YAMANAIR CREATIVE, has launched an “Emergency Creative Relief Package” (ECRP) for the industry. The package allows radio sellers to custom order, via a simple web portal, any type … more

FACEBOOK has announced the over 200 news organizations to receive close to $16 million in grants through its FACEBOOK JOURNALISM PROJECT COVID-19 relief fund for local news, part of the $25 … more

Ciaran wrote the book after losing his grandfather to explain to his young daughter why he was so upset

FRIDAY night, MAY 1st, from 7 to 10P (ET) was the kick-off of #United4Cincy, a virtual community telethon produced by NUVOODOO MEDIA SERVICES, directed by NUVOODOO's RUSS GILBERT, and … more

On SUNDAY (4/26), the collective artist initiative ArtistsCAN released the CANADIAN virtual ensemble recording of the BILL WITHERS classic "Lean On Me," in support of the … more

In an effort to raise money for LOUISIANA musicians who have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, EAGLE ROCK ENTERTAINMENT and filmmaker MICHAEL MURPHY are releasing the new … more

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 1, 2020 – After years of harmful delays by the FDA, a federal judge last July set a May 12, 2020, deadline for e-cigarette manufacturers to apply to the FDA and demonstrate a public health benefit in order to keep their products...

As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo. In the downstairs unit lived...

As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo.

In the downstairs unit lived Jim Orvis, 65, a beloved friend and uncle who worked in the laundry department at the Tyson Foods pork processing facility, the largest employer in Waterloo. Upstairs was Arthur Scott, a 51-year-old father who was getting his life on track after a prison term for drugs. He worked 25 miles away at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence.

The two men were not well acquainted. But both fell ill and died last month within days of each other from COVID-19 — casualties of an outbreak linked to the Waterloo plant that spread across the city of 68,000 people.

Similar spread has happened in other communities where the economy centers on raising hogs and cattle and processing their meat, including the hot spots of Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn.

The virus is “devastating everything,” duplex owner Jose Garcia, who received notification two days apart from his deceased tenants’ relatives, said recently. “These two guys were here last week. Now they are gone. It’s crazy.”

He said it’s possible one of the men infected the other because they shared an entryway, or that they each contracted the virus separately at their workplaces.

The virus threatens the communities’ most vulnerable populations, including low-income workers and their extended families.

“They’re afraid of catching the virus. They’re afraid of spreading it to family members. Some of them are afraid of dying,” said the Rev. Jim Callahan, of the Church of St. Mary in Worthington, a city of 13,000 that has attracted immigrants from across the globe to work at the JBS pork plant.

“One guy said to me, ‘I risked my life coming here. I never thought something that I can’t see could take me out.’ ”

In Grand Island, an outbreak linked to a JBS beef plant that is the city’s largest employer spread rapidly across the rural central Nebraska region, killing more than three dozen people. Many of the dead were elderly residents of long-term care facilities who had relatives or friends employed at the plant.

In Waterloo, local officials blamed Tyson for endangering not only its workers and their relatives but everyone else who leaves home to work or get groceries.

They were furious with the state and federal governments for failing to intervene and for pushing hard to reopen the plant days after public pressure helped idle it.

“We were failed by people who put profit margins and greed before people, predominantly brown people, predominantly immigrants, predominantly people who live in lower socioeconomic quarters,” said Jonathan Grieder, a high school social studies teacher who serves on Waterloo’s City Council. “This is going to be with us for so long. There are going to be very deep scars in our community.”

Grieder cried as he recounted how one of his former students, 19, lost her father to the coronavirus and has been left to raise two younger siblings. Their mother died of cancer last September.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said he first became concerned after touring the Tyson plant April 10 and witnessing inadequate social distancing and a lack of personal protective equipment. As hundreds of workers began getting sick or staying home out of fear, Thompson joined the mayor and local officials in asking Tyson to close the plant temporarily on April 16.

But Tyson, with support from Gov. Kim Reynolds, waited until April 22 to announce that step after the outbreak intensified. The company warned of the significant economic consequences even a temporary shutdown would create.

The plant, which can process 19,500 hogs per day, resumed limited production this past week.

First, Tyson invited local officials and some employees inside for tours to show the new safety precautions, including plastic shields and more space between workers.

This time, Thompson said he was “reserved in my optimism” that worker safety would be a priority at the plant.

Although Tyson has declined to say how many of the plant’s 2,800 workers had been infected, state health officials announced last week that 444 — or 17 percent — had the virus.

In three weeks, Black Hawk County’s cases skyrocketed from 62 to at least 1,450, or more than 1 percent of the county population. Deaths because of the virus rose from zero to at least 15. Ninety percent of the cases are “attributed or related to the plant,” the county’s public health director said.

Thompson said the plant’s outbreak decimated the community’s “first line of defense” and allowed the virus to spread to nursing homes and the jail he oversees.

“These are the places we did not want to fight the COVID-19 virus,” he said.

The losses mounted.

A refugee from Bosnia died days after falling sick while working on the Tyson production line, leaving behind her heartbroken husband.

The virus also took an intellectually disabled man who died at 73, years after escaping forced labor at a turkey plant and retiring to Waterloo.

Scott, who went by the nickname Dontae, was planning to reunite in June with two teenage children he had not seen in person since he was incarcerated on federal drug charges in 2011.

A former small-time heroin distributor who suffered from addiction, he and his wife divorced during his prison term, and she moved to Mississippi with the children.

Since his 2018 release, friends said he was doing well and rebuilding relationships.

Scott told his daughter, Destiny Proctor, 18, that he suspected he became infected at the Tyson pet food factory, which has stayed open under federal guidance classifying the industry as critical infrastructure.

Proctor and her 15-year-old brother were looking forward to living with their dad this summer. Instead, their final talk was a video call from a hospital where he struggled to talk.

“It was so, so sad,” Proctor, who described her father as funny and caring and frequently sending her cards and gifts, said of their final call. “He told me he couldn’t breathe.”

Today, the Game of Thrones star announced that 12 random people will get to win a virtual dinner with her. She’s asking people to donate money to her charity SameYou, which helps people heal from brain injuries and strokes. Pledges will be used to assist brain injury survivors in recuperating at home, who have been asked to leave hospitals to make room for coronavirus patients.

In 1978, Dwight Duffus---editor-in-chief of the journal "Order" from 2010 to 2018 and chair of the Mathematics Department at Emory University from 1991 to 2005---wrote that "it is not obvious that $P$ is connected and $P^P$ isomorphic to $Q^Q$ implies that $Q$ is connected," where $P$ and $Q$ are finite non-empty posets. We show that, indeed, under these hypotheses $Q$ is connected and $Pcong Q$.

You might not know it from the fancy attire they wear on stage at the Fox Theater, but for the musicians in the Spokane Symphony, it's a part-time gig. It's a prestigious gig, to be sure, but like most artists, for the musicians, it's just one piece of a puzzle full of hustle they have to solve to make a living.…

Pressure relief/drainage valve for a concrete pumper having a valve body with an axially extending passageway through which concrete flowing in a pumping line passes, an outlet port in a side wall of the passageway, and a valve member which prevents concrete from passing through the port when the valve is a closed position and permits concrete to discharge through the outlet port when the valve is in an open position.

A method of stress relieving drilled surgical needles is disclosed. At least the metal about a drilled bore hole is heat treated to relieve stress without annealing.

The invention allows securing greater discharge pressure and flow rate at high revolutions of an engine in order to secure lubrication and cooling, while reducing discharge pressure and flow rate at low and medium revolutions of the engine in order to improve efficiency. The invention includes a housing; a relief valve; a valve passage; a main discharge flow channel; a main relief flow channel; an auxiliary relief flow channel; a solenoid valve mounted on the auxiliary relief flow channel; and a spring. The solenoid valve is controlled so as to switch between communication and shut-off between the auxiliary relief flow channel and the large-diameter passage section in accordance with an increase or decrease in engine revolutions, and oil in the large-diameter passage section is discharged when the shut-off is implemented.

In one featured embodiment, a spring assembly for a valve comprises a spring, a spring seat including a cup-shaped portion for seating one end of the spring, and a ball received within a recess formed within the cup-shaped portion of the spring seat. The ball is defined by a ball diameter. A disc prevents the ball from contacting a piston. The disc is defined by an outer diameter and includes a center opening defined by an inner diameter. A ratio of the inner diameter to the ball diameter is between 0.60 and 0.65.

An electrical device such as a headset may have a cable. Wires in the cable may be used to connect speakers in the headset to a connector such as an audio jack. The cable may have a tubular intertwined cable cover that covers the wires. Computer-controlled servo motors in fiber intertwining equipment may be adjusted in real time so that intertwined attributes such as intertwining density and intertwining tension are varied as a function of length along the intertwined cable cover. The fiber intertwining equipment may make these variations to locally increase the strength of the intertwined cable cover and the cable in the vicinity of a bifurcation in the cable and in the vicinity of the portion of the cable that terminates at the audio jack.

A valve for a reciprocating pump includes a housing, a first chamber, a second chamber, a first valve element, and a second valve element. The housing includes an inlet and an outlet. The first and second chambers are within the housing. The first chamber includes a first valve seat and is fluidly connected to the inlet. The second chamber includes a second valve seat and is fluidly connected to the outlet. The first valve element is disposed in the first chamber and includes a spring-loaded check valve element. The second valve element is disposed in the second chamber and includes a buoyant material.

A control system for an HVAC system serving at least two zones, each zone receiving conditioned air by way of a zone duct, each zone duct including a zone damper having a first portion responsive to the static pressure in a HVAC system to open and bleed an amount of conditioned air past the damper when the static pressure of the system increases above a selected level, a second portion controlled by a actuator to move between an open and a closed position in response to a zone thermostat, and a coupling mechanism coupling the first and second portions to limit the relative movements of the two portions with respect to each other, and a biasing mechanism exerting a torque against the system static pressure differential. The first portion can be a single one-piece undivided blade pivotally mounted with a shell surrounding the zone damper.

The briefcase and backpack luggage includes a housing that may carry a plurality of items. The housing comprises a case portion of the housing that may store the items. A folder portion of the housing is coupled to the case portion of the housing. The folder portion of the housing may store items. A handle is coupled to the housing. The handle may be gripped. A strap is coupled to the housing. The strap may be positionable on the user so the housing is retained on the user.

Hinged assemblies, and children's products including at least one hinged assembly, include a base member and a hinged member operatively and pivotally coupled to the base member to define a hinge. The hinge is configured to release if an obstruction is positioned between the hinged member and the base member while the hinged member is being closed and if a closing torque is greater than or equal to a release torque. The hinge also may be configured to not release when an opening torque is applied when the hinged member is in its open position even when the opening torque is greater than the release torque.

An acoustic resonator structure comprises: a substrate having a cavity, which has a plurality of sides; a first electrode disposed over the cavity; a piezoelectric layer disposed over a portion of the first electrode and extending over at least one of the sides; and a second electrode disposed over the piezoelectric layer, an overlap of the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the second electrode forming an active area of the FBAR. The active area of the FBAR is completely suspended over the cavity.

News you don't want to miss for April 7:

1. A nursing home in Orinda is being hit hard by a covid-19 outbreak that has infected 49 people, including 27 residents and 22 staff members, the East Bay Times reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 8:

1. Schools in Alameda County, and five other Bay Area counties, will not re-open this academic year, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 9:

1. Six residents at a nursing home in Hayward have died from covid-19, the East Bay Times reports.…

News you don't want to miss for Easter Weekend:

Oakland will temporarily close 74 miles of city streets to automobile traffic in an effort to give ample space for pedestrians, bike riders, and runners during the covid-19 shelter in place, The Guardian reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 13:

1. "If the country’s most popular coronavirus model proves accurate, California will reach the peak of its outbreak this Wednesday," the San Francisco Chronicle reports, when it will reach a predicted 66 deaths.…

News you don't want to miss for April 14:

1. Six of the 15 confirmed covid-19 cases at Santa Rita Jail have recovered, the East Bay Times reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 15:

1. The number of covid-19 deaths in Alameda County increased from 23 to 36 over a two-day period, SFGate reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 16:

1. As if you didn't have enough to worry about, but California may be heading toward a historic drought, the type that has only occurred four times in the past 1,200 years, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 17-19:

1. "The good news: California has an $18 billion rainy day fund, the biggest in its history.…

News you don't want to miss for April 20:

1. Fifty-one employees at Safeway's distribution warehouse in Tracy have been infected with covid-19, including one death, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 21:

1. Those who suffer the effects of poor air quality are at greater risk of complications associated with the coronavirus, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 22:

1. Oakland is looking at a potentially historic $80 million budget shortfall over the next year, Bay City News reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 23:

1. BART learned on Thursday that $250 million in recent federal relief funds will allow it to balance its budget for this fiscal year, with $78 million remaining, BART Board Director Rebecca Saltzman said.…

News you don't want to miss for April 24:

1. San Francisco Mayor London Breed provided a hint on Friday that the city's shelter in place order will be extended past May 4, possibly weeks or a month, KPIX reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 27:

1. Alameda County, along with five other Bay Area counties, announced the shelter in place order will be extended through the end of May, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 28:

1. The upcoming school year could open early, maybe in July, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday, the East Bay Times reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 29:

1. Alameda County and five other Bay Area counties issued a revised shelter in place order on Wednesday that will allow for some outdoor activities to resume, such as, construction work, landscaping, gardening, golf and tennis, SFGate reports.…

News you don't want to miss for April 30:

1. The five fired Oakland police officers involved in the shooting of Joshua Pawlik in 2018 were reinstated after it was found the Oakland Police Commission violated the Brown Act, the state law for transparency in public meetings, KPIX reports.…

News you don't want to miss for May 1:

1. Oakland's lawsuit against the Raiders and the NFL over the team's relocation to Las Vegas was dismissed by a federal court judge on Thursday, according to Bleacher Report.…

News you don't want to miss for May 4:

1. Businesses such as bookstores, florists, clothing retailers, among others, can begin to reopen on Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced, according to the Associated Press.…

News you don't want to miss for May 5:

1. "UC Berkeley is in negotiations to purchase — and then potentially tear down — a 111-year-old rent-controlled apartment building on Walnut Street where some residents have lived for more than 25 years," Berkeleyside reports.…

News you don't want to miss for May 6:

1. Former Oakland Chief of Police Anne Kirkpatrick filed a lawsuit alleging the Oakland Police Commission, which fired her earlier this year, did so as retaliation for Kirkpatrick blowing the whistle on their own wrongdoing, including seeking personal favors, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.…

News you don't want to miss for May 7:

Just a few months ago, California was sitting on an overflowing reserve fund. After covid-19, the state is now reconciling with a massive $54.3 billion deficit over the next fiscal year, Calmatters reports.…

News you don't want to miss for May 8-10:

1. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned she may consider closing some city parks, including Lake Merritt, if social distancing rules are not followed, KTVU reports.…

An article may include a first polymeric material layer having a surface. A first conductive trace may form at least a portion of the first layer surface. The article may further include a second polymeric material layer. The second layer may have a first surface, a portion of the second layer first surface being bonded to a portion of the first layer surface. The second layer may have a portion of a channel defined therein, the channel at least partially coinciding with a portion of the first conductive trace. The article may also include a first patch interposed between the first layer surface and the second layer first surface. The first patch may span the channel and cover a portion of the first conductive trace.

CIVIC chiefs are working with police and residents’ groups after an attempted murder in the city centre.

HEALTH chiefs in Southampton have thrown their weight behind a national campaign to tackle lung cancer.

LEISURE bosses are today bracing themselves to make the next step towards the development of a huge, multi-million-pound, Las Vegas-style casino planned for Southampton.