Updated: Two Ranking NYPD Officers Arrested For Conspiring To Close Lincoln Tunnel In Exchange For Prostitutes and Travel

Posted June 21, 2016 9:10 PM ET; Last updated June 25, 2016 5:32 PM ET


Grant (pictured leaving court on Monday) accepted a two-night stay at a hotel in Rome worth more than $1,000, contracting work in his home worth about $12,000 and jewelry, the court papers state.

[Updated June 25, 2016 5:32 PM ET]
[From article]
A high-end prostitute received $10,000 to accompany a high-ranking NYPD officer and one of his detective friends on a trip to Las Vegas, federal authorities said.
The woman, who was named Candi according to DNA Info, was hired to accompany Deputy Inspector James Grant, his friend, two businessmen and two other people during a Super Bowl weekend getaway in 2013, the indictment states.
One of the businessmen, according to the document, was Jeremy Reichberg, of Brooklyn, who now faces corruption charges along with Grant and NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington.
Reichberg and another businessman spent more than $100,000 bribing NYPD officers in exchange for favors, US Attorney Preet Bharara said Monday.
Candi, a high-end prostitute, took off in the private jet with Grant, Reichberg and businessman Jona Rechnitz, who has pleaded guilty in the case and is now cooperating with authorities in the investigation, from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, DNA Info reported.
The group left on February 2, 2014 to and returned on February 4 on the private jet, which cost $57,000 according to the indictment.
Candi told investigators that Grant and others had 'taken advantage of her services during the trip' and slept in Grant's room, the document states.
Reichberg had offered to take Grant to Las Vegas for a Super Bowl weekend a month prior, authorities said.
Authorities arrested Grant, 43, Harrington, 50 and Reichberg, 42, on Monday. All three now face one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.


Meanwhile authorities said Harrington (pictured on Monday) accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of private security work, hotel rooms in Chicago worth more than $6,000, and dinners worth thousands of dollars.

Reichberg and Rechnitz 'engineered a scheme to provide lavish benefits to high-ranking members of the NYPD' between 2012 and 2015, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Other gifts included a two-night stay at a hotel in Rome for Grant worth more than $1,000, contracting work in his home worth about $12,000 and jewelry, the court papers state.
Meanwhile authorities said Harrington accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of private security work for a company he helped manage unofficially, hotel rooms in Chicago for him and his family worth more than $6,000, and dinners worth thousands of dollars.
In exchange, the indictment says, Grant and Harrington arranged police escorts for the two businessmen, diverted police resources to investigate their private matters and helped them get VIP access to parades and other events in New York City.
Grant helped the two men avoid tickets after being pulled over by officers by giving them cards, authorities said.
He also helped Reichberg to obtain a gun license from the NYPD and tried to do the same for Rechnitz, the US Attorney's Office said.
NYPD Sergeant David Villanueva was also arrested on Monday and charged with receiving cash bribes to expedite and approve gun licenses.
Authorities also unveiled the guilty plea of officer Richard Ochetal, who has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for the approval of gun license applications and is now cooperating with investigation.
Both Reichberg and Rechnitz have contributed heavily to Mayor de Blasio's campaign.
The mayor hasn't been implicated in any wrongdoing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653678/High-end-prostitute-called-Candi-received-10-000-accompany-NYPD-officers-fundraisers-Bill-Blasio-private-jet-Super-Bowl-weekend-Las-Vegas.html

High-end prostitute called Candi 'received $10,000 to accompany NYPD officers and de Blasio donors on a private jet for a Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas'
The prostitute was hired to spend the trip with Deputy Inspector James Grant, a detective friend and two businessmen in 2013, authorities said
Grant and others 'took advantage of her services', according to indictment
The jet cost $59,000 and Candi slept in Grant's room, the document states
Grant, businessman Jeremy Reichberg and NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington are now facing corruption charges
Reichberg and another businessman spent more than $100,000 bribing NYPD officers in exchange for favors, US Attorney Preet Bharara said

By CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 23:44 EST, 21 June 2016 | UPDATED: 02:10 EST, 22 June 2016


* * *

[Posted June 21, 2016 9:10 PM ET]


Jeremy Reichberg

Photo: Reuters

[From article]

Cops shut down a lane in the Lincoln Tunnel so a visiting businessman could be escorted through it at the behest of a major de Blasio fundraiser, federal prosecutors charged Monday.
The outrageous move was revealed as part of damning criminal indictments unveiled Monday against four NYPD officers and the shady “fixer’’who allegedly arranged it.
The stunning arrests marked the first time cops have been charged in the sweeping 3½-year corruption investigation rocking the department and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, which is being probed for its fundraising.

Jona Rechnitz
Photo: Baruch Ezagui/collive.com

Federal prosecutors allege that the civilian behind the closure, Borough Park businessman Jeremy Reichberg, and his pal, real estate investor Jona Rechnitz, spent more than $100,000 on police bribes between 2012 and 2015.
“They got, in effect, a private police force for themselves and their friends — effectively they got cops on call,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The criminal indictments alleged that in one instance, “Reichberg, using his connections in local law enforcement agencies, was able to arrange for the closure of a lane in the Lincoln Tunnel and a police escort down that lane for a businessman visiting the United States.”
It was unclear when the shutdown occurred, but law enforcement sources said the request did not go through official channels and there was no documentation of it, suggesting it could have been orchestrated in the middle of the night.
Bharara said the busted NYPD officials accepted bribes that included costly trips and romps with a prostitute.
Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, Deputy Inspector James Grant and Sgt. David Villanueva were all arrested at their homes at 6 a.m., prosecutors said.
A fourth cop, Officer Richard Ochetal, had already pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for expediting gun permit applications, according to court papers.
“It is a heartbreaking thing,’’ Bharara said at a press conference announcing the charges. “An officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer.’’
The damning criminal indictments reveal just how influential Reichberg and Rechnitz became through their department connections.
With Rechnitz’s help, Reichberg arranged free “flights, hotel rooms, prostitutes, expensive meals, home improvements, and prime seats to sporting events, among other things,” for the cops, court documents say.
In exchange, Grant and Harrington arranged police escorts for the businessmen, handled their personal business disputes, gave them VIP access to events such as New Year’s Eve and the Marathon and provided them with NYPD cards that got them out of traffic tickets, prosecutors allege.
Reichberg was even caught on an early 2015 wiretap indicating that his NYPD connections were so tight that he “was dispensing advice on promotions to members of the NYPD and taking steps to facilitate promotions.’’

http://nypost.com/2016/06/20/shady-businessman-bribed-cops-to-close-lincoln-tunnel-lane-feds/

Shady businessman bribed cops to close Lincoln Tunnel lane: feds
By Jamie Schram, Shawn Cohen, Kaja Whitehouse and Danika Fears
New York Post
June 20, 2016 | 11:03pm

Mosquito-borne Zika Virus Spreads Through US, Danger To Pregnant Women

[From article]
U.S. health officials are reporting new cases of a mosquito-borne virus linked to birth defects.
Three cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in Florida, and two pregnant women tested positive in Illinois. Texas and Hawaii also have confirmed cases, including a baby born with a birth defect.
The growing cases at home are traced back to overseas, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel alert over the virus, warning pregnant women to avoid some of the most popular American vacation destinations, reports Elaine Quijano of CBS News' digital network, CBSN.
In the handful of confirmed cases in the U.S., those infected traveled outside of the country and tested positive once they got home.
The Zika virus is caused by the Aedes mosquito. It's been determined women can pass the virus to their babies, causing birth defects.
The CDC's warning to pregnant women is clear: If you have the symptoms, see a doctor and get tested for an infection.
All of the Zika cases in the U.S. involve foreign travel. The Florida victims traveled to Colombia and Venezuela and the two pregnant women in Illinois visited Central America and the Caribbean. A Texas man was also diagnosed after he returned from El Salvador in November.
[. . .]
Brazil is claiming thousands of babies have been born with brain injuries. Officials there are urging women - who can wait - to hold off on becoming pregnant until the crisis is under control.
In less than 200 days, Brazil is set to host millions for the 2016 Olympics. There is no vaccine and no course of treatment for the Zika virus.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/zika-virus-aedes-mosquito-birth-defects-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-travel-alert/

CBS NEWS

January 20, 2016, 7:13 AM
Concerns over Zika virus outbreak growing in U.S.

* * *

[From article]
Pregnant women who have traveled to regions where the Zika virus is prevalent should be tested for the infection, according to new guidance from US health officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said doctors should ask pregnant women about their travel and certain symptoms.
And, if there are signs of infection or reason to believe the fetus may be affected, the woman should be tested and ultrasounds should monitor the baby's development, the CDC recommended.
Zika is spread through mosquito bites - with outbreaks currently in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The tropical virus has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect in which the head is smaller than normal - and the brain may not have developed properly.
There is no vaccine for the virus, but a developer said it created a genetically modified mosquito that reduces the number of mosquitoes spreading Zika in Brazil.
Zika infections typically only cause a mild illness - if at all.
Most people with Zika don't develop symptoms, but those that do usually only develop a fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.
Those symptoms rarely last longer than a week.
However, there's mounting evidence that the infection can cause birth defects if acquired by a pregnant woman.
Yet, in the Brazil cases, most of the mothers appeared to have been infected during their first trimester.
However, CDC officials have said that there is some evidence the birth defect can occur later in pregnancy.
The CDC issued guidance last week that women should consider postponing trips to 14 destinations.
Those places include Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.
Women who are trying to get pregnant - or thinking of getting pregnant - were also advised to talk to their doctors before traveling to those areas.
They were also advised to take extra precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3407261/CDC-Ask-pregnant-women-trips-Zika-outbreak-areas.html

Test pregnant women for Zika virus, say CDC experts - amid concerns over link to 'incomplete brain development in babies'
CDC recommends doctors test pregnant women for Zika virus
The guidance only covers women who traveled to countries with the virus
That includes popular vacation spots in Latin America and Caribbean
Zika is linked to a birth defect where a baby has an abnormally small head
The virus is passed through a type of mosquito called Aedes
A developer said it created modified Aedes to reduce the virus's spread
By LISA RYAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:23 EST, 19 January 2016 | UPDATED: 16:36 EST, 20 January 2016

IRS Can Revoke Passport For Tax Bill, But Terror Candidates Can Travel Freely

[From article]
It is an interesting commentary on our priorities that the IRS now has the authority to revoke the passports of Americans who are in arrears by more than $50,000, but Americans travelling overseas to fight with ISIS can return safely home with passports in hand. As USA Today notes, the new provision was included in the FAST Act highway transportation bill signed by President Obama on Dec.4:
A new enforcement provision passed by Congress and signed into law earlier this month allows the government to revoke the passports of seriously delinquent tax scofflaws -- people who owe more than $50,000 to Uncle Sam.
[. . .]
We have entered a new era in the war on terror -- one of home grown and legal terrorists who with a wave of that document can cross borders freely, receive training and support, then return home to further recruit or actually commit terrorist acts.
[. . .]
presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz attempted in September 2014 to fast track his bill to revoke the passports of those Americans, to coin a phrase, found to be fraternizing with our terrorist enemy. He attempted to rush the bill to the floor, bypassing committee consideration, but his unanimous consent request was blocked by a Democratic colleague.
[. . .]
The revocation of citizenship for terrorist association overseas has been said by some to be both unworkable and unconstitutional. Yet seemingly we can revoke the passports of those trying to steal from our government without objection but not from those in effect making war on us and our government.
In October 2014, FBI Director James Comey told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that a “dozen or so” Americans had traveled to Syria to fight with ISIS and that they were entitled to come back unless their passports were revoked

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/taxes_not_terrorism_can_get_your_passport_revoked.html

December 26, 2015
Taxes, not Terrorism, can get your Passport Revoked
By Daniel John Sobieski

Misguided Double Standard For Politicians and Israel

Great piece of propaganda. Outrage over MA state legislators traveling to Israel. But silence about City Councilors traveling under same legal gifts to other countries. Suggesting that state officials learn the legal system of Israel before going, is like Obama learning the legal system of indonesia or even France before going there. Oh, wait. He didn't do it. Israel and the letter writer cannot be believed but international sources can? The New York Times and the Boston Globe publish propaganda like this letter regularly. Are Israelis killing people because they are not Jewish? Non Jews can vote and hold office in Israel, a democracy. What is the situation in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Gaza? Under what system of international law is there such a thing as Palestinian land?



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151130/NEWS/151139809

LETTER: Massachusetts senators should rethink Israel trip
Posted Nov. 30, 2015 at 1:43 PM
Updated at 1:46 PM
To the editor:
John and Kathy Roberts, Huron Avenue

Ex Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick and Pals, Traveled Well Using Secret Trust Fund and State Credit Cards

Former Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick

[From article]
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife put taxpayers on the hook for nearly $17,000 in airfare on a single trade mission to Israel, part of an often lavish worldwide tour funded by a tucked-away trust the Patrick administration never revealed to the public, new records obtained by the Herald reveal.
State records tracking the trade mission costs also showed Deval and Diane Patrick took a three-day trip to Colombia in 2013 on the taxpayer dime, ringing up a $8,342 bill for flights that far exceeded what other state officials paid.
Patrick’s airfare on other overseas junkets sometimes tripled that of his traveling contingent, such as a round-trip flight to Ireland reported in state records as costing $5,751. The former governor also racked up a $2,400 tab for a three-day stay at the five-star Merrion Hotel, which bills itself as the most “luxurious” hotel in the city, according to records.
Patrick saved the most expensive flight bill for his last trade mission — $12,356 for just a five-day trade mission to France, Denmark and England, according to records compiled by the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, which oversaw the travel trust fund.
The records also list a one-way flight from Hong Kong to Singapore under Patrick’s name costing a hefty $1,640.
One of Patrick’s traveling companions on several trips was Richard Davey, former Department of Transportation chief and current CEO of the Boston 2024 Olympic bid.
[. . .]
The former governor’s 10 international trade missions have come under new scrutiny by government watchdogs and lawmakers since the Herald first reported that the Patrick administration funneled $27 million from state quasi-public government agencies into trust funds kept separate from budgetary constraints and hidden from public scrutiny.
The Herald first reported that one of the trusts, funded by Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative, paid for the $1.4 million trade mission costs from 2009 to 2014.
A former Patrick administration aide, Alec Loftus, said the trips were well worth the cost, citing new international flights that the former governor pushed for in the countries he visited.
[. . .]
The $21,141 hotel bill for the Colombia trip was simply charged to a “state credit card,” according to records.
But it’s clear that the former governor and his aides traveled in style. In Tel Aviv, Patrick bedded down at the InterContinental and was charged $1,005, while the room for Richard Elam, the former executive director of the international trade office, cost $1,550, according to records.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/joe_battenfeld/2015/07/battenfeld_deval_patrick_was_flying_high_on_taxpayers

Battenfeld: Deval Patrick was flying high on taxpayers’ dime
Thursday, July 16, 2015
By: Joe Battenfeld
Boston Herald

NJ Public Health Officials Verify Traveler Died From Lassa Fever

[From article]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed late Monday that the man had died from a disease called Lassa fever, which is extremely rare in the United States but more common in parts of West Africa where he had traveled.
While the CDC said the man posed an “extremely low” risk to others, the agency is taking all precautions after taking flak for its handling of a man who was diagnosed with, and later died from, Ebola in Dallas last fall.
The man in New Jersey, who was not identified by the CDC, admitted himself to a hospital on May 18 with a sore throat, fever and fatigue. When asked about his travel history, he did not indicate travel to West Africa and was sent home the same day. But three days later, he returned with worse symptoms and died shortly thereafter.
While Lassa fever is typically less deadly than Ebola, CDC is working with New Jersey health officials to find any potential contacts. Anyone who is considered at risk will be monitored for 21 days — just as with Ebola.
The CDC will be seeking out health workers, family members and people who shared his plane from Liberia to Morocco to JFK International Airport on May 17.
The New Jersey hospital’s failure to immediately diagnose the disease — and to ultimately let the man leave the hospital — mirrors the experience of a man in a Dallas hospital who became the first person to die from Ebola in the United States.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243075-lassa-fever-death-in-new-jersey-evokes-ebola-fears

Lassa fever death evokes Ebola fears
By Sarah Ferris

05/26/15 10:25 AM EDT

New York Mayor Uses Taxpayer Resources to Travel, and Visit Other Cities

De Blasio imitates Massachusetts elected officials who focus on other states and the national government rather than address state or local issues. The Cambridge City Council and the previous three state attorneys generals are known for this diversion of attention and taxpayer resources.

[From article]
Bill de Blasio is one transcendent guy.
“We believed it would be transcendent to just have respectful dialogue, to have management respect labor, labor respect management,” he said last December of the magical act known as “negotiating union contracts.”
“I think it’s going to have a transcendent impact on a whole swath of Brooklyn,” he said in March about the future of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“A real transcendent figure in terms of serving the veterans of this city,” he said in August of his appointee to run the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs.
Oh, and in 2014, as The Wall Street Journal noted in tracking his profligate use of the word, de Blasio said, “This is not a political event, but I’ll make an observation about the political process. Chirlane and I know that last year was a transcendent year for this city.”
[. . .]
Among the definitions of transcendent are these: “Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.” “Existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe.” “Not realizable in experience.”
[. . .]
Hey, Bill, when you’re done fixing income disparities, telling Nebraskans you’re one of them and singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” do you think you could come back to New York and fix some potholes?
New Yorkers pay, by far, the highest taxes in the state. Which buys us the worst roads in the state, according to a report from research group TRIP.
Worse than Buffalo. Worse than Albany. New York City should not rank lower than Albany in any category except maybe “most elected officials currently under indictment.”
[. . .]
Governing a city of 8 million souls isn’t easy. Many bright men have tried and failed.
De Blasio, though, isn’t even trying. He seems to think he was hired to do something much more transcendent than mere governance.
[. . .]
Billy Blazes seems to think he was elected head of the New York Chapter of the National Progressivism Caucus. “I also have to participate in changing the national debate,” he declared this week. Says who? By a margin of 46% to 42%, New Yorkers said in a poll that de Blasio is spending too much time on non-New York issues.

http://nypost.com/2015/05/17/de-blasio-thinks-hes-above-petty-concerns-like-nyc/

De Blasio thinks he’s above fixing NYC’s problems
By Kyle Smith
New York Post
May 17, 2015 | 6:00am

Wealth Gap Growing, Especially in Aspen, Colorado

This Dec. 1, 2014 photo shows the Aspen Mountain ski area by Aspen, Colo. Resort towns like Aspen dramatically demonstrate an unnerving trend: Across the country, the rich are getting richer while the rest of the country is essentially treading water. (AP Photo/John Locher)


[From article]
The divide between the haves and have-nots in Aspen reflects a division that cuts across the country: The richest are getting richer while the rest of the population is essentially treading water. From 2009 to 2012, inflation-adjusted income for the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. households surged 31 percent, according to economist Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley. For everyone else, income inched up just 0.4 percent.
[. . .]
Aspen's dilemma is similar to that of other resort towns, from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to Park City, Utah, especially those nestled in the jagged terrain of the western United States. [. . .] The jobs in these communities are largely in the lower-paying service industry, yet the resort towns are a destination for the global upper class, said Bill Hettinger, author of "Living and Working in Paradise," a book on resort towns.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/resort-towns-working-class-squeezed-142809570.html

In resort towns, working class squeezed out as rich move in
In resort towns, working class gets squeezed out while the wealthy buy vacation homes
By Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press
January 12, 2015

UCLA Adds Cuba For Study Abroad, Removes Israel

[From article]
Students who charge the Israeli government with human rights violations, yet embrace Cuban diplomacy on campus, should be charged with fraud. They fail to acknowledge their double standards with regards to human rights. The very existence of the Israeli government is a protecting rock for Israelis and neighboring Palestinians, while the Cuban government has for years defamed its own people. Israel is the only legitimate democratic country in the Middle East, and it provides protection and necessary benefits to its citizens and none-citizens alike; Cuba continues to torture, enslave, and rob from its citizens while supporting worldwide terrorism and forming close ties with other corrupt dictatorships such as Iran and North Korea.
This is, unfortunately, an indication that our university leadership does not care about human rights as it falsely advertises. Cuba was added to the list of student destinations while Israel’s presence on that list is slowly fading.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/ucla-adds-cuba-its-list-study-abroad-programs

UCLA Adds Cuba To Its List Of Study Abroad Programs
Israel has been voted off that list by UCLA student government...
1.9.2015
Pardes Seleh

Seven Teens Get Pregnant on School Trip

[From article]
Seven girls, ages 13 to 15, are pregnant after a five-day school trip to their country’s capital city and their parents are being blamed.
The schoolgirls, from the city of Banja Luka, went to the Bosnia and Herzegovina capital, Sarajevo.
Nenad Babici, the national coordinator for reproductive health of the republic, told Inserbia.info that it was discovered that the seven schoolgirls got pregnant on the school trip.

http://nypost.com/2014/12/22/seven-teenage-girls-get-pregnant-on-school-trip/

Seven teenage girls get pregnant on school trip
By Ian Horswill
December 22, 2014 | 9:55am
New York Post

JFK Airport Thieves Take Items Worth $20,000 From Luggage

[From article]
the loot that baggage handlers were allegedly taking for themselves. The items included cellphones, iPads, laptops, jewelry and other items worth a grand total of more than $20,000.
The items were taken from travelers’ checked luggage between March 2012 and June 2014, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Wednesday.
“The defendants have been caught red handed and will now face the consequences of their alleged illegal acts,” said Brown.
“The defendants — who were hired to handle the baggage of those traveling in and out of Kennedy Airport — are alleged to have stolen computers, cell phones and other items from checked luggage with many of them selling the pilfered items to a pawn shop or to a ‘fence’ who was actually an undercover police officer,” Brown said.
[. . .]
The baggage handlers who were arrested were all working for subcontractors for airlines at JFK.
[. . .]
Police said the alleged thieves even fenced or sold the items on airport grounds, telling buyers there was plenty more where that came from.
The only trouble for them was that the buyers were undercover police officers.
Authorities said baggage thefts are now rampant, and anyone who puts their valuables in checked bags may never see them again.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/03/7-jfk-bag-handlers-charged-with-stealing-jewelry-electronics-from-checked-luggage/

CBS2 Exclusive: $20,000 In Loot Allegedly Taken From Checked Luggage By JFK Bag Handlers
December 3, 2014 6:13 PM
CBS News New York NY

Insurance Companies Recognize Ebola As a Premium Concern

[From article]

As fear of Ebola infections spreads to developed economies, U.S. and British insurance companies have begun writing Ebola exclusions into standard policies to cover hospitals, event organizers and other businesses vulnerable to local disruptions.
As a result, new policies and renewals will become costlier for companies opting to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover the risk of losses from quarantine shutdowns at home, industry officials told Reuters.
"What underwriters are doing at the moment is they're generally providing quotes either excluding or including Ebola - and it's much more expensive if Ebola is included,

[. . .]

While Ebola has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa, and other diseases such as influenza are arguably more likely to cause measurable harm in the West, the arrival of a few isolated Ebola cases in Western countries has focused their insurers' minds on the virus's potential to cause damage.
The impact on liability insurance has been limited. In the United States, workers' compensation covers medical care and lost income for those who fall ill at work. Because such policies are regulated at state level, Ebola exclusions are unlikely.
Some property and casualty insurers, however, are considering Ebola before writing or renewing policies.

http://news.yahoo.com/virus-spreads-insurers-exclude-ebola-policies-163302758--finance.html;_ylt=AwrTWf3Z3kdUXjIAZv3QtDMD

As virus spreads, insurers exclude Ebola from new policies

By Carolyn Cohn, Richa Naidu and Avik Das
October 22, 2014

Rwanda Tests Americans Traveling to Rwanada

[From article]
Now American and Spanish visitors will have to fill out a questionnaire and report their medical condition for the first 21 days of their visit in Rwanda. This big “screw you” to the U.S. and Spain comes after a ridiculous mix-up in New Jersey this week where an elementary school required that its nurse monitor the health of two Rwandan students for 21 days.
The nurse at Howard Yocum Elementary School in Maple Shade, New Jersey, wrote a note to all parents saying her office would monitor the kids’ temperatures three times a day for three weeks, scaring the parents half to death that their kids would get Ebola from a couple of Rwandans. The parents of the Rwandan children then volunteered to keep the kids at home for 21 days.

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/health-culture/ebola-rwanda/

Rwanda Starts Testing American Visitors for Ebola
Hey, West: Not everyone in Africa has Ebola. In fact, most Africans are scared you'll give it to them
Author: Sarah Kaufman
Posted: 10/21/14 14:57 EDT

Travel Ban To U.S. For Non U.S. Citizens Is Constitutional

Only problem is that the Obama-Holder administration does not operate within the constitution. Their standards come from within their minds.

[From article]
Former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax that Sen. Marco Rubio's travel ban proposal to help stop the spread of the Ebola virus in the United States is "clearly constitutional."
"The Congress has the power, as does the president, to protect the public health by banning travel by noncitizens to the United States," Dershowitz told J.D. Hayworth

http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/alan-dershowitz-ebola-travel-ban-constitutional/2014/10/21/id/602076/?Dkt_nbr=13E39-1&nmx_source=Boston_Herald&nmx_medium=widget&nmx_content=317&nmx_campaign=widgetphase2

Dershowitz: Ebola Travel Ban 'Clearly Constitutional'
Tuesday, 21 Oct 2014 01:09 PM
By Courtney Coren

Harvard University Issues Ebola Travel Restrictions for Its Students, Faculty and Staff

Dr. J. Soka Moses, left, in the Ebola treatment unit he runs at JFK hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Dr. Moses is the Ebola unit's only doctor. 
Patrick McGroarty for The Wall Street Journal

See, Harvard University can pay attention to the real world. Does Harvard University have the authority to dictate who can travel where? State commissioner of Health can isolate residents without any legal process. Does Harvard share that state constitutional authority? Great to learn that Harvard University Health Services is "training staff so that they can properly respond and recognize the disease." Will the Medical School and School of Public Health train its students and faculty? Currently some doctors at U.S. hospitals refuse to examine suspected ebola infected patients. They send nurses to make the examinations. Then there are the American trained Liberian doctors, including the President of Liberia's son who stays in the United States and refuses to travel to Liberia. Does than mean that American doctors should do what they refuse to do? See e.g., Wall Street Journal, "Many Liberian Doctors—Including President’s Son—Are Staying Away," By Patrick McGroarty, Oct. 20, 2014


[From article]

Harvard affiliates wishing to travel on University business to the countries most affected by Ebola must now obtain the approval of University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 and their respective School dean, according to a new set of guidelines the University disseminated on Friday.
Unrelated to that approval process, the new policy also mandates that any Harvard affiliate returning from Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia must complete a medical screening with Harvard University Health Services before arriving on campus. Travelers could also be asked to stay away from campus for 21 days, the length of the virus’s incubation period.
The guidelines, outlined in an email from Garber and UHS Director Paul J. Barreira, expand on those detailed in August that asked for Harvard students, faculty, and staff to avoid nonessential travel to the three countries.
In an interview Friday, University President Drew G. Faust added that UHS is also undertaking a set of planning exercises to prepare for a case of Ebola at the University, training staff so that they can properly respond and recognize the disease.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/20/harvard-tightens-travel-restrictions/

Harvard Tightens Travel Restrictions as Ebola Outbreak Worsens
Affiliates Wishing To Travel to West Africa Must Now Obtain Provost’s Approval
By Amna H. Hashmi
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
October 20, 2014
UPDATED: October 20, 2014, at 2:45 a.m.

* * *

[From article]
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Sunday said “the whole world has a stake” in preventing an unfolding catastrophe in Liberia, calling on nations to provide more medical experts and supplies to confront the exploding Ebola epidemic. But illustrating the difficulties of heeding that call, her own son, a physician, has stayed in the U.S., saying he can do more for his country there than at home.

“It is the duty of all of us as global citizens to send a message that we will not leave millions of West Africans to fend for themselves,” Mrs. Sirleaf said. In line with that message, the president in late August fired state officials who refused to come home from abroad to help Liberia battle Ebola.

At that time, however, her son, Dr. James Adama Sirleaf, was returning to his family in Georgia, after deciding to pull his medical training group out of his homeland because of mounting risks to doctors there. 

[. . .]

Officials and physicians here say far more Liberian doctors are in the U.S. and other countries than in the country of their birth, and that their absence is complicating efforts to curb what has become a global health crisis.

Even before Ebola, there were only about 170 Liberian doctors in the country, and colleagues say many of them weren't actively practicing. At least four of them have since died of the virus. That shortage has prompted repeated pleas from the Liberian government for more foreign doctors to join the fight.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., have begun to respond, in part to prevent a tide of new Ebola infections from entering their own countries. The U.S. has sent 400 of the up to 4,000 military personnel it will deploy to build 17 Ebola treatment units, the first of which is scheduled to open this month. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has 40 staff members on the ground. Doctors Without Borders, a nonprofit at the forefront of the response, has more than 100 foreign staff members working in Liberia.

 [. . .]

In its latest tally, the World Health Organization said Friday that Ebola has killed almost 2,500 people in Liberia—more than half the global death toll so far. The WHO has warned that Ebola could be infecting 10,000 people a week by December if it spreads into larger West African nations, such as Ivory Coast. 

[. . .]

Until the 1970s, Liberia was a middle-income country with 3,000 medical doctors. Aspiring physicians from across West Africa trained at JFK, the country’s top hospital. But a coup in 1980 set off two decades of civil war that tore Liberia and its health infrastructure apart.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/many-liberian-doctorsincluding-presidents-sonare-staying-away-1413758509

Many Liberian Doctors—Including President’s Son—Are Staying Away
As President of Ebola-Ravaged Country Pleads for Foreign Helpers, Her Physician Son Sends Aid from U.S.
By Patrick McGroarty
Updated Oct. 20, 2014 2:18 p.m. ET

Fearing Ebola, African Nations Ban Flights, But Not U.S. White House

[From article]
Dr. Michael Savage explained in an interview on Saturday that the U.S has sunk to the level of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, where government-controlled science and a government-controlled press were a way of life.
“There are no more independent voices that we know are in medicine or science anymore,” the conservative radio icon told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow on Breitbart News Saturday
[. . .]
he holds Obama responsible for intensifying the Enterovirus D-68 epidemic in the U.S. with “his unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, where the virus is endemic.” Now that American children are getting D-68, which Savage referred to as a mystery virus, “Not a public health official in the entire nation will even ask the question: could it be related to them,” he says.
[. . .]
He said passionately, “What Obama is doing is a crime against humanity. There is no other way around this, it is all lies.”
As far as Ebola is concerned, Savage says, “If you like your Ebola, you can keep your Ebola; it is part of the new Obamacare plan.”
[. . .]
“You listen to that fraud at the CDC – the man should be arrested for lying to the public. Every day he changes his story: ‘You can’t get it on a bus, you can get it on a bus. It’s not airborne, it might be airborne.’ I mean are they kidding? This is a nation whose health is being destroyed by this administration.”
[. . .]
“If you look at Africa, at the Ebola-stricken nations, the surrounding African nations have forbidden all travel between the nations that are stricken and their own. What does that tell us? That third world dictatorships in Africa are run by more intelligent men than Barack Obama,” he said.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/11/Michael-Savage-on-Ebola-Third-World-African-Dictators-are-Smarter-than-Barack-Obama

MICHAEL SAVAGE: 'IF YOU LIKE YOUR EBOLA, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR EBOLA’
by ROBERT WILDE
13 Oct 2014

Russian Travel Agent Robbed Twenty Women On Street

[From article]
A Russian thief nicknamed ‘The Strangler’ after he suffocated and robbed 20 female victims, has been revealed as a travel agent who claims he stole to pay his staff.
Khamzat Nemtsov, 53, ran a local holiday agency in St Petersburg, and had been known for his friendly approach and was well-liked in the area.
However, his company has been losing business to online rivals, and in order to stay afloat, Nemtsov turned into a prowling stalker, strangling and robbing vulnerable women, Russian police have said.

[. . .]
Nemtsov would roam the streets of St Petersburg after locking up his travel agency, and pounce on a lonely woman.
He would put his victims in a head lock and suffocated them until they fell unconscious before making off with their valuables.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2787920/the-strangler-unmasked-russian-thief-suffocated-women-steal-valuables-actually-company-boss-desperate-pay-staff.html

The Strangler is unmasked: Russian thief who suffocated women to steal their valuables is actually company boss desperate to pay his staff
Khamzat Nemtsov, 53, was a travel agent by day and robber by night
He was identified on CCTV after committing 20 'strangler' robberies
Nemtsov claims he had to attack and steal to keep his business afloat
By SARA MALM FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:28 EST, 10 October 2014 | UPDATED: 06:28 EST, 10 October 2014

Med School Dean: Ban Flights From Ebola Countries

[From article]
David Dausey, the dean of the School of Health Professions and Public Health at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania and an expert at controlling pandemics says it's time to ban flights from countries where Ebola is out of control.
[. . .]
The White House insistence that stopping flights to the west from Ebola affected countries would make the situation worse has little basis in reality and, in fact, is illogical. And administration critics who are pushing the idea of a ban are not spreading "panic." That's nonsense. The proposal is reasonable, rational, and makes sense - hardly the stuff of "fear mongering."

http://americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/ban_flights_from_ebolaaffected_countries_epidemiologist.html

October 8, 2014
Ban flights from Ebola-affected countries: Epidemiologist
By Rick Moran

CDC Slow To Release Itinerary of Ebola Man From Liberia

[From article]
Even though the CDC will not release his flight plan from Liberia to the United States, it is clear that he would have had to make at least two transfers -- including one in at least one other country.
Flights from the airport in the Liberian capital of Monrovia fly to only six destinations -- four in West and Central Africa, one flight to Morocco and one flight to Brussels, Belgium. There are no direct flights into the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport from any of those six destinations, meaning that man had to make at least one more change.
The CDC said Tuesday that the passengers who unknowingly traveled with the man need not be concerned because he was not contagious while he was on the plane.
[. . .]
On his first visit to the hospital, doctors did not immediately conclude that he had Ebola and they sent him home but he returned with much more drastic symptoms on Sept. 27, according to the CDC. He was put in a special isolation unit the following day.
Part of the problem in diagnosing Ebola comes from the fact that patients, like this man, can take up to 21 days to exhibit symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/cdc-release-ebola-patients-flight-information/story?id=25890108

Why the CDC Won't Release the Ebola Patient's Flight Itinerary
Oct 1, 2014, 11:36 AM ET
By MEGHAN KENEALLY
via GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Young Louisiana Woman Found Dead After Seeking Travel Help on Social Media

[From Article]
Lindsay decided to venture out on her own to explore the world.
'She had beautiful blue eyes and a free spirit,' Mrs Ellixson told The Advocate.
'She just had a lot of struggles that she needed to overcome.'
Lindsay was one of three kids who are all adopted.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2514764/Social-media-pleas-bring-clues-brutal-murder-Lindsay-Ellixson.html

Woman, 21, on Louisiana adventure to 'figure out life' is found murdered and dumped in a bayou after asking strangers for ride
The body of Lindsay Louise Ellixson, 21, was found in a canal in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Saturday by fishermen
She had been killed by blunt trauma to the head, neck and chest and had been in the water between two and five days
Ellixson had been on an extended trip 'exploring the world', with her adoptive mother, Catherine Ellixson, saying she 'had a lot of struggles she needed to overcome'
Social media posts show Ellixson pleading for 'a ride and somewhere to stay' in the months before her death, also listing herself as 'engaged'
Her boyfriend, Clinton Allen Head, 31, said they were never 'officially' engaged but were 'in love'
Her heartbroken father, Chris Ellixson, said: 'She's looking down on us, smiling, wishing us a happy Thanksgiving.'
By JOEL CHRISTIE
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 22:29 EST, 27 November 2013 | UPDATED: 09:03 EST, 28 November 2013