The Chinese ambassador to the U.S. railed against American “conspiracy theorists” who blame China for the coronavirus in a Washington Post editorial Monday.
Americans who blame China “regardless of the facts” are distracting Beijing officials as they focus on curbing the virus, Ambassador Cui Tiankai wrote in his editorial.
Tiankai also panned American politicians and conservatives who blame China for their approach to fighting the virus.
Tiankai responded to reports that the World Health Organization is doing China’s bidding. “The World Health Organization has spoken highly of China’s epidemic response, which led the conspiracy theorists to charge that China has either bought the WHO or exerted political pressure on the agency,” said Tiankai, who acknowledged that the virus originated in China.
Tiankai also warned those who believe that the U.S. should de-couple from China amid reports that the communist nation hoarded personal protective equipment as the virus spread across the globe.
“The United States would not emerge as a winner from this scenario,” Tiankai wrote.
As the virus dominates headlines, more businesses believe that some degree of separation from China is likely, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nearly 44% of 25 large U.S. companies believed in March that decoupling would be impossible, down 66% from October, The WSJ reported in April, citing a survey conducted by American Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce.
The U.S. needs China to help put the global economy back online, not to mention eliminate a pandemic that threatens to kill more people over the coming months, Tiankai said.
The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China, before killing more than 160,000 people worldwide.
The majority of U.S. intelligence community agencies believe the virus accidentally leaked out of a laboratory in, China, according to a May 2 Daily Caller News Foundation report. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted in a press statement in April that the IC is investigating the possibility of a lab leak.
Tiankai’s commentary comes after Chinese politician Lijian Zhao falsely stated in March that Centers For Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield was “arrested” over his agency’s handling of the virus. Zhao, the deputy director of China’s Foreign Ministry Information Department, also suggested in a March tweet that the U.S. Army initially introduced the virus into Central China.
The Department of Homeland Security stated May 3 that the Chinese government lied to the World Health Organization about the significance of the pandemic to horde personal protective equipment, among other medical supplies.
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(AP) The economic catastrophe caused by the viral outbreak likely sent the U.S. unemployment rate in April to its highest level since the Great Depression and caused a record-shattering loss of jobs.
With the economy paralyzed by business closures, the unemployment rate likely jumped to at least 16% — from just 4.4% in March — and employers cut a stunning 21 million or more jobs in April, economists have forecast, according to data provider FactSet. If so, it would mean that nearly all the job growth in the 11 years since the Great Recession had vanished in a single month.
Yet even those breathtaking figures won’t fully capture the magnitude of the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on the job market.
Many people still employed have had their hours reduced. Others have suffered pay cuts. Some who’ve lost jobs won’t have been able to look for work amid widespread shutdowns and won’t even be counted as unemployed. A broader measure — the proportion of adults with jobs — could plunge to a record low.
“What we’re talking about here is pretty stunning,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. “The shock is unique because the cause is unique. It’s such a different animal from anything that we’ve ever seen.”
On Thursday, the government will also release the latest weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits. It will likely show that about 3.5 million people sought jobless aid last week. That would bring the total number of layoffs to nearly 34 million since the shutdowns began seven weeks ago.
That figure is much larger than the expected April job loss because the two are measured differently: The government calculates job losses by surveying businesses and households. It’s a net figure that also counts the hiring that some companies, like Amazon and many grocery stores, have done despite the widespread layoffs. By contrast, the total jobless claims is a cumulative figure that includes aid applications that began in March.
Still, the job loss for April may be much larger than expected, with most economists acknowledging that their usual models might not work as well in a collapsing job market. Swonk notes that several million unauthorized immigrants who weren’t able to file for unemployment benefits were nevertheless probably laid off last month. Those jobs losses would be counted, though, in the government’s surveys. Swonk estimates that April’s job loss could total as high as 34 million.
Companies are still cutting jobs in the midst of a severe downturn, with the economy possibly shrinking at an unheard-of 40% annual rate in the April-June quarter. GE Aviation said it is cutting up to 13,000 jobs. Uber will shed 3,700 positions.
Amy Egert, a dental hygienist in Severn, Maryland, was laid off in mid-March. She was told she could return a month later, but she’s still waiting and it’s unclear when she will able to go back. She monitors Maryland statistics on coronavirus cases in hopes that the figures will show enough of a downward trend for her to work again.
“As I watch the numbers, it’s like OK, are we going to make it back by the end of May?” Egert asked. “Is it going to be the first of June? Is it going to be mid-June?”
She is receiving the extra $600 in unemployment included in the government’s relief package but still wants to return.
“I’ve got diabetics out there that haven’t had their teeth cleaned,” Egert said. “They come every four months, and I’m thinking they’re going to be a mess.”
Even as the unemployment rate reaches dizzying heights, it will likely be held down by several factors. The Labor Department counts people as unemployed only if they’re actively searching for work. Yet many laid-off workers may be discouraged from looking for a new job given that so many non-essential businesses are closed. Others may stay home to protect their health. Still others may feel they have to stay with children who are home from school.
In addition, some workers on temporary layoff might be incorrectly classified as what the government calls “employed, but absent from work.” This can happen if employees assume they will return to their jobs once their employer reopens. In March, the Labor Department said that such misclassification by its survey takers — who have never before dealt with pandemic-related shutdowns — lowered the unemployment rate by a full percentage point.
Jason Faberman, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, says that including those workers, as well as millions who still have jobs but who have been reduced to part-time status, could raise a broader gauge of what’s called under-employment to 25% or higher on Friday.
Alexander Bick and Adam Blandin, economists at Arizona State University and Virginia Commonwealth University, respectively, have conducted two surveys since the virus outbreak began that mirror the government’s monthly survey that it uses to calculate the unemployment rate. They conclude that the proportion of American adults in their prime working years — 25 through 54 — who have jobs, fell to just 60.4% in April, the lowest on record.
They also noted that millions of Americans have had their hours cut in April.
“We have never had such low hours” worked, on average, for each employed person, Bick said.
In the latest piece of investigative journalism from Project Veritas: they reported that CBS News crew pulled medical professionals off the floor at the Cherry Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to line up in their vehicles so a CBS film crew would have a long line for their COVID-19 coverage.
In an interview with the insider, O’Keefe asked the insider: “You’re telling me you’re a hundred percent certain that CBS News, CBS News Corporation–national, staged a fake event. They faked the news. They faked the reality and broadcasted that to all of their audience last Friday on “CBS This Morning.”
The insider said to him: “A hundred percent. Absolutely.”
The Cherry Health insider, who came forward to Project Veritas, said the CBS News crew working for CBS News reporter Andriana Diaz had to know what happened.
“Based on my knowledge, CBS News had asked Cherry Health to fabricate a line to obtain newsworthy footage, I was given this knowledge from a colleague at Cherry Health,” the insider said.
“After reviewing their response, I can say definitively that the majority of the line shown in their footage is fake, after CBS had gotten the shot they wanted the entire line dispersed and drove in separate directions,” the insider said.
In response CBS news denies this is true and instead blamed Cherry Health:
“CBS News did not stage anything at the Cherry Health facility. Any suggestion to the contrary is 100% false. These allegations are deeply disturbing. We reached out to Cherry Health to address them immediately. They informed us for the first time that one of their chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients. No one from CBS News had any knowledge of this prior to tonight. They also said that their actions did not prevent any real patients from being tested. We take the accuracy of our reporting very seriously and we are removing the Cherry Health portion from the piece”
Tasha Blackmon, the president and CEO of the Cherry Health told Project Veritas she did not talk to anyone at CBS News about their statement.
“Let me be clear: We are not aware of CBS staging anything as part of their visit to our site,” Blackmon said. “I have never spoken with the president of CBS, or any other CBS executive.”
Blackmon was outside during the filming for an interview with CBS News reporter Andriana Diaz.
“I did see the line of cars in the video that you shared with me. I can assure you that I did not instruct any staff to get in their cars and line up and I have no idea when it was filmed or who was in each car,” she said.
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Dr. Judy Mikovits a well known former virologist and health activist has released an explosive new book entitled “Plague of Corruption” which she co-authored with Kent Heckenlively which exposes the alleged criminality of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from the onset of the HIV outbreak in the early 1980s until today’s COVID-19 pandemic.
When she was part of the research community that turned HIV-AIDS from a fatal disease into a manageable one, she saw science at its best. But when her investigations questioned whether the use of animal tissue in medical research were unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases, such as autism and chronic fatigue syndrome, she saw science at its worst. If her suspicions are correct, we are looking at a complete realignment of scientific practices, including how we study and treat human disease.
Dr. Mikovits has spent twenty years at the National Cancer Institute, working with Dr. Frank Ruscetti, one of the founding fathers of human retrovirology, and has coauthored more than forty scientific papers. She co-founded and directed the first neuroimmune disease institute using a systems biology approach in 2006.
Her co-author, Kent Heckenlively, JD, is a former attorney, a founding editor of Age of Autism, and a science teacher. During college Heckenlively worked for Senator Pete Wilson, and in law school he was a writer and an editor of the school’s law review and spent his summers working for the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
She claims her reputation was destroyed by the Health and Human Services. and the head of President Trump’s Coronavirus task force, Dr. Fauci.
Dr. Mikovits also scrupulously dissects “shelter in place” and every aspect of the way COVID-19 is currently being managed by governmental authorities.
Celebrated environmentalist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. concludes his foreword to Plague of Corruption with, “This account by Judy Mikovits and Kent Heckenlively is vitally important both to the health of our children and the vitality of our democracy. My father believed moral courage to be the rarest species of bravery. Rarer even than the physical courage of soldiers in battle or great intelligence. He thought it the one vital quality required to salvage the world. If we are to continue to enjoy democracy and protect our children from the forces that seek to commoditize humanity, then we need courageous scientists like Judy Mikovits who are willing to speak truth to power, even at terrible personal cost.”
Please watch the following bombshell video that reveals facts never known before
(A.P) A woman, her adult son and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let the daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasn’t wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus.
Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teague’s daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton.
Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving. Two men later came to the store.
Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges.
Larry Teague also is charged with violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order mandating that all customers and employees must wear face coverings inside grocery stores, Leyton said.
Witnesses identified Bishop as the man who shot Munerlyn in the back of the head, Leyton said.
Sharmel Teague has been arrested. Police were looking for her husband and son.
No information has been released about the daughter, who has not been charged in the shooting.
“It is important that the governor’s order be respected and adhered to, and for someone to lose their life over it is beyond comprehension,” Leyton said earlier Monday in a statement.
n Thursday, gun-carrying protesters and other demonstrators rallied inside the state Capitol, calling for coronavirus-related restrictions to be lifted. Some protesters with guns — which are allowed in the statehouse — went to the Senate gallery. Some senators wore bulletproof vests.
As of Monday, Michigan has reported 43,754 confirmed COVID-19 virus cases and 4,049 deaths due to complications from the disease.
“The hostile tone that we have seen in recent days on television and in social media can permeate our society in ways we sometimes don’t fully realize or anticipate,” Leyton told reporters Monday. “Decisions like staying home when we can, wearing a mask when going to the store and staying a safe distance from those around us — these should not be political arguments. They don’t necessitate acts of defiance, and we simply cannot devolve into an us versus them mentality.”
About 150 people attended a candlelight vigil Sunday night. On Monday, a makeshift memorial was started outside the Family Dollar.
Munerlyn’s mother, Bernadett, said she wants justice for her son.
“They didn’t have to take my baby and it wasn’t that serious,” she said. “All you people just have to do is listen to the law, listen to the governor. Just stay home. If you don’t have to come out, then you wouldn’t need a mask unless you’re out getting groceries or necessities. All my baby was doing was his job working and doing his job.”
Whitmer offered her condolences.
“It is incredibly sad that in this crisis that this life was lost,” Whitmer told reporters Monday. “We are mindful of how important it is that people keep a level head, that we do the right things protecting ourselves and protecting others.”
U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show. Photo Credit: AP
By: Will Weissert, Carla K. Johnson & Mike Stobbe
U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show.
Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press. The revelation comes as the Trump administration has intensified its criticism of China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Sunday that that country was responsible for the spread of disease and must be held accountable.
The sharper rhetoric coincides with administration critics saying the government’s response to the virus was slow and inadequate. President Trump’s political opponents have accused him of lashing out at China, a geopolitical foe but critical U.S. trade partner, in an attempt to deflect criticism at home.
Not classified but marked “for official use only,” the DHS analysis states that, while downplaying the severity of the coronavirus, China increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies. It attempted to cover up doing so by “denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data,” the analysis states.
The report also says China held off informing the World Health Organization that the coronavirus “was a contagion” for much of January so it could order medical supplies from abroad — and that its imports of face masks and surgical gowns and gloves increased sharply.
Those conclusions are based on the 95% probability that China’s changes in imports and export behavior were not within normal range, according to the report.
A man wearing face mask walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Monday, May 4, 2020. Shares have skidded in Asia as tensions between the Trump administration and China over the origins and handling of the coronavirus pandemic rattle investors.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
China informed the WHO of the outbreak on Dec. 31. It contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Jan. 3 and publicly identified the pathogen as a novel coronavirus on Jan. 8.
Chinese officials muffled doctors who warned about the virus early on and repeatedly downplayed the threat of the outbreak. However, many of the Chinese government’s missteps appear to have been due to bureaucratic hurdles, tight controls on information and officials hesitant to report bad news. There is no public evidence to suggest it was an intentional plot to buy up the world’s medical supplies.
In a tweet on Sunday, the president appeared to blame U.S. intelligence officials for not making clearer sooner just how dangerous a potential coronavirus outbreak could be. Trump has been defensive over whether he failed to act after receiving early warnings from intelligence officials and others about the coronavirus and its potential impact.
“Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S.,” Trump wrote without citing specifics. “Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner.”
Trump had previously speculated that China may have unleashed the coronavirus due to some kind of horrible “mistake.” His intelligence agencies say they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab.
Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Pompeo said he had no reason to believe that the virus was deliberately spread. But he added, “Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories.”
“These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab,” Pompeo said. “And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
The secretary of state appeared to be referring to previous outbreaks of respiratory viruses, like SARS, which started in China. Pompeo repeated the same assertion hours later, via a tweet Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, China’s official Global Times newspaper said Pompeo was making “groundless accusations” against Beijing by suggesting the coronavirus was released from a Chinese laboratory.
The populist tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said the claims were a politically-motivated attempt to preserve Donald Trump’s presidency and divert attention from the U.S. administration’s own failures in dealing with the outbreak.
“As the U.S. presidential election campaigns are underway, the Trump administration has implemented a strategy designed to divert attention from the incompetence it has displayed in fighting the pandemic,” the paper said in an editorial.
The paper has made the U.S. top diplomat a main target of its attacks, in recent weeks describing him as “despicable” and of having “evil intentions” by blaming China for having caused the pandemic.
While the virus is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, most scientists say it was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediary animal such as the armadillo-like pangolin. That has placed the focus on a wet market in the city where wildlife was sold for food.
The theories about a possible human release have centered on the Wuhan Institute of Virology which undertook research into the transmission of pathogens from animals to people.
Beijing has repeatedly pushed back on U.S. accusations that the outbreak was China’s fault, pointing to many missteps made by American officials in their own fight against the outbreak. China’s public announcement on Jan. 20 that the virus was transmissible from person to person left the U.S. nearly two months to prepare for the pandemic, during which the U.S. government failed to bolster medical supplies and deployed flawed testing kits.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference at the State Department, Wednesday, April 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
In other coronavirus developments, it was reported that if the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus is taken out of the equation and the numbers show the rest of the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns, then we are in for trouble, an Associated Press analysis found Tuesday.
Scientists warn those numbers will only grow as governors and local officials across the country ease their stay-at-home restrictions and reopen businesses.
Meanwhile, Britain’s official coronavirus death toll, at more than 29,000, surpassed that of Italy to become the highest in Europe and second-highest in the world behind the United States.
In the U.S., some states took continued steps to lift the lockdown restrictions that have thrown millions out of work, even as the country recorded thousands of new infections and deaths every day. Public health experts warned the easing could result in tens of thousands of additional deaths.
The New York metropolitan area, consisting of about 20 million people across about two dozen counties, including the city’s northern suburbs, Long Island and northern New Jersey, has been the hardest-hit corner of the country, accounting for at least one-third of the nation’s 70,000 deaths.
When the still locked-down metropolitan area is included, new infections in the U.S. appear to be declining, according to the AP analysis. It found that the five-day rolling average for new cases has decreased from 9.4 per 100,000 people on April 9 to 8.6 on Monday.
But taking the New York metropolitan area out of the analysis changes the story. Without it, the rate of new cases in the U.S. increased over the same period from 6 per 100,000 people to 7.5.
While the daily number of new deaths in the metropolitan area has declined in recent weeks, it has merely plateaued in the rest of the U.S., the AP analysis found.
Pockets of America far from New York City are seeing ominous trends.
Deaths in Iowa surged to a new daily high of 19 on Tuesday, and 730 workers at a single Tyson Foods pork plant tested positive. On Monday, Shawnee County, home to Topeka, Kansas, reported a doubling of cases from last week on the same day that business restrictions began to ease.
“Make no mistakes: This virus is still circulating in our community, perhaps even more now than in previous weeks” said Linda Ochs, director of the Shawnee County Health Department.
Gallup, New Mexico, is under a strict lockdown until Thursday because of an outbreak, with guarded roadblocks to prevent travel in and out the town and a ban on more than two people in a vehicle. Authorities have been sending water tankers into town, hospital space is running short, and a high school gym has been converted into a recuperation center with 60 oxygen-supplied beds.
New infections per day in the U.S. exceed 20,000 and deaths are well over 1,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, one widely cited model from the University of Washington nearly doubled its projection of deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus to around 134,000 through early August, with a range of 95,000 to nearly 243,000.
Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the institute that created the projections, said the increase is largely because most states are expected to ease restrictions by next week.
Without stay-at-home orders and similar measures, Murray said, “we would have had exponential growth, much larger epidemics and deaths in staggering numbers.” But cooperation is waning, with cellphone location data showing people are getting out more, even before their states reopen, he said.
“The rise in mobility in the last week to 10 days is likely leading to some transmission” of the virus, Murray said.
Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang, a public health researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles, said it worries him that the rate of new cases is increasing at the same time some states are easing up.
“We’re one country. If we’re not moving in the same step, we’re going to have a problem,” Zhang said.
He worries that new hot spots will form and said he is particularly concerned about Florida and Texas, places where cases have been rising steadily and the potential for explosions seems high.
While death rates in places have been trending down, that could change as cases rise rapidly and hospitals become overwhelmed, he said.
Governments around the world have reported 3.6 million infections and more than a quarter-million deaths. Deliberately concealed outbreaks, low testing rates and the severe strain the disease has placed on health care systems mean the true scale of the outbreak is undoubtedly much greater.
The British government said about 29,400 people with COVID-19 have died in hospitals, nursing homes and other settings, while Italy reported just over 29,300 confirmed fatalities.
Both countries’ counts are probably underestimates because they do not include suspected cases. Britain reported more than 32,000 deaths in which COVID-19 was either confirmed or suspected; a comparable figure for Italy was not available.
Even so, the rate of deaths and hospitalizations in Britain was on the decline, and the government prepared to begin loosening the lockdown.
A trial began in Britain of a mobile phone app that authorities hope will help contain the outbreak. The app, which warns people if they have been near an infected individual, is being tested on the Isle of Wight, off England’s southern coast. The government hopes it can be rolled out across the country later this month.
Many European countries that have relaxed strict lockdowns after new infections tapered off were watching their virus numbers warily.
“We know with great certainty that there will be a second wave — the majority of scientists are sure of that. And many also assume that there will be a third wave,” said Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s national disease control center.
South Korea reported only three new cases of the virus, its lowest total since February. On Tuesday, the country’s baseball season began, with no spectators allowed. In China, it has been three weeks since any new deaths have been reported in the country where the outbreak began late last year.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, and its Swiss subsidiary have admitted not only failing to prevent but actively assisting U.S. customers to set up secret accounts, to shelter assets and income, and to evade taxes.
Edited by: JV Staff
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jeffrey A. Rosen, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Richard E. Zuckerman, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Don Fort, the Chief of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), recently announced the guilty plea of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. and entry of criminal charges against Bank Hapoalim B.M. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $7.6 billion in more than 5,500 secret Swiss and Israeli bank accounts and the income generated in these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”).
Ralph Mascia, National Head of Sales for Bank HaPoalim
As part of last week’s resolutions, along with resolutions entered into with state and federal partners, Bank Hapoalim B.M. (“BHBM”), Israel’s largest bank, and its Swiss subsidiary Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. (“BHS”) (collectively, the “Bank”), agreed to pay approximately $874.27 million to the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the New York State Department of Financial Services. Today’s resolution is the second-largest recovery by the Department of Justice in connection with its investigations since 2008 into facilitation of offshore U.S. tax evasion by foreign banks. Officers of BHBM and BHS appeared on behalf of the Bank to enter the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Israel’s largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, and its Swiss subsidiary have admitted not only failing to prevent but actively assisting U.S. customers to set up secret accounts, to shelter assets and income, and to evade taxes. The combined payment approaching $1 billion reflects the magnitude of the tax evasion by the Bank’s U.S. customers, the size of the fees the Bank collected to provide this illegal service, and the gravity of the illegal conduct.”
Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said: “Today’s resolutions and payment of $874 million make clear that tax evasion cannot be taken lightly. A fair tax system requires even-handed compliance, and honest conduct by all participants in the system.”
Gabriel Hamani – Chief Executive Officer, BHI USA
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman said: “The Department of Justice continues to aggressively prosecute banks and other financial institutions that help U.S. taxpayers conceal their income and assets in offshore bank accounts. Today, Bank Hapoalim is being held accountable for its conduct – it has admitted to its crimes and will surrender all fees it earned, repay the United States for lost tax revenue, and pay a substantial fine.”
IRS-CI Chief Don Fort said: “There is no excuse for a foreign financial institution to unlawfully assist wealthy Americans in flouting their responsibilities to pay their taxes. With today’s guilty plea, Bank Hapoalim is taking responsibility for their role in deliberately breaking the law and undermining the integrity of this nation’s tax system. Offshore tax evasion is a top priority for IRS Criminal Investigation and we are wholeheartedly committed to bringing offenders to justice. Today’s resolution serves as proof that financial institutions engaging in tax fraud face dire criminal and financial consequences for their behavior.”
Bank Hapoalim was established in 1921 by the Histadrut, the Israeli trade union congress (lit. “General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel”) and the Zionist Organization. The bank was owned by the Histadrut until 1983, when it was nationalized following the Bank Stock Crisis. The bank was held by the Israeli government until 1996 when it was sold to a group of investors led by Ted Arison.
The bank has a significant presence in global financial markets. In Israel, it has over 600 ATMs (automated teller machines), 250 bank branches, 7 regional business centers, 22 business branches and industry desks for major corporate customers. The bank’s stock is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
At the end of 2015, the bank had 11,930 employees worldwide. It is controlled by Arison Holdings, owned by Shari Arison. Arison Holdings owns a total of 20 per cent of the bank.
In January 2014, Danske Bank and the Dutch pension fund PGGM blacklisted Bank Hapoalim for its involvement in the financing of settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Today’s resolutions include agreements with BHBM and BHS under which the Bank agreed to accept responsibility for its conduct by stipulating to the accuracy of extensive Statements of Facts. BHBM further agreed to refrain from all future criminal conduct, implement remedial measures, and cooperate fully with further investigations into hidden bank accounts. Assuming BHBM’s continued compliance with its agreement, the Government has agreed to defer prosecution of BHBM for a period of three years, after which time the Government will seek to dismiss the charge against BHBM.
According to documents filed today in Manhattan federal court:
BHBM is Israel’s largest bank and operates primarily as a retail bank with approximately 250 branches throughout Israel and more than 2.5 million accounts. In addition to retail banking services, BHBM offered private banking services for onshore and offshore customers through its retail branches and its Global Private Banking Center. BHBM also wholly owned Poalim Trust Services Ltd., which provided trust formation and management services. Outside Israel, BHBM owned BHS, a Swiss subsidiary that provided private banking. BHS is headquartered in Zurich and at times during the prosecution period had branches in Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore. BHBM also had branches in New York, Miami, the Cayman Islands, the United Kingdom, and Jersey.
RIGHTS granted: For public relations, social media and marketing use by BHI only. Not for any additional usage unless a written permission granted by SA PRO, Inc. Images are not transferable. MUST INCLUDE PHOTO CREDIT: SHAHAR AZRAN
From at least in or about 2002, and continuing until at least in or about 2014, the Bank conspired with employees, U.S. customers, and others to: (1) defraud the United States with respect to taxes; (2) file false federal tax returns; and (3) commit tax evasion. Employees of BHBM and BHS assisted U.S. customers in concealing their ownership and control of assets and funds held at the Bank, which enabled those U.S. customers to evade their U.S. tax obligations, by engaging in the following conduct:
Assisting U.S. customers with opening and maintaining accounts in the names of pseudonyms, code names, trust accounts, and offshore nominee entities;
Opening customer accounts for known U.S. customers using non-U.S. forms of identification;
Enabling U.S. taxpayers to evade U.S reporting requirements on securities’ earnings in violation of the Bank’s agreements with the IRS;
Providing “hold mail” services for a fee, avoiding any correspondence regarding the undeclared account being sent to the U.S.;
Offering back-to-back loans for U.S. taxpayers to enable them to access funds in the United States that were held in offshore accounts at the Bank in Switzerland and Israel; and
Processing wire transfers or issuing checks in amounts of less than $10,000 that were drawn on the accounts of U.S. taxpayers or entities in order to avoid triggering scrutiny.
At least four senior executives of the Bank, including two former members of BHS’s board of directors, were directly involved in aiding and abetting tax evasion of U.S. taxpayers.
Under today’s resolutions, the Bank is required to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations and affirmatively disclose any information it may later uncover regarding U.S.-related accounts. The Bank is also required to disclose information consistent with the Department of Justice’s Swiss Bank Program relating to accounts closed between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2019. The agreements provide no protection from criminal or civil prosecution for any individuals.
BHBM will pay a total of $214.38 million, which has three parts. First, BHBM has agreed to pay $77,877,099 in restitution to the IRS, which represents the unpaid taxes resulting from BHBM’s participation in the conspiracy. Second, BHBM has agreed to forfeit $35,696,929 to the United States, which represents gross fees (not profits) that the bank earned on its undeclared accounts between 2002 and 2014. Finally, BHBM has agreed to pay a penalty of $100,811,585.
John Yoler – Representative Offices NJ, CA & FL.jpg
BHS will pay a total of $402.53 million, which also has three parts. First, BHS has agreed to pay $138,908,073 in restitution to the IRS, which represents the unpaid taxes resulting from BHS’s participation in the conspiracy. Second, BHS has agreed to forfeit $124,628,449 in gross fees to the United States. Finally, BHS has agreed to pay a fine of $138,998,399. These payments were approved by Judge Vyskocil today in connection with BHS’s plea and sentencing.
Both the penalty and fine amounts take into consideration that the Bank, after initially providing deficient cooperation through an inadequate internal investigation and the provision of incomplete and inaccurate information and data to the Government, thereafter conducted a thorough internal investigation, provided client-identifying information, and cooperated in ongoing investigations and prosecutions. The Bank further implemented remedial measures to protect against the use of its services for tax evasion in the future.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is also announcing today that it has reached a resolution with BHBM, by which BHBM has agreed to a cease and desist order, certain remedial steps to ensure its compliance with U.S. law in its ongoing operations, and a civil monetary penalty of $37.35 million. Additionally, the New York State Department of Financial Services is announcing a similar resolution by which BHBM has agreed to a consent order and a monetary penalty of $220 million.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, and thanked the Justice Department’s Tax Division for their partnership on this case.
This prosecution is being handled by the Tax Division and the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Assistant Chief Todd A. Ellinwood and Senior Litigation Counsel Nanette Davis of the Tax Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sagar K. Ravi and Timothy V. Capozzi of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, are in charge of the prosecution. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman also thanked Assistant Chief Kathleen Barry and former Trial Attorney Timothy Russo of the Tax Division for their substantial assistance.
The Isabella Geriatric Center is shown Friday, May 1, 2020, in New York. The nursing home says nearly 100 of its residents have died from confirmed or suspected cases the novel coronavirus. It is among the hardest hit nursing homes in the state, with 46 confirmed fatalities and an additional 52 deaths of people suspected to have the virus. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
By: Marina Villeneuve
New York state has reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it has protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state’s nursing homes since March 1, according to a tally released late Monday that, for the first time, included people believed to have been killed by the virus before their diagnoses could be confirmed by a lab test.
Exactly how many nursing home residents have died remains uncertain despite the state’s latest disclosure. The list released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration did not include nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals before dying.
With the inclusion of the additional deaths, the state now lists 22 nursing homes, largely in New York City and on Long Island, as having at least 40 deaths. And 62 nursing homes have reported between 20 and 39 deaths.
Parker Jewish Institute in Queens and the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan are listed as having the most deaths: 71 and 64, respectively. Even those numbers are likely an undercount. Isabella Geriatric Center officials have said publicly that 98 residents are believed to have died, including those sent to hospitals.
Audrey Waters, a spokeswoman for Isabella Geriatric Center, said in an email last week, that the home, like others in the city, initially had limited access to tests to quickly diagnose residents and staff.
“This hampered our ability to identify those who were infected and asymptomatic, despite our efforts to swiftly separate anyone who presented symptoms,” she said.
In many cases, the state’s new figures reveal many more deaths than previously reported at nursing homes. For example, Ozanam Hall, a facility in Queens, now reports a total of 53 deaths, up from just 10.
Several veterans homes have been hit especially hard by the virus. The Long Island State Veterans Home has reported 53 deaths, including 48 confirmed and five presumed COVID-19 deaths.
Back on March 2, when only a handful of coronavirus cases had been reported in New York, Cuomo promised to make a “special effort” for nursing homes and congregate homes housing senior citizens. The state directed nursing homes to screen visitors and consider modifying visiting hours on March 6, and later suspended visits to nursing homes statewide March 12.
But the governor now faces questions over whether more could be done to help New York’s state-regulated nursing homes amass enough personal protective gear, get access to tests and ensure adequate staffing.
Cuomo has said that if a nursing home becomes overwhelmed by the virus and cannot care for all patients properly, it should ask for help.
The state also urged nursing homes to let local emergency management officials know if they need more personal protective gear.
Cuomo said he believed nursing homes were trying their best under difficult conditions.
“The nursing homes we said from day one are the most vulnerable place,” he said.
Families of residents at several of the affected facilities have expressed frustration with getting updates on outbreaks and the number of fatalities.
Adam Jankowitz said he has resorted to calling members of Congress after several failed attempts to get information about the Isabella Geriatric Center, where his mother, Joanne, lives.
He believed there had been only a handful of deaths until the facility reported last week that nearly 100 residents infected with the coronavirus had died.
“We’re trying to get a clearer idea of the risk to her in staying where she is. We’re also trying to arrange another living place for her until it is safe to be in her building, and to organize details of moving her and her cat to a safer place,” Jankowitz wrote in an email.
While the federal government has yet to release numbers on how the coronavirus has ravaged the industry, The Associated Press maintains its own tally based on state health departments and media reports, finding 22,101 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide.
In this April 17, 2020, file photo, a patient is loaded into an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. New York state is now reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it’s protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
By: Marina Villeneuve & Michael Hill
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued that officials who are re-opening economies need to be upfront about the human costs. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is adding staff to the city’s deluged 311 helpline. And there was a slight uptick in the daily death toll.
Coronavirus developments in New York:
HUMAN COST
Cuomo said the national debate over when to re-open outbreak-ravaged economies ultimately boils down to the value placed on people’s lives.
“How much is a human life worth?” Cuomo asked at his daily press briefing. “That’s the real discussion that no one is admitting openly or freely. But we should.”
The Democratic governor made the argument as political pressure intensifies to relax outbreak-fighting restrictions keeping people at home and off the job. As other states begin lifting restrictions, Cuomo has opted for a slower approach that will allow parts of the state to phase in economic activity later this month if they meet and maintain a series of benchmarks.
“The faster we re-open, the lower the economic cost — but the higher the human cost, because the more lives lost,” he said. “That, my friends, is the decision we are really making.”
Cuomo claims his plan avoids the trade-off between economic and human costs because it will be controlled by officials constantly monitoring fatalities and hospitalizations.
The 230 new deaths reported by Cuomo were up slightly from the previous day, but far lower than the daily peak of 799 on April 8. There have been more than 19,000 deaths in New York since the beginning of the outbreak.
The state total doesn’t include more than 5,300 New York City deaths that were blamed on the virus on death certificates but weren’t confirmed by a lab test.
New York’s hospitalization rates continue to drop with 659 new admissions reported Monday, the lowest number since March. There were 9,600 patients hospitalized overall.
HELPLINE DELUGED
The coronavirus case surge that swamped New York City’s 911 emergency line last month also deluged its 311 helpline, as calls soared from an average of 55,000 a day to about 200,000 daily. Wait times grew long in some cases.
To tackle the problem, the city has trained 285 new call-takers and added four new call centers, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. He said the city also is creating 311 “express lanes” for COVID-19 matters and needs for food, so those calls would be taken with minimal wait times most of the day.
The 311 helpline was designed to handle non-emergency calls ranging from noise complaints to questions about jail visits.
De Blasio said typical wait times have dropped by 75 percent at peak-volume times.
In the 911 system, the virus spurred the busiest days ever for the city’s EMS operation. Requests for ambulance service hit a record 6,527 calls on March 30, over 50% more than average. They have since dropped to around normal levels of about 4,000 per day.
NURSING HOMES
New York state is reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it’s protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state’s nursing homes since March 1, according to a tally released by Cuomo’s administration late Monday that, for the first time, includes people believed to have been killed by the coronavirus before their diagnoses could be confirmed by a lab test.
Two homeless men were found dead on the MTA subway system overnight during the previous weekend. Police said the first man was discovered Friday night on a C train at the 168th Street station in Washington Heights, and the second man was found Saturday morning on a 4 train at the Utica Avenue station in Brooklyn. Photo Credit: thecity.nyc
By: Ilana Siyance
New Yorkers with no place to call home have been riding and sleeping on mostly vacant subway trains. While this is not the first time in NYC history that subways have become a haven for homeless people looking for an indoor place to rest, the current shift is sparking public health fears, and causing the subway system to shut down nightly for cleaning.
As reported by the NY Times, ridership on NYC subways is down 92 percent, and the mostly empty cars have become inviting to the city’s homeless population. Many of the trains now feature unkempt figures sleeping in the seats for extended rides. While this would never be seen as pleasant, during the coronavirus pandemic its impact is even more critical. Many of these passengers have no access to medical care or proper hygiene and can become a health hazard for commuters and train employees.
In response, the city has taken an unusual step—closing down the subway system nightly from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. for deep cleaning. The closures will begin on Wednesday, for the subway system that has become known for never closing. The change will not only allow time for the trains to be disinfected and restore public confidence in public transportation, but it will also force the homeless population to find a different place to sleep. The final decision was made on Thursday by transit officials together with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Both the Governor and Mayor said they would work to help the homeless find shelter. “It’s an unacceptable reality and this new plan will disrupt that unacceptable reality and allow us to actually get help to people more effectively,” Mr. de Blasio said.
Currently, the shelters where the government wants the homeless to stay provide single adults dormitory-style rooms where they sleep just a few arms’ lengths away from one another. Over 60 homeless people have died due to coronavirus. Three out of every four of those casualties were single adults who had stayed in shelters where numerous people shared rooms and bathrooms. Many of the homeless refuse to go to the shelters, saying they are unsafe. The city has been trying to alleviate the health risk at shelters by transferring thousands of homeless people into hotel rooms that are vacant due to the city’s shutdown and the lack of tourists.
Providing shelter for the homeless remains a priority, however, it is exceedingly clear that the lodging cannot be sought on subways. Close to 100 Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees have died from coronavirus. The casualties of bus drivers and train operators outweigh casualties in almost all other work fields. These employees work in the confined indoor space, exposed to numerous people gripping the same metal poles. Currently, cleanup crews have only 10 to 15 minutes to disinfect cars before a train turns around. David Duarte, is a cleaner at the Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, one of the largest elevated terminals around the globe. He said that he and four co-workers started putting on hazmat suits, masks and gloves before work. “There can be feces, urine, a lot of trash,” said Duarte. “The more homeless are in there, the harder it is to clean the train.”
Sarah Feinberg, the interim president of New York City Transit, said in a statement that “the subway system should not be used as a substitute for shelter.” “It’s not good for our customers, it’s not good for our workers, and it’s not good for homeless New Yorkers who deserve much, much better care,” she said.
Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan released its one-thousandth recovering coronavirus patient this past week. (Lenoxhill.northwell.edu)
By: Mike Mustiglione
It was a milestone to be proud of, as Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan released its one-thousandth recovering coronavirus patient this past week.
Ramdeo Radhay, 61, was wheeled out the front door by hospital staffers to the sounds of boisterous applause.
In a video of the event, Radhay flashed a thumbs up sign, shook hands with cardiologist Dr. Shankar Thampi, and declared, “I want to thank Dr. Thampi and everyone in this hospital a million times.”
“Radhay, an immigrant and former farmer from the South American country of Guyana, moved to the US in 2011 and worked in auto repair until he lost his job because of the coronavirus, hospital officials said,” reported the New York Post. “He has five kids, two of which are adopted — and lives with his wife, a daughter and two of his sons, who work as medical assistants for the hospital, officials said. Two of his sons, as well as his wife and daughter, who both work in a nursing home, tested positive for the disease, officials said. Fortunately, only the father needed to be hospitalized.”
During his stay at Lenox Hospital, Radhay “had been doing poorly. He required oxygen for most of the time he was hospitalized. Doctors had considered placing Radhay on a ventilator when they opted to start him on plasma instead,” said amny.com. “Once the plasma treatment started, Radhay’s condition turned around almost instantly.
“Over the last 48 hours he has had a remarkable recovery,” Dr. Nazish Ilyas, Division Chief of the Hospitalists and Associate Chair for Inpatient Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, told amny.com “Today was the first day that we were able to take him off of oxygen completely. From where he came in two weeks ago to today, the progress he has made has really been remarkable.”
There have been other inspiring tales to come out of the hospital during the pandemic. The New Yorker, just days ago, profiled an intensive-care nurse named Cady Chaplin who has been on the front lines there combatting the virus, and her colleague and friend Karen Cunningham. Both live in Brooklyn.
“When I wear a uniform, I put it on and take on my nurse self,” Cady Chaplin said during the interview. “But you lose your personal eccentricities, so I like to wear weird T-shirts underneath my scrubs, even if it’s just for myself.
“Sometimes, after my shift, I walk in my apartment, slide down the door, and cry,” she added. “After I take a shower, I can’t quite figure out what it is I am supposed to be doing. Coming down from these shifts, hearing codes all day on the intercom, it’s hard to get out of that fight-or-flight response. I’ve been eating a lot of salted black licorice.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a House Oversight Committee hearing on Capitol Hill (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
As unemployment rises rapidly in the U.S., due to Coronavirus, tenants rights groups and community nonprofits are uniting to rally in hopes of canceling rent and mortgage payments due for the month of May. The groups have been using social media as well as sporadic in-person protests to persuade the government to halt upcoming rent and mortgage payments during this time of widespread economic hardship.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York’s liberal Representative, is enthusiastically endorsing the effort, which is known as #CancelRent in online video rallies. “It’s not that it’s impossible to do and it’s not that we can’t do it,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a live video on her Facebook page. “We lack enough politicians with political will to actually help people who are tenants and actually help people who are mom-and-pop landlords.”
As reported in the NY Times, groups across the country are encouraging tenants to withhold May rent payments, in hopes of adding pressure to attain tenant-friendly legislation. Needless to say, landlords are pushing back, saying they are struggling to pay their bills as well. Further, as many tenants already haven’t been able to pay rent they say the consequences for an escalation could be disastrous. They maintain that property owners too have mortgage payments to make, property taxes to pay, and expenses in maintaining buildings.
For the federal government to get involved in canceling rent and mortgage payments for the duration of the shutdown, it would require extensive and far-reaching legislation in the housing and financial markets, which many say may be unconstitutional. Chances for an all-out bill being rolled-out remain slim but that hasn’t stopped the groups from amassing a good size army of followers, even including some progressive members of Congress. “It’s a moment that people are literally rising up for real transformation in the housing market,” said Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator at Housing Justice for All, a New York group.
Jittery landlords too have bonded saying that before the government can demand anything from them, elected officials would first need to act to wave looming property taxes. Recently, a report by the NYC’s Rent Guidelines Board showed that roughly 30 percent of landlord’s expenses for rent-regulated apartments go towards paying property taxes in NYC. Joseph Strasburg, the president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which embodies 25,000 NYC landlords, cautioned that a strike on rent payments would “create an economic and housing pandemic.” “The city and its residential housing landscape will crumble into an economic abyss worse than the 1970s, when New York was the national poster child for urban blight,” said Mr. Strasburg.
In April, overall rent collection was not far below last year’s level, but that was because many renters paid by credit cards, and some landlords did allow concessions.
Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands was being investigated, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, who called the firms actions “appalling, disrespectful to the families of the deceased, and completely unacceptable. Photo Credit: You Tube
By: Howard M. Riell
Like something out of a cheap horror movie, the discovery of decomposing corpses inside moving vans has cause state health officials to remove the license from a funeral home in Brooklyn that was allegedly responsible.
Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands was being investigated, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, who called the firms actions “appalling, disrespectful to the families of the deceased, and completely unacceptable. We understand the burden funeral homes are facing during this unprecedented time. But a crisis is no excuse for the kind of behavior we witnessed.”
Police official had been notified on Wednesday of the terrible smells and viscous liquid emanating from the truck, which was left just outside the funeral home at 2037A Utica Ave.
“Cops found dozens of bodies piled up in the unrefrigerated cargo areas and more lying on the floor inside the business, sources have said,” the New York Post reported. “U-Haul called the macabre use of its trucks “wrongful, egregious and inhumane,” with a company source telling TMZ, “Our trucks absolutely cannot be rented for this reason.”
Criminal charges were not brought, according to information supplied to the Associated Press, but the funeral home was penalized for not controlling the stench.
“Obviously the funeral home shouldn’t have done that,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Never one to miss an opportunity for publicity, Mayor Bill de Blasio also had a comment. He called the incident “unconscionable” and added, “I have no idea in the world how any funeral home could let this happen.”
Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams said during an interview with the New York Daily News that “While this situation is under investigation, we should not have what we have right now, with trucks lining the streets filled with bodies. It was people who walked by who saw some leakage and detected an odor coming from a truck.”
New York City, of course, has been the unfortunate epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic “and the city’s funeral homes have been overwhelmed,” Reuters reported. “As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 18,000 people have died of COVID-19 in America’s biggest city, according to a Reuters tally. Funeral homes say they are facing weeks-long backlogs to bury or cremate the dead.”
The horrible incident “highlighted a serious and continuing problem: What to do with thousands of dead bodies in New York City, which weeks ago emerged as the center of the pandemic in the U.S.,” reported wsj.com. “As of Wednesday afternoon, officials reported 12,287 confirmed coronavirus deaths in the five boroughs, with another 5,302 fatalities classified as probable deaths from the virus.”
de Blasio promised that New York City will create a group akin to the task force recommended by Adams to aid communication and cooperation between families, funeral homes and members of the clergy.
A quarter of hotels in New York City hotels that had been slated as facilities to handle patients who had been suffering from the coronavirus still sit empty and unused. At the same time, subway trains are filled with homeless people – many potentially infected. Photo Credit: AP
By: Jim McFeeney
Hotels rooms are empty, while subway cars are jammed.
Something isn’t adding up.
A quarter of hotels in New York City hotels that had been slated as facilities to handle patients who had been suffering from the coronavirus still sit empty and unused. At the same time, subway trains are filled with homeless people – many potentially infected.
In addition, in what has caused a furor from coast to coast, local nursing homes have been strong-armed into taking those who are getting over the virus, thereby endangering other residents.
“As of 4 a.m. Monday, the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in Queens had 10 occupants and the Aloft next to it had 11 while a Hampton Inn and a Hilton Garden Inn in undisclosed locations in the city had no guests, according to a NYC Health + Hospitals document viewed by The Post,” the newspaper reported. All told, those hotels had only 21 occupants for nearly 1,100 rooms, according to the document.
“It’s infuriating and morally disgusting,” Annie Caraforo, an activist with Neighbors Together, a Brooklyn social services and advocacy group, told the Post. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic and we need to be taking all of the safety precautions we can to make sure people can safely socially isolate and keep themselves healthy.”
A national outcry has arisen because New York’s leaders vastly over-estimate the damage they thought would be caused by the pandemic. The USNS Comfort hospital ship “holds fewer than 80 patients in New York City, leaving nearly 90% of its available space unused after its emergency dispatch to the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus crisis,” said CNBC. “Shortly after arriving from its home port in Norfolk, Virginia, the military’s floating lifesaver was adjusted to receive coronavirus patients, halving its 1,000-bed capacity.” As of mid-April, only 71 of the USNS Comfort’s 500 beds were occupied.
The situation has not gone unnoticed in the halls of power in upstate Albany, At one of his televised daily briefings, Cuomo showed the gathered reporters and television cameras a photo splashed across the front page of The Daily News of the homeless crammed into train cars. “That is disgusting, what is happening on those subway cars,” he told the New York Times. “It’s not even safe for the homeless people to be on trains,” he added. “No face masks, you have this whole outbreak, we’re concerned about homeless people, so we let them stay on the trains without protection in this epidemic of the Covid virus? No. We have to do better than that, and we will.”
B&H Photo & Electronics, the iconic electronics retailer that has made a name for itself in Manhattan and throughout the world announced this week that it was furloughing 400 of its 2000 employees because of the coronavirus lockdown. Photo Credit: B&H
Edited by: JV Staff
B&H Photo & Electronics, the iconic electronics retailer that has made a name for itself in Manhattan and throughout the world announced this week that it was furloughing 400 of its 2000 employees because of the coronavirus lockdown, according to a NY Post report.
Last month, B&H shuttered its Manhattan megastore that employs Orthodox Jews from the tri-state area. Izzy Friedman, the human resources director of B&H told those employees that are now without jobs that this was a very difficult decision for the company and it “waited as long as possible” before sending out the pink slips. The Post reported that Friedman reminded the laid off employees that B&H has been providing salaries and benefits “ “through the Passover holiday break, and beyond to make this easier.”
B&H is a landmark in Manhattan for locals and tourists from across the globe who travel to the Big Apple in order to purchase electronic equipment and supplies from the celebrated retailer. B&H has been in operation for the last 47 years in its flagship store on 9th Avenue and West 34th Street in midtown Manhattan.
Friedman also told employees that B&H had no choice but to let the 400 employees go because the “crisis has continued with no clear end in sight” but was looking forward to evaluating “the various stimulus benefits available,” according to the Post report.
“It is our sincerest hope and prayer that this global pandemic and its economic impacts will be temporary, and that in the future we will be able to reverse many of these furloughs,” Friedman wrote in the Wednesday memo, as was reported by the Post.
According to one B&H employee who spoke to the Post, the layoffs come as a surprise as the store’s call center has been generating a brisk business from those who wish to order electronic equipment such as cameras, computers and accessories. Now that a vast majority of people are working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, such orders are related to those seeking to set up offices from home.
Back on March 16th, B&H officially closed its two-story Manhattan location, however, according to the company’s web site, those who placed online or phone orders may pick up their products within 30 minutes of their order at the side entrance of the midtown store, according to the Post report.
B&H is owned by the Schreiber family. Its first store was opened in Tribeca in 1973 and has since grown exponentially.
In November of 2019, it was reported that New York State’s Attorney General Letitia James had filed suit against B&H, alleging that the store withheld approximately $7.3 million in tax revenue from New York State over 13 years.
Officially, the suit is for violations of New York’s Tax Law, the New York False Claims Act, and New York’s Executive Law. The suit claims that B&H — the nation’s largest non-chain photo and video equipment retailer — knowingly failed to pay sales tax due on tens of millions of dollars it received from electronics manufacturers to reimburse the company for “instant rebate” manufacturer discounts B&H passed along to its customers.
A spokesman for B&H Photo, Jeff Gerstel, said the state’s lawsuit was without merit in a statement. “B&H is not a big box store or a faceless chain; we are a New York institution, having operated here for nearly 50 years with a stellar reputation. The tax department has done countless audits and never once – not a single time – mentioned this widespread industry practice. B&H has done nothing wrong and it is outrageous that the AG has decided to attack a New York company that employs thousands of New Yorkers while leaving the national online and retail behemoths unchallenged.”
Thomas Lopez-Pierre, who ran unsuccessfully for New York City Council in 2017, is in trouble for allegedly extorting a media company with threats, unless the company conformed to his racial diversity demands (You Tube)
By: Hayley Quigstone
Thomas Lopez-Pierre, a failed City Council candidate who was known for his “ greedy Jewish landlord” remarks and hurling insults at black supporters of his opponents has targeted a media company with threats of violence and economic harm if they do not comply with his social justice demands of racial quotas.
The media company has filed a lawsuit accusing Lopez-Pierre of threatening to send “gang members” to protest until they guaranteed half the speakers it books for various events would people of color or women the NY Post reported.
Lopez-Pierre is threatening Bisnow, a media and events business that that produces news and live events, focused on such as real estate, technology and businesses.
The NY Post reported: Lopez-Pierre started his “extortion scheme” in November 2019, sending letters to Bisnow’s sponsors saying he would have “recently incarcerated Black and Hispanic men … disrupt and hold up banners” at their events, the company charges in an $18 million Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit filed Saturday.
“Diversity has always been a priority for Bisnow, and they have a strong track record of outreach and inclusion in their company and events,” said Judd Burstein, a lawyer for Bisnow.
During his campaign for city council in 2017 against Upper Manhattan Councilman Mark Levine, Lopez-Pieree used vitriolic anti-Semitic attacks on Levine and on property owners he blames for the gentrification of Upper Manhattan, Observer reported.
“Together, we can defeat the greedy Jewish landlords that are engaged in ethnic cleansing”, The NY Post reported Lopez-Pierre saying in one of his campaign videos
He also provoked controversy in 2013 by appearing at a campaign event with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer during the fallen pol’s failed bid for city comptroller, by trading claims of sexual molestation with Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and by labeling an African-American supporter of Levine’s an “Uncle Tom ni**ger bitch”, in a another political campaign Observer reported.
Observer reported Lopez-Pierre had pleading guilty a few years ago to violating an order of protection taken out by his ex-wife and the NY Post reported:
In 2013, Lopez-Pierre allegedly groped Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal at a news conference.
“Stop grabbing my ass! Get off me!” Rosenthal, then 55, exclaimed at the event.
Lopez-Pierre denied Rosenthal’s allegations.
“I’m at a political event — I’d grab some old woman’s ass?” he said. “Why would I grab some old lady’s ass. That’s insane.”
NY Post reported that Lopez-Pierre threatened that unless sponsors Bisnow withdrew, “Our protestors will visit the corporate offices, homes and houses of worship of the speakers and sponsors … and yell that ‘XYZ’ person and/or firm is RACIST and SEXIST, until NYPD Officers arrive and drag them out kicking and screaming (which will be recorded on cellphones for social media),” Lopez-Pierre vowed, according to court papers.
TJV also reported last year: Lopez-Pierre had to pay back $54,107 of the $99,180 in matching funds the Campaign Finance Board gave him for his failed bid against City Councilman Mark Levine of Manhattan. Lopez-Pierre has also been assessed $6,182 in fines for assorted forms of malfeasance. The panel charged him with a long list of wrongs including: neglecting to report over $12,000 in contributions; failing to cite over $10,000 in transactions; exceeding the $100 limit on individual cash expenditures; using campaign funds for personal use; and making campaign expenditures after the election was already over.
