AMAZON, FEDEX WORKERS FOUGHT EXPLOITATION IN A PANDEMIC, THEN JOINED AN UPRISING

Paul Abowd, Mary Jirmanus Saba
July 15 2020, THE INTERCEPT

WHEN EMPLOYEES AT Amazon and FedEx were deemed essential in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, they formed a national organizing effort to press for workplace safety, hazard pay, and a voice on the job. When protests against police brutality spread across the country after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, essential workers took to the streets, calling out their bosses for trying to turn Black Lives Matter into a corporate PR slogan.

This video was captured mostly during May and June 2020. On July 13, 2020, video producer Mary Jirmanus Saba checked back in with Adrienne Williams, who continued driving for Amazon after recovering from heat stroke. “Nothing has really changed,” Williams said, besides temperature checks before entering the warehouse on foot. Williams continued to be critical of Amazon’s response, especially in California and Texas, which are now suffering new outbreaks of Covid-19. Williams continues to organize with a group called Bay Area Amazonians. “I saw how terrible Amazon is, and I felt like something had to be done, but nobody else was going to do it,” Williams said. “I still don’t know why I haven’t been fired.”

In a statement, Amazon said, “Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees and partners.” In response to Williams’s assertions about the Mentor app, Amazon said that the app is only required on delivery devices provided to workers, not on their personal devices. FedEx said, “The safety and well-being of our 500,000 team members is our top priority.

PLAYING COPS: MILITIA MEMBER AIDS POLICE IN ARRESTING PROTESTER AT PORTLAND ALT-RIGHT RALLY
A REAL FALSE FLAG OPERATION; TRUMP & BARR'S VIOLENT ANARCHISTS IN PORTLAND IS AN ATTACK ON A MYTHICAL ANTI-FA

HERE IS THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE PORTLAND POLICE CAMPAIGN AGAINST
PORTLAND'S ANTI FASCIST ANARCHIST COMMUNITY, ONE OF THE LARGEST IN THE COUNTRY.

IT IS FROM TRUMP'S FIRST YEAR IN POWER AND HIS RIGHT WING MILITIA STORM TROOPERS FOCUS THEIR ASSAULTS ON PORTLAND 

Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images

PLAYING COPS: MILITIA MEMBER AIDS POLICE IN ARRESTING PROTESTER AT PORTLAND ALT-RIGHT RALLY

Arun Gupta THE INTERCEPT
June 8 2017, 5:06 p.m.

FOURTEEN PEOPLE WERE arrested at an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon, last weekend. A man named Todd Kelsay helped with one of the arrests. In videos and photographs posted online, Kelsay can be seen on his knees with a group of police officers, reaching behind one of their backs to retrieve a plastic handcuff to arrest an unidentified black-clad protester. In one video, Kelsay appears to be assisting three officers in cuffing the suspect.

Yet Kelsay stood out. The Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service officers he was aiding wore dark blue helmets and flak jackets with “POLICE DHS” patched across the front. Kelsay, on the other hand, sported a desert camouflage helmet and ballistic vest over a black tee shirt and jeans.

The discrepancy in appearance arose because Kelsay is not with the Portland police nor with the federal DHS police whom he was aiding.

Kelsay, who is a member of the American Freedom Keepers, a right-wing militia, was there helping to secure the free speech rally” organized by alt-right activists. (The Freedom Keepers, Kelsay said, did not officially take part in the rally.) In an interview Tuesday, Kelsay told The Intercept that he was instructed by DHS police to assist in the arrest. “I was asked, while I was on the ground, by a police officer, ‘Help me, hand me the handcuffs.’ He was looking at me. So I handed him the cuffs,” Kelsay said. But that wasn’t the only time Kelsay or other alt-righters played cops at the rally.

Members of a security detachment attend a pro-Trump Freedom Rally at Terry Schrunk plaza in downtown Portland on June 4, 2017.
Photo: Diego Diaz/Icon Sportswire/AP

With the extremes of the American political spectrum squaring off nearly every week in tense rallies and counter-protests, where violence erupts not infrequently, police are drawing outside aid from only one side: the far-right. That police forces would ask for and accept help from far-right protesters might not be as surprising as it seems: In January, The Intercept revealed that right-wing infiltration of law enforcement had grown so prevalent that the FBI investigated the trend.

The relationship works both ways: Police get help, and alt-right demonstrators are seemingly put above the law in return. The result is that militia members who work security for alt-right events are carrying out policing activities with impunity under the gaze of actual police. At the June 4 Portland rally, eyewitnesses report at least two other instances in which alt-right forces apparently attacked protesters without instigation.

The protester Kelsay helped detain was arrested shortly after another member of the rally’s unofficial security detachment blocked his path as police stood quietly by. A DHS officer suddenly rushed toward the protester who then fled and was nabbed by a third militiaman.

This account of Kelsay’s self-described collaboration with DHS police is drawn from three hours of phone interviews with him, as well as witness accounts, videos, and photographs obtained by The Intercept and posted to social media. Kelsay, 48, repeatedly admitted he assisted DHS police in physically securing the individual. In the videos, the officer can be seen turning toward Kelsay before the militiaman retrieves a zip-tie. By this point there are more than half-a-dozen DHS officers securing the arrest, but none appear to ask Kelsay to leave or stop handling the suspect.

The Portland rally had been organized by alt-right leader Joey Gibson, and attended by hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump. Thousands of counter-protesters, including immigrant, religious, labor, and left groups opposed to the event, which came as Portlanders were still reeling from the May 26 murder of two men, allegedly by a white supremacist named Jeremy Christian (Christian attended a Gibson-sponsored event in Portland in late April).

DHS police were on hand because Terry Schrunk Plaza, the site of the rally, is federal property, including the sidewalk out front. A spokesperson for DHS Federal Protective Service said 40 officers from the FPS were “on the ground to secure the safety and security of everyone in and around federal facilities.” (DHS did not respond to a detailed inquiry about alleged cooperation between militia members and DHS police.)


Antifascist demonstrators confront police during a protest on June 4, 2017 in Portland, Ore.

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images


The DHS police looked on as Kelsay and the unidentified protester he would later arrest began arguing — “aggressive,” was how Kelsay described him. A three-minute video shows the two having a civil dispute. “You’re being asked to leave,” Kelsay said at one point, extending his arm. While Kelsay and the youth talk, a Portland officer and a DHS officer observe but do not question Kelsay’s actions. The young protester in black shuffles in the other direction and is blocked by another member of the rally security team, identifiable by the uniform of military-style clothing and yellow tape. With more police looking on, DHS officer charged the young protester in black, for reasons that remain unclear, and the chase began.

“They were yelling, ‘Stop, stop him,’” Kelsay recalled. He fell behind but kept up his chase: “So if the police needed the assistance I could give it.”

Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a member of a different militia, was finally the one who stopped the protester. “I picked him up and slammed him into the ground,” Toese told The Intercept. “I was trying to help law enforcement.” As officers swarmed the scene, a fourth video appears to show Kelsay applying the zip-tie cuffs. Kelsay said the officer “put the cuffs on but I still had a hold of the tail of the cuff. He said, ‘Tighten them up.’ I don’t know if he was talking to me, but I had a hold of them, so I tightened them up. Then I helped them pick him up. I didn’t want him to get hurt.”

A photo snapped seconds later by an Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter shows a mix of militiamen and police. “Officers thank Trump Free Speech Rally hired security for their help taking down a fleeing protester,” Bryan M. Vance, the reporter, tweeted along with the picture.

Kelsay had been boasting of his relationship with the police earlier in the day. “‘All I have to do is snap my fingers and the cops will arrest you,’” Jonathan Shields, a counter-protester, recalled Kelsay saying in an encounter before the arrests (Kelsay denied making the remark). “He was granted authority to keep the sidewalk clear by the police,” Shields added.

Kelsay claims he was simply following orders from the police. “We did what they told us to — crowd control,” Kelsay said. “We were supposed to keep the counter-protesters out. We were permitted to exclude people if we saw they were a possible danger.”

But local police claim steps were taken to avoid protest attendees and unofficial security engaged in law enforcement activities. Sgt. Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau said, “There was a conversation between the organizers of the event, the FPS and PPB that they were not to interfere in any arrests, particularly anyone acting as private security.”

Simpson, however, stopped short of expressing any grave alarm that the arrangement wasn’t honored. “Private citizens conducting policing functions is concerning if they are not being asked to help,” he said. Then Simpson turned his attention to mostly unconfirmed allegations made about left-wing counter-protesters: “I am more concerned about bricks, bloody tampons, and urine-filled balloons being thrown at our officers.” (The ACLU of Oregon criticized the police response to protesters.)


A protester is detained by Portland police during a demonstration in Portland, Sunday, June 4, 2017. Photo: Dave Killen/The Oregonian/AP


Eyewitnesses claim there were two other instances in which police ignored alt-righters running rampant. One counter-protester, Andrew Riley, said he saw an incident in the DHS-controlled area where a person in dark clothing, who was yelling, was “picked up by someone wearing camo clothing with the yellow stripes and a ballistic vest and body slammed to the ground.” He said, “Within five seconds at least three cops moved in and immediately knelt on the person,” and as they cuffed the person the militia man “was kneeling on the protester alongside police.”

In a third case, Nate Gowdy, a photojournalist, claimed he and other counter-protesters were attacked by pro-Trump demonstrators while DHS police watched passively. Eyewitness accounts, photos, and a recollection on Facebook paint a picture of alt-righters with helmets and battle gear make an unprovoked attack with pepper spray and a flagpole. Close to 10 DHS police stood nearby and only intervened to let the suspected alt-right attackers to leave the scene. (A video shows a crowd looking on as the obscured fracas unfolds.)

Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing” and professor of sociology at Brooklyn College, who reviewed footage of the arrest involving Kelsay, said the incident raises troubling questions. “It seems almost gratuitous, like this guy wants to get in on the action. A professional police force would not allow that.”

“Given the history of corrupt cooperation between right-wing forces and political police units like riot cops, anti-terror, and intelligence, we should always be alarmed between growing cooperation between alt-right forces and police forces,” Vitale said. “It does raise the question of what type of relationships are there, what information is being shared, and what type of planning went into this between the alt-right forces and the police handling the demonstration.”

Top photo: Right wing demonstrators hold up signs disparaging illegal immigrants at a rally on June 4, 2017 in Portland, Ore.

JULY 21, 2020 UPDATE
DAILY MAIL COVERAGE OF BARR'S SECRET POLICE ASSAULT ON PORTLAND PROTESTERS CHECK IT OUT 34 PHOTOS PLUS VIDEOS

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8538459/Protester-Navy-sweatshirt-shrugs-baton-beating-tear-gas-attack-federal-cops.html

Scientists find smallpox strains used to vaccinate Civil War soldiers


Scientists recovered the remnants of smallpox vaccine strains from artifacts in American Civil War-era vaccination kits. Photo by JD Howell/McMaster University


July 20 (UPI) -- At its peak, smallpox killed nearly 30 percent of people infected by the virus. Those who survived were often crippled. But forty years ago, after decades of vaccination efforts, the disease was eradicated.

Now, thanks to an analysis of American Civil War-era vaccination kits, scientists have traced the origins of the virus strains used during some of the earliest smallpox vaccination efforts in the United States, according to a study published Monday in the journal Genome Biology.

For the study, an international team of researchers captured viral molecules from biological material, including blisters and pus, left on blades, tin boxes and glass slides found inside the aging leather vaccination kits housed at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Analysis of the molecules revealed the genomes of virus fragments, allowing scientists to identify the strain used to vaccinate Civil War soldiers against smallpox.

RELATED HIV triggers 'amnesia' to smallpox in immune system, study says

In addition to highlighting the important work of vaccination, researchers suggest the study of early smallpox vaccination efforts can offer valuable lessons to scientists all over the globe, as they race to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.

"Understanding the history, the evolution and the ways in which these viruses can function as vaccines is hugely important in contemporary times," study co-author and evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar said in a news release.

"This work points to the importance of looking at the diversity of these vaccine strains found out in the wild. We don't know how many could provide cross protection from a wide range of viruses, such as flus or coronaviruses," said Poinar, director of the Ancient DNA Center at McMaster University in Canada.

RELATED Early peoples in Pacific Northwest were smoking smooth sumac

To vaccinate patients against smallpox, physicians used the cowpox virus, a milder relative of the smallpox virus -- a technique first developed by the English physician Edward Jenner, during the late 18th century.

American Civil War soldiers enlisting in both the northern and southern armies were required to be vaccinated against smallpox.

"During the war, most of the College [of Physicians of Philadelphia] members served either in the army or as contract physicians and, as such, administered smallpox vaccination according to standard army protocol," researchers wrote in the paper.

RELATED Viruses steal human DNA to forge new human-virus genes

Analysis of the viral strains recovered from the Mütter Museum artifacts showed these protocols involved the propagation of a vaccinia virus strain in human subjects. Pus or scabs from one cowpox-infected patient was collected and applied to a scratch or cut in the skin of another patient. Exposure to cowpox helped the patient develop immunity to smallpox.

Researchers involved in the development of new vaccines are constantly working to determine how close a vaccine strain must be to a target virus to produce an immune response.

The latest research showed that the vaccinia virus strain being used during and after the American Civil War was, in fact, quite distantly related to smallpox.

"Vaccination is a wonderful process with a rich medical history that we should celebrate," said lead study author Ana Duggan.

"Medical museums are incredible repositories of our past and of our collective history. The new tools we develop in this work allow us to begin to investigate how medical sources, procedures and techniques have changed through time," said Duggan, a former postdoc in the anthropology department at McMaster and now a researcher at the Public Health Agency of Canada.

THEY WILL NEVER GO TO JAIL

St. Louis couple charged with threatening protesters with guns

TRUMP WILL PARDON THEM

St. Louis prosecutors charged Patricia McCloskey and husband Mark with felony unlawful use of a weapon counts on Monday for aiming their guns at Black Lives Matter protesters June 28 in front of their St. Louis mansion. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- St. Louis prosecutors filed felony charges on Monday against a couple who brandished guns in front of their luxury mansion at protestors walking past during a June demonstration.

"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in nonviolent protest," said Kimberly Gardner, St. Louis circuit attorney in a statement. "We are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force. This type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis."

Mark and Patricia McCloskey were each charged with a felony count of unlawful exhibiting of a weapon.

Protesters walked through the gated community of Portland Place on June 28, as Mark McCloskey pointed an AR-15 rifle at them while his wife waved a semiautomatic handgun, placing protesters in fear of injury, charging documents said.

St. Louis police seized the couple's guns on July 10.

The McCloskeys' lawyer Joel Schwartz said in a statement that the charges were "disheartening" and said "I unequivocally believe no crime was committed."

"The First Amendment right of every citizen to have their voice and opinion heard ... must be balanced with the Second Amendment," Schwartz added, saying Missouri law permitted citizens to protect their property from potential threats.

At the time, Mark McCloskey said he felt threatened.

"A mob of at least 100 smashed through the historic wrought iron gates of Portland Place, destroying them, rushed towards my home where my family was having dinner outside and put us in fear for our lives," Mark McCloskey said.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Friday in a radio interview that he would likely pardon the McCloskeys if they were convicted of charges.

"By all means, I would, and I think that's exactly what would happen," Parson said. "If this is all about going after them because they ... did a lawful act, then, yeah, if that scenario in fact happened, I don't think they're going to spend any time in jail."

Scientists map radioactive soil in Western Europe


For the new map, scientists were able to differentiate between radionuclides released by military tests and radionuclides released by the Chernobyl accident. Photo by Katrin Meusburger, et al. / Scientific Reports
July 16 (UPI) -- Using old data and a new measurement technique, scientists have mapped radioactive soil contamination in Switzerland and several surrounding countries.

Researchers used a new analysis method to calculate caesium and plutonium concentrations in an archive of European soil samples. The team published their new map on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Over the last half-century, particularly during the 1960s, the two radionuclides were released during dozens of military nuclear tests. Caesium was also released by the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

"We have created a new map to provide a basis for estimating the soil loss since the anthropogenic release of radionuclides," first study author Katrin Meusburger, researcher with the group Environmental Geoscience at the University of Basel, said in a news release. "To do this, it is important to know the proportion of radioactive fallout from Chernobyl."

RELATED 75 years ago, 'Trinity' test ushered in nuclear age, changed the world

In addition to revealing the long-term effects of nuclear fallout, the new map can also help researchers analyze soil erosion rates since the 1960s.

The soil archive used by scientists featured samples collected from beneath grassland, land that has remained stable over the last several decades.

The new analysis method allowed researchers to differentiate between the radionuclides caused by military testing and the caesium released into the environment by the Chernobyl fallout.

RELATED Cold War nuclear bomb tests help scientists measure age of whale sharks

"Unlike with the previous map, we can now distinguish between the sources of nuclear fallout," said Meusburger.

The new map suggests caesium released during the nuclear tests spread out across the atmosphere's upper layers before being carried to the ground by rain. The nuclear tests-derived caesium is relatively evenly distributed in European soils, though it is found in slightly greater concentrations across wetter regions, including Massif Central, the Ardennes and Brittany.

Because the caesium released by the Chernobyl accident failed to reach such high altitudes, remaining in the tropospheric level, its footprint is much smaller. Rains quickly brought the Chernobyl caesium back to the ground, contaminating only the soil beneath the plume that circled Ukraine in the aftermath of the explosion.

RELATED Arctic climate change: Recent carbon emissions worse than ancient methane

The mapping effort revealed higher Chernobyl caesium concentrations in Alsace, Franche-Comté and the foothills of the Alps, northern Italy and southern Germany.

Malaysia to return toxic trash to Romania

Malaysia has reported illegal imports of trash including plastic waste and toxic materials since 2019. File Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE

July 20 (UPI) -- Malaysia is returning more than 1,800 tons of toxic waste to Romania after local authorities discovered the shipping containers of hazardous materials at the Port of Tanjung Pelepas.

The containers, 110 in total, include 1,864 tons of electric arc furnace dust, a toxic byproduct of steelmaking. The containers first came to the attention of authorities on June 3, Malaysia's Bernama news agency reported Sunday.

Malaysian Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said local authorities had intercepted 28 attempts to illegally import toxic waste in the first half of 2020.

"The discovery of the EAFD, on transit in Malaysia and bound for Indonesia, is the biggest finding of its kind in Malaysian history," Tuan Man said.

The containers shipped to Romania were falsely declared as concentrated zinc. Malaysia has asked Interpol to investigate the illegal shipments, CNN reported Monday.

Malaysia is a member of the Basel Convention, which oversees the movement of toxic materials across borders. The global garbage-dumping crisis has become a major headache for Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia, as countries in the West have increasingly sought to dump their waste overseas.

In 2019, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to declare war against Canada after accusing the Canadian government of dumping garbage.

In January, Malaysia sent 4,120 tons of plastic waste back to 13 countries in the developed world, including 43 containers filled with garbage back to France, according to Kuala Lumpur.

"If people want to see us as the rubbish dump of the world, you dream on," then-Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said at the time.

In 2018, China prohibited plastic waste imports, leading in the rise of trash shipments to ASEAN member states. In May, Malaysia returned 450 tons of plastic waste to countries in the West and Japan.

Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, mother admit to tax evasion

THE RICH ARE GREEDY IT'S THEIR NATURE

Israeli model Bar Refaeli arrives Monday at court in Tel Aviv, Israel, to sign a plea bargain agreement to settle a long-standing tax evasion case against her and her mother. Photo by Oded Balilty/UPI/Pool | License Photo


July 20 (UPI) -- Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli and mother Tzipi Refaeli formally admitted to tax evasion charges in Tel Aviv Monday as part of a plea agreement that will allow the entertainment star to avoid prison.

As part of the deal, the model will perform nine months of community service, pay a $720,000 fine and $2.3 million in back taxes.


Tzipi Refaeli, her mother, will serve 16 months in jail and also must pay a fine and back taxes.

The court determined that the pair evaded taxes on as much as $10 million in income.

The case included Bar Refaeli's work between 2009 and 2012, when she was required to pay taxes in Israel and overseas.

Refaeli argued that she was in a relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the United States during that time, and had been under U.S. tax jurisdiction.

Israeli tax officials said she'd actually lived in Tel Aviv during that time, under the names of different family members.

Bar Refaeli, who has been married to businessman Adi Ezra since 2015, gave birth to their third child in January.

Florida teachers sue to stop 'reckless and unsafe' school reopening plans

BEFORE SCHOOLS OPEN ANYWHERE IN NORTH AMERICA THEY HAD BETTER HIRE MORE CUSTODIAL STAFF, A LOT MORE CUSTODIAL STAFF IN ORDER TO KEEP SCHOOLS CLEAN AND DISINFECTED/SANITIZED

Florida teachers filed a lawsuit Monday to block efforts to re-open schools to in-person learning while COVID-19 cases are increasing in the state. Photo by Oleksandr Berezko/Shutterstock

July 20 (UPI) -- The Florida teachers union filed a lawsuit Monday asking to delay the start of the school year and to re-evaluate the "reckless and unsafe reopening" of public schools for in-person classes.

"Governor DeSantis needs a reality check, and we are attempting to provide one," said Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram at a press conference. "The governor needs to accept the reality of the situation here in Florida, where the virus is surging out of control."

"Everyone wants schools to reopen, but we don't want to begin in-person teaching, face an explosion of cases and sickness, then be forced to return to distance learning," Ingram added.

The suit was filed in state circuit court in Miami against DeSantis, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the Florida Department of Education and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

RELATED New York City enters final reopening stage; L.A. on 'brink' of new lockdown

State education chief Corcoran, a former Republican House Speaker, announced on July 6 that state public schools would reopen in August. He later walked back the order saying he recommended that school districts offer 180 days of instruction and that schools would submit their own plans to reopen based on local conditions, encouraging districts to offer "complete flexibility" to parents.

Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools said it was too early to say whether school would reopen on Aug. 24 for the district's 350,000 public school students.

In Florida, more than 10,000 confirmed positive cases of coronavirus per day have been reported in the state for 12 days running. The state has reported a total of 360,400 cases and 10,347 deaths. The average daily rate has been 114 deaths per day for the past week.

The state has recorded hot spots in Miami-Dade and Broward counties as well as Osceola County south of Orlando and in counties around Bay and Escambia counties in the northwest panhandle.

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that all children would have the option of attending school via online classes in the fall. The state's Department of Education would be releasing guidance this week allowing parents to choose all-remote learning for their children, the governor said.

"There are a lot of moving parts with back to school. This is about as complex a step as we will take ... and we want to make sure we get it right," Murphy said.

RELATED Republicans to limit crowds at national convention in Jacksonville

New Jersey has seen a drop to fewer than nine confirmed new cases per county per day. Since the pandemic began, the state has reported a total of 178,937 confirmed cases, with a total of 15,715 deaths, according to the state health department.

In Arizona, where cases are rising, a group of 87 doctors sent a letter to Gov. Doug Ducey asking that state schools remain closed and schools teach via online learning for at least the first quarter of the year.

"Many of us are also parents of school-age children," the letter says. "The tremendous pressure to return to in-person schooling in August is ill advised and dangerous given the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 in our community."

Students in Phoenix also released a video asking Ducey for a state policy on returning to in-person classes. An Arizona elementary school teacher died of COVID-19 in June after teaching summer school with "extra precautions." Two of her fellow teachers also caught the virus.

Ducey had announced that the state was still considering reopening schools on Aug. 17.

"I want you to know that Arizona will be opening for learning this school year," Ducey said during a press conference Thursday.

The Arizona state health department reported 145,183 confirmed cases as of Monday, with 2,784 deaths. More than 1,500 new cases were reported on Monday.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced revised guidelines for schools to open in August.

"Schools must provide meaningful instruction during this pandemic whether they're physically open or not," Newsom said Monday. "We all prefer in-classroom instruction for all the obvious reasons, but only if it can be done safely."

To open for in-person learning, a school district's local county health department must be off the state's COVID-19 watch list for 14 days. Thirty-three of the state's 58 counties, housing about 80% of California's population, are on the watchlist now.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday that the city reopened too early and is on the brink of a new lockdown.

New California rules for K-12 schools include sending all classmates home if a student in a class is found positive for COVID-19. The state's new rules will mandate that entire districts will close down and teach via remote learning if 25% of a district's students or teachers test positive for the virus. Schools will close down if 5% of teachers or students test positive.


California reported a record number of new hospitalizations Sunday and reported 6,846 new cases on Monday for a total of 391,538 and nine new deaths for a death toll of 7,694.

upi.com/7023045

#23SKIDOO

23 states sue Trump administration over LGBTQ health rollbacks

Attorneys general from 23 states sued the Trump administration for rolling back federal healthcare protections for LGBTQ people and people who have had abortions. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- A coalition of 23 attorneys general sued the Trump administration over its decision to roll back federal anti-discrimination healthcare for LGBTQ people and those seeking reproductive care.

The suit, co-led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra alleges that the decision to roll back implementation of Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allows discrimination against vulnerable and protected groups.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting some of our most vulnerable residents, yet this White House is moving forward with a rule that puts these communities at even further risk," said Healey. "We need to focus on expanding access to care -- not on rolling it back. We are suing to ensure our residents don't face unnecessary or discriminatory barriers in accessing the health care services they need."

Other states participating in the suit include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

Section 1557 of the ACA prohibits federally funded health programs and facilities from discriminating against patients based on race, color, national origin, sex disability or age.

In June, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would enforce the rule "by returning to the government's interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word 'sex' as male or female and as determined by biology."

The lawsuit stated that the rule change is arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the Administrative Procedure Act and would present opportunities for hospitals and insurance companies to deny care to transgender and nonbinary patients in addition to women who have had abortions.

RELATED GLAAD finds 2019 films more LGBTQ inclusive, less diverse

HHS Alex Azar and Roger Severino, head of the HHS's office of civil rights, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleges that the department ignored the harms the rule change will impose.

Late last month, a group of LGBTQ advocates and clinics also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

About 28% of Southwest employees opt for buyouts or extended leave

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said Monday 28% of the workforce has agreed to sign up for early retirement buyouts or extended leaves of absence. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

July 20 (UPI) -- Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told employees Monday that about 28% of the workforce opted for extended leaves of absence or buyouts amid furlough threat.

About 4,400 employees agreed to the buyouts and nearly 12,500 agreed to partially paid extended leave, representing about 17,000 employees, or 28% of the workforce, Kelly told CNBC.

Southwest offered what it called "the most generous buyout package in our history" to avoid layoffs and furloughs in the fall, Dallas Morning News had reported last month.

Along with other airlines, Southwest has been trying to reduce costs before the Sept. 30 end to obligations under the Payroll Support Program in the CARES Act to not make any layoffs in exchange for government aid.

RELATED Airlines cancel 60 more orders for Boeing 737 Max

According to the Transportation Security Administration, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the air carriers hard with traffic down 80% year-over-year since March and down by up to 96% in April. Over Fourth of July weekend, air travel was still down 70 percent year-over-year, TSA figures show.

The Dallas-based Southwest Airlines buyout package offered employees who worked more than a decade at the company and retire early a year's pay along with company paid health insurance for a year, and four years of flight privileges, according to the Dallas Morning News report. It also offered pilots about two-thirds of their average salary for five years or until they hit 65. The extended leave plan for up to 18 months would give employees 50 percent pay along with health and flight benefits. For pilots, this same extended time off plan would offer them about 60 percent of their regular pay.

"Overall, I'm very pleased with the response to these programs," Kelly told the Southwest team. "I'm incredibly grateful to those of you who answered the call. I know there are stories behind every one of those 16,895 decisions."

RELATED Delta reports $7B Q2 loss; Qantas alters schedule through March

Other airlines have also offered early retirement packages amid declining business due to the pandemic.

Sunday was the deadline for pilots at Delta Air Lines to sign up for early retirement packages and more than 2,000 pilots did so, according to the pilots' union.

"The voluntary early-out program participation exceeded our expectations, which is positive," Air Line Pilots Association spokesman and Delta pilot Christopher Riggins said.

RELATED United Airlines warns 36,000 employees of potential layoffs

Earlier this month United Airlines and its pilots union agreed to voluntary furlough and early retirement plans to cut costs, as the U.S. carrier expected widespread cuts after Sept. 30.

Other airlines have found other ways to cope with the sharp decline in travel demand amid the pandemic.

Last Thursday rival airlines American, JetBlue, agreed to temporarily share passengers on certain domestic and international flights.

On Friday, British Airways retired its whole fleet of Boeing 747 airliners, otherwise set to retire in 2024, because of damage to the travel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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