Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Could we be watching something about to happen here?

A South Dakota Sioux tribe is refusing to end coronavirus checkpoints along roads leading to through tribal land even though the state’s government has deemed them illegal. Leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe say the checkpoints, which are designed to monitor and track possible coronavirus exposure, are the best tool the tribe has to stop an outbreak. However, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem says the checkpoints interfere with traffic on US and state highways, and are thus against the law. The Cheyenne River Sioux and Oglala Sioux tribes have both issued strict stay-at-home orders and curfews for their communities even though there are no similar statewide restrictions. (CNN)

People are using cars more as lock downs ease

Gasoline usage and traffic instructions in online maps show that people in big cities around the world are choosing cars to avoid close contact with strangers. This is helping Big Oil, which saw prices fall to a record low last month. Gasoline demand is rebounding, at least for now. As lockdowns ease and parts of the world reopen for business, driving has emerged as the socially distant transportation mode of choice and is offering some near-term relief to an oil market fresh off its worst crash in history and reeling from an unprecedented collapse in energy demand. (Bloomberg News)

Some 500 casinos have shut down during the pandemic, often taking away tribes’ main source of income

While some Native American-owned casinos have reopened or plan to in the coming weeks, most are still closed. The U.S. government authorized $8 billion for tribes in a coronavirus relief package in March, when most casinos closed, but it’s been slow to distribute the money, deepening the woes on reservations. That’s also forced layoffs and furloughs among the more than 1 million people working for tribes, many of them in casinos. It’s difficult to find accurate numbers for casino revenue and the programs it supports because tribes generally don’t give that information. Tribal gambling operations closed about two months ago, so the effects are just starting to be felt. However, a team of Harvard researchers recently released preliminary results of a study on the pandemic’s impact on the 574 federally recognized tribes. The report said tribes initially closed all their casinos, spanning 29 states, and many non-gambling businesses. (Associated Press)

Chinese investment in US drops to lowest level since 2009

China’s direct investments in the U.S. fell last year to the lowest level since the Great Recession, even before the pandemic battered global commerce. The drop reflected tensions between the world’s two biggest economies and Chinese government restrictions on overseas investment. A report from the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations found that China’s direct investment in the U.S. dropped from $5.4 billion in 2018 to $5 billion last year, the lowest level since the recession year of 2009. Direct investment includes mergers, acquisitions and investments in things like offices and factories but not financial investments like purchases of stocks and bonds. The report found that Chinese direct investment in the United States virtually vanished, to $200 million from January through March this year as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the world economy. (Associated Press)

An ice cream shop that tried to open its doors with limited capacity in Cape Cod faced so much harassment that one employee quit

The owner of Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour in Mashpee, Massachusetts said that he wanted to open his shop quietly on Friday (5/8) to kick off Mother’s Day Weekend. He added that he has been able to open his shop under restaurant guidelines, but that he wanted to wait until he felt it was safe to do so. The owner said his workers heard language from customers that “you wouldn’t even say in a men’s locker room. And to say it to a 17-year-old kid, they should be ashamed of themselves.” Still, he claimed, customers didn’t listen and instead took their anger out on his employees when the parlor got busy and staff could not fill orders right away. “All of the sudden word spread like wildfire and nobody listened to what we told them how the protocol we had set up,” he said. “People have forgotten how to treat other human beings in the six or seven weeks that they’ve been confined to their homes. They have no clue how to respect other human beings.” He announced on his Facebook page that he would no longer be open to the public and would work to explore new options. (Boston 25 News)

In Colorado, a restaurant opened illegally with no social distancing in place

Customers without masks packed the restaurant, and residents are fearful that it could have worsened Colorado’s outbreak. A day after C & C Coffee and Kitchen defied Democratic Governor’s executive Safer at Home order, packing the restaurant with hundreds of customers on Mother’s Day (5/10), the regional health department ordered the business to shut down immediately until authorities could determine if the business was in compliance with coronavirus-related restrictions, according to a statement from the agency. Nearly every table was full after the restaurant opened its doors. Customers crowded around the counter waiting for their orders. The line to place them went out the door, wrapping around the side of the building, all while almost no one was wearing a face mask. For the owners of the breakfast cafe, it was a way to both celebrate Mother’s Day and to openly push back against policies they believe are strangling the American economy; the decision was met with enthusiasm in the wealthy enclave south of Denver, as customers flocked. Open defiance of government orders has become a political rallying point for small businesses from coast to coast as the nation’s shutdown nears two months. Some business owners have reopened even after being threatened with legal consequences, though some have chosen to keep social distancing restrictions in place. (Colorado Community Media)

Men in blue-collar jobs have some of the highest death rates from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom

Male security guards have the highest death rate of any occupation in the U.K., with 45.7 deaths per 100,000. Men in “low skill occupations” had a collective death rate of 21.4 per 100,000, the Office for National Statistics said. 2,494 deaths in England and Wales among those between 20 and 64 were analyzed and sorted by gender and occupation. Two-thirds of the fatalities were men. The most high-risk jobs, according to the data, were male taxi drivers, chauffeurs, chefs, bus drivers, and social workers. Men may be more susceptible than women to severe infections due to the amount of the enzyme ACE2 in their blood. In a separate analysis, the ONS said black people in the U.K. were four times as likely to die from COVID-19 as white people. (Aljazeera)

Using a drone to deliver beer is one of the ways in which Irish pubs are weathering the coronavirus pandemic

McKeever’s Bar & Lounge has been using a drone to send drinks, usually bottles of Heineken, to its patrons in a town near Dublin. “We had a bottle of wine and a bag of Tayto crisps ready to go last night but it didn’t take off because of the wind,” said the owner. At least one pub has installed a keg and pump in a van to pull pints outside customers’ houses. Other pubs are delivering pints of Guinness to clients via drivers who wear masks and gloves. Irish ex-pats living all over the world have been ordering pints and food for their loved ones in recent days, pub owners said. “It’s survival. If we didn’t do it, we wouldn’t be getting any income,” said the owner of  Graingers Hanlons Corner, a Dublin pub. (The Guardian)

An 11-year-old Brazilian has become the first skateboarder to land a 1080-degree turn on a vertical ramp

The maneuver completed by Gui Khury – three full spins in the air – has long been considered one of the holy grails of skateboarding. Khury’s dad said that not having school during the coronavirus lockdown helped his son focus on skateboarding because before “he didn’t have a lot of time to train.” He performed the trick on a ramp that his family built at his grandmother’s backyard. Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, who was 31 at the time, shot to fame when he landed a 900-degree turn, which is basically two-and-a-half rotations, in 1999. Khury completed a 900-degree turn when he was 8-years-old, fewer than a dozen skaters have successfully performed the maneuver. (Reuters)

If the Navajo Nation were a state, it would have the highest rate of coronavirus infection rates except for New York

At least 100 people have died of COVID-19 on tribal land and more than 3,100 cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed. A third of tribal members don’t have running water. A third don’t have electricity. And half of the nation’s members were unemployed before the pandemic broke out. (NPR)

Adolf Hitler definitely died in WWII, new research says

A team of French researchers who recently examined Adolf Hitler’s remains say the leader of the Nazi party definitely died in Berlin and not elsewhere, as has been rumored about for decades. Researchers persuaded the Russian government, the entity that discovered Hitler’s body, to let them look at the last bits of his remains: a part of Hitler’s skull with a bullet hole and a set of teeth. The teeth were compared to the autopsy done in 1945 and it was confirmed they were indeed Hitler’s teeth. The study also showed that his teeth did not have any traces of tartar or meat particles, indicating he was a vegetarian. In the past, it has been alleged that Hitler’s corpse was set on fire, hidden by the KGB, dug up and moved around. It has even been alleged that Hitler did not die in World War II and that he escaped to Argentina or another South American country. A recently declassified CIA document found that Hitler escaping to Argentina was a rumor so credible that the agency had investigated the matter as late as 1955, nearly a decade after World War II ended. (Fox News)

Cows burst through roof of flipped truck during crash at liquor store

A driver will recover after a semi-truck carrying a load of cattle flipped over, spilling some of the cows. The violent crash was caught on video. This security video is from Lucky Joe’s liquor store in Neligh, Nebraska. It shows the semi-truck making a turn, and flipping as it veers off the road, hitting a pole. The truck flips over releasing the cattle as they burst through the roof of the trailer. The cows landed inches away from the liquor store. The store wasn’t damaged but some of the cows had to be put down. (CBS 17)

Maryland Deputy Shoots and Kills Groundhog Charging Towards him

A Maryland deputy was recorded on video shooting and killing a groundhog after it charged towards him. At first, it appeared as if the Maryland sheriff’s deputy was trying to do a good deed by stopping traffic to allow a groundhog to cross the road without getting killed, but that was before the deputy shot and killed the rodent. A Carroll County sheriff’s spokesman said the deputy had to shoot the animal because it was charging towards him, making him fear for his life, but a witness video shows the deputy could have easily sidestepped the groundhog. In a statement, the sheriff’s office said the deputy stopped when the animal in the road, “causing vehicles to stop and creating a hazard.” The deputy then got out of his vehicle, tried to direct the groundhog off the road and “realized that it was not responding as expected for an animal that was not being cornered or trapped. Believing the groundhog to be either sick or injured, the deputy then put the animal down for the public’s safety,” the statement said. The video shows the deputy stepping toward the groundhog, which doesn’t back away. The deputy then slowly backs into the next lane of traffic and the groundhog runs toward the deputy. The deputy then pulls his gun, gets down on one knee and shoots the groundhog once. The groundhog continues to roll around and the deputy then gets down on one knee again and shoots the groundhog a second time, and then walks back toward his patrol car. (Baltimore Sun)

Wednesday Breaks Down With:

• Children of Fallen Patriots Day
• Crouton Day
• Donate A Day’s Wages To Charity (Second Wednesday)
• Frog Jumping Day
• Hummus Day
• National Night Shift Workers Day (Second Wednesday)
• National Third Shift Workers Day (Second Wednesday)
• Receptionists Day (Second Wednesday)