Headlines for Thursday, May 11, 2023
đ˝There is no greater power than a community discovering the truth and working together to make sure an injustice is not repeated
đ˝A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
đ˝There is no greater power than a community discovering the truth and working together to make sure an injustice is not repeated
NEWS HEADLINES FOR MAY 11, 2023
POLITICO:Â Senate tax chief says billionaire Crow âstonewallingâ over perks for Clarence Thomas: Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden on Tuesday accused billionaire Harlan Crow of âstonewallingâ for refusing to comply with a request for a complete accounting of Crowâs gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. âThe bottom line is that nobody can expect to get away with waving off Finance Committee oversight, no matter how wealthy or well-connected they may be,â Wyden said in a statement. âI will send a full response to Mr. Crowâs attorney in the coming days. Ryan Carey, a spokesperson for Wyden (D-Ore.), said the Senate tax chief received an âobstructive letterâ from a lawyer for Crow late Monday night declining to answer a series of questions about the billionaireâs financial arrangements with Thomas that Wyden posed to Crow in an April 24 letter. Wyden had asked for details on the gifts Crow lavished on Thomas for over two decades, as reported by ProPublica, that included trips aboard the billionaireâs superyacht to Indonesia, New Zealand and Greece and free use of his private jet.
The Hill:Â Disney CEO asks if Florida officials want it to invest more in state or not:Â Disney CEO Bob Iger accused Florida officials of putting forward a âfalse narrativeâ amid the ongoing feud between the company and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), questioning whether they would like Disney to invest more in the state or not. âWe operate responsibly. We pay our fair share of taxes. We employ thousands of people, and by the way, we pay them above the minimum wage â substantially above the minimum wage dictated by the state of Florida. We also provide them with great benefits and free education,â Iger said during the companyâs quarterly investor call. âIâm going to finish what is obviously kind of a long answer by asking one question: Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes or not?â he rhetorically asked. Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a year-long battle after Disney publicly opposed the stateâs so-called âDonât Say Gayâ law, which bans the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation for early grades. Shortly after, DeSantis stripped Disney of its special status that the company had since the 1960s, which gave it self-governing power over the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
POLITICO:Â Ron DeSantis canât quit Covid: America is moving on from Covid-19. Ron DeSantis canât stop talking about it. With the Covid-triggered national health emergency set to expire Thursday, DeSantis has been crisscrossing the country touting his handling of the virus. DeSantis criticized âlockdown politiciansâ during a visit to California and called Florida a ârefuge of sanityâ amid pandemic closures when he was in South Carolina last month. At Liberty University in Virginia two weeks ago, the governor said he bucked the political and medical establishment to keep Florida open. Now the governor will find out if he can sustain that strategy as he prepares to campaign more than three years after the pandemic began. Covid gives DeSantis an opening to attack former President Donald Trump, whose administration was responsible for the federal governmentâs early response. DeSantis chided Trump â without saying his name â during a Utah GOP meeting in April, saying that real leaders âdonât subcontract out their leadership to health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci.â
New York Times:Â CNN Chairman Defends Decision to Host Trump Town Hall: The chairman of CNN, Chris Licht, issued a robust defense on Thursday of his decision to broadcast a live town hall with former President Donald J. Trump, an unruly and bracing event that has prompted criticism inside and outside of the network. On a network-wide editorial call, Mr. Licht congratulated the moderator, Kaitlan Collins, on âa masterful performanceâ before acknowledging the public backlash. âWe all know covering Donald Trump is messy and tricky, and it will continue to be messy and tricky,â he said. âBut itâs our job.â âI absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,â Mr. Licht added. âPeople woke up and they know what the stakes are in this election in a way that they didnât the day before. And if someone was going to ask tough questions and have that messy conversation, it damn well should be on CNN.â
Washington Post:Â GOP senator says of white nationalists in the military, âI call them Americansâ: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said people identified as âwhite extremistsâ and âwhite nationalistsâ should be allowed to serve in the U.S. armed forces. âWe are losing in the military, so fast, our readiness in terms of recruitment,â Tuberville told radio station WBHM in an interview published online Monday. âI can tell you why. Because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalistsâ and others who do not believe in President Bidenâs âagenda.â In response, the reporter asked Tuberville, âDo you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?â Tuberville said, âWell, they call them that. I call them Americans.â
Ohio Capital Journal:Â Ohio lawmakers send 60% supermajority amendment to the ballot: Wednesday Ohio House lawmakers voted 62-37 to advance a resolution asking voters to raise the passage threshold for constitutional amendments. The vote caps off nearly six months of legislative wrangling largely meant to hobble an abortion rights amendment. Lawmakers are entering questionable legal territory, however, as they set the vote in August through the resolution itself. Legislation approved last December places strict limits on such special elections, and a measure aimed at loosening those restrictions faltered in the House. Supporters contend thereâs legal precedent for setting an election through a resolution, without taking any other action. Some legal experts dismiss that argument out of hand. Organizers opposing the supermajority amendment say theyâre weighing their legal options.
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri legislature passes restrictions on transgender health care and sports participation: Missouri lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to restrictions on transgender minors receiving gender-affirming care and participating on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. Members of the House voted 108-50 Wednesday to pass the legislation restricting gender-affirming health care and 109-49 to pass restricting sports participation. Three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the restrictions on gender-affirming health care. On school sports participation, two Republicans voted against the bill, while one Democrat voted present. The chamber spent less than an hour discussing both bills, with Republicans voting to end debate twice. The bills, which now go to Gov. Mike Parson, who is expected to sign them, are less restrictive than those in other Republican-leaning states but still provoked harsh criticism from Democrats who said theyâre political ploys at the expense of a vulnerable part of Missouriâs LGBTQ community.
NPR:Â Virginia hid execution files from the public. Here's what they don't want you to see: In January, NPR aired excerpts from four tapes recorded behind the scenes during Virginia executions. It was only the second time in history that audio from inside an execution chamber had ever been published. The records revealed details about the last seconds of prisoners' lives and indicated the Virginia Department of Corrections may have tried to cover up one of the state's recent botched executions. A former employee donated the four tapes and hundreds of other execution documents to the Library of Virginia more than a decade ago. But shortly after NPR aired the audio, something unusual happened. A representative from the Department of Corrections requested that the library give the records back. Within a week, the library complied. The collection is once again behind prison walls. The tapes can still be heard in full on NPR's website and two of six boxes of materials can be seen at the prison if a request under the pubic records act is made. But in order for more of the execution history to remain accessible, NPR is now exclusively publishing a selection of the documents that journalists managed to photograph at the library before they became restricted. The records, which detail responsibilities of staff, include candid photos taken of the prisoners before their deaths and even show the keys to Virginia's electric chair, illustrate how executions were conducted in the state that carried out more than any other.
CNN:Â Supreme Court sides with transgender woman from Guatemala in asylum dispute: The Supreme Court cleared the way for a transgender woman from Guatemala to appeal her deportation from the United States in federal court. The woman argues that she should not have been deported back to her home country because she will face sexual discrimination and assault. She lost her appeal before an immigration court. The majority opinion by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will make it easier for non-citizens to challenge their removal orders in federal court even if they did not fully challenge their removal before immigration authorities.
NBC News:Â Supreme Court throws out convictions in sweeping New York corruption probe: Â The Supreme Court delivered a double blow to federal prosecutors Thursday by throwing out the corruption convictions in two cases, including one concerning an ex-aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who was convicted of taking a bribe from a real estate developer. The court in a 9-0 vote threw out Joseph Percoco's conviction for accepting the $35,000 payment when managing Cuomoâs re-election campaign in 2014. In doing so, the justices narrowed the scope of a federal anticorruption law. The court ruled that Percocoâs conduct was not covered by the federal law that requires that âhonest servicesâ be provided to the public. He was not working for the government at the time, so he had no duty to provide honest services, the court said. In a separate ruling in a related case, the court threw out a Buffalo real estate developerâs wire fraud conviction in another blow to federal prosecutors.
Washington Post:Â 18- to 20-year-olds canât be barred from buying handguns, judge rules: A federal judge in Virginia on Wednesday declared unconstitutional a set of federal laws and regulations that prohibit federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to 18- to 20-year olds, finding the measures violated the Second Amendment. âBecause the statutes and regulations in question are not consistent with our Nationâs history and tradition, they, therefore, cannot stand,â U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne, who sits in Richmond, concluded in a 71-page opinion. Attorneys on both sides of the case said they expected the Justice Department to appeal the decision and request a stay, which would prevent Payneâs ruling from taking immediate effect while higher courts weigh the case.
New York Times:Â E. Jean Carroll May Sue Trump a Third Time After âVileâ Comments on CNN: E. Jean Carroll is weighing whether to file a new defamation lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump in the wake of his diatribe against her during a CNN town hall Wednesday night, when he said her claim of a decades-old sexual assault was âfakeâ and a âmade-up story,â her lawyer said on Thursday. Mr. Trumpâs comments on CNN came one day after a federal jury in Manhattan awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and liable for defaming her last year when he described her claim of assault as a âcomplete con job,â a âHoax and a lieâ in a social media post. Ms. Carroll said on Thursday morning that she had been asleep as Mr. Trump talked about her on the town hall program. She said that her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, had sent her the transcript of his comments, and that she had read only the first paragraph.
Associated Press:Â Expel George Santos? GOP leaders arenât ready to take that step: Protecting a narrow, four-vote majority, Republican leaders in the House are making clear that they intend to let the legal process play out with New York Rep. George Santos before they take steps to force his resignation or expel him. The freshman congressman was accused Wednesday by federal prosecutors of embezzling money from his campaign, falsely receiving unemployment funds and lying to Congress about his finances and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Santos pleaded not guilty. Republican leaders, who for months have faced mounting questions about Santos after most of his campaign biography was exposed as a lie, were unmoved and brushed aside calls â including from some colleagues â that they take immediate action to push Santos out of Congress. âIn America, thereâs a presumption of innocence. But theyâre serious charges. Heâs going to have to go through the legal process,â said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
The Hill:Â Biden trolls Trump over CNN town hall: President Biden trolled former President Trump on Wednesday over a contentious appearance at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, with Biden asking for supporters to donate to his reelection campaign if they donât want âfour more years of that.â âItâs simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? If you donât, pitch in to our campaign,â Biden tweeted. Bidenâs tweet came after more than an hour of sometimes-intense exchanges between Trump and CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins over a range of topics, including his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election.Â
Semafor:Â RFK Jr.: Ron DeSantis invited me to breakfast, said he wanted to burn the NIH "to the ground": Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that he wanted to âburnâ the National Institutes of Health âto the ground,â according to a new interview with the Democratic presidential candidate. In a May 9 conversation with actor Russell Brand, Kennedy said that DeSantis invited him to breakfast during the COVID pandemic, to discuss what Kennedy described as his âscience-based responseâ to the crisis. Kennedy, who did not respond to a request for comment by press time, did not say when the meeting was. A spokesman for DeSantis declined to comment. In February, the Florida governor told Fox News host Mark Levin that he âwould have respectedâ the NIH and Centers for Disease Control before the pandemic, but became convinced that they were interested in control, not health.
New York Times:Â George Santos: An Accused Con Man Who Happened to Trade in Politics: By all appearances, the summer of 2020 was a very good time for George Santos. He was pulling in a six-figure salary from a Florida-based investment firm, and he had won the Republican Partyâs support as a first-time candidate contesting a Long Island House seat. Yet that June, Mr. Santos presented the State of New York with a very different story. According to federal prosecutors, he falsely claimed that he was unemployed in order to twist open a spigot of pandemic-era jobless benefits that eventually amounted to $24,000. In prosecutorsâ telling, George Santos, defendant, is just another grifter with a taste for fame and designer goods, willing to lie and defraud wealthy people to get what he wants. That the stage happens to be politics seems incidental: As a two-time congressional candidate, he took advantage of donors, state officials and even the House of Representatives.
The Hill:Â Progressive committee calls for Supreme Court subpoenas after Feinsteinâs return: A leading progressive group is calling on Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to issue subpoenas in investigations into Supreme Court corruption after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) returned to the Senate on Wednesday. Durbin has said that âeverything is on the tableâ when it comes to ethics reforms for the Supreme Court, following a string of reports about Justice Clarence Thomas and his relationship with billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. The reports, including allegations of unreported expensive trips and real estate deals, have put pressure on lawmakers to act. But Durbinâs Judiciary Committee has been short one Democrat while Feinstein has been recovering from a shingles diagnosis in California, complicating any vote for a subpoena. After she returned to Washington this week, and the Senate on Wednesday, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is calling on Durbin to take action.
Washington Post:Â The wider House Oversightâs net, the more often it catches Trump: The argument was put most concisely by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), as members of the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee sought to deliver the âjudgment day for the Biden administrationâ that committee chair James Comer (Ky.) had promised Fox News viewers. âThe familyâs getting money from various countries and foreign businesses through various shell companies and this web of LLCs?â So far, though, thereâs been no link drawn between those efforts and the president himself, despite a preponderance of material that Republicans have combed through and despite spending months combing through it. That they have found evidence of payments flowing from foreign nationals to Hunter Biden-linked LLCs and then (allegedly) to a number of members of Bidenâs extended family is used by the Republicans as rhetorical evidence that Joe Biden must somehow be involved. But the opposite argument seems more valid: After all this searching, no concrete link showing money going to the president has turned up. This seems exculpatory more than incriminating. Then, of course, thereâs the question of Trump and his family. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington estimates that Trumpâs various business interests pulled in as much as $160 million when he was president, cash mostly flowing in through overseas properties. But there was also foreign money coming in domestically, as when Saudi interests repeatedly booked large blocks of rooms at his hotels. The House Oversight Committee itself found that foreign interests spent $750,000 at Trumpâs D.C. hotel during his presidency â a report produced when Democrats still held the majority.
Axios:Â Former Biden admin disinformation chief sues Fox News for defamation: Fox News is facing a defamation lawsuit from former Biden administration disinformation chief Nina Jankowicz, who accuses the network of telling "destructive" lies that harmed her career and threatened her safety. Jankowicz alleges in the suit that she resigned from the since-dissolved DHS unit, the Disinformation Governance Board, last year "due to harassment arising from Fox's defamation." Jankowicz also alleges in the suit that the board's "work was paused as a result of Foxâs false statements and the ensuing harassment" and that this continued after her resignation. "Over the course of eight months in 2022, Fox talked about Jankowicz more than 300 times," states the complaint, filed in Delaware on Wednesday. The suit also references the lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which Fox settled in a Delaware court for over $787 million last month.
TIME: Inside Trump's Strategy to Turn Legal Woes Into a Political Advantage: Donald Trump is at once in an unprecedented and familiar position. On Tuesday, a federal jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll. Such a conviction is a first for a former president, let alone the presidential frontrunner of one of the major political parties. For virtually anyone else, it would mark a fatal blow to their White House ambitions. But within the cloisters and balustrade of Mar-a-Lago, Trumpâs inner circle is preparing for the news to come and go like every other Trump scandal, sources familiar with the matter tell TIME, as the campaign plots to turn his mounting legal woes into an advantage ahead of the Republican primary. And yet the Carroll verdictâfor which Trump was ordered to pay $5 million in damagesâdoes not exist in a vacuum. It comes after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump last month for allegedly falsifying business records connected to hush-money payments. And it may be a prelude to more charges. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appears poised to prosecute Trump for his efforts to overturn Joe Bidenâs 2020 election win there. Meanwhile, Special Counsel Jack Smith is also investigating the former presidentâs handling of classified documents and role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Associated Press:Â Rape, incest exceptions to Louisiana abortion ban rejected by GOP lawmakers: Republican lawmakers in Louisiana rejected legislation Wednesday that would add exceptions in cases of rape and incest to one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. This legislative session, there is a package of bills aimed at loosening Louisianaâs near-total abortion ban by adding exceptions, clarifying âvague languageâ and decreasing the punishment for doctors convicted of performing illegal abortions. However, much of the proposed legislation died in a GOP-controlled committee Wednesday or was voluntarily deferred by the billsâ authors. âI simply do not understand how we as a state can tell any victim that she must be forced by law to carry her rapistâs baby to term, regardless of the impact on her own physical or mental health, the wishes of her parents, or the medical judgment of her physician,â said Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who supports abortion restrictions but believes there should be exceptions. âAs I have said before, rape and incest exceptions protect crime victims. We must do all that we can to protect them and sadly, the committee failed to do so today.â
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