June 12, 2022

Hall of Famer Ed Reed blasts Jack Del Rio punishment, urges Commanders players to take stand

Pro Football Hall of Fame safety and University of Miami staffer Ed Reed sounded off on the punishment handed down to Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio over recent comments he made that referred to the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt as a "dust-up" and urged players on Washington to take a stand.

Reed posted his message Saturday from his verified Twitter account, saying he felt the $100,000 fine that Commanders coach Ron Rivera imposed Friday on Del Rio was insufficient.

"Today, I'm sick and tired!" Reed posted in the message. "A dust up! 100,000 is not enough, money ain’t nothing to a person who is recycled through coaching. Its always one, first it was (University of Alabama coach Nick) Saban now it's Jack to just remind US what it is! Man if u coached by him put your pants on! It's simple right and wrong. Wrong."

Del Rio faced harsh criticism Wednesday after he was asked at a news conference about a tweet he posted to his account on Monday, that compared the Jan. 6 Capitol attack to protests linked to the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.

"I'm being respectful," Del Rio said during the news conference. "I just asked a simple question. Let's get right down to it: What did I ask? A simple question. Why are we not looking into (the protests), if we're going to talk about (the Capitol attack). Why are we not looking into those things?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/commanders/2022/06/12/ed-reed-blasts-jack-del-rio-punishment-commanders-take-stand/7602373001/

June 11, 2022

Texas school police chief says he didn't think he was in charge during shooting

The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history said in his first extensive comments that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else was.

Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune in an interview published on Thursday that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb elementary school.

An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers behind a locked classroom door that the chief said was reinforced with a steel jamb and could not be kicked in.

(snip)

Meanwhile, poor radio communications is among the concerns raised about how police handled the 24 May shooting and why they didn’t confront the gunman for more than an hour, even as anguished parents outside the school urged officers to go in.

Separately, the New York Times reported on Thursday that documents show police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the campus, even as they became aware that some victims needed medical treatment.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/10/texas-school-shooting-police-chief-pete-arredondo

This guy sounds like he doesn't have his brain in gear and working.

June 11, 2022

Veterans create bulletproof bookcases for schools

As mass shootings continue to plague American life, whether it be inside schools or workplace, military veteran Jake Ahle said he isn’t waiting around for the next mass causality.

He and Pete Facchini, both New Jersey natives, have created a line of bulletproof bookcases that can serve as a last line of defense when a mass shooter enters the premises.

“The bookcase itself weighs 480 pounds, the exoskeleton is made of steel and it’s lined with Kevlar,” Ahle told Nexstar’s WPIX. “Hidden underneath the bottom of the steel skirt are four wheels and those wheels make it a very mobile.”

If an active shooter enters the school, the bookcase can be wheeled in front of any classroom entrances. Once the bookcaseis secured and locked in place, which takes a matter of seconds, the would-be shooter would not have any access inside the room, and would only be met with a mounted mirror on the back of them.

https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/military-veterans-make-bulletproof-bookcases-to-protect-students-from-school-shootings/

WHY SHOULD THIS EVEN BE NECESSARY????

June 8, 2022

2 preschool teachers charged with child cruelty captured on livestream, police say

Two preschool teachers in Georgia were arrested this week for alleged child cruelty that was captured on a classroom livestream, police said.

Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, former teachers at the Parker-Chase Preschool in Roswell, were arrested and charged Monday with first-degree child cruelty, according to statement from Roswell police.

The alleged physical contact between the teachers and students, ages 2 and 3, occurred on Thursday and was seen by a parent monitoring the livestream, police said.

“That parent reported logging onto the camera system and seeing concerning physical contact between Alostwani and Briceno against several children in the classroom,” police said.

The video, which is slightly more than one-minute long, was provided to NBC News on Wednesday by police.

It shows several children sitting around a circular rug. The footage appears to capture one teacher step on a child’s hand for several seconds and then knee a second child in the back.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/2-preschool-teachers-charged-child-cruelty-captured-livestream-police-rcna32582

Good thing it wasn't my 4 year old granddaughter.....

June 8, 2022

New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call

New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.

Sara Taylor felt the knot in her stomach pull tighter even before she answered the phone. The call was from the hospital taking care of her 11-year-old, Amari. And she knew what they were going to say: Amari was being discharged. Come pick her up right away.

Taylor was sure that Amari — that’s her middle name — wasn’t ready to come home. Less than two weeks earlier, in March 2020, she threatened to stab her babysitter with a knife and then she ran into the street. Panicked, the babysitter called 911. Police arrived, restraining Amari and packing her into an ambulance, which rushed her to the mental health emergency room at Strong Memorial Hospital, not far from her home in Rochester, New York.

This had all become a sickeningly familiar routine. Amari had struggled since she was little, racked by a terrible fear that Taylor — who is her great-aunt and has raised her for most of her life — would leave her and not come back. She often woke up screaming from nightmares about someone hurting her family. During the day, she had ferocious tantrums, breaking things, attacking Taylor and threatening to hurt herself.

Taylor searched desperately for help, signing Amari up for therapy and putting her on waitlists for intensive, in-home mental health services that are supposed to be available to New York kids with serious psychiatric conditions. But the programs were full, and it took months to get in.

During Amari’s worst episodes, Taylor had little choice but to call 911 — which Taylor, who is Black, said made her nauseous with fear. She and Amari live just a few miles from the block where Daniel Prude, a Black man with a history of paranoia and erratic behavior, was hooded and pinned to the ground by police until he stopped breathing, in a 2020 incident that began after his brother called 911 for help. Prude died days later at the hospital. In 2021, a video went viral that showed Rochester police officers handcuffing a 9-year-old Black girl and pepper-spraying her in the face while she sat, sobbing, in the back of a squad car. Every time police entered her home, Taylor was terrified that Amari would end up hurt or dead.

“We know that Black children with mental illness are criminalized,” Taylor said. “When you have men with guns coming into your house to handle your sick child, that’s frightening.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/mental-health-beds-new-york-children-disappearing

Mental illness in children is REAL

June 8, 2022

New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call

New York Let Residences for Kids With Serious Mental Health Problems Vanish. Desperate Families Call the Cops Instead.

Sara Taylor felt the knot in her stomach pull tighter even before she answered the phone. The call was from the hospital taking care of her 11-year-old, Amari. And she knew what they were going to say: Amari was being discharged. Come pick her up right away.

Taylor was sure that Amari — that’s her middle name — wasn’t ready to come home. Less than two weeks earlier, in March 2020, she threatened to stab her babysitter with a knife and then she ran into the street. Panicked, the babysitter called 911. Police arrived, restraining Amari and packing her into an ambulance, which rushed her to the mental health emergency room at Strong Memorial Hospital, not far from her home in Rochester, New York.

This had all become a sickeningly familiar routine. Amari had struggled since she was little, racked by a terrible fear that Taylor — who is her great-aunt and has raised her for most of her life — would leave her and not come back. She often woke up screaming from nightmares about someone hurting her family. During the day, she had ferocious tantrums, breaking things, attacking Taylor and threatening to hurt herself.

Taylor searched desperately for help, signing Amari up for therapy and putting her on waitlists for intensive, in-home mental health services that are supposed to be available to New York kids with serious psychiatric conditions. But the programs were full, and it took months to get in.

During Amari’s worst episodes, Taylor had little choice but to call 911 — which Taylor, who is Black, said made her nauseous with fear. She and Amari live just a few miles from the block where Daniel Prude, a Black man with a history of paranoia and erratic behavior, was hooded and pinned to the ground by police until he stopped breathing, in a 2020 incident that began after his brother called 911 for help. Prude died days later at the hospital. In 2021, a video went viral that showed Rochester police officers handcuffing a 9-year-old Black girl and pepper-spraying her in the face while she sat, sobbing, in the back of a squad car. Every time police entered her home, Taylor was terrified that Amari would end up hurt or dead.

“We know that Black children with mental illness are criminalized,” Taylor said. “When you have men with guns coming into your house to handle your sick child, that’s frightening.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/mental-health-beds-new-york-children-disappearing

Mental illness in children is REAL

June 8, 2022

Drew Brees no longer with NBC Sports due to 'lifestyle choice,' chairman says

Drew Brees is officially done at NBC Sports after one year.

NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that Brees will not be a part of the network's NFL and Notre Dame coverage this year. The New York Post reported last month that the former quarterback would not be coming back as a studio or game analyst.

Following that report, Brees took to social media and said he had not decided his future.

Bevacqua said conversations with Brees have centered around him wanting to spend more time with family.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/06/08/brees-wont-return-for-nbcs-nfl-and-notre-dame-coverage/50342895/

Apparently you're supposed to sell your soul to the network? Although spousal unit says his true problem was a wooden on-air personality.....

June 7, 2022

The way the United States pays for nurses is broken

The pandemic made a long-simmering problem in hospitals impossible to ignore: We desperately depend on nurses to deliver quality health care, but the American health system does not properly value the work that they do — in the most literal sense.

Most US hospitals run under a fee-for-service system: They make money by billing for individual services. Doctors, in this universe, are a revenue generator. They order tests to be run, imaging to be taken, medication to be administered. They conduct surgeries and exams. The hospital can charge for each of those individual services, and patients see them on their bills.

Nurses are essential to each of those services. But because hospitals don’t bill insurers for the care that nurses provide to support a doctor’s orders, they end up on the other side of the balance sheet as a labor cost. Patients end up charged for nurses’ work in the same way they are for housekeeping or Jell-O, as part of the cost of a hospital room.

The work that they do — checking on patients, inserting an IV line, assessing patients for infections, teaching patients how to care for themselves — is not considered a billable service under the current fee-for-service payment model.

“All of that work is invisible, except for maybe the supplies that I used,” Matthew McHugh, professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. “The invisibility of nursing work, the inability to put a value on it ... is not in line with how any other kind of professional service would operate.”

This means hospital systems have an economic incentive to keep their nursing staff as small as possible. US hospitals, on average, employ fewer health care staff per capita compared to hospitals in other wealthy countries, most of which have universal health systems that do not rely upon fee-for-service reimbursement.

And when their finances become tight — such as when a global pandemic forces them to cancel moneymaking elective services — nursing and other labor costs are often targeted for cuts. That’s why US hospitals were furloughing nursing staff shortly before they became flooded by Covid-19 patients.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23076581/us-covid-health-care-nurses-pay-salary

Brothers and sisters, this is the fcuking TRUTH!

June 7, 2022

The way the United States pays for nurses is broken

The pandemic made a long-simmering problem in hospitals impossible to ignore: We desperately depend on nurses to deliver quality health care, but the American health system does not properly value the work that they do — in the most literal sense.

Most US hospitals run under a fee-for-service system: They make money by billing for individual services. Doctors, in this universe, are a revenue generator. They order tests to be run, imaging to be taken, medication to be administered. They conduct surgeries and exams. The hospital can charge for each of those individual services, and patients see them on their bills.

Nurses are essential to each of those services. But because hospitals don’t bill insurers for the care that nurses provide to support a doctor’s orders, they end up on the other side of the balance sheet as a labor cost. Patients end up charged for nurses’ work in the same way they are for housekeeping or Jell-O, as part of the cost of a hospital room.

The work that they do — checking on patients, inserting an IV line, assessing patients for infections, teaching patients how to care for themselves — is not considered a billable service under the current fee-for-service payment model.

“All of that work is invisible, except for maybe the supplies that I used,” Matthew McHugh, professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. “The invisibility of nursing work, the inability to put a value on it ... is not in line with how any other kind of professional service would operate.”

This means hospital systems have an economic incentive to keep their nursing staff as small as possible. US hospitals, on average, employ fewer health care staff per capita compared to hospitals in other wealthy countries, most of which have universal health systems that do not rely upon fee-for-service reimbursement.

And when their finances become tight — such as when a global pandemic forces them to cancel moneymaking elective services — nursing and other labor costs are often targeted for cuts. That’s why US hospitals were furloughing nursing staff shortly before they became flooded by Covid-19 patients.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23076581/us-covid-health-care-nurses-pay-salary

Brothers and sisters, this is the fcuking TRUTH!

June 7, 2022

Amazon fired Chris Smalls. Now the new union leader is one of its biggest problems.

A year ago, Chris Smalls couldn’t get politicians to return his calls.

But on a muggy morning in late April, two of the biggest names in politics — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — were making a special trip to Staten Island, New York to visit with the 33-year-old former Amazon warehouse process assistant, father-of-three, and leader of a resurgent labor movement sweeping the country.

Smalls and his former colleagues, organizing under the banner of the newly formed Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, surprised the world in early April by doing what many thought was impossible: leading the first successful US union campaign at Amazon, a tech giant that has long viewed worker organizing as an existential threat to its business, and done virtually everything in its enormous power to stop it.

“I want you to know that what you did is extraordinary,” said Sen. Sanders, who along with AOC, was having a closed-door strategic meeting with the core ALU organizing team. The politicians were there to discuss the union’s plans for expansion a day before its second vote at a Staten Island warehouse called LDJ5.

Sen. Sanders continued, “All over this country people are working crazy hours, with terrible working conditions, inadequate wages, poor benefits…and what you have done is to take on one of the most powerful corporations in America owned by the second wealthiest guy in this country.”

https://www.vox.com/recode/23145265/amazon-fired-chris-smalls-union-leader-alu-jeff-bezos-bernie-sanders-aoc-labor-movement-biden

Bosses using the same dirty tactics as in the 1930s. History repeats. Over and over....