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‘Mythbusters’ star Grant Imahara dies from brain aneurysm

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2014 file photo, Grant Imahara arrives at the Creative Arts Emmys in Los Angeles. Discovery Channel says the longtime "Mythbusters" host died from a brain aneurysm Monday at the age of 49. The network said he was one of the few trained operators for the famed R2-D2 droid from Star Wars and engineered the Energizer Bunny's popular rhythmic beat. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Grant Imahara, the longtime host of Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters,” died from a brain aneurysm, the network said Tuesday.

Imahara died Monday at the age of 49.

“We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant,” the network said in a statement. “He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”

Along with his “MythBusters” fame, Imahara was known for starring on Netflix’s “White Rabbit Project.” He became popular in Hollywood for his talents in electronics and recently showcased his creation of a fully animatronic Baby Yoda.

Discovery said on its website that Imahara dedicated his life to using his skills to make people smile. The network said he was one of the few trained operators for the famed R2-D2 droid from the Star Wars franchise and engineered the Energizer Bunny’s popular rhythmic beat.

Former “MythBusters” co-host Adam Savage delivered a heartfelt message about Imahara on social media.

“I’m at a loss. No words,” Savage on Twitter. “I’ve been part of two big families with Grant Imahara over the last 22 years. Grant was a truly brilliant engineer, artist and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle PERSON. Working with Grant was so much fun. I’ll miss my friend.”

Kari Byron and Tory Belleci were co-hosts with Imahara on “Mythbusters” and “White Rabbit Project.” Both said they are heartbroken and stunned by the recent death of their colleague and friend.

“Heartbroken and in shock tonight. We were just talking on the phone. This isn’t real,” said Bryon on Twitter. She posted a series of photos of Imahara and said the two just had a phone conversation.

“I just cannot believe it,” Belleci said. “I don’t even know what to say. My heart is broken. Goodbye buddy.”

"Mythbusters" Host And Electrical Engineer Grant Imahara Is Dead At 49

The electrical engineer and reality show host died suddenly on Monday.

Ellie HallBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on July 14, 2020,



Gotpap / gotpap/STAR MAX/IPx, Discovery Channel / Via go.discovery.com

Electrical engineer and host of the science shows Mythbusters and White Rabbit Project Grant Imahara is dead at 49, the Discovery Channel said Monday.

"We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant," the network said in a statement. "He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

The host's cause of death has not been publicly revealed, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, he "died suddenly following a brain aneurysm."

Imahara began his career as an electrical engineer at Lucasfilm THX in 1993. In 1996, he moved to Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic division. In his eight years at ILM, Imahara rose to the position of lead modelmaker, specializing in robotics and electronic and radio control. He was a chief architect of the technology behind the robot R2-D2 during the development of the Star Wars prequel films and one of only three people in the United States authorized to operate the robots used for filming.


Grant Imahara@grantimahara
This #fbf in honor of #StarWarsRogueOne: my career with @starwars, working on R2-D2 and Episodes 1-3.08:18 PM - 16 Dec 2016
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Imahara joined Mythbusters, a popular reality television show where the hosts used science to disprove urban legends, in its third season in 2005. As a member of the show's "Build Team," he used his expertise in engineering and robotics debunk myths for nine years, appearing in more than 200 episodes.

In 2016, Imahara and two of his Mythbusters cohosts, Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, starred in a Netflix show with a similar premise, called White Rabbit Project.

His colleagues and friends expressed shock and disbelief on social media in the wake of the news.


Tory Belleci@ToryBelleci
I just cannot believe it. I don’t even know what to say. My heart is broken. Goodbye buddy @grantimahara05:14 AM - 14 Jul 2020
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Kari Byron@KariByron
Somedays I wish I had a time machine. ⁦@ToryBelleci⁩ ⁦@grantimahara⁩11:32 PM - 13 Jul 2020
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Adam Savage, who worked with Imahara at Lucasfilm and the Discovery Channel, said he had "no words" after learning the news.



Adam Savage@donttrythis
I’m at a loss. No words. I’ve been part of two big families with Grant Imahara over the last 22 years. Grant was a truly brilliant engineer, artist and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle PERSON. Working with Grant was so much fun. I’ll miss my friend.03:52 AM - 14 Jul 2020
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On Reddit, thousands of Imahara's fans paid tribute to his legacy, with many people commenting that watching him on Mythbusters inspired them to pursue careers in science.

"The engineering community has lost a big light today," wrote one commenter.
"[Mythbusters] would not have been anywhere near the success it was without him, and for me he embodies everything about both the show's ethos and what a true engineer should represent."


Reddit / Via reddit.com


Ellie Hall is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

R.I.P. Grant Imahara from MythBusters



As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, former MythBusters host Grant Imahara has died. The news was confirmed by a statement from a Discovery representative, referring to Imahara as an “important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man.” A cause of death was not given, but THR’s sources say he died suddenly from a brain aneurysm. Imahara was 49.

Grant Imahara was born in 1970 and studied electrical engineering and robotics at the University Of Southern California, which he managed to turn into a visual effects career by landing a job with Lucasfilm after college. He worked with the THX and Industrial Light And Magic, working on effects for major movies like the Star Wars prequels (where he somewhat famously updated and operated the R2-D2 robots used in filming), the Matrix sequels, and cult classic Star Trek homage Galaxy Quest. He was also a competitor on BattleBots, helped design the modern Energizer Bunny, and built Craig Ferguson’s robot sidekick Geoff for The Late Late Show.

It was through ILM that Imahara met Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, who invited Imahara to join them on the MythBusters team in the show’s third season. Along with co-hosts Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, Imahara was part of the “Build Team” and constructed machines and robots to test myths and—in a nod to his other career—recreate stunts and effects from movies and TV to see how viable or realistic they were. The playful banter and bickering between Hyneman and Savage was the highlight of the MythBusters segments they hosted, but Imahara, Byron, and Belleci brought an infectious enthusiasm and passion to everything they touched on the show. The three of them left MythBusters in 2014, shortly before the show itself came to an end. In 2016, Imahara reunited with Byron and Belleci for the one-season White Rabbit Project on Netflix.

On Twitter, Savage said that Imahara was a “truly brilliant engineer, artist, and performer, but also just such a generous, easygoing, and gentle person.” Earlier today, possibly coincidentally, Kari Byron posted a photo of herself with Imahara and Belleci along with the caption “somedays I wish I had a time machine.” She has since shared several other photos of Imahara from the MythBusters days.

The US Government's Own Experts Say Separating Immigrant Families During The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Add To Their Mental Trauma

Separating families during the pandemic is "nothing less than willful endangerment,” an attorney for the medical experts said.

Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on July 14, 2020

Eric Gay / AP
Asylum-seekers hold hands as they walk across the ICE South Texas Family Residential Center on Aug. 23, 2019, in Dilley

A group of medical experts hired by the Department of Homeland Security says separating immigrant children from their parents would “exacerbate the physical and mental trauma to detained families who know they are unable to protect themselves from the deadly, rapidly spreading pandemic.”

The group of doctors — Scott Allen, Pamela McPherson, and Josiah Rich — are professors and medical and mental health experts for the department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which inspects the care of those in government custody. They described their opposition to any potential policy that would separate families on Tuesday in a letter to Congress that was obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The letter comes after immigrant children were ordered released from ICE detention centers across the country, which advocates worry could lead to scenarios in which they could be separated from their parents.

“We are writing to you, members of Congress responsible for overseeing DHS, because we have a professional obligation to raise our grave concerns about DHS’s reattempt to separate children from their families in response to a federal court order to release the children when it is within ICE discretion to release the families intact,” the medical experts wrote. “We advocate for the release of immigrant detainees who present no threat to communities to prevent both the harm of family and children separation and the risk of spread and infection of COVID-19.”

The doctors said they shared their “concerns about the serious medical and mental health risks associated with the detention of families, exacerbated by the coronavirus spreading in congregate settings” with the lead official in charge of the DHS civil rights division last week.

Allen, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine, and McPherson, who teaches fellows at the LSU Health Sciences University in Shreveport, Louisiana, have been outspoken on the issues of immigrant children in custody and the policy that led to separation of families at the border in 2018.

"That ICE is considering repeating one of the darkest moments of this administration — separating children from their families — knowing this will cause serious medical and psychological harm to children is nothing less than willful endangerment,” said Dana Gold, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project and attorney for Allen, McPherson, and Rich. “That DHS’s own medical and mental health experts need to speak up to try to prevent this agency from inflicting imminent harm on innocent children is another grotesque example of the government ignoring its medical experts. If we’ve learned anything over the past few months, this is a recipe for disaster."

As of Thursday, there were 319 immigrants — at least 157 of them children — in custody at the three family detention centers. At the Karnes County Residential Center in Texas, there are 24 current cases of COVID-19 among immigrant families detained there. There have been 35 total cases at the facility. There have been no positive cases at the other two ICE family detention centers.

Last week, US government officials told a federal judge that immigrant families should not be released from custody. Attorneys for the Trump administration said the court should deny a motion for a preliminary injunction to promptly release all families in ICE detention. Immigrant advocates said the filing sets up a potential separation of children from their parents in custody as the government looks to comply with a separate order to release the children.

Attorneys for ICE have denied allegations that it was incapable of protecting immigrant families from contracting COVID-19. Government attorneys also pushed back against the claim that immigrant families face irreparable harm in being forced to choose between family separation or continued detention of children who have been ordered to be released.

Last month, US District Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement that says the government can't detain children for more than 20 days, ordered the release of immigrant minors at ICE facilities by July 17. Previously, an independent monitor tasked with tracking how children in family detention centers are treated as part of the court agreement said the risk of immigrant minors and families contracting coronavirus inside one of the facilities continued to grow because some staffers failed to wear masks or observe social distancing requirements.

“Despite the overwhelming warning and recommendation of the medical community, DHS has ignored the advice of its own experts, continuing to keep children in detention for months, above and beyond the court-mandated 20-day limit,” the doctors wrote. “DHS has also failed to release most of the immigrants from detention facilities around the country, contrary to the advice of medical and public health efforts. Worse, DHS is now attempting to reinstate the practice of family separation using a federal court order as justification.”

Adolfo Flores contributed reporting.


MORE ON IMMIGRATION
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Hamed Aleaziz · July 9, 2020

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Hamed Aleaziz · June 24, 2020

A Government Watchdog Group Will No Longer Conduct Onsite Inspections Of Immigration Facilities Because Of The Coronavirus

Adolfo Flores · July 2, 2020



Hamed Aleaziz is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

The Trump Administration Has Reversed Its Ban On Foreign Students Taking All Classes Online

The controversial policy had sent thousands of international students into a panic as they risked being deported in the fall.

Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on July 14, 2020, 

Steven Senne / AP
A runner passes through an arch on the campus of Boston University on May 20.

The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a controversial policy that would have revoked legal status for international students who planned to take classes entirely online in the fall as university campuses remain largely closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Details of the administration’s rollback came during a court hearing over a challenge brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in federal court on Tuesday. According to a court order, both sides had reached an agreement to rescind the policy, which was announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, sending thousands of students into a panic.

The Trump administration’s decision is a rare one. Government officials have repeatedly defended controversial immigration policies in court during the past three years, refusing to alter their decisions unless forced to. In this case, however, droves of major universities had lined up to challenge the policy in court. The Associated Press counted more than 200 universities that had agreed to support the Harvard challenge. International students in the US also spoke up on social media as politicians railed against its necessity.

International students reached by BuzzFeed News Tuesday said they were grateful for the decision.

“I'm extremely relieved on a personal note. I won't have to compromise my health or education,” said Siobhan, a 25-year old Irish college student in New York studying biochemistry. “But I think this very clearly shows that we can't take anything about our legal status for granted, and that we should be really vigilant about future attempts to do something like this.”

ICE had previously said students on F-1 and M-1 visas in the US could transfer to a school offering in-person classes to maintain their legal status. Otherwise, they risked being deported.

Under existing federal regulations, students on F-1 visas may take a maximum of one class or three credit hours online. Under the proposed policy some students taking a combination of online and in-person classes will be allowed to take more than the maximum currently allowed by federal regulation, as long as schools certify the program is not entirely online.

The Department of Homeland Security's Student and Exchange Visitor Program previously instituted a temporary exception for online classes in the spring and summer semesters in response to schools going online because of COVID-19.

Adolfo Flores contributed reporting.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates and follow BuzzFeed News on Twitter.

MORE ON IMMIGRATION
Harvard And MIT Sued To Block Trump's Plan To Bar International Students From The US If Classes Are Online-Only

Adolfo Flores · July 8, 2020

The Government's Own Experts Say Separating Immigrant Families During The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Add To Their Mental Trauma

Hamed Aleaziz · 

Hamed Aleaziz is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

Data Collection And State Surveillance Put LGBTQ People At Risk Online And Off
Apps that harvest data, dark web marketplaces, and state surveillance are just some of the dangers LGBTQ people have to think about online.

Posted on July 14, 2020

Martin Bureau / Getty Images

A new report outlines the minefield of online threats LGBTQ people have to navigate online, from overt state surveillance to tracking via facial recognition to dating app information that gets shared with data brokers and advertisers.

Recorded Future, a cybersecurity company, released a detailed look at what queer communities outside North America have to grapple with. The idea, senior director Maggie McDaniel said, was to better understand where deeper security research is needed.

“It's kind of daunting,” said Evan Akin, associate intelligence consultant who spearheaded the report. “It just shows how difficult it is to navigate between all these different apps, these different states, different regions. There's not just security issues. There's data privacy issues. There are issues with traveling to these different regions. You don't know what the laws are, you don’t know how extensively they’re enforced.”

Based on existing and new research, the results of the report are grim. Even in the few places where LGBTQ people are under less of a threat of state surveillance, the dating apps they may be using still collect data and share it with data brokers or advertisers. This includes sensitive information like sexual orientation, location, drug use, and even HIV status.

Researchers looked at Tinder, OkCupid, Grindr, Scruff, and Her. Scruff was the only app that offered reasonable protections for its users by limiting the information the app collects and shares. The rest of the apps build data sharing into their business models. This creates an inherent threat even as apps introduce protections for their users, like notifications if they’re entering a country with anti-homosexuality laws, because that information can be passed on without users’ knowledge.

“What we're finding is that even if they don't use their name, even if they don't use their phone number, they're still having enough of that information being collected to be identified,” said Akin.

Log-in credentials for the dating apps are a hot commodity on dark web marketplaces, too, creating an additional risk for anyone who reuses passwords. Over the last year, OkCupid and Tinder were key targets for cybercriminals.

These issues have come up before and Grindr was briefly deemed a national security threat by the US when a Chinese company bought it. The company was forced to sell back to US ownership, but that still doesn’t mean it’s completely safe to use, due to the sensitive data it collects.

“If the US government is worried about the data being collected on Grindr, so should you,” Akin said.

The data that’s collected by advertisers across dating apps “can pretty much identify people's daily routines,” Akin said.

“It really facilitates the ability to target individuals and then potentially prosecute them under different laws or statutes,” said McDaniel.

She pointed to findings from cybersecurity firm FireEye that showed the Russian government targeting LGBTQ activists online. Earlier this month, a referendum that made same-sex marriage illegal passed in the country.

Other governments have also weaponized the internet to target LGBTQ people, the report shows. A February 2018 study by human rights organization Article 19 showed Egypt, Lebanon, and Iran have all used apps and social media to track and entrap users. In 2014, the Israeli army reportedly identified gay Palestinians in order to blackmail them, in part through surveillance.

“The capability and technology that powers a lot of the surveillance software companies is growing and getting more powerful every year,” Akin said.

These technologies include facial recognition companies and data analytics, which have become more powerful in the last few years and frequently partner with governments or sell their services to law enforcement.


“This highlights the need for a lot of the companies behind these apps and services geared towards the LGBTQ community to maybe step up their game and make it more of a public effort — to try harder — to protect and offer options to their users,” Akin said, “so that they feel a little bit more safe and protected.”

Jane Lytvynenko is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada. PGP fingerprint: A088 89E6 2500 AD3C 8081 BAFB 23BA 21F3 81E0 101C.
Contact Jane Lytvynenko at jane.lytvynenko@buzzfeed.com.

Universal COVID-19 testing in nursing homes may limit transmission


Registered nurses with the Florida Department of Health perform a specimen collection on a patient at a nursing home in Florida on May 1. "Universal" testing can help better spot COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, a new analysis finds. Photo by Sgt. Michael Baltz/Flickr
July 14 (UPI) -- "Universal" testing of nursing home and assisted living residents is "critical" to identifying asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 and curbing virus transmission, according to the authors of an analysis published Tuesday by JAMA Internal Medicine.

The assessment of coronavirus testing protocols at 11 long-term care facilities in Maryland revealed that checking only those residents with symptoms of COVID-19 -- cough, diarrhea, fever and shortness of breath -- yielded 153 confirmed cases within a population of 893, said researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

However, subsequent testing of all 893 residents of these care homes -- regardless of whether they had symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 -- identified another 354 confirmed cases, the researchers said.

"We are getting more and more evidence that universal screening, particularly in congregate living facilities where there are identified cases or exposures, is incredibly important to stem transmission," Dr. Morgan Katz, assistant professor of infectious disease medicine at Johns Hopkins, told UPI.

"We have underestimated the burden of people who are asymptomatic with SARS-CoV-2 because our testing has thus far been focused only on people with symptoms," she said.

On Tuesday, the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living wrote to the National Governors Association to warn of imminent outbreaks at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

Given spikes in new cases in several states across the country, the organizations pointed to "serious" personal protective equipment shortages and significant delays in obtaining test results for long-term care residents and staff members.

RELATED Nursing home doctors, nurses say they still lack PPE

"We are asking governors and public health agencies to help expedite the delivery of test results and work toward a solution to provide on-site testing with rapid results," the groups wrote.

Universal testing for an infectious disease essentially entails testing an entire population, regardless of whether symptoms are evident.

Although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially mandated testing only people with symptoms of COVID-19, several states implemented universal testing of long-term care facility residents after multiple case clusters popped up.

RELATED 20% of ER visits are for people older than 60, CDC analysis finds

Through the end of June, more than 126,000 residents of long-term care facilities -- including nursing homes and assisted-living complexes -- across the country tested positive for COVID-19, and well over 35,000 have died from the disease, according to the CDC.

Overall, as of Tuesday morning, nearly 3.5 million Americans have been infected and nearly 136,000 have died, based on estimates from Johns Hopkins University.

Katz and her colleagues identified 507 total cases -- 153 on symptomatic testing plus 354 on universal testing -- at the 11 nursing homes they assessed. Two-week follow-up data was available for 177 of the positive cases confirmed via universal testing, the researchers said.

Of these, 154 were asymptomatic at testing, they said. But 20 eventually became sick enough to require hospitalization and seven died within 14 days of testing, according to the researchers.

"My suggestion would be to supply facilities with a cache of rapid turnaround tests that they can have on site to respond to any potential exposure [to a] symptomatic resident," Katz said.

"If this broad based testing yielded any positives, I would then follow with universal testing of the entire facility."

States ask teens to staff polling places on Election Day

By  Shirin Ali, The Fulcrum

Poll workers wears protective equipment as they organize ballots in a special election for Maryland's 7th Congressional District on April 28. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

July 14 (UPI) -- Recruiting enough workers to staff the more than 200,000 polling places across the country has been a longstanding struggle. Now, the coronavirus is making the problem even worse -- because older people, who are the majority of poll workers, are also at the greatest risk of getting the infection.

In response, states are getting creative, increasingly asking their younger populations -- including some not yet old enough to vote -- to step up and play an essential role in the election process. While it's not widely known, people younger than 18 can be poll workers in 45 states and the District of Columbia

Recruiting members of Generation Z has become critical this year because aging Baby Boomers are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. But long before the pandemic transformed the country -- and the way elections are run -- in a matter of weeks, keeping up the supply of election workers has long been a sore subject for election officials. And it has been getting worse.

Even in a year when the share of ballots cast remotely is sure to shatter past records, election officials are generally promising to keep a reasonable number of polling stations open for those who prefer them as well as those who require them, like many disabled or homeless voters. And that means several hundred thousand people will be needed to check in voters, verify their identities, register people in states where that's allowed on Election Day and then answer questions about voting equipment -- which is brand new this year in thousands of locations.engers
The shortage is likely to be particularly acute in Texas and other states that have not done much to promote mail voting despite new surges of coronavirus. Handfuls of polling places have been shuttered in Fort Worth and San Antonio for Tuesday's primary runoffs, for example, because of a lack of people willing to staff them. Wisconsin infamously had to call out the National Guard to replace no-shows for its April primary.

The surge in the number of cities and counties struggling to find sufficient help on Election Day is made plain in the surveys of election officials taken after every election by the federal Election Assistance Commission. The number of jurisdictions reporting at least some difficulty in filling their poll worker jobs rose from only about one-third a decade ago to 70 percent in 2018.

The poll found that for every general election going back at least to 2010, fewer than one in five poll workers was 40 or younger. The surveys also consistently found about one-fourth of poll workers were 71 or older -- results that make intuitive sense, because older people are likelier to be retired and have fewer weekday commitments while people in their 20s and 30s are generally working and committed to family obligations.

Trouble recruiting election workers during the pandemic is magnified by demographics: Three in five poll workers in 2018 were older than 61, an age group at high risk of COVID-19, while just one in five was younger than 40. One way to expand the pool: Grow the share (4 percent last time) not yet old enough to vote, something most states allow.

To help solve its version of the problem, Minneapolis implemented a Student Election Judge Program in the early 1990s and has since seen immense success with recruiting a bilingual, tech-savvy and ethnically diverse corps of high school students to work in its polling centers. The city partnered with local schools to help enlist teenagers, even establishing volunteer advisers at some schools to help advocate for the program and coordinate recruiting. The law in Minnesota, which usually has the strongest voter turnout of any state, permits high school students to work at polling centers after they turn 16.

The coordinator of the program, Caryn Scheel, says that over the years, Minneapolis has received far more applications than it needs -- more than 800 in a typical year, when only about 400 students are needed on Election Day. She estimates that between one-fifth and one-quarter of the city's polling centers have high school students at work.

"They leave really inspired about what it's like to be part of a community during an election," Scheel said. "They really take it seriously, this idea that they are there to help voters to do what they can within the legal process to help people vote. And they find that very empowering."

Three years ago, the EAC singled out the Minneapolis program in a competition for recruiting, training and retaining election workers. Hamilton County, Ohio, won the same award in 2016 for its Youth at the Booth program, which recruits Cincinnati high schoolers older than 17 to work at the polls.

The effort extends to older students, too. Members of the Election Law Society at William & Mary's law school recently started looking for a way to contribute their expertise during the current election, especially in light of the pandemic.

The result, formally launched last week, is ASAP -- the Alliance of Students at the Polls. The nonpartisan program plans to recruit fellow law schools across the country to build an online database of local resources related to voting and the electoral process. The organization also plans to recruit law students to be poll workers either on campus or at home, where many will be studying online this fall.

"Having every state that has in-person voting be a part of our database and have resources available to people that want to volunteer in that state, if we can pull that off, I will consider this a huge success, in terms of just providing access and hopefully recruiting enough poll workers to open some more precincts across the country," said Max Weiss, co-president of the Election Law Society.

Poll work compensation varies widely, although about a quarter of states dictate a flat fee that's often less than the minimum wage for what is sometimes a 12-hour (or longer) day. Other states offer the minimum wage or allow local jurisdictions to pay more.

The National Council of State Legislatures has also promoted the idea of youth poll workers, pointing out that these digital natives have a willingness to operate electronic poll books and other voting technology.

Having more young people part of the electoral process, serving as poll workers or election judges, may motivate a younger voting bloc to cast their own ballots once they turn 18.

Scheel, of Minneapolis' Student Election Judge program, said surveys of participants show students are much more likely to vote as a result of being part of her program.

"You look at research that has been done on youth voter participation and you find that the earlier people get involved, the more likely it is that they'll stay involved," she said.

The notion of using poll worker jobs to promote high school civic engagement crosses ideological lines. The most recent state to allow teens to do the work was reliably Republican Alabama, which made the switch last year.

This article originally appeared at The Fulcrum.

upi.com/7021758

MEDICARE FOR ALL!

Study: 5.4M Americans lost health insurance amid pandemic

Cars idle for miles in line for food being distributed to residents impacted by the COVID-19 crisis at Jordan High School in Long Beach, Calif., on May 9. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

July 14 (UPI) -- An estimated 5.4 million Americans lost their health insurance between February and May because of job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new study said, stating it is the greatest loss in healthcare coverage in the country's history.

The 23-page report, published by the nonpartisan Families USA consumer advocacy group on Monday, said the number of people who lost their health insurance during the three-month period is 39 percent higher than any annual increase ever recorded, trumping the previous high of 3.9 million non-elderly adults who became uninsured during the one-year period of 2008 to 2009.

Nearly half of those who lost insurance due to the pandemic reside in the five states of California, Texas, Florida, New York and North Carolina, the report said, adding the new increases also mean that more than 20 percent of adults in the eight states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas are without health insurance.

"Families in America are losing comprehensive health insurance in record numbers," the report said. "This creates particularly serious dangers during a grave public health crisis and deep economic downturn."

The numbers could also be much higher as they do not include the family members of workers who recently lost their jobs and with it their health insurance, said the report, which is the product of compiling data from each state to examine the effects of COVID-19 on workers below 65, the age at which one is guaranteed Medicare.

Between February and May, 21.9 million Americans lost their jobs due to the economic contraction caused by states enforcing strict lockdown measures in an effort to stymie the spread of COVID-19, which has infected more than 3.3 million people in the United States resulting in more than 135,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Late last week, the Labor Department said more than 1.3 million American workers had filed new claims for unemployment benefits, representing the 16th straight week of at least 1 million new claims.

Families USA said that despite the historic losses, no COVID-19 legislation has yet to be signed into law to protect comprehensive health insurance, stating that policymakers need to know the magnitude of coverage losses.

"Now is the time to fill that gap by including protections for comprehensive health insurance in the next COVID-19 bill," the consumer advocacy group said.

The report comes as cases continue to surge in the United States, which recorded more than 60,000 new cases a day in three of the past five days with the other two days recording just shy of that figure, according to data compiled by the Baltimore university.

Many of the states where the number of uninsured has climbed are also experiencing dramatic increases in cases, such as Florida, which set a single-day record by any state at more than 15,000 new infections over the weekend, and California, which on Monday ordered dine-in restaurants, bars, movie theaters and the like to again close.

Virus spread, not politics should guide schools, doctors say

Des Moines Public Schools custodian Cynthia Adams cleans a desk in a classroom at Brubaker Elementary School, Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. As the Trump administration pushes full steam ahead to force schools to resume in-person education, public health experts warn that a one-size-fits-all reopening could drive infection and death rates even higher. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
As the Trump administration pushes full steam ahead to force schools to resume in-person education, public health experts warn that a one-size-fits-all reopening could drive infection and death rates even higher.

They’re urging a more cautious approach, which many local governments and school districts are already pursuing.

But U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doubled down on President Donald Trump’s insistence that kids can safely return to the classroom.

“There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous,” she told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
FILE - In this July 7, 2020, file photo, a teacher holds up a sign while driving by the Orange County Public Schools headquarters as educators protest in a car parade around the administration center in downtown Orlando, Fla. As the Trump administration pushes full steam ahead to force schools to resume in-person education, public health experts warn that a one-size-fits-all reopening could drive infection and death rates even higher. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)


Still, health experts say there are too many uncertainties and variables for back-to-school to be back-to-normal.

Where is the virus spreading rapidly? Do students live with aged grandparents? Do teachers have high-risk health conditions that would make online teaching safest? Do infected children easily spread COVID-19 to each other and to adults?

Regarding the latter, some evidence suggests they don’t, but a big government study aims to find better proof. Results won’t be available before the fall, and some schools are slated to reopen in just a few weeks.

“These are complicated issues. You can’t just charge straight ahead,” Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday during an online briefing.

Children infected with coronavirus are more likely than adults to have mild illnesses, but their risk for severe disease and death isn’t zero. While a virus-linked inflammatory condition is uncommon, most children who develop it require intensive care, and a few have died. Doctors don’t know which children are at risk.

“The single most important thing we can do to keep our schools safe has nothing to do with what happens in school. It’s how well we control COVID-19 in the community,” Frieden said. “Right now there are places around the country where the virus is spreading explosively and it would be difficult if not impossible to operate schools safely until the virus is under better control.”
A bottle of hand sanitizer sits on a cart as Des Moines Public Schools custodian Tracy Harris cleans a chair in a classroom at Brubaker Elementary School, Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. As the Trump administration pushes full steam ahead to force schools to resume in-person education, public health experts warn that a one-size-fits-all reopening could drive infection and death rates even higher. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Zahrah Wattier teaches high school in Galveston, Texas, where cases and deaths have been spiking. Until the state recently said schools must reopen to in-person classes, her district had been weighing options many others are considering, including full-time online teaching or a hybrid mix.

Wattier’s school has mostly Hispanic and Black students, many from low-income families; almost 70% qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches and many have parents who work in “essential” jobs that increase potential exposure to the virus. Online education was hard for many with limited internet access, and Wattier knows in-person classes can help even the playing field.

But she’s worried.

“My school has over 2,000 students. That’s over 2,000 exposures in a day,” said Wattier, whose parents live with the family and are both high-risk. “It’s a lot to think about. It’s my job. It’s something I choose to do, it’s something I love. Now it comes at a really high risk.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics, whose guidance the Trump administration has cited to support its demands, says the goal is for all students to be physically present in school. But, it adds, districts must be flexible, consult with health authorities and be ready to pivot as virus activity waxes and wanes.

“It is not that the American Academy of Pediatrics thinks this is a done deal because we have put out guidance,” said Dr. Nathaniel Beers, a member of the academy’s school health council. “But what we do know is that we need to have a more realistic dialogue about the implications of virtual learning on the future of children. We have left whole swaths of society behind, whether it’s because they have limited access to a computer, or broadband internet,” or because of other challenges that online education can’t address.

DeVos said local school officials are smart enough to know when conditions are not right.

“There’s going to be the exception to the rule, but the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“And where there are little flare-ups or hot spots, that can be dealt with on a school by school or a case by case basis.”

Following CDC and academy guidelines would mean big changes for most schools. Mask-wearing would be strongly encouraged for adult staff and students except the youngest. Desks would be distanced at least 3 feet apart; the CDC recommends 6 feet. Both suggest limiting adults allowed in schools, including parents, and canceling group activities like choir and assemblies. Staggered arrival and dismissal times, outdoor classes, and keeping kids in the same classroom all day are other options.

President Trump has threatened federal funding cuts for districts that don’t fully reopen.

DeVos defended that stance, saying, “American investment in education is a promise to students and their families.”

“If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn’t get the funds, and give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise,” she said on “Fox News Sunday.”

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called DeVos’ comments “malfeasance and dereliction of duty.”

“They’re messing, the president and his administration are messing with the health of our children,” the California Democrat told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

While most funding typically comes from state and local sources, experts say schools will need more federal funding, not less, to reopen safely. Masks, extra cleaning supplies or janitors, additional classroom space, and mental health support for students and staff traumatized by the pandemic are among potential costs. And with more parents out of work, more children will qualify for federally funded school lunches.

Lynn Morales, 49, teaches 8th grade English at a high-poverty public school in Bloomington, Minnesota, that is considering several options including in-person classes; a final decision is expected Aug. 1.

Some colleagues are considering not returning to the classroom because their children’s day care centers aren’t reopening. Some say they won’t come back until there’s a vaccine.

“I am concerned and it’s because of the age group,” Morales said. ’’Middle school students ... are lovely and I love them, but they touch, they get close, they roughhouse. It is their nature. They’re 13 years old. They are defiant.”

“If masks are required and a kid isn’t wearing a mask, is my job description going to be to chase down this kid and insist they wear a mask? And what if they don’t?”

Dr. Emily Landon, a University of Chicago infectious disease specialist, is helping the university and a campus preK-12 school decide how to reopen safely.

“Things are evolving from, ‘We can’t do it unless it’s perfectly safe’ to more of a harm reduction model, with the caveat that you can always step back” if virus activity flares, Landon said.

Single-occupancy dorms, outdoor classes, socially distanced classrooms and mask-wearing by students and faculty are on tap for the university. Face coverings will be required at the school too. Policies may change depending on virus activity.

She dismisses complaints from some parents who say masks are a loss of personal freedom.

“It’s not harmful for your child,” she said. “If you see wearing masks as a loss of personal freedom, then you have to think the same of pants.”

Dr. Tina Hartert of Vanderbilt University is leading a National Institutes of Health-funded study to determine what role children play in transmitting COVID-19. Almost 2,000 families are enrolled and self-test every two weeks. The idea is to find infected children without symptoms and see how easily disease spreads within families. Results may come by year’s end.

“If we don’t see significant transmission within households, that would be very reassuring,” Hartert said.

She noted that in other countries where schools have reopened, evidence suggests no widespread transmission from children.

In France, public schools reopened briefly before a summer break, with no sign of widespread virus transmission. Masks were only required for upper grades, but students stayed in the same classroom all day. A better test will be when the new school year starts Sept. 1.

In Norway, schools closed in March for several weeks. Nursery schools reopened first, then other grades. Children were put in smaller groups that stay together all day. Masks aren’t required. There have been only a few virus cases, said Dr. Margrethe Greve-Isdahl of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, but she noted virus activity is much lower than in the U.S.

Kati Spaniak, a realtor in Northbrook, Illinois, says her five teenage daughters have struggled to cope with pandemic fears, school closures and deficits of online learning. She strongly supports getting kids back in the classroom, and all her girls will return to some form of that in the fall.

It’s been hard for her high school senior, Kylie Ciesla. Prom, graduation and other senior rituals were canceled, and there were no good-byes. “Just to get ripped away from everything I’ve worked for 12 years, it’s really hard,” Kylie said.

At college, classes will be in person, masks mandated and a COVID-19 test required before she can move into her dorm. Kylie isn’t sure all that is needed.

“I hate that this thing has become so political. I just want the science. I want to know what we need to do to fix it,” she said.

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AP reporters John Leicester and Arno Pedram in Paris contributed to this report.

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Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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This story was first published on July 12, 2020. It was updated on July 13, 2020, to correct the name of the member of the American Academy of Pediatrics school health council. He is Dr. Nathaniel Beers, not Dr. Nicholas Beers.

Legal experts review Black Minnesota teen’s life sentence

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2020, file photo, Myon Burrell sits inside his cell at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, Minn. An independent panel of national legal experts will review the conviction of Burrell, who was a teenager when sentenced to life in prison nearly two decades ago for the murder of little girl struck by a stray bullet while studying in her south Minneapolis home, Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and the New York-based Innocence Project announced Monday, July 13, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An independent panel of national legal experts will review the conviction of an African American man sentenced as a teenager to life in prison for the murder of a little girl struck by a stray bullet, Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and the New York-based Innocence Project announced Monday.

Myon Burrell, 34, has spent nearly two decades behind bars. His case captured widespread interest, first at the time of his 2002 arrest, and again this year after Sen. Amy Klobuchar touted it during her run for the U.S. presidency. She used it as an example of how — when top prosecutor in Hennepin County — she helped find justice for the African American community outraged by gun violence and the senseless death of Tyesha Edwards, an 11-year-old Black girl killed while doing homework at her dining-room table.

After the Associated Press and APM Reports highlighted flaws in the investigation that pointed to a possible wrongful conviction, Klobuchar called for a review, saying justice was not only about punishing the guilty but protecting the innocent. She and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office expressed support Monday for the new panel, which hopes to release its findings by the year’s end. The senator has also said she would like to see the formation of a Conviction Integrity Unit and a Sentencing Review Board to look into other potentially flawed cases.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project and one of the first proponents for Conviction Integrity Units nationwide, called the review of Burrell’s case an important first step.

He and Laura Nirider — co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, who led efforts to identify and select prospective panel members — will act as advisors as the team looks at the evidence that led to Burrell’s conviction and the appropriateness of his sentence.

“A conviction integrity review is a non-adversarial process that seeks cooperation from prosecutors, defenders and police,” said Scheck, who is an expert in best practices in conviction integrity and will help guide the panel. “Best practices today include consideration of excessive sentences as well as a review of guilt or innocence and the fairness of the trial.”

“In the end, CIUs often ask the question after reviewing all the evidence, ‘if we had known all of this at the time we charged the defendant, would we have arrested him in the first place?’”

Nirider, a Minnesota native, who represents innocent juveniles and those widely considered to be wrongfully convicted, including Brendan Dassey, subject of the Netflix series “Making a Murderer,” said the panel is filled with some of the country’s top legal minds, including a former state attorney general, the leader of one of the first Conviction Integrity Units in the country, and the past president of the national Innocence Network.

The effort, she said, was undertaken with the support of several Minnesota organizations, including the Minneapolis NAACP, the Innocence Project of Minnesota, and the ACLU of Minnesota and panel members.

“The gross miscarriage of justice that happened in Myon Burrell’s case struck a chord with many in the Black community,” said Leslie Redmond President of the Minneapolis NAACP,, adding that an independent review of his case is long overdue. “We also know that Myon is one of many young Black men who has been railroaded by the criminal justice system in Hennepin County. There is an urgent need for the establishment of a conviction integrity unit to review those cases now.”

The death of George Floyd — who was killed by police in May at a south Minneapolis corner store just three blocks from where Tyesha was shot — has put a spotlight on Minnesota and its long history of racial injustice.

Many members of the state’s African American community feel the system is stacked against them, from the time of their arrest and charges filed, to the length of their sentences.

The 1990s and 2000s resulted in the highest rate of incarceration ever seen in America, and young Black men were disproportionately affected.

A largely discredited theory about a remorseless, teen criminals — dubbed “superpredators” — resulted in a tripling of the number of youths thrown into adult facilities, thousands of them sentenced to life. The vast majority were African American. While that trend has started to reverse, those already convicted remain in prison where many will likely die.

Perry Moriearty, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said the state has long prided itself on having a progressive penal system, but that is not true when it comes to the punishment of young African American males.

“Black juveniles in Minnesota are eight times more likely to be prosecuted as adults than white juveniles, and we subject them to extraordinarily harsh sentences,” she said. “Even as states across the country are abandoning life sentences for adolescents, we continue to permit life without parole or its equivalent. We are on our way to becoming an outlier.”

Burrell, 16 at the time of Tyesha’s killing, has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence saying he was not even at the scene.

A yearlong AP investigation found there was no hard evidence — no gun, fingerprints, DNA — linking him to the crime.

Surveillance tape that Burrell told police would clear him was never pulled from Cup Food, the same store that called the police on George Floyd for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Much of the state’s case relied on jailhouse informants, several of whom have since recanted. And another man has admitted to the shooting, saying Burrell was not even present.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Offices said in a statement Monday it has been cooperating with Burrell’s current attorney for nearly two years and will continue to be responsive to the panel’s advisors.

Klobuchar, meanwhile, she has been advocating for a review for months.

“As I told Mr. Burrell’s family earlier this year, if any injustice was done in the quest for justice for Tyesha Edwards, it must be addressed,” she said in an emailed statement. “This investigation is an important step forward and I fully support the work of this distinguished panel.”

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