[The Hill] President Trump on Monday called for FBI agent Peter Strzok's testimony to take place in an open hearing after an inspector general report found he and a fellow bureau official texted that they needed to "stop" Trump from getting elected.
The president's tweet was sent as he was en route to a rally in West Columbia, S.C., to support Gov. Henry McMaster (R).
Trump's calls for transparency echoed his previous comments about the Department of Justice's (DOJ) ongoing probe into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Trump has decried that investigation as a "hoax" and a "witch hunt," even as four of his former associates have been implicated in the probe.
#3
...Even if all he did was take the Fifth for a few hours, that would be a stake in the Dems' heart. There'd be no way to spin that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/26/2018 7:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The report found that political bias did not influence the Clinton investigation and also that Strzok did not actually use his office to work against Trump. Yeah sure. Wink, wink.
Thought Strzok agreed to testify without invoking his 5th Amend. right. If so, that would indicate a prosecutorial and immunity for testifying.
Dude's got Marty Feldman Eyes!
[WMUR] - CONCORD, N.H. ‐ Police in Concord and Bow said they arrested the same man hours apart on charges of driving under the influence.
Benjamin Benoit, 33, of Boscawen, was arrested Thursday afternoon after police received a report of a person at a Bow gas station falling asleep in the driver's seat of a car.
Benoit was arrested again Friday morning in Concord after another report was made about a person passed out in a vehicle at a gas station. Concord police said the car Benoit was in was stolen from the owner's place of employment in Pembroke.
Federal prosecutors indicted Elizabeth Holmes on criminal fraud charges for allegedly defrauding investors, doctors and the public as the head of the once-heralded blood-testing startup Theranos. Federal prosecutors also brought charges against the company's former second-in-command.
Holmes, who was once considered a wunderkind of Silicon Valley, and former Theranos Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Balwani, are charged with two counts conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud each, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said late Friday. If convicted, they could face prison sentences that would keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives, and total fines of $2.75 million each.
Prosecutors allege that Holmes and Balwani deliberately misled investors, policymakers and the public about the accuracy of Theranos' blood-testing technologies going back to at least 2013. Holmes, 34, founded Theranos in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2003, pitching its technology as a cheaper way to run dozens of blood tests.
Holmes said Theranos had discovered a new way of doing blood testing, one able to conduct dozens of tests with just a prick of a finger and a few droplets of blood. A notoriously secretive company, Theranos shared very little about its blood-testing machine, nicknamed Edison, with the public or the medical community. Holmes said she was inspired to start the company in response to her fear of needles.
She carefully crafted her image as well, wearing almost entirely black turtleneck sweaters that earned her the moniker in Silicon Valley as "the next Steve Jobs."
Investors bought what Holmes was selling and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company. At one time, Theranos was worth more than $10 billion and Holmes was the youngest self-made female billionaire.
But an investigation by the Wall Street Journal two years ago found that Theranos' technology was inaccurate at best, and that the company was using routine blood-testing equipment for the vast majority of its tests. The story raised concerns about the accuracy of Theranos' blood testing technology, which put patients at risk of having conditions either misdiagnosed or ignored.
"CEO Elizabeth Holmes and COO Sunny Balwani not only defrauded investors, but also consumers who trusted and relied upon their allegedly revolutionary blood-testing technology," Acting U.S. Attorney Alex Tse said in a statement.
The Journal's investigation marked the beginning of the end of Theranos. Walgreens ended its blood-testing partnership with the company, and the HHS effectively banned Theranos in 2016 from doing any blood testing work at all.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against Holmes and Balwani three months ago. Holmes settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay $500,000 in fines and penalties. Balwani, 53, is fighting the charges.
As the charges were announced Friday, Theranos said Holmes would step down as CEO of the company and its general counsel, David Taylor, would become the company's next CEO. Theranos laid off most of its staff earlier this year and is widely expected to file for bankruptcy. Holmes remains the company's chairman.
The company did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Friday's indictments.
[SFChronicle] A federal judge Monday tossed out two groundbreaking lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland that sought to hold some of the world’s largest oil companies liable for climate change.
In an exhaustive, 16-page ruling that touched on such scientific matters as the ice age and early observations of carbon dioxide, U.S. District Judge William Alsup acknowledged the problem of a warming planet but said it is just too big for the courts to solve.
The cities are trying to get five oil and gas giants, including Bay Area-based Chevron, to help cover the costs of dealing with sea-level rise, like picking up the tab for seawalls. However, Alsup, noting that Congress and the White House, not the judiciary, are responsible for addressing the fallout from fossil fuels, granted the industry’s request to dismiss the suits.
"The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case," he wrote. Don't worry. They'll keep judge shopping until they get their way.
#1
They'll keep judge shopping until they get their way.
President Trump has been submitting an awful lot of judge candidates, and the one thing this Republican Senate has done well and quickly has been to approve them...
[FreeBeacon] Public-sector workers across the country are seeking to recover back wages they paid to labor organizations in the event the Supreme Court declares mandatory union fees unconstitutional. We should make public unions illegal... but I'll take hitting their pocketbook for now
Class action suits have been filed against eight unions in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland, California, and the state of Washington, accusing individual unions of violating workers' rights by collecting mandatory dues payments. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on a groundbreaking case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which challenges the constitutionality of forcing public-sector workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. The suits argue that any public-sector employee who participated in forced dues systems should receive financial "redress" from labor organizations.
"The defendants have violated the class members' constitutional rights by forcing non-union members to pay compulsory ’representation fees’ to the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) or its affiliates as a condition of their employment," the Maryland complaint says. Similar language is featured in all eight lawsuits. "The compelled subsidy that [plaintiff Ruth Akers] and her fellow representation-fee payers must remit to the MSEA as a condition of their employment violates their constitutional rights."
#3
"Youze has a right to not join da Union and da health benefits also applies to Scabs dat has 'accidents'. Fixing your auto dats parked out back is your problem, tho'..."
...That type of free association, eh?
(June 22, 2018 / JNS) South African Jewish leaders condemned "alarming" amount of anti-Semitic attacks this week.
According to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, there has been a flurry of anti-Semitic and threatening attacks made against South African Jews both on social media and in face-to-face encounters in recent days.
On Thursday, a video showed passengers awaiting their luggage from an El Al flight into South Africa being verbally abused, and called "wicked Jews."
A mural with a Germany flag, with a swastika inserted in it, also appeared in Johannesburg.
There have also been increasing anti-Semitic rhetoric online as well in recent days, the South African Jewish group said.
"While it was unfortunately common to find anti-Semitic content online, it was rare for it to take so virulent and inflammatory a form as the latest reported comments," SAJBD Chairman Shaun Zagnoev said in a statement.
"The posts show how easily radical anti-Israel sentiment can spill over into hateful slurs and threats against Jewish people in general. We are being told that we are ’scum’, ’rats’, ’bastards’, ’pigs’, ’swine’ and ’fat-nosed f***ks. We are further being warned that "our time is coming" and that "the Holocaust will be a picnic after we are done with you."
The Jewish group said that it is "no coincidence" that these anti-Semitic incidents are coming out after South African supermodel Shashi Naidoo sparked controversy after calling the Gaza Strip a "shithole" on social media. The supermodel received several death threats from the remarks and later apologized. Naidoo had been defending popular South African DJ Black Coffee who had been attack by pro-BDS group for performing in Israel earlier this year.
South Africa has become a hotbed of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel policy and behavior in recent years.
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] A Warri South Magistrates’ Court has remanded a 73-year-old man, Joseph Umuluku, over alleged rape.
Magistrate E. O Bakpa-Arukpere ordered the accused to be remanded at the Okere prisons, Warri, while awaiting legal advice from the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
The accused, who is said to be a native doctor, was alleged to have raped a 13-year-old girl (name withheld) who is currently carrying a seven-week pregnancy.
The accused was allegedly caught on June 17 after he had lured the teenager into a common bathroom in a compound which they shared on Giwa-Amu Street, Okumagba Layout, Warri.
Vanessa Kubenyinje-Ngwu, an Assistant Chief State Principal Counsel, who appeared for the victim, prayed the court to remand the accused.
But counsel to the accused, E.P. Okoro, pleaded with the court to admit his client to bail, a plea which the magistrate refused because of the severity of the offence.
Mr Bakpa-Arukpere adjourned the case till July 11 for mention.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[NATION.PK] The total value of the properties of ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... and his family is estimated at £32 million with London’s swankiest addresses, revealed Daily Mail . Politix pays good, don't it?
According to the revelations, Avenfield House is where super-rich Nawaz Sharif has lived when in London, since 1993. He shares this property with his two sons Hassan and Hussain, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar.
Avenfield House lies in the heart of Mayfair, near the top of Park Lane, with a view of Hyde Park. For Avenfield is where Nawaz Sharif has lived when in London since 1993, knocking four luxury flats together to make a single mansion, now worth at least £7 million.
It is just the kind of property that Russian oligarchs possessed in recent years. "The family has made huge profits from other sites which have not figured in court ‐ such as the swankiest address of all, at One Hyde Park Place, which Nawaz Sharif’s son Hassan sold for £43 million," the report said. For the past few months, the Sharifs are facing a trial related to Avenfield flats and other references in an accountability court. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor has alleged the ex-PM of making the property with dirty money.
The family is also accused of using dirty money to buy at least 21 UK properties on top of the Avenfield flats, most at equally grand Central London locations, in Mayfair, Chelsea and Belgravia. The total value of the properties is estimated at least £32 million.
Untangling the web of the Sharifs’ British real estate portfolio is not easy. The properties are registered via a bewildering network of companies, trusts and bank accounts. According to the prosecutors in Pakistain, the Sharifs have for years moved their money in and out of Britannia, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , the Middle East and the British Virgin Islands ‐ to conceal its dishonest provenance.
It is not illegal to own property through an offshore company.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... under Pakistain’s national accountability laws ‐ first enacted in 1997 when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister ‐ it is down to the Sharifs to prove their assets were acquired legitimately.
This, the prosecutors claim, they have failed to do. In court last week, Nawaz’s Sharif’s defence counsel claimed the prosecution had failed to establish his client was the beneficial owner of the flats or that he ran the offshore companies. He said his name did not appear on documents submitted by the prosecutors and that he did not need to call any evidence for the defence because the prosecution had not proved its case.
Nawaz’s son Hussain declined to respond to the MoS (Mail on Sunday).
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I wonder what it would take to arrest the entire Mexican government. Trump should tweet the idea of doing this just to make heads explode. Yeah, we're looking at you, Vincente Fox.
[Hot Air] Earlier this month we learned that American Airlines was paying off an anti-trust suit which claimed that four major carriers had conspired to keep flights packed and bolster ticket prices even as the cost of fuel was dropping significantly. While maintaining their innocence as part of the settlement, the airline seemed to be showing some signs of admitting that not everything was quite as rosy as it might be in terms of customer service.
Now there’s some other potentially good news for flyers on the horizon. It has nothing to do with customer complaints in this scenario, but rather an investigation by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General into emergency evacuation protocols. Yahoo News reported last week that the standards being used by the FAA for these safety considerations are likely outdated and the airlines may be forced to give back some of that legroom you’ve been missing.
#1
I find it fascinating that local fire marshals are empowered to put occupancy limits on commercial buildings, but the FAA is not empowered for similar reasons to put limits on commercial aircraft.
#2
"these safety considerations are likely outdated"
Probably from the DC-3 era.
When you had two rows of two (or even 3) to a side they may have been adequate if the aisles were wide enough.
Today's wide-body configurations, not so much.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2018 7:55 Comments ||
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#3
I'm 6'2" 205 lb. with long legs and size 13 feet. I don't have any problems with the current setup at all, even on gawd-awful el-cheapo Spirit Airlines.
Some people really only know how to complain.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/26/2018 8:18 Comments ||
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#4
#3
last time I used Spirit Airlines was the last time I will ever use Spirit Airlines
$35 for a carry on; $3 for water is bad enough but then they bragged about their policy on the intercom
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/26/2018 9:40 Comments ||
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#5
BTW, the fire marshals usually don't get active till after a major kill in a fire. Just saying.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2018 15:52 Comments ||
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#8
I likely result of all of the 'trade wars' is likely to result in foreign carriers being able to land at US airport unimpeded. That would force American carriers to compete. Competing could be through comfort or price. it'll be interesting.
#9
Maybe they can get rid of some of the cantankerous old water buffaloes they call flight attendants. Foreign airlines have much prettier flight attendants with better personalities.
[DAWN] KARACHI: A man was tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! for allegedly attempting to rape a six-year-old girl within the remit of the Tipu Sultan cop shoppe on Sunday.
The suspect made the alleged attempt outside her home. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... he was caught by the girl’s father, said Gulshan SP Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto. The suspect was a neighbour.
Later on, the police took him into custody and started the paperwork but haven't done much else against him on the complaint of the girl’s father.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Give him a belt.
Show him how to do the Bourdain.
[DAWN] CHITRAL: A local court on Sunday sent to judicial lockup the alleged harasser of Kalash women, turning down the police request to have his physical remand.
Sub-divisional police officer of Drosh, Iqbal Karim, told Dawn that the accused, Mohammad Ismail of Mathra Peshawar, had been tossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! from his village three days ago and was brought here when a video footage went viral on social media in which he was seen subjecting Kalash girls to harassment, posing himself as a policeman.
He said the accused was sent to the judicial lockup by the police as per orders of the court while the challan ... list of charges ... of the case would be submitted in court within a 14-day time. He said the accused had been booked under sections 509 and 511 for harassment of women, and section 419 for falsely posing himself as a policeman.
Mr Karim said the statements of all the five girls, whose ages ranged from 18 to 24 years, would be recorded in the course of inquiry before the challan was submitted to the court.
He said the incident had reportedly taken place in 2015 and the footage was uploaded on social media in 2016, but it went viral a few days ago when it was again uploaded on social media by unknown persons.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The Inter-Service Public Relations on Monday issued a warning, saying there were reports of "fake telephone calls being made to the general public by individuals impersonating as officials of the Pakistain Armed Forces".
According to the details provided by the military’s media wing, the impersonators try to seek personal information like CNIC number and bank account details on the pretext of census verification.
"Please be aware that no such calls are being made from Pakistain Armed Forces," the ISPR said in its statement, requesting public "not to respond to such calls, and immediately report the matter on our emergency helpline 1135 and 1125".
This is not the first time such phone calls have been reported. Earlier in January, similar type of phone calls were made to several people, prompting the ISPR to issue a clarification. The military's media wing had warned the general public against such telephone calls.
Then in March a large number of people again reported receiving telephone calls, allegedly made by impersonators claiming to be army officials, seeking their personal details, including CNIC numbers and bank account information.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2018 00:00 ||
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[11123 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[IsraelNationalNews] The Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on Tuesday discussed the bill proposed by MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) to give priority in civil service tenders to army veterans and reservists.
According to the bill, which will be discussed today for first reading, among groups that receive affirmative action in civil service tenders, preference will be given to army veterans and reservists.
If it's okay to harass Trump Administration employees (and also Trump supporters), so is this, and I hope I see this every single day from now until November, and then some. With video goodness!
[NewsBusters] - Hours before President Trump arrived on Monday night at a South Carolina campaign rally with incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster, CNN’s chief White House correspondent and carnival barker Jim Acosta faced quite the crowd behind him during a live shot with chants of "go home, Jim" and "fake news Jim," while one attendee moved from side to side with a "CNN Sucks" sign.
During a live shot in the next hour, Acosta decried the lack of civility by these Trump supporters and highlighted a woman who had heckled him. Responding to her calls for CNN to pack up and leave, he asserted like a true firefighter that "we are here to do our jobs."
#11
I’ll look it up in a moment, though jpal’s sentence suggests what I’ll find. I would have to work so much harder to find things to learn if I didn’t have Rantburg! :-D
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/26/2018 15:02 Comments ||
Top||
#14
My first experience with Cable TV, back in the early 80's, one of the channels was the raw AP news article feed. Blank and white paragraphs showing the unadulterated headers for news events.
It was very informative to turn around and see the Nightly MSM News (NBS/ABC/CBS) after the appropriate *Spin cycle* had been applied. You would almost think they were talking about two unrelated events ... as presented by hacks like Acosta or Blitzer.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[SFChronicle] A federal judge Monday tossed out two groundbreaking lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland that sought to hold some of the world’s largest oil companies liable for climate change.
[FreeBeacon] Public-sector workers across the country are seeking to recover back wages they paid to labor organizations in the event the Supreme Court declares mandatory union fees unconstitutional.
(June 22, 2018 / JNS) South African Jewish leaders condemned "alarming" amount of anti-Semitic attacks this week.
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
[Hot Air] Earlier this month we learned that American Airlines was paying off an anti-trust suit which claimed that four major carriers had conspired to keep flights packed and bolster ticket prices even as the cost of fuel was dropping significantly. While maintaining their innocence as part of the settlement, the airline seemed to be showing some signs of admitting that not everything was quite as rosy as it might be in terms of customer service.
