CNN BUSINESS | The end of $600 stimulus checks has left unemployed Americans facing financial ruin

New York (CNN) – Congress’ failure to extend supplemental unemployment insurance benefits is taking a serious financial toll on millions of laid-off or furloughed US workers and exacerbating wealth inequality, according to a new study.

Many out-of-work Americans were able to maintain their finances through August, in large part because of the weekly $600 supplemental unemployment benefit checks they were receiving through the CARES Act, which expired at the end of July, according to a new paper by researchers from Harvard, the University of Oxford and George Washington University.

But that financial stability crumbled in September and October as negotiations on a new stimulus bill reached a stalemate.  —read more—

CNN health | People with blood type O may have lower risk of Covid-19 infection and severe illness, two new studies suggest

(CNN) – People with blood type O may be less vulnerable to Covid-19 and have a reduced likelihood of getting severely ill, according to two studies published Wednesday. Experts say more research is needed.

The research provides further evidence that blood type (also known as blood group) may play a role in a person’s susceptibility to infection and their chance of having a severe bout of the disease. The reasons for this link aren’t clear and more research is needed to say what implications, if any, it has for patients.  —read more—

CNN politics | These states could legalize marijuana this November

(CNN) – Four more states could choose to legalize recreational marijuana through ballot measures this Election Day.

Voters in Republican-led Arizona and South Dakota and Democrat-led Montana and New Jersey will consider proposals to legalize recreational marijuana. Another red state, Mississippi, is weighing a pair of ballot questions to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, 11 states have legalized full, adult marijuana use. All but two did so by ballot initiative, which poses the question directly to voters.

Polls show that the ballots initiatives have support in Arizona, Montana and New Jersey.  –read more—

CNN politics | Ex-Attorney General Eric Holder accuses Republicans of using courts to facilitate ‘cheating’

Washington (CNN) – Former US Attorney General Eric Holder accused Republicans of using court challenges to facilitate “cheating” in the 2020 election and attempting to “suppress the vote all through the process.”

“There’s a lot of cheating that Republicans are trying to do here and they’re trying to get the courts to facilitate that cheating,” Holder, a Democrat who served in the Obama administration, told CNN’s Don Lemon Thursday night.

Pressed by Lemon as to what he meant by “cheating,” Holder replied that Republicans are “trying to change the rules at the end of the day. They tried to suppress the vote all through the process.”  —read more— 

CNN health | What we can learn from 1918’s deadly second wave

(CNN) – In the deadly fall wave of the 1918 flu pandemic, millions of people were doomed because they didn’t know what we know now about how viruses and respiratory illnesses spread.

We might face a similar fate if some people continue to ignore what a century of scientific progress and hindsight have taught us about ending pandemics.

The 1918 pandemic transpired in three waves, from the spring of 1918 to the winter of 1919 — ultimately killing 50 million to 100 million people globally. The first wave in the spring of 1918 was relatively mild. A majority of 1918 flu deaths occurred in the fall of 1918 — the second, and worst, wave of the 1918 flu.  —read more—