TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLt. Gov. McGeachin promotes 'walk-thru disinfectant cubes' to fight COVID
BOISE — Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin (R) on Tuesday touted a proposal she’s crafted to funnel millions of the state’s CARES Act funds to a Nevada company for technology including “walk-through disinfectant cubes” to be installed at the state Capitol.
McGeachin, who held a statewide virtual press conference with pastors and business owners around the state to decry current Gov. Brad Little’s coronavirus response and call for Idahoans to gather to celebrate Thanksgiving with “courage,” said with “very high-tech equipment” manufactured by Xtreme Manufacturing in Las Vegas, “A person can walk through a cube and be disinfected from head to toe, including on the bottom of their feet.”
Such technology has been widely discredited. According to the National Institutes of Health, a June study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found “walk-through sanitation gates” ineffective and potentially dangerous, noting that the practice violates World Health Organization standards. “Fumigation is meant for inanimate objects and surfaces, and it should never be used on people,” the study said.
A May study published by the Royal Society for Public Health, also cited by the National Institutes of Health, said “disinfection tunnels” or “sanitization tunnels” initially were used in China, but proved to be both dangerous and useless for preventing the spread of COVID-19, which spreads through exhaled and inhaled droplets.
Read more: https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/lt-gov-mcgeachin-promotes-walk-thru-disinfectant-cubes-to-fight-covid/article_f3989384-e4bd-574d-8335-e0a073b18226.html
Jimmy Kimmel, Oliver White buy South Fork Lodge in Swan Valley
The long-whispered-about purchase of the South Fork Lodge in Swan Valley was completed this summer.
Comedian and late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” purchased the famed property on the South Fork of the Snake River in June with partner and well-known guide Oliver White. The lodge is situated on a stunning bend in the South Fork of the Snake River just off U.S. Highway 26.
The purchase price could not be determined but the 25.83-acre property was listed for $7.95 million.
Efforts to reach White by email were unsuccessful Monday.
The Wall Street Journal Magazine reported the purchase in its October edition in an article “Gone Fishing.” The magazine reported the deal took nearly a year of negotiations.
Read more: https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/jimmy-kimmel-oliver-white-buy-south-fork-lodge-in-swan-valley/article_e4c6f922-a3e3-50d5-80d8-0b0399449b26.html
Idaho Supreme Court: State must reveal execution drug source
BOISE — Idaho prison officials must turn over information about where they got lethal injection drugs used in recent executions, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday, the latest turn in a long-running challenge over transparency in executions that’s playing out nationwide.
The high court’s ruling was a win for University of Idaho professor Aliza Cover, who studies how the public interacts with the death penalty. She filed a public records request with the Idaho Department of Correction in 2017 seeking execution-related documents. The department largely denied the request, sending her just 49 pages of documents and a link to information on its website about execution protocols.
However, Idaho prison officials had more than 2,000 pages of documents related to her request, including receipts and other information that showed where the state obtained lethal injection drugs used in its two most recent executions and how much it paid for them.
Prison officials have long said they fear they won’t be able to obtain drugs for future executions if their suppliers believe they could be exposed. Major pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell medications to states if they think they will be used for executions, forcing some states to look for more novel sources, including compounding pharmacies and drugs from other countries like India.
Read more: https://magicvalley.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/idaho-supreme-court-state-must-reveal-execution-drug-source/article_61ab473a-a4a4-5ab8-bb92-be92b621d7ad.html
Health clinic owner charged with theft of Medicaid funds
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The owner of a health clinic based in Spokane, Washington, is facing charges of theft and money laundering after investigators alleged fraudulent Medicaid billing totaling more than $5 million since 2017.
The Spokesman-Review reports Paul Means, and his firm Abilia Healthcare, were targeted following an audit of its billing by the Washington State Health Care Authority that revealed irregularities. Investigators believe the proceeds of the scheme, which involved billing the state for intensive, in-person examinations when they were conducted over the internet or not at all, were used to buy a $300,000 home on Spokane’s South Hill and several vehicles.
Means, who has been practicing in the state since 2009 and has no evidence of discipline from the Washington Department of Health, declined to comment on the allegations when reached by the newspaper by phone Wednesday. No attorney was listed in court records as of Wednesday.
Investigators from the Washington Attorney General Office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Division have been tracking Means since at least March, according to court records.
Read more: https://www.idahopress.com/news/state/health-clinic-owner-charged-with-theft-of-medicaid-funds/article_7bb8321b-f912-5874-ade2-184ef97adf12.html
Rationales shift as Nevada considers future of vote by-mail
CARSON CITY — Nevada's decision to send all active voters mail-in ballots ahead of the election put the swing state at the center of the nationwide debate over voting procedures.
Nevada Republicans, the Trump campaign and candidates for lower office have challenged the move post-election in multiple lawsuits, alleging problems with signature verification machines, dead people on voter rolls, and, without evidence, widespread fraud.
Though Nevada's vote by mail policy has been a flashpoint in 2020, its effects ended up being different from the expectations of proponents and detractors when the policy was under consideration.
The state was one of four that sent all active voters mail-in ballots amid the pandemic. In each, lawmakers are now evaluating whether the move was a success and deciding whether to join the growing list of states that hold elections predominantly by mail each cycle.
Read more: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/nov/27/rationales-shift-as-nevada-considers-future-of-vot/
MGM Resorts to close Mirage, Mandalay Bay hotels midweek due to visitor slump
LAS VEGAS – Due to a lack of demand in the aftermath of COVID-19 travel fallout, MGM Resorts will shut down hotel operations during the midweek at the Mirage and Mandalay Bay resorts.
Starting on Nov. 30, the hotel towers at Mirage and Mandalay Bay will open at noon on Thursdays and stay open until noon on Mondays.
Casinos, restaurants and amenities inside The Strip resorts will remain open.
“We are constantly evaluating occupancy levels and adjusting operations accordingly,” MGM Resorts said in a statement.
Read more: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/11/25/mgm-resorts-close-mirage-mandalay-bay-hotels-midweek-due-visitor-slump/6420977002/
(Reno Gazette Journal)
Judge rejects Republican Dan Rodimer's request for re-vote in congressional race
A judge swiftly denied Republican congressional candidate Dan Rodimer’s request for a new election in the district he lost by about 13,000 votes, saying the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the case under Nevada law.
Judge Trevor Atkin dismissed Rodimer’s case during a 30-minute hearing in Clark County District Court on Wednesday. Atkin sided with attorneys for Clark County and the Nevada State Democratic Party, which argued the issue should be raised in a different format — an election contest proceeding.
“When we decide things, our North Star is the law,” Atkin said. “Despite the concerns as raised in the 87 paragraphs of the petition for writ of mandamus, this court simply has no jurisdiction.”
The case is the fifth brought by Republicans to either be denied by a judge or set for a voluntary withdrawal, mostly on the basis that they should be filed as election contests. A sixth case, brought by President Donald Trump’s campaign and seeking to award Trump Nevada’s six electoral votes on the basis of alleged irregularities, is set for a hearing Dec. 3 in Carson City.
Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/judge-rejects-republican-dan-rodimers-request-for-re-vote-in-congressional-race
Economists say construction forecast remains steady despite pandemic, stadium completion
By now, the Great Recession’s effect on Nevada seems like a tale as old as time. The financial crisis and burst housing bubble brought construction to a halt, littering the Las Vegas region with half-finished projects.
Before then, Clark County hummed with building activity as homes multiplied in the desert, casinos sprouted on and off the Las Vegas Strip and shopping centers sprang up in suburban locales. In 2006, the construction industry accounted for 1 in 9 jobs in Nevada.
Six years later, in March 2012, construction jobs statewide bottomed out at 49,900, a nearly two-thirds decrease.
“Construction always has higher amplitude — higher highs and lower lows — than the state’s overall economy, which has higher highs and lower lows than the nation’s economy,” said Bob Potts, deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED).
Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/economists-say-construction-forecast-remains-steady-despite-pandemic-stadium-completion
Utah representative alleges Democrats are cheating in runoff Georgia Senate races, promotes fundrais
U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, alleged earlier this week that Democrats are cheating in key U.S. Senate races in Georgia and announced that he and other members of Utah’s congressional delegation will raise money to help the GOP candidates in the races.
Georgia will hold two runoff elections on Jan. 5 for the race between Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff and Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., as well as the race between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, The Associated Press reported.
If Democrats win the Georgia races, they will have a majority in the Senate.
Stewart took to social media Tuesday to warn that “our country is under attack and the Georgia Senate races are the last line of defense.”
Read more: https://www.standard.net/news/government/utah-representative-alleges-democrats-are-cheating-in-runoff-georgia-senate-races-promotes-fundraiser/article_336dcaa0-86f0-539a-a5bb-0b6387469904.html
(Ogden Standard Examiner)
South Jordan police officer arrested for allegedly kidnapping a relative on Thanksgiving
A South Jordan police officer was arrested Friday after allegedly kidnapping and assaulting a relative on Thanksgiving.
Scott Elliott Russell is currently being held in jail without bail on suspicion of several felony counts. And South Jordan police Lt. Matt Pennington said the city has put Russell, who has worked there since at least 2017 — including as a school resource officer — on paid administrative leave while charges are pending.
“We took immediate action,” Pennington confirmed Saturday.
Officers were first called to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo on Thursday. A patient there said that they had been kidnapped by their nephew and identified Russell.
The probable cause statement for Russell’s arrest does not say whether the relative is a man or woman. It also does not list their age; but it doesn’t appear that the individual is a minor.
Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/11/28/south-jordan-police/
(Salt Lake Tribune)
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