U.S. Invests $1.5 Mil to Help Salvadoran Police Deal with COVID-19 Stress

While local law enforcement agencies around the United States weather extensive budget cuts, the federal government is dedicating $1.5 million to assist police in El Salvador with challenges and stress created by COVID-19. The goal is to help the Central American nation’s 26,966-member National Civil Police (PNC) asses its role and capacities during a crisis and efficiently provide training to manage a public health emergency like the pandemic. “The training will particularly focus on public health orders, personal and workplace safety measures, education in regards to transmission and proper treatment, and management of operational continuity,” according to a grant announcement made public this month.

Judicial Watch: Records Detail U.S. Embassy Concerns about China’s ‘Anal Swab’ COVID Testing of U.S. Diplomatic Personnel

Judicial Watch

“It took six months and a federal lawsuit to confirm that our embassy in Beijing was concerned about the Chinese government’s invasive anal swab and other COVID testing of our diplomatic personnel – and that as many as two people were asked to submit to a test,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Our diplomatic personnel were harassed in a reprehensible way by the Chinese government, and the Biden administration seems to have done little in response – except to cover it up.”

Judicial Watch Sues Maryland for Gerrymandered Congressional Districts – Voters Challenge Unconstitutional Plan

Judicial Watch

The lawsuit relates that a bipartisan commission recommended a map to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan on November 5 that he approved, but the legislature passed a different proposal in a straight party-line vote. On December 9, 2021, Hogan vetoed this proposal, and, the same day, the state legislature overrode his veto on another party-line vote.

Judicial Watch Wins Appeal on Release of Sally Yates’ Records on Refusal to Enforce President Trump’s Travel Ban

Judicial Watch

The appellate court reversed a lower court ruling that the Justice Department could withhold certain records under the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption 5 “deliberative process privilege,” which can be used to keep secret “pre-decisional” agency records. The appeals court ordered the lower court to directly review the records at issue in camera to determine if they qualify for withholding as “deliberative.”