NY Attorney General Investigating Trump Teases https://digitalarizonanews.com/ny-attorney-general-investigating-trump-teases/
September 20, 2022 08:20 PM
New York Attorney General Letitia James will hold a press conference Wednesday morning, her office announced Tuesday, teasing a “major announcement.”
NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS CONSIDERING CRUISE SHIP AS POSSIBLE HOUSING FOR ASYLUM-SEEKERS
The announcement is set for 10:30 a.m. EST at the attorney general’s office. No details on what the announcement would be have been provided.
James has previously indicated she could sue former President Donald Trump after rejecting an offer to resolve a civil investigation into the former president and his family’s real estate business last week.
The Trump Organization has sought to reach a deal with James’s office for months after the office told a court in January it had uncovered evidence the company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to secure loans and other tax benefits. James has been leading the investigation for three years.
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If a lawsuit is announced, it could lead to financial penalties and restrictions on the company’s dealings in New York. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has decried the investigation as politically motivated.
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Obituary: Michael Carl Wright Sr. https://digitalarizonanews.com/obituary-michael-carl-wright-sr/
Originally Published: September 20, 2022 5:07 p.m.
Michael Carl Wright Sr., age 71, passed away peacefully Sept. 7, 2022, at his home in Gilbert, AZ.
He was born on Oct. 2, 1950, in Phoenix, Arizona to Stanley and Melvina Wright. He grew up in Cottonwood, Arizona. He married the love of his life, Carole Evans Wright on April 30, 1982 and had recently celebrated 40 years of marriage.
He is preceded in death by his son Michael Wright, Jr. and his sister Phyllis Wright. He is survived by his wife Carole Wright and seven of his children, Wendy Hodges (Wright), William Wright, Steven Wright, Mike Wright II, Mindee Wright, Steven Vanesian and Clay Wright. He is also survived by 18 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren, with three more on the way, many nieces and nephews and lots of friends.
Mike dedicated his life to helping others. He was a volunteer firefighter for the cities of Williams and Holbrook. In his “off” time, he faithfully served at church through various callings. He loved genealogy, journaling and his collections which included things like patches, military medals, firefighter memorabilia and anything else he could sneak in the house.
Mike will especially be remembered for his love of his Heavenly Father, his love of babies, his tight hugs, and his uncanny ability to make everyone around him laugh. Those who knew him well will remember him every time they see a firetruck, hear a Marty Robins song, or hear the word “rojo”.
His funeral was held Sept. 13 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he was buried the next day in Williams, Arizona at Mountain View Cemetery.
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Feeding Our Future Founder Among 48 People Charged In $250 Million Federal Food Aid Fraud Scheme
Feeding Our Future Founder Among 48 People Charged In $250 Million Federal Food Aid Fraud Scheme https://digitalarizonanews.com/feeding-our-future-founder-among-48-people-charged-in-250-million-federal-food-aid-fraud-scheme/
The director of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit and 47 other people were charged Tuesday in what federal prosecutors say was a “massive scheme” to defraud the government of more than $250 million meant to feed needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a news conference, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger described the scheme as the largest pandemic fraud in the country and the charges amount to one of the largest federal fraud cases ever brought in Minnesota.
“These 47 defendants engaged in a brazen scheme of staggering proportions,” Luger said, hours before charges against another defendant were unsealed. “Their goal was to make as much money for themselves as they could while falsely claiming to feed children during the pandemic.”
The defendants were charged with crimes including wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and bribery. The indictments allege that conspirators shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to join the criminal enterprise, and later tried to cover their tracks by submitting fake invoices and enrollment forms with fictitious names pulled from such places as www.listofrandomnames.com.
Luger described the wave of indictments unsealed Tuesday as “the first set of charges” in the continuing investigation. Several defendants were arrested Tuesday, but Luger said some have left the country.
Prosecutors allege the leader of the scheme was Aimee Bock, executive director of Feeding Our Future, who they accuse of personally recruiting many of the conspirators and knowingly submitting more than 125 million false meal claims.
Bock appeared in court Tuesday afternoon and pleaded not guilty. She was released with conditions. She and her attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, did not respond to requests for comment.
Co-conspirators are accused of using tens of millions of dollars to fund international travel, buy luxury cars and purchase homes in Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky and along the coasts of Kenya and Turkey.
Tuesday’s arrests mark the latest high-profile chapter in a federal probe that started more than a year ago and included a sweeping FBI search warrant operation in January that spilled into public view.
According to charges, the alleged scheme exploited changes in the federal child nutrition program that were intended to make sure needy children received adequate nutrition amid the pandemic.
As part of the changes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed for-profit restaurants to participate in the federal food aid program. Regulators also let parents bring meals home instead of requiring children to eat on site. Prosecutors said the rule changes made it more difficult to oversee the meals program, rendering it vulnerable to fraud and abuse.
After becoming an approved sponsor in 2018, Feeding Our Future battled state regulators over its explosive growth plans, filing a lawsuit that ultimately forced the department to approve dozens of sites that had been held up in the approval process for months.
Luger said the conspiracy began in March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, when the conspirators saw an opportunity to defraud the government.
As part of a “pay-to-play” scheme, Bock and other company employees solicited and received bribes from people and companies seeking to join the fast-growing criminal enterprise, according to the charges.
Many of the bribes were paid directly to Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, a Feeding Our Future employee who was accused of receiving kickbacks ranging from $49,000 to $225,000, the charges say. Eidleh could not be reached for comment and court records indicate he does not have an attorney yet.
Eidleh is accused of depositing more than $5 million in kickbacks, bribes and other fraud proceeds into bank accounts opened in the name of his shell companies.
Many of the kickbacks were paid in cash or disguised as “consulting fees” paid to shell companies created by Feeding Our Future employees to conceal the true nature of the payments and make them appear legitimate, the indictment alleges.
Bock benefitted from the expanding fees collected by Feeding Our Future, which typically kept 10 to 15% of all reimbursement payments for administrative purposes, according to the charges. In 2021, when Feeding Our Future collected nearly $200 million in reimbursements, its share of the money amounted to $18 million, the charges say.
The indictment says Feeding Our Future also opened its own federal food aid sites in Minneapolis and Burnsville that allegedly falsely claimed to serve meals to thousands of children a day, seven days a week.
Altogether, Bock’s nonprofit sponsored more than 200 federal food program sites throughout Minnesota, according to charges.
“The sites fraudulently claimed to be serving meals to thousands of children a day within just days or weeks of being formed and despite having few, if any, staff and little to no experience serving this volume of meals,” the indictment reads.
Bock told the Star Tribune earlier this year that she never stole money or saw evidence of fraud among her subcontractors.
The scheme was so lucrative that some conspirators were able to rent out restaurants at exorbitant prices just to create additional meal sites, according to the charges. In Willmar, for instance, conspirators paid more than $570,000 to rent the Faafan Restaurant for 11 months, almost three times the restaurant’s annual sales before the pandemic. The site received more than $4 million in reimbursements, half of which was pocketed by the conspirators, according to the charges.
“No one participating in this program legitimately would ever imagine they could … make millions of dollars,” Luger said. “It is not possible.”
Prosecutors said the conspirators did a sloppy job of concealing their crimes, submitting fake attendance rosters that were filled with hundreds of made-up names that could not be verified by local schools. Typically, Luger said, just 1-2% of the names appeared to be legitimate.
In some cases, conspirators consulted websites to find names. But investigators found impossible fluctuations in the ages of the students listed on the rosters, noting that some kids went from 8 to 12 years old in a matter of months.
The meal sites allegedly submitted fake invoices purporting to document their food purchases. Some did purchase and serve small amounts of food but inflated the numbers, the indictment alleges.
The indictment charging Bock also includes charges against three men — Salim Ahmed Said, Abdulkadir Nur Salah and Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed — who run the Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis. They claimed to have served 3.9 million meals to children between April 2020 and November 2021, propped up by fake attendance rosters, prosecutors allege. Said, Salah and Ahmed could not be reached for comment.
According to charges, Safari received more than $16 million in federal money based on claims that they were feeding needy children. The charges noted that the restaurant generated no more than $600,000 in annual sales prior to the pandemic.
Said and Salah sent much of the $16 million to co-conspirators via shell companies used to launder proceeds, according to the charges. Safari’s ownership also paid more than $350,000 in bribes and kickbacks to Bock and Eidleh for sponsorship, the charges allege.
Minnesota Department of Education [MDE] officials began questioning Bock about the sudden boom in sites that her organization sponsored in 2020. Feeding Our Future sued the state and claimed the education department was discriminating against a nonprofit that worked with racial minorities after the department halted payments to the nonprofit by early 2021. The FBI’s investigation into Feeding Our Future began in May 2021, after state education officials brought information to the bureau.
Though some state legislators have faulted MDE for not acting more aggressively on its fraud suspicions, Luger declined to assess the department’s oversight.
“That is not for me to say,” Luger said. “We are pleased by the thorough cooperation we got from MDE throughout this investigation.”
Feeding Our Future’s three board members voted in February to dissolve the organization in part because its bank accounts had been frozen as part of the federal probe.
According to court documents, the government has seized more than $3.5 million from a Feeding Our Future bank account and more than $185,000 held in Bock’s personal bank accounts. Authorities also took $13,462 in cash and a 2013 Porsche Panamera during the Jan. 20 search warrant operation at Bock’s home.
Luger said that the government has so far seized $50 million in property tied to the scheme, including 60 bank accounts, 45 parcels of real property, 14 vehicles, jewelry and other items.
At least one defendant — Fahad Nur — is accused of fleeing the United States shortly after the January FBI raids. Nur is charged with four others in one indictment that alleged a $25 million fraud scheme. Nur’s The Produce LLC was sponsored by Feeding Our Future and took in more than $11 million in federal funds as a vendor and food supplier to sites involved in the program. Nur could not be reached for comment.
Prosecutors say he did not make any significant food-related purchases between initiating food operations around March 2021 through September of that year, yet received $3.5 million for food he claimed to have provided through the program. Days before registering the company with the state of Minnesota, Nur submitted fraudulent invoices to Feeding Our Future claiming to have provided 3,635 gallons of milk and more than 7,000 packed lunches to another co-defendant, the indictment alleges.
Most defendants did not yet have an attorney.
Others charged include:
• Abdiaziz Shafii Farah and Mohamed ...
Parents Of K-12 Students Need To Be Aware Of Dangerous School Board Candidates | Arizona Capitol Times
Parents Of K-12 Students Need To Be Aware Of Dangerous School Board Candidates | Arizona Capitol Times https://digitalarizonanews.com/parents-of-k-12-students-need-to-be-aware-of-dangerous-school-board-candidates-arizona-capitol-times/
Several groups are doing everything in their power to control the thought processes of the younger generation. Students, faculty, public school administrators, and school board members should not be subjected to this mentality that embraces censorship and a society that does not read books, think independently, learn about history, or appreciate the beauties of nature.
For a majority of the million-plus K-12 children in Arizona, public education is the backbone for their future. It is a travesty that several groups are doing everything in their power to control the thought processes of the younger generation.
This reality is very disruptive to public education. Students, faculty, public school administrators, and school board members should not be subjected to this Fahrenheit 451 mentality that embraces censorship and a society that does not read books, think independently, learn about history, or appreciate the beauties of nature. Dedicated employees of schools and school districts should not have to suffer the consequences from being terrorized by those perpetuating fear mongering and lies.
Joanie Rose
As an eye witness to this extremism and vitriol, I observed these angry education protesters show no respect or understanding for the countless hours teachers spend researching and preparing lessons so their students will be knowledgeable in a competitive world.
It is time to step up and support school officials and teachers who, in today’s world, are working under the most difficult of circumstances.
The questionable grownups who attend school board meetings have no good intentions. They participate in public comments not to promote or improve education but to spread unfounded conspiracies like Critical Race Theory (CRT). Nowhere in any Arizona public school system is CRT part of the curriculum.
To make a bad situation worse, the same folks want to remove books while targeting Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and topics that have enlightened students for decades.
Please understand, these people also refused to protect children during the pandemic. They screamed, in mob-like fashion, at school board meetings that students did not need to wear masks or be inoculated despite the advice of highly trained medical professionals, doctors, and scientists who encouraged both measures.
The only way to stop anti-education candidates is VOTE for candidates who actually care about education and the wellbeing of all students. Teachers should be allowed to teach facts and not be intimidated to fictionalize history.
Take time to learn about the men and women running for school board positions. Sadly, many candidates are propped up by anti-public education groups and profiteers such as The Goldwater Institute, Turning Point USA (Charlie Kirk), Freedom Works (Koch Brother-owned), and Purple for Parents (Three Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board candidates). These national groups and their candidates openly advocate for privatizing our schools through defunding and using vouchers. This action eliminates special needs children from educational opportunities.
School board races aren’t normally high profile or well-funded, but these groups have vowed to influence school boards and decimate the public institution of education. Deep pocketed millionaires and billionaires (Peter Thiel) will be laughing all the way to the bank on our taxpayer dimes. Please do your homework! Don’t just vote for a name or a party, vote for a sincere person you know truly cares about education for all students.
Joanie Rose
Scottsdale
Tags: critical race theory, The Goldwater Institute, Pulitzer Prize, election, school board elections, authors, vote, Turning Point USA, Purple for Parents, Koch brothers, censorship, Peter Thiel
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Real Estate Firm Announces Second Round Of Layoffs
Real Estate Firm Announces Second Round Of Layoffs https://digitalarizonanews.com/real-estate-firm-announces-second-round-of-layoffs/
A sign is posted in front of a home Compass listed for sale in San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
In an effort to cut company costs amid a housing market downturn, the New York-based real estate firm Compass is undergoing a round of layoffs that will primarily affect its technology team.
News of the layoffs was made public through a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday, in which Compass called its upcoming workforce reduction a “significant action” made necessary by cost reduction efforts highlighted in an earnings report from mid-August.
“A significant portion of the Workforce Reduction involves reductions in headcount on the Company’s product and engineering team,” Compass said in the SEC filing.
About 3,000 of the company’s 21,636 employees are based in the Bay Area, according to LinkedIn. It’s unclear how many employees will be affected by this round of layoffs, and Compass declined SFGATE’s request for comment.
Compass is known for fusing the tech and real estate industries by using technology to simplify the process of buying or selling property — a platform that is now advanced enough to warrant layoffs across the company’s tech department. The filing said the company expects costs of $23 million to $26 million related to severance benefits and other expenses associated with terminating affected employees.
This is Compass’ second round of layoffs in recent months — the company laid off about 450 people in June, mainly due to “clear signals of slowing economic growth,” a Compass spokesperson previously told SFGATE. Redfin also laid off hundreds of employees around that time, and Realtor.com laid off an undisclosed number of employees earlier this month as a result of slowing sales volume in the real estate market.
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Celebrities Coming Back To White House After Trump Drought
Celebrities Coming Back To White House After Trump Drought https://digitalarizonanews.com/celebrities-coming-back-to-white-house-after-trump-drought/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Celebrities are back at the White House following a pop-culture backlash during the Trump years, when just about anyone considered high-wattage refused to show up.
Rocker Elton John is bringing his farewell tour to the South Lawn on Friday, the White House announced Tuesday, one week after singer James Taylor and hosts Jonathan and Drew Scott, of HGTV’s “Property Brothers,” helped celebrate a new health care and climate change law.
John is among a slew of entertainers who refused to perform for then-President Donald Trump.
Taylor sang and strummed his guitar to open last week’s event while the Scotts were among hundreds of people in the audience. They also joined second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, to film a snazzy video promoting the law’s climate change provisions.
Since taking office during a pandemic, which put a pause on too much togetherness, the 79-year-old Biden has also opened the White House to teen singer Olivia Rodrigo, to talk about young people and COVID-19 vaccinations, and the South Korean boy band BTS, to discuss Asian inclusion and representation.
FILE – Elton John performs during his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road,” tour, Friday, July 15, 2022, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The White House will become a concert venue Friday, Sept. 23, when Elton John performs. The event is called “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” a reference to a poem by Seamus Heaney that President Joe Biden often quotes. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Matt Rourke
James Taylor sings during an event about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Andrew Harnik
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Last year, the Democratic president resumed the tradition of hosting an in-person White House reception for the artists receiving honors from the Kennedy Center.
Actor Jennifer Garner accompanied first lady Jill Biden to West Virginia last year to visit a school-based COVID-19 vaccination site in Charleston. Garner also hosted a PBS “In Performance” special celebrating the holidays at the White House.
John’s concert is called “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” a reference to a poem by Irishman Seamus Heaney that Biden often quotes. The performance is part of a collaboration with A+E Networks and the History Channel that “will celebrate the unifying and healing power of music, commend the life and work of Sir Elton John and honor the everyday history-makers in the audience,” the White House said. Guests will include teachers, medical professionals, students, LGBTQ+ advocates and others.
John also has a gig scheduled for Saturday night at Nationals Park in Washington as part of a tour wrapping up his 50-plus-year career. He opened the final leg of his North American farewell series in Philadelphia in July.
The 75-year-old British singer is among celebrities who avoided the Trump White House, starting with the Republican’s 2017 inauguration. John had declined an invitation to play at Trump’s inaugural festivities, saying he didn’t think it was appropriate for someone with British heritage to play at the swearing-in of an American president.
Trump had included high praise for John in a few of his books and played John’s songs at his presidential campaign rallies, including “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer.” Trump had also nicknamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “rocket man” because of Kim’s habit of test-firing missiles.
Country music singers Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood were among the more notable entertainers who performed to help usher Trump into office. Bigger names from other genres refused or weren’t considered.
Hollywood has always leaned heavily Democratic.
For the inauguration of Democrat Biden, singers Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks were among those who performed.
Aretha Franklin and Beyonce were among celebrities who turned out in a huge show of force for Democrat Barack Obama, from fundraising to his two inaugurations to performances inside the White House or on the grounds.
They disappeared under Trump, but are returning for Biden.
Biden relied on celebrities during his 2020 presidential campaign, when in-person schmoozing was largely suspended because of the coronavirus. A parade of movie and TV stars, pop icons and sports standouts stepped up to help Biden raise money and energize supporters.
Sir Elton — he was knighted in 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II — has sold over 300 million records worldwide, played over 4,000 shows in 80 countries and recorded one of the best-selling singles of all-time, his 1997 reworking of “Candle In The Wind” to eulogize Princess Diana, which sold 33 million copies.
He has scored over 70 top 40 hits, including nine No. 1s, and released seven No. 1 albums in the 3 1/2-year period from 1972 to 1975, a pace second only to that of the Beatles. John has five Grammy awards, a Tony award for “Aida,” and Academy Awards for songs from “The Lion King” and “Rocketman.”
He has played at the White House in the past.
John and Stevie Wonder performed together at a 1998 state dinner hosted by Democratic President Bill Clinton honoring British Prime Minister Tony Blair. They performed under a tent on the West Colonnade roof.
John was critical of Republican President George W. Bush, telling a British magazine in November 2004 that Bush and his administration “are the worst thing that has ever happened to America.”
But he was more diplomatic at a reception at the White House in December 2004 for a group of Kennedy Center honorees that included himself.
The rock legend said receiving the honor “is about the icing on the cake. … It’s incredible for someone who’s British to be given such an accolade from America, which has given me so much already in my career.”
___
Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington and AP News Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Special Master Chastises Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/special-master-chastises-trump/
If Donald Trump thought the special master assigned to review records seized during an an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago last month would do him some special favors, he was mistaken.
Federal Judge Raymond Dearie repeatedly chided the former president’s lawyers for refusing to provide evidence to back up Trump’s claim that all those highly sensitive documents related to national security that were discovered in his Florida residence and private club were actually declassified.
In a letter to Dearie on Monday night, the lawyers said that issue could be part of Trump’s defense if he’s indicted, according to The Associated Press.
However, Dearie seemed skeptical. He told Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday that if they will not actually assert that the records have been declassified and if the Justice Department makes an acceptable case that they remain classified, then “as far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it.”
“You can’t have your cake and eat it,” is how Dearie summed up his position.
Although Trump keeps claiming that all of the records believed to have been in his possession were declassified, his lawyers have not made that argument to the court, though they have repeatedly asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information.
Julie Edelstein, a Justice Department lawyer, told the court she was hopeful that the department could get the documents digitized and provided to Trump’s lawyers by early next week, according to the AP.
Edelstein also noted that the DOJ had given Trump’s legal team a list of five vendors approved by the government for the purposes of scanning, hosting and otherwise processing the seized records.
Dearie told Trump’s lawyers to agree on a vendor this week, according to The New York Times.
Trump’s lawyers argued in a separate filing on Tuesday that the Justice Department had not proved that the records remained classified.
“In the case of someone who has been president of the United States, they have unfettered access along with unfettered declassification authority,” James Trusty, one of Trump’s lawyers, said Tuesday.
Dearie reminded the lawyers that they were the ones with the burden of establishing the former president’s right to relief ― not the Department of Justice.
Dearie’s cake comments gave many Twitter users food for thought.
He said “I guess my view of it is that you can’t have your cake and eat it“.
In other words, that’s fine if Donald Trump‘s lawyers don’t want to present evidence of classification at this juncture, but then Dearie would look at them as classified documents.
— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) September 20, 2022
Don’t look now but a judge showed up today in the MAL matter– Special Master Raymond Dearie, who put an end to Trump’s foolishness about “maybe he declassified” by saying you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Looking forward to discussing on @DonLemonTonight at 11 PM ET.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) September 20, 2022
JUDGE DEARIE: You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
TRUMP: I never declassified the cake and the FBI planted it. If this guy doesn’t give me my cake, there will be trouble the likes no bakery has ever seen.
— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) September 20, 2022
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Ex-Trump Official Criticizes Probe Into Misconduct Claims Local News 8
Ex-Trump Official Criticizes Probe Into Misconduct Claims – Local News 8 https://digitalarizonanews.com/ex-trump-official-criticizes-probe-into-misconduct-claims-local-news-8/
By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — A former Trump official who heads the Inter-American Development Bank is criticizing an external investigation into an anonymous complaint that he carried on an intimate relationship with a subordinate. The probe’s findings have not been made public, but Mauricio Claver-Carone said in a statement Tuesday that it did not substantiate the “false and anonymous allegations.” He also harshly criticized the manner in which the probe was conducted by a law firm. The probe was launched by the bank’s board after it received an email in March detailing possible misconduct by Claver-Carone.
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Fiona Swipes Turks And Caicos Puerto Rico Faces Big Cleanup
Fiona Swipes Turks And Caicos, Puerto Rico Faces Big Cleanup https://digitalarizonanews.com/fiona-swipes-turks-and-caicos-puerto-rico-faces-big-cleanup/
CAYEY, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.
The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. Storm surge could raise water levels there by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the storm was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of North Caicos Island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the center.
Premier Washington Misick urged people to evacuate. “Storms are unpredictable,” he said in a statement from London, where he had attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.”
Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph), according to the Hurricane Center, which said the storm was likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Rain was still lashing parts of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where the sounds of people scraping, sweeping and spraying their homes and streets echoed across rural areas as historic floodwaters began to recede.
In the central mountain town of Cayey, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water consumed cars and homes, overturned dressers, beds and large refrigerators lay strewn in people’s yards Tuesday.
“Puerto Rico is not prepared for this, or for anything,” said Mariangy Hernández, a 48-year-old housewife, who said she doubted the government would help her community of some 300 in the long term, despite ongoing efforts to clear the streets and restore power. “This is only for a couple of days and later they forget about us.”
She and her husband were stuck in line waiting for the National Guard to clear a landslide in their hilly neighborhood.
“Is it open? Is it open?” one driver asked, worried that the road might have been completely closed.
Other drivers asked the National Guard if they could swing by their homes to help cut trees or clear clumps of mud and debris.
The cleanup efforts occurred on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm in 2017 and knocked out power for a year in parts of Cayey.
Jeannette Soto, a 34-year-old manicurist, worried it would take a long time for crews to restore power because a landslide swept away the neighborhood’s main light post.
“It’s the first time this happens,” she said of the landslides. “We didn’t think the magnitude of the rain was going to be so great.”
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi requested a major disaster declaration on Tuesday and said it would be at least a week before authorities have an estimate of the damage that Fiona caused.
He said the damage caused by the rain was “catastrophic,” especially in the island’s central, south and southeast regions.
“The impact caused by the hurricane has been devastating for many people,” he said.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to boost local response efforts.
The broad storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.
Another death was linked to a power blackout — a 70-year-old man was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.
Parts of the island had received more than 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain and more was falling Tuesday.
National Guard Brig. Gen. Narciso Cruz described the flooding as historic.
“There were communities that flooded in the storm that didn’t flood under Maria,” he said, referring to the 2017 hurricane that caused nearly 3,000 deaths. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Cruz said 670 people have been rescued in Puerto Rico, including 19 people at a retirement home in Cayey that was in danger of collapsing.
“The rivers broke their banks and blanketed communities,” he said.
Some people were rescued via kayaks and boats while others nestled into the massive shovel of a digger and were lifted to higher ground.
He lamented that some people initially refused to leave their homes, adding that he understood why.
“It’s human nature,” he said. “But when they saw their lives were in danger, they agreed to leave.”
The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he would push for the federal government to cover 100% of disaster response costs — instead of the usual 75% — as part of an emergency disaster declaration.
“We need to make sure this time, Puerto Rico has absolutely everything it needs, as soon as possible, for as long as they need it,” he said.
Authorities said Tuesday that at least 1,220 people and more than 70 pets remained in shelters across the island.
Fiona triggered a blackout when it hit Puerto Rico’s southwest corner on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.
By Tuesday morning, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Puerto Rico’s governor warned it could take days before everyone has electricity.
Water service was cut to more than 760,000 customers — two thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.
Fiona was forecast to weaken before running into easternmost Canada over the weekend. It was not expected to threaten the U.S. mainland.
In the Dominican Republic, authorities reported two deaths: a 68-year-old man hit by a falling tree and an 18-year-old girl who was struck by a falling electrical post while riding a motorcycle. The storm forced more than 1,550 people to seek safety in government shelters and left more than 406,500 homes without power.
The hurricane left several highways blocked, and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was badly damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said authorities would need several days to assess the storm’s effects.
Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.
___
Associated Press reporters Martín Adames in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Maricarmen Rivera Sánchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
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4 Injured In DUI Crash On Interstate 10 [Phoenix AZ]
4 Injured In DUI Crash On Interstate 10 [Phoenix, AZ] https://digitalarizonanews.com/4-injured-in-dui-crash-on-interstate-10-phoenix-az/
Image by Matt Popovich on Unsplash.com
Several Hurt in Traffic Accident near 40th Street Involving Police Officer
PHOENIX, AZ (September 20, 2022) – Saturday morning, at least four people were injured following a DUI crash on Interstate 10.
The incident happened on September 17th, just before 7:30 a.m., when police responded to a crash on Interstate 10 near 40th Street, involving a police vehicle and another vehicle.
According to the report, a police officer was investigating a collision when their vehicle was rear-ended. The impact of the collision left the police officer and the passengers in the vehicle, two children and a woman, with injuries.
Medics arrived at the site of the collision and transported all those injured to a local hospital for treatment of their injuries.
Meanwhile, the cause of the crash is still under investigation, a report will be made once available.
When driving, always focus on the road and be aware of your surroundings. This is especially true when driving through a busy intersection, a neighborhood, or a parking lot. Drive safely to help avoid causing or increasing the risk of accidents that may have devastating consequences for you and others.
If you have been injured in a car accident, contact Sweet James today. It is their goal to provide your loved one with the highest quality legal representation. Their firm is dedicated to helping your family obtain both justice and maximum settlement. Their seasoned personal injury attorneys will fight by your side and get what you rightfully deserve. Call their office for your free consultation at (800) 975-3435. Click here to request a police report.
For more accident news, click here.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.
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WMS Guide 2022 – Inbound Logistics https://digitalarizonanews.com/wms-guide-2022-inbound-logistics/
Warehouse Management System (WMS) solutions help streamline order fulfillment, increase inventory accuracy, and optimize equipment utilization. This short list of leading WMS solutions can help your enterprise react agilely and quickly to meet today’s new customer demands.
3PL Central, An Extensiv Company
El Segundo, CA | 3plcentral.com | 888-375-2368
3PL Warehouse Manager
Cloud-based WMS solutions to help 3PLs focus on customer satisfaction, operate more efficiently, and grow faster. As the backbone of a company’s operations, the WMS manages inventory, automates routine tasks, and delivers complete visibility.
Argos Software
Fresno, CA | argosoftware.com | 559-227-1000
Abecas Insight
Fully integrated WMS and accounting system with EDI connectivity to all major ERPs, virtual access, multi-level scanning, first in/first out, and lot/sub-lot traceability.
ASC Software
Dayton, OH | ascsoftware.com | 937-429-1428
ASCTrac
Manages the use of warehouse resources, space, and equipment. Flexible configurability provides total control of warehouse distribution—from receiving, putaway, and replenishment to physical/cycle counts, customer and order picking, shipping, and productivity management. Scalable for any size business or complexity level. Extensive lot and serial track-and-trace, including full product recall processes.
AutoScheduler.AI
Austin, TX | autoscheduler.ai | 615-428-2035
AutoScheduler.AI
Sits on top of a WMS to provide warehouse resource optimization. The WMS accelerator dynamically rebalances activities across the warehouse environment, considering time, labor, and space constraints. It orchestrates and optimizes activities to drive greater degrees of labor utilization, fulfillment, work allocation, and inventory management.
Blue Yonder
Scottsdale, AZ | BlueYonder.com | 833-532-4764
Blue Yonder Warehouse Management System Empowers companies to drive change with real-time transaction processing, optimized storage and selection
strategies, optimal warehouse execution and tasking, and integrated labor and workforce management. All delivered on a modern user interface that leverages the power of the digital platform to extend capabilities to enable specific use cases.
Cadre Technologies
Denver, CO | cadretech.com | 866-252-2373
Cadence WMS Integrates high-volume warehouse operations for 3PLs, 4PLs, and distribution companies. Based on real-time, mobile RF processes, with strong
capabilities to track lots, dates, and serial numbers. Native Microsoft SQL-based system for easy reporting and integrations.
Camelot 3PL Software
Charlotte, NC | 3plsoftware.com | 704-554-1670
Excalibur WMS
Developed exclusively for third-party logistics warehouses and fulfillment operations. Built within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central platform, the software provides a comprehensive system to receive, store, and ship inventory in a multi-client operation with a highly customizable solution.
CartonCloud
Vancouver, BC | cartoncloud.com | 235-326-4665
CartonCloud Easy to use, intuitive cloud-based software that simplifies workflows, automates data entry, and helps grow business. Barcode scanning,
software integrations, automated invoicing, and more. Empowers teams with a desktop and mobile app, and provides users with online portal access.
CorePartners
Frederick, MD | coreims.com | 301-695-2673
CoreIMS Cost-effective system that provides flexibility to support warehouse operations. Designed to address a comprehensive set of warehouse needs
efficiently and effectively, including managing multiple warehouses. Can be installed on-premise or provided as a Software-as-a-Service solution. Integrates with Sage and QB.
Datex International
Clearwater, FL datexcorp.com | 727-571-4159
Datex FootPrint WMS Workflow-driven, highly flexible WMS can be configured to fit a business’ needs without costly changes to source code. Scales up or
down seamlessly. Low code/no code. Serves 3PLs, fulfillment, cold storage, food/beverage, pharma/healthcare and any kind of inventory. Optional EDI, validation, and other services available.
Deposco
Alpharetta, GA | deposco.com | 877-807-1572
Bright Warehouse
Enterprise-grade benefits include company-wide visibility, extensive flexibility, and real-time data generation, regardless of existing size and infrastructure. Empowers teams to pick, pack, and ship orders quickly and accurately using optimized processes.
DiCentral
Houston, TX | smartturn.com | 281-218-4892
SmartTurn
On-demand, Microsoft-certified WMS manages purchasing, receiving and putaway, inventory control, order fulfillment, and shipping across a range of industries including food service, healthcare, e-commerce, and 3PL/contract logistics.
EVS
Westminster, CO | evssw.com | 303-494-1765
mobe3 WMS
Easy-to-use system allows warehouse employees to onboard—and become more productive—quickly. Flexible and configurable, and fully integrates with ERP as well as other warehouse technologies.
FASCOR
Cincinnati, OH | fascor.com | 888-8-FASCOR
FASCOR WMS
ERP-agnostic and designed to control operational costs, improve inventory control, reduce labor requirements, and maximize accuracy. Enhances productivity, optimizes resource scheduling, and empowers users to deliver better customer service.
Flowspace
Los Angeles, CA | flow.space | 323-741-1325
Flowspace WMS
Cloud-based warehouse management and order fulfillment platform that enables order status tracking, inventory management, shipping, and item labeling. Enables administrators to print shipping labels, create flexible parcel billing accounts, generate reports, and manage user and merchant accounts.
Foxfire Software
Greenville, SC | foxfiresoftware.com | 864-630-3238
Foxfire Software
Provides configurable solutions to Tier 2 warehouses across the United States. Foxfire works through the ScanSource distribution network to provide turnkey solutions. Can be configured and/or customized to fit any warehouse.
Freightgate
Fountain Valley, CA | freightgate.net | 714-799-2833
Freightgate Logistics Cloud Collaborate with global vendors and logistics providers seamlessly on a single common transportation sourcing platform for
informed decision-making across the entire network with adaptive easy-to-deploy modules for warehouse/distribution centers. Optimize end-to-end transportation management processes including procurement, rate management, optimization, execution, and visibility.
Generix Group North America
Montreal, Quebec | generixgroup.com | 855-938-4562
SOLOCHAIN WMS
Highly flexible and adaptive system built for companies that need supply chains to be nimble, efficient, and scaling, while ensuring execution excellence, compliance, and operational stability. Highly configurable in terms of information layout, mobile workflow processes, reporting and optimization rules.
HAL Systems
Greensboro, NC | halsystems.com | 404-845-6199
HAL Traxx
Single-instance application hosted in the cloud and typically provided as Software-as-a-Service. Configurable software (think software Legos) that is set up for a particular company’s specific functionality requirements.
Highway 905
Hillsborough, NJ | highway905.com | 908-874-4867
Highway 905®
Warehouse Management System
Cloud-based system focused on driving cost reductions with optimized processes while ensuring end-to-end and accurate warehouse visibility. The flexibility to choose features and generate customized reports ensures a custom-fit solution for your exact business needs.
Infor
New York, NY | infor.com | 866-244-5479
Infor® WMS
Combines warehouse fulfillment with embedded labor management and 3D visual analysis to provide visibility into inventory, orders, equipment, and people. Out of the box functionality accelerates implementation. 3D visual warehouse provides insight into bottlenecks and assets.
Interlink Technologies
Perrysburg, OH | thinkinterlink.com | 800-655-5465
Warehouse-LINK®
Sophisticated software and technology to manage all warehousing activities in virtually any industry in real-time. Decreases ship cycles, reduces inventory needs and provides labor efficiency. Built-in features allow for growth and flexibility as a business grows and changes.
Körber
Hamburg, DE | koerber.com | 800-328-3271
Körber
Offers a range of WMS solutions that can be applied to small and mid-sized warehouses with manual and forklift-based processes, as well as with radio frequency and voice-directed operations, all the way up to large, highly automated distribution centers.
Logimax
Rosemont, IL | e-logimax.com | 855-253-8855
Logimax WMS
A browser-based system that contains everything a warehouse needs to improve efficiency right out of the box. Software modules enable integration with current systems and shopping carts, kitting, assemble to order, yard and transportation management, terminal cross docking and more.
Made4net
Teaneck, NJ | made4net.com | 201-645-4345
WarehouseExpert
Enables customers to pivot quickly, affordably, and seamlessly, with maximum user configurability, and minimal need for professional services. Covers running a simple warehouse or a highly complex operation with vast automation, materials handling equipment and robotics integrations.
Magaya
Miami, FL | magaya.com | 786-845-9150
Magaya Supply Chain
An all-in-one logistics and freight management solution with a built-in WMS. Improves warehouse productivity, accuracy, and profitability with configurable optimization workflows.
Manhattan Associates
Atlanta, GA | manh.com | 877-596-9208
Manhattan Active® Warehouse Management
Uses advanced, proprietary algorithms to mathematically organize and optimize operations, speeding the flow of goods and information to enable flawless execution across stock, labor and space. Modern mobile applications help users efficiently manage omnichannel fulfillmen...
Trump Had unfettered Right To Declassify Docs His Attorneys Say
Trump Had ‘unfettered’ Right To Declassify Docs, His Attorneys Say https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-had-unfettered-right-to-declassify-docs-his-attorneys-say/
The former president’s attorneys said it’s too soon to offer a substantive defense, but claimed in court that he was the ultimate authority on declassifying documents.
BROOKLYN (CN) — Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys appeared in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday, preparing to push back against the government’s investigation into whether Trump kept potentially privileged documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie is tasked with reviewing some thousands of materials uncovered during an FBI raid of the south Florida home.
Trump’s attorney James M. Trusty said he’s “telegraphed” his future defense in court briefs: That Trump had the final say on whether or not documents were in fact classified.
“The Presidential Records Act does supersede traditional classification concerns,” Trusty said. “As someone who’s been president of the United States, they do have unfettered access along with unfettered declassification authority.”
However Trusty, of the Washington D.C.-based firm Ifrah Law, explained that he’s not yet in a position to make that case, which should be presented in connection with a property return motion under federal criminal rules.
“I don’t disagree with you,” Dearie told Trusty. “My position is you can’t have your cake and eat it.”
The FBI took about 20 boxes of documents, including 11 sets of classified records, from Mar-a-Lago. Dearie gave Trump’s team until Friday to pick a vendor to digitize the documents, picking from a list of five options provided by the government.
Delaying the investigation of those documents, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida appointed Dearie as special master following Trump’s motion for judicial oversight.
Among the seized materials were the grant of clemency to the former president’s close ally Roger Stone, binders of photos and what is described as “info re: President of France.”
Other materials “might be articles of clothing or golf shirts,” Trusty noted Tuesday, which would accelerate the review process that he estimated would take 220 “man hours” to complete.
Another way to speed it up suggested Trusty, who has top secret clearance from another matter, would be to give the clearance to more of Trump’s legal team.
However the review is not just a matter of being cleared, Dearie said. It should happen on a “need to know” basis, and even Dearie himself will avoid exposing himself to sensitive documents if he can make his recommendations to the Trump-appointed Cannon without doing so.
“Let’s not belittle the fact that we are dealing with at least potentially classified information,” Dearie said. “If you need to know, you will know.”
Per Cannon, Dearie may consult with the National Archives and Records Administration, an option the government has encouraged him to take.
The documents would be in the administration’s custody “if they had not been stored in an improper place,” said attorney Julie A. Edelstein of the Department of Justice’s Counterintelligence & Export Control Section, who did most of the speaking on the government’s behalf.
Trusty disagreed, saying the records administration is a “political and partisan organization,” and pointing to its statement explaining that some digitized materials “may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions.”
The FBI’s investigation is on hold while the review takes place. The government appealed Cannon’s order granting that pause, and depending on the decision from the 11th Circuit will “consider other appellate options,” Edelstein said.
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Trump FBI Search Puts Unusual Spotlight On Archives Nominee
Trump FBI Search Puts Unusual Spotlight On Archives Nominee https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-fbi-search-puts-unusual-spotlight-on-archives-nominee/
By FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — As a novelist, Colleen Shogan has imagined the most vivid of Washington dramas.
Larceny at the Library of Congress. A homicide in the House of Representatives. A stabbing in the U.S. Senate.
But Shogan is about to become a protagonist in a storyline too fantastical for fiction — the criminal investigation of a former president — as she prepares to appear before a Senate panel that is considering her nomination to lead the National Archives.
The traditionally staid and low-profile National Archives has been thrust into the public arena by the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, intertwined with a criminal investigation that is testing the nation’s system of justice and raising unprecedented questions about accountability for a former president.
Shogan’s path to confirmation could be rocky as Republicans demand more information from the Justice Department. It was the National Archives that set the probe in motion earlier this year with a referral to the FBI after Trump returned 15 boxes of documents that contained dozens of records with classified markings.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott, a member of the panel vetting Shogan’s nomination, told Bloomberg he “absolutely will demand answers” about the FBI search as part of her confirmation hearing Wednesday. Other panelists, like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, have chastised Attorney General Merrick Garland over the investigation and questioned the administration’s motives.
It’s a contentious backdrop for an archivist nomination, a position often filled by academics and historians that typically moves through the Senate with little fanfare.
“It’s my understanding that it’s never been a political issue before and it’s not a partisan job,” said Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel that is handling the nomination. Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the committee, said he’s supportive of Shogan’s nomination, but concerned for how his colleagues across the aisle may respond.
“Hopefully, she’ll be received warmly by folks but you never know until the actual day of the hearing,” Peters added.
Shogan declined to be interviewed for this story. But interviews with half a dozen current and former colleagues paint a picture of a respected historian and serious-minded political scientist who is not easily fazed and has long been careful to avoid partisan politics.
“You’re looking for someone who can sail through the Congress, and not become a lightning rod of controversy. That’s Colleen,” said Anita McBride, a former assistant to President George W. Bush, who works with Shogan at the White House Historical Association.
“I think she’s an ideal leader for really such a time as this is,” said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association and Shogan’s boss. “I am not aware of a partisan bone in her body.”
“I still to this day do not know her politics,” said Susan Combs, who served at the Department of the Interior during the Trump administration and chaired the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission with Shogan.
Shogan will be introduced at her confirmation hearing by a friend and senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The West Virginia lawmaker said she has great respect for Shogan but cautioned that she doesn’t know how her nomination will shake out.
“In these tough times, I don’t think anything’s predictable,” Capito said.
Biden nominated Shogan to lead the National Archives in August, just days before the FBI search of Trump’s Florida club. The last archivist, David Ferriero, announced his retirement in April, citing fears about the nation’s political trajectory after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Shogan’s roots in official Washington run deep. She began her career as a congressional aide for former Sen. Joe Lieberman, then worked her way up to a position with the Congressional Research Service, a scholarly operation that churns out nonpartisan analysis for lawmakers and their staff. Shogan also worked for a time at the Library of Congress.
Now Shogan is an executive at the White House Historical Association, where she has worked under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
As the archivist, Shogan would take the helm of an agency that goes to great lengths to preserve the nation’s records, including treasured documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Their sprawling collection spans 13 billion pages of text and 10 million maps, charts and drawings, as well as tens of millions of photographs, films and other records.
Beyond its work in Washington, the Archives oversees 13 presidential libraries and 14 regional archives across the country. But despite the ever-growing volume of government documents since the Archives’ founding in 1934, the agency’s budget has remained stagnant over the years.
“The Archives do not have enough money to do their work. And I have to assume that is because Congress does not fully understand what its job is,” Grossman said. “Perhaps the visibility of these confirmation hearings and the recent attention will help more Americans appreciate the role.”
Shogan has written a series of Washington-based whodunits, with titles like “Homicide in the House” and “Stabbing in the Senate.” Beyond her work as an author, scholar and historian, she serves as the chair of the board of directors at the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation.
Congress has given that foundation a weighty task: building the first memorial in the nation’s capital for the pioneering suffragists who fought for women’s right to vote.
Shogan has a chance to do a little trailblazing of her own. If confirmed, she’ll be the first woman to serve as the archivist.
“She’s been a champion for the story of women and their record in our national story, and to be a part of that history too is really special,” McBride said.
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Arbiter In Donald Trump Docs Probe Signals Intent To Move Quickly
Arbiter In Donald Trump Docs Probe Signals Intent To Move Quickly https://digitalarizonanews.com/arbiter-in-donald-trump-docs-probe-signals-intent-to-move-quickly/
Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys Linsey Halligan, James Trusty, and Chris Kise arrive at Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo / Brittainy Newman)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The independent arbiter tasked with inspecting documents seized in an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home said Tuesday he intends to push briskly though the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump team’s reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified.
“We’re going to proceed with what I call responsible dispatch,” Raymond Dearie, a veteran Brooklyn judge, told lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department in their first meeting since his appointment last week as a so-called special master.
The purpose of the meeting was to sort out next steps in a review process expected to slow by weeks, if not months, the criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. As special master, Dearie will be responsible for sifting through the thousands of documents recovered during the Aug. 8 FBI search and segregating those protected by claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
Though Trump’s lawyers had requested the appointment of a special master to ensure an independent review of the documents, one of the former president’s attorneys, James Trusty, made clear they were concerned that Dearie’s proposed deadlines were too ambitious.
The lawyers are also resisting Dearie’s request for information about whether the seized records had been declassified, as Trump has maintained. In a letter to Dearie on Monday night, the lawyers said that issue could be part of Trump’s defense in the event of an indictment.
But Dearie appeared unsatisfied with that position. He said if Trump’s lawyers will not actually assert that the records have been declassified and the Justice Department instead makes an acceptable case that they remain classified, then “as far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it.”
Trusty said the Trump team should not be forced at this point to disclose a possible defense based on the idea that the records had been declassified. He denied that the lawyers were trying to engage in “gamesmanship” but instead believed it was a process that required “baby steps.”
But Dearie at one point observed: “I guess my view of it is, you can’t have your cake and eat it” too.
Trump has maintained without evidence that all of the records were declassified; his lawyers have not echoed that claim, though they have repeatedly asserted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information, and they said in a separate filing Tuesday that the Justice Department had not proven that the records remained classified.
“As someone who has been president of the United States, he has unfettered access along with unfettered declassification authority,” Trusty said Tuesday.
The resistance to the judge’s request was notable because it was Trump’s lawyers, not the Justice Department, who had requested the appointment of a special master and because the recalcitrance included an acknowledgment that the probe could be building toward an indictment.
In the letter, Trump’s lawyers said the time for addressing that question would be if they pressed forward with demands for the Justice Department to return some of the property taken from Mar-a-Lago.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.” they wrote.
The Trump team also asked the judge to consider pushing back all of the deadlines for his review. That work includes inspecting the roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 marked as classified, that were taken during the FBI’s search.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who granted the Trump team’s request for a special master, had set a Nov. 30 deadline for Dearie’s review and instructed him to prioritize his inspection of classified records. The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to halt Cannon’s order requiring it to provide him with classified documents for his review. That appeal is pending.
Dearie, a Ronald Reagan appointee whose name is on the atrium of his Brooklyn courthouse, made clear during Tuesday’s meeting that he intended to meet the deadlines, saying there was “little time” to complete the assigned tasks.
Julie Edelstein, a Justice Department lawyer, said she was hopeful that the department could get the documents digitized and provided to Trump’s lawyers by early next week. She noted that the department had given the legal team a list of five vendors approved by the government for the purposes of scanning, hosting and otherwise processing the seized records.
After some haggling, Dearie instructed Trusty’s lawyers to choose a vendor by Friday.
Earlier Tuesday, the Trump legal team urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to leave in place Cannon’s order temporarily barring the Justice Department’s use of the classified records for its criminal investigation while Dearie completes his review. The department has said that order has impeded its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s lawyers called those concerns overblown, saying investigators could still do other work on the probe even without scrutinizing the seized records.
“Ultimately, any brief delay to the criminal investigation will not irreparably harm the Government,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The injunction does not preclude the Government from conducting a criminal investigation, it merely delays the investigation for a short period while a neutral third party reviews the documents in question.”
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Flagstaff Freshman Quarterback Chase Brown Named A Grand Canyon State Gridiron Club Medallion Winner For Week 5
Flagstaff Freshman Quarterback Chase Brown Named A Grand Canyon State Gridiron Club Medallion Winner For Week 5 https://digitalarizonanews.com/flagstaff-freshman-quarterback-chase-brown-named-a-grand-canyon-state-gridiron-club-medallion-winner-for-week-5/
Flagstaff Eagles freshman quarterback Chase Brown has been named one of six medallion winners for outstanding play in week five of the season. Brown, in his first start playing high school football went 15-of-18 for 405 yards and a school record six touchdowns in the Eagles 56-12 win over Rio Rico this past Friday in the Skydome. He joins Paradise Honors junior quarterback, Douglas junior running back Emiliano Berthely, Arizona College Prep junior defensive end Cayden Gibson, Higley junior running back Dax Hall and Chandler junior running back Ca’lil Valentine as this week’s winners. By earning Ed Doherty Award Nomination Medallions, the winners will attend the end of season Ed Doherty Award Luncheon on December 17th in Phoenix, where one athlete will become the recipient of the Ed Doherty Award, which is given to the state’s best player of that season. Flagstaff has a bye this week and will head to Tempe to take on Marcos de Niza next Friday night.
To read the official announcement, click here:
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11 Republican AGs Press Appeals Court To Back Trump On Mar-A-Lago Special Master
11 Republican AGs Press Appeals Court To Back Trump On Mar-A-Lago Special Master https://digitalarizonanews.com/11-republican-ags-press-appeals-court-to-back-trump-on-mar-a-lago-special-master/
A coalition of 11 Republican attorneys general filed a court brief in support of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to have a court-appointed arbiter sift through hundreds of classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago compound last month.
The group, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), lambasted the Biden administration for what it called an “unprecedented nine-hour” search, accusing the Department of Justice of “gamesmanship and other questionable conduct.” The agency carried out a search of Trump’s Florida residence last month, seizing classified documents that reportedly held some of the nation’s greatest secrets, including information on foreign powers’ nuclear capabilities. The ex-president took the documents with him when he left the White House.
Such efforts, the Republican states argue, cloud the Biden administration’s “assertions of good-faith, neutrality and objectivity.”
“In the light of the extraordinary circumstance of a presidential administration ransacking the home of its one-time — and possibly future — political rival, President Trump filed a motion to appoint a special master,” the friend of the court brief reads. “Throughout this litigation the Biden Administration has attempted to trade on the reputation of the Department of Justice and the Intelligence Community to thwart the appointment of a neutral special master. But the district court twice rejected that gambit, and this Court should too.”
The brief, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, is signed by the attorneys general from Texas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney noted every state but Kentucky signed on to Texas’ effort to overturn the 2020 election at the Supreme Court. (That case was ultimately thrown out.)
With the exception of Kentucky, every state listed as signing onto this amicus brief also signed onto Texas effort to overturn the 2020 election at SCOTUS. pic.twitter.com/R3kEOHSEYK
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 20, 2022
Trump is embroiled in a legal struggle over the highly sensitive documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago residence more than 18 months after he left the White House. The DOJ is investigating if the former president or his aides engaged in any impropriety or intentionally withheld documents from government investigators.
Trump, who has blasted the search as a political attack, filed suit to have a court appoint an outside arbiter known as a special master to vet the material for any documents protected by attorney-client or executive privilege ― even though he is no longer a member of the executive branch.
In a ruling earlier this month that shocked legal experts, a federal judge he appointed in 2020 approved that request and paused the DOJ’s investigation into the documents.
The DOJ appealed that decision, but has since said it would not block the appointment of the special master. Rather, the agency asked an appeals court last week to give the FBI access to some 100 of the most sensitive documents taken from Mar-a-Lago rather than see them go through the vetting process. Nearly 11,000 others would still go before the arbiter.
“Although the government believes the district court fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief, the government seeks to stay only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public,” lawyers for the Justice Department wrote in the filing.
Trump’s latest filing with the appeals court argues the DOJ has not proven the documents it seeks are “in fact, classified.” A judge is set to hear preliminary information on the matter on Tuesday.
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Cheney: On Jan. 6 Fellow House Member Objecting To Election Called Trump
Cheney: On Jan. 6, Fellow House Member Objecting To Election Called Trump https://digitalarizonanews.com/cheney-on-jan-6-fellow-house-member-objecting-to-election-called-trump/
WASHINGTON – Rep. Liz Cheney said Monday that a fellow House member called former President Donald Trump “the orange Jesus” on Jan. 6, 2021, as Republicans gathered objections to 2020 election results.
Cheney also criticized Republicans who have been defending Trump after the FBI seized classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago home.
Cheney, R-Wyo., speaking at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, recounted that on Jan. 6, before the attack on the Capitol, she was preparing remarks in the Republican cloakroom, where there were papers all around her.
She said she asked a staffer what those papers were for, since there we so many members coming in and signing them.
The staffer told her they were objection sheets for members of the House to sign if they objected election results. Cheney said one member came in and said, “the things we do for orange Jesus.”
Cheney also criticized Republicans who have been defending Trump on the FBI’s search of his Florida estate.
“Those who are protecting Donald Trump elected leaders of my party are now willing to condemn FBI agents, Department of Justice officials and pretend that taking top secret SCI documents and keeping them in a desk drawer, in an office in Mar-a-Lago or in an unsecured location anywhere was somehow not a problem,” Cheney said.
GOP: GOP, long the law and order party, slams FBI, Justice Department over search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Graham: Lindsey Graham warns of ‘riots in the street’ if Trump is prosecuted, claims ‘double standard’
Some Republicans condemned the FBI in August for the search of Trump’s Florida home.
McCarthy warned Attorney General Merrick Garland to be ready for an investigation of the actions of the Justice Department, following the Mar-a-Lago search.
Court documents released since the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida showed that Trump kept classified documents marked “secret” and “top secret.”
The FBI seized documents as part of an ongoing investigation that may involve criminal laws forbidding improper removal of sensitive documents and obstruction of justice.
Trump returned 15 boxes of documents to the National Archives in January, and the Archives reported it in February.
Cheney, who is vice chair of the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, has vowed to keep fighting anyone who does not believe in the 2020 election presidential results.
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Hurricane Fiona Slams Turks And Caicos After Devastating Puerto Rico And Leaving At Least 5 Dead Across The Caribbean
Hurricane Fiona Slams Turks And Caicos After Devastating Puerto Rico And Leaving At Least 5 Dead Across The Caribbean https://digitalarizonanews.com/hurricane-fiona-slams-turks-and-caicos-after-devastating-puerto-rico-and-leaving-at-least-5-dead-across-the-caribbean/
The storm was threatening more deadly flooding Tuesday as it slammed the Turks and Caicos islands.
Fiona, a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115 mph, was battering the Turks and Caicos while centered about 40 miles off Grand Turk Island around 2 p.m. ET. Its heavy rains could deliver “life-threatening flooding” through the afternoon in parts of the British territory of about 38,000 people, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
Still dealing with Fiona’s ruinous path are the Dominican Republic — where the storm’s outer bands still could cause flooding after it traversed the Caribbean nation Monday — and Puerto Rico, which Fiona crossed a day earlier, causing a near blackout and leaving damage not seen there since Hurricane Maria made landfall five years ago Tuesday, officials said.
At least two people died in the severe weather in the Dominican Republic, according to Major General Juan Manuel Méndez García, director of the country’s emergency operations center. Aurielys Esther Jimenez, 18, was traveling by motorcycle when she was struck by a power pole that fell due to strong winds, the director said. She was taken to a hospital where she was later pronounced dead.
Officials there on Monday also confirmed the death of a man in Nagua, in northeastern Dominican Republic, who died after powerful winds knocked down a tree that hit him. There was also one death reported in the French territory of Guadeloupe, which Fiona hit late last week, and two in Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, a 58-year-old man was swept away by a swollen river behind his home in Comerío and another man in his 30s died in a fire accident that occurred when he was trying to put gasoline in his generator while it was turned on, officials said.
In Puerto Rico, parts of which will have seen rain totals of more than 30 inches, Fiona pushed rivers to overflow and high water to collect in parts of the territory, flooding homes, streets and fields. Rushing waters wiped away a bridge, carrying its structure downstream, one video shows. Mudslides blocked some roads leading from coastal areas to the interior, a CNN crew saw.
The damage is catastrophic in the territory’s center, south and southeast regions, Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said Tuesday.
A large portion of the population should have power by late Wednesday, but greater damage in the southern part of the island means restoration will take longer there, the governor said.
More than 1.17 million of the island’s roughly 1.47 million utility customers still were without power as of early Tuesday, according to estimates from PowerOutage.us, which notes updated information on restoration efforts is limited.
Fiona strengthens as it pushes north
Fiona intensified into a Category 3 storm as it moved away from the Dominican Republic’s northern coast early Tuesday.
This is the first major hurricane — Category 3 or higher — of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
Heavy rains around the center of Fiona will threaten the Turks and Caicos with “continued life-threatening flooding” through Tuesday afternoon, the hurricane center said.
Those islands could see 4 to 8 inches of rain Tuesday on top of what they received earlier, as well as storm surges — ocean water pushed onto land — of 5 to 8 feet, according to the hurricane center.
Hurricane conditions could be seen in Turks and Caicos into Tuesday afternoon, and tropical storm conditions — winds of at least 39 mph — were expected to spread over the southeastern Bahamas on Tuesday morning.
Strengthening is expected as Fiona turns from the Turks and Caicos. It could be a Category 4 storm — with sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph — by late Wednesday over the Atlantic. It is forecast to pass near or well west of Bermuda late Thursday or early Friday, and could still be at Category 4 when it does, forecasters say.
Over the weekend, Fiona might make landfall in eastern Canada as a hurricane. It is too early to know exactly where or how strong it might be.
Fiona leaves behind devastated Puerto Rico
Tuesday marks five years since Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic landfall in Puerto Rico and some who lived through the 2017 crisis say Fiona’s flooding destruction could be even more severe.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a business owner in Puerto Rico, told CNN that his neighborhood had still not finished its recovery from Maria when Fiona struck. But this time, he says, the flooding brought even more damage to their homes.
“A lot of people — more than (during) Maria — lost their houses now … lost everything in their houses because of the flooding,” Gonzalez told CNN on Monday. “Maria was tough winds. But this one, with all the rain, it just destroyed everything in the house.”
Water service also was interrupted for most, because river flooding affected filtration processes and must recede before safe treatment can resume, officials said. On Tuesday morning, about 60% of customers on the island had no running water, the territory’s aqueduct and sewer authority said.
More than 1,200 people were staying in about 70 shelters on the island Tuesday, Pierluisi said. Emergency crews battled against unrelenting rain to rescue approximately 1,000 people as of midday Monday, said Maj. Gen. José Reyes, adjutant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard.
School buildings will be inspected to make sure they are safe for students to return to class in the coming days, the governor said Tuesday.
In addition to the hundreds of Puerto Rican National Guard members aiding in rescue and recovery efforts, the White House said Monday that President Joe Biden told Pierluisi during a phone call that federal support will increase in the coming days.
“As damage assessments are conducted, the President said that number of support personnel will increase substantially,” the White House said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced the state would send 100 state troopers to assist relief efforts in Puerto Rico. She also said teams from New York Power Authority are available to help with power restoration.
More than 1 million customers left without water service in Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, where up to 20 inches of rain fell in places, emergency workers brought nearly 800 people to safety, the country’s emergency management director of operations, Juan Manuel Mendez, said Monday. At least 519 people were taking refuge in the country’s 29 shelters Monday, he said.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 1,018,564 customers across the Dominican Republic had no access to running water as 59 aqueducts were out of service and several others were only partially functioning, according to Jose Luis German Mejia, a national emergency management official.
Some in the Dominican Republic were also without electricity Monday as 10 electric circuits went offline, emergency management officials said. It’s unclear how many people are impacted by the outages.
CNN’s Leyla Santiago in Puerto Rico and CNN’s Nikki Carvajal, Robert Shackelford, Melissa Alonso, Artemis Moshtaghian, Taylor Ward, Holly Yan and Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report
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Phoenix Firefighters Rescue 2 Cats Trapped In Closet During House Fire
Phoenix Firefighters Rescue 2 Cats Trapped In Closet During House Fire https://digitalarizonanews.com/phoenix-firefighters-rescue-2-cats-trapped-in-closet-during-house-fire/
Firefighters were able to save two cats and ensure the tenants were safely evacuated from a house fire in Phoenix.
PHOENIX — Two cats and their owners are safe after a house fire in Phoenix trapped the pets in a bedroom closet. Firefighters were able to rescue the occupants safely and without injury.
Around 10:22 a.m., Phoenix Fire Department first responders arrived to a home near 16th Street and Broadway Road for a backyard fire that had spread to nearby structures.
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Firefighters quickly began to extinguish the flames, working their way into the home to clear out everyone inside.
The two people were safely evacuated, and firefighters were able to save a pair of cats that had been trapped in a bedroom closet.
Once safely out on the lawn, the cats were given oxygen and care to make sure that they were all okay after the frightening moment.
No injuries were reported, and investigators are working to determine a cause behind the blaze, fire officials said.
Crisis response teams are helping the two tenants of the home, who officials say will be displaced by the blaze.
First responders rescue two people and their cats from house fire
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Wall Street Falls As Fed Focus Ford Forecasts Frighten Investors
Wall Street Falls As Fed Focus, Ford Forecasts, Frighten Investors https://digitalarizonanews.com/wall-street-falls-as-fed-focus-ford-forecasts-frighten-investors/
Flags are seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, where markets roiled after Russia continues to attack Ukraine, in New York, U.S., February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
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All eyes on Fed policy decision on Wednesday
Ford sees additional $1 bln in inflationary costs, shares fall
Nike slips after Barclays downgrade on China lockdown concerns
Indexes down: Dow 1.73%, S&P 1.8%, Nasdaq 1.58%
Sept 20 (Reuters) – Wall Street fell on Tuesday as traders, already positioning for another large interest rate hike this week by the U.S. Federal Reserve, drove markets lower after a Detroit titan provided further evidence of inflation slowing down American business.
The benchmark S&P 500 index (.SPX) has lost more than 19% so far this year as investors fear aggressive policy tightening measures by the Fed could tip the U.S. economy into a recession, with recent dire outlooks from delivery firm FedEx Corp (FDX.N) and automaker Ford Motor Co (F.N) adding to woes.
Shares of Ford dropped 11.9% after it flagged a bigger-than-expected $1 billion hit from inflation and pushed delivery of some vehicles to the fourth quarter due to parts shortages. read more
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Rival General Motors Co (GM.N) was also down 5.7%.
Adding to a mixed set of economic data, a Commerce Department report showed residential building permits (USBPE=ECI) – among the more forward-looking housing indicators – slid by 10% to 1.517 million units, the lowest level since June 2020. read more
“Markets have been under some pressure because it’s clear that the economy and the growth rate of earnings are in the process of slowing and going to slow even further,” said Hugh Johnson, chief economist of Hugh Johnson Economics in Albany, New York.
“The concern is that even though it’s slowing, the Federal Reserve will tell us in a very hawkish way that they’re very focused on the 2% rate of inflation and they’re going to continue to lean towards restraint or be very tough until they get to that 2% level.”
The U.S. central bank is widely expected to hike rates by 75 basis points for the third straight time at the end of its policy meeting on Wednesday, with markets also pricing in a 17% chance of a 100 bps increase and predicting the terminal rate at 4.49% by March 2023.
Focus will also be on the updated economic projections and dot plot estimates for cues on policymakers’ sense of the endpoint for rates and the outlooks for unemployment, inflation and economic growth. read more
“We are going to be in an environment where month-to-month economic data is going to be scrutinized to a greater magnitude than it has been previously,” said Doug Fincher, portfolio manager at Ionic Capital Management.
“The market believes that the Fed will get inflation under control at the expense of the economy. The question is will they achieve this through a soft landing or a hard landing.”
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield hit 3.56%, its highest level since April 2011, while the closely watched yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes inverted further.
An inversion in this part of the yield curve is viewed as a reliable indicator that a recession will follow in one to two years.
By 1:57 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 536.96 points, or 1.73%, to 30,482.72, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 70.09 points, or 1.80%, to 3,829.8 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 182.62 points, or 1.58%, to 11,352.40.
The S&P 500 (.SPX) is trading below 3,900 points, a level considered by technical analysts as a strong support for the index, but which has now been breached twice in the last three sessions.
All of the 11 major S&P sectors declined, with economy-sensitive real estate (.SPLRCR) and materials (.SPLRCM) sectors down 3% and 2.5%, respectively.
Meanwhile, in another sign of nerves around future corporate earnings, Nike Inc (NKE.N) was downgraded by Barclays analysts to “equal weight” from “overweight”, citing volatility in the Chinese market due to pressures from COVID-related lockdowns in early September. The sportswear giant’s stock dropped 4.9%.
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Reporting by Devik Jain and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Maju Samuel and Lisa Shumaker
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Special Master To Hold Hearing On Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago
Special Master To Hold Hearing On Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago https://digitalarizonanews.com/special-master-to-hold-hearing-on-documents-seized-from-mar-a-lago/
Tuesday, September 20th 2022, 1:41 pm
By: CBS News
WASHINGTON –
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to turn down a request from the Justice Department to allow investigators to regain access to a tranche of roughly 100 documents with classification markings seized from his Florida estate, claiming the government has “criminalized a document dispute” and is objecting to a “transparent process that simply provides much-needed oversight.”
“This investigation of the 45th President of the United States is both unprecedented and misguided,” James Trusty and Christopher Kise, Trump’s lawyers, wrote in their response. “In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records.”
In their 40-page filing, Trump’s lawyers told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that the FBI’s seizure of documents from Trump’s South Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, presents “extraordinary circumstances that warrant review by a neutral third party,” and said the Justice Department has not proven that the documents at the crux of its request to the appeals court are classified.
“Ultimately, any brief delay to the criminal investigation will not irreparably harm the government,” Trusty and Kise wrote. “The injunction does not preclude the Government from conducting a criminal investigation, it merely delays the investigation for a short period while a neutral third party reviews the documents in question.”
A detailed property list from the FBI made public this month shows that federal agents seized 33 items, boxes or containers from a storage room and from desks in Trump’s office that contained 103 documents marked “confidential,” “secret” or “top secret” during the FBI’s Aug. 8 search at the South Florida property.
Last Friday, the Justice Department turned to the 11th Circuit after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected its request to restore access to the tranche of records marked classified that were among the material seized. Cannon barred the Justice Department from using the documents in its ongoing criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of sensitive government records, pending a review by a third-party arbiter known as a special master.
In their filing to the 11th Circuit asking the court to stay Cannon’s order keeping the subset of sensitive record off-limits to investigators, federal prosecutors argued the decision “hamstrings” its criminal probe and “irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records,” including to Trump’s lawyers.
By blocking the review and use of the records for investigative purposes, the ruling “impedes the government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in their 29-page filing.
In addition to keeping in place her order stopping federal investigators from using the sensitive documents, Cannon, appointed to the federal bench by Trump, also named Judge Raymond Dearie to serve as the special master. Dearie is tasked with reviewing the roughly 11,000 documents recovered by the FBI from a storage room and Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago for personal items and records, as well as material that may be potentially subject to attorney-client or executive privileges.
Dearie, a longtime judge on the federal district court in Brooklyn, is poised to meet with Justice Department lawyers and Trump’s legal team Tuesday afternoon, and asked the parties to submit proposed agenda items in advance.
In a letter on Monday, federal prosecutors suggested the conference focus on the “precise mechanics” of how the documents should be reviewed, aspects of the order appointing Dearie as special master and future progress reviews.
In a separate letter to Dearie, Trump’s lawyers pushed back on the Oct. 7 deadline proposed by Dearie for the two sides to finish sifting through and labeling the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. They also objected to a request from Dearie that Trump disclose information regarding any potential declassification of the sensitive materials taken from his South Florida residence, arguing that doing so would force Trump to “fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the district court’s order.”
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AP News Summary At 2:37 P.m. EDT https://digitalarizonanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-237-p-m-edt/
UN chief: World is ‘paralyzed’ and equity is slipping away
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In an alarming assessment, the head of the United Nations is telling world leaders that nations are “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” and aren’t ready or willing to tackle major challenges. Speaking at the opening of the General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting, Antonio Guterres pointed to the war in Ukraine and multiplying conflicts around the world, the climate emergency and “suicidal war against nature,” the dire financial situation of developing countries, and many reversals in U.N. goals for 2030 including to end extreme poverty and provide quality education for all children.
4 Ukrainian regions schedule votes this week to join Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The separatist leaders of four Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine say they are planning to hold referendums this week for the territories to become part of Russia as Moscow loses ground in the war it launched. The votes will be held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. The announcement of the balloting starting Friday came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they were needed. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also said that folding Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself would make their redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.
Feds: Minnesota food scheme stole $250M; 47 people charged
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal authorities have charged 47 people in what they’re calling the largest fraud scheme yet to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by stealing and defrauding the government of $250 million. Documents made public Tuesday charge the defendants with counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and bribery. Prosecutors say the defendants created companies that claimed to be offering food to thousands of low-income children across Minnesota, then sought reimbursement through a federal program. But prosecutors say few meals were actually served, and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. This year, the U.S. Justice Department has made prosecuting pandemic-related fraud a priority and has stepped up enforcement actions.
Trump legal team balks at judge’s declassification questions
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Trump Lawyers Mum On Whether He Declassified Documents In FBI Search
Trump Lawyers Mum On Whether He Declassified Documents In FBI Search https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-lawyers-mum-on-whether-he-declassified-documents-in-fbi-search/
NEW YORK —
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers resisted revealing whether he declassified materials seized in an August FBI search of his Florida home as the U.S. judge appointed to review the documents planned his first conference on the matter on Tuesday.
Judge Raymond Dearie on Monday circulated a draft plan to both sides that sought details on documents Trump allegedly declassified, as he claimed publicly and without evidence, though his lawyers have not asserted that in court filings.
In a letter filed ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Trump’s lawyers argued it is not time and would force him to reveal a defense to any subsequent indictment – an acknowledgement that the investigation could lead to criminal charges.
Dearie, a senior federal judge in Brooklyn, was selected as an independent arbiter known as a special master. He will help decide which of the more than 11,000 documents seized in the Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home should be kept from the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the alleged mishandling of the documents.
Dearie will recommend to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon which documents may fall under attorney-client privilege or an assertion of executive privilege, which allows a president to withhold certain documents or information.
It is unclear whether the review would go forward as instructed by Cannon, the Florida judge appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020 who ordered the review.
Trump is under investigation for retaining government records, some marked as highly classified, at the resort in Palm Beach, his home after leaving office in January 2021. He has denied wrongdoing, and said without providing evidence that he believes the investigation is a partisan attack.
The Justice Department on Friday appealed a portion of Cannon’s ruling, seeking to stay the review of roughly 100 documents with classified markings and the judge’s restricting FBI access to them.
Federal prosecutors said the special master review ordered by the judge would hinder the government from addressing national security risks and force the disclosure of “highly sensitive materials.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s legal team filed its response to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, opposing the government’s request and calling the Justice Department’s investigation “unprecedented and misguided.”
In their 40-page filing, Trump’s attorneys said the court should not take the Justice Department at its word that the roughly 100 documents in question are in fact still classified, and said the special master should be permitted to review them as a step towards “restoring order from chaos.”
In Cannon’s order appointing Dearie as special master, she asked him to conclude his review by the end of November. She instructed him to prioritize the documents marked classified, though her process calls for Trump’s counsel to review the documents, and Trump’s lawyers may not have the necessary security clearance.
The Justice Department has described the special master process as unnecessary, as it has already conducted its own attorney-client privilege review and set aside about 500 pages that could qualify. It opposes an executive privilege review, saying any such assertion over the records would fail.
The August FBI search came after Trump left office with documents that belong to the government and did not return them, despite numerous requests by the government and a subpoena.
It is still unclear whether the government has all the records. The Justice Department has said some classified material still could be missing after the FBI recovered empty folders with classification markings from Mar-a-Lago.
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Trump Thanks Supporters For Greeting Him On Return To Palm Beach County
Trump Thanks Supporters For Greeting Him On Return To Palm Beach County https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-thanks-supporters-for-greeting-him-on-return-to-palm-beach-county/
PALM BEACH — Former President Donald Trump returned Sunday to Mar-a-Lago, according to a pair of postings on his Truth Social platform.
In one of the posts, Trump thanked “the many people who greeted” him on the way from Palm Beach International Airport to his residence at Mar-a-Lago.
In another post, he berated the FBI search at his Palm Beach estate, alleging the residence had been “ransacked” and that the “place will never be the same.”
More: Judge throws out Donald Trump racketeering suit vs. Hillary Clinton … and rips it to shreds
More: In wake of Mar-a-Lago search, Florida Republicans want Trump to start campaign now
More: Since Trump won the presidency, Mar-a-Lago was always a national security red flag
Trump generally winters on Palm Beach and summers at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey. Mar-a-Lago’s private club traditionally opens to members in late October and closes around Mother’s Day.
Although he was gone from Mar-a-Lago since May, Trump has frequently been in the news this summer.
In addition to the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, in which federal authorities say they seized top-secret documents Trump should not have had in his possession, the former president was the focus of a series of televised congressional hearings into his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In his battle against the U.S. Justice Department, Trump won a significant legal victory when a federal judge he nominated to the bench agreed with his demand that a special master be appointed to oversee the case.
Trump also lost a separate legal battle when another federal judge in South Florida tossed his lawsuit against former 2016 presidential rival Hillary Clinton and a slew of other defendants over the 2016 presidential election.
And the planned merger between his Trump Media & Technology Group and Miami-based Digital World Acquisition Group seems to be stumbling, too.
Nonetheless, all eyes remain on Trump as he nears announcing a 2024 presidential run. A decision that it now appears could be made while he is at Mar-a-Lago this winter.
Consequently, should Trump face charges from any of the investigations swirling around him, the legal action could happen while Trump is in Palm Beach. The former president has steadfastly denied wrongdoing.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
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Trump Warns chaos Will Ensue If Probe Resumes Of Classified Documents At Mar-A-Lago
Trump Warns ‘chaos’ Will Ensue If Probe Resumes Of Classified Documents At Mar-A-Lago https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-warns-chaos-will-ensue-if-probe-resumes-of-classified-documents-at-mar-a-lago/
Former President Trump asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to keep in place a temporary hold on the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of his alleged mishandling of classified documents, arguing the stay is necessary to avoid “chaos.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon last week temporarily halted the Justice Department’s probe while a special master she appointed reviewed all 11,000 documents seized from Mr. Trump’s residence at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The special master, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, is reviewing the documents for any documents protected by executive or attorney-client privilege, which would mean they would be off limits to investigators.
Judge Cannon also paused the investigation for Judge Dearie to complete his task, which has a Nov. 30 deadline.
The Justice Department said that delay is unacceptable and on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to lift Judge Cannon’s restriction, saying the investigation must continue while the special master does his job.
In a court filing Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s legal team said the delay is necessary. They cited a lack of transparency from the government. They depicted the investigation as a “document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers called the delay, “a sensible preliminary step toward restoring order from chaos.”
“The government’s attempt to shield the purportedly classified documents from the ambit of a Senior United States District Judge who served for seven years on a court dealing with the most sensitive national security matters, therefore, illustrates precisely why the District Court found a special master was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances,” they wrote.
Mr. Trump’s team also continued to suggest that the documents seized in the Aug. 8 raid had been declassified but offered no evidence that the former president had done so before leaving office.
While the Justice Department has argued that the government should presume the documents under review are classified, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said the government has not presented evidence the documents are classified.
The latest Trump filing also underscored his authority as president to declassify records, urging the court to consider the seized materials status as ambiguous.
“The government again presupposes that the documents it claims are classified are, in fact, classified and their segregation is inviolable. However, the government has not yet proven this critical fact,” the filing said.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed in media interviews that the declassified documents moved from his White House to his Florida residence. His attorneys, however, have suggested that is the case, but have stopped short of explicitly saying so.
Later Tuesday, the special master will hold a preliminary conference with Mr. Trump’s legal team and Justice Department lawyers at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
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Preparing For The New Year At Handmaker AZ Jewish Post
Preparing For The New Year At Handmaker, AZ Jewish Post https://digitalarizonanews.com/preparing-for-the-new-year-at-handmaker-az-jewish-post/
With the Jewish New Year of 5783 just around the corner, Handmaker staff, volunteers and residents have been busy preparing for the holidays logistically, as well as spiritually.
Handmaker’s wonderful Executive Chef, Claire Ferguson, has planned some delicious festive meals for residents for the holidays, beginning on Erev Rosh Hashanah and ending with Simchat Torah, including meals in the Handmaker Sukkah during Sukkot! The festive meals at Handmaker are for residents only this year, but you can order your holiday meal to pick up at Handmaker by contacting Claire at 520-322-3639 or [email protected], or Mike Felde at 520-322-7009 or [email protected]. Prices and menus are available at Handmaker.org. Rosh Hashanah orders must be placed by Thursday, September 22 at 5 pm.
For the last 30 years, Mel Cohen has been leading services at Handmaker, most often alongside Dan Asia, and with Michael Rosenzweig during the High Holidays and Festivals. Handmaker is grateful that they will be leading holiday services this year; some in-person in the Handmaker Great Room and some on Zoom. Please check in with Nanci Levy at [email protected] for the most up to date schedule and zoom links.
This past month Handmaker welcomed the Tucson Hebrew Academy (THA) 7th and 8th Grade classes for a visit. The students sang some Holiday songs, performed a skit, handed out handmade Rosh Hashanah cards, and spent some time chatting with the residents. It was wonderful to also meet Rabbi Dr. Cody Bahir, the new Director of Judaic and Hebrew Studies at THA. Rabbi Cantor Emily blew her Shofar, giving residents the opportunity to hear the distinctive sound of the Shofar blasts during the Hebrew month of Elul, in preparation for the Jewish New Year.
The smell and taste of apple and honey cakes brought back many happy memories for residents who grew up with these treats. This month residents also enjoyed making and tasting their own homemade apple honey Cake in both the Rubin and the Tynan Assisted Living Neighborhoods.
An Around the World class this month focused on the upcoming Holiday celebrations, with help from Rabbi Richard Safran and Nanci Levy. During the class, residents sampled the sweet taste of apples and honey, and made some lovely Jewish New Year cards with Angela Salmon to share with friends and family.
And every Saturday afternoon this month, a group of residents have been meeting in the Rubin Library with copies of the book “Opening Your Heart with Psalm 27,” by Rabbi Debra Robbins. The book provides a framework for a spiritual practice to prepare for the upcoming holidays during the month of Elul, and the group has enjoyed meeting to listen, read, write, meditate, share, and prepare themselves for the start of a new year.
Wishing everyone a sweet, meaningful, and happy new year! Shana tova!
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Crowded House Announce Re-Scheduled 2022 North American Tour Dates
Crowded House Announce Re-Scheduled 2022 North American Tour Dates https://digitalarizonanews.com/crowded-house-announce-re-scheduled-2022-north-american-tour-dates/
Previous tickets will be honored on new dates
Crowded House has announced newly re-scheduled dates for their highly anticipated North American tour that had to be postponed due to a band member injury. The tour follows on the heels of both sold out Australian and European legs of the tour along with their seventh studio album Dreamers Are Waiting. The new music as well as the tour features founding members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour reuniting with producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, guitarist and singer Liam Finn and drummer Elroy Finn.
“Crowded House are delighted at long last to be able to play shows in North America. We have been picking up the pace recently as the world opens up and can’t wait present the show with this band lineup in absolute top form to the good folk of North America, from sea to shining sea,” Neil Finn shares.
Previous tickets will be honored on the new dates. Tickets for purchase will go on sale Friday, September 23rd at 10 am local time via Ticketmaster.
Crowded House 2023 North American Tour Dates:
May 2 – Vancouver @ Orpheum
May 3 – Seattle @ Paramount Theatre
May 4 – Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Hall
May 6 – Oakland @ Fox Theater
May 8 – Los Angeles @ The Wiltern
May 9 – Los Angeles @ The Wiltern
May 10 – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center
May 12 – Denver @ Paramount
May 14 – Minneapolis @ State Theatre
May 15 – Chicago @ Chicago Theatre
May 17 – Durham, NC @ The Carolina Theatre of Durham
May 19 – Nashville @ Ryman Auditorium
May 21 – Washington DC @ The Anthem
May 22 – New York City @ Beacon Theatre
May 24 – Philadelphia @ Met Opera
May 26 – Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Center for the Arts
May 27 – Toronto @ Budweiser Stage
May 30 – Boston @ Wang Theatre at The Boch Center
Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com
Articles: 14688
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Trump Asks Appeals Court To Reject DOJ Request To Keep Reviewing Classified Mar-A-Lago Docs
Trump Asks Appeals Court To Reject DOJ Request To Keep Reviewing Classified Mar-A-Lago Docs https://digitalarizonanews.com/trump-asks-appeals-court-to-reject-doj-request-to-keep-reviewing-classified-mar-a-lago-docs/
Former President Trump on Tuesday filed a response to the Department of Justice’s attempt to block parts of a federal judge’s ruling that paused its review of documents marked as classified that were seized at Mar-a-Lago.
Driving the news: In the 40-page filing, Trump’s legal team argued that the Department of Justice has not successfully proven that the documents “it claims are classified are, in fact, classified and their segregation is inviolable.”
Trump’s team argues that a document with classification markers “does not necessarily negate privilege claims,” including Trump’s handwritten notes.
The big picture: Trump’s filing comes after his legal team on Monday night opposed a request by the special master reviewing the documents to make disclosures about the declassification of documents found at his Florida residence, Axios’ Rebecca Falconer reports.
Trump’s team in a letter to Judge Raymond Dearie cites a draft plan that they say “requires that the Plaintiff disclose specific information regarding declassification to the Court and to the Government.”
What to watch: Dearie is set to hold a preliminary conference at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional details.
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