Blue Bell Creameries Agrees to Plead Guilty and Pay $19.35 Million for Ice Cream Listeria Contamination – Former Company President Charged

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/blue-bell-creameries-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-1935-million-ice-cream-listeria

Feds Probe 'Substantial Contractual Relations' Between University Of Texas And Wuhan Biolab

The Department of Education is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into "substantial contractual relations" between the University of Texas and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and has asked the university to preserve and produce extensive records of gifts or contracts with the lab, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to a letter addressed to University Chancellor James Milken, the government request includes records of gifts or contracts related to Wuhan researcher Shi Zhengli, who co-authored a controversial 2015 paper which described the creation of a new virus by combining a coronavirus found in Chinese horseshoe bats with another that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology and Chinese CDC are currently under investigation by Western intelligence agencies, who are trying to determine whether COVID-19 accidentally escaped from one of the Chinese facilities.

Of note, the University of Texas's Medical Branch operates the Galveston National Laboratory's Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, which made headlines in February for its vaccine that protected mice against SARS, a similar coronavirus which shares 82% of its genes with 2019-nCoV, the virus responsible for the current pandemic.

Cited in the DoE's letter is a November, 2018 article in Science cosigned by officials at the Wuhan and Galveston labs which states: "We engaged in short- and long-term personnel exchanges focused on biosafety training, building operations and maintenance, and collaborative scientific investigations in biocontainment," and that "funding for research and the logistics of exchanging specimens are challenges that we have yet to solve."

The letter, which demands the 'preservation of all information' related to the investigation, also asks the the UT system to produce documents regarding potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and around two-dozen, Chinese universities and companies - including Huawei and a unit of China National Petroleum Corp.

Also requested is any information regarding gifts or contracts with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, a US citizen, after concerns were raised that the videoteleconferencing firm may have been providing the Chinese government information on traffic from foreign users.

The Education Department’s investigation into the UT System’s disclosures is part of a continuing national review begun in 2019 that the department says has prompted universities to report more than $6.5 billion in previously undisclosed foreign funding. Officials have sent letters to at least eight other schools, including Harvard and Yale Universities, who have said they are responding to the inquiries -WSJ

Several schools have been accused by the Education Department of actively soliciting funds from foreign governments, companies and individuals who are hostile to the US, according to the report, which adds that part of the investigation is to provide transparency for the public to see where schools get funding.

According to the letter, the UT previously disclosed a series of contracts with Chinese universities and Huawei worth an estimated $13 million - however DoE officials question whether all relevant foreign gifts and contracts have been reported.

Let's not forget the January arrest of the head of Harvard's Chemistry Department, Dr. Charles Lieber, along with two Chinese nationals - one of whom was accused of trying to smuggle 21 vials of biological materials in his sock.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/feds-probe-substantial-contractual-relations-between-university-texas-and-wuhan-biolab

Lawmakers Call on Amazon Chief to Testify Voluntarily or Face ‘Compulsory Process’

Members of the House Judiciary Committee called on Amazon chief Jeff Bezos to testify in an antitrust investigation of his company, threatening to subpoena him if he doesn’t comply.

In a May 1 letter addressed to Bezos, seven lawmakers, including Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary Jerrold Nadler (D- N.Y.) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law David Cicilline (D-R.I.), allege Amazon may have made “misleading, and possibly criminally false” statements in a Congressional probe into some of the company’s actions.

The lawmakers cited an April 23 investigative report by The Wall Street Journal that claims Amazon used sensitive information about third-party sellers on its marketplace to develop competing products.

“If these allegations are true, then Amazon exploited its role as the largest online marketplace in the U.S. to appropriate the sensitive commercial data of individual marketplace sellers and then used that data to compete directly with those sellers,” the lawmakers wrote.

Jerry Nadler attends a news conference

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) attends a news conference in Washington, on April 9, 2019. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Amazon responded to the claims in the report by saying that their employees’ actions were in violation of company policy, while the report claimed some staff said using competitors’ data as described above was “standard operating procedure,” others called it a “common practice,” and still others said policies “weren’t uniformly enforced.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/lawmakers-call-on-amazon-chief-to-testify-voluntarily-or-face-compulsory-process_3335095.html

Amid New York's unused hospital beds and ventilators, critics point to mass waste and mismanagement

While New York has weathered the brunt of coronavirus infections and deaths, the state’s apparent hoarding of medical supplies, and the millions spent on equipment that never arrived, as well as unused hospitals and beds, have some questioning what went wrong.

Early to mid-March projections of the spread of COVID-19 had the state scrambling to bolster its hospital bed capacity to more than double its 53,000 maximum status-quo. Subsequently, hospitals statewide were ordered to discharge patients to free up beds, and forced to add new ones as non-emergency procedures were canceled.

In addition to a bevy of state orders, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made desperate overtures to the federal government to step in. In response, and in record time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to erect at least four field hospitals, and the Navy deployed its USNS Comfort hospital ship to Manhattan.

However, those efforts – and the many millions of dollars spent on them – have largely been deemed a waste, even as New York has battled a soaring a death toll and is maintaining stay-at-home orders. So what happened?

"[The models] have been extremely inaccurate," Dr. David Samadi, a New York-based surgeon, told Fox News. "These models gave a horrifying prediction that suggested COVID-19 could kill anywhere from 200,000 to 1.7 million Americans. Currently, it looks to be more like 60,000 to 65,000 deaths. While any American life lost to this virus is a shame, the death and infection rate is looking not quite so bleak as it was in the beginning."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of shuttering the much-touted, 2,500-bed Javits Center – having treated only around 1,000 patients over the course of more than a month – The Associated Press reported.

On Thursday, the heralded Navy ship – which was equipped with 1,000 beds and intended to take the burden off other hospitals and treat non-coronavirus patients before finally taking on a handful of those with the infection – sailed away, barely used.

The three additional field hospitals Albany spent many millions on erecting in late March are yet to close, despite treating few, and are standing idle in case there is a second wave of the disease.

The process has led to frustration for hospital officials tasked with hurriedly boosting bed counts and equipping these new facilities, yet have watched as city hospitals endured overcrowding of coronavirus patients while their own ready-to-go medical centers have sat mostly empty, at the taxpayer's expense.

For one, construction firms earned $136 million to quickly erect the Stony Brook field hospital – paid for from the Army Corps of Engineers budget. The original contract with Manhattan-based Turner Construction Co., as noted by Newsday, was initially for an amount not to exceed $101 million – yet "the number was increased on April 8 to an amount not to exceed $136 million once it became clear that more money was needed," even with the lack of patients. Still, it has hardly been used, officials said.

More

https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-crisis-amid-new-yorks-unused-hospital-beds-and-entilators-critics-point-to-waste-and-mismanagement

Thousands Amass in Front of Huntington Beach Pier to Protest Newsom’s Order to Close Orange County Beaches

Crazed Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday retaliated against the citizens of his state and closed all beaches in Orange County amid the Coronavirus panic.

Newsom announced Thursday a “hard close” of all beaches in Orange County and called out Newport specifically after tens of thousands flocked to the OC shoreline amid a heatwave last weekend.

Thousands gathered in front of the Huntington Pier on Friday to protest Newsom’s order.

Huntington Beach, dubbed Surf City USA, is known for its surfing and counterculture.

Surfers and other freedom lovers came out in droves on Friday to protest their liberal governor’s authoritarian order.

Police and sheriff’s deputies on horseback, on foot and on motorcycles set up skirmish lines to keep protesters out of the street in front of the Huntington Beach Pier, where thousands have amassed to rally against the governor’s closure of OC beaches. – NBC reported.

Newport Beach and Huntington Beach hit back and challenged Newsom’s unconstitutional order ahead of another heatwave that is expected to hit Southern California next week.

Huntington Beach city council on Thursday voted to challenge the order.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/thousands-amass-front-huntington-beach-pier-protest-newsoms-order-close-orange-county-beaches-video/