Author: J.P. Knowles

Nearly 1,000 bison at Yellowstone National Park are scheduled to be slaughtered, shot, or relocated amid overgrazing concerns due to a recent population boom.

Park officials and tribal entities negotiated a deal Wednesday to control the park’s bison population by allowing them to be hunted, slaughtered, or quarantined through the winter months.

Typically, Yellowstone’s bison population migrates north into Montana for the winter. The overpopulated animals could potentially spread brucellosis, a bacterial that can potentially cause spontaneous abortion, or stillbirth. As of early December, there have not been any recently reported cases of bison transmitting the disease in the wild.

There are roughly 5,450 bison living in Yellowstone National Park. Officials say reducing the population by 600 to 900 would prevent mass starvation of other animals in the region.

Good morning from @AltYelloNatPark pic.twitter.com/aYmWZ1feoH

— AltYellowstoneNatPar (@AltYelloNatPark) December 4, 2021

“Doing nothing is not a realistic option,” according to the National Park Service. “Allowing the bison population to grow indefinitely will cause overgrazing and possibly mass starvation of animals in Yellowstone, as well as larger migrations and greater conflict outside the park.”

The National Park Service’s website also addresses concerns of brucellosis among the creatures, mentioning that up to “60 percent of Yellowstone bison test positive for exposure to brucellosis.”

Buffalo are today at roughly 3/100 of 1% of their traditional population

Of the 11,000 remaining genetically pure animals
900 are about to be slaughtered

A coalition of Native American tribes stand in opposition

And we stand with them @SecDebHaalandhttps://t.co/gjpNby80mR

— AltYellowstoneNatPar (@AltYelloNatPark) December 4, 2021

The decision to shoot or slaughter an animal that faced threats of extinction just over 100 years ago is being met with harsh criticism from those who believe relocating the animals is a feasible option.

The Taliban passed a decree on Friday that allegedly banned forced marriages, claiming that women are free persons and not property.

“Both (women and men) should be equal,” the decree said. “No one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure.”

The Taliban also announced that they have ordered the courts to allow widows to seek the inheritance of their families and to choose who they marry after their husbands die instead of being forced to marry an in-law. The Taliban claims to be seeking to end the practice of forcing women into marriage for money or to settle disputes.

The now Taliban controlled Afghanistan, required women to wear full face and head coverings and forbade them from leaving their homes without a male relative to escort them, during their 1996 to 2001 rule.

“A woman is not a property, but a noble and free human being; no one can give her to anyone in exchange for peace…or to end animosity,” Taliban spokesman Zabihillah Muhajid said.

The Taliban claims to have changed their ways and reopened some schools for girls.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August after a botched American withdrawal that left hundreds of Americans stranded in the country. The group immediately revoked all of the women’s rights at that time.

A Virginia Department of Education administrator sent out a resource guide to all educators, about how to effectively implement “social-emotional learning,” an education style that is linked to critical race theory.

Sarah Bazemore, the school counseling specialist and student assistance systems coordinator at the Virginia Department of Education, sent the “social-emotional learning” (SEL) resource guide on Dec. 8 to educators statewide. The initial section of the resource guide asks teachers to rank their ability to implement SEL and find ways to improve.

Included in the guide are video links to “Teaching In Support Of Black Lives,” and enacting “restorative circle[s],” which call for students to engage in restorative justice practices, in the fourth grade. The guide also links to the New York Times’ “Nice White Parents” podcast.

One of the SEL resources suggests the use of “student-centered discipline” and instructs teachers and administrators to refrain from using “punitive measures” when students misbehave.

“Teachers should not attempt to over-manage their students, nor should they use punitive measures to get students to behave,” according to the guide.

Educators were encouraged to give students an index card to fill out at the beginning of the school year that asks for their preferred name and pronouns. Teachers were instructed to “avoid using gendered language to address students” and “avoid grouping students by gender.” Making students aware of educators’ “ally status” was also encouraged.

“Instead, use birthdays, ice cream preferences, pet preferences, etc,” the guide reads. “If there are all-gender bathrooms, make sure students know where they are and that they are for everyone. Make your ally status known by hanging a rainbow flag, sharing your own pronouns and/or supporting the school’s LGBTQ groups.”

The Virginia Department of Education’s guide also included a link to the Anti-Defamation League’s reading list for children. Many of those books provide children information about different cultures and religions, although some of them have inherently political titles such as, “Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice” and “Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness.”

The guide also links to “Teaching Tolerance” lesson plans, which are designed by the education arm of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Second Step lessons, which are designed by an education consulting group called Panorama.

The head of the union that represents nearly 1,000 prosecutors within Los Angeles County accused District Attorney George Gascon on Monday of keeping silent amid a rash of violent smash-and-grab crimes that have become increasingly violent.

Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, accused the top prosecutor of caring more about the rights of criminals than he does the victims of their crimes as gangs of thieves continue to violently rob retail stores for thousands of dollars in merchandise, oftentimes endangering customers and staff.

Last week, 14 suspects allegedly involved in 11 smash-and-grab robberies were arrested, then back out on the street only hours later due to zero-bail policies, the suspects will remain free while awaiting their cases to go to court.

“If you look at the 14 people arrested, they could have been charged, there could have been bail amounts set, but none of that was done because the district attorney refuses to take a leadership position on this issue,” Siddall said. “He’s created an atmosphere devoid of accountability.”

Alex Bastian, the special advisor to Gascon, said in a statement that the DA’s office was working with law enforcement and will review the cases to determine what criminal charges are appropriate.

“Our Organized Crime and Cyber Crime Divisions are involved because often many of these cases can be interconnected and part of these crimes happens online,” he said. “These brazen acts hurt all of us; retailers, employees and customers alike. We will hold those responsible accountable.”.

Gascon has been under growing scrutiny over his progressive policies which critics say are too soft on crime. Opponents launched a second recall effort against him Monday after the first failed to gather enough signatures by the Oct. 26 deadline.

Los Angeles and San Francisco have seen numerous robberies targeting retail stores, pharmacies and cannabis dispensaries in recent months.

Both cities are now in the National Retail Federation’s list of cities most impacted by organized retail theft.

The zero-bail policies that have garnered much attention as a result of the crime wave were designed to reduce the jail population as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country. Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore said the effort has had unintended consequences.

“There are individuals in communities that look at that as a lack of consequences, a lack of deterrence and open season in which to go and commit these types of crimes,” he said. “The crisis during COVID, while well-intended, the impact it had on the criminal justice system was significant and severe that it’s developing another crisis in public safety. We have an offender base that commits and are willing to commit serious and violent crimes and we need to make sure the criminal justice system acts as a deterrent.”

Officials in San Jose and Santa Clara County slammed the zero-bail policy last week when two suspects allegedly linked to a Halloween murder were set free while awaiting trial. Another case in Los Angeles County resulted in a car-theft suspect being arrested 13 times over a 12-week time span.

Others put the blame on Proposition 47, the voter-approved measure that reclassified felony thefts under $950 as misdemeanors.

“We didn’t have these flash mobs for many, many years,” Siddall said. “You really cannot blame Prop 47. When people are engaged in a conspiracy to commit larceny, that becomes a felony. You can’t say that the law is weak on these issues. You can’t say that the judiciary is weak on these issues.”

Others argue that imposing harsher punishment on thieves doesn’t serve as a deterrent either.

“Organized retail theft, grand theft and conspiracy to commit theft can all be charged as a felony,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, founder and executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, of which Gascon and San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin serve on the group’s advisory committee. “People who commit these crimes don’t get caught 99% of the time, so those that claim the solution is ratcheting up punishment for the few who are caught should not be taken seriously.”

DeBerry argues the certainty of being caught is a greater deterrent than the punishment, she said.

A Georgia federal judge issued a nationwide stay on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate Tuesday in the latest victory for the Republican effort to stop the requirement.

U.S. District Judge Stan Baker issued the ruling Tuesday afternoon, joining two other federal court decisions blocking Biden’s mandate from taking effect. The Biden administration is looking to require vaccinations for all federal employees and employees of federal contractors.

“Abuse of power by the Biden administration has been stopped cold again,” Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said Tuesday. Wilson joined the lawsuit against Biden’s mandate along with Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.

The initial partial stay of Biden’s mandate came on Nov. 29 from U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp of Missouri, when he issued a temporary injunction while the larger question of the mandate’s legality was litigated.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana expanded that injunction the following day. The two decisions objected to enforcement through the federal Centers for Medicare and Medical Services (CMS). CMS sought to require more than 10.3 million of its affiliated healthcare workers across the country to receive two doses of COVID-19 over the course of two months. The policy was to have taken effect on Nov. 5 and would have required healthcare workers to receive their first dose by Dec. 6 and a second dose by Jan. 4.

The decisions also blocked Biden’s effort to require businesses with more than 100 employees to enforce a vaccine mandate on their workers.

“In addressing the geographic scope of the preliminary injunction, due to the nationwide scope of the CMS Mandate, a nationwide injunction is necessary due to the need for uniformity,” the court document issued by the U.S District Court for The Western District of Louisiana said .

Baker’s decision Tuesday blocks the final piece of the Biden administration’s mandate, as it relates to federal contractors.

A California mother has said that her 13-year-old son was told not to say anything after being given the COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for pizza at his school without her consent.

Maribel Duarte said on Monday that her son recently came home from Barack Obama Global Prep Academy in South Los Angeles with a vaccine card, telling her that he accepted the shot after he was offered pizza.

“It hurt to know he got a shot without my permission, without knowing and without signing any papers for him to get the shot,” Duarte said, adding that she is vaccinated and isn’t anti-vaccine.

The mother said that the woman who gave her son the shot and told him, “Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

The child’s school is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second-largest in the U.S., which saw enrollment drop by more than 27,000 – or 6% – at beginning of the school year amid a vaccine mandate for kids over 12 years old.

The district said that while it can’t comment on student matters, it does follow a “safe schools to safe steps incentive program” that allows vaccinated students to get prizes.

An LAUSD spokesperson said on Monday that it was “currently unable to confirm that this incident occurred at Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy.”

“With the Jan. 10, 2022, student vaccination deadline approaching, the District introduced the Safe Schools to Safe Steps Incentive Program throughout Los Angeles Unified Schools,” the spokesperson said. “This program offers incentives to families who upload proof of their vaccine, have an approved medical exemption, or have conditional admissions.”

The spokesperson said that the school has an overall vaccination rate of over 80%, adding that vaccinations are “an essential part of the multi-layered protection against COVID-19” that will keep students healthy for in-person learning.

The LAUSD announced in Sept. that all students 12 years of age or older will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 10, 2022, unless they are granted a medical or other exemption.

Students who remain unvaccinated without an exemption will be forced to shift back to virtual learning.

A right-wing French presidential candidate and television personality was attacked during his very first campaign rally on Sunday.

French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour was speaking on stage when a 63-year-old man pushed his way through the crowd and grabbed him by the neck, security quickly took the man into custody. The incident was only one of several violent disruptions during the event.

Dozens of people were arrested outside the event and French prosecutors opened an investigation Monday into all “incidents of violence” at the rally. Local media reported that Zemmour’s wrist had been injured, with his doctors ordering nine days of rest.

Zemmour, a former journalist with hardline views on immigration, announced his bid for the president Tuesday in the 2022 French presidential race against incumbent Emmanuel Macron.

One spectator commented that Zemmour has argued that “wokeness” has been a catalyst for the increased presence of Islam in Christian nations and is “destroying our cultures, our history, that they make a clean sweep of all that and allow a foreign culture, history and civilization to come and replace it.”

Zemmour is challenging Marine Le Pen, who placed second in the 2017 presidential race, for leadership of the country’s right-wing nationalist. An estimated 10,000 people turned out for the Paris rally, with thousands of demonstrators marching through the streets of the city.

A spokesperson for Zemmour’s newly-announced party, Reconquête, said that they were planning to file a legal complaint and praised their candidate for his “courage.”

Zemmour went on to deliver his speech following the attack, claiming that his victory would be “a reconquest of the greatest country in the world,” while his supporters threw chairs at protestors.

“I am the only one defending freedom of thought, freedom of speech,” Zemmour said.

The chief executive of a New York City-based mortgage company fired 900 employees Wednesday over a video conference.

Vishal Garg, the founder of Better.com, told hundreds of his employees participating in the video conference that he did not have “great news,” adding that he had cried the last time he had to make such an announcement.

“The market has changed, as you know, and we have to move with it in order to survive,” Garg said.

“This isn’t news that you’re going to want to hear … If you’re on this call, you part of the unlucky group being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately,” Garg said, adding it was a decision that he hadn’t wanted to make.

The company, backed by Softbank, announced in May that it was going public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), allowing it received a $750 million cash infusion as part of the deal. At this time Better.com is projected to see over $1 billion on its balance sheets.

It has been confirmed that Garg wrote a post on the professional network website Blind condemning employees for stealing from customers.

“You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system,” Garg said.

“They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated,” he added.

Earlier this week, San Francisco Supervisors unanimously approved legislation to suspend the City’s Cannabis Business Tax through the end of 2022.

The city said the decision to suspend the cannabis tax is an attempt to support legal cannabis retailers while curtailing illegal marijuana sales.

Spearheaded by District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the legislation suspends the cannabis tax through Dec. 31, 2022, as legal cannabis merchants say they have difficulty competing with illegal cannabis sources.

“Cannabis businesses create good jobs for San Franciscans and provide safe, regulated products to their customers,” said Mandelman.
“Sadly, the illegal market is flourishing by undercutting the prices of legal businesses, which is bad for our economy as illegal businesses pay no taxes while subjecting workers to dangerous conditions and consumers to dangerous products.,” Mandelman added.

“Now is not the time to impose a new tax on small businesses that are just getting established and trying to compete with illicit operators.”
In 2016, State voters passed Proposition 64 which legalized adult cannabis use and also established a 15% state excise tax on retail cannabis sales as well as a tax on cannabis cultivation.

Since the proposition passed five years ago, the State estimates that illegal market sales are $8 billion annually in California, that’s double the number of legal sales.

“The imposition of new local cannabis tax in San Francisco while State taxes remain high runs the risk of further undermining our local legal market and the good union jobs that it creates,” said Jim Araby, Director of Strategic Campaigns for United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 5 which represents 30,000 workers in the Bay Area, including workers in San Francisco’s cannabis industry.

“This legislation will help provide additional stability for workers in the emerging cannabis industry in San Francisco.”

The Bay Area is facing a rash of retail thefts — the city says cannabis businesses are often targeted by organized and armed groups.
On November 16, BASA Cannabis Dispensary had thousands of dollars of product stolen from their store on Grove Street.

BASA owners say its business has now been robbed five times.

“Cannabis businesses, along with many other retailers in San Francisco, are struggling under the weight of out-of-control retail theft,” said Mandelman.

“San Francisco needs to do more to protect these businesses, their employees, and their customers before we hit them with a new tax.”

A Texas plumber found more than a busted pipe while working at the Lakewood Church in Houston where Joel Osteen is the pastor. But the plumber never thought he would stumble onto a shocking secret hidden deep within the church.

“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile. Went to go remove the toilet and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall,” he said. “I was like ‘Oh wow.’ I got my flashlight, shined up in there.”

The plumber said the envelopes were filled with cash and checks, which he claims he reported to the maintenance supervisor.

“I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there, and I turned it all in,” he said.

In March 2014, Lakewood Church reported that $200,000 in cash and $400,000 in checks had been stolen along with some credit card information.

At the time of the theft, the church said the missing money had been insured, since that time, there has been no arrest made in the case.

Lakewood Church issued a statement saying that cash and checks had been discovered recently while work was being done on the church, but there was no mention as to how much money was actually found.

“Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation. Lakewood has no further comment at this time,” the church said in a statement.

Houston police said in a statement Friday that they were notified after the discovery was made and that the recovered checks suggest that the money found in envelopes is related to the 2014 theft.