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By Betsy Woodruff Swan 03/21/2020 | Original Politico article here

One of the requests to Congress would allow the department to petition a judge to indefinitely detain someone during an emergency.

The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States.

Documents reviewed by POLITICO detail the department’s requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including

• the statute of limitations,
• asylum and
• the way court hearings are conducted.

POLITICO also reviewed and previously reported on documents seeking the authority to extend deadlines on merger reviews and prosecutions.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the documents.

The move has tapped into a broader fear among civil liberties advocates and Donald Trump’s critics — that the president will use a moment of crisis to push for controversial policy changes.

Already, he has cited the pandemic as a reason for heightening border restrictions and restricting asylum claims. He has also pushed for further tax cuts as the economy withers, arguing that it would soften the financial blow to Americans. And even without policy changes, Trump has vast emergency powers that he could legally deploy right now to try and slow the coronavirus outbreak.

The DOJ requests — which are unlikely to make it through a Democratic-led House — span several stages of the legal process, from initial arrest to how cases are processed and investigated.

Continue reading “DOJ Seeks New Emergency Powers Amid Coronavirus Pandemic”

By TARYN LUNA, Mar 19, 2020 | Original LA Times article here.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to stay at home, marking the first mandatory restrictions placed on the lives of all 40 million residents in the state’s fight against the novel coronavirus. The governor’s action comes at a critical time in California, where 19 people have died and an additional 958 have tested positive for the disease.

The mandatory order allows Californians to continue to visit gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, farmers markets, food banks, convenience stores, take-out and delivery restaurants, banks and laundromats. People can leave their homes to care for a relative or a friend or seek health care services. It exempts workers in 16 federal critical infrastructure sectors, including food and agriculture, healthcare, transportation, energy, financial services, emergency response and others.

No time frame was set for when the order would end. It was unclear exactly how far the order would reach in communities where some operations, such as schools, have not been closed.

Newsom asked Californians to practice social distancing when performing such “necessary activities.”

“We’re going to keep the grocery stores open,” Newsom said. “We’re going to make sure that you’re getting critical medical supplies. You can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog.”

Officials hope telling people to stay homes and restrict social interactions will slow the spread of the virus and ultimately prevent hospitals from being overrun with sick patients. The request for all residents to stay at home marks the strongest escalation of the Newsom administration’s response to the virus and an unprecedented action in modern California history.

Continue reading “Gov. Gavin Newsom Orders all Californians to Stay Home”

Here’s what the federal government must do to help.

By FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Mar 19, 2020 | Orignal NY Times opinion piece here.

Broadband providers should create or expand low-cost options for broadband internet connections in rural and low-income communities.Credit…Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group, via The Denver Post, via Getty Images

One instruction remains consistent and clear during the coronavirus pandemic: Stay home. For many of us, that means taking our daily activities — work, school, medical care and connecting with loved ones — online. But not for everyone.

The coming weeks will lay bare the already-cruel reality of the digital divide: tens of millions of Americans cannot access or cannot afford the home broadband connections they need to telework, access medical information and help young people complete online school assignments. When public health requires social distancing and even quarantine, closing the digital divide becomes central to our safety and economic security.

Continue reading “For Coronavirus Shelter in Place Orders, Millions More Americans Need Internet Access”

By Marguerite Reardon, Mar 18, 2020 | Original CNET article here.

The FCC has waived rules to make it easier for rural hospitals to expand telehealth capabilities during the coronavirus crisis in the US

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday temporarily waived rules in its Rural Health Care and E-Rate programs to help promote better access to broadband for telehealth and distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency announced that it has waived "gift rules" in these programs until Sept. 20, 2020. These rules prohibit hospitals in the Rural Health Care program or schools and libraries participating in the E-Rate program, which get subsidies, to accept or seek anything of value from a service provider participating in the program. These rules are meant to prevent fraud and abuse in the program.

Continue reading “FCC waives rules to boost broadband for hospitals, schools amid coronavirus crisis”

From a resident in Sacramento . . .

March 17, 2020

Hello City Council and County health officials,

The woman who died went to my church and lives in my neighborhood.

I am following up on my last email about the negative effects of RF radiation on the human immune system. Today the Bee released an article about a cluster of cases at my neighborhood church. https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article241257951.html

The article states:

“The concentration of confirmed coronavirus cases appears to be the largest in a single location in the Sacramento region since the crisis began in late February,”

Do you really think it just coincidence that the largest cluster in Sacramento just happens to be in Sacramento’s 5G pilot area??? Another coincidence that Wuhan happened to be one of China’s 5G pilot areas??? Milan, capital of Lombardy, is another 5G pilot area …

I am not arguing that 5G is “causing” Covid-19. I am arguing that people living near small cells will have a lowered immune response and thus more infections and more severe infections. I have been trying to warn you about this issue for over a year and you simply have not taken the issue seriously. Now your constituents are paying the price. Shame on you all.

The woman was member of church with at least 4 other cases

By Sam Stanton, Sawsan Morrar, and Phillip Reese , Mar 17, 2020 | Original Sacramento Bee article here.

The Sacramento substitute teacher who died from coronavirus Sunday had been active in a church in Greenhaven that now reports five church members have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease and that others are awaiting test results.

The concentration of confirmed coronavirus cases appears to be the largest in a single location in the Sacramento region since the crisis began in late February, when U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials announced the first case of unknown origin in the United States was a Solano County resident being treated at UC Davis Medical Center.

Officials have not released the name of the woman who died, identifying her as a substitute teacher and volunteer who worked at Sutterville Elementary School in February. She was older than 70 and had “underlying health conditions.”

Continue reading “Sacramento Teacher Dies of Coronavirus”

Link to Frequently asked Questions (PDF); also below.

Originals are here:

• https://socoemergency.org/order-of-the-health-officer-shelter-in-place/
• https://socoemergency.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Health-Officer-Order-FAQs.pdf

No. C19-03

Directing all individuals living in the County to shelter at their place of residence, except that they may leave to provide or receive certain essential services or engage in certain essential activities and work for essential businesses and governmental services; exempting individuals experiencing homelessness from the shelter in place order but urging them to find shelter and government agencies to provide it; directing all businesses and governmental agencies to cease non-essential operations at physical locations in the County; prohibiting all non-essential gatherings of any number of individual; and ordering cessation of all non essential travel.

DATE OF ORDER: MARCH 17, 2020

Please read this Order carefully. Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both. (California Health and Safety Code§ 120275, et seq.)

 
UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTIONS 101040, 101085, AND 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SONOMA (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:
 

Continue reading “Mar 17 Order by Health Officer of Sonoma County”

By Yan‐Chao Li, Wan‐Zhu Bai, Tsutomu Hashikawa, Mar 17, 2020 | Original Wiley Online Library here.

Abstract

Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS‐CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV), another highly pathogenic coronavirus named SARS‐CoV‐2 (previously known as 2019‐nCoV) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spreads around the world. This virus shares highly homological sequence with SARS‐CoV, and causes acute, highly lethal pneumonia coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) with clinical symptoms similar to those reported for SARS‐CoV and MERS‐CoV.

The most characteristic symptom of patients with COVID‐19 is respiratory distress, and most of the patients admitted to the intensive care could not breathe spontaneously. Additionally, some patients with COVID‐19 also showed neurologic signs, such as headache, nausea, and vomiting. Increasing evidence shows that coronaviruses are not always confined to the respiratory tract and that they may also invade the central nervous system inducing neurological diseases. The infection of SARS‐CoV has been reported in the brains from both patients and experimental animals, where the brainstem was heavily infected.

Furthermore, some coronaviruses have been demonstrated able to spread via a synapse‐connected route to the medullary cardiorespiratory center from the mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors in the lung and lower respiratory airways. Considering the high similarity between SARS‐CoV and SARS‐CoV2, it remains to make clear whether the potential invasion of SARS‐CoV2 is partially responsible for the acute respiratory failure of patients with COVID‐19. Awareness of this may have a guiding significance for the prevention and treatment of the SARS‐CoV‐2‐induced respiratory failure.

Research Highlights

• SARS‐CoV2 causes epidemic acute respiratory distress.

• This novel coronavirus is similar to SARS‐CoV in sequence, pathogenesis, and cellular entry.

• Some coronaviruses can invade brainstem via a synapse‐connected route from the lung and airways.

• The potential invasion of SARS‐CoV2 may be one reason for the acute respiratory failure.

• Awareness of this will have guiding significance for the prevention and treatment.

By Thomas Osborne, Mar 17, 2020 | Original VA Blog post here

In February, VA’s Palo Alto Health Care System became the first 5G-enabled hospital in VA, and among the first in the world.

Health Care System director and Army Veteran Thomas J. Fitzgerald III said, “With VA Palo Alto Health Care System being the first VA hospital and also one of the first hospitals in America to have 5G, we feel we are right for this. This is the right time and it’s at the right place because we are in Silicon Valley. We are ensuring VA stays relevant with cutting-edge technology for the health and well-being of our Veterans.”

“This is perhaps the most exciting and dramatic time in medical history.”

Continue reading “VA Palo Alto first 5G hospital”

Adapted from an article by Bruce Kushnick, Mar 16, 2020 | Original medium article is here

States Can Now Decide Their Own Separations Accounting Principles

This is similar in many ways to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld the FCC repeal of Net Neutrality regulations from the FCC’s control. Net Neutrality is now mostly a state issue, due to the 1996 Telecommunications Act which sets up cooperative federalism.

• State Public Telecommunications Utilites (SPTUs) and others can now sue their State Public Utility Commissions to free billions of dollars per state to stop an unnecessary and rampant cross-subsidy from SPTUs to private Wireless cos.

• Finally ending such cross-subsidies — although slowly, state by state — can help solve the Digital Divide, lower prices and spur more competition.

• The Densified 4G/5G Small Cell roll out could be rendered significantly less profitable as a result.

• IRREGULATORS v FCC: DC Court of Appeals Opinion, March 13th, 2020

Continue reading “IRREGULATORS v. FCC Ruling Frees States from FCC Separations Rule”

Measures to Slow Coronavirus Intensify

Reporting was contributed by Michael Cooper, Karen Weise, Reid J. Epstein, Katie Glueck, Shane Goldmacher, Jeanna Smialek, Neil Irwin, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Safak Timur, Emmet Lindner, Marc Santora, Megan Specia, Aurelien Breeden, Raphael Minder, Melissa Eddy and Tiffany May | Original New York Times article here.

Global restrictions rise, but so do the number of new infections.

Countries closed borders, cities from New York and Los Angeles to Paris and Madrid closed bars and restaurants, schools closed more classrooms and hundreds of millions of people closed their doors on one another as the authorities took ever more drastic steps to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

The consequences of China’s harsh measures to halt the virus — restricting the movement of about 700 million people at one point — became apparent on Monday when the government released economic data showing industrial output falling to its lowest level in decades and unemployment rising at its highest rate ever in February.

While the economic ramifications of China’s approach are still playing out, Beijing did succeed in slowing the rise of new infections, as the total number of cases outside the country has for the first time surpassed those inside it.

The Federal Reserve, seeking to steady financial markets, cut interest rates to near zero and said it would buy hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. government debt. But global stocks still tumbled on Monday.

As the virus continues to spread across the United States, public life is increasingly shut down. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks.

And as Americans are asked to isolate themselves, the United States has stepped up plans to isolate itself from the world, with travelers from Britain and Ireland on Monday joining the list of other European countries barred from entering the country

But even as a patchwork of new restrictions were put in place across the country — with different states and localities charting their own course — there was growing concern that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed.

Continue reading “Mar 16 Coronavirus Mainstream Narrative”