The Daily Valet. - 7/30/20, Thursday

✔️ We Can't Ignore This

Thursday, July 30th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I’m not even a basketball fan, but I’ll probably watch the games.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

U.S. Agents to Pull Back in Portland

Now, what about the other cities?

The governor of Oregon and federal authorities said they’ve reached an agreement to begin withdrawing federal agents from downtown Portland.

While each side declared victory Wednesday in the political fight over the federal deployment, it was not clear if the agreement would reduce tensions on the streets of the liberal city, where nightly protests have persisted for more than two months, reports the Associated Press.

Many demonstrators are peaceful, but smaller numbers have thrown fireworks, flares and rocks at federal agents, used lasers to blind them and sprayed graffiti across the Federal Courthouse downtown. Agents have responded with tear gas, pepper balls, stun grenades and nearly 100 arrests.

Governor Kate Brown said agents will begin leaving the downtown area Thursday, but is that the end? Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf insisted that a federal presence would remain until the Trump administration was assured state police were sufficiently protecting federal property.

And the Dept. of Justice currently has plans to head to Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee to expand what’s being called “Operation Legend.” But that will likely be met by similar resistance.

As for the politics of the whole situation, nearly half (47%) of suburban voters in a new Morning Consult/Politico survey disapproved of the staging of agents in Portland against demonstrators protesting police violence against Black people. The optics have transformed quickly into federal troops against our own veterans, moms and others looking to protect those without a voice.

U.S. Hits 150,000 Coronavirus Deaths

And more than 4.39 million COVID-19 cases

If two large planes crashed every day in the U.S., killing everyone on board, the nation would be despondent, writes CNN's Holly Yan. “If the U.S. suffered a loss of life on the scale of the 9/11 attacks—50 times over—the tragedy would be incomprehensible. But that's how many lives coronavirus has claimed in the U.S. since this pandemic started just six months ago.”

Many states are continuing to battle a surge of new infections, reports CBS News. Florida on Wednesday broke its daily virus death toll record for the second day in a row, reporting 216 new fatalities—up from 186 new deaths a day before.

In total, twenty-five states have seen a rise in new COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University. And now, the American death toll is expected to reach more than 208,000 by November 1, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

↦ FYI: The CDC reports that at least 574 doctors, nurses and other medical workers have died due to the virus in the U.S.

Basketball Is Back, From Inside the Bubble

A slightly different, but still safe, NBA returns

The NBA is finally ready to return after four months of a pandemic, a couple weeks of training camp, and several days of scrimmage games that do not even resemble a normal NBA atmosphere, reports the Boston Globe.

None of the 344 players who were tested for COVID-19 on the Walt Disney World sports campus since test results were last announced on July 20 have had confirmed positive tests, the league and National Basketball Players Association announced Wednesday.

Players have had the past week to get accustomed to the new conditions—no fans, smaller venues, a different shooting backdrop and socially distanced bench seating—and there have been few complaints, only observations about how important on-court communication will be.

It all tips off with tonight's doubleheader when the Jazz take on the Pelicans at 6:30 p.m followed by Lakers and Clippers.

↦ Dig Deeper: What you need to know and how to watch basketball's return.

Can Singers Stop Politicians From Using Unauthorized Music?

Artists demand clearance for campaign songs

Dozens of high-profile musicians in pop, rock and hip-hop have partnered with the Artist Rights Alliance in an open letter demanding that politicians get clearance on the music they play at campaign rallies and other public events, reports Rolling Stone.

The letter calls for major political party committees in the U.S. to “establish clear policies requiring campaigns to seek consent of featured recording artists, songwriters and copyright owners before publicly using their music in a political or campaign setting.”

According to Paper, Republicans' unrequited love of classic rock (and several artists' legal battles with politicians who use their music) is nothing new. From Donald Trump blasting Neil Young at Mount Rushmore to Paul Ryan citing Papa Roach as his favorite band, there are plenty of recent instances of politicians ironically enjoying and promoting music written by artists who protest the very political ideals they advocate for.

The Artist Rights Alliance is directing this message towards six political campaign organizations: the Republican and Democratic National, Congressional and Senatorial committees.

↦ Dig Deeper: Read the letter's full text and see everyone who signed it.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Pellet grills

Forgotten Cars of the ‘80s and ‘90s

Bubble fits

Bring Some History Into Focus

In need of a cool distraction?

MyHeritage, a platform for exploring family history, has just put out a new software tool that corrects blurry and faded photos, reports Hypebest.

Simply dubbed “Photo Enhancer,” the technology uses machine learning to upscale pixels that appear in blurred images, bringing them into clear focus. Utilizing algorithmic simulations to guess what the faded content should look like, the results aren't always accurate but they're pretty spot-on most of the time.

Here's what I suggest you do: Go to a family member's Facebook profile. They've no doubt posted an old photo now and again. Run it through the Enhancer and surprise them with the crystal clear image that will spark some nice memories during such stressful times.

And if you've got questions or concerns about privacy ... Techlicious confirms that after uploading, you retain ownership of all images. Privacy settings let you keep them entirely to yourself or let others tracking down their family history browse through them.

↦ FYI: It's intended to help enhance old family pictures, but it can obviously be used on just about any type of photo.