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msclaritea · 4 years ago

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“There have been prosecutors that refused to seat Black jurors, refused to prosecute lynching, disproportionately condemned young Black men to death row and looked the other way in the face of police brutality,” Politico reported.

“It matters who is in those rooms. I knew I had to be in those rooms. We have to be in those rooms even when there aren’t many like us there.” Kamala Harris makes history

What Kamala Harris Did In Those Rooms: Or 50 Criminal Justice Reforms & Accomplishments (link includes corresponding articles)

1. Deputy DA- Kamala Harris Opposed Prop 21 (passed with 62%) which increased criminal penalties for crimes committed by youth and incorporated many youth offenders into the adult criminal justice system.

2. Deputy DA- Kamala Harris co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids, to provide legal and health services to sexually exploited children, including teenage “prostitutes”

3. As member of the board of trustees of SF MOMA, Kamala Harris created the 1st of its kind in the US “Matches” program, which pairs at-risk youth with mentors to expose them to art and broaden their horizons.

4.DA- Kamala Harris created Back on Track program to help drug offenders re-enter society. Provided vocational training, counseling, parenting services, etc. Substantially reduced recidivism for participants

5.DA- Kamala Harris refused to seek the death penalty even when pressured by members of her own party due to racial disparities in how it is applied 6.DA- Created LGBT Hate Crime Unit

7.DA- Kamala Harris worked to get the first safe house in San Francisco for girls who wanted out of the sex trade 8.DA- Changed underage women/men from being treated as prostitutes to being treated as victims

9.DA/AG- Kamala Harris helped found the Center for Youth Wellness which works to improve the health of children exposed to childhood trauma

10.AG- Kamala Harris created the Bureau of Children’s Justice (BCJ) to streamline enforcement of laws that uphold children’s rights & pursue policies that improve the lives of children Unroll available on Thread Reader

11.AG- BCJ partnered w/USC to link data from the DOJ & Social Services’ case mgmt systems to enable researchers for the 1st time to better determine the overlap b/w CA’s child welfare &juvenile justice populations

12.AG- Kamala Harris’ BCJ worked to diagnose challenges in California’s juvenile justice data systems, in partnership with the Governance Lab at New York University

13.AG- BCJ worked to deliver previously unavailable juvenile justice data (from the Juvenile Court Probation Statistical Sys) to researchers at the Public Policy Institute of CA, Harvard U of Chicago,& UC Berkeley 14.AG-BCJ collaborate with the Judicial Council to develop dashboards for judges to make better decisions about adjudicated juveniles. 15.AG-Awarded Second Chance Grant to expand Back on Track to LA as AG

16.AG- As Attorney General CREATED the Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry (DR3) to reduce the number of repeat offenders

17.AG- DR3 partnered on the Court of College (C2C). The program is designed to divert young offenders from future criminal behavior through cognitive behavioral intervention & exposure to higher education

18.AG- Kamala Harris’ DR3 partnered on the Career Pathways program. It’s an out-of-custody, recidivism-reduction program that provides resources to a probation-supervised population.

19.AG- Kamala Harris’ CA DOJ was accepted into the natl Defending Childhood State Policy Initiative; a cross-sector team of state leaders to develop shared priorities to prevent/address children’s exposure to violence.

20.AG- Created the Truancy Intervention Panel to implement best practices for truancy prevention.

21.AG- BCJ in partnership w/the Ad Council & CA Endowment, conducted a study/designed a public education toolkit to help educators/community leaders communicate w/parents on the importance of kids being in school

22.AG- Created SmartJustice, a new database and analytical tool to track repeat offenders and offense trends to provide counties with more effective options in developing anti-recidivism initiatives.

23.AG- Kamala Harris issued guidance to CA law enforcement agencies outlining new responsibilities to track/report citizen complaints against peace officers, including complaints alleging racial/identity profiling

24.AG- Supported AB71 (which became law) requiring all CA law enforcement agencies to collect data on shootings & use of force by a civilian/police against the other that result in serious bodily injury or death.

25.AG- Created the first Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (“POST”) certified law enforcement training on both procedural justice and implicit bias, the first of its kind in the country.

26.AG- Instituted a body camera policy for all DOJ special agent personnel conducting field operations.

27.AG- Convened community members, incl. roundtables w/HS students from South/East LA. The topics were experiences with police and ideas on how to improve the relationship between youth & law enforcement.

28.AG-Created the 21st Century Policing Working Group to foster discussion regarding implicit bias and building community trust.

29.AG- Kamala Harris created OpenJustice, a 1st of-its-kind criminal justice open data initiative providing unprecedented data. Provides key criminal justice indicators and transparency Unroll available on Thread Reader

30.AG- Kamala Harris opened a civil pattern or practice investigations into the Kern County Sheriff’s Office 31.AG-Kamala Harris opened a civil pattern or practice investigations into Bakersfield Police Department

32.AG-Kamala Harris Created the Racial Profiling Advisory Board Unroll available on Thread Reader

33.AG- Kamala Harris issued guidance outlining the law enforcement agencies responsibilities to assist immigrant crime victims in applying for U-visas.

34.AG- Kamala Harris enlisted major law firms to provide pro-bono legal services to for unaccompanied children entering the US. She supported legislation to provide $3M to qualified CA nonprofits to provide legal aid.

35.AG-Kamala Harris sponsored Bill that allows human trafficking victims to petition court to set aside a conviction of solicitation/prostitution.

36.AG- Kamala Harris eliminated longstanding rape kit backlog of over 1,300 untested kits and significantly reduced processing times. Received the US DOJ’s Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services

37.AG- Kamala Harris sponsored AB1644 to establish 4yr pilot to assist elementary schools in providing mental health services to students, prioritizing schools in communities with high levels of childhood trauma/ adversity

50 Times #Kamala Accomplished/Advocated for #CriminalJusticeReform 38.AG- #KamalaHarris supported Senate Bill 1143 to significantly limit the practice of isolating juveniles in room confinement. The bill was signed into law and took effect in 2018.

39.AG- Kamala Harris supported AB 1840 to require that state agencies give preference to homeless youth and formerly incarcerated youth when hiring interns and student assistants

40.AG- Kamala Harris supported AB2390 to provide a legislative fix to 2010 legislation that inadvertently removed a mechanism for juvenile offenders with good records on supervised probation to obtain honorable discharge status

41.AG- Kamala Harris supported AB1843 to ensure that juvenile records are protected from unfair and undue inquiry during employer background checks.

42.SEN- Kamala Harris reintroduced (along with colleagues) the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. Creates a National Criminal Justice Commission to review & propose reforms to address the most pressing issues facing the Criminal Justice system.

43.SEN- Kamala Harris sponsored bill that would legalize marijuana; expunge prior convictions, require re-sentencing hearings for those still under supervision;& invest money in communities adversely impacted by the War on Drugs

44.SEN- Kamala Harris sponsored the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017 — to encourage states to reform or replace the practice of money bail.

45.SEN- Kamala Harris sponsored legislation to increase funding for public defenders, reduce their workload, and provide pay parity between prosecutors and public defenders

46.SEN- Kamala Harris introduced legislation to limit the use of solitary confinement. Also pressed Bureau of Prisons to take measures to address the significant increase in the use of restricted housing.

47.SEN- Kamala Harris sponsored legislation to end discrimination in public housing for offenders released from prison

48.SEN- Kamala Harris sponsored legislation to reform the treatment of incarcerated women in order to reduce the negative impact incarceration has on the family of women behind bars, especially their children

49.SEN-Kamala Harris sponsored legislation to establish the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men & Boys. The Commission will investigate/provide recommendations to improve the disparities Black men experience.

50.SEN- Kamala Harris worked with civil rights groups (like the NAACP LDF) to strengthen the First Step.

MY QUESTION TO HER CRITICS: CAN YOU DO BETTER?

#Kamala Harris #Accomplishments #Those Rooms=The Lion's Den #LGBTQ Rights #Black Lives Matter #California #Georgia #nevada #Arizona #Black Men #Black Women #Recidivism #Civil Rights #Financial Rights

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alexsmitposts · 5 years ago

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Will the US be Sued over COVID-19? Or what have Pentagon’s Biolabs been Up To?

In an attempt to avoid accountability for failed policies implemented to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to save their own image, certain political elites, especially in the USA and Great Britain, have launched an information campaign, with the aid of subservient media outlets, that aggressively seeks to find someone to blame for such high numbers of individuals infected with COVID-19 and of deaths attributed to the Coronavirus.

We would like to remind our readers that, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the United States has reported the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases (almost 1 million inhabitants in the USA have been infected) as well as of deaths due to the virus (more than 50,000 people have died). Fox News and other media outlets have reported that almost as many Americans infected with the Coronavirus have died as those in the entire Vietnam War. Still, Washington is not prepared to admit that the US healthcare system as well as the government are in a helpless position in light of the pandemic, and instead chooses to blame the World Health Organization (WHO) and China.

Great Britain is not “far behind” the United States. More than 20,000 people have died due to COVID-19 and the number of people infected with the virus has exceeded 140,000 in the UK. Hence, according to Sky News, leading experts from all over the world predict (based on the current trends) that the Coronavirus pandemic will have the biggest impact on the Kingdom in Europe, and that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Great Britain will account for 40% of all the deaths on the continent.

Some American media outlets have pointed out that US intelligence agencies have long been warning the White House about threats posed by pandemics in general and more specifically by the Coronavirus more recently. However, the current administration chose to discount such alerts. In such a climate, it is inevitable that the public will take the current political elite to task and hold them accountable for the mistakes made during the battle against COVID-19. Who will be held responsible for failed responses to the ongoing crisis, first and foremost, in the United States and Great Britain, who promote themselves as nations to be emulated by the rest of the world in almost any sphere in politics and other activities? In an attempt to divert attention from mistakes made and lay the blame squarely at the feet of others, the current leadership in Washington DC and London launched a wide-reaching information campaign against China by accusing it, without any proof, of causing the COVID-19 pandemic, and also encouraged others to sue Beijing for billions of dollars.

For now, let us put some of these issues to the side. After all, the international community will, undoubtedly, get answers to their questions in the near future. At the moment, there are no facts or compelling evidence that show whether the Coronavirus is man-made or not. Still, proponents of various theories about the origins of the virus are exerting a lot of effort and spending considerable resources on spreading information in support of their ideas by different means.

We would like to focus on one particular topic: the role of a wide network of secret biolabs established with the assistance of the Pentagon to fight epidemics and pandemics.

According to different reports published by media outlets, nowadays, there are over 400 secret Pentagon partner biolabs throughout the world. All of them work on biotechnologies with dual purposes, which could either cure or kill.

An official statement, issued recently by the US Embassy in Kyiv, said that the “US Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program” worked “with the Ukrainian Government to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities, while allowing for peaceful research and vaccine development”. “We also work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats,” it continued.

Such biolabs are located in many countries, including the post-Soviet space, i.e. Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and a number of other nations that have experienced wide-spread Coronavirus outbreaks. Hence, a reasonable question arises: “Why have these bio-laboratories not provided needed aid by detecting and reporting ‘outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats’ and by fighting the pandemic in these nations?”.

The answer to this question is quite simple, Washington is pursuing other aims to those mentioned above in the biolabs that partner with the Pentagon. It is no secret that “researchers” from the United States are particularly interested in diseases that pose a threat to humans and that are typical of any region where the USA might engage in armed conflicts in, and in the way such illnesses are transmitted either by animals or other means. Military agencies of the USA, and also Great Britain, Germany and NATO, as a whole, require such information in the event of an armed confrontation, especially if nations of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) or the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) are involved, in order to have biological weapons suitable for any given region ready. Such essential data can only be obtained under field conditions and US partner bio-laboratories, often called Central Reference Laboratories (CRL), provide opportunities to collect it.

In addition, these bio-labs can be used for the same purposes as the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where it is possible to carry out activities deemed illegal in the United States. For example, in 2014, a moratorium on federal funding of controversial research to make viruses more lethal to humans by, for instance, genetically modifying them, was imposed in the USA for three years. However, studies conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a virus called SHC014, found in horseshoe bats in China, were allowed to proceed because they had started before 2014. Researchers there created a chimaeric virus capable of infecting humans. In theory, such research can be continued in any US partner biolab: in Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or anywhere else. A controversial theory thus emerges that the Coronavirus was created in one of such US biolabs.

All of these bio-laboratories and related facilities can, in fact, be viewed as undocumented US and NATO military bases, which, as the recent developments have shown, are not actually tasked with helping nations where they are located to detect dangerous pathogens before they pose a security threat and to fight epidemics and pandemics and their consequences.

We reiterate that the theory claiming the Coronavirus is man-made has not been proven. And it is up to scientists studying the genome of the virus to prove or disprove it. All the statements saying that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory are controversial and there is not enough information for the moment to come to any conclusions.

However, what is certain, at present, is that the stated aims of Pentagon partner biolabs do not appear to correspond to their actual objectives as these facilities have been unable, thus far, to protect countries and their citizens from the suffering and losses they are experiencing on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hence, it will be fairly reasonable for nations where such biolabs are located to hold the United States and the Pentagon accountable right now for their inability to prevent recent outbreaks and to effectively combat the spread of the Coronavirus via international courts and other relevant organizations. These countries ought to sue the US administration for billions of dollars to compensate them for moral and physical damages caused by the pandemic and the failure of biolabs to act in accordance with the aims described by the US Embassy in Kyiv. The nations should also demand closure of such American military facilities on their soil.

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seriousbusinessforhumans · 4 years ago

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Jan 20

Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing

1. Biden says you've got to wear a fucking mask on federal property. The order also encourages state and local officials to do the same, kicking off Biden's 100 day masking challenge.

Executive Order on Organizing and Mobilizing the United States Government to Provide a Unified and Effective Response to Combat COVID-19 and to Provide United States Leadership on Global Health and Security

2. Biden creates the position of a COVID-19 Response Coordinator. The role, filled by Jeff Zients, will report directly to Biden.

Letter to His Excellency António Guterres

3. Biden says we are rejoining the World Health Organization, goddamnit. Dr. Anthony Fauci has been named the head of the American delegation

Proclamation on the Termination Of Emergency With Respect To The Southern Border Of The United States And Redirection Of Funds Diverted To Border Wall Construction

4. This order halts the construction of Trump's unhinged and expensive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Preserving and Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

5. Biden wants Dreamers to keep on dreamin'...It also asks Congress to create legislation that gives the 700,000 Dreamers permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship.

Executive Order on the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities

6. Biden undoes Trump's expansion of immigration enforcement.

Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States

7. Biden puts an end to the so-called Muslim ban. The White House also promises to improve the screening of visitors through information-sharing with other countries.

Reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians

8. Biden wants Liberians whose immigration status has expired to stay.

Executive Order on Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census

9. This order overturns a Trump administration plan to exclude non-citizens from the census count.

Pausing Federal Student Loan Payments

10. directed the Acting Secretary of Education to put a hold on federal student loan payments and collection until at least September 30, keeping the interest rate at 0%.

Extending Pandemic Eviction Moratorium and Foreclosures

11. This order will expand the eviction and foreclosure moratorium to March 31.

Paris Climate Agreement

12. Biden says we care about the environment.

Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis

13. Biden cancels the Keystone XL pipeline (to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chagrin) and directs federal agencies to review and reverse more than 100 of Trump's actions on the environment. This order also places a temporary moratorium on the oil and natural gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, undoes a decision to slash national monuments, and re-establishes a working group on the social cost of greenhouse gases.

Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation

14. Biden makes sure queers can be queer at work. This order reinforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requiring the government not to discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation. It also directs federal agencies with protections against sex discrimination to interpret those protections to also include discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, consistent with the Bostock v. Clayton County Supreme Court ruling in 2020.

Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government

15. Biden revokes Trump's 1776 Commission. The order also directs federal agencies to advance racial equity in their departments.

Executive Order on Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation

16. Biden reverses Trump's new regulations implemented before he left office. This order undoes Trump's regulatory approval process to give federal agencies more tools to fight the pandemic, climate change, racial justice...

Executive Order on Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel

17. Biden requires all executive branch appointees to sign a pledge promising to "restore and maintain public trust in government." Appointees must pledge not to interfere with the independence of the Department of Justice, not use their appointments for personal gain, and invokes a two year lobbying ban.

Regulatory Freeze Pending Review

The President has to communicate his plan for managing the Federal regulatory process at the outset of his Administration.

A National Day of Unity

Today, we celebrate the triumph of democracy after an election that saw more Americans voting than ever before in our Nation’s history, and where the...

Jan 21

Executive Order on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel

18. You have to wear the damn masks on planes and trains.

Executive Order on Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatments for COVID-19

19. This one directs Health and Human Services to back-up research that looks into "the most promising treatments for COVID-19 and future high-consequence public health threats."

Executive Order on Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats

20. The Biden administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be based in science and data and FACTS.

Memorandum to Extend Federal Support to Governors’ Use of the National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and Other Assistance Provided to States

21. The Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are now ordered to assist governors' responses to COVID-19 with the deployment of the National Guard. A sexy little item for states stressing about budgets: "FEMA shall fund 100 percent of the cost of activities associated with all mission assignments for the use of the National Guard."

Executive Order on a Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain

22. Government departments can use the fuckin' Defense Production Act to fulfill supply chain issues.

Executive Order on Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery

23. We're getting a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, baby! This is another one of those things we knew about a while ago, considering it was built into his transitional advisory board, but now it's official.

Executive Order on Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers

24. The Education Department needs to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to reopen schools safely. The departments will create "Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices".

Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety

25. Fuck the old standards, the Labor Department must issue new COVID-19 safety guidelines to employers. They've got two weeks to come up with them!

Executive Order on Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats

26. "COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board" is in the works and it will implement a "Government-wide, unified approach" to "promote COVID-19 diagnostic, screening, and surveillance testing."

Jan 22

Executive Order on Economic Relief Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

27. Nearly eight million Americans have still not received either their $1200 or $600 stimulus checks from last year. This order asks the Treasury Department to hurry the hell up, calling on them to examine their delivery structure to make sure everyone gets their money on time. It also expands food stamps, increasing the amount of money families get for food each month.

Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce

28. Biden lays the groundwork so the minimum wage for federal workers can raise to $15 an hour...The order also restores collective bargaining and other worker protections revoked by Trump.

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prewrittenessay469 · 4 years ago

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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Politics Slows Flow of US Pandemic Relief Funds to Public Health Agencies

As the coronavirus began to spread through Minneapolis this spring, Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant tore up her budget to find funds to combat the crisis. Money for test kits. Money to administer tests. Money to hire contact tracers. Yet even more money for a service that helps tracers communicate with residents in dozens of languages.

While Musicant diverted workers from violence prevention and other core programs to the COVID-19 response, state officials debated how to distribute $1.87 billion Minnesota received in federal aid.

As she waited for federal help, the Minnesota Zoo got $6 million in federal money to continue operations, and a debt collection company outside Minneapolis received at least $5 million from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to federal data.

It was not until Aug. 5 — months after Congress approved aid for the pandemic — that Musicant’s department finally received $1.7 million, the equivalent of $4 per Minneapolis resident.

“It’s more a hope and a prayer that we’ll have enough money,” Musicant said.

Since the pandemic began, Congress has set aside trillions of dollars to ease the crisis. A joint KHN and Associated Press investigation finds that many communities with big outbreaks have spent little of that federal money on local public health departments for work such as testing and contact tracing. Others, like Minnesota, were slow to do so.

For example, the states, territories and 154 large cities and counties that received allotments from the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund reported spending only 25% of it through June 30, according to reports that recipients submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Many localities have deployed more money since that June 30 reporting deadline, and both Republican and Democratic governors say they need more to avoid layoffs and cuts to vital state services. Still, as cases in the U.S. top 5.2 million and deaths soar past 167,000, Republicans in Congress are pointing to the slow spending to argue against sending more money to state and local governments to help with their pandemic response.

“States and localities have only spent about a fourth of the money we already sent them in the springtime,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. Congressional Democrats’ efforts to get more money for states, he said, “aren’t based on math. They aren’t based on the pandemic.”

Negotiations over a new pandemic relief bill broke down last week, in part because Democrats and Republicans could not agree on funding for state and local governments.

Minneapolis Health Commissioner Gretchen Musicant visits a COVID-19 testing event at Incarnation-Sagrado Corazon Church on Saturday in Minneapolis. As the coronavirus spread through Minneapolis this spring, Musicant tore up her budget to find money to combat the crisis. It was not until Aug. 5 — months after Congress approved the pandemic relief aid — that her department received $1.7 million, the equivalent of $4 per Minneapolis resident.(AP Photo/Craig Lassig)

KHN and the AP requested detailed spending breakdowns from recipients of money from the Coronavirus Relief Fund — created in March as part of the $1.9 trillion CARES Act — and received responses from 23 states and 62 cities and counties. Those entities dedicated 23% of their spending from the fund through June to public health and 7% to public health and safety payroll.

An additional 22% was transferred to local governments, some of which will eventually pass it down to health departments. The rest went to other priorities, such as distance learning.

So little money has flowed to some local health departments for many reasons: Bureaucracy has bogged things down, politics have crept into the process, and understaffed departments have struggled to take time away from critical needs to navigate the red tape required to justify asking for extra dollars.

“It does not make sense to me how anyone thinks this is a way to do business,” said E. Oscar Alleyne, chief of programs and services at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “We are never going to get ahead of the pandemic response if we are still handicapped.”

Last month, KHN and the AP detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades. Over 38,000 public health worker jobs have been lost since 2008, and per capita spending on local health departments has been cut by 18% since 2010. That’s left them underfunded and without adequate resources to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

“Public health has been cut and cut and cut over the years, but we’re so valuable every time you turn on the television,” said Jan Morrow, the director and 41-year veteran of Ripley County health department in rural Missouri. “We are picking up all the pieces, but the money is not there. They’ve cut our budget until there’s nothing left.”

Politics and Red Tape

Why did the Minneapolis health department have to wait so long for CARES Act money?

Congress mandated that the Coronavirus Relief Fund be distributed to states and local governments based on population. Minneapolis, with 430,000 residents, missed the threshold of 500,000 people that would have allowed it to receive money directly.

The state of Minnesota, however, received $1.87 billion, a portion of which was meant to be sent to local communities. Lawmakers initially sent some state money to tide communities over until the federal money came through — the Minneapolis health department got about $430,000 in state money to help pay for things like testing.

But when it came time to decide how to use the CARES Act money, lawmakers in Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House were at loggerheads.

Myron Frans, commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget, said that disagreement, on top of the economic crisis and pandemic, left the legislature in turmoil.

After the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city erupted in protests over racial injustice, making a difficult situation even more challenging.

Dr. Jackie Kawiecki stands outside her home Saturday, her day off from her job at a medical station in Richfield, Minnesota, near the location where George Floyd was killed. “I still don’t think that the amount of testing offered is adequate, from a public health standpoint,” Kawiecki says.(AP Photo/Craig Lassig)

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz favored targeting some of the money to harder-hit communities, a move that might have helped Minneapolis, where cases have surged since mid-July. But lawmakers couldn’t agree. Negotiations dragged on, and a special session merely prolonged the standoff.

Finally, the governor divvied up the money using a population-based formula developed earlier by Republican and Democratic legislative leaders that did not take into account COVID-19 caseloads or racial disparities.

“We knew we needed to get it out the door,” Frans said.

The state then sent hundreds of millions of dollars to local communities. Still, even after the money got to Minneapolis a month ago, Musicant had to wait as city leaders made difficult choices about how to spend the money as the economy cratered and the list of needs grew.

“Even when it gets to the local government, you still have to figure out how to get it to local public health,” Musicant said.

Meanwhile, some in Minneapolis have noticed a lack of services. Dr. Jackie Kawiecki has been providing help to people at a volunteer medical station near the place where Floyd was killed ― an area that at times has drawn hundreds or thousands of people per day. She said the city did not do enough free, easy-to-access testing in its neighborhoods this summer.

“I still don’t think that the amount of testing offered is adequate, from a public health standpoint,” Kawiecki said.

A coalition of groups that includes the National Governors Association has blamed the spending delays on the federal government, saying the final guidance on how states could spend the money came late in June, shortly before the reporting period ended. The coalition said state and local governments had moved “expeditiously and responsibly” to use the money as they deal with skyrocketing costs for health care, emergency response and other vital programs.

New York’s Nassau County was among six counties, cities and states that had spent at least 75% of its funds by June 30.

While most of the money was not spent before then, the National Association of State Budget Officers says a July 23 survey of 45 states and territories found they had allocated, or set aside, an average of 74% of the money.

But if they have, that money has been slow to make it to many local health departments.

As of mid-July in Missouri, at least 50 local health departments had yet to receive any of the federal money they requested, according to a state survey. The money must first flow through local county commissioners, some of whom aren’t keen on sending money to public health agencies.

“You closed their businesses down in order to save their people’s lives and so that hurt the economy,” said Larry Jones, executive director of the Missouri Center for Public Health Excellence, an organization of public health leaders. “So they’re mad at you and don’t want to give you money.”

The winding path federal money takes as it makes its way to states and cities also could exacerbate the stark economic and health inequalities in the U.S. if equity isn’t considered in decision-making, said Wizdom Powell, director of the University of Connecticut Health Disparities Institute.

“Problems are so vast you could unintentionally further entrench inequities just by how you distribute funds,” Powell said.

‘Everything Fell Behind’

The amounts eventually distributed can induce head-scratching.

Some cities received large federal grants, including Louisville, Kentucky, whose health department was given $42 million by April, more than doubling its annual budget. Because of the way the money was distributed, Louisville’s health department alone received more money from the CARES Act than the entire government of the city of Minneapolis, which received $32 million in total.

Philadelphia’s health department was awarded $100 million from a separate fund from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Honolulu County, where COVID cases have remained relatively low, received $124,454 for every positive case it had reported as of Aug. 9, while El Paso County in Texas got just $1,685 per case. Multnomah County, Oregon — with nearly a quarter of its state’s COVID-19 cases — landed only 2%, or $28 million, of the state’s $1.6 billion allotment.

Rural Saline County in Missouri received the same funding as counties of similar size, even though the virus hit the area particularly hard. In April, outbreaks began tearing through a Cargill meatpacking plant and a local factory there. By late May, the health department confirmed 12 positive cases at a local jail.

Tara Brewer, Saline’s health department administrator, said phone lines were ringing off the hook, jamming the system. Eventually, several department employees handed out their personal cellphone numbers to take calls from residents looking to be tested or seeking care for coronavirus symptoms.

“Everything fell behind,” Brewer said.

The school vaccination clinic in April was canceled, and a staffer who works as a Spanish translator for the Women, Infants and Children nutritional program was enlisted to contact-trace for additional COVID-19 exposures. All food inspections stopped.

It was late July when $250,000 in federal CARES Act money finally reached the 11-person health department, Brewer said — four months after Congress approved the spending and three months after the county’s first outbreak.

That was far too late for Brewer to hire the army of contact tracers that might have helped slow the spread of the virus back in April. She said the money already has been spent on antibody testing and reimbursements for groceries and medical equipment the department had bought for quarantined residents.

Another problem: Some local health officials say that the laborious process required to qualify for some of the federal aid discourages overworked public health officials from even trying to secure more money and that funds can be uneven in arriving.

Volunteers work at a medical station Saturday near the location where George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. Dr. Jackie Kawiecki organized the effort to help people at the site, an area that at times has drawn thousands of people per day. She says the city did not do enough free, easy-to-access COVID-19 testing in its neighborhoods this summer.(AP Photo/Craig Lassig)

Lisa Macon Harrison, public health director for Granville Vance Public Health in rural Oxford, North Carolina, said it’s tough to watch major hospital systems — some of which are sitting on billions in reserves — receive direct deposits, while her department received only about $122,000 through three grants by the end of July. Her team filled out a 25-page application just to get one of them.

She is now waiting to receive an estimated $400,000 more. By contrast, the Duke University Hospital System, which includes a facility that serves Granville, already has received over $67.3 million from the federal Provider Relief Fund.

“I just don’t understand the extra layers of onus for the bureaucracy, especially if hundreds of millions of dollars are going to the hospitals and we have to be responsible to apply for 50 grants,” she said.

The money comes from dozens of funds, including several programs within the CARES Act. Nebraska alone received money from 76 federal COVID relief funding sources.

Robert Miller, director of health for the Eastern Highlands Health District in Connecticut, which covers 10 towns, received $29,596 of the $2.5 million the state distributed to local departments from the CDC fund and nothing from CARES. It was only enough to pay for some contact tracing and employee mileage.

Miller said that he could theoretically apply for a little more from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that the reporting requirements — which include collecting every receipt — are extremely cumbersome for an already overburdened department.

So he wonders: “Is the squeeze worth the juice?”

Back in Minneapolis, Musicant said the new money from CARES allowed the department to run a free COVID-19 testing site Saturday, at a church that serves the Hispanic community about a mile from the site of Floyd’s killing.

It will take more money to do everything the community needs, she says, but with Congress deadlocked, she’s not sure they’ll get it anytime soon.

AP writers Camille Fassett and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Politics Slows Flow of US Pandemic Relief Funds to Public Health Agencies published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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stephenmccull · 4 years ago

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Politics Slows Flow of US Pandemic Relief Funds to Public Health Agencies

While Musicant diverted workers from violence prevention and other core programs to the COVID-19 response, state officials debated how to distribute $1.87 billion Minnesota received in federal aid.

It was not until Aug. 5 — months after Congress approved aid for the pandemic — that Musicant’s department finally received $1.7 million, the equivalent of $4 per Minneapolis resident.

“It’s more a hope and a prayer that we’ll have enough money,” Musicant said.

Negotiations over a new pandemic relief bill broke down last week, in part because Democrats and Republicans could not agree on funding for state and local governments.

An additional 22% was transferred to local governments, some of which will eventually pass it down to health departments. The rest went to other priorities, such as distance learning.

Politics and Red Tape

Why did the Minneapolis health department have to wait so long for CARES Act money?

But when it came time to decide how to use the CARES Act money, lawmakers in Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House were at loggerheads.

Myron Frans, commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget, said that disagreement, on top of the economic crisis and pandemic, left the legislature in turmoil.

After the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city erupted in protests over racial injustice, making a difficult situation even more challenging.

“We knew we needed to get it out the door,” Frans said.

“Even when it gets to the local government, you still have to figure out how to get it to local public health,” Musicant said.

“I still don’t think that the amount of testing offered is adequate, from a public health standpoint,” Kawiecki said.

New York’s Nassau County was among six counties, cities and states that had spent at least 75% of its funds by June 30.

But if they have, that money has been slow to make it to many local health departments.

“Problems are so vast you could unintentionally further entrench inequities just by how you distribute funds,” Powell said.

‘Everything Fell Behind’

The amounts eventually distributed can induce head-scratching.

Philadelphia’s health department was awarded $100 million from a separate fund from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Everything fell behind,” Brewer said.

The money comes from dozens of funds, including several programs within the CARES Act. Nebraska alone received money from 76 federal COVID relief funding sources.

So he wonders: “Is the squeeze worth the juice?”

It will take more money to do everything the community needs, she says, but with Congress deadlocked, she’s not sure they’ll get it anytime soon.

AP writers Camille Fassett and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Politics Slows Flow of US Pandemic Relief Funds to Public Health Agencies published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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dinafbrownil · 4 years ago

Text

Politics Slows Flow of US Pandemic Relief Funds to Public Health Agencies

While Musicant diverted workers from violence prevention and other core programs to the COVID-19 response, state officials debated how to distribute $1.87 billion Minnesota received in federal aid.

It was not until Aug. 5 — months after Congress approved aid for the pandemic — that Musicant’s department finally received $1.7 million, the equivalent of $4 per Minneapolis resident.

“It’s more a hope and a prayer that we’ll have enough money,” Musicant said.

Negotiations over a new pandemic relief bill broke down last week, in part because Democrats and Republicans could not agree on funding for state and local governments.

An additional 22% was transferred to local governments, some of which will eventually pass it down to health departments. The rest went to other priorities, such as distance learning.

Politics and Red Tape

Why did the Minneapolis health department have to wait so long for CARES Act money?

But when it came time to decide how to use the CARES Act money, lawmakers in Minnesota’s Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House were at loggerheads.

Myron Frans, commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget, said that disagreement, on top of the economic crisis and pandemic, left the legislature in turmoil.

After the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city erupted in protests over racial injustice, making a difficult situation even more challenging.

“We knew we needed to get it out the door,” Frans said.

“Even when it gets to the local government, you still have to figure out how to get it to local public health,” Musicant said.

“I still don’t think that the amount of testing offered is adequate, from a public health standpoint,” Kawiecki said.

New York’s Nassau County was among six counties, cities and states that had spent at least 75% of its funds by June 30.

But if they have, that money has been slow to make it to many local health departments.

“Problems are so vast you could unintentionally further entrench inequities just by how you distribute funds,” Powell said.

‘Everything Fell Behind’

The amounts eventually distributed can induce head-scratching.

Philadelphia’s health department was awarded $100 million from a separate fund from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Everything fell behind,” Brewer said.

The money comes from dozens of funds, including several programs within the CARES Act. Nebraska alone received money from 76 federal COVID relief funding sources.

So he wonders: “Is the squeeze worth the juice?”

It will take more money to do everything the community needs, she says, but with Congress deadlocked, she’s not sure they’ll get it anytime soon.

AP writers Camille Fassett and Steve Karnowski contributed to this report.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/politics-slows-flow-of-us-pandemic-relief-funds-to-public-health-agencies/

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saraseo · 4 years ago

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deniscollins · 4 years ago

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A War Against Climate Science, Waged by Washington’s Rank and File

What would you do if you were a university professor who received a federal grant that paid for researching how meeting the Paris Agreement’s carbon reduction targets would affect extreme weather events, and prior to publication the Energy Department told you to either: (1) remove “red flag words” like Paris Agreement and acknowledge the agency funding, or (2) keep them and not mention the grant that funded your research? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Efforts to undermine climate change science in the federal government, once orchestrated largely by President Trump’s political appointees, are now increasingly driven by midlevel managers trying to protect their jobs and budgets and wary of the scrutiny of senior officials, according to interviews and newly revealed reports and surveys.

A case in point: When John Crusius, a research chemist at the United States Geological Survey, published an academic paper on natural solutions to climate change in April, his government affiliation never appeared on it. It couldn’t.

Publication of his study, after a month’s delay, was conditioned by his employer on Dr. Crusius not associating his research with the federal government.

“There is no doubt in my mind that my paper was denied government approval because it had to do with efforts to mitigate climate change,” Dr. Crusius said, making clear he also was speaking in his personal capacity because the agency required him to so. “If I were a seismologist and had written an analogous paper about reducing seismic risk, I’m sure the paper would have sailed through.”

Government experts said they have been surprised at the speed with which federal workers have internalized President Trump’s antagonism for climate science, and called the new landscape dangerous.

“If top-level administrators issued a really clear public directive, there would be an uproar and a pushback, and it would be easier to combat,” said Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which supports scientists. “This is a lot harder to fight.”

An inspector general’s report at the Environmental Protection Agency made public in May found that almost 400 employees surveyed in 2018 believed a manager had interfered with or suppressed the release of scientific information, but they never reported the violations. A separate Union of Concerned Scientists survey in 2018 of more than 63,000 federal employees across 16 agencies identified the E.P.A. and Department of Interior as having the least trustworthy leadership in matters of scientific integrity.

Findings published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE in April on a subset of those agencies found that 631 workers agreed or strongly agreed that they had been asked to omit the phrase “climate change” from their work. In the same paper, 703 employees said they avoided working on climate change or using the phrase.

“They’re doing it because they’re scared,” said Maria Caffrey, a former geography specialist at the National Park Service who battled managers as they tried to delete humanity’s role in climate change from a recent report on sea-level rise. “These are all people who went to the March for Science rallies, but then they got into the office on Monday and completely rolled over.”

Examples are plentiful, not all of them new. But increasingly, scientists are willing to speak out.

On April 24, 2017, Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University, published a study showing the links between extreme weather events and climate change. Since the research was funded in part by Obama-era Energy Department grants that included more than $1.3 million for Dr. Diffenbaugh’s project, he credited the agency in the paper’s acknowledgments.

On April 25, emails show, the researchers were told that acknowledgment of Energy Department support would require additional review.

“It was alarming to receive this email because it was so far outside of our normal practice as a scientific community,” Dr. Diffenbaugh said.

Full disclosure of funding, he noted, is required by most scientific journals and by the university.

The emails said managers in the Energy Department’s biological and environmental research program, known as B.E.R., felt their program was “under attack internally” and were worried about certain terms, including “extreme event attribution,” which refers to how much a given weather event can be linked to global warming.

They also worried about references in Dr. Diffenbaugh’s research paper to terms like the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era regulation on coal-fired power plants; the social cost of carbon, a principle that puts a price on climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions; and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Citing those three subject areas, a research supervisor wrote to Dr. Diffenbaugh six days after his study was published, “Was trying not to put too much of this in writing, but the concern here is avoiding the impression that B.E.R. is supporting research directly focused on policy evaluation.”

Those were exactly the subjects of Dr. Diffenbaugh’s federally funded research.

A subsequent paper examined how meeting the Paris Agreement’s carbon reduction targets would affect extreme weather events. When Dr. Diffenbaugh submitted it for approval, he was told Energy Department officials felt it was “solid on the science” but contained “red flag words” like Paris Agreement, emails show.

His choice was to either remove those phrases and acknowledge the agency funding, or keep them and not mention the grant.

Dr. Diffenbaugh and Stanford decided that the research should not be changed and would be published with the so-called red-flag words and the disclosure of funding sources. Department officials later notified the project leaders that funding would be cut in half. Dr. Diffenbaugh’s project was zeroed out.

Jess Szymanski, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said in a statement: “There is no Department of Energy policy banning the mention of ‘climate change’ or ‘Paris Agreement,’ nor is there department guidance to withhold funding for projects including this language. To allege so is false.”

Then there is the case of Marcy Rockman. Until she resigned from the Park Service in November 2018, Dr. Rockman served for seven years as a climate change adaptation coordinator; five of those years were spent developing a strategy to protect cultural resources from climate change. But when the strategy was issued in late January 2017, her supervisors decided to drop plans to send copies to each national park.

“There was no appetite for any of my management chain to write a memo that would have their signature on it that said, ‘I am distributing the climate change strategy,’” she said.

The European Association of Archaeologists took notice anyway and invited Dr. Rockman to present her work in the Netherlands. Her boss approved the trip, and then retired.

But several months later, Dr. Rockman said, she was informed that she needed to reapply for approval. Her supervisors suggested she play down climate change. Then the trip was denied.

“I was responsible for making and carrying out decisions that no one above me wanted to make,” she said.

The Department of Interior declined to comment on Dr. Rockman’s case, citing pending litigation.

Patrick Gonzalez, the principal climate change scientist at the National Park Service, requested policy approval in March 2018 to publish a paper based on analysis of more than a century of climate data across 417 national parks.

His supervisor did not get past the opening sentence: “Anthropogenic climate change is altering ecological and human systems globally.”

“Without reading any more of the manuscript, she said, ‘I’m going to have to ask you to change that,’” Dr. Gonzalez recalled. He said in an interview that he was speaking in his own capacity and not on behalf of the federal government.

Emails and other documents show that Dr. Gonzalez then approached John Dennis, the agency’s deputy chief scientist, to protest. Dr. Dennis encouraged compromise.

Documents show that Dr. Dennis highlighted the phrase “anthropogenic,” or human-caused. “Is this word here necessary to the basic scientific thesis of the paper — which I interpret to be ‘climate change is revealed already to have had major impacts to parks?’” he asked.

“From a policy standpoint, it might be too strong for a DOI person to say ‘anthropogenic climate change,’” Dr. Dennis wrote, suggesting instead “carbon dioxide driven climate change.”

Dr. Gonzalez refused to make the change and, after three months, the agency backed down. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters in September 2018, without changes.

Conner Swanson, an Interior Department spokesman, said Dr. Gonzalez’s research was about “adaptation to climate change rather than cause of climate change and, as a result, the integrity of the science did not require discussing the cause of climate change in a situation where such use could divert attention from the scientific findings of the article.”

That same summer, the Park Service tried to delete every mention of humanity’s role in climate change in a report on sea level rise. Its lead author, Dr. Caffrey, objected. It was released after more than a year’s delay without the attempted edits. Dr. Caffrey, however, said she was then demoted before her position was eliminated.

Dr. Gonzalez said he was taking a risk telling his story. But, he said, “I aim to serve as a positive example of standing strongly for science.”

Mr. Swanson said that since Mr. Trump took office, the Interior Department had “improved scientific integrity by following the law, using the best available science and relying on the expertise of our professional career staff.”

Trump administration officials have noted that in almost all of these cases, the science was ultimately published.

But scientists said that came at a cost. Dr. Crusius was given informal approval in the summer of 2019 to publish research in the well-regarded journal Earth’s Future, which is published by the American Geophysical Union. Then, in September, after the paper had gone through a round of peer review, his employer, the U.S. Geological Survey, reversed course and opposed publication.

“I appealed this decision, and I was allowed to publish this as a private citizen,” he said.

Dr. Crusius said the research, on the environmental benefits and risks of storing carbon in trees, soil, ocean and wetlands to delay climate impacts, was important because climate change is a problem the government ultimately will need solid science to confront.

“We need all the help we can get, including from both federal and academic scientists,” he said.

The U.S.G.S. denied that the paper was not approved because it dealt with climate change.

Lawmakers and others who work with scientists said publication of the research did not diminish the hurdles thrown in the way, which served to signal that writing about politically disfavored topics comes at a personal price.

At least one case predates the Trump administration. Danny Cullenward, a Stanford Law School lecturer, said the Energy Department tried in 2015 to distance itself from his research, which showed the United States could not meet its Paris Agreement goals with the policies that President Barack Obama was pushing.

It is now widely acknowledged those policies most likely would not have cut emissions enough to meet those goals. But at the time, the Obama administration was working to persuade global leaders that the president’s plans would get the country substantially toward that goal.

Dr. Cullenward, then a research fellow working with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said a lab adviser initially told him the research could not be released before the Paris Agreement talks. After he objected, he was told the study would require further review.

“I interpreted that to be, ‘We’re going to stick this thing in a black hole,’” Dr. Cullenward said. He resigned his affiliation with the lab.

John German, a spokesman for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said Dr. Cullenward had been free to publish his work on his own but that Energy Department research must meet strict peer review standards that had not yet occurred.

Dr. Cullenward said his experience did not compare with the scale of violations in the Trump administration. But, he said, a pro-climate change president would not automatically make scientists’ work secure.

“We can’t get partisan about what scientific integrity means,” he said.

#Climate Science

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jolimentisfree · 5 years ago

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Trump says US may put a 'very powerful hold' on funding to World Health Organization

President Trump signaled Tuesday he may put a “very powerful hold” on funding to the World Health Organization as he lashed out at the United Nations specialized agency and accused it of “being very China-centric” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Reiterating his complaints from a tweet earlier in the day, the president said that the WHO “has been wrong about a lot things.” Trump has been critical of the WHO for opposing the travel restrictions from China and Europe.

COVID-19 Symptoms Survey. Help researchers at the Regenstrief Institute track the outbreak“They’ve been wrong about a lot of things,” Trump said during the daily press briefing of the White House coronavirus task force. “They seem very China centric.”He added: “We’re going to put a hold on the money sent to the WHO.”Trump, however, backtracked when questioned on that statement by members of media, saying he was “going to look into” cutting off funding to the WHO and denying his earlier statement.The WHO has praised China for its transparency on the virus, even though there is reason to believe that more people died of COVID-19 than the country’s official tally.WHO has increasingly been the focus of questions about its response to the coronavirus pandemic, including information it tweeted in January that quoted “preliminary” findings from Chinese authorities that downplayed the seriousness of the virus that has since turned into a pandemic, shutting down daily life around the globe.The United States is the single largest contributor to the WHO. The most recent invoice from the WHO to the United States, which is one of many countries that fund the organization, was for nearly $116 million per year. The United States also voluntarily gives between approximately $100 million and $400 million more per year to the WHO for specific projects — contributions that totaled over $400 million in 2017, the most recent year for which figures are available.That means the United States contributed over $500 million in total to the WHO that year, which is just under one-quarter of the organization’s yearly budget. The WHO’s total budget for 2016 and 2017 combined was over $4 billion.“WHO receives vast amounts of money from us,” Trump added.The president’s main gripe with WHO saying in late January that “travel bans to affected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from affected areas are usually not effective in preventing the importation” of coronavirus cases and instead could have a “have a significant economic and social impact.”“In general, evidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions,” the WHO reported, adding that such measures could “interrupt needed aid and technical support” and “disrupt businesses.”The organization did note that a travel ban “may have a public health rationale at the beginning of the containment phase of an outbreak, as they may allow affected countries to implement sustained response measures, and non-affected countries to gain time to initiate and implement effective preparedness measures.”But it countered that the measures should be “short in duration, proportionate to the public health risks, and be reconsidered regularly as the situation evolves.The comments from the White House come after Louisiana’s health department released data showing the virus’s victims are disproportionately black and two-thirds of those who have died suffered from high blood pressure.The new data released by Louisiana’s health department, which will be updated weekly, gives a glimpse of who is most at risk of dying from the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus in a state deemed one of the nation’s most unhealthy.Although African Americans account for one-third of Louisiana’s population, they represent more than 70 percent of the state’s deaths from COVID-19 caused by the virus, according to the data. Gov. John Bel Edwards called that racial disparity disturbing.“We are looking into this further and trying to figure out everything we can about that,” the Democratic governor said Tuesday. “We have a lot more questions than we have answers at this time.”Trump also weighed in on the resignation of Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who left his post following a profanity-laced upbraiding of the officer he fired as captain of the coronavirus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt.Trump said Tuesday that he didn’t know him or speak to him but credited Modly for resigning “to end that problem.” It was, he said, an “unselfish thing to do.”Trump’s press conference came as voters in Wisconsin headed to the polls to vote in the state’s elections despite warnings from the governor to stay at home amid the pandemic.Democrats in and out of Wisconsin screamed for the contest to be postponed, yet Republicans — and the conservative-majority state Supreme Court — would not give in. The fight over whether to postpone the election, as more than a dozen states have done, was colored by a state Supreme Court election also being held Tuesday.

A lower turnout was thought to benefit the conservative candidate. Lest there be any doubt about the GOP’s motivation, Trump on Tuesday broke from health experts who have encouraged all Americans to stay home by calling on his supporters to “get out and vote NOW” for the conservative judicial candidate, Daniel Kelly.

He reiterated his support for Kelly later in the day and suggested Democrats were simply playing politics by trying to postpone the election.“As soon as I endorsed him, the Wisconsin Democrats said, ‘Oh, let’s move the election two months later,’” Trump said. “Now they talk about, ‘Oh safety, safety.’”When questioned about whether people in Wisconsin should either stay home or vote and risk contracting the virus, the president said “you have to ask the Democratic governor of Wisconsin.” “That’s his problem,” Trump said. “Call the governor of Wisconsin and ask him.”

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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Utah Spent $250k on a Surveillance Startup Instead of Life-Saving Drugs

As the state of Utah funneled hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a private surveillance company building unproven technology to fight the opioid crisis, public health officials asked if the money could instead be used to buy a life saving drug that stops potentially fatal overdoses, Motherboard has learned.

The money, which Utah gave to a company called Banjo via the state's Department of Health, in this instance totaled $250,000. Emails between the Utah Department of Health, the state's Attorney General's office, and the Drug Enforcement Agency obtained via public records request show that the Department of Health asked if some of the money allocated to Banjo via a program called DEA 360 could be used to buy naloxone (sometimes sold under the brand name Narcan), a medication used to counter the effects of an opioid overdose. The Department of Health said it was facing a funding shortage that would result in a gap in its naloxone supply and believed the money allocated to create an unproven AI would be better spent on the overdose-stopping drug.

"I wanted to follow up regarding the remaining funds for DEA 360 ($250,000)," Anna Fondario, who manages the Violence & Injury Prevention Program at the Utah Department of Health wrote in a March 2019 email to Brian S. Besser and Ciara Gregovich at the DEA and the Utah Attorney General chief of staff Ric Cantrell. "We previously discussed having the AG's Office invoice us for BANJO related activities. Is this still the case?"

Fondario added: "If not, we've identified a need for an additional supply of naloxone kits to cover a potential two month gap before other funding is available for kits, Would you be interested in using some of this funding for naloxone?"

Later that same day, Besser forwarded Fondario's email to Cantrell and Gregovich, saying: "I want these funds (the whole $250K) to go to Banjo … I thought this was already in progress?"

While these funds were not specifically earmarked for the purchase of naloxone, the news shows how governments spend vast amounts of money on private, for-profit companies developing unproven and untested policing technologies while failing to fund projects that pay for medication that can save the lives of people caught in the country's opioid crisis.

In an interview, Fondario said that the Department of Health's ongoing opioid state funding is "very minimal," totaling $250,000 a year for its opioid efforts. She said the Department of Health also gets federal funding, but that it's not allowed to purchase naloxone with that money, which is why it relies on state funds. She said the Department of Health buys intranasal naloxone kits for $75 each. So $250,000, for example, would buy roughly 3,333 naloxone kits. According to a September 2019 report, the Utah Department of Health can currently purchase only 504 naloxone kits per quarter, or 168 kits per month, far below the number of naloxone requests it receives.

"We developed an open-application system so that agencies that needed naloxone could go into the website and apply—there are questions we ask to help prioritize and understand what the need is—but we’ve started getting more demand than we have supply, so we had to scale back how we were disseminating naloxone," Fondario said.

According to the report, 8,040 naloxone kits have been disseminated in Utah (including kits purchased by individuals and organizations), which resulted in 255 known cases where they have saved lives. Fondario said the Department of Health was later able to get a small amount of money from another state agency to survive the funding gap.

"Naloxone is an essential part of our overdose prevention strategy, it should be a part of any community’s overdose prevention strategy," Dr. Sheila Vakharia, deputy director of the Drug Policy Alliance's Department of Research & Academic Engagement, told Motherboard. "It’s absolutely necessary to prioritize the interventions we know work—naloxone is one of those things."

Image: Utah Department of Health

And yet, significant sums of taxpayer money continue to be spent on technology intended to point law enforcement to opioid users without necessarily helping them.

In 2018, Utah's Legislature wanted to give $500,000 to the Drug Enforcement Agency to support its 360 Program, "a comprehensive approach to tackling the cycle of violence and addiction generated by the link between drug cartels, violent gangs, and the rising problem of prescription opioid and heroin abuse in Utah."

Since federal agencies like the DEA can't receive funds directly from states, Utah gave the money to its Department of Health, which could then "disseminate funds supportive of DEA 360 goals." The Utah Department of Health spent $250,000 of those funds transporting 5,000 Utah high school students to participate in the Opioid Solutions Summit, a joint effort by the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and the DEA, where Banjo's CEO and founder Damien Patton was one of the speakers. The other $250,000 was given to Banjo to build an "opioid module" and "heat map" for its "live time intelligence" product to support the DEA 360's program goals.

Launched in 2015, the DEA's 360 strategy aims to address the opioid crisis with law enforcement and community outreach. The DEA funded Salt Lake City as a DEA 360 city in late 2017 and then extended to the entire state, according to DEA 360 impact report from June 2019.

The same DEA 360 impact report describes Banjo as a DEA 360 partner, and explains how the company's Live-Time Intelligence platform can help with opioid misuse prevention.

"With partnerships across key sectors and better access to data, this technology can potentially track clusters of drug overdoses in real time, based on various data signals," according to the report. "The local health departments could then be notified about the trends observed and respond appropriately, deploying resources or alerting partners, such as Utah Naloxone, to provide outreach immediately to individuals in need."

Utah Naloxone, an organization in Utah that also distributes naloxone to communities there, did not respond to a request for comment.

“From a technology standpoint, it was literally about unsiloing the data sources between all of these entities who normally don’t share data," an unnamed "community partner" is quoted as saying in the report. "So the biggest issue I see with the opioid crisis is that we don’t understand where the crisis is right now."

But the Utah Department of Health currently provides a public opioid dashboard which tracks annual opioid deaths, opioid-related emergency department visits, how many naloxone doses were distributed, and more.

In a recent presentation by the Utah Opioid Task Force, Fondario said the Utah Department of Health is "almost ready" to roll out an internal dashboard that local health departments can use to see "almost real time data" on overdoses presented at emergency departments, whether naloxone was disseminated, and a "drug overdose trendline."

"This is to help us make sure we're keeping track of this data and responding if we see anomalies," Fondario said. "Each of the local health departments will be working with their communities to help share this data to make sure they're ready for a response in the event we do see an overdose cluster or spike."

Fondario told Motherboard that the Department of Health met with Banjo a couple of times to try to understand what the company was building but that it "did not feel it would be beneficial for the Department of Health. We didn’t understand how it would be helpful for us with the opioid problem."

Fondario noted that the public dashboard includes a link that lists the Department of Health's principles for using opioid surveillance data.

These principles note that "public health surveillance should provide information that is actionable by those who provide services to people who use drugs and their friends and family members to reduce harm, including the harm of arrest and incarceration, infectious diseases, and overdose." It also explicitly notes that "public health surveillance data should not provide information to law enforcement that will lead to the arrest or incarceration of people who use drugs or of people with whom they associate, including those who witness an overdose."

Ric Cantrell, chief of staff for Utah's Attorney General, said in an interview that Banjo is still building its opioid module and heat map, but described how it would be used.

"If we have an outbreak in West Valley City, a new batch of chemicals from Mexico or China or wherever, I want to be able to put law enforcement resources there, divert more undercover officers there, and stop it before everyone's died," he said. "So Banjo is working on a heat map where they can tell us emergency room visits, morgue visits, naloxone use."

Cantrell also noted that Banjo's opioid module could help with recovery efforts.

"What beds are open and where for addiction recovery. Salt Lake County is actually using the bed side of it right now and then they're still building the modules to build up to the actual heat map," he said.

"I really can’t speak to what the goals of the DEA 360 projects were and what they felt like were their gaps and how they wanted to best use that funding, just what the Department of Health perhaps would have prioritized, because dealing with the opioid epidemic you have to have comprehensive efforts," Fondario said when asked if she thought the $250,000 Utah gave Banjo via the Department of Health could have been better used elsewhere. "There’s so many different agencies working on this with different priorities. So while our priority might be different than the DEA's or attorney general’s, I couldn't say ours is more important than theirs."

Vakharia said that "there’s no evidence that funding a heat map would be the best use of resources and energy. And rather than giving this information to the DEA, it should be given to health officials who can provide naloxone, sterile injecting equipment, and to be there as a referral resource for people who need it."

Utah Spent $250k on a Surveillance Startup Instead of Life-Saving Drugs syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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preciousmetals0 · 5 years ago

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Tax Agencies Step Up Efforts to Hone in on Crypto Tax Evasion

Tax Agencies Step Up Efforts to Hone in on Crypto Tax Evasion:

The year 2019, for a short while, raised expectations that stablecoins would bring about mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. 2020, however, seems to be dousing those hopes with ever-tightening regulation that is putting pressure on investors and companies alike.

The first complication came only 10 days into the year. In early January, the European Union’s landmark Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, or 5AMLD, was signed into law. The law is the latest evolution of the EU’s response to the Panama Papers scandal, in which a leak of over 11 million documents uncovered the opaque financial networks used by the world’s richest and most prominent individuals to divert wealth overseas.

The era-defining financial scandal shone a light on a controversial characteristic of international finance that would soon spell trouble for cryptocurrency investors and businesses the world over: anonymity.

Lawmakers are constantly striving to tighten the legal loopholes that allow the world’s richest companies and individuals to avoid paying their dues. Try as they might, there are still states, often small island nations in the Caribbean, that willingly provide less legally restrictive environments.

Choosing to divert financial flows offshore is often not illegal at all, but the emphasis that companies such as the now-disgraced Mossack Fonseca place on privacy means that it is difficult for law authorities to bring individuals using such networks for criminal activities, such as money laundering, tax evasion or terrorist financing, to justice.

From the 5AMLD to central bank digital currencies, governments and regulators are acting on their belief that the identities of individuals behind anonymous transactions should be made available to authorities upon request.

Additionally, even though the United Kingdom is set to leave the EU in roughly one week’s time, its anti-money laundering regulations closely match the 5AMLD, and recent events indicate that measures are being increased even further to prevent cryptocurrency from being used to flout the law.

The taxman cometh

One of the criticisms of post-Brexit Britain is that it will relax financial regulation in order to form lucrative trade deals in the wake of its departure from the EU single market. Although the U.K. has seen numerous financial scandals, its tax agency is looking to minimize the blind spots in the defenses against crime involving cryptocurrency.

Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs announced that it had posted a $130,000 open contract call to develop a tool to help the tax agency gather intelligence through cluster analysis. The announcement is the latest step on behalf of European lawmakers to break through the anonymous qualities of cryptocurrencies, taking aim at both the biggest coins and privacy tokens, such as Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH).

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, although most users of such coins use them for entirely honest purposes, both law authorities and regulators are concerned by the potential for privacy coins to be used for nefarious activities, such as the sale of illicit drugs on the darknet, as well as terrorist financing and money laundering.

The regulatory changes and mounting compliance demands did not surprise Dash Core Group Chief Marketing Officer Fernando Guitierrez. In an email conversation with Cointelegraph, Gutierrez put forward his view that the changes will not only be a hindrance to companies but also to the average consumer. He believes that: “This was all bound to happen.” He added that there was little chance that a growing industry would escape unnoticed:

“All these changes will make anonymity more difficult for the average consumer, as more exchanges comply and implement KYC. Those exchanges who don’t will be forced to jump from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, which will impose extra costs that only those committed to anonymity will be willing to pay. For criminals, this will change nothing because they are in that group, among many others who are not criminals, who are willing to pay more.”

The offering of the open contract from the HMRC is a signal that it is committed to effectively ramping up its blockchain forensics capabilities. Rich Sanders, principal and lead investigator at the Cipherblade Ltd blockchain analytics firm, told Cointelegraph that such a small contract is unlikely to shake up the system to any great extent:

“As for this particular initiative, a £100,000 software contract for a year says something but not very much in the grand scheme of things.”

How effective are blockchain forensics tools?

While data about transactions using cryptocurrency is stored on the blockchain, it is not possible to identify individuals from this information alone. Prior to the recent changes in legislation, blockchain analytics companies cooperated with intelligence agencies to link suspicious account activity to the individuals behind them.

Although the powers given to law authorities and compliance organizations under the 5AMLD are likely to radically change the way in which such procedures are carried out, Sanders believes that analytics tools are not a one-time fix for all anonymous crypto activity since: “Blockchain analytics tools do not inherently and directly crack the anonymity,” or, more accurately, the pseudonymity, which is an attribute of blockchains. Therefore, forensic tools are only one element of a comprehensive investigative toolkit. He went on to add:

“The way, in which a blockchain analytics tool can help in linking the pseudonymous blockchain identity to an individual is by tracing cryptocurrency from/to initial/terminal destinations such as exchanges and other services, from which data can then be requested — which will often require a subpoena to be served or, at a minimum, another legally constrained form of data request.”

Sanders explained that, when examining the powers of blockchain analytics tools in bringing tax evaders to justice, it is important to note that there must first be pre-existing suspicion of wrongdoing:

“Blockchain analytics tools are likely to be brought to bear only in cases of existing and substantiated suspicion and are not themselves suited to finding potential tax evaders in the sea of cryptocurrency users. If that’s what you want to do, you’ll have a better time — as I once semi-seriously advised IRS employees — browsing through Reddit and looking at the chest-beating about tax evasion there (by accounts with poor OPSEC).”

Many in the sector welcome the regulatory changes. This chummy approach to cooperation with state organizations is not, however, shared by all. Dash Core Group’s Gutierrez told Cointelegraph that, in spite of their duty to protect, not all governments and intelligence agencies honor this:

“This has happened even in democratic countries, so we can’t assume that everything they do is fair or well-intentioned. Only where there is a real separation of powers, and the judicial one has consented, on a case by case basis, they should have such a right, if technically possible. If that can’t be guaranteed — and it can’t — it is better if they stay away.”

How will regulation affect crypto?

Cryptocurrency is still a young industry and faces many challenges on the road to becoming a mature sector that can compete with wider mainstream finance, should that ever happen. The steady increase in regulatory and compliance demands are only to be expected as the nascent crypto industry inches closer to being used by a greater customer base.

Regardless of the titans of the tech industry toying with the idea of starting cryptocurrencies of their own, even some of the larger financial companies simply cannot take on the high level of risk associated with crypto at its current stage.

Some industry leaders recognize this turn as a welcome sign that digital currencies are being taken more seriously by regulators and lawmakers around the world. For others of a more anarchistic philosophical standing, the loss of anonymity is a loss of one of the core precepts behind the entire reason for cryptocurrency’s being.

Gutierrez says that, while regulation is bound to happen to any growing financial industry, the costs associated with being regulated to an extreme level could well choke out smaller players and lead to an eventual stagnation:

“The constant introduction of new regulations is already changing the industry. Compliance costs have grown so much that only big players can afford them. This is only going to get worse. We will have fewer new projects and that will hinder innovation. I foresee a future, in which the blockchain industry resembles more and more the financial industry it proclaimed it would replace: well-funded players, slow change and lawyers everywhere.”

While Gutierrez foresees a slowdown in the near future, Andrew Adcock, CEO of the London-based crowdfunding platform Crowd for Angels, told Cointelegraph that the firm has not picked up on any discernible change in investor behavior in the wake of the regulatory changes:

“We haven’t seen a large change in investor and consumer attitudes, however, there has been a notable increase from companies seeking to implement changes and abide by the new regulation. I believe this is positive and will provide great protection for investors.”

Although any kind of attempt to hinder the supposedly essential core characteristics of cryptocurrency will create intense debate among investors, industry leaders and regulatory bodies, not all people are so fussed about the changes.

Adcock said that many of the clients at Crowd for Angels are not overly interested in the topic. Despite the doomsayers of the crypto industry, Adcock maintained his view that regulation is something to be encouraged and does not believe that this will alienate investors: “There will always be those who seek anonymity, and this might be challenged by regulation, but harmony between both positions can co-exist.”

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goldira01 · 5 years ago

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The taxman cometh

“As for this particular initiative, a £100,000 software contract for a year says something but not very much in the grand scheme of things.”

How effective are blockchain forensics tools?

How will regulation affect crypto?

#Timor Invest

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wutbju · 8 years ago

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And so, with this final cover letter from Bob Jones III, we come to the end of our Art Appreciation class.

Let’s begin.

Not long ago, I spoke to you about the possibility of becoming a “Chairman’s Cohort” to help me find potential significant donors for the Museum & Gallery (M&G)—donors whose financial assistance would get us through the financial crisis of this present time.

So this was his second attempt. Notice too, “the financial crisis of this present time.”

BJU must temporarily divert its M&G funding elsewhere in order to meet the other critical aspects of the University’s operation. This means that for at least the next three years, funding of the Museum’s operations is 100 percent upon M&G, a 501(c)(3) which manages the University’s collection for public benefit.

It’s clear. BJU has to divert funds “to meet other critical aspects of the University’s operation.” M&G had to close because it ran out of money because BJU took away its support. There’s nothing about renovations here.

The museum has never been in this kind of stressful situation since its founding in the early 1950s. There would not be a “crisis” today if the University was presently able to continue doing its part, but its resources are stressed to the limit to cover educational and operational demands.

Wait -- what?

Let’s amplify this.

Bob Jones University’s financial resources are stressed to the limit to cover its own educational and operational expenses.

The most recent financial data we have (2014-15 FY) BJU received revenue of nearly $114 million and spent nearly $110 million. Here:

Four million in profit. And they can’t kick in $300k/year to the M&G? Why? Were they juggling the books all this time? And now they have outsiders checking their arithmetic?

Never before have I been put in a position to lean on you like this, and I am uncomfortable doing so now.

Riiight, Bob. We all remember all the many times you’ve asked for money. And you usually start with “I don’t usually do this.” Your grandfather did too.

Remember this from 1991?

When an evangelist says he doesn’t usually do something, you can be sure that he does it all the time.

Nevertheless, you have repeatedly shown yourself to be an enthusiastic ally—both of the University itself and of the Gallery. You know many people that I don’t, and perhaps among them are those with the resources and the art interest to help us so that we can keep the doors open.

Keep the doors open, eh? Not change the doors? Not replace the doors? Not secure the doors? Renovate the floor? Just keep them open. . . . Got it.

Truthfully, if $600,000 per year for the next three years can’t be found, I believe the University will be left with no option but to close the Gallery doors. We both understand the deleterious implications of that. What a loss it would be to have this educational and cultural resource—this outreach of the University’s testimony locally and worldwide—put in “mothballs.”

Deleterious implications. He’s been explaining that all along. That BJU and the M&G are “inextricably one.” That BJU is one with God. That marketing the M&G boosts BJU’s enrollment.

So putting the M&G in “mothballs,” Bob is arguing, will ultimately hurt BJU/the Lord.

If all of Erin’s 20 years’ worth of education and income-producing outreaches were curtailed for lack of money to pay salaries and the Gallery doors simply remained open for the visitor who might stroll in (this is the way it was until the late 1990s when M&G came into existence), it would still cost between $200,000 to $300,000 annually just for the small staff that would be necessary to keep the lights on and to cover the insurance, maintenance, etc.

You all know why Erin is in this position at the M&G, yes? This was part of the BJU faculty lore, but I don’t know if it ever made it out to alumni.

Bob III’s wife Beneth repeated throughout her later years teaching that she had just wished she had been allowed to work in the Art Gallery from the beginning. She was forced by the family to be front-and-center and the darling of the Classic Players, but she’s more introverted than not, and it exhausted her.

Maybe she told me this on one of those trips we took on the University jet. I can’t remember now. Maybe Bob actually stated this in faculty meeting.

So when Erin was appointed to this position, it always seemed as a way of reconciling the family to Beneth. Erin has done a really good job, don’t get me wrong. But her appointment came after struggling in the classroom and on the Rodeheaver stage. Beneth empathized with Erin’s frustration, it seemed at least among the Speech faculty, and then Erin got this position.

And now Bob is exploiting Erin’s persona for more donations. “Give to save Erin!” he’s essentially arguing, casting Erin as the damsel the donors can rescue from her distress.

She deserves better than that.

Thank you for your willingness to “mine” some of your contacts who have educational and art-related interests and some financial resources.

In case the first one was misplaced, I am enclosing another “Revisiting the Vision” form that shows the kind of giving which will be necessary for M&G to operate independently without the BJU participation it had formerly.

WutBJU published that form here.

But notice again that Bob is admitting that the M&G can’t “operate independently.” While it officially claims with the government that it is independent, it’s clearly not.

Why does this matter? All of these Art Appreciation documents direct all interested parties toward one question:

Is Bob Jones University Self-Dealing?

WutBJU has received White Papers from federal agencies investigating the same conclusion of self-dealing regarding any of the non-profits connected with BJU.

Self-Dealing is

the conduct of a trustee, an attorney, a corporate officer, or other fiduciary that consists of taking advantage of his position in a transaction and acting for his own interests rather than for the interests of the beneficiaries of the trust, corporate shareholders, or his clients. Self-dealing may involve misappropriation or usurpation of corporate assets or opportunities. Self-dealing is a form of conflict of interest.

Every time Bob III conflates his namesake for-profit with a 501(c)(3) he is giving more evidence of self-dealing. These alleged actions are illegal. But these words are clearly, at the least, unethical.

Bob concludes.

I am also including a few copies of a commitment page for you to send me when your contacts consent to help. We need to keep a running tally of the progress being made toward this goal to show the University’s Executive Board what progress is being made. It is the executive committee that has tasked M&G with this staggering responsibility.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me hear from you. There are a small handful of people receiving this letter. I will be working hard to find more whose hearts are with this cause.

Well, thanks to WutBJU’s sources that “small handful” has expanded to you. The evidence for proving Bob Jones University’s self-dealing is in the hands of the federal investigators. It’s above our pay grade.

There are other conclusions in this series -- which WutBJU presented under the conceit of a “semester.” These conclusions are ours to address:

Bob Jones University lied about the reason for closing the M&G. It was not for renovations because none of these fundraising pleas mention renovations. It was for a complete lack of $600k/year.

Bob Jones University is in its own financial crisis at the moment with its “financial resources stressed.” BJU always claims some sort of financial declension -- that’s the way revivalism works.

But BJU’s financial status reported to IPEDS seems to indicate a tidy profit in the most recent year. BJU is either juggling the books or lying about the crisis.

Time will tell. And WutBJU will continue providing the latest and the oldest about Bob Jones University.

#Bob Jones University #ArtApprec #Bob Jones III #Self-Dealing #Federal Investigation #White Papers #Erin Jones #Beneth Jones #Financial Crisis #Finance #Final Exam

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bigscammers-blog · 8 years ago

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What Happens when Victims Report Phishing Websites?

There is much hue and cry about awareness on internet scam prevention and reporting of fake mails and websites to the concerned authorities. However, many victims, even in this informed era are in the dark on what happens when they report phishing websites. Closing down or elimination of phishing websites cannot happen overnight. This is because of the vastness of the internet and the absence of a universal protocol to solve cybercrime. In this context, the following steps are undertaken, soon as victims report phishing websites:

The role of internet service providers when people report phishing websites

Since phishing originated in many cases by sending phishing emails to people often containing misleading information or the links to a phishing websites, victims prefer to report phishing websites to email service providers like Google, Yahoo and Hotmail and the following steps are taken:

● If customer traffic has been diverted using spoofing methods, misrepresenting the email service providers, systematic investigation is carried out in locating where these mails have originated from.

● Data security measures in email services such as password uniqueness checker, data encryption and spam protection mechanics are enhanced.

● The complaints are forwarded to various law enforcers and consumer protection boards.

● In addition to email service providers, victims also report phishing websites to internet service providers for prompt action.

What to banks and financial institutions do on receiving complaints?

A majority of attempts to report phishing websites also include complaints to financial institutions. This is because phishing websites promote identity theft which is directly connected to financial fraud. The banks, upon receiving complaints,

● As a first and foremost safety and damage control measure, places an immediate freeze on all financial transactional instruments like internet banking and cards linked to the account.

● Urge customers to place fraud alerts on their personal credit reports.

● Stop all standing instructions and pending wire transfer requests till further clarity is received.

When victims report phishing websites to cyber police

This step is primary and is imperative to institute legal proceedings for losses suffered due to accessing phishing websites. A police report is mandatory to process the complaints on any platform, by the victims. The police department, upon receiving these complaints:

● Requires victims to submit different forms in the prescribed format along with an affidavit if needed.

● Proof of all communications (emails, details of phone calls, letters received, and photographs) shared with the scammer on phishing websites.

● Details of bank accounts that have been shared on the phishing websites.

● All other details that are connected to the case are required to be submitted when victims report phishing websites to the police.

● It is the responsibility of the affected persons to get a report acknowledging the receipt of complaint, within the specified time frame.

● Commencement of systematic investigation by coordinating with cybercrime prevention agencies, banks, credit rating companies and digital forensic experts.

Deploying the services of specialized task forces and collaboration with different government bodies like the IRS, the postal department and payment processing organizations so that the efforts undertaken by victims to report phishing websites end in recovery of funds lost.

#report phishing website

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kristablogs · 4 years ago

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Six ways the 2020 census will change your life

For the past 118 years, census takers have traveled on foot, horse, snowmobile, and more to capture basic demographic data from Americans. This is the first year that the survey can be filled out online. (US Census Bureau/)

A national census only comes around once every decade, but this year’s has truly been special.

When the 2020 US census launched back in March, it was the first survey of its kind that could be filled out online. Typically, the federal government mails paper ballots to each household to get a general understanding of how density, age, income, ethnicity, and language are changing in the 50 states, plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It then follows up by dispatching census takers to every city, rural outpost, reservation, and backcountry camp to interview non-respondents. This is all done by July so that results can be compiled, fact checked, and delivered to Congress later that fall.

The move to online responses this year should have quickened the 230-year-old process—but the COVID-19 crisis pushed the count deadline to October 31. The US Census Bureau planned to have the final data ready by December 31 of this year, and said it would commit extra resources to make sure every resident was counted. But as of this month, only 63 percent of the population had been polled, with 56 million households still unreported.

Then came a surprising announcement. In early August NPR reported that the deadlines on the census website had been changed to September 30, prompting the bureau director to explain that the count was being sped up “without sacrificing completeness.” He also mentioned that the government had hired additional field agents to fill the gaps in responses (with proper social-distancing protocols).

That leaves a little more than a month for people to either wait for the knock at their door or submit their own answers. For those who have access to a computer and internet connection, the process takes just five minutes. Simply plug in the 12-digit census code that was mailed to you by the bureau, or request one online. The survey asks a dozen questions for each member of the household and can be done in Spanish if needed. It also skips the citizenship query, as per a Supreme Court decision last summer.

Being counted in the census means being counted for the government’s biggest decisions. Health care policy, school budgets, park openings, and affordable housing all revolve around the numbers drawn from the national survey. The data is made publicly available, too, so that local legislators, academics, industry leaders, and social reformers can analyze and act on it as well.

Still dubious of the census and its significance? Let’s look at how it plays into scientific research—and how that research helps every single US resident in the long run.

Health care access

The pandemic has revealed some serious shortcomings in the US health care system. But without the census, access to hospitals, therapists, reproductive clinics, drugs, and other medical essentials would be even more restricted. Doctors and insurance companies use the demographic information from the survey to build new facilities in areas of need. Epidemiologists, on the other hand, use it to predict hotspots of disease, like influenza and HIV.

“Where you live impacts how healthy you are,” says Jennifer St. Sauver, a professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She uses the US census and American Community Surveys to pinpoint health care deserts in the Midwest. That kind of local insight, she adds, can be pivotal when managing rural outbreaks. “Even having an accurate count of who lives where is hugely important,” St. Sauver says. “If we’re seeing 300 cases of COVID-19 in our region, we need to know how big that is. We need a number to divide by.” Over the next decade, she expects the gulf in medical resources widen, especially in places where people are living longer and battling chronic conditions.

Kids’ nutrition

Like health care deserts, food deserts can be traced back to a snarl of long-standing systemic issues that create a bottleneck of resources and opportunities in one part of the country. While its generally tough for low-income communities to get their hands on healthy meals, shortages in fresh veggies and fruits often have a disproportionate affect on students, who depend on nutritious, affordable lunches and breakfasts to get them through the school day. Children living in poverty or in homes where their caretakers speak little English are more likely to qualify for meal-assistance programs, including SNAP—if they’re counted by the national census.

A 2010 census taker navigates East Texas terrain on horseback. (US Census Bureau/)

Disaster preparedness

In the days before a storm, fire, and possibly even a pandemic, government agencies like FEMA start diverting resources to communities they think will be hit the hardest. For them, the census serves as an essential tool in pinpointing vulnerable populations and drawing up solutions. Each situation calls for a unique relief package: A hurricane plowing through rural eastern North Carolina will leave a much different mark than one that hits New York City.

Ethnic minorities and people without homes are especially exposed to the impacts of disasters, says Susan Cutter, the director of the hazards and vulnerability research institute at the University of South Carolina. These groups are often under counted in the census, she adds, which makes it harder to prepare them for disasters and meet their needs after.

Public lands

Just like the census shows which parts of the county people live in, it also shows which parts they don’t live in. The Wilderness Act of 1964 aims to keep places uninhabited and unused by humans in their natural state, and national demographic data helps track that. As of 2017, the Bureau of Land Management had 245 million acres earmarked for public domain. That includes more than 106 million acres of national parks, refuges, forests, and fisheries.

Census results can help steer plans for new green spaces, too, so they can serve people in nature-starved areas and give degraded environments a chance to rebound. They can also give land managers context when weighing construction, mining, and other projects in wild areas (one example is the recent battle over downsizing the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah).

Census takers, officially known as enumerators, canvass millions of households in a short months-long span. (US Census Bureau/)

Speedy internet

Over the past few years, the US Census Bureau has mined its own data to learn which pockets of the country lack fast and reliable internet. In 2017 it reported that between cable subscriptions and cell phone plans, 78 percent of households had broadband access through—but that was just the national average. The results showed that some rural counties hovered at 65 percent for coverage. Stretches of Texas, New Mexico, and Mississippi even dipped below 55 percent.

Those numbers are bound to change in 2020 and beyond, given the repeal of net neutrality and recent shift to remote learning and telecommuting for many people around the country. Updated maps will show where wireless carriers need to expand their networks to better connect individual residents and communities.

Anti-discrimination

Every decade, the wording on the census evolves to reflect how the understanding of ethnicity and race have changed in society. In 2010 the bureau removed “Negro” as a race category. This year, respondents have the option to write in their own answer under the “white” subcategory—an important addition for Latinx and Hispanic residents, says Amanda Scott, a technical communications researcher at Texas State University. For mixed-raced individuals like Scott, choosing white means losing the nuances of ancestry and origin. For the US government, it means getting results that skew toward white, even when Hispanic populations are growing rapidly in the Southwest.

The updated census question might seem like a matter of semantics, but inflating the white count has a concrete impact on how resources are distributed, especially in education, Scott says. Texas State, she points out, bills itself as a Hispanic-serving institution: It regularly assesses how it funds minority-heavy campuses, in part based on census data. What’s more, giving students “a clean way of identifying” on the questionnaire can provide a better picture of the country’s future. “Part of how change happens is that if there’s a trend in how people respond, it will probably be reflected in the 2030 census,” Scott explains. “So answer the race and ethnicity questions based on what you think is most true to yourself and how you’re seen in society. Answer authentically.”

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