Many missing half of stimulus payment

Many Americans have reported only receiving half of their third stimulus payment.

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  • She Claimed Her 8-Year-Old Granddaughter Ran Away. Then Cops Found a Body in Her Car.

    Gem County Sheriff's Office/Ada County Sheriff's OfficeConnie Ann Smith, of Emmett, Idaho, reported her 8-year-old granddaughter missing on April 12, telling police she’d run away.Three days later, little Taryn Summers was found—stuffed inside a garbage bag in the backseat of the grandma’s black Lexus, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Monday.Authorities have now charged Smith with failing to notify law enforcement of death and destruction of evidence. During her Monday afternoon arraignment, Gem County Prosecuting Attorney Erik Thompson called the case “egregious” and said additional charges could be filed soon.“This is a huge devastation and loss to my sister, my family, and I and we are completely heartbroken to lose a family member at such a young age and in such a tragic way. Taryn had a personality twice her size and was a very funny and smart little girl who could always make everyone laugh,” Jennifer Sexton, Summers’ aunt, wrote in a GoFundMe campaign. “Taryn is so loved and was a bright light taken in such an evil way from this world way too soon, and she will be greatly missed.”Did Bigfoot Murder Three People in the Woods of California?While authorities have only identified the child found inside Smith’s car as “TS,” family members have confirmed her identity. Last week, the Gem County Sheriff’s Office announced it had discovered a body believed to be Taryn’s, with details matching those in the affidavit. The affidavit also lists Smith as the grandmother and custodian of “TS,” and says Smith has a son whose last name is Summers. The 54-year-old is the owner of the property where the little girl was reportedly last seen.Authorities say that when officers arrived at Smith’s house after she’d reported Summers missing, they discovered a piece of the carpet had been cut out. Smith allegedly told police she’d removed the carpet and burned it after the had child “defecated” on it.The affidavit states that police ultimately learned that earlier in the day, Smith had been seen driving from a preschool with Summers sleeping in the backseat. Smith admitted the girl was still asleep when they arrived home and that she carried her into a bedroom.On April 14, police and Idaho state forensics investigators returned to search the home again—and found a “small brown spot” on the bedroom wall they believed to be blood.After several searches around Smith’s property, investigators gained access to Smith’s Lexus—after she initially told police she “did not know where the key (was) for the vehicle.”Inside, they found Summers’ body in a black trash bag on the floor. Investigators said the little girl had vomit on her shirt and in her hair. Smith was then arrested on April 15, according to online court records.“In reviewing the probable cause affidavit, the alleged conduct is disturbing,” Judge Tyler Smith said during Smith’s hearing on Monday, before ordering an $800,000 bond. “Report that the child was missing. Ultimately the discovery of the deceased child on the property, I believe two days later. The potential penalty, depending on the conclusion of the investigation, could be severe.”Smith’s attorney did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.Authorities also noted that Summer was not the only relative connected to Smith who’s gone missing. The Gem County Sheriff’s Office said that 16-year-old Tristan Conner Sexton went missing in September 2020 and 14-year-old Taylor Summers disappeared in October. Both teens have since been located and were not in danger.All three children lived in Smith’s house after being moved from their mother’s house in 2019 after testing positive for hard drugs, according to EastIdahoNews. “Law enforcement has been in contact with Taylor and does not believe her to be in danger at this time. Family has been in contact with Tristan Sexton and law enforcement does not believe him to be in danger at this time,” Gem County Sheriff Donnie Wunder said on Thursday. “I want to thank everyone for their concern and support during the last few days.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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  • Chauvin likely to appeal, claiming trial tainted by civil settlement, media coverage

    (Reuters) -Former Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin will likely seek to overturn his murder and manslaughter convictions by arguing that the jury was prejudiced by media coverage and a settlement in the civil case brought by George Floyd's family, though his odds of success are slim, legal experts said. A jury on Tuesday found that Chauvin was guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree "depraved mind" murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a Black man.. Video of the incident touched off global protests over race and police brutality. Chauvin's attorneys will have to notify the trial court within 60 days if they plan to appeal.

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  • Man with Adam Toledo when he was shot by police out of jail

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  • Railway worker saves child from oncoming train

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  • Are COVID Vaccine Side Effects a Good Sign?

    Photo: GettyIf someone gets a headache or feels a bit under the weather after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s become common to hear them say something like “Oh, it just means my immune system is really working hard.” On the flip side, when people don’t notice any side effects, they sometimes worry the shot isn’t doing its job or their immune system isn’t reacting at all.Is there any link between what you can notice after a vaccine and what’s happening on the cellular level inside your body? Robert Finberg is a physician who specializes in infectious diseases and immunology at the Medical School at the University of Massachusetts. He explains how this perception doesn’t match the reality of how vaccines work.What does your body do when you get a vaccine?Your immune system responds to the foreign molecules that make up any vaccine via two different systems.The initial response is due to what’s called the innate immune response. This system is activated as soon as your cells notice you’ve been exposed to any foreign material, from a splinter to a virus. Its goal is to eliminate the invader. White blood cells called neutrophils and macrophages travel to the intruder and work to destroy it.This first line of defense is relatively short-lived, lasting hours or days.The second line of defense takes days to weeks to get up and running. This is the long-lasting adaptive immune response. It relies on your immune system’s T and B cells that learn to recognize particular invaders, such as a protein from the coronavirus. If the invader is encountered again, months or even years in the future, it’s these immune cells that will recognize the old enemy and start generating the antibodies that will take it down.In the case of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, it takes approximately two weeks to develop the adaptive response that brings long-lasting protection against the virus.Be Very, Very Skeptical of These ‘Bad News’ Vaccine ReportsWhen you get the vaccine shot, what you’re noticing in the first day or two is part of the innate immune response: your body’s inflammatory reaction, aimed at quickly clearing the foreign molecules that breached your body’s perimeter.It varies from person to person, but how dramatic the initial response is does not necessarily relate to the long-term response. In the case of the two mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, well over 90 percent of people immunized developed the protective adaptive immune response while fewer than 50 percent developed any side effects, and most were mild.You may never know how strongly your body’s adaptive immune response is gearing up.The bottom line is you can’t gauge how well the vaccine is working within your body based on what you can detect from the outside. Different people do mount stronger or weaker immune responses to a vaccine, but post-shot side effects won’t tell you which you are. It’s the second, adaptive immune response that helps your body gain vaccine immunity, not the inflammatory response that triggers those early aches and pains.What are side effects, anyway?Side effects are normal responses to the injection of a foreign substance. They include things like fever, muscle pain and discomfort at the injection site, and are mediated by the innate immune response.Neutrophils or macrophages in your body notice the vaccine molecules and produce cytokines—molecular signals that cause fever, chills, fatigue and muscle pain. Doctors expect this cytokine reaction to happen any time a foreign substance is injected into the body.In studies where neither recipients nor researchers knew which individuals were getting the mRNA vaccine or a placebo, approximately half of people aged 16 to 55 who received a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developed a headache after the second dose. This reaction may relate to the vaccine—but a quarter of people who received just a placebo also developed a headache. So in the case of very common symptoms, it can be quite difficult to attribute them to the vaccine with any certainty.Researchers anticipate some reports of side effects. Adverse events, on the other hand, are things that physicians do not expect to happen as a result of the vaccine. They would include organ failure or serious damage to any part of the body.The blood clots that triggered the U.S. to pause distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are a very rare event, apparently happening with one-in-a-million frequency. Whether they are definitely caused by the vaccine is still under investigation—but if scientists conclude they are, blood clots would be an extremely rare side effect.What component in the shot causes side effects?The only “active ingredient” in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is the mRNA instructions that tell the recipient’s cells to build a viral protein. But the shots have other components that help the mRNA travel inside your body.To get the vaccine’s mRNA into the vaccinated person’s cells where it can do its job, it must evade enzymes in the body that would naturally destroy it. Researchers protected the mRNA in the vaccine by wrapping it in a bubble of lipids that help it avoid destruction. Other ingredients in the shots—like polyethylene glycol, which is part of this lipid envelope—could cause allergic responses.If I feel sick after my shot, does that signal strong immunity?Scientists haven’t identified any relationship between the initial inflammatory reaction and the long-term response that leads to protection. There’s no scientific proof that someone with more obvious side effects from the vaccine is then better protected from COVID-19. And there’s no reason that having an exaggerated innate response would make your adaptive response any better.Both the authorized mRNA vaccines provided protective immunity to over 90 percent of recipients, but fewer than 50 percent reported any reaction to the vaccine and far fewer had severe reactions.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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    Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced a significant easing in his country's months-long coronavirus lockdown Tuesday, calling it a delicate balancing act as infections remain stubbornly high. The decision to cautiously relax restrictions reflects difficult choices being made in many countries as lockdown fatigue grows even as positive cases keep rising. “We really see the tension between the grim reality in the here and now in the hospitals and at the same time that cautious, optimistic outlook,” Rutte said.

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