Pompeo's Used Employees for Dogsitting and Picking Up Takeout, Watchdog Finds

An investigation found the couple misused agency resources and violated federal ethics rules by making more than 100 personal requests of department staff

By PETER WADE


70th United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

AP
Picking up takeout, taking care of the family dog, making Cheesecake Factory reservations, helping write a medical school recommendation for a friend and sending out Christmas cards are just some of the personal, non-work related tasks former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, asked State Department employees to do for them while he was in office.

A State Department independent watchdog investigation, published on Friday, found that Pompeo and his wife misused agency resources and violated federal ethics rules by making more than 100 such requests to political appointees and other employees at the State Department.

Susan Pompeo made many of the unethical requests cited in the investigation. She assigned employees numerous tasks, and the employees told the investigators that they considered these instructions from her to be “at the direction of Secretary Pompeo” and she would often use language such as, “The Secretary would like you to… ” and “I have spoken with the Secretary.”

In one request, Susan Pompeo asked a career staff member to accompany her to pick up take-out food for a social event with Michelle Brechbuhl, the wife of State Department Counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl. “Michelle and I think Farmers, Fishers, Bakers is a good place for us to carry out dinner tonight. Michelle is willing to drive if one of you would just run in (that way… she won’t have to park!),” Susan Pompeo wrote in an email.

In another request, Susan Pompeo emailed a senior advisor and asked, “I’m wondering if we are sending the last of our personal [Christmas] cards out, who will be there to help me?” The employee then sent in a Senior Foreign Service Officer, who “came in on the weekend to envelope, address, and mail personal Christmas cards for the Pompeos.”

Pompeo denied the findings of the investigation, saying in a statement, “At no time did I, or my wife Susan, misuse taxpayer money or violate rules or ethical norms. Our actions were constantly reviewed by dozens of lawyers, and we made massive efforts, and did, comply with every requirement.”

But these chores and others “appear to have had no connection to official Department business,” the watchdog report said. These tasks were performed “during duty and non-duty hours,” the report said, but the Pompeos did not “reimburse the subordinate employees for their non-duty time when performing these tasks.” One employee told the investigators that she believed she had to carry out the tasks “as part of her official duties” and not merely friendly favors, which is how Pompeo tried to explain the requests when interviewed by investigators late last year.

The investigator general concluded that the Pompeos’ “requests were inconsistent with department ethics rules and the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch.” According to the report, most of the fieldwork for this investigation was completed by August 2020, but Pompeo dodged requests for an interview for three months, which delayed the release of the report.

U.S., China Say They Will Cooperate to Tackle Climate Change


Dominic Lau, Bloomberg News

JAENSCHWALDE, GERMANY - AUGUST 20: Steam rises from cooling towers at the Jaenschwalde coal-fired power plant on August 20, 2010 at Jaenschwalde, Germany. The Jaenschwalde power plant is one of the biggest single producers of CO2 gas in Europe. The area of northern Saxony and southern Brandenburg is scarred with active and former lignite coal mines that feed local power plants like Jaenschwalde, and a large-scale project is underway to flood the massive pits and convert them into lakes for tourism. The Lausitz and Middle German Mining and Administration Association (LMBV) is converting a total of 51 former mines into lakes, and a similar project is planned for former mines in neighboring Poland. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) 

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and China are committed to cooperating to tackle climate change, they said in a joint statement after meetings between senior envoys last week.

The two nations will work together and with other parties to support implementation of the Paris Agreement and to promote a successful U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow later this year, they said.

The U.S. and China support the Paris Agreement’s aim to limit the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celcius and to try to restrict it to 1.5 degrees Celcius, according to the statement.

The statement followed discussions in Shanghai on April 15 and 16 between U.S. presidential climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua. Kerry’s visit was part of a tour that’s so far included India, the U.K., Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Royal Caribbean sends ships to St. Vincent to assist with evacuations amid La Soufriere eruption

Around 159 nationals from the US, UK and Canada were scheduled to evacuate

By Peter Aitken | Fox News

Royal Caribbean continued its evacuation efforts Saturday, one day after the island of St. Vincent was rocked by another volcanic eruption.

Since the initial eruption on April 9, authorities have worked to clear the Caribbean island and contain the damage.

British, Canadian and U.S. nationals line up alongside the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Reflection to be evacuated free of charge, in Kingstown on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Friday, April 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Orvil Samuel)

Some 20,000 people have fled to the northern end of the island for shelter.


La Soufriere, the volcano, has erupted only a handful of times: Experts have compared the current cycle to one from 1902, during which eruptions continued for months

.

British, Canadian and U.S. nationals wait to board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Reflection to be evacuated free of charge, in Kingstown on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Friday, April 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Orvil Samuel)

British, U.S. and Canadian nationals have been evacuated on Royal Caribbean cruise ships, with hundreds ferried to nearby islands for safety.

'HUGE' EXPLOSION ROCKS ST. VINCENT AS VOLCANO KEEPS ERUPTING

"In addition to the 137 evacuees who debarked in St. Lucia last Saturday, Royal Caribbean Group’s Celebrity Cruises will evacuate 159 nationals from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada to St. Maarten today," a Royal Caribbean spokesperson told Fox News.

Plumes of ash rise from the La Soufriere volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Friday, April 16, 2021. (Vincie Richie/The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre via AP)

The evacuees were scheduled to arrive in St. Maarten by Saturday, with anyone aboard the vessel required to present a negative PCR or antigen test.

The cruise ships also made much-needed water deliveries, with more relief supplies on the way.

The U.S. Embassy said those aboard the cruise ships would have to make travel arrangements home from whichever island evacuees land.

So far, no deaths have been reported.

Fox News' Lucas Manfredi and the Associated Press

GOP ARYAN CAUCUS

UPDATED

Marjorie Taylor Green starting new GOP caucus pushing 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'

Bob Brigham
April 16, 2021

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Facebook


Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is once again back in the news.

"A nascent 'America First Caucus' in Congress linked to Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has been distributing materials calling for a 'common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions' and a return to architectural style that 'befits the progeny of European architecture.' Reps. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) have also agreed to join the group," Punchbowl News reported Friday, citing an email invitation it obtained.

"We've been covering Congress for a long time, and this is some of the most nakedly nativist rhetoric we've ever seen," Punchbowl noted.

Punchbowl cited some of the "eye-popping" sections of the group's literature.

"America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions," the group argued. "History has shown that societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country, particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the country."

GOP leadership scrambles after 'nativist dog whistles' from the new 'White Nationalism Caucus'

Bob Brigham
April 16, 2021

Republican leadership engaged in damage control on Friday after some of the most extreme members of the House of Representatives formed a new caucus to support Angelo-Saxon heritage.

The caucus -- which has the support of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) -- has been panned as a "White Nationalism Caucus."

GOP leadership scrambled to claim that the party once led by Donald Trump is not racist.
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"America is built on the idea that we are all created equal and success is earned through honest, hard work. It isn't built on identity, race, or religion. The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln & the party of more opportunity for all Americans—not nativist dog whistles," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeted.

House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) also attempted to clean up the mess.

"Republicans believe in equal opportunity, freedom, and justice for all. We teach our children the values of tolerance, decency and moral courage. Racism, nativism, and anti-Semitism are evil. History teaches we all have an obligation to confront & reject such malicious hate," Cheney urged.

Group promoting ‘Anglo-Saxon’ traditions criticised by senior Republicans

SAT, 17 APR, 2021 - 07:10

ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER

Hard-right House Republicans were discussing forming an America First Caucus, which one document described as championing “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and warning that mass immigration was putting the “unique identity” of the US at risk.

The proposal was first reported by Punchbowl News, a news outlet covering Capitol Hill.

The document was being circulated as the Republicans struggle to determine a clear direction as it prepares to try winning back control of the House and Senate in the 2022 elections.

Among the party’s divisions are how closely to tack behind Donald Trump, and the caucus’ seven-page policy platform clearly embraces the former president’s world view.

“The America First Caucus (AFC) exists to promote Congressional policies that are to the long-term benefit of the American nation,” it begins.

It says the group aims to “follow in President Trump’s footsteps, and potentially step on some toes and sacrifice sacred cows for the good of the American nation”.

The group calls for limiting legal immigration “to those that can contribute not only economically, but have demonstrated respect for this nation’s culture and rule of law”.

It voices support for infrastructure “that reflects the architectural, engineering and aesthetic value that befits the progeny of European architecture”.

In a striking criticism, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a tweet that an aide confirmed was aimed at the group.

“America is built on the idea that we are all created equal and success is earned through honest, hard work.

“It isn’t built on identity, race, or religion,” Mr McCarthy wrote.

“The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln & the party of more opportunity for all Americans—not nativist dog whistles.”

Liz Cheney, who represents Wyoming, tweeted: “We teach our children the values of tolerance, decency and moral courage.

“Racism, nativism, and anti-Semitism are evil.

“History teaches we all have an obligation to confront & reject such malicious hate.”

Ms Cheney voted to impeach Mr Trump in January and has been under fire from some of the party’s most far-right politicians and the former president.

Conservative US House Republicans to form 'America First' caucus

Republican lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar are involved in the caucus, Representative Louie Gohmert, who is considering joining, confirmed to reporters.

Jerusalem Post 

By REUTERS
APRIL 18, 2021 

The US Capitol building, which contains the House of Representatives and the Senate.
(photo credit: PIXABAY)

Conservative House of Representatives Republicans plan to form an "America First" caucus to promote the policies of ex-President Donald Trump and said on Friday the group would soon release a policy platform.

The platform promotes "a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions" and advocates for infrastructure with esthetic value that "befits the progeny of European architecture," Punchbowl News reported on Friday.

Republican lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar are involved in the caucus, Representative Louie Gohmert, who is considering joining, confirmed to reporters.

A spokesman for first-term congresswoman Greene, Nick Dyer, dismissed the Punchbowl report as "gossip" but said in a statement that the America First platform would be "announced to the public very soon."

Congressional caucuses provide a forum for like-minded lawmakers to pursue common legislative objectives.

Democrats including Representative Peter Welch denounced the caucus on Twitter as "nakedly racist and disgusting."

"This supposed caucus and its members represent a dangerous nativist perspective that hurts our country, but sadly is not surprising," Welch added. Representative Don Beyer referred to the group as the "White Supremacist Caucus" on Twitter.

Trump introduced his America First agenda at his inauguration in 2017 and made it a repeated theme of his presidency.

Gohmert, a Trump ally, told reporters the caucus aims "to get our own country in order, so it's sustainable."

Congressman Matt Gaetz, who is being investigated by the Justice Department and the House Ethics panel over allegations of sexual misconduct, said he was becoming part of the caucus.

The group would push to "end wars, stop illegal immigration & promote trade that is fair to American workers," he said.

Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Gohmert denied the America First Caucus involves race.

"It's not returning to Anglo-Saxon tradition," the Texas Republican said. "It's not supposed to be about race at all. We're stronger, you know, diversified. But there's some things that helped make us strong."

ARYAN AMERIKA
Colorado lawmaker: Slavery policy didn’t impugn humanity

BECAUSE BLACK FOLK AIN'T HUMAN

Rep. Ron Hanks also made a joke about lynching


During the mid-January short beginning of the Colorado legislative session, the desk of Penrose GOP Rep. Ron Hanks was empty. He was in attendance on Feb. 16. Hanks was among several lawmakers from at least nine states who marched to the U.S. Capitol to support overturning Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win. Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post

By PATTY NIEBERG | Associated Press/Report for America

PUBLISHED: April 17, 2021 at 2:37 p.m. | UPDATED: April 17, 2021 at 2:43 p.m.


DENVER — Democrats in Colorado have condemned a Republican lawmaker for joking about lynching before saying an 18th century policy designating a slave as three-fifths of a person “was not impugning anybody’s humanity.”

State Rep. Ron Hanks was speaking on the House floor Thursday about legislation aimed at strengthening civics education. He was accidentally introduced as fellow Rep. Mike Lynch.

“Being called Mr. Lynch might be a good thing for what I’m about to say. No, just kidding,” Hanks said.

Hanks, who is white, then spoke about the Three-Fifths Compromise, which was made during the nation’s Constitutional Convention in 1787 and classified a slave as three-fifths of a person when apportioning taxes and states’ representation in Congress.

“It was not impugning anybody’s humanity,” Hanks said. “Is this really racist to be talking about what the Three-Fifths Compromise was? I don’t think so, and I think it’s important. It’s part of the civics lesson here. It was brought up, and it merits discussion.”

Hanks added that the compromise was an effort by the Northern states to keep Southern states from having too much representation in Congress and push slavery beyond the South.

“It took a war to do it. It took 600,000 American lives. It took a lot of treasure. That’s the kind of thing that ought to be taught,” Hanks said.

Halisi Vinson, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, said Hanks’ comments were a way to “whitesplain the historical experience of Black people.”

“The fact that Representative Hanks thought it would be appropriate to make a ‘joke’ about lynching — especially at a time when we’re seeing a rise of racially motivated assaults on people of color across our country — is utterly despicable,” Vinson said in a statement.

Shenika Carter, chair of the African Diaspora Initiative of the Colorado Democratic Party, said that calling Hank’s comments “disgusting and ignorant would be a gross understatement.”

“For him to downplay the indisputable, historical fact that enslaved Black people were treated less a person’s worth both in law and in practice is offensive and beneath the dignity of our state legislature,” Carter said in a statement.

Hanks told The Associated Press that video of his comments was manipulated to make a point he didn’t make.

“It built the union by having such a compromise. Abhorrent as we may see it in today’s terms, it took a civil war, 80 years later to settle the issue,” Hanks said.

He said he was responding to Democratic Rep. Jennifer Bacon’s remarks on the civics education proposal, which would require lessons on the three branches of government, how laws are enacted and the formation and development of government at the state and federal level.

“We talk about the root of the Constitution, we talk about the values and ideals in them, but I have to say as someone who was recognized as three-fifths, we do need to understand each other when we talk about these things,” Bacon said.

“At the end of the day, we have to understand how rules and policies affect everyone — whether I could be considered a full whole person, as a woman be allowed to vote, as a black woman be allowed to vote without paying,” she added.

Hanks called her statements “wholly false” and said “the three-fifths issue is long settled.”

“She is five-fifths in today’s society. I am five-fifths. You are five-fifths. And that was my point. And the point was to kind of talk about the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787, not 2021,” Hanks said.

Asked about his comments on Rep. Lynch’s name, Hanks said he figured the lawmaker was embarrassed that Hanks was called by the wrong name “so I was trying to put him at ease.”

“But it did make a very interesting confluence for racists and baiters to turn it into an opportunity to create a little more strife and division,” he said.

Hanks came under scrutiny from other members of the Legislature for marching from then-President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Capitol before rioters stormed the building on Jan. 6.

New Mexico labor leader steps down as jobless claims persist
Apr 16, 2021


FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2019 file photo New Mexico Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley listens to questions about wage theft complaints during a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M. The head of New Mexico's labor agency is stepping down, just as the latest jobless numbers released Friday show over-the-year losses across all major sectors as the state struggles to recover from the economic fallout prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. McCamley's last day as secretary of the state Department of Workforce Solutions is Friday, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.Susan Montoya Bryan


By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The head of New Mexico’s labor agency is stepping down, just as the latest jobless numbers released Friday show over-the-year losses across all major sectors as the state struggles to recover from the economic fallout prompted by the pandemic.

Bill McCamley’s last day as secretary of the state Department of Workforce Solutions is Friday. He acknowledged in a statement that the last year has been challenging but he's confident the agency will continue working hard to meet the needs of residents.

McCamley wrote in an email to employees this week that he was proud of their work over the last couple of years, particularly as the agency grappled with unprecedented unemployment claims.

“The effort, care and patience you have shown dealing with New Mexicans as we work through this pandemic together has been nothing short of heroic and I can do nothing but offer my highest praise to all of you,” he wrote.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office said Ricky Serna, who previously served as deputy secretary at the Department of Workforce Solutions, will serve as acting secretary pending the search for a full-time replacement.

New Mexico has paid out more than $3.5 billion to displaced workers over the past year. Its unemployment fund was drained by September due to the high number of jobless claims, forcing the state to borrow around $234 million from the federal government so it could continue funding various unemployment programs.

State officials hope to use federal funding from the latest pandemic relief package to replenish the fund, but McCamley recently said that officials were waiting on guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department on how the funds can be used.

More than 100,000 New Mexicans currently are receiving weekly jobless benefits. Since last June, there have been between 2,000 and 5,000 weekly initial claims for jobless benefits, taxing a system designed for fewer than 1,000.

On Friday, the latest report issued by the agency put New Mexico’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March at 8.3%. That's unchanged from February but up from 5.4% in the previous year. The national unemployment rate in March was 6%.

While all sectors have been hit, leisure and hospitality continued to report the heaviest employment losses in New Mexico, with a drop of 18,400 jobs — or nearly 19% — compared to the previous year. Mining, construction, education and health services also were down thousands of jobs compared to last year.

Aside from dealing with unemployment, McCamley had focused on trying to address a backlog of wage theft claims and boost workforce training initiatives early in his tenure.

During his time in the New Mexico House of Representatives, he chaired the labor and economic development committee. He also served as a Dona Ana County commissioner and as executive director of the New Mexico Rural Development Council, where he worked with small communities across the state on job creation, education and housing projects.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Why Sikh Americans again feel targeted after the Indianapolis shooting

Opinion by Simran Jeet Singh
 Sat April 17, 2021

Sikh Coalition representative: Heartbroken and in pain after shooting
03:01/03:01Source: CNN

(CNN)On Thursday night, a gunman killed eight people and injured several others before killing himself at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis. Four of the eight dead identified as Sikh and the facility was known to employ a significant number of members of the Sikh community.

The shooting came just days after Sikhs, who comprise the world's fifth-largest religious community, celebrated Vaisakhi, the most significant holiday of our calendar, and also as the state of Indiana was honoring its Sikh residents with an awareness and appreciation month -- one of several states to do so.
The FBI has not determined the killer's motives -- and may never do so given that he turned the gun on himself and is now deceased.

Sikh Americans once again feel targeted. As we come upon 20 years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the racist backlash that ensued, we cannot ignore the long history of hate violence against Sikhs in this country. FBI hate crime data shows Sikhs to be one of the most commonly targeted religious groups -- behind Jews and Muslims -- in modern America.

We also know that much of the violence that Sikhs face has to do with the cultural and religious illiteracy of others. Despite being one of the world's largest religions, most Americans do not know who Sikhs are. A 2013 study led by the Stanford Innovation Lab and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund found that 70% of Americans misidentified Sikhs when shown a Sikh man in a picture, with many believing they were Muslim.

The distinctive Sikh appearance -- which often includes brown skin, facial hair and turbans wrapped upon our heads -- has made Sikhs regular targets of racist violence. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a turbaned Sikh immigrant from Punjab, India, was the first casualty of a hate crime after 9/11. His murderer, Frank Roque, on a shooting rampage that included attacks on an Afghan couple and a man of Lebanese descent, wrongly associated Sodhi's Sikh identity with terrorism and killed him at point-blank range outside Sodhi's gas station in Mesa, Arizona, on Sept. 15.


We can point to various factors that contribute to such unnecessary tragedies: unchecked access to deadly firearms, xenophobic rhetoric that sanctions bigotry, a history and climate of racism that makes those who look different frighteningly vulnerable.

And while we may not know the Indianapolis killer's motive, we do know the immense cost of our cultural ignorance. If nothing else, this tragedy might spur more people to learn about their Sikh neighbors.

The Sikh religion (Sikhi, in Punjabi) is one of the world's youngest, originating about 500 years ago in the Punjab region of South Asia, which is currently split between Pakistan and northwest India.

The faith's founder, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469 and was disenchanted with the suffering, divisions and social inequities he saw around him. He sought to establish a new community with a new vision rooted in oneness, love and justice. He taught that all people are equal and interconnected, and that human beings have no legitimate basis for creating hierarchies or discriminating against one another. Rather, each of us is inherently divine and we ought to treat one another accordingly. To serve humanity is to serve God (Vahiguru).

Guru Nanak put his vision into practice, establishing institutions that would live beyond him. For example, he started the tradition of langar, a free communal meal open to all with only one condition -- everyone must sit on the ground together as equals. This tradition remains alive and well today

.
Guru Nanak traveled around South and Central Asia spreading his message and building a following. These people referred to themselves as Sikhs, a term that derives from Sanskrit and means "students." The mindset was that we are lifelong students, always seeking to learn and grow.

For immigrants like me, the 'Great Pretend' doesn't work anymore

Guru Nanak's community also grew, and before he died, he appointed a successor, Guru Angad. There were 10 total gurus (enlighteners) in the lineage of Guru Nanak, the last of whom, Guru Gobind Singh, passed away in 1708. From that time onwards, Sikh authority would rest in two entities -- the Guru Granth Sahib, scriptural canon that was compiled and primarily composed by the Sikh gurus themselves, and the Guru Khalsa Panth, the community of initiated Sikhs. To this day, Sikhs view these two entities as their eternal guru.

As part of their practice, Sikhs maintain long, uncut hair, which they often wrap in turbans on top of their heads. Many see their appearance as a public promise to live by their faith. Sikhs cherish their identities as gifts from their gurus and shared aspects that bind them to their co-religionists, present and past.

Sikhs continued to grow in numbers and disperse around the world over the decades. After British colonizers took control in Punjab in 1849, more and more Sikhs moved to regions controlled by the British Empire, including the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia and East Africa.
The first Sikhs entered North America as laborers in the late 1800s -- and they came face-to-face with American racism soon thereafter. In 1907, in Bellingham, Washington, angry mobs of White men rounded up Sikh and other South Asian workers, beat them and drove them out of town, an event known today as the Bellingham race riots.

Most of the early Sikhs in America arrived on its West Coast, and over the years, they have dispersed all across the country. There are now an estimated 500,000 Sikhs in the United States and about an equal number in Canada. All of this together makes the Sikh community about one million strong in North America.

While the Sikh American community continues to face racism in the US, it has also demonstrated incredible fortitude and resilience. Many see us as victims, but Sikhs tend to see themselves as they always have. The Sikh community's grief over the killings in Indianapolis will not change its own commitment to justice and spiritual progress.

Simran Jeet Singh (@simran) is a scholar and historian of South Asia, a senior fellow for the Sikh Coalition, the author of a guide for reporters covering Sikhism and a 2020 Equality Fellow for the Open Society Foundations. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.

Four members of Indianapolis Sikh community among those killed in FedEx mass shooting

A body is taken from the scene of a shooting at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, Friday, 16 April, 2021. Source: AP via AAP

The Sikh Coalition, which announced "that at least four of those killed" in the mass shooting were members of the Indianapolis Sikh community, said it expected "authorities will conduct a full investigation - including the possibility of bias as a factor."

This article contains references to suicide.

A former FedEx employee fatally shot eight people and wounded several others at the delivery company's facility in the US city of Indianapolis before killing himself, authorities said Friday after the latest mass shooting to jolt the country.

Four of the dead were followers of the South Asian Sikh religion, a Sikh organisation confirmed, raising questions about whether the gunman's motivation was in any way racially or ethnically motivated.

The Thursday night slayings came a week after President Joe Biden branded US gun violence an "epidemic" and an "international embarrassment" as he waded into the tense debate over firearms control, a sensitive American political issue.

READ MORE

'Enough prayers, time for action': Joe Biden announces six executive orders to combat gun violence

After this latest tragedy he again ordered flags flown at half staff at the White House and other public buildings.

Police in Indiana's capital city identified the gunman as 19-year-old Brandon Hole.

"FedEx officials have confirmed that Mr Hole was a former employee at the facility, and he was last employed in 2020," deputy police chief Craig McCartt told reporters.

Authorities searched multiple locations and seized evidence in their effort to learn more about the shooter and a possible motive.

The Sikh Coalition, which announced "that at least four of those killed" were members of the Indianapolis Sikh community, said it expected "authorities will conduct a full investigation - including the possibility of bias as a factor."

"While we don't yet know the motive of the shooter, he targeted a facility known to be heavily populated by Sikh employees," said the coalition's executive director Satjeet Kaur.

Komal Chohan, whose grandmother was killed, described being "heartbroken" over the loss, adding that "our families should not feel unsafe at work, at their place of worship, or anywhere. Enough is enough."

FBI special agent Paul Keenan said Hole was interviewed by the FBI in April 2020 and had a shotgun seized by authorities, the Indianapolis Star reported.

It was not immediately clear whether Hole had been fired or left his job voluntarily, or if he knew the victims.

"He got out of his car and pretty quickly started some random shooting outside the facility. There was no confrontation with anyone that was there. There was no disturbance. There was no argument," Mr McCartt said.

Police officers stand behind caution tape near the scene of the Indianapolis shooting on 16 April, 2021.

Getty Images

The shooting "began in the parking lot and then he did go into the building... for a brief period of time before he took his own life."

Mr McCartt said the gunman was armed with a rifle.

"This is a devastating day and words are hard to describe the emotion we feel," said FedEx chairman Frederick Smith in a letter to employees, adding that the company was working with law enforcement.

Immediately 'got scared'

Four people with gunshot wounds were transported by ambulance, including one in critical condition, while five people suffered other injuries, police said.

One man who was working a twilight shift at the FedEx Ground station, which reportedly employs more than 4,000 people, told local broadcaster WISH he saw the gunman start shooting and heard more than 10 shots.

"I saw a man with a sub-machine gun of some sort, an automatic rifle, and he was firing in the open. I immediately ducked down and got scared," Jeremiah Miller said.

Spate of shootings

The Indianapolis carnage follows a spate of mass shootings across the US in recent weeks, including at an office building in southern California, a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado and at several spas in Atlanta, Georgia where eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed.

Thursday's rampage was the third mass shooting in Indianapolis this year.

Mr Biden this month announced six executive measures aimed at stemming gun violence.

The move was immediately attacked by Republicans, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warning of "unconstitutional overreach."

In a statement Friday after the new shooting Mr Biden said "we must act" to end the scourge of violence killing too many Americans.

"It stains our character and pierces the very soul of our nation," Mr Biden said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to bring gun violence prevention legislation to the Senate floor.

"We must break this cycle of suffering in America," he tweeted.

SOURCE AFP - SBS

INDIA

Punjab Chief Minister expresses shock at Indianapolis shooting Four Sikhs, including three women, were among the eight people who were killed in the Indianapolis incident PTI, Chandigarh, APR 17 2021, 
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/punjab-cm-expresses-shock-at-indianapolis-shooting-975368.html

IT WAS PART OF GOWANDA
Billions of T. rexes walked on North America during the Age of the Dinosaurs



At their peak, North America's Tyrannosaurus rex population numbered 20,000,000 according to a new study. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Phot

April 15 (UPI) -- Paleontologist Charles Marshall had long wondered how many Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs populated the North American continent. A few years ago, finally tired of asking his colleagues for answers, Marshall decided to find out for himself.

With the help of his students, Marshall determined North America's T. rex population peaked at 20,000. That means that over the course of their 2.5 million-year reign atop the Cretaceous food chain, 2.5 billion lived and died on the continent


Marshall and his research partners detailed their novel calculations in a new paper, published Thursday in the journal Science.

"Fossils are rare, but how rare?" Marshall told UPI in an email, speaking to the questions that inspired his investigation. "When I see a T. rex fossil, is it 1 in a million, a billion, a trillion?

RELATED Bite of juvenile T. rex was less ferocious than an adult tyrannosaurus

"And then there is the more general issue of just how much can we know about extinct animals, and how do we go about knowing it," Marshall said. "Finally, why study T. rex in particular? Because it turns out it is one of the best understood dinosaurs!"

Though T. rex is one of the most well understood dinosaur species, the remains of only 100 adults have been discovered, and more than two-thirds of those are represented only by a single bone.

To figure out how many T. rex were living in North America at any given time, Marshall and his research partners couldn't simply make inferences based on the abundance -- or lack -- of T. rex fossils. Instead, the scientists used what they knew about the dinosaur's ecology to establish robust constraints on the variables relevant to the species' abundance.

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Those variables included: average adult body weight, geographic range, generation time, geological longevity and physiology.

"Most important by far is the relationship among living animus between population density and body mass -- bigger animals are on average rarer," Marshall said. "This relationship is called Damuth's Law, and to apply you also have to know what its trophic level was (carnivore, herbivore) and its physiology, how warm-blooded it is. Without this relationship, the study would have been impossible -- we needed data from the living to make this go."

Body temperature dictates an animal's metabolism, and the higher a species' metabolism, the lower its population density. Lizards, for example, have a slow metabolism, and as a result, their population densities are often 30 to 35 times greater than similarly sized mammals.

RELATED T. rex had big growth spurts, but other theropods matured more steadily

How warm-blooded T. rex was remains a matter of debate, and thus, a significant source of uncertainty in Marshall's calculations.

"The general consensus is that T. rex was warm-blooded, but not as warm-blooded as lions or tigers," Marshall said. "Some have suggested it might be as 'cool' as Komodo dragons (which are hot-blooded compared with regular lizards), but many dinosaur workers disagree, so we split the difference between the average flesh-eating mammals and the Komodo dragon."

The new calculations provide interesting context for the few T. rex fossils that have been recovered from ancient rock deposits. If Marshall's estimates are accurate, that would mean paleontologists have found about 1 in 16,000 of the T. rexes that were perished and buried within Montana's Hell Creek Formation.

Even if Marshall's estimates are a bit off, the calculations offer a roadmap for analyzing the abundance of long-extinct species.

Moving forward, Marshall said he and his research partners plan to repeat their analysis for all of the dinosaur species that were part of the T. rex ecosystem.

"So we can see what that ecosystem looked like, and to begin to see if we can use the preservation rate to estimate how many species of dinosaur the fossil record might have missed."

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‘Like Godzilla, but actually real’: study shows T. rex numbered 2.5 billion

Will Dunham

2.5 billion T. rex roamed Earth, study finds

If one Tyrannosaurus rex - the school bus-sized meat-eating dinosaur that stalked the Cretaceous Period landscape - seems impressive, how about 2.5 billion of them?

Researchers on Thursday unveiled the first calculation of the total T. rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.

They considered factors including the size of its geographic range, its body mass, growth pattern, age at sexual maturity, life expectancy, duration of a single generation and the total time that T. rex existed before extinction 66 million years ago. They also heeded a doctrine called Damuth's law linking population to body mass: the bigger the animal, the fewer the individuals.

Their analysis put the total number of T. rex individuals that ever existed at about 2.5 billion, including approximately 20,000 adults alive at any one time.


Fossils of more than 40 T. rex individuals have been found since it was first described in 1905, providing a wealth of information about a beast that thrives in the popular imagination.

"Why iconic?" asked paleontologist Charles Marshall, who led the study published in the journal Science.

"Heck, a hugely massive killer with super-huge teeth, one that you would never dream up on your own if we didn't have the fossil record. So not only super-cool and beyond the imagination, but real. Like Godzilla, but actually real. And I think we like feeling small, and T. rex sure makes us feel small and vulnerable," Marshall said.

It was among the largest carnivorous dinosaurs, possessing a skull about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, massive and muscular jaws with a bite force capable of crushing bone, a mouthful of banana-sized serrated teeth, a keen sense of smell, strong legs and puny arms with hands boasting just two fingers.



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An approximately 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, one of the largest, most complete ever discovered and named "STAN" after paleontologist Stan Sacrison who first found it, is seen on display ahead of its public auction at Christie's in New York City, New York, U.S., September 15, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar


Perhaps the largest-known T. rex is a specimen named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago, measuring 40-1/2-foot-long (12.3-meters), weighing an estimated 9 tons and living about 33 years.

The new study put the weight of the average adult T. rex at 5.2 tons, average lifespan at 28 years, generation time at 19 years, total number of generations of the species at about 125,000, and its geographic range at roughly 890,000 square miles (2.3 million square kilometers).

They calculated an average population density of about one T. rex for every roughly 40 square miles (100 square kilometers).

T. rex fossils have been found in Canada's Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces and the U.S. states of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. T. rex apparently met a fiery end when an asteroid slammed into Mexico, exterminating three quarters of Earth's species.

While the uncertainties in the estimates were large and some of the assumptions may be challenged by other paleontologists, the study was a worthwhile effort to expand the understanding of this famous dinosaur, said Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology and a University of California, Berkeley professor of integrative biology.

The formula could be applied to other extinct animals, Marshall added.

Paleontologist and study co-author Ashley Poust of the San Diego Natural History Museum said while 2.5 billion is a lot, it represents only about a third of Earth's current human population - and 20,000 is merely the size of a small town.

“They’d have to meet up over possibly long distances to mate, or maybe even care for their young,” Poust said of Tyrannosaurus. “The numbers can seem big and cold, but I guess I see them as a pretty intimate window into their lives.”

Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Blackmailer Has Cache of Compromising Photos, Lawsuit Says

BY CHRISTINA ZHAO 

ON 4/17/21 


QualitFullscreen
Jerry Falwell Resigns As President of Liberty University: What To Know
Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Blackmailer Has Cache of Compromising Photos, Lawsuit Says 

Jerry Falwell Jr.'s alleged blackmailer possesses compromising photos and communications that would be "harmful" to his family, according to a lawsuit filed by Liberty University against its former president.

On Thursday, Liberty University filed a civil suit in Virginia's Lynchburg Circuit Court alleging that Falwell broke an employment contract and withheld details of a personal scandal from the school. Falwell called the lawsuit, which is seeking tens of millions in damages, a "power grab" that's "full of lies and half-truths" in a series of tweets on Saturday.

Falwell left his role as president of the university last August after a man named Giancarlo Granda alleged that he had an affair with Falwell's wife, Becki Falwell. Granda also accused Falwell of having knowledge of the affair and participating as a voyeur.


The Falwell family admitted the affair, but denied all other allegations and claimed that Granda had blackmailed the family for money.

Jerry Falwell, former President of Liberty University, speaks during a commencement at Liberty University May 13, 2017 in Lynchburg, Virginia.ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES

"Granda threatened to use the surreptitious sexual intimacy, and surrounding conduct, to 'embarrass the Falwells and Liberty University,'" the lawsuit read. "Granda had amassed considerable leverage over the Falwells, and, accordingly, they worked to keep Granda pacified and quiet."

The lawsuit also claimed that Granda took racy photos and recorded his phone calls and FaceTime communications with Falwell's wife "for the purpose of enhancing 'extortion attempts.'"

"Granda had access to plenty of material that could have been deeply damaging to Falwell Jr. in the eyes of the evangelical community," according to the suit. "Falwell Jr. and Granda both knew that matters of infidelity, immodesty and acceptance of a loose lifestyle would stand in stark contrast to the conduct expected of leaders at Liberty.

The university accused Falwell of endangering and damaging its reputation by keeping the affair and extortion a secret. "Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection," the lawsuit stated.