NY Health Department sued for ‘hiding’ COVID-19 death stats of nursing home patients

The state Health Department is illegally withholding information about the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 in hospitals so it can intentionally undercount fatalities and tout New York’s response to the pandemic, a new lawsuit charges.

The Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based think tank, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for the data on Aug. 3 and was later told that it couldn’t have the records until Nov. 5, the court papers filed Friday allege.

The explanation given was that “a diligent search for responsive documents is still being conducted,” according to the Empire Center’s suit filed in Albany state Supreme Court.

But daily tallies of all nursing home residents who’ve died from the coronavirus, “both within nursing home facilities and elsewhere,” are contained in the state’s Health Emergency Response Data System, or HERDS, according to the suit.

The Empire Center says there’s “no reason” why the Health Department “hasn’t already disclosed the information” and accuses officials of “hiding it without justification.”

The Empire Center also alleges that the state’s official count of at least 6,600 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes “omits potentially thousands of nursing home residents who died in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes.”

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Biden, CNN’s Cooper mocked after breaking social distancing rule during town hall commercial break

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday were mocked on social media after a former producer at the network flagged that the two men moved closer to each other, breaking social distancing guidelines, as the network went to a commercial break during a town hall event.

“Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage. But when they think they’ve gone to commercial break, they get so close to each other that Biden is whispering in Cooper’s ear,” wrote former CNN senior digital producer Steve Krakauer in a tweet that included video. 

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Satchuel Cole, leader in the fight for racial equality in Indianapolis, lied about own race

Satchuel Cole, a highly visible community leader advocating for racial and social justice in Indiana, has apologized for misleading people about Cole’s own race, saying “I have taken up space as a Black person while knowing I am white.”

Cole — who uses pronouns they/them — worked with Indy10 Black Lives Matter and Indy SURJ, apologized and admitted lying in a social media post. Cole, who also was active in the LGBTQ community, did not respond to multiple phone messages and emails from IndyStar this week.

“Friends, I need to take accountability for my actions and the harm that I have done. My deception and lies have hurt those I care most about. I have taken up space as a Black person while knowing I am white. I have used Blackness when it was not mine to use. I have asked for support and energy as a Black person. I have caused harm to the city, friends and the work that I held so dear,” Cole posted on a Facebook page under the name Satch Paige.

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NJ’s property tax and it’s collectors are ruthless pigs

An 89-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s nearly lost her Ocean Twp house over six cents. SIX F&$#ING CENTS! She had mistakenly underpaid her 2019 property taxes by six cents. September 9th, she received noticed that the township put her house up for sheriff’s sale, according to a report on NBC New York.  Of course the interest grew at a far faster rate than any of us could hope to gain in savings and the bill quickly grew to $300.

The woman is Glen Kristi Goldenthal and her daughter, Lisa Suhay, who lives in Virginia, spent a whole day on the phone with township officials trying to save her mother’s house from being sold out from under her. Thankfully she was successful and Ocean Twp Mayor Chris Siciliano was quick to apologize and admitted something must be done to change the system.
Even when the tax collector called Mrs. Goldenthal to tell her of the delinquent tax, he knew something wasn’t right. But that didn’t stop the machinery of New Jersey government from rolling full steam ahead to try and take the poor old woman’s home.

Shameful doesn’t even begin to describe, not only this incident, but the entire property tax situation in our state. It’s disgusting! It’s also not the first time it’s happened here. Luckily Lisa Suhay was able to stop the confiscation. Some other elderly residents were not as lucky. At the time, 90-year-old Gloria Turano of Lawrence Twp lost her home in 2017, after the loan she took out to pay the property taxes ran out. Her husband had built the home with his own hands in 1953. It almost happened to 107-year-old Rose Eastwick of Cranford until generous strangers stepped in to save her from losing her home last year.

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Joe Biden Resurrects False College Claim That Helped Ruin His 1988 Presidential Run

Joe Biden is not the first person in his family to have gone to college. But he has a lengthy history of claiming otherwise, no matter how much the lie gets him in trouble.

Even after having famously admitted exactly 33 years ago to the day that he had family who had gone to college before him, Biden once again made the false claim at a CNN Town Hall on Thursday night.

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