promoearn: When quarantine wasn't the right call

Monday, February 17, 2020

When quarantine wasn't the right call

Monday, February 17

Buses carrying passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship leave a port in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Feb. 17, 2020. A group of Americans are cutting short a 14-day quarantine on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, to be whisked back to America. But they will have to spend another quarantine period at a U.S. military facility to make sure they don't have the new virus that's been sweeping across Asia.

Hundreds of American passengers evacuated from cruise ship. "Historic" flooding swamps the southern USA. It's Monday's news.

The U.S. broke a coronavirus quarantine on a cruise ship in Japan. Meth is flooding the streets. And after reading this newsletter, you may want to check your screen time.

It's Alex Connor and Emily Brown. Let's talk news.

But first, a cold front brought some interesting phenomena to Lake Michigan: ice balls and ice volcanoes.

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'The quarantine process failed'

Two days short of a two-week quarantine on the coronavirus-infected Diamond Princess Cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. evacuated hundreds of American passengers – 14 of whom tested positive for the virus. Why? "The quarantine process failed," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Every hour, four or five people were being infected. The Japanese Health Ministry said Monday that the number of cases confirmed aboard the Diamond Princess had reached 454.

•	Quarantines, isolation and lockdowns draw mixed reviews: 'There is no zero risk in the world.'

'Historic, unprecedented' flooding swamps Mississippi and Tennessee

As many as 1,000 homes have been flooded in "historic" and "unprecedented" flooding in Jackson, Mississippi, after weeks of heavy rain inundated a large portion of the southern U.S . Hundreds of Jackson residents either watched their homes flood over the weekend or worried their residence would soon be drenched as the Pearl River crested Monday at 36.8 feet, its third-highest level. "We do not anticipate this situation to end anytime soon," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said. In Tennessee, February's rains have been "400% of normal, and we have more coming in this week," Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Jim Hopson said.

Mississippi Wildlife and Fisheries officers load a fan boat onto a truck Feb. 16 after conducting welfare checks on residents who stayed in their homes during flooding in Jackson.

Cam Bonelli, Hattiesburg American via AP

What everyone's talking about

•	Amie Harwick, a Hollywood-based therapist who was engaged in 2018 to comedian Drew Carey before they broke up, is dead in a suspected murder.
•	Some Democrats worry Bernie Sanders could be unstoppable for the 2020 nomination. Here's why.
•	Wind energy gives American farmers a new crop to sell in tough times. It's like having a "second wife."

Do you sleep with your phone on your bed?

You might be addicted. The average American spends more than three hours a day on his or her smartphone, according to surveys. That's more than a month and a half of time each year, swiping, scrolling and staring at our handheld screens. It's not your fault. Smartphones are engineered to make us crave them. We walk you through how to check your screen time and what to do if you want to distance yourself from your phone , even just a little bit. This is probably a bad time to share that Instagram is playing with that beloved chronological timeline.

Real quick

•	This common laundry mistake could make you smell bad.
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•	Arby's started a turf war with McDonald's over fish sandwiches before Lent.
•	Ugandan actress Nikita Pearl Waligwa, who appeared in Disney's "Queen of Katwe," died at age 15.

Stories you need to read ...

... on a staggering new wave of meth across Ohio and Kentucky:

"We just simply move like a herd of locusts from one drug to another," said Mina "Mike" Kalfas, a certified addiction expert in northern Kentucky. "Meth is the replacement for the crack of old. We go from opioid (pain pills) to opioid (heroin) to opioid (fentanyl) to stimulant (meth)."

... on the black students who had to move when their schools integrated:

In Greenville, South Carolina, about 60% of the black student population was reassigned when the schools integrated. Only 10% of the white students were. That meant black seniors ordered rings for graduating classes that never walked across the stage. Majorettes no longer had a band to lead. It meant championship basketball teams disbanded mid-season. Integration cut homes and neighborhood streets in half.

Air Force One: ✔️

Daytona 500: ✔️

Year? ❌

Did you happen to see that photo of a very large Air Force One flying near a very large crowd at the Daytona 500 race? Might be worth checking the metadata . President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, apparently deleted a tweet with a photo that was actually from 16 years ago, when George W. Bush attended the race. The photo, taken by Jonathan Ferrey and available on Getty Images, shows Air Force One taking off with Bush aboard after his visit Feb. 15, 2004. Parscale tweeted a new photo of Air Force One from Sunday with the same caption and the racetrack stands looking more sparse than in the 2004 photo.