POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTING FAQ – In Texas, Early Voting Starts on October 13-thru-30!,Texas tells Harris County to halt plan to send all voters applications for mail-in ballots, For second time, federal judge finds Texas is violating voter registration law, Texas Democrats are successfully suing to kick Green Party candidates off the November ballot, Republicans try and fail to remove Libertarian candidates from the ballot, Texas Education Agency announces new COVID-19 tracking system for public schools, Study of More Than 55,000 COVID-19 Cases Reveals a Predictable Order of Symptoms, 7 things to know about COVID-19 combined with flu season, Coronavirus in vacant China apartment implicates toilet in spread, Report: Police Shootings Continue Unabated Despite COVID-19 Shutdowns, Why police shoot so many times to bring down a suspect, Rio Tinto execs lose bonuses but keep jobs after destruction of ancient aboriginal caves, MORE.

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Make sure you are registered to vote!

1. Next election is he General on November 3rd. Make sure you are registered!
2. VOTING FAQ – In Texas, Early Voting Starts on October 13-thru-30!
   1. VOTETEXAS.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   2. HARRISVOTES.COM­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   3. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   4. On the possibility that the courts make you eligible to vote by mail on Election Day due to the Covid-19 virus, make sure that you are ready with an application to mail in. These are available from HARRISVOTES.COM­.  Follow directions carefully.
   5. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, consider visiting VOTE.ORG. Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
   6. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or d emand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
   7. HARRISVOTES.COM – Countywide Voting Centers
      1. HARRIS CTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
         1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
         2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
         3. Current utility bill
         4. Bank statement
         5. Government check
         6. Paycheck
         7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
   8. You may vote early by-mail if
      1.  You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
      2. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
      3. Sick or disabled;
      4. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
      5. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
      6. Make sure you are registered:
   9. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
      1. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
         1. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
         2. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
3.  Texas tells Harris County to halt plan to send all voters applications for mail-in ballots – The secretary of state’s office threatened legal action against Harris County if it goes ahead with a plan to send applications for mail-in ballots to more than 2 million registered voters. by Alexa Ura | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Aug. 28, 202011 AM
   1. Until now, the fight over voting by mail in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic has focused on which voters are eligible to cast an absentee ballot. Now, the battle has progressed to an argument between the state and its most populous county over who can even receive the form to apply for a mail-in ballot.
   2. In a letter dated Aug. 27, Keith Ingram, director of elections for the Texas secretary of state, told Harris County to “immediately halt” its plans to send every registered voter in the county an application for a mail-in ballot for the general election. Ingram demanded the county drop its planby Monday to avoid legal action by the Texas attorney general.
   3. Sending out the applications “would be contrary to our office’s guidance on this issue and an abuse of voters’ rights under Texas Election Code Section 31.005,” Ingram wrote, citing a provision of state law that gives the secretary of state’s office power to take such action to “protect the voting rights” of Texans from “abuse” by local officials responsible for administering elections.
   4. Earlier this week, the Harris County Clerk’s office announced it would be sending every registered voter an application for a mail-in ballot for the general election. With more than 2 million residents on the voter rolls, the move to proactively send out applications that voters must otherwise request or find online put Harris in line with an initiative that several states have carried out for primary elections during the coronavirus pandemic.
   5. “Providing more information and resources to voters is a good thing, not a bad thing,” Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins said in response to the state’s letter. “We have already responded to the Secretary of State’s Office offering to discuss the matter with them.”
4. For second time, federal judge finds Texas is violating voter registration law – A U.S. district judge found Texas is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every driver’s license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. by Alexa Ura | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Aug. 28, 20205 PM
   1. A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver’s license online, has for the second time convinced a federal judge that the state is violating federal law.
   2. In a 68-page ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio found that Texas continues to violate the federal National Voter Registration Act by not allowing residents to register to vote when they update their driver’s license information online.
   3. Garcia found that DPS is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. The Texas attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the state is likely to appeal the ruling.
   4. It’s the second time Garcia has sided with the voter, former English professor Jarrod Stringer. Garcia’s first ruling was overturned on appeal on a technicality.
   5. The National Voter Registration Act requires states to let residents complete their voter registration applications when they apply for or renew their driver’s licenses. But Texas officials have staunchly opposed any form of online registration.
   6. The Texas Department of Public Safety follows federal law when residents visit a driver’s license office in person. But Texans who try to register while using the state’s online portal are instead directed to a blank registration form they must fill out, print and send to their county registrar.
   7. “DPS encourages Texans to use its online services to renew their driver’s license and change their address because it is easier and more convenient,” Garcia wrote. “It cannot, at the same time, deny simultaneous voter registration applications when those online services are used.” …
5. Texas Democrats are successfully suing to kick Green Party candidates off the November ballot – Democrats won legal rulings Wednesday blocking Green Party nominees for U.S. Senate, railroad commissioner and the 21st Congressional District from appearing on the November ballot. by Patrick Svitek | WWW.TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Aug. 19, 2020 Updated: Aug. 20, 2020
   1. State and national Democrats are waging a legal offensive to kick Green Party candidates off the ballot in some of Texas’ highest-profile races this fall — and they are seeing success.
   2. On Wednesday, both a Travis County district judge and a state appeals court blocked the Green Party nominees for U.S. Senate and the 21st Congressional District from appearing on the ballot. The Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals additionally forced the Green Party nominee for railroad commissioner off the ballot.
   3. Earlier this week, it surfaced thata Green Party contender for chief justice of theTexas Supreme Court had withdrawnafter the Democratic nominee questioned his eligibility.
   4. The Democrats are largely targeting Green Party candidates because they have not paid filing fees — a new requirement for third parties under a law passed by the Legislature last year. The filing fees were already required of Democratic and Republican candidates. Multiple lawsuits that remain pending are challenging the new law, and the Green Party of Texas has been upfront that most of its candidates are not payingthe fees while they await a resolution to the litigation.
   5. The Green Party argues that the filing fees, which go up to $5,000 for a U.S. Senate race, are an unconstitutional burden. It has also pointed out that the fees normally go toward primaries, something neither the Green nor Libertarian parties conducts because both nominate their candidates at conventions. Only two of the Green Party’s eight nominees for November have submitted the fees, according to the secretary of state.
   6. Responding to Wednesday’s rulings, the Texas Green Party said the legal challenges were suspiciously timed, coming after the Monday deadline for write-in candidates to file with the state and days before a series of deadlines finalizing the November ballot. …
   7. The rulings Wednesday came in response to lawsuits in two courts that involved some of the same ‎candidates. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign ‎Committee and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, MJ Hegar, sued to disqualify David Collins, the ‎Green Party nominee for U.S. Senate, and Tom Wakely, Green Party nominee for the 21st Congressional ‎District. Meanwhile, Hegar joined the Democratic nominee for the 21st District, Wendy Davis, and ‎candidate for railroad commissioner, Chrysta Castañeda, to seek an ineligibility ruling for three respective ‎Green Party candidates before the 3rd Court of Appeals.‎
   8. In the appeals court’s opinion, Justice Thomas Baker ordered the Green Party of Texas to declare its three ‎candidates ineligible and do all it could to make sure they do not appear on the ballot. Baker said the court ‎would not accept motions for rehearing, citing the “time-sensitive nature of this matter.” It was party-line ‎vote from a three-judge panel, with the one Republican in the group, Chief Justice Jeff Rose, dissenting.‎
   9. In the Travis County district court decision, Judge Jan Soifer said her order is in effect for the next two ‎weeks. However, she scheduled a hearing for Aug. 26 — two days before the state’s ballot certification ‎deadline — where she could reevaluate the decision.‎
6. Republicans try and fail to remove Libertarian candidates from the ballot – by Charles Kuffner | Off the Kuff | August 27th, 2020
   1. The Third Court of Appeals decision is here. You may be wondering, why did this same court agree to boot three Green candidates off the ballot last week, for the same reason of not paying filing fees? A good question, with a straightforward answer in the opinion.
   2. Basically, the key difference is timing. By state law, the deadline for withdrawing from the ballot is 74 days before the general election, which this year was August 21. The same date is also the deadline for removing an ineligible candidate’s name from the ballot. A candidate who has withdrawn, or been declared ineligible, or died after this date will still appear on the ballot.
7. Texas Education Agency announces new COVID-19 tracking system for public schools, By Danica Lloyd | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM/HOUSTON | 10:03 AM Aug 21, 2020 CDT | Updated 10:03 AM Aug 21, 2020 CDT
   1. A new tracking system will monitor and report confirmed COVID-19 cases in public schools statewide starting in September, according to a joint press statement from the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
   2. According to the Aug. 20 press release, school systems will be required to report COVID-19 cases to the DSHS, and this data including cases and outbreaks on campuses will be posted publicly. TEA officials are still finalizing details of the reporting process with the consideration of feedback from school districts.
   3. “Data on the number of cases in schools is of paramount interest to parents, students, teachers, staff, public health experts, policymakers and the larger community,” officials said in the statement. “This information will be submitted to DSHS any time there is a positive case in a campus community.”
   4. MIKE: WHAT ABOUT DIAGNOSTIC GUIDANCE??
8. Study of More Than 55,000 COVID-19 Cases Reveals a Predictable Order of Symptoms, CARLY CASSELLA | SCIENCEALERT.COM |20 AUGUST 2020
   1. A new study on the global pandemic has found those who contract COVID-19 may exhibit a predictable sequence of symptoms, and the order differs from what we experience with flu and other coronaviruses.
   2. So far, evidence indicates the most likely order of initial COVID-19 symptoms tends to start with a fever and then progress to a cough and muscle pain, followed by nausea and/or vomiting, and lastly, diarrhea.
   3. While the symptoms themselves are not particularly unique, the order in which they arrive is different to other respiratory viruses, and the authors think their model could help to distinguish new cases, thus helping us to limit the spread of the disease.
   4. Using World Health Organisation (WHO) data from more than 55,000 confirmed cases in China, the authors compared COVID-19’s order of symptoms to thousands of influenza cases collected by the University of Michigan, nearly 150 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in the Toronto area, and a handful of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases reported in Korea. …
9. 7 things to know about COVID-19 combined with flu season, Vicki Gonzalez, Reporter | kcra.com | Updated: 6:51 PM PDT Aug 26, 2020
   1. The medical community is concerned COVID-19 combining with the upcoming flu season may challenge hospital capacity. …
   2. “Both COVID-19 and influenza separately can cause respiratory failure,” Dr. Michael Matthay at UCSF said. “It is quite possible and likely that the two viruses could infect a patient at the same time.”
   3. Physicians are recommending people who are able to get the flu vaccine do so, to eliminate one viral threat this season.
   4. “There’s all these concerns about COVID-19, all the concerns about health care systems maybe not having capacity,” said Dr. Dean Blumberg, [who is a pediatric infectious disease doctor at UC Davis Children’s Hospital]. “All we need is one other bad thing to happen—like a bad flu season.” …
   5. “You definitely can get co-infections. So, somebody can get COVID and get another respiratory infection,” Blumberg said. “There is concern having both at once would obviously be overwhelming for the immune system and could lead to worse outcomes.”
   6. “We’re having some preliminary evidence that all the social distancing that has been put into place and the mask-wearing, closing of schools—all that stuff—that led to decrease transmission of influenza at the end of last season,” Blumberg said. “It just makes sense. It’s logical that if people are social distancing and wearing masks, that not only will that decrease transmission for COVID-19, but it will decrease transmission for other respiratory viruses like influenza.” …
   7. “There can be some confusion because the symptoms overlap,” Blumberg said. “Fever, cough, shortness of breath are the main things you see with COVID. With influenza it’s a real sudden onset. I mean, you know when you get sick with influenza. It’s not like I started feeling lousy yesterday. It’s like at 3 o’clock, that’s when I got sick. And it’s a sudden onset of fever, muscle aches, headache, et cetera, that occurs with influenza. So, you can sort of differentiate it that way. As opposed to the more gradual onset that you get with COVID and other respiratory viruses—such as the common cold.”
10. Coronavirus in vacant China apartment implicates toilet in spread, JAPANTIMES.CO.JP – Bloomberg | Aug 27, 2020
    1. The discovery of the coronavirus in the bathroom of an unoccupied apartment in Guangzhou, China, suggests the airborne pathogen may have wafted upwards through drain pipes, an echo of a large SARS outbreak in Hong Kong 17 years ago. …
    2.  The scientists conducted “an on-site tracer simulation experiment” to see whether the virus could be spread through waste pipes via tiny airborne particles that can be created by the force of a toilet flush. They found such particles, called aerosols, in bathrooms 10 and 12 levels above the COVID-19 cases. Two cases were confirmed on each of those floors in early February, raising concern that SARS-CoV-2-laden particles from stool had drifted into their homes via plumbing. …
    3. Apartments in multistory buildings may be linked via a shared wastewater system, said Lidia Morawska, director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Australia’s Queensland University of Technology. While solids and liquids descend the network, sewer gases — often detectable by their odor — sometimes rise through pipes in the absence of sufficient water, said Morawska, who wasn’t part of the research team.
    4. “If there’s smell, it means that somehow air has been transported to where it shouldn’t go,” Morawska said in an interview.
    5. SARS-CoV-2 spreads mainly through respiratory droplets — spatters of saliva or discharge from the nose, according to the World Health Organization. …
11. Doctors find possible case of Covid-19 reinfection in US, By Jacqueline Howard | CNN | Updated 9:56 PM ET, Fri August 28, 2020
    1. A 25-year-old Nevada man appears to be the first documented case of Covid-19 reinfection in the United States. …
    2. The Nevada researchers examined genetic material from both coronavirus specimens collected from the man. Their analysis suggests he had two distinct viral infections.
12. Report: Police Shootings Continue Unabated Despite COVID-19 Shutdowns, By Josiah Bates | TIME.COM |August 19, 2020 4:08 PM EDT
    1. While 2020 has seen a dramatic slowdown in the day-to-day activities and lives of many Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic, fatal police shootings are still occurring at a rate consistent with previous years—and with significant racial disparities, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
    2. As of June 30, 511 people have been shot and killed by police in the U.S., the report says, compared to 484 during the same time period in 2019. There has been an average of 19.4 deadly police shootings every week this year, a figure no different from fatalities recorded across the past 5 years.
    3. During the week of Feb. 24 (which was the first week a coronavirus-related death was reported in the U.S.) police fatally shot 22 people—nearly double the amount from that week the previous five years. …
    4. At 46%, nearly half of all fatal police shootings from 2015-2020 were of white people, according to the ACLU—white people comprise 60% of the U.S. population.  24% of those killed were Black, … while the Black community accounts for just 12.5% of the U.S. population. (Latinx people made up 16.7% of fatal police shootings during the same time period, while representing 18.5% of the population.) …
    5. The release of the report also coincides with a significant uptick in gun violence across the country. Community leaders and activists have, in response to this spike, expressed concerns that officers have been responding to protests and calls for police departments’ defunding with less investigative work and community policing. … Traditionally, officer-involved shootings have been viewed separately to violence and crime in impacted communities, but many activists and experts are now calling for a more holistic approach to proactive policing and crime reform … and investing monies instead into community-based solutions will help curtail crime rates; furthermore, that it will also reduce the need for police officers’ presence, leading to fewer violent interactions between police and civilians.
    6. The ACLU’s report also suggests that police transform their use of force statutes, prohibit police from enforcing non-serious offenses, get rid of qualified immunity and end the militarization of police. …
13. Why police shoot so many times to bring down a suspect, By Scottie Andrew |CNN | Updated 1:14 PM ET, Wed August 26, 2020
    1. … Law enforcement departments have long fielded questions about why officers fired as many shots as they did at a suspect. Police shootings aren’t a science — they’re usually high-stress situations where adrenaline takes over an officer’s response — but some factors explain why officers shoot as many times as they do.
    2. The “textbook answer” is that officers fire until they’ve terminated a threat, according to Seth Stoughton, an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law who studies policing.
    3. Officers use deadly force on a suspect they perceive to be an imminent threat of death or bodily harm to the officers or others. In training, police are told to use force until that person no longer presents a threat, Stoughton said.
    4. The number of shots it takes to “terminate a threat” depends on the circumstances.
    5. “Sometimes firing multiple shots makes complete sense,” said Stoughton, a former officer. “Sometimes firing multiple shots or the sheer volume or shots than officers fire doesn’t make sense.”
    6. If officers are using deadly force, they’re usually trained to not pause their fire and to shoot in quick succession — taking a break to assess the suspect they’re shooting at could give that suspect time to harm them or others, he said. …
    7. High shot counts may be attributed to a phenomenon called “sympathetic fire” or “reflexive fire,” which occurs when one officer fires on a suspect, so one or more officers with them start firing, too, even if they haven’t immediately perceived the suspect to be a threat, Stoughton said. …
    8. A 2019 study of the Dallas Police Department found that in more than 130 shootings, officers struck their targets 35% of the time. Most of their shots were misses. And a 2006 analysis, which examined a number of major metropolitan police department shootings throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, found that hit rates rarely exceeded 50%. Some departments, including the New York Police Department in 1990, hit only about 23% of targets.
    9. The anxiety and adrenaline of a high-stress deadly force incident may cloud officers’ judgment, said Cedric Alexander, a police training consultant and 39-year law enforcement veteran.
14. Rio Tinto execs lose bonuses but keep jobs after destruction of ancient aboriginal caves, By Hanna Ziady | CNN Business | Updated 7:12 AM ET, Mon August 24, 2020
    1. In a report published Monday into the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves in Western Australia in May, the company said that it failed to meet some of its own standards “in relation to the responsible management and protection of cultural heritage.”
    2. But Rio Tinto stopped short of firing any executives, drawing criticism from investor groups who accused the company of failing to take full responsibility for the demolition of the caves, which had significant archeological value and deep cultural meaning for aboriginal people. …
    3. Rio Tinto will cut the bonuses of three senior executives by a combined £3.8 million ($5 million) after the company blew up a 46,000-year old sacred indigenous site in Australia to expand an iron ore mine. … (From Caption)
    4. The site featured two cave systems that contained artifacts indicating tens of thousands of years of continuous human occupation. In a report given to Rio Tinto (RIO) before the planned expansion of its Brockman 4 mine, a leading Australian archeologist said the archaeological significance of the shelters “cannot be overstated.”
    5. Demolition went ahead on May 24 despite a seven-year battle by the local custodians of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, to protect the site. Rio Tinto apologized in June. …
    6. “This is a devastating outcome for the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, and a massive loss to the heritage of all Australians,” said Simon O’Connor, the CEO of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia. “The information revealed to date has exposed large failings in the internal processes to deliver upon the company’s own commitments to protecting indigenous heritage,” he added.
    7. According to Rio Tinto, “material new information” that came to light after legal approvals for the mine were obtained in 2013 should have led it to reconsider its expansion plans.  …