Category: Opinion

A supposed pastor and his wife have been arrested after first responders discovered eight disabled adults were being held against their will, in the basement of the couples rental property in Griffin, Georgia.

Curtis Keith Bankston, 55, and his wife Sophia Simm-Bankston, 56, had been running a “group home” for 14 months out of their home under the guise of being a church called the One Step of Faith 2nd Chance.

The Griffin Fire Department responded to a Jan. 13 call about someone having a seizure at a church on the 100 block of Valley Road.

First responders were forced to enter through a window to reach the patient in the basement because all the doors had been dead-bolted shut.

Authorities discovered eight people between the ages of 25-65 in the basement. All eight have mental or physical disabilities, or both, according to authorities.

The financials, medications, and benefits of the victims were all handled by the Bankston’s and investigators determined that medication and care were sometimes withheld by the Bankstons.

The couple has been charged with multiple counts of false imprisonment with possible additional charges pending.

The eight individuals have been relocated by the Georgia DHS.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Democrats are shifting their focus towards passing a government funding bill and legislation aimed at increasing our competitiveness with China after their Build Back Better and voting bills failed to pass in the Senate.

Top appropriations members are meeting in hopes of passing a broader funding agreement before the Feb. 18 deadline. Legislators have already been forced to pass two continuing resolutions instead of a longer bill, essentially keeping the majority of the funding levels the same as they were during former President Donald Trump’s final year in office.

A China competitiveness bill passed through the Senate on a bipartisan basis in June 2021 but has since stalled in the House.

Pelosi also said in the Dear Colleague letter that the Foreign Affairs Committee was advancing a “robust” sanctions bill against Russian officials and financial institutions and at the same time reinforces Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against a potential invasion as well as a bipartisan bill to ensure veterans exposed to toxic substances in burn pits are granted adequate medical care.

The letter came two days after Senate Republicans filibustered Democrats’ signature voting bills once again, with the party-line vote following a marathon day that involved substantial debate. Following the vote, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved to change the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to pass the voting bills, but Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona joined Republicans in opposing the measure, ultimately killing the legislation.

“While the vote was not successful in the Senate, the visibility given to the debate under the leadership of Leader Chuck Schumer and the patriotic presentations by the Senate Democrats strengthens our hand as we go forward,” Pelosi said.

The letter also follows the failure of President Joe Biden’s domestic spending package, however, talks could resume in hopes of passing a fraction of it this year. The package stalled after Manchin said he could not support it given its size and current inflation levels, leading to several tense days of back-and-forth between him and the White House.

A conservative group at an Ivy League college was forced to change a planned live event to a virtual event following threats tied to a left-wing protest group.

The Dartmouth College chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) was hosting Ngo and Gabriel Nadales, a former member of the left-wing group, to discuss Antifa at a Thursday night event before the college had to cancel due to security concerns.

“In light of concerning information from Hanover police regarding safety issues shared late in the afternoon, similar concerns expressed by the College Republican leadership, and challenges with the student organization’s ability to staff a large public event and communicate effectively (including dissemination of the visitor policy and a prohibition on bags in the building), the College requested that the Extremism in America panel be moved online,” Diana Lawrence, a spokeswoman for Dartmouth said.

“I remain hopeful that they will be able to protect them, but last night they sent a message that they are willing to be swayed by extremists,” Samuel Lee of TPUSA said. Lee added that the student group learned of the change at the last minute from the local police.

The presentation by Ngo and Nadales was hosted on Dartmouth’s Zoom page.

“Prior to the event, Antifa groups and accounts threatened armed violence,” Ngo posted on Twitter. He also posted screenshots of posts from what he described as “Antifa accounts” detailing the calls for action.

“Anti-fascists from Mass, NH, VT, Maine; anti-fascists from all over New England will be mobilizing January 20th, 2022 at Dartmouth College to disrupt & prevent fascist propagandists like Andy Ngo from normalizing their reactionary beliefs on college campuses in the Northeast,” a post in a Twitter thread from Northeast FASHWATCH said. The group’s post included a photo taken of Ngo after a 2019 attack that resulted in an overnight hospital stay.

In another post, the group claimed the cancellation as a victory.

There had been other efforts to disrupt the event, which was advertised on Eventbrite. Nearly 24,000 registrations, many of them “spam,” were made for the event, a field representative for TPUSA said.

A number of emails from media outlets were among those used for fake registrations.

“This is the first time the New England territory has seen something of this magnitude,” Lee said. He added that the group tried to address the fake registrations when the spamming started and had contacted Eventbrite but when they received no response they were forced to change how they handled reservations for the event.

“Eventbrite works hard to protect its community of ticket buyers and event organizers, and is taking immediate steps to investigate and address the situation,” a spokeswoman for the online event company said.

Antifa has a history of using violence against conservatives or those opposing left-wing causes. In 2021, incidents included an attack on Ngo, an assault against protestors outside a Los Angeles spa, an attack on a prayer meeting in Portland, Oregon, and a mob outside the D.C.-area home of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on Jan. 4 of that year.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the Union Pacific railroad in Los Angeles on Thursday to help clean up the site following a string of railcar thefts.

“I’m asking myself, what the hell is going on? We look like a third-world country,” Newsom said.

Newsom was visiting the site following a rash of organized train robberies. There has been a surge in railroad crime, that led Union Pacific to write an urgent letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon criticizing the prosecutor for his no-cash bail policy which the company said contributed to the rise in crime.

The Democratic governor told reporters that his office had outlined a plan to stop the “organized gangs” of criminals but quickly apologized for using the term “gangs.” “This is not one-off. This is organized theft,” Newsom said. “These are organized gangs of people that are coming out, and forgive me for saying gangs, that’s not a pejorative.”

Newsom also announced a state-level initiative to stop the threat of rail theft and aid Union Pacific in cleaning up the area.

“Caltrans crews will assist Union Pacific in their efforts over the next few days to clean up the impacted area,” his office announced in a press release. “Additionally, the California Highway Patrol will continue its efforts to coordinate with local law enforcement to help prevent theft on railways in Los Angeles.”

More than 90 train containers are broken into daily, according to Union Pacific, and rail theft increased 160% from December 2020 to December 2021 and 365% from October 2020 to October 2021.

“What has happened on this stretch of the Union Pacific railroad is unacceptable,” Newsom said. “We are committed to an all-of-government approach to prevent thefts, prosecute the criminals involved, and clean up local communities.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a study released Wednesday that natural immunity from a previous infection granted stronger levels of protection against the Delta variant of COVID-19 than vaccination alone.

Before Delta became the dominant strain of the coronavirus, individuals who had natural immunity were experiencing higher case rates than individuals who were only vaccinated, the study found, but since Delta took hold, those with natural immunity caught COVID-19 less frequently than those who were only vaccinated.

The study examined four categories of people — unvaccinated and vaccinated who had survived a previous COVID-19 infection, and unvaccinated and vaccinated who had never been infected — in California and New York between May and November 2021. The highest case rates were among those who had neither been vaccinated nor previously infected. The most protection against infection and hospitalization was in those who had both been vaccinated and survived a previous infection of the virus.

The agency cautioned that the data only measured results against the Delta variant and that Omicron may present new challenges that alter the calculus of natural immunity versus vaccination.

Biden administration officials and some public health experts have repeatedly downplayed the effectiveness of natural immunity against COVID-19, but this study is only the latest of many to indicate recovery from prior infection can equal, if not surpass, that offered from vaccination alone. Most research has shown that for maximum protection against reinfection or severe illness, those who were previously infected should still get vaccinated.

Many legacy media outlets covered the study by downplaying the finding that natural immunity outperformed vaccines and emphasizing that a combination of both provided the best protection. Headlines from the New York Times, Associated Press, CNN, and others claimed that vaccination offers the “best” or “safest” protection according to the study.

In a press call Wednesday, the CDC’s Dr. Benjamin Silk, an epidemiologist that co-authored the study, did not elaborate on the increased protection natural immunity provides but repeated the administration’s verbiage that every American should get vaccinated.

A Detroit mother of four who had been missing since December was found dismembered inside her home, according to investigators.

Warren’s grandmother said the remains of Latima Warren, 32, were found inside numerous different bags scattered around the home on the 8000 block of Vaughn. Searchers discovered several bags of Warren’s clothes in the backyard on Sunday and contacted the police, who located her dismembered body the next day.

“She was a sweet, bubbly person she would just give you the shirt off her back,” Gwen Parks, the mother of Warren’s ex-boyfriend and grandmother to Warren’s older children, said.

Warren has been missing since Dec. 28, and investigators say she had been fatally shot.

Police said Warren’s boyfriend was arrested after having been named a suspect. The couple has children together.

“I’m going to have to tell these kids that their mother was killed,” Parks said.

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) C said that the coronavirus vaccine cannot stop the transmission of the virus “anymore.”

CNN host Wolfe Blitzer asked whether fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections could pass the virus to other individuals, especially those with underlying health conditions.

“Yes, they can with the delta variant and that was the reason we changed our guidance last Tuesday,” Walensky said. “Our vaccines are working exceptionally well, they continue to work well for delta with regard to severe illness and death, they prevent it, but what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.”

“So if you’re going home to somebody who has not been vaccinated, to somebody who can’t get vaccinated, somebody who might be immunosuppressed or a little bit frail, somebody who has comorbidities that put them at high risk, I would suggest you wear a mask.”

“If there is a breakthrough case, you get COVID, you’re fully vaccinated, but you’re totally asymptomatic, you could still pass on the virus to someone else, is that right?” Blitzer asked.

“That’s exactly right and that’s where a masking recommendation came from,” Walensky said.

Walensky has insisted that vaccinated individuals wear a mask to prevent transmission but a recent health panel argues that common cloth masks are not protective.

“Cloth masks are not appropriate for this pandemic,” Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore Health Commissioner, said. “It’s not appropriate for Omicron, it was not appropriate for Delta, Alpha, or any of the previous variants either because we’re dealing with something that’s airborne.”

The CDC has regularly changed its mask guidance, saying in late July vaccinated individuals should wear face masks in indoor settings after data from several studies showed the vaccine doesn’t stop the transmission of the virus.

The organization recently announced that individuals who have not received their booster shots but are infected with or exposed to COVID-19 must quarantine for five days and then mask up for five days after. Those who have received a booster shot, however, need not quarantine at all if exposed and can instead just mask up. Walensky said the new guidance was determined based on “what we thought people would be able to tolerate.”

Pfizer announced in early December individuals would need three, not two, doses of the vaccine in order to get maximum protection against the Omicron variant of the virus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reminded President Joe Biden on Thursday that “there are no minor incursions and small nations” after Biden botched a response about the U.S. responding to a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden, during a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, vowed to hold Russia “accountable if it invades” Ukraine – but also said that “it depends on what [Russia] does.”

“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera, but if they do what they are capable of doing with the forces massed on the border, it will be a disaster for Russia if they invade Ukraine,” Biden said.

The response prompted an angry reply from officials in Kyiv. Zelensky himself replied to Biden’s comments Thursday morning, though he didn’t call Biden specifically by name.

“We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations,” Zelensky tweeted, reminding of what Biden’s earlier comments were concerning a minor incursion. “Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the President of a great power.”

The White House was forced to do damage control after Biden’s press conference comments. National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne quickly issued a statement Wednesday evening on Twitter, saying the president “clarified this” and “was referring to the difference between military and non-military/para-military/cyber action by the Russians.”

“Such actions would be met by a reciprocal response, in coordination with Allies and partners,” Horne promised.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki also commented on the matter, issuing a statement after the press conference saying that Biden has been clear on where he stands.

“President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies,” Psaki said. “President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyber-attacks and paramilitary tactics.”

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims rose sharply to 286,000 in the week ending Jan. 15, as the labor market continues to recover from surging COVID-19 cases.

The Labor Department figure shows a 55,000 jump in claims over the week ending Jan. 8 when claims increased to 231,000. According to Market Watch, economists had expected claims to decrease to 225,000.

COVID-19 cases have continued to surge across the country causing weaker growth forecasts, and some experts think the Omicron coronavirus variant will further disrupt the demand for workers.

“Someone who’s dependable, who’s been on the job for a year and doesn’t need to learn the ropes—you don’t want to lay that person off when you’re expecting a spring thaw” in economic activity, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) economist Nela Richardson said.

The U.S. economy added only 199,000 in December 2021, but unemployment fell to 3.9% from November’s 4.2% figure. Meanwhile, roughly 6.5 million Americans were still unemployed at the end of 2021 as the economy was still 3.5 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels.

A U.S. Marine was charged after flipping a tactical vehicle in North Carolina on Wednesday, killing two service members and injuring over a dozen others, local officials said.

Louis Barrera, 19, was attempting to turn right at an intersection on US 17 when the vehicle flipped into the median throwing 17 passengers onto the street. The accident took place around 1 p.m Wednesday near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

Barrera was charged with one count of Exceeding a Safe Speed and two counts of Misdemeanor Death by Motor Vehicle.

“A second military vehicle being operated behind the initial vehicle was unable to come to a stop and struck one of the ejected passengers,” the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said in the statement.

“The drivers and occupants of the vehicles are members of the United States Marine Corps operating out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune,” officials said. “A total of 15 marines were transported to area hospitals by ground, two were airlifted to Vidant Greenville, and two were confirmed deceased at the scene.”

Everyone involved in the accident was active duty service members based out of Camp Lejeune, according to a statement from the 2nd Marine Logistics Group.

The tactical vehicle involved in the crash was “a medium tactical vehicle replacement (MTVR) … often referred to as a ‘7-ton’” used for troop and transportation purposes.

Two individuals were taken to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead. The 15 injured were taken to a Navy hospital and remain stable.

The identities of the deceased have not yet been released, and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

“I send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the U.S. Marines who lost their lives in a tragic accident today in Onslow County,” Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said on Twitter. “We are so proud of our military heroes at Camp Lejeune and across North Carolina. Our prayers go out to them.”