U.S.

Sales boom pushes US housing market near 13-year record high

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Fueled by low mortgage rates, pent-up demand, and Americans working from home seeking larger quarters, new home sales shattered predictions and drove up the median sales price 5.3% to $346k from a year earlier, marking the highest for any January on record. Government data showed a 4.3% increase in new home purchases in January to a total beating the forecasted 856k with a 3-month high of 923k units. The data released Wednesday suggests the trend can continue in the months ahead, according to industry analysts.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Bank wires worth trillions of dollars halted by US Fed’s “operational error”

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Over 3 trillion dollars in daily transactions for the world’s biggest banks were disrupted Wednesday, according to an alert status on the Fed’s website announcing a disruption in several business lines for Fedwire, FedACH, and 11 other areas affecting wire transfers, ACH transactions and check-clearing in the U.S. banking system. About 850,000 transactions each day move an average daily volume of $3.4 trillion.

“We are restoring services and are communicating with all Federal Reserve Financial Services customers about the status of operations,” says an email from the Fed explaining that Fedwire is “the premier electronic funds-transfer service that banks, businesses, and government agencies rely on for mission-critical, same-day transactions.”

By Milan Sime Martinic

US Evangelicals raise alarm about “Radicalized Christian Nationalism” in their midst, call for opposition in wake of the Jan 6 insurrection

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More than 100 pastors, ministry and seminary leaders, and other prominent American evangelicals have penned an open letter calling on other Christians to take a public stand: “We recognize that evangelicalism, and white evangelicalism in particular, has been susceptible to the heresy of Christian nationalism because of a long history of faith leaders accommodating white supremacy. We choose to speak out now because we do not want to be quiet accomplices in this ongoing sin.”

Quoting Jesus Christ, the letter says, “No Christian can defend the un-Christlike behavior of those who committed the violence on January 6. Not only was it anti-democratic, but it was also anti-Christian,” urging other evangelical leaders “to boldly make it clear that a commitment to Jesus Christ is incompatible with calls to violence, support of white Christian nationalism, conspiracy theories, and all religious and racial prejudice.”

The progressive evangelical group VoteCommonGood is behind the action.

by Milan Sime Martinic

Snow sublimation confuses viewers, spurs conspiracy theory about Texas storms

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A well-known property of matter that converts it from solid to gas is at the center of a wave of Tik-Tok videos alleging that the Texas snow is fake and part of a government plan to control citizens .

The videos show how a handful of snow exposed to fire fails to drip water. “See? Proof,” say the videos.

In reality, the snow has turned to vapor and absorbs the water. Pure snow is very cold water, but a handful of snow off the ground may contain impurities that burn when exposed to fire, making it appear the snowball is scorching. That, too, is presented in the videos as “proof” that the storms were not real. In reality, the shocking visual can make it appear that the snow that is burning and the evaporating snow is smoke.

By Milan Sime Martinic

Dominion sues MyPillow for $1.3 billion, accusing the company of lying to sell pillows to Trump supporters

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Following similar defamation lawsuits in federal court against former Trump attorneys Rudy Guiliani and Sidney Powell (both also sued for $1.3b) for claiming election fraud to enrich themselves, this lawsuit has a twist in that it alleges MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell used conspiracy claims against the voting systems company “because the lie sells pillows,” according to the suit.

Citing numerous recurring untruthful statements by Lindell on TV interviews, a 2-hour YouTube video, and social media posts that got him and MyPillow’s corporate account banned from Twitter for “spreading misinformation,” the lawsuit charges, “MyPillow’s defamatory marketing campaign  —  with promo codes like “FightforTrump,” “45,” “Proof,” and “QAnon” —  has increased MyPillow sales by 30–40% and continues duping people into redirecting their election-lie outrage into pillow purchases.”

By Milan Sime Martinić

Police Need Warrant to Track Your Cellphone, Supreme Court Rules

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“[A]n individual maintains a legitimate expectation of privacy in the record of his physical movements” – Chief Justice John Roberts

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for a change in the law regulating the ability of police to search citizens’ phone records.

Since a 1979 ruling, which decided that citizens had no expectation of privacy for their phone records kept by a phone company, police have been able to search people’s phones without probable cause (strong evidence the person has committed a crime). However, police can still obtain records without a warrant in the case of an emergency, and they can search other items people carry without probable cause.

The court found that “an individual maintains a legitimate expectation of privacy in the record of his physical movements” as these movements are captured and recorded by phone companies.

The majority of the Supreme court framed the question in terms of a shift in the role and capabilities of technology, specifically cell phones and data collection and records, with one writing that a mobile phone was now “a feature of human anatomy” that “faithfully follows its owner beyond public thoroughfares and into private residences, doctor’s offices, political headquarters, and other potentially revealing locales” and “when the government tracks the location of a cell phone it achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone’s user.”

The decision was 5-4.

First State to Offer Free College for Almost All Adults

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Tennessee is the first state in the country to offer community college free for almost all adults.

The state already had free community college for all graduating students, but now it has extended this to pretty much everyone. And the state lets attendees do it part time if they want, since many people work while attending.

U.S. Intelligence Officials Tell Senate They Will Not Repeat What Was Said in Conversations With Trump

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At a Senate intelligence hearing for an unrelated matter this week, senators ended up asking NSA and other intelligence brass about the president and the Russia investigation.

The officials told senators they would not discuss the specifics of conversations with the president.

They said they thought it was confidential information that should be protected from public hearing. They also said they were waiting for more guidance from the White House.

There was some talk about senators now being concerned about their ability to look into these matters and get answers from U.S. intelligence, and whether power has now shifted to the executive.

Comey Testifies About Trump Meetings

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Fired FBI Director James Comey has delivered a prepared statement to Congress this week.

The statement described the six meetings Comey had with the president, some of which are considered quite unusual by analysts.

During one meeting with Trump, Comey testified, he shared with the president sensitive information of a salacious nature that had been gathered as part of the FBI’s Russia investigation. At another meeting Trump asked everyone to leave except Comey and then spoke about “letting Flynn go.”

Trump several times referred to “a cloud” being over the White House because of the Russia investigation, according to Comey, who also related that Trump told him “had not been involved with hookers in Russia,” among other references.

Trump’s attorney issued a statement that he felt vindicated because Comey had said Trump himself was not under investigation.

Grads Graduating Without Learning Any Critical Thinking Skills

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On the test that measures critical thinking, some colleges actually had scores lower for grads than for freshmen, although other schools showed pretty good improvements.

‘Critical thinking’ refers to certain skills: Being able to understand the value of an argument based on the validity of facts involved, forming a conclusion about veracity based on available information, as well as being able to form cohesive arguments, are included.

The tests, called CLA+, started less than 20 years ago. Their purpose was to assess what really took place in a student’s learning over their 4-6 years at college, rather than testing the domain-specific facts and other information memorized in classes.

An example of a test question would be a challenge to a student to form an argument for or against purchasing a particular model of business plane for the company they work for, when that model had recently been reported in the news after being in a crash. The student is provided with written material about the plane to inform their argument, such as newspaper articles about the accident, federal reports on the type of engine and its known issues, charts on the planes performance, magazines with reviews of the plane and other similar models. The student has to “prepare a memo that addresses several questions, including what data support or refute the claim that the type of wing on the model of plane leads to more in-flight breakups, what other factors might have contributed to the accident and should be taken into account, and your overall recommendation about whether or not the company should purchase the plane.”

With these tests, it’s not a matter of just looking at the numbers, like 1,100 out of 1,600 versus 1,200 out of 1,600. People also look at a student’s position compared to others who took the same test.

When Wall Street Journal looked at test results recently. though, they looked at how many students were in the “below basic skills” level. While some colleges saw improvements, — numbers like 40% for freshmen to less than 10% for grads — a lot of others only saw changes of a few percent, including a couple of schools where the grad score was lower than the freshman.

What does the CLA+ test?

Walgreens Pharmacist Refused to Fill Prescription for Birth Control (Again)

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A Walgreens in New Mexico is being criticized after one of its pharmacists refused to fill a prescription for birth control (Misoprostol), according to the frustrated mother.

The ACLU is now in on the action. They’re filing a complaint against Walgreens: “A mother and her daughter who were discriminated against when they attempted to pick up a prescription related to the daughter’s birth control at a Walgreens pharmacy here in Albuquerque,” said Erin Armstrong, an ACLU Reproductive Rights Attorney.

It’s not the only case of this happening, either. Other complaints have been lodged.

Walgreens’ responded by saying they allow their pharmacists to step away from the counter rather than doing something against their moral beliefs, and that another pharmacist or employee will step in to fill the perscription.

Walgreens’ statement on the matter:

“Our policy is to allow pharmacists and other employees to step away from completing a transaction to which they may have a moral objection, and requires the pharmacist or other employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager on duty to complete the customer’s request.

“The policy’s objective is to ensure that in these rare instances, patients – both male and female – are offered reasonable alternatives to access legally prescribed medications.

“We have expressed our desire to work closely with the ACLU of New Mexico to address its concerns, and also as we review our policies and evaluate other services to help meet the needs of patients and customers.

“Additionally, we have taken the opportunity to retrain all of our pharmacists and store leadership in New Mexico on policies and procedures relating to conscientious objection, to ensure that we’re providing the highest level of patient care and service.