Singapore News Channel, Singapore News Network

The Biden family’s Ukraine games cried out for investigation

House Democrats impeached President Trump for putting his own political fortunes ahead of the national interest in dealing with Ukraine. But it’s Joe Biden who should be on the hot seat for that.

Trump is criticized for a July 25 phone call, when he asked the president of Ukraine for help investigating what Biden did as vice president to get a prosecutor there fired. At the time, Biden’s son Hunter was on the payroll of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, which was targeted by authorities.

Democrats claim it was wrong to ask for the investigation; Trump’s defense lawyers say there was every reason to ask. The evidence backs up Team Trump.

It’s not just the $1 million a year Burisma paid Hunter, though he had no energy or Ukraine expertise. That’s what the defense team focused on, but it’s small potatoes.

Amazon’s Ring app is handing over user data to Facebook, Google and other third-parties without permission, reveals a new report

Amazon’s Ring is under fire yet again after security experts discovered that the Android app is sending customer information to third parties.

The names, private IP addresses, mobile network carriers, persistent identifiers and sensor data were discovered in the exchange with Facebook and Google, among others.

The report also found that some Ring users whose identity was shared with Facebook do not have an account with the social media network.

The findings were uncovered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organizations that defends civil liberties in the digital world, which noted the information was encrypted in a way that it would go undetected by security researchers.

Doctors told to consider shortness of breath and coughing as symptoms of LUNG CANCER because they are the earliest signs of the killer disease

Doctors are being told to be alert to shortness of breath and a cough as potential predictors of lung cancer.

The are becoming more common as the first symptom before diagnosis than they were previously, a study suggests.

Researchers examined nearly 28,000 medical records of adults who were diagnosed with lung cancer between 2000 and 2017 at more than 600 UK GP practices.

Coughing up blood is no longer reported as a first symptom of the disease, despite being regarded as such for decades.

Biden Snaps At Voter: ‘Go Vote For Someone Else’

Democratic 2020 candidate Joe Biden snapped at an Iowa voter on Tuesday, telling the man to “go vote for someone else” after he asked the former vice president not to support building new pipelines.

The man said that he would support Biden in the general election against President Donald Trump, but that he planned to support billionaire Tom Steyer in the Democratic primary.

“I’m going to support you if you win the nomination because we’ve got to get rid of Trump, but what are we going to do about climate change?” the man asked Biden.

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China Has Not Accepted U.S. Offers to Send CDC Experts to Aid in Coronavirus Fight

U.S. health officials said that they have been offering for weeks to send experts to help China combat the coronavirus that has claimed at least 106 lives.

At press conference Tuesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the U.S. first offered to send experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 6 but China has not yet accepted the offer.

“CDC experts are standing by, ready willing and able to go immediately to China, either on a bilateral basis or under the auspices of the World Health Organization,” Azar said. “This is a major public health issue and we basically just need the best public health people we have in the world working on this.”

U.S. personnel could aid China in answering critical public health questions about how the virus spreads, its incubation period, and if it can be spread by those not yet showing symptoms, CDC Director Robert Redfield said.

“We are urging China: more cooperation and transparency are the most important steps you can take toward a more effective response,” Azar said.

Va. Senate passes bill to allow firefighters, EMTs to conceal-carry

RICHMOND, Va. (WSET) — A bill that would allow firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics, who are former law enforcement officers or veterans, to carry a concealed firearm has passed the Senate and will head to the House.

The Washington Post reported that the bill is sponsored by Sen. Amanda Chase, the mother of an EMT and narrowly passed with a 21-19 vote.

Sen. Chase is known for being armed on the Senate floor.

SB 1012 would require emergency personnel to get a concealed-carry permit as well as permission from their chief.

Johnson & Johnson to create coronavirus vaccine

Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is working on a vaccine to counter the deadly coronavirus. In a recent interview, the chief scientist for Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Paul Stoffels, said he’s confident they can create a vaccine within months. However, it could take up to a year before it becomes available to the public.

This comes after the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported more than 100 people across 26 states are currently being screened for the fast spreading illness.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke out on the current state of the epidemic Tuesday.

Governor Hogan Introduces Common Sense Legislation to Return School Start to After Labor Day

Move Supported by Overwhelming Majority of Marylanders Will End Mass Confusion of Having Maryland’s Counties Starting on Different Dates

ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today announced that he is introducing the Universal School Start Act of 2020 requiring Maryland public schools to start after Labor Day, and ending the mass confusion of having Maryland’s counties each starting on different dates. This mass confusion was created by the General Assembly’s actions in 2019, when it cynically overturned the governor’s popular executive order requiring that school start after Labor Day.

“We have taken a lot of actions over the past five years, but I can’t think of a single one that has more widespread, enthusiastic support across the state,” said Governor Hogan. “But after two years of it working very well, and after the 2018 election was completed, last year in 2019 special interests snuck a bill in and legislators reversed himself and ignored the people again by reversing this common sense action with a misguided piece of legislation, which has the potential to cause mass confusion this fall and in future years with a potential for 24 different start dates spread over several weeks.”

(Watch)

The Universal School Start Act of 2020 directly repeals the General Assembly’s politically motivated 2019 legislation and codifies the governor’s 2016 executive order requiring that Maryland’s public schools begin after Labor Day, and complete the 180 days that are required under state law. Polling has consistently shown that the overwhelming majority of Marylanders want school to start after Labor Day.

“The Universal School Start Act will repeal the legislature’s 2019 misguided bill and return our state to what the citizens actually want and have been demanding for years: the return of the school start to after Labor Day,” continued the governor.

School After Labor Day in Maryland: A Timeline

In 2013, following years of public pressure to return to a traditional school calendar, the Maryland General Assembly voted by an overwhelming 170-7 margin to pass legislation creating a state commission to study moving the school start date to after Labor Day, which was signed into law by former Governor Martin O’Malley.

This initiative had the support of Comptroller Peter Franchot, as well as legislative leaders including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. From 2013 to 2016, a total of five bills were introduced to require starting school after Labor Day—sponsored by dozens in both parties—which failed to pass, in large part due to political pressure.

In September 2016, after the General Assembly repeatedly failed to act, Governor Hogan signed an executive order to finally enact the recommendation of the legislative task force and the will of Marylanders by requiring school calendars to start classes after Labor Day beginning in the 2017-18 school year.

However, in 2019, the General Assembly again ignored the will of the people and passed legislation to turn back the clock on this common sense action, creating the mass confusion of different counties starting school on different dates. The Universal School Start Act of 2020 repeals that irresponsible action and restores what the overwhelming majority of Marylanders want and have been demanding.

The Betrayal of an American Patriot Continues

When it comes to the Global War on Terror, America has a lot of thinking to do about the lessons we have learned and what the future course should be. The country must also confront the fact that it has left some of those who stepped up to protect this country high and dry.

In particular, we’re talking about Patriots who stepped up to get very committed, high-ranking members of al-Qaida to talk. To do so, they developed enhanced-interrogation techniques that ultimately succeeded against Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, among others. That success proved to be vital — almost as vital as the code-breaking efforts of Joe Rochefort prior to the World War II Battle of Midway.

It should be noted that in some corners, Rochefort’s efforts were seen as underhanded. In fact, codebreaking was once shut down prior to World War II while one politician huffed, “Gentlemen don’t read each other’s mail.” For reasons of national security (and bureaucratic infighting by DC insiders who were shown up), Rochefort’s vital contributions remained in the shadows for decades. But today, Rochefort is recognized as a hero.

Sadly, those who got KSM and other high-ranking terrorists to talk not only saw their efforts prematurely exposed but also have been dealing with an ongoing betrayal stretching over a decade of persecution by a Gitmo Bar that makes Hanoi Jane look like a piker.

South Dakota bill would bar transgender procedures on those younger than 16

South Dakota lawmakers are expected to vote Wednesday on legislation that would limit doctors from prescribing puberty-blocking or hormone drugs and performing sex reassignment surgeries on persons under the age of 16.

Supporters of the bill believe that transgender adolescents under 16 are too young to begin a medical transition to the opposite sex. Opponents, including doctors, Democrats, libertarians, and transgender people, say it will harm the teenagers who seek treatment and incriminate doctors, who could face up to one year in jail for violating the law. Lawmakers who voted against the bill said they heard from young transgender people and their families who said the treatment had proven integral to the child’s well-being.

The bill was introduced last year by Rep. Fred Deutsch, who says he was inspired by stories on the internet of people who regretted their decision. “I Googled ‘transgender medicine South Dakota,’ and I found a handful of doctors, not many, that do the procedures,” Deutsch said, “and that’s the genesis of the concept of this bill.”