- LA Country Reinstates Indoor Mask Mandate
LA County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis announced Wednesday, that beginning Saturday night masks must be worn inside. Following rising numbers of COVID cases and COVID deaths, LA county decided to reinstate the mask mandate that was recently lifted. This new ordinance is not in compliance with the existing California mask mandate and the mask mandates of many cities in the county, but is in the best interest of all Angelenos.
The previous mask mandate which had been in place for months was recently lifted and many people are not happy about the regression we are making. Many other cities and states are also reinstating their previously abandoned mask mandate while cases rise across the US. With so many still unvaccinated it seems impossible to think we will not be wearing masks anytime soon.
Read more on The LA Times.
- Federal Judge Rules Against DACA
A federal judge in Texas ruled today that all new DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) applicants will not be accepted. Judge Andrew Hanen only banned new applicants and stated current DACA recipients were safe, although it opens a scary door of these people’s legality in this country. Hanen did state that with hundreds of thousands of participants receiving relief though DACA, you could not stop it immediately but going forward the Obama Era program would not continue to assist immigrants in relief.
Hanen argued that Congress did not give Homeland Security the authority to create DACA and makes it almost impossible for the removal of individuals. Going forward, it will be interesting to see what happens to all DACA members, many of whom have grown up safely and made lives for themselves, and what will be created instead, if anything, to grant relief for those who need it.
Read more on CNN.
- COVID Affects Olympic Rosters
With COVID cases and cases involving the more deadly DELTA variant rising at alarming rates many Olympic rosters are in jeopardy. High profile cases are emerging and many athletes are unable to participate due to their positive test results or positive test results of fellow teammates. We even see rosters being impacted by athletes who are choosing not to participate in this year’s Olympics due to COVID. While teams are designed to perform no matter what and most great teams do not rely on one player, it can be hard when an integral member of your team is unable to step on the pitch, court, track, etc.
We may see an upset in many games or brackets this year as teams who are normally very strong perform worse without key members of their squad, and other teams perform better when faced with less tough competition. We may even see a withdrawal of teams or a cancellation of the Olympics as a whole as we profess into the summer and the games begin.
Read more on WAMU.
- Florida Company Suspected in Haitian President Assassination
The President of Haiti was assassinated in his home last week and as the investigation developed it has been discovered a Florida company may be involved. CTU Security is a small security company located in the Miami suburb of Doral offering security to high level personnel, self- defense classes, and the selling of security equipment. It was uncovered that the founder of CTU Security, Antonio Intriago supposedly paid Colombian nationals to assassinate the Haitian President. Former members of CTU were surprised to hear of the company’s involvement in an international assassination plot as the company is relatively small and focuses mostly on teaching self defense and selling equipment, less on actually providing protection services. The company was having some serious financial issues but more is still being uncovered as to what CTU was doing orchestrating an assassination, Intriago has remained silent on this issue.
Read more on NPR.
- Texas Democrats Walk Out
Earlier this week Texas Democrats got on a plane headed for D.C. in hopes of stopping the GOP from passing voter restriction laws. Democrats left with the intention of breaking a quorum, the minimum number of people needed to vote. Knowing they would most likely lose and the ability to register to vote and vote within 24 hours, drive through voting and other voting laws would be taken away from Texas residents, Texas Democrats left Austin and are hoping they can generate awareness, national attention, and push forward a pair of federal voting bills.
The members who left, left behind family, friends, sick loved ones, one even her wedding in order to help their constituents. It was not an easy decision to make and not one made lightly, while GOP members are hoping to easily draw democrats back to Austin and start conducting business as usual, Democrats hope their efforts were not made in vain. This is just another example of the way the political divide in deepening in our country. The coming weeks will show how easily Democrats can be swayed to return and how this issue will be fixed in Texas.
Read more on The Texas Tribune.
