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WATCH: Group of Karens form human shield to protect their Antifa kids from police – The Post Millennial

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Over 30 Oregonian Karens formed a human barrier between protestors and federal agents at the Oregon courthouse, with the group of women heard chanting "Feds stay clear, moms are here."

The mothers were apart of a larger crowd of roughly 400 people. One mom told BuzzFeed News that their mission was to protest the right for peaceful protests by citizens, which manifested in the so-called "Wall of Moms."

The Facebook event for the Wall of Moms says their goal was to protect protestors "without the use of violence."

"We moms are often underestimated. But were stronger than were given credit for. So what do you say, will you stand with me? Will you help me create a wall of moms?"

Barnum has since created a permanent Facebook group to organize more events. On Sunday, they will be joining demonstrations again, wearing yellow and handing out sunflowers.

Moms were asked to wear white to stand out from the crowd.

WATCH: Group of Karens form human shield to protect their Antifa kids from police - The Post Millennial

Theres idiocy on all sides in the law and order road show | Jonah Goldberg – News-Herald.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

As the Trump administration takes its law and order show on the road after a dress rehearsal at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and a soft opening in Portland, Oregon, let me just say Im disgusted with almost everybody involved.

Lets start with the Portland demonstrators. Contrary to heroic PR efforts from many in the mainstream media, these arent great people. Oh sure, I have no doubt some, even many, are decent enough on a personal level. But even decent people become ugly when they lend their bodies and voices to mobs and riots. Even if they just watch, theyre encouraging rioting and violence.

Then theres the mainstream and left-wing media. When right-wing protesters foolishly in my opinion, but also peacefully gathered to denounce lockdown orders during the early days of the pandemic, virtually everybody to the left of Fox News insisted it was dangerous, fascistic and scary (which, by the way, is how the media mostly covered tea party rallies a decade ago).

But whether it was peaceful protests in the wake of George Floyds killing or even rioting and arson, the non-right media covered it all in a spirit of near celebration, with the occasional tsk-tsking for some excesses.

Now let us turn our gaze rightward. To listen to many on the right, in and out of the administration, the goons in Portland are domestic terrorists on par with al-Qaeda or ISIS. Indeed, President Trump said in June he would designate antifa a loose affiliation of radicals, jackasses and radical jackasses a terrorist organization. Characteristically, he hasnt followed through on that threat (though that hasnt stopped antifa sympathizers from pretending he did so they can spin conspiracy theories about how the administration is denying antifa members due process).

The goal is to create a domestic enemy that only Trump can save us from. Its part of the administrations larger effort to re-create the moral panic he fomented in 2016 with his American carnage rhetoric, and failed to foment with the immigrant caravan in 2018. Many on the right are only too happy to help with the messaging.

Thats the basic context for Trumps decision to send federal agents into Portland and now other cities. This has elevated the ridiculousness on both sides by an order of magnitude. Those on the left insist its illegal and unconstitutional. Its neither. Democrats and media commentators glibly talk about how this use of a gestapo makes us a police state no different from China. Thats absurd, not least because the law is on the administrations side (so far), but also because Chinas police state is competent. If the Trump administration wanted to act like China, it would round up (or kill) all of the protesters, violent and peaceful alike.

I have no principled objection to federal agents protecting federal property from rioters and arsonists. What bothers me is that the administrations tactics and motives are all about manufacturing a political narrative that helps Trumps campaign, elevates the status of the rioters and arsonists, and gives critics license to prattle on about dictatorship.

Trump long ago proved he doesnt really want to be a dictator. (That requires too much work.) He wants to be a TV star. Whats outrageous isnt that Trump is using federal agents on American soil, or even that hes doing it without an invitation from local politicians. Whats outrageous is why hes doing it.

When China crushes protests, it crushes them because thats the goal. Trump has the opposite goal. He wants more protests, more riots, because his campaign thinks it needs to make facts on the ground fit its law and order sloganeering and exaggerations.

The idiot mobs of Portland are only too happy to give Trump what he wants, which is why they started focusing their wrath on federal buildings in the first place. Indeed, all the stakeholders (save for the majority of Americans) get what they want. The resistance-drunk left-wing media is gleeful to further heighten tensions by downplaying the dark side of the protests to fit their preferred narrative about Trump being an authoritarian. The Trump-besotted right-wing media gets to highlight the mainstream medias cleanup operation to show how the fake news is just out to get Trump.

Its a collective action problem, a tragedy of the political commons, in which all actors get to harvest the facts that help their cause, leaving the rest of us wondering how things got so stupid.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.

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Theres idiocy on all sides in the law and order road show | Jonah Goldberg - News-Herald.com

Amy Siskind calls for the doxxing of federal agents and their families – The Post Millennial

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Leftist activist and The Weekly List podcaster Amy Siskind called for the doxxing of federal agents making arrests in Portland and their family members on Friday.

"It would be helpful if we could start to identify these storm troopers. This monster has a mother. Maybe a wife and family. They should be publicly named - and of course held accountable when this reign of terror is over," Siskind tweeted, calling the city's state of affairs "Trump's America."

Siskind has been criticizing the lawful arrests of violent Antifa militants and instigators amid the Portland riots.

The woman shown being arrested in the photograph is Haley Juliane Holden, who was charged by federal authorities the day before, The Post Millennial's editor-at-large Andy Ngo reported.

Holden was part of the rioting mob that rushed past the broken barrier towards the Hatfield federal courthouse. She then screamed and resisted arrest.

Meanwhile, Siskind is calling federal law enforcement officials fascist "mercenaries," foreign occupiers.

"You're a disgrace! Get the mercenaries out of our cities. We're not here for your fascism. You will be held accountable when this is over - and 'I was taking orders" is not an excuse!'" Siskind tweeted.

She went on to compare the federal agents to Nazi Germany's Gestapo, claiming that American officers will face similar Nuremberg trials.

The Post Millennial's Ian Miles Cheong called out Siskind, warning that an open call to doxxing will endanger the lives of police officers and federal law enforcement, "who are tasked to handling dangerous narcoterrorists on the US southern border."

He described Siskind's violent threat "absolutely dangerous advice" that harms U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection families, "not just from Antifa militants (who have been known to stalk and murder) but also drug cartels."

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Amy Siskind calls for the doxxing of federal agents and their families - The Post Millennial

D-Waves quantum computing cloud comes to India – The Hindu

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click here to subscribe for free.)

Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave Systems is launching its cloud service in India, giving developers and researchers in the country real-time access to its quantum computers.

Through this geographic expansion, D-Waves 2000Q quantum computers, hybrid solvers and the application environment can be used via its cloud platform Leap to drive development of business-critical and in-production hybrid applications.

Quantum computing is poised to fundamentally transform the way businesses solve critical problems, leading to new efficiencies and profound business value in industries like transportation, finance, pharmaceuticals and much more, Murray Thom, VP of Software and Services at D-Wave, said in a statement.

The future of quantum computing is in the cloud. Thats why we were eager to expand Leap to India and Australia, where vibrant tech scenes will have access to real-time quantum computers and the hybrid solver service for the first time, unlocking new opportunities across industries.

As part of this rollout, users in India and Australia can work on the D-Waves Leap and Leap 2 platforms.

The two cloud platforms offer updated features and tools, including hybrid solver service that can solve large and complex problems of up to 10,000 variables; and integrated developer environment that has a prebuilt, ready-to-code environment in the cloud configured with the latest Ocean SDK for quantum hybrid development in Python.

D-Waves systems and software have been used in financial modelling, machine learning and route optimization.

Its latest launch in India comes about a year after the countrys Department of Science and Technology (DST) chalked out plans to build its own quantum computers.

In early 2019, DST launched a programme focused on quantum computing, called Quantum-Enabled Science and Technology (QuEST). As part of QuEST, India earmarked 80 crore investment to be spent over a span of three years to facilitate research in setting up quantum computers.

A year later, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Union Budget 2020 Speech, announced a National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) with an outlay of 8,000 crore for the next five years.

Quantum technology is opening up new frontiers in computing, communications, cyber security with wide-spread applications, Sitharaman said in her Budget Speech.

It is expected that lots of commercial applications would emerge from theoretical constructs which are developing in this area.

NM-QTAs focus, as outlined by the minister, will be in fundamental science, translation, technology development and, human and infrastructural resource generation.

Other areas of quantum computing applications will include aero-space engineering, numerical weather prediction, simulations, securing communication and financial transactions, cyber-security, and advanced manufacturing.

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D-Waves quantum computing cloud comes to India - The Hindu

UVA Pioneers Study of Genetic Diseases With Mind-Bending Quantum Computing – University of Virginia

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

University of Virginia School of Medicinescientists are harnessing the mind-bending potential of quantum computers to help us understand genetic diseases even before quantum computers are a thing.

UVAs Stefan Bekiranov and colleagues have developed an algorithm to allow researchers to study genetic diseases using quantum computers once there are much more powerful quantum computers to run it. The algorithm, a complex set of operating instructions, will help advance quantum computing algorithm development and could advance the field of genetic research one day.

Quantum computers are still in their infancy. But when they come into their own, possibly within a decade, they may offer computing power on a scale unimaginable using traditional computers.

We developed and implemented a genetic sample classification algorithm that is fundamental to the field of machine learning on a quantum computer in a very natural way using the inherent strengths of quantum computers, Bekiranov said. This is certainly the first published quantum computer study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and may be the first study using a so-called universal quantum computer funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Traditional computer programs are built on 1s and 0s, either-or. But quantum computers take advantage of a freaky fundamental of quantum physics: Something can be and not be at the same time. Rather than 1 or 0, the answer, from a quantum computers perspective, is both, simultaneously. That allows the computer to consider vastly more possibilities, all at once.

The challenge is that the technology is, to put it lightly, technically demanding. Many quantum computers have to be kept at near absolute zero, the equivalent of more than 450 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Even then, the movement of molecules surrounding the quantum computing elements can mess up the calculations, so algorithms not only have to contain instructions for what to do, but for how to compensate when errors creep in.

Our goal was to develop a quantum classifier that we could implement on an actual IBM quantum computer. But the major quantum machine learning papers in the field were highly theoretical and required hardware that didnt exist. We finally found papers from Dr. Maria Schuld, who is a pioneer in developing implementable, near-term, quantum machine-learning algorithms. Our classifier builds on those developed by Dr. Schuld, Bekiranov said. Once we started testing the classifier on the IBM system, we quickly discovered its current limitations and could only implement a vastly oversimplified, or toy, problem successfully, for now.

The new algorithm essentially classifies genomic data. It can determine if a test sample comes from a disease or control sample exponentially faster than a conventional computer. For example, if they used all four building blocks of DNA (A, G, C or T) for the classification, a conventional computer would execute 3 billion operations to classify the sample. The new quantum algorithm would need only 32.

That will help scientists sort through the vast amount of data required for genetic research. But its also proof-of-concept of the usefulness of the technology for such research.

Bekiranov and collaborator Kunal Kathuria were able to create the algorithm because they were trained in quantum physics, a field that even scientists often find opaque. Such algorithms are more likely to emerge from physics or computer science departments than medical schools. (Both Bekiranov and Kathuria conducted the study in the School of MedicinesDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Kathuria is currently at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development.)

Because of the researchers particular set of skills, officials at the National Institutes of Healths National Institute of Mental Health supported them in taking on the challenging project. Bekiranov and Kathuria hope what they have developed will be a great benefit to quantum computing and, eventually, human health.

Relatively small-scale quantum computers that can solve toy problems are in existence now, Bekiranov said. The challenges of developing a powerful universal quantum computer are immense. Along with steady progress, it will take multiple scientific breakthroughs. But time and again, experimental and theoretical physicists, working together, have risen to these challenges. If and when they develop a powerful universal quantum computer, I believe it will revolutionize computation and be regarded as one of greatest scientific and engineering achievements of humankind.

The scientists have published their findings in the scientific journalQuantum Machine Intelligence. The algorithm-development team consisted of Kathuria, Aakrosh Ratan, Michael McConnell and Bekiranov.

The work was supported by NIH grants 3U01MH106882-04S1, 5U01MH106882-05 and P30CA044579.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to theMaking of Medicineblog.

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UVA Pioneers Study of Genetic Diseases With Mind-Bending Quantum Computing - University of Virginia

Coronavirus in N.Y.C.: Will the Tourists Ever Come Back? – The New York Times

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Broadway theaters and museums that tourists would flock to are still closed. The United States has banned travel from China, Brazil and much of Europe. And Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has ordered a quarantine for visitors from 31 of the countrys states.

Four months after New York City shut down to combat the coronavirus, its vital tourism industry remains essentially paralyzed even as the city struggles to kick-start its moribund economy.

The enormous challenge the city faces was on vivid display when the Statue of Liberty reopened on Monday. Instead of carrying the usual throngs of visitors from around the world, the first boats to the island that holds the statue ferried more journalists than paying customers.

Times Square, typically gridlocked with visitors, was nearly as lonesome. Its not that happening, said Swathi Roja, who lives in Washington, assessing the so-called Crossroads of the World. Maybe Im not getting the real New York City.

New Yorks abrupt lockdown in March came just before the annual onslaught of tourists as the weather begins to warm. Officials had been expecting more than 67 million visitors in 2020, about one-fifth of them from outside the country.

Now the citys tourism officials have been left wondering how they will ever revive an industry that brought in about $45 billion in annual spending and supported about 300,000 jobs.

Not since the grim days of the 1970s, when crime was rampant, the subway was in disarray and boarded-up storefronts were abundant, has promoting New York to out-of-towners seemed so daunting, said Jonathan M. Tisch, chief executive of Loews Hotels and former chairman of NYC & Company, the citys tourism marketing agency.

There are all kinds of challenges that are going to make our jobs of rebuilding tourism and New York Citys economy even tougher, said Mr. Tisch, who worked the front desk at one of his familys hotels as a college student in the 1970s.

He said the process of rebuilding the citys image as a safe and fun place to visit would take a lot of time and help from the state and city government. Along with rhetorical support from elected officials, hotels and restaurants are seeking tax breaks and rent relief.

We can survive this, Mr. Tisch added.

Mr. Tisch is one of dozens of leaders of tourism-dependent businesses who have been devising plans for the industrys recovery from its longest and steepest slump in memory. The situation is unlike the citys brief shutdown after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 because Americans felt a patriotic urge then to help the city heal, he said.

Two nights after the attacks, on Sept. 13, shows resumed at all 23 Broadway theaters.

But this time, with confined indoor spaces making it easier for the virus to spread, the theaters plan to remain dark until next year. Without the shows that serve as the citys thumping heart, hundreds of hotels and restaurants in Manhattan are simply trying to survive 2020.

The perception is that if Broadway is closed, New York City is closed, Mr. Tisch said.

In the second week of July, the occupancy rate of New York City hotels was just 37 percent, according to STR, a research firm. That is down from more than 90 percent in recent summers.

We think its too soon to encourage travel and invite folks to come back in, said Fred Dixon, the chief executive of NYC & Company. He said that for the past four months the city had had no tourism to speak of and that he was not even guessing how many visitors it would tally for the year.

So, instead of promoting the city in international capitals and other faraway places as it typically does, the agency is narrowing its focus to New York and its surrounding areas.

This month the city introduced a campaign themed All In NYC that was created by Aruliden, a Manhattan marketing firm, to stir interest among local residents in exploring the city and seeing some of its sights.

The strategy is similar to one being employed by Paris, which is encouraging its own residents to tour the city without the usual hordes. Paris is yours is the theme of that campaign.

But even a scarcity of tourists may not be enough of a lure to get jaded New Yorkers to venture to the citys famous attractions. Local residents were nowhere to be found among the few visitors to the Statue of Liberty on Monday morning.

For now, the city may have to rely on people like Shin Roldan, 31, and her new husband, Keith, 30. The couple, who live within commuting distance in Morristown, N.J., were having a honeymoon of sorts a few months after a pandemic wedding in their backyard, Ms. Roldan said.

Despite the citys continuing ban on indoor dining, they said they were enjoying their stay in a Midtown Manhattan hotel. They had already ridden the tram to Roosevelt Island in the East River and planned to go to the observation deck atop the Empire State Building, which had just reopened.

Updated July 23, 2020

We can take a lot of pictures, just the two of us, with nobody else in the pictures, Mr. Roldan said. Thats always a problem in New York.

The fourth phase of the citys reopening, which started Monday, was a mixed blessing for Brad Hill, whose company operates the concessions on Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island. It allowed him to bring back more than 100 employees who had been laid off since mid-March. But with so few tourists, being open again was a losing proposition, he said.

Just a few days before, Mr. Cuomo had upended his plans by excluding museums from the list of places that could reopen. That ruled out Ellis Island, whose main attraction is its exhibits on immigration and archives that visitors can search for records of their relatives.

Mr. Hill said he had spent about $60,000 preparing the dining areas and gift shops on the two islands to accept customers in a socially distant manner. Now he was no longer planning to hire more than 150 seasonal workers for the summer.

Mr. Hill said he was having flashbacks to the recovery from past shutdowns of the statue, after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The only problem with this one is there are no tourists, he said.

Kate Fone and her family, visiting from Haverhill, Mass., saw the statue from a passing tour boat before it reopened. She, her husband and son made a spontaneous trip to take advantage of the low prices and lack of crowds.

They were staying in an Airbnb rental on Fifth Avenue that was a real good deal, she said as she stood outside St. Patricks Cathedral.

Some intrepid travelers made longer treks in defiance of Mr. Cuomos quarantine rules.

Shea Ellis, 33, and Tony Green, 34, drove to New York from Talladega, Ala., a state on Mr. Cuomos list, with his three children. Ms. Ellis, a business manager, said she was undaunted by the spreading virus.

Its all over the country, she said. I havent been worried about it.

Mr. Green, a truck driver, added, You cant just stop your life.

They said they liked the lack of traffic in Manhattan but were disappointed that so much of the city, like the 9/11 Memorial Museum, was still closed.

You dont get the real experience, she said.

Abigail Valle made an even longer haul with her nephew, Hazael, and her mother. Taking a break from posing at the base of the Statue of Liberty, she said they had driven 48 hours straight from their home in Azusa, Calif., to see relatives in Brooklyn.

I just wanted to see it in real life, she said of the statue.

After a week in the city, they were heading back on the road Monday night, Ms. Valle said. Next stop: Las Vegas.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

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Coronavirus in N.Y.C.: Will the Tourists Ever Come Back? - The New York Times

Movement designed to bring pressure on Liberty Hill City government – Liberty Hill Independent

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

By MIKE EDDLEMAN

The Better Together Project is a new movement in Liberty Hill that its founder Sally McFeron hopes will live up to its name on the communitys political stage.

The Political Action Committee (PAC), created and registered with the Texas Ethic Commission on July 10, is intended to bring accountability and transparency to City Hall, but also to make sure everyone is a participant in the community.

This is going to be a way for the entire community to pull together to do good things and do them in the right way, she said. Right now, this community needs to hear from the folks who are not politicians or employees being paid by City Hall. We need to listen to our community and pull back the veil. Lets have some participation and have some transparency in our local government. Lets have some accountability for the decisions being made and demand that.

McFeron, the former Director of Planning for the City, who was terminated in early July, is the PAC treasurer and the first two committee members are former City Administrator Greg Boartight and Christopher Spaeth.

Those are the first two committee members to get this moving and we will go through an opportunity for people to join the committee and have a voice in it, she said. This is just to get things set up and get it moving forward.

Whether it is what McFeron identifies as the changing culture at City Hall, a lack of transparency, the treatment of employees, or the way in which projects are managed, she said someone had to speak up.

Watching all of it happen was painful, she said. I love the city of Liberty Hill. Ive been in involved in one way shape or form with the city since 2006.

While the PAC is a broad-based approach to generating community involvement, McFeron doesnt hesitate to point to Mayor Rick Hall as a prime catalyst.

To see the City go backwards under the leadership of a bully, basically, and a one-man team, I felt I had to do something about this, she said. Theres no transparency at City Hall. This community needs sunlight to shine in the windows to expose and to look at the Mayor and how hes created an environment of back room deals and public safety questions.

Even with that admission, she said the focus will be on issues, not personalities.

The PAC is going to focus on issues, McFeron said. What are the issues in our community and looking at the overall aspect of things. It has been established to talk about the issues and provide a voice. I want to look for ways to improve the city. Thats really why I decided to move forward.

Spilled milk?Hall has referred to McFeron, and other former City employees who have spoken out in recent months, as disgruntled former employees, attributing all of their allegations and concerns to what he ultimately claims is their anger over being terminated. McFeron doesnt hesitate to share her opinion on the terminations, but says this decision is not about her termination.

I cant cry over spilled milk. I was fired, she said. As an individual you move on from being fired and you go on and get a job, she said. Right now, though, I dont want that spilled milk to hit the carpet. I dont want the City to continue to go in a downward spiral.

McFeron believes she was terminated, though, over her opinions and stance on a number of problems she has seen at City Hall.

I was terminated. Im not a disgruntled employee, Im extremely marketable. Im just concerned about the community and the direction the City is going in, she said. I was fired for basically being a whistle blower to (Mayor) Rick Hall. As I have been employed in that position over about the last year since Greg (Boatright) left Ive witnessed a series of unfortunate events that have hurt a tremendous amount of people. Not only staff, but our community as a whole and I just want to turn all of that into something good and positive in the community.

In her view, it has been a systematic effort on Halls part to gain more control.

Since August with the first termination or dismissal of Greg Boatright, then we went through Maverick (Campbell), then we went through Lance (Dean), then Barbara (Zwernemann), then its me and Jonny (Ubelhor) a building inspector, all dismissed within 10 months, theres a pattern. That in combination with the decisions the Mayor has also made along the way, and the move forward in assuming power and total control is creating his power base. Hes done a good job of getting rid of people who are in his way.

Grass roots effortsOne of the first steps McFeron plans for The Better Together Project is a virtual listening tour, designed to get input and hear the concerns of people from every part of the community.

We want to do that so that real people in Liberty Hill, not just the residents, but also the stakeholders of our community like business owners, residents in the ETJ or municipal utility districts, and give them an opportunity to have a voice, she said. What happens at City Hall impact all of us. Everyone needs a voice.

Bringing them together, even virtually, is something she believes will show how the community truly feels about local politics and decisions right now.

I think people right now are angry, she said. I think what theyre seeing happening at City Hall is not transparent and they are not being held accountable. They are seeing a one-man show with the City Council rubber-stamping things and turning their head on certain issues.

Fundraising is not a focus for the new PAC, but it is something McFeron knows will have a place in the future.

This is a grass roots movement, she said. There will be an opportunity for fundraising from individual citizens out there who are interested in helping spread the word and helping create a voice for our community. It will be lower key.

Anyone interested in learning more about The Better Together Project can e-mail McFeron at lhbtproject@gmail.com.

I just really want to turn this series of unfortunate events that have happened over the last two years into something good and positive for the community, she said. It is to bring awareness and understanding and let people have a voice.

Originally posted here:

Movement designed to bring pressure on Liberty Hill City government - Liberty Hill Independent

Liberty rookie Jocelyn Willoughby looking to make impact on and off court – New York Post

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Everything Jocelyn Willoughby didnt even know she was secretly hoping for came to fruition during Aprils WNBA draft.

The draft board may have read that the Phoenix Mercury took Willoughby 10th overall, but Phoenix was ultimately selecting for the Liberty, who had a trade in place to acquire the pick and had set their sights on the 6-foot 22-year-old since the start of her senior season at Virginia.

Instead of having to move across the country, Willoughby landed with a team that has relocated to the Barclays Center just more than 15 miles away from her hometown of East Orange, N.J. on a full-time basis.

Though her official debut on Saturday will be in Bradenton, Fla., instead of Brooklyn, due to the WNBA relocating to a bubble-type setting amid the coronavirus pandemic, Willoughby is already thinking of ways to immerse herself into the Brooklyn community to see where she can make a difference.

Thats just what Willoughby has always done. She finds a way to lend a helping hand wherever she goes.

I think its super important to become part of the community, learn the community and figure out what specifically are the needs of the community that youre a part of and serving, Willoughby told The Post on a recent phone call.

The Newark Academy graduate already has her eye on Hope House, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated women integrate back into the community at-large. After the Liberty held a panel on June 19 commonly celebrated as Juneteeth or Freedom Day that featured her Liberty teammate Layshia Clarendon and Nets guard Garrett Temple, Willoughby envisioned herself taking part in the future.

Landing with the Liberty was a serious bonus for Willoughby. Not just because of the countless Liberty games she went to when the team played at Prudential Center during renovations to Madison Square Garden from 2011-13, but because of the franchises roots in the area where she grew up.

Having an opportunity to make a difference in the community that gave so much to her just might be the only thing more important to Willoughby than being a basketball player.

I think as a WNBA player and professional player you have such a unique and huge platform to inspire and to create change, she said. I think thats definitely something Im excited about.

Willoughbys drive to create positive change in her surroundings originated long before she was drafted to the WNBA. Its a striking trait that seems to jump out to anybody she meets. Its like a footprint shes left in every stage of her life.

Nobody saw that side of Willoughby better than her high school college counselor, Kerry Winiarski, who has been working with student-athletes as Newark Academys director of college counseling since the late-90s.

I remember thinking, How can this girl be 14? Winiarski recalled of meeting Willoughby as a freshman. Given that coaches were already contacting her at such a young age, she really had the maturity and poise to push back and say, Im not ready, yet. I want to be in high school, I want to do all these other things first and here are some of the things that I want to do.

Winiarski remembers how Willoughby immediately became heavily involved in the schools Equity Inclusion Team, which promotes diversity, equity and justice throughout the school community. She also participated in the UMOJA club, an African-American student awareness group, before eventually becoming the president.

Early on she went right into those hard topics, which is difficult for younger high school students, Winiarski said. When people met Jocelyn, you almost had to say, Oh, by the way, did you know she also plays basketball?

In the spring of her junior year, Willoughby was one of 16 students accepted out of a pool of 60 applicants for Newark Academys Peer Leadership Program, run by Winiarski. The program paired her with 12 to 15 ninth graders to meet with for one class period per day to help transition them to the upper part of the school that runs from sixth grade through 12th.

A few months in, Willoughby and Winiarski attended the People of Color Conference, hosted by the National Association of Independent Schools. It was just four months after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo., which sparked national outrage in 2014.

Jocelyn took that unit and she nailed it, she taught the peer leaders and then all the peer leaders were able to teach their classes, Winiarski said. Again, on the issues like that that matter so much to her, she is able to really teach them in a way that makes other people understand.

Weve redone our whole unit based on what Jocelyn taught us that year, teaching about privilege.

Coaches had told Winiarski that Willoughby would be one of the most highly recruited athletes out of Newark Academy. And so the longtime college counselor was prepared for a flood of coaches to come through the school.

What she wasnt prepared for was how particular Willoughby was about how she wanted the process to go. This was a business decision for Willoughby, one that she took so seriously that she made a point to meet with coaches outside of her home in hopes of keeping everything professional.

In every one of those visits, the questions she would ask had very little to do with basketball. Shed say, Tell me about the issues that matter in your community? and As a basketball player, to what extent can I be involved and have a voice in those issues in your community? Winiarski said. Coaches were sometimes, not taken aback, but some of them werent prepared to talk about those issues in the way that Jocelyn was ready to talk about them. It was fascinating for me to watch that.

Willoughby eventually committed to Virginia, where she completed her bachelors degree in global studies in three years before enrolling in UVas Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy for her masters last year.

Maintaining a 3.9 GPA through undergrad and a 3.6 through graduate school so far, Willoughby was showered with student-athlete accolades following the 2019-20 season. She was one of 15 players to be named an academic All-American and was the first player in UVa history to win the Kay Yow Award, which honors the ACC womens basketball scholar-athlete of the year.

Willoughby also became the first female athlete at Virginia to win scholar athlete of the year twice, all while finishing as the ACCs leading scorer for the 2019-20 season by averaging 19.2 points to go with 7.7 rebounds per game.

But long before the start of her senior season, Willoughby set a major goal for herself. One that was bigger than any of the collegiate awards she earned for both her talent and her academics.

Willoughby watched the 2019 WNBA Draft and made a note to herself in her iPhone calendar. She researched the projected date of the 2020 draft and decided that when that day rolled around, shed be expecting to hear her name called.

Just seeing some of the names that were being called, having competed against some of them or just been familiar with their games, thats when I said, I think I can definitely do this, she said.

That was a story that stuck with Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb, who says he vividly remembers when Willoughby told him of that goal she had set for herself.

She plays the way that we want to play the game, he said. When you look at her 3-point percentage, her ability to get to the free-throw line, I believe was in the 99th percentile in the nation, and shes just very efficient with her game. Shes a tough player, and then the most startling thing about her is when you hear her interview.

Kolb recalled how the coaching staff, which added a new head coach in January and new assistants April, was taken with Willoughby following its individual meetings with her as well. Kolb also said Willoughbys agent described her as an exceptional human being, and he couldnt have agreed more.

The 2020 WNBA Draft was Kolbs second as the Liberty general manager, so when he found himself talking about life in general with one of his potential draftees, he took note. And after speaking with her Virginia coaches, Kolb wasnt surprised to learn of her passion for community involvement.

Kolb said he and the rest of the Libertys new coaching staff have been striving to implement a new culture. Willoughby is the epitome of what they were looking for.

Coming to New York, theres more than just basketball here, theres a community and so much diversity, he said. Having our players out there and amongst the fans and touching all those areas, people that have a passion for things outside of the game really translates well here in New York.

Those extracurriculars and her passion, we thought matched off-court as well.

Willoughby will soon get her chance to make an impact on New York, like she has everywhere else shes been.

Using my education and this platform and resources long term to figure out from a policy level, structure level, what can be done, she said. Sometimes were throwing solutions at the issue but not really addressing the root cause and so I think its important to get an understanding from the ground, what are the real issues here?

The player may be working in Florida now, but the spirit is already in Brooklyn. Good for the player. Better for Brooklyn.

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Liberty rookie Jocelyn Willoughby looking to make impact on and off court - New York Post

Falwell on Liberty’s 2020 football season: Our schedule’s going to be totally different than what we’ve published – A Sea of Red

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Liberty President Jerry Falwell, Jr. was a guest on a local radio show on Thursday morning, and, in addition to other topics, Falwell discussed Libertys 2020 football schedule.

I dont know but I do know that our AD (Ian McCaw) has been watching whats happening with these other conferences, President Falwell said when asked if he thought Liberty would play Virginia Tech to open the season on Sept. 5 as scheduled.

Liberty has already lost its home opener against North Carolina A&T scheduled for Sept. 12, and there are rumors that the ACC will follow the Big Ten and PAC-12 to go to a conference-only format for the 2020 season. The Flames are scheduled to face three ACC opponents this season Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and NC State.

We think it might be an opportunity for Liberty, Falwell continued. Ive gotten calls from Independent University Presidents and all of us, if the conferences are only going to play each other, then we need to do the same thing.

As weve previously reported, the Flames have had conversations with the other FBS Independent schools about playing each other if other FBS conferences resort to conference only schedules. These conversations have been ongoing throughout much of the spring and summer.

We may end up playing some pretty big name teams otherwise we wouldnt have played because of what the conferences are doing by limiting their games to conference play, Falwell stated. We dont know yet, but we think its going to end up being a positive for Liberty. But who knows, between now and the fallyouve got to have somebody to play. You cant just decide, well, were going to have a football season. Other schools have to decide as well.

Liberty is currently scheduled to face fellow FBS Independents Connecticut on Oct. 31 on the road and a home date against UMass on Nov. 28. Games against the other Independents Notre Dame, Army, BYU, and New Mexico State are also possibilities. BYU has already lost 5 games with the Big Ten and PAC-12s decisions.

Notre Dame is more of a longshot as they are likely to be included as part of the ACCs conference-only schedule plan. Though, if the Irish wish to play a full 12 games, they would need to go outside of the ACC for a couple of matchups.

Were talking to Independent schools, theres a lot of big name Independent schools, Falwell stated. That could all fall apart, if different governors make rules or if the NCAA makes rules that dont exist right now, but the teams were talking to, if it all works out like we think it will, its going to be an exciting season.

When asked if he wanted to drop specific names, President Falwell said, Look up Independent NCAA schools, you will see right there who Im talking about.

While weve only seen one official change to Libertys 2020 football schedule so far, others are likely to follow.

Our schedules going to be totally different than what weve published, said Falwell.

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Falwell on Liberty's 2020 football season: Our schedule's going to be totally different than what we've published - A Sea of Red

Liberty Fire responds to camper that caught fire on Rt. 11 – WKBN.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

The incident happened between Tibbets-Wick and the Warren Market Street exits on Rt. 11

by: WKBN Staff

LIBERTY TWP., Ohio (WKBN) Around 11:15 a.m. Sunday morning, Liberty Fire responded to a camper that caught fire while driving down Route 11.

The incident happened between Tibbetts Wick and the Warren Market Street exits on Rt. 11.

According to Firefighter Cathy Macchione, they were bringing their camper to storage.

Another vehicle pulled up to alert the driver that their trailer was on fire. The driver of the camper unhooked it when they pulled over because of the fire so they wouldnt get the truck to catch fire.

The driver heard a humming noise before being told it was on fire.

The camper was carrying propane tanks.

According the Macchione, the driver chocked the wheels so they wouldnt roll.

The driver and one of the passengers told First News that they called 911 a total of five times before getting someone to respond to their call. Got transferred, put on hold and sent to voicemail before getting through.

The camper is a total loss.

Liberty Fire responds to camper that caught fire on Rt. 11 - WKBN.com

Healthcare Revenue Cycle Recovery After the COVID-19 Pandemic – RevCycleIntelligence.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

July 24, 2020 -Halfway through 2020, hospitals have been doing the unimaginable.

Patients have been asked to avoid healthcare facilities when possible, while more visits have been done via smartphones and laptops than in exam rooms. Meanwhile, some providers transformed hotels, sports arenas, and park spaces into makeshift hospitals, and others called on staff who once had schedules packed with surgeries and other procedures to sew cloth masks and gowns.

And these are just a few examples of how hospitals and other healthcare organizations have adapted to a world in which a new highly contagious and deadly virus exists.

The novel coronavirus, which started an outbreak in Wuhan, China at the start of the year, has now infected over 15.5 million people worldwide, claiming over 634,000 lives, according to data from Johns Hopkins University at the time of publication.

The pandemic has been an unprecedented public health crisis in the US, which currently leads the world in both number of confirmed cases and deaths. And while healthcare providers have risen and continue to rise to the challenge, their bottom lines and future financial stability have taken a massive hit as they uncover new ways to ensure safe access to care during a pandemic.

Canceled surgeries, personal protective equipment costs, workforce support, and other expenses have already cost hospitals $50.7 billion a month between March and June 2020, according to estimates from the American Hospital Association (AHA).

But that number could have been a lot higher without some quick thinking and swift actions.

Efforts to maintain operations during a pandemic, including telehealth implementation and compassionate patient billing, have helped the bottom line from bottoming out for some hospitals.

Still, hospitals are slated to lose at least another $120.5 billion in 2020 from pandemic-related expenses, updated projections from AHA show. And losses could get worse if COVID-19 cases surge again, the industry group warns.

Unlike the first wave of COVID-19, however, healthcare organizations may be more resilient. Stabilizing finances and leveraging capabilities developed during the pandemic, like telehealth and patient-friendly collections, providers can help their revenue cycles recover and adapt to a post-pandemic world.

Source: American Hospital Association

Rebuilding clinical capacity, especially for the small subset of procedures and services that drive revenue, is top of mind for hospital leaders coming off the heels of the initial wave of COVID-19.

Top inpatient procedures which account for 50 percent of total payments made to hospitals saw volume decreases of up to 99 percent during the early phases, according to data from Strata Decision Technology.

Instilling patient confidence in resuming these procedures and ensuring the capacity and supplies necessary for elective services is key to generating much-needed revenue during and after the pandemic.

But healthcare organizations also need to rebuild their financial capacity after such dramatic revenue losses.

The main message is play defense as much as you can and really focus on locking things down.

The main message is play defense as much as you can and really focus on locking things down, Eric Jordahl, a managing director at Kaufman Hall and practice leader of treasure and capital markets at the consulting firm, told RevCycleIntelligence back in March. Once you do that, then pay attention to where there might be opportunities.

Jordahls advice for healthcare finance leaders still rings true, especially since COVID-19 did result in a recession as predicted.

Playing defense by assessing liquidity and taking another look at investment plans for the rest of the year will be key to stabilizing the revenue cycle following volume and revenue declines. The strategy will require cost reductions across the organization, with some hospitals having to resort to layoffs, furloughs, and other workforce changes. Others may also have to cancel planned capital projects to ensure cash is still king during the recession.

However, these measures are designed to get providers back on their feet. Meanwhile, leveraging telehealth and other capabilities core to the hospitals COVID-19 response efforts can help to offset drastic spending reductions with revenue generation now and after the pandemic.

One of the biggest changes to healthcare delivery coming out of the pandemic is telehealth.

More than 9 million Medicare beneficiaries received care via telehealth during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a weekly increase in virtual visits from 13,000 pre-pandemic to nearly 1.7 million in April, CMS recently announced.

Similarly, telehealth utilization among the privately insured population skyrocketed as indicated by an 8,336 percent increase in telehealth claim lines observed by FAIR HEALTH from April 2019 to April 2020.

Telemedicine has been key, Phillip Coule, MD, MBA, vice president and chief medical officer at Augusta University Medical Center in Georgia, recently told RevCycleIntelligence. We were well-positioned with telemedicine to quickly pivot to telemedicine visits as a way of maintaining the continuity of care and continuing to support those patients and have the encounters that would have been unbillable otherwise and may not have been as high level of care.

Other hospitals like those part of Eisenhower Health in California had not really engaged with telehealth before, but quickly did to save continuity of care, patient engagement, and revenue cycle during the pandemic.

With the loosening from the federal restriction standpoint on telehealth guidelines in terms of the billing and other security privacy guidelines with patients, we did open that up, Ken Wheat, senior vice president and CFO of Eisenhower Health, stated in a recent Healthcare Strategies podcast. We basically had two methods. One was very simplistic, and that was a FaceTime approach to telehealth. We also used the Epic system through My Chart for telehealth outreach to patients.

Within a matter of a month, Eisenhower Health went from conducting virtually no telehealth visits to about 30 percent, or 20,000, of its visits through FaceTime and other virtual care offerings, Wheat stated.

Telehealth has been a lifeline for hospitals faced with declining volumes and subsequently revenues. But with communities starting to reopen in the face of declining COVID-19 numbers, in-person volumes are slowly creeping back up, begging the question: Will telehealth be just a pandemic resource?

According to hospital leaders, the answer to that is a resounding no.

COVID-19 has been the ultimate burning platform, said Coule. Physicians, nurses, administrators, finance people, everybody involved had an immediate pressing need to change the way we were doing business and delivering care. And everybody once they did it went, Gosh, why don't I do this more often? Suddenly, we couldn't meet the demand for expanding telemedicine quickly enough.

Telehealth capabilities have not only become a tool in the back pocket, but also a way to rebuild clinical capacity, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic.

But for systems like Eisenhower Health, permanent telehealth expansions will depend on payer policy.

Telehealth is a challenge financially, explained Wheat, because reimbursement rates do not support the level of investment needed to fully develop capabilities for Eisenhower Healths older population.

CMS and other payers increased telehealth reimbursement rates during the pandemic, oftentimes on par with payments for in-person care. CMS is currently assessing new rates after COVID-19 passes but providers are still unsure if payments will be enough to keep robust telehealth utilization going.

COVID-19 has been the ultimate burning platform.

In the meantime, hospitals plan to leverage telehealth to smooth out longstanding revenue cycle bumps made worse by the pandemic.

One of the things that we found incredibly beneficial with some of the work that we've done is making sure that we are leveraging pre-work for clinic visits, Coule stated, referencing Augusta University Medical Centers use of telehealth to for COVID-19 screening when lab capacity was nearing its limit. For registration, for example, all of that work can be done prior to the visit to make the visit encounter as smooth and efficient as possible.

The medical center has also partnered with Jvion to use artificial intelligence and data analytics to create back-to-work assessments to screen employees.

Wheat also sees a happy home for telehealth services in a post-pandemic world on the front-end of the revenue cycle.

Long term, I do see us developing patient self-scheduling in the health system over the next few years, and at that point in time, we'll have the technology on the front end to make patient health assessments as to what might be appropriate for a telehealth visit and provide some options for patient choice for telehealth versus an in-person visit, Wheat explained. So, we're certainly looking to advance our digital profile and always looking for new ways to connect with our patients.

Connecting with patients is starting to look different as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to place the entire economy in a recession.

According to the Urban Institute, approximately 2.9 million individuals will become uninsured by the end of 2020 because of job losses related to the pandemic. Millions more will also lose employer-sponsored coverage, the non-profit think tank projected, resulting in more Medicaid beneficiaries.

This shift in coverage will create dramatic changes in payer mix and consequently, patient billing tactics.

One of the things that we've done recently and put a lot of effort into is reevaluating our uninsured discount policy, as well as our charity care and sliding fee scale, Ted Syverson, the vice president of revenue cycle at South Dakota-based Monument Health, recently said in a RevCycleIntelligence interview. We are making sure that those are complementary to the financial conditions that patients can encounter, and that people across our organization have a better general understanding of the impact of those and their availability.

Healthcare organizations have placed greater emphasis on self-pay patient accounts since the rising popularity of high-deductible health plans. But the COVID-19 pandemic is prompting hospital leaders to lean more on their self-pay patient billing strategies to ensure complete, timely payment during the recession.

Had [payment plans] not been in place before this, we probably would have struggled more.

At Floyd Medical Center, that means working more closely with its patient financing partner.

Since 2017, the Georgia-based health system has partnered with CarePayment to implement patient payment plans. Patients have had the option at registration to sign on to a payment plan for the upcoming visit or revenue cycle staff would send an account to the vendor if they have not heard from a patient after two billing statements.

The payment plan option had been very successful at improving patient collections, according to the health systems vice president of revenue cycle, Rick Childs. But it has been especially crucial for the systems financial well-being during the pandemic.

Had it not been in place before this, we probably would have struggled more, said Childs.

Questions regarding payments flooded Floyd Medical Centers call lines once patients started to learn they had been furloughed and would be without income for the next couple of months, Childs explained.

Being able to work with something that was already set up and was very responsive to the need of the patient has really been a benefit, Childs said.

And the patient payment plans will be just as crucial to the health system as communities start to get back to some semblance of normal.

I foresee in the future, as people start getting those services that they have put off and getting back to work, they're going to be behind on bills. They're going to need that flexibility of a payment plan, stated Childs.

Whether you loathe the term new normal or not, there is no question that the healthcare system and the revenue cycle will not be quite the same after the pandemic ends. COVID-19 has upended the way providers deliver safe, effective care and how they collect revenue for it.

But the pandemic is also likely to bring about what experts at Manatt Health have identified as the next-generation distributed, highly interconnected, community engaged and extensively digital system of care.

According to the firms recent report Emergence From COVID-19: Imperatives for Health System Leaders, this system of care builds on the capabilities developed during the pandemic like telehealth and community partnerships to help healthcare organizations withstand future crises, as well as align operations with new priorities and demands emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the idea of a connected, engaged, and digital system isnt necessarily new.

Its moving there because healthcare is way behind. It should have been there, and patients want it. The technology hasnt necessarily caught up, but it is now, said Brenda Pawlak, one of the reports authors and managing director of Manatt Health.

Three phases of COVID-19 emergence

With telehealth implementation, for example, healthcare organizations have made more progress in the first few weeks of the pandemic compared to the last couple of years. But organizations will need to transition their telehealth capabilities from crisis mode to develop and scale new digitally-enabled care models, especially since providers agree telehealth is here to stay.

Getting that balance of telemedicine and in-office visits right is going to be important because youve got a lot of patients who you can stay connected with and like the convenience of telemedicine. A lot of people are scared still, and the world is tentatively opening up, so you need to be able to adequately support your patients in a few different swimming lanes, Pawlak explained.

In the same vein, Pawlak and colleagues advise health system leaders to build out ambulatory and home-based care capabilities to complement hospital without walls efforts during the pandemic.

Health systems should seize this moment to rethink their care delivery models by developing and expanding clinical services on a distributed basis and in the home. In doing so, health systems should challenge themselves to seamlessly integrate these services into existing facility-based service portfolios to ensure that the resulting system of care is greater than its component parts, Pawlak et al. wrote in the report.

This next-generation system of care delivery will be key to financial stability post-pandemic. However, policy and regulation, particularly around reimbursement, will be crucial to operationalize a healthcare system that aligns with new patient demands.

An ongoing conversation about payment reform is going to be important, Pawlak stated.

When you have an encounter-based payment model that strongly favors procedures, when you need complex care in the inpatient setting, well the system, from a payment perspective, isn't flexible enough, Pawlak explained. As we go forward, you don't want the whole health system to be contingent on whether you're doing a whole bunch of expensive, inpatient procedures. We want to foster minimally invasive, outpatient interventions, which is better for everybody. We've all known the balance has been wrong for a while, but it really brings it to the forefront.

Preliminary research has already shown that providers engaging in alternatives to encounter-based payments had a head start with managing the COVID-19 surge by leveraging triage call centers, remote patient monitoring, and population health data management more than their peers in the more traditional model.

Anecdotally, providers in value-based contracts have also said they were able to more quickly pivot operations at the start of the pandemic by relying on a more predictable and flexible source of revenue in the face of falling volumes.

Greater predictability is very aligned with value-based care, and moving away from encounter-based or transactional care will actually give greater accountability to physicians managing panels and populations, explained Sanjay Doddamani, MD, chief physician executive and COO at Southwestern Health Resources.

An ongoing conversation about payment reform is going to be important.

But the next generation healthcare delivery system does not need to rely on value-based contracting, Pawlak maintained.

I would say broader payment reform because there is a preconceived notion that value-based payment or contracting means one swimming lane and it's really not, Pawlak stated. It's that broader universe of organizing payment around care management support services, population health services, and delivering care in the right way to the patient at the right time.

Getting healthcare right the right care at the right time in the right setting has been a goal for many providers for the last decade, if not longer. Many would argue that most providers have yet to achieve this type of care, but COVID-19 is putting pressure on healthcare organizations.

The healthcare system was stretched thin from the pandemic and the road to revenue cycle recovery will be a long one. Telehealth, patient-friendly collections, and a focus on financial resiliency can be the shot in the arm healthcare organizations need to overcome the financial challenges of COVID-19 and other possible waves or crises.

Link:

Healthcare Revenue Cycle Recovery After the COVID-19 Pandemic - RevCycleIntelligence.com

Legislators and healthcare orgs rally in favor of bipartisan telehealth bill – Healthcare IT News

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Several healthcare organizations and elected officials came together on Thursday in support of legislation safeguarding access to telehealth after the pandemic.

"We have seen the positive impact of telehealth across the nation," said Jen Covich Bordenick, CEO at eHealth Initiative.

The temporary waivers issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said Bordenick, have allowed individuals suffering from COVID symptoms to get virtual treatment. But the waivers have fulfilled another important function: "It's allowed individuals to manage their non-COVID treatment," such as cancer treatment, mental health care anddiabetes management.

HIMSS20 Digital

"The issue is that these waivers are temporary," Bordenick explained. "All of that access is at risk of disappearing" if action isn't taken now.

This past week, a bipartisan group of House representatives all of whom were present on the call introduced the Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act.

The legislation would eliminate most geographic and originating site restrictions on the use of telehealth in Medicare; authorize the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service to continue reimbursement for telehealth for 90 days beyond the end of the public health emergency; and enable the HHS to expand telehealth in Medicare during all future emergencies and disasters; among other provisions.

"It's a pretty exciting time for telehealth," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif. "There's a lot of enthusiasm for doing this."

"Telehealth has proven vital to supporting the continuity of care," agreed Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.

Legislators and supporters pointed to the need to expand internet access around the country, with some saying there could be no expansion of telehealth without it.

"Telehealth must be accessible to everyone," said Thompson. "Right now, it isn't We can't allow telehealth to leave anyone behind."

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., said more data is also needed including from providers about the costs of telehealth.

Without that kind of information, he said, "we're actually sort of groping in the dark."

American Telemedicine Association CEO Ann Mond Johnson called the originating and geographic site requirements, which have historically restricted eligible telehealth areas for reimbursement, "arbitrary barriers."

As she noted, CMS has acknowledged that "urban beneficiaries experience barriers to care, and telehealth can help overcome these barriers for both urban and rural patients."

"Telehealth is not new. We know telehealth can help transform our health care system," she added, pointing to support from hundreds of stakeholders in favor of safeguarding telehealth access.

Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS (Healthcare IT News' parent organization) agreed that access to care is both a "rural and urban challenge."

A 20-minute visit, from a clinician's perspective, can, for some patients, be an "all-day affair," he pointed out whether that's because they had to drive for two hours across the desert or sit in traffic on a city bus.

Wolf also pointed out that the recent bloom in telehealth is rooted, in part, in the government's electronic health record incentive program and meaningful use.

"I cannot even imagine what a physician would do if they had to talk to a patient on the phone and they didn't have an electronic medical record to pull up the information," Wolf said.

The looming physician shortage, will require providers to think outside the box in terms of what care looks like making telehealth even more important, including after the pandemic, said attendees.

Yet some providers are still hesitant to make infrastructure investmentsbecause of the uncertainty of the current moment, they noted.

Any new policies must do more than simply extend temporary waivers, said Krista Drobac, partner at Sirona Strategies.

"Why are you [as a provider] going to invest in changing workflow, educating patients on the value of telehealth, doing all that work, not knowing if this is going to end in 2021?" she said.

She also pointed out that many state governments have also been in limbo waiting for the federal government to take action.

"We need to work together," said Drobac. "We have an unprecedented opportunity to go big."

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.Twitter: @kjercichHealthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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Legislators and healthcare orgs rally in favor of bipartisan telehealth bill - Healthcare IT News

Fearful of virus, business denies health care worker pedicure in Durango – The Durango Herald

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

A business refusal to serve people based on their race, political beliefs, religion and gender affiliation is considered strictly off limits even illegal but what about the denial of service to medical professionals and first responders who have had recent contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19?

Dayle Morningstar Laird was shocked to learn she would not be given her scheduled pedicure Wednesday afternoon at Spaaah Shop & Day Spa in Durango after she answered the spas questionnaire saying she had recent contacts with people who have tested positive for the pathogen.

Morningstar Laird, a paramedic based in Pagosa Springs with the Upper San Juan Basin Health District, fairly frequently transports COVID-19 patients from Pagosa Springs to Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango.

Antoinette Whidden, co-owner of the Spaaah Shop, said denial of service to people who have had recent contact with people testing positive for COVID-19 was and remains the proper procedure for her employees to follow. She said her employees denial of service to Morningstar Laird or anyone with recent contact with COVID-19-positive patients is common sense.

As you can understand, for a spa, where our services are up close and personal, you cant take chances. ... I cant expose my employees. Its just common sense, she said. If we were to expose our employees, then we would be required to shut down. It doesnt matter if theyre a paramedic, or if theyre a school teacher, or if theyre a housewife or whatever they are it doesnt matter. If they answer yes to that question, then it is our job, its our responsibility to make sure that our customers in the back as well as our employees are not exposed. I mean, it sucks. I would love to be able to give them a service. But, you know, in this day and age, you just cant. Youve got to be careful.

Claire Ninde, director of communications with San Juan Basin Public Health, said the state requires personal service businesses to screen customers for COVID-19 symptoms when receiving a high-contact service like a massage, haircut or spa treatment, but they dont have to screen for past exposures.

Businesses must follow required state guidance to protect their employees and customers according to their industry standards. SJBPH has not added to these requirements or provided other detailed recommendations, aside from the self-certification requirement for establishments in La Plata County, Ninde said in an email to The Durango Herald.

Guidelines for personal service providers to follow while operating in a COVID-19 environment are spelled out on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environments website, she said.

EMTs and other health care providers use elevated protective strategies and equipment when interacting with potential or confirmed COVID-19 patients, and SJBPH does not consider them exposed or close contacts as long as these procedures are followed, Ninde said.

SJBPH, she said, realizes complex challenges faced by businesses and customers as they navigate new situations posed by COVID-19.

We acknowledge that most businesses are doing their best to protect the health of both their employees and customers. This includes self-certification using our online infection-control checklist and continually practicing things like physical distancing, face covering and elevated sanitization, she said. We also know that most customers and even patrons are acting in a responsible way by monitoring their own symptoms, wearing face coverings and following businesses requirements.

SJBPHs recommendation to personal service businesses like the Spaaah Shop, Ninde said, would be that they follow state guidance which is specifically: conduct symptoms check for all customers of services with close personal contact and decline to provide services to anyone who has symptoms.

Morningstar Laird said paramedics with Upper San Juan Basin Health are required to wear personal protective equipment from head to toe. After transport she said, paramedics clean like crazy, are required to shower and the ambulance is flooded with ultraviolet light to disinfect the vehicle all procedures she believes any reasonable person would take into account before denying service to a paramedic.

The precautions we take at work are very, very extreme, so Im not worried about giving it to other people, she said. But I filled out the form correctly, and before I even filled out the rest of the questionnaire, she said, You have been in contact. And I said, Well, yes, Im a paramedic. And she started yelling at me and told me that I had to get out.

Wade Whidden, co-owner of the Spaaah Shop, said if the business is responsible for a confirmed case of COVID-19 it will be required to close for 14 days, and the business is put in a tough place because it looks bad if the spa is overly cautious by turning away clients or if it is identified as a business responsible for a COVID-19 transmission.

What would you suggest we do? he said. Do you think we want to turn people away that have exposure to COVID? Our business is down 50% from last year. The last thing we want to do is turn anybody away for a service. But we cannot put our employees at risk. We cant put our back staff at risk. I know its a tough situation. I know its brutal to have to turn anybody away.

Charles Spence, an attorney and a partner in the Durango firm Maynes, Bradford, Shipps and Sheftel, said litigation for small businesses based on COVID-19 incidents is such a recent development, it is too early to say whether the Whiddens are acting too excessively in their denial of service to Morningstar Laird.

Several class-action lawsuits have been filed, but they have yet to be adjudicated, he said.

The liability exposure is somewhat unclear at this point, he said. I dont think weve seen the true fallout from all of that yet. And its going to be pretty dire in some cases. Theyre trying to protect themselves from these possible claims. It gets difficult, and I dont know if theres a clear answer right now.

parmijo@durangoherald.com

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Fearful of virus, business denies health care worker pedicure in Durango - The Durango Herald

Rhode Island encouraging CT residents not to visit beaches this weekend – WFSB

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

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Rhode Island encouraging CT residents not to visit beaches this weekend - WFSB

Gloucester is reopening public beach parking lots this weekend at a reduced capacity – Boston.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Day trippers heading to Gloucester beaches this weekend can once again park at the citys beach lots, which are reopening in a limited manner.

Last weekend, the city closed the parking lots at Stage Fort Park, Good Harbor Beach,and Wingaersheek Beach to non-residents after complaints of excessive traffic, illegal parking, and littering. City officials were also concerned about social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday and Sunday, the beach lots will welcome Gloucester residents and a limited number of non-residents, at a reduced capacity, according to a city press release. Stage Fort Park will also be open to the public, with the Visitors Center welcoming guests Thursday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Last weekend when the parking lots were closed to non-residents, the beaches had far less traffic, Mayor Romeo Theken said in a press release. The police still issued 153 parking violations and towed five cars, according to the release. Nearly three dozen streets were temporarily classified as resident parking only to reduce traffic, according to the city, which said it will classify more streets near the beach as such to limit non-resident street parking.

The city said it will closely monitor parking violations for the rest of the summer.

Gloucester is also stepping up police patrols on its beaches, and beach rangers will assist city staff by monitoring safety guidelines and limiting capacity at Stage Fort Park and Gloucester beaches to allow for proper social distancing.

Residents with either a 2019 or 2020 beach sticker or a car registration and license with a Gloucester address can continue parking in the lots. Those who arent residents of Gloucester will be required to pay daily parking rates. Beach parking lots usually fill up by 9 a.m. on weekends, noted the city, but will reopen in the afternoon.

If our beaches become overwhelmed or if capacity is reduced because of tides, we may have to limit access again in the future, Theken said.

For the remainder of the summer, beachgoers will find announcements about weekend parking restrictions posted on Wednesdays, according to the city, and can go to the Gloucester beaches Facebook pagefor information.

Please be respectful when visiting our City and follow the rules in place, Theken said in a statement. The safety of City residents, employees and guests is our priority. COVID-19 doesnt take a summer vacation, and we must all continue to do our part to keep each other safe. Please wear a face covering in public, maintain social distancing, wash and sanitize your hands often and stay home if youre sick.

Long Beach liquor store clerk killed in hit-and-run crash while trying to stop thief: Police – KTLA Los Angeles

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

by: Kristina Bravo, Carlos Saucedo, with reporting by Alexis Lewis

A liquor store employee who was trying to stop a thief was fatally struck by the suspect in Long Beach Thursday night, authorities said.

Officers responded to a call about a crash involving a pedestrian near Anaheim Street and Magnolia Avenue around 10:30 p.m., according to the Long Beach Police Department.

Police arrived at the scene to find a man in his 50s on the eastbound lanes of Anaheim Street, but with the suspects vehicle gone, the department said.

According to a preliminary investigation, the clerk had tried to stop a thief and climbed the hood of his sedan.

The victim remained on the vehicle as the thief drove for about three blocks, before the driver maneuvered to get the clerk off the car, police said.

The victim fell onto the eastbound side of Anaheim Street.

Police earlier said a utility van that subsequently came by fatally struck the victim, but now investigators believe the vans driver had actually stopped to help the man and that he died from injuries sustained when he was thrown off the suspects hood.

Coroners officials will determine an officials cause of death.

The Long Beach Fire Department responded to the location and tried to save the mans life but ultimately pronounced him dead at the scene.

The county coroner has yet to notify his next of kin, the Police Department said.

Authorities described the thief as a black man whos around 40 years old and 5 feet, 7 inches tall. He has a skinny build, short, dark hair and a mustache, and he was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, police said. Official only described his vehicle as a four-door silver sedan.

Detectives were canvassing the area for any video that might have captured the incident, Benson told KTLA.

Anyone with information can call Detective Kelsey Myers or Detective Shawn Loughlin at 562-570-7355.Those who wish to remain anonymous can submit tips to L.A. Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-8477, using the P3 Tips app or visiting lacrimestoppers.org.

Officials provided no further details about the case.

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Long Beach liquor store clerk killed in hit-and-run crash while trying to stop thief: Police - KTLA Los Angeles

Wondering what it’s like to vacation at the beach during the pandemic? Here’s my experience – WRAL.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

If you have been thinking about a beach vacation this summer and want to know what to expect while in the middle of this pandemic, here is my experience at Ocean Isle Beach, NC in late July 2020.

Honestly, I was hesitant to venture out right now, but after speaking with the hotel office about their safety precautions, I felt much better about being away from home for a couple days.

We spent two nights at the Ocean Isle Inn. Over the last 10 years, I have stayed at this hotel many times and we have always enjoyed it. Thankfully, even during a pandemic, this trip was no exception.

Ocean Isle Beach is about 2 hours and 35 minutes from Raleigh. It's an easy drive and most of the trip is spent on I-40 East and 140 (which you get on just before you get to Wilmington, NC).

Just after you cross over the Intercoastal Waterway, you'll find the lovely little town of Ocean Isle Beach. See more about the history of this small community at oceanislebeach.com.

I have found this beach to be much less crowded than the larger beaches in the bigger towns nearby. It's also very family friendly. You'll find more ice cream places, restaurants and gift shops than bars. There is also a little putt-putt place in the middle of town.

The hotel has 3 floors. The first floor is for parking and the office. The 2nd and 3rd floors are guest rooms. There is an elevator available. We took the stairs the whole time and found it easy to socially distance because there are multiple stairways to each section of the hotel.

Check-in is anytime after 3 and check-out is by 11 am. Parking is free and we have not had an issue finding a space, although they do fill up sometimes. There is parking right across the street if that happens, though.

The hotel is smoke-free and pets are not allowed.

They offer a free continental breakfast every morning from 7 am to 10 am. I'll share more about the breakfast and how things have changed because of COVID-19 below.

This hotel is definitely not new, but it is clean and has been updated. I also love that the rooms have tile floors, which are much easier to keep clean than carpeted floors at the beach.

At this time of this article, ocean view rooms in early August 2020 on a weekday start at approx. $189 per night.

Check out the video below that I took from the gazebo at the hotel. You can see how beautiful the view is from the hotel and you can also see that the beach really is not crowded. The video also shows the outdoor hotel pool and the walkway to the beach. We walked on the beach multiple times a day and we were able to social distance with very little trouble, especially earlier in the morning and in the evenings.

When we arrived at the hotel, we found the sign below on the office door when we went to check in. The front desk also had plexiglass barriers between the employees and guests.

We were told that housekeeping would not be entering our room while we were staying there and if we needed any additional toiletries or towels that we would pick them up at the front desk. They even had a bucket for guests to put the pen they used after they signed the check-in paperwork. The sign on the bucket indicated that the pens would be cleaned before they were used again.

When we got to the room, I thoroughly wiped down everything I could with Clorox bleach spray cleaner I brought from home. I have no idea if I needed to do that extra level of cleaning, but it made me feel better and allowed me to relax a little more in the room.

Did I remember to take any photos of the inside of the room? No. No, I did not.

But, you can see what the rooms and the whole hotel look like on the Ocean Isle Inn website.

Each room has a mini fridge, microwave and coffee/tea/hot water maker. The rooms facing the ocean also have a porch with 2 chairs and a little side table. We spent a lot of time just sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch watching and listening to the ocean. We also ate all of our meals there since we got take out from local restaurants for lunch and dinner both days we were at the hotel.

I brought a book to read but never even cracked it open because it was so peaceful and relaxing to just sit and watch the ocean and the many birds that flew by!

We had a room on the top floor. If you decide to stay here at any point, I recommend the rooms at the far end of the hotel on the top floor with the ocean view. You won't hear the pool chatter as much if you are at the far end of the hotel. The view is better on the top floor than the lower floor (although those views are still beautiful).

The hotel is right on the beach and there is a nice walkway from the pool to the beach (that you can see in the video above). You'll also find a rinse station on the walkway so after hanging out at the beach, you can rinse off outside in your swimsuit to get a lot of the sand off of you.

Next to the pool is a lovely little gazebo with a great view of the beach.

The sunsets are gorgeous and the beach is very quiet at night.

There were even some folks on the beach from a turtle rescue organization monitoring a nest near the hotel. They were waiting for the little ones to hatch so they could guide them to the water without getting hurt.

The hotel offers a complimentary breakfast each morning and everything is now grab and go. Guests cannot eat in the breakfast room at this time. They did a great job of making sure guests were social distancing in the breakfast room and the very nice woman responsible for managing the breakfast area was wearing a mask each morning when we went to get our meal.

We took our food back to the room each day and enjoyed our meal on the deck overlooking the ocean. As I mentioned above, each room comes with a microwave oven and a coffee maker with coffee and tea in the room.

Here you can see the pre-packaged, single serve items they offered for the free breakfast including granola bars and cereal cups that you just pour the milk right in to so you don't need a separate bowl. They had a mix of sugary cereals and somewhat healthier options like Raisin Bran.

They also had oatmeal packets, muffins and fruit cups.

There were a number of breakfast sandwiches available that can be heated in the microwave in the hotel room.

Yogurt, milk, juice, peanut butter and jelly were also among the offerings.

We brought some additional proteins including hardboiled eggs and nuts because we expected the breakfast foods would be heavy on the carb side.

Since we were only there for 2 days and it was just the two of us, we decided to get take out for lunch and dinner (which only included 1 lunch and 2 dinners). The day we checked out, we were back home for lunch since it is only a 2.5 hour drive.

If you are looking for a more frugal option to dining out, especially if you are going to be there for many days or you have a big group to feed, the mini fridge in the room can store your cold foods and you can use the microwave to heat up meals. The fridge isn't very big so you may want to bring a cooler, as well. Our mini fridge did not have a freezer at the top, as I have seen at some hotels. They do have an ice machine on-site at the hotel.

In addition, there are Publix and Lowes Foods grocery stores 2.5 miles from the hotel, if you need to pick up any grocery items or non-food essentials.

Once of the best things about the Ocean Isle Inn is that it is in walking distance to most of the restaurants, shops and putt-putt golf which are all only .3 to .5 miles from the hotel. We parked the car the first afternoon we arrived and didn't move it again until 2 days later when we were headed home.

The first night we ordered take out from Jinks Creek Waterfront Grille. They had a separate entrance for take out, they were all wearing masks and the food was delicious. I had a crab cake, asparagus and cole slaw and it was all very tasty.

The next day for lunch, we got sandwiches from a great little place that I just discovered on this trip. Drift Coffee is a small local business with 3 cafes on the NC coast including 2 in Wilmington and 1 in Ocean Isle Beach. They have coffee, tea, sandwiches, pastries, fruit smoothies, brunch and more.

They required a mask to enter and all the employees had on masks. They do have outdoor seating available, but we took our sandwiches and drinks back to the room to enjoy on the porch with the fabulous ocean view. In addition to trying the egg, avocado and cheese sandwich on multi-grain bread, I also had the iced chai tea and iced coffee with caramel (the next morning). Everything was so good that a few hours later, we went back for fruit smoothies, which were also delicious! I definitely recommend the strawberry and banana smoothie!

Finally, for dinner the last night, we got take-out from Pelican's Perch Bar & Grill. We ordered at the restaurant, because they do not take call in orders. We were told it would be about 45 minutes before the food was ready. There was basically no social distancing going on while we were there and I do not think I saw anyone, employees or customers, wearing masks.

While the food was being made, we went to the next building over and enjoyed a beer at the Coastal Wine Room, a wonderful locally owned business. It is adjacent to Drift Coffee. We sat outside at a table and there was nobody else outside or anywhere near us. The tables were spread far apart to easily allow for social distancing. The owner chatted with us and was very friendly. He, and all the employees, wore masks and you had to have a mask to go in to the business.

When we are in Ocean Isle Beach again, we will plan to have a full meal there including small plates and wine. I was very impressed with the selection on the menu and the safety precautions they took.

We also enjoyed Hershey's ice cream from Breakers Pizza, Grill and Arcade. We had planned to go to the big ice cream place in town but it was packed with customers and there was no social distancing going on and very few face masks to be found. We felt much more comfortable at Breakers.

During past visits, we have dined at Sharky's Restaurant and Ocean Isle Fish Company but they are not really in walking distance from the hotel for to-go meals so we decided not to go there this time.

All in all, we had a very nice time. Many places made an effort to provide a safer environment for customers and we were able to find plenty of options where we felt relatively comfortable.

Am I ready to head back out on vacation again this summer? I don't think so.

Do I regret going in the first place? Not yet, but I guess we'll know in about 2 weeks.

We all have our own individual comfort level regarding this virus and going in public.

I am now more comfortable going to the grocery store during less busy times (very early morning or later at night) than I was in April. Some people are still not going in any places and some people are going everywhere with no hesitation.

If you are very anxious about any exposure at all to people not wearing masks, a beach vacation may not be the best option for you at this time.

If you are being cautious, but are still willing to venture out, I think Ocean Isle Beach is probably one of the better beaches you can go to regarding social distancing and safety because it isn't very crowded and there are plenty of good restaurants offering take-out and outside seating. We did not see any restaurants offering delivery.

I hope that helps to give you an idea of what it is like to vacation at Ocean Isle Beach this summer. I can say that I very much look forward to staying at the Ocean Isle Inn again next summer!

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Wondering what it's like to vacation at the beach during the pandemic? Here's my experience - WRAL.com

Huntington Beach is a symbol of mask resistance – Los Angeles Times

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

As Brad Colburn whisked his metal detector over the tan sands of Huntington Beach, a rejection of Orange Countys spiking coronavirus infection rates surfaced.

I dont believe it. I dont believe the rates are rising, Colburn said. Theyre inflated. Its another way of shutting everything down of the Democrats trying to get what they want.

For the record:

10:47 AM, Jul. 22, 2020In an earlier version of this article, YouTubers/comedians Tom Allen and John Parr were identified by their pseudonyms, Chad Kroeger and JT Parr, respectively.

The 58-year-old Huntington Beach resident said he has yet to wear a mask outside of shopping. Standing by a beach path as cyclists and in-line skaters zoomed by, he offered his own alternative policy to restrictive coronavirus health orders.

If you dont want to go outside, dont go outside, Colburn said.

More than any other place in California, Huntington Beach has come to symbolize resistance to many of the coronavirus safety rules government officials have imposed in recent months. Its not as though no one in the city is wearing masks and social distancing.

But many who oppose mandatory mask rules and other measures like closing beaches have been outspoken here, and used the tourist mecca as a platform for their views. In May, angry demonstrators converged a block away at the now mostly quiet Huntington Beach Pier to protest the state-ordered shutdown of local businesses.

Since then, many roaming through the citys downtown area are proudly not wearing masks. And the stance has even inspired a parody video that went viral on social media in recent weeks.

Fred Smoller, a professor of political science at nearby Chapman University, described Huntington Beach as a conservative stronghold and said that the attitudes about the coronavirus there reflect larger political divides.

Their ideology is a lens through which they are viewing the coronavirus, Smoller said. I would imagine many people there see it as a hoax, which the president has encouraged them to do in order to up his chance of reelection. Im sure theres quite a bit of animus toward the governor. Theyre viewing [state restrictions] as further evidence of the deep state and of an intrusive government.

Huntington Beach Mayor Lyn Semeta said the city would continue its educational efforts to keep residents safe. Masks, she said in an email statement to The Times, are critical in keeping people healthy and helping our businesses operate safely in the limited capacity they are able to.

When asked about opposition to COVID-19 restrictions in Huntington Beach, Semeta said she was aware people around the state are uncomfortable with the use of face coverings.

I can certainly understand that sentiment. However, while there is still much we are learning about this virus, health experts have come out strongly recommending face coverings as an effective measure that helps stop the spread of COVID-19, Semeta said, urging residents to wear them.

The number of Orange County coronavirus cases has surged in recent weeks, with more than 31,000 confirmed cases and more than 500 deaths. The number of hospitalizations has tripled in the last two months and overall infections have grown so dramatically that the county is now second in the state to Los Angeles County.

There is widespread acceptance that masks play a key role in slowing the spread of the coronavirus, and their widespread use in other countries is credited with slowing infections dramatically.

But skepticism abounds over the seriousness of the outbreak.

Hundreds gather this month for the weekly Saturate OC worship event in Huntington Beach.

(Raul Roa / Daily Pilot)

The Orange County Board of Education voted last week to approve recommendations for reopening schools that did not include mandatory use of masks or increased social distancing in classrooms. The board, however, did leave reopening plans up to individual school districts.

But those concerns became moot Friday when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order that would not allow most California schools to reopen when the academic year begins, shifting instead toward full-time remote learning in response to the summer surge in coronavirus cases.

In a viral video thats generated more than 1.5 million views since last week, YouTubers Tom Allen and John Parr offered Huntington Beach residents face coverings.

Allen and Parr, who use the pseudonyms Chad Kroeger and JT Parr, respectively, are West Hollywood-based comedians who run a web series called Chad Goes Deep. Previously, they advocated for house parties during an L.A. City Council meeting.

No one here has a mask, but we brought our own supply to fix the problem, Allen said at the beginning of the video, which showed mostly spiteful reactions to the offering. The two quickly learned the dearth of face coverings didnt stem from need.

We found out that its not really a shortage, people just kinda think they suck, Allen told The Times. Parr said Huntington Beach seemed relatively safe during their visit in early July, when the duo passed out all 20 packs of masks they brought. The mask promotion angered some residents, however.

Some dudes tried to fight us, which was scary, Parr said.

Hauling an orange surfboard toward Huntington Beachs famous waves last Thursday afternoon, one young man, face covered in drying sunscreen, offered his own appraisal of masks.

Wack. Never wear it, said the man, who declined to give his name as he got to the ocean.

It hasnt affected me at all, besides that I cant go to a bar and have a drink and really kick it with the boys, the man said. He called the restrictions pretty lame but acknowledged the deadliness of the gnarly coronavirus.

After hailing a beach path biker who had dropped a wallet, Sophia Darr shared her thoughts on the pandemic.

Im not afraid of it. I do think its overplayed. I think the media made it something it shouldnt be, Darr, 15, said. She wears a mask covered in pink peaches when she delivers food to the hungry, but said she didnt feel like she typically needs to wear one.

I wear it to respect the other people around me. Personally, I dont really care, Darr said. Before Newsoms order was issued, she said she wouldnt wear a face covering when returning to Huntington Beach High School for her junior year. She supports some of the loosened restrictions, like being able to eat outside, she said.

On the pier, Enoc Step fished for whatever bites, which on this day was Spanish mackerel and sardines. A home health nurse, he said he follows professional protocol but wants to see less government-mandated health policy and more individual accountability.

If I get it, I get it, Step, 52, said of the virus. Im doing the best I can: wash your hands, dont touch your face, put on a mask in an enclosed room and stay away from people.

He said hes seen a sharp reduction in work over the last few months, which he related to shutdowns he found unnecessary.

People are tired of it. People must be given responsibility for their own actions, said Step, a Fullerton resident. Newsom needs to stop being a monarch. The government should focus on information sharing, he said.

How can you fight something that you have no control over, he said.

Eleanor Dunais mask was fixed to her wrist as she passed Main Streets now outdoor-only restaurants on her way home from the post office. She said she wears the face covering in enclosed spaces but not outside where theres a beach breeze.

I think its kind of off-the-cuff, Dunai, 57, said of the states COVID restrictions. She thinks gyms shouldnt have opened before salons, which she feels safer in. Both gyms and salons have shut down again.

It seems like the smallest fraction of the population are getting their way, not the majority, she said. Polling shows a slight majority of Californians believe the state reopened too quickly, and more than three-quarters of the population are concerned they or their family members will contract COVID-19. She said she worries, too, but thinks strict health orders no longer make sense.

If we continue to hide and be totally isolated, were dragging it out, Dunai said. People need to take responsibility for their own actions.

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Huntington Beach is a symbol of mask resistance - Los Angeles Times

Beach and Boating forecast: July 23, 2020 – WOODTV.com

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Its going to be yet another hot and humid weekend in West Michigan. The beaches will be a popular place to be as people search for ways to escape the heat.

There were rough conditions on Lake Michigan last weekend but this weekend should be calmer. Sunday will likely be the day with the roughest water.

Most buoys are recording surface water temperatures in the 70s and the average surface water temperature on Lake Michigan remains a few degrees warmer than normal.

Friday will be an all-around pleasant day. Temperatures will be in the mid-70s by Lake Michigan, and mid-80s inland. Winds will be from the northwest around 10 knots by the lake. Plenty of sunshine is expected through the day. Waves should be less than 1 foot.

The heat and humidity will start to surge back in for Saturday and Sunday. Inland temperatures on Sunday should end up around 90 and temperatures at the lakeshore will be in the upper 70s to around 80. Mostly sunny conditions are expected through the day. Winds will come from the south at 10 to 15 knots, and waves will build to around 1 to 2 feet. The waves could be slightly higher for beaches north of Grand Haven.

The largest waves are expected on Sunday. Winds will come from the southwest at 15 to 20 mph, and waves will be around 3 to 5 feet. Much of the day will be dry and partly sunny, though there will be a chance of a few showers or thunderstorms during the late afternoon and evening. South-facing beaches will be the most susceptible to strong currents.

TheLake Michigan Beach and Boating forecastis sponsored byJacobson Heating and CoolingandAdventure Credit Union.

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Beach and Boating forecast: July 23, 2020 - WOODTV.com

Shop thief jailed after series of offences in Worksop – Worksop Guardian

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Danzig

Richard Frost, of no fixed address, had previously pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence of 20 weeks suspended for 12 months for a number of earlier shop thefts in Worksop but will now spend over a year in prison after pleading guilty to further offences committed during that period.

The 45-year-old attended Mansfield Magistrates Court on Saturday, 11 July 2020, after being arrested by the Worksop Neighbourhood Policing Team the previous day on suspicion of the latest thefts. Frost was also ordered to pay 454.50 in compensation.

Inspector Neil Bellamy, the Neighbourhood Policing Inspector for Bassetlaw, said: This is testament to the hard work of the neighbourhood policing teams and their dedication to tackling issues such as shop theft.

The action taken was swift and ultimately led to Frost returning to the courts and being brought to justice, which we hope will reassure local residents, business owners and managers that reports of shop thefts will be investigated and taken seriously.

Shop thefts are absolutely not victimless crimes and we will not tolerate such behaviour in our area.

Arresting officer PC Lee Ryan, who works within Inspector Bellamys Worksop Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: Richard Frost is a prolific thief who was only recently given a suspended sentence for earlier offences by the courts.

After his last court appearance, he continued to target shops in the local area, taking a number of items such premium brand coffee and washing machine products, which we were made aware of and soon after were able to take action. It is good to see the courts support those efforts by imposing this kind of sentence.

Frost will now spend more than a year in prison and we hope that this offers reassurance to the local community that we are there for them and we are dedicated to tackling criminals in order protect what matters most to them."

Editor's message: Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues. The Star is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here http://www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions for unlimited access to Sheffield news and information online. Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.

Shop thief jailed after series of offences in Worksop - Worksop Guardian

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