Coronavirus: Fremont siblings send cards thanking health care worker heroes - The Mercury News

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By LUIS ANDRES HENAO | The Associated Press

Every day on every news channel, teenage siblings Prabhleen and Mantej Lamba watched the sacrifices of medical workers around the world who risk their physical and mental health on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were really moved by this,” said Prabhleen, 15, “and we knew that we had to involve our community and take action.”

So in the spirit of the Sikh faith’s core principle of “seva,” or selfless service, the San Francisco Bay area teens launched an initiative they called Cards 4 Covid Heroes to let health care workers know how much they’re appreciated.

In just two months, they’ve collected more than 250 thank you cards from members of the community, mailed to their home in the suburban city of Fremont. Then they’ve sent them to workers at four hospitals — each along with a $10 VISA gift card.

The handwritten cards are often decorated with hearts, flowers, stars. One had a drawing of a hospital with the phrase, “Heroes work here.” Girl Scout Troop 31164’s message: “Thank you for going to work every day and being there when we need it the most.”

The teens also created an e-card option that lets people go online and fill out a Google form. They then print out the message submitted there on a template that the siblings created. One of the cards pictures doctors and nurses donning capes and an image of Spider-Man with a stethoscope.

“During these times of darkness and uncertainty, we just wanted to try to shine some light on the fact that we do have true heroes working on the front lines who are trying their hardest to save people’s lives,” said Mantej, 17.

So far Prabhleen and Mantej have sent cards to the UC Davis Medical Center, the Los Angeles Community Hospital, the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and the Chandler Regional Medical Center in Arizona.

For the first two weeks, they drew on friends and family for support, but then they started a GoFundMe page to collect donations and buy more cards.

The feedback has been rewarding.

“We received pictures from the health care workers, and we can just see from their faces that a small nod of encouragement with a small $10 gift card can go a long way to encourage them and to help them get through the difficult days,” Prabhleen said.

“They know that, ’OK, we’re not alone. And there are people who do support us and care for us,’” she said.

___

While nonstop news about the effects of the coronavirus has become commonplace, so, too, have tales of kindness. “One Good Thing” is a series of AP stories focusing on glimmers of joy and benevolence in a dark time. Read the series here: https://apnews.com/OneGoodThing

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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September 01, 2020 at 08:04PM
https://www.mercurynews.com/teen-siblings-send-cards-thanking-health-care-worker-heroes

Coronavirus: Fremont siblings send cards thanking health care worker heroes - The Mercury News

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Two Oregon counties refuse to send cops to Portland - New York Post

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Sheriffs in two Oregon counties are refusing to obey Gov. Kate Brown’s call to send more cops to Portland to help quell ongoing riots, saying doing so “would not solve the nightly violence.”

The sheriffs in neighboring Washington and Clackamas counties made the announcements in the wake of Brown’s call for help following the fatal shooting of a man Saturday amid unrest in the Oregon city, the Oregonian reported.

“Had Governor Brown discussed her plan with my office, I would have told her it’s about changing policy, not adding resources,” Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said Monday. “Increasing law enforcement resources in Portland will not solve the nightly violence and now, murder.”

Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett said he would provide support for cops in Portland in “indirect ways” — but would not send his deputies into harm’s way, the outlet reported.

“The lack of political support for public safety, the uncertain legal landscape, the current volatility combined with intense scrutiny on use of force presents an unacceptable risk if deputies were deployed directly,” Garrett said in a statement.

The police department in the nearby city of Gresham also told the Oregonian, “We are in agreement with the other agencies.”

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September 02, 2020 at 12:18AM
https://nypost.com/2020/09/01/two-oregon-counties-refuse-to-send-cops-to-portland/

Two Oregon counties refuse to send cops to Portland - New York Post

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Negaunee mom prepares to send two kids back to school - WLUC

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MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - Like so many times since March, Pam Dost plays ball with her two boys. She’s had more time with them than she ever anticipated this year. When school moved online in March she became their teacher, their lunch buddy, their friend on the playground and while she’s enjoyed it, she says it’s time to get back to a routine.

“Pinterest was my best friend”, said Dost. “A lot of people shared ideas and I just implemented them with them and I think they had fun doing them, butIi don’t think it’s something that I can sustain.”

Dost and her husband are both now back to work full time. Together they made the decision to send their kids back to Lakeview Elementary, a decision that carries a lot of weight but also one she says they’re confident in.

“I just know the teachers are doing what they can and what they can control and they’ll do everything to keep our kids safe because they want to be there as well,” she said.

Dost has been talking with her two boys Wyatt and Cooper for weeks. The 1st and 4th graders practice wearing masks, talk about not sharing masks and the importance of social distancing. There’s a lot to talk through, a lot of changes.

“We’ve done a lot of talking, school’s not going to be what it was in February,” said Dost. “We are all learning, we need to be patient. We are practicing wearing our masks, a little more everyday.”

There is no rule book, no parent knows exactly how to prepare. It’s new for everyone this year and dost says she’s just grateful for the staff and the teachers at Lakeview Elementary. Their excitement is contagious, she says and has allowed her to breathe a bit easier knowing they’re taking safety and the return of school seriously. And when it all feels a little too heavy, she tells herself, this isn’t forever.

“Hopefully sooner rather than later we’re back to what we remember pre-covid and just try and take some deep breaths and take it day by day at this point,” she said.

Copyright 2020 WLUC. All rights reserved.

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September 01, 2020 at 11:02PM
https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2020/09/01/negaunee-mom-prepares-to-send-two-kids-back-to-school/

Negaunee mom prepares to send two kids back to school - WLUC

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Victor Hedman scores in 2OT, Lightning send Bruins packing - TribLIVE

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September 01, 2020 at 11:21AM
https://triblive.com/sports/victor-hedman-scores-in-2ot-lightning-send-bruins-packing/

Victor Hedman scores in 2OT, Lightning send Bruins packing - TribLIVE

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5 Houston City council members send letter to Mayor Turner on police reform suggestions - KTRK-TV

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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Mixed responses hours after five Houston City Council Members sent a three-page letter to Mayor Sylvester Turner Monday morning on suggestions for police reform within the Houston Police Department.

Council Members Edward Pollard, Tiffany Thomas, Jerry Davis, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and vice Mayor Pro-Tem Martha Castex Tatum wrote the letter and forwarded to other Council Members Saturday night, asking for cosigners.

The letter says they're convinced there needs to be a complete overhaul of the Independent Police Oversight Board, among a long list of suggestions.

"We are not anti-police, we are anti-police brutality and this letter was to give our suggestions and keep the conversation moving so that we can all say we live in a city that is fair and equitable," said Castex Tatum.

MORE: When protesters cry 'defund the police,' what does it mean?

Below is a list of a few items among the list of suggested reforms:

All police officers must have a four-year college degree.

Random psychological tests of officers

A designated citizen must be at the scene of all walkthroughs of officer-involved shootings.

All of these walkthroughs after an officer-involved shooting must be recorded and captured on video.

All officers involved in a shooting must submit a written statement before seeing any video footage of the incident.

SEE ALSO: Austin City Council votes to cut police department budget by one-third, reinvest money in social services

Houston Police Officers Union's Ray Hunt says some of the suggestions are already in place, and other just doesn't make sense.

"We're already down 64 percent on applications to be police officers," said Hunt. "This is a slap to everyone who went to the military to defend our country, instead of going to college," he said, referring to discharged members of the military being able to apply to the Houston Police Academy without a college degree.

"We can't put in everything and we can't satisfy everyone," said Council Member Jerry Davis. "What we can do is this is a starting point, and it's an opportunity for us to get information to the mayor."

Houston Black Lives Matter activist Ashton Woods says he felt like the letter does not go nearly far enough. He wants to see systematic change that including moving money away from the police department.
"It doesn't go far enough, and it doesn't include any active parties where we're talking about," said Woods, who has been critical of Mayor Sylvester Turner for being too supportive of police and not instituting changes fast enough. "There is a lot of holes in this. It just seems like they're trying to get ahead of something."

When asked about the letter Monday afternoon, Mayor Turner says it is just one letter in stacks of suggestions he's received from citizens and elected officials since forming a police reform taskforce after the death of George Floyd.

"There will be reforms, whether they will go as far as some would like? I can't speak to that," said Turner. "I think there are number of things we'll have to approach. I suspect there will be changes to the Independence Oversight Board, and task force will have their recommendations."

WATCH: Mayor Turner's response to the letter of 'no confidence' for the HPD oversight board

Follow Miya Shay on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Copyright © 2020 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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September 01, 2020 at 10:00AM
https://abc13.com/read-the-police-reform-suggestions-sent-to-mayor-turner/6396898/

5 Houston City council members send letter to Mayor Turner on police reform suggestions - KTRK-TV

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Dodgers send starter Ross Stripling to Blue Jays - ESPN

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6:10 PM ET

The only transaction the Los Angeles Dodgers made was announced an hour after this unconventional trade deadline came and went. They sent veteran starting pitcher Ross Stripling, on the outside looking in with everyone healthy, to the needy Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for two players to be named later on Monday afternoon.

And so, while many of the contenders made moves to augment their rosters, the best team in baseball relieved itself of some depth.

The Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman explained, want to give Tony Gonsolin a permanent spot in their rotation. Given the presence of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Julio Urias and Dustin May -- not to mention the impending return of veteran Alex Wood -- that decision would have once again left Stripling in a low-leverage, nondescript long-relief role.

• 

"We have a ton of professional and personal respect for Ross and believe that he is a major league starting pitcher," Friedman said. "And ultimately we didn't feel comfortable putting him in the bullpen."

Stripling, one of the most personable and well-liked players in the Dodgers' clubhouse, has contributed a 3.68 ERA in 420 2/3 innings over the past five years, making 59 of his 143 regular-season appearances as a starter. He'll help fortify a Blue Jays team that has dealt with an assortment of injuries to its starting pitchers and also added Taijuan Walker and Robbie Ray before the deadline. But his former team no longer had the roster space to keep him in a prominent role.

The Dodgers, coming off setting a National League record for home runs in the month of August, entered the week with a major league-best 26-10 record. Their plus-90 run-differential was on pace to be the second highest in major league history on a per-game basis, according to research from ESPN Stats & Information, and was more than double that of the second-place Chicago White Sox.

The Dodgers were linked to Texas Rangers starter Lance Lynn and Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader, neither of whom were dealt. After landing frontline starting pitcher Yu Darvish in 2017 and trading for star shortstop Manny Machado in 2018, the Dodgers have fallen short of their aspirations before back-to-back trade deadlines -- an anticipated difficulty when shopping at the top of the market, especially amid the backdrop of a shortened season and an expanded playoffs.

"We feel really good about the team that we have and also the depth behind it," Friedman said. "Our mindset was not to just do something to do something, and that we have guys on our 28-man roster who are deserving of playing time and didn't want to block that unless it was someone really impactful."

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September 01, 2020 at 05:14AM
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29781411/dodgers-send-starter-stripling-blue-jays

Dodgers send starter Ross Stripling to Blue Jays - ESPN

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Texas sues Harris County over plan to send mail-in ballot applications - The Texas Tribune

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Acting at the request of the secretary of state, the Texas attorney general sued Harris County on Monday after it refused to drop plans to send applications for mail-in ballots for the November general election to more than 2 million registered voters.

Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a state district court to bar Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins from proactively providing the applications to every registered voter in the county, alleging Hollins does not have the authority under state law to carry out the plan.

The lawsuit marks the latest development in a growing battle over voting by mail in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic. That fight had focused on which voters are eligible to cast an absentee ballot, but it has now expanded to include a disagreement between the state and its most populous county over who can even receive the application to request a mail-in ballot.

Until now, the local election officials, including county clerks, actually responsible for carrying out elections had mostly been spectators as Texas’ Republican leadership fought off efforts by state Democrats and civil rights groups to expand voting by mail during the pandemic. Monday’s action marks the most prominent intervention by the state in local election practices.

There is no state law that specifically prohibits election officials from sending out mail-in ballot applications to all voters. Instead, Paxton argues that county clerks are only “expressly empowered” by the Texas Election Code to send out applications to voters who request them, “but there is no statute empowering County Clerks to send applications to vote by mail to voters who have not requested such an application.”

“And Hollins’s plan to send vote-by-mail applications to every registered voter, regardless of whether the application was requested or whether the recipient is qualified to vote a mail ballot, is not an exercise of power that is necessarily implied to perform his duties,” Paxton wrote.

The legal action was sought by the secretary of state’s office, which last week demanded the county retract its plan by Monday at noon. The secretary of state’s office has advised counties seeking to proactively send out applications to limit those mailings to voters who are 65 and older — the only predetermined qualification for a mail-in ballot in Texas — to avoid confusion about eligibility.

The secretary of state’s office claimed that Harris County’s endeavor would amount to “abuse of voters’ rights,” raising the prospect that sending applications to all voters, including those who do not qualify, may cause confusion among voters and “impede the ability of persons who need to vote by mail to do so” by “clogging up the vote by mail infrastructure” with applications from voters who do not qualify.

But Harris County refused to back down from its plan, with Hollins noting that the county’s mailing would also include "detailed guidance to inform voters that they may not qualify to vote by mail.” The county has also previously indicated it is planning to purchase more mail-sorting equipment and hire hundreds of temporary workers who will focus on processing voting-by-mail applications and ballots.

“They have taken the position that somehow sending the form that would make it easier for someone to vote is somehow impeding a person's ability to vote,” said Douglas Ray, a special assistant county attorney in Harris County. “The lack of logic in that assertion is beyond me.”

The county’s mailing plan expands efforts made ahead of the July primary runoffs to send applications to all voters 65 and older — which other counties will be doing for the general election. Hollins previously said he was encouraged by the county’s return rate for the July runoffs and indicated the county would build on that work for the general election to encourage as many eligible voters as possible to vote by mail during the pandemic. Otherwise, voters must request or find the application online. The secretary of state allows any voter to request an application for a mail-in ballot through its online portal without asking whether the voter meets the eligibility requirements.

In applying for a mail-in ballot, it’s up to the voter to check off which of the state’s eligibility criteria they meet. Texas is one of just six states that haven't opened up mail-in voting to any voter concerned about getting COVID-19 at a polling place. The state's eligibility requirements remain strict, limiting mail-in ballots to voters who are 65 or older, those who will be out of the county during the election period, voters who cite a disability or illness or voters confined in jail but still eligible to vote.

Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state's office has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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September 01, 2020 at 03:45AM
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/08/31/texas-harris-county-mail-in-ballot/

Texas sues Harris County over plan to send mail-in ballot applications - The Texas Tribune

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