THE LAST TIME THE LEFT WAS INTO ARMED STRUGGLE
’70s radical David Gilbert granted parole in Brink’s robbery
By MICHAEL HILL and KAREN MATTHEWS

 In this Nov. 23, 1981, file photo, law officials escort a handcuffed David Gilbert, second from left, from Rockland County Court in New City, N.Y. Former Weather Underground radical David Gilbert has been granted parole after decades in prison for his role in a fatal 1981 Brink’s robbery north of New York City, a corrections department spokesperson said Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. 

(AP Photo/David Handschuh, File)


ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Former Weather Underground radical David Gilbert has been granted parole after 40 years behind bars for his role in a deadly 1981 Brink’s robbery that was a violent echo of left-wing extremism born in the 1960s, the state corrections department said Tuesday.

Gilbert, 76, has been imprisoned since shortly after the infamously botched armored car robbery in which a guard and two police officers were killed. He became eligible for parole only after his 75 years-to-life sentence was shortened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August, hours before he left office.

Gilbert appeared before the state parole board Oct. 19 and was subsequently granted parole, Thomas Mailey, a spokesperson for the New York state corrections department, said Tuesday.

He will be able to leave Shawangunk Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley next month.

Supporters — including his son, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin — lobbied to have Gilbert join other defendants in the case who have been released from prison.

In an email, Boudin said, “I am so grateful to the parole board and to everyone who has supported my father during his more than 40 years in prison. I’m thinking about the other children affected by this crime and want to make sure that nothing I do or say further upsets the victims’ families. Their loved ones will never be forgotten.”

But even the prospect of Gilbert’s release had angered some local officials in the Hudson Valley and family members who said his release would insult the memory of the slain men.

In a statement, Rockland County Executive Ed Day called the decision a “cruel and unjust slap in the face to the families” of those killed.

“Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Parole Board should be ashamed for allowing this domestic terrorist to walk free on our streets,” Day said. “There’s no reason that David Gilbert should not have to face the full consequences of his heinous crimes, no matter how much time has passed.”

Gilbert and other former members of the Weather Underground, a militant group that grew out of the anti-Vietnam War movement, had joined with members of the Black Liberation Army in the Oct. 20, 1981, robbery. They stole $1.6 million in cash from an armored car outside the Nanuet Mall near the Hudson River community of Nyack.

Brink’s guard Peter Paige and two Nyack police officers, Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown, were killed in the holdup and ensuing shootout at a nearby roadblock.

Though unarmed, Gilbert was charged with robbery and murder, since people were killed during the crime. Also charged was Chesa Boudin’s mother, Kathy Boudin. The boy was 14 months old when his parents were imprisoned.

In a sometimes raucous trial, Gilbert and two other defendants cast themselves as freedom fighters and deemed the proceedings illegitimate. At one court session, Gilbert and defendant Judith Clark raised their fists and shouted “Free the land!”

Kathy Boudin avoided a harsher sentence by pleading guilty and was paroled in 2003. Clark was granted parole in 2019, three years after Cuomo commuted her sentence. She had been denied parole after her first hearing two years earlier.

Gilbert was not eligible for parole until 2056 before Cuomo commuted his sentence. The former governor said Gilbert made significant contributions to AIDS education and prevention programs, and worked as a tutor, law library clerk, paralegal assistant, teacher’s aide and aide in various prison programs.

Chesa Boudin was raised by his parents’ Weather Underground compatriots, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

He ran a progressive campaign for San Francisco district attorney in 2019 in which he said visiting his parents in prison showed him the criminal justice system was broken.

___

Matthews reported from New York City.

Civil rights pioneer seeks expungement of ’55 arrest record

By JAY REEVES

1 of 9
Claudette Colvin, seated, watches as her attorney Gar Blume files paperwork in juvenile court to have her juvenile record expunged, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, in Montgomery, Ala. Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus in 1955. Behind Colvin wearing a red tie is Fred Gray, her original attorney from the civil rights era. 

(AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Months before Rosa Parks became the mother of the modern civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a segregated Alabama bus, Black teenager Claudette Colvin did the same. Convicted of assaulting a police officer while being arrested, she was placed on probation yet never received notice that she’d finished the term and was on safe ground legally.

Now 82 and slowed by age, Colvin has asked a judge to end the matter once and for all. She wants a court in Montgomery to wipe away a record that her lawyer says has cast a shadow over the life of a largely unsung hero of the civil rights era.

“I am an old woman now. Having my records expunged will mean something to my grandchildren and great grandchildren. And it will mean something for other Black children,” Colvin said in a sworn statement.

Supporters sang civil rights anthems and clapped as Colvin entered the clerk’s office and filed the expungement request Tuesday. Her attorney, Phillip Ensler, said he was seeking all legal documents to be sealed and all records of the case erased.

Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey later said he agreed with the request to clear Colvin’s record, removing any doubt it would be approved.

“I guess you can say that now I am no longer a juvenile delinquent,” Colvin told a crowd that included relatives, well wishers and activists.

Also present was famed civil rights attorney Fred Gray, now 90, who’s not currently involved in her case.

In this Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009, file photo, Bronx resident Claudette Colvin talks about segregation laws in the 1950s in Alabama while having her photo taken, in New York. Months before Rosa Parks became the mother of the modern civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat and move to the back of a segregated Alabama bus, Black teenager Colvin did the same. Convicted of assaulting a police officer while being arrested, Colvin was placed on probation yet never received notice that she'd finished the term and was on safe ground legally. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Recalling her arrest, Colvin told the crowd: “My mindset was on freedom.”

“So I was not going to move that day,” she said. “I told them that history had me glued to the seat.”

Colvin left Alabama at age 20 and spent decades in New York, but relatives always worried what might happen when she returned for visits since no court official ever said she had finished probation, according to Ensler.

“Her family has lived with this tremendous fear ever since then,” he said. “For all the recognition of recent years and the attempts to tell her story, there wasn’t anything done to clear her record.”

Currently living in Birmingham before a move to stay with relatives in Texas, the octogenarian Colvin made her request to a juvenile court judge oddly enough since that’s where she was judged delinquent and placed on what, for all practical purposes, amounted to a lifetime of probation, Ensler said.

Montgomery’s city bus system, like the rest of public life across the Deep South, was strictly divided along racial lines in the 1950s. Blacks had to use one water fountain while whites used another; the front of a bus was for white people while Blacks had to take the back by law.

Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress and activist with the NAACP, gained worldwide fame after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955. Her treatment led to the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott, which propelled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. into the national limelight and often is considered the start of the modern civil rights movement.

A 15-year-old high school student at the time, Colvin got fed up and refused to move even before Parks.

A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting near two white girls and refused to move to the back of the bus. One of the Black girls moved when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused.

The police report said Colvin put up a struggle as officers removed her from the bus, kicking and scratching an officer. She was initially convicted of violating the city’s segregation law, disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer, but she appealed and only the assault charge stuck.

The case was sent to juvenile court because of Colvin’s age, and records show a judge found her delinquent and placed her on probation “as a ward of the state pending good behavior.” And that’s where it ended, Ensler said, with Colvin never getting official word that she’d completed probation and her relatives assuming the worst — that police would arrest her for any reason they could.

Ensler said it’s “murky” as to whether Colvin is actually still on probation, but she never had any other arrests or legal scrapes. She even became a named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation on Montgomery’s buses. Still, Colvin said, the trauma endured, particularly for relatives who constantly worried for her.

“My conviction for standing up for my constitutional right terrorized my family and relatives who knew only that they were not to talk about my arrest and conviction because people in town knew me as ‘that girl from the bus,’” she said.

Ensler said it was uncertain when a judge might rule.

___

Reeves is a member of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.

COACHING IS ABUSE

Blackhawks GM resigns, team fined after sexual assault probe

By JAY COHEN and STEPHEN WHYNO

In this July 26, 2019, file photo, Chicago Blackhawks senior vice president and general manager Stan Bowman speaks to the media during the NHL hockey team's convention in Chicago. Bowman resigned Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021, following an investigation into allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted a player in 2010. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky, File)

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks mishandled allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted a player during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2010, according to an investigation commissioned by the franchise that cast a shadow over the NHL on Tuesday.

Stan Bowman, Chicago’s general manager and president of hockey operations, resigned in the wake of the findings by an outside law firm, and the NHL fined the team $2 million for “the organization’s inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response.” Al MacIsaac, one of the team’s top hockey executives, also is out.

Florida Panthers coach Joel Quenneville and Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who were with the Blackhawks when the sexual assault allegations were first reported, were named in the damning report as well.

The Panthers declined to comment, citing NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s plans to meet with Quenneville. Cheveldayoff said he shared everything he knows with Jenner & Block for its report.

“Further, I look forward to my discussion with Commissioner Bettman at the soonest possible date to continue to cooperate fully with the National Hockey League,” Cheveldayoff said in a statement provided by the Jets to AP. “I will reserve any further comment until after that conversation has been conducted.”

The Blackhawks hired Jenner & Block to conduct what they called an independent review in response to two lawsuits filed against the franchise: one by a player identified as John Doe alleging sexual assault by then-assistant coach Brad Aldrich in 2010 and another filed by a former student whom Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in Michigan.

The report, which team CEO Danny Wirtz called “both disturbing and difficult to read,” was released by the franchise. Former federal prosecutor Reid Schar, who led the investigation, said the firm found no evidence that Wirtz or his father, Rocky, who owns the team, were aware of the allegations before the former player’s lawsuit was brought to their attention ahead of its filing.

“It is clear that in 2010 the executives of this organization put team performance above all else,” Danny Wirtz said. “John Doe deserved better from the Blackhawks.”

In a statement released through his attorney, Susan Loggans, John Doe said he was “grateful for the accountability” shown by the Blackhawks.

“Although nothing can truly change the detriment to my life over the past decade because of the actions of one man inside the Blackhawks organization, I am very grateful to have the truth be recognized, and I look forward to continuing the long journey to recovery,” John Doe said.

Danny Wirtz said he has instructed the organization’s lawyers to try to “reach a fair resolution consistent with the totality of the circumstances.” But Loggans said there hadn’t been any settlement talks.

“I’m waiting to see if there’s any action behind their repentance that they expressed today,” she told The Associated Press.

Bowman, the son of Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, said he was stepping aside because he didn’t want to be a distraction. He also resigned his position as GM of the U.S men’s hockey team at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

“Eleven years ago, while serving in my first year as general manager, I was made aware of potential inappropriate behavior by a then-video coach involving a player,” he said in a statement released by the Blackhawks. “I promptly reported the matter to the then-president and CEO who committed to handling the matter.

“I learned this year that the inappropriate behavior involved a serious allegation of sexual assault. I relied on the direction of my superior that he would take appropriate action. Looking back, now knowing he did not handle the matter promptly, I regret assuming he would do so.”

According to the report, the encounter between John Doe, then 20, and Aldrich, then 27, occurred on May 8 or 9 in 2010. Doe told investigators that Aldrich threatened him with a souvenir baseball bat before forcibly performing oral sex on him and masturbating on the player’s back, allegations that he also detailed in a lawsuit. Aldrich told investigators the encounter was consensual.

On May 23, right after Chicago advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, Bowman, MacIsaac, former team president John McDonough, former executive vice president Jay Blunk and then-assistant general manager Cheveldayoff met with then-coach Quenneville and mental skills coach Jim Gary to discuss the allegations. (McDonough and Blunk are no longer employed in the NHL.)

Schar said accounts of the meeting “vary significantly.”

“What is clear is that after being informed of Aldrich’s alleged sexual harassment and misconduct with a player no action was taken for three weeks,” Schar said.

According to the report, Bowman recalled that, after learning of the incident, Quenneville shook his head and said it was hard for the team to get to where it was, and they could not deal with this issue now.

The report found no evidence of any investigation or contact with human resources before McDonough informed the team’s director of human resources about the allegations on June 14 — a delay that violated the Blackhawks’ sexual harassment policy and had “consequences,” according to Schar.

“During that period, Aldrich continued to work with and travel with the team,” Schar said. “On June 10th, during an evening of celebration after the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup win the previous day, Aldrich made an unwanted sexual advance towards a Blackhawks intern, who was 22 years old at the time.

“Also after the Stanley Cup win, Aldrich continued to participate in celebrations in the presence of John Doe, who had made the complaint.”

While announcing in July that he was willing to participate in the team’s probe, Quenneville said in a statement that he “first learned of these allegations through the media earlier this summer.” Cheveldayoff said in a statement that he had no knowledge of the allegations until he was asked if he was aware of anything prior to the end of Aldrich’s employment with the Blackhawks.

Bettman said he would “reserve judgment” on Quenneville and Cheveldayoff, and he plans to meet with them to discuss their roles in the situation.

The NHL said $1 million of the Blackhawks’ fine will help fund organizations in the Chicago area “that provide counseling and training for, and support and assistance to, survivors of sexual and other forms of abuse.”

On June 16, 2010, according to the report, Aldrich was given the option of resigning or being part of an investigation into what happened with John Doe. Aldrich signed a separation agreement and no investigation was conducted.

Aldrich received a severance and a playoff bonus, according to the report, and he was paid a salary “for several months.” He hosted the Stanley Cup for a day in his hometown, and his name was engraved on the iconic trophy.

The former player’s lawsuit, filed May 7 in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges Aldrich also assaulted another unidentified Blackhawks player. The former player who sued and is referred in the document as John Doe is seeking more than $150,000 in damages.

Aldrich was sentenced to nine months in prison for the Michigan assault.

Kyle Davidson was elevated to interim GM for the Blackhawks, and USA Hockey said it expects to announce a replacement for Bowman soon.

___

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno reported from Washington. AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M  PRICE FIXING
Washington state lawsuit accuses chicken producers of illegally inflating prices

"If you've eaten chicken in the last decade, this conspiracy touched your wallet"

The Washington state lawsuit names 19 chicken producers. 

File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- The state of Washington on Tuesday sued 19 chicken producers, accusing them of illegally conspiring to inflate prices, the attorney general announced.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the 19 companies named in the lawsuit account for about 95% of all broiler chicken sales in the United States. Broiler chickens are those raised for meat, including raw chicken sold at grocery stores and those made into chicken nuggets and sandwiches at restaurants.

Ferguson accused the companies of violating the state's Consumer Protection Act by coordinating to reduce supplies and rig contract bids to manipulate and boost prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says broiler chickens had wholesale sales between $21 billion and $33 billion each year from 2008 to 2018.

"If you've eaten chicken in the last decade, this conspiracy touched your wallet," Ferguson said. "This conspiracy cost middle-class and low-income Washington families more money to put food on their table. I will hold these companies accountable for the profits they illegally made off the backs of hardworking Washington families."

The companies named in the suit include Tyson Foods Inc., Pilgrim's Pride Corp., Sanderson Farms Inc., Perdue Farms Inc., Koch Foods Inc., Foster Farms LLC, Mountaire Farms Inc., Wayne Farms LLC, Amick Farms LLC, George's Inc., Peco Foods Inc., House of Raeford Inc., Fieldale Farms Corp., Case Foods Inc., Mar-Jac Poultry, Claxton Poultry Farms, Simmons Foods Inc., O.K. Foods Inc. and Harrison Poultry Inc.


The lawsuit also names Agri Stats, a company that collects and distributes industry data.

WINNIPEG

WSD support staff fed up with workload, planning job action

Frustrations among support staff, who say they were underpaid and overworked before the pandemic added even more responsibility to their plates, are mounting in Manitoba’s largest school division.

A walkout is on the table amid tense contract negotiations between the Winnipeg School Division and the union that represents educational assistants, interpreters, clerical staff and other support workers in city schools.

“That’s what we feel like: invisible. But if we’re not there, maybe then they’ll notice that we actually exist and we actually do a lot more than we get credit for or get paid for,” said one a member of the Winnipeg Association of Non-Teaching Employees.

The educational assistant, who spoke to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity, said she and her peers are “absolutely fed up.”

She was among the 330 employees who received a layoff notice in spring 2020, when schools shuttered at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Upon a return to school last fall, she said EAs were overwhelmed by new duties tied to public-health orders and forced to take on more work because of a rise in absences. All the while, she said, they felt “underappreciated and disrespected.”

Data obtained by the Free Press through freedom of information requests show a higher percentage of EAs left their jobs last year than teachers.

During the last academic year unaffected by the pandemic, 140 EAs took a leave from work and 21 resigned from WSD. Last year, those figures increased, by 24 per cent and 119 per cent, respectively. Retirements among support staff were also up five per cent.

Teacher leaves, by comparison, rose seven per cent during that time. Retirements increased eight per cent. And the number of educators who quit their jobs actually dropped, with three fewer resignations recorded in 2020-21 versus 2018-19.

The EA was not surprised by the figures: “There’s a lot more that we had to take on and it’s not like that was noticed,” she said.

The reality support staff faced last year included missing breaks because no coverage was available due to staffing shortages and being unable to properly distance because they often have to sit beside children to work through academic and behavioural challenges.

When public-health orders required physical distancing of two metres between pupils, some classes were split into two or more rooms, with the teacher travelling between. Support staff were deployed to supervise and at times, carry out lessons.

“EAs are not supposed to be in a classroom for more than half an hour without a teacher. All of a sudden, that’s out the window,” said the EA, adding she and her colleagues became the only in-person support for children of essential workers when teachers were sent home to do remote instruction in the third wave.

Another support staffer echoed that experience. “We were basically teachers, not getting teacher wages,” said the substitute EA.

EAs in the division start at $16.72 per hour. Their peers in River East Transcona make $18.96 and in Pembina Trails, the base rate is $20.17.

Last week, WANTE members were polled on what job action they would prefer: work-to-rule, a rotating strike or a general walkout. An official vote on a job-action mandate will take place in the coming weeks.

“We are still negotiating to have a fair contract,” said Carla Paul, president of WANTE.

In an email Friday, division spokeswoman Radean Carter said WSD does not comment on such negotiations.

Maggie Macintosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press

Biden set to nominate Rosenworcel for new term at telecoms regulator - sources


FCC commissioners testify before U.S. Congress in Washington

David Shepardson
Mon, October 25, 2021

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to nominate the acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission to serve another term and designate her as the permanent chair, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

Biden tapped Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in January to serve as the acting chair of the five-member telecoms regulator. Biden has waited more than nine months to make nominations for the FCC, which has not been able to address some issues because it currently has one vacancy and is divided 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans.

Rosenworcel will be the first woman designated as the permanent chair of the FCC; Mignon Clyburn in 2013 served as acting FCC chair.

Last month, a group of 25 U.S. senators wrote Biden emphasizing their support for Rosenworcel, a former Senate staffer, to be nominated for a new term and to designate her as the first female permanent chair, saying, "further delays will unnecessarily imperil our shared goal of achieving ubiquitous broadband connectivity."

Rosenworcel and her staff did not respond to requests for comment late Monday on the announcement expected as soon as Tuesday. Without being confirmed to a new term, Rosenworcel would need to leave the FCC at the end of the year.

Politico and Communications Daily reported Biden plans to nominate Gigi Sohn for the open FCC seat. Sohn is a former senior aide to Tom Wheeler, who served as an FCC chair under President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Sources told Reuters Sohn is under advanced consideration but did not confirm she would be nominated. Sohn declined to comment Monday.

The FCC under Obama adopted net neutrality rules in 2015 that barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes.

The protections were overturned in 2017 by the FCC under President Donald Trump, a Republican, over the objections of Rosenworcel and Clyburn.

Rosenworcel in 2017 said the decision put the FCC "on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public."

Supporters of net neutrality argue the protections ensure a free and open internet. Broadband and telecoms trade groups contend their legal basis from the pre-internet era was outdated and would discourage investment.

Rosenworcel has said the lack of broadband access leads to a “homework gap” for lower income Americans because most teachers assign homework that requires Internet access.

Rosenworcel has overseen the FCC's temporary $3.2 billion broadband subsidy program created by Congress in December that now provides more than 6 million lower-income American households or people impacted by COVID-19 with discounts on monthly internet service and on purchasing laptops or tablet computers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Christopher Cushing)

Govt U-turns on dumping of raw sewage in English rivers after huge backlash

26 October 2021

Activist Steve Bray protests outside Downing Street. Picture: Alamy

By Patrick Grafton-Green

The Government has U-turned over the dumping of raw sewage in seas and rivers by pledging to introduce tougher action against water companies.

Environment Secretary George Eustice this evening promised to bolster measures in the Environment Bill by making companies pay legal duty.

It came before a Lords vote which threatened to defeat the Government.

READ MORE: Shocking drone footage shows raw sewage being pumped into sea in conservation area

READ MORE: Campaigners demand end to raw sewage being dumped in rivers after MPs voted not to stop it

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the bill will now "be further strengthened with an amendment that will see a duty enshrined in law to ensure water companies secure a progressive reduction in the adverse impacts of discharges from storm overflows".

The department said the amendment it would bring forward in the Commons would be "very similar to amendment 45" which peers are debating in the House of Lords.

Last week, 268 MPs disagreed with that proposal, which also included putting a legal duty on water companies to stop sewage from being poured into waterways.

This led to a huge backlash.

The amendment had been put forward by crossbench peer the Duke of Wellington and would have forced companies and the Government to "take all reasonable steps" to avoid using sewer overflows when drains are overwhelmed.

Campaigners this week insisted it was unacceptable that raw sewage was put into coastal waters and rivers in England more than 400,000 times in the last year.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: "Earlier this summer, the Government published a new strategy for Ofwat mandating them to progressively reduce the discharge of sewage from storm overflows in the next pricing review.

"Following a debate in the House of Commons last week during the final stages of the Environment Bill, today we are announcing that we will put that commitment on a statutory footing with a new clause."

It comes despite a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying earlier today that the intentions of the Duke of Wellington's amendment was "already being delivered".

Labour's shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard said: "It should not have taken a public outcry for this Government to take the scandal of raw sewage being discharged into our rivers seriously.

"Having spent the past few days defending their position, this screeching U-turn will do little to convince the public that the health of our rivers, rather than the health of Conservative polling, is at the forefront of ministers' minds.

"The Government still has no clear plan and no grip on the issue of raw sewage being pumped into our seas and rivers."

Trump's White House ignored advice on COVID-19 that could've saved over 130,000 lives, Birx said

John Haltiwanger

Then-President Donald Trump speaks with Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Robert Redfield, and members of the White House coronavirus task force during a COVID-19 briefing on April 22, 2020.

 Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Trump's COVID-19 response led to many preventable deaths, Deborah Birx told House lawmakers.

 
Over 130,000 lives could've been saved if Trump's White House followed the science, she said.

 
Birx also testified that the 2020 election distracted Trump from the pandemic.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, in testimony to the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis said that former President Donald Trump's approach to the pandemic led to a massive number of preventable deaths.

"No," Birx said when asked if Trump did everything in his power to curb the spread and save lives, per excerpts of her testimony released by the committee on Tuesday.

"And I've said that to the White House in general, and I believe I was very clear to the president in specifics of what I needed him to do," she added.

Birx, who testified before the committee in mid-October, said that over 130,000 lives could've been saved in the early stages of the pandemic had Trump's White House adhered to the science and pushed for measures advocated by experts.

"I believe if we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, that we probably could have decreased fatalities into the 30% less to 40% less range," Birx said.

She also suggested that the 2020 election distracted Trump and took attention away from the nation's pandemic response.

"The governors and mayors and others that were campaigning, as well as the White House that was campaigning, just took people's time away from and distracted them away from the pandemic in my personal opinion," Birx said. "They were actively campaigning and not as present in the White House as previously."

Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

From the earliest days of the pandemic, Trump downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and repeatedly spread misinformation on the virus. He routinely pushed against public health recommendations, including wearing a mask or face covering. Trump during an interview with veteran journalist Bob Woodward admitted that he deliberately sought to downplay the dangers of the virus in an effort to avoid inducing "panic."

Top public health experts have excoriated Trump over his pandemic response, saying that his approach led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

By the time Trump left office, there had been over 400,000 reported COVID-19 deaths in the US.

Scott Atlas defends COVID work, slams Deborah Birx testimony as 'Orwellian attempt to rewrite history'

Birx testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis earlier this month

By Brooke Singman | Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump COVID special advisor Dr. Scott Atlas slammed Dr. Deborah Birx for her reported testimony to congressional investigators as "an Orwellian attempt to rewrite history," defending his work on the Trump COVID-19 task force, and telling Fox News that history's "biggest failure of public health policy lies directly at the hands of" officials who recommended lockdowns during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

Birx testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis earlier this month, saying that officials in former President Trump's White House did not take steps to push mask-wearing, social distancing and other mitigation steps that could have prevented thousands of COVID-19 deaths.

MORE GOP BS
SCALISE SAYS GOP MEMO ON CLOSED-DOOR BIRX TESTIMONY CONFIRMS WORLD WAS 'MISLED' ON COVID

Birx also reportedly slammed Atlas, saying he advocated for letting COVID-19 spread through the population to reach herd immunity. The New York Times reported Birx testified that she repeatedly raised her concerns about Atlas' positions and theories to other doctors on the task force.

Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator, speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. 

Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Atlas, defending his work to Fox News, said during his time at the White House, he recommended policies "designed to reduce both the spread of the infection to the vulnerable and the harms of the policies themselves to those impacted the most-- low-income families, the working class of America, and our children."

Atlas, delivering a point-by-point rebuttal to reports of Birx's testimony about his role, told Fox News that her claim that he advised Trump to "let the infection spread widely without mitigation to achieve herd immunity," telling Fox News that "is false."

"I never advised the president, the Task Force, or anyone else while in Washington to allow the virus to spread," Atlas said. "Dozens of my writings and interviews during my Washington service explicitly called for specific mitigations, including social distancing, extra hygiene, and masks when not able to socially distance, and 'focused protection,' a heightened protection of those at risk, to allow a safe opening and end the public health destruction from lockdowns."

US President Donald Trump (L) listens to White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas speak during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on September 23, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Atlas told Fox News that "it is not a surprise that Dr. Birx, the official Task Force Coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force from late February, 2020 through January 19, 2021, might want to blame others for the failure of her policies," adding that, in her position, she "held the authority over the official federal advice on medical policy."

Atlas said Birx "personally detailed the state of the pandemic" during all task force meetings, and COVID meetings attended by top Trump advisors, adding that Birx "composed in writing and communicated all recommendations from the Task Force to every state."

"I visited only one state, Florida, during my time in Washington," Atlas said.

HISTORICAL REVISIONISM OF THE ANTI VAX/ANTI MASKER

"It is an Orwellian attempt to rewrite history to blame those who criticized the lockdowns that were widely implemented for the failure of the lockdowns that were widely implemented," he said, adding that Birx's recommendations "were implemented by governors throughout nearly the entire nation during 2020."

"Those policies failed to stop the dying, failed to stop the infection from spreading, and inflicted massive health damage and destruction, particularly on working class and lower-income families and on our children," Atlas told Fox News. "History's biggest failure of public health policy lies directly at the hands of those who recommended the lockdowns and those who implemented them, not on those who advised otherwise. Period."

Atlas jointed the Trump White House COVID-19 Task Force in August 2020 as a special government employee, serving just a 130-day detail. Atlas' role expired in November 2020.

 

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Friday, April 3, 2020, in Washington.

 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Atlas was criticized throughout his time at the White House for advocating for a reopening, while blasting COVID-19 lockdowns as "extremely harmful" to Americans.

MORE LIES 
Meanwhile, last week, Republican House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said a memo by Republican leadership on the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis outlining Birx’s closed-door congressional testimony confirms the world was "misled" on the origins of COVID-19.

"President Biden and Democrats have politicized Covid from the start and refused to acknowledge its origins from China," Scalise told Fox News in a statement. "Republicans have been sounding the alarm on these issues for well over year, and Dr. Birx’s closed-door testimony confirms that the world was misled."

The memo highlights several of Birx’s testimonial revelations, including that there were preventable deaths and that "neither the federal government or state and local governments are doing everything that they could at this moment." According to Republicans on the committee, Birx also testified about the importance of coordinating with state and local leaders.

According to the memo, Birx took aim at China’s role in suppressing information on the virus to the World Health Organization (WHO) at the onset of the pandemic, saying she believes "that there had to be evidence of human-to-human transmission weeks before the WHO or the world was notified" and that China "misled" the world on the virus.

The doctor also said she believed that China was giving false information to the WHO on the virus, resulting in a delay of two weeks before worldwide confirmation of human-to-human transmission of COVID-19.

Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this report.

Skull found at Philadelphia high school prompts districtwide search



Taylor Allen
Mon, October 25, 2021, 

The School District of Philadelphia is asking high school principals and other officials to search for skeletal remains in their buildings after the discovery of a human skull at Central High School.

Driving the news: The school district announced the finding of the "human skeletal item," believed to have belonged to a Native American male, on Friday. The district told Axios that a staff member originally discovered the skull in June.

Now district officials are working with the Department of Interior and Temple University to repatriate the remains.

What they're saying: District officials said the skull was likely used as a teaching tool from the mid-1850s to the early to mid-1900s.

The district said it hasn't used human skeletons in lessons for at least a decade.

"Despite the fact that this individual is long deceased, they were an individual who was a member of a community," Kimberly Williams, chair of Temple's Anthropology Department, said in a statement.

The big picture: Mishandling of Indigenous remains isn't uncommon in American history, especially in the context of forced residential boarding schools.

And according to a report from NPR, many skeletons in classrooms across the country are real.

In Pennsylvania, remains of nine Native American children who attended a government-run school were returned home earlier this year.

Of note: Researchers in the 19th century used to collect skulls and conduct experiments to promote white supremacy. The trade and selling of crania propelled the practice.

The Penn Museum came under fire in April following reports that a curator used the remains of victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing for an online forensics course.

This past May, the city revealed its discovery that in 2017, Thomas Farley, the former health commissioner, ordered a separate set of MOVE bombing victims' remains to be cremated without notifying family members.

The remains that were thought to be destroyed were found a day later after a subordinate didn't go through with the order.

Farley resigned at the request of Mayor Jim Kenney.

What's next: The school district asked high school principals to conduct surveys of any skeletal teaching collections within their schools by Nov. 5, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Chrétien under fire for residential school comments

Duration: 02:36 

WARNING: This story contains distressing details. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien is under fire after saying on the Radio-Canada’s Tout le Monde en Parle he never heard about abuse at residential schools during his tenure as minister of what was then called Indian affairs from 1968 to 1974.

VIDEO

Chrétien under fire for residential school comments (msn.com)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; ECOCIDE

Illegal waste dumps wreak environmental havoc in French countryside



Issued on: 26/10/2021 - 

Text by: FRANCE 24

Near a forest barely 20 kilometres from Paris, an impromptu landfill covering more than 16 hectares is just one of many illegal waste dumps polluting the French countryside. The industrial waste is dumped by polluters evading garbage disposal fees.

Toufik Bouallaga, a volunteer at a local citizen’s collective, is visibly disturbed as he walks across an illegal dump filled with plastic tubs, asbestos sheets and metal waste. “It breaks my heart, knowing this could have been a place for kids to go on walks … this is a forest…it’s sickening,” he explains.

Legal waste disposal in France can cost up to 115 euros per tonne for industrial refuse while illegal dumping can cost as little as four euros per tonne.

It's a lucrative business for illegal operators, one that is causing enormous environmental damage since the fermentation of the trash produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.