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4/18/2023

Over 500,000 gallons of fuel on the way to Southeast Florida

In response to the increasing demand for fuel in Southeast Florida after damages to Port Everglades slowed fuel distribution, the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) has deployed over 500,000 gallons of fuel to Southeast Florida. The first set of trucks are estimated to arrive at commercial stations tonight, with the remaining arriving on site by tomorrow, Wednesday, April 18. To support fueling operations as Port Everglades works to de-water fuel racks and get operations back online for distributing gas and diesel fuel, the SERT has been pulling fuel from Port Canaveral and Tampa since Friday, April 14.

Executive Director Kevin Guthrie requested four Individual Assistance (IA) and four Public Assistance (PA) teams from FEMA to conduct in-person joint Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDA) in Broward County. Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Recovery staff have deployed and are on-scene to assist with these assessments. Information gathered from PDAs will determine what federal assistance may be made available for impacted residents.

Over the weekend, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) coordinated mission requests to assist with flood recovery efforts in Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Dania Beach. At the request of Broward County, the SERT deployed over 20 flood mitigation assets to impacted areas including industrial vacuum trucks and water pumps. FDEM remains in constant communication with local partners and stands ready to provide additional state support as requested.

In response to the significant flooding in southeast Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has issued Executive Order 23-65 declaring a State of Emergency in Broward County. The State Emergency Operations Center remains activated at a Level 2 in response to Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, Mass Migration, and unprecedented flooding in southeast Florida.

The State Emergency Response Team has taken the following actions:

Other state efforts include:

Department of Transportation

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity

Department of Environmental Protection

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Department of Health

Agency for Health Care Administration

Department of Children and Families

Department of Elder Affairs

Department of Education

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20230418 Florida Division of Emergency Management Issues ... - Florida Disaster

It's going to be more difficult for Arkansas teens to share selfies on Instagram. The state's Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) this week signed a law requiring young people to get their parent's permission before starting a social media account, ABC News reports. "While social media can be a great tool and a wonderful resource, it can have a massive negative impact on our kids," Sanders said. Utah has already passed a similar law, and other states may soon follow.

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Why is this happening? There are real worries about teens' well-being."There is substantial evidence that American teenagers have experienced a serious decline in their mental health over the past few years," Mike Bebernes writes at Yahoo. And there is a growing sometimes heated debate about whether social media sites are the culprit. New York magazine quotes psychologist Jean M. Twenge: "The sudden, sharp rise in depressive symptoms occurred at almost exactly the same time that smartphones became ubiquitous and in-person interaction plummeted." For social media critics, that doesn't seem like a coincidence.

In fact, researchers say, social media can affect the chemistry of still-developing brains. Those apps have "the potential to alter youths' neural development, since our brains develop in response to the environment we live in," the American Psychological Association's Mitch Prinstein told the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. But does that mean that state governments should intervene to restrain kids from spending all their time online instead of with real-life friends?

Other states should follow Arkansas and Utah, Leana S. Wen writes at The Washington Post: "Moms and dads need to parent in the digital world just as we do in the physical world." There are some drawbacks to such social media restrictions. Kids in marginalized communities like minority and LGBTQ teens could find it harder to find their people online if they first have to get a parent's permission. And "enforcement is an issue." But for the most part, parents "want to know who our children's friends are and how they spend their time together." That responsibility doesn't go away when kids are online.

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"These bills will likely face considerable constitutional challenges," Jay Caspian Kang writes at the New Yorker.How you feel about the law depends on if you think that social media sites are an important part of "the national conversation," or if you believe the "platforms are addictive productslike cigarettes" that kids need to be protected from. Parents can start by setting a better example and weaning themselves off of Twitter and Facebook. We "may just have to do the unthinkable and rip the screens out of children's hands and our own."

Not everybody is comfortable with that idea. "The proposed solution of banishing millions of prolific users from cyberspace is an overcorrection, and an unconstitutional one at that," Charles Brandt writes at the Orange County Register. Teens are entitled to First Amendment protections, allowed to seek out information and express themselves on social media sites. Sure, "excessive social media use detracts from the mental health of minors," but the platforms also give youngsters a "unique, rich, and effective way to express themselves."

More states may follow Arkansas and Utah. Wisconsin and Iowa lawmakers are considering similar bills. "We have to give our parents a fighting chance and right now they are electronically, technologically outgunned," says Wisconsin Republican Rep. David Steffen. Virginia legislators, on the other hand, have dismissed social media legislation. "Trying to prevent people from trying to see things on the internet is like standing on the beach and trying to stop the tide from coming in," one state senator argued.

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But social media restrainers may not need a law to discourage youngsters from social media use. "For Gen-Z, social media has always been a given," Teen Vogue points out, but a number of "influencer" parents are pulling back, part of a "seeming tide change toward protecting the privacy of children." And kids who were raised as featured characters on their parents' social media sites are warning others not to repeat the mistake. "Your child will never be normal," one youngster lamented. "I never consented to being online."

It's not clear how well the new laws will actually work. The New Republic reports that the Arkansas law is incomplete: "It seems a lot of apps, like TikTok and Snapchat, are exempt."

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Banning kids from social media - The Week

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through its National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), are pleased to launch the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer online enrollment system for firefighters across the nation. The NFR for cancer is the largest effort undertaken by the nation to support and advance understanding of cancer in the fire service. President Biden has shown strong and enduring support for firefighters for decades and this step will help deliver on his commitment to end cancer as we know it as part of the Cancer Moonshot.

Numerous studies show that firefighters exposure on the fireground, where smoke and hazardous chemicals are released from burning materials, may increase the risk of certain types of cancer. President Biden has signed two laws that seek specifically to advance firefighter health, safety, and protection from toxic exposures on the job. The National Firefighter Registry (NFR) for Cancer will contribute to these broader efforts by helping scientists better understand the link between cancer and firefighting to ultimately improve firefighter health. The NFR will capture details about firefighters work and match it with cancer information from state cancer registries.

While participation is voluntary, all U.S. firefighters, with or without cancer, are encouraged to join the NFR for Cancer; these include:

Visit NFR.CDC.GOV to complete the NFR survey through the secure website. Enrollment takes about 30 minutes to complete. You will:

Visit the NIOSH NFR for Cancer webpage to learn more about:

John Howard, M.D., the Director of NIOSH, states that I encourage all firefighters across America to join the NFR for Cancer the more firefighters who join the NFR, the more researchers can learn about cancer arising from firefighting and how to prevent it. Firefighters are vital to the safety of our communities and their enrollment in the NFR for cancer can help protect them and the next generation of firefighters from cancer.

The NFR Team Lead, Kenny Fent, Ph.D., CIH adds that with more than 1 million career and volunteer firefighters across the U.S., protecting their health and safety is a top priority for NIOSH. We are excited to raise awareness about this groundbreaking effort to better understand and reduce cancer among all types of firefighters, including those who have traditionally been underrepresented in research, such as women, volunteers, and firefighters from racial and ethnic minority groups.

The NFR for Cancer is the largest existing effort undertaken to understand and reduce cancer among U.S. firefighters. In 2018, Congress passed the Firefighter Cancer Registry Act. This Act directed NIOSH to develop a voluntary registry of firefighters to better understand the link between firefighting and cancer. NIOSH worked with a national group of experts, in fire and emergency services, public health, epidemiology, and medical fields, to plan and launch the NFR for Cancer.

NIOSH is the federal institute that conducts research and makes recommendations for preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths. For more information about NIOSH visit http://www.cdc.gov/niosh.

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NIOSH Launches the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer to ... - CDC

19 April 2023, 04:49 BST

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'Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion' - CEO

In a last-minute deal, Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit from voting machine firm Dominion over its coverage of the 2020 US election.

The network, controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his family, agreed to pay Dominion $787.5m (634m).

While the payout is large, it means Fox avoids what was billed by some as the defamation trial of the century.

However, the network faces a second, similar lawsuit from another election technology firm, Smartmatic.

The settlement means that Fox and Dominion can now put the case behind them with both firms being able to claim victory.

"The reality is two big companies in this case, are by nature risk averse. And any time you got a jury, it's risky," David Logan, professor of law at Roger Williams University, told the BBC.

At almost $800m, it is one of the biggest ever financial settlements in a defamation case.

"It's obviously a significant number, and we shouldn't dismiss that. I mean, it is a really, really large number," Angelo Carusone, president of left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America, told the BBC.

However, it is less than half the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion.

To put the payout into context, parent company Fox Corporation reported net income of $1.23bn for the last financial year

It is also sitting on large reserves of cash - around $4bn, according to recent company filings.

Rupert Murdoch and his family - who control the News Corp media empire which includes Fox News, The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal - are estimated to have a fortune of $17.6bn, according to Forbes magazine.

The deal also spares Fox executives, including Mr Murdoch, and some of the network's anchors from having to testify in one of the most high-profile defamation trials in history.

"Fox was going to have to deal with another round of embarrassing revelations," Prof Logan said.

The company's legal team may have also been weighing the potential financial cost if the case had gone ahead and Dominion had won.

Fox issued a written statement acknowledging the court's findings that Fox made false claims about Dominion, but it did not include an apology.

"We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues," the statement said.

However, Fox will not be able to put the issues of its reporting on the 2020 presidential election behind it quite yet.

It still faces a second, similar defamation lawsuit from another election technology firm, Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7bn.

For Dominion, the $787.5m Fox payout may be just the start.

It still has outstanding cases against Fox's smaller rivals Newsmax and OAN plus several of former President Donald Trump's associates.

Additional reporting by Monica Miller

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Fox News lawsuit: Can it afford the $787.5m Dominion settlement? - BBC

A defunct, 660-pound (300 kilograms) NASA satellite is set to tumble uncontrollably back to Earth after spending two decades studying the sun from our orbit.

NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite will hurtle through the Earth's atmosphere at 9:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 19 (1:30 a.m. UTC on Thursday, April 20), plus or minus 16 hours, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense said.

The bulk of the dead satellite which examined solar eruptions from 2002 until it was decommissioned in 2018 is expected to burn up while passing through our atmosphere. NASA has said it is not disclosing where the surviving debris will land.

Related: Should we really be worried about China's uncontrolled rocket booster reentries?

"The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low approximately 1 in 2,467," NASA officials wrote in a blog post on Monday (April 17).

RHESSI was launched into a low-Earth orbit by the Pegasus XL rocket in 2002. The satellite used a spectrometer that detected X-rays and gamma rays high-energy waves from the sun that are largely blocked by Earth's atmosphere to capture data on eruptions from the sun in the form of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

By observing more than 100,000 X-ray flashes, RHESSI documented solar flares ranging from miniscule nanoflares to gigantic superflares and even made improved measurements of the sun's shape.

The satellite is just one of many potentially hazardous pieces of space junk that have made headlines after tumbling uncontrollably out of orbit. Four of China's Long March 5B boosters the workhorses of the country's growing space program fell to Earth between 2020 and 2022, raining debris down on the Ivory Coast, Borneo and the Indian Ocean. In 2021 and 2022, debris from falling SpaceX rockets smashed into a farm in Washington state and landed on a sheep farm in Australia.

Space agencies around the world try to keep tabs on the more than 30,000 largest pieces of this junk, but many more pieces of debris are simply too small to monitor.

Space junk isn't just a problem when it falls on us, either. Researchers have found that the more than 9,300 tons (8,440 metric tons) of space objects orbiting Earth including inoperative satellites and chunks of spent rocket stages increase the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10% over large parts of the planet, creating ambient light pollution that makes distant space phenomena harder to detect. These objects also pose a threat to the International Space Station and other spacecraft carrying humans.

Scientists have proposed multiple ways of tidying Earth's skies, such as gathering junk up in nets; collecting it with clawed robots; or firing a halfmile-long (0.8 km) tether from another spacecraft to grab it. On April 11, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it will set up a space bureau responsible for managing orbital trash, as well as modernizing regulations on the space industry.

See the article here:
Out-of-control defunct NASA satellite will smash into Earth today - Livescience.com