|
CRIME STOPPERS OF HOUSTON FUGITIVE FRIDAY
Jun 24- Jun 30, 2021 | Weather
¡Que Onda Magazine!
El Líder del Clima.
Mantente informado.
Click on the map to view details or click here: QOHW0624
Vice President Harris to visit US-Mexico border area regarding migration
Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first visit on Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, following criticism from members of both parties for failing to go earlier despite her role leading the Biden administration’s response to a steep increase in migration.
Harris will visit the El Paso area, accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to a statement Wednesday from Harris senior adviser Symone Sanders.
Harris has faced months of criticism from Republicans, and even some frustration from those in her own party, for not visiting the area.
She was tasked earlier this year by President Joe Biden with taking on the root causes of migration from Central America to the United States, and so far she’s focused largely on outreach to local leaders and advocacy groups with the goal of improving economic and living conditions in the region. Harris has said her goal is to offer residents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico hope for their future, so they no longer feel compelled to leave home for better opportunities.
Her aides have repeatedly insisted her efforts are distinct from the security issues that plague U.S. officials trying to handle a spike in border crossings. But Republicans have pointed to the failures by both Harris and Biden to visit the border to paint the administration as absent in a crisis.
Harris will arrive in the area just days before former President Donald Trump is to visit the border with a group of House Republicans and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Trump is certain to use the opportunity to drive Republican attacks on Democrats as soft on immigration.
The border issue shadowed Harris’ first foreign trip earlier this month, to Guatemala and Mexico, where she met with both nations’ presidents and local officials to discuss economic and humanitarian solutions to the significant outmigration from both countries.
During that trip, she sat for an interview with NBC News in which she dismissed a question about why she hadn’t made a trip to the border by responding, “I’ve never been to Europe,” and adding, “I don’t understand the point you’re making.” Harris and White House aides were subsequently forced to parry repeated questions about the decision and her remarks.
Harris said she was focused on “tangible” results “as opposed to grand gestures,” but she also said she might visit in the near future.
She has noted that as a senator from California, she has visited the border in the past, and she has asserted that unless the root causes of migration are addressed the situation there will never be fixed.
It’s unclear what Harris’ plans include during her visit to the area, but one migrant detention facility in El Paso, at the Fort Bliss military post, has drawn criticism from advocates who have described unsafe conditions and allegations of abuse toward some of the thousands of children housed there.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the trip was “part of the coordinated effort between her office, her work, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, to continue to address the root causes and work in coordination to get the situation under control.”
While Psaki emphasized that border security is under Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas’ purview, she added that “it’s important every component of our government is coordinated” on the issue.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 180,000 encounters on the Mexican border in May, the most since March 2000. Those numbers were boosted by a pandemic-related ban on seeking asylum, which encouraged repeated attempts to cross the border because getting caught carried no legal consequences.
The numbers have led even some centrist Democrats to join Republicans in their calls for Harris to make a trip to the area. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat whose district stretches from south of San Antonio down to the southern border, wrote a letter to Harris earlier this month inviting her to “observe the ongoing humanitarian crisis and share the perspective of Americans who live there.”
“I believe it is critical that you meet with local stakeholders and residents, consider their concerns, and use their lived experiences to implement more effective policies,” he wrote.
Cuellar issued a tweet Wednesday thanking Harris for her plans to visit.
But his engagement on the issue underscores the potential political peril for Democrats on immigration. An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that more Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling the sharply increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
And Trump’s trip to the border marks another sign of how closely Republicans continue to align themselves with Trump and the extent to which they see the border as a winning campaign issue. The former president immediately took credit for Harris’ trip, speculating in a statement that the vice president would not have made plans to go if he hadn’t been headed there himself.
Psaki said the administration “made an assessment within our government about when it was an appropriate time for her to go the border.”
Source: www.click2houston.com
Texas border wall project receives over $450K in donations
This comes after Gov. Greg Abbott said he would reallocate $250 million in state funds as a “down payment” for the project — while crowdfunding some of the remaining costs.
The identities of the donors and how much they donated to the wall construction are not readily available and can only be obtained through public information requests, a spokesperson for Abbott said. Eventually, Abbott’s office said, the total donations figure will be available online on a website that currently solicits people to donate.
Abbott has not given an estimate of the project’s total costs or details of how long the wall will be or where it will be located but said he expected it to be “hundreds of miles” long. He directed the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager who will lead efforts to determine those factors.
The commission said in a statement Thursday it began work on creating a request for proposal for the program manager position, saying it would remain “transparent and compliant with State competitive bidding standards.”
Abbott also said he expects Texans to volunteer their land for the project and said he would send a letter to President Joe Biden asking the federal government to return land the Trump administration took from private property owners in Texas to build a border wall.
The Trump administration had met fierce resistance from private property owners unwilling to allow the federal government to build on their land. Land Commissioner George P. Bush said last week he would grant emergency authorization for the building of the wall on state lands, which makes up approximately 591,595 surface acres along the border.
Promises and calls for a border wall between Mexico and the U.S. were a hallmark of former President Donald Trump and his supporters, both during his campaigns and his presidency. Trump’s administration built about 450 miles of barrier, mostly in Arizona, according to The Washington Post. Trump is set to tour the border with Abbott next week. Vice President Kamala Harris will head to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday.
Construction on the federal wall largely stopped after Biden in January ordered federal agencies to pause construction on the barrier where possible. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told House lawmakers DHS is not requesting further border wall funding in its 2022 budget proposal to Congress.
Tensions over border security have risen between the Democrat president and the two-term Republican governor. Abbott has blamed Biden’s immigration policies for the increase of immigrants on the state’s southern border, saying in a disaster declaration that new federal policies have paved the way for “dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.” Abbott has announced a partnership with the state of Arizona calling for other states to send law enforcement officials to help border states arrest and jail immigrants crossing the border.
There were 180,034 border crossings last month, and nearly 40% of those turned back had previously crossed. This is compared to fewer than 25,000 border crossings in late 2020, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. During the Trump administration, the highest recorded number of apprehensions was nearly 150,000.
Portions of the existing wall in Texas cost $26.5 million per mile to construct, federal lawmakers have said. The Biden administration has said building the wall cost taxpayers $46 million per mile in some areas along the border.
Texas’ border fundraiser has already surpassed a similar effort in 2011 by the Arizona Legislature. That effort received almost $270,000 by 2014, but the attempt was abandoned and the money reallocated after estimates for the final project stretched into the billions, according to The Arizona Republic.
Source: www.click2houston.com
Directors General of WHO, WIPO and the WTO agree on intensified cooperation in support of access to medical technologies worldwide to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic
On June 15, 2021, we, the Directors General of WHO, WIPO, and the WTO, met in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity to map out further collaboration to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressing global challenges at the intersection of public health, intellectual property, and trade. Acutely conscious of our shared responsibility to communities across the world as they confront a health crisis of unprecedented severity and scale, we pledged to bring the full extent of the expertise and resources of our respective institutions to bear in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and improving the health and well-being of all people, everywhere around the globe.
We underscored our commitment to universal, equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other health technologies – a commitment anchored in the understanding that this is an urgent moral imperative in need of immediate practical action.
In this spirit, we agreed to build further on our long-standing commitment to WHO-WIPO-WTO Trilateral Cooperation that aims to support and assist all countries as they seek to assess and implement sustainable and integrated solutions to public health challenges. Within this existing cooperative framework, we agreed to enhance and focus our support in the context of the pandemic through two specific initiatives.
First, our three agencies will collaborate on the organization of practical, capacity-building workshops to enhance the flow of updated information on current developments in the pandemic and responses to achieve equitable access to COVID-19 health technologies. The aim of these workshops is to strengthen the capacity of policymakers and experts in member governments to address the pandemic accordingly. The first workshop in the series will be a workshop on technology transfer and licensing, scheduled for September. The workshop will help our members update their knowledge and understanding of how intellectual property, know-how, and technology transfer work in actuality. This would be in the context of medical technologies and related products and services. This first workshop will be followed by others on related practical themes.
Secondly, we will implement a joint platform for tripartite technical assistance to countries relating to their needs for COVID-19 medical technologies, providing a one-stop-shop that will make available the full range of expertise on access, IP and trade matters provided by our organizations, and other partners, in a coordinated and systematic manner. The platform for technical assistance will, in particular,
- support countries to assess and prioritize unmet needs for COVID-19 vaccines, medicines, and related technologies, and
- provide timely and tailored technical assistance in making full use of all available options to access vaccines, medicines, and technologies, including through coordination between members facing similar challenges to facilitate collective responses.
These initiatives will also be underpinned by our joint efforts to collect and make accessible robust and inclusive data needed to guide an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will include a periodical update of the overview of COVID 19-related measures that are mapped in a key resource for trilateral cooperation, the WHO-WIPO-WTO publication ‘Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation: Intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade’, published in 2020.
Background
The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have, since 2009, stepped up their cooperation and practical coordination on issues relating to public health, IP, and trade. This trilateral cooperation is intended to enhance the empirical and factual information basis for policymakers and to support them in addressing public health in relation to IP and trade. It has entailed a series of practical technical assistance activities, at the national, regional, and multilateral levels, a series of high-level policy Symposia intended to track emerging issues and inform future policy, and the trilateral study, which provides a comprehensive overview of the full array of policy issues with bearing on innovation and access to medical technologies.
Source: www.who.int
UNESCO and WHO urge countries to make every school a health-promoting school
UNESCO and the World Health Organization today launched the Global Standards for Health-promoting Schools, a resource package for schools to improve the health and well-being of 1.9 billion school-aged children and adolescents. The closure of many schools around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disruptions to education. An estimated 365 million primary school students went without school meals and significantly increased rates of stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
“Schools play a vital role in the well-being of students, families, and their communities, and the link between education and health has never been more evident,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “These newly launched global standards are designed to create schools that nurture education and health, and that equip students with the knowledge and skills for their future health and well-being, employability and life prospects.”
Based on a set of eight global standards, the resource package aims to ensure all schools promote life skills, cognitive and socioemotional skills, and healthy lifestyles for all learners. These global standards will be piloted in Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Paraguay. The initiative contributes to WHO’s 13th General Program of Work target of ‘1 billion lives made healthier’ by 2023 and the global Education 2030 Agenda coordinated by UNESCO.
“Education and health are interdependent basic human rights for all, at the core of any human right, and essential to social and economic development,” said UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay. “A school that is not health-promoting is no longer justifiable and acceptable. I call for all of us to affirm our commitment and role, to make every school a health-promoting school”.
The global standards provide a resource for education systems to help foster health and well-being through stronger governance. UNESCO and WHO will work with governments to enable countries to adapt the package to their specific contexts. The evidence is clear. Comprehensive school health and nutrition programs in schools have significant impacts on school-aged children. For example:
- School health and nutrition interventions for girls and boys in low-income areas where worms and anemia are prevalent can lead to 2.5 years of additional schooling.
- Malaria prevention interventions can result in a 62% reduction in absenteeism.
- Nutritious school meals increase enrolment rates by 9% on average, and attendance by 8%; they can also reduce anemia in adolescent girls by up to 20%.
- Hand-washing promotion reduces absenteeism due to gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses by 21% -61% in low-income countries.
- Free screening and eyeglasses have led to a 5% higher probability of students passing standardized tests in reading and math.
- Comprehensive sexuality education encourages the adoption of healthier behaviors, promotes sexual and reproductive health and rights, and improves sexual and reproductive health outcomes such as the reduction of HIV infection and adolescent pregnancy rates.
- Improving water and sanitation (WASH) services and supplies in school, as well as knowledge on menstrual hygiene, equips girls to maintain their body hygiene and health with dignity, and may limit the number of school days missed during menstruation.
The Health Promoting Schools approach was first articulated by WHO, UNESCO, and UNICEF in 1995 and adopted in over 90 countries and territories. However, few countries have implemented it at scale, and even fewer have effectively adapted their education systems to include health promotion. The new global standards will help countries to integrate health promotion into all schools and boost the health and well-being of their children.
Source: www.who.int
Join Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine’s Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt for Fun Summer Adventure
The Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine’s Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt (GOSH) returns for another year of summer fun across Texas. Travel to various locations regionally or statewide, take a selfie, and post it with the hashtag #GOSH2021. Discover the history, wildlife, parks, waterways, and quirky attractions — plus iconic Texas food stops as a “bonus” to enjoy along the way. The GOSH 2021 challenge ends at midnight on Labor Day, Sept. 6.
Select from six regions, including Dallas, Central Texas, Houston, Panhandle, South Texas, and West Texas. Register on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine website or the TPWD Facebook Page, then find the spot, take a smiling selfie and tag it on Twitter or Instagram. Participants can also post and tag it on the TPWD Facebook Page with #GOSH2021. Partakers can visit locations regionally or statewide and complete one or all GOSH activities.
“We are so ready to have fun outdoors again,” says Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine editor Louie Bond. “GOSH inspires those day trips that make lifelong memories. Pack the ice chest and your swimsuits and hit the road for a summer of fun. Share selfies everywhere you go, and you’ll have bragging rights at Thanksgiving for being great Texas adventurers.”
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, take selfies with wading pools and waterfalls at Airfield Falls Conservation Park and with vintage farm equipment or the Penn family home at Penn Farm at Cedar Hill State Park. Stop in at Czech Stop Bakery and take a gander at the State Fair’s mythical Texas Woofus. Enjoy the views at the scenic overlooks at Lake Mineral Wells State Park & Trailway and match your grin to the fish in the 26,000-gallon Dive Theater aquarium at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. Check out more locations for the Dallas area at GOSH 2021 Dallas Region.
In Central Texas, take a refreshing break at the waterfalls at McKinney Falls State Park and find the dwarf palmettos at Palmetto State Park. Snap a selfie with Park Road IC signs and another in front of any of the four missions south of the Alamo on the San Antonio Missions Trail. Do some Texas time travel with ‘Henge or one of the Easter Island Heads at Stonehenge II. Snap a drooling selfie at Blue Bonnet Café with a slice of any of their piled-high pies. Visit GOSH 2021 Central Texas Region for more information.
In the Houston area, avoid being devoured by a carnivorous plant at Big Thicket Natural Preserve and take a selfie splashing in the water at Lake Livingston State Park. Grab a photo outside any of Moody Garden’s three glass pyramids and climb the tower observation deck at Sheldon Lake State Park. Find the geyser at Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum and take a top-notch self-portrait in front of La King’s Confectionary taffy pull. GOSH 2021 Houston Area has more details.
In the Panhandle, snap a selfie in front of the iconic Alibates Visitors Center at Alibates Flint quarry and pose in front of a bison statue at Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway. Pack a lunch for a visit to one of Copper Breaks State Park’s iconic pyramid-style picnic shelters or brave the dark and try a nighttime starry selfie. Look great in front of Lake Meredith with the Panhandle plateaus in the background. For more information about GOSH 21 locations in the Panhandle, check out GOSH 2021 Panhandle Region.
In South Texas, snap a selfie at one of the park’s wildlife watching or nature trails at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. With the Gulf of Mexico in the background, take a breezy break at the wooden beach picnic shelters at Mustang Island State Park. Grab a photo in front of the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum’s seven flags or holding a copy of the Laredo Morning Times, with seven flags on its banner. Visit GOSH 2021 South Texas Region for more information.
In West Texas, turn the camera around to catch a snapshot below the CCC water tower at Abilene State Park and take a selfie from the CCC group pavilion on the top of the hill at Big Spring State Park. Take a photo inside the courtyard at Indian Lodge at Davis Mountains State Park Indian Lodge. Wade into the lake, then snap a selfie at Lake Colorado City State Park. Visit GOSH 2021 West Texas for more information.
Source: tpwd.texas.gov
Governor Abbott Statement on Vice President Harris’ Upcoming Visit to Texas’ Southern Border
“Vice President Harris is ignoring the real problem areas along our southern border that are not protected by the border wall and are being overrun by the federal government’s ill-thought-out open border policies. She will fail in her mission if she refuses to speak to residents of the Del Rio sector whose homes and ranches are being overrun by gangs and smugglers.
“The Vice President was named Border Czar over 90 days ago, and in that time Texans have had their homes broken into, property damaged, and guns pointed at their heads as cartels, smugglers, and human traffickers profit off the Biden Administration’s reckless open-border policies. I launched Operation Lone Star in March to combat this record-high influx of people and crime, and since then DPS has arrested over 1,700 criminals, apprehended over 41,000 migrants, and seized enough fentanyl to kill over 21 million people.
“Texas has been and continues to step up to protect Texans and Americans.”
Source: gov.texas.gov
Dozens of Incarcerated Texans Died in Prison After They Were Cleared for Parole
In Texas, a new report on the impacts of the pandemic inside prisons reveals at least 18 people who had been cleared for parole last year died of COVID-19 — and some two dozen others died of chronic health issues — before their scheduled release. That follows at least 26 Texas prisoners who died in 2019 after they were approved for parole. The report, published by the University of Texas at Austin, highlights a pattern of delaying the release of incarcerated people who’ve been paroled for as much as one year.
In related news, The Marshall Project reports some 31,000 federal prisoners have sought compassionate release since the start of the pandemic. The Bureau of Prisons approved just 36 of those appeals.
Source: www.democracynow.org
Balmorhea, world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool, reopening
The spring-fed swimming pool and day-use area at Balmorhea State Park will reopen to the public on June 26, the Texas Park and Wildlife Department announced. The beloved West Texas swimming hole, the world’s largest spring-fed pool, has been closed for the better part of three years.
In May 2018, officials closed the pool indefinitely when crews discovered damage to the concrete apron that stabilizes the walls of the pool from erosion. After repairs, the pool reopened in March 2019 but closed again just months later in September for park improvements initially scheduled to run through Spring 2020. Construction was delayed by the pandemic and a change in contractors. But next week, the pool will finally reopen.
The pool and day-use areas will be open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. or sunset, whichever comes first.
Those who wish to visit should note that some light construction is still ongoing in the pool area, according to TPWD. Additionally, the San Solomon Courts motel, campground, and Cienega remain closed to the public.
Day passes are available for purchase on the Texas State Parks Online Reservations Center but are limited. Day passes can be purchased up to 30 days in advance. TPWD urges visitors to purchase passes in advance online before driving to the park. Upon entry, visitors must present their reservation receipts at the park headquarters. Guests with reservations will then receive wristbands which they will be asked to wear when in the pool and day-use areas.
Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in 1930s, Balmorhea State Park is a popular West Texas attraction. Its treasured Texas pool is up to 25-feet deep, covers 1.3 acres, and holds 3.5 million gallons of water. It’s also home to numerous species of aquatic animals, including two small, endangered desert fishes- the Pecos gambusia and the Comanche Springs pupfish, according to the TPWD. Before closures began in 2018, an estimated 200,000 people visited Balmorhea State Park each year. Aside from its most well-known attraction, the historic park features picnic sites, an outdoor sports area and playground, 34 camping sites, and the San Solomon Springs Courts, motel-style retro lodging built by the CCC.
Balmorhea State Park is located at 9207 TX-17 in Toyahvale, about 32 miles north of Fort Davis in West Texas. For more information visit the park page on the TPWD website or call (432) 375-2370.
Source: www.click2houston.com