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Maine Healthcare Workers Sue State, Seeking to Reverse Vaccine Mandate
The Portland Press Herald reported:
Health care workers in Maine filed a class-action lawsuit against the state, the governor and major Maine health networks Wednesday, arguing that the state’s requirement that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 tramples on their religious freedoms.
The lawsuit also asks a federal judge in Bangor to impose a temporary order preventing the mandate from going into effect. Since Gov. Janet Mills announced the requirement under a state statute earlier this month, some health care workers have voiced vehement opposition, packing public meetings and mounting public demonstrations against the requirement.
Illinois Requires Educators, Health Workers to Get Vaccine
The Associated Press reported:
Illinois health care workers and educators from kindergarten through college will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday in announcing new safety protocols that also include a fresh statewide mandate for masks to be worn indoors.
The mandates, which overlap in several places with existing rules, are a response to a spike in COVID-19 infections fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, particularly in southern and central Illinois.
League Wants COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, as Players’ Vaccination Rate Hits 93%
The National Football League said on Thursday it has made clear it wanted to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for players, as it reported a nearly 93% inoculation rate, despite assertions from the players’ union the league had not proposed such a step.
NFLPA President JC Tretter, who plays for the Cleveland Browns, told ESPN this week that the NFL did not enforce or even discuss making vaccines a requirement to play this season, despite mandating inoculations for staff and coaches.
“I honestly don’t understand where that came from,” NFL General Counsel Lawrence Ferazani told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve been discussing with the players’ association mandatory vaccination from the start.”
Unvaccinated Teachers Threaten to Sue if They Are Forced on Unpaid Leave
Unvaccinated teachers are threatening legal action if they are prevented from teaching and forced to take unpaid leave when the school year starts next month.
Under the government’s plan to reopen schools nationwide on September 1, teachers must present a “Green Pass” in order to enter schools; such a pass is granted to those who are vaccinated, recovered or present a negative COVID test from the past 72 hours.
But Ran Erez, chairman of the Teachers Association, threatened to appeal to the High Court if the system is enforced just among teachers.
Big Tech Wants You to Live in a Virtual World. Prepare for Real Problems.
Have you heard of “Metaverse” recently? It was hard not to do so.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned the latest buzzwords in technology 16 times in his latest earnings announcement last month. According to him, the future of Facebook is the metaverse, a virtual environment that physically exists and allows you to hang out, play games, work, and create.
But he didn’t coin the term. Last year, Intel Corp. Technology companies from Unity Software talked about the Metaverse. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also talked about the “enterprise metaverse” in his company’s earnings announcement the day before Facebook’s phone call last month.
Big Tech Pledges Billions to Bolster U.S. Cybersecurity Defenses
Tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft have pledged billions to bolster U.S. cybersecurity following a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday.
The meeting, which also included attendees from the financial and education sectors, was held following months of high-profile cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and several U.S. government agencies, along with a glaring cybersecurity skills gap; according to data from CyberSeek, there are currently almost 500,000 cybersecurity jobs across the U.S that remain unfilled.
Linda Mcmahon Takes Dig at Big Tech Over Censorship: People Come to Our Country for Freedom of Speech
Former Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon took swipes at Big Tech during an appearance on “Mornings with Maria,” Thursday, arguing the tech giants are stripping freedoms away that people migrate to the U.S. for.
Beijing Drafts Rules to Rein In the Algorithms Used by Big Tech to Push Videos and Popular Apps in Widespread Crackdown
China’s internet watchdog has drafted new rules to rein in the algorithms that technology companies like ByteDance and Tencent Holdings use to recommend videos and popular apps, in a widespread crackdown that set off the unintended consequence of snaring several celebrities, causing the Chinese star Zhao Wei’s presence to be scrubbed from the internet.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which released the 30-point draft proposal on Friday, is soliciting public feedback until September 26. The new rules will “regulate algorithm-empowered recommendation activities on the internet” — including content aggregation, personalized recommendation and search rankings — amid Beijing’s efforts to redirect people’s attention to online content that the state deems fit for broad public consumption.
