Post by mhbruin on Feb 16, 2022 9:41:50 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 547 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 15)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Remember When the QOP Was the GOP? They Would Have Called These People "Traitors".
A small but politically vocal portion of the American electorate that admires Vladimir Putin's muscular policies is seeking to undermine US President Joe Biden's efforts to stand up to the Russian president.
Mr Biden has threatened to impose crushing economic sanctions on Moscow amid a build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Many, in loud whispers, say that Mr Putin plans an invasion.
But activists on the hard-right - and a few on the hard-left - of the US political spectrum say that it is Mr Biden who is "warmongering".
Arch-conservative voters who take this view are pressuring members of Congress to take a conciliatory tone towards Russia, tamp down rhetoric and refuse authorisation to send troops to the region. They are also working to elect Republican candidates who have publicly stated that they will not intervene in Ukraine.
They Didn't Know the Child Was There, But Somehow She was Fed For 2.5 Years. Hmmm.
A child who was reported missing in 2019 when she was 4 years old was found hidden a wooden staircase with her non-custodial mother, in a home officials had visited several times while investigating her disappearance, authorities said Tuesday.
The child, Paislee Joann Shultis, now 6, was reported missing on July 13, 2019, from Cayuga Heights, a village on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York. At the time, she was believed to have been abducted by her noncustodial parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis Jr., police said in a news release.
Paislee was found Monday when investigators spotted "a pair of tiny feet" in a secret space under wooden steps leading to a basement.
Throughout the 2.5-year investigation, authorities received several tips about the Saugerties-area home where the child was eventually located -- but each time, the residents denied knowing anything about the girl's whereabouts, the release said. The town of Saugerties is about 160 miles east of Cayuga Heights.
"Each time, we were met with resistance from the occupants of the residence. We were told that the child was not there, that we were only harassing the family," Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra told HLN in an interview on Tuesday.
On several occasions, investigators were allowed into the home without a warrant, but they were given "limited access" by Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultis Sr., the release added.
That changed Monday when police received information the child was being hidden and got a search warrant for the home. Police executed the warrant a little after 8 p.m., the release said. The homeowner denied knowing the girl's whereabouts, saying he had not seen her since she was reported missing in 2019, the release added.
Police said the secret location underneath the stairs to the basement appeared to have been built to hide the girl.
"The child and her abductor, Kimberly Cooper were found hiding in the dark and wet enclosure," the police release said. Authorities believe Cooper and the child had been staying at the home since they disappeared in 2019, Sinagra said, adding the staircase appeared to have been built to hide them both.
Police arrested the child's noncustodial parents as well as Shultis Sr., the release said.
Before she was released to her legal guardian, detectives drove the girl to police headquarters, in part so medics could examine her. As they drove, she saw a McDonald's and recalled having some a long time ago, the chief said.
"So, the detectives turned the car around and went to the drive-through at McDonald's, picked her up a Happy Meal, and brought her back to headquarters. And she was fine after that," the chief added.
How Do You Get An Insurrectionist Off Your Porch? You Pay Him for the Pizza.
A former Pennsylvania insurance salesman who participated in the US Capitol attack was sentenced Tuesday to six months' probation after revealing he had lost his job and now works as a part-time pizza delivery driver.
Edward McAlanis, from Lancaster County, says he was fired for his participation in the January 6, 2021, riot. The revelation came to light during McAlanis' sentencing hearing Tuesday. He previously had pleaded guilty to one charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the US Capitol.
His sentence, handed down by Judge Dabney Friedrich, was six months' probation, $500 in restitution and 60 hours of community service. Three other charges brought against him were dropped in exchange for the plea.
He Kills Their Son. Then He Sues Them.
Though acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the incident, George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Black teen carrying Skittles and an iced tea on his way back from a store at the time.
Zimmerman went on to rack up aggravated assault allegations against his girlfriend, though they didn’t net charges because she walked back her claims in 2015, according to CNN.
Then Zimmerman decided to launch a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Martin's parents, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, and others linked to his murder case. And with that, a Florida judge finally decided enough is enough. Tallahassee Judge John Cooper dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety, writing in an order filed more than two weeks ago that Zimmerman failed to show “any fraudulent representation,” the Associated Press reported on Monday.
How To Get Away With Murder and Profit From It
When former Ferguson, Missouri, cop Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen:
He resigned from his position three months after shooting Brown in August 2014 with a reported $1 million in donations, according to the Daily Mail. An unnamed supporter of the former officer told the newspaper she knew of at least $500,000 from two donation funds created for Wilson and that those figures were a “conservative estimate.”
I Don't Think We Will Be Naming Schools and Streets After Jonathan Turley.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would be invoking the powers granted to him under the country’s Emergencies Act to try and bring an end to the protests, saying, "The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety. We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue."
On Tuesday, during one of the hate orgies of make-believe Fox News calls a show, “legal analyst” Jonathan Turley was brought on to speak about Trudeau’s announcement. It was … something to hear.
Turley began by saying the move to use emergency powers was “quite excessive.” Then, without a smirk, without even a smidgen of self-conscious reflection on what a true sociopath he sounds like, Jonathan Turley said this: "By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the civil rights movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King."
They did.
For one, one of the most famous essays written in American history was written in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail on April 16, 1963—by Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, Martin Luther King Jr. was in jail for “demonstrating without a permit.” He had been in jail for four days before he wrote his essay. Unlike the Canadian trucker convoy, King’s law-breaking had to do with a racist judge, in a racist state, saying that Black people couldn’t hold a protest.
If Jonathan Turley wants to speak to the history of “excessive” use and abuse of state powers, Turley need only look to the at least 28 other times Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed. Blackhistory.com has some of America’s lowlights:
January 26, 1956 -- He was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama as part of a “Get Tough” campaign to intimidate the bus boycotters. Four days later, on January 30, his home was bombed.
March 22, 1956 -- King, Rosa Parks and more than 100 others were arrested on charges of organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott in protest of Parks' treatment.
September 3, 1958 -- While attempting to attend the arraignment of a man accused of assaulting Abernathy, King is arrested outside Montgomery’s Recorder’s Court and charged with loitering. He is released a short time later on $100 bond.
October 19, 1960 -- He was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia during a sit-in while waiting to be served at a restaurant. He was sentenced to four months in jail, but after intervention by then presidential candidate John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, he was released.
July 27, 1962 -- He was arrested again and jailed for holding a prayer vigil in Albany, Georgia.
February 2, 1965 -- He was arrested in Selma, Alabama during a voting rights demonstration, but the demonstrations continued leading to demonstrators being beaten at the Pettus Bridge by state highway patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies.
They Arrested MLK. How Will the Police React to This?
Maybe They Should Just Change Their Name to "The Grope and Grift Party".
On Tuesday, reports came out of Michigan that the home of Republican Lee Chatfield’s former chief of staff was searched by state police. Rob Minard served under Chatfield while the latter was speaker of the Michigan House. Minard’s wife, Anne Minard, was an adviser and the director of external affairs during that time. She was also the treasurer for four of Chatfield’s political action committees. State police told reporters that this search was a part of an "ongoing investigation.”
The Detroit News reports that Chatfield’s position at the top of the Michigan GOP developed out of his prolificacy as a fundraiser in the Wolverine State legislature. The large amounts of money Chatfield moved around seem to be the subject of the investigation that led to Tuesday’s raid. “Political accounts tied to Chatfield directed at least $900,000 in campaign and nonprofit funds to family members, legislative staffers, and organizations they led for wages and consulting fees.”
But it probably gets worse; anyone following Chatfield’s recent media coverage will know that this speculation about his participation in financial hokey pokey is the least of his problems.
In January, Bridge Michigan released an explosive story with accusations from Chatfield’s sister-in-law that he had been sexually assaulting her since she was 15 years old and Chatfield was 21. Rebekah Chatfield filed a complaint against Lee, a pastor’s son and big-time anti-LGBTQ Christian conservative. Rebekah alleges that Lee Chatfield groomed her as a student at Northern Michigan Christian Academy, a school where Chatfield taught that was affiliated with his father’s church.
“He destroyed me, and has controlled my life since I was 15-16, the past 10-11 years,” she said. “And I know the only way to get justice for this is to come forward and to file a criminal (complaint) against him.”
Deadline Detroit added that Rebekah Chatfield’s lawyers have mentioned Lee as having multiple affairs on top of the sexual assaults he perpetrated.
Another "Good Guy" With a Gun. Maybe He Can Sue the Family of the Victim. Texas' Open Carry Law Has Another Victim.
At around 9:45pm in Valentine’s Day, 41-year-old Tony D Earls was performing a transaction on a drive-thru ATM at a Chase branch in the Gulfgate part of southeast Houston. There, a man walked up to Earls’s car and robbed him at gunpoint. It’s unknown whether the robber actually took money from Earls, but it was then that Earls decided to open fire at both the robber, who was fleeing by foot, and the vehicle the robber was supposedly going to ride in. Come to think of it, the pickup that was shot at had no connections with the robber whatsoever, and 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was struck by gunshots whilst en route to dinner at Spanky’s Pizza with her family. Given that Arlene was watching cartoons whilst wearing headphones, she was unable to hear any warnings, much less the gunshots that struck the back window of the pickup.
"She was the only one who didn't get down because she didn't hear me," [Armando] Alvarez [Arlene’s father] said. "I thought she got down because I said, 'Get down,' but I saw her go down too fast."
“I knew what had happened. I saw blood. I saw the bullet in the window already. I pulled over and I tried to turn around and by the time I turned around, he [the shooter] was gone. I was going to chase him but my other baby son was still with us. My first instinct was to grab Arlene,” [Armando] said.
Arlene was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital in critical condition. Arlene was on life support until she passed away this afternoon.
Has She Forgotten Who Was President in 2020? I Wish I Could.
I Don't Want to See Anything That Comes That Comes Out of His Bedroom
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and attorney for Donald Trump, declared on Tuesday night that he has a stash of secret evidence against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
And it’s in his bedroom.
In an interview on the right-wing Newsmax network, Giuliani said he possessed about 1,000 pieces of evidence that no one has seen yet.
“I happen to have it in my bedroom, or my den, actually,” he declared. “I’ve had it there for years.”
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Here's a Win, Win, Win
The German firm behind one of the first Covid vaccines has announced plans to start production in Africa.
BioNTech, which produced the first MRNA jab, has developed a "laboratory in a container", which could be shipped to several countries.
Scientists and workers would then produce tens of millions of doses a year, with the aim of redressing big disparities in access to vaccines.
Supplies have improved, but only 11% of Africa's population are fully jabbed.
By continent that is the lowest rate in the world, and the World Health Organization says Africa is still struggling to expand the rollout.
The presidents of Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal have expressed interest in the German project and they joined the heads of the WHO and African Union at BioNTech's site in Marburg to discuss the container lab - and its challenges.
The "BioNTainer" is a rather bland looking modular structure, but scientists here say two of these beige, two-storey containers could churn out up to 50 million doses of vaccine a year.
BioNTech intends to provide the containers, raw materials and know-how at no cost.
In return the host country would provide the land and, ensure that local infrastructure such as water and electricity is sufficient and reliable, and find people to work in the container.
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How About Another Win, Win, Win. Let's Hope.
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It's Whack-A-Virus. Cases Drop Here and Surge Somewhere Else
Hong Kong's healthcare system has been overwhelmed by a huge surge in Covid-19 cases, with infected patients being treated outside crowded hospitals.
The government has admitted it is struggling to contain the fifth wave of infections, fuelled by Omicron. But it has ruled out a city-wide lockdown.
A record 4,285 new cases were reported on Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the local leaders to take "all necessary measures", in a rare intervention.
The comments may signal tighter controls in China's special administrative region, which pursues a zero Covid policy - but without the strict mass testing and lockdowns seen in mainland China.
More than 10,000 people are waiting to be admitted to hospitals, as experts warn cases could surge to 28,000 daily. Nine people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, including a three-year old girl, authorities say.
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They Did This Without Ivermectin. They Used Science.
A US patient is believed to be the third person in the world, and first woman, to be cured of HIV.
The patient was being treated for leukaemia when she received a stem cell transplant from someone with natural resistance to the Aids-causing virus.
The woman has now been free of the virus for 14 months.
But experts say the transplant method used, involving umbilical cord blood, is too risky to be suitable for most people with HIV.
The patient's case was presented at a medical conference in Denver on Tuesday and is the first time that this method is known to have been used as a functional cure for HIV.
The patient received a transplant of umbilical cord blood as part of her cancer treatment and has since not needed to take the antiretroviral therapy required to treat HIV.
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People Keep Shopping and Business Keep Opening. More Winning.
Fueled by pay gains, solid hiring and enhanced savings, Americans sharply ramped up their spending at retail stores last month in a sign that many consumers remain unfazed by rising inflation.
Retail sales jumped 3.8% from December to January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a much bigger increase than economists had expected. Though inflation helped boost that figure, most of January’s gain reflected more purchases, not higher prices.
Last month’s increase was the largest since last March, when most households received a final federal stimulus check of $1,400. The fact that consumer spending remains brisk even after government stimulus has faded — enhanced unemployment aid ended in September — suggests that Americans’ pay is rising enough to drive a healthy pace of spending and economic growth.
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Why Covid-19 vaccines are a freaking miracle
But at least 55% of the people inhabiting this planet have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. In affluent parts of the world, anybody who believes in the protective powers of vaccines has had the opportunity to be vaccinated for months now. (The sole exception: children under the age of 5, for whom the vaccines are not yet authorized.) And it isn’t just wealthy countries. Colombia, Morocco, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Mongolia, and Tonga have fully vaccinated about the same proportion of their populations — roughly 64% — as has the United States.
What has been accomplished in the 25 months since Chinese scientists first shared the genetic sequence of the newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 virus has defied the predictions of the most optimistic prognosticators.
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You Wouldn't Know It From the News, But People LOVE Mandates
Just Not THESE People
While truck drivers protest COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, American truckers are following suit with their own cross-country convoy heading to Washington, D.C., with a message: "Government has forgotten its place."
The American truckers' protest dubbed the "People's Convoy" is set to depart in late February heading toward the nation's Capitol to protest government COVID-19 mandates they believe are unconstitutional. The convoy is set to have an estimated 1,000 U.S. truck drivers participate.
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A Vagus Hint of a Cause of Long COVID
The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve and is the longest and most complex of all of them. It runs from the brain throughout the entirety of the face and chest, reaching the abdomen. The vagus nerve serves as the main connection between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, sending back information about the state of the inner organs.
The study suggests that SARS-CoV-2-mediated vagus nerve dysfunction (VND) could be responsible for many of the symptoms of long COVID, including persistent voice problems, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, abnormally high heart rate (tachycardia), low blood pressure and digestive issues.
Out of the 348 patients taking part in the study, two-thirds (228) had at least one symptom of VND among their long COVID symptoms. After the initial assessments were completed, further evaluations were conducted on a test group of 22 patients, who all had VND symptoms. Of the 22 subjects analyzed, 20 were women with a median age of 44. The symptoms had been present in the participants for an average of 14 months.
There's a lot more information here
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Guess Who Came to Dinner. They Don't Have to Guess
President Joe Biden is ordering the release of Trump White House visitor logs to the House committee investigating the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, once more rejecting former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
The committee has sought a trove of data from the National Archives, including presidential records that Trump had fought to keep private. The records being released to Congress are visitor logs showing appointment information for individuals who were allowed to enter the White House on the the day of the insurrection.
In a letter sent Monday to the National Archives, White House counsel Dana Remus said Biden had considered Trump’s claim that because he was president at the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the records should remain private, but decided that it was “not in the best interest of the United States” to do so.
She also noted that as a matter of policy, the Biden administration “voluntarily discloses such visitor logs on a monthly basis,” as did the Obama administration, and that the majority of the entries over which Trump asserted the claim would be publicly released under the current policy.
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It's Not All Winning. 1 Million Deaths
The United States has recorded more than 1 million “excess deaths” since the start of the pandemic, government mortality statistics show, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis that has entered its third year.
The excess-deaths figure surpassed the milestone last week, reaching 1,023,916, according to Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The center updates its estimate weekly.
Although the vast majority of the excess deaths are due to the virus, the CDC mortality records also expose swollen numbers of deaths from heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery.
Remember When You Didn't Know What "Excess Deaths" Means?
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QOP: Inflation Is Biden's Fault
Inflation in the United Kingdom has risen at the fastest rate in almost 30 years as increased costs for energy, housing and transportation squeezed household budgets.
The consumer price index ticked up to 5.5% in the 12 months through January and was up from 5.4% the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The latest figure is the highest since March 1992, when inflation reached 7.2%.
By comparison, U.S. consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month — the highest rate in 40 years — while they increased to a record 5.1% in the 19 countries that use the euro.
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New Orleans Is 3 Feet Above Sea Level
Sea levels along United States coastlines are projected to rise between 10 and 12 inches on average by 2050, according to an interagency report published Tuesday. The forecasted increase over the next 30 years could amount to the same rise seen over the last 100 years.
The Gulf Coast will likely see the biggest change, with sea levels expected to rise between 14 and 18 inches. The East Coast will also see levels 10 to 14 inches higher. On the other side of the country, the West Coast has the lowest predicted rise: between 4 and 8 inches.
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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 | |
| Feb 16 | |||||
| Feb 15 | 544,184 | 252,277,758 | 214,104,148 | ||
| Feb 14 | 546,667 | 252,144,326 | 213,962,983 | 146,921 | 2,208 |
| Feb 13 | 555,669 | 252,054,215 | 213,869,678 | 161,197 | 2,196 |
| Feb 12 | 486,374 | 251,926,344 | 213,734,419 | 168,881 | 2,197 |
| Feb 11 | 568,820 | 251,755,851 | 213,563,173 | 175,395 | 2,241 |
| Feb 10 | 580,896 | 251,655,172 | 213,430,434 | 190,401 | 2,305 |
| Feb 9 | 591,786 | 251,467,303 | 213,246,140 | 215,418 | 2,313 |
| Feb 8 | 602,606 | 251,312,470 | 213,061,117 | 230,602 | 2,303 |
| Feb 7 | 611,742 | 251,176,199 | 212,920,278 | 247,319 | 2,404 |
| Feb 6 | 627,161 | 251,070,439 | 212,806,521 | 291,471 | 2,294 |
| Feb 5 | 655,591 | 250,915,858 | 212,657,682 | 298,890 | 2,331 |
| Feb 4 | 680,135 | 250,731,754 | 212,481,465 | 313,117 | 2,404 |
| Feb 3 | 719,986 | 250,593,665 | 212,336,183 | 343,563 | 2,371 |
| Feb 2 | 494,092 | 250,378,993 | 212,130,684 | 378,015 | 2,403 |
| Feb 1 | 510,477 | 250,184,240 | 211,954,555 | 415,552 | 2,369 |
| Jan 31 | 575,732 | 250,029,773 | 211,818,885 | 446,355 | 2,287 |
| Jan 30 | 603,030 | 249,892,470 | 211,695,131 | 497,296 | 2,234 |
| Jan 29 | 595,871 | 249,695,301 | 211,533,229 | 522,626 | 2,261 |
| Jan 28 | 626,946 | 249,473,925 | 211,343,818 | 543,016 | 2,265 |
| 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 |
| 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 | 76.0% | 64.5% | 43.0% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.8% | 68.6% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.7% | 73.0% | 44.4% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.5% | 74.6% | 46.3% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.6% | 65.6% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Feb 15)
January had NO rain or snow. February looks the same.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 7 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 99% (59%) | 105% (59% of average for full season) | 113% | 124% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 86% (51%) | 92% (51%) | 99% | 110% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 79% (46%) | 84% (46%) | 91% | 101% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 68% (53%) | 80% (58%) | 89% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 75% (57%) | 80% (57%) | 89% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 74% (54%) | 81% (57%) | 92% | 158% |
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Remember When the QOP Was the GOP? They Would Have Called These People "Traitors".
A small but politically vocal portion of the American electorate that admires Vladimir Putin's muscular policies is seeking to undermine US President Joe Biden's efforts to stand up to the Russian president.
Mr Biden has threatened to impose crushing economic sanctions on Moscow amid a build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Many, in loud whispers, say that Mr Putin plans an invasion.
But activists on the hard-right - and a few on the hard-left - of the US political spectrum say that it is Mr Biden who is "warmongering".
Arch-conservative voters who take this view are pressuring members of Congress to take a conciliatory tone towards Russia, tamp down rhetoric and refuse authorisation to send troops to the region. They are also working to elect Republican candidates who have publicly stated that they will not intervene in Ukraine.
They Didn't Know the Child Was There, But Somehow She was Fed For 2.5 Years. Hmmm.
A child who was reported missing in 2019 when she was 4 years old was found hidden a wooden staircase with her non-custodial mother, in a home officials had visited several times while investigating her disappearance, authorities said Tuesday.
The child, Paislee Joann Shultis, now 6, was reported missing on July 13, 2019, from Cayuga Heights, a village on the outskirts of Ithaca, New York. At the time, she was believed to have been abducted by her noncustodial parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Shultis Jr., police said in a news release.
Paislee was found Monday when investigators spotted "a pair of tiny feet" in a secret space under wooden steps leading to a basement.
Throughout the 2.5-year investigation, authorities received several tips about the Saugerties-area home where the child was eventually located -- but each time, the residents denied knowing anything about the girl's whereabouts, the release said. The town of Saugerties is about 160 miles east of Cayuga Heights.
"Each time, we were met with resistance from the occupants of the residence. We were told that the child was not there, that we were only harassing the family," Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra told HLN in an interview on Tuesday.
On several occasions, investigators were allowed into the home without a warrant, but they were given "limited access" by Kirk Shultis Jr. and Kirk Shultis Sr., the release added.
That changed Monday when police received information the child was being hidden and got a search warrant for the home. Police executed the warrant a little after 8 p.m., the release said. The homeowner denied knowing the girl's whereabouts, saying he had not seen her since she was reported missing in 2019, the release added.
Police said the secret location underneath the stairs to the basement appeared to have been built to hide the girl.
"The child and her abductor, Kimberly Cooper were found hiding in the dark and wet enclosure," the police release said. Authorities believe Cooper and the child had been staying at the home since they disappeared in 2019, Sinagra said, adding the staircase appeared to have been built to hide them both.
Police arrested the child's noncustodial parents as well as Shultis Sr., the release said.
Before she was released to her legal guardian, detectives drove the girl to police headquarters, in part so medics could examine her. As they drove, she saw a McDonald's and recalled having some a long time ago, the chief said.
"So, the detectives turned the car around and went to the drive-through at McDonald's, picked her up a Happy Meal, and brought her back to headquarters. And she was fine after that," the chief added.
How Do You Get An Insurrectionist Off Your Porch? You Pay Him for the Pizza.
A former Pennsylvania insurance salesman who participated in the US Capitol attack was sentenced Tuesday to six months' probation after revealing he had lost his job and now works as a part-time pizza delivery driver.
Edward McAlanis, from Lancaster County, says he was fired for his participation in the January 6, 2021, riot. The revelation came to light during McAlanis' sentencing hearing Tuesday. He previously had pleaded guilty to one charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the US Capitol.
His sentence, handed down by Judge Dabney Friedrich, was six months' probation, $500 in restitution and 60 hours of community service. Three other charges brought against him were dropped in exchange for the plea.
He Kills Their Son. Then He Sues Them.
Though acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the incident, George Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Black teen carrying Skittles and an iced tea on his way back from a store at the time.
Zimmerman went on to rack up aggravated assault allegations against his girlfriend, though they didn’t net charges because she walked back her claims in 2015, according to CNN.
Then Zimmerman decided to launch a $100 million defamation lawsuit against Martin's parents, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, and others linked to his murder case. And with that, a Florida judge finally decided enough is enough. Tallahassee Judge John Cooper dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety, writing in an order filed more than two weeks ago that Zimmerman failed to show “any fraudulent representation,” the Associated Press reported on Monday.
How To Get Away With Murder and Profit From It
When former Ferguson, Missouri, cop Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen:
He resigned from his position three months after shooting Brown in August 2014 with a reported $1 million in donations, according to the Daily Mail. An unnamed supporter of the former officer told the newspaper she knew of at least $500,000 from two donation funds created for Wilson and that those figures were a “conservative estimate.”
I Don't Think We Will Be Naming Schools and Streets After Jonathan Turley.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would be invoking the powers granted to him under the country’s Emergencies Act to try and bring an end to the protests, saying, "The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety. We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue."
On Tuesday, during one of the hate orgies of make-believe Fox News calls a show, “legal analyst” Jonathan Turley was brought on to speak about Trudeau’s announcement. It was … something to hear.
Turley began by saying the move to use emergency powers was “quite excessive.” Then, without a smirk, without even a smidgen of self-conscious reflection on what a true sociopath he sounds like, Jonathan Turley said this: "By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the civil rights movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King."
They did.
For one, one of the most famous essays written in American history was written in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail on April 16, 1963—by Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, Martin Luther King Jr. was in jail for “demonstrating without a permit.” He had been in jail for four days before he wrote his essay. Unlike the Canadian trucker convoy, King’s law-breaking had to do with a racist judge, in a racist state, saying that Black people couldn’t hold a protest.
If Jonathan Turley wants to speak to the history of “excessive” use and abuse of state powers, Turley need only look to the at least 28 other times Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed. Blackhistory.com has some of America’s lowlights:
January 26, 1956 -- He was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama as part of a “Get Tough” campaign to intimidate the bus boycotters. Four days later, on January 30, his home was bombed.
March 22, 1956 -- King, Rosa Parks and more than 100 others were arrested on charges of organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott in protest of Parks' treatment.
September 3, 1958 -- While attempting to attend the arraignment of a man accused of assaulting Abernathy, King is arrested outside Montgomery’s Recorder’s Court and charged with loitering. He is released a short time later on $100 bond.
October 19, 1960 -- He was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia during a sit-in while waiting to be served at a restaurant. He was sentenced to four months in jail, but after intervention by then presidential candidate John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, he was released.
July 27, 1962 -- He was arrested again and jailed for holding a prayer vigil in Albany, Georgia.
February 2, 1965 -- He was arrested in Selma, Alabama during a voting rights demonstration, but the demonstrations continued leading to demonstrators being beaten at the Pettus Bridge by state highway patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies.
They Arrested MLK. How Will the Police React to This?
Maybe They Should Just Change Their Name to "The Grope and Grift Party".
On Tuesday, reports came out of Michigan that the home of Republican Lee Chatfield’s former chief of staff was searched by state police. Rob Minard served under Chatfield while the latter was speaker of the Michigan House. Minard’s wife, Anne Minard, was an adviser and the director of external affairs during that time. She was also the treasurer for four of Chatfield’s political action committees. State police told reporters that this search was a part of an "ongoing investigation.”
The Detroit News reports that Chatfield’s position at the top of the Michigan GOP developed out of his prolificacy as a fundraiser in the Wolverine State legislature. The large amounts of money Chatfield moved around seem to be the subject of the investigation that led to Tuesday’s raid. “Political accounts tied to Chatfield directed at least $900,000 in campaign and nonprofit funds to family members, legislative staffers, and organizations they led for wages and consulting fees.”
But it probably gets worse; anyone following Chatfield’s recent media coverage will know that this speculation about his participation in financial hokey pokey is the least of his problems.
In January, Bridge Michigan released an explosive story with accusations from Chatfield’s sister-in-law that he had been sexually assaulting her since she was 15 years old and Chatfield was 21. Rebekah Chatfield filed a complaint against Lee, a pastor’s son and big-time anti-LGBTQ Christian conservative. Rebekah alleges that Lee Chatfield groomed her as a student at Northern Michigan Christian Academy, a school where Chatfield taught that was affiliated with his father’s church.
“He destroyed me, and has controlled my life since I was 15-16, the past 10-11 years,” she said. “And I know the only way to get justice for this is to come forward and to file a criminal (complaint) against him.”
Deadline Detroit added that Rebekah Chatfield’s lawyers have mentioned Lee as having multiple affairs on top of the sexual assaults he perpetrated.
Another "Good Guy" With a Gun. Maybe He Can Sue the Family of the Victim. Texas' Open Carry Law Has Another Victim.
At around 9:45pm in Valentine’s Day, 41-year-old Tony D Earls was performing a transaction on a drive-thru ATM at a Chase branch in the Gulfgate part of southeast Houston. There, a man walked up to Earls’s car and robbed him at gunpoint. It’s unknown whether the robber actually took money from Earls, but it was then that Earls decided to open fire at both the robber, who was fleeing by foot, and the vehicle the robber was supposedly going to ride in. Come to think of it, the pickup that was shot at had no connections with the robber whatsoever, and 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was struck by gunshots whilst en route to dinner at Spanky’s Pizza with her family. Given that Arlene was watching cartoons whilst wearing headphones, she was unable to hear any warnings, much less the gunshots that struck the back window of the pickup.
"She was the only one who didn't get down because she didn't hear me," [Armando] Alvarez [Arlene’s father] said. "I thought she got down because I said, 'Get down,' but I saw her go down too fast."
“I knew what had happened. I saw blood. I saw the bullet in the window already. I pulled over and I tried to turn around and by the time I turned around, he [the shooter] was gone. I was going to chase him but my other baby son was still with us. My first instinct was to grab Arlene,” [Armando] said.
Arlene was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital in critical condition. Arlene was on life support until she passed away this afternoon.
Has She Forgotten Who Was President in 2020? I Wish I Could.
I Don't Want to See Anything That Comes That Comes Out of His Bedroom
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and attorney for Donald Trump, declared on Tuesday night that he has a stash of secret evidence against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
And it’s in his bedroom.
In an interview on the right-wing Newsmax network, Giuliani said he possessed about 1,000 pieces of evidence that no one has seen yet.
“I happen to have it in my bedroom, or my den, actually,” he declared. “I’ve had it there for years.”
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Here's a Win, Win, Win
The German firm behind one of the first Covid vaccines has announced plans to start production in Africa.
BioNTech, which produced the first MRNA jab, has developed a "laboratory in a container", which could be shipped to several countries.
Scientists and workers would then produce tens of millions of doses a year, with the aim of redressing big disparities in access to vaccines.
Supplies have improved, but only 11% of Africa's population are fully jabbed.
By continent that is the lowest rate in the world, and the World Health Organization says Africa is still struggling to expand the rollout.
The presidents of Rwanda, Ghana and Senegal have expressed interest in the German project and they joined the heads of the WHO and African Union at BioNTech's site in Marburg to discuss the container lab - and its challenges.
The "BioNTainer" is a rather bland looking modular structure, but scientists here say two of these beige, two-storey containers could churn out up to 50 million doses of vaccine a year.
BioNTech intends to provide the containers, raw materials and know-how at no cost.
In return the host country would provide the land and, ensure that local infrastructure such as water and electricity is sufficient and reliable, and find people to work in the container.
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How About Another Win, Win, Win. Let's Hope.
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It's Whack-A-Virus. Cases Drop Here and Surge Somewhere Else
Hong Kong's healthcare system has been overwhelmed by a huge surge in Covid-19 cases, with infected patients being treated outside crowded hospitals.
The government has admitted it is struggling to contain the fifth wave of infections, fuelled by Omicron. But it has ruled out a city-wide lockdown.
A record 4,285 new cases were reported on Wednesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the local leaders to take "all necessary measures", in a rare intervention.
The comments may signal tighter controls in China's special administrative region, which pursues a zero Covid policy - but without the strict mass testing and lockdowns seen in mainland China.
More than 10,000 people are waiting to be admitted to hospitals, as experts warn cases could surge to 28,000 daily. Nine people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, including a three-year old girl, authorities say.
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They Did This Without Ivermectin. They Used Science.
A US patient is believed to be the third person in the world, and first woman, to be cured of HIV.
The patient was being treated for leukaemia when she received a stem cell transplant from someone with natural resistance to the Aids-causing virus.
The woman has now been free of the virus for 14 months.
But experts say the transplant method used, involving umbilical cord blood, is too risky to be suitable for most people with HIV.
The patient's case was presented at a medical conference in Denver on Tuesday and is the first time that this method is known to have been used as a functional cure for HIV.
The patient received a transplant of umbilical cord blood as part of her cancer treatment and has since not needed to take the antiretroviral therapy required to treat HIV.
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People Keep Shopping and Business Keep Opening. More Winning.
Fueled by pay gains, solid hiring and enhanced savings, Americans sharply ramped up their spending at retail stores last month in a sign that many consumers remain unfazed by rising inflation.
Retail sales jumped 3.8% from December to January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a much bigger increase than economists had expected. Though inflation helped boost that figure, most of January’s gain reflected more purchases, not higher prices.
Last month’s increase was the largest since last March, when most households received a final federal stimulus check of $1,400. The fact that consumer spending remains brisk even after government stimulus has faded — enhanced unemployment aid ended in September — suggests that Americans’ pay is rising enough to drive a healthy pace of spending and economic growth.
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Why Covid-19 vaccines are a freaking miracle
But at least 55% of the people inhabiting this planet have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. In affluent parts of the world, anybody who believes in the protective powers of vaccines has had the opportunity to be vaccinated for months now. (The sole exception: children under the age of 5, for whom the vaccines are not yet authorized.) And it isn’t just wealthy countries. Colombia, Morocco, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Mongolia, and Tonga have fully vaccinated about the same proportion of their populations — roughly 64% — as has the United States.
What has been accomplished in the 25 months since Chinese scientists first shared the genetic sequence of the newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 virus has defied the predictions of the most optimistic prognosticators.
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You Wouldn't Know It From the News, But People LOVE Mandates
Just Not THESE People
While truck drivers protest COVID-19 restrictions in Canada, American truckers are following suit with their own cross-country convoy heading to Washington, D.C., with a message: "Government has forgotten its place."
The American truckers' protest dubbed the "People's Convoy" is set to depart in late February heading toward the nation's Capitol to protest government COVID-19 mandates they believe are unconstitutional. The convoy is set to have an estimated 1,000 U.S. truck drivers participate.
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A Vagus Hint of a Cause of Long COVID
The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve and is the longest and most complex of all of them. It runs from the brain throughout the entirety of the face and chest, reaching the abdomen. The vagus nerve serves as the main connection between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, sending back information about the state of the inner organs.
The study suggests that SARS-CoV-2-mediated vagus nerve dysfunction (VND) could be responsible for many of the symptoms of long COVID, including persistent voice problems, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, abnormally high heart rate (tachycardia), low blood pressure and digestive issues.
Out of the 348 patients taking part in the study, two-thirds (228) had at least one symptom of VND among their long COVID symptoms. After the initial assessments were completed, further evaluations were conducted on a test group of 22 patients, who all had VND symptoms. Of the 22 subjects analyzed, 20 were women with a median age of 44. The symptoms had been present in the participants for an average of 14 months.
There's a lot more information here
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Guess Who Came to Dinner. They Don't Have to Guess
President Joe Biden is ordering the release of Trump White House visitor logs to the House committee investigating the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, once more rejecting former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege.
The committee has sought a trove of data from the National Archives, including presidential records that Trump had fought to keep private. The records being released to Congress are visitor logs showing appointment information for individuals who were allowed to enter the White House on the the day of the insurrection.
In a letter sent Monday to the National Archives, White House counsel Dana Remus said Biden had considered Trump’s claim that because he was president at the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the records should remain private, but decided that it was “not in the best interest of the United States” to do so.
She also noted that as a matter of policy, the Biden administration “voluntarily discloses such visitor logs on a monthly basis,” as did the Obama administration, and that the majority of the entries over which Trump asserted the claim would be publicly released under the current policy.
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It's Not All Winning. 1 Million Deaths
The United States has recorded more than 1 million “excess deaths” since the start of the pandemic, government mortality statistics show, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis that has entered its third year.
The excess-deaths figure surpassed the milestone last week, reaching 1,023,916, according to Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The center updates its estimate weekly.
Although the vast majority of the excess deaths are due to the virus, the CDC mortality records also expose swollen numbers of deaths from heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery.
Remember When You Didn't Know What "Excess Deaths" Means?
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QOP: Inflation Is Biden's Fault
Inflation in the United Kingdom has risen at the fastest rate in almost 30 years as increased costs for energy, housing and transportation squeezed household budgets.
The consumer price index ticked up to 5.5% in the 12 months through January and was up from 5.4% the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The latest figure is the highest since March 1992, when inflation reached 7.2%.
By comparison, U.S. consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month — the highest rate in 40 years — while they increased to a record 5.1% in the 19 countries that use the euro.
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New Orleans Is 3 Feet Above Sea Level
Sea levels along United States coastlines are projected to rise between 10 and 12 inches on average by 2050, according to an interagency report published Tuesday. The forecasted increase over the next 30 years could amount to the same rise seen over the last 100 years.
The Gulf Coast will likely see the biggest change, with sea levels expected to rise between 14 and 18 inches. The East Coast will also see levels 10 to 14 inches higher. On the other side of the country, the West Coast has the lowest predicted rise: between 4 and 8 inches.
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