Month: October 2021

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that the Biden administration will lift a nearly two-year travel suspension early next month, allowing fully vaccinated travelers from 33 countries to fly into the United States. The CDC said in a press release Monday that beginning Nov. 8, non-immigrant travelers will be permitted to travel to the United States if they are able to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated along with a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than three days before boarding their flight.

President Biden said in a proclamation announcing the order: “I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of international air travel to the United States.” The CDC added there would be “very limited” exceptions to the vaccination requirement for certain non-U.S. citizens who are not immigrants, including children younger than 18. For travelers who are not fully vaccinated, regulations will tighten to require that they provide a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than one day before traveling to the United States.

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Officials confirmed that two people were killed and at least four others injured — including a police officer — after a shooter opened fire in a mall in Boise, Idaho, on Monday afternoon. Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee said during a press conference that officers responded to reports of shots fired at the Boise Towne Square Mall at 1:50 p.m. where they exchanged gunfire with a person matching the description of the suspect.

Police Chief Lee added that the suspect was taken into custody following the shootout and police did not believe there were any additional suspects, saying: “At this time, the majority of the mall has been cleared. We’re still actively clearing the mall to both look for any additional concerns and any additional victims, but at this time we believe that there was only a single shooter involved and that there is no ongoing danger to the community at large from this incident.”  Lee did not provide any additional details regarding a potential motive for the shooting or the conditions of the injured victims, citing an ongoing investigation into the incident.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little offered condolences to the victims on Twitter, writing: “Those injured in today’s unthinkable shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall are in my prayers. The state of Idaho stands prepared to assist the Boise Police Department as they investigate the shooting.” Boise Mayor Lauren McLean also offered thanks to first responders and mall employees, saying during a press conference: “I want to thank the shopkeepers, the people in the mall that reacted so quickly to take care of folks that were there. You showed in a tough and chaotic moment how much you care and what you’re willing to do to support and care for strangers.”

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Indiana Rep. Jim Banks’s official Twitter account has been suspended after he intentionally misgendered Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine in a tweet. Banks shared a screenshot of the tweet where he referred to Levine, the first openly transgender Cabinet official confirmed by the Senate, as “a man” after she was named the first female and first transgender four-star officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

A Twitter representative confirmed that Banks’ account had been temporarily locked for violating the social network’s ‘Hateful Conduct’ policy which includes “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals” as a violation of the policy. The Twitter representative added: “The account owner is required to delete the violative Tweet before regaining access to their account.”

Banks described the tweet as a “statement of fact” and said he would continue to post from his personal account while the suspension is in place. He wrote in a statement tweeted from his personal account: “Big Tech doesn’t have to agree with me, but they shouldn’t be able to cancel me. If they silence me, they will silence you.” Banks added that if Republicans gain a majority in the House next year that they must “restore honesty to our public forums and hold Big Tech accountable.”

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A “bomb cyclone” slammed the Pacific Ocean on Sunday in Northern California, soaking the West Coast with heavy rain, damaging winds, flooding and mudslides. Over 160,000 homes and businesses in California, more than 170,000 in Washington, and over 28,000 in Oregon were left without power on Sunday due to the extreme weather.
A bomb cyclone forms when air pressure rapidly drops as the storm explosively strengthens. The phenomenon was pulling deep tropical moisture from the Pacific, creating an “atmospheric river.” AccuWeather Meteorologist Jon Porter described the river as a “firehose of moisture in the sky” capable of unleashing intense rain and mountain snow.

Flooding across the San Francisco Bay Area closed streets in Berkeley and inundated the Bay Bridge toll plaza in Oakland, with some roads under two feet of water in San Rafael. The National Weather Service in Sacramento warned of “potentially historic” rain for the city’s downtown. California’s Highway Patrol closed down State Route 70 due to mudslides and debris flows near the now-contained Caldor Fire, which scorched more than 346 square miles of the Sierra Nevada and burned hundreds of homes. Although the fire is now 100% contained, wildfires strip away vegetation and prevent the soil from absorbing water, leaving the burned area vulnerable to mudslides and flash flooding.

The storm was forecast to dump over a foot of rain and up to 8 feet of snow over the mountains, forecasters said. “Conditions will continue to deteriorate,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center warned. “Strong winds, high surf, and heavy rain will lead to major impacts. Heavy snow in the Sierra starting tonight.”

Drought-plagued Northern California is in dire need of rain, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom just last week declared a drought emergency for the entire state, citing three years of drought across the West. Seventeen major wildfires are burning in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Wildfires have burned almost 2 million acres in California in 2021 alone. The storms will effectively end the wildfire season in much of the region.

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