National News, Monday, 7/26 – Violence Continues During Protests Across the U.S.

News stories from around the nation from Wynne Broadcasting’s RogueValleyMagazine.com

Monday, July 27, 2020

Tens of thousands continue to protest across America over the weekend.

All weekend long around the country, thousands of demonstrators marched for Black Lives Matter equality issues, protesting racism and police tactics. 

Tens of thousands of mostly peaceful protesters were as usual, infiltrated by the worst of the worst, antifa types and violent mobsters looking for trouble and to cause destruction and damage to buildings and to U.S. federal officers protecting federal courthouses and justice buildings.  The nearly two-month long wave of civil unrest looks uglier every day. 

Federal troops in Portland, Oregon hit with fireworks, rocks and other debris.

In Seattle, protesters hurled rocks and explosives at police officers during violent confrontations near the police department’s East Precinct station on Saturday. Dozens of people were arrested and 59 Seattle police officers were injured, including many with burns and abrasions, according to police. The explosives also caused structural damage to the station, the officials said. Usually Seattle police are told to stand down, but it looks like that is beginning to change with the continued unrest and violence.

In Portland, where protesters have been marching for 59 days, thousands of demonstrators—some wearing gas masks and carrying shields, leaf blowers and hockey sticks—gathered outside the U.S. Courthouse, police officials said. Some in the crowd threw rocks, iced water bottles, lumber, swung bats and hurled fireworks before breaking through a section of reinforced fence surrounding the federal building.

Dozens of other democratic run cities had protesters say they were marching this weekend for Portland protesters.   But shootings and reported deaths in Chicago, St. Louis and Baltimore continue to plague those cities and their citizens.

Police officials in Portland and Seattle declared some demonstrations in their cities “riots” and used pepper spray and other crowd-control tools to disperse gatherings. Both police departments were bracing for more confrontations with protesters on Sunday.  City and state officials in Seattle and Portland have done nothing but watch the violence and lawlessness grow. To many residents in Portland and polled in nearby suburbs, it’s become embarrassing they say.

Protests have taken place across the U.S. after the May 25 death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. But many marches grew in size and intensity over the weekend, and focused on what demonstrators say is overreach by local and federal officers in Portland and other cities. At some events, protesters carried guns. President Trump sent federal agents to Portland earlier this month and is now sending federal resources into other cities to quell protests and suppress surges in crime.  

Portland mayor Ted Wheeler gets tear-gassed while walking among protesters last week, and also was jeered by the crowd and asked to resign.

Democrat Portland mayor Ted Wheeler, has denounced the tactics of federal officers in his city and was tear-gassed last week while joining protesters.  Now blaming Trump after letting violence and millions of dollars worth of damages to local businesses continue, he obviously is in over his head with the situation.  Governor Kate Brown continues to shuffle the blame to Trump as well, while her biggest city burns and more businesses are lost each day.

Most of the agents have been sent to large cities run by Democrats. The officers have raised alarms among some mayors and governors, some of whom have criticized the plan as an attempt to shore up Mr. Trump’s base as he trails presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in national polls.

In Chicago, protesters have demonstrated outside of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s house after she recently accepted federal help to fight escalating gun violence. Ms. Lightfoot, a Democrat, drew a distinction between law-enforcement assistance that would help fight crime, which she welcomed, and federal troops aimed at policing protests.

“I have drawn a very hard line. We will not allow federal troops in our city. We will not tolerate unnamed agents taking people off the street, violating their rights, and holding them in custody,” Ms. Lightfoot told CNN on Sunday. “That’s not happening here in Chicago.”  Still, long before the thought of federal troops, Lightfoot has watched as some 30-100 shootings are happening in Chicago each week, often with many reported deaths as well.

Mr. Trump has made law-and-order a focal point of his re-election campaign. Mr. Biden has decried federal law-enforcement actions in Portland.

Omar Wasow, a professor of politics at Princeton University who has researched the political impact of violence in civil-rights campaigns, said the narrative of which side is creating the violence at protests has important consequences for the election.

So far, protesters have drawn the bulk of sympathy and support as some police have been recorded on video responding to protests against excessive force with more excessive force.  But if that changes and protesters are seen as being the aggressors, they could lose public sympathy.  “If we see growing violent resistance by protesters, that often becomes a justification for more repression by the state,” Dr. Wasow said.  “In the past, the public tends to make sense of the violence on both sides as an escalating crime wave.”Police departments around the country Sunday were still investigating incidents from earlier in the weekend.

The slaying in Austin occurred Saturday night when a car turned onto a street with protesters, who then surrounded and started striking the vehicle, police officials said. Garrett Foster, a protester carrying a long gun, was fatally shot by the driver after he approached the car, the officials said. Mr. Foster may have pointed his weapon at the driver before the shooting, according to the officials.

The driver was detained and was cooperating in the investigation, the officials said. Another individual at the protest was also detained for firing a gun at the driver after the initial shooting, the officials said.

In Aurora, Colo., on Saturday, a blue Jeep drove through a group of several hundred protesters as they walked on Interstate 225, according to police, a video posted on Twitter and local media reports. A protester fired a weapon, striking two people. Both were taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition.

Also in Aurora, protesters broke windows at a courthouse and started a fire, according to Aurora Police.

In Louisville, Ky., members of two rival militias faced off on Saturday but didn’t engage in violence, according to local media reports. A member of one of the militias, which had traveled from Atlanta, accidentally discharged a gun, injuring three members of the group, police said. All three were taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries

“This is a tragic situation that could have been much worse,” Louisville Metro Police Chief Robert Schroeder said. “I encourage anyone choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights to do so responsibly.”

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., died on July 17th at the age of 80.

The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis who died last week, carried by horse-drawn carriage, crossed Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge for the final time as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon.

A processional with Lewis’ casket was carried Sunday across the bridge where he and other civil rights marchers were beaten 55 years ago on “Bloody Sunday,” a key event in the fight for voting rights for African Americans. Lewis will lie in repose at the Alabama Capitol on Sunday afternoon. Lewis died July 17 at the age of 80, months after he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Coronavirus Update
TOTAL CASES
4,233,825 total U.S. cases
64,582 new cases overnight

TOTAL DEATHS
146,934 U.S. deaths
914 New Deaths Sunday

Around the nation the demand for testing surges with the rise in COVID-19 cases, and major labs tasked with delivering results to the entire country have explicitly warned they’re overwhelmed.

Quest, one of the largest testing companies in the U.S., cautioned today that the urgent need for testing “continues to outpace [their] capacity,” especially in the regions now facing rising numbers of cases: the South, Southwest and West.

Forced to confront the rapidly spreading virus, a strapped health care system is straining to keep up — fomenting communication breakdowns, clerical oversight, mislabeled, mishandled and misplaced samples, experts say.

“There are multiple steps where mistakes can happen,” Dr. Carmen Wiley, president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, told reporters Sunday. “We have so many manual and quite frankly ad hoc processes in place, it’s human error.”

“It’s like trying to jump out of an airplane, and build a parachute that works, and land safely all at the same time.”

The Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir emphasized the importance of faster turnaround times.

LabCorp and Quest both have now received emergency authorization to begin “pool testing” their samples in an attempt to “ensure testing is available” amid such inundation, LabCorp said in a statement Saturday.

Since then, even as the burden of testing has shifted to state-run, local and private labs, neither that “time pressure” nor the scramble to alleviate it, have ebbed, health officials say. Labs responsible for tests nationwide now find themselves pummeled two-fold, Dr. Dwayne Breining, executive director of Northwell Labs, told the media.

“You’ve got more demand for tests from pushes to reopen — plus a whole bunch of states now with increased demand because everybody’s getting sick,” Breining said. “It’s like a double whammy. And unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve hit the worst part of it yet.”

100 days til the November 2020 election

Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads President Trump in three pivotal states, a new poll indicates. With only 100 days until the election, Biden in the new poll tops Trump in Arizona, Florida and Michigan, according to CNN, one of the many networks rooting for democrats on an nonstop basis.

The Florida poll gives Biden a 51%-46% lead. In Arizona, the survey puts the former VP at a four-point advantage over Trump.  However, the Biden lead balloons to 12 points in the CNN poll among Michigan voters, matching the national average for the presidential race.  Mr. Trump’s re-election chances are looking a little tougher with these poll numbers, having won all three states in 2016, including Michigan by a slim 10,704 votes.   Recent Florida polls have put Biden in front of Trump there, whose disapproval of the coronavirus stands at, or near, 60% in those three states.

Another stimulus check of $1200 could be sent in August 2020.

It looks like the disagreements between the White House and GOP lawmakers are closing as on Monday, Republicans are set to release their proposal for the next coronavirus relief bill with millions of Americans on the verge of losing expanded unemployment benefits.

Lawmakers now have little time before the $600 weekly supplement to jobless benefits ends. In negotiations with Democrats, three months before the election, an agreement on unemployment insurance might prove to be the most difficult to reach.

The Republican bill, estimated to cost about $1 trillion, will include another round of direct $1,200 payments to many Americans, $100 billion in aid to schools and universities and additional money for coronavirus testing, according to administration officials.   State and local governments would get no additional aid, though the Republican proposal will grant them more flexibility in using existing federal assistance. Democrats, by contrast, have allotted nearly $1 trillion to state and local governments to fill budget gaps opened by loss of revenue and growing expenses because of the recession.

The $600-a-week supplemental unemployment benefit is a major point of contention. Because of how states process aid, the benefit effectively ran out this weekend for many Americans, though it is officially set to expire on July 31. Democrats want to extend it through January, while Republicans, saying the benefit discourages people from returning to work as parts of the economy reopen, are looking to rejigger benefits so that they replace roughly 70% of a worker’s former wages.  Stay tuned.

Another round of stimulus checks are expected to get sent out some time in August. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said families, who qualify, will get another $1,200 from the federal government.

He said Republicans are ready to roll off the new COVID-19 relief package Monday and assured the White House is backing the $1 trillion package.   Mnuchin also indicated Saturday that a top priority for President Trump is extending the expiring additional employment benefit, but reducing from the $600 portion.

The White House floated plans to cut the additional aid back to $100 a week, while Senate Republicans preferred $200, with general agreement about phasing out the flat boost in favor of one that ensures no more than 70% of an employee’s previous pay.

“We’re prepared to move quickly,” Mnuchin said after he and Mark Meadows, the president’s acting chief of staff, spent several hours with GOP staff at the Capitol. He said the president would “absolutely” support the emerging Republican package.

The $1,200 direct payment would have the same formula from the earlier bill. Individuals making $75,000 or less, for example, received the full amount and those making more than $75,000 received less than $1,200 depending on their income. Individuals earning above $100,000 did not qualify for the payment.

The planned first pitch by President Trump at Yankee Stadium is being postponed. Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon that due to his “strong focus” on the coronavirus and other scheduled meetings, he won’t be able to deliver the pitch before a game against the Red Sox August 15.“ We will make it later in the season,” he tweeted.

Olivia de Havilland, a two-time Oscar winner, best known for her role as Melanie Wilkes in the 1939 epic “Gone With the Wind,” has died. She was 104.

de Havilland, who was part of Golden Age of Hollywood, went on to win a pair of Academy Awards. She would take home the Best Actress trophy for the 1946 film “To Each His Own,” and three years later for “The Heiress.”

While she gained power on the screen, de Havilland also didn’t back down when the cameras were off. She waged a legal battle with Warner Bros., who tried to extend a seven-year contract as a penalty for refusing certain roles. She would eventually win the landmark ruling still called the “de Havilland law.  She continued in supporting roles into the 1970s and moved to television in the 1980s, including “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna,” for which she earned a Golden Globe.

But it’s those interactions with Scarlett O’ Hara (played by Vivien Leigh) in “GWTW” that fans will remember most fondly, and got her an Oscar nomination.  Ms.de Havilland died in her sleep at her home in Paris.

NOSES USUALLY CATCH COVID-19 FIRST 

Have you seen those people who a wearing a mask, but not really? They have it on, but it’s covering only their mouth. Big mistake. That’s because scientific research (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has found that COVID-19 infects your nose first, using it as an entry point to the rest of your body. So, people who don’t cover their nose with their mask risk exposing their most infectious organ to others, and increase their own chances of contracting COVID-19, the disease the virus causes.

McDONALD’S WILL REQUIRE CUSTOMERS TO WEAR FACE COVERINGS 
McDonald’s announced over the weekend that it will require customers to wear face coverings when entering its U.S. locations starting Saturday (August 1). The fast food giant said employees and customers are already required to wear face coverings at almost 82% of its restaurants as a result of state or local rules.

PASSENGERS CHEER AS ‘KAREN’ IS KICKED OFF FLIGHT OVER MASK 
Passengers on an America Airlines flight burst into applause when a woman who refused to wear a face mask was kicked off the plane. The middle-aged woman claimed to have a medical condition preventing her from wearing a mask on a July 19 flight from Ohio to North Carolina. In video, the unnamed woman is shown taking her time to gather her belongings from an overhead bin as a passenger shouts, “Just leave!” She then turns to exit the plane — prompting loud clapping and cheering. “You can clap all you want!” the woman snaps back angrily. In the background, two masked American Airlines employees can be seen waiting to escort her off the aircraft. • VIDEO

FIREFIGHTERS PULL WOMAN’S $20,000 PROSTHETIC LEG FROM RESERVOIR 
A woman who lost her prosthetic leg Saturday while boating on a reservoir in Indianapolis got it back. Firefighters were wrapping up a two hour training exercise on the water when officers from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources asked for their help fishing the titanium/carbon fiber leg from the water. A woman in her 40s lost the leg, valued at $20,000, in an area of Geist Reservoir known as “Family Cove” while enjoying the day on her family’s anchored, pontoon boat. Without hesitation, the crew gathered their dive equipment from the rescue truck and hopped into a boat. According to cops, “With help from the owner of the leg, the crew was able to assess a general last known location and begin the search.”

… Each of the three fire department divers spent about 20 minutes looking for the leg in zero visibility. Along the way, they found sunglasses, an anchor and multiple beer bottles. After an hour, the divers were about ready to call off the search. However, on the final pass for the third diver, the leg was located. • IMAGES

YOUR BRAIN WANTS TO CHECK FACEBOOK EVERY 31 SECONDS 
Why do we multitask, and how bad is it? It’s really bad, as scientists discovered when they outfitted computers of a study room of a university with a task tracker. This gave them an unfiltered image of what students were doing with their time. Students estimate that they can concentrate on their work for about five minutes at a time. If a five-minute attention span seems awfully short, the experiment with a task tracker on a computer showed that in reality students on average concentrate on a task for about 31 seconds. … A big culprit is, of course, social media.

NAZI FACE MASK COUPLE BANNED FROM ENTERING ALL WALMARTS _ Walmart has banned a couple from entering any of its stores after they showed up wearing face masks emblazoned with swastikas at one of their stores on Marshall, Minnesota. The video starts out showing the 59-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman at the cash register as other shoppers vocally object to their display. The local police department issued a notice of trespass to the two shoppers at the request of Walmart. • VIDEO

… The trespass notices issued to the couple effectively bans them from entering any Walmart store for one year.

WHY DOES COFFEE MAKE YOU POOP? 

We all know the feeling: Shortly after that morning coffee or latté drink, nature calls. But does coffee really make you poop? For about 1 in 4 of us, the answer is yes. Many researchers believe caffeine is the real culprit. There can be anywhere from 80 to 135 milligrams of caffeine in one eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee, and up to 175 milligrams in drip coffee. In contrast, Coca-Cola has only 34 milligrams of caffeine, which explains why soda doesn’t have the same laxative reputation as coffee.

… But caffeine can’t take all the blame. The acidic nature of coffee also causes an increase in the production of bile acids in the body. The liver makes bile and stores it in the gall bladder, and coffee can make the gall bladder release the bile into the intestines, causing diarrhea as well.

… Beyond the coffee beans themselves, sweeteners, dairy products or non-dairy additives may also be putting additional pressure on coffee drinkers’ guts.

Washington’s NFL franchise officially retired their controversial Redskins name Thursday with the announcement that — for now  — they will be referred to as the Washington Football Team. The name change is temporary — it’s just the one the teams plans to use until finding a final name.

… The team’s @Redskins Twitter account shifted to @WashingtonNFL. And if you visit Redskins.com you’ll see the old name and logo gone and the name Washington Football Team prominently displayed.

… If you visit WashingtonFootballTeam.com you have the option to click to the DC United soccer team page, or the updated redskins.com.

MEMPHIS PUTT-PUTT CENTER MELEE 

A mini-golf complex got flooded with hundreds of kids after a mass parent drop-off, who then started wreaking havoc when they couldn’t get their money back. This went down Saturday night at the Putt-Putt Fun Center in Memphis, where police officers responded to call for service over reports of chaos breaking out after several different parents left upwards of 300 to 400 children at the facility, who began destroying the joint.

… The staff told cops the sheer number of people put them in violation of local COVID-19 regulations. One of the teens ripped up the plexiglass at the front desk and threw it at the workers, and then proceeded to hurl even more objects — which helped kick off a stampede and more destruction. There was even a firework set off.

HOUSTON IS NOW HOME TO TEXAS’ FIRST DRIVE-THRU STRIP CLUB 
A Texas strip club has found a creative way to attract customers while still letting their ladies strut their stuff during the COVID-19 outbreak: a drive-thru strip club. The performances at Vivid Gentleman’s Club in Houston — the first of its kind in Texas — is set up inside a makeshift tent-turned-club where customers can park for two songs. Dancers dressed in thongs, thigh-highs and masks show off their moves from behind several black barricades separating them from the cars. A photo of the scene shows dollar bills scattered across the floor below them as blue lights set up around them mimic a true club feel. Drivers can also order food from the joint’s menu and order booze to take home.

LOST TOY DOG RETURNS HOME WITH HELP OF CINCINNATI AIRPORT 
The Cincinnati-area airport took a child’s stuffed animal for an impromptu tour before uniting the toy Dalmatian with its family in Florida. Airport employees found the toy left behind in the terminal and snapped photos of the lost traveler outfitted in a mask at the airport’s restaurants, on the runway, and with a K9 team. After sharing the pics on Facebook the stuffed animal was put on a place to Florida. 

THE WORLD SERIES WILL STILL COUNT EVEN THOSE ITS 60 GAMES INSTEAD OF 152
A new poll found that the 44 percent of baseball fans believe that winning the 2020 World Series will be less meaningful than winning a World Series in a typical season.


We tend to marry people with completely different spending habits. Hmmm.  
Frustrated by your spouse’s spending habits? It might be why you married them, according to researchers (at Wharton School of Finance and Northwestern University). Surveys of married adults suggest that opposites attract when it comes to emotional reactions toward spending.  The researchers found that people who generally spend less than they would ideally like to spend, and those who spend more than they would like to tend to marry each other. That’s even though most single people say they would be happiest marrying someone with similar spending habits to their own.

MIKE TYSON SET TO REENTER RING WITH EXHIBITION FIGHT VERSUS ROY JONES JR. 
Boxer Mike Tyson, who showed off his fighting skills in a video released in May, announced on Thursday his plan to fight Roy Jones Jr. in an eight-round exhibition match. The 54-year-old boxing legend will fight the similarly aged Jones in a pay-per-view matchup. The fight is scheduled to take place on September 12 in Los Angeles.  … Tyson was 50-6 as a pro. Jones is also known as one of the premier fighters of the sport, holding titles in four separate weight divisions and posting a 66-9 career record.

FRIENDS SHARE POWERBALL JACKPOT WIN, KEEPING 1992 PROMISE 
A Wisconsin man will share his millions in lottery winnings with a longtime friend because of a promise they made to each other nearly three decades ago. Friends Tom Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992 and promised that if either one of them ever won the Powerball jackpot, they would split the money. That promise came to fruition last month when Cook bought the winning ticket for a $22 million jackpot (in Menomonie). When Cook called to give his friend the good news, Feeney couldn’t quite believe it. Feeney, said Cook “called me [with the news] and I said, ‘Are you jerking my bobber?’” Feeney is an avid fisherman.

… Cook retired after hitting the jackpot while Feeney was already retired. Neither has any extravagant plans for the winnings but are looking forward to enjoying more family time.

… The men chose the cash option of about $16.7 million, leaving each with nearly $5.7 million after taxes are paid.

THE REASONS WE SELL OUR HOMES 
Property owners put their homes on the market for various reasons, including for being haunted. According to a survey (commissioned by online real estate agent Strike), the top reasons we put our homes up for sale are:

1. To have a bigger home
2. Wanting a yard/bigger yard
3. For a change of scene
4. Want a bigger kitchen
5. Want a bigger living room
6. To be closer to friends and family
7. To move into the country
8. For more storage space
9. Don’t like the neighbors
10. Better schools

… Other reasons inside the top 40 include being bored with the area, to be closer to nice cycling routes, to be closer to favorite bars and restaurants and (at the bottom) because the house is haunted.

DO YOU SLEEP WITH YOUR EYES OPEN? 
You walk over to your friend who is asleep on your couch, snoring away. You bend over to goose him when suddenly you jump back in shock. His eyes are open. Wide open. Yet he’s asleep. Really. It’s a condition called nocturnal lagophthalmos, and according to the National Sleep Foundation as many as one out of five of us have it — including babies. In fact, if you’re among the 20% who have it, it’s possible that your child could as well, because it appears to be hereditary. Most kids grow out of it.

… Nocturnal lagophthalmos happens when the eyelids don’t close enough to cover the eye, either partially or fully. It can signal a serious, underlying medical problem such as stroke, thyroid disease or facial nerve damage.

… Sleeping without eyes shut can also mess up your sleep. Light stimulates the brain to wakefulness, so unless you sleep in a coffin like a vampire, keeping your peeps open all night is likely to wake you. Nor is it good for your eyes. Your eyelids need to fully shut at night so that tears and their moisture can clean and repair your cornea. If not treated, the National Sleep Foundation says, nocturnal lagophthalmos can lead “to dry eyes, blurred vision, infection, and even permanent vision problems.”

… There are things you can do to help your eyes fully closed. It may be as simple as wearing an eye mask while sleeping, or even a specially made goggle that traps moisture. Using artificial tears during the day and a humidifier at night can also help with moisture loss.

QUIT SMOKING, MAKE MORE MONEY 
Are you a smoker? Here’s another reason to quit: you could make more money. Some economists have found (using data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey) that people who had quit smoking for at least a year earned higher wages than smokers and people who had never smoked. According the data smokers earned about 80 percent of nonsmokers’ wages. Even one cigarette a day triggers a wage gap between smokers and nonsmokers.

GUYS ARE INSECURE 
Ladies, you’re not the only sex that’s insecure — guys are, too. The Huffington Post asked thousands of guys what makes them insecure, and here are few responses:

  • Skinny arms
  • Previous boyfriends
  • Skills in bed
  • Hair loss
  • Not being in control of their lives
  • Dancing
  • White hairs in the beard
  • Calling or texting too soon or too late

PRACTICING A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT IS GOOD FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH 
Practicing a musical instrument is good for your mental health. A poll of adults who play an instrument found a huge 89 percent think playing music keeps them mentally balanced. More than a quarter report a ‘sense of clarity’ when practicing their instrument of choice, while 56 percent feel a deep sense of relaxation. And 36 percent even said playing music gives them a sense of purpose in life while they’re playing.

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