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New York City sea levels could rise more than a foot by the 2030s, according to projections presented by a city climate panel. The nation’s largest city will see as much as 10 percent more precipitation and temperature increases of 2 degrees to 4.7 degrees, the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) said at a presentation at the Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast. The presentation’s contents were first reported by The City. Further into the century, “we can’t rule out” precipitation increases as high as 30 percent, said NPCC member Radley Horton, a climate professor...

https://www.thechosenriseup.com/ Consider purchasing tickets to Season 4 early. This will help with the Box Office numbers for all the Data Wonks. My prayer is that many will see the first 3 Episodes of Season 4 on the big screen who may not be aware that they can binge watch the first 3 seasons for free on many platforms

As people across the country prepare for holiday celebrations, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging anyone who hasn’t gotten the latest vaccines against respiratory viruses to do so now to avoid getting sick and spreading illness. For the first time, there are vaccines available to protect against Covid-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. But there is an “urgent need” to boost vaccination coverage amid increasing levels of respiratory disease, the CDC said in an official health advisory last week. Vaccination rates in children and adults remain low as virus activity increases.

For some people, going to hospital may now be more dangerous than staying at home untreated. Many clinically vulnerable people fear, sometimes with good reason, that a visit to hospital or the doctors’ surgery could be the end of them. Of course, there have always been dangers where sick people gather. But, until now, health services have sought to minimise them. Astonishingly, this is often no longer the case. Across the UK, over the past two years, the NHS has been standing down even the most basic precautions against Covid-19. For example, staff in many surgeries and hospitals are no...

COVID cases are on the rise in Illinois and across the U.S., and while that has led some to bring back mask requirements or mandates, could public health guidance soon follow? Already, some U.S. schools and businesses have started bringing back mask mandates. Morris Brown College in Atlanta announced last week that it was reinstating its mask mandate "due to reports of positive cases among students." A mask mandate was also reinstated for several employees at Lionsgate headquarters in Santa Monica, according to an internal memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The Illinois Department of Public Health warned Friday...

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. is $3.85. That’s up nearly 30 cents from a month ago. Prices are still lower this year than they were last year due to spikes caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; however, they are at their highest point this year. Factors influencing the high gasoline prices include oil supply cuts abroad and issues at refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline. Oil prices are a major factor in the price of the gasoline that eventually reaches consumers at the pump. Oil prices have been on the rise over the...

A measure of wholesale prices rose more than expected in July, countering recent trends showing that inflation pressures are easing. The producer price index, which gauges the costs that goods and services producers receive for their products as opposed to those that consumers pay, rose 0.3% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Excluding food and energy, core PPI also increased 0.3%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting an increase of 0.2% for both readings. Excluding food, energy and trade services, PPI increased 0.2%.

Nationwide home prices increased in February after falling for seven consecutive months, according to data released on Tuesday. New S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index data showed that prices rose from the previous month by 0.2 percent after seasonal adjustment. Prices were up by 2 percent year-over-year. The 20-City Composite index, which measures price growth in major U.S. metro areas, showed a 0.4 percent year-over-year gain. Miami, Tampa, and Atlanta posted the highest annual increases. The bump in home prices reflects a return to normal for the spring buying season, Zillow senior economist Nicole Bachaud said in a...

British energy giant Shell ensured the pay package for the company’s CEO jumped by half last year to nearly $12 million as oil and gas companies made record profits from runaway energy costs and consumers struggled with a global cost-of-living crisis. AP reports London-based Shell paid Ben van Beurden a total of $11.5 million in 2022 as annual company profits doubled to an all-time high of $40 billion because Russia’s war in Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring. Van Beurden stepped down at the end of last year after 40 years at the company.

New home sales jumped last month despite consistently high mortgage rates that experts say have hampered affordability and pushed potential buyers out of the market. Sales of new single-family homes rose by 7.5 percent in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 632,000, according to Census Bureau data released on Wednesday. But the new sales fell behind the October 2021 estimate by 5.8 percent. The median sales price of new single-family homes sold in October was $493,000, while the average sales price was $544,000. New sales numbers follow separate data released last week that shows existing home sales declining...

Rising COVID-19 cases in Europe are setting off warnings that the U.S. could experience a new surge this winter. Previous jumps in the U.S. have followed a pattern in which cases first rise in Europe, making officials nervous they could see a spike in U.S. cases as the weather turns. The most recent data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that cases began going up around the beginning of September in Europe. The seven-day average is roughly 230,000 cases per day, reflecting rates that were seen in late July when Europe was still dealing with the...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister warned Friday that the country is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases as it goes into the fall, and urged older people to get a second booster shot tweaked to protect against new variants. Other European countries such as France, Denmark and the Netherlands are also recording an increase in cases, Karl Lauterbach told reporters in Berlin. “We are clearly at the start of a winter wave,” he said. German officials recorded 96,367 new cases in the past 24 hours, about twice as many as a week ago. Starting Saturday, Germany’s 16 states...

President Biden is enjoying what looks like an enduring bump in approval polls, a shift that is linked to a number of factors that could help Democrats in the midterm elections. Here’s what’s behind it Share Tweet ... More President Biden is enjoying what looks like an enduring bump in approval polls, a shift that is linked to a number of factors that could help Democrats in the midterm elections. Here’s what’s behind it: Legislative wins Biden and his party’s ultra-narrow congressional majorities have notched a series of legislative successes over the past 18 months. First, there was the American...

COVID-19 cases have risen in the U.S. to around 100,000 per day, and the real number could be as much as five times that, given many go unreported. But the situation is far different from the early months of the pandemic. There are now vaccines and booster shots, and new treatments that dramatically cut the risk of the virus. So how much do cases alone still matter? That question has prompted debate among experts, even as much of America goes on with their lives, despite the recent surge in cases.

As new Omicron variants further infiltrate the U.S., a jumble of signals suggest the latest increase in Covid-19 infections hasn’t sparked a commensurate surge in severe illness even as risks remain.

When Philadelphia’s health commissioner announced this week that the city’s indoor mask mandate would be reinstated as Covid-19 cases there rise, something unusual happened: Not a single other major U.S. city followed suit. Throughout the pandemic, local, state and federal precautions have followed a predictable pattern. As key Covid indicators, such as infections, hospitalizations and deaths, have gone up, so has the number of officials who have required masks, proof of vaccination or other measures to slow the rate of transmission of the coronavirus.

Yet again, the U.S. is trudging into what could be another COVID-19 surge, with cases rising nationally and in most states after a two-month decline. One big unknown? “We don’t know how high that mountain’s gonna grow,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. No one expects a peak nearly as high as the last one, when the contagious omicron version of the coronavirus ripped through the population.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered at a Hillsdale College reception in Overland Park, Kansas, on November 18, 2021. Here are two questions pertinent to our times: (1) How would you reduce the greatest free republic in history to despotism in a short time? and (2) How would you stop that from happening? The answer to the first question has been provided in these last two disastrous years. The answer to the second has begun to emerge in recent months. Both are worthy of study... In answering the second question, I will tell two stories that are suggestive....

Americans' fear about the spread of COVID-19 is on the rise amid the spread of the omicron variant, a new poll showed. The poll, conducted by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 36 percent of Americans said they were very or extremely worried that they or a family member would contract the virus, up from 25 percent in late October. Despite the uptick in concerns, fewer Americans said they were regularly wearing masks or isolating compared the beginning of the year, according to the survey.

Oct 14 (Reuters) - New Zealand reported on Thursday its biggest rise in COVID-19 infections in six weeks, with all cases detected in Auckland, raising prospects of a further extension of lockdown restrictions in the country's largest city beyond next week. Some 1.7 million people in Auckland are under strict stay-home orders until Monday as officials look to stamp out the highly infectious Delta outbreak, the first major spate of community cases in the country since early in the pandemic. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the surge in case numbers in Auckland was not unexpected "but they are rising...