Indian man chops off tongue in sacrifice to stop coronavirus spread
A 24-year-old stonecutter in India chopped off his tongue in an apparent attempt to appease a goddess and stop the spread of the coronavirus, according to reports.
Vivek Sharma, who worked with his brother Shivam and seven others at the Bhavani Mata temple in Suigam, became alarmed about the deadly disease, according to the Times of India.
His co-worker Brijesh Singh Saab Singh told authorities that Sharma, a devotee of Kali Mata, had kept chanting the deity’s name.
On Saturday morning, Sharma said he was going to the market, but did not return to the temple, the news outlet reported.
When his brother called him, a person answered and told him that Sharma had sliced off his tongue at the Nadeshwari temple in Gujarat.
The young man was rushed to a hospital in Tharad, where doctors worked to reattach his tongue, which was found in his hand as he lay unconscious on Sunday.
“For the last few days, he was keen to go back to his native town in Madhya Pradesh. But it was impossible due to lockdown. Today, in reckless abandon, he chopped off his tongue,” police sub inspector HD Parmar told the Times of India.
“Only after thorough investigation we will know the exact reason for such a step,” Parmar added.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/indian-man-chops-off-tongue-in-sacrifice-to-stop-coronavirus/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Trump (the Company) Asks Trump (the Administration) for Hotel Relief
The president’s family business pays at least $3 million a year to the federal government for the lease on its D.C. hotel, which is all but empty because of the virus. The next monthly payment is coming due.
President Trump’s signature hotel in the nation’s capital wants a break on the terms of its lease. The landlord determining the fate of the request is Mr. Trump’s own administration.
Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House, had been a favored gathering place for lobbyists, foreign dignitaries and others hoping to score points with the president. But like most hotels, it is now nearly empty and looking to cut costs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In recent weeks, the president’s family business has inquired about changing its lease payments, according to people familiar with the matter, which the federal government has reported amount to nearly $268,000 per month.
The Trump Organization owns and operates the luxury hotel, but it is in a federally owned building on Pennsylvania Avenue. As part of its deal to open the 263-room hotel, the company signed a 60-year lease in 2013 that requires the monthly payments to the General Services Administration.
Eric Trump, the president’s son, confirmed that the company had opened a conversation about possible changes to the terms of the lease, which could include adjustments to future monthly payments. The Trump Organization has said it is current on its rent.
The younger Mr. Trump said the company was asking the G.S.A. for any relief that it might be granting other federal tenants. The president still owns the company, but his eldest sons run the day-to-day operations.
“Just treat us the same,” Eric Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. “Whatever that may be is fine.”
The G.S.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including about whether its other tenants had made similar inquiries. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.
Companies across the country have pleaded for relief from lenders and landlords, but the Trump Organization’s submission presents a particular predicament.
If it denies the request, the agency risks running afoul of the president, who appoints its leader; but if it accommodates the Trumps, the agency is likely to draw fire from critics.
The Trump Organization was barred by Congress from seeking relief from the $500 billion rescue fund being administered by the Treasury Department, and a Trump Organization executive said on Tuesday that the company had decided not to apply for a federal loan through the Small Business Administration. The company argues that it is seeking only temporary relief from the G.S.A. while the hotel industry globally copes with an extraordinary drop in business.
Along with the broader hospitality industry, the company is expected to take a significant hit from the economic shutdown. The Trump Organization has temporarily closed its hotel overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, cut staff and services at its hotel in New York, and effectively closed its golf clubs in New Jersey and Florida. It also shuttered the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which at this time of year would ordinarily be acting as the “winter White House,” as the president refers to it. The Washington hotel’s bar, restaurant and spa are closed, but it is still accepting reservations.
The request to the G.S.A. is one of a number of attempts by the Trump Organization to get breathing room from its lenders and other financial partners.Sign up to receive an email when we publish a new story about the coronavirus outbreak.Sign Up
The company has been talking with Deutsche Bank, the president’s largest creditor, about the possibility of postponing payments on its loans from the bank.
Mr. Trump owes Deutsche Bank more than $300 million on loans connected to the Washington hotel, his Doral golf resort in Florida and a skyscraper in downtown Chicago. The Trump Organization has a small amount of debt compared with other major real estate companies, which could weigh in its favor as it seeks support from Deutsche Bank and others. Representatives have been in talks with Rosemary Vrablic, a senior banker in the Deutsche Bank division that serves the ultrarich, about delaying or reducing its loan payments. Ms. Vrablic has been working with Mr. Trump for nearly a decade and, before that, worked closely with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser.
While Ms. Vrablic is in charge of the bank’s relationship with the company, changes to the terms of the loans could generate acrimony inside Deutsche Bank and are likely to be vetted by senior executives responsible for protecting the bank’s reputation, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
Bank executives already have been debating the wisdom of granting forbearance to the president, with some worried about the political blowback they would almost certainly encounter for cutting Mr. Trump slack, the person said. Deutsche Bank is overseen by federal regulators, and the Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation into the bank over allegations of money laundering and other misconduct.
In Florida, the Trump Organization in late March sought guidance from Palm Beach County about whether it had to continue making monthly payments on land that the company leases for its 27-hole Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, according to people briefed on the discussions and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
This month, the Trump Organization made its monthly lease payment of about $88,000 about a week after the due date but before the company would have incurred a penalty, according to county documents. Company executives are still seeking guidance from Palm Beach County about whether they are expected to keep making lease payments with the golf industry shut down.
Eric Trump confirmed that the negotiations were underway and said the company was seeking the same relief that any other companies were getting.
“In Florida, the very county that mandated we close is the very county collecting rent,” he said. “What are they doing for others? Just treat us the same.”
Some of Palm Beach County’s commissioners worry that if they don’t give the president’s company extra time to make lease payments, the county could anger the president and lose out on federal assistance to fight the coronavirus, according to a county official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Separately, the Trump Organization, like other hotel chains, was eligible to apply for loans of up to $10 million that can be converted into grants from the Small Business Administration, based on a provision inserted into the stimulus package that allowed large companies with hotels that individually had fewer than 500 employees to apply for the assistance.
But this program would have required the Trump Organization to bring back workers, as it is intended to prevent job losses. The Trump Organization did not apply, according to the company.
Of all the company’s dealings, the Washington hotel’s relationship with the federal government has provided the most fodder for the president’s rivals, who argue that the property is a prime example of the president blurring the lines between his administration and his business.
Soon after he took office, the G.S.A. ruled that Mr. Trump’s ascending to the presidency did not violate the terms of the lease between his company and the government. But in 2019, the G.S.A.’s inspector general issued a report asserting that the agency’s lawyers had largely ignored potential constitutional issues related to the lease, essentially allowing the president’s operation of the property to continue.
The president’s lawyers have disputed charges that the arrangement could violate a constitutional provision that bars federal officials from taking payments or gifts from foreign governments. The hotel, frequented by foreigners and others doing business with the government, has been at the center of those allegations, while the Trump Organization has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from foreign governments.
The company last year put the hotel on the market for a possible sale, citing the ongoing objections, and a potential for a major financial windfall. The company fielded bids, but any deal is now off the table because of the pandemic.
Last week, the managing director of the Washington hotel, Mickael Damelincourt, posted a photo to Twitter of himself wearing a mask, standing in the hotel’s empty bar, with his chin up. “Keep looking up and Never Ever Give Up,” he wrote.
Eric Lipton contributed reporting.
via: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/trump-hotel-coronavirus.html?searchResultPosition=1
Photo Credit: Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Here’s what the stimulus checks with Trump’s name MAY look like
(CNN) — The federal government has published what appears to be the first official mock up of what the stimulus checks featuring President Trump’s name may look like when they’re sent to millions of homes this summer.
The checks show Trump’s name in the lower left hand corner underneath the words “economic impact payment.” The checks are signed by a Treasury Department official.
The prototype image is part of an official release press release from the US Secret Service warning people about potential scams related to the checks.
Remember: These are prototypes.
Photo Credit: kmov/US Secret Service
Shake Shack to return $10 million meant for small businesses during pandemic
Burger giant Shake Shack plans to return $10 million it received from a government loan program meant to protect small businesses during the coronavirus crisis.
The New York-based fast food chain was one of several large restaurant companies that got a multimillion-dollar loan through the Trump administration’s $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping struggling small firms pay workers amid the pandemic. Many merchants were left waiting for a lifeline when the program ran out of money last week.
Shake Shack decided to return its loan because it found a way to raise money through a public stock transaction instead, CEO Randy Garutti and chairman Danny Meyer said Sunday. They urged Congress to put more money into the program and prioritize businesses with limited access to outside funds.
“It’s inexcusable to leave restaurants out because no one told them to get in line by the time the funding dried up. That unfairly pits restaurants against restaurants,” Garutti and Meyer said in a LinkedIn post. “This industry rises and falls together.”
More than a dozen big publicly traded firms like Shake Shack — which has 189 US restaurants and nearly 8,000 employees — got PPP loans, even though the program was targeted at businesses with up to 500 workers, according to Bloomberg News.
Others included coal-mining company Hallador Energy, cruise operator Lindblad Expeditions and the firms behind Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, the news agency reported Sunday.
Shake Shack decided to apply for a PPP loan because chains were eligible for funding if each location had fewer than 500 workers, Meyer and Garutti said.
Union Square Hospitality Group, Meyer’s restaurant conglomerate that helped start Shake Shack, also sought money after closing its eateries and laying off more than 2,000 people, they said.
“The ‘PPP’ came with no user manual and it was extremely confusing,” Garutti and Meyer wrote. “The best chance of keeping our teams working, off the unemployment line and hiring back our furloughed and laid off employees, would be to apply now and hope things would be clarified in time.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that Congress was “very close” to reaching a deal for more small-business loan money. Republican lawmakers have been pushing for an additional $251 billion for the program.
Photo Credit: https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/shake-shack-to-return-10-million-coronavirus-small-business-loan/
Photo Credit: Rob Kim/Getty Images
Kentucky sees highest spike in coronavirus cases after lockdown protests
Around 100 protesters gathered Wednesday on the lawn of the Capitol building in Frankfort during Democrat Beshear’s coronavirus briefing, shouting “Open up Kentucky!” and “King Beshear,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
The same group returned Friday to the Capitol building, where they were met by barricades, the newspaper reported.
Instead, they circled the area in cars for a drive-through protest of Beshear’s coronavirus restrictions, the report said.
It’s unclear whether the protests had any impact on the surge of deaths reported Sunday in the state.
Beshear said at least 13 percent of cases reported in Kentucky have been nursing home residents.
Of the 273 new cases, there were 33 patients who were residents of nursing homes and eight more who were staffers, he said.
Beshear insisted Sunday he wouldn’t budge yet on easing lockdown restrictions despite the calls from protesters, according to the newspaper.
“We’re not in the 14 days of decreasing under the White House guidelines to do certain things,” Beshear said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/kentucky-sees-highest-spike-in-coronavirus-cases-after-protests/
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
Georgia students expelled for posting ‘racist’ TikTok video
Two high school seniors in Georgia were expelled for posting a “racist” video on social media, district officials said.
The students, who were not identified by Carrollton City Schools officials, were expelled from Carrollton High School Friday for a “racially offensive” TikTok video posted Thursday that later went viral, district officials announced.
In the footage, two white students — one male, one female — use a racial slur and make vile, disparaging comments about black people while in a bathroom. The students were apparently trying to mimic a cooking show.
“Hey, today we’re making n—–s,” the female student said in the clip, which was later shared on Twitter.
“First we have black, yeah, pretty black … next we have don’t have a dad … and then we have, eat watermelon and fried chicken. Next one is, uh, make good choices. Oh, there’s nothing there.”
The students continued: “Next we have rob people, specifically whites. Yeah, they do that. The last one is go to jail.”
The behavior depicted on the video was unacceptable and not representative of the district, Carrollton City Schools Superintendent Mark Albertus said.
“The racist behavior observed in the video easily violates this standard,” Albertus said. “They are no longer students at Carrollton High School.”
The school’s principal, David Brooks, said he started investigating the video after its release late Thursday.
“It is our priority to keep our schools safe, and there is no doubt this incident has caused significant tension at Carrollton High School, across the district, state and nation – even the world,” Brooks said in a statement.
Other students at the school, meanwhile, said they were shocked after seeing the footage made by their classmates.
“I walk through the halls with those folks and to see that they think about us like that,” student Juan Nievs told WGCL. “It made me angry.”
Another teen, Terrell Carmichael, said he knows both students who produced the video.
“I was mad, like angry,” Carmichael told the station. “They would not normally talk like this, it was a complete surprise to everybody in our school.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/georgia-students-expelled-for-posting-racist-video-on-tiktok/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Some Landlords Are Illegally Spying On Tenants’ Stimulus Check Status
Stimulus payments, intended to help those struggling due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, started reaching Americans last week. The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) expected up to 80 million Americans to receive their payments via direct deposit by April 15, with paper checks being mailed starting next week. While millions are awaiting their payments to help with necessities, landlords are also eager for their tenants to receive stimulus checks, so they can pay rent. Unfortunately, some landlords have not just been waiting patiently; instead, some appear to be resorting to illegal tactics to learn when their tenants are receiving their payments in order to pressure them to pay.
What Are Some Landlords Allegedly Doing On IRS Get My Payments Portal?
In order to help Americans to track the status of their stimulus payments, the IRS and Treasury Department launched a new tool, Get My Payment. The tool provides individuals “with the status of your payment, including the date your payment is scheduled to be deposited into your bank account or mailed.” While the rollout of the portal has had its issues, including confusing error messages telling users, “Payment Status Not Available,” it has also helped many understand the date their payment is scheduled to be deposited into their bank account.
In order to check the status of a stimulus payment, one only needs to provide basic information, including name, date of birth, street address, and Social Security Number (SSN).
This basic information is readily available on the dark web thanks to data breaches like Equifax, where the personal information of 145 million Americans was exposed. It is also readily available to many landlords through the applications that tenants complete when applying to rent a property. While knowing someone’s payment status may not help a criminal steal funds, it could certainly help landlords. Some of them appear to be accessing this information illegally, impersonating tenants to check the status of their stimulus payments and then harassing them to pay their rent.
One Twitter user, Joshua Browder, showed an example of an alleged text exchange between a landlord and tenant, showing just how easy it is to abuse the IRS’ “Get My Payment” portal:
(Updated: According to a Facebook post, the property management company is in Forest Grove, Oregon and the tenant in the case is Austin Goodrich. Mr. Goodrich released a statement on the incident, highlighting what he calls, “the IRS’s failure to provide Americans with a secure system to check the status of stimulus payments.”)
Other uses posted photos that included similar claims.
Before gaining access to the IRS portal, users have to click through and acknowledge that use of the system is for authorized use only. The warning states, “unauthorized use of this system is prohibited and subject to criminal and civil penalties, including all penalties applicable to willful unauthorized access (UNAX) or inspection of taxpayer records.” Inputting someone else’s personal information to check the status of a stimulus payments doesn’t qualify as “authorized use,” and is illegal.
What Should You Do If Your Landlord Checks Your Stimulus Check Status?
You may want to speak with a lawyer to evaluate options if your landlord checks your payment status on the IRS portal. You may also want to consider filing a police report.
What Else Should I Know?
There is no data to contextualize how widespread this illegal tactic is. Presumably, some landlords may do this without being as brazen and admitting to it in a text thread; however, it may also be a few bad apples and not a rotten barrel. There have been many heartwarming examples of landlords who have stepped up to support their tenants during the crisis. One, Matt Salerno, forgave April’s rent for 200 – 300 tenants in his 18 rental buildings. As landlords and tenants navigate the uncertain future, they will surely need to stay in close contact; however impersonating tenants and spying on their stimulus check status should not be tolerated.
Photo Credit: forbes.com
Georgia woman gives birth during car crash then couldn’t find the baby until later
(CNN) — A frantic trip to the emergency room became even more chaotic for a Georgia family when a mother gave birth during a car crash — and they couldn’t find the newborn when the vehicle came to a rest.
Police say a woman was behind the wheel of her SUV early Monday morning in Lilburn, Georgia, rushing her pregnant adult daughter and a one-year-old to the hospital because the daughter was in labor.
It was dark and the roads were wet. When the driver tried to make a turn, her vehicle hydroplaned across the roadway then hit a curb and power pole before slamming into a brick wall, police said.
Police body camera footage from the scene shows windows of the SUV were busted out during the impact.
Lilburn Police officers Cepeda Huff and Daniel Bride and Sgt. Matt Madden responded to the scene.
“I gave birth in the car,” one of the women is heard telling the officers in the body cam footage. The women told officers they couldn’t find the baby.
The officers began searching for the newborn, using flashlights to search the area around the SUV.
Officer Huff began searching the backseat of the SUV where the pregnant woman had been sitting. It was there he found the baby under a seat with the umbilical cord still attached.
Body cam footage shows Huff gently lifting the baby out from under the seat and rushing it to emergency medical workers.
The entire family was taken to a local hospital. The newborn was placed in a neonatal ICU and was stable.
The-CNN-Wire
Photo Credit: Lilburn Police Department
French prostitutes seeking support from government are unlikely to receive funding
In France, where prostitution is partly criminalised, it is illegal to buy sexual services but legal for a woman or a man to sell sex. And anyone selling sex must pay taxes like everyone else. But many people in prostitution – some of whom consider themselves “sex workers” and therefore believe they should be entitled to workers’ rights and protection – are not currently eligible for state income support, despite seeing their income disappear as a result of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
Sex-worker organisations are now calling on the government to create an emergency fund to help the most vulnerable among their number survive the crisis. Understanding France’s current prostitution policy helps to explain why it is unlikely the state will agree.
Like many countries, France has introduced unprecedented measures to combat the spread of Covid-19: citizens are required to stay indoors and avoid social contact, and all non-essential businesses have either closed or switched to working from home. For people in prostitution, these new rules have led to a significant loss of income as sex workers and their clients isolate at home.
In 2016 a law was introduced that banned the purchase but not the sale of sexual services. The law was designed to signal the state’s belief that prostitution is a form of violence against women and contrary to human dignity.
But community health groups have criticised the law for increasing the stigma around and vulnerability of those working in prostitution. They argue that sex workers, and especially those who are particularly vulnerable, such as undocumented migrants and people struggling with substance abuse, have had to adopt increasingly unsafe working practices in order to survive. Competing for fewer clients, some of whom demand risky conditions such as unprotected sex, makes people more vulnerable. Having to hide from the police to protect their clients also exposes sex workers to increased violence.
Recently, aid organisations have highlighted the escalating insecurity experienced by sex workers unable to work because of the new confinement measures. Reports have emerged of sex workers being evicted from their homes because they cannot afford rent, and fewer vulnerable people are reaching out to community health organisations for food or medical help. It is not a problem specific to France and similar situations have been reported around the world, including the UK.
Shadow workers
In response to the COVID-19 lockdown, the state has agreed to subsidise up to 84% of employees’ wages, and has introduced a €1,500 per month grant for the self-employed. Sex workers who have the right to live and work in France and are registered as self-employed may be able to apply to these schemes.
However, anybody working illegally, in what is referred to as the “underground” or “shadow” economy, is excluded from workers’ benefits, including income support, despite being required to pay tax. In France, everybody who earns money through legal and illegal means has to pay tax. However, only those who work legally get workers’ benefits – including the new COVID-19 income support.
It’s a paradox: everybody works, everybody pays tax (in theory), but only some get workers rights and protection. In the current situation, anybody in the underground economy loses their work but get no benefits. This means that all mitigation measures introduced to help people with their income during lockdown are useless to part of the population.
The issue being raised by activist groups is that this will push vulnerable sex workers to continue working to earn money and put public health measures at risk since they cannot access income support. These organisations argue that setting up an emergency fund for people in this position would ensure that they can stay at home and self isolate without becoming destitute.
Although exact numbers are hard to determine, there are an estimated 30,000 people involved in prostitution in France, of which 93% are believed to be foreigners (documented or not), and many of whom are vulnerable and unable to draw on government support.
Community health groups and sex-worker organisations have begun fundraising to help out those most in need. They have also written to French President Emmanuel Macron for emergency funds to support sex workers during the lockdown as these organisations are unable to meet the demand for their help.
MPs have also written to the Marlène Schiappa, secretary of state for gender equality, to highlight the plight of sex workers during the crisis. All argue that state support is vital to ensuring that vulnerable people are not forced out of confinement to earn money, putting themselves and others at risk.
Prostitution policy
So far, the government has refused to provide special assistance to these sex workers. Schiappa has stated that it would be “very complicated” for the state to compensate individuals working illegally, including undeclared sex workers. Since the end of World War II, the French government considers all those working in prostitution (overwhelmingly presumed to be women) as victims of exploitation in need of rescue and rehabilitation, and only steps in to help those willing to leave prostitution.
The state supports people wishing to stop selling sex via a programme of social and financial aid delivered through accredited charities and women’s rights organisations. But recent research reveals this support package remains underfunded and unevenly applied. It has also been criticised for helping fewer than 100 people per year exit prostitution since the programme was introduced in 2017.
If the French state maintains its current policy position, it is unlikely to compensate vulnerable sex workers for lost income if they are unwilling or unable to leave prostitution. Instead it will continue to direct people towards its exit programme or charitable organisations for support. Yet policies that do not address sex workers’ welfare needs, or those of people subsisting in the “shadow” economy more generally, are likely to endanger lives and undermine the wider public health measures aimed at stemming the epidemic.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-why-french-sex-workers-153556757.html
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Florida man tried to use fake ‘COVID-19’ sign to dodge arrest
BARDIN, Fla. (NEXSTAR) – A wanted Florida man tried to keep officers away with a sign warning that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
“Placing a fake “Covid-19″ sign on your door will not stop us from kicking it in when you have felony warrants for your arrest,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a news release.
Joshua Price, 28, apparently scrawled “COVID 19 infected since 4/8/20” in blue ink on a sheet of paper and used electrical tape to stick it to his front door.
Deputies and detectives donned protective gear to arrest Price Thursday at the Bardin, Florida residence. Price was wanted on a felony charge of flee and elude law enforcement and violation of probation warrants.
“The investigation revealed that the suspect created the fake sign as his idea to avoid arrest,” according to the release.
The sheriff’s office found “no indication” that Price had contracted COVID-19.
via: https://wgntv.com/news/florida-man-tried-to-use-fake-covid-19-sign-to-dodge-arrest-sheriff-says/
Photo Credit: wgntv.com