Data (FACTS)shows Kansas counties with mask mandates have seen a decrease (EMPIRICAL FACT) in COVID-19 cases

Catherine Garcia,
The Week•August 6, 2020


Counties in Kansas that adopted a mask mandate have seen a drop in COVID-19 cases, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said.

In late June, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) issued a statewide mask guidance, but because the Kansas legislature limited her emergency powers, each county was able to decide whether or not to enforce the order, KSHB reports. During a press conference on Wednesday, Norman said 15 counties went along with the order, while 90 decided to make wearing a mask a recommendation only.

"What we've seen through this is that in the counties with no mask mandate, there's no decrease in the number of cases per capita," Norman said. "All the improvement in the case development comes from those counties wearing masks."

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been interviewing people who have recovered from the virus, and Norman finds it worrisome how some can't seem to shake the symptoms, saying, "This serves to me as humbling, in many regards, and a reminder that we still know very little about this disease and its impact on the body."

Joshua Wong and other Hong Kong activists charged over banned June 4 vigil

Reuters•August 6, 2020

FILE PHOTO: Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong registers as a candidate for the upcoming Legislative Council election in Hong KongMore

LONG LIVE THE BOURGEOIS DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Two dozen people in Hong Kong, including pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, have been charged with participating in an illegal assembly at a vigil on June 4 commemorating the crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen square in 1989.

It was the first time the vigil had been banned in semiautonomous Hong Kong, with police citing coronavirus restrictions on group gatherings in refusing permission for it to take place. Still, tens of thousands lit candles across the city in what was largely a peaceful event, bar a brief skirmish with riot police in one neighbourhood.

The anniversary struck an especially sensitive nerve in the former British colony this year, falling just as China prepared to introduce national security legislation later that month in response to last year's often violent pro-democracy demonstrations.

Pro-democracy activists see the new legislation as the latest attempt by Beijing to encroach on Hong Kong's freedoms.


Police said in a statement on Thursday that 24 people, including 19 men and 5 women, aged 23-69, had been charged with holding and knowingly taking part in an unauthorised assembly. Such a charge existed before the new security law came into force on June 30.

Wong, and at least six other activists said on their Facebook pages that they were among those charged.

"Clearly, the regime plans to stage another crackdown on the city's activists by all means," Wong said.

Wong made a court appearance on Wednesday on similar charges related to a protest last year. The verdict is expected later this year.

The new security law, which punishes anything China sees as subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, has drawn strong criticism from Western countries for putting Hong Kong on a more authoritarian path.

Its supporters say it will bring stability after a year of unrest.

June 4 commemorations are banned in mainland China, but Hong Kong, which was promised certain freedoms when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, such as that of expression and assembly, traditionally held the largest vigils globally every year.

China has never provided a full account of the 1989 violence. The death toll given by officials days later was about 300, most of them soldiers, but rights groups and witnesses say thousands of people may have perished.


(Reporting by Yanni Chow and Jessie Pang; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Frances kerry)

Rudy Giuliani wildly claims Black Lives Matter are a 'domestic terror group' who 'hate white men in particular'

BLACK WOMEN WITH GARDEN SHEARS

Griffin Connolly,
The Independent•August 6, 2020

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has claimed Black Lives Matter is a "domestic terrorist group," despite the group never being tied to a single terrorism event in a global database of almost 200,000.

"These are killers, and these are people who hate white people. They're people who hate white men in particular. And they want to do away with a mother-father family," Mr Giuliani said on Fox and Friends on Thursday, although ample evidence debunks that claim.

THIS FROM THE MAN THAT IS DONALD TRUMPS 'BITCH'

While the US State Department has a list of foreign terror organisations, the government does not legally denominate domestic terror groups.

In two separate incidents on 7 July 2016, two black US military veterans allegedly invoked the phrase "black lives matter" as they opened fire on police and civilians in Dallas, Texas, and Bristol, Tennessee.

Investigators determined both men had acted alone, and that the Black Lives Matter political organisation was in no way involved.

"That's not to suggest that no one associated with BLM — or any particular movement — never engages in some criminal behavior," Joshua Geltzer, a counterterrorism expert who has worked on the national security council, told PolitiFact in July. "But the relevant question is whether the organization itself engages in the type of activity laid out by statute. And, on that, there's been no evidence provided to indicate as much."

ICE detained hundreds of Mississippi chicken plant workers. Now managers are charged

Hayley Fowler,
Miami Herald•August 6, 2020




Close to 700 immigrants working in the U.S. illegally were detained last year during what federal prosecutors have called “the largest single-state worksite enforcement operation in our nation’s history.”

Now four higher-ups at the Mississippi chicken plants where they were employed face criminal charges.

The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi unsealed indictments Thursday against two supervisors at A&B Foods Inc. as well as a human resources manager and plant manager at Pearl River Foods Inc.. They are accused of hiring undocumented workers and lying to law enforcement, according to a news release.

“This office has a successful history of prosecuting employers for violating our immigration laws, and today marks another step in ensuring that justice is fairly and impartially done, no matter the law-breaker,” U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said in the release.


A&B is associated with distributor MP Foods Inc., the Clarion-Ledger reported.

Pearl River runs a poultry processing plant in Carthage, Mississippi, according to its website.
ICE raids net hundreds of arrests

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raided seven food processing plants in six Mississippi towns in August 2019, ultimately taking 680 people into custody.

About 300 were released almost immediately after — at least 30 of whom on humanitarian grounds, The Sun Herald reported.

Officials offered four possible scenarios for those arrested: criminal charges, deportation, release on the condition they appear before an immigration judge and detention.

According to Thursday’s news release, the raid resulted in 126 indictments, 117 criminal arrests and 73 convictions. Prosecutors have also accused more than 400 people of falsifying Social Security information “in order to gain illegal employment in the United States.”

The raids had a ripple effect across the Southeast in the weeks that followed, sparking rumors of potential round-ups on the Mississippi coast that turned out to be unfounded, The Sun Herald reported.

Hundreds of workers also walked out of poultry plants in Georgia after social media posts warned of an impending ICE raid, according to McClatchy News.

Police debunked the rumor on Facebook, saying “it is important to always be vigilant and rely on credible sources.”

Charges against A&B Inc. managers

Thursday’s indictments mark the first criminal action federal prosecutors have taken against company managers after last year’s ICE raids.

“Companies who intentionally or knowingly base their business model on an illegal workforce deprive law abiding citizens and lawful immigrants of employment opportunities, which are especially critical as our economy looks to recover from the challenges faced by the COVID-19 pandemic,” ICE deputy director Matthew T. Albence said in the news release.

According to the release, Salvador Delgado-Nieves, 57, and Iris Villalon, 44, from A&B Inc. are charged with “harboring illegal aliens” and making false statements to law enforcement.

Delgado-Nieves is also accused of helping obtain fake Social Security cards for the workers, and Villalon faces an additional charge of allowing false quarterly wage reports to be filed, prosecutors said.

Delgado-Nieves could serve up to 74 years in prison and owe $2.5 million in fines if convicted, according to the news release.

Villalon faces up to 20 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
Charges against Pearl River Foods managers

At Pearl River Foods, human resources manager Carolyn Johnson, 50, and manager Aubrey “Bart” Willis, 39, were also indicted on charges of “harboring illegal aliens,” prosecutors said.

Johnson is additionally accused of committing wire fraud and identity theft, according to the news release.

“The indictment charges both defendants with harboring illegal aliens following the execution of federal warrants at the Pearl River Foods facility on August 7, 2019,” the release states.

If convicted, the maximum sentence for Johnson is 84 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines. Willis faces up to 50 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.

But prosecutors hinted the four managers won’t be the only individuals charged as a result of last year’s raids.

“The indictments unsealed today mark the beginning, not the end, of our investigations and prosecutions,” Hurst said in the news release. “Rest assured that we will continue to pursue criminal wrongdoers and enforce our criminal laws wherever the evidence may take us.”

Trump ‘is so much anti-life,’ Kentucky Catholic bishop says in abortion discussion

Mike Stunson,
Miami Herald•August 7, 2020


The Rev. John Stowe has long been critical of President Donald Trump, and the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Lexington did not hold back in recent comments about what it means to be pro-life.

In a live video chat July 31 with the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, Stowe said Trump is “so much anti-life.”

“For this president to call himself pro-life, and for anybody to back him because of claims of being pro-life, is almost willful ignorance,” Stowe said. “He is so much anti-life because he is only concerned about himself, and he gives us every, every, every indication of that.”

Stowe’s comments come as Trump has been vocal about the beliefs of Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s own beliefs.

Trump attacked the former vice president Thursday, saying Biden, a practicing Catholic, would take away constitutional freedoms if elected president, The Hill reported.

“Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything,” Trump said of Biden. “Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy.”

Stowe channeled previous comments made by Pope Francis in saying why Trump should not be considered pro-life.

“Pope Francis has given us a great definition of what pro-life means,” Stowe said. “He basically tells us we can’t claim to be pro-life if we support the separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border, if we support exposing people at the border to COVID-19 because of the facilities that they’re in, if we support denying people who have need to adequate health care access to health care, if we keep people from getting the housing or the education that they need, we cannot call ourselves pro-life.”

Pope Francis questioned Trump’s pro-life stance in 2017 when the president tried to end DACA, a federal immigration program that offered protections to some people who were brought to the United States illegally as children.

“I have heard the President of the United States speak,” the pope said at the time, according to the National Catholic Reporter. “He presents himself as a pro-life man. If he is a good pro-lifer, he should understand that the family is the cradle of life and you must defend its unity.”

In June, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of DACA and its so-called Dreamers, marking a major blow to the Trump administration.

Trump became the first sitting president last year to speak at the March for Life in Washington, an annual gathering to protest abortion.

He advocated for limiting abortion access, saying he would “defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential,” NBC News reported.

Following a 2019 controversy at the March for Life gathering that included a confrontation between Catholic high school students from Kentucky and a Native American elder, Stowe shunned the students’ apparel. Some of them were wearing Trump’s “Make America Great again” hats.

“It astonishes me that any students participating in a pro-life activity on behalf of their school and their Catholic faith could be wearing apparel sporting the slogans of a president who denigrates the lives of immigrants, refugees and people from countries that he describes with indecent words and haphazardly endangers with life-threatening policies,” Stowe wrote in a Herald-Leader opinion article.

“We cannot uncritically ally ourselves with someone with whom we share the policy goal of ending abortion,” he continued.

Virus-quieted oceans open window for Shark Week researchers

LYNN ELBER, Associated Press•August 7, 2020


Virus Outbreak - TV Shark Week
This image released by Discovery Channel shows a shark breaking through the water in a scene from "Shark Lockdown," premiering Sunday, Aug. 9, one of three programs kicking off Shark Week 2020 on the Discovery Channel. (Discovery Channel via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay put, but it gave sharks a travel passport and scientists a rare opportunity.

Ocean spots cleared of fishing boats and other intrusions by COVID-19 quarantines saw increased and even unusual marine life behavior - and Discovery Channel’s Shark Week jumped through hoops to capitalize on the brief window.

The 32nd annual slate of all things shark, airing for eight days beginning Sunday with a record two-dozen shows, includes a pair taped earlier this year during the lull.

“It really was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study these sharks without the impacts of human activity,” said Howard Swartz, Discovery's senior vice president for production and development.

It’s not just any toothy species under scrutiny by the two programs, but the one with a Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster on its resume.

“Sharks are the stars of Shark Week. The great whites are the stars of the sharks,” Swartz said. “They’re so captivating and they’re so beloved and interesting and, I think, mysterious to viewers, rightly so.”

“Shark Lockdown” (10 p.m. EDT Sunday) is set in New Zealand-area waters that are home to female great whites of such impressive length they’ve been dubbed “the 747s,” after the famously long jetliner.

The program features Kina Scollay, a founding member of New Zealand’s Great White Shark Research Project and a familiar face to Shark Week viewers, and Clarke Gayford, a broadcaster and the fiancé of New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Their exploration of the Foveaux Strait, which separates New Zealand’s South and Stewart islands, brought them up against what Swartz called one of the “Holy Grail” shark mysteries: why females leave the area when their size indicates they’ve reached sexual maturity.

“They disappear and nobody’s really sure why they’re there and where they’ve gone,” said the journalism award-winning TV science producer (formerly with PBS’ “Nova”).

What Scollay and the team discovered was an unusual mix of male and female sharks, with some of the latter carrying fresh mating gashes that are on painful-looking display in the documentary.

That suggested the area was a mating ground absent human activity, a possibility that could lead to new safeguards for the great white population, Swartz said.

A similar revelation emerged in “Abandoned Waters” (8 p.m. EDT Monday), in which researchers were able to closely observe great whites near Australia’s Neptune Islands minus the usual fishing and tourism traffic.

“Just the general decibel level of the oceans quieted down significantly” for the noise- and vibration-sensitive sharks, Swartz said.

The team recorded the arrival of about three times the average number of female great whites mixing with males off the Neptune Islands, located near the entrance to South Australia's Spencer Gulf.

Although it's premature to draw conclusions, the information could be part of ongoing research and analysis that might help protect the area for sharks, Swartz said.

Along with the scientists, local production crews scurried to take advantage of the ocean solitude before those nations gained relative control of the virus and began lifting restrictions on internal travel and business activity.

Discovery said it was unaware of anyone involved in the productions testing positive for the coronavirus. Strict protocols were in place to guard against infections, Swartz said.

Then producers had to gear up to meet the challenge of a quick turnaround in just a few months.

While Shark Week programs are usually made for the following year and have eight to 12 months to be completed, the research and production teams for the virus-related films had just three months.

A few other shows in this year’s line-up, all times Eastern:

— “Air Jaws: Ultimate Breach Off" (8 p.m. Sunday). The 20th anniversary of the show that uses decoys and drones to capture astounding shots of great whites breaching and collect data on hunting techniques.

— “Extinct or Alive: Land of the Lost Sharks” (8 p.m. Tuesday). Wildlife biologist and conservationist Forrest Galante braves dangerous waters in the southern hemisphere in a search for three sharks unseen by scientists for as long as 100 years.

— “Will Smith: Off the Deep End” (9 p.m. Tuesday). The actor takes on his fear of open waters and sharks.

— “Wicked Sharks” (9 p.m. Aug. 15). Amid great white encounters off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, shark expert Greg Skomal uses technology to help learn their hunting habits to better protect the public.

___

Online:

https://www.discovery.com/shark-week___

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS
China sentences another Canadian to death on drugs charges

BBC•August 7, 2020

MDMA

A Chinese court has sentenced a second Canadian citizen to death on charges of producing illegal drugs.

A court notice in the province of Guangdong said Ye Jianhui was sentenced on Friday, a day after another court sentenced Xu Weihong.

They are the third and fourth Canadians to be sentenced to death in China recently.

Relations between the countries have been tense since the arrest of a Huawei executive in Vancouver in late 2018.

Meng Wanzhou's detention following a request from the United States angered China and soured relations with both Canada and the US.

No details of the cases were disclosed. But local media say police found over 218 kilograms (481 pounds) of white crystals containing MDMA, also known as ecstasy, in a room used by Ye and five other men, all Chinese nationals.

One of the other five men was sentenced to death, while the rest were given jail sentences ranging from seven years to life in prison.

On Thursday, Xu Weihong was found guilty and sentenced to death by another court in Guangdong province, for producing the powerful tranquiliser ketamine.

China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between his case and the current state of China-Canada relations.

"I would like to stress that China's judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures," said Mr Wang. "Death sentences for drug-related crimes that are extremely dangerous will help deter and prevent such crimes."

Last year two other Canadian nationals were sentenced to death over drug charges. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was found guilty of drug smuggling after a sudden retrial. Months later another man, Fan Wei, was given the death penalty for trafficking methamphetamine.

In December 2018, China began detaining two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, accusing them of spying. They were formally arrested earlier this year.

After Elon Musk criticized Bernie Sanders' brand of socialism, Sanders took him to task for taking billions of dollars in government support

Troy Wolverton,Business Insider•August 7, 2020

Bernie Sanders took a shot at Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday.
Andy Clayton King/AP Photo

Bernie Sanders and Elon Musk got into a tiny tussle on Twitter Friday over "socialism."

Sanders on Thursday introduced a bill that would place a 60% tax on the wealth gained during the coronavirus crisis by billionaires including Musk and use the money raised to pay all American's out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for a year.

In response to an article about the bill, Musk tweeted out a meme that essentially criticized Sanders for spending other people's money to fund "free government programs."

Sanders hit back at Musk, calling him out for criticizing programs that help the vast majority of Americans when he and his companies had benefited from billions of dollars in government assistance.

Bernie Sanders showed Friday he isn't afraid to call out hypocrisy — particularly when it comes from someone like Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk on Friday tweeted out a meme critical of Sanders and his brand of socialism. The tweet was in response to an article about a bill Sanders introduced Thursday that would place a 60% tax on the wealth gained by billionaires such as Musk during the coronavirus pandemic. The meme, dubbed the "Official Bernie Sanders drinking game!" showed a picture of Sanders along with the text: "Every time the Bernster mentions a free government program, chug somebody else's beer.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2020

Sanders, who's no neophyte when it comes to defending his leftist views and programs, wasn't about to back down from such criticism. In a tweeted response, he called out Musk for benefiting to the tune of billions of dollars from government subsidies and linked to an article from The Los Angeles Times that detailed the assistance Musk and his companies have received.


"Every time Elon Musk pokes fun at government assistance for the 99%, remember that he would be worth nothing without $4.9 billion in corporate welfare," Sanders wrote. "Oh, Elon just l-o-v-e-s corporate socialism for himself, rugged capitalism for everyone else."
—Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 7, 2020

According to The Los Angeles Times article, Musk and his companies — Tesla, SolarCity, which is now owned by Tesla, and SpaceX — had received an estimated $4.9 billion in government support through May 2015. That assistance came in a variety of forms, including grants, tax breaks, subsidies for construction, environmental credits, and discounted loans.

The amount of that assistance has only gone up since then. For example, Tesla garnered $428 million from selling regulatory credits in its most recent quarter. The company receives those credits from California for selling electric cars and sells them to other automakers who don't sell enough to meet the state's requirements.
Sanders' bill would raise billions from billionaires

Sanders' bill was cosponsored by senators Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY. The bill would tax any wealth gained by any of the 467 billionaires in the US between March 18 and January 1 of next year and use the amount raised from the tax to pay for the out-of-pocket health expenses of every American for a year.

Elon Musk and his companies have received billions of dollars in government assistance.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Millions of US residents have lost their health coverage during the pandemic after losing their jobs. Even those with insurance have sometimes faced steep bills after contracting the coronavirus.

The co-sponsors estimated that those billionaires had seen their wealth increase by $731.8 billion between March 18 and Aug. 5. Musk, according to a fact sheet from them, had seen his own wealth go from $24.6 billion to $70.5 billion. He would face a tax bill of $27.5 billion under the measure

Much of the wealth gains cited by the bill's sponsors are a result of soaring prices. In order to pay such tax bills, the billionaires would almost certainly have to sell large numbers of shares which could undermine their companies' stock prices — and their wealth.

Miami men with Ukrainian political ties laundered money, DOJ says

WHERE ELSE BUT THE CITY THE MOB BUILT
Alex Daugherty,
Miami Herald•August 7, 2020

The Department of Justice filed civil forfeiture complaints this week in Miami federal court accusing two Ukrainian oligarchs and their Miami-based associates of stealing money abroad and laundering it in the United States by moving it through a Ukrainian-owned bank and into Miami companies operating as “slush funds” for real estate investment.

In two separate complaints filed Thursday, the DOJ said Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, along with Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber in Miami, created a web of Miami-based companies that laundered money from 2008 to 2018. The oligarchs controlled PrivatBank, one of Ukraine’s largest banks, until the Ukrainian government nationalized it in 2016.

Two days before the complaints were filed, the FBI conducted raids in Cleveland and Miami on Korf and Laber’s offices, home to a group of companies referred to as the “Optima Family.”

“Korf and Laber used the Optima Family’s funds as one large pool of money,” the government said in its complaint, which sought to seize two office buildings, one in Dallas and another in Louisville, worth $70 million. “They transferred funds back and forth between the different entities, both to launder the money and to try to make money. Korf discussed those transfers with Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, and they approved the use of the money.”- 

Korf and Laber invested in and managed metal companies and real estate holdings in Ohio, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia on behalf of Kolomoisky and Boholiubov, according to the Justice Department. It does not specify locations of the companies or real estate in Florida.

An attorney for Korf and Laber, Marc Kasowitz, said the men deny the allegations and called the government’s claims “false and completely without merit.”

Miami businessman Mordechai “Motti” Korf and his associate Uriel Laber were accused of money laundering by the Department of Justice. Both men deny the allegations.

The accusations from the government mirror an ongoing civil suit filed last year in Delaware Chancery Court brought by representatives from PrivatBank that accuses Korf and Laber of participating in a multinational money-laundering operation from 2006 until 2016 in association with Kolomoisky and Boholiubov. Kolomoisky also faces a criminal probe by the U.S. attorney’s office in Cleveland for possible money laundering.

Kolomoisky, who has ties to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has maintained that all allegations against him are politically motivated.

During the time Korf and Laber’s companies were accused of laundering money on behalf of Kolomoisky by the Justice Department and representatives for PrivatBank, Robert Powell — husband of Miami Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell — worked as the chief legal officer and general counsel for four companies named in the DOJ filings this week.

He worked for the companies — Georgian American Alloys, Warren Steel Holdings LLC, Steel Rolling Holdings Inc and Optima Specialty Steel — from 2008 to 2017. The DOJ complaints say the Ukrainian money entered the U.S. from 2008 to 2016, though money laundering in the U.S. continued after PrivatBank was nationalized. Five of Optima Specialty Steel’s wholly owned subsidiaries are also named in the DOJ complaint, and Powell also represented them, according to Georgian American Alloys’ website.

Powell is not named in the Justice Department’s complaints and has not been accused of wrongdoing. He left Georgian American Alloys in 2017 and now works for Fiesta Restaurant Group, which owns Pollo Tropical. He began work at Fiesta in August 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“Robert has nothing to do with — and there’s never been any evidence that he had anything to do with — the allegations made in this suit,” Mucarsel-Powell campaign manager Andrew Markoff said in a statement. “He has never worked for, answered to, or represented Igor Kolomoisky and is shocked by these allegations. Robert Powell was the lawyer for an American company and steel mills that employed hundreds of American workers. In this role, he handled routine legal matters to support the day-to-day operations and received a regular monthly salary. Any insinuation he had anything to do with this matter is completely false.”

Robert Powell, husband of U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

Powell’s work for Korf and Laber was the subject of Republican attacks during his wife’s first congressional campaign two years ago. Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat, is currently running for reelection to Congress in Florida’s 26th district. She’ll face Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez or firefighter Omar Blanco in the general election on Nov. 3.
In the Justice Department filings this week, the government accused companies where Powell worked as general counsel of operating as a “slush fund.”

“There are many examples of this ‘slush fund’ approach to related business entities,” the government wrote of the Miami-based firms.

The document outlined one example, an approximately $19 million loan from Optima Acquisitions to Warren Steel — another Optima company — that was repaid through loans from yet another related company. Moving the money was an attempt to cover its source, according to the DOJ complaints.

Powell listed at least $695,000 of income in 2016 and 2017 from two Optima subsidiaries, Felman Trading and Felman Trading Americas, on Mucarsel-Powell’s 2018 federal financial disclosure form. Mucarsel-Powell later amended her disclosure to list Powell’s income as “N/A.” Her net worth in 2018 according to Open Secrets is estimated to be $272,000.

Felman Trading and Felman Trading Americas, among the five wholly owned subsidiaries named in the Justice Department complaints, are ferroalloys trading corporations that were owned jointly by Kolomoisky, Boholiubov, Korf and Laber, according to the Justice Department.

Kasowitz, the attorney for Korf and Laber, said in a statement to the Miami Herald that he is “unaware of any misconduct by any company employees.”

The DOJ actions were filed two days after the FBI conducted a raid on Korf and Laber’s offices in Cleveland and Miami, according to FBI spokesperson Vicki Anderson.

Kolomoisky also denied the allegations against him through his lawyer.

“Mr. Kolomoisky emphatically denies the allegations in the complaints filed by the Department of Justice,” Michael J. Sullivan, a lawyer for Kolomoisky, said in an email to the Washington Post.

Kolomoisky has been accused of bribery, murder and embezzlement in recent years by business partners and government authorities. The Telegraph of London reported in 2016 that a former partner accused Kolomoisky during a heated lawsuit of threatening him and attempting to have him killed through a murder-for-hire plot in which the hitmen were later themselves killed — a claim Kolomoisky strenuously denied.

Laber, one of the two Miami businessman named in the federal complaint, donated $2,500 to Mucarsel-Powell’s 2018 campaign. Korf donated $50 in June 2020 to WinRed, the Republican Party’s online fundraising tool.

Miami Herald reporters Jay Weaver and Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

UPDATE 



Massive explosion rocks Beirut: Before and after images show extensive damage

Improperly stored ammonium nitrate may have been the cause.

Dennis Wagner, and George Petras, USA TODAY

Updated 4:17 p.m. MDT Aug. 6, 2020

Corrections and clarifications: This story originally misstated the title of Stephen Beaudoin, Stephen Beaudoin, a chemical engineering professor

Experts say the world may never know exactly what triggered a massive explosion that shook Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 135 people and injuring thousands more.

But immediate video evidence suggests the chain of events began with a fire – rather than a terrorist or military attack – detonating tons of stored ammonium nitrate and obliterating a portion of Beirut. 

BREAKING - Death toll reaches 100+ in #Beirut, #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/IUDPRJ3Oli
— SV News 🚨 (@SVNewsAlerts) August 5, 2020
In the aftermath, Lebanese officials have said more than 2,700 tons of the chemical ammonium nitrate were stored unsafely in warehouses near the port after being seized from a cargo ship in 2014.

The explosion had the force of at least 500 tons of TNT, according to a U.S. government source who was not authorized to speak publicly. The estimate was based on the widespread destruction, said the source, who has experience with military explosives.
The blast caused carnage over a 6-mile radius and was felt more than 100 miles away.

The chemical has been linked to past industrial accidents, including explosions at a fertilizer plant in Texas in 2013, a Chinese port in 2015 and many others.

And it all stems from a tiny pellet, known as a “prill,” which is routinely used as fertilizer and is vital to the world’s food supply.




What is ammonium nitrate, and why is it so deadly?

Ammonium nitrate is commonly used in mining, construction and other heavy industries as an inexpensive and effective explosive. Millions of tons are produced annually and it has largely replaced dynamite, which is less safe.

Jimmie Oxley, a University of Rhode Island chemistry professor, said AN now accounts for about 80% of explosives manufactured in the United States. 

“It’s a wonderful material,” she added, noting AN’s impact on world agriculture. “The invention of ammonium nitrate allows us to have 7 billion people today.”

Massive explosion shook Beirut with force of 3.5 magnitude earthquake

Lebanese authorities believe the deadly Beirut explosion could be tied to highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which was stored at the port for years.

USA TODAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

While the substance is found in nature, commercial ammonium nitrate is man-made. It’s relatively inexpensive and available around the world. It's valued as fertilizer in farming for its nitrogen content and is used to make ANFO – ammonium nitrate/fuel oil – an explosive in mining and construction operations.

The synthetic substance is a combination of ammonia and nitric acid. It’s sold as a colorless crystalline solid but processed into porous pellets, known as prills, for various applications.
Ammonium nitrate does not burn on its own, but its oxygen content is highly concentrated in prill size. The prills are mixed with oil or other combustibles to make explosives for mining.

Storage is critical. Left unchecked, ammonium nitrate can be contaminated by industrial elements such as fuel oil. The chemical can also decompose on its own, generating heat.
The result is an explosion that releases gases, including nitrogen dioxide, which is orange or reddish in color.

Beirut disaster videos show a gray cloud rising from the port, in what appears to be a large industrial fire. A building explodes, creating an orange-reddish cloud, followed closely by a white mushroom cloud as a shock wave hits.

Stunning video shows explosions just minutes ago at Beirut port pic.twitter.com/ZjltF0VcTr
— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) August 4, 2020

Stephen Beaudoin, a chemical engineering professor and director of Purdue University’s Energetics Research Center, said ammonium nitrate pellets are not particularly unsafe.
“When you hold them in your hand, they look like birdseed,” he said. But they become potent when heated or mixed with other chemicals and detonated.

Beaudoin said news video of the Beirut event suggests there was a fire that would have set AN off in a confined space once temperatures hit about 400 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
He and Oxley said that chain of events was reflected in a large plume that rose over Beirut, followed by a massive shock wave and a mushroom cloud. 

“What I saw was a lot of black smoke and a lot of red smoke,” Oxley said. “I would argue it wasn’t intended.” 

Beaudoin said that when ammonium nitrate is exposed to heat, the chemical compound (NH4-NO3) decomposes into nitrous oxide and water, instantly taking up thousands of times more volume.



“It’s a massive expansion – unbelievable expansion – that’s going to happen in fractions of a second,” Beaudoin said. “And that’s when you saw the huge release of energy.”
While the blast appeared to be set off by a fire, Oxley said it may be impossible to trace where or how the blaze started.

“Usually, with these accidents, it’s very hard to pinpoint exactly what set it off,” she noted. “Why was it in storage? I suspect it was a series of mistakes.”
Has something like this happened before?

Yes, in fact, the destructive power of ammonium nitrate is common knowledge, and tragedies have occurred sporadically as a result of accidental explosions and terrorist attacks. 

In 1917, the port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was crippled by an explosion following the collision of two ships carrying explosive materials. More than 1,700 people died as a result, and an entire kilometer of the city was left completely leveled.



Ammonium nitrate was directly involved in what is considered to be the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. On April 16, 1947, the SS Grandcamp exploded in Texas City, Texas, killing at least 576 people, including all but one member of the local fire department.
After an ammonium nitrate facility caught fire and exploded in West, Texas, in 2013, killing 15, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined other agencies in issuing a detailed advisory on storage: “AN is at risk for explosion when stored near other material that can add fuel to the AN – such as grain, sugar, seeds, sawdust, and most especially petroleum fuels such as diesel. AN is a powerful oxidizer and a rich source of nitrate, which provides energy to an explosion.”

In 2015, 173 were killed by an ammonium nitrate explosion in Tianjin, China, according to official reports.

Congress has asked the Department of Homeland Security to develop regulations for sale and transfer “to prevent the misappropriation or use of ammonium nitrate in an act of terrorism.”
How big was the blast?
Determining the exact cause, size and force of the blast is almost impossible without an on-the-ground-investigation. But we can still try to put things in perspective.
First of all, the blast caused carnage over a 6-mile radius and was felt more than 100 miles away. You can see the impact this would have on major U.S. cities below.

Brian Castner, former EOD officer and weapons investigator on Amnesty International's Crisis Team, urges caution when making comparisons to nuclear weapons.

"There is no radiation, no fires; it's really an inappropriate comparison," he said.
And even comparing the size of the blast to past events or to other munitions can be difficult.

"These numbers are so big they are almost inconceivable," Castner said. "So outside the realm of how the military uses explosives. You don't drop 1,000 MK84s on the same place, at the same time."

2750 tons of ammonium nitrate is the equivalent of over 1000 Mk84 aircraft bombs. An unbelievable blast. We need an investigation to figure out how it detonated (not from newly minted Twitter bomb techs). But more importantly, we need massive massive humanitarian aid for Beirut. https://t.co/x7XWELs2Fq
— Brian Castner (@Brian_Castner) August 4, 2020

To attempt a comparison, one would start by figuring out how much explosive material was present. The Lebanese government has reported 2,750 tons.

You can use this figure get the explosive weight equivalent in TNT. Here's a look at some notable disasters compared with the blast in Beirut.

What's next for Beirut?

Lebanon's Supreme Defense Council recommended that a committee investigate the explosion and present its findings within five days to punish to those responsible, Al-Jazeera reported. The council also recommended declaring a two-week state of emergency in Beirut and giving the military security responsibility.

State prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered security agencies to start an immediate investigation and collect all reports and letters related to the materials stored at the port as well as lists of people in charge of maintenance, storage and protection of the hangar.

Though the cause of the explosion has yet to be officially determined, President Donald Trump called it a "terrible attack" based on the suspicions of U.S. generals he did not name.
There was no evidence the explosion was an attack. Instead, many Lebanese blamed it on decades of corruption and poor governance by the entrenched political class that has ruled the tiny Mediterranean country since the civil war.

Israel, which has seen years of intermittent conflict with Lebanon, particularly and recently with Hezbollah, denied any involvement and offered humanitarian medical aid. France and the United Nations special coordinator also offered humanitarian assistance.

SOURCES USA TODAY research; National Institute of Health; Associated Press; The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic; Texas State Historical Association; Oklahoma Historical Society; American Society of Civil Engineers.

CREDIT Janet Loehrke, Ramon Padilla, Jennifer Borresen, Karina Zaiets, Nadia Al Faour, Jenna Hecker, David Baratz, Javier Zarracina, and Shawn Sullivan contributed to this report. Aerial photos from @rabzthecopter

Originally Published 8:16 a.m. MDT Aug. 6, 2020
Updated 4:17 p.m. MDT Aug. 6, 2020