The Full Belmonte, 7/2/2022
“ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers approved a sweeping overhaul Friday of the state’s handgun licensing rules, seeking to preserve some limits on firearms after the Supreme Court ruled that most people have a right to carry a handgun for personal protection.
The measure, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul after passing both chambers by wide margins, is almost sure to draw more legal challenges from gun rights advocates who say the state is still putting too many restrictions on who can get guns and where they can carry them.
Hochul, a Democrat, called the Democrat-controlled Legislature back to Albany to work on the law after last week’s high-court ruling overturning the state’s longstanding licensing restrictions.
Backers said the law, which takes effect Sept. 1, strikes the right balance between complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling and keeping weapons out of the hands of people likely to use them recklessly or with criminal intent.
But some Republican lawmakers, opposed to tighter restrictions, argued the law violated the constitutional right to bear arms. They predicted it too would end up being overturned.
Among other things, the state’s new rules will require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their ‘character and conduct.’
Applicants will have to show they have ‘the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself and others.’
As part of that assessment, applicants have to turn over a list of social media accounts they’ve maintained in the past three years.
‘Sometimes, they’re telegraphing their intent to cause harm to others,’ Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
Gun rights advocates and Republican leaders were incensed, saying the legislation not only violated the Second Amendment, but also privacy and free speech rights.
‘New Yorkers’ constitutional freedoms were just trampled on,’ state Republican Chair Nick Langworthy said.
The bill approved by lawmakers doesn’t specify whether applicants will be required to provide licensing officers with access to private social media accounts not visible to the general public.
People applying for a license to carry a handgun will also have to provide four character references, take 16 hours of firearms safety training plus two hours of practice at a range, undergo periodic background checks and turn over contact information for their spouse, domestic partner or any other adults living in their household.
Hochul’s chief lawyer, Elizabeth Fine, insisted the state was setting out ‘a very clear set of eligibility criteria’ and noted that the legislation includes an appeals process.
The measure signed into law Friday also fixes a recently passed law that barred sales of some types of bullet-resistant vests to the general public. The previous law inadvertently left out many types of body armor, including the type worn by a gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket.” Read more at AP News
“SAN FRANCISCO — Google said on Friday that it would delete abortion clinic visits from the location history of its users, in the company’s first effort to address how it will handle sensitive data in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The location data change will take place in the coming weeks, Jen Fitzpatrick, a Google senior vice president, wrote in a blog post. The policy will also apply to trips to fertility clinics, domestic violence shelters, addiction treatment facilities and other sensitive locations.
Google, which holds reams of intimate information about its billions of users, has come under scrutiny since the Supreme Court’s decision last week to strike down Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years. Some supporters of reproductive rights have pushed people to delete apps that track their menstrual cycles online, while experts said search and location data from companies like Google are more likely to be used as evidence.” Read more at New York Times
“JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africans are struggling in the dark to cope with increased power cuts that have hit households and businesses across the country.
The rolling power cuts have been experienced for years but this week the country’s state-owned power utility Eskom extended them so that some residents and businesses have gone without power for more than 9 hours a day.
A strike by Eskom workers added to the utility’s woes including breakdowns of its aging coal-fired power plants, insufficient generation capacity and corruption, according to experts.
The prolonged power cuts are hitting South Africans in the winter months of the Southern Hemisphere when many households rely on electricity for heat, light and cooking.
Small and large businesses have had to close down for prolonged periods or spend large amounts for diesel fuel to operate generators. Anger and frustration is widespread among business owners and customers at the power cuts, which Eskom calls load shedding.” Read more at AP News
“AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court blocked a lower court order late Friday night that said clinics could continue performing abortions, just days after some doctors had resumed seeing patients after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
It was not immediately clear whether Texas clinics that had resumed seeing patients this week would halt services again. A hearing is scheduled for later this month.
The whiplash of Texas clinics turning away patients, rescheduling them, and now potentially canceling appointments again — all in the span of a week — illustrated the confusion and scrambling taking place across the country since Roe was overturned.
An order by a Houston judge earlier this week had reassured some clinics they could temporarily resume abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy. That was quickly followed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asking the state’s highest court, which is stocked with nine Republican justices, to temporarily put the order on hold.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will present the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to 17 people, including actor Denzel Washington, gymnast Simone Biles and the late John McCain, the Arizona Republican with whom Biden served in the U.S. Senate.
Biden will also recognize Sandra Lindsay, the New York City nurse who rolled up her sleeve on live television in December 2020 to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine dose that was pumped into an arm in the United States, the White House announced Friday.
Biden’s honors list, which the White House shared first with The Associated Press, includes both living and deceased honorees from the worlds of Hollywood, sports, politics, the military, academia, and civil rights and social justice advocacy.
The Democratic president will present the medals at the White House next week.
Biden himself is a medal recipient. President Barack Obama honored Biden’s public service as a longtime U.S. senator and vice president by awarding him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2017, a week before they left office.” Read more at AP News
Akron, Ohio officials to release footage of police shooting of Jayland Walker
“Akron, Ohio, officials plan to release body-camera footage of events surrounding the fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old Black man, during a press conference on Sunday afternoon. The death has rattled the city, prompted the cancellation of July 4 activities and drawn outrage from racial justice advocates. Walker died early Monday morning in the parking lot south of downtown Akron, after police say he fled a traffic stop and fired a shot during a car chase. Police say Monday's incident started when Walker drove off after officers tried to stop him for a motor vehicle violation about 12:30 a.m. on Monday in Akron. Walker drove onto the highway, and police said he fired a gun from the car. Bobby DiCello, an attorney representing Walker's family, alleged Thursday that police fired dozens of shots, shooting Walker in the face, abdomen, arms, and legs. ‘This is going to be a brutal video. It's going to stir up some passion. It's going to make people uneasy,’ DiCello said.” Read more at USA Today
“Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from Michigan to Minnesota reported that the airline offered them $10,000 this week to give up their seat on an oversold flight.
Yes, $10K.
The airline offered the money to each passenger who volunteered to be bumped from a domestic flight out of Grand Rapids Monday morning, according to media outlets.
Delta did not immediately return a request for comment from USA TODAY.
Jason Aten, a tech columnist at Inc. magazine, wrote he was sitting on the outbound plane for waiting for the aircraft to leave the gate when a flight attendant got on the intercom. The crew was looking for eight volunteers to give up their seats on the "apparently oversold" flight, offering them $10,000 each.
“If you have Apple Pay, you’ll even have the money right now,” the flight attendant said, Aten wrote.” Read more at USA Today
Yellowstone National Park to further reopen over holiday weekend
“The north loop of Yellowstone National Park will reopen this weekend after record flooding washed out roads and swept away structures in the park, which spans Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Huge portions of Yellowstone have been closed since heavy floods, caused by record rainfall combined with rapidly melting snowpack, forced evacuations for 10,000 visitors and led to dangerous mud and rockslides in mid-June. Saturday’s north loop reopening will make 93% of Yellowstone roadways accessible and suspend a license-plate system in which only cars with even numbered plates could enter on even-numbered days and vice versa for odd-numbered plates.” Read more at USA Today
The U.S. has supplied Ukraine with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.Tony Overman/The Olympian, via Associated Press
“President Biden pledged another $800 million in security aid to Ukraine, including ammunition for advanced artillery.” Read more at New York Times
FILE - This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. U.S. health officials are expanding the group of people recommended to get vaccinated against the monkeypox virus. They also say they are providing more monkeypox vaccine, working to expand testing, and taking other steps to try to get ahead of the outbreak. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC via AP, file)
“LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization’s Europe chief warned Friday that monkeypox cases in the region have tripled in the last two weeks and urged countries to do more to ensure the previously rare disease does not become entrenched on the continent.
And African health authorities said they are treating the expanding monkeypox outbreak as an emergency, calling on rich countries to share limited supplies of vaccines to avoid equity problems seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO Europe chief Dr. Hans Kluge said in a statement that increased efforts were needed despite the U.N. health agency’s decision last week that the escalating outbreak did not yet warrant being declared a global health emergency.
‘Urgent and coordinated action is imperative if we are to turn a corner in the race to reverse the ongoing spread of this disease,’ Kluge said.
To date, more than 5,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 51 countries worldwide that don’t normally report the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kluge said the number of infections in Europe represents about 90% of the global total, with 31 countries in the WHO’s European region having identified cases.” Read more at AP News
What to Watch
Helicopters carrying Chinese and Hong Kong flags fly over Victoria Harbour during a flag-raising ceremony today.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged Hong Kong to rally around his vision of a unified China as he prepares a bid for a third term.
“In a visit to mark 25 years since Britain handed over control of the city, Xi encouraged residents to embrace a shared love for the Chinese motherland and loyalty to Communist Party rule. Beijing imposed a broad national-security law two years ago that cracked down on dissent.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Summer travel is already a mess, with European airlines hit hardest by staffing shortages and cancellations. Venice is cracking down on cheapskate day-trippers who clog the streets but add little to the economy. For the July Fourth holiday, Americans are paying 30% higher prices for fireworks but sales are still surging.” Read more at Bloomberg
Crowds are back in Venice Photographer: Andrea Merola/Bloomberg
“The NBA generated more basketball-related income than ever this past season, the total number coming up just short of $9 billion.
Business is good. The first night of free agency underscored how good.
Nikola Jokic agreed to the biggest contract in NBA history, Bradley Beal agreed to a deal worth a quarter-billion dollars, and the money just kept flowing. Shortly after midnight Friday in the Eastern time zone, three more players — Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker and Ja Morant — also agreed to huge-money extensions.
Towns and Booker agreed to four-year deals that will commence in 2024 and are worth at least $224 million, their agent, Jessica Holtz of CAA, said. Morant will sign his first rookie extension, one that’ll be worth at least $193 million and could reach the $230 million range, according to Tandem Sports, which represents him.
Those five players — Jokic, Beal, Towns, Booker and Morant — had more than $1.1 billion in money committed to them in their new deals, highlighting the moves made Thursday when the NBA’s annual free-agent negotiating window opened.” Read more at AP News
$1,193,248.20
“The amount retired New York Mets star Bobby Bonilla gets paid today, thanks to a 2000 deal. The team wanted to release Bonilla a year before his contract was up. Instead of paying the $5.9 million, the Mets agreed to pay him annually for 25 years starting on July 1, 2011.” Read more at New York Times
“The popular Minecraft YouTuber who goes by the name Technoblade has died at age 23.
His father read a goodbye statement from Technoblade, who was known only as Alex, in a video posted Thursday on his YouTube channel, which has 11.4 million subscribers.
‘If I had another one hundred lives, I think I would choose to be Technoblade again every single time, because those were the happiest years of my life,’ said the note, as read by his father in the video titled ‘so long nerds.’
‘I hope you guys enjoyed my content and that I made some of you laugh. And I hope you all go on to live long prosperous and happy lives. Because I love you guys. Technoblade out.’” Read more at USA Today