The Times published an article on Sunday that reported that Trump paid little to no federal income taxes in most years from 2000 through 2017. In each of 2016 and 2017, Trump paid $750, the Times reported.
Trump is the first president in decades who has not made any of his tax returns public. He has previously said he won’t release his returns while under audit, but the IRS has said that audits don’t prevent people from releasing their personal tax information.
Any person with disabilities who needs help accessing the content of the FCC Public file should contact Katie Bowman at kbowman@kstp.com or (651) 646-5555
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The head of the FDA, Dr Stephen Hahn, said he “can’t predict when a vaccine will be ready”
The head of the US drugs regulator has cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s prediction that a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready this year.
“I can’t predict when a vaccine will be available,” US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dr Stephen Hahn, said on Sunday.
Dr Hahn said vaccine development would be “based upon the data and science”.
A vaccine would train people’s immune systems to fight the virus, so they do not become sick.
Dr Hahn, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, was asked about the timeframe after President Trump suggested that a “vaccine solution” to the pandemic would be ready “long before the end of the year”.
“I want to send our thanks to the scientists and researchers around the country, and even around the world, who are at the forefront of our historic effort to rapidly develop and deliver life-saving treatments and ultimately a vaccine,” Mr Trump said during his Independence Day address at the White House.
“We are unleashing our nation’s scientific brilliance and we’ll likely have a therapeutic and/or vaccine solution long before the end of the year.”
The president has been criticised for his comments on vaccines and treatments during the coronavirus epidemic, which has claimed the lives of almost 130,000 people in the US.
In recent days, infections have been rising at a record rate in western and southern states, bringing the total to more than 2.8 million nationwide.
Media captionThe lost six weeks when the US failed to control the virus
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned in June that scientists may never be able to create an effective vaccine against the coronavirus.
“The estimate is we may have a vaccine within one year,” the WHO chief said. “If accelerated, it could be even less than that, but by a couple of months. That’s what scientists are saying.”
Other experts have suggested a Covid-19 vaccine will not be available until at least mid-2021.
What did Dr Hahn say?
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, FDA chief Dr Hahn said “we are seeing unprecedented speed for the development of a vaccine”, but did not elaborate on a timeline for its availability.
“Our solemn promise to the American people is that we will make a decision based upon the data and science on a vaccine, with respect to the safety and effectiveness of that vaccine,” he said.
In another interview with CNN, Dr Hahn said he would not comment on Mr Trump’s assertion that 99% of Covid-19 infections were “totally harmless”.
“I’m not going to get into who is right and who is wrong,” he said of Mr Trump’s remark, also made in his Independence Day speech.
The global fatality rate among Covid-19 patients is estimated to be relatively low, differing from country to country. In March the head of the WHO said about 3.4% of reported Covid-19 cases had been fatal globally.
While most patients with Covid-19 have mild or moderated symptoms, around 20% require oxygen, according to the WHO.
What progress has been made on a vaccine?
A vaccine would normally take years, if not decades, to develop, but scientists across the world are doing their best to fast-track efforts.
There are around 120 vaccine programmes currently under way. Oxford University and Imperial College London have both started human trials.
Media captionKathy is among the first of 300 volunteers who are taking part in this phase of Imperial College London’s trial
US health officials have expressed cautious optimism that a vaccine will be in production by the end of 2020 or early 2021.
Earlier this week, the US’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine against Covid-19 should be known by “early winter”.
Dr Fauci said trials of various vaccines would be entering the latter stages of the testing process this month.
“We may be able to at least know whether we are dealing with a safe and effective vaccine by the early winter, late winter, beginning of 2021,” said Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Derechos de autor de la imagen EPA/FABER AND FABER
El escritor británico Kazuo Ishiguro despertó este jueves con una llamada que le quitó el sueño: era su agente, para decirle que “creía que había ganado el Premio Nobel de Literatura”.
“¿Tienes alguna evidencia?”, fue su respuesta, incrédula.
Pero no, el agente aún no tenía ninguna confirmación.
La BBC también lo llamó un momento después, pero Ishiguro seguía sin ninguna certeza: ya la Academia Sueca había anunciado el premio, pero aún no había realizado la tradicional llamada para confirmárselo personalmente y preguntarle si lo aceptaba.
“Es un magnífico honor principalmente porque significa que estoy en los pasos de los más grandes autores, y eso es un elogio increíble” aseguró a la BBC.
Final de la publicación de Twitter número de @NobelPrize
Pero el autor de “Pálida luz en las colinas”, (1982) y “Lo que queda del día” (1989) afirmó también que esperaba que el galardón contribuyera a un cambio positivo en los tiempos actuales.
“El mundo está en un momento muy incierto y espero que todos los Premios Nobel sean una fuerza para algo positivo en el mundo. (…)Estaré profundamente conmovido si pudiera de alguna manera ser parte de algún tipo de clima este año en contribuir a algún tipo de ambiente positivo en un momento muy incierto”, dijo.
Finalmente, un rato después de la conversación con la BBC, el autor recibió la esperada llamada.
Para ese momento, ya era noticia en medio mundo.
Las obras
Su trabajo, que incluye guiones para el cine y la televisión, examina temas como la memoria, el tiempo y el autoengaño.
La Academia Sueca informó que concedió el premio a Ishiguro porque “en novelas de una gran fuerza emocional, ha descubierto el abismo que hay debajo de nuestra ilusoria sensación de conexión con el mundo”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen REX/Shutterstock
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La versión cinematográfica de “Lo que queda del día” fue protagonizada por Anthony Hopkins y Emma Thompson.
Sara Danius, secretaria permanente de la Academia, describió el estilo del escritor inglés como “una mezcla de Jane Austen, comedia de costumbres y Franz Kafka”.
El premio consistirá en una medalla (con la efigie de Alfredo Nobel, creador del galardón) que recibirá en la tradicional ceremonia de diciembre próximo y un monto de US$ 1,1 millones.
¿Quién es Kazuo Ishiguro?
Nacido en Nagasaki, Japón, en 1954, se trasladó en 1960 a Inglaterra con su familia, cuando le ofrecieron a su padre un puesto como oceanógrafo en Surrey.
Estudió inglés y filosofía en la universidad de Kent y luego realizó un máster en escritura creativa en la Universidad de East Anglia, donde sus tutores fueron Malcolm Bradbury y Angela Carter.
Su tesis se convirtió en su primera novela, que fue aclamada por la crítica, “Pálida luz en las colinas”.
Ganó el Premio Booker en 1989 por Lo que queda del día, que fue convertida en película en 1993, dirigida por James Ivory y protagonizada por Anthony Hopkins y Emma Thompson.
Su última novela publicada es “El gigante enterrado”, que salió en 2015. El comité Nobel elogió este libro por explorar “cómo la memoria se relaciona con el olvido, la historia con el presente y la fantasía con la realidad”.
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La posesión de Donald Trump (izq.) y la de Barack Obama 2009. La imagen fue tomada del famoso obelisco que está en el centro de Washington, en el momento en que ambos presidentes juraban en su cargo.
El presidente de EE.UU., Donald Trump, dijo este sábado que los periodistas “estaban entre los seres humanos más deshonestos”.
La disputa del nuevo mandatario con la prensa se dio a partir de la publicación de una imagen sobre la asistencia a su ceremonia de posesión, el viernes pasado.
Trump, que hizo la afirmación durante una visita a la Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA, por sus siglas en inglés), criticó la publicación de dos fotografías que contrastaban la cantidad de público asistente a su toma de mando con la registrada en 2009 para la asunción de Barack Obama, a la vista mucho mayor.
“Los periodistas y los medios están entre los seres humanos más deshonestos del planeta. Al menos un millón y medio de personas se acercaron para estar en mi posesión”, dijo el mandatario.
Después de estas declaraciones, el secretario de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Sean Spicer, dio una conferencia de prensa en la que mostró otras fotografías de la toma de posesión y señaló que la ceremonia de asunción de Trump fue “la que ha tenido mayor cantidad de público en la historia de los juramentos presidenciales”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Reuters
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El secretario de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Sean Spicer, acusó a los medios de “empañar el entusiasmo de las personas en la posesión”.
“Los medios están malinterpretando las imágenes y utilizando datos pocos claros para minimizar el enorme respaldo que recibió el presidente el día de su toma de posesión”, agregó.
Los señalamientos además se dieron mientras millones de personas alrededor de Estados Unidos marchaban para protestar en contra de Donald Trump en las Marchas de las Mujeres.
Las cifras señalan que cerca de tres millones personas salieron a las calles de ciudades de todo el mundo, siendo la de Washington D.C. la de mayor movilización.
Sin embargo, después de la fuerte reacción de los medios que rechazaron las declaraciones de Spicer, Kellyanne Conway, consejera del presidente Trump, dijo este domingo en el programa de la NBC “Meet the Press“, que lo que hizo la Casa Blanca fue presentar “hechos alternativos”.
“No es posible que se pueda probar la cantidad de personas que asistieron a la posesión. No hay manera de contar las multitudes“, explicó Conway.
¿Cuáles son las cifras reales?
Por décadas, la Administración de Parques Nacionales dio a conocer las cifras sobre la asistencia de público a los eventos masivos que ocurrían en el National Mall.
Pero dejó de hacerlo en 1995, después de que fuera demandada por la organización de la “Marcha del Millón”, por los derechos de las personas afroestadounidenses.
Esta vez, después de que se publicó la foto de la toma de mando de Trump y fue replicada por varios medios, la primera cifra que apareció fue la del propio gobierno, difundida este sábado, que hablaba sobre el “millón y medio de personas” que estuvieron con el republicano en las calles.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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Centenares de miles de personas salieron a las calles de las principales ciudades de EE.UU. para exigir el respeto a los derechos de la mujeres.
Pero no dio ningún detalle de dónde se había sacado ese cálculo.
Para apoyar esa afirmación, Spicer fijó las cifras en 750.000 personas en el National Mall.
Y además, agregó que el número de personas que tomó el metro ese viernes hacia el Capitolio fue mucho mayor que el día que Barack Obama asumió el segundo mandato, en 2013.
Pero, de acuerdo a las cifras oficiales del metro de Washington, el 20 de enero de 2013 se utilizaron 782.000 tiquetes, mientras que este viernes se utilizaron 571.000.
Spicer apuntó que las cubiertas plásticas que se habían puesto para cubrir la grama habían ocasionado “el efecto de resaltar las áreas en que las personas no estaban de pie mientras que en años pasados la hierba eliminó ese efecto”.
Pero en 2013 la grama también estaba cubierta con el mismo plástico.
Finalmente señaló que este año se habían instalado unas puertas electromagnéticas que “habían desalentado a muchas personas de asistir al National Mall“.
“Primer ministro” Peña Nieto
La mayoría de los medios de Estados Unidos negaron las acusaciones hechas por Trump y el secretario de prensa.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Pool
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El presidente de EE.UU., Donald Trump, dijo sus señalamientos a la prensa desde los cuartes de la CIA.
El New York Times publicó que los dichos del vocero de prensa estaban basados en datos incorrectos y CNN señaló que el secretario de prensa había atacado a los medios por reportar de forma “correcta y precisa” los hechos.
Después de finalizar el señalamiento sobre las imágenes, en la conferencia de prensa se habló de otros temas y el secretario erróneamente se refirió al presidente de México, Enrique Peña Nieto, como “el primer ministro”.
“Él (Trump) también habló con el primer ministro Peña de Nieto y hablaron sobre su visita, que ocurrirá el próximo 31 de enero, en la que se discutirán temas de comercio, inmigración y seguridad”, dijo Spicer.
Al final de ofrecer su comunicado no permitió preguntas de la prensa.
Pero más allá de los errores, para el corresponsal de la BBC en Washington David Willis este es un “preocupante debut para el presidente Trump”
“En su primera vez antes los medios, Sean Spicer se fue contra los periodista de una manera que no tiene precedentes, según lo que muchos aquí recuerdan”, anotó Willis.
“Ese mensaje de que ‘haría responsable a la prensa’ (de los supuestos errores publicados) no queda muy claro, pero sí dejó profundamente preocupados a veteranos reporteros de la Casa Blanca que llevan mucho tiempo cubriendo esta fuente”, dijo.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Keystone
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A la ceremonia de posesión de Lyndon B Johnson de enero de 1965 (esta foto pertenece a un evento en julio de ese año) asistieron 1,2 millones de personas.
“Lo que nos lleva a la pregunta que venimos haciendo en los últimos tiempos sobre qué será lo más desagradable de esta administración: ¿el mensaje o el mensajero?”.
“Hechos alternativos”
Por su parte, Kellyanne Conway, consejera presidencial y exjefa de campaña de Donald Trump intentó maquillar lo sucedido afirmando que Spicer dio “hechos alternativos”.
La curiosa respuesta de Conway, que fue entrevistada por la cadena de televisión estadounidense NBC, rápidamente logró eco en medios locales como en redes sociales.
Pocos minutos después de esta declaración, brindada el domingo en la mañana, la etiqueta #alternativefacts (hechos alternativos en inglés) fue tendencia en Twitter y Facebook.
Durante la entrevista, el presentador de NBC Chuck Todd le respondió a Conway que “los hechos alternativos no son hechos. Son falsedades”.
Conway, sin embargo, siguió defendiendo a Spicer y acusó al periodista de ser “muy dramático”
Las cifras anteriores
De acuerdo a las cifras del distrito de Columbia, en 2009, cuando Barack Obama se posesionó como presidente de EE.UU., cerca de 1,8 millones de personas se hicieron presentes en el National Mall.
En 2013, cuando juró para un segundo mandato, asistió cerca un millón de personas.
George W. Bush atrajo 300.000 en 2001, Bill Clinton cerca de 800.000 en 1993. Para la posesión de Ronald Reagan en 1985 se vendieron cerca de 140.000 entradas. Pero la ceremonia tuvo que ser trasladada para un escenario cerrado debido a las bajas temperaturas.
Y antes de que la Administración Nacional de Parques dejara de realizar el conteo, la mayor asistencia de público se registró en 1965, cuando Lyndon B. Johnson juró por segunda vez para ser presidente de EE.UU., en un evento al que asistieron 1,2 millones de personas.
The internal dispute over Omar’s comments on U.S. foreign policy comes more than two years after she faced public pushback from both parties over comments seen as antisemitic. The House GOP raced Thursday to turn the dozen Democrats’ statement into a political weapon against Omar, with leaders likely to plot floor action on the chamber floor next week.
But the group of Jewish Democrats speaking out against Omar’s comments have not specifically called for a floor vote on the matter, as a bigger cross-section of the caucus did in 2019, according to several sources familiar with the conversations.
And Omar made an additional attempt to defuse the tension on Thursday, with some guidance from Democratic leadership. She issued a “clarification” that stated she was “in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems.”
In another key difference from 2019, Omar’s latest remarks have drawn no specific complaints of antisemitism from fellow Democrats.
Rather, her Democratic colleagues took issue with her “false equivalencies” between the U.S. and Israel on one hand, and Hamas and the Taliban on the other. The critical statement from 12 Democrats, led by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), rebukes Omar’s comments during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Monday, when she asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken about a International Criminal Court probe of allegations against both the Taliban and the U.S. in Afghanistan and by Hamas and Israel in their own recent Middle East conflict.
Omar clarified in her statement on Thursday that her conversation with Blinken was about “accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel.”
The comments spurred a fierce debate among many Jewish Democrats, several of whom have previously taken issue with Omar’s remarks that they described as anti-Semitic. Out of several dozen Democrats who took part in discussions this week, 12 lawmakers signed the statement. Those discussions were first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided,” the 12 Democrats wrote in the statement, adding that “false equivalencies give cover to terrorist groups.”
A spokesperson for Schneider said Omar did not attempt to call him, and doesn’t know about attempts to reach other members. The spokesperson also confirmed that Democrats signing the statement do not call her actions antisemitic.
Several House Republicans publicly condemned Omar’s comments earlier this week, with many in the party eager to tear open the growing Democratic schism over her views on foreign policy. GOP leaders could pursue as a resolution to censure her or remove her from committees when lawmakers return to Washington next week.
“Speaker Pelosi’s continued failure to address the issues in her caucus sends a message to the world that Democrats are tolerant of antisemitism and sympathizing with terrorists,” tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The GOP’s campaign arm also said in a statement Thursday that Democrats should strip Omar of her committees — as Democrats did this year to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after a series of incendiary comments and actions by the controversial Georgia Republican, including endorsing the assassination of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Many Democrats, however, reject the comparison of Greene to Omar. And one of Omar’s allies in the progressive alliance known as “the Squad” came to her defense Thursday morning.
“I am tired of colleagues (both D+R) demonizing” Omar, tweeted Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), elected alongside Omar in 2018 as Congress’ first Muslim woman lawmakers. “Their obsession with policing her is sick. She has the courage to call out human rights abuses no matter who is responsible. That’s better than colleagues who look away if it serves their politics.”
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), another “Squad” member, tweeted that “I’m not surprised when Republicans attack Black women for standing up for human rights. But when it’s Democrats, it’s especially hurtful. We’re your colleagues. Talk to us directly. Enough with the anti-Blackness and Islamophobia.”
On Wednesday night, Omar shared a sample of what she described as frequent threats she’s received when she speaks on human rights issues, tweeting a recording that included multiple racist and Islamophobic slurs directed at her.
This week is not the first time Democrats have faced a furor within their caucus over Omar’s political speech. Shortly arriving in Congress, some of Omar’s comments sparked complaints of antisemitism and a raging debate over how Democrats should punish her through a resolution the floor. In one instance in 2019, Omar suggested that pro-Israel advocates had “allegiance” to Israel, which several Democrats said alluded to painful, decades-old discriminatory tropes of Jews who display “dual loyalties.”
Democratic leaders ultimately crafted a resolution condemning hate speech in all forms, indirectly rebuking Omar — a move that infuriated several Jewish Democrats who wanted to condemn her directly.
“MURIENDO POR CRUZAR,” AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INCREASING NUMBER OF IMMIGRANT DEATHS ALONG THE BORDER, THIS SUNDAY, AUGUST 3 AT 6 P.M./5 C
Carmen Dominicci and Neida Sandoval present the Telemundo and The Weather Channel co-production
Miami – July 31, 2014 –Telemundo presents “Muriendo por Cruzar”, a documentary that investigates why increasing numbers of immigrants are dying while trying to cross the US-Mexican border near the city of Falfurrias, Texas, this Sunday, August 3 at 6PM/5 C. The Telemundo and The Weather Channel co-production, presented by Noticias Telemundo journalists Carmen Dominicci and Neida Sandoval, reveals the obstacles immigrants face once they cross into US territory, including extreme weather conditions, as they try to evade the border patrol. “Muriendo por Cruzar” is part of Noticias Telemundo’s special coverage of the crisis on the border and immigration reform.
“‘Muriendo por Cruzar’” dares to ask questions that reveal the actual conditions undocumented immigrants face as they try to start a new life in the United States,” said Alina Falcón, Telemundo’s Executive Vice President for News and Alternative Programming. “Our collaboration with The Weather Channel was very productive. They have a unique expertise in covering the impact of weather on people’s lives, as we do in covering immigration reform and the border crisis. The result is a compelling documentary that exposes a harrowing reality.”
“Muriendo por Cruzar” is the first co-production by Telemundo and The Weather Channel. Both networks are part of NBCUniversal.
A little boy who’s lucky to be alive said he does not know how he managed to survive the horrifying escape from his Mexico City school after a powerful earthquake that killed more than 200 people destroyed the building while he was in the middle of class.
Luis Carlos said he noted out loud that the ground was shaking because no alarm had sounded and everyone left the classroom quickly.
“That’s when I made the best decision of my life — which was not to go to the left, which is where everything fell first,” he said, crying. “I went to the right with my friends.”
The boy said he, his friends and others were all going down the stairs when suddenly people started to fall.
The boy then came to the realization that many of the classmates and teachers he knew may already be dead.
“Everything happened so fast, I did not see her,” Luis Carlos said of his teacher. “In about thirty seconds my school was down and I don’t even know how I saved myself.”
Luis Carlos’ mother, who was unidentified, told Noticias Telemundo that she thanked God after she found out both of children survived the massive quake.
“My life came back,” she said.
Rescue workers pulled at least 25 bodies, all but four of them children, from the Enrique Rebsamen school in the south of the capital after it collapsed following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked Mexico Tuesday afternoon.
Eleven people were rescued from the school, while two children and one adult were still missing, Mexico’s Education Minister Aurelio Nuño said Wednesday morning.
Crews wearing hard hats worked throughout Wednesday to find the missing, and rescuers found a surviving child in the ruins, the Associated Press reported.
Three workers entered the rubble, the AP reported, and spotted the girl. Rescuers had been trying to secure the child for hours, according to the AP.
Dr. Pedro Serrano, one of the volunteers, told the AP that he managed to crawl into the crevices of the tottering pile of rubble and made it into a classroom, but found all of its occupants dead.
“We saw some chairs and wooden tables,” he said. “The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults — a woman and a man.”
A woman was killed and three people were injured when a car rammed into a group of protesters in the Minneapolis neighborhood where a Black man was fatally shot this month during an attempted arrest, police said Monday.
Just before midnight Sunday, the suspect drove a car into the crowd and was pulled from the vehicle before being arrested, the Minneapolis police department said on Twitter. A statement from police said a preliminary investigation indicated that the use of drugs or alcohol by the driver may be a contributing factor in the crash.
A woman was pronounced dead at the hospital after the crash and three people were treated and released for non life-threatening injuries.
“I’ve never seen anything that horrendous,” Zachery James, 28, told the New York Times at the scene, where several people remained for hours. “I watched her body fly.”
The city has been on edge since the death of George Floyd more than a year ago and the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright during the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty on all counts in Floyd’s murder. There have been multiple protests in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood after Winston Smith Jr, a 32-year-old Black father of three, was fatally shot by two sheriff’s deputies on June 3.
The deputies – one from Hennepin County and one from Ramsey County – were part of a U.S. Marshals Service task force that was attempting to arrest Smith on a warrant for illegal possession of a firearm, according to a statement from the agency. Smith, who was parked in a car, “failed to comply with officers’ commands” and “produced a handgun resulting in task force members firing upon the subject,” the statement said.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said a handgun and spent cartridge found inside the car indicate Smith also fired his gun. A woman who was with Smith said through her attorneys that she never saw Smith display a gun, contradicting law enforcement’s narrative of the shooting.
PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Hurricane Elsa continues to move quickly though the eastern Caribbean, expected to move across Hispaniola Saturday.
South Florida remains inside Elsa’s forecast cone, and residents should keep a close eye on the storm’s track over the weekend.
As of 5 a.m. Saturday, Hurricane Elsa is located about 190 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata of the Dominican Republic, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It’s moving to the west-northwest at 31 mph and has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
Hurricane Elsa is forecast to move near the southern coast of Hispaniola Saturday during the afternoon and into the evening, and then move near Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba on Sunday.
By Monday, Elsa is forecast to move across central and western Cuba and then head toward Florida.
According to the NHC, Elsa is expected to slow down on Saturday and Sunday, followed by a turn toward the northwest Sunday night or Monday.
Hurricane Elsa advisory summary. (WPLG)
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the southern coast of Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque to the border with Haiti, the southern portion of Haiti from Port Au Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica,
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Haiti north of Port Au Prince and the south coast of the Dominican Republic east of Punta Palenque to Cabo Engano.
A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba.
A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the north coast of the Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to Bahia de Manzanillo, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.
Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, beating out last year’s Eduardo which formed on July 6, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. He also noted that it’s the farthest east that a hurricane has formed this early in the tropical Atlantic since 1933. The 1991-2020 average date for the first Atlantic hurricane formation is mid-August.
QRL (Copyright 2020 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.)
A sixth grader in Florida was arrested after his refusal to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance escalated into a confrontation with police and school officials, authorities said.
The unnamed boy was charged with disrupting a school function and resisting an officer without violence on Feb. 4, the Lakeland Police Department said in a news release.
A local news outlet, Bay News 9, reported that the confrontation began after the student at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, near Tampa, called the flag racist and described the national anthem as offensive.
Citing a statement provided to the Polk School District by the boy’s substitute teacher, the station reported that the teacher asked him, “why if it was so bad here he did not go to another place to live.”
“They brought me here,” the boy replied, according to the statement.
After the teacher told him he could “always go back,” she called the school’s office “because I did not want to continue dealing with him,” the station reported.
The district did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday, but a school spokesman told the Ledger, a local newspaper, that students are not required to participate in the pledge.
The spokesman, Kyle Kennedy, told the newspaper that the teacher, Ana Alvarez, wasn’t aware of that policy and would no longer work with the district.
The boy’s mother, Dhakira Talbot, could not immediately respond to an interview request on Sunday, but she told Bay News 9 that Alvarez’s response “was wrong.”
“She was way out of place,” Talbot said, according to the station. “If she felt like there was an issue with my son not standing for the flag, she should’ve resolved that in a way different manner than she did.”
After the confrontation began, the school’s dean of students tried unsuccessfully to calm the student down, asking him to leave the class 20 times, police said.
“The school resource officer then intervened and asked the student to exit the classroom and he refused,” the department said. “The student left the classroom and created another disturbance and made threats while he was escorted to the office.”
According to Bay News 9, the student denied making threats.
The Lakeland Police Department said in a statement that the boy was not arrested for refusing to stand for or recite the Pledge of Allegiance. “This arrest was based on the student’s choice to disrupt the classroom, make threats and resisting the officer’s efforts to leave the classroom.”
“I want the charges dropped and I want the school to be held accountable for what happened because it shouldn’t have been handled the way it was handled,” Talbot said.
Tim Stelloh is a reporter for NBC News, based in California.
Homero T. tiene 39 años. Por las noches sale a buscar muros donde realizar pegatinas publicitando un espectáculo musical para una productora. A las 23:30 horas del lunes 21, Homero comenzó a pegar afiches en una de las paredes del IPA, cuando se le acercaron tres jóvenes para intimidarlo.
Uno de los estudiantes le dijo que no podía pegar afiches en la fachada del IPA. “Eran del Ceipa, del Centro de Estudiantes de ahí”, declaró la víctima en el Juzgado Penal de 6° Turno, cuya titular es la magistrada Fanny Canessa. Homero les replicó que le pagaban por pegar afiches y que, una vez pegados, le permitieran sacarle una foto y luego se retiraba. También les señaló a los estudiantes que, posteriormente, podían retirar el afiche.
Uno de los estudiantes le dijo a Homero que se fuera porque “me iban a romper todo y otro me amenazó con pegarme un tiro. Este vestía de blanco. El lío empezó con tres y luego salió otro muchacho desde adentro a gritarme. Me insultó y cuando este se me vino encima, volvieron a pegarme pero esta vez los cuatro”. Homero cayó al suelo. “Me pegaron patadas por todos lados, me llegué a caer al piso, más que nada me pegaron en el piso y en la cara y en la cabeza”. El médico forense estableció que las lesiones sufridas por Homero llevarán más de 20 días de recuperación.
Fiscal pidió liberación de agresores.
El fiscal Pablo Rivas pidió el archivo del caso y la liberación de los tres agresores porque carecían de antecedentes penales. La jueza Fanny Canessa hizo lugar al pedido fiscal señalando que la víctima fue golpeada en forma violenta. “Habida cuenta de la pluriparticipación, correspondía ejercitar la acción penal contra indagados”, dijo la jueza.
WASHINGTON – The $6 trillion budget proposed by President Joe Biden on Friday gives a fuller fiscal picture than an April preview, in which he laid out his spending priorities.
The plan details taxes and spending for the fiscal year that begins in October. But a 10-year outlook also incorporates the multi-year spending on infrastructure, education, child care and other domestic programs proposed through what Biden has called is American Jobs and American Families plans.
It’s up to Congress, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, to decide what gets implemented.
Here’s a look at some of the highlights:
Record debt
The budget projects the federal debt would increase, relative to the size of the economy, to a higher level than during World War II.
That will give Republicans more fodder for their attacks on Biden’s “tax and spend” agenda.
During the World War II era, debt peaked at 106% of gross domestic product in 1946. Under Biden’s plan, debt is projected to rise to 117% of the size of the economy by 2031. Without changes, it’s expected to grow to 113% of GDP.
The administration argues that the level of interest payments, rather than the size of the debt, is the most relevant benchmark for whether debt is burdening the economy. The government’s annual interest payments after adjusting for inflation would remain well below the historic average throughout the next decade, according to the White House.
The government would spend $1.8 trillion more than it’s projected to take in next year.
But by 2031, the deficit would decline, relative to the size of the economy, to a smaller share than it would be without Biden’s changes.
That’s in part because Biden has proposed paying for some of his ambitious agenda through higher taxes on corporations and the wealthiest households.
But the president’s plan does not address the structural deficit that existed before the pandemic. That imbalance is driven by an aging population, rising health care costs, compounding interest – and the lack of sufficient tax revenues to keep up.
Biden’s budget assumes that reductions in taxes approved in 2017 under President Donald Trump will still expire in 2025, as is current law. If that happens, however, that would violate Biden’s campaign to not raise taxes on Americans making $400,000 or less.
White House acting budget director Shalanda Young said there’s time before 2025 for Biden to work with Congress “to continue reforming our tax code so that it asks the wealthy to pay their fair share, raises the right amount of revenue and protects the low- and middle-income families.”
Public insurance option
Although Biden campaigned on lowering the enrollment age for Medicare and creating a public insurance option, his plan does not include a way to do that. Instead, the proposal only calls on Congress to take action this year to lower prescription drug costs and expand and improve health coverage.
The plan notes that the money saved from reducing the amount of money Medicare pays for prescription drugs could be used to pay for coverage expansion. But congressional Democrats are divided over how to address drug prices as well as how to spend the savings.
“We know there are proposals on the Hill being introduced, and we believe that it’s more productive to work collaboratively with Congress to develop and build consensus around specific policies that achieve his broad goals,” Young told reporters.
Biden angered anti-abortion activists and pleased abortion rights groups by something he did not include in his first budget request: a ban on federal funding of most abortions.
The real fight over the issue will be in Congress where Democrats may not be able to keep the ban, known as the Hyde amendment, from being added to spending bills as it has been for decades.
But Biden’s decision was noteworthy as he was a long-time supporter of the ban until he reversed position during the 2020 campaign.
The ban dramatically limits coverage of abortion under Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, and under other federal programs.
When Biden became the last 2020 Democratic presidential contender to come out against the ban, he described his change in position as a matter of equity.
“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent” on others who are trying to limit abortion access in some states, Biden said at a Democratic National Committee event in 2019.
Anti-abortion activists argue Americans who oppose abortion shouldn’t be forced to share in the cost of abortion services through their tax dollars.
Spending priorities
Biden’s proposal is a reversal of priorities from Trump’s budget plans, which slashed domestic programs and asked Congress for much higher military spending.
Biden is asking for a nominal increase for the Pentagon but big boosts in spending on education, housing, public health, the environment and more. The administration argues that past “disinvestment” in those areas have hurt the nation’s ability to combat climate change, rebuild the economy and address racial inequities.
“I believe this is our moment to rebuild an economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden said during a trip to Cleveland Thursday, “not a trickle-down economy from the very wealthy.”
Mixed reaction
Congressional reaction predictably split along partisan lines. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the budget would make historic investments in the American workforce and economy. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called it “the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime.”
Fiscal watchdog groups also had mixed reaction.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, praised Biden for raising revenues to cover some of the costs of his plan.
But she said the budget takes too long to pay for the new initiatives and does little to address the already high and rising debt.
“It is not the president’s fault he inherited such a precarious fiscal situation,” she said in a statement, “but as president, it is his responsibility to address it.”
Similarly, Michael Peterson of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation said the nation needs to acknowledge “that much work remains to pay for all of the spending that we already have promised to our citizens.”
President Trump spent early Tuesday morning tweeting his grievances against the media.
He targeted The New York Times, referring to the outlet as the enemy of the people and saying the publication will “have to get down on their knees [and] beg for forgiveness” from him, inaccurately claiming the paper apologized to him in 2016 for its coverage during the election.
He attacked New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman as “stupid,” accusing the economist of writing “false and highly inaccurate” things about him — without specifying what he objected to.
The president also accused the mainstream media of ignoring how well the economy is doing during his presidency.
Trump did offer praise to one corner of the media — to Fox News, the cable news network he promotes almost daily on his own Twitter feed — before resuming the attacks.
Teeing off on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” he called co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski “angry,” “dumb,” “sick,” and “psycho.”
The president ended by mocking CNN anchor Chris Cuomo as being a “massive failure.”
When Trump finished the diatribe, he returned to live-tweeting Fox News.
Paul Krugman, of the Fake News New York Times, has lost all credibility, as has the Times itself, with his false and highly inaccurate writings on me. He is obsessed with hatred, just as others are obsessed with how stupid he is. He said Market would crash, Only Record Highs!
I wonder if the New York Times will apologize to me a second time, as they did after the 2016 Election. But this one will have to be a far bigger & better apology. On this one they will have to get down on their knees & beg for forgiveness-they are truly the Enemy of the People!
The Radical Left Democrats, together with their leaders in the Fake News Media, have gone totally insane! I guess that means that the Republican agenda is working. Stay tuned for more!
In the “old days” if you were President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism. Remember, “It’s the economy stupid.” Today I have, as President, perhaps the greatest economy in history…and to the Mainstream Media, it means NOTHING. But it will!
….Dumb and Sick. A really bad show with low ratings – and will only get worse. CNN has been a proven and long term ratings and beyond disaster. In fact, it rewarded Chris Cuomo with a now unsuccessful prime time slot, despite his massive failure in the morning. Only on CNN!
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