Monthly Archives: April 2021

Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks at Women for American First event, Friday, April 9, 2021, in Doral, Fla. The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation of Rep. Gaetz, citing reports of sexual and other misconduct by the Florida Republican. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

This week on Party Politics, co-hosts Brandon Rottinghaus and Jeronimo Cortina discuss the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the allegations surrounding Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruzs fight against Major League Baseball, and Ron Pauls jorts, among other stories.

NATIONAL TOPICS

Withdrawal from Afghanistan

GaetzGate

TEXAS TOPICS

Congressman Crenshaw emergency eye surgery

Cruz vs. Americas pastime

Paxton v Biden on "Remain in Mexico Policy"

Bush vs. Paxton 2022?

Congressman Brady Retiring

Ron Paul's Short Shorts

You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Tweet us using #PartyPoliticsPod or email partypoliticspod@houstonpublicmedia.org. Party Politics is produced by Troy Schulze, the audio engineer is Todd Hulslander.

Fill out the form below to subscribe our new daily editorial newsletter from the HPM Newsroom.

See the article here:
Party Politics: The Politics of Scandal - Houston Public Media

Ron Price is a walking, talking legend in Southern California. Across seven decades and some 60 years, Price has been coaching football.

He was on the same fields with City Section coaching Hall of Famers Chris Ferragamo (Banning), Jack Neumeier (Granada Hills) and Gene Vollnogle (Carson) and players John Elway, Rod Martin and Warren Moon. He was the health teacher for Washington Preps Paul Knox while at Hamilton and coached against Venice coach Angelo Gasca when Gasca was a high school quarterback.

Hes been a head coach at Crenshaw, Palisades and Fairfax. He started as an assistant coach in 1961 at Brentwood Military Academy and now is an assistant coach at St. Monica.

This will be the last decade and could be the last year, he said. When youre 84, youre like all the great athletes day to day. I feel great. As long as I can do it, Ill do it.

Coaching the offensive line has been Prices specialty. Coaching anything has been his life-long passion.

Ive always enjoyed it, he said. Its always been fun. Its what I wanted to do from the time I was a teenager.

Newsletter

Get our high school sports newsletter

Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.

Enter email address

Sign Me Up

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Many years ago his father, who was a doctor, questioned his professional pursuit while living in Chicago. His dream was to coach the Chicago Bears.

He used to look at me and laugh. He said, The only Bears youll ever be coaching will be in a zoo.

Price has been coaching so long that a couple players at St. Monica are sons of former players he coached. St. Monica head coach Geoff McArthur played for him at Palisades.

Gasca said of Prices seven-decade coaching stint:

An incredible accomplishment. Hes an amazing person who I greatly admire and respect. I competed against his teams as a high school player. Competed against him as a coach. Then had the fortune to work with him for many years. Im better for it and so are the lives of all the people whose lives he touched. An icon.

With apologies to Texas and Florida, the best high school football game of the 2020-21 school year will take place Saturday night at Santa Ana Stadium when Bellflower St. John Bosco (5-0) takes on Santa Ana Mater Dei (4-0) to decide the spring Trinity League championship.

If St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro and Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson could combine their teams and take them on the road to face any and all challengers, theyd be unbeatable.

The lines are big, powerful and mobile. The running backs are fast and big-play weapons. The quarterbacks are young but future college players. The secondaries are aggressive and fearless.

It has all the makings of another classic game. The last one between these two schools saw St. John Bosco roar back from a seemingly insurmountable 28-5 deficit in 2019 to win 39-34 in the fourth consecutive Southern Section Division 1 final involving the two schools.

For this game, Mater Deis defense will present a lot more problems for the Braves quarterback duo of Pierce Clarkson and Katin Houser. Its probably a good situation that St. John Bosco is still alternating quarterbacks every series, because that gives the Braves options to take advantage of each quarterbacks different strengths.

The big clue about which team will win should come early. Its going to be about which team can run the ball most effectively to open up the passing game.

So break out the popcorn on Saturday night, lay back on the couch at 7 p.m. and turn on Bally Sports West. You can hear Petros Papadakis and Greg Biggins raving about how many future five-star recruits are in the game. MaxPreps.com says theres 59 players on the rosters who have FBS offers. It will be the most entertaining high school football game in America

Joshua Koo, a 16-year-old junior at Cerritos High, shot a final round of 10-under-par 62 to win the two-day Toyota Tour Cup junior golf tournament in Palm Desert on Sunday. He had eight birdies and an eagle.

I hadnt been hitting that well recently and was working on my putting, he said. That day everything clicked. It was a really fun round.

See the rest here:
Ron Price's coaching longevity will be tough to eclipse - Los Angeles Times

"That is not normal. That's not what we do in America," Iowa state Sen.Jack Whitver declared emphatically on last week's "Iowa Press" interview show.

I was washing dishesand had missedthe lead-in, but caught the emotion in hisvoice. What unacceptable behavior was theleader of majority Republicans in the Senate denouncing? Was someone driving on a neighbor's lawn? Swearing in church? Giving illegal drugs to a child?

I re-wound to get the context. The senator from Ankeny had beentalking about COVID-19 and the hope for achieving herd immunity to getlife back to normal."I would encourage anyone that is able and willing, to get vaccinated,"he'd said, observing that Iowa had made tremendous progress,with some 23% of people having been fully vaccinated as of then.

So far, so good.

Then Whitver's tone changed."Thegovernment is issuing some sort of piece of paper or smartphone app to prove you've been vaccinated," he said indignantly. "We want to get back to normal, but not this new society where you have to show a piece of paper. That is not normal. That's not what we do in America."

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds had previously been even more vocal against such a thing.While she alsoencourages people to get vaccinated, saying, "I believe in the efficacy of the vaccine," she draws the line at so-called "vaccine passports."

Gov. Reynolds stated she opposes vaccine passports and that Iowa "must take a stand as a state against them." Des Moines Register

"I believe that we must take a stand as a state against them, with executive action or through legislation," she said at a news conference.

As I write thisI'm looking down at the old yellow-pagedpassport-size booklet that I've carted around for 33 years.It's called an "International Certificate of Vaccination as approved by the World Health Organization" and issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It carries my name, sex and date of birth (I neglected to fill in my address) and has a log of my travel vaccinations since 1988 when my home was in New York state. There's typhoid and immune globulin (2-10-88), typhoid, cholera and something else I can't make out (2-7-89), andthe names of the doctors who administered them. That certificate was replaced by one filled outby the Polk County Health Department in Iowa, with thestamp, "Official Vaccination Iowa."

More: Rekha Basu: In remembering Breasia, the 'village' shows its power to mourn, to heal and to change things

Is this what Whitver and Reynolds areafraid of? I've had one literally since soon after I was born, since my parents crossed continents often. It let officials in those countriesknow my vaccines were up to date. But mostly, I got the vaccines to ward off outbreaks of diseases in the areas we were going to. Among other things, the certificates served asreminders of whichvaccines were due. Wenever considered them an imposition.

What's all the fuss over vaccine passports?(Photo: Rekha Basu/Des Moines Register)

So which government is Whitver talking about?None in America.The federal government has said itwill not mandate digital vaccine passportsfor COVID-19. In fact the federal government keeps no centralized database of Americans' vaccinations. States do that.New York is the only one to have developeda free digital health certificate, which verifiessomeone is fully vaccinated and tested negative;its use is optional.On the other side,Florida and Texas have used executive orders to ban businesses from requiring vaccination certificates, over concerns that they violateprivacy.

It's really businesses that are asking for and requiring that proof, includingairlines, cruise lines and sporting event venues, and that's to keep people safe if they choose to go.The International Air Transport Association is nowtesting a travel pass onto whichpassengers can upload health credentials necessary for international travel.

More: Rekha Basu: A wake-up call? The Iowa Poll shows a big disconnect between Iowans, especially women, and elected officials.

None of that is government interference. It's only if you choose to travel.Andwhile states have legal authority to legislatively restrict whatbusinesses can do,there's some question about whether they can do it by executive order.The only thing Reynolds may could indisputablyorder would be toforbid county and local governments from issuing vaccine passports notthat there's been any move to do so.

Like every other state, Iowa does require proof of vaccination for children to attend public schools, as well it should.And whileIowa'sthree public universities require proof ofmumps, measles and rubella vaccinations to enroll (with medical or religious exemptions),the Iowa Board of Regents won't require students or employees at to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend. Why not? The private Grinnell Collegewill.

The New York Times reports thatIsraeli residents are required to show an electronic Green Pass to attendgyms, concerts and indoor restaurants.Israel plans to require foreign visitors to take a blood test upon arrival, to be replaced withvaccine certificates once available. TheEuropean Union has endorsed the idea of an electronic vaccine certificate, though European countries can choose for themselves.

More: Rekha Basu: Des Moines picks not one, but two officers with troubled history to teach de-escalation

Just as people suspicious ofgovernment mandates recoiled at the idea of mandatory masks, some are now jumping on the vaccine reporting techniquesto stir upfears about an invasion of privacy.

It's worth emphasizing that both Whitver and Reynolds encourage Iowans to get vaccinated. Reynolds, though, has done so, whileWhitver hasn't.Asked about it on TV, he said hethought more vulnerable populations should get it first. Reynolds got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. After officials announced that it had beenassociated with blood clots in a small number of people, Reynolds said thatshe'd do it again.

Everyone is free tomake their own health choices, but her leadership by example ismore compelling advocacy than mereencouragement of an act to benefit public health.

More: Opinion: Change agent Kimberly Graham weighs challenging John Sarcone for Polk County attorney

Further, it's both misleading and harmful to suggest that the federalgovernment is forcing anything like vaccine passports on Americans.Former U.S. Rep.Ron Paul, a Republican fromTexas, tweeted of such documentation, Accepting them means accepting the false idea that government owns your life, body and freedom. Wow.

Maybe pointing out that the issue is not about government but instead about private businesses wouldn't serve the political agenda and could alienate industries in Republican politicians'bases. But distorting the truth shouldn't be what we do in America, either.

Read or Share this story: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/rekha-basu/2021/04/16/covid-19-vaccine-passports-travel-whats-fuss-elected-officials-honesty-jack-whitver-kim-reynolds/7236628002/

Here is the original post:
Rekha Basu: I've had a vaccine 'passport' since childhood. What's all the fuss about? - desmoinesregister.com

Policing needs an upgrade

Minnesota officer who shot man to death meant to draw Taser, not handgun, chief says | April 12

I served as an assistant public defender at the beginning of my legal career for approximately five years. That experience left me aware of one true thing: Being a police officer is the toughest job you can ever imagine. On a daily basis, you are expected to be completely familiar with the latest nuances of constitutional law, a social worker who can defuse volatile situations, and the toughest man or woman in the valley. Ive never gone down a dark alley not knowing who might be there wishing to do me harm, or into a dark house. Unless you have, it may be wise to temper your criticism of our police.

Nevertheless, like so many people, I am dismayed and disheartened to see a continuous stream of African-Americans die at the hands of law-enforcement officers, when the offense that attracted the officers attention was relatively minor. Clearly change is needed in our manner of policing. Clearly the authorities need to understand that it not reasonable to respond to a routine traffic stop with the threat of deadly force, much less its use. New rules are clearly needed, and in making those rules we need to balance the rights of citizens with recognition of the degree of danger we ask police officers to accept as a part of their daily work lives.

Paul Ley, Belleair

DeSantis: Businesses requiring vaccine passports cant get state money | April 2

Gov. Ron DeSantis missed a golden opportunity to help Florida recover from the COVID-19 crisis. If he had encouraged vaccine passports rather than opposing them, many who are sitting on the fence about getting vaccinated might realize there would be places they cant go without one, and might change their minds about getting the jab. As it is, similar vaccination passports, while not for COVID vaccines, have always been required for travel to many countries abroad. A similar requirement for COVID vaccinations would be a powerful incentive for everyone to get vaccinated. Businesses and ticketed events in Florida would have a tool to keep their customers safer from infections, and with a resulting boost in the percentage of the population getting vaccine protection, we might be able to put the pandemic in the rear view mirror sooner.

Betsy Clement, Dunedin

Florida Senate approves anti-riot bill, heads now to DeSantis | April 15

If the Black, brown, progressive and other people who correctly interpret the anti-riot bill (HB1) as a another slap in the face by the white Republicans in Tallahassee, perhaps they should use the energy they would have spent protesting and instead direct it to getting everyone registered to vote, and then to actually vote in every election, every time. Voting is where the real power lies. In 30 years, whites will no longer be such a powerful majority, but we dont have to wait until then; we can vote them out right now.

James Condon, Port Richey

DeSantis wants voters signatures to match. Would his pass the test? | April 13

Thanks for publishing the article by Steve Contorno about Gov. Ron DeSantis signature changing over time. This points to the uselessness of signature matching as proof of identity except as a device and pretext to toss away someones legitimate vote.

Signatures have always been used as a backup method of proving the authenticity of a document when there is question about its validity. No one checks a will to see that the signature matches unless someone is challenging the authenticity of the will. Same with most checks and financial instruments, absent a question of forgery. A signature proves that the named person signed and committed themselves to the contractual obligation implied. Even today the illiterate can sign documents with an X so long as it is noted and properly witnessed.

Matching a signature would be a forensic exercise done by experts usually in a legal proceeding. May I suggest most election board members are not qualified to make a determination about a signature match in the first place? May I also suggest and that this is a process easily abused by the politically unscrupulous or those too easily intimidated by state and even federal officials?

Harley Lofton, Palm Harbor

View post:
How to improve policing in Florida and beyond | Letters - Tampa Bay Times

The return of winter weather Monday was an expensive disruption for many businesses struggling to recover after a year of public-health restrictions which may tighten again soon.

The past year has battered many local restaurants, and with their patios buried under 10 or more centimetres of snow, the pain continues this week.

"I would imagine that well see probably between 30 and 40 per cent lower sales this week than we saw last week," said Kaely Dyck, a co-owner of four Smittys restaurants.

Until Monday, dine-in restaurants had been capitalizing from generally pleasant early spring weather. Some reported raking in over half their revenue from patio sales. Representatives at Bar Italia, Corrientes and Stone Angel Brewing Co. all said they expect significant drops in sales in the upcoming week.

Jay Kilgour, owner of Fionn MacCools on Grant Avenue, said patio sales have accounted for 70 per cent of sales in recent weeks. Judging from last week's receipts, he estimated the weather will cost his business $20,000.

With sales expected to plummet this week, many restaurants are already cancelling servers' shifts. Some havent returned to full-time hours since the province relaxed restrictions, so they may still qualify for some unemployment benefits, Dyck said. Others may not be so lucky.

"There will be some staff that this is a huge hit for, for sure," she said.

The snow wasnt the only worry weighing on business owners minds Monday. Chief provincial health officer Dr. Brent Roussin told a news conference rising COVID-19 case counts may leave the province with no choice but to reimpose increased restrictions soon.

Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association executive director Shaun Jeffrey said restaurant owners often call him with worries about ramping up restrictions.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

With sales on patios expected to plummet this week, many restaurants are already cancelling servers' shifts.

"It would just be such a defeating blow to our industry," he said. "We just couldnt survive another (lockdown). There would be a lot of towels being thrown in."

Restaurants have been going above and beyond to follow and adapt to restrictions, he said. Many have invested heavily in patio spaces by purchasing additional heaters and tables, he said. Demand has raised prices and that will add to the losses that result from winter's return, brief though it may be.

Garden centres also reported slow business Monday. The main concern, said Ray Dubois, owner of Ron Pauls Garden Centre, is the threat of increased restrictions.

Garden centres were deemed essential services in previous lockdowns, but owners still worry restrictions could cut into profits during their busiest season.

Dubois said he does about 60 per cent of his business in May and June. If restrictions tighten, he could be left on the hook for unsellable merchandise. He said he carries an inventory worth more than $1 million.

"It would be a catastrophic loss," said Dubois, adding he's preparing for the worst.

"I would be shocked if they dont pre-emptively lock this down," he said. To mitigate his losses, he said hes prepared to shift business models. During earlier lockdowns, he said, he started selling groceries, which he can do because hes a member of Federated Co-operatives Ltd. Other centres may not have that option, however.

Mondays snow also had motorists cancelling appointments to swap out their winter tires, several garages around town reported. For most, it was a minor issue, but Rudy Epp of Rudys Auto Service said his slew of cancellations was one more thing after a tough year. And it comes during what is normally his busiest month.

"Its been a little flatter already because of COVID, and now with this little setback, this is going to push things back further again," he said.

Epp said people often use winter-tire appointments to spring for other repairs and maintenance, so losses from the appointments may be greater than just the tire changes if they're not rescheduled.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca

View original post here:
Winter's return, threat of new health restrictions tough blows for businesses - Winnipeg Free Press