Judge asks if Trump ally Roger Stone must serve probation after prison sentence commuted

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/13/judge-asks-if-roger-stones-probation-still-applies-after-trumps-commutation.html

 A federal judge ordered the parties in Roger Stone’s criminal case to clarify the “scope” of President Donald Trump’s executive action commuting the prison sentence of his longtime ally.

• U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked those parties to address whether Trump’s clemency applies only to Stone’s prison term or also to the two-year probation period included in his sentence.
• Jackson also asked for a copy of Trump’s executive order.

Trump retweets game show host Chuck Woolery’s baseless claim that ‘everyone is lying’ about coronavirus

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/13/coronavirus-trump-cites-chuck-woolery-questioning-covid-19-on-twitter.html

President Donald Trump retweeted a post by game show host Chuck Woolery that baselessly claimed “everyone is lying” about the coronavirus pandemic in a possible effort to thwart Trump’s reelection by harming the economy.

The conservative Woolery, who hosted shows such as “Love Connection,” wrote on Sunday evening, “The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19.”

“Everyone is lying. The CDC [federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust,” Woolery wrote.

Soon after Trump shared the post, the president retweeted another comment by Woolery about the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
“There is so much evidence, yes scientific evidence, that schools should open this fall. It’s worldwide and it’s overwhelming. BUT NO,” wrote Woolery, whose game show resume also includes acting as the first host of “Wheel of Fortune,” and hosting “Scrabble,” “Greed” and “Lingo.”

Heart scans of Covid-19 patients show range of abnormalities

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jul/13/heart-scans-of-covid-19-patients-show-range-of-abnormalities

Heart scans of coronavirus patients in hospital have revealed a range of abnormalities that can disrupt the ability to pump blood and in severe cases lead to a life-threatening failure in the organ.

Doctors at Edinburgh University examined ultrasound scans known as echocardiograms from more than 1,200 patients in 69 countries and found heart problems in 55%, with one in seven exhibiting signs of “severe abnormalities”.

The scans found damage to the ventricles – the two main chambers of the heart – in more than a third of the patients, while 3% had experienced heart attacks and a further 3% had inflamed heart tissue. The majority had no known heart disease before the scans were done.

 

Steve Schmidt On Republicans’ Silence: ‘It Is A Tragic Hour’ | Stephanie Ruhle | MSNBC

French Bus Driver Beaten to Death After Asking Passengers to Wear Face Masks

https://time.com/5866326/french-bus-driver-beaten-masks/

The wife of a French bus driver who was beaten to death after he asked four passengers to wear face masks aboard his vehicle called Saturday for “exemplary punishment” for his killers.

The assault on Philippe Monguillot has scandalized France. President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday dispatched the interior minister to meet the driver’s widow after his death was announced Friday. He had been hospitalized in critical condition after the July 5 attack.

 

Coronavirus unlikely to be spread by children, research suggests

https://www.pe.com/2020/07/10/coronavirus-why-kids-arent-the-germbags-and-grownups-are/

For months, we’ve kept children carefully isolated, pleading with them to behave, wear masks, wipe their boogers and not hug Gram and Grandpa. We’ve assumed this new virus acts just like the flu and common cold — so classrooms full of kids would create one giant cootie colony.

But a growing body of research suggests young children aren’t responsible for most viral transmission. Adults are.

Based on these findings, school-based transmission could be a manageable problem, particularly for  elementary school aged-childrenwho appear to be at the lowest risk of infection, according to a recent commentary in the journal Pediatrics.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump team's false comfort on schools, virus

https://www.startribune.com/ap-fact-check-trump-team-s-false-comfort-on-schools-virus/571737892/

President Donald Trump's aides are misrepresenting the record on kids and the coronavirus as they push for schools to reopen.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday inaccurately characterized what the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said on the matter. A day earlier, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also was wrong in stating that the research shows there is no danger "in any way" if kids are in school.

No such conclusion has been reached.

 

McENANY: "Just last week you heard Dr. Redfield say that children are not spreading this." — Monday on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends"

THE FACTS: No, Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, did not say that. He said officials don't have evidence that children are "driving" infections at this point. But they have not ruled out that children spread the virus to adults.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said last week the government doesn't have enough data to show whether and to what degree kids can infect others.

The bulk of data has been collected from adults and particularly from those who were sick, leaving questions about children still unanswered, Birx said. She said children under 10 are the least tested age group.

The officials did not reach a conclusion that "children are not spreading this." Nor does the evidence prove that they are.

 The government has counted tens of thousands of children who have been infected with the virus and in some cases hospitalized. Overall, public health officials believe the virus is less dangerous to children than adults.

Florida Breaks Daily Record Sunday With 15,300 New Cases | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Lockdowns go into effect in neighborhoods of 5 cities, as virus hits new high

https://www.timesofisrael.com/lockdowns-go-into-effect-in-neighborhoods-of-5-cities-as-virus-surges/

Lockdowns came into effect at 1 p.m. on Friday in neighborhoods in five towns and cities hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, a day after cabinet ministers approved the measure as the number of new cases in Israel continued to surge.

Parts of Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Lod, Ramle and Kiryat Malachi became “restricted zones” for seven days. The restrictions will be lifted at 8 a.m. on July 17.

In Jerusalem, the neighborhoods of Romema, Kiryat Sanz and Matersdorf — all majority ultra-Orthodox areas — have been closed; in Beit Shemesh, the areas of Nahala and K’ne Habosem; in Lod, Ganei Ya’ar and Sach; in Ramle, Amidar Beilav; and in Kiryat Malachi, the Rotner area and Chabad neighborhood.

Other parts of Lod will be closed for five days.

Florida breaks U.S. record for new coronavirus cases in a single day

Governor Ron DeSantis blasts reporters over fearmongering criticism of his state while VP Pence

An Indefensible Commutation

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/an-indefensible-commutation/

 Trump has commuted the sentence of Roger Stone. The timing, late on Friday, suggests internal embarrassment over the move, and we wish there were more.

The commutation is a move fully within the president’s powers and in keeping with the long-established pattern of presidents’ pardoning or commuting the sentences of associates caught up in special-counsel probes, although usually the associates aren’t as sleazy as Stone. We’re a long way from George H. W. Bush’s pardoning Cap Weinberger, the great Reagan-era defense official, who had been indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Lawrence Walsh investigation.

No one would think of letting Roger Stone anywhere near any serious responsibility, and even the Trump campaign in 2016 had the sense to keep him at arm’s length.

 

There is no doubt, though, that Stone was guilty of perjury and a laughably ham-handed attempt at witness tampering. He was justly convicted of these charges and deserved to go to jail; in our system of justice, self-parody is no defense.

Attorney General Bill Barr reportedly opposed the commutation and was right to do so. The act of clemency is made worse by the fact that Stone repeatedly argued that he was owed it for his loyalty to the president.

FULL Morning Joe 7/13/20 [7AM] | MSNBC News Morning Joe July 13, 2020

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