Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order preventing state agencies from requiring vaccine passports
DALLAS — Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Tuesday preventing state agencies from requiring Texans to provide so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports to receive services or enter buildings.
Abbott’s order also applies to political subdivisions and any public or private entity receiving public funds “through any means.” A vaccine passport is a term that has been used to refer to documentation that shows that an individual has been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
“As I’ve said all along, these vaccines are always voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said in a written statement. “Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives.”
Vaccine passports have largely been proposed for international travel, which was devastated during the pandemic. The International Air Transport Association, the trade group for global airlines, and IBM are both in the process of developing versions of a vaccine passport.
— The Dallas Morning News
NYC doormen fired for not coming to aid of Asian American woman attacked outside luxury building
NEW YORK — Two New York City doormen were fired Tuesday for failing to come to the aid of a Filipina woman who was brutally attacked in front of their eyes by a homeless ex-convict who also spewed racial insults at her.
The Brodsky Organization announced the dismissals a week after video of the attack surfaced. It shows the woman struggling to fend off her attacker while the doormen move quietly to close the front entrance to their luxury building.
The men, both members of the 32BJ SEIU union, were initially suspended in the aftermath of the assault, one of a string of hate crimes in New York City and nationally in recent weeks against Asian Americans.
An internal investigation led by Brodsky resulted in the doormen’s firing Tuesday, according to Carolina Gonzalez, 32BJ’s regional communications manager.
Brandon Elliot, 38, who was out on supervised parole after serving time for killing his mother more than a decade ago, attacked Vilma Kari in front of 360 W. 43rd St. on March 29 as she walked to a nearby church, police said.
Elliot slammed the diminutive senior citizen to the sidewalk and kicked her in the head multiple times before fleeing, the video shows.
Elliot also allegedly screamed “F--- you. You don’t belong here,” during the attack caught on video attack.
Kari suffered a shattered pelvis and other injuries.
Elliot’s charged with two counts of second-degree assault as a hate crime and one count of first-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.
— New York Daily News
Chairman of new Colorado redistricting panel ousted for stop-the-steal views
Colorado's inaugural congressional redistricting commission, which operates outside of the purview of politicians, has already faced its first partisan test.
Chairman Danny Moore was removed from his leadership position Monday after his fellow commissioners learned he had shared conspiracy theories about the 2020 election on social media. The 11 other commissioners voted unanimously to remove him from the chairmanship, but he will be allowed to continue serving on the commission.
While politicians still have mapmaking power in most of the country, Colorado is one of a handful of states that adopted a redistricting commission over the last decade. For the first time, these states will employ an independent panel to redraw congressional and state legislative maps in a more fair and transparent manner.
In 2018, Colorado voters approved ballot initiatives to establish separate commissions for congressional and state legislative redistricting. Each commission has 12 members with even representation of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated members, none of them politicians.
Last month, Moore, a Republican military veteran from Colorado Springs, was elected by the commissioners to serve as chair. But soon after, local media outlets reported he had shared election conspiracy theories on his Facebook page.
His posts claimed, without evidence, that Joe Biden was not elected by the people, but "by the Democratic steal." He also erroneously claimed that absentee ballots can be modified by mail carriers and poll workers. And he encouraged Republicans to use the courts to "erase those gains" Democrats made in the 2020 election.
"How then can the people of Colorado believe Commissioner Moore will be able to determine fact from fiction, when he's repeatedly asserted unsubstantiated claims that the presidential election was stolen, the Colorado election in particular was fraudulent, and that 'Blue state officials' in Colorado disenfranchise some voters by manipulating the vote," said Democratic Commissioner Paula Espinoza.
Moore has also used social media to cast doubt on the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and has accused the media of lying about it. He defended calling COVID-19 "the Chinese virus," saying that was not racist. But critics of Moore's posts said his rhetoric has contributed to the trend of anti-Asian hate and violence.
Ahead of the commission's vote, Moore defended his posts, arguing he had the right to free speech and to his own opinions.
— The Fulcrum
Russian doctors demand access to Navalny in prison camp
Russian doctors have been denied access to ailing opposition politician Alexei Navalny at the prison camp where he is being detained to the east of Moscow.
"Who do you have to be to deny doctors access to a dying person?" Navalny's doctor Anastasiya Vasilyeva said on Tuesday outside the camp in Pokrov about 62 miles east of Moscow.
There, medics from the independent union Alliance of Doctors wanted to help the political prisoner. Navalny is said to have severe back pain and paralysis in his leg, a fever and a cough.
Human rights campaigners Amnesty International called on President Vladimir Putin not to let his opponent die.
The Alliance of Doctors criticized the fact that Navalny, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt with the nerve agent Novichok in the summer, was not receiving adequate medical care.
According to the union, Vasilyeva and other members were arrested and put in prison vans.
CNN's Moscow correspondent Matthew Chance also posted a photo on Twitter of his temporary detention. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said that journalists had obstructed work outside the detention center. Chance and his team were released after a few hours.
Russian state propaganda had recently compared the prison camp to a sanatorium, a holiday camp and a hotel.
Navalny accuses the penal system of torture. He has gone on a hunger strike to protest inadequate medical care.
— dpa
