Though House has passed Equality Act, 

anti-LGBT efforts persist in U.S.

Activists hold rainbow flags during the People's March for Roxanne Moore in Times Square along New York City's Seventh Avenue on October 2, 2020. Moore, a 29-year-old Black transgender woman from Reading, Pa., was shot 16 times by police officers. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- While the House passed the Equality Act that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act to protect members of the LGBT community last month, Democrats' Senate majority means it's unlikely to reach President Joe Biden's desk.

Meanwhile, legislative proposals to limit lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights -- especially transgender rights -- are being debated in at least 30 states like Alabama, Texas and Montana. In Mississippi, a bill forbidding transgender athletes from joining women and girls' sports teams was signed by Gov. Tate Reeves last week.

"This is telling trans kids that they don't belong, that they're not welcome in our society, we don't want them to play sports, we don't want them to be a part of our community at all," said Jarvis Dortch, executive director for the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union.

Such bills, he said, send a message of ostracization to transgender students.

RELATED House passes Equality Act in move to expand LGBTQ protections

Daye Pope, organizing director for Trans United, said Senate approval of the Equality Act is important because it would block passage of the state-level bills.

"It would say and enforce that you can't actually discriminate against trans youth in school. And in sports, you can't actually discriminate against queer and trans people in public restrooms and in restaurants," she said.

While laws such as Mississippi's sports ban bill also go directly against Biden's Jan. 20 executive order barring gender identity-based discrimination, it does not have the force of law that only Congress can enact.

RELATED Miss. governor signs bill banning transgender students from women's sports

"What's really important for LGBT people is sex discrimination," said Luis Vasquez of the UCLA School of Law. "The problem is that the Civil Rights Act explicitly says sex, but it doesn't explicitly say sexual orientation or gender identity."

The Equality Act would include those categories.

With Biden's executive orders, however, federal agencies under the president's control are directed to read legislation that mentions "sex discrimination," such as the Civil Rights Act, to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

RELATED Elliot Page 'really excited' about acting after coming out as transgender

"What the Equality Act is trying to do is take all of that guesswork out, take all of the inconsistencies out so that now whenever an LGBT person feels that they've been discriminated against in violation of those laws, they'll be able to make their case and point to language that will explicitly say, 'Title Seven says that you can't discriminate in employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,'" Vasquez said.

Gallup found recently that more than 5% of Americans identify as a member of the LGBT community, with most identifying as bisexual. Also, one in six Generation Z adults consider themselves LGBT.

As people grow more comfortable sharing their sexuality and gender identity, hate crimes against LGBT members are increasing.

Demonstrators protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear oral arguments in three cases on LGBT discrimination protections, in Washington, D.C., on October 8, 2019. The cases involve accusations of discrimination based on sexual orientation and one on whether discrimination laws apply to transgender workers. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

The Human Rights Campaign, a leading rights group, reported that at least 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people were killed by violence in 2020, mostly Black and Latinx transgender women.

Pope says it's "a really scary time" because of so many state bills that target trans and non-binary youth.

"Being a kid and being a teen is hard enough," she said. "You're trying to find yourself, you're trying to make sense of school and peer groups and your home life, and trans youth are already more likely to attempt suicide or self-harm."

According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, transgender youth are twice as likely as their cisgender peers to "seriously consider suicide." This pattern follows into adulthood, where transgender adults are nearly four times as likely as to have a mental health condition than cisgender adults.

Gaining Senate approval of the House-passed Equality Act would provide legal protections against intolerance toward the LGBT community. But Senate Democrats need to keep all 50 of their voters on board and get 10 Republicans to join them in preventing a filibuster that would block consideration of the proposal.

Since Biden took office, Pope said, a majority of the president's time has been spent "undoing the damage" of former President Donald Trump -- including repealing the transgender military ban, initiating legislation to stop housing discrimination and promising more to come.

"Under the new administration, we want to be bold, we want to be proactive and aggressive about ... equal rights for queer and trans people in this country," Pope said.

THE COST OF ANTI-VAXXERS

Study: Measles outbreak in 2019 cost one county $3.4M
By Amy Norton, HealthDay News
MARCH 13, 2021 / 1:05 AM

A single measles outbreak cost one U.S. county $3.4 million, a new government study estimates, underscoring the societal burden of inadequate vaccination rates.

The outbreak occurred in Clark County, Wash., in early 2019, and ultimately infected 71 people -- mostly children younger than 10 who hadn't received the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine.

The county's low MMR coverage is believed to have left it vulnerable, according to Jamison Pike, a researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the study.

Around the time of the outbreak, 81% of 1- to 5-year-olds in the county had received one MMR dose, and 78% of older kids had received both doses.

RELATED Study: Vaccines have saved 37M lives, mostly children, since 2000

In contrast, an average of 94% of kindergarteners nationwide had received both MMR doses.

The misery -- and danger -- of measles is well documented. The viral infection causes a high fever, cough, runny nose and rash. In some cases it leads to complications like pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

According to the CDC, about 20% of Americans who contract measles end up in the hospital, while 1 to 3 in every 1,000 die.

RELATED 1 in 5 in U.S. doesn't believe in vaccines, survey shows

AMERICA IS A VERY RELIGIOUS PROTESTANT NATION

But there is also an economic toll, Pike said. When an outbreak strikes, public health agencies jump into action, performing testing, contact tracing and vaccination of susceptible people.

Then, Pike said, there is the lost productivity when people exposed to measles have to quarantine, or stay home to care for a sick family member. During the Clark County outbreak, 839 people went into quarantine -- with three weeks being the recommended duration.

Pike and her colleagues estimate that the public health response alone cost about $2.3 million. Productivity losses, meanwhile, added up to just over $1 million. Direct medical costs tacked on another $76,000.

RELATED More than one-third of U.S. pediatricians dismiss families for vaccine refusal

While the number of measles cases was not huge, at 71, each case cost the county more than $47,000, the CDC team estimates.

Yet those figures do not capture the full bill, according to Pike. For one, the Clark County outbreak was linked to additional measles cases, in Oregon and faraway Georgia.

It's also hard to account for all the societal costs, Pike said. As one example, a measles outbreak can divert resources from routine public health services, such as nutrition programs and surveillance of other diseases.

"There are ripple effects," Pike said. "It's not only the infectious disease that spreads."

Dr. Jessica Cataldi wrote an editorial published with the study on Friday in Pediatrics. She agreed it's important to understand the economic fallout of measles outbreaks.

"It really does reflect the shared impact in the community," said Cataldi, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

Due to the pandemic, she said, many people now grasp the burden of quarantining and needing time off from work to recover from illness or care for a family member.

But the broader public health response to disease outbreaks, which are publicly funded, also affects the community, Cataldi said.

The year of the Clark County outbreak, 2019, was a bad measles year for the United States. The country saw its highest number of cases since 1992, according to the CDC. The largest outbreak occurred in New York, primarily affecting a Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish community with low vaccination rates.

In the United States, the CDC says, measles outbreaks generally happen when a traveler brings the virus into the country, and it then spreads among clusters of unvaccinated people -- often fostered by "anti-vaxxer" sentiment among some parents.

Cataldi said measles is highly contagious -- much more so than COVID-19, in fact. So even a small decline in MMR coverage can make a community vulnerable.

"This is why we vaccinate," Cataldi said.

During the pandemic, when many U.S. children were not getting routine checkups, vaccination rates plummeted.

If your child fell behind on the recommended vaccine schedule, Cataldi said, "now is the time to get caught up."

Parents can make the mistake of believing they do not need to vaccinate their child because other people are vaccinated. But, Pike said, when enough people take that position, herd protection wanes.

One difficulty, she noted, is actually locating the "under-vaccinated pockets" that dot the United States, to better understand what is going on in those places. Those pockets may not become apparent until a disease outbreak hits.More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more on measles.

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

THE UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS
Former Ambassador Spratlen to oversee 'Havana syndrome' problem

CANADIAN STUDY FOUND NADA, ZIP, NOTHING

AMERICANS WILL STUDY THIS TILL THEY FIND SOMETHING


Some 40 diplomats, U.S. Embassy workers and their family members reported symptoms of the so-called "Havana syndrome." File Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State | License Photo

March 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department on Friday appointed former Ambassador Pamela Spratlen to oversee an investigation into mysterious illnesses reported by U.S. diplomats serving at the Embassy in Cuba in 2017.

She will serve as a senior adviser on the Health Incident Response Task Force.

The United States launched the high-level probe in 2018 after dozens of employees and their family members came down with symptoms of what came to be known as "Havana syndrome." They reported a range of concussion-like symptoms, including balance problems, memory lapses, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, headaches and nausea.

State Department officials initially said the employees may have been targeted by a "sonic attack." Some said they heard high-pitched noises in in their hotel rooms or homes. But the mystery remains unsolved.

"The selection of Ambassador Spratlen will help us make strides to address this issue wherever it affects department personnel and their families," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "She will streamline our coordination efforts with the interagency community, and reaffirm our commitment to make certain that those affected receive the care and treatment they need."

Spratlen previously served as ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2015 to 2018, and as ambassador to Kyrgyzstan from 2011 to 2014. She joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1990.

In 2019, researchers said they detected some "alterations" in the affected diplomats' brain structure and function, though it was unclear if those changes were significant.

Weather played peculiar role in spread of COVID-19 over past year
By Mark Puleo, Accuweather.com

Pedestrian traffic is scarce along 7th Avenue in during heavy snow in Times Square in New York City on December 16, 2020. Snowstorms this winter held up vaccine shipments and the rare winter freeze in Texas for a week also disrupted mitigation efforts. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

March 12 -- As the world marks one year since the World Health Organization designated the coronavirus outbreak a global threat, a look back at the past 12 months shows how much has been learned about how the virus is structured, how it spreads and how it behaves.

Yet some weighty questions linger -- mainly, how did we get here?


Many signs and data points suggest the weather may influence the coronavirus to some degree, but to what degree remains something of a mystery.

Since the world as we knew it ground to a halt last March, dozens (if not hundreds) of different studies have been published analyzing the many different weather influences on COVID-19. While each publication has shed some amount of new light on the topic, the overall picture remains murky at best.

However, as the end of winter nears, caseloads across the United States have gradually receded in recent weeks. Glimmers of hope twinkle that in the coming months, a mix of warmth and sunshine could offer the environmental aid needed to supplement human efforts at slowing and eventually stopping the transmission of the virus.

"It's tough to say exactly how big of a puzzle piece (seasonality) is, but I am personally looking forward to summer," researcher Jonathan Proctor told AccuWeather in January. "I have a little bit of optimism."

Proctor and his fellow authors from Harvard University and the University of California, Santa Barbara shared their findings on the impacts of seasonality on COVID-19 in December, and certainly weren't the first researchers to try to better understand the link.

Going all the way back to March 2020, experts were keenly aware that some specific weather conditions were likely to play some role in the pandemic's impact.

A bicyclist rests at the reflecting pool near the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on April 8, 2020. Many hoped that the warmer weather last summer would help drive the coronavirus away, but it didn't happen. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech University, explained to AccuWeather at the very beginning of the pandemic that the spread of coronavirus can be compared to second-hand smoke.

At the time, the United States hadn't yet seen a day with more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases.

"I think as the weather warms up and our humidity indoors gets higher, we'll have to see. We can hope that transmission might slow down, but I don't think we can count on it," Marr said on March 23, 2020.

Marr's doubt proved fatally true. More than a half-million U.S. COVID-19 deaths later, it's been proven that human behavior perhaps plays a much larger role than environmental factors in influencing viral spread.

By July 2020, daily caseload increases were regularly topping 70,000, more than twice what they were just three months before. This rise also coincided with the United States significantly ramping up testing.

Come winter, when many environmental aids were replaced by a season of gray and snow, new cases had multiplied fourfold and topped out at about 300,000 new cases on Jan. 2, according to Johns Hopkins University. But was it just the weather that sent new infections surging?

Rising cases also coincided with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, occasions in which many Americans ignored health officials' advice for holiday travel.

But untangling which forces -- weather conditions, government restrictions or human behavior -- are most dominant in this equation has proven highly difficult for researchers.

Comparing the size of impacts weather can make may be a nearly impossible task to quantify, but experts like Proctor and Bryan Lewis, a professor with the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia, say Americans need to stick to the basics first and then hope the helpful weather can help.

"COVID is kind of both really difficult and simple at the same time," Proctor said, advising that people "keep doing the basics of wearing a mask."

Lewis told AccuWeather in January that those basics have proven effective, as seen by the vast reduction of flu cases this winter. The seasonal flu, another virus that's largely influenced by weather, is spreading at record-low rates this winter -- and experts say mask-wearing and social distancing are the reason.

However, Lewis emphasizes, the flu and the coronavirus behave, spread and impact in much different ways.

The flu season typically runs from October to March, with some active cases lasting into May. But this year, it's just nowhere to be found, Lynette Brammer, who leads the domestic influenza team for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AccuWeather in February.

"The flu season this year has been pretty nonexistent," she said. "And I really do think that has a lot to do with the levels of precautions folks are taking, just the extra social distancing we're engaged in has eliminated flu transmission over this season."

"The flu has just been fully interrupted by people wearing masks, staying home, the reduced number of children in schools and I think more people got the flu vaccine."

Crews work to repair broken water lines in Wylie, Texas, during a rare winter storm on February 18, 2021 Record cold temperatures, snow and ice caused power outages and led to frozen water pipes. Photo by Ian Halperin/UPI

The spread of vaccines, Lewis said, will be crucial for environmental benefits in slowing the coronavirus going forward.

President Joe Biden said Thursday night that vaccines will be available for every adult in the United States by the end of April, a timeline that would align nicely with the year's peak sunshine months of summer.

Biden said the vaccines represent a "light at the end of the tunnel," but cautioned Americans not to let down their guard.

The vaccine rollout process over the past three months has been difficult from a logistical standpoint. Adding to that, strictly in a practical sense, weather events certainly haven't helped.

Major snowstorms in Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia have held up vaccination efforts and the rare winter freeze that shut down Texas for a week also halted testing and vaccinations.

The environment can't be fully relied upon to kill COVID19, like some hoped a year ago, but basic protection efforts and increased vaccinations are causes for optimism.

"We have to just brace ourselves that there's a long way to go before we have sufficient vaccinations to induce herd immunity and allow us to go back to normal," Lewis said.

"Hopefully, by the time spring arrives and we get some assistance from Mother Nature, we'll be at a very low prevalence, and we then can start to move back into a normal life."

AS USUAL THEY CAUSED A RIOT

City report says police in LA mishandled George Floyd protests last year

Protesters demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd clash for hours with police on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, blocking the 110 Freeway, vandalizing cars and property, and getting into a series of tense altercations with officers on May 29, 2020. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

March 12 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles Police Department mishandled the protests that erupted last summer following the police-involved killing of George Floyd, an independent report commissioned by the city council said.

The 101-page report published Thursday and transmitted to the Board of Police Commissioners said the department was not prepared for the protests and exhibited deficiencies in numerous areas, from training and planning to conducting mass arrests and its use of less lethal tools.

"The lack of adequate planning and preparation caused the department to be reactive, rather than proactive, and inhibited the department's ability to have better control over the violence being committed by small groups of individuals whose objectives were to create chaos and confrontation with the police," the report said.

The critical report documented confusion and disorder caused by high-ranking officers enacting conflicting tactical plans, a lack of expertise in public order policing among the force due to a lack of training, an inability to isolate and arrest criminal elements and a use of less lethal munitions that saw those not engaging in illegal activity struck by projectiles and injured.

Protests erupted and persisted for weeks in Los Angeles after Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by a White Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, resulting in more than 4,000 arrests in LA between May 29 and June 2.

The report said the LAPD conducted the arrests throughout the protests "without a clearly articulated plan for detentions, transportation and processing" that led to those arrested to be detained at the scene or on buses or relocated to remote locations for hours without water or use of restroom facilities.

These problems have occurred before, the report said.

"It is unfortunate that the same issues have arisen again and again with the department being unable or unwilling to rectify the problem," the report said.

The department was also unable to isolate and arrest those who were creating violence and looting "due in part to the use of antiquated tactics and lack of training on public order policing," it said.

The report added that the department's leadership also failed to ensure the wellness of their officers with many working long hours without relief, causing them to be sleep deprived.

Some officers did not have the proper protective gear to shield them during the protests, resulting in 106 being injured, according to the report.

"The department must do everything it can to provide for officer safety and at the same time protect the safety of those who are peacefully protesting," it said.

The report proposed 22 recommendations for the city, the Board of Police Commissioners and the police department to consider.

The LAPD said in a statement that it will comment after it has completed a careful review of the report.

The police department and the National Police Foundation are separately conducting their own investigations into the LAPD's handling of the protests.

"Independent of the three reports, the department recognized areas of improvement from the events that occurred over the summer," the LAPD said, stating it has implemented several changes.

The department added that Police Chief Michael Moore "has taken responsibility for the department's response" and it has identified lessons learned from the unrest.

"As a result, additional training was provided to the rank and file, as well as the command staff and leadership of the department," it said. "The opportunity to learn from our mistakes, to grow and become better servants to our community is welcomed and we look forward to leaning into the challenges before us."

The report follows the city of Chicago watchdog last month stating its police department was also "under-prepared and ill-equipped" to handle the protests in its city.


Protesters demand justice in police killing of George Floyd

Demonstrators hold a sign in Los Angeles on June 14, 2020 for Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot by police in her home while she was sleeping. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

50 MORE PHOTOS
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/03/12/LAPD-mishandled-Geroge-Floyd-summer-protests/5431615537430/

Palestinian Americans decry Biden support for both sides in Israel conflict


Palestinians shop in the Old City of Bethlehem, West Bank, on January 27 after U.S. President Joe Biden's administration announced it would 
restore relations and aid to the Palestinians. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Prior to the 2020 election, some Palestinian Americans said that although Joe Biden was a better choice than President Donald Trump, he was still "the lesser of two evils."

Six days after taking office, the Biden administration announced the United States would restore relations with Palestine, renew aid to Palestinian refugees, reopen the Palestine Liberation Organization's mission office in Washington and rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council.

But the administration will also continue supporting Israel, a commitment some Palestinian Americans say outweighs the commitment to Palestine.

Mohamad Habehh, national development coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Palestinian rights through advocacy and education in the United States, said the Biden administration has not shown that it is willing to change harmful policies and actions of the Trump administration, most notably by not rescinding the decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"Biden has claimed to want to be a neutral party," Habehh said. "But the truth is, I don't feel that any announcement he's made as of yet has shown that he is willing to do more than return to the status quo of the pre-Trump era" under former President Barack Obama.

Habehh said the United States is the biggest supporter of Israel, diplomatically and financially.

Lamese Ballout, a Palestinian American living in suburban Chicago, said she's glad Biden seems to be taking steps to support Palestinians, but his commitment to Israel is contradictory, although not surprising.
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RELATED 'Lifeline' aid to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon running out

"I don't think you can expect an American president to not be pro-Israel," Ballout said. "That's always been America's agenda."

The relationship with Israel dates back to 1948 when the United States was the first country to recognize it as a state when it declared independence.

But Israel's independence coincides with its occupation of Palestine, which University of California law professor and Middle East scholar George Bisharat calls a "modern incarnation of settler colonialism."

RELATED Israel begins drive to give COVID-19 vaccine to 100K Palestinian workers

"Israel is a settler colonial state that was founded in an era of decolonization as the rest of the world's colonizing powers were withdrawing from Africa, from the Middle East and other regions of the world," Bisharat said.

Conflicting data on the total Arab American population makes it difficult to accurately estimate the population of Palestinian Americans, but the largest estimate is only around 180,000. Because of this, Bisharat said Palestinian Americans are "not capable of exerting the kind of political pressure that is exerted on the other side."

Nevertheless, Habehh said, some members of Congress have supported the Palestinian cause, such as Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who introduced two bills between 2017 and 2019 bringing attention to the Palestinian struggle by focusing on the conflict's impact on children.

Bisharat acknowledged that, while Biden's actions are less "crude" and "abrasive" than the Trump administration's, there is no significant change in American policies toward Palestine or Israel. In fact, Bisharat said, Biden's steps are potentially more injurious than the previous administration's policies.

Palestinian American Ismail Abu Hayyeh, whose family fled from their village in 1948 because of the Israeli occupation, said while Biden's attempts to restore relations with Palestine look good on the surface, there is no true way to support both Israel and Palestine.

Abu Hayyeh said the support to both sides "makes absolutely no sense because you're funding an ally" that is actively oppressing another population.

To Abu Hayyeh and Bisharat, "meaningful action" by the Biden administration would be instructing Israel to stop settling the West Bank and withdrawing all military and other support.

Habehh said that to show dedication to the Palestinian cause, the Biden administration "should be willing to hold Israel accountable" for its occupation.

Biden supports a two-state solution as the way to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The solution would divide Palestine and Israel into two countries: Palestine for the Arab population and Israel for the Jewish population. But for many Palestinian Americans, this solution is unacceptable.

Ballout, however, said the two-state solution could offer something to both sides of the conflict and shows Biden is trying to do something to resolve it. But to her family in Palestine, a two-state solution would be an offering of "crumbs."

"I know my family back home would be like, 'We're never gonna settle,'" Ballout said.

Abu Hayyeh ardently opposes the two-state solution, saying it would legitimize Israel's right to land that belonged to Palestinians, including his family. He said he supports a one-state solution but only under certain circumstances.

"I wouldn't want that government to be a primarily Israeli government because we know where that would lead," Abu Hayyeh said. "If we are to have a one-state solution, it has to be a Palestinian state, under a Palestinian Authority."

Bisharat said that after discussing the idea for nearly 25 years, the time has passed for the two-state solution, noting that the number of settlers in the West Bank tripled during those years to more than 460,000 Israelis living in the occupied West Bank.

"There's no way those settlers are ever going to be moved," Bisharat said. "Likewise, there is no way to establish a truly sovereign Palestinian state in the remaining territories that are discontiguous."

Bisharat said the solution is one-state with both sides as equal partners.

"People have to muster the political courage to reach for it, including politicians in the United States," he said.


upi.com/7081368

Bible fragments, 10,500-year-old basket discovered in Jerusalem

(13 images)

The Israel Antiquities Authority recently made exciting discoveries on an excavation in the Muraba'at Cove in the Judean Desert near Jerusalem. Here's a look at some of their findings and behind the scenes from the caves.

Archeologist Dr. Naama Sukenik shows a 10,500-year old basket discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Muraba'at Cove in the Judean Desert at the IAA laboratories in Jerusalem, on Tuesday. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI 

The 10,500-year-old basket is seen as it was found in the Muraba'at Cave. The excavation operations have been undertaken since 2017. Photo courtesy of Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority

The moment preparatory program students discovered the 10,500-year-old basket in the Muraba'at Cave. The basket is likely the oldest complete basket in the world. Photo courtesy of Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority

 
Scroll conservationist Tanya Bitler points to a parchment section of a scroll that was part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Scroll conservationist Tanya Bitler displays parchment biblical fragments and a scroll section discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority. This is the first time in approximately 60 years that bible fragments were uncovered. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Phot

Additional finds from the Jewish rebels who fled to the caves in the Judea Desert at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt were discovered, such as this ancient lice comb. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

An archeologist holds coins from the Bar Kokhba period. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Archeologist Dr. Naama Sukenik shows woven fabric discovered in the Muraba'at Cove. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Roman arrowheads from the Roman period are on display from the operation. Photo courtesy of Dafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority

Archeologist Chaim Cohen shows a 2,000-year-old sandal. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Archeologist Dr. Naama Sukenik (R) shows ancient rope pieces discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Excavations were made in challenging conditions in Muraba‘at Cave. Photo courtesy of Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority

Archaeologists Hagay Hamer (L) and Oriah Amichai sieve finds at the entrance to the Cave of Horror in the caves of the Judean Desert. Photo courtesy of Eitan Klein/Israel Antiquities Authority

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American, United Airlines cancel furloughs for 30K workers after new COVID-19 aid


A masked United Airlines ticket agent is seen at St. Louis-Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Mo., on March 28, 2020. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 11 (UPI) -- American Airlines and United Airlines have canceled furloughs for almost 30,000 workers who would have lost their jobs next month if Congress hadn't passed President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan.

The carriers are recalling about 27,000 combined furlough notices that they'd previously announced. They said in their notices that the furloughs would occur in April if key federal payroll funding wasn't renewed by Congress.

The House passed the $1.9 trillion relief package on Wednesday, which extended the payroll aid for airlines.

"Congress has saved thousands of airline jobs, preserved the livelihoods of our hard-working team members and helped position the industry to play a central role in the nation's recovery," American CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said in a joint statement.

"We are forever grateful."

United had sent notices to about 14,000 workers and American about 13,000.

"Our teams will be able to remain current in their training and ready to match expected future demand," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement.

"Thousands of front-line workers will now receive paychecks and healthcare through September, which is especially critical while vaccine distribution continues to ramp up."

Under the renewed aid, U.S. carriers cannot furlough any workers until at least October. The CARES Act last year, which offered similar aid, had the same requirement.