The Daily Populous

Monday November 2nd, 2020 night edition

image for Texas Supreme Court rejects Republican-led effort to throw out nearly 127,000 Harris County votes

A legal cloud hanging over nearly 127,000 votes already cast in Harris County was at least temporarily lifted Sunday when the Texas Supreme Court rejected a request by several conservative Republican activists and candidates to preemptively throw out early balloting from drive-thru polling sites in the state's most populous, and largely Democratic, county.

A hearing in that case is set for Monday morning in a Houston-based federal district court, one day before Election Day.

A rejection of the votes would constitute a monumental disenfranchisement of voters — drive-thru ballots account for about 10% of all in-person ballots cast during early voting in Harris County.

In a last-minute filing to the Supreme Court, litigious conservative Steven Hotze and Harris County Republicans state Rep. Steve Toth, congressional candidate Wendell Champion and judicial candidate Sharon Hemphill sought to have the votes declared illegal.

The same argument had been made in an unsuccessful previous legal challenge from Hotze and Hemphill — along with the Harris County Republican Party — filed at the state Supreme Court hours before early voting began.

The clerk’s filing with the Supreme Court in the earlier lawsuit also said the Texas secretary of state’s office had approved of drive-thru voting.

Plus, the county argued in a Friday filing that Texas' election code, along with court rulings, have determined that even if the drive-thru locations are violations, votes cast there are still valid. »

Boris Johnson accused of 'giving in to scientific advisers' as England heads for lockdown

Authored by edition.cnn.com

London (CNN) Boris Johnson was accused of "giving in to scientific advisers" by a former leader of his Conservative Party after the UK Prime Minister announced a lockdown for England following weeks of warnings from the experts.

Sage first suggested stronger restrictions six weeks ago , when it called for a short "circuit-breaker" lockdown to bring case numbers down.

A man wearing a mask passes the London Eye on Thursday as England prepares for a month-long lockdown. »

Nearly 30 US states see renewables generate more power than either coal or nuclear

Authored by energylivenews.com

Nearly 30 US states have seen renewable energy resources generate more electricity than either coal or nuclear during the first two-thirds of this year.

The data shows the gap between renewable generation and coal power is very narrow in three other states.

Renewable power also exceeded nuclear generation in 29 states plus Washington DC, of which 21 produced no nuclear electricity over the time period. »

Workplace interruptions lead to physical stress

Authored by ethz.ch

Kerr is driving the project forward together with mathematician Mara Nägelin and computer scientist Raphael Weibel.

The three doctoral students are all lead authors on a recent study, details of which appeared in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

For their experiment, the researchers divided the participants into three groups and exposed each group to a different level of stress. »

Half of Slovakia's population tested for coronavirus in one day

Authored by theguardian.com
image for

Nearly half of Slovakia’s entire population took Covid-19 swabs on Saturday, the first day of a two-day nationwide testing drive the government hopes will help reverse a surge in infections without a hard lockdown.

The defence minister, Jaroslav Naď said on Sunday 2.58 million Slovaks had taken a test on Saturday, and 25,850 or 1% tested positive and had to go into quarantine.

The EU country has a population 5.5 million and aims to test as many people as possible, except for children under 10. »