My Daily Grind News

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday postponed New Zealand’s general election, scheduled for Sept. 19, for four weeks as authorities grapple with a new wave of coronavirus cases that has set back the country’s pandemic recovery.The decision follows confirmation last Tuesday that several members of a family in Auckland had tested positive for the virus, ending the Ardern government’s record of more than 100 days without a known case of community transmission.Ardern’s move followed calls from leaders of other parties, including Winston Peters, deputy leader of her ruling coalition, to postpone the vote. She denied, however, that political pressure played a role in her decision.“Even if I had not picked up the phone and contacted anyone, I believe this is still the outcome I would have arrived at,” she told reporters, stressing that she had “absolutely no intention” of delaying the vote, rescheduled for Oct. 17, a second time. Source: New Zealand leader Jac

(CNN) Postmaster General Louis DeJoy continues to hold a multimillion-dollar stake in his former company XPO Logistics, a United States Postal Service contractor, likely creating a major conflict of interest, according to newly obtained financial disclosures and ethics experts. Outside experts who spoke to CNN were shocked that ethics officials at the postal service approved this arrangement, which allows DeJoy to keep at least $30 million in XPO holdings. DeJoy and USPS have said he fully complied with the regulations.Raising further alarms, on the same day in June that DeJoy divested large amounts of Amazon shares, he purchased stock options giving him the right to buy new shares of Amazon at a price much lower than their current market price, according to the disclosures. This could lead to a separate conflict, given President Donald Trump’s disdain for Amazon, and his reported effort in 2018 to pressure DeJoy’s predecessor to raise prices on Amazon and other firms, while complai

Two states have determined the majority of signatures on the rapper’s presidential petitions are invalid. Source: Could Kanye West Be Charged With Electoral Fraud? | Vanity Fair The article was originally published here!

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Viacom and CBS Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who took his father’s movie theater chain and built it into an empire that included Paramount Pictures, CBS and MTV, has died at 97, ViacomCBS and National Amusements said on Wednesday. Source: Billionaire Sumner Redstone, media mogul who headed Viacom, dead at 97 – Reuters The article was originally published here!

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday picked Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate, a historic decision that elevates the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to run for vice president at a moment when the country is grappling with its racial past and future. Biden’s announcement, made in a text and tweet, aligns him with a former presidential rival whose most electric campaign performance came when she criticized his record on school integration during a debate. The decision is the most consequential of Biden’s presidential campaign and has major implications not only for the November election but for the future of the Democratic Party. Biden, 78 years old by Inauguration Day, would be the oldest president ever and has said he considers himself “a transition candidate.” The choice places Harris, who was a more vibrant and energetic presence on the campaign trail but was also at times unsteady, at the forefront of the party’s futu

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (D) advised Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to “politely decline” any offer to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate. Brown wrote that the vice presidency would likely hinder any further political ambitions for Harris. “Historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end. For every George H.W. Bush, who ascended from the job to the presidency, there’s an Al Gore, who never got there,” Brown wrote in an op-ed for the San Francisco Examiner. He’s not wrong about the AG position being better for her long-term. But he is wrong to suggest Al Gore failed at ascending from the Vice President to the President – the SCOTUS voted for President that year and elected George W. Bush in a 5-4 vote. Brown is also maybe a little jelly because he was California’s top dog for a long time (head of the State Assembly) and he’s about to get double-lapped by his former girlfriend. Source: Willie Brown: Kamala Har

(CNN) More than 97,000 children in the US tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report says. The report, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, said in those two weeks, there was a 40% increase in child cases across the states and cities that were studied. The age range for children differed by state, with some defining children as only those up to age 14 and one state — Alabama — pushing the limit to 24. Source: US Coronavirus: More than 97,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two weeks of July, report says – CNN The article was originally published here!

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections. Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles. The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — t

(CNN) All school districts across the state of New York are cleared to open, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news conference by phone Friday morning. Schools in New York and around the country closed in the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. The state become a global epicenter early on, but has since lowered infection rates sufficiently. “Today is the deadline to look at the infection rates and make a determination. By our infection rates, all school districts can open everywhere in the state,” Cuomo said. “Every region is below the threshold that we established.” Source: New York schools are cleared to reopen for in-person classes, Cuomo says – CNN The article was originally published here!

Washington (CNN) Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser and longtime confidant of former President George H.W. Bush, has died, a spokesman for the 41st president’s foundation said Friday. He was 95. Scowcroft died Thursday of natural causes, the spokesman, Jim McGrath said in a statement. A former Air Force general, he served as national security adviser under both Bush and President Gerald Ford, and was a key figure during the Gulf War and the last days of the Cold War. Regarded as soft-spoken and genteel, Scowcroft was a significant influence in American foreign policy beginning in the Nixon administration at the close of the Vietnam War, and seen as promoting a “realist” foreign policy that valued overseas alliances. In his tenure as Bush’s national security adviser, he was also at the forefront of the US responses to the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the reshuffling of Eastern Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Brent Scowcroft was an American

(Reuters) – U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic exceeded 160,000 on Friday, nearly a quarter of the world’s total, according to a Reuters tally, as the country debates whether schools are ready to reopen their doors in the coming weeks. The country with the most coronavirus cases, the United States recorded 160,003 deaths and 4.91 million cases. Coronavirus deaths are rising in 23 states and cases in 20 states, according to a Reuters analysis of data the past two weeks compared with the prior two weeks. On a per-capita basis, the United States ranks 10th highest in the world for both cases and deaths. Source: U.S. surpasses 160,000 coronavirus deaths as school openings near – Reuters The article was originally published here!

Washington (CNN) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Thursday that he has tested positive for coronavirus. The announcement came shortly before DeWine, a Republican, was scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Cleveland. DeWine was tested as part of the “standard protocol” to greet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport, the governor’s office said in a statement. He is returning to Columbus, where he and his wife Fran will both be tested. DeWine tweeted Thursday that he’s not experiencing symptoms at this time. Source: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tests positive for coronavirus – CNNPolitics The article was originally published here!

(CNN) A man with Covid-19 went to church in mid-June, then 91 other people got sick, including 53 who were at the service, according to Ohio’s governor. “It spread like wildfire, wildfire. Very, very scary,” Gov. MIke De Wine said Tuesday. “We know that our faith-based leaders want nothing more than to protect those who come to worship.” To illustrate how one infected person can spread the virus, state health officials released a color graphic showing how the cases radiated to some who weren’t even at the service. Source: Ohio governor says 91 people got coronavirus after infected man went to church – CNN The article was originally published here!

The scenarios foresaw leaky travel bans, a scramble for vaccines, and disputes between state and federal leaders, but none could anticipate the current levels of dysfunction in the United States. It’s all Trump’s fault (I’m paraphrasing). Source: Two decades of pandemic war games failed to account for Donald Trump The article was originally published here!

Joe Biden will no longer be traveling to Milwaukee the week of Aug. 17 to accept his nomination in person at the Democratic National Convention due to COVID-19 concerns, the DNC announced Wednesday. Why it matters: No planned speakers will travel to Milwaukee, meaning that the convention will be entirely virtual — unlike the hybrid event that the party had previously been planning. Biden will accept the nomination from his home state of Delaware. Source: Joe Biden will no longer travel to Milwaukee for Democratic convention – Axios The article was originally published here!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired. The government’s report Thursday did offer a smidgen of hopeful news: The number of jobless claims declined by 249,000 from the previous week, after rising for two straight weeks, and it was the lowest total since mid-March. Still, claims remain at alarmingly high levels: It is the 20th straight week that at least 1 million people have sought jobless aid. Before the pandemic hit hard in March, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never surpassed 700,000 in a week, not even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Source: 1.2 million seek jobless aid after $600 federal check ends The article was originally published here!

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to take executive action to extend an eviction moratorium, suspend collection of the payroll tax and boost unemployment benefits unless a coronavirus relief deal can be reached quickly with Democrats on Capitol Hill. And in a sign the White House could be preparing to act, the Trump administration has asked federal agencies to identify all of the money they have not yet spent from the $2 trillion Cares Act, which passed in March, according to two people briefed on the effort. White House officials are trying to determine whether this money could be redirected and used for other purposes, such as temporary unemployment benefits or the eviction moratorium. The president has been floating the possibility of acting unilaterally for several days, but he detailed his specific plans for the first time Wednesday at the beginning of a coronavirus news conference at the White House. It came as negotiations continued between top Trump administration offic

(CNN) A Georgia second grader tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the first day of school, the school district told CNN. Sixes Elementary in the Cherokee County School district began in-person classes on Monday. But by Tuesday, a classroom was temporarily closed for deep cleaning and the teacher and 20 other students had been asked to quarantine for two weeks after the second grader tested positive. Source: Georgia second grader tests positive for coronavirus after attending the first day of school – CNN The article was originally published here!

BGI Group, described in one 2015 study as “Goliath” in the fast-growing field of genomics research, is using an opening created by the pandemic to expand its footprint globally. In the past six months, it says it has sold 35 million rapid COVID-19 testing kits to 180 countries and built 58 labs in 18 countries. Some of the equipment has been donated by BGI’s philanthropic arm, promoted by China’s embassies in an extension of China’s virus diplomacy. But as well as test kits, the company is distributing gene-sequencing technology that U.S. security officials say could threaten national security. This is a sensitive area globally. Sequencers are used to analyse genetic material, and can unlock powerful personal information. In science journals and online, BGI is calling on international health researchers to send in virus data generated on its equipment, as well as patient samples that have tested positive for COVID-19, to be shared publicly via China’s government-funded National GeneB

BALTIMORE (AP) — Kelyn Yanez used to clean homes during the day and wait tables at night in the Houston area before the coronavirus. But the mother of three lost both jobs in March because of the pandemic and now is facing eviction. The Honduran immigrant got help from a local church to pay part of July’s rent but was still hundreds of dollars short and is now awaiting a three-day notice to vacate the apartment where she lives with her children. She has no idea how she will meet her August rent. “Right now, I have nothing,” said Yanez, who briefly got her bar job back when the establishment reopened, but lost it again when she and her 4-year-old daughter contracted the virus in June and had to quarantine. The apartment owners “don’t care if you’re sick, if you’re not well. Nobody cares here. They told me that I had to have the money.” Source: Wave of evictions expected as moratoriums end in many states The article was originally published here!

Despite acknowledging the unknown long-term effects of COVID-19, the San Jose Unified School District is forcing most of its teachers back into the classroom next week for the start of the upcoming school year. Under a new agreement reached between the district and the San Jose Teachers Association, nearly 1,600 teachers will head back onto campus for the first day of school on Aug. 12. But unlike most years, they’ll be teaching their lessons in an empty classroom to students on the other side of a computer screen — without being given the choice to work from home. Source: San Jose teachers required to teach in classrooms The article was originally published here!

The Trump administration is looking at options for unilateral actions it can take to try to address some of the economic fallout caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic if no relief deal is reached with Congress, according to two people with knowledge of the deliberations. The discussions are a reflection of officials’ increasingly pessimistic outlook for the talks on Capitol Hill. The White House remains in close contact with Democratic leaders, but a wide gulf remains and deadlines have already been missed. It’s not clear what steps the administration could take without the help of Congress on issues such as lapsed enhanced unemployment benefits or the expired moratorium on evictions — the two matters President Trump has recently identified as his highest priorities in the ongoing talks. Both of those programs were authorized by Congress earlier this year but were designed to be temporary. Source: Trump administration examining options for unilateral action if no coronavirus deal

The largest school district in the state reported Sunday that 260 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus or are in quarantine because of possible exposure as they prepare for the new school year. Gwinnett County Public School teachers began in-person pre-planning Wednesday at the 141 facilities throughout the county. By the next day, approximately 260 employees had been excluded from work due to a positive case or contact with a case. The number is fluid, said Gwinnett spokeswoman Sloan Roach, as new reports come in and others move out of quarantine after a period of time. “Through tracing, we know that the majority of these cases are the result of community spread, meaning we have people who have called in to report who have not been at school or work,” Roach added. Gwinnett County has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 cases in the state. As of Sunday, there have been 17,781 positive cases in Gwinnett with 1,996 hospitalizations and 240 deaths. Source: COVID cases,