the government can more easily track the movements of anyone who may be diagnosed subsequently as a host for the virus in the future. (The country's vaunted, invasive facial recognition software has proved useless when everyone's wearing protective face masks.) Across China, officials have tapped state-run telecommunication service providers to keep track of citizens, particularly to see if people have visited Hubei. At various public locations, security personnel examine text messages that show where a phone—and presumably its owner—has been in the past 15 days.Chinese enterprises of all sizes have been hit hard, sending ripples through global commerce. Many may fold in the coming weeks, sending millions of workers into unemployment.This is the world's second largest economy, representing roughly 18 percent of global GDP. The more it falters, the more impacts are felt everywhere, and that would be the case even if this plague were confined to China's borders. But of course it is not.* * *GLOBAL CHILLS* * *So far, only four people have died outside of mainland China due to complications brought on by the coronavirus—in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, and, most recently, in France on Saturday. But its rapid spread has put many health authorities around the world on high alert.In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed that some of its testing kits for the virus do not function properly. At the same time, new cases of infection are showing up in California and Texas, where evacuees from Wuhan are under medical observation.Airlines based in the U.S., New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Rwanda, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and other countries have suspended flights to mainland China, disrupting travel, commercial shipping, and even normal postal service. At least 50 countries and territories have banned travelers from mainland China, in some cases including departures from any other country where there is a confirmed infection. Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned foreign diplomats to make the case for their governments to reopen borders to Chinese nationals.A cruise ship with more than 2,250 people on board wasn't able to dock anywhere after being turned away from Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Guam, and the Philippines—and it didn't even have sick people on board. Finally, on Thursday, Cambodia allowed it to steer into a port.Another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess floating off the shore of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, has been placed under a two-week quarantine. As of Saturday afternoonFriday morning, 285 of its passengers were diagnosed as carriers of the coronavirus.Quarantined Cruise Ship Passengers Stuck on Journey From Hell Thanks to Coronavirus OutbreakVietnam has quarantined more than 10,000 people 40 kilometers from its capital, Hanoi.There's good reason for nations outside of China to be worried. In Japan, none of the people who most recently tested positive for being infected have direct links to China, whether in their travel histories or interpersonal contacts. Ira Longini, a biostatistician and advisor to the World Health Organization, has warned that two-thirds of the world's population could be infected. His calculation was based on each carrier infecting two to three people.* * *WUFLU NO MORE* * *As the virus made its way overseas, Beijing's geopolitical influence abroad was perhaps most noticeable in the World Health Organization's hesitance to classify the outbreak formally as a "public health emergency of international concern." Although the WHO eventually did make that declaration, its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, continues to heap praise upon CCP leader Xi Jinping, saying that he showed the right sort of "political commitment" and "political leadership" to weather a mass-scale medical crisis.On Wednesday in Geneva, Tedros said, "We have met the president [Xi]. We have seen the level of knowledge he has on the outbreak. Don't you appreciate that kind of leadership?" Tedros, aware of accusations he's been soft on China, added, "We don't say anything to please anyone."When meeting with the WHO head two weeks ago, Xi said he was "personally directing" and "personally planning" the Chinese government's response to the outbreak.Some call it the Wuhan virus. For a brief period, the hashtag WuFlu was trending on Twitter. As infection numbers climbed in China, the WHO temporarily designated it as 2019-nCoV, then on Tuesday labeled it clinically as SARS-CoV-2, calling the disease it caused in humans COVID-19, or Corona Virus Disease 19. The idea, Tedros tweeted, was to "not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people."It wasn't until Saturday that Beijing finally approved the WHO's investigation of the virus on site in Wuhan.* * *THE PARTY ABOVE ALL* * *In the recent past, in times of collective shock and trauma, people in China have taken to social media to vent their frustrations. Two high speed trains crashed and killed 40 people in 2011. More than 87,000 were killed during an earthquake that hit Sichuan province in 2008, including thousands of children in schools constructed using substandard materials and shoddy techniques. These two disasters were exacerbated because of the neglect embodied within the CCP. Though corrupt cadres were routed out in the aftermath, little has changed within the government's structures. Preserving the party's interests is the key objective and the safety of the people decidedly secondary.The Chinese Communist Party has figured out how to govern 1.4 billion citizens—but only by instituting authoritarian, at times dystopian measures during peaceful times. When disaster strikes, the party's bureaucratic machinery lacks fluidity and fails to adapt. It simply falls apart.Many in China, trapped at home, cycle through three feelings—boredom, anxiety, rage. After the death of the young doctor Li Wenliang, who tried to raise the alarm about the virus before it spread beyond one marketplace, the nation mourned—and did so without top-down guidance. The police in Wuhan had detained the doctor and designated him as a "rumormonger." Then, after he died, the state appropriated his actions to repackage him as a national hero, a patriot. Party officials had set out to dye his legacy with the CCP's colors and dogma.But people wouldn't buy it. They raised lights by their windows, shouting with fury into the night, recalling how the doctor was coerced into admitting that he broke the law and "disrupted social order."The collective grieving we saw captured a national spirit that wasn't defined or controlled or controllable by the party's ideologues. It was a moment that has kindled soul-searching in China: if the party can't take care of Chinese citizens in a time of critical need, then the people need to organize on their own, for themselves, to assist each other, independent of the state.SARS-CoV-2 is a global menace, but it required a host—an organizational, systematic deficiency—to make it so deadly so quickly. The way that the CCP's cadres run China is unhealthy for the nation and the rest of the world—as we can see now only too clearly.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. 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| Turkey hits back at Moscow over Idlib claims Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:14 AM PST  Turkey on Saturday hit back at Russian accusations of failing to honour a 2018 deal by insisting it carried out its responsibilities in Idlib, Syria's last major rebel bastion. Turkey has 12 observation posts in the northwestern province of Idlib after the 2018 agreement between Russia and Turkey to prevent a Damascus-led offensive.
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| Oracle employees are protesting Larry Ellison's planned fundraiser for Trump: 'His alliance with this ignoble and destructive figure damages our company culture' Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:06 PM PST  Oracle employees protested Larry Ellison's fundraiser for Trump, blasting the tech titan's "alliance with this ignoble and destructive figure."
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| As one Princess cruise is quarantined for COVID-19, another is hit with different illness Posted: 13 Feb 2020 02:18 PM PST  The Caribbean Princess ship came back to Florida early after 345 passengers and 26 crew members fell ill with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
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| Queer activists disrupt Pete Buttigieg event in San Francisco: 'We deserve better' Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:52 AM PST  Fundraiser highlights division as growing number of LGBTQ+ voters say his views don't represent themAt the center of San Francisco's National LGBTQ Center for the Arts, two queer activists stood up and disrupted a private fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg after he received a question from the audience about his husband, Chasten.The packed room quickly booed down the activists, drowning out their pointed questions on Friday with chants of "Boot-Edge-Edge! Boot-Edge-Edge!" as they were escorted out of the building."I respect your activism, but this is a gathering for supporters of our campaign and I just got a question about my husband and I'm really excited to answer it," Buttigieg quipped from stage, drawing strong applause from the crowd.The activists were part of a group protesting outside the event that reflected a growing disquiet among the LBGTQ+ community when it came to the Buttigieg campaign. Buttigieg may be the first openly gay candidate to sweep the national stage and perform as well as he has in Iowa and New Hampshire, but more and more young queer voters say they feel he is not representative of them or their experiences."I'm definitely proud of the fact that a gay candidate has made it thus far, but it's hard to enjoy or appreciate when his stances are so middle of the road and speak to a predominantly white, upper class audience," Celi Tamayo-Lee, one of the activists escorted out of the fundraiser, said in an interview before the event.Friday's protesters cited many of the same issues that members of the LGBTQ+ community nationwide say are giving them pause – Buttigieg's unwillingness to support Medicare for All, free college for all, his issues with communities of color, his ties to billionaire donors – all issues that are not specific to the LGBTQ+ community but still affect them at certain intersections."We need better, we deserve better," Adiel Pollydore, a 26-year-old program director with Student Action who is black and queer, told the Guardian. "There's a level of irony that this event costs hundreds of dollars to attend in the Mission, a historically Latinx and immigrant neighborhood. What does it say that this event is not accessible to the folks that live in the neighborhood where it's being held?"Tickets to the fundraiser started at $250. The Guardian received a ticket from a donor associated with the groups organizing the protests."You're homophobes, that's what you all are, you're homophobes!" a Buttigieg supporter yelled at the protesters after the event."We're all gay!" a protester responded."You interrupted that question," the Buttigieg supporter said, walking toward Tamayo-Lee. "You're deplorable.""Don't walk up on us," another protester said, shielding Tamayo-Lee."You're walking up on us, going up on us because we're gay men," the supporter responded. "You're horrible."The group quickly reset after that interaction, chanting, "Hey Pete! Come out, we got some things to talk about!""The people who disrupted that fundraiser were all queer people of color," Pollydore said. "We're allowed to want the gay candidate who is running to do better and be better for queer communities of color. There's nothing homophobic about that."While Buttigieg has been open about his sexual orientation, with his husband Chasten playing a large role in the campaign, Pollydore felt there was a level of erasure in the way Buttigieg spoke about and presented LGBTQ+ issues."Pete Buttigieg represents a very small percentage of the experiences of queer and trans people in this country, being white and being cisgender and being a man, being someone who is highly educated," Pollydore said. "We know queer and trans folks of color, especially black queer and trans folks, live at the intersection of so many systems of oppression in this country. This run for president could have been a really unique opportunity to lift up those experiences and talk about all the different ways we are criminalized and our safety is constantly threatened and we are shut out of institutions on the regular. But this campaign has not been about that."Before the event, the line of Buttigieg supporters wrapped around the block to enter, with protesters chanting and waving signs while people waited. Some supporters seemed flummoxed by their presence. "Queers against Pete?" one attendee questioned, reading their signs."We're on the same team," someone muttered."What's the point?" someone else said. "Just vote for your candidate. Don't tear down the others.""You're coming to San Francisco, the heart of gay activism in America," Emily Lee, director of the San Francisco Rising Action Fund, said in an interview. "You need to actually respond to the people of San Francisco who identify as gay or queer. It's a very fitting place to be asking him these hard questions."
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| World War II Taught The Air Force Why Flying Tanks Are King Posted: 14 Feb 2020 02:00 AM PST  America's B-25G was the first, but it wouldn't be the last.
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| Body found in rough seas as UK faces another fierce storm Posted: 15 Feb 2020 03:14 AM PST  Rescuers found a body in rough seas following an extensive search Saturday off the coast of southeast England, as Britain faced a second straight weekend of wild winter weather and flooding. The body was discovered by a lifeboat from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and brought to shore, a spokesman for the local coast guard said. The RNLI, with the assistance of police and a Royal Navy vessel, had scoured the sea near Margate starting before dawn after a distress call reporting a man overboard.
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| AOC criticises Michael Bloomberg over ‘unconstitutional, devastating’ stop and frisk past Posted: 13 Feb 2020 02:41 PM PST  Valerie Jarrett and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren't impressed by presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg's apology over his role in New York's racist "stop-and-frisk" policy.Ms Jarrett, a longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama, said that Mr Bloomberg "needs to do a lot more than just apologise" for the policy during a segment on CBS This Morning on Thursday.
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| Five inmates escape from Ohio correctional facility Posted: 13 Feb 2020 05:40 PM PST  They broke out of a first-floor window and ran away sometime Monday night or Tuesday, according to a police report.
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| Israeli mayor orders Palestinian 'surrender' billboards removed Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  The mayor of Tel Aviv ordered the removal on Friday of highway billboards that appeared to call for the surrender at gunpoint of Palestinian leaders for the sake of peace. "Peace is made ONLY with defeated enemies," said the billboards, which showed photo-shopped images of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, blindfolded and supplicating in a war-zone as helicopters hover. Israel's stand-off with the Palestinians has grown newly tense since last month's unveiling of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, which they rejected as biased.
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| China's Hubei province enacts 'wartime' measures as coronavirus count rises to 16,427 Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:30 AM PST  Coronavirus is continuing to spread throughout China and especially in the epicenter Hubei province, the World Health Organization said in a Friday update briefing on COVID-19.There are 47,505 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout China with 1,381 deaths reported from the pneumonia-like illness it causes, including 121 deaths reported in the past day. Six of those who died were health care workers — "a critical piece of information" as WHO continues to investigate why even rigorous medical guidelines haven't stopped the spread, WHO reported Friday.A total of 1,716 health care workers in China have contracted COVID-19 despite WHO's guidelines, so this weekend, a team of 12 international and WHO experts will arrive in China to meet with local medical professionals for a "joint mission." The experts will particularly look at disease transmission and response measures to see how processes for health care workers, who "are working with virtually no sleep in difficult conditions," can be improved, WHO said.Meanwhile, Hubei, home to the epicenter city of Wuhan, is "enacting 'wartime' measures" as the number of confirmed cases in the province has climbed to 16,427. The measures include blocking people from going outside, "sealing off residential complexes and allowing only essential vehicles on the roads," The Washington Post reports. The virus has kicked off an "economic fallout" throughout China, with flower sales reportedly falling as much as 95 percent this Valentine's Day, the Post continues.More stories from theweek.com The sidelining of Elizabeth Warren Former CBP commissioner says deployment of elite Border Patrol units to sanctuary cities is a 'significant mistake' Giuliani claims he can 'prove' a 'Democratic scam' in Ukraine with iPad full of 'reports' he never actually shares
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| Europe just had its 1st death from the coronavirus after a Chinese tourist died in France Posted: 15 Feb 2020 02:34 AM PST  The death is the first from the coronavirus out of Asia, and authorities around the world are trying to stop the deadly virus from spreading further.
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| This college was accredited by a DeVos-sanctioned group. We couldn’t find evidence of students or faculty. Posted: 15 Feb 2020 12:11 AM PST  At present, Reagan National University apparently has no students or faculty. Yet it was accredited -- by a group saved by the Education Department.
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| Tennessee Republicans worry women will go on tampon-buying frenzy Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  During an annual three-day holiday, shoppers are allowed to buy computers and clothing tax-free, but a proposal to include tampons has gotten pushbackWomen can't be trusted around tax-free tampons. If you cut the price of menstrual products they're bound to go tampon-mad and buy boxes of the stuff, just for the hell of it. They'd line their walls with super-plus, they'd polish their floors with pads; it would be absolute bedlam.That appears to be what Republicans in Tennessee think, anyway. On Tuesday GOP lawmakers pushed back against a proposal that would include sanitary products in Tennessee's annual sales-tax holiday. The three-day event, held at the end of July, allows shoppers to buy items like computers and clothing without paying the usual 7% state sales tax."I would think since it's a sales tax holiday, there's really no limit on the number of items anybody can purchase," said Joey Hensley, the Republican senator, during a debate on the bill. "I don't know how you would limit the number of items someone could purchase."Hensely's legislative assistant later explained that his questions were prompted by concerns "that the possibility of people purchasing large quantities had not been factored in when determining the cost of the legislation". One would not want Tennessee to be bankrupted by residents bulk-buying tampons, after all.Menstrual products are a necessity, not a luxury; and yet, across America and around the world, they're still largely taxed as the latter. Products such as Viagra and Rogaine, however, are not subject to sales tax in America because they're considered medically necessary. Why is this the case? As President Obama joked back in 2016, "I suspect it's because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed."The annual tax revenue from menstrual products is not insignificant, ranging from around $1m in Utah to $20m in California. This is money a lot of states don't want to lose; after all they might then have to make the funds up via drastic measures like taxing billionaires a little more. In 2016, Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California at the time, vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have exempted menstrual products from sales tax, saying it would cost the state too much in lost revenue. Brown also shot down similar bills which would have ended certain state taxes for diapers.Over the last few years there's been increased global activism and awareness around the so-called tampon tax, and some progress has been made. Between 2016 and 2018, five US states (Nevada, New York, Florida, Connecticut and Illinois) got rid of the tax, and at least 22 states introduced bills to repeal the tax last year. California also suspended the tax in a law that went into effect on January 1, though the exemption, which also includes diapers, expires in 2022. As it stands, a tampon tax is still in place across 33 states.In 2004, Kenya became the first country in the world to end a value-added sales tax on menstrual products. Thanks to pressure from female parliamentarians, the nation has since implemented a number of progressive period policies. In 2010 it allocated almost $4m to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.Canada, India, Australia, Malaysia, and Germany have all jettisoned the tampon tax in the past few years, following pressure from activists. The UK still has a 5% tax (down from an original 20%), but in 2015 set up a tampon tax fund and pledged that the money raised would be spent on women's charities.Scrapping sales tax on menstrual products and treating them like the necessities they are is an important step towards period equity. But even without sales tax, the items are still expensive and many women struggle to afford them. Last year a survey of low-income women in St Louis, Missouri, found nearly two-thirds couldn't afford menstrual hygiene products during the previous year, and one in five struggled to buy the products every month. Meanwhile, just across the border in Tennessee, we've got Republicans worrying women might abuse the system by splurging on tax-free tampons.
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| Why this mother wants to warn people about the dangers of cannabis Posted: 14 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  Regina Denney lost her son to cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, an illness that affects some individuals who consume cannabis. Hot showers and the consumption of hot peppers are the only ways that individuals with CHS can find relief from the violent vomiting that this illness induces. Doctors are trying to find a cure, but currently the only way to get better is to quit consuming cannabis altogether.
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| Just Ask This Russian Submarine: The Cuban Missile Crisis Nearly Ended The World Posted: 14 Feb 2020 10:30 PM PST  It was a closer call than you think.
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| Trump news: President faces fresh corruption allegations, as senior Republican condemns ‘carefully staged’ Barr criticism Posted: 14 Feb 2020 08:59 AM PST  Donald Trump has been accused of attempting to orchestrate a fresh quid pro quo just a week after being acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.This time, the accusations come after the president offered to lift travel restrictions against New Yorkers in exchange for Governor Andrew Cuomo dropping investigations into his tax records.
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| Man declared incompetent in San Francisco pier killing case Posted: 14 Feb 2020 03:45 PM PST  A Mexican man who was acquitted of killing a woman on a San Francisco pier in a case that became a national flashpoint was found incompetent to stand trial Friday on federal gun charges. If neither side disputes the findings, the court will discuss whether the defendant should be treated locally for mental illness or sent to a federal facility outside California. Defense attorney Tony Serra said he would contest the finding.
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| Israeli attack on Damascus kills 7 fighters: monitor Posted: 13 Feb 2020 04:51 PM PST  Israeli strikes on Damascus airport killed seven fighters, a war monitor said Friday, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Iran's military presence in Syria. Syrian state media said only that its air defences intercepted missiles over the capital overnight while Israel did not immediately comment on the strikes. Israel routinely fires missiles at what it says are Iranian targets in Syria, where elite Iranian forces and allied militia play a key role.
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| Hong Kong's Disneyland is letting the government use some of its land to quarantine people and stop the coronavirus spreading Posted: 15 Feb 2020 01:37 AM PST  Hong Kong is looking for secure and remote sites to quarantine people that may have the coronavirus in a bid to stop it spreading further.
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| Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows Sanders's strength going head-to-head with rivals Posted: 14 Feb 2020 11:17 AM PST  A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that Sen. Bernie Sanders would defeat each of the other Democratic presidential candidates in a one-on-one race — in many instances by double-digit margins.
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| Navy Warhips Ought To Fear Russia's New Stealth Fighter Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:30 AM PST  It'll sink them.
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| American from cruise ship docked in Cambodia tests positive in Malaysia for coronavirus Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:42 PM PST  KUALA LUMPUR/SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) - An 83-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia after being shunned by other countries has tested positive for the new coronavirus after being tested in Malaysia, health authorities said on Saturday. The woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America Inc, to test positive for the virus. The passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked.
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| Florida probes domestic violence agency that paid CEO $750K Posted: 13 Feb 2020 03:42 PM PST |
| Who is Mexico's president? Ummm... say Democratic candidates Posted: 14 Feb 2020 02:02 PM PST  He is the president of a top US trading and security partner but two of the Democratic candidates for the White House couldn't name the leader of Mexico. Asked in a Nevada election forum Thursday held by the Telemundo channel and the League of United Latin American Citizens, neither Amy Klobuchar nor Tom Steyer could recall the name of the leader of America's immediate neighbor to the south: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "I forgot," said billionaire Steyer, when asked if he could name Mexico's president.
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| Truck spilling cement on roadway causes 'violent crash,' killing 2 Posted: 14 Feb 2020 01:46 PM PST  A driver traveling northbound drove over the wet mortar, jumped the median and hit a car going southbound, police said.
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| The coronavirus patient in London showed up at the hospital in an Uber, and health officials say it's a sign people aren't following advice to contain the virus Posted: 14 Feb 2020 06:18 AM PST  Health authorities say the Uber driver is unlikely to be infected, but say people who think they are should use an ambulance or a private vehicle.
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| An employer allegedly conspired with local police to have a black employee arrested before he could file a racial discrimination complaint — but their plot backfired. Posted: 13 Feb 2020 01:08 PM PST  Michael Fesser confided in his boss about racial discrimination at work. Before he could file a complaint, his boss conspired to have him arrested.
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