Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, May 30, 2020

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 30, 2020 

SCHIFF GETS REPLY FROM TWITTER OVER 
COVID MISINFORMATION

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

 by Deanne Davis

“People keep asking, “Is coronavirus REALLY all that serious?” Listen, folks, the casinos and 
churches are closed. When heaven and hell agree on the same thing it’s probably pretty serious.”

“I hope we get at least two week’s notice before we enter the real world again. I think we’ll all need 
the time to become ourselves again. And by “ourselves,” I mean losing ten pounds, getting our hair 
cut and getting used to not drinking at 9:00 a.m.”

“New monthly budget: Gas: $0, Entertainment: $0, Clothes: $0, Groceries: $2,799.00”

The above coronavirus snickers were brought to you by my friend, Celia Kalm, whose birthday 
was last Friday. Yes, she was 29 again.

This week’s picture is another 
one of Lawrence Taylor’s 
terrific photographs. I love 
his work and I’m sure you 
do, too. He’s caught so much 
here, the mountains, our 
City of Sierra Madre rustic 
sign and some oak (I think) 
trees. Speaking of pictures, I 
put my Dad’s picture up on 
Facebook on Memorial Day. 
So young and handsome in 
his Navy uniform, circa 1944 
or so. I noticed that there 
were a whole lot of young 
handsome dads in military 
uniforms up on Facebook.

Speaking of Memorial Day, 
I came across this amazing 
story you might never have 
heard, thanks to Wikipedia…

“Doris “Dorie” Miller was 
a black American sailor in 
the United States Navy. He 
manned anti-aircraft guns 
during the attack on Pearl 
Harbor on December 7, 
1941, for which he had no 
training and then tended to 
the wounded. Miller was a 
crewman aboard the West 
Virginia and awoke at 6 a.m. on that fateful day. He served breakfast mess and was collecting 
laundry at 7:57 a.m. when Lt. Commander Shigeharu Murata from the Japanese aircraft carrier 
Akagi launched the first of nine torpedoes that hit the West Virginia. The “Battle Stations” 
alarm went off; Miller headed for his battle station, an anti-aircraft battery magazine amidships, 
only to discover that a torpedo had destroyed it. He then raced to “Times Square”, a central 
spot aboard the ship, reporting himself available for other duty. Miller was ordered to help Lt. 
Frederic H. White to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned number 1 and 
number 2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower. Delano 
expected Miller to feed ammunition to one gun, but when his attention was diverted and he 
looked again he saw Miller was firing one of the guns. White then loaded ammunition into both 
guns and assigned Miller the starboard gun. 

Meanwhile, Captain Mervyn Bennion, had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had 
apparently been hit by shrapnel. Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper but were unable 
to remove him from the bridge so they carried him from his exposed position on the damaged 
bridge to a sheltered spot behind the conning tower. Captain Bennion refused to leave his post, 
questioned his officers about the condition of the ship and gave orders.

Miller fired the gun until he ran out of ammunition, when he was ordered by Lt. Claude V. 
Ricketts to help carry the Captain up to the navigation bridge out of the thick oily smoke 
generated by the many fires on and around the ship. Captain Bennion was only semi-conscious 
at this point and died soon afterward. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing 
bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18-inch (460 mm) aircraft torpedoes 
into her port side. When the attack finally lessened, Miller helped move injured sailors through 
oil and water to the quarterdeck, thereby “unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people 
who might otherwise have been lost.” 

The ship was heavily damaged by bombs, torpedoes, and resulting explosions and fires, but the 
crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding a number of compartments. Instead, 
West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom as her surviving crew abandoned ship, including 
Miller.

Miller was recognized by the Navy for his actions and awarded the Navy Cross. He was the first 
black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the third highest honor awarded by the Navy at 
that time, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. The Navy Cross 
now precedes the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. Miller’s acts were heavily publicized in the 
black press, making him an iconic emblem of the war for black Americans. Nearly two years 
after Pearl Harbor he was killed in action when his ship Liscome Bay was sunk by a Japanese 
submarine during the Battle of Makin. On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that CVN-81 
would be named after him, a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier scheduled to be laid down in 
2023 and launched in 2028.”

Now that, friends and neighbors, is an amazing Memorial Day follow-up. And on that note, I’ll 
just say, hang in there, God’s got this. Some sort of normal is going to happen and we’ll all get 
through this, covered with gratitude. Meanwhile, be kind, smile a lot, wash your hands and stay 
home. Be safe. You matter a lot.

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Where you’ll find “Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope”

And “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter”

Take a look at both of these books, stuffed with hope and the

Occasional good recipe.

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd

 Rep. Adam 
Schiff (D-
CA), the 
Chairman 
of the House 
Intelligence 
Committee, released Thursday written 
responses he received from YouTube 
and Twitter regarding their actions to 
address coronavirus misinformation on 
their respective platforms. Schiff recently 
sent letters asking Sundar Pichai, Susan 
Wojcicki and Jack Dorsey, the Chief 
Executive Officers of Alphabet, YouTube 
and Twitter, respectively, to proactively 
inform users who engage with harmful 
coronavirus-related misinformation before 
it can be removed and to direct them to 
authoritative, medically accurate resources.

 “I appreciate the steps each platform 
is taking to reduce Coronavirus 
misinformation and connect users with 
authoritative health resources. While it is 
more effective to limit engagement with 
harmful content and provide context in 
real time and before users interact with 
it, that is not always possible given the 
scale of these platforms,” said Rep. Schiff. 
“When unwitting users do engage with 
false content that could harm them or 
their families, they should be informed. 
As we look ahead to this year’s election 
and beyond, the platforms’ investment and 
responsiveness to misinformation about 
Coronavirus will be gravely tested, and the 
health of our society and democracy along 
with it.”

 “YouTube’s goal is to provide context and 
authoritative information before or during 
viewer engagement, not after,” wrote Susan 
Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. “We have 
invested heavily to make sure that we 
surface authoritative content in our search 
results, which significantly reduces the 
spread of misinformation. We also partner 
closely with researchers and elected officials 
from around the world to better understand 
the challenges of online misinformation 
and take their recommendations for 
improvement seriously.” 

 “We share your view that providing 
people with additional context about 
the information they are viewing can be 
helpful to combating misinformation,” 
wrote Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, Vice 
President of Public Policy & Philanthropy, 
Americas at Twitter. “On May 12th, we 
announced that we are implementing new 
labels and warning messages that will 
provide additional information on some 
Tweets containing disputed or misleading 
information related to COVID-19… In 
this challenging environment, information 
regarding COVID-19 is constantly evolving 
and we believe fighting disinformation in 
real-time is the best use of our resources 
and attention.”

 Google and Twitter have joined Facebook 
and other major social media platforms in 
committing to jointly combat coronavirus-
related fraud and misinformation. In 
addition, Facebook announced last month 
that it would begin showing messages to 
users who had interacted with harmful 
misinformation about COVID-19 that has 
since been removed from the platform, 
connecting people with resources from the 
WHO debunking common myths.

 Despite important steps major Internet 
platforms have already taken to highlight 
official health sources and limit harmful 
medical misinformation, recent reporting 
has shown content spreading false and 
potentially dangerous statements about the 
coronavirus or treatments continues to be 
prevalent.

 Schiff Asked Platforms 
to Inform Users Who 
Interact With Coronavirus 
Misinformation


PORTANTINO WORKFORCE HOUSING 
BILL PASSES HOUSING COMMITTEE

 State Senator 
Anthony J. 
Portantino’s 
SB 1299 has 
passed the 
Senate Housing 
Committee 
with strong 
bi-partisan 
support. 
The bill is now headed to the Senate 
Appropriations Committee. The Los Angeles 
County Business Federation (BizFed) 
brought the bill idea to the Senator earlier 
in the year to help address Los Angeles 
County’s housing shortage. 

 SB 1299 seeks to create an incentive program 
for cities to convert abandoned big box retail 
sites into affordable and workforce housing. 
Under Portantino’s bill, local governments 
will be able to use these incentives to replace 
sales tax revenues previously generated from 
big box retail stores. Specifically, SB 1299 
will enable local cities to receive from HCD 
the average of the annual amount of sales 
tax revenue generated by that site for the last 
seven years if the site has been converted 
and occupied with new housing. The city 
would receive that average amount for a 
total of seven years.

 “I am excited to be working with BizFed on 
this creative idea to generate more housing 
production. California’s severe housing 
shortage needs creative and financially 
viable proposals and this is one that has 
significant merit. Despite having some of the 
highest incomes in the country, California is 
among the nation’s leaders in both housing 
insecurity and effective poverty rate. This 
bill will generate housing production and 
incentivizes local governments to build the 
truly affordable housing that Californians 
need,” commented Senator Portantino.

 HCD estimates that California needs to 
be building almost 200,000 housing units a 
year to keep up with demand and create a 
sustainable housing supply for Californians. 
Unfortunately, the state is achieving around 
half of that target, causing the problem to 
compound. The rise of e-commerce has 
cratered the demand for traditional shopping 
centers resulting in significant store closers. 
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will 
likely contribute to this as well, as many 
stores that were on the brink face uncertain 
financial futures.

 “BizFed appreciates Senator Portantino 
for his leadership in presenting SB 1299, 
a forward-thinking solution to build 
more sorely needed housing throughout 
California,” said Tracy Hernandez, BizFed 
Founding CEO. “This bill will provide local 
governments the needed incentives and 
resources to replace the sales tax revenues 
that came from former retail sites to pay 
for the necessary public safety and essential 
infrastructure. Reusing vacated shopping 
center space for workforce housing near jobs 
just makes good sense!” 


VINTAGE AND COLLECTIBLE BOOKS AT THE 
FRIENDS OF THE SIERRA MADRE LIBRARY BEST 
USED BOOK SALE

JUNE 6th Library Drive-Thru Book Sale

Friends of the Sierra Madre Library are changing the usual Best Used Book Sale format for June. 
There will be a “Drive-Thru Bag Sale” in the parking lot behind the library featuring $5.00 bags of 
genre books. This sale will be ONLY on SATURDAY, JUNE 6 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in the 
parking lot behind the Sierra Madre Public Library, 440 West Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. 

Books will be bagged into large grocery bags under the subjects of: Mysteries, Thrillers, Contemporary 
Fiction, History, Contemporary Non-Fiction, Children’s, and Young Adult. Patrons may drive into 
the library parking lot to the storage bin and will be met by one of our helpful volunteers wearing a 
mask and gloves. Please specify which genre(s) you are interested in and purchase a bag for only $5.00!

The Drive-Thru Book Sale is sponsored by the Friends of the Sierra Madre Public Library. All proceeds 
will be used to support programs, services and acquisitions for the library. For more information, 
please visit us at our web site www.sierramadrelibraryfriends.org., our Facebook page; or call 626-
355-7186


YOUR AD COULD BE HERE! 

 

CALL PATRICIA 626-818-2698

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com