Hasidic Wedding Draws Thousands In Defiance Of N.Y. COVID Rules

The New York Times: $15,000 Fine After Secret Hasidic Wedding Draws Thousands Of Guests 
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered to celebrate a wedding inside a cavernous hall in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood earlier this month, dancing and singing with hardly a mask in sight. The wedding was meticulously planned, and so were efforts to conceal it from the authorities, who said that the organizers would be fined $15,000 for violating public health restrictions. The wedding, organized on Nov. 8 by the leaders of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, is the latest incident in a long battle between city and state officials and members of the ultra-Orthodox community, who prize autonomy, chafe at government restrictions and have frequently flouted guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing. (Stack, 11/24)

AP: Can You Repeat That? Hearing Trouble More Obvious With Masks
As nurse Teri Wheat made her rounds at a Texas maternity ward, she began to realize she was having a hard time understanding the new mothers who were wearing masks due to the coronavirus pandemic. So she got her hearing tested and now wears hearing aids. Her hearing loss “became more noticeable the more barriers that we had to have,” said Wheat, 52, who wears a mask and a face shield at work to protect herself and others against the virus. (Stengle, 11/24)

The Washington Post: U.S. Media Coverage Of Pandemic Tends To Focus On ‘Bad News,’ Even When Cases Are Declining, New Study Finds
American media outlets covering the coronavirus pandemic tend to place more emphasis on bad news than their counterparts overseas, and consistently strike a more negative tone than scientific journals, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. While a certain amount of negativity might be expected, given that the United States has more coronavirus cases and fatalities than anywhere else in the world, the paper’s authors found the tone of coverage wasn’t closely tied to how many new infections were being reported at any given period in time. Nor did it vary among partisan news outlets: Stories about covid-19 on Fox News “are about as negative as those from CNN,” the researchers write. (Farzan, 11/25)

In obituaries —

The New York Times: Honestie Hodges, Handcuffed By The Police At 11, Is Dead At 14 
Honestie Hodges, who was handcuffed by the police outside her home in Grand Rapids, Mich., when she was 11, a frightening incident that drew outrage and national headlines in 2017, died on Sunday. She was 14. Her death, at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, was caused by Covid-19, her grandmother Alisa Niemeyer wrote in a post on the website GoFundMe. (Rifkin, 11/24)

CNN: Hal Ketchum, Legendary Country Music Artist, Dies At 67 After Battle With Dementia 
Country music singer Hal Ketchum passed away at the age of 67 on Monday night due to complications from dementia, his wife said. "With great sadness and grief we announce that Hal passed away peacefully last night at home due to complications of dementia," Ketchum's wife, Andrea, confirmed in a post on the late singer's Facebook page and website. Ketchum, who was known for country music hits such as "Small Town Saturday Night" and "Long Haired Country Boy," released his first album in 1988. He would go on to release 10 more albums, according to his website. (Kim, 11/24)

Also, in non-COVID news —

The Wall Street Journal: More Than 940,000 Crock-Pot Multicookers Recalled After Burn-Injury Reports 
More than 940,000 Crock-Pot multicookers are being recalled after reports of the lid suddenly detaching due to pressure, causing hot food and liquids to be ejected from the pot. The 6-quart multicookers are manufactured by Sunbeam Products Inc., a unit of Newell Brands Inc. Sunbeam received 119 reports of lid detachment that led to 99 burn injuries, ranging from first- to third-degree burns in the U.S., according to a notice on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website. (Sebastian, 11/24)