News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
President Trump Participates in a Roundtable 4/29/20
President Trump Participates in a Roundtable with Industry Executives on the Plan for Opening Up America Again.
Amazon, Whole Foods and grocery delivery workers to strike Friday
In a flyer shared on social media, organizers of the “May Day General Strike” call on customers to boycott Whole Foods, Amazon, Instacart and Target, which owns Instacart.
Friday’s strike comes amid rising activism from workers at the companies, many of who have been exposed to and even died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Workers at the companies have been protesting and striking in recent weeks, calling for a series of worker protections including hazard pay, accessible sick leave and protective equipment.
Friday will be the first time they coordinate that activism.
Activist leading push to reopen North Carolina vows to continue after arrest
“Our protests will continue. Our civil disobedience will accelerate.
Our faith in the police has diminished. We will open North Carolina,” Smith said.
The arrests occurred outside of the North Carolina Executive Mansion, where hundreds of protesters rallied against North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) stay-at-home order, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
According to arrest warrants, all four of the protesters violated Cooper’s executive order by attending the gathering and not maintaining social distancing measures when asked by law enforce, according to local media.
Videos show new details of controversial police shooting at Red Line station — and the scramble by officers to tend to the wounded man
While cellphone video was released shortly after the shooting at the Grand Avenue station — with Mayor Lori Lightfoot calling it “extremely disturbing — the new footage provides closer views of the struggle as well as the scramble afterward as officers tended to the man and passengers squeezed by his body on the floor.
In one of the clips, the two officers are shown struggling for several minutes to handcuff Ariel Roman, 33, on the platform in the 500 block of North State Street the end of February after he was stopped for passing between two cars of a moving train.
The partners press on top of Roman while repeatedly demanding that he stop resisting.
Alleged kidnapper, rapist on state’s Most Wanted List captured in Philadelphia
Carlos Vizcaino, 34, who was on the state police’s Most Wanted List, was arrested with the help of the United States Marshals Service, authorities said. Vizcaino was seen outside of a home on April 21 via surveillance and was arrested.
He was charged as a fugitive from justice, state police said.
When he returns to Massachusetts, he will face charges of rape, armed kidnapping with sexual assault, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
He will also face drug- and motor vehicle-related charges related to other incidents.
Alleged cold case Livermore sex assault offender released from custody amid coronavirus concerns
On Friday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon granted Vien a bail reduction from his original $2.5 million to $0.
He was released on his own recognizance, over strong objection by the prosecution, with the condition that he must wear an ankle monitor. He is only allowed to leave the house except to go to court, or meet with his attorney.
The release is temporary, and will be reviewed again by a judge in June.
Earlier this month, the Judicial Council of California recommended local courts adopt new rules to help lower the jail population, including setting bail statewide at $0 for misdemeanors and lower-level felonies.
Vien did not qualify in this category of the new emergency bail schedule.
Vermont records zero new coronavirus cases for first time in nearly 7 weeks
Gov. Phil Scott said it was “great news” but cautioned that “one day doesn’t create a trend, and we have to look at the trend lines to see where we’re going.”
The Green Mountain State has seen a decline in new cases each day for the last several weeks – a trend also seen in the death toll. Tuesday and Sunday saw no deaths and only one on Monday.
As of Wednesday morning, Vermont has seen 862 cases and 47 deaths with 15,429 people tested for COVID-19.
The health department website showed that 11 people are currently hospitalized for the virus and 15 are hospitalized under investigation. Eighteen are being monitored.
New Jersey to reopen state and county parks, governor announces after protests
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced the change Wednesday on Twitter after hundreds of protesters gathered in Trenton, upset with the Garden State’s near-lockdown orders. New Jersey has had more than 114,000 confirmed cases and at least 6,442 deaths.
“Today, I will sign an executive order to: Reopen New Jersey’s state parks Allow golf courses and county parks to reopen,” Murphy tweeted. “This order will take effect at sunrise on Saturday, May 2nd. Social distancing will continue to be mandated.”
Currently, New Jersey is the only state in the Northeast to close its parks after Murphy signed an executive order affecting state parks, forests and county parks to support social distancing measures.
Texas woman shoots her 2 children and mother in ‘tragic’ murder-suicide after losing custody, police say
The father of the children called police Monday morning after seeing the bodies through a crack in the blinds from outside the apartment, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters at the scene. He had been trying to contact the children’s mother.
While a motive was not immediately clear, police believe the 38-year-old woman shot her 68-year-old mother, 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son before shooting herself.
Detectives were investigating how long the bodies had been in the apartment and what led to the shooting.
Drug proves effective against virus as economic damage rises
The U.S. government said it is working to make the antiviral medication remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible.
“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert. “This will be the standard of care.”
The news came as the U.S. government reported that American output is shriveling at an alarming rate in the biggest and fastest collapse since the Depression.
YouTube introduces fact checker info panels to editorialize user search results
The panels have already been tested in Brazil and India throughout 2019 and show up when a user searches for a topic that YouTube deems to be problematic.
This month, YouTube’s CEO controversially said that YouTube would remove anything that goes against the World Health Organization, a group that have been widely criticized in recent months.
Fact-checkers who are already in the program include PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and The Washington Post’s fact-checker.
Free speech advocates call YouTube’s removal of coronavirus-related video ‘egregious censorship effort’
The doctors, Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, have made the argument that the mortality rate of the coronavirus is similar to the flu and, therefore, shelter-in-place orders are overblown.
The doctors also called for businesses to reopen but were hit with criticism and attempts to debunk their claims.
The video accumulated over 5.4 million views before it was removed from YouTube.
“These doctors weren’t calling for people to cough on other citizens.
They weren’t even questioning whether injecting disinfectant might be a good idea.
They were using data to suggest a Sweden model of eased lockdown may be effective. That’s not damaging to the public to watch.”
Politics:
Ilhan Omar: Many Who Want to ‘Prematurely Reopen the Economy Aren’t Workers’
“Far too many of the people who want to prematurely reopen the economy aren’t workers, but the powerful and wealthy — those who benefit most from exploiting workers’ labor,” Omar proclaimed.
“The wealthy have a history of putting luxury over workers’ livelihoods, and this crisis is no different,” she added:
Omar’s assertion comes as citizens across the country gather to protest lockdown orders in their respective states, demanding officials reopen the economy so they can work and resume their livelihoods.
Pelosi taps 7 lawmakers to select coronavirus committee
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday appointed seven Democratic members to a newly created House panel meant to police the Trump administration’s coronavirus response efforts.
Pelosi had already announced that she intended to name the House’s third-ranking Democrat, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) to lead the committee.
On Wednesday, she selected six additional members, a mix of trusted lieutenants, veteran policy-writers and a vulnerable freshman to fill the high-profile positions.
It’s unclear if Republicans will participate in the panel’s work. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) may name up to five additional panelists, though some of his allies have encouraged him to boycott the committee altogether, attacking it as a political exercise.
World News:
Australia pushes for independent inquiry over COVID-19 origins in China
During a press briefing in Canberra, Morrison told reporters his government will continue pushing for an independent review of the virus’ origins and China’s early handling of the outbreak.
In Australia, there have been 6,746 confirmed cases, 90 deaths and at least 5,600 recoveries.
Tensions between Australia and China have been climbing since the former joined the United States in calling for an independent review.
Russia slams US arguments for low-yield nukes
The U.S. State Department argued in a paper released last week that fitting the low-yield nuclear warheads to submarine-launched ballistic missiles would help counter potential new threats from Russia and China.
It charged that Moscow in particular was pondering the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons as a way of coercion in a limited conflict — an assertion that Russia has repeatedly denied.
The State Department noted that the new supplemental warhead “reduces the risk of nuclear war by reinforcing extended deterrence and assurance.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry sees it otherwise.
Israel celebrates’ its 72nd independence; China aids Egypt combat COVID19 – TV7 Israel News 29.04.20
1) Israel celebrates its 72nd independence day, amid restrictive corona-related measures.
2) Egypt voices its deepest gratitude for China’s assistance in combating the spread of the corona contagion – signaling a warming of relations between Beijing and Cairo.
3) Libya’s eastern-based military leader Khalifa Haftar declares that his Libyan National Army was accepting a so-called “popular mandate” to rule the country.
Commentary/Opinion:
Why The Stimulus Bill Won’t Fix The Damage Of Lockdown (Pt. 1)| Glenn Beck | POLITICS | Rubin Report
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Glenn Beck (Author of “Arguing With Socialists”, Co-Founder of Blaze Media) about the financial problems that the US government has created in its response to the pandemic.
Glenn discusses how the government enforced shutdown will destroy countless jobs and small businesses.
He also shows how the stimulus bill and paycheck protection plan while being well intentioned, will not be enough to make up for the damage caused by the shutdown and may leave many Americans worse off as more taxpayer funds are funneled away from people who need help.