At least six people are reportedly injured after a shooter opened fire at a business in Bryan, Texas on Thursday afternoon. Local police are already looking for the perpetrator who fled the scene of the crime after committing the terrible act.
According to the local station KBTXSeveral" victims are in critical condition, while the suspect has not yet been identified.
The Bryan Police Department told local media that they still do not have a description of the shooter or the reason for the shooting.
"The Bryan Police Department and local first responders responded to a shooting at 350 Stone City Dr. Officers on scene found multiple victims. All victims were transported to local hospitals. The suspect is still at large. This is still an active investigation," the authority said on its Twitter account.
Police also told the media that investigators are already questioning employees who were at the scene to gather more information and find out who is responsible.
The small town of Bryan is located just one city away from the campus of Texas A&M University, one of the largest universities in Texas, and approximately 100 miles northwest of Houston.
California Governor Gavin Newsom applauded President Joseph Biden's executive actions on gun violence, which he said will save lives and reduce unnecessary loss and suffering across the country.
In a statement issued this morning, the governor said mass shootings and gun violence rarely make the news, but it is a crisis that claims the lives of nearly 40,000 people a year.
"In the wake of three tragic mass shootings and the daily gun violence that devastates families but rarely makes the news, President Biden is taking necessary life-saving federal action to curb the gun violence crisis that grips our country and claims nearly 40,000 lives a year," she said.
"I applaud his orders to curtail the proliferation of untraceable 'ghost guns,' invest in violence interventions, and regulate the trade and trafficking of illegal firearms. These actions will save lives and reduce needless loss and suffering across the country," he said.
In that sense, he recalled that the state of California has one of the strictest gun laws in the country.
"California prides itself on having the strictest gun laws in the nation, including groundbreaking state protections approved by voters in Proposition 63 to ban the possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines and require background checks to keep ammunition out of the hands of dangerous people," he said.
In that regard, he explained that since taking office as governor, he has signed several bills aimed at reducing gun violence, including strengthening gun violence restraining orders and regulating the sale of firearms and ammunition.
"I also worked with the Legislature to accelerate "ghost gun" regulation to end the use of untraceable firearms by criminals. Because of California's commitment to meaningful gun safety laws, we have one of the lowest gun injury death rates in the country," he stressed.
The official explained that California has led the nation in passing gun safety laws. "We are grateful to now have a partner in the White House who knows we can, and must, do more to end gun violence."
And is that, Thursday morning, U.S. President Joseph Biden, called gun violence in the country as a "public health crisis" and an "epidemic".
He added that the number of mass shootings in the nation has become an "international embarrassment."
During a speech at the White House, where he announced executive actions to reduce gun violence, Biden told critics of gun reform that none of his executive actions contradict the Constitution.
"Nothing, nothing I'm going to recommend in any way affects the Second Amendment. These are bogus arguments that suggest that these are Second Amendment rights at stake that we're talking about. But no amendment, no amendment to the Constitution is absolute," he said.
President Biden's package of measures includes tighter restrictions on "ghost guns" - handmade or self-assembled firearms that do not have serial numbers - and stabilizing gun braces that allow guns to be used more accurately.
As well as having the Department of Justice model "red flag" laws for states that allow for the temporary removal of guns from people deemed at high risk of harming themselves or others, and a full report on firearms trafficking.
Also, invest in intervention programs in violence-prone communities.
It is worth noting that just this Wednesday there was a tragic mass shooting in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where six people were shot, five of whom were killed, including Dr. Robert Leslie, his wife Barbara and their two grandchildren - aged five and nine, respectively - as well as a person who worked for the family.
So far, investigations suggest that former NFL player Phillip Adams, 32, was the one who committed the terrible act, then committed suicide with a gun, in a house near where the murders were committed after a confrontation with police.
The international human rights organization Amnesty International -AI- reports in its annual report that the Mexican State News Agency -Notimex- has orchestrated defamatory campaigns against journalists through social networks.
The report is found in the section on Freedom of Expression and Assembly in the Mexico chapter, among the human rights violations in the country.
"In May, there were reports that Notimex, the state news agency, was involved in a defamatory campaign against several journalists and media outlets that published content critical of the government," the agency said in its 2020/21 report, released Wednesday.
"In May there was news that Notimex, the state news agency, was involved in a defamatory campaign against several journalists and media outlets that published content critical of the government," the document, released Wednesday, said.
In its 2020/21 report, the agency reports that the campaign included a network of bot programs and fake social media accounts allegedly financed with public funds.
Just a week ago, the U.S. State Department also included the case in the chapter dedicated to Mexico in its annual report on human rights.
The document accuses Notimex director Sanjuana Martínez of orchestrating a series of actions that threaten freedom of expression.
Section 2 of the report, Respect for Civil Liberties, which includes freedom of expression, states that Sanjuana Martínez Montemayor ordered journalists to remove or not publish content about certain institutions and government officials.
The above, he said at the time, according to an investigation by the renowned media outlet Aristegui Noticias, the academic project Signa Lab and the international human rights organization of journalists Article 19, which has been characterized by its criticism of the governments of different parties that Mexico has had.
On March 31, 2021, President Obrador publicly attacked the organization Artículo 19 during his morning press conference. 164 organizations, along with 400 activists, collectives, and media outlets, condemned the president's remarks and expressed their support for Artículo 19.
Amnesty International explains in its annual report that threats, harassment and attacks against media workers continued during 2020, with at least 19 journalists killed during the year, according to official data available in November.
It also notes that in September a letter signed by 650 journalists and intellectuals accused President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of actions that affect freedom of expression, including a series of public statements that weakened the press by fostering an environment conducive to censorship, administrative sanctions and the misuse of the law to intimidate the press.
On the other hand, it details that, in the last year, the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists maintained protection measures in the country for 1,313 people, of which 426 were media workers.
However, in October, the federal government dissolved the trust fund that supported this protection mechanism, and its funds were transferred to the general public budget, according to the document.
On March 31, 2021, during his morning press conference, President Obrador attacked the organization Artículo 19 for pointing out that
The Redwood City Police Department called on all Redwood City drivers to give their cell phones a "break" while driving and focus only on the road.
The authority recalled that April is distracted driving awareness month, so the police department will have more traffic officers on hand to specifically target drivers who violate the state law to avoid using cell phones while driving.
"When you're driving, give the phone a rest," said Redwood City Police Chief Dan Mulholland. "The number one focus of drivers should be the road. Anything that distracts you from the task of driving, especially a phone, puts you and others at risk."
And, according to the 2020 California Statewide Public Opinion Survey, more than 75 percent of drivers surveyed said that distracted texting while driving is their biggest safety concern.
"Driving without distractions is a simple, but significant behavior change," noted Chief Mulholland. "The goal is to increase compliance with the cell phone hands-free law and keep people safe."
Under current law, drivers cannot hold a phone or other electronic device while behind the wheel, while those under the age of 18 cannot use a phone for any reason, including hands-free headsets.
The police department recommended that if you need to make a call or send a text message, you should stop and park in a safe place, "drivers should silence their phones or leave the phone out of reach, such as the glove compartment or trunk".
Earth has an energy budget. Our planet is constantly trying to balance the flow of energy in and out of the Earth system, however, human activities are throwing that out of balance, causing the planet to increase in temperature in response.
This was stated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who noted that according to a study they conducted, it has been proven, for the first time, with direct observations that radiative forcing is increasing due to human actions, affecting the energy balance of the planet and ultimately causing climate change.
"This is the first calculation of the Earth's total radiative forcing using global observations, taking into account the effects of aerosols and greenhouse gases," said Ryan Kramer, first author of the paper and a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"It's direct evidence that human activities are causing changes in the Earth's energy budget," he added.
NASA's Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) project studies the radiation flux in the Earth's upper atmosphere.
A series of CERES instruments have flown continuously on satellites since 1997. Each measures how much energy enters the Earth's system and how much leaves, giving the overall net change in radiation. These data, in combination with other data sources, such as ocean heat measurements, show that there is an energy imbalance on our planet.
"But it doesn't tell us what factors are causing changes in the energy balance," Kramer said.
This study used a new technique to analyze how much of the total energy change is caused by humans. The researchers calculated how much of the imbalance was caused by fluctuations in factors that often occur naturally, such as water vapor, clouds, temperature and surface albedo - essentially the brightness or reflectivity of the Earth's surface.
So the researchers calculated the energy change caused by each of these natural factors and then subtracted the values from the total. The leftover portion is radiative forcing.
According to the paper, the team found that human activities have caused radiative forcing on Earth to increase by about 0.5 watts per square meter between 2003 and 2018.
This increase is mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions from elements such as power generation, transport and industrial manufacturing. Meanwhile, reduced reflective aerosols are also contributing to the imbalance.
The method used in the study could be used to track how human emissions are affecting the climate, monitor how well various mitigation efforts are working and evaluate models to predict future changes in the climate, NASA said.
"Creating a direct record of the radiative forcing calculated from observations will allow us to assess how well climate models can simulate these forcings," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City.
"This will allow us to make more confident projections about how the climate will change in the future," he said.
From left to right: Maeve Elise Brown, Executive Director, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates; Jung Hyun Choi, Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute; John Yen Wong, Founding Chairman, Asian Real Estate Association of America
By Isabella Bloom, Ethnic Media Services
Jie Wang owns three rental homes in Oakland. Her entire family depends on the income from the tenants who pay her rent.
Many have lost their jobs during the pandemic. The moratoriums on evictions protect tenants who can't pay some or all of their rent. But small housing providers, like Wang, still have to pay mortgages, utilities and other expenses. The lack of government support has created pressure on them to sell their properties.
"No one can escape this coronavirus," Wang said. "I have a very good relationship with all my tenants. I try to help them."
Wang participated in a recent informational panel organized by Ethnic Media Services along with other housing rights advocates and housing rights researchers. The panel had a discussion about the risk of treating all landlords the same.
When talking about the "property owner" many people usually think of large real estate corporations, owners of many real estate investment properties, wealthy enough to hold on to their properties during the pandemic. However, the small private owners The loss of income of rental housing owners, who are also called "private landlords" or "small landlords", has been hard hit as tenants have been unable to pay their rent during the pandemic, at least partially.
According to the Urban Institute, individual investors like Wang, not large conglomerates, own more than 75% of 1- to 4-unit rental properties. In addition, it is common for private landlords of color to own two-, three-, or four-family properties.
Their rental rates tend to be cheaper, so they are more likely to attract minority tenants.
Maeve Brown is the executive director and founder of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (Housing and Economic Rights Advocates), a statewide nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services to low- and moderate-income Californians. It works with many people of color who have never received training on how to manage their properties and who usually charge below-market rents.
"Another key part of the story is our failure to understand and appreciate what small homeowners are really offering: our failure to recognize that they really are affordable housing providers," Brown said. "If localities and our state government frankly recognized the reality of that situation, then that should have an impact on the policy decisions they make."
Small private landlords tend to be more connected to their communities and tenants.
John Wong, founding president of Asian Real Estate Association of AmericaJohn has lived in San Francisco for almost 67 years and has been a real estate agent for over 40 years. At the briefing, John described the relationships he has had and observed between private landlords and their tenants.
"I talk about this group of housing providers because I think it has to do with our response to COVID," Wong said.
He added that private landlords often know their tenants personally.
"The relationships are usually very, very friendly," he said.
Rental assistance programmes, such as the $2 trillion CARES ActThe new laws have mainly benefited the largest and richest real estate companies, leaving aside private property owners.
"The policy choices the state has made have not distinguished between large corporations and small landlords," Brown said. "The state's policy choices have directly placed the burden of non-payment of rent squarely on the shoulders of small private landlords, who are the small providers of affordable housing."
The danger of allowing that cost to fall on homeownership providers is that it puts pressure on them to sell their properties to corporate investors and real estate conglomerates. The result is that California will lose more and more affordable housing.
"If they lose their property, they'll probably lose it to a corporate investor who will charge as much money as the market will bear," Brown said.
Homeowners of color are also more likely to have a mortgage and lower incomes, so the pressure to sell during the pandemic is greater, according to the Urban Institute.
There may be new hope for private landlords and their tenants through a new rental assistance program, but it comes with a caveat.
California's new rental assistance program to help the state's most vulnerable renters and homeowners opened on March 15. The program, which comes from the Senate Bill SB 91extends the moratorium on evictions until June 30 and allocates $$2.6 billion in federal funds for rental assistance.
"The SB 91 moratorium and the state's rental assistance program, in my opinion, is the most important thing for small private landlords who are family housing providers," Wong said.
Both tenants and landlords must fill out certain parts of the online application, available on the California state website Housing is Key.
The first group of eligible renters are the most needy: households earning 50% or less of the area median income, or anyone who has been unemployed for at least 90 days.
The next group includes households earning 80% or less than the area median income. Undocumented renters are also eligible.
Urban Institute data show that, across the United States, less than one-third of renters and less than half of private landlords are aware of federal rental assistance programs. So John Wong aims to disseminate information about rental assistance programs to individual landlords, especially those who may be isolated because of poor language skills.
"Personally, I focus a lot on making sure that non-native English speakers have access to the information that these funds are available," Wong said.
The way rent assistance works is that the 80% of rent owed by the tenant between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 will be paid directly to the private landlord, provided that the private landlord agrees to forgive the remaining 20% of rent arrears.
But this new rent assistance program does not distinguish between small private landlords and large corporate landlords. For individual landlords like Jie Wang, having to absorb that remaining 20% of unpaid rents can be a crushing blow after a year of missed rent payments.
"I am willing to rent to low-income tenants," said Jie Wang. "As long as I can survive, I will be given all the tools to help me survive this difficult situation.
María Paula Martínez Jáuregui is a photographer. freelance who has published his most recent photographic work in his book entitled "Pandemic"She is the same one who is behind the lens of Siete Mares, and the same one who is in charge of Covid-19 in Mexico City's public hospitals.
Photo: María Paula Martínez Jáuregui
Siete Mares or Antonio Argüelles, known as such by an exclusive sporting guild in Mexico, is the only open water swimmer who since 2009 to date has crossed the English, Catalina, Molokai and North channels and the Straits of Tsugaru, Gibraltar and Cook and is currently training to make, in July and early August, a double crossing of the English Channel.
Photo: María Paula Martínez Jáuregui
Antonio Angüelles Siete Mares is also Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, a title for which it is necessary to complete three long distance swims: the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and the circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan.
Photo: María Paula Martínez Jáuregui
But the dream of crossing the most dangerous seas in the world was silently woven from the small family pool that Antonio Arguelles frequented on childhood trips and that was revealed before his eyes when he witnessed one of the most emblematic Mexican Olympic triumphs at his young age of nine: the victory of "El Tibio" Felipe Muñoz in the '68 Olympics.
Photo: María Paula Martínez Jáuregui
Maria Paula Martinez began photographing Seven Seas work in 2019 as she needed someone to cover in images her training in La Jolla, California to prepare for crossing the Catalina Channel.
It was through a family recommendation that María Paula's work attracted the attention of the swimmer, from that moment and every time there is training or competition, the photographer travels in the open sea next to Argüelles on a kayak and in the company of the personal trainer of the open water swimmer, the Uruguayan Rafael Álvarez. María Paula is a professional freelance photographer since 2018, one of her first jobs was the realization of a photo documentary of marine conservation in Revillagigedo. She is also a certified drone pilot and scuba diving photographer.
Photo: María Paula Martínez Jáuregui
María Paula Martínez's book "Pandemic" is out now and you can find it here:
Maria Paula Martinez started working as a freelance photographer professionally for Photographers Without Borders in 2018.
Since then, under his lens, he has seen endless landscapes from the mountains of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl as well as the depths of the Mexican and American seas and faces as far away as those seen in his portraits taken in communities in Africa, Mongolia, Ukraine, Armenia, all of a humanitarian nature. Several of his projects are made for humanitarian aid purposes.
However, in early 2020 and due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, Maria Paula had to stop all her projects in Central America, she thought it would be a quiet time documenting maritime life in Baja California until May when she decided to enter ten Covid hospitals in Mexico City to document the pandemic we all know about.
Photo: María Paula Martínez
María Paula's original goal was to portray the medical and cleaning staff who are on the front line of the virus in public hospitals such as Nutrición, Hospital Manuel Gea González, Hospital Juárez, Hospital Primero de Octubre, Hospital 20 de Noviembre, Instituto de Cancerología, Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias (INER), Instituto Nacional de Perinatología, Centro Médico City Banamex and Hospital ABC.
Photo: María Paula Martínez
Gradually coverage began to include some of the patients fighting for their lives in hospital beds and began to cover the areas of intensive care, pathology, emergency, operating rooms and labor and delivery.
In this way, dressed in medical protective suits, mask and googles, she covered the pandemic day after day for more than twelve hours without a break.
Photo: María Paula MartínezPhoto: María Paula Martínez
He witnessed heartbreaking scenes between doctors, sick people and a virus circulating everywhere.
Photo: María Paula Martínez
Throughout more than thirty interviews with medical personnel and more than three hundred photographs, he decided to edit and compile the most representative material in a publication entitled "Pandemic" in order to make visible and raise awareness among the population about the work and risks suffered by medical personnel due to a virus whose behavior and total knowledge remains a worldwide mystery.
Proceeds generated from the sale of the book will be donated 50% to the INER hospital.
María Paula is currently editing her second book entitled "Women in the face of the pandemic".
The San Francisco Police reported that he has received information that scammers are contacting city residents via telephone, claiming they have outstanding warrants or have committed crimes and must pay a fine.
Such scammers, he said in a statement, sometimes use technology known as "call spoofing" to display a San Francisco Police Department phone number or other official-looking numbers.
Given these facts, the authority recalled that the police department does not make calls asking for donations or to report court orders, also does not ask for money, gift cards or bank transfers to settle the guarantees.
"San Francisco police urge all members of the community to be suspicious of strangers who ask for money to pay outstanding warrants or fines, as this is not the correct procedure," he said.
In that sense, he pointed out that anyone who receives such a call should hang up immediately. "Do not engage the caller in conversation and never give out personal information.
They also encouraged residents to share this information with their loved ones, as any vulnerable person could potentially fall victim to this scam.
It should be noted that anyone who has received such a call and provided personal identifying information - such as a social security number or driver's license number - or who has made a payment by any means, must file a police report in the jurisdiction of their residence.
Like every year, millions of people in the United States are immersed in a world of paperwork to file their tax returns on time, which usually has a deadline of April 15, but not this year, because all taxpayers will have until May 17 to complete the tax process, so at least they will have a month's respite.
This extension of the due date for filing federal income tax returns for individuals for tax year 2020 is in support of all taxpayers who, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have been affected.
That's according to Kenneth Corbin, commissioner of the W&I Division of the Internal Revenue Service, who added that so far, the filing season is "going well.
"Our focus as the pandemic continues is to help taxpayers and the tax industry in a way that ensures the safety of our employees, taxpayers and the communities we serve," he stressed during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services.
The head of the administration of tax laws governing physical taxpayers in the U.S. said those who file their returns by May 17 will not be penalized or charged interest, regardless of the amount owed.
However, the extended deadline does not apply to filers such as corporations and even individuals making estimated tax payments, who must still have their tax year completed by April 15.
The official said those who need more time can always request an automatic extension to file until Oct. 15 by filing Form 4868 through their tax professional, tax software or through IRS.gov.
While filing Form 4868 gives taxpayers until Oct. 15 to file their 2020 tax return, it does not grant an extension of time to pay taxes owed, so individuals must pay their federal income tax by May 17, 2021 to avoid interest and penalties.
"The deadline to apply for an extension is also May 17, 2021, but this would be an extension to file the return. It is not an extension to pay personal income tax, but the payment must be made by May 17," Corbin said.
Similarly, he explained that although there is an extension of more than a month for the filing of taxes, this procedure should be done as soon as possible.
Tax service also improves
Kenneth Corbin said that to improve the filing experience - which many hate - as well as to get a refund in less time, the first step is to gather all the documents and file an accurate statement, then choose to e-file with direct deposit.
"We know that even with the vaccine being implemented, many people are not comfortable going to a brick and mortar office and dealing with their tax preparers. We encourage them to file online and choose direct deposit. It's the fastest way to get your return processed, and if you're due a refund, you get it," he added.
It is worth noting that the tax process began last February 12 and so far, the IRS has received 85 million individual returns, of which 76 million have been processed and more than 56 million refunds have been issued, which means almost $164 billion dollars.
Stimulus checks
The IRS Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer noted that in 2020, more than 160 million economic stimulus payments were sent in the first round of payments, and another 147 million in the second round, just two days after the legislation was signed into law in Congress.
In the third round, he explained, more than 130 million payments worth approximately $335 billion in direct deposits, paper checks and debit cards have been sent.
"Most people received the full amount of both payments and don't have to write anything about them on their 2020 tax return this year; and anyone who may be eligible for a check, but hasn't yet received one or didn't receive the full amount can claim it when they file their 2020 tax return," Corbin noted.
Corbin said that, for the 2020 tax year, unemployed people who received unemployment benefits of up to $10,200, and couples who jointly received up to $24,400, will not have to pay taxes on those amounts.
In the case of retirees, he noted that a provision was included in the CARES Act that was effective until December 15, 2020 that allowed retirees to withdraw money from their retirement accounts without penalty during the pandemic.
However, he explained that in the case of unemployed individuals, the IRS is aware that there are many people whose identities have been compromised and fraudulent unemployment compensation claims have been issued in their name.
"We are working with our state partners, along with a number of law enforcement agencies to help find these individuals who have taken advantage of our vulnerable population, but we are just saying that taxpayers file only an accurate return and that it is truly theirs," he said.
Finally, he explained that the tax system, for the first time this tax filing season, has experimented with an initiative that helps those people who are not fluent in English, which is why they have established the LEP -Limited English Proficiency- agenda, which, through the 1040 form, allows you to select among 20 different languages to receive all your tax documentation.
Susan Simon, director of the Client Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) organization, said that among the actions the IRS is taking to get closer and improve the taxpayer's experience when filing a tax return is to offer a series of providers that will provide free electronic filing for federal tax returns if you earn less than $72,000 a year.
He also noted that there is support for those who have little or no computer skills, as well as for those who do not have access to a computer and only have a smartphone, in addition to tax advice for seniors, programs that are operated by volunteers across the country.
On the other hand, he explained that the IRS has a database, by city, where taxpayers can find professionals, licensed, who can perform the necessary procedures to file the tax return.
In that sense, he alerted taxpayers to be aware and stay away from those who say "I'm going to get you a thousand dollars more - a refund - than anyone else".
"That's a lie! Don't get carried away by commercials that promise more money for your refund. There is no such thing. If you file correctly, you're going to get the right refund. No person, no service is going to find you more money if you do things incorrectly," he said.
He explained that you can recognize a scam like this because the IRS always sends a bill to the taxpayer, but they will never call them or email them first. "We're going to send them a bill and then 30 days later, usually, we're going to send them another bill. We're going to say, 'Hey, you forgot to pay us!'"
But he explained, "We're not going to call and say you made a mistake on your tax return and you owe $1,200 and we need to verify your personal information and we can fix it for you. We don't do that at all. We don't call people and tell them we're going to set up a payment plan."
Susan Simon reported that many of these scams have also been directed at college students, who, upon seeing an email that claims to be from the IRS and features IRS logos, access it and click on links, which always end in scams.
He also warned that scammers make phone calls saying they are talking about the money you owe the IRS and that if you don't pay immediately they will send the police to arrest you, where they even play patrol car siren sounds in the background.
"No, we don't do that. We never do that. You should hang up immediately. Don't say anything, anything that is said on the phone can be recorded and used in another context, be very careful with those calls," he said.
