NATIONAL NEWS
Weekly News Roundup with Astoria Davis
11/13-11/19/20
Starting off with Friday, the U.S stock market surged to close the week with a record high. The Trump administration had court setbacks. Trump’s law firm stepped back from his lawsuits regarding Pennsylvania ballots. The federal appeals court rejected his effort to not count 9,300 mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day.
Miami Marlins hires Kim Ng, breaking the baseball gender barrier. Ms. Ng has been an assistant general manager twice before; now, after a 30-year career in the baseball industry, she is the first woman to manage a major league baseball team.
Saturday: Thousands of cars formed lines to collect food in Texas. A food bank in the state distributed 600,000 pounds of food to 25,000 people.
Massachusetts prisons restrict visitation for two weeks because of the rise in Covid-19 cases. During this time they will test every inmate and prison staff for Covid-19. While visitations are restricted inmates will have increased access to phones and will be able to email their loved ones.
Sunday: The U.S. hits 11,000,000 Covid-19 cases and 246,000 deaths. 45 out of 50 states have reported higher infection rates this past week.
The U.S. is left out of the RECP trade deal with Asian-Pacific countries; this trade deal is the largest free trade agreement. This deal holds 30% of the world’s economic output. The countries participating in this deal are Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This means that America is losing its influence on Asian-Pacific countries.
Monday: Another new Covid-19 vaccine has been announced by the company Moderna. Their Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19. This is 4.5% more than the Pfizer vaccine, which is only 90% effective.
Space X sends the first full team of astronauts to the international space station.
Tuesday: Hate crimes in America are the highest they have been since 2008, which was 7,783. According to the FBI’s statistics, the hate crime rate has gone up every year for the past 4 years. In 2018 there were 7,120 hate crimes and in 2019 there were 7,314 hate crimes, which is an 3% increase from 2018.
Street fentanyl surges in the western U.S. leading to thousands of deaths. NPR reports that fentanyl pills are coming from China.
The Trump administration rushed to sell oil rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Starting 11/17/20 oil and gas companies can pick which part of Alaska’s wildlife refuge they’re interested in drilling.
Wednesday: The U.S. surpasses 250,000 Covid-19 deaths as the mortality rate surges. In the last four weeks there has been a 42% increase in Covid-19 deaths.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer must be stored at -112° F. This is so cold that rubber would shatter, metals would become brittle, and exposed skin would freeze almost instantly. This vaccine is only 90% effective, while the competition Moderna’s vaccine is 94.5% effective and it is stable at regular refrigerator temperatures and is stable at room temperature for 12 hours.
Georgia had to hand recount 5,000,000 votes. The votes had to be recounted because there were 2,600 uncounted ballots found.
Thursday: Federal judge blocks the Trump administration from expelling migrant children at the southern border.
The Senate confirmed Trump’s youngest judge nominee yet. Kathryn Mizell, age 33 at the time of her nomination, is yet another Trump nominee to receive a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association and be confirmed as a federal judge. She will be the federal judge for the middle district of Florida, which is a lifetime appointment.
President Trump fired Chris Krebs who is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director.
Pfizer’s vaccine has been approved by the U.S. and is ready to start being shipping out.
Connecticut news: Two people killed in an explosion at the West Haven Veterans Association (V.A.) hospital; three others were injured. Neither of the deceased has been identified. The V.A. says the cause of the explosion was a steam pipe which two workers were working on at the time. The explosion is still under investigation.
Over 35,000 power outages were reported in the past week due to Tropical storm Isaias.
Lastly, a lawsuit has been filed against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for racial segregation in Hartford. The claim is that they failed to help poor Black and Hispanic families living in dilapidated, federal subsidized housing and to move them to better neighborhoods. This claim was filed by ten former residents of three different housing complexes on the north end of Hartford. HUD terminated contracts with the building owners in 2018 and 2019; the quality of the complexes was so bad that they deemed them inhumane, which led to these results.
Sources:
Weekly News Roundup: 11/7-11/12/20
By Astoria Davis
Starting off with Saturday, 11/7/20, Joe Biden won the presidential election, making him the second Catholic president since John F. Kennedy. This also made Kamala Harris the first Black, Asian, mixed-race woman in the White House.
On Sunday, Montana, New Jersey, Arizona, and South Dakota made marijuana legal. And Oregon decriminalized small amounts of heroin and other drugs, hopefully slowly ending the war on drugs.
Monday, Florida had 3,924 new cases, with 58 dead. There are 10 million Covid-19 cases in America with 243,000 deaths. In other Covid-19 news, there was a new mutation found in Denmark which makes Covid-19 potentially spreadable through animals. It was discovered in mink, which resulted in Denmark farmers killing over 17 million mink.
Tuesday, the FDA approved a drug by Eli Lilly to treat Covid-19 but only for emergencies. There are some worries about it since it takes an hour to infuse into the body, then another hour of observation, which in some hospitals cannot be possible. There has been talk about having a vaccine ready by the end of this month, and the American government is planning to have a general vaccination program by spring.
Wednesday was Veterans Day. Also, a contract was signed to develop the aforementioned Covid-19 vaccine.
Thursday, there were discoveries that the Covid-19 vaccine may have some unwanted side-effects, like muscle aches, fever, and sore arms for days. Also for the vaccine, people would need to get two shots weeks apart.A tropical storm hit Florida. There was major flooding and school closings. Many Veterans Day celebrations were canceled.
In Connecticut news, a spike in Covid-19 deaths led Governor Ned Lamont to extend Order 9K till February. Order 9K is an order to go back to phase two of reopening; the curfew is back, restaurants can’t serve anyone past 9:30 pm and everything must be closed by 10:00 pm. Movie theaters and performing arts theaters are still open but only allowed to be at 50% capacity with social distancing and masks.
A car was stolen in Hartford which had two children in it. Also, a firefighter in New London tested positive for Covid-19. Another thing, Cracker Barrel in East Windsor had to issue an apology after a noose was found hanging at the location. Lastly, half a dozen schools closed due to staff shortages from Covid-19 infections.
Sources:https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/10/coronavirus-us-officials-warn-of-challenges-administering-eli-lillys-antibody-drug.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-19-vaccines-may-have-potentially-unpleasant-side-effects-n1247485
https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/Governors-Actions/Executive-Orders/Governor-Lamonts-Executive-Orders
https://portal.ct.gov/DECD/Content/Coronavirus-Business-Recovery/Sector-Rules-and-Certification-for-Reopen
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-eta-fort-lauderdale-florida-bf2b212680a0aa7d1509aa4d8efdc513
https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-Car-stolen-in-Hartford-with-teen-baby-15715185.php
https://www.google.com/search?q=election+2020+results&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS777US777&oq=election&aqs=chrome.4.0i131i433j69i57j0i131i433l4j0i433j0.5432j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/04/politics/marijuana-legalization-2020-states/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/oregon-decriminalize-drugs-trnd/index.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/11/933864908/novavax-posts-coronavirus-vaccine-contract-that-government-didnt-disclose
11/13-11/19/20
Starting off with Friday, the U.S stock market surged to close the week with a record high. The Trump administration had court setbacks. Trump’s law firm stepped back from his lawsuits regarding Pennsylvania ballots. The federal appeals court rejected his effort to not count 9,300 mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day.
Miami Marlins hires Kim Ng, breaking the baseball gender barrier. Ms. Ng has been an assistant general manager twice before; now, after a 30-year career in the baseball industry, she is the first woman to manage a major league baseball team.
Saturday: Thousands of cars formed lines to collect food in Texas. A food bank in the state distributed 600,000 pounds of food to 25,000 people.
Massachusetts prisons restrict visitation for two weeks because of the rise in Covid-19 cases. During this time they will test every inmate and prison staff for Covid-19. While visitations are restricted inmates will have increased access to phones and will be able to email their loved ones.
Sunday: The U.S. hits 11,000,000 Covid-19 cases and 246,000 deaths. 45 out of 50 states have reported higher infection rates this past week.
The U.S. is left out of the RECP trade deal with Asian-Pacific countries; this trade deal is the largest free trade agreement. This deal holds 30% of the world’s economic output. The countries participating in this deal are Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This means that America is losing its influence on Asian-Pacific countries.
Monday: Another new Covid-19 vaccine has been announced by the company Moderna. Their Covid-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19. This is 4.5% more than the Pfizer vaccine, which is only 90% effective.
Space X sends the first full team of astronauts to the international space station.
Tuesday: Hate crimes in America are the highest they have been since 2008, which was 7,783. According to the FBI’s statistics, the hate crime rate has gone up every year for the past 4 years. In 2018 there were 7,120 hate crimes and in 2019 there were 7,314 hate crimes, which is an 3% increase from 2018.
Street fentanyl surges in the western U.S. leading to thousands of deaths. NPR reports that fentanyl pills are coming from China.
The Trump administration rushed to sell oil rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Starting 11/17/20 oil and gas companies can pick which part of Alaska’s wildlife refuge they’re interested in drilling.
Wednesday: The U.S. surpasses 250,000 Covid-19 deaths as the mortality rate surges. In the last four weeks there has been a 42% increase in Covid-19 deaths.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer must be stored at -112° F. This is so cold that rubber would shatter, metals would become brittle, and exposed skin would freeze almost instantly. This vaccine is only 90% effective, while the competition Moderna’s vaccine is 94.5% effective and it is stable at regular refrigerator temperatures and is stable at room temperature for 12 hours.
Georgia had to hand recount 5,000,000 votes. The votes had to be recounted because there were 2,600 uncounted ballots found.
Thursday: Federal judge blocks the Trump administration from expelling migrant children at the southern border.
The Senate confirmed Trump’s youngest judge nominee yet. Kathryn Mizell, age 33 at the time of her nomination, is yet another Trump nominee to receive a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association and be confirmed as a federal judge. She will be the federal judge for the middle district of Florida, which is a lifetime appointment.
President Trump fired Chris Krebs who is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director.
Pfizer’s vaccine has been approved by the U.S. and is ready to start being shipping out.
Connecticut news: Two people killed in an explosion at the West Haven Veterans Association (V.A.) hospital; three others were injured. Neither of the deceased has been identified. The V.A. says the cause of the explosion was a steam pipe which two workers were working on at the time. The explosion is still under investigation.
Over 35,000 power outages were reported in the past week due to Tropical storm Isaias.
Lastly, a lawsuit has been filed against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for racial segregation in Hartford. The claim is that they failed to help poor Black and Hispanic families living in dilapidated, federal subsidized housing and to move them to better neighborhoods. This claim was filed by ten former residents of three different housing complexes on the north end of Hartford. HUD terminated contracts with the building owners in 2018 and 2019; the quality of the complexes was so bad that they deemed them inhumane, which led to these results.
Sources:
- https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-rise-over-200-points-on-friday-the-13th-as-stock-market-aims-to-close-out-bumpy-week-11605272461
- https://oilcity.news/associated-press/2020/11/13/republicans-face-court-setbacks-trump-law-firm-steps-down/
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/us/dallas-texas-food-bank-coronavirus/index.html
- https://www.necn.com/news/coronavirus/mass-prisons-restrict-visitors-for-2-weeks-to-allow-for-testing/2350452/
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/15/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html
- https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/16/935239294/modernas-covid-19-vaccine-shines-in-clinical-trial
- https://www.today.com/video/spacex-sends-1st-full-team-of-astronauts-to-international-space-station-95986757506
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/hate-crimes-us-reach-highest-point-2008-fbi/story?id=74238237&cid=clicksource_4380645_12_comic_strip_sq_hed
- https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/934154859/street-fentanyl-surges-in-western-u-s-leading-to-thousands-of-deaths
- https://www.npr.org/2020/11/16/935527352/trump-administration-rushes-to-sell-oil-rights-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refug
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-surpasses-250-000-coronavirus-deaths-virus-mortality-rate-n1248109
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/18/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-dry-ice-sales-storage/6281859002/
- https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936395421/as-georgias-hand-recount-concludes-vote-count-shows-biden-still-ahead
- https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-11-18/federal-judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-expelling-migrant-children-at-borde
- https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2020/11/18/lame-duck-senate-confirms-trumps-youngest-judge-yet/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/nyregion/va-hospital-explosion.html
- https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/High-winds-are-expected-in-parts-of-Connecticut-15728550.php
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/11/17/joe-biden-trump-transition-live-updates/
- https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/lawsuit-hud-perpetuated-racial-segregation-in-hartford-area/2365111/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/sports/baseball/kim-ng-miami-marlins.html
Weekly News Roundup: 11/7-11/12/20
By Astoria Davis
Starting off with Saturday, 11/7/20, Joe Biden won the presidential election, making him the second Catholic president since John F. Kennedy. This also made Kamala Harris the first Black, Asian, mixed-race woman in the White House.
On Sunday, Montana, New Jersey, Arizona, and South Dakota made marijuana legal. And Oregon decriminalized small amounts of heroin and other drugs, hopefully slowly ending the war on drugs.
Monday, Florida had 3,924 new cases, with 58 dead. There are 10 million Covid-19 cases in America with 243,000 deaths. In other Covid-19 news, there was a new mutation found in Denmark which makes Covid-19 potentially spreadable through animals. It was discovered in mink, which resulted in Denmark farmers killing over 17 million mink.
Tuesday, the FDA approved a drug by Eli Lilly to treat Covid-19 but only for emergencies. There are some worries about it since it takes an hour to infuse into the body, then another hour of observation, which in some hospitals cannot be possible. There has been talk about having a vaccine ready by the end of this month, and the American government is planning to have a general vaccination program by spring.
Wednesday was Veterans Day. Also, a contract was signed to develop the aforementioned Covid-19 vaccine.
Thursday, there were discoveries that the Covid-19 vaccine may have some unwanted side-effects, like muscle aches, fever, and sore arms for days. Also for the vaccine, people would need to get two shots weeks apart.A tropical storm hit Florida. There was major flooding and school closings. Many Veterans Day celebrations were canceled.
In Connecticut news, a spike in Covid-19 deaths led Governor Ned Lamont to extend Order 9K till February. Order 9K is an order to go back to phase two of reopening; the curfew is back, restaurants can’t serve anyone past 9:30 pm and everything must be closed by 10:00 pm. Movie theaters and performing arts theaters are still open but only allowed to be at 50% capacity with social distancing and masks.
A car was stolen in Hartford which had two children in it. Also, a firefighter in New London tested positive for Covid-19. Another thing, Cracker Barrel in East Windsor had to issue an apology after a noose was found hanging at the location. Lastly, half a dozen schools closed due to staff shortages from Covid-19 infections.
Sources:https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/10/coronavirus-us-officials-warn-of-challenges-administering-eli-lillys-antibody-drug.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-19-vaccines-may-have-potentially-unpleasant-side-effects-n1247485
https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/Governors-Actions/Executive-Orders/Governor-Lamonts-Executive-Orders
https://portal.ct.gov/DECD/Content/Coronavirus-Business-Recovery/Sector-Rules-and-Certification-for-Reopen
https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-eta-fort-lauderdale-florida-bf2b212680a0aa7d1509aa4d8efdc513
https://www.ctpost.com/policereports/article/Police-Car-stolen-in-Hartford-with-teen-baby-15715185.php
https://www.google.com/search?q=election+2020+results&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS777US777&oq=election&aqs=chrome.4.0i131i433j69i57j0i131i433l4j0i433j0.5432j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/04/politics/marijuana-legalization-2020-states/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/oregon-decriminalize-drugs-trnd/index.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/11/933864908/novavax-posts-coronavirus-vaccine-contract-that-government-didnt-disclose