Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, jck, and Besame. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.
Chicago Tribune: New coronavirus prediction for Illinois: Fewer deaths, earlier peak by Joe Mahr
A prominent research group that forecasts the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced its estimates for how many Illinoisans will die — news welcomed by state officials who also cautioned that projections, in general, are tricky and uncertain.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, at the University of Washington, on Wednesday projected 1,588 Illinoisans would die from the new coronavirus through Aug. 4. The institute also revised its prediction on when the peak of cases might hit, now projecting that for this coming Saturday.
A week ago, the model had predicted 3,386 deaths statewide by Aug. 1, with a peak of April 20.
The University of Washington’s evolving models have been prominently cited, including at a White House briefing last week. It’s among many models being created by researchers and public policy advocates, all with disclaimers that they are making educated guesses based on limited data.
Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee Police broke up 72 gatherings, parties amid curfew, statewide stay-home order by Karl Etters
Even after county officials issued a curfew to stop the spread of coronavirus, people in Tallahassee were meeting in large groups. Even after the governor issued a “safer-at-home” order, effectively directing all Floridians to limit their travels to essential business, large parties were still drawing a crowd.
The Tallahassee Police Department responded to 72 large gatherings between March 25 and April 5. Forty-four of them happened in the six days after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a sweeping statewide order meant to limit non-essential gatherings.
They included a block party advertised on Facebook on Friday on Basin Street, several large parties at apartment complexes, gatherings of people at Corner Pocket Bar and Grill, a group of 10 people on the tennis courts at Lafayette Park, 15 kids playing at a private residence and a group of 20 kids playing football at Godby High School.
Twenty-seven of the calls for service came at apartment complexes where callers described large gatherings or full-blown parties. Twice, police busted up a gathering of more than 10 people at the Tallahassee Midtown Arcade Amusement Center, an internet Café on Northwood Boulevard.
Kansas City Star: War over Easter: Kansas lawmakers revoke Gov. Kelly’s order limiting church gatherings by Jonathan Shorman, Amy Renee Leiker, and Michael Stavola
Easter looming, Kansas Republican leaders on Wednesday revoked Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s order limiting religious gatherings to 10 people as the state’s coronavirus death toll jumped 40 percent.
House and Senate leaders — meeting as a body called the Legislative Coordinating Council — voted along party lines to throw out the directive. Their decision came as the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to more than 1,000 and the death count ticked up to 38.
Church gatherings have produced three case clusters across the state and health officials fear Easter gatherings could further spread the deadly coronavirus. Pastors and priests now confront a stark choice: forgo in-person services on Christianity’s holiest day or open church buildings and potentially risk exposing parishioners.
Kelly denounced the legislators’ decision at a late afternoon press conference, calling it “shockingly irresponsible” and one likely to cost lives.
KSBW.com (Salinas, California): New study investigates California's possible herd immunity to COVID-19 by Caitlin Conrad
MONTEREY, Calif. —
Researchers at Stanford Medicine are working to find out what proportion of Californians have already had COVID-19. The new study could help policymakers make more informed decisions during the coronavirus pandemic.
The team tested 3,200 people at three Bay Area locations on Saturday using an antibody test for COVID-19 and expect to release results in the coming weeks. The data could help to prove COVID-19 arrived undetected in California much earlier than previously thought.
The hypothesis that COVID-19 first started spreading in California in the fall of 2019 is one explanation for the state's lower than expected case numbers.
As of Tuesday, the state had 374 reported COVID-19 fatalities in a state of 40 million people, compared to New York which has seen 14 times as many fatalities and has a population half that of California. Social distancing could be playing a role but New York's stay-at-home order went into effect on March 22, three days after California implemented its order.
"Something is going on that we haven't quite found out yet," said Victor Davis Hanson a senior fellow with Stanford's Hoover Institute.
Why is someone like Victor Davis Hanson even speaking on this issue?
Please see Mark Sumner’s 4.11.20. story on this “zombie theory. I regret posting this story and a further apology will be published in my next OND. CK 4/12/20
Read this following Twitter thread for more information.
CK 4.12.20 752PM
Back when he was convicted of a 1996 murder he said he didn’t commit, Antonio McDowell escaped the death penalty. Now, 23 years into his sentence — as evidence of his innocence mounts but so does the toll of an autoimmune disease that has ravaged his lungs — he’s not so sure he can dodge it again.
At least 95 inmates and 39 staff workers have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at Stateville Correctional Center, 40 miles southwest of Chicago, where McDowell is serving a 103-year sentence. Two have died. The National Guard is building a field hospital on prison grounds as more inmates test positive for the virus. Over the weekend, terrified inmates pounded on their bars as a prisoner lay dead in his cell for what McDowell said was at least four hours.
“The fear of death, on top of being framed,” McDowell told BuzzFeed News from his cell, “I’m petrified.”
Washington Post: Linda Tripp, whose taped calls with Monica Lewinsky led to Clinton impeachment, dies at 70 by Matt Schudel
Linda Tripp, a key figure in the presidential sex scandal that nearly brought down the administration of Bill Clinton over his affair with onetime White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky, leading to the president’s impeachment in 1998, died April 8. She was 70.
The death was confirmed by her son, Ryan Tripp, who declined to discuss other details. Acquaintances said she had been hospitalized for breast cancer.
Ms. Tripp was praised as a whistleblower by some for calling out presidential misbehavior with an intern in the Oval Office, and was vilified by others as a snitch who betrayed her friendship with Lewinsky in an effort to bring down a president.
Ms. Tripp had worked as a White House secretary during the administration of President George H.W. Bush and stayed on for the first two years of the Clinton presidency, in 1993 and 1994. She later told a grand jury that she was troubled by the president’s behavior toward women.
New York Times: Coronavirus Turns Urban Life’s Roar to Whisper on World’s Seismographs by Robin George Andrews
Seismometers may be built to detect earthquakes, but their mechanical ears hear so much more: hurricanes thundering hundreds of miles away and meteoroids exploding in the skies on the other side of the planet. Even the everyday hum of humanity — people moving about on cars, trains and planes — has a seismically detectable heartbeat.
But coronavirus has upended our lives. Hoping to curtail the pandemic’s spread, nations have closed their borders, cities have been shut down and billions of people have been instructed to stay home. Today, in cities large and small, the thumping pulse of civilization is now barely detectable on many seismograms.
“It did make the scale of the shutdowns a bit more real to me,” said Celeste Labedz, a graduate student in geophysics at the California Institute of Technology.
In person, you can see only your neighborhood’s dedication to remaining home. With seismometers, Ms. Labedz said, you can see the collective willingness of millions of the world’s urban dwellers to hunker down. As a result, the planet’s natural quavering is being recorded with remarkable clarity.
AFP: Coronavirus reaches Yanomami people in Amazon
Brazil said Wednesday a first case of the new coronavirus had been detected among the Yanomami people, an Amazon indigenous group known for its remoteness and its vulnerability to foreign diseases.
"Today we confirmed a case (of the virus) among the Yanomami, which is very worrying," Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told a news conference.
"We have to be triply cautious with (indigenous) communities, especially the ones that have very little contact with the outside world."
The Yanomami patient, a 15-year-old boy, is being treated in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima, officials said.
Brazil has now confirmed at least seven coronavirus cases among the indigenous population, according to the newspaper Globo.
DW: Syria's al-Assad forces accused of using chemical weapons
President Bashar al-Assad's military regime likely used chemical weapons in an illegal attack in Syria, the Hague-based Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reported on Wednesday.
There were "reasonable grounds" to believe that the the 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Air Force flying Russian Sukhoi Su-22 military jets and a helicopter dropped M4000 aerial bombs containing sarin nerve gas on a town, as well as a cylinder containing toxic chlorine on a hospital, investigators of a special unit of the OPCW said in a report.
The chemical attacks, conducted from the Sharat and Hama airbases, took place in the then rebel-controlled Hama city of Ltamenah in western Syria on March 24, 25, and 30 in 2017, the report said.
"Attacks of such a strategic nature would have only taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command," investigation coordinator Santiago
Onate-Laborde said.
According to the report, around 100 people were affected by the attacks.
And finally tonight, y’all remember the video about the guy that worked for Amazon that complained about Amazon selling dildos?
Well…that might not be applicable to New Zealand...
Guardian: Sex toy sales triple during New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown by Charlotte Graham-McLay
They were warned by the officials against stockpiling toilet paper or flour. But that’s not all New Zealanders have been hoarding, according to the nation’s largest retailer of sex toys, which said sales of its products tripled after Jacinda Ardern announced a month-long lockdown of the country.
New Zealanders are permitted to leave their homes only to access essential services or take walks during the national shutdown, which began a fortnight ago and will remain in place for at least a further two weeks.
The measures generated mirth on social media about a possible baby boom nine months after the stay-at-home rules lifted, and worried family planning specialists as access to various forms of birth control dwindled.
The restrictions also prompted a tripling of sex toy sales in the 48 hours before the lockdown was imposed on 25 March, and the prospect of a boring month indoors seemed to have prompted New Zealanders to stash adult products that they might not have tried before, said Adult Toy Megastore, a New Zealand-based company.
Some weird formatting issues tonight...
In any event, don’t forget that Meteor Blades is hosting a Wednesday night owls thread tonight.
Everyone have a good evening!