'We would like to get in there': Kenosha officials frustrated as over 30 Amazon workers contract COVID-19

From JSOnline:

Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

At least 32 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed at Amazon's facilities in Kenosha County. (Photo: Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

At least 32 workers at the Amazon campus in Kenosha have contracted coronavirus in the past two months, according to messages sent to employees and shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Amazon officials have not fully cooperated with public health workers trying to track cases, inform workers who might be at risk or offering testing and other safety measures, said Jen Freiheit, health officer for Kenosha County. 

“We’re at the point now that since we’re not getting that, we’re going to look into what other measures we can take for Amazon, because we are not getting as far with compliance as we would like,” Freiheit said. 

If Amazon officials do not cooperate with health officials, Freiheit said she would consider attempting to shut down the Kenosha facilities. 

Amazon has not provided an official total number of cases at its Kenosha facilities to county health officials and declined to provide the number to the Journal Sentinel.

"We are supporting the individuals who are recovering," Amazon spokeswoman Jen Crowcroft said in a statement. "Our top concern is ensuring the health and safety of our employees."

The Journal Sentinel confirmed at least 32 cases at the Amazon facilities based on screenshots of text messages and voice messages sent by Amazon managers to employees as new cases were confirmed. Those messages were provided to the Journal Sentinel by workers.

Workers told the Journal Sentinel they believe the number of positive cases is higher. 

Amazon management has refused to say how many workers have tested positive nationwide at its workplaces. But Jana Jumpp, who is on leave from her job at an Amazon facility in Indiana, has been tracking cases across the country with the help of workers.

As of Wednesday, Jumpp said she had confirmed 941 cases using screenshots of text messages and other verification methods. She was working on confirming another 94, she said.

Seven Amazon employees, including a 50-year-old who worked at a Waukegan warehouse, have died from the virus, she said, the same number reported last week by the Indianapolis Star. 

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2020/05/21/at-least-32-workers-amazon-kenosha-facilities-have-had-coronavirus/5221689002/

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NASA uncovers evidence of bizarre parallel universe where physics, time operate in reverse

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Frank O'Laughlin

(WHDH) — Scientists at NASA have reportedly uncovered evidence of a bizarre parallel universe where the rules of physics and time appear to be operating in reverse.

Researchers conducting an experiment in Antarctica discovered particles from a universe that was born during the same Big Bang the created the one we live in, according to NewScientist.

A NASA team was using a giant balloon to carry electronic antennas into the sky above the frozen wastes of Antarctica when they encountered a “wind” of particles from outer space that were “a million times more powerful” than anything they had seen before, the news outlet reported.

Low-energy particles have the ability to pass through Earth without any interaction, but higher-energy particles are stopped by the solid matter of Earth, the report stated.

High-energy particles are only detected if they are coming “down” from Earth, but NASA’s Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna detected the particles traveling “up.”

The findings suggest that the particles were traveling backward in time from a parallel universe, the experiment’s lead investigator, Peter Gorham, said in an interview with the University of Hawai‘i News.

Otherwise, the particles would have had to change form before passing through Earth and back again, something that Gorham described as an “impossible event.”

Gorham explained that the Big Bang, which happened nearly 14 billion years ago, likely resulted in the formation of two universes — the one that the people of Earth live in and another where everything operates in reverse.

From: https://whdh.com/news/nasa-uncovers-evidence-of-bizarre-parallel-universe-where-physics-time-operate-in-reverse/

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Microsoft teamed up with OpenAI to build a massive AI supercomputer in Azure

At its Build developer conference, Microsoft  today announced that it has teamed up with OpenAI, the startup trying to build a general artificial intelligence, with — among other things — a $1 billion investment from Microsoft, to create one of the world’s fastest supercomputers on top of Azure’s infrastructure. Microsoft says that the 285,000-core machine would have ranked in the top five of the TOP500 supercomputer rankings.

Because Microsoft doesn’t actually tell us much more than that, except for a few more specs that say it had 10,000 GPUs and 400 gigabits per second of network connectivity per server, we’ll just have to take Microsoft’s and OpenAI’s  word for this.

To be in the top five of supercomputers, a machine would currently have to reach more than 23,000 teraflops per second. It’s also worth noting that the No. 1 machine, the IBM  Power System-based Summit, reaches over 148,000 teraflops, so there is quite a wide margin here. Despite writing a four-page press release about its AI initiatives, Microsoft didn’t share any actual performance numbers.

“The computer is connected to Azure, but is a dedicated resource of OpenAI’s. They paid for the system, paying both Microsoft and other suppliers. The total cost is not being disclosed,” a Microsoft spokesperson told me when I asked for details. We’re also being told that the system is still running today.

Since Microsoft’s massive investment, OpenAI has made Azure its cloud of choice and this supercomputer was developed “with and exclusively for OpenAI.”

OpenAI has made a name for itself by training very large models. That’s obviously the purpose of a project like this, too.

“As we’ve learned more and more about what we need and the different limits of all the components that make up a supercomputer, we were really able to say, ‘If we could design our dream system, what would it look like?’ ” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman . “And then Microsoft was able to build it.”

From: https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/19/microsoft-says-it-teamed-up-with-openai-to-build-a-massive-ai-supercomputer-in-azure/

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Judge: Salvage firm can recover Titanic’s telegraph machine

OFP/AFP via Getty

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic ocean liner.

In an order released Monday, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith agreed that the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site.

Smith wrote that recovering the telegraph “will contribute to the legacy left by the indelible loss of the Titanic, those who survived, and those who gave their lives in the sinking.”

Smith is the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters from a federal court in Norfolk. Her ruling modifies a previous judge’s order from the year 2000 that forbids cutting into the shipwreck or detaching any part of it.

Smith’s order is a big win for RMS Titanic Inc., the court-recognized salvor, or steward, of the Titanic’s artifacts. The firm recently emerged from bankruptcy and is under new ownership.

The Titanic had been traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public’s interest in the wreck site, fiercely opposes the mission. NOAA argued in court documents that the telegraph is likely surrounded “by the mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and should be left alone.

The company said it plans to exhibit the ship’s telegraph with stories of the men who tapped out distress calls to nearby ships “until seawater was literally lapping at their feet.”

“The brief transmissions sent among those ships’ wireless operators, staccato bursts of information and emotion, tell the story of Titanic’s desperate fate that night: the confusion, chaos, panic, futility and fear,” the company wrote in court filings.

The proposed expedition also has been controversial among some archaeological and preservation experts, and the firm may face more legal battles before salvage vehicles can descend nearly 2.5 miles (4 kms) to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

NOAA says the expedition is prohibited under federal law and an international agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom. Those restrictions emerged in the years after the court’s 2000 order.

In her ruling, Smith acknowledged NOAA’s arguments. But she said the only matter before the court was the previous order made by the judge who preceded her.

Read more: https://apnews.com/879f8b7752bc005cab0eea2676780876

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THE ONE BILLION DOLLAR RUSD REFERENDUM

From Racine County Corruption:

THE ONE BILLION DOLLAR
RUSD REFERENDUM

(Racine Unified School District)

A quick look at the referendum

by the numbers

RUSD serves the following 7 communities.

Racine, Caledonia, Mt.Pleasant, Wind Point, 

Elmwood Park, North Bay, Sturtevant.

There are approximately 20,000 students within the school system.

There are about 150,000 residents within RUSD

The average home within RUSD is already taxed yearly at a mil rate of appoximately $9.96

per thousand assessed or about 1% of the home’s value goes yearly towards the

Racine Unified School District.

So an average $130,000.00 home is already paying the school levy of $1,294.80 per year to the schools.

So what is the average cost of the referendum divided into the number by residents?

What is 1 billion dollars divided by

One hundred fifty thousand residents? 

The answer is biblical, even prophesied!

$6,666,66…… per resident.

Let’s try this again

1,000,000,000 divided by One Hundred fifty thousand equals 6,666.66…………..

The math works out.

Now let’s look at the average family’s cost.

For each man, woman and child living within the RUSD school district, the future additional tax consequences are indeed dire.

The average family of four will be paying an additional $26,666.64.dollars in addition to the already overtaxed yearly school system property levies.

Will there even be brick and mortar schools

30 years into the future?

The insanity continues!

The honeymoon between tech companies and schools is long over as each entity is fighting for educational funding from the government. 

The love/hate relationship between tech companies and schools are festering to new levels of 
economic warfare.  

 Tech companies and public schools are now in full conflict of who is going to secure the future educational tax dollars.

As all the dark forces continue to concoct new ways to tax you and your family into servitude, the public is being pushed further and further into deeper water, barely treading, trying to stay afloat with all the extra baggage these taxing agencies have place upon your burden.

Looking for other ways to analyze the real impact of the RUSD election?

How about dividing a billion dollars into the number of tax paying properties within the district?

The numbers are not child's play.

  

Keep in mind the old adage:

Figures lie and liars figure.

What can HOT Government do for you?

Honest, Open, Transparent

https://www.hotgovernment.com/

From: https://racinecountycorruption.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-rusdreferendum-racine-unified.html

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Justice Department warns California about its coronavirus restrictions on churches

The Justice Department states in a letter that a stay-at-home order doesn't appear to treat churches and other activities the same.

Demonstrators holding signs demanding their church to reopen, protest during a rally to re-open California and against Stay-At-Home directives on May 1, 2020 in San Diego, Calif.Sandy Huffaker / AFP - Getty Images

May 19, 2020, 10:51 PM CDT

By Phil Helsel

The Justice Department on Tuesday sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressing concerns about how soon churches will be allowed to resume in-person services and raising Constitutional issues.

The letter takes issue with state plans to allow the resumption of in-person religious services, which is scheduled to start after manufacturing and officework are allowed to resume.

It also cites a past statement from U.S. Attorney Bill Barr that says, "government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity."

Tuesday's letter also says that the state's stay-at-home order "does not appear to treat religious activities and comparable nonreligious activities the same."

A spokesman for Newsom's office said only that it had received the Justice Department letter.

Newsom said Monday at a news conference that some restrictions on churches, including counseling services and other activities, have been eased, "but for the congregants, that's a few weeks away."

"Not months. Weeks, if everything holds," Newsom said.

He expressed his "deep admiration" to the faith community and its desire to know when congregants can return.

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DOJ’s letter to CA Gov. Newsom on civil rights and the covid-19 pandemic.

“We believe that the Constitution calls for California to do more to accommodate religious worship, including in Stage 2 of the Reopening Plan.”

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6:57 PM - May 19, 2020

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California is starting the process of reopening some areas of its economy and activities following restrictions designed to prevent or slow the spread of the coronavirus illness COVID-19.

The state is currently early in "stage two," which allows curbside retail service and some manufacturing and other activity with restrictions.

In-person religious services, along with hair and nail salons and movie theaters, aren't eyed until stage three, and even then, there will be limits on the size of gatherings, according to published materials on the plan.

Regional exceptions are being granted that allow some counties to go faster into stage two, Newsom said.

The Justice Department letter says that churches can do the same social distancing as businesses.

"We believe, for the reasons outlined above, that the Constitution calls for California to do more to accommodate religious worship, including in Stage 2 of the Reopening Plan," the letter reads,

The Department notes three federal judges have refused to block the restrictions on religious services, but it says that those decisions "do not justify California’s actions."

It is not the first time that the Justice Department has gotten involved in the issue of church restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

The department in April intervened in a lawsuit to support a church in Greenville, Mississippi, after churchgoers who attended a drive-in service were fined.

Churchgoers in the Mississippi case argued they were being treated unfairly because others were allowed to go to drive-in restaurants, while they were ticketed for attending a drive-in church service.

The Greenville City Council changed its policy in response, saying the services are OK with windows rolled up, The Associated Press reported.

In Oklahoma, U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Downing earlier this month sent a letter to the mayor of Norman, telling her that her plan on churches "may violate the right to free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment."

Downing urged the mayor, Breea Clark, to reopen churches sooner. Clark did so and amended her order.

Clark said that the rules for churches and other similar venues were the same, but "I will not spend years feuding with the federal government over one week."

From: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/justice-department-warns-california-about-its-coronavirus-restrictions-churches-n1210926

Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The scientist who created Florida's COVID-19 data portal wasn't just removed from her position on May 5, she was fired on Monday by the Department of Health, she said, for refusing to manipulate data.

Rebekah Jones said in an email to the USA TODAY Network that she single-handedly created two applications in two languages, four dashboards, six unique maps with layers of data functionality for 32 variables covering a half a million lines of data. Her objective was to create a way for Floridians and researchers to see what the COVID-19 situation was in real time.

Then, she was dismissed. 

"I worked on it alone, sixteen hours a day for two months, most of which I was never paid for, and now that this has happened I'll probably never get paid for," she wrote in an email, confirming that she had not just been reassigned on May 5, but fired from her job as Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health. 

After USA TODAY Network first reported Jones' removal from her position in charge of the Florida COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard she created, she confirmed, as reported by CBS-12 in West Palm Beach that she was fired because she was ordered to censor some data, but refused to "manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen."

She provided no further details. 

In an email last Friday to researchers and other data users, Jones warned that with her removal changes were likely coming to the accessibility and transparency of the dashboard data. 

"They are making a lot of changes. I would advise being diligent in your respective uses of this data," she wrote.  

Researchers who saw the email reacted with shock and dismay, suggesting it could be evidence that the Gov. Ron De Santis' government was censoring information to support the case for re-opening Florida.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/19/florida-covid-19-coronavirus-data-researcher-out-state-reopens/5218897002/

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Milwaukee County suburban communities will reopen Friday; Barrett weighs options for Milwaukee

From JSOnline:

Alison Dirr, Milwaukee Journal Sentine

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (Photo: Colin Boyle / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Milwaukee County’s suburban municipalities will move on to the next phase of reopening Friday, allowing all remaining businesses to open, even as the City of Milwaukee's stay-at-home order remains in effect.

Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers' stay-at-home order aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus. 

Shortly after that, the 18 suburban municipalities in Milwaukee County, followed by the City of Milwaukee, issued new local orders. The suburban orders expire at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday while Milwaukee's does not have an end date.

The orders from the municipalities and Milwaukee allow more businesses to reopen with limits. The businesses include hair salons, barbershops, nail salons and day spas. 

Ann Christiansen, director of the North Shore Health Department, said during a virtual news conference Tuesday that suburban municipalities are finalizing guidelines for reopening.

She said businesses will be able to reopen but with guidelines on how to do so safely and under what conditions. Those include plans that allow for social distancing, disinfection and cleaning and other protections for employees and customers, she said. 

Local health departments will be communicating the plan with businesses in their jurisdictions, she said.

Christiansen said the focus remains on a "phased" reopening to avoid overwhelming the health care system.

Milwaukee order still in place

Milwaukee officials are evaluating the city's next steps and remain "very concerned," Mayor Tom Barrett said Tuesday.

"We are not ready at this stage to simply say everything is back to normal for the simple reason that everything is not back to normal," he said. "Regardless of what the Supreme Court's decision is, regardless of what one jurisdiction or another jurisdiction does, the fact is that we are trying to follow the health care and the science as much as possible." 

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Barrett said he is particularly concerned about Milwaukee's African American and Latino communities, which have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. For instance, African Americans have accounted for nearly half of COVID-19 deaths in Milwaukee County, while making up about 27% of the county's population. 

Barrett has not offered a timetable for reopening, aside from saying the decision will be based on consultations with health officials..

South Milwaukee Mayor Erik Brooks said the reality is the virus is not going away with reopening, which means the work of health departments will continue. 

"In South Milwaukee and across the area, we ask our residents, our visitors, our business owners, others to continue to act responsibly, safely, consistent with federal, state and local guidelines for a safe reopening," he said.

Brooks said he hopes that lifting the order Friday will allow for a beginning of a return to normal, adding, "I'm certain we'll open responsibly."

He predicted that businesses that do this right and inspire customers' confidence will be rewarded.

"As we focus on moving from crisis to recovery to the next normal, we've been trying to balance the impact of health, safety, community and economy," said Timothy Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

He said employers are trying to reopen safely and thoughtfully.

The MMAC has developed a business tool kit in partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin that gives employers health and safety best practices and links to resources for decontamination and personal protective equipment.

The key to moving forward, Sheehy said, is to build consumer and employee confidence. 

"No matter how fast the community opens in terms of its regulatory capabilities, you're going to see employers adopt this on a much slower basis because they want to make sure that their workplaces are in a good position as they bring people back to work and they start to invite customers back," Sheehy said.

Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr. 

From: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2020/05/20/milwaukee-county-suburban-communities-move-reopen-friday/5224466002/