| Conspiracy-mongering Republican seeking John Lewis seat gets social media boost from Trump Posted: 08 Aug 2020 08:47 AM PDT  Besides parroting many of President Trump's talking points, Angela Stanton-King, a Republican congressional candidate, has frequently repeated ideas related to the conspiracy theory QAnon.
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| After fatal great white shark attack in Maine, debate intensifies over culling seals Posted: 07 Aug 2020 07:06 PM PDT  Some business owners and politicians in the Northeast, worried that more shark sightings and beach closures could lead to a downturn in tourism, want the seal population culled, but not everyone thinks that's the answer.
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| Gov. Mike Huckabee weighs in on religious voters, 2020 election Posted: 09 Aug 2020 07:36 AM PDT  Fox News contributor and former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee joins 'Fox & Friends Weekend.'
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| Niger attack: French aid workers among eight killed by gunmen Posted: 09 Aug 2020 01:54 PM PDT  The attack happened in a region which draws visitors to the last giraffe herds in West Africa.
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| Litman: New York wants to dissolve the NRA; it will probably decapitate it instead Posted: 09 Aug 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Even if the NRA survives New York's lawsuit, dethroning its CEO and heaping it with humiliation and penalties will be a victory.
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| A woman claiming to be from the 'Freedom To Breathe Agency' filmed telling a grocery employee that she could face legal action for making people wear face masks Posted: 09 Aug 2020 04:51 AM PDT  The mask-less woman gave the employee a piece of paper claiming she could go to prison for up to five years for telling customers to wear a face mask.
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| A father, a sister, a son: Beirut blast takes a heavy toll Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:03 AM PDT  A close twin sister, now separated forever. Tuesday's enormous explosion that killed scores of people, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction across Lebanon's capital touched off widespread mourning for the victims.
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| Trump calls audience at his Bedminster golf club a 'peaceful protest' Posted: 07 Aug 2020 06:05 PM PDT  President Trump said his audience of well-to-do supporters was involved in a "peaceful protest" and therefore did not need to adhere to state coronavirus guidelines prohibiting large gatherings.
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| French passengers sue Costa Cruises over virus ship ordeal Posted: 09 Aug 2020 05:04 PM PDT  Around 850 French passengers who were onboard a coronavirus-riddled cruise ship that was turned away from numerous ports in March have filed a collective suit in Paris with 180 complaints, including manslaughter, against Costa Cruises, their lawyer said Sunday. The class action, which includes complaints from the families of three passengers who died of COVID-19, accuses the Italy-based cruise giant of negligence and various faults during their trip on the Costa Magica. In the absence of stopovers, the crew encouraged the passengers to use the ship's shops, spas, restaurants and casino without sufficiently putting health measures in place -- or informing them there were suspected infections onboard -- the complainants said in their suit.
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| Man who was given life sentence for $30 marijuana sale to be freed Posted: 09 Aug 2020 06:32 AM PDT  A man in Louisiana serving a life sentence for selling less than a gram of marijuana is due to be released from prison, his lawyer has said.Derek Harris, who is a military veteran, was arrested in 2008 for selling 0.69 grams of marijuana — an amount worth less than $30 (£23) — to an undercover officer who came to his door.
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| Celebrate the VP nominee, not Biden's decision to pick a woman. It's the least he can do. Posted: 09 Aug 2020 11:19 AM PDT  Our country has endured high opportunity costs for keeping white men in power for so long while ignoring the political contributions women could make.
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| Canada's last fully intact ice shelf has suddenly collapsed, forming a Manhattan-sized iceberg Posted: 08 Aug 2020 08:41 PM PDT  The 4,000-year-old ice shelf fell apart at the end of July as summer temperatures soared, scientists said.
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| Wave in eastern Atlantic may develop into a tropical depression this week, forecasters say Posted: 09 Aug 2020 01:26 PM PDT  The National Weather Service is monitoring a storm that has the potential to become a tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic this week.
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| Three parks and wildlife employees die in helicopter crash during bighorn sheep survey Posted: 09 Aug 2020 11:53 AM PDT  Officials say the pilot survived the crash in south-western Texas and cause of crash is under investigationThree Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) employees have been killed in a helicopter crash while conducting aerial surveys for desert bighorn sheep in the south-western part of the state, according to officials.The crash happened on Saturday in the remote wilderness of Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, which is adjacent to Big Bend National Park, on the Rio Grande that marks the border with Mexico.The victims of the crash were identified as wildlife biologist Dewey Stockbridge, fish and wildlife technician Brandon White, and state wildlife veterinarian Bob Dittmar, according to the TPWD.Officials said the pilot survived the crash and was taken to El Paso, the most westerly city in Texas, on the border with New Mexico, for further treatment, and the patient's condition is currently not public."No words can begin to express the depth of sadness we feel for the loss of our colleagues in this tragic accident," said Carter Smith, TPWD executive director, in a statement.Smith said they were "highly regarded … for the immense passion, dedication, and expertise they brought to their important work in wildlife management and veterinary medicine" and that they were carrying out "their calling to help survey, monitor and protect the bighorns of their beloved west Texas mountains".The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, asked Texans to pray for the families of the victims of the crash, adding as part of a statement that "our hearts ache today".Details of the crash are so far limited and an official investigation by the authorities is underway, according to local media reports.Desert bighorn sheep are carefully studied in the wildlife management area. They were a ubiquitous native animal in previous times and were successfully reintroduced after being hunted out by the 1960s for their meat and to reduce competition with farmed sheep.
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| Is France helping Lebanon, or trying to reconquer it? Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:43 AM PDT  It was almost as if Emmanuel Macron forgot that Lebanon is no longer a French protectorate. Visiting explosion-ravaged Beirut this week, France's leader comforted distraught crowds, promised to rebuild the city and claimed that the blast pierced France's own heart. "France will never let Lebanon go," Macron said.
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| Trump aides struggle to defend his pandemic relief orders as U.S. cases reach 5 million Posted: 09 Aug 2020 12:45 PM PDT  Questioned about Trump's controversial new directives for pandemic relief, top aides offer contradictory, sometimes tangled responses.
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| Coronavirus: New Zealand marks 100 days without community spread Posted: 09 Aug 2020 07:54 AM PDT  The prime minister hails the milestone as "significant", but warns against complacency.
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| She Was Charged With Murder After Her Baby Was Stillborn. Now California’s AG Has Stepped In. Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:55 PM PDT  For more than nine months, five of them during a global pandemic, a 26-year-old woman named Chelsea Becker has been sitting in Kings County Jail, under a $2 million bail, for giving birth to a stillborn baby.Becker has been there since November, when police arrested her and prosecutors charged her with murder. The District Attorney argued that Becker's methamphetamine addiction had caused the stillbirth, citing a 50-year-old law that civil rights advocates say was never supposed to apply to pregnant women. It has put Becker at the heart of a national debate over criminalizing fetal death. On Friday, however, California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra intervened. In an amicus brief to end the case against Becker, Becerra argued the prosecution's legal interpretation would lead to "absurd—and constitutionally questionable—results.""We believe the law was misapplied and misinterpreted," Becerra said in a statement about the brief. "Our laws in California do not convict women who suffer the loss of their pregnancy, and in our filing today we are making clear that this law has been misused to the detriment of women, children, and families." An American Surrogate Had His Baby. Then Coronavirus Hit.Back in September, Becker, then 25, was eight and a half months pregnant when she thought her water broke, only to discover it was blood. Becker's mother called an ambulance to her home in the San Joaquin Valley, according to The Los Angeles Times. Three hours later, Becker gave birth in Adventist Health Hanford hospital to a boy with no pulse, whom she had planned to name Zachariah.Suspicious that the fetus suffered from drug exposure, hospital employees alerted the Kings County Medical Examiner's Office, which conducted an autopsy. The exam found methamphetamine in the fetus' system, a Times report states, that amounted to more than five times the level thought to be toxic. They ruled the case a homicide. Becker had grown up in Hanford, a working class town in Kings County, that serves as a trading hub in the agrarian San Joaquin Valley. The nearly half Hispanic town recently made headlines when 183 meatpacking workers came down with COVID-19. According to the Census Bureau, 18 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Before the pandemic, county unemployment levels hovered at 7.9 percent—they have since soared to 14.6 percent.Becker told the Times that as a teen, she spent some time living with her father in Minnesota, where she became addicted to methamphetamine. She came home to Hanford at 19, where she had two other children, both of whom were removed from her care. In early November, prosecutors charged Becker with murder, holding the mother on a $5 million bail, later reduced to $2 million. Their case hinged on an amendment, passed in 1970, to the state's murder statute: Penal Code section 187. Earlier that year, the California Supreme Court had overturned the murder conviction of man who had assaulted his pregnant wife, causing the death of their fetus. The code, the court had concluded, only addressed the killing of "a human being," making the man ineligible for a murder charge. In response, the legislature amended the statute to include the "unlawful killing" of a "fetus." That was the language prosecutors seized on to charge Becker with murder."The conduct of the defendant resulted in the death of a fetus, which is a crime in California," said District Attorney Keith Fagundes told The Los Angeles Times. He did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment on Saturday.At her arraignment, Becker pleaded not guilty, and later filed a motion calling the code's application to a pregnant woman unconstitutional. The amendment had been made to protect victims of domestic violence, Becker's lawyers argued, not criminalize women who miscarried, had stillbirths, or sought abortions. "Penal Code 187(b)(3) by its own plain terms," they wrote, "precludes the prosecution of a woman for the consensual acts in which she may engage while pregnant." Becker's attorney, Roger Nuttall, and Becerra did not immediately return requests for comment. "Ms. Becker had experienced a stillbirth that the prosecutor claims (without scientific basis) was caused by her methamphetamine use during pregnancy," the National Advocates for Pregnant Women wrote in a statement on Becker's case. "Ms. Becker was charged with this crime despite the fact that §187 does not authorize, nor has it ever been interpreted to authorize prosecution of a woman in relation to her own pregnancy or any outcome of a pregnancy."https://www.facebook.com/NationalAdvocatesforPregnantWomen/photos/a.190808107181/10157715445342182/?type=3&theaterIn the decades since 1970, California prosecutors have tried to charge women for stillbirths, but none has secured a conviction until 2018, when another woman was arrested for the same crime in the same town of Hanford.Like Becker, Adora Perez was in her late 20s and addicted to methamphetamine when she gave birth to a stillborn baby at Adventist Health. Also like Becker, hospital employees alerted the Medical Examiner's Office when the fetus tested positive for the drug, according to reports in The Fresno Bee. Fagundes charged her with murder. Perez, however, took a plea deal. Now 32, she is serving an 11-year sentence in state prison for voluntary manslaughter—the first time in decades that a charge of this kind ended in jail time. The unprecedented charges against Becker and Perez have alarmed pregnancy advocates, medical professionals, drug policy organizations, and civil rights groups across the country. In April, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in support of Becker. The same day, a coalition of 15 organizations, from the Drug Policy Alliance to California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, filed another."Broadly accepted medical, public health, and scientific evidence supports the Legislature's drafting of the statute to avoid criminalizing women with respect to their pregnancies," the coalition wrote. "Pregnancy and use of controlled substances is a medical and public health issue, not an issue that should be subject to state intervention and control."Attempts to criminalize pregnant women who suffer from addiction have backfired in the past. In 2014, Tennessee passed a wildly controversial bill, attempting to target what they called "fetal assault." The bill allowed prosecutors to bring charges against women with drug addictions, if their fetuses were born still or disabled. It proved so polarizing that it was given a two-year trial phase and then, in 2016, deemed a failure and discontinued. "As a result of the law," the National Advocates for Pregnant Women wrote in a statement, "women steered clear of prenatal care and drug treatment and avoided delivering their babies in hospital settings."Nevertheless in June, the superior court denied Becker's motion to have the case declared unconstitutional. The next month, she filed a writ of prohibition––a motion to stop the court proceedings––arguing that "a woman cannot be prosecuted for murder as a result of her own omissions or actions that might result in pregnancy loss." In his amicus brief on her case, Becerra agreed: "The superior court erred in concluding otherwise." "The Legislature's purpose in adding the killing of a fetus to Penal Code section 187 was not to punish women who do not—or cannot, because of addiction or resources—follow best practices for prenatal health," Becerra wrote. "The courts should not assume that the Legislature intended such a sweeping and invasive change to the criminal law affecting women's lives without clear evidence of that intent. And such evidence is absent here."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Sunday Journal: Aftermath of Beirut blast Posted: 09 Aug 2020 07:15 AM PDT  The death toll continues to climb from the horrific explosion in Beirut Tuesday that leveled much of the Lebanese city's port area and left a quarter-million people homeless. Correspondent Imtiaz Tyab reports.
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| Ecuador navy surveils large Chinese fishing fleet near Galapagos Posted: 09 Aug 2020 08:04 AM PDT  Ecuador's navy is conducting surveillance of a large Chinese fishing fleet that is operating near the protected waters of the Galapagos Islands, amid concerns about the environmental impact of fishing in the area of the ecologically sensitive islands. The fishing fleet has since 2017 been arriving in the summer months and fishing just outside the Galapagos territorial waters, drawn by marine species such as the endangered hammerhead shark. Such fishing is not illegal because it takes place in international waters.
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| COVID-19 cases top 5 million in US with odds for highly effective vaccine ‘not great’ Posted: 09 Aug 2020 07:03 AM PDT  The United States leads the world in confirmed cases, followed by Brazil and India.
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| Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota rally to be blocked at tribal land checkpoints Posted: 08 Aug 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Clampdown comes as fears mount that mask-free bikers headed to large gathering could spread coronavirus to tribal groupsThousands of bikers heading to South Dakota's 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday.The decision to prevent access across tribal lands to the annual rally, which could attract as many as 250,000 bikers amid fears it could lead to a massive, regional coronavirus outbreak, comes as part of larger Covid-19 prevention policy. The policy has pitted seven tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation against federal and state authorities, which both claim the checkpoints are illegal.A duty officer for the Cheyenne River Sioux told the Guardian on Saturday that only commercial and emergency vehicles will be let through the checkpoints onto reservation land.A number of bikers had tried to enter but had been turned back, they said. Other reservations in the region, including the Oglala Sioux, were also turning away bikers that had attempted routes to Sturgis that pass through sovereign land.Under Cheyenne River tribal guidelines non-residents driving non-commercial out-of-state vehicles are never allowed through the reservation. During the rally, non-commercial vehicles with South Dakota plates are also not allowed through.The clampdown comes as fears mount that mask-free bikers visiting Sturgis for the largest gathering of people since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic could spread the virus to tribal groups that are already experiencing a rise in cases.Oglala Sioux recorded 163 cases last week, while the Cheyenne River Sioux has seen cases rise to 79, according to the tribe's website.The restrictions come as local law enforcement reported a convergence of bikers from all directions. According to reports, many bikers heading for Sturgis expressed defiance at rules and restrictions that have marked life during the coronavirus pandemic.While South Dakota has fared better than most states – it ranks 38th in Covid deaths per capita, according to a Reuters tally – cases have risen in recent weeks as hotspots move into the midwest.During the rally, people are expected to cram bars and pack concerts with at least 34 acts playing. "Screw COVID," read the design on one T-shirt on sale. "I went to Sturgis."> I trusted my people, they trusted me, and South Dakota is in a good spot in our fight against COVID-19. > > The Sturgis motorcycle rally starts this weekend, and we're excited for visitors to see what our great state has to offer! https://t.co/UiHvaYviqa> > — Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) August 6, 2020Stephen Sample, who rode his Harley-Davidson from Arizona, told the Associated Press that the event was a break from the routine of the last several months."I don't want to die, but I don't want to be cooped up all my life either," Sample, 66, said, adding that he had weighed the risks of navigating the crowds, but the same thrill-seeking that attracted him to riding motorcycles seemed to win out."I think we're all willing to take a chance," he said, but acknowledged the trip "could be a major mistake."South Dakota's Republican governor, Kristi Noem, has supported holding the Sturgis rally, pointing out that no virus outbreak was documented from the several thousand people who turned out to see Donald Trump at Mount Rushmore last month.The rally is marking its 80th anniversary and typically injects $800m into South Dakota's economy. Meade county sheriff, Rob Merwin, said: "It's going to be a lot of people and a lot of motorcycles all over the place. People are tired of being penned up by this pandemic."On Friday, a worker at the event told the Guardian crowds seemed larger than in previous years and warned that Sturgis attendees were paying little heed to medical advice."I've not seen one single person wearing a mask," said bartender Jessica Christian, 29. "It's just pretty much the mentality that, 'If I get it, I get it.'""In downtown Sturgis it's just madness," Christian added. "People not socially distancing, everybody touching each other. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out."Over 60% of Sturgis 6,900 residents who responded to a city council survey in May said they wanted the rally canceled.A month later, the council voted to move ahead, although it canceled all city-sponsored events associated with the rally and included measures such as hand-sanitizing stations. Sturgis mayor Mark Carstensen said throughout the pandemic, "the state of South Dakota has been the freedom state and the city of Sturgis has stayed true to that".
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| Iran asks UN to hold US accountable for plane interception Posted: 07 Aug 2020 08:46 PM PDT |
| The Trump administration reportedly quashed part of an intelligence report that showed Russia is helping him win the 2020 election Posted: 09 Aug 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Previous reports from the FBI, CIA, and NSA concluded that Russia attempted to help Trump win in 2016, but Trump has denied those reports' accuracy.
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| A body was recovered from the wreckage of the New Orleans Hard Rock hotel 10 months after it collapsed Posted: 09 Aug 2020 08:30 AM PDT  The hotel collapsed last October. It killed three construction workers, including 36-year-old Quinnyon Wimberly, whose body was recovered on Saturday.
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| India landslide: Dozens feared dead after flooding in Kerala Posted: 08 Aug 2020 12:17 AM PDT  Up to 20 houses are buried under debris in the state of Kerala, with rescue efforts under way.
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| Sweden looks to US model to curb deadly gang shootings Posted: 09 Aug 2020 06:33 AM PDT  Police in Stockholm are considering using a strategy against gun violence pioneered in gang-ridden US cities to counter a wave of shootings including an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was killed in crossfire last week. Senior officers from the Swedish capital have visited the southern city of Malmö, which has greatly reduced its shootings by using the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) methods pioneered in the 1990s in US cities. "They reacted very positively," Rolf Landgren, the police commissioner who leads the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) programme in Malmö, said. The shooting of the girl at a petrol station in Stockholm has led to renewed calls for police to clamp down on the gang violence that has resulted in close to 100 shootings in the first four months of this year alone. Police believe she was hit by a bullet fired at two men with links to a known gang. Malmö is on track this year to record its lowest number of shootings in a decade, with only nine registered so far, down from a peak of 65 in 2017. This is in line with results in US cities. A study of GVI in Boston found that it led to a 63 per cent fall in youth homicide. Mr Landgren said it had taken years of deadly violence before Malmö's police began to consider GVI – a method developed by David Kennedy, a criminologist, for Boston during the peak of its gun violence in the Nineties. "We had figures way, way higher than we had ever seen before. We needed to break that spiral," he said. In Malmö, the programme, called Ceasefire, was launched in late 2018. Known or suspected gang members are offered help to leave gang life and warned that if they continue to engage in gun crime, they risk continual police harassment. Suspects are continually targeted using laws that were designed to tackle football hooligans. The bullet-proof car owned by a 30-year-old suspected gang leader was stopped so frequently that he reported the police to Sweden's parliamentary ombudsman for harassment. The man has since been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, after drugs and weapons were found during a raid. He has appealed the sentence.
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| Japan's Abe to avoid visit to war-linked shrine on 75th war anniversary: Jiji Posted: 08 Aug 2020 10:59 PM PDT  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will refrain from visiting the Yasukuni shrine for war dead on the 75th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two, Jiji news agency said on Sunday, but will make an offering on the emotive day, as he has done in the past. The shrine, dedicated to Japanese who have died during past wars including World War Two, is seen as a potent symbol of the controversy that persists over the conflict's legacy in East Asia. "He will make a ritual offering to the shrine out of his personal expenses as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as he has done in previous years," sources close to the matter said, according to the report.
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| Chicago's Montrose Harbor blocked by police, fence after Mayor Lori Lightfoot shuts down large beach party: 'It's being addressed' Posted: 09 Aug 2020 02:07 PM PDT  CHICAGO - For months, memes have appeared to show Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot watching for crowds and threatening to close parts of the city if residents don't abide by orders and closures during the coronavirus pandemic. But on Saturday, Lightfoot herself - not just an edited photo of her, like those used in such memes - apparently had a hand in breaking up a large gathering at Montrose ...
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| Maskless woman filmed telling grocery store worked she could be sued for enforcing rules Posted: 09 Aug 2020 10:42 AM PDT  A maskless woman was filmed falsely telling a grocery store worker she could be prosecuted for telling customers to wear masks - insisting that she was from an organization called the 'Freedom to Breathe Agency'.The now-viral video shows the woman claiming she's from the 'agency', which she says protects people's "constitutional rights" and makes sure civil and federal laws are not broken.
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| Small farmers left behind in Trump administration's COVID-19 relief package Posted: 09 Aug 2020 03:12 AM PDT  The uneven distribution of funds is stark. The top 10 percent got over 60 percent of the pot, while the bottom 10 percent got just 0.26 percent.
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| Israeli military strikes Hamas target in northern Gaza Strip Posted: 09 Aug 2020 01:59 PM PDT |
| France and Germany pulled out of talks to reform the WHO because the US was trying to take control, according to a report Posted: 08 Aug 2020 04:58 AM PDT  The US, who said last month that they will leave the WHO in July 2021, is trying to dictate the terms, according to several European officials.
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| A Florida teacher wrote her own obituary, calling herself a 'human shield' as schools prepare to reopen Posted: 09 Aug 2020 10:28 AM PDT  As Florida school prepare to reopen August 20, a Duval County teacher wrote her own obituary in protest of the risks educators face from coronavirus.
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| How Leander Perez’s Vicious Racism Backfired and Saved Jury Trials Posted: 09 Aug 2020 01:56 AM PDT  All Gary Duncan wanted to do was prevent a fight between some Black and white kids. But when the 19-year old African-American lightly touched the arm of a 14-year-old white boy named Herman Landry in what he felt was a paternal, conciliatory gesture, Landry's response was, "My people can put you in jail for that."This was in October 1966, in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, at the height of the civil rights era. Plaquemines was, thanks to the oil and fishing industries, one of the wealthiest rural counties in the country. But it was ruled by Leander Perez, a Democratic political boss and one of the shrewdest, most virulent segregationists in the history of American apartheid. Which is one reason why Duncan, despite his innocent gesture, was arrested on the charge of "Cruelty to Juveniles," and why his case eventually culminated in Duncan v. Louisiana, a Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed the right to a jury trial for any and all serious crimes."The significance of Duncan v. Louisiana is less about the immediate impact of the Court's ruling than about the foundation that ruling laid," says Matthew Van Meter, author of Deep Delta Justice, a new book about the Duncan case and the Plaquemines milieu in which it originated. "Duncan v. Louisiana is the basis of five decades of jurisprudence that protects juries from racial discrimination, ensures that they come to fair decisions, and forces the prosecution to prove every relevant fact to them. These cases are still coming down: just this spring, in Ramos v. Louisiana, the Court overturned the non-unanimous jury systems in Louisiana and Oregon—citing Duncan v. Louisiana as its basis."Duncan's case would never have gotten as far as it did if the Plaquemines authorities hadn't belatedly realized that "Cruelty to Juveniles" only applied to adults with some sort of authority over the alleged victim, usually parents. So they changed the charge to "Simple Battery" which, although classified as a misdemeanor, meant a person could serve two years in prison and did not entitle Duncan to a jury trial under Louisiana law. In fact, all cases other than those in which the maximum penalty was hard labor or death were to be tried by a judge without a jury, and only death penalty cases mandated a 12-person, unanimous jury.Enter Richard Sobol, a New York lawyer who was staff attorney for the New Orleans branch of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (LCDC), founded to defend civil rights activists. Sobol agreed to defend Duncan, knowing that his demand for a jury trial would be rejected, and realizing his ultimate audience was the U.S. Supreme Court.In the meantime Perez, who was not only a racist but virulent anti-Semite (Sobol was Jewish), spent his time skimming money from lucrative oil and mineral leases (after his death his sons were sued and forced to return $12 million to the parish), plotting ways to undermine SCOTUS' decision to integrate the public schools, and engaging in vindictive behavior targeting Sobol, whom he arrested for practicing law in Louisiana without a license (Sobol sued, and won in federal court)."To me, Perez was not only vindictive, he had all this power in the Louisiana legislature," says Van Meter. "By the time the events in the book happen, he had been in office for 45 years. The thing about Perez also, segregation and Jim Crow were always about innovation, you had to stay one step ahead of SCOTUS, come up with new and novel ways of maintaining segregation. He was part of this team of lawyers working on ways to keep people apart. And he was pitted against people like Sobol who were trying to out-innovate him."Perez, who at one time built a prison camp for "racial agitators," was heavily involved in moving segregationist legislation through the state legislature, and in voter suppression efforts. He managed to establish segregated "academies" in the parish with tuition funded by public money and was so successful in his voting campaigns that from 1955 to 1960, only five African-Americans managed to register to vote in the parish.Perez also doubled down on his nastiness after SCOTUS ruled 7-2 in Duncan's favor, and Justice Byron White's majority opinion stated that "a right to jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government." But SCOTUS left open the option for a non-jury trial for "petty offenses." So, after the decision, the Louisiana legislature reduced the penalty for simple battery to six months, which White had defined as a reasonable dividing line between serious and petty crimes. Incensed by SCOTUS' decision, Perez then had Duncan re-arrested for what remained a non-jury offense. Sobol sued, claiming this was pure harassment, and won again. Charges against Duncan were finally dropped, nearly four years after the initial incident.Duncan v. Louisiana was part of what Van Meter refers to as a "criminal procedure revolution" that included Miranda v. Arizona (Miranda warnings) and Gideon v. Wainright (the right to a public defender). But although the ramifications of those two decisions are still alive and well, the Duncan case has been severely undercut by plea bargaining, which now accounts for over 90 percent of all criminal cases. "As more and more laws have been passed, it's entirely up to the prosecutor what to charge you with, and what sentence to ask for," says Van Meter, whose book is being turned into A Crime on the Bayou, a documentary in development at HBO. "What they come to you with is the most serious charge and say if you want to go to trial and take your chances, or right now we can plead you down to whatever. What reasonable person will take their chances on a jury trial? This is an unbelievably important case that just doesn't apply anymore."Still, Van Meter believes that the Duncan case, and its place within the civil rights movement of the '60s, has a lot in common with today's Black Lives Matter protests. "The whole thing about BLM is that it does not have charismatic leadership, and that's a positive resolution. Because Martin Luther King was mostly absent from Louisiana, the movement was local, and highly dangerous. In Plaquemines they were using demonstrations to draw out a response, and then hiring lawyers to take cases to federal court. They were working to orchestrate highly targeted events, and I think that is going on now. "It's this one-two punch using demonstrations in a targeted way to draw out the oppression of the government, and then using lawyers to take this to court. I think there's a way to learn how these movements sustained themselves for years under incredibly harsh conditions. I think there's a lot to be learned how local groups managed to win these big victories over many years despite conditions that are harsher than what we see today."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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| Eleven killed in Czech apartment block fire including 5 who fell to their deaths Posted: 08 Aug 2020 07:31 PM PDT  Three children were among 11 people killed in a fire on Saturday at an apartment block in the Czech Republic that police believe was set deliberately. Police said one person was detained in connection with the blaze that saw five people jump to their deaths in the eastern city of Bohumin near the Polish border. Regional police chief Tomas Kuzel told public Czech Television that police suspected arson was the cause and that they had detained one person in the case. "I think we are good when it comes to the culprit," Mr Kuzel said without specifying whether the detained person would be charged with arson. He likened the fire to a case in 2013 when a man caused a gas explosion and fire that killed three children and two other people as well as himself. He reportedly hated his fellow tenants.
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| Algeria eases more coronavirus restrictions, including travel curbs and curfew Posted: 08 Aug 2020 07:46 AM PDT  Algeria said on Saturday it will further ease its coronavirus lockdown, including shortening an overnight curfew and lifting some travel curbs. In addition, large mosques will be allowed to reopen, along with beaches, entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants and cafes. The North African country has recorded 34,155 coronavirus infections, with 1,282 deaths.
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| Despite federal guidance, schools cite privacy laws to withhold info about COVID-19 cases Posted: 09 Aug 2020 05:34 PM PDT  Federal guidance say those laws don't bar disclosure. Schools can publicly share coronavirus case counts as long as they don't identify individuals.
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| Ireland has a new coronavirus fear: Americans on vacation Posted: 09 Aug 2020 01:59 AM PDT  With little to no quarantine enforcement on visitors, some Irish business owners say they have had to take matters into their own hands.
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| Remains recovered after California Marine tank sinks Posted: 07 Aug 2020 10:12 PM PDT  Authorities on Friday recovered the bodies of nine people killed when a Marine landing craft sank in hundreds of feet of water off the Southern California coast, authorities said. The amphibious vehicle sank in 385 feet (117 meters) of water as it headed back to a Navy ship after completing routine training, the military said. The craft sank less than a mile from San Clemente Island off the coast of San Diego.
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| Trump signs executive orders related to unemployment relief Posted: 08 Aug 2020 08:08 AM PDT  Unemployment benefits at $400 a week were included, lower than the previous rate of $600 a week.
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| A 17-year-old high school student developed an app that records your interaction with police when you're pulled over and immediately shares it to Instagram and Facebook Posted: 09 Aug 2020 05:40 AM PDT  PulledOver is "like a community where you can share videos — you can see how other people are being treated," its creator told Business Insider.
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| Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas warns of layoffs if cities don't get federal aid Posted: 09 Aug 2020 08:10 AM PDT  The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, predicts cities will have to resort to drastic budget cuts and layoffs without more money from Washington.
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| A military veteran who was sentenced to life in prison for selling under $30 of marijuana is set to be released Posted: 08 Aug 2020 08:49 PM PDT  Derek Harris' lawyer told CNN that Louisiana prosecutors agreed to his client's release from prison after the military veteran served 9 years.
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