TECH
Supreme Court Blocks Curbside Voting In Alabama, An Option During Pandemic – NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/926472968/supreme-court-blocks-curbside-voting-in-alabama-an-option-during-pandemic


The Supreme Court blocked a lower court order allowing voters in Alabama to cast their ballots curbside at polling places.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The Supreme Court blocked a lower court order allowing voters in Alabama to cast their ballots curbside at polling places.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The Supreme Court has sided with Alabama state officials who banned curbside voting intended to accommodate individuals with disabilities and those at risk from the COVID-19 virus.
The high court issued its order Wednesday night, without explanation, over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices.
At issue was the decision by the Alabama secretary of state to ban counties from allowing curbside voting, even for those voters with disabilities and those for whom COVID-19 is disproportionately likely to be fatal.
Several at-risk voters challenged the ban at the beginning of May. After a three-day trial, a federal district court ruled that the ban on curbside voting violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that a policy allowing but not requiring counties to implement curbside voting was a reasonable accommodation under the law.
A federal appeals court upheld the ruling, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court to block the lower court decision from going into effect. Now the high court has granted the state’s request for a stay of the lower court orders.
Some counties in Alabama wanted to permit curbside voting — allowing voters to vote from their cars at the curbside of the polling place and to hand their ballots to a poll worker. Jefferson and Montgomery counties sought to allow curbside voting so that vulnerable voters who wished to vote in person would not have to wait inside in a crowd of fellow voters whom Alabama does not require to wear masks. But the secretary of state’s ban prevented this accommodation, and the Supreme Court’s five-justice conservative majority has, for now, sided with the secretary of state.
Dissenting from the high court’s action were Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
Writing for the three, Sotomayor noted that John Merrill, the Alabama secretary of state, “does not meaningfully dispute that the plaintiffs have disabilities, that COVID-19 is disproportionately likely to be fatal to these plaintiffs, and that traditional-in-person voting will meaningfully increase their risk of exposure.”
Moreover, said Sotomayor, in-person voting is considerably easier than voting by mail in Alabama. At the polls, voters with disabilities receive assistance from poll workers; they need no witnesses, notaries, or copies of their photo IDs, as Alabama law requires for absentee ballots, and they know their ballots will not arrive too late to be counted.
In addition, she noted, curbside voting has been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic, and the Justice Department has approved it as well as a way to prevent violations of the ADA.
Sotomayor concluded the dissenting opinion by pointing to one of the plaintiffs in the case, Howard Porter Jr, a black man in his 70s who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and asthma. In challenging the ban on curbside voting, Porter told the district court: So “many of my [ancestors] even died to vote. And while I don’t mind dying to vote, I think we’re past that time.”
Merrill, in a statement, called the court’s decision a “ruling in favor of election integrity and security [and] … a win for the people of Alabama.”
You may like
TECH
Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine generates immune response, few side effects, in early trials – CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/13/health/johnson-coronavirus-vaccine-early-trials/index.html

TECH
Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine generates immune response, few side effects, in early trials – CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/13/health/johnson-coronavirus-vaccine-early-trials/index.html

TECH
Your Illinois News Radar » ILGOP on Welch: “Travesty for the people of Illinois” – The Capitol Fax Blog
https://capitolfax.com/2021/01/13/ilgop-on-welch-travesty-for-the-people-of-illinois/

* Press release…
After a series of caucus votes, Illinois House Democrats have finally chosen Representative Chris Welch to be the next Speaker of the House. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider released the following statement in response:
“House Democrats have chosen to go from Mike Madigan, the most corrupt politician in America, to Rep. Chris Welch, a top Madigan lieutenant who has been credibly accused by multiple women in court documents of harassment, assault, and retaliation.
It’s now clear that House Democrats are doubling down on allowing Madigan’s corrupt machine to continue running state government. In Madigan’s stead, they have promoted a serial harasser and assaulter of women. But in spite of that, Welch passed the most important test this fall – he’s been a loyal Madigan ally for years but performed most recently as Madigan’s human shield in legislative hearings investigating the sweeping corruption scandal that ultimately brought Madigan down.
This decision is a travesty for the people of Illinois, and we will make sure every voter understands that House Democrats just can’t quit Madigan.”
Thoughts on the tone?
…Adding… Look who’s back…
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. https://t.co/ReZoroDXV7
— Radical Candor (@RadicalCandorIL) January 13, 2021
…Adding… Illinois Policy Institute…
Matt Paprocki, president of the Illinois Policy Institute, offered the following statement:
“This is a historic day for the General Assembly. For the first time in nearly four decades, Speaker Madigan was not voted into power by members of his own party.
“No state gives their House speaker as much power as Illinois. Under Madigan’s 36 years as speaker, Illinois’ finances deteriorated from a perfect credit rating and just under $6 billion in unfunded pension debt to the lowest credit rating in the nation and over $144 billion in pension debt. And the state’s notoriety for public corruption has been backed up by 1,978 public corruption convictions since Madigan first became speaker, more than any other state and over one a week.
“This vote must become a catalyst for lasting, meaningful change. Illinois can only reverse its culture of corruption and recurring financial crises by dismantling the system that has allowed for one person to control so much power, starting with the House Rules. For the first time in nearly four decades, state lawmakers have an opportunity to change this power structure and finally put an end to the endless cycle of debt and corruption. This moment in Illinois state politics should not be just about a new face, but about a new way of doing the people’s business.”
TECH
Google suspends Parler social network app over incitement to violence – The Guardian
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/09/google-suspends-parler-social-network-app-over-incitement-to-violence

Apple follows by warning the platform popular with supporters of Donald Trump that it must have a better moderation system
Reuters
Google has suspended the Parler social networking app from its Play Store until the platform popular with many supporters of Donald Trump adds “robust” content moderation.
As Twitter suspended the US president’s account permanently over the risk of further incitement to violence”, the search engine said it was blocking Parler and Apple gave the service 24 hours to submit a detailed moderation plan.
Parler is a social network to which many Trump supporters have migrated after being banned themselves from platforms such as including Twitter. Plans for the protests in Washington DC that ended in the storming of the Capitol this week were widely shared on Parler.
The actions by the two Silicon Valley companies mean that Parler could become unavailable for new downloads on the world’s main mobile phone app stores within a day. It would still be available in mobile browsers.
Parler’s chief executive, John Matze, said in posts on his service on Friday that Apple was applying standards to Parler that it did not apply to itself and the companies were attacking civil liberties. He added in a text message to Reuters: “Coordinating riots, violence and rebellions has no place on social media.”
Right-leaning social media users in the United States have flocked to Parler, messaging app Telegram and the social site Gab, citing the more aggressive policing of political comments on mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
In suspending the service, Google, whose software powers Android phones, cited its policy against apps that promote violence and gave recent examples from Parler, including a Friday post that began: “How do we take back our country? About 20 or so coordinated hits” and another promoting a “Million Militia March” on Washington.
In a statement, Google said that “for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app*s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues”.
In a letter from Apple’s App Store review team to Parler seen, Apple cited participants of the mob storming the US Capitol building on Wednesday.
“Content that threatens the well-being of others or is intended to incite violence or other lawless acts has never been acceptable on the App Store,” Apple said in the letter.
Apple gave Parler 24 hours to “remove all objectionable content from your app … as well as any content referring to harm to people or attacks on government facilities now or at any future date”.
The company also demanded that Parler submit a written plan “to moderate and filter this content” from the app.
Apple declined to comment.
Matze, who describes himself as libertarian, founded Parler in 2018 as a “free-speech driven” alternative to mainstream platforms but began courting right-leaning users as prominent supporters of Trump moved there.
Those who have joined include commentator Candace Owens, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and rightwing activist Laura Loomer, who handcuffed herself to the door of Twitter’s New York office in 2018 to protest a ban on her by the site. In November, conservative activist Rebekah Mercer confirmed that the she and her family, which includes her father and hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer, have provided funding to Parler.
Matze said of Apple: “Apparently they believe Parler is responsible for ALL user generated content on Parler. By the same logic, Apple must be responsible for ALL actions taken by their phones. Every car bomb, every illegal cell phone conversation, every illegal crime committed on an iPhone, Apple must also be responsible for.”
{{topLeft}}
{{bottomLeft}}
{{topRight}}
{{bottomRight}}
{{/ticker}}
{{heading}}
{{#paragraphs}}
{{.}}
{{/paragraphs}}{{highlightedText}}
{{#cta}}{{text}}{{/cta}}
TECH
Whats a Simple Way to Video Chat with My Elderly Parents?
https://lifehacker.com/whats-a-simple-way-to-video-chat-with-my-elderly-parent-1846011264


The pandemic has been rough on everyone, especially when it comes to maintaining connection with the people we love. Luckily, technology allows us to maintain these connections in all sorts of useful ways. Chats. Game nights. Video calls. You can even watch movies together—even if you aren’t in the same room.
It can be especially challenging, however, when you’re trying to stay in touch with someone who isn’t as technologically savvy or is otherwise limited because of age or circumstance. Lifehacker reader Lorisa recently wrote to Tech 911 with her dilemma:
Just wondering if you know of a method as how we can setup remote video conference with our mom ahead of time as well as able to stream video (YouTube) to her favorite show.
We are moving our mom into a senior home care as her dementia is getting worse, and out of concern for her safety, we have to other choice but to move her into the facility that managed to keep COVID away by restricting outside visit at this time.
My siblings and I live in same country but not same city as my mom; therefore, we would like to set up a video time with her. In the past at her own home, we would come in and set it all up so that we can monitor her with video and etc. until [a caregiver came] in.
However, with Covid, the senior care already informed that any technology would have to pre-program ahead of time as all the facility would do is plug into the power but they would not do anything else due to the many policies in place. Our mom would not be cognitive enough to know and push on the tablet.
Consider a smart display for far-away family members
I’m glad you provided such extensive detail about this issue, Lorisa, because that really helped me out when pondering a solution for this one. I have one, but let’s quickly go over the basics.
G/O Media may get a commission
Whatever technological setup you’re going to use to connect to your mom is going to have to be something that’s absurdly easy to operate. Since the senior-care facility workers won’t mess with a device for you, and will only really plug it in, we have to rule out any kind of laptop-based setup. Someone would have to turn those on, after all, and I doubt they’re going to want to keep a laptop running 24/7 in your mom’s room. That, and if something goes wrong with any of these devices, the facility workers would have to help troubleshoot, which it sounds like they wouldn’t be comfortable doing.
You could set up and angle a smartphone to face your mom and just dial in to that, but that’s an awfully small picture for your mom to deal with. A tablet would be better, but I think there’s an even better solution: purchase a smart display for your mom. (I like Google’s Nest Hub Max.)
Smart displays are pretty foolproof. Once you plug one in and set it up, it’s going to be fairly self-sufficient; it’ll update itself as needed, reconnect to the internet if it ever goes down, and the most troubleshooting it’ll probably ever need is a quick unplug and plugging back in. That fits exactly what the facility workers would be able to do, should the need arise.
There is one little quirk you’ll want to address, though. When you go to set up the smart display before dropping it off at your mom’s facility, you’ll need to have some kind of phone number to associate with it—well, with Google Duo, technically. You’ll probably want to make a new, dummy Google account for all of this, append a Google Voice phone number, and then add your primary Google account as a member of the household (so you can control the smart display from afar).
Also, maybe as part of the drop-off process, you can plug the display in near enough to the facility that you’ll be able to set it up on their wifi. That’s the key part of this whole process, but I’m sure they’ll be amenable to letting you do that, at minimum.
You then have two options to launch video chats—assuming your mom isn’t capable of answering them herself. You can make a routine in the Google Home app for your mom’s account that calls your personal phone number (or whatever number you use with Google Duo) when activated. You can also use the built-in “Camera” feature within the Google Home app to pull up a live feed from the smart display (and talk to it).
I like the Google Duo approach myself, as I think it’s a more elegant solution. And I’m sure there’s a way you can set up a group video chat, too, once you’ve gotten the basics down. It might seem a little backwards to use a separate device to initiate a call from your mother’s smart display, but that’s the best solution I have if someone can’t answer a call themselves.
If any of this sounds confusing, there’s a fabulous guide on Reddit that you can use to get this setup working. I couldn’t recommend it more. Also, I’m not necessarily wedded to Google; it’s just the smart display I’m most familiar with. You can “drop in” on an Amazon display, too, and the company’s new “Care Hub” feature makes this even easier.
I think the only major issue you’ll have in this situation is the senior home your mom has moved to. Some of them might balk at allowing a device in that, theoretically, violates HIPAA as a result of its always-listening setup. (That, and you’ll want to lock down said smart display as much as possible to lessen the possibility that your mom, or anyone else, triggers it.)
This isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s the best one I have that requires the least amount of work. As a bonus, since you’ll be controlling the display from afar, you can queue up movies and music for your mom to watch whenever you want—assuming you’ve talked to her first, that is. I don’t recommend surprising her out of the blue.
Do you have a tech question keeping you up at night? Tired of troubleshooting your Windows or Mac? Looking for advice on apps, browser extensions, or utilities to accomplish a particular task? Let us know! Tell us in the comments below or email [email protected].

Drake’s Nike NOCTA Label Gives Fans a Look at Another Wave of New Pieces

COVID-19 will shorten American life expectancy, study shows – New York Post

Book review of Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta – The Washington Post

Many scientists citing two scandalous COVID-19 papers ignore their retractions – Science Magazine

Natural immunity after Covid-19 could last at least 5 months – Vox.com

New York Yankees, DJ LeMahieu finalizing six-year, $90M contract, sources say – ESPN

NFL bold predictions, Divisional Round: Lamar Jackson tops Josh Allen as rusher AND passer – NFL.com

Inspectors general of several federal agencies open sweeping review of security, intelligence surrounding Capitol attack – The Washington Post

Pelosi to Speak on Trump Impeachment, Biden on Vaccine and Economy: Live Updates – The New York Times

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review: the right balance – The Verge

How the pandemic is contributing to your insomnia – CNN

China and Nepal finally agree on Mount Everests height after years of dispute – CNN

PSG-Istanbul Basaksehir UCL match to resume: Demba Ba, Pierre Webo confront referee over alleged racism – CBS Sports

Mohamed Salah gets lucky deflection to put Reds in front of Tottenham | Premier League | NBC Sports – NBC Sports

Hong Kong shop allows customers to make their own customised face masks – South China Morning Post

Detroit Lions changing radio homes in 2021, back to 97.1 The Ticket – Detroit Free Press

ER Doctor Says He Walks Into A War Zone Every Day – NPR

Carlos Hyde Goes 50 Yds for Seahawks Longest Run of Season! – NFL

Israeli government on the verge of collapse after lawmakers fail to reach budget compromise – The Washington Post

Arsenal vs. Man City recap: Gunners THRASHED! What next for Mikel Arteta? | ESPN FC – ESPN UK
Illinois’ financial crisis could bring the state to a halt
The final 6 ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes might feel like a full season
New Season 8 Walking Dead trailer flashes forward in time
Mod turns ‘Counter-Strike’ into a ‘Tekken’ clone with fighting chickens
Meet Superman’s grandfather in new trailer for Krypton
Disney’s live-action Aladdin finally finds its stars
Who are the early favorites to win the NFL rushing title?
The old and New Edition cast comes together to perform
Boxing continues to knock itself out with bewildering, incorrect decisions
Steph Curry finally got the contract he deserves from the Warriors


Drake’s Nike NOCTA Label Gives Fans a Look at Another Wave of New Pieces
https://www.complex.com/style/2021/01/drake-nike-nocta-label-look-wave-of-new-pieces


British Actor Johnny Flynn Excavates the Past for Hidden Truths in ‘The Dig,’ ‘Stardust’
https://variety.com/2021/film/actors/johnny-flynn-the-dig-stardust-1234885791/


Zayn Shares New Album ‘Nobody Is Listening’
https://www.complex.com/music/2021/01/zayn-new-album-nobody-is-listening


Zayn Shares New Album ‘Nobody Is Listening’
https://www.complex.com/music/2021/01/zayn-new-album-nobody-is-listening


J Balvin’s Merch Collab With McDonald’s Has Been Called Off
https://www.complex.com/style/2021/01/j-balvin-mcdonalds-merch-canceled
Trending
- Health & Fitness3 months ago
How the pandemic is contributing to your insomnia – CNN
- TECH1 month ago
China and Nepal finally agree on Mount Everests height after years of dispute – CNN
- Sports1 month ago
PSG-Istanbul Basaksehir UCL match to resume: Demba Ba, Pierre Webo confront referee over alleged racism – CBS Sports
- Sports4 weeks ago
Mohamed Salah gets lucky deflection to put Reds in front of Tottenham | Premier League | NBC Sports – NBC Sports
- Health & Fitness4 weeks ago
Hong Kong shop allows customers to make their own customised face masks – South China Morning Post
- Sports4 weeks ago
Detroit Lions changing radio homes in 2021, back to 97.1 The Ticket – Detroit Free Press
- Health & Fitness4 weeks ago
ER Doctor Says He Walks Into A War Zone Every Day – NPR
- Sports4 weeks ago
Carlos Hyde Goes 50 Yds for Seahawks Longest Run of Season! – NFL