News of the World

[kyonides]

House Passes Parents’ Bill of Rights Act

The bill comes after COVID-19 restrictions led many parents to receive a better glimpse into their children’s education, as they were learning at home via their computers. Many parents learned in this setting about the far-left ideology being pushed in the classroom.

In turn, parents across the nation began showing up to school board meetings to protest the curriculum.

Later, Attorney General Merrick Garland was caught in an Oct. 4, 2021, memo offering federal resources and legal aid to states days after the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to President Joe Biden saying the country’s “public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat” from these parents and called verbal confrontations and other incidents at local school board meetings across the country “domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Since that memo came to light, McCarthy has vowed to deliver legislation to ensure that parents’ control over their children’s education is legally protected.
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The main component of the bill would require schools to publicly disclose the contents of their curriculum and library materials to parents.
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Additionally, the bill would establish the right of parents to see their kids’ schools’ expenditures.
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The bill would also ensure that parents are notified of, and give consent to, any medical procedure performed on their child on school grounds.

A similar provision would require that parents be notified of any violent activity on school grounds.
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Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who led Democrat opposition to the bill, dismissed the legislation as the “Politics Over Parents Act.”

Jan. 6 Defendant Accused of Stealing Pelosi’s Laptop
Receives 3-year Prison Sentence

A woman who was accused of stealing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop computer and other criminal actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson handed down a sentence on Thursday against Riley Williams, whom a jury had convicted in November on six counts related to her actions at the Capitol. Prosecutors accused Williams of playing a key role in leading a group up a set of stairs and into Pelosi’s office.

A jury ultimately convicted Williams on charges on six charges, including civil disorder; impeding officers; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a capitol building and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

Prosecutors had accused Williams of stealing Pelosi’s laptop and said a witness who described themselves as Williams’ former romantic partner made several calls to the FBI claiming Williams had taken Pelosi’s laptop or hard drive and planned “to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”

The witness told the FBI that Williams’ plans to send Pelosi’s laptop to Russia fell through and that she either kept or destroyed the device. The jury was ultimately deadlocked on the question of whether Williams aided and abetted in the theft of Pelosi’s laptop, and the government dismissed the charge with a mistrial motion.
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Prosecutors also alleged Williams used commercial-grade software “to wipe her computer six times” in an effort to hide evidence. Williams allegedly changed her phone number and deleted her accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and Parler.
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Williams also said she had been “addicted to the internet since before I can remember.”

Car Kills 6 Maryland Highway Construction Workers, Including a Father and Son

Maryland State Police revealed the names of six highway workers, including a father and son, who were killed while working at a construction site outside of Baltimore on Wednesday. The men were killed when a car torpedoed through the construction zone after it collided with another vehicle on Interstate 695 in Baltimore County.
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The victims are identified as Rolando Ruiz, 46; Carlos Orlando Villatoro Escobar, 43; Jose Armando Escobar, 52; Mahlon Simmons III, 31; Mahlon Simmons II, 52;  and Sybil Lee Dimaggio, 46. WTOP News confirmed the two Simmons were father and son.

Lisa Adrienna Lea, 54, of Randallstown, was identified as the driver who plowed an Acura sedan into the workers.
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While the driver of the Volkswagen, identified as 20-year-old Malachi Brown of Windsor Mill, did not sustain any injuries, Lea was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Shock Trauma Center for medical care.

According to the Maryland government’s data on crash fatalities, 563 deaths occurred in the fiscal year 2021, and 135 were “pedestrian” fatalities, like the crash that killed six construction workers.

However, that year’s total number of crashes was 108,656, and 28,084 resulted in injuries.

 I guess it's dangerous to drive in Maryland after reading those crazy statistics there.

Mississippi Governor Signs Legislation Prohibiting Ballot Harvesting

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill on Wednesday banning ballot harvesting in the state.

“Regardless of where you vote, or how you vote, you deserve to have the utmost confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Reeves said. “That’s because free and fair elections are a key pillar of our republic.”

Senate Bill 2358 will prohibit political operatives from trafficking large amounts of absentee ballots to direct an election.

Those in favor of collecting multiple ballots for people who aren’t voting in person, mostly Democrats, argue that it helps those who can’t get to the polls, such as the disabled and disenfranchised.
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However, Reeves, who is running for his second term this year, argued that the process of ballot harvesting “is an open invitation for fraud and abuse.”

US Aims to Allocate Over $7 Billion in Aid for Pacific Islands to Counter China

The Biden administration aims to allocate $7.1 billion in funding for three Pacific Island nations with which the United States has economic and defense ties, a U.S. official said on March 23, in a move to counter Beijing’s influence in the region.

State Department official Jane Bocklage told a congressional hearing that President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget request included $7.1 billion in funding for the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

The funds would be paid out over 20 years to extend the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) agreements, which allow the United States to provide economic aid to the three countries in exchange for permission to operate defense bases there.

Bocklage said that Washington is working to finalize negotiations with the three island nations to renew the COFA provisions that are set to expire in 2024 for Palau and later this year for FSM and the Marshall Islands.
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Bocklage said the $7.1 billion funding consists of $6.5 billion in direct economic assistance and $634 million for the unfunded costs of extending the U.S. Postal Service in the Marshall Islands, Palau, and FSM.

Last month, Washington said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with FSM, which outlined a “shared understanding reached on levels and types of future U.S. assistance” to be requested by FSM.

US Commerce Department Adds 14 Chinese Firms
to Unverified List, Increasing Scrutiny

President Joe Biden’s administration has added 14 Chinese companies to an export precautions list, requiring U.S. exporters to more closely document their business transactions before shipping goods to the Chinese firms listed.

The U.S. Department of Commerce added these Chinese firms to its Unverified List (UVL) on Thursday after commerce officials were unable to verify certain aspects of these foreign business entities, such as how items exported to these firms are ultimately used.

The Chinese entities added to the UVL include:

• Airpart Consolidated Trading
  
• ECOM International (HK) Co., Ltd.
  
• Guangzhou Trusme Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.
  
• HK P&W Industry Co. Ltd. (HKPW)
  
• Jet-Prop International Forwarding (HK) Ltd.
  
• Kesina Services
  
• Lightstar Technology Ltd.
  
• Shandong Yuehaitongxin Keji Ltd.
  
• Shengwei Technology Co., Ltd.
  
• Small Leopard Electronics Co., Ltd.
  
• Solar Way (Hong Kong) Ltd.
  
• Sunway Technology Electronics Ltd.
  
• USETA Tech (HK) Ltd.
  
• Winners Global Trading Co.
  

As suggested by their inclusion on the UVL, information is limited for several of these businesses. A web page of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council indicates Airpart Consolidated Trading deals primarily with the import and export of aircraft components. The names of several of the other listed entities suggest they deal with electronics and other technology components.

Utility Shuts Down Minnesota Nuclear Plant Over Radioactive Leak

A utility company said it will shut down its nuclear power plant in Minnesota after it found a radioactive substance that’s being leaked into nearby groundwater.

Xcel Energy confirmed Thursday it will start the shutdown of the Monticello power plant on Friday to perform repairs to “permanently resolve a leak of water containing tritium at the plant,” according to a news release. The firm said that no disruptions will be made to customer service.

“While the leak continues to pose no risk to the public or the environment, we determined the best course of action is to power down the plant and perform the permanent repairs immediately,” claimed Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy, in a statement. “We are continuing to work with and inform our state, federal, city and county leaders in the process.”

Earlier this month, Minnesota regulators said they are monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from the Monticello facility. At the time, Xcel said there was no danger to the public.

While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities in late November, the spill had not been made public before this month. State officials said they waited to get more information before going public with it.

AstraZeneca Sued Over COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries

Families and patients are suing vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca in the UK, claiming that their loved ones died or suffered severe reactions after taking its vaccine, according to their lawyers.

A legal team representing a group of vaccine-injured people is pursuing personal injury compensation against AstraZeneca, arguing that the vaccine was “not as safe as the public were entitled to expect.”

Peter Todd, consultant solicitor with Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, told The Epoch Times by email that he has started a claim against AstraZeneca under the Consumer Protection Act 1987.

“I have started a claim against AstraZeneca seeking damages for injury (namely thrombosis with thrombocytopenia) and consequential loss caused by their COVID vaccine,” he said.

“The claim is under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, which holds manufacturers liable for injury caused by a defective product,” he added.
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“A product is defective under this legislation if it is not as safe as consumers were reasonably entitled to expect. Our contention is that the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine was not as safe as consumers were reasonably entitled to expect in that it caused serious injury or death when we were assured it had been established to be safe through extensive clinical trials,” he added.

He said that the government “agreed in the procurement contract of the vaccine to indemnify AstraZeneca against any liability of this kind, so we ask the government to do the right thing and to support people who were vaccinated and help them cope with the devastating consequence of their life changing injuries.”

“Strict time limits apply to such claims so anyone who thinks they may have been affected in a similar way should get in touch,” he added.
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The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) is a one-off tax-free payment of £120,000 if someone is proven to have been severely disabled or has died as a result of vaccination from diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), swine flu, and more.
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One in 20 claims made to the UK vaccine injury scheme are successful in the case of COVID-19 jabs, according to data obtained by Freedom of Information requests in March.

According to responses, 44 claimants have been notified they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment, which means over £5 million has so far been paid out.