TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalTwo local fetal deaths blamed on COVID-19
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi - Nueces County Public Health District received notification today of two cases of COVID-19 related fetal death during pregnancy.
According to health officials, the first case involved an unvaccinated pregnant female in her twenties who suffered a fetal demise at 29 gestational weeks.
This female in her twenties presented symptoms of nausea, vomiting, fever, congestion and was diagnosed with COVID-19. She was also living with a COVID-19 positive family member.
The second case of fetal death involved an unvaccinated female who was 23 gestational weeks along in her pregnancy when she contracted COVID-19.
Read more: https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/two-local-fetal-deaths-blamed-on-covid-19
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders returns to Iowa Sunday to pitch $3.5 trillion budget proposal
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming back to Iowa, but it's not to stump for any nomination.
Instead, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee will be in Cedar Rapids on Sunday whipping support for the $3.5 trillion budget proposal he's calling "the most consequential piece of legislation for working families since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s."
"I want people to understand what (the bill) means to ordinary Americans," Sanders, I-Vermont, said in an interview with the Des Moines Register. "This is the people's budget. As chairman, if I had the time, I'd go to 50 states in this country. But we're starting off with three in the Midwest."
Sanders' town hall will follow an event in Indiana on Friday. He said he wanted to target states that are predominantly represented in Washington, D.C., by Republicans to show that what's partisan in the Capitol has mainstream, working-class appeal.
Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/27/bernie-sanders-news-iowa-budget-reconciliation-proposal-cedar-rapids/5589738001/
Democrats call on Reynolds to reverse her decision rejecting federal COVID-19 aid to schools
Iowa Democrats continue to hammer what they called Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “failed leadership” in confronting the COVID-19 crisis as students return to school this week.
The Iowa Department of Public Health this week reported another 42 deaths, which happened over a month’s time, due to the coronavirus since last week’s report. That brings the state’s total to 6,268 Iowans who have died as a result of the virus. The state also reported 7,619 positive tests in the past seven days. Seventeen percent of the positive tests were among those under age 17, an increase from 13 percent.
“Yet Gov. Reynolds continues to ignore public health experts and the pleas from parents” to release more data, state Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, who also is chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, said during a virtual news conference Thursday.
He repeated the party’s demand last week that Reynolds reverse her earlier decision to reject $95 million in federal funds that could be used for COVID-19 testing in schools. Democrats also called for the governor to return to daily — rather than weekly — reporting to the public of COVID-19 data and allow school districts to protect students and teachers by following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on using masks. Legislation signed into law by the governor earlier this year prohibits local school districts from requiring students to wear masks in schools.
Read more: https://www.thegazette.com/state-government/democrats-calls-on-reynolds-to-reverse-decision-to-reject-federal-covid-19-assistance/
(Cedar Rapids Gazette)
Ricketts declares staffing emergency in Nebraska hospitals
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska's hospitals are even more crowded now than they were at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in November, Gov. Pete Ricketts said Thursday as he announced a “staffing emergency” to try to address a severe shortage of health care workers.
The state's hospitals were treating a 3,162 patients as of Wednesday, up from 3,074 on Nov. 20, when the number of known cases was at its all-time high.
Most of the recent hospitalizations aren't virus-related, however, and Ricketts said the increase was driven by patients seeking treatment for other medical problems. According to state data, hospitals are currently treating 337 virus patients — about 11% of total hospitalizations. In November, the hospitals counted 987 virus patients, accounting for 32% of hospitalizations.
Ricketts said he declared the emergency after consulting with the state’s hospital administrators. But he stopped short of calling it a “COVID-19” emergency, which would allow the state to once again disclose daily case information.
Read more: https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/ricketts-declares-staffing-emergency-in-nebraska-hospitals/article_ab7d417a-3f26-5ecd-9c43-c9a2233cb767.html
Children's Hospital in Omaha unveils $410 million upgrade
The grand opening of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center’s new Hubbard Center for Children likely wasn’t of the size or scale that hospital officials envisioned when they broke ground in December 2016.
The shortened list of in-person participants at Wednesday’s event included Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert. They wore masks and followed social distancing rules. Others watched online.
But officials stressed that the end result is what’s important: more space and more state-of-the-art equipment and amenities to care for more of the region’s children and their families.
“This is a major milestone for us to improve children’s health and be the best place to serve the children of our region,” said Chanda Chacón, Children’s president and CEO.
Read more: https://siouxcityjournal.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/childrens-hospital-in-omaha-unveils-410-million-upgrade/article_e79e7dcc-76a3-5da1-a771-f4ad492e3216.html
Iowa's COVID-19 hospitalizations reach October 2020 levels
COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations continue to accelerate in Iowa, reaching levels not seen for many months. Data published on the state’s official website on August 25 show Iowa reported 7,112 new coronavirus cases over the previous week. The last time the state averaged 1,000 new cases a day was in late January.
Statewide, 498 Iowans are now hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase of 25 percent from the 396 reported on August 18. The last time this many Iowans were hospitalized with coronavirus was in mid-January. The number of patients being treated for the virus in intensive care units (133) is at its highest level since late December 2020. Iowa also reported 89 new daily admissions for COVID-19 on August 25, the highest level since mid-January.
Hospitalizations have risen sharply this summer, quadrupling in the last month alone. Current numbers are ten times higher than the low point for Iowa’s COVID-19 hospitalizations in late June.
The slope of this past month’s increases resembles what happened in Iowa last October, as you can see from graphs published on the RMCC Data page of the state’s website. Total hospitalizations and new daily admissions are now approximately where they were on October 20, 2020.
Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2021/08/26/iowas-covid-19-hospitalizations-reach-october-2020-levels/
Chuck Grassley Discusses Mask Science at Town Hall With Nurse
Chuck Grassley seemed to question whether science has proven that masks help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 after being asked about it during a Keokuk County town hall on Tuesday.
Family Nurse Practitioner Barbara Coffman posed the question to Iowa’s senior US senator after sharing her concerns that the health care system could be overwhelmed soon with increased spread of COVID-19 now that schools are back in session.
“I’m really concerned about the next two or three weeks with school starting,” Coffman said. “Evidence-based medicine has shown that wearing a mask can help reduce the spread of COVID-19. I’m wondering, do you believe that masks reduce the spread of COVID-19?”
Grassley, a Republican, told Coffman he wears a mask when required, but questioned the science surrounding them.
Read more: https://iowastartingline.com/2021/08/26/chuck-grassley-discusses-mask-science-at-town-hall-with-nurse/
Bob Ross Documentary Filmmakers Ran Into Some Happy Little Legal Hurdles
Bob Ross — the artist known for his calm voice, poofy hair and unflappable demeanor — spent 31 seasons gently encouraging at-home artists to pick up their palettes to paint serene landscapes and "happy little trees."
Actor Melissa McCarthy and her husband, filmmaker Ben Falcone, were big fans of Ross and decided to produce a documentary about his life. But as they began working on the project with filmmakers Joshua Rofé and Steven Berger, they quickly realized their subject — and the legacy he left behind — was more complex than they knew.
From the outset, the filmmakers found that very few people were willing to speak with them about Ross, for fear of litigation by the owners of his estate. McCarthy says Rofé and Berger told her they had rarely encountered such hesitancy and refusal.
-snip-
Despite the legal roadblocks, McCarthy and Falcone moved ahead with the film — Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed will be released on Netflix on August 25.
Read the complete article: https://www.tpr.org/2021-08-25/bob-ross-documentary-filmmakers-ran-into-some-happy-little-legal-hurdles
(Texas Public Radio)
'Death and life': Only 6% of ICU beds are open in Wisconsin right now
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s hospital beds are filling up with SARS CoV-2 patients, and some areas have just a few ICU beds left.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 88% of hospital beds statewide are full. On top of that, 92% of intensive care unit beds are in use. Across Wisconsin, more than half of hospitals have their ICUs at full capacity.
"Over the last three to four weeks, we've seen those volumes, double, triple, quadruple, and now 10 to 20-fold from what they were just about five weeks ago,” said Dr. Michael Dolan of Gundersen Health System in La Crosse.
Data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association shows that the western Wisconsin region, which includes La Crosse, is swamped. The area only has 36 ICU beds. Right now, they only have three left.
Read more: https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2021/08/26/wisconsin-low-on-icu-beds
Mexico: President foe who fled allegedly got $500,000 bribe
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Mexico said Wednesday that an opposition politician who fled the country over the weekend allegedly took a $525,000 bribe.
The Attorney General’s Office outlined the accusation that led it to try to obtain an arrest warrant fort former presidential candidate Ricardo Anaya.
Anaya ran for the conservative National Action Party in the 2018 presidential election, which was won by Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, and he has been contemplating a second bid. Anaya says he is the victim of political persecution.
Prosecutors said evidence indicates the former head of the state-owned oil company, Emilio Lozoya, had received bribe money from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Lozoya has told prosecutors he gave $525,000 to Anaya, then a legislator, in 2014 to vote in favor of an energy reform bill that opened the industry to the private sector.
Read more: https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Mexico-President-foe-who-fled-allegedly-got-16412085.php
(Laredo Morning Times)
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