Study: One-Third of Excess Deaths in U.S. during Pandemic Were Not Due to COVID-19

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A new study found that a third of excess deaths in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic could not be directly attributed to the coronavirus.

“Although total US death counts are remarkably consistent from year to year, US deaths increased by 20% during March-July 2020. COVID-19 was a documented cause of only 67% of these excess deaths,” the study, published on the Journal of the American Medical Association’s website, said. “Some states had greater difficulty than others in containing community spread, causing protracted elevations in excess deaths that extended into the summer.” . . .

“Excess deaths attributed to causes other than COVID-19 could reflect deaths from unrecognized or undocumented infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or deaths among uninfected patients resulting from disruptions produced by the pandemic,” the study’s authors noted.

Deaths from heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia saw statistically significant increases, the study noted. . .

“Beyond the staggering U.S. deaths caused directly by the novel coronavirus, more than 134,200 people have died from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia since March. That is 13,200 more U.S. deaths caused by dementia than expected, compared with previous years,” the Post reported. (Read more from “Study: One-Third of Excess Deaths in U.S. during Pandemic Were Not Due to COVID-19” HERE)

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Director of National Intelligence: There ‘Should Be’ More Durham Probe Indictments

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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said he believes there “will be” and “should be” more indictments coming from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, based on the “intelligence” he has access to.

“I think there will be more indictments,” Ratcliffe said during an exclusive interview on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria.”

“Based on the intelligence I have access to, I certainly believe that there should be,” he said.

Ratcliffe, earlier this month, said that he has already provided 1,000 pages of material to the Justice Department to support Durham’s investigation.

“At my direction, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has now provided almost 1,000 pages of materials to the Department of Justice in response to Mr. Durham’s document requests,” Ratcliffe said in a statement Wednesday. “I will continue to ensure the Intelligence Community’s responsiveness to the DOJ’s requests.” (Read more from “Director of National Intelligence: There ‘Should Be’ More Durham Probe Indictments” HERE)

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WATCH: Biden Is Asked About Milkshake Flavors Two Weeks out From Election, His Answer Is Worse Than the Question

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Here we are a little over two weeks away from the presidential election, and Joe Biden is still getting asked the type of cutesy, folksy questions Democrats get asked when stumping for caucus votes in Iowa.

The Democratic presidential nominee was in Durham, North Carolina on a campaign visit Sunday when he and his granddaughter Finnegan stopped at a local Cook Out to get some milkshakes. After the two placed and then received their orders, they turned around to the gaggle of reporters who had been patiently waiting for the opportunity to question the former vice president. . .

But the very first question Biden was asked after he started sipping on his milkshake was … about what flavor he got:

As you can tell from the clip, not only was the question bad but his answer about “vanilla and chocolate” and “black and white” was even worse. Apparently, there was some sort of racial pandering component to his answer. It was a bit garbled as is often the case when Biden responds to a question, so it’s hard to know for sure.

(Read more from “Biden Is Asked about Milkshake Flavors Two Weeks Out from Election, His Answer Is Worse Than the Question” HERE)

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Top Biden Economic Policy Could Kill Two Million Jobs

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One of Joe Biden’s top economic policy priorities could kill as many as two million new jobs, a new report finds.

Biden has championed a $15 minimum wage throughout his presidential bid. The Democrat’s website touts helping “get state and local laws increasing the minimum wage across the finish line” and calls it “well past time we increase the federal minimum wage to $15 across the country.” An analysis from the pro-free market Employment Policies Institute (EPI) found that a nationwide mandate for a $15 minimum wage—more than double the current federal rate of $7.25 per hour—could eliminate millions of jobs within its first six years.

Economists found that those job losses would fall mainly among vulnerable populations, with some of the heaviest cuts coming in low-skill or entry-level positions. Half of the two million jobs lost as a result of the policy will occur in the arts, entertainment, recreation and accommodation, and food services sectors. Texas is projected to be the hardest hit state—losing more than 370,000 jobs by 2027—followed by Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia. The majority of jobs lost will be those held by women, the report shows.

“Not only are 59 percent of minimum wage jobs held by women and slated to be affected by these wage increases, this means that 1.2 million jobs held by women will be lost by 2027 due to this policy, accounting for 61 percent of total losses,” the report says. (Read more from “Top Biden Economic Policy Could Kill Two Million Jobs” HERE)

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Pro-Trump Union Blasts Biden for Lying about Endorsement

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A top official at one of Pennsylvania’s most powerful labor groups slammed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for falsely boasting of the union’s endorsement.

Shawn Steffee, a trustee with Boilermakers Local 154, said that his members were shocked to hear the Democratic nominee claim their support on national television. While Biden claimed to have “sat down” with union leaders to have an in-depth discussion about his plans, Steffee said the Biden campaign never approached his membership. Biden’s criticism to fracking led Local 154—the largest local chapter of boilermakers in the country—to endorse President Trump.

“We had a moment of disbelief when our members started blowing our phone up because they said we flip-flopped on our endorsement,” Steffee told the Washington Free Beacon. “Nobody from his staff—nobody—has ever spoken with us, so I don’t know where he’s coming up with that.”

When ABC town hall moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up that some Boilermaker Union members do not trust Biden’s claim that he supports the fracking industry, the Democrat responded that the “Boilermaker Union overwhelmingly endorsed me.” The union’s national headquarters has not endorsed any candidates in the 2020 race, while Local 154 endorsed Trump in September. (Read more from “Pro-Trump Union Blasts Biden for Lying about Endorsement” HERE)

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Actress Kirstie Alley Responds to Critics after Saying She’ll Vote for Trump Again

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Jon Voight — who on Friday posted a video urging fans to vote for President Donald Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden, whom he dubbed “evil” — isn’t the only celebrity voicing support for the Republican leader.

On Saturday, actress Kirstie Alley took to Twitter to declare her intentions to vote, for a second time, for Trump “because he’s NOT a politician.” . . .

Alley’s announcement caused quite a stir on social media, with fellow conservatives lauding her for speaking out and going against the so-called Hollywood grain. “Your bravery is appreciated,” tweeted Republican House candidate Kimberly Klacik in response.

Conversely, her endorsement riled up Biden supporters, including Judd Apatow, who compared her unfavorably to Cheers predecessor Shelley Long, and Debra Messing, who retweeted a criticism of Alley’s longtime involvement in the Church of Scientology, calling both it and “Trumpism” cults. Bette Midler, who has previously butted heads online with the Look Who’s Talking and Veronica’s Closet star, also retweeted a comment mocking her political choice.

She referred to her critics as “what I’m going to suppose are really nasty people” and, in a separate tweet, wrote, “never encountered such horrible in my life.”

(Read more from “Actress Kirstie Alley Responds to Critics after Saying She’ll Vote for Trump Again” HERE)

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‘The Democratic Party Left Us’: How Rural Minnesota Is Making the Switch to Trump

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Ask Larry Cuffe why, after decades of voting for Democrats, he voted for Donald Trump four years ago, and he’ll talk about his distrust of Hillary Clinton and the need to get northern Minnesota’s mines back to work.

Ask the former police officer why he’s sticking with Trump in 2020 and the list is very much longer.

“The Democratic party left us. Even in the past four years it’s changed so much. Supporting people who riot? Defunding the police? That’s crazy. I think a lot of us up here are Democrats in Republican clothing now,” he said.

Cuffe, who twice voted for Barack Obama, is one of six mayors from a stretch of Minnesota mining country, known as the Iron Range, who turned their back on the Democratic party and signed a joint letter endorsing Trump even as the state is swinging behind the president’s opponent, Joe Biden. . .

“Lifelong politicians like Joe Biden are out of touch with the working class, out of touch with what the country needs, and out of touch with those of us here on the Iron Range and in small towns like ours across our nation,” they said. (Read more from “‘The Democratic Party Left Us’: How Rural Minnesota Is Making the Switch to Trump” HERE)

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China’s Warning: We Will Take U.S. Hostages If DOJ Charges Not Dropped against Researchers

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Beijing is threatening to take Americans in China hostage if the Department of Justice doesn’t drop its prosecution of several Chinese research scientists arrested on U.S. soil this year, according to a report on Saturday.

Chinese government officials have repeatedly warned their U.S. counterparts that Americans in China face being detained if its demands are not met, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The drastic action — dubbed “hostage diplomacy” — would be in retaliation for the arrests of at least five Chinese military-affiliated scholars visiting American universities to conduct research.

The scientists were charged with visa fraud for allegedly lying to U.S. immigration authorities about their active duty statuses with China’s People’s Liberation Army.

The nation first began issuing the warnings over the summer, after Chinese research scientist Juan Tang, who worked at the University of California, Davis, was questioned by the FBI and took up residence for a month in China’s San Francisco consulate. (Read more from “China’s Warning: We Will Take U.S. Hostages If DOJ Charges Not Dropped against Researchers” HERE)

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12-Year-Old Boy Makes ‘Significant’ Dinosaur Discovery

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A 12-year-old boy in Canada has found fossils that paleontologists have hailed as a “significant” dinosaur discovery.

The discovery was made at Horseshoe Canyon in the Alberta Prairies, according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

“In July, 12-year-old aspiring paleontologist Nathan Hrushkin and his father, Dion, discovered the partially exposed bones while hiking on the conservation site,” said the Nature Conservancy, in a statement last week. “They sent photos of their find to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, who identified that the bones belonged to a young hadrosaur, commonly known as a duck-billed dinosaur.”

The Royal Tyrrell Museum sent a team of experts to the conservation site, who uncovered between 30 and 50 bones from the canyon’s wall.

“All of the bones collected belong to a single specimen, a juvenile hadrosaur approximately three or four years old,” the Nature Conservancy said, in the statement. “While hadrosaurs are the most common fossils found in Alberta’s Badlands, this particular specimen is noteworthy because few juvenile skeletons have been recovered and also because of its location in the strata, or the rock formation.” (Read more from “12-Year-Old Boy Makes ‘Significant’ Dinosaur Discovery” HERE)

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This City’s School System Changed Grading System to Combat Racism

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The San Diego Unified School District last week approved a major overhaul to its grading system as a part of a larger effort to combat racial discrimination.

The new changes came in response to data that showed disparities between the percentage of white and minority students who received D or F grades, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

According to the data, Black students accounted for about 20% of all D or F grades during the first semester of last year, while Native American and Hispanic students each accounted for 23%. By comparison, white students made up 7% of all D or F grades during that same period.

Under the district’s new system, non-academic factors like late work and classroom behavior will not be counted toward their overall academic grade. . .

The new system, which affects mostly middle school and high school students, will be implemented over this year and next. (Read more from “This City’s School System Changed Grading System to Combat Racism” HERE)

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