| A Florida couple has been charged after being caught getting groceries, washing their car, and walking their dog despite testing positive for the coronavirus Posted: 01 Aug 2020 02:45 AM PDT  Jose Antonio Freire Interian and Yohana Anahi Gonzalez were filmed by their neighbors breaking their quarantine order.
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| New Disclosures Confirm: Trump Himself Was the Target of Obama Administration’s Russia Probe Posted: 01 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Long-sought documents finally pried from U.S. intelligence agencies prove that the Obama administration used the occasion of providing a standard intelligence briefing for major-party candidates as an opportunity to investigate Donald Trump on suspicion of being a Russian asset.I say investigate Donald Trump advisedly.As I contended in Ball of Collusion, my book on the Trump-Russia investigation, the target of the probe spearheaded by the FBI -- but greenlighted by the Obama White House, and abetted by the Justice Department and U.S. intelligence agencies -- was Donald Trump. Not the Trump campaign, not the Trump administration. Those were of interest only insofar as they were vehicles for Trump himself. The campaign, which the Bureau and its apologists risibly claim was the focus of the investigation, would have been of no interest to them were it not for Trump.Or do you suppose they moved heaven and earth, surreptitiously plotted in the Oval Office, wrote CYA memos to cover their tracks, and laboriously sculpted FBI reports because they were hoping to nail . . . George Papadopoulos?My book was published a year ago. It covered what was then known about the Obama-administration operation. In collusion with the Clinton campaign, and with the complicity of national-security officials who transitioned into the Trump administration, the Obama White House deployed the FBI to undermine the new president, dually using official investigative tactics (e.g. FISA surveillance, confidential informants, covert interrogations) and lawless classified leaks -- the latter publicized by dependable journalists who were (and remain) politically invested in unseating Trump.Now the paper trail is finally catching up with what some of us analysts long ago surmised based on the limited information previously available.You don't like Donald Trump? Fine. The investigation here was indeed about Donald Trump. But the scandal is about how abusive officials can exploit their awesome powers against any political opponent. And the people who authorized this political spying will be right back in business if, come November, Obama's vice-president is elected president -- notwithstanding that he's yet to be asked serious questions about it.How to Conceal a Politicized Investigation It seems mind-boggling that, for so long, the FBI and Justice Department were able to keep a lid on the documents now being released. President Trump could have directed their disclosure at any time over the last four years. But when you think about it, concealing the paper trail was the easy part. The real challenge was: How to continue the probe even after Trump had taken office and was, at least nominally, in a position to shut it down?The Obama officials, including holdovers who transitioned into the Trump administration, pulled that off by intimidation: not-so-subtle suggestions that they could disclose damaging allegations at any time (e.g., the notorious "pee tape"), and that White House efforts to inquire into the scope of the investigation would be portrayed as criminal obstruction.Prior to the 2016 election, the FBI intentionally concealed the existence of the Trump-Russia probe from the congressional "Gang of Eight" (the bipartisan leadership of both houses and their intelligence committees). Senior Republicans were thus kept in the dark regarding purported suspicions that the Republican presidential campaign was a Russian front, unable to pose tough questions about the probe's gossamer predication.Crucially, the Trump-Russia fabulists managed to sideline two Trump loyalists who would have been positioned to thwart the effort: national-security adviser Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That left in place Obama holdovers and Trump-appointed placeholders. They were indifferent to Trump himself and cowed by the prospect of being framed as complicit in a Trump–Russia conspiracy, or a cover-up.The paper record is profoundly embarrassing, so it is only natural that the FBI and Justice Department resisted its disclosure. But documents about the investigation were demanded by congressional investigators starting years ago -- particularly by the investigation led in the House by then–Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R., Calif.).Congress's investigation was stonewalled. The more revelation we get, the more obvious it is that there was no bona fide national-security rationale for concealment. Documents were withheld to hide official and unofficial executive activity that was abusive, embarrassing, and, at least in some instances, illegal (e.g., tampering with a document that was critical to the FBI's presentation of "facts" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court).Democrats wanted this information suppressed all along. So of course, once Democrats took control of the House in 2019, there was no possibility of pressing the question of why the Justice Department and FBI failed to comply with House information demands back in 2017–18, when Republicans led the relevant committees.One wonders, though, why the GOP-controlled Senate had so little interest in finding out why this paper trail stayed hidden despite repeated inquiries. Ditto the House Republican leadership in the first two years of Trump's term. It is hard to draw any conclusion other than that the GOP establishment bought the "Russian interference in our democracy" hysteria.Moscow always meddles in U.S. elections. The 2016 interference was par for the course and, as always, utterly ineffective. This time, though, Democrats were perceived as the victims, rather than the beneficiaries. For once, they and their media megaphone demanded that the political class treat Russia as a serious threat. On cue, Washington Republicans genuflected, lest they be portrayed as covering up for Trump, or as soft on Putin. Meanwhile Democrats, the party of appeasement (very much including appeasement of Moscow through the Obama years), were transmogrified into Russia hawks. And Russia hawks they'll remain . . . right up until the moment Joe Biden takes the oath of office.Exploiting Politics to Surveil the Opposition Among the most significant of the newly declassified documents is a memorandum written by FBI agent Joe Pientka III, the case agent on Trump-Russia. It was Pientka who, at the FBI's New York City headquarters on August 17, 2016, purported to brief Trump and two top campaign surrogates -- the aforementioned General Flynn and then–New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who was slated to run the transition if Trump won.In reality, Pientka and the FBI regarded the occasion not as a briefing for the Republican presidential nominee but as an opportunity to interact with Donald Trump for investigative purposes. Clearly, the Bureau did that because Trump was the main subject of the investigation. The hope was that he'd blurt things out that would help the FBI prove he was an agent of Russia.The Obama administration and the FBI knew that it was they who were meddling in a presidential campaign -- using executive intelligence powers to monitor the president's political opposition. This, they also knew, would rightly be regarded as a scandalous abuse of power if it ever became public. There was no rational or good-faith evidentiary basis to believe that Trump was in a criminal conspiracy with the Kremlin or that he'd had any role in Russian intelligence's suspected hacking of Democratic Party email accounts.You didn't have to believe Trump was a savory man to know that. His top advisers were Flynn, a decorated combat veteran; Christie, a former U.S. attorney who vigorously investigated national-security cases; Rudy Giuliani, a legendary former U.S. attorney and New York City mayor who'd rallied the country against anti-American terrorism; and Jeff Sessions, a longtime U.S. senator with a strong national-defense track record. To believe Trump was unfit for the presidency on temperamental or policy grounds was a perfectly reasonable position for Obama officials to take -- though an irrelevant one, since it's up to the voters to decide who is suitable. But to claim to suspect that Trump was in a cyberespionage conspiracy with the Kremlin was inane . . . except as a subterfuge to conduct political spying, which Obama officials well knew was an abuse of power.So they concealed it. They structured the investigation on the fiction that there was a principled distinction between Trump himself and the Trump campaign. In truth, the animating assumption of the probe was that Trump himself was acting on Russia's behalf, either willfully or under the duress of blackmail. By purporting to focus on the campaign, investigators had the fig leaf of deniability they needed to monitor the candidate.Just two weeks before Pientka's August 17 "briefing" of Trump, the FBI formally opened "Crossfire Hurricane," the codename for the Trump-Russia investigation. The Bureau also opened four Trump-Russia subfiles, related to Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Flynn.There was no case file called "Donald Trump" because Trump was "Crossfire Hurricane." The theory of Crossfire Hurricane was that Russia had blackmail information on Trump, which it could use to extort Trump into doing Putin's bidding if Trump were elected. It was further alleged that Russia had been cultivating Trump for years and was helping Trump's election bid in exchange for future considerations. Investigators surmised that Trump had recruited Paul Manafort (who had connections to Russian oligarchs and pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs) as his campaign manager, enabling Manafort to use such emissaries as Page to carry out furtive communications between Trump and the Kremlin. If elected, the theory went, Trump would steer American policy in Russia's favor, just as the Bureau speculated that Trump was already corruptly steering the Republican party into a more pro-Moscow posture.Get Them Talking Besides obtaining FISA surveillance warrants against Page, the Bureau's favored tactic -- a common one in criminal investigations -- was to create or exploit situations in which the suspects would be at ease. Either the settings would not seem investigative or, in Trump's case, repeated assurances were provided that he was not under investigation. With no notice that the FBI was trying to catch them and even prompt them into making incriminating statements, Trump and his campaign advisers would be invited to talk about Russia. Agents parsed their statements and scrutinized their demeanor, searching for any indication of pro-Russia sentiment or uneasiness about the topic -- anything that could be portrayed as incriminating. If the Bureau's contacts with Trump officials were not covertly recorded (as they were, for example, when informants interacted with Papadopoulos), agents would generate written reports about them, the kind of reports the FBI routinely writes when building a criminal case.This is exactly what Pientka did in connection with the August 17 "briefing," under the supervision of Kevin Clinesmith, the rabidly anti-Trump FBI lawyer later found by the Justice Department's inspector general to have tampered with a key email, and Peter Strzok, the rabidly anti-Trump counterintelligence agent who was later fired.Pientka's significantly redacted seven-page memo is worth reading. The point of it is not the national-security information provided to the candidate; that is just context for the Bureau's documenting of statements made by Trump in response. For example, when the topic is differences in methodology between Russian and Chinese espionage, Pientka carefully notes that Trump asked, "Joe, are the Russians bad? Because they have more numbers [of FBI cases] are they worse than the Chinese?" After all, maybe we'll find out he was reporting back to the Kremlin. When the topic turned to signals intelligence, Pientka notes that Trump interjected, "Yes I understand it's a dark time. Nothing is safe on computers anymore," and elaborated that his then-ten-year-old son had broken the code for access to a computer -- you know, just the kind of badinage you'd expect from a co-conspirator in a Russian hacking scheme.Pientka then recounts that when other intelligence-agency briefers took over to continue the briefing on other topics, Pientka did not leave; he stayed in the room "actively listen[ing] for topics or questions regarding the Russian Federation." Here, in a classified report they figure no one will ever see, there is no pretense: FBI agents are monitoring Trump. Pientka notes that when one briefer said the U.S. was the world's leader in counterterrorism, Trump interjected, "Russia too?" And when the discussion turned to cheating by Russia and China on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, "Trump asked, 'Who's worse?'" When the briefer replied, "They are both bad, but Russia is worse," Pientka took pains to relate, "Trump and Christie turned toward each other and Christie commented, 'Im shocked'" [sic].You're thinking, "So what?" Yeah, well, that's the point. They had nothing, but the agents were exploiting the U.S. political process to try to turn nothing into a federal case. And would any public official voluntarily attend a security briefing, ostensibly meant to help him perform his public-safety mission, if he thought the FBI might be spying on him and writing reports with an eye toward portraying him as a hostile power's mole?Just as we've seen in the Flynn investigation, Pientka's official FBI report is marked in bold capital letters: "DRAFT DOCUMENT/DELIBERATIVE MATERIAL." Why deliberate over a draft when the purpose is to document a suspect's statements? After all, he said whatever he said; there shouldn't be a need to edit it. Drafts and deliberations are necessary only if a report is being massaged to fit the perceived needs of the investigation. Observe that, although the briefing was August 17, the memo is dated August 30. Nearly two weeks later, and it's still in the form of a deliberative draft, meaning they're not done yet.This is not materially different from the Obama administration's plan on January 6, 2017. That is when the FBI's then-director, James Comey, "briefed" Trump in New York City. This briefing came just a day after Comey met with his Obama-administration superiors -- the president, Vice President Biden, national-security adviser Susan Rice, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. They discussed withholding information about the Russia investigation from President-elect Trump and his incoming team.Consistent with this White House strategy session, Comey did not actually brief Trump about the Russia investigation; he buzzed Trump with an allegation that the Putin regime might be in possession of blackmail material -- the pee tape -- that it could hold over Trump's head in order to get him to do the Kremlin's bidding.The point was not to give information. It was to get information: to provoke Trump into making incriminating or false statements, or statements evincing consciousness of guilt. Outside Trump Tower was an FBI car equipped with a laptop so Comey could immediately write an investigative report. The director and his team treated this as an investigative event, not a briefing. Comey memorialized Trump's statements, as well as his physical and emotional reaction to the suggestion that Moscow might have video of the soon-to-be president cavorting with prostitutes. If a case had ever been made on Trump, Comey could then have been a witness, with his investigative report available to refresh his recollection about Trump's comments and comportment.That is one of the main reasons such reports are done.The FBI did the same thing with Flynn: a sandbag interview, against Justice Department and White House protocols, conducted after extensive planning about how to put him at ease, how to make sure he doesn't think he's a suspect, how to refrain from advising him of his rights. Then, knock him back on his heels by portraying a legitimate conversation between the incoming national-security adviser and the Russian ambassador as if it were nefarious. Don't play him the recording or show him the transcript; just grill him and hope he says something incriminating or redolent of guilty knowledge. And then, instead of following the FBI rules for promptly completing interview reports, generate another "deliberative draft" that can be kneaded for a few weeks . . . with the help of a former prosecutor (Lisa Page) who serves as counsel to the second-highest-ranking FBI official (then–deputy director Andrew McCabe).There is still plenty of paper trail to uncover. I haven't even referred here to the Steele dossier, which investigators knew was bogus but relied on to seek -- and obtain -- court-authorized eavesdropping. I haven't mentioned the unmasking of Trump officials indirectly targeted in foreign-intelligence collection. We haven't considered the collaboration of American and foreign intelligence agencies in the scrutiny of Trump, or the collaboration of Obama officials and congressional Democrats, as well as the media, to promote the narrative that Trump was a Russian operative. There is much still to learn and to weigh.But this much we know: In the stretch run of the 2016 campaign, President Obama authorized his administration's investigative agencies to monitor his party's opponent in the presidential election, on the pretext that Donald Trump was a clandestine agent of Russia. Realizing this was a gravely serious allegation for which there was laughably insufficient predication, administration officials kept Trump's name off the investigative files. That way, they could deny that they were doing what they did. Then they did it . . . and denied it.
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| Madeleine McCann: Suspect's lawyer calls police allotment search 'a desperate act' Posted: 31 Jul 2020 05:49 AM PDT  Christian Brückner's lawyer has described the excavation of a Hannover allotment by police as "a pure desperate act" in his first statement on the case. Friedrich Sebastian Fülscher, representing the 43-year-old lead suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, issued the statement in response to the two-day search by Braunschweig police at an allotment plot just outside Hannover earlier this week. Federal officers uncovered a sealed cellar on Wednesday. Locals said Brückner had stayed in the area in 2007, the year in which three-year-old Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal. Brückner is currently serving a sentence for drugs charges, but it was revealed on Friday that his lawyers have put in a new bid for his release, meaning he could walk free on January 7. In a statement on Friday, Mr Fülscher called the search "a pure desperate act of the public prosecutor's office". "Apparently, it's hard for investigators to admit they backed the wrong horse," the lawyer said. "My client is silent on the charges, but that doesn't mean he has anything to hide." Discussing the rape of a 72-year-old American woman for which Brückner was jailed for seven years last year, which he continues to deny, Mr Fülscher said it was "totally unusual" for someone to be a both a paedophile and a gerontophile.
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| Thousands march in Berlin against coronavirus curbs Posted: 01 Aug 2020 05:38 AM PDT  Thousands marched in Berlin on Saturday to protest against measures imposed in Germany to stem the coronavirus pandemic, saying they violated people's rights and freedoms. The gathering, estimated by police at 17,000, included libertarians, constitutional loyalists and anti-vaccination activists. There was also a small far-right presence with some marchers carrying Germany's black, white and red imperial flag.
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| Police killings marked with backyard barbecues, secretive rituals, ex-captain alleges Posted: 31 Jul 2020 03:25 PM PDT  Some officers involved in fatal shootings reportedly marked those incidents with backyard barbecues and were initiated into a "secretive clique."
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| Washington State Trapped Its First 'Murder Hornet' Posted: 01 Aug 2020 12:24 PM PDT  Trapping Asian giant hornets is a crucial component for catching and killing the invasive species
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| US election 2020: The war hero who could be Biden's running mate Posted: 31 Jul 2020 05:47 PM PDT  Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq war veteran and the first Thai-American woman elected to Congress.
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| Democratic congressman calls out maskless GOP colleagues after positive coronavirus test Posted: 01 Aug 2020 10:44 AM PDT  Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Saturday announced he is the latest member of Congress to test positive for COVID-19. The 72-year-old congressman, who said he currently has no symptoms and feels fine, had been isolating after coming into contact with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week.Grijalva did not call Gohmert out by name, but said that this week has revealed the consequences of the actions of Republican lawmakers who have gone to work at the Capitol without wearing a mask and taking the virus seriously, something which Gohmert has been accused of throughout the pandemic.> Grijalva added: "Numerous Republican members routinely strut around the Capitol without a mask to selfishly make a political statement at the expense of their colleagues, staff, and their families." pic.twitter.com/BJM72gRYbj> > — Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 1, 2020Three lawmakers, including Grijalva, were self-isolating after exposure to Gohmert. One of the others, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) has since tested negative for the virus.More stories from theweek.com Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez picked the wrong statue to criticize Is Western Europe losing its grip on the coronavirus? New Lincoln Project video imagines what it's like to wake up from a coma in 2020
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| Connie Culp, 1st US partial face transplant recipient, dies Posted: 01 Aug 2020 12:30 PM PDT  Connie Culp, the recipient of the first partial face transplant in the U.S., has died at 57, almost a dozen years after the groundbreaking operation.
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| Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina declare emergencies as Hurricane Isaias hits the Bahamas and barrels toward the east coast Posted: 01 Aug 2020 09:48 AM PDT  The governors of Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergency, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared an emergency for some counties.
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| The Portland 'Wall of Moms' movement is falling apart after a local Black Lives Matter group accused it of 'anti-Blackness' Posted: 31 Jul 2020 03:47 AM PDT  The Wall of Moms was started two weeks ago to protect protesters in downtown Portland after federal agents were sent to the city to quell the unrest.
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| Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence overturned, new trial ordered for sentencing phase Posted: 01 Aug 2020 08:32 AM PDT  A federal appeals court said the new trial for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will only decide whether he's executed. He remains in prison for life.
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| U.S. to hike fees for immigration benefits Posted: 31 Jul 2020 02:53 PM PDT  Under the new rule, the U.S. will start charging for asylum applications for the first time in its history.
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| Biden, Bernie forces clash during convention meeting Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:09 PM PDT  "Disgusting, disturbing, unacceptable," said Nina Turner, Sanders' former campaign co-chair.
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| Russia is aiming for an approved COVID-19 vaccine in the next fortnight to portray itself as a global science leader, but there are major concerns over a lack of data and testing Posted: 31 Jul 2020 09:41 PM PDT  CNN reported critics said Russia was racing ahead with its vaccine because the Kremlin wants to be seen as a global scientific leader.
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| Exclusive: CDC projects U.S. coronavirus death toll could top 180,000 by Aug. 22 Posted: 31 Jul 2020 10:05 AM PDT  As coronavirus cases have continued to rise in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is forecasting that the total American death toll from COVID-19 could hit 182,000 by the fourth week of August, according to an internal government document obtained by Yahoo News.
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| Case of Islamic State recruit's UK citizenship goes to Supreme Court Posted: 31 Jul 2020 12:45 PM PDT |
| A 54-year-old New Jersey woman was hospitalized after a violent confrontation in Staples over a face mask Posted: 01 Aug 2020 09:31 AM PDT  According to police, the victim who walked with a cane was "violently" thrown to the ground after she pointed the cane inches from another woman's chest.
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| Texas city commissioner killed in gun battle with police Posted: 01 Aug 2020 11:40 AM PDT |
| Union warns of U.S. Postal Service cost cuts as states prepare for mail-in voting Posted: 01 Aug 2020 08:18 AM PDT  The head of the country's largest postal worker union warned about the administrative shake-up causing delays as states prepare for mail-in voting.
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| James Murdoch Quits News Corp Board Over Editorial Disagreements Posted: 31 Jul 2020 02:31 PM PDT  James Murdoch has resigned from the board of his family's news behemoth, News Corp, due to disagreements over editorial content published by the company's notoriously right-wing outlets, The Daily Beast has confirmed."Mr. Murdoch informed the Company that his resignation was due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions," a company statement said. He was immediately scrubbed from the company's online list of board directors.The move comes a little over six months after Rupert Murdoch's eldest son issued a stunning rebuke of his family's media empire and its promotion of climate-change skeptics during Australia's bushfire crisis.James Murdoch Slams Fox News and News Corp Over Climate-Change Denial"Kathryn and James' views on climate are well established and their frustration with some of the News Corp and Fox coverage of the topic is also well known," a spokesperson for the couple exclusively told The Daily Beast at the time as wildfires raged in Australia."They are particularly disappointed with the ongoing denial among the news outlets in Australia given obvious evidence to the contrary."In contrast, James' brother Lachlan, News Corp's co-chairman, personally okayed Tucker Carlson's recent non-apology for racist rants penned by his top writer.In a brief resignation letter dated July 31 and addressed to the board of directors, James wrote, "I hereby tender my resignation as a member of the Board of Directors of News Corporation (the "Company"), effective as of the date hereof. My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions."The board of directors will be reduced to 10 members as a result, headed by Murdoch's father, Rupert, and Lachlan.Rupert and Lachlan offered a brief statement in response to James' decision: "We're grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors."James, 47, often considered the rebel in the infamous Australian media family, had made several less-than-subtle moves away from News Corp's brand of inflammatory and populist journalism in recent months. Last year, the Financial Times reported that he was planning to invest $1 billion in a portfolio of media companies that could include a liberal-leaning news outlet. In March, he reportedly made a large investment in start-ups aimed at tackling fake news. His private investment company, Lupa Systems, partnered with startup incubator Betaworks to fund efforts to fight disinformation and create a "more sustainable news ecosystem," a report said.People who know James were not surprised by Friday's development, which seemed inevitable after he was relieved of his executive responsibilities as CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox—which largely involved the entertainment assets that were sold to the Walt Disney Co. but not the right-leaning, Trump-friendly cash cow Fox News—and began carving out an independent identity from his older brother, Lachlan, and the Murdoch empire.He was increasingly alienated from the Trump administration and the role of Fox News and the New York Post in propping it up. In August 2017, for instance, as Rupert was negotiating the Disney deal and anti-Semitic incidents were on the rise in the United States, James pledged a $1 million donation to the Anti-Defamation League.However, climate change skepticism run in News Corp's right-leaning Australian newspapers and on Fox News in the U.S. brought the long-simmering family rift over climate change to the fore in January with James and wife Kathryn's blistering statement to The Daily Beast."They are pissing inside the tent and that's unusual. It's evidence of how high tensions are within the family over climate change," one News Corp executive told The Daily Beast at the time.James and his activist wife have long been passionate about the environment and climate change. They've donated to U.S. organizations targeting electoral interference, climate change, anti-Semitism, and bipartisan unity, as well as the presidential campaigns of Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden.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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| ‘We don’t need someone distracted with Twitter’: Ilhan Omar fights off tough primary challenge Posted: 01 Aug 2020 04:00 AM PDT  The Minnesota freshman and "Squad" member faces criticism that she's too divisive to effectively represent her district.
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| Coronavirus spreads to hundreds of youth who attended an overnight summer camp in Georgia: CDC Posted: 01 Aug 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Unlike staffers, campers — who engaged in a variety of activities like "daily vigorous singing and cheering" — were not required to wear masks, according to a CDC report
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| Fool's Gold Has a Purpose After All Posted: 31 Jul 2020 09:06 AM PDT  Pyrite: not totally useless!
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| Florida couple busted for breaking COVID-19 quarantine insists they were just walking the dog Posted: 31 Jul 2020 09:40 PM PDT  California, which has been hard hit by the pandemic, reported its first teen fatality, while Jim Jordan sparred with Dr. Anthony Fauci at House hearing.
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| A Black Lives Matter mural is set to be removed in Tulsa after the city received a request for a pro-police painting Posted: 01 Aug 2020 12:09 PM PDT  "Allowing one group to paint messages on the street means everyone would be able to do so," Tulsa City attorney said, adding that murals shouldn't be allowed for safety reasons.
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| Tenant arrested for allegedly decapitating landlord with a sword over rent dispute Posted: 01 Aug 2020 08:31 AM PDT  A Connecticut man allegedly decapitated his landlord after he was told he needed to move out over overdue rent, police said.Jerry David Thompson was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly beheading his landlord, Victor King, who rented him out a room in his home in Hartford, Connecticut.
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| Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Most Trump voters won't accept Biden win if margin is determined by mail-in ballots Posted: 31 Jul 2020 08:03 AM PDT  Most Americans now believe that President Trump will not accept the results of November's election if he loses to Joe Biden, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — and an even larger majority of Trump voters say they, too, will refuse to accept a narrow loss if mail-in ballots contribute to Biden's victory.
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| Jim Jordan tries and fails to get Fauci to say protesters should be arrested for gathering during pandemic Posted: 31 Jul 2020 09:45 AM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci wants to make it clear he's got nothing to do with the justice system.Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared before Congress on Friday for a hearing on the federal government's coronavirus response. That's where Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who's been skeptical of restrictions meant to stem the virus' spread, tried to get Fauci to distinguish between protests against racism in the U.S. and bans on businesses reopening amid the pandemic.Because science indicates crowds exacerbate the spread of coronavirus, Jordan asked Fauci on Friday if the government "should limit the protests." "I'm not in a position to determine what the government should do in a forceful way," Fauci responded. So Jordan kept pressing: "The government is stopping people from going to church," claiming that's something "the five liberals" on the Supreme Court had decided. But Fauci continued holding out, saying he does not "judge one crowd versus another crowd" and would not "opine on who should get arrested or not. That's not my position."Jordan then went so far as to claim Fauci had said "protests increase the spread" of coronavirus. "I said crowds, I didn't say specifically, I didn't say protests or anything, " Fauci firmly responded. "You're putting words in my mouth," Fauci continued before saying he had no data showing the nationwide protests had spread the virus. Watch the whole exchange below. > Rep. Jordan: So, you're allowed to protest, millions of people in crowds...but you try to run your business and you get arrested?> > Dr. Fauci: I don't understand what you're asking me, as a public health official, to opine on who should get arrested or not. That's not my position pic.twitter.com/fAZEqbLz5q> > -- CBS News (@CBSNews) July 31, 2020More stories from theweek.com Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez picked the wrong statue to criticize Is Western Europe losing its grip on the coronavirus? Democratic congressman calls out maskless GOP colleagues after positive coronavirus test
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| "There's a complete disconnect": Florida's school digital divide Posted: 31 Jul 2020 12:30 PM PDT  With school set to restart in the coming weeks, education leaders and local stakeholders have had to assess the internet and technological gaps facing students who can't afford technology or live outside of the range of internet connectivity.
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| A DHS intelligence report showed the department had collected and analyzed messages between Portland protesters, a new report says Posted: 31 Jul 2020 06:47 PM PDT  The DHS report included protesters' communications via the Telegram messaging app, discussing where to take the protests and how to avoid officers.
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| Ex-Weinstein Attorney Lisa Bloom Loses Money Grab in Autistic Kid’s Settlement Posted: 31 Jul 2020 01:45 PM PDT  A federal magistrate on Friday denied attorneys' fees to camera-ready victims' rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, who had tried to block a multimillion-dollar settlement for a sexually abused autistic teenager who was briefly Bloom's client.San Francisco-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler instead invalidated Bloom's lien on the settlement from the West Contra Costa Unified School District and awarded $2,250,000—a figure which includes costs and attorneys' fees—to "Brennon B.," a severely disabled student who was repeatedly sexually assaulted on school property by fellow special needs students and a staff member."In light of the benefits that the plaintiff has received in the litigation…the court finds that the settlement is reasonable and that the attorney's fees are reasonable and appropriate," Beeler ruled, while denying Bloom's request to maintain her lien on just the attorneys' fees.Former Harvey Weinstein Attorney Lisa Bloom, Angling for a Hefty Payday, Now Faces Fraud AllegationsBrennon B.'s longtime attorney, Micha Star Liberty, who had a joint venture agreement with Bloom to assist with the case for seven months until Bloom abruptly withdrew in late March 2020, had alleged in court filings that The Bloom Firm had violated terms of the agreement and forged documents and signatures in an unjustified money grab."My client and I are pleased with the court's ruling," Liberty told The Daily Beast, referring to Brennon B. and his mother and legal guardian, Bellinda B. "Lisa Bloom has shown once again that all she cares about is money, and will do anything to get it, including calling the mother of her own former client, a special needs sexual assault victim, a liar in a publicly filed document. Through her disparaging words and her attempt to profit by fraud, her lack of moral compass has yet again been revealed to the world through her own unethical actions." The Bloom Firm, in a statement that said it was "pleased that Brennon B. will receive his portion of the settlement and the justice he deserves," fired back: "This is and has always been an attorney's fees dispute between The Bloom Firm and Liberty Law, that should never have included the clients... Ms. Liberty has gone to great lengths to avoid paying money she is contractually obligated to pay, even using her own clients as pawns, despite knowing that The Bloom Firm's lien could not and would not affect the client's portion. Ms. Liberty also appears intent on using the media to defame and ridicule Ms. Bloom. The Bloom Firm will not stoop to Ms. Liberty's level and has no further comment on her or this matter."Friday's ruling—which is expected to cause the settlement payment to be disbursed by next week—is likely a bad omen for Bloom's attempt to collect a hefty slice of a second multimillion-dollar settlement, also won by Liberty.In that case, "I.V.," a 7-year-old autistic girl, sued the Vacaville Unified School District after her physical and emotional abuse by a school bus driver was caught on video and received intense media coverage.Bloom, whose feminist reputation suffered a massive blow with revelations that she had been secretly helping convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein trash his accusers, has until midnight Friday to file a motion to Sacramento-based U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller.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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| 14 photos of the low key Hajj: Only 10,000 Muslim pilgrims in face masks made it to Mecca this year. Posted: 01 Aug 2020 01:59 AM PDT  Attendance was limited to people already residing in Saudi Arabia. Usually, 2.5 million Muslims from across the world pack the holy city.
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| Crashed plane packed with cocaine was bound for Australia, police say Posted: 01 Aug 2020 09:02 AM PDT  The overloaded plane - which had over 500kg of cocaine on board - crashed shortly after take-off.
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| DC releases police footage from 2018 deaths of 3 Black men Posted: 31 Jul 2020 02:33 PM PDT  Under pressure from the D.C. Council, Washington's Metropolitan Police Department on Friday released long-sought body camera and security footage from the 2018 deaths of three young Black men in 2018. The release was compelled by an emergency police reform bill that Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized as rushed. "The council has determined that this is the statute, that's the law of the land and we're going to abide by it," said MPD Chief Peter Newsham.
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| Top Trump immigration enforcer announces retirement as election nears Posted: 31 Jul 2020 07:36 AM PDT  U.S. President Donald Trump's top immigration enforcement official on Friday announced he will retire from the agency, a staffing shakeup in a key policy area for Trump as he faces re-election in November. Matthew Albence, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a statement that his plan to retire had been prolonged by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has created challenges for ICE operations both in the field and in immigration detention centers, where nearly 4,000 immigrants have tested positive for the disease.
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| New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Majority of Democrats want Biden to pick a Black woman for vice president Posted: 31 Jul 2020 10:49 AM PDT  As Joe Biden prepares to announce his vice presidential pick, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll finds that most Democrats believe he should tap a Black woman to join him on the ticket.
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| China Says It Has Completed a Navigation Network That Could Rival the U.S. GPS Posted: 31 Jul 2020 01:14 AM PDT  While China says it seeks cooperation with other satellite navigation systems, Beidou could ultimately compete against GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo networks
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