Category: reason

Lucio Delgado was proud to have the chance to become an American citizen after moving to the U.S. from Mexico six years ago. But his dreams were dashed when he flunked the reading portion of the naturalization test. Delgado is blind, but examiners refused to provide that portion of the exam in Braille. Delgado says he was told he needed a doctor’s note.

An arbitrator has ordered the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to reinstate an officer who was fired for hesitating to respond to the mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay casino in 2017. Bodycam video showed Cordell Hendrex leading a rookie officer and three casino security officers one floor below where the gunman was. They stopped when they heard gunfire and remained in the hallway for five minutes. Hendrex then led the team to a stairwell, where they remained for at least 15 more minutes.

San Francisco officials have agreed to pay $369,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a reporter whose home and office were illegally searched. The police were trying to find the confidential source who leaked results of an investigation into the death of the city’s former public defender, but California’s shield law protects journalists from such searches.

Berlin has agreed to pay compensation to two men who, at ages 6 and age 14, respectively, were deliberately placed in the care of pedophiles. Between 1969 and 2004, the West German government in Berlin placed at least nine runaway boys with convicted sex offenders. The program was the idea of sexologist Helmut Kentler, who argued that unruly children could benefit from adult sexual attention. Kentler claimed the boys would fall “head over heels” in love with their new guardians. The two men say that, in fact, they were repeatedly raped.

Jezenia Gambino says her daughter is too embarrassed to return to the elementary school she attends in Port St. Lucie, Florida, after the girl’s fifth-grade teacher asked in front of classmates if she and another girl were dating. Gambino says her daughter later got a text from the other girl, who “wasn’t sure if they should hang out together anymore because of what happened in school.”

Seth Reynolds has so far spent 300 nights in jail for defying a Boone County, Missouri, judge’s order to remove a shed and fence the judge found to be in violation of local zoning laws.

The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia’s three largest mobile phone companies have made millions of tracking requests since November 2019 that would allow them to locate Saudi phone users in the United States. Such requests can be routine and can, for instance, help foreign phone companies register roaming charges. But security experts say the volume of requests indicates the Saudi government is likely spying on its citizens within the United States.

The School District of Philadelphia has barred teachers from providing remote instruction to students while schools are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say teachers may not grade any work that is submitted because some students may not have access to the necessary technology.

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The prevalence of immunity to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be much higher than previous research suggests according to an intriguing new study by researchers associated with Karolinska Institute in Sweden. In addition, a new German study by researchers associated with the University Hospital Tübingen in Germany reports that people who have been previously infected with versions of the coronavirus that cause the common cold also have some immunity to the COVID-19 virus. If these reports stand up to further scrutiny, it would be very good news because they suggest that the pandemic could be over sooner and ultimately be less lethal than feared.

First, a few caveats: Both studies are based on small sample sizes and neither have yet been vetted by peer review.

In the Swedish study, researchers not only checked 200 participants for the presence of immunological proteins called antibodies produced in response to COVID-19 infections, but also for T-cells which are another virus-fighting component of the immune system. Detecting and evaluating T-cells is a bit trickier than measuring antibodies.

The Karolinska researchers, according to the accompanying press release, “performed immunological analyses of samples from over 200 people, many of whom had mild or no symptoms of COVID-19.” The study tested COVID-19 patients, exposed asymptomatic family members, healthy blood donors who gave blood during 2020, and a 2019 donor control group.

“One interesting observation was that it wasn’t just individuals with verified COVID-19 who showed T-cell immunity but also many of their exposed asymptomatic family members,” said Karolinska researcher Soo Aleman. “Moreover, roughly 30 per cent of the blood donors who’d given blood in May 2020 had COVID-19-specific T cells, a figure that’s much higher than previous antibody tests have shown.”

“Our results indicate that roughly twice as many people have developed T-cell immunity compared with those who we can detect antibodies in,” noted Karolinska Center for Infectious Medicine researcher Marcus Buggert.

Study co-author Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren told The Telegraph that if the study’s findings are replicated, they would apply to any country. London, for instance, might have about 30 percent immunity and New York above 40 percent. If so, some parts of the U.S. are much closer to herd immunity than population-wide antibody testing currently suggests.

Herd immunity is the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease that results if a sufficiently high proportion of a population is immune to the illness. Some people are still susceptible, but they are surrounded by immune individuals who serve as a barrier, preventing the microbes from reaching them. Epidemiologists typically estimate that the COVID-19 threshold for herd immunity is around 60 to 70 percent.

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A little more than 26 years after it ushered in a new era of continent-wide trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is no more. Starting today, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) takes over.

The new trade deal is the result of more than two years of negotiation among the leaders of the three countries. It is the most substantial accomplishment of President Donald Trump’s trade policies, but it also demonstrates the extent to which Trump’s unorthodox views on trade have been successfully tempered. After taking office with a vow to tear up NAFTA, Trump ultimately settled for a minor revision to the status quo.

Still, the USMCA is a big deal. Canada and Mexico are the top recipients of U.S. exports. The United States imports more goods from those two countries than anywhere else except China. The deal will affect more than $1 trillion in annual trade between the U.S. and its two neighbors.

Here are three big things to know about the USMCA.

1. A small retreat for free trade and a win for protectionism.

Although Trump’s supporters sometimes claim that the president is actually pursuing a radical free-trade agenda and only using protectionist tactics to achieve it, the USMCA is strong evidence that Trump would prefer to see more barriers to trade.

For example, the administration pushed for the inclusion of stricter rules that make it more difficult for cars and car parts to cross national borders duty-free. Under the USMCA, 75 percent of the component parts of vehicles would have to be produced in North America to avoid tariffs, and 40 percent would have to be built by workers earning at least $16 an hour—effectively putting a minimum wage on Mexican manufacturing plants with lower wages.

Rather than completely reshaping their supply chains, automobile manufactures are likely to just pay the tariffs. As a result, the International Trade Commission (ITC) estimates that consumer prices on cars in the U.S. will increase, resulting in an estimated 140,000 fewer vehicles sold.

The USMCA also gives Trump (and future presidents) greater powers to impose new tariffs against Canada and Mexico. Already, the Trump administration is looking to do exactly that in response to claims that aluminum imported from Canada have increased this year (even though imports of the metal are still below 2017 levels and well within historical norms). But isn’t the point of a trade deal to encourage more trade?

All trade deals are managed trade, of course, but relative to the standards set by NAFTA, the USMCA seems like a step backward.

2. Crucial updates to protect the flow of data across North American borders.

When NAFTA launched in 1994, there were a few dozen websites online. Today there are…a lot more. Importantly, the USMCA includes a new chapter of provisions aimed at digital trade, ensuring that real-world international borders won’t start popping up in cyberspace.

For example, the USMCA bans the creation of so-called “data-localization requirements”—rules that limit how much traffic can flow from a data center in one country to servers in another. The new agreement also prohibits tariffs on data transfers, and it includes a provision shielding tech companies from liability for content, similar to the protections offered by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

These are necessary and worthwhile updates to NAFTA that will give businesses more certainty about cross-border digital work.

3. More trade, but also more uncertainty.

The ITC’s analysis estimates that the USMCA deal will boost U.S. gross domestic product by about $68 billion while adding an estimated 176,000 jobs in the United States, with the manufacturing sector set to benefit the most. Exports to Canada and Mexico are expected to increase by between 5 and 7 percent.

Then again, NAFTA was a smashing success for the economies of all three countries, and that didn’t prevent it from being vilified by elements of both the right and left—both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) basically agree that NAFTA has been a disaster, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Politics will always be a threat to free trade, but one of the more worrisome elements of the USMCA is that it will expire after 16 years. That creates built-in uncertainty. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key White House adviser, has argued that the trade deal’s sunset clause “is not to encourage USMCA’s early demise, but to ensure that the agreement will continue to serve America’s interests over the long run” by forcing the three countries to return to the negotiating table periodically.

Maybe so, but it also means that we’ll have to cross our fingers and hope there aren’t protectionist governments in power in Mexico City, Ottawa, or Washington, D.C., in 2036.

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As Americans celebrate Independence Day this week, state authorities will be armed with all sorts of new ways to restrict our liberty and control us. This includes several states starting to crack down on any cellphone use while driving—and giving police a new pretense for pulling people over.

One such place is Illinois, where it’s now illegal for drivers to so much as touch a cellphone, laptop, or tablet while driving. The state has also started to ban drivers from streaming any videos, and from smoking cigarettes in a vehicle if there’s someone under age 18 in it.

“Texting and driving already was a secondary offense in South Dakota, meaning a driver had to be pulled over for another reason in order to be ticketed,” notes the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. “But the new state law expands banned uses to include taking photos, using the internet, posting to social media, reading emails and using phone apps, and makes it a primary offense, meaning drivers can be pulled over for only using a cell phone.” The offense is classified as a Class 2 misdemeanor.

South Dakota is also making it a Class 2 misdemeanor offense to join a funeral procession you don’t belong to.

Bad new laws taking effect today extend far beyond the roadways. For instance, new restrictions on buying vaping products, cigarettes, and firearms are also in order.

THE BAD

New vaping and smoking laws in Indiana. The state has more than 100 new rules taking effect today, including raising the legal age to purchase tobacco or vape products to 21, doubling the fine for people who sell these products to people under age 21, and banning new stores that sell tobacco from setting up shop within 1,000 feet of any school.

More gun regulations and higher tobacco taxes in Virginia. The state is launching a range of new gun regulations July 1, including banning the buying of more than one firearm in 30-day time span, requiring a background check for all gun purchases, and “allowing attorneys and law enforcement officers to apply for emergency orders to prohibit a person who poses a substantial risk of injury to himself or others from purchasing, possessing or transporting a firearm,” explains Fairfax County’s website.

The state is also raising taxes on cigarettes (from 30 to 60 cents per pack) and creating a new tax of 6.6 cents per milliliter of vape fluid.

Tax and fee increases are also coming, as are regulations that will burden small businesses still reeling from the COVID-19 lockdowns.

For instance, in California, 13 places—including both large cities (like San Francisco and Los Angeles) and smaller ones—will see minimum wage increases today, raising the rate for any business with one to 25 employees to between $13 and $15.40 per hour. Minimum wage hikes will be higher for bigger businesses and for hotels of any size.

California will also start requiring businesses whose independent contractors were recently redefined as employees to start carrying worker’s compensation insurance on them.

Utah, meanwhile, is raising fees on people who bring in boats from out of state.

And authorities all over have cooked up a range of new ways to limit people’s civil liberties, impede due process, and exact revenge on violators.

Sex-crime panic in Colorado. “Use or dissemination of a recording or photo without consent” will now trigger a requirement that someone be added to the state’s sex offender registry. Meanwhile, paying for sex with someone under age 18 is now enough to be convicted of human trafficking. The state’s new human trafficking law also stipulates that not knowing a minor’s age is no defense.

Panhandling ban in Indiana. The state is making asking for money within 50 feet of an ATM, public monument, or business entrance a crime. (The American Civil Liberties Union is already suing.)

Illegal gambling expansion in Virginia. The state is widening its definition of illegal gambling to include “the playing or offering for play of any skill game.”

Tennessee ratchets up penalties for already dubious crimes. “A new law passed this year cracking down on those who flee an arrest,” reports 1057 News. “The measure requires an offender evading arrest to pay restitution if he or she recklessly damages government property.”

THE GOOD

But there’s some good news in this batch of July 1 law changes, too.

Virginia is decriminalizing marijuana, dropping mandatory minimums for license lawbreakers, stopping collection of marriage/race data, letting nurse practitioners perform abortions, ditching their ultrasound law, and extending absentee voting. In a report on the July 1 changes, the state explains that simple marijuana possession under the new law “provides a civil penalty of no more than $25,” whereas the old law “imposes a maximum fine of $500 and a maximum 30-day jail sentence for a first offense, and subsequent offenses are a Class 1 misdemeanor.” People in Virginia can also administer naloxone to someone who is overdosing without getting in trouble.

The state will also start:

• “eliminat[ing] the mandatory minimum term of confinement in jail of 10 days for a third or subsequent conviction of driving on a suspended license”
• removing a requirement that requires race to be listed on marriage and divorce reports
• letting nurse practitioners perform first-trimester abortions

It is also eliminating a requirement that a woman seeking an abortion get an ultrasound before offering informed written consent.

In addition, Virginia will extend “no-excuse absentee voting” to a 45-day period. And it will start letting localities make their own decisions about monuments on public property.

Educator licensing simplified in Oklahoma. The state is making it easier for teachers licensed in another state to obtain a teaching certificate in Oklahoma.

Indiana waives gun fees. The state is extending the period of time its gun licenses are good for from four to five years and waiving all state and local fees associated with gun licensing except for fingerprinting costs.

Beer in barbershops. Maryland will start letting barbershops and beauty salons serve beer and wine on premises during business hours.

Florida takes steps toward school choice and more humane treatment of prisoners. Florida is expanding tax credits and scholarship programs for private schools, as well as making some makes small attempts to better protect pregnant women who are incarcerated. (The law, however, still “maintains current provisions related to the use of restraints on pregnant prisoners” and allows for these restraints, and body cavity searches, so long as facilities have written policies pertaining to them.)

South Dakota loosens voter ID law, protects sexual assault evidence, and limits the criminalization of addiction during pregnancy. The state will start letting people use forms of ID other than a driver’s license to register to vote. In addition, DNA evidence collected in sexual assault investigations will have to be kept longer, up from one year to at least seven years, or until the victim reaches the age of 25. And “certain controlled substances offenses shall be dropped for a woman who is pregnant if she: receives adequate prenatal care from a licensed health care professional during her pregnancy; enrolls in an addiction recovery program before the child is born, remains in the program after the birth and completes the addiction recovery program,” notes the Argus Leader.

Tennessee takes a step toward deregulating health care: “State lawmakers voted this year to expand Tennessee’s Health Care Empowerment Act to allow all licensed medical professionals, instead of only physicians, to use direct medical care agreements without regulation by the insurance laws of this state,” notes 1057 News. “The Health Care Empowerment Act is designed to give healthcare consumers who are struggling to pay the increasing costs of premiums or who have been priced out of the market, an affordable option to contract directly with their physician for health care services. The new law holds that a person seeking medical care outside of an insurance plan, TennCare or Medicare programs and chooses to pay out of pocket, does not forfeit their coverage plan.”

THE WEIRD

Defying the good/bad binary are a few laws that are just plain weird or amusing. For instance, “Hoosier employers will no longer be able to force potential employees to get microchips implanted into their bodies,” notes RTV6 Indianapolis.

A Florida law taking effect today “aims to crack down on the abuse of emotional support animal certifications.”

Tennessee will start allowing sidewalk robots, so as long as they don’t travel at a speed greater than 10 miles per hour.

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The bill (S. 7275) was proposed in January by state senator David Carlucci, but I just came across it:

1. As used in this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) “hate speech” means a public expression, either verbally, in writing or through images, which intentionally makes an insulting statement about a group of persons because of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or physical, mental or intellectual disability….

3. (a) The provider of a social media network shall maintain an effective and transparent procedure for handling complaints about hate speech content in accordance with this subdivision….

(b) Such procedure shall ensure that the provider of the social media network:

(i) takes immediate note of the complaint and checks whether the content reported in the complaint is hate speech and subject to removal or whether access to the content must be blocked;

(ii) removes or blocks access to content that is hate speech within twenty-four hours of receiving the complaint; this shall not apply if the social media network has reached agreement with the competent law enforcement authority on a longer period for deleting or blocking any hate speech content;

(iii) removes or blocks access to all hate speech content immediately, this generally being within seven days of receiving the complaint; the seven day time limit may be exceeded if the decision regarding the hatefulness of the content is dependent on the falsity of a factual allegation or is clearly dependent on other factual circumstances; in such cases, the social media network can give the user an opportunity to respond to the complaint before the decision is rendered; and

(iv) immediately notifies the person submitting the complaint and the user about any decision, while also providing reasons for its decision….

5. (a) The attorney general may bring an action against a provider that violates the provisions of this section:

(i) to enjoin further violation of the provisions of this section; and

(ii) to recover up to one million dollars for any violation of this section, including any offense not committed in this state [or up to three million dollars {where the defendant has been found to have engaged in a pattern and practice of violating the provisions of this section}….

As best I can tell, the bill doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, but it struck me as noteworthy that Sen. Carlucci submitted it.

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