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DC Public Schools Requiring Negative COVID Tests After Thanksgiving
Students and staff in DC public schools must test negative for the coronavirus before returning to school after Thanksgiving break, district officials said.
The school system’s “test-to-return” policy is one that has been used throughout the pandemic. Students were also required to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before the first day of school in August and after a two-week winter break last school year.
Students will be expected to take their tests at home on Sunday and upload their results online. Schools will also accept photos or copies of students’ results if they don’t have internet access at home.
The district’s approach sets it apart from other school systems in the region, which have dropped test-to-return policies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending routine screening in schools but said campuses could consider testing for large events, “high-risk activities” — such as contact sports or theater — and returns after holiday breaks.
Ice Cube Says He Lost a $9 Million Acting Role Because He Refused to Get Vaccinated for COVID
Ice Cube revealed that he lost a $9 million movie role recently because he refused to get vaccinated.
In October 2021, The Hollywood Reporter revealed the “Friday” star exited the project after declining to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the trade, the entire cast was required to get vaccinated before the winter shoot in Hawaii. THR reported that Cube was walking away from a $9 million payday. At the time Cube did not comment on the report.
Later on the podcast, Cube clarified that he didn’t turn down the role, he didn’t get it because he refused the shot.
San Diego Unified’s COVID Vaccine Mandate Gets Struck Down in Court — Again
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
An appeals court ruled Tuesday against San Diego Unified’s COVID-19 student vaccine mandate, which has been on pause for the past half year. The Fourth District Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court’s ruling from last December that school districts cannot impose their own vaccine requirements on students and that only the state can require a vaccine for school attendance.
“This is a great win for children and the rule of law and ensures consistency statewide,” said Lee Andelin, attorney for Let Them Choose, an offshoot of Let Them Breathe that sued San Diego Unified over its student COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year.
San Diego Unified is examining the appeals court ruling and “will consider its next steps,” district spokesperson Mike Murad said in an email.
The appeals court rejected San Diego Unified’s several defenses of its student vaccine mandate, including that the mandate is in line with the district’s responsibility to keep students safe and healthy, that school districts can create programs to “meet local needs” and that the district’s vaccine mandate is not actually a mandate because it allows students to do at-home independent study if they don’t want to get vaccinated.
Missouri, Louisiana AGs Set to Depose Dr. Fauci in Social Media Censorship Lawsuit
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is expected to depose Dr. Anthony Fauci Wednesday, as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Biden administration.
Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry allege information related to COVID-19, election integrity and other topics were censored on social media platforms, under the guise of combating “misinformation.”
The attorneys general claim they have received discovery “showing that the federal government and the Biden Administration have worked with social media companies to censor speech on topics like COVID-19 and other issues.”
Fauci is among a number of high-ranking officials targeted in the lawsuit. Last week, a judge in Virginia rejected former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s attempt to quash a subpoena in the case. It was transferred back to Louisiana.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Risks Big Fines From U.S. Regulators
If the president of the United States offered you $500 in free gasoline, would you take it? That’s the question Barack Obama’s Twitter followers had to ask themselves in 2009 when his was one of several high-profile accounts taken over by an attacker who got a Twitter employee’s corporate login.
For privacy failures revealed by that hack, Twitter was forced in 2011 into a consent decree that gives the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 20 years of oversight of its security practices. Earlier this year, the clock was reset and Twitter was fined $150 million because it was found to have misused the phone numbers of more than 140 million users. U.S. government lawyers labeled Twitter “a recidivist that engaged in unlawful conduct even after law enforcement action.”
That background means Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter made him the owner of a company that will be under the eye of the U.S. government’s antitrust and consumer protection agency until 2042. His sweeping layoffs of employees and contractors, in addition to the resignations of top privacy and compliance executives, have prompted some security experts to warn the platform is at increased risk of worst-case security breaches.
The FTC this month said in a statement it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” and seven Democratic members of the U.S. Senate called on the agency to investigate Twitter late last week. Failure to comply with the consent decree can carry hundreds of millions of dollars in fines or additional federal court complaints and consent orders.
Japanese Pupils Want End to COVID Ban on Lunchtime Chatter
Most children in Japan long for a return to the days when they could chat with their classmates over lunch — a pleasure they have been denied during the coronavirus pandemic.
After well over two years of eating in near silence to prevent the spread of the airborne virus, schoolchildren say they want their classrooms to reverberate to more than the sound of cutlery and crockery at lunchtime.
While two other COVID-19 measures — a ban on foreign tourists and restrictions on eating out — have been lifted, many preschool, primary and middle-school children are still required to stay quiet when they eat.
A recent survey found that 90% of children said they wanted the ban on chatting to end. The survey, conducted by a mother whose daughter had been told by teachers to “look straight ahead and eat in silence,” said the measure had outlived its usefulness.
Huge Foxconn iPhone Plant in China Rocked by Fresh Worker Unrest
Hundreds of workers joined protests at Foxconn’s (2317.TW) flagship iPhone plant in China, with some men smashing surveillance cameras and windows, footage uploaded on social media showed.
The rare scenes of open dissent in China mark an escalation of unrest at the massive factory in Zhengzhou city that has come to symbolize a dangerous build-up in frustration with the country’s ultra-harsh COVID rules as well as inept handling of the situation by the world’s largest contract manufacturer.
