Today's News: August 19, 2020

World News

Authorities Granted COVID-19 Powers To Forcibly Take Children From Their Homes

The Caldron Pool – South Australian authorities have recently enacted legislation granting police the power to enter homes and remove children in their efforts to quell the spread of coronavirus.
Schedule 2 of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020 lists temporary modifications of particular State Laws. Under Part 1, amendments to the Emergency Response Act 2004 are outlined.
The Emergency Response Act 2004 is enacted to “establish strategies and systems for management of emergencies in the State; and for other purposes.”
Section 24-26, which is classified as Division 4 of the Act, lists the powers that may be executed in relation to “declared emergencies.”
Under Section 24A, an emergency is defined as the following:
“An emergency may be declared to be an identified major incident, a major emergency or a disaster whether or not the emergency has previously been declared to be a public health incident or a public health emergency under the South Australian Public Health Act 2011.”
Section 25 discloses and lists all of the various powers that the State Coordinator and Authorised Officers are granted in order to take any necessary action in implementing the state emergency management plan.
This includes the authority to “enter and, if necessary, break into any land, building, structure, or vehicle (using such force as is necessary).”
Under the New COVID-19 Emergency Response Act 2020, Section 25 of the Emergency Response Act 2004 has been amended to potentially grant police the power to forcibly remove children from their homes.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Michigan is college under fire for making students download app that will track all their movements to stop the COVID spread and threaten to punish those who don’t comply

Daily Mail – A college in Michigan is reportedly requiring students on campus to download an app that tracks their movements at all times in a bid to prevent the coronavirus from spreading on campus.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Albion College officials are attempting to take on contact tracing by creating a ‘COVID-bubble’ on campus.
Students are being asked to stay within the school’s 4.5-mile perimeter for the entire semester.
And if they leave campus, the app, which is called Aura, will notify the administration.

Gretchen Whitmer mouths expletive on ‘hot mic,’ compares DNC to ‘Shark Week’ before convention speech

Fox – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was caught on a “hot mic” Monday mouthing an expletive and referencing Discovery Channel’s annual special “Shark Week” seconds before her speech was broadcast live on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
“It’s not just Shark Week … it’s Shark Week mother f—er,” Whitmer says, mouthing the expletive, making it barely audible. She draws laughter from those in the room before adding, “I have learned about the hot mic.”
The moment was captured on a livestream as the first-time governor of the key battleground state stood at a podium at labor union UAW Local 652 headquarters in Lansing. It happened while she was waiting to deliver her live speech at the nearly completely virtual DNC, and the remark was not broadcast live on television during the Milwaukee, Wisc.-based convention, WKBW reported.

IOWA UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR ISSUES WARNING THAT NOT SUPPORTING BLM IS ‘GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL’

NY Post – An English professor at Iowa State University was forced to correct her syllabus after informing her students that they could not submit work that opposes Black Lives Matter, gay marriage, abortion and other social issues, according to a report.
Professor Chloe Clark had told her students that they could not “choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc). I take this seriously,” The College Fix reported.
She prefaced her English 250 class syllabus with “GIANT WARNING.”
“Any instance of othering that you participate in intentionally (racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, sorophobia, transphobia, classism, mocking of mental health issues, body shaming, etc) in class are grounds for dismissal from the classroom,” said the syllabus, a copy of which was obtained by Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization.
The university said in a statement that the syllabus “was inconsistent with the university’s standards and its commitment to the First Amendment rights of students.”
It added: “After reviewing this issue with the faculty member, the syllabus has been corrected to ensure it is consistent with university policy. Moreover, the faculty member is being provided additional information regarding the First Amendment policies of the university.”

More colleges implement mandatory anti-racism courses

Campus Reform – Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) on Monday signed into law Assembly Bill 1460, which makes an ethnic studies class a requirement for students in the California State University system. A three-unit class in either Native American, African American, Asian American, or Latina/Latino studies will be required for students to graduate beginning the 2024-25 school year.
CSU leadership, including Chancellor Timothy White and the Academic Senate, is reportedly opposed to AB 1460, according to the Sundial, CSU-Northridge’s student newspaper, warning that legislation that influences curriculum is a slippery slope.
The Sundial also reported that Hazel Kelly, CSU public affairs manager for the Chancellor’s Office, said AB 1460 is set to cost $16 million to implement.
Campus Reform reached out to CSU for a statement regarding the new requirement. CSU spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said in response, “the university will begin work to implement the requirements of the new legislation.”
CSU is not the only school system adding a mandatory class on ethnic studies. The University of Pittsburgh on Monday also announced a new required one-credit online course on systemic anti-Black racism and anti-racism that will be required of all first-year students.
It will be offered starting this fall.
Rising Senior and Vice President of Pitt College Republicans Corey Barsky told Campus Reform that he thinks this class should be encouraged, but not required.

Voter Fraud: Man Arrested in L.A. for Voting 3 Times as His Dead Mother

Breitbart – A man from Norwalk, California, in Los Angeles County was arrested and charged last month for voting three times as his dead mother, as well as voting for himself, the Los Angeles District Attorney announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The DA’s office said:
A Norwalk man has been charged with allegedly casting votes in three elections on behalf of his mother who had passed away, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.
Caesar Peter Abutin (dob 11/2/64) was charged in case BA488819 with one felony count each of fraud in connection with votes cast and fraudulent voting. He pleaded not guilty today and is scheduled to return for a preliminary hearing setting on October 28 in Department 50 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
The case was filed for warrant on July 31.
Deputy District Attorney Marian Thompson of the Public Integrity Division is prosecuting the case.
Between October 2012 and November 2014, Abutin is accused of voting in three elections, claiming to be his 67-year-old mother who passed away in July 2006, while also casting votes for himself.
The charges were announced, coincidentally, in the midst of the Democratic National Convention, as Democrats accused President Donald Trump of exaggerating the potential for voter fraud in his push against automatic vote-by-mail.
Los Angeles County agreed in 2019 to remove as many as 1.5 million registered but inactive voters as of April 2018 from its rolls in a settlement with Judicial Watch.

Report: 15 Shot Tuesday Alone in Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago

Breitbart – Fifteen people were shot, one fatally, on Tuesday alone in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the Tuesday fatality was as 42-year-old man who was shot in the head in the middle of the afternoon. He was “in the 9300 block of South Halsted Street” when he was shot, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Sun-Times reported Mayor Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago saw over 20 people shot on Monday, and two of them fatally.
The first of Monday’s fatalities was 29-year-old Kevin Garcia, who was shot in a drive-by incident “about 12:50 a.m. in the 2400 block of South Trumbull Avenue.”
He was taken to a hospital where he died.
Monday’s second fatality was an 18-year-old who was shot and killed around 11:45 p.m., “in the 1700 block of North Luna Avenue.” The 18-year and another individual were shot when “multiple people got out of a white sedan” and opened fire.
The violence on Monday and Tuesday followed a weekend in which Chicago witnessed at least 50 people shot, five fatally.
Breitbart News reported at least 13 people were shot Monday alone in Mayor Jim Kenney’s (D) Philadelphia.
The Monday shootings in Philadelphia followed a weekend of violence in the city that left behind more than 30 victims. NBC Philadelphia reported that seven of the weekend shooting victims later succumbed to their wounds.

Trump Cancels China Talks, Raising Questions About Trade Deal

Newsmax – President Donald Trump said he called off last weekend’s trade talks with China, raising questions about the future of a trade deal that is now the most stable point in an increasingly tense relationship.
“I canceled talks with China,” Trump said Tuesday in Yuma, Arizona. “I don’t want to talk to China right now.”
The phase-one trade deal, which came into force in February, had called for discussions on implementation of the agreement every six months. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was supposed to hold a video conference call with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, but it was postponed indefinitely.
On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian deferred comment to the “competent department” when asked about Trump’s remarks on the trade talks.
Chinese stocks slumped, led by biotech shares, amid growing concern over tensions between the world’s biggest economies. The CSI 300 fell 1.5% at the close, the largest decline in nearly a month, while the tech-heavy ChiNext gauge slumped 3.3%.
While China is making many of the structural changes it promised on issues such as intellectual property protection, its purchases of U.S. goods are well below where they need to be to meet promised targets, and there’s almost no chance they can be fulfilled now with the damage Covid-19 has done to the global economy. A collapse of the deal risks leading to a return of the tit-for-tat tariff war that hurt trade and companies around the world.

APPLE first U.S. company to reach $2 trillion market cap

NBC – Apple hit a market cap of $2 trillion Wednesday, doubling in valuation in just over two years. It’s the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach the $2 trillion milestone.
Apple’s share price hit $467.77, which pushed it over a $2 trillion market cap just before 11 a.m. ET. It hit the $2 trillion mark with a share price of $467.77 based on an outstanding share count of 4,275,634,000 shares.
Apple first reached a $1 trillion market cap on Aug. 2, 2018. Wall Street has largely expected Apple to be the first to surpass the $2 trillion mark. On July 31, Apple surpassed the state oil giant Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
It didn’t take long for other tech giants to match Apple’s $1 trillion market cap. Today, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet all have market caps above $1 trillion.
Apple shares are up 59.24% year-to-date, pushing through the pandemic that’s battered many companies. In the past year, shares have risen 122.3%.

Energy & Environment

Rolling Blackouts Return to California Amid Shift to ‘Green’ Energy

Information Liberation – California is once again experiencing rolling blackouts and the media is acting like the cause is a giant mystery.
From Politico, “California has first rolling blackouts in 19 years — and everyone faces blame”:
The exact root of California’s rolling blackouts is still unclear as more power outages loom, and that’s allowed everyone to point fingers.
Energy experts Monday cited a litany of potential causes for the rotating outages that affected hundreds of thousands of California residents Friday and Saturday nights: ballooning demand, inadequate transmission, an overreliance on renewable energy and natural gas plant challenges during hot weather.
While California braced for another round of rolling blackouts Monday night, the state’s grid operator held off for a second straight night, citing cooler than expected weather and widespread conservation. It also came as Gov. Gavin Newsom questioned all of the state’s electricity players about why the outages occurred and faced blowback from frustrated residents. Still, the state says more blackouts affecting millions of residents could occur this week as a historic heat wave endures.
California has endured planned blackouts in recent years as a wildfire prevention measure. But it was the Golden State’s first round of rolling blackouts related to supply since 2001, when Enron and other energy traders manipulated California’s market.
Earlier Monday, the California Independent System Operator blamed Friday’s outages on “high heat and increased electricity demand.” Yet some energy experts noted that demand wasn’t particularly higher than normal, as is typical for weekends, and CAISO had predicted it would have adequate reserves on hand for the 80 percent of California’s grid that it manages.
The New York Times acted similarly puzzled.
They ran an article on Sunday titled, “Rolling Blackouts in California Have Power Experts Stumped.”

NASA is monitoring a weird dent in the Earth’s magnetic field over the South Atlantic

NaturalNews – Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are monitoring a slowly splitting dent in the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA, the region in Earth’s magnetic field that is weaker than the rest.
Recent observations and forecasts revealed that the anomaly’s valley – the portion within the region with the lowest field strength – is splitting into two lobes. This split is caused by the fluctuations in the flowing magma deep within Earth, in the boundary between the outer core and the mantle.
Scientists also said that the SAA, which is located over the southern Atlantic Ocean and South America, is drifting westward and continues to weaken.
These changes have major implications for the satellites roaming around Earth’s upper atmosphere. Earth’s magnetic field serves as a protective barrier against cosmic particles and the solar wind. But due to the SAA, these space particles dip closer to the surface and cause significant damage to nearby satellites. With the continued weakening of SAA, satellites are exposed to more harmful particles, which increases the likelihood of a technical malfunction.

Health

Honey better for coughs and colds than antibiotics, study claims

The Guardian – oney may be better than conventional treatments for coughs, blocked noses and sore throats, researchers have said. The substance is cheap, readily available, and has virtually no side-effects.
Doctors can recommend it as a suitable alternative to antibiotics, which are often prescribed for such infections, even though they are not effective, scientists from the University of Oxford said.
Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) affect the nose, throat, voice box and the large air passages (bronchi) that lead from the windpipe to the lungs.
There is evidence for honey being used in children, and it has long been used as a home remedy to treat coughs and colds. But the evidence for its effectiveness for a range of upper respiratory tract symptoms in adults has not been systematically reviewed.

Study: Intense light therapy found to protect against heart attacks

NaturalNews – A study published in the journal Cell Reports found that intense light therapy can help protect the heart from tissue damage and boost heart health.
Their findings highlight the potential of intense light therapy for people who had a heart attack, especially before going to surgery.
“If the therapy is given before high risk cardiac and non-cardiac surgery, it could offer protection against injury to the heart muscle which can be fatal,” said Dr. Tobias Eckle, one of the authors of the study.
Novel intense light therapy boosts heart health
The researchers explain that light plays an important role in human health; it regulates not only the circadian rhythm but also affects cardiovascular health. In fact, the United States records more heart attacks during the darker months of winter, even in sunny states such as Hawaii and Arizona.
In the study, they sought to develop a cardioprotective strategy using light to target and manipulate the function of the PER2 gene. This protein is expressed by a part of the brain that controls circadian rhythms.
The team first conducted a trial on mice by subjecting them to intense light. They found that boosting the PER2 gene through intense light therapy led to enhanced cardioprotection, especially during low-oxygen conditions such as a heart attack.
The intense light also heightened cardiac adenosine — a specialized chemical that helps with blood flow regulation. The researchers note that blind mice did not experience the same benefits under light therapy. This suggests that visual light perception is a prerequisite for the therapy’s effects.
Next, they tried the therapy in healthy humans and exposed them to 10,000 lumens of light for 30 minutes for five consecutive mornings. As in the mice trial, the intense light increased the PER2 gene while lowering plasma triglycerides and improving metabolism.
“We already knew that intense light can protect against heart attacks, but now we have found the mechanism behind it,” added Dr. Eckle. “Giving patients light therapy for a week before surgery could increase cardioprotection.”
The findings of the study could mean a lot for treating and preventing myocardial ischemia, a condition in which blood flow the heart muscle is obstructed by the buildup of plaques. The rupturing of these plaques is what causes heart attack.