PhillyNews.FYI

02/09/2021

I-676 is currently more like the Vine Street Canal. Mark Henninger / Imagic Digital Today, 1:30 p.m.

https://phillynews.fyi/35052/photos-and-videos-of-the-flooded-highway-in-the-middle-of-philadelphia/

02/09/2021

“In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts," the opinion said....

https://phillynews.fyi/35053/despite-delta-us-jobless-claims-hit-new-pandemic-low/

02/09/2021

Unprecedented flooding in the northeast has left the Somerset Patriots’ stadium submerged in water. The Patriots have played at TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, N.J., since 1999. The franchise was a part of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball from 1998 to 2020 before becoming the Double-A affiliate for the New York Yankees in 2021, taking the place of the Trenton Thunder....

https://phillynews.fyi/35051/somerset-patriots-stadium-flooded-after-hurricane-ida-hits-nj/

02/09/2021

The 34-page suit filed in Commonwealth Court on Tuesday night asks for the state court to declare the law unconstitutional, and prevent the state from issuing mail-in ballots to Pennsylvanians who do not have a work, health, or religious excuse for not voting in-person in upcoming elections. The law, Act 77, allows all Pennsylvanians to request and to return, a mail-in ballot with no excuse....

https://phillynews.fyi/35050/florida-school-board-approves-additional-budget-to-sue-over-desantis-mask-ban/

02/09/2021

In a 2018 speech announcing her decisive vote in favor of confirming right-wing judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine insisted—despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary—that he would value legal precedent and not support efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade. "This is Susan Collins' court and her legacy."—Marie Follayttar, Mainers for Accountable Leadership…...

https://phillynews.fyi/35049/critics-recount-all-the-times-susan-collins-promised-brett-kavanaugh-wouldnt-gut-roe-v-wade/

In a 2018 speech announcing her decisive vote in favor of confirming right-wing judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,...

02/09/2021

A resource guide for displaced residents, flooding damage and road closures. Emma Lee/WHYY Today, 11:45 a.m. The torrential remnants of Hurricane Ida ripped through the Philly region on Wednesday, flooding huge swaths of the city and the suburbs and leading to at least three deaths. The damage is extensive: Philadelphians woke up to basements underwater, cars submerged and the water levels of the Schuylkill River…...

https://phillynews.fyi/35048/where-to-get-help-after-ida-floods-philly-region/

02/09/2021

New Yorkers mopped up flooded homes and businesses and began removing fallen debris from crushed cars Thursday following record rainfall that caught much of the Big Apple by surprise. Under piercing blue skies that belied the carnage of just a few hours earlier, shocked residents surveyed the damage of a chaotic night that left at least eight people dead. "A ten-ton tree just feel on my car....

http://phillynews.fyi/35047/new-yorkers-pick-up-pieces-following-unbelievable-rainfall/

New Yorkers mopped up flooded homes and businesses and began removing fallen debris from crushed cars Thursday following record rainfall...

02/09/2021

Fox Business segment slams Joe Rogan for taking ivermectin after Tucker Carlson pushed the horse dewormer

“Now that the committee has sought phone records from telecom companies to examine the phone history of witnesses of Jan. 6, including members of Congress, McCarthy has threatened the companies in an attempt to keep them from complying,” Rubin cited.

She went on to call it “intolerable,” telling Democrats, including the White House, that it’s time to hold this behavior accountable by referring it “to the House ethics committee, if not the Justice Department.”

McCarthy obviously isn’t the only one spouting threats. Rubin cited Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who threatened “bloodshed” if Democrats win more “rigged” elections. “There’s nothing I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American,” he said.

While violent Republican hyperbole isn’t unusual, after Jan. 6 there is an increased sense of fear for future acts of domestic terrorism.

“This advertisement for future violent insurrection is precisely the type of conduct from Republicans that defenders of democracy feared would become more regular,” she wrote. “It would be bad enough for a private citizen to make such a statement; it is inexcusable from a member of Congress.”

Past examples include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) threatening to execute members of Congress and McCarthy joking about hitting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with the gavel. Then there’s the bizarre case of Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), who attempted to enter Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with large amounts of cash, claiming he was going to “rescue American citizens.” The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan refused to allow him passage

“Mullin was outraged by the response, the officials said — threatening U.S. ambassador John Mark Pommersheim and embassy staff and demanding to know the name of staff members he was speaking with,” the Post reported at the time. He then disappeared, leaving many concerned he attempted to enter Afghanistan alone. Rubin said it was “nuts” and called for him to be disciplined.

She argued that the behavior is indicative of a “MAGA mentality” that the former president has been using since the early days of his 2016 campaign.

“Disdain for law and order and reliance on extralegal actions and threats of violence are yet further signs that another Jan. 6 may indeed have been a dress rehearsal for further attacks on our democracy,” she closed.

It puts President Joe Biden in an awkward position. Any attempt at accountability would appear partisan, but Rubin argued that at the very least he should encourage Congress to act on the “shameless thuggery” of the GOP.

Read the full column at the Washington Post.

The post Fox Business segment slams Joe Rogan for taking ivermectin after Tucker Carlson pushed the horse dewormer first appeared on Philadelphia News.

“Now that the committee has sought phone records from telecom companies to examine the phone history of witnesses of Jan....

02/09/2021

"Now that the committee has sought phone records from telecom companies to examine the phone history of witnesses of Jan. 6, including members of Congress, McCarthy has threatened the companies in an attempt to keep them from complying," Rubin cited. She went on to call it "intolerable," telling Democrats, including the White House, that it's time to hold this behavior accountable by referring it "to the House ethics committee, if not the Justice Department."...

https://phillynews.fyi/35046/fox-business-segment-slams-joe-rogan-for-taking-ivermectin-after-tucker-carlson-pushed-the-horse-dewormer/

“Now that the committee has sought phone records from telecom companies to examine the phone history of witnesses of Jan....

02/09/2021

Woman shot dead by police after hurling N-word at Hurricane Ida workers and trying to ‘run over a deputy’

A woman was shot to death by police Wednesday after hurling racial slurs at a crew working to repair damage from Hurricane Ida in Metairie, Louisiana.

After city workers in Jefferson Parish flagged down police in response to the unidentified woman’s racist abuse, she struck and dragged one deputy with her car, prompting another to shoot her 8-9 times, according to media reports.

During a news conference, Sheriff Joe Lopinto was asked whether “long lines” and oppressive heat in the region devastated by Ida, where many remain without power and water, may have been a contributing factor.

“I have no clue about her motive, or any information about her,” Lopinto said, according to video from the local CBS affiliate. “I don’t know at this point in time. Look, as I said yesterday and will say again, tensions have been high around here. These things are happening. Disturbances at gas stations — we’re getting a bunch of them right now. Still, you know, it doesn’t lead to this, where you try to run over a deputy. I don’t care what the tensions are, people need to learn a little patience around here. That being said, the circumstances with this individual, I’m not sure.”

According to NOLA.com, Lopinto said the woman may have been in “mental distress” — and she had previously been committed for mental health issues.

“Many across Jefferson feel desperate after Category 4 Ida knocked out power and drinking water to most of the parish on Sunday, and amid the 18-months-and-counting coronavirus pandemic,” the newspaper reported. “But Lopinto said there was no excuse to lose control in the way the workers and deputies described.”

The workers were repairing a water main when the unidentified woman pulled up in her BMW SUV and called them “f*cking n*ggers” and said they needed to go back to their country, according to NOLA.com, which reviewed video shot by a bystander who declined to release the footage because it had been turned over to police as evidence.

When the deputies arrived to speak with her, the woman continued hurling racial slurs and demanded that the workers be arrested.

The deputies patiently tried to reason with the woman and get her to do the right thing, but she eventually rolled up her window and accelerated, hitting and dragging a deputy who had his hand on her car. After leading police on a high-speed chase for nearly a mile before getting blocked by traffic, the woman allegedly hit the same deputy a second time after he stepped in front of her vehicle.

At that point, the other deputy opened fire.

The bystander who filmed the incident said the workers didn’t deserve the abuse — and he showed NOLA.com another video of them giving their parish-provided lunches to hungry residents.

The deputy who was hit by the woman’s car suffered minor injuries.

“They really tried to help the lady,” the man added, referring to the deputies. “And she f-*cked them over.”

Watch a report below.

The post Woman shot dead by police after hurling N-word at Hurricane Ida workers and trying to ‘run over a deputy’ first appeared on Philadelphia News.

A woman was shot to death by police Wednesday after hurling racial slurs at a crew working to repair damage...

02/09/2021

‘This is all about controlling women’: Greg Abbott slammed over tweet promoting new near-total abortion ban

If covid spread from wild animals to people, like SARS, MERS and every other new human virus you care to name, the IC would have little to add to the discussion. They can’t prove a negative. What evidence could prove that Covid didn’t leak from a lab? Even finding covid in the wild and describing a plausible path of transmission to from the wilderness to Wuhan wouldn’t definitively rule out the possibility that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

However, if there were a lab leak, the IC would be as well-positioned to prove it as anyone in the world. The IC’s expertise is uncovering secrets, and if covid leaked from the WIV, there are a lot of people keeping secrets. Scientists at the WIV would know. Elements within the Chinese government would probably know, too — either because they were monitoring the institute the whole time or because their own investigations later uncovered it. China has a lot of raw data about the earliest phase of the pandemic that it’s not sharing with the rest of the world. Lab leakers speculate that China is hiding the data because they’re covering up a lab leak, but there are many possible motives for secrecy, starting with the fact that China is a leading purveyor of conspiracy theories that a lab in the United States leaked covid.

If anyone were keeping the secret of a lab leak, IC’s job would be to hack, bug, wheedle or bribe that secret loose. So far, they’ve come up short. It’s been almost two years. Not a shred of concrete evidence has emerged to tie covid to a lab. The unclassified summary tacitly admits as much. The one agency arguing for a lab leak reached this conclusion based on “the inherently risky nature of work on coronaviruses.” They’re not claiming to have eyewitness accounts, intercepts, genomic analyses or anything specific to back up this hunch.

Even if bat coronavirus research is risky in the abstract, a lab can’t leak what it hasn’t got. There’s no evidence the WIV ever had covid or any virus similar enough to covid to genetically engineer it from spare parts. Last month, the IC revealed they were using supercomputers to mine a database of viral sequences that the WIV took offline in September, but apparently those efforts haven’t panned out.

Meanwhile the body of scientific evidence pointing to natural origin continues to expand. More and more viruses similar to covid-19 are being found in the wild. The emergence of increasingly infectious covid variants casts doubt on the lab leak boosters’ claim that covid was pre-adapted to be maximally transmissible to humans. The fact that covid can infect species as different as otters and tigers is further evidence it’s a natural virus. It’s hard enough to make a virus that can sicken one kind of animal, let alone many. Plotting early cases of covid on the map doesn’t show them spreading outward from the WIV.

You often hear that “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence,” often from people who have little evidence for a cherished hypothesis. But if you keep looking for something and never find it, that should raise doubts about whether you’re looking in the right place.

An all-out push by the entire US Intelligence Committee failed to uncover one iota of evidence of a lab leak. How long must we keep searching before we pull the plug on a hypothesis once and for all?

The post ‘This is all about controlling women’: Greg Abbott slammed over tweet promoting new near-total abortion ban first appeared on Philadelphia News.

If covid spread from wild animals to people, like SARS, MERS and every other new human virus you care to...

02/09/2021

A woman was shot to death by police Wednesday after hurling racial slurs at a crew working to repair damage from Hurricane Ida in Metairie, Louisiana. After city workers in Jefferson Parish flagged down police in response to the unidentified woman's racist abuse, she struck and dragged one deputy with her car, prompting another to shoot her 8-9 times, according to media reports....

https://phillynews.fyi/35045/woman-shot-dead-by-police-after-hurling-n-word-at-hurricane-ida-workers-and-trying-to-run-over-a-deputy/

A woman was shot to death by police Wednesday after hurling racial slurs at a crew working to repair damage...

02/09/2021

If covid spread from wild animals to people, like SARS, MERS and every other new human virus you care to name, the IC would have little to add to the discussion. They can't prove a negative. What evidence could prove that Covid didn't leak from a lab? Even finding covid in the wild and describing a plausible path of transmission to from the wilderness to Wuhan wouldn't definitively rule out the possibility that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)....

https://phillynews.fyi/35043/this-is-all-about-controlling-women-greg-abbott-slammed-over-tweet-promoting-new-near-total-abortion-ban/

02/09/2021

Unhinged threats against nurses and school boards rage on as mainstream GOP stands by

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pleaded that people do not take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes.

“Using any treatment for COVID-19 that’s not approved or authorized by the FDA, unless part of a clinical trial, can cause serious harm,” the FDA said in March. “The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.”

But as Michigan experiences another surge of COVID-19 cases, there has been an uptick in poison control calls regarding ivermectin and patients looking to be prescribed the drug. As of Wednesday, Michigan has reported a total of 951,192 COVID-19 cases and 20,347 deaths.

Dr. Rob Davidson, a West Michigan emergency room physician and Committee to Protect Health Care executive director, said on MSNBC Wednesday that he had a patient who refused the COVID vaccine, but asked for ivermectin instead.

“These are the kinds of lines that the former president [Donald Trump] threw out there and people latched onto it and just haven’t let go,” Davidson said.

However, in Ohio, a judge last week ordered the West Chester Hospital, near Cincinnati, to provide a man with 30 mg of ivermectin daily for three weeks after his wife filed a lawsuit against the hospital.

People who haven’t been able to find a doctor who will prescribe them ivermectin for COVID-19 have been buying the anti-parasitic medication intended for horses from farm supply stores.

The FDA strongly urges against this, noting “ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans.”

These stores are trying to curb customers from buying ivermectin to self medicate by posting warnings that the drug is not safe for human use.

Potential side effects

Taking ivermectin for any reason other than its FDA-approved intended uses can cause mild to severe side effects, especially for those who are taking ivermectin intended for animals.

Dr. Farhan Bhatti, a family physician in Lansing and Michigan state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, said mild side effects include headache, dizziness, vomiting and fatigue. More severe side effects include liver disease, blurred vision, changes in heart rate, swelling or low blood pressure.

Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, said the side effects from ivermectin could actually worsen COVID-19 symptoms, especially the long lasting COVID-19 symptoms, like heart damage.

“People can die from taking ivermectin if they overdose on it,” Bhatti said.

Overdosing is more common for people who are taking ivermectin intended for livestock because the formulations, additives and the dose are likely not the same as what is prescribed to humans, said Sims.

Uptick in ivermectin-related poison control calls

According to Varun Vohra, director of the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center, there has been a small increase in ivermectin-related calls to the poison control hotline, though it’s significantly less than other states.

States with higher volumes of ivermectin-related poison control calls are Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

In 2021, poison control centers across the U.S. received three times the amount of calls for human exposures to ivermectin in January compared to the pre-pandemic baseline, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That number spiked again in July when ivermectin calls increased to five times the amount compared to the baseline.

Vohra said in May Michigan saw a spike of about 10 calls, compared to about three calls a month prior to the pandemic.

“It’s waned since then, but we’re going to continue to monitor because this is hitting the news cycle pretty hard, so that could stimulate an increase in use among people who start hearing about it,” Vohra said.

Sims said he has seen an increase of patients who have asked to be prescribed ivermectin, but he is following FDA and CDC guidance.

“I’ve heard people shouting we’re trying to keep it away … because it’s an old drug and relatively cheap,” Sims said. “If it can be proven to work, we’ll use it, but I’m not going to assume it’s going to work.”

Doctors who are recommending unproven treatments to patients could be at risk of losing their license for “unprofessional conduct.”

“If physicians are recommending harmful treatments to people, that’s a violation of their Hippocratic Oath. And if patients are directly being harmed by something that doctors are telling them to do, then doctors could have their license threatened in court,” Bhatti said.

Most doctors are sticking to what’s been scientifically proven to work: vaccinations, masking and social distancing, Sims said.

Where did the ivermectin rumor begin?

A myriad of coronavirus-related conspiracy theories have made their way around the internet, many of which have been disproven by physicians, and are often hard to track where they originated.

While ivermectin has been a hot topic in the news recently, it has actually been floated as a COVID-19 treatment since the early days of the pandemic in the U.S.

In April 2020, shortly after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Michigan’s first COVID-19 case in early March, the state put out a press release warning people not to take ivermectin for COVID-19. The release pointed to a pre-publication paper for the journal Antiviral Research as the source of the attention for this drug.

However, that study was only done in a petri dish and was not tested on animals or humans.

Despite that, many right-wing media figures, such as Joe Rogan, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, promoted the drug without any scientific backing, reaching a large audience of people who are anti-mask and anti-vaccine. There also are a number of Facebook groups pushing ivermectin, as well as many posts in other social media.

Ivermectin is not the first “miracle drug” that has made headlines during the pandemic. Hydroxychloroquine, convalescent plasma and antiviral drugs lopinavir-ritonavir were also pushed to help treat COVID-19, but studies showed they were ineffective.

“Nobody has a problem with repurposing a drug to use to treat COVID,” Sims said. “There’s so many different products that have been tried that way, but most of them have not helped.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: [email protected]. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Unhinged threats against nurses and school boards rage on as mainstream GOP stands by first appeared on Philadelphia News.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pleaded that people do not take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes. “Using any treatment...

02/09/2021

Made in America has a mask mandate, but ticket holders wonder if it’s really enforceable

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After live music in the city went dark more than a year ago, the sunrays of sonic festivity are about to shine down on Philadelphia in a mighty way. Made In America is back.

Jay Z’s two-day music extravaganza is in its 10th year, though this is only the ninth festival to take over the Ben Franklin Parkway for Labor Day weekend. Last summer, MIA organizers joined somewhat-reluctant show producers around the country to cancel the party, despite the pandemic’s summertime lull.

Philly is recording more than double the number of new daily COVID cases than at this time last year. There are also more than double the number of COVID patients in city hospitals, compared to the start of September 2020.

But with three vaccines in circulation, a city mask mandate for outdoor events over 1,000 people, and other health safety protocols in place for the event, the Live Nation/Roc Nation-produced show will go on.

For city resident Joshua Clements, that’s great news.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a minute now,” the 24-year-old said. “I got my tickets a month ago. It’s gonna be a big release for me to finally be able to jump around and listen to all my favorite music again, live.”

Still, he agreed with every past and future festival goer who spoke with Billy Penn that the mask mandate was unenforceable.

A Live Nation representative told The Inquirer ticket sales are on track to reach as many as 60k guests.

Saadiq Stewart of Mantua said he hasn’t missed a Made In America since it launched. “I remember when it was first being rolled out,” he said. “It was just a really interesting idea… That they’re going to have all of these people up the street from my house.”

The 34-year-old said he normally scores free VIP admission and never uses the entrances designated for gen pop. Stewart said he wasn’t even aware of the festival’s COVID protocols.

Told about the mask mandate, he called it “laughable,” adding, “It’s not like [the staff] can touch you. Nobody’s going to listen.”

In addition to masking, Made In America’s pandemic precautions include:

All guests must be either vaccinated or present a negative COVID test received within 48 hours of attending the festival

Concession vendors will be double-masked

There are no designated smoking areas

Lollapalooza in Chicago made headlines as one of the first major festivals to take place at this stage in the pandemic. It ran from July 29 to Aug. 1 and saw an estimated 385k people over four days. Two weeks after the event, the local health commissioner said there was no evidence that the music fest was a super-spreader.

Chicago health officials found that 90% of the attendees were vaccinated, and only 203 of the total had tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks later. Unvaccinated attendees were four times more likely to test positive, but no one was hospitalized or died after attending the festival, according to Chicago.

Lollapalooza, also produced by Live Nation, had requirements similar to MIA: either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test obtained within 72-hours of attending the festival.

With tens of thousands of attendees, there’s always a line to get through the gates, so festival organizers are using the Clear app, a Clorox bleach-backed tool that allows ticket holders to upload their vaccination card or proof of negative test ahead of time to gain entry through designated “fast lanes.”

Clear is only available for attendees 18 and over and people with smartphones. Everyone else has to bring their verifications in-person.

Rapid testing will also be available on site, with a negative test good enough to get people through the gate. Organizers said they expect those lines will be long and encouraged guests to use the app if possible.

Photo A. Ricketts / VISIT PHIL

Will people actually keep face coverings on once inside?

Clements, who will attend for the third time, said he used to be employed at Penn’s Landing and has worked festivals there. He thinks staffers aren’t being paid enough to incentivize them to do the difficult work of enforcing mask wearing in a party atmosphere.

“I’m sure,” he said, “they’re not going to be doing that.”

Jana Fleishman, Roc Nation executive vice president, said via email that security will be on the grounds to enforce mask wearing, which she said is required at all times except when eating and drinking. Fleishman did not provide details regarding what, if anything, would happen to attendees who failed to follow the rules.

For Imani Abdus-Saboor and Phil Singleton, an engaged couple living in Germantown, the caliber of the Made In America lineup coupled with its affordability is usually unbeatable. They’ve attended every festival since 2012. Singleton said he was even at the Art Museum steps when Jay Z was joined by homegrown artists like Freeway to announce the first one.

“I don’t think you could beat a two day festival for $100,” Singleton said.

“That’s literally unheard of,” Abdus-Saboor agreed. The eclectic lineup has allowed them to see bands like Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, and Coldplay alongside Jay Z, Rihanna and Future, a variety she said wouldn’t have been accessible otherwise.

But the 29-year-old couple isn’t going this year.

COVID is too big a risk for Abdus-Saboor, she said. Singleton called the festival’s mask mandate, “Zero-percent enforceable.”

“On any given day, there can be like, what, 50,000 festival goers?” he said. “There’s no way, especially as big as the crowds get at the [main stage]. What are they going to do, wade through all those people and tell people to put their mask on?”

Singleton said he reconsidered attending after learning of the vaccine or negative test requirement, but still decided not to. For Abdus-Saboor, it was a non-issue.

“Even if you are vaccinated, I just can’t couldn’t imagine myself being surrounded by that many people again,” Abdus-Saboor said. “For me, it wasn’t even a thought. Like, even before the lineup came out, I was like I’m for sure just not going.

The post Made in America has a mask mandate, but ticket holders wonder if it’s really enforceable first appeared on Philadelphia News.

💌 Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter to get everything you need to know about Philadelphia,...

02/09/2021

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pleaded that people do not take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes. “Using any treatment for COVID-19 that's not approved or authorized by the FDA, unless part of a clinical trial, can cause serious harm," the FDA said in March. “The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses." …...

https://phillynews.fyi/35042/unhinged-threats-against-nurses-and-school-boards-rage-on-as-mainstream-gop-stands-by/

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pleaded that people do not take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes. “Using any treatment...