A 36-year-old man suspected of having sex with an underage girl was arrested last week after he tried to take her out of the country to Amsterdam at San Francisco International Airport, according to the Redwood City Police Department.
The situation began when Redwood City police received a call on June 1 from a concerned citizen who said a couple had set up camp in a nearby park and were having sex in public view.
After officers found Raymos, the suspect's name, and the victim, an investigation led to the man's arrest June 15 in Menlo Park, authorities said Monday.
The court ordered the suspect to have no contact with the victim, and after posting bail he was released on June 19.
However, on July 7, Raymos attempted to take the child out of the country to Amsterdam, but was questioned by security at San Francisco International Airport and was found to be in violation of a restraining order.
Further investigation resulted in the individual being re-arrested and booked into the San Mateo County Jail on $5 million bail.
Authorities have requested that anyone with information about the incident should contact Detective De La Cerda at (650) 780-7697 or the Redwood City Police Department tip line at (650) 780-7110.
The demonstrations in Colombia that began on April 28th -now known as the National Strike-, have their origins in fiscal proposals stemming from the effects on the economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Colombian President Iván Duque insisted that the reform "is a necessity" and not "a whim" which led to the resignation of the head of Colombia's Finance Ministry and, subsequently, to the proposal being dismissed altogether.
Through the signal of KiQi 1010 AM, in San Francisco, sociologist Manuel Ortiz, traveled to Colombia to meet, first hand, the victims of forced disappearances, repression of demonstrators -resulting in facial injuries- and above all, to meet the parents who have suffered the loss of their children by execution at the hands of the public forces -National Police and the Esmad- by orders of the government of Colombia, headed by Ivan Duque.
"What we observe is a systematic practice of disappearance of young people from low social strata, many of them children of displaced people," Ortiz said. He warned that, from the U.S., it is important not to lose sight of the sister nation and the rest of Latin America in the context of the demands for a new immigration reform.
In addition, testimonies of victims who have suffered aggressions to their faces intentionally directed at their eyes are presented.
In the same vein, the lawyer and coordinator of Primera Línea Jurídica, Rubén Darío, pointed out that the constant state of war in which the Colombian government is involved, gives way to the justification of arbitrary acts against their society and, therefore, their economic situation whose real cause continues to be corruption. Rubén Darío explains that the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the famine and precarious situation of access to food and health.
Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed SB 129 into law the 2021-22 state budget agreement, which includes the $100 billion California Recovery Plan.
The California Recovery Plan seeks to provide immediate cash support to middle-class families and businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, as well as the state tax rebate and small business assistance package.
"Leveraging the largest surplus in state history, we are making transformative investments across the board that will help all of our communities recover from the pandemic and pay dividends for generations to come," the governor said.
Newsom said that through this comprehensive plan, the state is addressing the inequities exposed by the pandemic. It will expand support for Californians facing the greatest hardship, with more opportunities for children, more ways to address homelessness, and more work to build resilience against the impacts of climate change that threaten California's future.
After the economy has revived, coupled with increased state revenues and additional federal recovery funds, the $75.7 billion surplus reflected in California's Recovery Plan contrasts sharply with the $54.3 billion budget deficit estimated just over a year ago.
According to the governorCalifornia can now seize this once-in-a-lifetime moment to address the challenges that threaten the state's future and ensure that all California families, regardless of race or zip code, can thrive," she said.
The state budget and related budget-implementing legislation signed Monday by the governor include:
AB 141 by Budget Committee - Budget Act of 2021: Department of Cannabis Control: licensure: safety and quality assurance.
SB 129 by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) - Budget Act of 2021. You can find a line-item veto order here.
SB 139 of the Fiscal and Budget Review Committee - Golden State Stimulus II: Golden State Stimulus.
SB 146 of the Fiscal and Budget Review Committee - Correctional Facilities.
SB 151 of the Fiscal and Budget Review Committee - Economic Development.
SB 158 of the Fiscal and Budget Review Committee - Hazardous Waste.
"We have good news: our vaccines are very effective. Fully vaccinated Americans have a high degree of protection, even against the Delta variant," said President Joe Biden.
According to one study, it has been shown that, since the beginning of May, virtually all hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 in the United States have occurred among the unvaccinated.
In addition, research shows that receiving two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides 96 percent protection against hospitalizations due to the Delta variant, while Oxford-AstraZeneca's efficacy is 92 percent.
"Get vaccinated now. It works. It's free. It's never been easier and it's never been more important. Do it now, for yourself and the people you care about; for your neighborhood; for the country. It sounds corny, but it's patriotic," Biden said.
Earthquakes in Alaska could be a threat to much of the Bay Area in California, as they could generate tsunamis that would "swallow" much of the coastline causing severe economic, property and human damage.
According to specialists from the California Geological Survey (USGSAn earthquake in the Aleutian Islands, a sparsely populated but seismically active area, poses the greatest threat to California's coastline.
"While damaging tsunamis are rare in the state, if you are on the coast you should be aware of this potential hazard," said Dr. Steve Bohlen, acting state geologist who heads the California USGS, in an interview with CBSN Bay Area.
About 150 tsunamis have hit the California coast since 1800, according to state officials, and while some were barely noticeable, others have caused significant damage.
For example, the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan also caused $100 million in damage to California's harbors and coastlines.
While the most destructive tsunami on record occurred on March 28, 1964, with waves reaching 21 feet high, following a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Alaska.
And that's not all, because due to the heat wave currently sweeping the Pacific Northwest, a 2.7 magnitude ice quake was recorded in Alaska at the end of June, the result of melting glaciers.
Thus, the USG released a series of interactive maps for several counties in the state as part of its project to determine the tsunami hazard area for the entire coast.
For the Bay Area, maps were deployed in San Mateo, Alameda and Monterey counties, which allow users to insert an address to determine if the property is subject to potential tsunami inundation.
This project updates maps produced in 2009 with new data from improved computer models that show how far inland a surge of water could reach in the event of a tsunami.
Maps indicate that along the outer coast of San Mateo County, the biggest change is in Half Moon Bay, where seawater could cross State Highway 1 through much of the northern community of Arroyo Leon.
According to map updates, in a worst-case tsunami scenario, major areas of Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley could also be inundated to an elevation of nearly 20 feet.
"After 10 years of research in the wake of the Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we are releasing maps with many improvements to keep Californians safe," said Dr. Steve Bohlen.
Maps, available at https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/tsunami/, are also being updated for Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma counties.
Due to the extreme heat in California, the "Flex Alert" was extended until this Saturday, to avoid a possible power shortage in the state.
The heat wave is due to climate change and a growing wildfire in southern Oregon that threatens the California Independent System Operator's (ISO) transmission lines and the state's power grid.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, exceptional heat waves have caused the sixth month of this year to be the hottest June on record in the country.
And is that, this year's average June temperature in the U.S. was 72.6° Fahrenheit, 4.2 degrees above average, making it the hottest June in 127 years of record keeping, beating the record set in the same month of 2016.
The Flex Alert will be in effect between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. today. Here are some recommendations:
Set thermostats at 78° F or higher, health permitting.
Avoid using large appliances.
Turn off all unnecessary lights
Using fans to cool the home
Unplug items that are not in use.
Before the Flex Alert goes into effect and when solar energy is plentiful, consumers are encouraged to follow these steps:
If you need to use your major appliances, do so before the Flex Alert goes into effect, when solar power is plentiful.
Close window shades to keep your home or apartment cool.
Charge electronic devices and electric vehicles so they don't need to be charged later when solar generation is down.
In addition to this alert, the ISO is using multiple tools to help keep the grid stable, including a request to power generators in the western region to purchase additional resources.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an emergency proclamation Friday to free up additional power capacity due to the major heat wave and fire in Oregon that is impacting the state's power supply.
The proclamation allows for the use of backup power generation and frees up additional energy capacity to assist in relieving heat-generated demands on the state's power grid.
Since last summer, the state's energy agencies have taken swift action to ensure grid reliability, both this summer and in the future, to build the state's climate resilience.
This includes requiring utilities to obtain additional energy resources to meet expected demand during extreme weather, generating additional storage, and re-launching the "Flex Your Power" campaign to help California conserve energy.
As the state's ability to store solar and wind energy with batteries or other technology continues to advance, the crucial evening hours are expected to be less challenging and similar emergencies will be rarer.
For now, collective action to conserve energy is the most effective way to support grid reliability.
The Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has become the dominant strain in California. Last week, 634 cases were detected in the state, while the total as of Thursday was 1,85, a 71 percent increase in just a few days.
However, the numbers could be much higher since only a fraction of COVID-19 tests are genomically sequenced, a process that determines whether positive cases belong to any variant.
"I can assure you that they are going to be higher," the governor said Thursday. Gavin Newsom when questioned about the updated figures for the Delta variant.
Genomic sequence testing determined that of the variants identified as Delta shot up from 5.8 percent on May 21 to 42.9 percent on June 21.
The next closest variant on the list is Alpha, formerly the "UK variant," which is associated with approximately 50 percent more transmission and probably a higher severity of disease and risk of death.
This variant, although it decreased, remains high, going from 57.6 percent on May 21 to 30.6 percent on June 21.
It should be noted that the state publishes variant percentages once a month, so in the weeks after June 21 it is likely that the Delta strain will have increased.
As of July 9, California had 3,724,833 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 63,376 deaths.
This Thursday, 2,411 positive cases were registered in the state, which represented an increase of 3.3 new cases per 100,000; while 59 deaths were counted.
The number of tests on the same day was 121,341, with a positivity rate of 2.3 percent, a marginal increase of 0.2 percent compared to Wednesday.
In terms of vaccination, the state has administered 42 million 280,518 doses. 20 million 417,009 people over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated (60.2 percent), while 3 million 186,612 (9.4 percent) are partially immunized.
The average daily number of vaccine doses administered is 59,737.
Race against time... and variants
While efforts have been made to get all those eligible to be vaccinated - 12 years of age and older - the numbers remain very low in several counties across the state, a situation that is not conducive to achieving herd immunity in the short term.
San Mateo County is not doing poorly in its immunization numbers, however the most vulnerable still need to be reached.
Thus, the county has administered 1,59,333,000 doses, resulting in 581,531,53 residents being immunized as of July 8, of which 515,394 are fully vaccinated, or 88.7 percent of the population eligible for inoculation.
It should be noted that if progress is not made soon in other counties where vaccination is still very low, there is a danger that the Delta variant could be the tipping point for a return to serious risk status and a need to return to closures and face protection at all times.
The great risk
A new data analysis identifies groups of unvaccinated people, mostly in the South, vulnerable to surges in COVID-19 cases that could become breeding grounds for even deadlier variants, CNN said.
Thus, the analysis by Georgetown University researchers identified 30 clusters of counties with low vaccination rates and significant population sizes.
The five largest clusters are found primarily in eight states: eastern Georgia to western Texas, and northern to southern Missouri. They are also in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and consist mainly of smaller counties, but also cities such as Montgomery, Alabama; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Amarillo, Texas.
The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19 - first reported, according to scientific research, in a market in the central region of Wuhan, China - has raised the number of deaths worldwide due to this easily transmissible disease that, in just one week, has surpassed the number of deaths by 4 million and more than 185 cases of contagion.
The World Health Organization -WHO- established the beginning of the pandemic by COVID-19 on March 11, 2020. Since 485 days ago, governments in different parts of the world established new health safety measures that, to date, have changed people's habits, including frequent hand washing, physical distance between people in public places and the mandatory use of masks at all times.
However, the adoption of the measure of the use of the mouthpiece was shrouded in controversy and the denial of use in a small sector of the population that caused, during the peak of the pandemic, the annoyance of those who imposed the health regulations.
For this reason, Ethnic Media Services held a briefing session to discuss people's views months into the vaccination of the population and the continued use of masks.
So far, only 158 million, 287,566 people have completed their immunization schedule in the United States, which represents 48 percent of the population.
Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior epidemiologist with the Federation of American Scientists who was also among the first people to warn about COVID-19, said the level of protection from an incomplete vaccination schedule is greatly reduced, he said, by as much as 18 percent. He warned that it is possible that, even with a complete vaccination schedule, it is possible to transmit and contract the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, so the vulnerable population remains vulnerable.
In addition, he said the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are "wrong" to relax the use of face masks, contrary, for example, to what the WHO has said.
He noted that protecting one's own health and the health of others should always be the number one priority for social welfare following the new back-to-school recommendations for children, which he said poses an additional risk to parents. He recommended ventilating the study area, UV disinfection and HEPA air filters, as well as the use of mouth covers for children.
"Science has clearly shown that this coronavirus is transmitted from person to person; the population should not be confident that herd immunity will soon exist." He said it is important to find the right strategies to encourage people who resist vaccination to get immunized.
Dr. Jose Perez, medical director of the South Central Family Health Center in Los Angeles, said that, as with the first strain of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the delta variant, the public should protect themselves in the same way. He noted that science has shown that proper use of mouthguards is one measure that has helped successfully prevent more cases of COVID-19 and, therefore, the number of associated deaths.
He indicated that, after the massive use of the mouthpiece by the population, some people suffered disorders because they could not identify the emotions conveyed by other people in the social context; that is, the lack in the observation of facial expressions can lead to mental problems; instead, it is preferable, he said, to save lives through the use of the mouthpiece.
Dr. Ben Neuman, chief virologist at the Global Health Research Complex at Texas A&M University, said it's frustrating, from the scientific community's point of view, to ignore the recommendations the CDC has issued about relaxing the use of mouthguards, indicating that the government's stance may have influenced his personal decision to take this step.
He also said "it's a matter of time" before the new coronavirus finds an even more aggressive mutation than the delta variant. "Protection starts with oneself," Neuman said, urging people to get vaccinated regardless of their political stance.
Vaccination should not be taken as a game. The start of the fall sports seasons can pose a danger of infection, especially among young people aged 12 to 18 years.
In this sense, U.S. President Joseph Biden said that one of the government's strategies will be to get closer to the communities, to be much closer to the homes.
In that sense, he said in a statement made last Tuesday, that efforts will be intensified so that doctors who serve families can offer vaccinations to the youngest, in order to achieve a safe return to school or even for the physical examinations necessary for fall sports.
And with the fall sports seasons just around the corner, hundreds of children and young people will join the various activities offered by local teams, such as football, soccer, volleyball, which are not without risk.
Delta variant wants to get on the pitch
Although the vaccination program has made significant progress, there is still a risk of infection among people who are not vaccinated. The emergence of the Delta variant has caused more than half of the new infections in the U.S.
"By the end of this week, we will have 160 million Americans fully vaccinated, up from about 3 million when we took office five months ago," he said. Biden.
However, he added that the fight against the virus is not over: communities, families and friends are still at risk because the Delta variant is easily transmissible and potentially more dangerous.
Above all, Biden said, it should be a cause for reconsideration, especially among young people, who may have thought they didn't have to get vaccinated or wouldn't have to worry about it.
Olympic Games, without public for the first time in history
COVID-19 has undoubtedly wreaked havoc all over the world and sport has been no exception. Thus, during the previous year, most of the sports activities were suspended and, later on, some of them were able to continue without assistance in the stands.
This year, Japan's authorities surprised the world by declaring a state of emergency in Tokyo: for the first time in history, the Olympic Games will be held without spectators, even of local origin as previously planned.
The move comes after the government agreed to establish a state of emergency for Tokyo from July 12 until Aug. 22, which anticipates a tightening of health measures in the midst of the Olympic Games, which begin July 23.
It should be noted that the Japanese capital has seen a surge in new cases of COVID-19 in recent days that is unprecedented since mid-May of this year, to reach above the threshold of cases that the government considers to be of utmost concern.
Thus, the Olympic Games will not have an audience for the first time since its first edition, held in 1898 in Athens, Greece. Previously, the Berlin 1916 Games had been suspended due to the First World War, as well as the Helsinki 1940 and United Kingdom 1944, due to the Second World War.
Colombia will receive $461 million in aid from the U.S. government in 2022 after the House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approves a bill to do so. However, the support will for the first time be conditional on resources going to the Colombian police.
The U.S. government made it clear that from now on, if the law is passed, 30 percent of all counter-narcotics resources going to the South American country's police will depend on a certification from the State Department confirming that the country is investigating and punishing uniformed officers involved in human rights violations.
After the demonstrations that began in April of this year in Colombia, international organizations reported on the massive human rights violations that occurred by the Colombian police against the demonstrators.
According to Temblores, an NGO that has been in charge of recording and documenting the practices of police violence through its platform "GRITA" and in assisting victims and connecting them with the administration of justice through "Policarpa", as of June 16, 4,285 cases of violence by the security forces had been identified, not including cases of disappearances.
While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported Wednesday that it found "serious human rights violations" during the demonstrations against the government of Ivan Duque.
It should be noted that the conditioning of resources in aid to Colombia is not new, as this condition already existed for the army, but the restrictions are now extended to the police force.
The condition that the U.S. government seeks to impose on the resources specifies that at least $65 million cannot be delivered until certification is issued by the U.S. State Department.
It is important to detail that 80 percent of those resources - $52 million - would be for the police and 20 percent for the army.
According to El Tiempo, almost since the beginning of Plan Colombia in 2000, resources for the army had been subject to human rights evaluations. Requirements that grew with the scandal of false positives and illegal interceptions of journalists, human rights defenders, members of the high courts and congressmen.
At a congressional hearing last Thursday, José Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights WatchThe governor asked congressmen to approve the new restriction on police funding.
For her part, Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez, who is in New York, said Thursday that she sees no reason for the social unrest and recent protests that led to violence in her country to damage the relationship with the United States.
"We see no reason for bilateral relations to be affected," the foreign minister said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
"This is a Congress -the U.S. Congress- that has been permanently monitoring Colombia's evolution. Thanks to all this help and the confidence of Congress and the different U.S. administrations, our country has been able to face very tough challenges and, among other things, has also managed to work for the poorest, reduce the level of poverty.... fight drug trafficking, and strengthen institutions," Ramirez said.
