News – Page 2463 – 105.7 WDNY

More businesses are mandating COVID-19 vaccines. Is that legal?

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — With the delta variant surging, some businesses have begun announcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees with some exceptions on religious and medical grounds.

The announcements have led to relief for some and strong opposition and protests for others as well as a handful of states introducing legislation to block them.

While there may be opposition to those policies, ultimately the mandates — which also come as efforts stagnate to reach the remaining unvaccinated Americans — are on solid legal ground, public health experts contend.

In the last two weeks, private companies big and small, such as Google, the NFL and Disney (the parent company of ABC News) and many public offices, have announced that vaccines are mandatory for staff before they return to offices in the fall.

In addition, the federal government and some states are issuing testing mandates for any of their public employees who aren’t vaccinated.

In a few localities, such as New York City, proof of vaccination is required for indoor activities such as movies and restaurants — actions that take a harder line to incentivize vaccination.

The subject is tricky given that the vaccines are not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said vaccines will not be federally mandated and public health officials have largely been trying to incentivize inoculation rather than making it compulsory given the hesitancy in the population.

Dr. Howard Koh, a former assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that there will be more organizations that follow suit given the rise in coronavirus cases among the unvaccinated, and they have solid arguments for the policies.

“Businesses want to go forward and they know that their status quo isn’t working,” he told ABC News.

Here’s what to know:

Long-standing legal precedent

States have over a century of legal precedent for mandating vaccines, according to Koh, who currently serves as a professor of the practice of public health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

The courts have not determined if the federal government can issue a vaccine mandate, however, the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts gave state governments the power to issue such a mandate.

The 7-2 decision ruled that Massachusetts’s smallpox vaccine mandate was constitutional stating, “it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”

All states and the District of Columbia have mandated vaccines for ailments such as measles, rubella and polio, for school-age children, although requirements differ by state. There are also a range of exceptions, most commonly medical and religious reasons.

As of June, 44 states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions for people who have religious objections to immunizations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the state regulations. Fifteen states that allow philosophical exemptions for children whose parents object to immunizations because of personal, moral or other beliefs, the NCSL found.

The situation is largely different for adults, for whom vaccines are generally not required for employment or in other forums. However, in certain states, such as New York, there is a requirement for health care workers, for instance.

Koh added things get tricky when it comes to a federal mandate.

“The president, from what I can tell, can not announce a federal mandate. No federal vaccination mandate has ever been tested in court,” he said.

More leeway for private businesses

There is some legal uncertainty around the current batch of COVID-19 vaccines because they are being administered under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, Koh said. Opponents to vaccine mandates have argued states or businesses cannot enforce mandates unless the inoculations have received full approval.

But a ruling by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel last month, ruled that Section 564 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act doesn’t prohibit private businesses from mandating vaccines. States and local municipalities, however, still have the power to prohibit a vaccine mandate within their own offices.

Koh noted that the Justice Department’s ruling has given private and public businesses the legal backing to order their own mandates.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently issued an executive order Tuesday that required vaccination for certain indoor activities, such as the gym, movie theaters and concerts.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” that similar requirements will be popping up.

“I think it’s not only reasonable, but I think it’s part of what’s going to, I think, nudge more people to get vaccinated while making it even safer for those who are vaccinated to be able to get back to their way of life, which is what we all want,” he told ABC News.

Once the vaccines get full approval, there will be more push from all sectors to mandate the vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. Pfizer’s approval could come as early as September.

“You’re not going to see a central mandate coming from the federal government, but you’re going to see more universities, colleges, places of business who, once they get the cover of an officially approved vaccine, they’re going to start mandating vaccines,” Fauci said.

There have been some signs that governors would change their rules once the vaccines get the full approval. During a virtual town hall Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told residents he would do just that.

“It would be my expectation that once full authorization or sometimes it’s called licensure is granted, then that vaccine will be added to the list, and then it will work just like the current mumps, measles, rubella, and other vaccines,” he said.

Attempts to block mandates

When it comes to local public government offices, rules for vaccine mandates differ and in a handful of states, mandates on the COVID-19 vaccines have been banned outright until full approval.

As of Aug. 4, six states have enacted legislation in the last year that would block state and municipal offices from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine among staff members. Those six states and another six also have laws that prevent schools from issuing mandates.

Only one state, Montana, has banned private businesses from issuing a vaccine mandate.

Some of the states with bans, such as Alabama, North Dakota and Arkansas, have lagged behind the rest of the country when it comes to vaccinations and seen a jump in cases, according to the CDC. Alabama’s seven-day average of new cases has jumped from nearly 200 at the beginning of July to over 2,500 this week, CDC data shows.

During a news conference Tuesday, President Biden urged governors to lift restrictions on businesses and schools so they could increase vaccination numbers.

“I say to these governors, please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” he said.

Another way: Testing mandates

Koh noted that the vaccine order that Biden borrowed from New York and other states that required unvaccinated public employees to get tested weekly.

Koh and other experts contend the rule from the president and other leaders would ensure that workspaces would have fewer outbreaks and give those unvaccinated workers a bigger push to get their shots.

It also gives the states firmer legal standing because the testing mandate doesn’t lead to a termination or penalty for the unvaccinated employee, they noted.

“The goal is to make vaccine the norm and the goal is to make vaccine the healthy choice,” Koh said.

Ultimately, Koh said the biggest motivator for vaccine mandates will be from the private businesses. Their efforts will force the public sector to enact stricter measures, he argued.

“Our country has been trying to tame this pandemic for 18 months and counting. The other [vaccination] measures until now have not been completely successful in getting us through this,” Koh said.

This report was featured in the Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.

Unvaccinated patient in hospital pleads for others to get vaccine: ‘I want to help as many people as I can’

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Virginia residents Travis and Kellie Campbell were unvaccinated when they both contracted COVID-19 in late July. Since then, Travis Campbell has been hospitalized for 12 days and spoke to ABC News from his hospital bed at the Bristol Regional Medical Center Hospital in Tennessee.

“When you feel like you have to fight for your life, you don’t realize that you’re fighting for every single breath all day long,” said Travis Campbell.

“If I have a day or two left, I don’t want to waste my time,” he said. “I want to help as many people as I can, to let them see the real truth, that [the delta variant] is real, and it’s only getting stronger and faster.”

The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for 93% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the U.S., compared to late May when it only accounted for 3%, according to data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kellie Campbell, who was previously hospitalized with the virus, said the family was not against the vaccine, but hadn’t prioritized getting it.

“We just put it in the back of our mind and we kept saying, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow, we’ll do it tomorrow.’ We have a very hectic life and it’s no excuse but that’s our excuse,” said Kellie Campbell.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, hospitals in Virginia reported that 99% of those infected, hospitalized or who died in the past six months were not fully vaccinated.

“We thought it wasn’t an urgent matter to get the vaccine and I was wrong,” said Travis Campbell.

As of Tuesday, vaccination rates have reportedly risen in all 50 states, according to an ABC News analysis of CDC data from the last three weeks.

Travis Campbell said he regrets not getting vaccinated and is now encouraging his loved ones to do so before it is too late.

“I would rather be covered and protected and if something does happen and I have to worry about repercussions of the vaccine versus being buried in seven days,” he said. “I beg you, please see your doctor and make an evaluated decision and protect your family or prepare yourself for your next life.”

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.

Fauci: If community spread doesn’t get under control, US ‘may sooner or later get another variant’

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — If the U.S. does not get control over community spread of the delta COVID variant, the nation will continue to see more variants that evade the protection of the vaccines, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House.

“That will happen, George, if we don’t get good control over the community spread which is the reason why I and my colleagues keep saying and over again, it is very important to get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Fauci told “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos Thursday.

“People who say, ‘I don’t want to get vaccinated because it’s me and I’ll worry about me, I’m not having any impact on anybody else,’ that’s just not the case,” Fauci said.

When the virus spreads through the unvaccinated population, as it is doing rapidly now in many states with low vaccination rates, it can mutate regardless of whether the person gets mild symptoms, or even no symptoms at all.

“And when you give it ample opportunity to mutate, you may sooner or later get another variant, and it is possible that that variant might be in some respects worse than the already very difficult variant we’re dealing with now, which is a major reason why you want to completely suppress the circulation of the virus in the community,” Fauci said.

More than 70% of the adult U.S. population has received at least one dose of a vaccine and 60.7% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Of all eligible Americans, meaning everyone over the age of 12, 67.9% have had at least one dose and 58.3% are fully vaccinated. But in some U.S. states, the vaccination rate is well below the national average.

Nationwide, there are still about 93 million eligible Americans who have not gotten vaccinated.

Fauci warned in an interview with McClatchy on Wednesday that he thinks the virus’s spread could increase to the point that the U.S. is reporting 100,000 to 200,000 new cases a day if more people don’t mask up and get vaccinated.

The delta variant, the most transmissible variant to take hold in the U.S. so far, accounted for 93% of U.S. cases during the last two weeks of July, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. In areas of the Midwest, it made up 98% of cases.

“The thing that’s important is that the delta variant that we’re dealing with is so capable of pushing out other variants, that we’re not expecting that to take over. Having said that, we follow it very closely,” Fauci said.

Since the onset of the initial delta variant, there has been a swift increase in cases among children who aren’t yet vaccinated, which experts chalk up to the faster spread of the virus.

Of the 58,000 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 throughout the country, 18 to 49-year-olds account for 41%, according to CDC data. Pediatric hospitalizations are 3.5 times higher than they were a month ago, and the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that cases for kids under 17 nearly doubled over the last two weeks of July, from 39,000 a week to 72,000.

Some countries have published data showing that the delta variant also makes children more sick than past variants, even though children have had a very low risk of hospitalization or death throughout the pandemic. U.S. officials caution that the data is not strong enough to draw a firm conclusion.

While it’s “unquestionable” that the delta variant is more transmissible, it’s “less clear” whether or not it “actually makes individuals more seriously ill,” Fauci said.

NIH Director Francis Collins said in a CNN interview on Tuesday that the data coming in from other countries is “tipping in the direction” of showing higher risk to children, but it’s still not conclusive.

“I don’t want to overstate the confidence that we have about whether delta is more dangerous to children. The balance has not been fully settled there but it’s tipping in that direction,” Collins said.

But he also said that more children are being hospitalized because they’re part of the unvaccinated population, which is far more likely to get the virus as compared to older adults who have a much higher vaccination rate. Ninety precent of adults age 65 and older have had at least one shot of the vaccine, according to CDC data.

“So now we see perhaps in this spectrum of illness more emphasis on younger people, including kids,” Collins said.

COVID-19 live updates: Moderna vaccine 93% effective against symptomatic disease after 6 months

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 614,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.2% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.

Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:

Aug 05, 10:06 am

Arkansas governor reverses course on masks in schools

In Arkansas, one of the states hit hardest by the delta variant, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has reversed course, lifting a previously signed ban on mask mandates.

Hutchinson told “Good Morning America” Thursday that masks are not needed in schools if students are vaccinated but he’s “particularly concerned” about kids under 12 who are too young to get the shot.

In those cases, he said, schools should have the option to enforce masks.

The governor added that he’s pushing vaccine efforts with high school students and “making sure the faculty is vaccinated.”

Aug 05, 8:45 am

Moderna vaccine 93% effective against symptomatic disease after 6 months

Moderna says its vaccine is 93% effective against symptomatic illness after six months (though this data collection ended before delta emerged in the U.S.).

Moderna said its booster candidates also demonstrate robust antibody responses to variants of concern, including delta.

Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hoge told “Good Morning America” Thursday that the Moderna vaccine offers protection from delta right after receiving it, but it’s not known yet if that’ll hold up through the winter. He called winter “the biggest test of that vaccine which is why we need to be vigilant and careful.”

Hoge said he thinks booster shots will be needed and that the company is “preparing options,” but he added that that’ll be for public health officials, not the company, to decide.

He also noted that Moderna’s goal is to be vaccinating kids under 12 by the end of the year. Moderna isn’t authorized for kids ages 12 to 17 yet, but Hoge hopes authorization could come “any day.”

Aug 05, 8:28 am

US ‘may sooner or later get another variant’ if spread not controlled: Fauci

Without control over the community spread of the delta variant, the virus has “ample opportunity to mutate,” so “you may sooner or later get another variant,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told “Good Morning America.”

Fauci warned that it’s possible a new “variant might be in some respects worse than the already very difficult variant we’re dealing with now, which is a major reason why you want to completely suppress the circulation of the virus in the community.”

There are still about 93 million eligible Americans who have not gotten vaccinated.

Fauci added, “People who say, ‘I don’t want to get vaccinated because it’s me and I’ll worry about me, I’m not having any impact on anybody else,’ that’s just not the case.”

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Aug 05, 4:33 am

Tokyo sees 5,042 positive cases — a new record

There are 5,042 new positive COVID-19 cases in Tokyo as of Thursday, according to the city’s coronavirus information website.

Of those cases, 135 are severe and one has resulted in death.

It’s a new record for Tokyo and a 178% increase since last Thursday, as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.

Aug 04, 8:32 pm
Over 15,000 new COVID cases in Texas

Texas reported 15,558 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, the highest one-day count since Feb. 3, according to state health records.

The state has seen a major jump in cases in the last month, brought on by the delta variant, according to officials.

The seven-day average of new daily cases has increased from about 1,500 on July 2 to nearly 10,000 on Aug. 3, according to state health data.

As of Wednesday, 62.58% of Texas residents 12 and older have received at least one shot, according to the state health department.

Aug 04, 7:32 pm
Hundreds of students, school staff quarantined in Arkansas district

Hundreds of student and staff members from the Marion School District in Arkansas are now quarantined in only the second week of the school year, officials announced.

The state has a ban on school districts imposing a mask mandate.

On Tuesday, the district said 253 students would begin their two-week quarantine due to 15 cases that were reported in the schools. This came after 168 students were already quarantined last week.

“If all students and teachers had been wearing a mask appropriately- then today’s 15 positive cases would be isolated- but there would be no resulting quarantines for anyone else,” the district said in a statement.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters Tuesday he regretted signing the bill that banned masks in schools and urged the state legislature to amend the law to give schools the option.

Aug 04, 7:11 pm
Florida school district says 2 employees dead from virus, pushes mask mandate

A Florida school district that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on school mask mandates said Tuesday that two of its employees died from the virus last weekend.

Carlee Simon, the superintendent for the Alachua County Schools, said in a statement that the district “is experiencing this spike first-hand.”

“Over the weekend two of our employees passed away from COVID,” she said in a statement. “We’ve had 18 new cases in the last three days alone. More than 80 employees are now in quarantine, and that number is rising fast.”

The school district, which includes which includes Gainesville, voted Tuesday night to issue a mask mandate for students and staff for the next two weeks. The mandate will be reevaluated on Aug. 17, Simon said.

Aug 04, 6:30 pm
Hawaii issues vaccine mandate for middle, high school athletes

The Hawaii State Department of Education announced that all middle and high school athletes, athletic staff and volunteers will need to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 24 in order to participate in activities.

The rule affects students who are eligible for the vaccines, meaning they must be over 12.

“This decision was not made lightly because we know the important role athletics play in a well-rounded education, but we cannot jeopardize the health and safety of our students and communities,” interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a statement.

The start of the athletic season was delayed to Sept. 24 due to the state’s rising positivity rate, according to the department.

This is the first state to require vaccinations for its student athletes.

-ABC News’ Bonnie McLean

Aug 04, 5:54 pm
Illinois governor issues mask mandate for schools

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced Wednesday that all pre-K through 12th grade schools and day cares must follow universal masking indoors regardless of vaccination status.

Pritzker said the state is facing a growing threat from the delta variant and noted that children under 12 aren’t yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

“Far too few school districts have chosen to follow the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prescription for keeping students and staff safe,” he said at a news conference. “Given the CDC’s strong recommendation, I had hoped that a state mask requirement in schools wouldn’t be necessary, but it is.”

Aug 04, 4:27 pm
Surge pushing hospital staffing to breaking point

The latest delta surge is once again pushing hospital staffing to breaking points across the U.S.

In Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, some “facilities are experiencing substantial shortages of both clinical and support staff,” according to a Department of Health and Human Services planning document obtained by ABC News Wednesday.

In hard-hit Missouri, many hospitals “don’t have the staff to support a surge without further modification to operational strategies,” the document said.

At a Shreveport, Louisiana, hospital, where the number of COVID-19 patients are multiplying, nurse Melinda Hunt told ABC News, “To be honest, I probably cry most days at work. And I cry at home. I’m tired. I’ve been doing this a year and half. It feels like it’s never going to end.”

Aug 04, 4:08 pm
US daily case average jumped 45% in the last week

The U.S. daily case average has climbed to more than 84,000, a 45.3% jump in the last week, according to federal data.

The daily case average is now more than seven times higher than it was six weeks ago.

All but three states are now reporting high (a seven-day new case rate ≥100) or substantial (a seven-day new case rate between 50-99.99) community transmission, according to federal data.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 04, 3:08 pm
Delta variant now 93% of all sequenced cases in US

The delta variant now accounts for 93% of all sequenced cases in the U.S., according to the latest CDC data, which was collected over the last two weeks of July.

Delta accounted for just 3% of cases sequenced in late May.

Across the Midwest, described as HHS regions 7 and 8, delta made up 97% to 98% of cases. This includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Aug 04, 2:55 pm
WHO chief: No booster shots until at least end of September

The World Health Organization is calling for a moratorium on booster shots until more people from low-income countries have received a vaccine.

Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 shots for every 100 people due to lack of supply, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said Wednesday.

A moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September will “enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” he said.

But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response that the U.S. doesn’t have to choose.

“We feel that it’s a false choice and that we can do both,” Psaki said Wednesday.

The U.S. has ordered enough supply for every American to get vaccinated, plus get a booster shot, according to the White House. The U.S. has already pledged to donate 580 million doses to the international community by 2022.

-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Zoe Magee

Aug 04, 2:27 pm
Hospitalizations could more than triple this month

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecasts that daily hospitalizations “will likely increase over the next four weeks.”

About 7,000 new COVID-19 patients are hospitalized each day right now. That may soar to 24,000 per day, according to the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at U Mass Amherst.

Aug 04, 2:11 pm
Fully vaccinated people susceptible to ‘long COVID’: Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that fully vaccinated people are also susceptible to “long COVID” if they have a breakthrough infection.

“We already know that people who get breakthrough infections and don’t go on to get advanced disease requiring hospitalization, they too are susceptible to long COVID,” Fauci told McClatchy. “You’re not exempt from long COVID if you get a breakthrough infection.”

As the delta variant surges, Fauci said, “there could be a variant that’s lingering out there that can push aside delta.”

“If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble,” he said.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Aug 04, 1:40 pm
NY auto show canceled

The New York International Automobile Show, set to begin Aug. 20 in New York City, has been canceled due to the spread of the delta variant.

“All signs were positive” when planning began “but today is a different story,” show organizers said.

Aug 04, 1:30 pm
Louisiana hospitalizations reach all-time high

Louisiana now has 2,247 COVID-19 patients in hospitals — a new all-time high for the state.

This surpasses the previous record set Tuesday of 2,112 patients, the state’s Department of Health said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has reinstated a mask mandate for the month of August.

The governor said Wednesday that he won’t mandate vaccinations for state employees until the FDA grants full approval.

He said 37.1% of the Louisiana population is fully vaccinated.

Aug 04, 11:47 am
The Offspring drummer says he’s not playing at upcoming shows because he’s unvaccinated

Pete Parada, the drummer for pop-punk band The Offspring, says he is not playing with the band at upcoming shows because he is unvaccinated.

Parada wrote on Instagram that he’s avoiding the shot on his doctor’s advice, saying he’s had a lifelong battle with the rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome and the vaccine’s “risks far outweigh the benefits.”

Because he’s unvaccinated, “it has recently been decided that I am unsafe to be around, in the studio, and on tour,” Parada said.

“I have no negative feelings towards my band,” he continued. “They’re doing what they believe is best for them, while I am doing the same.”

-ABC News’ Evan McMurry

Aug 04, 11:15 am
Florida hospitalizations reach highest point in pandemic

Florida has 12,408 COVID-19 patients in hospitals — the highest number to date of the entire pandemic.

Florida hospitals report that more than 95% of COVID-19 patients are not fully vaccinated, according to state data.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 04, 10:01 am
WHO chief: No booster shots until at least end of September

The World Health Organization is calling for a moratorium on booster shots until more people from low-income countries have received a vaccine.

Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 shots for every 100 people due to lack of supply, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said Wednesday.

A moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September will “enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” he said.

Aug 04, 9:20 am
Alabama hospital sees deadliest day of pandemic

Four COVID-19 patients at Regional Medical Center in Anniston, Alabama — all unvaccinated — died within 24 hours, marking the hospital’s deadliest day of the pandemic, The Anniston Star reported.

As delta surges, patients are now getting sicker faster, a doctor at the hospital told the newspaper.

Only 28% of residents in Calhoun County are fully vaccinated, according to The Anniston Star.

Aug 04, 8:24 am
Obama to ‘significantly scale back’ 60th birthday party

Former President Barack Obama has decided to “significantly scale back” his 60th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard due to the spread of the delta variant, according to a spokesperson. Hundreds of guests were expected to attend.

“This outdoor event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with covid safeguards in place. Due to the new spread of the delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,” spokesperson Hannah Hankins said in a statement.

Obama’s office did not give a new estimate of how many guests will attend.

Leaders across the country in disagreement over whether to require COVID-19 vaccine passports

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — As New York City turns to vaccine passports to help limit the spread of COVID-19, other cities have pushed back against similar measures, with leaders citing a wide range of concerns, from equity to security.

This week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the nation’s largest city would soon require proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for indoor dining, indoor fitness facilities and indoor entertainment facilities.

“This is crucial because we know that this will encourage a lot more vaccination,” de Blasio said Tuesday at a press briefing announcing the policy. “The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time. If we’re going to stop the delta variant, the time is now. And that means getting vaccinated right now.”

New York City is the first U.S. city to announce such a measure as the highly contagious delta variant is driving up cases nationwide.

When asked this week if Boston would do the same, acting Mayor Kim Janey said the city is focusing on vaccine access, while likening the idea of vaccine passports to slave papers and birtherism.

“There’s a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers,” the Democrat told ABC Boston affiliate WCVB Tuesday. “During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as you know, what immigrant population has to go through here. We heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense. Here we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] communities.”

Disparities in vaccination rates have raised concerns about vaccine passports disproportionately impacting communities of color. Vaccination rates among Black and Latino residents in Suffolk County — where Boston sits — lag behind those of white residents, state data shows.

Janey’s comments were met with some criticism, though, particularly from fellow mayoral candidates. Boston city councilor Andrea Campbell tweeted that “this kind of rhetoric is dangerous.”

“The acting mayor’s comments yesterday put people’s health at risk, plain and simple,” Campbell said during a press briefing Wednesday while outlining her platform policies, which include requiring proof of vaccination for crowded public indoor spaces, like restaurants and gyms. “Boston has an opportunity frankly to be an example to the rest of the country when it comes to getting residents vaccinated and preventing the spread of the delta variant.”

Following Janey’s comments, Michelle Wu, another Boston mayoral candidate, said she supports requiring proof of vaccination at restaurants, shops and other indoor venues. “Our leaders need to build trust in vaccines,” she said on Twitter Tuesday.

Janey further clarified her comments regarding vaccination “hurdles,” saying on Twitter Tuesday that “we must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery.”

“While there are no current plans for business sector vaccination mandates, we are using data to inform targeted public health strategies,” she said. This includes working with the hospitality sector to build on-site vaccination clinics.

The debate comes as other leaders have continued to push back against vaccine passports and other mandates on the grounds of personal liberty.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — one of several state leaders who have moved to ban vaccine passports — spoke out against the measure during a press briefing Wednesday.

“I think the question is, is we can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state,” the Republican governor said. “I can tell ya — Florida, we’re a free state.”

Other GOP leaders have used more inflammatory rhetoric throughout the vaccination campaign by likening vaccination requirements to the Holocaust — drawing condemnation from Jewish organizations and fellow members of their party.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for comments she made in June that compared being required to wear masks in the House to the Holocaust. Republican Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh also issued an apology last month after he donned a yellow Star of David to protest COVID-19 restrictions, saying it was “inappropriate and offensive.”

In the latest incident, John Bennett, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, recently took to Facebook to equate vaccine passports to the yellow Star of David that Nazis forced Jewish people to wear.

“It’s not about the star, what it’s about is a totalitarian government pushing a communist agenda on top of us and forcing people against their own liberties to get this vaccine,” Bennett said in a video message Sunday following criticism to an earlier post on the Oklahoma Republican Party’s Facebook page, which included an image of the yellow Star of David with the word “Unvaccinated” on it.

Following Bennett’s initial post, local GOP leaders spoke out against the analogy, which the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City called “ill-informed and inappropriate.”

“It is sad and ironic that anyone would draw an analogy from the largest recorded genocide in the 20th century with public health attempts to save lives,” the organization said in a statement.

New York City’s vaccine mandate follows in the footsteps of the “health passes” in France and Italy.

“We do want to make as many of these settings as safe as possible,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said during a press briefing Tuesday. “And that means having them be for people who are only fully vaccinated. That is the thrust of the policy.”

Vaccine mandates are a smart policy for a dense urban place like New York City to help encourage vaccination, Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said.

“We have to start to think about new ways to get the population to recognize the value of these vaccines,” he said. “Creating some level of requirement is important. Of course that is going to be especially important in areas of high transmission, like health care organizations, or nursing homes … but also places where there’s potentially a high risk of transmission.”

“A city like New York, which experienced the worst of the pandemic … has a lot of concerns about a potential new surge,” he said.

Each city will have its own context and “nuance in applying public health measures,” Brownstein said, and there may not be a “one-size-fits-all approach” to increasing vaccination rates.

Following New York City’s announcement, Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a news briefing Tuesday that the city is “interested” in the idea but there aren’t current plans to implement a similar plan.

“We’ll be watching to see how this plays out, but we don’t have a current plan to do something like that at the city level,” she said, noting that New Yorkers seem to have “embraced this vaccine passport idea a little bit more than has been embraced here in the Midwest and across Illinois.”

FAA urges airports to help stop alcohol ‘to go’ amid unruly passenger spike

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration is calling on U.S. airports to help put an end to the recent spike in unruly passenger cases.

The FAA is urging airport police to arrest more people who are unruly or violent on flights and asking airport bars and restaurants to stop serving alcoholic drinks to go.

“Even though FAA regulations specifically prohibit the consumption of alcohol aboard an aircraft that is not served by the airline, we have received reports that some airport concessionaires have offered alcohol ‘to go,'” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson wrote to airport leaders nationwide. “And passengers believe they can carry that alcohol onto their flights or they become inebriated.”

The agency’s investigations into the surge in aggressive behavior on-board has shown that alcohol is often a contributing factor.

“Airports can help bring awareness to this prohibition on passengers carrying open alcohol onboard their flights through signage, public service announcements, and concessionaire education,” Dickson said.

Some major U.S. airlines, including American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, have prohibited purchasing alcohol on board until the mask mandate expires. It is currently in place until mid-September.

Southwest was prompted to make the change in June after an unruly passenger allegedly knocked a flight attendant’s two front teeth out.

“Certainly with the number of incidents you can tell why flight attendants would feel leery about beginning to sell alcohol onboard the aircraft again,” Lyn Montgomery, a spokesperson for the union that represents Southwest flight attendants told ABC News.

Alcohol was reported to be a factor in one of the most recent unruly passenger incidents that occurred on a Frontier Airlines flight on Saturday.

The 22-year-old had at least two drinks on the flight, according to authorities, before allegedly groping two flight attendants and punching a third flight attendant in the face. The crew resorted to duct taping the man to his seat for the duration of the flight.

He was arrested when the plane landed in Miami and is now facing three counts of battery.

But not all unruly passengers face criminal charges, the FAA said.

“While the FAA has levied civil fines against unruly passengers, it has no authority to prosecute criminal cases,” Dickson told airport executives.

The agency has received more than 3,700 reports of unruly passengers since January with more than 2,700 of them involving fliers who refuse to wear a mask.

He said they see many passengers — some who physically assaulted flight attendants — interviewed by local police and then released “without criminal charges of any kind.”

“When this occurs, we miss a key opportunity to hold unruly passengers accountable for their unacceptable and dangerous behavior,” he said.

The FAA is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison. The agency has looked into more than 628 potential violations of federal law so far this year — the highest number since the agency began keeping records in 1995.

The largest flight attendant union in the U.S. doubled down on its call last week for the FAA and Department of Justice to “protect passengers and crew from disruptive and verbally and physically abusive travelers.”

A DOJ spokesperson told ABC News that “interference with flight crew members is a serious crime that deserves the attention of federal law enforcement.”

“As with any case, we exercise prosecutorial discretion in deciding which cases to charge federally,” the spokesperson continued. “Factors include egregiousness of the offense, were lives in danger, victim impact, mental health, did the plane have to make an unscheduled landing, is this a repeat offense, are there mitigating factors, etc. This is a serious crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.”

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

1-in-100-year floods happening so often, the term may change

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Recent deadly flooding events around the world are evidence of the planet’s changing relationship with precipitation as global temperatures continue to warm, according to environmental experts.

While the link between the climate change and extreme precipitation is straightforward, quantifying the link remains a critical area of research, Frances Davenport, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University’s Earth System Science program told ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee.

“We’re seeing that climate change increases extreme precipitation and makes the most extreme events bigger,” Davenport said.

Attempts to quantify a flooding event often involves the use of the term “a one in 100-year event.” In terms of floods, it pertains to the flood flow rate that has a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in a given year, Robert Mason, extreme hydrologic events coordinator and Delaware River master for the U.S. Geological Survey, told ABC News.

But this term is expected to change because it is only an estimate based on data, Mason said, and it is possible for major floods to happen in back-to-back years.

“The ‘back-to-back’ phenomena is difficult to explain,” Mason said. “It happens even without any trend in the data and is likely just chance events.”

The USGS is looking at different ways of quantifying back-to-back major flooding events, Mason said.

In some incidents, the flooding comes with little warning.

The death toll from flash flooding in central China tripled to more than 300 on Wednesday with another 50 people missing, according to officials. Record rain in the Henan province on July 20 turned streets in Zhengzhou into rushing rivers strong enough to sweep vehicles away.

In western Europe, more than 100 people died last month after a catastrophic flood triggered flash floods in parts of western Germany and eastern Belgium. The region also saw record rain from a slow-moving system, causing banks at rivers and reservoirs to burst, sending raging floodwater into streets, swallowing cars, homes, businesses and even entire villages.

A ferocious storm on July 24 flooded Interstate 94 and many other roadways around the Detroit area, as well as some homes. The storm knocked out power to nearly 140,000 customers in Michigan.

While scientists have understood the link between climate change and flooding for some time, the severity of recent events is signaling an indisputable presence of climate change, Davenport said.

The increases in extreme precipitation have also had a direct economic impact, she added.

“We’ve looked at data flood damage over the past 30 years, and we have estimated that a third of the damages from that period were because of increases in precipitation,” Daveport said, citing research published earlier this year.

In a 30-year period from 1988 to 2017, the cost in additional flood damages from increased precipitation totaled about $73 billion, she said.

Climate change is arguably changing Earth’s relationship with water overall, according to scientists. For a region like the Western U.S., the snowpack that builds up during the winter is critical as a water resource.

“When storms that used to bring snow are now bringing rain, this can lead to pretty severe flooding in the winter that we didn’t see in the past,” Davenport said. “Unfortunately, it both increases flooding and can exacerbate some of our drought conditions in the spring and summer.”

ABC News’ Samara Lynn, Morgan Winsor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cuomo report: Could he face criminal charges?

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing further scrutiny after the New York attorney general’s office concluded he violated state and federal law in sexually harassing at least 11 women.

While State Attorney General Letitia James’ civil probe didn’t include a criminal referral, several district attorney offices from across the New York area have asked to review the investigation’s materials to determine whether criminal charges could be filed.

James’ findings, released on Tuesday, concluded that Cuomo “sexually harassed current and former New York state employees by engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous offensive comments of a sexually suggestive nature that created a hostile work environment for women.”

Cuomo has denied all allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, including inappropriate touching and sexual advances.

The attorney general’s report also concluded that Cuomo may have violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sex and prohibits gender-based harassment in the workplace. The report also cited the New York State Human Rights Law, which is similar to the federal law.

Under that law, an employee can be held liable if they engaged in conduct that violates those guidelines or if they aided and abet conduct that violates state laws. “Failure to investigate [discriminatory acts] can constitute ‘active participation’ to support an ‘aiding and abetting’ claim,” the report stated.

In 2019, Cuomo signed legislation, to much fanfare, to strengthen protections against discrimination and harassment under New York State Human Rights Law, including extending the statute of limitations for employment harassment claims to three years from one year.

James’ report also concluded that Cuomo allegedly violated federal and state law in retaliating against one of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan, who came forward with her allegations in December, by “actively engaged in an effort to discredit her,” the report stated.

“The Governor and some of his senior staff questioned at the time (and continue to question) Ms. Boylan’s motivations, claiming that she made her allegations of sexual harassment for political reasons, i.e., to bolster her political campaign, or generally to be vindictive or retaliatory herself. But retaliation is unlawful regardless of whether the employer believes the complainant is acting with a good faith belief that she was harassed,” the report stated.

Further, Cuomo and his office failed to report and investigate the allegations of sexual harassment, in violation of their own internal policies and procedures, the report found.

Karen Agnifilo, a lawyer at Geragos & Geragos and a former prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, told ABC News the allegations contained in the report released on Tuesday “absolutely articulates criminal behavior in many of the instances.”

Whether charges are pursued depends largely on “if the victims are willing to come forward, if it’s within the statute of limitations for a misdemeanor, and if there’s jurisdiction,” Agnifilo added. “This report couldn’t have been clearer. It found over and over again, that the victims were credible and, stunningly, the governor was not credible.”

ABC News Legal Analyst Dan Abrams said it’s important to note the difference between potential civil and criminal charges.

“It’s very important to distinguish between sexual harassment, which is a civil law issue, meaning people can sue over it, but the remedy is money damages — it’s an individual suing him,” Abrams said. “A criminal case is the government saying, ‘We are going to seek to punish you and potentially take away your freedom,’ and in a criminal case, the legal standard is also higher. It’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Abrams said the strongest case is for a misdemeanor criminal charge in connection with the claim that Cuomo allegedly groped the breast of his executive assistant who worked at the executive chamber in 2020.

“The criminal law in New York that I think that most people will be focusing on is a law called ‘forcible touching’ — it’s a class A misdemeanor, it’s up to a year in prison,” Abrams explained. “And the definition of it is forcibly touching the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing such person, or for the purpose of gratifying the actor’s sexual desire.”

“I think we are still a ways away from criminal charges,” said Abrams, adding that even if Cuomo is charged with the misdemeanor “you still have to also prove that it’s for the purpose of gratifying the actor’s sexual desire. And that’s one of these legal things people don’t think about every day, but in the very definition of the statute makes it harder to prove.”

That woman came forward anonymously to the Albany Times-Union in April.

Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, issued a denial after the report was released on Tuesday that Cuomo ever groped this anonymous assistant.

“The Governor was stunned by her claim made for the first time in early March 2021 that he groped her breast,” Glavin said in a statement. “This claim is false, as the Governor has stated repeatedly and unequivocally.”

What is a HIPAA violation?

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Late last month Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, raised eyebrows around the country when she claimed that a reporter’s question about her COVID-19 vaccination status was a “violation of my HIPAA rights.”

Not even close, legal experts say.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a 1996 federal law, is a widely cited and misunderstood privacy statutes. In the age of COVID and questions about the disease and vaccines in the workplace, schools and elsewhere, debate over and misinformation about the law, which “gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has taken on a whole new life.

“HIPAA is the tool the government uses to try and protect some of your personal health care information,” explained Juan Morado, a health care regulatory and policy attorney at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLP. “It’s a rule that prevents hospitals, health insurance companies, pharmacies, and health care companies from sharing certain protected health information (PHI) you provide them with anyone else without your permission.”

In other words, the law primarily applies to health insurance companies and health care providers. Neither individual citizens nor most employers are considered “covered entities” under HIPAA, according to HHS.

“HIPAA’s protection is incomplete,” said Dr. M. Gregg Bloch, a professor of health law, policy and ethics at Georgetown Law. “The bottom line is that HIPAA is meant to provide some control for the consumer, for the patient, over how his or her information flows,” he added.

“Here’s the huge misunderstanding: What HIPAA does not do is stand in the way of anybody answering the question, ‘Have you been vaccinated?'”

When asked about Greene’s HIPPA comments, communications director Nick Dyer told ABC News, “It’s none of the media’s business. Privacy still exists in America, even though the fake news works every day to erode it.”

Who and what falls under HIPAA?

Three main entities are covered under HIPAA: health care providers, health plans and health care clearing houses. Health care providers include doctors, clinics, mental health providers, dentists, nursing homes and pharmacies. Health plans include health insurance companies, HMOs, company health plans and government health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Health care clearing houses process health information.

A few practical examples of when the law would come into play: “Your doctor can’t share your blood test results without your permission,” Morado said. “A pharmacist isn’t allowed to tell your employer if you’re on medication without your permission.”

Greene is far from the first to wildly misinterpret HIPAA.

Public relations departments and health care organizations are notorious for artfully misinterpreting the law, and claiming health information disclosures fall under HIPAA when they do not, in order to block information they’d prefer not to disclose to the public.

Bloch pointed to the early days of the pandemic, when U.S. nursing homes suffered major outbreaks. While nursing homes are covered entities under HIPAA, he explained, data needs to be identifiable in order to be protected for privacy reasons.

“The main misuse of HIPAA is by health care entities that want to hide the ball when they feel they have numbers that are going to make them look bad,” Bloch said. So when health care journalists, for example, ask a nursing home for de-identified data about people who died there during an outbreak, HIPAA is not a relevant factor.

“That’s utter nonsense,” Bloch said of health care firms blocking requests for de-identified data by citing HIPAA. “HIPAA does not stand in the way of sharing that kind of data.”

Widespread misinterpretations of HIPAA have also trickled down to ordinary citizens, who wind up thinking the law extends further than it does. “These things become on the surface, conventional wisdoms, and then people believe it,” Bloch explained.

“Maybe a doctor’s office doesn’t want to bother with sharing a medical record, and so some assistant up front says HIPAA,” he added. “He or she doesn’t know what they’re talking about. But the typical patient is not a lawyer, so the patient might not want to get into anything resembling a confrontational relationship with his or her doctor’s office.”

The result: The patient takes the incorrect information about HIPAA at face value and the myth proliferates. “Those are some of the ways that this mythology leeches into public space,” Bloch said.

Other everyday situations that aren’t covered under HIPAA: “If your boss/teacher asks if you’re vaccinated, that’s not covered by HIPAA,” Morado said. Neither is your step count or heart rate recorded by an Apple Watch or Fitbit, he added.

“The biggest misconception is HIPAA protects all of your personal health care Information and that it applies to all businesses,” Morado said. “HIPAA only protects information given to covered entities.”

A non-exhaustive list of entities that are NOT covered by HIPAA, according to HHS:

Life insurers
Employers
Workers compensation carriers
Most schools and school districts
Many state agencies like child protective service agencies
Most law enforcement agencies
Many municipal offices

At the end of the day, HIPAA is “porous, maybe even squishy,” according to Bloch. It’s also subject to politics and political interests. While the law was meant to protect patient privacy, “the players that saw their business strategies as vulnerable got into the game, and made sure that there was plenty of Swiss cheese,” he said of HIPAA. In addition to being misinterpreted, the law has many loopholes that benefit the marketing and the pharmaceutical industries, for whom health care data is extremely valuable.

GOP leaders step into Biden’s way on COVID

August 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The TAKE with Rick Klein

Debates over masks and mandates might make it seem like 2020.

It might also well be a taste of 2024. President Joe Biden’s admonition that lawmakers who are blocking vaccine requirements should “get out of the way” accomplished nothing of the sort — and may have had the opposite reaction.

“I am standing in your way,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday, declaring that Florida will remain a “free state” where no one will be required to show proof of vaccination or force children to wear masks.

DeSantis and other potential presidential contenders who are Republican governors — including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — have sought to one-up each other when it comes to establishing themselves as champions of personal liberty before and now during this troublesome period of the pandemic.

New polling shows Biden’s trust in handling the pandemic slipping among voters. Quinnipiac University numbers out Wednesday found the president’s approval on COVID at 53% of Americans — down a dozen points since May.

Biden aides, meanwhile, have begun calling out states, including Texas and Florida, where the delta variant is contributing to spikes in cases. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday “that’s not meant to be political,” and is simply “meant to convey that more action is needed in some part of the country.”

Of course, it is political. Republican leaders don’t need the contradictory messaging of former President Donald Trump to make resistance to vaccine and mask mandates a mantra, and skepticism of conflicting advice from scientists crosses party lines.

Now with the concept of “vaccine passports” gaining currency in some localities and businesses, partisan lines are hardening as quickly as campaign fundraising pitches can be written.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

The walls are closing in on disgraced New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

After the announcement of the devastating findings in the state Attorney General’s report on Cuomo’s misconduct and an avalanche of calls for him to resign, state lawmakers could move toward impeachment.

The New York State Assembly, where Democrats hold a vast majority, needs 76 votes to proceed with impeachment. According to ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, at least 82 of the state Assembly’s 150 members are in favor authorizing an impeachment trial. This as Cuomo clings to power with no sign of voluntary resignation.

If impeached, Cuomo would be the second New York state executive to face impeachment. The first was William Sulzer who is the only New York governor to be impeached and convicted. His removal followed accusations of campaign finance fraud in 1913.

If Cuomo were to be removed from office, it would make way for the state’s first female governor. As laid out in the New York’s constitution, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul would immediately become the acting governor during an impeachment trial. If Cuomo is convicted, she would continue in that role through the end of his term.

The assembly’s judiciary committee is slated to meet Monday morning to discuss their impeachment investigation.

The TIP with Meg Cunningham

Four Republicans vying to oust California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized his response to the coronavirus pandemic in a debate Wednesday night on some of the top issues facing the state.

The candidates who joined Newsom all opposed mask mandates, but their solutions to curbing the spread of the virus and its variants differed.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer encouraged viewers to get the vaccine (he and his family got it) but said he does not support mask mandates in schools, which are currently in place ahead of the 2021 school year.

Businessman John Cox took a different approach, saying he doesn’t support mandates or believe that people who have had the coronavirus should get the vaccine, because they have antibodies that protect them against it.

Former Congressman Doug Ose and state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley both pushed back against mandates, saying they have faith that Californians can make the right decisions for themselves and their families. Kiley took the opportunity to call out Newsom’s response directly, saying the governor was “bright lights and cash giveaways,” in an attempt to conceal a broken state government.

+ More