Supreme Court rules for environmentalists; Bright: fired for not supporting drug; Abortions to resume in TX; Nursing homes lack virus tests; Veterans struggle with outbreak; DACA students get no aid
NewsHero - April 23, 2020 - Issue 83
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for April 23, 2020.
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NewsHero Notes
Wildlife advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Conservation officers in British Columbia are working with Indigenous peoples to relocate grizzly bears, rather than shoot them, raising hopes of a more holistic approach to wildlife management, reports The Guardian.
Proponents of responsible journalism - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A group of nonprofit organizations—including Access Now, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and EU DisinfoLab—sent an open letter to social media platforms, asking that they keep track of misinformation they are removing related to the coronavirus so it can be made available to researchers, reports The Verge.
Afternoon Brief
Environmentalists - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ U.S. Supreme Court - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected arguments by President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to limit the reach of a landmark water pollution law in a Hawaii dispute over wastewater indirectly discharged into the Pacific Ocean—a ruling hailed by environmentalists.
The case involves whether Hawaii’s Maui County can be sued by environmentalists for allowing discharges from a sewage facility to reach the Pacific without a permit under the Clean Water Act. The wastewater was not directly discharged into the Pacific but rather into groundwater that ended up in the ocean.
The justices in a 6-3 decision threw out a 2018 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had allowed the lawsuit by the Hawaii Wildlife Fund and other environmental groups to proceed, saying it was too broad. They sent the case back to the 9th Circuit to apply a new test to decide whether the lawsuit can move forward, leaving the door open for the litigation to proceed.
“It’s a huge victory for environmentalists,” said David Henkin, a lawyer with environmental group Earthjustice, who argued the case for the challengers.
Rick Bright - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The ousted director of a key U.S. agency charged with developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic said on Wednesday he was dismissed because he called for careful vetting of a treatment frequently touted by Donald Trump.
Rick Bright said in a statement that he was replaced as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and reassigned to a new role because he resisted efforts to push hydroxychloroquine and the related chloroquine as cures for COVID-19.
“While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright said.
Bright said the U.S. government has promoted the medicines as a “panacea” even though they “clearly lack scientific merit.”
Bright has retained a law firm, Katz, Marshall & Banks, known for representing whistleblowers.
Committee to Protect Journalists - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Committee to Protect Journalists has launched #FreeThePress, a petition urging governments to free all imprisoned journalists as the novel coronavirus sweeps the globe.
CPJ says via change.org: “On behalf of more than 250 journalists behind bars, we call on authorities to free these political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.
For journalists jailed in countries affected by the virus, freedom is now a matter of life and death. Imprisoned journalists have no control over their surroundings, cannot choose to isolate, and are often denied necessary medical care.
The World Health Organization states that ‘People deprived of their liberty, and those living or working in enclosed environments in their close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population.’”
Nursing Homes Don’t Have Enough COVID-19 Tests
Department of Veterans Affairs struggling to manage coronavirus outbreak
Clarence Shields, an Army veteran, pickets with a small group of activists from the American Federation of Government Employees local 424 and the National Association of Government Employees local R3-19 during the coronavirus pandemic, outside the Baltimore VA Medical Center, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, in Baltimore. The Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling with shortages of workers at its health care facilities as it cares for veterans infected with the novel coronavirus. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
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.
Texas will allow abortions to resume following a legal battle over whether the Republican-governed state could enact a near-total ban on abortion to preserve PPE during the coronavirus pandemic.
Most nursing homes in the U.S. still don’t have access to enough COVID-19 tests to help control outbreaks among their frail, elderly residents. “It just shows that the longer that states lapse in universal testing of all residents and staff, we’re going to see these kinds of stories for a very long time,” said Brian Lee of the advocacy group Families for Better Care.
California has partially lifted restrictions on who gets coronavirus tests, saying for the first time that asymptomatic people in high-risk settings—like nursing homes and prisons—should be considered a priority, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Veterans Affairs health care workers are struggling to cope with the coronavirus—1,900 have become sick, and twenty have died. Another 3,600 of the 300,000-plus VA health care employees are quarantined and unable to work because they have been exposed to the virus, according to VA figures.
The New York Times reports on internal dissent as states plan to partially re-open, even though health experts warn it’s too early. The Washington Post says health experts think decisions to re-open early could be deadly.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York will team up with New Jersey and Connecticut to initiate a tri-state contact tracing program, with help from Mike Bloomberg.
The Senate passed a $484 billion interim coronavirus funding bill this week, following days of negotiations between the Trump administration and Congress, reports Axios.
The House plans to vote today on a resolution released by House Democrats to set up a new committee that will have oversight and authority to investigate the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, reports CNN.
Dozens of immigration advocates and supporters attend a rally outside of Trump Tower along Fifth Avenue in August in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
DACA students won’t be getting emergency aid, Inside Higher Ed reports. Undocumented students facing disruptions due to campus closures are not eligible for emergency stimulus grants, the Department of Education said.
An investigation by the Associated Press revealed that at least 94 companies that disclosed receiving aid from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program—designed to infuse small businesses with $349 million in emergency loans—were publicly traded, some with market values exceeding $100 million. And about 25% of the companies had warned investors well before the pandemic that they were potentially unstable.
In response to theory conspiracies suggesting that 5G technology is spreading the coronavirus, Twitter will remove dangerous tweets, TechCrunch reports. “We have broadened our guidance on unverified claims that incite people to engage in harmful activity, could lead to the destruction or damage of critical 5G infrastructure, or could lead to widespread panic, social unrest, or large-scale disorder,” Twitter tweeted.
Fox News President Jay Wallace is urging Fox anchors to remind protesters on air to practice social distancing. Fox News personalities have been celebrating protesters across the U.S. defying lockdown orders, reports NPR.
In response to the virus crisis, Milan will introduce one of Europe’s most ambitious plans to give more automobile street space to cyclists and pedestrians, reports The Guardian.
Greta Thunberg hopes the world will see the pandemic as an opportunity to take a new path, now that the coronavirus has proven that “our society is not sustainable.”
There’s a good longer read in WIRED here: “Google Sees State-Sponsored Hackers Ramping Up Coronavirus Attacks.”
And here is the latest installment of the Corona Daily newsletter, “A pandemic in the age of distrust.”
Extra! Extra!
Why is it that everything good is bad for you?
We coffee drinkers especially can never seem to get a break.
One day coffee is good for you, even perhaps promoting longevity. The next day it’s bad for you, contributing no more to your life than its brevity.
Thankfully, coffee is currently enjoying a positive phase in the news, but a story we saw today from CNN says the goodness only depends on how you make the coffee.
Sheesh.
According to a study published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the coffee needs to be brewed with a paper filter to keep out the uglies.
“Unfiltered coffee contains substances which increase blood cholesterol. Using a filter removes these and makes heart attacks and premature death less likely,” said study author Dag Thelle, a senior professor in the public health and community medicine department of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. “Our study provides strong and convincing evidence of a link between coffee brewing methods, heart attacks and longevity,” Thelle said.
Ouch. This hurts for us fans of the French press. And what about Turkish and Greek coffee brewing methods that don’t use a paper filter? Yep, “bad” also.
Can’t we ever win? Perhaps tomorrow will bring better news. How about…all coffee prepared all ways is the best thing anyone can ever drink ever? Oh, and fried chicken and chocolate pie are good for you too.
Our heroes ar 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:
Indigenous input helps save wayward grizzly bear from summary killing - The Guardian
Researchers want social media companies to preserve coronavirus misinformation data - The Verge
#FreeThePress 2020 - Free the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists
U.S. official says he was ousted for urging caution on Trump-touted coronavirus drug - Reuters
Coronavirus treatment: Vaccine doctor says worry about Trump idea led to ouster - CNBC
Director of key federal vaccine agency says his departure was retaliation - CNNPolitics
Supreme Court rejects Trump-backed clean water ‘loophole’ in major environment case - CNBC
U.S. Supreme Court embraces compromise in Hawaii water pollution suit - Reuters
Supreme Court gives environmentalists narrow win in water pollution case - USA Today
‘We’ve been ignored’: Nursing homes plead for more testing - AP News
Fox News Executive Seeks To Rein In Stars Over Anti-Shutdown Protests - NPR
‘I Am Beyond Disturbed’: Internal Dissent as States Reopen Despite Virus - The New York Times
States rushing to reopen are likely making a deadly error, coronavirus models and experts warn - The Washington Post
Texas to allow abortions amid pandemic after court fight - Reuters
Watchdogs scramble to keep tabs on billions in stimulus spending - CNNPolitics
House sets Thursday vote to create panel to investigate coronavirus spending - CNNPolitics
Cuomo: NY, NJ and CT to launch contact tracing program with help from Bloomberg - The Hill
California coronavirus tests to cover some asymptomatic people - Los Angeles Times
VA medical facilities struggle to cope with coronavirus - AP News
White House and Congress reach interim coronavirus funding deal - Axios
Stimulus Proposal: $2,000 Payment Plus $1,000 Per Month Until 1 Year After Crisis Ends - Forbes
DACA students excluded from emergency stimulus grants - Inside Higher Ed
Publicly traded firms get $300M in small-business loans - AP News
Banks Gave Richest Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Pandemic Aid - The New York Times
Twitter will remove dubious 5G tweets ‘that could potentially cause harm’ - TechCrunch
Milan announces ambitious scheme to reduce car use after lockdown - The Guardian
Chinese Agents Helped Spread Messages That Sowed Virus Panic in U.S., Officials Say - The New York Times
Earth Day: Greta Thunberg calls for 'new path' after pandemic - The Guardian
Google Sees State-Sponsored Hackers Ramping Up Coronavirus Attacks - WIRED
A pandemic in the age of distrust - Corona Daily
The healthiest way to brew your coffee - CNN