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Brazil’s Bolsonaro picks 4th health minister as COVID rages

By
Sholom Schreirber
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro walks past his Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, left, and President of the Sanitary Agency Antonio Barra Torres before a ceremony to sign a law that expands the federal government's ability to acquire COVID-19 vaccines, at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

(AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday picked his fourth health minister since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, amid the worst throes of the disease in the country yet and after a series of errors decried by public health experts.

Marcelo Queiroga, the president of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, will replace Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general with expertise in logistics who landed the position last May despite having no prior health experience.

Earlier Monday, Pazuello acknowledged in a press conference that Bolsonaro aimed to replace him. The first candidate for the job, cardiologist Ludhmila Hajjar, rejected it.

Pazuello’s departure means ushering in Brazil’s fourth health minister during the pandemic, although he has presided over the ministry for the longest period of the three to date. The revolving door signals the challenges for the government of Latin America’s largest nation to implement effective measures to control the virus’ spread — or even agreeing which measures are necessary.

 

Pazuello’s two predecessors left the position amid disagreements with Bolsonaro, who criticized broad social distancing and supported the use of an unproven anti-malarial drug to treat the disease. He continues to hold those positions, despite health experts’ admonishments and studies showing the drug has no effect on COVID-19.

Pazuello proved more compliant. Immediately after taking the job his ministry backed use and distribution of the malaria pill. On several occasions, he said that his boss tells him what to do, and he obeys.

“The conversation (with Queiroga) was excellent. I already knew him from a few years back. He has everything it takes to do nice work, continuing what Pazuello has done up until today,” Bolsonaro told supporters at the entrance of the presidential residence in Brasilia, adding there will be a transition period of up to two weeks with the outgoing and the incoming minister.

“Pazuello’s work was well done in the management part. Now we are in a phase that is more aggressive in the fight against the virus,” Brazil’s president said.

Brazil has recorded almost 280,000 deaths from the virus, almost all of which were on his watch. The toll has been worsening lately, with the nation currently averaging more than 1,800 deaths each day. Health care systems of major cities are at the brink of collapse, and lawmakers allied with Bolsonaro have proposed suitable replacements for Pazuello, while threatening to step up pressure for an investigation into his handling of the crisis.

The country’s top court is also investigating Pazuello for alleged neglect that contributed to the collapse of the health care system in Amazonas state earlier this year. That probe will now be sent to a low court judge.

Weeks later, in a particularly embarrassing episode, his ministry accidentally dispatched a shipment of vaccines intended for Amazonas state to neighboring Amapa state, and vice versa, after confusing the abbreviations for each state.

Finally, Pazuello has faced intense criticism for Brazil’s slow vaccine rollout. According to Our World in Data, an online research site that compares official government statistics, only 5.4% of Brazilians have been vaccinated. Almost all were shots from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac, which Bolsonaro repeatedly cast doubt upon.

Pazuello’s health ministry also delayed its decision to purchase the vaccine from Sao Paulo state’s government until it was left with no other option to start immunization in January.

The only vaccine deal Pazuello had signed at the time, for 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab, has brought few shots to the arms of Brazilians so far. His ministry has since scrambled to cobble together agreements with other suppliers, recently concluding deals to acquire the Pfizer and Sputnik V shots.

Pazuello said in the press conference that he would not resign, and insisted there will be continuity with whomever assumes his position.

Cardiologist Hajjar had already revealed that Bolsonaro interviewed her to replace Pazuello. She told television channel Globo News that science has already ruled against treatments Bolsonaro and his legions of supporters continue to champion, like drugs to fight malaria and parasites, and that the country needs to adopt more restrictive measures on activity. She said she declined the position.

“He needs to choose someone he trusts, who is aligned with him, his ideas, his vision, and with the government’s desire. And I’m certainly not that person,” she said.

Hajjar forecast between 500,000 and 600,000 total deaths, not to mention long-term consequences, unless Brazil changes course.

Queiroga has already called Bolsonaro “a great Brazilian.” His social media channels have not made any criticism of the president’s handling of the pandemic and pushed for a quick vaccine rollout.

What’s In It for NYC as Biden Signs $1.9T Covid Relief Bill

By
Sholom Schreirber
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ap

By: Ilana Siyance

President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Thursday.

The federal coronavirus relief package will include about $6 billion in local aid to New York City, $6.5 billion to the MTA, and relief for restaurants, small businesses and entertainment sites.  The stimulus passed in the House and Senate despite unanimous Republican opposition.

Mayor Bill de Blasio lauded the package saying, “Take stock of this moment, everyone, because it’s extraordinary,” de Blasio said. “The biggest action by the federal government for the people of this country since the New Deal.”

“There’s funding for vaccines, funding for schools, funding to bring our schools back strong in September, funding to help our restaurants survive and thrive, and the wonderful initiative Save our Stages — which I know was a particular labor of love for Senator Schumer — bringing back Broadway, Off-Broadway, so much of the culture that makes New York City great,” de Blasio said.

As per Patch, eligible New Yorkers can prepare to receive a $1,400 stimulus check, with direct deposit payments starting the week of March 17, and paper checks being sent out the week after.  To be eligible, individuals will need to earn $75,000 or less, or single parents earning up to $120,000 and couples with household income of under $160,000.  Eligible couples filing taxes jointly can get $2,800, and eligible dependents can also add on $1,400 each.  The child tax credit is also being increased from $2,000, to a new max of $3,600 per child under 6 and $3,000 per child between the ages of 6 and 16 for 2021.  This will primarily benefit individuals earning under $75,000 a year, or $150,000 as a couple.

The plan also extends federal unemployment payments of $300 per week through Sept. 6.  The proposed $15 federal minimum wage increase did not get passed with the bill.  The stimulus also targets help for the MTA, helping the agency avoid the mass transit cuts warned against for months.  Debt-ridden taxi drivers can also look forward to the taxi medallion relief fund.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo hailed the passage of the “historic” bill.  “This legislation confronts the dual health and economic crises created by the war on COVID by providing much-needed relief to lift New York families out of dire economic straits, critical funds to expand and accelerate New York’s growing vaccination efforts and targeted relief for state and local governments,” Cuomo said in a statement.

 

The ‘Quick Ascension’ of New NYC Schools Chancellor, Melissa Ross Porter

By
Sholom Schreirber
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By: Benyamin Davidsons

Meisha Ross Porter started her first day as the new NYC Schools Chancellor on Monday.

Porter, 47, will replace former Chancellor Richard Carranza at the same salary of $363,346, having been appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio.  Porter has become a rising star in the city’s Department of education, jumping to a “quick ascension”, despite less than 2 years as an actual teacher.  Critics wonder if Porter has enough experience to run the biggest school system in America.

As reported by the NY Post, in 1997, Porter, formerly a community organizer, joined the DOE, helping to create the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice.  She worked as assistant to founding principal David Banks for roughly three years.  Then she started teaching English at the school.  In 2003, only a year and a half later, her teaching days ended with her appointment as assistant principal.  Just six months later, she was promoted to principal after Banks left to start a network of all-boys’ public schools.  “It was a quick ascension, but there was no one better to lead that school,” Banks told The Post. “Nobody was more committed, nobody knew more about the school, beside me, than her. She was the heart and soul of the place — the two of us were.”  In 2015, after ten years as principal, she was appointed as superintendent of all the schools in the Bronx, and now she will begin serving as NYC Schools Chancellor.

Unlike other DOE superintendents, however, Porter never earned a permanent teaching license.  At that time, she didn’t need one to become a school administrator, as per the state education department. The state rules now say that three years of prior teaching experience are required.  In fact, under laws set in 2014, most NYC educators cannot become principals without at least seven years of teaching or other instructional posts.

“She’s been in the right place at the right time, but she’s good,” Banks commented. “The DOE is a $32 billion industry responsible for overseeing buses, food and everything else. You’re not the top teacher, you’re running the entire system,” Banks added.  “Meisha has been a wonderful educator. She cares deeply about kids and families. She knows how to improve schools, and get the community to buy in.”

In response to the Post’s request for comment, spokespersons for City Hall and the DOE wrote:  “The NY Post’s desperate and racist attempt to undermine her qualifications is disgraceful. She is more than qualified with over 20 years of on-the-ground experience in the school system she is leading and we will not entertain these patently false claims”.

 

Major European nations suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine

By
Sholom Schreirber
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. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

(AP) — A cascading number of European countries — including Germany, France, Italy and Spain — suspended use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday over reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame.

AstraZeneca’s formula is one of three vaccines in use on the continent. But the escalating concern is another setback for the European Union’s vaccination drive, which has been plagued by shortages and other hurdles and is lagging well behind the campaigns in Britain and the U.S.

The EU’s drug regulatory agency called a meeting for Thursday to review experts’ findings on the AstraZeneca shot and decide whether action needs to be taken.

The furor comes as much of Europe is tightening restrictions on schools and businesses amid surging cases of COVID-19.

Germany’s health minister said the decision to suspend AstraZeneca shots was taken on the advice of the country’s vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which called for further investigation into seven cases of clots in the brains of people who had been vaccinated.

“Today’s decision is a purely precautionary measure,” Jens Spahn said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will likewise stop dispensing the vaccine until at least Tuesday afternoon. Italy also announced a temporary ban, as did Spain, Portugal and Slovenia.

Other countries that have done so over the past few days include Denmark, which was the first, as well as Ireland, Thailand, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Congo and Bulgaria. Canada and Britain are standing by the vaccine for now.

In the coming weeks, AstraZeneca is expected to apply for U.S. authorization of its vaccine. The U.S. now relies on Pfizer’s, Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s shots.

AstraZeneca said there have been 37 reports of blood clots out of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the 27-country EU and Britain. The drugmaker said there is no evidence the vaccine carries an increased risk of clots.

In fact, it said the incidence of clots is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar to that of other licensed COVID-19 vaccines.

The World Health Organization and the EU’s European Medicines Agency have also said that the data does not suggest the vaccine caused the clots and that people should continue to be immunized.

“Many thousands of people develop blood clots annually in the EU for different reasons,” the European Medicines Agency said. The incidence in vaccinated people “seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population.”

The agency said that while the investigation is going on, “the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects.”

Blood clots can travel through the body and cause heart attacks, strokes and deadly blockages in the lungs. AstraZeneca reported 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis, or a type of clot that often develops in the legs, and 22 instances of pulmonary embolisms, or clots in the lungs.

The AstraZeneca shot has become a key tool in European countries’ efforts to boost their sluggish vaccine rollouts. It is also pillar of a U.N.-backed project known as COVAX that aims to supply COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries. That program continues unaffected by the European suspension.

Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are also used on the European continent, and J&J’s one-shot vaccine has been authorized but not yet delivered.

Dr. Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in England, said there is no data yet to justify suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine and called the decision “baffling.”

“Halting a vaccine rollout during a pandemic has consequences,” Head said. “This results in delays in protecting people, and the potential for increased vaccine hesitancy, as a result of people who have seen the headlines and understandably become concerned.”

Spahn, the German health minister, defended the country’s decision, saying, “The most important thing for confidence is transparency.” He said both first and second doses would be suspended.

Germany has received slightly over 3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and about half of those have so far been administered, compared with almost 7 million of the Pfizer shot and about 285,000 from Moderna.

German authorities have encouraged anyone who feels increasingly ill more than four days after receiving the shot — for example, with persistent headaches or dot-shaped bruises — to seek medical attention.

The head of the Spanish Medicines Agency, Maria Jesús Lamas, said Spain detected its first case of clots on Saturday. She said the ban was “not an easy decision” because it further slows the nation’s vaccination campaign, but it was the “most prudent” approach.

Almost 940,000 people in Spain have received the AstraZeneca shot.

Some European countries, meanwhile, have begun reimposing restrictions in a bid to beat back a resurgence in infections, many of them from variants of the original virus.

In Italy, 80% of children nationwide couldn’t attend classes after stricter rules in more regions took effect on Monday. In Poland, bolstered restrictions were applied to two more regions, including Warsaw. Paris could go into lockdown in a matter of days because intensive care units are getting swamped with COVID-19 patients.

And calls are growing in Germany to “ pull the emergency brake” in regions where cases are rising.

NYC’s Hospital for Special Surgery Gifted $35 Million for Expansion

By
Sholom Schreirber
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The Hospital for Special Surgery has plans to build a new 12-story waterfront building over the FDR Drive. The $200 million project is the heart of a proposed $300 million modernization of the HSS campus. Photo Credit: hhs.edu

By Hellen Zaboulani

Philanthropist Marina Kellen French has donated $35 million to the Hospital for Special Surgery.

The top rated facility for musculoskeletal health and orthopedics, founded in 1863, will use the gift to undertake an impressive expansion.  As reported by the NY Post, the New York institution has plans to build a new 12-story waterfront building over the FDR Drive.  The $200 million project is the heart of a proposed $300 million modernization of the HSS campus.

The mini-tower, for which groundbreaking is set for October, is slated to add 100,000 square feet of floor space for the hospital and provide more private patient rooms.  The expansion will not add any hospital beds, but will increase the hospital’s operating capacity by about 25 percent.  Operating rooms will be redone to add efficiency, and doctors’ offices and clinical and research facilities will be reconfigured.

“It positions HSS to do what we do best well into the future. It will allow us to give our patients who come from around the world the very best care through the next set of decades,” said HSS CEO, Louis A. Shapiro, who called it a “transformative” addition to the campus.

The HSS campus already includes over ten buildings on the East River between East 71st and 75th streets.  The new 12-story building will connect to the hospital’s existing main building, with a third-floor sky bridge over East 71st Street. The plan received approval under the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, back in the 1990s and already has the needed permits.  “We’ve owned the air rights for years and now, we’re finally able to do this,” said HSS surgeon-in-chief emeritus Dr. Thomas P. Sculco. “It will be amazing for our patients, not only for the facilities, but for the views they’ll have over the East River.”  The hospital has been eyeing such a project for decades.

Sculco credited Mrs. French for making the dream a reality.  “Amazing — it was in the beginning of the pandemic, [when we were] struggling to keep the hospital afloat,” he recalled. “That’s when Marina stepped up and said, ‘we want to make a difference.’ ”

“Marina has been unbelievably generous to us over the years,” Sculco said. “Her foundation’s total gifts to us, including this latest, total over $60 million.” French is vice president of her parents’ foundation, the Anna-Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation. The tower will also bear her parents’ names.

White House: Joe Biden Will Continue Working with Andrew Cuomo Despite Scandals

By
Sholom Schreirber
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AP

CHARLIE SPIERING

The White House on Monday confirmed President Joe Biden would continue working with Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) despite a series of sexual harassment accusations and covering up the number of deaths in nursing homes.

“We don’t want the people of New York or any state to be impacted negatively,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “We will continue to work with a range of governors, including Gov. Cuomo, who I would expect will join the call tomorrow.”

Cuomo remains the head of the National Governor’s Association and leads the weekly coronavirus response call with the White House.

Psaki conceded the reported details of the accusations were concerning.

“New developments seem to happen every day, we find them troubling, the president finds them troubling, hard to read,” Psaki said.

But she again pointed to the independent investigation into Cuomo’s behavior by Attorney General Letitia James.

“The investigation needs to be both quick and thorough, consistent with how serious these allegations are,” Psaki said.

Psaki said it was up to the NGA to decide Cuomo’s future as head of the organization and up to New York legislators to decide his future as the Governor of New York.

“It’s up to the NGA to determine if that’s where they want to see things moving forward,” she said.

Biden indicated Sunday evening he would wait until the investigation into Cuomo’s behavior was complete before passing judgment on the New York Governor’s future.

On Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Cuomo should “look inside his heart” to decide if he should resign while Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) both said Cuomo needs to resign.

Cuomo’s staffers reportedly stopped coming to the office in light of the scandals.

Breitbart

Rothman Orthopaedics in New York Opens Flagship Office in Manhattan

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
MANHATTAN, NY, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2021—Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, an internationally-recognized leader in orthopaedic care, announces the opening of its new flagship office in Manhattan, NY on Tuesday, March 16th, 2021. Located at 645 Madison Ave (3rd and 4th Floors) and near multiple subway lines, this state-of-the art space will treat all orthopaedic issues—both non-operatively and surgically—for the spine, hip & knee, hand & wrist, foot & ankle as well as sports medicine.
“This office opening represents another significant milestone for Rothman – New York,” said Alexander R. Vaccaro, MD, PhD, MBA, President of Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, Richard H. Rothman Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics, and Professor of Neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals. “In two years, we went from one location to now four locations which include two large, flagship locations and we look forward to continuing to bring the best musculoskeletal care to this region.”
Modeled after Rothman’s large offices in Philadelphia, PA and Southern New Jersey, the 20,000 sq. ft. Upper East Side location will include 15 exam rooms, orthotics, an injection suite, x-ray and an area dedicated to physical and hand therapy. This will allow Rothman Orthopaedic patients to receive the highest quality of treatment and service all under one roof.
“We are thrilled to continue our growth of Rothman in the New York market,” said Michael Smith, MD, co-leader of Rothman – New York. “This location will allow more patients convenient access to some of the best orthopaedic providers in the world, and we’re excited to open this brand new facility and the expansion of our practice in the city.”
Physicians and their subspecialties at this office include:
  • Dr. Grigory Arutyunyan – Orthopaedic Spine, Neurosurgery
  • Dr. Meghan Bishop – Sports Medicine
  • Dr. Brandon Erickson – Sports Medicine
  • Dr. Eric Grossman – Joint Replacement
  • Dr. Melody Hrubes – Non-Operative Sports Medicine
  • Dr. Joseph Lee – Orthopaedic Spine
  • Dr. Daniel Seigerman – Hand & Wrist
  • Dr. Michael Smith – Orthopaedic Spine, Neurosurgery
  • Dr. Justin Tsai – Foot & Ankle
Rothman Orthopaedics expanded into New York in 2018 and has three other locations: two in Westchester County (Harrison and Tarrytown) and another in lower Manhattan (Gramercy). Rothman Orthopaedic patients are treated at 36 locations across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and now Florida, with high-quality, compassionate and affordable musculoskeletal care that is supported by the latest evidence-based medicine. For more information about Rothman Orthopaedics please call 1-888-636-7840 or visit www.RothmanNY.com.
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About Rothman Orthopaedic Institute:
Rothman Orthopaedic Institute is a world-leader in the field of orthopaedics providing communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and most recently in Florida through its new partnership with AdventHealth. Rothman Orthopaedics provides high-quality, compassionate and affordable musculoskeletal care that is grounded in evidence-based medicine—the results of which will exceed expectations.
Rothman Orthopaedic Institute orthopaedists treat patients at 36 office locations, three of which include orthopaedic urgent care clinics. Rothman also has surgical privileges at 58 facilities across the tristate region. With experts in nine orthopaedic sub-specialties including spine, hip and knee, foot and ankle, shoulder and elbow, hand and wrist, sports medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, orthopaedic oncology and trauma, Rothman Orthopaedic Institute is recognized for excellence in clinical treatment methods, research, education and technology.
Consistently recognized as national and regional “Top Docs,” Rothman Orthopaedic Institute is proud to be the official team physicians for the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, the iconic Radio City Rockettes, The Big East Conference, as well as over 40 college and high school teams.
For more information about Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, please visit www.RothmanOrtho.com.

Who Are Andrew Cuomo’s Enablers & Why Was This Climate of Sexual Misconduct Allowed to Flourish?

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Lina Khan for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission. On Tuesday, the NY Times reported, based on information from a source, that Biden would appoint Ms. Khan, a law professor and primary critic for the tech industry’s power. Photo Credit: admin.aspenideas.org

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Since New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for alleged sexual misconduct with a number of women who have accused him of harassment, many have wondered just how this kind of disturbing behavior could have been allowed to continue, under the noses of those who worked so closely with the governor.

Just who are Andrew Cuomo’s accomplices? Who are the people that lurk behind the scenes and essentially serve as enablers for him? Were any of his staff involved in covering up Cuomo’s illicit behavior?

The Governor’s cabinet consists of the following people. They comprise the executive chamber and the heads of the various departments of the government of New York.

Making headlines on Monday was the Cuomo administration’s “vaccine czar” Larry Schwartz. Having the complete authority in terms of distribution of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Schwartz is clearly in a powerful position. As such, it has been reported that Schwartz recently made calls to county officials in New York to determine their level of loyalty or non-loyalty to the governor.

According to a recent report on NPR, local officials in New York who spoke to the media outlet viewed the calls from Schwartz as an implicit threat. This essentially translates into a retribution of sorts, meaning that if one were to voice displeasure with the governor, then the punishment would be that the Covid-19 vaccine for their county would be turned off.

“I’m afraid of that man,” one local official said, according to the NPR report.  “Why in God’s name would that man have called? People were terrified.”

NPR reported that the calls made by Schwartz first became public in The Washington Post. Schwartz told the paper that the calls were made in a capacity unrelated to his role in vaccine distribution and that vaccine distribution was not influenced by politics. “Nobody indicated that they were uncomfortable or that they did not want to talk to me,” he told the Washington Post.

NPR reported that during regular conference calls with more than 100 county officials and staff, Schwartz would routinely refer to the vaccine as his own: “If I have extra vaccine.” If there were extra doses available and executives wanted access to them, this official told NPR that Schwartz would say: “Send me an email and I’ll consider it.”

The Secretary to the Governor is Melissa DeRosa. If the name sounds at all familiar, she is the one who told state legislators during the video meeting that Governor Cuomo’s office had intentionally lied about the numbers of patients who died of coronavirus in the year 2020 at various nursing homes around the city and state. Ms. DeRosa admitted that a lie needed to be constructed about the real numbers of Covid deaths because the actual numbers were beyond staggering.

Additionally, it was the Governor who signed off on the fateful decision of March 25th that allowed recovering coronavirus patients to be placed in nursing homes with a predominantly elderly patient population. Ms. DeRosa also said that the governor’s office was terrified over the prospect that the then Trump administration may indeed carry out their threat to launch a Department of Justice investigation into the nursing home deaths and that criminal charges may have been filed.

Linda Lacewell, the head of New York’s Department of Financial Services, is one of the three top Cuomo aides accused of changing a report to conceal the real number of deaths in the state’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times. Lacewell is alleged to have directed the removal of COVID-19 deaths from the report, the New York Post reported.

Ms. Lacewell previously served as Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Governor. In that role, she oversaw Executive Chamber operations, as well as ethics and law enforcement matters.

Prior to serving as the executive director of a cancer foundation initiative in Culver City, California Lacewell was a Chief Risk Officer and Counselor to Governor Cuomo where she built and implemented the first statewide system for ethics, risk and compliance in agencies and authorities.

She serves as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, teaching ethics in government, and previously served as an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, teaching international criminal law.

Kelly Cummings serves as Director of State Operations and Infrastructure.. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Cuomo. Prior to working in the Governor’s administration, she served as the Director of Communications for the Senate Majority. In that position she managed overall communications and press for the Senate Majority Conference and acted as chief spokesperson for the Senate Majority Leader. In her more than 20 years in the State Legislature, Ms. Cummings has held a number of communications and policy positions in both the Senate and Assembly.

Ms. Cummings previously served as director of policy development for the Senate Minority where she assisted senators and their staff in developing, drafting and publicizing new legislative initiatives. Prior to that, Ms. Cummings was chief of staff to Senator Charles Fuschillo where she managed operations, developed legislation and directed press and communications.

In January of 2019, Adam Zurofsky was named director of state policy and agency management. He had formerly served as deputy secretary for energy and financial services.

Michael Kopy, a longtime state police supervisor and former volunteer fire chief in Mamaroneck, was named the new director of emergency management for the office of Gov. Cuomo in January of 2019.  Kopy’s job is one of three leadership roles carved out of the Office of State Operations as Cuomo began his third term.

Last week, the New York Post reported that Cuomo’s top lawyer, Kumiki Gibson announced that she was leaving her post after less than two years on the job. This marked the latest resignation in a wave of departures from the administration.

Gibson has served as counsel to the governor, Cuomo’s chief lawyer, since September 2019. Friday, March 12th was her last day on the job as she prepares to take a job in the non-profit sector.  “I informed the Executive Chamber a month ago that I planned to leave State service and have accepted a position at a nationally prominent not-for-profit organization,” Gibson said in a statement, as was reported by the Post.

On March 8th, Cuomo announced that Beth Garvey has been appointed Acting Counsel to the Governor. Ms. Garvey replaces Kumiki Gibson who has served in this position since 2019 and has accepted a new position in the non-profit sector.

“Beth Garvey is a true public servant and a brilliant legal mind who has been an integral member of this administration since she joined it,” Governor Cuomo said. “As we start to turn the corner on this pandemic, much work remains to reopen this state as safely and swiftly as we can and I thank Beth for her past and future work on behalf of all New Yorkers. Beth is one of the hardest working, most effective public servants in State government, and New Yorkers are fortunate to have her serve in this role. I also commend Kumiki Gibson for her hard work, dedication and service to the people of this great state and wish her only the best as she begins this new chapter.”

Since 2019, Ms. Garvey has served as Special Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Governor, responsible for the Governor’s budget, legislative and policy priorities. In this new role, she will continue to be responsible for these priorities, as well as serve as Chief Counsel to the Governor.

Robert Mujica, Jr was appointed Director of the Budget by Governor Andrew Cuomo and began serving on January 14, 2016.  He is responsible for the overall development and management of the State’s fiscal policy, including overseeing the preparation of budget recommendations for all State agencies and programs, economic and revenue forecasting, tax policy, fiscal planning, capital financing and management of the State’s debt portfolio.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mujica was Chief of Staff to the Temporary President and Majority Leader of the Senate and concurrently served as the Secretary to the Senate Finance Committee. For two decades, Mr. Mujica advised various elected and other government officials in New York on State budget, fiscal and policy issues.

A May 31, 2020 report by CityandState.com said that “Mujica has capitalized on a unique blend of fiscal know-how and political savvy to quietly become one of the most powerful figures in New York politics. But with the state now tumbling into its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Mujica has been tasked with assembling a package of cuts to close a multibillion-dollar shortfall – and he’ll likely have to use every budget trick he ever learned to get it done.”

Timothy Hartz was appointed as Director of Executive Operations by Cuomo in January of 2019. Prior to his position in the Cuomo administration, Hartz most recently served as a Special Assistant to President Obama and Deputy Director of Advance Operations for the White House. Previously, he served as the Director of Priority Placement with the Presidential Personnel Office and as the Director of Operations for the Department of the Interior.

In January of 2019, Cuomo’s so-called energy czar — recruited in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to reshape the state’s electric grid — announced plans to step down from that role, according to an article on the Politico web site.

Richard Kauffman has served as New York’s top energy official, coordinating the state’s disparate energy agencies and playing a key role in making and implementing policy since 2013. Kauffman remained the chairman of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, but no longer played the role of top energy official for the Cuomo administration.

Andrew Cuomo’s Lieutenant Governor is Kathy Hochul, former United States Representative from New York’s 26th district. Hochul replaced the previous Lieutenant Governor, Robert Duffy, the former Mayor of Rochester.

 

Grammys Feature Antiemetic Farrakhan Fan Tamika Mallory as Rapper Turns Stage into BLM Riot

By
Sholom Schreirber
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recording academy

JOEL B. POLLAK

The Grammys on Sunday featured a speech by Tamika Mallory, the left-wing activist who left the Women’s March in 2019 after being accused of antisemitism, including her support of racist and and antisemite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

As Breitbart News noted:

Rapper Lil Baby turned the Grammys stage on Sunday night into a riot scene that mirrored the deadly and violent protests that gripped the nation in response to the death of George Floyd. Lil Baby’s performance of his song “The Bigger Picture” included a speech from Black Lives Matter activist Tamika D. Mallory, who looked into the camera and demanded President Joe Biden bring “justice, equity, policy, and everything else that freedom encompasses.”

Mallory’s speech was staged to recreate the Black Lives Matter protests in Los Angeles in May 2020. Lil Baby’s performance also included a mock confrontation with police, and burning buildings. At one point he performed atop a police car.

Mallory’s speech included the line: “We don’t need allies. We need accomplices.”

It’s a state of emergency. It’s been a hell of a year. Hell for over 400 years. My people, it’s time we stand. It’s time we demand the freedom that this land promises. President Biden, we demand justice, equity, policy and everything else that freedom encompasses, and to accomplish this, we don’t need allies. We need accomplices. It’s bigger than black and white. This is not a trend, this is our plight. Until freedom.

Mallory has a long association with Farrakhan, a notorious bigot who referred to Jews as “termites” in 2018.

In 2018, Breitbart News noted that Mallory has repeatedly attended Farrakhan’s events, and praised him as the “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time). (Mallory later defended that remark on The View: “I didn’t call him the greatest of all time because of his rhetoric, I called him the greatest of all time because of what he’s done in black communities.)

Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory with antisemitic Nation of Islam preacher Louis Farrakhan

 

The Wall Street Journal noted, “Ms. Mallory attended a Farrakhan speech in February 2018 in which he denounced Jews as ‘children of the devil’ and gave her a nice personal mention.”

Mallory also made an antisemitic comment of her own in defending Farrakhan, referring to his critics as “enemies of Jesus”:

According to Tablet magazine in 2018, Mallory and another Women’s March leader claimed “that Jewish people bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people—and even, according to a close secondhand source, claimed that Jews were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade.”

These views apparently accorded with Farrakhan’s teachings. Mallory denied the statement, but other activists recalled her “berating” another leader in the Women’s March about her Jewish identity.

The association of Mallory and other Women’s March leaders with Farrakhan led many Democrats, eventually, to distance themselves from the movement, noting that Mallory and others “have allowed anti-Semitism, anti-LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform’ of the march.”

Mallory also attacked the founding of Israel as a “human rights crime” after a tour of Israel in 2018 with the George Soros-funded Center for Constitutional Rights, and has refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

Mallory eventually left the Women’s March board, but found her way Sunday onto the Grammys stage in a celebration of the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 — which happened, at the time, to include the vandalism of synagogues and the looting of Jewish-owned stores.

Tucker Carlson -VS- The Marines: Heated Social Media Battle

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

Jared Evan

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in a recent monologue, mocked the military’s shift from defense to social justice issues.

“So we’ve got new hairstyles, maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars,” Carlson said , adding “It’s a mockery of the US military” before he compared the US military to China’s – which is “becoming more masculine.

Here is a clip from the controversial Tucker Carlson monologue

The official Twitter account for the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group actually Tweeted a response to a talk show, and many perceived this as the Marines being used to politicize and score “woke credibility”.

The removed Tweet from the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group featured  a picture of a female soldier carrying a male soldier, tagging Carlson with the caption “what it looks like in today’s armed forces,” adding “Get right before you get left, boomer.”

Tucker Carlson responded the following night.

Many took to social media to criticize the Marines for engaging in a social media spat with a talk show host. Some look at it as a branch of the military actually attacking someone’s first amendment. The Tweet put out by the Marines is unprecedented, never have we seen a branch of the armed forces attack someone for criticizing or sharing an opinion about the military.

In the past, we have seen giant protests against the military, during the Vietnam and Iraq wars, and the armed forces never complained about people exercising their first amendment. A conservative talk show host criticized what he deemed the “feminization” of the military and they responded by using a childish insult “boomer”.

The fact that a branch of the military even responded to someone’s opinion is frightening to free speech advocates.

After the Marines were called out for using their official platform to further a SJW agenda, they admitted “We are human and we messed up.”

CNN’s war on Fox News goes nuclear – Brian Stelter Leads Censorship Campaign

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
(Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By Peter Barry Chowka(American Thinker) 

CNN’s on again-on again war (that’s not a typo – it never ends) against Fox News is getting hotter, most likely because CNN is once again seriously trailing Fox News in the ratings. Brian Stelter, his network’s leading attack dog, was at it again yesterday on his weekly program CNN Reliable (sic) Sources.

The program led with a full-frontal attack on Fox News’s most highly rated show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and its host, veteran reporter, editor, and television talk show host Tucker Carlson. CNN’s online transcript of the program offers this headline:

Tucker Carlson Of Fox News Has Taken Trump’s Place In The Media Ecosystem

 

Addressing the diminishing viewing audience live from CNN’s studios in New York, Stelter opened the show by saying (transcript via CNN):

All right. Are you ready for it?

Here is my conclusion: Tucker Carlson is the new Donald Trump. Tucker has taken Trump’s place as a right wing leader, as an outraged generator, as a fire starter and it’s all happening on Fox just like Trump’s campaign did, which means Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are ultimately responsible.

I mean, think about all of the ways these two men are similar. Every day, Carlson is throwing bombs, making online memes, offending millions of people, also delighting millions of other, tapping into white mail (sic) rage and resentment, stoking distrust of big tech and the media, generally coarsening the discourse, never apologizing for anything and setting the GOP’s agenda. Sounds like a recently retired president, right?

Even before the 2020 election, there was informed speculation about Carlson as a 2024 candidate. Of course, some of Carlson’s detractors say he’s just a troll. He’s just really good at ticking people off.

But isn’t that what they said about Trump for years? Yes, Tucker is known to critique Trump and the Republican Party from time to time. This time last year, he was at Mar-a-Lago trying to convince Trump to take COVID more seriously.

But Tucker tells the same conspiratorial “us versus them” story that Trump told. The same they’re out to get you story that Trump told for years.

It is the paranoid style in American politics all over again and Tucker soaks up some of the same social media fury that Trump did. He stokes the same debates that Trump did, and it raises the same predicament that Trump raised five or six years ago, whether and how to cover his claims.

You have to hand it to Tucker Carlson. Such an attack provides more proof – as if any is needed – that he is right over the target of the insane left wing’s lies and hypocrisy that get more outrageous every day.

Stelter was joined in his attack by S. E. Cupp, a former Republican who migrated to CNN as a “political commentator” after failing stints at Fox News and Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV; “Erik Wemple, a long-time Tucker watcher, media critic for ‘The Washington Post’; and April Ryan, the White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for ‘The Grio’; and the one and only David Zurawik, the media critic for ‘The Baltimore Sun.’”

All four talking heads continued to dump on Carlson and to expand their focus to include Fox News and its corporate leadership. Stelter led the charge:

What Tucker wants is attention. What Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch want for him is attention. As this headline put it, Tucker is the post Trump MAGA champion, firmly supplanting Sean Hannity at this point as the number one star on Fox News, with ratings far ahead of anyone else on Fox. And, by the way, other shows re-air comments all days long.

Fox News is increasingly the Tucker Carlson channel and the Murdochs recently cut a deal to expand his profile on Fox’s streaming service, too.

It’s ultimately all about the Murdochs and what they want. How they’re going to keep the profits flowing by giving the viewers more and more radicalized content led by Tucker Carlson.

CNN is rightly worried about headlines like this one on A.J. Katz’s article at TVNewser about the cable news ratings from last Monday. Notice: no mention of CNN:

Monday, March 8 Scoreboard: Fox News Begins Week with Total Day, Prime Time Wins
Tucker Carlson drew 578,000 adults 25-54 and nearly 3.4 million total viewers, easily No. 1 on cable news. Rachel Maddow [MSNBC] finished No. 2 in total viewers, while Hannity was No. 2 in the demo.

Last Monday was emblematic of a trend that began several weeks ago. After a precipitous rating slump following the election – which many conservatives, rushing to judgment, attributed to a perception that Fox News had “gone left” – Fox News in recent weeks has recaptured its formidable ratings lead against CNN and MSNBC that it had held for the previous 18 years.

Last Week, Rupert Murdoch, Fox News’s founder and the executive chairman and co-chairman of the companies that control Fox News, turned 90. In a virtual speech recently while receiving an award from the Australia Day Foundation, Murdoch said:

For those of us in media, there’s a real challenge to confront: a wave of censorship that seeks to silence conversation, to stifle debate, to ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential. This rigidly enforced conformity, aided and abetted by so-called social media, is a straitjacket on sensibility. Too many people have fought too hard in too many places for freedom of speech to be suppressed by this awful woke orthodoxy.

It was CNN, and Stelter’s program in particular, that assisted in promoting the effort that has now reached the halls of Congress to censor and de-platform Fox News from the country’s cable, satellite, and streaming television providers.

Rather than take up additional space quoting more from CNN Reliable Sources, interested readers can peruse the program’s transcript (which it should be noted is inaccurate and missing sections of what was actually said).

In an unexpected twist later in Stelter’s program yesterday, the Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple, a CNN contributor, said this (comments transcribed by author from the video at the link):

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention CNN’s own huge media story here with Chris Cuomo, the anchor at the 9 o’clock hour who covered Andrew Cuomo and had all of these wonderful love-a-thon interviews with him, more than ten of them. And they suspended the conflict of interest rule with Chris Cuomo for those interviews – yet now they’ve enforced it again now that Andrew Cuomo is in the midst of an historic scandal in the Albany statehouse.
So I think that is a major black eye for CNN. [emphasis added.]

 

Federal ‘COVID’ Spending Just Hit $41,870 Per Taxpayer. Did You See That Much in Benefit?

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Custom Image By FEE | Image Credit Wikimedia, PixaBay

 

Brad Polumbo(FEE)

President Biden just signed his sweeping $1.9 trillion spending package into law. Once this bill hits the books, total taxpayer expenditure on (ostensibly) COVID relief will hit $6 trillion—which, roughly estimated, comes out to $41,870 in spending per federal taxpayer.

Did you see anywhere near that much in benefit?

The sheer immensity of this spending is hard to grasp. For context, $6 trillion is more than one-fourth of what the US economy produces in an entire year, according to Fox Business. The COVID spending blowout is at least eight times bigger than the (inflation-adjusted) price tag of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal.”

Moreover, the COVID spending bills have all lost huge sums of money to unrelated carve-outs, politician pet projects, corporate bailouts, fraud, waste, and worse.

In the latest $1.9 trillion package, more than 90 percent of the spending is not directly related to containing COVID-19. Only 1 percent of the money, about $15 to $20 billion, is spent on vaccines. Meanwhile, hundreds of billions go to bailing out poorly managed state governments’ budget holes that predate the pandemic and $86 billion rescues failing pension plans. Meanwhile, billions more go to Obamacare expansion and subsidizing public schools long after the pandemic.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

The numbers here really are quite damning.

For the same $6 trillion in expenditure, the government could have given every federal taxpayer a $41,870 check. Or, to think about it a bit differently, it could have written every American roughly an $18,181 check.

Let’s compare this to what most Americans actually received.

Only someone who fully collected expanded unemployment benefits throughout the pandemic and received all $3,200 in total of the stimulus payments likely received more than $18,181 in direct benefit from this spending package. And that’s a relatively small fraction of the public.

Because of the way the government used outdated (and arbitrary) income data to determine eligibility, many more taxpayers saw nothing or little in exchange for their $41,870 share of the cost, perhaps just the initial $1,200 stimulus or none at all. (Meanwhile, billions in checks went to dead people).

So, for almost all Americans, the actual benefits of the multiple pieces of lengthy stimulus legislation come in far, far below the figure that they would have received if the entire pile of money was just even split up and sent out.

How can that possibly be considered a success? In fact, it’s actually a net negative.

Too often, the stimulus conversation is simply framed around whether we should give money to a certain group of people or program—rather than also including the trade-offs and costs.

The question isn’t just: Should we send people $1,400 “stimulus” checks? It is, instead: Should we send people $1,400 stimulus checks at the cost of taking the equivalent amount (or more if you factor in waste) from other people? It’s not just whether we should send $350 billion to state and local governments—but should we do so at the cost of taking an average of $2,442 per federal taxpayer?

Money doesn’t grow on trees. Or, as the great economist Ludwig von Mises put it, the government “does not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus.”

“The truth is the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody,” Mises wrote in Bureaucracy. “They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others.”

The government cannot create wealth out of thin air. It can only give anyone anything via three ways:

  • Directly increasing taxes, which discourages economic growth and directly takes money away from people
  • Running up debt, which means much higher taxes in the future plus interest, creating a drag on economic growth
  • Printing money, which “stealth taxes” the public via inflation

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and, much to the chagrin of spend-happy politicians’, Santa Claus is not real. Government spending doesn’t create wealth; it only transfers wealth, generally destroying a lot of it in the process.

So, unless Americans are actually seeing equal or greater benefit from spending compared to its cost, it’s a raw deal for taxpayers. And for the federal government’s “COVID” spending binge, it’s not even close.

Don’t believe me? Well, did you see $41,870 in benefit from these programs? Or even $18,181?

For almost everyone, the honest answer is no.

Pelosi Pledges Swift Work On Major Infrastructure Package

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walks from the House floor, during the vote on the Democrat's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pledged swift work by Congress on a job and infrastructure package that will be “fiscally sound,” but acknowledged she wasn’t sure whether the next major item on President Joe Biden’s agenda will attract Republican backing.

Fresh off a major legislative victory on the $1.9 trillion virus relief package that passed on near-party lines, Democrats face long and tough battles ahead in winning GOP endorsement of the administration’s plans.

Road- and bridge-building legislation has a long history of support from both parties as lawmakers aim to deliver on projects back home. But Republicans disagree with Biden’s focus on the environment and the possibility of financing any program with debt after the government borrowed heavily to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Building roads and bridges and water supply systems and the rest has always been bipartisan, always been bipartisan, except when they oppose it with a Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we had to shrink the package,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

“But, nonetheless, hopefully, we will have bipartisanship,” she said.

Pelosi has directed key Democratic lawmakers to begin working with Republicans on a “big, bold and transformational infrastructure package.”

During the presidential campaign, Biden laid the groundwork by proposing $2 trillion in “accelerated” investments to shift to cleaner energy, build half a million charging stations for electric vehicles, support public transit and repair roads and bridges. The plan emphasizes the importance of creating unionized jobs and addressing climate change.

The White House originally planned to come out with a plan in February, but more recently hasn’t committed to a timeline. A rollout is likely to slide into April as the administration embarks on a nationwide push over the coming weeks to sell Americans on the benefits of the COVID-19 relief bill.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hope to pass a bill out of their committees in May.

The package could include policy changes — on green energy and immigration — and even try to make permanent some of the just-passed COVID-19 assistance such as child tax credits.

“It is going to be green and it is going to be big,” DeFazio told The Associated Press.

Democrats used a fast-track budget process known as reconciliation to approve Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan without Republican support, a strategy that succeeded despite the reservations of some moderates.

But work on passing infrastructure legislation in a Senate split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris providing a tiebreaking vote will probably prove more difficult. Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently made clear he will block infrastructure legislation if Republicans aren’t included.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said he wants to see bipartisan support for an infrastructure legislation. But he said the House in the last Congress modified a Senate-passed $287 billion bill in a way that Republicans could not accept.

“We got it to the House, and what did the House do? They replaced our highway bill with the Green New Deal,” Barrasso said. “So they ignored what we have done in a bipartisan way. If they would take the model that we came up with in the committee in the Senate for highway and transportation, I think that’s a very good start. I talked with the secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, about it, and I think that is the model on which we should move forward on transportation and infrastructure.”

On Sunday, Pelosi declined to say whether tax increases would be required for the House legislation, stressing that Congress would explore all options, including generating revenue with something similar to the Obama administration’s Build America bonds.

“This is about broadband. It’s about water systems. It’s about mass transit, it’s about good paying jobs all over the country,” she said. “It’s also about schools and housing and the rest. … So the goal is to promote good growth, creating good-paying jobs as we protect our planet and are fiscally sound.”

Terrorist who laughed about killing Israeli children ‘no longer subject to Interpol warrant’

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Ahlam al-Tamimi in Amman, Jordan, March 21, 2017. (AP/Omar Akour)

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Global police organization Interpol has reportedly dropped its arrest warrant for Ahlam Tamimi, the female terrorist behind one of the most notorious suicide bombings of the Second Intifada.

On Sunday, Arabic language media published a letter from the law enforcement agency, dated March 8, which stated that Tamimi is “no longer subject to Interpol notice.” The letter did not provide an explanation for the decision.

Tamimi’s image was also removed from the “Most Wanted” section of the Interpol site.

Her husband, Nizar Tamimi, confirmed the development in a Facebook post, writing “praise be to Allah.”

In August 2001, Tamimi assisted in the planning and execution of the Sbarro pizza restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 15 people, including eight children and a pregnant woman, and wounded 130.

 

The Jordanian-born journalist scouted out the location for the attack and drove the perpetrator of the attack, Izz al-din Al Masri, through a checkpoint to the site of the bombing.

It’s widely believed that because she was a woman dressed in Western-style clothing, she deflected attention away from the bomber and helped him get past Israeli security officials who may have otherwise stopped him.

Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences for her role in the murders, but was released during the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.

In a chilling interview which took place while she was incarcerated, Tamimi expressed no regret for her crime. When an Israeli journalist asked if she knew how many children were killed in the bombing, she smiled and said, “Three.”

The journalist informed Tamimi that eight children had been killed. In response, she laughed and smiled widely.

One of Tamimi’s victims, 15-year-old Malki Roth, held American citizenship. Roth’s parents have lobbied the U.S. government for years to leverage a law which permits terrorists who murder American citizens abroad to be prosecuted and incarcerated in the U.S.

After Tamimi was released from prison, the FBI offered a $5 million reward for her capture and the Interpol arrest warrant was issued. In June 2020, the U.S. government issued an extradition request for Tamimi, but the Jordanian government has refused to honor it.

“I do not regret what happened. Absolutely not,” she told Jordanian news site Ammon in 2012.

“I dedicated myself to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and Allah granted me success. You know how many casualties there were? This was made possible by Allah. Do you want me to denounce what I did? That’s out of the question. I would do it again today, and in the same manner.”

Largest Pro-Israel Group in US Launches Ads Against Biden Pentagon Pick

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
social media

A prominent pro-Israel group is launching a targeted ad campaign calling on Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W. Va.) to oppose Pentagon nominee Colin Kahl, citing Kahl’s “antagonism” toward Israel and “disturbing” positions on Iran.

The series of ads will run in six West Virginia newspapers early next week, ahead of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s vote on Kahl’s nomination for undersecretary of defense for policy, which is expected to take place on Tuesday. Manchin has said he is still undecided and is likely to hold the swing vote on the committee.

The ads feature a statement by Pastor Doug Joseph, Christians United for Israel’s state director for West Virginia, describing Kahl as an “antagonistic anti-Israel voice” and asking constituents to call Manchin’s office and voice their opposition.

The ad campaign comes as a number of Republicans have come out strongly against Kahl, due to his positions on Israel and Iran, as well as his inflammatory Twitter comments. Kahl has referred to the GOP as the “party of ethnic cleansing” and a “clown show,” and approvingly linked to an anti-Israel blog that claimed the “Israel lobby” was trying to start a war between the United States and Iran.

“Kahl’s nomination may well hinge on one vote. And that vote will very likely be our state’s own Sen. Joe Manchin,” wrote Joseph. “Given his West Virginia values and common-sense approach to the Middle East, I am hopeful he’ll make the right decision and decline to support such a misguided nomination.”

“The stakes are high. I have every confidence that Sen. Manchin is disturbed by Kahl’s record on Israel because, like the majority of West Virginians, the senator has Israel in his heart,” he added.

Christians United for Israel is the largest pro-Israel advocacy group in the country and has over 77,000 members in West Virginia, according to a spokesman.

“Kahl’s hostility toward Israel is beyond unconventional. It’s outlandish,” says Joseph in the ad. “While serving in the Obama administration, he led an effort to strip recognition of Israel’s true capital of Jerusalem from the Democratic party’s platform.”

“Kahl’s disqualifying positions are not limited to his antagonism toward Israel. He has held numerous positions concerning Iran that call his judgment into question,” the ad continues. “Among the most disturbing was his opposition to America’s designation of Iran’s ruthless Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

Sen. Manchin did not respond to a request for comment.

The ads will run in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Herald Dispatch, the Register Herald, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the Times West Virginian (Fairmont) and the Parkersburg News & Sentinel, according to CUFI.

“Colin Kahl is unfit to serve,” said CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “His fringe pro-Iran, anti-Israel views would imperil the national security interests of the United States. The people of West Virginia are communicating with Sen. Manchin’s office and we believe it is incumbent upon the Senator to hear what his constituents are saying and oppose this nomination.”

Iron Sting: Israel debuts munition that will ‘revolutionize ground warfare’

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Iron Sting hitting a target. (Israel Defense Ministry)

By World Israel News Staff

Israel successfully tested Iron Sting, a ‘networked precision fire system,’ the IDF announced on Sunday.

Iron Sting is a 120 mm mortar munition that employs laser and GPS to engage targets accurately and prevent collateral damage.

The announcement signals that trials have been conducted successfully, concluding the system’s development. The completion of testing enables the start of serial production ahead of the system’s supply to the IDF.

Tests were carried out using two networked “Cardom” mortar systems developed by Elbit: a “Cardom” system, mounted on an M113 APC and a “Cardom Spear” mounted on a Hummer 4X4 SUV.

The Iron Sting is designed to engage targets precisely, in both open terrains and urban environments, while reducing the possibility of collateral damage and preventing injury to non-combatants. Its operational use will revolutionize ground warfare and equip battalions with organic, accurate and effective firepower.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, “The technology made available to the IDF by Israeli industries changes the battlefield and provides our forces with more accurate and effective means.

“The integration of ‘Iron Sting’ in the IDF corresponds to the vision presented in the military’s ‘Tnufa’ multi-year plan. It also fulfills the IDF’s needs, adapting combat capabilities to contend with enemies hidden within civilian, urban environments, while meeting the legal and moral standards set by the State of Israel.”

Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem, who heads research and development in the Department of Defense R&D, said: “Ten years of research and development have led us to this moment when we can provide the IDF’s ground forces with advanced capabilities made for the modern battlefield.

“This laser and GPS-guided mortar munition provides troops with a precise firing capability that has only been implemented in missiles and air munition thus far. This is a very complex program and a groundbreaking system on the international level.”

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