Dianne Feinstein wants answers in IG firing; Women's rights top state issues; Michelle Obama leads vote-by-mail push; Spain moves toward universal basic income; COVID-19 antibody studies launch
NewsHero - April 13, 2020 - Issue 75
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for April 13, 2020.
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Team NewsHero
Teens making positive lifestyle choices - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
“Europe has seen significant declines in teenage drinking over the last twenty years. Higher taxes, restrictions on advertising and information campaigns have been the drivers. The result? Healthier and happier adolescents.” (Beautiful News)
NewsHero Notes
Environmental scientists - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Antarctica was long ago home to temperate, swampy rainforests teeming with life, scientists have said based on pristinely preserved forest soil they retrieved by drilling under the seafloor off the continent’s coast.
‘Progetto Filippide’ swimmers - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
An Italian synchronized swim team made up of female athletes with Down syndrome continues to practice following the year-long Tokyo Olympics postponement and lockdown over the coronavirus. An Associated Press photo special documents the “Progetto Filippide” team—which comes under the umbrella of the Italian Swimming Federation—and its goal of achieving inclusion in the Paralympics program.
Afternoon Brief
Dianne Feinstein, those seeking answers - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Last week we discussed the bipartisan group of senators, led by Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, that sent a letter to Donald Trump seeking answers regarding his firing of Michael Atkinson, inspector-general of the intelligence community.
Dianne Feinstein—whose credits include senior Senator from California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee—wrote an article appearing Friday on Lawfare that says Trump’s removal of qualified national security officials is “unacceptable” and that “Congress must respond.”
Feinstein argues: “The president has shown time and time again that the government and its personnel must be loyal to him, not the Constitution. The effect of this is to diminish both U.S. national security and America’s ability to detect government malfeasance.”
Advocates for women’s health, rights - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
As the U.S. grapples with lockdowns and a battle against the novel coronavirus, battles over access to abortions in a number of states are being fought right alongside.
A federal judge on Sunday ruled that Alabama cannot ban abortions as part of the state’s response to coronavirus. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a preliminary injunction sought by clinics to prevent the state from forbidding abortions as part of a ban on elective medical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thompson said abortion providers can decide whether a procedure can wait.
Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup said in a statement that the federal appeals court on Friday that partially rescinded a lower-court order that had largely blocked the enforcement of an abortion ban in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic “is unjustifiably forcing women to wait until the eleventh hour to get the time-sensitive, essential healthcare that they are constitutionally guaranteed. We will pursue all legal options to ensure no women are left behind.”
Arkansas’ only surgical abortion clinic asked a federal judge today to block a state order banning the procedure except to protect the life or health of the mother during the coronavirus pandemic. Little Rock Family Planning Services filed the motion days after officials sent a cease-and-desist letter to the facility. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represents the clinic, asked to add the request to an ongoing lawsuit that led to three of the state’s abortion restrictions being blocked last year.
Michelle Obama, supporters of voting by mail - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
More states in the U.S. are expanding voting by mail ahead of the November election, while a voter initiative led by Michelle Obama announced support Monday for making it easier for people to register to vote and cast ballots during the coronavirus crisis.
When We All Vote, a nonpartisan voting initiative, says Americans should have greater access to voting by mail, early in-person voting, and online voter registration.
The announcement follows last week’s primary election in Wisconsin, where thousands of people waited hours in line—without protective gear and in defiance of orders to stay home—after the state Supreme Court overturned the governor’s order to postpone the vote as more than a dozen other states have done because of the pandemic. Thousands of other Wisconsin voters, unwilling to risk their health, stayed home.
Spain Moves Toward Universal Basic Income
Large-scale COVID-19 antibody studies get underway
File photo of scientist Linqi Zhang shows a tube with a solution containing COVID-19 antibodies in his lab where he works on research into novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) antibodies for possible use in a drug at Tsinghua University’s Research Center for Public Health in Beijing on March 30, 2020. (REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
NewsHero is continuing to offer a compilation of stories and resources that best represent the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, centered on those individuals, institutions, and organizations stepping up to end this crisis as quickly and effectively as possible. The public, too, has a duty. This includes staying responsibly informed and taking the situation seriously, while remaining as cool-headed and as isolated as possible. These are strange and difficult times, but we will endure.
Spain is taking steps toward implementing a permanent basic income as a way to help workers and families affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Nadia Calviño, the country's minister for economic affairs.
During his Easter Sunday letter, Pope Francis also suggested that the COVID-19 crisis warranted universal basic income.
Vietnamese-owned nail salons are donating thousands of masks, gloves, and other supplies to hospitals and health workers, reports NBC News.
A large-scale study aimed at learning more about antibodies that could potentially provide immunity from COVID-19 will be launched in Los Angeles County, according to public health and policy experts, NBC reports.
The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) executive order banning religious services of more than ten people. Hey, someone’s been reading our Extra! Extra! section.
Apple and Google on Friday announced a system for tracking the spread of COVID-19, allowing users to share data through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmissions and approved apps from health organizations, reports The Verge.
Entela Kolovani is a doctor in Tirana, Albania and currently works with patients diagnosed with COVID-19. (Photo courtesy of Entela Kolovani/UN Women)
UN Women is putting focus on the voices of the women on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. “As essential workers, care givers and journalists, here are some s(h)eroes who are out there, every day, protecting and serving their communities.”
With the federal stockpile drained of protective gear (as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed last week) states are turning to each other, private industries and anyone who can donate in a desperate bid to get respirators, gloves and other supplies to doctors, nurses and other front-line workers.
J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told PBS’ Frontline: “I feel anguished. These are gut-wrenching tragedies.” His research center last year warned the Trump administration it wasn’t ready to handle a pandemic.
Steven Corliss, the UN Refugee Agency’s representative in Bangladesh, tweeted Friday: “Frontline healthcare workers in the #Rohingya refugee settlements are courageous and caring. Supply lines of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) must be strengthened here and across Bangladesh. They deserve nothing less.”
A story last week from Reveal News goes inside ICE lockdown, confronting “face masks made of socks, no hand sanitizer and growing tensions.”
Finally, here’s the latest Corona Daily newsletter, reminding us that “urgency should not trump democracy.”
Extra! Extra!
Virginia Governor Does What? Virginia Governor Signs This Into Law—You Won’t Believe What Happens Next. Four Ways Virginia Is Shaping America. Virginia Governor’s Reaction Is Amazing!
Sorry, they’re just too easy. And kind of fun. Dumb headlines aside, Governor Ralph Northam in Virginia has recently made a number of moves that set a fine example for 49 other states to follow, should they feel so inclined. They should.
1) Northam has signed a series of measures into law that make Election Day a holiday and expand access to voting.
2) Northam has just signed bills “rolling back multiple abortion restrictions in the state, including some that had been in place for decades,” says CNN.
3) He signed a bill into law that would improve upon non-discrimination protections on public employment, housing, and credit on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or race.
4) Northam on Friday signed into law five of the seven gun control measures he aimed to pass during Virginia’s legislative session earlier this year, reports The Hill. Boom.
And now we’re looking up office spaces for rent in Virgina for the next NewsHero HQ. Well done, Gov. Northam.
Our heroes are identified as follows:
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, hands down. - Meaning that it wasn’t even a close call.
🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, but… - Meaning that in this situation the call needed to be looked at in a little more detail. For example, in this case, they did the right thing but there have been some questionable calls in the past.
🦸♀️ - the hero, but only here, and it was a close call. - Meaning that in this instance they did the right thing but it was either out of character or a maddeningly close call.
Sources:
European teens are drinking less alcohol - Beautiful News
Evidence of 90-million-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Antarctic ice - NBC News
AP PHOTOS: Down syndrome synchro team aims for Paralympics - AP News
Trump Fired the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Congress Must Respond - Lawfare
Ousted US intelligence inspector general urges whistleblowers not to be 'silenced' by Trump - The Guardian
'Rejecting all oversight': is Trump purging government watchdogs? - The Guardian
Bipartisan Senate group gives Trump till Monday to better explain inspector-general firing - MarketWatch
Judge: Alabama can’t prohibit abortion during pandemic - AP News
Abortion providers ask Supreme Court to ease pandemic-related ban - Politico
Fight Over Texas Abortion Ban Reaches Supreme Court - The New York Times
Abortion clinics: Pandemic boosts demand, heightens stress - AP News
Clinic challenges Arkansas banning abortions during pandemic - AP News
Here's why there's a battle brewing over expanding voting by mail - CNN
GOP pushes voting by mail — with restrictions — while Trump attacks it as ‘corrupt’ - The Washington Post
Michelle Obama announces new vote-by-mail push - The Guardian
Michelle Obama group backs expanding voting options for 2020 - AP News
Spain is moving to establish permanent basic income in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic - Business Insider
In Easter message, Pope Francis proposes universal basic income - America Magazine
Vietnamese-owned nail salons donate thousands of masks, gloves, more to hospitals - NBC News
Republicans double down on small business funding amid congressional stalemate over more COVID-19 aid - CNN
Large-scale COVID-19 antibody testing study launched in California - NBC News
Kansas Supreme Court upholds order banning religious services of over 10 people - The Hill
U.S. states share, get creative in hunt for medical supplies - AP News
Voices from the front lines of COVID-19 - UN Women
“I Feel Anguished”: Research Center Head Warned of Pandemic Threat - PBS Frontline
Steven Corliss, UN Refugee Agency - Twitter
Kentucky worshipers met with nails in road as they defy coronavirus lockdown - NY Post
Apple and Google are building a coronavirus tracking system into iOS and Android - The Verge
Inside ICE lockdown: Face masks made of socks, no hand sanitizer and growing tensions - Reveal
Urgency should not trump Democracy - Corona Daily
Virginia governor makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting - CNN
Virginia governor signs abortion protections into law - CNN
VA Gov. Northam signs LGBT anti-discrimination act into law - The Hill
Va. Gov. Northam signs series of bills designed to make voting easier - WTOP
Virginia governor signs gun control measures into law - The Hill