Here's my good news Wednesday installment for this week. I want to do this every week on Wednesday, as it helps "pick me up" following each Bonanza Valley Voice news cycle.
CRAZY, CRAZY GOOD NEWS! BREAKING NEWS out of Canada! the Canadian trucker COVID-19 jab mandate protest is set to earn a HUGE victory in rural Alberta. Alberta is located in southwestern Canada. While major media will not report this right away, and some may never report it, you can learn about it right now while reading this. Rural ministers of Alberta's legislative assembly are set to agree to demands set forward by the truckers who have been blockading the Canada-U.S. border crossing. Rural Alberta Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in the province will agree on the demands contingent on the truckers allowing one lane of non-emergency traffic to pass through the border. Currently, all traffic not involving emergency vehicles are allowed through the blockade. A spokesman for the truckers said that the rural MLAs are "supporting us 100 percent" but they cannot continue support if we don't open one lane of traffic. If the lane is opened, they will drop the rural COVID-19 mandates AND the "Restrictions Exemption Program" which is the Alberta government's fancy-schmancy, cloaked way of naming their completely insane truckers COVID-19 jab mandate, a vaccine passport policy. The truckers have said that if their request to drop the jab nonsense is not met, the border would be shut down immediately.
Wow!
Good news piece No. 1: COVID-19 case counts plummetted at B-B-E schools in the past week by over half. The January 26 COVID-19 number of active cases among students and staff was 19. For February 2, the new number is now nine. For the record, nine represents approximately 1.13 percent of all staff and students. Imagine that, as COVID-19 is still "raging" across the state, nation and globe, our fully and completely wide-open school district in Jaguar Country has an official COVID-19 case rate of just over one percent. Let that sink in for a moment. I spoke personally with the B-B-E school nurse yesterday, and I can report that she is feeling upbeat about where we stand right now as a school district. She acknowledges that we are not "out of the woods" yet with COVID-19, but we have much to be grateful for. It is very much worth noting that B-B-E elementary school held their Global Play Day yesterday. This is something that simply could not be held in any way, shape or form in many schools in Minnesota as well as across the United States right now because of their stupidly insane COVID-19 "mitigation" policies that they mandate on their school children.
Good news piece No. 2: COVID-19 case counts have declined on a week-over-week basis among the approximately 4,300 men, women and children living in the zip code areas of Belgrade, Brooten and Elrosa (56316, 56312, 56325). The new number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Minnesota Department of Health during the past week is 48. This is crazy good news after the January 27 report showed 54 new cases. While it is possible that the delta strain is still out there, we can assume that omicron has made its way here and is spreading quickly. However, the fact that the number did not continue increasing from 54 is fabulous news. Also, if you feel you or a loved one is susceptible to having a bad outcome with a match up with COVID-19, I recommend that you don't assume you'll catch omicron instead of the much tougher delta strain. I've read reports in the Argus Leader out of Sioux Falls that genetic sequencing of COVID-19 cases in South Dakota show that some delta strains are still in circulation. If that's the case in South Dakota, then we should assume that's the case in Minnesota. I don't have time to look at all area zip codes, but I made a point to look at Spicer, New London and Glenwood...in all three zip code areas, they showed a noteworthy decline in COVID-19 cases this week compared to last week, when most area zip codes saw huge increases in the January 27 MDH report. GEE WHIZ, it's almost as if COVID-19 waves are cyclical and have very little to do with government mandates. GEE WHIZ, WHAT A CONCEPT!
Good news piece No. 3: Sweden is the latest European nation to drop all COVID-19 restrictions. Read that again: ALL restrictions. Starting on February 9, people will be allowed to dine at restaurants again with no limitations on how many people can be inside, or how much space there should be between them. The requirements for COVID-19 vaccine certificates and wearing face masks on public transportation will also be removed, as well as the recommendation to limit social contacts.
Good news piece No. 4: the United Kingdom is scrapping their health care worker COVID-19 jab mandates. This unbelievably good news was announced on January 31 this week. You will not read this in most major media outlets in America....LET THAT SINK INTO YOUR HEAD FOR A MOMENT.
It's ironic how the U.K. is a leader on this issue, while the United States is a sad, pathetic country that continues to be a follower and completely beholden to the interests of Big Pharma with no regards for the health care system's ability to properly staff their facilities. For the U.K., they are now able to hire back over 40,000 health care workers who were wrongly "sidelined" because of the jab mandate. This is very, very good news for their health care system.
Good news piece No. 5: recognizing that they could have an increase in students who may suffer from mental health challenges, the Eden Valley-Watkins school district hired a second social worker for the 2021-2022 school year. While this is not breaking news and is something that took place last fall, it is still very much worth reporting here.
In the January 12, 2022 issue of the Eden Valley-Watkins Voice newspaper, elementary principal Rob Pederson said that he was very grateful that the school board hired a second social worker. He said, "More students than ever are crying in the hallways. They are just so overwhelmed. I've never seen it. That wears on our staff. It wears on parents. I commend staff for what they do. I commend parents for what they do."
In the same newspaper article, a change to the current school year was also outlined to the public called Flexible Fridays. "Flexible Fridays" amount to spaced out extra days of prep time for teachers with students having the day off. This was in response to numerous staff members doing double duty and other extra work when the staff was hit with COVID-19 absences last fall and this winter. They set these Flexible Fridays for February 4, March 4, April 1 and May 13. School officials are encouraging families to schedule any child-related appointments for these Fridays to help minimize school absences. This Flexible Fridays concept is a unique way to create a "safety valve" release for teachers. The district announced the dates right away in mid-January to give parents a heads-up well ahead of time so they know that school will not be in session those days. Also, for families who need day care services, that will be offered through their Community Education. Is this something that more schools should adopt? I don't know the answer to that question. I have not seen or heard anything to suggest we should do this at B-B-E. That's out of my purview, but my initial response to that would be that this step isn't necessary at B-B-E with our four-day school week structure. I added this to this good news blog post simply to point out that EV-W schools recognized they had an issue and did not ignore it. That is a good thing. My side bar comment: mental health challenges stemming from misguided COVID-19 mandates will plague our society for years, possible decades. If you didn't know that or realize that by now, then you have been living under a rock and have not been paying attention very well to reality. "You heard it from me first." I'm not bragging about that, but I will continue stating very clearly how worried I am for our future when the government has instilled a ridiculous level of COVID-19 anxiety and angst in the public. Ridiculous to the Nth degree, of the highest order. End Rant.
Good news piece No. 6: we are over halfways through winter! Yes, that is good news! I call it good news because of how anxious and excited I am to get back into our family garden. By my estimation, we've got about two months left of winter, which begin in late November last year. We were spoiled last fall with extraordinarily mild, sunny weather. What I call a fairly "normal" winter began around December 1 and has stuck with us since. The days are getting longer now, and in just a few more weeks we'll be preparing for the Easter season and the always-enjoyable fish fry season!
Good news piece No. 5: recognizing that they could have an increase in students who may suffer from mental health challenges, the Eden Valley-Watkins school district hired a second social worker for the 2021-2022 school year. While this is not breaking news and is something that took place last fall, it is still very much worth reporting here.
In the January 12, 2022 issue of the Eden Valley-Watkins Voice newspaper, elementary principal Rob Pederson said that he was very grateful that the school board hired a second social worker. He said, "More students than ever are crying in the hallways. They are just so overwhelmed. I've never seen it. That wears on our staff. It wears on parents. I commend staff for what they do. I commend parents for what they do."
In the same newspaper article, a change to the current school year was also outlined to the public called Flexible Fridays. "Flexible Fridays" amount to spaced out extra days of prep time for teachers with students having the day off. This was in response to numerous staff members doing double duty and other extra work when the staff was hit with COVID-19 absences last fall and this winter. They set these Flexible Fridays for February 4, March 4, April 1 and May 13. School officials are encouraging families to schedule any child-related appointments for these Fridays to help minimize school absences. This Flexible Fridays concept is a unique way to create a "safety valve" release for teachers. The district announced the dates right away in mid-January to give parents a heads-up well ahead of time so they know that school will not be in session those days. Also, for families who need day care services, that will be offered through their Community Education. Is this something that more schools should adopt? I don't know the answer to that question. I have not seen or heard anything to suggest we should do this at B-B-E. That's out of my purview, but my initial response to that would be that this step isn't necessary at B-B-E with our four-day school week structure. I added this to this good news blog post simply to point out that EV-W schools recognized they had an issue and did not ignore it. That is a good thing. My side bar comment: mental health challenges stemming from misguided COVID-19 mandates will plague our society for years, possible decades. If you didn't know that or realize that by now, then you have been living under a rock and have not been paying attention very well to reality. "You heard it from me first." I'm not bragging about that, but I will continue stating very clearly how worried I am for our future when the government has instilled a ridiculous level of COVID-19 anxiety and angst in the public. Ridiculous to the Nth degree, of the highest order. End Rant.
Good news piece No. 7: the Canadian trucker COVID-19 jab mandate protest has created widespread, global awareness of what is wrong with government's wrong, anti-science approach to the spread of the COVID-19 China-Communist-Party (CCP) virus. Also, every time Big Tech tries to censor news of what they are doing, more and more people are made aware of it. Their censorship is backfiring on a massive level. I've got more to write on that, but it will end up at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website when I have time to focus on it.