Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, 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.
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Chicago Sun-Times: Former hotel workers sue Swissotel Chicago, accused it of violating ‘Right to Return to Work’ ordinance by Manny Ramos
Maria Ruiz was a banquet server at Swissotel Chicago nearly 24 years, putting her job before her family, sometimes sleeping in a hotel room for just a few hours between shifts when there wasn’t enough time to go home.
“I was at the hotel for 36 hours straight,” Ruiz said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference outside the hotel. “I wasn’t able to kiss my babies good night or hug them in the morning. My brother was killed two years ago and it was so hard — but even then I didn’t miss a day or work.”
Ruiz, 51, was one of hundreds of hotel workers who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The uncertainty of their future was scary, but the Chicago City Council sought to alleviate that anxiety by passing the “right-to-return-to-work” ordinance to make sure hotel workers could get their jobs back instead of being replaced.
But a lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses Swissotel of violating that ordinance by not rehiring Ruiz and two other banquet servers, each of whom had worked at the hospital at least 20 years.
Washington Post: FDA advisers back Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children 5 to 11, saying benefits outweigh risks by Laurie McGinley and Katie Shepherd
More than 10 months after U.S. adults started receiving coronavirus vaccines, the nation’s younger children moved significantly closer to getting a shot of protection when advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday endorsed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The advisory committee found that the benefits of the shot outweighed the risks of a rare cardiac side effect and voted 17 to 0 with one abstention to back the vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, a group that numbers 28 million. While the advice is not binding, the agency is all but certain to grant emergency authorization for the vaccine, perhaps as soon as this week.
A pediatric vaccine has been eagerly anticipated by many parents who want to ensure their children’s safety at school and holiday gatherings. Experts say the immunizations will represent a milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 737,000 people in the United States.
CNN: 'It's absolutely getting worse': Secretaries of state targeted by Trump election lies live in fear for their safety and are desperate for protection by Issac Dovere and Jeremy Herb
"I am a hunter -- and I think you should be hunted," a woman can be heard saying in a voicemail left for Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in September. "You will never be safe in Arizona again."
Or there's the man who spit, "Die you bitch, die! Die you bitch, die!" repeatedly into the phone, in another of several dozen threatening and angry voicemails directed at the Democratic secretary of state and shared exclusively with CNN by her office.
Officials and aides in
secretary of state offices in Arizona and other states targeted by former President Donald Trump in his attack on last year's election results told CNN about living in constant terror -- nervously watching the people around them at events, checking in their rearview mirrors for cars following them home and sitting up at night wondering what might happen next.
Law enforcement has never had to think much about protecting secretaries of state, let alone allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars in security, tracking and follow-up. Their jobs used to be mundane, unexciting, bureaucratic. These are small offices in a handful of states with enormous power in administering elections, from mailing ballots to overseeing voting machines to keeping track of counted votes.
ProPublica: Scammers Are Using Fake Job Ads to Steal People’s Identities by Cezary Podkul
It has become a ubiquitous internet ad, with versions popping up everywhere from Facebook and LinkedIn to smaller sites like Jobvertise: Airport shuttle driver wanted, it says, offering a job that involves picking up passengers for 35 hours a week at an appealing weekly pay rate that works out to more than $100,000 a year.
But airports aren't really dangling six-figure salaries for shuttle drivers amid some sudden resurgence in air travel. Instead, the ads are cybercriminals’ latest attempt to steal people’s identities and use them to commit fraud, according to recent warnings from the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and cybersecurity firms that monitor such threats. The U.S. Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes, also confirmed that it has seen a “marked increase” in sham job ads seeking to steal people’s personal data, often with the aim of filing bogus unemployment insurance claims.
These fraudsters, they’re like a virus. They continue to mutate,” said Haywood Talcove, chief executive of the government division of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, one of several contractors helping state and federal agencies combat identity theft. (ProPublica subscribes to public records databases provided by LexisNexis.)
This particular mutation is an emerging threat, Talcove and others said. The numbers are small so far, but they’re rapidly increasing. In March, LexisNexis detected around 2,900 ads touting unusually generous pay, using suspicious email domains and requiring that one verify one’s identity upfront. The total had grown to 18,400 by July, and then to 36,350 as of this month. Talcove said these figures are based on a small sample of job ads and that the real number is likely much higher.
BBC News: Brazil senators back criminal charges against Bolsonaro over Covid handling
A Senate committee in Brazil has voted to recommend that President Jair Bolsonaro face charges over his handling of the Covid pandemic.
Seven of the panel's 11 members backed a report calling for nine charges to be filed against Mr Bolsonaro, including crimes against humanity.
The committee chair, Senator Omar Aziz, will send the findings to Brazil's prosecutor-general on Wednesday.
Mr Bolsonaro has maintained he is "guilty of absolutely nothing".
More than 600,000 people in Brazil are confirmed to have died from Covid, second only to the Covid death toll in the United States.
The report accuses the president of misusing public funds and peddling fake news.
here is no guarantee this vote will lead to criminal charges for Mr Bolsonaro, as the report's recommendations must now be assessed by Brazil's prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee who is expected to protect the president.
The vote concludes a six-month inquiry which has revealed scandals and corruption inside Brazil's government.
Sudan’s armed forces chief has defended the military’s seizure of power, saying he had dissolved the government to avoid civil war, while protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the takeover after a day of deadly clashes.
Speaking at his first news conference since announcing the takeover, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said on Tuesday that the army had no choice but to sideline politicians who were inciting against the armed forces.
The military takeover on Monday brought a halt to Sudan’s transition to democracy, two years after a popular uprising toppled longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
“The dangers we witnessed last week could have led the country into civil war,” al-Burhan said, an apparent reference to demonstrations against the prospect of a coup.
DW: Cricket: Kashmir students who cheered for Pakistan face India terror law by John Silk
Students in India-administered Kashmir are being investigated for celebrating Pakistan's T20 World Cup victory over India, officials said Tuesday.
The students and staff at two medical colleges are being probed for violating an anti-terror law.
The law was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate an individual as a terrorist.
Police have the powers to detain someone for six months without producing any evidence and the accused can be sent to prison, with a sentence of up to seven years.
Human rights organizations have described the legislation as draconian.
Police said some students and staff at the government-run colleges cheered and shouted pro-Pakistan chants during Sunday night's encounter, which took place in Dubai between the two cricketing rivals.
Police described their behavior as "anti-national," The Associated Press news agency reported.
Pakistan thrashed their archrivals by 10 wickets, earning their first-ever victory over India at a World Cup across all disciplines of cricket.
Everyone have a great night!