Author: J.P. Knowles

Ten firefighters resigned from an Illinois fire department after a man who had once been convicted of arson was named the department’s acting chief.

Without any explanation Jerame Simmons, the fire department’s assistant chief replaced John Rosenkranz as chief on Monday. The department’s board of trustees said “a change in the Fire Department’s leadership is needed” in a statement after a meeting Monday.

Simmons pleaded guilty to arson in 1999 after setting fire to the ceiling tiles in his high school’s basement and starting a fire in an abandoned house. He was 18-years old at that time and was sentenced to four years of probation, though Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker later pardoned him.

Eight of the volunteers who quit sent a letter to the board of trustees stating they were leaving their positions “with regret and sorrow.” There were thirteen total firefighters at the department.

“The town remembers the school being set on fire, the town remembers the house set on fire [where] we had firefighters fall and be injured,” Laura Rosenkranz, the department’s captain, and the former chief’s wife, said. She submitted her resignation as well.

Simmons’s father was the mayor of the town at the time of his sentencing. The former mayor is now the director of the county emergency management agency.

“These people feel like they have absolutely no other option,” the former chief said. Adding that the board had held an “unusual” meeting in August where Simmons was named the department’s acting assistant chief.

“It’s not important that I’m the chief or not the chief,” he said. “It’s about … making sure everything’s taken care of.”

Outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said on Sunday that he’s “sorry” the Wuhan lab-leak theory has become such a “huge distraction” for the country, even though there is “no evidence” to support it.

After more than a decade on the job, Collins dodged questions about his attempt to discredit the lab-leak theory at the beginning of the pandemic, reiterating that the most likely explanation is that the virus spread through animal-to-human transmission.

“I’m really sorry that the lab leak has become such a distraction for so many people because frankly, we still don’t know,” Collins said.

“There is no evidence really to say. Most of the scientific community, myself included, think that is a possibility, but far more likely, this was a natural way in which a virus left a bat, maybe traveled through some other species and got to humans.”

In October of this year, Collins said that claims about the agency’s involvement in gain-of-function research and the Wuhan Institute of Virology had “absolutely” nothing to do with his resignation.

Regardless there are emails between Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci suggesting a deliberate effort to downplay theories that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab and, whether deliberately or, their funding had any involvement.

“We won’t know unless China decides to open up on this which they have not done, and shame on them for that,” Collins said, “this has been a huge distraction” for the scientific community.

“We in this country have somehow gotten all fractured into a hyperpolarized politicized view that never should have been mixed with public health,” Collins said. “It has been ruinous and history will judge harshly those people who have continued to defocus the effort and focus on conspiracies and things that are demonstrably false. Shame on all of us that we’ve gotten into this kind of pickle.”

Friday the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released an email where Collins expressed deep concerns about the herd immunity strategy being advocated by “fringe epidemiologists,” and called for “a quick and devastating published takedown” of the three experts promoting the herd immunity strategy known as “The Great Barrington Declaration.”

Collins told Baier that he is “not going to apologize,” for his words, arguing that “hundreds of thousands of people would have died if we had followed that strategy.”

“I did write that, and I will stand by that,” Collins said. “Basically, these fringe epidemiologists who really did not have the credentials to be making such a grand sweeping statement were saying just let the virus run through the population and eventually then everybody would have had it and everything will be okay.”

The United States recently surpassed 50 million COVID-19 cases and 800,000 deaths since the onset of the pandemic. Even facing those numbers, Collins maintained that “hundreds of thousands of people would have died if we had followed that strategy.”

“So I’m sorry I was opposed to that, I still am, and I’m not going to apologize for it,” he said.

As for the new omicron variant, Collins said the U.S. should brace for a “world of trouble” the next couple of months, based on its higher transmissibility than the previous strains, which “pale by comparison.”

Baier pointed to recent data out of South Africa that could point to milder symptoms and fewer hospitalizations from omicron.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was in the hot seat again on Tuesday when she acknowledged that crime rates have gone up in the past year, but could not come up with an answer for the causes.

“Following up on something you said yesterday when you say that we’ve seen an increase in crime over the course of the pandemic there is a range of reasons for that. Would you consider the reasons in the range, prosecutors cutting people who are accused of many criminal offenses loose too quickly?” Press Reporter Peter Doocy asked.

“Again, I am not, as I wasn’t yesterday, going to give an assessment for every motivation or every reason for crime in different communities across the country. What I have noted, which you see in data, is that there has been an increase in crime since the start of the pandemic,” Psaki replied. “I will let others assess what the reason for that increase in crime is.”

Doocy questioned the administration’s action in relation to the “smash-and-grab robberies” that are being organized on social media platforms.

“We are monitoring, of course, these thefts very closely as we’ve talked about a bit in here,” she continued. “The videos and reports we’re seeing are very troubling. Our state and local law enforcement partners have primary jurisdiction over break-ins and robberies of this kind, but I can say we’re aggressively using every resource at our disposal.”

Psaki said she would defer to law enforcement, the FBI, and other officials to assess how the monitoring of crime is being organized.

Los Angeles authorities announced the arrests of fourteen people linked to 11 smash-and-grab robberies committed in mid-November, who had been released because of the city’s crime reform. Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti came out in support of a no-bail policy for select defendants.

Doocy pressed Psaki on the stance the White House has taken in response to the rise in crime throughout major U.S. cities and whether prosecutors are “too soft” on crime. She answered by saying that the administration has proposed additional funding for police departments and has been in communication with law enforcement in cities with high surges in crime.

Doocy pressed Psaki on whether bail reform is “good governing,” citing the release of Craig Tamanaha, a pick-pocketer with over 30 arrests.

Tamanaha set fire to the Fox News Christmas Tree in New York City earlier this month. He was released from prison on no bail due to New York’s policy which states that a judge can only set bail if the suspect is charged with at least a third-degree felony arson.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon passed Proposition 47, which reduced felonies to misdemeanors despite the county’s 46% increase in homicide and 56% rise in car thefts.

Former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin announced to a crowd attending a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) conference Sunday that she absolutely would not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“It’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot. I will not do it,” she said to a cheering crowd in Phoenix, Arizona. “I will not do it and they better not touch my kids, either.”

TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk questioned Palin about the people at risk of losing their jobs and education for defying vaccine mandates. Palin answered that “enough is enough” and people need to “stiffen their spines” against the government and those mandating the shot.

“I think if enough of us rise up and say ‘no, enough is enough,’ there are more of us than there are of them,” Palin said. “So for us to be hesitant, and for us to kinda wait and let somebody else take this on and stand up and say ‘enough is enough.’”

“You all need to look around and realize that if you stiffen your spine and take those positions that you know are right, especially when it comes to government telling us what we have to inject into our own bodies,” she continued. “Realize that those around you as you stiffen your spine, their spines too, will stiffen.”

Palin as well as members of her family tested positive for COVID-19 in April. She cautioned that any person can contract the virus and should take proper precautions, including wearing masks indoors.

“As confident as I’d like to be about my own health, and despite my joking that I’m blessed to constantly breathe in the most sterile air, my case is perhaps one that proves anyone can catch this,” she said. “One of my daughters awoke to having lost her taste and smell [and] immediately had a positive test, then was quarantined in isolation.”

In the past year, tensions have grown among government officials, businesses, and schools over vaccine mandates throughout the U.S. In early November, Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation intended to stop schools from mandating the vaccine for children after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for students ages 5-11.

Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy slammed President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate on companies employing 100 or more individuals by saying the administration treats Americans like “anti-science morons.” However, he called the vaccine a “Godsend” and said that he believes the president should urge people to get the shot.

Social media is currently blowing up with calls for truckers to boycott Colorado after a former trucker received 110 years in prison for a 2019 crash that killed four people. Many people feel the sentence was much too severe.

Rogel Lazaro Aguilera Mederos, 25, was convicted of vehicular homicide by a Jefferson County jury on Oct. 15 in connection with the April 2019 crash on Interstate 70 west of Denver.

Aguilera Mederos wept openly during sentencing on Dec. 13. He stated that he was unable to sleep and that he thought about the victims “all the time.” Mederos also said he was not a criminal.

Aguilera Mederos testified that the brakes on his semitrailer failed before he crashed into vehicles that had slowed down due to another wreck in the Denver suburb of Lakewood.

Prosecutors argued he could have used one of several runaway ramps as his truck barreled down from the mountains. The chain-reaction wreck ruptured gas tanks, causing flames that consumed several vehicles and melted parts of the highway just after it descends from the mountains west of Denver.

In response to the impending boycott, which has taken on the hashtag #NoTrucksToColorado, the Colorado Motor Carriers issued the following statement on Twitter: “Feel for driver. #NoTrucksToColorado has some info that is not accurate. Not mech. failure – brakes gave way due to inexper. driver traveling in mtns above posted speeds/ not gearing down — overheated brakes gave way. He knew of hot brakes yet bypassed runaway truck ramp.”

Twitter user @Not_YouFatJesus said in support of Aguilera Mederos: “It makes me happy to see truckers standing up for the 26 year old Latino who got 110 years. That’s a ridiculous sentence for what was obviously an accident. Meanwhile you have privileged yt boys getting no jail time for pre-planned murders #NoTrucksToColorado”

Twitter user @AOrtega_80 said that he and his brother “have decided that we (Brown Eagle LLC) have joined the protest and are not getting any loads out of or to Colorado until Rogel gets justice cause 110 years is ridiculous. The company should be held accountable!”

There are many truckers who are saying the boycott is unnecessary.

“I suggest truckers and new truckers take every load available going to and from Colorado,” Twitter user @JamesonTaj wrote. “There’s a strike of #notruckstocolorado and it’s the perfect time to make extra money for the holidays. Let them protest for their criminal and let us make money #colorado #rogelaguilera”

A petition to free Aguilera Mederos has appeared on the website change.org.

Posted by Heather Gilbee, the petition reads: “We all know of the crash that happened on I-70 in Denver, Colorado. Most of us have heard facts in the case. Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23 has nothing on his driving record, or on his criminal history. He had complied with every single request by the Jefferson County courts, and investigators on the case. He’s passed all of the drug and alcohol tests that were given including a chemical test.

“This accident was not intentional, nor was it a criminal act on the driver’s part. No one but the trucking company he is/was employed by should be held accountable for this accident. No, we are not trying to make it seem any less of a tragic accident than it is because yes, lives were lost. We are trying to hold the person who needs to be held responsible, responsible. The trucking company has had several inspections since 2017, with several mechanical violations.

“There are many things Rogel could have done to avoid the courts, but he took responsibility showed up, and severely apologized to the victim’s families. Some of the families even offered Forgiveness. Rogel is not a criminal, the company he was working for knew the federal laws that go into truck driving but they failed to follow those laws. Rogel has said several times that he wishes he had the courage to crash and take his own life that day, this tragic accident wasn’t done with Intent, it wasn’t a criminal act, it was an accident. Since he has been sentenced, I have changed this to granting Rogel clemency or commutation-as time served.”

So far, more than 2.7 million people have signed the petition.

Tom Holland, star of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” made good on a promise he’d made to a young fan who was attacked by a dog while saving his sister.

Holland delivered on a promise he had made in July of 2020 to Bridger Walker, who was 6-years-old at the time, for heroically saving his 4-year-old sister in a dog attack. The Spiderman star offered the brave young boy an invitation to visit the “Spider-man: No Way Home” set.

The Cheyenne, Wyoming, siblings were playing outside when a German shepherd bolted toward the sister, but Walker leaped into action to save his sister. He had to be rushed to the hospital, where he underwent a two-hour surgery that required more than 90 stitches.

Marvel stars, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, and Tom Holland, contacted the family privately while publicly praising Walker’s heroic efforts. Holland went a step further and offered to bring Bridger to the “Spider-man: No Way Home” set.

“When we first arrived on set, I was a little apprehensive that once the curtain was pulled back that the magic of the movies would be lost for the kids,” Bridger’s father Robert Walker wrote on Instagram. “The opposite was true!”

“I personally think it is because the cast and crew are good, kind, and passionate people. Individuals who heard about a little boy’s injury, who wanted to make it right,” he added.

Walker added that Bridger got to “web swing with his hero” and thanked Holland, his co-star Zendaya and the rest of the cast and crew who were “willing to stop a very busy day of shooting to make my little boy smile.”

Brigitte Macron, the French first lady, is taking legal action in response to a conspiracy theory going around on the internet alleging that she is a transgender woman.

The rumors started on a right-wing website in September and have been shared by conspiracy theorists, claiming she was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux. The moniker, which includes her maiden name, has trended on social media with tens of thousands of comments.

“She has decided to initiate proceedings, it is in progress,” the first lady’s lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said.

The accusations originated in a journal written by a woman named Natacha Rey, then later spread after being discussed on a YouTube broadcast featuring anti-vaxxers, skeptics of COVID-19, and right-wing activists.

“This ability of the most marginal and most toxic fringe to take space in the public debate is saddening,” Tristan Mendès France, a professor at Paris Diderot University who specializes in right-wing media, commented.

Adding the rumors were a part of a “radical conspiracy theory, be it American or French, that there is a degeneration of our elites and therefore a sexual degeneration.”

The 68-year-old1st lady is 24 years older than her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to run for a second term in the French presidential election in April. He would face competition from right-wing television personality Eric Zemmour.

In a recent interview actor and director, James Franco admitted that he had engaged in sexual misconduct, saying that he had sex with some of his students.

In 2018, five women came forward and accused Franco of “inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior.” Franco said he hesitated to address the allegations in 2018 because “it didn’t seem like the right time to say anything.”

“Look, I’ll admit I did sleep with students. I didn’t sleep with anybody in [my ‘Sex Scenes’ class], but, over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students and that was wrong,” Franco insisted.

“But like I said, I, it’s not why I started the school and I, I didn’t, I wasn’t the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn’t a master plan on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what I was in a consensual thing with, with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”

“There’s a writer, Damon Young, and he talked about, you know, when something like this happens like the natural human instinct is to just make it stop. You just want to get out in front of it and do whatever you have to do, apologize, you know get it done, but what that doesn’t do is allow you to do the work and look at what was underneath,” Franco said.

He continued that there’s “probably an iceberg underneath of behavior, patterning, underneath that isn’t just going to be solved,” saying that he’s been “doing a lot of work” on himself.

Franco shared that he’d been in “recovery” for addiction and was using that to face and work on other issues in his life. In being open about his struggles with alcoholism, Franco said he used success, attention, and later sex to fill the void that had come with his sobriety.
Describing sex as a “powerful drug,” Franco noted how this form of addiction made him “completely blind to power dynamics and to people’s feelings.”

“The behavior spun out to a point where I was hurting everybody,” Franco said.

Franco’s Golden Globes win in 2018 was the catalyst for his accusers to come forward. The allegations even led Vanity Fair to remove him from the cover of their Hollywood issue.

Franco shared that he has been dating actress Isabel Pakzad for the last four years.

After a meeting in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park in South Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Scanlon was carjacked at gunpoint, according to her spokeswoman.

“The congresswoman was physically unharmed” during the carjacking, communications director Lauren Cox said in a statement. “She thanks both the Philadelphia Police Department for their swift response, and appreciates the efforts of both the Sergeant-at-Arms in D.C. and her local police department for coordinating with Philly PD to ensure her continued safety.”

Roosevelt Park is in Scanlon’s home district, Pennsylvania’s Fifth, and includes Chester and Delaware counties, as well as the southern portion of Philadelphia.

A Philadelphia Police Department spokeswoman said that law enforcement officials are looking for two African-American male suspects between the ages of 20 and 30, adding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking over the case.

“I am relieved that Congresswoman Scanlon was not physically injured, and my thoughts are with her during this difficult time,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement. “The PPD will continue to provide any support needed in this case and will work diligently alongside our federal partners to assist in bringing those responsible to justice. ”

Philadelphia has been facing soaring crime rates every since left-wing District Attorney Larry Krasner took office. In early December, the city set a record for the most murders in one year, up 13% year-over-year and double the total number of murders in 2016, the year before Krasner was elected to the position.

Armed robberies have increased by a startling 24.7% in 2021, however, reported rapes are down 11%.

Krasner has deemphasized the increase in homicides, citing the decreased number of reported rapes as well as a slight decrease in commercial burglaries.

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” he said on Dec. 6 while attempting to portray the increase in murder and armed robbery as related to gun control policy.

Krasner took a primary challenge from former prosecutor Carlos Vega in May, and slid into re-election against a Republican challenger in November, despite opposition from the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police.

At least 64 people are confirmed dead as the result of a boat crash off the northeastern coast of Madagascar, while rescue teams search for an additional 24 passengers.

The vessel was carrying 138 passengers when it sank late Monday, among them are 54 confirmed survivors.

The cargo ship was not authorized to carry passengers, was overloaded, so water filled the engine, said Mamy Randrianavony, the APMF’s director of operations at sea.

A search helicopter carrying The leader of Madagascar’s national police, Serge Gellé, was in a search helicopter Monday when it crashed as well. Gellé was found alive Tuesday morning after spending nearly 12 in the water.

Accompanying Gelle` was Prime Minister Christian Ntsay and the Minister of National Defence General Léon Richard Rakotonirina, the two were traveling in a separate helicopter to oversee the search operations for the crashed boat.