Post by mhbruin on Jun 5, 2021 11:24:34 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 300 Million Shots
Coming This Week: Half of eligible people fully vaccinated
CALIFORNIA
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Holy Sheet! A Rocket Launcher?
For nearly three weeks Belgium's leading virologist has been living in a safehouse with his wife and 12-year-old son, guarded by security agents.
While scientists across the world have come under attack throughout the pandemic, the threat to Prof Marc Van Ranst is more serious than most.
He has been targeted by a far-right rogue soldier, Jürgen Conings, who has a vendetta for virologists and Covid lockdowns. The military shooting instructor is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun, and Belgian police cannot find him.
"The threat was very real," Prof Van Ranst tells me from his safehouse, as he relives the night he and his family were moved into hiding on 18 May.
In the days that followed Jürgen Conings' disappearance, a support group was created for the ex-soldier on Facebook. Before being closed down, it had attracted nearly 50,000 members. It's this group that worries Prof Van Ranst more than his assailant.
"These are real people, who really think this man is a hero and that I deserve to die. They are people, living in your neighbourhood, who wage bets on exactly when and with how many bullets he will murder me," he told me.
-----------------
Send a Tweet. Go Directly to Jail
Corporations and individuals who violate Nigeria's suspension of Twitter will be prosecuted, a government spokesperson has told the BBC.
The government announced on Friday it was suspending Twitter operations in the country "indefinitely".
Mobile phone networks blocked access after being ordered to do so, but some users are getting around the ban.
-----------------
220 Pounds, 41 People. That's Over 5 Pounds Each
Dozens of people are facing fines of up to €3,000 (£2,580; $3,650) for removing beach sand and shells from the Italian island of Sardinia, local media report.
Authorities said on Saturday that 41 individuals had been reported for the theft of about 100kg (220lb) of items from beaches in separate incidents.
Sardinia's famed white sand is treasured on the island and it is strictly forbidden to remove it.
The trade in Sardinian sand, pebbles and shells was made illegal in 2017.
The fines imposed might seem heavy-handed, but for years islanders have complained about the theft of their natural assets.
Tourists, mainly Europeans and including some Italians, bottle the sand to keep as souvenirs or auction it online.
-----------------
Of Course, He Could Have Attacked Her With a Swiss Army Knife
Late one night in February 2019, a 31-year-old woman in a troubled marriage was rushed to an emergency room in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb, with a gunshot wound in her upper right arm.
"He shot me," Megan Montgomery told doctors, according to an investigative report obtained exclusively by NBC News. By "he," she meant her husband, a local police officer named Jason McIntosh.
Police took her husband’s pistol away. Nine months later, the state’s top law enforcement agency gave it back, despite pending domestic violence charges and an active protective order. Just 16 days after that, he used the gun to shoot and kill her during another late-night dispute.
Montgomery's loved ones were shattered by the loss of a devoted daughter and sister, a marketing professional with a passion for animal rescue. They were stunned to be told recently by NBC News that the state had given her abuser back the weapon he used to kill her.
Wasn't This Guy Charged With a Crime After the First Shooting?
-----------------
Of Course This is a White DA and a Black Defense Attorney
A district attorney in Pennsylvania is defending his decision to stop offering plea deals to clients of a Black defense lawyer who accused the prosecutor's office of racial bias in court last month.
On Thursday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. released a memo that he sent to his deputies on May 18 telling them not to offer any plea deals to clients of the lawyer, Milton Raiford, over what Zappala described as Raiford's "convoluted critical diatribe."
Zappala, a Democrat, told the deputy district attorneys that they needed permission from the "front office" to withdraw charges against Raiford's clients and that any discussions with Raiford must be "memorialized."
The memo was sent five days after Raiford told a judge that he believed that the district attorney's office and the justice system in general were "systematically racist."
Zappala's memo, which was first reported Wednesday by The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, drew condemnation from Reggie Shuford, executive director of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union. Shuford said the policy is unethical, a violation of the First Amendment and deeply disturbing.
-----------------
Teaching Sportsmanship
Seven of eight Ohio high school football coaches who allegedly forced a Hebrew Israelite player to eat a pizza that previously had pork on it, despite knowing his beliefs forbade him from eating it, have been fired, according to the Canton City School District and the student's lawyer.
The 17-year-old student, who hasn't been named, is a rising senior at Canton McKinley High School, where he was an offensive lineman on the football team. After skipping an earlier weightlifting session because of an injury, the team's coaches told him to eat an entire pepperoni pizza as punishment on May 24, while his teammates were forced to carry heavy weight disks as they exercised around him, attorney Edward Gilbert told CNN.
The teenager reminded the head coach multiple times that he did not eat pork. The student had previously told coaching staff multiple times that he was a Hebrew Israelite, and did not eat pork because of his religion, the attorney added.
-----------------
Who are the QANONites?
This is the best breakdown I have seen
-----------------
Here are the Details of Operation Hall Pass, That I Don't Know Anything About, & I'll Deny Knowledge of It
-----------------
Another Coup Attempt
-----------------
News Flash: Extra Money Helps People Pay for Things
-----------------
Previous Guy Jr -- WTF?
-----------------
Let's Run Against Fauci
Days after thousands of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci became public through a series of FOIA requests, Republicans are using out of context portions from those emails to ramp up attacks on the long time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Those emails are being conflated with a series of media-hyped articles about the origins of COVID-19, and the result is a genuinely toxic stew that is being used by Republicans ranging from Josh Hawley to Donald Trump Jr. as a way or stirring hate and raking in cash.
For those not neck deep in OAN, Newsmax, or Fox News, it may be hard to fathom just how much those channels have become a 24/7 assault on the 80-year-old doctor, or how hard they have been pushing the “lab escape” theory as “proof” that the NIAID director is somehow responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. All of these outlets are in heavy rotation with the idea that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab operated by a friend of Dr. Fauci, that Fauci helped China in covering up that origin, and that this somehow absolves Trump of all responsibility in 900,000 American deaths.
And that’s the lightweight version. The version being pushed by multiple “guests” and “experts” appearing on these programs is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately engineered to infect people as part of a program that Fauci—and President Obama—approved of and funded. The baseless accusations are so ugly that, even as Republicans like Josh Hawley demand that Dr. Fauci be fired, others, like Donald Trump Jr., are already chuckling over the idea that Dr. Fauci could be murdered.
-----------------
Sinema Loses a Backer
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, who prominently backed Kyrsten Sinema’s election to the Senate, is now saying she doesn’t belong in office anymore unless she helps abolish the filibuster.
Woods, a former Republican, was attorney general from from 1991-1999 and worked for the late Sen. John McCain (R). In 2018, he switched parties and became a Democrat.
That year, he also endorsed Sinema, and the campaign even featured him in one of its ads saying, “We need more people who are not just politicians who will say or do anything to get elected.”
Note to Sinema: All Those Arizona Voter Laws are to Stop You From Getting Re-Elected
-----------------
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | |
| Jun 5 | 1,166,993 | 170,272,150 | 138,112,702 |
| Jun 4 | 1,199,416 | 169,735,441 | 137,455,367 |
| Jun 3 | 1,215,518 | 169,090,262 | 136,644,618 |
| Jun 2 | 1,303,431 | 168,734,435 | 136,155,250 |
| Jun 1 | 1,359,049 | 168,489,729 | 135,867,425 |
| May 30 | 1,315,466 | 167,733,972 | 135,087,319 |
| May 29 | 1,394,832 | 167,157,043 | 134,418,748 |
| May 28 | 1,500,632 | 166,388,129 | 133,532,544 |
| May 27 | 1,618,194 | 165,718,717 | 132,769,894 |
| May 26 | 1,703,162 | 165,074,907 | 131,850,089 |
| May 25 | 1,750,524 | 164,378,258 | 131,078,608 |
| May 24 | 1,782,714 | 163,907,827 | 130,615,797 |
| May 23 | 1,827,882 | 163,309,414 | 130,014,175 |
| May 22 | 1,872,697 | 162,470,794 | 129,006,463 |
| May 21 | 1,879,526 | 161,278,336 | 127,778,250 |
| May 20 | 1,828,681 | 160,177,820 | 126,605,166 |
| May 19 | 1,801,333 | 159,174,963 | 125,453,423 |
| May 18 | 1,771,807 | 158,365,411 | 124,455,693 |
| May 17 | 1,830,360 | 157,827,208 | 123,828,224 |
| May 16 | 1,886,917 | 157,132,234 | 122,999,721 |
| May 15 | 1,926,448 | 156,217,367 | 121,768,268 |
| May 14 | 1,951,333 | 155,251,852 | 120,258,637 |
| May 13 | 2,088,962 | 154,624,231 | 118,987,308 |
| May 12 | 2,159,146 | 153,986,312 | 117,647,439 |
| May 11 | 2,194,787 | 153,448,316 | 116,576,359 |
| May 10 | 2,117,025 | 152,819,904 | 115,530,780 |
| May 9 | 2,085,022 | 152,116,936 | 114,258,244 |
| May 8 | 1,983,391 | 151,315,505 | 112,626,771 |
| May 7 | 2,088,522 | 150,416,559 | 110,874,920 |
| May 6 | 2,087,608 | 149,462,265 | 108,926,627 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 |
Coming This Week: Half of eligible people fully vaccinated
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | |
| % of Total Population | 51.3% | 41.6% |
| % of Population 12+ | 60.7% | 49.3% |
| % of Population 18+ | 63.4% | 52.5% |
| % of Population 65+ | 86.3% | 75.4% |
CALIFORNIA
7-Day Average Administered | |
| Jun 5 | 179,462 |
| Jun 4 | 165,253 |
| Jun 3 | 165,225 |
| Jun 2 | 170,223 |
| Jun 1 | 179,213 |
| May 30 | 173,351 |
| May 29 | 193,204 |
| May 28 | 213,796 |
| May 27 | 230,733 |
| May 26 | 244,708 |
| May 25 | 258,249 |
| May 24 | 268,071 |
| May 23 | 276,166 |
| May 22 | 285,578 |
| May 21 | 293,987 |
| May 20 | 281,184 |
| May 19 | 278,632 |
| May 18 | 269,324 |
| May 17 | 271,943 |
| May 16 | 286,457 |
| May 15 | 279,347 |
| May 14 | 278,877 |
| May 13 | 298,328 |
| May 12 | 306,629 |
| May 11 | 309,119 |
| May 10 | 292,285 |
| May 9 | 286,170 |
| May 8 | 277,007 |
| May 7 | 306,331 |
| May 6 | 291,408 |
| May 5 | 290,114 |
| May 4 | 299,430 |
| Mar 1 | 214,579 |
Holy Sheet! A Rocket Launcher?
For nearly three weeks Belgium's leading virologist has been living in a safehouse with his wife and 12-year-old son, guarded by security agents.
While scientists across the world have come under attack throughout the pandemic, the threat to Prof Marc Van Ranst is more serious than most.
He has been targeted by a far-right rogue soldier, Jürgen Conings, who has a vendetta for virologists and Covid lockdowns. The military shooting instructor is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun, and Belgian police cannot find him.
"The threat was very real," Prof Van Ranst tells me from his safehouse, as he relives the night he and his family were moved into hiding on 18 May.
In the days that followed Jürgen Conings' disappearance, a support group was created for the ex-soldier on Facebook. Before being closed down, it had attracted nearly 50,000 members. It's this group that worries Prof Van Ranst more than his assailant.
"These are real people, who really think this man is a hero and that I deserve to die. They are people, living in your neighbourhood, who wage bets on exactly when and with how many bullets he will murder me," he told me.
-----------------
Send a Tweet. Go Directly to Jail
Corporations and individuals who violate Nigeria's suspension of Twitter will be prosecuted, a government spokesperson has told the BBC.
The government announced on Friday it was suspending Twitter operations in the country "indefinitely".
Mobile phone networks blocked access after being ordered to do so, but some users are getting around the ban.
-----------------
220 Pounds, 41 People. That's Over 5 Pounds Each
Dozens of people are facing fines of up to €3,000 (£2,580; $3,650) for removing beach sand and shells from the Italian island of Sardinia, local media report.
Authorities said on Saturday that 41 individuals had been reported for the theft of about 100kg (220lb) of items from beaches in separate incidents.
Sardinia's famed white sand is treasured on the island and it is strictly forbidden to remove it.
The trade in Sardinian sand, pebbles and shells was made illegal in 2017.
The fines imposed might seem heavy-handed, but for years islanders have complained about the theft of their natural assets.
Tourists, mainly Europeans and including some Italians, bottle the sand to keep as souvenirs or auction it online.
-----------------
Of Course, He Could Have Attacked Her With a Swiss Army Knife
Late one night in February 2019, a 31-year-old woman in a troubled marriage was rushed to an emergency room in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb, with a gunshot wound in her upper right arm.
"He shot me," Megan Montgomery told doctors, according to an investigative report obtained exclusively by NBC News. By "he," she meant her husband, a local police officer named Jason McIntosh.
Police took her husband’s pistol away. Nine months later, the state’s top law enforcement agency gave it back, despite pending domestic violence charges and an active protective order. Just 16 days after that, he used the gun to shoot and kill her during another late-night dispute.
Montgomery's loved ones were shattered by the loss of a devoted daughter and sister, a marketing professional with a passion for animal rescue. They were stunned to be told recently by NBC News that the state had given her abuser back the weapon he used to kill her.
Wasn't This Guy Charged With a Crime After the First Shooting?
-----------------
Of Course This is a White DA and a Black Defense Attorney
A district attorney in Pennsylvania is defending his decision to stop offering plea deals to clients of a Black defense lawyer who accused the prosecutor's office of racial bias in court last month.
On Thursday, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. released a memo that he sent to his deputies on May 18 telling them not to offer any plea deals to clients of the lawyer, Milton Raiford, over what Zappala described as Raiford's "convoluted critical diatribe."
Zappala, a Democrat, told the deputy district attorneys that they needed permission from the "front office" to withdraw charges against Raiford's clients and that any discussions with Raiford must be "memorialized."
The memo was sent five days after Raiford told a judge that he believed that the district attorney's office and the justice system in general were "systematically racist."
Zappala's memo, which was first reported Wednesday by The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, drew condemnation from Reggie Shuford, executive director of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union. Shuford said the policy is unethical, a violation of the First Amendment and deeply disturbing.
-----------------
Teaching Sportsmanship
Seven of eight Ohio high school football coaches who allegedly forced a Hebrew Israelite player to eat a pizza that previously had pork on it, despite knowing his beliefs forbade him from eating it, have been fired, according to the Canton City School District and the student's lawyer.
The 17-year-old student, who hasn't been named, is a rising senior at Canton McKinley High School, where he was an offensive lineman on the football team. After skipping an earlier weightlifting session because of an injury, the team's coaches told him to eat an entire pepperoni pizza as punishment on May 24, while his teammates were forced to carry heavy weight disks as they exercised around him, attorney Edward Gilbert told CNN.
The teenager reminded the head coach multiple times that he did not eat pork. The student had previously told coaching staff multiple times that he was a Hebrew Israelite, and did not eat pork because of his religion, the attorney added.
-----------------
Who are the QANONites?
This is the best breakdown I have seen
-----------------
Here are the Details of Operation Hall Pass, That I Don't Know Anything About, & I'll Deny Knowledge of It
-----------------
Another Coup Attempt
-----------------
News Flash: Extra Money Helps People Pay for Things
-----------------
Previous Guy Jr -- WTF?
-----------------
Let's Run Against Fauci
Days after thousands of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci became public through a series of FOIA requests, Republicans are using out of context portions from those emails to ramp up attacks on the long time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Those emails are being conflated with a series of media-hyped articles about the origins of COVID-19, and the result is a genuinely toxic stew that is being used by Republicans ranging from Josh Hawley to Donald Trump Jr. as a way or stirring hate and raking in cash.
For those not neck deep in OAN, Newsmax, or Fox News, it may be hard to fathom just how much those channels have become a 24/7 assault on the 80-year-old doctor, or how hard they have been pushing the “lab escape” theory as “proof” that the NIAID director is somehow responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. All of these outlets are in heavy rotation with the idea that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab operated by a friend of Dr. Fauci, that Fauci helped China in covering up that origin, and that this somehow absolves Trump of all responsibility in 900,000 American deaths.
And that’s the lightweight version. The version being pushed by multiple “guests” and “experts” appearing on these programs is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately engineered to infect people as part of a program that Fauci—and President Obama—approved of and funded. The baseless accusations are so ugly that, even as Republicans like Josh Hawley demand that Dr. Fauci be fired, others, like Donald Trump Jr., are already chuckling over the idea that Dr. Fauci could be murdered.
-----------------
Sinema Loses a Backer
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, who prominently backed Kyrsten Sinema’s election to the Senate, is now saying she doesn’t belong in office anymore unless she helps abolish the filibuster.
Woods, a former Republican, was attorney general from from 1991-1999 and worked for the late Sen. John McCain (R). In 2018, he switched parties and became a Democrat.
That year, he also endorsed Sinema, and the campaign even featured him in one of its ads saying, “We need more people who are not just politicians who will say or do anything to get elected.”
Note to Sinema: All Those Arizona Voter Laws are to Stop You From Getting Re-Elected
-----------------