August 22, 2020

Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, could also make history

Some men might shrink in the shadow of a superstar spouse.

Not Douglas Emhoff, the unabashed cheerleader in chief for his wife, California Sen. Kamala Harris. On Wednesday, she made history as the first woman of color nominated for vice president by a major political party. After her speech, a beaming Emhoff made his entrance, walking alongside another prominent plus-one — Jill Biden — onto a convention hall stage in Wilmington, Del., to join their headline-making partners. Emhoff seemed a little awkward at first, tugging at the hem of his suit jacket. Then he embraced Harris, gave her a quick kiss, and the couple waved to the cameras.

When Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, introduced his running mate last week, he told Emhoff: “Doug, you’re going to have to learn what it means to be a barrier-breaker yourself.”

If Biden and Harris win in November, Emhoff would become the nation’s first second gentleman.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-08-20/kamala-harris-husband-doug-emhoff

August 21, 2020

With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing

With no end to the shutdown in sight, Texas bar owners and employees are on the brink of losing everything

by Reese Oxner, Texas Tribune


Holly Jackson has spent 20 years working for the Austin nightclub Barbarella, where crowds of customers danced and drank until the early morning hours. But for months, there’s been no music or cocktails at Barbarella. And Jackson and around 30 of her employees have been furloughed.

“I have no idea what’s gonna happen to me, honestly,” said Jackson, the bar’s general manager. “I feel like I’ve lost my right arm. I have no family. I have no kids, no husband. My entire identity in life was Barbarella. And now that’s gone.”

Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down Barbarella, along with the rest of Texas’ bars, twice — once in March and again in June — in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus. There is no end in sight for when bars will be allowed to reopen, leaving those business owners and their workers worried about how long they can hang on until they lose everything. In some cases, bar owners are planning to reopen anyway in a desperate attempt to generate some income — and draw Abbott’s attention.

Jackson joins thousands of service industry workers who have filed for unemployment, with restaurant and bar workers leading the state in number of claims. About 12.5% of the 3.2 million unemployment claims filed in Texas between the beginning of March and early August have come from workers in the accommodation and food services sector.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/21/texas-bars-shutdown/

August 21, 2020

J.C. Penney bankruptcy judge orders lawyers in case to appear due to 'lack of progress in the sale'

J.C. Penney’s lawyers and lenders need to pick up the pace.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge David Jones issued an order calling in all the lawyers for the company, lenders, creditors and the ad hoc equity committee to his courtroom at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Jones doesn’t mince words in his public hearings and apparently will deliver a strong message Wednesday because the hearing is sealed to the public. He’s even said he opposes sealed hearings and documents and has ruled that way consistently.

“At the initial hearings in this case, the court expressed its concern about the proposed timeline in this case. That concern has escalated due to the lack of progress in the sale process,” Jones said in his order.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2020/08/19/jc-penney-bankruptcy-judge-orders-lawyers-in-case-to-appear-due-to-lack-of-progress-in-the-sale/

August 21, 2020

2 Texas A&M sororities required to quarantine after COVID-19 exposure

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KTRK) -- Members of two Texas A&M sororities have been required to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.

According to the university, they have initiated a chapter-wide quarantine and contact tracing for those who live in the Delta Delta Delta and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority houses.

A&M says both sororities have been responsive and are following the required steps to continue operations.

How the members were exposed is unknown, but the university says they are prepared to handle these initial cases.

Read more: https://abc13.com/education/2-texas-a-m-sororities-quarantined-after-covid-19-exposure/6380602/

August 8, 2020

Rep. Gohmert's daughter warns him not to ignore COVID experts, stop following the president

As Tyler Congressman Louie Gohmert finishes his 10-day quarantine with coronavirus, his daughter posted on Instagram and Twitter a message to him about ignoring medical experts and following the president.

Caroline Brooks, one of three daughters of Gohmert, has a successful music career in Los Angeles. She posted about her father on Sunday. Gohmert has made national headlines for his refusing to wear a mask, but said he has worn a mask in the last three weeks more than ever.

Her post said, “Wearing a mask is a non-partisan issue. The advice of medical experts shouldn’t be politicized. My father ignored medical expertise and now he has COVID. This has been a heartbreaking battle bc I love my dad and don’t want him to die. Please listen to the medical experts. It’s not worth following a president who has no remorse for leading his followers to an early grave.”

Gohmert was going to fly on Air Force One with President Trump to West Texas, but had to take a COVID-19 test before the trip. His first test came back positive for the virus.

Read more: https://www.news-journal.com/news/coronavirus/rep-gohmerts-daughter-warns-him-not-to-ignore-covid-experts-stop-following-the-president/article_24fbed98-d538-11ea-985d-97b9ef1f96b1.html
(Longview News-Journal)

It's comforting to know that somebody in that family has a brain though I suspect a generation on both the maternal and paternal sides.

August 7, 2020

So Far This Week, Ted Cruz Has Insulted a Fellow Senator, Oprah and People Who Don't Like Trucks

Even for famously acerbic Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, this has been a banner week for bluster.

On Tuesday, the Republican lawmaker staged a committee hearing on conservative bogeyman Antifa that got so combative one of his Senate colleagues walked out. And, as if that wasn't enough, he also found time to get worked up over 'Muricans' right to drive-ass giant pickup trucks and — in what appears to be his latest attempt to provoke a celebrity Twitter feud — accused Oprah Winfrey of spewing "racist BS."

Let's review.

The Hearing: During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Cruz called Tuesday to purportedly throw back the curtain on Antifa, Cruz accused Democrats of "facilitating" street violence that occurred in some U.S. cities during police brutality protests. After understandable pushback from the Dems on that assertion, Cruz badgered Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, for roughly ten minutes, claiming she was afraid to denounce violent protesters. Finally, she left the hearing, calling out what may rank as one of the great understatements of the year: "Sometimes I don't think you listen."

Pickup Trucks: On Monday, Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent for news site The Week, retweeted a Sunday article from the Wall Street Journal about the danger huge pickup trucks pose to others on the road. In response, Cruz fired back that "blue check-marks are afraid of pick-up trucks." Presumably, Cruz is using the term "blue check-marks" as shorthand for "liberal celebrities." Never mind, though, that Cruz's official account is also verified with one of those blue check marks.

Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2020/08/05/so-far-this-week-ted-cruz-has-insulted-a-fellow-senator-oprah-and-people-who-dont-like-trucks

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1290368307112153088

August 6, 2020

A new COVID conspiracy -- squirrels and hand sanitizer

Society has long been rife with conspiracy theories —- and there's nothing like a good old-fashioned global pandemic to bring them out in full force. Maybe I just have weird friends, but I can't go five minutes on Facebook without seeing someone claiming the coronavirus is a Democrat hoax to get Biden elected or that masks are just the government's way to subjugate society on the road to fascism.

I'm pretty sure most conspiracy theories are hogwash, especially these COVID-19 ones. I swear to you all right here and now there IS a sinister conspiracy afoot — one that involves an evil collaboration between car washes, grocery stores, and the most blackhearted masterminds of malice in the world: squirrels.

Once upon a time, I thought squirrels were cute and fuzzy and charming. Then I made the mistake of buying a house with a walnut tree in the backyard. Every year, a small army of squirrels farm that tree 24/7. They're efficient, organized, and their clear purpose in life is to make mine a living hell.

Last Sunday, I went to the grocery store on a food run. While there, I was happy to find a couple big jugs of hand sanitizer perfect for the office. Returning home, I pulled onto the parking slab in my backyard and unloaded the car.

Read more: https://qctimes.com/lifestyles/shane_brown/shane-brown-a-new-covid-conspiracy-squirrels-and-hand-sanitizer/article_abd0deb2-953a-5a9f-84fd-4ed303af340d.html

August 6, 2020

Joni Ernst to President Trump: Accept the Republican nomination in Des Moines, not the White House

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday that President Donald Trump should not accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination from the White House, as he has suggested.

And she had an alternative in mind: Des Moines.

"I really think it should be done in Des Moines, Iowa. That makes total sense to me," Ernst, a first-term Republican who is up for re-election this year, said on a conference call with reporters. "We’re a state that would largely support Trump, and of course we could really use that economic boom. Just send President Trump in, and we’ll find a place for him to give his acceptance speech."

Trump won Iowa by more than 9 percentage points in 2016, but a June Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed the president leading former Vice President Joe Biden by just 1 point, well within the poll's margin of error.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/06/joni-ernst-says-trump-should-accept-republican-nomination-des-moines-not-white-house/3310723001/

August 6, 2020

Battle over Medicaid coverage for transgender Iowans hits roadblock

The yearslong battle over transgender Iowans’ right to use Medicaid funds for transition-related care hit a roadblock Wednesday when the Iowa Court of Appeals tossed a lawsuit challenging a 2019 law that allows the state to deny that coverage.

The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU of Iowa on behalf of transgender Iowans Mika Covington and Aiden Vasquez, sought to overturn a law passed in the waning days of the 2019 session that allows government entities to opt out of using public insurance dollars, including Medicaid, to pay for transition-related surgeries.

The court didn't affirm that law in dismissing the case. Rather, it said Covington and Vasquez had not yet been denied coverage under that law, so "any dispute is speculative until a denial occurs."

The 2019 provision, included in the health budget bill, was added in response to an Iowa Supreme Court decision in March 2018 that ruled Iowa’s longtime ban on using Medicaid funds for transition-related care was discriminatory under Iowa Civil Rights Act’s gender-identity protections.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2020/08/05/iowa-appeals-court-tosses-lawsuit-medicaid-transgender-iowans/3300317001/

August 6, 2020

2 Iowa store employees fired after refusing to serve police officer

DES MOINES — Two former doughnut franchise employees were fired after refusing to serve a Des Moines police officer, the shop’s corporate headquarters said.

Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department, said he was refused service over the weekend at a local Dunkin’ doughnut shop because he’s a police officer, television station KCCI reported.

Parizek said he asked a woman behind the shop’s counter, “What’s going on?”

“She said, ‘We’re not going to serve you today and you need to leave,’?” Parizek recounted.

Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety/des-moines-police-dunkin-donut-employees-fired-20200805