Gov. Gavin Newsom defended the state's business climate during the unveiling of his proposed 2021-2022 budget. “The state is still this remarkable, remarkable, home to more dreamers and doers than any other part of the globe," Newsom said.
Advisers say the president was ‘turned off’ by the look of his supporters as they attacked the US Capitol
Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force veteran seen brandishing zip tie handcuffs during the pro-Trump siege at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Sunday in Texas.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) on Friday called for an investigation into how rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this week knew where to find his office.In an interview with SiriusXM Radio’s Joe Madison, Clyburn said that he had never before seen such a failure of law-enforcement leadership and claimed “something else is going on.”"My office, if you don't know where it is, you aren't going to find it by accident," he said. "The one place where my name is on the door, that office is right on Statuary Hall. They didn't touch that door. But they went into that other place where I do most of my work. They showed up there, harassing my staff.""How did they know to go there? Why didn't they go where my name was?" he added. "Something else is going on untoward here," he said. "We need to have an extensive investigation to find out."He said that while he supports the Capitol Police, the agency’s leaders failed to do their jobs. He questioned why videos circulating on social media seemed to show officers opening barriers and taking selfies with rioters who broke into the building. "Why were they out there waving people on to the grounds? Why were they allowing people through those doors?" he asked. The rioting, which took place Wednesday as Congress met to count the Electoral College votes and affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, left five people dead, including Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick. Clyburn said those involved need to be held accountable."We've got to indict. We've got to convict these people because one of those Capitol Police [officers] died and somebody should be tried for their death," he said. "All those people who were on those grounds the other day were complicit in that."
Saturday's plane crash in Indonesia, in which a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 carrying 62 people plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff, has once again cast the limelight on the safety of the country's aviation industry. Indonesia's aviation record is one of the worst in Asia, with more civilian airliner passenger accidents since 1945 than any other country in the region. While experts say there have been many improvements in recent years, the latest crash has experts questioning the true progress of Indonesia's aviation oversight and regulation.
An American Airlines pilot on flight 1242 from Washington D.C. to Phoenix threatened to divert his plane to Kansas if passengers didn’t behave. “We will do that if that’s what it takes, so behave, please.”
President Trump was prepared to "do a number" on outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) last week on stage during the president's final pre-runoff rally in Georgia, a source familiar with the events told The Washington Free Beacon's Eliana Johnson, per Politico.The implication is that Trump told Loeffler what he said about her on stage was contingent upon whether she backed the Electoral College challenge championed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), among others.> Scoop in @playbookplus, guest-written today by @elianayjohnson:> > Trump “told Kelly Loeffler before he landed in Georgia for a final rally on Monday that if she didn’t back the Electoral College challenges, he would ‘do a number on her,’ from the stage.”https://t.co/qdxrdmRB1N> > — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) January 10, 2021Loeffler did plan to object, though it's unclear if the decision was directly related to Trump's alleged threat. Ultimately, the point was moot, since Loeffler lost to her Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock, and wound up voting to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory afterwards. But the report still carries some significance for analysts, who think it's a microcosm of the larger issues that led to Loeffler's defeat.> In the end, it’s a symptom of the broader dynamic of Loeffler’s loss, one that was evident from the beginning of the year. She tried to transform herself into something she was not, alienating moderates while never being genuine enough to win over a skeptical Trump base.> > — Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) January 10, 2021Johnson's scoop also further suggests that Trump was willing to let the Republican Party lose control of the Senate for personal gain.More stories from theweek.com Sympathy for Ashli Babbitt 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Capitol riot What would actually happen if Trump tried the 'martial law' idea?
The latest effort to recall California governor Gavin Newsom has gained more than 1 million signatures, with nine weeks left to collect the additional 500,000 that would enable the measure to be placed on the ballot.Should the recall effort receive 1.5 million total signatures by mid-March, a mid-year election would take place."The people are being heard loud and clear, and it is not a matter of IF we are going to reach our goal necessary that will trigger a recall election of Newsom, it is just when we cross the finish line," Orrin Heatlie, the Lead Proponent of the official RecallGavin2020.com, said in a statement.A senior adviser to the recall campaign, Randy Economy, previously told Fox News that it hoped to meet the benchmark required to place the measure on the ballot by mid-to late-January.He told the outlet the effort is nonpartisan, with supporters of both Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and President Trump backing the cause.While recall initiatives in the Golden State seldom make it onto the ballot, Newsom’s public image has been marred recently by a series of controversies, including his attendance at a mask-less, not-socially-distanced indoor dinner party late last year even as he enacted strict coronavirus restrictions in the state.Economy said a number of the movement’s supporters believe the governor has mismanaged the state’s coronavirus response, particularly as it relates to small businesses.Many small business owners in the state have lost their livelihoods while big-box stores have been allowed to remain open, he said. Newsom "put corporate interests before the people of California," Economy said.In 2003, Gray Davis became the first governor to be recalled in the U.S. since 1921. The vacancy was ultimately filled by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Authorities in central California were searching Sunday for six inmates who used a “homemade rope” to escape from a county jail, sheriff's officials said. All six escapees should be considered armed and dangerous, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
An unlicensed dog breeder was forced to give up two rescued pets after she became the first to have a private prosecution brought against her by an animal charity. Nicola Palmer, 39, of Kesgrave, Suffolk, was taken to court by Phoenix Rehoming after she breached her adoption contract by failing to neuter her male and female dog brought to the UK from Romania. Palmer had no licence to breed the dogs but allowed them to have a litter of nine puppies, five of which were sold for £300 each. The remaining dogs were given to family members. Animal welfare chiefs said the case reflected how "growing numbers" of people were looking to cash in on rising demand for puppies exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic. Phoenix Rehoming, which spotted that Palmer's female dog Esme was pregnant at the age of 10 months, sought help from the charity Animal Protection Services which organised the private prosecution. Ms Palmer was accused of three counts of theft relating to the two adult dogs and the litter, and breeding dogs without a licence. She gave back the adult dogs when she was served with the summons at her home three days before Christmas and was allegedly told the police would be called if she did not comply. The theft charges were dropped at Suffolk magistrates court in Ipswich last Wednesday, in return for her pleading guilty to not having a breeding licence. Ms Palmer who is on benefits was given a conditional discharge, and ordered to pay £230 towards the estimated £11,000 costs of the prosecution, and a £21 victim surcharge. A spokesperson for Animal Protection Services which investigates and prosecutes animal cruelty said: "We believe this is the first ever private prosecution relating to an unlicensed dog breeder. "We have found that there are a growing number of people cashing in on the huge demand for puppies caused by the coronavirus pandemic and people spending more time at home. "While this case related to a woman who had broken the condition of adopting dogs, there are also organised crime groups who are getting involved in breeding. Many groups are switching from drugs to puppies because there is so little enforcement. "The law about licensing breeders is supposed to be enforced by local authorities, but they have only brought a handful of cases. "We are in the process of bringing a further seven private prosecutions of people involved in unlicensed breeding." Anyone making more than £1,000 a year from dog breeding has to have a local authority licence, although the requirement is not enforced for the breeding of family pets. The law introduced in 1999 to crack down on puppy farms was strengthened in 2018 when a licence became compulsory for anyone breeding three or more litters a year, even if not for profit, instead of the previous limit of five. Ms Palmer who lives in Kesgrave, Suffolk, made a donation of £530 to the charity for the pups. She said: "It wasn't made clear to me when I took on the dogs that the charity still owned them even though I had paid for them. I had all their paperwork and passports showing they had been imported from Romania so in my mind, they were entirely mine.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that he is lifting "self-imposed restrictions" on contacts between American diplomats and their Taiwanese counterparts, ending a practice that was in place to appease China.The United States, like most countries, doesn't have official relations with Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, but the Trump administration has "ramped up" its support for the self-ruled, democratic country over the years, Reuters notes, and Pompeo's latest move appears to be part of an effort to "lock in a tough approach" to Beijing before the White House transition takes place later this month.Taiwan's government welcomed the decision, but Chinese state media was unsurprisingly critical. One piece of commentary published by CGTN, the English-language channel of state broadcaster CCTV, called it a "cowardly act of sabotage" that "crossed a dangerous red line." And Hu Xijin, the editor of China's state-owned Global Times, warned — in a since-delated tweet — that Taiwan could face repercussions for Pompeo's actions, The Associated Press reports. "The option of using military means to solve [the] Taiwan question will also be put on the table," the tweet reportedly read.The move may not be universally applauded stateside, either, per Reuters. Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicts the Biden administration will "rightly be unhappy that a policy decision like this was made in the final days of the Trump administration." Read more at Reuters and The Associated Press.More stories from theweek.com Trump reportedly told Kelly Loeffler he'd 'do a number on her' if she didn't back Electoral College challenge Sympathy for Ashli Babbitt 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Capitol riot
Corporations suspending campaign donations to 127 lawmakers who voted to nix president-elect Joe Biden’s victory
Megalodon sharks gave birth to babies bigger than most adult humans after they feasted on unhatched eggs in the womb, according to a new study. The extinct species, which featured in 2018 science fiction film The Meg, lived nearly worldwide roughly 15 to 3.6 million years ago. Known as one of the largest species of fish to ever exist, the sharks reached at least 50 feet (15 metres) in length. According to the study, from the moment of birth Megalodon - formally called Otodus megalodon - was already a big fish. Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in Chicago and lead author of the study, said: "As one of the largest carnivores that ever existed on Earth, deciphering such growth parameters of megalodon is critical to understand the role large carnivores play in the context of the evolution of marine ecosystems." Researchers used a CT scanning technique to examine incremental growth bands in Megalodon vertebral specimens housed in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. Measuring up to six inches in diameter, the vertebrae were previously estimated to have come from an individual about 30 feet in length based on comparisons with vertebrae of modern great white sharks, according to the researchers. The images revealed the vertebrae to have 46 growth bands, meaning that the nine-metre Megalodon fossil died at age 46. By back-calculating its body length when each band formed, the study published in Historical Biology, suggests the shark's size at birth was about 6.6 feet in length, suggesting that Megalodon gave live birth to possibly the largest babies in the shark world. Researchers say the data also indicates that like all present-day lamniform sharks, embryonic Megalodon grew inside its mother by feeding on unhatched eggs in the womb - a practice known as oophagy, a form of intrauterine cannibalism. Co-author Martin Becker, of William Paterson University, New Jersey, said: "Results from this work shed new light on the life history of Megalodon, not only how Megalodon grew, but also how its embryos developed, how it gave birth and how long it could have lived."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing the Trump supporters who rioted in the Capitol this week of choosing “their whiteness over democracy.” “It has been an epiphany for the world to see that there are people in our country led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their whiteness over democracy,” Pelosi said. Pelosi has set the House on course to potentially voting on a new impeachment of Trump as early as this coming week, a move that has overwhelming support from Democrats.
Capitol Police did not link Howard Liebengood’s death while off duty to Wednesday’s deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill.
The Republican Attorneys General Association paid for Robocalls asking ‘patriots’ to march on Congress
Two weeks before thousands of Trump rioters breached Congress, “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander said his group wasn’t violent—“yet.”“One of our organizers in one state said, ‘We’re nice patriots, we don’t throw bricks,’” Alexander told a crowd at a Dec. 19 rally at Arizona’s state capitol. “I leaned over and I said, ‘Not yet. Not yet!’ Haven’t you read about a little tar-and-feathering? Those were second-degree burns!”Alexander, who has described himself as one of the “official originators” of the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, went on to use “yet” as a code word for violence. Then Alexander told the Phoenix crowd about his plans for Washington.“We’re going to convince them to not certify the vote on January 6 by marching hundreds of thousands, if not millions of patriots, to sit their butts in D.C. and close that city down, right?” Alexander said. “And if we have to explore options after that…‘yet.’ Yet!”Alexander’s supporters cheered, yelling threats like “noose!” and “nothing’s off the table!”Alexander led a host of activists in ratcheting up the rhetoric ahead of Congress’ certification of the electoral votes, threatening to “1776” opponents of Trump’s re-election. Now that five people, including a Capitol Police officer, are dead, however, Alexander has gone into hiding, and the website promoting his Jan. 6 rally has been wiped from the internet.Alexander is defiant, saying he won’t “take an iota of blame that does not belong to me.”“I didn’t incite anything,” Alexander said in a video posted Friday to Twitter. “I didn’t do anything.”In reality, even as Alexander claimed his supporters were peaceful, he repeatedly raised the prospect of using violence in the weeks ahead of Jan. 6.On Sunday night, Twitter banned Alexander’s personal account and an account for “Stop The Steal.” Alexander didn’t respond to a request for comment.Alexander is a convicted felon, after pleading guilty to felony property theft in 2007 and felony credit card abuse in 2008. Alexander first appeared in conservative politics in the Tea Party era under the name “Ali Akbar,” organizing a group called the National Bloggers’ Club that was tied to “shady data collection operations.”In the Trump era, now using a new name, Alexander emerged as an idiosyncratic, trash-talking MAGA die-hard affiliated with figures like InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, anti-Muslim Trump booster Laura Loomer, blundering provocateur Jacob Wohl, and Trump ally Roger Stone.Before Trump’s 2020 election defeat, Alexander was perhaps best known for Donald Trump Jr. retweeting his groundless claim that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is not an “American Black.” He was invited to the White House for Trump’s “Social Media Summit” with various right-wing internet figures, and began frequently wearing orange clothes, claiming God had given him a message that the color had special significance for 2020.“God gave me the color orange in December 2019,” Alexander tweeted on Election Day. “He told me ‘orange would be the color of 2020.’ I've come to learn it means GOD'S POWER.”He Bragged About Storming Capitol—Until the Arrests StartedAfter Trump’s election defeat, Alexander positioned himself as one of the leading Trump re-election dead-enders with his “Stop the Steal” group, which quickly became a clearinghouse for pro-Trump personalities rallying outside of state capitols in contested battleground states.Alexander also started to promote mega-rallies protesting the election results in Washington in November and December, even clashing with rival organizers over who deserved credit for the events. And he began organizing a protest outside the Capitol for Jan. 6, dubbing it the “Wild Protest” after a Trump tweet promising the protests during the electoral vote count “will be wild.”For Jan. 6, Alexander claimed in a video, he had some organizing assistance from pro-Trump Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL)."We four schemed up putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a video posted before the Jan. 6 protest.Gosar and Brooks didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Biggs disputed Alexander’s story, claiming Biggs isn’t “aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point” and had no “contact with protestors or rioters.”Alexander’s voice grew more menacing in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 rally. He tweeted that he would “give my life for this fight,” a call that was promoted by the Arizona Republican Party.Alexander also began tweeting frequently about “1776,” a reference to the start of the American Revolution. Alexander wrote in one post that the choice was “45”—Trump’s re-election—“or 1776.” In another message, he wrote that “1776 is always an option for free men and women.”Most pointedly, Alexander responded to a tweet from QAnon-supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claiming that top congressional leaders were working to block objections to the electoral vote. If that happened, Alexander said, he and hundreds of thousands of other protesters would “1776” the Capitol.“If they do this, everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building,” Alexander tweeted on Dec. 30. “1776 is *always* an option”Alexander’s anger wasn’t limited to Congress. After four people were stabbed after a December MAGA protest outside the Hotel Harrington, a downtown Washington hotel popular with Proud Boys, the hotel announced that it would be closed for several days around the Jan. 6 protest.A furious Alexander posted a video filled with threats to the hotel, urging his fans to “be extremely high IQ as God enacts his vengeance.” Alexander compared his supporters to the snake in the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag, saying they had been “tread on” and noting that “the vipers bite.”“May not one patriot get caught on camera doing anything bad,” Alexander said.At the Dec. 19 Arizona rally, Alexander kept up his threat that his movement could become violent. He said he wouldn’t describe Democrats as burglars in Republicans’ homes, implying that would mean they’d be shot—a metaphor he said wasn’t necessary “yet.”“Let them hear that,” Alexander said. “‘Yet.’”The night before the Jan. 6 rally, Alexander riled up Trump supporters in Washington with a “victory or death” chant and once again brought up “1776.”> Far-right activist and "Stop the Steal" leader Ali Alexander in Freedom Plaza leads the crowd in a "Victory or death!" chant. pic.twitter.com/RW27eA8oh5> > — Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) January 5, 2021“1776 is always an option,” Alexander told the crowd. “These degenerates in the deep state are going to give us what we want, or we are going to shut this country down.”Alexander’s “Wild Protest” rally was scheduled to take place on the northeast corner of the Capitol’s lawn, with a website claiming that Greene, Gosar, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) would all speak at the event. Before the rally, Alexander attended Trump’s speech on the White House Ellipse, posting a picture from the front row.“Nice seats,” Alexander tweeted. “Thank you @realdonaldtrump!”Alex Jones claims that he and Alexander had some “deal” with the White House about their protest outside of Congress.“We had a legitimate deal with the White House,” Jones said in an InfoWars show filmed after the riot with Alexander. “‘Hey Jones and Ali,’ literally, they let us out early, we were supposed to lead a peaceful deal.”Video posted by InfoWars in an apparent attempt to distance Jones from the riots shows Jones and Alexander on the west side of the Capitol as tear-gas canisters went off in the distance and Trump supporters mounted MAGA flags on the inauguration risers. Jones unsuccessfully tried to convince rioters to move to the east side of the Capitol and attend their rally on the other side of the building instead.“As much as I love seeing the Trump flags flying over this, we need to not have the confrontation with the police, they’re going to make that the story,” Jones said.But Alexander refused to disavow the riot.“I don’t disavow this,” Alexander said in a video filmed overlooking the Capitol. “I do not denounce this. This is completely peaceful, looks like, so far.”Now Alexander claims to be in hiding, alleging in a video posted Friday that he needs $2,000 a day to fund his security detail and other expenses and hitting his fans up for donations. In a bizarre moment in his fundraising pitch, Alexander claimed that he was being targeted by the supernatural: “Witches and wiccans are putting hexes and curses on us.”It’s not clear how, however, if Alexander’s supporters can send him money at all. On Saturday, he posted on Parler that he had been banned from Venmo and PayPal.In his Friday video, Alexander claimed that his “rally never turned violent.” But Alexander also read a quote from talk radio host Rush Limbaugh that positively compared the rioters to the heroes of the American Revolution, and said rioters who entered the Capitol should suffer light consequences, if any.“I think people should be rowdy, I think people should be messy,” Alexander said. “I do believe that we own that U.S. Capitol. So I’m not apologizing for nothing.”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.
After video of unruly Trump supporters harassing lawmakers in airports and reports of distruptions on flights to and from Washington the same week Trump loyalists descended on D.C. and stormed the Capitol, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration vowed to take "strong enforcement action" . In a statement over the weekend, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said quote, "I expect all passengers to follow crew member instructions, which are in place for their safety and the safety of flight." Earlier this week, the flight attendants union said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol should not be allowed to depart Washington on commercial flights after exhibiting quote "mob mentality behavior" on flights into the region. Alaska Airlines said on Friday it banned 14 passengers from future travel with the carrier after a number of passengers were quote "non-mask compliant, rowdy, argumentative and harassed our crew members" on a flight from Washington to Seattle last Thursday. American Airlines temporarily halted alcohol service on flights departing and arriving in Washington after last Wednesday's events. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was harassed on Friday by supporters of Trump and called a "traitor" at Washington's Reagan National Airport before departing on a flight.
Switzerland's decision in the spring to shutter schools was one of measures that was most effective in reducing mobility and thus also transmission of Covid-19, a study showed Sunday. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, ETH, determined that the closure of Swiss schools last March was responsible for cutting mobility by more than a fifth. "School closures reduced mobility by 21.6 percent," Stefan Feuerriegel, an ETH professor of management information systems who headed the study." "School closures reduce mobility, (which) then reduces new cases" of Covid-19, he said. His team analysed some 1.5 billion movements in Swiss telecommunication data between February 10 and April 26 last year to evaluate the impact on mobility as various anti-Covid measures were introduced. In decentralised Switzerland, its 26 cantons introduced measures at different paces before a country-wide partial lockdown, including school closures, was ordered on March 16. Schools across the country remained closed for about two months before gradually opening up again. The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found school closures ranked third in terms of reducing mobility. At the top of the list was a ban on gatherings of more than five people, which was seen slashing mobility by 24.9 percent, and the closure of restaurants, bars and non-essential shops, which caused people to move about 22.3 percent less, the study shows. Feuerriegel said it was not surprising that school closures had such a big impact on people's movements. "If schools are closed, we can expect a large change in behaviour," he said, pointing out that "not only will kids stay home, but sometimes it also requires their parents to change their mobility as well." School closures have been among the most controversial measures introduced around the world to help rein in the pandemic. Children are far less likely to develop severe illness from Covid-19 than older people, but it remains unclear how much they transmit the virus. The ETH study does not address that, but indicates that school closures can significantly reduce transmission by prompting people to move about and mingle less. "Our analysis confirms school closure as a measure to slow the spread, through reduced mobility," Feuerriegel said.
Before they take office, elected officials swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution. As some Republicans in Congress continued to back President Donald Trump's doomed effort to overturn the election, critics — including President-elect Joe Biden — alleged that they had violated their oaths and instead pledged allegiance to Trump. The oaths, which rarely attract much attention, have become a common subject in the final days of the Trump presidency, being invoked by members of both parties as they met Wednesday to affirm Biden's win and a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
A Miami-Dade man has been arrested in Charlotte County as the suspect in an alleged kidnapping and rape that victimized a Cleveland Clinic employee from Weston to Sunrise.
