/newsplus/ - News +

By Connor Perrett

https://www.businessinsider.com/author/connor-perrett

The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it would waive 10 federal laws to allow for speedier construction of portions of the border wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, according to a report from the Associated Press.

"Today, we're going to start waiving those for procurement-related regulations and laws as well, which allow us to speed up a lot of our contracts that the Army Corps has, anywhere from 30 to 45 to 60 days," acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a Tuesday morning appearance on "Fox & Friends."

"We hope that that will accelerate some of the construction that's going along the southwest border," Wolf added, according to the report.

There would be 10 laws waived to allow for faster construction of the border wall, including laws that exist to require open competition, the justification of selections, and receiving all bonding from a contractor before work can commend, the AP report said.

"Working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security is exercising its Congressionally-granted authority to waive procurement regulations in six high-traffic border sectors, which will allow us to use already vetted and experienced contractors to build an additional 177 miles of new border wall system," Heather Swift, a DHS spokesperson, told Business Insider.

The administration said 94 miles of the wall should be constructed with help from the waivers in 2020. The remaining 83 miles could be constructed this year, too, the administration said according to the report.

While the law has been used by secretaries under Trump some 16 times during his first term, the move Tuesday marks the first time that federal procurement rules have been waived to support the construction of new border wall, according to the report.

By : Andrew Theen

https://muckrack.com/andrew-theen/articles

Oregon’s House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday that seeks to eliminate a state policy where residents could have their driver’s licenses suspended for failing to pay a traffic ticket, in some cases for up to 20 years if they didn’t pay up.

HB 4065 passed the House with bipartisan support 42-16.

If approved, Oregon would join California, Montana, Mississippi and Idaho in passing similar legislation.

The Oregon Law Center, a nonprofit legal rights group, estimates that 334,338 such suspensions have been issued in the past decade.

Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, said losing driving privileges can be a serious detriment to Oregonians’ way of life and means to make a living. “Suspending a license deprives people of reliable, lawful transportation necessary to get to and from work, or to their critical obligations,” Gorsek said in a statement. “A system that relies on debt-based driver license suspensions creates a vicious cycle of increasing debt and wastes state resources. Public safety should not be tied to debt collection, and this bill is an important move to create a public safety system where everyone can thrive.”

Proponents pushed for the bill because they argued the long-held state practice also disproportionally affects people of color and low-income residents.

The issue brought together politicians from both sides of the aisle, who argued that the punitive measures under existing state practice were unfair.

Driving privileges would still be suspended or revoked for reckless driving and drunken driving, or if a ticketed driver fails to show up to court. The previous suspension rules kicked in if ticketed drivers failed to pay within 60 days after ordered to do so. A Democratic spokesman said the rest of the process is still the same: Fines can be sent to a collectPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

A German court on Sunday ordered Tesla Inc to stop clearing forest land near the capital Berlin to build its first European car and battery factory, a victory for local environmental activists.

The U.S. electric carmaker announced plans last November to build a Gigafactory in Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

The court ruling, by the higher administrative court of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, comes after the state environmental office gave a green light to clear 92 hectares of forest for the plant.

Planning permission has not yet been granted to build the Gigafactory, however, meaning U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company is preparing the ground at its own risk.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-gigafactory-germany-idUSKBN20A0KK

By : Noelle Crombie

https://muckrack.com/noellecrombie

The Oregon State Bar has rejected the application of a former Springfield police officer to become a lawyer after its investigators found that he had used his police position to exploit vulnerable women for sex and lied about it.

The Board of Bar Examiners determined that Neil Halttunen had not shown that he “is currently of good character” and denied him admission to the bar. A hearing panel later upheld the board’s decision.

Halttunen, 51, of Salem has appealed the decision to the Oregon Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on the case in May.

Halttunen’s appeal offers a glimpse into the bar’s confidential admission process, which is overseen by the Board of Bar Examiners. Ultimately, however, the Oregon Supreme Court has complete discretion over whether an applicant is admitted to the bar.

Details of the bar’s review of Halttunen’s application were disclosed in court filings, which offer an unsparing synopsis of the former officer’s on-duty conduct.

It depicts Halttunen as an officer who acted with impunity and used his badge to target and gain access to at least nine women for sex – though Halttunen acknowledged that the actual number of women he had “some sexual contact with” was greater.

The court filing include accounts from women Haltunnen met through routine police calls who said Haltunnen pursued them for sex.

“The full extent” of Halttunen’s “predatory conduct is unclear, in part because” he “has consistently claimed difficulty remembering all of his instances of misconduct,” the bar wrote in court records last year.

During a hearing on Halttunen’s application for the bar, the Lane County District Attorney testified that the former officer’s actions constituted official misconduct, a misdemeanoPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

By: Jayati Ramakrishnan

https://connect.oregonlive.com/staff/JayatiRamakrishnan/posts.html

Two deaths on one weekend at same ski area is unusual, but between Friday and Sunday, two men died while snowboarding in the same area of Mt. Hood Meadows.

On Sunday, 45-year-old Ryan Zeitner died after he fell while snowboarding in the Heather Canyon area of the resort, the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Monday afternoon, the sheriff’s office got a call about a second snowboarder. The family of Tim Bauters, 47, reported that the California man had been expected to return home from the mountain that weekend but never showed up. Searchers began combing the area for the missing man, and that evening, resort staff found his body in the same area where Zeitner had died the previous day. According to family and friends, both were avid outdoorsmen and experienced snowboarders.

Although the sheriff’s office has released scant details about how each man died, the pair of deaths in the same area of the mountain in such a short period are something of an anomaly, especially for unrelated incidents.

Data compiled by The Oregonian/OregonLive lists every recorded death on the mountain since 1883. According to the list, between 2000 and 2018 there were 49 deaths, and 18 of those were skiing or snowboarding-related deaths The rest have been climbing-related accidents. The total number of deaths on the list, through 2018, is 127. That’s an average of just over 1 death a year.

A man died at Heather Canyon in 2017, according to the list, after he hit a tree. He was wearing a helmet but was buried in deep snow. He was missing for eight days before his body was recovered.

There have been incidents in which several people died in the same day on the mountain, but according to the list, those have all been in related climbing accidents, falls or cases where multiple people got trapped and died in the cold.Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

By Jonathan Landay

https://www.reuters.com/journalists/jonathan-landay

The Trump administration said on Tuesday said it will begin treating five major Chinese state-run media entities with U.S. operations the same as foreign embassies, requiring them to register their employees and U.S. properties with the State Department.

Two senior state department officials said the decision was made because China has been tightening state control over its media and President Xi Jinping has made more aggressive use of them to spread pro-Beijing propaganda.

“The control over both the content and editorial control have only strengthened over the course of Xi Jinping’s term in power,” said one official. “These guys are in fact arms of the CCP’s (Chinese Community Party’s) propaganda apparatus.”

The State Department informed the five entities of its decision by letter on Tuesday, the official said. The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Beijing’s control of China’s state-owned media has become “more and more draconian,” the second official said.

Both officials spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-media/u-s-imposes-new-rules-on-state-owned-chinese-media-over-propaganda-concerns-idUSKBN20C2G1?il=0

New year, another Denny Hamlin win in the Daytona 500.

And Joe Gibbs still has the team to beat in NASCAR.

Hamlin won his third Daytona 500 on Monday, becoming the first driver since Sterling Marlin in 1995 to win “The Great American Race” in consecutive seasons. His win last year was a 1-2-3 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing and kicked off a yearlong company celebration in which Gibbs drivers won a record 19 races and the Cup championship.

The post-race scene this year was somewhat subdued out of concern for Ryan Newman, who was wrecked as the leader and crossed the finish line with his car on its roof, engulfed in flames.

Hamlin joined six Hall of Fame drivers as winners of three or more Daytona 500s. He tied Dale Jarrett — who gave JGR its first Daytona 500 win in 1993 — Jeff Gordon and Bobby Allison. Hamlin trails Cale Yarborough’s four wins and the record seven by Richard Petty.

This victory came after just the second rain postponement in 62 years, a visit from President Donald Trump, a pair of red flag stoppages and two overtimes. As he went door-to-door with Ryan Blaney for the finish — the 0.014 margin of victory was the second closest in race history — Newman took a wild ride along the track when he was crashed trying to hold onto the lead.

Newman’s condition was not immediately known as safety workers rolled his car back onto its wheels before he was removed. Newman was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

It made for a somber victory lane.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/denny-hamlin-wins-daytona-500-joining-an-elite-group-with-his-3rd-victory-2020-02-17

By Tiffany Thompson

It's been four days since a 23-year-old Fort Valley State University student was last seen, and multiple agencies have come together to bring answers to her family.

According to Fort Valley Police Chief Lawrence Spurgeon, Anitra Gunn was last seen at the home of a family member of an acquaintance around 11:30 a.m. near Chestnut Hills Rd. on Valentine's Day.

But Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese says Gunn was last seen at her boyfriend's home around 3 a.m. Friday, and the couple visited a Waffle House in Byron around 2 a.m. According to Deese, Gunn's car hadn't yet been damaged.

Deese adds that on Tuesday, authorities went to a property in Taylor County to search for signs of Gunn. He says the search comes after an anonymous tipster who claimed Gunn's boyfriend's family owns land in the area.

According to Deese, the tipster also said they witnessed Gunn's boyfriend in the area since she went missing.

Peach County authorities along Georgia State Patrol searched the property, located on Thomas Rd. in Reynolds, with drones, but as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday Deese says law enforcement hasn't turned up anything so far.

Meanwhile, investigators who've joined in on the search for Anitra say concern sets in with each passing day of her disappearance.

https://wgxa.tv/news/local/missing-fvsu-student-last-seen-at-home-of-acquaintance-weather-now-a-factor-in-search?

By Tamar Lapin

https://nypost.com/author/tamar-lapin/

South Carolina authorities say 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik was strangled to death by a neighbor hours after she vanished from her front yard last week.

An autopsy report found that the child’s cause of death was asphyxiation, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said at a press conference Tuesday.

Investigators say Coty Taylor, 30, abducted the first-grader on Feb. 10. Her body was later dumped in a wooded area near her home, where she was found Thursday following a massive manhunt.

Taylor was found dead in his home shortly after investigators discovered Swetlik’s body. Authorities revealed DNA evidence from his home linked him to Swetlik.

“Evidence leads us to believe that the deceased abducted and killed 6-year-old Faye Marie Swetlik and it appears that he is the sole perpetrator of this crime,” Cayce Department of Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove told reporters.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/18/6-year-old-faye-marie-swetlik-was-strangled-to-death-by-neighbor/

By Kyle Morris

https://www.breitbart.com/author/kyle-morris/

Hillary Clinton stated she would not consider being Democrat presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg’s vice-presidential candidate should he receive the party’s nomination later this year.

Clinton said at a Clinton Global Initiative event held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday:

>Oh, no. I’m just waiting and watching as this plays out. I will support whoever the nominee is because I think, for all the reasons you can imagine, and here in Puerto Rico there are many, we need to have a new president for our country.

Clinton also added that she wants to “see Puerto Rican American citizens be able to vote for president.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/18/hillary-clinton-shuts-down-rumors-of-being-bloombergs-running-mate-oh-no/

By Tyler Olson

@TylerOlson1791

President Trump issued a spree of clemency decisions Tuesday for high-profile figures – most notably commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was convicted for attempting to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat when he was elected president.

Trump confirmed to reporters that he's granted clemency for the ex-governor, calling his sentence "ridiculous."

"He’ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail," Trump said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-to-commute-sentence-of-ex-gov-blagojevich-pardon-kerik

By Rebecca Harrington

@HarringtonBecca

Jeff Bezos said on Monday that he's giving $10 billion to fight climate change.

The Amazon CEO and richest man in the world announced in a post on Instagram that he'd start the Bezos Earth Fund. He said he expects to start giving out grants this summer.

With an estimated net worth of nearly $130 billion, his pledge accounts for about 7.7% of his wealth.

"Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet," Bezos said. "I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share."

The move follows pressure from Amazon employees to push the company to do more to fight climate change. More than 350 employees signed a Medium blog in January calling for net-zero emissions by 2030, among other requests.

In September, Bezos announced Amazon's climate pledge to get the company carbon-neutral by 2040, 100% renewable energy by 2o30, and 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030.

Bezos is the only American among the world's five richest people who has not signed the Giving Pledge, in which participants promise to give away more than half of their wealth during their lifetimes or in their wills, Business Insider's Paige Leskin wrote. His ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, signed the pledge in May.

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-giving-10-billion-to-fight-climate-change-2020-2

By : MARILYNN MARCHIONE

https://muckrack.com/marilyn-marchione

Health officials in China have published the first details on nearly 45,000 cases of the novel coronavirus that originated there, saying more than 80 per cent have been mild and new ones seem to be falling since early this month, although it’s far too soon to tell whether the outbreak has peaked.

Monday’s report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention gives the World Health Organization a “clearer picture of the outbreak, how it’s developing and where it’s headed,” WHO’s director-general said at a news conference.

“It’s too early to tell if this reported decline will continue. Every scenario is still on the table,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The new disease, called COVID-19, first emerged in late December in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, and has spread to more than two dozen other countries. China says more than 70,000 people have been infected and 1,770 have died in mainland China, but numbers are squishy because the country is counting many cases based on symptoms rather than the methods WHO uses.

The new study reports on 44,672 cases confirmed in China as of Feb. 11. The virus caused severe diseases such as pneumonia in 14 per cent of them and critical illness in five per cent.

The fatality rate for these confirmed cases is 2.3 per cent-2.8 per cent for males versus 1.7 per cent for females.

That’s lower than for SARS and MERS, two similar viruses, but COVID-19 ultimately could prove more deadly if it spreads to far more people than the others did. Ordinary flu has a fatality rate of 0.1% yet kills hundreds of thousands because it infects millions each year.

The COVID-19 cases include relatively few children, and the risk of death rises with age. It’s higher among those with other health problems — more than 10% for thPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

By: Fedor Zarkhin

https://muckrack.com/fedor-zarkhin

A proposal to ask Oregon voters if access to health care is a fundamental right cleared the first of three major hurdles in the Legislature on Monday, with a majority “yes” vote propelling the referendum proposal out of the House and into the Senate.

If House Joint Resolution 202 makes it out of the Senate in early March, then Oregonians voting in the Nov. 3 election will decide if the state owes every resident “access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.”

As lofty as the resolution is, so were the statements lawmakers made in its support.

“A healthy Oregon is a value we share,” Portland Democrat Rob Nosse said on the House floor. “I believe it is fundamental and important enough that it ought to be enumerated in our constitution as an individual right.”

The bill is Rep. Mitch Greenlick’s last chance to succeed in his many-year effort to get a right to health care into the Oregon Constitution. The Portland Democrat plans to retire at the end of the year, and his proposal faces a tight deadline and short attention spans as lawmakers race to enact other contentious legislation before the short session ends.

Greenlick’s universal health care bills failed in 2018, 2015, 2013, 2010 and 2007.

The 2018 proposal died amid questions about its potential cost, given that it didn’t address how the state would pay to ensure everyone gets health care.

The current proposal doesn’t address that, either. But it does give the state an escape route: Oregon wouldn’t have to ensure access to health care if doing so would get in the way of funding “essential public services.”

The resolution has 26 sponsors in the House and four in the Senate. Out of the state’s 38 Democratic representatives, 36 voted to pPost too long. Click here to view the full text.