| Evidence emerges for sex-assault allegation against Biden Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:56 PM PDT  Former Senate staffer Tara Reade has alleged that presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993, a charge the former vice president's campaign denies.
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| U.S. death toll passes 60,000 mark Trump said would mark success in coronavirus fight Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Until recently, the president touted that projection as proof his administration's COVID-19 response was working.
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| Should rent be canceled because of the coronavirus? Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:49 PM PDT  The economic impacts of coronavirus have caused millions of Americans to struggle to pay their rent. Would canceling rental fees be an economic savior?
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| A night at Trump's D.C. hotel, the GOP hot spot emptied by coronavirus Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:36 AM PDT  What's it like to spend a night at the Trump International Hotel, the president's flagship property, facing economic ruin amid the coronavirus pandemic?
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| Indiana Postal Worker Shot Dead After Refusing to Deliver Mail to Man With Aggressive Dog: Court Docs Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:36 AM PDT  An Indiana man charged with murdering a U.S. postal worker this week admitted he confronted her because his mail delivery had been suspended due to his "aggressive dog," prosecutors said.Tony Cushingberry-Mays, 21, was charged with second-degree murder, assaulting a federal employee, and discharging a firearm during a crime for the death of Angela Summers, a 45-year-old postal worker who was gunned down Monday afternoon during her mail delivery route in east Indianapolis, according to the United States District Court of Southern Indiana.The mother-of-one, who had joined the U.S. Postal Service in 2018, died in the hospital. According to federal law, killing an on-duty federal employee can be punishable by death or a life sentence. To date, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says four postal workers have been killed during workplace homicides in the last seven years. "Angela was such a joy to be around, she was such a breath of fresh air. This is the worst thing that's happened in my career," Paul Toms, president of the National Association of Letters Carriers' Indianapolis branch, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. "This is a federal crime, but more importantly this is a senseless crime that should have never happened. It breaks my heart." Summers, a city carrier assistant at the USPS Linwood Indianapolis Post Office, was delivering mail at about 4 p.m. Monday when she bypassed Cushingberry-Mays' home in compliance with a suspension that had been put in place until he contained his dogs, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Beast. An angry Cushingberry-Mays approached Summers on his neighbor's front porch, standing about 6 feet away, and repeatedly asked her for the mail.Both Toms and a witness who spoke to WTHR said Cushingberry-Mays was allegedly upset about not getting his COVID-19 stimulus check when he confronted Summers.Summers, however, could not deliver his mail "because she was having a problem with the dog at his residence," the complaint said, adding that Summers had reported "several issues" with the dog, which had resulted in mail being held.Prosecutors said the USPS Linwood Indianapolis Post Office last sent a letter to the Cushingberry-Mays residence on April 13 indicating they would have to pick up mail from the post office.Toms said that, in compliance with USPS guidelines, Summers had reported an issue with dogs at the home. After three warning letters were sent, mail had been blocked from the home for about two weeks and "wasn't even given to Angela that day of the incident.""She was just following protocol, and the Postal Service curtailed the mail. It was not her fault that she didn't have the mail that day," Toms said. "My understanding is that she tried to explain that the mail could be picked up at another location and an argument ensued. I heard she was called horrible, horrible names." The postal worker's response triggered an argument, escalating to the point that Summers had to use pepper spray on the 21-year-old. "Cushingberry-Mays then pulled his handgun from the right side of his waistband (no holster), pointed his handgun at the letter carrier, and fired one shot at the letter carrier," the criminal complaint states. "He acknowledged the mace was not deadly but led to discomfort from his asthma."According to the complaint, Cushingberry-Mays admitted in a Tuesday interview with police that he ran away after shooting Summers, first going to his aunt's house before hiding the gun in the garage at his mother's. He told authorities "he did not mean to kill the letter carrier but wanted to scare her," according to court documents.Immediately after the shooting, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service launched an investigation and offered a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. It's not clear if Wednesday's arrest was made due to information obtained through the reward. "U.S. Postal Inspectors are charged with ensuring the safety and security of USPS employees, and that is a charge that we do not take lightly," Felicia George, USPI Detroit Division Acting Inspector in Charge, said in a statement. "Anyone who threatens, assaults, or otherwise harms a postal employee fulfilling her critical mission will be apprehended and held fully accountable."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| 20 Best Side Dishes For Steak Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:12 AM PDT |
| 'A near impossibility': Experts doubt North Korea's claim of zero coronavirus cases Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:32 PM PDT  Experts say there's evidence of at least a small-scale COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea. And some fear Kim Jong Un's lockdown could spark a famine.
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| Records Show Strzok Intervened when FBI Moved to Close Flynn Investigation Due to Lack of ‘Derogatory Information’ Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:32 PM PDT  New unsealed FBI memos show that the Bureau found "no derogatory information" on former national security adviser Michael Flynn while investigating his alleged Russian contacts, and moved to close their investigation of him in early January 2017 before former FBI agent Peter Strzok intervened, asking to keep the case open.The documents, which were released Thursday by the Department of Justice, show that Flynn was given the codename "Crossfire Razor" and investigated in a spinoff case predicated by the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign — a case in which the infamous Steele dossier played a "central role," according to DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz's December report.Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI about Russian contacts in January 2017, has since moved to withdraw his guilty plea, saying he "never lied" to federal investigators. In February, attorney general William Barr asked an outside prosecutor from the office of the U.S. attorney in St. Louis to review the DOJ's handling of Flynn's prosecution. Flynn's defense has argued that the retired Army general was "deliberately set up and framed by corrupt agents at the top of the FBI."But the FBI moved to close the Flynn case on January 4, 2017, after finding that Flynn had "no contact" with a Russian individual whose name is redacted from the release, and that "CROSSFIRE RAZOR was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger CROSSFIRE HURRICANE umbrella case.""The writer notes that since CROSSFIRE RAZOR was not specifically named as an agent of a foreign power by the original CROSSFIRE HURRICANE predicated reporting, the absence of any derogatory information or lead information from these logical sources reduced the number of investigative avenues and techniques to pursue," the FBI concluded. "Per the direction of FBI management, CROSSFIRE RAZOR was not interviewed as part of the case closing procedure."The FBI's closing communication was filed in the D.C. field office on January 4, 2017. But that same day, Strzok — who interviewed Flynn in the White House later that month on January 23 — texted a redacted individual, apparently Flynn's case agent, to ask "if you havent closed RAZOR, don't do so yet.""Pls keep it open for now," Strzok asked. He then messaged former FBI colleague Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair, telling her that it was "serendipitously good" that the case was still open."Phew." Page responded.Strzok also implied that James Comey and Andrew McCabe were personally involved in the Flynn case — telling a redacted individual on January 4 that "7th floor involved," an apparent nod to the floor in Bureau headquarters that houses senior FBI leadership.Horowitz faulted the FBI's "entire chain of command" during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his report in December, saying he was "deeply concerned" over the "many basic and fundamental" mistakes made during the investigation.New documents released Wednesday in the Flynn case show that at least one FBI official — widely judged to be the FBI's former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap — questioned the basis of the Flynn interview that led to his guilty plea.Further texts released Thursday show Strzok and Page were concerned about the involvement of someone named "Bill.""We'll see, about Bill," Strzok texted Page on January 23, the day before the Flynn interview. " . . . I worry Bill isn't getting the underlying distinction that I think is clear. But maybe I'm wrong."
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| Pfizer says that its coronavirus vaccine could be ready by this fall and that US testing could start as early as next week Posted: 29 Apr 2020 05:18 AM PDT  Pfizer partnered with Germany's BioNTech and is ramping up its coronavirus vaccine testing. It said an emergency version could be ready by fall.
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| Top coronavirus model predicts 100,000 dead by the end of the pandemic's 1st wave this summer Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:21 PM PDT  By the end of the coronavirus's "first wave" this summer, America will likely have buried close to 100,000 victims of the disease, researchers predict.
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| Senior Chinese official challenges Trump over coronavirus response, says U.S. wasted weeks Posted: 29 Apr 2020 04:12 AM PDT  "Some political figures are politicizing this COVID-19. They're using this virus to stigmatize China. This is not something we are willing to see."
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| Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells Putin he has coronavirus Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus and was temporarily stepping down to recover. Mishustin, 54, suggested that First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov serve as acting prime minister in his absence. Putin, who was listening on a televised video conference, sighed when he heard the news, wished Mishustin a speedy recovery and said he agreed with the proposed replacement.
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| British man who set fire to himself to protest Bosnia war crimes may get statue in Sarajevo Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:32 AM PDT  A British man who set himself on fire to protest Western inaction over war crimes in Bosnia should be honoured with a statue in Sarajevo, campaigners have said. Graham Bamford died on April 29, 1993 after pouring petrol over himself and flicking a cigarette lighter on Parliament Square while MPs were debating Bosnia in the House of Commons. The father of one from Macclesfield, who was 48 when he died, had no connection to the Balkans but had become increasingly agitated by television reports first from Croatia and then from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He wrote in a note found after his death: "The British people must stop the war in Bosnia, using force if necessary. The British army must not only be a guardian of honor at mass funerals. Bosnian babies, children and women are patiently waiting for the politicians to do what they should do – provide military protection. They must not stand aside and observe". The Bosnian sculptor Mustafa Skopljak created a statue to Mr Bamford eight years ago, but authorities have never granted a location to place the monument. It is currently stored in Sarajevo's Academy of Arts. Now, the Canadian Institute for Research of Genocide has called on Bosnian authorities to find a public place for the sculpture. "Isn't the way he appealed for helping Bosnia during the war enough for country's political, academic and other leaders to recognise this man as a hero", the officials of the Institute wrote in an open letter published in media in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "Graham Bamford, the man, we will never forget you and your humanity," the letter went on. The City of Sarajevo in 2009 established an annual award for humanity named after Graham Bamford. He is the subject of a documentary by the Croatian director Nenad Puhovski called "Graham and I - A True Story." Bamford is believed to have become particularly depressed after seeing reports about a massacre of Muslim civilians by Bosnian Croat forces two weeks before he killed himself. At least 116 people, including children and a three month old baby, were killed in the village of Ahmici in central Bosnia on April 16, 1993. Graphic images from the site filmed by an ITN team travelling with the British peacekeeping troops who discovered the massacre were broadcast around the world, and the site was later visited by representatives of the UN Security Council. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was formed the following month. Colonel Bob Stewart, who led the unit that discovered the massacre, said: "As soon as I got back I spoke to my second in command and we felt the world ought to know what we had witnessed that day. We felt it was incumbent on us. " "We were fully aware that the images were graphic. A lot of good came from that broadcast. But what do I say when I find out someone was impacted by that? I really regret that."
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| Ex-Honduran national police chief charged in New York Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:08 PM PDT  The former chief of the Honduran National Police faces drug and weapons charges in New York, where prosecutors claimed Thursday that he traded his law enforcement clout to protect U.S.-bound shipments of cocaine. The charges were brought against Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, known as "El Tigre" or "The Tiger," in Manhattan federal court. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Bonilla played a key role in a violent international drug conspiracy, working on behalf of former Honduran congressman Tony Hernández Alvarado and, his brother, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.
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| Coronavirus: Why Nigeria's rice handouts aren't going down well Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:55 PM PDT  There are allegations that some of the thousands of bags of rice given as food handouts have expired.
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| Editorial: Tara Reade's allegation that Joe Biden assaulted her demands an independent investigation Posted: 30 Apr 2020 03:43 PM PDT  Believe all women? No, but take serious accusations seriously.
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| Chinese state media is amplifying coronavirus disinformation Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:34 AM PDT  A U.S. Army reservist and her husband are unable to escape a mob of trolls after Chinese diplomats and state media share false conspiracies about COVID-19.
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| Amid coronavirus layoffs, high school seniors are too uncertain to commit to a college Posted: 01 May 2020 02:00 AM PDT  May 1 was the deadline for students to commit to a college. Thanks to coronavirus, colleges may not know who's coming until the fall semester starts.
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| ‘Dirty, filthy cops’: Trump blasts Michael Flynn investigation after new FBI documents released Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:50 AM PDT  Notes unsealed by a federal judge revealed details about the origins of the bureau's criminal case against the former national security adviser.
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| California closes Orange County beaches where crowds defied coronavirus guidelines Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:19 PM PDT  California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered beaches in Orange County in the southern part of the state to close, after crowds defied public health guidelines to throng the popular shoreline last weekend. The move came after Newsom complained that beachgoers could hasten the spread of the coronavirus in California, delaying the state's ability to ease public health restrictions even as millions of people in the most-populous U.S. state obey the stay-at-home rules imposed in March. Newsom's decision to close the Orange County beaches, announced at his daily coronavirus briefing, stood in contrast to media reports, including by Reuters, that the Democratic governor planned to close all parks and beaches in the state.
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| Brexit trade talks face collapse unless EU abandon demands for continued access to UK fishing waters Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:38 AM PDT  Brexit trade negotiations face collapse unless the EU abandons its demands for continued access to UK fishing waters, sources close to the talks have said. Brussels has called for EU boats to keep access under "existing conditions" as a price for the free trade agreement being negotiated by the two sides. The UK insists any fishing agreement must be separate from the trade deal with access negotiated annually in a similar fashion to Norway's agreement with the bloc. A UK source close to the negotiations said that the EU's red line would need to change, otherwise the talks could be terminated in June. "There are some fundamentals that we're not going to change, nor going to move on. Because they are not so much negotiating positions as they're sort of what an independent state does" the source said. "An independent state has independent control over coastal waters," the source added, "what we are wanting now is an EU understanding that we are not going to subordinate our laws to them in any areas". Michel Barnier accused Britain of wasting time in the trade negotiations, which have a deadline of the end of the year, after a round of talks last week. He criticised British negotiators for failing to present a text on fisheries for negotiations. UK sources said there was no point presenting a text when the two sides were "talking across each other". Downing Street has called on EU national leaders to intervene to break the deadlock in the talks but that is not expected to happen before June, when a joint conference will be held to evaluate progress towards the agreement. The source said that the UK would consider walking away in June and begin preparing for a no trade deal exit at the end of the transition period. "We do need to prepare for the end of the transition period, focus on that as well. If we don't look like we are going to get a deal that will become the primary focus of effort," the source said. The deadline to finalise the trade deal, which has come under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, is the end of the year, when the Brexit transition period finished. The transition period deep-freezes UK membership of the Single Market and Customs Union. Boris Johnson has vowed to not extend the transition period, despite the EU being ready to negotiate a delay and despite the risk of the UK failing to agree a deal in time, which would mean trading on less advantageous WTO terms.
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| Trump slams Obama administration over COVID-19 testing, even though it first appeared in humans last year Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:00 AM PDT  Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, President Trump attacked the Obama administration for its lack of preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, including inadequate testing. The COVID-19 virus first appeared in humans late last year, almost three years after President Obama left office.
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| Philippines rejects China's territorial label on island Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:49 AM PDT  The Philippines protested on Thursday China's designation of a disputed South China Sea reef, which it has turned into a heavily fortified island base, as a Chinese "administrative center." The Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement objecting to what it called China's "illegal designation" of Fiery Cross Reef as a regional administrative center in the hotly contested Spratly archipelago. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China last week of taking advantage of widespread distraction over the pandemic to advance its territorial claims.
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| No arrests after black man shot dead while jogging Posted: 30 Apr 2020 02:06 PM PDT  Ahmaud Arbery's mother says she feels "very discouraged" by the investigation into her son's death.
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| Switzerland's infectious disease chief says children under age 10 can hug their grandparents. Not all experts agree. Posted: 29 Apr 2020 01:16 PM PDT  Switzerland is lifting social distancing rules to allow children to hug their grandparents. Some researchers say this decision is reckless.
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| Fox Hydroxychloro-Queen Laura Ingraham Trashes Promising New Treatment Posted: 29 Apr 2020 09:24 PM PDT  Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who spent weeks endlessly promoting the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible coronavirus cure, downplayed data on Wednesday night that found another antiviral drug has shown actual promise as a treatment.Noting that top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci declared on Wednesday that results from a National Institutes of Health study into the Ebola drug remdesivir show a "clear-cut positive effect in diminishing time to recover," Ingraham said that while it "certainly sounds encouraging" she's not sure why Fauci wasn't as bullish on hydroxychloroquine.She went on to question the safety of remdesivir, which has been through numerous clinical trials over the years as an Ebola treatment. "We don't know," she stated. "It hasn't been approved by the FDA. They might do emergency authorization. Hydroxychloroquine was approved decades ago."She also wondered aloud about remdesivir's cost-effectiveness, insisting it is expensive and will be hard to scale up for production. As for hydroxychloroquine, Ingraham helpfully explained that it is "cheap and already widely available."Ingraham then welcomed on frequent guest Dr. Ramin Oskui, who she recently brought with her to the White House to sell President Donald Trump on hydroxychloroquine. Grumbling that the NIH results on remdesivir haven't been peer-reviewed yet, Ingraham conceded that the initial analysis shows the drug cuts down on coronavirus recovery time.Oskui, meanwhile, compared the remdesivir trial to a recent hydroxychloroquine study conducted by controversial French doctor Didier Raoult, claiming they both used similar-sized groups of patients. Oskui, however, added that while the anti-malarial drug showed a "very favorable safety profile," he was concerned that remdesivir may not be as safe due to "its history with Ebola."The NIH trial, however, was a double-blinded study that used a placebo group and was carried out in 68 sites around the world. Preliminary findings show that severely ill patients who received remdesivir left the hospital after 11 days compared to 14 in the control group. They also experienced a smaller mortality rate (8 percent) compared to the placebo group (11.9 percent).Ingraham also highlighted a recent report in which Turkish officials claim they have used hydroxychloroquine to keep the coronavirus death toll down in the country, while applauding the country for only implementing limited lockdowns, saying they have "among the best mortality rates in Europe."As CBS News reported, though, there are widespread concerns that the official death count in Turkey is severely underestimated. (Interestingly, Ingraham has been extremely critical of media outlets taking China's reported death toll at face value.)Ingraham, along with other Fox News stars, touted hydroxychloroquine for nearly a month as a potential miracle cure with "Lazarus"-like effects. The network, along with President Donald Trump, backed away from hyping hydroxychloroquine in mid-April after several studies showed the drug had no real benefits in treating coronavirus.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Confirmed coronavirus cases surge in reopened JBS Colorado beef plant; worker dies -union Posted: 30 Apr 2020 03:05 PM PDT |
| People of black African origin three times more likely to die of coronavirus than white Britons, study finds Posted: 30 Apr 2020 12:31 PM PDT  People of black African origin are three times more likely to die of coronavirus in the UK than white Britons, analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown. A report into the disproportionate Covid-19 death toll among black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK found deaths among people of black Caribbean origin are 1.8 times those of white British people. Deaths among those of Pakistani heritage are 2.7 times as high, and black African fatalities three times higher. The higher tolls come after predictions that BAME groups should theoretically experience fewer deaths per capita than white Britons because of average age profiles. Although many BAME groups live in major cities such as London and Birmingham, which have higher overall coronavirus death rates, most are younger on average than the population as a whole – in theory making them less vulnerable to the virus.
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| California Republican Party suing governor over "ballot harvesting" Posted: 30 Apr 2020 03:50 AM PDT  The group's chairwoman sent Governor Gavin Newsom a letter weeks ago asking him to halt the practice of ballot collecting for two upcoming special elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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| 'Don't waste a minute': Chinese firm readies mass vaccine production Posted: 29 Apr 2020 08:34 PM PDT  A researcher in a lab coat in Beijing holds up the hopes of humanity in his fingers: "Coronavac", an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus that has upended the world. Sinovac Biotech, which is conducting one of the four clinical trials that have been authorised in China, has claimed great progress in its research and promising results among monkeys. While human trials have just started, the company says it is ready to make 100 million doses per year to combat the virus, which surfaced in central China late last year before spreading across the globe and killing more than 220,000 people.
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| Transgender fire chief files discrimination suit over firing Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:00 AM PDT  A transgender fire chief has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the small Georgia city where she led the fire department for more than a decade, then was fired 18 months after she began coming to work as a woman. Rachel Mosby says her firing last summer by the city of Byron not only cost her wages and retirement benefits, but also tarnished her reputation. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Macon says city officials fired Mosby "based on her sex, gender identity, and notions of sex stereotyping."
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| Trump argues 1 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. is a reflection of 'superior' testing Posted: 29 Apr 2020 11:34 AM PDT  President Trump suggested Wednesday that the United State surpassing one million coronavirus cases is a statistic that sounds worse than it is, because it's really a reflection of the country's "superior" testing efforts, despite experts arguing testing needs to ramp up significantly.> On US reaching 1 million cases of COVID, Trump says the big number is "because of testing." > "So it's a number that, in one way, sounds bad, but in another way is really actually an indication that our testing is so superior."> > -- Jordyn Phelps (@JordynPhelps) April 29, 2020He also claims he received some outside validation about the U.S.'s performance from none other than South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Seoul has been heralded as the gold standard for handling the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to its intense and efficient testing program that helped the country keep infections and deaths relatively low, while also avoiding a full-scale economic shutdown as has been seen in many other parts of the world. > Trump says Moon Jae-in "called me to congratulate me on the testing." He claims Moon said, "Your testing is the greatest in the world...I want to just tell you, what you've done with testing is incredible." (The usual caveats about Trump phone call stories apply.)> > -- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 29, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump's 'mission accomplished' moment Gun-toting protesters' dramatic stand inside Michigan's statehouse, in 5 photos and videos The Justice Department is apparently working with conservative Christian groups to fight COVID-19 policies
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| Experts call for Japan to keep current framework of virus containment Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:06 PM PDT  Japan's coronavirus experts said it was desirable for the nation to keep its current framework of coronavirus containment policies until the number of new infections fell to a certain level, according to Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura. The experts also said that some regions needed to keep strict restrictions in place while others could start to ease them, Nishimura quoted them as telling a government panel meeting on Friday. Speaking at a news conference following the meeting, Nishimura also said the government would hold an advisory committee meeting to decide on the government's policy before the current state of emergency ends on May 6.
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| Roger Stone bought more than 200 fake Facebook accounts, which he used to run ads defending Roger Stone Posted: 30 Apr 2020 10:15 AM PDT  Stone, a longtime friend to Donald Trump, ran a sprawling network of fake Facebook accounts starting in 2016, according to newly unsealed FBI records.
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| Stacey Abrams’ Formidable Political Machine Could Be Used Against Her as Biden’s Veep Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:46 AM PDT  Stacey Abrams is lobbying hard to be Joe Biden's presidential running mate, and she brings to the table an asset few other contenders do: an extensive, battle-hardened organizing apparatus that she can bring to bear on behalf of the Democratic presidential ticket in November.But with that asset comes a liability. The extensive work done on Abrams' behalf by a network of political and nonprofit groups that she founded has raised persistent questions about her use of ostensibly apolitical voter-registration and canvassing outfits to boost her own political profile.The advocacy work and more nonpartisan activities of Abrams' network of nonprofits take place parallel to each other, as required by her groups' varying legal classifications. But their work also bleeds together in notable ways. Her political outfit and its sister dark-money nonprofit share a website and social-media pages, for instance. They also lean heavily on the same cadre of organizations to execute their missions. A Daily Beast analysis of public records shows that two of Abrams' groups, a tax-exempt voter-registration organization and a more aggressive advocacy group, have steered millions of dollars to the same political consultants that helped elect Abrams to the Georgia statehouse and tried to win her the governorship in 2018.The data portray an organizing apparatus that is primed to advance Abrams' political prospects in 2020 regardless of the form they take, but which could force her—and, if she gets her wish, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden—to address questions, albeit many posed by political adversaries, about her use of groups legally bound to remain legally independent and politically neutral.They're largely questions that Abrams and some of her top allies write off as baseless attacks from political opponents. "The organizations founded by Leader Abrams give a voice to marginalized communities and empower people of color and low-income Americans across the country," her spokesperson, Seth Bringman, told The Daily Beast in an emailed statement. "This critical work has been the target of allies of [Georgia Gov.] Brian Kemp and Donald Trump, because they are desperate to hold on to their power, and they know they can only maintain their power if voters and people in this country are not counted. She will not be deterred from her critical work by fishing expeditions and made-up accusations from Kemp and Trump cronies."Publicly and privately, Democrats frequently point to Abrams' organizational prowess as the leading reason that she would be a formidable vice-presidential nominee for Biden. The Georgia Democrat, the thinking goes among some of her closest allies, Democratic Party strategists, and some within Biden's own campaign, would fill in key gaps that the presumptive nominee lacks, particularly with younger voters. Abrams is also considered to be someone who can turn out black voters at a large scale for the general election, a key argument used among some in the party who believe that's the best approach to beating President Donald Trump."When Stacey ran for governor, she mobilized hundreds of thousands of African-American and younger voters to vote for her. That shows just the personal appeal of her and how strong she is with turnout," Freg Yang, Abrams' pollster during the 2018 governor race, told The Daily Beast. "More than a year ago, she knew turnout was going to be important in 2020, based on her own experience in 2018. It makes her even more relevant now given all this uncertainty."Pressure Mounts for Biden to Select a Black Woman as VPNikema Williams, the head of the Georgia Democratic Party, said Abrams and her organizational structure transcend racial, geographic, and socio-economic lines, and can help boost turnout more broadly. "If you speak with progressives, they think she's the most progressive person ever because she connects with them," Williams said. "And if you speak with people that are moderate, they're able to connect with her because she speaks their language as well."When Biden pledged to nominate a female Democrat to be his running mate in March, Abrams again shot to the top of many elected officials' and operatives' lists. At least two high-ranking officials in Biden's campaign have been praising Abrams internally as recently as last month, before her public push for VP ramped up in earnest. Her core draw, in that instance, was a sense that she, and the network she's built, have a broad reach well beyond her home state. But Abrams' network has also faced allegations that it exists primarily to advance her public profile and political agenda. In 2019, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a right-leaning watchdog group, filed a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service alleging illicit politicking by Fair Fight Action, a dark-money nonprofit group that Abrams leads."By providing support for an individual's personal political activities," FACT wrote in its IRS complaint, "Fair Fight Action is in violation of the requirement that a social-welfare organization serve general community purposes rather than provide a private benefit to an individual or political group."The group wrote off the complaint at the time as a "bogus attack" from "right-wing hit groups allied with Donald Trump."Similar allegations are at the heart of an investigation by the Georgia Ethics Commission into the activities of another Abrams-founded nonprofit, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, during the 2018 campaign. David Emadi, the commission's executive director and an appointee of Gov. Kemp, Abrams' Republican opponent in 2018, suggested that New Georgia may have illicitly acted as a political committee on Abrams' behalf, an allegation that Abrams and her team have flatly denied.Neither the FACT complaint nor the investigation in Georgia have resulted in findings of wrongdoing by any Abrams group, though the ethics commission said last week that its investigation was still ongoing. As it did with FACT, Abrams' team has largely written it off as politically motivated.After Abrams' 2018 defeat, she alleged that Kemp, Georgia's former secretary of state, used his position to suppress votes that might have swayed the election. After Abrams conceded in mid-November, her campaign donated more than $1 million in leftover funds to Fair Fight Action, which continued litigation and advocacy efforts to address those voter suppression allegations. The group did so under the new leadership of Abrams' former campaign manager.At the time, Fair Fight Action was still officially called the Voter Access Institute. But it amended its corporate structure on Dec. 5, 2018, to reflect its new moniker. It also made a significant change to the group's corporate bylaws: It deleted language saying it would not get involved, "directly or indirectly," in political contests.Just days later, Fair Fight Action began running television ads. And it did so through the same media buyer, Chicago-based AL Media, that the Abrams campaign had been using just weeks earlier. Campaign-finance records show the Abrams campaign had already paid the firm more than $4.7 million. By the end of 2018, Fair Fight Action had steered it an additional $165,000. Federal Communications Commission records show that the same AL Media employee handled media buys for both the nonprofit and the campaign.More recent FCC filings show that AL Media continues to buy ads for Fair Fight Action. So far this year, the group has purchased about $155,000 in broadcast ad time, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, for a pair of ads going after Kemp, whom Abrams has pondered challenging in 2022. AL Media is simultaneously handling ad buys for Fair Count, Abrams' 501(c)(3) charitable group.There's nothing legally problematic with that relationship; such vendors often work for both political entities and nonprofit and advocacy groups, and are free to do so as long as the proper firewalls are in place to ensure that work remains separate. But it underscores how complementary the electoral and apolitical nodes of Abrams' network are.Since 2014, Fair Fight Action has paid more than $2 million to five different vendors that also worked for Abrams' campaign or Georgia Next, her state-level political action committee, including fundraising firm G Strategies, phone-banking vendor Control Point Group, and direct-mail firm Deliver Strategies.During the same time period, Fair Count paid G Strategies for fundraising services as well. In 2014 and 2015, Fair Count and Fair Fight Action paid more than $2.7 million combined to a voter contact and communications firm called Field Strategies. In 2017, a partner at that firm, founded a new consulting firm called New Ground Strategies, which received more than $5.5 million from Abrams' gubernatorial campaign. According to its website, New Ground has worked for years with the New Georgia Project, which Abrams founded and led prior to her gubernatorial run. All told, Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign, her past statehouse campaigns, and Georgia Next paid more than $14.7 million to political vendors that have also worked for one or more of Abrams' nonprofit groups.Do Stacey Abrams and Steve Bullock Want to Make Mitch McConnell President?Even among the nonprofit groups themselves, that division of labor can be difficult to distinguish. Fair Fight Action, for instance, shares a website and a Facebook page with Fair Fight, Abrams' PAC. Both advise that the web properties are joint projects of the PAC and the dark-money group, a rare move for organizations with different legal structures—and different limits on how explicitly political their work can be.The website's donation link directs visitors to the PAC's contribution page. The PAC, in turn, passes along funds to the dark-money group. It's provided about $1.8 million in contributions to Fair Fight Action since last year, and paid it another $2 million in reimbursements for shared overhead and expenseNone of that is inherently problematic from a legal perspective. But the common thread among all parties—the political action committees, the nonprofits, and their vendors—is a drive to promote Abrams, the woman whose drive to enfranchise and turn out communities of color have animated their work for years.Abrams, in turn, is front and center as they carry out that work. Since December, Fair Fight Action has paid tens of thousands of dollars to run scores of Facebook ads promoting its voter registration and turnout activities. Every one of the ads has featured a photo or a video of Abrams herself.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| China journalist jailed as free-speech clampdown intensifies Posted: 01 May 2020 12:07 AM PDT  A journalist who had worked for some of China's most powerful propaganda outlets has been jailed for 15 years after being accused of attacking the ruling Communist Party, court documents showed. The sentence handed down on Chen Jieren is one of the harshest moves yet against free speech by China's government under President Xi Jinping, who has muzzled the press and ordered Chinese media outlets to serve the ruling Communist Party's interests. It comes as China faces international scrutiny over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including questions over whether authorities covered up crucial information that could have prevented it spreading globally.
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| Remdesivir could help end coronavirus lockdown despite failure of Chinese trials, scientists say Posted: 30 Apr 2020 06:39 AM PDT  A coronavirus drug which initially failed in Chinese trials is now working and could help end lockdown restrictions, scientists have said. Remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral, was developed more than a decade ago to cure an unknown "Disease X" and is currently being trialled on patients in the NHS. In results published in The Lancet on Wednesday, Chinese scientists said the drug worked no better than placebo. But less than 24 hours later, US health officials reported that their own trial, on more than 1,000 severely ill patients in 75 hospitals around the world, had seen recovery times cut from 15 days to 11, and mortality rates fall by nearly 30 per cent. British scientists involved in the UK trials said the results were "exciting" and, once rolled out, the drug could help lessen the need for lockdown restrictions by removing the burden on the NHS and cutting deaths. Patients who were being given placebo in the British trials are now being moved on to remdesivir.
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| Explosions rock weapons warehouse on base in central Syria Posted: 01 May 2020 02:16 AM PDT |
| Newly engaged lesbian couple missing in North Carolina Posted: 30 Apr 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, disappeared in mid-April under "suspicious" circumstances, according to the Wilmington Police Department.
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| Pelosi Rejects McConnell’s Proposed Coronavirus-Liability Protections for Businesses Posted: 29 Apr 2020 02:43 PM PDT  House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday rejected a Republican proposal to provide businesses with protection from lawsuits should they choose to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic."Especially now, we have every reason to protect our workers and our patients in all of this. So we would not be inclined to be supporting any immunity from liability," Pelosi told reporters at a press briefing.Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated this week that he would "insist" the next coronavirus-relief package include liability protections for companies and health-care workers as they reopen amid the pandemic. Such protections are a "red line," McConnell has said, and must be included before he would consider Democratic demands that additional relief be provided to state and local governments."The next pandemic coming will be the lawsuit pandemic in the wake of this one. So we need to prevent that now when we have the opportunity to do it," the Kentucky Republican told Politico on Monday.Democrats do not have "any interest in having any less protection for our workers," Pelosi responded.Senators will return to Congress on Monday to begin hashing out the next relief package.
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| Trump backtracks after saying U.S. would "very soon" hit 5 million tests a day Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  On Tuesday, the president, asked whether he was confident the U.S. could reach 5 million COVID-19 tests a day, said the U.S. would be there "very soon."
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| Canada set to ban 11 categories of assault rifles, other weapons - source Posted: 30 Apr 2020 01:08 PM PDT |
| Louisiana pastor Tony Spell's followers jammed police phone lines to protest his arrest. He says it'll keep happening until cops 'get this ankle bracelet off of me.' Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:23 AM PDT  The pastor has repeatedly gotten into legal trouble for trying to hold church services, saying stay-at-home orders violate his civil liberties.
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| Tucker Carlson Guest Shares Maine Governor’s Cellphone Number On the Air Posted: 30 Apr 2020 06:25 PM PDT  Chaos ensued on Thursday night when a guest on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight shared the private cellphone number of Maine Gov. Janet Mills and asked for the show's millions of viewers to spam her line.Host Tucker Carlson welcomed on restaurant owner Rick Savage ostensibly to talk about Mills' recent decision to extend the state's coronavirus stay-at-home orders until May 31. Savage, who was prepping his restaurant for a May 1 re-opening, insisted that he will defy the orders and open back up on Friday."If you don't like it, take me to court," he exclaimed. "And if they do take me to court, I will save my tax money that I collect this month and I'll use that to find a lawyer."Carlson, who has been a vocal advocate for reversing social distancing restrictions and opening the country back up, applauded Savage while blasting Mills, calling the Democrat "the most incompetent dictatorial governor that I've seen in a long time."Savage, meanwhile, didn't want to just leave it there. Instead, the restaurateur said that he would "love to share Janet Mills' cellphone number with everybody so they can give her a call directly," claiming that the governor has all the government's phone lines shut down.As Savage began reading off the number, Carlson began waving his hands into the camera while yelling: "Wait, wait!" After his guest finished, the Fox News host apologized to Savage for possibly cutting him off before quickly plugging the restaurant and ending the segment, all while Savage continued talking about "starting a revolution." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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