NRA not protecting children from harm
The March 19 letters from Glenn Gray and Don Kingsley on gun control have me confused. Mr. Gray goes from one extreme to the next, while Mr. Kingsley tries to make his point by comparing the deaths caused by AR-15s to other ways of people being killed. Please, Mr. Kingsley, tell me how someone with a knife could kill dozens of people in a few minutes. There’s no comparison, especially when it comes to students trying to get an education and not worrying about the next Nicolas Cruz. AR-15s are weapons and weapons should not be in the hands of civilians. Mr. Gray starts out saying: “Wouldn’t it be great if people with slightly different opinions could get over the hyperbole, so we can get some real dialogue under way?” Hyperbole, I think not. But I do believe the Second Amendment needs to be changed and weapons of war should be confiscated before another Parkland happens. Weapons with magazines that can hold 50 rounds and can be fired in just over a minute have taken the lives of students and others. At one time, I was a member of the NRA. When I was a young man, I was taught to shoot at the Schenectady Armory by an NRA instructor. Years ago, I sent the NRA a letter, as did my brother-in-law, who was a combat Marine veteran. We told the NRA to take us off their rolls. When it comes to the protection of our children, there’s no argument that can hold water. To those who get upset over my opinion, I say it’s time to stop playing Rambo. This isn’t a game one plays on a computer or watches on TV. God help us.Gary Philip GuidoRotterdamMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homesEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the censusRotterdam convenience store operator feels results of having Stewart’s as new neighborFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?EDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidation Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
Categories: Letters to the Editor, OpinionCan see why FBI, media aren’t trustedIt is not often that Madame et moi go to the movies. However, when one of our favorite directors, Clint Eastwood, makes a film, we try to see it.We do not see Eastwood’s films just because he is conservative. We see his films because Hollywood is not. That being said, Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell’ is one of his best. Jewell was the soft-spoken slightly handicapped security guard working the Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996.A somewhat zealous but sincere Jewell discovers a bomb and tries to warn Olympic-goers to move away from danger. But an explosion maims and kills hundreds before he is completely successful.A female newspaper reporter and an FBI agent conspire and immediately point to Jewell as the perpetrator of the terrorist act. The American media fans the flames of guilt, and an innocent American is swamped (interesting turn of a word) by unnecessary attention.After viewing the film, it was difficult for me to think of the FBI as anything but a biased, intolerant mob protecting its own derrière. My opinion of the media is worse. However, there does seem to be a similar case of foot-in-mouth disease working its way through Washington, D.C., these days. I am beginning to understand why people are referring to these two organizations (the FBI and the media) as part of the Deep State. Oops, I left out Congress. My bad.Allen R. RemaleyScottsdale, Ariz., and Saratoga Springs Prevent cancer with screening, shotsIf you could prevent cancer, wouldn’t you? You can. In fact, there are two ways to prevent cervical cancer: vaccination and screening.Most cervical cancers are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).Being vaccinated against HPV could prevent most cervical cancers. The HPV vaccine is recommended for boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 14, and young adults through age 26.This vaccine provides protection to girls from cervical cancer later in life, and protection to both boys and girls from several other cancers.The second way to prevent cervical cancer is by getting screened.Cervical cancer screening tests can find the cells that lead to cancer before it starts. These cells can then be removed. Screening also helps to find cancer early when it may be most easily treated.Screening should begin at age 21 and is covered under most health plans, including Medicaid plans and plans participating in the New York State of Health.No insurance? No problem.The Cancer Services Program (CSP) of Fulton, Montgomery and Schenectady Counties can help eligible, uninsured women age 40 and older get cervical cancer screening.The program, which is supported with funds from New York State, also provides free breast and colon cancer screening to eligible New York State residents. Call 1-866-442-CANCER (2262) to find out if you qualify for free cancer screenings.Talk to your health care provider about cervical cancer screening or you can reach the CSP in Fulton, Montgomery and Schenectady Counties by calling 518-841-3726.Suzanne HagadornAmsterdamMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Don’t repeal bail reform law; Fix it the right wayFoss: Schenectady homeless assistance program Street Soldiers dealing with surge in needHIGH NOTES: PPEs, fighting hunger, backpacks and supplies for kidsEDITORIAL: Take a role in police reformsEDITORIAL: No chickens in city without strong regs
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The Religious Affairs Ministry has insisted that the protests against the renovation of Santo Joseph Catholic Church in Karimun, Riau Islands, are not an act of intolerance.“I went to Karimun. The point is there is no intolerance issue there. The problem [with the renovation] is merely regarding its building permit [IMB],” Religious Affairs Ministry special staff member Ubaidilah Amin Moech said on Tuesday.He added that the church’s renovation committee had agreed to wait for the Tanjungpinang State Administrative Court (PTUN) in Batam to issue its ruling on a lawsuit regarding the renovation. The Karimun Regency Caring Alliance (APKK) previously sued the Karimun One-Stop Integrated Service for granting the building permit for the church renovation. Ubaidillah denied that a number of people had been reported to the police amid the protests. “The church’s renovation committee was not reported to the police. The force only questioned them to clarify information disseminated on social media.”Read also: Jokowi calls for firm action against intolerance while pointing finger at regional administrationsCoordinating Legal, Political and Security Affairs Minister, Mahfud MD, claimed on Monday that the case had been settled, as all related parties agreed to refrain from doing anything that would raise tensions.The renovation of the church has been halted since Feb. 6, after members of the APKK and local United Muslim Forum (FUIB) protested against the work. They also reportedly objected to the church’s location in Karimun’s capital of Tanjung Balai. The church, which was established in 1928, obtained a building license (IMB) for the renovation in October last year.Read also: Renovation of 92-year-old Catholic church in Riau Islands halted after protestsThe renovation committee had started working on the permit to renovate the church since May 2012, when they wrote a letter to ask for support from the local community. They eventually collected 107 signatures of non-Catholic residents in Tanjung Balai who supported the work.The signatures were required according to a 2006 joint ministerial decree on procedures to build places of worship, requiring a congregation to get 90 signatures from its members and another 60 from other residents prior to the construction.The Tanjung Balai district office issued a recommendation letter on the renovation on July 2, 2012. (hol)Topics :
The administration of Banyumas regency, Central Java, has recommended that tempe mendoan (battered thinly sliced tempeh), a Banyumas specialty, be recognized as an item of intangible cultural heritage by the Education and Culture Ministry.Banyumas Youth, Sports, Culture and Tourism Agency head Mispan said that tempe mendoan had existed in Banyumas since the 1870s. “This food was the comfort food of the royals in the past,” Mispan said in Purwokerto, Banyumas, on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. He said that Pliken village in Kembaran district was the center of tempe mendoan production, with at least 720 mendoan makers with a total production capacity of up to 12 tons per day.“They market their goods to Banyumas, Purbalingga, Cilacap and Banjarnegara,” Mispan said. “Mendoan sellers in Sawangan [Purwokerto] were even summoned to the State Palace to serve mendoan there during Pak SBY’s [president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] term,” Mispan said.Mispan said the recommendation would be submitted to the Central Java Provincial Education and Culture Agency, which would then forward the recommendation to the Education and Culture Ministry. The ministry is set to issue its final decision in August.“Previously, fried getuk [cassava cake] was also named as being an item of intangible cultural heritage, we received the certificate in 2018,” Mispan said. (gis)Topics :
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase the supply of available test kits and expedite approval of testing by private companies.”Our single greatest challenge is the lack of fast federal action to increase testing capacity – without that, we cannot beat this epidemic back,” he said in a string of Twitter posts earlier on Thursday.Tennessee health officials said their first case was in an adult male in Williamson County. Williamson County Schools will be closed for a deep cleaning on Friday and Monday, according to its official Twitter page.The US death toll from the COVID-19 respiratory disease caused by the virus stands at 11, all but one them in Washington state, which has a cluster of at least 39 infections in the Seattle area. The other death, announced on Wednesday, was in California. The number of people who have the novel coronavirus in New York state has doubled to 22 following an increase in testing, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday, as Tennessee became the 14th US state to report a case of the fast-spreading illness.”The number will continue to go up,” Cuomo told a news conference. “The more you test the higher number you will have.”The latest New York cases include 8 more connected to the Manhattan lawyer who lives in suburban Westchester County and had been previously diagnosed, two in New York City and one on Long Island. More than 3,000 people have died worldwide from the coronavirus outbreak, which started in China.The CDC on Thursday reported 149 confirmed and presumed US cases, which includes those reported by states but not yet confirmed by the agency. They do not necessarily include new cases reported on Thursday.US health officials said they expect to be able to get enough coronavirus tests – around 1 million – to public laboratories this week with the capacity to test about 400,000 people.They said additional test kits to cover between 1.5 and 1.7 million people would be available by the end of next week.”Right now, it is a challenge if you are a doctor wanting to get somebody tested,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters following a briefing with lawmakers in Washington, adding that physicians could only reach out to a limited network of public health labs.Global equity markets continue to tumble as the number of coronavirus cases outside China mounted, fuelling warnings that world growth is likely to reach its weakest level since the global financial crisis. The main US stock indexes were down more than 3%.Companies take action Corporations around the world have begun issuing profit warnings and curbing activities.Alphabet Inc’s Google on Thursday joined Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp in recommending employees in the Seattle area work from home, after some were infected with the coronavirus.The companies’ work-from-home recommendation will affect more than 100,000 people in the area, as both Microsoft and Amazon employ over 50,000 each. Facebook employs more than 5,000 in the area and Google about 4,500, according to media reports.Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the US response, on Thursday is scheduled to visit Washington Governor Jay Inslee. He will also stop in Minnesota to meet with the chief executive of 3M Co, which makes medical masks.The US Senate was expected later on Thursday to pass an $8.3 billion bill aimed at controlling the spread of the coronavirus after the House of Representatives voted 415-2 to pass it on Wednesday.More than $3 billion of the funds would be devoted to research and development of coronavirus vaccines, test kits and treatments. There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the fast-spreading illness now in more than 80 countries and territories.California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a statewide emergency in response to the outbreak and said California health authorities had confirmed 53 cases, the most of any US state.Trump administration officials in recent days have sought to assure various industry officials about their response and urge executives to take action, meeting with pharmaceutical, airline and diagnostic laboratory companies.
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Read also: Better tax collection needed as 2020 tax revenue target ‘hard to achieve’“To me, being a role model is important. I’d like to show the people that although we at the Finance Ministry manage the state budget, we are also taxpayers,” she said. “So, we want to fulfil our obligation as individual taxpayers.”The SPT reporting deadline is the end of March annually.The ministry announced that 6.27 million taxpayers had filed their annual tax returns as of Monday, an increase of 34 percent from 4.7 million taxpayers during the same period last year. Around 262,300 taxpayers filed their SPT manually compared to last year’s figure of 333,453 taxpayers. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati could not hide her excitement after filing her annual tax return (SPT) in Jakarta on Tuesday.“I did it! It just took five minutes,” she said to the delight of the ministry’s high-ranking officials at an event at the Taxation Directorate General office. On the day, Sri Mulyani along with the officials reported their SPTs using an electronic filing feature developed by the tax office.Soon after the report was filed with the assistance of Taxation Director General Suryo Utomo, Sri Mulyani gleefully showed the receipt on her mobile phone to reporters. “We project that tax collection will be maintained this year despite economic risks,” the former World Bank managing director said.The global and domestic economic growth rates are expected to weaken this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, posing risks to tax collection as business activities are disrupted.Read also: Indonesia’s 2020 budget deficit may widen to 2.8 percent after tax shortfall: IndefThe government collected Rp 103.7 trillion (US$7.25 billion) in total state revenue in January, down 4.6 percent from the same month last year. At the same time, it pocketed Rp 84.7 trillion in tax, down 6 percent compared to the first month of last year.The minister expressed her gratitude to the taxpayers who have reported their SPTs, adding that around 7,700 volunteers would be deployed to help other taxpayers file their SPTs through e-filing.“I hope others can follow suit so that our tax collection this year will be in check.”
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The deputy mayor claimed that he had been in self-quarantine for 11 days and would continue staying in isolation for the next few days.Prior to showing the symptoms, Yana attended an event held by the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association in Karawang regency, also in West Java, on March 9-10. With the confirmation, the Bandung deputy mayor has become the latest local leader to test positive for COVID-19. Bima Arya, the mayor of Bogor city in West Java, recently tested positive for coronavirus.Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has also tested positive for COVID-19. West Java information center for COVID-19 recorded 59 positive cases in the province as of Monday afternoon. There have been nine fatalities, while five patients have recovered from the disease.More than 2,500 residents in the province are currently under surveillance for the disease.At least 385 people have been admitted to isolation wards at a number of hospitals across the province, with 93 patients having finished their quarantine sessions while 292 others are still in hospital.M. Kamaruzzaman, a director of Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, said separately that the hospital had so far accommodated 27 patients under surveillance for COVID-19. “Ten new cases have just arrived [on Monday],” he said, adding that seven of the patients were COVID-19 positive. Five of the patients under surveillance died during their isolation at the hospital. Only two of them had been confirmed positive for the virus. (vny)Topics : Yana Mulyana, the deputy mayor of Bandung in West Java, confirmed on Monday that he had tested positive for coronavirus disease COVID-19.”My test result shows that I am positive for COVID-19,” Yana announced his test result on his Instagram account.Yana said he took the test a few days ago while suffering from a fever — one of the common symptoms of the disease.