A massive statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was removed…
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The post Winter looks ‘cold and snowy’ with some ‘crazy in-between,’ Farmers’ Almanac claims appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Farmers’ Almanac: Winter will be ‘teeth-chattering’ cold
Get ready for a rough winter as The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a ‘colder-than-normal’ season from the Continental Divide on eastward, complete with ‘teeth-chattering’ cold arriving in mid-February in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and even into the Southeast.
Winter is coming, apparently with a vengeance.
The Farmers’ Almanac recently released its extended forecast for the 2020-2021 season, which shows this upcoming winter could be brutally cold and snowy for much of the country.
“Based on our time-tested weather formula, the forecast for the upcoming winter looks a lot different from last year, quite divided with some very intense cold snaps and snowfall,” editor Peter Geiger said in a statement.
AMERICA’S TOP 5 SNOWIEST CITIES
According to the forecast, those who live in the northern half of the country should get ready for extended bouts of cold.
The Farmers’ Almanac recently released its extended forecast for the 2020-2021 season, which shows this upcoming winter could be brutally cold and snowy for much of the country.
(REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario)
Long-range forecasts from the periodical are calling for normal to below-normal temperatures in areas from the Great Lakes and Midwest stretching westward over the Northern and Central Plains and into the Rockies.
Areas around the Great Lakes are also expected to see a “fair share of snow,” but above-normal snowfall is also expected further west from the western Dakotas into northern portions of Colorado and Utah, as well as Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and central and eastern sections of Washington and Oregon.
While the Northeast saw barely any snow last winter, the Farmers’ Almanac is predicting something “very different” for this upcoming season.
The Farmers’ Almanac says in its winter outlook that the big cities in the Northeast could see a blizzard during the second week of February.
(REUTERS)
The big cities in the Northeast, as well as parts of the Mid-Atlantic, may see a blizzard during the second week of February, with 1 to 2 feet of snow in places from Washington, D.C. to Boston. Another big snowstorm may also target the East Coast during the final week of March, with “significant” late-season snowfall.
AMERICA’S TOP 5 COLDEST STATES
The forecast outlook also calls for a “significant snowfall” at the start of February for eastern Ohio and Kentucky, while the Southern Plains are also expected to see plenty of wintry precipitation during the same month.
While northern and eastern parts of the country deal with the cold and snow, the Desert Southwest is expected to have a dry and mild winter, which could worsen drought conditions.
Coastal areas along the West Coast could see a rainy and wet winter ahead, but areas in between have been dubbed by the periodical as the “crazy in-between,” with periods of tranquil and stormy weather.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE FROM FOX NEWS
Some of the regions that could see the stormiest weather stretch from the Tennessee and lower Ohio River valleys up through New England, where storms could line up and bring wintry mix throughout the season.
The Farmers’ Almanac says it bases its long-range forecast “on a mathematical and astronomical formula developed in 1818.”
The East Coast may also be targeted with a snowstorm at the end of March, according to the Farmers’ Almanac.
(REUTERS/Stephanie Keith)
It’s not to be confused with the rival Old Farmer’s Almanac, billed as the oldest periodical in North America, which also issues seasonal weather forecasts.
If you’re looking for a milder winter ahead, Old Farmer’s Almanac is calling for “light winter” for most of the U.S., with warmer-than-normal temperatures for a large part of the country.
“Uncommonly chilly temperatures will be limited mostly to the western states and northeastern New England,” the publication notes.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
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]]>The post Trump looks to Republican convention for optimistic campaign reboot appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>“The big contrast you’ll see between the Democrats’ doom and gloom, Donald Trump-obsessed convention will be a convention focused on real people, their stories, how the policies of the Trump administration has lifted their lives, and then an aspirational vision toward the next four years,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in an interview Saturday.
Yet the inclusion of some speakers who gained notoriety by inflaming culture wars — coupled with Trump’s preoccupation with personal grievances, escalating warnings of a “rigged election,” demonization of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and predilection for dark imagery — threatens to inspire a jarringly contrary message.
“A convention is a bit of a Rorschach test of where the party is at any given moment. America will see, this is how the Republican Party wants to present itself,” said Russ Schriefer, a Republican strategist who orchestrated the party’s 2012 convention nominating Mitt Romney for president.
The party intends to present itself entirely in Trump’s own image, and the stakes for him could hardly be higher.
“I think we’re going to see something that is going to be very uplifting and positive, that’s what I’d like it to be, Trump said Saturday on the Fox News channel program, The Next Revolution. “I think you have to defend yourself
Trump is not the first recent incumbent president to start his convention facing a difficult reelection. In 2004, President George W. Bush was dealing with mounting opposition to the war in Iraq that threatened to take him down. In 2012, President Barack Obama was in trouble because of a sluggish economic recovery and tepid approval ratings.
But neither Bush nor Obama faced the kind of obstacles that exist for Trump. He is facing multiple crises at home and has been running a deficit in state and national polls throughout the spring and summer. If the election were held today, Trump probably would become the first one-term president since George H.W. Bush was defeated in 1992.
Trump will open his convention just days after the Democrats completed what was widely seen as a successful four nights of virtual programming that concluded with an acceptance speech by Biden that drew high marks for both style and substance.
While the Democrats reimagined their convention for the pandemic as a completely virtual affair, the Republicans are devising a hybrid model. The GOP event will not take place in a cavernous arena as planned, but some of the marquee speeches — including Trump’s on Thursday night on the South Lawn of the White House — still are set live before hundreds of people, even at the risk of flouting public health guidelines.
Republican strategist Mike DuHaime said Trump’s top priority should be to deal with negative judgments about his handling of the pandemic.
“If you’re an incumbent, you get reelected if you do a good job and thrown out if you don’t,” DuHaime said. “So challenge one for the president is to communicate what he’s doing on coronavirus and what he’s going to do to get the country back on a normal track.”
Trump has lost credibility on the issue of the pandemic. A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken in July found 64 percent of Americans saying they do not trust what Trump says about the coronavirus, with 46 percent saying they trust him “not at all.”
When speaking about the pandemic, Trump often has projected the image of a flamboyant salesman, offering claims that are exaggerated or wrong. On recent occasions when he has spoken more seriously about wearing masks and practicing social distancing, he has read from a script and, in the words of GOP strategist Michael Steel, delivers the message “with the energy of a limp windsock.”
McDaniel said the convention will present an affirmative case for Trump’s management of the pandemic and argue — in part by having live audiences for some speeches, a visual contrast with the Democrats’ attention to social distancing — that Americans can simultaneously tackle the virus and resume some aspects of their regular lives.
“They did a convention that didn’t balance health and safety with what most Americans are dealing with,” McDaniel said, pointing out that many people are back at work. “The president is going to give a different and more optimistic message, which is, we can fight this pandemic and get back to our lives — and if Joe Biden had his way, he’d keep us locked in our basements.”
Trump is expected to appear on each of the convention’s four nights. Other officials planning to speak include Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), who is in a tough reelection campaign; Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.); House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.); South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem; and Nikki Haley, a former governor and U.N. ambassador.
Some everyday Americans also are expected to deliver remarks, including Tanya Weinreis, a Montana coffee shop owner who used a federal loan this spring to maintain her business; Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of a humanitarian aid worker who was killed by Islamic State terrorists; and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who stood outside their home pointing guns during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
The list of big-name Republicans not speaking underscores the degree to which the GOP is now the party of Trump. Whereas the Democratic convention featured all of its party’s living past presidents and some of its unsuccessful past nominees, Bush is not expected to participate, nor is Romney, now a senator from Utah and a Trump critic. And Cindy McCain, the widow of the party’s 2008 nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), spoke in a video that played at the Democratic convention.
Haley Barbour, a former Mississippi governor and former Republican National Committee chairman, said it is imperative that Trump use the convention not to rile up his core supporters but to strive to expand his coalition to include more Blacks, Hispanics, union workers and other voters whom polls show are cool to him.
“I don’t think he needs to focus on making his base harder. He needs to make it larger,” Barbour said. “If he focuses on his record and the results of his policies, that’s exactly what you do. So many of the people who benefited, and benefited the most, aren’t in Trump’s base.”
Trump’s political advisers have signaled that the president and others will focus on his accomplishments, hoping to persuade people not to base their votes entirely on the pandemic and the economic crisis. GOP strategists note that a majority of Americans agree with at least some of the president’s initiatives. Although he has negative marks on his handling of the coronavirus, for instance, he still enjoys a slight, if narrowing, advantage over Biden on the economy.
To that end, Republicans plan to feature on each night a speaker who was born in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela to deliver testimonials on what Republicans see as the dangers of socialism and suggest that’s what America could become with Democrats in charge.
Trump and the other speakers will probably spend considerable time attacking Biden as a captive of a “radical left” wing of the Democratic Party and warning that a Biden presidency would result in widespread violent protests and chaos in the streets of major cities. The president hit that theme in a tweet on Saturday morning. “Why would suburban women vote for Biden and the Democrats when Democrat run cities are now rampant with crime . . . which could easily spread to the suburbs?” he wrote.
Democrats are planning an aggressive countereffort during the week, with daily videos and speeches from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other prominent members of the party.
“We see an opportunity to take advantage of their chaos and disorganization to talk about what this chaotic presidency has yielded for folks,” said DNC senior spokeswoman Lily Adams, who laid out a thematic focus on Trump’s mismanagement of various crises.
Republicans have released relatively little information about their convention programming, and officials have sought to preserve the element of surprise. Trump has been so visible lately that there seems little he might say there that he hasn’t already said in some public forum. Republican strategists see him as overexposed and therefore in danger of being tuned out by all but the most ardent supporters.
“Law and order” has been the overriding theme of Trump’s campaign advertising, but the ads have not had the intended impact on Biden’s image.
“The Republican convention has an opportunity to repaint Biden in negative light,” said Matt Grossmann, a political science professor at Michigan State University.
If convention speakers can do that, then the November election becomes a choice between the two candidates rather than a referendum on the president, as it is now.
The GOP convention offers Trump the chance for a reset of his campaign. At present his prospects for reelection look more than challenging. Some GOP operatives think the race has tightened a bit in recent weeks and that a more disciplined candidate and campaign, amplified by conservative media on the outside, could give Trump an additional boost.
For encouragement, the president can look back to 1988, when George H.W. Bush entered his convention trailing Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. He used his convention to begin a comeback that led to victory in the fall.
Ron Kaufman, a veteran Republican National Committee member who was part of that 1988 campaign, said of Trump on the eve of this year’s GOP convention: “He’s a vaccine and three good debates away, and I believe he will prevail,” explaining that he does not mean mass distribution of a vaccine before the election, but only that Americans believe an effective one is coming.
Matt Viser contributed to this report.
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]]>The post 100 Days Out: Trump looks for game change as Biden makes gains appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>It was a dramatically different approach for a president who’s been accused of downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better,” President Trump said this past week – as he returned to the White House press briefing room to give his first coronavirus news conference since April.
TRUMP SAYS CORONAVIRUS WILL ‘GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER’
And putting aside his long-time reluctance to wear a mask or urge Americans to mask up to prevent the spread of the virus, the president stressed “whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact.” He later acknowledged, “I’m getting used to the mask.”
The president’s change of course comes as new COVID-19 cases soar and many states reverse or pause moves to lift coronavirus restrictions. And it comes with just three-and-a-half months to go until Election Day, with public opinion polling that indicates Trump’s increasingly falling behind Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Sunday marks exactly 100 days until the election. With the clock ticking for the incumbent to shake up his political fortunes, the past two weeks have witnessed the president making other dramatic U-turns. First was Trump’s ouster of Brad Parscale as his reelection campaign manager.
Then, the president abruptly scrapped the large celebratory aspects of the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville as the coronavirus surged in Florida. The move was shocking, as Trump moved the convention to Jacksonville from Charlotte just a month ago after North Carolina’s Democratic governor wouldn’t guarantee a full-fledged convention with an arena packed full of party officials and activists.
‘This is will be a knock-down, drag-out fight to the very end.’
— Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager
But while the Trump campaign has long scoffed at polls that failed to predict his victory four years ago, the consistency of their message in recent weeks appears to have had an impact. An average of the latest national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics shows the president trailing the presumptive Democratic nominee by nearly 9 points.
JACKSONVILLE’S OUT, BUT CHARLOTTE WILL STILL HOST PARTS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
More importantly – the latest surveys in the key battleground states also put Biden ahead. Real Clear Politics averages indicate the president down 7 points in Florida, 6.7 points in Pennsylvania, 8.2 points in Michigan and 6.4 points in Wisconsin. Trump narrowly won all four states in 2016, flipping them from blue to red as he won the White House. Polling also suggests Biden with the slight edge in Ohio, North Carolina and Arizona, three other important swing states this cycle. And surveys indicate that once reliably red states such as Texas and Georgia are all knotted up between Trump and the former vice president.
Regardless, the president’s new campaign manager publicly remains very optimistic. And Democrats, laden with the searing memory of 2016’s upset, are cautious about overconfidence no matter what the polls show.
“This is will be a knock-down, drag-out fight to the very end,” Bill Stepien predicted on Friday as he held his first briefing in his new role with political reporters.
Stepien said there are “multiple pathways to 270 for the president,” referring to the number of electoral votes needed to win the White House. And he stressed that Texas will remain red, saying, “I would invite the Biden campaign to play in Texas. They should play hard. They should go after Texas really, really, heavily, spend a lot of money in the Houston and Dallas media markets.”
FOX NEWS POLLS: BIDEN TOPS TRUMP IN MICHIGAN, PENNSYLVANIA AND MINNESOTA BATTLEGROUNDS
Stepien also pointed to opportunities to expand upon the 2016 map in states narrowly won by Hillary Clinton, such as Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine and Nevada.
Asked about Minnesota – where a Fox News poll released on Thursday indicated Biden with a double-digit lead – Stepien said “we are bullish that Minnesota is a state that can come around.”
He also advised to “take national polls with a grain of salt” and added that around the Trump campaign headquarters, “We don’t pay a lot of attention to them.”
It was the same message – though less blunt – that’s been repeatedly delivered by the president. Making the case that the surveys under-sample Republican voters, Stepien argued that “national polls keep getting it wrong” and “miscalculate the electorate.”
Asked about the Trump campaign’s full-court press against public opinion polling, Biden campaign pollster John Anzalone told Fox News, “If you are litigating polls in public, you’ve got a problem.”
Stepien harks back to the 2016 election – where an average of the final public opinion polls in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin all showed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with the edge heading into Election Day. Trump became the first Republican to carry those states in a quarter-century – as he won the White House.
But there are two significant differences between this cycle and the 2016 contest. Trump’s no longer the outsider and disrupter, but rather the incumbent sitting in the White House. And polling indicates Biden is more popular than Clinton ever was four years ago.
“At some point, the Trump campaign is going to wake up and realize it’s not 2016 and that voters are judging Donald Trump on his performance or lack of performance for the last three-and-a-half years – but really for the last four months – that’s really where the rubber hits the road here,” Anzalone said.
Presidential elections where an incumbent is running for a second term in the White House are often a referendum on that president – and that’s the case right now in the 2020 showdown between Trump and Biden. The top issues are currently the coronavirus and an economy flattened by the pandemic – and the president’s performance and record on both issues.
Anzalone said Trump’s “being judged by how he’s mishandled three big crises – a health crisis, a police brutality protest crisis, and now an economic crisis as well.”
But the president and the Trump campaign are moving to turn the spotlight back onto Biden. They’ve countered charges of racism by highlighting the former vice president’s own history of controversial racial remarks. They’ve hammered the argument that the once-centrist Democrat has allowed his message to be hijacked by far-left forces in the party, while suggesting he would do little to deal with rioters clashing with police in cities like Portland, Ore.
“Joe Biden is largely undefined for most Americans. A lot of Americans know of Joe Biden. Far fewer know much about Joe Biden. Our job here every day is to change that and define him for who he is today,” Stepien emphasized.
The president has repeatedly touted his law-and-order approach to the national protests in cities across the country over police brutality toward minorities and system racism – and Trump’s campaign has tried to tag Biden as a “puppet” of the radical left.
“I think it was radical left people that are totally controlling him, like a puppet,” the president charged Thursday in an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
In ads flooding the airwaves and on digital in key battleground states, Trump’s team is trying to label the former vice president as a supporter of the movement to defund the police. Biden has said on multiple occasions that he doesn’t support such a move, though has supported redirecting some funding. The campaign’s push appears to be a move to try and restore Trump’s fortunes with suburban voters he captured in 2016 and who later fled the GOP in the 2018 midterm elections.
But the Biden campaign argues the attacks aren’t working.
“Our numbers went up, they didn’t go down. [Trump’s] numbers went down, they didn’t go up,” Anzalone said.
And he argued that people already “have a really good read on who Joe Biden is.”
Another key metric is fundraising.
The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) edged the president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) in fundraising the past two months. Biden and the DNC have also taken a big bite out of the once vast cash-on-hand advantage enjoyed by Trump and the RNC, though the latter still has a huge war chest.
Stepien pointed to other metrics, touting that “we have many advantages over Joe Biden. We have a better team. We have a better ground game.”
And he highlighted that Trump’s digital and advertising campaigns are “simply second to none. It provides the president such an advantage down the stretch to be able to contact, reach, and touch voters from afar when traveling is a little harder these days.”
The acknowledgment that the coronavirus has dramatically altered campaigning and how both the Trump and Biden teams are able to get their message out is a crucial point. Biden has been repeatedly mocked by Republicans for campaigning from his “basement,” though he’s started to get out more. Whether it’s been a wise strategy remains to be seen.
Longtime Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove emphasized on “America’s Newsroom” that “we’ve got to face the fact that we’re not going to have a traditional campaign this fall where candidates are out on bus tours, have four rallies a day in hangers in different parts of states and regions. Without that, we’re not going to have the ability for the press to confront the candidate every day for questions.”
Rove – who was the mastermind behind both of President George W. Bush’s White House wins and remains one of the GOP’s most revered political strategists – acknowledged that the president’s “behind” and that “he’s got a long way to go.”
But Rove, who informally advises the Trump campaign, noted that with 100 days to go, “fortunately he’s got a lot of time to do it.”
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]]>The post Dr. Farley looks at Philadelphia’s COVID-19 response & the future -TV appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The coronavirus has been in the world for about eight months and the top Philadelphia health official thinks in order to combat it further, we need to take a step back and see where we’ve been.
With the COVID-19 pandemic increasing across the United States, Philadelphia health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said Tuesday, “(It’s) not over. The virus is still here.”
Farley said the virus causes a wide-range of a severity of illness, “more so than any other virus I am aware of.”
Many people, maybe even most, he said, have no symptoms whatsoever and may not even know they had the infection.
Of those who know they have the infection, it’s mostly mild symptoms.
“However, there is a very small percentage of people who have severe symptoms or can even have a fatal infection,” Farley said.
The health commissioner said this is strongly linked to a person’s age. People with advanced age and people with chronic medical conditions are at much higher risk, Farley said.
Overall, approximately 70% of the COVID-19 related deaths in Philadelphia are in people over the age of 70. About 90% are over the age of 60.
“We know at the individual level that wearing a mask, keeping distance from people, and having barriers, and other safety precautions can be very protective, if people use them consistently,” Farley said.
RELATED:Here’s what happens to oxygen levels when you wear a mask
Health officials learned if the city does a complete lockdown, the infection rates fall. That’s what happened in March. Farley noted about mid-April, the number of virus cases peaked and they then started to go down.
However, Farley said, that success comes with a price.
“With that lockdown, you also see businesses that are hurt or they fail; layoffs or furloughs of staff; surges of unemployment; social problems; and difficulty for everybody to get things done, from basic shopping to haircuts to educating our children,” Farley said.
He said, along with the virus, unemployment – which leads to poverty – also kills.
But Farley said, if they did nothing, ignored the virus, and let all activities commence, they know the virus surges and the deaths do as well.
“That’s what happened in Florida. That’s what happened in Georgia. That’s what we don’t want to have happen here in Philadelphia,” Farley said.
He said so officials in the city and across the country are trying to seek a balance – allowing some activities to continue while limiting the spread of the virus.
The city has allowed people to walk on trails and go to stores with masks, but have prohibited indoor dining and movie theaters.
RELATED:What to know as Philadelphia puts pause on some reopening plans
Farley focused on restaurants and bars, saying they have been the “driving factor” behind the major rise in cases in the south and west.
“Philadelphia did not open restaurants’ indoor dining when most of the United States and the rest of Pennsylvania did. In retrospect, I think that was the right decision,” Farley said.
He took a moment to clarify the city’s guidance for school sports. While the guidelines do not prohibit competition between teams, the health department strongly recommends against it because of the close exposure of the participants involved and mixing people from different neighborhoods. They recommend teams focus on athletic skill building instead of competitions.
Whether it’s a game or training, all teams must follow the city’s rule of fewer than 50 people at one time, including players, coaches, and referees, and no spectators.
Farley said social distancing is only 1/3 of the plan to combat COVID-19. The other two parts are containment which involves testing and contact tracing, and protecting the vulnerable populations.
“So what does the future look like from here?” Farley rhetorically asked.
His response: If case rates rise, the city may have to close some activities again. He said he’d rather not do that, but would be forced to if the number of cases rise. If case rates fall, the city may gradually allow the activities which remain closed under the modified green phase to reopen. If cases rates are stable, the city will stay how it is at this point concerning what is allowed and safety guidelines.
“Let’s be honest, we may have cycles of opening and closing as the (pandemic) changes around us as we learn more over the next few months,” Farley said.
He said all this will continue until there is a vaccine.
Farley said he knows “this isn’t very satisfying”‘ and people just want the virus to go away.
But he said the virus is not going away anytime soon. He said it will take a combination of actions to keep COVID-19 under control.
“I do think, though, if we do that, we can live with it,” Farley said.
He said, eventually, we will be able to put this all behind us.
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]]>The post This is what Seattle’s CHOP looks like after cops oust protesters appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>July 1, 2020 | 9:22pm | Updated July 1, 2020 | 9:22pm
A worker walks by a former barrier as city crews dismantle the CHOP area outside the Seattle Police Department’s vacated East Precinct in Seattle.
Getty Images
City crews dismantling the CHOP area.
Getty Images
A city worker moves concrete barricades away from “BLM” graffiti in Seattle’s CHOP area.
REUTERS
Seattle Department of Transportation begins removing plywood outside the closed East Precinct.
The Seattle Times via AP
Seattle police enter the East Precinct after clearing out the CHOP zone.
The Seattle Times via AP
This is what Seattle’s Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone looks like after police officers stormed in on Wednesday to clear protesters out.
Photos showing the aftermath of the eviction showed city crews using heavy equipment to remove concrete barriers and cart away debris, including plywood signs that read “BLM” and “Still our streets.”
“I was just stunned by the amount of graffiti, garbage and property destruction,” Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said after she walked around the area.
Sanitation workers were spotted scrubbing the pavements in the former protest zone and cleaning graffiti.
Police also strung yellow caution tape from tree to tree warning people not to reenter.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mayor Jenny Durkan authorized police to remove protesters who are “unlawfully occupying Cal Anderson Park area” — dubbed the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, or CHOP.
More than three dozen people were arrested during the early-morning ouster, charged with failure to disperse, obstruction, assault and unlawful weapon possession.
Durkan said that while she supported cops in making arrests Wednesday, she didn’t think many of those arrested for misdemeanors should be prosecuted.
The dismantling of the CHOP came after two teens were shot and killed in the zone that spans multiple blocks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
With Post wires
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]]>The post Trump team looks to prevent a Tulsa-style debacle in Jacksonville appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The debacle that unfolded in Oklahoma, where sparse crowds forced Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to cancel pre-rally appearances and ignited an unpleasant news cycle for Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, has raised the stakes for the Jacksonville convention, where hundreds of Republican delegates, party leaders and MAGA devotees will send Trump off to battle against his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
Four officials involved with the planning said they feel additional pressure to ensure the president is pleased with the format of the convention, and with its turnout, after witnessing his displeasure with the partially empty arena in Tulsa.
What’s more, a recent surge of Covid-19 cases in Florida is threatening to complicate the onerous planning process organizers are already facing after moving most convention programming — including Trump’s primetime renomination speech — from Charlotte to Northeast Florida due to coronavirus restrictions on large social gatherings in North Carolina. Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, recently saw its highest one-day increase in coronavirus cases since the global pandemic began.
Trump aides and Republican officials are putting extra attention now on conditions on the ground in Florida, including a surge in coronavirus cases across the state and the risk of new restrictions on public gatherings in the coming weeks. They’re evaluating more scenarios that could wreck existing plans and force changes over the next two months, in order to avoid surprisingly low turnout or other embarrassing political fallout right after Democrats hold their convention with a far more cautious approach.
The sudden spike in confirmed cases has heightened the concerns among residents of Florida’s most populous city about hosting convention activities that could draw in thousands of people from outside the state. Seventy-one percent of voters in Duval County said they are very or somewhat worried about Covid-19 transmissions occurring at the GOP convention, according to a University of North Florida-Public Opinion Research Lab poll released Wednesday. Another 61 percent indicated they are concerned about protests during the event, while 66 percent agreed the convention is likely to infuse Jacksonville’s economy with significant cash.
Before the president rallied in Tulsa last weekend, local health officials warned residents who are more vulnerable to health complications if they contract the novel coronavirus to stay home. Meanwhile, campaign officials asked rally attendees to sign a liability waiver to prevent lawsuits against the host venue and Trump’s reelection operation if they became ill with the deadly virus.
A GOP official said it’s possible GOP convention attendees will be asked to sign a similar disclaimer before arriving at the 15,000-person VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, though this person stressed that nothing has been decided yet and planning is still in an early stage.
“There will be safety precautions in place that will be adapted based on the situation at the time of the event,” added a RNC spokesperson. “These include but are not limited to temperature checks, available PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], aggressive sanitizing protocols, available Covid-19 testing, and regular phone calls and coordination with federal, state and local health officials.”
The convention is also likely to be treated as a National Special Security Event, resulting in a wide perimeter around the site itself and an outsized presence of local and federal law enforcement officials. Organizers are expecting demonstrations outside the convention, particularly as widespread anti-racism protests continue to grip the nation, but do not anticipate that protesters will interfere with the event itself — a claim Trump campaign officials made in the aftermath of the president’s visit to Oklahoma to explain away the underwhelming crowd size.
“Sadly, protesters interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevent people from entering the rally,” Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement following the Tulsa rally. The campaign didn’t say how many people were turned away; reporters on the ground disputed that protests at the entries prevented rallygoers from ultimately entering.
One Trump campaign official expressed relief that the Republican National Committee — as well as a nonpartisan host committee in Jacksonville — is handling most logistics for the convention so that the president’s reelection team will be “spared” if the event does not go as planned, or if it fails to quench Trump’s craving for a gigantic crowd of adoring supporters.
After being told 1 million people requested tickets for the Saturday night rally in Tulsa, only to be greeted by a crowd that the Tulsa Fire Department estimated at 6,200, Trump spent his flight back to Washington grilling aides about the humiliating turn of events.
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]]>The post Ossoff looks to turn celebrity into Senate primary win in Georgia appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>“There’s no doubt that having run and narrowly lost the biggest congressional race of all time has given me perspective that’s valuable,” Ossoff said in an interview.
“A fight well fought can be worth what you build in the process, even if you lose that battle,” he added. “And with two Senate seats, with the presidential tangibly investing here — this is Georgia’s year.”
In contrast to Ossoff’s 2017 defeat, Tuesday’s primary has received little national attention — or outside spending — compared to races in North Carolina, Maine, Iowa and elsewhere. It’s the only major primary where national Democrats have decided not to throw their weight behind a candidate despite heavy party involvement in other nominating contests.
Ossoff is the clear favorite to finish first Tuesday, holding a lead in public and private polling and a massive financial advantage. The biggest question is whether he can cross the 50 percent threshold to win outright, or whether the race will go to an August runoff. Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico are the two other best-known and best-funded candidates on the ballot competing for support among the seven-candidate field.
Public polling has shown Ossoff below the 50 percent mark, and Democrats are divided on his chances to win outright Tuesday, according to conversations with more than a half-dozen Democrats in Georgia and Washington following the race. A runoff could mean less time for the eventual nominee to raise money and build a campaign to challenge the well-funded Perdue.
Georgia has not been atop Democrats’ targeted races, but it could boost the party’s chances to retake the chamber. If Joe Biden wins the presidency, Democrats need to gain three seats in order to capture the majority — and with a potential loss looming in Alabama, the party has worked to expand the map of targets to include burgeoning battleground states.
The primary was originally scheduled for May but was moved and consolidated with the presidential primary because of Covid-19. And while massive turnout is expected largely through mail-in ballots, a large number of voters never received their requested absentee ballots.
It has also been overshadowed by the special election for the state’s other Senate seat, given the GOP infighting between Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins. But that race won’t appear on the ballot until November, with all candidates regardless of party running together.
Unlike in other states, where national Democrats have successfully helped shepherd their chosen candidates through nomination fights, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hasn’t endorsed in Georgia. Stacey Abrams, the party’s 2018 gubernatorial nominee who has become a potential vice presidential pick, has endorsed Senate candidates in other races but not taken a side ahead of Tuesday in her home state.
Ossoff, who is CEO of an investigative journalism company, has run on an anti-corruption message and also leaned on his support from prominent Democrats in the state, including Reps. John Lewis and Hank Johnson. Lewis, the civil rights icon, is featured heavily in Ossoff’s TV ads, and the campaign’s closing spot focuses on the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man shot in Georgia earlier this year, with a radio version also featuring Lewis touting his endorsement.
Most Democrats expect Tomlinson to finish second in the race and challenge Ossoff in the potential runoff, though polling has shown Amico in contention. Tomlinson, who was mayor of Columbus for two terms, has run on her government experience in a state she described as “politically transitioning.”
She also hasn’t shied away from attacking Ossoff, calling him inexperienced and knocking his previous election loss, arguing the party should nominate a candidate who has won before.
“At some point we have to come to the realization that he has all the name recognition a man can have, but for whatever reason he just can’t garner that 50-plus-one,” she said. “There’s no way we can go into the general election in this pitched political battle to transform the state of Georgia to a purple state at least with a candidate that weak.”
Amico, who was the party’s lieutenant governor candidate in 2018 running alongside Abrams, has leftover name identification from that race and has strong support from labor groups in the state that could boost her in the closing stretch. She has mostly self-funded her campaign and has run on her experience as a businesswoman, arguing that perspective would be a benefit in the current economic downturn.
“We’re proud of the campaign we’ve run to stand up for access to affordable health care and justice for marginalized communities,” Amico said in a statement provided for this report.
Ossoff’s campaign has spent more than $2 million on TV, compared to just over $670,000 for Tomlinson and nearly $530,000 for Amico, according to data from Advertising Analytics. He outraised Perdue in the previous seven weeks, according to recent FEC filings, though the incumbent maintains a substantial cash advantage over the Democratic field.
Perdue’s campaign is eager to set expectations high for their most likely opponent.
“With his massive advantage in ad spending while public polls show him leading his primary opponents by wide margins, it would be a surprise if Jon Ossoff doesn’t win his party’s nomination outright” on Tuesday, said John Burke, a spokesperson for Perdue.
Helen Kalla, a spokeswoman for the DSCC, did not address the committee’s lack of endorsement in the race, but said in a statement that Perdue is a “weak incumbent,” and Republicans “are losing ground across the Senate map, and Georgia is no exception.”
The runoff would be in August, and while most Democrats downplayed that it could jeopardize their ability to be competitive in the fall, some expressed concern. One Georgia Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, said the trouble would come if the runoff candidates “focus on tearing each other down versus keeping their eye on the prize.”
“If I’m Perdue, I keep my head down and let them go after each other and not do or say anything. Just keep raising money,” this Democrat said.
Republicans, who are in a precarious position to hold their Senate majority, are confident about facing Ossoff and argue anything other than an outright primary win shows weakness.
“He’s been propped up by special interests and his own ego for years, and he still thinks he has a future in elected politics,” said Matt Gorman, a GOP strategist who was communications director for House Republicans’ campaign arm during Ossoff’s prior race.
Ossoff, for his part, ignores those attacks. After facing tens of millions in negative spending during his House run, he thinks they’ll have little impact now.
“They can talk all the smack they want,” said Ossoff. “Bring it on.”
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]]>The post What a Tick Bite Looks Like appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Along with the great outdoors—whether that’s the backwoods, your back yard, your local park, or your favorite running trail—comes insects. And certain insects like ticks can come with trouble.
“Ticks carry organisms that cause illnesses such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, viral encephalitis, and hemorrhagic fevers,” says dermatologist and co-host of the television show The Doctors, Sonia Batra, MD. And some of what they carry can cause allergic reactions and nerve paralysis, she says.
What’s more your chances of coming in contact with a tick have risen: “Tick-borne diseases have increased dramatically in number in the US over the past two decades,” she says.
“Several reasons for this are newly discovered disease-causing germs in ticks, increased numbers of illnesses caused by tick bites, expanded geographic areas where ticks are found, and even new species of ticks found in the US,” she explains.
How do you know if you’ve been bitten? Here’s what to know about where you’re likely to encounter ticks, the best ways to protect yourself from a tick bite, what a tick bite looks like, and what to do if you suspect you’ve been bitten.
When you come in from outdoors, check for the tick itself
Don’t just check for tick bites. Every time you come in from being in wooded areas or places with a lot of grass or brush, do a tick check. Look yourself over completely (use a mirror to see your back) check any pets that were with you, and try to shower as soon as possible.
“Carefully check common sites for tick attachment which are under the arms, around and in ears and the scalp, inside the belly button and around the waist, and the backs of knees and between the legs,” she says. You have to look close: Some ticks can be as small as a poppyseed; others can be about the size of a pencil eraser.
What a tick bite looks like
“Initially, the tick will still be attached, and you will see its body and legs. In some people, a hive will form around the site of attachment after a few hours, and this can be itchy or painful,” Dr. Batra says.
This image from Instagram user @deer_stalker_uk shows a tick bite where the tick is still on the skin—this is how small some ticks can be. This was found under a watch strap:
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The infected area can also be red, swollen and bruised. Ticks can remain attached for 7 to 12 days before they become engorged with blood and fall off, she says, and while attached, they can cause fever, chills, headache, vomiting and abdominal pain. So these indicators might mean there’s a tick on you.
“These symptoms are called tick bite pyrexia, and they will usually improve within 12 to 36 hours once the tick is removed,” she says.
One of the most commonly recognized signs of a tick bite is a bull’s eye-shaped red rash with a central paleness that extends outwards over days to week. And it’s associated with Lyme disease. If you see this rash, you need to get yourself to a doctor ASAP.
This image from @lymenow, a community group for those who have experienced Lyme Disease, shows the bullseye rash:
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And take note: “Sometimes there will be no rash despite the bite. By some estimates, 20 to 30 percent of people who develop Lyme disease never had a rash,” she says. If you find an embedded tick and start feeling sick, call a doctor. (Or if you see a rash even if you don’t feel sick, call the doctor.)
Don’t just look at the bite, look at the tick
“The rash that occurs after the bite can help guide treatment. For example, a bull’s eye rash may signify Lyme disease, while swelling and signs of bleeding in the skin would point to Rocky Mountain spotted fever,” Dr. Batra explains.
But it can’t always tell the whole story, so it’s important to try to identify the type of tick since they can carry different types of infections.
Typical ticks you’ll encounter in the U.S. include:
Deer ticks, also called blacklegged ticks.
“This species carries Lyme disease as well as other illnesses, where the female tick has an orange body and black oval on its back towards the head,” she says. The rash caused by this type of tick usually starts red and gradually expands to create a central paleness in color. “Identifying this type of tick and bite is important, as Lyme disease can cause long term neurologic and joint problems,” she says.
Lone Star ticks.
“The females are brown and have a white spot in middle of their backs and they can carry Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, and Borrelia,” she says. They may also be associated with a newly-described condition that can cause an allergy to red meat (alpha-gal allergy). Their bite often looks like a raised, red welt, but occasionally it can cause a bull’s eye rash that expands with that same paleness at the center and some redness at the periphery of the spot or area that bites from deer ticks are known for.
Dog ticks
“These gray or brown ticks carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia, and when attached, they often look like oblong small balls or marbles with attached legs,” she says. These ticks often prefer to feed on dogs but can also be transferred to humans. The site of a bite may be red or ring shaped and inflamed.
For more help identifying the type of tick, check out the extensive tick identification information at The University of Rhode Island’s TickEncounter site.
How to Remove Ticks
With all types of ticks, it is important to attempt to remove the tick with pointed tweezers and use a slow, steady pressure so that the mouth parts are also removed. “Sharp sudden pressure can break off the mouth parts and leave them embedded in the skin, and then they will need to be cut out,” she says.
Of course, the best way to manage ticks is not to get them at all. See which repellents work best against ticks.
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