|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:24:00 GMT -8
If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done?
"After a Full Investigation, We Will Find It Was An Accident"
The chairman of Russia's Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say.
The company confirmed his death but said only that Maganov, 67, had "passed away following a severe illness".
Russian media said he was being treated at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital and died of his injuries.
Maganov is the latest of a number of high-profile business executives to die in mysterious circumstances.
Investigating authorities said they were working at the scene to establish how he died. Tass news agency quoted sources saying he had fallen out of a sixth-floor window early on Thursday morning, adding later that he had taken his own life.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Lukoil board called for the conflict to end as soon as possible, expressing its sympathy to victims of "this tragedy".
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:25:36 GMT -8
Lock Them Up!
Chengdu has become the latest Chinese city to be locked down as Beijing continues to pursue its controversial "zero-Covid" policy.
Around 21 million people have been ordered to stay indoors, with just one person per household allowed out for essential shopping.
On Thursday, the city recorded 157 new infections, including 51 asymptomatic.
China's Covid policies require cities to enter strict lockdowns - even if just a handful of cases are reported.
However, Beijing's drive to ensure "zero Covid" has been accused of stifling economic growth, and has prompted rare public dissent from citizens.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:30:25 GMT -8
Police Shooting #1
Three Canadian police officers have been charged in the shooting death of an 18-month-old child in November 2020.
The charges were announced following a nearly two year investigation by Ontario police watchdog, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
The boy, Jameson Shapiro, was killed when police shot at the truck driven by his father following a report of a parental abduction.
The police union say they are "fully supporting" the three officers.
OPP officers spotted the pickup truck being driven by Jameson's father in nearby Kawartha Lakes. During an attempt to stop the truck there was a collision and one police officer was seriously injured.
An "interaction" with the father followed, according to the SIU, and the three police officers opened fire.
The father was shot and later died in hospital. Jameson, who was in the pickup, was also shot and died at the scene. The SIU said in February 2021 that forensic evidence indicated that the boy was shot by police.
The SIU has said four weapons were recovered from the scene during its investigation - three police firearms and one handgun from the pickup.
Police Shooting #2
A police officer in Ohio fatally shot a Black man within a second of opening his bedroom door early Tuesday morning as the officer was attempting to serve him an arrest warrant.
The killing was captured on police body camera. The man was not armed and was identified by authorities as 20-year-old Donovan Lewis, who was killed by Ricky Anderson, a Columbus police officer with decades of experience.
According to court records reviewed by TV channel NBC4, Donovan was being served an arrest warrant on charges of improperly handling a firearm, assault and domestic violence.
In the body cam footage aired by NBC4, police officers were shown knocking on an apartment door for 8-10min before being met by a man who opened the door. Upon entering the apartment, officers found another man and detained them both.
The officers then released a police dog which trotted around into the kitchen then barked at a bedroom door. Anderson held the dog back before opening the door and then immediately fired his gun into the bedroom as Lewis sat up in bed.
In a frame-by-frame breakdown of the video, police chief Elaine Bryant said that Anderson fired the gun when Lewis appeared to raise his hand while holding onto something.
“There was, like, a vape pen that was found on the bed right next to him,” Bryant said.
Lewis was transported to a hospital after treatment on the scene and later pronounced dead.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:33:20 GMT -8
We'll Have a Hot Time on the Old Earth Tonight
Last year saw record levels of major greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, released into the Earth's atmosphere, according to an international climate report.
The annual State of the Climate report, published Wednesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and led by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information, also found that global sea level and ocean heat reached record highs in 2021.
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the "most significant driver of observed climate change since the mid-20th century," according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, warming the climate as they build up in the atmosphere.
In 2021, the global annual average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 414.7 parts per million (ppm) -- 2.3 ppm greater than the amounts measured in 2020, according to the latest State of the Climate report. That marks the highest amount measured since 1958 -- the start of the instrumental record -- and in at least the last million years, based on paleoclimatic records, the report found. It was also the fifth-highest growth rate in the modern record.
Two other major greenhouse gases -- methane and nitrous oxide -- also saw record concentrations last year, according to the report. The annual increase in methane was the highest in the modern record, and the growth rate of nitrous oxide the third-highest, it found.
Last year was the fifth- or sixth-warmest on record, depending on the dataset referenced, with the last seven years (2015-2021) the seven warmest years on record, according to the report.
Global ocean heat content, measured from the ocean's surface to a depth of more than 6,000 feet, saw record levels in 2021, "indicative of steadily increasing heat in Earth's system," according to the report. Meanwhile, the global sea surface temperature cooled compared to 2019 and 2020, due to the ongoing La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific, though it was higher than the 1991-2020 average, the report found.
For the 10th year in a row, the global average sea level rose about 4.9 mm to a new record high, according to the report. The level was about 97 mm higher than the average recorded in 1993, when satellite measurements began, the report stated.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:38:32 GMT -8
Still Honoring Treason and RacismWest Point, the United States Military Academy, has a plaque with the name Ku Klux Klan written out and a hooded figure displayed at the entrance to Bartlett Hall, the science center on the military academy’s campus, according to a new report from the Congressional Naming Commission.  The plaque is displayed at the entrance of West Point's science center. Outside of the KKK plaque, the commission identified 12 assets with Confederate name associations that should be renamed at West Point and three assets at the US Naval Academy.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:42:00 GMT -8
Did Previous Guy Have Passports to Jail?
Donald Trump has complained that FBI agents' seizure of his passports showed that investigators ran amok as they searched his Florida resort, but new information about how and where the documents were found could spell major trouble for the former president, legal experts told NBC News.
Consistent with the terms of the search warrant, the Justice Department said in the filing that "the government seized the contents of a desk drawer that contained classified documents and governmental records commingled with other documents."
"The other documents included two official passports, one of which was expired, and one personal passport, which was expired," it said. "The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation of unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information."
NBC News legal analyst Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney, said the reason the passports are "relevant evidence" is clear — they point directly to Trump.
“In most searches you look for identity documents to tie a suspect to the evidence you’re looking for — photographs, IDs, utility bills. If you find the contraband in the same room as the identity documents, there’s a fair inference that person had dominion and control over the documents,” said McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
According to the Justice Department, the drawer with the classified documents and the passports was in Trump's "45 office" in Mar-a-Lago.
"Finding the passports side by side with the classified documents suggests he himself was the one who handled" them, McQuade said.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:44:36 GMT -8
Lie Down With Dogs and You Get Fleas. Lie Down With Oath Keepers and You Get Arrested
Kellye SoRelle, the general counsel for the far-right organization the Oath Keepers, was arrested in Texas on Thursday after being indicted on four charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, the Justice Department said.
A federal grand jury indicted SoRelle on four counts: conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, and a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. She has not been charged with seditious conspiracy, as other Oath Keepers have.
The indictment provides few details but alleges that she "did corruptly persuade and attempt to corruptly persuade other persons with intent to cause and induce such persons to (A) withhold records, documents, and other objects from an official proceeding, that is, the Grand Jury investigation into the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and (B) alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal objects with intent to impair the objects' integrity and availability for use in such a Grand Jury investigation."
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:46:58 GMT -8
Que Sarah, Sarah
Democrat Mary Peltola, a former state representative, will be the first Alaska Native in Congress after she won a special election that included GOP candidates Nick Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin, NBC News projects.
Peltola, who is the executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, served 10 years in the state Legislature and campaigned as “Alaska’s best shot at keeping an extremist from winning.”
In Alaska, many voters – including conservative Republicans – remain angry with Palin over her abrupt departure from the state’s political scene. She quit the governor’s office in 2009, midway through her lone term in Juneau, under a cloud of ethics investigations and legal battles.
Trump ignored those sentiments in a state where he defeated President Joe Biden in 2020 by 10 percentage points.
In April, he endorsed Palin – saying in a statement that she had been among his first supporters in 2016.
“Now, it’s my turn!” Trump said.
Still, the party’s establishment in Alaska broke with Trump and attempted to steer the race in another direction – a clear sign of GOP concerns that Palin’s candidacy posed a unique electability problem.
Her loss is sure to add to Republicans’ growing concerns about a flawed crop of Trump-endorsed 2022 midterm candidates in key races across the country – including the Arizona and Pennsylvania governor’s races, Senate contests in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and more.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 8:55:12 GMT -8
The Worst Ex-President Ever Deserves the Worst Legal Team Ever
On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) responded to Judge Aileen Cannon’s notice that she was leaning toward granting Donald Trump his request for a “special master” to oversee the review of documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Wednesday evening it was the turn of Trump’s crack legal team, who sent Cannon their reply to the DOJ motion. Beyond the wailing and chest-thumping over how the DOJ got everything wrong, the Trump response is notable in that it had only two real things to say.
The first was that they simply didn’t have time to explain how the Justice Department statements were incorrect. The second was a confession.
Privacy
Actually, the Trump reply begins with an argument that the right of privacy means that a suspect under investigation can’t have their home searched without permission, even if law enforcement has a search warrant, and even if they inform the homeowner in advance. And that anything the government finds that is evidence of a crime can’t be taken, no matter what. So there.
It is the reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s home that triggers the obvious standing of the homeowner to contest a search on those premises. To suggest that the seizure of allegedly “illegally possessed” items negates standing literally distorts the entire concept of the Wong Sun “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine into the bizarre notion that, if the recovered property is potentially illegal to possess, then the homeowner can never challenge the basis of the intrusion.
This is a bold new expansion of privacy rights that many would applaud (Including other criminals who have had illegal materials removed from their residences after the application of a valid search warrant obtained from a federal judge). The Wong Sun case mentioned in the Trump reply was specifically about a search conducted without a warrant, and its application here is worse than pointless.
Standing
Then comes the argument about Trump having the standing to request a special master. It’s clear that Trump’s attorneys have just looked up the meaning of “standing,” as they include a law school definition. They then go on to cite some examples where special masters were appointed, every single one of which involves complications resulting from the search of an attorney’s office.
The reply never gets around to mentioning why Trump should be awarded a special master.
Too Lazy to Respond
"Movant does not at this time address every misleading or incomplete statement of purported “fact” made by the Government in its Response at pages 3 to 14."
That “addressing every misleading or incomplete statement” is exactly what this reply is for. Here is Trump’s opportunity to show where the government is wrong. To provide evidence that the government is lying or exaggerating or mischaracterizing what happened. But they can’t be bothered.
They Were Classified Documents
"As an initial matter, Movant is amenable to certain conditions proposed by the Government. … Movant also agrees that it would be appropriate for the special master to possess a Top Secret/SCI security clearance."
And Trump’s team agrees that any special master would need beyond top-secret clearance … even though Trump is also claiming in public that he declassified all these documents. The reply also notes that “... the Government indicated that there were ‘three classified documents … located in the desks in the ’45 Office’” without any objection other than complaining about the removal of some of Trump’s personal documents (like the multiple passports he was keeping with his classified documents).
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:00:18 GMT -8
From Kherson to Kharkov They Are Koming
Despite flooding Kherson with freshly trained and equipped forces, Ukraine also did the same on the Donbas front, finally relieving ragged Territorial Defense Forces that held the line for months against impossible odds, outmanned and outgunned. Thanks to their heroic defense, and Russia’s inability to breach those lines, Ukraine was able to properly train its reserves, and Russia doesn’t just face better-equipped and trained forces, but more “aggressive” forces, as well. As one comment to that update put it, “It turns out, we could not squeeze out their weak reservists and their untrained, and only now their super pros came? What now?”
Meanwhile, Russian Telegram was on fire last night reporting a Ukrainian offensive toward the Russian border.
The Kharkov front came to life. Even in Belgorod, cononade is heard. According to information from comrades, active work is underway on the rear and the accumulation of manpower at the forefront. APU maneuver.
“APU” is Ukrainian armed forces. Telegram has a translator, hence the clunky language. But the gist is clear.
On the Kharkov front, just tin is going on right now! Everything that is now flies towards Kharkov! Doomsday is no different! I saw this only on February 24 here.
Powerful. 🔥 Not only near Belgorod. Arta is hammering along the entire length of the Kharkov front. I don't know the intention, but it looks extremely epic. The guys report that the swatting of the Ukrainian Nazis goes from Grayvoron to Izyum.
Meanwhile, Kherson remains in an information blackout
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:07:30 GMT -8
The Previous Guy's Crack Legal Team Admits His Guilt Again
An attorney for former President Donald Trump seemed to admit that the highly sensitive documents seized from Mar-a-Lago when the FBI executed a search warrant last month weren’t kept in the most secure of settings.
In fact, Alina Habba said on Fox News on Wednesday that the files were kept in an office where Trump “frequently” had guests.
Habba took issue with a photo the Justice Department included in its legal brief detailing the reason for the search warrant and what was discovered. That image showed top secret documents and other classified materials, with key information covered up, arranged on the floor:
“I do have firsthand knowledge, as you know. I have been down there, I’m down there frequently,” Habba told Sean Hannity. “I have never seen that. I have never, ever seen that. That is not the way his office looks. Anybody that knows President Trump’s office, he has guests frequently there, it’s just a joke.”
Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s attorney after he lost the 2020 election, recently claimed Trump was just keeping them safe. And Trump attorney Christina Bobb said on Fox News that the documents were secure at Mar-a-Lago because “only certain members of staff can get there, and then there’s only one key” and “a limited number of people” had access to that area.
Habba raised eyebrows earlier in the day during another interview when she claimed the potential charge of espionage was “mundane.”
Habba, Habba Doo!
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:08:39 GMT -8
Here's a Tip for Russian and Chinese Spies
Two of Donald Trump’s former top advisers said Monday they suspect the former president could have more classified documents stored at his estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, and other properties.
“I have been saying this since the FBI raid,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and personal attorney, tweeted Wednesday. “I believe Trump has copies, potentially other documents as well, at other locations including his children’s homes, [Allen] Weisselberg’s Florida home, Bedminster, NJ golf course, Fifth Avenue apartment, etc.”
John Bolton, who served as Trump’s White House national security adviser, said he “wouldn’t be surprised if there were more highly classified documents at Bedminster or some other residence of his.”
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:10:27 GMT -8
How Many Investigations Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? Or On a Pinhead's Life?
A U.S. House of Representatives committee said Thursday it had reached an agreement with Donald Trump and accounting firm Mazars USA on handing over some of the former president's financial records.
"After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former President Trump fought for years to hide from Congress," said Representative Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The agreement ends litigation by Trump, the panel's statement said.
Representatives for Trump and Mazars did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In July, a U.S. appeals court largely upheld a congressional subpoena seeking financial records from Trump's accounting firm, but said some of the lawmakers' requests went too far.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled that the Democratic-controlled House committee can obtain records from a period surrounding Trump's 2016 campaign and his time in office.
The committee in April 2019 issued a subpoena seeking eight years of accounting and other financial records as part of its investigation into what Maloney called Trump’s "unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and foreign financial ties."
She said the agreement includes the handing over of "critical documents" that will help the panel in its investigation.
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:11:52 GMT -8
The Kids Are Not All Right
Test scores in elementary school math and reading plummeted to levels unseen for decades, according to the first nationally representative report comparing student achievement from just before the pandemic to performance two years later. Math scores dropped seven points during that period, marking a first-ever decline, while reading scores slipped five points, producing the largest dip in 30 years on the National Assessment for Educational Progress, or NAEP, often called “the nation’s report card.” The students who took the tests — given from January to March in 2020 and in 2022 — were 9 years old and mostly in fourth grade.  “These results are sobering,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the tests. “It’s clear that covid-19 shocked American education and stunted the academic growth of this age group.”
|
|
|
|
Post by mhbruin on Sept 1, 2022 9:14:48 GMT -8
Don't Tell Tom
|
|
