| Senators blast Trump administration for coronavirus response Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:15 PM PST  Top officials in the Trump administration struggled on Tuesday morning to justify their response to the growing threat of the coronavirus, which has sickened at least 80,423 people around the world and killed at least 2,712.
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| Louisiana governor: Judge should resign after racial slurs Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:38 AM PST |
| Bloomberg once said Social Security is a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff's Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:22 PM PST  Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg twice compared Social Security to a Ponzi scheme when he was in office, CNN reports, which is a far cry from his current stance as a Democratic presidential candidate.Nowadays, Bloomberg has vowed to to strengthen entitlement programs, but he used to see them as a major hurdle in the effort to shrink the United States' deficit. During appearances on his old radio program "Live from City Hall," which were reviewed by CNN's KFile, Bloomberg made the Ponzi scheme comparison once in 2006 and again in 2009. The latter instance was in relation to Bernie Madoff, who was arrested in December 2008 and later pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme."I don't know if Bernie Madoff got his idea from there, but if there's ever a Ponzi Scheme, people say Madoff was the biggest? Wrong," Bloomberg said. "Social Security is, far and away."Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Bloomberg, attempted to explain Bloomberg's comments to CNN. "The Social Security Administration itself gives out detailed actuarial tables on when and how payments will exceed income, and the issue needs attention because we're running the cushion between them down," he said. "Mike believes that between now and that time, we will need to boost receipts by raising contributions from those who can best afford it, which is what he'll do as president." Read more at CNN.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| Supreme Court tosses D.C. sniper case after change in Virginia law Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:21 PM PST  The Supreme Court heard arguments in Lee Boyd Malvo's case in October.
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| Iran to Sentence Citizens Who “Spreads Rumors” about Coronavirus to Flogging, Three Years in Prison Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:37 PM PST  An Iranian parliament spokesman on Wednesday announced that anyone found to be "spreading rumors" about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak will be sentenced to one-to-three years in prison and flogging, Iran state news agency IRNA reported."Spreading fake news over coronavirus outbreak will people panic. It also will pave the ground for the country's shutdown," said Hassan Norouzi, spokesman for the parliament's legal and judicial committee, in comments translated by the Tehran Times.Norouzi said the prison sentence and flogging is based on "on the Islamic penal code," and 24 people have been arrested already on suspicion of "spreading rumors" about the illness.Iran has reported 139 cases of coronavirus infections throughout the country, with an epicenter in the city of Qom, a destination for Shi'ite Muslim religious pilgrims. Nineteen Iranians have died from the illness so far, and the country has the highest number of cases in the Middle East. While officials have recommended that citizens not visit Qom, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that the government does not plan to quarantine entire cities, only infected individuals."Coronavirus must not be turned into a weapon for our enemies to halt work and production in our country," Rouhani said.On Tuesday Iranian deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi announced that he had contracted coronavirus. In a video taken at his home, Harirchi attempted to reassure viewers, saying "I will certainly defeat corona."Harirchi was filmed a day earlier on state television to announce that the country's outbreak was under control, visibly sweating and wiping his face with a handkerchief.
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| Boom: The Army Just Invented a Newer, Deadlier Artillery Round Posted: 25 Feb 2020 08:50 AM PST  That's going to ruin somebody's day.
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| South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof staged death row hunger strike Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:53 PM PST  White supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof staged a hunger strike this month while on federal death row, alleging in letters to The Associated Press that he's been "targeted by staff," "verbally harassed and abused without cause" and "treated disproportionately harsh."
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| South Carolina's black voters are a powerful bloc. And some just want Trump gone. Posted: 25 Feb 2020 03:48 PM PST  Black voters will cast up to two-thirds of the ballots in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 29.
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| Mexico president ties shootout dead to drug consumption Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:42 PM PST  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador suggested Wednesday without offering evidence that most of those who die in Mexico's cartel- and gang-fueled firefights are high on drugs or intoxicated, prompting criticism and questions about whether the claim was accurate. Speaking to journalists in his morning news conference, López Obrador said rising drug consumption rates must be reversed if the country is to guarantee peace and security after years of rising, record-setting homicide statistics. "Just so you have the number, 60% of those who lose their life each day, 60% of those killed in clashes, it is shown that they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but primarily drugs," the president continued.
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| Bloomberg accidentally claims to have 'bought' the 2018 midterm results Posted: 25 Feb 2020 05:59 PM PST  The billionaire former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has been slammed by his Democratic primary opponents for allegedly "buy[ing] his way into the debate[s]." On Tuesday night, he nearly admitted to buying a whole lot more than just that.The Freudian slip came as Bloomberg was bragging about spending $100 million in the 2018 midterm elections to back 21 of the 40 Democrats who were elected to the House. "All of the new Democrats that came in, put Nancy Pelosi in charge, and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bought — I got them," Bloomberg said, quickly correcting himself.> "I bough-- I got them" -- a Freudian slip from Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/tE9ANV711D> > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 26, 2020Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign, the most expensive in presidential history; he broke the $500 million mark in ad spending on Monday. Read more about the former mayor's possible attempts to "buy an election" here at The Week.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| Iran’s Incompetent Response to Coronavirus Threatens the Middle East and the World Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:32 PM PST  The Iranian government has covered up an outbreak of coronavirus that now threatens the Middle East and has led to border closures and hospitalizations in five countries. Over the weekend of February 21, president Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian officials downplayed the growing crises as Iran's death toll from the virus climbed. It is now apparent that the regime, which has threatened the region with ballistic missiles, drones, naval mines, and militias over the last few years, has become a health threat as well, as it incubates a potential pandemic. The coronavirus has likely traveled from China to Iran's city of Qom along the same route that pilgrims and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses to travel, illustrating the regime's disregard for its own citizens and neighbors.It all began with Iran's wanting to show the world it had higher turnout at recent elections. Iranian member of parliament Mahmoud Sadeghi called on officials to take the coronavirus seriously during elections, and alleged that the government was hiding the outbreak of the contagious virus last week. Instead, Iran's regime kept the extent of the spread of the virus under wraps, keeping it off the homepages of major local media. Turkish officials also warned last week that there were 750 coronavirus cases in Iran, and that it had spread from the religious city of Qom to other regions. Yet Iran's deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi downplayed fears on Monday, claiming rumors of 50 deaths were false. Now Haririchi and Sadeghi are both sick, and Iran's death toll is the second-worst for the virus, after China itself.Iran's failure to confront the health crises is not just due to the regime's authoritarianism. China has fought the virus with authoritarian quarantining of Wuhan. Instead, it is the regime's preexisting arrogance, conspiracy-minded behavior, and siege mentality that led to its discounting an emerging crisis and enabled Shi'ite pilgrims traveling to Qom from all over the world to continue praying together and traveling without checks, becoming incubators of the virus. People returning from Iran have spread the virus across the Gulf to Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman. They have returned to Najaf, a holy city in Iraq, where dozens are now under observation.Iran couldn't have chosen a worse time in the Middle East to do this. Countries such as Iraq are beset by protests and uncertainty, with Iraq specifically lacking a new government and threatened by ISIS resurgence. The Gulf already has one crisis between Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is economically on edge due to serving as a transport hub linked to global trade amid all this. China's coronavirus has spooked markets, and Iran is adding to the disaster.The Iranian regime has mocked coronavirus as similar to the flu in recent comments. And it has weaponized the tragedy to use it against U.S. sanctions by claiming that, like the sanctions, it is overrated. Iran's government is using the Iranian people as a human shield, and their alleged lack of suffering from the virus as a propaganda tool. Yet ultimately, the virus may be more of a threat to Rouhani's government than he realizes. With officials sick, schools closed, and the military, police, and IRGC mobilized, the regime may find that propaganda won't cure this crisis. Iran's regime has survived using brutality, killing protesters last year, shooting down an airline this year, and blaming others for its problems while it seeks to attack Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. But Iran was unprepared for an epidemic, and its normal arsenal won't save it.Unfortunately for the Gulf, Iraq, and other countries, Iran's incubation is a threat to the world now. Its airlines, such as Mahan Air, have likely spread the virus to Lebanon and brought it from China. Mahan Air and other Iranian IRGC-linked firms have transported arms and operatives throughout the region. It wouldn't be a surprise if a similar route enabled the virus to spread unchecked. The regime's toxic blend of religion, militancy, and authoritarianism have come together in the worst possible way at the worst time in a fragile region.
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| Afghan government agrees to postpone Ghani inauguration: U.S. Posted: 25 Feb 2020 07:18 AM PST |
| The world's biggest iPhone maker has hired the scientist known as the 'SARS hero' to oversee its reopening as it resumes production Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:07 AM PST  Apple's main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, just hired the head of China's coronavirus investigation as an adviser.
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| Supreme Court rules Mexican parents can't sue Border Patrol agent who killed their son Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:05 AM PST  The ruling was a defeat for the parents of Sergio Hernandez Guereca, who was on the Mexico side when he was shot in 2010 by a Border Patrol agent who fired from the U.S. side.
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| Coronavirus: Disney World tells workers who traveled to Italy to stay home amid virus fears Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:19 PM PST  Walt Disney World instructed cast members who recently visited Italy to stay home following the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, officials confirmed.
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| CDC confirms first 'unknown' coronavirus case in California that could raise concerns about the threat of the virus Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:14 PM PST  The CDC on Wednesday confirmed an infection in California that would represent the first U.S. person to contract the virus from an "unknown" origin.
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| The Latest: Biden not worried about Trump refusing to leave Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:05 AM PST  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says he isn't worried about the prospect of President Donald Trump refusing to leave his post if he's defeated in November. "I have no worry about him being escorted out of the White House," Biden said on a CNN town hall Wednesday in Charleston. The former vice president smiled a bit at the voter's question about Trump but also lamented that such a thought "could be taken seriously" in the United States.
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| New cases of coronavirus in other countries exceeded those in China for the first time on Tuesday Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:28 AM PST  The coronavirus may be slowing down in China, but World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that it's no time for complacency.In a weekly briefing, Gehbreyesus had some good news about China, especially beyond the Hubei province, where the virus originated. There were reportedly only 10 new cases detected outside of Hubei on Tuesday. On the other hand, Tuesday was the first day in which the number of new cases in other countries exceeded the number in China, in large part because of rapid increases in countries like Iran, Italy, and South Korea. Outside of China, there are now 2,790 reported cases in 37 countries, and 44 deaths.Still, Gehbreyesus pointed out there's been progress in containing the virus' spread, as 14 of those countries haven't reported a new case in more than a week and nine haven't reported a new case in more than two weeks. Of course, that doesn't mean those countries are out of the woods, since more cases could eventually seep their way in, but it does signal the cases that had already made it to those countries have been contained. Read the rest of Gehbreyesus' address here.More stories from theweek.com Trump puts Pence in charge of coronavirus response Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity
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| A Florida woman is being accused of zipping her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him to die Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:21 AM PST  Sarah Boone, 42, claimed it was just an accident. But police saw troubling videos of her taunting him as he struggled to get out of the luggage.
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| Israeli Wants to Use Powerful Lasers to Cut Apart Iran's Missiles Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:07 PM PST  A new, improved defense system?
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| DOJ Creates New Unit to Strip Citizenship from Terrorists, Criminals Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:42 AM PST  The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a new unit to handle the denaturalization of individuals who obtained citizenship illegally and other criminals.The new section dedicated to "investigating and litigating revocation of naturalization" of individuals who illegally secured naturalization or committed other serious crimes will be under the Civil Division's Office of Immigration Litigation."This move underscores the Department's commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization," DOJ said in a statement announcing the new unit."When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system—and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals," Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said.U.S. citizens can be stripped of citizenship for a variety of reasons, including becoming affiliated with a terrorist organization or a totalitarian party like the Communist Party, or if it is discovered that the person was not eligible for naturalization in the first place. The U.S. may also revoke citizenship for lying about their identity or "deliberate deceit on the part of the person" regarding other relevant information such as their employment.In 2018, former Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna said his agency was hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to probe cases of individuals who were slated for deportation but later used fake identities to obtain citizenship through naturalization. Those cases would be referred to the DOJ, Cissna said at the time."We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," Cissna said. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."The U.S. started examining potentially fraudulent naturalization cases about a decade ago when a border official discovered 200 people who had been previously ordered deported but managed to obtain citizenship with false identities.The DOJ's move comes as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration, a priority for President Trump since the earliest days of his campaign.
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| South Korea is testing 200,000 members of a doomsday church linked to more than 60% of its coronavirus cases Posted: 25 Feb 2020 02:20 AM PST  It is the latest drastic step taken by authorities in South Korea, where more people have caught the coronavirus than any nation other than China.
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| Bloomberg girlfriend Diana Taylor on concerns over NDAs: 'Get over it...it was a bro culture' Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  The campaign later distanced itself from her comments after a "Women for Mike" rally in Texas.
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| Teacher who allegedly washed out student’s mouth with hand sanitiser receives 10-day suspension Posted: 25 Feb 2020 01:12 PM PST  A Florida middle school teacher has reportedly been suspended for putting hand sanitizer in a student's mouth after he wouldn't stop chatting during class.NBC News said Guyette Duhart, a science teacher at Polo Park Middle School in Wellington, allegedly admitted holding the bottle to the child's mouth after he kept talking in class, but she denied pumping the sanitiser, NBC News reported.
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| Cuba buys fuel shipment, vessel and all, due to US sanctions Posted: 26 Feb 2020 03:17 PM PST  Cuba purchased a shipment of oil -- and the vessel holding it -- as its owner refused to dock at the island nation over fears of violating US sanctions, the government said Wednesday. Authorities in Cuba -- which is facing a fuel shortage -- did not specify where the fuel or ship came from, nor when the purchase took place. "We have reached the point where we had to buy a ship near our shore -- buy the ship -- because the owner refused to dock with the fuel on board," Transport Minister Eduardo Rodriguez said.
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| Duterte says Philippines can survive without America Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:21 AM PST  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said Filipino forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defense of his recent decision to terminate a U.S. security pact.
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| China to Russia: End discriminatory coronavirus measures against Chinese Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:57 AM PST  China's embassy in Russia has demanded authorities in Moscow end what it said are discriminatory anti-coronavirus measures against Chinese nationals, saying they are damaging relations and alarming Chinese residents of the Russian capital. The complaint, detailed in an embassy letter to the city's authorities and published by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta late on Tuesday, deplored what it called "ubiquitous monitoring" of Chinese nationals, including on public transport in Moscow. Russia, which enjoys strong political and military ties with Beijing, does not currently have any confirmed cases of coronavirus, but has temporarily barred many categories of Chinese nationals from entering the country.
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| 7-year-old died 1 minute into tonsil surgery, says parents Posted: 26 Feb 2020 08:23 AM PST  Parents of a 7-year-old South Carolina girl said she died one minute into surgery to have her tonsils removed. Paisley Elizabeth Grace Cogsdill died Friday at a medical center in Greenwood, WHNS-TV reported. Family members said the girl snored in her sleep but was otherwise healthy.
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| This Unit Had Some of the Finest Marine Aces of World War II Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:30 AM PST  They won many medals.
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| Beijing’s Handling of Coronavirus Has Undermined Chinese Public’s Trust in State Media Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:51 AM PST  China's government is facing widespread criticism from its own citizens over its handling of the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus.Beijing has launched a massive propaganda campaign with stories of Chinese heroism in the struggle to contain the coronavirus, meant to unify the country's citizens behind the government. However, the government's efforts have faced scorn on Chinese social media, where citizens are openly complaining about the government's response to the crisis, New York Times reported Wednesday.The Times cited a blog post by a lawyer, Deng Xueping, excoriating the government over the coronavirus. Deng mentioned a story circulated on state media about a woman who was treated at a Wuhan hospital, but liked staying in the hospital so much that she didn't want to leave."When many patients in Wuhan were struggling to get treatment, our TV camera chose to turn to one happy outpatient," Deng wrote in the post. "By magnifying one individual's happiness while hiding the sufferings of most people there, it's hard to say such coverage was truthful about the epidemic."Some stories put out by state media are completely unbelievable. A newspaper in the city of Xi'an in central China was forced to retract a story detailing how a nurse's newborn twins asked their father where their mother had gone. The Times cited another Chinese newspaper which reported that another nurse's husband, who has been in a vegetative state since 2014, would smile whenever he "heard" his wife's name, "as if he knew that his wife was engaged in a great endeavor."There is also widespread anger over the government's initial condemnation of eight doctors who tried to warn others about the outbreak of the SARS-like illness in Wuhan in late December-early January, before the outbreak took hold in earnest. One of those doctors, Li Wenliang, tried to warn medical school friends of the illness.After Li was reprimanded by the local Wuhan government for spreading "rumors," he contracted the virus from a patient he did not know was infected. Li has since died.China has also changed its diagnostic criteria for the coronavirus multiple times, leading to confusion over the number of confirmed cases in the country. A health official from Hubei Provice, the epicenter of the outbreak, has accused the government of a lack of transparency and accuracy regarding its reporting of cases.
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| Followers of the doomsday church that is linked to South Korea's coronavirus outbreak were meeting in Wuhan until December Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:27 AM PST  About 200 Shincheonji members met in Wuhan and mostly ignored rumors of the virus that began to swirl as early as November, a churchgoer said.
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| The Trump administration is reportedly fighting over coronavirus spending Posted: 25 Feb 2020 07:53 AM PST  The coronavirus outbreak has sparked plenty of infighting and finger-pointing within the Trump administration, according to a new report.Politico on Tuesday reported that Trump officials including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and domestic policy chief Joe Grogan have "turned their fire" on Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar as he leads the administration's coronavirus response, feeling that he "poorly coordinated the strategy, failed to escalate the potential risks to Trump and pushed for a multibillion-dollar emergency-funding request that they initially viewed as extreme."This funding, in fact, had been a "major sticking point" between the White House and Azar before the administration ultimately sought $2.5 billion from Congress on Monday, Politico writes. In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the administration's request "long overdue" but "completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency," NBC News reports. Additionally, Politico reports, there was "finger-pointing and second-guessing for days" after 14 Americans with coronavirus were evacuated from a cruise ship recently. Amid all this consternation, Politico writes at least two of Azar's allies are now "worried that the secretary's job is at risk if the coronavirus response goes poorly."Speaking of worrying, Trump allies and advisers are reportedly fearful of how a "botched" response to the coronavirus could affect the economy, although Trump himself continues to downplay the crisis, tweeting on Monday that "the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA." More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity The Boston Globe endorses Elizabeth Warren. So does Ann Coulter, kind of. MSNBC's Chris Matthews hounds Warren on why she thinks Bloomberg is lying about telling a staffer to 'kill' her pregnancy
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| Whoopi Goes Off on Bernie’s Castro Remarks: ‘There’s Nothing Groovy About a Dictatorship!’ Posted: 25 Feb 2020 09:22 AM PST  The women of The View continued to rail against Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday, this time taking issue with the democratic socialist senator doubling down on his praise of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's literacy program."There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship," host Whoopi Goldberg exclaimed at one point.Sanders has come under fire, including by many Democrats, for telling 60 Minutes that it was "unfair" to say "everything is bad" with Castro's regime. Noting that he was opposed to the "authoritarian nature" of Castro's government, Sanders did commend the communist leader for launching a "massive literacy program.""Is that a bad thing?" Sanders wondered aloud. "Even though Fidel Castro did it?"After Sanders defended his comments in a Monday night CNN Town Hall— adding that "teaching people to read and write is a good thing"—the hosts of the ABC talk show all took turns blasting the Vermont lawmaker over his remarks.Liberal co-host Joy Behar expressed exasperation over Sanders' position, claiming he should have also said that Cuba is "an oppressive dictatorship" where the "quality of life is awful." (For his part, Sanders did say that he condemned the regime's imprisoning of political dissidents and that he'd been "extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world.")'Senator Sanders, I'm Sorry': Chris Matthews Apologizes for Nazi AnalogyConservative colleague Meghan McCain followed up by saying "this will not play well in Florida" if Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee, something co-host Sunny Hostin agreed with."That is not going to do well in Florida, a swing state for that Latino contingent," Hostin added. "They are not going to forgive him for this position.""It's a dictatorship," Goldberg shouted in response. "There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship!"McCain, meanwhile, insisted that Sanders offering praise of Castro or Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is "no different than saying Hitler was a good orator." "It's that insane," she shouted. "It's that bat-blank insane!"After Behar added a Mussolini reference for good measure, Goldberg brought it back around to comparing Sanders' remarks to one of President Donald Trump's most infamous moments."There's no way around that," the Oscar-winning actress stated. "This is as bad as you-know-who saying there were good people on both sides. It's the same thing."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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| Mother files complaint against formula producer after baby vomits worm Posted: 26 Feb 2020 06:44 AM PST  A French woman has filed a complaint against a baby formula manufacturer after her infant daughter allegedly vomited a parasitic worm the length of an adult index finger, police said Wednesday. The incident came after another family allegedly found a living larva in a container of the same milk powder brand, Gallia, manufactured by French firm Danone. Police in the northern region of Brittany told AFP the mother of a three-month-old child came in on Tuesday to file a complaint.
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| A record high: 1 in 10 eligible American voters are immigrants Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:06 AM PST  The number of immigrants eligible to vote has risen 93 percent — from 12 million in 2000 to 23.2 million in 2020.
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| Body cam captures 6-year-old's tearful pleas during arrest Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:03 AM PST  A police officer's body camera shows a 6-year-old Florida girl crying and begging officers not to arrest her as one fastens zip ties around her wrists at a charter school. The video that Kaia Rolle's family shared with the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets Monday shows the girl being arrested in September for kicking and punching staff members at her Orlando charter school. "What are those for?" Kaia asks about the zip ties in the video.
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| Ukraine Is Getting Stronger: What If It Could Take on Russia? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:59 PM PST  Or is that just silly?
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| Coronavirus: New York Mayor Bill De Blasio says self-quarantine of travelers is working Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:39 PM PST  At least 700 travelers who returned to New York from areas affected by coronavirus since Feb. 3 faced voluntary quarantine. Here's what that entails.
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| Mom of missing Idaho kids wants $5 million bail reduced Posted: 26 Feb 2020 04:59 AM PST  A mother arrested in Hawaii in connection with the disappearance of her two Idaho children wants a judge to reconsider her $5 million bail.
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| China just banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. Experts think the coronavirus jumped from live animals to people at a market. Posted: 25 Feb 2020 11:09 AM PST  Experts think the coronavirus jumped from animals to people in a market in Wuhan, China. Officials have now banned the wildlife trade nationwide.
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| Elizabeth Warren says Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand regularly check in on her Posted: 25 Feb 2020 12:16 PM PST  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is on good terms with some Democratic exes.While she can't claim to have raised thousands of dollars from ex-boyfriends, like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) can, Warren has remained quite friendly with several ex-Democratic presidential candidates. In an interview with NBC News, Warren said she's texted nature photos with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) shortly after he dropped out of the race, talked math with Andrew Yang, and kept in touch with former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, who has endorsed her run.But she says Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have particular insight into what NBC News calls the "loneliness" of the campaign trail, something Warren described as like "living in a movie that is running at high speed with everything coming so quickly.""Kamala and Kirsten, in particular, ask me am I getting rest? Am I eating? And am I having some fun out there?," said Warren of her fellow women candidates. "It's a very personal experience to run. Running for president can be thrilling but also very lonely," she said. "The candidate stands alone."Warren even got back in good graces with former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) after taking him down a few pegs in one of the first debates. Delaney said her call to wish him well after he dropped out was "quite lengthy and quite in-depth" and showed "she's not entirely self-absorbed. She actually listens."Read more about Warren's relationship with her ex-competitors at NBC News.More stories from theweek.com Harvard scientist predicts coronavirus will infect up to 70 percent of humanity Donald Trump tells biographer he's the same now as he was in first grade Is Bernie Sanders the Democrats' Goldwater, Reagan, or Trump?
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| Republicans look to drop domestic spying on U.S. phones, texts Posted: 25 Feb 2020 12:56 PM PST  U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday reacted skeptically to the Trump administration's request to continue a controversial but inactive domestic surveillance program that collects data on U.S. phone calls and text messages. U.S. Attorney William Barr, appearing at a luncheon with Senate Republicans, urged lawmakers to support a renewal of the National Security Agency program, along with less controversial measures due to expire next month as part of the USA Freedom Act, according to Republicans who attended the event.
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| Glenn Beck, Steve King Go Conspiracy Crazy Over DHS Official’s Death Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:20 AM PST  This week: * Right-wing pundit's death fuels conspiracy theories. * The_Donald's Reddit meme cache on its last legs. * It's CPAC time!* * *Pundit's death sparks new conspiracy theories* * *The death of a former Department of Homeland Security employee last week has caught the attention of prominent conspiracy theorists, who are pinning it on none other than Barack Obama's deep state agents. But so far, the people promoting the conspiracy theories—including Glenn Beck and Rep. Steve King (R-IA)—don't really have any evidence that the death is even a murder.On Friday, sheriff's deputies in Amador County, California, found the body of Philip Haney, a former DHS employee, near an RV stop. While Haney's death is still under investigation, a sheriff's press release said Haney had suffered a "self-inflicted" gunshot wound. Haney, 66, had been briefly famous on the right as a DHS "whistleblower" during the Obama administration, appearing at a congressional hearing and on Fox News to promote his claims that Obama officials had squashed his investigations into Islamic terrorism in the United States. Since then, Haney had claimed he was on a "special covert assignment" against prominent Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a prominent Muslim-American Democrat. Even as all the evidence around Haney's death points to a suicide, Trump allies in right-wing media and government were quick to claim he had been the victim of a sinister murder plot. On Twitter, King implied that Haney had been killed for speaking out against Obama. "He was a target because of all he knew of Islamic terrorist coverups," King wrote. "He insured his life by archiving data that incriminated the highest levels of the Obama administration. Phil Haney didn't kill himself."Fox News contributor Sara Carter tweeted that Haney had been "murdered." Glenn Beck, now fully done with his attempted NeverTrump transformation and sliding anew into the crazed blackboard-theorizing Beck of the past, made dark insinuations about Haney's demise too. "He didn't kill himself," Beck said, hunched over his microphone in a camouflage jacket. "No man who speaks like Philip Haney did goes off and kills himself."Of course, it's not unusual for a mysterious death to be folded into a broader conspiracy theory—with the still-unsolved July 2016 murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich as probably the most prominent recent example. But it's remarkable how fast prominent conservatives, including an elected official, have jumped to claiming that Haney had been killed in some elaborate murder plot. To a large degree, it reflects the mainstreaming of conspiracy theory thinking within the GOP and conservative media apparatuses. The Amador Sheriff's Office, suddenly thrust into a situation where columnists are calling for an independent Justice Department investigation into Haney's death, didn't respond to my requests for comment. On Monday, the sheriff said the FBI was investigating Haney's laptop. Haney's death already appears to have some staying power beyond the usual internet news cycle. There's already talk of a tantalizing stash of documents to drive viewers' imagination, akin to Rich's laptop or the deleted Hillary Clinton emails. In this case, it's a thumb-drive of super-secret files Beck claims Haney kept on a chain around his neck. On Monday, Beck claimed he would tap Haney's chest when he saw him to make sure the thumb-drive was still there. "I was feeling the thumb drive, because there were documents that he kept around his neck," Beck said. "I only know what a few of them were. I wonder if that thumb drive was found on the body." Want this in your inbox? sign up now!* * *Reddit memelords in winter* * *Reddit administrators are cracking down on the "The_Donald" subreddit, threatening the existence of what's become both the most prominent pro-Trump site on the internet and a reliable source of memes for Trump's Twitter feed.Reddit brass have been at odds with The_Donald for years and made the forum harder to find last June after users advocated for violence against police officers. On Tuesday, they went further, ousting some of the subreddit's moderators and declaring that new moderators will need to be "vetted" by Reddit administrators before they can run the forum. A Reddit spokesperson confirmed the moves in an email to me. "Reddit may intervene from time to time when moderators are consistently in violation of our Moderator Guidelines, which can include removing a user's moderator status," the email reads. The_Donald's users haven't taken this well, turning the subreddit, briefly, into a home for memes aimed at Reddit administrators rather than Democrats. All of this likely means that The_Donald's time on Reddit and its access to Reddit's massive user base will soon come to an end. This won't be the end of The_Donald as a pro-Trump internet community, though. Sensing that an outright ban is in the offing, The_Donald's administrators have already set up a fallback site called "TheDonald.Win" and are encouraging users to migrate over. While TheDonald.Win looks just like a subreddit, it's independently run—and thus beyond the control of Reddit's administrators. Still, other right-wing groups that have been kicked off Reddit have struggled to gain traction with their own Reddit-style sites. QAnon believers who moved to another Reddit knock-off after their own Reddit bans, for example, have struggled to attract anything like the kind of Reddit-level user numbers on their backup sites. * * *What to watch for at CPAC* * *I'm off to the Conservative Political Action Conference this week for the right's annual celebration of all things Trump. But as with every CPAC, many of the more interesting stories about the direction of the conservative movement are taking place on the conference's sidelines. CPAC should see the latest clash between the right's white nationalist "groypers"—allied with prominent columnist Michelle Malkin—and conservatism's more establishment elements, with the groypers holding a rival event nearby. CPAC seems to have taken a harsher line this year on credentialing right-wing characters—last year's ban on anti-Muslim activist turned congressional candidate Laura Loomer is apparently still in place, and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes had his application for media credentials denied. Meanwhile, hapless conservative smear artists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman will be somewhere near CPAC for their annual botched press conference. Their angle this time is that the Roger Stone jury was hopelessly biased against him, based on some juror questionnaires they got their hands on. From what I've seen so far, though, this is going to be a flop. For example, Burkman and Wohl are focusing on jurors who said they watch MSNBC and CNN as "proof" that the jury was biased.Even some events from within CPAC's confines at Maryland's National Harbor resort promise to really be something. Former Superman Dean Cain is staging a dramatic reading of the Peter Strzok/Lisa Page text messages. As one of the few people unlucky enough to have already seen this bit in person a few months ago in D.C., I can confirm that Cain's mugging is as squirm-inducing as you could imagine.And then, according to the schedule, there's a "definitive rap battle" between capitalism and socialism. I'll be tweeting through all of it! 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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| Court OKs Texas winner-take-all presidential elector system Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST  The winner-take-all system Texas and 47 other states use to assign Electoral College presidential votes is constitutional, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the Texas system. It was the latest defeat for organizations challenging such systems in Texas and three other states.
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| Hunter Biden Stalls On Child Support Deposition Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:29 PM PST  He really doesn't want to testify...
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