Category Archives: News

COVID-19, National

Why aren’t there any supplies?: How COVID-19 is impacting the supply chain

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We are in a time unlike any our generation has ever faced. With millions of people out of work, and many quarantining at home, it’s crazy how much our world has changed in a short amount of time. However, one of the most pressing issues is the lack of supplies for both healthcare workers and people at home. 

Image taken from: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/we-have-plenty-of-food-so-why-are-grocery-store-shelves-so-empty/ar-BB12NCzl

Masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer are all important supplies to prevent the spread of disease. But for most of these supplies in high-demand, there aren’t nearly enough to go around. According to the New York Times, crucial supplies for saving lives are also running out. Ventilators and other life saving equipment are at shortages. Test kits are in high demand and are rarely handed out. This prevents people from being diagnosed and given the proper assistance to stop the spread and get healthy again. Masks, gloves, and other protective supplies continue to be in high demand; not only for health care workers, but for people everywhere.

At home, materials like toilet paper, packaged food, and other household items are becoming increasingly harder to find in stores. So, why are we experiencing all of these shortages and what can we do about it?

According to Vox, there are many reasons fr these shortages. Many are caused by major problems in the supply chain. Demand for these products is up, but suppliers have experienced many disruptions. Many American companies rely on overseas suppliers for materials and finished products. Any delay in overseas shipping can create a “domino effect” in regards to product availability.

Another major problem in the supply chain is caused by the amount of people out of work. With more people home sick, less of these products are being made, shipped, stocked and delivered.

So, what are companies doing to help meet the needs given such high demand for supplies? According to Johns Hopkins University, manufacturers and retailers have been working to improve things for consumers, even if it may not be immediately beneficial for business. For example, grocery stores have established dedicated shopping times for the elderly and other high risk individuals to allow access without exposure to others. Stores have also been imposing limits on the number of people allowed in the building to shop at a given time. Some stores are also rationing high-demand products by putting a limit on how much a customer can buy.

However, not all of this is on the manufacturers. We consumers need to take responsibility and realize that our actions have impacts on others. Avoid stockpiling and be aware that others may be in more need of a product than you.

And most importantly, stay home and social distance. The more we all do this, the sooner things will be able to get back to normal. 

Science/Nature

Animal cloning in recent years

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I know cloning sounds like a fictional plot from a sci-fi movie, but in 2020, this is a real practice.

There are ways we can help animals to become healthier through this. An example of this is when goats were cloned to produce more of a protein called antithrombin. The protein antithrombin goes through the bloodstream and reduces blood clots. They were bred now having more quantities of this protein. The research can be found by clicking this link.

Image taken from: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Cloning-Fact-Sheet

When an organism is cloned, cells from that organism are harvested. They are then placed into the reproductive system of another, in attempt to grow the cells. Here is a more specific glance into the process of cloning.

A somatic cell is taken from the being that is going to be cloned. Then the nucleus of that cell is extracted. Why do we need to remove the nucleus? Well because that is what holds the organism’s DNA, which is what we need in order to clone it. The rest of the cell is discarded. After that, the nucleus of an egg cell is taken out from a donor organism, and replaced with the somatic cell nucleus. In hopes of the transfer working, they stimulate cell division in the new egg. With success, the egg divides. After division, the egg will be fertilized and transferred to a surrogate animal, which will carry the egg to term. The transfer has a high chance of failure, which is what makes the process an expensive one.

Human cloning is not yet possible. There is no federal US law that strictly prohibits it, though in 13 states it isn’t permitted.

Scientists are working on better ways of animal cloning. Animals that are cloned are known to have problems and mutations. There are health risks as well. The focus is to adjust the cloning process in order to produce healthy animals. Pushing forward in these sciences gives us hope that in the future we will have healthy animal clones, and we will continue to advance forward.

COVID-19, Local

Businesses staying open during COVID-19 quarantine

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Image taken from: https://www.pymnts.com/coronavirus/2020/facebook-funds-100m-in-grants-for-smbs/

From staying cautious, to a full quarantine shutdown, the coronavirus has affected many things as it has escalated quickly. Recently, nonessential stores were closed to slow the curve of its spread. But as many stores fight to stay open and argue to be an essential, what remains open during this time? 

One place that has to stay open is, of course, grocery stores and places that carry items that people need to replenish frequently as an important, or essential item. That includes large companies like Target, Walmart, Costco, and Cub Foods, as well as some smaller businesses like Lunds and Byerlys.

Fortunately, they have remained cautious and found ways to keep a six foot distance between customer and employees sometimes by using certain markers to stand on or even plexiglass divides.

Pet stores are also deemed necessary as they carry food for animals and pets that people own. From the standard dog food, available at any stores that carries groceries, to feeder insects for more unique animals, like reptiles. 

First responders are also expected to remain present at their jobs. These jobs include police officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other trained members of important organizations. Though they have taken precautions and provided masks to some workers, a few first responders have become the patients after being tested and quarantined for coronavirus. 

As for restaurants and fast food places, many have stayed open and found ways to work around the suggested guidelines, or distances, of the coronavirus. Many places have limited the number of people allowed inside a store at one time or even switched to delivery or drive thus. But this raises the question, do places like Dairy Queen or Starbucks “need” to be open?

There are still many flaws that stem from stores being closed depending on how important they are. Many different businesses have argued and manipulated the system to remain open. Some of these places include Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, Joann Fabrics, and many more. Though it may seem pointless to keep them open from an outsider’s view, businesses risk closing because of the lack of human traffic and income. This also means that many employees would be laid off, making it especially difficult for those who live paycheck to paycheck. 

But, as many companies lose business, Amazon and online shops become the safer and better option for many people. Though it may seem like a good idea, be careful how dependent you are when ordering from these sites as deliveries have become significantly slower to arrive as people turn to this no contact, quarantine friendly, way of buying goods. 

National

Circus ban

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All around the world, circuses travel and entertain people everywhere they go. Performers do flips, tricks, and balance on the craziest things. Something almost every circus uses is animals, which are often loved by children. 

Despite bringing huge success to the circus, people are arguing for animals to be taken out of circuses for multiple reasons.

When it comes to taming the animals, trainers use whips, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods, bullhooks and other painful tools to force animals to perform. Tigers naturally fear fire, but they are still forced to jump through fire hoops in some circuses and have been burned multiple times. 

Other than physically being abused, animals are also mentally abused. During the off-season, animals used in circuses are sometimes put in small traveling crates. The confinement has harmful psychological effects on them that are often indicated by unnatural behavior such as repeated swaying, and pacing. 

Virtually 96% of a circus animal’s life is spent in chains or cages. 11 months a year they travel over long distances in box cars with no climate control; sleeping, eating, and defecating in the same cage until they die.

Not only does this hurt animals though, it also hurts people. Since 1990, there have been more than 123 documented attacks on humans by captive large cats in the United States, 13 of which resulted in fatal injuries.

As animals everywhere get abused, the senate in Colorado is passing Senate Bill 125, called the Traveling Exotic Animal Safety Protection Act. “Circus animals often have quite difficult lives, and this bill aims to prevent exotic animals from being used in such a way here in our state,” Rachel Zenzinger, a Colorado state senator said.

Colorado is putting up a bill to ensure animals are being fairly treated. Circus animals are often abused and mistreated until the day they die. As time goes on, it only puts more animals in danger. Circuses should be discontinued if they continue to hurt animals.

COVID-19, Editorials/Student Voice

How the coronavirus has impacted my job

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So, today we are going to talk about how the coronavirus has affected me in my job.

Well, at the start of the coronavirus outbreak we were still working in the Science Museum. However, after a while it called for us to just stay home and then eventually we were laid off, but temporarily, I’ll be working soon I think.

Working from home is a lot different than working at a location. I don’t get to see people at all unless we are in a video; there is no physical interaction. I can’t tease a coworker, hi-five them maybe, congratulate them in person too, and I used to talk to them one-on-one. No, it’s just all online; like we’re looking at video screens and you know sometimes multiple people try to talk and we have to make a rule to not talk while others are talking because it gets way too confusing.

Then there’s the fact that we like to have icebreakers and, we can’t really do that, but we have been playing online games together like trivia games, scribble.io and trivia murder. Those are fun games to play during this quarantine but then working with others can be hard as well because we have to leave the call and find another way to call our partners that we are working with.

So, we ended up starting a Discord where we can talk to each other but that wasn’t looking as professional so they decided to go with Slack, which is like Discord, but for work. It’s much easier to do work stuff in Slack, like make documents, but then you know we got a message saying that we would all get temporarily laid off.

It’s been maybe a month since I’ve been laid off and it sucks. I don’t get to talk to my people anymore and, you know, I don’t get to make money. I don’t get to, you know, have time to go buy stuff for my family now because I’m trying to conserve a little bit of money.

I have to watch my little brother now like a lot more than usual because, you know, mom’s got to work on her laptop with the video calls, because she can’t go into work and, you know, he likes to make a lot of noise so now he’s just in my room when I wake up usually.

So, in conclusion, quarantine sucks a lot for all of us, but there are still ways for us to stay connected and to help each other out. Just look at the image below, these are people in my
apartment complex trying to help each other in the dire time of need.

Advice/How To, COVID-19

How can I help with donations?

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Image taken from: https://cbs4indy.com/news/can-you-sew-certain-local-hospitals-accept-homemade-face-masks/

While we are all under strict social distancing/stay at home orders/quarantine, many people are looking for ways to help the brave people who are risking their own health in order to make sure people who have contracted COVID-19 are able to recover. Many of us have people in our lives who are essential workers such as nurses, doctors, or other people in other medical professions.

Since the beginning of this outbreak, people have been buying materials in bulk that these medical professionals need in order to do their jobs safely. According to the New York Times, early in April, a man was arrested for hoarding “192,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks, and nearly 600,000 medical grade gloves.” The man was arrested for lying to federal agents about selling the supplies back to hospitals with a 700% mark up. 

Even though those supplies are being distributed to hospitals in New York and New Jersey, many hospitals don’t have enough supplies and have begun taking donations of cloth masks. According to the Hennepin Healthcare page, they are taking donations of cloth masks for staff who do not need medical-grade protective equipment. They, like many other organizations, have provided a pattern to make the masks and designated drop off times.

Hospitals are also accepting donations of unused medical supplies as suppliers are not able to produce as much as all the hospitals need. Finding these products also becomes difficult when people are panic buying supplies in much larger quantities than they could possibly use. If possible, please consider spending some of your time while social distancing making these masks for our health care workers who are putting themselves in danger to help others.

COVID-19, National

Health care workers dancing during COVID-19

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By: Grace Blumer-Lamotte

COVID-19 is a global pandemic affecting everyone. According to the CDC, “’CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease.” Formerly, this disease was referred to as “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-nCoV.” There are many types of human coronaviruses including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illnesses.

Many doctors are making silly dance videos that entertain people while they’re in quarantine/social distancing. Some of the main icons of the dancing during COVID-19 are: Kala Baker, Jason Campbell, and Jeffrey Salvatore. 

All of the healthcare workers that are dancing are posting their videos on various social media platforms such as: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the most popular, Tik Tok. They are all getting the positivity they deserve on those platforms.

According to Good Morning America, many doctors are making Tik Tok accounts to post their dancing videos. Tik Tok is a big media platform that has videos that range from 15-60 seconds.

The health care workers are dancing during COVID-19 to bring joy to families at their home and to relieve stress. They strongly advise you to stay home during these uncertain times.

The doctor, Jason Campbell, said that he wanted to “find a way to reach out to the youth in his community.”

Kala Baker claims that her videos “bring joy to a really dark place right now”’ according to CBS.

Jeffrey Salvatore says, “It brings us joy,” he tells CNN. “It lightens our spirits while we are testing outside in the cold and in the rain. It is a mechanism we are using to keep our spirits up.”

The doctors are already saving people’s lives and working 18+ hours, but they are also bringing joy to families and relieving people’s stress. I think we should repay them by dancing alongside them and supporting their hard work.

COVID-19

Debunking myths about the Coronavirus

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*NOTE: This article was written before the state shut down schools due to COVID-19

Image taken from: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/coronavirus-spurs-a-run-on-face-masks-but-do-they-work/

I think everyone has heard a thing or two about the Coronavirus. After sweeping the media and traveling quickly, myths and facts have intermixed leaving people questioning what is true and what is it made up about the new virus.

As panic spreads, here are a few myths debunked to help separate bogus claims from the facts. 

Myth: There is a vaccine available for the Coronavirus. 

Fact: There is no magical vaccine that will cure this virus available at the moment. Though scientists are working on a treatment, it will take many months or even years for an efficient and safe vaccine for humans. For a vaccine to be produced, it has to be tested many times to make sure that all side effects and results are spotted before allowing it to the public. 

Myth: Wearing a mask will protect you from the Coronavirus. 

Fact: This myth is in fact false for the majority of people, though certain masks used for health care workers can protect them from infected patients. Most people are wearing lightweight disposable masks that aren’t a tight fit, therefore, they still will allow infected substances through to the nose, mouth, and eye areas. Also, by buying and wearing these masks out in public, it limits the stock that some patients and workers actually need. 

Myth: You can get the Coronavirus from packages ordered and shipped from China. 

Fact: This fact is false based on information already known about the virus. Though scientists have more information to discover about the virus, notes from other viruses like this one state that they do not survive on surfaces for very long. So, you would not get sick from a package that has been in transit for many days or even weeks. 

Myth: The Coronavirus is not more dangerous than the flu. 

Fact: Those who are experiencing the virus may only have symptoms similar to the flu. Overall, the disease is a lot more dangerous as shown by the mortality rate so far. According to an estimation, it’s assumed that it is about ten times more deadly. Part of the danger of this new virus is the lack of knowledge we have about it, unlike the flu which we have studied for decades.

Science/Nature, Travel/Food

Lab-grown alternatives to meat

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Lab-grown meat is meat that is not from a living organism. It is made by taking a muscle sample from an animal. Then they take stem cells from the tissue, and replicate those and grow them. These cells are able to renew and grow themselves, that’s why it is important to the process of making the meat. The cells then generate into different tissues and are able to grow, forming muscle tissues. The meat grows onto itself in a cultivator. It’s ready to harvest in 4-6 weeks. That is fast!

There is a reason why this is being practiced. This type of meat can put an end to cruel and unethical treatment of many animals that are raised for food. Many of these animals have bad living conditions that consist of little space, and their diet is foods meant to bulk them up, sometimes with abusive caretakers.

Along with better relationships with cattle, there are also good impacts this meat brings to the environment. The production of livestock products is one of the huge industries contributing to extreme amounts of deforestation, water pollution, and greenhouse-gas emissions. Less land usage, less ingredients, and an overall smaller impact is a result of synthetic meats. Synthetically growing the meat does not need as many resources as sustaining and growing animals from birth. One simple tissue sample is used and is able to make thousands of quarter pounders. We are able to reduce the pollution agriculture causes as well as the amount of land we have dedicated towards it.

The meat is not yet on the market, it is still being tested, but it is hoped to be coming very soon. The purpose of this advancement isn’t to get rid of traditional agriculture, it’s about finding a safer, less cruel alternative to factory farming. The cost of production is high right now, that is because it’s not yet perfected. There is a focus on bringing the cost down, but it still utilizes fewer resources. There are a lot of different names for the food produced, but we know one thing for sure, it’s a nearly perfect alternative for real meat.

Local

Copper-nickel mining in the BWCA

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The Boundary Waters Canoe Area is a one million acre wilderness area in northeast Minnesota that is protected by the state. It has hundreds of lakes connected by rivers and streams. Recently a bill has been proposed to ban copper-nickel mining in a huge area of federal land bordering the BWCA.

Mining is a big part of the economy in northeast Minnesota. There have been iron ore mines open in the area for over a century and people there are getting frustrated. They believe the proposed bill will interfere with their way of life. According to Steve Giorgi, the director of the Range Association of Municipalities and Schools says the area needs more high-paying mining jobs rather than the outdoor tourism jobs that have been increasing. He also claims that the vast deposits of copper and nickel could bring another economic heyday to the region.

The proposed bill would  permanently ban copper-nickel mining in 365 square mile of land surrounding the BWCA. This is being proposed because the mining threatens the delicate ecosystem and will pollute hundreds of surrounding lakes with highly sulfuric chemicals. There has never been a copper-nickel mine that hasn’t polluted surrounding waterways but the mining companies have proposed a way to treat the water so it won’t permanently harm the ecosystem. The problem with this plan is that it is very expensive and would take 500 years after the mine closes to treat all the water. 

The BWCA is not only valued by Minnesotans; people from all around the world come to see the pristine waters and the beautiful wildlife. Jason Zabokrtsky, the owner of Ely Outfitting Company said he saw people from 48 states and 13 countries going into the BWCA. 

In 2016 Obama launched a study on the environmental effects of copper-nickel mining but in 2018 Trump shut it down four months before it was finished and renewed the mining companies’ leases which gives them the right to explore and eventually mine in the area.

Copper-nickel mining has pros and cons. It can bring jobs and money to northeastern Minnesota but it also has the potential to wreck a fragile and valuable ecosystem.