Diario de Noticias

Continuing coverage of active shooter at Oxford High School in Michigan

FOX 2’s Jess Dupnack provides update on active shooter situation at Oxford High School

After the lockdown was lifted, students from the high school were sent to the Meijer parking lot across the street from the school.

A parent sitting in a car told FOX 2 that his student inside had to barricade inside a classroom when they heard the gunshots being fired inside the school. He said his son was not physically hurt.

( )

According to an alert sent out to Oxford parents, an active emergency was reported at the school around 1 p.m. and it has gone into emergency protocols and put the school into lockdown.

By 2 p.m., students were being released and dozens of ambulances and emergency personnel arrived at the scene.

The alert sent to parents urged them not to come to the school at this time.

There are multiple units on the scene including SWAT and the aviation unit and the sheriff said the scene is still active.

Oxford is a village population of just under 3,400 about 30 miles north of Detroit.

Oxford High School Shooting: At least four hurt after gunman opens fire in Michigan

FOX 2’s Deena Centofanti gives an update on student pickup after Oxford High School in Michigan was placed on lockdown Tuesday in regards to an active shooter situation.

Source Article from https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/oxford-high-school-locked-down-due-to-active-emergency-oakland-county-sheriff-on-scene

45 views no comments

‘He still considers himself to be in the hospitality business’: Mulvaney explains Trump’s Doral decision – USA TODAY

In announcing the Doral pick just days earlier, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney described the resort as “the best place”.
Wochit, Wochit

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that President Donald Trump was “honestly surprised at the level of pushback” on plans to host next year’s G-7 summit at his Doral resort in Miami.

Democrats and some Republicans, as well as government watchdogs, decried the administration’s decision to award the event to one of the president’s properties. Critics rejected Mulvaney’s claim that Doral had been selected as the “perfect” location after an exhaustive search. Many, including former White House officials, said it had the appearance of impropriety and others said it was a violation of the Constitution.

Trump backed down in the wake of the criticism and declared the event would not be held at his resort “based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility.”

‘There’s a perception of impropriety’: Former White House officials say Doral G-7 breaks precedent

Opinion: G-7 at Trump’s Doral resort? The original sin of this presidency is failure to divest.

I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019

…..its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019

….Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2019

Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday” that “we are all surprised at the level of pushback” and that it was “the right decision to change.”

“We’ll have to find someplace else. And my guess is we’ll find someplace else that the media won’t like either for another reason,” he said.

Mulvaney said Trump “saw an opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world, and he wanted to put on the absolute best show.”

“At the end of the day, you know, he still considers himself to be in the hospitality business,” Mulvaney explained.

“He’s the president of the United States,” host Chris Wallace replied.

“Yes, but that’s his background. It’s like, I used to be in the real estate business,” Mulvaney said. He tried to get Wallace, the son of “60 Minutes” reporter Mike Wallace, to relate by asking him what he did “before you were in the media.”

“Nothing. That’s all I’ve ever done,” Wallace said.

“But he wanted to put on a show. He wanted to take care of folks,” Mulvaney said. “He’s in the hotel business, or at least he was before he was the president.”

Wallace asked Mulvaney if Trump understood that at the very least, it was a bad choice in terms of appearance.

“Well, I think he knows. He thinks people think it looks lousy,” Mulvaney said.

More: House Judiciary Committee to investigate Trump’s desire to use his Doral resort to host next G-7 summit

1 of 48
2 of 48
3 of 48
4 of 48
5 of 48
6 of 48
7 of 48
8 of 48
9 of 48
10 of 48
11 of 48
12 of 48
13 of 48
14 of 48
15 of 48
16 of 48
17 of 48
18 of 48
19 of 48
20 of 48
21 of 48
22 of 48
23 of 48
24 of 48
25 of 48
26 of 48
27 of 48
28 of 48
29 of 48
30 of 48
31 of 48
32 of 48
33 of 48
34 of 48
35 of 48
36 of 48
37 of 48
38 of 48
39 of 48
40 of 48
41 of 48
42 of 48
43 of 48
44 of 48
45 of 48
46 of 48
47 of 48
48 of 48

Last Slide Next Slide

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/20/trump-surprised-pushback-g-7-doral/4047431002/

45 views no comments

Federal COVID-19 Relief Package Includes Help With Health Insurance Premiums : Shots – Health News – NPR

Unless the rules change soon, Stephanie Salazar-Rodriguez of Denver expects to spend more than $10,000 on health insurance premiums this year. That’s after losing her job last month — which meant losing her employer’s contribution to her health plan.

Rachel Woolf/KHN

hide caption

toggle caption

Rachel Woolf/KHN

As President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief package steams through Congress, Democrats have hitched a ride for a top health care priority: strengthening the Affordable Care Act with some of the most significant changes to insurance affordability in more than a decade.

The bill would spend $34 billion to help Americans who buy insurance on the health plan marketplaces created by the ACA through 2022, when the benefits would expire. The Senate sent its relief package, one of the largest in congressional history, back to the House where it could come up as early as Tuesday. where it is expected to pass and then go to Biden for his signature.

Those who have studied the legislation say it would throw a lifeline to lower- and middle-income Americans who have fallen through the cracks of the government’s eligibility requirements for ACA subsidies. Stephanie Salazar-Rodriguez of Denver, for instance, is hopeful the changes the federal bill includes will make a difference. Without those changes, she expects to spend more than $10,000 on premiums this year after losing her primary job — and her health insurance — last month.

Under the current system, if her annual income were $3,000 less per year, ACA subsidies could have reduced her premiums to as little as $3,000 a year. But until and unless the COVID-19 relief bill passes, she’s above the cut-off that makes her eligible for ACA health plan subsidies.

“To me, that’s not affluence,” Salazar-Rodriguez says. “You’re talking about people who are struggling to survive.”

The legislation could also provide relief to others who purchase health insurance on the exchanges: people with lower or middling incomes who currently choose policies with lower premiums but high deductibles. Many with high deductible plans often avoid seeking medical care because they don’t have the cash to cover those costs. Most of the nearly 14 million people enrolled in plans sold on the marketplaces would pay less under the new provisions — with the option to use those savings to buy a different plan with a lower deductible.

The Congressional Budget Office also estimates an additional 1.7 million people would enroll in the exchanges under the proposal, about 1.3 million of whom are currently uninsured.

Republicans, who have repeatedly tried to repeal the ACA, have hammered Democrats over the years with allegations that many of the marketplace plans are not affordable and prevent people from buying insurance coverage. They also have argued that the proposed change in the legislation offers unnecessary help to wealthier Americans while doing nothing to lower the cost of insurance.

Now that Democrats have control of the White House and Congress for the first time since the passage of the ACA, they are moving quickly to make changes they believe improves the landmark health care program. Citing the pandemic, Biden opened a three-month special enrollment period the federal health exchange, allowing people to buy new plans there through through May 15.

The COVID-19 relief package under consideration also includes proposals to increase the affordability of health care for the unemployed.

Those receiving unemployment benefits, who are typically ineligible for subsidies on the exchange, would be eligible this year. The Senate version of the bill would pick up 100% of the cost of premiums for those on COBRA, the program allowing recently unemployed workers to privately purchase coverage offered by their former job, often at a high cost. The House had included a similar provision but it provided only an 85% subsidy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House’s COBRA changes would cost nearly $8 billion with about 2.2 million people expected to enroll. The version of the bill the Senate has passed would cover the entire COBRA premium.

The legislation, which includes a bevy of anti-poverty provisions, offers a more generous funding match to about a dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid (the program that covers low-income Americans) in hopes that they will soon opt to do so.

Pandemic spurs effort to improve ACA

Advocates and public health experts say it is critical to help people afford health insurance since millions lost their jobs and their job-based health insurance in the pandemic and another 59,000 Americans, or so, are contracting COVID-19 every day.

Health insurance “just becomes the thing people can’t afford when they’ve lost their job,” says Katie Keith, an expert on the Affordable Care Act with Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

About 15 million uninsured people are eligible to buy insurance through the exchanges, most of whom would also be eligible for new or larger subsidies under the proposal, according to KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.)

Under the ACA, subsidies are calculated based on the recipient’s income, age and their area’s average premium costs.

Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, which advocates for health care affordability and supported the passage of the ACA, says that right now more than half of those eligible for coverage cannot afford it. “Health insurance is about financial security and health security,” he adds.

The proposal in the relief bill that was passed by the Senate would ensure that no one who buys a health plan on the exchanges pays more than 8.5% of income for that plan. Currently, subsidies are available only to those making between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. (For those seeking subsidies in 2021, that income range that qualifies an individual for a subsidy is between $12,760 and $51,040.)

Some marketplace customers near the federal poverty level who now must pay some of the premiums out-of-pocket could qualify for a subsidy that pays the entire cost of a silver, or midlevel, plan.

The change would also benefit Americans who make more than the subsidy cutoff. About 3.4 million uninsured people fall into this category, according to the KFF analysis.

For example, currently, a 60-year-old who makes $50,000 annually pays no more than $410 per month out-of-pocket for a silver plan on the exchanges, with the government chipping in $548 per month.

Meanwhile, a 60-year-old who makes $52,000 annually – just $2,000 more per year — receives no subsidy under the current rules, and is expected to pay the full premium herself, KFF found, at a cost of about $957 per month for the same plan.

For Salazar-Rodriguez, that cutoff has carried a heavy cost. She was recently laid off from her job at a community health organization that has struggled during the pandemic, and now she pays $913 per month out of her own pocket for insurance.

In a little less than a year, at age 65, she will qualify for Medicare. But for now – and unless and until the COVID-19 relief package passes — her age is a liability. Older, pre-retirement Americans pay some of the highest health insurance premiums in the nation.

Having once worked assisting people enrolling in the health insurance exchanges, Salazar-Rodriguez went straight to the marketplace for coverage when she lost her job. But she was startled to discover how high her premiums would be — and surprised and distressed to see that, because of her income from her other work as a consultant, she is ineligible for a subsidy or Medicaid.

She opted instead for COBRA coverage, which she said was comparable in cost and had more of the benefits she needs than the unsubsidized plans she found on the ACA exchanges in that price range.

Unless something changes soon, she worries she will have to run up her credit card and find extra work to afford her premiums. The pandemic has made forgoing insurance unthinkable, she says. Many of her loved ones have come down with COVID-19. Some friends are still suffering symptoms months after falling ill. She lost a brother-in-law in Texas.

“That’s why I am paying that nearly $1,000 a month,” Salazar-Rodriguez says, “because I know one hospitalization could bankrupt me if I didn’t have it, and I can’t take that chance.”

Some changes to subsidy rules might become permanent

Though the subsidy fixes are temporary, lasting two years to address the economic impacts of the pandemic, experts and lawmakers expect the new subsidy criteria would eventually become permanent.

The KFF analysis found that subsidies would gradually phase out for those with higher incomes — for instance, a single 60-year-old making about $160,000 would not receive a subsidy, because no silver plan would cost more than 8.5% of his income.

Republicans oppose the bill’s proposed enhancements to ACA subsidies. Brian Blase, a senior fellow at the Galen Institute, a nonprofit group that researches free-market approaches to health reform, has criticized the proposal in a recent analysis, saying it shifts the burden of paying premiums from private payers to taxpayers without addressing the causes of high premiums.

He argues a family of four headed by a 60-year-old earning almost $240,000 could, under the proposed restructuring of the law, qualify for a nearly $9,000 subsidy.

The Wall Street Journal seized on Blase’s example in a recent op-ed. “These are not the folks hit hard by the pandemic,” the editorial staff wrote.

Many of the changes the relief package proposes date back to the original passage of the ACA — President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy that overhauled the nation’s health care system. At the time, those who wrote the law expected Congress would observe how it worked and make adjustments and improvements in it over time. But the law instead became a lightning rod for GOP opposition.

The latest proposal is part of the ACA’s “unfinished business,” says Keith of Georgetown University.

She notes there are other improvements that could be made – remedies for coverage gaps not addressed by this package, such as the so-called family glitch, in which a family’s eligibility for marketplace subsidies is based on the cost of job-based coverage for one individual rather than whether coverage for the family is affordable.

The current bill “is narrow compared to the wish list Democrats have, but it would do so much with premium affordability in this way right now,” Keith says.

Kaiser Health News produces in-depth journalism about health policy issues, and is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs of the Kaiser Family Foundation, an endowed nonprofit.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/09/974961743/pandemic-aid-package-includes-some-relief-from-high-health-plan-premiums

45 views no comments

Exclusive: US government agencies hit in global cyberattack – CNN

45 views no comments

Exclusive: US finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine – CNN

45 views no comments

Falso sorteo para ganar camioneta, ¡viral en Facebook! – Noticias MVS

Source Article from http://www.noticiasmvs.com/#!/noticias/falso-sorteo-para-ganar-camioneta-viral-en-facebook-4

45 views no comments

Biden to restrict travel from India amid coronavirus surge – NBC News

45 views no comments

Trump pushes for border wall, blaming child migrant deaths on Democrats – Vox.com

President Donald Trump is now blaming Democrats for the deaths of two migrant children who died in federal custody earlier this month.

In his first public comment on the two tragedies Saturday, Trump tied the deaths to the political impasse over funding for the federal government, saying in a series of tweets that Democrats are to blame for refusing his $5-billion pet project to build new walls along the southern border.

The two young children died in Border Patrol custody over the span of just a few weeks. The latest was an eight-year-old from Guatemala who died on Christmas Eve. Medical examiners say the boy, Felipe Gomez Alonzo, tested positive for influenza. Weeks earlier, seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, died of dehydration after being detained in New Mexico with her father.

Trump’s comments come as Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen finishes up a two-day tour of the border to inspect the conditions at processing and detention facilities for migrants in both El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona.

Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try! The two…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

…children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn’t given her water in days. Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard & getting so little credit!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

Already Border Patrol has moved to step up medical screenings for children since the two deaths.

And amid the growing scrutiny, CBP has also shifted its policy of holding families until Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes over custody, as Vox’s Dara Lind reports. The new plan allows agents at the border to release families directly if they’ve been held for more than a few days, which could leave hundreds of families dropped around El Paso and around the Rio Grande Valley.

Deaths along the border have been a problem for a long time

The tragedy of the two children’s deaths only amplifies what has been true along the border for a long time: The journeys that families take are often extremely dangerous, and deaths along the border are not at all uncommon.

By official counts, more than 7,000 migrants have died trying to cross the southwest border since 1998, but it’s likely those statistics are dramatically lower than the reality.

And for years, advocates have complained of the conditions at Border Patrol facilities, where they say migrants are forced into excessively cold holding cells. In the last year alone, six adults have died in Border Patrol custody, the Washington Post report.

But as Lind notes, the two children’s deaths are the latest signal that the immigration system isn’t designed to deal with families crossing into the US:

That goes double for Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol as well as ports of entry. CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month that “the infrastructure is not compatible with the reality” of who is getting apprehended — essentially admitting that his agency was ill-equipped to take care of the people currently entering the US.

Administration officials, as well as the president’s allies, have meanwhile tried to spin the sting of deaths as fairly a rare occurrence. DHS counters that before the two migrant deaths this month, no child has died in Border Patrol custody in nearly a decade. On Fox News Friday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) went as far as praising ICE for its treatment of immigrants.

”These are the only two children that have died, certainly in recent memory,” he said. “Considering what does happen in housing projects … I think ICE has an excellent record.”

Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2018/12/29/18160522/trump-migrant-children-deaths-border-wall-impasse

45 views no comments

Kincade Fire in Sonoma County grows to 10,000 acres, evacuation orders expanded – San Francisco Chronicle

A fast-moving wildfire spurred by powerful winds tore across northeastern Sonoma County early Thursday, burning more than 10,000 acres and forcing the evacuation of up to 2,000 residents — including the entire town of Geyserville.

The Kincade Fire was burning near the Geysers geothermal plant in the Mayacamas Mountains with 0% containment, the glow visible for miles. By dawn, the fire had destroyed or damaged at least a dozen homes and other structures along Geyser Road, including at least two large buildings at Crazy Creek Vineyards in the Alexander Valley.

The fire started around 9:25 p.m. Wednesday on John Kincade Road, in an area where the power had been shut off over weather-related concerns, Cal Fire officials said. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had shut off power to parts of Sonoma and other Northern California counties Wednesday afternoon in an effort to prevent fires from being sparked by power lines damaged or downed by strong winds.

Gusts reached 76 mph overnight on the region’s highest peaks, according to the National Weather Service.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known. PG&E spokeswoman Karly Hernandez said the fire was burning “near the (shut-off) footprint and we are working to gather additional information.” The utility cut power to about 27,830 Sonoma County customers at 3 p.m., she noted.

One house completely burned down by #KincadeFire, gas tanks humming @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/B4lJVCw3n3

— Matthias Gafni (@mgafni) October 24, 2019

As crews realized they would need to evacuate residents, one firefighter alerted dispatch that the power was out in the area of the 10000 block of Pine Flat Road and there was “a limited ability to make phone calls. We need to go door to door.”

With electronic evacuation alerts limited to text messages, residents near the fire notified their neighbors while firefighters banged on doors to urge people to leave immediately.

Strong winds and embers pushed the blaze from north to south in steep and rugged terrain, said Amy Head, a Cal Fire battalion chief.

At least 328 firefighters were on the scene, as well as engines, bulldozers and hand crews. At first light Cal Fire planned to put aircraft in the skies for visual inspections and then to battle flames, Head said.

“It’s outpacing us,” Head said of the fire. “We’re just trying to keep up with it and bump ahead of it. It’s growing very rapidly in a short amount of time.”

There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

As the fire spread along Geysers Road, erratic winds kicked up embers and ash that swirled like tiny tornadoes. Along the road, a steady line of bulldozers headed toward the flames as cars filled with evacuees drove to safety.

Flames gutted several structures at the intersection of Red Winery and Geysers Road. A power line drooped over the street at the intersection, and several feet away flames chewed away at a power pole.

With fires still burning small structures, the fire engines at the scene packed up and left.

“More fires to fight,” a firefighter yelled out the window as they pulled away.

Lots of spot fires in #Geyserville vineyards from #KincadeFire, walked up to this blaze of wooden equipment pic.twitter.com/lIbdhqwIlv

— Matthias Gafni (@mgafni) October 24, 2019

One home on Red Winery Road suffered damage when a large tree, cracked at the trunk by strong winds, toppled onto the roof.

By morning, the blaze had pushed west and headed into Alexander Valley vineyards, leaving the hillside to the east of Geysers Road scorched. About a dozen cows huddled together on one small patch of land that hadn’t burned.

Mandatory evacuations were initially ordered for areas east of Highway 128, including the River Rock Casino, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Those orders expanded after the blaze jumped Highway 128 and headed west.

“If you’re in Geyserville, leave now,” officials wrote in an alert, urging people in the town of 860 to head south.

Arch Monson, 69, and his family had already fled from their property, Monson Vineyards, on Geysers Road at 3 a.m. They headed downhill to stay with a neighbor.

The fire “was on our property when we left,” Monson said, adding that his family has lived there since 1957. “As we were pulling out, firefighters were pulling in.

“We were hearing explosions — loud booms — presumably from propane tanks,” Monson said. “It seemed like there was a burst of wind and fire was coming down to the valley floor.”

The neighbor’s home to which he’d fled was no longer safe, Monson said. At 5 a.m., they evacuated again.

“We were pretty far away, but we’re seeing live embers in the air swirling around, landing and a lot of thick smoke,” Monson said. “You could see the fire had moved down the foothills. We just could tell it was time to get out. On the road out we saw fences on fire, landscaping, trees on fire.”

Evacuation centers were in place at Windsor High School, 8695 Windsor Road in Windsor, and at the Healdsburg Community Center at 1557 Healdsburg Ave.

Paula Whitehall, 65, was among 10 evacuees who slept at the Healdsburg center. She fled her house on Moody Lane in Geyserville, which was in a power outage area, and she said she didn’t receive any electronic notification of the evacuation.

“The Fire Department came and said we had to leave,” she said.

Whitehall grabbed a change of clothes, dog food, a couple of gallons of water and her corgi mix, Zoey, before going outside with her sister and brother-in-law, who live with her. She saw the fire raging a short distance away on a hill next to the River Rock Casino.

“We could see the flames once we got outside,” said Whitehall, still wearing her pajamas. “I just thought, ‘Here we go again.’

“I guess I should’ve had a bag packed ahead already,” she said, adding, “I am a California girl. Earthquakes, fires, it’s all part of the seasons.”

Karen Vaughan, 56, an Oklahoma native who owns a small travel company and moved to Healdsburg six months ago, said she saw a wall of flames and freaked out, but nobody else in her neighborhood seemed to be bothered. There was an evacuation warning, a step below mandatory-evacuation status, for the northern part of the city.

“I was sitting on my balcony and I looked out and I saw the whole mountainside on fire,” Vaughan said. “It looked like it was coming toward me.”

She rushed to a neighbor’s house, woke her up and tried to get her to leave.

“I said, ‘There’s a big wall of fire,’ and she said, ‘No, I’m staying.’”

Vaughan hopped into her car and drove to the Windsor High School evacuation center.

“I think people are numb and they’re used to it,” she said. “It’s scary is all I can say, and I’m not a fearful person. It looked close, and these fires move quickly.”

Healdsburg Mayor David Hagele said fire is now a yearly trauma.

“This is the new normal that we live in. It’s disheartening and it’s scary for a lot of people because it does bring back a lot of scary memories from a couple of years ago,” Hagele said. “We’re trying to do what we can to help our neighbors to the north.”

Strong winds and warm temperatures spurred the fire into the morning. By 5 a.m., temperatures at the Santa Rosa Airport had reached 77 degrees with 11% humidity, according to the National Weather Service. Winds gusted up to 45 mph in Sonoma County, with calmer conditions expected starting around 10 a.m.

The conditions were nearly the same as when the Tubbs Fire tore through Napa and Sonoma counties two years ago, said meteorologist Ryan Walbrun.

“Pretty much everything lined up: strong winds, dry fuels, hot temperatures and low humidity,” he said. “This is what can happen.”

In a statement, PG&E officials said Wednesday the decision to power down “was based on forecasts of dry, hot and windy weather that poses a higher risk for damage and sparks on the electric system and rapid wildfire spread.”

More planned outages could come this weekend.

PG&E Chief Meterorologist Scott Strenfel said this weekend “could bring the strongest wind event of the season” — even stronger than the winds experienced during the 2017 Wine Country fires.

David Huebel, 40, works as a vineyard manager at Hafner Vineyard, which is seven miles outside of Healdsburg. The property was hit by PG&E’s power shut-off Wednesday afternoon, and at first Huebel was worried only about how the family-run vineyard would finish harvesting its Cabernet Sauvignon.

Then, around 9:35 p.m., Huebel stepped outside to turn off his generator, looked toward the Mayacamas Mountains and saw a faint glow.

“I was asking myself, ‘Is that fire?’” Huebel said. “Everything about the scene was wrong. There shouldn’t have been light right there, it shouldn’t have been orange. It was a couple minutes later I saw a column of smoke. We watched it grow for more than two hours before we left.”

Huebel watched the Tubbs Fire burn across Sonoma County in 2017, from Calistoga to Santa Rosa. The strange light that flickered in the hills never seemed to end. He quickly called his neighbors, alerting them to the new fire.

When the evacuation order for Red Winery Road came at 12:32 a.m., Huebel didn’t hesitate. He left with his wife and two children, 11 and 18.

“Here we go,” he remembers thinking, “this one is too close.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Lauren Hernández and J.D. Morris contributed to this report.

Peter Fimrite, Megan Cassidy, Matthias Gafni and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: pfrimrite@sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite @meganrcassidy @mgafni @JillTucker

Source Article from https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Fire-breaks-out-in-northern-Sonoma-County-near-14558358.php

45 views no comments

Lawyer says whistleblower willing to answer written questions from Republicans – CNN

Trump impeachment tracker: Following all the action in Congress

Trump impeachment inquiry: A visual timeline

Trump’s Ukraine scandal: Who’s who?

The phases of Trump’s coming impeachment proceedings

Trump’s Ukraine phone call, annotated

Key allegations from the Ukraine whistleblower are true, despite what Trump says

The Ukraine text messages, annotated

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/03/politics/whistleblower-ukraine-trump-impeachment-written-questions-republicans/index.html

45 views no comments

Florida city will pay hackers $600,000 to get its computer systems back – The Washington Post

There aren’t any guarantees that Riviera Beach’s records will be returned once the ransom is paid. (Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA)

Rachel Siegel

June 20 at 9:27 AM

A saga that began with a municipal employee opening a corrupted email has forced a small Florida city to take the extraordinary step of agreeing to pay nearly $600,000 to the hackers who paralyzed their computer systems.

With Riviera Beach’s records held hostage, its city council voted unanimously to pay 65 bitcoin to the hackers — a tab that will be picked up by the city’s insurance carrier. For the past three weeks, city employees have not been able to access their emails, emergency dispatchers couldn’t log calls into computers, and workers and vendors had to be paid with paper checks. Even cops had to dig through closets at the police headquarters to find paper traffic citations, the Palm Beach Post reported.

[The Cybersecurity 202: 2020 hopeful Seth Moulton is calling for a ‘cyber wall.’ Here are the details.]

Though city spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown told the Associated Press there is no guarantee the city’s records will be returned after the hackers collect, outside security consultants said paying the ransom was the best course of action. The culprits insisted that the ransom be paid in bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that is difficult to trace.

Before the city council approved the ransom payment, it decided to spend nearly $1 million on new computers, hardware and other system upgrades.

“We are relying on [the consultants’] advice,” Brown told the AP. The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Riviera Beach, a waterfront suburb of West Palm Beach, joins a growing list of ransomware victims, which include governments and businesses alike. In May, Baltimore said it would not pay hackers $76,000 after its systems were attacked. The city is still trying to recover, and this week Gov. Larry Hogan (R) appointed Maryland’s first statewide chief information security officer to help guard against cyber threats.

[Maryland Governor Larry Hogan hires a cybersecurity chief, ramping defense against threats to data systems]

Two Iranians were indicted by the U.S. government last year after allegedly launching more than 200 ransomware attacks, including those that hit the cities of Atlanta and Newark. Those hackers collected more than $6 million in ransom and caused $30 million in damage to computer systems, authorities say.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Riviera Beach hacking. But the agency told the AP that 1,493 ransomware attacks were reported in 2018. Victims, including individuals, paid $3.6 million to hackers — an average of $2,400 per hit.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/06/20/florida-city-will-pay-hackers-get-its-computer-systems-back/

45 views no comments

North Carolina Republican in congressional race tainted by ballot fraud says he will not run in new election – The Washington Post

Felicia Sonmez

Amy Gardner

February 26 at 3:10 PM

Mark Harris, the Republican nominee in a North Carolina congressional race that was tainted by ballot fraud, announced Tuesday that he will not run in the new election for the seat.

Harris said in a statement that he has decided not to seek the 9th District seat due to health problems.

“Given my health situation, the need to regain full strength, and the timing of this surgery the last week of March, I have decided not to file in the new election for Congressional District 9,” Harris said.

Harris has been recovering from a serious infection that had led to sepsis and two strokes.

He threw his support behind Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing, whose record Harris said has “proven him to stand firm on so many of the issues that concern us, including the issue of life, our national security, and religious freedom.”

North Carolina election officials last week ordered a new contest in the 9th District, ending a dramatic months-long investigation focused on irregularities with mail-in ballots.

The board voted unanimously to throw out the November results between Harris and Democrat Dan McCready.

[In N.C., a surprise: In the end, everyone agreed it was election fraud]

Harris, an evangelical minister from Charlotte, had led by 905 votes in unofficial returns.

His decision not to run follows four days of hearings last week revealing voluminous evidence that a political operative had led an illegal scheme to tamper with absentee ballots on behalf of Harris’s congressional campaign last year.

Evidence also surfaced that Harris had structured his campaign so that he wasn’t paying the operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, directly and to avoid public disclosure of those payments.

Through most of the hearing, Harris claimed no knowledge of Dowless’s methods and said there had been no red flags.

That changed last Thursday, after Harris falsely characterized a conversation with his son, Matthew, about whether emails in which he suggested that Dowless’s tactics were questionable and was warned by another son, John, not to hire him, would become public.

Facing potential perjury charges for that testimony — and days of potentially damaging cross-examination about his own role in the ballot scheme — Harris abruptly called for a new election and declared that ballot fraud had sufficiently tainted the outcome in November to warrant a new election.

McCready began a new campaign for the seat last Friday.

Another Republican, former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory, ruled out running for the seat on Monday.

After hinting on Twitter over the weekend that he might enter the race, McCrory said on his radio show that he would look at running again for governor or for a U.S. Senate seat in 2022 instead.

“My fire in the belly is teaching and being a radio host and keeping the option open of running for governor or senator,” he said on WBT Radio.

If Harris had decided to run again, he would have faced a bruising GOP primary.

Usually under North Carolina election law, a new election is ordered as a rematch of the contest that was tainted — in this case, the November election between Harris and McCready. But in December, sensing Harris’s political and legal vulnerability, the Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature passed a law requiring a primary if a new election were called in the 9th District.

McCready has at least one advantage over Republican contenders: he is less likely to have to endure a tough primary, and will be able to spend the spring raising money and organizing for the fall election instead.

However, his chances in the general election are uncertain given the 9th District’s traditional Republican lean and the question of whether turnout in an off-cycle election will match the enthusiasm that gave a big advantage to McCready and Democratic candidates across the country last year.

The general election is likely to be scheduled for October.

In a statement Tuesday, North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes expressed support for Harris’s decision.

“The most important thing for him to address is his health,” Hayes said of Harris. “This has been a grueling process for all involved, and we unequivocally support his call for a new election. There are numerous quality candidates that are discussing a run and although the party will not be involved in a primary, we have no doubt that a competitive nominee will emerge.”

John Wagner contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/north-carolina-republican-in-congressional-race-tainted-by-ballot-fraud-says-he-will-not-run-in-new-election/2019/02/26/b72b292e-39fb-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html

45 views no comments

Youngkin supporters say family, education top priority in race for Virginia governor – Fox News

Video

GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin rallies supporters in northern Va.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks with a large crowd in Alexandria, Virginia, on importance of education and family in final days of the race.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In a tight race for gubernatorial victory, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin has pulled ahead in recent polls and Virginia voters claim his stance on family and education are a leading factor.

At an early Saturday morning campaign stop in Alexandria, Virginia, supporters for Youngkin told Fox News that family and education are top ticket items in their decision to back the GOP candidate.

FOX NEWS POLL: YOUNGKIN PULLS AHEAD OF MCAULIFFE AMONG VIRGINIA LIKELY VOTERS

“We’re young and we’re married,” one supporter told Fox News, adding they are hoping to start a family soon. “Thinking about having kids up here in northern Virginia is really scary. They’ll be in school in four years.”

“You have to start caring about those things,” he added.

Glenn Youngkin, Alexandria, Virginia, Oct. 30, 2021
(Caitlin McFall, Fox News)

But not all Youngkin supporters who champion his stance on family and education policy have children in the Virginian school system.

“We’re here to do something so that we can afford to live – raise our kids here,” one young Virginia voter told Fox News.

The Youngkin supporter said that even though he doesn’t yet have a family, he’s looking at Virginia’s future.

“Having a state where I feel comfortable raising children where I know I’m in charge of my child’s education, where I can keep some money in my pocket to invest in their future is really important for me,” he added.

YOUNGKIN TAPPING INTO PARENTS’ ANGER OVER SCHOOLS IS LIKELY 2022 GOP PREVIEW TO WIN BACK SUBURBS

Youngkin touted his rising popularity amongst Virginia voters in recent polls.

“What’s at the heart of this are these issues that are most important to all Virginians,” the GOP candidate told reporters. “Our most recent polling that we’ve all seen shows that I’m winning with parents in a huge degree.”

Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has found himself in hot water following his second and final debate last month, when he said parents should not have a direct say in school curriculum.

Glenn Youngkin, Alexandria, Virginia, Oct. 30, 2021
(Caitlin McFall/Fox News Digital)

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” he said.

“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” McAuliffe said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

His statement was in response to Youngkin who criticized his opponent for vetoing a bill that would have required parental knowledge of all books available to students in school libraries.

McAuliffe’s remarks sparked outrage amongst conservative voters and pushed education to the forefront of the Virginia race for governor.

Virginians will head to the ballot box in less than four days to elect their next governor on Nov. 2.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/youngkin-supporters-family-education-top-priority-race-virginia-governor

45 views no comments

Time Warner Cable NY1 Noticias’ “Pura Politíca” Program Marks Its 10th … – Business Wire (press release)

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Time Warner Cable News NY1 Noticias, New York City’s only 24-hour
Spanish language local news network, announced it will commemorate the
10-year anniversary of Pura Política, with a special documentary
with highlights from the past decade of the longest-running local
Spanish language political talk show in New York City, on Friday, June 5^th
at 6 p.m. and 11p.m.

The documentary special will feature guests including, Congresswoman,
Nydia Velazquez, State Senator, Adriano Espaillat, and City Council
Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who will explore the highs and lows
for Latinos during the past decade. The commemorative program will also
include an exclusive sit-down interview with New York City Mayor Bill
de Blasio where he is asked to name one Latino politician he
believes would be a strong candidate for New York City Mayor in the near
future.

Pura Política first premiered as a weekly political talk show on
June 3, 2005, with then Mayor Michael Bloomberg as its first guest.
Bloomberg had just kicked off his re-election campaign with a
Spanish-language commercial.

“Since we aired our first program, Hispanic influence has grown
tremendously and the Spanish language has become ubiquitous in city
politics. Pura Política is a key platform for political leaders looking
to engage Latinos and talk about their issues. We look forward to many
more decades of great interviews and political analysis,” said program
host, Juan Manuel Benitez.

NY1 Noticias’ Pura Política’s 10^th
Anniversary Special will air Friday, June 5^th at 6 p.m.
and 11p.m. on channel 95 and channel 831 on Time Warner Cable in New
York, and channel 194 on Cablevision in New York City.

Time Warner Cable News (TWC News) provides in-depth local news
programming exclusively for Time Warner Cable video customers. Time
Warner Cable’s 17 news networks operate in Texas (Austin, San Antonio);
New York (Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Hudson Valley, Central New York
and the Southern Tier); North Carolina (Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro,
Wilmington); Antelope Valley, CA, and the group’s flagship network NY1
and Spanish language network TWC News NY1 Noticias in New York City. NY1
Noticias is also available online at http://ny1noticias.com.
Viewers can follow the news team on twitter @NY1Noticias or visit www.ny1noticias.com
for the latest news coverage on NY1 Noticias including real-time
updates.

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is among the largest providers of
video, high-speed data and voice services in the United States,
connecting 15 million customers to entertainment, information and each
other. Time Warner Cable Business Class offers data, video and voice
services to businesses of all sizes, cell tower backhaul services to
wireless carriers and enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting, managed
applications and services. Time Warner Cable Media, the advertising
sales arm of Time Warner Cable, offers national, regional and local
companies innovative advertising solutions. More information about the
services of Time Warner Cable is available at www.twc.com,
www.twcbc.com
and www.twcmedia.com.

Source Article from http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150604006481/en/Time-Warner-Cable-NY1-Noticias%E2%80%99-%E2%80%9CPura-Polit%C3%ADca%E2%80%9D

45 views no comments

Noticias MundoFox 22 Reigns As L.A.’s Fastest Growing Station In Primetime … – PR Newswire (press release)

Visit PR Newswire for Journalists for releases, photos, ProfNet experts, and customized feeds just for Media.

Source Article from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/noticias-mundofox-22-reigns-as-las-fastest-growing-station-in-primetime-programing-and-news-in-october-2014-ratings-period-281589341.html

45 views no comments

Satellites Detect Activity At North Korean Missile Assembly Site – NPR

Loading…

Commercial satellite imagery of a facility near Pyongyang suggests that North Korea is preparing to launch a missile or space rocket in the near future.

The images are of a site known as Sanumdong — a facility where North Korea has assembled some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellite-launching rockets. The images, taken Feb. 22 by DigitalGlobe and shared exclusively with NPR, show cars and trucks parked near the facility. Rail cars sit in a nearby rail yard, where two cranes are also erected.

“When you put all that together, that’s really what it looks like when the North Koreans are in the process of building a rocket,” says Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., who has studied the images.

Loading…

News of the activity comes just days after other satellite imagery showed that North Korea has rapidly rebuilt a satellite launch facility on the country’s west coast. Known as the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the site has been used for several attempted space launches over the years, most recently in 2016.

The Sohae facility, sometimes called Dongchang-ri and Tongchang-ri, was partially dismantled after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held their first summit in June 2018. Imagery taken Wednesday suggests it may be operational again.

Lewis cautions it’s impossible to know whether the North Koreans are preparing a military missile or a rocket that could carry a civilian satellite into space. It’s also impossible to know when any launch might happen.

Additional images of the Sanumdong site taken Friday by another company, San Francisco-based Planet, show that vehicle activity has died down and that one of the cranes has disappeared. That could mean that workers have paused work on an ICBM or rocket, perhaps while awaiting further parts.

Or it could mean a missile or rocket has already left the facility.

“According to Planet imagery, I can definitely say the train has left the station,” says Melissa Hanham, a North Korea expert with the One Earth Future Foundation. “But I can’t unfortunately use X-ray vision to see what’s on the train and tell whether it’s a civilian space launch vehicle or a military ICBM.”

One possible destination would be the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. Lewis says there’s no easy way to tell whether a train has carried missile or rocket parts to Sohae because the rail yard there has a roof over it to prevent satellite snooping.

Lewis says he believes it’s most likely that the North Koreans are preparing to launch a satellite into orbit. Prior to the 2018 thaw between Kim and Trump, North Korean officials had been saying they planned to launch two satellites, Lewis says. And he says Kim reportedly visited the Sanumdong site at the end of 2017 in order to prepare.

“We know that a space launch was a thing that the North Koreans were talking about doing,” he says.

Lewis also says such a launch should not necessarily be regarded as an aggressive move. Rockets used to launch satellites are usually unsuitable for use as long-range missiles, he notes. “They would really make quite a poor ICBM,” he says. “I think U.S. foreign policy has been far too obsessed with North Korean space launches.”

But speaking at a briefing on Thursday, a senior State Department official said that the U.S. would regard any launch, including a space launch, as a violation of the goodwill between Trump and Kim. “Let me just say, in our judgment, launch of a space launch vehicle from [Sohae] in our view would be inconsistent with the commitments that the North Koreans have made,” the official told reporters.

“It seems like the two parties are moving farther apart rather than closer,” Hanham says. “I hope that there isn’t an overreaction by the United States to a space launch.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/08/701630382/activity-at-2nd-north-korean-missile-site-indicates-possible-launch-preparations

45 views no comments

The shooter who killed 5 at a Colorado LGBTQ+ club pleads guilty to 50 federal hate crimes – The Associated Press

45 views no comments

Idaho students: Food truck video of slain students offers timeline of their final hours – CNN

45 views no comments

últimas notícias

Ultimas Noticias

Most Viewed Videos

Continuing coverage of active shooter at Oxford High School in Michigan

Oxford High School Shooting: At least four hurt after gunman opens fire in Michigan

Posted!

Deaths along the border have been a problem for a long time

GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin rallies supporters in northern Va.