Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, Interceptor7, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, 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: Chronic polluter General Iron is moving from its wealthy, white North Side home to a low-income Latino neighborhood. The feds want to know why. by Michael Hawthorne
Chicago is facing scrutiny from federal housing officials, who are investigating why the city is allowing a chronic polluter to move from the wealthy, largely white North Side to a low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhood near the Indiana border.
In a letter made public on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed to follow up on a complaint from community activists who accuse Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration of perpetuating racial segregation and housing discrimination in the nation’s third largest city.
At issue are steps taken by city agencies to benefit General Iron Industries, a clout-heavy scrap shredder with a long history of pollution problems. An Ohio-based company that bought General Iron last year wants to move the operation from Lincoln Park to a site on the Calumet River in the East Side neighborhood.
The State: A flesh-eating bacteria lurking in the ocean is killing people in the Carolinas by Sammy Fretwell, Ali Raj, and Sofia Moutinho
As Billy Bailey picked through the crabs he caught on Big Bay Creek, trying to determine which to keep and which to throw back, one of them clamped down on his hand, causing him to shake his fingers.
The small cut that opened from the claw’s pinch reminded Bailey to be more careful the next time he went crabbing. Then he chuckled and forgot about it, sitting back in the boat while his fishing buddy maneuvered the craft to the dock that day in early October 2017.
Hours later, Bailey was shivering and sick, buried under a pile of blankets that couldn’t keep him warm, say friends who were with him.
By dawn the next day, Bailey’s stomach was upset and he couldn’t walk. His worried friends rushed him to the doctor.
On Oct. 13, 2017, Bailey died in the hospital, the victim of a microbe so dangerous it can inflict horrific pain, trigger ghastly skin infections and kill in a matter of days.
New York Times: Is a Second Wave Starting? New Yorkers Are Steeling Themselves by Michael Wilson
A father of three in Brooklyn is back to stockpiling medicine and rubbing alcohol. A publicist has put her plan to return to her office in Manhattan on hold indefinitely. And a mother in Central Park has again — and again — delayed taking her 15-month-old daughter back to the toddler music classes she loved.
“Big groups of kids, we’re not doing any of that,” said the mother, Aneya Farrell, 34. “She hasn’t seen a lot of babies over the past six months.”
As the city faces its first notable increase in coronavirus infections since a springtime surge killed more than 20,000, residents are again looking at their neighborhoods and wondering, after each rise in numbers, each passing siren: Is this a second wave?
The recent increase prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to order lockdowns in several parts of Brooklyn and Queens where the infection rate has risen most sharply. The restrictions mostly affected neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. But other neighborhoods faced partial lockdowns, including the canceling of indoor dining.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State Fair Park field hospital admits first coronavirus patient as Wisconsin sets a new record for deaths amid surge in cases by Mary Spicuzza
The first patient has been admitted to the field hospital at State Fair Park, as Wisconsin's surge in coronavirus cases shows no sign of improving.
Gov. Tony Evers announced that the field hospital, which opened last week, accepted its first COVID-19 patient Wednesday, as Wisconsin set another single-day record of 48 deaths. More than 4,000 additional cases were also reported.
"We are thankful to have this facility available to Wisconsinites and our hospitals, but also saddened that this is where Wisconsin is at today," Evers said in a statement. "Folks, please stay home. Help us protect our communities from this highly-contagious virus and avoid further strain on our hospitals."
The state Department of Health Services also reported 4,205 new coronavirus cases as the state continued to work through a backlog of data from the weekend system outage.
San Francisco Chronicle: S.F.’s new Caren Act makes false, racially charged complaints illegal by Trisha Thadani
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Caren Act Tuesday — a new law that makes it illegal for someone to call 911 with a false, racially charged complaint.
The name of the law — Caution Against Racially and Exploitative Non-Emergencies — is a play on the internet meme of “Karens,” which represent entitled white women complaining about people of color. The law, which must pass a second vote next week, would allow people to sue the 911 caller in civil court if they felt harassed or discriminated against by the action.
The legislation comes amid a national reckoning on race, and in a country still reeling from the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. It also comes as cities — such as San Francisco — re-examine how their police departments interact with people of color, and how such communities are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement.
Buzzfeed: Obama Railed Against Trump’s Coronavirus Response In His First Campaign Trail Speech by Ryan Brooks
Former president Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump with unusual intensity on Wednesday — attacking him for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his tax returns, and his embrace of the mass delusions and conspiracy theories that have spread across the country — during his first public campaign event for Joe Biden.
“We literally left this White House a pandemic playbook that would have shown them how to respond before the virus reached our shores,” Obama said to a crowd of people parked in cars in Philadelphia. “They probably used it to — I don’t know — prop up a wobbly table somewhere. We don’t know where that playbook went.”
He told the audience that Trump wouldn’t be able to protect the country during the country's most recent spike in coronavirus cases. “He can’t even take the basic steps to protect himself,” he said, mentioning Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination event at the White House, where many people in attendance did not wear masks and tested positive for the virus in the days after.
CNN: Covid-19 vaccine trials won't tell us if the shots save lives, expert notes by Maggie Fox
The most advanced trials for coronavirus vaccines cannot tell researchers if the shots will save lives, or even if they'll prevent serious disease, a drug development expert pointed out Wednesday.
The ongoing trials are only designed to show if the vaccines prevent infection -- and most infections are mild infections, Peter Doshi, an associate editor at the BMJ medical journal and a drug development specialist at the University of Maryland's school of pharmacy, said.
"I think there are some pretty widely held assumptions about what we are getting out of Phase 3 studies," Doshi told CNN.
"None of the trials currently under way are designed to detect a reduction in any serious outcome such as hospital admissions, use of intensive care, or deaths. Nor are the vaccines being studied to determine whether they can interrupt transmission of the virus," Doshi wrote in the BMJ.
Washington Post: Trump weighs firing FBI director after election as frustration with Wray, Barr grows by Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey
President Trump and his advisers have repeatedly discussed whether to fire FBI Director Christopher A. Wray after Election Day — a scenario that also could imperil the tenure of Attorney General William P. Barr as the president grows increasingly frustrated that federal law enforcement has not delivered his campaign the kind of last-minute boost that the FBI provided in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter.
The conversations among the president and senior aides stem in part from their disappointment that Wray in particular but Barr as well have not done what Trump had hoped — indicate that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden or other Biden associates are under investigation, these people say. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal discussions.
Vox: Purdue Pharma admits to crimes for its OxyContin marketing. But no one is going to prison. by German Lopez
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has reached a supposedly $8 billion settlement with the federal government in which it pleads guilty in a criminal investigation over its role in the opioid epidemic, the US Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
As part of the settlement, Purdue will plead guilty to three counts related to its misleading marketing of opioid painkillers and faces a $3.5 billion criminal fine, $2 billion in criminal forfeitures, and a $2.8 billion civil settlement.
Purdue admits it illegally and misleadingly marketed its opioids, including “to more than 100 health care providers whom the company had good reason to believe were diverting opioids” for misuse; illegally paid doctors to prescribe more opioids; and took part in other fraudulent and illegal practices. Purdue says it did all of this between 2007 and at least 2017 — after a separate guilty plea in 2007 forced the company to pay more than $600 million in fines.
But no one — neither the company’s executives nor members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue — will go to jail or prison as a result of the settlement.
France24: Protests escalate in Nigeria after deadly crackdown by security forces
Buildings were torched in Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos on Wednesday as authorities shut down the economic hub, after the shooting of peaceful protesters by security forces caused international outrage.
At least 12 people were killed by the Nigerian army and police in two locations in Lagos on Tuesday in a deadly crackdown on demonstrations, Amnesty International said.
Peaceful protesters had gathered despite a curfew imposed to end spiralling protests over police brutality and deep-rooted social grievances.
“Evidence gathered from eyewitnesses, video footage and hospital reports confirm that between 6:45pm (1745 GMT) and 9:00pm (2000 GMT) on Tuesday 20 October, the Nigerian military opened fire on thousands of people,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The Lagos governor at first insisted no fatalities had been recorded but later said the authorities were investigating the death of one person resulting from “blunt force trauma to the head”.
BBC News: Australia aged care: Inquiry hears 50 sexual assaults happen each week
An estimated 50 sexual assaults occur each week across Australia's aged care sector, a national inquiry has heard.
Since 2019, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has uncovered widespread elder abuse and mistreatment.
On Thursday, investigators said about 2,520 sexual assaults had happened in residential nursing homes in 2018-2019.
"This is a national shame," counsel Peter Rozen QC told the inquiry.
"As disturbing as these figures are, the evidence of the lack of follow-up by the Australian government department that receives the reports is, if anything, worse."
Failures in the sector have drawn great scrutiny this year - more than 75% of Australia's 903 coronavirus deaths have been aged care residents.
South China Morning Post: ‘Like we’ve lost a home’: Cathay Dragon employees surprised, shaken by decision to axe Hong Kong airline by Zoe Low and Katherine Magramo
Lisa Mok woke up on Wednesday to the news her 10-year run as a Cathay Dragon flight attendant was over – and so was the airline.
Mok* had not been aboard a flight since January, as the spread of
Covid-19 ground global travel to a halt. She was soon asked to go on unpaid leave, then watched helplessly as her monthly salary was halved.
“There had been rumours in the past half year that there could be job cuts, but no one ever expected the entire airline would shut down overnight,” said Mok, who is in her early 30s.
Mok is among the more than 2,500 Cathay Dragon flight attendants and pilots whose jobs were lost overnight under a restructuring by parent company Cathay Pacific. Passengers were also affected, as the carrier’s few remaining regional routes were abruptly eliminated.
Guardian: Greta Thunberg accuses MEPs of 'surrender on climate and environment' by Daniel Boffey
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish school strike pioneer and environmental activist, has accused MEPs of surrendering on the climate and environment by voting in favour of a watered-down reform of the EU’s common agricultural policy.
The European parliament voted late on Wednesday in favour of proposals put forward by the main political groups that will continue 60% of the current direct payments to farmers with weak or non-existent green conditions attached.
The changes backed by the parliament weaken an already heavily criticised proposal from the European commission on reform of the CAP, which accounts for one-third of the EU budget.
MEPs will continue to vote on a host of issues around future reforms up until Friday, as parliament sets its position before negotiations with the member states and the European commission.
Everyone have a good evening!