From 20 September a curfew will be eased, bigger gatherings allowed, and alcohol will be on sale.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Trump indoor rally site fined $3K for virus violations
Trump’s campaign organizers were warned that defying regulations could be dangerous
Trump is having a hard time following COVID-19 regulations. At a recent indoor rally in Nevada, the president attracted thousands of supporters violating the state’s restrictions of 50 people or more.
Read More: ICE deports witness in sexual assault investigation at Texas center
According to CNN, the event was held at the Xtreme Manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada. The facility decided to go forward with the rally despite warnings from the city that it violated state regulations.
Kathleen Richards the city of Henderson spokeswoman issued a statement that read:
“The City of Henderson has issued a compliance letter and verbal warning to the event organizer that the event as planned would be in direct violation of the governor’s COVID-19 emergency directives. Specifically, gatherings of more than 50 people in a private or public setting is prohibited.”
Large live events must be approved by the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, Division of Industrial Relations and at this time, the City has not been notified that this event has been approved. The City may assess a fine of up to $500 per violation of the governor’s directives as well as suspend or revoke the business license.”
The violations eventually racked up to a whopping $3,000. According to KTNV, Xtreme Manufacturing was fined for facilitating a crowd that exceeded over 50 people, failing to social distance, and neglecting to wear face coverings.
Originally the rallies were going to be held at Nevada’s airport hangars but they pulled out when they discovered the event would exceed the 50 person limit.
There have been almost 200,000 coronavirus deaths but despite the alarming numbers Trump supporters say they have every right to attend the rally.
“I feel like that’s my freedom as an American to attend the event,” said Trump rally attendee Kyle Hackett told CNN. “And if I catch COVID, that’s the consequences of my actions, so I’m willing to take that risk and have a good time today.”
Before the rally, event organizers said they had a plan to keep attendees safe.
Read More: Trump says he ‘up-played’ virus after telling Woodward he wanted to ‘play it down’
“Every attendee will get a temperature check prior to admission, be provided a mask they’re encouraged to wear and have access to plenty of hand sanitizers,” a campaign official told CNN.
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OPINION: Did Robert F. Smith Use Black America?
A criminal tax investigation could reveal that Smith’s $40 million gift to Morehouse may have been a strategy to achieve leniency.
Robert F. Smith, the businessman, philanthropist and the wealthiest Black man in America, gained a great deal of attention and accolades when he pledged to pay off the entire student loan debt of the Morehouse College class of 2019. Tweets went out in praise. Memes of Black folk changing their degrees to “Morehouse ‘19” went up. And a collective sense of pride filled many chests as they saw the gift as the perfect example of “taking care of our own.”
Smith vowed to pay off the college loans incurred by the parents of these 400 young men — up to $50,000 per family — for a total of $34 million. No one needs to tell you that is a lot of money, particularly for Black folks who pursue education only through great sacrifice and financial hardship that others in this country cannot begin to conceive.
When Smith gave his Morehouse commencement address, what many didn’t know is that he was being investigated by the Justice Department and the IRS for possible tax offenses, including allegations that he neglected to pay taxes on $200 million in assets, proceeds from his first private equity fund that moved through offshore structures in the Caribbean.
Smith is reportedly attempting to reach a civil settlement with the government, and previously tried to gain entrance to an IRS amnesty program to avoid prosecution in 2014 when the IRS first investigated him. He was turned down. Under the program–which provides amnesty to taxpayers who failed to report offshore accounts—the IRS reportedly turns down applicants it already knows did not report those assets, according to Bloomberg. Smith was one of them.
The investigation against Smith is of a criminal nature. The feds have focused on the movement of funds from two offshore accounts into Smith’s charitable foundation in 2014. Investigators have also zeroed in on the winding down of Smith’s first private equity fund that year, which also coincided with his divorce.
One of the many questions Smith’s philanthropy raises is whether he contributed these millions with the knowledge that news of the tax allegations would come out. Was there any aspect of these initiatives that were an effort to fortify his image in the Black community, and the community at-large? How much did Robert Smith donate to Black America before he had a severe tax problem in 2014? How should we view his generous contribution to Morehouse in light of the tax probe?
While these questions may seem uncomfortable for some of us to ask, they challenge us to think about how the wealthy influence many aspects of our society and the true reasons for their charitable gifts.
As Jelani Cobb suggested, philanthropy is a “penance mechanism” for those who know they’ve done wrong, or serves to hide their foibles by causing people to focus on their charity.
Given that Smith faces a criminal investigation, a question that remains is whether he should be criminally charged. Offshore tax havens for corporations and the rich are a real problem, with $36 trillion and 10% or more of global GDP in untaxed money stashed away each year. By comparison, the U.S. government takes in $3 trillion in annual revenue. At a time when millions are suffering financially under the coronavirus pandemic and governments face economic turmoil, there must be accountability for those who are hiding vast sums of money that could help people in need.
Ultimately, the truth reigns supreme and through time, it comes to light.
But perhaps the most interesting revelation from this story, is that Smith followed the lead of another billionaire who was convicted of tax evasion- Ty Warner of Beanie Babies.
After being convicted of tax evasion and holding offshore accounts worth 104 million dollars, the judge praised Ty Warner for his charitable gifts and Warner’s legal team was able to get him a plea deal of only 5 years probation, and no jail time.
Robert F. Smith has hired one of Warner’s former lawyers and is campaigning for a legal settlement and no criminal charges.
The donations. The same lawyer. Is this a coincidence? Or is this a strategy that reveals the manipulation of Black America to achieve a legal outcome?
For the Black community to continue to advance, we must be willing to celebrate good deeds and gifts, without fear of considering the context of the giving— whether they be from organizations, corporations, or individuals who look like us.
The investigation of Robert F. Smith’s taxes may reveal he’s a Black man with something to hide— or a target in this nation’s taking down of another Black man in America. Our willingness to look at whatever truth may come from it, reveals the price we put on integrity.
Follow David A. Love on Twitter at @davidalove.
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Police leaders pressed Rochester to keep Prude video secret
Deputy Chief Mark Simmons cited the ‘current climate’ in an email advising then-Chief La’ron Singletary to press the city’s lawyers to deny a Prude family lawyer’s public records request for the footage
Rochester police commanders urged city officials to hold off on publicly releasing body camera footage of Daniel Prude’s suffocation death because they feared violent blowback if the video came out during nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd, newly released emails show.
Deputy Chief Mark Simmons cited the “current climate” in the city and the nation in a June 4 email advising then-Chief La’ron Singletary to press the city’s lawyers to deny a Prude family lawyer’s public records request for the footage of the March 23 encounter that led to his death.
Read More: Rochester police chief fired in fallout over Daniel Prude death
The video, finally made public by Prude’s family on Sept. 4, shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head as an officer pushes his face against the ground, while another officer presses a knee to his back. The officers held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing. He was taken off life support a week later.
“We certainly do not want people to misinterpret the officers’ actions and conflate this incident with any recent killings of unarmed black men by law enforcement nationally,” Simmons wrote. “That would simply be a false narrative, and could create animosity and potentially violent blow back in this community as a result.”
The Western New York city released the emails, police reports and other documents on Monday as Mayor Lovely Warren fired Singletary and suspended Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin and Communications Director Justin Roj without pay for 30 days amid continuing fallout from Prude’s death. Simmons was named interim chief of the police department.
Simmons’ email seeking to have the city deny the Freedom of Information Law request echoed emails from other police officials worried about releasing video of the March 23 encounter as demonstrators were taking to the streets of Rochester and elsewhere to protest Floyd’s May 25 death in Minneapolis and other police killings of Black people.
Lt. Mike Perkowski told a city lawyer on June 4 that he was “very concerned about releasing this prematurely in light of what is going on” and Capt. Frank Umbrino told another police official “any release of information should be in conjunction with and coordinated with the Mayor and the Chief as it very well have some intense ramifications.”
Simmons forwarded both emails to Singletary with his message advising the chief to have the Prude family lawyer’s public records request squashed, according to the documents released Monday. Simmons suggested that the city deny the request because the case was still under investigation by the state attorney general’s office.
“I totally agree,” Singletary replied, according to the emails.
Later on June 4, as discussion of the records request continued, city lawyer Stephanie Prince told Curtin of a way to buy more time: allowing the attorney general’s office to show the family the video, as it has done in other cases, but not give them a copy of it.
“This way, the City is not releasing anything pertaining to the case for at least a month (more like 2), and it will not be publicly available,” Prince wrote.
Warren maintains that she did not see the body camera footage until city lawyers played it for her on Aug. 4 and that Singletary initially misled her about the circumstances of Prude’s death.
After seeing the video, Warren emailed Singletary that she was “outraged” at the conduct of the officer who pressed Prude’s head against the ground, Mark Vaughn, and that he should face an immediate disciplinary investigation.
In an unsent draft of that email, Warren excoriated Singletary for having “grossly underplayed” Prude’s death by first describing it to her a drug overdose. In the draft, prepared with Deputy Mayor James Smith’s help, Warren said she strongly believed Vaughn should be fired and that she would have asked for Vaughn’s termination in March, had she seen the footage then. She suspended Vaughn and six other officers last week.
“Quite frankly, I would have expected the Chief of Police to have shown me this video in March,” Warren wrote in the draft. The toned down version sent to Singletary did not include that criticism.
“I should have known. Everyone is right. I should have known,” Warren told WHEC-TV on Tuesday. “But this incident — an unfortunate and tragic situation — had been downplayed from the very beginning as a PCP overdose.”
A cursory management review that Smith conducted on the city’s handling of Prude’s death found that stalling the release of the body camera video because of concerns about optics cost did “considerable damage” to work the city has done to improve relations between the police and the public.
“It is hard to rationalize how anyone who saw the video of Mr. Prude’s encounter with the RPD did not fully equate these events beyond a few mentions of bad publicity, politics, process or a ‘false narrative,’” Smith wrote. “Rochester is in desperate need of healing. We lost almost six months of opportunity to begin that process.”
The City Council voted Tuesday night to repeal its decision to build a new $16 million police station, WHEC-TV reported.
Read More: NY AG to form grand jury after hood death of Daniel Prude
Singletary announced his retirement last week as part of a major shakeup of the city’s police leadership but had planned to stay on through the end of the month. In announcing his retirement Sept. 8, the outgoing chief accused critics of trying to “destroy my character and integrity.”
Prude’s death has sparked nearly two weeks of nightly protests and calls for Warren’s resignation. His family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the police department sought to cover up the true nature of Prude’s death.
___
Associated Press writers Michael Hill and Carolyn Thompson contributed to this report.
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Jazz critic Stanley Crouch dead at 74
Stanley Crouch, the often combative critic, has died after a long illness
Jazz critic Stanley Crouch has died, the New York Daily News reports. The renowned critic died Wednesday at a New York City hospital, his wife, Gloria Nixon-Crouch, announced. He is said to have suffered significant health issues for much of the last decade.
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Crouch, who was also a playwright, director, and author, wrote for The Village Voice, The New York Daily News, Slate, The Root, The Daily Beast, and The New Republic. In 1993, he was the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, which awards money to creatives they deem worthy to further their work. The grants are now up to $625K paid over five years.
Crouch was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 14, 1945. He once pursued a career as a jazz drummer, decided instead he was a better writer and moved to New York City. There, he became known for what would now be considered ‘hot takes’ on music and culture both in his writing and on television where he was in demand as a cultural commentator.
While he was good friends with renowned Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and helped him launch Jazz at Lincoln Center, he took umbrage with the work of both Spike Lee and Toni Morrison.
“She has a certain skill, but she has no serious artistic vision or real artistic integrity,” Crouch once told The Washington Post. “‘Beloved’ was a fraud. It gave a fake vision of the slave trade, it didn’t deal with the complicity of Africans, and it moved the males into the wings.”
As for Lee, he once called him a “middle-class, would-be street Negro,” according to The Daily News.
Crouch’s books included collections of essays “Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989,” “Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz,” the novel “Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome?” and “Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker,” a critically acclaimed biography of iconic jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Crouch appeared with Marsalis in the 2001 Ken Burns documentary Jazz and in 2019, Crouch was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
“Stanley was one of the first Black alternate journalists that I read on a regular basis,” writer and cultural critic Michael Gonzales, who writes for various publications including Long Reads, told theGrio. “He was writing about politics, he was writing about jazz, he was writing about art. He just kind of took the Black aesthetic further in mainstream magazines. Stanley was an incredible writer, an incredible stylist. I didn’t always like what he said but I liked the way he said it. Jazz at Lincoln Center is as much a part of his legacy as the writing is.”
Read More: Kerry Washington wins first Emmy at 2020 Creative Arts Awards
According to NPR, Crouch spent the last year of his life in a New York nursing home and fought off COVID-19 in the spring.
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Nebraska bar owner charged 3 months after killing Black protester
When Jake Gardner shot James Scurlock, a 22-year-old man protesting in Omaha, it was considered self-defense – until a special prosecutor’s probe.
A grand jury has voted to charge a Nebraska bar owner with manslaughter after the slaying of a young Black man outside of his establishment.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine had initially found that Jake Gardner acted in self-defense. However, additional evidence uncovered by Special Prosecutor Frederick Franklin convinced a grand jury otherwise.
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Franklin announced Tuesday that their additional investigation involved interviews with more than 60 people and many videos.
The grand jury returned an indictment today against Jake Gardner,” Franklin said. “They were able to get evidence into Mr. Gardner’s state of mind, as a part of what was presented to them through this investigation.”
“There was evidence that was gathered and presented to the grand jury about activity that Jake Gardner was engaged in prior to even coming in contact with James Scurlock,” he continued. “Evidence to reasonably be construed as an intent to use a firearm for purposes of killing someone.”
Read More: Georgia police officer who attacked Black passenger fired
Scurlock was killed on May 30 as protests in Omaha inspired from the videotaped killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers spiraled into vandalism. He was walking down the street with several people when they approached The Gatsby bar, where Gardner, 38, and his father were standing.
Gardner’s father approached the group and shoved one of them, who pushed him back.
The Gatsby owner then confronted the group and flashed his weapon, at which point, two of the youths pushed him, knocking him down. He fired two “warning” shots.
Read More: California Black man falsely accused of deputy ambush: ‘Don’t feel safe at all’
According to a report from The Daily Beast, Scurlock then jumped on top of Gardner. The man told police that he “fired over his back,” fearing for his life after being put in what he called a chokehold. Gardner’s bullet hit the 22-year-old in the clavicle, killing him.
In his announcement from the Omaha Douglas Civic Center, Franklin declined to reveal what the grand jury heard but said “what I can tell you is that that evidence comes primarily from Jake Gardner himself.”
Convened jurors found cause to charge Gardner with manslaughter, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony attempted first-degree assault and terroristic threats.
Kleine’s initial decision to not file charges against Gardner had enraged the Omaha community, who immediately protested his stance by the hundreds.
In response to Franklin’s announcement, LaVonya Goodwin, an Omaha community leader, said, “Jake Gardner’s indictments are a step in the right direction towards justice for James Scurlock and his family.”
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This Black Student Loan Strategist Wants To Help Black Student Loan Borrowers With New Book
According to a 2016 Brookings Institute report, Back students on average owed $7,400 more than white and other POC counterparts upon graduation. Another study conducted in 2018 also found Black students held 85.8% more debt than white students. As economic resources become more scarce under the COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, pandemic, many are looking for more financial resources to help them ease their debt. Finance expert Dr. Tisa Silver Canady is bringing her answer to the problem with a new book meant to help Black student loan borrowers.
The financial wellness advocate is helping more student loan borrowers get control of their debt with the release of her new book, Borrowing While Black, which discusses different ways for Black and other marginalized groups to take control of their debt.
“Not everyone is good at virtual studying, not everyone has a strong Wi-Fi connection, not everyone has a quiet space to learn,” Dr. Canady said in a press statement.
“The pandemic is absolutely going to affect the success of students, and any disruptions stand to affect Black students even more because they are already more vulnerable. It may mean they have to repeat classes, stay in school longer, and ultimately end up borrowing more.”
Dr. Canady went on to explain how this knowledge is more critical than ever amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has displaced numerous college students around the country and leaving graduates with little income to pay back their debt. “COVID-19 could really exacerbate the student loan crisis for Black borrowers because we typically borrow more and graduate less,” Dr. Tisa added. “Black students cannot afford to ignore their student loan debt situation during this pandemic.”
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Biden Campaign Will Run Commercials During Every NFL Game Until Election Day
As the November election is approaching, Joe Biden and his team have decided to focus some of its advertising toward fans of football.
NPR is reporting that the Biden campaign is intending to utilize its budget to place commercial spots during every NFL game for the remainder of the election season.
As the 2020 NFL season started this past weekend, the Biden campaign debuted the first ad called “Fresh Start” that was aired nationally. “We need to get control over the virus,” the narrator says midway through the ad. “Donald Trump failed. Joe Biden will get it done.”
The Biden team has purchased at least one advertising slot for every game between now and Election Day, a campaign spokesperson confirmed to NPR. Tracking firm Advertising Analytics says those prebookings add up to $25 million.
“I’ve never seen that before in a presidential race,” said Ad Analytics’ John Link. “That is the first time we’ve seen something of that magnitude.”
Ad Analytics said it found that Biden’s campaign had also aired seven different ads in 18 local media markets during last Thursday’s opening game. This translates to mean that Biden’s team was trying different messages for different markets. Biden’s ads aired in the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, plus Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, and Arizona. Back in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton won two of those states, Nevada and Minnesota.
“The NFL, even pre-COVID, is the most powerful advertising vehicle,” said Link. “In some markets, you get Super Bowl-like numbers on a Sunday.”
Last Thursday night, the opening game between Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans drew some 20 million people.
Ad Analytics has reported that the Trump campaign spent $1.1 million in 21 local TV ads in swing states during the season opener.
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Christie's to auction off T. rex skeleton, expected to sell for at least $6 million
One of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever unearthed is coming up for auction and could fetch between $6 million and $8 million. CNBC's Robert Frank reports.
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