Democrats say Mnuchin squeezed paid sick leave program

GOP SCREWS AMERICAN WORKERS, SURPRISE

Last-minute negotiations between Democratic leaders and the White House have downsized the scope of a paid leave program for workers affected by the coronavirus outbreak, angering some Democrats who see it as a major concession to the White House.

 

© Susan Walsh/AP Photo Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The House on Monday night approved a slate of last-minute “technical” corrections to a sweeping aid package, paving the way for swift adoption by the Senate. But several Democrats and progressive advocates say changes pushed by the White House are actually significant revisions to the bill’s paid leave program, undermining one of their top priorities in the package.
“I think the changes the Republicans insisted on made this far worse,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who has pushed for far more expansive paid sick and medical leave provisions in the package, said in an interview Tuesday.

“The intent of the package was to provide workers the support they needed to stay home and prevent the spread of this disease,” Murphy said, adding that Democrats would push to restore the provisions in future bills. “We have a chance to take another swing at it. My hope is that we can get Republicans to understand the public health rationale.”

The latest version of the bill, which the Senate is expected to pass this week, includes a major change to federal paid sick leave and family medical leave policy for affected workers, a program long championed by Democrats.

The legislation initially allowed workers up to 10 weeks of paid leave — as part of the federal family and medical leave program — for three different scenarios: if they become sick or are forced to be quarantined, if they are caring for a sick person, or if they are caring for a child whose school or daycare has been closed.

Under the latest changes, however, there is only one category that qualifies for the extended family and medical leave: Individuals who are taking care of children.

Pelosi appeared to address the criticism from some in her caucus in a statement on Tuesday, in which she vowed to push for expanded paid leave in the next package.

“As the House develops our third Families First package, we are working to advance additional steps to expand the emergency leave mandate,” Pelosi wrote, laying out several provisions, including allowing workers who are sick to access longer term leave.

Democratic negotiators have also stressed that the core tenet of the program — paid sick leave for 14 days — remains intact, potentially helping as many as 87 million people during the public health crisis.

Pelosi was also able to secure other victories in the bill, such as ensuring that individuals who take paid medical leave remain entitled to health care coverage from their employer, which the White House had proposed rolling back. Democrats also upped the size of a tax credit for businesses who continue to offer health coverage to their employees, helping to defray the costs.

Still, several Democrats have been privately livid at the changes to the paid leave program, which was approved when members were back in their districts. And Democratic lawmakers and aides say the concession may be all for naught now that Senate negotiators are talking about combining the House-passed bill with a third major stimulus package and passing it all as one measure this week.

Democrats have complained that they already made major concessions in talks with Mnuchin as they tried to clear the package with House Republicans. The paid sick leave plan envisioned by Democrats had initially been far more dramatic — an entirely new program run by the Social Security Administration. But Republicans had revolted, and eventually both sides agreed to instead bolster tax credits to help businesses expand existing programs.
Now, Democrats say, Mnuchin has again moved the goal posts in an attempt to sell the package to Senate Republicans, some of whom remain skeptical about the costs on small businesses.

“It drives me crazy that it's been sold as a technical change. It's not. It's a major change,” one Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said. “We had already moved a couple miles from what we introduced. Now we're talking about different worlds. This is extremely narrow now. “

The most recent version of the bill has also sparked confusion over a provision allowing small businesses to obtain exemptions from providing paid leave. The Labor Department can issue regulations exempting certain companies with fewer than 50 employees from requirements that they offer paid family leave and paid sick leave — an apparent difference from the original legislation allowing exemptions from paid family leave only, advocates said.

"We think that paid sick time and family leave are pretty essential ingredients in how we’re going to be able to manage this," said Amanda Ballantyne, the national director of small business advocacy group Main Street Alliance. "Exempting employers of 50 and fewer exempts a massive part of our workforce."

In another significant change, the corrected version of the bill eliminates a provision that would have prevented states from receiving greater federal Medicaid funding if those states checked beneficiaries' eligibility more than once a year.

Several states conduct such checks multiple times per year, meaning the initial version could have deprived them of crucial funding ahead of an expected surge of coronavirus patients.

Senate Democrats led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are expected on Tuesday afternoon to unveil new legislation designed to expand paid leave to all American workers.

  
INJUSTICE

"Please have mercy": Minutes before Nathaniel Woods' execution, murder victim's sister begged an Alabama official to spare him
Gus Garcia-Roberts, USA TODAY

© Provided by The Montgomery Advertiser Nathaniel Woods never pulled the trigger, but the accomplice law sent him to death rowTen minutes before Nathaniel Woods was scheduled to be executed for his role in the 2004 murder of three police officers, the chief of staff to the Governor of Alabama received a desperate phone call from the sister of one of the slain cops.

Her plea: Spare his life.

“He didn’t kill my brother, and he didn’t kill the other officers, may they rest in peace,” Kimberly Chisholm Simmons, the sister of murdered officer Harley Chishom III, pleaded during the call that started around 5:50 p.m on Thurs., Mar. 5. “I’m asking for mercy, and I believe my brother would want me to take a stance because of the man he was.”

Gov. Kay Ivey’s chief of staff, Jo Bonner, said he would relay the message to other officials and suggested that Simmons should expect a call back.

But the murder victim’s sister never heard from another Alabama official, even after a temporary U.S. Supreme Court stay bought Woods a few more hours. Its justices ultimately elected not to intervene in his execution, and at 9:01 p.m., Woods, 43, died by lethal injection.

The extraordinary eleventh-hour phone conversation, which was tape recorded by Woods’ attorney and shared with USA TODAY, has not been previously reported.

The call was the result of back-channel negotiations in which Woods’ attorney, Lauren Faraino, was informed by sources connected to the highest levels of Alabama government within an hour of her client’s scheduled execution that he could be spared if a victim’s family member begged for his life.

For those close to Woods, and undoubtedly the condemned man himself, the failed call for mercy was only one of several moments of emotional whiplash during the last day of his life. The prospect that Woods would be allowed to live was repeatedly held before them and then yanked away.

The Supreme Court stay caused his family members to celebrate, believing that he had been spared. His family learned within hours that his execution was still imminent.

Woods’ imam, who was set to witness his execution, said he was sent away from the prison and told he could return if the execution occurred. But the imam was notified too late, and Woods was executed without his spiritual advisor present.

Woods’s case attracted national attention — including from high-profile supporters such as Martin Luther King III and Kim Kardashian — due to claims of police misconduct, flimsy evidence and poor representation during his 2005 trial.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Woods didn’t pull the trigger that ended the lives of the three police officers, instead convincing a jury that he had lured them into being killed by another man. The confessed shooter, Kerry Spencer, who is himself on death row, has said that Woods was “actually 100 percent innocent.”

It’s unclear what steps Bonner took, if any, after receiving the call from Simmons. He did not respond to an interview request for this story. His cell phone number that Simmons used that night — and that Woods’ own sister also said she subsequently called to beg for mercy, and that was then tweeted out to the world by King III — has since been disconnected.

A spokesperson for Ivey also declined to make the governor available, instead re-sending a statement she had issued the night of Woods’ execution.

“This is not a decision that I take lightly, but I firmly believe in the rule of law and that justice must be served,” read the statement, adding that the governor’s “thoughts and most sincere prayers are for the families” of the officers. “May the God of all comfort be with these families as they continue to find peace and heal from this terrible crime.”

Not all of Chisholm’s siblings feel the way his older sister Kimberly does about Woods’s capital punishment. At a press conference following Woods's execution, members of Chisholm’s family cheered the outcome.

“One cop killer down as we patiently wait for the next one,” said Starr Sidelinker, sister to Harley and Kimberly.

Faraino, Woods’ attorney, said her client’s last hours alive, while his family hung on every development, were “the cruelest moments I’ve ever been through in my life.”

© Courtesy Kimberly Chisholm Simmons Kimberly Chisholm Simmons and her brother Harley Chisholm III before his murder.

Simmons’ involvement in the final day of Woods’ life started a few weeks earlier, when she received a letter at her home in Florida from authorities stating that Woods was set to be executed.

Simmons hadn’t closely followed the case since Woods’ conviction, and she said that the murder of her police officer brother — who she called “Buddy" — had fractured her family. Although her sisters were eager for retribution, Simmons felt compelled to send an email to a non-profit death penalty website with the hope that it might reach Woods before he was put to death.

“I forgive him for any involvement he had personally I don't feel he's guilty as much as Spencer,” Simmons wrote. “Only God knows the truth of what has really happened and if it's in God's plan he will stay his execution. But I want him to know he is Forgiven by me.”

The email was forwarded to Woods’ attorney, Faraino, the day before his scheduled execution. Faraino makes her living in finance, and her pro bono legal work for Woods was a no-frills family affair. Her mother pulled legal files at the courthouse and her stepfather, Bart Starr Jr. — the son of a revered Alabama and Green Bay Packer quarterback and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame — worked the phones with well-placed friends to lobby for mercy for the death row inmate.

Starr Jr. was at Faraino’s Birmingham home with less than an hour to go before Woods’ execution when one of those calls bore fruit. A prominent political donor told Starr his brother, an Alabama state senator, had conveyed that government officials might consider a stay if a victim’s family member pleaded for it.

Faraino frantically emailed Simmons: "I am pleading with you, please give me a call.” The victim’s sister readily agreed to ask Alabama authorities to spare Woods’ life.

Faraino's audio recorder caught the frenzied next hour. While Simmons waited on the other line, Faraino dialed numbers attempting to reach an Alabama official but only found switchboards and office voicemails.

At around 5:45 p.m. — roughly fifteen minutes before Woods’s scheduled execution — Faraino heard Starr Jr. yell out: “What?”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Faraino said, weeping as she told Simmons, “I think they’re executing him right now.”

But Faraino’s mother informed the lawyer it was actually good news. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had issued a temporary stay of execution.

Simmons began celebrating. “God loves Nathaniel Woods,” she said.

Members of Woods’ family learned of the stay from their cell phones and interpreted it as a lasting measure. Earlier that afternoon, Woods, seven family members and his imam had joined him for what was supposed to be his last meal, and he had for the first time met his grandson. Now, his family and friends were overjoyed that it wouldn’t also be the last time.

“I’m shaking, I’m just so excited I don’t know what to do, you know?” family friend Jasmine Walters said moments after they learned of the stay. “I’m just so grateful. I’m so, so grateful.”

But Faraino was aware that the Supreme Court’s stay was only a temporary, interim step to allow the justices a couple of hours to decide whether to intervene, which was a long shot.

Her efforts to reach an Alabama official before the stay might be lifted got a break when her stepfather ran to her office with Bonner’s cell phone number, obtained via a former University of Alabama football player.

After Bonner picked up, he declined to put Gov. Ivey on the phone with Simmons, saying that she was on another phone call.

Simmons emphasized to Bonner that all she was asking for was a renewed look at Woods’ case. “I think they need to go over the evidence that they have brought forth,” Simmons said. “I mean, it’s not going to hurt nothing.”

“I’m begging the courts,” she added. “Please have mercy.”

Bonner, a former Congressman, responded dispassionately. “Have you communicated in writing this request?” he asked. Bonner said that though he wasn’t doubting Simmons was who she said she was, her identity may have to be verified. “Because of the severity of this we have gotten calls from all over the country from people purporting to know things that they may or may not know.”

But Bonner said he would convey Simmons’ plea to the state attorney general and the governor’s legal counsel. He took down her number and said representatives from those offices “may give you a call to get some additional information.”

Two hours passed with no Alabama official calling Simmons. At 8:06 p.m., the Supreme Court issued a one-sentence decision denying Woods’s stay of execution, removing the only remaining obstacle to his death.

Woods’s sister, Pamela, said she also reached Bonner on the cell phone number, asking to speak to Gov. Ivey. “I begged, I screamed, I cried,” Pamela Woods said. “He would not let me talk to her. He just said ‘No.’ I begged him, screaming, ‘Please, let me speak to her,’ and he told me, ‘No.’ And he hung up in my face.”

Simmons said that she could tell during her conversation with Bonner that it would likely have little effect. “I sensed, you know, ‘You’re not going to stop this, lady,’” she said. “They’re going to take this man no matter what I say. It’s already in their hearts to kill him.”
© Garcia-Roberts, Gus Nathaniel Woods with family members during his final visitation.

Nathaniel Woods’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, said he was told to leave the prison following the issuance of the Supreme Court stay, and to expect an official to call him and escort him back in if the execution went forward later that night.

But instead, the imam said nobody called him until shortly before Woods was returned to the execution chamber at close to 9 pm. By then, thinking that the execution was off, Maisonet had returned to his home in Mobile, more than fifty miles away.

As a result, Woods was executed without his spiritual advisor as a witness.

“I feel that they did purposefully keep me out” of the prison during Woods’s execution, Maisonet told USA TODAY last week.

Samantha Rose, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC), disputed Maisonet’s account. She said in a statement that after Maisonet was asked to wait in a certain area for the execution, he “elected to leave this location on his own accord without speaking to security staff. When security staff arrived to take him to the execution, the Imam was no longer onsite… We will not speculate on the reasons why this Imam chose to leave when he did.”

Maisonet said he had spoken at length with Woods about topics including what he wanted done with his body. Before the day of the execution, Maisonet wrote to the Holman warden requesting that Woods’s corpse not be autopsied following his death “since it is against our religious beliefs and the cause of death will be known.”

Alabama officials nonetheless performed the autopsy on Friday, Mar. 6, according to Fairano. Alabama DOC spokesperson Rose said that decision was “at the direction” of Escambia County District Attorney Stephen Billy.

Billy’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story. In a letter to Faraino before the autopsy was completed, Billy said it was his “policy to order autopsies on all executions… to confirm the cause and manner of death.”

“It is not my intention of changing my position on this matter,” Billy wrote to the lawyer, “and would appreciate you not contacting my office again regarding this issue.”

Faraino said she has not yet been informed of what the coroner found to be the official cause of Woods' death.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: "Please have mercy": Minutes before Nathaniel Woods' execution, murder victim's sister begged an Alabama official to spare him

Cats and dogs abandoned at the start of the coronavirus outbreak are now starving or being killed
By Allen Kim, CNN



a person holding a cat: A member of Vshine, one of HSI's partner groups in China, tends to a pet cat that was left behind during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.3 SLIDES © Vshine

A member of Vshine, one of HSI's partner groups in China, tends to a pet cat that was left behind during the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 100,000 people around the globe, killing more than 4,000. But it's not just humans impacted by the spread of the pandemic.

Many animals in Wuhan, the Chinese city that is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, have died or are at risk of dying after residents evacuated their homes in the wake of the lockdown, animal advocates have said.

"We know that many dogs and cats have been left behind in apartments in Wuhan, in particular, when residents were evacuated, but also in other areas such as Beijing, Dalian, Xi'an," Wendy Higgins, director of international media at Humane Society International, told CNN.

"Estimates are impossible, but we do know that in Wuhan, for example, animal activists have assisted with animals in upwards of 1,000 apartments. So, the numbers nationwide will be significant."
No water or food

The primary risk most animals face is an obvious one: starvation.

Residents who were forced to leave their pets behind typically left enough food and water to last them for a few days, thinking they would be able to return soon, some animal advocates told CNN


But nearly a month after they evacuated, many residents have not returned home.

Vshine Animal Protection Association, a China-based animal welfare and environmental organization which partners with Humane Society International, estimated that the number of dogs and cats left behind in apartments in Hubei cities are in the tens of thousands.

"Things can get worse if the epidemic remains uncontrolled," Deng Fang, chief of staff for Vshine Animal Protection Association, told CNN.

Many worried residents have contacted organizations like Vshine to ask employees to check in on their pets. Vshine has received at least 400 calls for help in the city of Dailan alone, and they have helped save at least 380 dogs and cats that were left behind, Fang said.
Unfounded fears that pets can spread the virus

In late February, Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said that samples from a dog's nasal and oral cavities had tested "weak positive" for novel coronavirus.


However, pet owners don't need to panic just yet, as CNN reported last week. Pets can catch other known coronaviruses, and while the infections can become severe neither has been shown to spread to humans.

News to stay informed. Advice to stay safe.
Click here for complete coronavirus coverage from Microsoft News




"At present, the AFCD does not have evidence that pet animals can be infected with COVID-19 virus or can be a source of infection to people," the AFCD said in a statement.

Hong Kong SPCA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) issued a similar reminder.

"Members of the public are advised to differentiate that 'being infected' does not equal being infectious and capable of spreading the Covid-19 virus," SPCA wrote in a Facebook post.

Such fears have caused incidents of violence toward animals in China, Fang and Higgins said, and a local government officials have posted notices warning pet owners to keep animals inside.

In a notice that Fang shared with CNN, a group that listed its name as the Urban Construction Administration stated it would start to kill cats and dogs that were outside of homes in order to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus disease.

She also shared a notice from city officials in Hongjiang, in Hunan province, which states that pets in public areas or unattended animals would be killed without exception.

In another county in Zhejiang, a province with the most infections after Hubei, authorities warned dogs that are found in public would be exterminated, according to Reuters.

Some have even went so far as to find tiny masks for their pets, the wire service said.

"I'm worried about my dog being hated by the neighbourhood," Beijinger Wang Fengyun said, adding that while he hasn't found any animal-grade facial protection, he made one himself with a paper cup

COMPASSIONATE CAPITALISM

 (CHINESE NOT AMERICAN)
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma donates masks, test kits to all countries in Africa

Chinese billionaire and co-founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, says he will donate masks, test kits and protective suits to all countries in Africa to help the continent in its fight against the novel coronavirus.

© PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty Images Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, speaks during his visit at the Vivatech startups and innovation fair, in Paris on May 16, 2019. (Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Ma's foundation will donate at total of 1.1 million testing kits, six million masks, and 60,000 protective suits and face shields.

They will also work with local medical institutions on the continent to provide online training material for coronavirus clinical treatments.

"The world cannot afford the unthinkable consequences of a COVID-19 pandemic in Africa," he said in a statement tweeted Monday.

Africa has so far confirmed more than 300 cases, Egypt being the hardest hit with 110 cases.

The items will be delivered to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will oversee the distribution of the supplies to other African countries, Ma said.

On Friday, the billionaire founder of Alibaba said he would donate 500,000 coronavirus testing kits and one million face masks to the United States. 

He has also shared his plans to give to Europe as well as Iran.

"Now it is as if we were all living in the same forest on fire. As members of the global community, it will be irresponsible of us to sit on the fence, panic, ignore facts, or fail to act. We need to take action now," Ma said.

A chilling scientific paper helped upend U.S. and U.K. coronavirus strategies
William Booth Washington Post 3/17/2020

LONDON —Immediately after Boris Johnson completed his Monday evening news conference, which saw a somber prime minister encourage his fellow citizens to avoid "all nonessential contact with others," his aides hustled reporters into a second, off-camera briefing. 

© Richard Pohle/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock From left, chief medical officer Chris Whitty, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance give a news conference on the coronavirus pandemic in London, March 16, 2020.

That session presented jaw-dropping numbers from some of Britain’s top modelers of infectious disease, who predicted the deadly course of coronavirus could quickly kill hundreds of thousands in both the United Kingdom and the United States, as surges of sick and dying patients overwhelmed hospitals and critical care units.

The new forecasts, by Neil Ferguson and his colleagues at the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, were quickly embraced by Johnson’s government to design new and more-extreme measures to suppress the spread of the virus.

The report is also influencing planning by the Trump administration. Deborah Birx, who serves as the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, cited the British analysis at a news conference Monday, saying her task force was especially focused on the report’s conclusion that an entire household should self-quarantine for 14 days if one of its members is stricken by the virus.

The Imperial College group reported that if nothing was done by governments and individuals and the pandemic remained uncontrolled, then 510,000 would die in Britain and 2.2 million in the United States over the course of the outbreak.

These kinds of numbers are deeply concerning for countries with top-drawer health-care systems. They are terrifying for less-developed countries, global health experts say.

If Britain and the United States pursued much more ambitious measures to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, to slow but not necessarily stop epidemic over the coming few months, they could reduce mortality by half, to 260,000 people in the United Kingdom and 1.1 million in the United States.

Finally, if the British government quickly went all-out to suppress viral spread — aiming to reverse epidemic growth and reduce the case load to a low level — then the number of dead in the country could drop to below 20,000. To do this, the researchers said, Britain would have to enforce social distancing for the entire population, isolate all cases, demand household quarantines of households where anyone is sick, and close all schools and universities — and do this not for weeks but for 12 to 18 months, until a vaccine is available.

“We might be living in a very different world for a year or more,” Ferguson told reporters.

The modelers did not give numbers for the United States for the most intense suppression efforts.

The researchers reminded governments that these forecasts are based on current observed trends in China, South Korea, Britain and Italy but that much remains unknown about the virus.

The Imperial College report was, however, responsible in large part for Johnson’s turnaround decision to begin rolling out what 10 Downing Street described as life-altering, “drastic” measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, aides said.

On Monday night, Johnson urged his fellow citizens to immediately start to avoid “all nonessential contact with others,” work from home and self-isolate now if they are elderly or suffer from underlying medical conditions. All the measures are voluntary, but Johnson warned that his government had the power to make them mandatory.

© Hannah Mckay/Reuters People at London’s Liverpool Street Station during rush hour as the number of coronavirus cases grow around the world.Johnson said that healthy and asymptomatic Britons should avoid pubs, clubs and theaters. In London, the bars were still open Monday. Most schools, museums and restaurants were, too.

If Britain had continued on the go-slow, step-by-step course that it set just days ago, the Imperial College modeling envisioned hundreds of thousands of deaths and a tidal wave of cases that would overwhelm the National Health Service and its hospitals, which currently have 5,000 ventilators on hand for a population of 66 million.

The British forecast also appears to have influenced thinking at the White House. On Monday evening in Washington, President Trump said that Americans should avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people, eating in restaurants or taking nonessential trips — his most significant push yet to combat a viral outbreak.

At a news conference Monday at the White House, Birx said her group has been working with modelers around the globe, including in Britain.

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post President Trump listens as Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, announces that the outbreak could last months and that gatherings should be limited to 10 people, during a White House briefing on March 16.

“So, we had new information coming out from a model, and what had the biggest impact in the model is social distancing, small groups, not going in public in large groups. But the most important thing was if one person in the household became infected, the whole household self-quarantined for 14 days. Because that stops 100 percent of the transmission outside of the household,” she said.

To suppress spread in Britain, widespread school and university closings might also be necessary, though Ferguson worried about its impact on staffing at NHS hospitals, where as many as a third of nurses have school-age children, the Guardian newspaper reported.

In their forecast, the modelers envision that strict measures over the coming months will occasionally be loosened, but as soon as they are, viral spread could come roaring back.

“The major challenge of suppression is that this type of intensive intervention package . . . will need to be maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more), given that we predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed,” the study concludes.

“Intermittent social distancing — triggered by trends in disease surveillance — may allow interventions to be relaxed temporarily in relatively short time windows, but measures will need to be reintroduced if or when case numbers rebound,” the research team said.

william.booth@washpost.com

BECAUSE OF COURSE HE DOES

Trump attacks Democratic Michigan Governor Whitmer on Twitter over coronavirus response

Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

President Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Twitter after Whitmer was critical of the president's and the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

© Michigan Executive Office of the Governor Governor

Gretchen Whitmer provided an update on the state’s response to COVID-19.

"Failing Michigan Governor must work harder and be much more proactive," Trump tweeted. "We are pushing her to get the job done. I stand with Michigan!"

Failing Michigan Governor must work harder and be much more proactive. We are pushing her to get the job done. I stand with Michigan!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2020

Whitmer, who on Monday criticized Trump and the federal government on national television for being unprepared for the crisis, said on MSNBC on Tuesday she was surprised when Trump said, in a conference call with the nation's governors Monday, that they should try to get respirators and other needed items on their own.

"To hear the leader of the federal government tell us to work around the federal government because it's too slow — it's kind of mind-boggling," Whitmer said.

Whitmer responded to Trump on Twitter Tuesday.

"Now that I’ve got your attention, Mr. President — attack tweets won’t solve this crisis," the governor said. "But swift and clear guidance, tests, personal protective equipment, and resources would."

Now that I’ve got your attention, Mr. President - attack tweets won’t solve this crisis. But swift and clear guidance, tests, personal protective equipment, and resources would.

FYI - here’s what I’ve done so far ⬇️ https://t.co/LZkN0U490p— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) March 17, 2020

Though his approach has changed in recent days, Trump initially downplayed the significance of the virus and dismissed Democratic concerns about his handling of coronavirus as "their new hoax."

Whitmer appeared on national TV one day after she ordered all restaurants, bars, gyms, and many other public spaces to close or partially close to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Restaurants are limited to carry out or delivery services. Schools across the state were closed last week.

As of Sunday evening, the state has 54 reported positive COVID-19 cases.

Poll: Most Americans don't trust Trump on coronavirus information
By Quint Forgey

Few Americans trust President Donald Trump when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey, and less than half of respondents believe the federal government is taking sufficient steps to combat the public health crisis.

© Win McNamee/Getty Images President Donald Trump.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday shows that only 37 percent of those polled have either “a good amount” or “a great deal” of trust in the information they hear from the president about the coronavirus, while 60 percent say they do “not very much” or “not at all” trust Trump’s words on the subject.

The president’s trust ratings regarding the coronavirus rank lower among those surveyed than other prominent sources of information, including the news media, state and local governments, and public health experts. More Americans than not disapprove of the way he is handling the pandemic, by a margin of 49-44 percent, and his overall job approval rating rests at 43 percent.

The poll’s results come after the White House spent weeks downplaying the coronavirus’ threat to the United States, even as public health officials within the administration sounded alarms over its risk to the country and warned of its rapid rates of transmission.

Only recently has Trump adopted a more somber tone when discussing the crisis, acknowledging Tuesday that “this is a very bad one” and cautioning Americans that “we have an invisible enemy” in the coronavirus.








Slides 49: Residents step on measured tape placed outside a supermarket to practice social distancing as a precautionary measure against the spread of the new coronavirus in Manila, Philippines, early Tuesday, March 17, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. 

© Aaron Favila/AP Photo

The world is battling an outbreak of a new coronavirus called COVID-19, which started in the city of Wuhan, China, and has been spreading since. The virus has claimed more than 5,000 lives and infected more than 100,000 people around the world. The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11.

(Pictured) Residents step on measured tape placed outside a supermarket to practice social distancing as a precautionary measure against the spread of the new coronavirus in Manila, Philippines on March 17.

Slideshow by photo services

The more dire rhetoric from the president was accompanied by a new series of increasingly stern guidelines from the administration, which recommended avoiding group gatherings of more than 10 people, working or attending school from home whenever possible, and abstaining from eating or drinking at bars, restaurants and food courts.

It remains to be seen whether the latest measures will bolster public confidence in the administration’s ability to fight the coronavirus. Just 46 percent of Americans believe the federal government is doing enough to prevent the disease’s spread, down from 61 percent in February.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll was conducted March 13-14, surveying 835 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.

Does subliminal messaging really work?

Tara Santora

Subliminal messaging was born in a New Jersey movie theater in the summer of 1957. During the Academy Award-winning film "Picnic," market researcher James Vicary flashed advertisements on the screen every 5 seconds. The interruptions were so fast — 1/3,000th of a second — that they were undetectable by the conscious mind. Yet the fleeting advertisements of "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat Popcorn" reportedly increased Coke sales by 18.1% and popcorn by 57.8%.

© Provided by Live Science Can subliminal messaging 

prompt moviegoers to buy drinks and snacks?

Or so the story goes. Eventually, the president of the psychological test company Psychological Corp. challenged Vicary to replicate his experiment. After failing to re-create the gains in sales, Vicary admitted he had fabricated the results. Some experts believe he never completed the original experiment at all.

So, like Vicary's experiment, is subliminal messaging a hoax? Or does it actually work?

Related: How accurate Is the Myers-Briggs personality test?

"Subliminal advertising is thought to be a pretty potent form of influence. But there's really not much on which to base that conclusion," said Ian Zimmerman, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. However, the method is not completely made up. "Subliminal messaging can actually be influential," Zimmerman told Live Science. But its power is hedged by many if's, including whether the audience is in the mood for the product being advertised.

In theory, subliminal messages deliver an idea that the conscious mind doesn't detect. The brain may ignore the information because it is delivered quickly. For example, the word "RATS" flickered briefly across the screen during an attack ad that the George W. Bush campaign launched to smear presidential candidate Al Gore during the 2000 election. An influential word can also be shrouded by imagery, such as "sex" spelled out by ice cubes in a Gilbey’s Gin advertisement. Whether these attempts affected voters and consumers is unknown.

But scientists do know that subliminal messaging works in the lab. Researchers inserted a dozen frames of a Coca-Cola can and another dozen of the word "thirsty" into an episode of the TV show "The Simpsons." Participants reported being an average of 27% thirstier after the viewing than they were before, whereas the control group was slightly less thirsty afterward, according to a 2002 study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Similarly, when given a subliminal priming of the iced tea brand Lipton Ice during a computer task, people chose the drink over another beverage — but only when they were thirsty, according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

In short, it appears that subliminal messaging works best when it taps into an existing desire. "If we're not currently experiencing whatever kind of need or goal the subliminal message taps into, it probably won't be very effective," Zimmerman said.

When subliminal influences do occur, they don't last long. Influences lasting 25 minutes are about the cap, according to a 2016 study in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness. In other words, subliminal ads trying to get someone off the couch and into a store probably aren't effective.

"They can't make you go buy something you don't want or vote for a political candidate you don't like," Zimmerman said. "The messages just aren't that powerful."

LOBSTER FINDS A KARDASHIAN IN LA

You can see a lot of odd things in the Los Angeles area, but a lobster walking around the streets? That's a new one.

On Monday afternoon, Kim Kardashian posted a video to her Twitter that seemed to show a live lobster in the middle of the road.

Just confused how a lobster is walking on my street in Calabasas! What is happening?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/h5cy1IzTPI— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) March 16, 2020

For the record, lobster fishing isn't exactly a booming industry in California, as it's more of an east coast thing. Many of Kim's followers claimed the sea creature was a crawfish, not a lobster.

Nonetheless, shortly after Kim's land encounter, a Twitter account under the handle @CalabasasLobster suddenly appeared and quickly amassed thousands of followers.

Wtf I think I just passed Kim K’s house— Calabasas Lobster (@calabasalobster) March 16, 2020

"Wtf I think I just passed Kim K's house," the "lobster" wrote on Twitter. It later added that it would "bite Kanye" if it got a thousand likes.

The handle, which now has nearly 3,000 followers, even began responding to Kim's fans, some of whom questioned its lobster-hood.

"Y'all are quick to assume my species. Maybe I look like a 'crawfish', but I am a proud LOBSTER," it wrote.

In a direct response to Kim, the lobster noted that the reality TV star shouldn't be confused by its presence in Calabasas, but rather the other way around.

"Confused as to why you're walking on MY street," @CalabasasLobster replied to Kim, later adding, "I have the right to be here just as much as you, Kim."

I have the right to be here just as much as you, Kim.— Calabasas Lobster (@calabasalobster) March 16, 2020   

Mysterious Ice Age structure made from hundreds of mammoth bones discovered in Russia

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (NOT THE SIBERIAN TIMES)




The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior.

4 SLIDES © Alex Pryor

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior.

Around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers used the bones from 60 mammoths to build a large circular structure in Russia.

And no one knows why.

Researchers have excavated the site in an attempt to understand it, but they don't know why the structure was built, according to a new study.

This isn't the first "mammoth house" to be found in Russia, but it is the oldest and largest, measuring 41 feet across.

In the 1960s and '70s, researchers found similar, smaller buildings at the site, which they dubbed Kostenki 11. It's 310 miles south of Moscow and now home to a museum, the State Archaeological Museum-Reserve Kostenki.

In 2014, researchers found evidence of this structure at the site and began excavation in 2015, which took three years. A study detailing their findings published this week in the journal Antiquity.

These mammoth bone structures, dating to the Ice Age, have been found across Eastern Europe. But until now, the oldest ones found were dated to 22,000 years ago.

Based on previous discoveries, researchers believe they were constructed by Palaeolithic people to serve as houses, providing refuge during harsh winters. Ice Age winters likely had lows reaching negative four degrees Fahrenheit.

And constructing something this massive out of hundreds of mammoth bones would have taken time. It's surprising, considering that populations of hunter-gatherers never spent much time in one location.

"Mammoth bones are very heavy, and building the circular structure represents a huge investment of time and energy by the humans that built this," said Alexander Pryor, lead study author and Palaeolithic archaeologist at the University of Exeter.

The bones formed a continuous circle, with no obvious entrance, according to the study. So far, the researchers have identified 51 mammoth mandibles and 64 skulls, the researchers said.

Inside the circle, the researchers also found the first evidence that wood was burned inside it. But overall, there are no signs of long-term habitation inside the structure.

The researchers believe that it didn't act as a wintertime refuge, which has them rethinking the purpose of these massive, time-consuming structures.

"It clearly meant something to them, and there was very likely a ritual element to it, even if the structure ultimately had some sort of practical purpose too," Pryor said.
Investigating a mammoth house

As the first "mammoth house" found in more than 40 years at Kostenki, the researchers took advantage of new techniques to investigate the site that weren't available for the structures previously found nearby.

This included flotation, something fairly new when the other structures were excavated. Archaeologists use flotation to separate material from soil, using water and sieves. This allows for the discovery of tiny fragments, which can provide the minute details of a larger story.

Flotation helped the archaeologists find evidence of a possible food source for the hunter-gatherers at the site -- besides the mammoths.

"We found pieces of soft plant tissue typically found in edible roots or tubers, hinting at a plant food component in peoples' diet," Pryor said. "These finds are important because they illustrate how our human ancestors adapted to survive the harsh environments of the last Ice Age by making use of the resources they found around them."

It was also flotation that revealed the tiny bits of charred wood, the first evidence that humans burned wood fires in the mammoth structure. And it suggests that wood was still a resource used by hunter-gatherers during the Ice Age.

Other areas in Northern Europe showed signs of abandonment at the time, and suggest that trees were a rare and precious resource. This may hint at why Kostenki was chosen.

"This demonstrates that trees were still present in the landscape, despite the harsh climatic conditions of the time," Pryor said.

The discovery also inspires more questions for the researchers because they believed hunter-gatherers built these structures out of mammoth bones because wood was unavailable. This makes the choice of mammoth bones deliberate. But why?

"It's not yet clear whether the bones are from mammoths recently hunted and killed by humans or if they were scavenged from carcases of animals that died of natural causes," Pryor said.

The researchers plan to investigate the site further, in hopes of determining the purpose of the structure.

"Kostenki 11 also seems too large to be a dwelling," Pryor said. "It is difficult to imagine how an area this large could be roofed over using materials available in this environment."

One suggestion by the researchers is that the site's purpose was food storage, which helped them survive the Ice Age and its devastating winters.