Monthly Archives: May 2021

Cuomo Declares $11B Manhattan Rail Project Complete

Gothamist reports: Major construction on East Side Access located under Grand Central Terminal is complete. The 15-year long, $11 billion terminal and concourse is seven stories underground, and will allow Long Island Rail Road trains to pull into Grand Central Terminal, reducing the burden on Penn Station—and ultimately shave up to 40 minutes off commutes into Manhattan. About half the …

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Sitcom Actor Gavin MacLeod Dies At Age 90 [VIDEO]

Variety reports: Gavin MacLeod, a sitcom veteran who played seaman “Happy” Haines on “McHale’s Navy,” Murray on “Mary Tyler Moore” and the very different, vaguely patrician Captain Stubing on “The Love Boat,” has died. He was 90. MacLeod’s nephew, Mark See, confirmed his death to Variety. MacLeod died in the early morning on May 29. No cause of death was …

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Texas Poised To Approve Sprawling Voting Restrictions

The New York Times reports: Texas lawmakers on Saturday finished drafting a bill that would impose a raft of new voting restrictions, setting up the likely passage of what would be among the most far-reaching laws in Republicans’ nationwide drive to overhaul elections systems and limit voting. The bill would tighten what are already some of the country’s strictest voting …

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Miller Group Seeks Biden Admin Docs On “Race Theory”

The Hill reports: A pro-Trump legal group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Education Department over any efforts to teach critical race theory throughout the programs it administers. America First Legal (AFL), a group led by a former Trump aide to Stephen Miller, filed the FOIA suit requesting a slew of documents and communications regarding the …

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Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Variant

The Washington Post reports: Vietnam’s Health Ministry announced Saturday that it had detected a highly transmissible new variant of the coronavirus that has helped fuel a recent wave of infections in the country. Genetic sequencing indicated that the new variant was a mix of the coronavirus strains first detected in the United Kingdom and India, said Health Minister Nguyen Thanh …

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Some Rioters Are Planning “Trump Lied To Us” Defense

The Associated Press reports: Falsehoods about the election helped bring insurrectionists to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and now some who are facing criminal charges for their actions during the riot hope their gullibility might save them or at least engender some sympathy. Lawyers for at least three defendants charged in connection with the violent siege tell The Associated Press …

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SD Gov Stranded After Lindell Tossed From GOP Event

Politico reports: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem flew on MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s private jet on her way to the Republican Governors Association spring meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, according to two people familiar with the matter. Lindell, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was kicked out of the event after he had promised to confront Arizona …

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Staver: Equality Act Will Literally Criminalize Christianity

Via email from hate group leader Mat Staver: This Bill Will Literally Criminalize Christianity Not content to close churches or severely restrict them, congressional Democrats are racing to pass the most dangerous bill Congress has ever considered. It is deceptively misnamed the “Equality Act.” Shockingly, this bill states that religious freedom cannot be used as a defense! The U.S. Senate …

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San Jose Gunman Had 22,000 Ammo Rounds, 12 Guns

CNN reports: More than 22,000 rounds of ammunition, a dozen firearms, suspected Molotov cocktails and multiple cans of gasoline were found in the home of Sam Cassidy, the gunman who took nine lives at his workplace on Wednesday, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said Cassidy coordinated a fire at his home with the workplace attack. They …

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CA Cafe Charges $5 To Order While Wearing Mask

NBC News reports: Diners are mostly free to speak their mind at a Northern California cafe, but doing so through the protective confines of a mask will cost a cover charge of $5. Fiddlehead’s Cafe in Mendocino on Sunday put up a sign announcing the fee for customers who wear masks while ordering. In March, the cafe announced an ongoing …

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Kyrsten Sinema Mum On Missing Riot Commission Vote

The Arizona Republic reports: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema skipped Friday’s procedural Senate vote on establishing a bipartisan commission to study the U.S. Capitol riot. Senate Republicans, in their first use of the filibuster under President Joe Biden, blocked the legislation from proceeding. Sinema’s spokesperson, Hannah Hurley, did not immediately respond to The Arizona Republic’s request for comment. Later in the day, …

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DOJ Seeks Dismissal Of Lafayette Square Protest Suit

The Washington Post reports: Lawyers for the Justice Department urged a federal judge on Friday to dismiss lawsuits against former president Donald Trump, former attorney general William P. Barr and other officials for last June’s violent clearing of demonstrators from Lafayette Square by U.S. military and police. Trump and other U.S. officials are immune from civil lawsuits over police actions …

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Anti-Vaccine Cop’s COVID Death Ruled Line Of Duty

Denver’s ABC News affiliate reports: A 33-year-old deputy with the Denver Sheriff Department died of COVID complications Wednesday night – the second deputy with the department to die from the virus this month. Late Thursday evening, the Denver Sheriff Elisa Diggins announced Trujillo’s passing would be considered a line of duty death. Line of Duty designation provides extra death benefits. …

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Violence Spurs Southwest To Continue Halt On Booze

USA Today reports: Southwest Airlines has ditched its plans to resume alcohol sales in June and July given a spike in in-flight incidents, including a an altercation between a flight attendant and passenger that sent the flight attendant to the hospital Sunday. “Given the recent uptick in industry-wide incidents of passenger disruptions in-flight, we have made the decision to pause …

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Major Theater Chains Drop Mask Rule For Fully Vaxxed

Reuters reports: Masks are no longer required at the three main movie theater chains in the United States for people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to updated guidelines on Friday. AMC Entertainment, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas said on their websites that movie goers who are not fully vaccinated will be asked to continue wearing masks, and that …

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Arizona “Refurbishes” Its Gas Chamber, Buys Cyanide

The Guardian reports: The state of Arizona is preparing to kill death row inmates using hydrogen cyanide, the same lethal gas that was deployed at Auschwitz. Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that Arizona’s department of corrections has spent more than $2,000 in procuring the ingredients to make cyanide gas. The department bought a solid brick of potassium cyanide in …

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CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Deadline reports: Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget plan, released on Friday, reverses a policy of his predecessor in that increases, rather than decreases, the federal outlay for the arts and public broadcasting. For four years, President Donald Trump’s White House proposed federal budgets that zeroed out funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and …

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Mother And Girlfriend Of Late Capitol Cop Denounce GOP Senators: “Clearly, They’re Not Backing The Blue”

CNN reports: In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday, Gladys Sicknick and her son’s girlfriend Sandra Garza said they were clinging to hope that they could change the minds of senators opposed to the independent commission, but were still not surprised at the ultimate outcome. “They went through their motions, but you can tell that underneath they were …

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Russia Warns Disney On “Anti-Family” Gay Short Film

Reuters reports: Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday warned Walt Disney Co against distributing content it said was harmful to children in Russia with its release of a short film, “Out”, which features a gay main character. Roskomnadzor said it had sent a letter to Disney noting that it was against Russian law to distribute information which “denies family values …

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FBI: QAnon Riot Suspect Sprayed Cops With Chemicals

Law & Crime reports: “There is a second amendment behind us,” 34-year-old Sean Michael McHugh allegedly taunted officers, according to his criminal complaint. “What are you going to do then?” Arrested on Friday, McHugh faces eight charges, including assaulting law enforcement with a deadly weapon. Like several others at the assault on the Capitol, McHugh stands accused of spraying police …

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