138431302
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gollum123 writes:
The 2020 elections, chaotic and marked by races “too close to call,” have nonetheless reaffirmed that, at least in Washington, the two parties now speak for markedly different segments of the U.S. economy. President Donald Trump carried 2,497 counties across the country that together generate 29% of the American economy, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution. President-elect Joe Biden won 477 counties that together generate 70% of U.S. GDP. Republicans represent a far greater number of smaller counties with less-educated, more-homogenous workforces that, on average, tend to rely on manufacturing, agriculture and mining. Democrats represent a smaller number of densely populated and diverse metropolitan counties fueled by service-oriented industries like finance, professional services and software. Blue and red America continue to reflect two very different economies—one oriented to diverse, often college-educated workers in professional and digital services professions and the other whiter, less-educated, and more dependent on ‘traditional’ industries
136817526
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gollum123 writes:
To anyone following American politics, it’s not exactly news that Democrats and Republicans don’t like each other.This is hardly a new trend; in fact, it’s increasingly common among American voters. However, this level of hatred — which political scientists call “negative partisanship” — has reached levels that are not just bad for democracy, but are potentially destructive. And extreme partisan animosity is a prelude to democratic collapse. It wasn’t always this bad, though. Forty years ago, when asked to rate how “favorable and warm” their opinion of each party was, the average Democrat and Republican said they felt OK-ish about the opposite party. But for four decades now, partisans have increasingly turned against each other in an escalating cycle of dislike and distrust — views of the other party are currently at an all-time low.Link to Original Source
136643914
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gollum123 writes:
Luke Hutchison woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a fever after taking the Covid-19 booster shot in Moderna’s vaccine trial. Another coronavirus vaccine trial participant, testing Pfizer’s candidate, similarly woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth after taking the second dose. High fever, body aches, bad headaches and exhaustion are just some of the symptoms five participants in two of the leading coronavirus vaccine trials say they felt after receiving the shots. While the symptoms were uncomfortable, and at times intense, they often went away after a day, sometimes sooner, according to three participants in the Moderna trial and one in Pfizer’s as well as a person close to another participant in Moderna’s trial. Hutchison said he’s concerned that the pharmaceutical manufacturers have not sufficiently informed the public about potential side effects. If the vaccines are approved, he fears, it might cause a widespread backlash if word spreads, which is why he decided to go public now.
136340634
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gollum123 writes:
Amazon is launching a new Ring security camera that’s fixed on top of a flying drone. Called the Ring Always Home Cam, it’s an autonomous indoor security camera that can fly inside your home and record footage of multiple viewpoints. Users set a path for the device to fly throughout the home. When the device isn’t in the air, it locks into a dock that blocks the camera, in an effort to assuage privacy concerns. Ring said the device only records when it’s in flight and its motors are loud enough so that users can hear it move throughout the home.
136305412
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gollum123 writes:
Tesla is suing the U.S. government and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the Trump administration’s tariffs on items Tesla imports from China. The electric car maker wants the court to declare two batches of Trump administration tariffs to be void, and refund Tesla the tariffs it paid with interest, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade. In 2019, U.S. trade officials rejected Tesla’s request for relief on 25% tariffs on the Model 3s car computer and screen, arguing that the parts use technologies strategically important to Chinese national security programs. Tesla said that the affected parts are the “brain” of its autopilot system.
135977546
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gollum123 writes:
Dining out raises the risk of contracting Covid-19 more than other activities, such as shopping or going to a salon, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings come as many states consider the safest ways to reopen businesses, especially restaurants. Those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, “were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results,” the study authors wrote. And those who were diagnosed without any known exposure to the virus were more likely to report having visited a bar or coffee shop in the previous two weeks. The increased risk makes sense; it’s easy to wear a mask in stores or in places of worship, but it’s nearly impossible to do so while eating and drinking
135378237
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gollum123 writes:
Do masks really work? Ask the dozens of Starbucks customers who tested positive for COVID-19 in Seoul this month after a woman with coronavirus sat under one of the cafe’s air-conditioners. According to a local news report, at least 56 coronavirus cases have been linked to that one customer. The kicker: The four masked workers avoided infection. The Starbucks SBUX, +5.13% patrons, according to officials, weren’t consistently wearing masks because, of course, it’s hard to enjoy a latte when you can’t access your mouth. Local authorities made it mandatory this week for everybody to wear masks both indoors and outdoors, as the greater Seoul area has seen a surge in coronavirus cases.
130393266
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gollum123 writes:
nearly 43% of full-time American employees say they want to work remotely more often even after the economy has reopened, according to a survey released by business publishing company getAbstract. Of the more than 1,200 employees surveyed between April 16 and April 17, nearly 20% said their employer is actively discussing how they can make remote work more of an option in the future. one of the biggest reasons why employees prefer to work remotely is because they get to save time on their daily commute. On average, Americans spent roughly 27 minutes on their one-way commute to work in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. This equates to over 200 hours spent commuting per year. According to a joint CNBC/Change Research survey of more than 5,000 voters in swing states, 47% said the time they would normally spend on commuting has now been used to spend more time with their family. The survey, which gathered responses between April 17 and April 18, also found that employees have been spending the time they save on their commute to sleep more, focus on various hobbies and get more work done.
130120028
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gollum123 writes:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk lashed out at government stay at home orders as “fascist” in an expletive-laced rant on Tesla’s Q1 2020 earnings call. While answering analysts’ questions about liquidity amid the coronavirus pandemic, Musk called shelter-in-place orders “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights.” Musk said he was concerned about not being able to resume operations at the company’s factory in Fremont, California, saying that possibility should be considered “a serious risk” given Tesla produces most of its cars there in addition to its Shanghai-based plant. “This is the time to think about the future, and also to ask, is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now?” Musk said.
129379024
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gollum123 writes:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday that certain businesses in the state would be able to reopen this week in a "small step forward" out of the social distancing measures meant to mitigate the novel coronavirus pandemic. Kemp, a Republican, said specifically that fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair and nail salons, and massage therapy businesses can reopen as early Friday, April 24. Theaters and restaurants will be allowed to open on Monday, April 27 while bars and night clubs will remain closed for now, Kemp added. The move comes alongside similar announcements from the Republican governors of South Carolina and Tennessee after President Donald Trump unveiled new guidelines last week meant to help states loosen their social distancing restrictions. While the incremental reopenings align with the President's push, public health experts have repeatedly stressed the dangers of relaxing social distancing measures too early.
129281836
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gollum123 writes:
Chicago hospital treating severe Covid-19 patients with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine remdesivir in a closely watched clinical trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week, STAT has learned. Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in lab tests. The entire world has been waiting for results from Gilead’s clinical trials, and positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease. The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir. “The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.
129281740
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gollum123 writes:
On March 19, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a statewide shelter-in-place order to stem the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee followed four days later. While they were moving aggressively relative to the rest of the country, the top employers in their states were weeks ahead of them. Twitter was the first to move, strongly encouraging its nearly 5,000 employees to work from home on March 1, because of the rapidly spreading coronavirus, and making the order mandatory on March 11. Amazon told its roughly 50,000 Seattle-area employees on March 4 to work from home if they could. Facebook informed its Bay Area workers the next day that it was “strongly recommending” they work remotely. Over the next week, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce mostly emptied out, keeping about 200,000 people away from the office. Tech has taken a beating in recent years as critics have attacked the industry’s growing power, privacy abuses and executive malfeasance. But the industry’s early social-distancing moves are a big reason that California and Washington, two early U.S. hotspots of virus outbreak, have bent the infection curve while other states are deep in crisis.
129004052
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gollum123 writes:
States on the country's East and West coasts are forming their own regional pacts to work together on how to reopen from the stay-at-home orders each has issued to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. The first such group to be announced came Monday on the East Coast. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island each plan to name a public health and economic official to a regional working group. The chief of staff of the governor of each state also will be a part of the group, which will begin work immediately to design a reopening plan. Later on Monday, the West Coast states of California, Washington and Oregon also announced they are joining forces in a plan to begin incremental release of stay-at-home orders. When announcing the three-state coordination of the western governors during his midday briefing on Monday, Newsom quoted an old proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together."
128205544
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gollum123 writes:
After days of desperate pleas from the nationâ(TM)s governors, President Donald Trump took a round of steps to expand the federal governmentâ(TM)s role in helping produce critically needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic even as he warned the leaders of hard-hit states not to cross him.
âoeI want them to be appreciative,â Trump said Friday after the White House announced that he would be using the powers granted to him under the Korean Warâ"era Defense Production Act to try to compel auto giant General Motors
Yet Trump â" who hours earlier had suggested the need for the devices was being overblown â" rejected any criticism of the federal governmentâ(TM)s response to a ballooning public health crisis that a month ago he predicted would be over by now.Link to Original Source
128113024
submission
gollum123 writes:
The House passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Friday, sending the unprecedented measure to President Donald Trump’s desk after a scramble to block efforts to delay its passage.The plan, which includes one-time payments to individuals, strengthened unemployment insurance, additional health-care funding and loans and grants to businesses to deter layoffs, got through the Senate unanimously on Wednesday night. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the bill “as mitigation” of the disease’s destruction, predicting there would be more plans to aid “recovery.” Trump has promised to sign the legislation “immediately.” While it is unclear how quickly the government will dole out some of the money such as small business loans, the White House and congressional leaders have said some individuals will see direct payments of up to $1,200 within three weeks.
