The Full Belmonte, 7/24/2022
“About 6,000 people have been ordered to evacuate because of a wildfire burning thousands of acres near Yosemite National Park and challenging the firefighters working to suppress the flames.
The Oak Fire began Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening had burned nearly 12,000 acres outside Yosemite, according to Cal Fire.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County on Saturday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is also providing resources to suppress the fire, Newsom said.
Cal Fire spokeswoman Natasha Fouts said 6,062 people had been evacuated from the area as of Saturday morning. It was also threatening 2,000 structures, including residential and commercial buildings, as of Saturday, Fouts said.” Read more at Washington Post
People in line to receive the monkeypox vaccine in San Francisco last week.Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Associated Press
“The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global emergency, a designation requiring an international response.” Read more at New York Times
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks virtually during a meeting with his economic team in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, Friday, July 22, 2022. Biden's condition continues to improve since testing positive for the coronavirus, and he likely contracted a highly contagious variant that has been spreading rapidly through the United States, according to an update from his doctor on Saturday, July 23. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden likely contracted a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly through the United States, and now has body aches and a sore throat since his positive test, according to an update from his doctor on Saturday.
The variant, known as BA.5, is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year, and it’s believed to be responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, wrote in his latest update on Biden’s condition that Biden’s earlier symptoms, including a runny nose and a cough, have become ‘less troublesome.’ O’Connor’s earlier notes did not mention the sore throat or body aches.
Biden’s vital signs, such as blood pressure and respiratory rate, ‘remain entirely normal,’ and his oxygen saturation levels are ‘excellent’ with ‘no shortness of breath at all,’ the doctor wrote.” Read more at AP News
“A man suspected in an attack on Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for New York governor, was arrested on a federal assault charge.” Read more at New York Times
“A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety identified the victims as Tyler Schmidt, 42; his 42-year-old wife, Sarah Schmidt; and their 6-year-old daughter, Lula Schmidt, all of Cedar Falls, Iowa. Their bodies were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.
Authorities said the suspected gunman, 23-year-old Anthony Sherwin, was found dead Friday in a wooded area of the park with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety’s division of criminal investigation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the motive for the attack was still unknown.
‘We don’t know what led up to this, what precipitated it,’ he said, adding that so far, ‘the investigation has not revealed any early interaction between the Schmidt family and him.’
Adam Morehouse, Sarah Schmidt’s brother, said the family had no connection to Sherwin and he believed it was a ‘completely random act.’” Read more at AP News
“JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years, the top U.S. military officer said during a trip to the Indo-Pacific that included a stop Sunday in Indonesia.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the number of intercepts by Chinese aircraft and ships in the Pacific region with U.S. and other partner forces has increased significantly over that time, and the number of unsafe interactions has risen by similar proportions.
‘The message is the Chinese military, in the air and at sea, have become significantly more and noticeably more aggressive in this particular region,’ said Milley, who recently asked his staff to compile details about interactions between China and the U.S. and others in the region.
His comments came as the U.S. redoubles its efforts to strengthen its relationships with Pacific nations as a counterbalance to China, which is trying to expand its presence and influence in the region. The Biden administration considers China its ‘pacing threat’ and America’s primary long-term security challenge.” Read more at AP News
FILE - In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends a joint news conference with Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto following their talks in Moscow, Russia, on July 21, 2022. Lavrov landed in Cairo late Saturday, July 23, 2022, the first leg of his Africa trip that will also include stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Russia’s state-run RT.(Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP, File)
“CAIRO (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to break diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.
Lavrov landed in Cairo late Saturday, the first leg of his Africa trip that will also include stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Russia’s state-run RT television network.
The Russian chief diplomat met Sunday morning with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in a Cairo presidential palace, the Egyptian leader’s office said. Lavrov then held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry.
Lavrov was scheduled to meet later Sunday with the Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit. He will also address the permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organization, RT reported.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has had dire effects on the world economy, driving up oil and gas prices to unprecedented levels.” Read more at AP News
“NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops and special forces on an arrest mission exchanged fire with Palestinians barricaded in a house in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said. The local rescue service said two Palestinians were killed.
Israeli police said a number of armed Palestinians were killed during the hours-long battle deep inside the city of Nablus, without specifying. Police said no Israeli forces were wounded.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the two men were killed in clashes with the military in Nablus and identified them as Aboud Sobh, 29, and Muhammad Al-Azizi, 22. The rescue service said 19 Palestinians were wounded, including two critically.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the suspects had been wanted for a series of shootings.
‘We won’t sit and wait for Israeli citizens to be harmed,’ he told a meeting of his Cabinet. ‘We will go out and harm the terrorists in their homes.’” Read more at AP News
“VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis began a fraught visit to Canada on Sunday to apologize to Indigenous peoples for abuses by missionaries at residential schools, a key step in the Catholic Church’s efforts to reconcile with Native communities and help them heal from generations of trauma.
Francis was flying to Edmonton, Alberta, where he was to be greeted on the tarmac by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary May Simon, an Inuk who is Canada’s first Indigenous governor general. Francis had no official events scheduled Sunday, giving him time to rest before his meeting Monday with survivors near the site of a former residential school in Maskwacis, where he is expected to deliver an apology.
Indigenous groups are seeking more than just words, though, as they press for access to church archives to learn the fate of children who never returned home from the residential schools. They also want justice for the abusers, financial reparations and the return of Indigenous artifacts held by the Vatican Museums.” Read more at AP News
“The husband of a Colorado woman who has been missing for more than two years pleaded guilty on Thursday to casting her mail-in ballot for Donald J. Trump during the 2020 election, telling F.B.I. agents, ‘I figured all these other guys are cheating.’
The man, Barry Morphew, 54, was given a sentence of one year of supervised probation but avoided jail time after pleading guilty to one count of forgery, a felony, in district court in Chaffee County, according to court records.
The outcome in the voter fraud case marked the latest twist in the mystery of what happened to Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared in May 2020 after going for a bike ride near her home in Salida, Colo.
The missing person’s case has generated national headlines. Prosecutors charged Mr. Morphew with first-degree murder last year, but then, in April, they dropped all charges against him related to her disappearance after a judge imposed sanctions on them for violating discovery rules. Mr. Morphew maintained his innocence as prosecutors accused him of killing his wife after learning that she had been involved in an extramarital affair.
The body of Ms. Morphew, a mother of two who was 49 when she vanished, has not been found.
About five months after she was reported missing, her mail-in ballot for the 2020 election arrived at the clerk’s office in Chaffee County, about 100 miles west of Colorado Springs, according to an arrest warrant.
Election officials contacted the sheriff’s office, which took a photograph of the ballot and seized it as evidence. A space for the voter’s signature was blank, but Mr. Morphew wrote his name on a line for legal witnesses to sign ballots. The ballot was dated Oct. 15, 2020.
When F.B.I. agents asked Mr. Morphew why he had returned his missing wife’s ballot, he told them, as detailed in the warrant, ‘Just because I wanted Trump to win.’
Mr. Morphew told investigators that he didn’t know he was not authorized to cast a ballot for his wife.
‘I just thought, give him another vote,’ he said, referring to Mr. Trump. ‘I figured all these other guys are cheating. I know she was going to vote for Trump anyway.’
Iris Eytan, a lawyer for Mr. Morphew, said in an interview on Friday that her client had mistakenly assumed that when he became the legal guardian for his wife after her disappearance, it extended to voting.
‘He believed that because he could sign legal documents for her, that the ballot, similarly, was under his authority,’ Ms. Eytan said. ‘So he was following her wishes. He did not sign her name. He signed his name on the witness line. So he didn’t, in any way, intend to deceive the clerk of the court.’
Ms. Eytan said that instead of prosecuting Mr. Morphew for voter fraud, the authorities should be focused on the search for Ms. Morphew.
‘Barry’s life is shattered,’ she said. ‘Her disappearance is not linked to him. He’s looked at and treated like a killer.’” Read more at New York Times
“ATLANTA — A lawyer working for a Mississippi state agency and trying to recoup tens of millions of dollars in misused welfare funds was fired on Friday after he issued a subpoena that could turn up details about the involvement of prominent Mississippians — including the former Governor Phil Bryant and the retired football star Brett Favre — in one of the ugliest scandals to shake the nation’s poorest state in recent years.
The lawyer, J. Brad Pigott, a former U.S. attorney, had been working for the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency that distributes Mississippi’s federal welfare block grants. A state audit in 2020 found that as much as $94 million in federal funds may have been misspent in Mississippi. Instead of going to poor families, the audit found, much of the money ended up in the pockets of prominent Mississippians, including Mr. Favre, a Mississippi native, who was paid $1.1 million for speaking engagements he did not attend.
Mr. Favre eventually paid $1.1 million back to the state, but the state auditor continues to demand $228,000 in accrued interest. More recently, an allegation surfaced in court documents that Mr. Bryant, a former two-term governor, directed the $1.1 million payment to Mr. Favre, a claim Mr. Bryant reportedly denies. Both Mr. Bryant and Tate Reeves, the current governor, are Republicans.
The firing of Mr. Pigott, first reported by the online news outlet Mississippi Today, is connected to another component of the scandal: $5 million in welfare money that went to the construction of a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, in Hattiesburg.
A few days before his firing, Mr. Pigott — who drafted a lawsuit on the agency’s behalf seeking the return of more than $20 million from 38 entities and people, including Mr. Favre — filed a subpoena, directed at the university’s athletic foundation. The subpoena asks for documents connected to the funding of the volleyball building.
It also asks the foundation to produce any communications its members may have had with Mr. Favre, Mr. Bryant and Mr. Bryant’s wife, Deborah Bryant, among others. Efforts to reach representatives of the athletic foundation were unsuccessful on Saturday evening.
Robert G. Anderson, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, said on Saturday that Mr. Pigott had been relieved of his duties because he filed the subpoena without consulting with the agency first. But Mississippi Today obtained an email showing that Mr. Pigott sent a draft copy to the agency’s lawyer and the state attorney general’s office 10 days before he filed it.
In a statement on Saturday, Shelby Wilcher, a spokeswoman for Governor Reeves, said that there were ‘many capable lawyers who can handle the work necessary to recover stolen TANF funds,’ referring to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the federal welfare program.” Read more at New York Times
“Zhifan Dong had only been at the University of Utah for a few months when she raised the first alarm: She told a residential director at the university’s housing department that her ex-boyfriend, who lived in the same dorm building, had assaulted her in a downtown Salt Lake City motel room.
Two days after the Jan. 12 assault, Ms. Dong, 19, told the director that she was concerned about her ex, Haoyu Wang, 26. She said he had suicidal ideation and that she had not heard from him since he was arrested in connection with the assault.
Ms. Dong and Mr. Wang were both international students from China, but she would not return home alive. Ms. Dong was found dead in a motel room about a month after reporting Mr. Wang to the police.
In documents released this week, the university acknowledged it mishandled some of the warning signs leading up to Ms. Dong’s death. The documents include text messages, emails and internal reports that show staff members at the university’s housing department delayed telling the campus police that Ms. Dong had been attacked.
The paper trail reveals the university’s missteps but it does not fill in the blanks of what happened to Ms. Dong in the final weeks of her life, when she missed classes and stopped staying in her dorm room. In danger and far from home, the only glimpse at her experience is a few vague text messages sent from her phone in which she declined help from the school and said she needed ‘rest.’
Days later, on Feb. 11, police found Ms. Dong dead next to Mr. Wang in a motel room in downtown Salt Lake City. Mr. Wang had told a member of the university housing staff in an email that morning that he had killed Ms. Dong by injecting her with heroin. In March, he was charged with murder.
The Salt Lake Tribune had been seeking records related to the case for months and the newspaper said a court had set a July 28 deadline for the university to grant it access to a campus police report filed after Ms. Dong was reported missing. Instead, the university released more than 100 pages of documents.
The documents show that after Ms. Dong first told university housing staff members on Jan. 14 about the motel room assault, they were slow to involve other groups, including the campus police and the university’s Behavioral Intervention Team. It took more than three weeks before those groups were involved, even though housing staff members failed to get in contact with Ms. Dong until Feb. 6 by phone or during visits to her dorm room, according to the university’s timeline.
In that time, staff members had one visit with Mr. Wang in his dorm room. He told them that he had a counseling appointment scheduled for that day, Jan. 24, and would not need more help, according to the documents.
A few days later, a staff member called another student named Haoyu Wang, not realizing it was the wrong person. As a result, the staff member did not report the ex-boyfriend as missing even though they saw that his access card had not been used at the dorm building for seven days.
The university said its shortcomings included the staff members’ delays, a need for better training and processes in housing, and ‘insufficient and unprofessional’ internal communications. The school said these issues had been addressed.
‘I’ve challenged university senior leaders to leave no stone unturned as we seek additional ways to enhance safety,’ said the university’s president, Taylor Randall.
Ms. Dong’s parents, Junfang Shen and Mingsheng Dong, said on Friday that they ‘trusted the University of Utah with our daughter’s safety, and they betrayed that trust.’” Read more at New York Times
“DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery officials on Friday raised the Mega Millions grand prize to $790 million, giving players a shot at what would be the nation’s fourth largest jackpot.
The next drawing is on Tuesday. The jackpot has grown so large because there hasn’t been a winner in three months. Those 27 consecutive drawings without anyone matching all six numbers has allowed the jackpot to gradually grow from its $20 million starting point in April.
The highlighted pre-tax $790 million prize is for a winner who takes an annuity option, paid out in 30 annual payments. Most players choose the cash option, which for Friday’s drawing would be $464.4 million.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is overseen by state lottery officials.” Read more at AP News
Stefan Soltesz is the fourth conductor to collapse midperformance in Munich since the early 1900s.Credit...Ullstein Bild via Getty Images
“MUNICH — Stefan Soltesz, a prominent and in-demand Austrian conductor, died on Friday night after collapsing during a performance at Munich’s main opera house.
Mr. Soltesz, 73, was conducting the Richard Strauss opera ‘The Silent Woman’ at the Bayerische Staatsoper, or Bavarian State Opera, when he fell from his podium shortly before the end of the first act. He was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later, said Michael Wuerges, the spokesman for the company.” Read more at New York Times