2 men hospitalized after drinking cleaning products to fight virus, officials say
ATLANTA (AP) — Two Georgia men have been hospitalized after drinking cleaning products to prevent a coronavirus infection.
Georgia Poison Control Director Gaylord Lopez told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the men in Atlanta had mental health issues and are expected to recover after drinking the products over the weekend.
Lopez said he does not know if the men ingested the cleaning solutions because of President Donald Trump’s musings on whether injecting disinfectants could treat the virus during a White House briefing on Thursday. The statements provoked an intense outcry from health officials and prompted RB, the company behind Lysol, to release a statement urging people to avoid ingesting their products.
“We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body through injection, ingestion or any other route,” the company said.
The first man in Atlanta drank about 16 ounces of bleach on Saturday. He was treated in a hospital and has since been discharged from a psychiatric ward, Lopez said. Authorities did not reveal his identity but noted the man was in his 50s.
A second man in his 30s was discharged after he guzzled a mixture of Pine-Sol, mouthwash, beer and pain medications on Sunday, Lopez said. At least two other people in Georgia have consumed household chemicals since the virus outbreak began and before President Trump made his comments, the news outlet reported.
The state’s poison center was made aware of the two men’s cleaning product consumption when hospitals treating them called seeking advice.
“We don’t ask the question of, was it because they watched a TV show?” Lopez said. The center’s mission is to provide advice so they “make sure these patients make it,” he added.
Lopez said poison control also has seen a spike in other calls this year, involving people who have inhaled different household supplies while cleaning surfaces, and children poisoned when parents left them unattended while working from home. According to the CDC, calls to poison centers about disinfectants has increased 20% in the first three months of this year.
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Georgia temporarily allowing teens to get driver’s license without taking a road test
(CNN) — New Georgia drivers will not be required to take a road test in order to get their license.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced in his most recent executive order that — provided they meet all other requirements — those holding instructional permits can qualify for their licenses without the “comprehensive on-the-road driving test.”
That means teens can get their license when they turn 16 without getting in a car with a test administrator.
Under the temporary rules, teens must have completed 40 hours of driving with the supervision of a licensed a driver. Those under 18 are also required to have permission from a parent, legal guardian or responsible adult to have their learner’s permit upgraded to a provisional license.
The change is in effect until the expiration of the state’s Public Health State of Emergency, which Kemp has extended to May 13.
The executive order also outlined social distancing measures for the state, which Kemp has begun to loosen starting April 24.
Georgia’s gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair and nail salons, estheticians and massage therapists were the first to open, with restrictions, followed by theaters and restaurants three days later.
The governor’s decision is at odds with statements from the mayors of cities including Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, as well as a data model cited often by the White House.
Georgia should not even begin to reopen until June 22, according to the model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which assumes states will implement aggressive testing, contact tracing, isolation and crowd-size limits to prevent more infections.
“I’ve done the best that I can using my voice as mayor to just say to people to use your common sense,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN Friday.
CNN’s Dakin Andone, Lindsay Benson and Amir Vera contributed to this report.
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Texas high school principal drove 800 miles to visit all 612 graduating seniors at their homes
For one principal in Texas, he wanted to see his students just as much as they wanted to see him.
That’s why Virdie Montgomery, principal of Wylie High School, spent 80 hours driving 800 miles over 12 days to 612 of his senior students. Wylie is about 28 miles outside of Dallas.
With the help of his wife, Montgomery told CNN, he was motivated to do these senior visits after looking at the calendar and realizing all the senior events that had to be canceled because of Texas’ stay-at-home orders over the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re a pretty tradition-laden school,” he said. “These kids have seen everything that seniors before them got to do and man, they were just on the floor.”
Wanting to make his students’ senior year as memorable as possible, Montgomery endured long days filled with Google Maps and hours on the road.
Montgomery said he’d post the streets he planned to visit the day before so students had some sort of idea of where he was and when. The adventures usually started at 10 a.m. and wrapped up around 5 or 6 p.m., he said.
“Even now that I’ve done this, you still have that ‘what else can I do’ feeling, because I know how they feel, I know they feel like they’re missing out,” the principal said.
Lauren Gurley, a graduating senior, told CNN having her principal visit her at home was so special — especially because she said the transition out of school to an online format has been a difficult one for her.
“It kind of shows people that somebody does care for you out there,” she said. “Most principals wouldn’t do that.”
Before the stay-at-home orders, Gurley said, she knew Montgomery loved building strong relationships with his students, but these visits “kinda put it over the top.”
The social media savvy principal said he’s always been an active poster, so it was only natural for him to document his efforts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“The most valuable gift any of us can give anyone that isn’t replaceable is time,” Montgomery tweeted. “Where one spends one’s time says a lot about what they value. My wife spent 80 hours driving me 800 miles over the last 12 days to visit seniors all the while navigating. I love her so much.”
On Wednesday Montgomery posted a roundup of some of his senior visits now that he’s finished seeing over 600 of his students.
In an effort to maintain some sense of routine, Montgomery posts what he calls “Corona Chronicles,” which was formerly known as the school’s morning announcements on his YouTube page.
“It’s a sense of normalcy, something we do every day,” he said. “And that’s really what my students were seeking.”
Michigan pilot gives a literal ‘F U’ to governor over coronavirus lockdown
This frustrated Michigan pilot gives a literal flying you-know-what about his governor’s lock-down order.
Ed Frederick, 45, spent about an hour charting a path over Grand Rapids that spelled out this message for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: “F U,” with an arrow pointing directly over the governor’s mansion.
Frederick said he was inspired to hop in a propeller plane Friday morning after Whitmer announced an extension of the state’s emergency lockdown order through May 28.
“It’s a power trip,” Frederick told The Post.
“The government, no matter Democrats or Republicans, always seem like they’re trying to do something just to prove they’re doing something, without weighing the ramifications.”
Frederick, who lives just outside Grand Rapids, said he owns a small business with his sister, and explained that he believed a lockdown was unnecessary for the entire state, considering the largest concentration of cases were in the southeast region around Detroit.
“That’s been an issue for a lot of people in the rural counties,” he added. “There are 82 counties, but really only four need to be locked down.”
Frederick believes Whitmer, a Democrat, has settled with a “draconian” statewide lockdown because a limited lockdown around the major city wouldn’t sit well with her base.
“[Whitmer] says this is for the safety of Michigan, but I think it’s for the safety of her keeping her votes, because the southeast is highly democratic,” he said.
Frederick said he was still getting by, yet sympathized with “the people walking that precipice, living paycheck-to-paycheck.”
But Whitmer and health experts have argued that state lockdowns help contain the spread of the coronavirus. She noted Thursday that counties of northern and western Michigan have begun seeing cases double within a week’s time.
“We must all continue to be diligent, observe social distancing and limit in-person interactions and services to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Whitmer said in a statement urging residents to “work together.”
“Michigan now has more than 40,000 cases of COVID-19. The virus has killed more Michiganders than we lost during the Vietnam war. Extending this order is vital to the health and safety of every Michigander.”
Frederick’s flight came a day after armed protestors stormed the Michigan statehouse. A licensed gun owner himself, Fredrick said he supported the message but felt protestors should have left their weapons at home because it’s “not painting them in a good light.”
“We have an open carry, but just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean you should do it — it’s sort of like [the virus],” he added.
“I don’t need the government to wipe my tushie every two minutes,” he said. “Let me know what the problems are going to be and let me know what the ramifications are; I’m responsible for myself.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/05/01/flight-path-curses-michigan-governor-over-coronavirus-lockdown/
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Indiana Postal Worker Shot Dead After Refusing to Deliver Mail to Man With Aggressive Dog
An Indiana man charged with murdering a U.S. postal worker this week admitted he confronted her because his mail delivery had been suspended due to his “aggressive dog,” prosecutors said.
Tony Cushingberry-Mays, 21, was charged with second-degree murder, assaulting a federal employee, and discharging a firearm during a crime for the death of Angela Summers, a 45-year-old postal worker who was gunned down Monday afternoon during her mail delivery route in east Indianapolis, according to the United States District Court of Southern Indiana.
The mother-of-one, who had joined the U.S. Postal Service in 2018, died in the hospital.
According to federal law, killing an on-duty federal employee can be punishable by death or a life sentence. To date, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says four postal workers have been killed during workplace homicides in the last seven years.
“Angela was such a joy to be around, she was such a breath of fresh air. This is the worst thing that’s happened in my career,” Paul Toms, president of the National Association of Letters Carriers’ Indianapolis branch, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “This is a federal crime, but more importantly this is a senseless crime that should have never happened. It breaks my heart.”
Summers, a city carrier assistant at the USPS Linwood Indianapolis Post Office, was delivering mail at about 4 p.m. Monday when she bypassed Cushingberry-Mays’ home in compliance with a suspension that had been put in place until he contained his dogs, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Beast.
An angry Cushingberry-Mays approached Summers on his neighbor’s front porch, standing about 6 feet away, and repeatedly asked her for the mail.
Both Toms and a witness who spoke to WTHR said Cushingberry-Mays was allegedly upset about not getting his COVID-19 stimulus check when he confronted Summers.
Summers, however, could not deliver his mail “because she was having a problem with the dog at his residence,” the complaint said, adding that Summers had reported “several issues” with the dog, which had resulted in mail being held.
Prosecutors said the USPS Linwood Indianapolis Post Office last sent a letter to the Cushingberry-Mays residence on April 13 indicating they would have to pick up mail from the post office.
Toms said that, in compliance with USPS guidelines, Summers had reported an issue with dogs at the home. After three warning letters were sent, mail had been blocked from the home for about two weeks and “wasn’t even given to Angela that day of the incident.”
“She was just following protocol, and the Postal Service curtailed the mail. It was not her fault that she didn’t have the mail that day,” Toms said. “My understanding is that she tried to explain that the mail could be picked up at another location and an argument ensued. I heard she was called horrible, horrible names.”
The postal worker’s response triggered an argument, escalating to the point that Summers had to use pepper spray on the 21-year-old.
“Cushingberry-Mays then pulled his handgun from the right side of his waistband (no holster), pointed his handgun at the letter carrier, and fired one shot at the letter carrier,” the criminal complaint states. “He acknowledged the mace was not deadly but led to discomfort from his asthma.”
According to the complaint, Cushingberry-Mays admitted in a Tuesday interview with police that he ran away after shooting Summers, first going to his aunt’s house before hiding the gun in the garage at his mother’s. He told authorities “he did not mean to kill the letter carrier but wanted to scare her,” according to court documents.
Immediately after the shooting, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service launched an investigation and offered a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. It’s not clear if Wednesday’s arrest was made due to information obtained through the reward.
“U.S. Postal Inspectors are charged with ensuring the safety and security of USPS employees, and that is a charge that we do not take lightly,” Felicia George, USPI Detroit Division Acting Inspector in Charge, said in a statement. “Anyone who threatens, assaults, or otherwise harms a postal employee fulfilling her critical mission will be apprehended and held fully accountable.”
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/indiana-postal-worker-shot-dead-183600968.html
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