The deadly coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China less than a month ago, has spread to 13 other countries. It has spread to Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam. The US now has five confirmed cases of a deadly coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, less than a month ago. The confirmed cases in the US are in Washington, Illinois, California and Arizona. Four of the US patients had recently traveled to Wuhan and one was a Wuhan resident traveling through California.
The outbreak has killed 81 people and infected more than 2,800 in mainland China. Authorities have sealed off the city of Wudan, the epicenter of the outbreak. All of Wuhan’s public transportation — including buses, ferries, and trains have been shut down. Trains and airplanes coming in and out of the city were halted and roadblocks were installed to keep taxis and private cars from exiting the city.
The World Health Organization called the lockdown of the city of 11 million people unprecedented. In an effort to contain the outbreak, two smaller Chinese cities, Huanggang and Ezhou, travel restrictions were also imposed. Authorities then expanded the number of cities on lockdown to 10. The lockdown is affecting some 33 million people, as medical workers struggle to slow the spread of a novel strain of coronavirus.
The coronavirus family is a large group of viruses that typically affect the respiratory tract. Coronaviruses can lead to illnesses such as the common cold, pneumonia, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which resulted in 8,000 cases and 774 deaths in China from November 2002 to July 2003. Patients with the new coronavirus — known as 2019-nCoV — have reported symptoms like fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing. Those who have died were elderly or otherwise unwell, according to Chinese officials. No deaths have been reported outside China.
Initially, authorities suspected that the coronavirus — which likely originated at a wholesale seafood market — could spread to humans only from animals but it was later determined that humans could transmit the virus to one another. The CDC recommends avoiding all nonessential travel to China’s Hubei province, where Wuhan is. They also recommend that people traveling to China avoid contact with sick people, particularly those with cold symptoms like coughs or runny noses. Travelers are advised to wash their hands frequently with soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. They should refrain from touching their eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands. Elderly travelers and anyone with preexisting health conditions should consult a doctor before traveling to China.
The CDC said the risk in the United States is still low but they are advising precautions and monitoring the situations. All of the US patients who have tested positive for the virus have been isolated and are recovering. The CDC said 32 people who had contact with the US cases have tested negative for the virus and the agency plans to test more people in the coming days.
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State lawmakers have passed several bills designed to boost safety requirements for stretch-limo operators, after a deadly crash in upstate New York involving one of the vehicles killed 20 people. Family members of the victims of the 2018 crash flanked officials during Tuesday’s press conference in Albany and cheered the 10 proposals supported by leaders of the state Senate, Assembly and Gov. Cuomo.
The crash occurred in Schoharie at the junction of New York state routes 30 and 30A on the afternoon of October 6th 2018. The passengers were traveling to a surprise birthday party in a retrofitted 2001 Ford Excursion. Among them were four sisters and two recently married couples. All 18 people inside the vehicle, including the driver, and 2 bystanders in a nearby parking lot were killed.
The investigation of the accident revealed pre-existing problems with the limousine, the driver and the limousine company, Prestige Limousine Services. As a result of failing two inspections due to deficient brakes, which a repair shop allegedly falsified having repaired, and other issues, the state had ordered the vehicle out of service. Inspectors had placed an “inservicable” sticker across the windshield which was removed before the fatal trip. The vehicle was only certified for 10 seats, but had 18 installed. The driver also lacked the required endorsement to his license for carrying 15 or more passengers at a time.
After the New York State Police determined that the operator, Nauman Hussain, was aware of these issues yet continued to rent the vehicle, he was arrested on a charge of criminally negligent homicide and later indicted on 20 counts each of that charge and 2nd degree manslaughter. His trial is scheduled for March 2020.
“This has been a difficult journey for all the collective families that said, as everybody knows, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish,” said an emotional Kevin Cushing, who lost his 31-year-old son, Patrick Cushing, in the October 2018 crash in Schoharie County. “We can’t change the past but we can make a difference in the future,” Cushing said.
One of the key pieces of legislation requires all new stretch limos to have seat belts starting in 2021 and retrofitted vehicles by 2023. Multiple reports following the accident found that seat belts could have saved the lives of at least some of the passengers. Other changes include a bill mandating that riders in taxis, liveries and limos — in both the front and back seats —wear safety belts. This would apply to Uber, too. Additional bills set new requirements for drug and alcohol testing of hired drivers, criminal and financial penalties for illegal U-turns and a commercial GPS system. Another bill will implement a study on other safety measures, such as escape hatches.
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A grand jury indicted the suspect in the Hanukkah attack with five more federal hate crimes charges. Grafton Thomas allegedly stabbed at least five Jewish worshipers who were celebrating Hanukkah at a rabbi’s house in Monsey last month. The grand jury in Rockland County had already indicted Thomas, 37, on six counts of attempted murder in the second degree, three counts of assault in the first degree, three counts of attempted assault in the first degree and two counts of burglary in the first degree in the mass slashing on Dec. 28.
The indictment charges Grafton Thomas with five counts each of attempting to kill victims based on their religion and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. He is being held without bail on the federal charges. “We now allege that he did this with the intention of targeting his victims because of their religion,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a news release. “Thomas faces life in prison for his alleged violent acts of prejudice and intolerance.”
Newly elected DA Thomas E. Walsh, who took office on New Year’s Day, announced the state charges at a brief press conference. “Thomas violently attacked numerous individuals inside the home, slashing at least six individuals, with the intent to cause their deaths,” he said. Initial reports said there were five injured in the attack, though there were no details on what injuries the newly-added victim suffered. Those charges carry a maximum of 25 years in state prison.
Thomas was arrested shortly after the attack with 2 bloodied weapons in his car. Police say he also had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues. The worst of the injured victims was clinging to life after suffering devastating machete blows to his head; the man, great-grandfather Josef Neumann, 72, remained comatose, partially paralyzed and on a respirator.
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Newly released body-camera video shows a Sonoma County sheriff deputy fatally slamming a man’s head into his own car. The sheriff deputy, Charlie Blount, and his partner, Deputy Jason Little, apparently thought the driver, David Glen Ward, had stolen the car — which he in fact owned. Ward had been the victim of a carjacking days earlier and reported the car stolen.
He had somehow recovered the vehicle but hadn’t notified police yet. When the officers spotted the Honda Civic they attempted to pull the vehicle over thinking he was the perpetrator, which resulted in a police chase that lasted more than 5 minutes. Once Ward finally stopped, deputies can be heard shouting at Ward to put his hands up, with their guns drawn. Ward puts his hands up but repeatedly tries to put them back on the wheel before putting them up again.
In the video, Blount tries to pull Ward out of the vehicle but Ward says that his legs are in pain and Deputy Jason Little can be heard off-camera saying that his legs are stuck. Blount and Little both can be heard saying that Ward bit them. As the officers try to pull Ward from the vehicle, Deputy Blount grabs him by the hair and slams his head into the car’s frame. Deputy Little deploys the taser on Ward and Blount puts Ward in a “sleeper hold” to restrain him. The deputies then pull Ward’s limp body out of the car and handcuff him. They then call for medical assistance. Ward was declared dead at a local hospital later that day.
Later, Deputy Nick Jax can be heard telling the two officers that Ward was the owner of the vehicle. “Then why did he run?” Little asks. Jax responded that he didn’t know and there was no reason for him to respond that way. “Oh well,” Blount said.
Deputy Blount’s lawyer Harry Stern said “ Mr. Ward caused his own death by inexplicably taking a number of bizarre actions that confirmed in the deputies’ minds that he was an armed carjacker rather than the victim of that crime.”
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Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and the board of his now-bankrupt company have reached a tentative $25 million settlement with the dozens of women who have accused him of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. The deal would not require Weinstein to admit any wrongdoing, nor would Weinstein have to pay any of his own money to the dozens of actresses and female employees who have accused him of serial rape and sexual harassment.
The women who have brought civil suits against him would instead split a pool of money paid by insurance companies representing The Weinstein Company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018, as a result of the scandal. Eighteen of Weinstein’s accusers would reportedly share $6.2 million, with none of the women receiving more than $500,000. Another $18.5 million would be split between accusers who are part of a class action lawsuit against Weinstein, the New York attorney general’s case, and future claimants.
The deal is far from complete since an official agreement must be drawn up and approved by a judge in federal court in Delaware, which is handling The Weinstein Company bankruptcy proceedings, and a judge in federal court in New York. Several accusers refused to go along with the agreement and could challenge it in court. Rebecca Goldman, Chief Operating Officer of the Time’s Up Foundation, said in a statement “This settlement is more than a math problem – it’s a symptom of a problematic, broken system that privileges powerful abusers at the expense of survivors. While this settlement is flawed, we know it represents the hard work of several survivors of Harvey Weinstein. We hope it brings them, and perhaps others, some small measure of justice and relief that is long overdue.”
Accusers who are not part of the settlement can still bring suits against him, including actress Ashley Judd. In January, a judge dismissed Judd’s sexual harassment claim against Weinstein, but stated she could continue with her defamation case against the disgraced producer. Weinstein is also facing criminal sexual assault charges in New York and is scheduled to go on trial for rape in Manhattan Supreme Court on January 6th. He has been charged with five counts of predatory sexual assault, criminal sex act and rape. He faces life in prison if convicted. Weinstein was accused of forcibly performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 and raping another woman in 2013. A judge recently increased Weinstein’s bail from $1 million to $5 million following allegations he had tampered with his electronic ankle monitor.
The disgraced Hollywood producer, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by more than 80 women, complained in an interview that the allegations have made him “a forgotten man.” While recovering from spinal surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Weinstein said “My work has been forgotten.”
Shortly after the interview was made public, the “Silence Breakers,” including actresses Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd and Rosanna Arquette, posted their response to the official Time’s Up Twitter account. The statement said “Harvey Weinstein is trying to gaslight society again. He says in a new interview he doesn’t want to be forgotten. Well, he won’t be. He will be remembered as a sexual predator and an unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing. He will be remembered by the collective will of countless women who stood up and said enough. We refuse to let this predator rewrite his legacy of abuse.”
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The University of Phoenix is paying a record $191 million to settle a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission accusing the for-profit university of using deceptive ads to lure students with the promise of future job opportunities with large companies such as AT&T, Adobe, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo. The settlement includes a plan to cancel $141 million in student debts that are owed to the school by people who enrolled from October 2012 through the end of 2016 – the period in which the FTC says prospective students might have been duped. The remaining $50 million in the settlement will be paid in cash, which the FTC says “will be used for consumer redress.”
Court documents show the settlement gives the University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Education Group, 15 business days to send an email and letter to eligible students, informing them that they’re covered by the agreement. The letters inform eligible former students that they no longer owe any money to University of Phoenix and their account balance will be cleared within 45 business days. The letter also states that the school has 55 business days to tell credit reporting agencies to delete the debt from students’ credit reports.
The FTC says the university wrongly suggested that it worked closely with high-profile companies to develop its courses and the school’s “Let’s Get to Work” ad campaign was one example of how it hyped connections with potential employers that did not exist. The University of Phoenix successfully targeted minorities, military veterans, service members and their spouses for enrollment, the FTC says, calling the University of Phoenix “the largest recipient of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits since the program’s inception.” As part of the deal, the university did not admit or deny any wrongdoing alleged in the federal complaint.
Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said in a statement that it’s the largest settlement the FTC has obtained against a for-profit school. Smith added, “Students making important decisions about their education need the facts, not fantasy job opportunities that do not exist.” In response to the FTC settlement, the University of Phoenix issued a fact sheet touting both its achievements and its commitments to improve. In it, the school says it devoted 17% of its total spending in the 2018 fiscal year to marketing costs. The fact sheet concludes with a section titled “We Are Committed To Responsible Marketing.”
The settlement affects students who were enrolled between October 2012 and December 2016 but does not apply to those who owe money from federal and private loans. William Hubbard, a spokesman for Student Veterans of America, said the case “heavily underscores that questionable practices to aggressively recruit students are not acceptable,” but added the debt covered represented “a small piece of the pie.” “Ultimately private loans, those don’t fall under the debt cancellation rules,” he said. “If you’re a student that is paying for costs out of pocket, presumably through a private loan, you’re still on the hook for that.”
The FTC said in its statement that those who believe they have been defrauded can apply for loan forgiveness using the borrower defense to repayment procedures, and borrowers looking to lower monthly payments on their federal loans could obtain information from the Department of Education about income-driven repayment plans.
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In recent years, it’s become evident that oil giant Exxon was aware of the causes and consequences of climate change from at least the 1970s, but chose to deliberately mislead the public for decades. A newly resurfaced article now shows coal industry executives equally understood the science of catastrophic global warming as far back as 1966. According to a copy of the magazine Mining Congress Journal, leaders of the coal industry knew as early as the mid-1960s that burning fossil fuels causes climate change.
The head of a now defunct mining research company wrote that the combustion of fossil fuels was increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing global temperature increases. The recently discovered article now provides evidence that both the coal and oil industries have known about catastrophic climate change for decades, yet worked to cover up the evidence in order to continue burning fossil fuels.
James Garvey, the then-president of Bituminous Coal Research Inc., which developed pollution control equipment, discussed the state of pollutants and their regulation in the coal industry at the time. While much of the paper is concerned with sulphur in coal, a small section early in the article is concerned with carbon dioxide (CO2) discharge. “There is evidence that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is increasing rapidly as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels,” Garvey writes.
“If the future rate of increase continues as it is at the present, it has been predicted that, because the CO2 envelope reduces radiation, the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere will increase and that vast changes in the climates of the Earth will result. Such changes in temperature will cause melting of the polar icecaps, which, in turn, would result in the inundation of many coastal cities, including New York and London.”
Garvey’s article isn’t the only one acknowledging the dangers of coal-produced pollution in the August 1966 issue. In a discussion piece following Garvey’s paper, combustion engineer James Jones from Peabody Coal (now called Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company in the world), does not address the global warming issue, but admits that air pollution standards to protect health have a place, saying the “Situation is Urgent”.
Jones wrote “We are in favor of cleaning up our air. We are, in effect, ‘buying time’. But we must use that time productively to find answers to the many unsolved problems.” In the decades to come, Peabody would become a huge industrial player in organized climate change denial. At the end of his article, Jones wondered: “What can an individual with a personal stake in the future of the coal industry do?” Among the answers he offered, “Be a ‘one-man’ public relations emissary for the coal industry,” Jones explained to his industry colleagues. “Tell your neighbours, friends, and the general public how important coal is to their every-day existence. Also tell them about the all-out cooperative efforts of the coal industry to reduce air pollution.”
The concerted effort to discredit the scientific consensus over man-made global warming has been continuing for two decades in the United States and shows no sign of weakening. It is often described as an attempt on the part of corporate America, most notably the fossil fuel industries, to hinder governmental regulations on their activities.
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The administration has granted clemency to three controversial military figures embroiled in charges of war crimes, arguing the moves will give troops “the confidence to fight” without worrying about potential legal overreach. Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, convicted of 2nd degree murder in the death of two Afghans, was given a full pardon. Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who faced murder charges for a similar crime, was also given a full pardon for those alleged offenses. Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, who earlier this year was acquitted of a string of alleged war crimes, had his rank restored to Chief Petty Officer.
Critics have warned the pardons could send the message that troops need not worry about following rules of engagement when fighting enemies abroad. Lorance’s case dates back to a 2012 deployment to Afghanistan, when he ordered his soldiers to fire on three unarmed men riding a motorcycle near their patrol. Members of his platoon testified against him at a court-martial trial, describing him as over-zealous and the Afghans as posing no real threat. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Golsteyn’s case had not yet been decided, with a scheduled trial date in December on charges he murdered an alleged Taliban bomb maker, and burned his remains in a trash pit during a 2010 deployment with 3rd Special Forces Group. Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret major, had pled not guilty to murder and related charges. His pardon effectively puts an end to that legal case before any verdicts were rendered.
While Gallagher was acquitted of murder and obstruction of justice charges in July, a panel of his peers recommended he be reduced in grade for posing with the body of the teenaged detainee, a crime he never denied. His rank was restored with the pardon but the Navy plans to remove Chief Gallagher from the elite SEAL team despite the pardon. It’s been reported that several top military officials threatened to resign if Navy officials did not move forward with these plans despite the pardon.
Chief Gallagher was accused of multiple offenses during his final deployment to Iraq and during the Battle for Mosul. The most prominent and disturbing accusation was the murder of a prisoner of war, a war crime. A captured young ISIS fighter was being treated by a medic. According to two SEAL witnesses, Gallagher said over the radio “he’s mine” and walked up to the medic and prisoner. Without saying a word to the medic or prisoner, Gallagher killed the prisoner by stabbing him repeatedly with his hunting knife. Gallagher and his commanding officer, Lieutenant Jake Portier, then posed for photographs of them standing over the body with some other nearby SEALs. Gallagher then text messaged a fellow SEAL a picture of the dead captive with the explanation “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.”
Gallagher was also accused of being indiscriminate, reckless and bloodthirsty during his 2017 deployment. Fellow snipers did not consider him to be a good sniper because he would allegedly take random shots into buildings and indiscriminately spray neighborhoods with rockets and machine gun fire with no known enemy force in the region. Several snipers testified that they witnessed Gallagher taking at least two militarily pointless shots, shooting and killing an unarmed old man in a white robe as well as a young girl walking with other girls. Gallagher was allegedly known for boasting about the large number of people he had killed, claiming he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women.
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The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by gun manufacturer Remington Arms, that argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes. The decision has cleared the way for survivors and the families of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people.
The families are arguing that Remington violated Connecticut law when it marketed the Bushmaster rifle for assaults against human beings. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case allows the lawsuit filed in Connecticut state court by a survivor and relatives of nine victims who died at the Newtown, Connecticut, school on Dec. 14, 2012, to go forward. The lawsuit says the Madison, North Carolina-based company should never have sold a weapon as dangerous as the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle to the public.
Gunman Adam Lanza used it to kill 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10 along with six educators, after killing his mother at the home they shared. The rifle used in the killings was legally owned by his mother. The lawsuit also alleges Remington targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games. Lanza was 20 years old when he committed the mass shooting. Only two of the victims who were shot by Lanza—both teachers—survived the attack. Lanza killed himself as police arrived at the school.
The case is being watched by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and gun manufacturers across the country, as it has the potential to provide a roadmap for victims of other mass shootings to circumvent the federal law and sue the makers of firearm. The National Rifle Association, 10 mainly Republican-led states and 22 Republicans in Congress were among those urging the court to jump into the case and end the lawsuit against Remington.
The Connecticut Supreme Court had earlier ruled 4-3 that the lawsuit could proceed for now, citing an exemption in the federal law. The decision overturned a ruling by a trial court judge who dismissed the lawsuit based on the 2005 federal law, named the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
The federal law has been criticized by gun control advocates as being too favorable to gun-makers. It has been cited by other courts that rejected lawsuits against gun-makers and dealers in other high-profile shooting attacks, including the 2012 Colorado movie theater shooting and the Washington, D.C., sniper shootings in 2002.
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The father of Atatiana Jefferson has died, less than one month after a police officer killed his 28-year-old daughter by shooting through the bedroom window of her own home. Atatiana’s father, Marquis Jefferson, 59, died after suffering a heart attack. The family spokesman said, “I can only sum it up as a broken heart.” Atatiana was his only child and she was killed exactly one month ago, on October 12, by police officer Aaron Dean. The spokesman, Bruce Carter, said Jefferson had been under a lot of stress since his daughter was killed and was also battling Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which makes breathing difficult.
Jefferson had been embroiled in a family dispute involving his daughter’s funeral and burial arrangements, which were controlled by her aunt, Bonita Body. He argued that as the surviving parent of Atatiana, he should have control of her burial, and was granted a temporary restraining order to postpone the funeral. The service eventually took place on October 24. “He was battling to be a part of her life to the end,” Bruce Carter, the family’s spokesperson, said. “I think it just got the best of him.”
Lee Merritt, attorney for Atatiana Jefferson’s family, said in a statement they were saddened to learn the news about Marquis Jefferson and “of course” the loss his daughter factored into his death. “Her death rocked the nation but no one felt it more than the people that were directly tied to her in life,” Merritt said. “Those people haven’t had a chance to grieve like normal families. They have been thrust into a very public, very emotional, very draining fight for justice.”
On October 12, at around 2:30 a.m., Dean had arrived at Atatiana’s Forth Worth residence with another officer in response to a non-emergency “wellness check” called in by a neighbor who noticed Atatiana had left her front door open. Atatiana was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when she heard noises outside of her home. According to her nephew, she took her handgun from her purse and pointed it “toward the window” just before getting shot by Dean. The two men did not identify themselves as police when they approached the window where Atatiana stood.
Body camera footage showed Dean looked inside a window using a flashlight, spotted someone inside standing near a window and said, “Put your hands up — show me your hands.” He shot seconds later. At no point did he identify himself as an officer and he did not appear to have knocked on the door. Dean resigned from the police department shortly afterward, and was arrested and charged for Atatiana’s murder. He is currently out on a $200,000 bond.
Dean completed police training at the Fort Worth Police Academy in March 2018 and at the time of the shooting, had been with the department for 18 months. Prior to the shooting, the only entry in his Fort Worth police personnel file was about a traffic collision. Dean’s training records from his first year on the job note concerns from supervisors which included that he had “tunnel vision” and “needs improvement on communicating with the public and fellow officers.” Dean’s most recent performance evaluation was made in spring 2019, where he received high marks from a supervisor.
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