- Lawmaker censured for asking if fatal child abuse saves taxpayers money The Washington Post
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Abandoned shopping carts cost taxpayers thousands of dollars
New York
CNN
—
Santa Fe, New Mexico, paid a local contractor $47,000 to round up about 3,000 shopping carts around the city in 2021 and 2022.
Fayetteville, North Carolina, spent $78,468 collecting carts from May 2020 to October 2022.
Shopping carts keep wandering away from their stores, draining taxpayers’ coffers, causing blight and frustrating local officials and retailers.
Abandoned shopping carts are a scourge to neighborhoods, as wayward carts block intersections, sidewalks and bus stops. They occupy handicap spots in parking lots and wind up in creeks, ditches and parks. And they clog municipal drainage and waste systems and cause accidents.
There is no national data on shopping cart losses, but US retailers lose an estimated tens of millions of dollars every year replacing lost and damaged carts, say shopping cart experts. They pay vendors to rescue stray carts and fork over fines to municipalities for violating laws on shopping carts. They also miss out on sales if there aren’t enough carts for customers during peak shopping hours.
Last year, Walmart paid $23,000 in fines related to abandoned shopping carts to the small town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, said Shawn McDonald, a member of the town’s Select Board.
Dartmouth public workers spent two years corralling more than 100 Walmart carts scattered around town and housed them in one of the city’s storage facilities. When Walmart applied for a new building permit, the company was told it had to pay the town thousands of dollars in daily storage fees, McDonald said.
“It’s a safety issue with these carts careening down the hill. I had one that was left in the road as I was driving,” he said. “I got to the point where I got pissed.”
More municipalities around the country are proposing laws cracking down on stray carts. They are imposing fines on retailers for abandoned carts and fees for retrieval services, as well as mandates for stores to lock up their carts or install systems to contain them. Some localities are also fining people who remove carts from stores.
The city council in Ogden, Utah, this month approved an ordinance fining people who take store carts or are in possession of one. The measure also authorizes the city to charge retailers a fee of $2 a day for storage and handling fees to retrieve lost carts.
“Abandoned shopping carts have become an increasing nuisance on public and private properties throughout the city,” the council said in its summary of the bill. City officials “are spending considerable amounts of time to pick up and return or dispose of the carts.”
Matthew Dodson, the president of Retail Marketing Services, which offers cart retrieval, maintenance and other services to leading retailers in several western states, said lost shopping carts is a growing problem.
During the busy 2022 holiday season, Retail Marketing Service leased extra carts to retailers, and got back 91% of its approximately 2,000 carts, down from 96% the prior year.
Dodson and others in the shopping cart industry say the rise in lost carts can be attributed to several factors, including unhoused people using them to hold their belongings or as shelter. Homelessness has been rising in many major cities due to skyrocketing housing prices, lack of affordable housing, and other factors. There have also been incidents of people stealing carts for scrap metal.
Some people, especially in cities, also use supermarket carts to bring their groceries home from the store. Other carts drift away from parking lots if they aren’t locked up during rough weather or at night.
To be sure, the problem of wayward shopping carts is not new. They began leaving stores soon after they were introduced in the late 1930s.
“A new menace is threatening the safety of motorists in stores,” the New York Times warned in a 1962 article. “It is the shopping cart.” Another New York Times article in 1957 called the trend “Cart-Napping.”
There’s even a book, “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification,” dedicated to the phenomenon and a system of identification for stray shopping carts, much like guides for bird-watching.
Edward Tenner, a distinguished scholar in the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, said the misuse of everyday items like shopping carts is an example of “deviant ingenuity.”
It’s similar to talapia fishermen in Malaysia stealing payphones in the 1990s and attaching the receivers to powerful batteries that emitted a sound to lure fish, he said.
Tenner hypothesized that people take shopping carts from stores because they are extremely versatile and aren’t available elsewhere: “There’s really no legitimate way for an individual to buy a supermarket-grade shopping cart.”
Supermarkets can have 200 to 300 shopping carts per store, while big-box chains carry up to 800. Depending on the size and model, carts cost up to $250, said Alex Poulos, a sales director at R.W. Rogers Company, which supplies carts and other equipment to stores.
Stores and cart makers over the years have increased the size of carts to encourage shoppers to buy more items.
Stores have introduced several cart safety and theft-prevention measures over the years, such as cart corrals and, more recently, wheels that automatically lock if a cart strays too far from the store. (Viral videos on TikTok show Target customers struggling to push around carts with wheeled locks.)
Gatekeeper Systems, which offers shopping cart control measures for the country’s largest retailers, said demand for its “SmartWheel” radio-frequency locks has increased during the pandemic.
At four stores, Wegmans is using Gatekeeper’s wheel locks.
“The cost of replacing carts as well as the cost of locating and returning missing carts to the store led to our decision to implement the technology,” a Wegmans spokesperson said.
Aldi, the German grocery chain that’s rapidly expanding in the United States, is one of the few US retailers to require customers to deposit a quarter to unlock a cart.
Coin-lock shopping cart systems are popular in Europe, and Poulos said more US companies are requesting coin-lock systems in response to the costs of runaway shopping carts.
Bill Nye’s audience has gone from kids to voters and taxpayers
In a new MasterClass, over 13 lessons, Nye shares a timely reminder: Science is still everywhere.
MasterClass
Say the name Bill Nye, someone might yell “the science guy,” and a nearby millennial will unlock a memory. They’re sitting in a classroom as their teacher rolls out a cart holding an outdated television. The lights dim, the room cools. They’re buckled up for what feels like the apex of all science videos.
An unforgettable theme song, “Bill, Bill, Bill…” starts ringing in their ears. Wearing a snazzy bow tie, the former mechanical engineer appears on screen with a gooey experiment to explain how science permeates everything.
But since childhood, kids who grew up on the show — myself included — haven’t all had time to think about volcanoes, comets and electric currents. We’re too busy worrying about taxes, deadlines and politics.
The world has progressed since then too. Space exploration is opening up to the megarich and there’s talk of settling Mars and planting a science base on the moon. The climate crisis is in full force, and for the last two years, a deadly pandemic has been imperiling the globe.
But in a new MasterClass, over 13 lessons, Nye shares a timely reminder: Science is still everywhere.
“Look around the room where you are,” he said over the phone in the same enthusiastic tone of Bill Nye, the Science Guy episodes. “Every shape you can see came out of somebody’s head. Somebody thought of that.” That someone, he says, was likely an engineer trained in science.
To Nye, science isn’t just awesome, it offers a way to look at the world. “It’s about philosophy,” Nye said in a much more serious tone. “It’s about a way of thinking.”
The beginning will meet the end
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Nye, it’s that the scientific method isn’t just for science.
The format goes something like this: You notice a phenomenon, come up with a hypothesis for why it’s happening, design an experiment to test that hypothesis, run the experiment and see how the results stack up. Then you start over to strengthen your evidence.
“I’ve asked people, ‘When you paint a wall, does the paint get dry from the top before the bottom or does it dry from the bottom up?’ People say to me, well, which is it? And I say, try it. Don’t take my word for it, try it. You can know this.”
MasterClass
After several trials, if your hypothesis turns out to be wrong, you can make a new one. Being wrong isn’t a bad thing, Nye insists, but a productive step toward truth — and the beginning of any process is key to fostering a better outcome.
“We all want to hurry; we all want to just get started,” he said of anyone painting the walls of a room. “But I claim there’s great value in figuring out how much paint you’re going to need, what color it’s really going to be, what size and style of brush you’re going to need and taking all the time to cover the furniture and the floor and everything else before you start painting.”
When it comes to scientific topics, scientists perform this method with infinitesimally great detail over many, many years. As such, Nye distinguishes between matters we should personally study from the bottom up and those we must trust experts on.
A worldwide spotlight on science
At the crux of public discussions right now are two undeniably scientific topics: the global pandemic and the climate crisis. But in an era of misinformation, those discussions don’t always align with scientific truth.
“We have an enormous number of people here, in the world’s most technically advanced society, who don’t want to get vaccinated because they believe that their online research is every bit as valid as scientific research conducted by medical professionals,” Nye said, calling it his “mission in life” to help people filter past false information on the internet.
To date, over 5 million people worldwide have died of COVID-19, but according to Our World In Data, only 57% of the global population has received at least one dose of the life-saving vaccine. Among other things, the low number is the result of hesitancy and insufficient supply, particularly to low-income nations.
“We would be done with this pandemic if our society had embraced the importance of it and not only gotten vaccinated, but exported vaccines to the developing world so that we wouldn’t have the omicron variant, by way of example,” Nye said.
He emphasized that right now is a terrific time to place value in the work of scientists. “People are scared,” he said. “And that’s where knowledge is of great value — that’s how you can overcome fear.”
Climate change, on the other hand, grows more concerning by the day. Having already heavily impacted developing regions like Bangladesh and threatening large swaths of richer countries like the US, it’s responsible for an increase in forest fires, cyclones, droughts, animal extinction and several other forms of devastation.
In Climates, a season 3 episode of Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Nye uses a replica of Earth and a space heater to demonstrate global warming. “The globe is getting too warm,” he said. “So, we’ve gotta be careful.”
Twenty-six years and many fractions of a degree later — in tandem with the conclusion of the COP26 conference, where government representatives intended to come up with a plan to cut carbon emissions that contribute to Earth’s warming — Nye says leaders “were unable or unwilling to propose and adhere to the extraordinary measures we almost certainly need to exercise.”
In a nod to 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, which follows Al Gore’s quest to educate the public about climate change, Nye suggests representatives express a limited reaction because it’s just too “inconvenient” to stop burning coal, for instance, even though science shows coal burning could contribute to the erosion of Earth’s atmosphere.
Science says climate change isn’t a future possibility — it’s already happening.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Still, Nye exuded a familiar air of optimism, paralleling the mood of his MasterClass lessons. “The world is slowly changing,” he said, “and I’m excited about the future because young people are not going to keep this up.”
Science still rules
Enjoying the measuring, Nye says, is just as important as distilling a conclusion; a grand understanding of basic science can aid us on smaller scales, even serendipitously.
“We each have ancestors that took the risk of going over the hill into the unknown valley,” he said. “Just to see what was over there — and made some extraordinary discovery.”
Nye calls the cost of endeavors like space exploration “tiny” compared with the benefits they’ll one day afford us. Whether it be finding life on another world, which he believes will change our world, or something relatively simpler, “basic research is almost priceless.”
“There’s a hexagonal storm on the north pole of Saturn — a six-sided storm,” Nye pointed out. “You know why it has six sides and it’s at the north pole of Saturn? Nobody knows. But once that’s figured out, I guarantee you it will inform our understanding of weather on Earth.”
Spanning 20,000 miles and whipping up winds of 200 miles per hour, this massive six-sided storm clustered around Saturn’s north pole captured by NASA’s Cassini mission is a sight to behold.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
One reservation he has is with the concept of creating a civilization on Mars, calling it “much harder than it looks — there’s no air, there’s no food.” In particular, he compares a settlement on the red planet to living in Antarctica. Though humans have sailed all over the world for centuries, he said, no one has set up camp to live long-term in Antarctica.
“I’m open-minded, but Mars is really cold. I just don’t think you want to settle. Having a science base where they’re going outside in their spacesuits looking for stuff, that I am on board with.”
In line with his dreams of a lunar base, Nye’s love and curiosity for science is as potent as it was when I watched his show in science class. However, though he peppered his statements with fascinating facts — like how cool it is that our Zoom call is powered by a multitude of transistors — he acknowledged that over time, “you get fatigued.”
“You’ve got to get to work, you’ve got to meet the writing deadline, you’ve got to go to the grocery store … you don’t take time to absorb and remain curious. But I would say if that’s really what’s happening, fight that.”
Letter confirms Wuhan lab leak was funded by US taxpayers
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
A letter from Lawrence Tabak, the National Institutes of Health’s principal deputy director, to Rep. James Comer of Kentucky confirms that the NIH funded research at the WIV during 2018–2019 that manipulated a bat coronavirus called WIV1. Researchers at the institute grafted spike proteins from other coronaviruses onto WIV1 to see if the modified virus was capable of binding in a mouse that possessed the ACE2 receptors found in humans — the same receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 binds. The modified virus reproduced more rapidly and made infected humanized mice sicker than the unmodified virus.
Starting in 2014, the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed by Anthony Fauci, funded the New York-based research nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance with annual grants through 2020 for “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
Total funding was $3,748,715. More than $600,000 of that went to the Wuhan lab. Three other Chinese institutions received funding, as well. The principal investigator was EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, who, from the onset of the pandemic, has consistently campaigned in public and behind the scenes to convince people that SARS-CoV-2 did not come from the WIV but evolved naturally from animal-to-human transmission.
Tabak’s letter asserts that the modified virus’ becoming more virulent “was an unexpected result” and not “something that the researchers set out to do” — an odd claim, considering that the whole point of manipulating the virus was to investigate things that could make it more virulent.
The 2018 research mentioned in Tabak’s letter is similar to earlier WIV research, funded in part by the NIH, that modified viruses related to SARS to see if they could infect human cells.
Publications of these studies in 2017 and 2016 were the subject of a contentious Senate hearing in which Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky pressed Fauci to admit that they constituted gain-of-function research, prompting Fauci’s denial and a statement that “NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Many, but not all, virologists believe that the WIV experimentation qualifies as gain-of-function research.
Such research was originally defined as “any modification of a biological agent that confers new or enhanced activity.”
The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity proposed that only a narrower category, gain-of-function research of concern — research that could make a pathogen likely to spread and cause disease in humans — needs extra regulatory oversight.
Following laboratory biosafety incidents at government research facilities, the US paused funding on gain-of-function research with influenza and the SARS and MERS coronaviruses in 2014 to determine additional oversight. Researchers conducted the 2017 and 2016 studies discussed in the Senate while this pause was in effect.
In 2017, officials lifted the moratorium and replaced it with oversight guidelines for research using potential pandemic pathogens (PPP) — pathogens likely to be highly transmissible, capable of uncontrollable spread and able to cause significant morbidity or mortality in humans. A PPP resulting from the enhancement of the transmissibility or virulence of a pathogen is called an enhanced PPP (ePPP).
Tabak does not address whether the 2018 WIV experiments he cited in his letter were gain-of-function research. Instead, he maintains that NIH did not consider the WIV experiments so dangerous as to require special review and biosafety measures under the ePPP regulations adopted in 2017 “because these bat coronaviruses had not been shown to infect humans.”
But this is an unconvincing technicality. Other bat coronaviruses had already caused two deadly diseases, SARS and MERS, and other coronaviruses regularly circulate and infect humans to cause the common cold. It isn’t a stretch to think that a different coronavirus could become dangerous, too — particularly if used in an experiment designed to manipulate a virus that humans have never encountered to see if it could acquire the ability to infect humans.
After explaining why NIH didn’t review the proposal under its guidelines, Tabak’s letter claims that EcoHealth violated the terms of its grant stipulating that it had to report if its research increased the viral growth of a pathogen by tenfold — terms that NIH inserted “out of an abundance of caution and as an added layer of oversight.”
But the letter never explains why this stipulation was necessary.
This blame-shifting is not only unseemly but also may be untrue: EcoHealth maintains that it reported the results in its April 2018, Year Four report.
The main point of the letter seems to be that any deficiencies in NIH’s grant-review and oversight processes didn’t make a difference.
Tabak repeatedly assures Rep. Comer that the viruses being studied “were genetically very distant from SARS-CoV-2,” so they “are not and could not have become SARS-CoV-2.”
Whether this particular virus evolved into SARS-CoV-2 is beside the point: The WIV was engaged in this type of research, with US government support, and this makes it more, not less, likely that the COVID-19 pandemic is a manmade catastrophe.
Another WIV project, other than the specific one in the Tabak letter, could have created SARS-CoV-2.
Despite early attempts by the scientific community, with the aid of a credulous and politically motivated media, to downplay this possibility, the accumulating evidence suggests that the pandemic was more likely the result of laboratory creation and accidental release of SARS-CoV-2 than a product of natural viral evolution.
The first reported cases of COVID-19 occurred in Wuhan, China, the site of the WIV. In addition, both US intelligence sources and the State Department reported that several WIV researchers became ill and were hospitalized with COVID-19-like symptoms months prior to the Chinese government’s announcement of the first cases.
In previous animal-to-human viral transmissions, such as the 2003 SARS outbreak in China, researchers ascertained intermediate animal hosts and serologic signs of infections in animal traders within months of the outbreaks. Despite intensive efforts over the past two years, no one has found a bat-source population, SARS-CoV-2 circulating in an intermediate species that functioned as a viral conduit between bats and humans, or evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was present anywhere else before it emerged in Wuhan.
Consider, too, the unique furin cleavage site between the S1 and S2 subunits of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Furin is an enzyme expressed by human cells that separates the spike protein subunits at the cleavage site, enabling the virus to bind more efficiently to human cells and release its genetic material into them. It is an important reason that SARS-CoV-2 is so easily transmissible.
The furin cleavage site is found nowhere else in the entire genus of SARS-related betacoronaviruses. SARS-CoV-2 is the only one that has it. This fact alone suggests that it did not arise naturally in SARS-CoV-2. In addition, while other, more distant coronaviruses do have furin cleavage sites, the protein components (amino acids) in the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site are coded for by a unique set of nucleotides in its RNA, not found in the other viruses, making natural recombination between the viruses unlikely.
It’s particularly concerning that in 2018 the EcoHealth Alliance reportedly submitted a proposal to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to partner with the WIV in constructing SARS-related bat coronaviruses by inserting such cleavage sites into their spike proteins. DARPA rejected the proposal because it failed to address the risks of gain-of-function research. EcoHealth’s president, Daszak, did not dispute details of the reporting.
In other words: There are many indications that SARS-CoV-2 could have been created in a lab, specifically the Wuhan lab, which was conducting gain-of-function-type research with coronaviruses, some of it funded by the NIH.
While the particular experiments revealed in Tabak’s letter may not have created SARS-CoV-2, other research at the WIV, including research that EcoHealth sought to fund with US grants, could have done so.
It’s doubtful that we will ever discover the true origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, since the Chinese will never cooperate with a full and open investigation. It doesn’t help that, until recently, our own NIH stonewalled on questions about its funding of WIV research.
Considering the release of the recent NIH letter and the revelations about EcoHealth Alliance, it remains entirely possible that US taxpayers funded a project at the Wuhan lab that may have led to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joel Zinberg, M.D., J.D., is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and an associate clinical professor of surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan. Adapted with permission from City Journal.
Royal family news – Prince Charles ‘felt total RELIEF’ at dumping Harry and Meghan Markle off UK taxpayer’s payroll
PRINCE Charles felt total “relief” at getting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle off the British taxpayers’ payroll, it has been claimed.
Charles famously gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “a substantial sum” to start a new life in America after the runaway royals claimed they wanted to be “financially independent” and make their own fortune.
Royal accounts revealing the payment were made public just weeks after Harry shamelessly whined to Oprah Winfrey that Charles had cut him off financially following the move.
“I’ve got what my mum left me, and without that, we would not have been able to do this,” Harry complained.
But it was later revealed that Charles gave Harry, Meghan, Prince William and Kate Middleton a combined total of £4.5 million during the last financial year – a sum that would leave most families set for life.
Now royal biographer Ingrid Seward has told the Daily Mail: “I imagine Prince Charles will be relieved as they will be off his payroll now, and the British public will be relieved because they can pay back what they owe now on Frogmore Cottage, so it’s a win-win situation.”
Read our Royal Family live blog below for the latest updates…
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PRINCESS PUSHY
Meghan Markle upset people from the early days of her joining the Royal Family, a royal biographer has claimed.
Penny Junor claimed palace insiders told her the Duchess of Sussex was “not as charming as she seemed.”
“I was hearing very bad stories from early on that Meghan was upsetting people,” she told the ITV documentary, Harry & William: What Went Wrong?
“She was not as charming as she seemed.”
Junor went on to say that the Duchess’s approach is not just Californian but “showbiz-y, celebrity.”
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CHARLES ‘RELIEVED’ WHEN MEGHAN AND HARRY CAME OFF PAYROLL
During Meghan and Harry’s tell all Oprah Interview, they claimed that they had been cut off by the royal family.
However, it was recently revealed that they had still been receiving nearly £4.5 million during the last financial year.
Now a royal expert has revealed that they believe Charles is now “relieved” that they are off the payroll.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward told the Daily Mail: “I imagine Prince Charles will be relieved as they will be off his payroll now, and the British public will be relieved because they can pay back what they owe now on Frogmore Cottage, so it’s a win-win situation.”
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WILLS AT WEMBLEY
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PRINCE HARRY ‘TORN’ BETWEEN MEGHAN MARKLE AND ROYALS AFTER SACRIFICING EVERYTHING FOR HER
Palace insider Duncan Larcombe – author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story – claims the Sussexes may face a fight for their marriage unless they can “compromise”.
And he said the Duke will feel conflicted after meeting brother William in London last week for the unveiling of a statue dedicated to Princess Diana.
He told Closer magazine: “Harry and Meghan seem to think they can co-exist in these two worlds – the world of British royals and American celebrity.
“Harry is loving the American life now – but he’s still in the honeymoon phase.
“I think coming back and seeing his brother, especially against the very moving backdrop of a memorial for their mother, will maybe make him question what he’s given it all up for.”
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DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE SET TO TAKE PART IN CHARITY POLO MATCH
William will compete in the Out-Sourcing Inc Royal Charity Polo Cup 2021 at Guards Polo Club on Friday.
The game will help raise funds and awareness for charities supported by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Kensington Palace said.
These organisations include Centrepoint, East Anglia Children’s Hospices, Family Action, Fields in Trust, The Forward Trust, London Air Ambulance, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and Tusk.
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IS THIS HOW MEGHAN MARKLE IS RAISING LILIBET?
Fans have been going crazy trying to get a glimpse inside how The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will raise their daughter in California.
Nima Patel, mindfulness expert, certified conscious parenting coach and founder of Mindful Champs, commented on lavish parenting trends likely to be embraced by Meghan.
She said: “Self-care is set to be an incredibly popular trend for parents throughout the U.S.
“The pandemic has highlighted the importance of nurturing our own mental health and parents are realising that they need to prioritise their wellbeing after having children.”
Read more here
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CROWN AND OUT
The Crown boss has revealed why there’s no way the Netflix show can continue beyond season six.
The hit drama about the British Monarchy has had viewers gripped for four seasons so far, with two more to come.’
Speaking to Broadcast, Suzanne Mackie explained how Peter doesn’t intend to move the story on past the early 2000s.
She said: “Peter has said it very articulately, that he simply can’t write something unless there has been time to gain a proper perspective.
“I think he’s always felt 10 years is the minimum amount of time that he can see something in a historical context, to allow him to really understand it.”
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PRINCESS BEATRICE’S NAME WAS CHANGED AS THE QUEEN CONSIDERED THE ORIGINAL NAME ‘TOO YUPPIE’
Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew welcomed their firstborn daughter in August 1988 and had originally wanted to call her “Annabel”, The Sun revealed at the time.
Her Majesty was also said to be unhappy with the second choice of Victoria, which at the time was a hot favourite with bookies.
While the royal couple deliberated over an acceptable selection, their daughter went unnamed for 11 days.
In the end, it was the Queen herself who offered up Beatrice, during the royal family’s get-together at her Scottish estate of Balmoral.
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QUEEN COULD BE ORDERED TO PAY BILLIONS IN SLAVERY REPARATIONS ACCORDING TO JAMAICAN POLITICIAN
A Jamaican politician has said a petition asking for compensation will be “presented to the Queen”.
Jamaican politician Olivia “Babsy” Grange argues that she wants to petition the Queen for compensation for all citizens.
The Caribbean country’s Culture Minister Ms Grange said: “We are especially pleased to announce that we have made further steps in our strides towards seeking reparatory justice for the victims and descendants of the transatlantic slave trade.
“The petition is to be presented to the Queen of the UK and or the Government of the UK.”
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WATCH: PRINCE WILLIAM CELEBRATES ENGLAND’S SECOND
Prince William celebrates England’s second with Boris & Carrie at Wembley while Kate isolates at home -
PRINCE WILLIAM PRAISES FIRST RESPONDER VOLUNTEER DURING ‘EMOTIONAL DAY’ FOR THE NHS
The Duke attended a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the NHS milestone.
William also chatted to Tony Larks, 48, a first responder volunteer from Bracknell who joined South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust as a community first responder volunteer in 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic.
During the last year he has clocked up nearly 1,000 hours of voluntary service and has attended more than 250 emergency incidents, while also working full time as a graphic designer.
The duke said: “The immense pressure you are dealing with, but it’s fantastic you are able to help out in such a way.”
Mr Larks said later: “It’s been truly amazing to have met Prince William today and to recognise the amazing work of the NHS. I’m honoured and humbled to have the opportunity to work alongside NHS heroes and the work they do daily. It’s truly incredible.”
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CAMILLA BECOMES PATRON OF HORSE CHARITY
The Duchess of Cornwall has become patron of the charity HorseBack UK.
Camilla, a keen rider, understands how horses can help have a positive impact on wellbeing and recovery, the organisation said.
HorseBack UK provides help to those needing mental health support, and runs courses for former and serving members of the armed forces suffering from both physical and mental life-changing injuries.
Co-founder Emma Hutchison said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Duchess of Cornwall for accepting the invitation to become our patron.
“As a keen equestrian herself, HRH understands how horses can help have a positive impact on our wellbeing and recovery.”
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SPECIAL TEA AT PALACE ‘MEANS A LOT TO NHS STAFF’ SAYS NURSE
Alexandra Heys, nurse ward manager in the respiratory high care unit at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The special tea at Buckingham Palace means a lot to NHS staff who have been through so much over the last year, and I feel so honoured to be meeting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today.
“I know from personal experience that the past year has taken a huge toll on NHS staff who have worked incredibly hard to take care of patients during a challenging time.
“My team at the respiratory high care unit has cared for over 300 very sick Covid patients, all of whom required dedicated around-the-clock care.
“All NHS staff have gone above and beyond, providing additional care in difficult circumstances, including connecting isolated and very sick patients with their families in their most challenging moments.
“We have all been through a lot, so seeing the public get behind the NHS Big Tea on such as massive scale is an immense boost and really makes a difference.”
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ROYAL STUMBLE
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s plan to trademark Archewell has hit a setback at the hands of US lawyers.
The pair want their non-profit organisation Archewell Foundation and Spotifty podcast series Archewell Audio to be protected by company law in America – but their bid has hit a stumbling block.
Documents were filed to the US Patent and Trademark Office by the couple, requesting sole use of the terms.
But their bid hasn’t had a smooth outcome as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been told their applications need clarification if they are to be made into law, reports the Mail.
Applying for Archewell Audio’s trademark, the pair said the company was for the “creation, development, production and distribution of podcasts, audio programmes, music, and audio books” and would create “live podcast performances, live stage performances, live music performances, and live audio-book readings”.
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HOW MEGHAN MARKLE WAS ALWAYS ‘DESTINED FOR GREATNESS’ AND WORLDWIDE FAME
The Duchess of Sussex, 39, didn’t just set her sights on A-list stardom after meeting Harry as an actress – according to those closest to her, she’s been destined for “greatness” from a young age.
According to her childhood sweetheart Joshua Silverstein, who is now 40 and works as an actor in LA.
He told Fabulous: “There are people when you are young who don’t know what they want to do, it was very clear to me she did.
“She had set her passion and sights on achieving some sort of greatness”
Aged 11, she wrote to then First Lady Hillary Clinton and the makers of a TV advert that featured the line: “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.”
She was delighted when her letter-writing campaign led to the ad’s wording being changed from “women” to “people”.
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MEGHAN MARKLE’S BOOK THE BENCH IS NOT BEING STOCKED AT QUEEN’S ONLINE STORE
THE Duchess of Sussex’s picture book The Bench is not being stocked in the Queen’s online store.
The online Royal Collection Shop boasts a whole “storytime” section of “delightful” children’s books.
They include Paddington at the Palace for £6.99 and even Peppa Pig Meets The Queen for £4.99 But the Duchess of Sussex’s title – which has crashed out of Amazon’s top 100 – is not among them.
Meghan, 39, claims it was inspired by a poem she wrote for Harry on his first Father’s Day and a “love story” of him and Archie.
The picture book topped the New York Times Bestsellers List for children’s picture books but sold just 3,212 copies in the UK its first week since publication on June 8.
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WATCH: ‘APPALLING’ MEGHAN WAS HORRIBLE TO STAFF, ROYAL AUTHOR CLAIMS
Meghan Markle latest news – ‘Appalling’ Duchess made people MISERABLE from very first days as a royal, expert claims -
MEGHAN MARKLE WAS A ROYAL FAMILY “SUPERFAN”
Meghan posed outside Buckingham Palace aged 15 and was “obsessed” with the British royals growing up, pals say.
Sitting on black railings alongside pal Ninaki Priddy, she smiled for the camera with the backdrop of the Palace behind her.
As a teen she studied pictures of Princess Diana and loved films like The Princess Bride which romanticised the idea of royalty.
One friend said: “Meghan was always interested in that whole world of pomp and ceremony and palaces and history – it’s no exaggeration to say she always wanted to be a princess.
“She talked about Diana incessantly – she was like a superfan of the royals.”
This is despite Meghan telling Oprah she knew very little about royal life before marrying Harry.
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GENERATION EARTH SHOT PRIZE LAUNCHED
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ROYAL FAMILY GET BEHIND ENGLAND
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KATE SELF-ISOLATES AFTER COMING INTO CONTACT WITH COVID SUFFERER
The Duchess of Cambridge is having to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone who later tested positive for coronavirus, Kensington Palace said.
Kate was due to spend the day with William celebrating the 73rd anniversary of the NHS at two major events but will now have a 10-day period at home.
They had planned to attend a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in honour of the nation’s health service, and in the afternoon host a Big Tea at Buckingham Palace for NHS staff, in their roles as Joint Patrons of NHS Charities Together.
Kensington Palace said in a statement: “Last week The Duchess of Cambridge came into contact with someone who has subsequently tested positive for Covid-19.
“Her Royal Highness is not experiencing any symptoms, but is following all relevant government guidelines and is self-isolating at home.”
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MEGHAN MARKLE AND PRINCE HARRY QUIT ROYAL DUTY FOR LA TO BE ‘SOCIAL-IMPACT INFLUENCERS’
Catherine St-Laurent, who quit her top role after less than a year, confirmed the couple stepped back to become “talented and creative leaders” instead.
The Duke and Duchess vowed they’d continue with a lifetime of “service” – after the Queen confirmed they’d be stripped of their royal titles after Megxit.
And now Ms St-Laurent, who left a plum job with Bill and Melinda Gates to work as Harry and Meghan’s chief of staff last year, has revealed their plans for the future.
“I think they have the potential to be very influential leaders in the social-impact space. I look forward to continuing to be a part of that.” she said.
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DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE SET TO TAKE PART IN CHARITY POLO MATCH
William will compete in the Out-Sourcing Inc Royal Charity Polo Cup 2021 at Guards Polo Club on Friday.
The game will help raise funds and awareness for charities supported by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Kensington Palace said.
These organisations include Centrepoint, East Anglia Children’s Hospices, Family Action, Fields in Trust, The Forward Trust, London Air Ambulance, Mountain Rescue England and Wales, and Tusk.
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PRINCE HARRY ‘TORN’ BETWEEN MEGHAN MARKLE AND ROYALS AFTER SACRIFICING EVERYTHING FOR HER
Palace insider Duncan Larcombe – author of Prince Harry: The Inside Story – claims the Sussexes may face a fight for their marriage unless they can “compromise”.
And he said the Duke will feel conflicted after meeting brother William in London last week for the unveiling of a statue dedicated to Princess Diana.
He told Closer magazine: “Harry and Meghan seem to think they can co-exist in these two worlds – the world of British royals and American celebrity.
“Harry is loving the American life now – but he’s still in the honeymoon phase.
“I think coming back and seeing his brother, especially against the very moving backdrop of a memorial for their mother, will maybe make him question what he’s given it all up for.”
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IS THIS HOW MEGHAN MARKLE IS RAISING LILIBET?
Fans have been going crazy trying to get a glimpse inside how The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will raise their daughter in California.
Nima Patel, mindfulness expert, certified conscious parenting coach and founder of Mindful Champs, commented on lavish parenting trends likely to be embraced by Meghan.
She said: “Self-care is set to be an incredibly popular trend for parents throughout the U.S.
“The pandemic has highlighted the importance of nurturing our own mental health and parents are realising that they need to prioritise their wellbeing after having children.”
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Unemployment fraud may create a nightmare for taxpayers
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Millions of Americans will get tax forms for unemployment benefits this filing season. However, many will get them in error due to fraud, creating a potential headache for recipients.
At least $36 billion has been lost to improper unemployment payments, largely due to fraud, by early November, according to an estimate from the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Labor.
That sum may ultimately balloon to more than $63 billion, the watchdog said last week.
Identity theft has been among the most common frauds, according to security experts. Scammers file fraudulent unemployment claims using the stolen personal data of individuals who didn’t file.
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The scammer gets the unemployment income but the identity victim gets the associated 1099-G tax form. The federal government treats unemployment benefits as taxable income. (Some states don’t tax benefits, however.)
Scammers were drawn to a relatively high payout per person, especially in the spring and summer when the federal government paid an extra $600 a week. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program was frequently targeted since it allowed recipients to self-attest they’d lost a job.
“This is a critical issue that is plaguing labor departments across the United States involving local, state, and even international criminals at times,” Mark Butler, Georgia’s labor commissioner, said of unemployment fraud.
What to do?
Individuals who receive a 1099-G form but didn’t collect benefits should first reach out to the state unemployment agency for a corrected form, according to the IRS. This revised 1099-G would show that the taxpayer hadn’t collected any money.
Some fear it may be difficult to get through to state agencies, which have been plagued by delays during the pandemic amid historic volume.
States may have different instructions or outlets to report identity fraud. California, for example, set up a phone hotline designated for Form 1099-G questions and increased call-center staff.
Taxpayers unable to get a corrected form by the time they file their taxes should still file an accurate return, according to the IRS. In other words, they should only report the income they received and not the unemployment benefits reported on the 1099-G.
But they should consider explaining in a footnote to their tax return that they received a 1099-G in error, said Michael D’Addio, a principal at the accounting firm Marcum who’s based in New Haven, Connecticut.
Taxpayers should also continue to request a corrected tax form even after filing, he said. Otherwise, the IRS may not have updated information at hand and may inquire about a discrepancy.
“At the end of the day, it’s very difficult to get the IRS to agree an item isn’t taxable when they have a form saying it’s taxable income,” D’Addio said. “You tend to want to get that corrected form from the state.”
The IRS issued guidance to states in late December notifying them not to send 1099-Gs to individuals deemed to have been identity fraud victims, which should reduce the number of affected individuals.
Other information
Taxpayers don’t need to file an Identity Theft Affidavit with the IRS for an incorrect 1099-G, according to the agency. These affidavits are only required if the taxpayer’s e-filed return is rejected because a return using the same Social Security number already has been filed, according to the IRS.
Those who are concerned their personal information has been stolen and want to protect their identity when filing their federal tax return can request an Identity Protection PIN from the agency. The PIN prevents someone else from filing a return with the taxpayer’s Social Security number.
There are other measures potential identity-theft victims are encouraged to take, per the Georgia Department of Labor. They include:
- Filing a police report and keeping a copy to show to creditors and credit agencies;
- Changing passwords on e-mail, bank and other personal accounts;
- Asking credit-card companies, banks and other financial institutions to put a fraud alert on your account;
- Getting a copy of your credit report and flag any fraudulent transactions with any of the three major credit reporting companies (Equifax, TransUnion or Experian). You may also place a fraud alert on your credit file and consider freezing your credit.