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Biden Pulls 65 Pending Trump Executive Orders

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AP

President Joe Biden has pulled 65 pending Trump administration executive orders, many of which deal with key national security and immigration matters.

Several of the withdrawals strike down orders that would protect American jobs by tightening immigration restrictions and eliminate proposed oversight regulations on how China-backed Confucius Institutes operate on campus. The Biden administration selectively cut the orders, as some pending Trump administration actions remain under review.

Biden withdrew one Department of Homeland Security regulation that would bar foreign nationals with deportation orders from working. Under current law, outgoing aliens released from custody can still seek legal employment. The proposed—and now withdrawn—Trump executive order would increase protections for American workers by striking down such an expansive employment policy.

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas) blasted Biden’s rollback on Trump-era regulations as “disheartening” and “disingenuous.”

“President Biden’s approach to immigration is both disheartening and predictable given the hypocrisy of the left. In less than one month, the Biden administration has steamrolled commonsense immigration policies simply because they were tied to President Trump,” Jackson said. “Clearly, Democrats are not serious about working across the aisle. Disingenuous attempts to legislate in a bipartisan manner are bad for effective policymaking and, in turn, for the American people.”

Robert Law, the director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the withdrawal signals radicalism in Biden’s coming immigration agenda and that such reversals harm both the country’s security and economy.

“What is very apparent is that there is nothing moderate about the direction of immigration policy that the Biden administration, through his various political appointees, is pursuing,” Law said. “If there’s any immigration regulation or policy that the Trump administration approved that should be carried on, you would think it would be something like this.”

The Biden administration struck down another proposed immigration order that would have eliminated the ability of certain visa holders to seek employment.

These withdrawals—which came without any congressional consultation—also come as the Biden administration and Democrats upend other legislative actions taken to secure the border. On Thursday, the Biden administration rescinded the national emergency proclamation used by the Trump White House to allot funding to construct the southern border wall.

Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) said that such actions hurt the American economy and give illegal immigrants “privileged treatment.”

“America’s labor market is already tight and thanks to Biden, U.S. citizens now have to compete with a flood of illegal immigrants,” said Banks. “Stimulus checks, vaccines, no threat of deportation—it’s hard to see what Biden’s actual voters get that illegal immigrants don’t, aside from income taxes. The only way this sort of privileged treatment makes sense is if Biden is counting on their help in 2024.”

Biden also reversed an order that would mandate the disclosure of any agreement made between American schools and Confucius Institutes. Operated by Chinese Communist Party-affiliated entities, Confucius Institutes peddle Chinese influence and monitor Chinese students on U.S. campuses. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo designated the Confucius Institute as a “foreign mission” for the Communist Party last year. Biden’s reversal of the pending order would alleviate pressure and accountability on universities and schools that have signed contracts to welcome the institutes on campus.

Republicans blasted the national security implications of the reversal. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) warned that China sees American universities as a chief battlefront with Beijing, and the country’s influence requires a harder look rather than a rollback in oversight.

“American universities are on the frontline of our competition with the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher told the Washington Free Beacon. “At a time when the CCP is seeking more avenues than ever to influence the direction of American China policy, we should be doing everything possible to shine light on its funding arrangements here in the U.S.”

Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.) warned China’s “foreign propaganda” threatens American education, and plans to reintroduce an act aimed at mitigating the Biden reversal’s kowtow to Confucius Institutes.

“American students and families deserve to know the source of their education, especially when the source is a foreign government,” Wilson said.  “Confucius Institutes at universities and subsidiary partnerships with K-12 schools often do not have their contracts or funding amounts publicly disclosed. Reversing this proposed rule allows these foreign propaganda missions to continue operating in the dark and abandons accountability for universities to report on these partnerships.”

The White House did not return a request for comment.

Trump Acquitted (Again), But Trump Hatred Continues

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(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By Ron Paul

Last week’s second impeachment trial of former President Trump should serve as a warning that something is very wrong in US politics. Far from a measured, well-investigated, rock-solid case against the former president, America was again abused with day after day of character assassination, innuendo, false claims, and even falsified “evidence.”

The trial wasn’t intended to win a conviction of Trump for “incitement” because the Democrats already knew that the votes were not there. So, just as with the last impeachment trial, the goal was to fling as much dirt at Donald Trump as they could while the cameras were rolling. Their hatred of Donald Trump is so deep and visceral that probably a psychologist would have been more beneficial to them than yet another impeachment trial.

It would be incorrect to say that the House managers’ case fell apart, because they had no case to begin with. They never had a case because they made no effort to develop a case. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court saw from the beginning that this was no legitimate impeachment trial and informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would not preside. Without the Chief Justice, there was no Constitutional impeachment trial. So they put on a show trial instead.

As Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley kept asking, why didn’t the House schedule a single hearing to investigate what really happened up to and on the day of the Capitol melee on January 6th? They had weeks to do so. Professor Turley believes they might even have been able to make a decent case if they had tried.

Why did they not call witnesses? Were there no rioters who could be called to explain under oath how Trump’s speech had inspired them to enter the Capitol building to overturn the election?

Were they afraid that under cross-examination we might have found out more about Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows’ claim that Trump offered to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops in Washington before January 6th but that his offer was rebuked? What about reports that Capitol Hill Police were left without back-up and unprepared for what happened? House and Senate leadership is responsible for security at the Capitol and they obviously failed. Why?

The House and Senate Democrats (and a few Republicans) did not succeed in their ultimate goal: preventing Trump from ever running again for political office. But that doesn’t mean they are giving up. They are not about to give citizen Trump a moment of peace. They are intent on continuing their witch hunt but it looks less and less like any desire for justice. It looks like fear. They are afraid if he is allowed to run again he may be elected. So they cannot allow that vote to happen.

And they accuse Trump of undermining democracy.

There were a number of reasons to impeach and convict President Trump while he was in office. Bombing Syria on bogus grounds without authorization was one of them. But Democrats love war as much as Republicans so they weren’t about to uphold their Constitutional obligations.

Impeachment 2.0 may be over, but those blinded by hatred for Trump are not about to give up. They are irrational and obsessed. They are also dangerous.

 Ron Paul Institute

‘You Take My Breath Away’: George Floyd Valentine Leads To LAPD Investigation

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screen shot

Kaylee Greenlee (DCNF)

A Valentine-style photograph of George Floyd captioned “you take my breath away” was reportedly circulated around the Los Angeles Police Department leading to an internal investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said an investigation will begin Monday by interviewing the officer who filed a complaint over the picture, according to the Times. The department is looking into the origins of the image and how it was shared among the officers.

“Our investigation is to determine the accuracy of the allegations while also reinforcing our zero tolerance for anything with racist views,” Moore said, the Times reported.

Moore said that “people will find my wrath” if the investigation finds officers were sharing the image, the Times reported. He added that the department is looking into two Instagram accounts potentially linked to LAPD personnel including one account known as “Blue Line Mafia.”

Floyd died after a former Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in May 2020, video shows. Floyd repeatedly told the officers that he couldn’t breathe.

The LAPD did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

 

 

 

 

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Millions without power in Texas as snow storm slams US

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A woman walks through falling snow in San Antonio, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. Snow and ice blanketed large swaths of the U.S. on Sunday, prompting canceled flights, making driving perilous and reaching into areas as far south as Texas’ Gulf Coast, where snow and sleet were expected overnight. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

(AP) — A frigid blast of winter weather across the U.S. plunged Texas into an unusually icy emergency Monday that knocked out power to more than 2 million people and shut down grocery stores and dangerously snowy roads.

The worsening conditions halted the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine shipments and left some Texas providers scrambling to find takers for doses expiring within hours.

Temperatures nosedived into the single-digits as far south as San Antonio, and homes that had already been without electricity for hours had no certainty about when the lights and heat would come back on, as the state’s overwhelmed power grid throttled into rotating blackouts that are typically only seen in 100-degree Fahrenheit (38-degree Celsius) summers.

The storm was part of a massive system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to the southern Plains and was spreading across the Ohio Valley and to the Northeast. The Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities across 14 states, called for rolling outages because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted. Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage.

“We’re living through a really historic event going on right now,” said Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, pointing to all of Texas under a winter storm warning and the extent of the freezing temperatures.

In Houston, where county leaders had warned that the freeze could create problems on the scale of massive hurricanes that slam the Gulf Coast, one electric provider said power may not be restored to some homes until Tuesday.

“This weather event, it’s really unprecedented. We all living here know that,” said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. He defended preparations made by grid operators and described the demand on the system as record-setting.

“This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. And so that is really the result that we’re seeing,” Woodfin said.

The largest grocery store chain in Texas, H-E-B, closed locations around Austin and San Antonio, cities that are unaccustomed to snow and have little resources to clear roads. The slow thaw and more frigid lows ahead was also taking a toll on Texas’ distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

State health officials said Texas, which was due to receive more than 400,000 additional vaccine doses this week, now does not expect deliveries to occur until at least Wednesday.

But with doses already in-hand expiring, Rice University on Monday abruptly began offering vaccines on its closed Houston campus. Harris Health System told the school it had about 1,000 vaccines that “were going to go to waste” and asked if the school could find takers, said Doug Miller, a university spokesman.

“The window was just a couple hours. They have to take care of it quickly,” Miller said.

Caught without enough groceries on hand, Lauren Schneider, a 24-year-old lab technician, walked to a Dallas grocery store near her home Monday morning dressed in a coat, hat and face mask. Schneider said she didn’t feel comfortable driving with the roads covered in snow and ice. She said she hadn’t seen a serious snowfall in Dallas since her childhood.

“I really didn’t think it’s would be this serious,” said Schneider.

Teresa and Luke Fassetta, trundling through the snow carrying grocery bags, said the store lost power while they were shopping. The couple said they lost power overnight, then got it back around 9 a.m., and they were hoping it would still be on when they arrived home. If not, Teresa said, “we just have a bunch of blankets and candles and two cats to keep us warm.”

Several cities in the U.S. saw record lows as Arctic air remained over the central part of the country. In Minnesota, the Hibbing/Chisholm weather station registered minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 39 degrees Celsius), while Sioux Falls, South Dakota, dropped to minus 26 Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius).

In Kansas, where wind chills dropped to as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) in some areas, Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of disaster.

Most government offices and schools were closed for Presidents Day, and authorities pleaded with residents to stay home. Louisiana State Police reported that it had investigated nearly 75 weather-related crashes caused by a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain in the past 24 hours.

“We already have some accidents on our roadways,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a morning news conference. “It is slick and it is dangerous.”

Air travel was also affected. By midmorning, 3,000 flights had been canceled across the country, about 1,600 of them at Dallas/Fort Worth International and Bush Intercontinental airports in Texas. At DFW, the temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) — 3 degrees (-16 degrees) colder than Moscow.

The storm arrived over a three-day holiday weekend that has seen the most U.S. air travel since the period around New Year’s. More than 1 million people went through airport security checkpoints on Thursday and Friday. However, that was still less than half the traffic of a year ago, before the pandemic hit with full force.

The southern Plains had been gearing up for the winter weather for the better part of the weekend. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for all of the state’s 254 counties. Abbott, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson each activated National Guard units to assist state agencies with tasks including rescuing stranded drivers.

President Joe Biden also declared an emergency in Texas in a statement Sunday night. The declaration is intended to add federal aid to state and local response efforts.

___

Associated Press journalists David Koenig in Dallas, Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville, Ky., Kate Brumback in Atlanta, Margaret Stafford in Liberty, Mo., and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

Children of Woman Who Died in New York Nursing Home Call on DOJ to Investigate Cuomo

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AP

AMY FURR

The children of a woman who died in a New York nursing home in spring 2020 are demanding justice for their mother after one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) aides admitted hiding numbers related to the nursing home deaths.

“During an appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ 93-year-old Agnes Minisalle’s three children said that the nursing home deaths and subsequent alleged cover-up should not be partisan issues,” Fox News reported Monday.

The relatives cited a report from Leticia James, the attorney general of New York, as an impetus for possible bipartisan agreement on reopening the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the governor.

“You pat yourself on the back and tell everyone how good you’re doing, at the same time you’re lying about the lives that are being lost,” Ted Minisalle stated, adding, “It’s just terrible, absolutely terrible.”

Prior to the lockdowns in March, the siblings ate dinner with their mom, walked her to a nearby chapel, and took her to bed nearly every evening.

“Two weeks after his mother died, Ted Minisalle lost his father-in-law to COVID-19 in the very same nursing home. The family said that if the DOJ finds wrongdoing by Cuomo in their investigation he needs to admit what he did and be brought to justice,” the Fox report continued.

They also called on the state to allow families back into nursing homes as part of their loved ones’ essential care.

Last week, Coumo’s top aide admitted her team withheld the number of deaths related to the coronavirus in the state’s nursing homes to protect the Cuomo government from a federal investigation and political scrutiny, according to Breitbart News.

During an interview Saturday on Fox & Friends, Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) said the Biden DOJ should investigate Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

“President Biden, you said you would use your Justice Department in an honorable way, objective way. We’re going to make sure the Justice Department does just that,” he stated.

“And we’re going to use those tools of justice to make sure those 15,000 souls that died are going to be heard from and justice will be done,” Reed concluded.

Parler Returns After Being Offline for Over a Month

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Social media platform Parler is expected to be back online Monday after being offline for over a month following Amazon Web Services (AWS) booting the site off the internet.

Interim Parler CEO Mark Meckler says that the social media platform is back, and that some existing users have already been live as of Monday morning, adding that the rest of them should have access by midday, after the new servers propagated across the internet, according to a report by Just The News.

As for new users, they should be able to sign up for the service within a week or so.

Amazon knocked Parler offline last month after Twitter permanently banned then-President Donald Trump from its platform, and while a plethora of prominent conservative figures and their followers began leaving Twitter for Parler.

“We are off of the big tech platform, so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future,” said Meckler in an interview with Just the News.

The report added that Parler has moved to a server farm, and that the 20 million users who were on the site at the time AWS booted it from the internet will be able to start using their app and logins on Monday.

The CEO added that Parler is now using artificial intelligence and human editors to police for illegal content that violates its service agreement, but that the site will stay true to its free-speech roots.

Meckler, who is credited with co-founding the Tea Party Patriots, was appointed interim CEO to help guide Parler through its relaunch, as well as its search for a new, permanent CEO.

“Cancel culture came for us, and hit us with all they had. Yet we couldn’t be kept down. We’re back, and we’re ready to resume the struggle for freedom of expression, data sovereignty, and civil discourse,” said radio host and Parler investor Dan Bongino.

“We thank our users for their loyalty during this incredibly challenging time,” Bongino added.

America’s Out Of Control Teens Are On A Historic Crime Spree

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By

Young people are running wild all over the country, and nobody seems to be able to come up with a solution to slow down the violence.  Following the tragic death of George Floyd, teens were disproportionally involved in the rioting, looting and arson that erupted in major cities throughout the nation for the remainder of 2020.  And sometimes they would just take out their frustrations on random people on the street.  But in addition to violence that was spurred by social movements, most of our urban areas also experienced dramatic spikes in their murder rates.  In fact, one recently released report found that murder rates rose by an average of 30 percent in 34 of our largest cities…

THE HOMICIDE RATE across 34 American cities increased by 30% on average during 2020, according to experts, as the U.S. reeled from the coronavirus pandemic and widespread protests against police brutality.
The newly released report from the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice found that homicides rose in 29 of the 34 cities studied and that the three largest cities in the sample – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – accounted for 40% of the additional homicide victims in 2020.

That 30 percent average increase was the biggest one year spike ever recorded, and way too much of the time these murders are being committed by Americans under the age of 20.

For example, two Milwaukee teens were just charged with the rape and murder of a young woman named Ee Lee…

Kamare Lewis, 17, and Kevin Spencer, 15 each face one count of first-degree intentional homicide, as party to a crime and one count of first-degree sexual assault (great bodily harm), as party to a crime.
Lee was found Sept. 16, 2020 in Washington Park by “bystanders,” still breathing but unconscious, severely beaten and left for dead. She was undressed below the waist, indicating sexual assault. She suffered severe contusions to the face/head. A hospital examination confirmed the sex assault.

Lee later died from her injuries on September 19th.

But it wasn’t just Lewis and Spencer that were involved in this brutal attack.  In fact, we are being told that a total of 11 youths were seen leaving the area

Video from the Washington Park Library showed 11 people leaving the park — six in a group on bicycles; five in a separate group, some on bikes and others on foot.

Sadly, young girls are also murdering one another.

Here is an example of one young girl stabbing another young girl to death

Lyric D. Stewart, 14, of Rock Island, was stabbed to death Dec. 30 during a fight in the 1200 block of 11th Street.
Jimena Jinez, 18, also of Rock Island, was arrested in the early morning of Dec. 31, 2020, and charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death. She has been in custody in Rock Island County Jail since then, and is being held on $1.5 million bond.

Our nation is degenerating right in front of our eyes, and it is only going to get worse.

In Jacksonville, Florida a group of teens recently ganged up to kill three people, including a very young mother

In the first time since a Washington Heights triple-murder, the family of one of the victims, Sara Urriola, is speaking out. The Jacksonville mother was murdered by four suspected teens at the Calloway Cove apartments.
“We have lost a loving, caring, wife, mother, daughter, niece, cousin, sister, aunt, best-friend and friend today. Sara loved her friends and family very much and the friends that knew her know she was all about the well-being of her family. She loved to dance, dress up, and enjoyed all family events,” the family said in a statement to Action News Jax.

How twisted do you have to be in order to do something like that?

Horrific murders like this happen day after day, but they barely make a blip on the news anymore because they have become so common.

Meanwhile, carjackings are on the rise all over the nation as well.

According to NPR, the number of carjackings in Minneapolis more than tripled last year…

In Minneapolis, for example, there were 405 carjackings last year — more than triple the number in 2019. The suspects arrested were often juveniles between the ages of 11 and 17.
Other cities saw huge increases too, including New Orleans; Kansas City, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; and Washington, D.C. Last year in Chicago, there were 1,400 carjackings.

Speaking of Chicago, there are certain parts of the city that now resemble a war zone.  If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, there is a good chance that a kid could stick a gun in your face and demand the keys to your vehicle.

What would you do if this happened to you?

On a sunny January afternoon, Amy Blumenthal drove to her Chicago home after picking up groceries. She turned off a street and into an alley, backed her car into her garage and started unloading the bags.
“All of a sudden, I heard something and looked up and there was a boy with a COVID mask on holding a gun just inches from my face,” Blumenthal says. He demanded she hand over her keys. Another young male, also wearing a mask, told her to hurry up.

Amy Blumenthal was not prepared to face this sort of a scenario.

She eventually pulled herself together enough to give her two attackers the car keys, and she was later totally shocked to find out that they were both under 16 years of age

In shock, she fumbled as she complied — they let her keep her house keys. Then they jumped in the car and sped off. Chicago police officers noticed their erratic driving, gave chase and the two were quickly arrested after crashing the vehicle into a building.
The robbery had left her shaken, but learning more about who they were left her stunned: They were just 15 and 13 years old.

Thanks to decades of running in the wrong direction, this is what our country has become.

We have become a completely and utterly lawless nation from the very top to the very bottom, and yet we continue to refuse to see the error of our ways.

So the fabric of our society will continue to unravel, and the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis will continue to disappear.

 

 

 

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.

De Blasio Calls for ‘Full Accounting’ of Cuomo’s Alleged Nursing Home Death Cover-Up

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Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at City Hall, Aug. 2, 2019. Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

BY GQ PAN(EPOCH TIMES)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday called for a “full accounting” of whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration withheld information about deaths from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in nursing homes across the state.

The alleged coverup of New York’s nursing home deaths was first reported by the New York Post. In an audio recording obtained by the Post, Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s chief of staff, told a small group of Democratic lawmakers that the governor’s office “basically froze” when they were asked by the U.S. Department of Justice to turn in the data, because they worried that then-President Donald Trump would use the information as a “giant political football” against them.

“[President Trump] starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said during the private call, according to the NY Post. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”

De Blasio, who has frequently been at odds with Cuomo over the handling of the CCP virus pandemic, said the Post’s report is “really disturbing” and “very troubling.”

“It’s very troubling. We’ve got to know more. We now need a full accounting of what happened,” de Blasio said on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer show.”

“We now need a full accounting of what happened,” he said. “Think about seniors who—their lives were in the balance and their families just desperate to get them the help they needed. We need to know exactly what happened here. We need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

The mayor’s comments came as DeRosa sought to clarify her remarks, saying in a statement that the governor’s office was “comprehensive and transparent” in its responses to the Justice Department.

“I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first,” she said. “As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.”

In August 2020, the Justice Department requested governors of states which had “issued COVID-19 orders that may have resulted in deaths of elderly nursing home residents,” namely Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, to turn over data on deaths in those long-term care facilities. Cuomo, joined by Whitmer, pushed back against those inquiries, arguing in a joint statement that they were but a “nakedly partisan deflection” targeting states run by Democrats.

Across America, Leftists Dumb Education Down: Declaring Math as Racist, Abandoning Reading, Writing For “Black Power” Ideology

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By Andrea Widburg(AMERICAN THINKER)

In the past week, three stories have emerged about leftist approaches to education. What binds them is the belief that minorities cannot achieve basic education standards and that the only way to achieve the left’s beloved “equity” is to lower the standards or abolish them entirely. Not only does this reveal the kind of racism that the KKK would have loved, but it also assures that America will decline precipitously, especially given China’s reverence for hard sciences, such as math and engineering.

On February 9, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to end Lowell High School’s special admissions process requiring students to prove academic excellence before they can enter the school. Henceforth, Lowell (which will be subject to a name change as well), rather than being one of the nation’s top high schools, will be just another failing San Francisco high school.

The reason the board members gave for destroying Lowell’s decades of excellence was race:

Board members who voted for the change cited “pervasive systemic racism” and a lack of student diversity, while the two no votes argued for more community input before making a decision.
According to the California School Dashboard, of Lowell’s 2,900 students, 51% are Asian American, 18% are white, 11.5% are Hispanic and 2% are Black. Across the district, Black students represent 8% of the population and Hispanic students 32%.

It did not occur to the Board to bend their energies to improving K-8 education for minorities. Instead, their sole goal was to destroy the one aspirational school in the district. It’s almost as if they believe minorities cannot achieve high educational standards.

On February 11, 2021, Christopher Rufo wrote about the William D. Kelley School in Philadelphia’s inner city. The majority-Black school (94% of the student body) has essentially abandoned teaching children reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, it is educating them in the revolutionary principles of “Black power” radicalism.

Fifth-graders recently did an homage to Angela Davis, a hardcore communist, who provided the guns that killed four people in a Marin County courtroom, including a judge. Again, it’s almost as if the teachers believe minorities cannot achieve high educational standards, so why not train them as revolutionary cannon fodder?

Lastly, on February 13, we learned that the Oregon Department of Education is encouraging teachers to register for a training program out of California that argues that accurate math is a racist part of “White supremacy culture”:

Part of the toolkit includes a list of ways “white supremacy culture” allegedly “infiltrates math classrooms.” Those include “the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer,” students being ”required to ‘show their work,’“ and other alleged manifestations.
“The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so,” the document for the “Equitable Math” toolkit reads. “Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.”

In George Orwell’s 1984, the state’s ultimate power is to train citizens to believe absolutely that 2+2=5, even as they knew that 2+2=4. In Oregon’s version of 1984, the goal, apparently, is to train citizens to believe that 2+2 equals anything but 4.

Again, the racism is appalling. American Cougar reminds us that absolute answers in mathematics benefit Blacks as surely as they do Whites:

Idiotic ideas like calling mathematics racist are why I urge ideological separation away from corrosive clutches of liberalism.
I posed this question on other timelines and can do no less here, “is it a ‘manifestation of White supremacy’ for me as a Black person to expect correct change or accurate pay for services rendered? Debilitation isn’t liberation.”

He notes too that Blacks are the lab rats for leftist experiments – and that keeping Blacks incompetent improves their value as foot soldiers.

When it comes to education, leftists invariably make it clear that they believe Blacks are incapable of meeting the same standards as Whites. They never raise people up. They always create “equity” by dumbing everyone down.

In the modern world, though, our nation cannot survive with a dumbed-down populace. The real education revolution shouldn’t be to make it impossible for us to compete with China, which will be building advanced computer weapons systems while our students will be engaging in the doublethink of denying that 2+2=4 as they celebrate Angela Davis’s birthday.

Every student who has academic inclinations, regardless of race, should be encouraged whenever and wherever that ability appears. And those students whose talents lie elsewhere, rather than being forced onto a pointless academic path that will only see them fail, should be encouraged as well – to be skilled tradesmen or anything else that suits their abilities and enables them to lead fulfilling and profitable lives that also contribute to society.

 

Virus may never go away but could change into mild annoyance

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(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

(AP) — What if COVID-19 never goes away?

Experts say it’s likely that some version of the disease will linger for years. But what it will look like in the future is less clear.

Will the coronavirus, which has already killed more than 2 million people worldwide, eventually be eliminated by a global vaccination campaign, like smallpox? Will dangerous new variants evade vaccines? Or will the virus stick around for a long time, transforming into a mild annoyance, like the common cold?

Eventually, the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 will become yet “another animal in the zoo,” joining the many other infectious diseases that humanity has learned to live with, predicted Dr. T. Jacob John, who studies viruses and was at the helm of India’s efforts to tackle polio and HIV/AIDS.

But no one knows for sure. The virus is evolving rapidly, and new variants are popping up in different countries. The risk of these new variants was underscored when Novavax Inc. found that the company’s vaccine did not work as well against mutated versions circulating in Britain and South Africa. The more the virus spreads, experts say, the more likely it is that a new variant will become capable of eluding current tests, treatments and vaccines.

 

For now, scientists agree on the immediate priority: Vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. The next step is less certain and depends largely on the strength of the immunity offered by vaccines and natural infections and how long it lasts.

“Are people going to be frequently subject to repeat infections? We don’t have enough data yet to know,” said Jeffrey Shaman, who studies viruses at Columbia University. Like many researchers, he believes chances are slim that vaccines will confer lifelong immunity.

If humans must learn to live with COVID-19, the nature of that coexistence depends not just on how long immunity lasts, but also how the virus evolves. Will it mutate significantly each year, requiring annual shots, like the flu? Or will it pop up every few years?

This question of what happens next attracted Jennie Lavine, a virologist at Emory University, who is co-author of a recent paper in Science that projected a relatively optimistic scenario: After most people have been exposed to the virus — either through vaccination or surviving infections — the pathogen “will continue to circulate, but will mostly cause only mild illness,” like a routine cold.

While immunity acquired from other coronaviruses — like those that cause the common cold or SARS or MERS — wanes over time, symptoms upon reinfection tend to be milder than the first illness, said Ottar Bjornstad, a co-author of the Science paper who studies viruses at Pennsylvania State University.

“Adults tend not to get very bad symptoms if they’ve already been exposed,” he said.

The prediction in the Science paper is based on an analysis of how other coronaviruses have behaved over time and assumes that SAR-CoV-2 continues to evolve, but not quickly or radically.

The 1918 flu pandemic could offer clues about the course of COVID-19. That pathogen was an H1N1 virus with genes that originated in birds, not a coronavirus. At the time, no vaccines were available. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that a third of the world’s population became infected. Eventually, after infected people either died or developed immunity, the virus stopped spreading quickly. It later mutated into a less virulent form, which experts say continues to circulate seasonally.

“Very commonly the descendants of flu pandemics become the milder seasonal flu viruses we experience for many years,” said Stephen Morse, who studies viruses at Columbia University.

It’s not clear yet how future mutations in SARS-CoV-2 will shape the trajectory of the current disease.

As new variants emerge — some more contagious, some more virulent and some possibly less responsive to vaccines — scientists are reminded how much they don’t yet know about the future of the virus, said Mark Jit, who studies viruses at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“We’ve only known about this virus for about a year, so we don’t yet have data to show its behavior over five years or 10 years,” he said.

Of the more than 12 billion coronavirus vaccine shots being made in 2021, rich countries have bought about 9 billion, and many have options to buy more. This inequity is a threat since it will result in poorer countries having to wait longer for the vaccine, during which time the disease will continue to spread and kill people, said Ian MacKay, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland.

That some vaccines seem less effective against the new strains is worrisome, but since the shots provide some protection, vaccines could still be used to slow or stop the virus from spreading, said Ashley St. John, who studies immune systems at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

Dr. Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases expert at Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India, said the evolution of the virus raises new questions: At what stage does the virus become a new strain? Will countries need to re-vaccinate from scratch? Or could a booster dose be given?

“These are questions that you will have to address in the future,” Kang said.

The future of the coronavirus may contrast with other highly contagious diseases that have been largely beaten by vaccines that provide lifelong immunity — such as measles. The spread of measles drops off after many people have been vaccinated.

But the dynamic changes over time with new births, so outbreaks tend to come in cycles, explained Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, who studies epidemics and advises India on virus surveillance.

Unlike measles, kids infected with COVID-19 don’t always exhibit clear symptoms and could still transmit the disease to vulnerable adults. That means countries cannot let their guard down, he said.

Another unknown is the long-term impact of COVID-19 on patients who survive but are incapacitated for months, Kang said.

The “quantification of this damage” — how many people can’t do manual labor or are so exhausted that they can’t concentrate — is key to understanding the full consequences of the disease.

“We haven’t had a lot of diseases that have affected people on a scale like this,” she said.

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Larson reported from Washington.

Doctors Who Say No To Opioid Use Face Threats From Patients

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law enforcement personnel walk toward the Allina Health clinic where multiple people were shot in Buffalo, Minn. Doctors say they're facing increasing threats of violence for refusing to prescribe opioids or trying to wean patients off the addictive painkillers. The issue was underscored by Tuesday's shooting at the Minnesota clinic. (David Joles/Star Tribune via AP, File)

(AP) — One patient threatened to shoot Dr. Terry Hunt if physical therapy didn’t relieve his pain as effectively as opioids did. Another harassed his staff, then roamed a hospital searching for Hunt after being told he would be weaned off painkillers he had used inappropriately.

Hunt was unharmed, but shaken enough to ask the central Illinois hospital system where he worked to dismiss both patients.

So when he heard about Tuesday’s attack at a medical clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, that left one person dead and four injured, “the first thing I assumed is that it was something to do with pain medication,” said Hunt, who now works for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a Mayo Clinic Health System facility in Red Wing, Minnesota. “It makes us ask about our own workplace: How secure are we?”

Authorities said Gregory Paul Ulrich, 67, was angry about his medical treatment before he shot five workers and detonated three apparent pipe bombs at an Allina Health clinic. A police report says he had threatened a similar mass shooting in 2018, allegedly as revenge against people who he said “tortured” him with back surgeries and prescribed medication.

A former roommate said Ulrich became upset when a doctor stopped prescribing painkillers, and that Ulrich also used other drugs and had untreated mental health issues. Law enforcement and the health system have not addressed the specifics of Ulrich’s treatment or medications.

Doctors who treat pain say threats of violence escalated markedly in recent years as mounting legal and regulatory pressure stemming from the deadly opioid epidemic led many to prescribe alternatives and taper their patients off addictive painkillers.

While some patients benefit from careful use of opioids, and doctors don’t want to stigmatize them, many would be better off treating pain with other therapies, experts say. But many become addicted to the drugs that are often intended for short-term use following surgeries.

“It hijacks their brain,” said Dr. Carrie DeLone, regional medical director at Penn State Health Community Medical Group. “They don’t see themselves as having a problem.”

Pain specialist Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a professor at Brandeis University and a founder of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, said patients are convinced that opioids are treating their underlying problem because if they try to go without a dose or as their previous dose wears off, “they’re feeling horrible, agonizing pain,” when it can be the withdrawal that is causing pain hypersensitivity.

“It’s much easier to give the patient what they want. You write the prescription … they walk out the door happy and there are no problems. To try and help a patient taper down … is much harder,” Kolodny said.

And when a doctor says no, things can turn ugly.

“We’ve had patients waiting for doctors in parking lots to harass them. We’ve had them say ‘We’re going to shoot you’ or ‘We’re going to burn your house down,’” DeLone said.

Almost half of pain specialists surveyed during a violence education session at a 2019 American Academy of Pain Medicine meeting cited opioid management as the reason they had been threatened, said Dr. W. Michael Hooten, president-elect of the organization.

In response to threats, doctors have dismissed patients. But they have also installed alarm systems and panic buttons and set up exam rooms so doctors are closest to the door. Some even advocate carrying weapons, said Hooten, noting that smaller clinics are at greatest risk because they might not be able to afford security.

After his 2018 threat, police took Ulrich for a mental health evaluation, and Allina took legal action to bar him from the company’s property. A restraining order prohibited Ulrich from contact with the doctor or going into the clinic and nearby Allina-run Buffalo Hospital, where he once frightened a nurse so much that a colleague hit a panic button for help.

Police said they had had no recent interactions with Ulrich that would have raised alarms before the attack in Buffalo, a small city about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.

St. Joseph County, Indiana, Prosecutor Ken Cotter said he didn’t know that such threats were common until 2017, when a man shot and killed a doctor who refused to prescribe opioids to his wife. Michael Jarvis ambushed Dr. Todd Graham in a parking lot hours after the appointment, said Cotter, adding there was evidence that Jarvis also was using opioids. Jarvis took his own life soon after.

Before that, “I do not recall ever reading a threat report” from a doctor, said Cotter, who said he received calls from about 20 doctors after the shooting telling him how common they were. “They took (threats) as a cost of doing business.”

Cotter said about a dozen meetings were held with doctors, law enforcement officials and others to discuss how to keep doctors safe, including deescalating tense situations, but also alternatives to opioids, disposal of old medications, and tackling the addiction problems that plague their communities.

“When you’ve got doctors calling to say we have to do something, this is… literally our whole community’s crusade,” Cotter said.

Kolodny, from Brandeis, said he has been compared to Hitler, threatened on Twitter, and a bag of nails was mailed to his home. Last month, protesters carried signs near his office demanding that he be fired because of his work advocating for less opioid use and helping states sue opioid manufacturers.

The threats have “gotten really scary,” he said. “It’s just gotten really heated up.”

Why Israel Matters to the World

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Technion, Institute of Technology (Haifa), developed a simple blood test capable of detecting different types of cancer. Photo Credit: technion.ac.il

By: Charles S. Haddad

 

 

Israelis do not make islands in the shape of palm trees, nor towering skyscrapers, nor expensive hotels, nor do their leaders use cars with solid silver bodies (a clear allusion to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates).

The pride of the State of Israel is that its technologies will soon be able to be used by all humanity:

 

  1. The University of Tel Aviv is developing a nasal vaccine that will protect people from Alzheimer’s and stroke.

 

  1. Technion, Institute of Technology (Haifa), developed a simple blood test capable of detecting different types of cancer.

 

  1. The Ichlov Center (Tel Aviv) has isolated a protein that makes colonoscopy unnecessary to detect colon cancer with a simple blood test.  Colon cancer kills about 500,000 people annually.

 

  1. Acne does not kill anyone, but it causes anxiety and dissatisfaction in teenagers.  The Curlight Laboratory created a cure by emitting UV rays – high intensity, which eliminates the bacteria that produce acne without generating additional complications.

 

  1. The Given Imaging Laboratory has developed a tiny camera in the form of pills that are swallowed and that transmit thousands of photos of the digestive tract.  These high-quality photos (2 per second for 8 hours) can detect polyps, cancers and sources of bleeding.  The photos are sent to a chip that stores them and sends them to a computer.  At the end of the process, the camera is eliminated by the rectum.

 

  1. The Hebrew University (Jerusalem) has developed an electrical neurostimulator (batteries) that is implanted in the chest of patients with Parkinson’s, similar to a pacemaker.  Emissions from this device block nervous signals that produce tremors.

 

  1. The simple odor of a patient’s breath can detect whether a patient has lung cancer.  The Russel Berrie Institute for Nanotechnology has created sensors capable of perceiving and registering 42 biological markers that indicate the presence of lung cancer without the need for biopsy.

 

  1. It is possible to dispense with catheterization in many cases.  Endopat is a device placed between the index fingers, which can measure the state of the arteries and predict the possibility of a heart attack for the next 7 years.

 

  1. Bar Ilan University is studying a new drug that fights viruses by blood.  It is called the Vecoy Trap because it tricks a virus into self-destruction.  Very useful to fight Hepatitis, and in the future AIDS and Ebola.

 

  1. It is possible that Israeli scientists at Hadassah Medical Center (Jerusalem) discovered the first cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehring’s Disease, in an orthodox rabbi.  Stephen Hawking, a famous British scientist, suffered from this disease and to communicate he used methods invented by Israeli scientists.

 

 

US Threatens Ban On El Al Over Rescue-Flight Exclusivity

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(VIN) The U.S. Department of Transportation has informed Jerusalem that its decision to ban American airlines from operating flights to Tel Aviv is a flagrant violation of bilateral aviation accords, U.S. media outlets reported on Saturday.

If Israel continues to ban U.S. airlines from operating flights to Tel Aviv this weekend, including those aimed at rescuing Israeli citizens stranded overseas, the department said that it would prevent El Al airplanes from landing in the United States.

Outside of rescue flights, Ben-Gurion International Airport has been ordered shut until Jan. 21 at the earliest, to prevent mutations of the coronavirus from entering Israel.

Israel’s flag carrier is currently the only airline to operate rescue flights on the New York-Tel Aviv route.

The U.S. announcement has significance for Israel’s decision to shutter its main airport, as United and Delta are two of the world’s largest airlines to operate in Israel.

Israel’s Transportation Ministry was set to convene on Sunday, to examine how to address U.S. disapproval with the move. Should Israel allow U.S. airlines to fly to Tel Aviv, other countries will likely join the protest.

In routine times, the two U.S. airlines operate dozens of flights between Israel and the U.S. every month. While a majority of carriers ceased to operate their Israel flights, United Airlines was one of the few carriers that continued to fly to Tel Aviv during the pandemic. Although it does not currently fly to Tel Aviv, American Airlines announced that it would begin to operate a Tel Aviv-Miami route this summer.

Minrav Development Plans New Condo Project in Stuyvesant Town

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VU at 368 Third Avenue. Rendering by Unmarked Studio. Photo Credit: newyorkyimbby.com

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

On Thursday, Minrav Development filed plans with the city for a 10-story, 50-unit condominium building at 305 First Ave. As reported by Crain’s NY, the luxury project, planned for the border of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan, will be 116 feet tall and comprise of roughly 70,000 square feet.    In addition to the 50 condo apartments, the project is also slated to include commercial space at the base of the building.  SLCE Architects was tapped as the building’s architect.

Minrav, the commercial and residential developer based in New York City’s Madison Avenue, purchased the vacant lots at 305-311 First Avenue in February of last year.  As per city records, the four adjacent lots were purchased from CIM Group for the price of $28.5 million.  Representatives for Minrav did not respond to Crain’s request for comment.

Minrav’s other New York City developments include: 244 E. 52nd St., which is a 15-unit luxury condo building; 427 E. 90th St., which is a 21-unit luxury condo building; 368 Third Avenue, in Kips Bay, which is a 35-floor mixed-use residential and retail condominium development under construction and slated for completion by the end of 2021; 21 Powers Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which offers 14 luxury residential condominiums.  As per the company’s website, in early 2020, the firm also purchased the site at 343-345 EAST 17TH Street in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park, and has plans to develop about 30,000 square feet of residential condos.

The latest plans are another push for Manhattan’s condominium market, which seems to be off to a not-too shabby start for 2021, despite the pandemic which continues to linger and threaten throughout the city. In January, there were 360 new signed contracts for condos in Manhattan, which is about 50 percent more than the 239 contracts signed in January 2020, as per a report from Douglas Elliman.  Another report from the Real Estate Board of New York, showed that overall, filings for new buildings spanned about 42.7 million square feet last year, down 28 percent compared to the previous year and the lowest total since 2012.  In 2020, construction companies filed plans for only 1,760 new buildings, also the lowest number since 2012.

This year has so far showed signs of improvement, with several new super projects filed.  The Gotham Organization has filed for plans to build a colossal 47-story mixed-use tower at 550 10th Ave. in Manhattan’s Far West side.

 

 

New Yorkers are Fleeing to Florida & Taking their Businesses With Them

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Philippe Delgrange, owner of Le Bilboquet on Manhattan’s East 60th Street, also opened shop in Palm Beach. “[Palm Beach] is really working with you, not trying to put wood in your wheels,’’ said Delgrange. Photo Credit: altimapalmbreach.com

By: Benyamin Davidsons

It’s been a cold, lonely winter in New York.

The frigid weather and Covid-19 restrictions have left New Yorkers living like hermits.   Many, feeling fed up, are opting out and fleeing to the Sunshine State and other warm escapes.

As of Feb.12, New York City restaurants were finally allowed to open for indoor dining– but only at 25 percent capacity.  Despite restaurants’ efforts to add outdoor heaters and create pods, outdoor dining in NY was numbing.  Lincoln Center, Broadway and Carnegie Hall remain shuttered, and so  New Yorkers dreaming of a social life are getting on planes and heading South to Florida, and specifically to Palm Beach County.

“I have escaped New York!’’ exclaimed Jean Denoyer, owner of La Goulue, a Manhattan Bistro which just opened a new location in Palm Beach, Fla.  “We take everyone’s temperature when they arrive and keep the doors and windows open so fresh air circulates.”  The new restaurant, just a short flight away seems like a different world.  They have been operating at 100 percent capacity, and business is booming with tables and chairs full of indoor patrons enjoying and living it up.

As reported in a recent article in the NY Post, similarly Philippe Delgrange, owner of Le Bilboquet on Manhattan’s East 60th Street, also opened shop in Palm Beach.  “[Palm Beach] is really working with you, not trying to put wood in your wheels,’’ said Delgrange, denoting the restrictions placed on restaurants in NYC.   Although masks are required at indoors locations there too, there are no specific spacing restrictions, so it is commonplace to see bars and restaurants filled with maskless patrons who are eating and drinking.  Moreover, the Kravis Center in West Palm just announced that they will open for jazz performances later this month.

The drastic difference is apparent despite the fact that in Palm Beach County COVID infection rates were up to 7.57 percent last week. In New York, the rate fell to 5.08 percent from a high of over 7 percent.  “I feel alive again. I could move here for the rest of my life,’’ said Long Islander Erica Holzer, 47, who came to Palm Beach with her husband for eight weeks. “They take precautions but aren’t absurd…It’s just so freeing to be here.’’

“I arrived here last week and it feels like a different world,’’ said Soho resident Charles Rosenberg, 30, who is staying in Palm Beach for a few weeks. “But I think when the spring comes, New York will feel like this again.”

Manhattan Apartment Sales Last Month Higher than any January Since 2014

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A Corcoran Group analysis revealed that over 900 contracts were signed for condos and co-ops, posting a 28 percent improvement over last January, when just 711 apartments sold. Photo Credit: Corcoran.com

By Ilana Siyance

Manhattan home sales had a great month in January, thanks to bargain hunters grabbing pandemic priced deals.

As reported by the NY Post, last month there were more apartments sold in Manhattan than any other January since 2014.  A Corcoran Group analysis revealed that over 900 contracts were signed for condos and co-ops, posting a 28 percent improvement over last January, when just 711 apartments sold.  “New York has not lost its luster as the capital of the world. It’s gotten beat up with COVID, but it’s not going away,” said Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman. “As soon as Manhattan gets dressed up again and at full speed, I think it’s going to soar.”

Of course, real estate prices have dropped since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, led by a whopping 54 percent decline in sales between May and June 2020, as per a report by appraisal firm Samuel Miller and Douglas Elliman Real Estate.  “I would say this is extraordinarily positive for New York real estate and I think highly unexpected,” Liebman added. “I’m really surprised it happened so quickly.”

The home sales reflect purchases from New Yorkers who spent more time at home in 2020, and are opting to upgrade for more space and added amenities, she said.  Also, families from Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut have been purchasing pied-à-terres, or temporary second homes.

“I truly believe had the pandemic not hit, there’s no way we would have been able to get the apartment that we’re purchasing at the price that we are,” says Interior designer Gabriela Gargano, who closed on a 4-bedroom in Greenwich Village, upgrading with her husband and young child, and selling their 3-bedroom apartment.

There were a total of 539 co-op deals this month, up 22 percent from January 2020, as per Corcoran. There were a total of 279 condo resales, up 42 percent compared to last January.  Sales were sizzling in all price categories, including ultra-luxury, as per Corcoran.  There were four contracts signed for homes priced over $20 million last month, compared with just one in that price range last January.

“The current environment represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for discerning buyers who believe in NYC’s future to purchase the highest and best quality real estate, as seen with this deal,” said developer Ryan Freedman, founder of Corigin Real Estate Group.