May 18, 2022

US Soccer reaches landmark deals with USWNT, USMNT to pay them equally

U.S. Soccer and its women’s and men’s national teams announced landmark new contracts Wednesday that will pay the squads equally – including a split of World Cup prize money. The deals are the culmination of a decades-long fight by the USWNT, U.S. Soccer’s most successful – and visible – team, for equal compensation and fair treatment, and further recognition by the federation that American soccer is stronger when everyone is unified.

“It’s very rewarding. For me, I feel very humbled to join this fight that has been going on years before I even touched a ball. Before I was born, actually,” Midge Purce, a member of the USWNT’s bargaining committee, told USA TODAY Sports.

“I’m really proud of the work that’s been done. A lot of gifted people came together to put together something really special.”

Under the new deal, this year’s pool for the USWNT would be $7.2 million, a 54 percent increase from 2018. That includes a 68 percent increase – to $120,000 – in what players could earn just from this summer’s World Cup qualifying tournament.

The new collective bargaining agreements run through 2028, ensuring labor peace for two full World Cup cycles. That is no small thing considering the U.S. is co-hosting the 2026 men’s tournament with Canada and Mexico.

“Everyone who cares about our sport should share in this pride as we look forward to working together to grow soccer for generations to come,” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, a former USWNT player, said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2022/05/18/us-soccer-cba-deal-explainer-womens-mens/9819845002/

May 17, 2022

Delaware State University to file a complaint with DOJ after bus search incident

Delaware State University, a historically Black institution in Dover, Del., announced it will file a formal complaint with the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division following the stop and search of a bus carrying members of the university's women's lacrosse team last month in Georgia.

The school says the stop and search conducted by the Liberty County, Ga., deputies was "constitutionally dubious."

"From our standpoint, the evidence is clear and compelling," said Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University, in a statement obtained by NPR.

Allen says once the complaint is officially filed, it will be made available to the campus community to read.

"I do not intend to debate the merits of our complaint in the public square," he said.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099263870/delaware-state-university-justice-department-bus-stop-search-lacrosse-women

May 17, 2022

Some are calling the Buffalo suspect a 'teenager.' Is that a privilege of his race?

When news broke of the white supremacist 18-year-old suspect behind the mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday in which 10 people died and three others were injured, certain news organizations and commentators have variously described the suspect as a man, as a teenager and as a child.

Critics are asking: If the suspect had been Black, would he have been described and treated similarly?

Study after study shows that Black children — from those as young as 5 to the end of their teens — are often perceived to be and are treated as older than their actual physical and developmental age. As a result, these children are frequently judged to be more adult-like and less innocent than white peers.

That difference in perception is reflected repeatedly in the media. When Michael Brown, Black and 18 years old, was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014, the AP referred to Brown as a "man"; after the Buffalo shooting Saturday, the same news organization referred to the suspect as a "white teenager," as scholar and journalist Steven Thrasher pointed out on Twitter.

(On Monday, the AP sent out style guidance to its staff addressing this discrepancy, writing: "We use the terms man or woman for those 18 and older. It is important to be consistent in how we describe people of similar ages. The news media in general has been justifiably criticized for sometimes using man/woman to describe a Black 18-year-old, but teen for a white 18-year-old. The 18-year-old can also work for a person of that age of any race. Again, be consistent.&quot

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1099137936/some-are-calling-the-buffalo-suspect-a-teenager-is-that-a-privilege-of-his-race
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Yeah, WTF is up with that?

May 17, 2022

This is freaking amazing

Follow the whole thread. It explains SO MUCH!

https://twitter.com/RebeccaRHelm/status/1207834357639139328?s=20&t=CIrPHZ37FUKeQuUX1PqxJQ

May 16, 2022

Who has heard anything about this?

Local hospitals partner to manage contrast dye shortage

Some medical professionals are struggling to get their hands on contrast dye used to test for things like strokes, blood clots and cancer.

Without that product, some hospitals have had to delay important exams. A manufacturing plant shutdown in Shanghai caused the shortage. That shutdown began in April, but the factory still isn’t at full production.

“Since that time they have now ramped up production, but they’re only manufacturing at about 25% or so of their normal manufactured volume, so their supply just hasn’t been able to reach demand yet,” said Jesse Johnson, Administrative Director of Medical Imaging with Augusta Health.

Johnson said last year Augusta Health diversified their contrast dye supply. The dye is Bracco’s ISOVUE which is produced in Europe. Because of that, they haven’t been hit by the shortage.

https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/16/local-hospitals-partner-manage-contrast-dye-shortage/
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This is the first I've heard of this problem. Of course, I'm no longer actively in the healthcare field, but still...

May 16, 2022

Meet the Sword-Wielding Grandmother Bringing Women Back to Indian Martial Arts

CLAD IN A RED SARI with a gold border, Meenakshi Raghavan wields a sword and a shield. The petite woman assumes a formidable stance and matches each strike from her opponent—twice her size and less than half her age—with an alert ferocity that reflects in her eyes. Meenakshi Amma, as her family and disciples fondly call her, is at the “kalari,” or arena, in Vadakara, a small town in northern Kerala, India, training her students the moves of the martial art of kalaripayattu. One disciple, as her students are known, swings his sword through the air but Meenakshi Amma suddenly twists on the mud floor dodging the attack and counter striking, taking her disciple by surprise.

Everything about Meenakshi Amma is a surprise. At 81 years of age, Meenakshi Amma is the oldest woman “gurukkal,” or teacher, actively practicing this ancient practice from the southern Indian state of Kerala. She is credited in popularizing the once-banned practice and with inspiring women—long excluded from the kalari—to take up the martial art as means to self-defense.

Derived from the Sanskrit word “khalurika” meaning battlefield or military training ground, kalaripayattu—or simply, payattu—dates back thousands of years and was traditionally practiced by the Nair community warriors of Kerala. Yoga postures paired with wooden sticks, metal blades and bare-hand combat techniques make it one of the more complex martial arts. “Kalaripayattu is a complete art form that has the grace of a dancer and lethal moves of a warrior. It synchronizes both mental and physical faculties and tests the extreme limits of the body and mind.’ says Meenakshi Amma.

For centuries kalarippayattu was deeply ingrained in the culture of Kerala, according to the late historian and Kalaripayattu master, Chirakkal T. Sreedharan Nair. It was both a mode of warfare and a method of settling disputes between feuding families. Throughout this time, women trained along with men. Some, such as Unniyarcha, identified as a 16th-century woman warrior, became fixtures in the folklore of Kerala.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/grandmother-meenakshi-amma-martial-arts

May 16, 2022

New online campaign reminds us that street harassment isn't a rite of passage. It's a public health

New online campaign reminds us that street harassment isn't a rite of passage. It's a public health concern.

Biking down the street or riding the bus in Los Angeles, Candice Cho isn't doing anything particularly unusual — stranger things happen on the streets of Hollywood every day. And yet her existence as an Asian woman is enough for many to unleash swarms of verbal, often racist abuse. "Hey Mulan!" one man shouted at her while biking. "Konnichiwa! Tokyo!" another yelled at her repeatedly as she waited 30 minutes for public transportation.

Such experiences are unfortunately common for many women, especially women of color, and also deeply relevant to Cho's work. She's the managing director of policy and counsel at AAPI Equity Alliance, a Los Angeles–based coalition of AAPI community organizations campaigning for equitable policy and services for community members across the country.

Cho's story is just one representation of a diverse array of tales shared through the #SaferPlace social media campaign, a new effort by advocates to document the frequent harassment that women, people of color, and LGBT and gender nonconforming people face in public spaces. As May is Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month, the social media effort adds a sense of heightened, nuanced awareness of the intersectional public safety issues faced by members of these diverse communities.

"Street harassment may not be violent, but it's still traumatic. It still impacts how safe we feel, our mental health, how free we feel to move and to care for ourselves and our loved ones. These different facets of hate need to be treated seriously," Cho said.

The campaign is making a larger case for re-contextualizing street harassment as a public health issue, similar to the way our understanding of common tobacco use or car seatbelts evolved over time as public safety concerns regulated by the government, the organizers explained. Yamuna Hopwood is the communications manager for Chinese for Affirmative Action, a progressive advocacy group championing immigrant rights, language diversity, and racial and social justice advocacy. She's helping lead the social campaign. "We kicked off the campaign with a simple question," she says. "We were asking, 'What would a safer, more accessible place mean, for you?' And not just AAPI individuals, but everyone — Black and brown folks, LGBTQIA folks, disabled folks, anyone who struggles with street harassment or the fear of street harassment." Hundreds of people responded with their experience, fears, and hopes for safer public spaces under the #SaferPlace hashtag across social media.

https://mashable.com/article/safer-place-campaign-stop-aapi-hate-california-street-harassment
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This is actually important to all WOMEN as well.

May 16, 2022

'We hurt those already hurting': why Los Angeles is failing on homelessness

Last month, the top official charged with addressing homelessness in Los Angeles announced her surprise departure, offering a scathing message on her way out: the crisis is “a monster of our own making”, she wrote in her resignation letter. “Those in power who possess the ability to change the lives of more than 60,000 unhoused Angelenos must be willing to do so.”

Heidi Marston’s public comments about her decision to leave the Los Angeles homeless services authority (Lahsa) offer a rare look from an insider at the systemic problems that have prevented major metropolitan regions like LA from adopting the rapid, large-scale and humane response that the emergency demands.

Marston’s exit comes as Los Angeles is home to an estimated 66,000 unhoused people and accounts for 20% of all Americans living outside. More than five unhoused Angelenos are dying every day. Local residents are falling into homelessness faster than the unhoused are moving indoors. Large tent communities are growing on city streets and in parks.

The crisis in LA and in California has reached record proportions, but severe inequality is a growing problem in many US metropolitan regions. LA’s broken system, experts say, mirrors the failures of cities across America to help their most vulnerable residents.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/16/homelessness-los-angeles-lahsa-heidi-marston

May 16, 2022

'I cannot survive on $260 a week': US retail and fast-food workers strike

Workers in America’s fast-food and retail sectors who worked on the frontlines through the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic are continuing a trend of strikes and protests over low wages, safety concerns and sexual harassment issues on the job.

The Covid-19 pandemic has incited a resurgence of interest and support for the US labor movement and for low-wage workers who bore the brunt of Covid-19 risks.

The unrest also comes as corporations have often reported record profits and showered executives with pay increases, stock buybacks and bonuses, while workers received minimal pay increases. Workers at billion-dollar corporations from Dollar General to McDonald’s still make on average less than $15 an hour while often being forced to work in unsafe, grueling conditions.

On 2 May, Dollar General workers at a store in Marion, North Carolina, walked off the job over low wages.

Ashley Sierra has worked at Dollar General for two years and makes just $11 an hour, while only receiving part-time hours. A mother of three, she relies on family members to barely make ends meet. “My weekly paycheck is no more than $200, $260 at the max. I have three children, I cannot survive on $260 a week, it’s just not working. It needs to get upped to at least $15 an hour, the bottom is $15, because we work so hard for so little,” said Sierra.

Dollar General reported a profit of $3.2bn and their CEO was paid over $16.4m in 2021, 986 times the median pay of the company’s workers.

Sierra said the store was often understaffed and overstocked with items that block aisles, and that she feared for her safety over potential robberies and theft when she and just one other co-worker are working the entire store.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/16/strikes-us-retail-fast-food-dollar-general-mcdonalds-wendys

May 16, 2022

How North Korea Went from 'Zero COVID' to 1.2 Million Cases in 72 Hours

It took almost two and a half years for SARS-CoV-2 to travel from the Chinese city of Wuhan to the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

That’s according to the North Korean government, which until late last week had firmly denied any confirmed cases of the virus within their borders—a distinction that had made them one of only three countries worldwide to have remained uncontaminated by the pandemic to date.

But Thursday saw state media confirm that an “obscure febrile disease” had infected 350,000 people nationwide, in what experts believe is almost certainly an outbreak of COVID-19. Then, three days later, state media confirmed a total of more than 1.2 million people across the country reporting symptoms of a “fever.”

As of Sunday, 564,860 people are being treated for this “fever,” which appears to have been spreading explosively throughout North Korea since late April. At least 50 people are confirmed to have died, eight of them on Sunday alone, in what is almost certainly a gross underestimate of mortalities by local authorities. One expert told VICE World News last week he expects “mass death” to occur.

In the space of just 72 hours, North Korea’s epidemiological status has shifted from a self-proclaimed success story to a public health catastrophe. Given the so-called hermit kingdom’s notorious secrecy and extremely limited testing capacity, the exact case numbers are impossible to quantify, and these official figures almost certainly represent the low end of the scale.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypnpy/north-korea-zero-covid-to-12-million-cases
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This is a horror story. As Rachel says, watch this space.