Refusing to touch the 2017 GOP tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, a bipartisan group of 21 senators is proposing a series of alternative infrastructure funding mechanisms that critics say amount to a thinly veiled scheme to privatize the nation’s roads, bridges, and water systems.

In a statement issued Thursday as the details of the bipartisan proposal began to emerge, Mary Grant of advocacy group Food & Water Watch warned that the plan “would pile further burdens on communities struggling to recover from the Covid pandemic.”

“It promotes privatization and so-called ‘public-private partnerships’ instead of making public investments in publicly-owned infrastructure,” Grant said. “This package does not provide adequate funding to rebuild and repair our country’s infrastructure; it is nothing more than an outrageously expensive way to borrow funds, with the ultimate bill paid back by households and local businesses in the form of higher rates.”

Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Thursday that by deeming any changes to the 2017 GOP tax law off limits, the bipartisan Senate group is showing that it’s “more interested in having less Infrastructure investment in order to justify keeping in place a rigged tax code that favors corporations and the rich rather than actually coming up with a plan that solves the enormous challenges that our country faces.”

https://truthout.org/articles/critics-say-bipartisan-infrastructure-proposal-will-enrich-wall-street-investors/

Growing up in California, future NFL first-round draft pick Najee Harris spent several years with his parents and four siblings in a Bay Area homeless shelter.

Harris returned to the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program on Thursday as one of its greatest success stories, coming home to a draft party held in his honor.

"There was a time I needed a helping hand. They gave us an opportunity to get back on our feet," Harris told reporters. "So it is my job to give back."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/steelers/2021/04/30/najee-harris-draft-party-bay-area-homeless-shelter/7410451002/

Great young man.

A 7-year-old girl is dead and her 29-year-old father hospitalized after they were shot in a McDonald's drive-through on Chicago's West Side, CBS Chicago reports. Late Sunday, police said the shooter or shooters were still on the loose.

It was part of another gunfire-filled weekend in Chicago in which at least two people died, including the little girl, and 22 were wounded, CBS Chicago says.

The station says a Chicago police officer rushed Jaslyn Adams to a hospital after she was found in a bullet-ridden car sitting in a McDonald's drive-thru. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.


t wasn't clear if the shooting was targeted, but authorities haven't said the public is at risk. The Chicago Sun-Times says a McDonald's employee who asked not to be identified told it two people got out of a gray car in the drive-thru and started shooting at Adams' car.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jaslyn-adams-mcdonalds-shooting-chicago-drivethru-7-year-old-girl-killed/

track them as a condition of the job


Amazon is telling its delivery drivers to sign a consent form that allows the company to track them based on biometric data as "a condition of delivering Amazon packages," Motherboard's Lauren Kaori Gurley reported on Tuesday.

Thousands of drivers across the US must sign the "biometric consent" paperwork this week, and if they don't they'll lose their jobs, according to Motherboard. The form, which was viewed by the outlet and published in the report, states that Amazon would be allowed to use "on-board safety camera technology which collects your photograph for the purposes of confirming your identity and connecting you to your driver account." The system would then "collect, store, and use Biometric Information from such photographs.


The technology specifically would track a driver's location and movement, like how many miles they drive, when they brake and turn, and how fast they are driving.


As Motherboard noted, the drivers presented with the consent form are employed through third-party delivery partners that use Amazon's delivery stations but who are still subject to the company's working guidelines. An Amazon delivery company owner told the outlet that one of their drivers refused to sign, citing Amazon's micromanaging as the reason.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-camera-driver-biometric-tracking-consent-deliver-packages-report-2021-3

Source: ESPN

One of the all time greats.

Hall of Fame forward Elgin Baylor, who followed his illustrious playing career with a decades-long tenure as LA Clippers general manager, has died at the age of 86.

Baylor died of natural causes Monday and was surrounded by his wife, Elaine, and his daughter, Krystal, the Los Angeles Lakers said in a statement.

"Elgin was the love of my life and my best friend," Elaine said in the statement. "And like everyone else, I was in awe of his immense courage, dignity and the time he gave to all fans. At this time we ask that I and our family be allowed to mourn his passing in privacy."

Considered one of basketball's greatest players, Baylor was an 11-time All-Star and 10-time All-NBA selection during his 14 seasons with the Lakers from 1958 to 1971. He was the 1958-59 Rookie of the Year as well as the All-Star Game MVP that year. He averaged a double-double for his career, posting 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds per game.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31114563/los-angeles-lakers-star-former-la-clippers-exec-elgin-baylor-dies-86

Source: ESPN

HOUSTON -- A third civil lawsuit filed against Deshaun Watson accuses the Houston Texans quarterback of sexually assaulting a massage therapist by allegedly forcing her to have oral sex with him in December 2020.

This is the third civil case filed against Watson this week. The previous two lawsuits were related to two separate incidents during which he is accused of committing "civil assault" by touching a massage therapist with his penis.

The plaintiff alleges that she felt "intimidated and threatened" and "she was afraid of what someone like Watson could do if she did not submit to his demands." She says in the lawsuit that Watson made it clear, repeatedly, that he could "help, or hurt, her career." The lawsuit alleges that Watson forced the woman to perform oral sex on him, and that she "did not consent."

Watson responded on Twitter on Tuesday night after Buzbee announced the filing of the first lawsuit, saying he rejected "a baseless six-figure settlement demand" and that this is "about clearing my name, and I look forward to doing that." At the time of his statement, Watson said he had not seen the first lawsuit.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31086798/houston-texans-qb-deshaun-watson-accused-sexual-assault-third-civil-lawsuit

Government.

A good read about military and ex-military involvement in an extremist right wing group. I think it's clear this these are the types of folks Trump was referring to when he bragged about having the support of some police and military over his four years in office. These are just a few excerpts from the article.

"In another instance, an ex-Marine gathered at least six men at a wooded property in McLoud, Oklahoma, a small town outside of Oklahoma City, and taught them how to storm a building. In a video posted to YouTube last year, the former Marine, Christopher Ledbetter, shows the group how to enter a house and kill any enemy combatants inside. Filmed with a GoPro camera, the video concludes with Ledbetter, who served in the Marine Corps from 2011 to 2015, blasting a wooden target with a barrage of bullets from a fully automatic AK-47-type carbine.

Ledbetter called his training facility the “kill house,” according to court records.


Traditional infantry tactics wouldn’t be particularly useful during the coming civil war, opined Guerrilla Instructor, arguing that sabotage and assassination would be more helpful for the anti-government insurgents. It was simple, he said: A Boogaloo Boi could just walk up to a government figure or law enforcement officer on the street and “shoot them in the face” before fleeing.

But there was another assassination technique that held special appeal for Guerrilla Instructor. “I believe honestly that drive-bys will be our greatest tool,” he said, sketching out a scenario in which three Boogs would hop in an SUV, spray a target with gunfire, “kill some dudes” and speed off.





https://www.propublica.org/article/boogaloo-bois-military-training?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

The long-held Republican nightmare that a champion of working-class people and the common good—one who has dedicated his political career to curbing poverty and injustice while denouncing corporate greed, endless war, and the cruelty of a for-profit health system that leaves millions upon millions uninsured or without affordable access to care—would assume the powerful position of chairing the Senate Budget Committee is about to become reality.

"Time to face the harsh reality, socialist Bernie Sanders will become the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He has vowed to use his position to enact his progressive agenda on healthcare, climate, infrastructure spending, and cutting defense spending," Nikki Haley tweeted Saturday.

Among the chief powers that the chair of the committee will be able to utilize is fostering legislation through the Senate using the budget reconciliation process—a procedural tool that will allow, even under current rules, legislation to pass with a simple majority.


"Yes, we can and we must use budget reconciliation to increase the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour with a simple majority vote in the Senate, just like Republicans did to pass massive tax breaks to the 1%," declared Warren Gunnels, one of Sanders' most senior aides who went out of the way to identify himself as the "Incoming Majority Staff Director" for the "Senate Budget Committee" in a tweet Friday morning.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/17/paul-ryan-nikki-haley-gop-nightmare-senate-budget-chair-bernie-sanders-about-come

A Republican state lawmaker who let far-right demonstrators into the Oregon Capitol last month has lost his committee responsibilities and will forfeit unfettered access to the statehouse, as calls for his resignation grow.

Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence, was stripped of his legislative committee assignments and fined $2,000 for damage that occurred after he allowed demonstrators to breach the building, House Speaker Tina Kotek announced Monday. As speaker, Kotek has authority to unilaterally impose both consequences.

Meanwhile, Nearman has agreed to sign an agreement that he forfeit a badge granting access to the Capitol, give 24-hours notice before coming to the building, and not allow “non-authorized personnel” access to the building. Nearman read those terms on the House floor Monday afternoon, after a closed-door debate in which some Democrats had urged a floor vote to make them more solid. No vote was ultimately held.

The matter is unlikely to end there. Kotek on Monday called on Nearman to resign, and announced a formal complaint that could result in additional consequences, up to expulsion.

https://www.opb.org/article/2021/01/12/oregon-legislature-mike-nearman-penalties/

I hope he is expelled from the Legislature. The photo of him opening the door is enough proof.

https://www.wbrc.com/2021/01/12/championship-celebration-draws-hundreds-strip-tuscaloosa/