In The Guatemalan Teens’ Putative Federal Class Action Suit, Noem / Miller / Rubio And Tangerine Are Reminded: “Don’t Try To Move (Or Remove) Any Guatemalan Teen [Or Toddler]”.

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It is… unfortunate, that federal trial court judges now feel the need to re-iterate injunctive orders, when new judges are assigned — but that is the case, with this version of the federal government — as its “new normal” is to violate clearly applicable orders they don’t like, and then feign ignorance. Or claim they saw “ambiguities”.

So, on a Saturday — likely while watching college football weekend two unfold, the able USDC Judge Timothy Kelly in DC took time to RE-ENTER the standing TRO, and make it even clearer to the Noemites, thus:

…MINUTE ORDER:

The judge handling this case on an emergency basis, in response to rapidly unfolding circumstances, entered a temporary restraining order on August 31, 2025, at 12:37 p.m. that ordered Defendants not to “transfer, repatriate, remove, or otherwise facilitate the transport of any Plaintiff or member of the putative class from the United States.” The case was not assigned to this Court until a few days later.

Since then, including during the hearing on September 10, the factual record, the representations of the parties, and the relief requested by the Plaintiffs have continued to evolve.

Thus, to allow the Court to fully consider these developments, the Court finds that “good cause,” see Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(b)(2), supports a brief extension of the temporary restraining order entered on August 31, 2025, at 12:37 p.m. Thus, it is hereby ORDERED that the temporary restraining order entered on August 31, 2025, at 12:37 p.m. is hereby EXTENDED through September 16, 2025.

Defendants remain under the same obligations until that time. To be clear: it is ORDERED that Defendants “shall not transfer, repatriate, remove, or otherwise facilitate the transport of any Plaintiff or member of the putative class from the United States” until after 11:59 p.m. on September 16, 2025, absent further order of the Court.

Signed by Judge Timothy J. Kelly on 9/13/2025….

No you know — onward, to likely watch the Bears lose(?) (yet again) to the Detroit Kitties. Grin….

नमस्ते

Good News For Liberians: The Turkish Boat / Traveler Who Died At Sea… Was NOT An Ebola Or Marburg Case…

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From 2014 through 2016, Liberia endured a rather severe outbreak of the dread Ebola virus. And now, with DRC reporting exploding case numbers, public health officials in many African nations are once again… “on edge“.

While there is an effective vaccine (Merck/New Link) — even this time around — peoples’ travel is largely unmonitored inside central Africa, for migratory work. So, a “hot-spot” anywhere can become a hot-spot in another country — often before the first spot is even… definitively identifed. Here’s the latest, from on the ground reporting, in Monrovia, Liberia:

…According to the Nimba County Health Team, the Turkish national, whose identity has not yet been disclosed, was a crew member who reportedly died suddenly at sea near Maryland County….

Those quarantined include workers at Gompa Funeral Home, passengers in the taxi that transported the body, and the funeral home’s owner, David Mulbeh. Military officers from the Gbarnga Regional Hub were deployed in Ganta to enforce compliance and prevent any possible spread of infection. Specimens from the deceased were subsequently sent to Monrovia for laboratory analysis….

“To date (10th September 2025 at 21:00 Hrs GMT), all specimens received and tested by the molecular PCR method at the National Reference Laboratory of the NPHIL have demonstrated ‘NEGATIVE’ for Ebola and Marburg. This NEGATIVE-TEST RESULT thereby rules out any of the indicated VHF infections in said biological specimens,” said NPHIL Director General, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan….

Yes — we are sorely in need of some good news. And so, this will do — for today. Onward, resolutely.

[As an aside — did Charlie Kirk’s widow imagine instagramming from inside his open casket — showing his now waxy hands — and the tie he’s being buried in… was somehow akin to Mamie Till-Mobley having the world photograph and publish Emmett Till’s battered body, after being lynched?!

I am at a loss for words, here. I respect Mrs. Kirk’s need to grieve in her own way… but inside the casket?! Really? Her toddlers will now grow up, and this viral public footage will be recycled, endlessly… in their faces — by mostly-unkind people. What on Earth?! I’m baffled. Utterly… baffled.]

नमस्ते

A Much-Later Epilogue — On Chagas. We Covered The Travails, In The Early-Teens… Of Shkreli’s Attempt To Control, And Profit — From An[other] Old Drug.

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To be certain, the one known leading treatment for Chagas has seen a tortured 25 year history. The “tortured” aspect of the story was courtesy of Martin Shkreli’s end-games as he was flailing — and flaming out — in what turned out to be the last of his federal securities fraud schemes. He violated ownership disclosure rules to take control of a small company and then tried to wrest control of the drug from a non-profit. It had been made, nearly free, in Central and South America for decades at that point.

Then he went to jail, that company filed Chapter 11, and the drug-rights bounced around for the better part of 15 years. Even so, it is no cure. It is (at best) a 50-50 shot. [As an aside (and why I noticed this item), I worked in the 1990s for a brilliant scientist that discovered a better “cure” — but it never made it to market, because it turns out that it is wildly expensive to produce, and the eight million or so sufferers are almost all nearly indigent, and mostly live in geographies with not much in the way of public health funding. So the rights to make it sit, in an Indiana Jones-like virtual warehouse, somewhere — to this day.]

But it caught my eye that The UK Guardian has a story — on the possibility that the Governors in the Southern US, Florida, Texas and Louisiana, particularly… might be able to convince Tangerine 2.0 that Chagas ought to be treaed as an endemic disease (at least in the Southern US), and then far more affluent communities could be tapped for treatment — and reimbursements. Here’s that story, on this soggy, cool and rainy Saturday morning:

…Dr. Norman Beatty, who has studied the kissing bugs, said that like Valerie and Luna, most people in the US have not heard of Chagas, even though it is not just present south of the border but within the country….

[A]bout 20 to 30% of people infected can develop chronic issues later in life such as an enlarged heart and heart failure, or an enlarged esophagus or colon, leading to trouble eating or going to the bathroom… [a]bout 8 million people, including 280,000 in the United States, have the disease, according to the CDC….

The goal is to “detect early and treat early to avoid the chronic, often permanent damage that can occur”, Beatty explained.

The treatment took two months, during which Luna experienced side effects like hives and severe swelling in her hands and feet, she said.

While she is finished with the treatment, there is no definitive test to determine whether such patients will develop chronic Chagas symptoms, but it’s less likely, Beatty said.

“I hope the CDC takes it seriously,” Valerie said, “and that we can move forward and have good awareness, so that people want to be tested and get tested and get the treatment they need….”

Now you know — but I may ring up some of the science staff at that former employer, to alert them, that they still hold what might be very valuable rights to a new small molecule treatment. We shall see. But this could be a silver lining — from DeSantis’ and Abbott’s closeness to Tangerine — since it impacts their states pretty severely now (and yes, that’s a separate climate change story). Onward.

नमस्ते

Likely Ebola Cases In DRC Balloon To 68; Funeral Attendances In Part To Blame…

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This is discouraging news. The number of suspected cases has increased three-fold — in a week’s time.

To be sure, this is in part a delay in counting, since it took a week for the virus to bloom out, after the highly viral-loaded funerals for the first victims were held — all before the local people knew the victims had died of Ebola, and not any ordinary flu. Here’s the latest, from CIDRAP:

…As outbreak responders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue to gauge the scope of a recently declared Ebola outbreak in Kasai province, 68 suspected cases have now been identified, 20 of them confirmed by lab tests, Ngashi Ngongo, MD, PhD, MPH, who leads incident management for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said today during a weekly health emergencies briefing.

The initial cases were reported from two health zones, mainly in Bulape but also in Mweka. Ngongo said suspected cases are now reported in two more health districts, Mushenge and Dekese….

Ngongo said the suspected cases include several people who died before the Ebola outbreak was identified. He added that many people attended their funerals, some traveling from other health zones, and may have been exposed to the virus….

Now you know. Off-grid for rest of a sunny morning — and the claim is that Kirk’s assassin is now in custody. We shall see.

नमस्ते

William Otis’ Malignantly Precious Take — On An Idea, To “Celebrate” Charlie Kirk. “Oh, The Ironies!”

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Like all the Powerliners and Ringsiders, I abhor violence, as a response to an idea one disfavors. Let’s get that out of the way, at the top. And no, there is no exclusively left-wing epidemic of US political violence. If anything, there have been more such events, from the right — though they’ve resulted in fewer fatalities, as I count it.

But Bill and others are making Kirk some latter day Messiah of pure First Amendment expression, minus any odious animus. This is plainly a false telling of his life.

He regularly spouted deeply racist, and wildly antisemitic, diatribes. I’ll post the lowlight reel, but it is everywhere on the internet, if one just Googles “Kirk racism” in quotes.

So — here’s Otis — on how to honor Kirk, in a posting this afternoon:

…One thing that won’t be allowed is hate and its cousins; hence, there would be no “Jews are filth” table; no “Muslims are animals,” no “Trump is Hitler” or “Biden’s a Moron.” Short of hate masquerading as ideas, all actual ideas would be welcome.

Anything you like: the death penalty, abortion, clean energy, prison reform, guaranteed annual income, the gold standard, unitary executive, sexual mores, Wokeism, capitalism, traditional values, the welfare state, AI, communal living — you name it. As I understand it, Kirk put no limit on any legitimate topic for debate, and the Debate Fest to be held in his honor won’t either….

Welp. Except, that Billie-boy — Old Charlie regularly labeled Michelle Obama and KBJ as “lacking the intellectual horsepower” to achieve anything (instead relying solely on the “crutch of DEI“, in his words)… he called an Asian-American woman who was debating him, on tape — at one of these other college debate fests… a “chink” over and over… and, he visibly tried to violently jump into the crowd (to start a fist-fight) when another debater got the best of him, rhetorically (it was on guns and violence — and the man was Latino)… and on and on. I’ll happily post the tape if you like Bill.

He did also say that people being killed by gun violence were all “worth it” — to keep his absolute Second Amendment views (own a rocket launcher if you like!) free from meddlesome judges.

So… perhaps one table at Mr. Otis’ mythical debate fest on the National Mall in November 2025 should be: “Proposition: Whether Charlie Kirk STILL thinks gun violence deaths… are ‘WORTH IT”… now?”

He also claimed (repeatedly) that empathy was just a DEI wussies’ construct — to make “real men” like him feel bad — and he refused to go in for it.

I, on the other hand, will readily express my sincere empathy for his toddlers (they had no part in choosing this path), who now will grow up without their dad, and his widow (even though she was choosing that same hate-filled path, day by day) — and he is forever dead. That is so, at least in some part, due to his wildly incendiary rhetoric (we all should turn down the heat, I think).

That, and his demand that all guns — in any loons’ hands… must be a treated as sacramental vestments are.

D A M N. I’m out, before I type something… really unkind.

A Status Call, On The Rio Grande / Land Razor Wire Torture Cases Was Held Yesterday. USDC Judge Alia Moses Has Gone Back To “Shadow Docketing” The Matter: Plainly Unlawful.

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Again, we the people have the right, nation-wide, to know what the federal courts — and federal judges, particularly — are doing in our name. Doubly so, where different (state v. federal) parts of the government mechanisms are on both sides, in the matter. Who indeed will watch… the [official] watchers?

After we complained to her clerks in 2023/2024, she made almost all of this docket public, on PACER. Because that is what the clear black letter Supreme Court law requires of her.

But yesterday, at this status hearing, she reverted to her old, lawless ways (as the Trump-controlled government decides what to do about the fact that there are now private individual plaintiffs who’ve alleged injuries from lacerations to drownings — and so, Trump/Noem and Abbott cannot just agree among their MAGA controlled selves to dismiss it, as they had hoped). Here’s that:

…Proceedings held before Chief Judge Alia Moses: Docket Call/Status Conference held on 9/9/2025 (Court Reporter Adria Casillas.)(dd) (Entered: 09/10/2025)

Note: You do not have permission to view this document….

[My missive draft, from 2024:]

[Addressed to USDC Chief Judge Moses, USDC WDTX]

…My [entirely pro bono] clients recognize that the court has myriad other demands on its time and limited staffing resources, but absent a documented showing of unreasonable administrative burdens (and a two page order, published at the same moment, makes it plain that this is no administrative burden!), the public’s right to contemporaneous access to judicial records cannot be overcome. See, e.g., Courthouse News Serv. v. Planet, No. CV 11-08083 SJO (FFMx), 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105197, at *62 (C.D. Cal. May 26, 2016) (“to the extent Planet might argue that such a practice would have been cost-prohibitive or unduly labor intensive, she has not quantified the cost… nor has she detailed the additional labor that would have been required)….

Absent such evidence, the Court cannot ‘articulate facts demonstrating an administrative burden sufficient to deny access.’”) (citation omitted), aff’ in part rev’d in part, 947 F.3d 581, 597 (9th Cir. 2020) (holding that “Ventura County’s no-access-before-process policy bears no real relationship to the County’s legitimate administrative concerns about. . . efficient court administration”); see also United States v. Valenti, 987 F.2d 708, 715 (11th Cir. 1993) (holding unconstitutional the district court’s maintenance of a dual-docketing system, where certain docket entries were visible only to the parties, and expressly rejecting the argument that unsealing would bind the court to a “formal procedure that is unduly burdensome”).

Specifically, a status / scheduling order in this matter has entered by the court just now (ECF Doc. No. 138, 09/10/2025) but remains entirely invisible to the public. Of course, while redactions for trade or governmental secrets (and sensitive, personally identifying information) would be normal, there has been no such effort made, on the part of the court. It seems court staff sua sponte designated ECF Document No. 138 “restricted access”.

Based on my review of the ECF record in this matter, it would seem no public court order — whether in writing or issued orally from your bench — has set forth the findings required by the First Amendment, prior to the removal of this judicial document from the record. See, e.g., Oregonian Publ’g Co. v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 920 F.2d 1462 (9th Cir. 1990).

However, rather than waste more of the court’s resources and time, I have chosen (as a non-party member of the public, and at this point, non-intervenor) to simply write to you directly, and copy counsel for both sides on this. I am hopeful the lawyers will prepare and file a redacted version, as required by long-standing, uncontroverted black letter First Amendment law (which applies, even — perhaps surprisingly to you — in the Western District of Texas).

To be clear, this need not (and perhaps should not) require my filing as an intervenor, in your courtroom — to be placed on any public docket, as it sensibly ought to be resolved without need for appearances in the record, on my clients’ behalf….

Please prepare and publish a redacted version of Document No. 138, before Monday, September 29, 2025. Kind regards…. /s/

Well… as I say, this won’t do. That is not cricket, at all. Here’s (above, in green text) what I’ll send on to her chambers tomorrow — when I get a free half hour to clean up the draft and update it.

Now you know. Onward, sad — but resolute. What has become of my country? Colorado school kids and reprobates alike, dead from gun violence…. Damn.

नमस्ते

[U: Read Some Real Books — Step Away From The News, For Tonight…] Just Listen To Sen. Mark Kelly (Whose Spouse, A US Rep., Was Shot In A 2011 Assassination Attempt)

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Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who represented Charlie Kirk in Congress, told CNN today that lawmakers need to “lower the temperature….”

…“Everybody needs to lower the temp- erature,” the Arizona lawmaker told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “Outfront.” “I’ve heard things said by my Democratic colleagues that are not helpful. I’ve heard things said by my Republican colleagues. And I think it’s important for people to understand, especially when they are in leadership positions, that your words have consequences.”

Kelly also stressed that politicians on both sides of the aisle should be careful with their rhetoric as it can incite political violence. “Political rhetoric. . . from both sides often gets out of hand and it incites people to do things like this,” Kelly said. “And I think it’s, you know, so important in times like this when we all take a step back and think about, you know, our words and the consequences of them, you know, from both sides of the political spectrum….”

Kelly — whose wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot while meeting with constituents in 2011 — went on to say that Kirk “had every right to be out there.”

“It’s his First Amendment rights, speaking to kids at a university, and his life is ended because of this,” Kelly added. “This isn’t who we should be. This is never the answer….”

नमस्ते

Merck Announces 125 Layoffs In London (Due To Trump Non- US Pharma Tariff Concerns)…

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In point of fact, even more than the 125 people in London who will lose jobs, this one billion British pound sterling facility was going to generate knock on economic effects at King’s Cross station — as these scientific employees would have lunched, and probably eaten dinners. . . In the nearby neighborhood, as well as shopped for clothing and other items.

And then, there would’ve been the local tax base for the city of London, more broadly as likely multibillion-dollar small molecules would be developed and patented from the facility. To be sure multinationals like Merck are careful to “house” their intellectual property / patents in jurisdictions like Ireland… in what are essentially holding companies, so that they may take advantage of local tax breaks on the license and royalty income that the patents generate — even intra-company.

But now, facing Trump tariffs, this company, and likely many others… Will simply ask US based research researchers to handle more tasks for the same money inside the US. It is pure folly to think that this halt of construction in London will generate new US high paying svoence jobs. It won’t, with 6000 layoffs already scheduled inside New Jersey for Merck — upper management of the company has a strong hand to simply tell Science staffers that they must do more on the same salary, otherwise they will be next on the chopping block. As ever, most of Trump’s “policies” deliver the opposite of the effect that he claims to be after.

In any event, here’s the press report — out of Reuters London tonight UK time:

…The U.S. drugmaker no longer plans to occupy the Belgrove House site at King’s Cross, which was due to open in 2027. The move will impact about 125 staff members.

Pharmaceutical companies have been shoring up investments in the U.S. amid the Trump administration’s tariff threats….

Damn. [The King’s Cross station is a very charming place to spend an afternoon — and yes, I have that on first person authority. When I’m back in London late this Fall, I will be sure to spend a little more with those fine local merchants.]

Onward.

नमस्ते

I Just Watched An Exciting NASA Video-Conference: Perseverance Sampled An Odd Rock, On Barsoom, at Sapphire Canyon — Last Year…

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We first discussed this finding — over a year ago. But now the peer-reviewed, vetted scientific papers are out and published. And the implications are. . . tantalizing, to say the least.

Of course, as ever — the caveats: as discussed at the press conference just now, this same admixture, in the rock called Cheyava Falls, may have resulted from a high temperature event, like vulcanism, or a meteor strike — billions of years ago on Mars, where it now lies. But the surrounding rock shows no evidence of melting and re-solidifying. So at least the primary non-biological explanation for what Perseverance’s grinder and cam has observed… would seem to be quite unlikely.

This then is… perhaps… the best evidence seen to date, on the surface of Mars… for what might have once been… organic life — as we know it, here on Earth (Jasoom). Do listen in, to the smart folks at NASA/JPL:

…A sample collected by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover from an ancient dry riverbed in Jezero Crater could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life. Taken from a rock named “Cheyava Falls” last year, the sample, called “Sapphire Canyon,” contains potential biosignatures, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

A potential biosignature is a substance or structure that might have a biological origin but requires more data or further study before a conclusion can be reached about the absence or presence of life.

“This finding by Perseverance, launched under President Trump in his first term, is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars. The identification of a potential biosignature on the Red Planet is a groundbreaking discovery, and one that will advance our understanding of Mars,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy. “NASA’s commitment to conducting Gold Standard Science will continue….”

Now, as ever, astonishing claims require… very compelling proof. And we don’t have that… yet. But I am grinning ear to ear, just the same. Onward — to a mountain bike ride, imagining where this rock was under about a foot of liquid water, three billion years ago… on Mars. Very cool. Was something growing beside it, or swimming — over it? Time will tell….

नमस्ते

Ebola 2025 Update: Affected Localities In DRC Have Now Imposed Travel Restrictions, As Case Numbers Continue To Increase, In Kasai Province…

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Just as there is more good news on Mpox to report (see penultimate prior post), we see some tough news out of Kinshasa, DRC — as that capital tries to prevent the current outbreak from reaching perhaps five million households — in the various urban centers.

Towns with ongoing cases in Kasai province are imposing travel bans, even as they ring vaccinate contacts and contacts of contacts, among the known case clusters. Here’s Reuters — of just an hour ago — on it all:

…KINSHASA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Towns affected by Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak have erected checkpoints to restrict population movements, officials said this week, as cases increased slightly and aid workers warned that the response was underfunded.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry last week declared the country’s first Ebola outbreak in three years, with 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths. It is the first outbreak in the country’s Kasai province since 2008….

Now you know — unfortunate, but smiling into the crisp Fall sunshine here — just the same. Bike rides ahead.

नमस्ते