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• December 10, 2020 9:27 AM +0330

  in the topic $600,000 of counterfeit PPE seized at Texas warehouse in the forum Off-Topic Discussions

  $600,000 of counterfeit PPE seized at Texas warehouse The shipment's destination likely was an East Coast hospital. More than 100,000 counterfeit 3M N95 masks worth about $600,000 were seized at a warehouse in El Paso, Texas, federal authorities said. The counterfeit PPE was en route to a hospital on the East Coast, according to a statement released Wednesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Officers intercepted the shipment at Ysleta Cargo Facility on Dec. 3. ICE and CBP, which fall under the Department of Homeland Security, in April launched "Operation Stolen Promise" with the aim of stopping counterfeit COVID-19 products from entering the U.S. According to ICE, the operation has yielded more than 187 arrests and $28 million dollars in recovered assets. "HSI will continue to aggressively investigate, arrest and prosecute criminal counterfeiters who show a total disregard for human life and take advantage of a relentless world pandemic for economic gain," Erik P. Breitzke, acting special agent in charge of HSI El Paso, said in the statement. MORE : pg slot Ysleta Port Director Arnoldo Gomez added: "This large seizure of counterfeit surgical masks, destined for frontline medical workers, demonstrates the great collaborative effort between CBP and HSI." In July, HSI's National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center told reporters that more than 50% of all counterfeit goods were coming from China.
• December 9, 2020 9:03 AM +0330

  in the topic US virus deaths hit record levels with the holidays ahead in the forum Off-Topic Discussions

  US virus deaths hit record levels with the holidays ahead Deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the U.S. “What we do now literally will be a matter of life and death for many of our citizens,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday as he extended restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, including a ban on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants and bars. While the impending arrival of the vaccine is reason for hope, he said, “at the moment, we have to face reality, and the reality is that we are suffering a very dire situation with the pandemic.” Elsewhere around the country, North Carolina's governor imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, and authorities in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley sent a mass cellphone text alert Tuesday telling millions about the rapid spread of the virus and urging them to abide by the state's stay-at-home orders. The virus is blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections in the United States. Many Americans disregarded warnings not to travel over Thanksgiving and have ignored other safety precautions, whether out of stubbornness, ignorance or complacency. On Saturday night, police in Southern California arrested nearly 160 people, many of them not wearing masks, at a house party in Palmdale that was held without the homeowner's knowledge. Before his death Friday from complications of COVID-19, 78-year-old former Alabama state Sen. Larry Dixon asked his wife from his hospital bed to relay a warning. "Sweetheart, we messed up. We just dropped our guard. ... We've got to tell people this is real,” his friend Dr. David Thrasher, a pulmonologist, quoted him as saying. Although Dixon had been conscientious about masks and social distancing, he met up with friends at a restaurant for what they called a “prayer meeting,” and three of them fell ill, Thrasher said. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, offered what sounded like a subtle rebuke of the way President Donald Trump and others in the administration have downplayed the disease and undercut scientists. “Messages need to be critically consistent,” Birx said Tuesday at a Wall Street Journal conference of CEOs. “I think we need to be much more consistent about addressing the myths that are out there — that COVID doesn’t really exist, or that the fatalities somehow are made up, or the hospitalizations are for other diseases, not COVID, that masks actually hurt you.” On Thursday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is widely expected to authorize emergency use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, and shots could begin almost immediately after that. Britain on Tuesday started dispensing the Pfizer vaccine, becoming the first country in the West to begin mass vaccinations. Still, any vaccination campaign will take many months, and U.S. health experts are warning of a continuing surge of infections in the coming weeks as people gather for the holidays. California officials painted a dire picture as more than 22,000 residents test positive for the coronavirus each day, with about 12% inevitably showing up at hospitals in two to three weeks. They fear the spike could soon overwhelm intensive care units. Southern California’s Riverside University Health System Medical Center went so far as to open an ICU in a storage room. For the sixth day in a row and 11 of the last 12 days, North Carolina hit new highs in the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19. The patient count has doubled over the past month to nearly 2,400. In Georgia, the number of confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections has soared more than 70% in the past week, and hospitals are sounding alarms about their ability to absorb new COVID-19 patients. The state is averaging more than 5,000 confirmed or suspected cases per day. Even then, Georgia ranks only 44th among the states for the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days because infections are spreading so rapidly everywhere else. More than 2,500 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized Monday statewide. That’s below the summer peak of 3,200 but more than double the most recent low point in mid-October. “We are effectively reversing the gains we made after the summer surge,” said Amber Schmidtke, an epidemiologist who does a daily analysis of Georgia's COVID-19 numbers. Read More : pgslot  
• December 8, 2020 9:28 AM +0330

  in the topic Coronavirus live updates: After Trump officials turned down in the forum Off-Topic Discussions

  Coronavirus live updates: After Trump officials turned down Pfizer offer, US may not get more vaccines doses until June A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 67.1 million people and killed over 1.5 million worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. US hospitalizations reach new record of 102,000The number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 related issues rose to another record high Monday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. There were 102,148 patients in hospitals, 20,098 of whom were in ICUs and 7,073 who were on ventilators, according to the project. The seven-day average of hospitalizations is also at a record, with 100,814, the health data showed. "Hospitalizations are rising in 31 states from 2 weeks ago," the tracking project tweeted. By comparison, hospitalizations previously peaked around 60,000 in April and late July, according to the health data. The country recorded 180,193 new cases on Monday, the tracking project reported. The seven-day average of new cases is at a record high of 196,882, according to the health data. There were 1,347 new deaths recorded Monday, according to the tracking project. The seven-day average of daily deaths also reached a record high at 2,204, the health data showed. "The 7-day average for deaths are at record levels in the Midwest, South, and West," the tracking project tweeted. Read More : pg
• December 7, 2020 9:09 AM +0330

  in the topic As lawyers keep pushing Trump election challenges in the forum Off-Topic Discussions

  As lawyers keep pushing Trump election challenges, calls for sanctions mount Some legal experts say attorneys have crossed the line with unsupported claims. As President Donald Trump and his allies continue their legal barrage in an effort to overturn the presidential election despite a succession of adverse rulings, some state and local election officials are starting to cry foul. In Michigan Thursday, Republican lawyers were back in court seeking an audit of election results in the heavily-Democratic county that is home to Detroit -- even after the state's Supreme Court had already rejected an earlier request from the same group to halt certification. An exasperated lawyer for the city pleaded with the judge to do something. "They are trying to use this court in a very, very improper way," said Detroit city attorney David Fink. "We ask this court not just to deny the relief that is requested but to grant significant sanctions, because this has to stop." The attorney for the Trump poll observers shot back: "I didn't realize I was such a threat to our republic by simply asking that this court to enforce our constitutional right." MORE : pg The Michigan case is not isolated, and opponents say they are starting to see the relentless effort as abusive. In just the past week, at least five new cases were filed on the president's behalf. Between the Trump campaign and the president's allies, there have now been at least 46 lawsuits filed challenging the 2020 presidential contest -- many employing the same recycled fraud claims and witness affidavits. And if more cases land on court dockets with glaring errors or what judges have described as anemic evidence, legal experts told ABC News that even some slow-to-boil judges may see no choice but to impose sanctions. "You could see a court saying, 'Enough is enough,'" said Daniel I. Weiner, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Election Reform Program at New York University. A 'post-truth environment'Whether and when the blizzard of lawsuits may cross a line and be deemed abusive by a court is nearly impossible to predict, a number of legal experts told ABC News, but some say it now seems possible. New York University Law Professor Stephen Gillers, an expert on ethics rules, said there is a point at which a plaintiff could face reprimand, especially if cases are repeatedly being dismissed as unsupported by facts -- as has occurred repeatedly in Trump's case. "Judges have inherent power to impose monetary sanctions on lawyers who abuse the court system by making claims to which they have no reasonable factual or legal basis," Gillers said. "Is it frequently done? No. Is it unheard of? No." Charles Gardner Geyh, a law professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, said he found it distressing to see the president "export this post-truth environment" to the courtroom. But he has doubts that courts will go so far as to sanction lawyers bringing election challenges, no matter how thin the evidence. Judges "don't want to be perceived as openly political," Geyh said. "If they come down on lawyers who represent the president like a ton of bricks, they are aware of how that will be perceived." 'Oddly extreme' The one possible exception to that, Geyh said, involves Sidney Powell, the increasingly incendiary attorney whom the president jettisoned from his legal team 13 days ago. Powell has filed a succession of unfounded conspiracy-laced lawsuits challenging the election's outcome that have distressed even some of Trump's longtime allies. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a confidante of the president, called the far-fetched legal claims "a national embarrassment."
• December 4, 2020 11:34 AM +0330

  in the topic East Coast meteor lights up sky from New York to Ontario in the forum Off-Topic Discussions

  East Coast meteor lights up sky from New York to Ontario The fireball was going about 56,000 miles per hour when it broke into pieces. Pieces of a meteor were seen falling from the sky across the East Coast of the United States and Canada in the middle of the day. Residents in upstate New York began seeing flashes of light around noon Wednesday, and by the evening, the American Meteor Society(AMS) had received more than 150 reports in seven states. The event was mainly seen in New York and Ontario, but the organization also received reports of sightings in Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. MORE : pg Dozens of people in New York contacted local authorities and media Wednesday afternoon after hearing a "loud boom," according to the AMS. The noise was loud enough it shook windows, but clouds in the area prevented sightings of the source, the Associated Press reported. The sound occurs when a very bright fireball penetrates the stratosphere below an altitude of around 30 miles and explodes as a bolide -- an extremely bright meteor. While traveling westward at a speed of about 56,000 miles per hour, the meteor broke into pieces at an altitude of approximately 22 miles, which then produced the bright lights seen throughout the East Coast. The fireball's physical flight ended somewhere over Cayuga Lake in New York, the ground track of the event, which was computed by NASA, shows. EarthCam tweeted a video of the meteor flashing through the Toronto skyline Wednesday afternoon, captured by a camera that faces the CN Tower. Several thousand fireballs occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day, but the majority of them occur over oceans and uninhabited regions, and many are masked by daylight, according to the AMS. In addition, fireballs that occur at night are often missed because no one is out to see them. The brighter the meteor, the rarer the event. But multiple meteor sightings have occurred in the past month. On Monday, a bright meteor was seen throughout Japan as it fell through the sky. Small fragments of the meteor may have reached the ground, experts said. NASA also confirmed that a streak of blue light seen across central Texas near Killeen in mid-November was a meteor. "A giant ball like a meteorite changed the rainbow spectrum of colors until it turned into a beautiful turquoise," Texas resident Mary Ann Miron told ABC's Houston station KTRK, describing the light as "huge" and colorful.