Sunday 08/21/2022
Quote of the Day: Trees love to toss and sway; they make such happy noises…Emily Carr
Part 1…Books!
Current reading and listening list: Reading- The Burning Shore by Wilbur Smith, A Perfect Day by Richard Paul Evans, Got the Look by James Grippando, The 17th Suspect by James Patterson and The Winner by David Baldacci. Listening to: Moment in Time by Suzanne Redfearn, Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen and Leap by Michael Grumley while walking and The Pledge by Kathleen Kent while in my office.
Part 2… What Happened Today?
(11 pink dandelions) 14352 steps yesterday.
Up at 5:00 AM. The Orion Constellation has arrived in the early morning dark sky. 81 degrees. Updated my daily Goal Sheets. Around 6:20 AM, I went for a 90-minute Feather Sound walk. After I arrived home, I took Gizmo for a 20-minute walk. Kay went for her 30-minute walk. Pierre arrived around 10:00 AM to give us all haircuts. Completed yesterday’s journal. Updated the Blowout Forum regarding new members. Later, we watched 2 movies… Look Both Ways and The bounty Hunter. Rays beat the Kansas City Royals at home again. Rays are in 2nd place, 8.0 games out of 1st place. 42 games left in the season.
Part 3…Coronavirus Update
***Current corona-virus numbers***
7-day average is increasing again.
129,460 coronavirus cases in the US yesterday. (7-day average: 101,455
cases)
92,800,000+ total coronavirus cases in the US- 1,030,000+ deaths.
| Part 4… Floods After a weekend of heavy rain in the southern US, more than 13 million people remain under flood warnings today. Many parts of north and central Texas are under flood watches, as well as some areas of northwest Louisiana, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters say increased rain is causing excessive runoff that floods rivers, creeks, streams and other low-lying areas. Up to 6 inches of rain has already fallen across the Texas-Oklahoma border and forecasts show an additional 4 to 8 inches could hit the region today. Meanwhile, heavy downpours in New Mexico this weekend forced about 160 people to evacuate from Carlsbad Caverns National Park, authorities said. Rangers also received a report of hikers being “swept off their feet” due to powerful flood waters at Utah’s Zion National Park a few days ago. |
| Part 5… Ukraine Western leaders, including President Joe Biden, are calling for the UN nuclear watchdog to visit the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine, where shelling has sparked fears of a disaster. Over the past month, a number of rockets and shells have landed inside the territory of the plant — the largest nuclear complex in Europe — according to satellite imagery analyzed by CNN. Separately, Russia has opened a murder investigation after the daughter of influential, ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin was killed by a car bomb outside Moscow. Darya Dugina’s father is a Russian author and ideologue, credited as being the architect or “spiritual guide” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He is purported to have significant influence over Russian President Vladimir Putin and was described as “Putin’s Brain” by Foreign Affairs magazine. Ukraine has denied having any responsibility for the killing. Part 6… Immigration At least 140 asylum seekers arrived in New York on Sunday in what officials are calling the largest single-day arrival of migrants from Texas. They’re among the thousands of migrants sent by bus to Washington, DC, and New York this year at the direction of Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in an effort to highlight his criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Abbott said Friday the state had sent more than 7,000 migrants by bus to Washington since April and more than 900 migrants to New York City since August 5. “The busing mission is providing much-needed relief to our overwhelmed border communities,” Abbott’s office said. New York’s mayor and other city officials have accused Abbott’s administration of allegedly forcing asylum seekers onto buses bound for their cities. But Abbott’s office has repeatedly said the migrants are traveling willingly and are happy to go. |
| Part 7…Student Loans Americans may receive a major announcement on student loans from the Biden administration in the “next week or so,” US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Sunday. A pause on federal student loan payments is set to expire on August 31, and with about nine days to go, Americans have been left guessing whether President Biden will extend the current moratorium or, perhaps, forgive some of their debt. Payments have not been required on most federal student loans since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the US, greatly affecting the economy. Biden has extended the pause four times, most recently in April. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are urging Biden to broadly cancel up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower, but the President has consistently pushed back on canceling that much. Part 8… Tesla Some Tesla owners are going to extreme lengths to defend the company’s “full self-driving” software. In a widely circulated video, one North Carolina resident enlisted his 11-year-old son for a test to prove the car would stop for a child in the road. In the video, the man accelerated the Tesla and turned on “full self-driving,” after reaching 35 mph. The Tesla appears to have braked steadily and came to a full stop — well ahead of his son. Enough people seem to be pursuing their own experiments that one government agency is warning people not to use children to test a car’s technology. “Consumers should never attempt to create their own test scenarios or use real people, and especially children to test the performance of vehicle technology,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said, calling this approach “highly dangerous.” |