Monthly Archives: January 2021

Highly transmissible COVID-19 variant first found in U.K. could be dominant in U.S. by March, CDC says

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-19-variant-highly-transmissible-dominant-united-states/

BY SOPHIE LEWIS

JANUARY 17, 2021 / 8:30 AM/ CBS NEWShttps://www.cbsnews.com/embed/video/?v=1496ea77b36b232583a09ff362291d94#vVZ7b9s2EP8qgv4cQot6SwaGIW2HrVjXBk3TYYgGgyJPNhfqMVFy4hX57ruTZCfNBhRrtyIwQpH3fvzuPrhiHNrOiIO7HvoRzty9VtC66w%2BuHqC27vr6gzscOnDX7r5V7pmrFR5F5Ge5HwgWCFAs4mXOBPczhtcSIJN5VHKkrbu7t1C9JI7yoHVQ%2FfHrD2a7ef%2F8Knkpnr8Rv%2FzZVz%2FYc7i63CG1NeMWKe0gDrrZsr3eaiOagRkxgB1Y2zDZonXMz9le9BqfLB6k1A1YZB%2F0YMjMy5nfOfKvnVeTAKdtnOdv3r98gQKco4DVaoWsCm6QEQ%2FVaMxnyTlzHlkiRdM2Wgrz7otFDbpGOlF37tpPfO7nURqFnHO0eezFoNsGHzL%2F4fOVKMGgSh6uuY8CzPzdoGOYu1psUSwm11JOdsPQ2XXhFZ4sbQO3NljhQaO%2BQcuVbOvC241l4enC6wsv4IFfeJx%2BeeElWQ5BIjmLyqBkUSiB5UpWLE0hDeIQKh7HhTfsxrpshDbIEPG7MOF0gBzCKg%2FpX57kIgbul0mUlmEcRUk1W8Oq0aI77LOqgZ30siQIozhhi%2FbV790Wg7L76t77Qcbv0gDdj6swCSDmVaBkLiEUeZQlQviKR3EAGfzv7t%2BfuV0Pew23V735KA62M1rCStRmu9Jt4YkOfd8H%2BCNMKLxP9XDhLYILzz0BySP5Xd%2BqFaLI9LJaoj5HevlAVRjrnbFPA%2B5nUYAh5DxM%2FRDjT25Fm4mwFnaAflWHY3bUGnx1tVXb12IgZOwoiFMrFt4dqzvYXr19hRTjk2Df3t5%2BbMsS5M%2FK%2BBRwbV%2FWXUtWuetKGItgjtCu5QTmVPFp5ZdBUEYsxEpjvg8hQ7jOGI9SlZZ%2BXOYBPOAwGoeFpC2r274hi6wYxl7hpMAG0tCLXu5walwToUOEzkJICPjkyjnx%2FobVJ3pohndk2mtREz4%2Bf3bpvCPyn08SThqeHWai63%2BiujyJxaqGTttWISnCoQVhCRtdwkAL2xo1zg9jh0Vq7SlEwphzKfHmmWnlzQkp7ZWF%2FnIsrex1CepEbru2sW1%2FpNvB3fkLqMRoKPn8DP%2Fc6fbZw22Yn0XxWZwTnPdC3pDpmBJMupVtD9MZKxZhPeZZgsGL5pC8XkqD4png1TekEj8au7HDZkuBo%2BqZb0S3EeTv68I7d%2B%2FvaQh1VIT23yHdkevTzb4Sqtzc1WRQPd5d9G0H%2FXD4CbAk3CBKQYk4Cf1U%2BXGUR7grhKEIE%2Fce81%2FDIKYZhNEYYHugM97tWjX3DzRq8mCpwwooybhmSBpxQDvIspCg5ZgNyuzD9McjwhYeTg11t8Pelq0xIOeuPLEV3lPZhfedthvTbregNrr5lhNaPk6att83ojRUEPO6JHqMoYHzEe3vadO5dkOeSPResTiMJIvilLOyTEuWyzDmUuYg84D64CPWY5HbtsPSdwzcavuIaNqhojyPIEsDlCQCFiUhsDIpfVaGua9CCGSVUbkvLBdj%2BQJ9onQgpjHuMz9x%2FHgdxes4fiA77ig7vd2Zg4PONrbW1mr00jkiznE5cSrd49pStWOjHN044%2BpmhUSjUU4Jjmpr3RDV9GJXTnlwamriM0cqiRhwsI%2F0HnPYDJiKzXJLtX5K1RzOHAethDhkoPIEvRaCZSJH18vEh0CkWcZDitQD3zGW2F1tI%2Fa6H62DbWzniCocUfKoXoG9QZCc0PMF7ClYLiHU9khA7bKhVZhwBP%2F%2FqAler91xkkU3l7NSpB3tQrTwIs4QWug9OLdQugscT6msUq4gC0tWBlARFAdMhBVnPMh9HDp%2Bls548QgkJ%2BlG1xoxJTqF8bIdewkzXDsLHJSYQ3WBc4Om0qRu6fsNGbd58Jk%2BF%2BkLBekEYfRYU7Xj5Ky0efRMDEgCDUWK5qp7%2F2jdfbpP%2FG3EzbP26Rhjc%2Bmxj0qPHYuJjQ0qVbQJDcugq0FpcdGiMRj3JdYGhFoy97XMIF1L9P4zmRNmfdKBL1wV7u%2F%2FAg%3D%3D

Thenew coronavirus variantfirst seen in the United Kingdom is likely to become the dominant strain in the United States by March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)saidin a new report Friday. The mutation is believed to be more contagious, and research shows it could experience “rapid growth” in the early part of this year.

The CDC explored a number of different scenarios involvingthe strain, which experts believe is about 50% more transmissible than the original. In each one, the new strain made up the majority of cases in the U.S. within the next two months.

“Multiple lines of evidence indicate that B.1.1.7 is more efficiently transmitted than are other SARS-CoV-2 variants,” the CDC said.https://www.cbsnews.com/newsletters/widget/e879?v=1496ea77b36b232583a09ff362291d94&view=compact#vVNNb9swDP0rgs5R4s%2FE9q1DB2yXoUC30zIU%2BmAaorZkSHKCoOh%2FH5U4TbfzsIthkY985NPTK3djRGcD7145aGeAdxyaTcsX%2FIBwpJN2wyh1pMDoAiYwBe9CgMg%2BOXPibwsevdQvaJ9TEwyfrVQ9GN5FP8GCSx9R93A3xb3zXyn8k5fZWhtZG1GXlRZVvcmEUhslWl3WmdYt6Lbgv%2F4q%2FSYHSMXBjXsE1sMRwwdQ6syrtq1o%2BoI6yUJU6xKEWqtcqLLNTQmF3jU5fy95mNS9jGnjIitykeUiX7O87qq6q%2Bsb7DvGPoH2%2BLzvT4yWtWHAEJC2ZNod0Ii8ZQfpUdrIdugDfd1kDUPLpuXLkkBTb5gCZtyANqHOmbBk6sQG6fV%2BwbTRLMhT%2BMB7GuGsv41g49Mcpbx2fQ863cRFzrZYaw11KcC0a9paStHIllZX6xwKuWmarExK3equWmrnnZUH9FNg2mO4KGrggPpKbyC8RDcSLYZ7OCSxkhXk8xVg4RieMMJAYfIHfEHwqfd07pUijxdSwk5hBs21HsJI5sMDsCMoyhET6vNV7jaZgaZUQhWwEzktImS5y0RWtHneVHmzqdtrwWWdS%2FcpgJ%2B7S0ukC97jgJF31buwj27y%2BiytCiyNTyBFt2oeehl3zg%2FnASh5Xi2N%2B3RTIR1nvhmRpgDZ4zQk%2F4%2Fe7bD%2FkE4FBAGbtKOsSS9Gp9lQy%2F6H75O1YhxDt11tV8fjcTkXLunlbVfpb7u62kzMNhMXM4o%2FzCiu9hKTJVIjQiR7U%2FV8Yf%2BTa5boH%2FV8e%2FsN

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, was first detected in the U.K. in mid-December and has since…

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Mexican wolf killings expose a dark underbelly of western culture

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by GRETA ANDERSON on DECEMBER 21, 2020 · 28 COMMENTS · in WILDLIFE NEWS

Mexican wolf killings expose a dark underbelly of western culture

*Trigger warning: Animal cruelty and wolf abuse discussed below

Photo courtesy the awesome Wolf Conservation Center, nywolf.org

For over a year, my colleague at Western Watersheds Project and I have been paging through gory reports of dead livestock, most of them (questionably) attributed to Mexican wolf predation. I’ve gotten somewhat inured to seeing the bloody corpses of cattle, decapitated calves, and dissection necropsies. It’s unpleasant work, but it’s turned up some very interesting results: Namely, many of the confirmed Mexican wolf depredations are unsubstantiated based on the evidence in the reports, and some are so full-scale bogus as to call into question how, exactly, Wildlife Services is making these decisions.

Still, all the mangled livestock in those color photos didn’t prepare me for looking at photos of dead Mexican wolves. I have recently been poring through law enforcement reports of lobo deaths that were provided to me by the Center for Biological Diversity who obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act and, let me tell you, there are some real sickos out there killing wolves. Like, really sick.

I recently uncovered some evidence that Craig Thiessen, already known as a brutal wolf-hating rancher who whacked a trapped young wolf #1385 (named “Mia Tuk”) with a shovel so hard that it broke loose the lobo’s jaw, actually admitted to beating trapped wolves twice. He apparently confessed that he beat two trapped lobos into submission, and in a later declaration, he claims he let Mia Tuk go free afterwards and “sadly, it was later killed by other wolves.” The “sadly” of that sentence really ices the cake of this guy’s crime, given that he’s the same person who was investigated for leaving out poisoned meatballs near cow carcasses on the public lands that he rents from the American public to graze his cattle.

Other wolves from the same pack went missing the same year, and many of these disappearances look pretty darned suspicious. There’s the skull of Mia Tuk’s mother, AF1279, that was recovered a few months later in the vicinity of Mia Tuk’s body. The lower jaw had been cut with a handsaw, meaning (maybe?) that someone knew something about this wolf’s death and went back to try to… I don’t know… retrieve some wolf teeth? Why does someone take a saw to a wolf skull?

I wish that I could put these reports into a file called “Isolated Incidents,” and close that box. But then there’s female pup fp1389 who was shot with a projectile twice, hit in the head with a hammer-like object, and didn’t die until several days later when she developed a secondary infection. There’s adult female wolf #1212 who was caught in a snare trap by a rancher who knew there were wolves in the area but went ahead and set up traps for “coyotes.” (And yes, I’m just as horrified that coyotes are treated this way, but lobos are a highly endangered species, already at high risk of a second wild extinction, and every loss of an individual wolf puts the recovery of the entire species at risk). Then there are the poisoned meatballs, the high-powered rifles, the people who intentionally ran over a wolf with their truck, all the various ways that people kill wolves simply out of hatred and stupidity.

Somehow, even after years of hearing about “Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up” from ranchers and trophy hunters, and seeing social media posts that boast about acts of extreme cruelty, the existence of these sick people still shocks me. I’m shocked at the maliciousness, the remorselessness, and the sheer spite it would require to torture or kill these creatures, and it enrages me how so many of them get away with it. My outrage alone doesn’t change anything; 96 wolves were known to have been killed illegally and missing under suspicious circumstances between 1998 and 2018.

So how do we change this? How do we get state law enforcement interested in prosecuting under the Animal Cruelty laws? How do we get federal prosecutors to actually go after these bastards? How do we get rid of the McKittrick policy that allows liars to claim they “thought it was a coyote” despite the brightly colored collars and the knowledge that there are lobos in the area? How do we solve the problem of entitled sickos who think it’s OK to rob wolf packs of family members and ecosystems of essential predators? I sure don’t know, but I know that by burying the crimes deep in the agency files isn’t helping, but maybe bringing some of these horrible stories to light will. Maybe with enough public pressure, we’ll see more interest in pursuing and prosecuting these crimes.

The planet is dying faster than we thought

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ByBrandon Specktor-Senior Writera day ago

A triple-threat of climate change, biodiversity loss and overpopulation is bearing down on Earth.

Charred trees are seen along Pallet Creek Road during the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, California, September 18, 2020. Charred trees are seen along Pallet Creek Road during the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, California, September 18, 2020. Climate change is poised to exacerbate the frequency and intensity of annual wildfires.(Image: © Kyle Grillot/ Getty)

Humanity is barreling toward a “ghastly future” of mass extinctions, health crises and constant climate-induced disruptions to society — one that can only be prevented if world leaders start taking environmental threats seriously, scientists warn in a new paper published Jan. 13 in the journalFrontiers in Conservation Science.

In the paper, a team of 17 researchers based in the United States, Mexico and Australia describes three major crises facing life onEarth: climate disruption, biodiversity decline and human overconsumption and overpopulation. Citing more than 150 studies, the team argues that…

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National Rifle Association files for bankruptcy

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nra-files-bankruptcy/

BY CAROLINE LINTON

JANUARY 16, 2021 / 7:18 AM/ CBS NEWS

The National Rifle Association said Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy and is moving to Texas, where the organization says it has 400,000 members. The NRA is currently based out of New York, where stateAttorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuitalleging financial crimes by its top officials and is seeking to disband the organization.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection stops all court and legal proceedings regarding debt or collection, while an organization restructures its debts. In May 2020, the NRA, which says it has 5 million members,laid off dozens of employeesand shut down fundraising and its national convention amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The fundraising pause and the lack of a national convention in a presidential election year was a huge financial setback for the organization, althoughAmericans bought a record number of guns

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Dogs rescued after being caught in animal traps in frigid stream

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This ad will end in 1 secondsDogs rescued after being caught in animal traps in frigid stream

By: Michele Newell, WPXI-TV
Updated: January 13, 2021 – 10:33 PM

DONEGAL, Pa. — Daniel Bogey said if he hadn’t shown up, two dogs would likely be dead.

“Heard this awful howling and yelping, and I thought it was a pack of coyotes,” he said.

He said he made a last-minute decision to check one of his properties in Donegal when he came across two dogs stuck in animal traps in the middle of a frigid, fast-moving stream.Content Continues Below

“That water was freezing cold. You wouldn’t even want to stand in it. That dog was probably in that water for well over an hour,” Bogey said.

He immediately called state police troopers.

“We were able to get the dog out of the trap and at least get him on the other side of the creek,” Bogey said. “The state trooper actually was able to pick him up. He went in with his uniform. He didn’t care.”

It took nearly three hours to get the dogs to safety. They were able to put blankets over them to help them start warming up.

Bogey said he found multiple traps that weren’t supposed to be there because it is private property. He confronted the person who put them there.

“He’s doing good now. He had his first meal. So he will get better,” Bogey said of one of the dogs.

A friend is caring for one of the dogs. The other one walked off after being rescued.

CLICK HERE if you want to donate to help with medical expenses for the rescued dogs.

TRENDING NOW:Deputies shoot, kill 91-year-old woman after she opens door holding shotgun

The next pandemic?: Bird flu spreads like wildfire across Asia

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Edited By: Gravitas desk WIONNew Delhi, India Published: Jan 14, 2021, 10.11 PM(IST)

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Compulsory flu vaccination for poultry has protected China for now but the virus has still killed wild swans in the country.

Bird flu cases are growing at an alarming rate in Asia. The continent’s poultry farmers are facing an unprecedented situation. Birds are being culled and people are staying away from poultry meat. 

It is the worst such outbreak in the region’s history. From Japan to India, the deadly virus is affecting birds across farms. Millions of chickens, ducks and turkeys have been culled. Poultry prices have dropped to an all-time low.

And Asia’s farmers are staring at an unprecedented crisis. While bird flu is common in Asia during this time mostly due to migratory patterns. New strains of the virus have become more lethal. This makes countries on the flight path especially vulnerable.

In India, at least 10 states have reported cases of bird flu. Over 850 cases of bird deaths have been reported in the national capital. In Rajasthan– over 4,000 birds died because of the flu. The Uttar Pradesh government has banned poultry from other states till January 24.

In Kerala, tens of thousands of birds were culled last week. Maharashtra has detected avian influenza in crows as well. Chicken prices in India fell almost a third last week. Wary customers have steered clear of meat.

Not just India, Japan too is dealing with its worst outbreak. A quarter of all prefectures are affected. More than 3 million birds have been culled so far. South Korea also dealt with an outbreak at a duck farm. With the virus strain being similar to the one in Japan.

Compulsory flu vaccination for poultry has protected China for now but the virus has still killed wild swans in the country.

Countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have been spared for now. But continue to face risks due to the movement of goods. What makes the virus even more dangerous is its contagious nature. Infected birds have to be culled to contain the spread. But amid all this- the biggest question is can we consume poultry meat?

According to governments, there is nothing to be worried about. The World Health Organisation says it is safe. That you will be safe if you eat well-cooked meat. However, health experts are not convinced. They are concerned about a species jump. This is when a virus strain moves from one species to another. In this instance — it could be from birds to human beings.

It has happened once in 1997. While human to human transmission has not been detected yet it cannot be ruled out.

The last time, a virus jumped species tt led to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump strips protections for Northern Spotted Owl

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Published January 15, 2021

https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/conservation/trump-strips-protections-northern-spotted-owl/?fbclid=IwAR2ju82YWUvvaEcEq7FjiHGGvYPZn22lKnpuHiskGAWiOBwKaFODHiphvQA

Northern Spotted Owl
Northern Spotted Owl. Photo by Shane Jeffries/U.S. Forest Service

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Just last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said the Northern Spotted Owl needed to be reclassified from threatened to endangered, reflecting continued loss of the old-growth forests it needs to live — particularly on private and state lands — and the on-going spread of the invasive Barred Owl, which competes with the Spotted Owl.

The Trump administration declined to uplist the bird, and this week, it pounded another metaphorical nail in the owl’s coffin. On Wednesday, FWS published a final revised critical habitat designation for the Northern Spotted Owl that excludes nearly 3.5 million acres, mostly in Oregon, from federal protections. This is a massive increase from the 204,653 acres in Oregon the FWS proposed to exclude in August.

“Even in its final week, the Trump administration is continuing its cruel, reckless attacks on wildlife at a breakneck pace,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This revision guts protected habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl by more than a third. It’s Trump’s latest parting gift to the timber industry and another blow to a species that needs all the protections it can get to fully recover.”

Section 4(b)(2) of the Endangered Species Act requires the Service to balance the benefits and costs of designating areas as critical habitat and consider excluding areas if the costs are too high. The Service did not conduct a new economic analysis but rather relied on a 2012 analysis that found some incremental costs of designating in terms of lost timber harvest. The agency reversed its own previous conclusion that the benefits outweighed the costs.

This is consistent with a recent rule put out by the Trump administration that emphasized giving additional weight to economic costs raised by industries in making critical habitat designations and which the Center for Biological Diversity, along with partners, will challenge.

Based on this analysis, the new critical habitat revision excludes approximately 3,472,064 acres, cutting acres of protected critical habitat originally designated in 2012 by more than a third.

“Excluding millions of acres of federal land will do little to help rural communities in Oregon, but it’ll be another nail in the coffin for the Spotted Owl,” said Greenwald. “Instead of trying to prop up a declining timber industry, we should be doing more to restore forests to save our climate and avoid the extinction crisis. There’s so much work to do in the woods, and much of it is a lot better for the environment than logging.”

Thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity for providing this news.

Trump guts Migratory Bird Treaty Act in ‘parting gift to the oil and gas industr

2020 Is Tied for the Hottest Year on Record, NASA Says

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People watch the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire, from a vineyard in Healdsburg, California on August 20, 2020.
People watch the Walbridge Fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fires, from a vineyard in Healdsburg, California, on August 20, 2020.

BYSharon Zhang, TruthoutPUBLISHEDJanuary 15, 2021SHAREShare via FacebookShare via TwitterShare via Email

2020 Is Tied for the Hottest Year on Record, NASA Says

2020 tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record, signaling a dangerous trend in the ongoing climate crisis, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) announced on Thursday.

The year’s global temperature average very narrowly exceeded that of 2016, but not by a statistically significant amount,according to NASA. The average temperature was 1.02 degrees Celsius above the baseline mean and represents an alarming amount of warming,according to experts.

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Other organizations have also reported similar results for 2020’s average temperature.The

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Tell The Fish and Wildlife Service Not To Partner With The NRA

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Gray wolf

Trump’s outgoing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith just signed an agreement to work with the NRA to recruit and train more Americans to shoot wild animals.

Tell the Service this agreement is unacceptable and must be broken immediately.

This partnership will allow more animals to be shot — paid for by the agency tasked with protecting wildlife while funneling taxpayer dollars to a far-right gun-industry mouthpiece.

Throughout its anti-wildlife term, the Trump administration has moved to expand trophy hunting. It created an illegal wildlife council rigged with trophy hunters and issued permits to import body parts of threatened leopards and lions.

The administration moved to increase hunting of bobcats, mountain lions and foxes in more national wildlife refuges across the country and now wants to arm and train more people to gun down animals.

With wolves across the lower 48 no longer federally protected, more states could hold wolf trophy hunts this year.

This last attack runs directly counter to the purpose of the Service. In no way should it use its position as wildlife’s protector to enlist more Americans to hunt and kill wildlife.

The agreement between the Department of Interior and the NRA should be torn up and cancelled immediately.

Tell the Service to end this partnership with the NRA right away.

Petition: https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/oW6Lb8rt00GW7LQc0ohwtA2?fbclid=IwAR2x3VloaWS0RpYw9BzKaNyOAa28bv_rykKa9MJwZLtfcJeESIgNEctKXBs

Armed protests being planned at all 50 state capitols, FBI bulletin says / States Brace for Armed Protests in Wake of U.S. Capitol Attack

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An internal FBI note obta

States Brace for Armed Protests in Wake of U.S. Capitol Attack

Simon Romero, Kathleen Gray and Danielle Ivory  29 mins ago

States Brace for Armed Protests in Wake of U.S. Capitol Attack (msn.com)

‘You are violating my rights!’ Florida woman jailed — again — for refusing to…4 Things You Should Never Do Now, Warns Dr. FauciStates Brace for Armed Protests in Wake of U.S. Capitol Attack

Bracing for the potential of violent protests in the days leading up to the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, state officials are calling up National Guard troops, erecting imposing fencing and shutting down Capitol grounds in response to the F.B.I.’s warning that armed protesters could target the capital cities across the country.a group of people standing in front of a building: California Highway Patrol officers walk outside the California State Capitol Friday in Sacramento ahead of potential weekend protests.© Max Whittaker for The New York TimesCalifornia Highway Patrol officers walk outside the California State Capitol Friday in Sacramento ahead of potential weekend protests.

A…

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