[Blaze] A transgender individual accused of molesting young autistic children was found dead in jail, according to police in Indiana.
Leomeir Kennedy was found unconscious in a jail cell at around 9:32 a.m. on Friday, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department. CPR was performed on Kennedy, but medics pronounced Kennedy dead at the Johnson County Jail.
The sheriff's office said no foul play is suspected in Kennedy's death. WTHR reported that Kennedy suffered from cardiac arrest, according to the coroner's office.
The coroner's office will be conducting an autopsy and toxicology test. There is currently an investigation into the transgender inmate's death.
In April, Kennedy was charged with child molestation and possession of child pornography.
Kennedy allegedly molested at least three children at the Hopebridge Autism Therapy Center in Greenwood — where Kennedy worked as a licensed behavior technician.
[Hot Air] Gosh. I wonder if they only pushed this because everything’s blowing up over David Weiss, Merrick Garland, and the Special Counsel caper? Fred's time lapse graphic accellerater provides a 2025 SBF Parole hearing photo
Poor Sam Bankman-Fried. What a day to be the guy in court when prosecutors all over are trying to prove how tough, unbiased, and unfriendly they can be.
Sam Bankman-Fried will head to jail on Friday after a judge sided with a request by federal prosecutors to revoke the FTX founder’s bail over alleged witness tampering. Bankman-Fried was remanded to custody directly from a court hearing in New York.
Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Bankman-Fried’s request for delayed detention pending an appeal. Unless the appeal is successful, he is expected to remain in custody until his criminal trial, which is due to begin on Oct. 2.
Of course, they’re not being quite as "tough" or quite as "unfriendly" as they would be if it was "BW" or "DS" who’d defrauded investors for billions and spent damn near that amount on Republican causes, while leaking personal information from another co-conspirator’s private accounts to reporters or anyone he thought could help.
[ZERO] A judge in Washington state has ruled against a conservative group that sued Starbucks over the coffee chain's race-based hiring practices that allegedly "flagrantly" violate various state and federal laws.
Chief U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian on Friday ruled against the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), dismissing a lawsuit the conservative nonprofit brought against Starbucks over so-called "affirmative action" policies that included awarding contracts to "diverse" suppliers and advertisers and tying executive pay to allegedly racist hiring quotas.
In a complaint (pdf) that was filed on Aug. 30, 2022, at the State of Washington Spokane County Superior Court, the nonprofit accused Starbucks of adopting a total of seven policies that between them required Starbucks to actively discriminate based on race in its compensation and employment decisions (including hiring, firing, and promotions), and in its contracting processes with vendors.
"Starbucks, acting through its officers and directors, crafted and publicized these policies with fanfare, preening over the supposed moral virtue their adoption signaled," NCPPR wrote in the complaint.
"The individual Defendants took these actions despite knowing of a glaring, inconvenient fact: the policies they so trumpeted flagrantly violate a wide array of state and federal civil rights laws," the group continued.
The Starbucks policies that are the subject of the lawsuit include the goal of at least 30 percent of its U.S. corporate workforce being black, indigenous, or people of color by 2025 while pegging executive pay to workforce diversity quotas.
#2
Starbucks may have crafted a fine corporate policy, but rarely do I see a non-white barrista. If they have implemented a nose ring and neck tattoo criteria, that initiative has been more successful.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 11:04 Comments ||
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#3
Coffee is black. Shouldn't the employees be black too? Because Diversity!
#4
Well, Washington state. Hopefully the US Supreme Court can overrule this and make clear that the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 both prohibit discrimination on the basis of race.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/13/2023 14:12 Comments ||
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[Washington Examiner] CNN reported on Wednesday that we may have new culprits for inflation: Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
"Taylor Swift and Beyonce are impacting inflation and the GDP with their respective tours," CNN tweeted with a segment discussing the macroeconomic impact of the tours of the two celebrities.
CNN isn’t alone. CNBC made a similar claim in a report on "tourflation" in July, which explored the surge in prices localities experience when Beyonce and Swift come to town.
"It’s not just that the tickets become more expensive," Klaus Baader, global chief economist at Societe Generale, told CNBC. "It’s also that your beer or cider or your Coca-Cola or your hot dog at the venue has also gotten a lot more expensive."
#2
...FWIW, the LA media has been leaning on Swift to 'postpone' her LA dates in solidarity with a public union (not sure which)strike out there. Wonder if this is part of that foolishness.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/13/2023 7:06 Comments ||
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#3
They must have held a brainstorming meeting and decided to try all the ideas to find anything possible to take the heat off Biden. This will not only not work but it will irritate a large number of socially liberal young women. My favorite of their ploys is when someone on television drops the talking point, “It’s totally unfair that Biden doesn’t get more credit for this great economy.”
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 15:09 Comments ||
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[GEO.TV] Wedding parties are always memorable for those who are getting married but it becomes more exciting when different unusual events occur.
One such occurrence was recorded on camera by a couple from Colorado who welcomed an uninvited guest to their party event near Boulder. It was a bear.
It was raining heavily during the day and then had to add an extra plate for this bear.
The couple Cailyn MacRossie-Martinez and Brandon Martinez told ABC News that the bear crashed their dessert table.
She wrote on Facebook, "Then a bear ate our dessert bar."
"It's not too often you go into your dessert table, and see a bear crashing it, eating all of it," Brandon said.
According to the couple, the staff security shooed off the bear quickly, and nobody got hurt.
"I think next that went out were the lemon bars, and then, the cannolis, which we were most looking forward to. Unfortunately, we did not get any," Cailyn said.
But, it made for an even more memorable day.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
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#1
The bear will need an insulin shot.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 13:12 Comments ||
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#2
How long before Fish & Game gets involved in investigating this as a case of "illegal feeding of wildlife?"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/13/2023 13:25 Comments ||
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Mexican, eleven year old car, no seatbelts, missed the curve... the only things missing are legally drunk and an illegal transporting more illegals, but no doubt both those facts will be revealed later..
Salvador Mendiola, 32, from Mexico, was driving a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer south on 87th Avenue Northwest in New Town on August 5 at around 11.20pm
Another passenger was seriously injured after he was also ejected from the vehicle and a third person was left with minor injuries following the collision
Mendiola failed to negotiate a curve and ran off the road which caused the SUV to roll before coming to rest at the bottom of a ditch
Driving while Mexican 21 yr old car = certainly had seat belts Had seatbelts, yes. Used seatbelts, no.
#2
Remember cars that had the seat belt attached to the door. Getting in the car, you went behind the seat belt automatically. I don't remember exactly why they didn't become more widespread.
I sense a lawsuit against the car makers for not making the seatbelt put itself on you. Because illegals have "standing."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/13/2023 7:28 Comments ||
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#3
@M. Murcek, they didn't become widespread because they had a high failure rate in crashes and there were several fatalities and law suits.
#7
I miss the days where the press always accentuated the SUV aspect of any crash. Trump derangement overwhelmed things and pushed out so many other derangements. Only Trump, guns, white supremacy and patriarchy are left. I guess there are also climate deniers, anti vaxers and Trad Catholics. The marketplace has moved off of SUV villainy, though. They got the TAB cola treatment.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 18:50 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] U.S. Navy Seaman Anthony L. Meizis was buried at Bourne National Cemetery in Massachusetts on Aug 11, 2023..
American Legion Riders gathered around one Massachusetts Navy veteran after learning that he was going to buried alone, saying in an interview with Fox News Digital that "It isn't about any one of us. It's about what we could do for him."
Anthony L. Meizis, a Vietnam veteran of Weymouth, Mass. died at age 80 in a nursing home without ever having married or fathered children.
The Navy veteran's one surviving next-of-kin had health complications and could not attend his funeral.
That's when McDonald Keohane Funeral Home Director Cara Johnson sent a Facebook message to the Massachusetts Department of the American Legion Riders, advising them that Meizis was going to be buried alone.
Vice Commander Andrew Pajak received the message. "No veteran should ever be left to go alone," he told Fox News Digital.
Pajak told Fox News Digital that he took the message to Facebook, expecting typical engagement. Over 16,000 likes and 2,100 shares later, and three hundred motorcycle riders emerged to escort Meizis to his final resting place.
"The state police and the local police shut down the rotary to allow this procession to come across. It literally took 4 minutes for all the vehicles to come across." Pajak said.
Pajak said he was still "shaking" with emotion at the turnout.
"I've never met the man. I don't know the man, but he's my brother… I could not care less when he served. I served in the Gulf. He served in Vietnam. He's still my family."
Meizis' funeral escort lined the streets to the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne Friday morning.
Massachusetts State Representative Steve Xiarhos, himself a Gold Star father, shared with Fox News Digital after livestreaming Meizis' funeral procession that "I was honored to help organize and join hundreds of others in bringing our fallen Veteran home to rest."
"We will always do the best we can to take care of all our Veterans in Massachusetts and live worthy of their service and sacrifices."
Alternate headline: Local newspaper raided as part of nasty divorce shenanigans.
[FoxNews] The newspaper's 98-year-old co-owner died a day after the search despite being 'otherwise in good health for her age'
Kansas police raided a local newspaper's newsroom and its publisher's home on Friday and seized computers, cellphones and reporting materials in what critics are calling a violation of the Freedom of the Press.
Marion Police removed the Marion County Record's computer file server, other computers, personal cell phones and other equipment, the outlet reported. Officers injured a reporter and the newspaper's nearly 100-year-old co-owner died a day after the search.
A search warrant signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar claimed probable cause over alleged violations related to identity theft and unlawful acts concerning computers, according to the Kansas Reflector.
Police were given approval to search for devices used to access the Kansas Department of Revenue's records website, as well as documents and records pertaining to restaurant owner Kari Newell, who accused the Record of illegally obtaining information about her during a city council meeting on Monday. The newspaper has denied Newell's allegations.
The federal Privacy Protection Act prohibits law enforcement from most searches of journalists and newsrooms and usually requires police to issue subpoenas rather than search warrants. But the police department said in a Facebook post that the law does not apply to instances when journalists are suspected of criminal wrongdoing.
"I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated," Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody told USA Today. "I appreciate all the assistance from all the State and Local investigators along with the entire judicial process thus far."
Cody, according to the Record, reinjured a reporter's fingers that had previously been dislocated when he grabbed her cell phone out of her hand.
"Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves," Freedom of the Press Foundation director of advocacy Seth Stern said in a statement.
The Record's co-owner and publisher Eric Meyer said on the newspaper's website that a source contacted the outlet and a member of the city council with information showing Newell had been convicted of drunk driving and continued to drive without a valid driver's license, and that law enforcement had ignored what the source said was Newell's repeated violation of driving laws.
Meyer consulted an attorney before telling Cody and Marion County Sheriff Jeff Soyez about the information offered by the source. Police then launched an investigation and alerted Newell.
Newell wrote Friday under a changed name on her personal Facebook account that she "foolishly" received a DUI in 2008 and "knowingly operated a vehicle without a license out of necessity," the Reflector reported.
"Journalists have become the dirty politicians of today, twisting narrative for bias agendas, full of muddied half-truths," Newell wrote. "We rarely get facts that aren't baited with misleading insinuations."
According to Meyer, the information was leaked to the Record as part of a legal dispute between Newell and her estranged husband amid the couple's divorce proceedings.
"We thought we were being set up," Meyer told the Reflector.
The Record published a story Thursday denying Newell's accusations at the city council meeting that the newspaper had illegally gained possession of and shared sensitive material. The newspaper also outlined what actions it had taken in reporting on the information.
Other local newspapers are helping the Record, so it can continue to publish and press associations are prepared to support the newspaper.
#2
OBTW: A Reddit member dug up this and posted it...
Quoting "SophiPsych
1 day ago
So what I've surmised from the Reflector article and two Marion County Record articles is that the current owner has a DUI from 2008, still hasn't done the necessary steps to get it reinstated, local cops knew she didn't have a valid license but we're letting it slide. She bought the restaurant earlier this year but they've been selling alcohol under the previous owners liquor license. The current license expires this month but her DUI conviction jeopardizes the license renewal. All this info was provided by a scorned ex-husband to the paper and yet the paper originally decided not to publish. Yeah Kari Newell, you played yourself pretty hard here. You've earned a 1 star review bomb on all the pages from me; the Marion County Record wins a 1 year home delivery subscription." End of quote
[Garowe] Authorities in the breakaway region of Somaliland claim at least nine soldiers were killed by armed militia as the conflict over delayed elections escalated, with stakeholders now calling for dialogue to solve some outstanding issues that have ignited sharp political differences.
At the mountainous areas of Ga'an Libaah, at least 17 other soldiers were badly maimed as the armed militia ambushed them, in yet another violent mostly peaceful clash between armed militia and those from government. The region is fighting instability following differences between Muse Bihi Abdi and local politicians.
Gen. Mohammed Aden Saqadhi Dabagale, Somaliland's police commander, said soldiers were ambushed in the area. Also reported on Friday, thousands of locals marched in the streets of Hargeisa and Erigavo, a confirmation that the government is struggling to keep intact.
Somaliland's Interior Minister Mohammed Kahin had claimed that the mobilization was done by Abdirahman Irro, the official leader of the opposition who has since denied it. According to Irro, who addressed the media, he doesn't favour the solution to come through bullet and force.
He urged President Muse Bihi Abdi's government to recall the troops sent to Ga’an Libaah and "give peace a chance." He also urged the "armed civilians" to lay down weapons for the sake of peace and stability in the state that is fighting for international recognition.
Observers said the dispute that led to the emergence of the gang is related to the delayed presidential elections in November 2022. The House of Elders gave Muse Bihi a two-year term extension, a move decried by the opposition, which has been calling for protests.
Early this week, President Muse Bihi Abdi announced in a decree that presidential elections will take place on November 13, 2024. Initially, Somaliland elections were set to be held in November 2022 but the delay was occasioned by the electoral commission's sluggish preparations.
Somaliland is also struggling to retake Las Anod, a city within the border with Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... , where hundreds of people have been killed since early January. Somaliland troops have been fighting with SSC-Khatumo forces in Las Anod even as the international community pushes for a ceasefire.
Leaders in Somaliland have traded accusations following the ongoing fighting in Sahil region which claimed the lives of nine police officers on Friday.
Interior Minister Mohamed Kahin accused opposition Waddani party leader Abdirahman Irro of fueling the conflict claiming that most of those involved in the armed rebellion are allied to the opposition politician and hail from his clan.
[AFRICANEWS] Supporters of Gabonese president Ali Bongo believe that their candidate "is the choice of reason" as he launched his election campaign in the Owendo commune on Friday. The Gabonese leader who is favourite to win a third term, will face 18 other candidates in next month's presidential election.
Celestin Mba Ndong, one of those attending the rally in Owendo, describes Bongo as "the choice of reason". "Already, through his speech, we understand perfectly that he is the true president, he has a strong message, he said this, he intends to continue strong actions." Ndong said.
Bongo's family has ruled the oil-rich West African state for 55 years. The 64-year-old, who took over from his father Omar Bongo Ondimba in 2009, officially announced in July that he would run again for president. The Gabonese Election Centre validated 19 of the 27 candidacy applications received, five more than in 2016.
This is no issue for one of his supporters Gabin Mombo, an activist and IT specialist. "I have the impression that for this year there is even a plagiarism of our social program, and today you saw it, convinced (Gabonese Democratic Party, PDG) PDGists like me came to give massive support to their unwavering choices, notably to President Ali Bongo Ondimba."
Bongo's leading rivals for the top job include Alexandre Barro Chambrier of the opposition Rally for the Fatherland and Modernity (RPM) party and the National Union's head Paulette Missambo.
The opposition failed to agree on a single candidate to challenge Bongo in the August 26 poll, but both candidates are former ministers and part of the Alternance 2023 coalition.
On July 23, a rally by Chambrier's party in the eastern city of La Belle Franceville was disrupted by an "unidentified group" who attacked activists, causing several minor injuries, Eddy Minang, the city's public prosecutor, told AFP.
In a statement issued Monday, the RPM described the attackers as "rioters in the pay of the government".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/13/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[22 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
[BBC] A knife darting out in a packed subway car. An assailant, chasing shoppers, stabbing wildly in the street.
These nightmares have played out in the minds of many South Koreans following a mass stabbing attack last week - the country's second in as many weeks.
On 21 July, a man attacked commuters in the capital, killing one person and stabbing three more at a subway station. He later told police he lived a miserable life and "wanted to make others miserable too".
Then, on 3 August, 14 people were injured in Seongnam, south-east of Seoul, when a man rammed his car into pedestrians near a subway stop, and then ran into a department store, where he stabbed nine people. One woman died later from her injuries.
The second attacker, Choi Won-jong, 22, was a delivery driver and high-school dropout who had been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. Police said he had googled news about the first attack before his own rampage.
"What's happening in South Korea these days?" cried citizens online afterwards - dazed by back-to-back stabbings in a nation known otherwise for low rates of violent crime.
"Our country used to be one of the safest in the world… but recently I can't say that any more," one commented on YouTube.
'MUDJIMA' CRIMES
In South Korea, they are known as "Don't Ask Why" or Mudjima crimes - inexplicable acts of violence targeting strangers, driven by no personal link to victims or obvious motive.
While they've been called Mudjima by the public for years, it was only in 2022 that South Korean police officially designated such crimes as a distinct category: "Abnormal Motive Crimes".
With specific definitions and a task force set up to combat them, the move appeared to show authorities finally taking the crimes seriously. In the first half of this year, police recorded 18 Mudjima acts.
While overall data shows no rise in violent crime - South Korea last year in fact recorded its lowest rates in a decade - the recent stabbings have driven the perception that Mudjima acts are more common, and society more dangerous.
It has even led to some commentators making comparisons with the US, with online remarks: "It's the American mentality that's going viral in South Korea" and "OMG South Korea has become the USA of Asia".
Experts reiterate, however, that South Korea remains a very safe country. "Murder and other violent crime rates are very low compared to other countries, and they have been steadily declining in the last 10 years," said Prof Hyojong Song, a criminology expert at Korea University in Seoul.
South Korea's homicide rate - down to 1.3 murders per 100,000 people - is half the average of OECD nations, and less than a fifth of America's murder rate. And there are strict gun controls.
Many online said the crude comparisons to the US mask what authorities need to do locally: "They need to take a look at South Korea's own social issues that have led to this," one user wrote.
While the details surrounding the perpetrators are still sketchy, the little revealed so far has already fuelled public anger.
"These days there are jobless losers who are taking their ills out on everybody else," one user wrote on Tiktok, in a vein of commentary which has become common online.
Another, on Youtube, argued that "in the past, only psychopaths would do something like this, but now we are living in a world where ordinary people are becoming murderers. People don't have hope, the sense of panic is high and sense of happiness is low."
Experts have pointed to underlying social pressures in South Korean society - from unstable job prospects and housing, to a continued stigma around mental health and a lack of support services. Police said Choi had not received adequate treatment.
"Fundamentally, I think we need to have some emotional and instrumental social support systems or policies that can help those who are disconnected from society, with no social bond," Prof Song told the BBC.
COPYCAT THREATS
What drove greater anxiety among the public after last week's stabbing was the wave of threats that popped up, vowing copycat attacks.
Online posts stated specific timings and locations, and some even named the gender of the victims they wanted to kill. One person vowed to "kill as many people as possible."
Although many dismissed them as the work of juveniles and attention seekers, they succeeded in unnerving people.
On social media, users posted warnings for the weekend of 4-6 August: "Please avoid these areas in South Korea" was one TikTok video which drew more than 300,000 views across Asia.
"Go ahead and screenshot this- here's a list of public stabbings on the weekend," the host, a North American expat in Seoul, says in the video. Several subway stations were named as attack spots - as well nightlife areas, an amusement park and a women's university stop.
"Be careful, be mindful of surroundings and stay safe out there," they say.
In response, police mounted a "special enforcement" operation for the weekend, dispatching thousands more officers to public sites. They were told to stop and search "suspicious-looking" people- at least one person was arrested after he was seen carrying knives in public.
Armed police patrol a Seoul shopping centre the weekend after a mass stabbing
Authorities also moved in on the online threats, tracing people across the country through internet service addresses and tip-offs.
Following the weekend operation, police identified nearly 200 threats and arrested about 60 people - 34 of whom were teenagers, several aged 14 or under and not liable for prosecution.
One 17-year-old boy was detained for making a stabbing threat at a train station in Wonju, then reporting it to police as a tip-off.
In another case, a 14-year-old was arrested outside the subway station he had listed as a target. He had told police he had no murderous intent, but was "bored, and posted it as a joke".
[JustTheNews] National Cancer Institute leader received nearly 200 royalty payments from vaccine makers. Pfizer and Moderna made more than 400 payments. OxyContin maker paid licensing fees too.
The National Institutes of Health and its scientists received royalties from Chinese Communist Party-controlled pharmaceutical companies, including one that collaborated with a suspected source of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a Russian vaccine maker that reportedly may have served as a front for Soviet bioweapons research, according to newly disclosed records.
NIH fought to shield the identities of the entities that paid to license its taxpayer-funded inventions from the agency and individual scientists, including then-Director Francis Collins and then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who together received 58 payments from seven companies.
While the feds lost that fight in court, the amounts that Fauci, Collins and hundreds of other government scientists were paid in royalties remains hidden for the moment. The top 10 scientists received between 387 and 655 payments each, the new figures show.
OpenTheBooks.com sued the feds nearly two years ago when NIH refused its Freedom of Information Act requests for specifics on royalties paid to its employees by outside entities among other information.
The initial disclosures revealed NIH received an estimated $350 million in royalties from third-party payers from 2010-2020, a figure lowered to $325 million in the latest unredacted production.
The Aug. 7 joint status report submitted by the parties says OpenTheBooks is "evaluating NIH’s productions and withholdings in light of the additional" July 31 release by NIH — nearly 3,000 re-released pages containing "certain information that had previously been withheld." They will file an additional joint status report by Nov. 6.
The removal of redactions shows that Fauci and acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak gave "misleading, if not outright false" statements to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) when they claimed they could not identify the entities paying license fees, OpenTheBooks said Wednesday in a report on the findings.
It cites investigative reporting by Just the News founder John Solomon from nearly two decades ago at the Associated Press, based on FOIA requests that revealed royalty payments to Fauci among others.
NIH spent $36 million to test an experimental HIV treatment developed by Fauci, which New England Journal of Medicine and Cochrane studies found ineffective. Fauci received about $45,000 in royalty payments from 1997-2004 from Chiron Corp., which was soon acquired by Novartis, which itself has since made more than 300 royalty payments to NIH. Fauci received another eight payments from Chiron since 2010.
"NIH spends billions on the industry, and now we know the industry sends millions back to NIH and its scientists," OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski wrote in the report.
In an interview with Just the News, Andrzejewski said the cozy relationship between NIH and drug companies raises further concerns about conflicts of interest that can affect public safety and shake public trust.
” I think during the pandemic, John, the American people started to feel that big government was very close to Big Pharma. And this is a database that shows you empirically just how close they are,” he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Transparency Watchdog reveals Fauci, Collins received 58 royalty payments as NIH collected $325M from companiesTransparency Watchdog reveals Fauci, Collins received 58 royalty payments as NIH collected $325M from companies
The CCP-controlled Chinese pharmaceutical companies who paid to license NIH inventions include the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm. WIBP made 64 payments, according to the newly unredacted records.
WIBP collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to develop a COVID vaccine, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The FBI and Department of Energy believe it's likely SARS-CoV-2 escaped from WIV, which was recently blocked from receiving future U.S. funding. WIV denies the allegations.
One of WIBP's royalty recipients was Douglas Lowy, who has served as acting director of the National Cancer Institute three times and directed one of its research labs since 1975. The database shows he has received 192 royalty payments, including 33 from Merck and 13 from GlaxoSmithKline, which "then marketed vaccines that used Lowy’s inventions as Gardasil, Gardasil 9, and Cervarix, respectively," OpenTheBooks said.
Other Chinese companies licensing NIH inventions include Yisheng Biopharma Holding with 42 payments, which has a subsidiary near NIH headquarters and partnered with the U.S. Army to develop an Ebola vaccine, and Guangzhou HeAn Biological with 24 payments, celebrated by the CDC among the "Top Grossing Licensing Agreements for 2017."
Russia's Pokrov Biologics Plant made 20 payments to NIH. "Built ostensibly as a vaccine factory for farm animals," according to a 2002 Washington Post investigation, "Pokrov operated for decades as a secret within a secret: An off-the-books participant in a clandestine military program that produced the most fearsome biological weapons ever imagined."
The makers of America's highly profitable mRNA COVID vaccines also show up repeatedly in the royalty database. Multiple Pfizer entities have made 265 payments to 83 government scientists, while Moderna made 207 payments to 43 of them, since 2009.
So does OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, which made 15 royalty payments to NIH between 2010-2013, years after the company first pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges of deceptively marketing the opioid as a low addiction risk.
A bioethics journal noted in 2020 that NIH invited Purdue Pharma into a "public–private initiative" in 2017, and that Collins "used the passive voice" to avoid naming drug companies for promoting addiction that same year. "The NIH clearly did not want to alienate the drug companies with which it wished to partner," Pennsylvania State University Bioethics Program Director Jonathan Marks wrote.
NIH and NIAID did not respond to Just the News queries on their knowledge of specific entities paying to license agency inventions, including WIBP and Pokrov Biologics Plant, and why they opposed releasing the names of the entities and continue resisting disclosure of the amounts paid.
[PJMedia] State governments have historically generated revenue to maintain roads, traffic lights, and the like by adding a tax at the pump. Owing to the federal government-prodded transition to electric vehicles (EVs) to combat something called "climate change," states stand to lose out on this source of revenue as EVs obviously don’t require gasoline to operate.
Utah’s novel solution is to charge a "per-mile fee" for EVs with a government GPS tracker attached to monitor movement.
Utah roads are maintained using taxes from gasoline sales. As vehicles become more fuel efficient and the number of electric vehicles grows, the Utah Department of Transportation and Division of Motor Vehicles is changing to a per-mile fee as a way for drivers to pay their portion of roadway operations and maintenance...
You will pay 1.00 cents per mile, deducted from the prepaid wallet, up to the amount of the flat fee. Enrolling in Utah’s Road Usage Charge program gives you access to DriveSync® for Utah DOT an app that makes your driving safer and more productive through trip tracking and driving reports.
For a little added Orwellianism, the DriveSync® app also assigns a "driving score" based on how fast the slave citizen accelerates, brakes, corners turns, and drives. The app records bad driving behavior and shows it to the slave citizen on a digital map.
Oregon is instituting a similar policy, via KGW8 NBC:
ODOT created a website and program called OReGO where drivers can sign up to volunteer for a program where they pay a fee for every mile they drive on public roads. Currently it’s just under 2 cents per mile.
The program isn’t gaining much traction. About 700 people have signed up so far, either reporting their mileage to the state or by using GPS devices to track their travel.
The people driving hybrids are still paying for gas at the pump, so each quarter their account is balanced to credit the mileage fee against the gas tax, ensuring that they don’t end up paying both.
Michigan’s up next, via ABC News 12:
With electric vehicles on the rise, the Michigan Department of Transportation is exploring new options to replace the gas tax.
One potential avenue is a road usage charge system, which would require residents to place a GPS tracker in their vehicle to keep track of their mileage.
Similar systems are already in place in Utah and Oregon. Utah charges drivers 1 cent per mile, while Oregon charges drivers 1.9 cents per mile.
The technocrats love nothing more than killing two (or three) birds with one stone. In this case, said birds are: getting rid of gas-powered cars, inventing for themselves a brand-new revenue generation scheme, and instituting even more tracking power to make sure the peasants behave themselves.
#1
It should be alright. The good people of Utah don’t commute long distances.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 14:56 Comments ||
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#2
"Citizen, the speed limit is 55mph. You have exceeded that for approximately 10 minutes. Your vehicle will be disabled in 10 minutes for a 30 minute relearning period. Please safely exit the freeway"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/13/2023 16:22 Comments ||
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#4
Since they don't buy gas they don't pay the fuel tax that goes to roads. I don't see a problem.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/13/2023 19:40 Comments ||
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#5
The best part of these GPS schemes is that your mileage is turned into Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Normally, creating PII is bad, but in this case it is good because we can charge taxes based on who you are exactly. Think of it like tax brackets. Plus, not only does the state have access to a greater pool of money, but there are lots of make-work jobs administering the program. Win-win, baby!
#6
Actually makes sense. EV's are heavier than equal size internal combustion vehicles, and put more wear on the roads and infrastructure. Most multi level parking garages aren't rated at carrying the weight of a deck full of EV's.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/13/2023 20:02 Comments ||
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#7
Charging EV's by the mile is just the beginning.
#10
"WARNING! The authorities are aware that your vehicle is too close to the border of the sovereign state of Florida (or Texas). You are hereby advised to return whence you came. When you see the notice "Welcome to Fulton County", then you can rest assured that no further action will be taken."
#11
ed in texas is right: EVs are heavier and put more stress on roads and bridges. Plus, they don't pay gas taxes, which are - in theory anyway - earmarked to pay for roads and bridges.
The problem is when they track WHERE you go, not just how far.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/13/2023 21:32 Comments ||
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[WND] As far back as 2004, WND was reporting how China was selling the organs of its executed prisoners, perhaps the beginning of what is considered now to be a billion-dollar organ transplant industry.
A few years later, the atrocities were documented in a religious liberties report and over the past few years, an expert warned Congress the industry was responsible for some 50,000 deaths a year and GOP members of Congress demanded that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken do something to fight the process.
But now a new report from Epoch Times has taken the horror of such atrocities to a new level.
#3
Up here in Canuckistan we have "Medical Assistance in Dying" AKA "MAID" providing organs for anyone who might need one UNLESS one is unvaxxed in which case you are out of luck, buddy.
This is all the start of a slippery slope. I don't like the slant of this at all. It's too disorienting. I'm done.
#4
I remember reading a science fiction story about a society where the government was selling organs of condemned prisoners. At first, the death penalty was only for heinous offenses like murder. But as people realized how valuable these organs were - especially to those who could afford them - they started executing people for less serious offenses. The protagonist of the story was on death row for running a red light.
Slippery slope indeed.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/13/2023 13:20 Comments ||
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#5
I remember a Burg article a while ago about new medical procedures being "researched/practiced" where organs were harvested form live bodies which were "brain-dead". My google-fu sucks on this one, does anyone remember the name of the procedure or possible the article it was linked to?
#6
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Transplant surgery and meds are expensive. Organ rejection is common. The procedure is likely only available to CCP higher ups.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/13/2023 14:29 Comments ||
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#7
Organ transplant tourism is big business in China. A big database of designated donors exists so waiting times are nonexistent if you have the money.
#10
Given the general state of health care in China, and the level of air, water, and soil pollution, I would feel no more comfortable getting a replacement organ than I am eating foodstuffs or medicines from there. Hepatitis is just the beginning.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Blaze] A transgender individual accused of molesting young autistic children was found dead in jail, according to police in Indiana.
[Washington Examiner] CNN reported on Wednesday that we may have new culprits for inflation: Beyonce and Taylor Swift.
[GEO.TV] Wedding parties are always memorable for those who are getting married but it becomes more exciting when different unusual events occur.
[FoxNews] U.S. Navy Seaman Anthony L. Meizis was buried at Bourne National Cemetery in Massachusetts on Aug 11, 2023..
[PJMedia] State governments have historically generated revenue to maintain roads, traffic lights, and the like by adding a tax at the pump. Owing to the federal government-prodded transition to 
[WND] As far back as 2004, WND was reporting how China was selling the organs of its executed prisoners, perhaps the beginning of what is considered now to be a billion-dollar organ transplant industry.
