[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A former US Army financial counselor pleaded guilty to defrauding grieving military families of millions of dollars in life insurance payments.
Victims of Caz Craffy's malicious alleged scam include a teenage girl whose father died, as well as a handful of military widows.
Craffy, 41, may face up to a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to all ten of the charges that were thrown at him, including securities and wire fraud, and making false statements.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: 'Those who target and steal from the families of fallen American servicemembers will be held accountable for their crimes.'
For more than four years from 2018 to 2022, Craffy - of Colts Neck, New Jersey - scammed members of at least 24 Gold Star families into transferring nearly $10million or survivor benefits into private brokerage accounts in his control, according to prosecutors.
Gold Star families are those whose immediately family members die in active duty while serving the country.
Survivors of the fallen can receive up to $500,000 in total post-death benefits.
The alleged fraudster conducted more than 1,000 unauthorized trades, losing more than $3.4million, and generating more than $1.4million in commissions that he pocketed.
Victims were under the impression that the Army was authorizing Craffy's conduct, when in reality he was a civilian employee of the Army. He is also a major in the US Army Reserve, after enlisting in 2003 - it is unclear if he will receive further punishment via the military justice system.
According to court documents, Craffy traded away nearly two-thirds of a widow's $400,000 investment account meant to fund her children's college education and aging mother's care.
He also stole $50,000 from a 13-year-old girl's retirement account.
The defendant's plea was entered before US District Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton, New Jersey.
He is due to be sentenced on August 21 of this year.
Recommended federal guidelines would put Craffy away for between 97 and 121 months (roughly 8-10 years).
Under the plea deal he entered, Craffy agreed not to appeal a sentence that falls within that range.
He also agreed to pay back his victims, using funds that include the proceeds from selling his home.
Craffy's job as originally intended was to provide basic financial guidance to Army families facing the loss of an immediate family member.
Had he not struck a plea deal, Craffy might've faced several decades in prison, if convicted.
'Nothing can undo the enormous loss that Gold Star families have suffered, but the Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to protect them from further harm,' said AG Garland.
Following Craffy's misdeeds, Washington lawmakers are now pushed through legislation that strengthens the military's oversight of financial counselors who assist the survivors of deceased service members.
The law requires financial counselors employed by the Department of Defense to submit records annually verifying that have 'no conflicts of interest' or 'stand to improperly benefit from their position' when they are hired.
#1
I did Survivor Assistance Officer back in the day. If I had found out this was happening to one of my families, it would have been quite a convoy of guys who would accompany me to talk to the guy about it. Just thinking about it....
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/17/2024 9:10 Comments ||
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#5
I did one Death Notification/SAO assignment in my career. It was enough. I have little doubt his Leavenworth time above room temperature will be very short!
#6
The Army separated Notification and SAO. With the latter, at least you could feel you were helping. Notification was the worst.
But, yeah, I suspect the guards are going to be distracted frequently.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] … from vulnerable victims claiming he was a psychic and promising them wealth and happiness if they sent him cash in the mail during two-decade scam
Patrice Runner, 57, defrauded 1.3million people in his international mail scam
Four co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty to crimes connected to scheme
A conman who swindled more than $175million from 1.3million elderly and 'vulnerable' Americans in a two-decade mail scam has been jailed for 10 years.
Patrice Runner, 57, operated an international mail fraud scam in which he pretended to be a psychic and promised wealth and happiness to those who sent him cash in the post, the US Department of Justice said.
Runner, who holds both Canadian and French citizenship, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in June 2023. He was found not guilty on four counts of mail fraud.
Runner, who authorities had been pursuing since 2014, was handed a decade-long sentence by a New York judge on Monday.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, which investigated his crimes, said after his sentencing that Runner's 'extravagant lifestyle, born on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end'.
Four other co-conspirators had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with his mass-mailing fraud scheme.
The fraud scheme, which began in 1994 and ran until November 2014, preyed on the elderly and those in desperate positions who were trying to get back on their feet financially.
Using the name and image of Maria Duval, along with that of another French psychic named Patrick Guerin, Runner and his co-conspirators would send letters promising recipients that her psychic guidance and talismans could help turn their lives around.
The fraudsters obtained the names of the vulnerable and elderly by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes.
When a victim would reply to one letter, Runner and his co-conspirators reportedly bombarded them with dozens of additional letters, with some victims receiving as many as 100, according to prosecutors.
Each of the additional letters reportedly also appeared to be a personalized written communication, with portions of it seemingly handwritten, and sought further payment from the victim.
Victims were directed to send payment - often ranging from $5 to $50 - to purchase various purported 'unique and supernatural objects', which were in fact cheap, mass produced trinkets, the indictment claimed.
They were also urged to submit payment to receive 'personalized astrological services and studies', which were never actually returned.
Prosecutors say that neither Duval nor Guerin had any role in sending the letters, did not receive the responses from the victims and did not send the additional letters after victims had paid money.
The letters sent in response were addressed to a New York-based company where employees 'threw the vast majority of responses from victims in the trash', an indictment said.
According to the Department of Justice, Runner used a series of shell companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong to conceal his involvement in the scheme while he was living abroad in multiple foreign countries, including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Spain.
Infogest Direct Marketing profited from the letters, according to court documents.
They were printed in Canada and driven to Albany, New York using a truck before they mailed out in large batches, of up to 50,000 at a time.
Runner denied breaking the law, telling The Walrus Magazine last year 'maybe it's not moral, maybe it's bullshit... But it doesn't mean it's fraud'.
He also bragged to the magazine about his writing abilities and claimed he could 'get the attention of someone, and at the end, after a few minutes, the person sends a cheque, to get a product, to an address or company they've never heard of'.
A grand jury in the Eastern District of New York indicted Runner in October 2018, and he was arrested in Ibiza in April the following year, before being transferred to a jail in Madrid.
He was extradited to the United States from Spain in December 2020 and on June 16 last year was found guilty by a federal jury.
In 2019, investigators with the United States Postal Inspection Service said they had been able to return more than $200,000 worth of cash and money order payments sent in by nearly 6,000 victims.
Along with pending checks and credit payments that were stopped, the investigation saved victims about $827,000.
As of last June, most victims hadn't received any money back, and officials said it will be incredibly unlikely most ever will.
#2
Patrice Runner, 57, operated an international mail fraud scam in which he pretended to be a psychic and promised wealth and happiness to those who sent him cash in the post, the US Department of Justice said.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A 35-year-old transgender biological male who identifies as a vampire has been convicted of allegedly sexually assaulting a mentally disabled 16-year-old girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Adam Hetke, who goes by Sabrina, was booked for murder just two weeks later in connection with the death of 28-year-old Vydale Thompson, who also had a mental disability.
According to the Waukesha County Freeman, in July 2021 Hetke approached the teen at a gas station, followed her to her home, and proceeded to sexually assault her while threatening to use a knife if she refused.
The victim only managed to escape by jumping out her bedroom window. She later explained to police that Hetke "told her that he was a vampire and that he would bite her if she didn"t do what he wanted."
Hetke was arrested a short time later and charged with first-degree sexual assault by threatening the use of a dangerous weapon and second-degree sexual assault of a mentally ill victim
Hetke frequently makes posts with gothic imagery online, going along with the claimed vampire status.
Courtesy of Skidmark, the Daily Mail has the usual photos and more here.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Needed: biological male who identifies as a Buffy a vampire slayer.
#3
Face it, although the Media and the progressives try to avoid the obvious.
Read Dr. Paul R. McHugh Transgender Study. He is a famous retired Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor and former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital.
His Transgender (Gender Dysphoria) research study (hated by the Left and the Liberal Media) was the work of over 40 years of collected data. He concluded it is plainly a Mental Illness called Gender Dysphoria.
A mental illness with factually collected data showing it is 4 to 5 times more sexually violent and/or prone to pedophile deviant practices. Plus, then there is a Swedish study shows transgenders are 20+/-x more likely to commit suicide than Heterosexuals.
Some collected Prison Transgender Inmate data crime data
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A New York City woman out on bail for allegedly stabbing a fellow passenger on the subway has been arrested yet again, this time in Philadelphia, just days after failing to show up for a court appearance.
Takeira Hester, 28, was back in police custody on April 13 after allegedly attacking two people, including a 1-year-old boy, with a "long knife." She has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, weapon possession, and reckless endangerment.
According to the New York Post, Hester"s alleged stabbing spree began around 8:30 am on Saturday. While making her way through a Center City neighborhood, she attacked a random 24-year-old woman, knifing her in the chest and hand.
She expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, and shortly after noon went on to stab the aforementioned infant in front of his parents and twin brother while the family was out for a walk on South 18th Street.
"We had two parents walking a stroller down the street with two twins," Philadelphia Police Captain Frank Banford explained. "It looked like this female just rushed up to them and nothing was said— completely random."
He noted that she "tried to stab both children but got one child," noting that the boy was knifed once in each arm.
As the Post reports, the infant"s father chased after Hester, and while she managed to flee, her bag was left behind. Law enforcement was able to find enough evidence inside to track her down, and a few hours later she was arrested.
Both victims of the random attacks were transported to nearby hospitals, where they were treated for their injuries.
Hester was due to appear in court in New York City on April 11 for the subway attack, which took place on October 26, 2022. The victim in that incident, who was simply trying to break up a fight between her and another passenger, sustained stabbing injuries to his neck, wrist, and shoulder.
She was held on $10,000 cash and $15,000 insurance company bond, and managed to post the former in February 2023.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Takeira Hester, 28, was back in police custody on April 13 after allegedly attacking two people, including a 1-year-old boy, with a "long knife."
[Outside] When Will Cockrell told me he was writing a book about Mount Everest, he couldn’t see the roll of my eyes. But he’s perceptive enough to have picked up on my lukewarm commitment to being interviewed, and so I felt a need to explain that there are already quite a few Everest books out there. My coffee table is in danger of imminent collapse under their weight; my shelves sag with Everest encyclopedias and memoirs. It’s been done, I told him.
Listen carefully, he said: This will be different. It will be the story of the entire guiding industry that was created on and around the world’s highest mountain. He planned to call it Everest, Inc.
That got my interest, because I put about a quarter century of blood, sweat, and tears into this "industry." I first went to the Big E in the early 1990s, which turned out to be the dawn of the commercial era on the Goddess Mother of the Earth. Following years of adventure in the Himalayas, I quit guiding 8,000-meter peaks after the twin disaster years of 2014—when an avalanche on Everest killed 16 Nepali workers in the Khumbu Icefall—and 2015, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 19 people at Everest Base Camp and a total of 9,000 people in Nepal.
[ABC] The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released a health advisory after multiple cases of human leptospirosis -- an infection that is associated to exposure to rat urine -- have been reported so far this year in New York City.
There were 24 cases of leptospirosis in the city in 2023, higher than in any prior year, according to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
However, in the first quarter of this year alone, there have already been six to date.
"For comparison, the average number of locally acquired cases during 2021 to 2023 was 15 per year, and 3 cases per year during 2001 to 2020," health officials said. "This year, 6 cases have been reported as of April 10, 2024."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Over 1,000 migrants gathered outside NYC City Hall on Tuesday ahead of a City Council oversight hearing focused on the experience of black arrivals.
The majority of attendees were from Haiti and Guinea, West Africa, and seeking more aid, better shelters and work permits, according to reports.
Only 250 people were allowed inside the 10am hearing, but hundreds more flocked to the park across the street.
Videos circulating on social media show the crowd chanting and cheering.
Some people were allegedly encouraged to attend under the false pretense they would receive green cards and work visas, and were led to City Hall by an activist group, a source told the New York Post.
City Councilmember Alexa Avilés, who serves as chair of the Committee on Immigration, organized the hearing to feature the testimony of undocumented African immigrants in the city's shelters.
'Today's hearing centers the experiences of Black immigrants in NYC and has turned out over 1,000 people,' Avilés said in a post on X.
'We must uproot the anti-Blackness that plagues our systems of care - this work requires dedication, creativity, and a city willing to fund our short, mid, and long term needs.'
A press released obtained by the New York Post said the City Council's Committee of Immigration and Committee on Hospitals held the joint hearing to 'understand how the [Adams] Administration is addressing language access barriers, cultural competency challenges, health needs and other roadblocks' new immigrants face.
The release stated that prior to listening to the testimonies, committee members heard from activists whose work focuses on providing services to African migrants, The New York Post reported.
A bill was also expected to be introduced during the hearing that would require the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), in consultation with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), to survey newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers to gather data on their skills, economic prospects, and barriers to employment growth.
'Black migrants, who are disproportionately harmed by every aspect of our immigration system, deserve language justice, dignity, and access to services,' Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote in a post on X.
The city has taken in more than 175,000 migrants, and are currently accommodating around 67,500, limiting them to a 30 day stay in a shelter to alleviate overflow.
DailyMail.com has previously reported on collapsing migrant programs as a result of racial tension between asylum seekers from Latin America and Africa.
Adams has estimated the city will spend $12 billion over the next three years to handle the influx, setting up large-scale emergency shelters, renting out hotels and providing various government services for migrants.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A woman who falsely accused former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trever Bauer of sexual assault has been charged with fraudulent schemes and artifices.
According to TMZ, the charge was filed against Darcy Esemonu in Arizona on Monday. A Maricopa County grand jury previously indicted her on the felony count.
In a video statement, Bauer said that the charge stemmed from allegations Esemonu made against Bauer in a 2023 lawsuit. She alleged that Bauer raped her during a 2020 encounter and that she became pregnant.
Bauer denied any wrongdoing in a countersuit, stating that they did have consensual sex one time in December of 2020, during which the condom broke.
He claimed in the countersuit that Esemonu told him she was pregnant and demanded over $1 million to terminate the pregnancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024 00:00 ||
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[189 views]
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#1
fraudulent schemes and artifices
...The schemes are bad enough, but the artifices...the artifices always get ya.
#2
Bauer lost a lot of $$$ when the LA Dodgers suspended him. All because of the fraud by Esemonu. Interestingly, it was because of discovery that Esemonu's texts were found where she bragged about tricking Bauer.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/17/2024 10:22 Comments ||
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#3
^ Actually, he's been accused by several wymyns of liking rough s3x, including choking. That was the original accusation by another wymyn who was so traumatized she had several more sessions
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2024 10:47 Comments ||
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#4
She should have accused Trump, she'd be a millionaire.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Joe Biden's administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak.
Federal officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries in order to help 'effectively respond to biological threats wherever they emerge.' "Most likely before any Presidential Debates can occur"
The announcement about the strategy comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics.
The program will rely on the State Department, the CDC, HHS, and the Agency for International Development, or USAID - to help countries refine their infectious disease response.
The White House on Tuesday will release a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program.
President Joe Biden 's former Covid advisor has admitted the pandemic may have been borne out of a laboratory leak in Wuhan.
Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.
The 50 countries involved is up from 19.
The U.S. has devoting billions of dollars to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for $1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.
Meanwhile, four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organization's members are flailing.
The cooperation among the 50 countries 'to ensure they are better able to prevent, detect, and respond to global health security threats.'
Over the next five years, the United States will work with these 50 partners 'to build, further strengthen, and sustain a level of demonstrated capacity in at least five [global health security] areas.’
The Biden Administration oversaw much of the Covid vaccine rollout, which saved millions of American lives. But Covid-19 will not be the last of the administration's public health hurdles.
Bird flu is on the rise nationwide, infecting poultry and cows after the virus was able to jump from the former to the latter. The second person ever to be infected with avian flu was reported earlier this month after catching it from a cow.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A mutant strain of monkeypox
…calling it that proves that someone, somewhere is raaaaaaacis….
with 'pandemic potential' has been found in a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The virus is a descendent of the deadlier clade 1 mpox strain, but has evolved to become even more infectious and better at evading tests than its predecessor.
The concerning discovery was made in Kamituga – a poor, densely populated gold mining town that is feared to be ripe for an explosive outbreak. So far there have been 108 cases.
'Without intervention, this localised Kamituga outbreak harbors the potential to spread nationally and internationally,' the authors wrote.
'Given the recent history of mpox outbreaks in DRC, we advocate for swift action by endemic countries and the international community to avert another global mpox outbreak,' they add.
The researchers are concerned that the 'highly mobile' population of Kamituga could be the perfect breeding ground for the new virus.
Miners and sex workers frequently travel to and from the town for work from neighboring countries like Rwanda and Burundi.
And 'many people with mpox symptoms remain in the community and do not seek care', the authors wrote.
The pre-print warns that the 'local healthcare infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle a large-scale epidemic'
The experts have called for the roll out of vaccines and drugs and for heightened surveillance and contact tracing measures to be deployed in the area.
Mpox caused an international epidemic in 2022 when it spread to more than 100 countries and killed hundreds of people - including 58 Americans.
That outbreak was caused by the more mild clade 2 strain, which is rarely fatal.
The outbreak that worried health officials then was primarily concentrated within the gay and bisexual male community.
It is not yet clear whether the genesis of the outbreak in the DRC was driven by sexual contact.
For the past year, the DRC has been struggling to contain a deadlier version of the virus known as 'clade 1', which kills up to 10 per cent of those infected.
The new mutant strain - named 'clade 1b' - appears to be just as deadly. Of the 108 cases, there have been two deaths.
It is believed to have emerged sometime between July and September 2023 in animals and jumped to animals.
As it spread in Kamituga it acquired new mutations that helped it spread - especially among sex workers.
Nearly 30 percent of cases were among sex workers, suggesting the virus spreads in a similar way to the one that caused the 2022 outbreak.
Some 85 per cent of people had genital lesions, while 10 per cent were hospitalized.
The research was led by Congolese scientists in collaboration with experts across Africa, Europe, the US and Canada.
The findings were discussed by the ministers of health of 12 countries at a meeting convened by the Africa Centres for Disease Control last week, The Telegraph reports.
In their latest assessment of Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction, the US said the mysterious state ruled by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has developed sprays and 'poison pens' which can spread deadly diseases.
The weapons are said to be designed to spread germs such as smallpox and anthrax which some experts believe is more dangerous than Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons programme.
The report by the US State Department, which monitors foreign governments’ compliance with arms control obligations, said: 'The United States assesses that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has a dedicated, national level offensive BW [biological weapons] programme.
How many decades have they worked on these projects without developing something they dared to actually use?
#8
Remember when Daily Mail wasn't really pushing Covid hysteria, simply poking fun at 'anti vaxers'. See, it was all simply sarcasm, my friend, now trust me this time. We are serious people, full of happy feelings for you.
[Federalist] The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday morning in the case of Fischer v. United States, one of the many criminal cases arising out of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Like defendants in a large subset of those cases, Joseph Fischer was charged, among other offenses, with obstruction of an official proceeding under 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2). Fischer’s case in the Supreme Court challenges whether the events of that day can be prosecuted using this obstruction statute.
Most of the justices seemed dubious, or at a minimum concerned, about the Department of Justice’s very broad interpretation of the statute allowing it to sweep in the kinds of conduct that Jan. 6 encompassed. If the court rules for Fischer, his case will automatically apply to all Jan. 6 cases that include a Section 1512 charge and radically change those cases, including the prosecution against former President Donald Trump in D.C. In virtually all instances, such a ruling would likely require that the Section 1512 charges be dismissed outright.
There are a number of different obstruction statutes in the U.S. code, but none of the others apply to Jan. 6. And Section 1512 itself is largely aimed at other sorts of conduct. Subsection (a) prohibits killing or using physical force or threats of force against individuals to affect their testimony or evidence they might have. Subsection (b) prohibits the same sort of obstructive conduct where the person uses intimidation, corrupt persuasion, or misleading conduct toward the witness.
Subsection (c), at issue here, was enacted after the Enron scandal and was aimed primarily at preventing people from destroying or altering their own documents to obstruct an official proceeding. Subsection (c)(1) is clearly limited to impairment of "records, documents, and objects" for use in official proceedings. Subsection (c)(2) criminalizes "otherwise" obstructing official proceedings.
[Business Insider] A slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. Tech titans like IBM, Google, Microsoft, finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and manufacturers like Dow all announced layoffs.
This year is looking grim too. And it's only April.
Nearly 40% of business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder think layoffs are likely at their companies this year, and about half say their companies will implement a hiring freeze. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees. Half of those surveyed cited concerns about a recession as a reason.
[Quartz] We’ve all heard the stories recently about electric vehicles sales falling short of expectations. Companies like Tesla have seen sales slow in recent years and automakers such as Ford have even slowed production of their own electric models. Now, we’re seeing what’s happening to the unsold cars that are out in the world already: they’re piling up at ports.
Across shipping hubs in Europe, unsold electric cars are filling storage spaces, with some automakers even looking to rent extra warehousing space to keep their shiny new cars shiny and new, reports Automotive News. As the site explains:
Several automakers have leased large areas in the ports for vehicle imports that so far have no customers for the cars. Logistics companies are also renting additional parking spaces outside the ports.
"This situation currently affects all European ports where large quantities of vehicles arrive," Gert Ickx, spokesman for the administration of the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.
The issue has been exacerbated by the rise in exports of Chinese electric vehicles, which are sitting in shipping hubs unsold while people argue over whether or not they pose a national security threat.
The Chinese EVs being imported into places like Europe have also been hampered by reduction in subsidies for electric car sales. Automotive News reports that a cut in EV subsidies in Germany has hit sales, leaving many cars stuck on docks with nobody to buy them.
Movement of vehicles around global shipping hubs is also being impacted by a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers, with fewer on hand to drive the cars out of ports and onto their next destinations.
[MAIL] Lawmakers are demanding answers after it was revealed the US is sending taxpayer dollars to a Chinese army lab to make bird flu viruses more dangerous to people. His work continues.
Eighteen members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) about the project, which was first revealed by DailyMail.com.
It is part of a $1million collaboration between the USDA and the CCP-run Chinese Academy of Sciences - the institution that oversees the Wuhan lab at the center of the Covid lab-leak theory.
In a scathing letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack last week, the bipartisan group said: 'This research, funded by American taxpayers, could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.'
The research comes as fears about bird flu rise. A farm worker in Texas caught the H5N1 strain that is racing through cattle across the US earlier this month, becoming only the second ever American to be diagnosed - and experts are bracing for more cases.
In February, it was revealed the United States government was funneling $1million to China to see if scientists could make 'highly pathogenic avian influenza' more contagious to mammals using gain-of-function research.
Government records showed the collaboration began in April 2021 and is scheduled to be funded through March 2026. The USDA previously told this website the project was applied for in 2019 and approved in 2020.
The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains of viruses to make them more infectious, and studying the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to research documents obtained by the watchdog group White Coat Waste Project and shared exclusively with this website.
It is being funded through the USDA and the main collaborators on the project are USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute - a Wuhan lab partner.
And it has been ongoing despite similar research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese studies may have started the Covid pandemic.
[Breitbart] New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan reportedly allowed a juror who celebrated former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss on social media to remain in the jury pool.
Trump’s unprecedented trial began Monday morning with jury selection, the first day of a process that could span two weeks. The trial could last until June.
During Tuesday’s jury selection, Trump’s defense attorneys tried to prevent a potential juror from staying on the case because she celebrated Trump’s 2020 loss, Fox News reported.
"They wanted to have a peremptory challenge to excuse the juror because they thought that she said she could be impartial, but had social media posts that apparently had her celebrating Trump’s loss in 2020," Trace Gallagher reported, "and so they challenged her. The judge said, ’Nope, she can be impartial. She stays.'"
Six jurors were seated Tuesday with six more prospective jurors needed.
[HILL] Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday he will vote for the "Republican ticket" in the November presidential election.
"I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country," Barr said on Fox News’s "America’s Newsroom." "And in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket."
Barr’s comments come in spite of past criticism of his ex-boss, former President Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. In December, Barr said his successor in a potential second Trump administration would have to be against the former president’s "abuse of government power."
"Trump needs people around him who will push back and help keep him on the straight and narrow," Barr said.
"During his first term, the main way that could be done is by pointing out to him how this would hurt his prospects for a second term," he continued. "Once he wins a second term, I don’t know you know what considerations can be used to push back against bad ideas."
Barr said Wednesday he thinks "the real danger to the country — the real danger to democracy, as I say, is the progressive agenda."
"And while... Trump may be playing Russian roulette, but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide, in my opinion," Barr continued.
Barr recently went after Trump’s call for Congress to shoot down the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), referring to it as "crazy and reckless."
"I think it’s crazy and reckless to not move forward with FISA. It’s our principal tool protecting us from terrorist attacks. We’re living through a time where those threats have never been higher, so it’s blinding us, it’s blinding our allies," Barr told The Hill in an interview.
#1
In December, Barr said his successor in a potential second Trump administration would have to be against the former president’s "abuse of government power."
Funny how we're never given examples of this 'abuse of power'...
[Washington Examiner] Former President Donald Trump has adopted as a centerpiece of his presidential campaign a promise that he will help defendants involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot if he is elected in November.
Trump has said he will undo the work of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, which has prosecuted nearly 1,500 people in connection to the riot, by vindicating those who have faced charges.
The former president’s habit of showing such sympathy and support for the defendants has drawn the gamut of reactions: praise, skepticism, fury. Some agree with Trump that the DOJ has unfairly punished the defendants, while others say Trump is disregarding evidence and that his rhetoric on the matter is insulting.
Here is a look at Trump’s promises and how he could execute them.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour told NBC News' Tom Costello in a shocking interview that Boeing's controversial 787 jets should be grounded on account of 'fatal flaws' that could cause the aircraft to fall apart mid air.
The interview, which aired Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, comes just a day before Salehpour heads to Congress to testify about his concerns surrounding Boeing's safety practices, in particular cracks caused by fatigue as a result of planes flying thousands of hours.
Salehpour said that through coming forward in the media and in front of Congress, he was going to save people's lives. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has also been summoned but it remains unclear if he will attend.
This week, Steve Chisholm, Boeing's chief engineer, mechanical and structural engineering said investigators have not found fatigue cracks on in-service 787 jets that have gone through heavy maintenance.
The pair are set to answer questions surrounding a string of safety incidents involving Boeing, notably the blowout of a door plugin that occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The panel plugged a space left for an extra emergency door on the jet, which was operated by Alaska Airlines. Pilots were able to land safely, and there were no injuries.
Earlier this year, the long time engineer laid out his allegations in in a Federal Aviation Administration complaint.
#2
Condolences to Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour's family on Sam's upcoming suicide. Or will it be a fatal traffic accident this time? The suicide thing is becoming a bit obvious.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Scientists from the European orbital observatory GAIA have discovered the largest stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, with a mass 33 times the mass of the Sun.The European Space Agency (ESA)reported this on its website on April 16.
According to astronomer at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Pasquale Panuzzo, a scientist can make such a discovery only once in his life.
“This is the largest stellar hole in our galaxy, and the second closest discovered,” he said.
It is noted that this kind of celestial bodies arise due to the gravitational collapse of large stars, and scientists classified an object called Gaia BH3, found at a distance of 2 thousand light years from Earth, as a “sleeping giant”.
Typically, black holes have companion stars from which they pull matter, accompanied by a light trail, but this was not the case with Gaia BH3, making it extremely difficult to detect the object.
According to scientists, Gaia BH3 became the third “sleeping” black hole that was discovered during the operation of the observatory. According to ESA, this is the first time that such a large stellar-mass black hole has found itself within the Milky Way; before this, such objects were observed only in distant galaxies.
At the same time, in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of 26 thousand light years from Earth, there is a celestial object approximately 4 million times more massive than the Sun called Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*). Unlike Gaia BH3, it formed from clouds of dust and gas.
As Regnum reported, on March 9, the Institute of Applied Geophysics reported a strong high-class M solar flare. According to space weather monitoring, the influence of solar X-ray bursts on the Earth’s ionosphere was at its lowest level during this period.
On the night of February 23, astronomers recorded the largest explosion in this solar cycle. The X6.3 class flare was the largest since 2017. And on February 22, the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported two powerful flares on the Sun in less than 12 hours.
#7
Re the image in the article; it reminded me of a book written by Gary Bates. Here's a synposis:
Alien Intrusion is the product of many decades of research into the UFO phenomenon, separating fact from fiction, and concluding that while some UFO phenomena are simply the result of optical illusions, hallucinations, fraud and the like, there are some that cannot be explained away with any kind of natural explanation. The author, Gary Bates, makes a very good case that the UFO phenomena that are real - i.e. that have been verified by reliable witnesses and that have no natural explanation - are of diabolical origin. In short, he demonstrates that “aliens” that have been encountered by thoroughly honest witnesses are actually demons whose UFOs are products of their preternatural powers. The demons use their preternatural powers to reinforce the faith of millions of people in molecules-to-man evolution and in the existence of “highly-evolved,” “advanced civilizations” elsewhere in the universe, frequently informing their dupes that they have come as saviors to save us from ourselves and to usher in a New Age of peace.
In the book he states that visitations can be halted by telling the "aliens" to leave in the name of Jesus. I suppose they wouldn't delight in a crucifix either.
#8
Off the "SETI scientists detect unexpected message from black hole on far fringe of Milky Way" pile...
Three cheers for the red, Black, and blue
(and our generous donors, and you,
without whom none of this
racist, socialist bliss
and queer studies could ever come true)!
[Bus Insider] In the decades before the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran was ruled by the Shah, whose dictatorship repressed dissent and restricted political freedoms.
But he also pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernization, allowing some degree of cultural freedom.
Under the Shah's rule, Iran's economy and educational opportunities expanded. Britain and the US counted Iran as their major ally in the Middle East, and the Shah forcefully industrialized large segments of the country.
But the Shah's increasingly authoritarian measures and his eventual dismissal of multiparty rule set the stage for the infamous revolution.
Still, for a period of almost 40 years, the Shah led Iran through a series of sweeping changes.
#1
'Authoritarian'? Possibly. Then again the fact that he was going after Land Reform might have had something to do with his exit. Especially since the mullahs owned upwards of 2/3 of the country.
#2
Iran was ruled by the Shah, whose dictatorship repressed dissent and restricted political freedoms.
Oh, the post civil war through the 1930s were not tranquil times of labor or civil rights in this country either. 'Modernization' is often times painful and bloody even in Western societies.
#3
One of the misbeliefs of conservatives is that democracy is natural. It's one of the hardest systems to operate and requires sufficient checks and balances and the obstruction of concentrations of power. Otherwise, history shows man naturally adheres to tribalism, territorial imperative, and hierarchies for order.
#5
#3 “Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, To Sail Beyond the Sunset
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ABC] The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released a health advisory after multiple cases of human leptospirosis -- an infection that is associated to exposure to rat urine -- have been reported so far this year in New York City.
[Quartz] We’ve all heard the stories recently about electric vehicles sales falling short of expectations. Companies like Tesla have seen sales slow in recent years and automakers such as Ford have even slowed production of their own electric models. Now, we’re seeing what’s happening to the unsold cars that are out in the world already: they’re piling up at ports.
[Breitbart] New York Supreme Court Justice 
