February 3, 2022

Man accused of having sex with dog

APALACHICOLA, Fla. (WMBB) — An Apalachicola man was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a dog, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

Benny Ray Strops, 50, was arrested on Saturday and charged with sexual conduct involving animals, a third-degree felony, and animal cruelty— a second-degree misdemeanor.

Strops was convicted of sexual battery on a victim under 12 and named a sexual predator in 2008.

Smith also said he had viewed some social media posts about the case and was concerned someone would attack Strops while he awaits trial. ...............(more)

https://www.cbs42.com/regional/florida-news/florida-man-accused-of-having-sex-with-dog/

February 3, 2022

49ers fan in medically-induced coma after reported beating outside SoFi Stadium

A man wearing a San Francisco 49ers jersey has been placed in a medically-induced coma after being found beaten and severely injured in the parking lot of SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

According to CBS News, Oakland restaurant owner Daniel Luna was found by paramedics about a half-hour into the NFC Championship game.

The news outlet reported that he was placed in a medically induced coma Wednesday night.

....(snip)....

CBS News reported that robbery doesn't seem to be the motive since he was found with his watch, phone, and wallet. ..........(more)

https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/49ers-fan-in-medically-induced-coma-after-reported-beating-outside-sofi-stadium

February 3, 2022

This is what travel looks like as COVID-19 goes into an endemic phase

This is what travel looks like as COVID-19 goes into an endemic phase

Jordi Lippe-McGraw
2h ago


As we enter the third season of the pandemic, it feels like we have more questions than answers. That’s especially true for travelers.

There was hope that the vaccine rollout would mean worry-free jet-setting and reopened international borders, but the omicron variant disrupted those plans, with cases hitting record highs. Now that COVID-19 case numbers are falling again, there’s a positive outlook on the future.

In fact, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner and a member of the Healthy Sail Panel, told travel agents during a conference call at the invitation of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings that COVID-19 is quickly approaching “an endemic phase where this becomes a persistent issue, but an issue that fades into the background of our daily lives.”

Experts agree that COVID-19 will forever be part of our ecosystem, although the public health crisis will wane. Again, this leaves us with new, unanswered questions.

“I believe that as [COVID-19] becomes endemic, travel will return to something that feels more normal, but not all the way,” Dr. Brad Bowman, chief medical officer at Healthgrades (which is owned by TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures) told TPG. ............(more)

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/travel-covid19-endemic-phase/

February 3, 2022

COVID-19 tests coming to Detroit-Windsor tunnel -- but you have to plan ahead

(Detroit Free Press) Crossing the Detroit-Windsor border is about to get a little bit easier.

A new partnership between Assure Covid Travel Clinics and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel will provide cross-border commuters with on-site access to fast, Health Canada-approved PCR test kits, Assure CEO Dr. Phillip Olla announced in a press release on Wednesday.

The kits are designed to accommodate travelers who, due to immigration restrictions, must submit a negative test result from within 72 hours of their border crossing.

"We've had dozens of calls from stranded travelers who were not able to get their results within the 72-hour time limit," Olla said in the press release. "Having access to this pick-up location at the tunnel will help them get home within about an hour from taking the test." ...........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2022/02/03/covid-pcr-rapid-tests-detroit-windsor-tunnel/6650578001/

February 3, 2022

Amtrak launches new passenger cars in the Midwest

https://twitter.com/HSRail/status/1488538366501138439

Amtrak quietly launched a handful of new passenger cars into service in the Midwest earlier this week, perhaps a preview of the company’s $7.3 billion investment in a new fleet of Siemens trains aimed at modernizing Amtrak service.

Although these new trains are only operational on one route via Amtrak Midwest, these are likely the same trains that will replace most of the Northeast Corridor cars within a few years.

https://twitter.com/HSRail/status/1488537960697970688

For now, at least, passengers can only experience four new train cars when traveling Chicago (CHI) – St. Louis (STL). Amtrak expects to continue its rollout throughout the state-supported network route running through the Heartland, which includes additional routes in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, as reported by Runway Girl Network.

Amtrak did not respond to a request for comment for this article. ...........(more)

https://thepointsguy.com/news/amtrak-new-passenger-cars-midwest/

February 3, 2022

Metro Detroit didn't get massive snowfall we expected -- and here's why

(Detroit Free Press) Is that all there is?

As it turned out, snowmageddon was — mostly — just another winter day.

The forecast for Friday calls for light flakes, maybe an inch in metro Detroit and up to 2 closer to the Ohio border. It's also going to be cold, in the low 20s. But, with the wind chill, it will feel like the temperature is in the single digits.

The weekend also is expected to be cold, but dry.

For a moment, though, snow was the talk of the town and social media. Folks went crazy and raided grocery stores for bread, milk and meat. Schools canceled classes for a couple of days. And a few small businesses closed up early. .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/02/03/michigan-winter-storm-snow-metro-detroit-predictions/6646681001/

February 3, 2022

Judge delivers series of blows to defense in Whitmer kidnap trial

(Detroit Free Press) A judge delivered a double whammy to the defendants in the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case Wednesday, concluding that jurors will not hear about the checkered pasts of three FBI agents who investigated them.

But the jury will hear about the criminal pasts of the defendants.

In a 27-page order, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker delivered a series of blows to the defense as he detailed what will be allowed at trial, limiting what it can say about its entrapment claims, and how the FBI agents allegedly set their clients up. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/02/03/jury-whitmer-kidnap-trial-fbi-agents/6640218001/

February 3, 2022

Judge delivers series of blows to defense in Whitmer kidnap trial

(Detroit Free Press) A judge delivered a double whammy to the defendants in the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case Wednesday, concluding that jurors will not hear about the checkered pasts of three FBI agents who investigated them.

But the jury will hear about the criminal pasts of the defendants.

In a 27-page order, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker delivered a series of blows to the defense as he detailed what will be allowed at trial, limiting what it can say about its entrapment claims, and how the FBI agents allegedly set their clients up. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/02/03/jury-whitmer-kidnap-trial-fbi-agents/6640218001/

February 3, 2022

Amtrak OIG report offers recommendations for Amtrak to build trust with state partners

A new report published Feb. 2 from the Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG) outlines challenges associated with cost sharing on Amtrak’s state-supported routes and makes three recommendations to mitigate them.

Amtrak OIG’s report, Governance: Amtrak Has Begun to Address State Partners’ Concerns About Shared Costs but Has More Work to Do to Improve Relationships, credits Amtrak with addressing longstanding concerns surrounding improved transparency in cost data and better communications with state partners about bill impacts. The report notes there are three areas where challenges persist affecting trust among Amtrak and its state partners. The three areas include:

* Conflicting perspectives between Amtrak and its state partners about control over decision-making and the level of support Amtrak provides to those partners;
* Unaddressed issues with the cost-sharing methodology despite the company’s efforts to improve its ability to directly assign costs to state partner’s trains; and
* Amtrak’s state partners question whether the company has effective quality controls in its cost-calculation and bill-development process and some state partners do not understand the company’s process.

The report says state partners are nearly equally divided among one-third that have high trust in Amtrak surrounding cost-sharing issues, one-third with moderate trust and one-third with low trust. ..............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21255502/amtrak-oig-report-offers-recommendations-for-amtrak-to-build-trust-with-state-partners

February 3, 2022

Trump's race-war fantasies continue to escalate -- while the media pretends not to notice

Trump's race-war fantasies continue to escalate — while the media pretends not to notice
Trump calls four Black prosecutors racist and vows to take back "that beautiful house that happens to be white"

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 3, 2022 6:00AM


(Salon) Every day, Donald Trump becomes more his horrible true self. He commands the loyalty of tens of millions of people. He does not even pretend to be a statesman who loves America. He is a political cult leader, a sociopath and a model of antisocial and dangerous behavior. As psychologists and other public health experts have warned, Trump has "infected" many of his most loyal followers with the same mental pathologies.

Trump has an erotic attachment to violence, as do many of his followers. They are tied together by the Big Lie and other sadistic, and anti-human fictions. TrumpWorld is a malignant and vile alternate universe — one that longs to devour and consume the world as it actually exists.

Nearly every day we learn more evidence about Donald Trump and his cabal's attempted coup attempt. In the face of the Justice Department's flaccid approach to those crimes (at least to this point), Trump and his agents continue to attack American democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution, now in plain sight.

....(snip)....

Trump told his followers: "If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington. D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt."

He repeatedly described the prosecutors investigating him in New York, Washington and Atlanta as "racist." (All four are Black.) He also attacked them as being "mentally sick" and said they were committing "prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level." ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/03/race-fantasies-continue-to-escalate--while-the-media-pretends-not-to-notice/