Digital Alaska News

Remembering The Life Of Helen Winslow 1938 – 2022 https://digitalalaskanews.com/remembering-the-life-of-helen-winslow-1938-2022-2/ Newburyport – Known to many as “Fitzie”, Helen was born January 16, 1938, to Mary and Christopher Fitzpatrick. “Fitzie” passed away peacefully at Avita of Newburyport, MA on September 18, 2022. It was an honor for her four grateful daughters to be with her as she began her new journey. “Fitzie” was one of five siblings. She grew up in Franklin, Massachusetts where she attended Dean Jr. College. She then ventured into Boston where she was an accountant and lived on Tremont Street. She was always up for an adventure whether it be out to the Berkshires, down to The Cape or heading up to the White Mountains. It was on one of these adventures north, on the Boston & Maine Train, to enjoy some skiing that she met her best friend and soulmate, Hap Winslow. They met “Après~Ski” at Tuckerman’s Inn in North Conway, N.H. The two would enjoy skiing and the “Après” tradition for over fifty years, eventually passing it onto their family. Together “Fitzie” and Hap, Mum and Dad, accrued many beloved traditions and memories raising their family. They enjoyed countless fun moments with their children, son-in-laws, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and friends.”Fitzie” felt most comfortable observing from the back and sharing her quick wit, one-liners and puns that prompted many laughs. She held a special passion for running, tennis and reading. Her humble joy for these hobbies was passed onto a wealth of people. Whether it be “The Wednesday Girls” with whom she played tennis, “The Running Buddies” she ran countless road races with, or the friends and family who enjoyed Coffee/ Tea Time with her at “58”; we all cherished our time with her. She had a magical smile and kindness that made those around her feel connected. Later in life, “Fitzie” worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Seaview Retreat in Rowley. Here, she exemplified her gifts for service and compassion to others. Her down to earth personality created a sense of family for residents, staff, and loved ones. Her appreciation for each individual, created an abundance of friendships that spanned generations. Helen/”Fitzie” is survived by her four daughters and spouses: Kathleen Winslow and Erik Prussman of Rowley MA; AnnMarie and Nate Keliher of South Hampton, NH; Marty and John Blanchard of Rowley, MA; Elizabeth and Mark Smith of Skagway AK; daughter-in-law, Kate Collins-Winslow of Merrimac, MA; and grandchildren: Kyla Prussman, Jaden, Camden, and Griffin Keliher, Athena and Addison Smith, Joseph and Julia Winslow, sister-in-law, June Fitzpatrick, and brother-in-law Ted Hoegler. She will be remembered and missed by many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband, Hap/Ralph Winslow, son David Winslow; sisters, Arlene Hoegler, Anne Balog; brothers; Bernard and Jimmy Fitzpatrick. The family wishes to express extreme gratitude to Avita Staff of Newburyport for treating our Mum like family. Words cannot express the comfort and peace their daily care and love brought. Thank you also to Compassus Hospice and Palliative Care in her final days. Their guidance during this time was a gift. We are blessed by the out-pouring of support and love for our mother and family during this time. It has served as a reminder for the constant love and support she provided to others throughout her life. Published on September 22, 2022 Send Flowers: When Is the Ordering Deadline? Next-Day Delivery ANY DAY OF THE WEEK Order any time up till the day before Same-Day Delivery MON-FRI Order by 2:00PM SAT & SUN Order by noon Morning Delivery TUES-SAT Order by 3:00PM The day before SAT & SUN Order by Saturday Note: These are general guidelines; some florists may not be able to operate within these timelines. During peak periods such as Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day and most holidays, florists are not always able to keep up to demand. Tribute will contact you if there are any issues. Read More Here

Russia Frees 215 Ukrainians Held After Mariupol Battle, Ukraine Says https://digitalalaskanews.com/russia-frees-215-ukrainians-held-after-mariupol-battle-ukraine-says/ Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Sept 21 (Reuters) – Russia has released 215 Ukrainians it took prisoner after a protracted battle for the port city of Mariupol earlier this year, including top military leaders, a senior official in Kyiv said on Wednesday. The freed prisoners include the commander and deputy commander of the Azov battalion that did much of the fighting, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office. The move is unexpected, since Russian-backed separatists last month said there would be a trial of Azov personnel, who Moscow describes as Nazis. Ukraine denies the charge. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com In a statement, Yermak said the freed prisoners included Azov commander Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar. Also at liberty is Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Commanders of defender of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol Denys Prokopenko, Serhii Volynskyi, Sviatoslav Palamar, Denys Shleha, Oleh Homenko together with Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi and Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link after prisoners of war (POWs) swapping, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in location given as Turkey, in this handout picture released September 22, 2022. Press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS The three men had helped lead a dogged weeks-long resistance from the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol’s giant steel works before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces. Yermak said that in return, Kyiv had freed 55 Russian prisoners as well as Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a banned pro-Russian party who was facing treason charges. Public broadcaster Suspline said the exchange had happened near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia said Russia had released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. read more Last month, the head of the Russian-backed separatist administration in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk said a trial of captured Azov personnel would take place by the end of the summer. read more The Azov unit, formed in 2014 as a militia to fight Russian-backed separatists, denies being fascist, and Ukraine says it has been reformed from its radical nationalist origins. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by David Ljunggren Editing by Alistair Bell and Rosalba O’Brien Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. David Ljunggren Thomson Reuters Covers Canadian political, economic and general news as well as breaking news across North America, previously based in London and Moscow and a winner of Reuters’ Treasury scoop of the year. Read More Here

Trump Charged With Fraud In New York Attorney General's Trial https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-charged-with-fraud-in-new-york-attorney-generals-trial/ Trump Charged With Fraud in New York Attorney General’s Trial: For intentionally misrepresenting his net worth by billions to benefit himself and obtain advantageous loans, Donald Trump and three of his children who work in the family real estate business have been named in a civil fraud case by the attorney general of the state of New York. Letitia James announced the lawsuit in New York on Wednesday. She added that referrals had been made to the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors, which is guaranteed to infuriate the former US president and raise concerns within his closest circle about the severity of his legal situation. The New York probe, which started while Trump was president and lasted three years, resulted in the deposition of Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump. The lawsuit demands a five-year ban on the Trump Organization’s ability to purchase any commercial real estate or take out loans from New York-based companies and a ban on all four Trumps working as executives in the city. Do you want to know more about Donald Trump? The election of Donald Trump as president has made him the most polarising person in the world. He has a lot of money and stuff, but nobody thinks he’s an intelligent guy because of the crazy things he says. But Donald Trump is a genius, with an IQ of 156. Click here to learn more… In a civil lawsuit filed on Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused former President Donald Trump of enormous fraud. This came after a three-year investigation into the finances of the family business. Click here to read more… Now let’s know in detail. James added: “The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us. He did this with the help of the other defendants.” James stated that her office had reported the situation to the southern district of New York and the IRS after finding evidence of federal criminal crimes, such as making false representations to financial institutions and bank fraud. The lawsuit states: “The number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering, affecting most if not all of the real estate holdings in any given year.” The lawsuit also aims to recoup at least $250 million and prevent the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. Trump Charged With Fraud in New York Attorney General’s Trial Allen Weisselberg, and the comptroller, Jeffrey McConney, from holding senior positions with any New York-based business. Weisselberg, 75, has admitted to tax fraud in a separate criminal case in New York. James said that Trump and Weisselberg refused to respond to questions during depositions by claiming Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. He continued, “For too long, powerful, affluent individuals in this society have functioned as if the rules do not apply to them.” “Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples. Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal but today that conduct ends.” James’s referral to federal prosecutors in the southern district of New York poses a severe legal risk for the former president and his three adult children even though the New York lawsuit is not a criminal case. Trump has indicated time and time again that he will seek the presidency in 2024. But he is threatened legally with various inquiries into his attempts to rig the 2020 election and a possible indictment for keeping secret documents. As is his habit when under examination, the former president and his counsel have denounced the New York inquiry as a politically motivated “witch-hunt” and asserted that the Trump Organization did not engage in criminal activity. However, James detailed a long list of alleged crimes in the 214-page complaint, including fraudulently raising 23 properties’ values, including the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump Tower in New York City, and the building that once housed the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. Between 2011 and 2021, the defendants allegedly made more than 200 fraudulent and deceptive asset assessments in financial documents, according to James. He also detailed the fraud-related tactics she claimed Trump and his firm used. Mar-a- Lago, the suit says, was valued as high as $739m when it should have been closer to $75m. Additionally, James said that Trump “got a series of bank-ordered evaluations for the commercial property at 40 Wall Street in New York City that put the worth of the property at $200m as of August 2010 and $220m as of November 2012.” “However, Mr. Trump identified 40 Wall Street in his 2011 statement with a value of $524 million, which grew to $530 million over the following two years, more than double the value determined by the specialists. “Even more egregious, the $500m-plus valuation was attributed to information from the appraiser who valued the building at just over $200m.” “Mr. Trump indicated that his apartment encompassed more than 30,000 sq ft, which was the basis for valuing the flat,” James said about Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Mr. Trump knew the apartment’s act was less than 11,000 square feet. “Based on that inflated square footage, the value of the apartment in 2015 and 2016 was $327m. To this date, no apartment in New York City has sold for close to that amount. Tripling the apartment’s size for the valuation was intentional fraud. Not an honest mistake.” Trump has frequently charged James as having political motivations. According to Bloomberg News, “members of Trump’s inner circle” believed that James, a Democrat up for re-election in November, could use the action to gather money before he made his declaration. NBC News | BREAKING: New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued former president Trump, Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric Trump for years of allege fraud. She seems to permanently bar Trump from ever conducting business in New York again and seeks $250 Million in penalties. — Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) September 21, 2022 Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, charged James with abusing her position by “peeping into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place” and claimed the lawsuit “is neither focused on the facts nor the law, rather it is solely focused on advancing the attorney general’s political agenda.” The lawsuit’s allegations, according to Habba, are “meritless.” On Wednesday morning, James said, “I want to be precise. Financial white-collar crime does not have any victims.” She said, further referring to Trump’s most well-known ghostwritten book, “Claiming you have money that you do not have does not equate to the art of the deal. The art of stealing is involved.” Read More Here

Appellate Court Grants Justice Department Access To Seized Classified Files In Blow To Trump, Trial Judge https://digitalalaskanews.com/appellate-court-grants-justice-department-access-to-seized-classified-files-in-blow-to-trump-trial-judge/ A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday in its fight with former President Donald Trump over access to about 100 classified documents the FBI took from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in a court-approved Aug. 8 search. The appellate court, overruling U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, decided that the Justice Department can use those documents in its criminal investigation of Trump’s document handling, and shield them from Trump’s lawyers and the special counsel Cannon appointed to review the larger poll of 11,000 seized documents. Trump’s legal team did not immediately say if they will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Typically, plaintiffs can ask an entire circuit court to re-hear an appeal en banc, but the 11th Circuit appears not to allow that. The three-judge panel, which includes two Trump appointees, handed down “a start repudiation” of Trump’s legal arguments, The Associated Press reports, and “was unsparing toward Cannon,” Politico adds. The appellate ruling has “a matter-of-fact tone to it,” but reading it is “like waking from a nightmare” after Cannon’s “truly heart-stoppingly bad set of opinions,” former federal prosecutor Harry Litman told MSNBC. For Trump, “this is the worst day he’s ever had, legally.” The appellate court shot down Cannon’s various justifications for blocking the Justice Department from using the classified documents — including that Trump, as a former president, was entitled to special treatment; and that the government was wrong about the national security threat from her ruling. “It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,'” the judges wrote, and ascertaining that “necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.” The lower court “abused its discretion in exercising jurisdiction” over the classified documents, the panel added. The ruling amounts to a rare judicial “benchslap,” “litigation disaster tour guide” Akiva Cohen assessed. The Justice Department can appeal the rest of Cannon’s ruling, but this decision means “everything that happens in front of Cannon from here on out is irrelevant,” because the DOJ can use the documents in the meantime and “nobody really cares about the special master’s review of anything but the classified documents.” You may also like Trump lawyers acknowledge criminal peril from classified documents in 1st filing with special master Republicans are threatening to tank Manchin’s pro-oil bill over ‘bad blood’ from climate deal Princess Charlotte wears horseshoe brooch that the queen gave her at funeral Read More Here

What Trump's Document Grab Tells Us About The Privatization Of Secrecy https://digitalalaskanews.com/what-trumps-document-grab-tells-us-about-the-privatization-of-secrecy/ Thanks to Donald Trump, secrecy is big news these days.  However, as political pundits and legal experts race to expose the layers of document-related misdeeds previously buried at his Mar-a-Lago estate, one overlooked reality looms large: despite all the coverage of the thousands of documents Trump took with him when he left the White House, there’s been next to no acknowledgment that such a refusal to share information has been part and parcel of the Washington scene for far longer than the current moment. The hiding of information by the former president, repeatedly described as “unprecedented” behavior, is actually part of a continuum of withholding that’s been growing at a striking pace for decades. By the time Donald Trump entered the Oval Office, the stage had long been set for removing information from the public record in an alarmingly broad fashion, a pattern that he would take to new levels. The “Secrecy President” As recent history’s exhibit number one, this country’s global war on terror, launched soon after the 9/11 attacks, was largely defined and enabled by the withholding of information — including secret memos, hidden authorizations, and the use of covert methods. During President George W. Bush’s first term in office, government lawyers and officials regularly withheld information about their actions and documents related to them from public view, both at home and abroad. Those officials, for instance, legalized the brutal interrogations of war-on-terror prisoners, while conveniently replacing the word “torture” with the phrase “enhanced interrogation techniques” and so surreptitiously evading a longstanding legal ban on the practice. The CIA then secretly utilized those medieval techniques at “black sites” around the world where its agents held suspected terrorists. It later destroyed the tapesmade of those interrogations, erasing the evidence of what its agents had done. On the home front, in a similarly secretive fashion, unknown to members of Congress as well as the general public, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to set up an elaborate and far-reaching program of warrantless surveillance on Americans and others inside the United States. Consider that the launching of an era of enhanced secrecy techniques. No wonder Bush earned the moniker of the “secrecy president.” Only weeks after the 9/11 attacks, for instance, he put in place strict guidelines about who could brief Congress on classified matters, while instituting new, lower standards for transparency. He even issued a signing statement rebuking Congress for requiring reports “in written form” on “significant anticipated intelligence activities or significant intelligence failure.” To emphasize his sense of righteousness in defying calls for information, he insisted on the “president’s constitutional authority to… withhold information” in cases of foreign relations and national security. In a parallel fashion, his administration put new regulations in place limiting the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). President Obama also withheld information when it came to war-on-terror efforts.  Notably, his administration shrouded in secrecy the use of armed drones to target and kill suspected terrorists (and civilians) in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Official reports omitted reliable data about who was killed, where the killings had taken place, or the number of civilian casualties. As the American Civil Liberties Union concluded, administration reporting on civilian harm fell “far short of the standards for transparency and accountability needed to ensure that the government’s targeted killing program is lawful under domestic and international law.” And well beyond the war-on-terror context, the claim to secrecy has become a government default mechanism. Tellingly, the number of classified documents soared to unimaginable heights in those years. As the National Archives reports, in 2012, documents with classified markings — including “top secret,” “secret,” and “confidential” — reached a staggering 95 million. And while the overall numbers had declined by 2017, the extent of government classification then and now remains alarming. Erasing the Record Before It’s Created   President Trump’s document theft should be understood, then, as just another piece of the secrecy matrix. Despite his claim — outrageous, but perhaps no more than so many other claims he made — to being the “most transparent” president ever, he turned out to be a stickler for withholding information on numerous fronts. Taking the war-on-terror behavioral patterns of his predecessors to heart, he expanded the information vacuum well beyond the sphere of war and national security to the purely political and personal realms. As a start, he refused to testify in the Mueller investigation into the 2016 presidential election. On a more personal note, he also filed suit to keep his tax records secret from Congress. In fact, during his time in office, Trump virtually transformed the very exercise of withholding information. In place of secrecy in the form of classification, he developed a strategy of preventing documents and records from even being created in the first place. Three months into his presidency, Trump announced that the White House would cease to disclose its visitor logs, citing the supposed risk to both national security and presidential privacy. In addition to hiding the names of those with whom he met, specific high-level meetings took place in an unrecorded fashion so that even the members of his cabinet, no less the public, would never know about them. As former National Security Advisor John Bolton and others have attested, when it came to meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump even prohibited note-taking. In at least five such meetings over the course of his first two years in office, he consistently excluded White House officials and members of the State Department. On at least one occasion, he even confiscated notes his interpreter took to ensure that there would be no record. Congress, too, was forbidden access to information under Trump. Lawyers in the Department of Justice (DOJ) drafted memos hardening policies against complying with congressional requests for information in what former DOJ lawyer Annie Owens has described as “a policy that approached outright refusal” to share information.  In addition, the Trump administration was lax or even dismissive when it came to compliance with the production of required reports on national security matters. Note as well the reversal of policies aimed at transparency, as in the decision to reverse an Obama era policy of making public the number of nuclear weapons the U.S. possessed. But don’t just blame Donald Trump. Among the most recent examples of erasing evidence, it’s become clear that the Secret Service deleted the text messages of its agents around the president from the day before and the day of the January 6th insurrection. So, too, the phone records of several top Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were wiped clean when they left office in accordance with directives established early in the Trump presidency. Similarly, the phone records of top Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security officials were scrapped. In other words, recent reports on the way Trump regularly shreddeddocuments, flushed them down the White House toilet, and generally withheld presidential papers — even classified documents, as revealed during the Mar-a-Lago search — were of a piece with a larger disdain on the part of both the president and a number of his top officials for sharing information. Erasing the record in one fashion or another became the Trump administration’s default setting, variations on a theme hammered out by his predecessors and taken to new levels on his watch. A Perpetual Right to Secrecy? Admittedly, before Trump arrived on the scene, there were some efforts to reverse this pattern, but in the long run they proved anemic. Barack Obama arrived at the White House in January 2009 acknowledging the harm caused by excessive government secrecy. Emphasizing transparency’s importance for accountability, informed public debate, and establishing trust in government, the new president issued an executive order on his first full day in office emphasizing the importance of “transparency and open government” and pledging to create “an unprecedented level of openness in government.” Nearly a year later, he followed up with another executive order setting out a series of reforms aimed at widening the parameters for information-sharing. That order tightened guidelines around classification and broadened the possibilities for declassifying information. “Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government,” it read. Six years later, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper produced a report on the “principles of Intelligence transparency for the intelligence community” and a “transparency implementation plan” that again aimed at clarifying the limits, as well as the purposes, of secrecy. And Obama’s efforts did indeed make some headway. As Steven Aftergood, former director of the Federation of American Scientists, concluded, “The Obama administration broke down longstanding barriers to public access and opened up previously inaccessible records of enormous importance and value.” Among other things, Aftergood reported, Obama “declassified the current size of the U.S. nuclear arms arsenal for the first time ever,” as well as thousands of the president’s daily briefs, and established a National Declassification Center. Still, in the end, the progress proved disapp...

‘Fat Leonard,' Fugitive Defense Contractor Convicted In Navy Bribery Case, Arrested In Venezuela https://digitalalaskanews.com/fat-leonard-fugitive-defense-contractor-convicted-in-navy-bribery-case-arrested-in-venezuela/ Leonard Glenn Francis, better known as “Fat Leonard,” a defense contractor who disappeared weeks before he was set to be sentenced for one of the largest bribery scandals in the nation’s military history, was taken into custody Wednesday in Venezuela, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed. Francis was taken into custody by Venezuelan authorities as he was boarding a plane to another country, Marshals Service spokesperson Omar Castillo said. Carlos Garate Rondon, the Director General of INTERPOL Venezuela, stated Francis flew from Mexico to Ve Cuba, and his final destination was supposed to be Russia. Francis will be handed over to federal authorities. In 2018, before his escape, a judge warned Francis was a flight risk. NBC 7’s Dave Summers has the story. The U.S. government posted a $40,000 reward last Friday for information leading to the arrest of the Malaysian defense contractor. Francis cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet around 7:35 a.m. Sunday at a San Diego home where he was being held, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Neighbors reported seeing U-Haul trucks coming and going from the home days before he disappeared. Francis had been allowed to remain in home confinement to receive medical care while he cooperated with the prosecution. With his help, prosecutors secured convictions of 33 of 34 defendants, including more than two dozen Navy officers. ‘Fat Leonard’ Case Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering prostitution services, luxury hotels, cigars, gourmet meals, and more than $500,000 in bribes to Navy officials and others to help his Singapore-based ship servicing company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA. Prosecutors said the company overcharged the Navy by at least $35 million for servicing ships, many of which were routed to ports he controlled in the Pacific. Ten U.S. agencies are searching for Francis. U.S. authorities also issued a red notice, which asks law enforcement worldwide to provisionally arrest someone with the possibility of extradition. Malaysia and Singapore both have extradition agreements with the United States. Read More Here

Yen Weakens After Bank Of Japan Holds Rates; Asian Markets Sink On Hawkish Fed https://digitalalaskanews.com/yen-weakens-after-bank-of-japan-holds-rates-asian-markets-sink-on-hawkish-fed-2/ Oil prices climb after Fed’s rate hikes, demand fears linger Oil prices climbed following the Fed’s third consecutive rate hike. Reuters also reported Chinese refiners are expecting the nation to release up to 15 million tonnes worth of oil products export quotas for the rest of the year, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Brent crude futures rose 0.45% to stand at $90.24 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate also gained 0.45% to $83.3 per barrel. — Lee Ying Shan Fed hike likely to keep Asian risk assets under pressure, JPMorgan says Asian risk assets, especially export-oriented companies, will remain under pressure in the short term following the Fed’s rate hike, according to Tai Hui, chief APAC market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. Tai added that a strong U.S. dollar is likely to persist, but tightening monetary policy in most Asian central banks — with the exception of China and Japan — should help limit the extent of Asian currency depreciation. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, strengthened sharply and last stood at 111.697. — Abigail Ng Bank of Japan holds steady, stands by yield curve control policy – yen weakens past 145 The Bank of Japan kept its interest rates on hold, according to an announcement posted on its website – meeting expectations forecasted by economists in a Reuters poll. The Japanese yen weakened to 145 against the greenback shortly after the decision. “Japan’s economy has picked up as the resumption of economic activity has progressed while public health has been protected from Covid-19, despite being affected by factors such as a rise in commodity prices,” the central bank said in the statement. –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: This fund manager is beating the market. Here’s what he’s betting against Stock markets are down but the fund managed by Patrick Armstrong at Plurimi Wealth is continuing to deliver positive returns. The fund manager has a number of short positions to play the market volatility. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Asian currencies weaken after Fed’s third-straight big hike Currencies in the Asia-Pacific weakened further after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered its third consecutive rate hike of 75 basis points. China’s onshore yuan weakened past 7.09 per dollar, hovering near levels not seen since June 2020. The Japanese yen weakened to 144.51, while the Korean won also surged past 1,409 against the greenback – the weakest since March 2009. Australia’s dollar fell to $0.6589. –Jihye Lee U.S. 2-year Treasury yield inches toward 2007 highs British pound slides further to hover around 37-year low The British pound fell further in Asia’s morning trade, hitting $1.1217 — its lowest level since 1985. The currency has been losing ground against the U.S. dollar this year as economic concerns rise. Analysts are split over whether the U.K. central bank will hike rates by 50 basis points or 75 basis points later today. Sterling last traded at $1.1223. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson names the key attribute he likes in stocks Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson is staying defensive amid the persistent market volatility this year. He names the key attribute he’s looking for in stocks. Stocks with this attribute have been “rewarded” this year, with the trend likely to persist until the market turns more bullish, according to Wilson. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Bank of Japan likely to maintain yield curve control for rest of 2022: DBS Substantial adjustments to the Bank of Japan’s policies are likely to happen only after the central bank’s leadership changes in mid-2023, DBS Group Research said in a note Tuesday. But the BOJ may consider some “policy finetuning,” such as widening the target band by 10 basis points, in response to market pressures, analysts wrote. It added that “regardless of intervention,” the dollar-yen could test 147.66 last seen in August 1998, adding they are not ruling out USD/JPY pushing above 150 “without a hard landing in the U.S. prompting Fed cuts.” — Abigail Ng Stock futures open lower U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday night following a volatile session in the major averages as traders weighed another large rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by 16 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.19% and 0.31%, respectively. — Sarah Min Stocks slide, Dow closes 522 points lower in volatile trading session Stocks wavered on Wednesday but finished the session deep in the red after the Federal Reserve announced another 75 basis point rate hike. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 522.45 points, or 1.7%, to close at 30,183.78. The S&P 500 slid 1.71% to 3,789.93 and the Nasdaq Composite dove 1.79% to 11,220.19. — Samantha Subin Read More Here

Hurricane Fiona Intensifies To Category 4 As Puerto Rico Contends With Aftermath https://digitalalaskanews.com/hurricane-fiona-intensifies-to-category-4-as-puerto-rico-contends-with-aftermath/ Hurricane Fiona intensified into a Category 4 storm overnight after battering the Turks and Caicos Islands and leaving major destruction in its wake in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, a new tropical storm, Gaston, gained strength in the Atlantic Ocean, with maximum sustained winds increasing to nearly 50 mph with higher gusts as of early Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center warned that swells generated by Gaston could affect the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, later this week, causing life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. By late Wednesday, Fiona was about 550 miles southwest of Bermuda, and is expected to pass to the west of the British island territory Thursday night, according to the hurricane center. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph and was moving north at 10 mph, it said. A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is in effect for Bermuda, which could see 2 to 4 inches of rain, the center said in an update late Wednesday. “A storm surge will cause elevated water levels along the coast of Bermuda in areas of onshore winds beginning Thursday night,” the center said. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.” Multiple deaths have been reported so far in Fiona’s wake, as Puerto Rico continues to grapple with widespread devastation, including sweeping power outages and water supply issues. A 78-year-old man was found dead and a 70-year-old woman was apparently affected by gas emitted from a generator in a home in the Las Granjas neighborhood, a fire department on the island said in statements. A dead dog was also found on scene, officials said. The home, officials said, had all of its windows and a canopy gate closed. As of late Tuesday, more than 1.1 million customers across the U.S. territory were still without power, according to the online tracker Poweroutage.us. That’s almost a third of the population. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said during a news conference Tuesday that he expected a steady and gradual improvement of power restoration throughout the island. He warned, however, that more rain had increased the likelihood for some areas to see additional flooding and landslides. On average, he said, the island had seen 10 to 16 inches of rainfall, with the hardest-hit areas seeing more than 25 inches. Pierluisi said he had signed an executive order so residents would have access to food all over the island. The devastating impact of the storm came as Puerto Rico marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, the deadliest natural disaster on U.S. territory in a century, from which the island is still recovering. It also unfolded on the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which hit Puerto Rico 33 years ago as a Category 3 storm. As the territory now grapples with the aftermath of a new storm, some residents have expressed concerns about the response effort. “Puerto Rico is not prepared for this, or for anything,” Mariangy Hernández, a 48-year-old homemaker, told The Associated Press. She said she had doubts her community of some 300 would receive long-term support from the government, despite ongoing efforts to clear streets and restore power. “This is only for a couple of days and later they forget about us,” she said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been assisting with the response to Fiona after President Joe Biden declared a federal emergency for Puerto Rico on Sunday.The head of FEMA visited the territory Tuesday to survey the damage as the agency announced it would be sending hundreds more personnel to supplement response efforts. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency on the island as it dispatched teams to the territory. Read More Here

Hutson Perry Niles II Obituary (1946 – 2022) Daily News-Miner https://digitalalaskanews.com/hutson-perry-niles-ii-obituary-1946-2022-daily-news-miner/ Hutson Perry Niles II was the son of Octavia Goldman Niles and Carson Perry Niles, born in Seattle, Washington, Sept. 21, 1946. Hutson attended Main Grade School and attended Lathrop High School, graduating in the class of 1964, Fairbanks, Alaska. Hutson moved to California, met and later married Michelle. They had a son, Seth Hutson Niles. After Hutson and Michelle divorced, Hutson moved to Kona, Hawaii. Hutson had a plumbing business in California for 20 years, then continued having a new plumbing business called Plumbin’ Hawaii for another 20 years. Hutson got his construction license and built numerous homes, from scratch, in California, Alaska and Hawaii. Hutson moved from Kona, Hawaii, to Stockton, California, in 2008. Hutson shipped his ’57 Red Chevy from Kona and enjoyed going to car shows with it. Hutson and his older sister, Gail Niles Hedrick, had done the Our Daily Bread, faithfully, for the past 2½ years of Covid, each morning at 8 a.m. Hutson’s faith grew during this period by leaps and bounds. A testimony of Hutson’s faith was seen in his San Joaquin, French Camp, California, hospital room just two days before he went home to the Lord, Sept. 5, 2022, when Hutson professed his faith, saying “Jesus Christ is standing on my shoulders, giving me my strength, to get through this ordeal.” Hutson proceeded asking the nurses and the SNA present, “Are you saved? Do you believe in Jesus Christ my Savior?” Cheerfully, they all responded with a “Yes!” It was powerful. (Hutson, in his final days on earth, had become an evangelist, giving all present, immense joy! Hutson’s family is comforted that Hutson is no longer in pain and is at peace in heaven. Hutson’s family will see him in glory with our two parents, Octavia Goldman Niles and Carson Perry Niles, Hutson’s brother-in-law Leon Hedrick, Hutson’s nephew Greg Retzer and great-nephew Sam Morris, who preceded Hutson.) Hutson is survived by his son, Seth Hutson Niles, and Seth’s girlfriend, Jessica Campa; two sisters, Caron Niles Morris and Gail Niles Hedrick; sister-in-law, Elaine Niles; brother, Craig Niles; niece, Sara Niles Cooksey and Sara’s husband, Joe Cooksey; and great-nieces and great-nephews, Eleanor, Nick, Alethea, Noah Carson, Dorothy and Lucy Cooksey. Hutson is survived by his two Rosevear nephews, Dylan and Luke; niece, Caron Cappos; great-nephew, Jaron Cappos, and great-niece, Stassa Cappos; deceased nephew Greg Retzer’s, widow, Elsa Retzer, and great-niece, Ashley Retzer; nephew, Brad Morris, and Brad’s wife, Janis Morris; great-niece, Sarah Morris Keanaaina, and Sarah’s husband, Jake Keanaaina, and great-great-niece, Ava Keanaaina, great-nephew, Tim Morris; and man’s best friend, his loyal cocker spaniel, Rusty (who will now live permanently with his Auntie Gail Niles Hedrick in Redding, California). Hutson’s celebration of life service will be held in Stockton, California. Awaiting a Neptune’s Society’s cremation of Hutson’s body, with Covid, they are backed up another five weeks or so. Hutson’s service will be approximately Friday, Oct. 21 or Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, at Frisbie, Warren & Caroll Mortuary, 809 North California Street, Stockton, CA 95202. The phone number is 1-209-464-4711, and the manager is Michael Baker-Dennis. After Hutson’s celebration of life, Hutson’s brother, Craig Niles, plans to take Hutson’s ashes to be laid to rest near our two parents, Octavia Goldman Niles and Carson Perry Niles’s gravesite, located at Birch Hill Cemetery, in Fairbanks, Alaska. Following this service, Hutson Niles’ family and friends are cordially invited for a meal at Stockton’s Sizzler Restaurant, (one of Hutson’s favorite restaurants, it is located at 1862 E. Hammer Lane, Stockton, CA, 95210, phone number, 1-209-477-6682). Thank you all for attending Hutson’s service and a special thank you to Leon’s and my First Baptist Church Senior Pastor Heath Ulmer of Redding, California, who drove all the way to Stockton, California, to be the officiant of Hutson’s celebration of life. Published by Daily News-Miner on Sep. 22, 2022. Read More Here

AP News Summary At 1:01 A.m. EDT https://digitalalaskanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-101-a-m-edt/ Ukraine’s Zelenskyy lays out his case against Russia to UN UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s president has laid out his case against Russia’s invasion at the United Nations and demanded punishment from world leaders. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech was delivered just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilize some reservists for the war effort. Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians had seized, Zelenskyy vowed in a video address that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine. Video addresses by Zelenskyy in an olive green T-shirt have become almost commonplace. But this speech was one of the most keenly anticipated at the U.N. General Assembly, where the war has dominated. Cornered by war, Putin makes another nuclear threat President Vladimir Putin says he won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons to protect Russian territory, a threat that comes as Moscow is poised to annex swaths of Ukraine that Moscow has taken over after hastily called referendums there. While the West has heard such rhetoric from him before, the circumstances are starkly different. In the Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, set to start Friday, residents will be asked whether they want to become part of Russia — a vote certain to go Moscow’s way. That means Russia could absorb those lands as early as next week. Some see that as a last-ditch attempt to force Ukraine and the West into accepting the current status quo in the conflict. Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The court notes that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records. And it is rejecting the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents marked as classified. Powell’s stark message: Inflation fight may cause recession WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession. Speaking at a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged what many economists have been saying for months: That the Fed’s goal of engineering a “soft landing” — in which it would manage to slow growth enough to curb inflation but not so much as to trigger a recession — looks increasingly unlikely. “The chances of a soft landing,” Powell said, “are likely to diminish” as the Fed steadily raises borrowing costs to slow the worst inflation in four decades. Khmer Rouge tribunal ending work after 16 years, 3 judgments PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday rejected the appeal of a genocide conviction by the communist group’s last surviving leader in what is expected to be the special court’s last session. The historic international court issued its ruling on an appeal by Khieu Samphan, who served as head of state in Cambodia’s 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government. He was convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to life in prison. The tribunal spent $337 million and 16 years to convict just him and two other defendants in connection with a reign of terror that caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. Climate Migration: Indian kids find hope in a new language BENGALURU, India (AP) — A flood in 2019 in an Indian state started eight-year-old Jerifa, her brother Raju, 12, and their parents on a journey that led the family from their Himalayan village to a poor neighborhood in Bengaluru. They are now among the millions of climate migrants in India, forced to move because of disasters made worse by global warming. The two kids are now learning a new language to be able to go to school, and their parents hope that this new life in a new city will help them provide opportunities for the children that they themselves didn’t have. Puerto Rico struggles to reach areas cut off by Fiona CAGUAS, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona left dozens of families stranded across Puerto Rico after smashing roads and bridges, with authorities still struggling to reach people four days after the storm smacked the U.S. territory, causing historic flooding. For now, government officials are working with religious groups, nonprofits and others braving landslides, thick mud and broken asphalt by foot to provide food, water and medicine for people in need, but they are under pressure to clear a path so vehicles can enter isolated areas soon. At least six municipalities have areas cut off by the storm. Fugitive in massive Navy bribery case caught in Venezuela SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in U.S. military history has been arrested in Venezuela. The U.S. Marshals Service says Leonard Glenn Francis was arrested Tuesday as he was about to board a plane in Caracas. Francis was under home arrest in San Diego when he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and escaped on Sept. 4, prompting an international manhunt. Francis was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in 2015 to bribing Navy officers to help his ship servicing company, then overcharging the military at least $35 million. Dozens of Navy officers were convicted for the scheme. White House hosts local officials, touts impact of policies WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is reaching out to local governments. It’s hosting officials from North Carolina on Thursday to highlight funding opportunities and hear firsthand how coronavirus relief, infrastructure dollars and other policies are faring in communities. The event reflects new efforts to expand the use of the White House campus as pandemic restrictions have eased. But it’s also part of a larger effort to host municipal and county officials on a weekly basis from all 50 states. That outreach coincides with campaigning for November’s midterm elections as the White House tries to energize Democratic voters. AP: Probe finds evidence of bank boss’ romance with top aide MIAMI (AP) — Investigators say they found evidence a former Trump official who heads Latin America’s biggest development bank carried on a romantic relationship with his chief of staff. The Associated Press obtained a confidential report by a law firm hired by the Inter-American Development Bank’s board triggered by an anonymous complaint of misconduct against its president, Mauricio Claver-Carone. Investigators say it is reasonable to conclude the relationship existed since at least 2019, when both held senior positions on the National Security Council. Exhibit A is a “contract” the two purportedly drew up on the back of a restaurant place mat in which they outlined a timeline to divorce their spouses and get married. The report says Claver-Carone denies having the relationship. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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Trump Accused Of Vast Fraud In Suit By NY Attorney General https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-accused-of-vast-fraud-in-suit-by-ny-attorney-general/ By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Sep 22, 2022 10 min ago Comments New York Attorney General Letitia James sued former President Donald Trump and his company on Wednesday, alleging business fraud involving some of their most prized assets, including properties in Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Brittainy Newman/Associated Press NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general sued former President Donald Trump and his company for fraud on Wednesday, alleging they padded his net worth by billions of dollars by lying about the value of prized assets including golf courses, hotels and his homes at Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. Attorney General Letitia James dubbed it: “The art of the steal.” Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. We’re always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what’s going on! Articles Images Videos Commented Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Commented Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. News Updates Would you like to receive our daily news? Signup today! Please enter a valid email address. Read More Here

The Walls Are Closing In On Donald Trump – Is His Time Finally Up? https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-walls-are-closing-in-on-donald-trump-is-his-time-finally-up/ Often when it comes to Donald Trump, language alone fails to describe what is going on. At various points, particularly so once he became president, charts or timelines can prove to be a better tool for understanding events. His firing of James Comey in May 2017, for instance, apparently because the FBI Director would not agree to go easy on General Michael Flynn, who lied to agents about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, led to the creation of the Mueller Probe, which highlighted many lapses by Trump and possible obstruction of justice. Trump would rage for months about the Mueller report – both claiming he had been exonerated and that it was a witch-hunt. When it came to Trump’s first impeachment, with enthusiasm for such a venture among Democrats no doubt heightened after Mueller was not able to lay out actionable conclusions, it was often handy to have a list of names to follow along. What was Rudy Giuliani doing in Kyiv? What was he demanding of this then little-heard of leader Volodymyr Zelensky, what was Hunter Biden’s relevance, and had Democrat Adam Schiff’s staff been tipped off about a whistleblower to Trump’s apparent attempt to pressure Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for the release of military? Even with the notes in front of you, it was often hard to follow along. Now, once again, we are in need of special props. On Wednesday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit against Trump and his three oldest children, accusing them of financial fraud, and claiming they knowingly misrepresented the value of Trump Organization business interests over many years. “The pattern of fraud and deception that was used by Mr Trump and the Trump Organization for their own financial benefit is astounding,” James said on Wednesday morning at a press conference on New York. “Claiming that you have money that you do not have does not amount to the Art of the Deal, it’s the art of the steal”. New York Attorney General announces lawsuit against Donald Trump James wants the return of $250m in assets, Trump’s oldest three children to be barred from holding office, and Trump himself to be prevented from any business dealings in the city or state for five years, something that must irk and anger a man born in the city, and whose swagger often seems to typify New York tycoons from the 1970s or 1980s. Trump was quick to dismiss the lawsuit as an effort by James to harass him and his family, accusing her of going after him for political reasons, and describing her announcement as “the culmination of nearly three years of persistent, targeted, unethical political harassment”. The lawsuit alone would seem bad for Trump and his family, accusing the man who famously posed as a successful businessman in The Apprentice, of falsehoods and rank dishonesty. But James’ lawsuit is not Trump’s only challenge, and this is where we may need help of an intersecting Venn diagram chart, or even an old fashioned board game, such as Risk. For as James passes on her findings to the court, and to other prosecutors, it is important to remember Trump faces lots and lots of other problems. In August, FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, where they took away hundreds of secret and classified documents that the former president allegedly should not have been holding onto after he left the White House. The investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice is carrying out its inquiries on a warrant sought for possible breach of the Espionage Act. So far, Trump has failed to come up with a plausible reason as to why he still had those documents, other than that he wanted to. Former president faces multiple challenges (Getty Images) It is unclear how Trump gets out of this. For now, an independent assessor, or special master, is reviewing the documents seized by the FBI to determine whether any may be privileged. Most legal experts have said such an examination is unnecessary and the Trump team’s request for one is widely seen as a delaying tactic. And that is not his only pressing problem. Next week, the committee investigating the Jan 6 attacks at the US Capitol, an episode for which Trump was impeached a second time, is to meet to deliver a report and announce any possible referrals. Polling data has shown that these carefully curated presentations have harmed Trump’s standing among Republicans, an increasing number of whom are at least ready to consider voting for someone else, even as Trump himself appears adamant he is going to run again. One thing intersects each and all of these various things – Donald Trump himself, and his apparent belief that normal rules and laws do not apply to him. Trump has repeatedly been written off before from various scandals only to bounce back. It may well be his escapes from all of this as well. But for now, it feels the wall are closing in. Read More Here

Yen Weakens After Bank Of Japan Holds Rates; Asian Markets Sink On Hawkish Fed https://digitalalaskanews.com/yen-weakens-after-bank-of-japan-holds-rates-asian-markets-sink-on-hawkish-fed/ Oil prices climb after Fed’s rate hikes, demand fears linger Oil prices climbed following the Fed’s third consecutive rate hike. Reuters also reported Chinese refiners are expecting the nation to release up to 15 million tonnes worth of oil products export quotas for the rest of the year, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Brent crude futures rose 0.45% to stand at $90.24 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate also gained 0.45% to $83.3 per barrel. — Lee Ying Shan Fed hike likely to keep Asian risk assets under pressure, JPMorgan says Asian risk assets, especially export-oriented companies, will remain under pressure in the short term following the Fed’s rate hike, according to Tai Hui, chief APAC market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management. Tai added that a strong U.S. dollar is likely to persist, but tightening monetary policy in most Asian central banks — with the exception of China and Japan — should help limit the extent of Asian currency depreciation. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, strengthened sharply and last stood at 111.697. — Abigail Ng Bank of Japan holds steady, stands by yield curve control policy – yen weakens past 145 The Bank of Japan kept its interest rates on hold, according to an announcement posted on its website – meeting expectations forecasted by economists in a Reuters poll. The Japanese yen weakened to 145 against the greenback shortly after the decision. “Japan’s economy has picked up as the resumption of economic activity has progressed while public health has been protected from Covid-19, despite being affected by factors such as a rise in commodity prices,” the central bank said in the statement. –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: This fund manager is beating the market. Here’s what he’s betting against Stock markets are down but the fund managed by Patrick Armstrong at Plurimi Wealth is continuing to deliver positive returns. The fund manager has a number of short positions to play the market volatility. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Asian currencies weaken after Fed’s third-straight big hike Currencies in the Asia-Pacific weakened further after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered its third consecutive rate hike of 75 basis points. China’s onshore yuan weakened past 7.09 per dollar, hovering near levels not seen since June 2020. The Japanese yen weakened to 144.51, while the Korean won also surged past 1,409 against the greenback – the weakest since March 2009. Australia’s dollar fell to $0.6589. –Jihye Lee U.S. 2-year Treasury yield inches toward 2007 highs British pound slides further to hover around 37-year low The British pound fell further in Asia’s morning trade, hitting $1.1217 — its lowest level since 1985. The currency has been losing ground against the U.S. dollar this year as economic concerns rise. Analysts are split over whether the U.K. central bank will hike rates by 50 basis points or 75 basis points later today. Sterling last traded at $1.1223. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson names the key attribute he likes in stocks Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson is staying defensive amid the persistent market volatility this year. He names the key attribute he’s looking for in stocks. Stocks with this attribute have been “rewarded” this year, with the trend likely to persist until the market turns more bullish, according to Wilson. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Bank of Japan likely to maintain yield curve control for rest of 2022: DBS Substantial adjustments to the Bank of Japan’s policies are likely to happen only after the central bank’s leadership changes in mid-2023, DBS Group Research said in a note Tuesday. But the BOJ may consider some “policy finetuning,” such as widening the target band by 10 basis points, in response to market pressures, analysts wrote. It added that “regardless of intervention,” the dollar-yen could test 147.66 last seen in August 1998, adding they are not ruling out USD/JPY pushing above 150 “without a hard landing in the U.S. prompting Fed cuts.” — Abigail Ng Stock futures open lower U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday night following a volatile session in the major averages as traders weighed another large rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by 16 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.19% and 0.31%, respectively. — Sarah Min Stocks slide, Dow closes 522 points lower in volatile trading session Stocks wavered on Wednesday but finished the session deep in the red after the Federal Reserve announced another 75 basis point rate hike. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 522.45 points, or 1.7%, to close at 30,183.78. The S&P 500 slid 1.71% to 3,789.93 and the Nasdaq Composite dove 1.79% to 11,220.19. — Samantha Subin Read More Here

Jan. 6 Committee Reaches Deal With Ginni Thomas For An Interview https://digitalalaskanews.com/jan-6-committee-reaches-deal-with-ginni-thomas-for-an-interview/ The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has reached an agreement with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to be interviewed by the panel in coming weeks, according to her attorney and another person familiar with the agreement. Thomas’s attorney, Mark Paoletta, confirmed the agreement in a statement. “I can confirm that Ginni Thomas has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the Committee,” Paoletta said. “As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity.” CNN was first to report on the agreement. The committee had earlier announced a public hearing for next week. The panel had contemplated issuing a subpoena to compel her testimony. Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, had pushed lawmakers and top Republican officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, citing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. Her efforts caught the attention of lawmakers and legal scholars who questioned whether it could prompt Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any cases linked to causes on which his wife had worked. Ginni Thomas repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to find ways to overturn the election, according to messages she sent to him weeks after the election. The messages represent an extraordinary pipeline between Thomas and one of Trump’s top aides as the president and his allies were vowing to take their efforts all the way to the Supreme Court. She emailed 29 Arizona state lawmakers in November and December 2020, urging them to set aside Biden’s popular-vote victory and “choose” their own presidential electors. She also emailed a pair of Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin urging them to do likewise. On March 6, 2021 — two months after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying Biden’s victory — Thomas attended a gathering of right-wing activists where a speaker declared to thundering applause that Trump was still the “legitimate president,” a video recording of the event shows. Read More Here

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Taiga Mining Company, Inc. Files Early Warning Report https://digitalalaskanews.com/taiga-mining-company-inc-files-early-warning-report/ , /CNW/ – Taiga Mining Company, Inc. (the “Company” or “Taiga“) announces today that it has filed an early warning report dated September 22, 2022 (the “Early Warning Report“) with respect to ownership of common shares (“Common Shares“) of Graphite One Inc. (“Graphite One“). On August 30, 2022, Graphite One announced the closing of the first tranche of a previously announced non-brokered private placement dated August 8, 2022 raising gross proceeds of $10,076,382 through the issuance of 8,762,071 units at a price of $1.15 per unit (the “Tranche One Financing”).  Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $1.50 per share for a period of 24 months from the date of closing. Taiga purchased 2,258,957 units of the Tranche One Financing. On September 16, 2022, Graphite One announced that further to the news release disseminated on August 23, 2022, the company has revised the pricing of a shares for debt transaction (the “Debt Settlement Transaction”) to settle outstanding debt in an aggregate of US$6,775,230, including US$1,819,230 of accrued interest, owed to the Company pursuant to an unsecured loan facility dated September 6, 2019, as amended and extended, between Graphite One and the Company.  Pursuant to the revised terms of the Debt Settlement Transaction, Graphite One issued 9,296,328 common shares (the “Settlement Shares”) to the Company at a deemed price of CA$0.95 per share in full settlement of the debt.  On September 19, 2022, Graphite One received TSX Venture Exchange approval on the Debt Settlement Transaction. Taiga’s early warning report dated August 12, 2021 reported that the Company had beneficial ownership and control of 18,594,906 common shares of Graphite One, representing approximately 22.60% of the issued and outstanding shares as of such date and also had beneficial ownership and control of 6,509,232 common share purchase warrants which, if exercised, would result in the Company having beneficial ownership and control over 25,104,138 Common Shares representing approximately 28.27% of the outstanding Common Shares on a partially diluted basis (assuming no other Common Shares were issued and no other convertible securities were converted by Graphite One). Following the closing of the First Tranche Financing and the Debt Settlement Transaction, the Company will have beneficial ownership and control of an aggregate of 30,150,191 Common Shares of Graphite One, or approximately 28.46% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares, as of the date hereof, representing an increase of 5.86% since the date of the Company’s last earning warning report. The Common Shares were issued from the treasury of Graphite One and listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and trade under the symbol “GPH”. In addition, the Company holds 8,768,189 Common Shares purchase warrant as of the date thereof, and which, if exercised would result in the Company having beneficial ownership and control over an aggregate of 38,918,380 Common Shares representing approximately 33.93% of the outstanding Common Shares on a partially diluted basis, an increase of approximately 5.66% since the date of the Company’s last early warning report (assuming no other Common Shares were issued and no other convertible securities were converted by Graphite One). The Common Shares of Graphite One acquired by way of a non-brokered private placement and Settlement Shares are held for investment purposes.  The Company will review its investment in Graphite One’s Common Shares on a continuing basis and such holdings may be increased or decreased in the future.  The Company may in the future acquire or dispose of Common Shares of Graphite One, through the open market, privately or otherwise, as circumstances or market conditions dictate. Taiga is a private company formed under the laws of the state of Alaska, the principal business of which is mining.  Taiga has filed an early warning report pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 – The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues describing the above transactions with applicable securities regulatory authorities, a copy of which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. SOURCE Taiga Mining Company, Inc. For further information: For further information, and to obtain a copy of the Early Warning Report, please contact: Jerome Birch, President, Suite 600 – 1029 West 3rd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501, USA, (907) 349-4644 Read More Here

An Appeals Court Rules The Justice Dept. Can Use Mar-A-Lago Records In Criminal Probe https://digitalalaskanews.com/an-appeals-court-rules-the-justice-dept-can-use-mar-a-lago-records-in-criminal-probe/ Pages from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruling that lifts a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Jon Elswick/AP hide caption toggle caption Jon Elswick/AP Pages from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruling that lifts a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Jon Elswick/AP WASHINGTON — In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit amounts to an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department, clearing the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. In lifting a hold on a core aspect of the department’s probe, the court removed an obstacle that could have delayed the investigation by weeks. The appeals court also pointedly noted that Trump had presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records, as he maintained as recently as Wednesday, and rejected the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents with classification markings that were seized by the FBI in its Aug. 8 search of the Palm Beach property. The government had argued that its investigation had been impeded, and national security concerns swept aside, by an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that temporarily barred investigators from continuing to use the documents in its inquiry. Cannon, a Trump appointee, had said the hold would remain in place pending a separate review by an independent arbiter she had appointed at the Trump team’s request to review the records. The appeals panel agreed with the Justice Department’s concerns. “It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,'” they wrote. “Ascertaining that,” they added, “necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.” An injunction that delayed or prevented the criminal investigation “from using classified materials risks imposing real and significant harm on the United States and the public,” they wrote. Two of the three judges who issued Wednesday’s ruling — Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher — were nominated to the 11th Circuit by Trump. Judge Robin Rosenbaum was nominated by former President Barack Obama. Lawyers for Trump did not return an email seeking comment on whether they would appeal the ruling. The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment. The FBI last month seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during a court-authorized search of the Palm Beach club. It has launched a criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised, though is not clear whether Trump or anyone else will be charged. Cannon ruled on Sept. 5 that she would name an independent arbiter, or special master, to do an independent review of those records and segregate any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege and to determine whether any of the materials should be returned to Trump. Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, has been named to the role and held his first meeting on Tuesday with lawyers for both sides. The Justice Department had argued that a special master review of the classified documents was not necessary. It said Trump had no plausible basis to invoke executive privilege over the documents, nor could the records be covered by attorney-client privilege because they do not involve communications between Trump and his lawyers. It had also contested Cannon’s order requiring it to provide Dearie and Trump’s lawyers with access to the classified material. The court sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday, saying “courts should order review of such materials in only the most extraordinary circumstances. The record does not allow for the conclusion that this is such a circumstance.” Trump has repeatedly maintained that he had declassified the material. In a Fox News Channel interview recorded Wednesday before the appeals court ruling, he said, “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying ‘It’s declassified.'” Though his lawyers have said a president has absolute authority to declassify information, they have notably stopped short of asserting that the records were declassified. The Trump team this week resisted providing Dearie with any information to support the idea that the records might have been declassified, saying the issue could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment. The Justice Department has said there is no indication that Trump took any steps to declassify the documents and even included a photo in one court filing of some of the seized documents with colored cover sheets indicating their classified status. The appeals court, too, made the same point. “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified,” the judges wrote. “In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.” Read More Here

Trump: I Can Declassify Docs Just ‘by Thinking About It’ https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-i-can-declassify-docs-just-by-thinking-about-it/ During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity at Mar-a-Lago, which was raided last month by the FBI in search of classified documents, former President Donald Trump claimed the president can declassify material “even by thinking about it.” When Hannity asked about the declassification process, Trump replied: “There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it.” “Different people see different things. But as I understand it, there doesn’t have to be. If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it,” he asserted. “It doesn’t have to be a process. It can be a process but it doesn’t have to be. You’re the president. You make that decision. So when you send it [to Mar-a-Lago or “wherever”], it’s declassified. We — I declassified everything,” Trump insisted, even though his lawyers have not made that claim in court. On another legal front, Trump was accused earlier Wednesday, along with his three oldest children, of business and tax fraud in a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump summed up his defense to Hannity: “a very powerful disclaimer.” James said investigators in her office compiled evidence showing that for years, Trump “fraudulently inflated” real estate values “by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system.” Trump’s use of “objectively false numbers” constituted “intentional deliberate fraud” rather than “an honest mistake,” she added. Hannity asked Trump about the process of determining the value of his properties. “Do you put in a caveat that actually says [that] these are our valuations?” he asked. “Because I don’t know a lending institution or bank or financial institution that would lend money to anybody and just go by the borrower’s estimation or evaluation of a particular property.” “We have a disclaimer,” Trump replied. “My people put it together. I would look at it, and it looked fine. But it’s not overly important. What’s important is the property. I have the best property. What happened, Sean, is we would have a disclaimer right on the front. It basically says, you know, get your own people, you’re at your own risk, this was done by management, it wasn’t done by us.” “So, don’t rely on the statement that you’re getting,” Trump continued, paraphrasing passages of financial statements of the sort that were given to Congress and the press years ago by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer. Such a disclaimer may in fact protect Trump, some experts have said. “By the way, it goes on for like a page and a half. It’s a very big disclaimer. It’s a very powerful disclaimer,” Trump said. “It basically says to an institution, ‘You are going to loan money. You have to go out and make sure that you get your own appraisers, your own lawyers, everything.’” Read More Here

T https://digitalalaskanews.com/t-7/ Skip to main content This content is only available to subscribers. Get unlimited digital access. $1 for 6 months. Your subscription supports: Unlimited access to subscriber only articles on desktop, tablet and mobile web. The e-Edition, a digital replica of the print paper, every day. Trusted, up-to-date local Detroit and Michigan breaking news. Newsletters on topics that interest you most. Exclusive podcasts from our top journalists. News, analysis and scores on Detroit and Michigan sports teams. Mobile app for news, photos and video on the go. This content is only available to subscribers. Get unlimited digital access. $1 for 6 months. Your subscription supports: Unlimited access to subscriber only articles on desktop, tablet and mobile web. The e-Edition, a digital replica of the print paper, every day. Trusted, up-to-date local Detroit and Michigan breaking news. Newsletters on topics that interest you most. Exclusive podcasts from our top journalists. News, analysis and scores on Detroit and Michigan sports teams. Mobile app for news, photos and video on the go. Read More Here

Ruinous Hurricane Fiona Reaches Category 4 As It Moves North, Leaving Disaster-Stricken Areas On Slow Road To Recovery | CNN https://digitalalaskanews.com/ruinous-hurricane-fiona-reaches-category-4-as-it-moves-north-leaving-disaster-stricken-areas-on-slow-road-to-recovery-cnn/ CNN  —  With Category 4 Hurricane Fiona poised to sideswipe Bermuda later this week, people in the storm’s deadly wake still faced days without basic utilities late Wednesday – including much of Puerto Rico, where most were left without power and running water. More than a million people in Puerto Rico still had no power by Wednesday afternoon, according to the island’s emergency portal system. And more than 450,000 people across the island were without water service or with intermittent service as of Wednesday night, according to the website. Water is the top concern for residents like Carlos Vega, whose town of Cayey in the mountains of east-central Puerto Rico faced not only utility outages but also partially collapsed roads – an effect of the major flooding and more than 2 feet of rain that parts of Puerto Rico were hit with. “(Being without) power … we can face that and we can deal with that. The biggest concern is with our water. Can’t live without water,” Vega told CNN on Tuesday. Fiona killed at least five people in the Caribbean as it tore through the region last weekend and into this week, including one in Guadeloupe, two in Puerto Rico and two in the Dominican Republic. Fiona also whipped parts of the Turks and Caicos islands on Tuesday with sustained winds of almost 125 mph, officials said. That left many areas without power, including on Grand Turk, South Caicos, Salt Cay, North Caicos and Middle Caicos, said Anya Williams, the acting governor of the islands. Authorities were able to begin visiting several islands and begin repairs. No deaths had been reported in Turks and Caicos as of Wednesday evening, Williams said in an update. Fiona’s flooding especially left critical infrastructure damage in Puerto Rico and then the Dominican Republic, which the storm crossed Monday. More than 1 million utility customers in the Dominican Republic had no water service as of Wednesday morning, and more than 349,000 customers were without power, according to Maj. Gen. Juan Méndez García, director of the country’s emergency operations center. Meanwhile, parts of Puerto Rico, where hundreds of thousands remained without power, reached heat indices – what the air feels like when combining temperature and humidity – of 105 to 109 degrees Wednesday, according to CNN meteorologist Rob Shackelford. The landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday came nearly five years after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, leaving thousands dead and cutting power to and water service to more than 1 million people for what would become months. Fiona, after its center passed the Turks and Caicos as a Category 3 storm, strengthened to Category 4 – sustained winds of at least 130 mph – early Wednesday over the Atlantic. By around 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, it was centered about 605 miles southwest of Bermuda, heading north with sustained winds of 130 mph, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Fiona is expected to strengthen some through Wednesday night and approach Bermuda late Thursday, potentially still as a Category 4 storm, forecasters said. “Fiona is forecast to be a hurricane-force cyclone through Saturday,” the hurricane center said. Fiona’s powerful center is currently expected to pass west of Bermuda, sparing the British island territory its worst winds. But sustained winds of at least tropical-storm force – 39 to 73 mph – are expected to reach Bermuda by late Thursday or early Friday, the center said. The US State Department issued a travel advisory Tuesday urging US citizens to reconsider travel to Bermuda because of the storm. The department also authorized family members of US government personnel to leave the island in anticipation of the storm. Though the storm isn’t expected to track near the US East Coast, it could generate onshore waves of 8 to 10 feet there over the weekend, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Wednesday. “It’s not a good weekend to go to the shore and get in the water – it’s time to stay out of the water,” Myers said of the East Coast. Fiona could affect portions of Atlantic Canada as a powerful hurricane-force cyclone late Friday and Saturday, potentially hammering the region with high winds, storm surge and heavy rainfall. A storm surge is expected to bring up water levels along Bermuda’s coast starting late Thursday. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” the hurricane center said. The storm has strengthened over the past few days – it made landfall in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic as a Category 1 hurricane before battering both with outer bands as it moved over water and toward the Turks and Caicos as a storm in Categories 2 and 3. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Hernandez/AP Nicasio Gil walks through the stagnant water left by the swollen Duey River while grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Higuey, Dominican Republic, on Tuesday, September 20. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Maxar Technologies/Reuters A satellite image shows flooded fields and buildings in Cerrillos, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Jose Jimenez/Getty Images A damaged plantain crop field is seen Tuesday in Guanica, Puerto Rico. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Stephanie Rojas/AP A photo album belonging to Luis Ramos Rosario lies in the mud inside his flooded home in Cayey, Puerto Rico. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Hernandez/AP Residents work to recover belongings after flooding in the Los Sotos neighborhood of Higuey on Tuesday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Rojas/Reuters A man in El Seibo, Dominican Republic, looks at his damaged house on Tuesday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Alejandro Granadillo/AP Streets are flooded on Salinas Beach after Hurricane Fiona moved through Salinas, Puerto Rico, on Monday, September 19. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard rescue a woman stranded at her house in Salinas on Monday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters A member of the Puerto Rico National Guard searches for people in Salinas on Monday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Stephanie Rojas/AP Residents affected by Hurricane Fiona rest at a storm shelter Monday in Salinas. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters Children swim in a flooded street in Salinas on Monday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Jose Rodriguez/AFP/Getty Images A woman stands outside her flooded house in Salinas on Monday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean -/AFP/AFP via Getty Images A person cooks in the dark Monday after losing power in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Alejandro Granadillo/AP A woman clears debris on her flooded property in Salinas on Monday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Alejandro Granadillo/AP Nelson Cirino looks at his bedroom after the winds of Hurricane Fiona tore the roof off his house in Loíza, Puerto Rico, on Sunday, September 18. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters People clear a road from a fallen tree in Yauco, Puerto Rico, on Sunday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean NOAA/AP This satellite image shows Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean on Sunday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Alejandro Granadillo/AP Nelson Cirino secures the windows of his home as the winds of Hurricane Fiona blow in Loíza on Sunday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Rojas/Reuters Workers of the Social State Plan prepare food rations in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Sunday. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Alejandro Granadillo/AP Jetsabel Osorio stands in her house in Loíza on Saturday, September 17. It was damaged five years ago by Hurricane Maria. Photos: Hurricane Fiona slams the Caribbean Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters Boats sit secured to mangroves as Fiona approaches Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, on Saturday. Many in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico still are grappling with Fiona’s aftermath and will likely face a prolonged relief and recovery process. In Nizao, a small city in southern Dominican Republic, a woman tearfully told CNN affiliate Noticias SIN that Fiona’s winds destroyed her home. “Thank God my girls (are) safe. I managed to cover them with something and block them with a washing machine,” she told Noticias SIN this week. Another woman in Nizao who was clearing mud from belongings told Noticias SIN that she was frustrated because flooding frequently damages the region. This week, she left all belongings behind when floodwater encroached, she said. “We can’t take it any longer. Every year we lose our bed, clothes, food, everything,” the second woman told Noticias SIN. More than 610 homes in the Dominican Republic have been destroyed, and some communities were cut off from aid due to the storm, said García, the nation’s emergency operations center director. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said on Twitter Wednesday that the federal government has approved a major disaster declaration request for the island, which ensures additional help from FEMA. Though US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration Sunday, a major disaster declaration will bring additional resources – primarily individual assistance in the form of funding for housing and other needs, as well as public assistance to provide for the permanent rebuilding of damaged infrastructure. The governor expected “a large portion of ...

Appeals Court: Justice Dept. Can Use Mar-A-Lago Documents In Criminal Probe https://digitalalaskanews.com/appeals-court-justice-dept-can-use-mar-a-lago-documents-in-criminal-probe/ An appeals court sided with the Justice Department in a legal fight over classified documents seized in a court-authorized search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, ruling Wednesday that the FBI may use the documents in its ongoing criminal investigation. The decision by a three-judge panel of the appeals court marks a victory, at least temporarily, for the Justice Department in its legal battle with Trump over access to the evidence in a high-stakes investigation to determine if the former president or his advisers mishandled national security secrets, or hid or destroyed government records. It was the second legal setback of the day for Trump, who was sued Wednesday morning by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The lawsuit said Trump and his company flagrantly manipulated property and other asset valuations to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax authorities to get better rates and lower tax liability. In Wednesday night’s ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta found fault with Trump’s rationale that the classified documents seized on Aug. 8 might be his property, rather than the government’s. The appeals court also disagreed with the rationale used by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon in agreeing to have the classified documents reviewed by a special master to see if they should be shielded from investigators because of executive or attorney-client privilege. “For our part, we cannot discern why [Trump] would have an individual interest in or need for any of the one-hundred documents with classification markings,” the court wrote, noting that the stay it issued is temporary and should not be considered a final decision on the merits of the case. The lower court “abused its discretion in exercising jurisdiction … as it concerns the classified documents,” the panel wrote in a 29-page opinion. Two judges on the panel were appointed by Trump; the third was appointed by President Barack Obama. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an interview Wednesday with Fox News that was recorded before the appeals court issued its ruling, Trump claimed he had declassified the documents, and he suggested there would not have to be any written record of such an action. “I declassified the documents when they left the White House,” Trump said. “There doesn’t have to be a process as I understand it. You’re the president of the United States, you can declassify … even by thinking about it.” The panel found particularly unpersuasive the repeated suggestions by Trump’s legal team that he may have declassified the documents — citing an appearance by Trump’s attorneys on Tuesday before special master Raymond Dearie, who pressed them to say whether the former president had acted to declassify the materials in question. “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. And before the special master, Plaintiff resisted providing any evidence that he had declassified any of these documents,” the panel wrote. “In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.” Last week, the Justice Department filed papers asking the appeals court to quickly assess part of Cannon’s decision in which she appointed a special master to review the seized documents. Prosecutors have said that two parts of her order — allowing the special master to review the roughly 100 documents that were marked classified and halting the criminal investigation surrounding those documents while the special master conducts a review — jeopardize national security interests. Cannon, a federal judge in Florida, appointed Dearie, a federal judge in New York City, to serve as special master and review the roughly 11,000 documents and items seized in the FBI’s search. The Justice Department had previously asked Cannon to reconsider those two elements of her order, but she declined in a written order that repeatedly expressed skepticism of the government’s claims about the case. In particular, Cannon said that a risk assessment of the case, conducted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, could continue, while the criminal investigators were not allowed to use the classified documents for the time being. The Justice Department said such a distinction was impractical because much of the DNI’s work would necessarily be done by FBI agents, and the two tasks were “inextricably intertwined.” Cannon did not accept that characterization and held to her original determination. But the appeals court rejected her reasoning on that issue, writing: “This distinction is untenable.” The panel also used its ruling to offer a public primer on how the government classifies and declassifies government secrets, and why that process is important. “For example, information that could reveal the identity of a confidential human source or that relates to weapons of mass destruction is exempted from automatic disclosure,” the judges wrote. Prosecutors have said in court papers that some papers seized from Mar-a-Lago contained information related to programs that involve intelligence gleaned from human sources. The Washington Post has reported that one document recovered by FBI agents described a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities. The Justice Department told the appeals court that it disagrees with Cannon’s decision, but it asked the court to issue a stay of “only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public,” calling the scope of its request “modest but critically important.” Trump’s lawyers countered with their own filing, urging the appeals court not to intercede, suggesting that the documents marked classified may not in fact be classified and arguing that if they are, it is up to the government to prove it. The appeals court decision simplifies the special master’s work, removing the classified documents from the equation — though Dearie had signaled at a meeting Tuesday that he would probably avoid reviewing the classified documents if he could. At Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Department lawyers had indicated that they might appeal the issue to the Supreme Court if they lost at the 11th Circuit; it is unclear if Trump’s legal team would file such an appeal now that the panel has ruled against them. Read More Here

Brace Yourselves, Electric Bills Could Increase 64% This Winter https://digitalalaskanews.com/brace-yourselves-electric-bills-could-increase-64-this-winter/ LAST. JOHN ATWATER IS LIVE IN RANDOLPH WITH THE HIT TO YOUR WALLET. JOHN: ABOUT HALF OF THE POWER THAT COMES INTO OUR HOMES IS GENERATED AT GAS AND POWER PLANTS AND RIGHT NOW NATURAL GAS PRICES ARE SKYHIGH. I’M NOT SURPRISED WITH HOW THINGS ARE GOING IN THE WORLD TODAY. EVERYTHING IS GOING UP. JOHN: AND THIS WINTER IT’S GOING TO GET MUCH WORSE. WE’VE NEVER SEEN PRICES GO THIS HIGH. JOHN: NATIONAL GRID NOW PREPARING CUSTOMERS FOR ELECTRIC BILLS THAT WILL BE 64% HIGHER THIS WINTER, BECAUSE ABOUT HALF OF THE ELECTRICITY HERE IS GENERATED USING NATURAL GAS. WHEN THE WAR BROKE OUT, WE SAW WORLDWIDE ENERGY PRICES SKYROCKET, AND THEY’VE REMAINED HIGH. JOHN: THE UTILITY SAYS A TYPICAL ELECTRIC CUSTOMER WHO PAID $179 A MONTH FOR ELECTRICITY LAST YEAR WOULD PAY $293 A MONTH THIS WINTER. NATURAL GAS CUSTOMERS CAN EXPECT TO PAY ROUGHLY $50 MORE A MONTH. EVERYTHING’S GOING UP. CAN’T GOING TO GROCERY WITHOUT SPENDING $100. DEFINITELY NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GAS BILL THIS WINTER. JOHN: EVERSOURCE NATURAL GAS RATES ARE ALSO GOING UP BETWEEN 25% AND 38%, ELECTRIC RATES ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO JUMP. LEAVING CUSTOMERS HOPING FOR AN EASY WINTER. WE’RE HOPING IT’S NOT GOING TO BE A VERY COLD WINTER SO WE DO NOT HAVE TO USE AS MUCH ENERGY AS WE DID IN THE PAST. JOHN: RATE HIKES WILL BE TOUGH FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE. UTILIT Electric bills could increase 64% this winter in Massachusetts, National Grid warns Natural gas heating customers could see 22-24% price hike Massachusetts electricity customers could be facing a steep increase in their winter bills, National Grid warned on Wednesday. Citing the high price of natural gas used in generating the power, the utility company said winter electricity rates taking effect on Nov. 1, will be sharply higher than they were last winter. “In total, the monthly bill of a typical residential electric customer using 600 kWh (kilowatt-hours) will increase from $179 in the winter 2021-2022 season, to approximately $293 for the winter 2022-2023 season,” National Grid said. That’s a 64% increase year-over-year. National Grid says most of the increase is driven by electric supply rates and that the company has “worked to keep the delivery portion of the bill essentially flat.”Eversource, the state’s other major electric utility, said it plans to file proposed rate changes with the Department of Public Utilities around mid-November, for changes to take effect on Jan. 1. Last winter, the Eversource proposed increase was about 25%. Rates are also seasonally adjusted for natural gas and National Grid said the average Boston Gas residential heating bill will increase $50 or 22% and the average Colonial Gas residential heating customer will see an increase of $47 or 24%, compared to rates last year. “With energy costs rising due to global conflict, inflationary pressures, and high demand as the winter heating season approaches, National Grid understands the impact this increased financial burden can have on our customers and communities, especially when we are all experiencing increased costs for other goods and services,” the company wrote in a statement. “National Grid buys energy on behalf of our customers from the wholesale market and passes through those costs without any markup or profit, so customers pay what National Grid pays for that energy.” Eversource said its proposed natural gas rates, scheduled to take effect on Nov. 1, would increase prices by about 38% or $86 for customers in the former NSTAR Gas service area and 25% or $61 for those in the former Columbia Gas territory. “These increases are mainly driven by the current high supply cost of natural gas worldwide,” Eversource said. To help customers, National Grid announced a “Winter Customer Savings Initiative” that highlights energy-saving tips and payment assistance programs. Eversource also shared its link to energy efficiency programs. Massachusetts also offers the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps eligible households pay a portion of their winter bills. WALTHAM, Mass. — Massachusetts electricity customers could be facing a steep increase in their winter bills, National Grid warned on Wednesday. Citing the high price of natural gas used in generating the power, the utility company said winter electricity rates taking effect on Nov. 1, will be sharply higher than they were last winter. “In total, the monthly bill of a typical residential electric customer using 600 kWh (kilowatt-hours) will increase from $179 in the winter 2021-2022 season, to approximately $293 for the winter 2022-2023 season,” National Grid said. That’s a 64% increase year-over-year. National Grid says most of the increase is driven by electric supply rates and that the company has “worked to keep the delivery portion of the bill essentially flat.” Eversource, the state’s other major electric utility, said it plans to file proposed rate changes with the Department of Public Utilities around mid-November, for changes to take effect on Jan. 1. Last winter, the Eversource proposed increase was about 25%. Rates are also seasonally adjusted for natural gas and National Grid said the average Boston Gas residential heating bill will increase $50 or 22% and the average Colonial Gas residential heating customer will see an increase of $47 or 24%, compared to rates last year. “With energy costs rising due to global conflict, inflationary pressures, and high demand as the winter heating season approaches, National Grid understands the impact this increased financial burden can have on our customers and communities, especially when we are all experiencing increased costs for other goods and services,” the company wrote in a statement. “National Grid buys energy on behalf of our customers from the wholesale market and passes through those costs without any markup or profit, so customers pay what National Grid pays for that energy.” Eversource said its proposed natural gas rates, scheduled to take effect on Nov. 1, would increase prices by about 38% or $86 for customers in the former NSTAR Gas service area and 25% or $61 for those in the former Columbia Gas territory. “These increases are mainly driven by the current high supply cost of natural gas worldwide,” Eversource said. To help customers, National Grid announced a “Winter Customer Savings Initiative” that highlights energy-saving tips and payment assistance programs. Eversource also shared its link to energy efficiency programs. Massachusetts also offers the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps eligible households pay a portion of their winter bills. Read More Here

Grand Jury Indicts Former Attorney General Nominee On Charges Of Sexual Abuse Of A Minor https://digitalalaskanews.com/grand-jury-indicts-former-attorney-general-nominee-on-charges-of-sexual-abuse-of-a-minor/ ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A man who was nominated for the Alaska Attorney General position was indicted by a Grand Jury Monday on sexual abuse charges relating to an incident over 30 years ago. Current Attorney General Treg Taylor released a statement on the indictment of Ed Sniffen, who is charged with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor. The alleged incident was reported to have occurred with an Anchorage high school student while Sniffen was “in a position of authority” in 1991, the year that Sniffen turned 28. Attempts to reach Sniffen’s attorney for comment Wednesday went unanswered at the time of publication. Sniffen was appointed to the attorney general position by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in January 2021, five months after the previous attorney general, Kevin Clarkson, resigned after information came to light about him sending inappropriate text messages to a young female colleague. Only 11 days after making the appointment, Sniffen removed himself from consideration for “personal reasons.” On May 27, 2022, charges were filed against Sniffen following an investigation by special prosecutors. The Superior Court arraignment for Sniffen is set for Monday afternoon. Copyright 2022 KTUU. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Federal Appeals Court Grants DOJ Classified Records Request In Trump Mar-A-Lago Case https://digitalalaskanews.com/federal-appeals-court-grants-doj-classified-records-request-in-trump-mar-a-lago-case/ A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday granted the Justice Department’s request to resume reviewing classified documents that seized from former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence for its ongoing criminal investigation. The big picture: The ruling is a win for the Department of Justice after a federal judge temporarily blocked investigators from examining Trump’s storage of the sensitive government records, which the DOJ argued would hinder its investigation. What they’re saying: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said in its ruling granting a partial stay that Trump “has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents.” “Nor has he established that the current administration has waived that requirement for these documents,” wrote the Trump-appointed Judges Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher and the Obama-appointed Judge Robin Rosenbaum. The judges noted that Trump suggested he may have declassified documents while he was president, but there’s no record of that and he didn’t provide any evidence to prove that before the special master. Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon denied the DOJ’s request to exclude the classified papers that the FBI seized from Trump’s Florida home when she appointed former New York federal judge Raymond Dearie as special master to overseeing a review of the documents. The appeals court judges noted in their ruling that the DOJ argued that the district court “likely erred in exercising its jurisdiction to enjoin the United States’s use of the classified records in its criminal investigation and to require the United States to submit the marked classified documents to a special master for review.” “We agree,” they added. The other side: Trump’s legal team had argued in a filing Tuesday that the Department of Justice had not successfully proved that the documents “it claims are classified are, in fact, classified and their segregation is inviolable.” A day before that, Trump’s team had opposed a request by the special master reviewing the documents to make disclosures about the declassification of documents found at his Florida residence. Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment. Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates. Read More Here

Craft Selects Sen. Wise As 2023 GOP Running Mate In Kentucky https://digitalalaskanews.com/craft-selects-sen-wise-as-2023-gop-running-mate-in-kentucky/ Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft selected state Sen. Max Wise as her running mate Wednesday evening, making an early commitment to a political partnership with the conservative lawmaker that she hopes will boost her primary bid next spring. Craft — a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Donald Trump’s presidency — announced her choice for lieutenant governor during an event in Wise’s hometown of Campbellsville in rural south central Kentucky. “When I thought about selecting a partner to lead our state, I knew it had to be a person who inspires respect, who has already shown commitment to Kentucky and – most important in public life – someone in whom we can place full trust,” Craft said in prepared remarks. “As soon as I lined up those qualities, the first name that leaped to mind was Max Wise.” A 2020 change in Kentucky law allows candidates for governor to wait until after the primary election to pick their running mate. In the past, gubernatorial hopefuls selected their slate-mate by the January filing deadline of the election year. Craft opted to lock onto a political partner some eight months before the primary. Other Republican candidates have yet to make their pick, such as Attorney General Daniel Cameron, state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, state Auditor Mike Harmon, state Rep. Savannah Maddox. The race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination is likely to dominate the state’s political landscape until the primary in May. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is seeking a second term next year. Beshear has received strong approval ratings from Kentuckians in polling as he tries to overcome the state’s tilt toward the GOP. Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, who will be Beshear’s running mate again in 2023, has focused on education and economic development issues during her term. By choosing Wise, Craft will have the advantage of dispatching a teammate to promote her candidacy as the campaign intensifies. Wise immediately jumped into the fray, promoting Craft’s credentials while making much of Beshear’s often-rocky relationship with the GOP-led legislature. “We’ve all watched Kelly take Kentucky values throughout the world, first as President Trump’s ambassador to Canada and then as his delegate at the United Nations, where she looked dictators in the eye and didn’t blink,” Wise said in prepared remarks. Wise tried to connect Beshear to Democratic President Joe Biden — who was trounced by Trump in Kentucky in the 2020 election. And Wise slammed the governor’s leadership style, accusing Beshear of a “closed-door policy when it comes to working with the legislature.” “There is no ‘Team Kentucky’ with Andy Beshear,” Wise said, invoking the “Team Kentucky” phrase often used by the governor at press briefings. “Andy Beshear is a team of one and I have seen it firsthand as a legislator.” The criticism comes about a month after Beshear worked with the legislature on a nearly $213 million aid package for flood-ravaged portions of eastern Kentucky. It resembled the bipartisan cooperation on a similarly big relief package earlier this year for parts of western Kentucky devastated by tornadoes in December. The governor also has worked with the legislature on economic development initiatives. During his term, Beshear helped the state land two massive battery production projects for Kentucky to power future generations of electric vehicles. Responding to Craft’s announcement, Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge said the early selection of Wise “confirmed” that Craft “does not have the experience to run or serve as governor on her own.” Wise has played a key role in shaping education policy as chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He was at the forefront as lawmakers passed school safety legislation in response to school shootings nationwide, including at a western Kentucky high school where two students were killed. He was a leading supporter of a measure designating a set of historical documents and speeches to incorporate into classroom work — a response to the national debate over critical race theory. In his statement, Elridge tied Wise to legislation paving the way for the introduction of charter schools, saying the result will be “taking money out of public education.” Read More Here

Jan. 6 Panel To Interview Wife Of High Court Justice Thomas https://digitalalaskanews.com/jan-6-panel-to-interview-wife-of-high-court-justice-thomas/ WASHINGTON —  Conservative activist Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, her lawyer said Wednesday. Attorney Mark Paoletta said Thomas is “eager to answer the committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election.” The committee has sought an interview with Thomas in an effort to know more about her role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn his election defeat. She texted with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election and before the insurrection. Thomas’s willingness to testify comes as the committee is preparing to wrap up its work before the end of the year and is writing a final report laying out its findings about the U.S. Capitol insurrection. The panel announced Wednesday that it will reconvene for a hearing on Sept. 28, likely the last in a series of hearings that began this summer. The testimony from Thomas — known as Ginni — was one of the remaining items for the panel as it eyes the completion of its work. The panel has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and shown some of that video testimony in its eight hearings over the summer. The extent of Thomas’ involvement ahead of the Capitol attack is unknown. She has said in interviews that she attended the initial pro-Trump rally the morning of January 6 but left before Trump spoke and the crowds headed for the Capitol. Thomas, a Trump supporter long active in conservative causes, has repeatedly maintained that her political activities posed no conflict of interest with the work of her husband. Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting voice when the Supreme Court ruled in January to allow a congressional committee access to presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes relating to the events of Jan. 6. It’s unclear if the hearing next week will provide a general overview of what the panel has learned or if it will focus on new information and evidence, such as any evidence provided by Thomas. The committee conducted several interviews at the end of July and into August with Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, some of whom had discussed invoking the constitutional process in the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after the insurrection. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican vice chairwoman, said at the panel’s most recent hearing in July that the committee “has far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather.” Read More Here

New York https://digitalalaskanews.com/new-york/ Bridget J. Crawford, Pace University Sep. 21, 2022 (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Bridget J. Crawford, Pace University (THE CONVERSATION) New York Attorney General Letitia James hit former president Donald Trump with a US$250 million lawsuit on Sept. 21, 2022, citing “staggering” amounts of falsified business information and fraud. The civil lawsuit alleges that Trump, his company – the Trump Organization – and three of his children lied to lenders and insurers about billions of dollars’ worth of assets. This follows a three-year investigation into Trump’s New York-based real estate business. The Conversation spoke with Bridget J. Crawford, an expert on tax and property law at Pace University, to help navigate the various dimensions and the potentially broader, criminal implications of this lawsuit. What are Trump and his children accused of in the lawsuit? The complaint is over 200 pages long and contains many specific claims. But, at its heart, the complaint says the Trump Organization made false financial or business statements in order to get loans or to keep those loans on favorable terms, in a way that was dishonest or fraudulent. Trump didn’t allegedly overestimate the cost of buildings, which is a technical term, but rather he is accused of inflating the value of certain businesses and properties. How does overstating the value of properties help Trump? Banks want to make loans to people who are likely to be able to repay them. And how does the bank measure whether someone is likely to repay? It’s knowing the recipient of a loan has enough collateral to satisfy the bank’s concerns. Trump said he had collateral worth a certain amount. James is saying that the values are really wrong, and really wrong over a period of years, in multiple different filings. Moreover, the lawsuit says this is not just a mistake, or an, ‘Oops I got it wrong.’ Rather, the attorney general alleges a systematic pattern of fraud. What should we make of this being a civil, not criminal, action? James is bringing a lawsuit regarding the Trump Organization’s compliance with New York’s civil laws, meaning business and lending laws and the like – hence it is a civil suit. That said, James made clear that she has also referred certain matters to both the IRS and to the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for criminal investigation. So this being a civil lawsuit does not mean we won’t potentially see criminal charges further down the line. Just, at this point, the New York attorney general is focused on the civil law violations. In other words, this could be just the beginning of a longer story. What does the lawsuit demand in way of relief? This is where it gets interesting, I believe. James is calling for very dramatic relief, including permanently preventing Trump, along with three of his children – Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump – from serving as a director or officer of any corporation conducting business activities in New York. It could preclude them from having any formal business ties in New York. This would be a severe blow to the family’s business interests. How would an IRS investigation differ from the New York one? It would be about federal tax laws, in particular. The IRS will be looking for an answer to this question: “Did Trump overstate the valuation of any property he gave to charity?” The New York attorney general is concerned that he did. The possible overvaluation relates to two different properties in Westchester, a county outside of New York City, and in Florida. What is at issue for the IRS is whether Trump correctly claimed the proper deduction, or whether he overstated, in a fraudulent way, the value of what he gave to charity. An overstatement of what he gave away would mean that the former president took a bigger income tax deduction than the one he was entitled to. Again, this is not just a matter of, “Oops, I made a mistake.” The attorney general alleges a widespread and longstanding pattern of misrepresentation of business values. By handing this part of the investigation over to the IRS, the New York attorney general is signaling that she intends to stay in her lane, so to speak. James is basically saying, “I am talking about fair business practices in New York. If there is a tax issue, I am referring it over to the IRS.” But all of the issues grow out of the same core set of facts and practices – how is the Trump family valuing its businesses and properties, and is it being done in a way that is honest? Does the lawsuit increase the chances of criminal charges? It certainly increases the possibility there might be criminal charges in the future. It also fans the flames that Trump continues to stoke in claiming that he is being unfairly targeted, which appears to be part of his attempt to discredit the American legal system. In fact, he is being asked to play by the same rules that apply to everyone else. I will be very interested to see whether and how the IRS responds – the IRS strives to be an apolitical organization, but unfortunately, anything involving this particular former president is treated by a vocal minority as inherently political. How common is it for this type of lawsuit to happen? It is very unusual. There would have had to be evidence of an egregious pattern of fraud for any attorney general, of any political party, to file a complaint of this sort. In fact, the whole investigation, from the length of time it has taken to the amount of money involved, makes this a very uncommon case. What happens next? The New York attorney general has asked for a variety of actions, including the removal of the current trustees of certain trusts holding Trump Organization assets. Trump has already responded, calling it a witch hunt, which is consistent with the way he has responded to lawsuits in the past. I expect he will employ any available procedural tactics to delay answering this suit as long as he can. Eventually, he will be called to respond, and he will have to answer the claims put to him. If he refuses to respond, the attorney general can act to protect the public, and the Trump family businesses would not be authorized to operate in New York. Ultimately, the state can shut the businesses down, if need be. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/new-yorks-250-million-lawsuit-against-donald-trump-is-the-beginning-not-end-of-this-case-a-tax-lawyer-explains-whats-at-stake-191146. Read More Here

Bill Barr Bristles At Fox Anchor Asking Why He’s Defending Trump After Having ‘Turned’ On Him https://digitalalaskanews.com/bill-barr-bristles-at-fox-anchor-asking-why-hes-defending-trump-after-having-turned-on-him/ Fox News anchor Sandra Smith asked former attorney general Bill Barr on Wednesday how he would respond to people essentially calling him a flip-flopper on ex-president Donald Trump, and he responded with a slam on media who frame questions the way Smith just did. After New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his adult children, and his company, Barr was one of many dozens of political somebodies brought on cable news to analyze and react. Mostly, those reactions echoed CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, who said, “It is amazing that it took so long for someone to hold him responsible.” Barr, on the other hand, slammed the attorney general for “gross overreach” and described it as a “political hit job.” “I think it will make people sympathetic for Trump, that this is another example of people piling on because of Trump Derangement Syndrome, the strong desire to punish him,” said Barr among his several criticisms. It was then that Smith asked him about seeming to defend Trump now after his many recent newsworthy attacks on the ex-president under whom he served. “What would you say to someone, someone watching right now who says it looks like you’re coming to the former President Trump’s defense when many, including The Atlantic, recent write-up saying that you’ve turned on the former president?” asked Smith, referring specifically to Jon Karl‘s essay on the subject of the ‘break-up.” Barr responded by characterizing the idea of being on Trump’s side or not as a concoction of media coverage. “Well, you know, that’s the way news is covered these days, as if it’s a sporting event, and you know, you’re either wearing this jersey or that jersey,” Barr accurately observed. “And the jersey, you know, I think, is specific to the facts and the truth in an individual situation.” Barr extended his argument for judging things on their own merits to say that there are good investigations and bad ones when it comes to Trump. Specifically that the suit brought by AG James is the latter, he emphasized. “There are times where people may, you know, be conducting legitimate investigations into some of Trump’s actions, but this isn’t one of them,” said Barr. “And it is simply true that there are a lot of long knives out for him. And, you know, people tend to go after Trump, target him unfairly, apply different standards of justice.” “When that happens,” Barr said in conclusion, “I think it has to be called out.” Watch the clip above, via Fox News. Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com Read More Here

QAnon Fans Celebrate Trump's Latest Embrace Of The Conspiracy – Local News 8 https://digitalalaskanews.com/qanon-fans-celebrate-trumps-latest-embrace-of-the-conspiracy-local-news-8/ By Donie O’Sullivan, Gabby Orr and Kristen Holmes, CNN Supporters of QAnon on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform have celebrated what they see as his renewed embrace of the conspiracy theory over the past week after he shared a meme that was viewed as one of his most brazen nods to QAnon yet. The meme Trump shared on Truth Social included an illustration of him wearing a “Q” on his lapel and two QAnon slogans — “The storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA” (Where we go one, we go all). A few days later, he held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he delivered some of his speech to music that sounded almost exactly like a song associated with QAnon. As he did that, a group of his supporters in the crowd began pointing in unison toward the sky. “Once we saw that, we realized we might have a problem,” a Trump aide told CNN. The former President’s team spent hours online after the rally trying to understand what the salute meant and where it might have come from, sources said. Some thought the crowd pointing one finger (their index finger) toward the sky was in reference to Trump’s “America First” platform, said one Trump aide who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. Another said they believed it referred to “God first,” while others thought it might be an allusion to the QAnon slogan, “where we go one, we go all.” Even among academics and experts who track QAnon and other disinformation online, the answer to what this all means remains unclear; they had not seen this one-finger salute before. But the post was welcomed on Truth Social by followers of the conspiracy theory, who believe in the existence of an evil cabal and view Trump as their hero. “At this point, anyone denying that Q was a legit operation affiliated with the Trump administration is in major denial,” read a post on one QAnon-supporting Truth Social account that has 120,000 followers. Trump has appeared to associate with QAnon themes in the past. However some aides, who were not authorized to speak publicly, have dismissed concerns about their boss’ behavior, chalking it up to the mindless social media re-posts of a “boomer.” His team has also continued to use a song at recent rallies after some of his aides became aware it had QAnon connections in early August. Trump aides believe the former President had re-posted the meme not because it referenced QAnon, but because it was fashioned like a “Game of Thrones” poster, pointing out it resembled a poster Trump had brought to a Cabinet meeting as president. Mindless or not, some experts say what Trump is doing is dangerous. “What we have is a former President, a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States, legitimizing what is in essence a cult,” Greg Ehrie, a former FBI special agent who now works with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told CNN Tuesday. The FBI warned last year of the potential for QAnon to stoke violence, and some people who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were wearing or carrying QAnon paraphernalia. Trump has previously shared QAnon-adjacent memes — often retweeting conspiracy theorists while president before he was removed from Twitter. Asked about QAnon in 2020, Trump responded, “Well I don’t know much about the movement, other than they like me very much.” The former President has been known to rapid-fire post to his Truth Social account, often without looking closely at the accounts he’s elevating or the content, according to a person close to Trump. “The QAnon stuff is way over his head,” claimed one Trump adviser describing a generally held view in his orbit. Another person who spoke to Trump recently told CNN, “I’ve never heard him speak of Q and I can’t imagine he’s an adherent or even knows much about it.” Nevertheless, the person said, Trump’s aides have “nudged him away from that kind of stuff.” Trump’s team has a policy of asking supporters at his rallies to remove QAnon-themed shirts and posters once they are inside the venue. Still, Trump has refused to outright disavow the movement that the FBI has warned is dangerous. And while major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had policies in place since 2020 that prohibit explicit QAnon content, the Trump-era conspiracy theory is thriving on Truth Social. “I think the onus is on him to avoid this kind of crap,” said another Trump ally. A song with echoes of QAnon As for the song Trump played at his rally last Saturday night that has been linked to QAnon, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich publicly dismissed concerns about the music as “a pathetic attempt to create controversy and divide America.” But privately over the weekend Trump’s team wanted to know its origin. There appears to be two versions online of all but identical songs. One, named after the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA” and available on Spotify, is by an artist named Richard Feelgood. Another, entitled “Mirrors,” is by a reputable composer. Trump’s team says they sourced the song from the latter, using a stock music software. The song was first used by the Trump team in a walkup video at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas in early August. The video’s score had been lifted from a music service called Storyblocks by an aide looking for “dark” and “epic” tunes, a person familiar with the music choice told CNN. Another source said it was chosen after hours of listening to royalty-free songs for the right fit, adding that the song never went through any sort of vetting process before being used in the video. Some Trump aides became aware of the QAnon connection in early August, after seeing an article by The Daily Beast that identified the connection to Feelgood’s version. Still, they kept using it. Trump shared a video to Truth Social where the music accompanied campaign-style footage, and then played it at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month for dramatic emphasis during his final remarks. While one aide noted that a small group of supporters raised their fingers during that Pennsylvania rally, the team did not think much of it. Trump was enthusiastic about the effect of the music under his speech and the song made its next appearance in Ohio, where the crowd reaction went viral last Saturday. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Trump Suffers Setback As Appeals Panel Rejects Cannon Ruling https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-suffers-setback-as-appeals-panel-rejects-cannon-ruling/ Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is shown in Palm Beach, Fla., in July 2019. | AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee A three-judge appeals court panel has granted the Justice Department’s request to block aspects of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that enjoined a criminal investigation into highly sensitive documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The panel ruled that Cannon erred when she prevented federal prosecutors from using the 100 documents — marked as classified — recovered from Trump’s estate as part of a criminal inquiry. “[Trump] has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents,” the panel ruled in a 29-page decision. “Nor has he established that the current administration has waived that requirement for these documents.” Two of the three judges on the panel, Andrew Brasher and Britt Grant, were appointed to the court by Trump. The third, Robin Rosenbaum, was appointed by President Barack Obama. In the unanimous decision, the judges declared it “self-evident” that the public interest favored allowing the Justice Department to determine whether any of the records were improperly disclosed, risking national security damage. Read More Here