Thursday, July 22 top stories
It is Thursday, July 22. Here are today’s top stories
There is a serious increase in Covid-19 cases in the U.S. Data from Johns Hopkins University show that there was a 55% increase in cases across the U.S. in the week of July 13 to July 20 compared with the week prior. This map from Axios shows where case numbers are increasing quickly, and you see that it’s mostly on the Eastern side. The Delta mutation is the dominant strain of the virus in America. Many people in the U.S. are also converging in public spaces as if there was no pandemic. Those without vaccinations face the most risk of severe illnesses or death. Federal officials say about 99% of people who die from the coronavirus weren’t vaccinated. News reports say the Biden administration is considering making a public request for vaccinated Americans to wear masks again.
NPR reported that hundreds of Frito-Lay workers in Topeka, Kansas are in their third week of a strike. The union that represents them, Local 218, said many workers are forced to work 84 hours a week with only 8 hours of breaks in between shifts, which destroys employees’ quality of lives.
Frito-Lay is owned by PepsiCo. The company said the workers’ claims are grossly exaggerated and that most of the overtime workers volunteer for the overtime shifts.
Vice did an interview with a factory worker named Mark McCarter. He said he is forced to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week running huge robots that transport packaged Fritos, Doritos, Tostitos, and Cheetos. He said the warehouse is 100 degrees inside and it doesn’t have air conditioning, while the managers have A/C. He claimed that one worker died while working and the company asked people to pick him up, move him to the side, and put another person in his spot without shutting the business down for two seconds. He said he went to many funerals for a co-worker who had a heart attack or committed suicide.
PepsiCo said they reject McCarter’s allegations about the worker who collapsed.
The workers are calling for a national boycott on Frito-Lay products and all products created by PepsiCo. They are asking for better wages and an end to forced overtime.
An 18-year-old pilot made an emergency landing on a bridge in New Jersey on Monday afternoon. His name is Landon Lucas. He explained that he was flying over the southern New Jersey shoreline when he saw that his plane’s engine had something wrong with it that prevented a proper flow of fuel.
Landon said he wanted to land at a local airport, but realized he wouldn’t be able to make it, so he decided to find any place where he could land safely and immediately. He managed to land it on the Route 52 bridge. There was no damage to the aircraft or to cars, and nobody was injured.
[Sponsored Video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com]
Bobby Bowden, a Hall of Fame college football coach who won two national titles with the Florida State University, announced he has a terminal medical condition. He did not specify what it is. He is currently 91 years old. He said in a statement that he is prepared for what is to come and is at peace.
NASA released a satellite image that showed Earth with a dark, blurry spot on the top of it, on the Arctic. NASA said it’s not a smudge on your screen or a photographer’s wayward thumb, but is a shadow cast by our Moon during a solar eclipse.
The photograph was taken June 10 and was taken with NASA’s EPIC camera, which is about 1 million miles away from Earth.
A solar eclipse is when the Moon is directly between the Sun and the Earth. The Moon blocks a part of the Sun, casting a shadow.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that inspectors at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston found and seized 15 live giant land snails from a female passenger who was traveling from Nigeria.
The CBP said the passenger initially only declared she brought dried beef with her, but later added that she brought snails. The CBP said when they inspected the luggage, they found three zip-lock plastic bags with the live snails in them, along with fresh leaves and less than a pound of beef.
Federal officials say the snails are one of the most damaging snails in the world because they consume at least 500 types of plants, can cause structural damage to buildings, and are known to carry a parasite called the rat lungworm that can cause meningitis in humans. The snails are native to West Africa and can lay 1,200 eggs in a single year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says on its website to report giant African snails immediately. There are instances of them being found in Florida or California.
That is all the top stories for today. See you later and stay with the light.
https://www.chron.com/news/article/White-House-officials-debate-masking-push-as-16330915.php
http://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/us/teen-emergency-landing-bridge/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/giant-african-snails-disease-houston-airport-meningitis/