'Bored' security guard vandalizes 90-year-old painting at Russian exhibit

By UPI Staff

Officials said the unidentified security guard drew a pair of eyes onto two human figures in the painting, which is valued at more than $1 million.

 File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A Russian security guard has been fired for defacing a valuable painting worth $1.3 million that was hanging in an art gallery -- apparently because he said he was "bored."

Authorities said the guard defiled the artwork by Russian painter Anna Leporskaya, titled "Three Figures" -- which depicts three faceless human figures with no facial detail.

Officials said the guard drew eyes on two of the figures with a ballpoint pen.

"His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity," curator Anna Reshetkina said, according to The Guardian.

"Fortunately, the vandal drew with a pen without strong pressure, and therefore the relief of the strokes as a whole was not disturbed," Ivan Petrov wrote in the Art Newspaper. "The left figure also had a small crumble of the paint layer up to the underlying layer on the face."

The painting was created in the 1930s and was on display at the gallery as part of an abstract art exhibition. After the vandalism was found, it was returned to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow about 850 miles away.

Experts said it would cost a few thousand dollars to restore the painting to its original form.

Authorities opened an investigation into the incident and the guard faces up to three months in jail and a fine.

MARCEL DUCHAMP 1919 LHQQQ

Sen. Chuck Schumer says he will back marijuana legalization bill


Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., answers reporters' questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on February 1. Schumer said Thursday he will back new marijuana legalization legislation 

Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he is supporting an effort by Democrats to bring a marijuana initiative to the floor that would legalize it and set banking rules for its sale for the first time.

The Democrats are pushing to introduce legislation by April that could be considered for votes during the mid-term elections.

"As majority leader, I can set priorities," Schumer, D-N.Y., said, according to Bloomberg Law. "This is a priority for me."

A letter sent to Democratic colleagues signed by Schumer, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said 18 states have already taken the step to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical use and 37 states have given it medical approval.

"Hundreds of millions of Americans live in states that have legalized cannabis in some form while it remains illegal at the federal level," the letter said. "This discrepancy leads to confusion and uncertainty and raises significant questions around criminal justice reform, economic development and small business growth, and public health and safety, all of which we believe require some type of federal answer."

A Pew Research Center study released in April 2021 revealed that 91% of U.S. adults favored medical marijuana use and 60% agreed it should be legalized for recreational use

The letter asked Democrats to get involved in the legislative process so the bill can be finalized. Politics, though, could get in the way. The Senate is evenly split 50-50 and Democrats will need 10 Republicans to get any marijuana legislation to a vote in the Senate.

New Zealand police arrest 120 anti-COVID-19 mandate protesters



Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Police and anti-COVID-19 mandate protesters clashed outside of New Zealand's Parliament on Thursday, resulting in some 120 people arrested, authorities said.

The arrests were conducted as protesters refused to leave the parliament grounds, which were closed to the public earlier in the day.

Those arrested have been charge with trespass and obstruction, the New Zealand Police said in a statement.

The authorities said despite the grounds' closure some protesters refused to leave and attempted to breach the police cordon, and officers twice deployed pepper spray after protesters tried to pull them into the crowd.

"They were not seriously injured, however such behavior is unacceptable," New Zealand Police said. "Anyone threatening the safety of police staff or the public should expect to face enforcement action."

More than 100 additional police were called into the district on Thursday as protests at the Parliament have stretched into their third day.

Inspired by Canada's so-called Freedom Convoy of truckers who have been protesting against COVID-19 mandates in the northern North American nation, the Convoy 2022 NZ began Sunday for Wellington, where they convened on Tuesday and encamped themselves in demand for the end of mandates and against media censorship.

Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell told police that the removal of protesters could take days.

"This is unprecedented for New Zealand," Parnell said, according to 1News. "We've never had an occupation of this scale and certainly with tents on Parliament grounds, so some degree uncharted waters."

Police said parking wardens have begun to issue infringement notices to vehicles unlawfully blocking streets around Parliament and will be seeking to have them towed shortly.

"Police will continue to have a presence at Parliament into the night and as long as necessary to ensure public safety," New Zealand Police said.

USA

Lethal combos of opioids, cocaine, meth hit Black communities hardest

By HealthDay News

Between 2007 and 2019, there was a 575% increase in the rate of Black Americans dying from opioid and cocaine overdoses, compared to a 184% increase among White Americans, according to the study. Photo by stevepb/Pixabay

Combined use of opioids and stimulant drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine can be deadly, and in the United States Black communities have been hit especially hard by this lethal combo, new research indicates.

Over a 12-year period, Black Americans have had much larger increases in overdose deaths from opioids and stimulant drugs than other racial groups, an analysis of federal government data found.

Driving this alarming trend is the growing contamination of non-opioid drugs by fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid, New York University researchers said.

Between 2007 and 2019, there was a 575% increase in the rate of Black Americans dying from opioid and cocaine overdoses, compared to a 184% increase among White Americans, according to the study.

RELATED Report: 1.2M more opioid overdose deaths expected in North America by 2029

In 2019, overdose death rates from methamphetamines and other stimulants (MOS) were lower than from cocaine/opioids. But in recent years, researchers saw that MOS/opioid overdose death rates rose 16,200% among Black people, compared with 3,200% among White people.

"While all racial and ethnic groups we examined are dying in greater numbers from opioids combined with stimulants, we are alarmed to see these trends worsening so much faster in marginalized communities that have historically been less affected by the current epidemic," said study lead author Tarlise Townsend. She is a postdoctoral researcher in population health at NYU Langone, in New York City.

"We need to be targeting harm reduction and treatment strategies to those who are being hardest hit," Townsend said in an NYU news release.

The analysis found that overdose deaths from opioids and stimulants rose in all racial groups and across the country, but increased more than three times faster among Black Americans than among White Americans, particularly in eastern states.

The researchers also found a significant increase in opioid and stimulant overdose deaths among Hispanic and Asian Americans versus White Americans.

"Our findings bolster the argument that overdose prevention efforts should target not only people who use opioids, but also those who primarily use cocaine, methamphetamine, and other stimulants," said study co-author Magdalena Cerdá, professor and director of the hospital's Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy.

"Because of structural and systemic racism, adequate access to harm reduction and evidence-based substance use disorder treatment services is lacking in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. More state and federal funding for these programs are needed," according to Cerdá.

When the research team looked at state by state data, the largest Black/White disparity was in MOS/opioid deaths in the Midwest, according to the study.

By 2019, rates of cocaine/opioid deaths among Black Americans were considerably higher in 47 states than among White Americans. In the South, deaths from cocaine and opioids rose 26% a year in Black people, 27% a year in Hispanic people and 12% a year in White people.

Among Black Americans, death rates from opioids plus meth or other stimulants increased 66% per year in the Northeast, 72% per year in the Midwest, and 57% per year in the South, the researchers reported.

The findings were published online recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

More information

For more on overdose death rates, go to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M; DUOPOLY
Treasury report: two brewers dominate U.S. beer, wine and spirits markets
By Doug Cunningham


Missouri Governor Jay Nixon inspects a Bud Light beer bottle at opening ceremonies of the new Anheuser-Busch expanded aluminum manufacturing plant in Arnold, Mo., on April 8, 2016. A Feb. 2022 Treasury Department report says U.S. alcohol markets are dominated by Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors.

 Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo


Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Two brewers dominate the U.S. alcohol industry, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report required by an Executive Order from President Biden.

The report found that Anheuser-Busch Inbev and Molson Coors have dominated the U.S. markets since 2008, accounting for about 65% of the beer market nationwide, as measured by revenue.

The report encouraged the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to "continue their antitrust scrutiny of the alcohol markets."

The report noted two major trends in the last several decades in the beer, wine and spirits industry.

The first is significant growth of small and "craft" makers of beer, wine and spirits. More than 6,400 breweries, 6,600 wineries and 1,900 distilleries are operating in the United States.

The report said the second major alcohol industry trend is consolidation.

"In many states," the report said, "there has been significant consolidation in distribution."

The Treasury Department said studies have shown direct links between major brewery mergers and an ability to raise prices in the markets in which they compete.

The department's report encouraged states to explore changes to eliminate anticompetitive effects and to bolster competition in the alcohol industry.

Study: Fossilized bones suggest dinosaurs had respiratory infections, too

By HealthDay News

CT scans of infected vertebra from Dolly, a fossilized sauropod, show externally visibly abnormal bone growth and other internal irregularities -- which researchers say suggests a unique respiratory condition in dinosaur.

 Photo by Woodruff, et al./Ohio University/Nature


The fossilized bones of a young dinosaur show evidence of a respiratory infection that may have caused familiar flu-like symptoms -- fever, coughing and trouble breathing.

Dolly, as she's been dubbed by researchers, was an immature diplodocid -- a large, long-necked plant-eating sauropod. Her remains were found in southwest Montana and date back about 150 million years to the late Jurassic period.

Close examination of three of Dolly's neck bones revealed never-before-seen protrusions with an unusual shape and texture.

The abnormal growths were in an area that would have been penetrated by air-filled sacs connected to Dolly's lungs.

RELATED Malignant bone cancer found in ancient dinosaur fossil

CT imaging revealed the protrusions were made of abnormal bone that most likely formed in response to a respiratory infection.

"Given the likely symptoms this animal suffered from, holding these infected bones in your hands, you can't help but feel sorry for Dolly," said Cary Woodruff, director of paleontology at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana.

"We've all experienced these same symptoms -- coughing, trouble breathing, a fever, etc. -- and here's a 150-million-year-old dinosaur that likely felt as miserable as we all do when we're sick," Woodruff said in a news release from Ohio University.

RELATED Bone analysis shows small T. rexes were kids, not distinct genus

The discovery, possibly the first evidence of a unique respiratory infection in a dinosaur, adds to understanding of the illnesses that occurred in dinosaurs, according to the authors of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The researchers speculate that Dolly's illness could have been caused by a fungal infection similar to aspergillosis. It's a common respiratory disease that affects modern-day birds and reptiles. It can cause bone infections.

If untreated, aspergillosis can be fatal in birds, so it's possible that a similar infection in Dolly could have ultimately caused her death, Woodruff and his colleagues suggested.

Aspergillosis can also affect humans.

"This fossil infection in Dolly not only helps us trace the evolutionary history of respiratory-related diseases back in time, but gives us a better understanding of what kinds of diseases dinosaurs were susceptible to," Woodruff explained.

More information

There's more on aspergillosis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Fewer than 30% of U.S. workers have paid sick leave protected by state law, study finds


Fewer than 30% of workers in the United States have paid sick leave protected by state law, according to a new study.

 File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo


Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Fewer than 30% of workers in the United States have paid sick leave protected by state law, an analysis published Thursday by American Journal of Preventive Medicine found.

Some workers who have that benefit got it because 12 states nationally had passed laws requiring employers to provide it as of 2020, the researchers said.

Others may have it through their employers, though the benefit is not protected by law, according to the study.

In addition, 18 states without paid sick leave laws prohibit local governments from creating their own sick-leave regulations, limiting access to the benefit and exacerbating income inequality, they said.

RELATED California Gov. Newsom, lawmakers announce deal for paid sick leave


"The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for access to paid sick leave for workers, their families, and employers," study co-author Jennifer Pomeranz said in a press release.

"We need a federal policy solution that gives all workers access to paid sick leave benefits, especially low-wage workers who have no choice but to work when sick," said Pomeranz, an assistant professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health in New York City.

Providing sick employees paid time off allows them flexibility to seek medical care, as needed, and to recover from illness more quickly, according to Pomeranz and her colleagues.

RELATED With federal COVID-19 sick leave gone, workers feel pressure to go to work

In addition, sick leave availability has been linked with a lower risk for death among employees, the researchers said.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, paid sick leave has also benefited employers, as allowing people to stay home when sick limits the spread of the virus and other infectious diseases in the workplace, according to the researchers.

Workplace outbreaks can lead to widespread absenteeism and lost productivity, they said.

RELATED Survey: U.S. support for government safety nets increased amid COVID-19 pandemic

However, the United States is among the few high-income countries without a national law guaranteeing paid sick leave, funded by either employers or the government, Pomeranz and her colleagues said.

As a result, fewer than 60% of workers in service industries are offered paid sick leave, and fields such as such as food production, hospitality and retail rarely offer the benefit, leaving many employees vulnerable to lost wages and forcing them to work while sick, they said.

To fill this gap, some local and state governments have passed laws that require paid sick leave, the researchers said.

San Francisco was the first city to do so, in 2007, while Connecticut became the first state to enact a paid sick-leave mandate, in 2011, according to FamilyValues@Work.org.

Surveys have found that many workers in the United States felt pressure to remain on the job, even amid safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others indicate that most workers support government safety nets such as paid sick-leave because of the concerns raised during the pandemic.

In this study, the researchers examined state paid sick leave laws and state laws pre-empting paid sick leave across the United States from 2009 to 2020.

At the time of the study, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont had enacted laws that require paid sick leave in some form, according to the researchers.

Colorado, Maine and New Mexico enacted laws in 2021-22, the Society for Human Resource Management reported.

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. census, 28% of all jobs nationally are covered by state-required paid sick leave laws as of 2019, the data showed.

However, as of 2020, 18 states without laws requiring employers to provide paid leave passed legislation to pre-empt local governments from passing their own paid sick policies, up from only one state pre-emption law in 2009, the researchers said.

Even in states requiring paid sick leave, the laws vary. with some exempting small or public employers and/or excluding certain occupations, they said.

"Excluding low-wage workers ... from paid sick leave protections only further exacerbates health disparities," study co-author José Pagán said in a press release.

"Many of [them] work in jobs that increase their risk for illnesses like COVID-19 and lack access to employer-based coverage," said Pagán, chair and professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health.

VIRTUAL CRIME

Russian boy sent to prison for plot to blow up spy building on 'Minecraft'

By UPI Staff

The Federal Security Service building is seen in Moscow, Russia. Prosecutors said that a 16-year-old boy who was sent to jail on Thursday plotted terrorist activities with two others -- including blowing up a different FSB office they'd built in the game "Minecraft."

 File Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A Russian teenager was sent to prison on Thursday for supposedly "training" for terrorist activities and other charges that included blowing up a virtual government intelligence building on the video game Minecraft.

A military court in Siberia sentenced the boy, 16-year-old Nikita Uvarov, to five years for the charges -- which stemmed from anti-government leaflets he'd handed out and videos on cellphones belonging to Uvarov and at least two others.

Authorities also said they'd uncovered a plot by the teens to blow up a virtual building belonging to the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, that they'd built in the block-building game Minecraft.

The FSB is the top intelligence and security service in Russia and the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

The two other teenagers were given suspended sentences on Thursday because they cooperated with prosecutors in the case against Uvarov.

The case against Uvarov follows a number of other controversial anti-terrorist prosecutions in Russia. In 2020, several young activists were jailed for supposedly planning a coup and other terror-related charges. Some of them claimed that Russian authorities effectively beat confessions out of them -- a claim similar to what Uvarov said in court on Thursday.

"I am not a terrorist, I am not guilty," he said, according to The Moscow Times. "I would just like to finish my studies, get an education and go somewhere far away from here, somewhere I don't irritate anyone from the special services."

Uvarov also told the court that he never planned to blow anything up.

3 Executives indicted over alleged illegal donations to Susan Collins' re-election bid

Rebecca Falconer
Thu, February 10, 2022,

Three former executives of a Hawaii-based U.S. defense contractor were indicted Thursday over allegations of unlawful campaign contributions to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and a political action committee that supported her 2020 re-election bid.

Driving the news: "Martin Kao, 48, Clifford Chen, 48, and Lawrence 'Kahele' Lum Kee, 52, all of Honolulu, were employed by a defense contractor prohibited from making contributions in federal elections," per a Department of Justice statement.

The DOJ did not name Collins, but Axios' Lachlan Markay reported last May that the FBI was investigating allegations of a "scheme to illegally finance" Collins' campaign — though there's no indication that the senator or her team were aware of any of the allegations prior to the investigation.

Collins' campaign representatives said in an emailed statement Thursday that the indictment made clear that "there are no allegations of wrongdoing by the Collins for Senator Campaign."

What to watch: "All three defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make conduit and government contractor contributions, making conduct contributions, and making government contractor contributions," per the DOJ.

"Kao is also charged with two counts of making false statements for causing the submission of false information to the Federal Election Committee," the DOJ said.

Details: The three indicted men are accused of creating a shell company that they allegedly "to make an illegal contribution to a political action committee supporting the election of a candidate for the U.S. Senate using government contractor funds," according to the Justice Department.

"The defendants also allegedly used family members as conduits to make illegal contributions to the campaign committee of the same candidate, and then reimbursed themselves for those donations using funds obtained from their employer," the DOJ added.

What they're saying: "As stated previously, the campaign had absolutely no knowledge of any of the allegations against Mr. Kao or his associates until a search warrant was reported in the press," Collins' campaign representatives said.

"The Collins campaign required that every contributor sign a statement saying that his or her contribution was made from his or her own personal funds. The campaign had more than 100,000 individual contributors," they added.

Read the indictment, obtained by CourtListener, via DocumentCloud:

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

Chukwudi Iwuji: 'My spirit will be with' 'Peacemaker'

By Fred Topel

1/5

Murn (Chukwude Iwuji) loses his patience for Peacemaker. 

Photo courtesy of HBO Max


LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Chukwude Iwuji said he knew when he joined the cast of Peacemaker, he only would appear in seven of the show's eight episodes. Iwuji, 45, confirmed his character, Murn, would not be in the season finale, premiering Thursday on HBO Max.

"I got the script right from the start and knew his trajectory," Iwuji told UPI in a Zoom interview. "I knew it was sayonara in Episode 7, so it was about really enjoying the ride up to then."


[SPOILER ALERT]

In this week's Peacemaker episode, Murn is killed. Iwuji said Peacemaker (John Cena) would have to lead the team without him, but the actor hopes the comic book show can find a way to bring him back.

"My spirit will be with the team," Iwuji said. "If there's more seasons, this is DC. People die and come back."

Murn was not in the movie The Suicide Squad, which launched Cena's iteration of the character. Nor was Murn ever a character in DC Comics.

Writer/director James Gunn created Murn for the Peacemaker series. Murn is an agent of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis in the films) and leads Project Butterfly.

Butterflies are aliens who are taking over human bodies. Episode 5 of Peacemaker revealed Murn is a butterfly, working undercover to save humanity. Although Iwuji knew ahead of time about Murn's secret and his death, the actor tried to avoid giving the audience any hints of what was to come.

"I knew that it would be this incredible reveal," Iwuji said. "One of the things I really believe in as an actor is to play moment to moment and not to play the arc."

Peacemaker has thrown multiple wrenches in Murn's plans. Peacemaker doesn't follow orders, and he makes jokes about butt babies and other childish tangents.

Iwuji said it was easy to portray Murn's frustration with Peacemaker. As funny as Peacemaker could be, he was distracting Murn from an important mission.

"[Murn] cares deeply about humanity, saving humanity," Iwuji said. "So the frustration is very real because it's a time bomb waiting to go off. No one but him truly knows how bad it is."

Before Peacemaker, Iwuji appeared in The Underground Railroad, Designated Survivor and When They See Us. Iwuji's parents are Nigerian, and Iwuji once told an Interviewer he lived in Ethiopia until he was 10, when he then went to boarding school in England.

Iwuji attended Yale University and later performed Shakespeare on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Public Theater. Iwuji's first television role was the 2006 British-Danish-Irish series Proof. He later guest-starred on Doctor Who.

Iwuji said working with Gunn on Peacemaker led to Gunn offering Iwuji a role in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. Iwuji said he learned this while they were filming the dance number that opens every episode of Peacemaker.

"He came up and said, 'I don't know what your schedule is, but I'd like you to play in Guardians of the Galaxy 3,'" Iwuji said. "I can't tell you the role. That side is mysterious still and that's how it happened."

The opening titles became a fan favorite moment of every episode. Set to Wig Wam's hair metal homage "Do Ya Wanna Taste It," the entire cast of Peacemaker performs choreography with serious expressions on their faces.

Iwuji said there were many takes in which the cast broke their expressions.

"As you can imagine, there's a blooper reel somewhere of us just cracking up," Iwuji said.

Iwuji said the cast filmed the dance number after two months of shooting the series. Because the actors had episodes to film, Iwuji said, there was little time to rehearse.

"You had to go home and do your homework," Iwuji said. "So a lot of work was done at home, driving my wife crazy with the steps. There was enough time to panic, let me put it that way."