Link Roundup April 2022

[wepon]

Meet the gamer who raised $400K for transgender rights in Texas

Dickey, who has been playing the games for about 10 years and writing them since 2019, decided to gather other game designers and create a bundle of games to sell on Itch.io to benefit two small groups in Texas that support trans people, the Transgender Education Network of Texas and the Organización Latina de Trans en Texas.

Carrie Fisher's last Harrison Ford story isn't romantic, it's tragic

Then Harrison Ford steps in, in what sounds like a real-life version of a movie scene: “Pardon me,” he tells a crew member who claims Fisher wants to get a little air, “but the lady doesn’t seem to be very aware of what she wants.” An argument breaks out, and Ford yanks Fisher away from the party and into a car — and starts making out with her. He is married and has two kids. He is 14 years older than her. She is drunk, and he just finished saying she isn’t aware enough to make rational decisions.

Elon Musk thumbs his nose at the SEC again with Twitter stake

SEC disclosure punishments are historically modest — often about $100,000. Musk’s net worth, according to Forbes, is about $300 billion. A $100,000 fine amounts to .00003% of his wealth. The median net worth of a U.S. household is about $122,000. An equivalent fine to a median American household would be about 3 cents.

‘It’s Now Or Never’: We Have 3 Years to Reverse Course, Major Climate Report Finds

And we have very little wiggle room when it comes to our addiction to oil, gas, and coal. The amount of fossil fuel infrastructure that currently exists or is planned worldwide is enough to push us into levels of warming that are over the goals set out in the Paris Agreement, the report finds.

Biden officials trying to recalculate U.S. Covid-19 hospitalizations

Senior Biden health officials have increasingly relied on hospitalization numbers, rather than case counts, to determine how to respond to the virus as well as the efficacy of the vaccines. Lower hospitalization rates could inform the administration’s thinking on public health measures such as masking. More accurate Covid-19 numbers also could provide a better picture of the strain on hospitals and which resources they might need during surges.

Masks off? Democrats try for a pandemic pivot

Not every Democrat is echoing the centrists who welcome eased mask mandates. Many in the party still insist they can’t simply declare victory when the number of virus cases is still higher than it was under Covid’s Delta wave. These Democrats point out that rules should not simply vanish while the Covid vaccine remains unavailable to children under five years old.

State and hospitals don’t see eye to eye on counting COVID hospitalizations

In an announcement Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had redefined COVID-19 hospitalization to include only patients being treated with remdesivir or dexamethasone, drugs used for hospitalized patients with moderate to severe illness. Those hospitalized with milder symptoms or primarily for another cause are no longer included – even if they continue to take up a hospital bed because they are too ill to be discharged. The change is part of a national trend and one backed by the Biden administration in February.

The Supreme Court’s Attack on the Clean Water Act Was Too Extreme for John Roberts

In 2020, Trump’s EPA responded to these objections by drastically cutting back state and tribes’ authority to modify or deny certifications. The agency’s unprecedented rule limited these governments’ review of potential pollution as well as their ability to incorporate new conditions into the permit. It also slashed the amount of information companies must turn over, leaving states and tribes in the dark about the dangerous environmental impact of new projects. The rule caused substantial disarray in a number of states, including Washington, whose aquaculture industry nearly collapsed. A coalition of 20 states, three tribes, and six conservation organizations sued to block the rule, while eight red states and three industry trade groups intervened to defend it. In 2021, Joe Biden’s EPA announced that it would “reconsider and revise” the rule.

A Texas teacher faces losing her job after fighting for gay pride symbols in school

According to Victor Fausto, the GSA’s president, the infrequent meetings draw just five to 10 students. The remaining GSA faculty sponsors are no longer allowed by the administration to participate in club meetings, Latin said. School-issued computers block the website for the national GSA Network, along with several other LGBTQ advocacy organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN and The Trevor Project, despite multiple requests from staff to allow access.

A Covert Network of Activists Is Preparing for the End of Roe

People in similar situations need to know how to present themselves to doctors, Yanow said. “They can say they’re having a miscarriage, or they’re bleeding and they don’t know why,” she explained. According to Paul Blumenthal, a professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University, it is safe for patients to self-report this way; a medication abortion is clinically indistinguishable from a spontaneous miscarriage and treated in the same fashion.

An Interview With the Guy Who Intentionally Got Dysentery

While some may think of dysentery as a disease of the past, or something to reference when discussing old PC games, diarrhoeal disease kills over 500,000 children per year according to the WHO. There’s no vaccine for it, but Eberts and his fellow brave study participants are forging the path towards the development of one.

Do you need to wear a mask where you live? Understand the CDC's new guidance

The CDC continues to track case transmission levels — to see the level of transmission where you live, look up your county below.

John Oliver Blackmails Congress With Their Own Digital Data

Thing is, brokers group people in far less fanciful ways — according to their medical ailments, for instance. Or as “Suffering Seniors” and “Help Needed—I Am 90 Days Behind With Bills.” Last year, Epsilon, one of these ghoulish companies, was forced to pay $150 million in penalties because they’d knowingly sold the data of 30 million people to scammers targeting seniors.

Bidenworld projects calm about Covid but bite their nails in private

But some experts working on the response believe the undercounting is more severe than has been publicly acknowledged, with one administration official estimating that the government is only recording one out of every six new cases. The data gap has fed internal concerns over how exactly the government should publicly message the seriousness of the situation. “They’re like, ‘We don’t know if this is something to be worried about or not,’” said one person close to the White House. “But you can’t tell the public that.”

Activision board member donated $100,000 to Newsom's anti-recall campaign

Casey Wasserman, CEO of the Wasserman Media Group, is a director at Activision Blizzard, according to the company’s website, and sits on the board of directors and the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee. Just weeks after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed the July suit against the company, alleging a “frat boy” culture of rampant sexual harassment and discrimination against women, Wasserman donated $100,000 to the Stop the Republican Recall of Governor Newsom campaign, according to campaign finance records.

California Lawyer Quits Over Allegation Newsom Meddled in Activision Case

Melanie Proctor, the assistant chief counsel for California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, said in an email to staff Tuesday night that she was resigning to protest the fact that her boss at the agency, Chief Counsel Janette Wipper, had been abruptly fired by the governor. Both lawyers had already stepped down from the Activision lawsuit earlier this month without explanation. A representative for the two attorneys confirmed that Proctor had resigned and Wipper was fired.

The guy who brought us CRT panic offers a new far-right agenda: Destroy public education

In Florida, DeSantis signed a bill last year requiring the state's public universities to survey students and faculty on their political beliefs, to ensure students aren't being "indoctrinated," with the implication that schools where too few students or staff express conservative viewpoints might end up losing funding. In mid-February, after professors at the University of Texas passed a resolution in support of the academic freedom to teach CRT, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vowed to end tenure for all new hires in the state, and to strip the protection from current faculty who do teach the theory.

Workers at Apple’s Grand Central store move toward unionizing

The organizers, who have dubbed themselves “Fruit Stand Workers United,” say they voted Feb. 21 to affiliate with Workers United, a national labor union that has supported the successful unionization efforts of Starbucks employees around the country, according to the site. People involved in the organizing effort told The Washington Post that they have endured months of efforts by Apple to convince employees that unionizing is a bad idea, accusing the company of “union busting” tactics. Now, they are handing out signature cards to would-be union members.

Ajit Pai urges states to cap prison phone rates after he helped kill FCC caps

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is urging state governments to impose price caps on prison phone calls, three years after Pai helped kill Obama-era FCC rules that limited the price of such calls.

Activision Blizzard Employee Claims She Had Breast Milk Stolen At Work

The stories coming from Activision Blizzard workers have been truly repellent, but this latest story shared by former Blizzard producer Stephanie Krustick might just top them all. According to Krustick, who worked at Blizzard Entertainment between 2006 and 2020, she had several bags of breastmilk stolen while she was working in the building.

TSA will not enforce Covid mask mandate on planes, public transit after court ruling, White House says

The Transportation Security Administration will not enforce the Covid-19 mask mandate on planes and other public transportation, after a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the requirement, ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had overstepped its authority.

It Makes Total Sense if You Still Don’t Want to Get COVID

But to have access to carefully mitigated gatherings is, unfortunately, a huge privilege, as is having the means to deal with the fallout should you get sick. The attendees of the Gridiron dinner happen to be some of the most powerful people in the country. We can assume they all have access to high-quality health care, and therefore tools like PCR tests and Paxlovid (it needs to be taken within five days of symptom onset and isn’t always easy to get). The government also employs contact tracing for cases among its ranks—another way to help quickly figure out if you’re infected. Meanwhile, funding for vaccines, tests, and treatments has run out and Congress has yet to pass a bill funding these things, which means even simple tools like tests are no longer necessarily available for free. If you get admitted to the hospital and you’re not insured, you’re on the hook for the bill. In essence, there’s a huge gap between the reality of navigating risk for the political class and the rest of us.

Musk brain-chip company Neuralink admits to killing 8 monkeys in experiments

The company said in its blog post that two of the animals were euthanized “at planned end dates” in order to gather key data that could only be obtained by autopsy. The other six animals, it said, were euthanized on the advice of UC Davis veterinary staff after developing a variety of complications, including four cases of infection related to having the device implanted, one complication that involved a bad reaction to the surgical glue used to seal the incision, and one case where the brain chip failed after implantation.

$100 Million to Cut the Time Tax

A mother in Louisiana is struggling to pay her bills and decides to apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, better known as food stamps. She starts to fill out the state’s 26-page, 8,350-word application. Page one instructs her to distinguish between SNAP and two other programs, the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program and the Kinship Care Subsidy Program, providing a schematic on what to fill out depending on which she wants to apply for. Page three lets her know that she needs to collect paperwork or data in up to 13 different categories—pharmacy printouts from the past three months, four pay stubs, baptismal certificates, proof of who lives in the home. Page six includes details on drug court and “alternatives to abortion”; page seven outlines the penalties if she misuses her benefits by, for example, spending them on a cruise ship or at a psychic. Page 15 asks her to detail her income from 24 different sources; page 16 asks about 14 different housing expenses; page 19 asks about 10 types of assets members of her family might own. The process is invasive, time-consuming, and confusing. She might never finish the application. If she does, she could be rejected for doing the paperwork wrong.

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row.