Sydney School-style home sells under the hammer; Melbourne home sells for second time this year
The first COVID-19 mRNA manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere is now open in Victoria, Australia, backed by the state and federal Labor governments. The new mRNA manufacturing facility aims to produce up to 100 million vaccine doses per year for COVID-19, influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). However, their production is still subject to regulatory approval. Health Minister Mark Butler and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan opened what they described as a cutting-edge facility at Monash University’s Clayton campus. Moderna’s Australia operations will create 140 highly skilled direct jobs and up to 500 jobs during construction. The government says the new facility will “turbocharge” the growth of Australia’s sovereign mRNA manufacturing industry. “The opening of Moderna’s manufacturing facility in Victoria makes Australia one of very few countries in the world, and the only country in the Southern Hemisphere, with an end-to-end mRNA manufacturing capability.” Allan said she was proud her state was making vaccines that Australia and the world could rely on going forward. “This is exactly what economic growth looks like: more investment, more jobs and more opportunity for all,” she said. “There are now three world-leading centres of medical research—Boston, London, and Victoria.” The government said that subject to regulatory approval, the Moderna facility would produce its first mRNA vaccines in 2025. Butler described the facility as a major step forward to protect Australians against “future pandemics.” He said the facility would create highly skilled jobs, support local industry, and promote research collaboration. Meanwhile, acting Economic Growth Minister Danny Pearson added, “We’ll never have to fight to get our fair share of vaccines again because the Southern Hemisphere’s first end-to-end mRNA vaccine facility has opened in Victoria—setting a new benchmark in innovation and economic growth. “With an election around the corner, the government would rather put Australians’ health at risk, than lose the publicity from opening the new mRNA factory.” New South Wales Libertarian MP John Ruddick explained why he didn’t take the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and raised concerns about the state government continuing to push it. “It was rushed. It was coerced. It was an experimental new type of vac—mRNA,” he said on Dec. 4. “We are grateful to the Australian and Victorian governments who have been pivotal in bringing this to fruition,” he said. “I’m incredibly proud that Moderna has been able to deliver this landmark facility to produce vaccines in Australia for Australians, a significant investment into the country’s biosecurity by our company.” Meanwhile, Moderna Chief Legal Officer Shannon Klinger said the company was committed to enhancing public health infrastructure. “And this facility exemplifies how our technology can support public health resilience in Australia and beyond,” he said. “The MTC-M represents the first commercial-scale end-to-end mRNA manufacturing facility in the Southern Hemisphere. “We look forward to delivering innovative science and comprehensive public health solutions from our operations in this country, advancing healthcare for Australians and the region.”
Called a “dirty cop,” Roger Golubski was accused of abusing women, putting innocent men in prison, and terrorizing the Black community for decades.(Carlos Moreno/KCUR 89.3 This story was produced by KCUR 89.3 . Roger Golubski, the former Kansas City, Kansas, Police detective accused of misconduct, criminal behavior and “the grossest acts of corruption a police officer can commit,” has died of an apparent suicide. He was 71. Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HOME to 741741. It is free, available 24/7 and confidential. Police rushed to Golubski’s home in Edwardsville, where an electronic monitoring device showed he was located, after he failed to appear for the first day of his federal trial at 9 a.m. Monday in Topeka. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest and delayed the start of trial. According to a statement from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Edwardsville Police received a 911 call from a neighbor reporting a gunshot. “When officers arrived on scene, they located a deceased male on the back porch, who had sustained a fatal gunshot wound,” the statement read. The KBI added that there were “no indications of foul play.” Golubski had been confined on house arrest for the last two years. Under the conditions of his release, Golubski was prohibited from possessing a “firearm, destructive device or other weapon.” The KBI said it’s scheduled an autopsy and will continue to investigate. At 11 a.m., the judge convened with federal prosecutors. They confirmed Golubski had died and moved to dismiss the case, which the judge accepted . On Monday morning, Golubski’s lawyer, Chris Joseph, said the former detective was “despondent” about media coverage. Golubski is accused of using the power of his badge to violate the civil rights of two women by rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. He’s charged under a federal statute making it a crime for government officials , including law enforcement officers, to deprive a person of federally-protected civil rights. Golubski pleaded not guilty to the charges. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney Kate E. Brubacher, for the District of Kansas, issued a statement in response to the news: “This matter involved extremely serious charges, and it is always difficult when a case is unable to be fully and fairly heard in a public trial and weighed and determined by a jury. The proceedings in this case may be over, but its lasting impact on all the individuals and families involved remains. We wish them peace and the opportunity for healing as they come to terms with this development and ask that they all be treated with respect and their privacy respected.” Golubski is the central subject of KCUR’s Overlooked podcast , which investigated decades of corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department and the allegations against Golubski. On the white side of Kansas City, Kansas, Golubski was considered a legendary homicide detective who rose quickly through the ranks and closed cases. In the Black community, he was called the Grim Reaper, the devil, and a snake. Once the accusations against him arose during the 2017 trial exonerating Lamonte McIntyre of a double homicide, people called Golubski “a chameleon.” His victims have long feared Golubski would die before he went to trial on a host of federal charges. They were also furious that Golubski was released from prison and allowed to remain on house arrest while awaiting trial, even though the magistrate found the allegations “shocking.” In March, Golubski was even allowed to remain on home detention despite violating his pre-trial release conditions by going to a fast-food restaurant . “I am angry and hurt at the same time because none of us will be able to face our accuser,” said Niko Quinn, who says she was forced to give false testimony against McIntyre. Quinn also says her sister, Stacey Quinn, had been manipulated by Golubski beginning when she was only a teenager, part of a pattern by the detective . Niko Quinn said with Golubski’s death, so many secrets will be buried, and she and others in the community will never be able to know what happened to their loved ones. Federal prosecutors charged Golubski in September 2022 with violating the civil rights of two women — and possibly seven more — by raping and kidnapping them. One of his victims, identified only as S.K. in court documents, was just 13 when she says Golubski started abusing her. In November 2022, Golubski was charged in a separate federal case with protecting Cecil Brooks, a notorious drug dealer who was running a sex trafficking operation of underage girls. Along with Brooks and two other men, Golubski faced conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse and attempted aggravated sexual abuse, including the “involuntary servitude” of two teenagers who were held captive at an apartment complex. Golubski was accused of raping one of the girls, who was 16 at the time. Golubski pleaded not guilty to all charges and his attorney questioned the validity of the decades-old and uncorroborated allegations. From a large extended Kansas City, Kansas, family, Golubski first wanted to become a Catholic priest and went to seminary for high school. He changed his mind, graduating from the police academy in 1975 and finally retiring in 2010. The claims against Golubski first surfaced in 2016 during the exoneration case of Lamonte McIntyre , a then-16-year-old who said he was set up by Golubski to take the fall for a 1994 double homicide. McIntyre spent 23 years in prison and was released as an innocent man in 2017. McIntyre and his mother, Rose, won a $12.5 million settlement against the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, in June 2022. Although the new Wyandotte County District Attorney, Mark Dupree, was crucial in dropping the case against McIntyre in 2017, some of Golubski’s victims accused Dupree of later being slow to investigate cases brought by Golubski during his years as a homicide detective. Dupree established a Conviction Integrity Unit in 2018 , but the three attorneys who were hired to staff it were ultimately fired for racist remarks. In November 2022, KCKPD Chief Karl Oakman announced that he was launching a review of 155 of Golubski’s cases, and Dupree got $1.7 million from the Unified Government to digitize the old case files. When pressed, Oakman brushed aside concerns that KCKPD couldn’t be trusted to conduct an impartial review of Golubski’s cases, saying, “Who better to clean their own house?” But social justice activists scoffed at the internal review, calling it a “major red flag.” Activists have long demanded a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the entire department. As the case gained more attention, victims — mostly Black women — started to congregate at rallies, protests and prayer circles. In November 2023, a federal lawsuit filed by five Black women accused the UG of allowing “dirty cops” like Golubski to sexually exploit them, run a “police protection racket,” and subject the Black community to “regular acts of humiliation and exploitation.” One of the victims in the lawsuit recounted being violently assaulted by Golubski, and asking the detective why he was doing it. “Because I can,” Golubski reportedly said.
