The Coronavirus Lockdown Has Not Made
the Air Cleaner
Posted By: Ron_lfp, 5/17/2020 11:24:11 AM
Just about every day, someone claims that the air is cleaner. That, we are told, is a small benefit of the coronavirus-induced economic lockdowns. By reducing traffic on our roads, we are polluting the air less, providing a visible example of the supposed benefits of imposing more environmental regulation. (snip) The air-quality data tell a different story. According to the EPA’s air-quality monitors, levels of particulate matter — known as PM 2.5 — are not lower now and have, in fact, been higher recently than the median level of the last five years. (snip) The key factor, however, is that in most places, human-caused pollution is small relative to natural sources.
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In the fall of 2019, a white man spat on Edwin Lindo while he was riding his bicycle with a friend around Mercer Island.
“It gets on my jersey and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening right now,’” he recalled.
Lindo, who identifies as Central American Indigenous from Nicaragua and El Salvador, and his friend, Aaron Bossett, who is Black, viewed the encounter as a racist attempt to exclude them from the biking community. (snip) Lindo has joined a chorus of individuals and organizations calling for the repeal of the King County law that requires bicyclists to wear helmets because of disproportionate enforcement, especially among Black, Native and homeless riders
Amid mounting layoffs in Washington state that have been linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for security guards has jumped, a silver lining following a year of virus-related closures and street protests that have roiled the country and the state.
Security guards are now one of the most in-demand occupations in the state, landing in the top 25 roles being sought by employers, despite the nature of the job in which guards could be confronted with life-or-death decisions.
"The summer hit and that is when we had a surge in demand," said Steve Jones, CEO of Allied Universal,
Rolling power blackouts were ordered across Texas early Monday morning as a winter storm gripped the state.
The rotating outages will likely last throughout Monday morning and could continue until the state's weather emergency ends, (snip)
Rotating blackouts occur when power companies cut off electricity to residential neighborhoods (snip) "At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines
TR International, a global chemical distributor, is moving from its home of more than two decades in downtown Seattle, crossing the county line to neighboring Edmonds.
The company is one of at least 160 businesses that have left Seattle since last March.
While some of the companies that have left Seattle is due to the coronavirus pandemic, business leaders have said that much of it could be traced back to a sense that no one is minding the store in Seattle anymore, and a lack of accountability from city leaders.
TR International CEO Megan Gluth-Bohan said the decision to leave was easy. She cited ongoing violence, along with rampant homelessness and drug use.
Seattle cruise season again a victim of
COVID-19 after Canada extends ban
through early 2022 12 replies
COVID-19 after Canada extends ban
through early 2022 12 replies
Much of Seattle’s 2021 cruise season could be canceled after Canadian authorities on Thursday extended a pandemic-related ban on large cruise ships in Canadian waters through February 2022.
Passage through Canadian waters and to Canadian ports is key for the Seattle-based cruise business, which has been largely on hold since last spring due to U.S. and Canadian restrictions. (snip) Cancellation of the 2020 cruise season cost around 5,000 local jobs and at least $900 million in economic activity. In 2019, the Seattle cruise industry had its biggest year: Seven cruise lines carried 1.2 million passengers on 11 vessels over more than 220 voyages, a port spokesperson said.
Much of Western Washington had reason to rejoice Thursday when Gov. Jay Inslee modified his COVID-19 restrictions and allowed seven counties, including Pierce, to move to Phase 2 in his revised reopening plan. (snip) Washingtonians shouldn’t lose sight of the extraordinary power that remains entrenched in the executive branch.
The Legislature now has a chance to balance the scales, at least somewhat. For the next three months, Washington’s 49 senators and 98 representatives can reassert their status as a co-equal branch of government, no longer sidelined by a governor who wouldn’t call a special session as the public-health crisis dragged on last year.
The president of the Pasco Association of Educators (PAE) claims reopening schools for in-person learning is an example of “white supremacy,” and compares listening to concerned parents to following rioters breaking into the U.S. Capitol. He even says concern over student suicide is an example of “white privilege.”
Scott Wilson, PAE president, made a series of unhinged, controversial remarks during a Pasco School Board meeting this week.
The statements come as the union pushes for total remote learning for elementary schools, even with near-consensus from the medical community that it is safe to reopen schools with mitigation policies in place.
Update 12/30/2020 at 11:16am: Radicals with Tacoma Housing Now say police have arrived and are “breaking doors open” to remove the occupiers from the motel. (snip) Original story.
Radical activists with Tacoma Housing Now (THN) are holding a Travelodge motel hostage in Fife while activists are assembling their version of an army to defend the takeover. (snip) Law enforcement and local politicians are not doing much to stop it.
Alaska Airlines said Tuesday it has ordered 23 more Boeing 737 MAXs, bringing its total order to 68 MAXs that over the next three years will replace most of the Airbus aircraft in its fleet. (snip) The cheap Boeing MAXs will replace all of Alaska’s 51 Airbus A320s and 10 smaller A319s (snip) And since the MAX planes are 20% more fuel efficient and new jets should require less maintenance, Alaska expects to reap big operational cost savings. “With each delivery, our ownership costs go down, our maintenance costs go down, our fuel costs go down
Police say 24 people in all were arrested during a sweep of Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol neighborhood on Friday.
Charges range from “misdemeanor trespass, failure to disperse, resisting arrest, obstructing arrest, and property destruction.
The sweep, originally planned for Wednesday, began Friday morning. Parks Department employees arrived early to find protesters. Seattle police arrived to warn campers to clear out of the park.
By 1 p.m., Seattle police said there had been 21 arrests and parks department employees were continuing to clean out the park. By 5 p.m. there were three additional arrests and police said the park cleanup effort had concluded
New data offers a sobering look at how school closures during the pandemic have affected child welfare reporting.
After school buildings closed last school year, the Washington state agency that investigates child abuse and neglect received 87% fewer calls from concerned teachers, counselors and other mandatory school reporters on average per week through June. This school year, reports are down 59%.
The new data from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) confirms what many educators, families and officials feared: Fewer eyes on children during the pandemic has resulted in fewer reported instances of neglect and abuse.
I’ll admit it: I’m lonely. I miss high school, I miss competing in track and cross country events, and I miss seeing my friends and teachers. Five days a week, I spend the better part of the day at home completely alone staring at my computer. (snip) But as the months passed by, we’ve learned that when schools follow masking and distancing rules, they are not a significant source of spread.
What’s bewildering to me is that our state leaders haven’t yet used this information to revise the guidelines for reopening schools and athletics.
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As we reported two days ago, Joe Biden completely made no sense when he was trying to explain the Wuhan coronavirus relief bill.
It was really bad and it explains why they’re afraid to have him deliver an address to Congress or do any kind of a real solo press conference, because at this point they have to be afraid this is all going to fall apart if he does anything live and this all becomes too obvious to the American people.
But there’s only so long that they can hold this off. And it’s getting worse, as video today revealed. Biden was holding an event to announce the nomination
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin (WV) appears to have started to shift his views on the filibuster with remarks that he made on two news shows on Sunday morning.The shift from Manchin comes after he has repeatedly stated that he would not vote to end the filibuster, despite pressure from the far-Left. During the interviews on Sunday, Manchin repeatedly claimed that he was not open to ending the filibuster because he did not want to strip the minority party of their power in the Senate, but signaled that he was open to changing it.Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Manchin if he would consider “reforming the filibuster” if “Republicans
Evangelicals For Biden ‘Feel Used And Betrayed’
By Biden Fulfilling His Radical Abortion Promises 37 replies
By Biden Fulfilling His Radical Abortion Promises 37 replies
In an open letter released Sunday, Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden urged him to “honor his commitment” and include the Hyde Amendment in Democrats’ $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending package, writing “we feel used and betrayed.” The letter states: We are very disappointed about the COVID-19 relief package’s exclusion of the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding bipartisan policy that prevents taxpayer funding for abortion. [snip] As pro-life leaders in the evangelical community, we publicly supported President Biden’s candidacy with the understanding that there would be engagement [with] us on the issue of abortion and particularly the Hyde Amendment
If you had any doubts that Meghan Markle is a manipulative piece of work, her bombshell Oprah interview Sunday night dumping on the British monarchy would set you straight.
Prince Harry’s American wife accused his family of hateful racism against her baby, claimed they refused to protect her and drove her to the point of suicide.She made the incendiary and implausible charge that when she was pregnant with Archie, the royal family decreed that her unborn son would be denied the title of “prince” because her mixed race meant he might have dark skin.
Joe and Jill Biden’s German Shepherds were shipped back to Delaware after a “biting incident” involving White House security, CNN reported.Major was adopted by Joe Biden and his handler wife Jill in 2018 from an animal shelter.Major and Champ moved into the White House in January and they’re already gone. The condition of the victim was not disclosed but it was serious enough to remove both dogs from the White House.CNN reported: The two German Shepherds belonging to President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were returned to the Biden family home in Delaware last week
Nancy Pelosi’s top priority is to turn America into a one-party nation ruled by Democrats. Her bill HR 1 trashes the U.S. Constitution in an attempt to rig the system and make it virtually impossible to elect a Republican president or Congress again. It’s a power grab.
The bill eviscerates state voting laws and forces all the states to conform to a set of rules that includes automatic voter registration. Anyone who goes to a DMV or applies for food stamps, Medicaid or other social services, or attends a public college will be automatically enrolled to vote. Noncitizens are obligated to identify themselves and opt out,
President Biden on Monday seemed to forget Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name at a White House event—calling the Pentagon chief “the guy who runs that outfit over there.” Biden was announcing the nomination of two female generals to lead US military combatant commands. “And I want to thank the sec—the, the, ah former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my—the guy who runs that outfit over there,” Biden said.(Snip) Earlier at the event, Biden mentioned the Defense Department leader by his name, “Secretary Austin,” while appearing to read from a teleprompter.
The Royal Family was left reeling this morning after Meghan Markle tearfully revealed that the stress of royal life made her suicidal when she was five months pregnant, claimed Archie was denied the title of prince because he is mixed-race and said Kate Middleton made her cry before she married Harry in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.The couple also chose to reveal that they are having a baby girl to the tens of millions of people watching the CBS show broadcast in the US before accusing the Royal Family of racism and revealing the deep rift 'Megxit' has caused with Prince Charles and Prince William.
I’m probably second to none in my dislike for Meghan Markle. There’s something unattractive about a mature woman marrying into the British Royal family with one of the world’s most expensive weddings, hanging out with the Queen, living in insane luxury…and then whining non-stop about the horror of her life. There’s something even less appealing when that woman accuses the Royal family of race hatred. And the problem is that, when it comes to that left-wing diva, Meghan Markle, it’s hard to believe most of what she says.
After weeks of hype, CBS finally televised Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah.
Without question, the vast majority of Americans who support former President Donald Trump were angry and frustrated throughout 2020 passed with barely a mention of then-U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal investigation into the FBI’s fraudulent “Russiagate” counterterrorism operation directed at his 2016 campaign.In the weeks before the November election, word got out that then-Attorney General William Barr wasn’t going to announce any indictments or even a report on Durham’s investigation because he did not want to influence the outcome.So far, in fact, the only indictment to come out of the Durham probe is that of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who essentially got a slap on the wrist
Rep. Steve Cohen vowed to renew the push to remove former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s name from the bureau’s downtown Washington headquarters, according to an interview released Monday. Appearing on Yahoo! News’ Skullduggery podcast, the Tennessee Democrat said the effort is getting a fresh look after the release of a new movie highlighting the FBI’s secret program to discredit civil rights activists. The Washington Times in 2019 first reported Democrats’ bid to strip the longtime FBI director’s name from the bureau’s headquarters. Mr. Cohen said the impetus to revive the bid is the new movie, “Judas and the Black Messiah.” The movie details
“There must have been a moment, at the beginning, when we could have said –-no. But somehow we missed it.” Tom Stoppard
The millions of Americans who were paying attention throughout the 2020 election campaign all became painfully aware of the fact that Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities were slipping and slipping fast. His wife, as the person closest to him, should have been the one to call the campaign quits in order to reduce stress on the man.
Instead, apparently so anxious to become the First Lady by any means necessary, Mrs. Biden continued to push her failing husband’s campaign forward as if he were mentally qualified.
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Todd is a local hero; enviro director for Washington Policy Institute