Brexit: NI drivers need green card to cross the border – BBC News

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Drivers from Northern Ireland will have to carry an insurance green card while driving across the border to the Republic of Ireland from January.

The new rule will apply after the end of the Brexit transition period.

The Irish Department of Transport has confirmed the requirement to BBC News NI.

"A green card is a document issued by your insurer that proves you have motor insurance cover when driving in another jurisdiction," a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added "As it stands, following the transition period, a green card will be required for vehicles from the UK, including Northern Ireland, being driven in Ireland or other EU Member States, unless the European Commission declares otherwise."

The department further clarified that it is not an offence under Irish or EU law for GB or Northern Ireland-registered vehicles to drive in Ireland without a GB sticker attached to the vehicle.

In July, the UK government released guidance on driving in Europe, saying that an International Driving Permit (IDP) may be required in some countries from 1 January 2021.

However, the department spokesperson said there will be no requirement for holders of a UK driving licence to hold an IDP when visiting Ireland after the end of the transition period.

The Association of British Insurers confirmed that Irish drivers crossing the border into Northern Ireland will not require a green card, but that "as things currently stand" NI drivers travelling the other way will.

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Brexit: NI drivers need green card to cross the border - BBC News

Northern Ireland people treated with contempt as Brexit date looms, says SDLP – Belfast Telegraph

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It is scandalous that both the UK Parliament and Stormont Assembly are to go on holiday without giving any meaningful detail on Brexit preparations to businesses and the public in Northern Ireland, the SDLP has said.

ast week, Westminster's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee condemned the Government for leaving businesses ill-prepared for the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

Under the terms of a protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement designed to avoid border checks on the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland will be a part of the UK's customs territory but will still follow EU customs law and administer the bloc's customs rules at its ports.

The region will also follow EU single market regulations on goods.

The Government has acknowledged this will mean more regulatory checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

MPs on the NI Affairs Committee called on ministers to provide more detail and clarity to businesses on trading arrangements by October 1 to ensure the "unfettered" transport of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Party Brexit spokesman Matthew O'Toole has written to Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill, as well as UK minister Michael Gove to complain about the "abysmal lack of information provided to the public and business - as well as the complete failure to update the Northern Ireland Assembly - with less than six months until the planned end of the transition period".

In a letter to Mr Gove, Mr O'Toole criticised "the shameful failure of the UK Government to provide any clarity on the operation of the Ireland protocol to local business, while also stridently refusing to countenance any extension of the Brexit transition period".

Mr O'Toole said that despite the UK Government's claims to have prioritised Stormont consent, "Mr Gove and his fellow Tories have not even acknowledged the Assembly's motion calling for a Brexit transition extension".

A simultaneous letter sent to the local First Ministers "laments the lack of any public advocacy from the leaders of devolved Government on behalf of Northern Ireland's interests in relation to Brexit".

The MLA said there had not been a single update to the Assembly on Brexit preparations "despite the huge risk presented to Northern Ireland and the rapidly shortening closing timeframe".

The Assembly is due to go into recess later this week. Mr O'Toole said: "I have written to both Michael Gove and the First Ministers in growing despair at the total absence of either information or transparency on what is happening in relation to Brexit and the implementation of the Protocol.

"Gove has waxed on about his desire to serve Northern Ireland's interests, but has treated our people and our industry with little more than contempt. I have set out a series of basic questions to answer.

"In truth we have come to expect little more from ideological Brexiters in Government. But people here were entitled to think that the return of an Executive and Assembly would at least mean more of an opportunity for real local accountability and action to protect our interests."

Separately, Ireland's Justice minister Helen McEntee has said paramilitary violence could reignite in Northern Ireland if the UK and EU fail to agree a new "toolbox" for cross-border police co-operation before the Brexit transition period ends.

"The threat of a resurgence in paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland is very real and the ability to counter that threat could be seriously undermined with the loss of the toolbox provided for by EU instruments," she told the Sunday Times.

Belfast Telegraph

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Northern Ireland people treated with contempt as Brexit date looms, says SDLP - Belfast Telegraph

Remainers at war as Nicola Sturgeon pushes anti-Brexit MPs to the edge – ‘Sick and tired!’ – Express

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The First Minister was blasted by Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine who told TalkRADIO Nicola Sturgeon and her party represent less than 50 percent of the population in Scotland and should stop pretending they can speak for everyone in the country. The staunch anti-Brexit campaigner said she was "sick and tired" of the SNP claiming they can speak for the whole country just because they "make the most noise" about Scottish independence and EU membership.

She said: "I made a speech in Parliament about this just over a week ago.

"I'm sick and tired of the SNP claiming that they speak for Scotland.

"They don't. They speak for 45 percent of the people of Scotland. That's less than half.

"So more than half of the people of Scotland are spoken for by Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

"We are not full squared, 100 percent behind the SNP.

JUST IN:George Galloway in furious rant against 'Marxist' Nicola Sturgeon

"They just make the most noise and they make the most fuss about the support."

She added: "Everything is not as pro-SNP in Scotland as very often we are led to believe."

The First Minister also suffered a blow from her own party members when Scottish SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC acknowledged on Monday that further resistance from her party to Brexit would be pointless.

Ms Cherry hit back on social media after Angus Robertson, a fellow member and former deputy leader of the party, took a thinly veiled dig at her.

He issued a sharp dig as he confirmed, like Ms Cherry, he would be seeking the nomination for the Edinburgh Central constituency - currently held by former Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson - in the Holyrood election next year.

In doing so, Mr Robertson said: "At present Ruth Davidson holds this seat for the Tories with a tiny 610-vote majority and I believe that I can win here with the support of SNP members and voters of all parties who don't want to see the area represented by a pro-Brexit MSP.

"If you want to elect a hard-working, local MSP, with high-profile national experience who will support First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and deliver independence, please support my campaign."

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His remarks about support for the First Minister were interpreted as a swipe against Ms Cherry, who is seen as closer to Ms Sturgeon's predecessor as SNP leader Alex Salmond.

Ms Cherry, who represents Edinburgh South West at Westminster and was herself the leading litigant in the successful Scottish court case challenge to the five-week prorogation of Parliament by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, tweeted: "The trouble with pitching for @theSNP Holyrood #2021 as the anti #Brexit candidate is that #Brexit has happened.

"Despite the best efforts of those of us who fought it tooth & nail.

"The issue now is how we secure #independence & #Scotlands Future in Europe."

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Remainers at war as Nicola Sturgeon pushes anti-Brexit MPs to the edge - 'Sick and tired!' - Express

Firm eyes growth in 2021 after Brexit and pandemic hit – Insider Media

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A Birmingham company, which has worked with the likes of Crest Nicholson, Willmott Dixon and Persimmon Group, is targeting a return to growth in 2021 after being hit by Brexit uncertainty and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dunton Environmental operates two fixed waste treatment facilities in the Midlands which aim to treat and recycle contaminated waste for recovery back into the construction sector.

The company has revealed that it is expecting its results for the year to November 2020 to be below the prior 12 months because of Brexit uncertainty in the first quarter of the year and the on-going pandemic.

Its results for 30 November 2019, which have just been filed, were also hit by Brexit concerns.

The documents posted on Companies House show the company's revenue dipped from 14.1m to 12.3m while its pre-tax profits went from 448,721 to 246,152.

A statement signed off by the board said: "The drop in turnover was primarily due to projects that were postponed or held back by clients due to Brexit uncertainty and the election called in December 2019.

"With the Brexit uncertainty continuing into the first quarter and the Covid-19 pandemic in the months of March through June, the Dunton Environmental forecast for 2020 is expected to be reduced on 2019.

"The strategic priorities of the business are to build brand, establish new market opportunities for 2021, maintain project gross margins while building robust systems and deliver projects that really focus on our unique selling points.

"The business will also focus on innovation at every operational level and particularly drive new technology development on soil and waste remediation to return to growth in 2021."

In April 2019, Dunton Environmental revealed plans to create up to 15 jobs a year after signing a new funding deal.

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Guy Stephens: The Forgotten US Elections, trade wars and Brexit – www.professionaladviser.com

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Guy Stephens: "2020 is going to be a year of two halves, the virus followed by a return to familiar pre-virus influences."

The recent preoccupation of the media with all things Covid-19 related has pushed other major market influences to the back of investor minds over the last three months, writes Guy Stephens, who says it is sensible to look forward and return to these issues that are still ever-present in the background

The first of these three big issues is the dreaded Brexit. We seem to be travelling down the same road as we did in 2019 with a looming deadline ahead of a possible no-deal cliff edge hard Brexit. We detect a certain degree of market fatigue with the whole saga, although it has continued to undermine the sterling against other major currencies and deter global investors from the UK equity market. The UK equity market underperformed world indices for much of 2019 and before that.

2020 to date has been no different and this underperformance has continued, which has to be partly due to Brexit uncertainty.

There is probably also some influence from the UK's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the numbers of deaths which have been the highest of any developed economy outside of the US, according to John Hopkins University data.

Other measures have also shown that the expected economic hit to GDP is likely to be the highest in the UK, says the OECD, but this does need to be put into context regarding the structure of the UK economy and the high proportion of service industries such as retail and leisure. That said, compared to countries like Germany, the UK has suffered and there will be serious questions to answer in the aftermath regarding the government's responses and strategy.

It is one of the few occasions where there are directly comparable experiences, which will put those in power on the backfoot. We are some way away from the next election, but this will likely reappear in five years' time and could be crucial.

As to where the Brexit negotiations end up, the end of June saw the deadline for an extension request to the transition period which ends on 31 December 2020. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ruled this out and we believe the markets are largely discounting this as a negotiating position.

Even if we did get to the middle of December without a deal, the EU are unlikely to refuse an extension given the likely chaos that would follow. As we have previously said, it is likely that a framework deal can be agreed preserving the status quo with various detailed trade agreements to be worked through in the years ahead.

A protracted exit which could take many years to complete is quite possible. In the meantime, if bi-lateral trade deals can be agreed with other nations where talks are supposedly taking place, such as Japan and the US, then we may see a more positive outlook from the perspective of an international investor, but this is all conjecture at the moment.

The other ongoing market influence is the approaching US Election and wrapped up with this is the trade war with China. The immediate risk of market unfriendly policies from a Democrat President has been reduced by the nomination of Joe Biden, a relative moderate compared to Bernie Sanders. The markets could probably take this in their stride without too much upset as he would likely take a less combative approach to China. President Trump's desire to keep the equity market buoyant is heavily influencing his approach to China because he knows that if he aggressively blames them for COVID-19 and ratchets up the trade war, this will cause weakness in the equity markets.

However, he also needs to deflect forthcoming Democratic criticism of his handling of the virus pandemic and his weak support for Black Lives Matter in order to appeal more widely to voters. This contradiction is why the polls are putting him firmly in second place and most pollsters are predicting that the election is Joe Biden's to lose.

So, 2020 is going to be a year of two halves, the virus followed by a return to familiar pre-virus influences. With hindsight, the virus will be viewed as a force of nature that reminded the human species how vulnerable we are, and we should consider changing our lives and rebalance our co-existence with the planet we inhabit.

The threat of Covid-19 will not go away and we will have new fears of the next strain come the autumn. As investors this will influence the winners and losers of the future with those most able to adapt being the most successful.

Guy Stephens is technical investment director at Rowan Dartington

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Guy Stephens: The Forgotten US Elections, trade wars and Brexit - http://www.professionaladviser.com

The UK is still struggling with Brexit negotiations [Video] – FXStreet

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Listen to the latest market mood for the EURGBP pair.

The European Recovery Fund has been taken by the market as a very positive sign on European solidarity. As a result, the chances of the eurozone breaking up are now reduced as the nations pull together to support the economy via the fund. There is a strong call option skew on heavy EURUSD options, so more EUR strength is anticipated by the market.

The UK, on the other hand, is still struggling with Brexit negotiations. According to Govt sources, there has been neither breakdown nor breakthrough on major sticking points and talks are at an admitted impasse. EU is expected to warn that are only a few weeks left to arrange a Brexit deal that is legally operational by year-end after the latest round of talks. The EU had penciled in a summit of EU leaders for October 15 to approve any agreement, with the possibility to move it later in the month if needed. However, they warned that further delays would jeopardise the ratification process ahead of a vote in European Parliament in December.

As a result, expect EURGBP buyers medium term as long as this situation remains the same.

Swing trade outlook We expect this trade to play out over the next 3-5 days.

Learn more about HYCM

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The UK is still struggling with Brexit negotiations [Video] - FXStreet

Lincoln Project ad features former Navy SEAL: ‘Trump is not conservative’ | TheHill – The Hill

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The Lincoln Project released another ad slamming President TrumpDonald John TrumpRead: Attorney General William Barr's written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee Barr expected to blast Democrats for efforts to 'discredit' him in upcoming hearing 22 people facing federal charges in connection to Portland protests MORE on Monday, this time featuring a former Navy SEAL who said the president is not a real conservative.

Dan Barkhuff, a former Navy Seal and ER doctor, criticizes Trump for disrespecting the Constitution and conservative values in the ad, the second to feature him. Barkhuff is thefounder of Veterans for Responsible Leadership.

Former U.S Navy SEAL Dr. Dan Barkhuff knows @realDonaldTrump isn't a conservative he's weak.

And he's the most easily fixable problem in America today. pic.twitter.com/Ep5cCdY0pw

The Lincoln Project is run by Republicans opposed to Trump, including George ConwayGeorge Thomas ConwayLincoln Project ad features former Navy SEAL: 'Trump is not conservative' Sinking Trump seeks to squash GOP dissent Conservative think tank director says Lincoln Project members beholden to pro-business Republicans MORE, the Washington lawyer married to White House counselor Kellyanne ConwayKellyanne Elizabeth ConwayLincoln Project ad features former Navy SEAL: 'Trump is not conservative' The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Trump pivots on convention; GOP punts on virus bill GOP questions whether Trump will stick to new coronavirus approach MORE.

Im an American combat veteran and a conservative. I don't agree with Joe BidenJoe BidenObama, George Clooney to hold virtual fundraiser for Biden on Tuesday Tlaib opens up about why she hasn't endorsed Biden yet It's 1980 in reverse MORE on many issues. But one thing that we agree on is we are a nation of laws and the Constitution is a sacred document. Its a document I fought for and some of my friends died for, Barkhuff says in the ad.

Trump, he adds, shows no such respect for the Constitution.

He and his cronies disrespect freedom of assembly, due process and states rights, Barkhuff says, as the ad flashes to video clips of recent Black Lives Matter protests and federal officials detaining demonstrators.

The ad also flashed to a clip of Trump and several administration officials standing outside St. Johns Church, with Trump holding a Bible, that was taken after demonstrators were forcibly removed from Lafayette Square.

Erin Perrine, spokesperson for the Trump campaign, dismissed The Lincoln Projects latest attack ad.

This is the swamp yet again trying to take down the duly elected President of the United States, Perrine said in a statement. President Trump is the leader of a united Republican Party where he has earned 94 percent of Republican votes during the primaries something any former president of any party could only dream of.

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Lincoln Project ad features former Navy SEAL: 'Trump is not conservative' | TheHill - The Hill

Flintshire’s summer play schemes gear up for summer of fun but, of course things will be different this year. – Deeside.com

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Flintshires summer play schemes are gearing up for another summer of fun albeit a little differently this year.

The schemes will be delivered by the Councils Play Development Team in partnership with local town and community councils, Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Flintshire Families Disability Service and Welsh Government.

Due to the current situation, the play schemes will run from Monday 17 to Friday 28 August (Monday to Friday). Pre-registration is essential for all site locations and there will be a maximum 28 children permitted per session.

All sessions are free of charge for children aged 5 to 12 years and all Covid-19 controls will be in place on site, including gel stations at entrance and exit points.

All games and activities will be organised with social distancing measures in place.

Full information and parent/carer consent forms are now available online on the Flintshire County Council website:Summer Play Schemes. Assistance in completing the forms is available.

Due to the ongoing situation, we are sadly unable to offer the Share your Lunch scheme this year.

The Flintshire Buddy scheme as in previous year will be an integral part of this provision providing 1- 1 support for children with disabilities.

For further details please contact:-

Janet Roberts, Flintshire Play Development Officer

Mob. 07518602614 e:mail:Janet.Roberts2@flintshire.gov.uk

Flintshire County Summer Playscheme, 2020

Monday 17 Friday 28 August (Monday to Friday)

Morning Playscheme Sites 10:30 am -12:30 pm

Northop Hall, Rec Ground

Leeswood, Phoenix Park

Broughton, Brookes Avenue Playing Field

Northop Ysgol Owain Jones

Mold, Parkfields Play Area

Flint, Albert Avenue Rec Ground

Brynford, Rec. Ground

Greenfield, Community Centre (Ground)

Caerwys, Memorial Institute Playing Fields

Bagillt, Victoria Road Rec Ground

Carmel, Ysgol Bro Carmel

Holywell, Pen y Maes Rec. Ground

Pentre Halkyn, Play Area

Hawarden, Level Road

Mancot, Playing Fields

Buckley, Westwood CP School

Buckley Elfed Field

Sealand Manor, Rec Ground

Flint Mountain, Play Area

Connahs Quay, Central Park

Connahs Quay, Hillside Avenue, Play Area

Trelogan Community Centre

Pontybodkin Play Area (Mon/Wed/Fri)

Cymau Play Area (Tue/Thu)

Mynydd Isa, Wats Dyke Play Area

Mold, Ysgol Maes Garmon (Welsh Medium)

Gwernaffield,Ysgol y Waun

Afternoon Playscheme Sites 2:00 pm -4:00 pm

Gwernymynydd, Play Area

Penyffordd (Chester), Play Area

Sychdyn, Play Area

Mold, Gas Lane Play Area

Flint, Dee Cottages

Lixwm, Play Area

Holway, Meadowbank Rec Ground

Penyffordd (Holywell) Play Area

Bagillt, Ysgol Merllyn

Whitford, Glebe Field.

Holywell, Penrhyn Play Area

Rhosesmor Rec.Ground

Hawarden, Gladstone Playing Fields

Sandycroft, Playing Fields

Buckley, Drury Park

Buckley, Common

Garden City, Welsh Road

Flint, Cornist Park

Aston, Gary Speed Playing Fields

Shotton, 33 Club Field

Flint, Coed Onn

Gronant, Adventure Playground

Abermorddu, CP School Mon/Wed/Fri

Ffrith, Play Area Tues/Thu

New Brighton, Football Field

Mostyn, Maes PennantPlay Area

Saltney, Park Avenue Rec Ground

Flint, Ysgol Gwynedd (Welsh medium) accesss from Coed Onn Road

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Flintshire's summer play schemes gear up for summer of fun but, of course things will be different this year. - Deeside.com

Who is that man? Rare portrait by Hokusai emerges out of the blue : The Asahi Shimbun – Asahi Shimbun

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OBUSE, Nagano Prefecture--An extremelyrarehand-drawn portrait likely by renownedukiyo-e woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai that recently came to light has triggered a quest to identify the man in the picture.

Hokusai (1760-1849) is regarded as one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo Period (1603-1867).

A resident of Gunma Prefecture donated the portrait to the Hokusai Museum here at the end of last year.

Art historian Toshinobu Yasumura, who heads the museum, noted that the drawing carries the artists signature and seal and determined it was authentic, judging from the style, sharp outline and the way the man's limbs were depicted.

The portrait apparently was executed byHokusai in his early 40s, based on kanji characters that state it was done in1803 in the Japanese imperial era.

Only a few original portraits drawn by Hokusai survive today, according to Shugo Asano, who heads the Museum Yamato Bunkakan in Nara and is well-versed in ukiyo-e.

It is drawn in a straightforward manner, compared with other portraits (by Hokusai), said Asano, after viewing a photo of the image. Since it was drawn relatively early in his career, he had probably yet to establish his style. It is an interesting work.

Yasumura believes the man in the portrait is a money changer as he holds what appears to be an abacus in one hand. A scale and a book for keeping track of money are also depicted.

Sentences written on the upper part of the portrait say the mans family name is Kamiyama. But the name of his store and its location are unknown, Yasumura said.

The Hokusai Museum plans to put the portrait on public display at an exhibition scheduled to start from Sept. 5.

Please provide us with information about the man to determine who he is, said Yasumura.

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Who is that man? Rare portrait by Hokusai emerges out of the blue : The Asahi Shimbun - Asahi Shimbun

HAPPY HANDYMAN: Howards Wax-It-All has many versatile uses – Chron.com

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By Trudy Chuoke, Happy Handyman

Photo: @WireImgId=2709154

HAPPY HANDYMAN: Howards Wax-It-All has many versatile uses

Howards makes great products for wood. No one will question that. And you dont have to be a pro to use them, they are the do-it-yourselfers friend.

So, when I was whining to them about NO HARDWARE SHOW in Las Vegas this year, they said they had a new product. Hungry for a new product I said to send me a sample. I am so glad I did, and I think you will too.

When you go to the Howards website you will see that they show Wax-It-All as a food grade wax. So, you assume its strictly for cutting boards, butcher block, wooden bowls and utensils. But you can use it on so much more like outdoor iron furniture. I have wrought iron chairs and table, and even when they are squeaky clean, it just looks dull.

So, I tried it on my metal furniture, and I was amazed. It left a soft sheen on the metal and the color had a new depth. It also felt soft to the touch if metal can feel that way. I waxed two of the four chairs, and I will take before and after pictures.

When I did the chairs, I really didnt read the directions, because I assumed you just apply and wipe off. Well, read the directions, and dont do as I did. You need to apply the wax, let it dry, and then polish off with a clean cloth. There is no telling how great they will look if I follow the directions.

Well after I did the chairs, I polished the metal frame on my sliding glass door, but you can use it on concrete, stainless steel, soapstone slate and laminate. For those of you that have granite composite sinks, I think you have found an answer to the dull look of your sink.

Question: Hope you can help me or direct me to a great source. We have just re-decked our patio and it looks great. We stained with water seal and all went well. About 3-4 days later, there was one board slat and another very small area where tree sap is soaking through. I initially tried sanding and sap stuck to the sandpaper. Duh! I have left it to dry for about two weeks, but the sap is still coming through on the board, sticky. Can you help with a recommendation product or a procedure? Just love your article in our weekly community paper. Keep up your suggestions. I am ALWAYS reading and listening.

Answer: Some wood is just like that, but you can clean it off with mineral spirits or paint thinner. Just remember to work toward the center of the stain and dont spread the sap. I have to warn you, it may come back, and then you will need to clean it again.

Question: A while back you had an article about cleaning/restoring fence surfaces with some sort of mist or spray. We have a cedar fence that has weathered over the years and we'd like to restore it as much as possible.

Answer: Oh wow, we just talked about that product yesterday on the radio show. Its called Miracle Mist. Spray it on the fencing and just watch it work. I have never seen anything like it. Its so much better for the fence than power washing.

Question: I left a return Christmas tree box in the backseat of my convertible and discovered a mold formed around the seat belt and on the leather seats. Doesnt help that I let the 3 yr. old grandson eat in the car either. I have tried vinegar, leaving the top down to get sun on it and leather cleaner. Any ideas?

Answer: For the belt, use Moldex Mold Remover. Its a bleach-free formula that should not remove any color or leave any residual odor. For the leather, I would use Leather Only. It would be the only safe answer. Good question!

If you cannot find the products mentioned here locally, you can find them at http://www.happyhandyman.com. Email Trudy Chuoke Lesage at happyhandyman2@yahoo.com.

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HAPPY HANDYMAN: Howards Wax-It-All has many versatile uses - Chron.com

HCSO develops new tools to fight the opioid crisis during the COVID pandemic – KARE11.com

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The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office is now offering drug disposal bags and naloxone training.

MINNEAPOLIS While the coronavirus pandemic has dominated headlines in recent months, that doesn't mean other areas of community concern have suddenly vanished.

According to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (HCSO), there have been several spikes in opioid overdoses over the past four months, including at least 50 fatal cases.

"We arent hearing about these incidents as often but they are happening," Sheriff David Hutchinson said.

Officials with the sheriff's office say COVID-19 has created unique challenges around the opioid addiction crisis. For instance, social distancing measures have changed the ways deputies can help people prevent or survive an overdose.

Sheriff Hutchinson and his department have developed two new strategies to combat the opioid crisis during the pandemic.

One new effort involves mailing Deterra drug disposal bags to people in Hennepin County who want a safe way to dispose of unwanted or expired medications.

"Deterra drug disposal bags offer a simple, safe way to dispose of medications at home," Hutchinson said. "People place their unwanted medication in the bag, add water, seal, and shake. The entire bag can be disposed of in household trash."

The sheriff's office is also offering online training courses to help people learn how to properly administer naloxone to someone experiencing an overdose. Also known by its brand name Narcan, naloxone is often considered the opioid overdose antidote for its ability to reverse the effects of an overdose.

To request a Deterra bag or schedule naloxone testing, email the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.

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HCSO develops new tools to fight the opioid crisis during the COVID pandemic - KARE11.com

Police and RSPCA to take action over attacks on Sammy the seal – Dorset Echo

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POLICE and RSPCA officers are drawing up a plan to protect Weymouth's resident seal from attack.

The seal, nicknamed Sammy by locals, has been spotted on the beach regularly over the past two months.

However, there has been an increasing number of reports of people throwing stones at Sammy and videoing others doing so.

A spokesman for Weymouth and Portland Police said: "Officers met with the RSPCA to discuss the seal that is residing in the Weymouth area.

"All agencies involved will be working together to maintain the safety of the seal and that of the public using the beach where the seal is present.

"Please take care when swimming in the area and do not encourage contact with the seal.

"Please maintain a safe distance at all times to protect yourself and the seal.

They were forced to take action after repeated reports of youngsters throwing stones at 'Sammy'.

As previously reported Andy Tolley, an engineer, was walking along Bowleaze Cove when he saw two parents with their two children.

The children were throwing rocks at Sammy whilst the parents recorded them doing so on their phones.

Andy, 63, said: I was just walking with my friend and we could see the family and they were looking at something.

Then all of a sudden I could see it was a seal trying to come onto the beach and the kids were throwing rocks at it while the parents filmed it.

The kids were only about 10 feet away from the seal and they could have been doing some real damage to it at that close range.

The seal was trying to get onto the beach and, because of the kids throwing stones, it kept going back into the water, swimming further up and then trying to come in again. Eventually it disappeared as it couldnt get safely onto the beach.

I was stuck for words. I couldnt believe what I was seeing. There were other people on the beach watching them as well and I dont think they could believe it either.

I wish I had gone up to them and taken photos of what they were doing so that the pictures could be used to demonstrate what others shouldnt be doing. I was just gobsmacked.

This is not the first report of stones being thrown at seals on the beach as members of the public have been getting increasingly closer to the wild animals. A child was bitten last month after trying to stroke Sammy. A dog also attacked the seal.

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Police and RSPCA to take action over attacks on Sammy the seal - Dorset Echo

Crowds launch fireworks at brewery, draw guns on drivers as riots spread from Portland to smaller Oregon city – Fox News

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A smallOregon city less thana two-hour drive from Portland experienced rioting Saturday night as hundreds targeted a county jail and federal courthouse with fireworks before attacking businesses downtown while employees remained trapped inside.

Tactics employed by demonstrators mirrored those seen in Portland which, as of Sunday, has witnessed 60 consecutive nights of protests and civil unrest in the wake of George Floyds death.

An anti-capitalist, anti-fascist group of teens that made a name for themselves in the Portland riots appeared to raise money for the seven adults and onejuvenile arrested in Eugene, Ore. Saturday. The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Fronts unverified account retweeted messages directing people to use the mobile payment service Venmo to send funds to go toward their bail.

RIFLE AMMUNITION, MOLOTOV COCKTAILS FOUND BY PORTLAND POLICE RESPONDING TO SHOOTING

It still remains unclear who helps fund and organize these riots, as crowds in several western cities appear increasingly armed with ammunition and fireworks, as well as helmets, umbrellas and makeshift shields designed for confronting local law enforcement and federal officers.

In Eugene, crowds blocked the streets and prevented one man in a pickup truck from passing, according to conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who made headlines last summer after an attack by members of the far-left militant group Antifa sent him to the hospital.

After the crowd surrounded his vehicle Saturday night, the driver opened his door and pointed his handgun toward another man wearing a black t-shirt and helmet. The demonstrator pointedhis own weapon at the driver through the opened car door window as the two faced off amid shouting from the crowd. The now-viral video of the exchange has garnered more than 1.6 million views as of Monday.

It was not clear if either man depicted in the video was among those arrested.Unlike in Portland, federal law enforcement has not been deployed toEugene a city of 171,000 people located about 108 milesaway. Local police seem to be taking a hands-off approach by using drones to monitor crowds before intervening to quell violence.

The Eugene Police Department said it became aware of a planned protest at the U.S. Federal Courthouse starting at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Armed counter-protesters also showed up and a man was arrested after firing a handgun into the air in the middle of a crowd of about 300 people.

Police said the counter-protest dispersed before 10 p.m. and a crowd of 200 demonstrators who remained began to launch fireworks toward the federal courthouse and block traffic. The group then marched toward the Lane County Jail, where they threw fireworks into the employee parking area, and lit smoke bombs at the front of the facility.

The now-riotous group advanced downtown and began ripping down street signs, spray painting buildings and a police auditor car, and smashed the windows of a Wells Fargo and Whole Foods. They also launched fireworks at the local Elkhorn Brewing and broke several windows while staff was inside.

Employees were inside the building at the time and managed to escape safely as police moved into the area to prevent further damage or harm to life safety, police said in a statement on Facebook. Its important to note that police were not on the ground during much of the initial hours to avoid any escalating presence. Monitoring for crowd and pedestrian traffic safety was done remotely via drone.

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Officers were pelted with large rocks and police made announcements that the assembly was no unlawful. Police deployed pepper ball munitions and CS gas to disperse crowds. A total of sevenadults and onejuvenile were arrested as a result of the riot.

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Crowds launch fireworks at brewery, draw guns on drivers as riots spread from Portland to smaller Oregon city - Fox News

Theres idiocy on all sides in law and order road show – Boston Herald

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As the Trump administration takes its law and order show on the road after a dress rehearsal at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and a soft opening in Portland, Ore., let me just say Im disgusted with almost everybody involved.

Lets start with the Portland demonstrators. Contrary to heroic PR efforts from many in the mainstream media, these arent great people. Oh sure, I have no doubt some, even many, are decent enough on a personal level. But even decent people become ugly when they lend their bodies and voices to mobs and riots. Even if they just watch, theyre encouraging rioting and violence.

Then theres the mainstream and left-wing media. When right-wing protesters foolishly in my opinion, but also peacefully gathered to denounce lockdown orders during the early days of the pandemic, virtually everybody to the left of Fox News insisted it was dangerous, fascistic and scary (which, by the way, is how the media mostly covered Tea Party rallies a decade ago).

But whether it was peaceful protests in the wake of George Floyds killing or even rioting and arson, the nonright media covered it all in a spirit of near celebration, with the occasional tsk-tsking for some excesses.

Now let us turn our gaze rightward. To listen to many on the right, in and out of the administration, the goons in Portland are domestic terrorists on par with al-Qaeda or ISIS. Indeed, President Trump said in June he would designate antifa a loose affiliation of radicals, jackasses and radical jackasses a terrorist organization. Characteristically, he hasnt followed through on that threat (though that hasnt stopped antifa sympathizers from pretending he did so they can spin conspiracy theories about how the administration is denying antifa members due process).

The goal is to create a domestic enemy that only Trump can save us from.

Thats the basic context for Trumps decision to send federal agents into Portland and now other cities. This has elevated the ridiculousness on both sides by an order of magnitude. Those on the left insist its illegal and unconstitutional. Its neither. Democrats and media commentators glibly talk about how this use of a gestapo makes us a police state no different from China. Thats absurd, not least because the law is on the administrations side (so far), but also because Chinas police state is competent.

I have no principled objection to federal agents protecting federal property from rioters and arsonists. What bothers me is that the administrations tactics and motives are all about manufacturing a political narrative that helps Trumps campaign, elevates the status of the rioters and arsonists, and gives critics license to prattle on about dictatorship.

Trump long ago proved he doesnt really want to be a dictator. (That requires too much work.) He wants to be a TV star. Whats outrageous isnt that Trump is using federal agents on American soil, or even that hes doing it without an invitation from local politicians. Whats outrageous is why hes doing it.

When China crushes protests, it crushes them because thats the goal. Trump has the opposite goal. He wants more protests, more riots, because his campaign thinks it needs to make facts on the ground fit its law and order sloganeering and exaggerations.

The idiot mobs of Portland are only too happy to give Trump what he wants, which is why they started focusing their wrath on federal buildings in the first place. Indeed, all the stakeholders (save for the majority of Americans) get what they want. The resistance-drunk left-wing media is gleeful to further heighten tensions by downplaying the dark side of the protests to fit their preferred narrative about Trump being an authoritarian. The Trump-besotted right-wing media gets to highlight the mainstream medias cleanup operation to show how the fake news is just out to get Trump.

Its a collective action problem, a tragedy of the political commons, in which all actors get to harvest the facts that help their cause, leaving the rest of us wondering how things got so stupid.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch.

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Theres idiocy on all sides in law and order road show - Boston Herald

The War on Drugs didnt stop Redemptions Ryan Basore from working in the cannabis industry it only made him more determined – Detroit Metro Times

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I was a true believer, he says. I was always just appalled that people were going to jail for cannabis, and I knew we were being lied to about the War on Drugs.

Basore worked with local authorities, including police and county prosecutors, to make sure he was doing everything above board. He was relieved when the Obama administration said it wouldnt prosecute marijuana crimes in states where it was legalized.

But marijuana was and remains illegal at the federal level. In late 2010, Basores grow operations were raided by the DEA, state police, and the National Guard. It was actual helicopters and troops, and guys with smoke bombs, he says. All for our 72-plant marijuana grow.

Basore was devastated. His partners, including his future father-in-law and brother-in-law, were also indicted. I spent everything I had fighting it, he says. In 2014, Basore pleaded guilty and was sent to a federal correctional facility in West Virginia.

But he wasnt going to let prison ruin his life. I just looked at it from the day I walked in, that this is either going to affect my life in one of two ways. Its either going to destroy me, or Im going to use it to make myself better and use this intense situation and come out stronger.

He devoted himself to working out and lost 70 pounds, and read classic literature. He also taught himself how to build websites, so hed have a new skill when he got out. He wound up getting released after two-and-a-half years for good behavior.

Prison taught me how to play long games, he says. Real long games.

And when he got out, he knew he wanted to get right back into the cannabis industry.

I just watched so many good people just have their rights absolutely trampled, he says. Watching that happen and just watching what it did to people, including myself and my family it just kind of changed me.

When he got released, Basore was sent to a halfway house in Kalamazoo. One of the things I learned there is what it takes when you get out. It was so hard to get back on my feet. I was lucky to have great friends and family.

Since getting released, Basore has devoted himself entirely to cannabis rights and the cannabis industry, starting his own marketing and consulting company for cannabis clients. In 2018, he worked with both MILegalizes campaign to legalize recreational cannabis use, as well as the campaign for Attorney General Dana Nessel. When voters passed Proposal 1, Basore was elated.

That was like walking into a new world, he says.

Basores world changed even more in 2020, when one of his consulting clients, Gage Cannabis Co., awarded him a $50,000 grant as part of a social equity program to help those harmed by the War on Drugs. The grant allowed Basore to launch Redemption Cannabis, which sends 10 percent of all proceeds to helping others harmed by the War on Drugs, including job skills training programs, prisoner re-entry initiatives, expungement clinics, and more. The companys first product is its Diamonds concentrate, sold in Gage stores.

Inspired by Basores story, a number of stores including Pharmhouse Wellness in Grand Rapids, The Botanical Co. in Tawas, and Om of Medicine in Ann Arbor are offering a 10 percent discount to customers convicted of marijuana-related felonies and a 5 percent discount to those convicted of marijuana-related misdemeanors.

And a lot of these guys and women Ive known for 10 years or more, Basore says. A lot of them are people that helped us legalize, people that have been doing this and been in the trenches with me.

And thats just the beginning. Basore is also working to establish a cannabis consumption lounge in Kalkaska think of it as a coffeehouse for pot, like those in Amsterdam and a new podcast, The Smoking Rope Podcast, where Basore interviews people in Michigans cannabis industry.

I thought 2020 was going to be my year off, he says. But Michigan theres no place I would rather be. Its like my little utopia that weve helped build. I had a little part in helping create what I wanted to see.

Theres still a long way to go. Basore says he will continue to pressure officials like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to expunge all cannabis-related crimes. Hes also glad to see the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality raise more awareness about the War on Drugs.

Selling cannabis legally and criminal justice reform are my two passions, he says. And I get to do both.

You can learn more about Redemption Cannabis at redemptioncanna.com.

It's a new era for marijuana in Michigan. Sign up for our weekly weed newsletter, delivered every Tuesday at 4:20 p.m.

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The War on Drugs didnt stop Redemptions Ryan Basore from working in the cannabis industry it only made him more determined - Detroit Metro Times

Warspeak: Militarized rhetoric about COVID-19 makes everything a battle and turns neighbors into enemies – Milwaukee Independent

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Sometimes war involves battling other countries. Other times, it is the metaphorical kind, like our current war against the coronavirus.

We see this war reflected in the language that gets used by politicians, policymakers, journalists and healthcare workers. As the invisible enemy rolled in, entire economies halted as populations sheltered in place. We were told to hunker down for the long battle ahead and to support our troops, the health care workers, fighting on the front lines.

These military-inspired metaphors serve a purpose. Unlike the dense linguistic landscape of science and medicine, their messages are clear: Danger. Buckle Down. Cooperate. In fact, studies have shown that sometimes military metaphors can help unite people against a common enemy. They can convey a sense of urgency so that people drop what theyre doing and start paying attention.

However, as someone who has studied the way language influences behavior, I know that this kind of rhetoric can have long-term effects that are less positive, particularly within health and medicine. In fact, research has shown that these metaphors can cause people to make decisions that go against sound medical advice.

A linguistic war footing

Militarized rhetoric was popularized with the War on Drugs, a term coined by President Richard Nixon in an effort to reduce illicit drug use in the U.S. Since then, the language of war has seeped into our collective lexicon. We are currently engaged in a war against climate change. Some argue there is a war on Christmas, while others say theres a war against truth.

So it is only natural that when a new, deadly virus emerges, the warspeak persists.

Military metaphors arent new to medicine; theyve long played a role in shaping patients relationships with illness. Cancer is a key example of this. The cancer is an enemy, invading the patients body. Patients are told they must fight, that they are at war, and they must be strong while they receive treatments that target those enemy cells for destruction.

The fact they are used so often indicates that these metaphors serve a purpose. Theyre simple and straightforward, helping us comprehend and categorize something thats complex and unpredictable.

Why war and medicine dont mesh

But this framing contains a potentially dangerous undercurrent. Language affects cognition, and cognition affects our behaviors. Wartime language has been shown to alter our behavior and not always for the better.

In war, opposing sides are engaged in a struggle. Whoever survives longest and fights hardest wins. Strength and confidence are commended, while fearful behaviors are viewed with contempt. The World War II poster Keep calm and carry on exemplifies this mindset. The underlying message of the so-called War on Terror was to not allow fear to disrupt our lives. There was a major focus on returning to life as normal, and the return to national pastimes, like baseball, was thought to play a huge role in helping the country heal.

These approaches can appear helpful, but in the case of the coronavirus medical advice suggests physical distancing and mask wearing. Unfortunately, this guidance requires disruption. To stay home is to change your routine, to wear a mask is to appear weak and afraid and to avoid everything that makes up our daily routine is to let the enemy win.

Research shows that military metaphors lead to negative behaviors in other health situations. People may become more likely to take risks, over-treat themselves and be less likely to engage in preventive activities. For example, some people may not want to appear afraid of sun exposure, and this can make them less likely to use sunscreen. Others may continue seeking treatments for terminal diseases despite the debilitating side effects because they dont want to be seen as having given up.

The way war metaphors emphasize strength can also stigmatize those who do become sick: Theyre now seen as weak.

The dichotomy of strength versus weakness implies choice, as though those who were infected chose to surrender. In reality, that which makes us appear strong and confident in a war only works in the context of a battle with other humans. It goes without saying that something like a virus or an illicit drug has no grasp of human psychology, so displays of confidence are meaningless.

War loosens our morals and ethics

There is also a more insidious element of war-like metaphors that frame public policy initiatives. During war, the public is generally more open to actions that arent tolerated in peacetime. The construction of Japanese internment camps during World War II and the depiction of immigrants as invaders to lay the groundwork for their indefinite detainment are stark illustrations of this phenomenon.

In the world of research and medicine, war and war metaphors have been shown to contribute to unethical research. The battles against certain diseases have led researchers to violate their ethical responsibility in an effort to win the war for the greater good. For example, in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis experiments researchers justified not treating almost 400 African-American men for syphilis or even telling them they had the disease in order to learn about natural disease progression.

During the pandemic weve seen discussions of health care rationing and the prioritization of some lives over others in a way that would not normally be acceptable. Texas Gov. Dan Patrick openly advocated that older people should volunteer to die to save the economy.

When we describe a virus as an enemy to be defeated, it shifts our perceptions about how to respond to the virus and can cause the public to behave in illogical ways. As states across the U.S. start to reopen, only to find out the virus continues to spread unabated, these military metaphors could be causing more harm than good. It may be time to change the way we talk about the virus.

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Warspeak: Militarized rhetoric about COVID-19 makes everything a battle and turns neighbors into enemies - Milwaukee Independent

War on Mr Bigs running crime in Liverpool from luxury homes abroad – Liverpool Echo

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Police believe they are winning the long war with the overseas crime bosses who sponsor violence on the streets of Merseyside.

Senior officers have described the hacking of the EncroChat messaging system as a "game changer" in their battle with the region's organised crime groups.

The penetration of the encrypted system has allowed police to see the secret messages sent by criminals as they discuss drugs, guns and murder plots.

The EncroChat breakthrough , known to police as Operation Venetic, has also brought into focus the so called "Mr Bigs" who control crime on Merseyside from the safety of villas and hotel suites in Amsterdam, Marbella and Dubai.

Senior officers have said that some of these criminals are responsible for stabbings, shootings and the exploitation of children working in County Lines drug gangs.

From Curtis Warren in the 1990s to Liam Cornett, the ECHO has long reported on the demise of criminals who controlled organised crime groups from the seeming safety of overseas boltholes.

Warren ran his operation from a farmhouse in the Dutch countryside while Cornett, very much the next generation in organised crime, was based in Spain. Cornett, who grew up on the streets of north Liverpool, was jailed for 26 years earlier this year for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Critchley told the ECHO that although the business model of organised crime had changed since the 90s, in essence it was the same.

He said: "We are still talking about the same types of people. They are bullies who use people to sell drugs. They trade in fear and violence to get what they want.

"We know some of these people are linked to the misery of crime we see on Merseyside - from children being exploited in County Lines drug gangs to stabbings and shootings. The very highest levels of violence."

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green, head of the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, spoke to the ECHO about the long war with men who controlled crime across the region.

He said: "Organised crime groups use hierarchical structures and we often see individuals who rise through the ranks and then choose to live overseas. But this is in no way unique to Merseyside.

"We see people at the top of these structures who have the ability to try and control the minds of other, possibly younger, criminals.

"But my message to these people is simple. Leaving Merseyside does not make you untouchable.

"If anything, Operation Venetic has shown how close our ties are with other forces across Europe and with international bodies such as Interpol."

Keep up to date with crime news in your area by adding your postcode below

He said that such individuals were still "very much on the radar", adding: "We have seen so many success stories of these kinds of people being arrested overseas and being brought back to the UK to face justice.

"They might be out of sight but not out of our reach."

Jayne Lloyd, the National Crime Agency's (NCA) head of investigations for the North, said that the movement of criminals overseas represented a change in the way organised crime worked.

She said: "In the 1990s the individuals who controlled organised crime locally would be based in the North West. But this began to change and people who rose through the hierarchy would move overseas.

"This was partly a response to increased police surveillance and activity. They sit above a layer of lieutenants, many of whom they have known since childhood."

Ms Lloyd agreed that the people at the top were utterly ruthless.

She said: "They don't care when subordinates disappear - they are just replaced."

ACC Critchley stressed that the reality of organised crime was devoid of glamour.

He said: "Speak to my officers who have taken part in raids over recent weeks as part of Operation Venetic. Homes where there are firearms, drugs and dangerous dogs. That is the reality of crime in our city."

ACC Critchley had a message for the so called "untouchables" from Merseyside now resident overseas.

He said: "Look at Liam Cornett. His organised crime group was linked to County Lines drugs and firearms. The very long custodial sentence handed to him is what is facing his contemporaries."

And ACC Green also acknowledged that the information accessed through EncroChat had allowed the force to arrest and charge individuals who seemed beyond their reach in the past.

He said: " There have been certain individuals who have been active in criminality for decades. Yes it's been frustrating having the intelligence that people are involved in organised crime but not having the evidence. Some of these people traded in fear, violence and immorality as part of their existence.

"We are talking about very destructive people with no respect for anything .

"Their only purpose in life appears to have been greed.

"Fortunately, it now appears that they are no longer beyond the law.

"And when they are hopefully convicted we will continue to target the full reach of their criminality.

"We will look to target the assets they have accrued over time.

"I have confidence the courts can deliver justice and that our community can recover from these people.

"Lets's remember, we are talking about a handful of people who create misery for the many.

"We will be working hard with all the decent people out there to make all of our communities safer and stronger."

Anyone with information about organised crime on Merseyside should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

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War on Mr Bigs running crime in Liverpool from luxury homes abroad - Liverpool Echo

The protests were whiter than the police department – Spiked

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If the goal is to save black lives, its not working. If the goal is to get rid of police, its working, says Peter Moskos, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and a former Baltimore cop.

In the wake of the brutal police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests have erupted nationwide, and politicians have responded by cutting and disempowering police.

Meanwhile, crime has spiralled in precisely the communities the Black Lives Matter movement hopes to defend. Were dismantling the NYPD now, and violence has gone up 200 per cent, he says.

In the increasingly polarised debate around policing in America, Moskos offers a unique perspective. He calls himself a pro-cop liberal its a very small Venn diagram, he jokes.

A Harvard-trained sociologist, Moskos spent 14 months working as a policeman in the ghettos of Baltimores Eastern District. He published a book about it in 2008, Cop in the Hood.

He has chronicled countless police killings, but that didnt make the video of Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for eight minutes any less disturbing for him.

Its a different league, Moskos says. I have seen a lot of these and usually Im like, well, is there a way I can see it from the cops perspective? But this one was just I dont get it. And no one really gets it He killed the guy.

The universal condemnation of that sadistic killing and the swift action taken against Chauvin were a rare example, he goes on, of the system actually working.

Everyone has condemned the killing, including police unions. Ive never seen that before, he says. The guy was charged and arrested. That is our system of justice.

But the protests nevertheless spread like wildfire, burnishing a long-running narrative about racist cops and resurrecting the Black Lives Matter movement.

This has prompted drastic political responses not just in Minneapolis, where the city council voted to abolish its police department, but also across the country.

In NYC, mayor Bill de Blasio has cut the police budget, halted the hiring of more officers, and disbanded the NYPDs plain-clothes anti-crime unit, credited with taking thousands of illegal guns off the street.

This, Moskos says, has meant a withdrawal of police from high-crime areas that has sent violence in the city skyrocketing. In June alone, 270 people were shot in the city, a 154 per cent increase on the previous year

The stories behind the statistics are heartbreaking. At a Brooklyn cookout a few Sundays ago, one-year-old Davell Gardner Jr was shot dead in his stroller.

Such horrors, Moskos says, reflect a police department in collapse, as a consequence of political choices:

I compare it to Jenga, because they kept pulling away these blocks of policing. And individually, it wouldnt matter. If they had gotten rid of plainclothes cops first, the foundation would have stood. But they pulled one too many, and suddenly the whole things come tumbling down.

For New York City, this looks as though it will cap the end of a remarkable period of (relative) safety.

The crime drop experienced across America in the 1990s was particularly pronounced in New York. In 2019, there were 319 murders in the city, marking an 86 per cent decline from 1990.

Given the number of shootings in the past 28 days, if that becomes the yearly average, we frittered away half of [the violent-crime drop] overnight, Moskos says.

The NYPD is arguably the best police department America has ever seen. But we have to dismantle it, because, you see, a cop killed a man in Minnesota. It just makes no sense to me.

Indeed, even on the lightning-rod issue of the day police killings the NYPD has a striking record:

Cops in New York this year have killed three people, which is now typical for New York. All three of them had fired guns and two of them had murdered somebody. What else can they do?

There are thousands of police departments in the US, all with varying records, practises and problems. But the protests, Moskos says, take no account of this, leading politicians in cities where police are actually getting a lot of things right to cave in to demands to defund police.

It is ultimately black and Hispanic communities, Moskos says, who will pay the price for all this. Defunding or defanging police is going to cause more people to die, and more black people to die, he says, bluntly.

I find it interesting now, with this recent increase in violence, newspapers wont mention the race of victims. The New York Times is obsessed with racial disparity. And theres a chance that 100 per cent of shooting victims recently have been black or Hispanic. I mean, normally its like 97 per cent. So, there might be a white person in there. But theres a chance that it is literally 100 per cent of shooting victims in New York are black and Hispanic this year, and they dont even mention it at some point, thats just racist negligence.

Moskos is no tough-on-crime conservative who thinks law and order is the answer to the problems of Americas inner cities.

He is a prison abolitionist. He says the war on drugs has destroyed black communities and helped to plunge them into unending cycles of violence. He thinks a European social welfare system would do much to address Americas deep-seated problems of racial and class inequality.

But he is also practically minded, and believes that in the absence of the big changes, you need to do what works in the here and now.

For him this means proactive policing cops clearing drug corners, maintaining order and giving communities the space they need to reassert control over their own neighbourhoods. (This does not, he stresses, mean locking more people up incarceration, he points out, went down in New York as police became more proactive and crime fell.)

Police serve a role in crime prevention, he says. And that is not an accepted fact, especially in the academic world. For decades, he says, academia has been in thrall to the root causes explanation for crime.

We should focus on poverty and unemployment and racism and structural inequality and healthcare. All those things matter but policing has to do with the cards we are dealt. I dont want to wait for society to be fixed.

Police have to be part of the solution, he says, and this is why the anti-police narrative and the misleading claims about endemic police racism need to be challenged.

The idea that this is a national emergency, or that police are out executing black men, its demonstrably false, we know from the numbers now, he says. Yes, theres a racial disparity, but theres a racial disparity everywhere in America. The racial disparity doesnt seem to be incredibly out of whack when taking other variables into account, including perpetrators of violent crime.

A study by Harvard economist Roland Fryer found in 2016 that while black people are more likely to be manhandled and pepper-sprayed by police, there is no racial disparity in terms of lethal force when all context is taken into account. Fryer, an African-American, called it the most surprising result of my career.

Far more important to look at here, Moskos says, are regional disparities in police killings.

If we could get California down to the national average, California alone, that would save one hundred or two hundred lives. That seems kind of doable, but then we have to move away from the laser-like focus on race.

To put it bluntly, he adds, white people get shot too, and for a long time, people didnt believe that, because usually those shootings dont become national news because theres no racial angle.

If you want to reduce shootings, we can do it and we should do it, but at some point you do have to keep it in perspective.

Moskos is the first to say so when he thinks cops and police departments get things wrong, but hes almost unique in this field in actually knowing and liking the people he is criticising.

Cop in the Hood is candid about the problems of policing, but it also gives police officers themselves a fair shake, who quickly absorbed him into the fold when he joined to write his book.

They were more tolerant of me as a liberal Harvard grad student than l think liberal Harvard grad students would be of them, he says. A lot of the misunderstanding comes from that class snobbery.

Cops are one group of public servants largely untouched by political correctness, and Cop in the Hood quotes some pretty robust exchanges between cops about the neighbourhoods they work in.

At one point, one white cop wonders out loud about napalm[ing] the whole area. A black cop disagrees, suggesting flood[ing] the place, biblical-like, would be preferable.

But we can perhaps forgive them for being a bit jaded. Police officers dont see the good. Thats not their job, writes Moskos. Nobody calls 911 to report a graduation party, an anniversary, or another hard day at work. People dont need police when theyre happy and everything is going well. Police see misery at its best.

Some people are so critical of policing and really do have no clue as to what the job actually entails, he tells me. Cops have to deal with dead people. And yes, you remove yourself and you make tasteless jokes about murders and all that, but at some point cops believe, and sometimes for good reason, that they are the only people who care.

When Moskos was a cop, more than 10 per cent of men in Baltimores Eastern District were murdered before the age of 35. Its disturbing to see that level of deprivation, he tells me.

When you see some three-year-old kid on a mattress without sheets and theres no electricity in the house and bottles of piss in the corner and moms turning tricks. I mean, the kid has no chance.

The response of many cops to the Black Lives Matter movement, he says, was how dare you say I dont care about black lives?.

The dangers of paternalism is a recurring thread in Moskoss work. The American criminal justice system, he writes, has been shaped by moral crusaders who deepened the problems they set out to solve.

Prisons are a key example. His 2011 book In Defence of Flogging explores how cruel and damaging the prison system is by comparing it to corporal punishment, which prisons were originally brought in to replace.

The gambit of the book, he tells me, is a simple thought experiment: imagine youve been convicted of a crime, and youre asked to choose between five years in prison or five Singapore-style lashes. What would you choose?

Pretty much everyone chooses the Singapore-style lashes, he says. But we dont allow that because its incomprehensible, cruel and unusual. So instead we do something thats worse.

Prisons were introduced to America by Quakers in the 18th century, championed as a more enlightened alternative to the floggings, executions and public shamings of the old world.

They were called penitentiaries because they were intended as places of repentance. They stemmed from a firm and paternalistic conviction that crime is a moral disease, Moskos writes.

But not only has prison proved ineffective at reforming criminals, it has also fuelled crime. When released, people who go to prison are more likely to commit a crime than similar criminals who dont go to prison, he writes.

Moreover, the rise of mass incarceration in recent decades has gutted entire communities. When too many young men from one neighbourhood are in the criminal justice system the area reaches a tipping point, after which it cant function properly, he writes. Crime increases because a significant proportion of the male population is not present.

Weve normalised a system that I think is worse than corporal punishment, Moskos tells me. The caveat is that there are a few people who were just afraid of, who we actually lock up because we dont want them to kill us. But that number is so small. A few thousand people in America, probably.

The prison population in America was 2.3million in 2016.

We have more prisoners than China, and they have a billion more people than we do, he writes in In Defence of Flogging.

Another progressive paternalism that continues to haunt America is prohibition. While the war on drugs was coined by Richard Nixon, its logic, Moskos argues, sprung from the progressive prohibitionist movement, responsible for Americas disastrous 13-year experiment with alcohol prohibition from 1920 to 1933.

Just as prohibition of alcohol fuelled organised crime, the war on drugs is fuelling violence in Americas inner cities, he says. Not all violence is directly related to the drug trade, but a lot of it is. It stems from it. Youre creating a group of people who are by choice and necessity outside the law, who have to be armed.

For Moskos, it seems, the anti-police movements of today fit into this tradition of progressive paternalism, of well-meaning white reformers pushing their morality and ideological experiments on to the poor.

Its a bunch of white progressives telling black people that they dont need police, he tells me. They could try it in their neighborhood first, but they dont want to do that.

Before I would just say its paternalistic or wrong. Now Im just saying this is racist. If youre white and telling other neighbourhoods they dont need police, and theyre getting killed its horrible.

Indeed, another disparity we often dont talk about is the one between white and black attitudes to police numbers. In 2015, a Gallup poll found black Americans were 20 per cent more likely than white Americans to say that they wanted more police on their streets.

We have young white people yelling at older black cops and screaming that theyre racist, Moskos goes on, nodding to some of the more absurd viral moments of the recent protests. I mean, the protests were whiter than the police department.

He is currently working on a book about the 1990s New York crime drop, an oral history based on the recollections of cops. Now that violence in the city is spiralling again, it must be a bittersweet undertaking.

Mournfully, Moskos says all the city needs to do to bring violence down again is start doing what we were doing literally one year ago. But hes not hopeful of this happening any time soon.

Theres no political consequence to politicians of rising crime, especially in cities that dont have a diverse political slate, he says. Thats the problem: if murders went back to 1,000 [a year in New York], it affects politicians less than if cops killed one person.

At some point someone has to push back on the narrative. But that wont happen, because of politics I could be wrong, things could be less bleak. But Ive never been this pessimistic, ever.

Tom Slater is deputy editor at spiked. Follow him on Twitter: @Tom_Slater_

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The protests were whiter than the police department - Spiked

US STOCKS-Wall Street rises as investors monitor progress of stimulus and virus – Yahoo Finance

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(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click or type LIVE/ in a news window)

* Moderna up as late-stage study for COVID-19 vaccine begins

* Hasbro tumbles after profit miss

* Senate Republicans likely to unveil $1 trillion aid proposal

* Indexes up: Dow 0.28%, S&P 0.62%, Nasdaq 1.46% (New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments to late afternoon, changes byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)

By Sinad Carew

July 27 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were higher on Monday as investors monitored progress in government stimulus efforts along with rising U.S. COVID-19 cases and restrictions around the world.

Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc were among the top boosters of the S&P 500 ahead of their quarterly reports due out this week. The technology-heavy Nasdaq outperformed the S&P and the Dow.

U.S. Senate Republicans were expected on Monday to unveil a $1 trillion coronavirus aid proposal, which would need to be negotiated with Democrats before enhanced unemployment benefits expire on Friday.

Investors anxiously awaited a stimulus agreement, yet some worried the aid package would provide insufficient support for the economy in unemployment benefits particularly. These concerns were reflected in gains in assets viewed as safe havens such as the big growth companies and gold, according to Kristina Hooper, Chief Global Market Strategist at Invesco in New York.

"Today's story is about concerns that the economic recovery will be slow and halting. That's from a combination of an inability to bend the virus curve and what is shaping up to be a small stimulus package that may not address all the needs being created by this terrible crisis," said Hooper.

"We know the fragility of U.S. households and we also know that much of the economic recovery we've seen so far can be attributed to stimulus," she added.

Trillions of dollars in fiscal and monetary stimulus have been pivotal in bringing the S&P 500 to within 5% of its February record high.

On Monday, as the world confronted the prospect of rising COVID-19 infections, nations in Asia and Europe imposed new restrictions.

In the United States, where infection rates have climbed since June, two baseball games were canceled due to the virus while President Donald Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien was the most senior official to test positive.

Other concerns included a diplomatic row between the United States and China, and an unexpected rise in U.S. jobless claims last week.

At 2:24 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73.1 points, or 0.28%, to 26,542.99, the S&P 500 gained 20.06 points, or 0.62%, to 3,235.69 and the Nasdaq Composite added 151.62 points, or 1.46%, to 10,514.80.

The technology sector, up more than 1%, was the biggest percentage gainer among the S&P's 11 major sectors while materials was next, boosted by shares of gold miners. Financials, utilities and energy were the only sectors in the red.

Investors maintained their focus on earnings, with 189 S&P 500 companies scheduled to report results this week. About 80% of the 130 S&P 500 firms that have reported so far have beaten a low bar of earnings estimates, according to IBES Refinitiv data.

Few expected any major announcement at a two-day Federal Reserve meeting, but analysts said policymakers were likely to lay the groundwork for more action later this year.

Moderna Inc jumped 9% as it started a U.S. government-backed late-stage trial to assess its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in about 30,000 adults.

Hasbro Inc dropped 7% after the toymaker missed quarterly estimates due to production shutdowns during coronavirus lockdowns.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 56 new highs and 26 new lows. (Additional reporting by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)

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US STOCKS-Wall Street rises as investors monitor progress of stimulus and virus - Yahoo Finance

Overnight Health Care: Trump hits road to tout progress toward vaccine | First phase 3 test of coronavirus vaccine candidate begins in US | Senate GOP…

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Welcome to Monday's Overnight Health Care.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpRead: Attorney General William Barr's written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee Barr expected to blast Democrats for efforts to 'discredit' him in upcoming hearing 22 people facing federal charges in connection to Portland protests MORE's meeting with pharma execs isn't happening, but he is touting the administration's progress on a vaccine. Moderna is set to begin its Phase 3 trial, and Tennessee and Kentucky have very different reactions to the White House recommendations about closing bars.

We'll start with Trump:

Trump hits road to tout progress toward vaccine

President Trump and Vice President Pence hit the road on Monday to highlight progress on the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, seeking to project optimism about the administration's response to a pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 people in the U.S.

Trump visited a biotech facility in North Carolina that is producing a vaccine developed by Novavax, while Pence headed to Miami with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn to highlight the progress made by Moderna.

The visits highlight the administration's attempt to shift the narrative from Trump's failures in responding to the pandemic to instead focus on his efforts to deliver a vaccine in record time possiblybefore November.

Trump spoke optimisticallyaboutthe prospects for a vaccine that experts have cautioned may not be widely available for another year, and he made scant mention of the rising number of cases most states are seeing.

The White House view:Trump has pinned his hopes for a quick economic bounce back and return to normalcy from the pandemic on the rapid development of a vaccine. Experts have expressed optimism about the chances of having more than one approved vaccine by early 2021.

Reality: But avaccine is not going to be a magic bullet. The initial vaccine may not be as effective as some are hoping itcould reduce the severity of illness, but not totally prevent infection. And it may not be widely available to the general public until several months into 2021.

Read more here.

Speaking of Moderna: First phase 3 test of coronavirus vaccine candidate begins in US

An investigational vaccine developed by drugmaker Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases began phase three trials on Monday, becoming the first U.S. candidate to reach that step in testing.

The vaccine will be tested in 30,000 participants: half will get a placebo, and half will be dosed with the vaccine.

The vaccine will require two doses, administered several weeks apart. It's unclear how long it will take to see a clear picture of success or failure.

Several drug manufacturers, including Moderna, are receiving support from the federal government through its Operation Warp Speed program, with the company announcing Sunday that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has provided $472 million more for the phase three study and later development, for a total of $955 million thus far.

Read more here.

Senate GOP proposing second round of $1,200 stimulus checks

Senate Republicans are proposing a second round of stimulus checks as part of a coronavirus relief proposal theyunveiled on Monday.

The GOP package would provide a $1,200 check to individuals who make up to $75,000 per year or a $2,400 check for married couples who make up to $150,000, according to details from Senate Finance Committee ChairmanChuck GrassleyCharles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyOvernight Health Care: Trump hits road to tout progress toward vaccine | First phase 3 test of coronavirus vaccine candidate begins in US | Senate GOP proposing second round of ,200 stimulus checks Senate GOP proposing second round of ,200 stimulus checks GOP plan would boost deduction for business meals MORE(R-Iowa).

Those amounts would then be scaled down until an income threshold of $99,000 for an individual or $198,000 for married couples is reached.

The language largely mirrors the March-passed coronavirus bill. Like the CARES Act, Republicans are proposing an additional $500 per dependent.

Unlike the March bill, dependents of any age would qualify for an additional $500 check.

Read more here.

Related:Republicans want to send second round of PPP loans to smaller, hard-hit businesses

About that drug pricing meeting on Tuesday.

A White House meeting with pharmaceutical executives thatPresident Trumpsaid would occur on Tuesday is now off, people familiar with the matter said.

A pharmaceutical industry source said that "there was concern that this would not have been a productive meeting" and that companies are still discussing how to move forward after Trump signed a series of executive orders on Friday taking aim at drug prices.

Trump had announced during Friday's signing ceremony that there would be a meeting at the White House with industry executives on Tuesday, which he said would give drug companies a chance to propose an alternative to one of his executive orders. Drug companies, however, never publicly confirmed that they would attend the meeting.

The White House on Monday indicated it was still interested in having the meeting, but it appears executives do not want to move forward, at least not yet.

"The White House has been more than accommodating in attempts to schedule this meeting," a White House official said.

Read more here.

Kentucky orders bars to close, restaurants to reduce indoor capacity

All bars in Kentucky will be shut down for the next two weeks in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, Gov.Andy Beshear(D) announced Monday.

The move, effective Tuesday, marks the second time that bars have been shut in the state and comes amid a major uptick in coronavirus cases.

Indoor dining at restaurants will be reduced to 25 percent capacity, Beshear said. Outdoor seating can remain at full capacity as long as physical distancing is enforced, and everyone needs to be seated.

The state has recorded nearly 12,000 COVID-19 cases in July, almost double the number of positive cases in June.

"The line and the trend is undeniable," Beshear said in a press conference.

He announced 522 new positive cases of COVID-19, raising the seven-day positivity rate to 5.58 percent.

Beshear's moves are backed by the Trump administration.

His announcement comes after he and health leaders in Kentucky met on Sunday with Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, who recommended that the state close bars and curtail restaurant capacity.

Read more here.

Tennessee governor shoots down Birx recommendation to close bars

But the reaction in neighboring Tennessee was vastly different.

Despite facing rising coronavirus infections, Gov. Bill Lee (R) shot down White House adviser Deborah Birxs recommendation to close bars and limit indoor seating at restaurants during a joint press conference on Monday.

Birx made her recommendation to shut down bars and limit indoor dining during the press conference, warning that Tennessee was on the verge of rapid COVID-19 spread.

It is at this very moment where we could change the trajectory of the epidemic before it goes into full of what we call logarithmic spread, as weve seen across the South, Birx said.

But shortly after Birx spoke, Lee said he had no interest in doing any of what Birx recommended; he would not close bars, limit indoor dining or even give county officials the authority to be able to do so.

Only a few areas are able to close businesses without the governor's approval.

Beyond the regions that currently have restrictions, that's not a plan for us now. Ive said from the very beginning of this pandemic that theres nothing off the table, Lee said. Ive also said that we are not going to close the economy back down, and we are not going to. But I appreciate their recommendations and we take them seriously.

Read more here.

American Resilience: The Future of Small BusinessThursday, July 30

Small businesses are fundamental to the idea of America. What steps should be taken to ensure that businesses that really need the help are receiving aid, particularly minority-owned businesses that are often overlooked? On Thursday, July 30, The Hill Virtually Live hosts a discussion on public and private efforts to support Americas entrepreneurs featuring Sen. Jeanne ShaheenCynthia (Jeanne) Jeanne ShaheenOvernight Health Care: Trump hits road to tout progress toward vaccine | First phase 3 test of coronavirus vaccine candidate begins in US | Senate GOP proposing second round of ,200 stimulus checks On the Money: GOP lowers unemployment plus-up in new COVID-19 bill | Collins to vote against Fed nominee Shelton | Worries grow over job growth On The Money: Congress set for brawl as unemployment cliff looms | Wave of evictions could be coming for nation's renters | House approves 9.5B spending package MORE and Rep. Steve ChabotSteven (Steve) Joseph ChabotOn The Money: Congress set for brawl as unemployment cliff looms | Wave of evictions could be coming for nation's renters | House approves 9.5B spending package The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Rep. Lauren Underwood says Americans face economic crisis if Senate fails to act on unemployment benefits extension; US surpasses 4 million cases, 1,000+ deaths for third straight day Internal poll shows tight race brewing in key Ohio House race MORE. RSVP today.

What we're reading

The US sees early signs that new coronavirus cases may have hit a plateau (CNN)

The doctor behind the disputed Covid data (New York Times)

Employers require COVID liability waivers as conflict mounts over workplace safety (Kaiser Health News)

Covid-19 vaccines may cause mild side effects, experts say, stressing need for education, not alarm (Stat News)

State by state

New Jersey gym owners arrested after defying coronavirus order: 'We will not be backing down' (CNBC)

States with stricter covid-19 restrictions watch lax neighbors warily, knowing the virus does not respect borders (Washington Post)

Joseph Costa, ICU doctor at Mercy Medical Center, dies of coronavirus (Baltimore Sun)

Op-eds in the Hill

Publicly funded vaccines must be priced fairly and available for all

The integrity of science is vital politics cannot interfere

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Overnight Health Care: Trump hits road to tout progress toward vaccine | First phase 3 test of coronavirus vaccine candidate begins in US | Senate GOP...