Digital Arizona News

Tour News: Pixies, Death Cab, Dominic Fike, The Weeknd, The Comet Is Coming, The Cult, More https://digitalarizonanews.com/tour-news-pixies-death-cab-dominic-fike-the-weeknd-the-comet-is-coming-the-cult-more/ Here’s a roundup of recent tour news. Check the Tour Dates category for more. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE / MOMMA Death Cab for Cutie are on tour currently and play NYC’s Forest Hills Stadium on Friday with Real Estate. They’ve also just announced an early 2023 run with Momma beginning January 27 in Louisville and wrapping up February 14 in Nashville. All dates are here. death cab 2022-2023 tour loading… THE WEEKND The Weeknd has rescheduled his 9/3 L.A. show at SoFi Stadium which he cut short due to losing his voice. The new date is November 26 and he’s also added a second show on November 27. Kaytranada and Mike Dean will open both shows. SANTIGOLD Santigold has cancelled her tour, citing “physical, mental, spiritual, and economic” challenges, and “the new reality that awaited” post-COVID lockdown. “I have tried and tried, looked at what it would take from every angle, and I simply don’t have it. I can’t make it work,” she wrote in a lengthy statement. PHISH Phish will close out 2022 at Madison Square Garden for their annual New Year’s Eve run. PATTI SMITH Like she usually does, Patti Smith will be celebrating her birthday (12/30) with a special NYC show. PIXIES The Pixies release new album Doggerel this Friday and they’ve just announced in-store signings in Los Angeles (10/2 at Fingerprints Music) and NYC (Rough Trade on 10/5). Right after their NYC signing they’ll head over to Terminal 5 for a release show, which is one of a few dates celebrating the album. All dates are here. pixies rough trade loading… OSEES Having just played three nights in Brooklyn over the weekend OSEES just announced they’ll be heading back this way in December. PIERRE KWENDERS After winning the 2022 Polaris Prize for his new album José Louis and the Paradox of Love, Pierre Kwenders will play some shows this year and next. THE COMET IS COMING Shabaka Hutchings’ electronic leaning group The Comet is Coming are on tour now in support of terrific new album Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam. They’ve just added a second night at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on October 21 (their 10/22 Bowery show is selling fast). HELL’S HEROES 2023 LINEUP Hell’s Heroes Festival returns for its fifth year to Houston’s White Oak Music Hall on March 24 & 25, 2023, headlined by Triptykon, who will do an entire set of early Celtic Frost songs, including from 1984’s Morbid Tales and 1985’s To Mega Therion. The lineup also includes Possessed, Razor, Demon, Pagan Altar, Satan, Visigoth, Night Demon, Night Cobra, Hällas, Haunt, Danava, and more. THE CULT With their tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Zola Jesus wrapping up this weekend, The Cult have announced a few fall shows in Washington state (Snoqualmie, Airway Heights, Ridgefield), California (Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Barbara), and Chandler, AZ. Head here for all dates. the cult fall tour loading… SAMIA Samia‘s second album Honey will be out January 27, and she’ll tour in February and March. MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER Melody’s Echo Chamber is releasing Unfold, the lost follow-up to her debut album, on Friday and she’s announced NYC and L.A. shows happening in spring 2023. JACK TERRICLOTH TRIBUTE SHOWS World/Inferno Friendship Society leader Jack Terricloth sadly and unexpectedly passed away last year at age 50, and now many musicians have come together for a 39-song tribute album and a series of memorial shows/events happening on and around Halloween. DOMINIC FIKE Musician Dominic Finke, who you might know from Euphoria, will be on the Out of Order Tour beginning November 6 in Seattle with stops in Portland, Austin, Nashville, NYC (Terminal 5 on 12/2), Montreal, Denver and more before wrapping up in Tempe on 12/16. dominic fike tour loading… FRONT BOTTOMS CHAMPAGNE JAM 2022 Front Bottoms are bringing their annual Champagne Jam back to Philly this year with Joyce Manor, Soul Glo, Kevin Devine, Titus Andronicus, Prince Daddy & The Hyena, and more. MOON DUO Moon Duo are playing Austin’s Levitation Festival over Halloween Weekend which is one of their awesomely trippy Lightship shows and they’ll be taking it to San Francisco’s The Chapel on November 3 which is part of the venue’s 10th anniversary celebration. See it if you can. moon duo chapell loading… ANNA OF THE NORTH Norwegian artist Anna of the North releases new album Crazy Life on November 4 and to celebrate she’s playing special shows in NYC (11/14 @ Baby’s All Right), Los Angeles (11/16 @ Moroccan Lounge) and Mexico City (Corona Capital Festival). YACHT New documentary The Computer Accent follows YACHT as they worked with AI software to create their 2019 album ‘Chain Tripping‘. They’re touring the film and playing live in select cities this fall. Read More Here

‘I Hope You Suffer’: Ex-D.C. Officer Confronts Jan. 6 Attacker In Court https://digitalarizonanews.com/i-hope-you-suffer-ex-d-c-officer-confronts-jan-6-attacker-in-court/ A member of the mob that launched a series of violent attacks on police — including D.C. officer Michael Fanone — in a tunnel under the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, apologized Tuesday as a judge sentenced him to seven years and two months in prison. Kyle Young, 38, is the first rioter to be sentenced for the group attack on Fanone, who was dragged into the mob, beaten and electrocuted until he suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness. “You were a one-man wrecking ball that day,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson said. “You were the violence.” Fanone resigned from the D.C. police late last year, saying fellow officers turned on him for speaking so publicly about the Capitol attack and former president Donald Trump’s role in it. In court Tuesday, Fanone directly confronted his attacker, telling Young, “I hope you suffer.” “The assault on me by Mr. Young cost me my career,” Fanone said. “It cost me my faith in law enforcement and many of the institutions I dedicated two decades of my life to serving.” Young pleaded guilty in May to being in the group that attacked Fanone. Documents filed with his plea agreement offer this account: Young and his 16-year-old son joined the tunnel battle just before 3 p.m., and Young handed a stun gun to another rioter and showed him how to use it. When Fanone was pulled from the police line, Young and his son pushed through the crowd toward him. Just after that, authorities said, another rioter repeatedly shocked Fanone with the stun gun, and Young helped restrain the officer as another rioter stole his badge and radio. Young lost his grip on Fanone as the mob moved. He then pushed and hit a nearby Capitol Police officer, who had just been struck with bear spray, according to documents filed with his plea. Young also pointed a strobe light at the officers, jabbed at them with a stick and threw an audio speaker toward the police line, hitting another rioter in the back of the head, prosecutors said. In a letter to the court, Young said he cried on the phone with his wife as he left D.C. “I was a nervous wreck and highly ashamed of myself,” he wrote. “I do not condone this and do not promote this like others have done. Violence isn’t the answer.” In court, he apologized to Fanone, saying, “I hope someday you forgive me. … I am so, so sorry. If I could take it back, I would.” Young has a long criminal history. While in prison for producing meth, he faced repeated sanctions for violence. His attorney said that after a difficult childhood, Young had straightened out his life, gotten married, raised four children and started working in HVAC installation. Until Jan. 6, he hadn’t been arrested in a dozen years, his attorney said. His “conduct on January 6 is isolated to a unique set of circumstances that unfolded that are not likely to be replicated,” wrote his attorney, Samuel Moore. Jackson said she believed Young had become a good husband and father. But she noted the continued possibility of political violence, with Trump and his allies responding to possible prosecution by “cagily predicting or even outright calling for violence in the streets.” The sentence she gave Young is close to the eight-year statutory maximum for assaulting a police officer. Two of the other men accused of involvement in the attack on Fanone have pleaded not guilty. One has admitted dragging Fanone down the Capitol steps; he is set to be sentenced in October. Read More Here

Justice Department Wants Psychological Examinations Of Parents Suing After Being Separated From Children At US-Mexico Border – ABC17NEWS https://digitalarizonanews.com/justice-department-wants-psychological-examinations-of-parents-suing-after-being-separated-from-children-at-us-mexico-border-abc17news/ By Priscilla Alvarez, CNN The Justice Department wants a federal judge to require psychological examinations of some families separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the US government. The request comes after the Biden administration walked away from settlement talks late last year and has raised concerns among attorneys about re-traumatizing parents whose kids were torn away from them under the controversial policy. “This is where the government was headed as soon as the announcement came down,” said Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, which is representing separated families in similar cases. “They were headed toward re-traumatizing these families.” In 2018, the Trump administration announced a so-called zero tolerance policy, in which the Justice Department initiated criminal prosecutions of every adult illegally crossing the border. The policy, which was ended after widespread opposition, resulted in the separation of thousands of families, including those with infants, some only a few months old, because children can’t be kept in federal jail with their parents. The Physicians for Human Rights likened it to “torture,” and the American Academy of Pediatrics told CNN the Trump administration’s practice of separating families at the border was “child abuse.” Some families have since filed lawsuits seeking damages for the toll the separations took on them. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit in 2019 and attorneys representing families have filed separate claims as well. President Joe Biden, who’s condemned the Trump administration’s family separation policy, previously endorsed the idea of the US government compensating migrant families separated at the border, saying the previous administration’s “outrageous behavior” warrants cash payments — but he didn’t go into detail about specific amounts. Last December, the administration broke off settlement talks and went back to court. Now, in a case concerning five asylum-seeking mothers and their children, DOJ submitted its request for psychological examinations, calling it “standard practice” in its filing and citing a similar case pending in Florida where a parent and child were examined. In the filing, DOJ recognizes the anxiety, trauma and emotional distress separation caused on the parents, but says its selected expert should also examine them. “Plaintiffs intend to support their claims of injury through expert testimony and have each submitted to multiple mental health evaluations by their own expert. It is standard practice for plaintiffs alleging severe emotional injury to be examined by the opposing party’s expert; indeed, in a similar family-separation case pending in the Southern District of Florida, the adult plaintiff consented to an examination by the United States’ expert under the same terms that the United States proposes here,” the filing reads. The exam would consist of a clinical interview and a testing portion that includes a personality and emotional function test and a trauma-specific test, according to DOJ. The Justice Department’s response in the case may be a blueprint for similar cases from migrant families against the US government. “It’s bad enough that the Biden administration has not provided a meaningful settlement to the families separated under the Trump administration for the brutal treatment they received, but now the Biden administration is using taxpayer dollars to hire doctors to try and diminish the harm,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt. “That is hardly consistent with President Biden’s statement that the separations were criminal and an historic moral blemish on the nation,” he added. The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project is representing six families who were separated at the border in similar cases and assisted hundreds of other lawyers who are filing monetary damages lawsuits. Attorneys have warned families who are part of these lawsuits that they may face depositions and potential examinations but viewed it as a worst-case scenario. “This is very aggressive. This is the thing that the Trump administration would’ve done and did do,” Cruz said, citing a case litigated under the Trump administration where a mother was deposed in a similar case. The trauma experienced by families has been extensively documented in studies by outside groups as well as by the federal government. Outside groups and a government watchdog have found over the years that children separated from their families under the “zero tolerance” policy experienced trauma. A 2019 Health and Human Services inspector general report included accounts of facility staff detailing the inconsolable crying of children when they were separated, confused and believing they had been abandoned by their parents. The Biden administration has committed to helping reunite families as part of a family reunification task force and providing services to help those affected by the policy. Since the creation of the task force, 487 children have been reunified with their parents in the United States, according to a September court filing. Attorneys are still searching for the parents of 151 children, the filing says. As part of the effort, the Department of Homeland Security has established a process for accepting parole requests, the Department of Health and Human Services is working on facilitating services to support families and the State Department is developing a streamlined system for processing in-country travel document requests. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Mar A Lago: FBI Raid Of Donald Trump’s Florida Home Sparks Controversy https://digitalarizonanews.com/mar-a-lago-fbi-raid-of-donald-trumps-florida-home-sparks-controversy/ Talk of political polarization has consumed headlines in recent months. The most notable event of late has, undoubtedly, been the reaction to the FBI’s seizure of allegedly classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago (a club and resort owned by former president Donald Trump). Within hours of the search, which was authorized by Attorney General Merrick Garland, Republican outrage was palpable. Tucker Carlson, an anchor at Fox News and host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, claimed that the raid gave clear indication that “these were acts of aggression and hostility aimed at Americans … no American president has ever declared war on their own population.” Ben Shapiro, host at “The Daily Wire”, predicted that “if this raid turns out to be nothing … there will be hell to pay … things will get really, really ugly.”  These sentiments are shared among a sizable majority of Republicans. According to a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal, “41 percent [of Americans] said they viewed the FBI search as part of an ‘endless witch hunt’ against the former president” while 64% of Republicans said that the raid made them more likely vote in the 2022 midterm elections. Whether a surge in support for the former president will materialize remains to be seen, but the reaction from many Republicans is yet another indication that the American people are losing faith in our governing institutions.  While President Joe Biden has largely abstained from commenting on the raid, he recently traveled to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA to deliver a fiery speech about the threat posed by ‘MAGA’ Republicans. The President claimed that “too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.” Biden would go on to discuss, without much detail, Republican support for election-deniers, their rejection of bodily autonomy, privacy and LGBTQ+ rights; and their willingness to embrace political violence and authoritarian leaders.  What Biden seems to have forgotten, though, is that, in politics, image is everything. Against the backdrop of crimson red lighting and United States Marines, the speech was constructed as if it were a campaign speech — it was far from a direct or factual examination of the philosophies supporting ‘MAGA’ Republicans. The danger in delivering such a speech is that it can easily be perceived as an attack, if not a threat, to Biden’s political opposition (regardless of whether they are so-called ‘MAGA’ Republicans). Indeed, the talking point widely shared among Republican commentators the following day was that “this was the most dangerous Presidential speech in modern history” and that the president “had declared half the country as the enemy.” The natural question, then, is whether these and other statements made on the left and right are merely rhetorical or symptomatic of a larger decay in American political discourse. I am strongly inclined to believe the latter. It has become increasingly clear that faith in the American government is dwindling. The Pew Research Center, which has tracked American faith in the government since 1958, found that from April to May only nine percent of those who identify as conservatives trusted the federal government. In that same period, support among liberals was higher (averaging out at about 32%) but can be expected to oscillate if the Republicans were to regain power in either the executive or legislative branch. Concerning still is that faith in government has never surpassed 37% among either party since 2008.  More to the point, though, a loss of faith in the federal government has corresponded with a greater willingness to embrace subnational political identities (chiefly, party affiliations). Political discourse has moved away from “macro spaces” (the nation) and into micro spaces (the party). Parties have created insular spaces that cement any ideas that run contrary to what we might consider to be a more nuanced reality. The events of this summer highlight how the embrace of ‘post-truth’ politics tends to undermine the durability of the social contract — the idea that legitimate governance relies on the consent of the governed. “Truth,” in an open and pluralistic society, invites and makes possible the expression of different viewpoints. Post-truth politics detaches political discourse from this factual infrastructure. Possibilities for open debate and careful scrutiny of policies are denied. In its stead, post-truth politics seeks to normalize the outrageous, the absurd, and the obscene. By normalizing ad hominem politics, parties can claim a monopoly on political discourse. Those who oppose or otherwise question the beliefs of a party are deemed malicious and immoral. Post-truth politics breaks apart the common bonds of a nation by fueling mistrust and prejudice. The social contract cannot last long under these conditions.  Gustave Le Bon, author of “The Crowd”, predicted that political parties would capture the worst impulses of the crowd and convert them into a political force. Le Bon wrote in 1895 that as “our ancient beliefs are tottering and disappearing, while the old pillars of society are giving way one by one, the power of the crowd is the only force that nothing menaces, and of which the prestige is continually on the increase.”  He continues: “[the] psychological law of the mental unity of crowds” is that crowds of like-minded people are more likely to disregard careful examination of their beliefs” and that “the masses have never thirsted after truth. Parties — like crowds — turn away from evidence that is not to their taste, “preferring to deify error, if error [seduces] them.” As Le Bon put it, “whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master. Whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” Le Bon’s prediction was correct. Post-truth politics — as embraced by both political parties — pose a serious threat to liberal, democratic governance. Liberal societies must, by necessity, operate pluralistically and with due regard for their factual infrastructure. The health of political discourse will decline in proportion to our disregard for these basic norms. We must refuse the embrace of post-truth political behaviors – they are strongly anti-pluralistic. This sort of behavior dramatically flattens the political landscape in its presentation of political reality. Classical liberals and free speech advocates seem to believe that the antidote to anti-pluralistic behavior can be found in the expansion of spaces for free expression. Yet, the existence of a free space does not guarantee the embrace of pluralism — much less a surrender of post-truth political identities. The antidote to post-truth politics is not purely political – it is also sociological. In other words, we should not presuppose that the political nature of man is rational. As we have seen this summer, post-truth politics undermines this assumption. If we ignore the sociological behavior of parties, post-truth politics will subsume the fabric of the Republic and ordinary Americans will reap the consequences.  Read More Here

'It Bothered Me': Michigan House Race Tests Whether Democrats' Meddling In GOP Primaries Will Pay Off Or Backfire – Local News 8 https://digitalarizonanews.com/it-bothered-me-michigan-house-race-tests-whether-democrats-meddling-in-gop-primaries-will-pay-off-or-backfire-local-news-8/ By Eric Bradner, Omar Jimenez and Donald Judd, CNN In the battleground Michigan congressional district that might be the most controversial example of Democrats’ meddling in Republican primaries, Democratic-leaning voters are fretting that the strategy could leave them with an election-denying Republican in Congress. “Politics sucks,” said Erick Davis, 31, who runs a coffee business in Grand Rapids and said he is an independent who typically votes for Democrats. Michigan’s 3rd District is among the congressional contests that will decide which party controls the House in 2023. It could also be the clearest test of whether national Democrats’ decision to pump money into ads in GOP primaries elevating candidates the party views as unelectable — including John Gibbs, an official in Donald Trump‘s administration who has backed the former President’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, in this district — will backfire. Democrats, whose narrow House majority is on the line, are already facing historic headwinds and economic factors that could tilt competitive races in the GOP’s favor. Freshman Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, was seeking a second term in the Grand Rapids-based district. But Trump, who has spent much of 2022 seeking political retribution against those Republicans, endorsed Gibbs. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — expecting that Gibbs would be easier to defeat in what, after last year’s redistricting process, now looks like a battleground district — spent $450,000 on television advertising labeling him “too conservative.” It might have been the difference: Gibbs defeated Meijer by 3.6 percentage points, less than 4,000 votes. He is now taking on Democrat Hillary Scholten, an attorney, in the general election. “I understand the strategy,” Davis said. “I think Gibbs is a much weaker candidate, and … Pete Meijer is someone that’s in the community, he’s someone that you see around — like, his family has done like a lot for this community. So, like, the strategy is not something I would have spent money on. But like, tactically, I guess I get it.” There is no evidence in the district of backlash against Scholten over her national party’s tactics in the race. But some Democratic-leaning voters’ discomfort with the DCCC’s approach underscores why Meijer was broadly seen as poised to win re-election if he survived the GOP primary. “It bothered me, and I know it bothered others,” said Ruth Kelly, a retired teacher and former Grand Rapids city commissioner. “I just think, you know, Peter Meijer had a lot to offer here. However, I’m still really excited about Hillary.” “They had to make some choices, some very difficult choices, and I disagree with that,” Janice Lanting, a retired teacher from Grand Rapids, said of national Democrats’ involvement in the race. “But I guess I’m not the one to make decisions, and we just want Hillary to do well in the polls.” ‘Risky and unethical’ Michigan’s 3rd District offered a window into a strategy Democratic political groups employed across the map. Democrats also pumped money into similar ads temporarily boosting what would become winning candidates in gubernatorial primaries in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania, as well as House and Senate primaries in New Hampshire. The practice helped elevate a series of election deniers in key races in November’s midterm elections. Democratic officials have defended the practice, arguing that it is the most effective way of defeating GOP candidates. But some in the party have warned that helping Republicans who have attempted to erode Americans’ faith in its election system — particularly at the cost of helping the GOP purge figures such as Meijer, who sided with Democrats on Trump’s impeachment — could have serious consequences. “These destructive primary tactics aim to elevate Republican candidates who Democrats hope they can more easily beat in November,” former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer wrote in an August letter signed by 35 former Democratic lawmakers criticizing the party’s strategy. “But it is risky and unethical to promote any candidate whose campaign is based on eroding trust in our elections. We must stop this practice, and stop today.” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the largely Democratic House panel investigating the insurrection, said the DCCC’s actions in Michigan were “terrible.” “All of us, again, across party lines, have got to make sure that we are supporting people who believe fundamentally in our democratic system,” she said. “And so I think that it’s inexplicable and wrong for the Democrats to be funding election deniers, particularly against one of the 10 Republicans who so bravely stood up and did the right thing.” Meijer said on CNN in the days after the election that that Democrats’ tactic in the Michigan 3rd District primary showed that “there is no incentive to try to be a productive member” of Congress while working in Washington, and that “it all will come down to partisan benefit no matter what the consequence.” “Any party that pretends to have a set of principles, any party that pretends to have a set of values and that comes in and boosts exactly the same type of candidate that they claim is … a threat to democracy, don’t expect to be able to hold on to that sense of self-righteousness and sanctimony,” Meijer said. ‘A much better opponent’ In Michigan, Scholten said she does not see Gibbs as necessarily being easier to defeat than Meijer would have been. “At the end of the day, Republicans decided who their standard bearer was going to be in this race, and they chose Mr. Gibbs. The voters came out, and they elected Mr. Gibbs, and national Republicans wanted him too,” she said in an interview with CNN. “You know, they didn’t spend a dime to try to support Peter Meijer or to keep Mr. Gibbs out of this race.” Gibbs, meanwhile, has tapped into a Republican base that remains energized by Trump and the former President’s lies about election fraud. He campaigned in recent days alongside GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon, the former President’s son Donald Trump Jr. and former top Trump White House aide Kellyanne Conway. “My opponent’s name happens to be Hillary. And no matter what, not another Hillary,” Gibbs said recently at an event held by the Muskegon County GOP, to cheers from the crowd. “I’m losing the country I grew up in. It’s crazy to see what’s happening, but we got to take it back,” he said. He called the race a “civilizational fight.” “This is a big deal, we got to let them know that they’re not going to take us down a path of China, North Korea, Iran, whatever it might be, whatever it might be. We are a free country, we have to remain that way,” Gibbs said. On the Democratic side, Scholten believes the stakes are similar. “This election is a referendum on our democratic ideals as a state and as a nation,” she told CNN. “There is nothing easy about this race, let me tell you, this is going to be a fight to the finish.” Gibbs, who worked in Trump’s administration, has wrongly called the results of the 2020 election “mathematically impossible.” He is also under fire after CNN reported that he wrote as a college student in the early 2000s that the United States has “suffered as a result of women’s suffrage.” He’s insisted the writings were satirical. While Democratic voters fretted about the consequences of helping elevate Gibbs in the primary, some Republican voters said they saw him as the better candidate for November’s general election. Vicki Ware, a Republican from Norton Shores, said she believes Gibbs is a stronger candidate than Meijer was. She said Meijer had betrayed the GOP by voting to impeach Trump, and that she wants to see Trump run for president again. “Everyone knew, obviously, that Peter Meijer was a RINO,” Ware said, using an acronym that refers to the phrase “Republican in name only.” “He got into office promising one thing and then completely flipped and so everybody wanted him out, and John Gibbs is the person that beat him and can win.” Diana Blais, a retiree from Muskegon, said Meijer “was not a good fit for Michigan” and that Gibbs is, in her view, “going to be a much better opponent” against Scholten. “I think just because his values line up with what we’re looking to gain back again — that we’ve, you know, been under attack by this administration in a lot of different ways; our freedoms are being taken away, kind of slowly but surely, they have been,” Blais said. “And he’s going to help get us lined back up again.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Sara Lee Keller Obituary (2022) https://digitalarizonanews.com/sara-lee-keller-obituary-2022/ Obituary of Sara Lee Keller Sara Lee Keller of Tucson, Arizona, passed away in the early hours of Tuesday, September 20, 2022, following a two-year battle with cancer. She was surrounded by family. The upstate New York native was born on May 21, 1956, in Warsaw, New York. She graduated from Canajoharie High School before attending Wells College, where she received her BA, cum laude. While at Wells, Sara Lee was a member of the varsity basketball team. She later attended Villanova University School of Law, graduating with a JD in 1981 and an LLM in Taxation in 1984. After receiving her law degree, Sara Lee embarked on a long and distinguished legal career. She entered private practice in Philadelphia where she was later elected to the partnership of Wolf Block Solis-Cohen in the Corporate, Financial Services and Healthcare practices. She later served as the Deputy General Counsel for DVI Financial Solutions and Associate General Counsel for a General Electric Commercial Finance subsidiary, Express Financial Solutions, which took her to Chicago by way of Connecticut. After leaving GE, Sara Lee was a partner in the Corporate group for Freeborn & Peters LLP and General Counsel for the Trustmark Companies. In 2011, Sara Lee ventured west to Arizona where she was named Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Clear Channel Outdoor in Phoenix. Most recently, she was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) Corporation, an international consortium of research institutions building a cuttingedge, ground-based telescope in Chile. Those that knew Sara Lee will remember her as an incredibly kind and compassionate person. She was passionate for mentoring young law students and lawyers alike and served on the Board of Consultors for Villanova’s law school. While living in Chicago, she volunteered as a 7th and 8th grade basketball coach at St. Joseph Catholic School in Libertyville, IL. She was a dog lover, expert baker, and tireless knitter, who was rarely without a half-knit sweater, hat, or mittens at her side for family or friends. She will be missed dearly. She is survived by her children Erica Fulginiti McDowell, Alaric Smith, and Maggie Smith; her siblings, Cynthia Barton, Vicki Panhuise, Kent Keller, Rebecca Mondore, and Karl Keller; her grandchildren, Chase and Juliet McDowell; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents George and Margery Keller, her brother, Jon Keller, and sister, Amy Beth Keller. The family will hold a private service in New York in the spring of 2023. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sara Lee’s honor to the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Scholarship Fund or to the Wells College Annual Fund. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Sara Keller, please visit Tribute Store Published by Adair Funeral Homes – Dodge Chapel on Sep. 27, 2022. Read More Here

Hurricane Ian Live Updates: Disney World, Universal Orlando Closed; Halloween Horror Nights Cancelled https://digitalarizonanews.com/hurricane-ian-live-updates-disney-world-universal-orlando-closed-halloween-horror-nights-cancelled/ Live updates will be posted here regarding the impacts of Hurricane Ian on our region. Check here for our hurricane preparedness stories to get ready for the storm. Get the latest updates on Hurricane Ian here. UCF football’s home game vs. SMU, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, has been moved to Sunday, the American Athletic Conference announced on Tuesday. Kickoff inside FBC Mortage Stadium between the Knights and the Mustangs is set for 1 p.m. the conference said. The broadcast designation, on the ESPN Family of Networks, will be announced at a later date according to the conference. The last sandbag distribution center in Osceola County at the St. Cloud civic center will continue to fill sandbags until 7 p.m. Tuesday. The St. Cloud Civic Center has distributed an estimated 15,000 sandbags so far today, according to St. Cloud spokesperson Maryemma Bachelder. The civic center opened Tuesday at noon and will close at 7 p.m. Another Osceola County sandbag distribution center at the Osceola County Heritage Center will close at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Osceola Heritage Center has filled over 216,000 sandbags over the last three days, according to a news release. Two new shelters opened in Osceola County at Narcossee Middle School and a pet-friendly shelter at Liberty High School. Publix stores across the Orlando area will close Wednesday as Hurricane Ian approaches Florida, the Lakeland-based grocer’s website shows. Customers can check details on their specific store at publix.com, but a check by the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday evening of many stores in the Orlando area show they are listed to close at 6 p.m. Wednesday and reopen on Friday. Publix updated when exactly stores will close throughout the day Tuesday. As of Tuesday evening, 448 of Publix’s 1,312 stores were expected to have modified hours. As Hurricane Ian strengthens over the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Department of Corrections announced Tuesday it will be canceling visitation hours statewide throughout the weekend. Effective through Oct. 2, no visitors will be permitted at any of the major institutions, work camps, work release centers or annex facilities. FDC said it will resume normal visitation “as soon as possible” and encourages loved ones of prisoners who want to receive updates on visitations and closures to text “FDCVISIT” to 888-777. Walt Disney World theme and water parks will be closed Wednesday and Thursday. Additional information will be shared soon on DisneyWorld.com/weather. Central Florida hospitals are gathering supplies to ensure they can continue to provide service as Hurricane Ian inches closer to the region. AdventHealth Central Florida has stockpiled thousands of gallons of water and has generators ready to power its hospitals in the event power is lost, said spokesperson Jeff Grainger. “We do not anticipate any service interruptions,” he said. “Family members of patients can rest assured that the hospital will be a safe place for their loved ones during the storm. We will be fully staffed and continue to deliver our excellent standard of care.” Orlando Health is also making preparations to ensure sufficient staffing and medical supplies, said spokesperson Sabrina Childress. “Orlando Health takes each hurricane event seriously and prepares accordingly. Preparedness measures are underway and will continue to evolve in response to weather changes,” Childress said. “During inclement weather events, our priority remains the safety and care of all patients.” HCA Florida Healthcare, too, will have adequate staffing, medications, medical supplies, food and water during the storm for its five Central Florida hospitals, as well as backup generator power, said Richard Hammett, president of the HCA Healthcare North Florida Division. “We continue to monitor Hurricane Ian as it progresses and will be ready for any changes that may take place in the next 24-48 hours. With the support of HCA Healthcare’s National Command Center, HCA Florida Healthcare hospitals have access to information, resources, and support from a network of experts and care sites across the state and nation,” Hammett said in a statement. Florida residents should only come to hospitals if they need medical attention. They are not equipped to serve as emergency shelters. Seminole County opening emergency shelters Wednesday | 3:36 p.m. Tuesday Seminole County will open eight emergency shelters at 8 a.m. on Wednesday at area public schools for residents looking for refuge from Hurricane Ian. The county will then announce an evacuation order for residents who live in flood-prone areas, mobile homes and persons with disabilities. At the 3 p.m. press conference, however, county emergency officials held off naming the shelters and locations until they have them fully prepared for the influx of residents. But residents should first try to find shelter in other areas — such as at a family member’s home or friend’s house — before deciding on a county emergency shelter, officials said. “Shelters are places of last resort,” said Alan Harris, Seminole director of the county’s office for emergency services. Residents with special needs should call the county’s hurricane hotline at 407-665-0000 if they need to stay at a shelter. “Seminole County is planning for extremely high winds, heavy rains and possible tornadoes,” Harris said. Sheriff Dennis Lemma urged residents to stay off the roads during the storm because of the danger of flying debris and flooded roads. Lemma noted that his office has increased the number of deputies, along with city police officers, who will be patrolling the county. “Any person committing a crime during a state of emergency will be dealt with appropriately,” Lemma said. Shoppers looking for last-minute supplies and groceries from Publix in south Lake County as well as west of Kissimmee still have some time, but face a deadline as Hurricane Ian approaches. While the Lakeland-based grocer hasn’t revealed changed hours for many of its Orlando area stores yet, at least nine stores in Clermont, Groveland, Minneola, and Kissimmee are expected to close at 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to the grocer’s website as of Tuesday afternoon. They are currently set to reopen Friday. The stores were earlier listed as closing on Tuesday, and Publix has since updated its site with them closing Wednesday. Customers can check for updates on their stores at publix.com. Even more stores west and southwest of Kissimmee, including in Davenport, are also expected to temporarily shutter. Universal Orlando Resort, including CityWalk, will close on Wednesday and Thursday, with tentative plans to reopen on Friday as conditions permit. Universal Orlando said its hotels are currently at full capacity and will remain operational. The park planned two of its Halloween Horror Nights events on Wednesday and Thursday, both of which will be canceled. For more information and FAQs, visit https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/plan-your-visit/weather-updates/severe-weather.html. Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicated Hurricane Ian’s minimum pressure has decreased to 952 MB. It is now located about 255 south of Sarasota.’ The next full update will be at 5 p.m. Residents fill sandbags in Osceola County ahead of Hurricane Ian. At Osceola County Heritage Park sandbag distribution, the line snakes around the entire park. Osceola County maintenance worker, Thomas Compton, hands out bundles of 25 bags to cars stopping at his pickup truck with a large blue tarp set up just behind. “It’s been a steady stream of cars the whole time we’ve been open,” Compton said. “It’s been crazy since Monday because I think that’s when people started to see the storm was coming.” Compton has worked since Sunday for ten-hour shifts handing out empty sandbag bundles to cars and telling them to “go around the pickup truck and then over there” as he points to a large grass area with various piles of sand and cars huddled around them. “I think all these people getting sandbags are overreacting,” Compton said as an Ice Cream truck pulls up to the crew of maintenance workers making bundles of sandbags. “Look at that, now we get ice cream.” Down the line at a sand pile is 57-year-old Ivette Aponte shoveling sand into a bag. “I’m worried because we live next to two lakes and they are already really full so we’re worried about it flooding into our house,” Aponte said. Aponte’s 24-year-old flight attendant daughter, Karalise Ferrer, said the family is planning on putting the sandbags in front of their garage door. “We’re going to fill all 25 sandbags,” Ferrer said. “About five years ago when Hurricane Irma hit we also got sandbags.” The family lift the heavy bags of sand into the bed of their pickup truck driven by Felix Ferrer, Aponte’s husband and Karalise’s dad. “I think we’re mostly worried about the rain,” Felix Ferrer said. “We have seen in the past a lot of flooding where we live and I’m worried it will happen again.” The Osceola County sandbag distribution center at the Osceola Heritage Park will close at 6 p.m. Tuesday with no official word yet if the site will continue operations on Wednesday. The gas station at 7235 University Blvd. east of Winter Park ran out of gas by 8 a.m. Tuesday after receiving a truck of fuel on Monday, said co-owner Khuram Pervez. He said he and his partners bought the former RaceTrac at the end of July and are rebranding it as “RaceStop.” “Yesterday [Monday] we were packed,” Pervez said. “Literally, the right side of the lane of the road, that’s where people were trying to come in because it was packed.” He hoped to get more fuel on Tuesday evening. “I’m hoping five o’cl...

2 Arizona Restaurants Make Tripadvisor's Best Of The Best Lists – AZ Big Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/2-arizona-restaurants-make-tripadvisors-best-of-the-best-lists-az-big-media/ Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, today announced the next in its community-powered Travelers’ Choice Awards series: the 2022 Best of the Best Restaurants, which includes two Arizona restaurants. Cafe Monarch in Scottsdale is ranked No. 4 among Fine Dining Restaurants in the U.S.  BirdHouse in Page ranks No. 2 for Best Quick Bites. Here to help everyone discover all the must-visit restaurants when traveling, Tripadvisor is sharing the top-rated spots across the globe, inclusive of six different subcategories of restaurant types. Discerning diners can peruse the menu of winners here: tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Restaurants. Award-winning restaurants this year spanned six continents and 51 countries. Global labor challenges and ongoing COVID-19 restrictions continued to limit dine-in capacity in some markets – for instance, some Asian nations were closed to international tourists for nearly the entire data evaluation period. Still, gourmands the world over savored dining out, leaving millions of reviews on Tripadvisor chronicling their experiences. READ ALSO: Here are the Ranking Arizona Top 10 lists for 2022 “Dining out is an internationally beloved pastime: for many restaurant-goers, it’s frequenting their favorite neighborhood eatery and for others, it’s snagging a table at a top-rated restaurant on vacation. More than half of consumers in a recent survey* told us that food is the most exciting component of their trip,” said Lauren Murphy, Vice President, GM of Hospitality Solutions at Tripadvisor. “Like searching through a big menu for the perfect meal, recommendations can be helpful in decision making, and our community’s guidance makes choosing from the wide array of restaurants easier. Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best Awards, decided by people who visited and reviewed these places in the past year, offers authentic recommendations for the best places to eat no matter the occasion!” Diners looking to celebrate a special occasion or splurge on an elegant night out should look no further than the Best of the Best Fine Dining winners. The No. 1 Fine Dining Restaurant in the world for 2022 is The Old Stamp House Restaurant in Ambleside, United Kingdom. Taking the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive year, Old Stamp House, run by two brothers, is revered for its intimate, unique setting and tasting menu. Top 10 Fine Dining Restaurants in the U.S. 1. Lahaina Grill – Lahaina, Hawaii (also No. 19 in the world) 2. The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge – Blowing Rock, North Carolina 3. The Lincoln Inn & Restaurant At The Covered Bridge – Woodstock, Vermont 4. Cafe Monarch– Scottsdale, Arizona 5. Halls Chophouse – Charleston, South Carolina 6. Six Tables a Restaurant – Boca Raton, Florida 7. Inn at Little Washington – Washington, Virginia 8. Sazón – Santa Fe, New Mexico 9. Collage Restaurant– St. Augustine, Florida 10. Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina, a Nashville Steakhouse – Nashville, Tennessee Best of the Best Everyday Eats The winning establishments in the Best of the Best Everyday Eats category offer delicious indulgence without breaking the bank. Here are the top 10 in the U.S.: 1. Timber Kitchen and Bar – Bangor, Maine 2. Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille Ft. Myers Beach – Fort Myers Beach, Florida 3. Ristorante Pesto – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 4. il Pastaiolo – Miami Beach, Florida 5. Local Goat – New American Restaurant Pigeon Forge – Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 6. Corinne Restaurant – Denver, Colorado 7. Moose-AKa’s – Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska 8. The Salty Crab Bar & Grill North Beach – Clearwater, Florida 9. Queology – Charleston, South Carolina 10. The Republic Grille – The Woodlands – The Woodlands, Texas BirdHouse in Page, Arizona. Best Quick Bites Foodies hungry for a fast casual meal on the go will be sated with Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best Quick Bites winners. Here are the top 10 in the U.S.: 1. Bleecker Street Pizza – New York City, New York 2. BirdHouse – Page, Arizona 3. Steak Shack – Honolulu, Hawaii 4. Martha’s Dandee Creme – Queensbury, New York 5. Milt’s Stop & Eat – Moab, Utah 6. NY Pizza Suprema – New York City, New York 7. Seven Brothers – Kahuku, Hawaii 8. Muldoon’s – Munising, Michigan 9. Portillo’s Hot Dogs – Chicago, Illinois 10. Earl of Sandwich – Las Vegas, Nevada Have an anniversary coming up or want to impress a date? The Best of the Best Date Night Restaurants reveal places ideal for couples to enjoy a meal out. Altto Ristorante & Lounge Bar in Brazil has been crowned the most romantic restaurant in the world for 2022. With a breathtaking view of the Bay of Armação and unparalleled gastronomic experience, it’s clear why couples love dining here. Top 10 Date Night Restaurants in the U.S. 1. The Restaurant at Gideon Ridge – Blowing Rock, North Carolina (also No. 11 in the world) 2. The Silver Fork – Manchester, Vermont (also No. 16 in the world) 3. The Lincoln Inn & Restaurant At The Covered Bridge – Woodstock, Vermont 4. Glen-Ella Springs Inn & Restaurant – Clarkesville, Georgia 5. Goldmoor Dining – Galena, Illinois 6. Circa 1886 Restaurant – Charleston, South Carolina 7. Bistro St. Michaels – St. Michaels, Maryland 8. Desert Bistro – Moab, Utah 9. Collage Restaurant – St. Augustine, Florida 10. Flying Fish Grill – Carmel, California Top 10 in the world For many, atmosphere is just as important as the quality of the meal or occasion. Diners seeking the most Instagram-worthy culinary experiences can scroll through Tripadvisor’s Best of the Best Picture-Perfect Restaurants list: gorgeous places where the restaurant looks as good as the food tastes – perfect for a selfie. Here are the top 10 in the world. (This wanderlust-provoking list is only awarded at the world-level.) Sunset Monalisa – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico KOMA Singapore– Singapore 7 Thalasses – Crete, Greece La Yola Restaurant – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic The Flying Fishbone – Savaneta, Aruba Porfirio’s Cancún – Cancun, Mexico Koral Restaurant – Bali, Indonesia Tomo – Dubai, United Arab Emirates Adamo ed Eva by Eden Roc – Positano, Italy Man Wah – Hong Kong, China Although the Travelers’ Choice Awards typically represent the top-rated, most popular restaurants, Tripadvisor sought to showcase lesser-known spots and places locals love; hence, a brand-new subcategory revealing the best Hidden Gems. Globetrotting foodies on the hunt for hole-in-the-wall local favorites can check out Green Point in Cusco, Peru, the No. 1 Hidden Gem on the planet in this inaugural award. This plant-based culinary experience will impress vegans and meat eaters-alike. Top 10 Hidden Gems in the U.S. Joe’s At The Jepson – Savannah, Georgia Mersea Restaurant & Bar – San Francisco, California Seaside Cafe at the Mansion – Key West, Florida Chubby’s Deli – Sevierville, Tennessee Roadhouse Diner – Great Falls, Montana Finelli’s Italian Villa – Altoona, Pennsylvania Pickin Porch Grill – Branson, Missouri Rocco’s NY Style Pizza by Mama D’s House – Branson, Missouri Buxton Munch Company – Buxton, North Carolina Bakery Restaurant and Lounge – Niagara Falls, New York To see all the winners, including the best in the world, visit tripadvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Restaurants. Read More Here

Wall Street To Pay $1.8 Billion In Fines Over Traders’ Use Of Banned Messaging Apps https://digitalarizonanews.com/wall-street-to-pay-1-8-billion-in-fines-over-traders-use-of-banned-messaging-apps/ The firms in the settlement include the brokerage unit of Bank of America.Photo: LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS Updated Sept. 27, 2022 6:09 pm ET WASHINGTON—Eleven of the world’s largest banks and brokerages will collectively pay $1.8 billion in fines to resolve regulatory investigations over their employees’ use of messaging applications that broke record-keeping rules, regulators said Tuesday. The firms include brokerage units of Bank of America Barclays Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs Group Morgan Stanley, UBS Group and Nomura Holdings Inc. Brokerage firms Jefferies LLC and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. also settled the claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Read More Here

LOCAL ROUNDUP: FHS Cross Country Takes 2nd, 3rd In Gilbert https://digitalarizonanews.com/local-roundup-fhs-cross-country-takes-2nd-3rd-in-gilbert/ SUN SPORTS STAFF The Flagstaff Eagles boys and girls cross country teams took second and third, respectively, at the Western Equinox XC Festival at Freestone Park in Gilbert on Saturday. The boys finished second in the big-school varsity race with a total score of 76. Division I power Highland won the meet with a low score of 20. Flagstaff’s top three 5K runners each placed in the top 16. Spencer Lott (16:22.8) took 10th, Dash McQuivey (16:27.0) finished 11th and Cole Troxler (16:34.7) rounded out the group in 16th. The girls won bronze with 107 points, as Highland also was first as a team in the girls race with 24 points. Taylor Biggambler (18:56.5) led the way for the Eagles, finishing eighth overall. Makennah Mitchell (19:51.2) crossed the finish line in 12th and Olivia Baker (20:46.9) rounded out Flagstaff’s top three with a 27th-place result. The Eagles are scheduled to compete in the Desert Twilight XC Festival in Mesa on Friday. Volleyball Spartans 3, Falcons 0 Northland Prep Academy won its sixth consecutive match with a 25-18, 25-18, 25-9 sweep at North Pointe Prep in Phoenix on Monday. Senior Bella Moseng had a team-high 12 kills to lead the way for the Spartans (7-5, 5-0 Central), who continued their unbeaten start to region play. Northland Prep showed another strong serving night, collecting 19 service aces total. Miranda Greene led the way behind the service line with six aces, with Malia Turner, Bella Moseng and Karlie Zeglin contributing three apiece. Northland Prep will play a city rivalry match at Basis Flagstaff next Monday at 6 p.m. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More Here

Maricopa County Attorney Says Court Ruling Didn't Resolve Abortion Law https://digitalarizonanews.com/maricopa-county-attorney-says-court-ruling-didnt-resolve-abortion-law/ PHOENIX – Maricopa County’s top prosecutor said Tuesday that last week’s court ruling on abortion didn’t resolve the issue of what the law actually is in Arizona. In a video posted to social media, Interim County Attorney Rachel Mitchell went on to say her office wouldn’t prosecute any abortion cases, if brought, without further judicial guidance. She said there haven’t yet been any abortion-related cases submitted since a judge ruled Friday that Arizona can enforce a near-total ban that had been blocked for nearly 50 years. “In the event we do receive a submittal, if further guidance has not been provided by the courts or the Legislature by that time, my office will seek guidance from the court before taking any action,” she said. “This will be needed before a decision can be made on the case.” Until Friday’s ruling, an injunction had blocked enforcement of a law on the books since before Arizona became a state that bans nearly all abortions. The only exemption is if the woman’s life is in jeopardy. Planned Parenthood said it plans to appeal the ruling and has asked the court to keep the injunction in place for now. States were given authority over abortion laws in June when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the longstanding precedent set by Roe v. Wade, which ensured abortion rights at the federal level. The Arizona Legislature had recently passed a bill that bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, which was scheduled to go into effect Saturday, but the language of the statue also says it does not repeal the near-total ban that originated in 1864 and has remained on the books with minor alterations. As a result, Arizona officials remain confused about which law now applies: the near-total ban that Attorney General Mark Brnovich said is in effect or the 15-week ban that Gov. Doug Ducey said takes precedence. “Friday’s Pima County Superior Court decision regarding abortion and the subsequent appeal have not resolved which law among conflicting statutes now applies,” Mitchell said. One thing the competing bans have in common is that the punishments are directed at abortion providers, not the patients. “I will not prosecute women for having abortions,” Mitchell said. “And no statute even suggests a woman will ever be prosecuted for her decision.” Mitchell, a Republican, is running to retain the seat to which she was appointed in April. Her opponent in the Nov. 8 general election, Democrat Julie Gunnigle, has said she won’t enforce any abortion restrictions if elected. “Julie has been unequivocal that she will never use the resources of the County Attorney’s Office to go after pregnant people, their health care workers or their support networks. Not now, not ever,” her website says. Follow @ktar923 We want to hear from you. Have a story idea or tip? Pass it along to the KTAR News team here. Read More…

Donald Trump’s Immunity In Rape Accuser’s Defamation Case In The Hands Of D.C. Appeals Court https://digitalarizonanews.com/donald-trumps-immunity-in-rape-accusers-defamation-case-in-the-hands-of-d-c-appeals-court/ Former president Donald Trump may get immunity after all in a defamation case brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of rape. A Federal appeals panel on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling that found Trump was not acting in his presidential capacity in June 2019, when he called Carroll a liar after she alleged he forced himself on her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. In October 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan decided Carroll could sue Trump as a private citizen, not as president, which would make Trump solely responsible for any damages. But the Justice Department appealed on the grounds that Trump was a government employee when he made the remarks and was entitled to immunity. Tuesday’s ruling also kicks the case to the D.C. Court of Appeals to issue a final decision. If they rule in Carroll’s favor, the case will head to trial in February 2023. The 2-to-1 majority did not state whether they believe Trump raped Carroll or defamed her. But in his dissent, Justice Denny Chin made his feelings clear. “[T]he comment ‘she’s not my type’ surely is not something one would expect the President of the United States to say in the course of his duties,” reads Chin’s dissent. “Carroll’s allegations plausibly paint a picture of a man pursuing a personal vendetta against an accuser, not the United States’ ‘chief constitutional officer.’” Former President Donald Trump (Evan Vucci/AP) Breaking News As it happens Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts. Carroll brought the libel suit after accusing Trump of raping her in the Midtown department store in the mid-nineties. Trump insisted that she is lying and that she is “not my type,” when the allegations came out. The Justice Department said last summer that it would continue to represent Trump in the case. Its lawyers have taken the position that it’s not the conduct it seeks to protect him from but a federal employee’s right to be shielded from lawsuits. E. Jean Carroll (Seth Wenig/AP) Trump lawyer Alina Habba said allowing the DOJ to represent him would let future presidents “effectively govern without hindrance.” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said she was confident that D.C. panel would take her side. She said it’s more important now than ever to hold presidents legally accountable. “The world was a very different place when this case was briefed and argued back in December 2021. At that time, Judge Calabresi used the hypothetical of a president injuring an innocent bystander while playing golf,” she told the Daily News. “Today, given what we now know happened on Jan. 6, courts have to be concerned about something that was previously unimaginable – namely, a president taking actions as part of a plan to overturn our democracy.” Carroll plans to sue Trump on Nov. 24 for sexual assault her under the Adult Survivors Act. Read More Here

A Judge Rebuked Republicans Over Warnings Of Violence If An Investigation Into Trump 'doesn't Go His Way' https://digitalarizonanews.com/a-judge-rebuked-republicans-over-warnings-of-violence-if-an-investigation-into-trump-doesnt-go-his-way/ A federal judge said patriotism is not standing up for a man “who knows full well that he lost.” Judge Amy Berman Jackson noted the recent increase in threats to law enforcement officials. Her comments came as she sentenced a Capitol rioter to more than seven years in prison. Loading Something is loading. In the aftermath of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have warned of violence breaking out in the streets if charges result from any of the investigations swirling around the former president. For one federal judge, that rhetoric merited a message of deterrence on Tuesday. At the sentencing of a Capitol rioter, Judge Amy Berman Jackson rebuked Republican leaders for “cagily predicting or even outright calling for violence in the streets if one of the multiple investigations doesn’t go his way.” “The judiciary,” she said, “has to make it clear: It is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America to stand up for one man who knows full well that he lost instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert.” Jackson’s remark came a month after Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, drew criticism for predicting there would be “riots in the streets” in the event the Justice Department charges Trump. The former president himself had previously responded to the search of his South Florida home and private club by warning that the “temperature has to be brought down in the country. “If it isn’t,” Trump told Fox News Digital, “terrible things are going to happen.” The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have warned in recent weeks of a surge in threats to federal law enforcement officials in response to the court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago, where agents retrieved more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 marked as classified. Jackson noted that rise in threats Tuesday as she sentenced the Capitol rioter Kyle Young to more than seven years in prison for assaulting a police officer guarding the Capitol during the January 6, 2021, attack. Young pleaded guilty in May and will be credited for the 17 months he spent behind bars since his arrest in April 2021.  The judge’s sentence aligned with what prosecutors had recommended for Young, who brought his 16-year-old son to the Capitol on January 6 and engaged in some of the most brutal clashes with police that day. Jackson on Tuesday pointed to the presence of Young’s teenage son, saying, “It defies understanding that the presence of your 16-year-old son by your side on January 6 did not inspire you to curb your behavior in the slightest.” During the mayhem of January 6, Young pushed through the pro-mob to grab the wrist of a Washington, DC, police officer, Michael Fanone, as other rioters assaulted him. At one point, he passed a taser to another rioter, who used the device on Fanone’s neck. Jackson said that, when she read in court papers that Young passed the taser used on Fanone, “it was like a punch in the stomach.” “You can hear his screams on the video. Screams … while he’s begging, ‘I have children,’ you choose to join in. You aid the others around you and help to hold him down,” Jackson said. Jackson noted that, in the video of the assault on Fanone, a “Blue Lives Matter” flag swirled overhead. “It was obscene,” she said. An Obama appointee confirmed in 2011, Jackson presided over some of the highest-profile cases brought as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Her stern remarks echoed those of other judges on the federal trial court in Washington, DC, who have attributed the violence of January 6 in part to Trump and top Republicans. At past sentencing in January 6 cases, Judge Amit Mehta has said that many Capitol rioters charged with relatively low-level offenses were misled by prominent Republicans, including Trump, into believing the former president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. In April, at the conclusion of one of the first jury trials in a January 6 case, Judge Reggie Walton referred to Trump as a “charlatan.” Before Jackson handed down her sentence Tuesday, Fanone gave a victim-impact statement in which he recounted facing an onslaught of projectiles and being “ruthlessly beaten” on January 6. The violence that day “cost me my career,” Fanone said. Fanone urged Jackson to order Young to serve a decade-long prison sentence. “In my mind, that is what is justified,” Fanone said.  “What I hope you do with that time,” he added, “is I hope you suffer.” Read More Here

Congress Moves Closer To Funding Government After Manchin Drops Plan Following GOP Backlash | CNN Politics https://digitalarizonanews.com/congress-moves-closer-to-funding-government-after-manchin-drops-plan-following-gop-backlash-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  Senate Democrats on Tuesday cleared the way for a key vote to take up a government funding extension to succeed after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin dropped a request to include in the stop-gap bill a controversial proposal on permitting reform that had come under sharp criticism from Republicans and liberals. The vote had been on the verge of failing due to the inclusion of the measure, but now will likely have the support needed for the funding bill to move forward. Senators released the legislative text of the stop-gap funding bill overnight – a measure that would fund the government through December 16. In addition to money to keep government agencies afloat, it provides around $12 billion for Ukraine as it continues to face Russian military attack, and would require the Pentagon to report on how US dollars have been spent there. The aid to Ukraine is a bipartisan priority. The continuing resolution also would extend an expiring FDA user fee program for five years. Manchin’s permitting proposal would expedite the permitting and environmental review process for energy projects – including a major pipeline that would cross through Manchin’s home state of West Virginia. Senate Democratic leaders had been pushing to pass it along with government funding as a result of a deal cut to secure Manchin’s support for Democrats’ controversial Inflation Reduction Act – a key priority for the party – which passed over the summer. But Republicans had been warning they will vote against the effort to tie permitting reform to the funding extension, in part because they don’t want to reward Manchin over his support for the Inflation Reduction Act. Lawmakers are expected to pass a short-term funding extension by week’s end and avert a shutdown but they are up against the clock with funding set to expire on Friday at midnight. The timing of the fight continues a pattern by Capitol Hill leaders in recent years of negotiating until the last minute to fund the federal government, leaving virtually no room for error in a series of events where any one senator could slow the process down beyond the deadline. Neither party wants to be blamed for a shutdown – especially so close to the high-stakes November midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake and as Democrats and Republicans are both trying to make their case to voters that they should be in the majority. Many lawmakers are also eager to finish up work on Capitol Hill so they can return to their home states to campaign. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took issue with the permitting reform proposal in his Senate floor remarks on Tuesday, describing it as a “poison pill,” and saying he would oppose the vote as a result. “Both sides of the aisle want to prevent a government shutdown that no one wants,” he said. “Unfortunately our Democratic colleagues decided to put in extraneous, partisan language – in fact, a poison pill.” He went on to say, “The poison pill is a phony attempt to address an important topic — permitting reform.” “I’ll be voting no and I would urge all my colleagues to vote no as well,” he said. Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he will vote against the measure because of its inclusion of the Manchin plan. “We have made significant progress toward a continuing resolution that is as clean as possible. But, if the Democrats insist on including permitting reform, I will oppose it,” he said in a statement. On Tuesday morning, Manchin continued to call for his colleagues to support his energy permitting text in an interview with CNN, but acknowledged he may not have the votes for it to pass with McConnell urging his colleagues against the measure. “I’m not going to second guess what Mitch would do and what his motives are,” he told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day.” “I think there’ll be a time when he looks back, if he really evaluates this well, that we never had this opportunity to take a major step forward, that we’re all in sync with – permitting reforms need to be done for the United States to meet the energy challenges.” At the same time, some liberal members of the Senate Democratic caucus have expressed concern over environmental impacts. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is urging colleagues to oppose what he describes as a “big oil side deal.” Manchin released legislative text last week for his permitting reform proposal that he wants to see included as part of the continuing resolution – and now the West Virginia senator is working to try to get 60 votes to advance both permitting reform and the government funding extension together. A Manchin aide told CNN that the senator has been “working the phones all weekend” and has secured several more Republican votes. In another sign, however, of the headwinds facing the plan, Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine released a statement explaining that he would vote against proceeding to the bill for government funding as a result of the permitting measure. “I strongly oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline provision of this legislation, which would greenlight this pipeline without normal administrative and judicial review and ignore the voices of Virginians,” Kaine said in a statement. “I will vote against the motion to proceed to this deal and urge my colleagues to do the same. We should pass a continuing resolution that is free of the unprecedented and dangerous MVP deal,” he said. This story and headline have been updated with additional developments. Read More Here

Trump Fan Who Assaulted Officer Fanone On Jan. 6 Sentenced To More Than 7 Years In Prison https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-fan-who-assaulted-officer-fanone-on-jan-6-sentenced-to-more-than-7-years-in-prison/ WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump fan who brought his teenage son along as he assaulted then-D.C. police officer Mike Fanone and another officer at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Tuesday. Kyle Young, a 38-year-old HVAC worker from Iowa whose lawyer said he was “injected” with lies about the 2020 election and who had asked his Facebook followers to join him at the “Stop the Steal” rally, pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Young ” target=”_blank”admitted that he used a strobe light to disorient police, helped throw a large audio speaker at police, grabbed Fanone’s wrist when the D.C. officer was abducted by the mob and made contact with another officer abducted by the mob. Kyle Young at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. District Court for D.C. Young’s 86-month sentence matched what federal prosecutors sought in the case. They argued that Young took part in the assault at the lower west tunnel of the Capitol where “some of the most barbaric violence” took place on Jan. 6. As discovered by online sleuths, the government argued that Young handed a Taser to Danny Rodriguez, a MAGA fanatic who used it to electroshock Fanone in the neck on Jan. 6. Young, trailed by his 16-year-old son, was right nearby as Rodriguez electroshocked Fanone, extensive video evidence shows. Rodriguez, who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, admitted those actions to the FBI but his case is still pending. U.S. Capitol Police Officer Morris Moore, who was dragged into the mob, gave a victim impact statement in court Tuesday, saying the actions of rioters reminded him of the film “300,” or a zombie movie. He said he’s had nightmares about facing down the mob. “It’s almost like a war,” he said. “It was crazy.” Moore, a former college football player, said he was reminded of the words of a coach who told him the to leave it all on the field. He said wanted to get back in the fight after he was removed from the riot. “I wanted to leave it out there on the west front,” he said. “We did out best. We did our best.” Fanone, who gave his own victim statement and recounted how officers fought to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6, told the judge this “isn’t my first rodeo” in federal court, noting that he had been to the courthouse numerous times as an officer. He referenced Young’s criminal history in describing how Young had prevented him from finishing his career in law enforcement. Fanone said that while he was “serving my community and my country with distinction,” Young was “racking up felony criminal convictions.” Fanone added that he believed Young should have received a sentence of 10 years in prison. “I hope you suffer,” he told Young. After Fanone’s statement, a supporter of the Jan. 6 defendants who was in the courtroom called Fanone a “piece of s—.” There was a brief stare down between them before Marshals escorted out the supporter and banned him from the courthouse for the rest of the day. Young turned directly to Fanone before his sentencing and apologized, saying he hoped that Fanone would one day forgive him. “If I could take it back, I would,” Young said, adding that he was not proud of what he did that day and that it eats at him every day. “Whatever you give me as a punishment I accept, and I probably deserve it,” he told the judge. Prosecutors laid out in a sentencing memo how Young’s actions impacted Fanone that day. “When Young spotted Officer Fanone being pulled into the crowd, he purposefully moved toward the attack, and joined at a pivotal moment — restraining Officer Fanone’s wrist by pulling it away from his body seconds after the officer was repeatedly tased and amid shouts of ‘kill him with his own gun,'” federal prosecutors said. “Young’s restraint of Officer Fanone prevented the officer from protecting his service weapon at a time when the officer’s life was in danger and gave Young’s co-defendant Thomas Sibick an opening to forcibly remove Officer Fanone’s badge from his chest and his police radio from a pocket on the front of his vest,” prosecutors added. Fanone’s badge was later buried in the woods behind Sibick’s backyard, the government has previously said. Former Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone during a House select committee hearing on July 12.Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / Sipa USA via AP file Young had written in a letter to Judge Amy Berman Jackson that he was sorry for his actions on Jan. 6. “I still can’t believe I let myself and my son get swept up into such terrible events,” Young wrote in a letter to the judge, adding he was “highly ashamed” and that he’ll “never do anything like that again.” More than 850 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 350 have pleaded guilty. The longest sentence of 10 years in federal prison went to an ex-NYPD officer who assaulted a D.C. cop with a flagpole and tackled him to the ground, and then lied on the stand about his conduct. There are hundreds more arrests still to come. Read More Here

McConnell Backs Post-Jan. 6 Revisions To Elections Law https://digitalarizonanews.com/mcconnell-backs-post-jan-6-revisions-to-elections-law/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will “proudly support” legislation to overhaul rules for certifying presidential elections, bolstering a bipartisan effort to revise a 19th century law and avoid another Jan. 6 insurrection. The legislation would clarify and expand parts of the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which, along with the Constitution, governs how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential winners. The changes in the certification process are in response to unsuccessful efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to exploit loopholes in the law to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden. McConnell made the remarks just before a committee vote on the legislation. He said he would back the bill as long as a bipartisan agreement on the language is not significantly changed. “Congress’ process for counting the presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago,” McConnell said. “The chaos that came to a head on Jan. 6 of last year certainly underscored the need for an update.” McConnell noted that in addition to Republican objections to Biden’s win in 2021, Democrats objected the last three times that Republicans won presidential elections. The legislation would make it harder for Congress to sustain those objections. The GOP leader’s comments give the legislation a major boost as the bipartisan group pushes to pass the bill before the end of the year and ahead of the next election cycle. Trump is still pushing false claims of election fraud and saying he won the election as he considers another run in 2024. The House has already passed a more expansive bill overhauling the electoral rules, but it has far less Republican support. While the House bill received a handful of GOP votes, the Senate version already has the backing of at least 12 Republicans — more than enough to break a filibuster and pass the legislation in the 50-50 Senate. The Senate Rules Committee is expected to approve the legislation Tuesday and send it to the full chamber for consideration. A vote on the bill isn’t expected until after the November elections. Senators are expected to make minor tweaks to the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting but keep the bill largely intact. The bill, written by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, would make clear that the vice president only has a ceremonial role in the certification process, tighten the rules around states sending their votes to Congress and make it harder for lawmakers to object. The changes are a direct response to Trump, who publicly pressured several states, members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence to aid him as he tried to undo Biden’s win. Even though Trump’s effort failed, lawmakers in both parties said his attacks on the election showed the need for stronger safeguards in the law. If it becomes law, the bill would be Congress’ strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, in which hundreds of Trump’s supporters beat police officers, broke into the Capitol and interrupted the joint session as lawmakers were counting the votes. Once the rioters were cleared, the House and Senate rejected GOP objections to the vote in two states. But more than 140 Republicans voted to sustain them. Differences between the House and Senate bills will have to be resolved before final passage, including language around congressional objections. While the Senate bill would require a fifth of both chambers to agree on an electoral objection to trigger a vote, the House bill would require agreement from at least a third of House members and a third of the Senate. Currently, only one member of each chamber is required for the House and Senate to vote on whether to reject a state’s electors. The House bill also lays out new grounds for objections, while the Senate does not. ___ Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More Here

Leaks In Undersea Gas Pipelines After Explosions Point To Sabotage, Officials Say https://digitalarizonanews.com/leaks-in-undersea-gas-pipelines-after-explosions-point-to-sabotage-officials-say/ Image The land portion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, last week.Credit…Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters Explosions under the Baltic Sea and the rupture of major natural gas pipelines from Russia to Germany appeared to be a deliberate attack, officials across Europe said on Tuesday, deepening uncertainty about European energy security amid soaring prices and fears of running short of fuel over the winter. Three separate leaks erupted from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were already caught up in the conflict over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sending swirling streams of methane to the surface of waters off Denmark and Sweden. Top Polish and Ukrainian leaders blamed Moscow, while Russian state media suggested U.S. or Ukrainian involvement. “It’s hard to imagine that it’s accidental,” Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told reporters while on a trip to Poland to open a new undersea pipeline to carry Norwegian gas — a judgment echoed by officials in several countries. Swedish seismologists reported detecting the underwater explosions on Monday, and pipeline monitors in Germany registered a swift drop in the conduits’ pressure. Later, patches of sea surface in the same areas as the explosions began roiling with dangerously combustible gas, forcing shipping to steer clear. Several countries said they were investigating the cause. The apparent attack had no immediate effect on European energy supplies; Nord Stream 2 has never gone into service, and Nord Stream 1 has been shut down since August. But it raises the stakes — and European jitters — in a simmering energy war between Russia and the West prompted by the war in Ukraine. Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, blamed Russia for the leaks, saying they were an attempt to further destabilize Europe’s energy security. He spoke at the launch of a new undersea pipeline that connects Poland to Norway through Denmark. “We do not know the details of what happened yet, but we can clearly see that it is an act of sabotage,” Mr. Morawiecki said. “An act that probably marks the next stage in the escalation of this situation in Ukraine.” Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that sabotage could not be ruled out. “It is too early to conclude yet, but it is an extraordinary situation,” she said during a visit to Poland to inaugurate the pipeline from Norway. “There is talk of three leaks, and therefore it is difficult to imagine that it could be accidental,” she said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said on Twitter that the leaks were “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards E.U.” Speaking at a news conference in Washington, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday, “There are initial reports indicating that this may be the result of an attack or some kind of sabotage, but these are initial reports and we haven’t confirmed that yet.” “My understanding is the leaks will not have a significant impact on Europe’s energy resilience,” he added. The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said of the leaks that “no possibility can be ruled out,” but the Russian state media sought to blame the United States and Ukraine. The state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported that Washington “is an active opponent of Russian gas supplies to Europe,” and said that Ukraine opposed Nord Stream 2 because it “was afraid of losing revenues from the transit of Russian gas.” Image A satellite image showing a leak at the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline 13 nautical miles southeast of Bornholm Island, Denmark, on Tuesday.Credit…Planet Labs It was not immediately clear who would benefit from ruptures in the pipelines, which were not in operation. The pipelines have been a focal point of the broader confrontation between Russia and Europe. After the European Union imposed economic sanctions on Russia to penalize it for invading Ukraine in February, Russia began withholding the natural gas that for decades it had sent to Europe, threatening the continent’s energy supply as winter looms. Monika Pronczuk, Oleg Matsnev, Torben Brooks and Richard Pérez-Peña contributed reporting. Image This handout picture released on Tuesday by the Danish Defense Command showed the leak at the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline off the island of Bornholm, Denmark.Credit…Danish Defense Command, via Getty Images As investigators from several countries look into gas leaks at Nord Stream 1 and 2, Sweden’s public broadcaster said on Tuesday that monitoring stations in Sweden and Denmark had recorded heavy underwater explosions in the same area as the gas leaks on Monday. “There is no doubt that there were blasts,” said Björn Lund, an associate professor of seismology at the Swedish National Seismic Network. The Swedish National Seismic Network said it had detected two distinct blasts in the area on Monday. One had a magnitude of 2.3 and was recorded at as many as 30 monitoring stations in southern Sweden. The first explosion was recorded at 2:03 a.m. on Monday, and the second at 7:04 p.m. The warnings about the gas leaks came from the Swedish Maritime Administration on Monday afternoon and evening after ships detected bubbles on the surface. — Christina Anderson Image The pro-Russian proxy mayor of Mariupol visited a polling station on Tuesday.Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images KYIV, Ukraine — The four days of stage-managed referendums on joining Russia in occupied parts of Ukraine wrapped up on Tuesday, as pro-Moscow officials used raw intimidation tactics, including armed men in ski masks at polling stations, Orwellian messaging and thinly attended festivities to influence the vote. The referendums were intended to be a show of democracy by Russia, and even though most Western leaders dismissed them as a sham, they are likely to have chilling consequences. The purported results claimed the great majority of residents had voted to join Russia, giving the Kremlin a rationale to formally announce annexation as soon as this week. The Russian state news media was reporting what it described as results showing enormous levels of support for joining Russia in four occupied territories. Tass, the Russian news agency, reported 92.68 percent in favor in Zaporizhzhia, 86 percent in Kherson in the south, and 93.95 percent in Donetsk and 98.53 in Luhansk in the east. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, told the U.N. Security Council that Russia was staging “sham” referendums that were an effort to “erase the norms of international law.” “This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state,” he said in a remote address to the Council on Tuesday. The staged votes earned broad international condemnation, and world leaders vowed not to recognize the announced results. At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken said the United States would never recognize territories annexed through the referendums. He denounced Russia for what he called a “diabolical scheme” to move local Ukrainian residents out of captured areas and bus in Russians for the purpose of having them vote. Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, said in an interview the results of the voting were meaningless because of intimidation tactics. “They bang loudly, they ring the doorbell, they give people a ballot and point with their rifles where to put the mark,” he said. Mr. Orlov said the aim of Moscow was clear: to claim the land in four provinces partly occupied by the Russian Army as Russian and assert that Ukraine is now attacking Russia, not the other way around. President Vladimir V. Putin has said Russia will defend the territories with any means. The country has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia who now serves as deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, reiterated on Telegram on Tuesday that Moscow had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons and that was “definitely not a bluff.” Formal annexation would require a vote in the Russian Parliament. Mr. Putin is scheduled to address both houses on Friday, suggesting that a possible vote on annexation could take place then, British military intelligence reported. Ukrainians have expressed fears that one immediate consequence of annexation would be conscription of their citizens into the Russian military, forcing them to take up arms against their own country. In parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, which have been occupied by Russia since 2014, that is already the case. Maria Varenikova, Carly Olson and Michael Crowley contributed reporting. Image President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressing members of the U.N. Security Council by video on Tuesday.Credit…UNTV, via YouTube With Russia appearing poised to annex parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine lashed out at the Kremlin on Tuesday, telling the U.N. Security Council that Russia was staging “sham” referendums at gunpoint as a prelude to stealing part of his country. “This is an attempt to steal the territory of another state,” he said, speaking remotely by video and wearing his signature olive green shirt. He called the referendums a reckless breach of international norms and called for the international community to impose sanctions on Russia. “This is an attempt to erase the norms of international law,” he said. Mr. Zelensky also repeated his castigations of Russia for using what he has called “nuclear blackmail” to destabilize the world and highlighted reports that Russia is disproportionately targeting Crimean Tatars and other Indigenous people in its draft. Mr. Zelensky addressed the Council as Russian-backed administrators in ...

Jury Selection Begins In Oath Keepers’ Jan. 6 Conspiracy Trial – Deltaplex News https://digitalarizonanews.com/jury-selection-begins-in-oath-keepers-jan-6-conspiracy-trial-deltaplex-news/ (WASHINGTON) — Jury selection is underway Tuesday in one of the most complex and crucial cases being brought by the Justice Department in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as five members of the Oath Keepers anti-government group — including its founder Stewart Rhodes — stand trial on charges that they conspired together to oppose by force the lawful transition of presidential power. The trial, which is expected to last over a month, could prove to be the toughest test yet for prosecutors in the DOJ’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6 attack, which has so far resulted in federal charges against nearly 900 defendants. Failing to secure convictions against Rhodes or others in the case with the rarely-brought seditious conspiracy statute, experts say, could prove to be a significant setback to the department’s ongoing efforts to target alleged domestic extremist groups driven to carry out acts of violence against the government. Rhodes, Thomas Caldwell, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson and Jessica Watkins are among the first group of Oath Keepers to go to trial for seditious conspiracy and multiple other felony charges connected to their alleged actions surrounding the Capitol attack. Four other members of the group are scheduled to go to trial in late November. The government has already secured three guilty pleas for seditious conspiracy from Oath Keepers Joshua James, William Todd Wilson and Brian Ulrich, all of whom admitting they joined the group with the goal of using force to stop the peaceful transfer of power from then-outgoing President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden. The group is alleged to have stashed firearms and ammunition at hotels surrounding Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, and used encrypted communications to coordinate their actions breaching the Capitol and seeking out lawmakers involved in the certification of Biden’s election win. Prosecutors say images they have submitted in court filings filings show members of the group, clad in tactical gear, moving through the pro-Trump mob up the Capitol steps in a military-style “stack” formation to enter the building. Prosecutors allege that multiple members of the group remained back at a Ballston, Virginia, hotel during the attack as part of a “Quick Reaction Force” that was tasked with rapidly transporting weapons to D.C., possibly by ferrying them up the Potomac River, if they were called up by Rhodes. While Rhodes is not alleged to have entered the Capitol building itself, prosecutors have singled him out as a lead coordinator in calling on various chapters of the group around the country to come to Washington, and calling on members to ready themselves for a potential “civil war” to keep Trump in office. The trial, in D.C. district court, is expected to feature testimony from dozens of witnesses, with prosecutors planning to introduce thousands of private messages sent between members of the group leading up to and following the Jan. 6 attack that detail their alleged plans to keep Biden from taking office. The federal judge overseeing the case, Amit Mehta, recently rejected a last-minute effort from Rhodes to delay the trial and replace the legal team that had represented him since his arrest in January of this year. Mehta has similarly rejected requests from other members of the group to delay the trial, as they argued that potential public hearings or the release of an interim report by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack would serve to taint any jury impaneled in the case. Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Adam Schiff And Jerry Nadler Clashed Over Trump's First Impeachment With Nadler Saying Democrats' Plans Were 'unfair' And 'unconstitutional' https://digitalarizonanews.com/adam-schiff-and-jerry-nadler-clashed-over-trumps-first-impeachment-with-nadler-saying-democrats-plans-were-unfair-and-unconstitutional/ Two powerful House Democrats disagreed on how to handle Trump’s first impeachment. At issue was which of their committees would take the lead in the investigation. Rep. Jerry Nadler also reportedly pushed Democrats to have Trump’s lawyers more involved.  Loading Something is loading. A pair of powerful House Democrats clashed repeatedly behind the scenes over the handling of President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, according to a forthcoming book. Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York and Adam Schiff of California reportedly disagree over how much power to give Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee and how to address potential due process concerns with the proceedings.  “It’s unfair, and it’s unprecedented, and it’s unconstitutional,” Nadler reportedly told Schiff, according to an excerpt from “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump.” The book, written by Politico Playbook co-author Rachael Bade and Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian, will be published on October 18. Fox News published the latest excerpt from the book on Tuesday afternoon. Nadler, according to the book, felt that if the Judiciary Committee did not cross-examine witnesses, Trump and his attorneys would raise concerns about whether his due process rights had been violated. Nadler reportedly wanted Democrats to handle charges Trump abused his power by freezing aid to Ukraine like the Judiciary panel handled President Richard Nixon’s impeachment before he resigned. “If we’re going to impeach, we need to show the country that we gave the president ample opportunity to defend himself,” Nadler warned Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, per the book. In the end, Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee took the lead role in handling Trump’s impeachment, a break from the historic tradition of the Judiciary Committee handling such proceedings. According to the authors, this was because Pelosi did not trust Nadler. “She didn’t want the Judiciary panel to interview witnesses at all,” they wrote. “Pelosi simply didn’t trust the panel — which was stacked with liberal crusaders and hotheaded conservatives — to handle the rollout of the complex Ukraine narrative with the careful, compelling treatment it required. She couldn’t afford another Nadler screwup.” Nadler’s repeated pleas to Schiff were also reportedly unsuccessful. “I write the rules of my committee, not you,” Nadler reportedly told his colleague once. “I resent you telling me how to run my committee.” Schiff, according to the book, retorted, “I don’t really care about your resentment. Neither the Speaker nor I agree.” The Intelligence panel later had some witnesses reappear before the full committee. Republican lawmakers grilled the likes of then Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, but Trump’s lawyers were not present. The White House declined to appear at a Judiciary hearing that featured four constitutional scholars. Trump’s lawyers would later make these due process complaints the center of their defense during the Senate trial, though fact checkers found they repeatedly stretched the truth. Trump was later acquitted with only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney, voting to convict him on the charge of abusing his power. Romney was the first senator in US history to vote to convict an impeached president of their own party. Representatives for Schiff and Nadler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Read More Here

Mercy Gilbert Medical Commons Adds 3rd Office Building – AZ Big Media https://digitalarizonanews.com/mercy-gilbert-medical-commons-adds-3rd-office-building-az-big-media/ The first frame panels for the third Mercy Gilbert Medical Office Building have been lifted into place, keeping the project on schedule for its planned March 2023 completion. At the time of tilt, this facility has been fully leased and programmed with Dignity Health’s East Valley’s graduate medical education program and supporting medical imaging services via Arizona Diagnostic Radiology. “This is an important milestone for the Mercy Gilbert III Medical Office Building because it reflects the hard work and collaboration put forth by the tenants, contractor and developer,” says Jake Dinnen, partner and executive vice president of development of PMB. “I can’t express enough praise and gratitude to all those involved for keeping the project on schedule and on-budget in today’s challenging delivery environment.” READ ALSO: ABI Multifamily sells 10 luxury Sedona cabins for $3,167,500 Construction begins on the third Mercy Gilbert Medical Office Building. The Mercy Gilbert Medical Center Medical Office Building III is a new, two-story 45,0000 square-foot facility located at 3477 South Mercy Road Gilbert. The project is the third medical office building at the Mercy Medical Commons, built in partnership with Dignity Health and PMB, utilizing Venn Construction as the General Contractor. “We’re grateful for the hard work and constant communication between our project teams and local subcontractors to keep this project moving according to schedule,” says Nick Veldman, owner of Venn Construction. “Our earthwork and concrete partners have played a critical role in the building taking shape on schedule and within budget.” Venn Construction, PMB and local trade partners have successfully navigated rapidly increasing construction costs and increasing interest rates to maintain project feasibility and start construction quickly to meet critical deadline requirements. The architect for the project is Phoenix, Arizona-based Orcutt-Winslow. The project is estimated to be completed in March 2023. Read More…

Exclusive: Fannie Mae To Announce Plan To Bolster Renters https://digitalarizonanews.com/exclusive-fannie-mae-to-announce-plan-to-bolster-renters/ Only positive payments of renters will be reported (those who fall behind will be unenrolled) and renters can chose to opt out at any time. One in ten adults in the U.S., or about 26 million people, are “credit invisible,” meaning they do not have a credit history with one of the three nationwide credit reporting companies. Renters are seven times more likely than homeowners to lack a credit score, according to a study the Urban Institute When it comes to credit scores, renters are at a distinct disadvantage compared to homeowners. While mortgage payments are reported by lenders to credit bureaus, landlords typically don’t report rental payments  – and that can hamper renters’ ability to build a credit history. Fannie Mae plans to subsidize the cost for landlords of multifamily properties it finances to help renters build their credit starting Tuesday , the mortgage giant shared exclusively with USA TODAY. Fannie Mae will partner with three firms that serve as intermediaries between landlords and credit bureaus to report on-time rental payments.  “Given the reach that we have across the country, we’re trying to be a catalyst to accelerate this adoption,” says MicheleEvans, executive vice president and head of Multifamily, at Fannie Mae. “We’re incentivizing borrowers (landlords) so it benefits historically underserved groups who just disproportionately have no credit scores or lower credit scores.” Credit scores: How this single mom raised her credit score despite losing her job Housing: Home prices decline at rates seen close to a decade ago While mortgage payments are considered for credit scores – which can determine one’s ability to obtain a loan for a house, a car, or college –  of the roughly 80 million U.S. adults who live in rental housing, just 1.8 million (2.3%) have rental payments reported in their traditional credit file, according to FICO, which calculates credit scores based on information collected by credit reporting agencies. How will Fannie Mae’s plan work? Only positive payments of renters will be reported (those who fall behind will be unenrolled) and renters can choose to opt out at any time. Eligible multifamily property owners (those with at least five years worth of outstanding loans) can share timely rent payment data through vendors to the three major credit bureaus for incorporation in the renter’s credit profile. The vendors who have been tapped to work with Fannie Mae are three New York-City-based companies Esusu Financial Inc., Jetty Credit and Rent Dynamics. In the last five years, Fannie Mae has financed over 3.7 million units of multifamily housing. Last year, it provided financing for approximately 694,000 units of multifamily housing in 2021, with nearly 95% of those units affordable to families earning at or below 120% of the area median income, providing support for both affordable and workforce housing. ‘Credit invisibles’ and credit scores One in 10 adults in the U.S., or about 26 million people, are “credit invisible,” meaning they do not have a credit history with one of the three nationwide credit reporting companies, according to a 2015 study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. An additional 19 million consumers have “unscorable” credit files, which means that their file is thin and has an insufficient credit history. In total, 20% of the U.S. adult population, or some 45 million consumers, may be denied access to credit because they don’t have scorable credit records. Renters are seven times more likely than homeowners to lack a credit score, according to a study by the Urban Institute. These gaps disproportionately affect Black and Latino households, who, compared with white households, are about twice as likely to rent and to lack a credit score. And these factors contribute, in turn, to the nation’s persistent racial disparities, the study found. “I think this is an enormous positive because for most renters, their rental payments are the single largest payment they make each month and not getting credit for rental payments in their credit prevents them from building a credit history as quickly as they could,” says Laurie Goodman, founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Positive rental payments Last September, Fannie Mae began considering positive rental payment history in their automated mortgage underwriting process for single-family homes through applicants’ bank statement data. However, that program had no bearing on the renter’s credit scores.  Since its launch, more than 2,800 first-time homebuyer loan applications have become eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae that otherwise would not have been, it says.  Esusu co-founder and co-CEO Wemimo Abbey knows a thing or two about being “credit invisible.” “I grew up in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria,” he says. When he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of Minnesota, his mother and Abbey were turned away by many banks as they had no credit history. “We had to get a loan from a payday lender at 400% interest,” he says. About five years ago, he co-founded Esusu with Samir Goel, a first-generation Indian American, whose parents struggled with the financial burdens of immigrating to a new country. “We have a system that treats you like you’re guilty until proven innocent,” says Abbey. “Because we didn’t have this three-digit number that’s called a credit score.” Today, Esusu has close to 3 million rental units on their platform owned by companies such as Related, Camden and Goldman Sachs’ real estate division. Of the 53,000 affordable apartments that are owned by Related Companies nationwide, 16,000 are financed by Fannie Mae, said Jeffrey Brodsky, vice chairman at Related. The company has worked with Esusu before and expects to roll out the program for all eligible renters. “Their program allows for tremendous measurable impact at scale, which is an unusual opportunity for us to serve the needs of our residents at the same time and measure the results of the benefits to them,” he says. After enrolling on the Esusu platform, 10,000 of the 53,000 residents who previously did not have credit scores now have them, says Brodsky. About 71% of the residents have seen their credit scores go up and the average resident credit score has improved by 28 points, he says. “Two-thirds of the residents in these apartments are people of color and they have very modest incomes. And so we see a tremendous benefit at scale.” Improving the credit score August Ortega, a renter in Long Beach, California, has been struggling with his credit score after a series of financial setbacks including his mother’s cancer diagnosis and a job loss. While his credit card bills piled up, one thing he didn’t fall behind on was his rental payment. But the fact that it didn’t count toward his credit score was frustrating, he says. “It was always silly to me that it wasn’t being reported because this is like a major bill,” says Ortega, a fashion designer and an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in LA. Last year, when Ortega’s landlord offered the Esusu service, he signed up. His credit score, which had plummeted to 520 is slowly on its way up now that his rental payments are being taken into consideration. “I think it’s up to about 540,” he says. “I hope to be a homeowner someday.” Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a housing and economy correspondent for USA TODAY.  You can follow her on Twitter @SwapnaVenugopal and sign up for our Daily Money newsletter here. Read More Here

Obituaries In Hyannis, MA | Cape Cod Times https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituaries-in-hyannis-ma-cape-cod-times-2/ Mary Eleanor Belknap, 93, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, passed away peacefully on September 23, 2022 at Liberty Commons in Chatham, MA. Born on October 7, 1928 in Lowell, MA to parents Gerald and Mary Duval, she attended grade school in Lowell, then moved to Albany, NY where she graduated from Academy of Holy Names in 1946. She attended business classes at St. Rose College in Albany, later working as a bookkeeper and real estate administrative assistant. Mary is survived by her loving husband of 71 years, John (Jack) Belknap of Chatham, MA. Mary and Jack spent many memorable years together moving from place to place (including Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois), keeping a household full of children and pets, and co-owning The Hampshire House Restaurant in North Conway, NH. In their later years, Mary and Jack were at their happiest traveling, and Mary particularly enjoyed their trip to La Salette Shrine in the French Alps. Mary is also survived by her six children, Mark (Claire) Belknap of Marengo, IL, Karen Kelleher of Germantown, MD, Stephen Belknap of Tucson, AZ, Jeanne (James) Barciszewski of Cary, IL, James Belknap of Fort Lauderdale, FL, and Judy (Kevin) Spence of Keedysville, MD. She leaves behind 15 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, and 2 great great grandchildren. Mary will be remembered for her green thumb, witty repartee, brilliant storytelling, beautiful smile, cooking skills, love of animals, and sincere, lifelong devotion to the Catholic faith. We will miss her steady presence, warm heart, and spirited quips. A funeral mass will be held at 11:00 on Friday, October 7, at Our Lady of the Cape in Brewster. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mary’s name can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association. The family wishes to send a special thank you to the staff at Broadreach Hospice for their care and compassion during Mary’s final days. Posted online on September 27, 2022 Published in Cape Cod Times Read More Here

Jan. 6 Panel Delays Hearing As Hurricane Ian Aims At Florida https://digitalarizonanews.com/jan-6-panel-delays-hearing-as-hurricane-ian-aims-at-florida/ WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol announced Tuesday that it had postponed a hearing scheduled for Wednesday as a hurricane hurtled toward the Florida coast. The committee had planned to hold what was likely to be its final investigative hearing Wednesday afternoon, but members decided at the last minute to delay it as it became clear that Hurricane Ian was churning on a collision course toward Florida, where it was expected to strengthen into a catastrophic Category 4 storm. “We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “The Select Committee’s investigation goes forward and we will soon announce a date for the postponed proceedings.” The committee had not yet provided a specific agenda for the Wednesday hearing, but Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said over the weekend it would “tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election.” This week’s hearing was intended to close the series of public hearings the nine-member panel embarked on in early June. Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read More Here

Records From Wisconsin Election Probe To Be Made Public https://digitalarizonanews.com/records-from-wisconsin-election-probe-to-be-made-public/ MADISON, Wis. (AP) — All records from the closed Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin are being uploaded to a website “for all to see,” an attorney told a judge on Tuesday. The investigation was led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was fired in August by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. He fired Gableman just days after Vos won his primary over an opponent who Gableman and former President Donald Trump endorsed. But the office Gableman led still exists after he was fired. American Oversight, a liberal watchdog group, has filed four open records lawsuits against Gableman, Vos and the office seeking records created during the investigation. On Tuesday, during a hearing over a lawsuit American Oversight filed seeking to stop the deletion of records, attorney James Bopp said that all electronic and paper records from the office have been turned over to the Assembly chief clerk’s office. The files are being uploaded to a website that will soon be available “for all to see,” said Bopp, who represents the office which he said has no employees. Hundreds of pages of documents have already been made public as the result of other American Oversight lawsuits. Bopp said the data yet-to-be made public that’s being processed now includes text messages on cellphones used in the course of the investigation. Gableman’s probe did not uncover any widespread fraud in the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden over Trump by nearly 21,000 votes. His effort was widely ridiculed, by Democrats and Republicans alike, and when Vos fired him he called Gableman an “embarrassment” both to himself and the state. Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost was considering Bopp’s motion on behalf of Gableman’s former office to dismiss the American Oversight lawsuit filed to prevent the destruction of any public records held by the office. Bopp argued Tuesday that was moot because all of the records were about to be made public. Frost earlier ordered that the office not delete any records in its possession while the lawsuit continues. Frost on Tuesday said he would not immediately consider the question of whether the lawsuit was now moot, but he did take arguments on whether to dismiss it. He did not indicate when he might rule. Read More Here

Trump Bid To Dodge Suit From Rape Accuser Heads To D.C. Court https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-bid-to-dodge-suit-from-rape-accuser-heads-to-d-c-court/ NEW YORK — An appeals court in Washington D.C. has been asked to help decide whether Donald Trump was doing his job as president when he denied raping a woman and dismissed his accuser as “not my type.” The columnist, E. Jean Carroll, sued Trump in 2019, claiming the Republican raped her in the mid-1990s inside a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, then lied about it and besmirched her character when she decided to tell her story publicly. » READ MORE: Trump rape accuser plans suit under new N.Y. ‘survivors’ law Since then, the case has gotten bogged down in a technical legal dispute over whether Trump should have to defend the lawsuit as a private citizen, or whether the U.S. government should step in as the defendant because Trump was performing his duties as president at the time he issued his denials. Because the alleged attack happened so long ago, Carroll was originally barred for suing over sexual battery, so she sued for defamation, making the suit largely about disparaging comments Trump made about the rape allegation. In a 2-to-1 decision Tuesday, a panel of judges on the New York based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asked The D.C. Court of Appeals, the highest court in the District of Columbia, to decide whether Trump’s public statements denying Carroll’s rape claims occurred within the scope of his employment. If so, he would be entitled to immunity from the lawsuit, the 2nd Circuit judges ruled. But the United States could potentially be held liable for any defamatory statements Trump made as a federal employee. The 2nd Circuit said courts have been inconsistent in previous rulings and that the D.C. Court of Appeals might be in the best position to answer the question. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, treated the 2nd Circuit ruling as a complete victory, saying it “will protect the ability of all future Presidents to effectively govern without hindrance.” She added: “We are confident that the D.C. Court of Appeals will find that our client was acting within the scope of his employment when properly repudiating Ms. Carroll’s allegations.” In a majority opinion written by Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, two members of the 2nd Circuit’s three-judge panel said they were not expressing any view on whether Trump’s public statements were defamatory or whether a sexual assault had occurred. In a dissent, though, Circuit Judge Denny Chin said the other members of the panel were wrong in concluding Trump was an employee of the government according to a law known as the Westfall Act. He said the law was intended to protect low-level, rank-and-file government employees rather than the president. And he said he would also conclude that at least some of the statements Trump made about Carroll were not made within the scope of his duties as president. He pointed in particular to Trump’s comment that Carroll was not his type. “In the context of an accusation of rape, the comment ‘she’s not my type’ surely is not something one would expect the President of the United States to say in the course of his duties,” Chin wrote. “Carroll’s allegations plausibly paint a picture of a man pursuing a personal vendetta against an accuser, not the United States’ ‘chief constitutional officer’ engaging in ‘supervisory and policy responsibilities of utmost discretion and sensitivity.’” Chin also attacked the government’s position — which began when Trump was president and continued under the administration of President Joe Biden — that a president acts within the scope of his employment whenever he responds to the media and to public critics. “If that were so, then the mere presence of others would neutralize whatever a President did or said, for no President could be held accountable for damage done in front of a microphone or in an official meeting — whether defaming a citizen, exposing classified national security information, or inciting a riot. This is not, and should not be, the law,” Chin wrote. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, responded to a request for comment by citing Chin’s dissent, calling it a “powerful opinion.” She added: “We are confident that the D.C. Court of Appeals, where this case is now headed on certification, will agree.” There’s a chance the legal fight over whether Trump or the U.S. government should be the defendant in the case could become moot. Carroll’s lawyer recently alerted a Manhattan federal court judge in August that she plans to file a new lawsuit against Trump in November when New York’s Adult Survivor’s Act take effect. That new law offers a one-year “look back” to enable adult survivors of sexual attacks to bring civil claims when they otherwise would be barred by time requirements. That would mean Carroll could sue Trump over the original rape allegation, which happened long before he became president. Read More Here

Newest Addition To Trump's Legal Team Sidelined In Mar-A-Lago Search Case | CNN Politics https://digitalarizonanews.com/newest-addition-to-trumps-legal-team-sidelined-in-mar-a-lago-search-case-cnn-politics/ CNN  —  The newest addition to former President Donald Trump’s legal team, Chris Kise, has been sidelined from the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation less than a month after he was brought on to represent Trump in the matter, two sources familiar with the move tell CNN. Kise is expected to remain on Trump’s legal team but is not leading the work related to the federal government’s investigation into how the former President handled 11,000 documents seized from his Florida home in August following a lengthy effort by the government to retrieve them. The reason for the shift in Kise’s role remains unclear and he may instead focus his efforts on the other investigations Trump is facing, which range from his business practices to the January 6 insurrection. The move is notable given Kise, the former solicitor general for Florida, was brought on to the team after a weeks-long search and struggle to find someone willing to take on the case who was also experienced in Florida law. The legal strategy for fighting the Justice Department following the August seizure of over 100 documents marked as classified was also in disarray. Kise’s hiring came with an unusual price tag of $3 million, paid for by Trump’s outside spending arm. The retainer fee, paid upfront, raised eyebrows among other lawyers on Trump’s team, given the former President has a developed a reputation for not paying his legal fees. His sidelining will likely be read as another setback for Trump as he faces multiple investigations. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said: “Chris Kise’s role as an important member of President Trump’s legal team remains unchanged, and any suggestion otherwise is untrue.” Kise did not respond to a request for comment. Kise had been viewed among Trump contacts as a serious white-collar attorney and trial lawyer, with Florida court chops. Before he came aboard, other lawyers on Trump’s team were perceived in legal circles to have made serious missteps in the investigation, such as not fully recognizing the legal risk of the documents investigation before the search of Mar-a-Lago, telling investigators all classified records had been turned over, missing opportunities to argue for executive privilege and having an appeals court deliver a drubbing against Trump’s bid to block classified documents in the investigation. So far, Kise doesn’t appear to be deeply involved Trump’s other most serious criminal investigative risk – the Justice Department’s January 6 investigation. Kise was not present in a DC federal courthouse last week alongside three other Trump attorneys who are arguing for confidentiality around Trump’s conversations at the end of his presidency. They are attempting to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close Trump aides about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Kise left his large law firm that he had been with for more than a decade, Foley & Lardner, to take the job as a solo practitioner. He previously worked for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transition team and has won four cases before the Supreme Court. Read More Here

What To Expect From Jan. 6 Committee As They Hold Final Hearing On Wednesday https://digitalarizonanews.com/what-to-expect-from-jan-6-committee-as-they-hold-final-hearing-on-wednesday/ The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will hold what is expected to be its ninth and final public hearing on Sept. 28 on Capitol Hill. After a two-month hiatus, the committee is expected to fire off a “sweeping” attack on former President Donald Trump, whom it blames for inciting a mob of his extremist supporters to attack the citadel of American democracy. Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) gavels the end of a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022. (ALEX BRANDON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) The panel has already built a comprehensive case that the attack was the culmination of a weeks-long effort by Trump to illegally cling to power after losing the 2020 election to President Biden. [ 10 things we learned from Jan. 6 committee hearings on the Capitol attack ] The bipartisan group plans to use the final hearing to give the public a final look at Trump’s scheme, along with never-before-seen footage of the attack and “significant” new testimony from witnesses, according to committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) Former President Donald Trump speaks during a Republican National Committee Victory Rally at Dalton Regional Airport on January 4, 2021, in Dalton, Georgia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) The hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 28, is scheduled to begin at 1 pm Eastern time and will be aired/liv- streamed by major U.S. cable and broadcast news networks, including C-SPAN and the Jan. 6 committee’s YouTube channel. Violent insurrectionists loyal to then-President Donald Trump stand outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana / AP) Cheney, perhaps the most recognizable critic of Trump on the panel, will be in her usual spot on the dais alongside Thompson. The panel’s senior Republican leader is still a member of Congress until the end of the year despite losing a GOP primary in her home state of Wyoming. It’s not known whether Cheney, who is mulling a long-shot 2024 presidential bid, will play a leading role on Wednesday. In past hearings, she has delivered crushing rebukes to Trump and his Republican apologists, including closing statements that suggested history will judge them harshly. Not exactly. The earlier eight hearings, which grabbed unexpectedly widespread public attention over the summer, each focused on a particular aspect of Trump’s scheme to overturn the election, like his effort to bully state election officials and even former Vice President Mike Pence. Wednesday’s hearing will also focus on “a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election.” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), without revealing what that “key element” would be. But he added that “it’ll be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings.” Members have been tight-lipped about what exactly will new revelations the hearing may bring or if there will be some kind of explosive disclosure. The panel has proven itself to be adept at building up public expectations and then meeting them, like when it slated an emergency hearing that featured White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. The young onetime Trump loyalist delivered perhaps the biggest bombshell with her inside look at Trump’s refusal to stop the violent attack in real time. The hearing is the first one since the FBI searched Trump’s Florida estate and recovered a vast cache of government documents he improperly took with him when he left office. On the face of it, the federal criminal probe into the documents has nothing to do with the Jan. 6 investigation. [ Trump’s troubles worsen: 6 legal landmines facing the ex-president ] It’s more than possible that some of the 10,000 seized documents touch on Trump’s campaign to block the peaceful transfer of power. But prosecutors have not revealed their contents to anyone, let alone the panel that might bare them to the public. The committee has hedged its bets on whether it will recommend that the Department of Justice charge Trump for his role in seeking to subvert American democracy. Members have said they would only make a recommendation if they are unanimous, suggesting that some lawmakers may not In any case, such a referral is largely a formality, since U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland would have the final say on whether to file charges. No. It will issue a final report, likely after the midterm elections, which take place on Nov. 8. The panel’s leaders say they will not hesitate to investigate new leads and hold new hearings if necessary, regardless of the proximity to Election Day on Nov. 8 Read More Here

Opinion | A New Story Of Trump-Era DOJ Political Pressure Requires A Hard Look https://digitalarizonanews.com/opinion-a-new-story-of-trump-era-doj-political-pressure-requires-a-hard-look/ A respected federal prosecutor who once headed a premier U.S. attorney’s office has told his story of how President Donald Trump tried repeatedly to use the Justice Department against his political opponents. The allegations seemed to have caused hardly a ripple. Mr. Trump is arguably the most scandal-ridden president in the country’s history, and the allegations from former Manhattan U.S. attorney Geoffrey S. Berman have been overshadowed by the unfolding investigation into Mr. Trump’s alleged pilfering of classified government documents. It’s imperative, though, to determine exactly what happened and who might be culpable in any efforts to weaponize the Justice Department. Mr. Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for 2½ years, until Mr. Trump fired him in June 2020, describes in a new memoir efforts by Mr. Trump to use the U.S. Attorney’s Office to support the then-president’s political interests and punish his opponents. In the book, “Holding the Line,” Mr. Berman alleges that Justice Department political appointees pushed him to investigate John F. Kerry after the former secretary of state and Democratic senator criticized Mr. Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal. Mr. Trump, Mr. Berman wrote, wanted Mr. Kerry prosecuted for violations of the Logan Act, which forbids private citizens from engaging in unauthorized diplomacy. Mr. Berman writes how he refused because the law is vague and no one has ever been convicted of violating it. Mr. Berman claims that Trump appointees also pressured him to investigate Gregory B. Craig, a White House counsel under President Barack Obama, for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. “It’s time for you guys to even things out,” Mr. Berman said a Justice Department official told him after Trump supporters had been indicted just before the 2018 midterm elections. After Mr. Berman refused to charge Mr. Craig, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia charged the former Obama official with making false statements. A jury acquitted Mr. Craig. Some of Mr. Berman’s harshest words are directed at former attorney general William P. Barr, whom he describes as “thuggish” in his alleged meddling in a range of sensitive investigations. Some of the Justice Department officials against whom Mr. Berman has made allegations have denied hisaccount. Thankfully, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will investigate Mr. Berman’s claims. The panel should do so impartially, because more is at stake than history. If Mr. Berman’s account is true, he and others in the department deserve praise for refusing to bow to political pressure. But more important is determining whether there are vulnerabilities in the Justice Department’s structure and procedures that need to be patched. Mr. Berman, for example, recommends that the department not be allowed to shop around cases to other U.S. attorneys when one has already declined to prosecute someone, as occurred in the case involving Mr. Craig. We wish Mr. Berman had spoken out earlier and not waited until he had a book to sell. But the warning he sounds — about the fragility of justice and the danger that a second Trump presidency might pose — must not go unnoticed. The Post’s View | About the Editorial Board Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom. Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Deputy Editorial Page Editor Karen Tumulty; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Ruth Marcus; Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao (education, D.C. affairs); Jonathan Capehart (national politics); Lee Hockstader (immigration; issues affecting Virginia and Maryland); David E. Hoffman (global public health); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Molly Roberts (technology and society); and Stephen Stromberg (elections, the White House, Congress, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care). Read More Here

Kazakhstan Struggles To Accommodate Russians Fleeing War https://digitalarizonanews.com/kazakhstan-struggles-to-accommodate-russians-fleeing-war/ Russian citizens queue outside a public service centre in the city of Oral, Kazakhstan September 27, 2022. REUTERS/Raul Uporov ALMATY, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan is struggling to accommodate tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their homeland since Moscow announced a military mobilisation last week, officials say, but the Almaty government has no plans to close its border. Russian men, some with families, started crossing the world’s second-longest land border en masse after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilisation of reservists last week amid a stalled military campaign in Ukraine. Russians do not need a visa or even a passport to enter Kazakhstan, just their Russian identity papers. The Russian language is also widely spoken in the country, which is home to a large ethnic Russian minority. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com However, the sudden influx of Russians – the government says almost 100,000 have crossed the border since the mobilisation announcement – has stretched the infrastructure of the vast but sparsely populated nation. Hotels and hostels are full, and rent has skyrocketed. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, whose administration has refused to support what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, urged patience and tolerance. “A lot of people from Russia have come here over the last few days,” he said in a speech on Tuesday. “Most of them were forced to leave by the desperate situation.” “We must take care of them and ensure their safety. This is a political and humanitarian matter,” Tokayev said. His government will discuss the situation with Moscow, he said. At the same time, the interior ministry published a proposal to change immigration rules this week that would limit to three months the time Russians can stay in Kazakhstan unless they have a passport. While some Kazakhs have already called for border closures or restrictions on Russians’ entry, others have arranged meeting points for arriving Russians and set up volunteer networks to help them find shelter. An Almaty resident told Reuters she took in three young men from Russia on Monday who were preparing to spend the night on the street in the downtown area. In the city of Oral, some Russians have spent a night at a local cinema which invited them through social media. “I am crashing on my friends’ couch right now,” said a 32-year-old Russian IT professional who has moved to Almaty and asked not to be named. “I do not have a clear plan on what to do next, but I am definitely not going back to Russia. I hope to find work here.” Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva and Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Angus MacSwan Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More Here

Clean Water Act Permitting Reform Out Of Manchin Bill https://digitalarizonanews.com/clean-water-act-permitting-reform-out-of-manchin-bill/ Lawmakers have ditched language to limit state and tribal authority under the Clean Water Act from Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform overhaul. House and Senate appropriators released stopgap spending legislation overnight, along with permitting reform provisions, ahead of a Senate test vote Tuesday afternoon. That vote will help decide whether permitting reform advances this week at all (E&E Daily, Sept. 26). Manchin, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources chair, demanded changes to energy infrastructure approvals in exchange for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. And part of the West Virginia Democrats’ plan involved changing Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which allows states and tribes to certify whether projects meet water quality rules (E&E Daily, Sept. 22). Now, that provision is gone. Many Democrats and environmental groups said changing the certification process would cripple local input and harm the environment. Republicans, for their part, have accused states of using existing law to block major infrastructure. In recent years, states like New York and Washington used the certification process to deny pipeline and coal terminal permits, citing not only water quality concerns but also questions about how a project might contribute to air pollution and climate change (Greenwire, Aug. 20, 2019). Even though it remains unclear exactly why the Clean Water Act section disappeared from the Manchin bill, a person familiar with the negotiations pointed to internal fights around specific language that would have left room for ambiguity and possibly legal action. The person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said concerns focus on language in the original version of the permitting bill, which would have changed what states and tribes can review from “discharge” to “activity.” While Democrats and environmentalists pummeled part of the original permitting text, which would have barred states and tribes from considering climate change or emissions when reviewing dredge-and-fill approvals, Republicans worried that Manchin’s changes would have potentially expanded such reviews. The Trump administration finalized a rule governing the permitting process under Section 401 that narrowed state and tribal authority over certifications, limiting the scope of such reviews from “the activity as a whole” to “discharge only.” Republicans worried that Manchin’s text would have undone the Trump-era language, which is still in effect today. Larry Liebesman, a senior adviser at Dawson & Associates, which specializes in water permitting issues, said the Trump rule only allowed states and tribes to focus on point source discharge and was “much more narrow than how EPA had interpreted” the law in the past. The original Manchin language, in comparison, was more in line with a past Supreme Court opinion by allowing states and tribes to consider impacts of a project to state water quality as a whole, he said. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), an opponent of Manchin’s permitting reform bill, last week said the legislation would amount to a “watering down, really diluting the standard” for Section 401 permitting. Still, Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, said the earlier bill would have tied the hands of states and tribes wanting to limit a project’s air emissions, which could ultimately affect water quality. Another provision would have limited states and tribes’ ability to seek more information from applicants, even if the projects are complex and could have far-reaching effects on water quality, she said. The original language would have required certifying agencies to make a decision — grant, grant with conditions, deny or waive certification — within a one-year. Such a requirement would have blocked states and tribes from stopping or starting the process to gather more information. The permitting reform plan still includes provisions to accelerate National Environmental Policy Act reviews and approve the Mountain Valley pipeline project. With many Democrats worried about the environmental repercussions and Republicans skeptical of giving Manchin a win, the effort may collapse after the planned test vote. Nasmith called negotiations around permitting reform “closed and flawed,” and pointed to EPA’s ongoing efforts to recraft a rule around Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (Greenwire, June 2). “Industry has been pretty persistent about this, so might it pop up somewhere else,” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see.” Reporters Jeremy Dillon and Kelsey Brugger contributed. Read More Here