October 31, 2020

Get out the vote with Kamala Harris in Houston, TX

October 31, 2020

Houston energy exec charged with bilking investors out of $1.2 million in oil and gas deals

A Houston energy exec has been charged in an elaborate scheme to defraud 21 investors out of $1.2 million in oil and gas transactions, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick.

A federal grand jury returned a 12-count indictment against Arael Doolittle, 55 who heads Sariel Petroleum LLC and Sariel Enterprises LLC. According to Law 360, Doolittle operated a company that used bogus letters, phony email addresses and a bank account under the name of a Chevron-affiliated company in order to dupe companies into doing business with it.

"Doolittle falsely represented he had the necessary pre-existing relationships with major refiners and petroleum product suppliers to purchase fuels for resale to his customers," the U.S. Attorney's release stated.

The indictment also alleges that Doolittle provided falsified documents to investors to substantiate and legitimize his holdings.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/business/article/Houston-energy-exec-charged-with-bilking-15688344.php

October 31, 2020

VP hopeful Kamala Harris, in historic Fort Worth stop, calls on Black Texans to vote

FORT WORTH -- Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris made a historical campaign stop Friday in Fort Worth, speaking to a mostly Black crowd in a field outside a church about the importance of “honoring our ancestors” by voting in Tuesday’s election.

The Democratic senator from California, representing herself and presidential hopeful Joe Biden in a last-minute push to win Texas over the Republicans, arrived just before noon Friday at Meacham Airport in a twin-engine Bombardier business jet.

She then rode in a motorcade to First St. John Baptist Church in southeast Fort Worth, where an excited group of about 300 people waited to greet her, sitting in lawn chairs that were spread 8 to 12 feet apart for social distancing. The location of the gathering in the Mitchell Boulevard neighborhood had not been publicized prior to the event, to prevent overcrowding, and many of the attendees were quietly invited by the Democratic Party.

In a speech that lasted nearly 30 minutes under a warm autumn sun, Harris, wearing a blue blazer and athletic shoes, accused President Trump and other Republicans of trying to suppress the vote of people of color, using tactics such as questioning the credibility of voting by mail.

Read more: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article246830817.html

October 30, 2020

Joe Biden leads President Trump in Connecticut by 25 points in Sacred Heart Poll; Gov. Lamont

Joe Biden leads President Trump in Connecticut by 25 points in Sacred Heart Poll; Gov. Lamont approval ratings up during pandemic


HARTFORD — Only days before the election, a new poll shows Democrat Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by 25 percentage points in Connecticut with many voters still unsure.

The poll by Sacred Heart University in Fairfield says that 51% favor Biden, while 26% choose Trump. Even with time running out before Tuesday’s election, 20% of those surveyed said they were not sure or undecided.

The survey also showed that 53.5% of residents approve of Gov. Ned Lamont’s performance — up sharply from a 41% approval rating in April. Lamont has conducted numerous press conferences and events related to the coronavirus pandemic over the past seven months and has made numerous decisions through executive orders under sweeping powers during a public health emergency. His approval rating is 70.6% among Democrats, 46% among unaffiliated voters and 37% among Republicans.

Overall, 71% of state residents approve of how Lamont is communicating with the public regarding the pandemic and of his handling of the ongoing health crisis that shut down numerous bars and other businesses in March. Restaurants have reopened in stages throughout the summer and fall, and many are now offering outdoor dining with heaters as some diners still have concerns about eating indoors.

Read more: https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-new-poll-biden-ahead-in-connecticut-20201029-6erzswwuyjb7jephc4jlaq7o5i-story.html

October 30, 2020

One-Third of Connecticut Lives In A 'Red Alert' Community

Nearly a third of Connecticut’s population now lives in a city or town with “red alert” levels of COVID-19 infection, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday during a press briefing that saw the state’s new infection rate at an alarming 6.1%.

“I look hard to find a silver lining and I can’t find it in these numbers except perhaps the fact that we’ve done a lot of testing,” Lamont said at the outset of his briefing. “That’s the highest rate we’ve had since June 1. Couple that with hospitalizations continuing to creep up and fatalities, there’s no good news in those numbers.”

Since Wednesday, another 12 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, bringing the state total to 321 and another five residents died as a result of the virus. Thursday’s spike in new cases helped bump the seven-day rolling average to 3.1%.

Meanwhile, the number of towns in the “red alert” range of having more than 15 positive cases per 100,000 residents jumped sharply from 19 to 30. Lamont said those 30 towns represent about 32% of the state’s total population.

Read more: https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/20201029_one-third_of_connecticut_lives_in_a_red_alert_community/

October 30, 2020

UConn halts free tuition program amid surging budget deficits

Citing gaping deficits caused by the pandemic and a lack of philanthropic support, the University of Connecticut announced Wednesday it is discontinuing a program to offer free tuition for all low-income students whose families make less than $50,000.

The program – called the “Connecticut Commitment” – will cost the university $700,000 this year for 260 students to attend tuition-free. The program was expected to cost $5 million by the time it was rolled out over four years but given the lagging economy, UConn President Thomas Katsouleas said he expected need for program to exceed those projections.

The state’s flagship university was unable to raise even the $5 million, however.

“[We] cannot say with certainty that we will be able to raise the private dollars necessary to fund it beyond the first cohort of students. Neither I nor anyone else at UConn wants to make a promise we may not be able to adequately fund as planned,” Katsouleas said. “Consideration was given to potentially funding the programs through some avenue other than philanthropy. And while that might may have been a viable possibility and another time, it’s not an option in this budget environment.

Read more: https://ctmirror.org/2020/10/28/uconn-halts-free-tuition-program-amid-surging-budget-deficits/

October 30, 2020

'We are in a bad place:' Raimondo to announce new COVID restrictions

PROVIDENCE – Declaring that “we are in a bad place” with the COVID-19 pandemic midway through this autumn of 2020, Gov. Gina Raimondo on Wednesday said Rhode Island faces the realistic possibility of throttling back the state’s economic and lifestyle reopening from the current phase three to the more restrictive phase two “in a week or two.”

In hopes of avoiding that, Raimondo during her weekly news conference at Veterans Memorial Auditorium urged residents to redouble their efforts to wear masks indoors and out, practice distancing, and limit social gatherings of any kind to immediate family and “closed circles” of others, notably co-workers.

With coronavirus statistics continuing to confirm what she described as “a second wave” similar to what most other states and many foreign nations are also experiencing, Raimondo sounded an alarm about renewed pressures on Rhode Island’s healthcare systems, warning that the state could reach hospital capacity in four to five weeks according to the state's current models if case trends continue.

And that raises the specter of possibly having to open field hospitals that were established but never used during the first wave, last spring.

Read more: https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/2020/10/28/raimondo-unveil-more-restrictions-ri-hospitals-could-hit-capacity/6054427002/

October 30, 2020

Hong Kong raid leads to 100K counterfeit masks

HONG KONG — Customs agents in the southern Chinese city of Hong Kong have seized 100,000 counterfeit face masks and arrested one person in what the government called the largest operation of its kind on record.

The masks were set to be shipped overseas and had a market value of almost $400,000, the government’s Information Services Department reported Friday.

The masks were seized at a storehouse in Hong Kong on Wednesday after agents received a tip-off, the department said, leading to a further raid on a trading company where a 71-year-old manager was arrested

“Initial investigations revealed that unscrupulous merchants intended to transship the batch of masks overseas for sale and profit. Customs is looking into the source of the face masks involved in the case. Samples have also been sent to a laboratory for safety testing,” the department said in a news release.

Read more: https://thepublicsradio.org/article/the-latest-hong-kong-raid-leads-to-100k-counterfeit-masks

October 30, 2020

Doctor with a criminal past named chief of medical services for Rhode Island's state psychiatric

Doctor with a criminal past named chief of medical services for Rhode Island's state psychiatric hospital.


A 49-year-old doctor with a felony conviction has been named chief of medical services for Rhode Island’s state psychiatric hospital.

Dr. Andrew C. Stone was appointed chief of medical services at Eleanor Slater Hospital, in Cranston, and its Zambrano unit, in Burrillville, earlier this month. In 2006, police in Seekonk, MA arrested Stone after he was accused of exposing himself to boys in a locker room at the Newman YMCA. Stone pleaded guilty to four felony counts of open and gross lewdness and was sentenced to four months at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Massachusetts. Rhode Island health officials revoked his medical license.

According to Rhode Island medical disciplinary records, Stone later completed a treatment program in Texas, participated in almost seven years of treatment and monitoring and spent “hundreds of hours in group therapy, individual psychotherapy and psychiatric treatment.’’ By 2015, medical experts declared him to be in remission and fit to return to practicing medicine, with restrictions. He was to limit his practice to adults in group institutional settings, and continue treatment and monitoring. In 2018, the state removed him from probation. The same year he went to work at Slater.

Stone’s appointment to chief of medical services at Slater was first reported by the local online news organization NRI Now. The state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) said in a statement that Stone is taking on additional responsibilities as part of a reshuffling after two of the hospital’s physicians stepped down from their posts.

Read more: https://thepublicsradio.org/article/doctor-with-a-criminal-past-named-chief-of-medical-services-for-rhode-islands-state-psychiatric-hospital-

October 30, 2020

For the first time, state board strips pension of a former State Police trooper convicted in fraud

For the first time, state board strips pension of a former State Police trooper convicted in fraud scandal


The state’s retirement board on Thursday stripped the pension of a veteran Massachusetts State Police trooper convicted in a high-profile payroll fraud scheme, marking the first time the panel has punished an officer implicated in the sprawling scandal.

The five-member board voted to take away former trooper Paul Cesan’s pension, which would have paid the 52-year-old from Southwick and his former wife nearly $80,000 a year for the rest of his life. The board rarely strips pension benefits from state employees.

Cesan, a 25-year veteran of the State Police force, retired in March 2018 as the pace of the federal probe quickened. He was arrested in June 2018 and later pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he collected more than $29,000 for overtime hours he did not actually work in 2016. He was sentenced to serve a year of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution as well as a $5,500 fine.

Cesan will still keep $180,000 he contributed on his own to his pension.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/29/metro/first-time-state-board-strips-pension-former-state-police-trooper-convicted-fraud-scandal/