| Can Democrats turn Texas blue? Posted: 07 Mar 2020 10:06 AM PST  Republicans have carried Texas in every presidential contest since 1980, often by substantial margins. Both houses of the state legislature have been red for nearly 20 years. Despite all that, Democrats have eyed Texas as a possible game changer for a long time. As the second most populous state, Texas carries an Electoral College payload that could fundamentally shift the balance of presidential power.
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| Iranian Lawmaker Dies of Coronavirus as Infections Spread Posted: 07 Mar 2020 07:10 AM PST |
| Coronavirus may force Americans to avoid crowds and cancel cruises, health official warns Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:15 AM PDT  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans, especially those who are vulnerable, may need to stop attending big gatherings as the coronavirus spreads through U.S. communities, a top health official said on Sunday, as investors braced for another volatile week in financial markets. Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that after initial missteps distributing tests, there should be 400,000 more tests available by Monday and 4 million by the end of the week. In the United States, 19 people have died out of about 450 reported cases of coronavirus, which originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19.
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| Barr Increasingly Appears Focused on Undermining Mueller Inquiry Posted: 07 Mar 2020 07:13 AM PST  WASHINGTON -- Attorney General William Barr testified before Congress last spring that "it's time for everybody to move on" from the special counsel investigation into whether Donald Trump associates conspired with Russia's 2016 election interference.Nearly a year later, however, it is clear that Barr has not moved on from the investigation at all. Rather, he increasingly appears to be chiseling away at it.The attorney general's handling of the results of the Russia inquiry came under fire when a federal judge questioned this week whether Barr had sought to create a "one-sided narrative" clearing Trump of misconduct. The judge said Barr displayed a "lack of candor" in remarks that helped shape the public view of the special counsel's report before it was released in April.In fact, Barr's comments then were but the first in a series of actions in which he cast doubt not just on the findings of the inquiry by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and some of the resulting prosecutions, but on its very premise. In the process, Barr demoralized some of the department's rank and file and lent credence to Republican politicians who seek to elevate the Mueller investigation into an election-year political issue -- including Trump."I'm deeply troubled by what I've been seeing with Barr's stewardship of the Justice Department," said Nancy Baker, a scholar of attorneys general who studied Barr's first stint in the post under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. At the very least, she said, he has created the appearance that he does not "respect the long-standing norms of departmental independence."Some of Barr's defenders insist that he is suffering from a situation beyond his control: namely, a president whose running commentary on criminal cases he has an interest in has sowed suspicion about the attorney general's motives. In a ruling Thursday in a Freedom of Information Act case over the Mueller report, Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District for the District of Columbia questioned whether Barr had redacted portions of the Mueller report in order to protect the president.The department's spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec, said Friday that "the court's assertions were contrary to the facts" and that Mueller's team helped the attorney general decide what information should be kept out of public view.Nonetheless, the judge's criticism reinforced the impression that Barr has been on a mission to undercut the Mueller inquiry. In ever stronger terms, Barr has implied that Mueller was appointed in 2017 only because FBI officials rushed without reason to escalate their suspicions about the Trump campaign into a full-blown investigation.The Justice Department's own inspector general rejected that premise late last year, finding that the bureau's decision was justified by the facts. But Barr has assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate the matter further and has suggested that the inquiry might conclude that the FBI acted in bad faith. Investigators are also said to be examining the intelligence agencies' assessment that President Vladimir Putin of Russia interfered in the American presidential race on behalf of Trump.Last month, Barr appointed another outside prosecutor to review a case that Mueller brought against the president's former national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI. And in a second case that the Mueller team brought against Roger Stone, Trump's longtime friend, the attorney general overruled career prosecutors to seek a more lenient prison sentence, triggering a chain of events that the federal judge overseeing the case called "unprecedented."In those and other instances, Barr has never mentioned Mueller by name. But he has increasingly sided with the view of Trump and his allies that the special counsel's inquiry was baseless. As Barr put it succinctly in a December interview with NBC News, "Our nation was turned on its head for three years, I think, based on a completely bogus narrative."He has implicitly criticized both John Brennan, the CIA director under President Barack Obama, and James Comey, who Trump fired as FBI director in 2017, for actions related to the Russia inquiry. Noting that Brennan twice warned the Russian government not to interfere in the 2016 election, Barr said it was "inexplicable" no one warned the Trump campaign that the Russians had targeted it.He also said Comey refused to take the necessary security clearance steps that would have enabled him to cooperate fully with Michael Horowitz, the department's inspector general, in his review of aspects of the Russia investigation. But he noted that John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut who is separately investigating the origins of the Russia inquiry, has the power to compel testimony. "A decision has to be made about motivations," he said.The president's allies are eager to draw Barr more publicly to their side. At an expected upcoming oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the panel, is likely to question Barr about whether he believes the Mueller inquiry was necessary or justified.Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., another staunch defender of the president, has promised to ask the Justice Department to open a criminal inquiry into whether the special counsel's office mishandled the prosecution of George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.Both Barr's critics and defenders are carefully watching the Flynn case for signs that Barr is backing away from what had been an aggressive prosecution initiated by Mueller and inherited by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. More than two years after he pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government, Flynn reversed himself and asked to withdraw his plea. He claimed prosecutors had deceived him -- accusations that the judge overseeing the case has firmly rejected.Once Flynn recanted, prosecutors stiffened their sentencing recommendation, saying Flynn deserved up to six months in prison. But in January, they seemed to soften that stance, saying that probation was also "reasonable."Outside prosecutors have now been assigned to review the Flynn prosecution, along with other politically sensitive national security cases -- a level of second-guessing that has disturbed federal prosecutors in the Washington office and elsewhere.Even some of Barr's defenders acknowledge that the sentencing of Stone, a former campaign adviser to Trump, turned into a debacle for the department. Barr overruled the sentencing recommendation of four career prosecutors after Trump wrote on Twitter that Stone was being treated too harshly.The prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest. Faced with a backlash in his department, Barr asked the president on national television to quit commenting on the department's criminal cases, and associates suggested he was on the verge of resigning. But when Trump ignored him, Barr stayed put.While Barr insisted he made his decision about Stone's proper punishment based on the merits of the case, sentencing data show the move was extraordinary.A jury convicted Stone, 67, of obstructing a congressional inquiry, tampering with a witness and lying to congressional investigators. The government requested that Stone be granted leniency despite the fact that he had refused to plead guilty.That was the case in less than 2% of the nearly 75,000 criminal defendants who were sentenced in federal courts in the fiscal year that ended in September, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The Stone case also stands out because the government ended up seeking a lighter punishment than the federal probation office had recommended, although that recommendation was likely guided by information provided by the prosecutors who Barr overruled.Prosecutor rarely ask for leniency after a trial because it undercuts their ability to negotiate guilty pleas with other defendants, according to Douglas Berman, a professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law who specializes in sentencing issues. "They want to be able to say, and to have a defense attorney repeat to a client, that they are willing to cut a deal, but they are never going to offer this again," he said.In fact, a review by The New York Times of more than 60 federal cases in which a defendant faced at least one similar charge to Stone's turned up no instances in which the government recommended leniency after a trial. The Times reviewed cases in which defendants were sentenced after January 2017 and that were handled by two of the biggest U.S. attorneys offices: in Washington and in the central district of California.In at least nine cases, the government asked for leniency, technically called a variance from sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors typically cited other mitigating factors, including advanced age or illness, on top of a speedy guilty plea.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Nevada high court defends Tahoe bear activists' free speech Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:12 AM PDT  Social media comments about protecting bears that were posted by Lake Tahoe activists referring to a longtime wildlife biologist as a murderer constitute "good faith communications" protected as free speech, the Nevada Supreme Court says. The recent opinion doesn't end a lawsuit filed in Washoe County District Court in Reno.
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| Days After Rep. Matt Gaetz Wore a Gas Mask to Vote on COVID-19 Funding, the Virus Killed One of His Constituents Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:50 AM PDT  Gaetz released a statement to say that he was 'extremely saddened' by the news
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| The (rare) travel upside to coronavirus? You might have a swankier plane on your spring flight Posted: 07 Mar 2020 12:00 PM PST  The airplane shuffle is happening across the country due to steep international flight cuts by U.S. airlines amid the coronavirus outbreak.
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| America's housing crisis Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:00 AM PDT  Millions of Americans can no longer dream of buying a home. Rental apartments are also unaffordable. Why? Here's everything you need to know:What's gone wrong? From cities to suburbs to rural America, the cost of housing has far outpaced increases in salaries. Home prices are growing at twice the rate of wages, and there are fewer houses on the market than in any year since 1982. The single-family house, with a garage and a front lawn, remains a bedrock of the American dream, even as it recedes from many people's reach. Young adults are one-third less likely to be homeowners than the previous generation was at the same age, and nearly two-thirds of renters say they can't afford a house. The median single-family house costs about $280,000, with demand driving prices at the lower end of the market to rise twice as fast as those of high-end homes. Once the backbone of U.S. wealth, housing has become a civic, economic, and environmental catastrophe.Is renting any better? It's even worse. Nearly half of renters are cost-burdened — meaning they spend at least 30 percent of their income on rent. Since 1960, renters' average earnings have increased 5 percent as rents have jumped 61 percent. Eleven million Americans spend more than half of their paycheck on rent. They have little choice: After 2011, more than 4 million units renting for $800 or less per month disappeared nationwide. In trendy cities like Seattle and Austin, older, multifamily buildings are being demolished or converted into condominiums and co-ops. A minuscule percentage of new apartments are low-rent. Today, a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a two-bedroom rental in precisely zero U.S. counties; on average, it would take clocking 127 hours a week at the federal minimum wage to make paying for one possible.Are expectations too high? After World War II, home ownership went from a luxurious status symbol to a national priority. "A nation of homeowners, of people who own a real share in their own land, is unconquerable," President Franklin Roosevelt said in 1942. Zoning changes helped create the suburbs, as did improved cars and new roads, enabling people to live farther from work. Mortgage markets developed, and the rate of homeownership grew from 43 percent in 1940 to 66 percent by 2000. The size of houses per resident also doubled in that period. It became conventional wisdom to borrow as much as possible, buy the biggest house attainable, and hold on as the property steadily grew in value. But that's no longer feasible for many people: In 1990, 18 months of the median local salary could buy a house in 72 of America's 100 largest cities, Harvard University found. Now that's possible in just 25 of them.What's jacking up costs? Demand, above all. Houses are supposed to pass between generations, but Baby Boomers are living longer and staying put. People are also moving less than ever, down to 10 percent of the population annually. After the recession, private-equity firms and hedge funds spent an estimated $36 billion on more than 200,000 homes in ailing markets, and their strategy was to evict current residents and target the ultrawealthy. In New York City, homeless shelters have been filling at the same time towering new luxury condos rise into the skyline. Since 2011, the average cost of a New York condo rocketed from $1.15 million to $3.77 million. Even more perversely, nearly half of Manhattan's new luxury condos are empty.Why not build more housing? The cost of land and building materials such as timber and steel keeps climbing, and there are major shortages of construction workers. That makes it financially unfeasible to build low-income housing. In San Francisco, where the median one-bedroom rental goes for $3,700 per month, it costs $700,000 to build a single new apartment unit. "In a lot of cities, the market can't supply housing for people making less than six figures," said James Madden, a Seattle-based affordable-housing developer. Even when developers do seek to build dense rental or condo units with affordable prices, they run into NIMBY — the "not in my back yard" attitude of existing residents who insist that new construction and new residents will disrupt their views, schools, parking, and property values.Can NIMBY be defeated? Government initiatives can only achieve so much without current homeowners making concessions. California is plagued by crippling housing costs and widespread homelessness, but recently the legislature narrowly failed to pass a law that would have overridden local zoning rules to allow high-density housing. NIMBY is on vivid display in Lafayette, Calif., a wealthy town of 25,000 outside San Francisco. Gov. Gavin Newsom has said the state must build 3.5 million homes by 2025 to ease the affordability crisis, yet Lafayette residents were outraged by a proposal to build 315 new apartment units near a commuter train station. When developers and the city manager, Steve Falk, agreed to a compromise of 44 single-family homes on the site, residents went to court to fight that too. Falk resigned, saying he couldn't oppose such a modest plan amid a massive housing crisis. "My conscience," Falk said, "won't allow it."The racial gap in home ownership Scarce housing is behind a surprising number of social problems. Transportation accounts for about one-third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, and much of that is due to obscene commuting times in cities and suburbs with inadequate mass transit. (Four million Americans spend at least three hours every day driving to and from work.) There's a substantial racial gap among homeowners, with black and Hispanic Americans more than 25 percent less likely to own a home than whites. That gap, which is at least partly caused by redlining and racist lending policies, reinforces racial wealth disparities and impedes social mobility. The poor of all races are most affected by housing shortages and costs; by one estimate, there are now only 37 available affordable units for every 100 extremely poor households. In California, state lawmakers have allowed homeowners to convert garages into residential spaces and build small homes in their backyards, known as granny flats or casitas, that they can rent out. Ben Metcalf, the state's former director of Housing and Community Development, compares renting out parts of your property to growing "victory gardens" during World War II food shortages. "Your civic duty as a Californian," he said, "is you've got to convert your garage."This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, try the magazine for a month here.More stories from theweek.com Is coronavirus really a black swan event? China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim Former FDA chief urges government to incentivize localities to shut down their economies amid coronavirus spread
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| The new coronavirus lives on surfaces for "hours to a day," one expert says. Here's how to disinfect them properly. Posted: 07 Mar 2020 05:26 AM PST  The coronavirus tends to spread via droplets passed between people. But viral particles can also live on surfaces for a time.
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| Biden Says Would Cancel Rallies If Advised: Campaign Update Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:15 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden said Sunday he would follow the advice of public health officials if they suggest canceling Democratic presidential campaign rallies.At Pearl's Southern Cooking in Jackson, Mississippi, Biden put some antibacterial gel on his hands before eating and told reporters he would consider ending large events."We're listening to the experts and the CDC and taking advice from them. Whatever advice they give me we'll take," he said.His campaign later expanded on his comments, saying it will "continue to closely follow guidance offered by federal and local public health officials on the types of events we hold and how we execute them."The former vice president is leading in delegates and in polls ahead of voting in six states on Tuesday.Sanders Says He Would Cancel Rallies If State Officials Ask (2:23 p.m.)Bernie Sanders said Sunday he would cancel large campaign rallies if asked to do so by state health officials.Asked in an interview with NBC what he would do if his campaign was asked not to hold a big campaign event as part of an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus, the Democratic presidential candidate said, "Look, we're not going to endanger the health of anyone in this country.""We are talking to public health officials all over this country and obviously what is most important to us is to protect the health of the American people," he said.The Vermont senator is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in delegates and in polls ahead of voting in six states on Tuesday. His rallies have drawn large crowds -- including an event on Saturday in Chicago's Grant Park -- at a time when many events and conferences are being canceled because of the virus. -- Magan CraneComing UpSix states hold nominating contests on March 10: primaries in Michigan, Missouri, Washington state, Mississippi and Idaho, and a caucus in North Dakota.Democratic candidates debate again on March 15 in Phoenix.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, also sought the Democratic presidential nomination. He endorsed Joe Biden on March 4.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Jackson, Mississippi at jepstein32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan Crane, Virginia Van NattaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Ten die at collapsed China quarantine hotel; virus spread slows ex-Wuhan Posted: 07 Mar 2020 05:00 PM PST  SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Ten people have died and 23 remain trapped after the collapse of a hotel that was being used to quarantine people under observation for the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, authorities said on Sunday. As of 16:00 Beijing time on Sunday, authorities had retrieved 48 individuals from the site of the collapse, with 38 of them sent to hospitals, the Ministry of Emergency Management said. A rescue force of over 1,000 people, including firefighters, police forces, and other emergency responders, arrived at the site on Saturday night, authorities told a media conference organized by the Quanzhou government on Sunday.
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| Coronavirus: Trump's top expert urges vulnerable elderly people to restrict travel and avoid crowds Posted: 08 Mar 2020 10:15 AM PDT  Donald Trump's top expert on coronavirus has warned elderly people with underlying health conditions to restrict their travel and avoid large gatherings.Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC's Meet the Press: "If you are an elderly person with an underlying condition, if you get infected, the risk of getting into trouble is considerable. So it's our responsibility to protect the vulnerable.
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| If Biden’s the Nominee, Might He Pick Michelle Obama as His Vice President? Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:14 PM PDT  The good news for Democrats is that the chance that Bernie Sanders will be their nominee in the fall has receded. The bad news is that Joe Biden is no prize as a candidate, which adds urgency to the discussion about who can juice up his ticket as the vice-presidential choice. Party leaders are now hotly debating the topic.A popular line of thinking is that Biden's ticket must offer a bold choice that also ensures the kind of strong minority turnout that eluded Hillary Clinton in 2016. Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip whose last-minute endorsement of Biden delivered a South Carolina primary landslide for him, has a clear idea."I doubt very seriously you'll see a Democratic slate this year without a woman on it," Clyburn predicted to reporters. "I would love for it to be a person of color."Clyburn was echoed by Valerie Jarrett, who was a senior adviser to President Obama for eight years. She told CBS News that the Democratic nominee should "break with conventional wisdom and announce a running mate that's a woman of color."Jarrett was then cut off, so she didn't get the chance to say who she thought that running mate should be. But no one is closer to the Obamas. Few believe that Jarrett would have expressed the preference for a woman of color unless she thought that someone she's been close to for nearly 30 years was in the mix: Michelle Obama.The two have known each other for 30 years. In 1991, Jarrett, then deputy chief of staff to Chicago mayor Richard Daley, interviewed the then 26-year-old Michelle Robinson for a job. The Harvard Law School graduate impressed Jarrett. "She exuded competence, as well as character and integrity," Jarrett wrote in her autobiography. Jarrett hired her, was introduced to her fiancé, Barack Obama, and then took the couple under her wing by introducing them to powerful elites in Chicago. So began the rise of the Obamas to the White House. Why not time for a second act?It would certainly be popular with the Democratic base, and Biden would need the base to turn out in large numbers this November if he becomes the nominee. A poll last month by Stanford's Hoover Institution in conjunction with the Bill Lane Center for the American West and YouGov asked 1,507 registered voters in California whom they wanted as a vice-presidential nominee.Voters clearly expressed a desire for a woman. Michelle Obama was the choice of 31 percent of respondents. California's Senator Kamala Harris was second, at 19 percent; Minnesota's Senator Amy Klobuchar was third, at 18 percent; former Georgia state legislator Stacy Abrams was fourth, at 13 percent; and California venture capitalist Tom Steyer had 10 percent support.Normally the suggestion that Michelle Obama should be the vice-presidential choice would be viewed as out of the question. Michelle Obama is famously assertive, even pushy, behind the scenes. That's not a typical profile for a vice president. And because few people believe that an 82-year-old Joe Biden would run for a second presidential term, there would be a danger of her overshadowing him as a waiting heir apparent. And despite her popularity across wide swaths of the electorate, she has shown almost zero interest in working with Republicans or treating those she considers fools kindly.But Biden has professed comfort with and even support for the idea. In response to a question from an Iowa voter in February, he said he would pick the former first lady "in a heartbeat," although he suggested that both Obamas had found life after the White House "somewhat liberating." He had previously supported the idea in an interview with Stephen Colbert, last September, before clarifying, "I'm only joking, Michelle, I'm joking."But was he? "The Obamas have enjoyed three years away from the glare of publicity," a longtime Chicago ally told me. "But if Trump were to win a second term, he would complete his self-proclaimed task of dismantling everything Obama had done. If the way to guarantee that wouldn't happen involved Michelle running, it's not out of the question."And if Biden were to prefer an African American on the ticket, the other choices all present problems. Biden has said anyone he ran with would have to oppose Medicare for All, which would rule out New Jersey's Senator Cory Booker. The name of Stacey Abrams, an unsuccessful candidate for Georgia governor in 2018, is in the mix. But she has never had experience beyond a state legislature and also has a string of ethical controversies in her past that would be fully scrutinized in the spotlight of a national race.Senator Kamala Harris of California is a possibility. On the negative side of the ledger, she viciously attacked Biden in a debate last summer by unfairly implying that his past opposition to forced busing was racist. But Biden has rarely held a political grudge for too long. Private polls, however, show that when some black voters learn that Harris is of mixed African-American and Indian-American heritage, their enthusiasm for her wanes.A major obstacle to a Biden-Obama ticket is, of course, that Michelle Obama has expressed no interest in the idea. When she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018, she said she wasn't a candidate for office: "I've never had any serious conversations with anyone about it because it's not something I'm interested in or would ever do. Ever."Her husband agrees. "Let me tell you, there are three things that are certain in life: death, taxes, and Michelle is not running for president -- that I can tell you."That statement makes sense to many Obama allies. They point out Michelle Obama's longstanding disdain for the grubbiness of politics and its fundraising, the desire to protect her two daughters, and her unwillingness even to pretend to be friendly with people with whom she has disagreements. "When I had my photo taken with the Obamas after I became the first black chair of the Republican National Committee, she was pure ice," recalls Michael Steele, now an MSNBC contributor. "There was no smile, only a glare. And I never got the photo."But there are countervailing arguments. As a vice-presidential nominee, she'd have to campaign for only 15 weeks -- versus the two years that a presidential run takes. And she could probably avoid fundraising, if she insisted on it. Her two daughters are now both in college, and the mainstream media would largely continue to respect limits on coverage of them. And as for her alleged dislike of meeting swarms of people? "She could literally just show up at events, wave, not say much, and the crowds would love her," a Democratic pollster told me.Even with all that, the answer might be no. But there might be a sweetener that would prompt Michelle Obama to say yes. At an Iowa campaign stop in February, Biden was asked if he would nominate Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. After all, one previous president, William Howard Taft, made the journey from the Oval Office to the highest court, in the 1920s. Biden responded: "Yeah, I would, but I don't think he'd do it. He'd be a great Supreme Court justice."But I wonder if Biden's view is accurate. Obama, a former law-school professor, would enjoy the court's intellectual atmosphere. And who would more appreciate being on the nation's highest court? He would provide an alternative to Justice Clarence Thomas's black-empowerment conservatism and could provide the swing vote needed to strike down much of the Trump administration's legacy.Some Democrats are so taken with the idea of putting Michelle on the ticket that they have speculated that Biden could even choose Barack himself as his running mate. But a similar idea came up in 2016, when Hillary Clinton was asked if she would pick her husband as vice president. She admitted that the idea had "crossed her mind" but then shot it down as unconstitutional. "He would be good, but he's not eligible, under the Constitution," she told Extra's Mario Lopez. "He has served his two terms, and I think the argument would be that as vice president, it would not be possible for him to ever succeed to the position -- at least that's what I've been told."Everyone with whom I discussed a potential Michelle Obama candidacy said it would provide short-term pluses for a Democratic ticket by energizing it as nothing else could. Much of the media would be ecstatic and provide their normal fawning coverage of an Obama. But her presence on the ticket would probably create problems as well as opportunities for the Democrats. Regardless, party members worried about Biden's shaky campaigning skills and performance would cling to the choice of Michelle Obama like a life raft.Of course, most political observers with whom I spoke predicted that Biden would not pick Mrs. Obama. On the other hand, few believed that George W. Bush would pick Dick Cheney as vice president, or that John F. Kennedy would choose Lyndon Johnson as his running mate.Stranger things have happened in politics, and in the Age of Trump, they often do.
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| SNL Roasts Trump’s Coronavirus Response: ‘We’re All Gonna Die’ Posted: 07 Mar 2020 10:12 PM PST  "Well, last week we had six democratic candidates," Colin Jost said at the top of this week's "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live. "And this week it's become like my dad's favorite radio station: just the oldies." He then added, "I've got to say, honestly, I cannot be more excited for Biden-Trump debates. They're going to be the first debates that have to be moderated by a Jamaican nurse." "At this point, between Bernie, Biden and Trump, I think the next debate should be on that cruise ship and whoever can beat coronavirus should become our next president," Jost joked.Michael Che, meanwhile, said he finds it "hilarious" watching white people fight over Biden and Sanders. "I don't even care who wins, just as long as they beat Trump," he said. "I'm not even really a Democrat, I just vote not Republican. Democrats are like condoms to me. I'll use them because it's safer, I guess, but it doesn't feel good." SNL: Elizabeth Warren Throws Down With Fox News Host Laura IngrahamFrom there, Jost moved on to mock Trump's recent visit to the CDC, during which he suggested he has a "natural ability" for combating pandemics like coronavirus. "Oh my God, we're all gonna die," Jost said in response. "What does that mean he has a 'natural ability' for coronavirus? I don't know, guys, maybe Trump's born with it? Or… maybe it's brain disease." Che went on to report that the odds of he and Jost catching the disease were about the same as them landing on SNL. "And here we are, Colin, so we're both gonna catch it," he said. "Yeah, we had a good run, we accomplished a lot. Can you believe we both almost got to marry Scarlett Johansson?" Finally, Jost shared the breaking news that an attendee of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference where both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke last week, has tested positive for coronavirus. "Worse, it was the guy in charge of handling Trump's flag," he said, showing the photo of Trump making out with the stars and stripes.For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| As coronavirus cases pop up in US, so does a pop-up shop selling masks, hand sanitizer Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:28 PM PDT  Adilisha Patrom opened up a coronavirus pop-up shop in northeast Washington to sell supplies like face masks and hand sanitizer.
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| 5 arrests in brutal Brooklyn gang assault Posted: 07 Mar 2020 06:31 AM PST  Police have charged five teenage boys in connection with a brutal gang assault and robbery caught on camera in Brooklyn.
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| This 'isn't Mad Max,' Australian police say after 3 women get into a brawl while panic-buying toilet paper during coronavirus epidemic Posted: 07 Mar 2020 11:51 AM PST  Video from the scene shows a woman saying, "I just want one packet." But the person with the cartful of toilet paper says, "No, not one packet."
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| Argentina announces first coronavirus death in Latin America Posted: 07 Mar 2020 04:07 PM PST  A 64-year-old man died in Argentina as a result of the new coronavirus, the first such death in Latin America, health authorities announced Saturday. The Ministry of Health said the patient lived in Buenos Aires and had been confirmed with COVID-19 after coming down with a cough, fever and sore throat following a recent trip to Europe.
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| Coronavirus: Steps to stay safe Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:43 AM PDT  Dr. Jon LaPook with the latest on the virus' spread in the U.S., and what precautions you should take to avoid infecting yourself and others.
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| Trump impeachment: Key witness says Putin has US 'exactly where he wants us' Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:17 AM PDT  One of the former officials who testified in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump has warned that Vladimir Putin has the US "exactly where he wants us".Speaking to CBS's 60 Minutes in her first major interview since her testimony last year, Fiona Hill said that while the Russians did not invent the divisions in US politics and society they knew how to exploit them.
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| Grand Princess passengers prepare to disembark, quarantine; 'Don't get on a cruise,' health official advises Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:31 PM PDT  Grand Princess passengers ready to disembark Monday, while health official Anthony Fauci urges, "Just don't get on a cruise ship" to protect elderly.
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| Saudi seals off Shiite region, halts travel over coronavirus Posted: 08 Mar 2020 05:26 PM PDT  Saudi Arabia on Sunday cordoned off an oil-rich Shiite stronghold, suspended air and sea travel to nine countries and closed schools and universities, in a series of measures to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus. The lockdown on Qatif, an eastern area that is home to around 500,000 people, is the first action of its kind across the Gulf region, which has confirmed more than 230 coronavirus cases -- most of them people returning from religious pilgrimages to Shiite-majority Iran. Given the kingdom's 11 recorded cases of the new coronavirus are from Qatif, "it has been decided to temporarily suspend entry and exit" from the area, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
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| Europe’s Longest-Serving Leader Now Wants His Own Church Posted: 07 Mar 2020 09:00 PM PST |
| Italy has put 16 million people on lockdown to control the escalating coronavirus outbreak Posted: 08 Mar 2020 01:42 AM PST  Schools, museums, theaters, and swimming pools have been shut down in Lombardy and 14 other provinces. Italy has reported 5,883 cases of COVID-19 and 233 deaths so far.
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| Hillary Clinton says Biden's following in her footsteps Posted: 08 Mar 2020 11:02 AM PDT  Hillary Clinton said in a new interview that Joe Biden's path to the 2020 nomination looks similar to hers back in 2016.
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| Senator Cruz self quarantines after contact with coronavirus carrier Posted: 08 Mar 2020 04:57 PM PDT  Cruz "briefly interacted" with the person at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Maryland ten days ago, according to a statement by the former Republican presidential hopeful. "Out of an abundance of caution, and because of how frequently I interact with my constituents, I have decided to remain at my home in Texas this week, until a full 14 days have passed since the CPAC interaction," he said. Cruz is one of the highest-profile Americans to undergo coronavirus self-quarantine since the United States reported its first COVID-19 case in late January.
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| Televangelist ordered by New York attorney general to stop promoting ‘cure’ for coronavirus Posted: 08 Mar 2020 09:27 AM PDT  A Christian televangelist has been ordered by New York's attorney general to stop promoting a "cure" for the coronavirus to the public.The cease-and-desist letter was sent to the Jim Bakker Show after it had naturopathic doctor Sherrill Sellman as a guest on 12 February.
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| Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation Posted: 07 Mar 2020 10:45 PM PST  Wall Street could recover before coronavirus subsides – but the global economy won't be the sameNationalism and speculation have seldom had a better opportunity to combine forces as the one riding today on the coattails of Covid-19, known as the coronavirus.When Covid-19 leapfrogged from China to Italy, even ardent Europeanists normally appreciative of open borders joined the deafening calls to end freedom of movement across Europe's national borders – a longstanding demand of nationalists. Meanwhile, the money men speculating on government debt are performing a classic flight from Italian to German government bonds, seeking the financial safety that only the continent's hegemon can offer during any crisis. As if in a bid to remind us of the great contradiction of our times, Covid-19 is illuminating gloriously the freedom of money to transcend a borderless financial universe while humans remain as fenced in as ever.Meanwhile in the United States, President Trump is combining his standard call for taller walls with a fresh instruction to moneymen to "buy the dip" in Wall Street, rather than to follow their natural instinct to seek refuge in the boring but safe bond markets. A great deal will depend on whether financiers believe Mr Trump or not, and not just because this is an election year.If speculators do believe the American president, Wall Street will recover swiftly even before the epidemic subsides. The forces of xenophobic financialisation will then have triumphed and America's progressives will face an uphill struggle on every political front. As for the European Union, ruling elites will breathe a sigh of relief that a new depression was avoided and return to managing as best as they can the economic stagnation of recent times, tinged this time with a large dose of additional, coronavirus-reinforced, xenophobia.> Speculators will make a mint and nationalist forces will milk the ensuing discontent for all its worthWill Wall Street follow Mr Trump's advice to "buy the dip"? For now, the large players are in two minds. The drop in the stock market does not worry them as such. Their concern is that the recent bull market was running on increasingly suspect debt and that Covid-19 may have pricked a bubble that was going to burst anyway. Similarly in Europe, the worst spectre hovering over investors' heads is that large corporations, relying for too long on free money from the European Central Bank, may be downgraded from investment to junk-grade – especially so at a time of stagnant domestic demand and a collapsed Chinese import market.Taking a leaf out of the aftermath of the crash of 2008, and the Eurozone crisis that followed, bullish speculators are looking at their central banks, primarily the Fed and the ECB, to do, once again, "whatever it takes" to re-float their flagging fortunes. Two questions keep them up at night: will the central banks oblige? And if they do, will it be enough?The first question is easy to answer: governments are impotent on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States the federal budget deficit is already at a historic high, especially in the context of a tight labour market, while the Eurozone remains in the straightjacket of its fiscal compact. Therefore the central banks will be forced, whether they like it or not, to step up to the mark. Already we have seen announcements of lower interest rates, even of Japanese-style semi-direct purchases of government and private debt by the monetary authorities.But will it be enough for the central banks to throw more money at the Covid-19-infected money markets? Will the economy go back to where we were a month ago if enough liquidity is pumped into the system? Or will it resemble a slow puncture that demands increasing pump-priming to stay inflated? Moreover, will the new wall of public money push back the wall of xenophobia? The sad answer to the last question is instructive about the economic ones too.When a border closes down, it does not open again easily even if the conditions that caused its closure are largely reversed. This is a safe lesson from Europe's recent experience. Take, for example, Austria, which closed its border with Italy following the rise of refugee arrivals in the summer of 2015. For a couple of years after that refugee wave had died out, the borders remained shut. Similarly with the borders along the Western Balkans. Why is this relevant to the question of whether increased central bank liquidity will ameliorate the effects of Covid-19 on the economy? To answer, we need to remind ourselves of what happened after the crash of 2008.There were two responses to the 2008 crisis that saved capitalism from total collapse: the gigantic injection of liquidity into the economy by central banks, the Fed above all else; and China, whose government took it upon itself intentionally to build up the greatest private credit bubble in history to replace the lost export demand by a stupendous investment boost. The Fed's and China's intervention succeeded in re-floating global finance and putting stock markets onto the path of their longest growth spurt. However, the world did not go back to its pre-2008 ways.Before 2008, Wall Street played a crucial role in recycling non-US surpluses that were the repercussion of American deficits into global investment funding. After 2008, the refloated Wall Street could not perform that task, channelling much of the abundant liquidity not to fixed capital investment but to share buy-backs and other asset purchases. The result was that the post-2008 economy is characterised by savings being permanently in excess of capital goods investment. Since savings are the supply of money and investment its demand, the permanent excess supply of money explains the permanently low, or negative, interest rates. It also explains the downward pressure on median wages against a background of rising asset prices causing unbearable inequality and thus producing the political triumphs of xenophobic nationalism.In precisely the same way that the increased liquidity after 2008 failed to rebalance savings and investment globally, so will any renewed monetary "easing" to counter the ill effects of Covid-19 fail to return the global economy to its pre-February state. Of course, as happened after 2008, speculators will make a mint and nationalist forces will milk the ensuing discontent for all its worth.
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| 'The Only Choice Is to Wait for Death' Posted: 07 Mar 2020 07:22 AM PST  IDLIB, Syria -- Before the war in Syria, Idlib city, with its tree-lined avenues and white-stone buildings, was known for its calm, provincial air.Today it overflows with families who fled the war in other parts of Syria, swelling the population to nearly 1 million people.Some shelter in bombed-out buildings. Those who can't find shelter are camped in the soccer stadium, and more line up outside for food handouts.Residents are so used to the shelling that no one even flinches at the sound of an explosion.But for Syria's last rebel-held city the worst is yet to come.To the north, nearly 1 million people are living along roadsides and in olive groves in what is already one of the worst humanitarian disasters of Syria's brutal nine-year war.To the south and east, Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes are closing in, now just 5 miles away. When they reach Idlib city, its million residents are likely to flee, doubling the number of displaced people in the north.Dr. Hikmat al-Khatib, an orthopedic surgeon, urged his parents to move to a town to the north. But when it was bombed his mother decided to stay put."Her words shocked me," al-Khatib said. "The only choice is to wait for death."I made a rare visit into Idlib with a photographer and interpreter on Wednesday, crossing the border from Turkey. We were accompanied by relief workers of a Syrian charity and members of a jihadist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls the province.We found 100 families camped in the stadium, which has been converted into an emergency shelter.Amina Sahloul was sitting on the floor around a stove in a large underground room for women and children. She had arrived hours earlier, after fleeing her village in the dead of night, clinging with her five grandchildren behind her son on a single motorcycle."We came away because of the airstrikes," she said. "They started dropping cluster bombs. It was like fire raining in the sky."There has been no letup for the people of Idlib province as the forces of President Bashar Assad of Syria, backed by Russian air power, have smashed their way forward, demolishing towns and villages in the south and east of the province with punishing airstrikes.A cease-fire declared Thursday by Turkey, which backs Syrian opposition forces, and Russia, which backs the Syrian government, seemed to be holding on Friday but few believe it will last. Assad has insisted he will continue his offensive to retake Idlib province, and rebel groups have vowed to resist.At the soccer stadium, as word came across the radio that Russian planes were near, tension rose as people nervously scanned the skies.Earlier that day, when an artillery shell slammed into a nearby neighborhood, few people even looked up. The Syrian government fires rockets all the time.But when Russian planes begin a concerted assault, they use overwhelming force, laying down lines of repressive fire that force people to run for their lives with only minutes to get away."Whenever I hear planes I start running like crazy, I lose my mind," Hassan Yousufi said as he paced angrily around the men's shelter in the stadium. "I lived beside the highway for 45 years. I memorized the Quran and was just biding my own life. My brother was killed. The Russians bombed us."Outside of the stadium, life is on a war footing. The streets are busy with cars and motorcycles and women walk together in the main shopping street, but the city has only two hours of electricity a day and boys sell gasoline in plastic jerrycans on street corners.Idlib province has been free from government control for the length of the war and today is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group. But there were few armed fighters in sight in Idlib city, the provincial capital, on Wednesday.Police officers loyal to the opposition stand guard outside the governor's office and the police station which still bear the scars of fighting from the first days of the revolution.Billboards around the city bear glossy posters of uniformed rebel fighters, calling on people to join the fight."It is your turn to heed the call," reads one. "There is no honor without jihad," urges another, beside a military checkpoint.Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has been designated a terrorist group by the United Nations but recently allowed Western journalists into Idlib in cooperation with Turkey, which has wanted to build international pressure against Russia and Syria.On the front lines to the south and east, the rebels, by their own account, have taken a pounding."In the last one-and-a-half months we had a collapse," said Abu Ahmed Muhammad, an HTS spokesman. But he added that the Syrian government had lost many more soldiers than the opposition had, and had to bring in Iranian-backed fighters to retake the strategic town of Saraqib, which has changed hands several times in the last two weeks.Hours before Russia and Turkey agreed to the cease-fire, he warned that nothing would come of it."Both sides will escalate," he said "We in the HTS factions will never accept to de-escalate because the Russians are on top and they may not agree to a peace settlement."But most of the province's three million people are civilians, and they are desperate for an end to the violence. They cling to the hope that Turkey's growing deployment of troops into the province will stop the onslaught."Anything that makes us feel secure or takes the regime away from us is a very good thing," said Abdul Razzaq, the head of the emergency relief for the Syrian charity, Violet. His teams were still helping people flee villages on the front line and preparing in case of a mass evacuation of the city. "But Idlib city is huge and where to take them?" he said.An hour's drive north of the city, blue and white tents pockmark the rocky hillsides and olive groves of the border area. Camps for thousands of displaced families sprouted up from the early days of the war and over the years have turned into settlements of concrete-block housing, built with foreign assistance.Hundreds of thousands more people have joined them in the last six weeks, pitching tents beside the roads and among the rocky limestone outcrops in a densely crowded strip along the Turkish border. Families are sheltering in mosques and schools, empty stores and factories.Even those are not safe. A woman who gave her name as Umm Abdul fled her village three months ago and took refuge with her family in an old brick factory outside the town of Maaret Misrin. On Monday, she was out picking herbs with two of her children when she heard a sound like birds and looked up to see two missiles tumbling out of the sky toward her."I lay the kids on the ground and covered them with my body," she said. "They say if you lie down you don't get hit by shrapnel."She was knocked unconscious and her 18-month-old daughter was wounded but all three survived.At an emergency shelter near the Turkish border, Alia Abras, 37, pushed forward to speak. "Do you know the meaning of displacement?" she asked. "You are like stray dogs."Rescuers took two-and-a-half hours to dig her and her three children out of the rubble of their home in the town of Ariha a month ago, she said. It was the middle of the night but they were left on the street beside their ruined home because there were others still to be rescued. The whole neighborhood around the main hospital had been hit."We spent two days sitting in the street," she said until Violet's rescue team found them and brought them to the shelter, which houses 45 families in a shopping center in the town of Sarmada."I wish I had died under the ruins and my children with me," she said. "We lost everything my husband and I spent our lives building up. We are at zero."In a camp called Al Nasr, new arrivals have pitched tents just yards from the concrete wall topped with rolls of barbed wire that marks the Turkish border. Some are already building breeze-block houses on a hill facing Turkey.Four families were squeezed into one tent set up on top of the camp sewer. They had no other option, they said. Behind the tent, sewage drained down the hill into a fetid pool."No one else would take it," said Hannah al-Mijan, a farmworker and mother of seven. "We do not have money to build."The family had been displaced twice and without work they had fallen into debt. "We are below zero," she said. Her husband, Muhammad, shushed her, telling her not to shame them.This time they chose to live within 100 yards of the border wall. Were they not scared that this place would also be bombed?Al-Mijan shook her head, and gestured at the hill opposite. "That's Turkey," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Lori Vallow makes first Idaho court appearance since kids went missing Posted: 06 Mar 2020 05:53 PM PST  Vallow has been charged with felony child abandonment.
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| People are stealing masks and other sterile supplies from hospitals and research facilities amid a global shortage Posted: 07 Mar 2020 08:03 AM PST  As demand for masks increases, they have been reported stolen from hospitals and other facilities where they are necessary, like a Harvard lab.
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| U.S. coronavirus cases climb, states weigh stronger response Posted: 08 Mar 2020 12:04 PM PDT 
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "We are trying to contain the spread of the virus." New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced 16 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the New York total to 105, up from 89 the day before. In the United States, 19 people have died out of about 450 reported cases of coronavirus, which causes the sometimes-deadly respiratory illness COVID-19. The outbreak has killed more than 3,600 globally. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "If somebody is sick, stay home. If you feel symptoms, stay home." Cuomo encouraged the public to wash their hands with soap and avoid dense subway cars and public events. He warned that if the virus wasn't contained now, stronger measures may be necessary. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAYING: "What happens if you don't contain this spread? You would have to take more drastic measures. [FLASH] You'd have to do massive quarantine, which would be very disruptive to society and the economy." New York, California, and the state of Washington have all declared states of emergency in response to the outbreak. And stronger measures are on the minds of other governors. Washington's governor Jay Inslee was asked whether he was considering wide-scale quarantine measures. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WASHINGTON STATE GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE, SAYING: "We are contemplating some next steps, particularly to protect our vulnerable populations and our nursing homes and like, and we are looking to determine whether mandatory measures are required." As the outbreak spreads, daily life has been increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences canceled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News that people who were considered at-risk may want to take extra precautions. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SURGEON GENERAL JEROME ADAMS, SAYING: "If you are in one of those high-risk groups, we suggest you avoid crowded spaces. We suggest you avoid potentially, going on a cruise, or taking a long-haul flight. Because most people are going to be fine, but we want those folks who we know are at higher risk for complications to protect themselves." But some current and former health officials have warned that the federal government needs to do more than suggest people stay home. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER SCOTT GOTTLEIB, SAYING: "We're past the point of containment. We have to implement broad mitigation strategies." Scott Gottlieb is a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He told CBS News that a large-scale and economically painful response was in the best interest of public health, but that leaving such decisions up to local authorities is the wrong move. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER SCOTT GOTTLEIB, SAYING: "No state, no city wants to be the first to basically shut down their economy, but that's what's going to need to happen. States and cities are going to have to act in the interest of the national interest right now to prevent a broader epidemic. Close businesses, close large gatherings, close theaters, cancel events." Anthony Fauci, the head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, was asked on Sunday about quarantines in China and Italy. He told NBC News, "You don't want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, anything is possible, and that's the reason why we've got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak."
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| Kamala Harris Endorses Joe Biden as Rev. Jesse Jackson Officially Backs Bernie Sanders Posted: 08 Mar 2020 09:22 AM PDT  "I believe in Joe," Harris said
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| Egypt reports first coronavirus fatality as German tourist dies Posted: 08 Mar 2020 08:18 AM PDT  Egypt reported its first fatality from the coronavirus on Sunday, with the Health Ministry saying a 60-year-old German tourist, who had arrived in the country seven days ago and was taken to hospital in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, had died. The country has been rushing to protect its important tourism sector, reassuring people it is safe to travel there after an outbreak of the respiratory virus on a cruise ship on the River Nile. Officials said on Saturday the coronavirus had been detected in 45 people on the cruise ship, including foreign tourists, after the vessel reached the southern city of Luxor.
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| The Desert Town That’s Home to U.S. Drones and People Smugglers Posted: 07 Mar 2020 08:00 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Moctar raised his right hand above his head and from an almost impossible height poured hot tea into a glass as he recounted his latest trip to Libya transporting migrants seeking to make the hazardous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.The 72-hour journey across the border from Niger to Libya was perilous, with the list of potential dangers including attacks by bandits and Islamist militants to the more mundane of crashing into sand dunes or simply running out of gas. Luckily he reached his destination.He then stuffed his Toyota Hilux with pasta, canned tomatoes, sugar, flour and cooking oil for sale back home. It was one of dozens of such excursions Moctar, 30, has made over the years from Agadez, a sprawling cluster of low, sand-colored compounds huddling in the desert of northern Niger. Now it's also the front line of both Europe's anti-migration efforts and the fight by U.S., French and African forces against the spread of Islamist militancy. Increasingly, Moctar, who is not being identified in full because of the nature of his work, and other smugglers are finding times tough because of the crackdown on trafficking by the Nigerien authorities in cooperation with European nations. Sometimes he turns to smuggling the opioid tramadol, which is popular in neighboring Nigeria."The trafficking of migrants continues, the only difference is now sometimes I fill up the car with drugs, mostly tramadol, when I can't find enough migrants," he said. "If you're taking the risk of breaking the law, there's no point holding back. You might as well go big, at least that'll make it worth the risk." Agadez's role as a hub for trans-Saharan trade dates back centuries — from salt caravans in the 15th century to illicit convoys of migrants."People here live off migrants, it's how we feed our families," said 38-year-old Andre, who's been driving migrants from Agadez, a city of about 100,000 people, to southern Libya since 2007, but these days struggles to find work. "The authorities treat us like criminals when we are just trying to do our job. I know at least two dozen people who have become bandits for lack of work."Today Agadez is playing a new role in the region as home to Air Base 201, where American forces target insurgents affiliated to al-Qaeda and Islamic State in cooperation with the French military throughout the Sahel, an arid area on the southern fringe of the Sahara. The expanded U.S. profile in the region was highlighted in 2017 when four American soldiers died in an ambush in Niger."With Mali and Burkina Faso having lost control of large swaths of territory and the presence of the jihadists' bases, the risk is that they link battlefields across the Sahel," said Frank Van der Mueren, head of the European Union's civilian capacity-building mission in Niger, known as EUCAP Sahel Niger. Niger is now seen by the Europeans as a strategic partner and a "lock on the door'' for security in the Sahel, he said. The Nigerien authorities passed a law in 2015 that made trafficking in migrants a criminal offense and reinforced border patrols. A quarter of the 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in aid the EU has provided Niger over the 2017-20 period has gone to policies to curb migration. The Nigerien measure followed an agreement between African and European leaders to a common approach to address the root causes of migration amid a surge of arrivals by sea and on land at the EU's external borders, with more than 1 million asylum seekers and migrants trying to reach EU member states that year. In 2018, the EU border control authority Frontex opened its first Risk Analysis Cell on the continent in Niger's capital, Niamey, about 950 kilometers (590 miles) southwest of Agadez.The efforts appear to be working. In 2018, illegal crossings on the Niger route plunged by 80% to 23,000, the lowest number since 2012, according to Frontex.At the same time, migration has now picked up along a western route through Morocco, and prompted smugglers to forge new, more dangerous routes through its eastern neighbor Chad, the European Council on Foreign Relations said in an October 2019 policy brief.And some of Niger's tougher measures on migration have fueled concerns that they're worsening security."The largely military approach has pushed the traffic underground and reinforced criminal networks, including the militias in Libya and some terrorist groups," said Mohamed Anacko, the president of Agadez's regional council.Competition over drug trafficking routes between ethnic militias in the tri-border area between Niger, Chad and Libya further risks destabilizing northern Niger."The situation in Libya boosts the development of transnational border crime and the circulation of arms that reinforces the armed actors and feeds into the conflicts across the Sahel," said Niger's interior minister, Mohamed Bazoum. "The conflict in Libya is fuel on the fire."The exploration of new gold deposits and oil with the construction of a $5 billion oil pipeline by the China National Petroleum Corp., from the Agadem fields in northeastern Niger, brings its own risks. Small-scale gold mining is an increasingly important source of revenue for jihadists operating in the Sahel, including Niger.In northern Niger, most people live off farming, construction work, seasonal migration to Libya and the migrants who still pass though. At one point, young men left to fight with the rebels in Libya, until the spread of Islamic State made the situation there too dangerous.Until 2015, migration-related activities contributed as much as $100 million per year to the regional economy around Agadez, according to the International Crisis Group, citing local authorities in a recent report. At one point, the industry was estimated to support more than half of the households in the town.Authorities managed local conflicts by turning a blind eye to former ethnic Tuareg rebels-turned-smugglers running unofficial travel agencies and moving people, gold, drugs and pasta across the desert. Travel agents made as much as $5,000 a week, employing drivers, cooks, guards and coaxers who picked up migrants from bus stops and brought them to so-called ghettos, or migrant housing, in town.Today, they've seen their revenue dwindles.Dealing with illegal migration by banning the movement of contraband goods and people could be counter-productive, said William Assanvo, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar, Senegal."In some areas, contraband and illicit activities is simply the way in which people are making an income and how the economy is structured," Assanvo said.The U.S. drone base hasn't been much help, either. For a few months in 2017, Agadez residents were bused to the base to help elongate the airstrip for the armed drones that started taking off last year. When that was done, the offers of work quickly dried up."First, the tourists stopped coming," said Surajh Rabiou, a craftsman selling jewelry and wooden carvings near the town's mosque. "Then Europe decided to shut down migration, so we lost that income too. Now the American troops are here, but they don't buy my jewelry like the tourists used to do."\--With assistance from Pauline Bax and Jeremy Diamond.To contact the author of this story: Katarina Hoije in Accra at khoije@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Paul RichardsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Coronavirus: US deaths rise to 19 as New York declares state of emergency Posted: 07 Mar 2020 02:26 PM PST  * Florida officials announce two deaths, the first on the east coast * US has at least 400 confirmed cases of coronavirusThe death toll from coronavirus in the United States rose on Saturday afternoon to 19 people, as authorities announced two deaths in Florida, the first US deaths outside the west coast, two more in Washington state – and the governor of New York declared a state of emergency.Across the country, there were at least 400 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments.More than 3,000 people remained quarantined on the Grand Princess, a cruise ship moored off the coast of San Francisco, California, as authorities tested crew members and passengers among those from 50 countries onboard.At least 21 of those had tested positive for the virus, and Donald Trump said Friday that he preferred the passengers stay onboard the ship, so they would not increase the number of coronavirus cases on American soil."I like the numbers being where they are," Trump said, in widely criticized remarks. "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault."The head of the US Food and Drug Administration said in a rare Saturday briefing that materials for 2.1m coronavirus tests will have been shipped to non-public US labs by Monday, as the Trump administration aimed to counter criticism that its response to the disease has been sluggish and confusing.Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, told reporters at the White House that manufacturers have told the agency they believe that by the end of next week they could scale up to a capacity of 4m additional tests.New efforts have been announced to prevent the spread of disease and protect vulnerable people. Officials in Seattle, Washington, which has one of the largest populations of homeless people in the country, are setting up locations for homeless people who might need treatment or self-quarantine for coronavirus.On Friday, the gig economy organizing group Gig Workers Rising had published a petition asking chief executives at Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, Instacart, DoorDash, Postmates and Handy to give workers paid sick time off during the coronavirus outbreak.On Friday night, an Uber executive made a partial response to concerns about gig economy workers' vulnerability to contagion, saying the company would pay drivers and couriers diagnosed with the Covid-19 novel coronavirus, or quarantined by public health officials for up to 14 days, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.Meanwhile, the number of cases of coronavirus continued to rise across the country, fueling continued concerns about whether the nation's healthcare system was prepared for the additional strain.Andrew Cuomo, New York state's governor, announced there were at least 76 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state as of early Saturday afternoon, a jump of 21 overnight, and that he was declaring a state of emergency, which allows a state to take special control of funds and resources.He criticized the Trump administration, where the vice-president, who has been put in charge of containing the crisis, and the president, have been speaking at cross-purposes.On Thursday Mike Pence, the vice-president, said there were not enough coronavirus testing kits available in the US to meet medical demand, but on Friday afternoon Donald Trump said there was testing available for all who needed it."That has caused consternation, anxiety," Cuomo said on Saturday. "You know what's worse than the virus? The anxiety, and the fear and the confusion."There is a growing sense that the US government is not fully in control of preparing for and managing either various aspects of the medical situation or public information.The White House "should have been telling every hospital to be prepared to see these cases, knowing how to manage bed space in hospitals if this gets bad and preparing the public for the fact that we're going to be facing a pandemic rather than saying it's containable," Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and an infectious-disease physician, told the Washington Post. "The idea of containment requires a lot of public health resources that can be better spent."The US capital, Washington DC, reported its first presumptive case on Saturday evening.In the Pacific north-west state of Washington, the main center of the outbreak and death toll so far in the United States, healthcare providers said medical supplies, including masks, are growing scarce, the Seattle Times reported.And in Washington DC, financial regulators made contingency plans for how to oversee financial markets as the coronavirus closes in on the capital. Officials said Friday that the first three cases of the pneumonia-like disease had been diagnosed in Montgomery county, Maryland, home to thousands of federal workers who commute to nearby Washington daily.Concerns about coronavirus led to the cancellation of major events, including South by Southwest, a tech, music and film conference that typically draws more than 400,000 people to Austin, Texas, in late March.Similarly, the forthcoming women's world hockey championships in Canada were canceled Saturday. In California, the San Francisco Symphony has cancelled performances at its symphony hall through 20 March.At least two universities on the west coast announced that they would temporarily hold classes online, rather than in person. The University of Washington, being at the center of the US spread so far, and Stanford University, in California, where the university announced that two undergraduate students were in self-isolation after possible exposure to coronavirus.At the University of California, Los Angeles, three students who were tested for Covid-19 have all tested negative, and the university is continuing to hold live classes on campus for the moment, the university's chancellor, Gene Block, said.Internationally there is disagreement among leading experts about whether the virus has reached pandemic status.California state authorities were working on Saturday evening with federal officials to bring the Grand Princess cruise ship to a non-commercial port and test the 3,500 people aboard.There was no immediate word on where the vessel will dock. Pence said at a meeting in Florida with cruise line executives that officials were still working on the plan."All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus and quarantined as necessary," he said.In Seattle, Washington, which has one of the largest populations of homeless people in the United States, local officials said they have designed a plan to help treat any members of the city's homeless population who might contract coronavirus.
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| Iwo Jima hero, 96, sees US warship commissioned in his honor Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:29 PM PDT |
| Two test positive for coronavirus at US conference attended by Pence Posted: 07 Mar 2020 05:02 AM PST  Two people have tested positive for the new coronavirus after taking part in a pro-Israel lobby group's conference in Washington which Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and dozens of lawmakers also attended. The influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in an email to attendees, speakers and congressional offices that the infected pair had traveled from New York to go to the March 1-3 event. "We have confirmed that at least two Policy Conference attendees from New York have tested positive for the Coronavirus," AIPAC said in the message, posted to its Twitter account.
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| Man who threw water on U.S. Rep Steve King sentenced to 2 years probation Posted: 07 Mar 2020 09:27 AM PST  A Colorado man who pleaded guilty to throwing water on U.S. Rep. Steve King has been sentenced to two years probation.
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| How the coronavirus outbreak could help fuel China's dystopian surveillance system Posted: 07 Mar 2020 02:30 AM PST  Authorities have used invasive surveillance techniques to monitor citizens to try to stem the epidemic. Experts fear this could be the new normal.
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| Coronavirus in New York City: Why Closing Public Schools Is a 'Last Resort' Posted: 07 Mar 2020 07:23 AM PST  NEW YORK -- New York City has the largest public school system in the United States, a vast district with about 750,000 children who are poor, including around 114,000 who are homeless.For such students, school may be the only place they can get three hot meals a day and medical care, and even wash their dirty laundry.That is why the city's public schools will probably stay open even if the new coronavirus becomes more widespread in New York. Richard A. Carranza, the schools chancellor, said earlier this week that he considered long-term closings an "extreme" measure and a "last resort."There are no plans to shut schools down, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that none of the city's 1.1 million public school students had shown any symptoms of the virus. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised that, so far, children have been less likely than adults to become infected.Even a single snow day can seriously disrupt the lives of New York's most vulnerable children and their parents and other relatives, whose jobs often do not provide paid time off, said Aaron Pallas, a professor of education at Columbia University's Teachers College."Kids will need to be supervised," Pallas said. "And there are complex interactions here that affect the well-being of families."Large-scale school closings might mean, for example, that subway conductors and bus drivers must stay home with their children or that nurses at public hospitals would not be able to come to work, potentially slowing essential city services.Although millions of students around the world have already had their schools close because of the virus, such a move would present a major challenge for a district where many children do not have internet access at home, making remote learning nearly impossible.Nicole Manning, a ninth-grade math teacher at Herbert H. Lehman High School in the Bronx, estimated that up to half of her students did not have internet access at home."We can't do distance learning," she said. "It wouldn't be fair."Valerie Green-Thomas, a teachers' coach at Middle School 390 in the south Bronx, said she would be concerned that students would not have access to crucial medical help at the school's on-site clinic if there were widespread closings."We have a lot of underserved kids," Green-Thomas said.The situation has been starkly different thus far at some of the city's elite private schools, where the student bodies tend to be much whiter and wealthier than they are in public schools.Spence, an all-girls school on Manhattan's Upper East Side, closed Friday for a "comprehensive sanitization of the entire campus," according to a notice posted on its website. It was unclear whether the school had a link to one of New York state's confirmed coronavirus cases. School representatives did not respond to requests for comment.Collegiate, a private all-boys school on the Upper West Side, was also closed Friday for a similar purpose. An email to families from the school's headmaster did not indicate any connections to a confirmed case but said that a parent of one student might have been exposed to the virus.Private schools can decide to close independently, but public schools must follow guidance from the city and state education departments.In interviews, public-school teachers across the city exuded calm and said that they believed school was a safe place for children to be given the current circumstances. It appeared that most parents agreed: Student attendance rates were as high if not higher this past week than they were a year ago at this time, de Blasio said.Teachers said that, at this point, they were much more concerned about racism and xenophobia directed at Asian students because of the virus's origins in China than they were with the virus itself.Manning is used to nasty stomach bugs and seasonal flus spreading through her school like wildfire."We have good hygiene, and we don't really do much different," she said, adding that students were being asked to be especially vigilant about wiping down their calculators and desks, and about washing their hands."I'm a rational person; I'm a math person," Manning said, noting that the small number of confirmed cases in New York City had not yet been a cause for alarm.But she also said that she was spending much of her time "squelching rumors" about where the virus comes from and how people contract it. "I don't really put up with nonsense," she said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Texas man who waited six hours to vote on Super Tuesday wasn't eligible Posted: 08 Mar 2020 12:45 PM PDT  A Texas man who was praised on Super Tuesday for waiting over six hours to vote has discovered he's not eligible.Hervis Rogers waited in line at the Texas Southern University polling place in Houston, Texas, for over six hours so he could cast his ballot, and he was the final one in line that day.
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| Taliban declines to mark Women's Day in Afghanistan Posted: 08 Mar 2020 02:04 PM PDT |
| Duterte Won’t Ban China-Centric Casinos Linked to Illicit Funds Posted: 08 Mar 2020 03:46 AM PDT |
