September 11, 2020

ICE flew detainees to Virginia so the planes could transport agents to D.C. protests. A huge coronav

Source: Washington Post

Full headline: ICE flew detainees to Virginia so the planes could transport agents to D.C. protests. A huge coronavirus outbreak followed.


The Trump administration flew immigrant detainees to Virginia this summer to facilitate the rapid deployment of Homeland Security tactical teams to quell protests in Washington, circumventing restrictions on the use of charter flights for employee travel, according to a current and a former U.S. official.

After the transfer, dozens of the new arrivals tested positive for the novel coronavirus, fueling an outbreak at the Farmville, Va., immigration jail that infected more than 300 inmates, one of whom died.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency moved the detainees on “ICE Air” charter flights to avoid overcrowding at detention facilities in Arizona and Florida, a precaution they said was taken because of the pandemic.

But a Department of Homeland Security official with direct knowledge of the operation, and a former ICE official who learned about it from other personnel, said the primary reason for the June 2 transfers was to skirt rules that bar ICE employees from traveling on the charter flights unless detainees are also aboard.
The transfers took place over the objections of ICE officials in the Washington field office, according to testimony at a Farmville town council meeting in August, and at a time when immigration jails elsewhere in the country had plenty of beds available because of a dramatic decrease in border crossings and in-country arrests.





Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/ice-air-farmville-protests-covid/2020/09/11/f70ebe1e-e861-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

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A man died because Trump brought ICE agents to gas peaceful protesters in DC.

September 4, 2020

Hundreds more have died at home in L.A. Experts say COVID-19 is the culprit

In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Jonathan Lucas — charged with reviewing the causes of nearly 10,000 deaths a year — saw a disturbing trend: the number of people dying at home had jumped drastically.

Though he did not know the cause at the time, and some mystery still remains, Lucas now believes he was seeing firsthand the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic which would soon sweep the country — killing more than 180,000 Americans by the end of August.

When COVID-19 cases began to surface in the U.S., home deaths started to escalate and continued to build through the following months, according to records compiled by Lucas’s office and obtained by The Times.

In the first six months of the year, there were 330 more home deaths in Los Angeles County than in a typical year, according to a Times analysis. In April alone, the number jumped by nearly 60% over April of last year —

https://www.latimes.com/projects/coronavirus-home-deaths/#nt=0000016f-e424-d31d-abef-e4f6e55c0001-liA5promoSmall-1col-7030col1-main

September 3, 2020

How America fell into a great coin shortage

Whatever it’s called, this lack of coinage seems to be a challenge that ever-divided government, businesses and Americans can unite behind. There’s a new coin task force, complete with its own hashtag: #getcoinmoving. Businesses heavy in coins are helping businesses without. A Chick-fil-A in a South Carolina mall is inviting people to bring in their rolled coins in exchange for cash and a free sandwich. Casinos are trying to tempt would-be gamblers to empty jingling pockets in exchange for free slot play.

In yet another 2020 plot twist, coins aren’t making their way through the economy, with the repercussions rippling from the upper echelons of the federal government down to ice cream shops and bank teller windows. With more people staying home, buying less and shifting their spending online, the natural flow of pocket change through banks, restaurants and retail stores has dried up.

Earlier in the pandemic, the mint scaled back the number of employees working shifts to allow for social distancing, White said. By mid-June, the mint had ramped back up to full production.

“This is not a coin supply problem,” White said. “It’s a circulation problem, and we need the public’s help to solve this. … Every little bit helps.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/01/coin-shortage-pandemic/