With the pandemic still upon us, mail-in voting is probably the safest method for voting this election. Still, President Trump is making it all the more difficult for the United States Postal Service to get the job done. 

On Jul. 19, Chris Wallace sat with President Trump on Fox News. “I think mail-in is going to rig the election,” Trump responded when Wallace asked if the President is a good loser.

Wallace questioned Trump, “Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results for the election?”

“I have to see,” Trump stated. 

Besides the spread of mail-in fraud by President Trump, he’s been attempting to block donation founds to the UPSP. 

New postmaster general, a top republican campaign donor, Louis Dejoy imposed cost-cutting measures that have pushed mail back by weeks. Dejoy donated over 1.5 million dollars to both of the Trump campaigns. 

On Sep. 4, the Texas Tribune reported on the hypocrisy of Texas republicans trying to stop the expansions of mail-in voting while at the same time encouraging his voters to use it. 

Early mail-in voting is ideal for making sure votes are received on time, especially with the mail’s larger expectancy due to the pandemic.

In the state of Texas, early mail-in voting is only permitted if you meet any of the following:

• 65 years or older;
• disabled;
• out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
• confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.

The article reports that Nathan Hecht, the chief of the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court stated citizens don’t need to prove their disability to request early mail-in voting, “all they have to do is say, ‘I want (a mail-in ballot) because in my view I need one.’”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called the expansion of the mail-in voting as “A scam by the Democrats,” that would ultimately lead “To the end of America.” Texas Grand Old Party (GOP) spokesperson, Luke Twombly, confirmed to the Texas Tribune that they had sent out ballot applications. But didn’t answer the question of how they could determine that mail-in voting is fraudulent. 

The Texas Tribune wrapped up by stating that, “The Texas Democratic Party is still fighting in court to expand eligibility for mail-in voting for voters younger than 65, though it’s becoming increasingly unclear if that litigation will be resolved in time for the general election.”

The President’s attempts to stop the USPS has caused a large outpour of frustration from both Democrats and Republicans. On Aug. 13 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) tweeted to President Trump stating, “Let’s make a deal, Mr. President: You release your college transcript, I’ll release mine, and we’ll see who was the better student. Loser has to fund the Post Office.” 

This was tweeted out after a conference with President Trump was released with him staging, “AOC was a poor student … this is not even a smart person, other than she’s got a good line of stuff. I mean, she goes out and she yaps.” 

Republican Party chairman in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Rohn Bishop stated, “What the president is doing when he keeps saying that this mail-in balloting thing is fraudulent.” Bishops claim this only hurts themselves.

With the quarantine in place, most schools have shut down their campuses and moved to online learning. The leading platform so far is Zoom. 

But how is having all of these constant Zoom meetings affecting the students?

Chabot student Gabriel Pena said, “I don’t think my stress so much comes from Zoom, but more so from the professors.”

“For me, it wasn’t like that because my teacher didn’t know what to put online because our class was super hands-on,” says Bryan Garcia, another Chabot student. “I didn’t feel overwhelmed by any of it because it was just a PowerPoint that I can just chill and watch from home.”

This issue is not tied down to Zoom specifically, as it is more an issue of now everyone is at home, so everything else is more relaxed. Students get distracted easier and quicker, and with how sudden things were, some school districts have made participation in this last quarter optional.

“I don’t feel overwhelmed by the meetings. They are just pointless since they told us that we would just get the same grades as last semester,” says Xotchil Oropeza, a high school senior. “The meetings just feel like they just want to check in on us.”

Students have expressed how they feel about Zoom meetings. Some instructors have different opinions on how some students react to the Zoom meetings.

“The main thing that I noticed because we are all at home, there is a more relaxed setting, and when we plan these meetings to be at 8 or 9 in the morning,” says Theresa Oropeza, a paraeducator. “Few students do show up to these meetings, and when they do, they are still in pajamas, laying down in bed.”

So it seems that there isn’t that big of an issue among the students with the switch to online classes.

The coronavirus has everyone concerned with their health. Facemasks and gloves are a must during this time — but some lawmakers are using coronavirus to push a different healthcare agenda.

In February 2020, Florida state legislators passed a bill requiring minors to ask for parental consent when seeking an abortion. As COVID-19 slowly began to spread, Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas ordered an immediate halt to all non-necessary surgeries — including abortions where the mother’s life is not at risk. 

In an interview with Vice News, one 17-year-old “Jane Doe” explained the process of getting an abortion in Florida. Fortunately, she was able to get a judicial bypass: the approval from a judge to receive the abortion, so long as the request was filed in the same county as the minor lives. After reaching out to Jane’s Due Process, a facility that helps women navigate the abortion system, she explained how the legal system treated her.

“[The judge] asked why I didn’t want to go through with the pregnancy, and if I knew the abortion could risk my fertility. That kind of scared me, but the person I was talking to at Jane’s Due Process already prepared me for that and told me that wasn’t true.”

According to Dr. Jen Gunter of the New York Times, abortion is not linked to a risk of infertility, as shown in data collected by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

As of March 1, only 29 states require that sex-education be given, 27 of which include HIV and AIDS education. As for Florida, sex-ed options are left up to the various school districts, many of which follow abstinence-only teaching.

Other restrictions in Florida include:

• In-person, state-mandated counseling is necessary in order to influence the decision of the person seeking an abortion. 
• An ultrasound is required before the abortion occurs; these two can happen on the same day. 
• Only a licensed physician can perform the abortion, regardless of the qualifications of other healthcare professionals. 

In regards to the Texas abortion ban, neighboring states have seen an increase in their abortion rates as a result. NPR reports that “clinics in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada saw 129 patients from Texas between March 23 and April 14, compared with 16 Texas patients during the entire month of February.”

But as Dr. Kristina Tocce explains in her NPR interview, these restrictions ultimately endanger women in more ways than one, as travel is not currently safe. The fight against abortion risks the safety of countless people.
There are more than one health concerns to consider during this pandemic. Fortunately, there are still facilities and officials fighting for women’s right to choose. Many Planned Parenthood locations are still open with reduced hours. See https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn for more information and how help is still available.

Now that all classes have transitioned to online, the video chat app Zoom has become more prominent, but why was it chosen above all others, and what are some of the issues it has come across in its past?

The state chancellor for community colleges had worked out a deal years ago with Zoom that allows all community college employees to have upgraded accounts.

A problem with the video platform has already been discovered. Zoom-bombing is where an uninvited participant can get into your call and spam it with various things.

This issue is due to how simple the app tries to be. It sacrifices basic privacy controls, such as kicking uninvited guests instead of banning them to keep it as the simplest and best user experience. 

Last year Zoom had a significant privacy breach for its users on the Mac platform. Zoom decided that it would be a good idea to install a web server client-side for Mac users, and this led to a major breach that was quickly found and exploited by hackers. 

When brought to the development team’s attention for zoom, they did nothing to try and fix the situation they had created; instead, they just kept focusing on new features for the platform. It took so long with nothing being done that Apple had to step in and fix it themselves. 

With this massive influx of users, it has been a surprise that the user experience has been able to keep up … or has it?

“Zoom is just really clunky and has too many security issues,” says Jacob Jenkins, Chabot student. “It’s hard to concentrate especially if you’re already not interested in the subject.”

“I feel like with Zoom, it’s difficult to pay attention because there’s so much going on in the background both in your home and in the homes of the others,” said Jheremy Morales, Chabot Student. “Don’t get me started on the fact that this is all done on PC, so as soon as I start up mine, I see Steam, Blizzard, and all the other gaming apps just ready to distract me.”

Even though the platform had some issues, it has become the go-to platform for many people during this quarantine. The question remains, is this the best platform to be using?

Despite proof that social distance guidelines have been effective with slowing the growth rate of the COVID-19 virus, Americans are protesting for stay at home orders to end.

On April 30, protesters gathered around the state capitol in Michigan after the news that Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to extend the stay at home order. Protestors also gathered around the Governor’s home right outside her driveway.

Protestors spoke and shared their concerns with their small business and the Governor’s lack of prioritizing them.

FOX News spoke with Charlie Hurt, opinion editor for the Washington Post and FOX News contributor. “The problem comes when you have politicians who appear to be acting in their political best interest.”

Hurt questions Gov. Whitmer’s true intention to extend the stay at home order and believes it’s a tactic for convincing Joe Biden to select her as his Vice President.

A study done at the University of Kentucky (UK) had been released by the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise suggests that social distancing and stay at home orders are working.

The report was done by professors of Gatton College of Business and Economics at the UK, as well as fellow professors working in the department of economics. 

The report, Did Social-Distancing Measures in Kentucky Help to Flatten the COVID-19 Curve?, takes confirmed cases of COVID-19 in counties of Kentucky, comparing them to neighboring counties, such as counties in Tennessee. 

The report describes the matters of how a region would have been affected by the virus with no official government restriction in place, with only strictly voluntary self-distancing, or if the region was put under restrictions. 

Aaron Yelowitz, one of the Kentucky professors who worked on the report spoke with LEX18 News on May 1. “The social distancing measures, the stay at home orders, the closing of dining at restaurants, dramatically bent the curve and saved lives,” Yelowitz stated in regards to the spread of COVID-19.

The report states that instead of 4,000 confirmed cases of the virus by April 26, it would have been up to 45,000 with an additional 2,000 deaths. 

Yelowitz told LEX18 News that there’s something to learn from neighboring states as Kentucky will begin to reopen business on May 11, “I think it’s too early.” 

On the widely known app TikTok, users are using this outlet to express their frustrations with people not wanting to comply with social distance guidelines. 

Samantha Lee Hager began her video by briefly explaining the Michigan protests, “but that’s not even the part that pisses me off,” the woman goes into listing peaceful protests against social injustice that were all shut down by police and or faced charges. 

Hager ends her video with her frustrations with the fact that Michigan protesters were being aggressive, ignoring social distance guidelines, forcing themselves into the capitol building while carrying firearms. 

“None of them are arrested and if that isn’t discrimination I don’t know what is,” Hager said. 

@lakewoodpapi shared his belief in the selfishness of the people wanting states to reopen, “it was to force everyone else to go back to work, so they (conservatives) could enjoy life again.” The young man also adds that the majority of the people who would be at risk of the reopenings would be people of color. 

The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) have detailed tips on how to social distance:

• Follow guidance from authorities where you live.
• If you need to shop for food or medicine at the grocery store or pharmacy, stay at least 6 feet away from others
• Use mail-order for medications, if possible.
• Consider a grocery delivery service.
• Avoid using any kind of public transportation, ridesharing, or taxis, if possible.

More information on the CDC website:

Link for the full UK report: 

Chabot College’s 58th Annual Commencement Ceremony will be conducted online this year due to the shelter-in-place order preventing large public gatherings. Previous commencements have been livestreamed before, but this will be the first to be online-only.

The Commencement will be hosted on a website that will become available to view on Saturday, May 23, at 9 a.m. The ceremony will include videos of speakers and a slideshow of the graduates.

Graduating students must have submitted their information and a photo of themselves in the cap and gown by Wednesday, May 13, at 8:59 p.m. to be included in the slideshow. Students who did not order a cap and gown were allowed to send an appropriate alternative photo.

Graduates could log in to the website by using their Zonemail accounts. The Commencement website is being operated by the media company Envision Pro AV.

The petition-to-graduate due date was extended to April 17 from the original date of April 1. The due date to order a cap and gown provided for free this year was April 20.

“We just wanted to do our best to celebrate the amazing success of our graduates despite the shelter in place,” said Dr. Matthew Kritscher, Vice President of Student Services.

All students were invited to participate if they have met or will meet graduation requirements for a Certificate or Degree at the end of Fall 2019, Spring 2020, or Summer 2020 semesters.

Still, some remain disappointed about the substitution.

“I feel like it’s not really a celebration. I feel like it should have been postponed…,” said Navin Bansal, a graduating Chabot student.

Speakers for the day will include Chancellor Ronald Gerhard, College President Susan Sperling, and “Senate Leadership,” according to the website. The keynote speaker, Danny Munoz, is a graduating student who is part of Alpha Gamma Sigma, Indigenous Peoples Club, and RISE, as well as a tutor.

“When I was asked [to be the speaker], I felt that I should do it because where I come from, stuff like this doesn’t happen every day,” said Munoz. “I feel like I can shine a light on an underrepresented and misunderstood population. I’m formerly incarcerated, and I want everyone to know that we can overcome the stigma.”

For more information, see the official Commencement information page at the Chabot website:

During the coronavirus pandemic, dating and sex have been put at a standstill because of social distancing or state-mandated shelter-in-place guidelines.

It’s not okay to go out on dates right now unless those dates are over FaceTime or some other video chat app, such as Duo, Facebook Messenger, or Zoom. However, if you are in a solid relationship in the same residence, sex is at the forefront of the mind during these unprecedented times.

According to Health.com, the New York City Health Department issued specifications on COVID-19 safe sex exercises, which recommends people against having sex with anyone outside of your household.

There has been an idea floating around of individuals finding a “sex buddy.”

A “sex buddy” is a person with whom a person has a relationship based on casual sex only. However, in this case, you and said person only having sex with each other during the coronavirus pandemic, which is not recommended.

Alexandria Morrow, a single mother of two, was just getting on the dating scene when the pandemic hit Sacramento and the city, like many others, was put under the shelter-in-place order by California Governor Gavin Newson.

“I just wish I would have got back out there before this happened or at least met someone I can chill with,” Morrow said. “Now I have to use dating apps and catfishing is like a real thing. How am I supposed to know if that’s really you and you don’t know if I am me either. It’s just all so not worth the time. Which I have a lot of.”

Having a sex buddy “goes against social distancing, and you don’t actually know how closely (if at all) they’re staying away from other people,” Jen Gunter, an OB-GYN, states in a New York Times article.

You are your safest sex partner. 

Self-stimulation is both safe and satisfying, and the New York Health Department endorses washing your hands and any sex toys for 20 seconds with soap prior to using them.