The FBI routinely violates its own procedures when applying for warrants to spy on American citizens, a new <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/a20047.pdf">report</a> from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found.
In a memo dated March 30, Inspector General Michael Horowitz followed up on an earlier report from December 2019, which found the FBI violated its own procedures when obtaining Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Carter Page, a former adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The OIG found that the FBI violated what’s known as the Woods Procedures, which were implemented in 2001 “following errors in numerous FISA applications submitted to the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] in FBI counterterrorism investigations.” The Woods Procedures are meant to “minimize factual inaccuracies in FISA applications and to ensure that statements contained in applications are ‘scrupulously accurate,’&#8221; Horowitz wrote.
After its massive report late last year, which found 17 “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-report-here-are-the-17-specific-inaccuracies-and-omissions-in-the-fbis-fisa-warrants-against-carter-page">inaccuracies and omissions</a>” that led to Page getting spied on by his own government when he had done nothing wrong, Horowitz led a team to look into other FISA applications to see if violating the Woods Procedures was routine. It turns out, it was:
<blockquote>Our lack of confidence that the Woods Procedures are working as intended stems primarily from the fact that: (1) we could not review original Woods Files for 4 of the 29 selected FISA applications because the FBI has not 3 been able to locate them and, in 3 of these instances, did not know if they ever existed; (2) our testing of FISA applications to the associated Woods Files identified apparent errors or inadequately supported facts in all of the 25 applications we reviewed, and interviews to date with available agents or supervisors in field offices generally have confirmed the issues we identified; (3) existing FBI and [National Security Division] oversight mechanisms have also identified deficiencies in documentary support and application accuracy that are similar to those that we have observed to date; and (4) FBI and NSD officials we interviewed indicated to us that there were no efforts by the FBI to use existing FBI and NSD oversight mechanisms to perform comprehensive, strategic assessments of the efficacy of the Woods Procedures or FISA accuracy, to include identifying the need for enhancements to training and improvements in the process, or increased accountability measures.</blockquote>
Horowitz’s memo, however, did not make “judgments about whether the errors or concerns we identified were material” nor did it speculate as to whether the potential errors influenced the decision to approve the FBI’s FISA applications in those cases.
“Nevertheless, we believe that a deficiency in the FBI’s efforts to support the factual statements in FISA applications through its Woods Procedures undermines the FBI’s ability to achieve its ‘scrupulously accurate’ standard for FISA applications,” Horowitz wrote.
The memo also stated that FBI officials told OIG investigators that corrective actions or training may take place at field offices based on the results of its reviews, yet Horowitz noted no such training exists at the FBI headquarters.
The memo stated the OIG will conduct further investigations into the deficiencies of the FBI FISA applications and their renewals, as this investigation is just preliminary and took place over two months. The OIG recommended the FBI regularly review its past cases to determine if there were any violations of the Woods Procedures and conduct “a physical inventory to ensure that Woods Files exist for every FISA application submitted to the FISC in all pending investigations.”
In response to the memo, FBI Associate Deputy Director Paul Abbate accepted Horowitz’s findings and said the bureau is still implementing the corrective measures it announced after the December 2019 report. It also noted the OIG’s own deficiencies in its memos relating to examining complete files and whether evidence supported the allegations in the FISA applications.

FBI agent

It Wasn’t Just Trump, Inspector General Finds FBI Routinely Violates Procedures In FISA Warrant Applications

FISA

Michael Horowitz

The University of Michigan is embroiled in <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/section/community-affairs/university-neglects-numerous-sexual-misconduct-claims-against-famous-voice">a sex scandal</a> involving a prominent tenured opera professor who was accused by multiple men of sexual assault and harassment.
UM President Mark Schlissel <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/section/administration/schlissel-interview-0">was asked</a> by reporters at student newspaper The Michigan Daily about the scandal. He claimed during the interview that he was “a huge believer in due process and allowing the accused to defend themselves, to see the evidence against themselves and allowing an investigation to be thorough and complete, and then going through each of the specified faculty policies and procedures when it comes to a disciplinary action that threatens the removal of tenure.”
His remarks on this run counter to how his school’s policies work for students accused of sexual misconduct.
In 2018, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Doe v. Baum that universities must allow some form of cross-examination during allegations of sexual misconduct when the case comes down to the credibility of one person or the other. This ruling pertained to nearly all campus sexual misconduct cases, which often involve no witnesses and are a he said/she said situation where one party (almost exclusively the man) says the sexual encounter was consensual and the other (almost exclusively the woman) says it was not.
Even with the ruling, schools under the 6th Circuit and across the country continue to deny due process rights to men accused of sexual misconduct out of fear that they will receive bad press and be sued by a female accuser who will have the full backing of the media and feminist movement behind her if she claims the school didn’t take her claims seriously. Taking claims “seriously” has resulted in schools automatically believing accusers and tilting the process against the accused no matter the evidence.
UM has been no different. After the Baum ruling, President Schlissel <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/ingrid-jacques/2020/03/27/jacques-university-michigan-cant-ignore-students-rights/2916115001/">said</a> the “6th Circuit got it wrong,” and defending the school’s unfair practices.
The case that led to the ruling involved a male and female student who met while drinking, had sex, and then recounted the night differently. The female student accused the male student of sexual assault, and since there were no witnesses to the actual event and no evidence for either side, the school found the male student “not responsible.” The school interviewed 23 witnesses who provided no clarity. Some confirmed the male student’s account that the accuser wasn’t drunk and others said she seemed drunk and that she was upset after the encounter.
Because college campuses allow either side to appeal – effectively allowing double jeopardy – the female student appealed and without any additional evidence provided, the school reversed its earlier decision and found the male student responsible. He sued the school, leading to the Sixth Circuit opinion.
UM did not change its ways after the Baum decision, leading to another ruling in Doe v. University of Michigan, which found the university was up to its anti-fairness ways. Criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield <a href="https://blog.simplejustice.us/2020/03/28/how-do-you-stop-a-problem-like-university-of-michigan/">wrote</a> on his blog Simple Justice that this isn’t surprising, given that court rulings are often ignored and the only way for a student to remedy that fact is to sue. Many accused students are minority and foreign students who don’t have such resources.
“As more suits are brought, more rulings obtained, holding that campus sex tribunals involve unconstitutional deprivations of due process to accused male students, some colleges will comply, but others will simply resist, firm in their belief that they are on the right side of history and, even if courts don’t agree, are doing what they have to, what they should, do to protect women. They are, in essence, challenging the courts by saying ‘make me,’ and the reality is that the &#8216;least dangerous branch&#8217; doesn’t have any really good magic to do so,” Greenfield wrote.

Judge

College President Says He Believes In Due Process. His School’s Handling Of Sexual Assault Allegations Says Otherwise.

Education

Lawsuit

Sexual Assault

Title IX

A doctor who was pulled over for speeding was shocked when the Minnesota state trooper who stopped her gave her his small stash of N95 protective masks instead of a ticket.
CNN <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/30/us/minnesota-trooper-n95-masks-doctor-trnd/index.html">reported</a> that Dr. Sarosh Ashraf Janua, a cardiologist working with a coronavirus quarantine unit, was pulled over on March 21, but was soon moved to tears by the trooper’s generosity.
Janua wrote on Facebook that when she handed the trooper her Massachusetts driver’s license he asked what she was doing way out in Minnesota. She told him she was “here every month for my work as a locums cardiologist.” She said the trooper then returned to his patrol car to run her license and when he returned he gave her a firm lecture about speeding and taking up resources if she were in an accident and wouldn’t be able to help patients.
“Feeling thoroughly chastised, I waited for him to write me a ticket. Instead, he told me he was going to let me off with a warning,” she wrote. “As I sputtered to apologize and say thank you, he reached in to hand me what I assumed was my license back. It wasn’t until my hand had closed around what he was giving me that its unexpected bulkiness drew my eyes to it.&#8221;
She said the trooper gave her five N95 masks – from the supply he had to protect himself. She said she “burst into tears” and believed the trooper teared up as well.
“Like all healthcare workers and emergency responders around the world, I have felt afraid of not having adequate protective equipment, and in my darkest moments, have worried about what would happen if I fell sick far from home,” she wrote. “This complete stranger, who owed me nothing and is more on the front lines than I am, shared his precious masks with me, without my even asking.”
Janua thanked the trooper, Brian Schwartz, in her post and on CNN with Anderson Cooper.
&#8220;I think we are all just hanging on to something that makes us feel safe,&#8221; Janjua said on CNN. &#8220;Somehow, for Americans, that something has become N95 masks and toilet paper. Trooper Schwartz&#8217; act of kindness became my something.&#8221;
The Minnesota State Patrol thanked Janua on its own <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MnStatePatrol/posts/10157027775518144?__tn__=-R">Facebook page</a>, writing: “Thank you to Sarosh for her hard work and dedication. Troopers are working hard during the pandemic and are thinking about all the first responders who are caring for Minnesotans during this critical time.”
The Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-coronavirus-sweeps-the-nation-americans-come-through-with-endless-acts-of-kindness">reported</a> that despite the current dark times, Americans across the country are displaying acts of kindles like Trooper Schwartz:
<blockquote>In Houston, Texas, for instance, a couple left a $9,400 tip at a restaurant. “Irma’s southwest restaurant in Houston, Texas, says a person came in on Monday after Harris county announced a mandatory shutdown of bars and nightclubs,” according to <a href="https://www.cbs17.com/news/check-this-out/coronavirus-couple-leaves-9400-tip-at-restaurant-to-help-staff-during-closure/?fbclid=IwAR0-55Dc_Wz8YVJvLHDMol8az-LKpJn6cIk-otqRADWeSU1iDq9zN4uB1kg">CBS17</a>.  “That’s when, restaurant employees say, a customer left them a $9400 tip.” The couple left a note on the receipt that read, ‘Hold tip to pay you guys over the next few weeks.’”
In San Diego, a Facebook group created to coordinate volunteer efforts — San Diego Community Volunteers — saw a massive influx of people offering to help, going from 50 members to more than 400 in a matter of days.
In Walnut Creek, Ca., outside San Francisco, a dentist is offering free emergency dental services — at home, since much of the state is on lockdown — to ease congestion at hospital emergency rooms, <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-acts-kindness-abound-us-182309839.html">Yahoo! News</a> reports. And there’s much more.</blockquote>

N95 Mask

A Doctor Was Pulled Over For Speeding. The Trooper Gave Her N95 Masks Instead Of A Ticket.

Coronavirus

The Amazon warehouse worker who organized a strike to demand the company better protect its workers amid the coronavirus pandemic has been fired.
Chris Smalls said he was fired Monday after he organized the strike, CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/03/30/amazon-fires-staten-island-coronavirus-strike-leader-chris-smalls.html">confirmed</a>. Amazon told the outlet that Smalls was fired because he ignored “multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines” and refused to quarantine himself even though he had contact with another worker who tested positive for COVID-19.
&#8220;Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite today, March 30, further putting the teams at risk,&#8221; an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. &#8220;This is unacceptable and we have terminated his employment as a result of these multiple safety issues.&#8221;
Smalls released his own statement.
&#8220;Amazon would rather fire workers than face up to its total failure to do what it should to keep us, our families, and our communities safe,&#8221; Smalls said in a statement to media outlets. &#8220;I am outraged and disappointed, but I&#8217;m not shocked. As usual, Amazon would rather sweep a problem under the rug than act to keep workers and working communities safe.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-amazon-workers-walkout-after-covid-19-hits-warehouse">reported</a> Monday, Smalls led a strike of workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse whom he said were forced to go to work even though multiple workers tested positive for COVID-19.
“If a building tests positive you should shut it down and sanitize it,” Smalls told <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/coronavirus-amazon-workers-walkout-staten-island">FOX Business</a>. “That’s all we’re asking for. … If we don’t get a response today, then we’re going to City Hall.”
He told ABC News that he also requested Amazon pay back employees who used vacation or sick days to avoid contracting the virus.
“People are afraid to work. People are there working and they’re putting their lives at risk because there are a number of (coronavirus) cases that they are not aware of,” he told <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/people-afraid-amazon-warehouse-workers-york-walk-off/story?id=69871849">ABC News</a>.
Smalls also said Amazon lied by saying just one worker tested positive for the virus. Smalls suggested as many as seven had contracted the virus and that he, as a management assistant, personally sent home the third person who tested positive. Smalls said the first woman who tested positive “already had time to spread it” by the time she left the facility.
“Her friend caught it. Her friend was the third case. She tested positive and she’s a supervisor in the pack department and the pack department is right before the items go out door to the customers. It’s dangerous,” he said.
Smalls said Monday that between 50 and 100 people planned to join him in walking off the job, but Amazon disputed that number to CNBC, saying just 15 people joined the walkout.
&#8220;Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable,&#8221; the company told CNBC in a statement. &#8220;The truth is the vast majority of employees continue to show up and do the heroic work of delivering for customers every day.&#8221;
Amazon in its statement also said the accusations that the company was not taking the virus seriously were “unfounded” and claimed it had taken “extreme measures” to ensure worker safety.
Workers at other facilities told CNBC that hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes are rationed and that Amazon simply isn’t doing enough to protect them.

Amazon Workers

Amazon Fires Worker Who Led Strike Over Coronavirus Working Conditions

Amazon

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) have ordered residents to “stay at home” unless traveling for an “essential” purpose like groceries or medicines or their job has been deemed “essential.”
WTOP <a href="https://wtop.com/coronavirus/2020/03/coronavirus-updates-dc-maryland-virginia-march-30/">reported</a> Monday that Hogan announced the new order at a news conference. CBS 6 <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/coronavirus/virginia-governor-northam-to-make-major-announcement-at-2-p-m-presser">reported</a> that Northam&#8217;s announcement followed hours later.
“This is a public health crisis. We are no longer asking or suggesting that Marylanders stay at home. We are directing them to do so,” Hogan said. The outlet added that the stay-at-home order goes into effect 8 p.m. Monday and that a wireless emergency alert will be sent to residents via their cellphones at some point on Monday evening.
“No Maryland resident should be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job or for an essential reason, such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking medical attention or for other necessary purposes,” Hogan added.
WTOP reported that the number of coronavirus cases in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area has spiked to more than 2,800 as of Monday morning, an increase of more than 1,000 over the weekend.
“People are not locked in their homes,” Hogan said Monday. “We’re just telling people that they need to stay in their homes except for essential and necessary things.”
“You should be able to get outside for your own physical and mental well-being and go for a walk and take your dog for a walk. You should not be going out with a crowd of 100 people congregating in a park somewhere … If your plumbing is leaking all over your house and you have to go out and do something about fixing that — that’s probably a necessary function. But you shouldn’t be out shopping for new carpets or cabinets or, you know, buying furniture or clothing. You should be buying the necessary things you need to survive,” he added.
The text of <a href="https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/453957680-Gov-Larry-Hogan-s-Stay-At-Home-Order-3-30-20.pdf">the order</a> amends and restates an order dated March 23, which restricted large gatherings and closed many businesses.  While people are told to stay in their homes, this does not extend to those working “essential” jobs or owners of such businesses and establishments, although they are all order to travel just to and from work or to deliver goods and services. A previous order limiting gatherings to fewer than 50 people has been amended to prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people. Fitness centers must close except to provide child care services if they already did so. Theaters are closed, and shopping malls are closed unless the stores have direct access from outside. Other recreational establishments such as bingo halls, bowling alleys, golf courses and amusement parks must close.
In addition, tattoo parlors, tanning salons, barber shops, and beauty salons must remain closed.
The order specifically exempts those traveling to, from, or in connection with their duties at any federal, state, or local government establishment, or those working with non-profits to provide essential services to low-income and homeless individuals.
Journalists traveling for work are also exempt from the stay-at-home order. Virginia&#8217;s order was similar.
On Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) granted D.C. a major disaster declaration following the increase in coronavirus cases.
This article has been updated to include information about Virginia&#8217;s stay-at-home order.

Larry Hogan

Maryland, Virginia Go Into Total Lockdown Following Increase In Coronavirus Cases [Updated]

Maryland

A New York University dean’s attempts to connect with students through dance, her preferred art medium, fell flat when a video she sent of herself dancing to students who demanded a tuition refund appeared tone deaf.
As CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/28/us/nyu-tisch-school-of-arts-tuition-reimbursement-trnd/index.html">reported</a>, NYU transferred to remote teaching during the coronavirus pandemic, but students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts are finding remote classrooms to be difficult, since they don’t have access to the rehearsal spaces or other features of art school. The outlet spoke to senior drama student Emma Hoersdig, who said performing scenes over Zoom creates “disconnect” and “isn’t the education we paid for.” Hoersdig started a Facebook group asking for tuition reimbursement – a group that now has more than 800 members, according to CNN. Nearly 4,000 people have signed <a href="https://www.change.org/p/nyu-tisch-partial-tuition-refund-effort">a petition</a> on Change.org demanding their tuition back.
The petition was started by Jack Ford and Noah Ozuna, who wrote:
<blockquote>On March 18th, Dean of Tisch Allyson Green emailed the student body that they would not be receiving reimbursement of tuition despite classes being moved to remote instruction for the remainder of the semester. By placing profits above the concerns, needs, and quality of education being received by students, NYU ignores the fact that us art students will be paying full price for an education that lacks the facilities, equipment, technology, services, and hands-on experience we are explicitly paying for. While we appreciate the concerted efforts of our professors to salvage what’s left of our education, we reject the assumption that an online Zoom education is equitable in content and value. We hope the Dean, along with Tisch Department chairs, will use their positions to speak on our behalf to the NYU Board of Trustees, and we expect the decency of being part of the conversation moving forward as we work toward appropriate reimbursement of tuition for the Spring 2020 semester.</blockquote>
In the email where she denied tuition reimbursement, dean Green also included a video of her dancing, which appeared to be a flippant response to denying students their tuition. A person who posted the video online called it “embarrassing.” Hoersdig told CNN the video felt “a little condescending to boil our problems down to, &#8216;Yeah, we&#8217;re not going to give you your money back, and that&#8217;s OK, and here&#8217;s a video of me dancing.&#8221;
Green told the outlet that her inclusion of the video was “misunderstood.”
&#8220;What I meant to demonstrate is my certainty that even with the unprecedented hardships of social distancing and remote classes, it is still possible for the Tisch community to make art together, and that all the artists in our school will find ways to remain closely connected even as circumstances challenge us,&#8221; Green said in a statement to CNN. &#8220;I regret it if my email left the reasons for my dancing misunderstood.&#8221;
Green has previously included videos of her dancing to students. She also sent one as part of her response when the Tisch school first announced remote learning due to the coronavirus.
Green also said that reimbursement was not possible because the school must still pay faculty and staff, as well as rent, during the pandemic.

Female dancer in motion

NYU Art School Students Demand Money Back After Classes Cancelled; Dean Sends Video Of Herself Dancing In Response

New York University

Nearly two hundred ventilators sent to California from the federal government needed repairs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on Saturday. Yet instead of taking the opportunity to bash Trump, Newsom said he sent the ventilators to be repaired and that they would be returned &#8211; working &#8211; on Monday.
Newsom said during a press conference that the ventilators had been sent by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and that they were being repaired by Bloom Energy, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490033-newsom-170-ventilators-sent-from-federal-government-arrived-not-working?amp">reported</a>.
&#8220;Rather than lamenting about it, rather than complaining about it, rather than pointing fingers, rather than generating headlines in order to generate more stress and anxiety, we got a car and a truck,&#8221; Newsom said after he toured the facility where the ventilators would be repaired. “We had those 170 brought here to this facility at 8 a.m. this morning, and they are quite literally working on those ventilators right now.&#8221;
On Twitter, Newsom said the ventilators were expected to be fixed and back in Los Angeles on Monday.
“That’s the spirit of CA,” he added.
Newsom said he learned about the ventilator issues after visiting Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) last week, The Hill reported.
In a <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/03/28/video-release-in-sunnyvale-governor-newsom-and-mayor-liccardo-tour-bloom-energy-which-is-refurbishing-ventilators-for-use-in-california-hospitals-during-covid-19-outbreak/">statement</a> released Saturday, Newsom’s office explained that Bloom Energy had “transformed its production facility to quickly refurbish life-saving ventilators to provide California with the critical equipment it needs to prepare for a potential surge in COVID-19 patients.”
The statement also explained that California had 7,500 ventilators across its hospital systems when the coronavirus outbreak began – and set a goal to acquire an additional 10,000 ventilators.
“To date, the state has added 4,252 ventilators, approximately 1,000 of which needed to be refurbished. Through a partnership with the state, Bloom Energy is working to refurbish ventilators in real time. Yesterday, Bloom Energy refurbished 80 ventilators and it expects to refurbish an additional 120 ventilators today,” the statement said.
The statement also announced that “more than 350 businesses and manufacturers in California reached out to offer to re-tool their facilities to make medical supplies and essential products during this crisis.” The Gap and St. John Knits, for example, have committed to making masks, gowns, and scrubs for hospital workers. Anheuser-Busch and other distilleries are working to make hand sanitizer.
Of course, Newsom’s mention of the broken ventilators still created the headlines he claimed he didn’t want. The Hill, for example, used the headline, “California governor: 170 ventilators sent from Trump administration were &#8216;not working.&#8217;” Time used a similar headline: “<a href="https://time.com/5812147/california-coronavirus-broken-ventilators/">California Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Federal Government Sent &#8216;170 Broken Ventilators.&#8217;</a>”
It is unclear whether Newsom intended for this to happen in an effort to knock the Trump administration, or if he simply wanted to highlight how a local business was helping with the crisis – or both.
So far, no other state has said it has received broken ventilators from the federal government. Multiple countries that received coronavirus tests from China, however, said a majority of the tests were faulty. Dutch officials <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/coronavirus-netherlands-recalls-defective-masks-imported-from-china">also said</a> some 600,000 masks received from China “did not close over the face properly, or had defective filters.”

Gavin Newsom

170 Ventilators Shipped To California Didn’t Work, But Instead Of Blaming Trump, Governor Had Them Fixed

California

We were told by Democrats that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts needed millions in the coronavirus relief bill to keep paying its workers and performers, yet just hours after the bill was signed by President Donald Trump, the center told orchestra members saying they would not be paid until it reopened.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Bill McMorris <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/kennedy-center-tells-musicians-will-stop-paying-them-hours-after-25-million-bailout-signed/">reported</a> Saturday that members of the National Symphony Orchestra were told Friday night from the orchestra’s Covid-19 Advisory Committee saying they would not receive a paycheck after April 3 until the cultural center reopened.
&#8220;The Covid-19 Advisory Committee was broadsided today during our conversation with [Kennedy Center President] Deborah Rutter,&#8221; an email from the Advisory Committee said. &#8220;Ms. Rutter abruptly informed us today that the last paycheck for all musicians and librarians will be April 3 and that we will not be paid again until the Center reopens.&#8221;
&#8220;Everyone should proceed as if their last paycheck will be April 3,&#8221; the email added. &#8220;We understand this will come [as a] shock to all of you, as it did to us.&#8221;
The Kennedy Center will be provided $25 million as part of the $2 trillion stimulus package intended to help the economy during the coronavirus outbreak. While the center has not received the money yet, it was specifically mentioned in the bill, meaning it should be getting the help relatively soon.
A veteran orchestra member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Free Beacon that musicians were “blindsided” by the decision to halt paychecks after April 3.
&#8220;It&#8217;s very disappointing [that] they&#8217;re going to get that money and then drop us afterward,&#8221; the musician told the outlet. &#8220;The Kennedy Center blindsided us.&#8221;
More from the Free Beacon:
<blockquote>The Kennedy Center, which recently completed a $250 million renovation, received <a href="http://kcwebsiteprod.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/default-source/pdfs/about/kcpa_fy20-budget-justification-to-congress.pdf?sfvrsn=d9c65d92_2">$41 million</a> from taxpayers in 2019, but faced massive deficits after <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/press-releases/update-on-covid-19-closure/">shutting its doors</a> on March 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak. President Rutter went on a media blitz to highlight the cultural hub&#8217;s struggles, telling the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/the-kennedy-center-is-facing-more-hard-choices-its-president-explains-why-shes-forgoing-her-salary/2020/03/26/2cc86ae4-6f97-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html">Washington Post</a> that she would forego her $1.2 million salary during the closure. Members of the orchestra chafed at the notion that they should do the same—particularly because they also face the prospect of losing their health benefits after May 31.</blockquote>
The Free Beacon also reported that the orchestra members’ union filed a grievance alleging the Kennedy Center must follow the collective bargaining agreement it signed.
&#8220;While the Union understands that the Kennedy Center has decided to cancel all performances through May 10, 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those cancellations do not give the Association any contractual basis for failing to comply with the sections of the [agreement],&#8221; the grievance said, according to a copy obtained by the Free Beacon.
&#8220;There is no provision of our collective bargaining agreement that allows the Kennedy Center to decide to stop paying us with only one week of notice,&#8221; the grievance said. &#8220;While we fully expect that an arbitrator would agree that management violated the CBA and that we are entitled to continued salary and benefits, this process takes time.&#8221;

Kennedy Center

Kennedy Center Lays Off Musicians After Getting $25 Million In Stimulus Bill

Retired Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) passed away on Saturday following a years-long battle with cancer.
Coburn was, as the Associated Press described him in their obituary, a “Conservative Political Maverick.” As a senator, Coburn published the famous yearly “wastebook,” showing ridiculous expenditures from the federal government, including a 2014 payment of $171,000 to <a href="http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2014/10/wastebook-2014-what-washington-doesn-t-want-you-to-read">study how monkeys gamble</a>.
Though Coburn was a steadfast steward of taxpayer dollars and a conservative hero to many, The New York Times’ obituary for him made sure to paint him in a negative light. The headline for the Times’ obituary reads: “Tom Coburn, the ‘Dr. No’ of Congress, Is Dead at 72.”
Coburn received the nickname because he voted against so many spending bills, but “Dr. No” is also the name of one of James Bond’s most notorious villains, and the way the Times framed its headline, the impression one walks away with is that Coburn is the Bond villain.
Further, the Times’ obituary begins: “<a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/thomas_coburn/400576">Tom Coburn</a>, an ultraconservative Oklahoma Republican and family physician who in 16 years in Congress crusaded for limited government, using a rule-book technicality to block so many bills that frustrated legislators called him “Dr. No,” died on Saturday in Tulsa. He was 72.”
Conversely, the Times described Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at the time of his death as a “fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died on Friday.”
Notice the use of more positive descriptive words like “bedeviling” and “defied” rather than “frustrated.”
The headline the Times used for Castro’s obituary read: “Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90.”
The Times on Twitter was no different. After Coburn died, the Times tweeted the opening paragraph of his obituary about the “rule-book technicality.” For Castro, the Times used its same spin, including a tweet that said: “Success in baseball and boxing helped give Fidel Castro grounds to taunt and defy the U.S.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here are the <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nytimes</a> wrote about two dead men. One massacred people; the other delivered thousands of babies free of charge.
Guess which is which. <a href="https://t.co/BSE0VXn5wQ">pic.twitter.com/BSE0VXn5wQ</a>
— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBillMcMorris/status/1244089851550588936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The NYT, everybody. <a href="https://t.co/yL5ITkoea9">pic.twitter.com/yL5ITkoea9</a>
— James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesHasson20/status/1244084587673923584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Times even posted a lengthy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/29/insider/fidel-castros-obituary.html">article</a> about how sixteen of its journalists worked on Castro’s obituary. In an article published months before Castro’s death, the Times talked about the fashion trends he inspired in the U.S., in an article titled, “Chanting Crowds and Camo Chic.” The article gushed that Castro “mesmerized” crowds.
The different takes from the Times is reminiscent of just last week when the outlet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-times-changes-headline-about-democrats-blocking-coronavirus-stimulus">changed a headline</a> to protect Democrats from criticism after they blocked a coronavirus relief bill – a courtesy the Times has never shown Republicans.
The Times is not the only outlet to go easy on mass murderers. In October, The Washington Post called terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi an “austere religious scholar,” before changing it to say he was the “extremist leader of Islamic State.” Quite a difference.
The body of these articles are no different. While Coburn’s legacy is repeatedly described in negative terms, dictators and terrorist leaders get glowing praise while their misdeeds are buried or downplayed.

Fidel Castro

NYT AT IT AGAIN: Gives Republican Worse Obituary Than Fidel Castro

Media Bias

New York Times

Tom Coburn

A sheriff in Florida is having his nightmare ended after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that alleged the sheriff was indifferent to an alleged “sex ring” involving some of his deputies having consensual sex with a woman in her home.
Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan was sued by two sisters who alleged that “because the sheriff took no action to curb their sexual activities, two then-deputies, Walter Thomas and Mark Smith, became emboldened enough to sexually abuse the then-juvenile plaintiffs,” the Pensacola News Journal <a href="https://amp.pnj.com/amp/5078013002?__twitter_impression=true">reported</a>.
The outlet went on to report that Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson “eviscerated the claims in a 25-page order last week and dismissed both cases.”
More from the News Journal:
<blockquote>The judge noted that in the thousands of pages of filings from the plaintiffs&#8217; attorney, Joe Zarzaur, it was difficult to determine what information was relevant, irrelevant, necessary and unnecessarily salacious.
Vinson wrote that Zarzaur took &#8220;unsubstantiated liberties&#8221; with the facts of the case, &#8220;so much so that many of the asserted &#8216;facts&#8217; don&#8217;t match — and are sometimes directly contradicted by — his own exhibits.&#8221;
Zarzaur told the News Journal that he respects the court&#8217;s decisions, and that he and his clients are weighing their options on cases that are still pending at the state level.</blockquote>
Morgan, of course, denied the allegations, and the News Journal noted that proving “deliberate indifference” is incredibly difficult, as “an individual has to exhibit what is essentially a reckless disregard for consequences.”
The allegations against the sheriff boiled down to an accusation that because he knew multiple detectives were having consensual sex with former jail employee Leah Manning, the sheriff should have known those officers would assault underage girls.
“The plaintiffs posited that when a sheriff ‘tacitly allows’ his deputies to have sex on duty without consequence, ‘it was foreseeable that bad deputies might &#8216;push the envelope&#8217; of what they could get away with. The fact that many deputies were having sex on duty with the then-teenage (plaintiffs&#8217;) mother so frequently makes it very foreseeable that the deputies would eventually try to sexually assault (plaintiffs)’&#8221; the News Journal reported.
Judge Vinson, however, agreed with Morgan’s defense attorneys.
&#8220;Can it be seriously maintained that it was &#8216;very foreseeable&#8217; that a deputy’s consensual sex with the mother would lead him to molest her minor child?&#8221; the judge asked in his ruling. &#8220;Child molestation is not a reasonably anticipated outgrowth of consensual adult sex.&#8221;
Vinson further noted that there was no evidence Morgan even knew Manning had children.
&#8220;Obviously, Sheriff Morgan cannot have been subjectively aware of (and disregarded) a threat to a child he didn’t know existed,&#8221; Vinson wrote.
The deputies who had sex with Manning were accused of molesting the teenage girls. One of the former deputies, Smith, was acquitted on charges that he touched one of the girls while she slept. The other deputy, Thomas, was convicted of sexually abusing one of the teenage girls – at the mother and stepfather’s request and “with their participation,” the News Journal reported. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his crimes.

police officers

A Sheriff Was Accused Of Ignoring A ‘Sex Ring.’ A Judge Just ‘Eviscerated’ The Claims.

Crime

false accusations

Police

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday suggested President Donald Trump’s administration had directed vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the Great Lakes State, though she refused to say who made the order and which vendors were affected.
Crain’s Detroit <a href="https://www.crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/whitmer-feds-told-vendors-not-send-medical-supplies-michigan">reported</a> Whitmer’s comments on Friday.
&#8220;When <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/trump-told-governors-to-buy-own-virus-supplies-then-outbid-them">the federal government told</a> us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on,&#8221; Whitmer said in a radio interview on WWJ 950AM. &#8220;What I&#8217;ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It&#8217;s really concerning.&#8221;
Crain’s reported that “Whitmer didn&#8217;t say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration” and “did not back away from her earlier claim” Friday afternoon during an appearance on CNN.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve entered into a number of contracts and as we are getting closer to the date when shipments are supposed to come in, they&#8217;re getting canceled or they&#8217;re getting delayed,&#8221; Whitmer said on CNN. &#8220;We&#8217;ve been told they&#8217;re going first to the federal government.&#8221;
Crain’s reported that the “governor&#8217;s office could not provide any additional information Friday afternoon substantiating Whitmer&#8217;s allegation.”
Trump took to Twitter as usual to criticize Whitmer, saying she “doesn’t have a clue.”
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” Trump tweeted. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA.”
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fires-back-at-michigans-whitmer-claims-dem-governor-doesnt-have-a-clue">reported</a> that Michigan “had more than 2,200 confirmed cases of the virus, ranking fifth in the nation, and had seen at least 43 deaths.” Trump on Friday approved “a disaster declaration for the state, ordering federal assistance to support state and local efforts,” the outlet added.
Whitmer had claimed previously that her state hadn’t received “clear directives and guidance” from the Trump administration regarding how to handle the outbreak. More from Fox:
<blockquote>Earlier Friday, Trump told reporters during a White House news briefing that he advised Vice President Mike Pence – leader of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force – against communicating with Whitmer, claiming she was among a small group of governors who weren’t being “appreciative” of the Trump administration’s virus response efforts.
“I say, Mike … don’t call the woman in Michigan. I say, if they don’t treat you right, don’t call,” Trump told reporters.</blockquote>
Trump made similar remarks Thursday on Sean Hannity’s program, saying, “We&#8217;ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor.”
“You know who I&#8217;m talking about, from Michigan. We don&#8217;t like to see the complaints,” Trump said.
Other prominent Democratic governors have praised the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I spoke to the president this morning again. He is ready, willing, and able to help,” Cuomo said earlier this month. “I think the president was 100% sincere in saying that he wanted to work together in partnership and in a spirit of cooperation. Steps he has taken are evidence of that.”
Whitmer is considered to be a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Governor Claims Feds Won’t Deliver Coronavirus Supplies To State, Refuses To Provide Proof

Donald Trump

Michigan

In December 2018, actress Amber Heard published an article in The Washington Post alleging her ex-husband Johnny Depp (whom she didn’t name) had assaulted her. Depp sued Heard for defamation, alleging he was the one who had been assaulted.
As with most lawsuits, Heard’s lawyers attempted to get Depp’s dismissed, but a Virginia judge on Friday denied Heard’s motion to dismiss, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/johnny-depp-allowed-to-pursue-defamation-suit-amber-heard-1203547471/">reported</a> that “Judge Bruce D. White ruled on Friday that Depp can proceed under the theory that Heard’s statements clearly implied that Depp had assaulted her.”
“Plaintiff has pleaded circumstances that would reasonably cause three of the four statements at issue to convey the alleged defamatory meaning that Mr. Depp abused Ms. Heard, and this alleged meaning is in fact defamatory,” White wrote in his ruling.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Depp’s lawsuit alleged that: “Heard was the serial abuser in the relationship, and provided ‘87 newly discovered surveillance videos, 17 sworn eyewitness statements, audio tape, photographs, and other evidence’ to prove he was the real victim. One of the testimonies comes from Trinity Esparza, who was the concierge at the penthouse where Heard claims Depp hit her in the face. Esparza now questions how Heard received the mark on her face she claimed was from Depp, after reviewing surveillance footage from three days later, when Heard’s sister Whitney pretended to punch her in the face, according to court documents.”
“In the surveillance video, Ms. Esparza testified under oath that she saw Whitney Heard pretend to punch her sister in the face. Then Ms. Heard, [a friend], and Whitney Heard all laughed,” the court documents state.
In another instance, Heard started screaming, “Stop hitting me, Johnny,” unaware that Depp’s security team was nearby to witness the hoax.
In February, The Daily Wire’s Paul Bois <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/listen-actress-amber-heard-admits-to-hitting-johnny-depp-in-shocking-audio">reported</a> on audio of Heard admitting that she had hit Depp, but told him to “grow the f**k up” and calling him “a baby” for getting upset that she hit him.
Depp alleged in his lawsuit that Heard used the #MeToo movement and her claims against Depp to further her career and that after she made her allegations, she “became a darling of the #MeToo movement, was the first actress named a Human Rights Champion of the United Nations Human Rights Office, was appointed ambassador on women’s rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, and was hired by L’Oreal Paris as its global spokesperson.”
In mid-March, three prominent actresses – including two who had previous romantic relationships with Depp – <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/penelope-cruz-winona-ryder-and-vanessa-paradis-defend-johnny-depp-from-allegations-of-domestic-abuse">came forward</a> to defend him against allegations that he was a domestic abuser. One of the women was Vanessa Pardis, who was in a relationship with Depp for fourteen years and is the mother of his two children. Pardis called Heard’s allegations “false facts.”
“I have seen that these outrageous statements have been really distressing, and also caused damage to his career because unfortunately, people have gone on believing these false facts,” she wrote. “This is so upsetting as he has helped so many persons in his personal and professional life, with kindness and generosity.”

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Ex-Wife Amber Heard Can Continue, Judge Rules

Amber Heard

domestic violence

A staff member for Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, the mayor announced Friday.
&#8220;A member of my team who worked in the office of legal counsel recently tested positive for Covid-19 and he passed away this morning,&#8221; Bowser said at a press conference, as <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/27/politics/dc-mayor-muriel-bowser-staff-death-coronavirus/index.html">reported</a> by CNN.
&#8220;My prayers right now are with his family, his entire team and of course we will be supporting them during this very difficult time,&#8221; Bowser added.
CNN reported that Bowser later identified the staffer as George Valentine, who was the deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel. The mayor further said Valentine did not know when he had been diagnosed but had been admitted to the hospital on Wednesday.
&#8220;It&#8217;s devastating for everybody, of course. We&#8217;re very sorry,&#8221; the mayor said.
The mayor further told reporters that she didn’t have direct contact with Valentine and that her staff was “contact tracing” to determine how he had contracted the virus, which has infected 267 people in the nation’s capital, killing three.
As CNN reported, “Valentine had worked in the DC Attorney General&#8217;s office for nearly a decade before joining the mayor&#8217;s office in March 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile.”
The coronavirus has infected more than 600,000 people around the world in 177 countries and regions, claiming 28,823 lives so far, according to a map created by the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The U.S. now has 105,470 confirmed cases and 1,709 confirmed deaths, most of which are in New York City. There have been 450 deaths in the Big Apple, the most deaths in any state by far.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced additional helps for states hit hardest by the coronavirus: California, New York, and Washington. As The Daily Wire previously reported:
<blockquote>During a press conference Sunday evening, Trump announced that he had directed FEMA to set up emergency hospitals in California, New York, and Washington, the three states hit hardest by the coronavirus. California is set to receive eight large medical stations with 2,000 beds, New York will receive four large medical stations with 1,000 beds, and Washington will receive three large medical stations and four small medical stations with 1,000 beds total. Each state will also receive thousands of respirators, surgical masks, face shields, coveralls, and gloves. The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/22/trump-emergency-hospitals-medical-supplies-coming-to-new-york/">reported</a> that Trump said during his press conference that “186,416 N95 respirators, 444,000 O-78 surgical masks, 84,560 face shields, 68,944 surgical masks, 352 coverall, 245,486 gloves have been sent to New York, which had at least 15,000 cases of the virus, with 10,000 in the five boroughs.”
In addition to the emergency hospitals, Trump also announced that he was activating two U.S. Navy hospital ships – one on each coast – to assist with coronavirus medical needs.
Trump had been working already to find cures and vaccines for the coronavirus. He allowed a malaria drug that had shown promise at combating the disease to be used for patients, something the left-leaning media criticized.</blockquote>

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser

DC Mayor Announces Staff Member Died After Contracting Coronavirus

Muriel Bowser

Washington D.C.

A campaign spokeswoman for former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign called the allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in the early 90s “false.”
Biden last week was accused by Tara Reade, who said she previously worked as a staffer for Biden when he was a senator in the early 90s. She claimed she was delivering a gym bag to Biden when he pushed her up against a wall and put his hands all over her, including under her clothes. She claimed Biden penetrated her with his fingers and kissed her.
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director, called the allegations against Biden “false” in a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-campaign-denies-false-allegations-of-sexual-assault">statement</a> to Fox news.
“Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false,” Bedingfield said.
Fox reported that a “former executive assistant to then-Senator Biden also challenged the account, calling it ‘clearly false.’&#8221;
The response from the Biden campaign is a clear contrast to the statements Biden has made over the past few decades, in which he insists women making sexual misconduct allegations must be believed. In 2018, for example, Biden was asked about whether he believed Anita Hill’s claims in the 90s that her then-boss Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her. Biden said he thought Hill “was telling the truth at the beginning.” He then spoke generally about women’s allegations.
“For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time. But nobody fails to understand that this is like jumping into a cauldron,” Biden told reporters.
Biden made the comments after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had been accused of sexual assault shortly after he was nominated to the position. The allegations from Christine Blasey Ford claimed Kavanaugh assaulted her 30 years earlier at a party. Ford’s claims were thin, yet the media, Democrats and the “believe all women” crowd ran with them in an effort to keep Kavanaugh off the court.
Reade’s claims against Biden may be slightly less thin, as she says she made a contemporaneous complaint (it has yet to be produced) and told friends and family what happened at the time (they seem to remember this).
What Biden’s communications director said is true, media outlets do need to “rigorously vet those claims,” however, Biden has never made such an insistence until the allegations were made against him. When dubious allegations were made against political rivals, powerful businessmen and celebrities, or male college students, Biden sings a different tune.
He has led the charge that we must “believe all women” and that women don’t lie about these things, yet here he is – through his campaign – calling Reade a liar. Either Biden is going to have to accept what Reade says as true or admit that we can’t just assume every woman is telling the truth when she makes such allegations.

Joe Biden

Biden Says We Must ‘Believe All Women’ – Except The Woman Who Accused Him

MeToo

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide or needs emotional support, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Someone is available 24/7 to take your call.
The Associated Press “fact checked” President Donald Trump after he said suicides rise during recessions. The fact check is wrong – but the truth is horribly depressing.
Trump said on Monday during one of his daily coronavirus press briefings that suicides may increase due to the economic hardships imposed on many by the coronavirus and the quarantine. It’s a tragic comment, and one that is hopefully wrong. The AP said Trump was wrong, but evidence suggests otherwise.
“People get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies. You have death. Probably and — I mean, definitely — would be in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about with regard to the virus,” Trump said at the briefing.
The AP said there was “no evidence that suicides will rise dramatically if nationwide social-distancing guidelines that have closed many businesses and are expected to trigger a spike in unemployment stay in place.” It spoke to a single expert at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Dr. Christine Moutier.
“It is not a foregone conclusion that we will see increased suicide rates,” Moutier said.
Of course, this is true, as one cannot fully predict the future. Moutier added that, historically, “we actually tend in most instances to see suicide rates diminish” during wars and natural disasters, the AP reported she said, suggesting it is due to society pulling “together during duress.”
But the coronavirus quarantine is not like a war or a natural disaster, it is more like the Great Depression and Great Recession. The AP acknowledge the Great Depression had an “even higher suicide rate” but said it “fell sharply with the onset of World War II.” We are in the Great Depression analogy, not the World War II analogy. The AP also pointed to – but didn’t link to – a study from 2017 purportedly finding “fewer suicides than had been expected during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.”
Reporter Giancarlo Sopo found multiple sources that show the opposite of what the AP claimed. A 2003 <a href="https://t.co/Hs3EfeUzCh?amp=1">study</a> found that the unemployed were two to three times more likely to commit suicide than the employed. A study from 2014 by researchers from the University of Oxford linked a “dramatic spike in suicides between 2008 and 2010” to the Great Recession, Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/06/12/more-than-10000-suicides-tied-to-economic-crisis-study-says/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">reported</a> at the time. Another <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/02/foreclosures-related-suicides-doubled-during-the-housing-crisis/385608/">study</a>, in 2015, found that suicides related to foreclosure and evictions doubled between 2005 and 2010 – during the housing crisit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p0414_suiciderates.html">reported</a> in 2011 that suicide rates rose during recessions but fell during World War II and when the economy grew rapidly throughout the 90s, thanks largely to the onset of new technologies:
<ul>
<li>The overall suicide rate generally rose in recessions like the Great Depression (1929-1933), the end of the New Deal (1937-1938), the Oil Crisis (1973-1975), and the Double-Dip Recession (1980-1982) and fell in expansions like the WWII period (1939-1945) and the longest expansion period (1991-2001) in which the economy experienced fast growth and low unemployment.</li>
<li>The largest increase in the overall suicide rate occurred in the Great Depression (1929-1933)—it surged from 18.0 in 1928 to 22.1 (all-time high) in 1932 (the last full year in the Great Depression)—a record increase of 22.8% in any four-year period in history. It fell to the lowest point in 2000.</li>
<li>Suicide rates of two elderly groups (65-74 years and 75 years and older) and the oldest middle-age group (55-64) experienced the most significant decline from 1928 to 2007.</li>
</ul>
This is not just about pointing out that the AP was wrong to say Trump was incorrect. Suicide is a huge problem and must be considered as we continue to keep our economy shut down.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide or needs emotional support, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Someone is available 24/7 to take your call.

Trump

AP ‘Fact Check’ Knocks Trump For Accurately Saying Suicides Increase During Economic Hardships

Associated Press

Suicide

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that five major U.S. banks will temporarily suspend home mortgage payments for people who have been affected by the coronavirus quarantine.
The Associated Press <a href="https://amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/25/gavin-newsom-4-banks-suspend-mortgage-payments/">reported</a> that Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Citi, and JP Morgan Chase would “defer mortgage payments for three months,” and that state “chartered banks and credit unions will offer similar deferrals.”
“I thought the Great Recession was overwhelming, and we really had to react. This one is much bigger,” Diana Dykstra, CEO of the California-Nevada Credit Union League, told the AP. “People’s health is on the line, it’s deeper and broader than that crisis was. It was a housing crisis. This is a crisis for everyone.”
Bank of America, the fifth bank, was criticized by Newsom for allegedly agreeing to only defer mortgage payments for one month, but spokesman Bill Halldin told the AP the 30-day time frame was not a limit and that they company would consider further delaying payments depending on how long the crisis lasts.
Newsom, the AP reported, also explained that more than “1 million Californians have filed for unemployment benefits since March 13 as businesses shut down or dramatically scaled back because of a statewide ‘stay-at-home’ order to prevent the spread of the virus.” More than 3 million Americans across the country have filed for unemployment benefits during that time, meaning California alone accounts for a third of the total number.
Newsom also said the Golden State is increasing its supply of medical equipment, protective gear, and hospital beds. In a press conference on Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that California would receive four large medical stations with 2,000 beds and help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as the help of a U.S. Navy hospital ship on the coast near Los Angeles. The president also said he would be sending thousands upon thousands of respirators, surgical masks, face shields, coveralls, and gloves to the state.
California would further be helped by the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed by congress this week. As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-passes-2-trillion-relief-bill-pelosi-has-message-for-disappointed-house-democrats">reported</a>, the bill amounted “to some $2.2 trillion in relief measures, including $1,200 checks to most American adults (and another $500 for most children), a $500 billion loan program for struggling businesses, cities and states, nearly $400 billion for employee-retention funds for small businesses and another $130 billion for hospitals, among other provisions.”
The bill would also expand unemployment benefits, increasing weekly benefits by up to $600 on top of what is already provided by states, meaning someone in California could receive up to $1,000 a week in unemployment benefits in addition to the one-time $1,200 checks that would be passed out to American adults. The bill is expected to pass the House of Representatives soon. Democrats had previously blocked a bill that would bring relief for middle-class families while introducing their own bill loaded with left-wing demands that had nothing to do with the coronavirus crisis.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-passes-2-trillion-relief-bill-pelosi-has-message-for-disappointed-house-democrats">Senate Passes $2 Trillion Relief Bill; Pelosi Has Message For ‘Disappointed’ House Democrats</a>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-ted-cruz-explains-how-2-trillion-relief-bill-got-passed-and-what-it-means-for-americans">WATCH: Ted Cruz Explains How The $2 Trillion Relief Bill Got Passed And What It Means For Americans</a>

Gov. Gavin Newsom Announces Five Major Banks Won’t Collect Mortgage Payments From Those Affected By Coronavirus Quarantine

Economy

Housing

The woman who has come forward to accuse former Vice President Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in the early 90s was denied legal assistance from a prominent #MeToo law fund.
The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization set up within the National Women’s Law Center, which is itself a non-profit, initially seemed interested in taking Tara Reade’s case against Biden. But after discussions within the organization, Reade was declined help because Biden was a candidate for federal office, which could jeopardize the organization’s non-profit status, The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/joe-biden-metoo-times-up/">reported</a>.
The outlet reported that Reade in January first spoke to NWLC Program Director Ellie Driscoll, who wrote a note that she planned to send to attorneys who may be interested in taking Reade’s case:
<blockquote>She began publicly sharing the harassment she experienced in April 2019 but was attacked … online including by Richard Painter (Univ. of MN law professor who worked in the Obama administration) and journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere for being a Russian operative. There is more to the story of the harassment that she did not feel safe sharing at that time. She is looking for support in sharing her story and guidance on any possible legal action she may be able to take against online harassers.</blockquote>
The Intercept noted that Painter actually served in the Bush administration and ran for Senate in 2018 as a Democrat.
In February, Reade was told Time’s Up couldn’t help her with legal bills or public relations support because of its non-profit status.
“As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the National Women’s Law Center is restricted in how it can spend its funds, including restrictions that pertain to candidates running for election,” NWLC spokeswoman Maria Patrick told The Intercept. “Our decision on whether or not to provide certain types of support to an individual should not be interpreted as our validation or doubt of the truthfulness of the person’s statements. Regardless, our support of workers who come forward regarding workplace sexual harassment remains unwavering.”
The Intercept spoke to Loyola Law School in Los Angeles tax-law professor Ellen Aprill, who said NWLC likely wouldn’t have lost its non-profit status by accepting Reade’s case.
“As a legal matter, if the group is clear regarding the criteria used as to whom it is taking to court, show that these are long-established neutral criteria, and they are being applied to individuals completely independent of their running for office, it would not be a violation of tax law. Groups are allowed to continue to do what they have always done,” she told the outlet.
Asked by The Daily Wire whether the NWLC agreed to provide funds against any of the women who made allegations against President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign, NWLC spokeswoman Gillian Branstetter said “No, we did not.”
For the record, Time’s Up was not established until 2018, but the NWLC was founded in 1972.
It should also be noted that Time’s Up is a client of SKDKnickerbocker, a public relations firm “whose managing director, Anita Dunn, is the top adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign,” The Intercept reported.
Reade’s allegations do raise many questions about the veracity of her claims. Most prominently, why did she wait so long to tell her story? Biden was running for president in 2008 and became Barack Obama’s running mate, yet she said nothing then or while he was vice president for eight years.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-accuses-joe-biden-of-sexual-assault">reported</a>, Reade initially supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and then Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Reade began speaking to Time’s Up as the presidential primary was heating up.
Reade first made her allegations public last year, but was blasted some prominent people for her claims, as mentioned above.
Biden is one of the most high-profile supporters of the “believe all women” campaign, though he has not said anything publicly about Reade’s allegations. It falls in line with the campaign’s usual tactics, which stop “believing” women who accuse Democrat politicians of sexual assault and harassment.

MeToo Legal Fund Refused To Help Biden Accuser, Claiming It Couldn’t Risk Nonprofit Status Since He’s Running For President

A super PAC supporting former Vice President Joe Biden released an ad on Wednesday containing multiple claims attacking President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis that had already been dunked by left-wing fact checkers.
The <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_unitecountrypac_status_1242792258828750850-3Fs-3D11&amp;d=DwMF-g&amp;c=jGUuvAdBXp_VqQ6t0yah2g&amp;r=bVVNPs8-wzWySU1LPjQH-giyvd3jgwNM5mI4gec0ZVgkgSksNhhps0rPEeN63Yaq&amp;m=VvcdIpXVldPgGvQ-8MfjraUvqiltzClsffFNilnzO1E&amp;s=-dEpc4LOQ50xlAHs3l4l_T63ABW6ZhsFJhFn8XMj-20&amp;e=">ad</a> begins by showing photos of past presidents &#8211; Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – suggesting they all handled crises just fine (which is definitely not what Biden and other Democrats said at the time). As the photos are shown, an announcer says, “Donald Trump didn&#8217;t create the coronavirus, but he is the one who called &#8216;hoax.&#8217; Who eliminated the pandemic response team. And who let the virus spread unchecked across America. Crisis comes to every president. This one failed.&#8221;
The ad comes from the Unite the Country PAC, an odd name for a PAC trying to sow distrust of the current president. Though the ad appeared on Wednesday, each claim made in it had already been debunked by numerous left-leaning fact checkers.
The claim that Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax,” was debunked by <a href="https://t.co/nsbQyoEJ9q?amp=1">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://t.co/uCFpZqhkkd?amp=1">FactCheck.org</a>, <a href="https://t.co/KjXZM0JjyX?amp=1">PolitiFact</a>, <a href="https://t.co/dQRGA16u91?amp=1">Check Your Fact</a>, and <a href="https://t.co/Od8cOnqy3y?amp=1">Snopes</a>. As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-claims-trump-called-coronavirus-a-hoax-heres-what-he-actually-said">reported</a>, Trump didn’t call the coronavirus a hoax; he was calling the Democrat claim that he wasn’t doing anything about the coronavirus a hoax:
<blockquote>Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs, you say, “How’s President Trump doing?” They go, “Oh, not good, not good.” They have no clue; they don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa. They can’t count their votes!
One of my people came up to me and said, “Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over. They’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.”</blockquote>
The ad’s second claim was that Trump “eliminated the pandemic response team.” This claim also was debunked by <a href="https://t.co/t2q2HcN8Cn?amp=1">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/democrats-misleading-coronavirus-claims/">FactCheck.org</a>, and <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/17/no_the_white_house_didnt_dissolve_its_pandemic_response_office_142683.html">National Security Council official Tim Morrison</a>, writing in RealClearPolitics that he was in charge of what has been referred to as the “pandemic response team” within the National Security Council (it’s actually the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate) and said he left the post and passed it on to someone else – meaning it was not eliminated.
As to the third claim in the ad, that Trump “let the virus spread unchecked across America,” this is wildly untrue. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency for the coronavirus on January 31 and announced on that day that travel restrictions would be placed on those coming to the U.S. from China, which would being on February 2.
The biggest blow to the ad’s credibility is that the man Biden has made the center of his own coronavirus response, former Obama White House Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain, was saying as early as January 30 that Azar was taking “wise steps” to combat the virus.
Due to the complete falsehoods laid out in the ad, Trump’s campaign sent a cease and desist letter to TV stations to try and get them to halt airing the ad, Deadline <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/03/coronavirus-donald-trump-prioritiesusa-action-1202892924/">reported</a>. Trump has been polling favorably for his response to the coronavirus, but the letter suggests his campaign is worried that the false claims could hurt the president’s re-election.

Every Major Fact Checker Had Already Debunked The Claims In Biden’s Ad Attacking Trump Over Coronavirus Response

2020 Election

Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth circuit outlined the numerous ways in which the University of Denver (DU) railroaded an accused student. Campus activists, however, claim the school doesn’t do enough for accusing students.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/court-outlines-how-school-railroaded-accused-male-student-but-upholds-his-expulsion">reported</a>, a student referred to as John Doe was accused by a student referred to as Jane Roe of sexual assault in 2014 six months after the two shared a sexual encounter their freshmen year. John was expelled following a lop-sided campus kangaroo court and sued. A panel of three judges outlined exactly how DU deprived John of his constitutional rights, calling the process “a railroading,” yet amazingly upheld the school’s decision to expel him:
<ul>
<li>refused to follow leads that were potentially exculpatory;</li>
<li>disbelieved Plaintiff from the outset due to the “innate motive” respondents have to lie about wrongdoing, while failing to consider obvious motives Jane might have to lie about the extent to which she initiated or invited the sexual encounter with Plaintiff, such as her new boyfriend’s insistence that she report the incident as well as his presence at her initial reporting and subsequent interviews; 
• selectively determined which post-encounter evidence they would consider relevant (e.g., considering Jane’s allegation that Plaintiff offered her Aderall after the encounter in assessing Plaintiff’s credibility but not considering Jane’s inconsistent statements on whether the two saw each other after the encounter in assessing her credibility); 
• allowed Jane’s boyfriend to act both as Jane’s support person who was present at her interviews and as a fact witness who provided information in the proceeding to corroborate Jane’s story and to impeach the testimony of witnesses who contradicted her story, in violation of DU’s policies; 
• selectively viewed Jane as “heavily intoxicated,” implicitly rejecting Plaintiff’s and his roommate’s statements that Jane exhibited no indication of intoxication in order to support a finding that Plaintiff coerced Jane into sex but then accepting Plaintiff’s and his roommate’s statement in order to find that Jane’s intoxication had little effect on her ability to accurately recollect the encounter that night; 
• faulted Plaintiff for making corrections to his summary statement and used it to attack his credibility, despite expressly inviting Plaintiff to make such corrections and apparently violating DU’s informal policy allowing interviewees to correct summary statements in order to accurately reflect their testimony; 
• emphasized inconsistencies in Plaintiff’s and his roommate’s story while disregarding numerous inconsistencies in the versions of the story told by Jane and her friend; 
• suggested Plaintiff’s failure to recollect details was indicative of deception and guilt while suggesting Jane’s failure to recollect details was the result of intoxication; 
• viewed Plaintiff’s roommate’s statements corroborating Plaintiff’s story as tainted by Plaintiff’s and his roommate’s prior conferral regarding the events of that night, while not applying this same logic to the statements of Jane’s friend who corroborated Jane’s story, even though Jane called her friend specifically to relate to him “her portrayal of the night” and to tell him “that it was rape”; 
• attacked Plaintiff’s and his roommate’s credibility on the grounds they seemed overly eager to offer consistent denials of any on-campus alcohol use, without applying the same logic to the vague and inconsistent stories provided by Jane and her friend regarding their own on-campus alcohol use, even though DU offers amnesty to complainants who admit to on-campus drug and alcohol use, but not to respondents.</li>
</ul>
Despite this flagrant abuse of an accused student (who are almost exclusively male), advocates at DU claimed the school wasn’t doing enough to help women who made accusations, whom they always refer to as “victims” or “survivors” based solely on an allegation.
Naturally, DU leadership agreed to make their policies even more slanted against accused students, who are usually accused after a drunken hookup in which each party, according to school policies, should be considered a victim. It never works this way, however, since college women are now taught to see themselves as victims and men as perpetrators. Women are encouraged to accuse men, while men are not encouraged to see themselves as victims, unless they’re gay. This results in many male students being sexually assaulted (according to broad modern definitions that include any form of touching to be sexual assault unless asked specifically for permission beforehand by someone who hasn’t had a sip of alcohol) but not seeing themselves as victims and reporting women.
DU introduced <a href="http://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20200305/34/df/3a/4a/c657091108ddce2730008f71/response.actionitems.03.04.2020_1_.pdf">a plan</a> that will guarantee every accusation results in suspension or expulsion for a male accused student. The school is instituting “trauma-informed investigation” methods, a new concept that assumes every accusation to be true no matter what. Supporters insist it is backed up by scientific evidence, but decades long research on trauma and memory do not support the techniques. For example, “trauma-informed” techniques insist that a woman is telling the truth about being raped even if she lies to police, because lies are simply a result of trauma. The techniques also encourage allegedly neutral “fact finders” to ignore exculpatory evidence and not interview the accuser multiple times so that accused students can’t point to inconsistencies in their stories.
DU will also start teaching four years of gender-based violence education for undergraduate students. DU makes clear that all sexual assault policies are biased against men by specifically mentioning masculinity as something to be fixed.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is expected to release new federal guidelines for how schools should investigate allegations of sexual assault, mandating that schools include accused students’ due process rights in the proceedings. Around 200 students – that we know of – have sued their college or university, and more than 100 rulings from judges have pointed out how schools have denied likely innocent students the ability to defend themselves from false accusations.

Guilt concept

University Called Out By Judge For ‘Railroading’ Accused Student. Activists Claim School Isn’t Pro-Accuser Enough.

Denver

You’ve got to hand it to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), they know how to capitalize on popular culture.
Nintendo released “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” last Friday and it has taken the gaming community by storm. The game has broken Japan’s record for the largest Nintendo Switch release, selling 1.88 million copies in the first three days available. It’s also the fastest selling Switch title in the United Kingdom, and that’s just accounting for physical copies which would likely be higher if we weren’t in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The game has provided a much-needed escape from the coronavirus quarantine and struggles of life, as you, a human, are sent to live on a deserted island with anthropomorphic animals as your village companions. The game takes place in real time, meaning the time, day, and season where you live will be the same in the game. It allows for a leisure game of collecting items to decorate your house and island and fill out the island’s museum with bugs, insects, and fossils.
PETA noticed the success of the title and released its own <a href="https://www.peta.org/features/animal-crossing-new-horizons-vegan/">guide</a> to living a vegan lifestyle within Animal Crossing (and beyond). The guide says you should not fish in real life or the game, since “fishing is harmful to animals and the planet.”
“It’s disappointing that a game in which villagers from all different species (from elephants and ducks to deer and pigs) coexist harmoniously with humans encourages abusive behavior toward fish and insects. Instead of being recognized as the living, breathing, feeling individuals they are, they’re presented as forms of entertainment for the other villagers. Your island should be a safe space for all animals, big and small,” the guide states.
It&#8217;s a game, guys.
This same sentiment is applied to the insects of the game as well, and goes on to state that you absolutely shouldn’t be donating them or fish to the museum.
“Just as fish don’t belong in tanks, insects don’t belong inside cramped cases in a museum for other villagers to gawk at. Your island should be a place where wild animals are free to live without being captured and exploited,” the guide states.
PETA also says you shouldn’t dig up clams because they are also living creatures and to not pick up the hermit crabs on the beach – because again, “They’re not objects—they’re individuals!”
For those who want to play the game but maintain a vegan diet, thankfully your only option is to eat fruit anyway (but you don’t need to eat to survive in the game; eating fruit gives you strength to complete certain exceptional tasks, like digging a tree out of the ground with your shovel). Oddly, PETA says nothing about chopping down trees, even though animals and insects may live in them.
Further, PETA says you shouldn’t build a dog house in your game, even though no dog will actually live in it, because some people mistreat dogs by leaving them chained up outside with only a small dog house for shelter.
Finally, PETA makes several suggestions for how players can “spread animal rights through Animal Crossing,” including adding slogans to your character’s “passport,” making lame custom designs that say “go vegan,” and posting bulletins to ensure no one who visits your island will be able to have fun the way the game intended by telling them not to fish or catch bugs.
PETA’s suggestions for how to have fun without taking part in the games best activities include standing around with your friends in various places on the island. Can’t wait!

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Ashe Schow

Articles by Ashe Schow