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marmar

marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
July 7, 2021

FAA says traveler called in fake plane hijacking threats, another punched a woman holding a baby


In its continued effort to crack down on unruly air travelers, the Federal Aviation Administration announced a new round of proposed fines Tuesday.

One passenger called in fake hijacking and bomb threats and another punched a woman who was carrying a baby, the FAA said in a news release.

The proposed fines against nine passengers totaled $119,000, and many centered around passenger opposition to mask-wearing.

Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's relaxed guidance around mask-wearing, the federal face mask requirement for airplanes, airports, trains, commuter rail systems and other modes of transportation remains in effect through Sept. 13. It's also against FAA regulations for passengers to drink their own booze. .........(more)

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7885075002



July 7, 2021

These former Michigan cops used to help prosecute drug crimes. Now they're testing legal weed.


(Detroit Metro Times) Together, Todd Welch, Greg Michaud, and Dr. Michele Glinn say they have a combined 85 years of experience in testing drugs, much of it through their careers with Michigan State Police; in the forensic science division for Welch and Michaud, and in toxicology for Glinn.

In the early 2000s, MSP's forensic laboratory in East Lansing was one of the largest publicly funded crime lab systems in the nation. But Glinn left in 2011, when recession-triggered austerity measures forced her and her husband, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service, to take furloughs. Michaud retired as the director of forensics in 2016, around the time Welch knew he was planning on retiring in 2018.

"It was my wife," Welch says. "She kept saying, 'What are you going to do in retirement?'" At the same time, one of his dad's friends had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and his dad asked him what kind of testing requirements there were for medicinal marijuana.

Back then, there were none.

In 2016, then-Governor Rick Snyder finally approved legislation to regulate Michigan's medical cannabis industry — eight years after Michigan voters approved cannabis for medicinal purposes. ("I just think it was something that was so much more bigger than what the state government and the legislature thought it was going to be," Michaud says of the delay.) ...............(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/these-former-michigan-cops-used-to-help-prosecute-drug-crimes-now-theyre-testing-legal-weed/Content?oid=27536031#.YOW0vr_36gg.link




July 7, 2021

Trump Country Rejects Vaccines Despite Growing Delta Threat


(Bloomberg) -- Larry Krauck awoke in a strange hospital, the date written on a dry-erase board in his room: Dec. 12, 2020.

That can’t be right, he thought. He remembered being treated for Covid-19 at a different hospital in Springfield, Missouri, on Nov. 1. Could the last six weeks really be blank? He told a nurse her board was wrong.

She slipped out of the room and returned with a summary of his procedures, scrawled on a sticky note, including thirty-three days on a blood oxygenation machine called an ECMO. One day, Krauck had flat-lined and was resuscitated.

Krauck, 50 at the time, caught the coronavirus and nearly died well before vaccines were available. Since his ordeal, he’s become an advocate for the shots — the type of local, trusted messenger that health officials hope can woo the skeptical.

“I tell people all the time: you don’t want to be me,” he said in an interview. But where he lives, deep in Trump country where doubts run strong about vaccines and the virus, his tale of a near-death experience is only occasionally enough to persuade acquaintances — even close family — to get their shots. ..............(more)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/trump-country-rejects-vaccines-despite-growing-delta-threat-1.1626073




July 7, 2021

Canada: More than a billion seashore animals may have cooked to death in B.C. heat wave: researcher


https://i.cbc.ca/1.6091016.1625522865!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/seashore-animals-dead-heat-wave.jpg


(CBC News) Chris Harley walked onto Vancouver's Kitsilano Beach in late June and smelled death.

Carpeting the sea rocks were tens of thousands of mussels, clams, sea stars and snails, emitting a putrid odour that hung thick in the heat.

"I was pretty stunned," he said.

Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, now estimates that last week's record-breaking heat wave in B.C. may have killed more than one billion seashore animals living along the Salish Sea coastline.

The findings shine a light on the seismic effects of the heat wave, which has already been linked to hundreds of human deaths as the ecological toll continues to unravel. .........(more)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/intertidal-animals-ubc-research-1.6090774




July 6, 2021

Great Salt Lake water level dipping to lowest mark ever, officials express concern





The ongoing drought isn’t just threatening the green of Utah residents’ lawns.

More significantly, the conditions also figure in the declining water level at the Great Salt Lake, now about as low as it’s ever been since records were kept.

“The new normal is climate change with lower snowpacks,” said Zachary Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, a nonprofit group that lobbies for protection of the state’s watersheds.

The upshot of that is less water flowing through the rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake and a dip in the level of the lake this week to below 4,190.8 feet above sea level, he said, the lowest it’s ever been since records started being kept. The prior low was 4,191.35 feet above sea level, registered in 1963. ............(more)

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/state-and-regional/great-salt-lake-water-level-dipping-to-lowest-mark-ever-officials-express-concern/article_d3749750-c40b-595e-a959-2a19e1b8f22d.html




July 6, 2021

SOS Benson slams Supreme Court ruling on restrictive voting law


(Detroit Metro Times) The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to uphold an Arizona law that restricts how ballots can be cast was a devastating blow to democracy and underscores the importance of fighting similar Republican-backed voting measures in Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said.

The 6-3 ruling, with the court’s three liberal members dissenting, comes as Republicans in at least three dozen states, including Michigan, have introduced – or passed – legislation to curtail voting access.

The conservative justices concluded that voting restrictions in Arizona did not violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. The court overturned an earlier ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the legislation was unlawful because it disproportionately impacted Black, Latino, and Native American voters.

"This decision is a tragic misinterpretation of one of the most important pieces of federal legislation in our nation’s history and strikes at the heart of all who have sacrificed so much so that our democracy works for all,” Benson said in a statement, calling the ruling “a call to action for every one of us to remain vigilant against all attempts at every level to restrict access to the from to vote.”

“That’s why our work to protect against discriminatory policies and practices in our elections, tell the truth about real threats to the security and integrity of our democracy, and guard the voting rights of all Michigan citizens must continue, at a greater pace and with greater urgency than ever before,” Benson said. ..........(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2021/07/02/sos-benson-slams-supreme-court-ruling-on-restrictive-voting-law#.YORX8g_S49A.link




July 5, 2021

At Hoover Dam, less water means less power



BOULDER CITY, Nev. (KSNV) — As we enter our third decade of drought, the so-called "bathtub ring" around Lake Mead showcases how much water we've lost.

And down at the base of Hoover Dam, which made Lake Mead possible, I talked with Len Schilling, the man in charge of one of America's engineering marvels.

“So, as that water level lowers, we have less pressure pushing down on our turbines, so each turbine can make less power, so that's the impact,” says Schilling, the area manager for the Lower Colorado Dams Office, which oversees Hoover, Parker, and Davis dams.

Behind Schilling sit nine turbines on the Arizona side and eight on the Nevada side, for a total of 17. Schilling says that since the beginning of the drought, Hoover Dam is now producing 25% less power for dozens of cities, tribes, and agencies. ...........(more)

https://news3lv.com/news/local/at-hoover-dam-less-water-means-less-power




July 5, 2021

Delta flight from Tampa to Minneapolis returns to gate due to passenger mask issue

Makes you wonder if they pulled the same stunt for their rebooked flight today...



https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/delta-flight-from-tampa-to-minneapolis-returns-to-gate-due-passenger-mask-issue/


TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Delta Air Lines flight from Tampa to Minneapolis was delayed for more than an hour Sunday afternoon due to an issue with one of the passengers on board.

The airline sent the following statement to 8 On Your Side:

“Delta flight 1769 departing from Tampa and heading to Minneapolis this afternoon returned to the gate following a mask non-compliance issue with a passenger on board. The flight took off a little more than an hour late. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

LISA HANNA, DELTA CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS


Hanna said the passenger and their spouse willingly deplaned and were rebooked for a flight Monday.





July 5, 2021

Nearly 500K residents have signed up for Michigan's vaccine lottery


Almost half a million Michigan residents signed up for the state’s vaccine sweepstakes within the first 24 hours, entering for a chance to win up to $2 million.

As of 8 a.m. Friday, July 2, the MI Shot To Win Sweepstakes had received 464,698 applications for the $2 million grand prize, according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office. Residents are eligible if they’re 18 or older and have gotten at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Additionally, 23,978 residents 12 to 17 years old had entered for a chance to win one of nine college scholarships, each valued at about $55,000. That drawing will be conducted Aug. 4.

Thursday’s sweepstakes announcement and subsequent coverage generated “nearly $1 million in free publicity about the giveaway and the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccination,” reads a statement from the governor’s office. .............(more)

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/07/nearly-500k-residents-have-signed-up-for-michigans-vaccine-lottery.html




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