Suit Filed in NY Ct Alleges Ecohealth Alliance and Others Created COVID as a Bioweapon and Intentionally Released It On the Public. Asserts Wrongful Death, Gross Negligence and Assault/Battery Claims

A case filed on 5th October, 2022 in NY state court claims COVID-19 was created in a lab as a bioweapon to harm people and then intentionally released onto the public. The cause of action is negligence, gross negligence, assault and battery, wrongful death , strict liability and breach of warranty among others. The complaint [PDF] states:

1 This is a toxic tort personal injury action brought by the above-identified Plaintiffs, alleging inter alia, negligence, strict liability, breach of implied or expressed warranty, physical and emotional pain and suffering, wrongful death, and economic loss.

2. The Covid-19 pandemic could have been avoided.

3. Despite a moratorium on dangerous Gain of Function research – whereby, for example, a virus is genetically altered to become more transmissible in humans – Defendants engaged in such research, which ultimately exposed the entire world to a manipulated, highly transmissible and deadly lab-made virus and global pandemic, directly and proximately causing Plaintiffs’ injuries.

4. On March 13, 2020, Proclamation 9994 stated: “In December 2019, a novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS–CoV–2 (‘the virus’) was first detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China, causing outbreaks of the coronavirus disease COVID–19 that has now spread globally.” 85 Fed. Reg. 15337 (March 18, 2020).1

5. In April 2020, President Trump proclaimed that SARS-CoV-2, also known as the Covid-19 virus, was released from a Level-4 Bio Safety laboratory (“BSL-4”) in Wuhan, China.

6. The aforementioned laboratory – the Wuhan Institute of Virology (“Wuhan Lab”) – was well-known to U.S. public health officials for its failed safety and lax security, as well as ties to the Chinese military.2 Exhibit “1” Photos of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

7. Since then, both an investigation and cover-up have continued with respect to the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, impeding effective countermeasures and strategies to control the release, mutation and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has directly and proximately caused Plaintiffs’ injuries prior to filing this action in this Supreme Court.

8. Plaintiffs allege the SARS-CoV-2 virus was designed and created at the Wuhan Lab in China, made possible through the research, development, and funding support provided by Defendants ECOHEALTH ALIANCE, PETER DASZAK, JANET D. 4. On March 13, 2020, Proclamation 9994 stated: “In December 2019, a novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS–CoV–2 (‘the virus’) was first detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, People’s Republic of China, causing outbreaks of the coronavirus disease COVID–19 that has now spread globally.” 85 Fed. Reg. 15337 (March 18, 2020).1

9. Defendants named herein and those to be identified through discovery are liable to Plaintiffs under strict liability tort law, which is applicable to the release of any ultra- hazardous substance into the environment, including organic substances, i.e., a genetically manipulated, lab-made virus.

10. Each Plaintiff named herein was exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the abnormally dangerous genetically manipulated coronavirus that was created, financed, designed, and released into the environment by the Defendants through their intentional and/or reckless acts, that have directly and proximately caused Plaintiffs’ and Decedents’ injuries, and/or death as set forth in this Verified Complaint.

11. Upon information and belief, Defendants concealed from Congress their knowledge of the origins of SARS-COV-2, to conceal the grant funding they had received from the National Institute of Health (“NIH”) was being directed toward “Gain of Function” research, and to conceal their violation(s) of the terms of a 2014 “exemption” obtained by EcoHealth, (waiving restrictions of a federal moratorium placed on Gain of Function research by President Barack Obama in 2014), said exemption enabled Defendants to continue funding the Wuhan Lab’s creation of the SARS- COV-2, directly and proximately causing Plaintiffs’ injuries.3 Exhibit “2” National Institute of Health letter dated October 21, 2014.

12. The Gain of Function moratorium applied to NEW rather than existing funding. Research funded in part by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through EcoHealth which we have termed “The SARS-CoV-2 Creation Project” was already underway at the time the moratorium was declared. Ralph Baric, who was conducting Gain of Function research conducted at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and in partnership with researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology petitioned the NIH biosecurity board for an exemption from the pause. It was subsequently granted.

Elite Psychopaths at Ontario College of Physicians Recommend Drugs and Psychotherapy to Combat “Vaccine Hesitancy” for Persons Unwilling to Get Injected w/Experimental, Deadly COVID Shot

From [HERE] Vaccine hesitancy was steadily increasing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the emergence of the new mRNA shots and vaccine mandates, it increased even more. 

The causes of this hesitancy is commonly attributed to “misinformation” and “fake news” according to government affiliated health agencies and legacy media. The science and evidence that has raised legitimate safety concerns with mRNA vaccines, for example, is unfortunately never appropriately addressed or acknowledged. 

Yet these factors are key in hesitancy because they speak for themselves.

A recent notice from the Ontario College of Physicians (CPSO) reads as followswith regards to vaccine hesitancy,

“It is also important that physicians work with their patients to manage anxieties related to the vaccine and not enable avoidance behaviour. For example, for extreme fear of needles (trypanophobia) or other cases of serious concern, responsible use of prescription medications and/or referral to psychotherapy may be available options. Overall, physicians have a responsibility to allow their patients to be properly informed about vaccines and not have those anxieties empowered by an exemption.”

This statement was updated from the original statement which looked like this.

The original statement on the CPSO website did not include the specific example of a patient with a “fear of needles,” but instead simply read that in “cases of serious concern, responsible use of prescription medications and/or referral to psychotherapy are available options.” [MORE]

Liberal NY Puppeticians Seek to Revive Forced Deadly COVID Shots for School Children. Proposed Law Destroys Rights to Refuse Medical Treatment and Refuse Emergency Use Vaccines and Informed Consent

COVID Shots Don't Prevent Infection or Transmission. As such, they are Treatments Not Vaccines; and People Have a Right to Refuse Medical Treatment. Mandates Violate Rights/Equal Protection.

At any rate COVID injections are not actually vaccines because they do not create immunity. The injections are treatments. As such, individuals have a right to refuse medical treatment.

Prosecute Now explains, The uncontroverted medical consensus is that existing Covid-19 injections do not prevent infection or transmission of the coronavirus; i.e., they do not create immunity in the recipients. This is admitted openly today, including by U.S. Health Agencies, which is why the CDC Director stated on CNN, "What the vaccines can't do anymore is prevent transmission.'

The CDC has acknowledged that the “vaccinated” and “unvaccinated” are equally likely to spread the virus.

The Injections do not confer immunity but are claimed to reduce the severity of symptoms experienced by those infected by SARS-CoV-2. They are, therefore, treatments and not vaccines as that term has always been defined in the law. [MORE]

From [HERE] New York lawmakers who introduced a bill last year to require the COVID-19 vaccine for school children weren't successful in advancing that proposal. But they're not giving up.

State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz sponsors legislation to require school students in New York be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It died in the Health Committee this session. 

“Our job is to try to keep people healthy, safe and certainly to prevent them from dying," said Dinowitz, a Democrat from the Bronx. "And that, particularly, is important with respect to kids. ...I believe that parents should be able to make these kinds of decision for their kids if those decisions don't have an impact on other people, but because [this does] impact other people, that's when it changes."

The shot would only be mandated after full approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention advisory committees.

Reqiuring New York students to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is up to the state Legislature, meaning if a measure moves forward, its future hinges on who wins the race for governor in less than two weeks. 

The assemblyman plans to hold discussions with the state Health Department about the legislation in the coming months.

Dinowitz is hopeful Gov. Hochul would support a measure adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of other required inoculations, but it's unclear where she’d stand on signing such a measure into law. 

Mandating the COVID-19 vaccine in schools is a topic on the ballot this election cycle, and New Yorkers have two distinct choices. 

During a debate this week, Republican candidate Lee Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island, committed to being against requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for anyone, including for school children.

"Let me be clear to all the parents who are out there: I will not mandate COVID vaccines for your kids, ever," Zeldin said Tuesday. "I don't believe there should be COVID vaccine mandates right now for our kids at SUNY, CUNY, community colleges right now and elsewhere."

That night, Gov. Hochul said mandating the coronavirus vaccine in schools rests with the Legislature.

She has no plans to mandate the shot for school and university students without a bill coming across her desk. That couldn't happen for a year at the earliest. [MORE]

Michigan had the Worst COVID Lockdowns, Yet More Deaths than Other States

From [HERE] Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed the extraordinary measures she took in shutting down businesses and schools and forcing people to stay home were worth it because of the lives saved. But an analysis of the data two and a half years after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan calls that claim into question.

Compared to the rest of the country and its neighboring states, Michigan endured the most restrictions on private activity while also experiencing far more COVID deaths, worse job losses, a weaker recovery, and substantial learning losses for kids.

Deaths

Michigan has significantly more COVID deaths per capita than any other state in the Midwest.

The latest numbers from the CDC show that Michigan has 39,092 deaths as of Oct. 19, 2022, which is 9th-highest in the United Statesafter controlling for population differences.

Michigan’s rate of COVID deaths per 100,000 people (391) is higher than that of Indiana (369), Ohio (342) and Illinois (314). The difference between the Wolverine State and its neighbor across the lake is the starkest: People in Michigan died of COVID-19 at a 48% higher rate than people in Wisconsin (264).

Lockdowns

Using unilateral control afforded governors for extraordinary emergencies, Whitmer imposed the broadest shutdowns on businesses in the country.

Some 32% of Michigan businesses, a higher portion than those in any other state, were subject to a government-mandated closure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national average was 19%. Far more businesses were closed in Michigan than in neighboring states of Indiana (15%), Wisconsin (17%) and Ohio (19.5%).

If shuttering businesses saved lives, one would expect Michigan to have a lower COVID-19 death rate than most states. It didn’t.

Jobs

Michigan is still down 94,500 jobs since COVID-19 hit, a net loss of 2.1%. That’s the 7th-worst percentage among the state, and 23 states have fully recovered the jobs they lost during the pandemic.

Schools

Whitmer did not recommend that schools return to in-person instruction until March 2021. When she made that announcement, 23% of Michigan schools were fully in person, compared with 47% in Ohio, 54% in Wisconsin, and 76% in Indiana.

Some of the largest school districts in the state offered only virtual instruction for almost an entire academic year. According to the data service Burbio, which tracked school openings throughout the pandemic, Michigan was 33rd nationally when it came to offering in-person instruction for the 2020-2021 school year.

School closures during the pandemic are generally associated with more learning loss for students. Along with most of the rest of the nation, the state and national test scores of Michigan students dropped enormously during the pandemic. Catholic schools, which were almost entirely open throughout the pandemic, saw no change in math or reading scores compared to where they were pre-pandemic. 

As for Michigan’s state standardized tests, the M-STEP, every racial group at every grade in every age group tested saw a drop in achievement compared to where students were before the pandemic.

The public school districts in Flint and Detroit were among those closed for in-person instruction the longest. Minority students saw the largest drops in test scores, with the percentage of Black third-graders meeting or exceeding math proficiency standards falling by more than one-third.

On the national test known as the NAEP, the scores of Michigan students also dropped in every category. Fourth-grade reading fell to a 30-year low. And in Detroit, students in the public school district have long scored the worst in the nation in reading and math for 4th and 8th grade students. Their test scores still dropped sharply during COVID.

Michigan’s governor used extraordinary measures to control many aspects of people’s lives during the pandemic. She shutdown nearly one-third of Michigan businesses, prevented people from traveling or seeing friends and allowed schools to stay closed to in-person learning for more than a year.

Despite all these interventions, there is little real-world evidence these actions saved lives. Indeed, Michigan has one of the highest COVID-19 deaths rates in the country, and significantly more than was seen in surrounding states.

US Government Secretly Monitored Citizens Movements and Assigned them COVID “Decree Violation” Scores During Irrational and Deadly US Lockdowns

From [HERE] Voter analytics firm PredictWise harvested location data from tens of millions of US cellphones during the initial Covid lockdown months and used this data to assign a “Covid-19 decree violation” score to the people associated with the phones.

These Covid-19 decree violation scores were calculated by analyzing nearly two billion global positioning system (GPS) pings to get “real-time, ultra-granular locations patterns.” People who were “on the go more often than their neighbors” were given a high Covid-19 decree violation score while those who mostly or always stayed at home were given a low Covid-19 decree violation score.

Not only did PredictWise use this highly sensitive location data to monitor millions of Americans’ compliance with Covid lockdown decrees but it also combined this data with follow-up surveys to assign “Covid concern” scores to the people who were being surveilled. PredictWise then used this data to help Democrats in several swing states to target more than 350,000 “Covid concerned” Republicans with Covid-related campaign ads.

In its white paper, PredictWise claims that Democrats were able to “deploy this real-time location model to open up just over 40,000 persuasion targets that normally would have fallen off” for Mark Kelly who was running for Senate at the time and has now been elected.

“PredictWise understood that there were potential pockets of voters to target with Covid-19 messaging and turned high-dimensional data covering over 100 million Americans into measures of adherence to Covid-19 restrictions during deep lockdown,” the company states in the white paper.

PredictWise doesn’t provide the exact dates when this location data was collected but its white paper does note that the data was collected during Covid lockdowns and used during Senator Kelly’s 2020 election campaign. State-level US lockdowns began on March 15, 2020 and Kelly was elected on November 4, 2020 so the data appears to have been collected during the first few months of this 11 month period. [MORE]

CVS, Walgreens to Pay More Than $10 Billion to Settle Opioid Lawsuits

From [HERE] CVS Health Corp. CVS 2.30%increase; green up pointing triangle and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. WBA -1.24%decrease; red down pointing triangle have agreed to pay more than $10 billion in a landmark settlement to resolve opioid-crisis lawsuits brought by states, cities and other governments.

The two largest U.S. drugstore chains said they reached a framework to settle the collection of lawsuits brought by governments and Native American tribes blaming pharmacies for helping fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Under the proposed deal, CVS would pay $4.9 billion to states and municipalities and $130 million to tribes over the next 10 years starting in 2023. The company said the agreement isn’t an admission of guilt and that it would continue to defend against any litigation that the settlement doesn’t resolve.

Walgreens said it has offered to pay up to $4.79 billion to states over 15 years and about $155 million to tribes. It also expects to pay up to $753.5 million in attorneys fees over six years. The company said the settlement wasn’t an admission of wrongdoing.

Each state, local government and tribe still must decide whether to participate in the settlement. Plaintiffs’ attorneys appointed to lead the negotiations said they encouraged governments and tribes to join the settlement, which they said holds the pharmacies accountable.

Cities and counties have said they would use the money to bolster social services focused on the harms of opioid addiction as well as for funds for first responders. There wouldn’t be direct payments to families or individuals. Unlike states’ landmark settlement with tobacco companies, the money couldn’t be redirected into general funds.

CVS Chief Executive Karen Lynch, on a call with analysts, said the settlement is in the “best interests of all parties and helps put a decades-old issue behind us.” She said she was optimistic that states would join the deal since attorneys general were part of the negotiations. [HERE]

so-Called “Climate Emergency” is Some Bullshit: Hundreds More Sign the World Climate Declaration, Including 20 University Professors

From [HERE] Scientists continue to flock to sign the World Climate Declaration that states there is no climate emergency. Over 200 people have signed the World Climate Declaration (WCD) over the last few weeks, including 20 university professors. A number of the professors and other academics signing the declaration are experts in pure science fields such as chemistry and physics. Over 300 scientists and professionals have signed the WCD since August 18th, when the Daily Sceptic highlighted the project and interest soared across social media. The total signatories, led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize winner Professor Ivar Giaever, now number over 1,400.

It would not be an exaggeration to note that the recent publicity given to the WCD has struck terror into the ranks of the established and largely pseudoscientific climate community, whose gravy train of ‘settled’ science is fuelled by almost unlimited amounts of money and provides the political narrative for the command-and-control Net Zero agenda. Fact checks and social media personal attacks have been launched, but the scale of scientific scepticism is becoming increasingly difficult to deny. Nearly 300 professors alone have now signed the declaration.

The WCD states that climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. It continues: “We should free ourselves from the naïve belief in immature climate models. In future, climate research must give significantly more emphasis to empirical science.” Climate models are said to have many shortcomings, “and are not remotely plausible as global policy tools”. They are said to exaggerate or “blow up” the effect of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and “ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial”. There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying natural disasters and there is no climate emergency. Therefore, notes the WCD, there is no cause for panic and alarm.

The latest signatories to these statements include many distinguished scientists and academics:

• Yonatan Dubi, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University. Professor Dubi’s recent work includes a paper on “Photothermal nonlinearity plasmon-assisted photocatalysis”. He is the co-founder of the Israeli Forum for Rational Environmentalism.

• A. E. (Ted) Dixon, Emeritus Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Dr. Dixon’s research career has focused on the development and commercial application of scanning laser-imaging technology.

• Eric Verrecchia, Professor at the University of Lausanne, Chair of Biogeochemistry at the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, noted to be an expert in the terrestrial carbon cycle of the tropical and temperate zones.

• Majed Chergui, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Physics, is a multi-award winning pioneering authority on the use and application of ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy. He has served on a number of Swiss and international committees, and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Structural Dynamics, published by the American Institute of Physics.

• Jozinus Ploeg is the retired Vice-President of Engineering and Technology at the National Research Council in Canada. His field of expertise is said to be the transfer of energy from the atmosphere to the surface of the ocean and wave mechanics.

• Alain Preat, PhD geology, Emeritus Professor at the University of Brussels.

• Paul Goddard, retired Professor of Radiology at the University of West England.

• Olav Martin Kvalheim, Emeritus Professor, Chemistry, Bergen University.

• Jan de Jager, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University of Amsterdam.

• Gleb Evgenev, Environment Professor, Moscow State Technical University.

• Duncan Veasey, a Canadian psychiatrist with a particular interest in mass hysteria, authoritarianism and social compliance.

• Anthony Janio, former U.K. Conservative leader on Brighton and Hove Council. Now Independent. PhD Physics. [MORE]

Toxic Metal Pollution is 10X Worse in Black and Latino Communities

From [HERE] Black and Latino communities in the United States are exposed to airborne toxic metals at a rate that’s nearly 10 times higher than more well-integrated areas, according to a new study published Tuesday.

The study, published in Nature Communications, also found that highly segregated locations were exposed to two times the degree of total air pollution of well-integrated communities.

It has long been known that communities of color bear a disproportionate burden of pollution. But the study puts a finer point on it — documenting that people in segregated communities breathe much higher levels of certain toxic heavy metals.

In the study, researchers analyzed data showing that not all air pollution is “created equal,” said Jack Kodros, lead researcher on the study and previously an environmental scientist at Colorado State University. [MORE]

Surging Rents from Mostly Greedy, White Landlords Push More Americans to Live with Roommates, Family Members or to 'Search for the Grate Outdoors'

THE NATIONS CAPITOL NOVEMBER 2021. PHOTO IS THE PROPERTY OF VINCENT BROWN, THE UNDECEIVER.

From [HERE] After a long stretch of record-high rents, Americans are renting fewer apartments as demand in the third quarter fell to its lowest level in 13 years. 

Some renters are choosing to take on roommates, while others are boarding with family or friends. More people are opting to stay longer in their parents’ homes or moving back in, rather than pay steep rent increases, according to a recent UBS survey.

Apartment demand in the quarter, measured by the one-year change in the occupancy of units, was the lowest since 2009, when the U.S. was feeling the effects of the subprime crisis, according to rental software company RealPage. Measured quarterly, the drop in demand was the worst of any third quarter—normally prime leasing season—in the more than 30 years RealPage has compiled the data.

Meanwhile, the apartment-vacancy rate rose to 5.5% in the third quarter, up from 5.1% the quarter prior, according to property data firm CoStar.

Rents have risen 25% over the past two years, according to rental website Apartment List, pushing many renters beyond what they can now afford. Meanwhile, inflation on other essential goods, such as food and energy, is also eating into how much people have left to spend on housing.  

“It’s a signal that rent can’t continue at the same level it has sustained over the last couple of years,” said Michael Goldsmith, an analyst at UBS. “We’ve reached a point where renters are maybe willing to pull out of the market.”  

The apartment rental market looks to be cooling following a boom that started in early 2021. After the introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine, many people—especially younger people who had been living with their parents—rushed to rent in cities around the country. That boosted apartment demand and put upward pressure on rents. Some rental apartments were even subject to bidding wars. [MORE]

More than 60% of Puerto Ricans Seeking FEMA Aid after Hurricane Maria had their Applications Denied

From [HERE] The Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected 60.5% of the 1.1 million applications Puerto Ricans filed for housing assistance after Hurricane Maria devastated the territory in 2017.

As I explained in an article published in Housing Policy Debate, an academic journal, FEMA used 41 different reasons when it declined a total of 77,000 applicants. The top reason: homeowners lacked legal titles to their properties. Without their names on the deeds, they had no way to prove that they were the true owners of the storm-damaged or destroyed homes.

Other reasons FEMA gave included that it deemed damage to be insufficient or that two households had filed with the same address – which often happens with housing constructed without building permits, architects or engineers.

Five years after Hurricane Maria, I believe the inability of those homeowners to get federal aid surely increased the impact of Fiona, a massive storm that struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 18, 2022. When community leaders assessed the damage, they encountered hundreds of homes still covered with old blue tarps because they never got a new roof after Maria.

As an urban planner who has researched disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, I see those tarps as evidence that FEMA declined applications that it should have accepted. I’m monitoring the agency to see if that happens again this time.

Greatest need but least likely to get help

FEMA offers financial and housing aid after disasters to qualified households who are uninsured or whose insurance won’t cover the full cost of rebuilding. Unfortunately, in Puerto Rico and other places that are especially prone to hurricanes and other disasters, the most vulnerable residents may lack the documentation they need to secure that help.

After Hurricane Harvey soaked Texas in 2017, causing about US$125 billion in damage, FEMA rejected 30% of Texans’ housing aid applications because those households lacked deeds with their names printed on them.

Similarly, after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005, FEMA denied 20,000 applicants who had long occupied homes they’d inherited from relatives without ever getting their homeownership paperwork sorted out. [MORE]

Florida Government Sued for Child Trafficking, Destroying Families by Taking Kids Away

From [HERE] Florida is rapidly becoming the go-to State for people fleeing the rapidly decaying mega urban centers in the U.S., and that includes some of the richest and most famous billionaires who have recently moved their residency to Florida, such as former President Donald Trump and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, among others.

Even Ukraine President and alleged billionaire Volodymyr Zelensky has a $35 million dollar mansion in South Florida, where he will undoubtedly retire to if the war in his country doesn’t go his way. (Source.)

And with Wall Street mega-bank criminals now starting their own virtual stock exchange, MEMX, it is probably only a matter of time before South Florida replaces New York’s Wall Street as the new residence of most of the world’s billionaires and bankers who can just work online while hitting the Florida beaches. (More on MEMX here.)

Tragically, one thing that seems to follow the rich and famous in this country is the problem of human trafficking, and specifically child sex trafficking, as even Jeffrey Epstein ran a major portion of his child sex trafficking operation through South Florida. (Source.)

As we have reported numerous times over the years, the #1 source for child trafficking in the United States is the corrupt child welfare program that funds foster care and adoptions in the U.S. You can learn more about this corrupt system of child trafficking that imperils all of the nation’s children every day on our Medical Kidnapping website.

Thanks to some good local reporting in Florida, many families who have had their children taken away from them illegally by the State of Florida are fighting back and suing the State of Florida, naming Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families Shevaun Harris, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Health Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Bureau Chief of the Florida Department of Health Child Protection Team Patricia Armstrong, and Executive Director of the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program Attorney Dennis Moore as defendants in the case. (Source.)

Katie LaGrone with WPTV Channel 5 in West Palm Beach reported on a lawsuit with multiple families suing Gov. DeSantis and the State of Florida for medically kidnapping their children back in June this year, and we covered her story then where she interviewed some of the family members who are plaintiffs in the case.

Here is the 8-minute video that WPTV produced about the alleged corruption happening in Florida where children are being kidnapped by the State of Florida:

Since that story broke in June, last month (September, 2022) Katie LaGrone reports that many other families in Florida have now contacted them, and there are now at least 22 families who have joined the lawsuit.

Three months after Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone and photojournalist Matthew Apthorp were the first journalists to share a new lawsuit accusing Florida’s child welfare system of going out of its way to break families apart, 18 additional families have now joined the suit.

“People saw your story on the news. People said it happened to me,” attorney Valentina Villalobos with Community Law for Families & Children.

Since our initial story aired, Villalobos said her phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

“I can’t even answer my own phone right now, I need an assistant screening my calls,” she said in regards to the volume of calls she’s been getting from families sharing similar stories.

A total of 22 families now claim Florida’s Department of Children and Families, along with its child welfare partners including Florida’s governor, Florida’s Surgeon General and the head of the state’s Guardian Ad Litem Program, have all violated family rights by denying relatives custody of young family members who enter the state’s care. (Full article.)

10-year-old Maya Kowalski (left) was taken away from her Florida parents based on the testimony of a Child Abuse Pediatrician. Image Source.

And Katie LaGrone is not the only one in Florida who is reporting on this problem of corruption in the state child welfare program.

Dyan Neary, writing for The Cut, just published an investigative report about a medical kidnapping case in Pinellas County Florida. [MORE]

The ACLU and Others Urge Authorities to Limit Detention of Non-White Pregnant Migrants on the Imaginary “Border”

From [HERE] One 27-year-old Guatemalan woman said she had no other option but to give birth while holding a garbage can at a Southern California Border Patrol station. A Nicaraguan mother said agents denied her 6-month-old son medical care while he suffered from respiratory problems that caused pneumonia.

These are two cases that the American Civil Liberties Union cited in a letter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency on Friday.

The organization — along with 136 additional advocacy groups and medical professionals — has urged CBP to expedite the intake proceedings for women and others who are pregnant, postpartum or nursing as well as infants.

"Given their reproductive health needs and the acute medical conditions that can come up, they should be prioritized for release on the minimum amount of time necessary for basic processing," Shaw Drake, an ACLU senior policy counsel on border and immigration issues, told NPR. "And in no case should that be more than 12 hours."

Those attempting to enter the U.S. who are taken into custody at the border are usually meant to be in CBP facilities for only a short time while they are processed, given a place in the queue of U.S. immigration court cases, and released. But Shaw said migrants can often be held in CBP detention facilities for more than three days.

Meanwhile, this past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which handles immigration enforcement in the interior of the U.S., revised its own policy. New guidelines call for the agency to no longer detain, arrest or take into custody those who are pregnant, postpartum or nursing except in rare circumstances.

CBP declined to comment on the ACLU's accusations, but told NPR it offers a spectrum of services and support for people who are pregnant, postpartum or nursing in detention facilities. The agency says its practices include conducting welfare check-ins every 15 minutes, providing diaper changing stations and ensuring privacy to mothers who are breastfeeding.

But some doctors say they're still concerned.

Dr. Allison Estrada, a physician in San Diego who joined the ACLU letter, said she would often hear about a lack of access to showers, bathrooms, fresh food, or safe place to care for wounds from her pregnant patients who were held in detention centers.

"When I think about the lack of basic needs for these women and young children in a very delicate time in their lives, detention is absolutely not safe," Estrada told NPR.

Last year, 11 U.S. senators, including Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, expressed similar concerns to the Department of Homeland Security and asked the agency to limit the time pregnant and postpartum people are held in custody.

This spring, CBP commissioner Chris Magnus said in a letter to Blumenthal that the agency shares the desire and plans to process vulnerable groups "as quickly as possible."

But months later, there has yet to be a formal change in policy, according to the ACLU's Drake.

The ACLU letter has also asked the federal agency to release pregnant and postpartum people, along with their families, after they have been admitted and discharged from an offsite hospital rather than transferring them back to the detention facilities.

Inspector General Says the BOP Should be able to Consider Inmate Statements to Evaluate the Misconduct of Cops and Orderlies. Presently, the Govt Only Uses Inmate Testimony to Convict Black/Latinos

From [HERE] US Inspector General Michael Horowitz Thursday recommended that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) establish guidelines on the use of inmate statements in administrative misconduct investigations of BOP employees.

In an inquiry by the Office of the Inspector General, the BOP Office of Internal Affairs (OIA) stated it does not rely on inmate testimony when adjudicating misconduct findings that do not rise to the level of criminal prosecution unless there is corroborating evidence like forensic evidence or video. Horowitz claimed that interviews with BOP employees revealed further inconsistencies regarding when to rely on inmate testimony in administrative misconduct investigations.

Inmate testimony is considered without corroborating evidence in criminal and civil trials. Therefore, Horowitz argued, an inmate’s statement is worth less in an administrative investigation than in a criminal or civil trial under current BOP policies. Horowitz explained, “In short, inmates are not disqualified from providing testimony with evidentiary value in federal courts, and there is no valid reason for the BOP to decline to rely on such testimony.”

Horowitz provided three recommendations to the BOP: (1) the BOP should inform all of its employees that inmate testimony does not require corroboration for consideration in misconduct investigations; (2) the BOP should create a policy explaining how to handle inmate statements in administrative misconduct matters; and (3) the BOP should provide training to all of its employees on proper evidence standards and how to handle inmate statements.

Horowitz suggested that, if the BOP does not rely on inmate testimony absent corroboration, employees who engage in misconduct will avoid repercussions, and staff members will engage in misconduct because they believe they will not be held accountable for their actions.

Snitch ‘White Boy Rick’ Sues Feds for Recruiting Him as a Child

From [HERE] A white man employed by the FBI as an underaged drug informant in the mid-1980s filed suit against the federal government Friday, claiming state and federal law enforcement abandoned him to be attacked and arrested at 17, talked him into informing again throughout the 1990s, and went back on promises of immunity again once that investigation was complete. 

Richard Wershe, Jr., dubbed “White Boy Rick” by news media and a 2018 Matthew McConaughey film loosely fictionalizing his life, alleges that FBI agent Jim Dixon recruited him at age 14 after his sister started dating a drug dealer and his father called the FBI. 

This early recruitment, attorney Nabih Ayad wrote in the federal lawsuit, started a chain of events that led to the teenager narrowly escaping multiple murder attempts, being pistol-whipped by Detroit police and ultimately spending over 30 years in prison despite assurances of immunity. 

After the teenaged Wershe was able to identify several individuals Dixon asked about, the agent and other members of a joint task force with the Detroit Police Department began picking him up unannounced, writing in the force’s files that their information came from the boy’s father. [MORE]

Florida Study Documents Disproportionate Exclusion of Black Jurors in Jacksonville Death Penalty Cases

From [HERE] A study of capital jury selection in Duval County, Florida has found that the practice of “death qualification disproportionately excluded people of color, and Black people … in particular.” Attorneys for Dennis Glover (pictured, center), who was sentenced to death by a non-unanimous Duval County jury in 2015, commissioned the study. On October 21, 2022, State Attorney Melissa Nelson agreed to resentence Glover to life without parole.

Discriminatory jury selection was just one of several issues presented in Glover’s case. He has consistently maintained his innocence in the murder of his neighbor, Sandra Allen. His attorneys say that school records and IQ tests demonstrate that he is intellectually disabled and therefore should never have been eligible for a death sentence. His 2015 death sentence was imposed after a 10-2 jury recommendation, but it was overturned in 2017 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Florida’s sentencing scheme. For five years, State Attorney Melissa Nelson rejected Glover’s requests to waive the death penalty, insisting that she would only do so if he admitted his guilt.

Death qualification refers to the process of removing potential jurors from service in a capital case because of their expressed opposition to the death penalty. To study its effects, Dr. Jacinta M. Gau, a criminal justice professor at the University of Central Florida, examined all 12 capital jury trials conducted in Duval County since 2010 for which jury information was available. She found that the death qualification process removed Black jurors at more than twice the rate of white jurors. 33.8% of Black potential jurors were eliminated by death qualification, along with 38% of other jurors of color, while only 15.5% of white jurors were eliminated.

Gau also found that the jury selection process overall, including death qualification and peremptory strikes, was particularly discriminatory against Black women. She wrote, “fully two thirds of Black women otherwise eligible, qualified, and willing to serve were excluded by the combination of death qualification and prosecutor peremptory strikes, as were 55% of Black men.”

Gau’s results are consistent with a recent study of death qualification in North Carolina. Researchers from Michigan State University studied jury selection in Wake County (Raleigh) from 2008 to 2019. The researchers found statistically significant evidence of racial disparities in death qualification, with Black potential jurors removed “at 2.16 times the rate of their white counterparts.” That research was submitted as part of a challenge to death qualification on behalf of Brandon Xavier Hill, who is facing capital charges in Wake County.

Marginalized Black and Native American Farmers Sue USDA Over Broken Promises for Debt Relief

From [HERE] As the U.S. Department of Agriculture sidesteps legal concerns over previously promised debt relief targeted at minority farmers in favor of broader measures, some producers have launched a new legal battle to secure the funds they believe they’re due.

Leaders of Native- and Black-led farmer organizations have filed a joint class action lawsuit on behalf of any “socially disadvantaged” farmer who filed for USDA debt relief included as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

ARPA allocated $4 billion to marginalized producers to pay, in some cases, up to 120 percent of each farmer’s debt. Qualifying farmers received contracts that guaranteed them the money. Some farmers took those contracts or letters of guarantee to their loan institutions, certain their debts would be repaid.

In June 2021, white farmers in several states claimed the program was discriminatory and succeeded in receiving multiple federal court injunctions against the USDA. The resulting cases stymied the USDA’s efforts to issue the debt relief, just weeks before the first funds were scheduled to be paid, leaving producers who applied for the aid empty-handed.

Kara Boyd, president of the Association of American Indian Farmers. (Courtesy photo)“These farmers are facing foreclosures because they didn’t get help,” said Kara Boyd, president of the Association of American Indian Farmers, one of the groups involved in the new case. “They’re trying to stay afloat because they were promised help and now it may not get to them. In the meantime, they’re losing their farms.”

To work around the potential for protracted lawsuits, lawmakers repealed the funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, and replaced it with a $3.1 billion fund for “distressed borrowers” of USDA Farm Service Agency loans. The Inflation Reduction Act also included $2.2 billion for farmers who “have suffered discrimination” through USDA programs.

According to a report from the Center for Public Integrity, 33 percent Farm Service Agency direct loans to American Indians and Alaska Natives are delinquent as of this year. 

However, Boyd and other critics of the move say the broader focus of the Inflation Reduction Act funding effectively reduces the amount of money available to socially disadvantaged producers who were previously promised relief. 

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit assert that repealing the ARPA debt relief constitutes a contractual violation and damages disadvantaged farmers’ chances of receiving aid. The lawsuit aims to secure the promised 120 percent debt relief for socially disadvantaged farmers who signed contracts promising them the money.

A moratorium on farm foreclosures remains in place for loans directly offered by the USDA, but not for loans issued by other institutions that the USDA has guaranteed. That has left struggling minority farmers with the “wrong” type of loan in danger of losing everything, Boyd said. 

She recounted heard stories from marginalized producers dealing with potential foreclosures across the country. 

“Some farmers are being forced into bankruptcy, others into foreclosure or selling off land, livestock and/or equipment to make payments on loans that were paid off according to a USDA contract or letter to their guaranteed lender,” Boyd told Tribal Business News. “We have been in constant conversation with farmers from across the United States and U.S. territories trying to calm the hearts and minds of Native American, Black, Asian and other minority farmers to prevent farm foreclosures and even suicides.” [MORE]

Dr Cornel West Pops Up to Support the Effort to Protect the Graves of Slaves, "free persons" and Native Americans from Being Desecrated in Thoroughfare, Virginia

From [HERE] The Coalition to Save Historic Thoroughfare Monday announced that internationally-respected professor, author and justice activist Dr. Cornel West has offered his support for the effort to protect the graves of slaves, freedmen/freedwomen and Native Americans from being desecrated in Thoroughfare, Va.

That coalition recently filed a lawsuit against International Investments, LLC (IIL), Virginia’s Prince William County, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and County Executive Elijah Johnson “for their deliberate and egregious actions in the failure to protect and eventual desecration of a private, historically recognized, protected, and culturally significant cemetery belonging to the families of freed slaves and indigenous Native Americans – the Scott Cemetery.” NOTE: International Investments, LLC is also known as “The Farm Brewery at Broad Run.”

In the video, Dr. West said in part:

“We want to put a limelight on the precious folks in the cemeteries…Black cemeteries, Indigenous people cemeteries in the county of Prince William County in Thoroughfare.

“We refuse to standby to see those cemeteries desecrated in any way-- demeaned or degraded in any way. And are willing to do what is necessary in the name of love and justice...and in the name of Allah and God. And in the name of what any decent person would want to do to make sure that those people are treated with dignity and decency in those cemeteries.” [MORE]

Search for Tulsa Race Massacre Victims Uncovers 17 Additional Unmarked Graves in Cemetery

From [HERE] Another 17 unmarked adult burials were found at Tulsa's Oaklawn Cemetery as the city continues its efforts to find the unidentified victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Eleven fully-exposed graves and one partially exposed grave were found in an area west of headstones belonging to Reuben Everett and Eddie Lockard, the only known marked graves in the cemetery.

Experts then found another five graves, Oklahoma State Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck said in an update Monday. Hand excavation work is underway to determine which of those burials are candidates for exhumation.

"Much like last year, we're trying to do every step of this process as respectfully as possible," she said.

Multiple experts, including a forensics team, are assisting in the collection of DNA samples from the exhumed remains. A pastor or another member of the clergy will also be present as the remains are transported to the forensic lab.

The excavation is expected to be completed by Nov. 18, the city said in a news release. [MORE]