Chinese Lab’s Purchase of US Land for Primate Breeding Facility Draws Scrutiny

A Chinese firm’s purchase of land in Florida to build a lab monkey breeding facility is drawing scrutiny over the company founders’ ties to the Chinese military.

JOINN Laboratories CA Inc., the California subsidiary of a biotech firm headquartered in Beijing, in July purchased more than 1,400 acres of land for building a primate facility in Florida’s Levy County, county records show.

With a combined value of $5.5 million, the 10 parcels of land purchased from L & T Cattle & Timber represents one of the largest known Chinese acquisitions of U.S. land in recent years. While construction has not begun, the deal has attracted public attention at a time of heightened concern about Chinese investments in the United States over security and other risks.

The purchaser’s parent company JOINN Laboratories describes itself as a leader in non-clinical drug screening in China. According to its website, the company was founded in 1995 and employs over 1,500 staff. It has wholly-owned subsidiaries in major Chinese and U.S. cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Boston.

Zhou Zhiwen and Feng Yuxia, the couple who founded and control JOINN Laboratories, both graduated from China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, in 1989 and 1992 respectively. The school is the Chinese military’s top medical institute, which was added to a U.S. trade blacklist last year for supplying biotechnology to the Chinese military.

After graduating, both Zhou and Feng went on to work as researchers at the academy before establishing their business venture, according to Chinese media reports. Zuo Conglin, a board member of JOINN Laboratories, also graduated from the same academy.

These links with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should raise red flags, according to Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.).

“The idea that we would permit a … biotech firm with ties to the Chinese military to breed lab monkeys on U.S. soil is baffling, especially after China unleashed the Covid-19 pandemic on...

Morning Mistress

 

The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #1180

Before You Click On The "Read More" Link, 

Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.

If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.  

Please Leave Silently Into The Night......

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #1880

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside? 

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific, 

from the beautiful to the repugnant, 

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed, 

you could be inspired, you could be appalled. 

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. 

You have been warned.

Hot Pick Of The Late Night

 

Girls With Guns

Visage à trois #546

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #729

 

The DOJ Is Hiding Information About Biden’s Attempts To Interfere In U.S. Elections

The DOJ is hiding records about Biden’s order telling federal agencies to develop plans to interfere in state election administration.

he Department of Justice (DOJ) is slow-walking its response to a federal court order mandating that the agency forfeit records pertaining to President Joe Biden’s March 2021 executive order that directed federal agencies to develop plans for federal interference in state election administration.

On Thursday evening, the agency filed a motion for summary judgment with the Fort Myers Division of the U.S. Middle District Court of Florida in an attempt to conceal communication records related to Executive Order 14019, which required all federal departments to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.” In law, “summary judgment” is a decision issued by a court based on statements and evidence for one party against another without going to a full trial.

The move to shield the records in question from the public comes after a federal judge mandated in July that the agency must turn over documents related to Biden’s order to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), which sued the DOJ back in April after its officials failed to respond to FGA’s July 2021 open records requests. While the DOJ ultimately turned over a few of the records to FGA last month, the documents were heavily redacted and did not include the DOJ’s 15-page “strategic plan” on how the agency intends to comply with Biden’s executive order.

In their Thursday legal filing arguing for a summary judgment, the DOJ claimed that its Civil Rights Division (CRT) “has submitted a reasonably specific declaration” describing the search that CRT “conducted for records responsive to FGA’s [Freedom of Information Act] request” and that documents withheld or redacted by the DOJ are protected under the “presidential communications privilege.”

“The presidential communications privilege applies to the Strategic Plan because it was ‘solicited and received by the President[’s] . . . immediate White House advisers with broad and significant responsibility for investigating and formulating the advice to be given the President’ regarding voting rights issues,” the DOJ filing reads. “The Strategic Plan therefore falls squarely within the scope of the presidential communications privilege.”

Most notable in the agency’s arguments, however, is the contention that the release of the information requested by FGA would cause “public confusion” and that “such public confusion would result from disclosure of the Strategic Plan because it contains many proposed actions that the public might construe as ‘future commitments, past actions, or provisions already in place.'”

“DOJ therefore properly withheld the Strategic Plan in its entirety,” the agency claimed.

In response to the DOJ’s continued coverup, FGA President and CEO Tarren Bragdon issued a statement blasting the agency’s behavior, saying that it’s “clear” that Biden’s administration “has weaponized DOJ to hide records and is using the legal process to run out the clock before the midterm elections.”

“DOJ offered flimsy excuses to justify concealing key information regarding their participation in government-funded ‘get out the vote’ efforts,” Bragdon said. “FGA will not stop fighting to uncover these records and expose the full scope of the Biden administration’s mass voter registration scheme. The law and the American people are...

Canada bans new handgun sales in strictest gun control regulation in 40 years

The move will prevent Canadians buying, selling or transferring handguns in the country and bringing them in from abroad.

Canada has banned new handgun sales in the country's strongest gun control regulation for 40 years.

The new measures, which took effect on Friday, stop people from buying, selling or transferring handguns within Canada, and prevents them from bringing newly bought handguns into the country.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the move builds on earlier efforts to ban handgun imports.

Mr Trudeau announced a handgun freeze in May as part of his plan to tackle gun violence, his office said.

"We have frozen the market for handguns in this country," Mr Trudeau said at a news conference in Surrey, British Columbia, attended by family members of gun violence victims and other advocates.

"As we see gun violence continue to rise... we have an obligation to take action.

"Today our national handgun freeze is coming into force."

Mr Trudeau's public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, called the move the "most significant action on gun violence in a generation".

He added: "We made a commitment to Canadians that we would act - and we are. The national freeze will tackle the alarming role of handguns in crime, gender-based violence, and more.

"We are using all tools at our disposal to fight gun violence and will not rest until all Canadians feel safe in their communities."

Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms with a licence.

Under the new rules people can still own and use their registered handguns and sell or transfer them to "exempted individuals and businesses".

Authorised businesses, such as museums, the movie industry, law enforcement, defence personnel, and other exempted individuals can continue to import and sell handguns to exempted parties.

These exempted individuals include anyone who is already authorised to carry a handgun and people who train, compete or coach in a handgun shooting discipline sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee or the International Paralympic Committee.

Any handgun applications submitted before Friday will still be processed, the prime minister's office said.

Canada's gun homicide rate is tiny in comparison to that of the United States, but 2020 data showed it is higher than other wealthy countries and has been rising.

Handguns were the most common weapon used in firearm-related violent crimes between 2009 and 2020.

The handgun freeze is part of a broader firearms-control package including the Trudeau government's Bill C-21 which is currently before the...

Visage à trois #545

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #728