THE BIG STORY

Scientists say beware of censors

As the debate over how to reopen safely rages on, scientists in Florida, Georgia, and Arizona have said their state governments have tried to obscure data that doesn’t conform to their plans, Dan Vergano reports.

Rebekah Jones, an official at the Florida Department of Public Health who ran the state’s well-regarded coronavirus dashboard, told her colleagues on Friday that she had been removed from her role for "reasons beyond my division’s control." She later told a reporter that the state had asked her to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

State officials in Arizona ordered researchers at two major universities to pause their work on modeling projections for coronavirus cases and stop releasing the data sets they were producing, according to a copy of the order seen by BuzzFeed News. And in Georgia, which was one of the first states to begin reopening in late June, data released by officials has repeatedly contained errors that appeared to suggest fewer people were getting sick in the lead-up to the reopening, critics say.

Medianews Group / Getty Images

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Remember the college admissions scandal?

It was one of the wildest stories back in the Before Times, when other stories still existed. And the fallout continues, even if fewer people are paying attention. Today federal prosecutors announced that two of the most high-profile participants in the scandal — Full House actor Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli — have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges over their role in the saga.

As part of the plea deal, Loughlin will get a two-month prison sentence, as well as a $150,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 100 hours of community service. She and her husband were accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to get both their daughters accepted into the University of Southern California.

The ringleader of the college admissions scam, Rick Singer, pled guilty to charges including money laundering, conspiracy and racketeering last year. He said he helped more than 750 wealthy clients get their children into colleges of their choice, often deploying bribes and underhanded methods to bypass the typical admissions system.

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SNAPSHOTS

Global carbon dioxide emissions have dropped rapidly due to the widespread economic shutdowns. But climate experts expect them to shoot right back up again.

Former WWE Star Shad Gaspard has been found dead after being swept out to sea while swimming with his son. “In his final act, Gaspard instructed lifeguards to save his son’s life," WWE said.

Amir Sahragard fled Iran and sought refuge in Australia, which sent him to a detention camp on a Pacific island for six years. Now he’s finally found freedom, in Canada.

There’s drama in the world of podcasting. Here’s what went down between the hosts of the wildly popular show Call Her Daddy, and what could happen to the show from here.

via @callherdaddy

THE APPS MIGHT SAVE YOU

Contact tracing vs. Exposure notification

You’ve probably heard both of those terms being thrown around lately. But what do they mean, exactly? And which one is it that’s supposedly going to be done with your iPhone? Here’s a great explanation of two extremely important concepts that could each play an important role in how we dig ourselves out of this mess — and which have become associated, rightly or wrongly, with major efforts by Apple and Google to enlist the world’s smartphones in the battle against the virus.

“There are app-gatekeeping choices that Apple and Google — some of the most powerful companies in the world — are making instead of public agencies,” writes Caroline Haskins. “The most important choice is that an app that uses Apple and Google’s technology cannot access location services. That means an app can’t use GPS, cellphone tower, or Wi-Fi hotspot data to figure out where you are. The companies have defended the choice by saying that they want privacy to be at the heart of their COVID-19 response.”

Michael Dantas / Getty Images

IT'S NEWS O'CLOCK

A spicy meeting at the WHO

News O’Clock is our new daily podcast hosted by Hayes Brown and Casey Rackham. In the latest edition, they spoke to Mark Leon Goldberg, host of the Global Dispatches podcast, about what went down at a particularly fiery meeting of the World Health Organization this week. Check it out here!

POUR ONE OUT

These didn’t age well

The coffee chain Caribou Coffee has a bit of an outdoors theme going on: it’s named after a species of North American deer, uses imagery of pine trees and the wilderness, and sells shirts with slogans like “Escape North.” So when it was making the cardboard sleeves for its cups, it printed them with lines like “The World Needs Explorers” and “The Scenic Route Is the Only Route”.

The only problem is, one of those slogans has...not aged well, as shown in a video by one staffer tasked with sorting through hundreds of them and removing the problematic ones.

via @msr828

Other stores are taking a more creative approach to dealing with the troublesome sleeves:

via @danlew42

A Caribou spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the company is asking stores not to use the sleeves, which were “produced before the pandemic and aren't exactly on point with the heroic efforts that are being made to contain the Coronavirus."

As a wise coffee chain once said: the scenic route is the only route,

Tom