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ICONIQUE MAGAZINE FASHION MUSIC LIFESTYLE MAY. 2020 EDITION

ICONIQUE MAGAZINE

Many States Fall Short of White House Reopening Criteria

This story has been updated to correct the number of states that have not met White House Coronavirus Task Force guidelines. A previous version of the story counted states as not meeting the guidelines if they did not show fewer cases and a declining percentage of positive tests. The guidelines only require states to meet one of those criteria, not both. Around the U.S., states are debating whether and how to reopen their economies and lift social-distancing measures. But are they ready? Whether they are or not, many are moving ahead. President Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday that the country had to reopen its economy, even at the risk of more infections. “Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon,” Trump said. Last month, the White House Coronavirus Task Force laid out a series of “gating criteria” meant to guide states on lifting restrictions and getting back to normal. They include a decline in symptoms of the virus as monitored by local health networks, fewer cases or a declining percentage of positive tests, and hospitals systems that can handle the strain of the outbreak. Bloomberg News’s analysis found that 10 states that have lifted restrictions don’t meet the White House guidelines for reopening. Many are moving ahead anyway. For weeks, states have faced pressure to lift restrictions and get their economies running again, even at the risk of more illnesses. “The cure can’t be worse than the disease,” Trump tweeted on March 22, in apparent reference to the measures states have taken. In the weeks since, Trump has alternated between urging states to lift restrictions, chiding some who have moved to do so, and backing away from taking charge of the reopening. By mid-April, the president said 29 states would be able to reopen “relatively soon.” According to a Bloomberg

News analysis of state data, at least 19 states still fail to meet the White House’s criteria. In some 22 states, rates of infection are still rising. Testing is one of the core criteria for reopening agreed upon by the Trump administration and health experts, though some health experts have said the White House guidelines are too loose. The task force says that states should either have a 14-day downward trajectory of documented cases, or a 14-day downward trajectory of positive tests, as a percentage of total tests, so long as the volume of tests is flat or increasing. “You can have a downward slope and it’s meaningless,” George Rutherford, the head of infectious disease and global epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco, told Bloomberg News in April. With the “or” criteria, 19 states fail to meet the White House’s guidelines. If states had to meet both criteria, 39 would fail. The nation’s governors are effectively in charge of reopening efforts, and New York, California and other Democrat-governed states have been cautious about moving ahead. In Iowa, which is in the first phase of reopening, influenza-like illness symptoms and case counts grew. Like many other states, Iowa is seeing workers return to their jobs, even if they are worried about their health during an ongoing pandemic. South Dakota, which never implemented the harsh measures some other states did, has had a significant outbreak at a meat processing plant in Sioux Falls. In Texas, protesters called for reopening the state’s economy by mid-April, despite increasing case counts. Some Republican-run states have moved ahead quickly, including GOP strongholds like Texas, Alabama and Georgia. Texas’ reopening is focused on reducing occupancy to only 25% in non-essential businesses like retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries. The first phase of the state’s reopening, which includes statewide testing and contact tracing, will last until May 18. As states begin opening back up, local health authorities are watching for a potential surge in new infections. Some experts have warned that, because there are more cases “seeded” in the community, a second wave could be far worse than the first. “We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Fauci said in an interview with The Associated Press in mid-April. “I’ll guarantee you, once you start pulling back there will be infections.”

bloomberg.com

Spring 1978 in West Baltimore, 10 year old me started walking back home after watching the baseball game over in the Ellamont Road Alley. I didn’t play, I cheered from the sidelines, this is not my sport at all! Give me football!! The neighborhood was up with the usual Saturday afternoon sounds, buzzing vacuum cleaners, pots and pans clinking, parents fussing at their kids to get their chores done or, “no outside” for them, and the staple, the constant, the go-to for keeping us moving while getting the chores done, Music. Music pouring through windows; funk, gospel, old standards. There goes Chrissy singing to A Star is Born, again. She had me practicing with her most of last week. A DJ spoke his intro to this new artist, “Prince, with Soft and Wet”. What the hell is soft and wet but bread when you’re making French toast, yuck. I heard a sigh, a faint breath exhaled?; did he say “Hi”?! This was a whole different sound coming from the instruments and that voice, high and cute, 10 year old girl cute. All of it drew me in and held me. Hold up, I slowed down to listen for the houses that were playing the new song by Prince. Man it was coming from almost every direction. The only prince I knew of was Prince Valiant. “Hey, lover, sugar don’t you see? There’s so many things that you do to me,” Hey, Okay he kept my attention. I didn’t see but I was intrigued; I bent the corner to my block and Prince was still singing and I started dancing, see, this was tight, and round at times in just the right places and his sighs, gasp and swoon, clutching my pearls! This was right up my alley, pun intended! I am strutting up the first two flights of steps outside my building, stop and dance on the landing, which is also my stage, where my friends and I make up dances and have singing contests, all those things. I glanced up and over to my right to see if Greg was on his balcony, nope, not there; he’s cute like this song. I dance up the next flight, through the 2 doors and up the last two mini flights of stairs to our apartment. I had not heard anything like this before. Now, know this too, I was into the bands playing funk, northern soul crooners, TSOP, disco, soft rock, so this was fun, refreshing, just like the breeze blowing outside,pollen filled and all, like the birds singing and it was funky-quirky too! Prince. Soft and Wet, huh? I liked what he’s saying, ooooooo, I shouldn’t have, should I? I got my recorder and my cassette tapes out, camped them in front of my radio and waited to hear it again. It didn’t matter if it took the rest of the day and night! I had to listen to it some more. My 14#PRN first eargasm...Rest In Melodies and Rhythms -Lisa Brooks

SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN APRIL

Photographer: Charles Revelle Model: Jazmin Powell Designer: Clavon Leonard Stylist: Dapper Luq

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PC: VON DONALD

Forget Blue Whale Challenge, cyber bullying is more common danger for your kid Tanya grew up in a Mumbai suburb, like any normal teenager. Unknown to her, a classmate from a previous school had started collecting information and pictures of her since they were 12. The information was then used to make a fake Facebook page, and was shown as if Tanya had posted them herself. Tanya had read about cyber bullying, but had never expected herself to be a victim. She found out about the fake page only through her friends. Even though the bullying seemed benign in the beginning, soon schoolmates started sending her crude messages and she became isolated from her friends circle. She withdrew to herself, rarely going out, and became depressed. The bullying then got so bad that she had to go for counseling and change schools to start afresh. Having grown up around gadgets, children rely heavily on them to carry out everyday tasks. They also form their social persona around social media and depend on thes .. In an Ipsos survey in 2014, India topped the list of 254 countries for cyber bullying. 32% of parents surveyed in India said their children experienced cyber bullying, followed by Brazil (20%), Saudi Arabia (18%), Canada (18%) and the United States (15%). Parents in India also reported the greatest intensity of cyber bullying. 13% said a child in their home experiences cyber bullying on a regular basis, followed by 10% in Brazil, 5% in the United States and 5% in Argentina. The frequency of cyber bullying in India was found to be higher than in the U.S. (15% of children), U.K. (11% of children) and France (5% of children). According to a Microsoft study of online bullying among youth 8-17 years old, children in India reported the third highest online bullying rate among the 25 countries surveyed. Credit: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Presidential candidate Joe Biden has demanded justice over the killing of an unarmed black man in the US state of Georgia. Mr Biden said his heart went out to the family of Ahmaud Arbery. Mr Arbery, 25, was jogging in February when confronted by an ex-policeman and his son. Video purported to show the shooting emerged online on Tuesday. A district attorney in Georgia has now ruled that a grand jury should decide whether charges should be brought. An earlier decision by a prosecutor in the Brunswick jurisdiction argued there was no probable cause to arrest Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34. More than 100 people took part in a protest in Brunswick on Tuesday night, demanding justice for Mr Arbery.

The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery Another black man falsely assumed to be a criminal is dead.

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