Chief executive of Australian Venue Co Paul Waterson, who this week cemented a deal to buy eight well-known leasehold venues from Sand Hill Road group, said like-for-like sales across its 180-strong portfolio were up 12 per cent on pre- pandemic levels.
Brunswick Street’s Labor in Vain hotel.Credit:
“Since December last year it’s very much caught up,” Waterson said.
City hotels are trading at similar levels to suburban venues despite the slow return of workers to office towers.
Strong evening trade, particularly a lift on Thursdays, and weekend customers are boosting CBD hotels, he said.
“Venues are not limited by demand, but by the capacity of staff,” he said.
Australian Venue Co, backed by private equity giant KKR, reignited a $100 million deal – put on hold at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – to buy a bag of leaseholds from Sand Hill Road.
They include the Espy in St Kilda, Garden State on Flinders Lane, Prahran Hotel, the Terminus Hotel in Abbotsford, Richmond Club Hotel, The Posty, Bridge Hotel and Holliava.
Waterson said the pandemic’s latest Omicron wave hasn’t affected pub-goers. “Each time a wave comes through, we’re seeing a lot more resilience.”
“For the first time in three years we are seeing large corporate Christmas functions. We’re seeing strong bookings and quite extravagant parties planned for December,” he said.
Fronted by brothers Andy and Matt Mullins, Sand Hill Road has collected, renovated, bought, sold and built a number of well-known Melbourne watering holes.
Andy Mullins said the group still owned and had big plans for the Waterside Hotel in Flinders Street, which was not part of the deal with Australian Venue Co.
“We’re committed to a big future in hospitality in Melbourne,” Mullins said.
Back in Cremorne, former Great Britain Hotel operators, Chris and Penny Hodges have run the Cherry Tree since 2014 and their lease has a few years to run.
Allen wasn’t the only lowlife associated with the pub built during the Goldrush in the 1850-1860s on a corner facing the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens. Career criminal Squizzy Taylor also apparently jumped the bar and stole 10 shillings out of the till in 1908.
LIVE — Australians will compete for gold medals in at least seven events on day eight of the Commonwealth Games as the nation aims to hold off hosts England in Birmingham.
Australia heads into Friday’s competition sitting on top of the medal tally with 51 golds — nine more than England — as well as 42 silver and 39 bronze.
And it could be plenty more by the close of the day with at least three medals on offer in athletics, two in diving, and one each in lawn bowls and artistic gymnastics.
Follow all the action in Birmingham in our live blog below!
FULL MEDAL TALLY LIVE >
DAY 7 WRAP: Gold medal Aussie’s all-time interview gatecrashed; star ‘gutted’ after costly error
Australians are also in the hunt for wrestling medals in the women’s 57kg (Irene Symeonidis), men’s 65kg (Mustafa Rezaeifar), and men’s 86kg (Jayden Lawrence), starting with the quarterfinals stages from 7.30pm.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Cedric Dubler headed into the final day of the decathlon sitting in second.
Dubler then won the first decathlon event for the night, the 110m hurdles, with a time of 14.20 — good enough for another 949 points. That has moved him one point into the lead over Lindon Victor.
Also in athletics, Jess Hull will compete in the 1500m heats, while Brooke Buschkuehl will be in action in qualifying for long jump.
Celeste Mucci ran a strong 100m hurdles heat, matching her personal best time of 12.96, which saw her finish third.
Comeback star Michelle Jenneke was up next and comfortably finished second with a time of 12.63 to go through to the end on Sunday night. The time is the fastest she’s ever run the event, although it does not count as an official PB due to big tailwinds.
In the 1500m women’s heats, Abbey Caldwell and Linden Hall have progressed to the final after finishing inside the top four of their race with times of 4:13.59 and 4:14.08 respectively.
Away from the track, Australia’s Hockeyroos will have the chance to win a guaranteed medal when they take on India in the semi-final.
Dennis SCORCHES field to take TT gold | 00:28
You can track the live medal tally for every country here, with key Aussie wins and updates as they happen.
AUSSIES GOING FOR MEDALS ON DAY 8 (all times AEST)
Lawn Bowls
9pm — For mixed pairs B2/B3 finals
diving
8.18pm — men’s synchronized 3m springboard final
3.05am — women’s 1m springboard final (qualifying at 7.05pm)
4.23am — men’s synchronized 10m platform final
Gymnastics – rhythmic
10.30pm — Individual all-around final
Athletics
4.55am — men’s T53/54 1500m final
6.42am—women’s 3000m steeplechase final
7.15pm – 6.27am — men’s decathlon
Hockey
5am — women’s semi-final vs. India
OTHER KEY EVENTS (times AEST)
Athletics
Women’s long jump qualifying — Brooke Buschkuel — 8.40pm
Men’s decathlon — Cedric Dubler, Daniel Golubovic, Alex Diamond — 7.15pm
Round of 16 – Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles – Kaitlyn Ea/Angela Yu (AUS) v Yujia Jin/Jia Ying Crystal Wong (SGP), Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen/Gronya Somerville (AUS) v Elena Johnson /Chloe Le Tissier (GGY)
TABLE TENNIS (from 6.30pm)
Mixed Doubles Round 3 and Quarterfinals; Men’s Class Semi Finals; Women’s Class Semi Finals; Women’s Singles Round 2; Men’s Doubles Round 3 and Quarterfinals; Women’s Doubles Round 2 – Chunyi Feng/ Yangzi Liu (AUS) v Shanecia Delpesche/Jessica MC Carter (SVG), Minhyung Jee/Jian Fang Lay (AUS) v TBA; Men’s Singles – Dillon Chambers (AUS) v Zhe Yu Clarence Chew (SGP), Finn Luu (AUS) v Sharath Kamal Achanta (IND), Nicholas Lum (AUS) v Javen Choong (MAS)
A paedophile convicted of sexually abusing three girls has had his sentencing delayed so he can undergo surgery for prostate cancer and tests for possible bowel cancer, a court has heard.
Key points:
Neil Duncan, 67, was convicted in June of eight counts of sexually touching three girls under the age of 16
Judge Robyn Tupman has allowed his sentencing to be delayed so he can undergo cancer treatment
Duncan’s bail was continued and he will be sentenced on October 24
It comes as a victim’s advocate slammed a barrister for Neil Duncan calling media coverage of the case a “kangaroo court”.
On June 2 Duncan, 67, was convicted in the Queanbeyan District Court on eight counts of sexually touching three girls under the age of 16 in Bega Valley and Kosciuszko National Park in 2019.
The decision by Queanbeyan District Court Judge Robyn Tupman to grant Duncan bail ahead of his planned sentencing today caught the attention of NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman who requested the Director of Public Prosecutions review the bail decision.
Duncan was arrested at a Narrabri Pony Club event a week after his conviction but was re-released after an allegation he breached his bail conditions could not be proven.
After work by victims’ advocates and media coverage of the case, changes came into effect on June 27 requiring a judge to refuse bail following conviction and before sentencing for an offense likely to carry full-time imprisonment, unless special or exceptional circumstances could be provided .
Neil Duncan leaves the NSW Supreme Court while on bail in July.(ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)
Then in July the NSW Supreme Court rejected a detention application by Crown prosecutors, when Duncan’s lawyers revealed he had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would require surgery in September, thereby falling under the definition of “special or exceptional circumstances”.
Today, Judge Tupman accepted an adjournment application by his defense team which will allow Duncan to undergo surgery at Macquarie University Hospital on September 20 for prostate cancer and undergo further tests for possible bowel cancer.
Judge Tupman adjourned sentencing to allow Duncan five weeks to recover from the surgery.
The NSW Supreme Court dismissed the Crown’s detention application in July. (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)
“Prostate cancer is not a condition where it is beneficial to delay treatment,” Judge Tupman told the court.
Crown prosecutors objected to the application, telling the court the medical procedures could be taken care of while Duncan was being held in custody.
“People wait a considerable amount of time [in prison] for outside intervention,” Judge Tupman told the court.
Media coverage criticized
The judge said media coverage of the case was “unfortunate”, and given the public attention it had received she could be facing “judicial death” if she did not take the time necessary to read all the submitted documents while considering Duncan’s sentence.
“I’ve been in court almost every day since the jury came out in Queanbeyan,” she told the court.
Crown prosecutors told the court continued delays in proceedings would create “anxiety” for Duncan’s victims.
“The victims are keen to have these proceedings finalized so they can move on,” they told the court.
Neil Duncan will be sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Center District court in October.(Facebook: Downing Center)
Duncan’s barrister Richard Pontello SC told the court his client would not answer to media coverage of the case, which he labeled a “kangaroo court”.
Victims’ advocate Ken Steele called Mr Pontello’s use of the term “offensive.”
“Someone like Neil Duncan should be reported on,” he said.
“The suggestion he’s in any way given hard treatment due to media coverage is that it’s the right of the public to keep track of these cases and it’s the media’s job to report on it.”
Duncan’s bail was continued and he will be sentenced on October 24.
Multiple people were injured after a vehicle drove through a ceremonial parade in Gallup, New Mexico on Thursday, according to state police.
social media footage captured a brown SUV weaving through the annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Parade, one of New Mexico’s longest-running events.
Two Gallup Police Department officers were among the injured and were treated for their injuries.
According to KOAT7, the driver traveled down the parade route in the wrong direction. The outlet reports two other individuals were inside the SUV.
The driver of the SUV has been taken into custody. Officers detained the two passengers while parade attendees shouted angrily and confronted the trio.
NMSP is investigating an incident involving multiple pedestrians at the Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial Centennial Celebration. Multiple people, including two Gallup PD officers, injured and are being treated on scene. The driver is in custody. More information when available. pic.twitter.com/fRSKmUPPcZ
The names of the suspects have not yet been released.
The Gallup Intertribal Ceremonial is a 10-day celebration consisting of in-person and virtual events. The city celebrated its 100th anniversary of the annual event this year while the parade culminated in the first night’s festivities.
A popular tourist town in WA’s far north has been outed as having the worst airport delays in Australia, according to new data.
A monthly report by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics has revealed that Broome experienced the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals and departures this June, with little over 30 per cent of flights to Perth leaving within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure.
Flights arriving in Broome provided only marginally better, with 37 per cent landing on time.
In Broome, Virgin Australia delivered the brunt of these delays with none of the 14 scheduled flights from Broome to Perth departing on time.
Virgin Australia Regional Airlines also suffered delays, only 38 per cent of flights to Perth managing to leave at the scheduled time.
A spokesperson for Virgin Australia apologized on behalf of the company and said they will “continue to work hard to ensure all guests reach their destination”.
“While any delay is unacceptable, we’re working hard to improve our performance and we are not the only business experiencing the unintended knock-on effects of increased sickness present in the wider community.”
The other major airlines out of Broome Airport, Qantas and QantasLink experienced similar delays, attributing COVID-19 as a major factor behind the figures.
Only 22 per cent and 31.5 per cent of Qantas and QantasLink flights from Broome to Perth left on time, with 10 out of 83 flights canceled altogether.
It comes after rising public concern over increased delays and cancellations, which, in many cases, saw tourists taking up overnight residence in the homes of generous locals.
In late June, Qantas announced they would station an on-site engineer in Broome in an attempt to curb further flight issues.
A Qantas spokesperson said June’s delays and cancellations were attributed to a rise in COVID-19 and other illnesses among airline crew, and the tough labor market.
“These flight delays and cancellations are not the kind of performance that we were delivering pre-COVID,” they said.
“Everyone at Qantas and Jetstar is focused on turning this performance around.”
The BITRE report also revealed the national industry recorded its worst-ever on-time performance figures which stand at approximately 61 per cent among all participating airlines.
The family of Canberra woman Brontë Haskins has asked the ACT coroner to make adverse findings about several people involved in her case before and after her suicide in 2020.
Key points:
Brontë Haskins, 23, took her own life in 2020 after suffering from substance abuse and mental illness
Her mother has called for the ACT coroner to find several people failed her before her death
The lawyer for Ms Haskins’s family says if she was triaged correctly she would have been assessed by a trained mental-health clinician
Ms Haskins, 23, died in hospital after several days on life support.
Her death came while she was on bail after a stint in jail for drug driving.
Ms Haskins had suffered both substance abuse and mental illness, something her mother said was not taken seriously enough by authorities.
In the lead-up to her death she had been staying at her mother’s home, while she was on bail.
A coronial inquest into Ms Haskins’s suicide heard her mother called police and mental health services when she became delusional, believing the unit where she was staying was a gas chamber.
Several issues have been raised in the case before the ACT Coroner’s Court, including the family’s claim that a mental-health nurse failed to give the case the priority it required and failed to follow up a call from Ms Haskins’s mother, Janine.
Lawyer Sam Tierney who represented Ms Haskins’s family referred to the staged triage system — where category A is the most serious, and category G requires more information — when criticizing the way the case was handled by mental-health nurse Karina Boyd.
The inquest heard Brontë Haskins’s case was not triaged correctly.(Supplied)
“Had Ms Boyd not incorrectly triaged Brontë as category G, Brontë would have more likely than not been assessed face to face by a trained mental-health clinician within 72 hours and certainly prior to her death,” Mr Tierney said.
Counsel assisting the coroner Andrew Muller also took aim at the way the case was triaged.
“Brontë should have been assessed as a category C or D, resulting in some urgent follow-up,” Mr Muller said.
“What is material is that, on any view of the available information, Brontë was incorrectly assessed for triage purposes.”
Mr Muller has recommended an overhaul of the triage system.
But in its submissions, the ACT defended Ms Boyd’s decision, saying she had not been able to speak to Ms Haskins and her only contact was with her mother.
“She had been told that the AFP had been called and she assumed that the police would contact her if they thought Brontë needed a risk assessment or mental-health service,” the territory submissions said.
Court hears CCTV footage of minutes before attempt to take life missing
Ms Haskins’s family have called for greater transparency in passing on confidential details after the death of a mental health service user to the Coroner’s Court.(Supplied)
Another key issue was the fact police returned a CCTV recorder to Brett French, an associate of Ms Haskins, at whose home she had tried to take her life.
The court heard about 45 minutes of footage which may have shed light on the events leading up to her death was deleted
Court documents showed Mr French had admitted showing some of the CCTV to another man.
Mr Tierney told the court the family wanted an adverse finding against Mr French for his “callous” treatment of Ms Haskins on the day of her death.
Mr Tierney also identified the behavior of police investigating the death as an issue.
“A proper investigation and analysis of the CCTV recorder may have disclosed further and important information to the coroner to assist in the process of considering Brontë’s death,” he said.
He has called for a recommendation that will send a message to the AFP about the handling of coronial exhibits.
The inquiry has also looked into the management of Ms Haskins’s case and whether further detention could have prevented her death.
Mr Muller said there was evidence of better communications about her could have helped.
“Had Brontë been stopped the outcome may, of course, have been different,” Mr Muller said.
“But there was no proper reason she could be stopped.”
Other recommendations being sought by Ms Haskins’s family include greater transparency in passing on to the Coroner’s Court confidential details after the death of a mental health service user, recording of calls to the mental health line, audits of the triage system, and better information to be passed to AFP officers called to incidents.
Coroner James Stewart said he would take some time to hand down his findings.
Kennedy grilled Wray on Thibault’s alleged partisan actions on social media over the past few years, such as “liking” a Washington Post article titled “William Barr has gone rogue” and tweeting to Rep. liz cheney (R-Wyo.) that her father — former Vice President Dick Cheney — was a “disgrace.” Kennedy also mentioned Thibault’s retweet of a Lincoln Project post saying that “Donald Trump is a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”
Kennedy then pressed Wray on allegations that Thibault — who Kennedy said worked on both the investigation of links between Trump and Russia and the ongoing Hunter Biden probe — had “covered up derogatory info about Mr. Biden while working at the FBI.”
Wray gave similar answers to Kennedy’s questioning on both the social media posts and covering up of information, saying that he’d seen “descriptions to that effect” but wanted to be “careful” of not interfering with any ongoing personnel matters. But he did concede to finding the allegations about the social media posts “troubling.”
“I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling,” Kennedy told.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) first raised alarms about Thibault’s alleged partisan actions in May, demanding that the Justice Department and the FBI investigate whether the agent violated department guidelines with his social media posts. Grassley sent a second letter to the Justice Department and the FBI in late July saying that he had received “highly credible” whistleblower accounts alleging that Thibault had downplayed or discredited negative information obtained about Joe Biden’s son during the 2020 election.
Wray on Thursday didn’t definitively confirm or deny the allegations against Thibault and seemed to be trying to preserve his ability to act as an impartial decision-maker on potential discipline against the agent. However, the FBI director stressed that the actions Kennedy was describing were “not representative of the FBI.”
“I feel very strongly, and I have communicated consistently since I started as director, that our folks need to make sure that they’re not just doing the right thing, that they’re doing it in the right way and that they avoid even the appearance of bias or lack of objectivity,” Wray said.
Kennedy said he agreed with Wray’s statement that the majority of FBI employees have “tremendous integrity and objectivity,” but stressed that the situation with Thibault is only hurting the FBI’s image and needs to be addressed with the public.
“You’re killing yourselves with this stuff,” Kennedy said. “And this investigation needs to be completed on this gentleman and the results need to be reported to the American people.”
Wray seemed to raise doubts that Thibault was working at any recent time on issues related to Hunter Biden. The FBI chief said that investigation, reportedly focused on tax issues and potential foreign influence related to Hunter Biden’s business ties, is being run by the Bureau’s Baltimore Field Office, which handles matters related to Delaware.
The Biden administration has permitted Trump’s appointee as US attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, to stay on to complete the probe of the president’s son.
Hunter Biden in a December 2020 statement denied any wrongdoing in his tax affairs. Biden’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.
“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” he said.
Earlier in the hearing, Wray seemed to indirectly address the claims that during the 2020 election season the FBI helped downplay or suppress information about Hunter Biden’s business ties by categorizing that as Russian disinformation.
The FBI director suggested it wasn’t his agency’s job in such situations to try to validate or verify the claims, only to alert US officials, businesses or individuals that foreign powers are trying to exploit the situation.
“Sometimes this gets lost in a lot of public commentary. We are not investigating whether or not information we see is true or false,” Wray said. “Our focus on the malign foreign influence space is whether or not there is a foreign adversary pushing the information.”
A 59-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder relating to the mass shooting on a rural property near the central Queensland town of Bogie on Thursday.
Police will allege that around 9am, they received a report three people had been fatally shot at a property on Shannonvale Road and another man had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
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A 35-year-old Bogie man, Graham Tighe, his mother Maree Schwarz, 59, and her husband Merv, 71, all died at the scene.
Graham’s brother, Ross Tighe, survived and was able to flee into remote bushland with a gunshot wound to his stomach before raising the alarm.
7NEWS understands police will alleged that the gunman invited them to meet up at his property amid a dispute over a boundary line.
The 59-year-old man – who was also charged with one count of attempted murder – will appear in Proserpine Magistrates Court on Monday.
The charges come as new tragic details emerge that Graham’s partner Lucy had only recently given birth.
Graham’s uncle, Greg Austen, told 7NEWS the father had only spent a few days with the newborn before the baby was taken to Brisbane to visit Lucy’s mother.
“It’s just devastating shock that things can happen so quickly in the blink of an eye and ruin so many lives so quickly,” he said.
Maree and Mervyn Schwarz. Credit: Supplied
7NEWS understands police will allege the farming family was invited to meet with their neighbor at the edge of his Bogie property, 45 minutes away.
Shortly after, Merv, Maree, Ross and Graham were dead.
Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said the property where the shooting allegedly took place was “tens of thousands of acres”.
“It’s actually a 45-minute drive between the neighbours,” he said.
“At the crime scene, which is at the front gate of one of the premises, it is a 3km drive between the gate and the house at that location.”
Armitt said because Ross had been so far from the crime scene, and it was unclear whether the alleged gunman was still at large, police were cautious in their approach to the property.
“At that time, not knowing whether the armed offender was present or not, putting their lives in grave danger, especially when the report was that the people had been shot with a rifle,” Armitt said.
“So that was slow and meticulous work and extremely brave of the officers who were involved at that time.”
The surviving man was airlifted to Mackay Base Hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition. Credit: 7NEWSGraham’s brother Ross survived and was able to flee into remote bushland with a gunshot wound to his stomach. Credit: 7NEWS
Ross was initially in a critical condition but since undergoing multiple emergency surgeries is now reported as serious but stable.
“He was able to speak to us overnight and provide us details of what occurred at the incident yesterday morning,” Armitt said.
“And detectives will be speaking to him again this morning.”
Community in shock
Merv and Maree are being remembered as a “lovely, hardworking” family as loved ones try to make sense of the tragedy.
“We’re lucky we still have Ross with us,” Austen told 7NEWS.
“To see the trauma that would have unfolded in front of him and then be able to go that far to raise the alarm, it’s a mighty effort.”
Graham leaves behind two young children, with partner Lucy stuck in Brisbane, unable to fly on commercial airlines as she gave birth a few weeks ago.
7NEWS understands after desperate efforts from family and friends, a charity will put Lucy and her children on a charter flight home.
Graham’s partner Lucy had given birth to their second child just weeks before. Credit: 7NEWS
Whitsunday Regional councilor Jan Clifford said the tight-knit community would be devastated.
“To my knowledge, nothing like this has ever happened in the Whitsunday region before,” Clifford said.
“We are all deeply saddened by the tragedy.”
Clifford said the incident was bound to have a big effect on the tiny community of Bogie, which has a population of 207 according to the latest census data.
“It’s a little village. Everyone will know everyone… It’s just awful.”
One woman working in nearby Collinsville said the entire community was in shock.
“The whole town is a bit rattled that something like that could happen here,” she told AAP.
Trump’s lawyers are worried the DOJ’s Capitol riot probe is closing in on his inner circle, CNN reported.
They’re reportedly in talks with the DOJ about whether Trump can invoke executive privilege over some conversations.
They’ve also advised Trump not to communicate with former aides, but he’s ignored their warnings and concerns.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are worried that the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation into the deadly Capitol siege is closing in on his inner circle and that indictments may be on the horizon. But Trump has dismissed their concerns so far.
That’s according to CNN, which also reported that Trump’s defense lawyers are in talks with the department about whether Trump could assert executive privilege with respect to conversations he had with aides and advisors when he was president.
The DOJ is girding for a court battle with Trump over the issue of executive privilege, the report said, particularly since several former high-ranking White House officials — former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Cipollone’s deputy Pat Philbin, former Vice President Mike Pence’s ex -chief of staff Marc Short, and ex-chief counsel Greg Jacobs — were subpoenaed by grand juries investigating events related to the Capitol siege.
Cipollone previously invoked executive privilege when testifying before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack. But as Insider’s C. Ryan Barber reported, Cipollone and other White House officials could have a tougher time shielding information from the feds, given that the Justice Department falls within the executive branch.
The former president has been asking his lawyers if they think he will be criminally charged in connection to the Capitol riot probe, CNN said, but he’s also skeptical that he’ll be indicted. Instead, he’s been more concerned with the upcoming 2022 midterm elections and a possible 2024 presidential run.
Trump’s lawyers have also reportedly cautioned him against communicating with former aides and advisors ensnared in Congress’ January 6 investigation and who could become involved in the Justice Department’s criminal probe. They’ve expressed particular concern about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who they believe could be a crucial fact witness in the department’s investigation, CNN said.
Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger, dismissed that notion, calling it “idle and uninformed speculation.” A spokesperson for Trump also leveled accusations of “partisan, political persecution,” adding in a statement to CNN, “How can any future President ever have private conversations with his attorneys, counselors, and other senior advisors if any such advisor is forced, either during or after the Presidency, in front of an Unselect Committee or other entity, and be forced to reveal those privileged, confidential discussions?”
No one in Trump’s inner circle has been indicated directly in connection to the Capitol attack. But former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was convicted last month for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with lawmakers’ investigation into the riot. And former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro will also face a contempt trial in November for similarly refusing to cooperate.
Trump’s own actions leading up to and on the day of the siege came under renewed scrutiny after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aid to Meadows, testified to lawmakers in vivid detail about his efforts to stir up protestors on January 6. At a rally shortly before his supporters stormed Congress, Trump urged the frenzied crowd to “fight like hell” to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Hutchinson told lawmakers that on that day, she heard Trump order that metal detectors used to keep armed protestors away from the president being removed. She also testified that several top White House aides warned Trump that the crowd was dangerous and that he refused to calm his supporters down despite desperate pleas from his advisors of him, and at one point he wanted to join the mob laying siege to the Capitol.
When throngs of Trump supporters started chanting to “hang Mike Pence,” Hutchinson testified, Trump said the vice president served those calls.
“Why did she want to go with us if she felt we were so terrible?” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Hutchinson’s testimony last month. “I understand that she was very upset and angry that I did n’t want her to go, or be a member of the team. Ella She is bad news!”
A former aged care home will be used to transition NDIS patients who no longer need acute medical care out of hospital in a bid to free up capacity across South Australia’s overwhelmed health system.
Key points:
The state government is opening a new community care facility to help transition NDIS patients out of hospital
It’s hoped the facility will help free up hospital beds
341 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19
The state’s hospitals continue to face unprecedented pressure, with 341 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19, including 11 who are in intensive care.
There have also been 984 people hospitalized with the flu this year.
The new 24-bed community care facility will open next week at the former site of Uniting SA’s Regency Green aged care home.
Health Minister Chris Picton said the new facility would provide transitional care to NDIS patients with a psychosocial disability while they received mental health support.
“It’s going to give a much more peaceful and calming environment for them, the appropriate care that’s going to be provided by CLO (Community Living Options) but also making sure we are freeing up those beds,” he said.
SA’s Human Services Minister Nat Cook says some NDIS patients have been waiting in hospital for over a year. (abcnews)
There are currently 127 patients in public hospital beds who are eligible for NDIS support services and ready to be discharged.
“These are people who it has been difficult to find elsewhere because they do need appropriate supports,” Mr Picton said.
“These are people who have NDIS clearance, are medically cleared to be discharged from hospital but there simply aren’t places for them to go.”
The facility will cost $1.2 million to open and will initially only take patients from Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN).
It will be run by CLO in partnership with Wellbeing SA, Uniting SA, CALHN and the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist.
Human Services Minister Nat Cook said for some NDIS patients, hospital could worsen conditions and escalate behaviours.
“These people, some of them have remained in hospital not just for weeks and months but for over a year,” she said.
“They have been stuck in other step-down facilities as well without pathways or coordinated journeys for discharge to home.”
COVID acute commander Lesley Dwyer says 230 patients have been moved out of hospital and into aged care facilities. (abcnews)
Acute System Response COVID Commander Lesley Dwyer said in the last few weeks, 57 NDIS patients had been discharged into more appropriate accommodation.
“Accommodation that is much more home-like gives people a chance to really experience independence that they probably haven’t had while they have been in the acute system,” she said.
“In addition to that, we have also discharged 230 people into aged care beds.”
The latest data from the SA Ambulance Service shows ambulances spent 3,647 hours ramped outside hospitals during July.
The previous month, SA recorded its worst ramping times on record with 3,838 hours lost waiting for beds to become available.
The state recorded 2,421 new cases of COVID-19 today and eight deaths of patients ranging in age from their 60s to 90s.
There are currently 17,647 active cases in the state.
