Post by mhbruin on Jan 28, 2022 9:30:29 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 537 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Jan 25)
We had a great December, but January has been pretty terrible. We have 3-4 months to get some significant rain.
There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast.
Reservoirs are still low, but they are filling up a bit.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
First Nominee Is Joe Biden For Buying An Ice Cream Cone
He Took Time Off From the Ice Cream Scandal For This
On Thursday evening, CNN carried this commentary from Sen. Josh Hawley: “I think it sends the wrong signal to say that, ‘Well if a person is of a certain ethnic background, that we don't care what their record is, we don't care what their substantive beliefs are.’”
Somehow CNN managed to get through both the interview and the resulting article without mentioning the obvious: President Joe Biden didn’t say anything like the phrase that Hawley used. Neither did any other Democrat. President Biden only promised that he would nominate a Black woman. They do note that in his own announcement, Biden promised to select someone with "extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity."
It’s Hawley who doesn’t mention these factors, choosing instead to focus entirely on race and gender. The only conclusion that can be drawn from Sen. White Power’s statement is this: He doesn’t believe that a qualified Black woman exists. He certainly doesn’t seem to be alone, because Biden’s promise to add much-needed diversity to the Supreme Court is generating a furor among the ranks of those who can’t quite stop saying the quiet part out loud.
They Have to Be Carefully Taught
After about a week of widespread media outcry, a public charter elementary school in Georgia has finally removed a deeply offensive assignment from its curriculum. Fourth graders were prompted to “write a letter” to Andrew Jackson from the perspective of an “American settler” arguing in defense of “removing the Cherokee” to help the country “grow and prosper.” If you’re thinking: What the … ? You’re not alone! The assignment is asking young people to justify the systemic removal of Indigenous folks from their homes—genocide, in a word.
You Can Only Teach Them To Love Genocide If They Are Alive
By all accounts, Artemis Rayford was a happy, vibrant 12-year-old. He loved playing football and wearing his Tennessee Titans jersey. As a sixth-grader at Memphis, Tennessee’s Sherwood Middle School, Rayford had participated, just before the last year’s winter break, in a program his school coordinated with the Memphis Police Department—intended to discourage violence and gang activity. He and his fellow students learned about a new law passed in Jul. 2021 by the Tennessee legislature and signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee (the nominee). That law allows most people over the age of 21 in Tennessee to carry a gun, concealed or openly, without any permit.
Rayford thought the law made no sense, and described why in a letter he wrote to the governor. As reported by Lateshia Beachum, writing for the Washington Post, the letter said, among other things, “It is my opinion that this new law will be bad and people will be murdered.” It also stressed that anyone who bought a gun should know how to use it.
Rayford never found out whether Lee ever read or even received his letter. But he probably wasn’t thinking about that on Christmas morning when, as he was playing with his new Christmas toys, a stray bullet came from outside his family’s home, pierced his chest, and ended his life. According to his grandmother, interviewed for Memphis’ CBS affiliate, NewsChannel3, Rayford died in his mother’s arms, covered in blood.
Explaining later why he signed the law, Lee had brushed aside objections from law enforcement, saying, “It shouldn’t be hard for law-abiding Tennesseans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.” Lee also apparently ignored data that had shown a dramatic uptick throughout 2021 in gun-related homicides in the city of Memphis, with many of those deaths occurring to children.
Another Terrible Josh
QOP Senate Candidate Josh Mandel, a former state treasurer, has veered hard right in the primary, trafficking in election conspiracies and racist rhetoric to appeal to the Trump base — and Trump himself for a potential endorsement. Mandel has done much of his campaigning in evangelical churches.
“I’m pro-God, pro-gun, pro-Trump, and I will fight in Washington with the Constitution in one hand and the Bible in the other,” Mandel said.
“I do not believe in separation of church and state. There’s no such thing. The founders of this county, the Founding Fathers, they did not believe in the separation of church and state. When you read the United States Constitution, nowhere do you read about the separation of church and state. It does not exist,” he said, followed by an audible gasp from the audience. (Then He Should Be OK With Sharia Law.)
Rehearsing for Attacking the SCOTUS Nominee
Yet another woman of color nominated for a high-profile government job is facing a smear campaign from the right.
This time they’re going after Lisa Cook, a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board of governors.
“The attacks are racist, sexist and just plain dumb. But make no mistake: There’s a reason behind them that goes to the heart of the matter ― and that is, she’s good. That’s why she’s under attack,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago recently named Cook to its board of directors. (To be clear, President Joe Biden plays no role in choosing the boards of the regional Fed banks.) Cook served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama and as an adjunct professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She earned her doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in macroeconomics and international economics.
“This is not the place in this time of great peril for purely race-based appointments,” former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro told the right-wing Daily Caller. “Professor Cook is more qualified to coach an NFL team than manage what may be a looming collapse of our economy from a perch at the Fed. When that collapse comes, nobody in the financial world is going to say ‘Find Lisa Cook.’ Ultimately, this is not fair to Cook herself, as it sets her up for an epic fall.”
John H. Cochrane, an economist at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said Cook is qualified only “if the job is to bring the Administration and progressive supporters’ racial policies to the Fed.”
A senior Republican Senate aide also told The Daily Caller that “Cook is one of the least qualified nominees in the Fed’s history.”
I Would Put It In the Horror Section
He Only Missed It by 22,000
Don't Hold Your Breath. "Conflict of Interest" Is His Middle Name
Clarence Thomas, the hardline conservative supreme court justice, is facing calls for his recusal in the case over race-based affirmative action in college admissions that the court agreed to hear this week.
The case, which is being brought against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, is the latest potential conflict of interest involving Thomas and his wife Virginia Thomas. Ginni, as she is known, is a prominent rightwing activist who speaks out on a raft of issues that frequently come before the nation’s highest court.
A one-person conservative powerhouse, she set up her own lobbying company Liberty Consulting in 2010. By her own description, she has “battled for conservative principles in Washington” for over 35 years.
SFFA’s lawsuit seeking to strike down affirmative action has received the enthusiastic backing of the conservative National Association of Scholars. It filed an amicus brief in support of the suit, accusing Harvard admissions officials of being prejudiced against Asian students and stereotyping them as “uninteresting, uncreative and one-dimensional”.
Ginni Thomas sits on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars. Observers are concerned that her position with a group that has intervened in the affirmative action case could present appearances of conflict of interest.
And We Have Winners!!
Two teens charged with killing five recent immigrants from Senegal by setting fire to their house in Denver will continue to be tried as adults after a judge ruled this week that the trauma caused by the crime both locally and abroad required the possibility of a tough punishment.
The two teens are accused of starting the Aug. 5, 2020, fire out of revenge after the robbery of one of their cellphones, only realizing later that they targeted the wrong people, according to investigators.
Djibril and Adja Diol, their 22-month-old daughter Khadija, as well as Djibril Diol’s sister Hassan Diol and her infant daughter Hawa Baye died in the fire.
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Who, Who, Is Spreading Fake Poop? Owl Bet It's the Biologists
Settling into a new home can be tough for anyone. So scientists have come up with some tricks to make transplanted burrowing owls feel like they are not alone in their new digs, playing owl sounds and scattering fake poop.
The owls’ grassland homes are often prime real estate, and they’ve been losing ground to development in fast-growing regions like Silicon Valley and Southern California. Biologists have tried moving the owls to protected grasslands but the challenge has been getting the owls to accept their new homes.
Just dropping off the owls in prime habitat wasn’t enough, prior attempts showed. In a pilot program, scientists took pains to create the impression that owls already lived there so they'd stick around. And it worked.
“They like to be in a neighborhood, to live near other owls,” said Colleen Wisinski, a conservation biologist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which launched the experiment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The scientists played recordings of owl calls before and after the new arrivals were released at four locations in Southern California. Wisinski used a syringe to squirt around fake owl poop — in reality, white paint.
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I Have to Admit I Didn't Know Where Tigray is. It Is North Ethiopia.
Some of the nurses and doctors at the biggest hospital in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region are having to beg for food to feed themselves, one of the medics has told the BBC.
They have not been paid for eight months, forcing them to find other ways of supporting their families, he said.
The doctor's account comes as the UN reports that "severe hunger" was hitting ever more people in Tigray.
It says that 2.2 million people "are suffering an extreme lack of food".
Half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) survey found.
Maybe If We Had More Maps
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Get Ready for A Fox News Meltdown
The world's most famous female mouse is getting an outfit makeover.
Minnie Mouse will soon be changing into a smart blue pantsuit, swapping out of her traditional red polka dot dress while keeping her iconic bow.
The new look was designed by Stella McCartney to celebrate 30 years of Disneyland's Paris resort.
Pants Suit? Changing From Red to Blue? TucKKKer Will Throw a Fit.
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Bankers Cheating is the American Way
A US appeals court has overturned the convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders who were prosecuted for rigging interest rates.
In a legally significant judgment, US judges acquitted Matthew Connolly, 56, from New Jersey and Gavin Black, 52, from Twickenham, Middlesex.
The court ruled that their conduct was not against the rules.
It means that what has been prosecuted as interest rate rigging in the UK is not regarded as a crime in the US.
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it was not against the rules to seek to influence the estimates a bank submits of the cost of borrowing cash.
That directly contradicts a key British appeal court ruling that was used to prosecute 24 traders, nine of whom were jailed between 2015 and 2019.
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If It' Is Entirely Fictional, Why Does It Mention Real People?
Netflix must answer a defamation case over its hit series The Queen's Gambit, a US judge has ruled.
The streaming giant is accused of misrepresenting "one of the most significant career achievements" of chess master Nona Gaprindashvili.
She has taken issue with a line in the drama where a character claims, falsely, that she "never faced men".
Lawyers said the error had "tarnished (her) personal and professional reputation" around the world.
The Queen's Gambit, starring Anya Taylor-Joy is the fictional story of the female chess prodigy, Beth Harmon. However, it features references to real life competitors including Gaprindashvili.
In the final episode, a commentator compares Harmon's achievements to Gaprindashvili's, but says the latter "never faced men" in competition.
Netflix said that "no reasonable viewer would have understood the line to convey a statement of fact", according to legal documents seen by PA, as it was an "entirely fictional work".
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Biden is Tanking! Biden is Tanking! --- What?
Not That Polls 3 Years Out Mean Anything
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Correlation is Not Causation
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A "Bomb Cyclone"? Really? It's a Big Storm
Amajor winter storm with the potential for hurricane-force winds and heavy snow is threatening to slam the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this weekend. The quickly-intensifying winter storm could develop into a Nor'easter, and possibly a bomb cyclone, according to AccuWeather.
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When Richard Gere Kisses You, You Stay Kissed for 14 Years
It started with a kiss from Richard Gere to raise awareness about AIDS. Fifteen years later, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has been officially cleared of obscenity charges by an Indian court.
Shetty, 46, was at an event in New Delhi to promote safe sex and the use of condoms in April 2007, when Gere hugged her and planted kisses on both of her cheeks.
Public displays of affection are considered taboo by some in India, and the kiss set off protests by radical Hindu groups at the time. Effigies of the pair were burned in the streets.
Gere, the star of “Pretty Woman” and other films, quickly apologized, saying that he wanted to show that kissing was safe and could not lead to the transmission of HIV.
Shetty was also quick to defend Gere, saying he was enacting a scene from his film “Shall We Dance” to entertain the audience.
An arrest warrant was nonetheless issued for Gere, although the obscenity charges were quickly thrown out by India’s Supreme Court, which dismissed them as “cheap publicity.”
But the case against Shetty had languished in the Indian court system until last week, when Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate Ketaki Chavan dismissed it as “groundless.”
The Wheels of Justice May Turn Slowly, But This Was Judicial Gridlock
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How Many Defendants Have Blamed Their Identical Twin?
A Chicago man who spent nearly two decades behind bars for murder over a deadly 2003 shooting has been released years after his identical twin confessed to the crime.
An emotional Kevin Dugar broke down into tears as he was released from the Cook County jail on Tuesday night and reunited with his loved ones as a free man, his lawyer Ronald Safer told NBC News on Friday.
"The judge granted his release pending trial on a signature bond and he walked out into the open air and breathed his first breaths as a free man in almost 20 years," Safer said. "It was gratifying to watch his tears roll down his cheeks and their cheeks before (their tears) froze on their faces because it was about 7 below."
Dugar had spent nearly 20 years in jail after he was convicted in the deadly 2003 shooting of a rival gang member.
A gunman had opened fire on three people in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the March 2003 incident, killing Antwan Carter and wounding Ronnie Bolden, according to NBC Chicago.
Dugar was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison. For years, he maintained his innocence.
Still, his fate appeared to be sealed until what Safer described as a "stranger than fiction" plot twist that saw Dugar's twin brother, Karl Smith, admit to having carried out the murder in a confession that was first made in a letter to Dugar in 2013, nearly a decade after he was convicted.
Initially, the admission had little impact on Dugar’s case, with a judge ruling in 2018 that Smith’s confession was not credible and declining to offer his twin a new trial, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Smith had been denied an appeal himself as he was serving out a 99-year sentence for a home invasion that saw a child shot in the head. Prosecutors questioned the motives behind his confession, telling the judge that he only came forward after a court upheld his own conviction for attempted murder, the Chicago Tribune had reported at the time.
A lawyer with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions took Dugar's case back to court, however. And now, after Tuesday's ruling, he will have a second chance to prove his innocence.
Safer said he hoped the case, which he described as a "made-for-TV" tale, would not have to go to court again.
"We are hopeful that the (Cook County) state’s attorney will drop the case against Kevin and then do what they will, but drop the case against Kevin because he’s innocent," he said. "It’s clear that he’s innocent, but if they persist we will go to trial and we will vindicate him at trial."
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the meantime, Safer said Dugar was spending his time as a free man with his loved ones as he grapples with the reality of the time lost.
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CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People 2 or More Doses | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Jan 28 | 626,946 | 249,473,925 | 211,343,818 | ||
| Jan 27 | 643,725 | 249,267,851 (I don't know why) | 211,162,083 | 577,748 | 2,300 |
| Jan 26 | 962,958 | 251,518,114 | 210,850,212 | 596,859 | 2,288 |
| Jan 25 | 1,011,603 | 251,289,667 | 210,682,471 | 627,294 | 2,246 |
| Jan 24 | 1,201,186 | 250,964,433 | 210,459,963 | 692,359 | 2,166 |
| Jan 23 | 1,101,405 | 250,763,600 | 210,358,008 | 663,908 | 1,936 |
| Jan 22 | 1,002,322 | 250,568,431 | 210,229,586 | 686,715 | 1,939 |
| Jan 21 | 1,035,111 | 250,262,153 | 210,021,766 | 716,829 | 1,974 |
| Jan 20 | 1,094,988 | 250,028,635 | 209,842,610 | 726,870 | 1,843 |
| Jan 19 | 1,135,453 | 249,702,939 | 209,509,297 | 744,615 | 1,749 |
| Jan 18 | 1,158,537 | 249,393,487 | 209,312,770 | 755,095 | 1,669 |
| Jan 17 | No Data | 736,350 | 1,746 | ||
| Jan 16 | No Data | 771,131 | 1,851 | ||
| Jan 15 | 1,268,202 | 248,707,432 | 208,995,438 | 788,628 | 1,858 |
| Jan 14 | 1,286,773 | 248,338,448 | 208,791,862 | 798,335 | 1,784 |
| Jan 13 | 1,291,013 | 247,987,225 | 208,564,894 | 794,587 | 1,730 |
| Jan 12 | 1,234,672 | 247,695,845 | 208,182,657 | 782,765 | 1,729 |
| Jan 11 | 1,213,113 | 247,321,023 | 207,954,605 | 761,535 | 1,656 |
| Jan 10 | 1,307,445 | 247,051,363 | 207,796,335 | 750,996 | 1,633 |
| Jan 9 | 1,331,635 | 246,812,939 | 207,662,071 | 674,406 | 1,552 |
| Jan 8 | 1,286,783 | 246,447,823 | 207,452,448 | 680,330 | 1,544 |
| Jan 7 | 1,226,151 | 246,050,320 | 207,229,983 | 668,497 | 1,513 |
| Jan 6 | 1,164,127 | 245,653,518 | 207,016,514 | 614,552 | 1,350 |
| Jan 5 | 1,117,999 | 245,278,020 | 206,797,799 | 586,391 | 1,245 |
| Jan 4 | 1,093,005 | 244,947,293 | 206,581,659 | 554,328 | 1,238 |
| Jan 3 | No Data | 491,652 | 1,165 | ||
| Jan 2 | No Data | 438,082 | 1,174 | ||
| Jan 1 | No Data | 411,871 | 1,151 | ||
| Dec 31 | No Data | 391,098 | 1,135 | ||
| Dec 30 | 1,234,917 | 243,527,564 | 205,811,394 | 360,276 | 1,144 |
| Dec 29 | 1,042,911 | 243,182,423 | 205,638,307 | 316,277 | 1,100 |
| Dec 28 | 1,091,279 | 242,813,374 | 205,420,745 | 277,241 | 1,085 |
| Dec 27 | 1,034,442 | 242,433,620 | 205,196,973 | 240,408 | 1,096 |
| Dec 26 | No Data | 206,577 | 1,041 | ||
| Dec 25 | No Data | 196,511 | 1,053 | ||
| Feb 16, 2021 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 75.1% | 64.7% | 41.1% |
| % of Population 5+ | 79.9% | 67.7% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 84.9% | 72.4% | 44.3% |
| % of Population 18+ | 86.8% | 74.0% | 55.7% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.3% | 64.2% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Jan 25)
We had a great December, but January has been pretty terrible. We have 3-4 months to get some significant rain.
There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 4 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 124% | 134% | 149% | 158% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 110% | 121% | 138% | 156% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 101% | 112% | 127% | 145% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 117% | 128% | 135% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 114% | 129% | 148% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 121% | 135% | 160% | 158% |
Reservoirs are still low, but they are filling up a bit.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
First Nominee Is Joe Biden For Buying An Ice Cream Cone
He Took Time Off From the Ice Cream Scandal For This
On Thursday evening, CNN carried this commentary from Sen. Josh Hawley: “I think it sends the wrong signal to say that, ‘Well if a person is of a certain ethnic background, that we don't care what their record is, we don't care what their substantive beliefs are.’”
Somehow CNN managed to get through both the interview and the resulting article without mentioning the obvious: President Joe Biden didn’t say anything like the phrase that Hawley used. Neither did any other Democrat. President Biden only promised that he would nominate a Black woman. They do note that in his own announcement, Biden promised to select someone with "extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity."
It’s Hawley who doesn’t mention these factors, choosing instead to focus entirely on race and gender. The only conclusion that can be drawn from Sen. White Power’s statement is this: He doesn’t believe that a qualified Black woman exists. He certainly doesn’t seem to be alone, because Biden’s promise to add much-needed diversity to the Supreme Court is generating a furor among the ranks of those who can’t quite stop saying the quiet part out loud.
They Have to Be Carefully Taught
After about a week of widespread media outcry, a public charter elementary school in Georgia has finally removed a deeply offensive assignment from its curriculum. Fourth graders were prompted to “write a letter” to Andrew Jackson from the perspective of an “American settler” arguing in defense of “removing the Cherokee” to help the country “grow and prosper.” If you’re thinking: What the … ? You’re not alone! The assignment is asking young people to justify the systemic removal of Indigenous folks from their homes—genocide, in a word.
You Can Only Teach Them To Love Genocide If They Are Alive
By all accounts, Artemis Rayford was a happy, vibrant 12-year-old. He loved playing football and wearing his Tennessee Titans jersey. As a sixth-grader at Memphis, Tennessee’s Sherwood Middle School, Rayford had participated, just before the last year’s winter break, in a program his school coordinated with the Memphis Police Department—intended to discourage violence and gang activity. He and his fellow students learned about a new law passed in Jul. 2021 by the Tennessee legislature and signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee (the nominee). That law allows most people over the age of 21 in Tennessee to carry a gun, concealed or openly, without any permit.
Rayford thought the law made no sense, and described why in a letter he wrote to the governor. As reported by Lateshia Beachum, writing for the Washington Post, the letter said, among other things, “It is my opinion that this new law will be bad and people will be murdered.” It also stressed that anyone who bought a gun should know how to use it.
Rayford never found out whether Lee ever read or even received his letter. But he probably wasn’t thinking about that on Christmas morning when, as he was playing with his new Christmas toys, a stray bullet came from outside his family’s home, pierced his chest, and ended his life. According to his grandmother, interviewed for Memphis’ CBS affiliate, NewsChannel3, Rayford died in his mother’s arms, covered in blood.
Explaining later why he signed the law, Lee had brushed aside objections from law enforcement, saying, “It shouldn’t be hard for law-abiding Tennesseans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.” Lee also apparently ignored data that had shown a dramatic uptick throughout 2021 in gun-related homicides in the city of Memphis, with many of those deaths occurring to children.
Another Terrible Josh
QOP Senate Candidate Josh Mandel, a former state treasurer, has veered hard right in the primary, trafficking in election conspiracies and racist rhetoric to appeal to the Trump base — and Trump himself for a potential endorsement. Mandel has done much of his campaigning in evangelical churches.
“I’m pro-God, pro-gun, pro-Trump, and I will fight in Washington with the Constitution in one hand and the Bible in the other,” Mandel said.
“I do not believe in separation of church and state. There’s no such thing. The founders of this county, the Founding Fathers, they did not believe in the separation of church and state. When you read the United States Constitution, nowhere do you read about the separation of church and state. It does not exist,” he said, followed by an audible gasp from the audience. (Then He Should Be OK With Sharia Law.)
Rehearsing for Attacking the SCOTUS Nominee
Yet another woman of color nominated for a high-profile government job is facing a smear campaign from the right.
This time they’re going after Lisa Cook, a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board of governors.
“The attacks are racist, sexist and just plain dumb. But make no mistake: There’s a reason behind them that goes to the heart of the matter ― and that is, she’s good. That’s why she’s under attack,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago recently named Cook to its board of directors. (To be clear, President Joe Biden plays no role in choosing the boards of the regional Fed banks.) Cook served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama and as an adjunct professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She earned her doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in macroeconomics and international economics.
“This is not the place in this time of great peril for purely race-based appointments,” former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro told the right-wing Daily Caller. “Professor Cook is more qualified to coach an NFL team than manage what may be a looming collapse of our economy from a perch at the Fed. When that collapse comes, nobody in the financial world is going to say ‘Find Lisa Cook.’ Ultimately, this is not fair to Cook herself, as it sets her up for an epic fall.”
John H. Cochrane, an economist at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said Cook is qualified only “if the job is to bring the Administration and progressive supporters’ racial policies to the Fed.”
A senior Republican Senate aide also told The Daily Caller that “Cook is one of the least qualified nominees in the Fed’s history.”
I Would Put It In the Horror Section
He Only Missed It by 22,000
Don't Hold Your Breath. "Conflict of Interest" Is His Middle Name
Clarence Thomas, the hardline conservative supreme court justice, is facing calls for his recusal in the case over race-based affirmative action in college admissions that the court agreed to hear this week.
The case, which is being brought against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, is the latest potential conflict of interest involving Thomas and his wife Virginia Thomas. Ginni, as she is known, is a prominent rightwing activist who speaks out on a raft of issues that frequently come before the nation’s highest court.
A one-person conservative powerhouse, she set up her own lobbying company Liberty Consulting in 2010. By her own description, she has “battled for conservative principles in Washington” for over 35 years.
SFFA’s lawsuit seeking to strike down affirmative action has received the enthusiastic backing of the conservative National Association of Scholars. It filed an amicus brief in support of the suit, accusing Harvard admissions officials of being prejudiced against Asian students and stereotyping them as “uninteresting, uncreative and one-dimensional”.
Ginni Thomas sits on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars. Observers are concerned that her position with a group that has intervened in the affirmative action case could present appearances of conflict of interest.
And We Have Winners!!
Two teens charged with killing five recent immigrants from Senegal by setting fire to their house in Denver will continue to be tried as adults after a judge ruled this week that the trauma caused by the crime both locally and abroad required the possibility of a tough punishment.
The two teens are accused of starting the Aug. 5, 2020, fire out of revenge after the robbery of one of their cellphones, only realizing later that they targeted the wrong people, according to investigators.
Djibril and Adja Diol, their 22-month-old daughter Khadija, as well as Djibril Diol’s sister Hassan Diol and her infant daughter Hawa Baye died in the fire.
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Who, Who, Is Spreading Fake Poop? Owl Bet It's the Biologists
Settling into a new home can be tough for anyone. So scientists have come up with some tricks to make transplanted burrowing owls feel like they are not alone in their new digs, playing owl sounds and scattering fake poop.
The owls’ grassland homes are often prime real estate, and they’ve been losing ground to development in fast-growing regions like Silicon Valley and Southern California. Biologists have tried moving the owls to protected grasslands but the challenge has been getting the owls to accept their new homes.
Just dropping off the owls in prime habitat wasn’t enough, prior attempts showed. In a pilot program, scientists took pains to create the impression that owls already lived there so they'd stick around. And it worked.
“They like to be in a neighborhood, to live near other owls,” said Colleen Wisinski, a conservation biologist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which launched the experiment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The scientists played recordings of owl calls before and after the new arrivals were released at four locations in Southern California. Wisinski used a syringe to squirt around fake owl poop — in reality, white paint.
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I Have to Admit I Didn't Know Where Tigray is. It Is North Ethiopia.
Some of the nurses and doctors at the biggest hospital in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region are having to beg for food to feed themselves, one of the medics has told the BBC.
They have not been paid for eight months, forcing them to find other ways of supporting their families, he said.
The doctor's account comes as the UN reports that "severe hunger" was hitting ever more people in Tigray.
It says that 2.2 million people "are suffering an extreme lack of food".
Half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) survey found.
Maybe If We Had More Maps
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Get Ready for A Fox News Meltdown
The world's most famous female mouse is getting an outfit makeover.
Minnie Mouse will soon be changing into a smart blue pantsuit, swapping out of her traditional red polka dot dress while keeping her iconic bow.
The new look was designed by Stella McCartney to celebrate 30 years of Disneyland's Paris resort.
Pants Suit? Changing From Red to Blue? TucKKKer Will Throw a Fit.
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Bankers Cheating is the American Way
A US appeals court has overturned the convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders who were prosecuted for rigging interest rates.
In a legally significant judgment, US judges acquitted Matthew Connolly, 56, from New Jersey and Gavin Black, 52, from Twickenham, Middlesex.
The court ruled that their conduct was not against the rules.
It means that what has been prosecuted as interest rate rigging in the UK is not regarded as a crime in the US.
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that it was not against the rules to seek to influence the estimates a bank submits of the cost of borrowing cash.
That directly contradicts a key British appeal court ruling that was used to prosecute 24 traders, nine of whom were jailed between 2015 and 2019.
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If It' Is Entirely Fictional, Why Does It Mention Real People?
Netflix must answer a defamation case over its hit series The Queen's Gambit, a US judge has ruled.
The streaming giant is accused of misrepresenting "one of the most significant career achievements" of chess master Nona Gaprindashvili.
She has taken issue with a line in the drama where a character claims, falsely, that she "never faced men".
Lawyers said the error had "tarnished (her) personal and professional reputation" around the world.
The Queen's Gambit, starring Anya Taylor-Joy is the fictional story of the female chess prodigy, Beth Harmon. However, it features references to real life competitors including Gaprindashvili.
In the final episode, a commentator compares Harmon's achievements to Gaprindashvili's, but says the latter "never faced men" in competition.
Netflix said that "no reasonable viewer would have understood the line to convey a statement of fact", according to legal documents seen by PA, as it was an "entirely fictional work".
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Biden is Tanking! Biden is Tanking! --- What?
Not That Polls 3 Years Out Mean Anything
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Correlation is Not Causation
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A "Bomb Cyclone"? Really? It's a Big Storm
Amajor winter storm with the potential for hurricane-force winds and heavy snow is threatening to slam the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic this weekend. The quickly-intensifying winter storm could develop into a Nor'easter, and possibly a bomb cyclone, according to AccuWeather.
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When Richard Gere Kisses You, You Stay Kissed for 14 Years
It started with a kiss from Richard Gere to raise awareness about AIDS. Fifteen years later, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty has been officially cleared of obscenity charges by an Indian court.
Shetty, 46, was at an event in New Delhi to promote safe sex and the use of condoms in April 2007, when Gere hugged her and planted kisses on both of her cheeks.
Public displays of affection are considered taboo by some in India, and the kiss set off protests by radical Hindu groups at the time. Effigies of the pair were burned in the streets.
Gere, the star of “Pretty Woman” and other films, quickly apologized, saying that he wanted to show that kissing was safe and could not lead to the transmission of HIV.
Shetty was also quick to defend Gere, saying he was enacting a scene from his film “Shall We Dance” to entertain the audience.
An arrest warrant was nonetheless issued for Gere, although the obscenity charges were quickly thrown out by India’s Supreme Court, which dismissed them as “cheap publicity.”
But the case against Shetty had languished in the Indian court system until last week, when Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate Ketaki Chavan dismissed it as “groundless.”
The Wheels of Justice May Turn Slowly, But This Was Judicial Gridlock
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How Many Defendants Have Blamed Their Identical Twin?
A Chicago man who spent nearly two decades behind bars for murder over a deadly 2003 shooting has been released years after his identical twin confessed to the crime.
An emotional Kevin Dugar broke down into tears as he was released from the Cook County jail on Tuesday night and reunited with his loved ones as a free man, his lawyer Ronald Safer told NBC News on Friday.
"The judge granted his release pending trial on a signature bond and he walked out into the open air and breathed his first breaths as a free man in almost 20 years," Safer said. "It was gratifying to watch his tears roll down his cheeks and their cheeks before (their tears) froze on their faces because it was about 7 below."
Dugar had spent nearly 20 years in jail after he was convicted in the deadly 2003 shooting of a rival gang member.
A gunman had opened fire on three people in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood in the March 2003 incident, killing Antwan Carter and wounding Ronnie Bolden, according to NBC Chicago.
Dugar was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison. For years, he maintained his innocence.
Still, his fate appeared to be sealed until what Safer described as a "stranger than fiction" plot twist that saw Dugar's twin brother, Karl Smith, admit to having carried out the murder in a confession that was first made in a letter to Dugar in 2013, nearly a decade after he was convicted.
Initially, the admission had little impact on Dugar’s case, with a judge ruling in 2018 that Smith’s confession was not credible and declining to offer his twin a new trial, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Smith had been denied an appeal himself as he was serving out a 99-year sentence for a home invasion that saw a child shot in the head. Prosecutors questioned the motives behind his confession, telling the judge that he only came forward after a court upheld his own conviction for attempted murder, the Chicago Tribune had reported at the time.
A lawyer with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions took Dugar's case back to court, however. And now, after Tuesday's ruling, he will have a second chance to prove his innocence.
Safer said he hoped the case, which he described as a "made-for-TV" tale, would not have to go to court again.
"We are hopeful that the (Cook County) state’s attorney will drop the case against Kevin and then do what they will, but drop the case against Kevin because he’s innocent," he said. "It’s clear that he’s innocent, but if they persist we will go to trial and we will vindicate him at trial."
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the meantime, Safer said Dugar was spending his time as a free man with his loved ones as he grapples with the reality of the time lost.
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