People in Illinois many not be able to cite religious or moral objections to COVID-19 vaccine or testing mandates for much longer.

The Illinois Senate passed an amendment to the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act with a 31-24 vote late Thursday night.

The proposal, Senate Bill 1169, now awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature.

For more than four decades, the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act has protected people from having to provide or receive medical treatments that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs.

What does passing of SB1169 mean?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have used the law to challenge employers who require them to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing for the coronavirus.

Read more: https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/politics/government/2021/10/29/sb-1169-illinois-what-does-it-mean-amid-vaccine-mandates/6191888001/
(Springfield State Journal Register)

The Illinois House late Wednesday gave final passage to a bill that repeals the state’s Parental Notice of Abortion Act, clearing the way for Gov. JB Pritzker to sign it into law. The bill narrowly passed out of the Senate on Tuesday night on a 32-22 vote, with three Democrats voting no and six Democrats not voting.

It passed the House after 11 p.m. Wednesday, 62-51. Because it did not receive a three-fifths majority, or 71 votes, it cannot take effect until June 1, 2022.

The parental notice law in its current form was passed in 1995 but did not take effect until 2013 due to litigation. It requires abortion providers to notify a parent or adult family member at least 48 hours in advance of performing the procedure on a patient under the age of 18.

The current law contains exceptions if the minor was a victim of physical or sexual abuse or neglect by an adult family member, if the minor is married or emancipated, or if the provider determines there is a medical emergency, or if an adult family member waives the notice in writing. A judge can also waive the requirement and has done so approximately 575 times since the law took effect, according to committee testimony.

Read more: https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/senate-passes-parental-notice-of-abortion-act-repeal-amid-faith-leader-gop-opposition/Content?oid=14269504

Shoppers at the Safeway in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood will see a noticeable change to the store: It now closes at 9 p.m. because of what one supervisor described as “out of control” shoplifting.

Once open 24 hours a day, the Safeway store on Market and Church streets now has the earliest closing hours of all the Pleasanton supermarket chain’s San Francisco storefronts, most of which stay open until midnight.

In a series of tweets Friday afternoon, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes the Market Street Safeway, said the store “is one of the few affordable grocery options for people living in and around the Castro.”

“A reduction in their operating hours will make it harder for working people to get groceries for themselves and their families, and will have a huge impact on the lives of the store’s employees whose hours will be cut,” Mandelman said.

Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-s-Castro-Safeway-changes-opening-hours-due-16577967.php

Senator Kenneth Gittens Hospitalized at Juan F. Luis Hospital, Said to be in Stable But Serious Condition


Senator Kenneth Gittens, an elected official of the 34th Legislature of the Virgin Islands, is hospitalized at the Juan F. Luis Hospital and was in stable but serious condition as of Saturday night, the Consortium has learned. This information was corroborated by Mr. Gittens himself after the publication made some inquiries.

The senator was hospitalized Saturday afternoon and remains at the hospital under constant monitoring.

Speaking to the Consortium Saturday night, Mr. Gittens confirmed that what he thought was gas pain were actually blood clots affecting multiple areas of his body, including a large blood clot in his lungs. The senator had sent out a text message to members of the Gentlemen Jones, a nonprofit organization that he is a part of, about his condition.

The senator said he has been in contact with physicians at Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, a facility he has a relationship with. Mr. Gittens said he may seek further attention outside the territory in the coming days, however he was stable at JFL at the moment.

Read more: https://viconsortium.com/vi-community_center/virgin-islands-senator-kenneth-gittens-hospitalized-in-juan-f-luis-hospital-said-to-be-in-stable-but-serious-condition

BOGATA — Regulations governing deep-sea mining will take longer to finalize due to the global pandemic, a group of Latin American countries said, creating uncertainty for companies looking to mine the sea bed for metals, including cobalt and nickel.

The delayed negotiations also pose a potential difficulty for companies seeking financing from investors to mine the sea floor.

The U.N.’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) is working on global rules covering sea bed mining, which is not allowed until the regulations are finalised.

The tiny Pacific state of Nauru has tried to speed up the process by triggering in June a two-year deadline for the rules to be completed. Nauru is a sponsoring state of mining company The Metals Company subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI).

Read more: https://vifreepress.com/2021/10/u-n-deep-sea-mining-rules-unlikely-to-be-completed-by-2023-deadline-latin-american-countries-say/

SAN JUAN — Some 2,500 members of the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) are expected to call in sick this morning because a dispute with the government over planned cuts in retirement benefits.

A minority of officers are planning be sick between 4:00 a.m. today and 4:00 a.m. October 31 — Halloween day on Sunday.

At least 12 cities are now affected as police departments from Ponce, Salinas, Isabela, Mayagüez, San Sebastián, Dorado, Camuy, Cabo Rojo, Buchanan Expressway began closing down today, leaving residents of those areas totally without police service.

Puerto Rico police precincts actually started to shut down last night, as part of the strike. Protestors say the government has gone back on promises about their pensions will they claim will now be cut by more than half.

Read more: https://vifreepress.com/2021/10/trick-or-treat-prpd-to-get-blue-flu-on-halloween-over-retirement-benefits/

If officials are shocked by the recent census numbers which stated the U.S. Virgin Islands population has dropped 18.1%, they had better get ready for the next wave of people moving away from the Virgin Islands.

Let’s talk about the whys.

High cost of living, to include food prices that have reached outrageous limits, high power costs, along with constant power failures which interrupt business and revenue; high cost of hurricane insurance; nonexistent affordable care act for health care; lack of affordable housing and low entry level salaries for people with much needed skills.

Looming right ahead is the specter of the Government Employees’ Retirement System collapse, which is due in the relatively near future. This upcoming issue — the day when retirement checks stop — will see an exodus to the mainland because it will be the nail in the coffin for many to stay in the Virgin Islands. People simply will not be able to afford to stay where they have lived and worked their entire lives.

What solutions should we consider to counteract this problem? Should we sell WAPA to a private entity? Work harder at increasing tourism revenue? Sell unused and derelict government buildings? Cut operating expenses for our government, perhaps using Zoom more often instead of paying for huge traveling delegations consisting of dozens of people to investigate new ideas?

Read more: http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/opinion/v-i-exodus-can-be-traced-to-high-cost-of-living-subpar-services/article_a5e20ff0-8849-56cb-82a2-84dc262b0af1.html

U.S. judge sentences Manitoban ex-reservist Patrik Mathews to 9 years in prison for role in neo-Nazi plot


Former Manitoba army reservist Patrik Mathews has been sentenced to nine years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for charges related to what the FBI has described as a neo-Nazi plot to instigate a race war in the United States.

U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang delivered the sentence Thursday in a Maryland courtroom.

Just before he was sentenced, Mathews told the courtroom he got involved with the wrong people and regrets his decisions.

"I'm not someone who hurts people. I'm not a mean person," he said.

Read more: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/accused-neo-nazi-patrik-mathews-080000992.html

Limetree Bay Refining is still on the auction block for now, after a Texas bankruptcy court granted the company’s request for an extension of the deadline for the bidding process.

Bidders for the company were given additional time to prepare, following the request filed on Thursday, a day prior to the scheduled auction.

Attorney Elizabeth Green, representing Limetree Bay, filed a notice of milestone extensions, and presented new dates for the bidding process to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Judge David Jones granted her request after a brief hearing Friday morning.

The auction is now scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 12, and bidders have been asked to make a cash deposit by Nov. 10.

Read more: http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/judge-grants-request-by-limetree-bay-to-delay-auction-to-next-month/article_f8d3d7dd-2368-58c4-9b2f-8af061ea37ac.html

Just 57% of Americans are fully vaccinated. In Puerto Rico, however, more than 73% of the population has been vaccinated. This is the highest percentage in the United States, outstripping New England States. The Island also has some the lowest rates of infection and deaths from COVID-19.

How did this happen? One reason is simply that the government of Puerto Rico has been more consistent and effective in responding to the pandemic than the governments of many States.

Government officials in Puerto Rico have mandated stricter responses to the pandemic than most States. Masks have been mandatory, many types of businesses were shut down, and a curfew was imposed. Employers were legally required to report outbreaks, which is not the case in the states. There were penalties for spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

Urgency

Having just come through the most severe hurricane in U.S. history and a swarm of earthquakes, Puerto Rico may have been more mentally prepared than the States to take strong action against the pandemic.

Read more: https://www.puertoricoreport.com/puerto-rico-outfoxed-the-pandemic/