The Daily Populous

Friday September 18th, 2020 night edition

image for Mitch McConnell rams through six Trump judges in 30 hours after blocking coronavirus aid for months

"The Senate has confirmed six of Trump's judicial nominees in the past 30 hours," tweeted Vanita Gupta, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

"These are lifetime appointments that McConnell's pushing through instead of the HEROES Act & other crucial legislation.".

Three of the judges were appointed to seats covering Los Angeles, while another was appointed to a seat covering San Diego.

The upper chamber is also expected to end debate on the nomination of Franklin Ulyses Valderrama to the Northern District of Illinois.

Advocacy groups sounded the alarm over the confirmations of Dugan and McGlynn, who received support from anti-abortion organizations and signaled their opposition to abortion rights.

"And yet, the Senate majority continues to prioritize confirming judges for lifetime appointments — many with hostile records on reproductive and civil rights, including abortion.".

"We are breaking Democrat filibusters on nominations, because Democrats filibustered coronavirus relief," McConnell said in a statement. »

Spotify is reportedly fighting with employees about hosting episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast that some consider transphobic

Authored by businessinsider.com
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Spotify is wrestling with employees' concerns about how the company is handling episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" that some described as transphobic, Vice reported.

Ek said Rogan's podcast had been the subject of 10 meetings and told employees not to leak to the press, Vice reported.

Spotify is facing a heated internal struggle with employees over whether it should host episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" that some staffers described as transphobic, Vice reported. »

Canada's wealthiest one per cent hold 25.6 per cent of riches, new PBO report says

Authored by ctvnews.ca
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The top one per cent of Canada's families hold about 25.6 per cent of the wealth -- roughly $3 trillion -- up from 13.7 per cent estimated under previous methodology, says the report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Real estate at $5.8 trillion and mortgages at $1.5 trillion are the single largest asset and liabilities categories.

The report adds that the top 0.5 per cent of Canadian families hold 20.5 per cent or $2.4 trillion of the wealth, up from the previous estimate of 9.2 per cent. »

Synthetic microfiber emissions to land rival those to waterbodies and are growing

Authored by journals.plos.org

Synthetic fibers make up 14% of global plastics production [2] and can generate synthetic microfibers through fragmentation and degradation [3–8].

Synthetic microfibers are considered a type of microplastic, which is typically defined by the longest dimension being less than 5mm [9].

This means either reducing the microfiber shed rates from apparel washing or capturing the shed microfibers during the washing process. »