"‘Slow and deliberate': Legal Sea Foods reopens restaurants with strict protocols" by Meghan Sorensen Globe Correspondent, July 10, 2020
As restaurants reintroduce indoor and outdoor dining as part of Massachusetts’s reopening plan, all eyes are on the challenges their businesses are facing.
Legal Sea Foods is an example of how well-known restaurants are making slow but steady progress.
Bob Luz, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, noted that “Legal Sea Foods is a favorite of all New Englanders,” and that “it is also revered both across the nation and internationally.” Together with other local restaurants, he said, the chain “is critical to the recovery of the greater [Massachusetts] economy.”
Time is of the e$$ence.
For its part, Legal Sea Foods said it has been able to keep all its employees either actively working or on furlough by using the $10 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds it received through the Small Business Administration. The company plans to pay employees’ health insurance benefits through August and then use the remaining PPP funds for rent and utilities.
In total, approximately 2,500 employees were furloughed, with 200 currently back to work and approximately 200 more to return to staff the restaurants reopening on July 21.
On Legal’s website, the company outlines the steps it is taking to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including requiring all team members to complete an Internal Training Certification Program that includes COVID-19 prevention, food safety, sanitation, and hygiene.
Other steps include daily wellness checks and temperature checks for employees prior to their shifts, sanitation stations for guest and employee use, and thorough disinfecting and cleaning protocols.
”We are proud to have grown Legal Sea Foods from a single fish market to a restaurant group that serves so many families in the communities in which we operate,” the company said in a statement.....
--more--"
Richard Vellante, Legal Sea Foods' Executive Chef, made a lobster roll on Father's Day for dining on the deck at Legal Harborside (Stan Grossfeld/ Globe Staff)
At least he won't be spitting in it.
Related:
"Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced a new initiative this week to increase accessibility at Boston restaurants that have reopened with outdoor dining spaces. The initiative allows restaurants that have been granted a temporary license to have seating in parking spaces, or on the street, to request a portable ramp for curbs. The ramps will eventually be returned to the City to be repurposed. The decision came with guidance from the mayor’s Commission for Persons with Disabilities and support from Citi as part of the Empowered Cities Initiative, which provided Boston with $200,000. “It’s important that as we reimagine our streets to accommodate outdoor dining during our reopening process, we do so in a way that is equitable to everyone who uses our roads and sidewalks, including those with disabilities,” Walsh said in a statement. “We are glad to include accessibility as an integral part of our permitting process and thank the restaurants for welcoming the use of portable ramps in their spaces as they continue to safely reopen.”
Just be sure you order the right thing.
$peaking of $treets:
"Optimism returned to Wall Street on Friday, and stocks rallied to cap a shaky week dogged by worries that rising coronavirus counts may halt the economy’s recent upswing. The S&P 500 climbed 1%, and the biggest gains came from cruise ship operators, airlines, banks and other companies that most need the economy to continue to reopen and strengthen. Analysts said an encouraging report from Gilead Sciences about its investigational treatment of COVID-19, remdesivir, helped drive Friday's rebound. “So, for the first time in a lot of days we’re seeing smaller caps outperform,” said Bob Shea, CEO of TrimTabs Asset Management. “We’re seeing just a kind of mean-reversion day, and they’re using the Gilead news to do it.” The week’s meandering action was a microcosm of the up-and-down churn that stocks have been stuck in for a little more than a month. The market’s momentum has stalled since early June, after the S&P 500 roared back to recover most of an earlier 34% plummet. Massive amounts of aid from central banks and governments around the world ignited the rally."
"With worries about rising hospitalizations and COVID-19 trends in Florida and other hotpots around the world, “We are dealing with an unprecedented time economically,” said Katerina Simonetti, senior portfolio manager at UBS Private Wealth Management. “We have to remember that the government support and economic stimulus has been historically unprecedented. That’s a huge deal, and it’s going to make a difference for this market.” “The market is in a kind of place where good news is a rally and bad news ‘the Fed’s got us,’” said Shea of TrimTabs Asset Management. “That’s the win-win the market has had for the last several weeks.” Stocks of companies that most need the economy to continue improving and reopening dominated the top of Friday’s leaderboard. Cruise operator Carnival jumped 10.8%, Royal Caribbean Cruises gained 9.9% and United Airlines rose 8.3%. Banks were also particularly strong, and financial stocks in the S&P 500 climbed 3.5% for the biggest gain among the 11 sectors in the index. A stronger economy would mean their borrowers are better able to repay their loans. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America both rose 5.5%, while Citigroup jumped 6.5%. Lagging behind the rest of the market were some of the stocks that have been holding up best this year: big tech-oriented giants. Microsoft dipped 0.3%, and Apple edged up 0.2%. It’s at least a pause for such stocks, which have climbed through the pandemic this year as investors bet they’ll keep growing almost regardless of the economy’s strength....."
Or because of the Great Reset, and what a jolt!
Meanwhile, the Globe leads by throwing Stones:
"Mass. businesses say Trump’s ban on foreign-worker visas is making it difficult to fill jobs; Some fear the freeze will further harm an already reeling economy" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff, July 11, 2020
A national moving company based in Somerville can’t hire back the well-trained Eastern European workers it relies on every summer to supervise less-experienced crews. Restaurants on the Cape don’t have enough staffers on the payroll to open for regular business hours. Biotech executives in Cambridge worry that if they can’t easily recruit scientists from around the world, their companies’ ability to create life-saving medicines will be diminished.
These are some of the ways that President Trump’s freeze on new foreign work visas is rippling through the state’s economy, from businesses that count on workers from other countries for seasonal labor to technology companies that can’t find enough highly skilled job candidates in the United States.
Tens of thousands of workers affected by the ban held jobs in Massachusetts last year, and analysts said that barring this workforce could be detrimental to an economy that’s already reeling from the pandemic.
Last month, the Trump administration said it was suspending new visas at least until the end of the year to keep jobs open for the millions of Americans laid off due to COVID-19-related closures and cutbacks. The problem, employers say, is that many of the jobs affected by the freeze can’t necessarily be filled by Americans. Most of them don’t want the lower-wage jobs that are performed by H-2B visa holders who do seasonal work. As a result, the order could drive employers to hire undocumented immigrants already in the country, said Jonathan Haughton, an economics professor at Suffolk University.
Once you get past the offen$ive in$ult, you realize we are all getting rich off the $hutdown.
At the other end of the employment spectrum, there aren’t enough US workers with expertise in coding, chemistry, and biotechnology, Haughton said, which could prompt companies that rely on H-1B visa holders for skilled workers to start outsourcing jobs to other countries.
“If we’re not letting the people in, the jobs are going to go elsewhere,” said Keith Pabian, a Framingham corporate immigration lawyer. “The United States is not going to be at the top of the list anymore.”
If what he says is true, what were the colleges teaching and what classes were Americans taking all this time?
One wonders why they would not be hiring Black people given the times in which we live.
One of Pabian’s clients, a Boston tech firm, recently decided to build an office in Ontario instead of the United States because of immigration restrictions put in place over the past few years.
“Companies turn to foreign nationals only because they have to,” said Pabian, who fears that between the pandemic and the inability to find workers, some small hospitality businesses will go under.
BULL$HIT!
They turn to them because they are cheaper and won't complain like $poiled Americans.
Eva Millona, cochair of the Massachusetts Business Immigration Coalition, said the visa suspension falls in line with Trump’s plan to keep foreigners out of the United States. In the past few months, she noted, he has expanded travel restrictions to the country, moved to bar aslyum seekers, and halted the issuing of green cards to keep people from immigrating to the United States. “The current order is the latest attempt by this administration to use COVID-19 as a pretext to advance an extreme nativist agenda,” she said.
She is projecting what she and BLM are about!
Yeah, unemployed Americans and students wouldn't want to wash dishes for $17 to $18 an hour(!!!) or work on the the lifts and in food and beverage service.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said seasonal businesses struggling to find American workers need to do two things: Pay more and recruit better.
“The idea that we would be importing foreign workers when we have 20 million unemployed people is absurd, especially in the kinds of jobs we’re talking about,” he said. “If an employer can’t operate his business without importing cheap foreign labor to wash his dishes, then maybe that business shouldn’t exist.”
He's right, and how many got PPP $$$?
As for the more specialized H-1B positions, the vast majority are “routine talents doing routine labor,” he said. “This is not Einstein-level immigration,” but being restricted to hiring only Americans, even temporarily, could hurt companies on the frontiers of medicine, said John Maraganore, chief executive of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. Alnylam is working on a treatment for COVID-19, among other drugs, Maraganore said, and while there’s an exception to the visa ban for virus-related medical research, it’s unclear how that might apply to Alnylam.
You $ick f**kers.
“The bottom line here is we need access to the best people around the world to do what we do as a business to fight disease,” said Maraganore, who has a few dozen H-1B visa holders on his staff of 1,000, who won’t be immediately affected by the freeze. “In general, anti-immigration policies just tip the balance in favor of disease over science and medicine.”
(Blog editor is aghast at the $elf-$erving, guilt-tripping mid-f**k)
--more--"
Related:
Members of Mass. congressional delegation say Brooks Brothers should pay severance to Haverhill workers
The bankrupt company's set to close next month.
Phase 3 came too late for them:
"Boston moves into Phase 3 of pandemic reopening Monday with ‘caution and confidence,' Walsh says" by Travis Andersen, Martin Finucane and Kay Lazar Globe Staff, July 10, 2020
Mayor Martin J. Walsh pointed to the faster pace for reopening in a number of Southern and Western states, and their subsequent surging number of COVID-19 cases, as a cautionary example Bostonians do not want to follow.
The Washington Post reports that the coronavirus’s daily death toll is on the rise again in the US, so Walsh is just asking for trouble.
Some of the closely watched coronavirus numbers in Boston this past week initially sparked concern, but “as of right now, we don’t see any increased activity of concern,” Marty Martinez, the city’s health and human services chief, said at Friday’s news conference, adding that the city tracks a range of data, including positivity rates to hospitalizations.
Measuring the impact of each phase of reopening can be tricky, because symptoms of COVID-19 often take about five days, on average, to surface, and as long as two weeks, said Samuel Scarpino, a Northeastern University disease tracker.
That’s why, he said, state and city leaders should be closely watching the rate of positive cases next week to measure the impact from reopening indoor dining and other services on June 22 under Phase 2 of the reopening effort. The statewide rate of positive cases has hovered around 2 percent since mid-June.
“If we see cases higher [this coming week], that will be from Phase 2 and that will be an indicator we may need to roll back from Phase 3,” Scarpino said. “That’s one of the challenging prospects around COVID-19 from a policy perspective,” he said. “They don’t turn on a dime. It’s like [turning around] a submarine. If we see cases start climbing next week, that was Phase 2.”
Already laying the groundwork for a renewed lockdown.
The city prepared to take its latest step toward a sense of normalcy as the latest statewide data released indicate that key measures the state is using to monitor the reopening remained generally steady.
LIARS!
There is no longer a "sense of normalcy" in this medical tyranny.
State officials are hoping to significantly increase the number of tests, and beginning Monday, Boston will allow for permits to be issued for up to 50 participants for outdoor events on city property and other activities such as road races or block parties that require special review and approval, the Walsh administration said.
Turning to education, Walsh said he expects to announce details of the city’s planned reopening of schools in September in the next week to 10 days. Officials are weighing options including in-person instruction, a continuance of online learning, or a hybrid of the two.
“When Sept. 12 comes around, our kids in our district in Boston will have been out of school, out of a physical building, for six months,” Walsh said, warning such a long time away will have “potential long-term effects” on students’ education.
They won't be coming back in September. That's part of the Rockefeller Lock Step plan, a one-two gut punch in the fall regarding school and sports that will further traumatize the American people.
He conceded that opening school in the fall “is going to cost more” in light of all the necessary safety precautions, and he said he hoped Congress would approve additional financial relief to states and municipalities.
Walsh said he has no intention of laying off teachers, but that “support from the federal government would be helpful.”
BEGGAR!
--more--"
Time to get on the police:
"Most State Police troopers implicated in overtime fraud scandal will keep their jobs" by Matt Rocheleau Globe Staff, July 10, 2020
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Christopher S. Mason announced in January that the department would move to fire 22 troopers who had committed overtime fraud and were found to have collected thousands of dollars in pay for hours they never worked, but this week the department revealed that most of the troopers implicated — but never criminally charged in a widespread payroll scandal — will get to keep their jobs after all, and they will likely keep their pensions.
Isn't it wonderful regarding how much transparency and accountability we have here in Ma$$achu$etts -- as the COVID $camdemic totally absolves the police of past behavior?
The department announced late Thursday that 15 troopers will be suspended for various lengths of time and ordered to pay restitution. One trooper has been fired, and the department intends to fire five more once their disciplinary cases come to a close, but the suspended officers will get to keep their jobs and could be back on the road in the coming weeks, according to department spokesman David Procopio.
The disciplinary measures mark just the latest in a years-long saga that has besmirched the state’s largest law enforcement agency and resulted in a handful of criminal charges and calls for agency reforms.
Dennis Galvin, president of the Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement, said the punishment here doesn’t appear to fit the offense, and called on the the department to provide a valid, clear explanation for why the troopers will remain on the force.
“They have an obligation to the public and to those troopers to say, ‘This is why these troopers can go back on,‘” said Galvin, a retired State Police major, “and if they can’t do it, that’s a big problem.
“You’re causing the public to doubt your credibility, which is going to put restraints on the public’s willingness to cooperate,” he added.....
WHOOP-EEE!
--more--"
Looks like tran$parency is only for Trump, and all of a sudden defunding the police looks like a pretty good idea.
If you get into any trouble, just hit the gas:
It’s been 40 years since someone has built over the Mass. Pike
Until now, and developer Samuels and Associates has secured financing for a $700m office-and-hotel complex with work expected to start next week -- and it is as if COVID NEVER EXISTED as they redesign Bo$ton the way they want!
Related:
"Fighting a surge in coronavirus cases in the spring, Florida appeared to be “flattening the curve” as theme parks shuttered, sugar sand beaches closed, and residents heeded orders to stay home. Now, it’s almost as if that never happened. Bars, restaurants, and gyms began reopening in May — critics said it was too soon — and weeks later, the state became one of the country’s virus hot spots, experiencing an alarming surge in cases. On Thursday, officials reported 120 deaths in one day, the highest number since the previous record of 113 in early May. “We thought maybe we could keep this thing under wraps, and that worked for a little bit of time,” Dr. Jason Wilson, an emergency room physician at Tampa General Hospital, said during a conversation with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor that was livestreamed Wednesday on Facebook, “but eventually . . . it caught up to us.” From Miami to Jacksonville and Tampa, hospitals in June and July have seen their numbers of coronavirus patients triple, with new patients outpacing those being discharged. A record 435 newly hospitalized patients were reported Friday to have tested positive for the virus, including some who sought care for other reasons and aren’t necessarily symptomatic. Hospital networks are scrambling to hire more health care workers to expand their COVID units. Last week, hospitals in several cities announced they would again halt or reduce nonemergency procedures to free up space. Wilson and other health experts believe the spike was sparked in large part by young people who weren’t experiencing symptoms and were more likely to take fewer precautions while gathering at reopened bars and crowded beaches. “We saw the floodgates open really for young people having what we call asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread,’’ he said. “Three weeks later, we are starting to see everyone else starting to get the virus as well.”
But it is okay to flood the streets in protest and burn down cities as we go through this again, exactly as planned, so you can cancel the trip to Disney World:
"A former Army civilian manager at the Natick Soldier Systems Center allegedly created a $65,000-a-year no-show job for his girlfriend and approved thousands more in travel expenses by falsely claiming trips were job-related when the couple instead spent time at Disney World and on the beach during 31 trips to Orlando, federal officials said Friday. Thomas Bouchard, 57, of Uxbridge allegedly used his position as a top manager at the center to orchestrate a job in 2014 for Chantelle Boyd that she held until at least 2018, US Attorney Andrew Lelling’s office alleged in court papers. Both Bouchard and Boyd are facing one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of theft of government funds. Boyd is also facing an additional charge of making “false declarations” before a federal grand jury, where she testified they stayed in separate rooms while traveling when authorities allege they shared the same room. Bouchard appeared Thursday in US District Court in Boston. He pleaded not guilty and was released. His defense attorney, R. Bradford Bailey, said Bouchard “denies the allegations and will be planning a vigorous defense.” Boyd, who lives in Hagerstown, Md., was taken into custody there. She appeared in federal court there and was released on the condition that she appear in Boston when ordered to in the future, according to court records."
They busted them just before they boarded the plane:
"Forget about up-close “meet-and-greet’’ sessions with Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck when Walt Disney World parks reopen. There will be no firework shows or parades — those would draw too many people together — and both visitors and employees will be getting temperature checks when they enter. Despite a huge surge of Floridians testing positive for the new coronavirus in recent weeks, two of Disney World’s four parks are reopening Saturday. When they do, visitors to “The Most Magical Place on Earth” will find new rules in place. Everyone has to wear a mask and maintain social distance. No hopping between parks is allowed, for the time being, and visitors will need reservations to enter. Disney employees won’t be allowed to take photos of visitors in front of Cinderella’s Castle since it involves touching the tourists’ cameras. “That is a very different Disney World than the one you worked at back in March, and that is because of the need for safety,’’ Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, told his members in a recent Facebook discussion. Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom will reopen on July 11. Disney World’s other two parks, Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, will welcome back guests four days later. All of the parks closed in mid-March in an effort to stop the virus’s spread. Disney World’s crosstown rivals, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, also closed in March but have been back open for several weeks after instituting similar rules to protect employees and customers from the virus. Disney has been opening back up its parks around the globe for the past two months. In May, the company opened Disney Springs, a complex of shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues in Lake Buena Vista. Only Disneyland in California delayed its plans to reopen in mid-July, saying it was awaiting guidelines from the state."
The Magic Kingdom is no more because of COVID.
"In Florida, health officials reported 120 new deaths from the coronavirus, the highest one-day increase amid a surge in new infections. (The last highest, 113, and was reported in early May.) The state also reported its biggest 24-hour increase in hospitalizations, with more than 400 patients admitted."
Head west:
"Arizona’s death toll topped 2,000 as state health officials reported new highs for hospitalizations and use of ventilators. Arizona has emerged as a national hotspot since Republican Governor Doug Ducey loosened stay-home restrictions in mid-May. The state had a record 3,437 patients hospitalized Wednesday, with a record 575 on ventilators. The 861 patients in ICU beds and the 1,980 emergency room visits for the virus were just short of records set this week. Meanwhile...."
I can't breath, readers.
"Daily virus death toll rises in some states" by Farah Stockman, Mitch Smith and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio New York Times, July 10, 2020
The daily number of deaths from the coronavirus has risen recently in some of the nation’s most populous states, leaving behind grieving families and signaling a possible end to months of declining death totals nationally.
The second wave has been underway for weeks now.
Among those who died of the virus in recent days was a 30-year-old man from Nashville who played the organ in church; a 39-year-old woman from St. Augustine, Fla., who told her six children goodbye on a hospital speaker phone; and a 91-year-old grandmother from Dallas, who played a mean game of dominoes.
At least no rioters died, and were there any underlying health conditions with them?
The seven-day death average in the United States reached 608 on Thursday, up from 471 earlier in July but still a fraction of the more than 2,200 deaths the country averaged each day in mid-April, when the situation in the Northeast was at its worst.
I'm not saying no one died, but those numbers stink of simulated totals.
Some health experts cautioned that it is too early to predict a continuing trend from only a few days of data, but Friday, Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, struck a different tone than President Trump has in recent days, saying that she expects to soon see an increase in deaths.
Why is that witch still there, and she also said they were being very liberal in applying COVID as a cause.
The rising pace of deaths in the Sun Belt followed weeks of mounting cases in the region and suggested an end to the country’s nearly three-month period of declines in daily counts of virus deaths — a pattern that had been seen as one of the rare bright spots in the nation’s virus outlook.
So the last four months of shutdown have been for nothing, huh?
We would have been better of going about our business and gaining herd immunity while the sick were quarantined, not the other way around.
That makes the politicians and health officials that ordered the lockdowns CRIMINALS!
Deaths occur weeks after infections, so any rise in deaths would be expected to come later than a rise in cases, but public health experts said the diverging trends — newly rising cases but still declining daily deaths — had occurred largely because the new surge of virus cases also involved many younger and healthier people, who were less likely to become seriously ill or die. Still, many experts predicted that the declining death tolls were unlikely to last because the young would spread it to older people and those more vulnerable.
“We’ve always said the deaths are going to be coming soon enough, and now they are,” said Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
I'm sick of $elf-$erving a$$holes like him!
Dr. David Lakey, a former commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services and a member of a coronavirus task force created by the Texas Medical Association, said it is too early to tell if this week’s rise in the daily death toll in Texas will continue.
He said that reporting delays by officials over the July Fourth weekend might have contributed to an appearance of elevated numbers of deaths in Texas this week, but he also noted that hospitals in the state were filling quickly, a sign that there were a growing number of seriously ill patients, but other Texas officials predicted that this week’s higher death toll would prove to be the start of a far larger trend.
In Dallas County anyway.
Some officials have attributed the drop in deaths over the past few months to improvements in treatment for the virus. Doctors have more tools today than they did in the spring, including the use of remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to shorten hospital stays though not reduce fatalities.
In New Orleans, a city that was hit hard by the virus in the spring, public health officials said that they had seen a steep decline in the daily death toll, which they attributed to increased public awareness, improved medical techniques, and younger patients, but doctors said they were seeing signs that young people were starting to infect their parents and grandparents.
These guys are a f**king broken record at this point!
“There’s a cavalier sense out there that it is not a problem because these are young people and their outcomes are better, on average,” said Dr. Joseph Kanter, lead public health official for the Louisiana Department of Health in New Orleans. “These young people have families,” he said. “They have older people that are living in their houses.”
F**k the guilt trip!
Hospitalizations in New Orleans fell from more than 1,000 in April to 69 on June 20, but they have begun to creep back up, to 125 this week. Most were older, Kanter said. He said he feared that the city would see a corresponding uptick in deaths in the coming weeks.
Dr. Alex Jahangir, chair of a coronavirus task force for the Nashville area, said that local experts saw a rise in cases tied to bars and parties — and young people — in recent weeks.
Are you kids really got to let them bull$hit you and destroy your future?
If new infections continue to be concentrated among the young, Jahangir said, he does not expect the daily death toll to go up by much. If young people spread the virus to older family members, he said, then the death toll could climb significantly.
The statistics mean little, though, to those who have lost relatives to the virus, including some younger people seen as less vulnerable.
Darius Settles, 30, died suddenly last weekend from the virus, one of two people younger than 44 to die in the Nashville area since the pandemic began, officials said.
“It was just really, really shocking,” Deja Settles, his younger sister, said. “I never thought that this was going to hit this close to home.”
Hmmmmmm.
They release the deadlier pathogen already?
--more--"
Also see:
"A large takeout order from a KFC in Australia led police to more than a dozen people hiding at a house party and more than $18,000 in COVID-19 fines, authorities said Friday. Chief Commissioner Shane Patton of the Victoria police announced the hefty fine at a news conference, saying that 16 people had broken virus restrictions by attending a surprise birthday at a home in Dandenong, a suburb of Melbourne. Authorities in Victoria state recently imposed new lockdown orders, following a surge in cases, and have sought to enforce them with severe fines. Police said they were tipped off to the party after two ambulance workers inside a KFC in Dandenong noticed other customers placing an unusually large order. “They saw two people in there, and they were ordering 20-odd meals at 1:30 this morning,” Patton said Friday. The pair spoke to employees at the store, and police were notified. The officers obtained the registration of the vehicle used by those people, which they followed to a townhouse, Patton said. Inside, they found two people asleep and 16 hiding in the backyard, garage, and under beds. Patton said that the meals were for a birthday party and that police issued 16 infringements. Each fine was for about $1,150, said Belinda Batty, a media officer for the Victoria police. “That is absolutely ridiculous, that type of behavior,” Patton added. “That’s $26,000 that birthday party is costing them. That’s a heck of a birthday party to recall, and they’ll remember that one for a long time.” The infringements were among 60 fines issued to people over a 24-hour period for breaching the recent orders of the state’s chief health officer. Recipients of those fines included “four sex workers” at one address, Patton said, and drivers at checkpoints across the state, and there were almost 1,000 spot checks on people at homes, businesses, and public places across the state. “This type of conduct, this type of blatant, obvious, deliberate disregard for the chief health officer’s guidelines, we will be enforcing,” the commissioner said. Authorities around the world have struggled to enforce lockdown rules, and some countries, like Australia, have set financial penalties for breaking them. In Sydney, residents have faced rules that threatened large fines and jail terms. In Israel, people have been fined for going more than 100 meters from their homes, and in the Philippines, security forces have been tasked with maintaining lockdown orders."
The soft police state is about to get very hard, citizens of the world!
So much for vanquishing the virus down under!
Now we know why western authorities emptied the jails. They knew they were going to need the space for you!
That reminds me, how is Sweden doing these days?
Sweden’s ex-ambassador to China is cleared of wrongdoing
The New York Times says it is a saga that combines elements of a spy novel with the opaque reality of dealing with an authoritarian state, and then it was gone like a streak of light across the sky:
"Comet streaking past Earth, providing spectacular show" by Marcia Dunn Associated Press, July 10, 2020
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — A newly discovered comet is streaking past Earth, providing a stunning nighttime show after buzzing the sun and expanding its tail.
Comet Neowise swept within Mercury’s orbit a week ago. Its close proximity to the sun caused dust and gas to burn off its surface and create an even bigger debris tail.
Now the comet is headed our way, with its closest approach in two weeks.
NASA’s Neowise infrared space telescope discovered the comet in March.
Hmmmm.
Some sketchy sites out there suggested this was the reason for the lockdowns with COVID as the cover; however, that doesn't wash. The intentional and continuing destruction of the economy in favor of the Great Reset and a vaccinated planet have exposed them as bunkum.
Scientists involved in the mission said the comet is about 3 miles across. Its nucleus is covered with sooty material dating back to the origin of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Imagine if it had hit earth!
The comet will be visible around the world until mid-August, when it heads back toward the outer solar system. While it’s visible with the naked eye in dark skies with little or no light pollution, binoculars are needed to see the long tail, according to NASA.
Now lights are considered pollution!
The comet can be seen low in the pre-dawn sky, looking to the northeast. Soon it will be seen in the early evening sky, looking northwest, according to Sky & Telescope magazine.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have already caught a glimpse. NASA’s Bob Behnken shared a spectacular photo of the comet on social media late Thursday.
--more--"
Maybe I will take a look up some morning or night.... like when I was a kid:
"The Toy Shop of Concord will close at the end of the month after a 78-year run" by Emily Sweeney Globe Staff, July 9, 2020
An iconic toy store in Concord is getting ready to shut its doors for good.
Owner David Hesel said he is closing the Toy Shop of Concord on July 31 so he can spend more time with his family.
“The time has come,” said Hesel, 73. “It’s time for me to retire.”
Like other businesses across the state, Hesel had to shut his store due to the coronavirus pandemic but he was able to do some curbside business. The decision to close for good had nothing to do with the pandemic, he said.
Since the news came out that the store will be closing, there’s been an outpouring of supportive messages on social media.....
--more--"
Related:
"David Auger, of Hudson, was arraigned Friday in Concord District Court and charged with three counts of rape of a teenage girl at his gymnastics facility in Stow, the Middlesex district attorney’s office announced. Auger, 41, is accused of multiple assaults, starting in January 2018, when the victim was 17, through July 2019, by which time she had turned 18. During that period, Auger was coaching at the 10.0 Academy of Gymnastics, which he owned, prosecutors said in a statement. He allegedly assaulted the victim on several occasions and “allegedly used his position to control the victim.” At his arraignment, Auger was ordered held on $5,000 bail. If he posts bail, he must stay away and not contact the victim or witnesses. He must have no contact with children under age 18 or work or volunteer at a gym or other similar facility, the statement said. The investigation is ongoing."
The girl said she was flexible about it.
Also see:
He's right, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Madame Oprah appears very Maxwell-esque if you ask me, as the Globe tells Trump to keep his hands off our kids (but not the pinches of creepy Joe Biden).
It also appears that Wayfair is a front for child trafficking after reading the menu, and I'm not trying to be catty:
"A cat breeder is facing animal cruelty charges after 65 animals were removed Wednesday from dangerous conditions at an Edgartown home, the Animal Rescue League of Boston said. Jennifer Winsper, 48, was charged with two counts of animal cruelty by a custodian, the league said in a press release. The organization inspected her property in 2019 after receiving complaints that she was selling sick cats off the island. Last month, the Edgartown animal control officer received a similar complaint, according to the release. Officials executed a search warrant to remove the cats from the property. “Conditions inside the building where the cats were being kept had poor air quality, an overwhelming odor of animal waste, and was incredibly hot,” the release said."
How could anyone treat a cat that way?
Someone should sue:
"Local and national health care providers and LGBTQ rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to block a rule rescinding sex discrimination protections for transgender people in medical care. Fenway Health; the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth; and other groups are suing the US Department of Health and Human Services, and have asked the US District Court in Boston to set aside the regulation and declare it unconstitutional, according to court documents. The Trump administration finalized the rule in June, saying it would enforce federal sex discrimination protections “according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.” A regulation introduced in 2016 as part of the Affordable Care Act had considered gender a matter of personal identity rather than anatomy. In a statement, Fenway Health’s chief executive, Ellen LaPointe, said that it’s “unconscionable that the Trump administration would” make it more difficult for LGBTQ Americans to access health care."
I'm not so sure of that anymore now that the book has been opened.
