FierceHealthcare: Democrats reintroduce legislation to create Medicaid-based public option.
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/democrats-reintroduce-legislation-to-create-medicaid-based-public-option

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-and-former-prosecutor-merrick-garland-is-confirmed-as-attorney-general/ar-BB1esMra

The Senate voted to confirm Merrick Garland Wednesday to serve as attorney general, giving the former prosecutor and widely respected federal judge the task of leading the Justice Department at a time when the nation faces domestic extremist threats and a reckoning over civil rights.

Garland was confirmed 70 to 30 by senators, with 20 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in supporting him. He is expected to be sworn in at the Justice Department Thursday.

Garland has vowed to restore public faith in a department that was embroiled in political controversy under the former president, Donald Trump, who sought both to undermine federal law enforcement when it scrutinized him and his associates and to wield its power to benefit him personally and politically.

At his confirmation hearing, Garland, 68, said that becoming attorney general would “be the culmination of a career I have dedicated to ensuring that the laws of our country are fairly and faithfully enforced and the rights of all Americans are protected.”

Garland has amassed decades of credentials in the law. He clerked for the Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., worked for years as a federal prosecutor, and led major investigations into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and others before being confirmed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in 1997.

>>>

https://youtu.be/K48cVOyVxtw

As much as this sounds very interesting, citation needed. Not much info backing up on the web, and authfags on /pol/ and RT social media accounts haven't howled yet. Can anyone confirm? I'm just pretty iffy on Yeonmi Park.

https://news.yahoo.com/gop-rep-jim-banks-republicans-195845753.html

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is urging his party to punish every lawmaker investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol if Republicans take back the majority in 2022.

“When we win back the majority next year, we have a duty as Republicans to hold every member of this committee accountable for this abuse of power, for stepping over the line, by preventing them from being in positions of authority,” Banks told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday. “Take them off any committee, get them as far away from positions of power as you can because they’ve shown us that by threatening to do this that they abuse their power, wherever they are.”

This week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House select committee investigating the attack, announced he will be asking telecommunications and social media companies to preserve the electronic records of communications of several people, possibly including members of Congress.

Thompson did not name any specific members, even though on Tuesday, Carlson claimed that Banks is “apparently one of the Republicans whose phone records will be grabbed.”

At least two Republicans ― House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) ― have acknowledged talking to former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6.

Carlson’s son also works for Banks, a fact he did not disclose ― has not disclosed ― in the numerous times he’s interviewed the congressman.

The committee is investigating what happened on Jan. 6, including Trump’s role in instigating the attack of his supporters on the Capitol. Seven Democrats and two Republicans serve on the panel.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) initially supported an independent investigation of the Jan. 6 attack, modeled on the 9/11 Commission. The legislation passed the House with the help of 35 Republicans, but Senate Republicans blocked it from moving forward. Pelosi instead established a select committee.

A cleaning fairy left a couple wondering who left their home spotless.

CBS2’s Meg Baker has the dirt on the mix-up.
Louis Angelino III works a 9 to 5 job but cleans friends’ houses for extra money on the side. Once a messy kid, he said cleaning is like therapy now.
“It’s just like very satisfying, and it really helps me with like my mental health and everything else, because if you’re in a clean environment, your mind is clean,” Angelino said.

Angelino, aka “Stayscrewy” on TikTok, posts some of his transformations and explains, “We go from frat house … to bachelor pad.”
He showed up at the address of what he thought was his friend Mark’s condo in Cherry Hill in South Jersey. He was told the key was under the mat and there was a key. Angelino said he turned on music and got to work for two hours and fell in love with the two cats, Mary and Baby.
“I’m a cat person. I’m like petting her, and I get a call from Mark and Mark’s like, ‘Hey, did you come today?'” Angelino said. “‘I’m in your living room waiting for you to walk in. I’m playing with your cat.’ He goes, ‘Man, I don’t have a cat!’ What?!?”

Beth Motzel’s husband, Tom, called her when he got home from work.

“He said, ‘You won’t believe it. Someone broke in our house and cleaned the entire thing, he said Swiffer and all,'” Beth said.

“Come come to find out I cleaned the wrong apartment and broke in and cleaned somebody’s random apartment. You’re welcome? Ha!” Angelino said.

“Tom and I laughed forever about it. He fixed it all up. I mean, details, he cleaned up after the cats, played with the cats, fed the cats, and wiped everything spotless. He really is a cleaning fairy,” Beth said.
Angelino said he has been getting requests on TikTok for the cleaning fairy, a play on the tooth fairy. He said the incident just may be the kickstart he needs to grow his cleaning business.

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/07/13/thinking-hes-helping-out-a-friend-man-who-cleans-houses-accidentally-makes-couples-condo-pristine/

>Shame they had to destroy the guy's life like this. Hope he counter-sues. Link to the bodycam transcript along with news link. Had Floyd NOT been on Fentanyl, he would not have had the coronary that killed him.

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2021-03-07/minneapolis-on-edge-as-chauvin-trial-is-set-to-open

https://www.twincities.com/2020/07/09/george-floyd-transcript-read-it-in-full-here/

Minneapolis On Edge As Chauvin Trial Is Set To Open

By Adrian Florido
Published March 7, 2021 at 5:14 PM EST

Tomorrow, barring any last-minute delays, jury selection is set to get underway in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. He is the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd for almost nine minutes last May. Floyd's death under Chauvin's knee caught on a cell phone video that went viral set off months of protests. And now that the former officer's trial on murder charges is set to start, many see it as a test of whether police who kill can be brought to justice.

A week after revoking sweeping new restrictions on international students, federal immigration officials on Friday announced that new foreign students will be barred from entering the United States if they plan to take their classes entirely online this fall.

In a memo to college officials, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said new students who were not already enrolled as of March 9 will “likely not be able to obtain” visas if they intend to take courses entirely online. The announcement primarily affects new students hoping to enroll at universities that will provide classes entirely online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

International students who are already in the U.S. or are returning from abroad and already have visas will still be allowed to take classes entirely online, according to the update, even if they begin instruction in-person but their schools move online in the face of a worsening outbreak.

The policy strikes a blow to colleges a week after hundreds united to repel a Trump administration policy that threatened to deport thousands of foreign students. That rule sought to bar all international students in the U.S. from taking classes entirely online this fall, even if their universities were forced to switch to fully online instruction amid an outbreak.

The new order was released Friday as a clarification to earlier guidance from March 9 that suspended existing limits around online education for international students. The March guidance was meant to provide flexibility as schools across the nation closed campuses amid the pandemic, but universities said it was unclear whether it extended to new students.


https://nypost.com/2020/07/25/foreign-students-barred-from-us-if-classes-taken-solely-online-ice-says/

Haubert and Officer Francine Martinez face criminal charges — in Haubert’s case that consists of multiple felonies. They were the first two responding officers to the July 23 incident on the 3100 block of South Parker Road. The 29-year-old man they wound up arresting, Kyle Vinson, said “You’re killing me” as one he was being repeatedly struck.

Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson released the body cam video on Tuesday and described the actions taken by the officers in the arrest as unacceptable. She launched an internal affairs investigation to review the apparent excessive force that was used.


Haubert was released from jail on bond after being arrested earlier this week. Martinez is charged with one charge of failing to intervene and a second charge of failing to report the use of force. She is on leave with pay, which is in line with department policy for misdemeanor charges.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/07/29/john-haubert-resigns-aurora-police-department-violent-arrest-kyle-vinson/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KeAtOqIXs

China has long been home to more than half the world’s bitcoin miners, but now, Beijing wants them out ASAP.

In May, the government called for a severe crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, setting off what’s being dubbed in crypto circles as “the great mining migration.” This exodus is underway now, and it could be a game changer for Texas.

Mining is the energy-intensive process which both creates new coins and maintains a log of all transactions of existing digital tokens.

Despite a lack of reserves that caused dayslong blackouts last winter, Texas often has some of the world’s lowest energy prices, and its share of renewables is growing over time, with 20% of its power coming from wind as of 2019. It has a deregulated power grid that lets customers choose between power providers, and crucially, its political leaders are very pro-crypto – dream conditions for a miner looking for a kind welcome and cheap energy sources.

“You are going to see a dramatic shift over the next few months,” said Brandon Arvanaghi, previously a security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini. “We have governors like Greg Abbott in Texas who are promoting mining. It is going to become a real industry in the United States, which is going to be incredible.”

China’s mining dominance
2021 data for the global distribution of mining power is not yet available, but past estimates have shown that 65% to 75% of the world’s bitcoin mining happened in China – mostly in four Chinese provinces: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and Yunnan. Sichuan and Yunnan’s hydropower make them renewable energy meccas, while Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are home to many of China’s coal plants.

The drawdown in miners has already begun in Inner Mongolia. After failing to meet Beijing’s climate targets, province leaders decided to give bitcoin miners two months to clear out, explicitly blaming its energy misses on crypto mines.


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/chinas-bitcoin-miner-exodus-.html

Education reform group praises decision

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has amended a proposal to give grant money to curricula that promotes Critical Race Theory and antiracism.

The decision has drawn praise from an education reform group that mobilized people to submit public comment on the proposed rule.

Parents Defending Education thanked Cardona for deciding to “change course on the new federal grants for the American History and Civics Education programs.”

The Department of Education withdrew “the requirement that grantees incorporate curriculum and instruction based on or similar to the 1619 Project or the works of Ibram X. Kendi.”

“It is our hope that this change in the ‘proposed priorities’ is a sign of the administration’s recommitment to historical accuracy and civics education over ideology and advocacy,” PDE said.

PDE took credit for initiating the edit to the grant program. The education group said:


https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2021-OESE-0033-0001

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/07/19/2021-15364/applications-for-new-awards-american-history-and-civics-education-presidential-and-congressional

https://defendinged.org/press-releases/secretary-cardona-makes-right-decision-in-changing-course-on-new-federal-grants-for-american-history-and-civics-education/

https://blog.ed.gov/2021/07/american-history-and-civics-in-our-schools/
https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2021-OESE-0033-0001
https://www.thecollegefix.com/department-of-education-amends-grant-program-that-could-prioritize-anti-racism-and-critical-race-theory/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/19/controversy-teaching-us-history-biden/