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Irene: Who Are The 40 People Who Died In The Hurricane?

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To date, Hurricane Irene has killed at least 40 people. The victims, 29 men and 11 women, span eleven states, and their ages range from 11, a boy, to 89, a woman. The state of New York lost the most, eight, and Maryland and Massachusetts each lost one. Among the fatalities are 20 involving floods and/or drowning, 21 involving downed trees, and three involving downed power lines.

Via The Wall Street Journal:

CONNECTICUT: 2

— In Prospect, 89-year-old Charlotte Levine was killed early Sunday when a falling tree limb pulled power lines onto her house and started a fire.

— In Bristol, 46-year-old Shane Seaver died after he and another man went canoeing down a flooded street and the canoe capsized. Seaver’s body washed ashore late Sunday in Plainville.

DELAWARE: 2

— In Hockessin, police found the bodies of two men who had sent a text message to a friend saying they were running through Irene during the height of the storm.

FLORIDA: 2

— In Volusia County, 55-year-old Frederick Fernandez died Saturday off New Smyrna Beach after he was tossed off his board by massive waves caused by Irene.

— In Flagler County, 55-year-old tourist James Palmer of New Jersey died Saturday in rough surf.

MARYLAND: 1

— In Queen Anne’s County, Md., 85-year-old Anne Bell was killed when a tree knocked a chimney through the glass roof of the sunroom where she was sitting.

MASSACHUSETTS: 1

— In Southbridge, 52-year-old public works employee Richard Gorgone was electrocuted Monday when he touched a railing on his front porch that was electrified by downed power lines.

NEW JERSEY: 6

— Michael Kenwood, an emergency medical technician, died of injuries after being knocked over by floodwaters in Princeton.

— Celena Sylvestri, 20, of Quinton called her boyfriend and then 911 early Sunday seeking help getting out of her flooded car in Pilesgrove. Her body was found eight hours later in the vehicle, about 150 feet off the road.

— The body of Ronald Dawkins, a 47-year-old postal worker, was found after he abandoned his partially submerged vehicle Sunday and stepped into a hidden drainage creek.

— Scott Palecek, 39, was walking in Wanaque when a pipe broke loose and swept him away in floodwaters Sunday.

— The body of Jorge Hernandez, 25, of Point Pleasant Beach was found Monday in a Manasquan River inlet jetty.

— The body of another man was found in Manasquan River inlet in Point Pleasant Beach on Monday. His identity was not immediately determined.

NEW YORK: 8

— Rozalia Gluck, 82, of Brooklyn drowned in a cottage in the Catskills community of Fleischmanns that was swamped by floodwaters.

— A man in his 50s was electrocuted in Spring Valley when he tried to help a child who had gone into a flooded street with downed wires.

— Sharon Stein, 68, drowned in a creek as she and her husband were evacuating their New Scotland home Sunday.

— 68-year-old Joseph Rocco of East Islip drowned while windsurfing in Bellport Bay.

— A man died after his inflatable boat capsized on the Croton River.

— The body of 68-year-old Jose Sierra of the Bronx was pulled out of the water at a marina Sunday afternoon.

— The bodies of 23-year-old Mikita Fox and Danine Swamp were pulled from a river in Altona after their vehicle plunged into the water while crossing a storm-damaged bridge.

NORTH CAROLINA: 6

— Katherine Morales Cruz, 15, of Manassas Park, Va., died Saturday in a two-car collision at an intersection where Hurricane Irene had knocked out power to the traffic lights.

— Ricky Webb, 63, who lived on a farm near Nashville, was killed after a tree limb fell on him when he went outside to feed his horse Saturday.

— Tim Avery, 50, was found sitting in a chair facing the television after strong winds toppled a tree onto his Ayden home.

— Jose Manuel Farabia Corona, 21, of Dover died in a Pitt County traffic accident after his SUV went off a road and twice slammed into trees Saturday as Irene’s began to make landfall.

— Sabrina Anne Jones, 26, of Clinton died when a tree fell on a car carrying her, her husband and their young daughter Saturday in Sampson County.

— Deputies recovered the body of Melton Robinson Jr., who had been missing since falling or jumping into the Cape Fear River as storms reached North Carolina.

PENNSYLVANIA: 5

— Michael Scerarko, 44, was killed Sunday when a tree fell on him in his yard.

— A 58-year-old Harrisburg man was killed Sunday when a tree toppled onto his tent.

— A man in a camper was crushed by a tree in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County.

— A motorist was killed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike when he lost control of his car during the storm in Carbon County, skidded over an embankment and hit a tree.

— The body of 64-year-old Patricia O’Neill of East Norriton was discovered Sunday in the Wissahickon Creek, about a half-mile from where her car was found in the flooded waterway.

VERMONT: 3

— The body of Rutland Water Treatment Plant Supervisor Michael Joseph Garofano was recovered Monday, a day after he was checking on a water system intake in Mendon. His 24-year-old son, Michael Gregory Garofano, was still missing.

— A body recovered from the Deerfield River is believed to be that of a woman who fell in while watching flooding in Wilmington.

— Police said another man was found dead in Lake Rescue in Ludlow.

VIRGINIA: 4

— 11-year-old Zahir Robinson was killed when a tree crashed through his apartment.

— 67-year-old James Blackwell of Brodnax was killed when a tree fell across a car Saturday in Brunswick County.

— A man died at a Hopewell hospital Saturday after a tree fell on a house he was in.

— 57-year-old William P. Washington of King William County was killed when a tree fell on him as he was cutting another tree Saturday night.

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OPINION

‘I Hope You Find Happiness’: Moskowitz Trolls Comer Over Impeachment Fail

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U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is mocking House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer over a CNN report revealing the embattled Kentucky Republican who has been alleging without proof President Joe Biden is the head of a vast multi-million dollar criminal bribery and influence-peddling conspiracy, has given up trying to impeach the leader of the free world.

CNN on Wednesday had reported, “after 15 months of coming up short in proving some of his biggest claims against the president, Comer recently approached one of his Republican colleagues and made a blunt admission: He was ready to be ‘done with’ the impeachment inquiry into Biden.” The news network described Chairman Comer as “frustrated” and his investigation as “at a dead end.”

One GOP lawmaker told CNN, “Comer is hoping Jesus comes so he can get out.”

“He is fed up,” the Republican added.

Despite the Chairman’s alleged remarks, “a House Oversight Committee spokesperson maintains that ‘the impeachment inquiry is ongoing and impeachment is 100% still on the table.'”

RELATED: ‘Used by the Russians’: Moskowitz Mocks Comer’s Biden Impeachment Failure

Last week, Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) got into a shouting match with Chairman Comer, with the Maryland Democrat saying, “You have not identified a single crime – what is the crime that you want to impeach Joe Biden for and keep this nonsense going?” and Comer replying, “You’re about to find out.”

Before those heated remarks, Congressman Raskin chided Comer, humorously threatening to invite Rep. Moskowitz to return to the hearing.

Congressman Moskowitz appears to be the only member of the House Oversight Committee who has ever made a motion to call for a vote on impeaching President Biden, which he did last month, although he did it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

It appears the Moskowitz-Comer “bromance” may be over.

Wednesday afternoon Congressman Moskowitz, whose sarcasm is becoming well-known, used it to ridicule Chairman Comer.

“I was hoping our breakup would never become public,” he declared. “We had such a great thing while it lasted James. I will miss the time we spent together. I will miss our conversations. I will miss the pet names you gave me. I only wish you the best and hope you find happiness.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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OPINION

‘Doesn’t Care if Pregnant Women Live or Die’: Alito Slammed Over Emergency Abortion Remarks

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case centered on the question, can the federal government require states with strict abortion bans to allow physicians to perform abortions in emergency situations, specifically when the woman’s health, but not her life, is in danger?

The 1986 federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), signed into law by Republican President Ronald Reagan, says it can. The State of Idaho on Wednesday argued it cannot.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, The Washington Post’s Kim Bellware reported, “made a clear delineation between Idaho law and what EMTALA provides.”

“In Idaho, doctors have to shut their eyes to everything except death,” Prelogar said, according to Bellware. “Whereas under EMTALA, you’re supposed to be thinking about things like, ‘Is she about to lose her fertility? Is her uterus going to become incredibly scarred because of the bleeding? Is she about to undergo the possibility of kidney failure?’ ”

READ MORE: Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

Attorney Imani Gandy, an award-winning journalist and Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group, highlighted an issue central to the case.

“The issue of medical judgment vs. good faith judgment is a huge one because different states have different standards of judgment,” she writes. “If a doctor exercises their judgment, another doctor expert witness at trial could question that. That’s a BIG problem here. That’s why doctors are afraid to provide abortions. They may have an overzealous prosecutor come behind them and disagree.”

Right-wing Justice Samuel Alito appeared to draw the most fire from legal experts, as his questioning suggested “fetal personhood” should be the law, which it is not.

“Justice Alito is trying to import fetal personhood into federal statutory law by suggesting federal law might well prohibit hospitals from providing abortions as emergency stabilizing care,” observed Constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

Paraphrasing Justice Alito, Kreis writes: “Alito: How can the federal government restrict what Idaho criminalizes simply because hospitals in Idaho have accepted federal funds?”

Appearing to answer that question, Georgia State University College of Law professor of law and Constitutional scholar Eric Segall wrote: “Our Constitution unequivocally allows the federal gov’t to offer the states money with conditions attached no matter how invasive b/c states can always say no. The conservative justices’ hostility to the spending power is based only on politics and values not text or history.”

Professor Segall also served up some of the strongest criticism of the right-wing justice.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

He wrote that Justice Alito “is basically making it clear he doesn’t care if pregnant women live or die as long as the fetus lives.”

Earlier Wednesday morning Segall had issued a warning: “Trigger alert: In about 20 minutes several of the conservative justices are going to show very clearly that that they care much more about fetuses than women suffering major pregnancy complications which is their way of owning the libs which is grotesque.”

Later, predicting “Alito is going to dissent,” Segall wrote: “Alito is dripping arrogance and condescension…in a case involving life, death, and medical emergencies. He has no bottom.”

Taking a broader view of the case, NYU professor of law Melissa Murray issued a strong warning: “The EMTALA case, Moyle v. US, hasn’t received as much attention as the mifepristone case, but it is huge. Not only implicates access to emergency medical procedures (like abortion in cases of miscarriage), but the broader question of federal law supremacy.”

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

 

 

 

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Gag Order Breach? Trump Targeted Cohen in Taped Interview Hours Before Contempt Hearing

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Hours before his attorneys would mount a defense on Tuesday claiming he had not violated his gag order Donald Trump might have done just that in a 12-minute taped interview that morning, which did not air until later that day. It will be up to Judge Juan Merchan to make that decision, if prosecutors add it to their contempt request.

Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told Judge Juan Merchan that the ex-president violated the gag order ten times, via posts on his Truth Social platform, and are asking he be held in contempt. While the judge has yet to rule, he did not appear moved by their arguments. At one point, Judge Merchan told Trump’s lead lawyer Todd Blanche he was “losing all credibility” with the court.

And while Judge Merchan directed defense attorneys to provide a detailed timeline surrounding Trump’s Truth Social posts to prove he had not violated the gag order, Trump in an interview with a local television station appeared to have done so.

READ MORE: ‘They Will Have Thugs?’: Lara Trump’s Claim RNC Will ‘Physically Handle the Ballots’ Stuns

The gag order bars Trump from “commenting or causing others to comment on potential witnesses in the case, prospective jurors, court staff, lawyers in the district attorney’s office and the relatives of any counsel or court staffer, as CBS News reported.

“The threat is very real,” Judge Merchan wrote when he expanded the gag order. “Admonitions are not enough, nor is reliance on self-restraint. The average observer, must now, after hearing Defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself.”

Tuesday morning, Trump told ABC Philadelphia’s Action News reporter Walter Perez, “Michael Cohen is a convicted liar. He’s got no credibility whatsoever.”

He repeated that Cohen is a “convicted liar,” and insisted he “was a lawyer for many people, not just me.”

READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

Since Cohen is a witness in Trump’s New York criminal case, Judge Merchan might decide Trump’s remarks during that interview violated the gag order, if prosecutors bring the video to his attention.

Enter attorney George Conway, who has been attending Trump’s New York trial.

Conway reposted a clip of the video, tagged Manhattan District Attorney Bragg, writing: “cc: @ManhattanDA, for your proposed order to show cause why the defendant in 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘷. 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 should not spend some quiet time in lockup.”

Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in this New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of “hush money” to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which experts say is election interference.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Blood on Your Hands’: Tennessee Republicans OK Arming Teachers After Deadly School Shooting

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