Your Monday Update: Help for Victims of Domestic Violence, Parents Make Decisions About Daycare, Hurricane May Form in the Gulf

Photo: Kristin Brown
Domestic abuse can escalate in pandemic and continue even if you get away
Yuki Noguchi, NPR
Once you’ve recognized the #gaslighting, what can you do?
Here are a few ways to combat it:
❗ Proof
❗ Safety planning
❗ self-care
❗ Learn more at https://t.co/i07vDL42z8 #DV #TheHotline— National Domestic Violence Hotline (@ndvh) May 30, 2020
During lockdown, Kiesha Preston has heard from many people facing physical, psychological and/or sexual abuse that the violence against them is escalating without reprieve.
Stress and isolation create combustible tensions. A lack of privacy subjects many victims to closer surveillance by their abuser, making it difficult to call crisis hotlines, for example. And Preston worries that high unemployment will make it harder to afford moving out — though she hopes that this won’t stop anyone who is being abused from reaching out. There are resources available to help you, she says.
“Financial resources are a huge factor in being able to get away from your abuser, and right now we are in an economic crisis” in addition to being socially isolated, says Preston, an advocate for survivors of domestic abuse. “This honestly creates a situation where it’s easier for abusers to utilize finances as a tool of abuse.”
One consequence of COVID-19 is a projected global increase in domestic violence, including intimate partner violence. As many areas of the United States loosen quarantine restrictions, that’s creating more opportunities for people to flee their abusers, but technology and a lack of money often make those escapes more complicated.
Preston speaks from experience.
After her husband moved out of their Roanoke, Va., home five years ago, she says technology and money became his primary weapons to continue the abuse. He attacked her on social media, posting up to 15 times a day, and monitored her comings and goings through the home security system.
“He was actually hiding in the bushes and overheard a phone conversation that I was having with a friend, didn’t like what I said and came out and it became a physical altercation,” she says.
He also drained their accounts, leaving Preston, who was a student at the time, with no money to feed their three children or to fix the broken oil heater. She and her kids had to huddle around space heaters and an open oven when it got cold. Preston eventually faced a lender’s foreclosure on the home and struggled to find a new place to rent.
“For a good six months, almost daily, I was applying for housing and getting turned away,” she says.
So advocacy groups are now trying to address the economic needs that arise when violence escalates in homes.
Read the full article here.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact help. That can include a local shelter, or call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Parents balance risks, needs as child care centers reopen
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — It’s the day care dilemma central to rebooting American life amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With social distancing unlikely among babies and toddlers, parents of young children across the country are debating the health and safety risks inherent in child care centers, and weighing what few alternatives they have to balancing their family and work.
Many states have issued new health and safety guidelines for licensed providers meant to help minimize infection risks.
Experts say families should consider their specific risk factors and risk tolerance, check their daycare for guidelines and frame their choices.
Amidst a pandemic and a protest, a hurricane possible in the Gulf
Ray Hawthorne, WUFT
The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season officially begins Monday, and it’s already off to a busy start.
Two tropical storms developed in May, and Meteorologist Jeff Huffman says the third named storm of the young season may form this week in the Gulf of Mexico.
Chances have increased to 80% that a tropical depression will form in the Bay of Campeche by Tuesday, per the 8 am update from @NHC_Atlantic at https://t.co/YxRwREKJIN. #flwx pic.twitter.com/ou9eivZ0Nv
— Florida Storms (@FloridaStorms) June 1, 2020
“This would actually be the remnant moisture and circulation from an Eastern Pacific storm named Amanda. Forecast models suggest it will cross over Central America and enter the Bay of Campeche by Wednesday, potentially spawning a new storm that would slowly drift north,” Huffman said.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center placed the odds of tropical development at 70 percent in their most recent outlook, but say it’s far too soon to project where it may track or how strong it could become.
The next name on the list for the Atlantic basin would be Cristobal.
Protesters Shut Down I-4 In Orlando, Police Use Tear Gas
Matthew Peddie, WMFE
Protests continued in Orlando Sunday, with hundreds marching through the streets of the city.
Demonstrations are being held across the US after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Protesters in Orlando marched from Lake Eola to the Orlando Police Headquarters Sunday afternoon, where they chanted “George Floyd, say his name,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “No justice, no peace,” as police wearing riot gear looked on.
Curfews, protests continue in Orlando
Danielle Prieur, WMFE
Both Orlando and Orange County mayors announced that they would be enacting a curfew in unincorporated Orange County and the City of Orlando from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily until further notice.
Over the weekend, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said two men in their 20s and 30s were arrested at the protests in downtown Orlando.
Another six people were arrested on the 408, and another eight were arrested in connection with vandalism of stores near The Mall at Millenia.
These protests are part of a larger nationwide movement which appears to be picking up momentum.
Here in Central Florida, protests continue at the Windermere home of former police officer Derek Chauvin, and other protests are planned in Orlando this week.
Coronavirus, hurricane season collide as planners prepare for dual emergencies
James Bruggers and Amy Green, InsideClimate News and WMFE
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season starts today, and federal scientists expect storms to be more frequent and powerful. Two named storms already formed in the Atlantic this spring before the official start of the season. As Florida and other coastal states plan for hurricanes, they are confronting troubling new public safety calculations because of the novel coronavirus.
There’s now a chance for one disaster to layer upon another. Many lives could be lost: first, from powerful winds, storm surges and flooding, and then through the spread of the coronavirus in cramped public shelters following mass evacuations. Evacuees might pass the virus to friends and relatives who take them in, or get infected themselves in those new surroundings.
“The risks are significant,” said David Abramson, a professor at New York University’s College of Global Public Health, whose research examines the health consequences of hurricanes. “A lot of hurricane events lead to evacuations and displacements” without much time to build in social distancing safeguards, he said.
Checkpoints keeping out visitors come down in the Florida Keys
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Checkpoints leading into the Florida Keys are coming down two months after being set up to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
The checkpoints that are coming down early Monday were put in place in March to keep out tourists from entering the chain of islands in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.
More than 18,750 cars coming from the mainland were turned away because drivers did not present the proper paperwork that showed they either worked or lived in the Florida Keys.
With four deaths attributed to COVID-19, the Florida Keys has had about 110 coronavirus cases.
Launch gives spectators pride, reprieve from troubled times
The Associated Press
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — For many spectators along Florida’s Space Coast, the launch of two astronauts into orbit was a welcome accomplishment.
Saturday’s launch also was a reprieve from weeks of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and economic worries.
🚀👨🏼🚀 For the first time in history, @NASA_Astronauts launched to the @Space_Station from American soil in a commercially built and operated American crew spacecraft.
Relive our #LaunchAmerica mission with @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug: https://t.co/20CMS9UshG pic.twitter.com/B9Vf18f9yv
— NASA (@NASA) June 1, 2020
Many spectators watching Saturday had been there just days earlier for the first attempt Wednesday, which was scrubbed at the last minute due to the weather.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, NASA had tried to discourage people from coming for the launch of astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
European Union leaders urge U.S. to remain in WHO
Officials with the European Union are urging President Trump to rethink his recently announced plans to pull the United States from the World Health Organization.
The president told reporters on Friday of his intentions to immediately cut ties with the international health agency. On Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, called on Trump to reconsider his plans, saying “actions that weaken international results” during the coronavirus pandemic “must be avoided.”
“The WHO needs to continue being able to lead the international response to pandemics, current and future,” said von der Leyen and Borrell in a joint statement. “For this, the participation and support of all is required and very much needed.”
The officials also note that the members of the WHO had agreed earlier this month to review lessons learned from the pandemic response.
In April, Trump temporarily halted U.S. funding for the WHO and accused it of “mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” He’s also claimed that China has too much influence over the agency.
Then on May 18, Trump gave the United Nations agency 30 days to make substantial changes or face the U.S. funding cuts becoming permanent. Trump’s Friday announcement happened less than two weeks after that ultimatum.
The WHO had no comment on Trump’s announcement, but health ministers and member states expressed disappointment in the retreat of the agency’s largest single donor.
South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize called the decision “unfortunate.”
“Certainly, when faced with a serious pandemic, you want all nations in the world to be particularly focused … on one common enemy,” Mkhize told reporters.
Quoting German media, The Associated Press reports that the country’s foreign minister said Trump’s plan sends the “wrong signal at the wrong time.”
“The number of people infected worldwide is increasing and the crisis is spreading,” Heiko Maas told the Funke media group. “We can’t tear down the dike in the middle of the flood and build a new one.”
The BBC reports a spokesperson for the United Kingdom reaffirmed that country’s commitment to the WHO.
“Coronavirus is a global challenge and the World Health Organization has an important role to play in leading the international health response. We have no plans to withdraw our funding,” the spokesperson said.
Cleanup, curfew and injuries following unrest in Florida
The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Deputies are recovering from injuries, nightly curfews have been issued and the cleanup of smashed store windows is taking place around Florida following a night of unrest throughout the state’s cities.
Saturday’s unrest followed protests in response to the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said an unnamed deputy was either stabbed or slashed in the neck and was taken to a hospital for treatment Saturday evening.
In Tampa, two deputies were injured from a firework and a thrown object.
A Moment on the Farm
Latino USA, NPR
South Texas is known for commercial agriculture, with its vast fields of sugarcane, citrus, and vegetables. And most of that food goes far beyond the Rio Grande Valley. But one immigrant family from El Salvador is doing something different: Everything they grow stays near home.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a moment in which our broader food supply chains have been challenged—dairy farmers dumping unused milk, farmers plowing over produce, meatpacking plants closing, and grocery store shelves running empty.
In some communities, that means people are now turning to smaller, local farms for their produce. One of those farms is run by the Hernández family in Edinburg, Texas. Their farm, Nature’s Heartland has a mission to sustain its community with healthy pesticide-free produce, and has been a regular at local farmers’ markets for years.
MLS players agree to salary cuts, possible tournament
The Major League Soccer Players Association agreed to concessions for this season, including across-the-board salary cuts, while also agreeing to play in a proposed tournament in Orlando, Florida.
The proposal, made public by the union Sunday night, will now be sent back to the league for approval by team owners.
The MLS season was suspended on March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Teams had played just two games of the season.
Launch provides Trump moment of triumph during difficult week
The Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is celebrating the first launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly a decade.
The president marveled at the power of the rocket ship and the danger faced by its passengers as they soared into the stratosphere and provided the nation a moment of triumph.
The rocket sailing majestically through the sky was a jarring contrast with violent protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody and a rising death toll from the coronavirus outbreak.
Local Tallahassee businesses begin reopening
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