January, 2022 | últimas notícias

Conservative Majority on Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Biden’s Vaccine Plan – The New York Times

He responded that the coronavirus was a general risk like terrorism and not a workplace hazard.

“Why not?” Justice Kagan asked, noting that working side by side with other employees for eight hours or more is what happens in the workplace.

But Justice Gorsuch said the agency’s power has been limited to dangers distinctive to the workplace. “Traditionally,” he said, “OSHA has had rules that affect workplace hazards that are unique to the workplace and don’t involve hazards that affect individuals 24 hours a day.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked whether the court should issue a brief stay while it considers the case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, No. 21A244. He noted that OSHA has said it may start citing businesses for noncompliance on Monday.

Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, representing the federal government, said she would defer to the court’s judgment but noted that the Monday deadline only concerned record-keeping and masks and that the agency would not enforce the testing requirement until Feb. 9.

Scott A. Keller, a lawyer for a business group challenging the requirements, said that “we need a stay now before enforcement starts.”

“Our members have to submit publicly their plans to how to comply with this regulatory behemoth on Monday,” he said. “Vaccines would need to occur by Feb. 9. You would need two vaccines to comply. Those vaccines would have to start immediately. Tracking and record-keeping cannot happen overnight.”

The second case concerned a measure requiring workers at hospitals and other health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The requirement at issue in the case, Biden v. Missouri, No. 21A240, would affect more than 17 million workers, the administration said, and would “save hundreds or even thousands of lives each month.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/us/politics/biden-vaccine-mandate-supreme-court.html

16 views no comments

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers sentenced to life in prison for 25-year-old Black man’s murder – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/us/ahmaud-arbery-sentencing-killers-mcmichael-bryan/index.html

116 views no comments

Supreme Court skeptical of Biden’s workplace vaccine rule – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fully vaccinated and mostly masked, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical Friday of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-testing requirement on the nation’s large employers. The court seemed more open to a separate vaccine mandate for most health care workers.

The arguments in the two cases come at a time of spiking coronavirus cases because of the omicron variant, and the decision Friday by seven justices to wear masks for the first time while hearing arguments reflected the new phase of the pandemic.

An eighth justice, Sonia Sotomayor, a diabetic since childhood, didn’t even appear in the courtroom, choosing to remain in her office at the court and take part remotely. Two lawyers, representing Ohio and Louisiana, argued by telephone after recent positive COVID-19 tests, state officials said.

But the COVID circumstances did not appear to outweigh the views of the court’s six conservatives that the administration overstepped its authority in its vaccine-or-testing requirement for businesses with at least 100 employees.

“This is something the federal government has never done before,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, casting doubt on the administration’s argument that a half-century established law, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, confers such broad authority.

Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett probably hold the key to the outcome in both cases, as they have been more receptive to state-level vaccine requirements than the other three conservative justices. Barrett and Kavanaugh also had tough questions for Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer.

The court’s three liberal justices suggested support for the employer rule. Justice Elena Kagan said officials have shown “quite clearly that no other policy will prevent sickness and death to anywhere like the degree that this one will.” And Justice Stephen Breyer said he found it “unbelievable” that it could be in the “public interest” to put that rule on hold. He said that on Thursday there were some 750,000 new cases in the country and that hospitals are full.

Beginning Monday, unvaccinated employees in big companies are supposed to wear masks at work, unless the court blocks enforcement. But testing requirements and potential fines for employers don’t kick in until February.

Legal challenges to the policies from Republican-led states and business groups are in their early stages, but the outcome at the high court probably will determine the fate of vaccine requirements affecting more than 80 million people.

Roberts, Kavanaugh and Barrett seemed to have fewer doubts about the health care vaccine mandate. Kavanaugh said it was a “very unusual situation” that hospitals and health care organizations affected by the regulation were “not here complaining” about the rule but instead support it. “What are we to make of that?” he asked.

The second regulation is a mandate that would apply to virtually all health care staff in the country. It covers health care providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding, potentially affecting 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.

Decisions by federal appeals courts in New Orleans and St. Louis have blocked the mandate in about half the states. The administration has said it is taking steps to enforce it in the rest.

“I think effectively what is at stake is whether these mandates are going to go into effect at all,” said Sean Marotta, a Washington lawyer whose clients include the American Hospital Association. The trade group is not involved in the Supreme Court cases.

Both vaccine rules would exacerbate labor shortages and be costly to businesses, lawyer Scott Keller argued Friday on behalf of more than two dozen business groups. Without an immediate order from the court, “workers will quit right away,” Keller said.

Administration lawyer Prelogar told the justices that COVID-19 “is the deadliest pandemic in American history and it poses a unique workplace danger.” OSHA has estimated that its emergency regulation will save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.

Nearly 207 million Americans, 62.3% of the population, are fully vaccinated, and more than a third of those have received booster shots, including the nine justices.

Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, said the vaccine requirements are extremely effective for 15% to 20% of Americans “who don’t like to get a shot but they will and don’t have any strenuous objection.”

The high court is weighing in on administration vaccine policies for the first time, although the justices have turned away pleas to block state-level mandates.

A conservative majority concerned about federal overreach did bring an end to a federal moratorium on evictions put in place because of the pandemic.

Both the vaccination case came to the court on an emergency basis, and the court took the unusual step of scheduling arguments rather than just ruling on briefs submitted by the parties. Unlike in other cases the court hears, a decision from the justices could come in weeks if not days.

Because of the pandemic the justices heard the cases in a courtroom closed to the public. Only the justices, lawyers involved in the cases, court staff and journalists were allowed inside. The public could listen live, however, a change made earlier in the pandemic when the justices for nearly 19 months heard cases via telephone.

The court has been asking arguing lawyers to have negative coronavirus tests and participate remotely if they have positive tests. Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers, who was arguing against the employer rule, had tested positive for COVID-19 after Christmas, had mild symptoms and fully recovered, but a test on Sunday required by the court detected the virus, a spokeswoman said. He had been vaccinated and had a booster shot.

Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill who was arguing against the health care workers rule, was also arguing remotely “based upon the court’s protocol,” state Attorney General Jeff Landry said. Landry was at the court for Friday’s arguments.

It was the first time since the court returned to in-person arguments in October that lawyers were arguing remotely.

Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only justice to remain unmasked throughout the arguments, which lasted more than 3 and 1/2 hours. He sits between Barrett and Sotomayor. The court did not explain why Sotomayor didn’t take the bench.

___

This story has been corrected to say that one-third of those fully vaccinated have also received boosters.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-us-supreme-court-business-health-d96c0c56d5560f89f6bdbb7284480db6

8 views no comments

Biden claims Republicans want to make people too poor to buy cars – New York Post

President Biden on Friday celebrated a jobs report that showed far fewer Americans were added to payrolls than expected last month — then claimed Republicans concerned about high inflation simply want people to be too poor to afford cars.

The president accused GOPers of spewing “malarkey” about the economy in remarks following the release of the December jobs report, which showed the unemployment rate dropping to 3.9 percent — but also showed just 199,000 jobs were added to the economy, fewer than the 210,000 added in November and far below the predicted 422,000.

“I’m not an economist, but I’ve been doing this a long time,” Biden said. “Here’s the way to look at it: If car prices are too high right now, there are two solutions: You increase the supply of cars by making more of them. Or we reduce demand for cars by making Americans poorer.”

“That’s the choice,” he continued. “Believe it or not, there’s a lot of people in the second camp. You hear them complain that wages are rising too fast among the very middle-class and working-class people who have endured decades of stalled incomes.”

Biden added: “Their view of the economy says the only solution to our current and future challenges is to make the working families that are the backbone in our country poorer or keep them in the same state they were in. It’s a pessimistic vision, and I reject it.”

Biden’s critics blame him for high inflation, arguing that his American Rescue Plan Act, signed in March, spent $1.9 trillion without new revenue to pay for it.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Although Biden boasted of wage gains, the highest inflation in 39 years has eliminated the practical effect. In fact, a Dec. 10 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found: “Real average hourly earnings decreased 1.9 percent, seasonally adjusted, from November 2020 to November 2021” due to high inflation that is increasing the cost of living. Updated figures for December are expected next week.

Car costs are up this year in part because of a shortage of semiconductor chips linked to COVID-19-induced supply chain bottlenecks.

The monthly jobs report found the rate of payroll growth is the slowest of Biden’s presidency. In addition, the labor force remains smaller than before the pandemic hit — meaning that some people have simply given up looking for work.

“Nonfarm employment has increased by 18.8 million since April 2020 but is down by 3.6
million, or 2.3 percent, from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020,” the BLS report says.

Biden’s critics blame him for high inflation, arguing that his American Rescue Plan Act, signed in March, spent $1.9 trillion without new revenue to pay for it. That bill gave $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans who earned up to $75,000 per year, extended a $300 weekly unemployment supplement through Sept. 6 and expanded the annual child tax credit to $3,000 to $3,600 per child, up from $2,000.

Biden’s stimulus followed bipartisan legislation in 2020 that doled out about $4 trillion to keep the US afloat during the pandemic. In November, Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that the Congressional Budget Office said would add $256 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel slammed Biden in a statement.

“On the same day of the worst jobs report of Joe Biden’s presidency, he is fighting at the Supreme Court for his unconstitutional vaccine mandate that would force small businesses to fire workers,” she said. “Biden and the Democrats do not care about the harm they’re causing Americans — from rapidly rising prices on everything from gas to groceries to job-killing mandates, to a pandemic they promised to shut down. Joe Biden doesn’t care and the American people are paying the price.”

But Biden claimed he was making the country’s economy more fair “to make sure people who bake the pie get a fair slice but as well.” The expanded child tax credit expires this month due to Biden’s failed talks with Senate centrists on a $2 trillion spending bill called the Build Back Better Act.

In his speech, Biden also credited his administration with smoothing shipping backlogs at major ports that appeared poised to deprive Americans of timely Christmas deliveries.

“The Grinch did not steal Christmas — nor any votes,” he said.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/01/07/biden-claims-republicans-want-to-make-people-too-poor-to-buy-cars/

11 views no comments

Andrew Cuomo’s Groping Charge Is Dismissed – The New York Times

The details of Ms. Commisso’s account were part of a 165-page report from the state attorney general that concluded Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women.

Ms. Commisso, a former executive assistant, has said that Mr. Cuomo, after months of escalating flirtatious behavior, groped her breast while the two were alone in his private residence in December 2020.

Shortly after he resigned, Ms. Commisso filed a complaint with the Albany County sheriff’s office, which further investigated her accusation and charged Mr. Cuomo in late October.

But in an unusual move, especially for a high-profile case, the sheriff, Craig D. Apple, brought the charge without consulting with the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, who would have had to try the case in court.

Mr. Soares said that the complaint Sheriff Apple filed was “potentially defective.” After Mr. Soares’s office concluded its own investigation, he announced this week that prosecutors would not prosecute Mr. Cuomo, although he found Ms. Commisso believable. “After review of all the available evidence,” he said, “we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial.”

His decision underscored the difficulties of trying sexual misconduct cases in criminal court. Prosecutors would have had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime took place, the highest standard in the legal system, while relying heavily on Ms. Commisso’s testimony.

Earlier this week, Ms. Commisso expressed dismay with Mr. Soares’s decision to drop the case, telling the Times Union of Albany that it “yet again sadly highlights the reason victims are afraid to come forward, especially against people in power.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/nyregion/andrew-cuomo-groping-charge-dismissed.html

11 views no comments

Omicron cases could fall just as quickly as they rose, CDC says – NBC News

71 views no comments

Chicago Public Schools’ Monday classes off barring union deal – Chicago Tribune

On Thursday, the district did not follow its standard practice of reporting the number of students and staff members in quarantine or isolation on its online, public dashboard. There were 9,000 students and a record 2,300 staff members in quarantine or isolation Wednesday evening, according to district data.

Source Article from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-public-schools-chicago-teachers-union-covid-20220107-qfek7ejxzjeihobhtaq4di6rsi-story.html

7 views no comments

L.A Unified reports highest-ever student, staff COVID rates – Los Angeles Times

Coronavirus infection rates have shot up to 13.5% among students and staff in the Los Angeles Unified School District, a nearly 10-fold rise since before winter break, as officials said Friday they are moving forward to safely open classrooms for in-person learning on Tuesday.

Through Thursday more than half of the district’s 73,000 employees had submitted test results and about 30% of students, said Interim Supt. Megan Reilly, who visited Cochrane Middle School in Arlington Heights on Friday for the distribution of free test kits provided by the state. On Monday, Reilly required all students and staff to provide test results before returning to campus, and the district’s coronavirus testing sites have been open all week.

“We’re trying to do as much as possible to ensure we maintain the highest safety standards in our schools,” she said. “We keep our schools safer than the general public. As far as I’m concerned, I want everyone back in school.”

In L.A. Unified, the nation’s second-largest school system, teachers are scheduled to arrive on campus on Monday and students on Tuesday after a three-week winter break.

The rapid rise in infection rates mirrors what is happening in the county — and in much of the nation — due to the Omicron variant, which county health officials estimate to be five times more contagious than older strains.

The new term began this week in 50 of the 80 school systems in L.A. County.

Although keeping campuses in operation has been a challenge throughout the region, a relatively small number of K-12 schools delayed in-person instruction or canceled it for the remainder of the week. Virtually all schools have had to confront high infection rates, staff absences and lower student attendance.

The L.A. Unified figures represent a snapshot of the current surge and are the product of the nation’s most extensive coronavirus testing effort — which in the fall tested all students and staff every week.

The school system had planned to ramp down from that effort — which costs about $5 million a week — before Omicron altered the equation. First, the district extended weekly testing through at least January, then called for baseline testing for the return from winter break.

L.A. Unified has a significant advantage in having the infrastructure and experience of widespread, regular testing.

The district is managing two kinds of tests — PCR tests and rapid antigen tests. The tests given to families to use at home are antigen tests.

The PCR tests are more precise in finding the presence of an infection but must be processed by a lab. A PCR test can show a positive reading before or after a person is contagious. The antigen tests are less accurate and won’t find all active infections but are reasonably effective at determining whether a person is contagious at the time of testing — and the results are ready in minutes, according to county health officials.

With the antigen tests, “you want to get that as close as possible as to the entry date,” said Anthony Aguilar, the district’s chief of special education, equity and access. “So we’re asking parents not to administer any rapid antigens any sooner than January 8 to their students prior to accessing campus on January 11.”

The district also is setting aside antigen tests so they can process students through as quickly as possible if they arrive to campus without clearance, Aguilar said. Parental consent is required for the district to test students, but for the vast majority this consent is on file because of last semester’s regular testing.

While taking part in the test-kit distribution Reilly emphasized that, with the antigen test, it takes just “15 minutes to basically get a result.”

Student and staff will not be allowed on campus without proof of a negative test. She expects that there will be lines of student who have not been tested awaiting access to classroom on Tuesday, but “we don’t want any student not to have access to school,” Reilly said.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-07/l-a-unified-reports-highest-ever-student-staff-covid-rates

10 views no comments

3 men convicted in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder to be sentenced – ABC News

The three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery are set to be sentenced Friday.

A Georgia jury in November, after deliberating for about 11 hours, convicted the three white men of chasing and fatally shooting Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was out on a Sunday jog in February 2020.

Travis McMichael, 35, delivered the deadly shot and was convicted on all nine charges: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a shotgun, aggravated assault with a pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.

His father, Gregory McMichael, 65, a former Georgia police officer, was found not guilty of malice murder but was convicted on the other charges, including the felony murder counts.

The McMichaels’ neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53, was found guilty of three felony murder counts as well as charges of aggravated assault with his pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.

In the courtroom, Arbery’s father Marcus Arbery reflected on the loss of his son.

“The man who killed my son has been sitting in this courtroom, every single day, next to his father,” said Marcus. “I’ll never get that chance, to sit next to my son ever again, not at the table, not at a holiday.”

Arbery’s sister, Jasmine, remembered Arbery as a “big personality.”

“Ahmaud had dark skin that glistens in the son,” she said. “He had curly hair and would often like to twist it. Ahmaud had a broad nose and the color of his eyes was real, with melanin. He was tall with an athletic build and enjoyed running. Ahmaud had an appreciation for being outdoors.”

She added: “These are the qualities that made these men assume that Amaud was a dangerous criminal and chase him with guns. To me, those qualities reflect a young man full of life and energy who look like me and the people I love.”

His mother Wanda Cooper-Jones began her statement to court with a message to her son, Arbery.

“This verdict doesn’t bring you back,” she said. “But it does help bring closure to this very difficult chapter of my life. I made a promise to you, I’ll lay you to rest. I told you I love you and someday, somehow I would get you justice. Son, I love you as much today as I did the day that you were born. Raising you was the honor of my life and I’m very proud of you.”

All three men had pleaded not guilty to the nine-count state indictment. Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The three men also have been indicted on federal hate crime charges, and all have pleaded not guilty. Jury selection for that trial is set to begin Feb. 7.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Arbery’s family, spoke in a press conference before the sentencing, calling the guilty verdict “an awakening in America.”

“What we pray for is that this is a new, precedent in America that harkens back to the words written in 1776 when we say we hold these truths, that all men are created equally,” Crump said. “We pray that we see that same spirit in a sentence of these killers, this lynch mob. We want to make sure that they don’t get a slap on the wrist.”

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/men-convicted-ahmaud-arberys-murder-sentenced/story?id=82112192

77 views no comments

Photos: Dramatic scenes from Kazakhstan’s massive protests and crackdown – NPR

A person holding Kazakhstan’s flag gathers with other protesters near a police line in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday. Demonstrators denouncing the surge in prices for liquefied petroleum gas have clashed with police in Kazakhstan’s largest city and held protests in about a dozen other cities in the country.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

This week, Kazakhstan has seen some of its largest public protests since gaining independence from the Soviet Union over 30 years ago — and a deadly crackdown by its authoritarian government in response. The president said Friday he has authorized security forces to shoot to kill.

The protests began in the beginning of the year in a small oil town after a sudden major increase in the price of a type of fuel widely used in vehicles in Kazakhstan. Since then, tens of thousands of people have joined in demonstrations, signaling broader discontent with the Central Asian country’s economy and authoritarian rule. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called the demonstrators “terrorists.”

Riot police march to disperse demonstrators gathering in Almaty, Wednesday.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

Protesters have set cars and government buildings on fire. Casualties have mounted, including dozens of protesters and law enforcement. A regional security alliance led by Russia sent troops to the country.

Here are some of the images from the dramatic scenes that unfolded this week.

The mayor’s office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, one of several government buildings torched by protesters.

Valery Sharifulin/TASS via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Valery Sharifulin/TASS via Getty Images

Protesters attend a rally in Almaty on Tuesday, after energy price hikes.

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP via Getty Images

Protesters attend a rally in Almaty on Tuesday, after energy price hikes.

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP via Getty Images

A man attacks a police minivan during protests on Tuesday that followed sudden price hikes of liquefied petroleum gas.

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

A police car on fire during a protest in Almaty on Wednesday.

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

A police car on fire during a protest in Almaty on Wednesday.

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

Kazakh law enforcement officers detain a man during a protest in Almaty on Wednesday.

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

Smoke rises from the city hall building during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday. Kazakh news site Zakon said many of the demonstrators who converged on the building carried clubs and shields.

Yan Blagov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Yan Blagov/AP

Troops at the main square where hundreds of people were protesting on Thursday.

Mariya Gordeyeva/Reuters

hide caption

toggle caption

Mariya Gordeyeva/Reuters

A man takes a photo of windows of a police kiosk damaged by demonstrators during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

A riot police officer stands ready to stop demonstrators during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

Left: Demonstrators ride a truck during a protest; Right: A demonstrator tries to dismantle a security camera on a pole during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

A police car on fire as riot police prepare to stop protesters in the center of Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday. Local news reports said police dispersed a demonstration of about 1,000 people and detained protesters Tuesday night in Almaty.

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Vladimir Tretyakov/AP

Protesters take part in a rally in Almaty on Wednesday.

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP via Getty Images

A man walks his dog near a burned-out car that was set on fire during unrest. Following a meeting between a government commission and protesters, the price for liquefied petroleum gas went down, but some protests continued.

Valery Sharifulin/TASS via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Valery Sharifulin/TASS via Getty Images

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/01/07/1071101792/photos-scenes-kazakhstan-protests-crackdown

7 views no comments

New York Gets Its First Major Snow of the Season – The New York Times

In preparation for the storm, Rhode Islanders were out shopping the night before. Many shelves at East Side Market, a grocery store in Providence, were empty or thoroughly picked through by Thursday night.

At Bottles Fine Wine next door, one worker, Austin McDannell, 24, said he saw more customers than usual stop by during their lunch breaks Thursday to pick up provisions. He said he wasn’t sure if the store would open Friday morning, but his fiancé’s job at a beauty school in Cranston had already canceled work for Friday, and said if he had to hunker down in his home in Providence, he’d catch up on TV. “There’s always Netflix,” he said.

In Westerly, a seaside community on the Connecticut border that forecasters predicted could see 5 to 10 inches of snow during the course of the storm, the school district gave students and teachers a full snow day, without remote learning, the school’s superintendent, Mark Garceau, said. A message on the school’s website urges students to “go sledding, build a snowman.”

The snowy weather comes as the United States — from Montana to Colorado to Kentucky to Massachusetts — is facing a shortage of snow plow drivers, which has complicated removal efforts.

Officials have blamed the shortage partly on broader labor conditions; truck drivers have been in demand for years, and the industrywide shortage has reached record highs in recent months. A surge in the Omicron variant has worsened the situation, forcing some snow plow drivers to call out sick.

Some areas are going to great lengths to attract drivers. Watertown, Mass., is paying $200 per hour to drivers with a commercial license, with rates increasing as high as $310 if they have specialized equipment, The Boston Globe reported in November.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/nyregion/snow-northeast-power-outages.html

8 views no comments

Jan 6 riot news – live: Trump fumes over Biden speech as report says Harris was at DNC when pipe bomb found – The Independent

What we witnessed yesterday was the last gasps of a corrupt and discredited left-wing political and media establishment that has, for decades, driven our country into the ground—shipping away our jobs, surrendering our strength, sacrificing our sovereignty, attacking our history and values, and trying to turn America into a country that our people can barely recognize.

These radical leftists in Washington care NOTHING for American Democracy. All they care about is control over you, and wealth and riches for themselves.

But they are failing. No one believes them anymore. And the day is quicky [sic] coming when they will be overwhelmingly voted out of power.

Joe Biden’s voice is now the voice of desperation and despair.

His handlers gave him that speech to read yesterday because they know the unprecedented failures of his presidency and the left-wing extremism of the Pelosi-Schumer Congress have destroyed the Democrat Party.

Part of their panic is motivated by the realization that, just like the Russia Collusion Hoax, they cannot sustain the preposterous fabrications about January 6 much longer. The truth is coming out.

But for them, the worst part of it all is the knowledge that the American People are seeing right through their phony media event—which despicably compared a Pelosi-led security failure at the Capitol to the darkest days in American history and the deaths of 3,000 Americans.

The people see right through that sham. They see a cynical politician who ran for office promising unity who is now doing the most divisive thing possible—slandering his political opponents as domestic terrorists, just like insecure dictators do in communist countries.

The American People also see that January 6 has become the Democrats’ excuse and pretext for the most chilling assault on the civil liberties of American citizens in generations. It is being used to justify outrageous attacks on free speech, widespread censorship, de-platforming, calls for increased domestic surveillance, appalling abuse of political prisoners, labeling opponents of COVID lockdowns and mandates as national security threats, and even ordering the FBI to target parents who object to the radical indoctrination of their children in school. And this week, January 6 is also the Democrats’ excuse for trying to pass a radical Federal takeover of state election law. They are trying to BAN voter ID and other basic measures that can ensure the sacred integrity of the vote.

The reason the Democrats are doing all of this is not because they believe they will win a fair and honest election. It’s because they know they will overwhelmingly LOSE one.

Remember, I am not the one trying to undermine American Democracy—I am the one trying to SAVE American Democracy.

Today, I am more confident than ever in the strength and common sense of the American People. They are counting the days until we will no longer have to be constantly lectured, lied to, and dictated to by corrupt politicians and their media partners. When we will no longer have to put up with this broken establishment’s hoaxes and its manufactured media narratives—And as Biden and his radical handlers know, that day is coming fast. Because in the months and years ahead, the American People are going to speak up, take action, and VOTE in massive numbers, and we are going to TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY.

From the very beginning, all that Americans have wanted is great jobs, safe neighborhoods, strong borders, good schools, a proud nation, and a government that LISTENS to the American People. That is what our movement has always been about—and that is what we are focused on to this day.

Joe Biden and the Radical Democrats have failed on every front. But do not lose hope. America WILL be Great Again.

Source Article from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jan-6-trump-news-live-capitol-riot-b1987798.html

14 views no comments

Ted Cruz backtracks on calling Jan. 6 Capitol riot a “terrorist attack” – The Texas Tribune

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

After spending a day being slammed by TV pundits and fellow conservatives for describing last year’s U.S. Capitol insurrection as a “violent terrorist attack,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz walked back his comments on Thursday.

The Texas Republican attempted to clarify his intent on FOX News program “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” calling his own words “sloppy” and “frankly dumb.” Cruz insisted he was referring only to the rioters who attacked police during the breach of the historic building.

“For a decade, I have referred to people who violently assault police officers as terrorists. I’ve done so over and over and over again,” Cruz said Thursday.

He then tweeted a clip of his appearance.

His appearance came one day after Carlson lambasted the junior Texas senator for his choice of words during a Wednesday U.S. Senate committee hearing about the oversight of the Capitol Police during the 2021 riot. During that hearing, Cruz acknowledged the “solemn anniversary” of what he called a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol where we saw the men and women of law enforcement … risk their lives to defend the men and women who serve in this Capitol.”

The mob — made up of President Donald Trump supporters attempting to interrupt certification of the 2020 election — attacked police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage to the Capitol. Lawmakers and staff inside hid in fear for their lives as protesters breached the building carrying zip ties and wearing tactical gear.

Cruz was objecting to the certification of Arizona’s election results at the moment the Capitol was overrun. He was among several Texas Republicans who tried to cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, who continues to peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

Many conservatives have spent the past several months downplaying the seriousness of the Capitol attack, which led to thousands of injuries and five deaths. About 140 officers were injured, and two officers involved in the response have died by suicide, according to a report in the New York Times.

On his program Wednesday, Carlson accused Cruz of echoing Democratic talking points at that day’s Senate committee hearing.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Carlson said. “You’re making us think maybe the Republican Party is as worthless as we suspected it was. That can’t be true. Reassure us, please, Ted Cruz.”

On Thursday, Cruz said he asked to come on Carlson’s show so he could better explain himself. Cruz said he understood why people were angry at his use of the word “terrorist” but insisted that he would never use the same word that “Democrats and the corporate media have so politicized” to describe the “patriots” that were at the Capitol that day to protest the results of the presidential election.

At the time of the breach, Cruz argued, he was asking for Congress to investigate potential voter fraud in accordance with the law.

“It would be ridiculous for me to be saying that the people standing up and protesting to follow the law were somehow terrorists,” he said. “I was talking about people who commit violence against cops.”

Democrats and the media, Cruz said, “are trying to paint everyone as a terrorist, and it’s a lie.”

A year ago, on the floor of the Senate, Cruz said he was “not arguing for setting aside the results of the election,” but he was objecting because of concerns about how many Americans believed fraud had occurred.

When The Texas Tribune asked this week whether Cruz believed the 2020 election was legitimate, his office did not respond. Nor did he address his opinion on the legitimacy of the election on Thursday.

Disclosure: New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Source Article from https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-capitol-attack/

9 views no comments

Biden touts low unemployment rate after US adds fewer jobs in December than expected – CNN

By Kate Sullivan, CNN

Updated 1:36 PM ET, Fri January 7, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/politics/biden-december-jobs-report/index.html

9 views no comments

Parents don’t like remote learning, but some want it as cases surge – Insider

The recent COVID-19 surge is once again upending schools across the country.
Parents told Insider that while remote learning is hard, they still think its preferable right now.
“I’m thinking about pulling her out of school,” a parent of a high-risk third-grader said.

As students and staff return to in-person schooling after the holiday break, parents and teachers are facing a familiar, foreboding sense of déjà vu.

COVID-19 cases are peaking across the country. Parents are frustrated and exhausted with the possibility of abrupt school closures. And conflicting health guidance abounds as the Omicron variant casts a looming shadow over schools.

On Wednesday, Chicago schools closed abruptly after the teachers’ union voted to pivot to remote learning. Students and staff elsewhere are opting to stay home, whether because they are sick or afraid of getting sick. Schools in New York City, for instance, reported that just 67% of public school students showed up to class on Monday.

Parents told Insider that surging cases have once again sparked “impossible” questions as they weigh the hardships of remote learning against their fears of sending their kids back into classrooms while case numbers climb.

Students are ‘safe’ when they’re remote, even if they’re ‘not getting the same education’

Kathleen Schneider is a mother of three young boys in Clinton Township, Michigan. She says the possibility of returning to virtual learning feels inevitable.

“Things are crazy here,” she told Insider about the spike in COVID-19 cases in her community.

Her three vaccinated sons returned to school this week while she recovered from a COVID infection.

During last winter’s massive peak, she criticized the COVID-19 protocols in her sons’ schools and urged the district to return to remote learning, to no avail. But now, her feelings about a potential return to remote learning are complicated.

“They don’t learn as well at home,” she said. “They do better with in-person learning.”

Administering virtual school for her young sons makes it more difficult for Schneider to do her job as well, and two of her boys have ADHD, which makes remote learning a constant struggle.

She recognized the many negative aspects of a return to remote learning. Yet the converse — demanding schools stay open even as cases soar — is even less appealing for Schneider. If she had to choose, she said she would begrudgingly accept more virtual learning if it meant protecting her kids’ health.

“On the one hand, they’re safe when they’re home. We know where they are. We can limit who comes to the house or not,” she said. “But at the same time, they are not getting the same education. They just aren’t.”

Kim Hagood, mother to a fifth-grade son in Trussville, Alabama, is also preparing for a possible return to remote learning.

“It’s a job,” she said of administering her son’s online classes. “I’m really trying to mentally prepare for it.”

Hagood’s son attends a school where masks are not required, though she said her vaccinated 11-year-old is diligent in keeping his face covered throughout the day.

“As far as masking goes, people in this community don’t know what a mask is,” she said. She feels a return to remote learning is imminent as cases in the country continue to spike.

But when she thinks about the reality of going back to virtual learning, her response is a visceral one.

“I don’t want to. Oh God, I don’t want to,” she said. “I wish they’d just make everyone mask up and stay home if they’re sick, but they won’t.”

9-year-old Priscilla Guerrero uses a laptop computer for her 4th grade Los Angeles Unified School District online class in her room as mom Sofia Quezada assists her and 13-year-old sister Paulette Guerrero during remote learning lessons at home on September 17, 2020.

Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Hagood and Schneider both lamented the challenges remote learning poses not only for the students and teachers but also for parents. Hagood said helping her son through virtual learning feels like being a full-time teacher’s assistant, a position she isn’t particularly fond of.

Even while acknowledging the struggles intrinsically tied to virtual learning, Hagood, like Schneider, said if she had to choose, she’d opt for a break in in-person schooling to protect people’s health.

Crystal Sanchez of Sacramento, California, supports remote learning but also recognizes its drawbacks. She told Insider she was afraid to send her third-grade daughter back to school this week.

“The fear is the unknown,” Sanchez said. “You see some people who have small symptoms, and you see people who are dying and on ventilators.”

Sanchez said remote learning was a struggle for her daughter. She worried about the lack of socialization and how hard it is for teachers to teach kids at home. But at this point she feels the state should shut down because case numbers are skyrocketing.

“I’m concerned for the community. Our teachers, our nurses, people that are on the front lines,” she said. “But I’m also concerned about my daughter’s education. Is she going to fall behind?”

Still, she wants remote learning, partly because members of her family are high-risk, including 88-year-old grandmother for whom Sanchez is the primary caretaker.

Her daughter is high-risk as well, due to past surgeries, and Sanchez said there are many others in the community in similar situations that are being dismissed in the remote learning debate.

“I’m thinking about pulling her out of school,” she said. “You freak out every time we hear a sniffle.”

Sanchez noted that some students and community members don’t have equal access to COVID-19 testing or PPE, like N95s, putting them at higher risk than others.

Even if parents want remote learning, schools may not be prepared for it

Even if schools do go remote — and of course, there are many parents opposed to it — it’s not clear they would be prepared for it.

Sydney Hoening-Coyl, a high school social studies teacher in Palatine, Illinois, said the current surge came on so fast that an abrupt shift to remote learning would leave educators and many of their students scrambling.

“Remote learning is really hard — for students, for teachers,” she told Insider. “I don’t think any of us professionally, personally, were ready for an Omicron variant.”

She said when her school, like many others, started the 2020 fall semester fully remote, they had an entire summer to prepare. Her school comes back from winter break next week, and plans to be in-person. If that changes, it’s going to cause a lot of problems, including students without at-home access to WiFi and teachers without the proper lesson plans.

She also said it would be disappointing on a personal level for her and many teachers, who she said mostly get into the profession because they want to interact with students.

“It was just a really lonely year on zoom,” Hoening-Coyl said. “There’s also the feeling of, ‘Is this ever going to end? Are we ever going to feel safe enough?'”

Source Article from https://www.insider.com/parents-remote-learning-want-pause-in-person-omicron-surge-2022-1

14 views no comments

Biden’s ‘inflection point’ in confronting Trumpism: The Note – ABC News

The TAKE with Rick Klein

A chunk of President Joe Biden’s first year in office was defined by his belief in bipartisanship — and, in the view of many of in his own party, acting as if his predecessor didn’t mean what he did to and about the GOP.

That changed on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack. Biden called this “an inflection point in history,” and it might mark something similar when it comes to his presidency.

Without once mentioning him by name, Biden took direct aim at former President Donald Trump and his movement. He made it personal: “a defeated former president” whose “bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.”

“He can’t accept he lost,” Biden said.

It left Republicans complaining that Biden was injecting partisanship into a day of solemnity. But given the context of what happened a year ago — not to mention the near-total GOP boycott of the day’s ceremonies at the Capitol — those are hits the Biden White House is willing to take.

Trump on Thursday churned out a series of misleading and outright false statements that in part served to prove Biden’s point. If Jan. 6, 2021, was the day democracy was almost toppled, Jan. 6, 2022, was the day the current president announced that his mission was to confront divisions that are too important to try to heal.

Implicit in much of the way Jan. 6 has been commemorated is the fact that as bad as it was, it could have been far worse. Biden’s signal to his party from here is that the only way to confront Trumpism is by taking on Trump all over again.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

The work of protecting a democracy in peril is easier said than done, and Biden has his work cut out for him.

“I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today, but I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach, I will defend this nation and I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden said Thursday from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

The remarks by the president, vice president and a host of other Democratic lawmakers Thursday emphasized the through-line between election lies fomented by Trump and his allies, the Capitol attack, restrictive voting legislation passed in states across the country and the push to pass federal voting reforms.

“We must pass voting rights bills that are now before the Senate and the American people must also do something more,” said Vice President Kamala Harris. “We cannot sit on the sidelines, we must unite in defense of our democracy.”

But it remains to be seen if any of those remarks or the fresh reminder of the horrific events of Jan. 6 will move the needle. The math still isn’t in Biden’s favor — a 50-50 Senate, Democratic holdouts opposed to a Senate rule change and continued Republican blockage of voting legislation.

Pressure from advocates is mounting, with calls for the Biden administration to move more urgently on voting rights. Both Biden and Harris are slated to travel to Georgia, which passed restrictive voting legislation last year, to give more pointed remarks on voting rights Tuesday. Their trip comes ahead of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day deadline Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has issued for debate and consideration of filibuster reform.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

Many of the Republicans who were absent from the events surrounding the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack claimed the day was going to be politicized by their colleagues across the aisle — a framing that appears to now be cemented in the party’s rhetoric about the significance of that fateful day.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell set the tone before Thursday’s commemorative events began. In a statement, McConnell acknowledged Jan. 6 as a “dark day for Congress and our country” while also alleging that “some Democrats” were trying to “exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event.”

GOP allegations of partisanship also came from high-profile Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a steadfast Trump ally and speculated 2024 contender. When asked to weigh in on the Jan. 6 attack anniversary at a Thursday press conference, DeSantis omitted condolences for the victims of the deadly insurrection while claiming the national media’s coverage of the riot was being treated like “Christmas.”

“I think it’s going to end up being just a politicized Charlie Foxtrot today. I don’t expect anything good to come out of anything that Pelosi and the gang are doing. I don’t expect anything from the corporate press to be enlightening. I think it’s going to be nauseating, quite frankly, and I’m not going to do it,” DeSantis said.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News’ “Start Here” Podcast. Start Here on Friday morning begins with a look at President Biden’s speech commemorating the one-year anniversary of the US Capitol riot. ABC’s Jonathan Karl breaks down the day and Biden’s forceful speech placing blame for the attack. Then, ABC’s Kate Shaw previews Supreme Court arguments on the legality of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for the workplace. And, ABC’s Ian Pannell reports dozens are dead in Kazakhstan after an anti-government uprising. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the December 2021 jobs report at 10:45 a.m. before he and the first lady depart for Colorado, where they tour a neighborhood in Louisville at 3:30 p.m., meet with families affected by the Marshall Fire at 4:35 p.m. and the president delivers brief remarks on his administration’s response to recent wildfires.

Principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gaggles aboard Air Force One en route Denver, Colorado, departing at 12:10 p.m. from Joint Base Andrews.

The Supreme Court hears arguments challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 workplace vaccine requirements at 10 a.m.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend the funeral of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, at 11 a.m.

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”: The Powerhouse Roundtable discusses all the week’s politics with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Jonathan Karl, former New Jersey Governor and ABC News Contributor Chris Christie, former DNC Chair and ABC News Contributor Donna Brazile, and Executive Editor of The Associated Press Julie Pace.

Download the ABC News app and select “The Note” as an item of interest to receive the day’s sharpest political analysis.

The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day’s top stories in politics. Please check back next week for the latest.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bidens-inflection-point-confronting-trumpism-note/story?id=82115089

9 views no comments

Kazakhstan leader orders security forces to ‘kill without warning’ to quell violent protests – CNN

‘);$vidEndSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–active’);}};CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;var configObj = {thumb: ‘none’,video: ‘world/2022/01/07/kazakhstan-protest-russian-led-military-crackdown-robertson-pkg-ovn-intl-hnk-vpx.cnn’,width: ‘100%’,height: ‘100%’,section: ‘domestic’,profile: ‘expansion’,network: ‘cnn’,markupId: ‘body-text_16’,theoplayer: {allowNativeFullscreen: true},adsection: ‘const-article-inpage’,frameWidth: ‘100%’,frameHeight: ‘100%’,posterImageOverride: {“mini”:{“width”:220,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-small-169.jpg”,”height”:124},”xsmall”:{“width”:307,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-medium-plus-169.jpg”,”height”:173},”small”:{“width”:460,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/220107173522-screengrab-protester-large-169.jpg”,”height”:259},”medium”:{“width”:780,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-exlarge-169.jpg”,”height”:438},”large”:{“width”:1100,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-super-169.jpg”,”height”:619},”full16x9″:{“width”:1600,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-full-169.jpg”,”height”:900},”mini1x1″:{“width”:120,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220107173522-screengrab-protester-small-11.jpg”,”height”:120}}},autoStartVideo = false,isVideoReplayClicked = false,callbackObj,containerEl,currentVideoCollection = [],currentVideoCollectionId = ”,isLivePlayer = false,mediaMetadataCallbacks,mobilePinnedView = null,moveToNextTimeout,mutePlayerEnabled = false,nextVideoId = ”,nextVideoUrl = ”,turnOnFlashMessaging = false,videoPinner,videoEndSlateImpl;if (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === false) {autoStartVideo = false;autoStartVideo = typeof CNN.isLoggedInVideoCheck === ‘function’ ? CNN.isLoggedInVideoCheck(autoStartVideo) : autoStartVideo;if (autoStartVideo === true) {if (turnOnFlashMessaging === true) {autoStartVideo = false;containerEl = jQuery(document.getElementById(configObj.markupId));CNN.VideoPlayer.showFlashSlate(containerEl);} else {CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = true;}}}configObj.autostart = CNN.Features.enableAutoplayBlock ? false : autoStartVideo;CNN.VideoPlayer.setPlayerProperties(configObj.markupId, autoStartVideo, isLivePlayer, isVideoReplayClicked, mutePlayerEnabled);CNN.VideoPlayer.setFirstVideoInCollection(currentVideoCollection, configObj.markupId);videoEndSlateImpl = new CNN.VideoEndSlate(‘body-text_16’);function findNextVideo(currentVideoId) {var i,vidObj;if (currentVideoId && jQuery.isArray(currentVideoCollection) && currentVideoCollection.length > 0) {for (i = 0; i 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.showEndSlateForContainer();if (mobilePinnedView) {mobilePinnedView.disable();}}}}callbackObj = {onPlayerReady: function (containerId) {var playerInstance,containerClassId = ‘#’ + containerId;CNN.VideoPlayer.handleInitialExpandableVideoState(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, CNN.pageVis.isDocumentVisible());if (CNN.Features.enableMobileWebFloatingPlayer &&Modernizr &&(Modernizr.phone || Modernizr.mobile || Modernizr.tablet) &&CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibraryName(containerId) === ‘fave’ &&jQuery(containerClassId).parents(‘.js-pg-rail-tall__head’).length > 0 &&CNN.contentModel.pageType === ‘article’) {playerInstance = FAVE.player.getInstance(containerId);mobilePinnedView = new CNN.MobilePinnedView({element: jQuery(containerClassId),enabled: false,transition: CNN.MobileWebFloatingPlayer.transition,onPin: function () {playerInstance.hideUI();},onUnpin: function () {playerInstance.showUI();},onPlayerClick: function () {if (mobilePinnedView) {playerInstance.enterFullscreen();playerInstance.showUI();}},onDismiss: function() {CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer.disable();playerInstance.pause();}});/* Storing pinned view on CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer So that all players can see the single pinned player */CNN.Videx = CNN.Videx || {};CNN.Videx.mobile = CNN.Videx.mobile || {};CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer = mobilePinnedView;}if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (jQuery(containerClassId).parents(‘.js-pg-rail-tall__head’).length) {videoPinner = new CNN.VideoPinner(containerClassId);videoPinner.init();} else {CNN.VideoPlayer.hideThumbnail(containerId);}}},onContentEntryLoad: function(containerId, playerId, contentid, isQueue) {CNN.VideoPlayer.showSpinner(containerId);},onContentPause: function (containerId, playerId, videoId, paused) {if (mobilePinnedView) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleMobilePinnedPlayerStates(containerId, paused);}},onContentMetadata: function (containerId, playerId, metadata, contentId, duration, width, height) {var endSlateLen = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0).length;CNN.VideoSourceUtils.updateSource(containerId, metadata);if (endSlateLen > 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.fetchAndShowRecommendedVideos(metadata);}},onAdPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType) {/* Dismissing the pinnedPlayer if another video players plays an Ad */CNN.VideoPlayer.dismissMobilePinnedPlayer(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onAdPause: function (containerId, playerId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType, instance, isAdPause) {if (mobilePinnedView) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleMobilePinnedPlayerStates(containerId, isAdPause);}},onTrackingFullscreen: function (containerId, PlayerId, dataObj) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleFullscreenChange(containerId, dataObj);if (mobilePinnedView &&typeof dataObj === ‘object’ &&FAVE.Utils.os === ‘iOS’ && !dataObj.fullscreen) {jQuery(document).scrollTop(mobilePinnedView.getScrollPosition());playerInstance.hideUI();}},onContentPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, event) {var playerInstance,prevVideoId;if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreEpicAds’);}clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentReplayRequest: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);var $endSlate = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find(‘.js-video__end-slate’).eq(0);if ($endSlate.length > 0) {$endSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–active’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’);}}}},onContentBegin: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (mobilePinnedView) {mobilePinnedView.enable();}/* Dismissing the pinnedPlayer if another video players plays a video. */CNN.VideoPlayer.dismissMobilePinnedPlayer(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.mutePlayer(containerId);if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘removeEpicAds’);}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoSourceUtils.clearSource(containerId);jQuery(document).triggerVideoContentStarted();},onContentComplete: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === ‘function’) {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout(‘restoreFreewheel’);}navigateToNextVideo(contentId, containerId);},onContentEnd: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== ‘undefined’ && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(false);}}},onCVPVisibilityChange: function (containerId, cvpId, visible) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, visible);}};if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length 0) {configObj.adsection = window.ssid;}CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibrary(configObj, callbackObj, isLivePlayer);});CNN.INJECTOR.scriptComplete(‘videodemanddust’);

MUST WATCH

The CSTO is a security alliance comprised of six member states: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It traces its origins to a regional treaty signed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but since the signing of its charter in 2002, CSTO has taken on a more formal structure, with a collective security council and a rotating chairmanship. Its secretariat is based in Moscow.

Russia dominates the CSTO: The nuclear-armed nation has the organization’s largest military, its biggest economy and most advanced weapons industry. The CSTO bars its members from hosting foreign military bases without agreement of all other members, giving Russia an effective veto over the presence of foreign forces in the region.

The organization holds military exercises to test peacekeeping and rapid-reaction capabilities. Last year, the organization held military drills on the Tajik-Afghan border after the collapse of the central government in Afghanistan. But it is still in its relative infancy compared with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which currently has 30 members.

The deployment of CSTO forces to Kazakhstan represents a test of the organization’s definition of collective defense.

CNN’s Joshua Berlinger, Helen Regan and Tim Lister contributed to this report

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/asia/kazakhstan-kassym-jomart-tokayev-address-intl/index.html

11 views no comments

Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to Biden Vaccine Mandates – The New York Times

“The mandate is aimed directly at protecting the unvaccinated from their own choices,” she wrote. “Vaccines are freely available, and unvaccinated people may choose to protect themselves at any time.”

In the Supreme Court case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, No. 21A244, the challengers argued that the regulation did not address a workplace issue and so exceeded the agency’s lawful authority. “Covid-19 is not an occupational danger that OSHA may regulate,” lawyers for Ohio and 26 other states told the justices in a recent brief.

They added that agencies seeking to issue regulations on “major questions” with broad economic or political implications must have clear congressional authorization.

The second case, Biden v. Missouri, No. 21A240, concerns a regulation issued in November requiring health care workers at facilities that receive federal money under the Medicare and Medicaid programs to be vaccinated against the coronavirus unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

States led by Republican officials challenged the regulation, obtaining injunctions against it covering about half of the nation. Two federal appeals courts, in New Orleans and St. Louis, refused to stay those injunctions while appeals moved forward.

A third federal appeals court, in Atlanta, sided with the Biden administration. “Health care workers have long been required to obtain inoculations for infectious diseases, such as measles, rubella, mumps and others,” Judges Robin S. Rosenbaum and Jill A. Pryor wrote for a divided three-judge panel, “because required vaccination is a common-sense measure designed to prevent health care workers, whose job it is to improve patients’ health, from making them sicker.”

The Biden administration argued that a federal statute gave it broad authority to impose regulations concerning the health and safety of patients at facilities that receive federal money. The statute gives the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services the general power to issue regulations to ensure the “efficient administration” of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and parts of the statute concerning various kinds of facilities generally also authorize the secretary to impose requirement to protect the health and safety of patients.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/us/politics/biden-vaccine-mandate-supreme-court.html

22 views no comments

A year after U.S. Capitol siege, Biden blasts Trump’s ‘web of lies’ – Reuters

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Thursday accused his predecessor Donald Trump of spreading a “web of lies” to undermine U.S. democracy in a speech on the anniversary of the deadly Capitol attack by Trump supporters who tried to undo his 2020 election defeat.

Speaking at the white-domed building where rioters smashed windows, assaulted police and sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives on Jan. 6, 2021, Biden said Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud could unravel the rule of law and subvert future elections.

“A former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle,” Biden said. “He can’t accept he lost.”

Biden never actually uttered his predecessor’s name during the 25-minute speech, telling reporters afterward he was trying to focus on the threats to America’s political system instead of Trump himself.

The tone, including a poke at Trump’s “bruised ego,” was a departure for Biden, who has focused during most of his first year in office on pursuing his own agenda. Trump issued three statements in the hours following his successor’s remarks accusing Biden of trying to divide the country and repeating his false election claims.

Trump’s behavior over the past year, like his conduct in office, has been norm-shattering. Unlike other former U.S. presidents denied re-election, Trump has refused to accept the verdict of the voters and pressured fellow Republicans to somehow overturn the results, without success.

His false claims have provided cover for Republicans at the state level to pass new restrictions on voting that they have said are needed to fight fraud. Research shows such fraud is extremely rare in U.S. elections.

Biden’s fellow Democrats, a few Republicans and many independent experts have said Trump’s continued denials could make it less likely that future U.S. transfers of power will be peaceful – especially those involving closer margins than the 2020 election that Biden won by 7 million votes nationwide.

The speech illustrated that Biden and other Democrats remain wary of Trump’s political staying power. In the riot’s immediate aftermath, even some Republicans thought his grip on their party had been shaken, but since then Trump has only tightened it.

“Our democracy is very fragile, and the cult of The Big Lie is still very much in action with the help of the vast majority of our colleagues on the other side, who continue to try to rewrite or ignore history,” Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal said at an afternoon event.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led dozens of bundled-up Democratic lawmakers holding lights in a moment of silence on the steps of the Capitol, part of a candlelight prayer vigil that was the final official event of the anniversary.

Not far away, a vigil at the D.C. jail for the about 40 inmates charged in connection with the Jan. 6 assault was sparsely attended.

1/10

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Statuary Hall on the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

“This is not speedy justice,” said L.A. Warren, 65, who had driven to Washington from his Michigan home for the day and said he, too, had participated in the storming of the Capitol. “A year, that’s a long time, when these people – a lot of them, in my view – was trespassing.”

‘CULT OF PERSONALITY’

Just two Republicans were spotted at a House of Representatives session marking the riot’s anniversary: Representative Liz Cheney, who has been shunned by party colleagues after criticizing Trump, and her father Dick Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush.

“A party that is in thrall to a cult of personality is a party that is dangerous to the country,” Liz Cheney told reporters on her way out of the Capitol.

Dick Cheney told reporters that current party leaders do not resemble “any of the folks I knew” when he served in Congress.

America’s next federal election is in November, with Republicans favored to retake a majority in at least one of the two chambers of Congress. That could cripple Biden’s ability to advance policy and set the stage for two years of legislative gridlock before a potential 2024 Biden-Trump rematch.

According to Reuters/Ipsos polling, 55% of Republican voters believe Trump’s false claims, which were rejected by dozens of courts, state election departments and members of his own administration.

Four people died in the hours-long chaos after Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” One police officer died on that day after battling rioters and four later died by suicide. Around 140 police officers were injured. U.S. prosecutors have brought criminal charges against at least 725 people linked to the riot.

Trump remains highly popular among Republican voters and is working to shape the field of Republican candidates in the Nov. 8 congressional elections.

Most Republican officeholders have remained loyal to him, and some have sought to play down the riot. Liz Cheney is one of only two Republican members of a House committee investigating the riot, which in recent weeks has unearthed records showing Trump allies urging him to call off the rioters as the attack was unfolding.

Other Republicans accused Democrats of exploiting the anniversary for partisan gain.

“What brazen politicization of Jan. 6 by President Biden,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, who has reversed his position on Trump numerous times, including criticizing him after the riot and then reverting to defending him.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-call-trump-threat-democracy-us-capitol-attack-anniversary-2022-01-06/

16 views no comments

Kazakhstan leader orders security forces to ‘kill without warning’ to quell violent protests – CNN

The CSTO is a security alliance comprised of six member states: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It traces its origins to a regional treaty signed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but since the signing of its charter in 2002, CSTO has taken on a more formal structure, with a collective security council and a rotating chairmanship. Its secretariat is based in Moscow.

Russia dominates the CSTO: The nuclear-armed nation has the organization’s largest military, its biggest economy and most advanced weapons industry. The CSTO bars its members from hosting foreign military bases without agreement of all other members, giving Russia an effective veto over the presence of foreign forces in the region.

The organization holds military exercises to test peacekeeping and rapid-reaction capabilities. Last year, the organization held military drills on the Tajik-Afghan border after the collapse of the central government in Afghanistan. But it is still in its relative infancy compared with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which currently has 30 members.

The deployment of CSTO forces to Kazakhstan represents a test of the organization’s definition of collective defense.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/asia/kazakhstan-kassym-jomart-tokayev-address-intl/index.html

19 views no comments