7 ways men live without working in America

You've heard people bemoaning this "labor participation rate," which is simply the number of working-age men (usually counted as ages 16 to 64) not working or not looking for work, as a percentage of the overall labor force. It's true that the pandemic, which of course produced a number of factors that made working more difficult never mind dangerous, pushed the labor participation rate to a record low. In fact, the participation rate for men peaked at 87.4% in October 1949 and has been dropping steadily ever since.

McConaughey leads Abbott in Texas poll as O'Rourke inches closer

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) may be feeling the pressure, the latest poll from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler shows. Abbott's approval rating has dropped to 45 percent in the aftermath of controversial legislation such as a ban on mask mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a ban on most abortions after six weeks. It's far too early to tell how things will play out in next year's election, but two well-known potential candidates look like they could give Abbott a serious run if they do wind up entering the race.

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  Gov. Abbott signs Texas border security bill

  Associated Press Videos
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  Beto O’Rourke plans Texas comeback in governor's race

  Axios

Cave created by underground river hits Tennessee market for $4.5 million. Look inside

This popular Tennessee attraction is decked out in caves that have been around for millions of years — and it could be yours. Bristol Caverns is for sale for $4.5 million by Southeastern Properties, according to the listing. The impressive structure was carved out by an underground river 200 million to 400 million years ago, according to Bristol Caverns.

Amid high security, small pro-Trump crowd rallies at U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Police and media vastly outnumbered protesters around the U.S. Capitol on Saturday at a sparsely attended rally by supporters of the people who breached the building on Jan. 6, trying to overturn former President Donald Trump's election defeat. About 100 to 200 protesters showed up, some carrying the flags of the right-wing group Three Percenters over their shoulders. It was far fewer than the 700 people organizers had expected and the thousands who brought mayhem to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Right-Wing Conspiracy Rally Collapses Under Weight of Right-Wing Conspiracies

A rally for supporters of the “Big Lie” is looking like a big flop. Reports from the start of the “Justice for J6” rally Saturday show an event much smaller than the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Although Capitol Police expected as many as 1,000 attendees, and organizers obtained permits for a group of 700, the final turnout looks like it will be much lower, according to reports on the ground.

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  Police warn of threats ahead of right-wing rally at US Capitol

  BBC
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  Police outnumber protesters at right-wing Capitol rally

  BBC

Big gap between Pfizer, Moderna vaccines seen for preventing COVID hospitalizations

Amid persistent concerns that the protection offered by COVID-19 vaccines may be waning, a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that America's workhorse shot is significantly less effective at preventing severe cases of disease over the long term than many experts had realized. Data collected from 18 states between March and August suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 by 91% in the first four months after receiving the second dose. Beyond 120 days, however, that vaccine efficacy drops to 77%.

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  U.S. administers about 384 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC

  Reuters
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  Pfizer and Moderna have revealed the way they're tracking how long vaccine protection lasts

  Business Insider

Taiwan threatens to take China to WTO in new spat over fruit

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) -Taiwan threatened to take China to the World Trade Organization on Sunday after Beijing said it would suspend sugar apple and wax apple imports from the island on pest concerns, in the latest spat between the two over fruit. Relations between Taipei and Beijing, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, are at their lowest in decades, with China increasing political and military pressure to get the island to accept its sovereignty. China's customs administration said it had repeatedly detected pests called "Planococcus minor" in sugar apples, also known as sweetsops or custard apples, and wax apples from Taiwan.

Rescuers discovered 2 shipwrecked children clinging to their dead mother, who had saved their lives by drinking her urine to breastfeed them

A Venezuelan mother died while saving her children after a boat they were on capsized this month. While drifting on a lifeboat for days, Mariely Chacón drank her own urine to breastfeed her kids. Rescuers found the children, aged 2 and 6, clinging to their mother, who died of dehydration.

Making fun of anti-vaxxers who died of COVID-19 is a dark indication that we've all surrendered to the disease

Anti-vaccine figures are dying of COVID and their deaths are being made light of. This is a distraction and represents an acceptance of COVID's death toll. We don't have to be nice to anti-vaxxers, but we should counter them to control infections.

St. Louis woman after eviction: 'I have no idea' what to do

The knock on the door that Kristen Bigogno has long dreaded finally arrived Friday — two St. Louis deputies came to evict her, joined by a couple of other men there to change the locks on the apartment. The eviction was months in the making, yet it felt sudden to Bigogno. The judgment against her was last winter, but thanks to a national moratorium, she got a reprieve that ended with a Supreme Court ruling last month.

Fisherman’s sonar spots mysterious object in Carolinas lake. Here’s what divers found

A fisherman's sonar emitted a “strange signal” of a mysterious object in Lake Wylie, prompting a deep-water search by divers from the York County, S.C., Sheriff's Office. What turned up was neither the world's largest fish nor a creature from the murky depths that no one had seen before. The car was about 50 feet off shore and 20 feet deep, Sheriff's Office spokesman Trent Faris said.

Classic Car Restorer Indicted On Fraud Charges

The owner of West Coast Chassis LLC is facing some serious accusations. A Fresno businessman offering classic car restoration services to the community under the name West Coast Chassis LLC was recently indicted on fraud charges, announced U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott recently. Jeffrey Scott Hodges, who currently lives in Irvine, California, was charged with 22 federal charges of both wire fraud and money laundering.

Study rewrites understanding of modern Japan's genetic ancestry

An analysis of ancient DNA is transforming the understanding of the genetic ancestry of Japan's modern-day population, identifying a crucial contribution from people who arrived about 1,700 years ago and helped revolutionize Japanese culture. Research published on Friday showed that the people of Japan bear genetic signatures from three ancient populations rather than just two as previously thought - a more complex ancestry for the archipelago nation of roughly 125 million. The researchers analyzed genetic information from 17 ancient Japanese people - DNA extracted from the bones of 12 specifically for this study and five done previously - and compared it to genomic data for modern Japanese people.

FBI says fortune seized in Beverly Hills raid was criminals' loot. Owners say: Where's the proof?

Ruiz is one of roughly 800 people whose money and valuables the FBI seized from safe deposit boxes they rented at the U.S. Private Vaults store in a strip mall on Olympic Boulevard. Federal agents had suspected for years that criminals were stashing loot there, and they assert that's exactly what they found. The government is trying to confiscate $86 million in cash and a stockpile of jewelry, rare coins and precious metals taken from about half of the boxes.

Aluminum wrap used to protect homes in California wildfires

Martin Diky said he panicked as a huge wildfire started racing down a slope toward his wooden house near Lake Tahoe. The material that can withstand intensive heat for short periods resembles tin foil from the kitchen drawer but is modeled after the tent-like shelters that wildland firefighters use as a last resort to protect themselves when trapped by flames. Diky, who lives most of the time in the San Francisco Bay Area, bought $6,000 worth of wrapping from Firezat Inc. in San Diego, enough to cover his 1,400-square-foot (130-square-meter) second home on the edge of the small California community of Meyers.

Employers say 'ghosting coasting' is a growing problem, but workers have their reasons for quietly walking away from a job

A phenomenon of "ghosting coasting" is creating new headaches for employers in a tight labor market. Meanwhile workers say low wages and poor leadership give them little reason to stick around. Hiring and retention has become a defining challenge in the current labor market, and the Federal Reserve's most recent summary of economic conditions in the US says a growing trend is giving employers new headaches.

Donald Trump Jr. Mocks Undercover Law Enforcement At DC Rally That Flopped

Donald Trump Jr. spent Saturday mocking undercover law enforcement at the rightwing Washington, D.C. rally that flopped. Fewer than 100 people showed up for the event near the Capitol that was intended to hail those who stormed the building on Jan. 6 as unfairly treated “political prisoners. Several extremist groups warned members to stay away from the event, fearing it was a “trap” by law enforcement to surveil and arrest them.

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  Donald Trump Jr. mocked men he alleged were undercover law enforcement officers who attended the failed 'Justice for J6' rally

  Business Insider
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  Rally In Support Of Capitol Attackers Draws A Small Crowd

  HuffPost

Man who unlocked 1.9 million AT&T phones sentenced to 12 years in prison

A US district court has sentenced a man who unlocked 1.9 million AT&T phones to 12 years in prison. Muhammad Fahd continued the seven-year scheme to defraud the company even after learning of an investigation against him, according to the Department of Justice. At Fahd's sentencing hearing, Judge Robert S. Lasnik said he committed a “terrible cybercrime over an extended period,” with AT&T said to have lost $201.5 million as a result.

‘They screwed up our lake’: tar sands pipeline is sucking water from Minnesota watersheds

Along the eastern boundary of the White Earth Indian Reservation in north-western Minnesota, Indigenous Anishinaabe wild rice harvesters Jerry and Jim Libby set down a row of wooden pallets into the mud just beyond the dock of Upper Wild Rice Lake. In a typical year, the entrance to this – one of a long necklace of wild rice lakes in northern Minnesota to which the region's Indigenous people flock every year in the late summer – would be covered in at least two feet of water. Minnesota is weathering an historic drought, but there is another problem beyond the weather: Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands pipeline has taken a substantial toll on watersheds in the region, including through a permit to pump five billion gallons of water for construction.

Why some airlines' planes fly slower than others

On Friday a flight-enthusiast passenger noticed that a Spirit Airlines (SAVE) plane that had taken off a few spots ahead of his United plane (UAL) from the Houston airport was now well behind him, according to a flight tracker. The passenger, who is also a licensed flight dispatcher, guessed that the Spirit flight was likely flying slower to save money, like a frugal driver on the highway. Despite the occasional pilot informing passengers (proudly) of an intention to “make up time in the air,” people usually assume planes are going as fast as they safely can, like a speed limit, similar to a bus or a train.

A doctor from Oregon who said mask-wearing can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning got his medical license revoked

The Oregon Medical Board has revoked the license of a doctor who refused to wear a mask. Steven Arthur LaTulippe ran a family clinic and falsely told his patients mask-wearing could carbon monoxide poisoning. An Oregon doctor who falsely claimed that wearing masks can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning has had his license revoked.

Even Steve Bannon Looks Skeptical About Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Latest Claim

In her first year as a member of the House, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has said a lot of outrageous things. Greene, who has said she believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory but not in the effectiveness of vaccines, was being interviewed on Bannon's “Real America's Voice” podcast when she told the former Trump White House strategist: “I have been the most effective member of Congress this session.” Greene, however, has been unable to do much congressional work since February, when she was stripped of her committee assignments because of her support for racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories, and for advocating the execution prominent Democrats.

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  Watch Steve Bannon’s Epic Side-Eye at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Claim She’s ‘Most Effective Member of Congress’

  The Wrap
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  Marjorie Taylor Greene calls to shut down the government in wild Steve Bannon interview

  The Independent

Mali says it can seek military help from anyone, despite French concern

Mali has the right to seek military support from whoever it wants, the prime minister said, after France and other foreign powers expressed alarm at a report that Bamako was approaching Russian mercenaries for assistance. Prime Minister Choguel Maiga did not confirm whether the government was in talks with any other party in his comments that were released by a Malian news site, but diplomatic and security sources have told Reuters Mali's government was close to a deal with a private Russian military contractor. The sources said Russia's the Wagner Group would supply mercenaries to train Mali's military and protect senior officials, based on the deal being negotiated.