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White House climate official sanctioned by key science body

Ben Geman
Axios
Tue, 16 Aug 2022 00:00 UTC
Lubchenco
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesJane Lubchenco, then-administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, testifies during a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on May 18, 2010, on Capitol Hill.
The National Academy of Sciences has barred Jane Lubchenco, a key White House climate aide, from involvement in NAS publications and activities for five years for violating its code of conduct before joining the administration, the organization said.

Why it matters: The move represents a significant rebuke to Lubchenco, who is deputy director for climate and environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Driving the news: The NAS, the most prestigious science body in the U.S., said the decision, effective Aug. 8, stems from section 3 of its code of conduct. It states that members "shall avoid those detrimental research practices that are clear violations of the fundamental tenets of research."

Comment: "The American people deserve leaders in the White House who don't use their positions of influence to put their thumb on the scales for friends and family." Tell that to JB.

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Dollars

Former Pa. judges who ran kids-for-cash jail scheme ordered to pay more than $200 million

Michael Rubinkam
USA Today
Wed, 17 Aug 2022 04:03 UTC
Conahan/Ciacarella
© Mark Moran/APFormer Luzerne County Court Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella
Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 people in a long-running civil suit against the judges, writing the plaintiffs are "the tragic human casualties of a scandal of epic proportions."

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.
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Dollars

Brace for even higher beef prices as Texas cattle industry faces historic drought crisis

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 04:30 UTC
Cattle drought
© Unknown
Ranchers across Texas continue to panic sell cattle herds as the worst megadrought in 1,200 years makes it too expensive to sustain operations.

"We'll keep selling cows till it rains," Texas High Plains rancher Jim Ferguson told Amarillo station KAMR, which collaborated with The Hill on the expanding cattle crisis in the state.

America's cattle heartland has seen pastures turn to dust, and costs for feed, fertilizer, and diesel skyrocket, threatening an entire industry that is essential to the nation's beef supply.

The Hill said that the devastating drought and higher cattle operation costs would result in higher beef prices for at least the next two years. And we agree with that assessment as the latest data via USDA shows supermarket prices surged to record highs earlier this year and are quickly approaching the $5 handle.
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Dollar

Walgreens, Walmart and CVS ordered to pay $650 million over opioid sales


NBC News
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 11:10 UTC
Walgreens
© David Paulo Morris/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesWalgreens in San Francisco
A federal judge in Cleveland awarded $650 million in damages Wednesday to two Ohio counties that sued CVS, Walgreens and Walmart over the way the national pharmacy chains distributed opioids to their communities.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said in his ruling that the money will be used to the fight the opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties put the total price tag at $3.3 billion for the damage done.

The judge admonished the three companies, saying they "squandered the opportunity to present a meaningful plan to abate the nuisance" after proceedings last spring to determine what the counties were owed.

Lake County is to receive $306 million over 15 years. Trumbull County is to receive $344 million over the same period. Polster ordered the companies to immediately fork over nearly $87 million to cover the first two years of payments, but it was unclear whether they had to pay that money during their appeals.

"Today marks the start of a new day in our fight to end the opioid epidemic," Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck said in a statement.
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Ambulance

UK sees massive increases in excess deaths and serious ambulance call-outs


Naked Emperor
Fri, 19 Aug 2022 17:48 UTC
Ambulance
Excess deaths in England and Wales have been consistently high for months now. The latest week of data (5 August 2022) shows 1,350 excess deaths which is 14.4% higher than the 5-year average. Only 6.8% of these are involving COVID-19, even fewer directly caused by Covid.

However, these are deaths in all ages and I was curious to find out where the increases are coming from. In previous years, after a bad flu season, you would expect fewer excess deaths due to deaths being pulled forwards. So why are we seeing so many excess deaths after Covid and in the middle of the summer?

For this analysis I used the "Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional" datasets, compiled by the Office of National Statistics. I have used the figures from 2015-2019 to provide a five year average with which to compare as 2020-2021 are too disjointed.
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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: 1,000 more deaths than usual EACH WEEK in UK as impact of lockdown kills more people than Covid - The Telegraph

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 21:30 UTC
telegraph lockdown death
Front page of The Telegraph newspaper. Unexplained excess deaths outstrip those from virus as medics call figures 'terrifying' .
The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are dying of Covid, official statistics suggest.

Figures for excess deaths from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that around 1,000 more people than usual are currently dying each week from conditions other than the virus.

The Telegraph understands that the Department of Health has ordered an investigation into the figures amid concern that the deaths are linked to delays to and deferment of treatment for conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Over the past two months, the number of excess deaths not from Covid dwarfs the number linked to the virus. It comes amid renewed calls for Covid measures such as compulsory face masks in the winter.

Comment: With winter coming; looming food and energy shortages; the NHS deteriorating; the impact of the experimental jabs (and boosters); and deaths of despair; one can expect excess deaths to increase ever higher.

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Arrow Up

Brian Stelter OUT at CNN after network cancels 'Reliable Sources'

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
The Post Millennial
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 19:46 UTC
brian stelter
CNN Chief Media Correspondent and "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter is set to leave the network, as the network cancels his show.

Stelter said in a statement to NPR that he's grateful for the show and his team's examination of "the media, truth and the stories that shape our world."

"It was a rare privilege to lead a weekly show focused on the press at a time when it has never been more consequential," Stelter said.

Comment:




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Handcuffs

Saudi Arabia jails Leeds university student for 34 YEARS because she had a Twitter account and followed dissident activists

Rachael Bunyan
Daily Mail
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:09 UTC
Salma al-Shebab
Salma al-Shebab, 34, was accused of using Twitter to 'cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security' after she posted tweets calling for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi student at Leeds University who returned to the kingdom for a holiday has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissident activists.

Salma al-Shebab, 34, was accused of using Twitter to 'cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security' after she posted tweets calling for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Shebab, who has two young sons aged four and six, was initially sentenced to six years in prison but a Saudi terrorism court on Monday increased her jail-term to 34 years after the activist appealed her sentence.

Comment: See also:

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Red Flag

New Jersey teachers union condemns parents as 'extremist' in new ad

Anders Hagstrom
New York Post
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 17:15 UTC
new jersey school board ad
© NJNEAThe ad features clips of parents arguing over school-related topics.
A New Jersey teachers union condemned parents who confront school officials at school board meetings as "extremist" in a new advertisement this week.

The New Jersey chapter of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in America, posted the short ad on YouTube. The ad flips back and forth between colorful photos of teachers with students and black-and-white photos of parents, arguing that the latter are trying to fuse politics with education.

"When extremists start attacking our schools, that's not who we are," the video says. "People who only want to fight to score political points should take that somewhere else."

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

Data shows number of low-income audits could triple as IRS grows

Darlene McCormick Sanchez
The Epoch Times
Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:01 UTC
IRS HQ
© Samira Bouaou/The Epoch TimesThe Internal Revenue Service Headquarters Building in Washington on Sept. 19, 2018.
The IRS audited 197 low-income families for every high-wealth family in 2019, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — a number that some experts expected to climb under an IRS turbocharged with more money and manpower.

Over the next decade, the Democrat's new "Inflation Reduction Act" will provide the IRS with 87,000 new agents and $80 billion in funding, with nearly $46 billion earmarked for enforcement.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax and spend bill is projected to bring in $203.7 billion in revenue from 2022 to 2031.

Comment: See also:

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