Sand Springs police investigate double murder-suicide
Sand Springs police investigate double murder-suicide
Dr Mary Trump thinks her uncle’s ego is too fragile to risk losing again - though he has much to gain by pretending he’ll run.
Lindell equates getting coronavirus vaccine to receiving ‘mark of the beast’ pledging allegiance to the devil
Medical examiner is ‘awaiting toxicology results’ before releasing a report on the death
The penal colony where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sent to serve his two-year sentence is "one of the worst" in Russia, former inmates and prisoners rights groups have said. Mr Navalny was reported to have arrived at penal colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, three hours outside Moscow, on Sunday. Transfers of inmates within Russia's penitentiary system can take days or weeks and relatives often only discover the whereabouts of a prisoner after he or she has arrived at a prison. Mr Navalny’s arrival has not yet been confirmed by his legal team and he could be moved again. Former inmates of colony No 2 told the Telegraph that if Mr Navalny stays at the prison he will be subjected to a combination of intense isolation and gruelling psychological and physical pressure designed to mentally destroy him. “It’s one of the worst colonies in Russia. Former inmates are afraid to speak out about the conditions because they risk repercussions after they leave the prison,” said Ruslan Vakhapov, a human rights activist who specialises in defending prisoners for local NGO Jailed Russia. “Navalny will probably be isolated from the outside world and other prisoners will be prevented from talking to him,” Mr Vakhapov said. Prisoners face abuse by prison guards if they violate a strict schedule, he said, while the colony administration encourages prisoners to control and monitor other inmates. “There are no rights for prisoners in Russia,” Mr Vakhapov said. “Navalny faces immense pressure that can psychologically weaken him, but I think the administration will be afraid of using physical force on him. It could damage their reputation completely,'' he added.
The 78th annual Golden Globe Awards have been handed out in a virtual ceremony.
2021's "Car of the Year" has been crowned...The Toyota YarisLocation: Geneva International Motor ShowThe petrol-electric hybrid beat six other cars for the titleSecond place went to the Fiat 500 Electricwith the Cupra Formentor in thirdSOUNDBITE) (English) ONE OF THE JURY MEMBERS AND DUTCH JOURNALIST, PETER HILHORST, SAYING:"Toyota Yaris is one of the seven finalists of the 2021 Car of the Year. I am driving it on typical Dutch B-roads which are twisted and narrow, they are bumpy and therefore they are perfect to test the suspension of this 4th generation Yaris. It's more fun to drive, very steering and more responsive handling, the strength is its versatility."
Prince Harry was worried about history repeating itself, according to excerpts released from his and his wife Meghan's much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey.The CBS broadcast network released two brief clips from Oprah interview of the couple, which is scheduled to air on March 7.The suggestion of history repeating itself appears to reference the fate of Harry's mother Princess Diana, who was hounded by the British press and died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris after her divorce from Prince Charles.Harry said "I'm just really relieved and happy to be sitting her talking to you with my wife by my side," before going on to add "Because I can't imagine what it must have been like for her (Diana), going through this process by herself all those years ago.”It is the first TV interview the couple, formally known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have given since making their homes in California last year.They shocked Britain when they decided to step back from royal duties.Last month the couple announced that are expecting a second child.In the clips, Oprah said that no subject was off limits and at one point tells the couple "you have said some pretty shocking things here," including that their situation had been "almost unsurvivable".
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel voted unanimously on Sunday to recommend Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot for widespread use, a final clearance for the vaccine a day after it was authorized by U.S. regulators. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 12-0 to recommend the vaccine from J&J as appropriate for Americans 18 and older. State and local public health authorities will use Food and Drug Administration and CDC guidance as they administer the first 4 million doses.
We get the Season 20 premiere of “The Voice” (plus a new NBC drama) while “Bachelor” women return to spill the tea on Raleigh native Matt James.
From Puerto Rico to Bradenton and Orlando to Tuscon, Arizona, players on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tour paid tribute to Tiger Woods, who suffered a horrific car accident in California earlier this week and needed surgery to his multiple leg injuries sustained in the accident.
The president returned to some of his favourite debunked theories about the election, and much more
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos via FacebookChaos. Incivility. Lack of respect for authority.Those are the things a Montana lawmaker accuses anti-fascists of in a new resolution intended to designate the movement a “domestic terrorist organization.”But the measure is struggling to get off the ground, and the 20-year-old MAGA acolyte-turned-state lawmaker pushing it seems to be the reason why.Days after far-right rioters broke into the U.S. Capitol, Montana state Rep. Braxton Mitchell introduced a resolution aimed at the opposite end of the political spectrum: “antifa,” the loosely affiliated left-wing anti-fascist movement. Nevermind that “antifa” is not a centralized group, nor that the United States government makes no such designations of “domestic terror.”The bill is the latest attempt to push penalties on the left even as national security experts plead with lawmakers to watch for new attacks from the far right. Unlike previous anti-anti-fascist bills, however, this one’s biggest stumbling block might be its own sponsor.GOP Rep. Somehow Blames Mail Slowdown on Antifa and Black Lives MatterAfter Mitchell, a freshman lawmaker, introduced it in a contentious Montana House meeting on Feb. 16, most of the bill’s Republican co-sponsors yanked their names from the measure.“He misbehaved. He got a little out of control in committee and I think most of the co-sponsors pulled out then,” one of those 32 former co-sponsors, Republican Rep. Larry Brewster, told The Daily Beast. “I suspect the co-sponsors pulled out as a way to censure him.”Unlike some of his older peers in the House, Mitchell comes from a hard-right youth movement. In 2018, he organized pro-gun marches in opposition to some of his classmates’ “March For Our Lives” demonstrations. He joined Turning Point USA, a Koch-backed student club, and went on to become an ambassador for the group. After Donald Trump disputed his 2020 election loss, Mitchell used Twitter to amplify a call for members of Congress to reject electors “from disputed states.” He also tweeted a picture and video of the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys at the pro-Trump “Million MAGA March,” a Nov. 14 demonstration.“‘Proud Boys’ are outside of The Willard in DC singing the national anthem,” he tweeted. “#MillionMAGAMarch #ProudBoys *This tweet is not an endorsement*”During Mitchell’s campaign, screenshots circulated of him allegedly tweeting an anti-gay slur. However, Mitchell previously told the Hungry Horse News that the screenshots were photoshopped. Reached for comment, Mitchell linked to the older story, and told The Daily Beast that “I do not wish to comment on the resolution.” His Twitter account disappeared around the time of his response.The bill was incendiary even before it was introduced. The text is virtually identical to that of a dead-in-the-water bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2019 by Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Bill Cassidy. That older bill, which also moved to designate “antifa” as a domestic terror organization, did not provide a definition of the non-group, other than to claim that anti-fascists “represent opposition to the democratic ideals of peaceful assembly and free speech for all” and “believe that free speech is equivalent to violence.”Michael Loadenthal, executive director of Georgetown University’s Peace and Justice Studies Association, said the Cruz-Cassidy bill and the Mitchell bill are part of a worrying trend.“Certainly, over the last few years, we've seen a significantly noticeable spike” in bills attempting to criminalize anti-fascism, Loadenthal told The Daily Beast. Trump frequently called to designate anti-fascists as terrorists, and peddled baseless conspiracy theories about the movement. Following the Capitol attacks, many Trump supporters falsely blamed antifa for the break-in.Loadenthal said Mitchell’s bill “fits very well into the post-January 6 insurrectionary attempt to shuffle or misplace guilt and accountability.”But despite calls to designate anti-fascists as a “domestic terror” organization, no such legal framework even exists on the national level, Loadenthal noted. “We have no domestic terrorism law in this country. There is no crime of domestic terrorism at the federal level,” he said. “We have no ability to add anti-fascists to the list of domestic terror organizations because there is no list of domestic terror organizations.”Instead, experts like Loadenthal say, such legislation could serve as a means to silence dissent or intimidate the left. The Cruz-Cassidy bill attributed a handful of incidents in California and Oregon to antifa or, more broadly, “left wing activists.” Mitchell’s bill, which borrows the same text, does not cite any incidents related to Montana.Even former white supremacists who operated near Mitchell’s home district say his proposal misses the point.In 2011, Scott Ernest became a co-leader of Kalispell Pioneer Little Europe (PLE), a whites-only settlement 30 minutes from Mitchell’s district. The position put him in conflict with anti-fascists, whom he now describes as significantly less dangerous than the white supremacists he worked with.“There’s just no comparison,” he told The Daily Beast.Although Ernest was involved in screening PLE recruits, and in moderating the white supremacist message board Stormfront, he began experiencing doubts with the movement when members started defending the massacre of young Norwegian leftists—some of them children—by white supremacist Anders Breivik.“People were telling me, ‘They’re communists, they’re antifa, so they deserved it.’ That was kind of the first time I questioned it,” he said. Ernest has since left the movement, and founded an organization dedicated to extracting people from white supremacist ideologies. The Kalispell PLE is now defunct.When Mitchell introduced his bill in committee, some of his colleagues raised similar objections. Rep. Ed Stafman, a Democrat, noted an October 2020 report from the Department of Homeland Security, which highlighted white supremacists as the “most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.”This Cop Joined the Capitol Protest. Then She Spread an Antifa Conspiracy.“In the 28-page report, there’s no mention of antifa whatsoever as a domestic terrorism organization,” Stafman told Mitchell, going on to note Montana’s oft-documented white supremacist problem. “I think your district is near to Whitefish, where neo-Nazis launched a terror campaign in 2018 against the Jews there, resulting in a $14 million court judgement, but not until Whitefish Jews had to endure numerous threats to their lives.”A representative asked Mitchell whether he had consulted with law enforcement on the bill—he had not. Another questioned why Mitchell had claimed in his opening remarks that the bill was bipartisan, when no Democrats had signed onto it“I was making a joke on the bill,” Mitchell replied. But not even his Republican peers were laughing.“Representative, we don’t necessarily think that this is a joking matter,” the committee’s Republican chair replied. “This is a House bill being brought before our committee on behalf of the citizens of Montana.”So far, 32 of those Republican peers—most of the bill’s original 53 co-sponsors—have pulled their sponsorship after the bill, as the Associated Press reported. Some may have bailed over Mitchell’s behavior, as Brewster, the Republican representative, suggested.Others told the AP they’d consider supporting the bill if it were extended to include other groups, although Mitchell appeared adamant that the legislation only address “antifa.”“This bill is specific to one group and the intent is to keep it that way,” he said in committee, when the chair asked if he would be open to expanding the bill.“So what you’re saying is you are not willing to host amendments,” the chair said.“Mr. Chair if I could—”“No, you can’t.”And when another representative asked why Mitchell’s bill didn’t list a single incident in Montana, Mitchell replied that “the intent is to send a message that we as a state won’t tolerate a group like this coming into our state or being involved in such actions in our state… Yes, it states in the bill offenses from other areas, but, yeah.”Ernest, the former white supremacist, told The Daily Beast that anti-fascists helped him leave the movement—and that Montana is already home to plenty of them.They just aren’t doing what people like Mitchell say they are.“All the ones I’ve met there are Montana natives,” Ernest said. “They’re a) not a threat, and b) they’re already there. They’ve been there a long time.”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.
Investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney's office are taking a closer look at Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, as they continue a probe into former President Donald Trump and his family business, people with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times. They are investigating potential financial fraud, and whether Trump and the Trump Organization manipulated property values in order to receive loans and reduce property taxes, the Times reports. Weisselberg, 73, has worked for the Trump Organization for decades, starting at the company when it was helmed by Fred Trump, the former president's father. Two people familiar with the matter said prosecutors have been asking witnesses about Weisselberg, and spoke with one person about Weisselberg's sons — Barry, the property manager of Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park, and Jack, who works at Ladder Capital, one of Trump's lenders. None of the Weisselbergs have been accused of wrongdoing, and there is no indication Barry and Jack are a focus of the probe, the Times says. The investigation began more than two years ago, with the district attorney looking into hush money payments made to two women who said they had affairs with Trump. Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, arranged the payments, and pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance charges. He testified before Congress that Weisselberg came up with a strategy to hide the fact that the Trump Organization was reimbursing Cohen for making payments to one of the women, pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has called the investigation "a witch hunt." More stories from theweek.comTrump is back. Did anyone miss him?Trump still has the Republican Party by the throatThe myth of the male bumbler
The current package includes $1,400 stimulus checks, $400 payments in federal unemployment benefits, and funds for coronavirus testing and vaccines.
CNNChris Cuomo opened his primetime CNN show Monday night by acknowledging the growing sexual harassment scandal surrounding his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and telling viewers why he “obviously” would not be covering it. “Before we start tonight, let me say something that I’m sure is very obvious to you who watch my show,” the host began. “And thank you for that. You’re straight with me, I’ll be straight with you.”“Obviously, I’m aware of what’s going on with my brother,” Cuomo continued. “And obviously I cannot cover it, because he is my brother. Now, of course CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so.”>> @ChrisCuomo at the top of @CuomoPrimeTime tonight: "Obviously I am aware of what is going on with my brother. And obviously I cannot cover it because he is my brother. Now, of course CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so." pic.twitter.com/G49mZYTG4D— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 2, 2021 “I have always cared very deeply about these issues and profoundly so,” Cuomo added, declining to elaborate or name which “issues” he was talking about. “There’s a lot of news going on that matters also, so let’s get after that.”The host was speaking at the end of a day in which a third woman accused the New York governor of inappropriate sexual behavior. But as New York Times reporter Annie Karni posted on Twitter in response, while it may make sense for Cuomo to recuse himself from covering his brother, “What never made sense to me was Chris Cuomo covering him when things were going well for Andrew Cuomo.”Especially during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Cuomo was a frequent guest on his brother’s show, where they would joke around together about calling their mom and memorably performed a playful comedy sketch with a giant test swab at the same time the governor’s office was underreporting nursing home deaths. 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.
The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans is asking Catholics to avoid the recently-approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which it says is “morally compromised” by its “extensive use of abortion-derived cell lines.” In a statement on Friday, the archdiocese noted that while deciding whether to receive the vaccine is an individual choice, that “the latest vaccine from Janssen/Johnson & Johnson is morally compromised as it uses the abortion-derived cell line in development and production of the vaccine as well as the testing.” While a number of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have used cells originally derived from an aborted fetus in the 1970s, the archdiocese argues that Johnson & Johnson “extensive use” is worse than that of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which used the cells lines only to test their vaccines, according to Religion News Service. This makes the “connection to abortion … extremely remote,” in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the statement argues, recommending that Catholics choose one of those instead, if provided a choice. While the archdiocese claims the decision is in line with guidance from the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Bioethics Center, none of the three have issued statements denouncing the new vaccine. In December, the Vatican issued general guidelines regarding vaccines in which the Holy See said it was “morally acceptable” for Catholics to receive shots that used the HEK293 cells for research. While the HEK293 cells are reportedly originated from an aborted fetus from the 1970s, ethicists have said that the cells and similar cell lines are clones and not the original fetal tissue. The Vatican has made the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available for all Vatican City residents. Pope Francis reportedly received the shot in January. The Archdiocese of New Orleans’ statement comes after leaders of the USCCB and leaders from other religious organizations sent a letter to the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last spring regarding ethical concerns over the COVID-19 vaccines. “We are aware that, among the dozens of vaccines currently in development, some are being produced using old cell lines that were created from the cells of aborted babies,” the letter read. “For example, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a substantial contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is working on a vaccine that is being produced using one of these ethically problematic cell lines.” However, a USCCB memo written by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, who chairs the organization’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, argued that the vaccines are moral.
Some people might prefer Johnson & Johnson's shot because it was tested on variants, has milder side effects, and is easier to get.
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January, and Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
The baby was born nearly sixth months after Hilaria Baldwin gave birth to her son Eduardo "Edu" Pao Lucas.
Alex Smith is reportedly set to hit the free agent market this offseason and keep his career going over two years after suffering an injury that some thought was career-ending.