January 31, 2022

State investigation of Hoosick Falls police chief ramps up

HOOSICK FALLS — The village police chief is under investigation by the State Police for allegedly taking confiscated fireworks for personal use and ensuring a police officer was reported as working when he was supposedly injured off the job, sources familiar with the probe confirmed.

Chief Robert Ashe, who aspires to run for Rensselaer County sheriff this year, was placed on a paid leave of absence by the village in December as the State Police investigation began to intensify. The case has been developing over the past two months and is expected to be presented to a recently empaneled Rensselaer County grand jury.

Ashe allegedly took the fireworks that had been confiscated by department personnel and set them off at a private party he hosted, sources said.

When a village officer was injured, Ashe allegedly had payroll records modified to show that the officer was working instead of being off the clock in order to secure benefits for him, sources said.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-investigation-of-Hoosick-Falls-police-chief-16814317.php

January 31, 2022

Adams Announces Qualifying New Yorkers Can Get Free COVID-19 Pill Treatment Delivered To Their Door

New York City will deliver antiviral pills to treat COVID-19 for free to residents who test positive and are at high risk for serious illness.

“We want to make sure no one with COVID has to move throughout the city, especially for those who have [sic] immune-compromised, or our elderly. We want to bring it to you,” Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday during a press conference at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized two antiviral pills for emergency use last month: Paxlovid made by Pfizer, which is headquartered in the city, and molnupiravir made by New Jersey-based Merck. City officials said they have acquired both brands, which are taken daily for five days to reduce the amount of virus in the body and prevent symptoms from worsening.

Paxlovid is authorized for use in adults and children 12 years and older. Three pills are taken together twice a day, for a total of 30 tablets over five days. Molnupiravir is approved for adults 18 years or older; four tablets are taken every 12 hours for five days, for a total of 40 pills.

Read more: https://gothamist.com/news/anti-viral-covid-pill-delivery-nyc-adams-announcement

January 31, 2022

Hartford-area homeless shelters at capacity as weather, COVID-19 strain system

Despite Connecticut boasting one of the country’s most robust systems to shelter people experiencing homelessness, winter weather and COVID-19 are combining to pose challenges to Hartford-area resources serving the city’s most vulnerable people.

Though infection rates are declining statewide, outbreaks among staff and volunteers have forced shelters to make do with thin crews working extra shifts.

Meanwhile, the capital city’s two warming centers — one for individuals at 110 Washington St. and one for families at 104 Vine St. — are at capacity as temperatures and snow fall, according to Salvation Army Maj. Migdalia Levenbein.

“This is a difficult time for people to be outside, and it’s incredibly dangerous right now, with the way the temperatures have been,” Lavenbein said.

Read more: https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-shelters-cold-weather-covid-20220130-p7wbwvuedjbglmv3dz5mbvxt6u-story.html

January 31, 2022

In super-vaxxed Vermont, Covid strikes -- but packs far less punch

Even Eden, a snow-covered paradise in northern Vermont, is poisoned by omicron.

The nearly vertical ascent of new coronavirus cases in recent weeks, before peaking in mid-January, affected nearly every mountain hamlet, every shuttered factory town, every frozen bucolic college campus in this state despite its near-perfect vaccination record.

Of all the states, Vermont appeared best prepared for the omicron battle: It is the nation’s most vaccinated state against covid, with nearly 80% of residents fully vaccinated — and 95% of residents age 65 and up, the age group considered most vulnerable to serious risk of covid.

Yet, even this super-vaxxed state has not proved impenetrable. The state in mid-January hit record highs for residents hospitalized with covid-19; elective surgeries in some Vermont hospitals are on hold; and schools and day care centers are in a tailspin from the numbers of staff and teacher absences and students quarantined at home. Hospitals are leaning on Federal Emergency Management Agency paramedics and EMTs.

Read more: https://ctmirror.org/2022/01/29/in-super-vaxxed-vermont-covid-strikes-but-packs-far-less-punch/

January 30, 2022

Unions Beg State To Hire More Workers For Addiction Treatment

Union members and two state senators are decrying the temporary reduction in admissions to two state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services treatment units designed to help Connecticut’s poorest residents overcome drug addiction.

The DMHAS Addiction Services Division detoxification and intensive treatment facilities at Blue Hills Treatment Center in Hartford and Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown unexpectedly stopped accepting admissions on Dec. 28 leaving hundreds of people who called for help after that date scrambling to find other services, according to members of the New England Health Care Employees Union, SEIU 1199.

“The challenge of CVH closing its admissions office is that they didn’t even have the staff to refer those calls,” said Brian Williams, a Certified Addiction Counselor at CVH who is now on leave and working with the union for a few months.

Williams was one of several union members and advocates who attended a virtual press conference Tuesday calling on Gov. Ned Lamont and DHMAS to hire 330 more employees by April including 62 at Blue Hills and CVH to get the detox and intensive treatment units running again and provide more mental health services at other agency facilities.

Read more: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2022/01/26/unions-beg-state-to-hire-more-workers-for-addiction-treatment/

January 30, 2022

Oath Keeper Mark Finchem Would Serve His True Master, Not AZ Voters, as AZ Secretary of State

State Representative from Oro Valley and Candidate for AZ Secretary of State Mark “Oathkeeper” Finchem, wearing his absurd signature cowboy cosplay (he’s from Michigan…), took the stage at the recent Florence, AZ rally, and, at first, cannily and carefully claimed that the “election is proven to be compromised” and “the margin of error exceeds the margin of victory” and other such mealy-mouthed circumlocutions meant to cast doubt upon the 2020 Presidential election in Arizona.

This sort of vague implication is pretty common for Finchem, who, unlike some the other coup plotters, is generally somewhat more careful in his attempts to preserve deniability that he’s an outright election conspiracist. He usually keeps his bat signals on the down-low with his QAnon and election conspiracist endorsements. But the crowd wasn’t warming to his skirting the central issue of the rally, so he went further than he usually goes in public and unequivocally stated, “Donald Trump won.” Finchem did Der Gropenfuhrer’s bidding, and thus demonstrated who holds his true fealty.

Finchem is an election conspiracist, a participant (and perhaps more..?) in the Jan6th insurrection, and a QAnon nut – all of which certainly demonstrate poor judgment and fell intent against our democracy – but by publicly denying the validity of a legitimate and certified election (the very same election which re-elected him and a narrow GOP majority to the State House and Senate, of course), Finchem has disqualified himself from any public office, especially one having anything to do with supervising and certifying our elections. A vote for Finchem is a vote for a coup. Finchem will clearly violate his oath by not signing certification of Democratic wins he doesn’t like as Secretary of State.

Finchem also stated his support for the state legislature (of which he is a voting Member, so it’s safe to say he’s a “Yes” vote) to “set aside and irredeemably flawed election” under the powers of the 10th Amendment. So he also wants to ‘decertify’ the 2020 election, presumably just the federal part that gave AZ’s electoral votes to Biden, and a U.S. Senate seat to Mark Kelly. Blue Meanie posted on this issue today for more context.

Read more: https://blogforarizona.net/oath-keeper-mark-finchem-would-serve-his-true-master-not-az-voters-as-az-secretary-of-state/

January 30, 2022

'It's not really practical': Republican wants to go from 30 House districts to 90

When the next Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission convenes in 2031, it might be drawing 90 single-member House districts instead of 30 districts with two representatives apiece, at least if Sen. J.D. Mesnard has any say over it.

For the second consecutive year, Mesnard has introduced a proposed ballot referral that would dramatically alter the makeup of the state’s House of Representatives. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1012 would ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution so that each of the state’s 30 Senate districts would be split into three separate House districts.

Each of the 30 districts now has two House representatives who serve at-large. Mesnard’s plan would have 90 House members who each represent their own district.

At about 238,000 people apiece, Arizona’s legislative districts are among the most populous in the country. House members here represent more constituents than any other state except California, with more than five times Arizona’s population. Arizona is also one of only a few states in which multiple House members are elected at-large in their districts.

Read more: https://www.azmirror.com/2022/01/28/its-not-really-practical-republican-wants-to-go-from-30-house-districts-to-90/

January 30, 2022

Ex-GOP leaders file lawsuits against Gov. Cox, Zions' Anderson and Tribune, among others

Two former Salt Lake County GOP leaders filed lawsuits against state and county leaders and others on Friday, saying there was a coordinated campaign to remove them from their roles in the Republican party.

Both David Robinson and Scott Miller’s lawsuits name more than 100 defendants, including Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Senate leader Brad Wilson and House leader Stuart Adams, Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson and The Salt Lake Tribune, among others.

In March 2021, The Tribune reported more than half a dozen Republican women said they experienced a toxic environment within the Salt Lake County GOP. The women accused Robinson, the party’s former volunteer communications director, of harassment, body shaming and other inappropriate behavior. They also said Miller, the party’s former chairman, dismissed their complaints about this behavior.

Robinson filed a notice of claim against the state in October, which is required when filing a lawsuit against a government agency or a state employee. The notice included statements, social media comments and Facebook likes from state leaders that he said constituted a “concerted effort to defame him.”

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/01/29/ex-gop-leaders-file/

January 30, 2022

Courting Disaster: A Southern Utah town's apocalyptic spending project raises eyebrows.

The past couple years have been rife with existential threats for Utahns—earthquakes, wildfires, supply chain shortages—not to mention multiple waves of coronavirus surges. It's been enough to make anyone fear the worst. So-called "preppers," once objects of ridicule, have been praised in the national media for their readiness in the face of catastrophe.

But for the town of Ivins—a small bedroom community nestled among the red rocks near St. George—individual preparation alone was deemed insufficient against future calamities. Instead, local city leaders decided to take the survivalist mindset to the municipal level.

Today, metal boxes labeled "DISASTER HUB BOX" in red letters decorate posts in neighborhoods across Ivins. The boxes can be opened with any flat, metal object like a coin, but a 150-decibel alarm is supposed to sound when the box is opened.

Tampering with the box could lead to a $1,000 fine, the red print warns. And the boxes are under surveillance by motion-activated cameras.

Read more: https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/courting-disaster/Content?oid=17864966

January 30, 2022

Copies of Elbert County's election system hard drive were given to unauthorized people, Colorado's

Copies of Elbert County’s election system hard drive were given to unauthorized people, Colorado’s secretary of state says


Copies of Elbert County’s election system hard drive “are in the custody of unauthorized people,” the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Friday.

The revelation came to light as Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, investigates Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder, a Republican, for making the copies over the summer. Griswold’s office says it’s also likely that the copies were made “using a prohibited removable storage device.”

The Secretary of State’s Office is now demanding more information from Schroeder about the copies, which he says he made ahead of a software update.

On Monday, Griswold issued an order demanding preliminary information from Schroeder on how he copied the hard drive. In response, Schroeder, through an attorney, said he delivered an external hard drive to an unnamed “private attorney … who promised to safeguard the evidence.”

Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2022/01/28/dallas-schroeder-elbert-county-investigation-new-order/