By Ariel Wittenberg and Zack Colman 8 August 2021 (POLITICO) – When it gets so hot that the hallucinations start, and her eyes hurt and her spit begins to foam, construction worker Sharon Medina disappears behind a wall of co-workers to sneak a sip of water. She discovered the hard way not to complain to […]
7 August 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus is widely understood to be the most recent virus to have jumped the species barrier to humans[1]. In this post, I propose the idea that COVID-19 is the first virus to jump the platform barrier also, from natural biology to human technology. COVID-19 exists now […]
By Daisy Nguyen and Noah Berger 6 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A Northern California wildfire that is now the third-largest in state history had burned for weeks, mostly in remote wildland areas with few people, before it roared through the little mountain community of Greenville, driven by shifting winds and bone-dry vegetation. Eva […]
By Christopher Weber and Noah Berger 5 August 2021 GREENVILLE, California (AP) – A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday amid dangerous […]
4 August 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – Republican election strategy became clearer today, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blamed exponential increases in Covid infection rates on immigrants at the Southern border, deflecting blame from the unvaccinated populations in Florida and other Republican-controlled states. This ridiculous idea is easily tested by examining the spatial distribution of case […]
By Emry Dinman 3 August 2021 (The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin) – In June 2021, as the sun baked the ground, harvest began at Enriquez Farms, a midsized operation in Walla Walla specializing in the region’s famous sweet onions. Up to that point, the alliums had thrived in the warm weather, and Fernando Enriquez Sr., the […]
By Natalie Colarossi 1 August 2021 (Newsweek) – Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for the most COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., just one day after the state registered its highest single-day COVID-19 case number. Florida now has 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus cases, a number that surpasses a previous record the state […]
27 July 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – Florida broke its COVID-19 daily-case record on Monday, exceeding the previous peak in January 2021. Hospitalizations hit the highest number since February 2021. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has downplayed the outbreak and told healthcare professionals that he opposes any mask mandate for students. Florida saw more than 18,200 new […]
By Mike Stobbe 20 July 2021 NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. The drop spelled out by the […]
By Maria Caspani 25 July 2021 (Reuters) – Crews and officials battling a large fire that has incinerated more than 190,000 acres (77,000 hectares) in northern California braced for the possibility on Sunday that smoke columns could spawn lightning storms capable of igniting more blazes. The swarming Dixie fire in Butte County, north of Sacramento, […]
