German official dedicates legal win against Twitter to Fauci


Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Nov. 22, 2022, in Washington. A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week has dedicated his legal victory to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site's new owner, Elon Musk. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


FRANK JORDANS
Thu, December 15, 2022 

BERLIN (AP) — A German official who won a defamation case against Twitter this week dedicated his legal victory to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert targeted by the microblogging site's new owner, Elon Musk.

A Frankfurt regional court ruled Wednesday that Twitter has to remove false or defamatory tweets about Michael Blume, who is the southwest German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg’s commissioner against antisemitism. Crucially, the court made clear that the order applies not only to identical posts but also to any that are substantially similar.

Blume told The Associated Press on Thursday that he wanted to dedicate the successful outcome of his case to Fauci, to send a signal that Twitter “can't simply let people be trolled and stalked for years.”

“When even Elon Musk himself lets trolls loose on a scientist, then that's disturbing,” he said. “I believe that's just wrong.”


Musk recently called for Fauci, a leading figure in the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to be prosecuted. His tweet was warmly applauded by users opposed to the U.S. pandemic response, with some posting images of Fauci wearing prison garb or in a coffin.

Blume had taken Twitter to court in Germany after users of the platform suggested he had “a closeness to pedophilia,” of committing adultery, and being involved in “antisemitic scandals,” according to a court statement. Blume rejects all those claims as false and states that he acted after some Twitter users targeted his wife and children, too.

Judges concluded that Twitter should have removed those comments as soon as it was notified. While the descriptions of Blume as antisemitic could be covered by free speech laws, the court ruled that in this case they weren't intended to contribute to public debate but clearly designed as part of an emotional smear campaign. Failure to remove such posts in future can result in fines of up to 250,000 euros ($268,000).

The ruling doesn't require Twitter to monitor everything all of its 237 million users write, but the company does need to deleted similar defamatory tweets, the court said.

It also ruled that posts which note Blume appeared on a “Global Anti-Semitism Top Ten" by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles last year were permissible statements of fact. The list has been strongly criticized by German officials and Jewish representatives in Germany.

“Regardless of whether (Blume's) inclusion in the list is justified, information on it can be provided,” the court said. “The antisemitism commissioner needs to defend himself against that in the public opinion battle.”

Blume's lawyer, Chan-jo Jun, said the ruling provides others who have faced similar smears on Twitter with legal ammunition to bring their own cases against the company.

The same court issued a similar ruling against Facebook’s parent company Meta in April.

“If someone wants a quick injunction against Twitter or Facebook, they would simply need to go to the same court,” said Jun, a prominent tech lawyer. “There’s a path that’s been beaten here and now it’s of course easier to follow.”

Wednesday’s verdict can be appealed within a month.

Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment.

END THE DEATH PENALTY
Transgender inmate on Missouri's death row asks for mercy

This image provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Amber McLaughlin. McLaughlin, the first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the U.S., is asked Missouri's Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her, on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.

Missouri Department of Corrections via AP, File)


SUMMER BALLENTINE and JOHN D. HANNA
Wed, December 14, 2022

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The first openly transgender woman set to be executed in the U.S. is asking Missouri's governor for mercy, citing mental health issues.

Lawyers for Amber McLaughlin, now 49, on Monday asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her.

McLaughlin was convicted of killing 45-year-old Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.

There is no known case of an openly transgender inmate being executed in the U.S. before, according to the anti-execution Death Penalty Information Center.

“It's wrong when anyone's executed regardless, but I hope that this is a first that doesn't occur," federal public defender Larry Komp said. "Amber has shown great courage in embracing who she is as a transgender woman in spite of the potential for people reacting with hate, so I admire her display of courage.”


McLaughlin's lawyers cited her traumatic childhood and mental health issues, which the jury never heard, in the clemency petition. A foster parent rubbed feces in her face when she was a toddler and her adoptive father tased her, according to the letter to Parson. She tried to kill herself multiple times, both as a child and as an adult.

Parson spokeswoman Kelli Jones said the Governor's Office is reviewing her request for mercy.

“These are not decisions that the Governor takes lightly,” Jones said in an email.

Komp said McLaughlin's lawyers are scheduled to meet with Parson on Tuesday.

A judge sentenced McLaughlin to death after a jury was unable to decide on death or life in prison without parole.

A federal judge in St. Louis ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2016, citing concerns about the effectiveness of McLaughlin’s trial lawyers and faulty jury instructions. But in 2021, a federal appeals court panel reinstated the death penalty.

McLaughlin's lawyers also listed the jury's indecision and McLaughlin's remorse as reasons Parson should spare her life.

Missouri has only executed one woman before, state Corrections Department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann said in an email.

McLaughlin's lawyers said she previously was rooming with another transgender woman but now is living in isolation leading up to her scheduled execution date.

Pojmann said 9% of Missouri's prison population is female, and all capital punishment inmates are imprisoned at Potosi Correctional Center.

"It is extremely unusual for a woman to commit a capital offense, such as a brutal murder, and even more unusual for a women to, as was the case with McLaughlin, rape and murder a woman," Pojmann said.

Missouri executed two men this year. Kevin Johnson, a 37 year old who was convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother, was put to death last month. Carmen Deck died by injection in May for killing James and Zelma Long during a robbery at their home in De Soto, Missouri, in 1996.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan

Lamar Johnson denies role in killing that led to life term


2/ 11

Wrongful Conviction Missouri

Lamar Johnson listens to testimony during the third day of his wrongful conviction hearing in St. Louis on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022.

 (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, Pool)

JIM SALTER
Thu, December 15, 2022 

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri man seeking freedom after nearly three decades in prison for a murder he denies committing testified Thursday that he was with his girlfriend on the night of the crime, except for a few minutes when he stepped outside to sell drugs on a corner several blocks from where the victim was killed.

“Did you kill Marcus Boyd?" an attorney asked.

“No, sir,” Lamar Johnson responded.

A hearing in St. Louis will determine if Lamar Johnson’s conviction should be vacated. Judge David Mason is presiding over the hearing, which is expected to conclude Friday.

An investigation conducted by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner with help from the Innocence Project convinced Gardner that Johnson is innocent. She filed a motion in August to vacate his conviction. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is seeking to keep Johnson incarcerated.


Boyd was shot to death on the front porch of his home by two men wearing ski masks on Oct. 30, 1994. While Johnson was sent away for life, a second suspect, Phil Campbell, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in exchange for a seven-year prison term. Campbell is deceased.

Johnson, now 49, was 20 in October 1994. On the day Boyd died, Johnson made arrangements to sell drugs to a man at a south St. Louis corner.

Johnson said he took his girlfriend and their infant to the home of the friends, who lived at that corner. He stepped out briefly to make the drug deal, then returned, Johnson said. The transaction occurred at roughly the same time Boyd was killed several blocks away, he said.

Later that night, Johnson learned in a phone call that Boyd had been shot — and that Boyd’s girlfriend told police she thought Johnson might have something to do with it.

“What did you think would make her say something like that about you?” Mason asked.

“Probably my reputation,” Johnson said, acknowledging he was a gang member with a criminal record.

Johnson’s then-girlfriend, Erika Barrow, testified that she was with Johnson that entire night, except for about a five-minute span when he left to make the drug sale. She said the distance between the friends’ home and Boyd’s home would have made it impossible for Johnson to get there and back in five minutes.

Johnson said he and Boyd were friends who sold drugs together.

“We never had an argument or a fight or anything like that,” Johnson said. “To this day I don’t know why people suspect that I killed him.”

Assistant Attorney General Miranda Loesch questioned why Johnson didn’t go to Boyd’s girlfriend or family and offer comfort after the shooting, if the men were so close.

“You just went home,” Loesch said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Johnson answered.

Detective Joseph Nickerson testified that there was a potential rift over a faulty drug deal. Nickerson said he learned that the night before the killing, Johnson was upset with Boyd because a drug customer of theirs was unhappy with the quality of a drug purchase.

The case against Johnson was built largely on the words of two men: James Gregory Elking, who was trying to buy crack cocaine from Boyd at the time of the shooting; and William Mock, a jail inmate who said he overheard a conversation between Campbell and Johnson at the St. Louis jail.

Mock told investigators he heard one of the men say, “We should have shot that white boy,” apparently referring to Elking.

The man who prosecuted Johnson, Dwight Warren, acknowledged on Wednesday conviction was “iffy” without Mock's testimony. Johnson said he never made any such comment.

Special Assistant to the Circuit Attorney Charles Weiss sought to raise credibility concerns about Mock, noting that he sought release from incarceration as a reward for aiding the case. He had been successful in getting probation after a similar jailhouse revelation years earlier in Kansas City, Missouri.

Warren said he made no such promise but agreed to write a letter on Mock’s behalf to a state parole board. He didn't know if parole was granted.

Elking, who later went to prison for bank robbery, initially told police he couldn’t identify the gunmen. He testified this week that when he was initially unable to name anyone from the lineup, Nickerson told him, “I know you know who it is,” and urged him to “help get these guys off the street.” So, Elking said, he agreed to name Johnson as the shooter.

Nickerson has denied coercing Elking.

Gardner’s office said Elking was paid at least $4,000 after agreeing to testify. Warren said the money was to relocate Elking, who feared his life was in jeopardy for cooperating in the investigation.

James Howard, who is now serving a life sentence for murder and several other crimes that occurred three years after Boyd was killed, testified that he and Campbell decided to rob Boyd, who owed one of their friends money from the sale of drugs. A scuffle ensued and the men killed Boyd, he said.

“Was Lamar Johnson there?” asked Jonathan Potts, an attorney for Johnson.

“No,” Howard answered.

Campbell, years prior to his death, signed an affidavit saying Johnson was not involved in the killing.

In March 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Johnson’s request for a new trial after Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office argued successfully that Gardner lacked the authority to seek one so many years after the case was adjudicated.

The case led to passage of a state law that makes it easier for prosecutors to get new hearings in cases where there is fresh evidence of a wrongful conviction. That law freed another longtime inmate, Kevin Strickland, last year.

California approves roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2045



 Gen Nashimoto, of Luminalt, installs solar panels in Hayward, Calif., on April 29, 2020. California air regulators are set to approve an ambitious plan for the state to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Doing so will require a rapid transition away from oil and gas and toward renewable energy to power everything from cars to buildings.

 (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

SOPHIE AUSTIN
Thu, December 15, 2022 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California air regulators voted unanimously Thursday to approve an ambitious plan to drastically cut reliance on fossil fuels by changing practices in the energy, transportation and agriculture sectors, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough to combat climate change.

The plan sets out to achieve so-called carbon neutrality by 2045, meaning the state will remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits. It aims to do so in part by reducing fossil fuel demand by 86% within that time frame.

California had previously set this carbon neutrality target, but Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation making it a mandate earlier this year. The Democrat has said drastic changes are needed to position California as a global climate leader.

“We are making history here in California,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday.

But the plan's road to approval by the California Air Resources Board was not without criticism. Capturing large amounts of carbon and storing it underground is one of the most controversial elements of the proposal. Critics say it gives the state's biggest emitters reason to not do enough on their part to mitigate climate change.

In a meeting that lasted several hours, activists, residents and experts used their last chance to weigh in on the plan ahead of the board's vote. Many said the latest version, while not perfect, was an improvement from earlier drafts, committing the state to do more to curb planet-warming emissions.

Davina Hurt, a board member, said she was proud California is moving closer to its carbon neutrality goal.

“I’m glad that this plan is bold and aggressive,” Hurt said.

The plan does not commit the state to taking any particular actions but sets out a broad roadmap for how California can achieve its goals. Here are the highlights:

RENEWABLE POWER

The implementation of the plan hinges on the state's ability to transition away from fossil fuels and rely more on renewable resources for energy. It calls for the state to cut liquid petroleum fuel demand by 94% by 2045, and quadruple solar and wind capacity along that same timeframe.

Another goal would mean new residential and commercial buildings will be powered by electric appliances before the next decade.

The calls for dramatically lowering reliance on oil and gas come as public officials continue to grapple with how to avoid blackouts when record-breaking heat waves push Californians to crank up their air conditioning.

And the Western States Petroleum Association took issue with the plan's timeline.

“CARB’s latest draft of the Scoping Plan has acknowledged what dozens of studies have confirmed — that a complete phase-out of oil and gas is unrealistic," said Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the group's president, in a statement. "A plan that isn’t realistic isn’t really a plan at all.”

At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting, California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph touted the latest version of the plan as the most ambitious to date. It underwent changes after public comments earlier this year.

“Ultimately, achieving carbon neutrality requires deploying all tools available to us to reduce emissions and store carbon,” Randolph said.

TRANSPORTATION

Officials hope a move away from gas-powered cars and trucks reduces greenhouse gas emissions while limiting the public health impact of chemicals these vehicles release.

In a July letter to the air board, Newsom requested that the agency approve aggressive cuts to emissions from planes. This would accompany other reductions in the transportation sector as the state transitions to all zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035.

The plan's targets include having 20% of aviation fuel demand come from electric or hydrogen sources by 2045 and ensuring all medium-duty vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2040. The board has already passed a policy to ban the sale of new cars powered solely by gasoline in the state starting in 2035.

CARBON CAPTURE

The plan refers to carbon capture as a “necessary tool” to implement in the state alongside other strategies to mitigate climate change. It calls for the state to capture 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and store it underground by 2045.

Connie Cho, an attorney for environmental justice group Communities for a Better Environment, called the plan “a huge step forward” to mitigate climate change and protect public health.

“Our communities have been suffering from chronic disease and dying at disproportionate rates for far too long because of the legacy of environmental racism in this country,” Cho said.

But Cho criticized its carbon capture targets, arguing they give a pathway for refineries to continue polluting as the state cuts emissions in other areas.

AGRICULTURE

One of the goals is to achieve a 66% reduction in methane emissions from the agriculture sector by 2045. Cattle are a significant source for releasing methane — a potent, planet-warming gas.

The plan's implementation would also mean less reliance by the agriculture sector on fossil fuels as an energy source.

___

This story has been updated to correct the plan's target for aviation fuel demand from electric or hydrogen sources. It is 20%, not 10%.

___

Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

EU-Qatar graft scandal uncovered by year-long, pan-Europe probe, Belgium says

Wed, December 14, 2022 
By Philip Blenkinsop and Charlotte Van Campenhout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgium's intelligence service worked closely with other European countries for more than a year to uncover the graft scandal now rocking the European Parliament, the justice ministry said.

Prosecutors suspect Greek MEP Eva Kaili and three others accepted bribes from World Cup host Qatar in a bid to influence European Union policymaking in one of the biggest scandals to hit the 27-nation bloc.

Qatar and Kaili have denied any wrongdoing.

"We've been too naïve ... for far too long," a justice ministry spokesperson said, referring to what he called clandestine operations by foreign powers in Belgium.

"We now arm ourselves better against this."

The spokesperson called the investigation "a major case on which State Security has been working for more than a year, in collaboration with foreign intelligence services, to list suspicions of corruption of MEPs by different countries".

The Belgian police posted a picture of the 1.5 million euros in cash it had recovered in raids from Friday to Monday, including a suitcase overflowing with 50 and 100 euro banknotes and two briefcases neatly stacked with 50 euro notes.

Investigators in Italy are combing through seven bank accounts related to the suspects, a source close to the probe said, adding that they found 20,000 euros in cash at a house belonging to one suspect. They also searched an office in Milan, the source said.

DETENTION

Meanwhile Kaili, who is in detention following her arrest last week, will only know on Dec. 22 if she will stay behind bars during the investigation, a source close to the investigation said.

Her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, who says she insists she had nothing to do with the stacks of cash found by police, said Kaili had asked for more time to prepare her detention hearing, initially planned for Wednesday.

"We have been in coordination with her lawyer in Brussels and agreed to request a postponement for a few days to prepare," Dimitrakopoulos said.

The other three suspects arrested and charged last week were meanwhile questioned, as planned, on Wednesday by a three-judge panel.

Kaili's partner Francesco Giorgi, who is a parliamentary assistant will stay in detention, as will Pier Antonio Panzeri, an ex-MEP and founder of a non-profit campaign group, the prosecutor's office said, using their initials.

Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, the secretary-general of a rule of law campaign group, will leave jail but wear an electronic ankle tag.

They can appeal against the decisions.

'DAMAGING'

Reuters could not reach Giorgi, Figa-Talamanca and Panzeri or their lawyers for comment. Non-profit organisations they work with did not respond to emailed requests seeking comment.

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to strip Kaili, a 44-year old Greek Socialist MEP, of her vice presidency role. Lawmakers have called her to quit the assembly altogether.

"For us, this case is even more sensitive and important as it touches the heart of European democracy," a spokesperson for Belgium's federal public prosecutor's office, Eric Van Duyse, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Although no state was publicly named by prosecutors, a source with knowledge of the case said it was Qatar.

"It is very damaging, I think, for all the politicians that have been fighting so hard to show that we are making our decisions based on the values that we share," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said at a summit in Brussels.

(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Angeliki Koutantou, Johnny Cotton, Benoit Van Overstraeten; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Jon Boyle, William Maclean)

Eva Kaili's partner confesses role in European Parliament corruption case - sources


European Parliament vice president, Greek socialist Eva Kaili, is seen at the European Parliament in Brussels

Thu, December 15, 2022 
By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Emilio Parodi

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Francesco Giorgi, the partner of ousted European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, has confessed his role in a Qatar graft scandal, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The confession to Belgian investigators was first reported by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir and the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Giorgi's confession to taking bribes from Qatar to influence European Parliament decisions on Qatar had made "a significant contribution" to the probe underway by Belgian investigating magistrates, one of the sources said.

According to the same source, Giorgi, an EU parliamentary assistant, sought to exonerate his partner Kaili from any wrongdoing. Greek MEP Kaili, who was ousted from her role as vice president of the European Parliament on Monday, has denied any wrongdoing through her lawyer.

The lawyer for Giorgi, who is currently in detention pending further investigation of the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar has also denied it had sought to bribe MEPs.

"The State of Qatar categorically rejects any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct. Any association of the Qatari government with the reported claims is baseless and gravely misinformed," a Qatari official told Reuters on Thursday in response to questions about alleged Qatari attempts to influence the European Parliament.

In his confession, Giorgi also said he suspected Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella had received money from Qatar, a source close to the investigation said.

Tarabella, who had previously confirmed that his home was searched on Saturday as part of the Belgian investigation, has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Giorgi also said he suspected Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, in whose office Giorgi worked, had received illicit Qatari funds.

Reuters could not determine if Giorgi had provided any evidence for his allegations against Tarabella and Cozzolino.

Cozzolino did not respond to an emailed request from Reuters for comment but told Italian news agencies: "I am not under investigation. I have not been questioned. I have not been searched, nor has my office been sealed."

The European Parliament on Thursday suspended all work on legislation linked to Qatar, and parliament's president, Roberta Metsola, told EU leaders she would lead reforms to prevent a repeat of a criminal corruption scandal.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout from Brussels, Emilio Parodi from Rome; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Trump Confidant Roger Stone Says He Saw Swirling 'Demon Portal' Above White House

Mary Papenfuss

Thu, December 15, 2022 

Long-time Donald Trump confidant and informal adviser Roger Stone insists he has witnessed a momentous phenomenon: A “demon portal” above President Joe Biden’s White House.

It’s “swirling like a cauldron,” he claimed in an interview earlier this week with conservative radio host Eric Metaxas — who pointed out that the observation by his guest “sounds insane.”

The portal — apparently a direct connection to hell and Satan — was first spotted months ago and even captured on film, according to Stone. “It’s still there,” he declared.

“I think that…a portal, a demonic portal, opened above the White House around the time that the Bidens moved in,” Stone said. “This was brought to my attention by a Christian who lives in north Florida who sent me a bunch of photos, a bunch of documents and also a bunch of notations from the Bible about portals.”

Stone said he was initially skeptical. But he has examined photos of the spot and scrutinized “live cam where you can actually see it in real-time, and there does appear to be something above the White House.”

He also insisted that a police friend of his had examined the spot above the White House, and told him: “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s definitely something there.”

Stone criticized the lack of coverage of the demon portal by the media, which “doesn’t cover a lot of things that are true.”

“The point of course is, prophets, who I do believe, and other holy men, have told me that only prayer can close the demonic portal,” he added. (Stone has said at rallies that God speaks directly to him about politics.) So he prays for that every night, he said.

“But there’s something going on there, there’s no question about it,” Stone emphasized.

Stone critics on social media had a very different take on the “portal.” One commenter on Reddit said the “demon hole” was Stone.

Stone was pardoned by Trump after he was convicted in 2019 of seven felonies, including obstruction of justice and witness tampering during the investigation into Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison.

He’s now being investigated for his role in the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, and is furious Trump didn’t grant him a preemptive pardon in the event he’s charged with a crime linked to the storming of the Capitol last year.

He has admitted advising the violent Proud Boys for years.

Stone told the crew of the documentary “A Storm Foretold” a day before the 2020 election that he was ready for violence. “Fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” he’s heard saying in footage obtained by CNN from filmmakers Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Frederik Marbell. “Shoot to kill. See an antifa? Shoot to kill. Fuck ’em. Done with this bullshit.”

Despite his dark past, Stone has increasingly evoked God — and warned of his version of evil — in appearances at MAGA rallies.

  

DC disciplinary counsel says Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked because his 'misconduct' was 'so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again'

Sonam Sheth
Thu, December 15, 2022 


Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A prosecutor for the DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Giuliani should be disbarred.

Hamilton Fox said Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."

The DC Board of Professional Responsibility made a preliminary finding that a lawsuit Giuliani filed in 2020 violated ethics rules.

A prosecutor for the Washington DC bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel said Thursday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's law license should be revoked.

Giuliani's "misconduct" after the 2020 election was "so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again," disciplinary counsel Hamilton Fox said.

The comments capped several days of disciplinary proceedings in which the Washington DC Board of Professional Responsibility debated imposing sanctions on Giuliani in connection to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The hearings stem from an ethics case brought by the ODC, which focuses on Giuliani's efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, when he was then-President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

The ODC accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct by filing a "frivolous" lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and engaging in "conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."

The Board of Professional Responsibility determined in a preliminary finding Thursday that Giuliani violated at least one ethics rule by filing the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. The decision is not binding, and the hearing committee will release consider alternative sanctions proposals before putting out a report with a final recommendation.

"The lawsuit's asking courts to deprive voters of the right to vote, that's not common politics in this country," Fox said at the hearing. "This is not politics. They're trying to ignore the will of the voters. They're trying openly to ask a judge to disqualify, at minimum, 680,000 voters."

He added that "somebody has got a put a stop to" the "notion that anything goes, it's just politics. Anything goes, you just gotta win it."

"We are trying to deter people from engaging in this kind of misconduct," Fox said, referring to the ODC's request that Giuliani be disbarred. "And this miconduct is so serious that it should never be allowed to happen again."

"The one thing we can do to try to deter it is to impose the most serious sanction that can be imposed," he continued. "It's not politics. It is part of our duty as lawyers to make sure that people don't use their law licenses to undermine the Constitution of the United States, and disbarment is the only sanction for that."

Giuliani vehemently defended himself after Fox made his comments, accusing the disciplinary counsel of engaging in a "personal attack" without presenting proper evidence.

He also told Robert Bernius, the chairman of the panel overseeing the proceedings, that Fox's statements were an "outrage."

"Mr. Chairman, I would like to personally object to Mr. Fox's attack on me as having tried to undermine American democracy, when there's not a single fact in the record for that argument," Giuliani said. "He has raised no such argument to give us a chance to rebut it during this case. It is a typical or unethical cheap attack not supported by anything in the record, far more so than anything I alleged that you are questioning."

The former mayor struck a similar tone earlier in the proceedings, saying last week that he was "shocked and offended this is happening to me."

Read the original article on Business Insider

UNEXPECTED AND UNUSUAL FOR CHINA
Chinese firms avert delisting as U.S. audit watchdog gets full inspection access


The flags of the United States and China fly in Boston

Thu, December 15, 2022 at 7:32 AM MST·4 min read
By Chris Prentice, Xie Yu and Susan Heavey

NEW YORK/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. accounting watchdog on Thursday said it has full access to inspect and investigate firms in China for the first time ever, removing the risk that around 200 Chinese companies could be kicked off U.S. stock exchanges.

The statement from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) marks a victory for U.S. regulators and a relief for Chinese firms, including Alibaba, facing delisting amid rocky relations between the world's largest economies. Washington and Beijing have been locked in a heated trade and technology war.

"For the first time in history, we are able to perform full and thorough inspections and investigations to root out potential problems and hold firms accountable to fix them,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Williams.

"This falls into the category of a game changing view of Chinese companies because the threat of their delisting seems to have been eliminated," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial.

However, the relief was not seen in Thursday's trading for U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, which were higher amid the news, but gave up gains and some ended sharply lower.

U.S.-traded shares of Ecommerce giants Alibaba, JD.com as well as internet behemoth Baidu were down between 3-5% while music streaming provider Tencent Music was down 3.5%, more than the broader market where the S&P 500 Index was down 2.5%. The iShares MSCI China ETF was down 2.2%.

There were some concerns voiced about what issues the audits might uncover.

Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, said the move should take "one of the risks, theoretically off the table of investing in them."

However any issues uncovered due to the more stringent accounting oversight "could be very bad for the sector, especially if there is then no effort to correct it or come clean," he said.

In its statement, the PCAOB said it exercised sole discretion to select firms for audit and had selected two, KPMG Huazhen LLP in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong.

PCAOB staff identified "numerous potential deficiencies" in their inspection work, PCAOB's Williams said, saying the inspection reports will be finalized and made public next year.

"Today’s announcement should not be misconstrued in any way as a clean bill of health for firms in mainland China and Hong Kong," she said.

She declined to specify the types of deficiencies, but said they are in line with those audit inspectors have seen during first-time inspections elsewhere.

PATH TO AUDIT

The PCAOB, which oversees registered public accounting firms around the world, said late last year said that Chinese authorities had prevented the watchdog from completely inspecting and investigating in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Washington and Beijing reached a landmark deal in August to settle a long-running dispute over auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms. Authorities in China have long been reluctant to let overseas regulators inspect local accounting firms, citing national security concerns.

U.S. lawmakers in 2020 agreed to legislation that would oust Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards.

The deal granted PCAOB full access to Chinese audit working papers with no redactions, the right to take testimony from audit company staff in China and sole discretion to select what companies it inspects.

Investors and attorneys have been awaiting news from the PCAOB on whether U.S. inspectors received the access promised.

Sources previously told Reuters U.S. officials had gained "good access" to all the information they requested during the seven-week inspection.

The determination announced on Thursday resets a three-year clock for compliance, said Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the PCAOB.

In a statement, he said: "Chinese authorities will need to give PCAOB "full access for inspections and investigations in 2023 and beyond."

RENEWED COOPERATION

In separate news on Thursday, the Biden administration added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry.

But in a decision that signals renewed cooperation between Washington and Beijing, the Commerce Department also removed a subsidiary of Wuxi Biologics, a company that makes ingredients for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, and 25 other Chinese entities from the so-called unverified list, thanks to successful site visits.

The United States and China have been seeking to repair ties following an August visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi which produced a new fracture in relations and led China to cancel cooperation with the United States across a range of areas.

Since then, the two countries have gradually restored communications, first with a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, followed by lower-level meetings and a resumption of talks on climate change and other topics.

(Reporting by Xie Yu, Chris Prentice and Susan Heavey, Additional reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar, Alex Alper Don Durfee and Chuck Mikolajczak, editing by Megan Davies, Nick Zieminski and Chizu Nomiyama)

New York bans selling dogs, cats, rabbits in pet stores to combat 'puppy mill' pipeline

IVAN PEREIRA
Thu, December 15, 2022

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Thursday banning the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in retail pet stores throughout the state.

Animal activists have been calling for such a ban for years contending that pet stores are often stocked with animals that are bred and abused in "puppy mills" and other mass breeding centers.

"Dogs, cats and rabbits across New York deserve loving homes and humane treatment," Hochul said in a statement.

PHOTO: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks on Dec. 12, 2022 in New York City. 

(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Under the law, which goes into effect in 2024, retail stores that previously sold pets can still operate and sell pet supplies and other accessories. They also have the option to charge shelters and rescue groups rent to use their space for adoptions.

Store owners face a $1,000 fine for violating the new rules.

MORE: Video Could Pet Sales Bans Curb Puppy Mills?

State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who co-sponsored the bill, said that puppy breeding mills have been known to keep animals in unsanitary conditions, where they're abused and neglected.

"Today is a great day for our four-legged friends," he said in a statement.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has pushed the governor and other state leaders to do more against the puppy mill pipeline and go after stores that sell animals from those facilities. A report released this year by the ASPCA found that 1 out of 4 of puppies shipped to New York state pet stores came from dog brokers who buy puppies from licensed and unregulated breeders and resell the animals to stores.

PHOTO: A puppy is on display at a pet shop on July 24, 2022 in New York.

 (View Press/Corbis via Getty Images)

California was the first state to ban the sale of pets in 2019 and four other states, Washington, Maine, Maryland and Illinois, have followed suit.

"We are hopeful that this enormous step by New York State may encourage other states to take similar action to stop the cruel commercial breeding industry from supplying pet stores within their borders," Matt Bershadker, the president and CEO of the ASPCA, said in a statement.

Some pet shop owners, however, criticized the governor and state legislature for the bill, saying the move hurts their businesses without going after the root problem.

MORE: Puppy Mill Ads Banned From Facebook Marketplace

"We have policies like this where everybody just makes the assumption that every single breeder that a pet store works with looks like the ones you see on TV that are filthy and the [dogs] are dying, and that just simply isn't the case," Emilio Ortiz, the manager of the New York pet store CitiPups, told NY1.

A man feeds a puppy in a pet shop on July 24, 2022 in New York, July 24, 2022. 

(View Press/Corbis via Getty Images)

Gianaris, however, argues that there isn't a single New York pet store that hasn't been touched by the puppy mill industry.

"That's why we should ban it outright. There is no such thing as a responsible retail sale of animals in New York," he told WABC, ABC News' New York station.

New York bans selling dogs, cats, rabbits in pet stores to combat 'puppy mill' pipeline originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

TikToker fact-checks news anchor at American Girl store, makes ‘sickening’ discovery

Cassie Morris

Thu, December 15, 2022 

A news anchor was allegedly caught lying about American Girl dolls, and the footage is going viral.

The clip, recorded by producer and reporter @MannyFidel and uploaded by @MSNBC, quickly gained over 730,000 views and 5,000 comments.

Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty, host of the show “Wake Up America,” claims in a clip from Dec. 12 to have visited the American Girl store in Rockefeller Center in New York City in search of a doll that looked like his little daughter.

However, according to the anchor, he couldn’t find a single doll that resembled his “cute little 6-year-old white girl.” “The whole place was, like, wokeified,” Finnerty reported.

This claim prompted MSNBC reporter Manny Fidel to visit that same American Girl store to see if he could find a “white girl doll” — and his findings are now going viral across TikTok.

Almost immediately, Fidel noticed that the store was brimming with white dolls — not only on display but in boxes stacked high on shelves and in animated videos on the wall.

“The literal first doll that you see when you walk into the store,” Fidel says, zooming in on a smiling white doll with blond pigtails.

Fidel continues to walk around the store, recording the multitude of white dolls on shelves and in boxes. He remarks that, while the store has “thrown in some other races,” a “great portion” of the dolls on display are white.

Since its broadcast, the Newsmax clip has made waves online, appearing in viral threads across Reddit and Twitter. “Since I was a little girl you’ve been able to order an American Girls doll that looks exactly like you,” one Reddit user commented.

Customers in search of a fully customized American Girl doll can visit the online “create your own” module, where skin tone, face shape, hairstyle and extras such as braces, hearing aids and glasses can all be personalized.

“That ‘news anchor’ is absolutely the worst!”

Over 5,200 TikTokers shared their feelings about the Newsmax segment in the comments section.

“Great investigative reporting,” one user wrote, in praise of Fidel’s segment.

“Thank you for fact checking him. That ‘news anchor’ is absolutely the worst!” another user wrote.

“American Girl needs to reach out to that network. That really is straight up lying,” commented one user.

“This is so annoying because little Black girls (like me) ACTUALLY had to grow up with little representation. It’s not some joke 🙄,” wrote another user.

“Omg. This man trying to claim the average wealthy white child doesn’t have representation is sickening. Wtf?” one user commented.

“Seeing one black doll means there are no white dolls to the racists of the world,” wrote another.

American Girl has yet to make an official statement in response to Finnerty’s claim, or MSNBC’s TikTok.

In The Know is now available on Apple News — follow us here!

The post TikToker fact-checks news anchor at American Girl store, makes ‘sickening’ discovery appeared first on In The Know.

Report shows Katrina victims in poorer areas were shorted thousands in federal rebuilding relief

Chanelle Chandler
·Reporter
Thu, December 15, 2022 

New Orleanians stranded on a roof in the aftermath of

 Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 30, 2005. 

(Vincent Laforet/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

A recent report from ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, reveals data showing that some of the hardest-hit victims of Hurricane Katrina were shortchanged tens of thousands of dollars on average by a federal program meant to help residents to rebuild.

ProPublica, in partnership with New Orleans media outlets the Times-Picayune, the Advocate and WWL-TV, investigated almost 92,000 statewide grants from the Road Home program. The program was funded by the federal government to provide grant money to aid Louisiana residents, with New Orleans the biggest beneficiary, in rebuilding or selling homes severely damaged by the 2005 storm. A total of $3.3 billion was awarded citywide.

According to the National Weather Service, at least 80% of New Orleans was under floodwater on Aug. 31, 2005, days after the hurricane made landfall, largely as a result of levee failures from Lake Pontchartrain. The disaster damaged about 70% of the city’s occupied housing, with an estimated 134,000 units destroyed by the storm.

The report exposes how the lowest-income households — those with a median income of $15,000 or less — missed out on an average of $18,000, which meant that while some households were able to rebuild quickly, others never recovered.

It says residents in the most impoverished areas in New Orleans had to cover 30% of their rebuilding costs after Road Home grants, Federal Emergency Management Agency aid and insurance. In areas where the median income was more than $75,000, households were responsible for 20%.

Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters cover a portion of New Orleans. (David J. Phillip/AP)

The analysis points to one major culprit: the faulty grant calculation formula. Each federal grant was based on a home’s pre-storm value or on the repair costs — whichever was less. The report shows that this method did not fare well for those living in poorer areas because the value of most of the homes was lower than the cost of rebuilding them, which resulted in the grants not being sufficient to cover all repairs. But for people in wealthier areas, the cost to rebuild was lower than their home values, so the grants they received covered most of their rebuilding costs.

The method disproportionately hurt Black residents — who resided predominantly in the poorer areas — because their homes tended to be valued for less. Housing advocates say the program’s shortcomings stem from its failure to prioritize people’s needs and acknowledge systemic bias in U.S. housing policy.

“When the state officials and outside consultants went to design the program, they didn't recognize their underlying bias,” Andreanecia Morris, the president of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance, told Yahoo News. “They started from a place of ‘Well, we want to get you back in your house. We acknowledge that this is damaging and it's horrible that it happened to you, but we don't want to give you too much.’ It's rooted in the stereotypes of the welfare queen and the model minority. These folks didn't understand that their bias was blinding them and telling them that what they were doing was good enough, when nothing could be further from the truth.”

The report notes the stark contrasts in two New Orleans neighborhoods: Lakeview, a predominantly white area with higher-income households and higher home values, and Gentilly Woods, an area where more than two-thirds of the residents are Black. The homes in both neighborhoods were situated below sea level on swampland near Lake Pontchartrain with similar post-World War II construction and were pummeled by floodwaters after the levees broke.

Kevin Lair at his damaged home in the Lakeview district of New Orleans. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

After the storm, the average Lakeview home was appraised by Road Home at $326,000, with an average repair cost of $286,000. According to the news organizations’ analysis, based on the repair cost the average homeowner received 83% of what was needed to rebuild.

The average property in Gentilly Woods was appraised at $121,000, with an average of $203,000 in rebuilding costs. Due to the grant formula, the average homeowner ended up with just 73% of what was needed to rebuild.

According to a state analysis in 2010, 25,000 New Orleans homeowners received a total of $1.2 billion less from Road Home because their grants were calculated using pre-storm values rather than the cost of damage. If properties in the lowest-income sections of the city had been covered at the same rate as the wealthiest, each of those households would have received about $18,000 more on average.

The report states that for a homeowner in impoverished areas in New Orleans, it would have taken more than 43 months with the average annual salary to pay the cost of repairs not covered by Road Home, FEMA and insurance, compared with less than eight months in more affluent areas.

As a result of the program’s inequities, activists and real estate experts demanded answers and action at meetings held by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which designed and ran the Road Home program. Local and national civil rights groups and some African American homeowners in New Orleans filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the LRA in 2008, claiming that the program discriminated against African American homeowners in New Orleans.

Louisiana and HUD eventually settled the lawsuit, with the state agreeing to allocate $62 million for another program. That program was for people who made too much money to qualify for additional grants but needed more assistance, which ProPublica called “a drop in the bucket.”

Andy Kopplin, the LRA’s first executive director, defended the agency, saying state officials tried to steer more money to poorer homeowners through the second grant program. But he also acknowledged to ProPublica and its partner news organizations in a written statement that the analysis showed that low- and middle-income households should have received more. He called it “upsetting to those of us who were working to create more equitable outcomes and especially to those families who needed and deserved more resources for their recovery.”

New Orleans residents waiting to be rescued from the floodwaters of Katrina. (David J. Phillip/Pool via Reuters)

LRA board member Walter Leger told the news organizations that the state should seek more federal aid from Congress to fill the gaps — citing the findings of disparities in the analysis — and called the program’s method of using property values to determine rebuilding assistance a “misstep.”

Leger said he took complaints about the grant calculation method to HUD and asked it to use higher repair estimates instead, but the agency denied the request.

Louisiana state officials said changes were made to increase grants for all applicants after the program launched, like factoring land value into appraisals and increasing rates for repair estimates.

In 2007, state officials created another grant for less affluent homeowners whose initial grants didn’t meet their repair estimates, allowing Louisiana to meet a HUD requirement to pay at least half the grant money to low- and moderate-income households.

Rescue personnel search for victims in New Orleans's Eighth Ward in the wake of Katrina. (Dave Martin/AP)

Yahoo News contacted the Louisiana Recovery Authority for comment, but it has not yet responded.

The spotty recovery from Katrina, which caused a severe housing crisis in Louisiana, has changed the landscape of cities like New Orleans, with many areas still not redeveloped. Morris of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance described the housing crisis as a hole that New Orleans is still trying to dig itself out of.

“To this day, there are people who haven't been able to come home,” she said. “There are people who died. There are people who have lost homes that they owned for generations who are now going to be renters. There are people who are homeless now. There are people who were able to make a choice because they have the wherewithal and some additional resources to choose to go somewhere else, but they also lost their community.”

A Coast Guard helicopter passes over a flooded neighborhood east of downtown New Orleans, Aug. 30, 2005. (Dave Einsel/Getty Images)

Morris added that 60% of the homes owned by Louisiana residents pre-Katrina were worth $100,000 or less, which aligned with the household’s income. But today’s tumultuous housing market, due to inflation, rising interest rates and increased costs for building materials, creates even more challenges to bring the community of New Orleans back to the pre-Katrina era.

“Now we have a real estate market wildly out of whack with what people make, even in a way that’s different from a lot of other communities that are also struggling with affordable housing because of Katrina,” she said. “We still haven’t recovered from that. We’re no longer growing. We’re still down over a hundred thousand people, mostly African American. Now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re not growing anymore. We’re losing population.”