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US News:
Power to Prescribe | Full Measure
With the worst of the Covid nightmare hopefully in the rear-view mirror, there are lingering policy questions that will be addressed for years to come.
One important issue surrounds who controls medicine that could be harmful or lifesaving — depending on whose opinion you get.
During Covid, thousands of people with legal prescriptions found their medicine blocked by the local pharmacy.
Today, we hear both sides in a debate over medical freedom.
Conflict of Interest | Full Measure
If you’ve followed it on the news, you know members of Congress and judges have gotten dinged in the court of public opinion for having personal financial stakes in companies they have professional influence over.
Now the Wall Street Journal’s reporting sleuths have turned their attention to top federal officials.
They built an original database of financial disclosures and — as senior reporter James Grimaldi tells me — the resulting analysis raises a lot of questions.
Florida Veteran, Mother of 2 Missing After Telling Dad She’s Afraid of Her Ex, Family Says
Schwartz’s brother-in-law, Benjamin Schrupp, reported that Rachel’s last known location was in Spring Hill, approximately 50 miles north of Tampa.
Schrupp reported that Rachel told her father she was afraid of a former boyfriend named John Scorah.
Court records show that police charged Scorah with battery in April 2022. Schwartz posted his bond, and prosecutors dropped the case in October.
Rachel’s sister Elizabeth is attempting to raise awareness on Facebook.
Elizabeth posted on Facebook: “My sister has been missing as of Jan. 31. She was supposed to fly home Feb. 4. Her last message to my dad was that she wanted to come home, and she was afraid of her ex.”
Elizabeth added that after the disturbing phone call with her father, Rachel’s communications “went silent.”
Federal lawsuit over Ohio-Pennsylvania train derailment seeks free medical testing for residents of region
Residents who filed a federal lawsuit in the fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals along the Ohio-Pennsylvania line are seeking to force Norfolk Southern to set up health monitoring for residents in both states.
The lawsuit filed late last week by two Pennsylvania residents calls for the rail operator to pay for medical screenings and related care for anyone living within a 30-mile, or 48-kilometer, radius of the derailment to determine who was affected by toxic substances released after the derailment.
The lawsuit also is seeking undetermined damages.
Three days after the accident, authorities decided to release and burn vinyl chloride inside five tanker cars, sending hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.
Rail Companies Blocked Safety Rules Before Ohio Derailment
Before this weekend’s fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment prompted emergency evacuations in Ohio, the company helped kill a federal safety rule aimed at upgrading the rail industry’s Civil War-era braking systems, according to documents reviewed by The Lever.
Documents show that when current transportation safety rules were first created, a federal agency sided with industry lobbyists and limited regulations governing the transport of hazardous compounds.
The decision effectively exempted many trains hauling dangerous materials — including the one in Ohio — from the “high-hazard” classification and its more stringent safety requirements.
Amid the lobbying blitz against stronger transportation safety regulations, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks — all while the company shed thousands of employees despite warnings that understaffing is intensifying safety risks.
Norfolk Southern officials also fought off a shareholder initiative that could have required company executives to “assess, review, and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation.”
Courageous Cashier Outsmarts Knife-Wielding Man in Westlake Market
A split-second decision may have saved a woman’s life after a man with a knife entered a mini market in Los Angeles’ Westlake District.
Surveillance footage from Amaya’s Mini Market on Feb. 9 shows a customer purchasing items. He lingers, asking the cashier to get him something from the back wall behind the register, then he makes his move.
He pulls out a large kitchen knife from the plastic bag he was carrying and points it at the cashier’s waist.
“He attacked the lady telling her to open the register and the lady didn’t want to open it,” Rene Amaya, the store owner, said.
Timeline: Fourth flying object downed by US military in 8 days
Military fighter jets have shot down at least four aerial objects in U.S. airspace in the past eight days, highlighting the potential prevalence of China’s spy flight program that first came into focus when a balloon carrying surveillance equipment was downed over the Atlantic Ocean last weekend.
So far, the Biden administration has only confirmed that one of the objects was Chinese, but officials have confirmed it was tied to a major surveillance program run by China’s military, aimed to collect intelligence from nations that are of strategic interest to Beijing. Chinese spy balloons have been spotted for years in multiple parts of the world, including Latin America and the Middle East.
Here’s a timeline of recent events, as we know them:
AOC is big mad over Jesus-centered Super Bowl ads that encourage Americans to love one another: ‘Make fascism look benign’
The “He Gets Us” campaign spent $20 million to air two commercials during the Super Bowl.
One of the ads showed people from different background engaged in fights and arguments over politics, religion, and justice issues. “Jesus loved the people we hate,” the ad says at the end.
The other ad showed various pictures of children displaying kindness and compassion. “Back in Jesus’ day, children weren’t regarded the same way they are today. This made his teachings around the value of being childlike countercultural,” a description of the ad reads.
“Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults,” the ad declares.
Toward the end of the Super Bowl, Ocasio-Cortez condemned the advertisements and claimed that Jesus would not approve of spending such a large sum of money “to make fascism look benign.”
New York City pedestrians struck, dragged by U-Haul driver; NYPD bomb squad on scene
The New York City Police Department confirmed that a male suspect was taken into custody at Hamilton Ave and Columbia St.
The New York City Fire Department said eight people were injured.
The driver of the truck fled the scene after mounting a sidewalk in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn and injuring several people, The Associated Press reported.
The incident coincided with the start of the death penalty phase in the trial of Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist who killed eight people in 2017 by mowing them down with a truck.
Commentary:
The Case Against the Sexual Revolution | Louise Perry | EP 331
Dr Jordan B Peterson and Louise Perry discuss the current state of feminism, the corruption of porn, the gray areas of consent, and the failure of the sexual revolution.
The Constitution: The Civil Rights Amendments
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Americans began the business of reconstructing their country, and along with it, their Constitution.
Kurt Lash, Professor of Law at the University of Richmond, analyzes the three amendments that ushered in a new era of freedom for all.
WOKE Zoomer Exposes THE TRUTH On East Palestine Ohio Train Derailment As Pete Buttigieg IS SILENT!
Health concerns are growing in East Palestine as reports rise of animals getting sick and some even dying.
The train derailment is causing struggles not just for the animals, but their owners as well.
Taylor Holzer and his family run Parker Dairy, just outside the original evacuation zone. Holzer is registered with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a foxkeeper.
World News:
Deaths in the pandemic
COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community.
Google Launches ‘Prebunking’ Campaign in Germany to Fight ‘Misinformation’
AP News reports that tech giant Google has announced plans to release a collection of “prebunking” videos to teach Germans how to recognize false information before they come across it.
The videos will be promoted on websites like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. A similar campaign is also in the works in India.
The Prebunking technique focuses on the methods that make viral information, including information that Google labels as “misinformation,” so contagious.
The Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe claim that viral information about topics from coronavirus and climate change to elections and mass shootings, frequently use tactics like exaggeration, scapegoating, false comparisons, and missing context.
Google has been extremely worried about what it considers “misinformation” online for some time, going as far as to manipulate search results and increase censorship across its platforms to prevent the mention of anything that it considers to be untrue.
NATO Chief: Ukraine Using Ammunition Faster Than West Can Make It
“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” Stoltenberg said. “The current rate of Ukraine´s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain.”
According to some estimates, Ukraine is firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells each day, around a third of the daily amount that Russia is using almost one year into the war.
Speaking on the eve of a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers, Stoltenberg said the waiting time for the supply of “large-caliber ammunition has increased from 12 to 28 months,” and that “orders placed today would only be delivered two-and-a-half years later.”
The former Norwegian prime minister said that President Vladimir Putin has already begun Russia´s long-anticipated spring military offensive in Ukraine, “so we must continue to provide Ukraine with what it needs to win and to achieve a just and sustainable peace.”
Soldier in critical condition after Jerusalem terror attack
An Israeli soldier is in critical condition following an attack by a young terrorist at a checkpoint in Jerusalem
Gazan rocket-fire draws aerial retaliation; Netanyahu urges calm amid protests TV7 Israel News 13.02
1) Palestinian Islamists launched a barrage of rockets toward Israel’s southern communities – drawing an Israeli retaliatory response.
2) Thousands of Israelis flocked the streets of Jerusalem in protest of commenced deliberations of the government’s intention to enact aspired reform to the Judiciary.
3) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on Israeli opposition leaders to cease calls for public discord – as President Isaac Herzog floats an idea for judicial compromise.
‘Heads must roll’: Spanish government spends $276 million on trains that don’t fit in tunnels
The government purchased 31 trains for €258 million, equating to approximately $276,300,000, to replace its fleet in northern Spain, which is said to be aging and the railways poorly connected.
Renfe, the country’s national train operator, ordered the trains in 2020 and claims that it provided the proper dimensions to train track company Adif.
However, the manufacturing body CAF says the measurements were likely not correct. According to EuroNews, CAF flagged the error in March 2021.
Two senior Spanish officials have been dismissed along with a Renfe stock manager and Adif’s head of inspection and track technology.
Despite Spain’s Transport Minister Raquel Sanchez saying she was only just recently made aware of the error, Xavier Flores, Spain’s secretary general for infrastructure, says that he was aware of the problem months earlier.
Philippines, US armies to expand joint exercises amid regional tensions
Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Ryan, who led a U.S. Army delegation during talks this week in Manila, told the Associated Press news agency that Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea was “absolutely” on participants’ minds when they train.
This year, around 3,000 troops from the Philippine Army (PA) and U.S. Army Pacific (USARPC) are expected to take part in Exercise Salaknib, up from 2,200 last year.
The annual bilateral exercise is meant to boost both sides’ abilities to work with each other when required.
“PA and USARPAC are set to stage a scaled-up iteration of Exercise Salaknib in two phases this year,” the Philippine Army said in a statement Friday, adding that these would be held in the first and second quarters of 2023.
Protesters clash at drag queen reading time outside world famous British art gallery
At least one person was arrested according to multiple reports as police officers looked to calm dozens of protesters outside the Tate Britain art gallery in central London, roughly a mile from Westminster.
Emotions apparently ran high over the weekend as Aida H Dee hosted three children’s book readings Saturday while hosting Drag Queen Story Hour UK.
Dee, who took to Twitter to champion the day as a success, said it had been “one proper emotional day” as right-wing opponents were met by Dee’s supporters outside the gallery.
The Guardian said one individual was arrested after they levied “racially aggravated comments” at an officer.
Politics:
Right-wing coalition storms to victory in key Italian regional elections
Italy’s right-wing government received a resounding endorsement from the electorate on Monday as conservative coalition parties secured victory in the key Lazio and Lombardy regional elections.
In the first electoral test for Giorgia Meloni’s administration since coming to power in September last year, her coalition of right-wing parties secured more than half of the vote share in the two most important regions of the country.
Initial reporting suggests the right has comfortably retained control of the Lombardy regional government, home to the country’s financial capital of Milan.
However, Meloni’s governing coalition also seized control of Lazio from the center-left, which covers the capital of Rome.
The two regions account for more than a quarter of Italy’s population and generate a third of the country’s economic output.
Hunter Biden evidence piles up
More evidence that Joe Biden knew of Hunter’s business dealings, and are Democrats finally waking up to the crime crisis they caused? Jason Rantz broke it down on the Faulkner Focus. (February 13, 2023)
Steve Hilton questions the ‘State of Biden’ after the president’s State of the Union address
Fox News host Steve Hilton sounds the alarm on President Biden’s ‘laughably obvious’ lies during his State of the Union address on ‘The Next Revolution.’
Senators take aim at Biden’s support for bill giving illegals, Chinese Communist Party members right to vote
Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., are urging the Senate to take up a joint resolution that would stop the bill in its tracks, following the House of Representatives’ passage Friday of a bipartisan resolution of disapproval on the D.C. measure.
Prior to the House’s passing of H.J. 24, the resolution disapproving of the D.C. Council’s move, the Biden administration issued a memo stating its support for the council’s bill and its opposition to the resolution, calling it a denial of “true self-governance,” and evidence that D.C. “deserves statehood.”
“D.C. would even allow official representatives of the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign adversaries to vote in local elections in our nation’s capital, when their stated interests run counter to America’s interests. This is a dangerous, illogical policy that Congress has a duty to block,” she said.
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