News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Houston-area man who left kids at home with dead mother charged with murder
Deputies went to his home in the 13100 block of Ashley Meadow Lane and were greeted at the door by the couple’s three children, who pointed to a bedroom where they thought their mother was asleep.
Deputies found the woman, identified as 36-year-old Charlene Armster, lifeless in her bed with a single gunshot wound in the back of her head, prosecutors said.
Armster later told officers he thought the woman was having an affair when he shot her, prosecutors said. He told police he repositioned her body and covered her up in blankets because “he did not want their kids to see her like that,” prosecutors said.
Cross-border smuggling tunnel discovered in Otay Mesa; $29.6 million in drugs seized
The 2,000-foot-long tunnel was discovered March 19 by law enforcement officers, with Mexican officers locating the entrance in Tijuana.
Agents searched the Otay Mesa warehouse where the tunnel ends after obtaining a federal warrant and seized about 1,300 pounds of cocaine, 86 pounds of methamphetamine, 17 pounds of heroin, 3,000 pounds of marijuana and more than 2 pounds of fentanyl inside the tunnel, officials said.
Officials said this was the first time five different drugs were found inside a smuggling tunnel. The street value of the drugs is estimated at $29.6 million.
Police: Missouri man charged with terrorist threat for coughing on customers, writing ‘COVID’ on cooler door
John Swaller, 33, has been formally charged with making a terroristic threat in the second degree, a felony in Missouri, according to a statement from the Cuba Police Department.
An employee complained to authorities Tuesday that a male suspect, later identified as Swaller, purposefully coughed toward other customers in the store.
He is the second Missouri man to be charged with making a terroristic threat related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Cody Lee Pfister was charged in Warren County after he allegedly made a video of himself licking items at a Walmart while asking, “Who’s scared of coronavirus?”
Buena Park man convicted of raping 2-year-old girl he babysat
Working under special conditions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Arthur William Robert Callendar guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 10, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Disturbing internet posts first tipped of investigators to the crimes, officials said.
“Callender was arrested in October 2016 after officers working on a Task Force with the Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation into several inappropriate internet postings involving a female toddler,” prosecutors said in a written statement.
Texas man accused of stabbing Asian family over coronavirus could face FBI hate crime charge
(Midland County Sheriff’s Office) (Midland County Sheriff’s office)
Jose L. Gomez, 19, is accused of stabbing three people inside a Sam’s Club in Midland on March 14.
He allegedly approached an Asian family of four, stabbing three of them, including a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old child, according to an arrest report obtained by Midland Reporter-Telegram.
“The suspect indicated that he stabbed the family because he thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with coronavirus,” a new FBI analysis report said.
The case is now being investigated by the federal law enforcement agency as a hate crime.
Landlord gives New York pizzeria free rent for donating hundreds of pizzas a day to overwhelmed hospitals
Sauce Pizzeria owner, Adam Elzer, says his restaurant is making 400 pizzas per day and sending them all to the city’s hospitals, NBC New York reports.
He told the news outlet that he wanted to make sure that the workers were still able to get something to eat while dealing with the outbreak.
“They’re running around from room to room, the hospitals are packed, and if we’re not sending food, a lot of them are not eating,” Elzer told NBC New York.
“Basically anywhere that we get a note from a nurse or a doctor telling us that they’re in need, we figure out a way to get them on the schedule and then we deliver to that hospital.”
Trump campaign donating meals to hospitals during coronavirus crisis
Since last Thursday, President Trump’s reelection campaign has been calling up local restaurants and ordering large amounts of food to be delivered to more than a dozen hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Washington state and Michigan.
The campaign has been placing these orders anonymously, but Fox News learned about the effort — and sources confirmed it.
And an Instagram post from the Chit Chat Diner said: “An anonymous donation providing lunch to some hardworking staff at Hackensack Hospital this afternoon. We are so grateful.
Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services Partner to Distribute More Than Half a Million Medical Supplies Confiscated from Price Gougers | OPA
The FBI discovered the supplies during an enforcement operation by the Department of Justice’s COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force on March 30 and alerted HHS which used its authority under Defense Production Act (DPA) to order that the supplies be immediately furnished to the United States.
In addition to the N95 respirator masks, the supplies found included 598,000 medical grade gloves and 130,000 surgical masks, procedure masks, N100 masks, surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitizer, and bottles of spray disinfectant.
“If you are amassing critical medical equipment for the purpose of selling it at exorbitant prices, you can expect a knock at your door,” said Attorney General William P. Barr.
LA Barred From Destroying Possessions of Homeless Residents
(Nathan Solis / CNS)
Homeless residents of LA claim police and city sanitation workers violate their constitutional rights by seizing and destroying their personal belongings including tents, legal documents, medications and other items.
Being homeless means lacking access to storage space and being forced to carry belongings wherever you go, homeless residents say in their complaint filed in July 2019.
After LA reported a 16% increase in the homeless population in 2019, advocates for the unhoused ramped up challenges to city-authorized sweeps of encampments and destruction of belongings.
Wilcox: Mr. President, Seal the Border Until the USA Is Back to Full Employment
At a time of record filings for unemployment assistance, America needs every citizen who is out of work to have a job.
In addition to the obvious health risks, we are undercutting the very possibility of economic recovery for most Americans when we allow low-skilled workers into the country over the southern border, or bring in foreign tech workers through H-1B visas and similar programs.
If President Trump were to seal the border in this way, it is a forgone conclusion that an army of anti-borders activist lawyers would file lawsuits to block the move. “The President doesn’t have the authority to do this!” they would bellow.
They could not be more wrong.
Sony Announces $100 Million COVID-19 Relief Fund Benefiting Medical Workers, Education And Entertainment
The relief fund is donating $10 million to various charities supporting the medical workers on the front line, Sony said.
The money will also be donated to finding ways to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“Through this fund, Sony will provide support in three areas: assistance for those individuals engaged in frontline medical and first responder efforts to fight the virus, support for children and educators who must now work remotely, and support for members of the creative community in the entertainment industry, which has been greatly impacted by the spread of the virus,” Sony said in a statement to the outlet.
Wisconsin doctor, husband targeted and killed, police say
The bodies of Dr. Beth Potter, 52 and her husband, Robin Carre, 57, were found by a jogger Tuesday morning in the UW Arboretum, a research and popular recreational area that includes more than 1,200 acres of forests and prairies.
Potter and Carre died from “homicidal related trauma,” according to the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Authorities have not disclosed the manner of their deaths, but UW police said the slayings were not by chance.
Beluga whales can’t stop staring at penguin roaming around closed aquarium
Beluga whales couldn’t stop staring at a penguin at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.USA TODAY
Infectious Disease Expert Says Anti-Malaria Drug Marks ‘Beginning Of The End’ Of Pandemic
President Donald Trump recently waived FDA regulations to allow the drug and others to be used to treat coronavirus patients.
Smith told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that none of the people who have been treated with the drug have had to be intubated, or put on a ventilator.
Smith called the drug a “game-changer,” and said it could put an end to this current crisis.
Armed Citizen Takes Out Female Shooter At Marijuana Dispensary
Det. White said the incident had been captured by the dispensary’s surveillance cameras.
“Once we get the video and we are able to look at that video, I think it’s going to give us a really good idea of what happened here,” he said.
Porter had a prior conviction for reckless conduct with a firearm in Tulsa County in 2017.
She pleaded guilty after an arrest on a domestic assault and battery complaint, according to Tulsa World.
Georgia man pleads guilty in plot to attack the White House
Hasher Jallal Taheb, 23, was arrested in January 2019 in Gwinnett County, where he was unwittingly the target of an FBI sting operation.
He thought he was buying a truckload of weapons to use in an attack, during which he planned to blow a hole in the side of the White House and also attack other targets around Washington, D.C.
He pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to destroy a federal building and is set to be sentenced on June 23.
“Taheb hatched a dangerous plan that would have resulted in unimaginable injury,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “We are grateful to community members who noticed his dangerous evolution and alerted law enforcement.”
Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime: Tom Homan
Commentary/Opinion:
Retired ICE director and Fox News contributor Tom Homan offers insight.
Politics:
EXCLUSIVE: Candace Owens tells Glenn Beck she will run for office: ‘I’ll win, and they won’t know what hit them’
Owens, who grew up in Connecticut, teased the announcement on Twitter just minutes before joining Beck on his radio program, saying that she was “honestly considering running for office” despite not having that desire ever before.
Beck brought up the tweet during the interview to confirm the news with Owens and ask what factors drove her to make the decision.
“But I am serious about it. I am very serious about it,” she added. “We have too many people that are too scared to look people in the face and tell them the truth, and I’m not one of them.”
Nancy Pelosi Announces House Select Committee To Assess Trump’s Coronavirus Response
Democratic California Rep. Pelosi told reporters that House Majority Whip James Clyburn will be the chairman of the committee,MSNBC reported.
The Democratic South Carolina representative recently endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden — just before the former vice president’s primary successes began to materialize.
The announcement is in apparent response to Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff’s proposal Wednesday that a commission should be established along the same lines of those created after the Pearl Harbor attack and the 9-11 terrorist incidents that assessed the country’s response to those pivotal events.
Democrats postpone presidential convention until August 17
The Democratic National Committee is postponing the party’s presidential convention in Milwaukee to August 17, the week before the Republican Party’s convention, a Democratic official briefed on the decision said.
The delay from July 13 came after likely nominee Joe Biden publicly called for the convention to be rescheduled in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s Guilty Of Having Hope!
Commentary/Opinion:
Apparently, hope is out of fashion these days.
Jason thoroughly breaks down the liberal talking points like nobody’s business in this episode of the Simple Truth.
Pelosi pushes ‘SALT shakeup’ stimulus that could reduce her tax bill and enrich her wealthy district
A 2019 report from the Joint Committee on Taxation projected that of those who would face lower tax liability from the elimination of the SALT cap – which only affects those who itemize tax deductions – 94 percent earn at least $100,000.
The government would lose out on $77.4 billion in tax dollars, with more than half of that amount being saved by taxpayers earning $1 million or more. Those earning more than $200,000 would reap most of the balance.
California’s 12th congressional district, which Pelosi represents, is among the wealthiest in the U.S., with a median income of $113,919, according to census data.
The average household income is $168,456 — meaning most residents would benefit from any significant cut to SALT.
Gavin Newsom: Coronavirus Is ‘Opportunity for Reimagining a More Progressive Era’
A reporter with Bloomberg News asked Newsom whether he saw “the potential, as many others in the [Democratic] Party do, for a new progressive era, if you want to call it that, in national politics and policy … and whether there’s the opportunity for additionally progressive steps … on the national and state level.”
The California Globe reported Newsom’s response:
World News:
Russia’s Putin orders non-working month to curb coronavirus
Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Putin said he was extending the non-working policy he ordered earlier for this week until the end of April.
He emphasized that all employees should continue earning their regular salaries during the period.
Putin said some essential industries will keep operating, and grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open.
“The threat remains, and experts believe that the epidemic is yet to reach its peak in the world, including our country,” Putin said.
[CCP Virus] COVID 19 Pandemic Shows Why It’s Dangerous to Rely on China for Medicine—Rosemary Gibson
Commentary/Opinion:
👇KEY POINTS OF INTEREST
02:55 What would happen if China stopped all drug exports?
04:53 Why is Big Pharma lobbying against a “Buy American” executive order?
11:29 The terrible, hidden costs of having global supply chains in China for medicines
22:06 Pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to explain where their products are made
27:56 “The free market will not fix this” because Chinese companies are massively subsidized.
31:13 The US must rebuild its manufacturing capability for medicines
US military moves air defense systems into Iraq following attacks on American troops
The weapons include Patriot surface-to-air missiles and a variant of the Navy’s SeaRam and CIWIS (“sea wiz”) which fires 3,000 rounds a minute, a defense official with knowledge of the order tells Fox News.
President Trump warned in a tweet Wednesday that Iran “or its proxies” were plotting a “sneak attack” on some of the 5,000 U.S. troops inside Iraq and vowed that if Iran followed through, the Islamic Republic would pay a “very heavy price.”
In recent days, U.S. troops have abandoned three bases in Iraq — including one where the American contractor was killed — and turned them over to local forces.
US delivers 128 anti-tank Javelin missiles to Estonia
(Staff Sgt. Jessica Smith/U.S. Marine Corps)
The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn said in a statement on Thursday that “the shipment will continue to build upon Estonia’s defensive capabilities and further strengthens our nations’ strategic integration” within NATO, of which Estonia has been a member since 2004.
The U.S. has provided Estonia, a staunch military ally, with more than $100 million in joint defense cooperation over the past few years, the U.S. embassy said.
In December, the Estonian Defence Ministry said the United States has allocated $175 million in military aid to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for 2020.
Israel ranks first for ‘general public safety’ amid COVID19 – TV7 Israel News 02.04.20
1) Jerusalem is stepping-up efforts to bring the spread of the corona contagion under control; as the number of newly confirmed cases somewhat diminishes.
2) A Hong Kong study has ranked the State of Israel at the top of an international index scale vis-à-vis ‘general public safety during these days of global crisis’
3) Defense Minister Natali Bennett insisted that Israel’s future humanitarian assistance to the Jihadist-controlled Gaza Strip must be linked with the humanitarian needs of the Jewish State, which includes Jerusalem’s demanded return of two Israeli soldiers that were Killed in Action during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Iran hits back after Trump claims it is planning Iraq attacks
The US and Iran are already at loggerheads over the impact of US sanctions on Tehran’s ability to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and the threat of a military attack on the US is likely to widen the dispute.
The Iranian army chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, said the recent spate of attacks on US bases in Iraq were nothing to do with Iran, but were “a natural response by the Iraqi people”.
He said US forces were being closely monitored minute by minute and any US attack would produce the most severe response.
Trump on Wednesday said that Iran or its proxies planned a sneak attack on American targets in Iraq, prompting the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, to hit back, tweeting:
Coronavirus: In France, professionals look to extend legal abortion time limit
© AFP Archive
Faced with the urgency of the situation, more than a hundred abortion professionals published an opinion article in the newspaper Le Monde on March 31.
They called on the government to extend the recommended time limit for home medical abortions from seven to nine weeks of pregnancy.
“This option is endorsed by the WHO and does not present any particular danger,” they wrote.
As for vacuum abortion, practitioners would like to be able “exceptionally, during the period of confinement, to perform vacuum aspiration up to the 14th week of pregnancy (a two week extension of the 12th-week maximum allowed by law),” Durocher said.
“These difficulties will force many women to keep their pregnancies against their will, threatening their autonomy and the future of children born under these conditions.”
UK pharmacists facing abuse and violence during lockdown
Police patrols have been deployed to some outlets as deterrents amid mounting day-to-day tensions, scuffles in queues outside premises, which are limiting the number of entrants, and incidents including the theft of one Midlands’ pharmacy’s stock by masked raiders.
“We’re doing our best, the NHS is doing its best and this type of behaviour is totally unacceptable,” said Claude Pereira, a pharmacist in Stratford where police were called after a customer smashed a glass door and threatened to kill staff.
Sixteen per cent of pharmacists surveyed by Pharmacy Magazine over the weekend of March 28-29 reported a rise in physical abuse.
Commentary/Opinion:
COVID-19 Patient Praises President Trump and Hydroxychloroquine Treatment | Part 2
In part 2 of this two-part special, Mayor Giuliani interviews a COVID-19 patient, Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, Founder of The Shul of Bal Harbour.
Rabbi Lipskar joins Common Sense by FaceTime to share the exact treatment he was prescribed, the symptoms he had, and the politicization he is watching play out amidst the battle against COVID-19.