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New York Cheerleaders Protesting COVID Vaccine Requirement at HS Championships

Fox News reported:

Cheerleaders from Sachem North and Sachem East high schools are joining fellow cheerleaders in New York protesting a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the 2022 New York State Cheerleading Championships at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

The cheerleaders explained that no other state championships at the high school level have a vaccine mandate, and they are demanding that it take place at another venue. An online petition has circulated and there were over 15,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

Twitter Bans Freedom Convoy Account From Platform

Newsweek reported:

The official Twitter account of the Canadian truckers protesting over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions around the pandemic was suspended by the social media network on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Twitter told Newsweek: “The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules on ban evasion.”

The self-styled “Freedom Convoy” — comprising big rigs and protesters — first arrived in the capital on the evening of Jan. 28, clogging up the city’s main streets and bringing it to a standstill.

The international support for the truckers has been growing, with protests taking place from the UK and the Netherlands to the U.S. and New Zealand.

$200 Gift Cards for Vaccinated Minnesota Kids

Patch reported:

Minnesota officials are offering gift cards to Minnesota kids who get vaccinated against the coronavirus to start 2022, and there are many places to find a vaccine in and near Mendota Heights.

Minnesota kids who are 5 to 11 will get a $200 Visa gift card if they receive their first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccine between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 through the “Kids Deserve a Shot” campaign. Families can receive a $200 gift card for each child vaccinated during that period.

Minnesota’s “Kids Deserve a Shot” campaign also awarded $100,000 scholarships to five students in 2021 to encourage children to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The campaign also offered a slew of other prizes to encourage kids to get vaccinated, including tickets and gear from Minnesota’s professional and college sports teams, a “zookeeper for a day” experience, and much more.

Canadian Protesters Block the Busiest International Crossing in North America as Tensions Ramp up Over COVID Rules

CNN World reported:

Canadian protesters have impeded access to the busiest international crossing in North America again Tuesday, escalating tensions as frustration over demonstrations against COVID-19 rules continues to roil the nation.

After idling trucks and vehicles snarled roadways in major Canadian cities over the weekend, “Freedom Convoy” drivers hindered travel Monday at the Ambassador Bridge that links Windsor, Ontario and Detroit.

Canadian-bound traffic was still shut down Tuesday morning, Michigan officials tweeted, while U.S.-bound traffic was flowing with limited bridge access, Windsor Police and 511Ontario tweeted.

Protests also blocked traffic overnight Monday at an access point between Alberta and Montana, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, further threatening supply chain disruptions.

Canadian Police Seize Fuel at Trucker COVID Protest as Court Silences Horns

NBC News reported:

Police in Canada’s capital said on Monday they had seized thousands of liters of fuel and removed an oil tanker as part of a crackdown to end an 11-day protest against COVID-19 measures, adding truck and protester numbers had fallen significantly.

The protest, which has gridlocked Ottawa, has been largely peaceful but ear-splitting horn blaring by protesters saw a court on Monday grant an interim injunction preventing people from sounding horns in the city’s downtown.

When It Comes to Masks, the CDC Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Newsweek reported:

Critics, pundits and social media accounts jump to accuse Joe Rogan of spreading COVID misinformation when he interviews experts who utter even a syllable with which they disagree. Yet they seem reluctant to call out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for doing much worse.

The CDC spread what amounts to misinformation in its promotion of cloth masks, which countless medical experts have said are useless against Omicron, the dominant COVID-19 variant in the United States.

In a press release and accompanying tweet, the CDC announced that N95/KN95 offered the most protection against COVID in indoor settings. It lowers your risk by some 83% over going maskless. But in the accompanying graph, the CDC claimed cloth masks cut the risk by 56% compared to forgoing masks altogether.

As is usually the case, the devil is in the details. And there are a lot of particulars rendering this study questionable.

Anti-Vaxxers Facing Termination Under Mandate for NYC Workers Rally at Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall

New York Daily News reported:

Dozens of New York City firefighters, FDNY employees and other municipal workers rallied Monday at the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall to protest a vaccine mandate that could leave them without jobs by the end of the week.

With a Friday deadline looming and their employment status in the balance, the sign-waving, slogan-chanting anti-vaxxers said Mayor Adams and other city leaders have no right to decide what’s best for their bodies.

As of last week, some 4,000 city workers faced firing over their refusal to get the lifesaving jab. Adams has said city employees have had more than enough time to comply with the mandate, which took effect Nov. 1.

As Mask Mandates Come to End Around U.S., Will Vaccination Proof Follow?

Newsweek reported:

A number of states announced this week that they will end mask mandates in schools and indoor settings as U.S. COVID-19 cases continue to decline, raising questions as to whether or not proof of vaccination will also start to ease across the country.

Officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, California and Oregon all announced a plan to phase out mask mandates in the coming months, leaving behind just a handful of states that still require most people to wear protective coverings indoors.

Now, some local governments are also moving to end requirements that individuals be vaccinated against COVID-19 in indoor settings. In Contra Costa, California, the health department announced on Friday that restaurants and bars will no longer be required to ask for vaccination status since more than 80% of residents are already inoculated.

New Zealand Convoy Protesters Clog Streets Near Parliament

Associated Press reported:

Hundreds of people protesting vaccine and mask mandates drove in convoy to New Zealand’s capital on Tuesday and converged outside Parliament as lawmakers reconvened after a summer break.

Among the protesters’ grievances is the requirement in New Zealand that certain workers get vaccinated against the coronavirus, including teachers, doctors, nurses, police and military personnel.

Many protesters also oppose mask mandates — such as those in stores and among children over about age 8 in school classrooms — and champion the ideal of more “freedom.”

GoFundMe’s $10 Million Shutdown of Canadian Truckers Shows It’s Time to Rein in Big Tech

New York Post reported:

When GoFundMe shut down funding Friday for the truckers’ Freedom Convoy, it didn’t just clobber Canadian rig drivers. It dealt a blow to the rights of Americans. Silicon Valley executives are trying to limit the causes Americans support, favoring leftist ones and canceling conservatives.

The convoy set up a fundraising site on GoFundMe to pay for fuel, food and lodging. Many Americans rushed to support it. It had reached $10 million in donations when GoFundMe pulled the plug.

GoFundMe shuts down fundraising for causes the left doesn’t like. That’s as dangerous to our democracy as when other Silicon Valley tech giants like Facebook and Twitter silence viewpoints.

We Americans have a constitutionally protected right to donate money to whatever causes we choose, the Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo. Money funds political activity, and limiting where we can donate is like gagging our speech.

TikTok Shares Your Data More Than Any Other Social Media App — and It’s Unclear Where It Goes, Study Says

CNBC reported:

Two of your social media apps could be collecting a lot of data on you — and you might not like what one of them is doing with it.

That’s according to a recent study, published last month by mobile marketing company URL Genius, which found that YouTube and TikTok track users’ personal data more than any other social media apps.

The study found that YouTube, which is owned by Google, mostly collects your personal data for its own purposes — like tracking your online search history, or even your location, to serve you relevant ads. But TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, mostly allows third-party trackers to collect your data — and from there, it’s hard to say what happens with it.

Faith Leaders Ask Facebook to Drop Instagram for Kids Plan

The Hill reported:

Facebook is facing a new adversary in the battle against its proposal to create an Instagram for kids — religious leaders.

A coalition of 75 faith leaders signed a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, on Tuesday asking him to permanently ditch plans to create an Instagram platform for kids under 13.

In September, the company said it would put the plans on pause after internal documents leaked by a whistleblower escalated scrutiny on Instagram’s impact on teen and youth users, but it did not go so far as to totally drop the plans — as advocates and lawmakers have pushed for.

IRS Dodged a Cyber Minefield by Ditching Facial Recognition

The Washington Post reported:

A wave of relief swept through the cybersecurity community yesterday as the Internal Revenue Service scrapped plans to make taxpayers share the most personal of personal information: the identifying features of their faces.

The now-scrapped system run by contractor ID.me had prompted dire warnings from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and privacy and security advocates, who said it could make taxpayers even more vulnerable to damaging hacking and privacy violations, as Drew Harwell reports.

Facial recognition technology is based on your face and that’s something you can’t change easily. Once you lose control of it, it’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to regain control of your identity,” Jeramie D. Scott, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told me.