Fired Florida scientist builds coronavirus site showing far more cases than state reports

CITIZEN HERO

Chris Persaud, The Palm Beach Post,
USA TODAY•June 12, 2020


PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida’s former top coronavirus data scientist has launched a website showing far more COVID-19 information than she said the state allowed her to report as an employee, including statistics contradicting Florida’s official coronavirus numbers accompanying the push to reopen the state.

Former Health Department geographic data scientist Rebekah Jones has created FloridaCOVIDAction.com, which asserts that the state’s widely read public-facing dashboard under reports how many people have tested positive for the pathogen. Florida also overcounts how many have been tested, Jones said, to the benefit of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to reopen the state after two months of quarantine.

“I decided to stop wallowing in self-pity and do something constructive, something useful with the skill set I’ve been using for so long,” Jones said. “People have a right to know what’s going on in a straightforward nonpolitical kind of way.”

More: Fired DOH official to speak out, reveals new details of alleged COVID-19 data 'manipulation' attempt

The information her dashboard reports comes from publicly available state data, much of which is not reported front-and-center on state websites, but buried in thousand-page reports or scattered PDF files. It includes hard-to-find hospital capacity information provided by another state agency, the Agency for Health Care Administration.

Jones, who built the state dashboard, says she was fired May 18 after refusing to “manipulate” COVID-19 data to justify reopening. DeSantis said she was fired because “she didn’t listen to the people who were her superiors.”

In her most noticeable break from the state, Jones’ site shows far more people with the illness than the state reports. To the daily number of people with positive coronavirus tests, Jones adds those testing positive to antibodies that may indicate the presence of the disease.

While the Health Department reported 69,069 confirmed cases on Thursday, Jones’ website showed 75,897.

More: Public remarks prompted Florida virus data curator's firing

That could be a mistake, cautioned Dr. Terry Adirim, chairwoman of Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Integrated Biomedical Science. She warned against combining the results because antibody tests are more prone to false positives. Jones separately shows the state’s tally as well.

Jones' site also offers a different death toll. She listed 2,938 deaths in Florida on Thursday while the state listed 2,848 because her site includes deaths of non-residents who caught the virus in Florida.

The state has excluded those people since mid-April. The Palm Beach Post includes non-resident deaths in its daily reporting.
Tests or people tested?

One of Jones’ most controversial claims after her firing was that the state fiddled with the so-called positivity rate to make it easier to justify reopening counties that weren’t ready by using the wrong testing data to draw its conclusions.

On Thursday, the Health Department’s site declared more than 1.3 million “total people tested” in bold type on its website. But Jones’ website says the true figure is about 30 percent less, just over 1 million.

More: Fired scientist defends her COVID-19 data role, portrays Florida Dept. of Health as corrupt

More: Accusations fly around dismissed Health Department official, but questions about COVID-19 data persist

The state’s testing tally reflects the number of tests conducted, not how many people were tested, a state data guide shows.

The figure Jones reports isn’t on any easily viewed public website maintained by the state. It can be found by downloading data non-programmers would find incomprehensible. The Post uses that data for a county-by-county testing map that has been on its website since March.

If Florida is indeed misreporting how many people have been tested, it makes the health situation in Florida look better than it is. By dividing the number of cases into the number of tests instead of the number of people tested, the state erroneously reports a lower percentage of people testing positive, Jones said.

More: Florida scientist was fired for 'refusing to manipulate' COVID-19 data, she said

When DeSantis allowed most of the state to reopen in early May, he relied in part on positivity, demanding that less than 10 percent of those tested in every county have positive test results before a county could reopen.

Some counties that met the criteria using the state’s formula may have fallen short under Jones’ definition.

For instance, Palm Beach County would have a 12 percent positivity rate under Jones’ formula, while the state calculates a positivity rate of less than 8 percent.
A report card on reopening

The state allowed Palm Beach County to start reopening businesses on May 11 even after testing uncovered outbreaks in the Glades and Lake Worth Beach. The number of new daily cases in the county has skyrocketed since late May.

Jones’ dashboard shows “report cards” judging each county’s readiness to enter Phase 2.

The state’s benchmarks for reopening also include two weeks of declining counts in new cases, declines in COVID-like illness from hospitals and emergency rooms and positivity.

By Jones’ calculations based on data reported last week, only two counties qualify: Liberty and Clay.

But without the backing of the state, it is uncertain that her site will win over the public. In a statement announcing the new site, Jones said her website “will always be under construction,” and “we look forward to hearing from the community about what they would like to see on their dashboard.”

Jones’ site also lists details collected by the state for each victim, including those from before March 1, when Florida announced its first cases. “92-year-old Male in Palm Beach County, who was first diagnosed or tested 2/29/2020, 7:00 PM and became an official case after DOH received positive lab results 3/27/2020, 1:00 AM,” one record reads for example.

“We weren’t allowed to really draw attention to deaths, which is why I added hospitalizations and deaths which use something we buried in a PDF but never showed on our dashboard,” Jones said. “So people can bring the humanity aspect of this to the forefront.”
Where can you get tested?

While the state’s dashboard reports only the number of residents who have ever been hospitalized with COVID-19, Jones’ includes hospitalizations and deaths of non-residents. It also pulls the AHCA data to show the number of intensive care unit beds available by hospital, illustrating the strain the virus is putting on health care.

Unlike the state dashboard, Jones includes a map showing hundreds of testing sites statewide, with information such as phone numbers, addresses and how to schedule an appointment.

Jones created the state’s dashboard and map in March, working at one point, she said, 36 days straight without a day off. It earned praise from Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. Jones was in charge of updating statewide coronavirus figures, which detail the number of tests and confirmed cases for each county.

A Health Department manager asked Jones in early May to hide state data from public view the night before The Post reported that Floridians felt COVID-19 symptoms as early as January. Jones told her boss in an email it was the “wrong call” but removed the data.

After The Post story published, it was returned to the site.

Jones was removed from her data management duties on May 5, she said, in retaliation for refusing to “manipulate” the data to make coronavirus look less prevalent among those getting tested for the pathogen.

On May 29, the state’s dashboard went offline for a day, hidden behind a login screen, when a Health Department worker tried to program the software powering the dashboard to make the data private.

Jones, who lives in Tallahassee, has set up a GoFundMe account while she works on her dashboard, with a goal of raising $50,000. Contributors have donated more than $4,000 so far.

“I was very very worried about paying bills next Friday,” she said.

Loblaw, Metro scrap premium pay for grocery workers

IF THESE COMPANIES COLLABORATED TO FIX PRICES IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL 
WHY NOT WHEN THEY COLLABORATE TO FIX WAGES?

Alicja Siekierska Yahoo Finance Canada June 12, 2020

REUTERS/Mark Blinch GALEN WESTON CEO

Grocery retailers are preparing to end the $2 per hour pay raise provided to frontline workers through the coronavirus pandemic.

Loblaw (L.TO), Metro (MRU.TO), Empire (EMP) and Walmart Canada have each confirmed that the temporary pandemic pay bump will be coming to an end. Loblaw, Metro and Empire, which operates the Sobeys chain, said the pay increase will end on June 13. Walmart did not specify a date.

In a letter sent to PC Optimum customers on Thursday, Loblaw executive chairman Galen Weston said it was “the right time” to end the temporary pay premium, which was introduced when the pandemic began in mid-March.

“Things have now stabilized in our supermarkets and drug stores,” Weston wrote.

“After extending the premium multiple times, we are confident our colleagues are operating safely and effectively in a new normal.”

Metro spokesperson Marie-Claude Bacon said in a statement the company will pay full-time and part-time employees bonuses of $200 and $100, respectively, as the company ends the premium pay.

“We are no longer working under the crisis conditions that prevailed from March through May as grocers were amongst the only retailers open to the public,” Bacon said.

“Demand is stabilizing as other business are reopening. A host of prevention measures have been implemented and adopted, by both employees and customers, and we are now transitioning into recovery while not letting our guard down.”

Michael Medline, chief executive of Sobeys, sent a letter to employees on Friday announcing the end of its “Hero Pay” program, saying that it was “a natural time” to end the program with provinces reopening and customer behaviour shifting to normal. He said the company will be offering bonuses to employees, with specific details about the program to come.

Walmart Canada, which implemented the pay boost, said in a statement that it has also returned wages to pre-pandemic levels.

Loblaw, Metro and Walmart were three of several retailers that offered a pay increase to workers through the coronavirus pandemic. Empire Ltd., which operates several grocery retailers including Sobeys, also offered a temporary top up of wages for their employees. Empire has not responded to a request for comment.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents thousands of grocery workers across Canada, released a statement on Thursday calling on companies to continue paying workers the premium wage.

“UFCW Canada is disappointed that employers in various sectors across Canada are choosing to stop paying COVID-19 premium pay while the pandemic continues, and some provinces are still enforcing precautionary measures,” the union said in a statement.

“Premium pay should be maintained throughout the pandemic.”

Grocery stores have seen sales surge amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales at Loblaw jumped in the company’s most recent fiscal quarter, which included the first three weeks of March, when the pandemic struck and governments began enforcing lockdowns across the country. The company an extra $751 million in sales in that quarter related to the coronavirus pandemic, while overall sales increased by $1.1 billion, or 10.8 per cent, to $11.8 billion.Expenses also increased, as the company spent more on expanding online capabilities, increasing staffing and wages, cleaning and safety supplies, installing plexiglass barriers, and social distancing promotion. The measures cost Loblaw $90 million every four weeks, the company said.

At Metro, sales in its most recent quarter hit $3.99 billion, up from $3.7 billion during the same time last year, representing an increase of 7.8 per cent. The company estimated that COVID-19 contributed to a $125 million increase in sales in the quarter.

Fauci 'concerned' that George Floyd protests could lead to coronavirus spike, but has no comment on Trump rallies

FAUCI HAS BECOME TRUMPIZED

Alexander Nazaryan National Correspondent,Yahoo News•June 12, 2020

WASHINGTON — The nation’s most prominent public health official said he is worried that the recent widespread protests against police brutality could lead to a spike in coronavirus cases. At the same time, he declined to speculate on whether campaign rallies resumed by President Trump would result in a similar spike.

“You know, I’m concerned. I am,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Yahoo News about the protests in a conversation that ranged from the 1918 influenza pandemic to the 79-year-old immunologist’s famous running habit.

Though his official title is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, millions of Americans have come to trust and revere the blunt Brooklynite, elevating him to celebrity status.

Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

A leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, Fauci has sometimes angered Trump by straying from the president’s optimistic view on matters. But at least in the case of the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, Fauci appears to be aligned with those in the president’s camp who say that some media outlets, public health officials and politicians have shied from criticizing the protests, even if just weeks ago those same people were quick to condemn sometimes-armed protesters pushing states to end lockdown restrictions.

Without commenting on the protesters, Fauci observed that the demonstrations contravened virtually all of the social distancing guidelines issued by the White House task force in March. “You’re having crowds, and we recommend not to go in crowds. Physical distancing is impossible,” Fauci told Yahoo News, speaking from a National Institutes of Health boardroom (and thereby depriving the public of views into his much-discussed home office in Washington, D.C.).

“When people get animated, they get involved in the demonstration, they start chanting and shouting and screaming, very often they take their mask off,” Fauci said. In some cities, protest organizers distributed face masks and hand sanitizer to attendees; at the largest gatherings, in Washington and New York, most did seem to be wearing face coverings, which can greatly reduce the risk of virus transmission.

Just how much transmission the protests will produce will become evident in the weeks to come, but Fauci said that reported infections in the D.C. National Guard are an inauspicious sign.

A crowd of protesters in Brooklyn. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The protests are hardly the only evidence that a lockdowned nation has grown restless. Earlier this week, President Trump announced that he would be holding his first campaign rally in three months in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19. Attendees will have to sign a waiver abdicating the right to file coronavirus-related suits.

An able politician who has served every president since Ronald Reagan — in whose administration he led the effort to fight HIV/AIDS — Fauci can be forthright and circumspect in the same sentence. A question about Trump’s campaign rallies brought out the latter quality.

“I don’t really want to comment on that,” he said. “It’s not productive.” The reticence seems rooted in the recognition that Trump would likely take any warning about rallies as a slight. Some of the president’s more conspiratorial supporters have long pushed him to dismiss Fauci, manufacturing stories about how the revered immunologist is actually a Democratic plant.

Staying in Trump’s good graces may mean having to stay silent on issues like the upcoming rallies, even though the president’s supporters skew older and, like the president himself, may be reluctant to wear face masks in public. Packing those supporters into an arena could be a public health disaster, as Fauci doubtlessly knows.

(On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “strongly” encouraged the wearing of face masks at high-attendance events, a comment that could in part be a reference to forthcoming Trump campaign rallies.)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, right, and President Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The president has been less focused on the public health aspect of the coronavirus pandemic than on its economic effects, which are bound to have ramifications for his reelection prospects. Fauci said that he had what he described as a “nice meeting” with Trump last week. “You don’t have to see the president every day for the president to be interested in it,” he argued, while at the same time acknowledging that Trump is “getting input” from “other components” of his administration.

Governors of both parties have been eager to reopen, with Republican-led states in the Southeast and Southwest generally moving faster than coastal states led by Democrats. But every state has reopened to some degree, and most are expected to continue to reopen, even as infection rates in many parts show a troubling rise.

Fauci has a message for states seeking to return to normal: “If you do it, don’t throw all caution to the wind,” he said, adding that governors should insist on face coverings and social distancing measures.

And he has a similar message for ordinary people exhausted by what the coronavirus has wrought. “I feel the same thing,” said Fauci, who was praised by some HIV/AIDS activists for his compassion in the 1980s, when many shunned and condemned victims of the disease. “I lock down when I am not doing duty as a health official,” he added. “And I’m cut off from all the kinds of social and interactions. I’d love to go to a movie. I’d love to sit down at my favorite restaurant. It’s tough.”

It’s toughest of all, he said, for the millions who have lost jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci continues to exercise, though the running is now sometimes speed-walking. On the continuing debate about whether runners should wear masks, Fauci understands why doing so is uncomfortable in the midst of physical exertion. “When you breathe in, it feels like you’re waterboarding yourself,” he joked.

Dr. Anthony Fauci at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/the Washington Post via Getty Images)

His solution for when he runs through the woodsy upper northwest section of Washington is a hybrid one. “When I see that there’s nobody within a hundred feet of me, I might take it down and breathe regularly,” he admitted.

“When I see people coming — and there are people walking on the street — I put the mask back on. As soon as I pass them, and I’m alone again, I’ll take it down a little. I think that’s reasonable. You don’t have to have it on if there’s nobody around.”

What he won’t tolerate, however, are assertions that the coronavirus is not as serious as public health officials have made it out to be. That argument has been proffered by coronavirus skeptics like Alex Berenson, the former New York Times journalist whose embittered Twitter diatribes against lockdown measures have earned him frequent appearances on Fox News.

“How can you characterize it as anything other than denialism?” Fauci wondered of those who doubt the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 423,000 people worldwide and is the worst viral outbreak since the 1918 influenza.

“To say that this is not a serious situation is just not facing reality,” said Fauci, a veteran not only of the HIV/AIDS fight, but also of the battles against Ebola, Zika and other infectious diseases.

He urged a decidedly unglamorous but effective practice: patience.

“Clearly, this is not going to just disappear spontaneously,” Fauci said of the coronavirus. “If this would go away, the way SARS did,” he continued, referring to the deadly respiratory disease that struck in 2003, “then we would just have to gut it out and then it’s going to be gone. But that’s not going to happen.”

It is difficult not to take that as a rebuke of Trump, who repeatedly claimed in the early stages of the pandemic that the virus would “go away.” So far, it has done no such thing.

But just moments later, Fauci evinced an optimism similar to Trump’s. “It is not inevitable that you’re going to have a resurgence. In other words, you may be able to tiptoe into normality.” The difference is that Fauci doesn’t think this normality will appear spontaneously. Instead, it will take discipline on the part of the public and preparation on the part of public health officials.

And so his ultimate message is that even after a difficult spring, now is hardly the time to declare that the coronavirus has been defeated.

“It’s not over yet,” Fauci warned.

Marches aren't enough. New York protest leaders have lasting change in mind.

Phil McCausland, NBC News•June 12, 2020


Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, paced in the center of a circle of about a dozen activists Sunday. Those in the group, which included representatives from several different city advocacy groups, raised their fists in the air. A crowd of thousands waited expectantly 10 yards away.

This, Newsome said, was their moment to define what comes next.

The organizers were gathered a few blocks from Times Square in Manhattan, where they had planned to rally before the New York City Police Department cut off their route. Many nodded as Newsome lamented “activism tourists,” describing those who had stepped in and out of the movement since Eric Garner died in 2014, pleading for his life while a police officer held him in a chokehold.

“Everyone in this circle has stayed the course,” said Newsome, one of the most bellicose and public-facing Black organizers in the nation. “So now that the whole world is marching, it is our opportunity and our obligation to give them a plan — to give them demands.”


Newsome’s pump-up speech served as a precursor to a two-hour event that included speeches from academics, poets, organizers, musicians, social media influencers and a candidate for Congress, most of whom appeared to be in their early 20s. The actor and comedian Nick Cannon declared that he was “ready to put my life on the line for my people.”

But the focus of the event was its conclusion: a list of 24 policies and reforms, known as “The Blueprint,” that Black Lives Matter expects New York City and the state to incorporate. The reforms, which include everything from the “I Can’t Breathe” Act and disbanding police unions to education equity, affordable housing and reparations, were catalyzed in part by the sweeping backlash over the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The aims are to investigate police and invest in communities of color.

“We now have all 50 states paying attention,” Chelsea Miller, the founder of Freedom March NYC, said. “So now the question is how do we push even further past conversations about the police’s use of chokeholds and think about the system as a whole.”

Beyond providing a list of policies, the four-page document appears to have helped consolidate multiple New York protest organizations, led by young people, under a banner as they push for long-term political and policy changes.

There are numerous groups working across the city, many with similar policy goals but separate plans on how to achieve them.

Celebrities Support The Black Lives Matter Movement (Noam Galai / Getty Images)

“We’re trying to make sure we’re all on the same page,” said Joseph Martinez, a member of Warriors in the Garden, a college-age group in which he has focused on political and policy goals. “We’re all fighting for the same thing: We have different ideas about how to get there, but we’re always in contact and telling each other what we’re doing.”

The efforts of the numerous groups are generally concerted, said Martinez, who was recently arrested by the NYPD while protesting, but many organizations have shared their intention to submit their own proposals beyond “The Blueprint” provided by Black Lives Matter of Greater New York.

Full coverage of George Floyd’s death and protests around the country

Still many are working together to support candidates for office, educate marchers on policy, begin voter registration drives, raise money for personal protective equipment to protect against the pandemic, and meeting with each other and local politicians to navigate a way forward.

“We understand that we’re going to be here for a while, and so we really want to take this opportunity to create a world that is more in line with our goals,” said Carlos Polanco, a Dartmouth University student at the rally who works with Black Lives Matter and has helped lead a number of protests. “We believe in a world without police and mass incarceration, and so we’re trying to show, not just the number of people protesting, but also create a model of what our future can look like.”
‘This isn’t a rally. This is a revolution.’

Protest organizers aim to harness the energy of the movement now in New York City and create change at the local, state and national levels. While thousands have taken to the streets each day for two weeks under their young leadership, they are clear-eyed that marches alone won’t bring long-term sustained change.

Since the protests began, they successfully brought major New York City roadways to a standstill with a crush of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Organizers still have numerous political goals: getting people of color into positions of power — city councils, state legislatures and Congress — as well as removing President Donald Trump from office and replacing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio either through his resignation or the election in 2021.

“The whole country is fighting white supremacy,” said Vidal Guzman, who has led marches and works as an organizer for JustLeadershipUSA, a group aimed at ending mass incarceration. “There’re three pillars to that: getting Trump out of office, reporting and locking up officers who are killing people, and then pulling together a policy package on the state and local level.”

The frustration with government inaction — especially from a mayor who appealed to communities of color — runs deep in the Black activist community in New York City, where many feel as though they receive lip service and performative gestures at most and only when there is clear pressure.

This week, many pointed to the mayor’s announcement that he would paint “Black Lives Matter” on one street in each of the boroughs. This stands in contrast to his lackluster response to the NYPD’s recent use of force against protesters or the long-term issues that organizers have seen within city and state governments.

In the past two weeks alone, as marches have gained steam, organizers also point to the mayor’s defense of the police when they penned protesters on the Manhattan Bridge for hours, the use of excessive force, like when an NYPD vehicle drove into a crowd of protesters, or the police’s removal of masks from those they arrest before putting them in crowded holding cells.

Image: Chivona Newsome, US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST (Bryan R. Smith / AFP - Getty Images)
It’s this type of leadership that caused Chivona Newsome to mount a congressional campaign in the Bronx, she said. Newsome, Hawk’s sister and also a co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, said politicians have the ability to make changes immediately if they choose to address the issues.

Chivona Newsome, who told the crowd Sunday that “This isn’t a rally: This is a revolution,” said that it shouldn’t take being elected to bring these concepts to policymakers.

“Legislation is the most important thing to protect our people, to get the justice that we want, because without it, we will be denied,” Newsome said. “The policies we’re introducing are not what I’m promising once I get to Congress in January 2021, they’re what we’re demanding from people who are in office now.”
Educating a new group of protesters

Organizers realize that the adoption of these reforms will require educating the “activism tourists” that Hawk Newsome lamented.

Warriors in the Garden, the group organized by college students in New York City, said it is actively working to register those at its protests to vote, holding marches explicitly designed for school-aged children and their parents and expanding a digital campaign via Instagram and TikTok to engage younger people and educate them about the issues. In time, they plan to endorse candidates and are focused on emphasizing the importance of local elections.

Education, multiple members of the group said, is key to undermining systemic racism and oppression, particularly if they want to make the next generation better.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage and alerts on this story

“We have the kids at the end of the day,” said Livia Rose Johnson, 20, a marketing student at Sarah Lawrence College who is helping lead the Warriors. “Gen-Z is listening, and we recognize that. So while we are sending people to do marches today, the big pivot is from protests on the streets to digital protesting. We want to get louder than the same 5,000 to 10,000 people we have marching every day.”

But some organizers are also attempting to force the city to reckon with its values in physical ways, as well. The hope is that changing the physical shape of New York City and its prominent monuments will cause people to educate themselves.

In 2017, Glenn Cantave began asking New York City to reexamine its monuments, specifically ones with ties to white supremacy or violence against communities of color. Cantave, the head of Movers and Shakers NYC, said his pleas fell on deaf ears — even his specific request about the statue of Christopher Columbus in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle.
Image: Glenn Cantave, Celebrities Support The Black Lives Matter Movement (Noam Galai / Getty Images)

Amid the demonstrations, he said, it’s hard to ignore that protesters have beheaded a statue of Columbus in Boston and a group in Richmond tore down another sculpture before throwing it into a lake.

Feeling ignored by the city government, Cantave is using the digital space to educate future organizers and communities of color about their own history.

He is now in the late stages of developing an app that creates digital models of Black and brown heroes of history to help teach kids at home, an activity he pursues between helping organize street protests and raising money to buy personal protective equipment to safeguard protesters against the coronavirus.

“This is a work around because these institutions are refusing to highlight those narratives,” said Cantave, who has helped pass out 10,000 KN95 masks across the five boroughs this past week. “This allows people to do it at home, transform your space into a learning space and make it fun.”

“But this isn’t about optics,” he added, “this is about power and getting the information in people's heads, so they think differently when they go vote.”

Starbucks bows to 'boycott' pressure, will let staff wear Black Lives Matter gear

GEAR THAT STARBUCKS IS PRODUCING

Julia La Roche Correspondent, Yahoo Finance•June 12, 2020

Starbucks (SBUX) announced on Friday it would allow employees to wear apparel in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, bowing to an intense social media campaign even as the company moves to crank out over 250,000 specialty shirts of its own.

This week, Starbucks was hit with online backlash and renewed calls for a boycott, following reports that it has banned employees from wearing pins and t-shirts at work in support of Black Lives Matter protests.

However, the reason for the policy is pretty technical, despite accusations to the contrary. To address the issue, Starbucks is planning to crank out hundreds of thousands of apparel items in support of a movement demanding change — but will also let its employees wear their own gear immediately.

“As we talked about earlier this week, we’re designing new t-shirts with the graphic below to demonstrate our allyship and show we stand together in unity,” Starbucks executives wrote in a letter to employees entitled “Standing together against racial injustice.”

The note added: “Until these arrive, we’ve heard you want to show your support, so just be you. Wear your BLM pin or t-shirt. We are so proud of your passionate support of our common humanity. We trust you to do what’s right while never forgetting Starbucks is a welcoming third place where all are treated with dignity and respect.”

'Designed for partners, by partners, our Starbucks Black Partner Network and allies created the t-shirt to recognize the historic significance of this time. Together, we’re saying: Black Lives Matter and it’s going to take ALL of us, working together, to affect change,' Starbucks executives wrote in a memo on Friday.

The company’s ban on personal apparel wasn’t specifically crafted for Black Lives Matter, nor did it recently take effect. Instead, a long-standing dress-code among Starbucks employees — known internally as “partners” — states that clothing accessories need to be company-issued, and can’t “advocate a political, religious or personal issue.”

According to a weekly update sent to baristas obtained by BuzzFeed News, store managers recently asked Starbucks leadership about employee requests to wear pins or t-shirts supporting Black Lives Matter. The memo pointed to Starbucks’ dress code, which states:

“Partners may only wear buttons or pins issued to the partner by Starbucks for special recognition or for advertising a Starbucks-sponsored event or promotion; and one reasonably sized and placed button or pin that identifies a particular labor organization or partner’s support for that organization, except if it interferes with safety or threatens to harm customer relations or otherwise unreasonably interferes with Starbucks public image. Pins must be securely fastened. Partners are not permitted to wear buttons or pins that advocate a political, religious or personal issue.”

According to the bulletin, Starbucks’ head of diversity and inclusion accused “agitators who misconstrue the fundamental principles of the Black Lives Matter movement — and in certain circumstances, intentionally repurpose them to amplify divisiveness.”

A spokesperson told Yahoo Finance in an email that “Black lives matter, and Starbucks is committed to doing our part in ending system racism. We respect all of our partners’ opinions and beliefs, and encourage them to bring their whole selves to work while adhering to our dress code policy with a commitment to create a safe and welcoming Third Place environment for all.”
250,000 t-shirts underway

Barista Sarah Dacuno, left, is embraced by assistant manager Lindsey Pringle outside the Pike Place Market Starbucks, commonly referred to as the original Starbucks, as they prepare to close it for the day Tuesday, May 29, 2018, in Seattle. The first Starbucks cafe was located nearby in the early 1970's. Starbucks closed more than 8,000 stores nationwide on Tuesday to conduct anti-bias training, the next of many steps the company is taking to try to restore its tarnished image as a hangout where all are welcome. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

According to BuzzFeed, some Starbucks partners expressed disappointment that Black Lives Matter attire isn’t permitted at work under the dress code. Those quoted in the article specifically pointed out that many employees wear buttons for LGBTQ rights, which were issued by Starbucks.

Yet Starbucks collaborates with its diverse partner networks — which include a range of groups that cut across racial, ethnic and gender lines — to create company-approved merchandise like t-shirts, buttons, and pins. For example, on Fridays, partners were permitted to wear their R.E.D. (remember everyone deployed) t-shirts in recognition of military service members.

Last year, ahead of the 50th anniversary for the Stonewall Riots, Starbucks worked with its LGBTQ partner network, the Pride Alliance, to create a special t-shirt for its U.S. partners that could be worn at work.

“Collaborating with the Partner Network on this limited-edition t-shirt gave us an opportunity to amplify our LGBTQ partners’ voices, bring LGBTQ partners and allies together, and show up in a way that is unique to Starbucks,” according to an internal Starbucks memo sent this week seen by Yahoo Finance.

In that memo, Starbucks said it’s working with its Black Partner Network to produce a t-shirt for all of its baristas that will speak out against systemic racism, and emphasize the company’s “role and responsibility to not be bystanders.”

The process could wrap up within days, Starbucks said, which would produce over 250,000 shirts promoting an anti-racism message.

Starbucks said it has “a similar opportunity,” as it did with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, to “lend our collective voice in support of our Black partners, customers and communities in this historic moment in time.” The company added that it was “in it for the long haul and this will be our way of showing our support for the movement.”

In the note, Starbucks also encouraged partners to sign up for its systemic racism and bias course. The company is also holding conversations around police reform, the meaning of Juneteenth, and is promoting Bryan Stevenson’s film, “Just Mercy,” that’s screening across multiple platforms.

Starbucks also said, “participating in local rallies, supporting the Black Partner network, participating in the many forms of civic engagement, and volunteering with local organizations are all ways we can affect real and meaningful change.”


Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

Trump's views on race have been remarkably consistent for decades

June 12, 2020

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg

WASHINGTON — For someone who’s been prone to deliver mixed messages on policy and take multiple positions on issues, President Trump has almost always been on the same consistent side when it comes to race.

This week alone, he defended military bases named after Confederate generals, and he announced he would restart his campaign rallies in Tulsa — the site of a 1921 massacre of black citizens by a white mob — on Juneteenth.

In the past month, when the protests over George Floyd’s death first began, he tweeted about “THUGS” and warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Earlier as president, he attacked Colin Kaepernick and protesting NFL players ("Get that son of a bitch off the field right now”); he referred to the Baltimore-area district represented by the late Rep. Elijah Cummings as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”; he did pretty much the same to Rep. John Lewis’ Atlanta district; and he talked about Haiti and African nations as “sh--hole countries.”

And before he became president, Trump led the “birther” crusade against Barack Obama; he began his 2016 campaign assailing Mexican “rapists”; he retweeted fake statistics spread by white supremacists falsely claiming that black criminals disproportionately prey on whites; and he called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five — five African-American and Latino men who, as teenagers, were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger.

So not only is Trump currently bucking much of the shifting corporate and cultural views on race, as the New York Times writes this morning.

This is who he is — and has always been.

To be sure, Trump can claim his work on criminal-justice reform, he can cite falling unemployment statistics for African Americans (which is no longer true), and he can criticize his opponents’ gaffes and own records on race.

But what remains remarkable is just how consistent Trump has been on the subject.

Over all of these years.

Trump: “We have to take care of our police”

And Trump’s consistent instinct also puts him at odds with the congressional work — by both Democrats and Republicans — on police reform.

“Trump [yesterday] offered some broad outlines of the steps he might embrace to answer the national demand for action. He told the roundtable participants he was working on an executive order to ‘encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force, including tactics for de-escalation,’” the Washington Post writes.

But: “He defended police officers and slammed calls to ‘defund’ them, saying it means people want to get rid of law enforcement. Most advocates use the term to mean the reallocation of police budgets to social services including housing and education.”

“‘We have to respect our police. We have to take care of our police. They’re protecting us. And if they’re allowed to do their job, they’ll do a great job,’ Trump said. ‘And you always have a bad apple. No matter where you go, you have bad apples and there not too many of them.’”

Days before Trump rally in Tulsa, city’s Whirlpool plant closes for COVID-19 outbreak

Mike Stunson,Sacramento Bee•June 12, 2020

Days before Trump rally in Tulsa, city’s Whirlpool plant closes for COVID-19 outbreak
A Whirlpool plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has temporarily closed due to a coronavirus outbreak one week before President Donald Trump will visit the city for a rally.

The factory employs more than 1,600 workers, though it’s not clear how many have been infected with COVID-19, according to KOTV.

Whirlpool plans to re-open early next week and contact tracing will be done on the infected employees, the company said, according to KTUL.

“Any individuals who come in close contact with diagnosed employees have been notified and have been quarantined,” Whirlpool stated, KOKI reported. “The plant is regularly cleaned per CDC guidelines and will be cleaned again before re-opening.”

The factory had already been social distancing on its production lines and employees were required to wear masks and have their temperatures taken, according to KOTV.

There have been 1,372 confirmed coronavirus cases in Tulsa County, its health department reports, as of Thursday, June 11. The county reported just eight new COVID-19 cases Sunday, but the number jumped to 65 on Monday. There were 47 cases Tuesday and 64 on Wednesday, the health department reported.

Tulsa County now has its highest seven-day average of coronavirus cases since the outbreak began in March, according to the health department.

Trump will visit Tulsa on June 19 for his first rally in months. His re-election campaign will require supporters going to his rally to sign a coronavirus disclaimer in order to attend.

All attendees “assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19” and agree to not hold the campaign liable for any illness or injury.

Trump rally on Juneteenth in Tulsa called 'slap in the face'

ELLEN KNICKMEYER and JONATHAN LEMIRE,
Associated Press•June 11, 2020

JUNE 1, 1921, THE TULSA WHITE RACE WAR

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Black community and political leaders are calling on President Donald Trump to at least change the date of an Oklahoma rally kick-starting his return to public campaigning, saying that holding the event on Juneteenth, the day that marks the end of slavery in America, is a “slap in the face.”

Trump campaign officials discussed in advance the possible reaction to the Juneteenth date, but there are no plans to change it despite fierce blowback.

California Sen. Kamala Harris and Tulsa civic officials were among the black leaders who said it was offensive for Trump to pick that day — June 19 — and that place — Tulsa, an Oklahoma city that in 1921 was the site of a fiery and orchestrated white-on-black attack.

“This isn’t just a wink to white supremacists — he’s throwing them a welcome home party,” Harris, a leading contender to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, tweeted of Trump’s rally plans.

“To choose the date, to come to Tulsa, is totally disrespectful and a slap in the face to even happen,” said Sherry Gamble Smith, president of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street Chamber of Commerce, an organization named after the prosperous black community that white Oklahomans burned down in the 1921 attack.

At a minimum, Gamble Smith said, the campaign should "change it to Saturday the 20th, if they’re going to have it.”

Trump announced the rally plan Wednesday afternoon. It comes as his harsh law-and-order stance appears to fall increasingly out of sync with a growing concern over police abuse of African Americans after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Trump campaign officials defended the rally.

“As the party of Lincoln, Republicans are proud of the history of Juneteenth,” said Katrina Pierson, senior adviser to the Trump campaign. “President Trump has built a record of success for Black Americans, including unprecedented low unemployment prior to the global pandemic, all-time high funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and criminal justice reform.”

The Trump campaign was aware in advance that the date for the president’s return to rallies was Juneteenth, according to two campaign officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

When the date was discussed, it was noted that Biden had held a fundraiser a year ago on Juneteenth. Although choosing June 19 was not meant to be incendiary, some blowback was expected, the officials said. But the campaign was caught off guard by the intensity, particularly when some linked the selection to the 1921 massacre.

Scheduling the highly anticipated comeback rally in Oklahoma, a state Trump won easily in 2016, raised eyebrows.

The campaign picked Tulsa's BOK Center, with a listed seat capacity of 19,199. The arena's Facebook page shows organizers calling off shows there by country singer Alan Jackson and other performers into mid-July, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

Arena marketing director Meghan Blood said Thursday that she didn't know yet about any plans for social distancing or other coronavirus precautions for Trump's rally, which would be one of the larger public gatherings in the U.S. at this stage of the outbreak.

Campaign officials said safety decisions would be made in coordination with local authorities. A disclaimer on the ticket registration website said attendees voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold the campaign liable for any illness.

The campaign officials said the Trump campaign picked Oklahoma because arrangements could be made quickly, for a variety of reasons: Oklahoma has a Republican, Trump-friendly governor; the state is not seeing huge numbers of coronavirus cases; and the arena was “turn-key” and could easily be opened for the rally. Moreover, the rally will be held up the turnpike from a district held by Rep. Kendra Horn, one of the Democrats the GOP feels is vulnerable this fall.

Campaign officials also wanted to hold the rally where they could all but guarantee a big crowd despite coronavirus concerns, according to the officials. Oklahoma is one of the most Republican states in the nation and Trump has not held a rally there as president, so it will likely deliver an enthusiastic audience eager to see him, the officials believed.

Tulsa, an oil center along the Arkansas River, has had its own marches, viral videos and troublesome police actions during this month's unrest.

On Tuesday, Tulsa police released video and said they were investigating officers who handcuffed and arrested two black teenagers for jaywalking. Video of the June 4 incident showed officers pinned one of the two unidentified teens stomach-down on the ground.

“Get off me! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” one teen shouts in the police video.

“You can breathe just fine,” the officer replies.

On Monday, a Tulsa police major played down police shootings of African Americans nationally by telling a radio show that statistically, “we’re shooting African Americans about 24% less than we probably ought to be, based on the crimes being committed.”

And on Wednesday, the same day Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum welcomed news of Trump’s rally pick as evidence of the city’s progress against COVID-19, Bynum apologized for remarks about a 2016 police killing of a black man. Bynum had said the killing was “more about the really insidious nature of drug utilization than it is about race.”

Nationally, as research brings to light more about the 1921 massacre, Tulsa increasingly is associated with the rampage in which white Tulsans razed a thriving black business community, killing as many as 300 people. Long dismissed by generations of white Tulsans as a race “riot," the May 31-June 1 events were marked this year by community memorials.

Oklahoma's black Democratic Party chairwoman also condemned Trump's rally plan. "A day set aside to commemorate the freedom of enslaved people must not be marred by the words or actions of a racist president,” Alicia Andrews said.

Community groups had earlier canceled a main Tulsa Juneteenth celebration because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some black Tulsans said they planned to turn out for public protests of Trump on that day. “There's definitely going to be demonstrating,” Gamble Smith said.

___

Lemire reported from New York City. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TULSA

Trump stirs anger with plans for Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, site of huge massacre of African Americans

Trump stirs anger with plans for Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, site of huge massacre of African Americans


Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY•June 11, 2020

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s decision to hold his first rally in three months in Tulsa, the location of one of the worst massacres of African Americans in U.S. history, has triggered controversy as he wrestles with criticism over his handling of nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.

Trump plans to visit Oklahoma on June 19 for the first of several big campaign events. It will be his first rally since an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 2. The trip comes after weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was pinned to the ground for nearly nine minutes under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.

Trump put his large campaign rallies on hiatus for a few months while much of the country was locked down amid the coronavirus pandemic.

June 19, or Juneteenth, is also known as Emancipation Day and commemorates the date in 1865 when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger traveled to Galveston, Texas, to inform residents that President Abraham Lincoln had freed the slaves and that slave owners had to comply with the Emancipation Proclamation.

This month, Tulsa marked a grim date – the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre in which a white mob ravaged a thriving African-American business community in the Greenwood District known as the "Black Wall Street." Estimates suggest as many as 300 people were killed, and scores of homes and businesses were destroyed.

Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, said Trump was "thumbing his nose at the real issue of racial inequity."

"There's a man's words, and then there are his actions," she said. "Him coming here on that date, without making any outreach to the community, and saying it's for unity, it is a slap in the face."

Protesters walk from the Capitol to the White House during a march against police brutality and racism June 6. Demonstrations have been held across the USA after the death of George Floyd on May 25 while being arrested in Minneapolis.Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, tweeted Thursday that holding the rally in Tulsa was "overt racism from the highest office in the land."

Trump's campaign said the timing and location of the rally were deliberate, and his team views it as a chance to tout his "record of success for black Americans."

Trump faces rising criticism, including from Republicans, for his response to the growing Black Lives Matter movement – three words etched in yellow paint on a street outside the White House.

In the wake of Floyd's death and the outrage that followed, Trump has said little about racial inequality, focusing instead on restoring "law and order" in American streets and lambasting protesters as "thugs" and looters.

Members of Trump's own administration, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, distanced themselves from a decision to forcefully clear a park outside the White House of peaceful protesters so Trump could walk to nearby St. John's Church and hold up a Bible before television cameras. Milley said Thursday he had made a "mistake" in accompanying Trump on the walk

Mechelle Brown, program coordinator and tour guide for the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa, said the organization had not heard from the president or the Trump campaign about his planned visit and does not expect to.

"The community doesn't feel that Trump is genuinely interested in the history of the Greenwood district," Brown said, "and that his visit to Tulsa during Juneteenth, as we are commemorating the 99-year anniversary of the massacre, is insulting."

Brown said the black community in Tulsa was "incredibly anxious" about the rally.

"You have people who are proudly waving their Confederate flag against the backdrop of African Americans and others – white allies – who are continuing to protest George Floyd's death and police brutality," she said. "We just see the potential of there being a clash."

Senior Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson said in a statement that Trump's visit was entirely appropriate.

“As the party of Lincoln, Republicans are proud of the history of Juneteenth, which is the anniversary of the last reading of the Emancipation Proclamation," she said. "President Trump has built a record of success for Black Americans, including unprecedented low unemployment prior to the global pandemic, all-time high funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and criminal justice reform."

A USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll released this week suggested the walk across Lafayette Square was a defining moment for the president. Nearly nine of 10 Americans heard about the incident in which police used smoke canisters, pepper spray and other irritants to clear peaceful protesters. Two-thirds of Americans, 63%, oppose the show of force, , and almost half, 44%, say they "strongly" oppose it.

The USA TODAY/Ipsos poll also found that 60% of Americans say they trust the Black Lives Matter movement to promote justice and equal treatment for people of all races – compared with 38% who say they trust Trump. Fifty-one percent say they trust presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

More: How police pushed aside protesters before Trump's controversial church photo

A Trump rally with rebel flags (a symbol of slavery and racism) in Tulsa, OK (the place of #TulsaMassacre) on Juneteenth (a day of emancipation recognition) is more than a slap in the face to African Americans; it is overt racism from the highest office in the land. #RejectRacism
— Congressman Al Green (@RepAlGreen) June 11, 2020

The president expressed vehement opposition to renaming military bases that bear the names of Confederate generals after top military officials suggested they were open to discussing changes. Trump argued that the bases are part of "a Great American heritage."

The Trump administration frequently touts its record for helping African Americans when confronted with questions about racial injustice but has offered little detail on plans to address systemic racism and police brutality. The White House said Trump is looking at several unspecified proposals on criminal justice while congressional Democrats are working to pass sweeping legislation to combat police brutality and racial bias. Sen. Tim Scott, the only African American Republican in the Senate, leads the GOP effort.

What is Juneteenth? We explain the holiday that commemorates the end of slavery

Trump's decision to revive his rallies comes nearly 100 days before some begin casting their ballots and is aimed at boosting his momentum as polls show him lagging against Biden, nationally and in battleground states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"The Trump campaign wants to hit reset on the last few weeks," said Alex Conant, a GOP consultant who served as Marco Rubio’s communication director in 2016.

"Trump's actions during this tense time have endeared him with his base but turned off a lot of independent voters," Conant said.

Biden leads Trump in national polls by 8 percentage points, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.

USA TODAY Poll: Forceful clearing of Lafayette Square protest was defining moment for president and protests

The controversies over Trump's response to the Floyd protests echo the backlash he faced over his comments in 2017 about a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The rally was organized to protest the proposed removal of a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Trump refused to disavow white nationalists after a protester was killed, claiming there were fine people on "both sides."

The challenge for Trump in Tulsa will be his message and the audience before him at the downtown BOK Center, Conant said. His rallies tend to attract overwhelmingly white audiences, and Conant said even if the president offers a message of unity, the optics of the event could overshadow that.

"He can have a very broad and uniting message that's completely undone by optics surrounding the event," he said.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., welcomed Trump's visit.

"I think if anyone's going to celebrate Juneteenth, they'd be Republicans because it happens to be a Republican president that declared emancipation," he said. "I do think the president should spend some time talking on racial issues. It's an appropriate day. I think it's an appropriate place to be able to talk about it."

Andrews, the chair of Oklahoma's Democratic Party, doesn't expect a unifying message.

"He refuses to have a meaningful conversation on racial inequality, and his visit on June 19th is worse than insensitive, it's mean-spirited," she said. "Whenever our nation has been at a crossroads, he has not spoken up for unity. He actually stokes the fire of disunity."

Contributing: Joel Shannon, Susan Page and Sarah Elbeshbishi

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump stirs controversy with Juneteenth campaign rally in Tulsa

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TULSA

TRUMP IS MAKING RALLY ATTENDEES SIGN A WAVER SO IF THEY CATCH THE CORONAVIRUS AND DIE, IT'S ON THEM NOT HIM

Business Insider via Yahoo News· 

Trump previously had to cancel several other campaign rallies due to restrictions put in place to...