Medical staff treat a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient in their isolation room on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, U.S., January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Jan 10 (Reuters) – COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States reached a record high on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as a surge in infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant strains health systems in several states.
There were 132,646 people hospitalized with COVID, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year.
Hospitalizations have increased steadily since late December, doubling in the last three weeks, as Omicron quickly overtook Delta as the dominant version of the virus in the United States.
Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin have reported record levels of hospitalized COVID-19 patients recently, according to the Reuters analysis.
While potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections caused by the Omicron variant could strain the hospital systems, some of which have already suspended elective procedures as they struggle to handle the surge of patients amid staff shortages.
The seven-day average for new cases has doubled in the last 10 days to 704,000. The United States has averaged over a half a million cases for the last six consecutive days, according to a Reuters tally.
Only seven states have not set records for COVID-19 cases in 2022 – Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio and Wyoming, according to a Reuters tally.
Washington, D.C., is leading the country in new infections in the past week based on population, followed by Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Deaths are averaging 1,700 per day, up from about 1,400 in recent days but within levels seen earlier this winter.
Anti-COVID-19 “Vaccine Police” leader Christopher Key has a new quarter-baked conspiracy theory for his anti-vax followers to use to cure themselves of COVID-19: Drink their own urine. “The antidote that we have seen now, and we have tons and tons of research, is urine therapy. OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said in a video posted over the weekend on his Telegram account after being released from jail over a trespassing charge. “This has been around for centuries,” he added. “When I tell you this, please take it with a grain of salt,” the anti-vaccine advocate warned while saying people might now think he is “cray cray.” “Now drink urine!” he continued. “This vaccine is the worst bioweapon I have ever seen,” he concluded. “I drink my own urine!” Reached for comment by The Daily Beast on Sunday night, Key doubled down on what he calls “urine therapy” and railed against “foolish” people who took the COVID-19 vaccine, which is safe and effective.
These are the anti-Fauci / anti-CDC people who do their own research? Scottie
You guys, I’m not drinking urine until they come out with diet urine. I have to watch my girlish figure.
I almost did not do the roundup today. I got up at 4:30 AM to get ready for my first in the morning doctors appointment. I got multiple shots into my spine. They give a numbing shot to the area, then quickly follow it up with the insertion of a catheter, and then come back and inject the substance into the vertebrae . My vertebrae are misshapen and destroyed. They grow in ways that catch or pinch my nerves. Some times they stretch the nerves and others they smash / pinch them. Each produces different sensations and pain levels. At one injection the pain was so bad that I nearly passed out. The doctor told me he had to inject the stuff right above the nerve causing it to have a lot of pressure so the signal it sent to the brain was intense to say the least.
I got home and Ron fed me a wonderful baked pasta dish he made and I went right to bed. Then hours later I got up and started the Roundup. I love it so much I really want to do it. But I have to do a bunch of legal paperwork in the next few days to get a bunch of stuff done so the roundup may be late or just skipped. Best wishes to everyone. Scottie
While the owners of Walmart, the wealthiest family in the country, became over $60 billion richer during the pandemic, they are now slashing the paid leave of their employees in half. Outrageous. We must end corporate greed and raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
They demand government support and get it while the people suffer. We seen this oveer the last two years. Scottie
SCOTUS when the Trump administration unilaterally rewrites immigration law to keep out refugees: cool cool cool 😎
SCOTUS when the Biden administration relies on a textual delegation of authority to protect workers from the deadliest pandemic in American history: pic.twitter.com/Qq36EwHZka
This is due to gerrymandering / voter suppression laws , and big money in politics. Why listen to the voters is only your supporters can vote? Scottie
When you want to do something terrible, you make stuff up to rationalize it. Hillary gave a concession speech the morning after the election was called. Obama hosted Trump at the White House as president-elect two days later. If Trump did what they did, Jan. 6 doesn’t happen. https://t.co/BxUWpyXh5N
Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, actual devils, are calling out today’s Republican traitors.
Would love to hear Republicans denounce white supremacy. Out loud. On the record. On a regular basis. Same with their base.
White conservative terror wants to be regarded as the default.
If you want democracy, you want to expand voting rights.
A caravan of over a dozen private vehicles with taped-over license plates pulls up, the Patriot Front members load up their shields and flags outside Soldier Field here in Chicago pic.twitter.com/JYUl1RDOps
It is absolutely wild to me how many people legit think exposing an entire generation of kids to Covid is better than skipping a couple weeks of school.
We know long haul Covid is very harmful, we know some aspects of Covid in kids manifests after they seem to get better. What we don’t know is what the long term effects of Covid are on the brain / nervous system. If it causes you to lose taste and smell when sick, what does it do long term to your sensory nerves? Do we really want to take the chance with kids?
Situation still tenuous. He won the first case in court yet the Australian government has said they will appeal the ruling. Scottie
How many rude annoying people treat servers when they go out to eat. Scottie
It all starts with elections of representatives who decide policy and law. If the representative is owned by the 1%, then interests of working people are abandoned. USAunify.org
Iszac Henig, a (pre-t) trans man competing on the Yale team won several races and beat Lia Thomas. Cue conservative media only citing that Iszac is trans and all of social media assuming he's a trans woman and engaging in horrific transphobia while ironically affirming Iszac. pic.twitter.com/cj5vBKuBUd
School choice is a dog whistle, it is code for what the right really wants. Segregated schools paid for by the tax payer. They basically want schools that teach / preach their views paid for by the public. That was what most charter schools were, a disguised attempt to get around the public curriculum but being paid for by the public. Religious people want to be able to send their kids to private schools paid for by the taxpayer so kids can be indoctrinated into science denying bigots, the white supremacist want white only schools so their kids don’t have to mix with the non-whites they are taught to look down on, and the wealthy want you the public to pay for expensive great schools their kids get to attend so they wont have to associate with the general population they see as be low them. Scottie
Of course Republicans would prefer to quietly strangle your right to vote like a python than publicly tread on the topic. In the reality-reversed alternative universe Ramirez is writing from, he thinks allowing more people to vote more easily with equal access for all voters and all votes being counted with equal weight is treading on freedom? What Michael Ramirez wants to see is an election system in which white suburban and rural voters can get in and out of a convenient, nearby polling place in five minutes, while those in minority areas see most polling places closed until they have to drive very far and then wait in line for six or seven hours (with a prohibition on providing them with food or water) in order to vote, with the proviso that if the state legislature doesn’t like the outcome, it can throw out the results and install its own outcome.
Ramirez wants to return to the original voting standard as envisioned by the original founders: white male landowners are the only ones allowed to vote. He seems oblivious to the fact (or just doesn’t care about facts) that we have had twenty-seven amendments since then, each written by a new set of founders, that have equal weight to the original Constitution and which include many expansions of the right to vote to include all adult citizens age eighteen or over regardless of race, ethnicity, previous condition of servitude, gender and without undue burdens imposed.
Michael Ramirez demonstrates what Senator Raphael Warnock meant when he said, “Some people don’t want some people to vote.”Scottie
The CDC is an organization made up of skilled people with expertise / education to protect the people of the US for the viruses and diseases that threaten the public. That is their jobs and they do it well. They give the White House their best advice and suggestions. As we seen in the last administration the White House can ignore their advice if the president wishes to do so. Scottie
Pearl Harbor and 9/11 took more American lives than the January 6 attempted coup so, in that sense, were greater tragedies.
But Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were attacks by FOREIGN agents.
January 6 was an act of treason perpetrated by a sitting president to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power after HE LOST AN ELECTION BY MORE THAN SEVEN MILLION VOTES.
January 6 was an act of terroristic treason COMMITTED BY AMERICANS, not foreigners.
January 6 was the first time the U.S. CAPITOL had been taken over by hostile forces since the War of 1812. Not even during the Civil War did the Capitol get taken over; the KKKonfederate flag was never raised inside the U.S. Capitol until January 6.
January 6 was the first time ever that the Constitutional electoral role of certifying a presidential election was disrupted by force.
After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, you didn’t have 30-40% of the population SUPPORTING THE FOREIGN ATTACKERS.
Comparing January 6 and Pearl Harbor or 9/11 is like comparing an orange with a bushel of apples. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were FOREIGN attacks that caused more loss of life but united our country. January 6 caused fewer deaths but further divided our country.
ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS, MINIMIZES OR RATIONALIZES THE TRAITOROUS, TERRORISTIC ATTEMPTED COUP is a traitor.
The U.S. Constitution provides two possible definitions of treason: either giving aid or comfort to the enemy (with enemy defined in legal decisions to mean as an adversarial combatant in a declared war), which clearly does not apply, or being in open rebellion against the United States government, which applied for those who waged violent rebellion against the United States during the Civil War and reasonably applies to what happened on January 6.
A violent, armed insurrection against the United States Capitol for the purpose of stopping the congress from completing a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED PRO-FORMA DUTY in order to OVERTHROW A LAWFUL ELECTION is clearly an act of open rebellion against the United States.
Much evidence has already been made public and much evidence will be revealed in the days to come as more serious charges are filed.
And we all watched on television as an ARMED MOB of Trump insurrectionists, in response to directions from the president in a carefully-planned military maneuver including printed T-shirts equating themselves to July 4, 1776, invaded the U.S. Capitol and forcibly disrupted a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED pro-forma session to complete a federal election. They came armed, including weapons of various sorts (including some firearms, we now know), and including zip ties, wall climbing equipment, wearing bulletproof vests, and many other indications of a well-planned insurrection.
Whether or not the Justice Department decides to file charges of treason, the actions that have been charged and proved so far, with more to come, clearly rise to the Constitutional definition.
All those who defend, rationalize, minimize or excuse these acts of violent rebellion against the United States are complicit after the fact in the treason.
Seems to me the places having less of a problem getting and keeping restaurant workers are the ones ditching tips and paying more. Sure, they’ve raised their prices, but adjusted for not tipping, it comes out as a push for the customer. Aw, whose a good boy?! Works for leftovers. The dog, but not the previous waiter. Scottie
Why not use empty buildings / apartments to house the homeless. it is win win for the landlords, the homeless, and the government. In places were this has been done it has found to be cheaper than locking up the homeless or other ways to deal with them. Scottie
More than 760 kids under the age of 18 are getting hospitalized with COVID-19 on average each day, according to CDC data. It’s the highest average ever reported for the age group.
“”For the week ending December 30, 2021, more than 325,000 cases were reported among children—a 64 percent increase from the previous week and nearly double the cases from two weeks prior,” says Dr. Noah Greenspan, PT, DPT, a cardiopulmonary physical therapist and the director of Pulmonary Wellness ComplexPT, who has been treating COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic.”
Normally I would put this anti-CDC stuff in the misleading right wing media section, but the recent guidelines that changed several times a day for several days due to lack of tests for the Coronavirus variants and people needing to work to survive. So this time he has a point. While the recommendations have changed rapidly recently the CDC has to take into account reality when they issue their guidelines. Their job is to recommend the best public health measures to take to best protect the people from a public health threat. The reality is the US doesn’t currently have enough tests for people to test and quarantine then test again until they are negative for Coronavirus as they were doing, and people also need to work to survive in the US so have to be able to go back to work with out a negative test. While the CDC guidelines are not the optimum they are the best considering the circumstances. Scottie
Twelve people were killed Wednesday when gunmen stormed a French satirical news magazine, a weekly publication called Charlie Hebdo, which has published cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Scottie
As January 6th was an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power, an attempted coup, an insurrection designed to deny the will of the people who voted to elect Biden president in a fair and valid election, yes it was much worse. The attack and deaths of 9/11 couldn’t destroy the US nor stop the government from functioning. Jan 6th did stop the government from functioning and could have destroyed / ended the US form of democratic government by force. Scottie
“The general public and the politicians who serve them, like me, tend to reflexively support punitive sentencing measures that often fail to promote public safety and result in needless deprivation of freedom, burdensome taxpayer cost and unimaginable racial and regional disparities,” Mariani said. Supporters of the change contend it would help promote rehabilitation and save taxpayer money by freeing up prison space.
DFL Gov. Tim Walz shared some thoughts on the proposal earlier this week, saying he thinks the commission will make sure the most violent criminals remain locked up.
“Trying to tell Minnesotans that this is somehow going to make them less safe is simply not true,” Walz said. “The sentencing commission is made up of a vast swath of expertise. So, I would expect them to make the right decision on that, to be smart about what it takes for Minnesota to keep Minnesotans safe.“ Scottie
A Florida official admitted Thursday that as many as 1 million COVID-19 test kits expired in a state warehouse over the last few days of December while coronavirus cases were skyrocketing and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said nothing about the health crisis.
Kevin Guthrie, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, made the startling revelation about the Abbott Laboratories rapid test kits in response to a reporter’s question at a Palm Beach press conference where DeSantis was touting the state’s acquisition of an additional 1 million tests.
Guthrie claimed at the press conference that there was simply no demand for the tests that expired — despite massively long lines of Floridians waiting for tests that were available elsewhere, and despite drugstores being sold out of COVID tests.
DeSantis on Friday defended his administration’s decision to allow up to one million Covid-19 rapid test kits to expire, a move that comes as he is facing increasing criticism from Democrats over his handling of the Omicron surge.
DeSantis has argued that the stockpile resulted from a lack of demand in the later part of 2021 and blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for not granting extensions to keep the tests eligible — something it did in September for three months.
In the days before Thursday’s admission, DeSantis had focused on erasing the “testing psychology,” essentially arguing against the practice that all individuals should get tests regardless of whether they show Covid-related symptoms while railing against the federal government for not providing tests.
Official insists there was no demand for the test kits despite massive lines and sold-out stocks. DeSantis was touting the acquisition of 1 million more tests. https://t.co/mLaBJJbj28
A Texas teacher has been charged with child endangerment after she allegedly placed her COVID-19-positive son in the trunk of her car, KPRC 2 Houston reported.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the teacher, Sarah Beam, was charged after her son was found in the trunk of her car while they were at a COVID-19 testing site run by a Texas school district, the news outlet reported.
She allegedly placed her son in the trunk of her car to avoid being exposed to the teen, who she told authorities had COVID-19. She allegedly told officials that the two were there to do additional testing for her son.
Officials first became aware of the incident after a noise coming from the trunk was heard by a witness, and the trunk was later unhatched by the Texas teacher, KPRC 2 Houston reported.
The witness then contacted police after Beam was reportedly told that the teen needed to be removed from the trunk and placed in the back seat, or else she would not receive a COVID-19 test.
The teen later left the trunk and entered the back seat, according to surveillance footage that officials were able to access, the news outlet noted.
The police department for Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District said a warrant for her arrest has been issued, KPRC 2 Houston reported. She is on administrative leave by the school district.
It was not immediately clear if Beam had a lawyer representing her.
The Hill has reached out to the school district, the school district’s police and Harris County District Attorney’s Office for comment.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he plans to introduce a bill that would overturn a vaccine mandate for school kids in D.C., which is more than 1,100 miles from the border of the state he actually represents in the U.S. Senate.
In a press release from his office sent Wednesday, Cruz said the bill would seek to nullify the vaccine mandate approved by the D.C. Council in late December, which requires students eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine that is fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get inoculated by Mar. 1, though enforcement would not begin until the start of the 2022-23 school year.
“These mandates, we’re seeing them all over the place. You know, we’re seeing them in schools. It is amazing how many Democrats are willing to try to force parents to get their kid vaccinated,” said Cruz on Tuesday in an interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
“I’ll tell you, the District of Columbia — the school board — voted to force every child in D.C. to get vaccinated,” Cruz continued. “I’m introducing this week legislation in the Senate to reverse that order. Under the Constitution, the District of Columbia is under the authority of Congress. The school board has no right to force you to get your five-year-old vaccinated. If you want to vaccinate your kid, vaccinate your kid. But if you don’t want to, who are these petty authoritarians trying to make this decision for you? And sadly, it’s a pattern we’re seeing across the board.”
In the interview Cruz mistakenly said the school board approved the vaccine mandate, correcting himself in his press release, where he said “the bill passed 11-1, with only one member of the City Council voting against the measure.” No member voted against the measure; Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8), who says he has received the vaccine but does not want to force others to do so, voted “present.”
“Immunizations are the best defense against some of the most common and sometimes deadly infectious diseases. They are necessary to prevent an outbreak among unimmunized children and children and adults who are unable to receive immunizations, similar to those measles outbreaks that have occurred in other jurisdictions and forced the temporary closure of schools,” says D.C. Health in its Immunization Attendance Policy.
According to D.C. data, 20% of the city’s 5- to 11-year-olds have already received one or both doses of the COVID vaccine. About 67% of kids aged 12 to 15 have received at least one dose, as have 65% of kids aged 16 to 17.
This isn’t the first time Texas has messed with D.C. Last August, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced a bill that would prohibit D.C. from instituting a vaccine mandate for businesses, which Mayor Muriel Bowser later did. (It will take effect Jan. 15.) Their bill has not moved forward in the House, and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said at the time she would not allow it to.
“Congressman Fallon is from Texas. It’s interesting to me how these ill-conceived bills to restrict the rights of D.C. to govern itself always come from members of Congress with no ties to D.C.,” she said in an August statement. “D.C. has a right, based on the science, to do what it can to protect our residents.”
Cruz’s bill similarly has little chance of clearing the Senate, then the House, and then being signed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. But it still drew opposition from some local officials.
“It’s another infringement on our autonomy as taxpayer citizens,” said Bowser at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“I hear they say ‘don’t mess with Texas,’” tweeted D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Same rule applies here: Keep your hands off D.C. Deferring to local officials is a basic concept of federalism, a principle on which our country was founded.”
“Vaccines save lives. Vaccine requirements are common in school. Standing in the way with cases as high as they’ve ever been and with a clear difference between being vaxxed and not, is beyond reckless,” added Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6). “One year after Jan. 6, don’t you think you’ve done enough harm, Senator?”
Cruz and D.C. have clashed in the past. In 2013, the government shutdown spurred by Cruz’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act also shuttered the D.C. government, because it is considered to be federally funded. (This is despite the fact that the city raises its own revenue to fund operations.) A few years later, he managed to get a bill passed blocking a D.C. law that banned discrimination based on reproductive health decisions. In 2018, he unsuccessfully tried to block D.C. from enforcing the ACA’s individual mandate.
Cruz is up for re-election in 2024, though D.C. residents will be unable to vote for or against him.
Investigators with the Knoxville Fire Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), have determined that the fire at the Planned Parenthood in Knoxville was purposely set. The KFD says the individual or individuals who started the fire have not been identified yet.
On Friday, investigators offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the successful prosecution of the person or persons responsible for the suspected arson.
Investigative authorities believe the Planned Parenthood fire was intentionally set. If you have any info related to the fire, call 1-800-762-3017 or email KFDArson@knoxvilletn.gov
The fire took place on Dec. 31 at around 6:39 a.m. and while no injures were reported the fire did completely destroy the building. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined the investigation due to the political nature of the building.
“KFD’s firefighters worked tirelessly last Friday to extinguish this fire, and our fire investigators, with assistance from ATF, TBI, and Knox County fire investigators, have worked meticulously over the last week and will continue to investigate this fire,” said Fire Chief Stan Sharp.
At this time, KFD is asking anyone with information about the fire to call 1-800-762-3017 or email KFDArson@knoxvilletn.gov. There is a reward of up to $10,000.00 for information that would lead to the prosecution of anyone involved in any criminal activity related to this fire. All calls are confidential.
The Planned Parenthood in Knoxville (my sole source of heath care for 3 years) was burned to the ground on New Year’s Eve. It’s officially been ruled arson. Please donate to @PPFA if you can. East Tennessee desperately needs PP. https://t.co/VV3MKa53gO
WATCH: “He says the fire brings him no joy.”@6News interviewed @PastorKenTCAPP by the ashes of the Knoxville clinic he rails against, which also took a shotgun blast this year.
He happened to post “Fire. Absolutely” on Facebook the night BEFORE🧐
Because of faulty results in drug testing at state prisons, including Attica, prisoners were placed in solitary confinement, a report found.Credit…Steve Russell/Toronto Star, via Getty Images
New York’s prison system unjustly penalized more than 1,600 incarcerated people based on faulty drug tests, putting them in solitary confinement, delaying their parole hearings and denying them family visits, the New York State inspector general said in a damning report released on Tuesday.
The arbitrary penalties were meted out across the state over an eight-month period in 2019, while the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision relied on improperly administered drug tests made by the company Microgenics, the report found. The tests led to “rampant false positive” results for buprenorphine, an opioid used to treat addiction, as well as synthetic cannabinoids.
“This stands as a heartbreaking example of how the absence of transparency can undermine due process and basic human rights,” Lucy Lang, the inspector general, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The department started using the tests in January 2019, the report found. The manufacturer’s directions specified that a positive result should be confirmed with a second, more sensitive test, but officials neglected to do so as a matter of policy. Instead, they simply carried out the same test a second time to confirm the results.
The rate of positive tests immediately spiked, but the department failed to address widespread concerns among prisoners, their families and advocates that many of the results were false positives, the report found.
The report cited several examples of the grave consequences the tests had for prisoners. One woman at Albion Correctional Facility, near Rochester, N.Y., who had never tested positive for drug use during her two years in jail, suddenly tested positive for synthetic cannabinoids.
As punishment, she was confined to her cell for 40 days and placed in solitary confinement for 45 days. She lost her prison job and privileges like recreation time, receipt of packages and phone use for months. She was also denied visits with her three children.
The report also accused Microgenics representatives of presenting false or misleading information to prison officials. A review of internal company documents revealed that even ingesting over-the-counter antacids and the sweetener Stevia could potentially lead to false positives, but the company failed to disclose those possibilities, the report said.
The report faulted department officials for deciding to forgo the second test and found that a sales representative from Microgenics had exerted undue influence over the process.
It also found that the contract with the company most likely violated procurement guidelines and that the department “did not perform due diligence when contracting with Microgenics for its drug testing systems, failing to understand that such tests were merely preliminary screening tests.”
During the eight-month period, more than 1,600 prisoners were punished over drug tests statewide, including 140 who were subjected to solitary confinement, leading to complaints across the state, Ms. Lang said.
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Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, an advocacy group, brought the concerns of four incarcerated people who said they had been disciplined based on false positives to the department in June 2019. Later that summer, the department sent six positive test samples from other prisoners to another company for retesting, and five came back negative.
The department then brought its findings to the office of the inspector general. It later moved to expunge more than 2,500 disciplinary records that were based on the faulty drug tests.
Karen L. Murtagh, the executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, said the impact of the penalties was difficult to overstate.
“The psychological and physical damage caused by solitary confinement, the loss of family visitation, the lack of proper programming, lost work-release and educational opportunities, all of which help combat recidivism, adds to the ledger for which we as a society need to take account,” she said.
Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, an advocacy group that seeks to dismantle the prison industry, said the report illustrated the problems inherent in allowing private companies to profit from incarceration. She called for further review of prison contracts.
In a statement on Tuesday, the department noted that its staff had cooperated with the inspector general’s investigation and adopted all its recommendations, which included ending solitary confinement in response to drug tests and improving drug-test training and data collection.
Microgenics is a subsidiary of Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based company. In a statement on Tuesday, Ron O’Brien, a spokesman for the company, said the instructions clearly state that the drug tests are only preliminary and that a more specific, alternative chemical method must be used to obtain a confirmed result.
“We have complete confidence in our product and, when it is used as directed, have no reason to believe there is any issue with its accuracy,” Mr. O’Brien said.
He added that the company had conducted its own investigation and did not believe that any Microgenics representatives provided “any intentionally false or misleading testimony” at disciplinary hearings, as alleged in the report.
The drug tests have spurred several lawsuits, including a federal class-action suit filed by Prisoners’ Legal Services and the law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel in 2019. The following year, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, filed suit on behalf of the Department of Corrections against Microgenics in Albany, alleging breach of contract. The lawsuit is pending.
The department now uses a preliminary drug screening test known as the Premier Biotech Bio-Cup, and positive results are confirmed using a second method.
Ms. Lang, who was appointed inspector general in the fall, said that more than half the complaints her office receives involve the prison system.
“We are directing resources toward addressing those complaints as proactively as possible,” she said.
Karen Zraick is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. @karenzraick
The Fed has it backwards. Wage increases have not caused prices to rise. Price increases have caused real wages (what wages can actually purchase) to fall.
Prices are increasing at the rate of 6.8% annually but wages are growing only between 3-4%.https://t.co/Vk3TsAjN63
By the way, just four large conglomerates control most meat processing. Half of the recent rise in grocery prices is from meat products — beef, pork, and poultry.
The major draw of the Republican Party is never having to defend horrible behavior.
Complete hypocrisy? Cronyism? Corruption? Treason? Sexual assault? Obvious bad faith?
Not one problem.
Make no mistake: Trump's coup is still ongoing. The attacks on our democracy have only worsened since last year's attack.
The choice now is between saving our democracy or saving the filibuster. Whichever way it goes will be Joe Biden’s most enduring legacy. pic.twitter.com/fHNrKyyUo1
Conservatives want to break public schools and disrespect teachers, 75% of which are women. This is all on brand for their misanthropic fascist policies. They want corporate charter schools to take taxpayer dollars to make crony shareholders rich.
Pay teachers. Fund education. Protect schools.
For all the TERFs out there who keep telling me I don't look like a woman because I have a big forehead…
Most of the anti-trans you don’t look like a woman is based not on any science but on personal preferences of what individual people think is attractive or not attractive to them. I have posted pictures that are easy to find of trans people who you wouldn’t even think are trans because they look like what people have traditionally accepted as that gender. That is why letting young people use puberty blockers is so very important, other wise people are left with an adult body that is not representative what they are. Puberty blockers are not harmful, widely used for many conditions, and complete reversible.
Russia, Belarus, and other CSTO members send ‘peacekeeping forces’ and now we have orders to murder protestors without warning.
Henry Payne loves to make fun of anything having to do with public safety. The cartoonist openly shows contempt for: Public schools, people who attend public schools, teachers, and learning. With cases rising, everyone is home sick anyway. Might as well remote learn. Can only hope all the kids have the means to connect to the remote learning websites. Scottie
is this a conspiracy … or possibly the truth? How deep does thee greed go? Scottie
So incorrect, it is an out right lie that the misleading right wing media gets away with because they know their followers don’t check. How many Americans could find Kazakhstan on a map? I’m putting the over/under at 2%.
NEWS FLASH – The government of Kazakhstan has not “resigned!!” As a matter of fact, Kazak police and armed forces have been joined by Vladdy’s troops with orders to shoot – without warning!! As usual BADwyn gets his “facts” WRONG!!! I’m thinking Al is upset that Trump didn’t have Russia invade the USA to keep Trump in power.
Prices are determined on supply and demand….
U.S. gas price, December 2012: $3.310 / gallon.
U.S. gas price, December 2021: $3.307 / gallon.
Gas prices declined long term during Obama’s second term, but trended upward under Trump, who intervened in the market to protect his supporters (Texas and Russian oil companies). This trend was reinforced by the Biden economic recovery. Apparently Goodwin would prefer to throw 15-20 million Americans out of work than return to the normal gas prices of a decade ago. Because, you know, Biden must be blamed. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
Pearl Harbor and 9/11 took more American lives than the January 6 attempted coup so, in that sense, were greater tragedies.
But Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were attacks by FOREIGN agents.
January 6 was an act of treason perpetrated by a sitting president to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power after HE LOST AN ELECTION BY MORE THAN SEVEN MILLION VOTES.
January 6 was an act of terroristic treason COMMITTED BY AMERICANS, not foreigners.
January 6 was the first time the U.S. CAPITOL had been taken over by hostile forces since the War of 1812. Not even during the Civil War did the Capitol get taken over; the KKKonfederate flag was never raised inside the U.S. Capitol until January 6.
January 6 was the first time ever that the Constitutional electoral role of certifying a presidential election was disrupted by force.
After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, you didn’t have 30-40% of the population SUPPORTING THE FOREIGN ATTACKERS.
Comparing January 6 and Pearl Harbor or 9/11 is like comparing an orange with a bushel of apples. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were FOREIGN attacks that caused more loss of life but united our country. January 6 caused fewer deaths but further divided our country.
ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS, MINIMIZES OR RATIONALIZES THE TRAITOROUS, TERRORISTIC ATTEMPTED COUP is a traitor.
The U.S. Constitution provides two possible definitions of treason: either giving aid or comfort to the enemy (with enemy defined in legal decisions to mean as an adversarial combatant in a declared war), which clearly does not apply, or being in open rebellion against the United States government, which applied for those who waged violent rebellion against the United States during the Civil War and reasonably applies to what happened on January 6.
A violent, armed insurrection against the United States Capitol for the purpose of stopping the congress from completing a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED PRO-FORMA DUTY in order to OVERTHROW A LAWFUL ELECTION is clearly an act of open rebellion against the United States.
Much evidence has already been made public and much evidence will be revealed in the days to come as more serious charges are filed.
And we all watched on television as an ARMED MOB of Trump insurrectionists, in response to directions from the president in a carefully-planned military maneuver including printed T-shirts equating themselves to July 4, 1776, invaded the U.S. Capitol and forcibly disrupted a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED pro-forma session to complete a federal election. They came armed, including weapons of various sorts (including some firearms, we now know), and including zip ties, wall climbing equipment, wearing bulletproof vests, and many other indications of a well-planned insurrection.
Whether or not the Justice Department decides to file charges of treason, the actions that have been charged and proved so far, with more to come, clearly rise to the Constitutional definition.
All those who defend, rationalize, minimize or excuse these acts of violent rebellion against the United States are complicit after the fact in the treason.