Martin Rather talks about the Rather Prize

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Martin Rather talks about the Rather Prize

4/24/2020 by The Focus on Albany Show

Web player: https://podplayer.net/?id=103139465
Episode: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/cynpooler/2020/04/24/martin-rather-talks-about-the-rather-prize.mp3

I’ve know Cynthia Pooler for many years but got to know her better when I started working with her on the Reszin Adams documentary which is kind of on hold with Coronavirus. But this podcast episode interviewing Martin Rather, son of Dan Rather, really gets to you about how truly awful the Coronavirus is in New York City.

April 24, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Partly cloudy and 47 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌃 Calm wind.

I am getting up early for a sunrise 🌅 hike tomorrow so I got to get to sleep. Otherwise I’d be sitting out back, enjoying the nice evening weather. I’m actually surprised that my neighbors don’t have a fire 🔥 out back it’s a nice evening but maybe they have to work tomorrow.

Went to the laundromat and worked from there 👚 in my truck while doing my wash. Between the roomy cab of my truck and the Wi-Fi this is a pretty good place to work in my opinion. 💻 Beats my uncomfortable chair at home and the sluggish cellular internet that I have to be so darn careful to keep just for work. On my personal laptop on the Wi-Fi I can update my blog or go to any web site I want and it’s fast. Later on I walked down to the park ⛲ and did my evening walk.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 37 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around April 15th. Calm wind. In 2019, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 38 degrees. The record low of 23 occurred back in 1965.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 3% illuminated. At 8 PM, the moon was in the west (279°) at an altitude of 15° from the horizon, some 247,513 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by October 29th. Buckle up for safety! 💺 The moon will set in the west-northwest (293°) at 9:26 pm. The Flower 🌷 Moon is on Thursday, May 7. The darkest hour is at 12:54 am, followed by dawn at 5:30 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:00 am in the east-northeast (71°) and last for 3 minutes and 3 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 29 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 6:39 am with sun in the east-northeast (78°). Tonight will have 10 hours and 9 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 37 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 62 degrees at 3pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 23rd. Light north wind. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 66 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 2009. 0.3 inches of snow fell back in 1928.❄

This should be a really nice day. I’m planning on spending most of the afternoon hiking at Partridge Run 🚶 and then I may spend a night at a different state forest in the hammock ⛺ but it depends. Not going to be super cold tomorrow if I wear my hoodie and pack some blankets. Maybe have a little fire back in the woods then fall asleep to the sounds of woods. Looks like the rain ☔ won’t come until fairly late on Sunday or at least I’ll be up quiet early on Sunday should I decide to spend the night.

In four weeks on May 22 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (299°) at 8:18 pm,🌄 which is 30 minutes and 8 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly sunny skies, with a few rain showers and temperatures between 71 and 45 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 71 and 49 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1911.

Looking ahead, May 🕊 is in 1 week, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 6 weeks and Latest Sunset 🌆 is in 2 months.

🇺🇸🦅Only 4 weeks remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!🦅🇺🇸

Before Dark

NPR

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Workers Sue Smithfield Foods, Allege Conditions Put Them At Risk For COVID-19 : NPR

Smithfield Foods, one of the biggest meat producers in the country, is operating its plant in Milan, Mo., "in a manner that contributies" to the spread of the coronavirus, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Kansas City.

 

The suit, brought by a plant worker identified as Jane Doe and by a nonprofit that advocates for plant workers, accuses Smithfield of failing to provide workers with sufficient protective equipment; forcing them to work shoulder to shoulder; giving them insufficient opportunities to wash their hands; discouraging them from taking sick leave; and failing to implement a plan for testing and contact tracing.

I should have downloaded the COVID-19 testing statistics a while back.

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I should have downloaded the COVID-19 testing statistics a while back. 👾

If you ever want to see the effects of poorly randomized data, this is it. Counties with more testing upstate generally have lower rates per capita. The data suggests that Albany County for example has as similar COVID-19 rate per capita as Clinton, Essex and Hamilton County but much fewer people as a percentage of the population in those counties have been tested in those counties, so they’re sampling sicker individuals most likely.

I think it would be helpful if the state started doing COVID-19 testing doing jury duty style supeonas to random people. Got to sample the population truly randomly, can’t only be selecting those who think they have been exposed to have COVID-19. Maybe that’s draconian but it would be good for statistics.

Play with the data on data.ny.gov, join it against census data for per capita counts.

The Right to Protest is Precious, Even During a Pandemic – Defending Rights & Dissent

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The Right to Protest is Precious, Even During a Pandemic – Defending Rights & Dissent

On April 14, 2020, the police department in Raleigh, North Carolina, tweeted, “Protesting is a non-essential activity,” as an explanation for breaking up a protest. As organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties and the First Amendment, the undersigned groups are deeply disturbed by this statement and other remarks and actions by public officials suggesting that peaceful protest can be outlawed during a national crisis. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic cannot be used to justify the suspension of First Amendment rights. People must be free to express disagreement with government decisions, even when it involves criticism of essential public health measures.

Upholding First Amendment rights need not be at odds with the government’s authority and obligation to protect public health and safety. The emergency decrees that call for social distancing, wearing of face covers or masks, and limits on the size of public assemblies can regulate the manner in which protests occur. However, regulations should be narrowly tailored to what is necessary to protect public health and cannot be so broad that they ban protest completely or so poorly drafted that they restrict peaceful demonstrations.