News – Page 3138 – 105.7 WDNY

New Commerce grants designed so ‘everyone’s included’ in pandemic recovery: Raimondo

July 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Whether it is investing in a coal mining community, or in regional tourism, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says new “investing in America” grants being announced Thursday are designed so every community in America feels empowered and included to get back on their feet in the wake of the pandemic.

She said the Commerce Department is making $3 billion in grants available for a myriad of programs, using funds passed as part of the American Rescue Plan.

Interested communities will have to apply for the grants, which exclude businesses.

“It’ll be a nationwide competition to quite literally ‘build back better,'” Raimondo told ABC News’s Karen Travers, using the name President Joe Biden uses for his recovery program. “Building back certain communities from the ground up so that everybody can thrive in the new economy.”

With concerns growing about how long current price surges will last, Raimondo said the Biden administration is watching inflation “very closely.”

“And not, you know, not trying to deny that there’s a link between large fiscal stimulus and inflation,” she said, “but inflation is not the only thing we need to be worried about.”

Raimondo said the kind of funding the Commerce Department is investing in communities can be “quite beneficial” in countering inflation.

“These are investments in productivity. And that’s what we need to be making. Every economist will tell you, you want to invest, to enhance productivity, and that’s exactly what this is,” Raimondo said. “This is investments in infrastructure, investments in skills, education, job training, and those are not inflation creating expenditures of money.”

The grants will be distributed through the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration.

Programs include the “Build back better challenge,” in which regions can apply for up to $100 million to “accelerate recovery and inclusive economic growth by developing new industries or expanding existing ones through planning, infrastructure development, workforce training, innovation and commercialization, access to capital, and more,” the department said.

Those programs include $300 million to invest in communities affected by the shrinking coal mining industry.

“We also need to be there for communities that have been traditionally dependent on coal,” Raimondo explained. “And so that’s what this money is for putting folks to work in those communities, making investments in those communities so they benefit from the transition to renewables, whether that’s retraining, or innovation hubs or building infrastructure.”

Raimondo insisted there would be no political considerations when grants are made to coal mining communities, especially since influential Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin represents West Virginia, a state hit hard by the industry downturn.

“It isn’t just West Virginia. It’s Virginia, it’s West Virginia it’s Ohio with Kentucky it’s you know it’s not about one state it’s about being honest with people and creating jobs for people everywhere,” she explained.

Another program is aimed at getting Americans back to work through investments in worker training and in funding infrastructure projects.

“So, the way it works is pretty simple: a group of companies would come together in a community, they would say, ‘we have 1000 open jobs right now,’ for example, in order to hire people for those jobs. ‘These are the skills they need to have,'” she said. “Then the money that we’re providing would train those people in exactly those skills, and here’s the best part, the businesses have to hire the folks, so that this is not trained, and pray and get a job. This is enroll, train, graduate, get your job.”

The Commerce Department also will focus on providing funds for underserved communities, providing regional tourism grants, and helping communities plan for any potential economic hardship in the future.

Raimondo said the administration is not telling local communities how to invest their money, but rather providing a road map.

“This is bottom up,” she said. “This is not Washington telling any community, how to do economic development. Every community has certain strengths, maybe it’s, a certain talent pool, maybe it’s, I don’t know tourism, maybe it’s a certain kind of skill set, maybe it’s a certain technical know how. So each community wants to build on those strengths, and then use our funds to kind of supercharge those efforts.”

Money will be available almost immediately especially for communities impacted by a lack of tourism because of the pandemic, Raimondo explained.

“There’s so many communities that have lost jobs because of the lack of travel and lack of tourism,” she said. “You need help yesterday and we know that.”

Raimondo also touted the $1.2 billion infrastructure bill being debated in Congress.

In 2016, when she was governor of Rhode Island, she passed “Rhode Works,” a sweeping infrastructure measure targeted at fixing Rhode Island’s roads and bridges, which then were among the worst in the nation. The cornerstone of the program was imposing tolls on truckers to pass through the state in order to fund the project.

“It was none other than Vice President Joe Biden, who traveled to Rhode island with me to stand under a crumbling bridge to say, ‘get behind this governor and let’s make this infrastructure investment happen,'” she said.

She urged Congress to pass the bill, saying that while it might seem controversial now, once communities see money being put into action, it will be seen as favorable.

“It is the right thing to do. And even if it’s controversial at the moment, we got to push it over the finish line is the American people want and deserve better infrastructure,” Raimondo told Travers. “And I promise you, it will be popular once you see the road crews out there making communities better and safer.”

Liz Cheney positioned as linchpin for credibility of January 6 findings

July 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The TAKE with Rick Klein

The talk after Wednesday’s flurry of activity around Jan. 6 investigations was about separate partisan inquiries covering the same subject — a subject leaders of the two parties don’t see, or don’t claim to see, the same way at all.

Then there’s Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. She could perhaps be the only person standing in the way of final Jan. 6 takeaways devolving into wearying and meaningless “both sides-ism.”

Cheney’s decision to stay on the House select committee, and even back Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of two Republican members who were tapped to serve on it, is about more than a single vote, even a vote that belongs to a former member of GOP leadership.

She is also calling out her own party leader — the man favored to become the next House speaker if Republicans recapture the majority — as offering “disingenuous” rhetoric that should disqualify him from taking over any such job.

“There must be an investigation that is nonpartisan, that is sober, that is serious, that gets to the facts wherever they may lead,” Cheney told reporters.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined questions about security shortcomings at the Capitol that made clear Republicans were looking for an escape that has them aiming at Pelosi in whatever separate probe they launch.

McCarthy and his allies also say the House-approved committee is designed to embarrass former President Donald Trump and his supporters. Trump, who months ago committed to booting Cheney out of office next year, would readily agree.

But when the select committee holds its first hearing on Tuesday, Cheney will be there. As she explores ways to make sure her presence is felt, that fact alone will give an extra dose of credibility — even bipartisanship — to the endeavor.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

The White House is changing its tune on COVID-19 procedures.

The White House will now announce any official who tests positive for COVID-19 if they have had close contact with the the president, vice president, first lady or the second gentleman.

“An email from our COVID-19 operations protocol team has been sent to White House staff informing them of the official policy — that if you are in close contact with a principal, and test positive for COVID 19, your case will be disclosed to press along with any other relevant details,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “We will share the name of the staffer if that individual agrees to do so; of course, we respect their privacy.”

Previously, White House officials said they would only announce cases of “commissioned officers,” or senior staff with “assistant to the President” in their title.

The marked difference came after Psaki confirmed a breakthrough case of the coronavirus in the White House.

Officials have not announced any changes to COVID-19 measures like testing or reinstating masking, but new cases at the White House make the “independence” from COVID-19 that Biden hoped would arrive by July 4 feel even more elusive.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

The outlook on what will happen with the national push for federal voting rights legislation is still unclear, but the issue of voter ID requirements remains a fixture in debates across state legislatures.

In a memo circulated Wednesday, Pennsylvania state Rep. Seth Grove — who also serves as the chairman of the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee — said he plans to reintroduce his state’s voting bill, H.B. 1300, which Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed earlier this month. Grove pegs his move on a Philadelphia Inquirer report that quotes Wolf indicating support for voter ID rules, despite previously citing such measures as nonstarters for advancing H.B. 1300.

The Pennsylvania Governor is the latest of several high-profile Democrats to lean into more nuanced positions on voter ID laws. Sen. Joe Manchin included voter ID requirements in his voting legislation compromise last month and was promptly backed by voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams.

Wolf previously voiced support for a handful of other provisions originally outlined in H.B. 1300, but it remains to be seen whether he will be open to renegotiating the bill after already vetoing it.

Supreme Court excessive force ruling could be ‘a big deal,’ lawyer says

July 22, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The Supreme Court last month remanded a lower court’s ruling that police officers who used excessive force on a 27-year-old man who died in their custody were protected because they didn’t know their actions were unconstitutional.

And it’s a decision that could have lasting effects, according to legal experts including Jon Taylor, an attorney who represented the family of that man, Nicholas Gilbert.

“The Supreme Court has summarily vacated a pro-officer decision by a lower court in an excessive force case,” Taylor told ABC News. “So this is a big deal, not only because of what the Supreme Court said but also because of what it will be for the record going forward.”

Steve Art, an attorney who submitted a brief on behalf of the ACLU for the case, shared Taylor’s sentiments.

“It’s extremely rare for the Supreme Court to summarily reverse a decision finding that police did not use excessive force,” Art told ABC News. “The Supreme Court is sending a clear signal to lower courts that they cannot reflexively decide cases for police officers when they use brutal tactics on restrained citizens.”

Gilbert died in a St. Louis Police Department holding cell in December 2015 after six officers restrained him for 15 minutes, handcuffed him and placed him in shackles, and forced him face down on the ground. Police at the time said they believed Gilbert to be suicidal and said they acted to prevent him from taking his own life. The officers were never criminally charged.

Gilbert’s parents, Bryan Gilbert and Jody Lombardo, sued the officers after his death, and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them.

The officers pushed to receive qualified immunity — meaning they’d be shielded from personal liability unless proven to have violated clearly established constitutional rights — when confronted with the lawsuit in 2016, and in 2019, that immunity was granted by a federal judge in the 8th Circuit Court who did acknowledge that excessive force had been used.

But the Supreme Court on June 28 remanded the case back to the lower court, ruling that the 8th Circuit Court did not clearly define whether “prone restraint” was constitutional.

“The Eighth Circuit didn’t get to the qualified immunity question because it didn’t find a constitutional violation in the first place,” Elizabeth Beske, a law professor at American University, told ABC News. “By sending the case back, the Supreme Court is signaling to the Eighth Circuit that excessive force cases require a hard look at specific facts and circumstances and can’t be dismissed lightly.”

Part of the ruling stated: “It is unclear whether the court thought the use of a prone restraint — no matter the kind, intensity, duration or surrounding circumstances is per se constitutional so long as an individual appears to resist officers’ efforts to subdue him.”

But the Supreme Court’s decision was not unanimous — conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

Alito wrote the dissent, which included: “We have two respective options: deny review of the fact-bound question that the case presents or grant the petition, have the case briefed and argued, roll up our sleeves and decide the real issue. I favor the latter course, but what we should not do is take the easy out that the court has chosen.”

“That Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett signed on to this opinion sends a powerful message that this Court is paying attention and will not brook casual treatment of these serious social issues,” Beske added.

This decision could have a lasting impact and set a precedent for future cases involving excessive force, Taylor, the lawyer for Gilbert’s family, explained.

“I think the Court recognizes this political moment, in particular, that there is heightened attention being paid to these kinds of issues,” Taylor added. “I think that partially explains why the Supreme Court didn’t let this go.”

Art, who submitted the brief for the ACLU, added: “We expect that the Lombardo case will result in juries hearing more cases brought by the loved ones of those killed and hurt by police, rather than those cases being decided by judges before trial.”

This is not the first time the 8th Circuit has weighed in on an excessive force case. It also had jurisdiction over cases involving Michael Brown and George Floyd, who each were killed by police after being arrested for misdemeanors — Brown in 2014 and Floyd in 2020. In 2017, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld, in a 2-1 decision, a lower court ruling that Ferguson, Missouri, police were not entitled to qualified immunity from a lawsuit by Dorian Johnson, who was stopped along with Brown.

“The Court’s efforts in this area are likely responsive to the ongoing racial justice movement and to political pressure on the Supreme Court itself. Calls to ‘pack’ the court will grow if it is widely perceived that the conservative Court is significantly out-of-step with public opinion,” Beske said.

Gilbert at the time was homeless and under the influence of methamphetamines when he was arrested for a nonviolent misdemeanor, police said. After Gilbert died, officers said they believed he was experiencing a “mental health crisis” when he was in his cell, prompting officers to engage and restrain him.

Taylor said Gilbert “was lifting his chest in an attempt to breathe and saying it hurts, asking them to stop, and then he died. An autopsy found the cause of death to be asphyxiation induced by forcible restraint.”

While race-related issues perhaps have been more widely documented in cases where police have been accused of using excessive force, another major factor is mental illness. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, persons with an untreated metal illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement.

The Department of Justice has warned about these risk factors in the past, and law enforcement agencies across the country have been asked to train police on how to properly handle potential mental illness episodes. Officers have been cautioned that persons suffering such an episode, or who may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, are at a particular risk of dying by asphyxiation when held face down because it restricts their breathing.

In a statement provided to ABC News, Gilbert’s mother said her son was “kind and loving” and “the type of young man who gives the shirt off his back. He was bubbly and happy all the time. He was a happy young man and he had plans in life.”

“I want my son to finally have his day in court in front of a jury,” she added. “I want my son’s case to be an example — something that changes the way police treat people.”

States, cities that expected to go bankrupt from pandemic now seeing cash surplus

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — When the pandemic hit Alexandria, Virginia, the economic outlook was bleak.

In April 2020, the city projected a budget shortfall of up to $100 million as businesses shut down and workers lost their jobs, eliminating key revenue from sales, tourism and income taxes.

“Early on it was catastrophic for us,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson told ABC News. “Every week, unfortunately, I was getting a notification from hotels, large restaurants, telling us that they were shedding workers.”

But a year later, those dire budget projections still haven’t become a reality. In fact, the city just passed its spending plan for the first tranche of $30 million in aid it had received from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The proposal includes investments in infrastructure, food assistance and a guaranteed basic income pilot program giving out $500 to about 150 families.

“We’re working on a variety of different ways to try to help our residents: food insecurity, housing insecurity [and] other efforts to ensure that they get back on their feet in the aftermath of this,” Wilson said.

It’s a story playing out from coast to coast. Thanks to generous federal relief funds, a rebound in consumer spending and stock market gains, state and local governments that had predicted economic calamity are now finding themselves flush with cash.

“So far, we are seeing that a lot of states [that] talked about how they were going to have to raise all sorts of taxes and cut all sorts of spending, and it didn’t happen,” Richard Auxier, a senior policy associate at the Tax Policy Center, told ABC News.

Auxier said that while it’s too soon to say that states are out of the woods, federal support has helped keep them afloat during the pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan Act passed in March included $350 billion in direct aid to state, local and tribal governments. A Treasury Department spokesperson told ABC News about $200 billion of that funding has already been paid out.

Unlike the previous two COVID-19 relief laws, there are fewer restrictions on how states can use the money, which must be obligated by 2024 and spent by 2026.

“By the time the third major piece of legislation came around in 2021, there was a big desire to give them that freedom, to have some slack on how they want to spend it,” Auxier said.

President Joe Biden is now urging some cities to use some of the funds toward fighting crime — for example, by paying overtime to police officers.

The Cherokee Nation is receiving $1.8 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act as well. Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. told ABC News the funding is going toward $2,000 stimulus checks for every resident, as well as investments in mental health, broadband internet and a new hospital.

“The number one plan was to get relief directly to our citizens,” Hoskin told ABC News.

In the meantime, 13 Republican state attorneys general are suing the Biden administration because they want to use the federal aid to fund tax cuts, which is one of the few restrictions under the current law.

“It’s not a matter for the federal government to decide Arkansas’s own tax structure,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge told ABC News. “That’s where the federal government’s overreaching.”

In Maryland, Comptroller Peter Franchot established a working group to determine where the federal money has been going. He said the funding has been a “game-changer” that it helped the state avoid bankruptcy. But he added that it’s clear some of the money isn’t going to the hardest-hit communities that need it the most.

“Some of it will be well spent, [but] a lot of it probably won’t be,” Franchot told ABC News. “That’s the nature of having a fire hydrant of cash come into the state suddenly.”

Northeast Florida hospitals returning to COVID-19 peak amid delta surge

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) — Hospital officials in Northeast Florida are urging people to get vaccinated as the number of COVID-19 patients is approaching or exceeding levels they saw during the worst of the pandemic amid “rampant” spread of the more transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus.

UF Health Jacksonville, in Florida’s most populous city, has seen an “exponential” rise in the number of COVID-19 patients admitted in recent weeks, Chad Neilsen, director of infection prevention at the hospital, told ABC News.

The previous record for the highest number of daily COVID-19 patients across its two campuses — 125 — was set in January; the hospital surpassed that three days ago, Neilsen said, and is currently at 136, with about 40 people in the intensive care unit.

Last week, there were 75 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, 45 the prior week and 20 the week before that, according to Dr. Leon Haley Jr., CEO of UF Health Jacksonville.

“We knew it was most likely due to the delta variant taking a bigger footprint here in the Northeast Florida region because it was so rapid of an increase,” Nielsen said. “Everybody in town is suffering the same fate we are.”

At the Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville hospital, there has been a “significant” increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past three weeks, “approaching our previous peak numbers,” Dr. Ken Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, said during a COVID-19 press briefing Wednesday with Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and other local health care leaders.

“This represents a five-fold increase in COVID hospitalizations, and follows many weeks when we only had a handful of hospitalized COVID patients,” Thielen said.

There are other similarities among the area’s hospitals — the COVID-19 patients they are admitting are largely unvaccinated, and they are younger than what they’ve previously seen during the pandemic.

Among UF Health Jacksonville’s COVID-19 patients, 90% are unvaccinated, and nearly 70% range in age from 40 to 69, Neilsen said. Prior to this surge, 75% of the COVID-19 patients were ages 60 and up, he said.

“We’re definitely seeing a shift into a younger demographic of people,” he said.

According to Tom VanOsdol, president and CEO of Ascension Florida and Gulf Coast, which operates a hospital in Jacksonville, over 96% of its COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

“Our median age of our hospitalized patients is 49 — it was in the mid-60s in prior waves of this pandemic,” VanOsdol said during Wednesday’s press briefing. “So it’s a younger demographic who are not getting vaccinated that unfortunately are contracting COVID, and these cases are requiring hospitalization for treatment.”

At Baptist Health in Jacksonville, the COVID-19 patients are “younger, sicker and getting sicker quicker,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Timothy Groover said during the briefing.

In the past month, 44% of COVID-19 patients at the hospital were in their 40s or younger, and “most were previously healthy,” he said.

As the delta variant has quickly become the dominant variant spreading in the United States, Florida is one of four states reporting the highest weekly COVID-19 case rates per capita, with over 200 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Monday, the seven-day average of new cases went up 107.48% in Duval County, where Jacksonville sits, according to the CDC.

At the same time, fewer than half of the state’s residents are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Rates are lagging in Duval County, where 41% of residents are fully vaccinated.

“Vaccines are stagnant here in Northeast Florida, and the delta variant is just running rampant amongst the unvaccinated folks,” Neilsen said.

Neilson attributes the latest surge in part to delta’s rise coinciding with Fourth of July gatherings, but said it’s hard to predict where hospitalizations might be heading “because it spreads so quickly.”

Hospitals in the region are worried about staff burnout and shortages as the pandemic wears on and unvaccinated staff are exposed in the community and also get sick.

“We’re facing a real staffing crisis if this continues,” Nielsen said.

The area health care leaders offered a plea for people to get vaccinated if they haven’t already, and to continue mask-wearing, social distancing and hand-washing.

Curry also urged residents to get vaccinated — but stopped short of issuing any restrictions.

“The path to moving beyond the surge and preventing future ones is increasing our percentage of vaccinations,” he said during Wednesday’s briefing. “The math is clear — vaccines work. Restrictions to our economy and personal freedoms are not the answer. The answer is getting vaccinated.”

“Hospitals are full and busy because of unvaccinated people, so the solution here is to get the vaccine,” he added.

14-year-old girl drowns at Ohio water park

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(MIDDLETOWN, Ohio) — A 14-year-old girl died Tuesday evening after she was pulled from the water at an Ohio theme park, officials said.

Police were called to the Land of Illusion Aqua Adventure Park in Middletown after the teen went under water and did not surface, the Butler County Sheriff’s Office said.

The sheriff’s office said in a press release that the girl went under at about 5 p.m. and she wasn’t located until a half hour later.

The victim was identified by authorities as Mykiara Jones.

Mykiara was airlifted to Dayton Children’s Hospital, where she later died, police and other officials said.

“This is a tragedy no parent should have to endure,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said in a statement. “These are the calls first responders dread and have difficulty dealing with. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”

An investigation is ongoing.

In a statement released on its Facebook page, Land of Illusion’s owners said it closed down the water park and is cooperating with investigators to determine what happened.

“We ask that you join us in sending thoughts and prayers and our deepest condolences to our guest’s family and friends, as well as to the team members and guests who were onsite last evening during this tragedy,” the owners said.

The Middletown School District put out a statement alerting the community about Mykiara’s death.

Superintendent Marlon Styles said Mykiara was going to be a freshman at Middletown High School in the fall and the teen’s mother worked in the school system.

“We will be wrapping our arms around her during this extremely difficult time,” Styles said of Mykiara’s mother.

The school provided students, faculty and other members with information on counseling services.

“We extend our deepest sympathy and prayers to the family, friends, and teachers of Mykiara. We pray the family finds peace and comfort during this difficult time,” Styles said.

Prince George smiles in photo taken by Duchess Kate to mark his 8th birthday

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Prince George is turning 8, and stealing the show in a new photo released to mark his birthday.

George, who was born on July 22, 2013, was photographed earlier this month in Norfolk, England, where his family has a home.

George’s mom, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, took the photo that was released to mark his birthday on Thursday.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@dukeandduchessofcambridge)

George, the oldest child of Kate and Prince William’s three children, was in the spotlight recently when he joined his parents at London’s Wembley Stadium to watch England compete in the UEFA European Championship.

He watched England win in an earlier round but then saw the team lose to Italy in the finals earlier this month.

George will celebrate his birthday privately with his family, which also includes his younger sister, 6-year-old Princess Charlotte, and 3-year-old Prince Louis.

It has become a family tradition for Prince William and Duchess Kate to share new photos to mark the birthdays of each of their children.

Mask mandate imposed on county employees in Las Vegas – but not tourists or casinos

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LAS VEGAS) — Alarmed by the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Las Vegas, elected officials approved a new indoor public space mask mandate for all county employees, but it excludes tourists and has no bearing on casinos or public schools.

The Clark County Commission unanimously adopted the motion Tuesday night following a raucous emergency hearing, in which the majority of speakers opposed a recommendation from the Southern Nevada Health District to require all members of the public to wear masks in all public settings.

Under the new rule, all Clark County employees, regardless of their vaccination status, will be required to wear masks in public spaces of county buildings, but not in their enclosed offices or cubicles.

Dr. Cort Lohff, chief medical officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, told the commission that COVID-19 infections in the community have tripled since early June, driven largely by the delta variant.

Las Vegas casinos and other businesses were allowed to fully open in early June after months of being closed or operating under severely limited capacity.

The county’s COVID test-positivity rate is at 13.8% and data from state health officials showed that 889 new COVID cases were reported in Clark County on Tuesday alone.

On Friday, the health district issued a recommendation to require all members of the public to wear masks in public settings “regardless of their vaccination status.”

Health officials said that roughly 42% of the population in Clark County is fully vaccinated. The U.S. population overall currently stands at 48.8% fully vaccinated.

“Out biggest pockets of unvaccinated are younger folks, 12 and older who are eligible for the vaccine. We are also seeing low rates among African American folks,” said Lohff, adding that the health district has launched an outreach program that includes a social media campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated.

“The most important thing is to increase our vaccination rates in our community because we know that the vaccines are very safe and despite what you heard, very effective,” Lohff said.

Commissioners said they could not issue a full mask mandate on the public because they have no jurisdiction over casinos and other private buildings in the city of Las Vegas.

“This has nothing to do with the school district,” said Marilyn Kirkpatricks, chairperson of the Clark County Commission. “The school district rules fall under the state Board of Education and the Clark County School District.”

Commissioner Jim Gibson, who proposed the limited mask mandate, said, “We have to do something.”

“We can’t afford to allow hospitals to become more worse in terms of their crowding and we cannot afford to have this economy suffer in the slightest,” Gibson said. “We have already been through a shutdown and a startup. We cannot afford to have major conventions choose to go elsewhere.”

The mask mandate will is scheduled to go into effect at midnight Thursday and will stay in place until at least Aug. 17 when the commission meets again.

Clark County is the most populous county in Nevada with about 2.3 million residents and includes the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.

Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, applauded the mask mandate the commission passed.

“I support the Clark County Commission for using their local authority to issue this mitigation measure amid significant community transmission in Southern Nevada and as we continue our joint effort to increase access and confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines,” Sisolak said in a statement posted on Twitter.

Some business owners, such as Ben Cucio, who owns a watch design and repair company, told the commission he fears that a total public mask mandate will eventually be imposed if the county’s COVID-19 crisis continues to worsen.

“People are not going to make any money and they’re not going to make any semblance of a reality having to face another shutdown,” Cucio said.

Todd Koren, CEO of Absolute Exhibits, a company that builds exhibits for trade shows and conventions, said he supports the commission for taking action.

“I think it’s a great first step. We have to prove to our tourists that Las Vegas is a safe place to come and visit,” Koren told Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV. “Exhibitors who are thinking about coming to a trade show just want to know that it’s safe and that we’re taking the right measures.”

Alabama council member who used racist slur faces calls to resign

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(TARRANT, Al.) — An Alabama city council member is facing calls to resign after he used a racist slur while pointing toward a Black colleague during a meeting Monday night.

John “Tommy” Bryant stood up and pointed at Black council member Veronica Freeman and said, “Do we have a house N-word in here? Would she please stand up?” during the council meeting.

Video of the meeting was shared on the Tarrant, Alabama, Facebook page. The clip shows audience members at the council meeting audibly gasping in response to his use of the slur.

Freeman was later seen sobbing with her head in her hands before stepping out.

Bryant said that his use of the slur was to reflect something Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton, who is Black, allegedly said during an earlier private meeting.

“He doesn’t need to use that term in front of everybody, and I thought the city ought to know the kind of terminology the mayor uses, and I didn’t want him to get away with it. So that’s the reason I made that comment,” Bryant said in a Tuesday interview with local news station WVTM-TV.

“He said it in a derogatory manner, I said it so people would know what the mayor said,” Bryant added. “The mayor was being derogatory toward Veronica Freeman when he said that.”

When asked if he was racist, Bryant said, “It’s according to what your definition of the word racist is. What a lot of the public’s definition is, I might be a racist. But according to what the true definition of a racist is, absolutely not.”

Bryant and Freeman did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Newton, who was sworn in as mayor in November, did not respond to ABC News’ request but told Alabama Local News on Tuesday, “The video speaks for itself.”

Newton denied ever using the racial slur in reference to Freeman on Wednesday, telling ALN, “They are trying to expose me for saying something I did not say. All of that was a political stunt that they did not do very well.”

Alabama Democrats demanded Bryant resign after the outburst, saying in a statement, “He is racist and unfit to serve.”

“Alabama still has a long way to go when it comes to race, but cozying up to the KKK and using the N-word should make you unfit to serve. These racists belong in the history books with Bull Connor and George Wallace, not on the taxpayer’s payroll,” the statement added.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl said Bryant’s behavior “is completely unacceptable in any setting,” but didn’t mention if he believed he should resign.

“The Alabama Republican Party is deeply troubled by the racially charged outburst and disrespect shown by Councilman Tommy Bryant. Such language is completely unacceptable in any setting, and even more concerning coming from an elected official,” Wahl said to ALN.

Senate Democrats lose vote to advance bipartisan infrastructure deal Biden wants

July 21, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats on Wednesday lost a key test vote to allow a bipartisan infrastructure deal to advance — after Republicans involved in the talks say they needed more time to finalize details before helping Democrats meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to start debate on the bill.

While Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s effort failed — handing him and President Joe Biden at least a temporary political loss on a top priority — the White House earlier Wednesday the president was “extremely supportive” of Schumer’s strategy aimed at jump starting negotiations on the measure that would spend $1.2 trillion on “traditional infrastructure.”

The partisan defeat, by a vote of 49 to 51, belied the comity behind the scenes as a bipartisan group of 11 senators works feverishly behind the scenes to finalize the terms of their package to fund major public works projects, from bridges and highways to public transit and broadband.

“This vote is not a deadline to have every final detail worked out. It is not an attempt to jam anyone,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning.

“According to the negotiators, spurred on by this vote this afternoon –- they are close to finalizing their product,” he argued. “Even Republicans have agreed that the deadline has moved them forward more quickly. We all want the same thing here – to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But in order to finish the bill, we first need to start.”

Key Republican negotiators in the bipartisan group of senators who have been trying to work out the deal say they believe they can finalize it by Monday.

“We are making tremendous progress, and I hope that the majority leader will reconsider and just delay the vote until Monday. That’s not a big ask of him,” GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told reporters Monday morning.

The group huddled over Mexican food and wine behind closed doors for over two hours late Tuesday night, but left without squaring all of their differences on how to pay for package.

Schumer, the Republicans say, is well-aware of their position that waiting until next week to hold a vote would heighten the chances of success.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that 10 Republicans have signed a letter to Schumer indicating that they are prepared to support taking up the bill on Monday.

He said it was his understanding that “Leader Schumer wanted to understand if there were ten Republicans in favor of getting on the bill, and we’ve indicated, Yeah, there are ten. Probably more.”

Negotiators said Tuesday that there are about six remaining issues with the bipartisan bill, the thorniest of which is how to structure spending on public transit systems.

At the same time, the senior lawmaker expects the legislation to be finalized by Monday, and that includes the nonpartisan analyses by various agencies breaking down all of the financing options, how much revenue would be produced, and a final price tag.

Republicans, in particular, will be looking to show that the $579 billion in new spending is fully paid for.

If the vote seems certain to fail, Schumer could switch his vote to the losing side at the last minute, enabling him as majority leader, under Senate rules, to call up the vote again for reconsideration.

The Wednesday vote is to start debate on a shell bill because there is no final bill from the negotiators. It would serve as a placeholder should negotiators strike a final deal.

The measure is separate from a much larger bill Biden and Democrats are pushing that would spend $3.5 trillion on so-called “human infrastructure” such as child care.

Democrats plan to push that through the Senate with no Republican votes, using a budget tool called “reconciliation.”

+ More