March 30, March 31, April 1 -- weather 2021 transitions -- chance of snow flurries

 from WNDU S. Bend, Notre Dame meteorologists (Weather First Alert)

Tuesday March 30 - Wed. March 31 - Thursday April, 1, 2021

TUESDAY NIGHT: Showers move in after 6 pm with most of the area seeing scattered showers throughout the evening and overnight hours. Just light scattered showers as the breeze will lighten as the cold front passes early Wednesday morning. Temperatures begin to cool. Low of 34.

WEDNESDAY: A few light sprinkles with a few mixed flurries ends early in the morning. Temperatures will be very chilly throughout the afternoon, highs only reaching the middle 40s. The potential for a few snow flurries late in the day with partly to mostly cloudy skies. High of 43.

THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy and chilly. High in the middle 30s with winds coming off the lake from the northwest. This will create the chances for some lake effect rain and snow showers through the early afternoon. High of 35.

Spring Weather expectations (Old Farmer's Forecast)

 www.almanac.com/ 

WHAT WEATHER WILL SPRING BRING ACROSS THE UNITED STATES?

• This spring, we’re expecting to see warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the northern United States, from the Northeast through the Midwest and into the High Plains.
• Warmer-than-normal temperatures are also predicted for parts of the Intermountain region, Desert Southwest, Alaska, and Hawaii. 
• From the northern half of the Intermountain region to the Pacific coast, as well as across much of the southern U.S., we’re predicting that near-normal to cooler-than-normal temperatures are in store for the spring season. 

Hopefully, by the time Easter arrives on April 4, we’ll have left wintery weather far behind us!

Wind Advisory March 26 from 12:01 a.m. until 10 a.m. (Berrien County, Michigan)

 from WNDU dot-com

• Berrien, MI

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 10 AM EDT FRIDAY... 

* WHAT...North winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected. 

* WHERE...Berrien County. 

* WHEN...From midnight tonight to 10 AM EDT Friday. 

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. 

Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

Best Documentary Feature Film category awarded March 2021: NAACP Image Award

 Outstanding Documentary (Film)

“John Lewis: Good Trouble”

The film explores Georgia representative's, 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration.

Director:

 Dawn Porter

96 minutes, length -- segments are in both Color and B & W

Full worm moon March 27, 2021

from old farmer's almanac

There are quite a few names for the March Moon that speak to the transition from winter to spring. Some refer to the appearance (or reappearance) of certain animals, such as the Eagle Moon, Goose Moon (Algonquin, Cree), or Crow Comes Back Moon (Northern Ojibwe), while others refer to signs of the season:

• The Sugar Moon (Ojibwe) marks the time of year when the sap of sugar maples starts to flow.
• The Wind Strong Moon (Pueblo) refers to the strong windy days that come at this time of year. 
• The Sore Eyes Moon (Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine) highlights the blinding rays of sunlight that reflect off the melting snow of late winter. 

March’s full Moon often plays a role in religion, too. Specifically, in Christianity, this Moon is known as the Lenten Moon if it is the last full Moon of the winter season (i.e., if it occurs before the spring equinox) or as the Paschal Full Moon if it is the first full Moon of spring (i.e., if it occurs after the spring equinox).

In 2021, March’s full Moon occurs after the date of the spring equinox (March 20), so it is also the Paschal Full Moon. 

 from USA Today article

Get ready for the full "worm" moon, which will rise Sunday evening, March 28, 2021 in the eastern sky.

The name likely refers to the earthworms that appear in the soil as the weather gets warmer, inviting hungry birds to feed on them.

For millennia, people across the world, including Native Americans in the eastern and central USA, named the months after nature’s cues. According to the Old Farmers' Almanac, each full moon has its own name.

"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon," the almanac said. "Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred."

The Old Farmers' Almanac said that another explanation for the worm moon name refers to a different sort of “worm” – beetle larvae – which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time of the year.

"Hash Bash" 2021 -- University of Michigan event is protest of marijuana laws

 from M Live dot-com

ANN ARBOR, MI – Hundreds of protesters, pot tourists and marijuana enthusiasts were at the University of Michigan Diag Saturday afternoon April 3, 2021 for a smoke-in protest in conjunction with the 50th Hash Bash rally.

The annual smoke-in was a protest of marijuana laws, including the prohibition against smoking in public, according to Adam Brook, a past organizer of Hash Bash. Current organizers are holding the event virtually for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ANN ARBOR, MI — For those planning to attend the Ann Arbor Hash Bash smoke-in protest at the University of Michigan Diag on April 3, 2021 UM offers a word of caution.

“We always support the free-speech rights of citizens to gather in public spaces,” UM’s public affairs division said in a statement Thursday, March 25, 2021. “At the same time, we do not condone the use of drugs on our campus. It is important that we provide a safe environment for everyone on our campus, especially in the midst of a pandemic.”

May 8 Special Session of General Conference (U. Methodist denomination worldwide) cancelled -- UM Communications coverage

 from umnews.org/ 

The United Methodist Council of Bishops has canceled its call for a special virtual General Conference on May 8, 2020.

The bishops made the decision to cancel during a March 22 online meeting that was closed to the public.

The bishops also announced that they plan to use their regularly scheduled April meeting to discuss results of listening sessions and discern a possible new timeline.

“Much has been learned over the past few weeks and the extended timeline will allow for even deeper listening by the bishops at the general church level but also in our residential settings,” Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, Council of Bishops president and leader of the Louisiana Conference, said in a press statement after the meeting.

Last month, the bishops called the special one-day session on the same day the Commission on the General Conference announced that COVID-19’s threat had forced the postponement of the global denomination’s top lawmaking assembly a second time. The full General Conference, originally set for May 2020, is now set for Aug. 29-Sept. 6, 2022. The meeting venue is still Minneapolis. 

The commission appointed a technology study team to consider ways to hold the global conference virtually while ensuring full participation of the nearly 900 voting delegates from four continents.

Ultimately, the team concluded and the commission agreed that no virtual solution could overcome barriers that include a 16-hour time difference across the denomination, inequities in internet access and the need for vote security.

The bishops had planned for the May 8 General Conference only to be long enough for a quorum of delegates to suspend the rules so delegates could vote by mail on 12 legislative items. The items mostly dealt with administrative functioning amid the General Conference delay, and the bishops planned to announce the results of the votes on July 13. Not on the agenda were any proposals to split the denomination along theological lines. Those proposals, including the much-endorsed Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation, will be before the full General Conference in 2022. 

The decision to cancel the one-day meeting means that plans to retire U.S. bishops and elect new bishops in the central conferences — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines  — also are on hold for now. Harvey said the Book of Discipline, the denomination's law book, does not allow for bishop retirements or elections until after General Conference.

"It's to be continued," she told United Methodist News. 

Plans for a virtual one-day meeting faced some of the same logistical challenges the General Conference commission identified in considering a virtual 10-day gathering. 

Of the 862 delegates elected to the coming General Conference, 55.9% come from the U.S., 32% from Africa, 6% from the Philippines, 4.6% from Europe and the remainder from concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church.

The bishops’ plan for a special General Conference already was facing pushback across the denomination, including from delegates concerned they would be cut out of the deliberation process.

The advocacy group the Africa Initiative sent questions to the Council of Bishops citing the General Conference commission’s finding that internet and even electricity is not readily available in some areas where United Methodists are located.