Month: June 2020

Cornell says in-person learning is best for public health

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

As colleges around the country grapple with how to reopen in the fall, Cornell University’s president on Tuesday announced that it will welcome students back to campus — an option she said is best not only for their education, but also public health.

The Ivy League university decided that compared with holding classes only online, residential learning would be safer for students and the wider community because it can ask students to participate in a screening program to detect and contain any spread of the coronavirus, President Martha Pollack said.

“The key consideration in our decision to reopen is public health,” Pollack said in a statement.

In contrast, many other universities around the country, citing concerns for the health of students and faculty, have developed plans to bring smaller numbers of students to campus or emphasize online instruction. Dozens of others have announced plans to reopen with modifications to campus

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Tackling the global demand that’s driving the illegal wildlife trade

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

Close-up of African elephant with cut tusks to avoid poaching in Etosha National Park, Namibia: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Close-up of African elephant with cut tusks to avoid poaching in Etosha National Park, Namibia: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The global expert who helped draft China’s first animal welfare law has a succinct message for protecting wildlife: “If we don’t buy, they don’t die.”

Grace Ge Gabriel, Regional Director for Asia at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, told The Independent that understanding the driving forces behind the demand for wildlife and their parts was integral to tackling the illegal wildlife trade (IWT).

The Independent’s Stop The Wildlife Trade campaign was launched by its proprietor Evgeny Lebedev to call for an end to high-risk wildlife markets and for an international effort to regulate the illegal trade in wild animals to reduce our risk of future pandemics.

On Wednesday, Ms Gabriel joins the first webinar of The Independent’s campaign to raise awareness around the issue, hosted by non-profit partner Space For Giants’ CEO

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Kids Must Wear Masks In Playgrounds; Other Updates

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

HOBOKEN, NJ – After a recent period in which Hoboken had only one new coronavirus case in a week, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said in a Tuesday night update that there had been six new cases in the previous three days. Two cases were reported Monday, two Sunday, and two Saturday.

Last week, there were 16 new cases.

The city of 53,000 people now has now had 598 people with confirmed cases and 30 deaths of residents due to the virus. The city has not had any new resident deaths from the virus since May 21.

In his update Tuesday evening, Bhalla recommended that residents spend the July 4 weekend only with household members.

(To see what’s happening for July 4 in our area, check out our guide, including an update on the Macy’s fireworks.)

“In other states, such as California, reports have indicated that gatherings during Memorial Day weekend

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Duke plans mass COVID-19 testing and mix of in-person and online classes this fall

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

Duke University is planning to bring students, faculty and staff back to campus in August with new safety precautions, including mass COVID-19 testing, adjusted classroom layouts and revised housing options in dorms and hotels.

The school also announced the plan for its student-athletes to return to campus, beginning with football players on July 12.

The news comes as state health officials say they are concerned about the recent increase in COVID-19 cases among younger adults.

“While the trends we see today are concerning,” Duke president Vince Price said in a statement, “we believe that the many safety precautions we are putting in place will allow us to responsibly continue along the path towards opening Duke’s fall 2020 semester on campus in August. We ask all members of the Duke community — students, parents, faculty and staff — to recognize and accept that we may need to change our plans based

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Nick Cordero’s Wife Amanda Kloots Says She ‘Cried All Day’ as He Remains in ICU: ‘I Broke Big Time’

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

Amanda Kloots is feeling very emotional amid her husband Nick Cordero’s recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) complications.

On Monday night, Kloots shared that she had an “outburst” as the 41-year-old Broadway star spent his 89th day in the intensive care unit, writing in a lengthy note on her Instagram Stories: “I had a hard day today. I cried all day basically.”

In the post, the fitness instructor — who shares 12-month-old son Elvis Eduardo with Cordero — revealed that she even started questioning her faith during her breakdown.

“I got mad today too. I got mad at God. I’m praying and I have people all over the world praying. I said to my mom and dad, ‘Why can’t He throw us a bone. I’m sorry but I’m mad at him,’ ” she wrote. “I felt bad right after my outburst, but it needed to come out.”

amanda kloots/instagram

RELATED: Nick Cordero’s

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An economist who collected coronavirus data from 841 childcare centers explains how parents should decide whether to send kids back to school

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

reopening schools
reopening schools

Getty

  • As cities start opening up, parents face the tough decision of whether to send children who’ve been stuck at home for months to daycare, or school. 

  • To help parents with that decision, Emily Oster, an economist, collected coronavirus data from childcare centers that have stayed open during the pandemic. 

  • The data pointed to low transmission rates among both children and staff.

  • Still, Oster acknowledged that the childcare decision is a personal one and that there are “no easy answers.”

  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Since the pandemic hit, Emily Oster — an economist who’s authored two books on parenting and pregnancy— has been using available data to respond to families’ pressing concerns about the coronavirus. She’s touched on topics like how to safely visit grandparents and the risks the virus poses in pregnant women.

Lately, Oster’s received an outpouring of questions from parents about whether to

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Toronto moves motion to make masks mandatory in city, but Ontario-wide rule yet to come

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

Yahoo News Canada is committed to providing our readers with the most accurate and recent information on all things coronavirus. We know things change quickly, including some possible information in this story. For the latest on COVID-19, we encourage our readers to consult online resources like Canada’s public health website, World Health Organization, as well as our own Yahoo Canada homepage.

As cases of COVID-19 continue to spread around the world, Canadians seem to be increasingly concerned about their health and safety

Currently, there are more than 102,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Canada and more than 8,500 deaths.

Check back for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak in Canada.

For a full archive of the first month of the pandemic, please check our archive of events.

June 30

2:00 p.m.: More mask rules to come in effect in Canada

As the City of Toronto awaits a

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Where 23 states stand on NFL, coronavirus measures

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

Amid the surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, the NFL is pressing forward with plans to keep the 2020 regular season on schedule.

The league told its 32 teams Thursday that they can proceed to host training camps at the end of July, which is typical.

What state bodies are saying about the NFL season carries weight. And while it’s all speculative until the pressure point of a late July opening rolls around, some of the governors with significant power over the process have made some telling comments or put forth important guidelines.

With that in mind, we looked at all 23 states with teams in play and focused on what the governors have been saying about the NFL’s fall schedule or their plan to reopen their states to normal business coming out of the summer.

Most recent projection (June 30): A spike in coronavirus cases in Arizona put … Read More

Restaurant Co-Owner Cites Husband’s Mental Health After He Refuses Black Customer in ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Shirt

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

A number of people assembled outside a Maryland restaurant on Sunday after a customer said he wasn’t permitted inside because he was wearing a shirt that said “I can’t breathe,” a reference to George Floyd and others who have been killed by the police.

Located in Prince George county, protestors called for the Fish Market to shut down for the day, Fox 5 reports. The community was outraged after customer Daryl Rollins, who is Black, shared his experience online. He explained that on Friday, one of the owners, Rick Giovannoni, wouldn’t let him inside the restaurant when he saw Rollins’ shirt.

“He came over and told me, ‘Why do you have that shirt on? I seen the video. It was terrible. Why would you wear that shirt? You cannot come into my establishment like that,’” Rollins said. He said the owner was likely referring to the video of Floyd’s death,

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Will We Ever Have Sex Again? An Investigation

By Shelton Muro 4 months ago

One sunny day in May, a man named Ashrita Furman took a samurai sword and sliced 31 watermelons open on his own stomach in under one minute, making it one of 600 times he has set a Guinness World Record. 

I have set zero Guinness World Records, but I’ve been thinking about how much I have in common with Furman lately, whom I first learned about in a New Yorker profile in 2011, which stated, “He has never driven a car, and he is celibate.”

But that’s me, I thought, taking a swig of skim milk and checking my powder-blue Baby-G watch to make sure I wasn’t missing Gossip Girl. “I don’t know how to drive a car. I’ve never had sex with anyone.”

Almost 10 years later, I’m exactly where I was when I first read about Furman: living in my parents’ house, still totally unable to

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