State Proclaims Arkansas Grown School Garden Of The Year Results
State Proclaims Arkansas Grown School Garden Of The Year Results https://digitalarkansasnews.com/state-proclaims-arkansas-grown-school-garden-of-the-year-results/
Arkansas Farm to School Month was highlighted this week with a ceremony at Pinnacle View Middle School in Little Rock. It was part of nationwide efforts to connect schools, early childhood educational sites, and other organizations with farms to bring local, healthy food to children.
At the Arkansas Farm to School Month celebration, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas presented awards to winners of the 2022 Arkansas Grown School Garden of the Year Contest. The winners are as follows:
Best Start-up School Garden Proposal
Lee Senior High School, Marianna (Lee County), $500 Award
Wonderview Elementary School, Hattieville (Conway County), $500 Award
Best Education Based School Garden: Nettleton STEAM, Jonesboro (Craighead County), $500 Award
Conway High School, Conway (Faulkner County), $500 Award
Best Harvest Partnership School Garden
Crestwood Elementary, North Little Rock (Pulaski County), $500 Award
Chicot Elementary & Early Childhood Center, Mabelvale (Pulaski County), $500 Award
Best Community Collaboration School Garden
Arch Ford/Synergy ALE, Hot Springs Village (Garland and Saline Counties), $500 Award
Ward Central Elementary, Ward (Lonoke County), $500 Award
Best Overall School Garden
Pinnacle View Middle School, Little Rock (Pulaski County), $1,000 Award
Champion of School Garden Sustainability
Sheridan Elementary School, Sheridan (Grant County), $1,000 Award
The Arkansas Grown School Garden of the Year Contest was initiated by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas in 2014. The program provides the opportunity to promote the importance of involving young people in the process of fresh food production and cultivation. Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas generously provides the funding for the program.
“As a farmer-owned cooperative, we believe it’s important to support local food system initiatives such as the Arkansas Grown School Garden Program,” said Farm Credit of Western Arkansas CEO Brandon Haberer on behalf of the Farm Credit Associations of Arkansas. “Local food projects like this are a great way to educate the next generation and the public about food production and agriculture.”
The contest was available to public and private K-12 schools, early childhood education facilities, and alternative learning environments. Awardees were schools that had a school garden open during the 2021-2022 school year or planned to start a garden in the 2022-2023 school year.
“School gardens provide a hands-on opportunity for children to learn about Arkansas agriculture and where their food comes from. The lessons learned through school gardens have a lasting impact on children, their families, and entire communities,” said Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward.
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5 Killed Including Off-Duty Officer As Gunman Stalks A Raleigh Neighborhood
5 Killed, Including Off-Duty Officer, As Gunman Stalks A Raleigh Neighborhood https://digitalarkansasnews.com/5-killed-including-off-duty-officer-as-gunman-stalks-a-raleigh-neighborhood/
A suspect identified as “a white male juvenile” was in custody, the police said. At least two others were wounded, including a police officer, whose injuries were described as “non-life threatening.”
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Officers from several law enforcement agencies rushed to a residential area on the city’s east side after at least five people were shot and killed.CreditCredit…Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer, via Associated Press
Published Oct. 13, 2022Updated Oct. 14, 2022, 12:35 a.m. ET
RALEIGH, N.C. — A gunman killed five people, including an off-duty police officer, in a shooting Thursday night that turned a normally calm residential area of Raleigh, N.C., into a sprawling crime scene.
The authorities said late Thursday that a suspect, described only as a “white male juvenile,” was in custody. Earlier in the evening, they said that the suspect had been “contained.” A police spokesman did not specify the suspect’s age or provide any more information about him. They also did not identify a motive for the attack.
“Tonight, terror has reached our doorstep,” Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference just before 11 p.m. at the Raleigh Municipal Building. “The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh. This is a senseless, horrific and infuriating act of violence.”
Two others were wounded, among them a police officer who was released from the hospital late Thursday and another person who remained in critical condition, the authorities said. None of the victims were identified by the authorities.
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin appeared visibly emotional as she tallied up the casualties at an earlier news conference. “All of us in Raleigh need to come together,” Ms. Baldwin said. “We need to support those in our community who have suffered a terrible loss, a loss of a loved one.”
The attacks drew a forceful response from multiple law enforcement agencies that flooded the Hedingham neighborhood, on the city’s East Side, with emergency vehicles late Thursday afternoon. Residents said they had heard sirens at about 4 p.m. and that within an hour, the neighborhood of tidy, tree-lined streets was filled with scores of police cars that had sped to the scene.
Shortly before 6 p.m., the Raleigh police cautioned on Twitter: “Residents in that area are advised to remain in their homes.”
The neighborhood is near the Neuse River Greenway, a popular bike trail for Raleigh residents.
The shootings threw the neighborhood, full of single-family homes and golf courses, into a virtual lockdown.
Traffic was at a standstill on Eagle Trace Drive, a normally quiet road with a plant-filled median, about a mile and a half from the site. Sirens wailed in the distance as the cars inched forward, and police vehicles with lights flashing nosed through.
“I’m never going to get home,” said Cheryl St. James, a nurse, as she sat in her car. “I want to get home. I can’t believe this is happening in my neighborhood. It’s scary.”
Ethan Garner, a project manager who has lived in the area for three years, said that he left to get something to eat when he saw the police arriving about 5:30 p.m. Hours later, he was sitting in his car, trying to return, watching “House of the Dragon.” He said he walks on the Greenway but now might think twice about it.
“I leave my doors unlocked,” he said. “Yeah I have cameras, but I never worry about anything like that. Nothing’s ever happened.”
At 9:37 p.m., according to the police, the siege was over, with a suspect in custody.
At the later news conference, Ms. Baldwin referred to mass shootings across the country as she spoke about the Raleigh attack.
“We have to end this mindless gun violence that is happening in our country,” she said, adding that there are “too many victims.” “We have to wake up. I don’t want other mayors standing here at the podium with their hearts breaking because people in their community died.”
The shooting in Raleigh was the latest reminder of rampant gun violence across the country, including mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo that left 10 dead in May, another in May at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers, and another shooting at a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Ill., that left seven dead.
Just a day earlier, two police officers were killed and a third was wounded in Connecticut in what the authorities described as an ambush after responding to a 911 call that may have been a hoax.
Thursday’s shooting was the deadliest shooting in North Carolina in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In 2009, a gunman opened fire at a nursing home in Carthage, N.C., killing seven elderly patients and a nurse and injuring several other people, including a police officer.
On Thursday, neighbors struggled to make sense of the Raleigh shooting.
Anne Berry, 52, who has lived in the Avington Place neighborhood of Raleigh for more than 20 years, said helicopters had intermittently been hovering above her home for more than three hours and that it was “loud enough to feel in your chest when they get close.”
A neighbor recounted to her that when he went to walk his dog, an officer stopped and asked him if he had seen anyone dressed in camouflage and then told him to head back inside, Ms. Berry said.
Another neighbor, Brad Redd, who has lived in the area for four years, described Hedingham as a multicultural and economically diverse place with a lake and a golf course. He said he was “flabbergasted” by the shooting.
“This is the last thing I would expect over here,” he said, adding “It’s going to shake this community.”
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NKorea Fires Missile And Shells Further Inflaming Tensions
NKorea Fires Missile And Shells, Further Inflaming Tensions https://digitalarkansasnews.com/nkorea-fires-missile-and-shells-further-inflaming-tensions/
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea early Friday fired a ballistic missile and 170 rounds of artillery shells toward the sea and flew warplanes near the tense border with South Korea, further raising animosities triggered by the North’s recent barrage of weapons tests.
The North Korean moves suggest it is reviving an old playbook of stoking fears of war with provocative weapons tests before it seeks to win greater concessions from its rivals.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement the short-range missile lifted off from the North’s capital region at 1:49 a.m. Friday (1649 GMT Thursday; 12:49 p.m. EDT Thursday) and flew toward its eastern waters.
It was North Korea’s 15th missile launch since it resumed its testing activities on Sept. 25. North Korea said Monday its recent missile tests were simulations of nuclear strikes on South Korean and U.S. targets in response to their “dangerous” military exercises involving a U.S. aircraft carrier.
After the latest missile test, North Korea fired 130 rounds of shells off its west coast and 40 rounds off its east coast. The shells fell inside maritime buffer zones the two Koreas established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing tensions, South Korea’s military said.
Observers said it was North Korea’s third and most direct violation of the 2018 agreement, which created buffer zones and no-fly areas along their land and sea boundaries to prevent accidental clashes. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it sent North Korea a message asking it not to violate the agreement again.
North Korea separately flew warplanes, presumably 10 aircraft, near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There were no reports of clashes between the two countries. It was reportedly the first time that North Korean military aircraft have flown that close to the border since 2017.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea’s provocations are becoming “indiscriminative’” but that his country has massive retaliation capabilities that can deter actual North Korean assaults to some extent.
“The decision to attack can’t be made without a willingness to risk a brutal outcome,” Yoon told reporters. “The massive punishment and retaliation strategy, which is the final step of our three-axis strategy, would be a considerable psychological and social deterrence (for the North).”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday it imposed sanctions on 15 North Korean individuals and 16 organizations suspected of involvement in illicit activities to finance North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. They were Seoul’s first unilateral sanctions on North Korea in five years, but observers say they are largely a symbolic step because the two Koreas have little financial dealings between them.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters he supports South Korea’s decision to impose the sanctions.
Most of the North’s recent weapons tests were ballistic missile launches that are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions. But the North hasn’t been slapped with fresh sanctions thanks to a divide at the U.N. over U.S. disputes with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and with China over their strategic competition.
The missile launched Friday traveled 650-700 kilometers (403-434 miles) at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometers (30 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to South Korea and Japanese assessments.
“Whatever the intentions are, North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches are absolutely impermissible and we cannot overlook its substantial advancement of missile technology,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said.
He said the missile flew on an “irregular” trajectory — a possible reference to describe the North’s highly maneuverable KN-23 weapon modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea and Japan remains “ironclad.”
Other North Korean tests in recent weeks included a new intermediate-range missile that flew over Japan and demonstrated a potential range to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam; a ballistic missile fired from an inland reservoir, a first for the country; and long-range cruise missiles.
After Wednesday’s cruise missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the tests successfully demonstrated his military’s expanding nuclear strike capabilities. He said his nuclear forces were fully prepared for “actual war to bring enemies under their control at a blow” and vowed to expand the operational realm of his nuclear armed forces, according to North Korea’s state media.
Some observers had predicted North Korea would likely temporarily pause its testing activities this week in consideration of its ally China, which is set to begin a major political conference Sunday to give President Xi Jinping a third five-year term as party leader.
North Korea’s ongoing testing spree is reminiscent of its 2017 torrid run of missile and nuclear tests that prompted Kim and then U.S.-President Donald Trump to exchange threats of total destruction. Kim later abruptly entered high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump in 2018 but their negotiations fell apart a year later due to wrangling over how much sanctions relief Kim should be provided in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.
Kim has repeatedly said he has no intentions of resuming the nuclear diplomacy. But some experts say he would eventually want to win international recognition of his country as a nuclear state and hold arms control talks with the United State to wrest extensive sanctions relief and other concessions in return for partial denuclearization steps.
The urgency of North Korea’s nuclear program has grown since it passed a new law last month authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons over a broad range of scenarios, including non-war situations when it may perceive its leadership as under threat.
Most of the recent North Korean tests were of short-range nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Some analysts say North Korea’s possible upcoming nuclear test, the first of in five years, would be related to efforts to manufacture battlefield tactical warheads to be placed on such short-range missiles.
These developments sparked security jitters in South Korea, with some politicians and scholars renewing their calls for the U.S. to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as deterrence against intensifying North Korean nuclear threats
North Korea’s military early Friday said it took unspecified “strong military countermeasures” in response to South Korea’s artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border on Thursday. South Korea’s military later confirmed it conducted artillery training at a frontline area but said its drills didn’t violate the conditions of the 2018 agreement.
Maj. Gen. Kang Ho Pil of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a televised statement that South Korea issued “a stern warning to (North Korea) to immediately halt” its weapons tests. He said South Korea has the ability to deliver an “overwhelming response” to any North Korean provocations.
South Korea’s military said it will begin an annual 12-day field training next Monday to hone its operational capabilities under various scenarios for North Korean provocations. It said an unspecified number of U.S. troops plan to take part in this year’s drills.
——
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.
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AP News Summary At 12:45 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1245-a-m-edt/
Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help. And it outlined Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition.
NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday.
Social Security benefits to jump by 8.7% next year
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Trump Legal Troubles Mount https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-legal-troubles-mount/
The Hill
Trump lashes out at Jan. 6 committee vote to subpoena him
Former President Trump on Thursday dismissed a House committee’s vote to subpoena him for testimony about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a publicity stunt. “Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago?” Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after the House panel investigating the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 voted…
The Daily Beast
Roger Stone Melts Down as Jan. 6 Committee Hearing Unfolds
Drew Angerer/GettyAs the Jan. 6 committee showed video of Roger Stone’s closed-door deposition, Stone did what he does best: He complained. Stone took to Telegram and repeatedly responded to the Jan. 6 panel’s footage.“In 2000, when the Bush v. Gore election was still in doubt James A. Baker III urged Bush to claim victory, which he did and was hailed as a genius,” the longtime Trump adviser wrote on Telegram. “When I said Trump should do the same thing (in public but to not to either Trump or a
The Hill
Ocasio-Cortez mocks Fox News contributor’s $28 Taco Bell lunch
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday evening mocked a Fox News contributor after he said high inflation made his lunch at Taco Bell total $28. “You want to know how bad inflation is?” said Scott Martin, who is also the chief investment officer at Kingsview Partners. “Yesterday, yes, I had a nice lunch at Taco…
Associated Press
Trump angrily lashes out after his deposition is ordered
Former President Donald Trump angrily lashed out Wednesday, calling the nation’s legal system a “broken disgrace” after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s. The outburst late in the day came hours after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan rejected a request by his lawyers to delay a deposition scheduled for Oct. 19. Kaplan is presiding over the case in which Carroll said Trump raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s.
ABC News
Trump Organization continuing ‘fraudulent’ practices after lawsuit, says New York AG
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a preliminary injunction as part of her $250 million civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to stop what she says is his ongoing fraudulent conduct. On the same day last month that James filed the lawsuit accusing Trump, his three eldest children, and two corporate executives of “staggering” fraud that she claims “grossly inflated” Trump’s net worth, the Trump Organization quietly registered a new entity, Trump Organization II, according to a new court filing Thursday. Investigators suspect that Trump could move assets from his family real estate business to the new entity in an attempt to evade liability posed by the lawsuit, according to the attorney general’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
The Daily Beast
Trump Is Going to Create Yet Another Constitutional Crisis
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe Jan. 6 Committee’s issuing a subpoena to former President Donald Trump makes clear that our country is not on the brink of a Constitutional crisis—it’s already in a Constitutional crisis.The definition of just what is a Constitutional crisis may be debated, but in plain English it’s where the structure of our Constitution is stressed or broken.The Justice Department Needs to Get Out of Its Own Way in the Trump InvestigationsPresident
The Hill
Here’s what the White House is expecting today’s Social Security COLA increase to be
The White House predicted that Americans on Social Security will see a $140 per month increase ahead of Thursday, when the Social Security Administration is expected to announce a cost of living adjustment (COLA). “Tomorrow, seniors and other Americans on Social Security are will learn precisely how much their monthly checks will increase – but…
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Ohio Dems Press Party To Invest In High Stakes Senate Seat
Ohio Dems Press Party To Invest In High Stakes Senate Seat https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ohio-dems-press-party-to-invest-in-high-stakes-senate-seat/
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Democrats across Ohio are pleading for help in the state’s Senate contest, afraid they may lose a winnable election unless national party leaders make major investments in the coming days.
So far, the most powerful groups in Democratic politics have prioritized Senate pickup opportunities in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over Ohio, once a perennial swing state that veered right in the Trump era. But on the eve of the 2022 midterms, some public polls suggest Ohio is as competitive as the other swing states, leaving many Democrats here wondering why their party isn’t backing Senate contender Tim Ryan more forcefully.
“Ohio’s just not a priority anymore. It’s a daunting task that we have to navigate,” said state Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, a Ryan ally. “The reality is that without federal investments, he may not win.”
Ryan, a 10-term congressman, said in an interview that party leaders who believe he can’t win “have no idea what’s going on out here.”
“I’ve come to terms with the fact that we’re probably not going to get any help. I’m playing with the team we got on the field,” Ryan said. “I can’t think of anything more Ohio than us taking on the entire political establishment at this point.”
The tension is a reflection of the difficult decisions Democratic leaders are facing about how to invest limited financial resources in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election. With a razor-thin Senate majority, any move could carry longterm consequences. If Republicans gain even one seat, they would take control of the Senate — and with it, gain power to control judicial nominations and President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
And if Ryan comes up short by just a few points, there will likely be an intense round of post-election questions about whether the party could have done more to win.
The financial disparities in the race are stark. Republican JD Vance, a venture capitalist and author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” is the beneficiary of more than $30 million from outside Republican groups. They include organizations aligned with former President Donald Trump and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. By contrast, Ryan has benefited from less than $4 million in outside spending so far.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has built a reputation as a progressive Democrat who can still win over working class voters in places like Ohio, said the party should do more.
“If we want to win in Ohio, we need to invest in Ohio,” he said. “Tim Ryan is running a great campaign because he’s showing voters that he is the candidate who’s on their side. That’s how you win elections.”
David Bergstein, the spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the official campaign arm for Senate Democrats, said the organization was “proud” to support Ryan’s campaign with a coordinated investment of roughly $1 million in television spending that allowed the campaign to take advantage of lower advertising rates for candidates.
There is still a chance Democrats will find some additional money to help Ryan.
The Senate Majority PAC, by far the most influential super PAC in Senate Democratic politics, is not ruling out significant Ohio investments over the election’s final days, although the group has spent little there so far compared with other key states. On Thursday, the group announced an additional $4 million investment in North Carolina television advertising, bringing its total spending in the state to $15 million and counting.
“Tim Ryan is running a remarkably strong campaign that is resonating with Ohio voters of every political persuasion and putting Republicans on defense, while Vance’s weak candidacy has become a serious liability for the GOP,” said JB Poersch, Senate Majority PAC president. “We’re going to continue making strategic, effective decisions that put us in the best position possible to accomplish our mission: defending our Democratic Senate majority.”
Another pro-Democrat group, the Save America Fund, has already spent $2.5 million on television ads designed to help Ryan since August. The group has been discussing more significant buys with other PACs.
“We are having lots of conversations about how Tim Ryan can win this race,” said Eric Hyers, a former colleague of Ryan’s campaign manager who is running the Save America Fund. “We are all in on this.”
But there are no easy options for Democratic groups deciding where to dedicate their final round of resources.
Democrats are defending vulnerable incumbent senators across Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire. They have also been investing heavily in flipping Republican-held seats across Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Democratic officials privately note that Trump has twice won Ohio by 8 points, reflecting the Republican leanings of the state. By comparison, Trump won North Carolina by less than 1 percentage point and lost Wisconsin by just over 1 percentage point.
National Democratic strategists also note that Ohio’s large working-class population has shifted sharply away from Democrats in recent years, despite Ryan’s best efforts to appeal to such voters.
That sentiment has led to a sense among Democrats in Ohio that their national party is abandoning them.
“There’s a lot of frustration,” said Ohio-based Democratic strategist Cliff Schefter, conceding that national Democratic leaders have a difficult job. “Tim Ryan doesn’t need a lot — just something. Do what you gotta do. Find a little bit of extra money. This race is incredibly winnable.”
Some Republicans privately see Vance as an underwhelming candidate, although most expect him to win because of the state’s recent Republican shift. He has badly trailed Ryan in fundraising, typically an important gauge of a candidate’s strength. Ryan has raised more than $21.5 million on his own, compared with Vance’s $3.6 million.
As the race moves into its final weeks, Vance is leaning on Trump’s continued popularity in the state to maintain momentum, particularly among undecided working-class white voters. Donald Trump Jr., one of Vance’s strongest supporters, campaigned alongside the Ohio Republican last week.
But Vance’s relationship with Trump is complicated.
Vance was initially a so-called “Never Trumper” before Trump won the president. The former president then botched Vance’s name at a rally during the spring primary. And at Trump’s most recent Ohio rally for Vance, the former president quipped that Vance “is kissing my a—” for political support.
Ryan echoed that comment during a debate this week, calling Vance an “a— kisser.” In the interview, Ryan said he’s considering renaming his campaign bus “The A— Kicker Express.”
He also made clear that while he’d welcome national Democratic dollars, he doesn’t want Biden to campaign on his behalf.
“It’s nothing personal. It’s just like, I’m running in Ohio. I know Ohio. I know the message,” Ryan said. “There’s nobody that can express that better than me. And every time you bring people in, you take on their enemies, they may not say the things way you want it to be said, and we’ve run a very disciplined campaign for the last year and a half. I just want to make sure that I’m the face, I’m the voice.”
Ryan added, “And I want Ohioans to know I stand on my own.”
Yet many Ryan allies continue to clamor for help from the national party.
Former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said the DSCC needs to step up and support Ryan now, who’s “fighting as effectively as anybody could” without national money.
“It’s so similar to what happened in ’16, it’s kind of hard to watch,” Pepper said, referencing former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland’s loss to Republican Sen. Rob Portman in that year’s Senate race. “It’s when polls are tied, our candidate has more money and is a stronger candidate and, when Republicans throw a punch, we walk away. It’s a terrible signal to send.”
In 2016, Strickland ultimately lost to Portman by 21 points. Next door in Pennsylvania, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey won by less than 2.
___
Peoples reported from New York.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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U.S. House Jan. 6 Committee Votes To Subpoena Trump
U.S. House Jan. 6 Committee Votes To Subpoena Trump https://digitalarkansasnews.com/u-s-house-jan-6-committee-votes-to-subpoena-trump/
WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters voted unanimously on Thursday to subpoena the former president, a move that could lead to criminal charges if he does not comply.
The House select committee’s seven Democratic and two Republican members voted 9-0 in favor of issuing a subpoena for Trump to provide documents and testimony under oath in connection with the storming of the Capitol.
“He must be accountable. He is required to answer for his actions. He is required to answer for those police officers who put their lives and bodies on the line to defend our democracy. He is required to answer to those millions of Americans whose votes he wanted to throw out as part of his scheme to remain in power,” the panel’s Democratic chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, said.
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The vote came after the committee spent more than two hours making its case – via statements from members, documents, and recorded testimony – that Trump planned to deny his 2020 election defeat in advance, failed to call off the thousands of supporters who stormed the Capitol, and followed through with his false claims that the election was stolen even as close advisers told him he had lost.
Federal law says that failure to comply with a congressional subpoena is a misdemeanor, punishable by one to 12 months imprisonment. If the select committee’s subpoena is ignored, the full House must vote on whether to make a referral to the Department of Justice, which has the authority to decide whether to bring charges.
LOOMING MID-TERMS
The subpoena is expected within days, and would typically give Trump a date by which he should comply. It was not clear when the full House – which is out of Washington until mid-November – could vote on whether to make a criminal referral.
Trump responded to the vote with angry comments on his social media service Truth Social. “Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?” he wrote.
One former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, is due to be sentenced next week after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress charges for not complying with a committee subpoena. But the Justice Department declined to charge another, Mark Meadows, who the House had also suggested should be prosecuted.
Federal prosecutors are also investigating the former president’s removal of classified documents from the White House at the end of his term, and have warned that they believe they have not yet recovered all the documents taken.
The House select committee has been investigating the attack on the Capitol, which left more than 140 police officers injured and led to several deaths, for more than a year, interviewing over 1,000 witnesses.
U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol meets for a hearing in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, U.S., October 13, 2022. Alex Wong/Pool via REUTERS
Thompson said he recognized that subpoenaing a former president was a serious action, but argued that the stakes were high for the future of U.S. democracy.
Thursday’s meeting followed eight hearings earlier this year and one in July 2021. There were no live witnesses on Thursday, but the panel presented videotaped testimony to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his November 2020 presidential election defeat constituted illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.
FEARS OF VIOLENCE
The committee presented evidence from Secret Service agents and intelligence officials who said before Jan.6 that they expected violence at the pro-Trump rally and believed there were caches of weapons around Washington.
“Their plan is to literally kill people. Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further,” a Dec. 26 Secret Service email said.
Thursday’s vote could be the committee’s last public action before the Nov. 8 midterm elections that will determine whether President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats or Trump’s Republicans control Congress.
The committee is also due to release a report on its findings within the coming weeks.
Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chairperson, said the panel might ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
The hearings held this year may have convinced some Republicans that Trump bears some responsibility for the attack. A two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Wednesday showed two in five Republicans view Trump as at least partly responsible for the attack.
Previous hearings focused on Trump’s inaction before and during the storming of the Capitol, his pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to deny Biden’s victory, militias whose members participated in the attack, and Trump’s interactions with close advisers questioning his false allegations of massive voter fraud.
The one-time reality television star has denied wrongdoing and hinted he will seek the White House again in 2024. He regularly holds rallies where he continues to claim falsely that he lost the election because of widespread fraud.
More than 880 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, with more than 400 guilty pleas so far.
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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Moira Warburton and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone, Aurora Ellis and Rosalba O’Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Wawa Closing 2 Center City Stores Due To 'safety And Security Challenges'
Wawa Closing 2 Center City Stores Due To 'safety And Security Challenges' https://digitalarkansasnews.com/wawa-closing-2-center-city-stores-due-to-safety-and-security-challenges/
The Hill
These four countries sided with Russia in UN vote on Ukraine annexations
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to condemn Russia’s annexation of four occupied areas of Ukraine amid the ongoing war, but four countries sided with Russia in the vote. Of the U.N.’s 193-member body, 143 voted in favor of the resolution criticizing Russia’s “illegal so-called referendums,” with 35 abstaining, according to an…
The Daily Beast
Trump Is Going to Create Yet Another Constitutional Crisis
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe Jan. 6 Committee’s issuing a subpoena to former President Donald Trump makes clear that our country is not on the brink of a Constitutional crisis—it’s already in a Constitutional crisis.The definition of just what is a Constitutional crisis may be debated, but in plain English it’s where the structure of our Constitution is stressed or broken.The Justice Department Needs to Get Out of Its Own Way in the Trump InvestigationsPresident
Associated Press
Panthers QB Mayfield a no-show at practice once again
Quarterback Baker Mayfield was a no-show at the portion of practice open to reporters on Thursday, further increasing the likelihood that P.J. Walker will start for the Carolina Panthers against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Panthers interim head coach Steve Wilks said Wednesday that he wasn’t ready to rule out Mayfield from playing despite a sprained left ankle, but emphasized he would have to see the 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick practice before considering that option. Wilks took over the Panthers (1-4) on Monday after Matt Rhule was fired.
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Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy Hospitalized After Feeling Unwell
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy Hospitalized After Feeling Unwell https://digitalarkansasnews.com/vermont-sen-patrick-leahy-hospitalized-after-feeling-unwell/
Oct. 13, 2022Updated: Oct. 13, 2022 10:52 p.m.
FILE – Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing in Washington, May 25, 2022. Leahy was taken to a Washington area hospital Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, for tests after saying he was not feeling well, his press secretary said. (Ting Shen/Pool Photo via AP, File)Ting Shen/AP
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was hospitalized Thursday after he felt unwell at his McLean, Virginia, home, his office said.
As a precaution Leahy, 82, was taken to a Washington-area hospital for tests. At the recommendation of his doctors, he was expected to remain in the hospital overnight for observation.
Leahy, the longest-serving sitting senator, is not seeking reelection in November.
By the time his term expires in January 2023, Leahy will have served for 48 years in the Senate.
In June he fell and broke his hip. At the time his staff said he was expected to make a full recovery. In July he underwent a second surgery on his hip.
Leahy has been making a number of public appearances since then.
Leahy was taken to the hospital in January 2021, hours after he had begun presiding over the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. At that time Leahy said he was not feeling well and he was taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. After being examined, he was sent home.
Leahy is the last of the so-called Watergate babies, the surge of congressional Democrats elected in 1974 after Republican President Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment.
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Witness Who Said Trump Ordered Mar-A-Lago Files Moved ID'd As Former White House Aide
Witness Who Said Trump Ordered Mar-A-Lago Files Moved ID'd As Former White House Aide https://digitalarkansasnews.com/witness-who-said-trump-ordered-mar-a-lago-files-moved-idd-as-former-white-house-aide/
A staff member at Mar-a-Lago who reportedly told the FBI that Donald Trump personally ordered that documents taken from the White House be moved has been identified as a Navy veteran and onetime White House aide to the former president.
The staffer, identified by The Washington Post as Walt Nauta, reported that Trump told him to transfer boxes of documents to other locations at the Mar-a-Lago compound after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May for missing government files. Nauta became a personal aide to the former president in Florida after serving as a valet in the Trump White House, sources told the Post.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Nauta was spotted on surveillance video hauling out boxes of documents from a Mar-a-Lago storage room that was a “focus” of government officials. Nauta reportedly told the FBI that he was following Trump’s orders.
The footage supports Nauta’s accounts to the FBI about how the materials were handled under Trump’s direction even as government officials sought to reclaim public records removed from the White House when Trump left office, the Post noted.
Nauta’s account puts Trump at the very heart of how dozens of boxes of documents — including classified and top secret information — seized by the FBI in August had been handled.
Trump has claimed without any evidence that some documents confiscated at his Mar-a-Lago private club were planted by the FBI. He has also claimed that he was unaware of what material was taken from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate because documents were packed by federal workers. White House records are supposed to be collected by the National Archives when a president leaves office.
Nauta could not be reached for comment.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich has dismissed the account, complaining to the Times that it’s an example of the Biden administration “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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Trump Launches Conspiracy Theory That FBI ‘Planted’ Evidence At Mar-a-Lago
Trump Freaks Out On Truth Social After More Raid Details Are Made Public
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Arkansas & ACLU In Court Next Week Over Transgender Law
Arkansas & ACLU In Court Next Week Over Transgender Law https://digitalarkansasnews.com/arkansas-aclu-in-court-next-week-over-transgender-law/
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ top lawyer and advocates for transgender youth are facing off in court next week.
Last year, the Natural State was the first in the United States to pass a law banning gender-affirming treatments for people under 18. An injunction has stopped the law from being enforced, but that could soon change depending on a district judge’s decision.
Even on opposite sides of an argument, both the Attorney General’s Office and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believe they are protecting children growing up in Arkansas. Ones like Valerie Polston who grew up in Searcy, and who our station spoke with Thursday.
With the weather in the 70s it is easy to feel comfortable in your own skin, but revisiting her home state, Valerie Polston remembers when her skin was not as comfortable as it is now.
She said, “When I had access to hormone replacement therapy, I was given an opportunity to find a sense of self that aligned with how I viewed myself my entire life.”
Polston said gender-affirming treatment is something she wishes she would have learned more about at a younger age, but a majority of Arkansas legislators passed a law in 2021 banning anyone under 18 from surgeries or treatments to transition their genders.
They call it the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act. District 87 State Representative Robin Lundstrum (R) was the lead sponsor of the act and says there is more at risk medically and mentally for a child.
“It’s irreversible damage,” Lundstrum warns. “Much like in Arkansas you can’t have alcohol, or smoke cigarettes, or have a tattoo, rent property, drive a car because under 18 you don’t have the ability of making a lot of really solid decisions.”
The ACLU is challenging the law on the basis of it being cruel, discriminatory, and unconstitutional.
Leslie Cooper, Staff Attorney for the ACLU, said, “When the law was first introduced there was a spike in hospitalizations for suicide attempts on the part of transgender youth in Arkansas just out of the fear of care being stripped away from them.”
“There are more and more supporters for trans youth every day, and we will never give up on ensuring a fair, just Arkansas and America,” Holly Dickson, Executive Director for ACLU of Arkansas added.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released this statement Thursday ahead of the trial. She said,
“As Attorney General, I am wholeheartedly defending the SAFE Act; it is my hope that parents and children will be empowered by this information and avoid these permanent, life-altering procedures or medications for children. One point that has been lost in the conversation surrounding the SAFE Act is that the State of Arkansas is not prohibiting children who identify as transgender from receiving the mental healthcare that they may need. Children who identify as transgender are still able to receive counseling services or medications for psychiatric diagnoses, just as any other child would. The State is protecting children from undergoing experimental surgeries and treatments for the purpose of gender transition. The SAFE Act protects children from life-altering, permanent decisions that they may desire to make as an underage child but could regret as an adult; no law in Arkansas prevents someone from making these decisions as an adult.”
But Polston says people should be able live those formative years the way they see themselves and not wait on years of medical care until childhood has slipped by.
“There’s isn’t something astronomically different about trans people. They are just a set of people that have a medical need that need to get their treatment,” Polston concluded.
Both sides pointed to their own medical research for and against medical procedures and treatment in young people. Much of this will likely be discussed during the two-week trial starting Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
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Rare Protest Against China's Xi Jinping Days Before Communist Party Congress | CNN
Rare Protest Against China's Xi Jinping Days Before Communist Party Congress | CNN https://digitalarkansasnews.com/rare-protest-against-chinas-xi-jinping-days-before-communist-party-congress-cnn/
CNN —
A rare protest against Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his policies was swiftly ended in Beijing Thursday, just days before he is set to secure a third term in power at a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party.
Photos circulating on Twitter Thursday afternoon show two banners hung on an overpass of a major thoroughfare in the northwest of the Chinese capital, protesting against Xi’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy and authoritarian rule.
“Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” reads one banner.
“Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” reads the other.
The photos and videos also show plumes of smoke billowing from the bridge, and a voice recording of the protest slogans played on loudspeaker.
CNN cannot independently verify the images and footage, but has geolocated them to Sitong Bridge, an overpass on Beijing’s Third Ring Road in Haidian district.
When CNN arrived at Sitong Bridge around 3.30 p.m. Thursday, no protesters or banners could be seen. However, a large number of security personnel were on the overpass and in the vicinity. Security personnel were also spotted patrolling every overpass CNN drove by on the Third Ring Road.
Chinese authorities have yet to comment on the incident. CNN has reached out to Beijing police for comment.
The protest sent China’s stringent online censorship into overdrive.
Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, immediately censored search results for “Sitong Bridge,” the site of the protests. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search.
Numerous accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the super-app essential for daily life in China, have been banned after commenting on – or alluding to – the protest.
Still, many spoke out to express their support and awe. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in a veiled reference to the protester, who some called a “hero,” while others swore never to forget, posting under the hashtag: “I saw it.”
“Thank you for letting me still see hope for this land,” one comment said.
“The person has disappeared, the name of the site has disappeared, so many words are disappearing. But there are so many Chinese characters, so many pair of eyes. Can you censor us all?” said another.
Public protest against the top leadership is extremely rare in China, especially in the run-up to important political meetings, when authorities turn Beijing into a fortress to maintain security and stability. The twice-a-decade Communist Party national congress is the most important event on China’s political calendar.
At the 20th Party Congress beginning on Sunday, Xi is widely expected to break with recent norms and extend his rule for another term, potentially paving the way for lifelong rule.
Xi, the most powerful and authoritarian Chinese leader in decades, has waged a sweeping crackdown to crush dissent, both within the party and in wider society.
His draconian zero-Covid policy has fueled growing public frustration, as rolling lockdowns upend lives and wreak havoc on the economy.
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Medical Marijuana Revenues Rise In Arkansas https://digitalarkansasnews.com/medical-marijuana-revenues-rise-in-arkansas/
More money being spent this year than last at dispensaries
Medical marijuana patients in Arkansas are on track to spend more at dispensaries in 2022 than they did in 2021, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration reports.
Overall, purchases made by patients at Arkansas dispensaries totaled $31 million in 2019, then $182 million in 2020, $264.9 million in 2021 and so far this year, $205 million through the first nine months of 2022, said Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Finance Administration.
“By the end of December, our overall sales for 2022 should certainly be above the $264.9 million sold in 2021,” Hardin said.
While Arkansans approved medical marijuana in November 2016 in what is now Amendment 98 to the State Constitution, the first dispensary did not open in the state until May 2019.
Arkansas limited the number of dispensaries allowed to sell medical marijuana. A limit on the number of dispensaries is also proposed in the Issue 4 state question on ballots for voters to consider legalizing recreational marijuana Nov. 8.
More:Recreational marijuana in Arkansas: What we know about Issue 4 on November ballot
“The reason sales were so low in 2019 was the number of dispensaries in operation. There were only a few dispensaries open for an extended period in 2019,” Hardin said.
The number increased to 14 dispensaries by the end of 2019. There are currently 38 dispensaries.
State tax revenue generated from medial marijuana totaled $2.9 million in 2019, $21.2 million in 2020, $33.1 million in 2021 and $23.9 million in 2022 through the first nine months.
Overall, that is $81 million generated in state tax revenue since mid-2019.
From that total, $62 million was directed to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, specifically for the institution’s work to obtain a National Cancer Institute designation, Hardin reports.
Should the recreational proposal pass in November, the state’s medical marijuana program would continue to operate. However, it would no longer be taxed, which could be the incentive for patients to keep their medical license to pay less for their cannabis products.
While the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas – Little Rock produced an economic impact study for Responsible Growth Arkansas, projecting and industry that could generate hundreds of millions in revenue, the state has not yet released projections regarding the recreational proposal, Hardin said.All recreational purchases will be taxed at a total 16.5%. That amount includes 6.5% of state tax on top of the 10% recreational marijuana tax.
Regarding dispensaries, the first round of dispensary licenses, if voters approve Nov. 8, could be issued in early March to the existing medical permit holders dispensaries. This will allow them to sell recreational on-site at the existing medical dispensaries and also open a new fully recreational dispensary off-site it could be anywhere in the state. In addition to that, ABC will issue 40 dispensary licenses via a lottery system a blind draw later in 2023. Overall, this is 120 dispensaries across the state, 40 of which could sell both medical and recreational.
September medical marijuana sales in Arkansas
Medical marijuana patients spent about $23.9 million in September at the state’s 38 dispensaries to obtain 4,571 pounds.
Natural Relief Dispensary of Sherwood had the largest month with 431 pounds sold while Suite 443 (Hot Springs) followed with 407 pounds.
The Arkansas Department of Health reports 92,035 active patient cards. There were 4,571 pounds sold in dispensaries in September.
Eighteen dispensaries sold more than 100 pounds for the month.
Patients spent about $800,000 daily in September on medical marijuana purchases, Hardin said.
“Additionally, 4,571 pounds is the largest month for sales in 2022. Through the first nine months of 2022, patients have spent $205 million to obtain 36,600 pounds of medical marijuana. We anticipate 2022 sales will surpass the $264.9 million spent in 2021,” Hardin said.
Here are sales reports from dispensaries in Arkansas for SeptemberSuite 443, Hot Springs, opened May 10, 2019, sold 407.34 pounds of medical marijuana in September.Green Springs Medical, Hot Springs, opened May 12, 2019, sold 204.36 pounds in September.Arkansas Natural Products, Clinton, opened June 20, 2019, sold 71.94 pounds.Greenlight Dispensary, Helena, opened June 27, 2019, sold 30.32 pounds.Native Green Hensley, Hensley, opened July 2, 2019, sold 37.69 pounds.Fiddler’s Green, Mountain View, opened July 11, 2019 sold 104.01 pounds.The Releaf Center, Bentonville, opened August 7, 2019, sold 295.60 pounds. The Source, Bentonville, opened August 15, 2019, sold 133.85 pounds.
Acanza, Fayetteville, opened September 14, 2019, sold 144.50 pounds.Harvest, Conway, opened October 11, 2019, sold 209.10 pounds.Purspirit Cannabis, Fayetteville, opened November 20, 2019, sold 194.92 pounds.NEA Full Spectrum, Brookland, opened December 9, 2019, sold 135.58 pounds.420 Dispensary, Russellville, opened December 17, 2019, sold 51.01 pounds.Fort Cannabis, Fort Smith, opened December 18, 2019, sold 85.82 pounds.Good Day Farm, Texarkana, formerly Red River Remedy, opened January 10, 2020, sold 57.34 pounds.SuperFarm, Texarkana, formerly Bloom Medicinals, opened January 15, 2020, sold 42.20 pounds.Plant Family Therapeutics, Mountain Home, opened February 3, 2020, sold 194.66 pounds.
Berner’s by Good Day Farm, Little Rock, opened February 14, 2020, sold 139.68 pounds. Curaleaf, Little Rock, opened February 26, 2020, sold 67.02 pounds.Custom Cannabis, Alexander, opened March 5, 2020, sold 109.19 pounds.Natural Relief Dispensary, Sherwood, opened March 17, 2020, sold 431.75 pounds.Body and Mind Dispensary, West Memphis, opened April 27, 2020, sold 114.37 pounds.
Delta Cannabis, West Memphis, opened July 1, 2020, sold 102.50 pounds.Good Day Monticello, Monticello, opened July 4, 2020, sold 35.78 pounds.Enlightened Cannabis for People, Arkadelphia, opened July 16, 2020, sold 26.12 pounds.
Enlightened Cannabis for People, Heber Springs, opened July 17, 2020, sold 76.74 pounds.Enlightened Cannabis for People, Morrilton, opened August 3, 2020, sold 56.86 pounds.Enlightened Cannabis for People, Clarksville, opened August 7, 2020, 46.07 pounds.Greenlight West Memphis, West Memphis, opened August 26, 2020, sold 48.65 pounds. High Bank Cannabis, Pine Bluff, opened October 9, 2021, sold 168.31 pounds.Zen Leaf El Dorado, opened October 22, 2020 sold, 51.41 pounds.
Spring River Dispensary, Hardy, opened January 7, 2021, sold 113.53 pounds.Native Green Little Rock, Little Rock, opened May, 6, 2021, sold 58.47 pounds.Hash Co. , Pine Bluff, opened June 18, 2021, sold 10.53 pounds.Osage Creek Dispensary, Fayetteville, opened June 18, 2021, sold 76.08 pounds. The Treatment Cannabis Dispensary, Pine Bluff, opened July 1, 2021, sold 48.39 pounds.
CROP, of Jonesboro, opened September 21, 2021, sold 303.44 pounds in September.
Good Day Farm, Van Buren, opened March 7, 2022, sold 86.66 pounds.
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Report Details Battery Allegations Against Ex-Trump Advisor Corey Lewandowski At Las Vegas Fundraiser
Report Details Battery Allegations Against Ex-Trump Advisor Corey Lewandowski At Las Vegas Fundraiser https://digitalarkansasnews.com/report-details-battery-allegations-against-ex-trump-advisor-corey-lewandowski-at-las-vegas-fundraiser/
Corey Lewandowski faces charge of misdemeanor to be dismissed following counseling, community service
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — An ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump is accused of repeatedly touching a GOP donor – including on her buttocks and thigh – at a Las Vegas event, leading to a plea agreement where the case could be dismissed, documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Thursday revealed.
Corey Lewandowski faces a charge of misdemeanor battery connected to the September 2021 incident. If Lewandowski completes counseling and community service, the charge will be dismissed, court records showed.
The allegations stem from a reported incident at the Westgate Hotel and Casino involving a donor to the former president, Trashelle Odom. While Odom has publicly acknowledged the allegations since last year, her name is redacted in the report.
Odom’s attorney first filed a report with police in Idaho, where Odom lives, alleging Lewandowski “made multiple inappropriate, aggressive, violent and unwanted sexual comments” and “intentionally touched [his client’s] butt, hand, back and leg” while at a dinner, police wrote in the report.
In this Sept. 17, 2019, file photo, Corey Lewandowski, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, arrives to testify to the House Judiciary Committee in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, Lewandowski and Odom attended the dinner, which police described as a VIP event for Republican donors and others identified as people “involved in politics and in elected government positions,” the report said.
The report indicates the two dozen people met for dinner at the Benihana restaurant in the hotel. Odom and Lewandowski sat next to each other, police said.
“[Redacted] explained that Corey was very vocal about how powerful he is in the political world and that he was an advisor to former President Trump,” police wrote about their interview with Odom. “Corey told [redacted] that he can ‘destroy anyone,’ that he can get anyone into office, and that he can get anyone out of office.”
Odom told investigators the conversation turned to Lewandowski’s workout habits.
“Corey then rubbed [redacted’s] right upper thigh and buttocks with his hand over her clothing in an up-and-down and ‘back and forth’ motion,” police said. “Corey told [redacted] that he is ‘always sore here,’ while touching [redacted] on the described area. Corey then commented that he ‘lasts eight hours in bed.’”
The Westgate Las Vegas hotel and casino, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Lewandowski then mentioned Noem was “hot” and told Odom which room he was staying in, police said. He asked Odom if she wanted to work out together, to which she replied, “No,” police said. Police said Lewandowski then told her he was from “a ‘bad area’ in Boston and that he has ‘killed a few people.’”
“[Redacted] tried to laugh this off and Corey then turned ‘serious,’ and he elaborated that when he was 10 years old, he stabbed someone numerous times, and when he was older, he stabbed someone in the back of the head,” police wrote in the report.
At this point in the reported conversation, Odom began feeling “scared” and “started thinking about how to get out of the situation without any ‘backlash’ and without her family being hurt by anything she said or did,’” police wrote in the report.
“[Redacted] recalled a specific incident while she and Corey were seated next to each other and she had a napkin placed on her lap and covering her legs,” police wrote. “Corey reached over, removed the napkin from her lap, aggressively threw it on the table, and he placed his hand on [her] upper thigh,” police said.
Odom later sent a group message to other dinner attendees with the text, “WTF,” police said.
President Donald Trump’s campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski, center, speaks about a court order obtained to grant more access to vote counting operations at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, following Tuesday’s election. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The group then moved to a suite at the hotel for a scheduled auction for the Victoria’s Voice Foundation, police said. While there, police said Noem told a person at the auction, “I text [sic] Corey to stop touching you,” police wrote in the report.
The next day, a person, whose name is redacted in the report, received a phone call from another party attendee, saying “Corey also grabbed her butt.” The person also told the person that “she had a lot to learn” and “to stay quiet about the incidents,” police wrote in the report. Because Odom’s name is redacted in some parts of the report, it is unclear if the person in this exchange is in fact, Odom.
Two days after the event, police said Odom received a text from a person believed to be a representative for Lewandowski. It said in part, “You are all so wonderful and I’m truly horrified and so sorry you had to deal with what you did.”
Several witnesses told police that Odom appeared uncomfortable during the reported incident and at the party afterward, documents said.
FILE – South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 16, 2021, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Detectives with Las Vegas Metro police later impounded the dress and shoes Odom was wearing. In December 2021, police retrieved a DNA sample from Lewandowski at his attorney’s office. Detectives said they wanted to compare the sample with a portion of Odom’s dress.
In February, police said they found the DNA profiles of several people on the dress, including two men.
Investigators said Lewandowski was previously accused of “striking a female on her buttocks, two times, during a party in Washington, D.C., in 2017” but the district attorney declined to press charges, documents said.
Part of the dinner was filmed for the Victoria’s Voice Foundation. A grand jury later approved a subpoena for video recordings and records from the event from the foundation, police said. One clip showed Lewandowski and Odom sitting next to each other but nothing “obviously sexual or obviously inappropriate” was in the videos, police said.
President Donald Trump’s campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski, center, speaks outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center where votes are being counted, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, following Tuesday’s election. At left is former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Lewandowski and Noem declined to be interviewed by police, investigators said.
“A misdemeanor case was filed but we are pleased to say the matter has been resolved,” Lewandowski’s attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a statement to the Associated Press. “The court set conditions that Mr. Lewandowski will fulfill, and the case will ultimately be dismissed.”
Lewandowski does not admit any wrongdoing as part of the plea agreement and the charge could be dismissed within a year.
Lewandowski was removed from his position as chairman of a political action committee tied to the former president in the days after the allegations became public. Noem also cut ties with Lewandowski soon after, reports indicated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Key Mar-A-Lago Witness Said To Be Former White House Employee And Navy Veteran
Key Mar-A-Lago Witness Said To Be Former White House Employee And Navy Veteran https://digitalarkansasnews.com/key-mar-a-lago-witness-said-to-be-former-white-house-employee-and-navy-veteran/
Marine One lifts off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 29, 2019. (Wikimedia Commons)
A key witness in the ongoing Justice Department and FBI investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is a Navy veteran who followed the former president to Florida after serving as a valet in the Trump White House, people familiar with the matter said.
Walt Nauta is the witness in question, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The 39-year-old worked as a valet for Trump in the Oval Office suite, according to former White House staffers, and served as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in Florida.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that an unnamed Trump employee had provided critical evidence to investigators — telling them that he moved boxes at the former president’s request at a time when the government was seeking the return of classified material, including some highly sensitive items, from Mar-a-Lago.
The witness account was corroborated by security-camera footage, the people familiar with the case said, giving investigators key evidence of Trump’s behavior as they probe potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information.
Hours after The Post’s report was published, the New York Times reported that surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago showed Nauta moving boxes.
A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment to The Post on Thursday, and Nauta did not respond to a call seeking comment.
The information Nauta provided to FBI agents, and the footage described to The Post, offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of his Florida property.
The search came after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. Aides to Trump handed over 38 documents in June in response to a grand jury subpoena, but FBI agents found 103 more when they returned to Mar-a-Lago in August.
When FBI agents first interviewed Nauta, he denied any role in moving boxes or sensitive documents, the people familiar with the situation said in interviews before Nauta’s name became public. But as investigators gathered more evidence, they questioned him a second time and he told a starkly different story — that Trump instructed him to move the boxes, these people said.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich declined to answer specific questions about those assertions on Wednesday, instead charging that the Biden administration “has weaponized law enforcement and fabricated a Document Hoax in a desperate attempt to retain political power.”
Asked about Nauta’s account on Thursday, Budowich questioned the legality of the court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago and accused the Biden administration of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
The people familiar with the Mar-a-Lago investigation said agents have gathered evidence indicating that Trump told people to move boxes to his residence after his advisers received the subpoena. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage showing people moving the boxes, the people said.
Separately, FBI agents interviewed another key figure in the documents case last week: Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed a June letter saying that a “diligent search” had been conducted for classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that all such documents had been given back to the government.
Bobb, whose interview with the FBI was first reported by NBC News, told agents that she signed the letter at the request of other lawyers and was not aware of the details of the search, a person familiar with the matter said. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations, said Bobb told the FBI she was skeptical of signing the letter and insisted on adding a disclaimer clause saying it was based on the information provided to her by others.
Bobb has told other Trump advisers that she has done nothing wrong and acted based on what she was told by Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, who handled the search for documents in response to the subpoena.
A person familiar with Bobb’s account said she was called by Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn a day before the June 3 meeting with the Justice Department and asked to attend the session with Corcoran, whom she had never met. The person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay Bobb’s account, said Bobb told agents Corcoran informed her that the storage room had been thoroughly searched — and indicated it was the only area of the club that needed to be searched.
Corcoran’s search for classified documents in response to the subpoena did not include the president’s private residence, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
A person with knowledge of the movement of the boxes at Mar-a-Lago said that after they were taken to the residence, Trump looked through at least some of them and removed some of the documents. At least some of the boxes were later returned to the storage room, this person said, while some of the documents remained in the residence. The Post could not confirm the specific content of the boxes reportedly examined by Trump.
Nauta is originally from Guam, according to public records. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually became a cook in the White House mess, a small dining facility run by the Navy in the basement of the West Wing. In 2013, he entered a military culinary competition, part of a team representing “presidential food service.”
Not long after Trump took office, Nauta left the mess to become one of Trump’s valets, spending some of his workday in a small passageway that connects the West Wing to a private dining room. From there, he had access to a small refrigerator stocked with Diet Cokes, which he brought to the president in the Oval Office when Trump pressed a call button on his desk, said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss activities inside the White House.
Nauta frequently served as a kind of gofer, fetching any items the president might need throughout the day and tidying up the room, the former staffer said. When Trump left the Oval Office for the night, it was Nauta who brought his coat. Their daily proximity meant that the two developed a close professional relationship, and Trump “trusted him completely,” this person added.
As part of his valet responsibilities, Nauta also moved boxes containing papers for Trump between the Oval Office and a private study, as well as a private dining room that Trump used as an informal office, the former staffer said. Trump routinely took classified documents to that dining room, mingled with newspaper articles and other papers, according to multiple former White House officials who have said Trump never strictly followed the rules and customs for handling sensitive government material.
The boxes that Nauta is said to have moved at Trump’s direction at Mar-a-Lago also contained classified documents mixed with newspaper articles, according to people familiar with the case.
The former staffer described Nauta as friendly and pleasant to Oval Office visitors. In September 2020, Nauta was promoted to senior chief petty officer, a significant career advancement. When Trump left the White House, Nauta decided to join him at Mar-a-Lago.
Campaign finance records show that Nauta was placed on the payroll of a Trump political action committee, Save America, in 2021. He was on payroll as recently as August, making $5,227.81 a paycheck, or about $135,000 a year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
The Washington Post’s Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Alice Crites and Rosalind S. Helderman in Washington contributed to this report.
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Donald Trump May Learn On Halloween If A Court-Imposed Monitor Will Oversee His Real-Estate And Golf Empire
Donald Trump May Learn On Halloween If A Court-Imposed Monitor Will Oversee His Real-Estate And Golf Empire https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-may-learn-on-halloween-if-a-court-imposed-monitor-will-oversee-his-real-estate-and-golf-empire/
New York’s attorney general has asked a Manhattan judge for a quick ruling in her Trump fraud case.
The AG, Letitia James, wants the judge to immediately order Trump to submit to financial monitoring.
Justice Arthur Engoron has set October 31 for courtroom arguments and a possible decision.
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Donald Trump could get some scary news on Halloween: A Manhattan judge has set October 31 for a hearing on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ demand that the former president’s real-estate and golf resort empire submit to an independent financial monitor.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron agreed Thursday night to a Halloween-morning court date.
Engoron will preside on that date as lawyers for Trump and for the attorney general spar in his courtroom over whether Trump’s business, which James sued for fraud on September 21, is so rife with ongoing fraud that it’s in immediate need of financial monitoring.
Also Thursday night, the judge ruled that James can merely email a copy of her lawsuit to Trump lawyer Alina Habba, and to lawyers for Eric Trump, and that this would suffice as formal service of the suit.
In the three weeks since the lawsuit was filed, Habba has dodged formally accepting service of the lawsuit, as have Eric Trump’s attorneys, the attorney general has complained, in court papers accusing Trump’s side of “gamesmanship.”
Habba and Eric Trump’s lawyer of record, Clifford S. Robert, have not responded to Insider’s repeated requests for comment on the serving of the lawsuit.
Habba did issue a press statement earlier Thursday calling the attorney general’s latest request for relief a “stunt,” insisting, “We have repeatedly provided assurance, in writing, that the Trump Organization has no intention of doing anything improper.”
James’ office is hoping for a Halloween order barring the Trump Organization “from engaging in any fraudulent or illegal acts,” according to court papers filed earlier Thursday.
She has asked the judge to further bar Trump from transferring any company assets to the Trump Organization II, a company he registered with New York’s state department the very day James sued him, his family, and his company.
She has also asked the judge to appoint an independent monitor “to oversee compliance” with whatever ban on fraud or asset-shifting the judge imposes.
A decision could come the same day. Engoron repeatedly made same-day rulings after prior oral arguments involving James’ probe of alleged financial wrongdoings at the former president’s business.
Trump’s side will have until October 24 to file papers opposing the attorney general’s demands; the attorney general will then have until October 27 to respond in papers of her own.
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Key Mar-A-Lago Witness Said To Be Former White House Employee
Key Mar-A-Lago Witness Said To Be Former White House Employee https://digitalarkansasnews.com/key-mar-a-lago-witness-said-to-be-former-white-house-employee/
A key witness in the ongoing Justice Department and FBI investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is a Navy veteran who followed the former president to Florida after serving as a valet in the Trump White House, people familiar with the matter said.
Walt Nauta is the witness in question, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The 39-year-old worked as a valet for Trump in the Oval Office suite, according to former White House staffers, and served as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in Florida.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that an unnamed Trump employee had provided critical evidence to investigators — telling them that he moved boxes at the former president’s request at a time when the government was seeking the return of classified material, including some highly sensitive items, from Mar-a-Lago.
The witness account was corroborated by security-camera footage, the people familiar with the case said, giving investigators key evidence of Trump’s behavior as they probe potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information.
Hours after The Post’s report was published, the New York Times reported that surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago showed Nauta moving boxes.
A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment to The Post on Thursday, and Nauta did not respond to a call seeking comment.
The information Nauta provided to FBI agents, and the footage described to The Post, offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of his Florida property.
The search came after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. Aides to Trump handed over 38 documents in June in response to a grand jury subpoena, but FBI agents found 103 more when they returned to Mar-a-Lago in August.
When FBI agents first interviewed Nauta, he denied any role in moving boxes or sensitive documents, the people familiar with the situation said in interviews before Nauta’s name became public. But as investigators gathered more evidence, they questioned him a second time and he told a starkly different story — that Trump instructed him to move the boxes, these people said.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich declined to answer specific questions about those assertions on Wednesday, instead charging that the Biden administration “has weaponized law enforcement and fabricated a Document Hoax in a desperate attempt to retain political power.”
Asked about Nauta’s account on Thursday, Budowich questioned the legality of the court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago and accused the Biden administration of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
The people familiar with the Mar-a-Lago investigation said agents have gathered evidence indicating that Trump told people to move boxes to his residence after his advisers received the subpoena. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage showing people moving the boxes, the people said.
Separately, FBI agents interviewed another key figure in the documents case last week: Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed a June letter saying that a “diligent search” had been conducted for classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that all such documents had been given back to the government.
Bobb, whose interview with the FBI was first reported by NBC News, told agents that she signed the letter at the request of other lawyers and was not aware of the details of the search, a person familiar with the matter said. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations, said Bobb told the FBI she was skeptical of signing the letter and insisted on adding a disclaimer clause saying it was based on the information provided to her by others.
Bobb has told other Trump advisers that she has done nothing wrong and acted based on what she was told by Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, who handled the search for documents in response to the subpoena.
A person familiar with Bobb’s account said she was called by Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn a day before the June 3 meeting with the Justice Department and asked to attend the session with Corcoran, whom she had never met. The person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay Bobb’s account, said Bobb told agents Corcoran informed her that the storage room had been thoroughly searched — and indicated it was the only area of the club that needed to be searched.
Corcoran’s search for classified documents in response to the subpoena did not include the president’s private residence, a person with knowledge of the situation said.
A person with knowledge of the movement of the boxes at Mar-a-Lago said that after they were taken to the residence, Trump looked through at least some of them and removed some of the documents. At least some of the boxes were later returned to the storage room, this person said, while some of the documents remained in the residence. The Post could not confirm the specific content of the boxes reportedly examined by Trump.
Nauta is originally from Guam, according to public records. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually became a cook in the White House mess, a small dining facility run by the Navy in the basement of the West Wing. In 2013, he entered a military culinary competition, part of a team representing “presidential food service.”
Not long after Trump took office, Nauta left the mess to become one of Trump’s valets, spending some of his workday in a small passageway that connects the West Wing to a private dining room. From there, he had access to a small refrigerator stocked with Diet Cokes, which he brought to the president in the Oval Office when Trump pressed a call button on his desk, said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss activities inside the White House.
Nauta frequently served as a kind of gofer, fetching any items the president might need throughout the day and tidying up the room, the former staffer said. When Trump left the Oval Office for the night, it was Nauta who brought his coat. Their daily proximity meant that the two developed a close professional relationship, and Trump “trusted him completely,” this person added.
As part of his valet responsibilities, Nauta also moved boxes containing papers for Trump between the Oval Office and a private study, as well as a private dining room that Trump used as an informal office, the former staffer said. Trump routinely took classified documents to that dining room, mingled with newspaper articles and other papers, according to multiple former White House officials who have said Trump never strictly followed the rules and customs for handling sensitive government material.
The boxes that Nauta is said to have moved at Trump’s direction at Mar-a-Lago also contained classified documents mixed with newspaper articles, according to people familiar with the case.
The former staffer described Nauta as friendly and pleasant to Oval Office visitors. In September 2020, Nauta was promoted to senior chief petty officer, a significant career advancement. When Trump left the White House, Nauta decided to join him at Mar-a-Lago.
Campaign finance records show that Nauta was placed on the payroll of a Trump political action committee, Save America, in 2021. He was on payroll as recently as August, making $5,227.81 a paycheck, or about $135,000 a year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Alice Crites and Rosalind S. Helderman in Washington contributed to this report.
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Elon Musk Is Under Federal Investigation Twitter Says In Court Filing
Elon Musk Is Under Federal Investigation, Twitter Says In Court Filing https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elon-musk-is-under-federal-investigation-twitter-says-in-court-filing/
WILMINGTON, Del., Oct 13 (Reuters) – Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct in his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), the social media company said in a court filing released on Thursday.
While the filing said he was under investigations, it did not say what the exact focus of the probes were and which federal authorities are conducting them.
Twitter, which sued Musk in July to force him to close the deal, said attorneys for the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO had claimed “investigative privilege” when refusing to hand over documents it had sought.
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In late September, Musk’s attorneys had provided a “privilege log” identifying documents to be withheld, Twitter said. The log referenced drafts of a May 13 email to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The court filing, which asked a Delaware judge to order the Musk’s attorneys to provide the documents, was made on Oct. 6 – the same day that the judge that paused litigation between the two sides after Musk reversed course and said he would proceed with the deal.
“This game of ‘hide the ball’ must end,” the company said in the court filing.
Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, told Reuters that Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirection.” Twitter declined to comment on Spiro’s response and to Reuters queries about its understanding of any investigation into Musk.
The SEC did not immediately respond to request for comment and the FTC declined to comment.
The SEC has questioned Musk’s comments about the Twitter acquisition. In April, the SEC asked Musk whether the disclosure of his 9% Twitter stake was late and why it indicated that he intended to be a passive shareholder. Musk later refiled the disclosure to indicate he was an active investor.
In June, the SEC asked Musk in a letter whether he should have amended his public filing to reflect his intention to suspend or abandon the deal.
The Information, a tech news site, reported in April that the FTC was scrutinizing whether Musk failed to comply with an antitrust reporting requirement as he amassed his stake in Twitter.
Twitter said in June that the takeover deal with Musk had cleared an antitrust waiting period for review by the FTC and U.S. Justice Department. read more
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Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, Sheila Dang in Dallas and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese and Edwina Gibbs
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Tom Hals
Thomson Reuters
Award-winning reporter with more than two decades of experience in international news, focusing on high-stakes legal battles over everything from government policy to corporate dealmaking.
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Elaine Chao Tells Jan. 6 Committee Why She Resigned From The Trump Administration (Video) Social News XYZ
Elaine Chao Tells Jan. 6 Committee Why She Resigned From The Trump Administration (Video) – Social News XYZ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/elaine-chao-tells-jan-6-committee-why-she-resigned-from-the-trump-administration-video-social-news-xyz/
Posted By: Social News XYZ October 13, 2022
At Thursday’s hearing, the House Jan. 6 committee played taped testimony from several Trump administration officials including former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao explaining why they resigned after the attack on the Capitol. Watch that portion of the hearing.
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Elaine Chao tells Jan. 6 committee why she resigned from the Trump administration (Video)
Description
At Thursday’s hearing, the House Jan. 6 committee played taped testimony from several Trump administration officials including former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao explaining why they resigned after the attack on the Capitol. Watch that portion of the hearing. CBS News Streaming Network is the premier 24/7 anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations, available free to everyone with access to the Internet. The CBS News Streaming Network is your destination for breaking news, live events and original reporting locally, nationally and around the globe. Launched in November 2014 as CBSN, the CBS News Streaming Network is available live in 91 countries and on 30 digital platforms and apps, as well as on CBSNews.com and Paramount+. Subscribe to the CBS News YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/cbsnews Watch CBS News: https://cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7c Download the CBS News app: https://cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8 Follow CBS News on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbsnews/ Like CBS News on Facebook: https://facebook.com/cbsnews Follow CBS News on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbsnews Subscribe to our newsletters: https://cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T Try Paramount+ free: https://bit.ly/2OiW1kZ For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com
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Analysis | Jan. 6 Panel Vividly Detailed The Attack. Accountability Is Another Matter
Analysis | Jan. 6 Panel Vividly Detailed The Attack. Accountability Is Another Matter https://digitalarkansasnews.com/analysis-jan-6-panel-vividly-detailed-the-attack-accountability-is-another-matter/
WASHINGTON — If the goal was to essentially put former President Donald Trump on trial, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol succeeded in presenting a powerful case full of damning testimony mainly from the defendant’s own advisers, allies and even relatives.
But as the panel wrapped up what was likely the last of its evidentiary hearings Thursday, it was not at all clear that it had persuaded the jury. Americans who already blamed the rampage on Trump came away from four months of sensational and at times jaw-dropping hearings with more evidence for their belief, while those who started out in his camp largely remained there.
The relatively little movement in public opinion since the hearings opened in June, at least as measured by an array of polls, underscored the calcification of American politics in recent years. Many voters have been locked into their viewpoints, seemingly immune to contrary information. Trump’s supporters for the most part have remained loyal to him, brushing off the congressional investigation as the partisan exercise he claims it to be.
As a result, a former president who tried to overturn a demonstrably free and fair election to hang onto power in defiance of the voters, the Constitution and nearly 2 1/2 centuries of democratic tradition remains the dominant figure in his political party and the odds-on favorite to win its nomination to run again. While the committee extensively documented the plot for history’s sake, it could not enforce accountability for it.
“Our nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who stormed our Capitol,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who served as vice chair of the committee. “Those who planned to overturn our election and brought us to the point of violence must also be accountable.
“With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former president,” she added, “we chip away at the foundation of our republic. Indefensible conduct is defended. Inexcusable conduct is excused. Without accountability, it all becomes normal and it will recur.”
Over the course of its nine hearings, the panel established that Trump had been told repeatedly by his own advisers that he had lost the election to Joe Biden, but he lied to the public anyway, advancing conspiracy theories and fantasies that had been debunked by his own team. The committee presented evidence Thursday that Trump had planned months before the election to claim fraud if he lost, regardless of the facts.
To that end, the panel showed how he had used the power of his office to pressure governors, state officials and legislators, congressional allies, Justice Department leaders and his own vice president, Mike Pence, to put aside the judgment of the voters and keep him in office anyway. He encouraged the mob when he knew some of them were armed, and he did little to stop the attack once it was underway; he is even said to have reacted approvingly to some rioters’ call to hang Pence.
Since Trump pressed House Republican leaders not to participate in the committee, he had no defenders to offer any mitigating evidence or challenge witnesses over the last four months. But even outside the committee room, he has offered no serious defense through statements, interviews or social media other than to insult former aides who testified and accuse the panel of being out to get him. He has not explained his actions or backed off his false claims.
That seems to have been enough for him for now. His approval ratings remain roughly where they were before the hearings, and a strong majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen. No major Republican officeholders have indicated they have changed their mind about Trump since the hearings began.
A Monmouth University poll last month found that 29% of Americans believe Biden won because of voter fraud — exactly the same as in June when the hearings opened; 61% of Republicans thought so. And 38% of respondents last month held Trump “directly responsible” for Jan. 6, compared with 42% in June.
Still, there are signs of Trump erosion or fatigue among Republicans. In a recent poll, NBC News found that 33% of Republicans identified themselves more as supporters of Trump than of the party — still a high number and enough to potentially win a multicandidate primary, but the lowest since the network began asking the question in 2019.
Having fallen short of changing many minds, however, the committee may yet have influenced the thinking closer to home. It amassed an overwhelming collection of interviews, documents and other evidence that may have lit a fire at the Justice Department just a half-dozen blocks from the Capitol, as federal prosecutors appeared to ratchet up their own investigation in recent months.
The real verdict, therefore, may still be months away. If Attorney General Merrick Garland ultimately pursues a criminal prosecution against Trump or his closest allies, the committee will have set the stage by airing the case in painstaking detail. And as they made their final arguments before next month’s midterm elections, the panel members Thursday left little doubt what they think should happen but left any decision on criminal referrals until after the vote.
Still, to make that point, Cheney introduced a subpoena for Trump’s testimony, which was adopted unanimously by the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Such an action, while rooted in some precedent, nonetheless represented a stark bid by the legislative branch to force a former executive to explain his actions.
A subpoena at this stage, of course, may be more symbolic than successful, issued too late to actually obtain the testimony it aims to secure. Assuming Trump refuses to comply and fights it in court, litigation could drag on beyond the Nov. 8 election, when the House is widely expected to change hands, and a new Republican majority taking office in January would surely withdraw it.
But from the vantage of the committee members who have spent more than a year investigating how a mob of Trump supporters came to storm the Capitol to stop the transfer of power, the subpoena put the focus back where it should be: on Trump himself.
As Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee chair, put it: “He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on Jan. 6.”
This story was originally published at nytimes.com. Read it here.
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Mini-Budget U-Turn On The Table As Pressure Mounts
Mini-Budget U-Turn On The Table As Pressure Mounts https://digitalarkansasnews.com/mini-budget-u-turn-on-the-table-as-pressure-mounts/
Image source, EPA
By Chris Mason, political editor, & Becky Morton, political reporter
BBC News
A U-turn over the mini-budget is on the table as pressure mounts on Liz Truss to change her economic plans.
It come as Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng flies home early from meetings in the US for crunch talks over his proposals.
Discussions are ongoing between the prime minister and her MPs about how she could reverse aspects of her mini-budget to reassure financial markets and her own party.
But on Thursday the chancellor said the government’s position had not changed.
Many Tory MPs think a U-turn on some of her tax-cutting package is inevitable.
The tense atmosphere in Westminster was apparent as the BBC spoke to dozens of sources across Parliament and the government.
“It’s checkmate, we’re screwed,” one Tory MP remarked.
“There is no question in my mind, they’ll have to junk loads of this stuff and U-turn,” another said.
If the government does announce changes to its plans it is not clear when this might happen.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is due to arrive back in the UK from Washington, where he has been at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, on Friday.
He has cancelled planned meetings in the US capital to attend discussions in the UK with Ms Truss and Conservative MPs, BBC economics editor Faisal Islam reported.
On Thursday, he said he was “not going anywhere” – and when asked if he and Ms Truss would still be in their jobs this time next month, he said: “Absolutely, 100%.”
As it stands, Mr Kwarteng is set to spell out how he will pay for the government’s £43bn package of tax cuts and get the UK’s national debt falling in a statement on 31 October, alongside an independent economic forecast.
The government has already U-turned on its plan to scrap the top rate of income tax, but this only made up £2bn of the tax cuts announced by the chancellor last month.
Some Tory MPs think the government’s tax-cutting plans should be reversed, while others believe the help with energy bills should be more targeted.
Other scenarios being discussed by Tory MPs include the chancellor resigning or the prime minister being ousted.
However, there is little agreement on what should happen next or who should replace Ms Truss if she is removed.
According to the Times, senior Conservatives are holding talks about replacing Ms Truss with a joint ticket of Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, who both ran for the leadership this summer.
Unlike the summer leadership contest, MPs would propose just one person to succeed the PM, with the other individual taking a senior cabinet role, the paper reported.
Media caption,
Watch: I am not going anywhere – Kwasi Kwarteng
Among the possible U-turns, there has been speculation the government could reverse its plan for corporation tax.
Ms Truss has pledged to scrap a planned rise to the tax, which was set to increase from 19% to 25% in 2023.
When asked about the positive market response to the speculation of a U-turn on corporation tax, Mr Kwarteng told the Daily Telegraph: “Let’s see.”
However, he added that he still thought ensuring “competitive” tax rates for businesses was a “great idea”.
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel, meanwhile, told Sky News the market would now “dictate” the prime minister’s decision on corporation tax “primarily because we want to see stability”.
Senior Tories are continuing to call for the government to change course.
Alicia Kearns, the new chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the government had to “adapt” during a “crisis”.
Asked if the government’s tax cuts should be reversed, she told the BBC: “There are some that are worth keeping, there are some that are not, but do I want to see mass borrowing at this point? I don’t think that’s reassuring.”
Former minister Johnny Mercer called for a “course correction” from No 10, describing the impact of rising mortgage rates on people who want to buy a home as “unconscionable” and “politically unsurvivable”.
“Get on and do it – we all know it’s coming. It’s not a game for folks down here,” he said of his Plymouth Moor View constituency.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross called on the prime minister and chancellor to “get a grip” on the economy.
“There have been mistakes, they’ve got to work this out to settle the markets, to settle the economy and to get things back up and running again,” he told the BBC One’s Question Time.
Asked whether he believed Ms Truss could win the next general election, he replied: “Yes.”
But other Tory MPs expressed support for the prime minister and said she must not reverse her plans.
Sir Christopher Chope, a Truss backer, told the BBC Two’s Newsnight: “If we were to increase corporation tax having said that we’re not going to, that would be totally inconsistent with the prime minister’s policy of promoting growth, growth and growth.”
He added that a U-turn would be a “complete betrayal of that she believed in” and he believed it would not happen.
Wales Office Minister David Davies said the government had to be “flexible” in what he described as an economic “storm”.
However, he said Mr Kwarteng should remain chancellor and refused to accept recent market turmoil was due to a “mistake” by the government.
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Legal Action Taken Against North Little Rock Apartment After Fire
Legal Action Taken Against North Little Rock Apartment After Fire https://digitalarkansasnews.com/legal-action-taken-against-north-little-rock-apartment-after-fire/
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The fire took place at Shorter College Gardens Apartment on October 4th, North Little Rock Fire Department confirmed three people were killed and multiple families were left displaced.
Mother of 3, Gabrielle Madison was in the apartment with her family during the time of the fire she says she was in shock.
“I look out the door and I see a fire in the grass and next thing you know I look up and the building is on fire and I hear a big exploding boom,” said Madison.
Madison says she and other families were put in hotels thanks to the Red Cross, the city, and community members but although she now has a place to live; she says her daughters are traumatized.
“They don’t have to come out here and look at this building every day and be like Lord Jesus,” said Madison.
Attorney Terris Harris with the Cochran House is not representing Madison but he is representing other families who want to know the same.
“In short we will do everything that we can to find the answers to hold all accountable for their actions or I should say their inactions so these families can be made whole,” said Harris.
Through an independent investigation, Harris alleges there were complaints about a gas leak at the apartment complex that wasn’t addressed sooner.
“Our investigation has revealed that someone dropped the ball somewhere down the line and they didn’t do their program pressure checks and things of that nature,” said Harris.
The North Little Rock Fire Department says the investigation is ongoing and they can not support those findings [from the independent investigation].
As for the owners of the apartment complex, the Millennia Companies, when asked about the allegations regarding the fire at Shorter College Gardens:
I confirmed that, at this time, the investigation is ongoing. While the investigation continues, the property management and leadership teams are working together with officials to respond to this tragedy and to support residents. We are deeply grateful for the community leaders, elected officials, non-profits, and faith-based organizations who have been assisting residents in numerous ways during this difficult time, and we extend heartfelt sympathies to the families who are grieving loved ones.
Regarding your question about resident concerns, when a resident registers a concern, management generates a work order and determines the actions needed to address it. Generally, this process entails working with the maintenance team, engaging vendors, if needed, and partnering with the resident to ensure the issue is fully addressed. As mentioned during our conversation, there were no reports of gas leaks.
Madison says she will be watching the outcome of what will happen closely.
Harris also says since he is not an Arkansas attorney his colleague, Chauncy Graham will be signing off on a complaint suing who they believe are the appropriate parties.
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Donald Trump Directed Boxes To Be Moved At Mar-A-Lago After Subpoena Says Ex-Employee
Donald Trump Directed Boxes To Be Moved At Mar-A-Lago After Subpoena Says Ex-Employee https://digitalarkansasnews.com/donald-trump-directed-boxes-to-be-moved-at-mar-a-lago-after-subpoena-says-ex-employee/
After Donald Trump’s legal team received a subpoena for any classified documents at the Florida estate, a Trump employee claimed to have been told by the former President to move boxes out of a basement storage room to his home at Mar-a-Lago, according to a source familiar with the witness’ description.
According to a source quoted by CNN, the FBI also has security film of a staff member moving boxes out of the storage area.
The video and witness testimony regarding Trump’s actions after the subpoena was issued in May may be crucial to the federal criminal investigation, which is looking into a number of potential crimes, including obstruction, the destruction of government documents, and the improper handling of classified information.
In August, FBI investigators carried out a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and took thousands of papers, including roughly 100 classified ones. In addition, the FBI served a subpoena on the Trump Organization for security footage from the hotel.
According to the source, the Trump staffer originally denied handling confidential papers or boxes at Mar-a-Lago.
The witness later changed their account to claim that Trump had given orders to relocate the crates after the FBI discovered evidence that forced agents to revisit the witness, the source added.
Did Trump’s legal team try to interfere with the investigation?
The FBI’s investigation into Trump’s suspected misuse of classified materials was allegedly “obstructed” by the removal of sensitive documents from a storage area at Mar-a-Lago, according to prior claims made by the Department of Justice.
The Justice Department served a subpoena on Trump in May after he returned 15 boxes of records to the National Archives in January. They were looking for classified documents that were remained at Mar-a-Lago.
In order to comply with the subpoena, Trump allegedly gave instructions to his employees to look for any remaining sensitive information. His lawyers then informed federal investigators that they had checked the storage room and that all of the sensitive documents were present after documents were taken from the resort by federal agents in June.
In an effort to comply with the subpoena, prosecutors said in August that certain documents were probably taken from a storage room before Trump’s attorneys looked around.
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Jan. 6 Committee Votes To Subpoena Donald Trump: He Is Required To Answer For His Actions
Jan. 6 Committee Votes To Subpoena Donald Trump: ‘He Is Required To Answer For His Actions’ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jan-6-committee-votes-to-subpoena-donald-trump-he-is-required-to-answer-for-his-actions/
By Sarah D. Wire Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON – The Jan. 6 House select committee unanimously voted Thursday to issue a subpoena to former President Trump, capping off what could be its final hearing by laying out the case that Trump was premeditated in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“The committee needs to do everything in our power to tell the most complete story possible and present recommendations to help ensure nothing like Jan. 6 ever happens again. We need to be fair and thorough and gain a full context for the evidence we’ve seen but the need for this committee to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact finding,” Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said. “He is required to answer for his actions.”
The subpoena was requested by the committee’s vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who has been abandoned by the Republican Party and lost her reelection bid after taking a leading role in the investigation.
“Our duty today is to our country and our children and our Constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” Cheney said.
Trump is likely to fight the subpoena in court. With just over two months left before the committee disbands, such a move would effectively mean the panel has little chance of hearing firsthand from the former president as part of its investigation.
The committee’s 10th, and possibly final, hearing has focused on Trump’s role in the scheme to keep him in power, starting with plans before the election to declare victory regardless of the election results.
Trump planned “well in advance” to declare victory on election night, regardless of the vote count, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., at Thursday’s hearing by the House panel investigating the insurrection.
“This big lie, President Trump’s effort to convince Americans that he had won the 2020 election, began before the election results even came in. It was premeditated. It was not based on … results or any fraud, if there was any actual problems with voting. It was a plan concocted in advance to convince his supporters that he won, and the people who seemingly knew about the plan in advance would ultimately play a significant role in the events of January,” Lofgren said.
Each of the nine committee members led a portion of the sweeping hearing.
“What did President Trump know? What was he told? What was his personal and substantial role in the multi-part plan to overturn the election?” Thompson said at the hearing.
Committee leaders described the hearing’s goal as a step back to look at the entire plan to keep Trump in power, and said it will cover the span of time from before the 2020 election until after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Previous hearings each focused on an aspect of Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. Committee members will provide new information relevant to the topics of each of the previous hearings, and will also touch on ongoing threats to democracy, but the main focus will be on Trump’s state of mind and role in the event.
“The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed,” Cheney said. “None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it. Exactly how did one man cause all of this? Today we will focus on President Trump’s state of mind, his intent, his motivations and how he spurred others to do his bidding.”
Cheney asked the public to keep three facts in mind: that Trump always planned to claim fraud if he lost; that he knew his claims of fraud were false and made a conscious decision to make them anyway; and that the people who ultimately stopped his attempts to stay in power were Republicans.
Thursday was the committee’s first public hearing in nearly three months. In the interim, public attention has been seized by news of the Justice Department’s accelerating investigation into the insurrection and the scheme to use false electors to cast doubt on the election results and keep Trump in office, and on the FBI’s efforts to recover classified materials that were improperly – and possibly illegally – stored at Trump’s Florida estate after he left office.
No witnesses appeared live at the hearing, but the committee showed new clips from the more than 1,000 depositions it has collected along with footage captured by Danish filmmakers who followed conservative provocateur Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant with ties to the Proud Boys, for two years filming a documentary.
In one clip, Stone said before the election, “F- – the voting. Let’s get straight to the violence.” The committee also played footage of another adviser, Steve Bannon, saying before the election that Trump would claim victory regardless of the results.
“(Trump’s) going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s the winner. He’s just going to say he’s the winner. … He’s going to sit right there and say they stole it,” Bannon said. “If Biden is winning [on election day], Trump is going to do some crazy s—-.”
The committee also showed new documents it obtained from the National Archives and the Secret Service. According to the records, Trump consulted with one of his outside advisers, conservative activist Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, about the strategy for election night a few days prior. In a draft statement proposed on Oct. 31, Fitton encouraged Trump to say, “We had an election today – and I won,” and to demand that all votes not counted on Election Day be rejected.
The hearing also pulled from hundreds of thousands of records received from the Secret Service showing that Trump was told about the potential for violence on Jan. 6, 2021, but rallied his supporters to go to the Capitol anyway. They also detail the former president’s repeated orders to his Secret Service detail to let him join supporters marching on Capitol Hill.
Committee members have indicated that, barring additional information coming to light, this is likely the panel’s last hearing. But committee aides balked at reporters’ attempts to label it their closing argument, adding that more evidence or testimony could surface before the committee presents its final report by the end of the calendar year.
Cheney said the committee is still weighing whether to make a recommendation about criminal charges to the Justice Department.
Republicans are not expected to renew the committee if they regain control of the House in 2023.
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Jan. 6 Panel Scrutinizes Trumps Post-Election Military Orders
Jan. 6 Panel Scrutinizes Trump’s Post-Election Military Orders https://digitalarkansasnews.com/jan-6-panel-scrutinizes-trumps-post-election-military-orders/
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to rapidly pull all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Somalia in the immediate aftermath of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, alarming senior aides who feared doing so would have “catastrophic” consequences, according to congressional testimony aired Thursday.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) cited Trump’s order during a House select committee hearing scrutinizing the former president’s actions and directives ahead of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. It was evidence, the congressman said, that Trump knew his days in office were numbered as he sought to overturn Biden’s election win and “rushed” to complete “unfinished business” despite the national security implications.
“He disregarded concerns about the consequences for fragile governments on the front lines of the fight against [the Islamic State] and al-Qaeda terrorists,” Kinzinger said. “Knowing he was leaving office, he acted immediately and signed this order on November 11th, which would have required the immediate withdrawal of troops from Somalia and Afghanistan, all to be complete before the Biden inauguration on January 20th.”
Trump’s withdrawal order was reported previously by Axios and in the book “Peril,” by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Kinzinger’s presentation, however, marked a dramatic moment in Thursday’s hearing, as the committee played video and audio segments of testimony provided over the past several months by key officials troubled by the president’s plans, including Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.
The Afghanistan plan ultimately was set aside. Milley called the order “odd” and “potentially dangerous,” telling the committee he did not think it was feasible or wise. Kellogg said the proposition was “very contested,” and that carrying it out would have been a “tremendous disservice to [the] nation.”
“It’s the same thing with President Biden,” Kellogg said, comparing the situation to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal carried out at Biden’s direction in August 2021. “It would have been a debacle.”
John McEntee, an adviser to Trump, recalled typing up the order to withdraw from Afghanistan and securing Trump’s signature on it. He did not offer an assessment similar to Milley’s and Kellogg’s in testimony aired Thursday.
Their comments add to public understanding of key military moves that bridge the two presidencies, and the often erratic nature of deliberations under Trump.
The Trump administration, in February 2020, signed a deal with the Taliban agreeing to remove all U.S. troops by spring 2021. It included a handful of concessions, including that the Taliban would hold fire against U.S. troops as they departed. The Afghan government was cut out of those discussions.
Trump later undermined that agreement, tweeting in October of that year that all U.S. troops should be “home by Christmas!” Then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper sent Trump a memo advising the president that ongoing Taliban attacks, potential danger for remaining U.S. personnel and risks to U.S. alliances made that timeline unworkable.
Trump fired Esper on Nov. 9, one day after the election loss, installing loyalists at the Pentagon at a moment when administrations typically seek a smooth transition on issues of national security.
Biden decided in April 2021 to follow through with the Afghanistan withdrawal, prompting the collapse of the country’s government four months later. Biden administration officials blamed Trump, saying his deal with the Taliban left few alternatives, while former Trump administration officials sought to distance themselves from the agreement by arguing that it was meant to be implemented only if the conditions warranted.
Trump has criticized Biden for the haphazard exit, calling it a “humiliation” and “total surrender,” and claiming it would not have happened on his watch.
“We could have gotten out with honor,” Trump said at a rally last year. “We should have gotten out with honor. And instead we got out with the exact opposite of honor.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration official who has become a frequent critic, tweeted Thursday that as “someone who remains highly critical of Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal,” she’d be curious to hear how Trump supporters defend “Trump’s order for an even hastier withdrawal.”
As someone who remains highly critical of Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, I’d be curious to hear defense’s on the Right of Trump’s order for an even hastier withdrawal. https://t.co/suCXr4d72o
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) October 13, 2022
Under Trump’s direction, hundreds of U.S. troops were withdrawn from Somalia in the waning weeks of his administration. Some were redeployed to nearby Kenya while continuing to visit Somalia to advise local troops battling al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
In May, Biden reversed Trump’s Somalia order, deploying hundreds of U.S. troops there. Pentagon officials sought presidential approval to do so, advising that it was becoming increasingly unsustainable to only appear on the ground episodically to carry out operations. The Pentagon has conducted a handful of airstrikes in Somalia since then.
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Trump Isn't The First President To Be Subpoenaed By Congress: Here Are The Others
Trump Isn't The First President To Be Subpoenaed By Congress: Here Are The Others https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-isnt-the-first-president-to-be-subpoenaed-by-congress-here-are-the-others/
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill unanimously voted on Thursday to subpoena former President Donald Trump, escalating the panel’s efforts to dig into the impetus and impacts of the insurrection.
While there have been several judicial subpoenas for presidents before, congressional subpoenas for sitting or former White House occupants are rare — but not unheard of. (Trump did not immediately say Thursday whether he would comply or fight once the subpoena was issued.)
Separately, numerous presidents have voluntarily testified before Congress, but no sitting president has been forced to appear.
Here are the other presidents, sitting or former, who have been subpoenaed by Congress.
John Tyler and John Quincy Adams
Congress subpoenaed the two presidents after they had already left office. The orders for testimony in 1848 stemmed from accusations by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that then-Secretary of State Daniel Webster misused money for a secret “contingent fund” used by presidents for clandestine intelligence operations.
Spending from the fund required presidential signatures, which led Congress to seek the testimonies of Adams and Tyler. In office at the time, President James Polk refused to provide detailed information to Congress out of deference to the prior administrations.
The two former presidents still cooperated, with two select investigative committees questioning Tyler while Adams provided a sworn deposition to one of them.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2022 (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 26, 2022.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
Harry Truman
The infamous House Committee on Un-American Activities, which reached its height during the Cold War-era Red Scare, subpoenaed former President Harry Truman to get information on his “Loyalty Program,” which was intended to root out anyone loyal to the Soviet Union.
The subpoena was issued after he left office and centered around Truman’s appointment of an assistant treasury secretary who was rumored to have communist ties.
Truman said in a letter that he would not accommodate the subpoena in spite of his “personal willingness” to cooperate, citing the Constitution’s separation of powers.
“If your intention is to inquire into any acts as a private individual either before or after my Presidency and unrelated to any acts as President, I shall be happy to appear,” he wrote.
Richard Nixon
Nixon was actually subpoenaed twice by Congress, both in relation to the Watergate scandal.
The Senate panel probing the Watergate break-in subpoenaed Nixon in 1974 for tapes and records on more than one occasion, though he declined, and the court ultimately rejected an effort by the committee to enforce one of the subpoenas.
However, the House Judiciary Committee, which was also investigating the burglary that ended up costing Nixon his career, subpoenaed documents that Nixon did end up handing over — though the committee didn’t think he had turned over all he had.
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Inflation Report Seals Case For 0.75-Point Fed Rate Rise In November
Inflation Report Seals Case For 0.75-Point Fed Rate Rise In November https://digitalarkansasnews.com/inflation-report-seals-case-for-0-75-point-fed-rate-rise-in-november/
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News Wrap: Supreme Court Refuses Trump Request In Mar-A-Lago Documents Case
News Wrap: Supreme Court Refuses Trump Request In Mar-A-Lago Documents Case https://digitalarkansasnews.com/news-wrap-supreme-court-refuses-trump-request-in-mar-a-lago-documents-case/
In our news wrap Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused former President Trump’s request for an independent arbiter to examine classified White House documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate, the U.S. Labor Department turned in another tough report on inflation at the retail level and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia traded tough talk over sharp cuts in oil output.
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