U2 drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. donates $100,000 to Native American relief fund

By Rich Tupica - May 28, 2020 at 02:28PM

Larry Mullen Jr., drummer of U2 (second from left), donated $100,000 to the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund.

HOWTH, Ireland — U2 might be best known for churning out massive hits like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “With or Without You” and “Beautiful Day,” but this week one of its founding members was focused on helping people.

Larry Mullen Jr. co-founded U2, a Dublin-born band, in 1976. Since then, the band has released 14 studio LPs, along with stacks of singles, EPs, live albums and compilations. By atu2.com – Larry @ signing, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://ift.tt/2AfkZL1

Larry Mullen, Jr., drummer for the iconic Irish rock band, donated $100,000 to the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, which aims to provide families with two weeks’ worth of food, enabling them to stay home and help flatten the curve.

The amount contributed by Mullen, according to the fund’s organizers, will fund a week’s worth of deliveries of food and water to around 1,000 Navajo and Hopi households in high risk and vulnerable areas.

Through a massive mobilized volunteer effort, to date, the fund has provided food and water distribution to over half of the Navajo Nation chapters, spanning 6,400 households in almost 70 communities in the Navajo Nation. Five of the 12 Hopi Villages have also been covered.

According to the Irish Times, the Irish donations to Native American relief funds during the COVID-19 crisis has surpassed more than $870,000. Organizers said, as of May 27, Mullen’s contribution is paired with more than 25,000 other Irish donations for the Navajo and Hopi Relief Fund.

So far, the fund, overall, has raised more than $4.3 million as of Wednesday evening. On top of that, a separate GoFundMe for the Navajo Nation has raised more than $1.1 million, and includes further Irish donations.

As for the ample Irish donations, The Irish Times also reported that the contributions are a way of “returning the favor” to the Choctaw Nation, who extended a similar relief to Ireland in 1847, when the Tribe sent a donation of $170 (today $5,000, approximately) at the height of the Great Famine.

 

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Oklahoma will have school on Saturdays if there's a 2nd surge

By The Associated Press - May 28, 2020 at 01:48PM

Also, four tribes in the state are being awarded a total of nearly $1.2 million to combat the coronavirus

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'Bummed out': SpaceX launch scrubbed because of bad weather

By The Associated Press - May 28, 2020 at 09:03AM

Liftoff was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon

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How to Boost Your Immune System

By Native News Online Staff - May 28, 2020 at 10:05AM

It’s always a good idea to take good care of your health. Now, recent world events have people taking extra care of their immune systems. Luckily, there are plenty of healthy ways to boost your body’s ability to fight foreign infections. Here are some you can start trying.

1 – Sleep well

One of the key factors in the strength of your immune system is how well you sleep every night. The research is quite clear on this point. Your body uses sleep not only to replenish a lot of its resources and its energy, but also as a time to general maintenance of your body. Sleep helps reduce inflammation throughout your body, for example. And it reduces the levels of stress hormones in your bloodstream.

There are many methods you can use to improve the quality of your sleep. One of the simplest ones is to follow a sleep schedule. Going to bed at the same time every night helps you fall asleep faster, and get more rest out of each sleep. Exercising, following a healthy diet, and managing your consumption of caffeine can all have a positive effect on sleep quality as well.

2 – Exercise

Not all forms of exercise are good for your immune system. Stress and exhaustion can both suppress your immune system, and because of that, prolonged and intense exercise can make your immune system weaker.

You should be aiming for moderate exercise if you want your immune system to be as strong as possible. What counts as “moderate”, of course, depends on your fitness levels. Walking, light jogging, riding a bicycle, and swimming are all good examples of moderate exercise that most people can engage in. Try aiming for about 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week for maximum effect.

3 – Eat fermented foods

Fermented foods like yogurt, fermented milk, and natto are rich in probiotics, which help populate your digestive tract with healthy bacteria. Plenty of studies have linked a healthier gut to better overall health and a stronger immune system. Having a healthy network of gut bacteria also helps your immune system better distinguish between healthy cells and invading organisms, making your immune response more effective. If fermented foods aren’t an option, you can also get probiotics in the form of supplements.

4 – Stay hydrated

As a general rule, you should drink enough water every day to make your urine pale yellow. While water itself does not boost your immune system, dehydration weakens your entire system, making you more susceptible to illness.

5 – Stay on top of stress

Stress hormones have many effects on your body. One of them is suppressing your immune system. In the long term, stress also promotes the inflammation of many regions of your body, which further weakens your immune system by hogging its resources.

There are many ways you can reduce your stress levels. Taking breaks from work, meditating, exercising, and sleeping better all help reduce the symptoms of stress. You can also treat it with calming natural remedies, such as chamomile tea and CBD oil. You can get the latter clicking this link.

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Inspired by a Beloved Elder, Michigan Tribal Member Organizes Aid for Navajo Nation

By Mikayla Steele - May 28, 2020 at 08:33AM

Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Member Kelly Benally (far right) will be collecting donations today in Mount Pleasant as part of “Operation Sheii Ma Sadie” — named for her Navajo mother-in-law Sadie Benally (center), 90.  (Facebook photo)

May 28, 2020

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — The memory of a Navajo elder lost to COVID-19 has spurred a member of Michigan’s Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to launch a relief effort for Navajo Nation.

Tribal Member Kelly Benally will be collecting donations today in Mount Pleasant as part of “Operation Sadie Benally-Sheii Ma- Navajo Nation” — named for her Navajo mother-in-law Sadie Benally, 90, who died from COVID-19 complications on May 10. 

The elder Benally was a respected Navajo medicine woman and a fluent Navajo speaker who fell ill with the virus just six days prior to her passing.

 Drop-off for Operation Sadie will take place Thursday, May 28, 2020 from 10am until 1pm at the Soaring Eagle Waterpark & Hotel, 5665 E Pickard Road in Mount Pleasant. 

Donations of Lysol, Bleach, Clorox wipes, gloves, masks, sanitizers, Tylenol, paper towels, diapers, bottled water and working washers and dryers in working condition are requested. Cash donations will also be accepted. All boxes and crates that get loaded into trucks will also be decorated with words of encouragement written in Navajo to let the Navajo community members know that they are in the thoughts and prayers of their Michigan relatives.  

The donations will be labeled with encouraging words written in Navajo language.

With 300,000 members, the Navajo Nation is the largest tribal community in the U.S., spreading across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The Navajo Nation has been especially hard hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, losing more citizens per capita to the virus than any state in the country. 

Navajo Nation has recorded 4,842 positive cases of COVID-19 and 158 confirmed deaths as of May 27, 2020. It is considered the hot spot for COVID-19 in the United States and their infection rate is among the highest in the world. The reservation’s lack of running water, medical infrastructure, Internet access, information and adequate housing have made it difficult for the tribe to handle the pandemic.

 Kelly Benally, 49, told Native News Online she hopes Navajo Nation is “really feeling the love that is coming from Michigan.”  

She set up a Facebook fundraiser to help fund Operation Sadie Sheii Ma- Navajo Nation. The fundraiser met its goal of raising $4,200 to go towards the efforts being made to help the Navajo Nation.

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The Shadow Pandemic: Women work longer, sleep less due to COVID-19

By Ethnic Media - May 28, 2020 at 08:47AM

Panelists at the briefing noted that the COVID-19 crisis has both highlighted and exacerbated gender inequality around the world

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Trump preparing order targeting social media protections

By The Associated Press - May 28, 2020 at 08:46AM

Trump on Wednesday claimed tech giants 'silence conservative voices'

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