Daily COVID-19 deaths in the United States, which have fallen dramatically since the spring and continued to drop even as newly identified cases surged, are now rising. According to the Worldometers tally, which is based on reports from local health departments, COVID-19 deaths averaged 948 during the last three days, compared to 302 during the […]
On a Monday night in August 2016, Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old Dallas resident, called 911 to report that he was “having a lot of anxiety” about a man he feared would harm him. Timpa mentioned that he had received several psychiatric diagnoses—schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorder—but had not taken his medication that day. […]
“Churches Were Eager to Reopen,” says the headline over a story in today’s New York Times. “Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Infections.” The not-so-subtle subtext: Reopening churches was reckless, because they are more likely than other venues to be the sites of superspreading events, regardless of the precautions they take. But the evidence […]
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin faces murder and manslaughter charges for kneeling on George Floyd’s neck until he stopped breathing. But even if Chauvin is convicted, Floyd’s family may not be able to pursue claims under a federal statute that authorizes lawsuits against government officials who violate people’s constitutional rights. The uncertain prospects for […]
As COVID-19 cases surge in the United States, both daily deaths and the crude case fatality rate continue to decline. There are several plausible explanations for those seemingly contradictory trends, including expanded testing that identifies more mild cases, a younger mix of patients, and improved treatment. Nationwide, the number of newly identified COVID-19 cases hit […]
On January 22, 2019, Houston narcotics officer Hodgie Armstrong paid a confidential informant who bought drugs as part of a case he was investigating. The informant made the purchase around 6 p.m. that day at 4437 Knoxville Street, and another narcotics officer, Steven Bryant, was there to observe the transaction and Armstrong’s payment to the […]
Ten months after Houston cops killed a middle-aged couple during a no-knock drug raid based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit, Police Chief Art Acevedo was still assuring the public that the incident did not reflect a broader problem in his department or its Narcotics Division. “We will continue to be vigilant in our processes […]
Derek Chauvin, the now-former Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes while arresting him for passing a counterfeit $20 bill on Memorial Day, has been charged with murder and manslaughter for causing Floyd’s death by using excessive force. But whether or not Chauvin is convicted, it is not […]
About a month after Bill de Blasio personally led a police raid on a Hasidic rabbi’s funeral in Brooklyn, which he portrayed as an intolerable threat in the era of COVID-19, New York’s mayor visited the same borough to address a tightly packed crowd of protesters who had gathered in response to George Floyd’s death. […]
“By going into lockdown,” New York Times science writer Carl Zimmer matter-of-factly reports, “Massachusetts drove its reproductive number down from 2.2 at the beginning of March to 1 by the end of the month; it’s now at .74.” Zimmer is talking about the number of people the average carrier infects, and if the Massachusetts lockdown really […]
