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How Native Media Spreads Misinformation From Vaccine Skeptics

How Local Media Spreads Misinformation From Vaccine Skeptics

One radio show that appears to have been part of this effect is Coast to Coast AM, which airs on 640 local stations and reaches nearly three million listeners a week. His host, George Noory, has had Dr. Tenpenny interviewed Robert Kennedy Jr., an attorney and anti-vaccine activist, and Erin Elizabeth, the founder of the Health Nut News website and a vaccine skeptic.

Understand the state of vaccine mandates in the United States

The activists used their segments on the show to reinforce their messages. In an advertising campaign for Dr. For example, Tenpenny’s appearance to discuss the coronavirus in April 2020 said the Coast to Coast AM website, “It claims that there are so many unknowns about testing, tracking, symptoms and other factors that the information we have communicated about the disease are meaningless. “

This line was posted on Dr. Tenpenny shared and tweeted by some of her followers.

In a statement, Mr. Noory said: “We have all views on my program, and that includes people who are against vaccines.”

Vaccine misinformation has also been posted on websites pretending to be local news but which are paid websites. These pages, where articles are ordered and paid for by conservative think tanks, political activists, corporate executives and public relations experts, were created to fill the vacuum left by the loss of local publications.

Recent articles on some of these sites, like Last Frontier News in Alaska and Bowling Green Today in Kentucky, highlighted people who died after receiving the Covid vaccines, without saying that a Times review found it unclear whether the vaccines were responsible were . The stories followed a pattern established on anti-vaccine blogs to pull data from a national database on post-vaccination deaths without explaining the boundaries of the data.

Last Frontier News and Bowling Green Today did not respond to requests for comment.

At least one local radio host recently revoked his anti-vaccination stance. Phil Valentine, a conservative radio host in Tennessee, said in a blog post in December that he would not get the vaccine because his likelihood of dying from the virus was “far less than one percent”.

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Health

Native officers throughout U.S. are beginning to reimpose masks guidelines as delta variant takes maintain

Local officials across U.S. are starting to reimpose mask rules as delta variant takes hold

From Los Angeles to Massachusetts, local officials across the country are urging Americans to wear masks again as the Delta variant rips across the US

Several California and Nevada counties are now advising all residents to wear masks in public indoor spaces, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. Local leaders in at least three other states have reintroduced mask mandates, issued face-covering recommendations, or threatened the return of strict public health limits for all residents – despite federal health guidelines that in most cases, vaccinated individuals do not use these protocols must follow the settings.

“A surge in the number of cases was not unexpected as the community began to reopen fully,” Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the southern Nevada health district, told CNBC in an email. Clark County, home of Las Vegas, tightened its mask recommendation last week after Covid-19 cases and deaths rose 50% in the previous week. A total of 4,599 new infections and 33 coronavirus-related deaths were reported last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Covid infections are rising again in the US after months of falling cases, new cases have risen 55% since last week to an average of 37,000 new cases per day in the past seven days, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University .

The CDC relaxed its Covid guidelines on masks for fully vaccinated individuals on May 13, stating that they do not need to use them or practice social distancing in most environments. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told lawmakers at a Senate hearing Tuesday that the agency was actively reviewing its mask and other public health guidelines as the virus and pandemic evolve, especially as scientists learn more about the Delta variant and how it is doing Keep vaccines against it.

“A lot has changed since May 13,” said Walensky. “We now have a variant in circulation in this country that was 3% (of new cases) at the time and is now 83% and much more transferable.”

The Delta variant is spreading across the country, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, she said. Nearly two-thirds of counties in the US have vaccinated less than 40% of their residents, “which is what enables the emergence and rapid spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant,” leading to an increase in hospital admissions and deaths, she said.

This is gradually becoming apparent in Nevada, which, according to CDC data, has only fully vaccinated 43.5% of its population. Clark County recorded 641 new Covid hospital admissions last week, 23% more admissions than the previous seven days. Despite the resurgent outbreak in the Las Vegas area, Sizemore said the county’s vaccination rate has remained at just under 42% for the past two weeks.

“However, the community’s vaccination rate has slowed and unvaccinated people are not taking recommended precautions, including wearing masks and continuing to practice social distancing,” Sizemore said.

Nevada isn’t the only state that is stepping up its mask guidelines. On Friday, seven counties in California’s Bay Area recommended the use of masks indoors for a full mandate. The California city of Berkeley also called for the continued use of masks.

Further south, Los Angeles County restored its indoor public mask mandate on Saturday. The county initially lifted the mandate on Thursday when the state formally withdrew a number of executive measures to contain the spread of Covid.

White House senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Los Angeles County’s new mask mandate could serve as a prototype for other regions with high rates of infection. He said he expected schools and businesses to continue enforcing their own mask policies to protect against the Delta variant.

“If you want to be even more secure despite being vaccinated, you should wear a mask indoors, especially in crowded places,” Fauci said in an interview with CNBC’s Closing Bell. On Wednesday.

In Massachusetts, Provincetown officials advised everyone on Monday to resume wearing masks indoors after the July 4 celebrations resulted in an outbreak of new cases.

In Orleans Parish, Louisiana – where the CDC reported 560 new coronavirus cases last week – New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell authorized a consultation on indoor masks on Wednesday to help curb the spread of the Delta variant. And New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that he wanted to avoid reinstating a mask mandate and instead press for residents to get vaccinated.

“Right now, I hope we don’t have to,” Murphy said. “If we have to, we will.”

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Health

Singapore slows tempo of reopening as native circumstances stabilize

Singapore slows pace of reopening as local cases stabilize

A man wearing a protective face mask walks past an indoor waterfall at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore.

Facebook Facebook logo Sign up on Facebook to connect with Roslan Rahman AFP | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – The Singapore government said Friday it would further relax Covid-related restrictions next week, albeit at a slower pace than previously announced, as local infections have not decreased significantly.

The government started easing some measures this week, including increasing restrictions on social gatherings and event attendees.

It said that as of Monday, “higher risk activities” such as eating in and indoor sports and exercise may be resumed in groups of two people – instead of the five people previously announced.

We remain concerned, especially if we do not have to reach a high level of vaccination yet,

Gan Kim Yong

Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry

Barring another super-spreader event or large cluster of infections, the government will allow these activities for groups of up to five people from mid-July.

“The number of cases in the community has stabilized somewhat, but it is not falling significantly and we see several unrelated cases every day,” said Gan Kim Yong, Singapore’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, co-chair of the Covid- Country Task Force.

“That’s why we remain concerned, especially if we don’t have to reach a high level of vaccination yet,” Gan told reporters at a briefing.

Singapore needs to be cautious in resuming activities that are viewed as more risky due to the more transmissible variant of the Delta, first discovered in India, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at the same meeting.

Ong, who is also co-chair of the Covid task force, said a gradual reopening will help “buy time to get more people vaccinated, so it is imperative now to step up vaccinations”.

Singapore has one of the fastest vaccinations in the Asia-Pacific region, but it is lagging behind many western countries. Around 2.7 million people – or about 49% of the population – had at least the first dose of the Covid vaccine by Tuesday, Ong said. Around 35% of the population are fully vaccinated, he added.

The country had largely controlled the spread of Covid until locally transmitted cases flared up in late April. Many of the recent cases have been caused by the Delta variant. The surge in cases forced the government to tighten social distancing measures twice last month.

The community’s daily reported cases dropped to single digits for most of the past week, but have remained above 10 cases a day since Sunday as a large cluster of infections emerged around a damp market in southern Singapore.

In total, the Southeast Asian country has reported 34 deaths and more than 62,300 confirmed cases since early 2020 as of Thursday, data from the Ministry of Health showed.

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Business

China’s Anger at Overseas Manufacturers Helps Native Rivals

China's Anger at Foreign Brands Helps Local Rivals

Tim Min once drove BMWs. He considered buying a Tesla.

Instead, Mr. Min, the 33-year-old owner of a Beijing cosmetics startup, bought an electric car made by Tesla’s Chinese rival, Nio. He likes Nio’s interior and voice control functions better.

He also sees himself as a patriot. “I have a very strong affinity for Chinese brands and very strong patriotic emotions,” he said. “I loved Nike too. Now I see no reason for it. If there’s a good Chinese brand out there to replace Nike, I’ll be very happy about it. “

Western brands like H&M, Nike and Adidas have come under pressure in China for refusing to use cotton from the Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government has waged a widespread campaign to suppress ethnic minorities. The buyers vowed to boycott the brands. Celebrities dropped their advertising contracts.

However, foreign brands are also increasingly pressured by a new generation of Chinese competitors who manufacture high quality products and sell them through clever marketing to an increasingly patriotic group of young people. There is a term for it: “guochao” or Chinese fad.

HeyTea, a $ 2 billion milk tea startup with 700 stores, plans to replace Starbucks. Yuanqisenlin, a four-year low-sugar beverage company valued at $ 6 billion, aims to become China’s Coca-Cola. Ubras, a five year old company, wants to replace Victoria’s Secret with the non-Victoria’s product: non-wired, athletic bras that emphasize comfort.

The anger over Xinjiang cotton has given these Chinese brands another chance to win over consumers. When celebrities severed ties with overseas brands, Li-Ning, a Chinese sportswear giant, announced that Xiao Zhan, a boy band member, would become its new global ambassador. Almost everything Mr. Xiao wore in a Li-Ning advertisement sold out online within 20 minutes. A hashtag about the campaign was viewed more than a billion times.

China is experiencing a consumer brand revolution. The younger generation is more nationalistic and is actively looking for brands that can adapt to this confident Chinese identity. Entrepreneurs are rushing to build names and products that resonate. Investors are turning to these startups as tech and media companies’ returns decline.

When patriotism becomes a selling point, Western brands are put at a competitive disadvantage, especially in a country where global corporations are increasingly forced to follow the same policies as Chinese corporations.

China’s consumer protests are “a historic turning point and will have a long-term impact on Chinese consumers,” said Min. “Chinese consumers don’t want to eat the same crap that foreign brands have given them. It is important that foreign brands respect Chinese consumers as much as they respect Chinese brands. “

Foreign brands are far from finished in China. Its drivers helped make a jump into Tesla deliveries. IPhones are still very popular. Campaigns against foreign names have come and gone, and local brands that put too much emphasis on politics risk unwanted attention when the political winds change quickly.

However, the interest in local brands shows a clear shift. After Mao, the country produced few consumer goods. The first televisions that most families owned in the 1980s came from Japan. Pierre Cardin, the French designer, reintroduced fashion in 1979 with his first show in Beijing, bringing color and flair to a nation that wore blues and grays during the Cultural Revolution.

Chinese people born in the 1970s or earlier remember their first sip of Coca-Cola and their first bite of a Big Mac. We saw movies from Hollywood, Japan and Hong Kong for both the cabinets and makeup and the plot. We hurried to buy Head & Shoulders shampoo because the Chinese name Haifeisi means “seaworthy hair”.

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April 6, 2021, 7:10 p.m. ET

“We’ve gone through the European and American fad, the Japanese and Korean fad, the American streetwear fad, and even the Hong Kong and Taiwan fad,” said Xun Shaohua, who founded a sportswear company in Shanghai that competes with Vans and Converse.

Now could be the time for the fad in China. Chinese companies make better products. China’s Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2009, do not share the same attachment to foreign names.

Even People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s traditionally incumbent official newspaper, relies on branding. With Li-Ning, the company launched a streetwear collection in 2019. In the same year it published a report on Baidu, the Chinese search company called “Guochao Pride Big Data”. They found that when searching for brands in China, more than two-thirds were looking for native names, up from only about a third ten years ago.

As with so much in China, it can be difficult to say how much the Guochao Movement involves in politics. Building homemade brands fits in perfectly with the Communist Party’s desire to make the country more independent. The officials also want the Chinese to buy more: private household consumption only accounts for around 40 percent of Chinese economic output, much less than in the US and Europe.

Patriotism aside, entrepreneurs argue that their ventures are built on solid business foundations. There were similar trends in Japan and South Korea, where strong brands are now based. Local actors know better the capabilities of the country’s supply chains and how to use social media.

Mr. Xun’s sports brand has half a million followers on Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace and sells at the same prices as Vans and Converse, or even slightly higher. He said his brand competed by making shoes that would better suit Chinese feet and offering locally preferred colors like mint green and fuchsia. He sells exclusively online and works with Chinese and overseas brands and personalities, including Pokemon and Hello Kitty. At 37, he is the only one in his company who was born before 1990.

Guochao fashion has also revived older Chinese brands like Li-Ning. For many years, discerning city dwellers considered the brand, created by a former world champion gymnast of the same name, ugly and cheap. The characteristic red and yellow color combination after the Chinese flag was derisively referred to as “eggs fried with tomatoes”, an everyday Chinese dish. Li-Ning lost money. The shares lost.

Then the company presented a collection at New York Fashion Week in early 2018. Its angular look, combined with bold Chinese characters and embroidery, caused quite a stir at home. Shares have increased nearly tenfold since then. Now, Li-Ning’s high-end collections average between $ 100 and $ 150, just like Adidas’.

As ambitious as these businessmen are, almost everyone I’ve spoken to admitted that the Chinese brands still couldn’t compete with mega-brands like Coca-Cola and Nike.

Alex Xie, a marketing consultant who works with companies in China, used the sportswear industry as an example. Nike has a long lead over Chinese brands in research and development. It has a deep network of relationships in the sports world. It works closely with athletes to develop better shoes, sponsors many events and teams, including China’s national soccer, basketball and athletics teams.

“It just has a much closer relationship with its customers than any Chinese brand,” he said.

But for these western megabrands, the cotton dispute in Xinjiang is a major challenge that could help their Chinese rivals. While previous outrage over Western brands like the National Basketball Association and Dolce & Gabbana passed pretty quickly, this battle could go on, many people said.

“In the past, some Western brands have failed to understand or disregard Chinese culture, mainly due to a lack of understanding,” said Xun. “This time it’s a political problem. You have violated our political sensitivities. “

Then, like any savvy Chinese entrepreneur who knows which issues are sensitive, he asked, “Couldn’t we talk about politics?”

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Health

Native bar opening in rural Illinois was tied to no less than 46 new Covid circumstances, CDC says

Local bar opening in rural Illinois was tied to at least 46 new Covid cases, CDC says

Residents line up for COVID-19 testing at Pritzker College Prep High School in the Hermosa neighborhood on November 30, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A local bar that opened in a rural Illinois county in early February was linked to at least 46 new cases of coronavirus and a school closure that affected 650 children, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The county’s per capita number doubled due to the cash opening, according to the CDC. Before the event, the district had an average of up to 42 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for seven days. The daily case average more than doubled 14 days after it opened, the CDC said.

The case, highlighted in a research report released Monday, provides further evidence of how weddings and gatherings in restaurants and nightclubs have the potential to become widespread events for Covid-19.

After routine case examinations, local health officials identified a group of cases linked to a handful of people at the bar opening, including a participant who had been diagnosed with asymptomatic Covid-19 the day before and who was still walking. There were also four people there that night who had symptoms and who later tested positive for the virus.

“These results show that opening settings such as bars where masking and physical distancing are challenging can increase the risk for community transmission,” the CDC said.

One bar attendee who later tested positive identified 26 close contacts he had while attending school for indoor exercise or personal lessons. Two student athletes also tested positive, causing local officials to shut down the school district after more than a dozen employees were potentially exposed.

Another bar attendee was working at a long-term care facility where an employee and two residents were rated positive days after the event. At least one resident was hospitalized before being released the same day. Nobody was vaccinated.

As of February 26, 12 people in eight different homes who were in contact with people who were at the bar that night tested positive for Covid-19, including five school-age children, according to the study. No one was admitted to the hospital.

“This research further shows that inconsistent mask usage and inadequate physical distancing indoors can increase the risk of transmission,” the CDC wrote. “”[Covid-19] The broadcast that originates from a company like a bar affects not only the customers and employees of the bar, but can also affect an entire community. “

The CDC said there were at least four caveats to the results. First, the interviews were voluntary and many community members did not provide full information, so the number of cases reported in the study is likely to be fewer than the actual number of cases.

It was also likely that not all asymptomatic cases were counted and not all contacts were tested. Information on individual behaviors such as wearing masks and social distancing was not collected from those with positive results. Finally, no samples were available for sequencing the entire genome, which is why it could not be determined whether variant Covid strains were responsible for the increase in transmission.

According to the CDC, a multi-component approach such as enforcing the correct wearing of masks, social distancing, reducing indoor capacity, adequate ventilation and contact tracing should be implemented to prevent the virus from spreading before settings such as bars and restaurants are opened.

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Business

$19 million mansion sells in Delray Seaside, setting new native dwelling gross sales file

$19 million mansion sells in Delray Beach, setting new local home sales record

A 21,000-square-foot mega-home in South Florida is the most expensive oceanfront home ever sold in Delray Beach. With a retail price of $ 19 million, it’s the top sale in the city for over three years, according to MLS.

“Resort-style life is a driving force in the ultra-luxury market,” listing agent Senada Adzem told CNBC. “Because of the pandemic, people are rethinking their way of life – their wants and needs.”

Aerial view of the Rockybrook Estate in Delray Beach, FL

Douglas Elliman

Known as the Rockybrook Estate, the property was originally listed at $ 23.5 million in May in the middle of the pandemic. Adzem says the house could only be viewed virtually for its first month on the market due to Covid-19. The price was cut to just over $ 21.9 million before it went on sale for $ 19 million earlier this month.

According to MLS, the most expensive sale in Delray Beach last year was $ 17 million for 9200 Rockybrook Way, known as The Sundara Estate. The 18,000-square-foot mansion was also represented by Adzem, whose team had sales of over $ 200 million during the pandemic, which was their team’s best year, according to real estate brokerage firm Douglas Elliman.

The Rockybrook Estate, located adjacent to Sundara at 9192 Rockybrook Way, consists of seven bedrooms and 14 baths on 2.5 acres in a private community called Stone Creek Ranch. The gated neighborhood has 37 properties in total and is about twenty miles south of Palm Beach and fifty miles north of Miami

The following is in the record breaking house in Delray Beach:

The large double staircase in the foyer

Douglas Elliman

The foyer has 32-foot ceilings and a large double staircase in a style that Adzem describes as “modern classicism with glamor thrown back”.

The great room

Douglas Elliman

The large room walls are clad with white marble and inlaid with inlaid stainless steel, which has been laser-cut into an arabesque pattern and polished to a mirror-like finish. The 32-foot wall of windows overlooking the back yard, Adzem says, is hurricane-proof.

Rockybrooks 250,000 gallon pool

Douglas Elliman

“The convenience-rich property includes a 250,000-gallon heated pool reminiscent of the Wynn Las Vegas, plus a grotto, summer kitchen, and tennis court,” Adzem told CNBC.

View of the pool and pavilion with waterfall function

Douglas Elliman

The water world in the back yard includes fire games, waterfalls and a large pavilion.

Main kitchen

Douglas Elliman

The main kitchen of the house has two massive white marble islands, two sinks, two dishwashers, two sub-zero refrigerators, two Wolf ovens under the counter, and two more pairs of ovens built into a wall of custom-made cabinets.

Cooking kitchen

Douglas Elliman

Just a few steps from the main kitchen is a completely separate kitchen area.

Owner’s suite

Douglas Elliman

The owner’s suite has a king-size bed with a solid leather headboard and glass doors that lead to a private terrace with a view of the house’s mega pool.

Your bathroom with a fireplace, whirlpool, and amethyst accents.

Douglas Elliman

Her bathroom is covered in white marble and amethyst. The super-large bathroom has a fireplace and a large crystal chandelier that hangs over the hot tub.

His walk-in closet

Douglas Elliman

His walk-in closet includes leather-covered drawers and lighted shelves.

Your closet

Douglas Elliman

Your closet has an island with a glass top for storing accessories, three crystal chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling shelves and cupboards.

One of three en-suite bedrooms in the children’s wing.

Douglas Elliman

The “children’s wing” of the house, as Adzem describes it, comprises three en-suite bedrooms,

Lounge in the children’s wing.

Douglas Elliman

a lounge, a living room, a kitchenette

Two-lane bowling alley

Douglas Elliman

and a two-lane bowling alley.

Wine cellar with glass cladding

Douglas Elliman

The wine storage room is a combination of glass and polished steel that creates the illusion of wine bottles floating in the air.

dining room

Douglas Elliman

The dining room seats fourteen guests under a mother-of-pearl-lined ceiling.

The bar in Rockybrooks Club Lounge.

Douglas Elliman

The property’s clubby lounge includes a bar flanked by two wine coolers, a wall of backlit stone, and over a dozen pendant lights hanging over a stone bar.

Salon treatment room

Douglas Elliman

There is also a salon and treatment room.

Cinema room

Douglas Elliman

And a cinema for 20 people with a retro Hollywood theme. The reclining seats are clad in imported Italian leather and the surround sound system is seamlessly integrated into the backlit walls.

The sellers were Bradley Cohen, co-founder of Insurance Care Direct, and Sandra Cohen, founder of Baciami Moda, the buyer of the house remains unknown.

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Health

We want extra Covid vaccine doses and it must be simpler to get them, state and native well being officers say

We need more Covid vaccine doses and it needs to be easier to get them, state and local health officials say

People wearing protective masks wait in line to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a major vaccination site in Sacramento, California on Thursday, February 4, 2021.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Scientists and health officials told Congress on Friday that the federal government must increase its supply of Covid-19 vaccine doses to streamline the process for ingestion.

These two changes are crucial if federal officials want to increase the number of people who receive the shots, scientists and public health officials who have testified before the Science, Space and Technology House Committee.

“Even people who are motivated and excited about the vaccine can be put off by the slightest friction in the system, whether it is complex logistics, inconvenience or confusing instructions,” said Dr. Alison Buttenheim, Scientific Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.

The hearing will take place when elected officials and health professionals address hesitation and disinformation related to the Covid-19 vaccine.

“Fix the simple stuff,” said Buttenheim. “In all honesty, it’s often easier to fix these problems than to change someone’s mind.”

Dr. Philip Huang, director and health department for the Dallas County Department of Health, said the county is trying to address “logistical and problematic factors” by providing online registration and phone banking for vaccine appointments, and by working with community leaders to register people for vaccinations of drive-through vaccination stations.

Keith Reed, assistant commissioner for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, said the state opened an extended timeframe to give residents more time to sign up for vaccine appointments.

“In order to vaccinate as many Oklahomans as possible, we opened the authorization to new priority groups before we fully vaccinated previous groups,” Reed said. “With this tactic we hope to extend the window of opportunity.”

Initiatives to reduce logistical barriers to those who wish to get vaccinations are particularly effective as vaccine supply in the US remains below community demand, according to panellists.

“Supply is the problem at this point,” said Huang. “We have over 650,000 people signed up on our waiting list to be vaccinated and the health department is receiving 9,000 doses a week.”

Health officials stressed that all Covid vaccines available in the US are effective at protecting people from serious illness, hospitalization and death. They urged people not to wait for the vaccination to get a particular brand of vaccine based on perceived effectiveness.

“The best vaccine is the one you can get tomorrow,” said Buttenheim.

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Politics

Democrats’ historic Georgia Senate wins had been years within the making because of native grassroots

Democrats' historic Georgia Senate wins were years in the making thanks to local grassroots

Democratic Senate nominees Jon Ossoff (L), Raphael Warnock (C) and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden (R) take to the stage during a rally outside Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on Jan. 4, 2021.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia marked the first time since 1992 that a Democrat has won the state’s presidential race.

Just two months later, Georgian voters made history again in two run-off elections by sending Democrats to the Senate for the first time in two decades. Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, will be the first black Senator from Georgia. Documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff will be the state’s first Jewish Senator and the youngest Senator in the new Congress.

The high turnout of black voters and other color voters led to Warnock and Ossoff’s historic victories in Georgia – the culmination of years of efforts to organize and mobilize local voters.

More than 4.4 million ballots have already been counted in the run-off elections, which has shaken the turnout records for such elections in Georgia. With all votes counted, turnout could reach up to 92% of that in the general election, according to NBC projections.

“It is less a story about the poor Republican turnout than the Democratic turnout, especially the black turnout, which is much higher than predicted,” said Bernard Fraga, political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, who analyzes runoff data Has .

Black voters made up the majority of the victorious Warnock and Ossoff electoral base, Fraga said. Around 30% of registered voters in Georgia are black and 92% of black voters supported the Democratic Senate candidates.

Latino and Asian American voters also supported Ossoff and Warnock at rates of 63-64% and 60-61%, respectively. A historic spike in voter turnout in Latin America and Asia resulted in Biden breaking profit margins in the general election and a runoff in the U.S. Senate races in Georgia when no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in November.

The high democratic turnout is due in part to the rigorous voting efforts of the Warnock and Ossoff campaigns, with a particular focus on black, Latin American, and Asian-American communities. The Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign made over 25 million voter contact attempts through door-to-door advertisements, phone calls and text messages during the runoff election, according to spokeswoman Maggie Chambers, which reached over a million Georgia voters.

But more grassroots organizations came from dozens of nonprofits and advocacy groups working at full speed, especially organizations that focused on racial and ethnic communities. Their voter mobilization efforts drove historic and pivotal turnout during the runoff elections, but their work began years – and for some more than a decade – before that.

Basic organization

Local black organizers and color organizers have been working for years to register and involve the traditionally under-represented Georgians in the political process, even when they have struggled to secure investment from donors and campaigns.

Best known among this cohort is Stacey Abrams, the former state legislature and gubernatorial candidate who founded the New Georgia Project voter registration group and later founded the electoral organization Fair Fight.

“”[L]We’re celebrating the extraordinary organizers, volunteers, recruiters and tireless groups that haven’t stopped since November, “Abrams said on Twitter on January 5th.” We yelled all over our state. “

Many organizers credit her for bringing the vision of a battlefield in Georgia into the national political spotlight and providing high-level funds to step up voter mobilization efforts.

“She has attached herself to a level of philanthropy that charitable leaders like me couldn’t match. So much recognition for her,” said Helen Kim Ho, a longtime Abrams employee and former executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a non-partisan group Advocacy group Ho founded in 2010.

Ho said it was Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign in 2018 that first focused and “opened the political pegs” of the electoral power of the black, Latin American and Asian American communities in Georgia.

Bianca Keaton is the leader of the Democratic Party in Gwinnett County, a former conservative stronghold that is now an increasingly diverse majority and minority area, where Warnock and Ossoff have won by more than 20 points. She said she was laughed at by members of her committee when she tried to raise large sums of money for the county party two years ago.

“People didn’t have faith in what we were doing,” said Keaton. “But we stuck further away until we got what we needed. And as we all walked in faith together, we moved a mountain.”

These grassroots groups take an innovative approach to building political power, with an emphasis on relational and cultural organization while investing in digital infrastructure and technology.

“We start early. We work to build relationships in the communities that will eventually emerge,” said Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project. “The work of the community organization, the work of the thematic organization, the work of overcoming years of oppression is not something that will only happen after Labor Day.”

The new Georgia project, which focuses on registering people of color and young people to vote, started in 2014. From October 2016 to October 2020, the number of black enrolled voters in Georgia rose by approximately 130,000, which equates to more than 25% of newly enrolled voters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of state voter registration data. The number of registered voters in Latin America and Asia rose by more than 50% each, making up a rapidly growing proportion of Georgian voters.

Former US Representative and Suffrage activist Stacey Abrams speaks with Former US President Barack Obama at a Get Out the Vote rally when he was speaking for Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Former Vice President Joe Biden, on November 2, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. fights.

Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images

According to Ufot, the New Georgia Project knocked on more than 2 million doors between November and January, along with more than 6.7 million phone calls and more than 4 million text messages.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said his group includes “music and culture, and dance and joy” in their campaigns. The Black Voters Matter Fund toured the state on what is known as the “Blackest Bus in America” ahead of the runoff elections, stopping in areas often overlooked by traditional rally political campaigns.

The Black Voters Matter Fund has local partners in 50 counties across Georgia who work with community groups such as churches, NAACP chapters, neighborhood associations, and historically black Greek letter organizations.

“Our message goes well beyond the elections,” said Albright. “We do this to build power over the long term.”

Maria Theresa Kumar, CEO of voter registration group Voto Latino, said that after the 2016 election, her organization invested in data scientists and technology to target potential voters on social media and digital space, and borrowed commercial marketing tactics to register people to vote . According to Kumar, Voto Latino has registered around 15% of all newly registered voters in Georgia since November.

“So many local organizations are doing the work that has already deprived people of their rights. That’s the model,” said Kumar.

Color community advocacy groups have also worked for years to tackle voter suppression and improve language accessibility. Groups such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, the Latino Community Fund Georgia, and the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials have focused efforts including multilingual outreach and hotlines to protect voters in the language.

Organizers shared a common message: For Democrats and other political campaigns hoping to replicate the Georgia game book elsewhere in the South and the US, invest in local organization and leadership.

“For those who have the resources to give, find the local people who really do the work,” said Ho. “Give the money there. That’s the best way. It really is.”

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A Canadian ‘Purchase Native’ Effort Fights Amazon on Its Personal Turf

A Canadian ‘Buy Local’ Effort Fights Amazon on Its Own Turf

“While I’m thrilled the movement is there, it is competing with a pretty strong crosswind, and those are the business restrictions that are driving newer customers into big-box and Amazon,” said Kelly. “I think the Buy Local initiatives halted some of the losses, but unfortunately it won’t be enough to keep most small retailers alive.”

Not everything is grim. One Toronto company, Stainsby Studios, was amazed at the three-fold increase in ceramic sales after being featured on Not Amazon. Another, Glad Day Bookshop, which sells a variety of LGBTQ titles, said the initiative increased Christmas sales by 30 percent.

Like many other shopkeepers, Mary Oliveira was scared when the country’s first lockdown went into effect in March. But her five-year-old chocolate shop in Toronto, Mary’s Brigadeiro, was fortunate to have an existing online presence that brought in stable income throughout the pandemic, she said.

Over the past few weeks, numerous new customers have told Ms. Oliveira that they found her store through Not Amazon, which she had been added to but had never heard of.

“We found more people were pushing to shop locally,” said Ms. Oliveira, 30, who was surprised that 27 percent of her online shoppers came through Not Amazon. “That meant we were sold out for the entire season a week ago. It has never happened before. “

In November she hired four more people and is now considering opening additional locations in Toronto. Ms. Oliveira, a native of Brazil, said the Buy Local initiative had rekindled a sense of belonging, especially when she saw the numerous shipments from Amazon while local businesses were struggling.

Ms. Oliveira said dealing with shipping delays as a small business owner is frustrating, while customers said Amazon is much faster.