Capitol Police Investigate ‘Bomb Threat’ Near Library of Congress – The New York Times
Capitol Police Investigate ‘Bomb Threat’ Near Library of Congress – The New York Times

Ultimately much of the crowd, some carrying laptops and tangled handfuls of charging cords and headphones, ended up in a park near the building, calling family members and figuring out how to get home.

The threat unsettled visitors and employees at the Capitol, eight months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Hill on Jan. 6, in a violent attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election.

After the Jan. 6 riot and the death of a Capitol Hill officer in early April, even the precautionary steps to investigate suspicious packages have become more intense for staff on the Hill, amid heightened security precautions.

Employees in the Madison building were notified of the possible threat through alerts, before officials came over the building intercom to instruct people to leave the building.

Once on the street, employees were told to go home or head away from the complex, although some could not reach their cars and the nearest Metro stop appeared closed.

“They’re just being cautious — they don’t want to take chances,” said Paul Hines, a building services employee evacuated from Madison. Mr. Hines, livestreaming a news report on his phone, had left his phone charger, his lunch and most of his belongings inside.

“Wasn’t expecting this,” he added. “I was about to eat my lunch.”

Adam Goldman, Glenn Thrush and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/us/library-of-congress-evacuation.html

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Partner of murdered cop Ella French who was left paralyzed in shooting releases video from hospital – Daily Mail
Partner of murdered cop Ella French who was left paralyzed in shooting releases video from hospital – Daily Mail

The partner of murdered Chicago cop Ella French, who was paralyzed in the shooting, has released a moving video from his hospital bed thanking supporters.   

Police officer Carlos Yanez was shot in the line of duty while performing a routine traffic stop for expired plates in West Englewood on August 7. 

Yanez, 40, was severely wounded but survived his injuries, while French, 29, succumbed to hers. 

He has thanked his supporters for ‘your donations and your prayers’ in an emotional video which shows him recuperating in a hospital bed. 

‘I love you all’, he says. ‘To my son CJ and my wife Brenda, I do this all for you’, he adds before blowing air kisses towards the camera. 

Police officer Carlos Yanez, 40, has released a moving video thanking supporters and donors as he recuperates after being shot and paralyzed in the line of duty in Chicago on August 7

‘I love you all’, Yanez says. ‘To my son CJ and my wife Brenda, I do this all for you’, he adds before blowing air kisses towards the camera

Officers Carlos Yanez is seen paralyzed in a hospital bed after he was shot during a traffic stop 

Yanez and his partner, 29-year-old Ella French, (pictured) were shot in the West Englewood neighborhood on August 7, after performing a routine traffic stop for expired plates.

Yanez was shot multiple times in the face and shoulder after he and partner French approached a car during a routine traffic stop. 

The situation reportedly spiraled out of control when one of the people in the car did not to cooperate and refused to place his drink and cell phone on the ground. 

‘Monte Morgan exited that vehicle with a drink in one hand and a cell phone in the other. He refused repeated instructions to set those items down,’ said Risa Lanier, Interim First Assistant State’s Attorney, Fox 32 reported.

‘He began physically jerking his arms away from those officers.’ 

Morgan then pulled a .22 caliber handgun on the officers and fired several shots towards the pair, hitting French in the head and Yanez in the right eye and shoulder. 

‘Defendant Monte Morgan fired multiple shots, striking both Officer French and Victim 2. After being fired upon and struck, Officer French and Victim 2 both fell to the ground between the stopped car and the curb,’ Lanier said. 

The shooter was later neutralized by officers who arrived on the scene as back up. 

French ad Yanez had their guns holstered the ‘entire time’ of of the incident, prosecutors said.  

Yanez is seen in a photo on the GoFundMe page which revealed he is facing a ‘potentially lifelong disability’

Yanez received ‘multiple gunshot wounds to the eye, brain, and shoulder, all causing a potentially lifelong disability’, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up for him.   

‘In turn, we suspect home modifications, accommodations, and transportation needs to increase accessibility and quality of life,’ it states. 

Yanez had much of his face and eye socket fractured during the shooting, but received surgical treatment to repair it. 

‘We remain hopeful for a miraculous recovery but have to prepare for what’s to come,’ the page said.    

Brothers Emonte, 21, and Eric Morgan, 22, were arrested and charged with French’s murder, but an ABC 7 report found that Emonte was actually supposed to be behind bars that day. 

Emonte was charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. 

His brother was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice. 

Emonte has been connected to a hit-and-run case from April in which a walker was struck in a crosswalk and sent flying against a stop sign.

According to ABC 7, Morgan didn’t stop driving until he struck a parked car nearly a mile and a half away. 

He was freed on a personal recognizance bond in the wake of the hit and run – despite being on probation for a 2019 robbery conviction at the time.  

French’s death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since 2018 and the first female officer fatally shot on the job in 33 years. 

She was one of 10 people killed and 64 wounded by gun violence throughout the city last weekend as the city continues to suffer from high crime rates.    

The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over

Chicago police union boss John Catanzara told Fox News that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had to shoulder some of the blame for French’s death due to the city’s soft stance on crime.

Lightfoot had also been criticized for incorrectly referring to French as ‘Ella Franks’ and siding with First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter in dismissing a traditional bagpipe service for French outside the medical examiner’s office. 

Carter allegedly said ‘We don’t have 20 minutes for this s**t.’    

Data from August showed murders in the city were nearly the same as the number reported last year, but shootings increased by 15% and the number of people shot in the city rose by nearly 10 per cent year-over-year.

Chicago Police Department said that there were 105 homicides recorded in the month of July.

Source Article from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9907763/Partner-murdered-cop-Ella-French-left-paralyzed-shooting-releases-video-hospital.html

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Texas health officials warn of full ICUs as state grapples with worsening Covid-19 surge – CNN
Texas health officials warn of full ICUs as state grapples with worsening Covid-19 surge – CNN

By Travis Caldwell, CNN

Updated 6:02 AM ET, Thu August 19, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/us/texas-covid-icu-beds-mask-mandate/index.html

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Parents pull kids from schools as district bucks CDC guidance and board member spreads misinformation – CNN
Parents pull kids from schools as district bucks CDC guidance and board member spreads misinformation – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/health/cobb-county-schools-georgia-covid/index.html

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US Eliminates Student Loan Debt For Some Borrowers With Disabilities – NPR
US Eliminates Student Loan Debt For Some Borrowers With Disabilities – NPR

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks at a March briefing at the White House.

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U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks at a March briefing at the White House.

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The U.S. Education Department announced Thursday that it is discharging the outstanding student loans of more than 323,000 borrowers who have significant, permanent disabilities, and will remove barriers for borrowers who qualify for this relief in the future. The announcement will erase some $5.8 billion in debt and marks a significant step toward fixing a troubled debt relief program meant to help borrowers with disabilities.

NPR’s reporting over the past two years has shown that a fraction of eligible borrowers have been getting the relief they’re entitled to under the federal Total and Permanent Disability Discharge program, which dates back to 1965. In fact, many borrowers didn’t know they were eligible at all.

“Today’s action removes a major barrier that prevented far too many borrowers with disabilities from receiving the total and permanent disability discharges they are entitled to under the law,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

The program is meant to wipe out the student loan debt of Americans who can no longer work due to a significant disability. But, until now, borrowers who qualified for the program had to apply for the relief.

Now, relief will become automatic for those who are identified through a data match with the Social Security Administration. The next match is in September, and based on those who were identified in June, the department expects more than 323,000 people to receive relief amounting to $5.8 billion.

The department also said it will propose eliminating a significant hurdle for those borrowers who have been approved for loan discharge: a three-year income monitoring period, during which many people have seen their loans reinstated through no fault of their own.

The department said it will permanently stop sending requests to these borrowers for income information during this period — a decision it made temporarily during the pandemic — and will pursue doing away with the monitoring period entirely during upcoming negotiated rule-making.

Borrowers and advocates see this move as a first step toward fixing the discharge program. “This is a huge deal for the hundreds of thousands of borrowers who are entitled to this relief and frankly, it’s very long overdue,” said Persis Yu, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

But “we also hope that the department will look at the eligibility criteria that it uses to determine when someone has a disability discharge,” Yu added. Some borrowers with disabilities who should be getting loan discharges aren’t identified in the Social Security Administration’s match, Yu said.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1029294871/education-dept-discharges-student-loans-borrowers-with-disabilities-tpd

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Biden: I would have sought Afghanistan withdrawal even without Trump’s Taliban deal – POLITICO
Biden: I would have sought Afghanistan withdrawal even without Trump’s Taliban deal – POLITICO

The Doha agreement called for a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with a total withdrawal set to be completed by May 1 of this year. One of the deal’s conditions was that the Taliban would halt attacks on American and coalition forces in the meantime.

But Biden has repeatedly said that maintaining a U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan beyond the Doha agreement’s May 1 deadline would have necessitated the deployment of additional American forces to stave off inevitable conflict with the Taliban.

“Less than two months after I was elected to office — I was sworn in — all of a sudden, I have a May 1 deadline. I have a May 1 deadline,” Biden told ABC. “I have one of two choices. Do I say we’re staying? And do you think we would not have to put a hell of a lot more troops [in Afghanistan]?”

Biden put forth the same line of reasoning in a White House address Monday defending his decision on Afghanistan. “The choice I had to make, as your President, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season,” he said.

But Biden’s latest statement that he would have pursued a pullout of U.S. troops regardless of Trump’s negotiations with the Taliban complicates the current administration’s argument for its own withdrawal order.

Biden has come under intense scrutiny for the execution of the American departure from Afghanistan. Bipartisan criticism has ramped up significantly over the past several days — amid scenes of chaos at the international airport in Kabul — as both Democrats and Republicans contend the administration was unprepared to safely evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies out of the country, which is now under Taliban control.

Biden and administration officials conceded this week that they were surprised by the speed of the Taliban’s rapid offensive across Afghanistan, which culminated in the toppling of its capital city and the collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government.

But Biden asserted to ABC that there was no scenario in which an American withdrawal from Afghanistan would not have resulted in significant disorder after two decades of a U.S. troop presence there.

“No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that — we’re going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden said.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/19/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-trump-taliban-deal-506215

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Livid parents take their kids out of class in response to a school board member’s Covid misinformation – CNN
Livid parents take their kids out of class in response to a school board member’s Covid misinformation – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/health/cobb-county-schools-georgia-covid/index.html

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Caldor Fire Prompts Evacuations in Northern California – The New York Times
Caldor Fire Prompts Evacuations in Northern California – The New York Times

More than 3,000 people have also been evacuated from Trinity County, where the Monument fire (10 percent contained) has burned through more than 128,000 acres since late July. And in Lake County, about 700 people fled a new fire, the Cache (20 percent contained), after it started north of Santa Rosa on Wednesday.

By 5 p.m. on Wednesday, there were 369 people sheltering at 11 wildfire shelters around California, according to the governor’s office. And with more than 10,000 personnel battling a dozen large wildfires in the state, there were signs that further evacuations would stretch its emergency response resources even thinner.

A hospital in El Dorado County, the Marshall Medical Center, said on Wednesday that its staff visit evacuation shelters to offer minor treatment. In an effort to free up space for coronavirus patients and people suffering from smoke inhalation, the hospital has urged fire evacuees who test positive for Covid-19 to avoid coming in for treatment if they do not require emergency care.

That night, Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency said that one of the three shelters serving people fleeing the Caldor fire was already full. So was a nearby animal shelter.

At a news briefing on the Caldor fire, Dusty Martin, a Cal Fire official, asked residents to be patient on the question of “repopulation.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/us/caldor-dixie-fire-evacuations.html

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‘Active bomb threat’ investigated on Capitol Hill, congressional offices evacuated – CNBC
‘Active bomb threat’ investigated on Capitol Hill, congressional offices evacuated – CNBC

In this article

U.S. Capitol Police on Thursday are investigating what they called “an active bomb threat” from a truck parked near the Library of Congress, as staffers at a House office building were ordered to evacuate.

The Capitol Police Twitter feed warned people to “please stay away from this area.”

People at the Cannon House Office Building received an alert telling them to leave that building and relocate to the Longworth House Office Building.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” a follow-up tweet from Capitol Police said.

“We are monitoring this situation closely and will update this account as we get information we can release.”

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were assisting Capitol Police, according to the ATF’s Twitter feed.

Congress is currently in recess.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/us-capitol-police-respond-to-report-of-suspicious-vehicle-near-library-of-congress.html

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Deputies Knocked A Woman Unconscious And Then Lied About It, A Federal Lawsuit Says – NPR
Deputies Knocked A Woman Unconscious And Then Lied About It, A Federal Lawsuit Says – NPR

A tear streams down the cheek of Nakia Porter during a news conference to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit she has brought against two Solano County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday in Sacramento, Calif.

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A tear streams down the cheek of Nakia Porter during a news conference to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit she has brought against two Solano County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday in Sacramento, Calif.

Rich Pedroncelli/AP

A woman who pulled off a road to change drivers during a trip with her father and three young children was knocked unconscious and arrested by two Northern California sheriff’s deputies, who then lied about the encounter to responding paramedics and on official reports, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Body cameras worn by the deputies with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office recorded them pulling guns on Nakia Porter before slamming her to the pavement while handcuffing her along a rural road in the town of Dixon on the night of Aug. 6, 2020. Porter’s father, Joe Powell, was also placed in handcuffs and briefly detained.

Porter was jailed overnight on suspicion of resisting arrest, but never charged. She said the ordeal was confusing and dehumanizing.

“I was doing my best to do everything right, giving no reason to be treated like this,” said Porter, 33, who is Black.

The lawsuit brought by attorney Yasin Almadani accuses the deputies of violating state and federal civil rights statutes by engaging in “unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force.”

“Thankfully, the video evidence contradicted the fabricated facts,” Almadani said. “So what occurred here, we believe, was a racially motivated beating and terrorizing of a Black family.”

Solano County sheriff’s officials couldn’t immediately comment because the department hadn’t received a copy of the complaint by Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. Christine Castillo said in an email.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento asks a judge to order a jury trial for the arresting deputies, Dalton McCampbell and Lisa McDowell, and seeks unspecified damages.

The events unfolded as Porter and her 61-year-old father were making the 100-mile (160-kilometer) drive home to Orangevale, northeast of Sacramento, after a family trip to Oakland. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, and her 4-year-old niece were in the back seat. Porter is a software engineer, and her father, who’s retired, worked in computer networking.

Porter was behind the wheel when they stopped along an empty road in Dixon. The deputies’ squad car pulled up behind them with lights flashing. Porter already was out of the car and explained that they were just switching drivers and would be on their way, according to the court filing.

The deputies said they noticed the car had mismatched license plates — a California plate on the back of the car, and one from Maryland on the front.

“However, the deputies had called in the rear license plate to their dispatch and knew that it matched the description of the car and that there was no report of the car being stolen,” the filing states.

McCampbell, who had his gun drawn, ordered Porter back to the driver’s side, and he and his partner moved to detain her, according to edited bodycam footage acquired by Almadani and provided to The Associated Press. Almadani acquired more than 18 minutes of raw footage through a California Public Records Act request, and edited it down to just under 10 minutes.

“For those that are listening, I am not resisting,” Porter said into the deputies’ cameras. “You are not reading me my rights.”

The deputies pushed Porter against the squad car and then to the pavement while trying to handcuff her.

“Put your hands behind your back. Get on your stomach,” McCampbell shouted.

The footage gets very shaky, and it’s hard to see whether Porter is resisting. Porter and the court filing allege the deputies punched her in the head and the stomach, kneeled on her back and pulled her hair. She said she passed out seconds after the deputies closed the handcuffs.

“I think she’s out,” McCambell said on the video.

Porter, who is 5-foot-2 (1.6 meters) and 125 pounds (57 kilograms), said she was dragged unconscious to the back of the squad car, where she came to about five minutes later.

When paramedics arrived, McCampbell is heard saying Porter fought them, was knocked out for about 20 seconds and was able to walk herself to the squad car. McDowell estimates to the paramedics that Porter was unconscious for about five seconds.

Porter requested she be transported to a hospital, according to the lawsuit.

“Deputies McCampbell and McDowell denied the request, continuing to lie to the paramedics by minimizing the assault and the injuries they had inflicted on Ms. Porter,” the court filing said.

The lawsuit accuses the deputies of lying on their arrest reports about Porter fighting them and the length of time she was unconscious. Contact information for McCampbell and McDowell could not be found.

The suit also names a superior officer who signed off on the reports.

Cedric Alexander, a police use-of-force expert, was troubled by the video. He wondered why the deputies seemed to rush to detain Porter and Powell without first taking actions to de-escalate the situation, especially with three young kids in the car.

“What’s concerning here is the use of force,” said Alexander, a former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. “There needs to be a full investigation conducted outside of the sheriff’s department, preferably by a district attorney’s office.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/08/19/1029240838/deputies-knocked-nakia-porter-unconscious-federal-lawsuit-solano-county

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Afghanistan: First US casualty’s widow says ‘I can’t stop thinking about those Afghan children’ – Fox News
Afghanistan: First US casualty’s widow says ‘I can’t stop thinking about those Afghan children’ – Fox News
Video

Desperation at Kabul airport shows Afghans don’t believe Taliban’s claims, former CIA officer says

Chaotic scenes from the Kabul airport show that Afghans, desperate to flee the country, don’t believe the Taliban’s softer tone or promises to maintain women’s rights, a former CIA intelligence officer told Fox News in an exclusive interview.

Shannon Spann, the widow of a fellow CIA officer who was the first American service member to be killed in combat in Afghanistan soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, also reflected on children and women she met in the Middle Eastern nation during the U.S.’ intervention and what their lives will look like with the Taliban back in power. 

“You don’t have to look further than the airport in Kabul to see that local Afghans don’t believe [the Taliban’s] story of ‘we’re going to be peaceful, we’re not going to do reprisals, we’re going to invite participation from women,'” Spann told Fox News. “People literally clinging to the landing gear of aircraft to try to get away from the story that they know is about to be written.”

The Hamid Karzai International Airport outside of Kabul fell into chaos as the Taliban seized the city, with Afghans and people from foreign nations, including U.S. citizens, flooding the site to escape the country. The mayhem led to several deaths. Video showed people clinging onto aircraft, and human remains were found in the wheel well of a U.S. military plane.

In the Taliban’s first news conference in Kabul, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghans who helped the U.S. would not face retaliation and that women would have their rights guaranteed “within the framework of Shariah.” Such commitments, if followed through, would be a significant break from the Taliban that controlled the Afghanistan prior to the U.S. intervention, though there have already been reports of executions and forced marriages.

TALIBAN VIOLENTLY BREAK UP PROTEST IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN, VIDEO SHOWS

Believing that the Taliban is painting a false narrative as killings continue, Spann reflected on women and children she met in Afghanistan soon after the U.S. entered Afghanistan.

She described meeting young children, the same ages as her children, who she met in an orphanage during a 2002 trip to Afghanistan for a ceremony honoring her late husband.

“They greeted us with such friendship,” Spann, who left the CIA in 2009, told Fox News. “They had such resilient joy on their faces.”

“I can’t stop thinking this week about those children,” she continued. “Now those children are in their 20s and 30s, like my children are. What will their life look like now?”

On the same trip, Spann said she was able to join a women’s council with multigenerational women.

They “were just crying and holding my hand, thanking us for U.S involvement in their struggle and telling me stories about how they were prisoners in their own homes before when the Taliban was controlling their county,” Spann told Fox News. “I wonder today, what has become of those women.”

President Biden said Monday during an address that he stood behind his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, even though the Taliban swept through the nation.

“I’m deeply disappointed in President Biden’s defiant stance in his address to the nation,” Spann told Fox News. “In times of conflict, excellent leaders keep people bigger than the problem.”

“We utterly failed at keeping people bigger than the problem,” Spann continued.

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Spann told Fox News that the U.S. neglected to keep the vision of the people involved, including operators, military personnel who had devoted 20 years to the mission in Afghanistan, Gold Star families, the women and children Spann met and the Afghan society as a whole.

“We prioritized a narrow subset of a problem over all of those people,” Spann said.

She told Fox News that it was “unconscionable” that the U.S. had no plan to “evacuate the most vulnerable of our friends and partners.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/kabul-airport-desperate-afghans-taliban-cia-shannon-spann

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Hurricane Grace makes landfall near Mexico’s Tulum temples – NBC News
Hurricane Grace makes landfall near Mexico’s Tulum temples – NBC News
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Joe Biden bets a war-weary America will reward him for leaving Afghanistan – NBC News
Joe Biden bets a war-weary America will reward him for leaving Afghanistan – NBC News
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Fred continues to threaten heavy rains and tornadoes after flooding in North Carolina that left 35 people unaccounted for – CNN
Fred continues to threaten heavy rains and tornadoes after flooding in North Carolina that left 35 people unaccounted for – CNN

By Madeline Holcombe and Rebekah Riess, CNN

Updated 3:00 AM ET, Thu August 19, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/weather/post-tropical-cyclone-fred-thursday/index.html

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Court Blocks a Vast Alaskan Drilling Project, Citing Climate Dangers – The New York Times
Court Blocks a Vast Alaskan Drilling Project, Citing Climate Dangers – The New York Times

In May, the Biden administration drew the wrath of environmental advocates when it filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for Alaska defending the Trump administration’s decision to greenlight the Willow project. The Interior Department said then that the Trump administration’s decision had complied with environmental rules in place at the time.

Environmental groups saw in Wednesday’s decision a vindication of their strong criticism of the Biden administration’s decision not to oppose the drilling plan.

“This is a resounding win for our clients and the climate,” Jeremy Lieb, a lawyer for Earthjustice, which represented multiple plaintiffs in the suit against the Trump administration’s approval of the project, wrote in an email. “The court’s decision vacates the Trump administration’s decision approving the Willow project, and we hope the Biden administration takes this opportunity to reconsider the project in light of its commitment to address the climate emergency.”

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, Melissa Schwartz, declined to comment on the ruling and a spokesman for the White House did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/climate/alaska-willow-oil.html

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Biden Says Troops May Stay in Kabul Longer to Assist Evacuations – The New York Times
Biden Says Troops May Stay in Kabul Longer to Assist Evacuations – The New York Times

He added: “As long as we possibly can until the clock runs out, or we run out of capability.”

About 5,000 people have been evacuated since the operation started over the weekend.

It was the first news conference by the Pentagon’s senior leadership since the extraordinary fall of Kabul over the weekend. The disintegration of the Afghan military has been deeply painful for the Pentagon, which spent 20 years and $83 billion building up Afghanistan’s security forces. But beyond that, the collapse of the Afghan government has left the Pentagon facing questions from veterans of the war and active-duty service members, who have wondered what the point of the sacrifice was.

Both Pentagon leaders tried to put some of those feelings into words. “All of this is very personal to me,” Mr. Austin said. “This is a war that I fought in and led. I know the country, I know the people, and I know those who fought alongside me.”

General Milley sought to address American service members who took part in the endeavor directly: “For more than 20 years, we have prevented an attack on the U.S. homeland,” he said, adding that 2,448 troops lost their lives and 20,722 were wounded in action, “and many others suffered the unseen wounds of war.”

Marine Corps leaders, in a letter Wednesday, also tried to reassure the corps, which has carried much of the Afghan fight, saying they “believe — without question — that your service was meaningful, powerful and important.”

General Milley also pushed back on reports in the news media that there were warnings of a rapid collapse of the Afghan military.

“I am very familiar with the intelligence, and in war nothing is ever certain, but I can tell you that there are not reports that I am aware of that predicted a security force of 300,000 would evaporate in 11 days,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/us/politics/military-afghan-evacuation.html

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Thousands Of Northern Californians Flee From The Dixie And Caldor Wildfires – NPR
Thousands Of Northern Californians Flee From The Dixie And Caldor Wildfires – NPR

Seen in a long exposure photograph, embers light up hillsides as the Dixie Fire burns near Milford in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday.

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Seen in a long exposure photograph, embers light up hillsides as the Dixie Fire burns near Milford in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday.

Noah Berger/AP

GRIZZLY FLATS, Calif. — Wind-driven wildfires raged Wednesday through drought-stricken forests in the mountains of Northern California after incinerating hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee to safety.

A reversal of wind direction was expected to test some previously quiet fire containment lines, but also push flames back in other areas, authorities said.

The newest inferno, the Caldor Fire, continued to grow explosively in the Sierra Nevada southwest of Lake Tahoe, covering 84 square miles after suddenly ravaging Grizzly Flats, a community of about 1,200.

At least 50 homes burned there but tallies were incomplete because officials had not been able to make thorough assessments of the damage in Grizzly Flats. Two people were hospitalized with serious injuries on Tuesday and about 5,900 homes and other structures were threatened by the fire.

In the Sierra-Cascades region about 100 miles to the north, the month-old Dixie Fire expanded by thousands of acres to 993 square miles — two weeks after the blaze gutted the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. About 16,000 homes and buildings were threatened by the Dixie Fire, named for the road where it started.

“It’s a pretty good size monster,” Mark Brunton, a firefighting operations section chief, said in a briefing.

“We’re not going to get this thing overnight,” he said. “It’s going to be a work in progress — eating the elephant one bite at a time kind of thing — and it’s going to be a long-haul mindset. It’s a marathon and not a sprint.”

A vehicle and property that were destroyed by the Caldor Fire in Grizzly Flats, Calif.

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A vehicle and property that were destroyed by the Caldor Fire in Grizzly Flats, Calif.

Ethan Swope/AP

The Caldor and Dixie fires are among a dozen large wildfires in the northern half of California. In contrast, Southern California has had few wildfires recently. Very moist ocean air even ushered in occasional drizzle or light rain on Wednesday.

But Northern California’s wildfires have left scenes of utter devastation.

Few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, where streets were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were destroyed.

Hulks of gutted vehicles littered the ruins and the skeletons of chairs stood in rows among the ashes of a church.

Derek Shaves, who fled Grizzly Flats late Monday, said he visited the next day, finding that his home and most of the houses in his neighborhood were gone.

“It’s a pile of ash,” he said. “Everybody on my block is a pile of ash and every block that I visited — but for five separate homes that were safe — was totally devastated.”

All 7,000 residents of the town of Pollock Pines on Tuesday were ordered to evacuate because of the fire.

To the north at the Dixie Fire, numerous firefighting resources were deployed into the area of Susanville, a city of about 18,000 a few miles from the northeastern edge of the blaze, where residents have been warned to be ready to evacuate.

Destiney Barnard holds Raymond William Goetchius while stranded at a gas station near the Dixie Fire on Tuesday in Doyle, Calif. Barnard was helping Goetchius and his family evacuate from Susanville when her car broke down.

Noah Berger/AP


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Noah Berger/AP

Destiney Barnard holds Raymond William Goetchius while stranded at a gas station near the Dixie Fire on Tuesday in Doyle, Calif. Barnard was helping Goetchius and his family evacuate from Susanville when her car broke down.

Noah Berger/AP

Fire officials said early Wednesday that the fire did not push toward Susanville overnight, and that was one location where the switch in wind direction to the northeast could push flames back on themselves.

Late Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power to as many as 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires for the first time since last year’s historically bad fire season.

The utility said the shutoffs were focused in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the northern Central Valley and the North San Francisco Bay mountains and could last into Wednesday afternoon.

The nation’s largest utility announced the blackouts as a precaution to prevent gusts from damaging power lines and sparking blazes.

PG&E has notified utility regulators that the Dixie fire may have been caused by trees falling into its power lines. The Dixie Fire began near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by a 2018 wildfire ignited by PG&E equipment during strong winds. Eighty-five people died.

The Dixie Fire is the largest of nearly 100 major wildfires burning across a dozen Western states, including Alaska. The wildfires, in large part, have been fueled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry weather.

Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1029116932/thousands-of-northern-californians-flee-from-the-dixie-and-caldor-wildfires

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2 women dead after shooting at Indiana automotive plant, authorities say; suspect arrested – USA TODAY
2 women dead after shooting at Indiana automotive plant, authorities say; suspect arrested – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/18/frankfort-indiana-factory-shooting-victims-suspect/8188063002/

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California suspect in ambush shooting of deputy killed, two officers injured, authorities say – Fox News
California suspect in ambush shooting of deputy killed, two officers injured, authorities say – Fox News
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The suspect believed to have ambushed a Southern California sheriff’s deputy this week was left dead Wednesday after a shooting that also injured two police officers, authorities said. 

Officers with the San Bernardino Police SWAT unit were attempting to take the unidentified suspect into custody in connection with the deputy shooting just before 3:40 p.m. when gunfire erupted, San Bernardino police Lt. Michele Mahan told reporters. 

“Two of our officers were shot,” Mahan said. “Both of them were able to speak at the time our own officers transported them to a local hospital.”

The suspect, who had been under surveillance for several hours Wednesday, was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident occurred in the city of Highland, 66 miles east of Los Angeles. The officers’ injuries were not disclosed but they are expected to survive, Mahan said. 

Two San Bernardino police officers were injred Wednesday in a shooting that left another person dead. The incident came a day after a sheriff’s deputy was attacked while trying to pull over a vehicle nearby. 
(KTTV)

Fox News has reached out to the San Bernardino police and sheriff’s departments. 

The incident came a day after a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy was shot while trying to pull over a motorist. The deputy was fired upon as he turned a corner during a brief car chase, authorities said. He remains hospitalized in stable condition. 

“He was able to immediately get out of his vehicle and as the deputy tried to catch up… he was able to retrieve a rifle from the vehicle,” San Bernardino police Sgt. Equino Thomas told Fox News. “As the deputy turned, the suspect fired multiple rounds.”

“Based on the actions of that suspect, he did, he ambushed that deputy,” he added. 

The deputy’s patrol SUV was found torched at the scene. Investigators are still trying to determine how the vehicle caught fire. 

Two San Bernardino police officers were injured Wednesday, a day after a sheriff’s deputy was attacked while trying to pull over a vehicle nearby. 
(KTTV)

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During a search of an apartment complex Tuesday night, authorities recovered the suspect’s vehicle and the rifle used in the attack, which matched bullet casings found at the scene. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-officers-shootings-dead

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Texas heads for fight with feds as Biden targets states banning mask mandates – The Texas Tribune
Texas heads for fight with feds as Biden targets states banning mask mandates – The Texas Tribune

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may soon be fighting a war on two fronts — with local officials and the federal government — to stave off mandatory COVID-19 prevention efforts after the Biden administration announced Wednesday it was going after states like Texas that try to ban universal masking at schools.

Saying that the federal government will not “sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators from protecting our children,” Biden said he will use the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights enforcement authority to deter states from blocking mask mandates in classrooms.

“I’m directing the Secretary of Education, an educator himself, to take additional steps to protect our children,” Biden said. “This includes using all of his oversight authorities and legal action, if appropriate, against governors trying to block and intimidate local school officials.”

“If you aren’t going to fight COVID-19, at least get out of the way of everyone else who’s trying,” Biden added.

Biden didn’t directly name Texas or Abbott in his Wednesday remarks, but both Florida and Texas have made national headlines for efforts to block schools from requiring masks, even as children under 12 remain ineligible for the vaccine and the delta variant affects mostly the unvaccinated.

Biden’s announcement could tee up another legal battle for Abbott, who is already fighting in state court Texas school districts which have implemented mask mandates as school kicked off this month. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 50 school districts and at least eight counties are currently defying or have recently violated Abbott’s executive order banning mask mandates, according to a tally released Wednesday by Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton has pledged to aggressively fight to enforce the state’s ban in court. His office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Abbott has said repeatedly that people must use “personal responsibility” in fighting the virus and that the time for mandates is over. The Republican governor who is up for reelection next year tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

Last week, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona sent Abbott and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath a letter expressing support for local school districts that have implemented mask mandates.

Cardona said in the letter that school districts had received COVID-19 relief funds to use for “contact tracing, implementing indoor masking policies, or other policies aligned with CDC guidance” and that the federal government was monitoring whether the state’s ban was in line with fiscal requirements attached to those funds. Texas has received $18 billion for public schools in COVID-19 relief dollars from the federal government and has already released $11 billion of it to the districts to spend.

Some Texas school districts which had implemented mask mandates have abandoned them after the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the universal masking requirements in Dallas and Bexar Counties. Other school districts, like Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, have pushed forward with their mandates.

Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa said he kept the mandate in place because the court’s order didn’t mention his district specifically. Hinojosa also said that Biden had thanked him for “having the courage for our students and our community,” according to CBS DFW.

Biden also announced he would require vaccines for staff at nursing homes serving people on Medicaid or Medicare.

“I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of health care costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors,” he said. “These steps are all about keeping people safe and out of harm’s way.”

Join us Sept. 20-25 at the 2021 Texas Tribune Festival. Tickets are on sale now for this multi-day celebration of big, bold ideas about politics, public policy and the day’s news, curated by The Texas Tribune’s award-winning journalists. Learn more.

Source Article from https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/18/greg-abbott-joe-biden-texas-mask-mandates/

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Culver City Unified requires COVID-19 vaccine for students – Los Angeles Times
Culver City Unified requires COVID-19 vaccine for students – Los Angeles Times

The Culver City Unified School District has issued a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all eligible students — believed to be the first such requirement in California — a move the district superintendent said has the overwhelming support of parents, teachers and staff members.

Children 12 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, which remains under emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. The Culver City requirement has a Nov. 19 deadline, and district officials hope the vaccine will have received full FDA approval by then.

California has ordered all K-12 school employees to be vaccinated or take weekly coronavirus tests — and a growing number of school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, are mandating employee vaccines with no testing option. A spokesperson for the state Department of Education said the office is not aware of any other student vaccine mandate among California’s 1,000 school districts.

Culver City schools Supt. Quoc Tran said the student vaccine mandate was issued after safety protocol discussions with the school board, teacher and employee unions and parents — who agreed that the requirement would help protect their schools as much as possible. The district, which serves 7,100 K-12 students, has 900 employees, who also must be vaccinated. Students go back to school Thursday.

“We felt that doing the minimum is not quite good enough. We could do more,” Tran said, adding that the science and efficacy of the vaccine drove the decision. “We are in the context of constantly crowded places in school settings. The vaccine helps in case our children or staff members contract the virus. They have a lesser chance to be severely impacted.”

If COVID-19 cases have slowed significantly by November, Tran said, the district may reconsider.

“If the pandemic is tapering off at that time, then we will ease off on that requirement,” he said.

About 1 in 20 district parents, Tran estimates, are opposed to the mandate.

But Tran said the opposition does not justify withholding the policy if it can prevent a student or staff member from becoming severely sick.

“It is not a fair trade,” he said. “We’re obligated to provide the best protection to our children and community.”

California has a number of school vaccine requirements, including polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles and pertussis, but COVID-19 is not among them at this early stage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that schools promote COVID-19 vaccinations among staff members, families and eligible students.

The COVID-19 vaccination rate for teens nationwide is lower than it is for adults. According to the CDC, 42.9% of 16- and 17-year-olds are fully vaccinated, as are 32.4% of adolescents ages 12 to 15.

In Los Angeles County, about 72% of residents ages 12 and older — more than 6.3 million — have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. About 54% of children ages 12 to 15 have received at least one dose of a vaccine, while nearly 64% of 16- and 17-year-olds have received at least their first dose.

Several health experts expressed support for the Culver City move.

“The Culver City school district is very proactive and moving in the correct direction to require vaccination of students who are eligible as another method of protecting those students, as well as other students around them who are not eligible for vaccination,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, said that by November, a COVID-19 vaccine should have full FDA approval for adults as well as children ages 12 and older. She said she expects current data showing that the vaccines are safe and effective among adolescents will hold up, supporting the mandate.

“Parents can always request exceptions for prior COVID infection or other medical reasons, but I think the data is very sound to make this mandate at this time,” Gandhi said.

Dr. Ilan Shapiro, a fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said a layered approach to school safety measures — which includes vaccines and masks — is necessary at schools.

Dina Petringa is among the Culver City parents who said they were pleased with the vaccine policy along with other district requirements that include weekly coronavirus testing. Petringa, whose 15-year-old son is already vaccinated, said she is “heartened” to live in a community that is taking the virus seriously.

“I’m thrilled they’re putting a vaccine mandate in Culver City Unified because I don’t think masks are enough,” Petringa said. “I want my son to be in school. He’s missed 18 months of his life, and he’ll never get that back. And I want him to go to school without any anxiety that he could bring back a virus that could kill his parents or his grandparents.”

Erika von Euw got her 12-year-old daughter vaccinated as soon as the vaccine opened up to her age group. Now, with her daughter headed to Culver City Middle School on Thursday, Von Euw said she is grateful for the district’s decision to mandate vaccines for eligible students.

“I feel grateful for what CCUSD did,” she said. “I feel that that’s the best decision.”

Teriah Holten, 17, a senior at Culver City High School, agreed.

“Knowing that people are vaccinated around me will feel more comfortable,” said Holten, who is vaccinated and believes it is in the best interest of students.

“I think it’ll give a lot of students an opportunity to understand that vaccinations are important,” Teriah said. “It’ll be a catalyst.”

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-18/culver-city-unified-requires-covid-19-vaccine-for-students

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