Shocking Details: Developers of Doomed Tower Were Once Accused of Paying off Officials; Survivor Describes Anguished Cries of Trapped Neighbors; Florida Residents Were Told Condo Was Safe Despite MAJOR Issues

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By New York Post. The developers of the Miami condo tower that collapsed were once accused of paying off local officials to get permits for the site — which needed $15 million in repairs just to bring it to code, a new report says.

Building rivals claimed that the partners behind Surfside Champlain Towers South were receiving preferential treatment when it came to getting through the permit system as the site was being built in 1981, the Washington Post said.

Surfside’s developers had contributed to the campaigns of at least two town-council members, then demanded that the donations be returned when the allegations surfaced, according to the outlet.

Meanwhile, the 12-story tower had been on the verge of undergoing $15 million in renovations to pass a required 40-year certification when it collapsed, killing at least nine people and leaving more than 150 unaccounted for Thursday, the report added. (Read more from “Developers of Doomed Tower Were Once Accused of Paying off Officials” HERE)

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Florida Tower Survivor Describes Anguished Cries of Trapped Neighbors

By New York Post. A resident of the collapsed condo tower recalled to The Post on Sunday how he could hear his terrified neighbors screaming, “Help me! Get me out!” as the structure crumbled around them.

Steve Rosenthal, 72, said he first heard the “largest thunderclap” of his life around 1:30 in the morning Thursday.

“Five seconds later, the bed and the room start shaking. I figure OK, I am dreaming,” said Rosenthal, who works in advertising and entertainment, outside a Marriott hotel in Miami Beach set up for the tower’s evacuees.

Then dust started pouring down from his ceiling, so Rosenthal ran into the hallway. There he saw the hall ceiling caved in and heard the cries from his neighbors.

“I hear people yelling, ‘Help me! Help me! Get me out!’” Rosenthal recalled. (Read more from “Florida Tower Survivor Describes Anguished Cries of Trapped Neighbors” HERE)

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Report: Florida Residents Were Told Condo Was Safe Despite MAJOR Issues

By NPR. Just one month after an engineering report warned of “major structural damage” that required immediate repair, a Surfside, Fla. official assured residents of Chaplain Towers South that their building was sound.

NPR has obtained minutes of a Nov. 2018 meeting that shows a Surfside town inspector met with residents of the building, and assured them the building was “in very good shape.” NPR learned of the meeting from a resident who was in attendance and who in an interview with Weekend Edition recalled being told that the building was not in danger.

The inspector’s comments directly conflicted with an engineering report from five weeks earlier, which warned that failed waterproofing in a concrete structural slab needed to be replaced “in the near future.” (Read more from “Report: Florida Residents Were Told Condo Was Safe Despite MAJOR Issues” HERE)

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Police Officer Put On Leave for Off-Duty Prayer

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An announcement from the Thomas More Society has confirmed that a police officer in Kentucky will be returning to his duties after being put on leave for an investigation for praying.

“We are happy for the officer that the Louisville Police Department finally did the right thing and put a good policeman back on the streets,” said Thomas More Society attorney Matt Heffron. “But it is astounding to those of us defending him – shocking actually – that the police department would treat a hardworking, loyal officer this way. They left him twisting in the wind for four months because of off-duty prayer.”

The case is concluding with a decision by officials that there will be no discipline for the officer, whose name was not released.

The circumstances were that the officer, before dawn on a Saturday morning in February, “quietly had prayed along with his father for less than an hour in front of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center,” the local abortion business, the society reported.

When he started his patrol duty later than morning, he was ordered to report in, and was placed on leave with pay pending an investigation. (Read more from “Police Officer Put On Leave for Off-Duty Prayer” HERE)

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Thousands of Vaccinated People Hospitalized or Dead Due to COVID ‘Breakthrough’ Cases

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The latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal more than 4,000 people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have died or been hospitalized from “breakthrough” infections.

The exact number is 4,115 either hospitalized or dead despite being fully inoculated.

The CDC says the number of people who have died from COVID-19 after getting the shot is 750, with 76 percent of deaths and hospitalizations among folks over the age of 65.

“As of June 21, 2021, more than 150 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” the health agency explained.

“During the same time, CDC received reports from 47 U.S. states and territories of 4,115 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection who were hospitalized or died.” (Read more from “Thousands of Vaccinated People Hospitalized or Dead Due to COVID ‘Breakthrough’ Cases” HERE)

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Shocking: Law Lets Government Vaccinate Unwilling ‘by Any Means Necessary’

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A new Florida law that prevents companies and organizations operating there from requiring “vaccine passports,” that documentation that purports to prove an individual has been vaccinated for COVID-19, also has a stinger: a provision allowing the government to force vaccinations on people.

The paragraph in the state’s 2nd engrossed version of SB 2006, an “act relating to emergency management” and more, states: “If the individual poses a danger to the public health, the State Health Officer may subject the individual to isolation or quarantine. If there is no practical method to isolate or quarantine the individual, the State Health Officer may use any means necessary to vaccinate or treat the individual.”

The fight over mandatory vaccinations still is developing in the U.S., following the pandemic that apparently got its start in Wuhan, China, and flooded the world, killing some 600,000 people in just the United States.

Some private organizations have demanded employees be vaccinated, and fired those refusing, and a number of legal cases have developed from those demands. Governments to this point have been encouraging – even bribing – citizens to take vaccines, but have not yet been to the point of forcing them.

The Florida provision comes in a portion of the law setting the agenda for state officials, when a public health emergency is declared, to identify and document cases and deaths. (Read more from “Shocking: Law Lets Government Vaccinate Unwilling ‘by Any Means Necessary'” HERE)

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Report: Travel Aides for Kamala Harris Resign Ahead of Border Visit

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Two travel aides to Vice President Kamala Harris have resigned from their positions just one day before she travels to the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a report from the New York Times.

Sources close to the matter told the Times that Harris’s director of advance Karly Satkowiak and deputy director of advance Gabrielle DeFranceschi informed Harris’s office that they would be leaving within the coming weeks.

According to Harris’s team, the resignations were expected and Satkowiak and DeFranceschi are working on finding replacements for their roles. The Times also noted that Harris’s travel team is seemingly shorthanded and efforts to fill gaps with advance associates within the team have been in the works since before she traveled to Central America. (Read more from “Report: Travel Aides for Kamala Harris Resign Ahead of Border Visit” HERE)

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WATCH: John McAfee’s Widow Says Antivirus Pioneer Was Not Suicidal — and Feared He’d Be ‘WHACKD’; Death Follows McAfee Calling Out Deep State in Video

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By New York Post. John McAfee’s widow insisted Friday that the cybersecurity tycoon was not suicidal — as it emerged that he was so convinced he’d be set up, he got a giant arm tattoo reading “$WHACKD.”

“His last words to me were ‘I love you and I will call you in the evening,’” Janice McAfee, 38, said outside the Barcelona penitentiary where her husband was found hanged on Wednesday.

“Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal,” she said, demanding a “thorough investigation” into her 75-year-old husband’s death while he awaited extradition to the US on tax fraud charges.

Just three days before McAfee’s death, his widow had accused the US government of wanting the software entrepreneur to “die in prison” to “make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies.”

(Read more from “WATCH: John Mcafee’s Widow Says Antivirus Pioneer Was Not Suicidal — and Feared He’d Be ‘Whackd’” HERE)

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Tech tycoon John McAfee found dead months after calling out U.S. Deep State, authorities claim suicide

By Brett Kershaw. Antivirus software tech tycoon and libertarian advocate John McAfee was found dead in a Spanish jail cell Wednesday in what Spanish authorities and his lawyer say is an apparent suicide.

The infamous tech baron was arrested in October, the New York Post reported. According to Reuters, he was found dead in his Barcelona cell after a Spanish court authorized his extradition to the U.S. . .

In July 2020, McAfee released a video calling out the “Deep State,” which he said was made up of unelected, career U.S. government employees who hold far too much control over the lives of Americans.

(Editor’s note: warning, explicit language in video below):

(Read more about the antivirus pioneer HERE)

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Report: John Mcafee Left a Suicide Note in His Pocket

By Associated Press. John McAfee had a suicide note in his pocket when he was found dead in his prison cell in Spain on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. The outlet’s sources would not offer details about the contents of the note, but the revelation comes as the multimillionaire’s widow spoke out for the first time since his death, telling reporters she wants a “thorough investigation” because he didn’t seem suicidal when they talked on the phone just hours before his body was found. “His last words to me were ‘I love you and I will call you in the evening,’” Janice McAfee, 38, said at Brians 2 penitentiary. “Those words are not words of somebody who is suicidal.”

Spanish authorities have said that McAfee, 75, died of an apparent suicide, but an autopsy is still in process. A Spanish court had authorized his extradition to the U.S. on tax evasion charges just hours before he was found dead. “We had a plan of action already in place to appeal that decision,” Janice McAfee said. “I blame the U.S. authorities for this tragedy. Because of these politically motivated charges against him my husband is now dead.” (Read more from “Report: John Mcafee Left a Suicide Note in His Pocket” HERE)

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Maricopa County 2020 Election Auditors Complete Paper Examination

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The Republican-led Arizona Senate’s audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County reached a significant milestone on Friday, but it will probably be weeks before the findings are released to the public.

The announcement confirming the conclusion of the ballot inspection portion of the audit comes less than two weeks after auditors finished a recount of 2.1 million ballots cast in Arizona’s most populous county, which includes Phoenix, with a few exceptions, such as Braille ballots.

The physical review of ballots included an inspection of their weight and thickness, examination of folds under microscopes, and workers holding ballots up to UV lights.

Towards the end of the process, workers were examining 100,000 ballots per day, the Maricopa Arizona Audit said in a tweet on Thursday. (Read more from “Maricopa County 2020 Election Auditors Complete Paper Examination” HERE)

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Police Try to Fend off Angry Mob by Disclosing the Man They Shot Is White

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The Portland Police Bureau tried to fend off an angry mob of rioters on Thursday by disclosing that a man shot in an officer confrontation was white.

“There is erroneous information being circulated on social media regarding in the officer involved shooting in the Lloyd district. We can confirm that the subject involved is an adult white male. No one else was injured,” Portland Police tweeted on Thursday night.

Chief of Police Chuck Lovell said that “preliminary information suggests officer encountered a very difficult and dynamic situation that no officer wants to face,” but that did not stop a crowd of protestors from forming at the scene shortly after the man who was shot was taken to the hospital.

(Read more from “Police Try to Fend off Angry Mob by Disclosing the Man They Shot Is White” HERE)

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WATCH: Awkward Moment VP Harris Reminds Biden About Deadly Florida Condo Collapse; Security Footage Shows Condo Being Pelted With Debris Moments Before Collapse

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By New York Post. . .Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to remind President Biden to mention the deadly South Florida condo collapse before leaving a White House event Thursday.

Biden had given remarks on infrastructure and taken questions from the press on that issue as well as voting rights. He then attempted to wrap up by telling reporters “I’ve got to get to a helicopter” before Harris approached.

The president and vice president exchanged a brief, whispered conversation that concluded with Harris saying, “Florida, yeah.”

“Oh, yes. I apologize,” Biden said, turning back to the microphone as Harris retreated out of camera view. “Yes, thank you, Madame Vice President.”

(Read more from “WATCH: Awkward Moment VP Harris Reminds Biden About Deadly Florida Condo Collapse” HERE)

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Florida Condo Collapse: At Least 1 Dead, Nearly 100 Unaccounted For

By USA Today. Nearly 100 people remain unaccounted for Friday morning, a day after a 12-story beachfront condominium building just north of Miami collapsed, killing at least one person.

A wing of the residential building in Surfside, Florida, came down with a roar around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. On video footage captured from nearby, the center of the building appeared to fall first, with a section nearest the ocean teetering and coming down seconds later as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighborhood.

Fire Rescue personnel and others worked through the night Thursday in hopes of finding survivors.

Early Friday, President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency authorizing funding and other disaster relief to Surfside, a small, tight-knit community with about 6,000 residents.

Residents screamed for help as they sought to flee the building , and some were plucked from the building by firefighters using ladders. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett confirmed that at least one person had died but warned the death toll was likely to rise. (Read more from “Florida Condo Collapse: At Least 1 Dead, Nearly 100 Unaccounted For” HERE)

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Security Footage Shows Florida Condo Being Pelted With Debris Moments Before Collapse

By New York Post. A resident of the partially collapsed 12-story beachfront Florida condo shared dramatic home security footage of her apartment, seconds before the building gave way.

Rosie Santana’s life was likely spared because she was not at her condo at the moment of collapse Thursday morning, the woman tweeted.

White hail-like debris from the collapsing structure can be seen and heard pelting her living room, before the camera abruptly went dark after 13 seconds.

“I am a resident of one of the condos on the side of the collapse,” Santana wrote, less than three hours after the 1:30 a.m. catastrophe.

(Read more from “Security Footage Shows Florida Condo Being Pelted With Debris Moments Before Collapse” HERE)

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City Holds Juneteenth and Gay Pride Celebrations After Canceling July Fourth Celebration

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An Illinois town is holding Juneteenth and gay pride celebrations despite canceling its Fourth of July festivities.

“My home town of Evanston, Illinois is having a Juneteenth Parade and a Gay Pride Parade, but is cancelling the 4th of July Parade & Fireworks,” said RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevan on Twitter.

The city commemorated Juneteenth after President Joe Biden signed a bill making it a federal holiday last week, holding a parade and musical performances at a local park. The city also has a gay pride parade planned for later this month.

The celebrations come after Evanston canceled this year’s Fourth of July celebration over COVID-19 concerns. (Read more from “City Holds Juneteenth and Gay Pride Celebrations After Canceling July Fourth Celebration” HERE)

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