Authorities increasing presence of state agents, deputies in Charleston in effort to reduce crime

(Source live5news.com)

Authorities have announced that they are increasing the presence of deputies and state agents in the Charleston area in an effort to reduce crime on the peninsula. Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds and Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said their agencies along with SLED are teaming up in the effort to not only reduce crime but to reduce fear of crime throughout the community. Last week, Charleston police arrested 15-year-old and 16-year-old boys accused of killing a man, Tom DiLorenzo, who was walking with his wife in the downtown area. The increase of law enforcement units will start this Thursday, according to officials with Charleston police. “As part of this effort, CPD has assigned a second commander to the night shift, activated the SWAT team for proactive interdiction patrol and combined several special units within the department to form supplemental patrol squads that will assist the patrol division throughout the community,” Charleston police officials said in a statement. “This includes officers assigned to the Community Oriented Policing Unit, Traffic Unit, Narcotics and Vice.”

According to police, citizens should expect to see outdoor roll calls being held throughout the city, an increased presence of police equipment deployed for community awareness, pop-up CPD events and traffic checkpoints.

U.S. Black men could seek asylum

(Source nydailynews.com)

While many Americans have come to understand that our race relations are troubled, a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws, they still have a deep belief that the United States is exceptional, relative to other countries.

And yet, on June 17, the United Nations Human Rights Council surveyed racial discrimination and police brutality in the United States.

Michelle Bachelet, the Council’s high commissioner, stated that police brutality “has come to symbolize the systemic racism causing pervasive, daily, lifelong, generational, and too often lethal harm.”

This suggests that African-American men have such a “well-founded fear of persecution” that they could be eligible for asylum in other countries.

That is the international legal standard that refugees use when fleeing nations where, because of their race, they are targeted for violence and incarceration. Individuals from other persecuted groups have gained refugee status for conditions similar to those of African Americans. 

International guidelines explain that “a pattern of discrimination or less favorable treatment could, on cumulative grounds, amount to persecution and warrant international protection.”

African-American men applying for asylum outside of the United States could easily demonstrate that their fear and experience of persecution meet international guidelines.

FDA recalls more hand sanitizers due to toxic chemical (Source NBC News)

The Food and Drug Administration has expanded the list of hand sanitizers — some sold at Walmart, Costco and other national chains — being recalled to at least 75 recently, saying toxic levels of wood alcohol in them can cause injury or death. The FDA said that there has been an increase in hand sanitizers that are labeled to contain ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, but have tested positive for methanol, or wood alcohol. If methanol is absorbed through the skin, it can cause blindness and hospitalizations, or death if ingested. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials have continuously urged Americans to wash their hands for 20 seconds at a time or to use hand sanitizer to protect against exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease. The demand for hand sanitizer has surged and questionable new brands have made their way to store shelves across the United States, most imported from Mexico. “Unfortunately, there are some companies taking advantage of the increased usage of hand sanitizer during the coronavirus pandemic and putting lives at risk by selling products with dangerous and unacceptable ingredients.

China vows retaliation after US ordered its Houston consulate closed within 72 hours (Source Yahoo)

China vowed to retaliate after the United States ordered the closure of its consulate in Houston, a move that further inflamed tensions between the two superpowers.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said China was notified that it would have to close the consulate within 72 hours. In a regular daily news briefing, he described the action as an “unprecedented escalation” and said China would “react with firm countermeasures” if the United States does not revoke the decision.  State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that the closure was “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information.” It is unusual but not unprecedented for the United States to close another country’s consulate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to explain what triggered the decision when pressed on the matter during a news briefing in Copenhagen, where he was meeting with Danish officials. But he raised long-standing U.S. accusations that China’s government steals American intellectual property.

A Russian satellite caught shadowing a US spy satellite earlier this year launched a mysterious space weapon, US Space Command says

(Source  businessinsider.com)

US Space Command said Thursday that it has evidence that Russia tested a space-based anti-satellite weapon last week, revealing that Cosmos 2543, a Russian satellite caught tailing a US spy satellite earlier this year, released some sort of projectile into orbit. “The Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same satellite system that we raised concerns about earlier this year, when Russia maneuvered near a US government satellite,” Gen. John Raymond, the commander of US Space Command, said in a statement. The Russian satellites first raised a few eyebrows shortly after launch last year. What had at first appeared to be one satellite suddenly split in two, with one emerging from inside the other. Now, additional objects are being released into orbit. “The way I picture it, in my mind, is like Russian nesting dolls,” Raymond said when he described the situation in February. In the statement Thursday, US Space Command noted that the Russian anti-satellite test appeared similar to a troubling 2017 test, which the Pentagon discussed during its presentation of the new Defense Space Strategy in June. The Russians launched a satellite as they had done before, but then events began to unfold as they have lately. “Out of that satellite, Russian satellite, a smaller satellite was birthed from that main satellite. From that smaller satellite, a projectile was launched from that Russian satellite,” Stephen Kitay, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, explained to reporters at the Pentagon.Russia claimed the third object was an inspector satellite, but “the behavior of that satellite looked nothing like an inspector satellite and looked like something much more concerning,” Kitay said, citing State Department observations. The new Defense Space Strategy identifies Russia and China as “the most immediate and serious threats to US space operations.” In mid-April, Russia conducted a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile test, which US Space Command said was another example that “the threats to US and allied space systems are real, serious and growing.”

‘The world is going back to a GOLD STANDARD as the US dollar is about to collapse’ – Peter Schiff

(Source rt.com)

As the world grapples with Covid-19, precious metals’ prices are pushing higher. Massive moves in gold and silver are coming, according to veteran stockbroker Peter Schiff. The rise in gold and silver price is “about to explode” and this is just the beginning of a much bigger move, according to Schiff. “We’re barely getting started,” the CEO of Euro Pacific said in his podcast. He explained that is also coinciding with what’s happening to the US dollar, because gold is the greenback’s “principle competitor” when it comes to reserve assets. “The US dollar is about to collapse and when it does, gold is going to take its place. The bottom can drop out of the dollar any day, and gold could go through the roof any day. So, this is a real race and you have to get out of the dollar before it’s too late,” Schiff said. The yellow metal “will resume its role at the center of the monetary system,” and “the world is going back to a gold standard whether the Federal Reserve wants it or not.”

‘Heat dome’ weather system to bake America with temperatures beyond 90F for weeks

(Source independent.co.uk) A blistering “heat dome” will blanket large swathes of the US this weekend with temperatures above 90F degrees, and up to 121F, that will last for weeks as experts warn of increased danger in heat-related illness and deaths. It comes as Tropical Storm Fay is set to batter the east coast from the mid-Atlantic to New England, with heavy rain to deluge New York and a flash flooding watch issued for parts of New Jersey. The National Weather Service on Friday begun issuing excessive heat watch alerts for “dangerously hot conditions” and are forecasting more than 75 record high temperatures to be approached or broken from Friday to Tuesday, and growing the following week. The prolonged heatwave would increase the odds of heat-related illness and deaths, Weather Underground founder Jeff Masters told CBS News. While temperatures up to 121F are possible in the Desert Southwest, areas in Texas like Amarillo will record 10 days of temperatures above 100F and up to 110F. Las Vegas and Phoenix, meanwhile, are forecast to rise above 110F on Saturday. The 100F+ degree temperatures are predicted to spread across the mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley and the Southern Plains. A heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air like a lid or cap, according to the National Ocean Service

Federal Marijuana Legalization Is the Cure Our COVID-Ravaged Economy Needs (Source nationalreview.com) In March, as the Coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) — a $2 trillion emergency-relief package, the largest of its kind in American history — into law. Last month, Trump signed off on an additional $484 billion largely intended to support the newly created Paycheck Protection Program.

Yet as businesses remain closed and many states pump the brakes on their phased reopening plans, it is unlikely that the economy will rebound to its post-pandemic state anytime soon. With so many industries at a complete or partial shutdown and nearly 18 million Americans out of work, it’s time for the United States to begin examining potential economies of scope rather than scale. One potentially lucrative new revenue stream? Legal marijuana. Even before the pandemic, marijuana represented a massive untapped revenue stream for governments. Drawing on the most recent available data from a 2018 Cato Institute study, Dwight Blake of AmericanMarijuana.org estimated that the fiscal windfall that would be achieved through drug legalization could amount to $53.23 billion dollars in annual budgetary gains for federal, state, and local governments.

Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine ready to advance to final phase of testing (Source cbsnews.com)

The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday. The shots are poised to begin key final testing. “No matter how you slice this, this is good news,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press. The experimental vaccine, developed by Fauci’s colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will start its most important step around July 27: A 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.

The nation is in a downward spiral. Worse is still to come.

(Source Washington Post : Opinion by George F. Will) Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang. The entertainer has become a bore, and foretelling his defeat no longer involves peering into a distant future: Early voting begins in two states (South Dakota and Minnesota) 61 days from Sunday, which is 107 days before Election Day. Never has a U.S. election come at such a moment of national mortification.

In April 1970, President Richard M. Nixon told a national television audience that futility in Vietnam would make the United States appear to the world as “a pitiful, helpless giant.” Half a century later, America, for the first time in its history, is pitied. Not even during the Civil War, when the country was blood-soaked by a conflict involving enormous issues, was it viewed with disdainful condescension as it now is, and not without reason: Last Sunday, Germany (population 80.2 million) had 159 new cases of covid-19; Florida (population 21.5 million) had 15,300. Under the most frivolous person ever to hold any great nation’s highest office, this nation is in a downward spiral.

Walmart, Kroger will start requiring customers in US stores to wear masks (Source cnn.com)

Walmart will require customers at all of its US stores to wear masks beginning next week, becoming the largest retailer to mandate facial coverings as coronavirus cases continue to rise. Other national chains made similar moves on Wednesday. Kroger and Kohl’s announced they would start requiring all customers to wear masks, signaling that more retailers are lining up behind mask-wearing mandates. The National Retail Federation, the main lobbying group for the industry, also called on retailers to require masks for customers. Most major retailers and grocers initially hesitated to enact their own mask mandates for customers during the pandemic, partly over fears of antagonizing shoppers who refuse to wear them. Retailers have said they are reluctant to put their employees in the position of enforcing mask requirements.  But the ground in the retail has shifted in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. More than 3.3 million people have now tested positive for the coronavirus nationwide and more than 130,000 have died. Cases are climbing in much of the country and many cities and states are reimposing restrictions to contain new outbreaks, including mask requirements in public settings.

Walmart, Kroger will start requiring customers in US stores to wear masks (Source cnn.com)

Walmart will require customers at all of its US stores to wear masks beginning next week, becoming the largest retailer to mandate facial coverings as coronavirus cases continue to rise. Other national chains made similar moves on Wednesday. Kroger and Kohl’s announced they would start requiring all customers to wear masks, signaling that more retailers are lining up behind mask-wearing mandates. The National Retail Federation, the main lobbying group for the industry, also called on retailers to require masks for customers. Most major retailers and grocers initially hesitated to enact their own mask mandates for customers during the pandemic, partly over fears of antagonizing shoppers who refuse to wear them. Retailers have said they are reluctant to put their employees in the position of enforcing mask requirements.  But the ground in the retail has shifted in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. More than 3.3 million people have now tested positive for the coronavirus nationwide and more than 130,000 have died. Cases are climbing in much of the country and many cities and states are reimposing restrictions to contain new outbreaks, including mask requirements in public settings.