32 Alberta law professors sign letter calling for government to make oath to Queen optional

Katarina Szulc - CBC

A group of Alberta law professors have sent an open letter to the Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro urging for a legislative amendment to the mandatory Queen's Oath students must make when called to the bar.


Prabjot Singh Wirring is suing the province and Law Society of Alberta because he says swearing a mandatory oath to the Queen would contradict his religious beliefs.

After Edmonton articling student Prabjot Singh Wirring decided to sue the province on the basis that swearing the specific oath would contradict his religious beliefs, law professors from Calgary and Edmonton decided to push for a change.

Anna Lund, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, is one of the signatories on the letter and said the goal is to make the oath optional.

"I was called to the bar in 2008 and I gave the oath and I didn't have a second thought about it," said Lund. "But other people are coming from other backgrounds that makes the oath difficult for them. I think that it's really important to us, in the legal profession, to listen to those voices, and to change.

"The argument that we've always done it this way and it worked for me, therefore, we're always going to continue doing it this way, just doesn't it doesn't carry a lot of weight."

In Alberta, provincial legislation requires lawyers swear an oath to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors."



Wirring is a devout Amritdhari Sikh, and says he made an absolute oath and submitted himself to Akal Purakh, the divine being in the Sikh faith, and cannot make a similar allegiance to another entity or sovereign.
THIS OPTION WOULD APPLY TO JEHOVAH WITNESSES AS WELL

"I'm really deeply appreciative of the professors who took the initiative in coordinating writing the letter and signing on to give their public support. I think it's reflective of the general sentiment within the legal community in Alberta," Wirring told CBC.

"For a while now the profession and the community at large is starting to recognize a lot of the systemic barriers that are excluding racialized groups, and Indigenous lawyers from joining the board. There have been some really good efforts to combat and rectify it. I think everybody's recognizing that this is really low hanging fruit. I'm not asking for the world."

Other jurisdictions such as Ontario and B.C. have made the oath optional.

The province has not yet responded to a request for comment on the letter, though last week a spokesperson for the province declined to comment on Wirring's legal challenge because the matter is before the courts.

Lund said changing the legislation would help make the legal profession more diverse.

"A real strength in Alberta is the diversity of people here. We've got a chance here to ensure that diversity is reflected in the legal profession. The legal profession will also be strengthened by diversity and it'd be unfortunate if we don't do what we can to foster that," Lund said.

The government's statements of defence are set to be filed by July 15, with the court hearing after Oct. 7.

The Dutch are aiming to make work-from-home legal. Can Canada do it too?

Aya Al-Hakim -

The Netherlands is on its way to becoming the first country in the world to make work-from-home a legal right, according to a report by Bloomberg published July 5.


Image of an employee working from home. An employment and disability lawyer says establishing work-from-home as a legal right in Canada wouldn't be an easy or quick process.

According to the report, the legislation was approved by the lower house of the bicameral parliament July 5, but would still need to go through the Dutch senate before its final adoption.

"The law forces employers to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it," the report said.

In Canada, several companies adopted a work-from-home policy at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 -- some then moved to a hybrid model as public health restrictions eased. But establishing the right to work from home as a law, might not be an easy or quick process in this country, according to an employment and disability lawyer.

Read more:
The end of work from home? Most Canadians return to office as 1 in 10 stay home: poll

"It's certainly possible. But the challenge with doing it in Canada is that we would need to deal with that at both the federal and provincial levels," said Jenson Leung, a lawyer at the Vancouver-based law firm Samfiru Tumarkin.

"So for example, the federal government could implement some type of remote work policy for industries that are federally regulated, but the vast majority of workplaces are provincially regulated, which means that it's going to be on a province-by-province basis," he added.

Leung said the best way people can try to create change is by bringing it to the attention of politicians and policymakers.

Leung said the "big thing to keep in mind for Canada" is that currently, if an employee who has always worked from home refuses a sudden requirement to go into the office, then that could lead to "constructive dismissal."

As explained on the Government of Canada website, the phrase "constructive dismissal" describes situations where the employer has not directly fired the employee. Rather the employer has failed to follow through with the contract of employment in a major way and has changed the terms of employment thus forcing the employee to quit

Leung said the key idea here is whether or not working from home has always been a condition of their work or whether there's a human rights basis that requires them to stay at home and work.

READ MORE: 1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

"Some people, for example, have a compromised immune system and that's why they weren't able to work from the office. We still have COVID, so that may not change for those people at the moment," he said.

Leung explained that offering the option to work from home is going to be more on a case-by-case basis unless legislation were to come in.

Video: Transforming workspaces post-pandemic

"The main thing that I always tell both employers and employees is that it's best that they talk about it – figure out what the concerns are on both sides – and see whether or not they can make remote work possible," said Leung.

"And if an employer is trying to force an employee to go to work, then that might be a time to contact a lawyer and see whether or not they have a situation that requires them to be at home," he added.

READ MORE: Does the option to work from home make for a better work-life balance?

In Nova Scotia, Zyanya Thorne, who works in customer service remotely for a company in Calgary, Alta., said that going back to the office would not suit her.

"I'm basically out in the country here, and so in order to get any in-person jobs, I would have to commute. And my husband does do that commute, but his hours are very unpredictable," Thorne said, "and so trying to find something where we can drive together would be impossible.

"It doesn't make sense for us to have a separate vehicle. And so for me, working from home has been a huge blessing because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to have work right now," she added.

Thorne said some of her co-workers have gone back to the office and she hears the stories behind why they didn't want to go back.

"I definitely appreciate that it's not an issue for me at this time. But I definitely think everybody has a valid reason for not wanting to be in the office," she said.

Video: Increased pay, flex hours and perks: Employers have to get creative to compete for talent

Thorne also said working from home has made a positive impact on her and her husband financially.

"(We don't have) to worry about the transportation costs and the logistics of it," she said.

For all these reasons, Thorne said she would like to see Canada legalize working from home.

Read more:
1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

An Ipsos poll released on May 6, showed that many Canadians want to continue working from home and were even willing to change jobs to find an employer that would let them.

The survey, conducted exclusively for Global News, found one in three Canadians (32 per cent) say that they’d look for another job if their employer forced them to work exclusively at an office.Fifteen per cent were found to have already changed jobs in the past year so that they could continue to work from home. And, almost 44 per cent acknowledged that their employer has now adopted flexible working arrangements where they didn’t exist prior to the pandemic.

Not everyone in Canada currently has the choice of working from home and some are fighting to make it happen.

With announcements from public health officials in federal, Ontario and Quebec jurisdictions confirming that the provinces are entering a seventh wave of COVID-19 infection, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) -- the third-largest federal public service union in Canada -- has made a request to the Treasury Board Secretariat that all return-to-office plans be immediately suspended until the situation improves.

"CAPE is concerned with the serious and unnecessary risk to the health and safety of our members being required to return to the workplace amidst this seventh wave. Hospitals simply cannot handle any unnecessary increases in infection rates," said the union in a press release on July 12.

Read more:
Ontario 7th COVID wave expected to peak in 2 weeks, no mask mandate at this time, says Moore

CAPE said that allowing its members to work remotely is the best approach right now to eliminate the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the workplace.

As of Thursday, a spokesperson for CAPE said the union hasn't heard back from the board regarding the request.

A workplace culture expert says employers can offer flexible work and make it part of the workplace "without needing to change a single law."

"This seems like a story about flexible work, but it's a story about culture ... we can value people without needing to change a single law or even many of our policies internally," said Sarah McVanel, chief recognition officer and founder of Greatness Magnified, a company that helps organizations retain top talent and combat burnout.

"Flexibility is not necessarily working from home or working from home part of the time. Flexibility is a much bigger conversation," she added.

Read more:
Canada shed 43K jobs in June, marking 1st employment drop since January

McVanel said she's not sure if Canada can make working from home a legal right, but she sees many companies embracing the spirit.

"Many employers have decided to (offer flexible work arrangements) post-COVID-19 for a variety of reasons," she said. "It's because they saw benefits."

Video: Young employees searching for better benefits: RBC Insurance

According to McVanel, some of these benefits include the financial perks of closing down some of their offices. They found new ways to have people work and collaborate together and have seen innovations and technological advances by having to find ways to communicate and do work.

Read more:
Unemployment in Canada has dropped, yet some firms are struggling to hire. Here’s why

"They found productivity gains. Not all employers feel that ... and not everybody feels as comfortable having a remote, hybrid and in-person work environment too, so that's part of the challenge. And I feel for employers. They're trying to find a way through this," said McVanel.

She acknowledged that there are industries and careers where working from home is not an option, such as the airline industry, but that doesn't mean flexibility doesn't exist there too.

"Employers still need to identify some other way, a cultural glue, like recognizing and valuing people for coming in," McVanel said.

1932

Court documents detail RCMP investigation into Edmonton MLA's hacking of Alberta vaccine system

Newly unsealed court documents related to the RCMP’s months-long investigation into Edmonton-South MLA Thomas Dang’s hacking of Alberta’s vaccine passport system show officers were pursuing potential criminal charges up until at least the end of March.

Edmonton-South NDP MLA Thomas Dang calls for mandatory vaccinations for MLAs during a press conference at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. The Alberta NDP Deputy House Leader and Member Services Committee member demanded that Jason Kenney immediately eject unvaccinated MLAs from the United Conservative Party caucus. Photo by Ian Kucerak

Ashley Joannou - Edmonton Journal

The documents, including applications for search warrants and production orders, were unsealed by the court on Wednesday and released that evening by the UCP caucus.

Dang publicly admitted earlier this year, in interviews and a document that has since been pulled offline , that he used Premier Jason Kenney’s birthday and vaccine information to successfully access another citizen’s health care number and vaccine details. He claims he did it to highlight flaws in the system.

The court documents show officers thought they had grounds to believe a criminal offence — unauthorized use of a computer — had been committed. A person convicted of that offence can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Instead, Dang was charged in June under the province’s Health Information Act for allegedly illegally attempting to access private information. The maximum penalty for that, if convicted, is a fine of as much as $200,000. It’s unclear when or why the decision was made to not go ahead with criminal charges.

A spokesperson for Alberta Justice declined to comment Thursday because the case is before the court.

The court documents allege that when the vaccine passport website was launched in September 2021 it was “flooded with abnormal traffic.”

Many of those requests came through what’s known as a TOR network — a system designed to provide anonymity to a user by hiding their IP address using a relay system.

The court documents offer estimates of either 1.75 million or 1.78 million attempts being made using Kenney’s birthday, calling that a “brute force attack.”

Dang was not available for an interview Thursday. He has been sitting as an independant since December when he stepped down from the NDP caucus following the RCMP search warrant being issued.

In a statement, UCP government whip Brad Rutherford called the number of attempts “shocking” and suggested the NDP has been misleading Albertans in terms of what they knew.

According to the court documents, Dang told police that after his computer hit on a health-care number, he notified the NDP chief of staff, Jeremy Nolais, and NDP director of communications Benjamin Alldritt, provided Alldritt with “the basics of the flaw” and how it could be fixed.

In an email to Alberta Health communications director Steve Buick that day, Alldritt doesn’t name Dang, saying only that “a party” reached out, explaining the issue and adding “it’s possible that this is a prank, but their tone seems genuinely concerned. Hopefully the dept can look into this ASAP.”

When asked about that email in March, Alldritt told Postmedia that he brought the information to the health minister’s office within an hour of learning it.

“I presented it to him in a way that I hoped would spur action and I felt that, given the partisan nature of our relationship, that if I came on too strong he would not take the matter seriously,” he said at the time.

Rutherford believes “It is next to impossible” NDP Leader Rachel Notley’s didn’t know about “this sophisticated hacking scandal.”

Notley has said that when Dang raised the issue of problems with the website with NDP staff, a staffer informed the health ministry, but she was never aware of personal information being accessed, nor did she or her staff receive personal information.

“(Dang) didn’t alert us that he had hacked the website. What he said was that there had been an online conversation about the vulnerability of the website and he said, ‘I’ve confirmed this is true,’ ” Notley said, noting she was not privy to the conversation.

Dang has said he wants to both rejoin the caucus and run again for his seat.

Dang is scheduled to appear in court on the Health Information Act charge on July 27.

— With files from the Canadian Press

NFL World Reacts To The Roger Goodell Salary News

Tzvi Machlin - 

Back in 2020, Roger Goodell chose to take no salary due to the uncertainty of what was to come in the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast-forward to 2022 and Goodell is being rewarded... by getting all of that money he gave up back.


© Provided by The Spun

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 30: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a press conference during Super Bowl LIII Week at the NFL Media Center inside the Georgia World Congress Center on January 30, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, Goodell wound up making $63.9 million during the 2020-21 fiscal year. It was the same amount he had made in the previous fiscal year.

The obvious conclusion was that the NFL had rewarded Goodell by giving him a bonus that was identical to what he would've made in salary. The end result was record compensation.

Some fans are ripping Goodell for being terrible and are frustrated with how easily he gets away with things like this. Others can't help but admire Roger Goodell for his ability to always get his money, no matter what he does.

Roger Goodell has been a controversial figure among NFL fans for a long time. Many can't stand how much money he makes on the backs of players who may not get as much as they deserve.

Goodell has also received plenty of criticism for his handling of various controversies through the years.

Deflategate, CTE, domestic violence, team relocations, sponsorships, partnerships and toxic workplace allegations are just a few of the wide-ranging controversies that Goodell has been at the center of.

But he's consistently pleased the one group of people that matter most - the NFL owners. And so long as he has their stamp of approval, he'll get their money too.

Israeli museum finds sketches hidden in Modigliani painting

By ILAN BEN ZION

yesterday

Amadeo Modigliani's 1908 "Nude with a Hat," is hung upside down because another painting by him, "Maud Abrantes," on the reverse side of the same canvas is oriented correctly, while on display at Haifa University's Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, June 28, 2022. Curators at the museum using x-ray technology have discovered three previously unknown sketches by the celebrated 20th century artist hiding beneath the surface of the painting. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Curators at an Israeli museum have discovered three previously unknown sketches by celebrated 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani hiding beneath the surface of one of his paintings.

The unfinished works by Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before his death in 1920, came to light after the canvas of “Nude with a Hat” at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum was X-rayed as part of a sweeping forensic study of his work for an upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia.

Inna Berkowits, an art historian at the Hecht Museum, said it was “quite an amazing discovery.”

“Through the X-rays, we are really able to make this inanimate object speak,” she told The Associated Press.

Modigliani is considered one of the 20th century’s great Modernist artists. His lived a short, turbulent, Bohemian life in France, where his nude paintings were controversial. His work is typified by slender, elongated necks and faces, a signature style influenced by African and Cycladic Greek art that was just starting to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Jewish artist died aged 35, penniless.

One of his paintings, “Reclining Nude,” fetched over $170 million when it was sold at auction in 2015, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold. Another was sold in 2018 for $157 million at auction.

The high demand for authentic Modigliani works has generated a thriving market for fakes and forgeries.

The last time Italy staged a big Modigliani show, a 2017 exhibit at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale, museum officials closed the show early after experts alleged that many of the works on display were fakes. A criminal trial has been underway for over a year.

In 2018, X-ray technology revealed a previously unknown Modigliani portrait beneath one of his paintings at London’s Tate Gallery.

Modigliani’s 1908 “Nude with a Hat” is already an unusual painting. Both sides of the canvas have portraits that are painted in opposite directions. Visitors entering the Hecht Museum’s galleries are met by an upside down nude portrait. A likeness of Maud Abrantes, a female friend of the artist, on the reverse side is right-side up.

In 2010, the museum’s curator noticed the eyes of a third figure peeking from beneath Abrantes’ collar. But only this year was the hidden image brought into focus.

“When we decided to do the X-ray, we were only looking to learn a little bit more about the hidden figure underneath Maud Abrantes,” Berkowits said. In addition to a hidden woman wearing a hat, they found two more portraits on the opposite side that were completely invisible to the naked eye: one of a man, and another of a woman with her hair pulled up in a bun.

The “Nude with a Hat” dates from early in Modigliani’s career, not long after he moved to Paris from Italy, when he was struggling to find buyers for his art. The painting was purchased by the museum’s founder in 1983.

The canvas is now known to contain five of his paintings, likely painted one atop the other out of necessity to save money on new canvases. X-ray photography and other noninvasive technologies have found hidden works by other artists such as Degas and Rembrandt.

Berkowits called the artwork “a sketchbook on a canvas,” showing Modigliani’s repeated tries and “never-ending search for artistic expression.” She said there is “no doubt at all” that the painting is authentic.

“He was one of the very first multicultural artists who pulled inspiration from different sources,” said Kenneth Wayne, director of the Modigliani Project, an organization that is working to compile an authenticated collection of the artist’s works. He cited Modigliani’s contemporaries Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse as other examples.

Modigliani sought “an air of the strange and beauty” and achieved that through the incorporation of those foreign styles in his art, Wayne added. Wayne and his colleagues use scientific methods and art expertise to weed out fakes.

The X-ray photography was conducted ahead of a sweeping exhibition of Modigliani’s works at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Wayne said a growing number of technical studies like that by the Barnes Foundation have increased confidence in confirming genuine Modiglianis.

The foundation museum said the exhibit opens Oct. 16 and will explore the artist’s working methods and materials based on forensic study of dozens of Modigliani’s paintings and sculptures loaned from collections around the world.

Cost-of-living crisis to hit women hardest, report says

yesterday

FILE - Workers set the stage prior to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, May 22, 2022. The World Economic Forum reported on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, that the cost-of-living crisis, sparked in part by higher fuel and food prices, is expected to hit women the hardest. 

(Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP, File)

GENEVA (AP) — A cost-of-living crisis sparked in part by higher fuel and food prices is expected to hit women the hardest, the World Economic Forum reported Wednesday, pointing to a widening gender gap in the global labor force.

The Geneva-based think tank and event organizer, best known for hosting an annual gathering of elites in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos, says a hoped-for recovery from a ballooning gender gap hasn’t materialized as expected as the COVID-19 crisis has eased.

The forum estimates that it will now take 132 years — down from 136 — for the world to reach gender parity, which the organization defines around four main factors: salaries and economic opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment.

A breakdown by country gave top marks to Iceland, followed by several Nordic countries and New Zealand, as well as Rwanda, Nicaragua and Namibia. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, came in 10th place in the report of 146 countries. Further down the list were the world’s biggest economies: the U.S. was at No. 27, China at No. 102 and Japan at No. 116.



Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the forum, say women have been disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis following labor market losses during the pandemic and insufficient “care infrastructure” — such as for the elderly or children.

“In face of a weak recovery, government and business must make two sets of efforts: targeted policies to support women’s return to the workforce and women’s talent development in the industries of the future,” she said. “Otherwise, we risk eroding the gains of the last decades permanently and losing out on the future economic returns of diversity.”

The report, now in its 16th year, aims to track shocks to the labor market that can impact the gender gap.

LGBTQ+ harassment, slurs abound on social media, report says

By AMANDA SEITZ

yesterday


WASHINGTON (AP) — Social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok are failing to stop hate and threats against LGBTQ users, a report issued Wednesday from advocacy group GLAAD found.

Those are some of the internet’s most vulnerable users, with a majority of LGBTQ people saying they’ve faced menacing posts or comments when they’re scrolling through social media. But it’s unclear how social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube are handling those threats.

Instead of protecting their users, GLAAD says in the report, the tech companies are safeguarding information about how they respond to those attacks, revealing few details about how often they take down posts or accounts that push hate speech or harass LGBTQ users.

“The reality is, there’s very little transparency and very little accountability,” said Jenni Olson, GLAAD’s director for social media safety and author of the report. “And people feel helpless.”

Los Angeles resident Peter Sapinsky, a gay musician who said he has faced harassment in the online gaming community, shared screenshots with The Associated Press of dozens of messages he’s sent to YouTube about users and videos that use racist and homophobic slurs. YouTube has responded to only some of the messages, he said.

Sapinsky, 29, said some use YouTube to livestream themselves harassing people at Pride parades. They quickly delete those live videos once they’ve wrapped to evade being detected by YouTube for violating its policies against hate speech, he said. He listed a series of homophobic slurs he’s heard in videos posted by users who are still operating on the site.

“YouTube doesn’t do anything about it,” Sapinsky said. “For someone who says they don’t allow hate on the website, they sure do.”

Hateful or violent speech directed at members of the LGBTQ community is prohibited on the platform, YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said.

“Over the last few years, we’ve made significant progress in our ability to quickly remove hateful and harassing content,” Malon said. “This work is ongoing, and we appreciate the thoughtful feedback from GLAAD.”

A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement that the company was discussing the report’s findings with GLAAD. A statement from TikTok did not directly address the report but said the company is working to create an “inclusive environment.”

GLAAD recommended that the platforms start releasing the training methods for content moderators as well as the number of accounts and posts the companies remove for violating rules designed to protect LGBTQ users.

GLAAD’s report examines the policies and actions Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter have implemented around LGBTQ issues.

All of the social media platforms have outlined policies that are designed to prevent LGBTQ users from being harassed, threatened or discriminated against by other users because of their identity.

Twitter and TikTok also have specific policies against intentionally misgendering, using the wrong pronoun to describe someone, for example, or deadnaming, which involves reviving a transgender person’s name from before the person transitioned to a new identity. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it removes similar posts upon request.

Some users bully LGBTQ people on social media by misgendering or deadnaming them. One example came last month, when a conservative social media pundit sent a swarm of Twitter users to harass transgender actor Elliot Page with the wrong pronoun and name. That Twitter user was suspended under the company’s hateful conduct policy.

“The idea that these figures with millions of followers are bullying and harassing trans people, for being trans, is just wrong,” Olson said.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of social media platforms at https://apnews.com/hub/social-media.

___

This story has been corrected to show TikTok, not only Twitter, also has a policy against intentionally misgendering.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
U.S. charges 2 bankers in sprawling $1.2B Venezuela laundering conspiracy

July 13 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors have charged two financial asset managers with aiding in the laundering of $1.2 billion embezzled from Venezuela's state-owned and controlled energy company.

The Justice Department announced in a statement that an indictment was returned Tuesday in the Southern District of Florida, charging Ralph Steinmann, 48, of Switzerland, and Luis Fernando Vuteff, 51, of Argentina, with one count each of money laundering.

Prosecutors said the pair conspired with others to launder the ill-gotten proceeds taken from Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. through the U.S. financial system via international bank accounts from December 2014 to at least August 2018.

"Steinmann, Vuteff and others allegedly discussed and agreed to create the sophisticated financial mechanisms and relationships required to launder more than $200 million related to the scheme as well as open accounts for or on behalf of at least two Venezuelan public officials to receive their bribe payments related to the scheme," the Justice Department said.

The charging document states the money they were laundering was from a foreign currency exchange scheme that involved the bribery of Venezuelan officials.

In 2018, the Justice Department charged several others involved in the currency exchange scheme that was concocted to embezzle $1.2 billion from PDVSA that was obtained through bribery and fraud.

In October of that year, Matthias Krull, a former managing director and vice chairman of a Swiss bank, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in the scheme.

According to federal prosecutors, Krull, a German national, admitted that the conspiracy started in December 2014 and that he and co-conspirators used Miami, Fla., real estate and false-investment schemes in an effort to launder the money that came from PDVSA.

If convicted, Steinmann and Vuteff each face up to 20 years' imprisonment.

Study suggests coronaviruses may survive in frozen meat for up to 30 days

By HealthDay News

A computer generated representation of COVID-19 virions (SARS-CoV-2) under electron microscope. Image by Felipe Esquivel Reed/Wikimedia Commons

Had COVID? You might want to clean your freezer out.

A new study suggests that cousins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can survive on frozen meat and fish for up to 30 days

The research -- prompted by COVID outbreaks in Asia in which packaged meat was suspected as the virus' source -- was conducted on frozen chicken, beef, pork and salmon. The findings were published recently in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

"Although you might not store meat in the fridge for 30 days, you might store it in the freezer for that long," said first author Emily Bailey, assistant professor of public health at Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C.

Her team conducted its research without use of the actual coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Instead, researchers relied on surrogate viruses with similar protein spikes.

These similar viruses were placed on frozen meat and fish, which was then stored in both refrigerator temperatures (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) and freezer temperatures (-4 F.)

"We even found that the viruses could be cultured after [being frozen for] that length of time," Bailey said in a journal news release.

Researchers said their findings are significant because SARS-CoV-2 can reproduce in the gut, not just in the respiratory tract where most people feel its effects.

Three virus strains were used as surrogates in the study, including two animal coronaviruses. All three have been used as stand-ins in previous studies of SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers found that the viruses didn't fare as well in refrigerated temperatures as in freezer temperatures. The numbers also differed by food item.

They said this study underlines the importance of rigorous sanitation in the harvest, transport, packaging and distribution of food products.

"Continued efforts are needed to prevent contamination of foods and food processing surfaces, worker hands, and food processing utensils such as knives," the authors wrote, adding that the disinfection of foods prior to packaging also needs to be addressed.

More information

For more about keeping food safe during the COVID pandemic, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

BIG BROTHER INC.
Amazon gave Ring camera footage to police without owners' consent

Amazon admits giving police Ring doorbell videos 11 times this year without owners' consent, according to a letter received by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. 

Photo courtesy of Ring.

July 13 (UPI) -- Amazon gave Ring doorbell camera footage, without owners' consent, to police at least 11 times this year, according to findings released Wednesday.

Amazon's admission was made in a letter the online retail giant sent to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., on July 1 after he raised privacy issues over the doorbell cameras.

"Ring's surveillance system threatens the public in ways that go far beyond abstract privacy invasion," Markey wrote in June. "Individuals may use Ring devices' audio recordings to facilitate blackmail, stalking and other damaging practices."

Amazon, which runs Ring cameras, had previously said the footage is handed over to police only if it is demanded by a court order, if the owner gives their permission or if there is an "emergency." Amazon said the 11 instances halfway through 2022 were "emergency situations," which the company defined as "cases involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person."

"It's simply untrue that Ring gives anyone unfettered access to customer data or video, as we have repeatedly made clear to our customers and others," a Ring spokesperson told UPI in an email.

"The law authorizes companies like Ring to provide information to government entities if the company believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person, such as kidnapping or an attempted murder, requires disclosure without delay. Ring faithfully applies that legal standard," the company said.

Markey said the findings from his investigation into Amazon, which bought the doorbell company in 2018, highlights the "close relationship between Ring and law enforcement.

"As my ongoing investigation into Amazon illustrates, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to move, assemble and converse in public without being tracked and recorded," Markey said in a statement Wednesday.

"Increasing law enforcement reliance on private surveillance creates a crisis of accountability, and I am particularly concerned that biometric surveillance could become central to the growing web of surveillance systems that Amazon and other powerful tech companies are responsible for," Markey added.

Amazon has repeatedly stated that police cannot view recordings unless clips are posted publicly or shared directly with police. Wednesday's letter is the first time the tech giant has confirmed it has handed over this information without an owner's consent.

Amazon's app called Neighbors allows users to post Ring camera footage and leave comments. Amazon currently has agreements with 2,161 police departments across the country allowing officers to use the app.

While Markey and others have raised privacy concerns, others say the cameras are useful crime-fighting tools that help police keep neighborhoods safe.

"In numerous property crimes, we have utilized the Ring portal and video received from it," Omaha Police Captain Steve Cerveny told KETV. "It's routinely used in those investigations and has proved useful recently in identifying suspects."