| Justice Department investigates protest leaders, funding in Portland and other cities Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:37 PM PDT  Trump's Justice Department has launched a criminal inquiry into the leadership and financing of protests against police brutality.
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| San Francisco Salon Owner Says Nancy Pelosi Visited Despite Citywide Closure Posted: 01 Sep 2020 02:41 PM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) visited a San Francisco hair salon for a wash and blow-out on Monday, the salon's owner told Fox News, despite a citywide closure on hairstyling businesses.San Francisco only allowed hair salons to reopen with outdoor services on Tuesday, following a closure to combat the coronavirus pandemic. However, Pelosi apparently received indoor services at eSalon near the city's Marina district on Monday.Owner Erica Kious criticized Pelosi in an interview with Fox, while security footage obtained by the network appeared to show Pelosi inside the premises. Kious said a stylist who rents a chair in the salon contacted her about the visit, and that she doesn't have control over whether the stylists bring customers to the salon because they're currently not required to pay her."It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work," Kious said."This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement. "The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment."National Review has reached out to the speaker's office for additional comment.San Francisco implemented some of the strictest coronavirus lockdown measures in the country in March, issuing a "shelter-in-place" order for residents with exceptions only for exercise and visits to grocery markets and pharmacies. The city allowed hair and nail salons to reopen on Tuesday for outdoor services only, and will clear gyms to open outdoors next week.
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| Fort Hood commander loses post, denied transfer after incidents at Army base Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt had been set to take over the 1st Armored Division in coming weeks.
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| Trump White House Warns Colleges: Don’t Send Your COVID-Infected Students Home! Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:48 AM PDT  Top White House officials rang the alarm bell during a call with the nation's governors on Monday, pleading with them to advise college presidents in their states to keep COVID-infected students on campus or risk another major outbreak. "We know that what happened across the South [in June] was primarily driven by 18-to-25 year olds, across the South, with asymptomatic spread," said Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force. "Sending these individuals back home in their asymptomatic state to spread the virus in their home town or among their vulnerable households could really recreate what we experienced over the June time frame in the South. So I think every university president should have a plan for not only testing but caring for their students that need to isolate."The comments represent one of the most explicit acknowledgments to date that the White House's aggressive push to bring students back to campus this fall has created serious risks for increased COVID transmission. It also underscores just how fragile the current situation is at college campuses across the country. Emails Show Chaos and Confusion at Ole Miss Over Coronavirus ExposureAccording to a New York Times tracker of COVID-19 at American colleges and universities, some 26,000 cases have emerged at over 750 institutions since the novel coronavirus hit the United States early this year. At the University of Alabama system alone, over 1,300 cases have been reported, according to the school's own coronavirus case tracker.Those spikes in infections have put college and university officials in a difficult position over how to manage community spread on their campuses. On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that students and professors at the University of Mississippi—a state where GOP Gov. Tate Reeves explicitly cited saving college football to justify a mask mandate—felt the administration was pressuring exposed (if not infected) students to return home to their families. Transparency concerns about outbreaks, and the prospect of students bringing coronavirus back to their older, possibly immunocompromised relatives, have also followed outbreaks at other major southern colleges like Alabama. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, meanwhile, shut down in-person instruction for undergrads just one week into the semester last month, and at least some students were reportedly set to head home without being tested for COVID-19. The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, and Michigan State University also quickly pivoted to online learning last month.Despite these cases, the White House has been adamant that schools not only open their doors to on-campus learning this fall but that fall sports—specifically football—proceed as usual. Justifying this stance, top administration officials have downplayed the severity of transmission and infection among younger populations. President Donald Trump himself has insisted—despite inconclusive evidence, at best, to support his claim—that healthy college athletes are "not going to have a problem" with the disease. In fact, powerhouse college football programs like Texas Tech and Oklahoma have reported recent outbreaks among their active players.University of Alabama to Profs: Don't Tell Students About COVID-Infected ClassmatesSpeaking to governors on the call Monday, Vice President Mike Pence echoed Birx's admonition that infected students remain isolated on campus for fear that asymptomatic transmission could impact wider populations. "In general, we want to encourage, even when you have test positivity on campuses, we want to encourage universities to have students remain on or near campus and minimize the potential exposure to the larger community," said Pence. "We really believe—and I spoke to a university president just the other day—in suspending classes for a few weeks, have people study in their rooms, and... that kind of isolation."We believe, let's have the testing, let's have the mitigation efforts, good practices in place," Pence added. "But we really believe that remaining on or near campus is the best course possible for the overall health and well-being [of the community]."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| U.S. warship transits Taiwan Strait for second time in two weeks Posted: 30 Aug 2020 10:58 PM PDT |
| Witnesses, police, and reporters piece together what happened in the fatal Kenosha protest shootings Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:10 AM PDT  There's no question Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, are dead, fatally shot Aug. 25 during a chaotic night in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And there's little question they were killed by Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Illinois who traveled to Kenosha, he told a reporter, to protect an auto dealership alongside other members of a self-appointed militia.Much of the night's tragedy was captured on video, but there's stark disagreement over what those videos show. Prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with intentional homicide and other crimes. He plans to claim self-defense. Washington Post reporter Whitney Leaming described what she saw.The third night of Jacob Blake protests "had felt different from the start," Gina Barton reports at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. There were the armed militia members adding a note of menace, and "what seemed like hundreds more cops than before stood shoulder to shoulder and forced" demonstrators out of the park and into the street, where "there was nowhere to go. Soldiers and cops blocked one end of the road. White guys with big guns blocked the other."One video shows Kenosha police thanking Rittenhouse and other militia members for coming out. Another clip appears to show a militia member recounting that "the cops told us today ... like, 'We're gonna push 'em down by you, 'cause you can deal with them and then we're gonna leave.'"It isn't clear what happened right before Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum dead in a parking lot. Police charging documents say Rosenbaum appeared to be unarmed but threw a plastic bag toward Rittenhouse. A Daily Caller reporter who was interviewing Rittenhouse told police he thought Rosenbaum was reaching for Rittenhouse's AR-15. A gunshot can be heard somewhere in the vicinity before Rittenhouse opens fire.Rittenhouse then called someone and said, "I just killed somebody." It was clear "he knew he messed up," a protester named Jeremiah told the Journal Sentinel. "He panicked. Even his people knew what he did was wrong. They were all shouting at him, 'What are you doing?'"At that point, several people started chasing Rittenhouse. He tripped and fell before shooting and missing a protester who jumped over him. Huber tried to grab his gun, possibly hitting him with his skateboard. Rittenhouse shot him in the chest, then rose to a sitting position and shot 26-year-old paramedic Gaige Grosskreutz — who was holding a handgun but didn't appear to point it at Rittenhouse — in the arm. Rittenhouse got up, made sure the protesters weren't following him, and walked past the police with his hands up.More stories from theweek.com Fauci shoots down false claim only 6 percent of coronavirus deaths are legitimate: 'They are real deaths from COVID-19' 60 percent of Americans say federal government's coronavirus response is making the pandemic worse Trump is not the law and order candidate
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| A transgender woman died while in custody on Rikers Island after she couldn't afford $500 bail. NYC just agreed to pay her family $5.9 million. Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:56 PM PDT  Layleen Polanco had an epileptic seizure while being held in isolation at Rikers Island in 2019. A report identified several systemic failures.
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| A grieving daughter in Wuhan is suing China, saying its early cover-up of COVID-19 killed her father. In response, the authorities reportedly intimidated her family. Posted: 01 Sep 2020 05:13 AM PDT  Zhao Lei told Sky News, "I think the government covered up some facts."
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| Venezuela's Maduro pardons dozens of political opponents Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:59 PM PDT  The Venezuelan government said Monday that it had pardoned more than 100 people, including dozens of political opponents who are in prison, have taken refuge in foreign embassies in Caracas or fled the country. The move comes ahead of congressional elections set for Dec. 6 that the coalition led by U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó says it is boycotting because conditions for the vote are not fair. The names listed in the pardon don't include prominent opposition leaders such as Leopoldo López, who remains inside a foreign ambassador's residence in Caracas, or Julio Borges, a powerful opposition lawmaker who is in neighboring Colombia.
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| 'That's the shooter': Witnesses describe the night Kyle Rittenhouse opened fire in Kenosha Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:37 AM PDT  Those interviewed said the night felt different. Here's what witnesses saw when Kyle Rittenhouse opened fire in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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| FBI Reports Chicago Gangs Have Formed Pact to Shoot Cops ‘On Sight’ Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:13 AM PDT  A federal intelligence alert from the FBI field office in Chicago, Ill., warned that about 30 gangs in the city have made a pact to shoot police officers if they draw their weapons in public, ABC 7 reported on Monday.Intelligence alerts are frequently distributed to law enforcement officials, especially if the alerts involve threats to an officer's safety. This particular alert was based on "a contact whose reporting is limited and whose reliability cannot be determined," meaning a street source, witness, or information obtained through surveillance.The alert states that Chicago gangs have agreed to "shoot on-sight any cop that has a weapon drawn on any subject in public.""Members of these gang factions have been actively searching for, and filming, police officers in performance of their official duties," the alert continues. "The purpose of which is to catch on film an officer drawing his/her weapon on any subject and the subsequent 'shoot on-sight' of said officer, in order to garner national media attention."In early August, mobs of people staged what appeared to be a coordinated spate of looting and vandalism at Chicago's Magnificent Mile, a stretch of high-end businesses in the city's downtown. The looting occurred after police shot and arrested a suspect in the Englewood neighborhood. The looting was reportedly prompted by a rumor, which went viral on social media, that the cops had shot and killed a child, when in fact they had injured a 20-year-old man.Chicago has seen a rise in murders and shootings since the death of George Floyd earlier this year, a surge in violence likely compounded by economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in anti-police sentiment, which has reportedly led police in many cities to adopt less aggressive tactics. There were 2,749 shooting victims in the city as of Monday, up 917 from the same period last year.Chicago police superintendent David Brown, who started his position several weeks before the Floyd protests, said on Monday that "a sense of lawlessness" has been observed by officers on the street. Brown also noted that the dangers for officers have dramatically increased."I think 51 officers being shot at or shot in one year, I think that quadruples any previous year in Chicago's history," Brown said. "So I think it's more than a suggestion that people are seeking to do harm to cops."
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| 'Antifa hunter' gets 3 years in prison for online racist threats Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:54 PM PDT  A Florida man who called himself "the Antifa hunter" as he began an online campaign to terrorize and harass people who opposed his white supremacist ideology was sentenced on Monday to more than three years in prison.
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| NYT reporter's new book makes explosive Russia, Mueller claims — that Times didn't report Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:04 AM PDT  Michael Schmidt's book claims Trump believed he could "settle" with Mueller, wanted John Kelly to replace Comey
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| Alexander Lukashenko's notorious 'hitman' threatens Belarus protesters Posted: 01 Sep 2020 10:36 AM PDT  A policeman accused of acting as chief hitman to Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has emerged from "retirement" to intimidate anti-government protesters. Dmitri Pavlichenko, the former head of an elite police unit, was sanctioned by the European Union in 2004 for allegedly running a death squad that organised the killing of four of Mr Lukashenko's political opponents. He has denied involvement in the killings, said to have been carried out with a silenced pistol normally used for judicial executions in one of Belarus's jails. After last month's disputed elections, he is understood to have been brought back into service, directing riot police who beat and arrested protesters in the days that followed. Last week, he also delivered a speech on the streets of the capital, Minsk, denouncing the opposition as "mercenaries and criminals". "Sadly some of them, boozy and drugged up, began to destroy our city!" he declared. "Riot police and special forces came to the defence."
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| Police use footage from Amazon's Ring doorbells for investigations, but leaked documents reveal the FBI is concerned that homeowners could spy on officers Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:29 PM PDT  Motion-detection cameras could also show officers' locations in a standoff or compromise officer safety, the FBI report said.
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| US vetoes UN resolution over Islamic State fighters' return Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:20 AM PDT  The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution Monday calling for the prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of all those engaged in terrorism-related activities, saying it didn't call for the repatriation from Syria and Iraq of foreign fighters for the Islamic State extremist group and their families which is "the crucial first step." U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said the resolution, "supposedly designed to reinforce international action on counter-terrorism, was worse than no resolution at all."
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| Black jogger mistaken for suspect in Texas has all charges dismissed after arrest Posted: 01 Sep 2020 02:22 PM PDT  The district attorney dropped the case against insurance adjuster Mathias Ometu after last week's confrontation with San Antonio police.
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| Abu Dhabi crown prince says committed to Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:06 PM PDT  The Abu Dhabi crown prince said on Monday that the United Arab Emirates is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV reported. In a statement read by UAE's foreign minister Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said to the Palestinian community in the country that the normalistion deal with Israel was a sovereign decision in the favour of peace. "Peace is a strategic choice, but not at the expense of the Palestinian cause," he said according to Al Arabiya.
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| Miami Democrat wants gun dealers held responsible for suspected straw purchases Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:37 PM PDT  A new bill from Miami Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell would make gun dealers responsible for identifying when customers are purchasing a weapon for someone else and halting the transaction.
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| University of South Carolina suspends 15 students and issues violations to several Greek life organizations for hosting parties or large gatherings Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:04 AM PDT  The school issued interim suspensions to 15 students and several Greek life organizations for hosting parties and breaking the city's emergency orders.
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| JEE: India holds crucial college exam amid Covid-19 fears Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:00 PM PDT  A hugely competitive college exam in India kicks off after weeks of heavy protest from students.
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| Riot Declared in Portland after Mob Shows Up at Mayor Wheeler’s Residence Posted: 01 Sep 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Portland Police declared a riot Monday evening after about 200 demonstrators marched to Mayor Ted Wheeler's residence to demand that he resign.Police reported that an "arson fire" was started in the area. Rioters also broke windows and attempted to set a store on the ground floor of the Democratic mayor's condominium building on fire."It was critical to secure the area to allow firefighters to respond to this dangerous situation," police said.Oregon State Police were also sent to Portland on Monday after a weekend of violence that saw one pro-Trump demonstrator fatally shot as Black Lives Matter protesters clashed with Trump supporters downtown.Democratic Governor Kate Brown on Sunday announced a plan to quell the nightly violence while still allowing peaceful protests, saying state police troopers and officers from several surrounding areas will be called in to assist Portland's police force. Meanwhile, the FBI and federal prosecutors will commit more resources to prosecute criminal offenses that arise from the demonstrations, she said."We all must come together—elected officials, community leaders, all of us—to stop the cycle of violence," Brown said in a statement. "But this is only the first step. Real change will come from the hard work to achieve racial justice."A pro-Trump demonstrator was shot and killed Saturday night during clashes in Portland between Black Lives Matter protesters and a caravan of Trump supporters who drove trucks through the downtown streets. The man wore a hat with the logo for the right-wing group Patriot Prayer. The male suspect reportedly under investigation for the fatal shooting declared his allegiance to Antifa on social media before the incident."Every Oregonian has the right to freely express their views without fear of deadly violence. I will not allow Patriot Prayer and armed white supremacists to bring more bloodshed to our streets," Brown said. "Time and again, from Charlottesville to Kenosha to Portland, we have seen the tragic outcome when armed right-wing vigilantes take matters into their own hands."Protests and rioting have been ongoing in Portland for more than 90 days since the police custody death of George Floyd in May.
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| Russia released secret footage of history's largest man-made explosion — a nuclear blast thousands of times stronger than Hiroshima Posted: 01 Sep 2020 03:09 PM PDT  The blast was equivalent to 50 megatons of TNT — nearly 1,500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined.
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| Patriot Prayer no stranger to protests in Northwest Posted: 30 Aug 2020 09:15 PM PDT  The man who was fatally shot in Portland, Oregon, as supporters of President Donald Trump skirmished with Black Lives Matter protesters was a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, which doesn't have a big national footprint but is well known in the Pacific Northwest. Patriot Prayer's founder, Joey Gibson, has held pro-Trump rallies repeatedly in Portland and other cities since 2016. The events have drawn counterprotesters from around the region and had heightened tensions in Portland long before Black Lives Matter demonstrators began nearly 100 days of nightly protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
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| Pentagon intensifies China operation with waterway flyovers Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:49 AM PDT  The Trump administration is intensifying a challenge to China's ruling Communist Party and its sweeping territorial claims over some of the world's most important strategic waterways.
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| ICE makes 2,000 arrests in largest sweep of the pandemic Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:45 AM PDT  While the operation targeted immigrants with criminal convictions and charges, some undocumented immigrants with clean records were also arrested.
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| Protests erupt in Inner Mongolia over China's plans for teaching in Mandarin Posted: 01 Sep 2020 06:18 AM PDT  Mass protests have erupted across northern China as tens of thousands of ethnic Mongolian students and their parents rally against government plans to phase out teaching in their language. The rare display of dissent in the Inner Mongolian cities of Tongliao, Ordos and the regional capital, Hohhot, began last week in opposition to a move by Beijing to gradually shift the language of instruction in schools from Mongolian to Mandarin Chinese in three key subjects. According to Radio Free Asia, pupils have boycotted classes and kneeling students at one school chanted: "Our language is Mongolian, and our homeland is Mongolia forever! Our mother tongue is Mongolian, and we will die for our mother tongue!" Riot police have reportedly been dispatched to other schools across the region, with accounts of the authorities locking down campuses and pupils bursting through police cordons to join their demonstrating parents at the gates. In one of the more disturbing RFA reports, a student is said to have died after jumping from the roof of his high school after seeing his mother detained.
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| Zimbabwe says foreign white farmers can apply to get back seized land Posted: 31 Aug 2020 10:38 AM PDT |
| Sex workers blame Bella Thorne for changes at OnlyFans that harm their income Posted: 30 Aug 2020 06:37 PM PDT  The content subscription platform said its new transaction rules were not due to one user and will "continue to review these limits" amid the backlash.
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| What’s a ‘Corn Moon’? What to know about summer’s final full moon Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:22 AM PDT  It's your last chance to see a full moon this summer.
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| American Airlines pilots landing in Los Angeles spotted a 'guy in a jetpack' just 300 yards from their passenger jet Posted: 01 Sep 2020 07:48 AM PDT  After other pilots confirmed the sighting near LAX, the LAPD is investigating the rogue aeronaut, who could face hefty fines if caught.
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| Portland protesters target city's mayor amid rising tensions Posted: 31 Aug 2020 09:32 PM PDT  Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon, shifted their focus to the city's mayor, and police declared a riot as people broke windows, vandalized a business and set a small fire inside the upscale apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler lives. The demonstration that began late Monday and extended into Tuesday fell on Wheeler's 58th birthday and featured shiny golden alphabet balloons that protesters used to spell out an expletive. Wheeler, who is also police commissioner, has come under fire for his failure to bring the violence in Oregon's largest city under control and for heading up a police force that has used tear gas multiple times against demonstrators.
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| '2020 has been rough, but yesterday was Supreme': Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiates couple's wedding Posted: 01 Sep 2020 05:39 AM PDT  "2020 has been rough, but yesterday was Supreme," the bride, Barb Solish, said in a tweet along with a photo of Ginsburg presiding over the ceremony.
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| This Florida School Is What a COVID-19 Fiasco in the Making Looks Like Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:38 AM PDT  MIAMI—At the end of the first day of classes last week, dozens of teens lined up to board school buses parked outside the entrance of Bartow Senior High, the main secondary school in the central Florida city bearing the same name. Despite being outdoors, and thus perhaps less likely to serve as a launching pad for mass contagion, the large number of students crammed together, some sans face masks, prompted a 12th grader to snap three photos and two short videos of the crowd.The same day, Ashlee Caraway, the senior's older sister who graduated from Bartow High last year, posted the photos and tagged an unofficial Facebook page for the school. At the top of the post, the 19-year-old wrote: COVID19 !! In a phone interview with The Daily Beast, Caraway said she shared the images hoping to draw attention to the lack of social distancing enforcement. She also provided The Daily Beast with videos that show closer views of students congregating and waiting to get on the buses. (Caraway's younger sister, the current student, declined to comment.) "I want people to see how messed up it is," Caraway told The Daily Beast. "If the health department went in there, they would be shut down." Ron DeSantis' Worst Nightmare Has a New Target: SchoolsAfter her sister got home from her second day of school, they found out that a student at Sumerlin Academy, a public military school that shares campuses with Bartow High and whose students have classes at both schools, had tested positive for coronavirus. While no Bartow High student had been reported to have tested positive as of last week, the Sumerlin cadet may have had contact with individuals at the adjoining school, according to a mass email sent to parents at both schools."She decided to stay home and let the week ride out," Caraway said of her sister. Bartow High's first week offers a window into the perilous restart for Polk County Public Schools, which is responsible for overseeing 150 schools and more than 100,000 students. Polk has the ninth most COVID-19 cases out of the state's 68 counties and boasts a pediatric positivity rate of 16.4 percent, according to the most recent Florida Department of Health update. That's nearly 10 points higher than Polk's rolling overall average positivity rate of 6.5 percent between Aug. 19 to Aug. 28, and a higher pediatric rate than five neighboring counties, including Orange and Hillsborough, which have larger populations. In a press call last month, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield said schools should stay closed if the "the percent positivity rate within the community is greater than 5 percent." Instead, Polk public schools and other Florida school districts in counties with higher positivity rates are implementing measures to quarantine pupils and staffers who come into contact with the infected. If they want to take more extreme measures, district officials have to consult with Florida Education Commissioner Richard Cocoran, whose department is currently appealing a court ruling that deemed his executive order forcing schools to offer in-person learning unconstitutional. But Polk schools are failing to be transparent about the extent of their outbreaks, critics say. And the early returns—the fruit of an aggressive reopening push overseen by Trump administration ally Gov. Ron DeSantis—have health experts worried any modest progress in containing COVID-19 death and case rates in central Florida will be thrown out the window.Kyle Kennedy, a spokesman for Polk County Public Schools, which oversees Bartow High and Sumerlin, said school administrators were aware of the issues raised by Caraway and working to address any deficiencies in COVID-19 protocols and procedures. "Staff… assessed conditions after the first two days of school," Kennedy said. "On Wednesday afternoon, the school started releasing students by bus number to further spread them out and help cut down on crowding. School staff are present during dismissal and are reminding students not to bunch together."He added that Bartow High was taking temperatures of a minimum of 20 percent of the student population daily, as required by the school district. Summerlin Academy was one of two Polk County schools to report one confirmed virus case during the first two days of the school year, according to the school district's online public case tracker. (The tracker lumps in Bartow High with Sumerlin.) Over the next five days, the school district added 14 more schools that each had one positive case and three schools with at least two confirmed cases. In light of the high pediatric positivity rate in the county, it's more than likely Polk public schools will be in a constant quarantine and contain mode, health experts say. "That strategy becomes totally ineffective if half your system is down half of the time," said Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan epidemiologist who served as a World Health Organization adviser. "You are just continuing to have disruptions in education that will be more disruptive than doing everything virtually." Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said he understood the arguments Cocoran and Gov. DeSantis made—that reopening schools was crucial to childrens' development and making sure disadvantaged students don't fall behind. But the reality is too dire. "From a health perspective, I regret to say it is not safer to send them back to school," Redliner told The Daily Beast. "It's a risky business that won't end well."Referring specifically to the 16.4 percent pediatric positivity rate in Polk County, Redliner said, "Let me be crystal clear. Those schools should not be open because they will be hotbeds for exacerbating the outbreak and pose a serious risk for children, their families, and their teachers."Polk County School Board member Sarah Fortney, whose district includes Bartow High and Sumerlin Academy, agrees. "Our administration has worked tirelessly to really do the impossible," Fortney said. "But we have allowed public schools to become the safety nets for everything relating to students. I think it's politics over people."The district is also not providing the number of students and teachers that have been instructed to quarantine. Other Florida school districts in Orange and Martin counties, for example, do publicly release how many pupils and staffers are in quarantine. Fortney said she was especially worried about the crowding depicted in Caraway's photos, and anecdotal reports from parents and employees about crowded school buses."I have been bombarded with messages and talked to different people that students are standing in the aisles because the buses are so crowded," Fortney said. "Many of them are not wearing their masks. And that's before they even get to school." Polk schools spokesman Kennedy said the school district had performed well in minimizing the risk of COVID-19 exposure to students and staffers. "Considering all of the unique challenges involved with this year, we are very pleased with the results from this first week of school," Kennedy said in a statement. "We will continue to move forward and maintain our focus on helping all of our students and families to make sure they have a successful year."Last week, during a virtual meeting of the school board, Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd explained that the COVID-19 positive student at Sumerlin Academy went to classes while he was waiting for the results of his test. He was sent home on Tuesday after he informed staff he tested positive, and Bartow and Sumerlin administrators performed contact tracing to determine who had been in close proximity to the student, according to deputy superintendent John Hill. Hill also said that the very first case in the system was reported at Boone Middle School after staff learned a student was positive from a parent who sent the child to school knowing the test results were pending. Schools Touted by DeSantis Now in a Quarantine Nightmare"To be very honest, parents need to tell us when they know they have a case in their home," Byrd said at the meeting. "We will advise them not to send their child to school. We will continue to push that message forward."Byrd also asked Fortney to provide her with the numbers to the school buses that were allegedly overcrowded so she could address the problem. "I actually went to the largest high schools and spoke to the bus drivers personally," Byrd said at the meeting. "They are telling me the buses are not crowded."Fortney declined to provide the superintendent with further details. She told The Daily Beast that her tipsters were afraid to come forward. Parents fear retaliation against their children and employees don't want to be reprimanded or fired for speaking out. Since the meeting, the school district has not released more details on the other schools that have confirmed cases. "I'm not able to provide additional information about the COVID-19 cases that impacted our schools this week," Kennedy said. "Please contact the Florida Department of Health office in Polk County to see if they can assist." A spokesperson for the Florida Health Department's Polk office did not respond to requests for comment. Laura Kelley, a Bartow High mom whose sophomore twin daughters opted for online learning, told The Daily Beast that she and other parents received an automated phone message and a mass email from the school district informing them about the Sumerlin student testing positive on Aug. 25. She added that her daughters are friends with a couple of affected students, but that the school district had not informed her about how many teens and teachers will have to quarantine. "It has been really frustrating," Kelley said. "On social media, there has been a lot of talk about it among mutual friends about having to switch from face-to-face learning to e-learning to deciding whether or not to quarantine their entire family." Caraway said the school district should share more information about how many people are in quarantine at Bartow High and Sumerlin Academy. She said it was possible the Sumerlin student interacted with Bartow High students, since there is only one cafeteria for both schools and academy students are also taught by Bartow teachers. "The problem is that we don't know who he was around with," Caraway said. "It pisses me off. I don't want my little sister to come home and be sick." Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| St. Louis couple charged after waving guns appear in court Posted: 31 Aug 2020 07:56 AM PDT  The attorney for a white St. Louis couple charged for waving guns during a racial injustice protest outside their home said Monday that they're anxious to prove "with absolute certainty" that they did not commit a crime. One week after Mark and Patricia McCloskey spoke on video to the Republican National Convention, they were in court briefly Monday morning and did not enter a plea. Mark McCloskey, 63, came out with AR-15 rifle, according to court records, which said Patricia McCloskey, 61, displayed a semiautomatic handgun.
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| Ron Jeremy hit with 20 more sexual assault charges involving 13 women Posted: 31 Aug 2020 02:11 PM PDT  Porn star Ron Jeremy has been hit with new sexual assault charges.Prosecutors on Monday filed 20 additional counts of sexual assault and groping against Jeremy, and he now faces 28 total counts of sexual violence, the Los Angeles Times reports.Jeremy was previously charged with sexually assaulting four women in incidents ranging from 2014 to 2019, with this coming after he had been publicly accused of sexual misconduct. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Monday said the new charges against Jeremy involve 13 women in incidents dating back to 2004 and going up to 2020. Among the new allegations is that Jeremy sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in 2004 at a party, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also said he sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman outside a Hollywood business in January 2020.Prosecutors previously accused Jeremy of forcibly raping a woman at a West Hollywood home in 2014, sexually assaulting two women at a bar in West Hollywood in 2017, and forcibly raping a woman at that same bar in 2019. He denied those allegations, and The Associated Press reports he has pleaded not guilty to the new charges.More stories from theweek.com Fauci shoots down false claim only 6 percent of coronavirus deaths are legitimate: 'They are real deaths from COVID-19' 60 percent of Americans say federal government's coronavirus response is making the pandemic worse Trump is not the law and order candidate
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| South Korea charges intelligence officers with raping North Korean defector Posted: 01 Sep 2020 12:23 AM PDT |
| US Special Operations Command gets first brand-new Chinook variant Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:55 AM PDT  Boeing has delivered the first MH-47G Chinook to U.S. Special Operations Command on time.
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| Trump said he heard a firsthand account of ‘the looters, the anarchists, the rioters’ on a plane Posted: 01 Sep 2020 09:25 AM PDT  Before boarding Air Force One on Tuesday, President Trump said he heard the claim about a plane filling with rioters, looters and anarchists. Trump has yet to provide proof of the claim, which he first made in an interview with Laura Ingraham that aired Monday night on Fox News.
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| 23 bus passengers contracted coronavirus from 1 infected person. No one was wearing a mask. Posted: 01 Sep 2020 08:25 AM PDT  More evidence that six feet may not be enough distance to prevent you from getting the coronavirus, in enclosed spaces with recycled air.
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| Trump intel officials announce they will no longer offer Democrats election security briefings Posted: 31 Aug 2020 01:41 AM PDT  Democrats condemn "shocking abdication" of responsibility as intelligence officials scale back
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| More than $130K raised for California family after girls seen using Taco Bell WiFi for school work Posted: 01 Sep 2020 01:04 PM PDT  A now-viral photo of two young students using the free WiFi in a Taco Bell parking lot for online learning highlights unequal access to internet.
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| Where do second stimulus checks stand? Here’s what top Democrats, Republicans say Posted: 31 Aug 2020 11:16 AM PDT  Lawmakers remain in a stalemate over a coronavirus relief package.
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| Hamas says deal reached to calm violence with Israel Posted: 31 Aug 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Gaza's Hamas rulers said Monday they have reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel. Under the deal, Hamas is to halt the launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease a blockade that has been tightened in recent weeks. The Israeli restrictions have worsened living conditions in Gaza at a time when it is coping with a new coronavirus outbreak.
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| Police: Teacher with far-right ties harassed health officer Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:35 AM PDT  A California community college instructor with ties to the far-right, anti-government "boogaloo" movement was in custody on suspicion of sending two dozen misogynistic and threatening letters to a county health officer involving the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Tuesday. Alan Viarengo, 55, was arrested last week and investigators seized 138 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosive materials from his home in Gilroy, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said. Viarengo was charged with felony counts of stalking and threatening a public official after authorities said the letters were sent to county Health Director Dr. Sara Cody.
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| UAE reports over 500 new COVID-19 cases for second consecutive day Posted: 01 Sep 2020 11:38 AM PDT  The government's communications office said on Twitter there had been 574 new infections but no deaths in the previous 24 hours, following 541 new infections and two deaths reported a day earlier. Schools in the UAE reopened this week, though some will continue with only remote learning after suspected cases among employees, state news agency WAM reported, citing the education ministry. Daily infections are at their highest since 683 cases were recorded on July 5.
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