Some of tonight’s Stories
- Desperate for workers, US restaurants and stores raise pay
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‘Amazing’: Pilots, passenger uninjured after midair crash
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Ontario, Canada to keep ban on outdoor recreation for two weeks
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As births slow in China and US, ex-laggard Germany bucks trend
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Colonial Pipeline paid hackers $5M to get fuel flowing: Sources
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US jobless claims fall to another pandemic low
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Gaetz ally plans to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors
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Liz Cheney says she’s not running for president
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Bald Eagle, After Escaping Death, Released On Washington Lake
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The Area of Forests Regrown Since 2000 Covers the Size of France, Potentially Absorbing a Full Year of U.S. Emissions
This is an open Thread to post stories, tweets & pictures that interest you !
the I-40 Bridge has my interest !
please click on the picture to the right. it shows the crack & the size of everything !
AP News
Desperate for workers, US restaurants and stores raise pay
U.S. restaurants and stores are rapidly raising pay in an urgent effort to attract more applicants and keep up with a flood of customers as the pandemic eases.
McDonald’s, Sheetz and Chipotle are just some of the latest companies to follow Amazon, Walmart and Costco in boosting wages, in some cases to $15 an hour or higher.
The pay gains are, of course, a boon to these employees. Restaurants, bars, hotels and stores remain the lowest-paying industries, and many of their workers ran the risk of contracting COVID-19 on the job over the past year while white-collar employees were able to work from home.
‘Amazing’: Pilots, passenger uninjured after midair crash
The pilot of an airplane that collided with another midair near Denver requested an emergency landing for engine failure, not knowing that his plane was nearly ripped in half, according to air traffic control audio. Miraculously, both planes landed and no one was hurt, officials said.
The planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb Wednesday when they collided, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue.
The pilot who requested the emergency landing was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based Key Lime Air, which operates cargo aircraft.
“Looks like the right engine failed, so I’m gonna continue my landing here,” the pilot said in an audio clip with air traffic control.
Trial for 3 ex-cops charged in Floyd’s death pushed to March
The trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting in the death of George Floyd will be pushed back to March 2022, in part to allow the publicity over Derek Chauvin’s conviction to cool off, a judge ruled Thursday.
Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao were to face trial Aug. 23 on charges they aided and abetted both murder and manslaughter. Their co-defendant, Chauvin, was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter. All four officers also face federal charges that they violated Floyd’s civil rights during his May 25 arrest.
Judge Peter Cahill said he moved the other officers’ trial so the federal case can go forward first. No date has been set for the federal case, but Cahill said it carries higher potential penalties. He also said he felt the need to put some distance between the three officers’ trial and Chauvin’s due to the high-profile nature of the case.
AL Jazeera
What is ‘black fungus’ infection found in India’s COVID patients?
For 35-year-old Milind Deshmukh, contracting the COVID-19 infection has been a devastating, life-altering experience.
The mechanical engineer from Thane, a suburb of Mumbai, caught a fungal infection known as mucormycosis while battling the viral disease.
In a span of a month, the fast-spreading fungus had eaten into a large portion of his facial tissue, including his right eye and the palate.
“He has undergone three surgeries, lost vision from one eye permanently and it is going to be difficult for him to talk or eat due to the removal of the palate,” Deshmukh’s elder brother Makarand told Al Jazeera. “It’s all so devastating.”
DC police suffer ‘massive’ info leak after ransomware attack
The police department in the United States capital has suffered a massive leak of internal information after refusing to meet the blackmail demands of a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate. Experts said it i the worst known ransomware attack ever to hit a US police department.
The gang, known as the Babuk group, released thousands of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department’s sensitive documents on the dark web Thursday.
A review by The Associated Press found hundreds of police officer disciplinary files and intelligence reports that include feeds from other agencies, including the FBI and Secret Service.
Ontario, Canada to keep ban on outdoor recreation for two weeks
Ontario’s premier is keeping outdoor recreational activities like golf courses closed for at least two more weeks despite calls by health officials to resume them for physical and mental health.
Premier Doug Ford on Thursday extended what he calls a “stay-at-home” order for Canada’s largest province until at least June 2.
Retail stores are open for curbside pickup and highways and roads are busy, but restaurants – including outdoor patios – are closed, as are in-class schooling and gyms. Most non-essential workers are working from home amid a third wave of coronavirus infections fueled by variants.
Spain approves ‘milestone’ clean energy climate bill
Spain’s parliament has approved a clean energy bill aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 in line with European Union targets, while also banning the sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040.
As part of Spain’s efforts to meet its carbon emissions target, the legislation outlaws the sale of vehicles that emit carbon dioxide by 2040, and their circulation by 2050.
“For the planet, for our future and for the next generations. From today, Spain has a climate law on which to build a green, sustainable, fair and prosperous future for all,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted after the vote on Thursday.
Amazon offers $100 vaccine bonus to entice 75,000 US workers
Amazon is seeking to hire 75,000 people in a tight job market and is offering bonuses to attract United States workers, including $100 for new hires who are already vaccinated against COVID-19.
The jobs are for delivery and warehouse workers, who pack and ship online orders. Amazon, which already pays at least $15 an hour, gave out raises for some of its workers last month, and the company said Thursday that new hires will make an average of $17 an hour.
The hiring spree comes as the company gears up for next month’s Prime Day, its popular sales event that has become one of the busiest shopping days of the year for Amazon.
As births slow in China and US, ex-laggard Germany bucks trend
China and the United States are grappling with falling birth rates but Germany has bucked the trend with a rise in births nine months after its first pandemic lockdown, testimony to recent family-friendly policies and higher migration.
Europe’s largest economy used to have one of the lowest fertility rates in the region as conservative social norms and policies made it hard for women to reconcile families and work, crimping economic growth and compounding Germany’s labour shortage as baby boomers retire.
That started to change as German Chancellor Angela Merkel expanded parental benefits and state investment in childcare from 2005. Her 2015 decision to let in more than a million mostly young refugees from Syria and elsewhere gave a further boost.
Colonial Pipeline paid hackers $5M to get fuel flowing: Sources
Colonial Pipeline Co. paid nearly $5 million to Eastern European hackers on Friday, contradicting reports earlier this week that the company had no intention of paying an extortion fee to help restore the country’s largest fuel pipeline, according to two people familiar with the transaction.
The company paid the hefty ransom in untraceable cryptocurrency within hours after the attack, underscoring the immense pressure faced by the Georgia-based operator to get gasoline and jet fuel flowing again to major cities along the Eastern Seaboard, those people said.
Once they received the payment, the hackers provided the operator with a decrypting tool to restore its disabled computer network. The tool was so slow that the company continued using its own backups to help restore the system, one of the people familiar with the company’s efforts said.
US jobless claims fall to another pandemic low
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 473,000, a new coronavirus pandemic low and the latest evidence that fewer employers are cutting jobs as consumers ramp up spending and more businesses reopen.
Thursday’s report from the United States Department of Labor showed that applications declined 34,000 from a revised 507,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly jobless claims — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has fallen significantly from a peak of 900,000 in January. Instead of cutting jobs, many employers are struggling to attract enough applicants for open positions.
With hiring up, vaccinations increasing and the economy accelerating, consumers have grown more confident and, on average, are flush with cash after limiting their spending during the pandemic. Stimulus cheques have also bolstered many bank accounts.
CNN News
Gaetz ally plans to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors
The ex-Florida tax collector with close ties to Rep. Matt Gaetz is planning to plead guilty on Monday in a federal court in Florida, according to a new filing Thursday.
As part of the deal, Joel Greenberg will cooperate with investigators in a wide-ranging probe, according to one source familiar with the matter. For months, federal investigators
have been examining whether Gaetz broke federal sex trafficking, prostitution and public corruption laws and whether he had sex with a minor.
Gaetz has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
CNN has previously reported that Greenberg has been speaking with federal investigators since
last year, including providing information about how he and Gaetz allegedly had encounters with women who were then given cash or gifts for sex.
Politico News
Liz Cheney says she’s not running for president
Rep. Liz Cheney isn’t running for president, she said in a combative Fox News interview on Thursday.
The Wyoming Republican, who recently said she wouldn’t rule out running, told Fox’s Bret Baier night that she wasn’t throwing her hat in the ring after she was booted from her role as House GOP conference chair Wednesday.
“I am not, Bret,” Cheney told Baier, responding to his question about whether she is vying for the 2024 nomination. “What I think is really important is that we make sure that the former president, because we know what he is capable of … and because we know how important it is for us to be able to advance Republican ideals, that we make sure that he never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
Patch.com
Bald Eagle, After Escaping Death, Released On Washington Lake
A bald eagle in Washington state got a second chance at life recently with the help of an all-volunteer group dedicated to rehabilitating birds of prey.
Neighbors and wildlife enthusiasts alike gathered near Williams Lake on Tuesday to watch the male bald eagle return to nature.
Helping the majestic raptor take his monumental flight was Janie Veltkamp, director of Birds of Prey Northwest. Veltkamp, a raptor biologist, has been rescuing bald eagles and other birds of prey for more than 30 years, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
Baby's Priceless Reaction After Getting His First Glasses: Video
When a baby got glasses last week in Riverhead and could suddenly see clearly for the first time, his reaction was one that melted hearts far and wide.
Mallory Ibarra of East Hampton said she learned her son, Roman, 1, needed glasses when she brought him for his one-year check-up and a vision screening came back positive for astigmatism.
Astigmatism, according to the American Academy of Opthalmology, is an imperfection in the curve of the eye's curvature or lens, leading to blurred or distorted vision.
The Area of Forests Regrown Since 2000 Covers the Size of France, Potentially Absorbing a Full Year of U.S. Emissions
The naturalist John Muir once said, in regards to the passage of the law that protected Yosemite Valley, that as a result “every pine tree will be waving his arms for joy.”
It’s lovely to think how he’d remark on the news from WWF that the regeneration of natural forests around the world has covered an area the size of France—59 million hectares—over the last 20 years.
According to the various scientific and conservation groups engaged in the project, the restored forest—which was tracked using satellite data—while only being as large as France, has the potential to absorb 5.9 gigatons of carbon dioxide, more than the annual emissions of the U.S.
I love that lady !