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36 Texas counties may be violating Voting Rights Act
The counties in question failed to provide voting and elections information online in both Spanish and English.

- Attorneys for the ACLU of Texas found that 36 counties failed to provide adequate, or any, voting information on in Spanish on their websites.
- Some counties' websites contained voting information that was misleading or poorly translated.
- The Hispanic vote could be key to Texas Democrats in upcoming elections.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas says 36 counties across Texas may be in violation of the Voting Rights Act, a discovery that comes just weeks before the November 6 elections.
The organization issued letters to the counties after determining they hadn't provided adequate voting and elections information in Spanish on their websites. Failing to do so would violate a provision of federal law that requires counties to make such information available in both English and Spanish (or any minority language) in counties where more than 10,000 voting-age citizens, or more than 5% of the voting-age population, are Spanish-speakers with low proficiency in English.
"Counties need to ensure that they are providing all citizens with information that will enable them to vote," said Edgar Saldivar, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas. "The obligation to provide information in Spanish is a simple but important requirement which helps to remove barriers to voting in the state with the largest number of counties needing foreign language voting materials."
The ACLU of Texas wrote that its attorneys "reviewed county election websites and looked at whether pertinent information was made available in Spanish, including voter identification information, key voting dates, voter registration information, and applications for ballot by mail and absentee voting."
Their findings showed that 36 Texas counties offered inadequate, poorly translated, misleading or simply no voting information available in Spanish on their websites. For example, the ACLU reports that one county had translated "runoff election" as "election water leak" or "election drainage."
Some counties appear willing to update their websites.
"Several counties have already responded positively to the letters, agreeing to comply with the Voting Rights Act and include Spanish language voting information on their websites," the statement read.
Hispanics could be key to a "blue wave" in Texas
Texas is home to about 28 million people, about one-third of whom speak Spanish at home. The state has more majority-Hispanic counties than any other in the nation, and it seems like it's only a matter of time before Hispanics become the largest population group throughout all of the Lone Star State, according to recent census data.
Texas has historically been a red state. However, the data suggest Hispanics in Texas mostly voted Democrat in recent elections. In 2016, for instance, Hispanics vastly preferred Hillary Clinton over President Donald Trump by a margin of 80% to 16%, according to the polling group Latino Decisions.
As American politics have become increasingly polarized, particularly in relation to anti-immigration rhetoric on the right, some have suggested Texas might see a "blue wave" in upcoming elections. But, as Richard Parker notes in an opinion column for Dallas News, that would require Democrats to rally the Hispanic vote.
"To win, Democrats need to run Hispanic candidates and speak to Hispanic voters. That means, yes, being fluent in the language of immigration. Fairness and justice matter.
But so do good jobs, good pay, good education and decent health care. Yes, Latino voters want fairness in a country that has turned bitter and resentful. But they also want the same thing as everybody else: A decent shot at doing better than their parents. And the polling shows that.
That is the difference between a wave and a trickle."

Listen: Scientists re-create voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy
Scientists used CT scanning and 3D-printing technology to re-create the voice of Nesyamun, an ancient Egyptian priest.
- Scientists printed a 3D replica of the vocal tract of Nesyamun, an Egyptian priest whose mummified corpse has been on display in the UK for two centuries.
- With the help of an electronic device, the reproduced voice is able to "speak" a vowel noise.
- The team behind the "Voices of the Past" project suggest reproducing ancient voices could make museum experiences more dynamic.
Howard et al.
<p style="margin-left: 20px;">"While this approach has wide implications for heritage management/museum display, its relevance conforms exactly to the ancient Egyptians' fundamental belief that 'to speak the name of the dead is to make them live again'," they wrote in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56316-y#Fig3" target="_blank">paper</a> published in Nature Scientific Reports. "Given Nesyamun's stated desire to have his voice heard in the afterlife in order to live forever, the fulfilment of his beliefs through the synthesis of his vocal function allows us to make direct contact with ancient Egypt by listening to a sound from a vocal tract that has not been heard for over 3000 years, preserved through mummification and now restored through this new technique."</p>Connecting modern people with history
<p>It's not the first time scientists have "re-created" an ancient human's voice. In 2016, for example, Italian researchers used software to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hear-recreated-voice-otzi-iceman-180960570/" target="_blank">reconstruct the voice of Ötzi,</a> an iceman who was discovered in 1991 and is thought to have died more than 5,000 years ago. But the "Voices of the Past" project is different, the researchers note, because Nesyamun's mummified corpse is especially well preserved.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"It was particularly suited, given its age and preservation [of its soft tissues], which is unusual," Howard told <em><a href="https://www.livescience.com/amp/ancient-egypt-mummy-voice-reconstructed.html" target="_blank">Live Science</a>.</em></p><p>As to whether Nesyamun's reconstructed voice will ever be able to speak complete sentences, Howard told <em><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/ancient-voice-scientists-recreate-sound-egyptian-mummy-68482015" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>, </em>that it's "something that is being worked on, so it will be possible one day."</p><p>John Schofield, an archaeologist at the University of York, said that reproducing voices from history can make museum experiences "more multidimensional."</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"There is nothing more personal than someone's voice," he told <em>The Associated Press.</em> "So we think that hearing a voice from so long ago will be an unforgettable experience, making heritage places like Karnak, Nesyamun's temple, come alive."</p>Virus made inequality much worse across the world, says report
Inequality in wealth, gender, and race grew to unprecedented levels across the world, according to OxFam report.
A businessman walks by a woman asking for money in New York City.
- A new report by global poverty nonprofit OxFam finds inequality has increased in every country in the world.
- The alarming trend is made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, which strained most systems and governments.
- The gap in wealth, race and gender treatment will increase until governments step in with changes.
People wait in line to receive food at a food bank on April 28, 2020 in Brooklyn.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Credit: Oxfam International
Scientists find 'smoking gun' proof of a recent supernova near Earth
A supernova exploded near Earth about 2.5 million years ago, possibly causing an extinction event.
An artist's impression of a supernova.
- Researchers from the University of Munich find evidence of a supernova near Earth.
- A star exploded close to our planet about 2.5 million years ago.
- The scientists deduced this by finding unusual concentrations of isotopes, created by a supernova.
This Manganese crust started to form about 20 million years ago. Growing layer by layer, it resulted in minerals precipitated out of seawater. The presence of elevated concentrations of 60 Fe and 56 Mn in layers from 2.5 million years ago hints at a nearby supernova explosion around that time.
Credit: Dominik Koll/ TUM
I spoke to 99 big thinkers about what our ‘world after coronavirus’ might look like – this is what I learned
There is no going "back to normal."
