1223: Ogamacare

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Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:51

OPEC+ is no more, after a torrid 24 hours in which Russia overturned the balance of power in the oil world, leaving the members of OPEC+ dazed and confused, shocking Saudi which now faces social unrest with the price of oil far below Riyadh's budget, and - in a repeat of the Thanksgiving 2014 OPEC massacre - sending oil prices plunging by the most since the financial crisis.

And now, Bloomberg has the stunning backstory behind Friday's announcement that Russia is quitting its output deal with OPEC and its allies, after last week's Vienna summit meant to back a proposal by oil producers to cut output collapsed, causing a 10% plunge in oil prices, with some markets seeing their biggest one-day falls since the financial crisis.

Driving a stake right through the heart of his former OPEC colleagues, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that "considering the decision taken today, from April 1 of this year onwards, neither we nor any OPEC or non-OPEC country is required to make (oil) output cuts."

With global fears over coronavirus already severely impacting the oil market (down 30% since the start of the year), and with the Russians surprising oil ministers gathered at OPEC headquarters by suddenly abandoning a plan meant to keep oil prices steady, the biggest shock was felt by the Saudis, because as Bloomberg puts it, Putin has just effectively dumped crown prince MbS to start a war on America's shale oil industry:

Alexander Novak told his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman that Russia was unwilling to cut oil production further. The Kremlin had decided that propping up prices as the coronavirus ravaged energy demand would be a gift to the U.S. shale industry. The frackers had added millions of barrels of oil to the global market while Russian companies kept wells idle. Now it was time to squeeze the Americans.

After five hours of polite but fruitless negotiation, in which Russia clearly laid out its strategy, the talks broke down. Oil prices fell more than 10%. It wasn't just traders who were caught out: Ministers were so shocked, they didn't know what to say, according to a person in the room. The gathering suddenly had the atmosphere of a wake, said another.

Heading into Friday's critical session, OPEC had been pushing for an additional 1.5 million barrels per day of cuts, reducing production by 3.6% of the world's total supply, which would have required Russia and other non-OPEC states (but mostly Russia) to contribute 500,000 bpd to the extra cut.

Mohammed bin Salman and Vladimir Putin, file image via AFP/Getty Images.Bloomberg quotes Russian state-run think tank Institute of World Economy and International Relations president Alexander Dynkin as saying, "The Kremlin has decided to sacrifice OPEC+ to stop U.S. shale producers and punish the U.S. for messing with Nord Stream 2."

"Of course, to upset Saudi Arabia could be a risky thing, but this is Russia's strategy at the moment '' flexible geometry of interests," Dynkin added, but what he really meant is flexible budgets, because unlike the rest of OPEC+, "Russia's budget is better prepared for lower oil than six years ago." As such, the Kremlin can now sit back and wait as one after another OPEC nation gets "Venezuela'ed", and its production permanently taken offline amid social unrest, resulting in far lower long-term output.

The ultimate target, of course, is US shale - drag the price of oil low enough for long enough, and Russia may just succeed where Saudi Arabia failed in 2014, after shale - funded generously by junk bonds - not only survived the great oil price crash of 2014/2015, but has since reached record output. But new storm clouds are coming out...

Meanwhile, it is unclear what's next for Russia's diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia: Putin's cultivation of deep engagement with the OPEC+ coalition over the past three years is what helped cement a bond with Saudi Arabia's leader MbS.

But now it seems Riyadh's more powerful ally the United States is pushing Russia into a position of seeing itself as 'forced' to react at an opportune moment of extremely heightened market sensitivity, given Washington's recent crippling Nord Stream 2 sanctions and measures against Russian state-oil giant Rosneft.

Consider Friday payback.

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Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:53

With the commodity world still smarting from the Nov 2014 Saudi decision to (temporarily) break apart OPEC, and flood the market with oil in (failed) hopes of crushing US shale producers (who survived thanks to generous banks extending loan terms and even more generous buyers of junk bonds), which nonetheless resulted in a painful manufacturing recession as the price of Brent cratered as low as the mid-$20's in late 2015/early 2016, on Saturday, Saudi Arabia launched its second scorched earth, or rather scorched oil campaign in 6 years. And this time there will be blood.

Following Friday's shocking collapse of OPEC+, when Russia and Riyadh were unable to reach an agreement during the OPEC+ summit in Vienna which was seeking up to 1.5 million b/d in further oil production cuts, on Saturday Saudi Arabia kick started what Bloomberg called an all-out oil war, slashing official pricing for its crude and making the deepest cuts in at least 20 years on its main grades, in an effort to push as many barrels into the market as possible.

In the first major marketing decision since the meeting, the Saudi state producer Aramco, which successfully IPOed just before the price of oil cratered...

... launched unprecedented discounts and cut its April pricing for crude sales to Asia by $4-$6 a barrel and to the U.S. by a whopping $7 a barrel in attempts to steal market share from 3rd party sources, according to a copy of the announcement seen by Bloomberg. In the most significant move, Aramco widened the discount for its flagship Arab Light crude to refiners in north-west Europe by a hefty $8 a barrel, offering it at $10.25 a barrel under the Brent benchmark. In contrast, Urals, the Russian flagship crude blend, trades at a discount of about $2 a barrel under Brent. Traders said the Saudi move was a direct attack at the ability of Russian companies to sell crude in Europe.

Confirming the obvious, Iman Nasseri, managing director for the Middle East at oil consultant FGE said "Saudi Arabia is now really going into a full price war."

The draconian cuts in monthly pricing by state prouder Saudi Aramco are the first and clearest indication of how the Saudis will respond to the break up of the alliance between OPEC and Russia, which as we noted earlier, dumped MbS on Friday in a stunning reversal within OPEC+. Talks in Vienna ended in dramatic failure on Friday as Saudi Arabia's gamble to get Russia to agree to a prolonged and deeper cut failed to pay off.

And the second indication that the OPEC oil cartel is now effectively dead, came a few hours later when Bloomberg again reported that in addition to huge price cuts, Saudi Arabia was set to flood the market with a glut of oil to steal market share and capitalize on its just announced massive price cuts as the kingdom plans to increase oil output next month, going well above 10 million barrels a day.

In addition to slashing prices, Saudi Arabia has privately told some market participants it could raise production much higher if needed, even going to a record of 12 million barrels a day, according to Bloomberg sources.

But before hitting a stunning 12mmb/d, Saudi production will first rise above 10 million barrels a day in April, from about 9.7 millions a day this month: "That's the oil market equivalent of a declaration of war," an unnamed commodities hedge fund manager said.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg correctly notes, "with demand being ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak, opening the taps like that would throw oil market into chaos."

According to preliminary estimates, with Brent trading at $45, a flood of Saudi supply as demand is in freefall, could send oil into the $20s if not teens, in a shock move lower as speculators puke on long positions in what Goldman calls periodically a "negative convexity" event.

Oil traders are looking to historical charts for an indication of how low prices could go. One potential target is $27.10 a barrel, reached in 2016 during the last price war. But some believe the market could go even lower.

What is the logic behind the Saudi decision?

According to one take, the shock-and-awe Saudi strategy could be an attempt to impose maximum pain in the quickest possible way to both Russia and other producers, most notably shale, in an effort to bring them back to the negotiating table, and then quickly reverse the production surge and start cutting output if a deal is achieved.

While that's certainly possible, it has already been tried once - back in 2014/2015 - and the result was humiliation for Riyadh as not only shale came out stronger, but Russia had no problems absorbing the lower prices. Instead, the most likely outcome is that Russia will be able to withstand a shock price far longer than Saudi Arabia, which has budgeted for a Brent price of $58/b for 2020 (which would lead to a 6.4% budget deficit). A realized price which is roughly half that - should the Saudi strategy work out as planned - would lead to social unrest and government turmoil in Saudi Arabia, and may explain why earlier today Saudi crown prince MbS launched another crackdown on dozens of royals and army officers following the arrest of powerful princes, who may compete for the throne once the public mood in Saudi Arabia turns nasty in the coming weeks.

Incidentally, those wondering what is the worst case scenario for oil prices, consider that Brent traded at an all time low of $9.55 a barrel in December 1998, during one of the rare price wars that Saudi Arabia has launched over the last 40 years... similar to just now.

Could the price drop even lower now? Yes: back then there was no coronavirus pandemic destroying global oil demand.

One final point: with 10Y Breakevens driven almost entirely by the price of oil...

... once Brent craters on Monday to the mid-$30s or lower, the accompanying implosion in 10Y yields could make the record plunge in yields seen on Friday a dress rehearsal for what could be the biggest VaR shock of all time. And since QE will only send yields even lower, perhaps it's time for the Fed to add oil futures to stocks among the expanded securities it plans on purchasing as part of QE-5 to avert the next deflationary crisis which may have just started.

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 07:51

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That request triggered the Jan. 14 notice the technology giant sent to McCoy, part of its general policy on notifying users about government requests for their information. The notice was McCoy's only indication that police wanted his data.

Gainesville police declined to comment.

While privacy and civil liberties advocates have been concerned that geofence warrants violate constitutional protections from unreasonable searches, law enforcement authorities say those worries are overblown. They say police don't obtain any identifying information about a Google user until they find a device that draws their suspicion. And the information alone is not enough to justify charging someone with a crime, they say.

Google geofence warrants have been used by police agencies around the country, including the FBI. Google said in a court filing last year that the requests from state and federal law enforcement authorities were increasing rapidly: by more than 1,500 percent from 2017 to 2018, and by 500 percent from 2018 to 2019.

''It's a great tool and a great technology,'' said Kevin Armbruster, a retired lieutenant with the Milwaukee Police Department, where he oversaw the use of high-tech investigative work, including geofence warrants.

Milwaukee police have used Google geofence warrants to solve an array of crimes, including homicides, shootings, a string of robberies and kidnappings and a sexual assault involving an abduction, he said. ''I would think the majority of citizens in the world would love the fact that we are putting violent offenders in jail,'' Armbruster said.

There have been very few court challenges to Google geofence warrants, mainly because the warrants are done in secret and defense lawyers may not realize the tool was used to identify their clients. One exception is an accused bank robber in Midlothian, Virginia, who is fighting the charge by arguing the geofence warrant used against him was illegal. That case is pending.

'You're looking at the wrong guy'Once McCoy realized his bike ride had placed him near the scene of the crime, he had a strong theory of why police had picked his device out of all the others swept up by the warrant. He and Kenyon set out to keep them from getting any more information about him '-- and persuade them that he was innocent.

Kenyon said he got on the phone with the detective on the case and told him, ''You're looking at the wrong guy.''

For most of his life, McCoy said, he had tried to live online anonymously, a habit that dated to the early days of the internet when there was less expectation that people would use their real names. He used pseudonyms on his social media accounts and the email account that Google used to notify him about the police investigation.

But until then, he hadn't thought much about Google collecting information about him.

''I didn't realize that by having location services on that Google was also keeping a log of where I was going,'' McCoy said. ''I'm sure it's in their terms of service but I never read through those walls of text, and I don't think most people do either.''

Just before the start of his ordeal, he'd listened to a call-in radio debate about the Department of Justice's fight with Apple over access to an iPhone left by a Saudi national who'd gunned down several people at an air base in Pensacola, Florida, in December. He remembered some callers saying they had no problem with law enforcement having access to phone data, arguing that people had nothing to worry about as long as they didn't break the law. Now McCoy thought the callers weren't considering predicaments like his.

''If you're innocent, that doesn't mean you can't be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like going on a bike ride in which your GPS puts you in a position where police suspect you of a crime you didn't commit,'' McCoy said.

On Jan. 31, Kenyon filed a motion in Alachua County civil court to render the warrant ''null and void'' and to block the release of any further information about McCoy, identifying him only as ''John Doe.'' At that point, Google had not turned over any data that identified McCoy but would have done so if Kenyon hadn't intervened. Kenyon argued that the warrant was unconstitutional because it allowed police to conduct sweeping searches of phone data from untold numbers of people in order to find a single suspect.

That approach, Kenyon said, flipped on its head the traditional method of seeking a search warrant, in which police target a person they already suspect.

''This geofence warrant effectively blindly casts a net backwards in time hoping to ensnare a burglar,'' Kenyon wrote. ''This concept is akin to the plotline in many a science fiction film featuring a dystopian, fascist government.''

Cleared by the same dataThe filing seemed to give law enforcement authorities second thoughts about the warrant. Not long afterward, Kenyon said, a lawyer in the state attorney's office assigned to represent the Gainesville Police Department told him there were details in the motion that led them to believe that Kenyon's client was not the burglar. The state attorney's office withdrew the warrant, asserting in a court filing that it was no longer necessary. The office did not respond to a request for comment.

Kenyon said that in a visit to his office, the detective acknowledged that police no longer considered his client a suspect.

On Feb. 24, Kenyon dropped his legal challenge.

The case ended well for McCoy, Kenyon said, but ''the larger privacy fight will go unanswered.''

Even then, Kenyon wanted to make sure police didn't have lingering doubts about McCoy, whom they still knew only as ''John Doe.'' So he met with the detective again and showed him screenshots of his client's Google location history, including data recorded by RunKeeper. The maps showed months of bike rides past the burglarized home.

In the end, the same location data that raised police suspicions of McCoy also helped to vindicate him, Kenyon said. ''But there was no knowing what law enforcement was going to do with that data when they got it behind closed doors. Not that I distrust them, but I wouldn't trust them not to arrest someone.''

He pointed to an Arizona case in which a man was mistakenly arrested and jailed for murder largely based on Google data received from a geofence warrant.

McCoy said he may have ended up in a similar spot if his parents hadn't given him several thousand dollars to hire Kenyon.

He regrets having to spend that money. He also thinks about the elderly burglary victim. Police said they have not made any arrests.

''I'm definitely sorry that happened to her, and I'm glad police were trying to solve it,'' McCoy said. ''But it just seems like a really broad net for them to cast. What's the cost-benefit? How many innocent people do we have to harass?''

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 10:43

RCMP in Langley, British Columbia, announced this week distracted driving remains a real problem on Lower Mainland streets, as Provincial Distracted Driving Enforcement Day on March 3, resulted in over $15,000 in fines and penalties in five hours.

Langley Traffic Services said two separate operations spent five hours on a distracted driving blitz, at Highway 10 at Glover Road and 64 Avenue at 200 Street. The RCMP utilized an undercover officer on foot and another on a bicycle to catch drivers using their cellphones while driving their vehicles.

The five hour distracted driving blitz resulted in 27 violation tickets for distracted drivers, with over $15,000 in fines and penalties.According to Langley RCMP, none of the violation tickets were the result of an accident, but the ''potential for disaster was very real,'' citing how about 1 in 4 fatal crashes on roads in the province are related to driver distraction.

In B.C., your first distracted driving ticket results in a $368 fine, along with four driver demerit points on your driving record. Drivers with four demerits or higher at the end of a 12-month period need to pay a penalty point premium, which begins at $252 and increases with every additional demerit point accumulated, with a chance of paying an additional driver risk premium.

Apple launched Do Not Disturb While Driving in iOS 11 and it aims to help curb distracted driving, preventing messages, calls and notifications from appearing while you're detected driving or when your iPhone is connected to CarPlay.

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Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:40

While smartphones, smart homes and even smart wearables are growing ever more advanced, they're still limited by power. The battery hasn't advanced in decades. But we're on the verge of a power revolution.

Big technology and car companies are all too aware of the limitations of lithium-ion batteries. While chips and operating systems are becoming more efficient to save power we're still only looking at a day or two of use on a smartphone before having to recharge.

While it may be some time before we get a week's life out of our phones, development is progressing well. We've collected all the best battery discoveries that could be with us soon, from over the air charging to super-fast 30-second re-charging. Hopefully, you'll be seeing this tech in your gadgets soon.

Upcoming phones: The future smartphones of 2019 Monash University Lithium-sulphur batteries could outperform Li-Ion, have lower environmental impactMonash University researchers have developed a lithium-sulphur battery that can power a smartphone for 5 days, outperforming lithium-ion. The researchers have fabricated this battery, have patents and the interest of manufacturers. The group has funding for further research in 2020, saying that continued research into cars and grid use will continue.

The new battery technology is said to have a lower environmental impact than lithium-ion and lower manufacturing costs, while offering the potential to power a vehicle for 1000km (620 miles), or a smartphone for 5 days.

IBM's battery is sourced from sea water and out-performs lithium-ionIBM Research is reporting that it has discovered a new battery chemistry that is free from heavy metals like nickel and cobalt and could potentially out-perform lithium-ion. IBM Research says that this chemistry has never been used in combination in a battery before and that the materials can be extracted from seawater.

The performance of the battery is promising, with IBM Research saying that it can out-perform lithium-ion in a number of different areas - it's cheaper to manufacture, it can charge faster than lithium-ion and can pack in both higher power and energy densities. All this is available in a battery with low flammability of the electrolytes.

IBM Research points out that these advantages will make its new battery technology suitable for electric vehicles, and it is working with Mercedes-Benz amongst others to develop this technology into a viable commercial battery.

Panasonic Panasonic battery management system While lithium-ion batteries are everywhere and growing in use cases, the management of those batteries, including determining when those batteries have reached the end of their life is difficult. Panasonic, working with Professor Masahiro Fukui of Ritsumeikan University, has come up with a new battery management technology that will make it a lot easier monitor batteries and determine the residual value of lithium-ion in them.

Panasonic says that its new technology can be easily applied with a change to the battery management system, which will make it easier to monitor and evaluate batteries with multiple stacked cells, the sort of thing you might find in an electric car. Panasonic that this system will help the drive towards sustainability by being able to better manage reuse and recycling of lithium-ion batteries.

Asymmetric temperature modulationResearch has demonstrated a charging method that takes us a step closer to extreme fast charging - XFC - which aims to deliver 200 miles of electric car range in about 10 minutes with 400kW charging. One of the issues with charging is Li plating in batteries, so the asymmetric temperature modulation method charges at a higher temperature to reduce plating, but limits that to 10 minutes cycles, avoiding solid-electrolyte-interphase growth, which can reduce battery life. The method is reported to reduce battery degradation while allowing XFC charging.

Pocket-lint Sand battery gives three times more battery lifeThis alternative type of lithium-ion battery uses silicon to achieve three times better performance than current graphite li-ion batteries. The battery is still lithium-ion like the one found in your smartphone, but it uses silicon instead of graphite in the anodes.

Scientists at the University of California Riverside have been focused on nano silicon for a while, but it's been degrading too quickly and is tough to produce in large quantities. By using sand it can be purified, powdered then ground with salt and magnesium before being heated to remove oxygen resulting in pure silicon. This is porous and three-dimensional which helps in performance and, potentially, the life-span of the batteries. We originally picked up on this research in 2014 and now it's coming to fruition.

Silanano is a battery tech startup that's bringing this technique to market and has seen big investment from companies like Daimler and BMW. The company say that its solution can be dropped into existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing, so it's set for scalable deployment, promising 20 per cent battery performance boost now, or 40 per cent in the near future.

Capturing energy from Wi-FiWhile wireless inductive charging is common, being able to capture energy from Wi-Fi or other electromagnetic waves remains a challenge. A team of researchers, however, has developed a rectenna (radio wave harvesting antenna) that is only several atoms think, making it incredibly flexible.

The idea is that devices can incorporate this molybdenum disulphide-based rectenna so that AC power can be harvested from Wi-Fi in the air and converted to DC, either to recharge a battery or power a device directly. That could see powered medical pills without the need for an internal battery (safer for the patient), or mobile devices that don't need to be connected to a power supply to recharge.

Energy harvested from the device ownerYou could be the source of power for your next device, if research into TENGs comes to fruition. A TENG - or triboelectric nanogenerator - is a power harvesting technology which captures the electric current generated through contact of two materials.

A research team at Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute and the University of Surrey have given an insight into how this technology might be put into place to power things like wearable devices. While we're some way from seeing it in action, the research should give designers the tools they need to effectively understand and optimise future TENG implementation.

Gold nanowire batteriesGreat minds over at the University of California Irvine have cracked nanowire batteries that can withstand plenty of recharging. The result could be future batteries that don't die.

Nanowires, a thousand times thinner than a human hair, pose a great possibility for future batteries. But they've always broken down when recharging. This discovery uses gold nanowires in a gel electrolyte to avoid that. In fact, these batteries were tested recharging over 200,000 times in three months and showed no degradation at all.

Solid state lithium-ionSolid state batteries traditionally offer stability but at the cost of electrolyte transmissions. A paper published by Toyota scientists writes about their tests of a solid state battery which uses sulfide superionic conductors. All this means a superior battery.

The result is a battery that can operate at super capacitor levels to completely charge or discharge in just seven minutes - making it ideal for cars. Since it's solid state that also means it's far more stable and safer than current batteries. The solid-state unit should also be able to work in as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius and up to one hundred.

The electrolyte materials still pose challenges so don't expect to see these in cars soon, but it's a step in the right direction towards safer, faster-charging batteries.

Grabat graphene batteriesGraphene batteries have the potential to be one of the most superior available. Grabat has developed graphene batteries that could offer electric cars a driving range of up to 500 miles on a charge.

Graphenano, the company behind the development, says the batteries can be charged to full in just a few minutes and can charge and discharge 33 times faster than lithium ion. Discharge is also crucial for things like cars that want vast amounts of power in order to pull away quickly.

There's no word on if Grabat batteries are currently being used in any products, but the company has batteries available for cars, drones, bikes and even the home.

Laser-made micro supercapacitors Rice UniveristyScientists at Rice University have made a breakthrough in micro-supercapacitors. Currently, they are expensive to make but using lasers that could soon change.

By using lasers to burn electrode patterns into sheets of plastic manufacturing costs and effort drop massively. The result is a battery that can charge 50 times faster than current batteries and discharge even slower than current supercapacitors. They're even tough, able to work after being bent over 10,000 times in testing.

Foam batteriesPrieto believes the future of batteries is 3D. The company has managed to crack this with its battery that uses a copper foam substrate.

This means these batteries will not only be safer, thanks to no flammable electrolyte, but they will also offer longer life, faster charging, five times higher density, be cheaper to make and be smaller than current offerings.

Prieto aims to place its batteries into small items first, like wearables. But it says the batteries can be upscaled so we could see them in phones and maybe even cars in the future.

Carphone Warehouse Foldable battery is paper-like but toughThe Jenax J.Flex battery has been developed to make bendable gadgets possible. The paper-like battery can fold and is waterproof meaning it can be integrated into clothing and wearables.

The battery has already been created and has even been safety tested, including being folded over 200,000 times without losing performance.

Nick Bilton/The New York Times uBeam over the air charginguBeam uses ultrasound to transmit electricity. Power is turned into sound waves, inaudible to humans and animals, which are transmitted and then converted back to power upon reaching the device.

The uBeam concept was stumbled upon by 25-year-old astrobiology graduate Meredith Perry. She started the company that will make it possible to charge gadgets over the air using a 5mm thick plate. These transmitters can be attached to walls, or made into decorative art, to beam power to smartphones and laptops. The gadgets just need a thin receiver in order to receive the charge.

StoreDot StoreDot charges mobiles in 30 secondsStoreDot, a start-up born from the nanotechnology department at Tel Aviv University, has developed the StoreDot charger. It works with current smartphones and uses biological semiconductors made from naturally occurring organic compounds known as peptides '' short chains of amino acids - which are the building blocks of proteins.

The result is a charger that can recharge smartphones in 60 seconds. The battery comprises "non-flammable organic compounds encased in a multi-layer safety-protection structure that prevents over-voltage and heating", so there should be no issues with it exploding.

The company has also revealed plans to build a battery for electric vehicles that charges in five minutes and offers a range of 300 miles.

There's no word on when StoreDot batteries will be available on a global scale - we were expecting them to arrive in 2017 - but when they do we expect them to become incredibly popular.

Pocket-lint Transparent solar chargerAlcatel has demoed a mobile phone with a transparent solar panel over the screen that would let users charge their phone by simply placing it in the sun.

Although it's not likely to be commercially available for some time, the company hopes that it will go some way to solving the daily issues of never having enough battery power. The phone will work with direct sunlight as well as standard lights, in the same way regular solar panels.

Phienergy Aluminium-air battery gives 1,100 mile drive on a chargeA car has managed to drive 1,100 miles on a single battery charge. The secret to this super range is a type of battery technology called aluminium-air that uses oxygen from the air to fill its cathode. This makes it far lighter than liquid filled lithium-ion batteries to give car a far greater range.

Bristol Robotics Laboratory Urine powered batteriesThe Bill Gates Foundation is funding further research by Bristol Robotic Laboratory who discovered batteries that can be powered by urine. It's efficient enough to charge a smartphone which the scientists have already shown off. But how does it work?

Using a Microbial Fuel Cell, micro-organisms take the urine, break it down and output electricity.

Sound poweredResearchers in the UK have built a phone that is able to charge using ambient sound in the atmosphere around it.

The smartphone was built using a principle called the piezoelectric effect. Nanogenerators were created that harvest ambient noise and convert it into electric current.

The nanorods even respond to the human voice, meaning chatty mobile users could actually power their own phone while they talk.

Twenty times faster charge, Ryden dual carbon batteryPower Japan Plus has already announced this new battery technology called Ryden dual carbon. Not only will it last longer and charge faster than lithium but it can be made using the same factories where lithium batteries are built.

The batteries use carbon materials which mean they are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than current alternatives. It also means the batteries will charge twenty times faster than lithium ion. They will also be more durable, with the ability to last up to 3,000 charge cycles, plus they are safer with lower chance of fire or explosion.

Sodium-ion batteriesScientists in Japan are working on new types of batteries that don't need lithium like your smartphone battery. These new batteries will use sodium, one of the most common materials on the planet rather than rare lithium '' and they'll be up to seven times more efficient than conventional batteries.

Research into sodium-ion batteries has been going on since the eighties in an attempt to find a cheaper alternative to lithium. By using salt, the sixth most common element on the planet, batteries can be made much cheaper. Commercialising the batteries is expected to begin for smartphones, cars and more in the next five to 10 years.

Upp Upp hydrogen fuel cell chargerThe Upp hydrogen fuel cell portable charger is available now. It uses hydrogen to power your phone keeping you off the gird and remaining environmentally friendly.

One hydrogen cell will provide five full charges of a mobile phone (25Wh capacity per cell). And the only by-product produced is water vapour. A USB type A socket means it will charge most USB devices with a 5V, 5W, 1000mA output.

Batteries with built-in fire extinguisherIt's not uncommon for lithium-ion batteries to overheat, catch on fire and possibly even explode. The battery in the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a prime example. Researchers at Stanford university have come up with lithium-ion batteries with built-in fire extinguishers.

The battery has a component called triphenyl phosphate, which is commonly used as a flame retardant in electronics, added to the plastic fibres to help keep the positive and negative electrodes apart. If the battery's temperature rises above 150 degrees C, the plastic fibres melt and the triphenyl phosphate chemical is released. Research shows this new method can stop batteries from catching fire in 0.4 seconds.

Mike Zimmerman Batteries that are safe from explosionLithium-ion batteries have a rather volatile liquid electrolyte porous material layer sandwiched between the anode and cathode layers. Mike Zimmerman, a researcher at Tufts University in Massachusetts, has developed a battery that has double the capacity of lithium-ion ones, but without the inherent dangers.

Zimmerman's battery is incredibly thin, being slightly thicker than two credit cards, and swaps out the electrolyte liquid with a plastic film that has similar properties. It can withstand being pierced, shredded, and can be exposed to heat as it's not flammable. There's still a lot of research to be done before the technology could make it to market, but it's good to know safer options are out there.

Liquid Flow batteriesHarvard scientists have developed a battery that stores its energy in organic molecules dissolved in neutral pH water. The researchers say this new method will let the Flow battery last an exceptionally long time compared to the current lithium-ion batteries.

It's unlikely we'll see the technology in smartphones and the like, as the liquid solution associated with Flow batteries is stored in large tanks, the larger the better. It's thought they could be an ideal way to store energy created by renewable energy solutions such as wind and solar.

Indeed, research from Stanford University has used liquid metal in a flow battery with potentially great results, claiming double the voltage of conventional flow batteries. The team has suggested this might be a great way to store intermittent energy sources, like wind or solar, for rapid release to the grid on demand.

IBM and ETH Zurich and have developed a much smaller liquid flow battery that could potentially be used in mobile devices. This new battery claims to be able to not only supply power to components, but cool them at the same time. The two companies have discovered two liquids that are up to the task, and will be used in a system that can produce 1.4 Watts of power per square cm, with 1 Watt of power reserved for powering the battery.

Zap&Go Carbon-ion batteryOxford-based company ZapGo has developed and produced the first carbon-ion battery that's ready for consumer use now. A carbon-ion battery combines the superfast charging capabilities of a supercapacitor, with the performance of a Lithium-ion battery, all while being completely recyclable.

The company has a powerbank charger that be fully charged in five minutes, and will then charge a smartphone up to full in two hours.

Zinc-air batteriesScientists at Sydney University believe they've come up with a way of manufacturing zinc-air batteries for much cheaper than current methods. Zinc-air batteries can be considered superior to lithium-ion, because they don't catch fire. The only problem is they rely on expensive components to work.

Sydney Uni has managed to create a zinc-air battery without the need for the expensive components, but rather some cheaper alternatives. Safer, cheaper batteries could be on their way!

Smart clothingResearchers at the University of Surrey are developing a way of you being able to use your clothing as a source of power. The battery is called a Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs), which converts movement into stored energy. The stored electricity can then be used to power mobile phones or devices such as Fitbit fitness trackers.

The technology could be applied to more than just clothing too, it could be integrated into the pavement, so when people constantly walk over it, it can store electricity which can then be used to power streelamps, or in a car's tyre so it can power a car.

Stretchable batteriesEngineers at the University of California in San Diego have developed a stretchable biofuel cell that can generate electricity from sweat. The energy generated is said to be enough to power LEDs and Bluetooth radios, meaning it could one day power wearable devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers.

Samsung's graphene batterySamsung has managed to develop "graphene balls" that are capable of boosting the capacity of its current lithium-ion batteries by 45 per cent, and and recharging five times faster than current batteries. To put that into context, Samsung says its new graphene-based battery can be recharged fully in 12 minutes, compared to roughly an hour for the current unit.

Samsung also says it has uses beyond smartphones, saying it could be used for electric vehicles as it can withstand temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius.

Safer, faster charging of current Lithium-ion batteriesScientists at WMG at the University of Warwick have developed a new technology that allows current Lithium-ion batteries to be charged up to five times faster that current recommended limits. The technology constantly measures a battery's temperature far more precisely than current methods.

Scientists have found that current batteries can in fact be pushed beyond their recommended limits without affecting performance or overheating. Maybe we don't need any of the other new batteries mentioned at all!

Just listening to yesterday's show,

and had some insider intel to share.

First, you mentioned toilet paper shortages. Yes, particularly on the

west coast, but in general in the US, retailer inventories of toilet paper are

critically low - I'm being told the retailer warehouses are essentially

empty.

I work in the consumer supply chain,

and we're being told that toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and bleach are

essentially out of stock nationwide. We're making paper as fast as we

can, and are unsure if we should expect a huge dropoff in April (as people work

off the panic buying) or if people will use more because they have so much and

demand will just level off, so we're preparing for both possibilities.

Further, my wife and I work in major

Cincinnati-based companies in consumer goods and groceries, and in the SJW

times, they cannot be seen as putting the employees at risk.

Therefore, although travel isn't technically banned we are being

encouraged to not travel.

To that end, we've elected to not

participate in Tissue World,

the paper industry trade show for toilet paper and paper towels, and it has now

been cancelled (technically postponed, but I don't see it being reorganized for

layer this year). I have a conference scheduled for June that I'm

electing not to book due to travel concerns, and I can't imagine any

conference, cruise, or major travel that I would book this calendar year with

our current corporate guidance. I think that the airline, cruise, and

theme park markets to be severely damaged if this goes on another 4-6 weeks.

Brett

Black Knight of the Seven Hills of

Cincinnati

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 09:59

Against the backdrop of the spreading fear about a global coronavirus pandemic, an event has slipped largely under the radar at a spot so removed from the rest of the world that most are unaware of its existence. The Svalbard ''Doomsday'' Seed Vault on Spitsbergen Island north of the Arctic Circle just received an additional major shipment of plant variety seeds for its special storage. What makes this entire seed bank enterprise suspicious at the very least is the list of financial sponsors behind the global project.

On February 25 more than 60,000 new seed varieties were placed in the Svalbard vault, the largest deposit of seeds since it opened. This brings the total of seed types to over one million since the vault was first opened for deposits in early 2008.

The latest seed deposits include onions from Brazil, guar beans from central Asia, corn seeds sacred to the Cherokee nation and wildflowers from a meadow at Prince Charles's home in the UK (sic). The Svalbard vault is on the island that is legally part of Norway since a 1925 treaty. The Norwegian government put up much of the money for the construction of the facility whose backers declared it was able to withstand a nuclear bomb blast. The only problem was planners did not make the structure, built into a mountain side, waterproof and the entrance flooded amid heavy rains in 2016, necessitating a major '‚¬ 20 million of repairs and upgrade which were just completed, some four years later. Notably, as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg pointed out during the recent seed-greeting ceremony, the year 2020 is slated as the year by which countries should have safeguarded genetic diversity of crops to meet the UN goal of ''eliminating hunger by 2030.'' The year 2030 is when the UN IPCC predicts catastrophic climate change barring a radical action from the world, as well as the key benchmark year for the UN's Malthusian Agenda2030.

The publicly-stated argument for the major seed bank project is supposedly as a safe backup for the numerous national seed bank collections in event they are destroyed in war as in Syria or Iraq, or by natural disaster or other calamity. The Svalbard vault has been called the ''Noah's ark of seeds,'' there should a ''global catastrophe'' occur, to allow a theoretical restart to world agriculture. OK. Interesting. Who would decide how to distribute those seeds in event of such a catastrophe is not addressed.

What is notable is the list of those backing this highly unusual public-private partnership.

Crop Trust?

The seed bank and acquisition of the seeds is managed by an entity known as the Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, now based in Bonn, Germany. On its website Crop Trust makes the modest claim that their ''sole mission is to ensure humanity conserves and makes available the world's crop diversity for future food security.''

It has an impressive list of financial sponsors which it calls the Donors' Council. Among the most eye-catching they name Bayer Crop Science, which now incorporates Monsanto; DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred; Syngenta AG, now owned by ChemChina. These are the world's largest purveyors of GMO patented seeds and the paired agrichemicals such as Roundup with glyphosate. China's now state-owned Syngenta is the world's largest supplier of crop chemicals.

In addition, Crop Trust Donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the major donor to initiate the Trust in 2004 with the FAO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and CGIAR, acting through Bioversity International.

Gates Foundation is joined at Crop Trust by the Rockefeller Foundation, the ones who first financed the creation of GMO biotechnology beginning in the 1970's at their International Rice Research Institute, where they spent millions trying to develop the colossal failure called Vitamin A-enhanced Golden Rice. CGIAR, set up in 1972 by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation to spread their Green Revolution agribusiness model, controls most of the private seed banks from the Philippines to Syria to Kenya. In all, these present seed banks hold more than six and a half million seed varieties, almost two million of which are 'distinct.' Svalbard's Doomsday Vault has a capacity to house four and a half million different seeds.

At the time the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault opened in 2008 the chairman of the Crop Trust was Canadian Margaret Catley-Carlson. Catley-Carlson was also president until 1999 of the New York-based Population Council, John D. Rockefeller III 's population reduction organization, set up in 1952 to advance the Rockefeller family's eugenics program under the cover of promoting ''family planning,'' birth control devices, sterilization and ''population control'' in developing countries. Catley-Carlson also sat on the board of the Syngenta Foundation.

De-Population Council

Being President of the Rockefeller-founded Population Council is no minor deal. In the 1990's the UN's World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines between the ages of 15 and 45, allegedly against Tentanus, a sickness arising from such things as stepping on a rusty nail. The vaccine was not given to men or boys, despite the fact they are presumably equally as liable to step on rusty nails as women.

Because of that curious anomaly, Comit(C) Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization, became suspicious and had vaccine samples tested. The tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine being spread by the WHO'' only to women of child-bearing age'' contained human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or hCG, a natural hormone which when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier stimulated antibodies rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy. None of the women vaccinated were told.

It later came out that the Rockefeller Foundation along with the Rockefeller's Population Council, the World Bank (home to CGIAR), and the United States' National Institutes of Health had been involved in a 20-year-long project begun in 1972 to develop the concealed abortion vaccine with a tetanus carrier for WHO. In addition, the Government of Norway, the host to the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault, donated $41 million to develop the special abortive Tetanus vaccine.

Is it just coincidence that the same Gates Foundation is backing the organization responsible for maintaining the Svalbard ''Doomsday'' Seed Vault at the same time Gates is emerging as a major authority on the danger of the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic? In an article he wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine , Gates stated that the designated COVID19, ''has started behaving a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we've been worried about.''

A virtually inaccessible seed vault under the control of some of the world's foremost advocates of eugenics and population reduction is definitely remarkable. With more than a million of the irreplaceable seed heritage of the world locked inside the Svalbard Seed Vault, could this be a way for GMO agribusiness giants like Bayer-Monsanto or Syngenta to illegally gain access to those seeds in a time of global crisis? It sounds very far-fetched, yet there are far-fetched goings on in our world. We could say, ''He who controls the world's crop seeds, controls the world.''

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook.''

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Archived Version

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 22:55

ITB Berlin 2020 cancelledITB Berlin 2020 will not take place. Due to the rapid spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Economics have stated their opinion that ITB Berlin be cancelled. This evening at 1827 hrs, the responsible health authority of the district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin imposed significantly tighter restrictions on holding the event. Among its requirements the authority stipulated that each participant would need to prove to Messe Berlin that they were not from a designated risk area or had not been in contact with a person or persons from a risk area. It is not possible for Messe Berlin to satisfy these requirements overall.

Messe Berlin had for weeks made it known that a decision on holding or cancelling large-scale events would only be taken based on the recommendations or instructions of the relevant specialist authorities. Only they possess the necessary information and specialist knowledge in order to draw the right conclusions.

Dr. Christian G¶ke, CEO of Messe Berlin GmbH, said: ''With more than 10,000 exhibitors from over 180 countries ITB Berlin is extremely important for the world's tourism industry. We take our responsibility for the health and safety of our visitors, exhibitors and employees very seriously. It is with a heavy heart that we must now come to terms with the cancellation of ITB Berlin 2020.''

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Messe Berlin Wolf-Dieter Wolf said: ''Not once in the 54-year history of the event have ITB Berlin and Messe Berlin experienced a similar situation. We would like to thank all exhibitors and partners from all over the world who over the past few days and weeks have stood by ITB Berlin. We look forward to continuing the trusted relationship with our partners in the market.''

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2021 will be taking place from Wednesday, 10 to Sunday, 14 March, and from Wednesday to Friday will be open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the World's Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2019 a total of 10,000 companies and organisations from 181 countries exhibited their products and services to around 160,000 visitors, including 113.500 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held from Wednesday, 10 to Saturday, 14 March 2021. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors and exhibitors. For more information please visit www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and the ITB Social Media Newsroom.

Join the ITB Press Network at www.linkedin.com.Become a fan of ITB Berlin at www.facebook.com/ITBBerlin.Follow ITB Berlin on www.twitter.com/ITB_Berlin.Get the latest updates from the Social Media Newsroom at newsroom.itb-berlin.de/en.

You can find press releases on the internet at www.itb-berlin.com under the section heading Press / Press Releases. Make use of our information service and subscribe to our RSS feeds.

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:56

Targeted News Service (Press Releases)

WASHINGTON, March 6 -- Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, issued the following news release:

Oregon's U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced the Senate passage of a bipartisan, bicameral coronavirus emergency funding bill, which will provide $8.3 billion in new funding to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

"In the face of this public health crisis, we need good information, good science, and the right tools in the right hands to limit the virus's spread and keep people safe," said Merkley. "It's important that members of Congress of both parties stepped in to ensure that we have the equipment, tests, and other resources we need in our communities and public health agencies. I'm going to keep fighting to make sure we're doing everything we can to contain and fight the spread of this virus."

"Keeping Oregonians healthy and safe, especially the most vulnerable in our state, is our number one priority. This emergency funding will help make sure Oregon and states around the country treat that priority with the urgency required by providing the resources they need to tackle any threat posed by COVID-19," Wyden said. "I am especially pleased that I was able to include a provision that would boost access to telehealth in Medicare during this emergency. This will especially give seniors greater access to their health care providers without leaving home."

Unlike President Trump's proposal, which included only $1.25 billion in new funding, the bill is a robust package to fully support the federal, state, and local response to the coronavirus public health crisis. It includes more than $3 billion for the research and development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics; more than $2 billion to help federal, state, local, and tribal governments prevent, prepare, and respond to the crisis; and nearly $1 billion to invest in healthcare preparedness, purchase critical pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, and support community health centers. Importantly, this bill includes $300 million to ensure that vaccines developed with the support of federal dollars remain affordable to those most in need.

Senator Merkley, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), worked with his counterparts to write Title I of the bill, providing $61 million in funding for the FDA. These funds will support vaccine development; medical countermeasures to diagnose, prevent, and protect the public; address shortages of medical supplies; and tackle counterfeit or misbranded products that claim to help protect individuals from illness, among other critical tasks.

Senator Wyden, who serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, worked to secure a provision in the emergency funding bill that let certain telehealth restrictions in Medicare be waived during the coronavirus public health emergency. He is also leading efforts to make sure the most vulnerable, in particular Oregon's seniors and those in nursing homes, are safe and that those responsible for their care are prepared to handle further spread of COVID-19.

Recognizing that diseases know no borders, the bipartisan bill in Congress also provides hundreds of millions of dollars to address the spread of the coronavirus abroad. It is a bipartisan, bicameral, emergency appropriations bill designed to address the threat of the novel coronavirus with a comprehensive approach.

Now that the bill has been passed by the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, it is headed to the President's desk to be signed into law.

A summary of the package is available here (https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/download/coronavirus-summary-asdf-), and the full text of the supplemental is available here (https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20200302/BILLS-116hr6074-SUS.pdf).

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 10:23

The end-all be-all blog post debunking how Dean Koontz ''predicted'' the coronavirusMarch 4, 2020

It would be impossible for me to send the following response to everyone tweeting that Dean ''predicted'' the coronavirus:

Nope. In 1981 version it was ''Gorki-400'' form Russia. Was not Whuan from China until 1996 revision. And images of 2020 date is from a Sylvia Browne book, not a Koontz book.

By ya know what? I've sent it to a heck of a lot of people. Trouble is, my little response doesn't ever cover all of the claims presented and doesn't give me a lot of room to back it up. So, henceforth, my new response tweet will be ''nope'' and a link to this page. Enjoy!

Claim: Dean predicted the corona virus in his 1981 book The Eyes of Darkness

The 1981 ''Gorki-400'' textA couple of base-level problems:

Coronavirus is a family of viruses. SARS is a coronavirus. MERS is a coronavirus. Even some forms of the common cold. The current virus is COVID-19. So at best, he ''predicted'' COVID-19, not coronaviruses. (Way to start an argument Mr. Pedantic.)In the 1981 book The Eyes of Darkness by Leigh Nichols (yes a pseudonym of Dean's) the virus is named ''Gorki-400'' and is from Russia. Russians are convenient bad guys in 1981 due to the existence of the Soviet Union. (Ah the simpler times of the Regan-era.)The original Twitter post that started all this used a photo of a vaguely current mass market paperback edition. (Can't tell what printing the tweeter used but that edition was released in 1996 and was the ''current'' cover until 2008.) It's obvious the author of that tweet saw the 1981 copyright date in a much more recent edition and thought ''Hey! He wrote this is 1981! How prescient!''Claim: Ok, it was changed from Gorki-400 to Wuhan-400 in the re-release under his own name in 1989?

The 1989 ''Gorki-400'' textYes, the book was re-released under his own name by Dark Harvest in 1989. Guess what? Still ''Gorki-400'' in that edition. It wasn't until the 1996 re-re-release that the name of the virus was changed to ''Wuhan-400'' and it's origin moved to China. (The relevant Snopes article originally said ''1989.'' Later said it had changed ''by 2008.'' As of this writing it just points out that the Amazon.com preview that shows ''Wuhan-400'' is from a 2008 release.)

Claim: In The Eyes of Darkness Dean specified that a world-wide virus would happen in 2020.

More recent versions of the twitter post have added an additional photo of some text stating ''In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like virus will spread throughout the globe'...'' In no way do any of these re-tweets point out this this image is not from a page of any edition of The Eyes of Darkness, nor even of any Dean Koontz book. It's a page from 2008's End of Days by Sylvia Browne. I'll let you read about her and her ''predictions.'' (I'll wait.) Oh, and that's just a few years after SARS (2003) so hell, I could have ''predicted'' it would happen again.

Claim: But ''Wuhan-400.'' ''In around 2020.'' 20 times 20 = 400

Nope. Not making this up. It's out there. Score one for frickin' numerology.

Claim: So he revised the book and wrote ''Wuhan-400'' in 1996. That's still a 24-year-old prediction. What say you?

The 1996 ''Wuhan-400'' textA few final points:

Dean revised a whole bunch of his older novels in the mid 1990s.By 1996 the Soviet Union was no more so who's the new ''bad guy'' for the story that would make sense at the time? China.The Wuhan Institute of Virology was founded in 1956. A minimal amount of research in 1995, even sans-internet, would have made that a good choice of a ''source'' within China.Lastly, if you're still not convinced by all of this it still couldn't have been Dean who ''predicted'' it first. The Simpsons beat him by 3 years in 1993. Better yet, the film Akira beat that by another 5 years in 1988. I'll let you decide.

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Archived Version

Source: Foreign policy

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 23:55

Here is a complete rundown of all the ways the Coronavirus is changing the entertainment landscape around us.

Source:fda.govThe Coronavirus outbreak is disrupting enjoyment activities in Hollywood and around the world, such as theatrical releases and launches of movie festivals and TV conferences.

We will continue to update this web page with the breaking news concerning production delays, competition cancellations, release date changes, and more enjoyment disruptions as a result of the Coronavirus.

Read also: Tom Cruise quarantined in Italy Over coronavirus outbreak

Major streaming companies, such as Apple, Netflix, and Amazon, have all pulled out of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. The occasion remains on schedule to release this month.

MipTV, the international TV conference held each spring in Cannes, has canceled its 2020 edition because of coronavirus fears.

Source:hollywoodreporter.comUniversal, MGM, and Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have driven back the discharge of ''No Time to Die'' till November 12 in the U.K. Also, Universal had canceled the movie's China premiere.

The China release of its own family blockbuster ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' is canceled because of the coronavirus. Other movie releases that have been not on time or canceled in China encompass Universal's ''1917,'' Searchlight's ''Jojo Rabbit,'' and Universal's ''Dolittle.''

Also Read: Lady Gaga's New Single Starts Playing at a Meeting About Coronavirus

The Filmmaker Jia Zhangke delayed the production of his next movie indefinitely. The challenge became set to start filming in April. ''We nevertheless can't clearly do all the pre-production stuff to have this happen in April,'' he said.

Also, Wong Kar-wai has put the production of his next feature, ''Blossoms,'' on hold because of the coronavirus.

The 2020 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece has been delayed as well. The festival was supposed to start on March 5 in Greece and run through March 15. However, the organizers are hopeful the event can be rescheduled.

Source:ekathimerini.comThen, the inaugural Red Sea Festival in Saudi Arabia has been canceled.

Disney canceled the two-day European press launch for Disney+. They will promote the new platform online instead.

Producers of ''The Bachelorette'' have canceled the upcoming season's trip to Italy.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 05:58

Photo: Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Chrome Hearts

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said at a Morgan Stanley conference in San Francisco Thursday that he was re-evaluating his plan to spend several months in Africa this year.

Between the lines: Dorsey specifically blamed the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, though his decision also comes as Twitter struggles with tough content and business issues and as an activist investor, Elliott Management, is seeking his ouster.

Of note: Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner noted that despite being interviewed on stage for 40 minutes, Dorsey was not asked a direct question about Elliott's move to have him replaced as CEO.

Still, many of Dorsey's comments seemed aimed at addressing criticisms lobbed by Elliott and others.What he said:

On misinformation: "Misleading information is an entirely new vector. And the challenge here is that the technology to create misleading information content is moving much faster than the technology to detect it."On boosting revenue: "We've been talking about rebuilding our core ad server. We made a ton of progress in 2019 and starting in this year. And we should be complete with the work to rebuild the ad server by the first half of this year."On Twitter's ability to innovate: "We get a lot of critique about how the pace of development at Twitter is slow. And I think the expectation is that more changes on the surface. But the most impactful changes are the things that happen under the surface."The bottom line: Dorsey may not have addressed Elliott by name, but he was speaking to its attack on his leadership.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 06:13

Authored by Lance Welton via VDare.com,

Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Machiavellian senior civil servant in the hit 1980s British sitcom Yes, Minister once famously commented that one should ''never believe anything until it's been officially denied.''

Which meant we could be fairly confident that racial and ethnic differences in susceptibility to Coronavirus exist, because our race-denying Ruling Class so dogmatical refused to consider the evidence.

Now that's over: a study by a Chinese research group has emerged that offers concrete proof of race differences in susceptibility to Corona virus are very real.

The study - a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed - is entitled Single-cell RNA expression profiling of ACE2, the putative receptor of Wuhan 2019-nCov, By Yu Zhao et al., bioRxiv, 2020] and is authored by a group of medical scientists based at Tongji University in Shanghai

The authors explain that ''2019-nCov was reported to share the same receptor, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)'' as the SARS disease, an outbreak of which in 2003 seemed almost exclusively to kill Northeast Asians.

Based on ''the public database and the state-of-the-art single-cell RNA-Seq technique'' the Chinese scientists ''analyzed the ACE2 RNA expression profile in the normal human lungs.'' Crucially, they further found (in a comparison of eight individual samples) that the ''Asian male one has an extremely large number of ACE2-expressing cells in the lung'' in comparison to other races. (The database was based on analysis of eight normal human lung transplant donors of different races.)

As they put it:

We also noticed that the only Asian donor (male) has a much higher ACE2-expressing cell ratio than white and African American donors (2.50% vs. 0.47% of all cells). This might explain the observation that the new Coronavirus pandemic and previous SARS-Cov pandemic are concentrated in the Asian area.

So, there you have it: scientific evidence of how there are, indeed, genetic differences underling the empirical evidence that I have been presenting for weeks that there are racial differences in susceptibility to the Coronavirus (now widely known as COVID-19).

See:

Do You Know All Coronavirus Victims Appear To Be Chinese? Thought Not!

STILL No Non-Chinese Deaths From Coronavirus, But The WASHINGTON POST Wants You To Rat Out Your Neighbors Anyway

STILL No Non-East Asian Deaths From Corona'--But CNN's Sanjay Gupta Won't Admit It

Coronavirus STILL Hasn't Killed Any Whites (Not Counting Iranians). NEW YORK TIMES Ignores, But Concedes Gender Difference. Why?

Coronavirus Still Discriminating'--Reaches Italy, But Italians Also Vulnerable In 1918 Pandemic

And this finding comes as more and more people are beginning notice the racial dimension to Corona virus.

According to Woke Wisdom - which declares that ''race'' is only skin deep - the Coronavirus should be ravaging Africa by now. After all, Africa is poor, poor health compromises the immune system, and access to medical care is, for most Africans, extremely limited. Surely, Africa should be worse affected that any other continent in the world'--as should black minorities within white countries. But, consistent with the findings of the Chinese scientists, this is not the case:

Whether it's a matter of faulty detection, climatic factors or simple fluke, the remarkably low rate of coronavirus infection in African countries, with their fragile health systems, continues to puzzle '' and worry '' experts.

To date, only three cases of infection have been officially recorded in Africa, one in Egypt, one in Algeria and one in Nigeria, with no deaths.

This is a remarkably small number for a continent with nearly 1.3 billion inhabitants, and barely a drop in the ocean of more than 86,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths recorded in some 60 countries worldwide.

[With only three official cases, Africa's low coronavirus rate puzzles health experts, France 24, March 2nd, 2020].

Does this low infection rate worry ''experts'' precisely because it raises the possibility - which I discussed last week - of blacks having a relatively high immunity due to many of them being adapted to a hot and wet ecology which, like the cold and wet ecology of much of Europe, is high in flu and thus selects for flu resistance?

The report then presents a number of hypotheses. Has there been a lack of travel between China and Africa? No. Could it be to do with the climate? France-24 produced a senior medic to reject this one:

''This hypothesis was rejected by Professor Rodney Adam, who heads the infection control task force at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. 'There is no current evidence to indicate that climate affects transmission,''' he said.

Professor Adam also used his interview as an opportunity to cast doubt on the race hypothesis:

''While it is true that for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility'...there is no current evidence to that effect for Covid-19.'' [Emphasis added, ellipses in original]

It's not obvious why Professor Adam felt obliged to offer this opinion, since France 24does not directly raise the race hypothesis.

But note that, significantly, he concedes that ''for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility'...'' Of course, this is known to everyone in medicine (see: Tay-Sachs Disease; Sickle-Cell Anemia). But for some reason, we're not allowed to ask about it with COVID-19.

And there is ''current evidence.'' It has not yet passed ''peer-review,'' it has not yet been critiqued by other scientists, but there is certainly evidence'--beyond the circumstantial'--that genetic differences seem to explain race differences in the reaction to the Corona virus.

The African media have noticed the surprising lack of deaths as well. Recently, a series of African news outlets reported that ''the African Blood Genes'' may permit resistance to Corona. In response, the Nigeria-based Centre for Democracy and Development (a democracy-promoting NGO, not a scientific organization) has asserted on its blog that: ''experts have said claims that black people were resistant to the virus were 'false information.'''

It added:

A UK-based specialist in infectious diseases and epidemics, Paul Hunter, told DW [Africa has been spared so far from coronavirus. Why?, February 14, 2020] that the absence of Covid-19 on the continent maybe largely due to luck. There is nothing special about Africa not having seen a case other than pure chance at the moment'... ''I doubt we will see a big outbreak in Africa, Droplet diseases don't seem to be as big an issue in Africa,'' he said, adding that SARS, a respiratory disease that is also a coronavirus, spread through 26 countries in 2003 but failed to gain a hold in Africa.

From scientific evidence, there is no medical proof that African blood is resistant to the Coronavirus

[Is the African Blood Resistant to Coronavirus? CDD West Africa, February 17, 2020].

Perhaps not. But there is now scientific evidence that Africans (and Whites) are more resistant to it than Asians and that this is for genetic reasons.

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 06:07

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 06:43

By Kevin Curtin, 7:30PM, Fri. Mar. 6, 2020 SXSW Center in Downtown Austin (Courtesy of SXSW)

Two founders of South by Southwest have confirmed to the Chronicle that the organization does not have insurance covering today's cancellation.

The conference and festival, scheduled to run March 13-22 throughout Austin, was cancelled by city and county officials late Friday afternoon over concerns of the event contributing to the spread of COVID-19.

Asked if the financial loss of cancellation will be covered by an insurance plan, SXSW co-founder Nick Barbaro '' who is also the publisher of the Chronicle '' said the organization does not have cancellation insurance relating to a disease outbreak or triggered by the city declaring a ''local state of disaster.''

SXSW co-founder and Managing Director Roland Swenson, reached by text, further explained: ''We have a lot of insurance (terrorism, injury, property destruction, weather). However, bacterial infections, communicable diseases, viruses and pandemics are not covered.''

Those statements refute a widely shared article, published in Variety on Thursday, focusing on how SXSW would benefit from the city shutting it down, rather than cancel on its own volition. The news story, written by Chris Willman, posits that ''With $356 million pumped into the local economy by the fest last year, Austin has a lot to lose by canceling SXSW. And the festival would likely lose out on insurance if it, not the city, did the axing.''

It goes on to report ''...one element that's clearly a factor is letting civic and government authorities ultimately make the call, which stands a promoter in much better stead in collecting on insurance policies to cover the massive losses associated with canceling one of the major annual events on their calendars.''

Following the press conference, which was led by Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, SXSW issued a statement obviously trying to make clear that their leadership did not want to see the conference shut down:

''The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City's directions.

''We are devastated to share this news with you. 'The show must go on' is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.''

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin's independent news source for almost 40 years, expressing the community's political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

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Coronavirus shutdown impacts all levels of Austin music

Kevin Curtin, March 6, 2020Speakers explore solutions through policy change, relationship-building in the classroom

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Coronavirus shutdown impacts all levels of Austin music

March 6, 2020Austin quartet premieres ''Hand it Over''

March 6, 2020KEYWORDS FOR THIS POST

SXSW, SXSW 2020, Coronavirus, COVID-19

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:01

Minister Jane Ruth Aceng addressing the media

Uganda has cancelled all international conferences that were scheduled to take place in the country over the coronavirus outbreak.

Among the cancelled is the G77 summit that was scheduled in Uganda from April 16-19, 2020 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, attracting participants from 136 member states.

Addressing journalists today at the ministry of Health headquarters in Kampala, minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng, said there is no confirmed case of coronavirus in Uganda, but the government was taking precautionary measures to ensure that the deadly virus doesn't get into the country. The virus has symptoms similar to common cold and mild flu (coughing, fever and breathing difficulties). The virus jumps from human to human through the air via secretion of an infected individual.

The virus whose outbreak has now spread to all continents of the world has not caused a single death yet in Africa with Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Cameroon, South Africa, Nigeria all reporting no more than two cases each.

However, outside China, the epicentre of the outbreak where more than 80,565 cases and 3,015 deaths have been recorded, the virus continues to rake up numbers of infections and deaths. Italy (3858 cases, 148 deaths), South Korea (6,088 cases, 42 deaths), Japan (1,057 cases, 12 deaths), Germany (514 cases, 0 deaths), France (377 cases, 6 deaths), Iran (3,513 cases, 107 deaths), Spain (259 cases, 3 deaths).

Aceng says travel of Ugandans to these countries will be restricted henceforth and the travellers returning from these countries have been advised to postpone all nonessential travel to Uganda.

Any travellers from those countries, Aceng said, shall be subjected to a 14-day self-quarantine whether they possess symptoms and signs of coronavirus or not.

Also, travellers from UK, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, India and USA, Aceng said will be closely monitored and the evolution of the outbreak in these countries and any travel restrictions announced.

Uganda joins DR Congo, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Ethiopia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea as countries have issued travel restriction to their citizens to countries ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak. Others like Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, South Korea and Russia have completely closed their borders.

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 05:57

As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere, many scientists say it's plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic '-- a serious global outbreak.

The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word ''pandemic'' might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus.

''Unless we're convinced it's uncontrollable, why (would) we call it a pandemic?'' WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.

The U.N. health agency has previously described a pandemic as a situation in which a new virus is causing ''sustained community-level outbreaks'' in at least two world regions.

Experts say threshold has long been metMany experts say that threshold has long been met: The virus that was first identified in China is now spreading freely in four regions, it has reached every continent but Antarctica, and its advance seems unavoidable. The disease has managed to gain a foothold and multiply quickly even in countries with relatively strong public health systems.

On Friday, the virus hit a new milestone, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide, far more than those sickened by SARS, MERS or Ebola in recent years.

''I think it's pretty clear we're in a pandemic and I don't know why WHO is resisting that,'' said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Declaring pandemic could cause further restrictionsExperts acknowledge that declaring a pandemic is politically fraught because it can rattle markets, lead to more drastic travel and trade restrictions and stigmatize people coming from affected regions. WHO was previously criticized for labelling the 2009 swine flu outbreak a pandemic. But experts said calling this crisis a pandemic could also spur countries to prepare for the virus's eventual arrival.

WHO already declared the virus a "global health emergency' in late January, putting countries and humanitarian organizations on notice and issuing a broad set of recommendations to curb its spread.

Even in countries that moved quickly to shut down their links to China, COVID-19 has managed to sneak in. Within a matter of weeks, officials in Italy, Iran and South Korea went from reporting single new cases to hundreds.

''We were the first country to stop flights to China and we were completely surprised by this disease,'' said Massimo Galli, an infectious-diseases professor at the University of Milan. ''It's dangerous for the entire world that the virus is able to spread underground like this.''

With more than 3,800 cases, Italy is the epicentre of Europe's outbreak and has shut down schools, closed sports stadiums to fans and urged the elderly not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. But it has still exported cases of the virus to at least 10 countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, South Africa and Nigeria.

Devi Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh who co-chaired a review of WHO's response to the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said a pandemic declaration is long overdue.

''This outbreak meets all the definitions for a pandemic that we had pre-coronavirus,'' she said.

At a news conference last month, Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, said a pandemic is ''a unique situation in which we believe that all citizens on the planet" will likely be exposed to a virus "within a defined period of time.''

Several experts said they hadn't heard that definition. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for its part, defines a pandemic as ''an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.''

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 07:15

articleFILE - Yi Junfeng arranges test kits at a fever clinic of Hunan People's Hospital in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 7, 2020. ( Photo by Xinhua/Chen Zeguo via Getty Images )

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) - As the coronavirus outbreak edges closer to East Tennessee, a possible cure could be closer to coming from the region. Two researchers have discovered a chemical compound, which will be further tested soon, could stop the virus and prevent it from spreading further.

Jeremy Smith, Director of the Center for Molecular Biophysics, a partnership between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, explained their work is made possible by the ''world's most powerful computer,'' or the Summit, at ORNL.

''It's capable of doing calculations very, very, quickly. The response to the new coronavirus needs to be quick,'' he said. Smith said the computer's speed is equivalent to 100,000 laptops working at the same time. ''The work it can do in one day,'' he added, ''would take months on a normal computer.''

Jeremy Smith and Micholas D. Smith, a post-doctoral fellow and soon-to-be UTK research professor, began digital calculations to find a chemical, or drug, that might work against the virus.

This quick, digital, testing has worked previously, Smith said, and cited success in their efforts in the past in finding treatment for diabetes and osteoporosis, for example.

After performing simulations of more than 8,000 compounds, they have narrowed it down to, what they believe, will react to the actual sample.

The next step in the researchers' mission is to test the digital remedy on an actual sample.

That step includes an expert at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis, Colleen Johnson. The testing would be conducted on an actual coronavirus sample, in the next week, in a controlled environment.

Ironically, the process has been slowed, because Johnson, along with Micholas D. Smith, have both been battling the flu throughout their work.

If their calculations and experiment are successful, their work will be published, without peer review, to allow for a speedy distribution.

The researchers also tested compounds that are already known drugs, approved chemicals, or widely-used for other purposes.

That, he said, would mean it wouldn't require months of testing.

''It's difficult to be excited when you haven't solved the problem yet. but, always, the ultimate aim is to help mankind in some way,'' Smith said.

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Download for iOS or Android

If their work is unsuccessful in the actual sample, they'll start the calculation process again, with the help of ORNL's supercomputer.

Hey Adam,

I wish to remain anonymous. I work for a production

company in Manhattan that does large corporate Galas/fundraisers/benefit

dinners. Bloomberg has attended many of these events and every time his

height has been a problem.

If he is speaking at a lectern, it must not be made of Lucite or a clear

material. His handlers have a specific apple box for him and they want it

hidden while other people are speaking at the lectern. I do not know the

exact dimensions of the box, but my guess is that it is 8 inches tall.

If he is speaking at a fireside chat or an interview

setting, there must be a pillow on the chair to prop him forward so his feet

touch the ground. These rules also apply to Janet Yellen.

Big fan and thanks for everything you do.

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:53

Former UAW Vice President Joe Ashton speaks during a GM announcement at a plant in Spring Hill, Tenn. in 2011.

GM

DETROIT '' Federal prosecutors have charged retired United Auto Workers Vice President Joseph Ashton, a former board member of General Motors, as part of its corruption probe into the union.

Ashton, who resigned from the GM board in December 2017 after reportedly being linked to the investigation, was charged with fraud and money laundering conspiracies. Money laundering is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while the fraud charge could be up to 20 years.

Ashton was charged Wednesday in a criminal information filing, which indicates a guilty plea is expected. His attorney, Jerry Ballarotto of New Jersey, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GM, in an emailed statement, said it "was not aware of this illegal activity until it was recently revealed by the government's investigation." Nor was the company aware that "he allegedly continued to benefit from this conduct" while a member of the board, it said.

Federal prosecutors accuse Ashton, who retired from the UAW in 2014, of demanding and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and improperly using his position to illegally benefit himself and others.

The allegations outlined in the filing center on Ashton's position overseeing a jointly operated training center with GM known as the Center for Human Resources, which the company recently announced plans to dissolve as part of its new labor agreement with the union.

An alleged scheme identified by federal prosecutors involved a nearly $4 million contract with the training facility for commemorative watches. According to the filing, Ashton demanded $250,000 from the vendor, which he had instructed to create a new company to produce the watches, which were never distributed to members.

UAW Vice President Rory Gamble, acting president of the union, said in an emailed statement that the allegations "are completely inexcusable and violate UAW's long-standing standards of conduct put in place by former leaders like Walter Reuther."

Ashton, who was the first UAW leader on the GM board, is the 13th person charged as part of the probe, including 10 officials affiliated with the union and three Fiat Chrysler executives. Ten people have been convicted thus far, including two union officials who admitted to assisting Ashton.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 07:21

Previously unseen documents from a Soviet archive show how hard Mr. Sanders worked to find a sister city in Russia when he was a mayor in the 1980s. Moscow saw a chance for propaganda.

Bernie Sanders, center, then mayor of Burlington, Vt., on a visit in 1988 to Yaroslavl, Russia, to establish sister-city ties. Credit... Via the family of Valery Volovenko YAROSLAVL, Russia '-- The mayor of Burlington, Vt., wrote to a Soviet counterpart in a provincial city that he wanted the United States and the Soviet Union to ''live together as friends.''

Unbeknown to him, his desire for friendship meshed with the efforts of Soviet officials in Moscow to ''reveal American imperialism as the main source of the danger of war.''

That mayor was Bernie Sanders, and the story of his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union has been told before. But many of the details of Mr. Sanders's Cold War diplomacy before and after that visit '-- and the Soviet effort to exploit Mr. Sanders's antiwar agenda for their own propaganda purposes '-- have largely remained out of sight.

The New York Times examined 89 pages of letters, telegrams and internal Soviet government documents revealing in far greater detail the extent of Mr. Sanders's personal effort to establish ties between his city and a country many Americans then still considered an enemy despite the reforms being initiated at the time under Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary.

They also show how the Kremlin viewed these sister city relationships as vehicles to sway American public opinion about the Soviet Union.

''One of the most useful channels, in practice, for actively carrying out information-propaganda efforts has proved to be sister-city contact,'' a Soviet Foreign Ministry document provided to Yaroslavl officials said.

The documents are part of a government archive in Yaroslavl, Russia, which became the sister city of Burlington. The files are open to the public, though archivists there said that, until now, no one had asked to see them.

Nothing in the documents suggests that Mr. Sanders was the only local American official targeted for propaganda, or even that he was particularly receptive to it, though they do describe him as a socialist. But the documents do show the Soviets' intensive preparation to use Mr. Sanders's interest in their country to their advantage.

The Sanders campaign didn't dispute the documents' authenticity; the English-language documents were shared with the campaign and the relevant Russian documents were described. At the time of Mr. Sanders's announcement in 1987 that Burlington would seek a Soviet sister city, several dozen other American cities already had such a relationship or had applied for one.

The documents, available at the Yaroslavskaya Region State Archive in Yaroslavl, are included in a file titled ''documents about the development of friendly relations of the city of Yaroslavl with the city of Burlington in 1988.''

The Times requested the file from the archive on Thursday of last week. Archive employees said the documents had to first be checked for personal information, and they made the file available on Tuesday. Six pages were hidden from view because, the archivists said, they contained personal information.

In a statement, the Sanders campaign said the candidate was ''proud'' of his grass-roots diplomatic efforts and noted that the idea of bringing together Soviet and American cities had the highest-level support at the time.

''Mayor Sanders was proud to join dozens of American cities in seeking to end the Cold War through a Sister Cities program that was encouraged by President Reagan himself,'' a Sanders campaign spokesman, Mike Casca, said in a statement. ''The exchange between Burlington and Yaroslavl, which continues to this day, confirmed Sanders's long held view: by meeting face to face, we can break down the barriers and stereotypes that exist between people and their governments.''

Mr. Sanders's involvement in the Cold War debate grew in the 1980s as he forcefully opposed the Reagan administration's plans to have Burlington and other American cities make evacuation plans for a potential nuclear war.

Instead, Mr. Sanders reached out to the Soviet Union via an organization based in Virginia, requesting a sister-city partnership with the Cold War adversary in an effort to end the threat of nuclear annihilation.

''We were saying: The goal is to not have a nuclear war, not to plan and prepare for it,'' said Terry Bouricius, a Burlington alderman at the time who accompanied Mr. Sanders on the trip.

This was also the era of perestroika and glasnost, economic and cultural changes promoted by Mr. Gorbachev that had sparked optimism among some in the West '-- along with skepticism from many others '-- that the Kremlin was prepared to adopt a more conciliatory stance abroad and provide greater freedoms to its own people.

While Mr. Sanders has taken heat from President Trump and his campaign for this outreach to the Soviets, his supporters say it was a timely effort to help defuse tensions and stands in contrast to Mr. Trump's affinity for strongman leaders like Russia's current president, Vladimir V. Putin.

Proposing a PartnershipIn December 1987, the records show, Mr. Sanders spoke by phone with Yuri Menshikov, the secretary of the Soviet sister-city organization in Moscow. In a follow-up letter later that month, Mr. Sanders said he had received word that Yaroslavl would be an ideal partner. He proposed leading a Burlington delegation to Yaroslavl to lay the foundation for a sister-city relationship.

He suggested arriving on May 9 '-- the day that the Soviet Union celebrated its victory over Nazi Germany '-- and said he was especially interested in discussing economic development, the police, winter street cleaning, libraries, and plumbing and sewer systems.

''We are living through an amazing time, and I believe I am lucky to play a role in such a time,'' Mr. Sanders wrote, according to a Russian version of his letter.

The visit to Yaroslavl was eventually scheduled for early June, after Mr. Sanders's 12-person delegation visited Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Mr. Sanders has referred to the trip as a ''very strange honeymoon.'' Just before leaving, he had married his longtime partner, Jane O'Meara Driscoll, the director of the Youth Office in Burlington City Hall, in a televised outdoor ceremony on the shore of Lake Champlain.

The delegation's visit to Yaroslavl was planned minute-by-minute, with tours of schools and theaters and virtually no breaks during the day.

''Visits to Yaroslavl churches and a boat trip on the Volga proved especially memorable to the guests,'' an internal Soviet report says.

But the trip wasn't enough to cinch the sister-city relationship. Mr. Sanders still had to convince Soviet officials in Moscow to grant their approval and allow Yaroslavl representatives to travel to Burlington. He offered glowing reviews in public and ratcheted up his lobbying effort in private.

''People there seemed reasonably happy and content,'' Mr. Sanders told reporters in Burlington about Yaroslavl, a city of about 600,000. ''I didn't notice much deprivation.''

Two days after returning to Vermont, Mr. Sanders wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, asking for help in setting up the sister-city program.

''It is my strong belief that if our planet is going to survive, and if we are going to be able to convert the hundreds of billions of dollars that both the United States and the Soviet Union are now wasting on weapons of destruction into areas of productive human development, there is going to have to be a significant increase in citizen-to-citizen contact,'' Mr. Sanders wrote.

Throughout their negotiations with Burlington City Hall, Yaroslavl officials were coordinating their messaging with Soviet officials in Moscow.

In a letter to Moscow seeking approval for travel to the United States, Yaroslavl officials pledged that they would talk about the ''peace-loving foreign policy'' of the Soviet Union and the changes being implemented by Mr. Gorbachev. They attached a seven-point ''plan for information-propaganda work'' on their visit to Burlington, with specific talking points for each of the delegation's three members.

The plan is followed by a nine-page guide issued by the Soviet Foreign Ministry on how to communicate Mr. Gorbachev's policies to international audiences. It describes antiwar movements, sister-city contacts and foreign cultural figures as particularly important targets for Soviet propaganda.

''When carrying out propaganda measures abroad, the forms and methods of the information-propaganda work and its concrete contents must be approved by the Soviet Embassy and take into account the Soviet Union's relationship with the given country,'' the document says.

A Three-Decade BondIn July, Yaroslavl officials formally allowed the sister-city relationship to go ahead, reflecting approval from Moscow. Mr. Sanders sent an electronic message to a Soviet cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space and the head of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Contacts, thanking her for ''expediting this process.''

''I believe that sister city programs like the Yaroslavl Burlington one, will help improve Soviet American relations and develop a more peaceful world,'' Mr. Sanders wrote.

The sister city program was something of a capstone to nearly a decade's worth of foreign policy activism in Burlington City Hall. As mayor, Mr. Sanders championed a range of international causes that often aligned him with left-wing movements and leaders in other countries, and against the Reagan administration, which he described as pursuing a strategy of military escalation that risked setting off a nuclear war.

Mr. Sanders pressed the city government to take positions against American intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and against the invasion of Grenada. In 1985, he visited Managua for the sixth anniversary of the Sandinista revolution and met with its leader, Daniel Ortega.

Mr. Sanders personally managed the Soviet delegation's visit to Burlington in October to sign the sister-city agreement, holding at least three phone calls with Yaroslavl officials and transmitting a detailed program covering seven days. There was a pilgrimage to the ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's, where co-founder Ben Cohen told the Soviet officials they could have anything they liked in the gift shop, a delegation member, Yuri Novikov, recalled in an interview.

While the Yaroslavl documents show the Soviets to be planning a propaganda effort in Burlington, Mr. Casca, the Sanders campaign spokesman, said the reality was different when the Yaroslavl delegation arrived in Vermont in October 1988.

''Reporting at the time is clear, rather than propaganda, officials on both sides discussed the limitations of the Soviet system and their common desire to avoid nuclear war,'' Mr. Casca said.

Three decades later, amid reports that the Kremlin was looking favorably upon Mr. Sanders's presidential candidacy (as well as Mr. Trump's), the Burlington-Yaroslavl relationship lives on in an era of renewed tensions between Washington and Moscow.

In February, the Yaroslavl Bears amateur hockey team played in an annual Burlington pond hockey tournament; Yaroslavl officials said the U.S. Embassy in Moscow made a special effort to arrange the team's visas in time.

Some of the Yaroslavl residents involved in the relationship with Burlington still look back wistfully at the heady circumstances of Mr. Sanders's visit in 1988 '-- a time when the Iron Curtain was starting to crumble, the Soviet Union seemed poised for democratic change, and interactions with Americans felt new and fascinating.

Mr. Novikov, a former head of the Yaroslavl Medical Institute who by his count made 10 trips to Burlington, said he had seen on TV that Mr. Sanders did not want Russians interfering in the campaign. In Mr. Novikov's view, the goal of a President Sanders should be, at the least, to restore the level of cooperation that existed in the last years of the Cold War.

At times, Mr. Sanders's global orientation as mayor stirred some resentment at home, with complaints that he was wasting time on international matters that had little to do with Burlington.

But Mr. Sanders's argument then for the value of what he was doing echoes themes from his campaign speeches now.

Just before the Russia trip, Mr. Sanders told the board of aldermen, Burlington's municipal legislature, that he hoped it would reduce the risk of armed conflict.

''We cannot have a good police, fire or planning department if there is a nuclear war,'' Mr. Sanders said, according to official minutes of the meeting. ''The enormous spending on the military by both countries strangles their local economies.''

Alexander Burns contributed reporting from New York, and Oleg Matsnev contributed research from Moscow.

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 22:58

This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( November 2019 )

The following political parties, and independent candidates, currently have ballot access to less than 270 electoral votes. These parties and/or their nominees will need to conduct ballot access drives (or run write-in campaigns) in order to have a theoretical chance of winning the election. Ballot access deadlines vary from state to state, with the latest deadlines falling in September 2020.[1]

Minor party and independent presidential candidates for the 2020 presidential election Declared candidates Edit Seeking party's nomination

PartyPresidential nomineeVice presidential nomineeAttainable Electors(write-in)States with ballot access(write-in)Ref.American Solidarity Party Brian CarrollEducator from California

Amar PatelChairman of the American Solidarity Party from Illinois

(53)(Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon,[2] Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont[3])[4][5]Bread and Roses Jerome SegalPhilosopher from Maryland

TBA10Maryland[6]Constitution Party Don BlankenshipCoal executive from West Virginia

TBA137Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming[7][8]Independent Mark CharlesActivist from the District of Columbia

TBATBDTBD[9]Party for Socialism and Liberation Gloria La RivaActivist from California

Leonard PeltierActivist from Florida

TBDTBD[10]Peace and Freedom Party Howie HawkinsCo-founder of the Green Party from New York

TBASee Green presidential primaries[11]Peace and Freedom Party Gloria La RivaActivist from California

Leonard PeltierActivist from Florida

See Party for Socialism and Liberation[12]Prohibition Party Phil CollinsFormer Libertyville Township Trustee from Nevada

Billy Joe ParkerActivist from Georgia

6Mississippi[13][14]Independent("ACE Party")

Pete AccetturoYouTube personality from Florida

Elon Musk (Satirical)Entrepreneur from California

TBDTBD[15][16]Socialist Action Jeff MacklerActivist from California

Heather BradfordPublic school teacher from Minnesota

TBDTBD[17]Socialist Alternative Bernie SandersU.S. senator from Vermont

TBASee Democratic presidential primaries[18]Socialist Equality Party Joseph KishoreNational Secretary of the SEP from Michigan

Norissa Santa Cruz Activist from California

TBDTBD[19]Socialist Party USA Howie HawkinsCo-founder of the Green Party from New York

TBASee Green presidential primaries[20]Socialist Workers Party Alyson Kennedy Mineworker and Labor Leader from Texas

Malcolm Jarrett Activist from PennsylvaniaTBDTBD[21][22]Solidarity Howie HawkinsCo-founder of the Green Party from New York

TBASee Green presidential primaries[23]Vermont Progressive Party Bernie SandersU.S. senator from Vermont

TBASee Democratic presidential primaries[24]Notable people who have announced that they are running for president in 2020 as independent or minor party candidates but have not established campaign websites are:

Perry Caravello, actor and comedian from California[25]Withdrawn candidates Edit Jeremy Gable, playwright and game designer (Independent)[26]Ronnie Kroell, fashion model, actor, and singer (Independent)[27]Darcy Richardson, author, historian, and political activist (Reform Party)[28][unreliable source ] [29]Joe Schriner, activist and journalist (American Solidarity Party)[30][31] (running as an Independent)[citation needed ].Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator from Massachusetts (Working Families Party)[32][33]Publicly expressed interest Edit Individuals in this section have expressed an interest in running for president as an independent candidate within the last six months.

Edward W. Stack, CEO of Dick's Sporting Goods[34]Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota (1999''2003); Mayor of Brooklyn Park (1991''1995)[35]Declined Edit Mark Cuban, businessman and investor from Texas[36]Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. representative from HI-02 (2013''present)[37] (running for Democratic nomination)Howard Schultz, former chairman of Starbucks from Washington[38]Marianne Williamson, spiritual/self-help author[39] (ran for Democratic nomination) (endorsed Sanders)[40]Andrew Yang, entrepreneur, tech executive[41] (ran for Democratic nomination)See also Edit 2020 Republican Party presidential candidates2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates2020 Libertarian Party presidential candidates2020 Green Party presidential candidates2020 Constitution Party presidential candidatesTimeline of the 2020 United States presidential electionReferences Edit ^ Winger, Richard (August 1, 2019). "2020 Petitioning for President". Ballot Access News . Retrieved September 30, 2019 . ^ "Election Law Summary" (PDF) . Oregon Secretary of State. Elections Division. p. 14 . Retrieved October 19, 2016 . Oregon voters have the option of not voting for any of the candidates for office who are printed on the ballot, but instead writing in a name of a candidate for each office. All write-in votes for each office on the ballot are tallied together with a lump sum recorded unless: 1 No names of candidates are printed on the ballot for the office; or 2 If the total number of write-in votes for candidates equals or exceeds the total number of votes for any candidate for the same nomination or office. In these two circumstances, the county clerk tallies all write-in votes cast for the office to show the total number of votes for each write-in candidate. ^ "Ballot access for presidential candidates". Ballotpedia . Retrieved October 8, 2019 . ^ "FEC Form 2" (PDF) . FEC.gov. ^ Carroll, Brian (April 2, 2019). "April 5, 2019 Preview". YouTube . Retrieved April 15, 2019 . ^ Chason, Rachel (August 28, 2019). "Jerome Segal, of Maryland socialist Bread and Roses party, to run for president". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 3, 2019 . ^ "Ballot Access". constitutionparty.com. 2018 . Retrieved November 1, 2019 . ^ Winger, Richard (October 20, 2019). "Don Blankenship declares for Constitution Party presidential nomination". Ballot Access News. ^ Bennet-Begay, Jourdan (May 30, 2019). " ' Y't't(C)(C)h ... I am running for president ' ". IndianCountryToday.com. ^ La Riva, Gloria (September 25, 2019). "Party for Socialism and Liberation launches 2020 presidential campaign". Party for Socialism and Liberation . Retrieved September 27, 2019 . ^ "Election 2020: Introducing Howie Hawkins, candidate for PFP presidential nomination". News. Peace and Freedom Party. November 9, 2019 . Retrieved December 18, 2019 . ^ "Election 2020: Introducing Gloria La Riva, candidate for PFP presidential nomination". News. Peace and Freedom Party. November 9, 2019 . Retrieved December 18, 2019 . ^ "Political parties in Mississippi". ballotpedia.org . Retrieved October 16, 2019 . ^ "Presidential Candidate". prohibitionparty.org . Retrieved October 16, 2019 . ^ "FEC - Presidential Candidates". FEC.gov. ^ Accetturo, Pete (March 5, 2019). "Announcing my Vice President..." YouTube . Retrieved January 11, 2020 . ^ Baker, Nick (May 11, 2019). "Socialist Action launches 2020 presidential campaign". Socialist Action . Retrieved September 8, 2019 . ^ Sawant, Kshama (February 20, 2020). "Let's Use Bernie's 2020 Campaign to Launch a Mass Working Class Fightback" . Retrieved July 26, 2019 . ^ WSWS Reporters (January 29, 2020). "SEP presidential candidate Joseph Kishore opens 2020 campaign with address to students and supporters in Michigan". World Socialist Web Site . Retrieved February 13, 2020 . ^ Socialist Party USA [@SPofUSA] (October 26, 2019). "The Socialist Party is excited to announce Howie Hawkins as its presidential nominee for the 2020 election!" (Tweet) . Retrieved October 26, 2019 '' via Twitter. ^ "Meet the SWP candidates: Alyson Kennedy & Malcolm Jarrett" (Vol. 85. No. 5). The Militant. February 1, 2020 . Retrieved February 16, 2020 . ^ Shinneman, Shawn (February 5, 2020). "Behold the Dallas-Based Underdog Candidate of the 2020 Presidential Election". D Magazine . Retrieved February 16, 2020 . ^ Hawkins, Howie. "Howie Hawkins for President". solidartiy-us.org . Retrieved November 2, 2019 . ^ VT Progressive Party (February 10, 2020). "We are proud to once again endorse @BernieSanders for President! The @progparty & coalition of prog activists who founded our movement have supported Sanders in every election since he first ran for Mayor of #btv. Please join us in supporting him every way you can. #vtpoli #vtpic.twitter.com/ptkmbfutuA". @progparty . Retrieved February 12, 2020 . ^ "The 213th Podcast". Simply Don. ^ "HEY, JEREMY GABLE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT - committee overview". FEC.gov. ^ Kroell, Ronnie. "Ronnie Friend Kroell was live". Facebook . Retrieved August 27, 2019 . ^ Richardson, Darcy (September 10, 2019). "Florida Reform Party Chair Joe Wendt Announces POTUS Bid". independentpoliticalreport.com. ^ Darcy G. Richardson (July 15, 2019). "FEC FORM 2" (PDF) . Retrieved September 7, 2019 . ^ Schriner, Joe. "Declaration Speech 2020". Average Joe "The Painter" Schriner for President 2020 . Retrieved February 9, 2019 . ^ "Brian Carroll Nomination Acceptance". YouTube. September 16, 2019 . Retrieved December 9, 2019 . ^ "Working Families Party Endorses Elizabeth Warren for President". Working Families Party. September 16, 2019 . Retrieved November 8, 2019 . ^ Thompson, Alex (March 5, 2020). "Elizabeth Warren drops out". Politico . Retrieved March 6, 2020 . ^ Korecki, Natasha (October 23, 2019). "Dick's Sporting Goods CEO quietly tests presidential bid". Politico . Retrieved February 20, 2020 . ^ Rodrigo, Chris Mills (September 30, 2019). "Jesse Ventura considering run for president as independent". The Hill . Retrieved September 30, 2019 . ^ Ganesh Setty (September 30, 2019). "Mark Cuban says he needs permission to run for president: 'My family voted it down ' ". CNBC . Retrieved October 4, 2019 . ^ Merica, Dan (October 18, 2019). "Hillary Clinton suggests Russians are 'grooming' Tulsi Gabbard for third-party run". CNN . Retrieved October 19, 2019 . ^ Stracqualursi, Veronica (September 6, 2019). "Howard Schultz drops plans to run as independent candidate in 2020". CNN . Retrieved September 6, 2019 . ^ Garcia, Victor (October 17, 2019). "Marianne Williamson rules out third party run, vows to get behind Democratic nominee". Fox News. ^ Perano, Ursula (February 24, 2020). "Marianne Williamson endorses Bernie Sanders". Axios . Retrieved February 24, 2020 . ^ Amy B. Wang (October 21, 2019). "Andrew Yang rules out minor party or independent run if he's not the Democratic nominee". The Washington Post.

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The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States best known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is the oldest existing third party in the US and the third longest active party. The party is an integral part of the temperance movement. While never one of the leading parties in the United States, it was once an important force in the Third Party System during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It declined dramatically after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 with 1948 being the last time its presidential candidate received over 100,000 votes and 1976 being the last time it received over 10,000 votes.

The platform of the party is liberal in that it supports environmental stewardship and free education, but is conservative on social issues, such as supporting temperance and advocating for an anti-abortion stance.[1]

History Edit National Prohibition Convention, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1892

In 1869 the Prohibition Party was founded in Chicago, Illinois with John Russell serving as its first national committee chairman and James Black serving as president of the convention.[2] The party was the first to accept women as members and gave those who attended full delegate rights.[3][4][5] Women's suffrage appeared on the Prohibition Party platform in 1872, the Republican and Democratic parties would not add it to their platforms until 1916, and the 1892 platform included the idea of equal pay for equal work.

In 1884 election the party nominated John St. John, the former Republican governor of Kansas, who with the support from Frances Willard and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union saw the party 147,482 votes for 1.50% of the popular vote. However, the party was accused of spoiling the election due to Grover Cleveland's margin of victory over James G. Blaine in New York being less than John's vote total there.[6] In 1888 the party's presidential nominee, Clinton B. Fisk, was accused of being a possible spoiler candidate that would prevent Benjamin Harrison from winning, but Harrison won the election although without winning the national popular vote.[7]

The party suffered a schism at the 1896 Prohibition convention between the narrow gauger faction which only supported having an alcoholic prohibition plank in the party's platform and the broad gauger faction which supported the addition of free silver and women's suffrage. After the narrow gaugers successfully chose the presidential ticket and the party platform the broad gaugers performed a walkout lead by former presidential nominee John St. John, Nebraska state chairman Charles Eugene Bentley, and suffragette Helen M. Gougar and created the breakaway National Party and nominated a rival ticket with Bentley as president and James H. Southgate as vice president.[8] The Prohibition party ticket of Joshua Levering and Hale Johnson had the worst popular vote performance since Neal Dow's 10,364 votes in 1880, but still outperformed the National Party's 13,968 votes. Following the 1896 election most of the members of the National Party became disillusioned with party and returned to the Prohibition party.[9]

At the same time, its ideology broadened to include aspects of progressivism. The party contributed to the third-party discussions of the 1910s and sent Charles H. Randall to the 64th, 65th and 66th Congresses as the representative of California's 9th congressional district. Democrat Sidney J. Catts of Florida, after losing a close Democratic primary, used the Prohibition line to win election as Governor of Florida in 1916; he remained a Democrat.

In 1919 the party achieved its goal with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed the production, sale, transportation, import and export of alcohol. The era during which alcohol was illegal in the United States is known as "Prohibition".

During the Prohibition era, the Prohibition Party pressed for stricter enforcement of the prohibition laws. During the 1928 election the party considered endorsing Republican Herbert Hoover rather than running its own candidate and risking spoiling the election and allowing Al Smith, who supported ending prohibition, to get election. However, the party chose to nominate William F. Varney due to their feeling that Hoover was not strict enough on prohibition.[10][11] The Prohibition Party became even more critical of Hoover after he was elected President. By the 1932 election, party chairman David Leigh Colvin thundered that "The Republican wet plank, supporting the repeal of Prohibition, means that Mr. Hoover is the most conspicuous turncoat since Benedict Arnold."[12] Hoover lost the election, but national prohibition was repealed anyway in 1933, with the 21st Amendment during the Roosevelt administration.

Post World War II Edit The Prohibition Party has faded into obscurity since World War II. When it briefly changed its name to the "National Statesman Party" in 1977 (it reversed the change in 1980), Time magazine suggested that it was "doubtful" that the name change would "hoist the party out of the category of political oddity".[13]

The Prohibition Party has continued running presidential candidates every four years, but its vote totals have steadily dwindled. It last received more than 100,000 votes for president in 1948, and the 1976 election was the last time the party received more than 10,000 votes.

The Prohibition Party experienced a schism in 2003, as the party's prior presidential candidate, Earl Dodge, incorporated a rival party called the National Prohibition Party in Colorado.[14][15] An opposing faction nominated Gene C. Amondson for President and filed under the Prohibition banner in Louisiana. Dodge ran under the name of the historic Prohibition Party in Colorado,[16] while the Concerns of People Party allowed Amondson to run on its line against Dodge.[17] Amondson received 1,944 votes, nationwide, while Dodge garnered 140.

One key area of disagreement between the factions was over who should control payments from a trust fund dedicated to the Prohibition Party by George Pennock in 1930.[18] The fund pays approximately $8,000 per year, and during the schism these funds were divided between the factions.[19] Dodge died in 2007, allowing the dispute over the Pennock funds to finally be resolved in 2014.[20] The party is reported as having only "three dozen fee-paying members".[21]

In 2015 the party rejoined the board of the Coalition for Free and Open Elections] and became a qualified political party in Mississippi.[22][23] In the 2016 election, the party nominated James Hedges and qualified for the ballot in three states, Arkansas, Colorado, and Mississippi, and earned 5,514 votes becoming the most successful Prohibition presidential candidate since 1988.

The party met via telephone conference in November 2018 to nominate its 2020 presidential ticket. Bill Bayes of Mississippi, the 2016 Vice-Presidential nominee, was nominated for President on the first ballot over Adam Seaman of Massachusetts and Phil Collins of Nevada. Conservative activist C.L. "Connie" Gammon of Tennessee was nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate without opposition.[24] Bayes, who was a neo-Confederate activist espousing the view that each state was sovereign and that the United States was only a voluntary confederation of states, resigned as the nominee, accusing some party activists of sabotaging his run because they opposed his views.[25] As a result, another telephone conference call was held in March 2019, resulting in the nominations of C.L. Gammon for Presidential and conservative activist Phil Collins for Vice Presidential.[26] Gammon was forced to resign as the nominee in August 2019 due to health problems, and the party held a third telephone conference that month to select a new ticket: Phil Collins for President and Billy Joe Parker of Georgia for Vice President.[27] Like Bayes, Parker is a vocal Confederate heritage activist, although Parker removed all the Confederate heritage images and memes from his Facebook page after being nominated.[28]

Electoral history Edit Presidential campaigns Edit The Prohibition Party has nominated a candidate for president in every election since 1872, and is thus the longest-lived American political party after the Democrats and Republicans.

Prohibition Party National Conventions and CampaignsYearNo.Convention Site & CityDatesPresidential nomineeVice-Presidential nomineeVotesVotes %18721stComstock's Opera House, Columbus, OhioFeb. 22, 1872James Black (Pennsylvania)John Russell (Michigan)5,6070.118762ndHalle's Hall, Cleveland, OhioMay 17, 1876Green Clay Smith (Kentucky)Gideon T. Stewart (Ohio)6,9450.0818803rdJune 17, 1880Neal Dow (Maine)Henry Adams Thompson (Ohio)10,3640.1118844thLafayette Hall, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaJuly 23''24, 1884John P. St. John (Kansas)William Daniel (Maryland)147,4821.5018885thTomlinson Hall, Indianapolis, IndianaMay 30''31, 1888Clinton B. Fisk (New Jersey)John A. Brooks (Missouri)249,8192.2018926thMusic Hall, Cincinnati, OhioJune 29''30, 1892John Bidwell (California)James B. Cranfill (Texas)270,8792.2418967thExposition Hall, PittsburghMay 27''28, 1896Joshua Levering (Maryland)Hale Johnson (Illinois)131,3120.94[7th]PittsburghMay 28, 1896Charles Eugene Bentley (Nebraska)James H. Southgate (N. Car.)13,9680.1019008thFirst Regiment Armory, Chicago, IllinoisJune 27''28, 1900John G. Woolley (Illinois)Henry B. Metcalf (Rhode Island)210,8641.5119049thTomlinson Hall, IndianapolisJune 29 to July 1, 1904Silas C. Swallow (Pennsylvania)George W. Carroll (Texas)259,1021.92190810thMemorial Hall, ColumbusJuly 15''16, 1908Eugene W. Chafin (Illinois)Aaron S. Watkins (Ohio)254,0871.71191211thon a large temporary pier, Atlantic City, New JerseyJuly 10''12, 1912208,1561.38191612thSt. Paul, MinnesotaJuly 19''21, 1916J. Frank Hanly (Indiana)Rev. Dr. Ira Landrith (Tennessee)221,3021.19192013thLincoln, NebraskaJuly 21''22, 1920Aaron S. Watkins (Ohio)D. Leigh Colvin (New York)188,7870.71192414thMemorial Hall, ColumbusJune 4''6, 1924Herman P. Faris (Missouri)Marie C. Brehm (California)55,9510.19192815thHotel LaSalle, ChicagoJuly 10''12, 1928William F. Varney (New York)James A. Edgerton20,1010.05[15th][California ticket]Herbert Hoover (California)Charles Curtis (Kansas)14,394193216thCadle Tabernacle, IndianapolisJuly 5''7, 1932William D. Upshaw (Georgia)Frank S. Regan (Illinois)81,9050.21193617thState Armory Building, Niagara Falls, New YorkMay 5''7, 1936D. Leigh Colvin (New York)Alvin York (Tennessee) (declined); Claude A. Watson (California)37,6590.08194018thChicagoMay 8''10, 1940Roger W. Babson (Mass.)Edgar V. Moorman (Illinois)57,9250.12194419thIndianapolisNov. 10''12, 1943Claude A. Watson (California)Floyd C. Carrier (Maryland) (withdrew); Andrew N. Johnson (Kentucky)74,7580.16194820thWinona Lake, IndianaJune 26''28, 1947Dale H. Learn (Pennsylvania)103,7080.21195221stIndianapolisNov. 13''15, 1951Stuart Hamblen (California)Enoch A. Holtwick (Illinois)73,4120.12195622ndCamp Mack, Milford, IndianaSept. 4''6, 1955Enoch A. Holtwick (Illinois)Herbert C. Holdridge (California) (withdrew); Edwin M. Cooper (California)41,9370.07196023rdWestminster Hotel, Winona LakeSept. 1''3, 1959Rutherford Decker (Missouri)E. Harold Munn (Michigan)46,2030.07196424thPick Congress Hotel, ChicagoAugust 26''27, 1963E. Harold Munn (Michigan)Mark R. Shaw (Massachusetts)23,2670.03196825thYWCA, Detroit, Mich.June 28''29, 1968Rolland E. Fisher (Kansas)15,1230.02197226thNazarene Church Building, Wichita, KansasJune 24''25, 1971Marshall E. Uncapher (Kansas)13,4970.02197627thBeth Eden Baptist Church Bldg, Wheat Ridge, Colo.June 26''27, 1975Benjamin C. Bubar (Maine)Earl F. Dodge (Colorado)15,9320.02198028thMotel Birmingham, Birmingham, AlabamaJune 20''21, 19797,2060.01198429thMandan, North DakotaJune 22''24, 1983Earl Dodge (Colorado)Warren C. Martin (Kansas)4,2430.00198830thHeritage House, Springfield, IllinoisJune 25''26, 1987George Ormsby (Pennsylvania)8,0020.01199231stMinneapolis, MinnesotaJune 24''26, 19919610.00199632ndDenver, Colorado1995Rachel Bubar Kelly (Maine)1,2980.00200033rdBird-in-Hand, PennsylvaniaJune 28''30, 1999W. Dean Watkins (Arizona)2080.00200434thFairfield Glade, TennesseeFebruary 1, 2004Gene Amondson (Washington)Leroy Pletten (Michigan)1,9440.00[34th]Lakewood, ColoradoAugust 2003Earl Dodge (Colorado)Howard Lydick (Texas)1400.00200835thAdam's Mark Hotel, IndianapolisSept. 13''14, 2007Gene Amondson (Washington)Leroy Pletten (Michigan)6550.00201236thHoliday Inn Express, Cullman, AlabamaJune 20''22, 2011Jack Fellure (West Virginia)Toby Davis (Mississippi)5180.00201637thConference call[29][30]July 31, 2015James Hedges (Pennsylvania)Bill Bayes (Mississippi)5,617[31]0.00202038thConference call[32]August 24, 2019Phil Collins (Nevada)Billy Joe Parker (Georgia)N/AHouse Edit YearNumber of candidatesVotesChange1938268,499 (0.02%) 19404862,504 (0.13%) 0.11%19422725,413 (0.09%) 0.04%19445035,782 (0.08%) 0.01%19464347,792 (0.14%) 0.06%19484232,648 (0.07%) 0.07%19504234,761 (0.09%) 0.02%19524938,664 (0.07%) 0.02%1954178,591 (0.02%) 0.05%19562012,298 (0.02%) 1958228,816 (0.02%) 1960244,841 (0.01%) 0.01%1962317,171 (0.03%) 0.02%196412,238 (0.00%) 0.03%196600 (0.00%) 19681351 (0.00%) 1972710,902 (0.02%) 0.02%197458,387 (0.02%) 197633,141 (0.00%) 0.02%197819,992 (0.02%) 0.02%198057,992 (0.01%) 0.01%198211,724 (0.00%) 0.01%198415,942 (0.01%) 0.01%Notable Members Edit The Drunkard's Progress: A lithograph by

Nathaniel Currier supporting the temperance movement, January 1846

Marie C. Brehm '' vice presidential candidate in 1924 '' first legally qualified woman ever to be nominated for vice president[33]Susanna Madora Salter - First female mayor in the United States in Argonia, Kansas in 1887[34]Frances Willard - One of the founders of the WCTU. It is often forgotten that Willard made great advances before her involvement in the temperance movement. In 1871 she became the first female president of a college that granted degrees to women: Evanston College. She helped found the Association for the Advancement of Women in 1873 before she began her work in the temperance movement in 1874. After founding the WCTU, she became the first corresponding secretary. In 1879, she became the second president of the WCTU. During her 19 years as president, the WCTU became the largest organization of women in the United States. In 1883, she helped found the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Under her leadership, the WCTU advocated not only for temperance, but also for women's suffrage, equal pay for equal work, the eight-hour workday, world peace, and the protection of women and children in the workplace, among other things. The WCTU also created shelters for victims of abuse and free kindergartens.[35] She later became the first woman ever to be featured in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol[36] and was honored in 2000 by the National Women's Hall of Fame.[35]Emily Pitts Stevens joined the Prohibition Party in 1882, and led the movement, in 1888, to induce the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to endorse that party.[37]Sidney Johnston Catts - Governor of Florida (1917''1921)Charles Hiram Randall - California State Assemblyman (1911''12) and U.S. Representative from the 9th District of California (1915''21)James Hedges - elected as Thompson Township, Pennsylvania Tax Assessor in 2002 and served until 2007. He is the only Prohibition Party office holder of the 21st century.[38]Platform Edit The Prohibition Party platform, as listed on the party's web site in 2018, includes the following points:[39]

A non-interventionist foreign policyEliminating conscription in times of peaceOpposition to military action that violates Just War principlesFair tradeUse of human rights considerations in determining most favored nation statusAbolition of the United States Federal Reserve and re-establishment of the Bank of the United StatesStrict laws against usuryA "strict interpretation" of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution that includes a right to use arms for defense and sportRight to workBlue laws prohibiting employers in all fields except public safety from requiring employees to work on the SabbathA fully funded Social Security systemA Balanced Budget AmendmentIncreased spending on public works projectsOpposition of government financial interference in, or aid to, commerceDefinition of marriage as only between one man and one womanSupport for voluntary prayer in public schoolsOpposition to attempts to remove religion from the public squareRecognition of the contributions of immigrants to the United StatesA generous policy of asylum for people facing persecution or living in inhumane conditionsFree college education for all AmericansJob training programs paid for by tariffsPro-lifeOpposition to capital punishmentOpposition to physician-assisted suicideOpposition to testing on animalsProhibition on use of animals in sportProhibition on gambling and abolition of all state lotteriesOpposition to pornographyProhibition of all non-medicinal drugs, including alcohol and tobaccoCampaigns to promote temperanceChairman Edit In 1867 John Russell became the first chairman of the Prohibition party with Earl Dodge serving the longest for twenty four years and Gregory Seltzer serving the shortest for one year.[40]

1867-1872: John Russell1872-1876: Simeon B. Chase1876-1880: James Black1880-1884: Gideon T. Stewart1884-1887: John B. Finch1887-1900: Samuel Dickie1900-1905: Oliver W. Stewart1905-1908: Charles R. Jones1908-1924: Virgil G. Hinshaw1924-1925: B.E.P. Prugh1925-1932: D. Leigh Colvin1932-1947: Edward E. Blake1947-1950: Virgil C. Finnell1950-1953: Gerald Overholt1953-1955: Lowell H. Coate1955-1971: E. Harold Munn1971-1979: Charles Wesley Ewing1979-2003: Earl Dodge2003-2005: Don Webb2005-2009: Gene Amondson2009-2013: Toby Davis2013-2014: Gregory Seltzer2014-2019: Rick Knox2019-present: Randy McNuttSee also Edit Primary sources Edit Black, James. Is There a Necessity for a Prohibition Party? (National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1876.)[41]References Edit ^ Lopez, German (October 28, 2016). "There's a Prohibition Party candidate running for president in 2016". Vox . Retrieved October 25, 2018 . ^ "Hon. James Black Dead". Lancaster Intelligencer. December 20, 1893. p. 3. Archived from the original on December 15, 2019 '' via Newspapers.com. ^ "Give the Ladies a Chance: Gender and Partisanship in the Prohibition Party, 1869''1912". Journal of Women's History 2: 137 ^ Gillespie, J. David. Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in the American Two-Party System. 2012. p. 47 ^ "Our Campaigns - Container Detail Page". Archived from the original on February 5, 2016 . Retrieved January 29, 2016 . ^ "John P. St. John Is Gone". The Garnett Review. September 7, 1916. p. 2. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019 '' via Newspapers.com. ^ "The Prohibition Candidate". The Times. June 3, 1888. p. 4. Archived from the original on December 20, 2019 '' via Newspapers.com. ^ "St. John Bolts". The Topeka State Journal. May 29, 1896. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 18, 2019 '' via Newspapers.com. ^ "Gov. John Pierce St. John". ^ "Prohis Select William Varney". Statesman Journal. July 13, 1928. p. 1. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019 '' via Newspapers.com. ^ "National Affairs: Men of Principle". Time. September 10, 1928. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010 . Retrieved May 22, 2010 . ^ "National Affairs: In Cadle Tabernacle". Time. July 18, 1932. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010 . Retrieved May 22, 2010 . ^ "Americana: Time to Toast the Party?". Time. November 7, 1977. Archived from the original on October 22, 2010 . Retrieved May 22, 2010 . ^ Pitkin, Ryan (October 13, 2004). "Beyond Bush, Kerry & Nader". Creative Loafing Charlotte. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ The National Prohibitionist, 6/2003, p. 1 ^ "CO US President Race - Nov 02, 2004". Our Campaigns. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ The National Prohibitionist, 11/2004, p. 1. ^ "Internal Prohibition Party Battle Has Court Hearing on January 16". Ballot Access News. January 15, 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2016 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ "Ballot Access News - March 1, 2006". Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ "Prohibition Party Now to Receive Full Pennock Trust Income". October 19, 2014. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017 . Retrieved July 12, 2017 . ^ "A sobering alternative? Prohibition party back on the ticket this election" Archived 2016-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, May 11, 2016. ^ "Prohibition Party Rejoins Board of Coalition for Free & Open Elections". October 25, 2015. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. ^ "Prohibition Party Now a Qualified Party in Mississippi". December 11, 2015. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. ^ "Prohibition Party Nominates National Ticket for 2020 | Ballot Access News". ^ Gunzburger, Ron. "Politics1 - Director of U.S. Political Parties". politics1.com. ^ Makeley, Jonathan (April 15, 2019). "Prohibition National Committee Meets, Gammon and Collins Selected as Presidential Ticket". Independent Political Report . Retrieved April 27, 2019 . ^ Makeley, Jonathan (August 24, 2019). "Prohibition Party Nominates New Ticket, Selects New Chairman". ^ "Billy Parker". www.facebook.com. ^ Winger, Richard (May 7, 2015). "Prohibition Party Cancels Presidential Convention and Instead will Nominate by Direct Vote of Members". Ballot Access News. Archived from the original on June 8, 2015 . Retrieved June 8, 2015 . ^ "Prohibition Party Nominates National Ticket". Ballot Access News. July 31, 2015. Archived from the original on August 3, 2015 . Retrieved August 3, 2015 . ^ "2016 Election Results: President Live Map by State, Real-Time Voting Updates". Election Hub. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017 . Retrieved July 12, 2017 . ^ "Prohibition Party Nominates New Ticket, Selects New Chairman". August 24, 2019 . Retrieved October 26, 2019 . ^ "Prohibitionists Historical Vote Record". Prohibitionists.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ "Susanna Madora Salter - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society". KSHS. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . ^ a b "Frances E. Willard". 2000. National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved on November 18, 2014 from [1]. Archived August 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine ^ Gillespie, J. David. 2012. Challengers to Duopoly: Why Third Parties Matter in American Two-Party Politics. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press. P. 47 ^ Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. pp. 686''. ^ "Candidates". Archived from the original on October 12, 2015 . Retrieved January 29, 2016 . ^ "Prohibition Party | PLATFORM". prohibition . Retrieved February 7, 2019 . ^ "Outline of History". ^ "Is There a Necessity for a Prohibition Party? - James Black". Books.google.com. June 16, 2008 . Retrieved January 30, 2016 . Further reading Edit Andersen, Lisa, "From Unpopular to Excluded: Prohibitionists and the Ascendancy of a Democratic-Republican System, 1888''1912", Journal of Policy History, 24 (no. 2, 2012), pp. 288''318.Cherrington, Ernest Hurst, ed. Standard encyclopedia of the alcohol problem (5 vol. 1930).Colvin, David Leigh. Prohibition in the United States: a History of the Prohibition Party, and of the Prohibition Movement (1926))McGirr, Lisa. The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State (2015)Pegram, Thomas R. Battling demon rum: The struggle for a dry America, 1800''1933 (1998)External links Edit Official website Prohibition Partisan Historical Society (Official Website)Prohibition Party on FacebookProhibition Party on TwitterPartisan prophets; a history of the Prohibition Party, 1854''1972, Roger C. Storms

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Actress and activist Jane Fonda on Friday announced that she is endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders'Easy access' to Biden allowed protester to rush stage at rally The Memo: Biden poised for gains in next waves of primaries Vulnerable Republicans dodge questions on support for ObamaCare lawsuit MORE (I-Vt.) for president, citing his plans to tackle climate change.

''We have to get a climate president in office, and there's only one right now, and that's Bernie Sanders,'' Fonda said at a Los Angeles rally Friday, according to USA Today. ''So, I'm indirectly saying I believe you have to support the climate candidate.''

Fonda has emerged as an outspoken advocate of efforts to combat climate change, making appearances at weekly protests in Washington that often ended in her arrest.

Climate change is one of the top issues in the primary race, which has now narrowed to Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden Joe Biden'Easy access' to Biden allowed protester to rush stage at rally The Memo: Biden poised for gains in next waves of primaries Vulnerable Republicans dodge questions on support for ObamaCare lawsuit MORE as the top main candidates.

The Vermont lawmaker in August put out a sweeping climate plan that calls for the transition to relying solely on renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050. To push the transition forward, the proposal would create 20 million ''good paying, union jobs'' in several fields, including steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting and sustainable agriculture.

''This is a pivotal moment in the history of America, and really, in the history of humanity," Sanders said at the time. "The climate crisis is not only the single greatest challenge facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more just and equitable future, but we must act immediately."

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 23:11

MSNBC's

Brian Williams was mocked over math on social media after quoting a tweet claiming that former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg "could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over" during an interview with New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay.

The blowback comes two days after Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race. The billionaire had a dismal Super Tuesday showing that registered no wins in any of the 14 Super Tuesday states '-- although he did capture some delegates in the U.S. territory of American Samoa '-- despite spending more than $500 million on the race after jumping in last November.

''Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over, I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST," Williams said in quoting a tweet by journalist Mekita Rivas.

''It's an incredible way of putting it,'' Williams concluded.

''It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true,'' Gay added. ''It's disturbing.''

The U.S. population is currently 327 million people, which if evenly divided by $500 million comes to $1.53 per person.

The hashtag "BrianWilliams" quickly trended on Twitter Thursday night after the flub.

This is the saddest clip in TV history.pic.twitter.com/ruIFoAckom

'-- Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) March 6, 2020One way to get rich is to keep asking Brian Williams to give you two tens for a five. https://t.co/wOncG9FckQ

'-- Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) March 6, 2020This is the brainpower of #MSNBC#BrianWilliams & @MaraGay agree the $500m Bloomberg spent was"enough to give each American a $1M check"

This wasn't just a slip

It passed muster w/ producers & they even made a graphic#DamUDum pic.twitter.com/bPPMNmDFQn

'-- Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) March 6, 2020What do you do when you actually tell the world you're "bad at math", yet the biggest news organizations pick up your #Bloomberg #math tweet anyways and run with it on national tv?Not much choice but to lock it down.@msnbc @maragay #BrianWilliams @MekitaRivas #mekitarivas pic.twitter.com/S6pTSX0inb

'-- AGORACOM - George (@AGORACOM) March 6, 2020Williams apologized on the air after the segment out of a commercial break in self-deprecating fashion.

"While I have you both and our audience paying attention, turns out Mara and I got the same grades at math. I'm speaking of the tweet we both misinterpreted. He could give each American $1," he said. "Again, I didn't have it in high school. I don't have it tonight. I stand corrected. Sorry about that. The tweet is wrong."

Early Thursday, the official Twitter feed for "The 11th Hour" apologized for the error.

Tonight on the air we quoted a tweet that relied on bad math. We corrected the error after the next commercial break and have removed it from later editions of tonight's program. We apologize for the error.

'-- 11th Hour (@11thHour) March 6, 2020

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 07:20

A couple of recent data points highlights a purposeful plan where the DNC Club wants Bernie Sanders crushed this month, well ahead of the Milwaukee DNC convention.

Last night the New York Times posted a blistering expose' on Bernie, complete with journalists traveling to the former Soviet Union city of Yaroslavl Russia, to dig up opposition research they could deploy framing Senator Sanders as a comrade to Russian interests. The Times research team presented an 89-page ''Bernie Dossier'' of sorts.

NYT ['...] The New York Times examined 89 pages of letters, telegrams and internal Soviet government documents revealing in far greater detail the extent of Mr. Sanders's personal effort to establish ties between his city and a country many Americans then still considered an enemy despite the reforms being initiated at the time under Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary.

['...] The documents are part of a government archive in Yaroslavl, Russia, which became the sister city of Burlington. The files are open to the public, though archivists there said that, until now, no one had asked to see them. (more)

Interestingly, Comrade Sanders was a presidential candidate in 2016 competing against Hillary Clinton; but the New York Times didn't feel the need to track down the records during that campaign?'... But they did in 2020?'...

The most simple explanation for the lack of curiosity in 2016, and the decision to take the deeper, targeted dive in 2020, relates to the prior race holding a pre-determined outcome. However, this year, Bernie Sanders was/is considered an actual and viable threat to the interests of the Club itself.

Based on the abject scale of the media rallying around Joe Biden; and based on a very familiar lack of curiosity by those same media when Biden seemingly disappears from all visibility (like today); and based on the transparently visible assembly of all allied club forces against Bernie Sanders, well, the intents, motives and purposes are quite clear.

The Club wants Bernie eliminated with extreme prejudice and they want it done now; much sooner than could organically be accomplished. The end goal as it currently appears is total capitulation by the Sanders campaign quickly; and all forces are being brought down upon the candidate to achieve that goal.

In many ways it makes sense for the Club to attempt this now as they will need the maximum amount of time available to heal wounds and herd the unwieldy Bernie coalition into the tent of Joe Biden. Capturing and controlling Sanders' grassroots enthusiasm the Club needs to achieve their November objective is a very challenging task; and a DNC Convention battle against progressives is the worst case scenario. It simply cannot be allowed.

With that in mind another Club move today highlights a similar purpose.

The DNC Club, in coordination with their media allies, have been ignoring the final female candidate in the race, Tulsi Gabbard. Today the Club again changed the debate rules to ensure that Gabbard is not permitted any visibility or voice in the March 15th debate.

WASHINGTON DC '' The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Friday announced new qualifying standards for the upcoming Arizona debate that will leave only the top two contenders on stage.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) did not meet the single qualifying factor: earning at least 20 percent of the delegates awarded as of March 15.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden are the only candidates who have qualified for the debate, which will be hosted by CNN and Univision on March 15 in Phoenix. (more)

Notice the next debate is CNN.

Given the Club's prior use of CNN debates to leak advanced questions to Hillary Clinton in 2016 you can virtually guarantee the apparatus will go all-in to set-up Bernie Sanders in Arizona. The scripting and manipulation will be transparently obvious; and the media will ignore it completely.

Everything is pointing to the Club's intent to destroy Sanders between the Tuesday, March 10th primary races in Michigan (125 delegates), Idaho (20), Mississippi (36), Missouri (68), North Dakota (14), Washington State (89)'.... and the March 17th primary races in Florida (219), Illinois (155) and Ohio (136 delegates).

The Club is pulling out all the stops -targeting the psychology of Bernie supporters- to get rid of Sanders via complete campaign capitulation between March 10th and March 17th. That puts the debate on March 15th as a key inflection point.

Since Bernie's bone-headed praise of Cuban communism his support in Florida has dropped to a tenuous 12% total. That's not a typo, that's 12 percent total support for Bernie in Florida'... and that is below the 15% threshold for any delegates. Fidel Sanders might do slightly better with Warren out of the race, but that same poll has Joe biden with over 60 percent of the Florida Democrat vote.

Polling less than the minimum proportional threshold, with 219 delegates at stake, in a two person race, portends the possibility of a crushing defeat is possible on March 17th.

The Club wants Bernie gone now, this month, and the Club has the planets aligned to do just that'...

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 15:31

Federal law

The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, H.R. 3355, Pub.L. 103''322 is an Act of Congress dealing with crime and law enforcement; it became law in 1994. It is the largest crime bill in the history of the United States and consisted of 356 pages that provided for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs, which were designed with significant input from experienced police officers.[1] Sponsored by Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was originally written by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and then was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

Following the 101 California Street shooting, the 1993 Waco Siege, and other high-profile instances of violent crime, the Act expanded federal law in several ways. One of the most noted sections was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Other parts of the Act provided for a greatly expanded federal death penalty, new classes of individuals banned from possessing firearms, and a variety of new crimes defined in statutes relating to immigration law, hate crimes, sex crimes, and gang-related crime. The bill also required states to establish registries for sexual offenders by September 1997.

Provisions [ edit ] Federal Assault Weapons Ban [ edit ] Title XI-Firearms, Subtitle A-Assault Weapons, formally known as the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act but commonly known as the Federal Assault Weapons Ban or the Semi-Automatic Firearms Ban, barred the manufacture of 19 specific semi-automatic firearms, classified as "assault weapons", as well as any semi-automatic rifle, pistol, or shotgun capable of accepting a detachable magazine that has two or more features considered characteristic of such weapons. The list of such features included telescoping or folding stocks, pistol grips, flash suppressors, grenade launchers, and bayonet lugs.[2]

This law also banned possession of newly manufactured magazines holding more than ten rounds of ammunition.

The ban took effect September 13, 1994 and expired on September 13, 2004 by a sunset provision. Since the expiration date, there is no federal ban on the subject firearms or magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds of ammunition.

Federal Death Penalty Act [ edit ] Title VI, the Federal Death Penalty Act, created 60 new death penalty offenses under 41 federal capital statutes,[3] for crimes related to acts of terrorism, non-homicidal narcotics offenses, murder of a federal law enforcement officer, civil rights-related murders, drive-by shootings resulting in death, the use of weapons of mass destruction resulting in death, and carjackings resulting in death.

The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing occurred a few months after this law came into effect, and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 was passed in response, which further increased the federal death penalty. In 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed for the murder of eight federal law enforcement agents under that title.

Elimination of higher education for inmates [ edit ] One of the more controversial provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act overturned a section of the Higher Education Act of 1965 permitting prison inmates to receive a Pell Grant for higher education while they were incarcerated. The amendment is as follows:

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 401(b)(8) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a(b)(8)) is amended to read as follows:(8) No basic grant shall be awarded under this subpart to any individual who is incarcerated in any Federal or State penal institution.[4]

The VCCLEA effectively eliminated the ability of lower-income prison inmates to receive college educations during their term of imprisonment, thus ensuring the education level of most inmates remains unimproved over the period of their incarceration.[5]

There is growing advocacy for reinstating Pell Grant funding for all prisoners who would qualify despite their incarceration status.[6] Perhaps the most prominent statement has come from Donna F. Edwards along with several other members of the House of Representatives, who introduced the Restoring Education and Learning Act (REAL Act) in the spring of 2015. At the executive level, the Obama administration backed a program under development at the Department of Education to allow for a limited lifting of the ban for some prisoners, called the Second Chance Pell Pilot.[7] SpearIt has argued, "First, there are genuine penal and public benefits that derive from educating prisoners. Second, and perhaps more critically, revoking Pell funding fails to advance any of the stated purposes of punishment. In the decades since the VCCLEA's enactment, there is little indication that removing prisoners from Pell eligibility has produced tangible benefits; on the contrary, among other unfavorable outcomes, disqualifying prisoners may reduce public safety and exact severe social and financial costs."[8]

Violence Against Women Act [ edit ] Title IV, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), allocated $1.6 billion to help prevent and investigate violence against women. VAWA was renewed in 2000, 2005, and 2013. This includes:

The Safe Streets for Women Act, which increased federal penalties for repeat sex offenders and requires mandatory restitution for the medical and legal costs of sex crimes.The Safe Homes for Women Act increased federal grants for battered women's shelters, created a National Domestic Violence Hotline, and required for restraining orders of one state to be enforced by the other states. It also added a rape shield law to the Federal Rules of Evidence.Part of VAWA was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in United States v. Morrison (2000).

Driver's Privacy Protection Act [ edit ] Title XXX, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, governs the privacy and disclosure of personal information gathered by the states' Departments of Motor Vehicles. The law was passed in 1994; it was introduced by Jim Moran in 1992 after an increase in opponents of abortion rights using public driving license databases to track down and harass abortion providers and patients, most notably by both besieging Susan Wicklund's home for a month and following her daughter to school.[9]

Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act [ edit ] Under Title XVII,[10] known as the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, guidelines were established for states to track sex offenders.[11] States had also been required to track sex offenders by confirming their place of residence annually for ten years after their release into the community or quarterly for the rest of their lives if the sex offender was convicted of a violent sex crime.[11] The Wetterling Act was later amended in 1996 with Megan's Law, which permanently required states to give public disclosure of sex offenders.[11] In 2006, the Wetterling Act's state registers was replaced with a federal register through the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.[12]

[ edit ] Since 1994, the COPS Office has provided $30 billion in assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies to help hire community policing officers. The COPS Office also funds the research and development of guides, tools and training, and provides technical assistance to police departments implementing community policing principles.[13] The law authorized the COPS Office to hire 100,000 more police officers to patrol the nation's streets.[14]

Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive Grants Program [ edit ] Title II of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 provided incentive grants to build and expand correctional facilities to qualifying states that enforced mandatory sentencing of 85% of a person's sentence conviction. [15] [16] In 1998, twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia qualified for that Federal grant program. [15]

Other provisions [ edit ] The Act authorized the initiation of "boot camps" for delinquent minors and allocated a substantial amount of money to build new prisons.

Fifty new federal offenses were added, including provisions making membership in gangs a crime. Some argued[citation needed ] that these provisions violated the guarantee of freedom of association in the Bill of Rights. The Act did incorporate elements of H.R. 50 "Federal Bureau of Investigation First Amendment Protection Act of 1993" (into §2339A (c)) to prohibit investigations based purely on protected First Amendment activity, but this was effectively removed in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.[17]

The Act also generally prohibits individuals who have been convicted of a felony involving breach of trust from working in the business of insurance, unless they have received written consent from state regulators.

The Act also made drug testing mandatory for those serving on federal supervised release.

The Act prohibits "any person acting on behalf of a governmental authority, to engage in a pattern or practice ... that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." (Title XXI, Subtitle D.) Subtitle D further requires the United States Department of Justice to issue an annual report on "the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers." Such reports have not been issued, however.[18]

The Act included a three-strikes provision addressing repeat offenders.[19]

The Act expanded the scope of required FBI data to include hate crimes based on disability, and the FBI began collecting data on disability bias crimes on January 1, 1997.[20]

Legacy [ edit ] Total U.S. incarceration by year

The Act contributed to the mass incarceration and prison overcrowding. The legal system relied on plea bargains to minimize the increased case load.[21][22] Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton later expressed regret over the portions of the measure that led to increased prison population like the three strikes provision.[19][23] Nevertheless, it has been acknowledged that the COPS Office had at least a modest impact in maintaining a long period of reduction in crime that had begun in 1992,[14] but the primary reasons for this reduction remain a topic of debate.[14]

As a result of the aforementioned increase in incarceration, a disproportionate amount of minorities ended up within the American prison system.[24][25]

See also [ edit ] Incarceration in the United StatesUnited States incarceration rateComparison of United States incarceration rate with other countriesReferences [ edit ] ^ "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994". National criminal justice reference service. ^ Spitzer, Robert J. (2012). "Assault Weapons". In Carter, Gregg Lee (ed.). Guns in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 53. ISBN 0313386706. ^ "The Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994". Office of the United States Attorneys. Department of Justice . Retrieved 17 May 2013 . ^ "H. R. 1168". Bulk.Resource.Org. ^ "Education as Crime Prevention: The Case for Reinstating Pell Grant Eligibility for the Incarcerated" (PDF) . Bard Prison Initiative. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2007. ^ SpearIt (7 August 2017). "Uncertainty Ahead: Pell Grant Funding for Prisoners" '' via papers.ssrn.com. ^ "A Second Chance for an Education". U.S. Department of Education. 2016-06-24 . Retrieved 2016-06-30 . ^ SpearIt (2016-01-06). "Keeping It REAL: Why Congress Must Act to Restore Pell Grant Funding for Prisoners". University of Massachusetts Law Review. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. 11. SSRN 2711979 . ^ Miller, Michael W. (August 25, 1992). "Information Age: Debate Mounts Over Disclosure Of Driver Data". Wall Street Journal. ^ "42 U.S. Code § 14071 to 14073 - Repealed. Pub. L. 109''248, title I, § 129(a), July 27, 2006, 120 Stat. 600". LII / Legal Information Institute. ^ a b c "Legislative History - SMART Office". SMART website - Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). ^ http://www.smart.gov/pdfs/practitioner_guide_awa.pdf ^ "COPS History". Community Oriented Policing Services. ^ a b c https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/09/26/bill-clintons-claim-that-100000-cops-sent-the-crime-rate-way-down/ ^ a b 103rd Congress (1993-1994). "H.R.3355 - Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994". congress.gov. congress.gov . Retrieved 15 February 2020 . ^ Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Truth in Sentencing in State Prisons" (PDF) . Bureau of Justice Statistics. Bureau of Justice Statistics. p. 3 . Retrieved 15 February 2020 . ^ Dempsey, James; Cole, David (2006). Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties In The Name Of National Security (Scribd Online ed.). New York: New Press. p. 63 . Retrieved 9 September 2015 . ^ Serpico, Frank (October 23, 2014). "The Police Are Still Out of Control". Politico Magazine: 2 . Retrieved June 2, 2015 . ^ a b Vara, Vauhini (November 7, 2014). "Will California Again Lead the Way on Prison Reform?". The New Yorker . Retrieved 10 November 2014 . ^ "Hate crime statistics 1996" (PDF) . CJIS. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-09 . Retrieved 10 December 2009 . ^ Rohrlich, Justin (November 10, 2014). "Why Are There Up to 120,000 Innocent People in US Prisons?". VICE news . Retrieved 10 November 2014 . ^ "The controversial 1994 crime law that Joe Biden helped write, explained". Vox. June 20, 2019. ^ Hunt, Kasie (October 8, 2014). "Bill Clinton: Prison sentences to take center stage in 2016". MSNBC . Retrieved June 2, 2015 . ^ The Clintons' War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didn't Matter, By Donna Murch, The New Republic, February 9, 2016 ^ Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote, Michelle Alexander, The Nation, February 10, 2016 External links [ edit ] Full text of the Act

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 07:02

PUBLISHED: 19:44 07 March 2020 | UPDATED: 19:45 07 March 2020

Transport secretary Grant Shapps speaking on Sky News' Sophie Ridge On Sunday (Pic: Sky News)

Sky News

The aviation industry has criticised the government after transport secretary Grant Shapps said that the UK will leave the European aviation safety regulator after the Brexit transition period ends.

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Shapps confirmed that British membership of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will end on December 31.

The powers will revert to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), he said.

Shapps told Aviation Week during a visit to Washington: "We will leave EASA. A lot of the expertise they have is UK expertise, in fact. A lot of the key leading lights were Brits...

"So, the powers will revert to the CAA, who are probably one of the world's leading regulators and the expertise will need to come home to do that, but we'll do it in a gradual way."

But industry body ADS, which represents UK aerospace businesses, said continued participation in EASA was the "best option" to maintain competitiveness in the aerospace industry, and that it was "disappointed" the government had not taken a more ambitious approach.

ADS chief executive Paul Everitt said: "We have been clear that continued participation in EASA is the best option to maintain the competitiveness of our £36 billion aerospace industry and our access to global export markets.

"UK influence in EASA contributes to raising standards in global aviation, supports collaboration with our international partners, and helps make our industry attractive to the investment it needs to be home to the development of a new generation of advanced aircraft technology.

"Government had promised it would consider harmonisation where it is in the UK interest and will be led by the evidence on the future of aviation safety regulation.

"We are disappointed that it has not taken a more ambitious approach. It is essential that it works with us to deliver a regime that does not put jobs at risk in an industry that employs 111,000 people in highly skilled roles across the UK."

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: "Being a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency is not compatible with the UK having genuine economic and political independence.

"We will maintain world-leading safety standards for industry, with the Civil Aviation Authority taking over these responsibilities, and will continue to work with colleagues in the EU to establish a new regulatory relationship."

Become a SupporterThe New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 07:57

SETI@home has announced that they will no longer be distributing new work to clients starting on March 31st as they have enough data and want to focus on completing their back-end analysis of the data.

SETI@home is a distributed computing project where volunteers contribute their CPU resources to analyze radio data from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

Run by the Berkeley SETI Research Center since 1999, SETI@home has been a popular project where people from all over the world have been donating their CPU resources to process small chunks of data, or "jobs", for interesting radio transmissions or anomalies. This data is then sent back to the researchers for analysis.

SETI@homeIn an announcement posted yesterday, the project stated that they will no longer send data to SETI@home clients starting on March 31st, 2020 as they have reached a "point of diminishing returns" and have analyzed all the data that they need for now.

Instead, they want to focus on analyzing the back-end results in order to publish a scientific paper."It's a lot of work for us to manage the distributed processing of data. We need to focus on completing the back-end analysis of the results we already have, and writing this up in a scientific journal paper," their news announcement stated.

Users who wish to continue to run the SETI@home client may do so, but will not receive any new work until the project decides whether they wish to start sending work to clients again.

For those who wish to donate their CPU resources, SETI@home suggests users select another BOINC project that also supports distributed computing.

H/T Ghacks.net

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:32

Caroline Halsted and Alex Pew, National Center for Health Research

The dangers of smoking tobacco and exposure to second-hand smoke are well-known, but did you know that third-hand smoke can also cause serious health problems?

People can be exposed to second-hand smoke any time they are around someone who is smoking a cigarette. It comes from both the smoke from the tip of the cigarette and the smoke that the smoker is exhaling.[1] Second-hand smoke causes about 600,000 premature deaths every year worldwide.

The dangers of third-hand smoke were first introduced in 2006. Third-hand smoke (THS) is the tobacco residue that can remain on surfaces and dust for months after someone smokes a cigarette.[2] In some situations, third-hand smoke can even remain on fabric for a year and a half after the last exposure to cigarette smoke.[3] This residue can cause coughing, asthma, and respiratory tract infections.[4] Third-hand smoke is more likely to remain on indoor surfaces. Even in seemingly tobacco-free places, tobacco residue can remain on walls, floors, furniture, clothing, and even hair for months after a cigarette is smoked.[5] A study investigating the effects of short-term third-hand smoke found that exposed mice were more likely to develop lung cancer compared with mice that were not exposed to THS.[6]

Exposure usually occurs through skin contact. When someone touches a surface that has smoke residue on it, that residue ends up on their hands and becomes more of a risk when they touch their face or mouth. Non-smokers living in homes that were inhabited by smokers previously often have residue left on their hands.[5] One study found that THS can still be found in dust from homes 2 months after smokers moved out and the house had been cleaned.[7] Another study found that smokers' homes contained THS even 6 months after they stopped smoking.[8] There is no research that looks at the THS levels in households years after smokers move out.

Exposure to THS can also occur outside of the home. A longitudinal study looking at second-hand and third-hand smoke in a casino found extremely high levels of residue on surfaces and in dust. For example, visiting this casino once for 4 hours significantly increased a person's THS exposure. After a one-month smoking ban, surface nicotine decreased by 90% but nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals that were in dust decreased more slowly. It took 3 months for nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals in dust to decline by 90%. Fortunately, 6 months after the smoking ban, there was little risk of THS exposure from a single 4-hour visit to the casino.[9]

Health Risks for ChildrenBecause of the way people are most often exposed to third-hand smoke, children are particularly vulnerable. Children often crawl and play on the floor and furniture, and frequently make hand-to-mouth contact or put their mouths on household objects. Even so, many parents aren't aware of the dangers of environmental tobacco smoke.

The Bottom LineParents should know that if they smoke in the car, their children can absorb the dangerous chemicals from the car upholstery, even if the child wasn't inside at the time of the smoking. The same is true for smoking inside of the home. The more parents are aware of this issue, the less childhood exposure there will be. The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that quitting smoking is the only way to ensure that your child is not exposed to third-hand smoke.[10] Make sure your friends aware of the dangers of third-hand smoke, and make sure you and your family avoid areas with possible environmental tobacco exposure. Smoking outside decreases exposure to third-hand smoke, but friends and family members will still be exposed to THS on the skin, hair, and clothes of smokers. While occasional exposure to low levels of THS is not expected to have long-term effects on health, frequent exposure may increase the risk of developing cancer.

The studies show that the amount of THS in air and dust in businesses and homes remains longer than you might expect but decreases with time. Thoroughly cleaning your home, washing or dry-cleaning clothing, and vacuuming your car and help remove dangerous chemicals that are left over after smoking. If you are working towards quitting or have already quit, it makes sense to thoroughly clean fabrics in order to reduce your and your family's risk of exposure even more.[3]

References:

WHO Second-Hand Smoke Fact Sheet. (2014). Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/204196/Fact_Sheet_TFI_2014_EN_15307.pdf;jsessionid=B949B1149C3A9733546F4821608D9DE7?sequence=1Acuff, L., Fristoe, K., Hamblen, J., Smith, M., & Chen, J. (2015). Third-Hand Smoke: Old Smoke, New Concerns. Journal of Community Health, 41(3), 680-687. doi:10.1007/s10900-015-0114-1Bahl, V., Jacob, P., Havel, C., Schick, S. F., & Talbot, P. (2014). Thirdhand Cigarette Smoke: Factors Affecting Exposure and Remediation. PLoS ONE, 9(10). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108258Roberts, C., Wagler, G., & Carr, M. M. (2017). Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Public Perception of Risks of Exposing Children to Second- and Third-Hand Tobacco Smoke. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 31(1). doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2016.08.008Ganjre, A. P., & Sarode, G. S. (2016). Third hand smoke '' A hidden demon. Oral Oncology, 54. doi:10.1016/j.oraloncology.2016.01.007Hang B, Wang Y, Jen K, et al. Short-term early exposure to thirdhand cigarette smoke increases lung cancer incidence in mice. Clinical Science [serial online]. n.d.;132(4):475-488. Available from: Science Citation Index, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 21, 2018.Matt GE, Quintana PJE, Zakarian JM, et al. When smokers move out and non-smokers move in: residential thirdhand smoke pollution and exposure. Tobacco Control. 2011;20(1):e1-e1. doi:10.1136/tc.2010.037382Matt GE, Quintana PJE, Zakarian JM, et al. When smokers quit: exposure to nicotine and carcinogens persists from thirdhand smoke pollution. Tobacco Control. 2017;26(5):548-556. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053119Matt GE, Quintana PJE, Hoh E, et al A Casino goes smoke free: a longitudinal study of secondhand and thirdhand smoke pollution and exposure Tobacco Control Published Online First: 08 February 2018. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-054052How Parents Can Prevent Exposure to Thirdhand Smoke. HealthyChildren.org. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/tobacco/Pages/How-Parents-Can-Prevent-Exposure-Thirdhand-Smoke.aspx. Accessed May 21, 2018.

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:37

Tawnell D. Hobbs, The Wall Street Journal: January 6, 2020

An estimated 5.4 million middle- and high-school students in the U.S. recently used e-cigarettes, a vaping device, according to a federal survey released in December. That is 20% of all students, far more than the 4.3% that used cigarettes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,561 cases of hospitalizations for lung injury involving e-cigarettes, and 55 deaths, as of Dec. 27. The majority of cases are linked to products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

School administrators say vaping is more challenging to tackle on campus than regular cigarettes. Vape devices are typically battery-powered and made to look like everyday items, such as pens, lipstick cases and USB drives.

They come in child-friendly flavors, from bubble gum to strawberry cheesecake, and have pleasant smells. Students can take quick whiffs undetected while sitting in class or walking down a hallway, with exhaled vapor dissolving quickly into the air or held in to be absorbed, unlike lingering smoke from lit cigarettes.

School resource officers in Chico, Calif., use 18-years-olds, under the nicotine purchasing age of 21, as decoys to bust businesses selling tobacco products used for vaping; officials said eight clerks have been cited. The officers also allow students to trade vape devices for coupons for pizza and smoothies, with no questions asked. In four weeks, about 50 vapes were turned in, said Sgt. Greg Rogers.

''We're just trying something different,'' Sgt. Rogers said. ''We wanted it to not be punitive.''

Jupiter Community High School in Palm Beach County, Fla., in October banned students from using the restroom during class periods unless for emergencies and with an administrative escort. The rule has since been lifted.

''Parents were frustrated with the fact that their children weren't just allowed to go to the restroom,'' said June Eassa, a Palm Beach school assistant superintendent.

Plainwell Community Schools in Michigan is starting random nicotine testing of high-school students in extracurricular activities in January. Students testing positive are restricted in participating in their activity.

['...]

Juul Labs said that it has suspended broadcast, print and digital product advertising in the U.S. ''We are focused on resetting the vapor category in the U.S. and earning the trust of society by working cooperatively with regulators, public health officials, and other stakeholders to combat underage use,'' the company said.

According to Juul's website, ''one 5% strength JUUL pod is designed to replace one pack of cigarettes in nicotine strength,'' and saves money.

Researchers are concerned that there doesn't seem to be a standard of what should be a normal vape dose, leaving students to grossly overuse the product.

''There's a certain understanding that you don't smoke more than a pack a day,'' said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research. ''With vaping, because it's new and because all these products vary, there aren't the sorts of standards that help people restrict what they're doing.''

['...]

Read the original story here.

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Archived Version

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:36

How You Can HelpThe Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund and the National Center for Health Research has been designated as one of America's best charities because we are audited every year and keep our fundraising costs and administrative costs extremely low '' less than 3%! That means that your donation is spent on programs to help adults and children, not on annoying telemarketers, mailings, advertisements, or fancy events.

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 15:12

Show caption Warwick district council's proposals include plans to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Photograph: Guy Bell/Alamy

Local governmentIn first local referendum of its kind, district council proposes being carbon-neutral by 2025

A local authority is asking its residents to back an unprecedented 34% increase in its share of council tax bills '' equivalent to £52 for a typical household '' to fund a radical climate emergency action plan, in what is set to be the first local referendum of its kind.

Warwick district council's proposed green levy would raise £30m over 10 years to invest in making council-owned buildings and vehicles energy efficient, reducing traffic congestion, and improving air quality. The authority aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025.

The proposed inflation-busting increase, which would add £1 a week to the district element of the average band D household's council tax bill from April, came after all-party talks that followed the council's unanimous decision last June to declare a climate emergency.

The council, which is currently run by a coalition of Conservative and independent councillors, says it put aside political differences with Labour, Green and Lib Dem colleagues to work together to create the ambitious proposal.

A joint statement by the five party group leaders said: ''Together we believe that the time has now come to take practical action to deal with the climate emergency.

''This plan will enable the council to be carbon neutral by 2025 and help the district to also be carbon neutral by 2030, plus make necessary local preparations for climate disasters such as flooding. Investment today will help our communities 'face the future' with confidence.''

Proposals include making its 5,500 council homes energy-efficient, introducing electrical charging points for cars, replacing diesel-fuelled refuse trucks with electric-powered versions, introducing tighter planning rules to ensure all new homes are built to the highest environmental standards, and planting new trees.

Storm damage leaves councils facing big cuts to pay for repairs The council, which has an £18m annual budget, said it was forced to consider raising council tax because years of cuts meant that it would not be able to finance a climate emergency plan without taking money out of core services such as housing, refuse collection and transport.

Although it recognises that it may be working against the grain by asking voters to accept a council tax rise, it hopes that residents will be sufficiently alarmed by severe weather events, such as flooding in the UK, and bushfires in Australia to recognise that the local council has to ''do its bit'' to tackle the climate crisis.

The council's Conservative leader, Andrew Day, said it was £7m a year worse off and lost all its government grants over the past decade leaving it with no spare money to invest. ''We are saying to residents, 'If you really want us to hit this [climate crisis] then we have to be honest with you and ask you for this extra £1 a week on council tax.'''

The Green party's group leader, Ian Davison, said it was difficult to know if people would vote for the plan. ''Most people accept the climate emergency is here and we should do something about it. But people are also sceptical of what difference a council could make.

''It's hard because instinctively people will say they do not want to pay more council tax. But when you talk to them and explain it they often change their minds.''

Warwick is normally a Tory-stronghold but an electoral upset last May saw it lose many of its councillors, including the then council leader. The Greens made big inroads, winning eight of the council's 44 seats, which helped open the way for all-party talks on how to tackle the climate crisis locally.

The referendum, which will cost £300,000, will take place on 7 May.

Since 2012 councils have been required by law to hold a referendum if they want to raise council tax by more than 3%. Up to now, no councils had taken up the option, despite shrinking budgets caused by austerity cuts, because of an assumption that residents would not vote in favour.

In 2015 Bedfordshire's police and crime commissioner proposed a 15.8% increase in the policing element of the county's council tax to fund 100 extra police officers, but this was rejected by two-thirds of voters in a referendum.

Tory-run Surrey county council mooted a 15% referendum in 2017 to tackle its social-care funding crisis, but abandoned the proposal after talks with government ministers.

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 15:06

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Comments March 06, 2020 10:46 AM ET Font Size:

A federal judge on Thursday accused Attorney General William Barr of displaying a ''lack of candor'' regarding his public statements about the special counsel's report on the Russia probe.

In a surprisingly harsh statement, Judge Reggie Walton ordered the Justice Department to allow him to privately review an unredacted copy of the Mueller report in order to determine whether previously redacted portions of the document can be released to the public.

Walton asserted in his memo that he does not trust Barr's comments about the contents of the report, or his interpretations of what the special counsel concluded from its investigation into whether President Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia probe. (RELATED: Barr: 'I Think Spying Did Occur' Against Trump Campaign)

Walton asserted that ''inconsistencies'' between Barr's public statements and what is laid out in a redacted version of the special counsel's report ''cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump.''

Walton, who was appointed to the bench in 2001 by George W. Bush, made the ruling as part of a lawsuit against the Justice Department filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and reporter Jason Leopold.

Mueller makes a statement about the Russia probe on May 29. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Walton said that his comments were based on a review of the redacted version of the special counsel's report and statements that Barr made in an April 18, 2019 press conference, as well as a letter he wrote the previous day.

''And, the Court cannot reconcile certain public representations made by Attorney General Barr with the findings in the Mueller Report,'' said Walton.

''These circumstances generally, and Attorney General Barr's lack of candor specifically, call into question Attorney General Barr's credibility.''

Walton's statements echo those of Democrats who have criticized Barr over his handling of the special counsel's report. Barr's supporters, which include Republicans, have said that his summary of the report was accurate.

Barr said that Robert Mueller, the special counsel, concluded that there was no evidence of collusion involving Trump or members of his campaign in their dealings with Russians. Barr said that Mueller did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice. Barr also said that Mueller did not exonerate Trump on the question, but left it up to the Justice Department to decide whether to pursue an obstruction case.

Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided against pursuing a case against the president.

The report is much more definitive on the question of collusion, which was the catalyst for the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign, which began on July 31, 2016.

Mueller said that investigators were unable to establish that any Trump associates conspired with Russians to influence the 2016 election, and that there was insufficient evidence that anyone affiliated with the campaign worked as an agent of Russia.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Sun, 08 Mar 2020 07:20

| March 05, 2020 04:53 PM

| Updated Mar 05, 2020, 05:36 PM

A ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Wednesday mistakenly said Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm which hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele in 2016, was looking for dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rather than on then-candidate Donald Trump.

The court fixed the glaring error only after the Washington Examiner brought it to its attention.

Judge James Boasberg, the court's presiding judge, cited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page in a Wednesday opinion and, in the midst of pointing out the multitude of flaws, omissions, and factual errors in the electronic surveillance filings uncovered by the Justice Department's watchdog, he made a mistake himself.

''Although from the outset the applications acknowledged the likely political bias of the person who had hired Steele '... information that confirmed the political origins of the Steele reporting was not,'' Boasberg stated.

He then incorrectly quoted a footnote from the first FISA application, writing: ''The FBI speculates that the [person who hired Steele] was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit [Clinton's] campaign.''

In reality, the FISA application stated, ''the FBI speculates that the identified U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1's campaign.''

''Candidate #1'' was Trump, not Clinton.

''Thank you for pointing this out,'' David Sellers, a public affairs officer for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, told the Washington Examiner when the factual inconsistency was relayed to the court. ''It is an error that will be corrected.''

Boasberg acknowledged the error in a filing on the FISA court's website Thursday afternoon.

''On March 4, 2020, this Court issued an Opinion and Order in the above-captioned docket. It has come to the Court's attention that the Opinion and Order contained an error on page 6. The Court is therefore issuing a Corrected Opinion and Order herewith,'' the judge said.

After the Washington Examiner reached out, the judicial order was updated to correctly state Fusion GPS was looking to damage ''[Trump's] campaign'' rather than ''[Clinton's] campaign.''

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December that criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 ''significant errors and omissions'' related to the FISA surveillance of Page, who was suspected of being an agent for Russia but was never charged with wrongdoing, and for its heavy reliance on Steele's salacious and unverified dossier.

Steele put his research together in 2016 at the behest of Fusion GPS, which was funded by Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm.

Steele's Democratic benefactors, including the fact that a presidential campaign was ultimately paying him, were not revealed to the FISA court until well after the Page surveillance had ended.

Boasberg said Wednesday there was ''little doubt that the government breached its duty of candor to the Court with respect to those applications'' and the ''frequency and seriousness of these errors '... have called into question the reliability of the information proffered in other FBI applications.''

Marc Elias, who heads Perkins Coie's political law group, was the general counsel for California Sen. Kamala Harris's failed presidential bid and held the same position in Clinton's campaign.

Clinton's former presidential campaign manager Robby Mook said in 2017 that he authorized Elias to hire an outside firm to dig up dirt on Trump's connections with Russia in 2016. ''I asked our lawyer, and I gave him a budget allocation to investigate this, particularly the international aspect,'' he said.

Mook said Elias was receiving information from Fusion GPS about the research into Trump and Russia in 2016 and that Elias then periodically briefed the Clinton campaign about the findings.

''We were getting briefings that were put together by the law firm with information,'' Mook said. ''I'm proud that we were able to assemble some of the research that has brought this to light.''

The FBI told Steele in October 2016 it was looking into Page as well as Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos, future Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Steele passed along at least some of this information to Fusion.

Perkins Coie was paid more than $12 million between 2016 and 2017 for its work representing Clinton and the DNC. According to its co-founder Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS was, in turn, paid $50,000 per month from Perkins Coie, and Fusion paid Steele roughly $168,000 for his work.

Perkins Coie said in an October 2017 letter that it had hired Fusion GPS, claiming the opposition research firm ''approached Perkins Coie'' in March 2016 with the knowledge that Perkins Coie was representing Clinton and the DNC, and that Perkins Coie then ''engaged'' Fusion in April of that year ''to perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle.''

Elias himself personally ''retained Fusion GPS '... to conduct the research'' and did so ''on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC,'' according to a report from the Washington Post.

Brian Fallon, the former national press secretary for the Clinton campaign, defended Elias.

''Marc is known as one of the most skilled professionals in Democratic politics, in addition to being the party's top election lawyer," Fallon said in 2017. ''I am damn glad he pursued this on behalf of our campaign and only regret more of this material was not verified in time for the voters to learn it before the election.''

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 07:10

WASHINGTON, D.C. '' A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a sixteen-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (''DHS'') and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the United States government as part of a scheme to defraud the United States government.

U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Shea for the District of Columbia, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb for the United States Postal Service made the announcement.

The indictment charges Charles K. Edwards, 59, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and Murali Yamazula Venkata, 54, of Aldie, Virginia, with conspiracy to commit theft of government property and to defraud the United States, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The indictment also charges Venkata with destruction of records. The indictment, which was returned on Thursday, March 5, 2020, was unsealed this morning after Edwards and Venkata were taken into custody under the charges. Both defendants will be presented for an initial appearance at 1:45 p.m. today before United States Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather.

According to the allegations in the indictment, from October 2014 to April 2017, Edwards, Venkata, and others executed a scheme to defraud the United States government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from the Office of the Inspector General of DHS (DHS-OIG), along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifying information (''PII''), so that Edwards's company, Delta Business Solutions, could later sell an enhanced version of DHS-OIG's software to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (''USDA-OIG'') at a profit. Although Edwards had left DHS-OIG in December 2013, he continued to leverage his relationship with Venkata and other DHS-OIG employees to steal the software and the sensitive government databases.

The indictment further alleges that, in addition to stealing DHS-OIG's software and the sensitive government databases, Venkata and others also assisted Edwards by reconfiguring his laptop so that he could properly upload the stolen software and databases, provided troubleshooting support whenever Edwards required it, and helped him build a testing server at his residence with the stolen software and databases, which contained PII. As further part of the alleged scheme, Edwards retained software developers in India for the purpose of developing his commercial alternative of DHS-OIG's software. In so doing, Edwards not only shared DHS-OIG's proprietary software with foreign nationals but also the PII of U.S. federal employees and individuals implicated (either as victims, subjects, or witnesses) in official investigations conducted by DHS-OIG as well as the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service (''USPS-OIG'').

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by DHS-OIG and USPS-OIG and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David B. Kent of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorney Victor R. Salgado of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section.

The defendants face maximum terms of imprisonment of 5 years on the conspiracy to commit theft of government property charge; 10 years on the theft of government property charge; and 20 years on the wire fraud charges. The defendants face a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years of imprisonment on the aggravated identity theft charges. Venkata faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years on the destruction of records charge. Both defendants face fines on each count of conviction of up to $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss arising from the scheme alleged in the indictment.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

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Sat, 07 Mar 2020 17:42

Mr. Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups.

Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. Credit... Jeenah Moon/Reuters March 7, 2020, 12:41 p.m. ET WASHINGTON '-- Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers' unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union's local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.

Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon's role in the teachers' union operation '-- detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union '-- has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince's role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group's activities.

Both Project Veritas and Mr. Prince have ties to President Trump's aides and family. Whether any Trump administration officials or advisers to the president were involved in the operations, even tacitly, is unclear. But the effort is a glimpse of a vigorous private campaign to try to undermine political groups or individuals perceived to be in opposition to Mr. Trump's agenda.

Mr. Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, has at times served as an informal adviser to Trump administration officials. He worked with the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn during the presidential transition. In 2017, he met with White House and Pentagon officials to pitch a plan to privatize the Afghan war using contractors in lieu of American troops. Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, rejected the idea.

Mr. Prince appears to have become interested in using former spies to train Project Veritas operatives in espionage tactics sometime during the 2016 presidential campaign. Reaching out to several intelligence veterans '-- and occasionally using Mr. Seddon to make the pitch '-- Mr. Prince said he wanted the Project Veritas employees to learn skills like how to recruit sources and how to conduct clandestine recordings, among other surveillance techniques.

James O'Keefe, the head of Project Veritas, declined to answer detailed questions about Mr. Prince, Mr. Seddon and other topics, but he called his group a ''proud independent news organization'' that is involved in dozens of investigations. He said that numerous sources were coming to the group ''providing confidential documents, insights into internal processes and wearing hidden cameras to expose corruption and misconduct.''

''No one tells Project Veritas who or what to investigate,'' he said.

A spokesman for Mr. Prince declined to comment. Emails sent to Mr. Seddon went unanswered.

Mr. Prince is under investigation by the Justice Department over whether he lied to a congressional committee examining Russian interference in the 2016 election, and for possible violations of American export laws. Last year, the House Intelligence Committee made a criminal referral to the Justice Department about Mr. Prince, saying he lied about the circumstances of his meeting with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in January 2017.

Once a small operation running on a shoestring budget, Project Veritas in recent years has had a surge in donations from both private donors and conservative foundations. According to its latest publicly available tax filing, Project Veritas received $8.6 million in contributions and grants in 2018. Mr. O'Keefe earned about $387,000.

Last year, the group received a $1 million contribution made through the law firm Alston & Bird, a financial document obtained by The New York Times showed. A spokesman for the firm said that Alston & Bird ''has never contributed to Project Veritas on its own behalf, nor is it a client of ours.'' The spokesman declined to say on whose behalf the contribution was made.

The financial document also listed the names of others who gave much smaller amounts to Project Veritas last year. Several of them confirmed their donations.

The group has also become intertwined with the political activities of Mr. Trump and his family. The Trump Foundation gave $20,000 to Project Veritas in 2015, the year that Mr. Trump began his bid for the presidency. The next year, during a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump claimed without substantiation that videos released by Mr. O'Keefe showed that Mrs. Clinton and President Barack Obama had paid people to incite violence at rallies for Mr. Trump.

In a book published in 2018, Mr. O'Keefe wrote that Mr. Trump years earlier had encouraged him to infiltrate Columbia University and obtain Mr. Obama's records.

Last month, Project Veritas made public secretly recorded video of a longtime ABC News correspondent who was critical of the network's political coverage and its emphasis on business considerations over journalism. Many conservatives have gleefully pounced on Project Veritas's disclosures, including one particularly influential voice: Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son.

The website for Mr. O'Keefe's coming wedding listed Donald Trump Jr. as an invited guest.

Mr. Prince invited Project Veritas operatives '-- including Mr. O'Keefe '-- to his family's Wyoming ranch for training in 2017, The Intercept reported last year. Mr. O'Keefe and others shared social media photos of taking target practice with guns at the ranch, including one post from Mr. O'Keefe saying that with the training, Project Veritas will be ''the next great intelligence agency.'' Mr. Prince had hired a former MI6 officer to help train the Project Veritas operatives, The Intercept wrote, but it did not identify the officer.

Mr. Seddon regularly updated Mr. O'Keefe about the operation against the Michigan teachers' union, according to internal Project Veritas emails, where the language of the group's leaders is marbled with spy jargon.

They used a code name '-- LibertyU '-- for their operative inside the organization, Marisa Jorge, who graduated from Liberty University in Virginia, one of the nation's largest Christian colleges. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge ''copied a great many documents from the file room,'' and Mr. O'Keefe bragged that the group would be able to get ''a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.''

The emails refer to other operations, including weekly case updates, along with training activities that involved ''operational targeting.'' Project Veritas redacted specifics about those operations from the messages.

In August 2017, Ms. Jorge wrote to Mr. Seddon that she had managed to record a local union leader talking about Ms. DeVos and other topics.

''Good stuff,'' Mr. Seddon wrote back. ''Did you receive the spare camera yet?''

As education secretary, Ms. DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers' unions, saying in 2018 that they have a ''stranglehold'' over politicians at the federal and state levels. She and Mr. Prince grew up in Michigan, where their father made a fortune in the auto parts business.

AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. The teachers' union is asking for more than $3 million in damages, accusing the group of being a ''vigilante organization which claims to be dedicated to exposing corruption. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.''

Project Veritas has said its activities are legal and protected by the First Amendment, and the case is scheduled to go to trial in the fall.

Other Project Veritas employees on the emails include Joe Halderman, an award-winning former television producer who in 2010 pleaded guilty to trying to extort $2 million from the comedian David Letterman. Mr. Halderman was copied on several messages providing updates about the Michigan operation, and in one message, he gave instructions to Ms. Jorge. Project Veritas tax filings list Mr. Halderman as a ''project manager.''

Two other employees, Gaz Thomas and Samuel Chamberlain, were also identified in emails and appeared to play important roles in the Michigan operation. Efforts to locate Mr. Thomas were unsuccessful. A man named Samuel Chamberlain who matched the description of the one employed by Mr. O'Keefe denied he worked for Project Veritas. He did not respond to follow-up phone messages or an email.

Last year, Project Veritas submitted a proposed list of witnesses for the trial over the lawsuit. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Thomas were on the list. Mr. Seddon was not.

Ms. Jorge, 23, did not respond to email addresses associated with her Liberty University account. In an archived version of her LinkedIn page, Ms. Jorge wrote she had a deep interest in the conservative movement and hoped one day to serve on the Supreme Court after attending law school.

In a YouTube video, Mr. O'Keefe described the lawsuit as ''frivolous'' and pointed to a portion of the deposition in which David Hecker, the president of AFT Michigan, said that one of the goals of the lawsuit was to ''stop Project Veritas from doing the kind of work that it does.''

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement: ''Let's be clear who the wrongdoer is here: Project Veritas used a fake intern to lie her way into our Michigan office, to steal documents and to spy '-- and they got caught. We're just trying to hold them accountable for this industrial espionage.''

In 2018, Ms. Jorge infiltrated the congressional campaign of Ms. Spanberger, posing as a campaign volunteer. At the time, Ms. Spanberger was running to unseat a sitting Republican congressman in a race both parties considered important for control of the House. Ms. Jorge was eventually exposed and kicked out of the campaign office.

It was unclear whether Mr. Seddon was involved in planning that operation.

Mr. Seddon was a longtime British intelligence officer who served around the world, including in Washington in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He is married to an American diplomat, Alice Seddon, who is serving in the American consulate in Lagos, Nigeria.

Mr. O'Keefe and his group have taken aim at targets over the years including Planned Parenthood, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Democracy Partners, a group that consults with liberal and progressive electoral causes. In 2016, a Project Veritas operative infiltrated Democracy Partners using a fake name and fabricated r(C)sum(C) and made secret recordings of the staff. The year after the sting, Democracy Partners sued Project Veritas, and its lawyers have since deposed Mr. O'Keefe.

In that deposition, Mr. O'Keefe defended the group's undercover tactics, saying they were part of a long tradition of investigative journalism going back to muckraking reporters like Upton Sinclair. ''I'm not ashamed of the methods that we use or the recordings that we use,'' he said.

He was asked whether he had provided any of the group's secret recordings of Democracy Partners to the Republican National Committee or any member of the Trump family. He said that he did not think so.

In 2010, Mr. O' Keefe and three others pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor after admitting they entered a government building in New Orleans under false pretenses as part of a sting.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 07:08

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is coming under fire after urging illegal immigrants to participate in the upcoming census -- with opponents saying her language was ''anti-American,''

"We're all going to get mailed a prompt to fill out the census in the next two weeks or so," she said Thursday on ''Late Night with Seth Meyers.'' "And so I think what's really important is that we all fill this out. It happens once every 10 years.''

FACEBOOK DROPS TRUMP ADS AFTER PELOSI CITES CENSUS CONFUSION

''Every single person, no matter your documentation status, no matter your housing status, income, etc., is to be counted,'' she said, before assuring viewers that the data included is ''completely confidential'' and not shared with other agencies.

''So don't worry if you're having a creative living situation, it's not going to be told to your landlord or anything crazy like that,'' she added.

The census is a once-a-decade population count that determines how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is allocated, and also how many congressional seats each state gets. The Census Bureau notes that it counts ''our population and households'' in the U.S.

The remarks come after she shared a video, distributed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's office, and emphasized that "you will NOT be asked about immigration status."

Ocasio-Cortez's remarks angered at least one New York lawmaker -- who said her rhetoric was ''anti-American.''

''Illegal aliens should not be counted equally to law-abiding Americans and legal immigrants '' plain and simple,'' Assemblyman Mike LiPetri said in a statement. ''When radical left-wing politicians like AOC make such statements, she sends a message to all Americans and legal immigrants that it doesn't matter if you work hard and play by the rules, we're going to prioritize criminals and those here illegally over you.''

AOC CLAIMS BIDEN 'OVERPERFORMED' SUPER TUESDAY BECAUSE HIS CAMPAIGN FACED 'LOW EXPECTATIONS'

Ocasio-Cortez's push for those in the country illegally to fill out the census is part of a broader fight over the census, which saw the Trump administration try to include a question on citizenship in the census.

That move was scrapped after the Supreme Court ruled against the administration, with Democrats claiming that even asking the question could spook illegal immigrants from filling out the entire census. The question however, did not ask whether a non-citizen was here illegally or not, just whether they were a citizen.

A number of Democratic states and localities, including New York and California, are estimated to have large numbers of illegal immigrants and the amount of funding they receive -- something determined by the census -- rests in part of how many of them they can get to fill out the form.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Trump in July last year accused Democrats of trying to ''conceal the number of illegal aliens in our midst.''

This is part of a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of the American citizen,'' he said. ''And it's very unfair to our country.''

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 07:05

By Lewis Tingler &nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Tue 6:36 PM, Feb 11, 2020 &nbsp|&nbsp

Updated: Tue 6:59 PM, Feb 11, 2020

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) ''

A search warrant issued by the Gainesville Police Department to google for GPS has drawn the attention of some experts.

In April of last year, GPD filed a 'Geofenced' warrant for three houses and their properties on Northwest 32nd Street.

They want Google to give them the GPS data of anyone with google accounts in that area during a burglary that happened in late March last year.

Professor of Media Law Frank Lomonte with the University Of Florida and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information said that one's right to privacy in matters like this one may have been signed away in the terms and conditions for use of online mobile services.

"Once you use a service, like say, Gmail, you are agreeing to the terms of use for Gmail and part of that may be that they reserve the right to be able to comply with a warrant or turn over your data if they are demanded to do so,'' Lamonte said.

Most recently, an anonymous third party filed to have the search warrant quashed, in Alachua County based on privacy and 4th amendment concerns. That motion has not been seen by a judge yet.

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:41

Senator Bernie Sanders demanded that former Vice President Joe Biden 'accept responsibility' for comments a white Democratic strategist made to his black campaign co-chair regarding quotes of Martin Luther King Jr.

Sanders called on Biden to apologize not only to Nina Turner but also to all 'people of color supporting our campaign' after comments Hilary Rosen made on a Thursday episode of Cuomo Prime Time.

'@JoeBiden must accept responsibility for his surrogate telling our campaign co-chair Senator @NinaTurner that she doesn't have standing to invoke the words of Dr. King,' he said in the Friday tweet. 'That is unacceptable and Joe must apologize to Nina and all the people of color supporting our campaign.'

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Senator Bernie Sanders (left) demanded that former Vice President Joe Biden (right) 'accept responsibility' for comments a white Democratic strategist made to his black campaign co-chair regarding quotes of Martin Luther King Jr.

Sanders called on Biden to apologize not only to Nina Turner but also to all 'people of color supporting our campaign' after comments Hilary Rosen made on a Thursday episode of Cuomo Prime Time

Sanders remarks comes after Rosen apologized numerous times on Twitter for telling the black co-chair that she didn't have the 'standing' to quote MLK Jr. when talking about Biden

Sanders remarks comes after Rosen apologized numerous times on Twitter for telling the black co-chair that she didn't have the 'standing' to quote MLK Jr. when talking about Biden.

In her latest apology, Rosen shared that she called Nina directly to apologize. 'Whether or not she takes my call, I am still humbly sorry,' she added.

She also clarified a tweet that appeared to refer to Nina as an 'angry black woman,' stating she had been responding to peoples' messages that she had been receiving.

Turner took to her on Twitter on Friday to share that she had been invested back on Cuomo Prime Time. Chris Cumo was also slammed for his behavior during the segment.

In her latest apology, Rosen shared that she called Nina directly to apologize. 'Whether or not she takes my call, I am still humbly sorry,' she added

She also clarified a tweet that appeared to refer to Nina as an 'angry black woman,' stating she had been responding to peoples' messages that she had been receiving

Turner took to her on Twitter on Friday to share that she had been invested back on Cuomo Prime Time

Sanders is seen above at a rally in Chicago's Grant Park on Saturday

Biden waits to take the stage at a campaign rally at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis on Saturday

@ChrisCuomo has invited me back on his show @CuomoPrimeTime to have a deeper discussion,' Turner said in a Friday evening tweet. 'I look forward to this opportunity. Getting understanding is so important. Thank you Cuomo!!!!'

The tense exchange between the strategist and Nina Turner took place on a Thursday night episode of Cuomo Prime Time after the co-chair made comments referencing the 1963 letter MLK Jr wrote from jail.

Turner had mentioned the letter when arguing that Sanders speaks of a Democratic Socialism that follows the 'tradition' of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The tense exchange between the strategist Hilary Rosen and Nina Turner took place on a Thursday night episode of Cuomo Prime Time

'It's in the spirit of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who, in his letter to the Birmingham jail, warned us '-- us being the black community '-- about white moderates,' Turner said in the clip obtained by Mediaite.

Rosen would circle back to Turner's MLK quote, asserting that that was not what the civil right's icon said.

'What he said was we should be worried about silence of white moderates,' Rosen claimed.

Turner was clearly shocked by the woman's remarks. She retorted: 'How are you going to tell me about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Are you kidding me?'

Martin Luther King Jr.'s remarks about the white moderate in his letter from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963 The full letter can be found here:

'I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a 'more convenient season.'

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.'

Rosen continued with her remarks by arguing that Biden had not been silent on a variety of issues over the years, which she claimed supported her sentiment that he was not the moderate MLK Jr was referring to.

'He said it is the point that the white moderate wants things to be comfortable,' Turner declared. 'And instead of focusing in on that, the bigger threat is not necessarily the white KKK member but more the white moderate that is more comfortable with keeping things the same.'

It was then that Rosen lambasted Turner for invoking Martin Luther King Jr. when talking about Biden.

'You know what? Don't use Martin Luther king against Joe Biden!' Rosen stated. 'You don't have that standing. I'm sorry. You don't!'

A disgusted Turner shot back: 'Don't tell me what kind of standing I have as a black woman in America!'

She later added: 'I didn't attack anybody. You're taking it that way,' Turner said. 'Listen, don't dip into what I have to say about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.! How dare you, as a white woman, sit up here and try to tell me what I'm supposed to feel, and what I'm doing right now!'

Chris Cuomo then condemned Turner's tone, insinuating that she was showing the division that was plaguing the Democratic party.

The fallout from the segment was immense, with people demanding that Rosen not be allowed back on CNN while also condemning Cuomo's tone when addressing Turner.

The critiques prompted a response from Rosen, who took to her Twitter to offer a half apology while suggesting that Turner was like 'angry black women'

She said in a follow up tweet: 'Good morning. I have nothing but the upmost respect for Nina, her experience as a person of color, and the fight she's waging in this election. Wake up this morning to this: I apologized + I take full responsibility. I look forward to the rest of the primary seeking common ground'

The critiques prompted a response from Rosen, who took to her Twitter to offer a half apology while suggesting that Turner was like 'angry black women'.

'On air thurs I said my colleague @ninaturner didn't have standing to use MLK Jr.That was wrong,' she said in a Friday morning tweet. 'I am sorry for saying those words. Pls no need to defend me and attack angry black women. They have standing. I always need to listen more than I talk. We rise together.'

She said in a follow up tweet: 'Good morning. I have nothing but the upmost respect for Nina, her experience as a person of color, and the fight she's waging in this election. Wake up this morning to this: I apologized + I take full responsibility. I look forward to the rest of the primary seeking common ground.'

Prior to those tweets, Rosen tweeted that MLK Jr's letter said 'to be afraid of white moderates who prefer peace over justice.'

'You know Hilary, you didn't just talk over me,' Turner said on Twitter. 'Go back & watch the segment. You said among other things that I did not have standing. Wrap your mind around that. The Rev. Dr. MLK I speak of challenged the status quo. He spoke out against militarism, materialism, poverty & racism.'

Turner responded to and shared tweets from other activists pointing out the problems with Rosen's statements

She also said: 'As she further made clear that I had no standing! It must be nice to have the power to decide who has standing and who does not.'

'That isn't what you said,' Rosen added.

Turner, meanwhile, responded to and shared tweets from other activists pointing out the problems with Rosen's statements.

'You know Hilary, you didn't just talk over me,' she said. 'Go back & watch the segment. You said among other things that I did not have standing. Wrap your mind around that. The Rev. Dr. MLK I speak of challenged the status quo. He spoke out against militarism, materialism, poverty & racism.'

Turner also said: 'As she further made clear that I had no standing! It must be nice to have the power to decide who has standing and who does not.'

She would later post a book written by Cornell West that highlights how radical the civil rights icon actually was.

The fallout from the segment was immense, with people demanding that Rosen not be allowed back on CNN while also condemning Cuomo's tone when addressing Turner

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:24

@ coldacid @ adam I decided to find the rest of the context - - - he's trying to say that infighting among democrats will lead to DJT getting re-elected. He's stuttering and struggling for words, but it's not a brain fart. Start at 13:50 https:// youtu.be/l1-6cwetV5k He's making a lot of gaffes, but clipping him like this out of context to laugh at him is not nice.

@ dcgirl @ Grandtheftautism

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Archived Version

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 06:03

Welcome home! This timeline is where you'll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

Tweets not working for you? Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

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Sun, 08 Mar 2020 05:45

Welcome home! This timeline is where you'll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

Tweets not working for you? Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

Say a lot with a little When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart '-- it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

Spread the word The fastest way to share someone else's Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

Join the conversation Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you're passionate about, and jump right in.

Learn the latest Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

Get more of what you love Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

Find what's happening See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

Never miss a Moment Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 18:22

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster urged everyone to remain calm at a news conference he held alongside state public health officials Saturday morning at the state's Emergency Operations Center in West Columbia.(Watch full news conference below)Latest from DHEC | CDC website"Health care authorities in South Carolina have been preparing for this eventuality and there is no reason for public alarm. DHEC is working with the CDC on confirmation for these cases. South Carolinans should continue to follow recommendations and information provided by official sources," McMaster said in a statement sent Friday. >>Related: Two cases of coronavirus in NC | Greenville officials talk about preparations | Greenville County Schools talks about preparationsDHEC is investigating two possible cases of 2019 novel coronavirus in South Carolina.>>Johns Hopkins University tracks worldwide COVID-19 cases | Mobile versionThe two cases, which health authorities are presuming to be positive, are not linked. According to DHEC, one patient is a woman in her 80's from Kershaw County. She has been hospitalized and is in isolation. State health officials believe she has not recently left South Carolina, and are currently looking for the source of her illness. >>Related: Latest on coronavius worldwideThe second patient is a woman in her 30s from Charleston County who recently traveled to France and Italy. She did not require hospitalization and is self-isolated at home, DHEC officials said.The Medical University of South Carolina released this statement Friday night:"MUSC received confirmation from DHEC of a presumed positive COVID19 test for one of our team members the evening of March 6."This individual self-identified to DHEC upon learning that community transmission had occurred in an area recently visited during a trip to Europe; she had not returned to work and still has not at this time."Our team member practiced excellent public health and social responsibility by pursuing testing, taking appropriate hygienic precautions and self-quarantining at home. The patient had mild illness and has been asymptomatic for the past three days and is committed to remaining in self-quarantine for the remainder of the CDC-recommended 14-day timeframe."We support our team member's rights to privacy and protection of health information and will not confirm or deny name, role or any other identifying information. We want to emphasize the informed and calm response this team member took and we want to publicly commend her for doing so."Samples sent to DHEC's Public Health Laboratory tested positive for COVID-19, and results must be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. DHEC says it will provide updates when those test results are available, which typically takes 24-48 hours. >>Related: Georgia identifies 2 confirmed cases | SC Gov. McMaster talks about state preparationsDHEC has currently tested 10 people for COVID-19, including the two women presumed to be positive. The eight remaining tests are negative, DHEC says. >>Related: Clemson study abroad students take precautions | Upstate hospital preparingDHEC says it has around 1,000 kits and can test 80 to 100 people a day for the 2019 novel coronavirus. Health officials say symptoms of this coronavirus can be similar to the flu: fever, sneezing and a dry cough. Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist, said, ''The ability to make a distinction between those illnesses with the diagnostic test is important because flu is circulating so widely in the community, much more likely that people who present with those symptoms will actually have the flu or other common respiratory illnesses." But it's unclear precisely how accurate those test kits are for the novel coronavirus. "This year's kit that's available is specific for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and not other conditions. And we believe it's a highly reliable test," said Bell.Bell said at the news conference Saturday that monitored isolation can be enforced if those who test positive for COVID-19 don't voluntarily keep themselves safely away from others until they are well again. ''We do this for other communicable diseases, and in some instances, it would mean that that they would have to be put in a certain facility or in lockdown," she said. "Individuals are well enough to be kept at home, the vast majority of them will have symptoms that will resolve in a matter of a few days. Moving to that next level of mandatory isolation is unlikely to be required.''

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster urged everyone to remain calm at a news conference he held alongside state public health officials Saturday morning at the state's Emergency Operations Center in West Columbia.

(Watch full news conference below)

Latest from DHEC | CDC website

"Health care authorities in South Carolina have been preparing for this eventuality and there is no reason for public alarm. DHEC is working with the CDC on confirmation for these cases. South Carolinans should continue to follow recommendations and information provided by official sources," McMaster said in a statement sent Friday.

>>Related: Two cases of coronavirus in NC | Greenville officials talk about preparations | Greenville County Schools talks about preparations

DHEC is investigating two possible cases of 2019 novel coronavirus in South Carolina.

>>Johns Hopkins University tracks worldwide COVID-19 cases | Mobile version

The two cases, which health authorities are presuming to be positive, are not linked.

According to DHEC, one patient is a woman in her 80's from Kershaw County. She has been hospitalized and is in isolation. State health officials believe she has not recently left South Carolina, and are currently looking for the source of her illness.

>>Related: Latest on coronavius worldwide

The second patient is a woman in her 30s from Charleston County who recently traveled to France and Italy. She did not require hospitalization and is self-isolated at home, DHEC officials said.

The Medical University of South Carolina released this statement Friday night:

"MUSC received confirmation from DHEC of a presumed positive COVID19 test for one of our team members the evening of March 6.

"This individual self-identified to DHEC upon learning that community transmission had occurred in an area recently visited during a trip to Europe; she had not returned to work and still has not at this time.

"Our team member practiced excellent public health and social responsibility by pursuing testing, taking appropriate hygienic precautions and self-quarantining at home. The patient had mild illness and has been asymptomatic for the past three days and is committed to remaining in self-quarantine for the remainder of the CDC-recommended 14-day timeframe.

"We support our team member's rights to privacy and protection of health information and will not confirm or deny name, role or any other identifying information. We want to emphasize the informed and calm response this team member took and we want to publicly commend her for doing so."

Samples sent to DHEC's Public Health Laboratory tested positive for COVID-19, and results must be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. DHEC says it will provide updates when those test results are available, which typically takes 24-48 hours.

>>Related: Georgia identifies 2 confirmed cases | SC Gov. McMaster talks about state preparations

DHEC has currently tested 10 people for COVID-19, including the two women presumed to be positive. The eight remaining tests are negative, DHEC says.

>>Related: Clemson study abroad students take precautions | Upstate hospital preparing

DHEC says it has around 1,000 kits and can test 80 to 100 people a day for the 2019 novel coronavirus.

Health officials say symptoms of this coronavirus can be similar to the flu: fever, sneezing and a dry cough.

Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist, said, ''The ability to make a distinction between those illnesses with the diagnostic test is important because flu is circulating so widely in the community, much more likely that people who present with those symptoms will actually have the flu or other common respiratory illnesses."

But it's unclear precisely how accurate those test kits are for the novel coronavirus.

"This year's kit that's available is specific for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and not other conditions. And we believe it's a highly reliable test," said Bell.

Bell said at the news conference Saturday that monitored isolation can be enforced if those who test positive for COVID-19 don't voluntarily keep themselves safely away from others until they are well again.

''We do this for other communicable diseases, and in some instances, it would mean that that they would have to be put in a certain facility or in lockdown," she said. "Individuals are well enough to be kept at home, the vast majority of them will have symptoms that will resolve in a matter of a few days. Moving to that next level of mandatory isolation is unlikely to be required.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 17:32

Log in Sign up Tom Elliott @ tomselliott MSNBC's

@esglaude Jr. on the Coronavirus: ''This may be Donald Trump's Katrina.''

@NicolleDWallace: "Let's just lean into that for a minute '... this has the makings, structurally, of the same kind of moment''

pic.twitter.com/bNjTTpbmjl 1:41 PM - 6 Mar 2020 Twitter by: Tom Elliott @tomselliott Kyle Tittle @ Tittlewk93

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace Seeing national media giddy at the thought of Americans dying because it could hurt Trump's re-election chances is something else

View conversation · Danny Peoples @ Danny99634068

Mar 6 Replying to

@Tittlewk93 @tomselliott and

2 others Surreal .

View conversation · Mrs.Gaines @ WendyJ_Gaines

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace She is actually smiling...smiling ðŸ¤...ðŸ>>''¸ðŸ¤...ðŸ>>''¸ unbelievable

View conversation · Spiny_Norman @ spiny_norman

7h Replying to

@WendyJ_Gaines @tomselliott and

2 others A sociopath reveals herself on live TV.I should be shocked, but I'm not.

View conversation · Karen Paul @ KPBeachGirl

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace Niccolle is absolutely giddy at the thought of Americans dying.

View conversation · PowerHouse16 @ House16Power

4h Replying to

@KPBeachGirl @tomselliott and

2 others Their hatred for

#Trump and the

#USA, makes me love

#Trump MORE!

View conversation · Mary Crawford @ emceebeenj

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace These people are gross!

View conversation · TugboatPhil @ TugboatPhil

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace So he's saying that the initial virus isn't so bad, but historical, Democrat graft & corruption will turn it into a catastrophe?

View conversation · SMR1128 @ SMR11281

Mar 6 Replying to

@tomselliott @esglaude @NicolleDWallace Look how happy she is about the prospect of their ridiculous assertion. These people have lost all sense of decency. It's sad.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 11:38

With all the panic about COVID-19'--aka coronavirus'--various PSAs about washing your hands, precautions in public places, etc... you'd think health officials would be more on top of following their own advice.

But it seems that is too difficult.

Dr. Sara Cody, the director of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department in California, was giving a press conference on best health practices when she immediately contradicted her own advice.

"Today, start working on not touching your face '-- because one main way viruses spread is when you touch your own mouth, nose, or eyes," she said...then immediately licking her own finger.

Santa Clara county has reported eleven total cases of Coronavirus infection, and the advice was meant to stop the virus from entering your respiratory system.

It is also worth noting that people touch their faces around 23 times an hour, so breaking the habit, as highlighted by the video, is incredibly difficult.

Meanwhile the President, who loudly has to be the best at everything, has already touted that he hasn't touched his face "in weeks".

The USA has seen 11 fatalities from COVID-19, with just over 150 people showing signs of infection.

The global death toll is around 3,000 (compared with 95,000 infected), but how bad this possibly could get are yet to be determined.

The 1918 influenza pandemic killed 20,000-50,000 people and infected 500 million people. Our medical and information technologies are greatly improved, but our transportation technology is equally advanced.

Which technology impacts COVID-19 most will determine how many people are affected.

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Archived Version

Sat, 07 Mar 2020 06:27

SXSW Longtime bar owner Bob Woody said he still expects to see quite the crowd on Sixth street, during the week of the festival.

AUSTIN, Texas '-- It was just a few days ago that the SXSW banners went up around Downtown Austin.

But now, the festival that has become an Austin institution is canceled amid concerns of the coronavirus, the City announced on Friday.

Since then, businesses who were going to have SXSW events during the week, music artists and bar owners have reacted to the news.

"I mean, it's sad," said Primo the Alien, a local musician. "You know, people, especially the artists and the people putting on shows and parties and stuff like that, we spend a lot of not only money, [but] practice space and gear and all that stuff ... I think people will still come who have travel booked here. And also it's just a week that a lot of us have free, as we were planning on doing all the South By stuff, so I think we should all just play anyway as if it's still going on. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't."

Primo The Alien

Brittany Flowers

For John Zozzaro, president of Media Tech Ventures, he was planning on hosting a SXSW official event called Funded House.

"It's an experience dedicated to venture capitalists," said Zozzaro.

He said he plans on hosting his event in some fashion.

"Nobody wanted to hear that, right? There's a lot that goes into South By. There's a lot of people that are going to be affected negatively from this, but it also presents an extraordinary opportunity for those of us that are local."

Jason Jepson, a partner at Deep Media Technology, who was going to host Deep Media Day, said they still plan on hosting.

"It breaks my heart, the decision they made, it really does," said Jepson. "But at the same time, this is Texas. We're entrepreneurs. I'm not going to be stopped by this. I'm going to figure out safe measures."

As for downtown, we all know Sixth Street was going to be packed like every big festival. Even with the announcement of SXSW being canceled, well-known bar owner Bob Woody thinks people will still be coming to Austin since they already made plans, but he said the economic impact won't be as big.

"This is their vacation; it's their spring break. They're coming. We're going to have them," said Woody. "I still think that people are coming. So the licensed venues should be packed because they don't have these other things to go try out."

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Cameron Cawthorne @ Cam_Cawthorne

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@Cam_Cawthorne Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the top two presidential candidates left in the Dem primary old white men?

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@Cam_Cawthorne pic.twitter.com/p4HWCSb6Ow View conversation · Gary Giessmann @ Rhetticent

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@Cam_Cawthorne The bigotry and stereotyping that Chris practices is classic identity politics.

View conversation · Red Dot in a Blue Dot in a Red State @ reddotinaustin

8h Replying to

@Cam_Cawthorne This is how Democrats come up with their ideas: only while talking to people who think just like they do. Never will there be a challenging voice. Ever.

View conversation · Philly Boy @ PhillyBill

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@Cam_Cawthorne ''You go Chris!''

pic.twitter.com/ndTSW0KwRW View conversation · primetime35 @ EPrime35

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@Cam_Cawthorne F this dude Chris Hayes

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@Cam_Cawthorne If I didn't know better I'd say that claim was itself structural racism!

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Log in Sign up Davey🕊 @ dafuck1980 Sorry.. nog een keer proberen. Andere stond maar half op. Deze is compleet. ðŸ…🂠geluid aan!

pic.twitter.com/rW7X2xVbrD 11:01 AM - 6 Mar 2020 Twitter by: Davey🕊 @dafuck1980 Davey🕊 @ dafuck1980

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@dafuck1980 #zeiklozevrijdagavond View conversation · Enigmarie ( ook op G.A.B : @enigmarie@gab.com :-) @ TerlouwArie

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@dafuck1980 @PonnieBoy 👇 voor de maker van deze realistische docu.

#zeiklozevrijdagavond 👍👍👍

pic.twitter.com/H5vFcwKMH8 View conversation · Davey🕊 @ dafuck1980

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@TerlouwArie @PonnieBoy Proost!

pic.twitter.com/TtQEFegAQH View conversation · Jan Heyn @ HeynJan

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@dafuck1980 🤣🤣🤣

pic.twitter.com/wLltavwFk0 View conversation · Oma :ik ben geen RACIST maar REALIST @ LOLA16436565

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@dafuck1980 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣sooooo treuðŸ‹ðŸ‹ðŸ‹ðŸ‹ðŸ‹ðŸ‹

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@dafuck1980 @Sashaexposed hahahahahahah, GEWELDIG!!! ðŸ‚🤮ðŸ

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@dafuck1980 @Sashaexposed Tut merkel. Ramp voor Duitsland.

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@dafuck1980 @Sashaexposed SCHITTEREND ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

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@dafuck1980 @Sashaexposed pic.twitter.com/KinM4dF0O2 View conversation · ðŸ‰ðŸðŸŠ + ðŸ§ðŸŒ·ðŸ‡"🇱ðŸš' @ Dutchsjie

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@dafuck1980 🤪🤣🤪🤣🤪🤣

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 23:13

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 20:27

Log in Sign up CNBC @ CNBC Earlier today, President Trump signed the $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

cnb.cx/2TtKbEF pic.twitter.com/MJ7ZoouQ9n 3:10 PM - 6 Mar 2020 Twitter by: CNBC @CNBC NEVER EVER trumper @ Mycrazylife6

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@CNBC pic.twitter.com/Fwxw2dmcCD View conversation · MJ @ Speedlvr

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@CNBC Like it was his idea.

View conversation · Bill Sweet @ SweetStocks22

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@CNBC Get Meridian Bioscience some cash

View conversation · Ralph Wills @ RalphWills6

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@CNBC He looked exhausted. Poor boy.

twitter.com/RalphWills6/st'... View conversation · Boomersaurus @ Boomersaurus

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@CNBC I won't be surprised if some of that money winds up being spent on Trump's Wall.

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@CNBC Right funnel more of that money through your special interest companies that support hospitals and medicine Trump.

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@CNBC Skunk eyes, plays more golf than anything else. Lock him up

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Log in Sign up ABC News @ ABC JUST IN: South by Southwest canceled, "local disaster" declared in Austin, Texas, amid growing coronavirus fears, Austin mayor announces.

abcn.ws/2TMI4L6 pic.twitter.com/di4pBE6PBn 2:03 PM - 6 Mar 2020 Twitter by: ABC News @ABC jennamariebee ðŸ‘>>''¤¸ðŸ§Ÿ''¸ @ jennamariebee

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@ABC literally didn't understand what this was because I've never seen sxsw written in that manner

View conversation · Nick N @ NickJN3

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@ABC @adamcurry @adamcurry you jinxed it!!

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@NickJN3 @ABC Predicted

View conversation · Kubrick's Apprentice @ photocode827

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@ABC Okay, I mean, really though? Did they do this with the swine flu? I'd really like to know why they are creating mass hysteria over this when there is a new virus that pops up every 4 or so years from China.

View conversation · Rob Simon @ Baldrobmusic

2m Replying to

@ABC Are they looking for federal disaster funds because they canceled a music festival? I know it's huge for the city but our tax dollars should go to help people with the illness not recoup lost $ from a fest...if that is what they are asking for that is.

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@ABC '¹¸

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@ABC Trump will have an epic meltdown because of this. It proves that this

#CoronavirusOutbreak is NOT A HOAX.

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Fri, 06 Mar 2020 16:16

SXSW This announcement follows several major organizations and companies deciding to not attend the festival.

AUSTIN, Texas '-- For the first time in its 33-year history, South by Southwest has been canceled as the City of Austin declares a local emergency due to concerns about the coronavirus spreading.

In an announcement on Friday by Mayor Steve Adler, Judge Sarah Eckhardt, Dr. Mark Escott of the Interim Health Authority and Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden, the City of Austin declared a local emergency, canceling the Spring Festival event as the COVID-19 virus causes worldwide concern.

Dr. Escott said the decision was made after weighing options to mitigate the risk of the disease. He said factors such as the close proximity of participants and attendance of international guests led officials to cancel the event entirely.

This announcement follows several major organizations and companies deciding to not attend the festival, along with a Change.org petition signed by tens of thousands of people calling for the festival to be canceled.

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Those who had pulled out of the convention before Friday's announcement include the following companies and organizations:

TwitterFacebookIntelChina GatheringMashableTikTokAmazon StudiosVevoSAPThe Latinx HouseNetflixAppleWarnerMediaCapital FactoryBMIIndividual artists and participants had also pulled out of the event.

The creators of the petition said they were ''concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people who will be traveling to Austin, Texas, in March for the SXSW festival.''

On March 3, Austin-based company Indeed asked its employees to work from home as concerns surrounding the coronavirus continue to grow.

More than 100,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus, with at least 250 cases in the U.S. and 15 deaths, according to the CDC. At least one person is being tested for the coronavirus in Travis County, but Austin health officials said the risk to the public is growing.

The cancellation is a major decision from the City, which had said there was no evidence closing SXSW would make the community safer. Last year's event brought an estimated $355 million to Austin, the single most profitable event for the City of Austin's hospitality industry.

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U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider announces charges against Gary Jones, former president of the United Auto Workers. The Detroit News

Detroit '-- Federal prosecutors Thursday signaled they are not done investigating corruption within the top ranks of the United Auto Workers after charging former President Gary Jones with embezzling more than $1 million, racketeering and income tax evasion.

Federal agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department continue to investigate President Rory Gamble and former President Dennis Williams, sources told The Detroit News, as part of the years-long probe that has yielded 13 convictions and continues to generate tips. Gamble and Williams have not been charged.

"We are not done," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said. "We are another step closer to ridding the UAW of its corrupt leadership and returning the UAW to the hardworking men and women of the UAW."

Howes:Charges against ex-UAW boss inch union closer to federal oversight

More:Jones breached trust, showed need for reforms, say UAW members

More:Feds execute raids on UAW leaders in four states, seize cash and files

Schneider and his team of investigators spoke hours after unsealing a criminal filing that signals Jones will plead guilty and cooperate with an investigation that could lead to the government seizing control of one of the nation's most powerful unions.

Buy Photo Steven D'Antuono, Special Agent in Charge of Detroit, addresses the media during the announcement of charges against Gary Jones, former president of the International United Auto Workers Union in Detroit Michigan on March 5, 2020. (Photo: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)

Taking control of the UAW through a civil racketeering case remains an option to root out corruption within the union's senior leadership ranks, Schneider said during a news conference in downtown Detroit. He repeatedly refused to address other UAW officials under investigation, including Gamble.

"It doesn't matter who it is, whether it's (Gamble) or not, we're not going to be able to comment on who our targets are, who our investigation is focusing on," Schneider said. "Our focus is on any corrupt activity in the UAW."

U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider announced charges against Gary Jones, former president of the International United Auto Workers Union in Detroit Michigan on March 5, 2020. (Photo: Daniel Mears / Detroit News)

Jones is the highest-ranking UAW official charged during a years-long crackdown on corruption within the U.S. auto industry that has revealed labor leaders and auto executives broke federal labor laws, stole union funds and received bribes.

Jones, 63, was charged in a criminal information '-- which indicates a guilty plea is imminent '-- following months of increasing pressure from investigators. The investigators are armed with bank records and cooperation from several Jones aides who admitted helping embezzle money from rank-and-file workers that was spent on personal luxuries, including private villas, lavish travel, food, liquor and golf.

Buy Photo Gary Jones (Photo: Todd McInturf, The Detroit News)

''Jones is a guy who contributed to taking down the union, and now he may cooperate in a process that saves the union from its leadership,'' said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor. ''This could be a favorable development for the union, if by union you mean the rank-and-file members who get up every day at 5 a.m. to go to work, as opposed to the brass who used union money to lie around in the sun at resorts."

Buy Photo Three aides of former UAW President Gary Jones are cooperating with investigators. They are (clockwise from left): Edward "Nick" Robinson, Vance Pearson and Danny Trull. (Photo: The Detroit News and the UAW)

Steven D'Antuono, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI office summed up the case as "pure and simple greed," adding: "The charges against Gary Jones are offensive to the hard-working men and women of the UAW."

In a statement that only describes Jones as a former UAW member, the union said Thursday: "All UAW members including the UAW leadership are and should be angry about the charges of former UAW member Gary Jones and his alleged actions. This is a violation of trust, a violation of the sacred management of union dues, and goes against everything we believe in as a union.

"Jones and all who betrayed the trust of our union should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, with no exceptions. The UAW '-- under the leadership of President Gamble and the entire IEB '-- moved last November to remove Jones from office and force his expulsion from the UAW. Action has been taken against other former UAW staff and officials who have violated Union policies or laws.

"As we continue to move forward under the leadership of President Rory Gamble and the IEB, we are continuing to implement the critical reforms necessary to ensure our union is free from the type of corrosive corruption we have witnessed from those who betrayed our trust."

Long fallThe criminal case against Jones culminates a tumultuous period and marks a prolonged fall for a labor leader who ascended to the top of the UAW two years ago, vowing to reform an embattled union. Since August, federal agents have raided his home, searched his bank accounts, seized more than $32,000 and portrayed him as a thief who tried to cover up crimes and obstruct investigators, according to court records that identified him by the alias "UAW Official A."

Jones is facing two charges, each of which could send him to prison for up to five years. The charges are conspiracy to embezzle union funds and using a facility of interstate commerce to aid racketeering activity, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by evading income taxes. His lawyer declined comment.

Jones is expected to cooperate with ongoing investigations of Williams, Gamble and former Vice President Jimmy Settles, The News has learned. Settles also has not been charged with wrongdoing.

The criminal filing reinforces the need to give members the power to elect UAW leaders, said Scott Houldieson, a 30-year UAW member at Ford Motor Co.'s Chicago Assembly Plant. In the meantime, Jones could help dig out further corruption within the union.

''He could help us heal our wounds,'' said Houldieson, 58. ''It could be a good thing, too. Either way, we have a lot of work to do to make it a union that truly represents its membership.''

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Last SlideNext SlideAfter leading a 40-day strike against General Motors Co. that cost the automaker $3 billion, Jones resigned in November as the union's governing International Executive Board moved to revoke his membership and distance itself from the embattled president.

Jones was first publicly linked to the scandal in September 2018, less than three months into his tenure. That's when The News reported that federal investigators were questioning UAW officials spending almost $1 million on condominiums, liquor, food and golf in California, where Jones held annual conferences before becoming president.

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Tour golf courses and resorts frequented by UAW officials in Palm Springs, Calif., where the union has spent more than $1 million in recent years. The Detroit News

The investigation escalated last August when teams of federal agents launched a series of nationwide raids, including searches at the homes of Jones, Williams, a lakeside UAW retreat in northern Michigan and at locations in Missouri and Wisconsin.

Federal prosecutors implicated Jones in wrongdoing one month after the raids, accusing him and Williams of orchestrating a years-long conspiracy that involved embezzling member dues. More than $1 million was spent on private villas in Palm Springs, lavish meals, expensive liquor and $60,000 cigar-buying sprees.

The conspiracy described by prosecutors started in 2010 and ended in September.

Williams is referred to in numerous court filings as "UAW Official B."

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Last SlideNext SlideThe accusation dismantled an oft-repeated defense from a UAW spokesman that while union leaders bought $1,000 pairs of shoes, Italian-made shotguns and paid for $15,000 steak dinners with bribe money from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executives, no member dues had been misspent.

In June 2018, Jones assumed the union presidency and ordered the union to tout him as a "reform president" whose "Clean Slate" agenda would implement changes to end corruption within the union and its company-funded joint training centers. Federal court filings would soon challenge Jones' reputation as a reformer who started staff meetings with a prayer.

At the UAW's special bargaining session that March in Detroit's Cobo Center, the union distributed a list of 10 reforms it would make that would aim to prevent further corruption. Called "The UAW's Clean Slate," it largely replicated reforms presented by Williams a year earlier '-- a list that included a three-bid process for awarding contracts, stricter oversight of staff expenditures, requirements for disclosing conflicts of interests and a gift ban.

Growing scandalAfter Jones formally became the 12th president of the international union, he made a rare appearance before the news media: "I am deeply saddened and irritated that some leaders in this union and some leaders at the auto companies exploited their positions to benefit themselves. It is my responsibility from this day forward to strengthen your trust in your union."

Instead, a continuing spiral of convictions and new details in federal court records portrayed a widening corruption scandal that implicated the past two UAW presidents, three former vice presidents, current and former regional directors and staffers in schemes financed by training center funds, member dues or both.

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Last SlideNext SlideJones joined the UAW in 1975 when Ford Motor Co. hired him at its glass plant in Broken Arrow, Okla. When the Blue Oval closed its glass plant there, he later transferred to its Kansas City Ford Assembly Plant and began to develop a reputation as a hard-nosed union official.

In 1990, former UAW President Owen Bieber and then-Secretary-Treasurer Bill Casstevens appointed Jones to the international staff. A certified public accountant, Jones was assigned to the union's accounting department. A year later, the UAW named him its chief accountant, a position that helped him understand the money flows within the union.

From there, he was named top administrative assistant in 1995 to former UAW Secretary-Treasurer Roy Wyse. By 2004, he had been appointed assistant director of the UAW's St. Louis-based Region 5, then the union's largest geographic region stretching across 17 states from Missouri to California. After the death of Director Jim Wells in September 2012, Jones was elected director and then re-elected in 2014.

He served as Region 5 director until becoming UAW president in 2018. Despite his previous tour at Solidarity House, Jones was considered something of a fresh face at union headquarters in Detroit, untainted by scandal and disconnected from the culture of what one local president called "liquor and side chicks" in an interview with The News.

Former UAW local leaders in Region 5 recall Jones as a distant leader who had local leaders handle problems through representatives at the region's satellite offices. He always had his crew, particularly former aides Vance Pearson and Nick Robinson '-- both convicted in the continuing crackdown '-- at his side.

Jones became president after securing the support of the Reuther Administrative Caucus, a sort of political party inside the union that had essentially controlled appointments to top UAW leadership positions since the late 1940s. He was an unusual choice.

Under UAW tradition, vice presidents who've led one of the union's three automotive departments have ascended to the president's seat, said Marick Masters, a professor of business and the former director of labor studies at Wayne State University. Jones appeared to be an outsider at a time when the federal investigation was heating up with authorities labeling the union and Fiat Chrysler as co-conspirators in the widening scandal.

Jones is a CPA, one of the "principal reasons why he was able to catapult himself over nominal front-runners," Masters said. Jones, he said, "was picked for this position because he was outside of the Detroit area, not implicated in the (corruption) and brought a background in accounting that I think people thought would get favorable public reviews."

But Jones was a thief, prosecutors said in October. On Halloween, prosecutors said Jones and aide Edward "Nick" Robinson conspired to embezzle as much as $700,000 in member dues and split the money.

Court filings provide insight into how Jones and others conspired to defraud the U.S. The UAW's 2017 tax filing contained false statements that prevented the IRS from making an accurate tax assessment regarding money diverted from the union that benefited Robinson, Jones, Williams, Pearson and others, according to the criminal case filed Thursday.

The UAW's tax filing falsely reported the diverted income as a legitimate business expense. The filing also failed to disclose $290,852 in reportable compensation to Jones and other UAW officials, according to the government. In 2017, Jones and others helped transfer $133,611 in union money by issuing checks, prosecutors said. Jones split some of the money with Robinson, prosecutors said.

''We've gotten a glimpse into how widespread the misuse of higher office was,'' Gordon told The News on Thursday. ''Many more UAW officials who enjoyed the benefits should now be worried about paying the price.''

rsnell@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @RobertSnellnews

Staff Writer Kalea Hall contributed.

Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2020/03/05/former-uaw-president-gary-jones-charged-embezzlement-scheme/4940018002/

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If you've ever wondered why it is impossible to have a conversation with modern liberals about politics, this video snippet is a case study in the answer.

MSNBC host Brian Williams and New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay are having a serious discussion about money, politics and Michael Bloomberg's spending in the primary election. You have to watch it to believe it.

Think about how many people were involved in creating, preparing and producing what you are about to witness. WATCH:

Apparently MSNBC, Brian Williams, New York Times Mara Gay, the producers of the show and countless others involved in the production are really, really bad at math.

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Thu, 05 Mar 2020 22:57

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@adamcurry - RT

@NBCNews: WATCH: "The best estimates now of the overall mortality rate for COVID-19 is somewhere between 0.1% and 1%," Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at HHS, says.

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