September 29, 2021

LeBron acknowledges vaccination for himself and family; will not advocate beyond that

LeBron James on Tuesday said he received the COVID-19 vaccine despite his initial skepticism. The Los Angeles Lakers star spoke with reporters on the Lakers' annual media day for the upcoming season, saying he and his family got the vaccine after he did his own research.

"I think everyone has they own choice — to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family and things of that nature," he said. "I know that I was very (skeptical) about it all but after doing my research. I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and my friends."

When asked if he felt the need to promote the vaccine, James said he only felt comfortable speaking about his and his family's choices.

"We're talking about individuals' bodies. We're not talking about something that's, you know, political or racism or police brutality," James said. "So I don't feel like, for me personally, I should get involved in what other people should do with their bodies and their livelihoods."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lebron-james-covid-vaccine-lakers-nba/

September 23, 2021

Conspiracy theories roil Kennedy family as possible release of Sirhan Sirhan nears

Fifteen times, Sirhan Sirhan went before a California parole board to make his case to be released from prison for the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. On his 16th try, 53 years after the murder, Sirhan was granted his request.

The recommendation for parole, which came down Aug. 27, has sent shock waves through the Kennedy family, already fractured by one member’s status as a prolific vaccine skeptic. The living children of RFK are now split between those who advocated for Sirhan’s release and those who are “devastated” by it.

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RFK Jr. has also dabbled in conspiracy regarding his own father’s murder. In 2018, the Washington Post published a profile about his visit to Sirhan in prison. Kennedy said he walked away believing Sirhan was not the man who killed his father after all, and that there must have been a second shooter.

He is not alone in this belief. Much like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there are countless conspiracy theories around the murder of RFK. The most persistent is that another gunman shot the bullet that killed Bobby Kennedy; according to the autopsy, the fatal shot was fired into the back of his head, while witnesses say Sirhan stood in front of the senator. Although this has prompted much speculation, it’s never made a dent in the legal case. On appeals, judges have sided with experts who argued a second gunman was unlikely, especially considering no witness recalls seeing another shooter in that crowded hotel kitchen. Sirhan’s last appeal judge ruled that even if there was a second gunman, Sirhan was still rightfully convicted as “an aider and abettor” in the murder.

https://www.sfgate.com/california-politics/article/rfk-jr-bobby-kennedy-sirhan-sirhan-parole-16474192.php

September 23, 2021

Vaccine Mandates Put Black Lives Matter Activists on Collision Course With Democrats

Black people are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, even though the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on them. Racial breakdowns of vaccination data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Black Americans are lagging far behind other groups with only around 30 percent fully vaccinated.

This means vaccine requirements disproportionately impact the Black community, Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York told Newsweek. His group is not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Newsome, who organized a protest outside Carmine's earlier this week, pointed to recent data showing that less than half of the city's Black residents between the ages of 18 and 44 are vaccinated. "That means that you're excluding a tremendous amount of Black New Yorkers, from engaging in everyday actions," he said.

https://www.newsweek.com/vaccine-mandates-black-lives-matter-activists-collision-course-democrats-1631612

September 23, 2021

Ancient Footprints Yield Surprising New Clues About the First Americans

Unearthed in New Mexico along what was once a lakefront, the tracks show generations living in the area thousands of years before many scientists believed

At the height of the last Ice Age, generations of children and teenagers ambled barefoot along a muddy lakefront in what is now New Mexico, crossing paths with mammoths, giant ground sloths and an extinct canine species known as dire wolves.

Now, some 23,000 years later, the young people’s fossilized footprints are yielding new insights into when humans first populated the Americas. Unearthed in White Sands National Park by a research team that began its work in 2016, the tracks are about 10,000 years older and about 1,600 miles farther south than any other human footprints known in America, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science.

“It is, in my view, the first unequivocal evidence of human presence in the Americas” during the last Ice Age, Daniel Odess, chief of science and research at the U.S. National Park Service and a senior author of the report, said of the discovery. “The footprints are inarguably human.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ancient-footprints-yield-surprising-new-clues-about-the-first-americans-11632420000

September 23, 2021

LIVE UPDATES: Active shooter reported at Collierville Kroger, officials say

Source: FOX13Memphis.com

An active shooter has been reported at the Kroger in Collierville, according to the Town of Collierville.

Collierville Kroger Shooting Authorities across the Memphis area are working an active shooter situation at the Kroger in Collierville. (WHBQ)

Officials said that the extent of the shooting is unknown at this time.

The active shooter situation is taking place at the Kroger at 240 New Byhalia Rd, according to officials.

This is an active situation and a developing story.

Read more: https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/local/active-shooter-reported-collierville-kroger-officials-say/K4VFTTAFN5GMRBFAHRULX25KUM/

September 23, 2021

Mexican forces surround border migrant camp

Source: Associated Press

CIUDAD ACUÑA, Mexico (AP) — A camp where more than 14,000 migrants had waited along the Texas border just days ago was dramatically smaller Thursday, while across the river in Mexico, Haitian migrants in a growing camp awoke surrounded by security forces as a helicopter thundered overhead.

The number of migrants at the Texas camp had been reduced to 3,671, Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens said Thursday morning. Authorities over the past day or so had ramped up efforts to remove migrants from the camp, said Owens, the top elected official in the county where Del Rio is located.

The United States and Mexico appeared eager to end the increasingly politicized humanitarian situation at the border, even as the U.S. expulsion of Haitians to their troubled homeland caused blowback for the administration of President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration’s special envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, submitted a letter of resignation protesting the “inhumane” large-scale expulsions of Haitian migrants, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-immigration-joe-biden-mexico-texas-98ca5cbe55bec23b01555cdf770ac373

September 23, 2021

Breakthrough COVID-19 cases expected to become more common in coming months

Source: Roll Call

Mild cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated individuals are becoming increasingly common as the highly contagious delta variant barrels through communities, but physicians and public health experts say that shouldn’t be a cause for significant concern.

A breakthrough case of COVID-19 occurs when a person contracts COVID-19 at least two full weeks after the final dose of the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks only breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death, as these incidences are both serious and very rare.

COVID-19 cases are up to five times more common in unvaccinated individuals compared with the vaccinated, according to the CDC. But state-level data shows that milder breakthrough cases that do not result in hospitalization are on the rise among the fully vaccinated as virus transmission increases and vaccine efficacy decreases. And they’re expected to keep increasing.

“It’s likely that everybody will probably get infected with COVID-19 [at some point] because it’s an endemic respiratory virus. The goal is to make sure that at that time, that infection occurs after you’ve been vaccinated so it’s mild,” said Amesh Adalja, a doctor and infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Read more: https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/22/breakthrough-covid-19-cases-expected-to-become-more-common-in-coming-months/

September 21, 2021

Afghanistan girls soccer team given asylum in Portugal

Source: Associated Press

“They left their homes and left everything behind,” Farkhunda Muhtaj, the captain of the Afghanistan women’s national team who from her home in Canada had spent the last few weeks communicating with the girls and working to help arrange their rescue, told The Associated Press. “They can’t fathom that they’re out of Afghanistan.”

Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the girls, ages 14-16, and their families, had been trying to leave, fearing what their lives might become like under the Taliban — not just because women and girls are forbidden to play sports, but because they were advocates for girls and active members of their communities.

Late Sunday, they landed in Lisbon, Portugal.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/soccer-immigration-sports-portugal-professional-soccer-b2097da4ac6ba491b31fffc2431091d3

September 21, 2021

New ARG Polling - Biden Approval and More

Highlights:

Biden Approval: 50%
Biden Disapproval:46%

Biden's Handling of Economy:
Approval: 52%
Disapproval: 43%

Biden's Handling of Covid:
Approval: 59%
Disapproval: 37%

National Economy
Getting Better: 35%
Staying Same: 13%
Getting Worse: 47%

Much more: https://americanresearchgroup.com/economy/

September 20, 2021

White House says images of Border Patrol with apparent whip are 'obviously horrific'

Source: NBC

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday called pictures that appeared to show a U.S. Border Patrol agent on horseback with a whip to deter migrants "horrific," but declined to say what consequences there should be for the agent's actions.

"I have seen some of the footage. I don't have the full context. I can't imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don't have additional details," she told reporters at the daily White House briefing. "I don't think anyone seeing that footage would think it's acceptable or appropriate."

A picture by photographer Paul Ratje showed the agent on horseback grabbing one of the migrants as the man tried to cross into the United States from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, on Sunday. The El Paso Times reported the agent had swung his whip and charged his horse at people trying to cross, shouting, "Let's go! Get out now! Back to Mexico!"



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-says-images-border-patrol-whip-obviously-horrific-n1279663