OXFORD DEVELOPS COVID RISK CALCULATOR:

Some of the clearest research on COVID’s risks comes from a team of British researchers led by Dr. Julia Hippisley-Cox of the University of Oxford. The team has created an online calculator that allows you to enter a person’s age, vaccination status, height, and weight, as well as major COVID risk factors. (It’s based on an analysis of British patients, but its conclusions are relevant elsewhere.)

A typical 65-year-old American woman – to take one example – is five-foot-three-inches tall and weighs 166 pounds. If she had been vaccinated and did not have a major COVID risk factor, like an organ transplant, her chance of dying after contracting COVID would be 1 in 872, according to the calculator. For a typical 65-year-old man, the risk would be 1 in 434. Among 75-year-olds, the risk would be 1 in 264 for a typical woman and 1 in 133 for a typical man.

Those are meaningful risks. But they are not larger than many other risks older people face. In the 2019-20 flu season, about 1 out of every 138 Americans 65 and older who had flu symptoms died from them, according to the CDC.

Nearly 50,000 Migrants Released by Biden Admin Missing from ICE:

The Biden administration is reportedly unclear of the whereabouts of 47,705 migrants. Nearly half, or 47,705, of the more than 100,000 noncitizens who were released from Border Patrol custody at the southern border in 2021 between March 21 and August 31 and given instructions to self-report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 60 days have failed to check in, the DHS disclosed to Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.

Before March 21, 2021, when an illegal immigrant was released by the Border Patrol into the U.S. rather than being returned to Mexico or another country of origin, he or she was given a Notice to Appear, a document that requires the person to show up for immigration court at a future date. It placed each person in the legal system, which is backlogged with 1.5 million cases pending, and tracked the person through that date.

In March, as the number of migrants encountered at the southern border rose, from 78,000 in Biden’s first month in office to 173,000 in March, Border Patrol was ordered to release people with Notices to Report instead. The move would cut down the amount of time that Border Patrol agents would have to spend doing paperwork and requesting court dates for each person. The Biden administration sought to entice people given Notices to Report to show up by providing those who did with documents to work legally in the U.S.

Union Pacific Official Blames L.A.’s Far-Left Policies for Massive Train Thefts, Considers Leaving L.A.:

An official with Union Pacific (UP) revealed late last week that the organization believes that approximately 90 shipping containers are compromised by thieves every day as images have gone viral in recent days showing the aftermath of the thieves stealing thousands of packages. Adrian Guerrero, director of public affairs for UP, revealed the following in a letter to far-left L.A. District Attorney George Gascon:

• “Since December 2020, UP has experienced an over 160% increase in criminal rail theft in Los Angeles County. In several months during that period, the increase from the previous year surpassed 200%. In October 2021 alone, the increase was 356% over compared to October 2020. Not only do these dramatic increases represent retail product thefts – they include increased assaults and armed robberies of UP employees performing their duties moving trains.”
• Over the last three months, “over 90 containers [are] compromised per day.”
• “This increased criminal activity over the past twelve months accounts for approximately $5 million in claims, losses and damages to UP. And that value does not include respective losses to our impacted customers.”

Guerrero then slammed the city’s far-left politics, saying that they are enabling the criminals who he says brag about being let off easy for their crimes. “Criminals are caught and arrested, turned over to local authorities for booking, arraigned before the local courts, charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the criminal is released after paying a nominal fine,” Guerrero said. “These individuals are generally caught and released back onto the streets in less than twenty-four hours. Even with all the arrests made, the no-cash bail policy and extended timeframe for suspects to appear in court is causing re-victimization to UP by these same criminals. In fact, criminals boast to our officers that charges will be pied down to simple trespassing – which bears no serious consequence. Without any judicial deterrence or consequence, it is no surprise that over the past year UP has witnessed the significant increase in criminal rail theft described above.”

Examiner – Lens:

Singer Shane MacGowan’s next project is a book of artwork, handwritten lyrics and school essays titled “The Eternal Buzz and the Crock of Gold.”

Bob Dylan’s Lawyers Trash ‘Malicious’ Child Sex-Abuse Allegations:

Bob Dylan’s lawyers have gone on the attack against an anonymous woman who claims he sexually abused her as a child at the height of his 1960s fame. The woman, only identified in her lawsuit as JC, initially alleged the abuse took place over a six-week period in New York in 1965, but the suit was changed last week to say it happened over “several months” after Dylan historians noted he was overseas on tour at the time. The suit claims Dylan attempted to “lower her inhibitions with the objective of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol, and threats of physical violence.” In response, Dylan’s legal team dismissed the suit as “a brazen shakedown…false, malicious, reckless and defamatory,” and added: “[He] will vigorously defend himself against these lawyer-driven lies and seek redress against all those responsible, including by seeking monetary sanctions against persons responsible for manufacturing and bringing this abusive lawsuit.”

How Did British Terrorist Get a Visa to Enter U.S.?:

There is growing outrage and demand for answers as to how the British terrorist gunman who took four hostages at a Texas synagogue on Saturday was even able to enter the U.S. on a tourist visa when he was known to intelligence agencies in the U.K. Malik Faisal Akram, 44, flew to New York City from the U.K. on January 22, despite being known to MI5. His family say he had a criminal history but somehow, he was able to get an ESTA tourist visa – which are supposed to be off-limits to foreigners who have broken the law. Akram spent two weeks at a homeless shelter in Dallas, during which time he was able to buy a gun on the street. On the day of the incident, he arrived at Beth Israel Congregation in the morning and knocked on the window. He was welcomed inside by the rabbi, had a cup of tea with him, and then raided services at 11:00 a.m. while the congregation was praying. The standoff lasted nearly 12 hours before he was shot dead by a SWAT team. None of the hostages were hurt.

Pope: Couples Who Choose to Have Pets Over Kids Are ‘Selfish’:

Pope Francis no doubt sparked the outrage of people who push their pets around in strollers after accusing couples who pick their furry friends over having human children of “a certain selfishness.” Speaking before a Vatican audience on the subject of parenthood, His Holiness suggested favoring a dog or a cat over a baby “is a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity.” Doubling down, he added, “This may make people laugh, but it is a reality.” The pontiff previously worried aloud over declining birthrates, saying in 2014 that pet ownership was “another phenomenon of cultural degradation.” He is not known to keep an animal in his Vatican residence. This is in contrast to his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who had a noted soft spot for cats, including Chico, a domestic shorthair who lived at his home in Germany.

THINK FREELY – BE INDEPENDENT: Make Up Your Own (DAMN) Mind – Read LBN Examiner:

“Fearlessly Independent” and “Unbiased” since 2002. Read in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries. Now you can invite your friends and family to sign up for free (if they’ve got the guts): www.LBNExaminer.com

Examiner – Did You Know?

** The NBA’s halftime entertainers – contortionists, acrobats, Frisbee-catching dogs – typically make $1,500 to $5,000 a show.

** In December 2020, women lost 156,000 jobs in the United States, and men gained 16,000, largely because women were shouldering the additional caregiving responsibilities of the pandemic.

** In the 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association adopted a rule saying that, without proper authorization, it was unethical for psychiatrists to issue a professional opinion about a public figure’s condition.

** Adults spend as much as 47% of their waking lives letting their minds wander, according to one Harvard study that tracked participants with an app.

** Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on April 9, 2021, made 22,219 solo public engagements over his lifetime.

** Alfred Hitchcock was afraid of the dark, crowds and solitude.

** The United Nations estimates that there were about 95,000 centenarians in 1990 and more than 450,000 in 2015. By 2100, there will be 25 million.

** Created in 1865 to chase counterfeiters, the Secret Service did not formally start protecting presidents until 1901, after William McKinley was gunned down in Buffalo.

** Digital mental health has become a multibillion-dollar industry and includes more than 10,000 apps, according to an estimate by the American Psychiatric Association.

** A compulsive shopper, Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, ran up huge debts that she tried to hide by falsifying bills and misappropriating federal funds.

** Women make up 81.9% of all hosts in American restaurants, according to a 2020 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

** Roughly 20% of American adults have no or limited credit history, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

** In 1970, NFL kickers made 59% of their field-goal attempts; last season, they made 85%.

** Horror films and television shows have helped some people cope better with their anxieties during the pandemic, according to a study published last year in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

** In the 1970s, the average time served for murder in state prison was seven to eight years. In 2018, it was 17 to 18 years.

** Investors now snatch up nearly one in six homes sold in America.

** Just over a decade ago, when New York City’s mayor-elect Eric Adams, was a state senator, he orchestrated a campaign called “Stop the Sag.” Its goal: to get men to stop wearing pants that appeared to be sliding down their underwear.

** As much as $68.9 billion worth of products were stolen from retailers in 2019, according to one industry group.

** In 1953, the actress Lucille Ball testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which grilled her for registering to vote as a Communist Party member in 1936 (as did her mother and brother). Her appearance was kept secret.

Examiner – A Look Back:

The late film director Peter Bogdanovich and Louise Hoogstraten (later Louise Stratten) in 1983. Louise is the younger sister of Dorothy Stratten and Bogdanovich’s second wife. They divorced in 2001 but remained close companions and collaborators.

Examiner – Lens:

When it comes to comedies, “I don’t get cast in them,” actress Nicole Kidman said. That might be the result of a career spent in dramas or “it might be my personality, too.”

Examiner – (Notable) Remarks:

** American Jews have always told ourselves that we were different because this country was different – that it was exceptional. That the equivocation about Jew-hate that we are now witnessing was normal in other places but never would be so here. (I think of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her Paris window by a man screaming “dirty Jew” and “Allahu Akbar.” But French courts and much of the press decided that no motive could be ascertained. Ultimately, charges were dropped against the perpetrator because he had smoked weed before the murder.) But America will only remain exceptional if Americans fight for it. And very few people in positions of cultural and political power seem to have any will to wage that battle. They believe that we are not the land of freedom, the country that abolished slavery, but one where slavery persists in more subtle form. That our army is not a force for liberation, but oppression. That our courts are not fair and blind, but prejudiced. And that this country and our ally, Israel, are not democracies but bastions of racial supremacy. —- Bari Weiss

** The quality of COVID data in the U.S. is poor, often clouding early judgments. It can make sense to look to Israel, where the data is better. Experts there quickly recognized that waning immunity was real. —- David Leonhardt, N.Y. Times

** “Heroes always have their scars. Some you see, some you read about later on.” —- George Foreman

“In short, the wave and any attendant economic risk could be over quickly, and this may be why investors are looking through it.” —- Michael Zezas, the head of U.S. public policy research and municipal credit strategy for Morgan Stanley, discussing the Omicron variant on January 5

** “Nothing in this world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” —- Teddy Roosevelt

** Given today’s political environment – in which the left seems unhinged from reality, unable to say that there is one thing that is a man and another thing that is a woman, or to articulate the most basic defense of liberalism and the West – one might imagine that the right is sitting pretty. —- Douglas Murray, an associate editor at The Spectator and the author of seven books, most recently, The Madness of the Crowds

** “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid.” —- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (1973)

Interest in Biased Legacy News is Down This Year, Independent News Outlet LBN Examiner Readership Up.

The number of unique visitors to the New York Times website is down 34% from the year prior, according to Comscore. The Washington Post is down 44%. It turns out that their politically correct, biased, indoctrinating approach is not hugely appealing to a lot of people in the long run. Network news viewership is also falling. According to Nielsen (from a report on the collapse of mainstream news by the Associated Press): Primetime viewership is down 38% at CNN, 34% at Fox, and 25% at MSNBC. Expect network news to kick it up in 2022: Get 20 or 30 pundits on screen yelling simultaneously with the same rant while a dozen news tickers roll past. In the meantime, the LBN Examiner readership, now read in all 50 of the United States and 26 foreign countries has grown significantly over the last year with its “fearlessly independent” and “unbiased” approach to news and information.

Now you can invite your friends and family to sign up for free (if they’ve got the guts): www.LBNExaminer.com

Examiner – Investigates:

** Goldfish learn to drive. READ

** Meet Ameca, the humanoid robot. WATCH

** Visualizing China’s aging population. READ

** Science says there’s no such thing as a hangover cure. READ

** Americans saved 60 million commute hours in 2020. READ

** By the end of this week of January, 29% of us will abandon our New Year’s resolutions. By the end of the year, only 9% of resolutions will remain resolute.

** In 1945, the U.S. military built the first floating ice cream parlor for the sailors serving in the Pacific during WWII.

“Intel for Influencers” – Who Reads the LBN Examiner?

Acclaimed filmmaker Adam McKay along with 12 members of the White House staff, 3 Nobel Prize winners, over 100 Academy Award winners, 6 U.S. Senators, and over 300 Grammy Award winners.

Now you can invite your friends and family to sign up for free (if they’ve got the guts): www.LBNExaminer.com

Examiner – Reader Comments:

** “As a new reader, I sincerely admire the fearless independence and unbiased nature of the LBN Examiner especially in the times we live.” —- Layla F., Miami, Florida

** Can a baby be born bad? Or does poor parenting explain why the cherub has grown up to become a psychopath? —- Lawrence G., London, England

Examiner – Cartoon:

Examiner – A Different View:…

LBN Examiner Disclaimer: 1.) The LBN Examiner accepts no liability for the content of this email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. The LBN Examiner is not associated with any commercial or political organization and is transmitted via the web for the sole benefit of its subscribers. 2.) Unfortunately, computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses.