The Full Belmonte, 6/23/2022
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The House’s Jan. 6 committee plans to continue its public hearings into July as its investigation of the Capitol riot deepens.
The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Wednesday that the committee is receiving ‘a lot of information’ — including new documentary film footage of Donald Trump’s final months in office — as its yearlong inquiry intensifies with hearings into the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden won.
The committee is also working on setting up an interview with Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has responded to the panel’s request to appear, the chairman said. She was asked to speak to the committee after disclosures of her communications with Trump’s team in the run-up and day of the insurrection at the Capitol.” Read more at AP News
“WASHINGTON — The four hearings held in the past few weeks by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, with their clear, uninterrupted narratives about President Donald J. Trump’s effort to undercut the peaceful transfer of power, have left some pro-Trump Republicans wringing their hands with regret about a decision made nearly a year ago.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, chose last summer to withdraw all of his nominees to the committee — amid a dispute with Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her rejection of his first two choices — a turning point that left the nine-member investigative committee without a single ally of Mr. Trump.
Mostly in private, Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump have complained for months that they have no insight into the inner workings of the committee as it has issued dozens of subpoenas and conducted interviews behind closed doors with hundreds of witnesses.
But the public display this month of what the panel has learned — including damning evidence against Mr. Trump and his allies — left some Republicans wishing more vocally that Mr. Trump had strong defenders on the panel to try to counter the evidence its investigators dig up.
‘Would it have made for a totally different debate? Absolutely,’ said Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida. ‘I would have defended the hell out of him.’
Among those second-guessing Mr. McCarthy’s choice has been Mr. Trump.
‘Unfortunately, a bad decision was made,’ Mr. Trump told the conservative radio host Wayne Allyn Root this week. He added: ‘It was a bad decision not to have representation on that committee. That was a very, very foolish decision.’
The committee employed more than a dozen former federal prosecutors to investigate the actions of Mr. Trump and his allies in the buildup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
With former television producers on staff, the committee has built a narrative told in chapters about the former president’s attempts to cling to power.
As it has done so, the committee has not had to contend with speechifying from the dais about Mr. Trump’s conservative policy achievements. There has been no cross-examination of the panel’s witnesses. No derailing of the hearings with criticism of President Biden. No steering the investigation away from the former president. Ultimately, there has been no defense of Mr. Trump at all.
The committee presented considerable evidence this month of Mr. Trump’s role, laying out how the former president pressured Vice President Mike Pence to go along with a plan to unilaterally overturn his election defeat even after he was told it was illegal.
On Tuesday, the panel directly tied Mr. Trump to a scheme to put forward fake slates of pro-Trump electors and presented fresh details of how the former president sought to bully, cajole and bluff his way into invalidating his 2020 defeat in states around the country.
The committee has also used prominent Republicans as witnesses to make its case, leaving Mr. Trump’s allies with an impossible task: How are they to defend him — even from the outside — when the evidence against him comes from Republican lawyers, a widely respected conservative judge, his campaign advisers and even his own daughter?
The effectiveness of the hearings in putting Mr. Trump at the heart of the effort to overturn the election results has drawn the attention of, among others, Mr. Trump. He has made plain this week that he wants more Republicans defending him, and is displeased as the hearings play out on national television without pro-Trump voices.
The only Republicans on the committee are two who have lined up squarely against Mr. Trump: Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. They were appointed by Ms. Pelosi, not Mr. McCarthy.
Mr. McCarthy figured in July that it was better politically to bash the committee from the sidelines rather than appoint members of his party acceptable to Ms. Pelosi. He has said he had to take a stand after she rejected two of his top picks for the panel: Representatives Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Ms. Pelosi said she could not allow the pair to take part, based on their actions around the riot and comments they had made undercutting the investigation. (Mr. Jordan has subsequently been issued a subpoena by the committee because of his close dealings with Mr. Trump.) The speaker’s decision led directly to Mr. McCarthy’s announcement that Republicans would boycott the panel.
‘When Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people,’ Mr. Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News. ‘We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.’
Mr. Trump has grumbled openly about the makeup of the panel, according to a person familiar with his remarks. Some members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus have also privately complained about the lack of pro-Trump Republicans on the panel, the person said.
Those close to Mr. McCarthy argue that the Democrats who control the committee would most likely not have allowed his nominees much power or influence over the panel’s work.
The hearings will pick up again on Thursday with a session devoted to Mr. Trump’s effort to install a loyalist at the top of the Justice Department to carry out his demands for more investigations into baseless claims of election fraud.” Read more at New York Times
Afghans searched for survivors in a village in Paktika province, an area bordering Pakistan where the earthquake hit hardest.
PHOTO: EBRAHIM NOROOZI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The death toll from an earthquake in Afghanistan has risen above 1,000.
The 5.9-magnitude quake that struck the eastern part of the country also injured more than 1,500 people, according to the state-run news agency Bakhtar. The Taliban is seeking help from foreign-aid agencies in a place already reeling from humanitarian disaster. The U.S. is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“President Biden called for a three-month suspension of federal gasoline and diesel taxes.
Economists and business leaders say the move, which is unlikely to get the needed congressional support, would do little to address record prices at the pump. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline averaged about $4.96 on Wednesday in the U.S.; the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
President Biden speaks today in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP
“President Biden's proposed gas tax holiday would have limited benefits, Axios' chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin writes.
Biden today proposed a three-month break from the federal government’s 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax on gas, equivalent to around 3.7% discount on the current national average price.
‘It doesn’t reduce all the pain, but it will be a big help,’ Biden said this afternoon as he unveiled his plan.
Reality check: The problem is too much demand for fuel and too little supply. Many of the policy ideas being floated to address high gas prices don't wrestle with that basic disconnect.
Biden said he wants companies to pass on ‘every penny’ in savings on to customers.
But much of the tax holiday benefit ‘would be captured by producers rather than consumers,’ Tobin Marcus, a strategist at Evercore ISI, writes in a research note.
Electric vehicles could help, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes — virtually eliminating the need for gasoline. But most people still don’t own one and can’t afford one.
EVs are expected to make up about 1 in 20 new-vehicle sales this year.
The bottom line: The tax holiday is likely to go nowhere in Congress.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Higher interest rates could cause a recession, Fed chair says.
“Jerome Powell’s remarks underscore the challenge facing the Federal Reserve: raising interest rates to slow the economy and cool inflation without causing a severe economic downturn. Rising fuel costs and supply-chain disruptions from Russia’s war against Ukraine have sent prices up in recent months. Those pressures have added to already-high inflation as demand surged last year from the reopening of the economy and aggressive government stimulus.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“A version of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine aimed at the Omicron variant produced a strong immune response.
A month after receiving the proposed booster shot, which also targets the original strain, subjects in a new study saw neutralizing antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants increase significantly. The company plans to seek regulatory approval for the vaccine in August.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The FDA is preparing to order Juul to take its e-cigarettes off the U.S. market.
The company’s fruity flavors and hip marketing were blamed for a surge of underage vaping. Juul has been trying to regain the trust of regulators and the public; it limited its marketing and in 2019 stopped selling sweet and fruity flavors. The company, which had no immediate comment, could challenge the decision.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
Dan Snyder speaks during the announcement of the Washington Football Team's name change in February. Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images
“Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder can expect a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee after he declined to testify voluntarily at a hearing today, chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) announced.
The committee, investigating NFL workplace misconduct, released new findings alleging Snyder and his lawyers launched a ‘shadow investigation’ to influence the league's own internal investigation, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.
Snyder and lawyers created a ‘100-slide dossier with private emails, text messages, telephone records, and social media posts’ from those who had made accusations of harassment against the team, the committee found.
Women were fired for consensual relationships, while men did not face similar punishment. The committee claimed Snyder didn't take action against a member of the coaching staff accused of groping a public relations employee.
The committee alleges Snyder then went on to share that information with the law firm conducting the NFL's investigation.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, testifying under oath, said it was clear the workplace was ‘unprofessional and unacceptable in numerous respects: bullying, widespread disrespect toward colleagues, use of demeaning language, public embarrassment, and harassment.’” Read more at Axios
“TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Andrew Gillum, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Florida governor, has been indicted on 21 federal charges including conspiracy and wire fraud for funneling donations through third parties back to himself for personal use, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida said Gillum, 42, is also charged with making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for claiming he didn’t receive or ask for anything from two undercover agents posing as developers. The undercover agents offered gifts and money in exchange for support for projects.
Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks, 53 and the owner of a communications company, is a codefendant on the wire fraud charges for funneling money to Gillum in the form of paychecks, U.S. Attorney Jason R. Coody said in a statement.” Read more at AP News
”Russia Hits Grain Terminals in Latest Attack on Ukraine’s Food Infrastructure - Russian forces targeted at least two large North American-owned grain terminals in the port of Mykolaiv, as part of what Kyiv and Western governments say is a campaign to degrade Ukraine’s ability to export food.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
The Numbers
21.3 million
“The IRS backlog of unprocessed paper tax returns at the end of May. That’s up 1.3 million from a year earlier, according to Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, who runs an independent taxpayer-service operation within the IRS. Agency officials have said they aimed to return the backlog to a ‘healthy’ level in the next six months.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHAYA HOWELL/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, ISTOCK
“Rising costs at barbershops and salons are signs that the inflation problem isn’t going away.
In May, haircut prices were up 6.2% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest annual increase since 1982.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“C-suite executives feel as frazzled and depressed as the workers who report to them, Axios What's Next co-author Jennifer A. Kingson writes.
A report released today by Deloitte and market research firm Workplace Intelligence found 70% of C-level executives were seriously considering leaving for a job that better supports their well-being.
The big picture: 76% of higher-ups said the pandemic has negatively affected their overall health.
57% of employees in the Deloitte survey said they were fed up enough to quit, too.” Read more at Axios
FILE - Facebook's Meta logo sign is seen at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. on Oct. 28, 2021. According to a report released Thursday, June 9, 2022, Facebook and parent company Meta once again failed to detect blatant, violent hate speech in advertisements submitted to the platform by the nonprofit groups Global Witness and Foxglove. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)
“NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook will change its algorithms to prevent discriminatory housing advertising and its parent company will subject itself to court oversight to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday.
In a release, U.S. government officials said it had reached agreement with Meta Platforms Inc., formerly known as Facebook Inc., to settle the lawsuit filed simultaneously in Manhattan federal court.
According to the release, it was the Justice Department’s first case challenging algorithmic discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. Facebook will now be subject to Justice Department approval and court oversight for its ad targeting and delivery system.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the lawsuit ‘groundbreaking.’ Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke called it ‘historic.’
Ashley Settle, a Facebook spokesperson, said in an email that the company was ‘building a novel machine learning method without our ads system that will change the way housing ads are delivered to people residing in the U.S. across different demographic groups.’
She said the company would extend its new method for ads related to employment and credit in the U.S.
‘We are excited to pioneer this effort,’ Settle added in an email….
Williams said Facebook’s technology has in the past violated the Fair Housing Act online ‘just as when companies engage in discriminatory advertising using more traditional advertising methods.’
Clarke said ‘companies like Meta have a responsibility to ensure their algorithmic tools are not used in a discriminatory manner.’
According to terms of the settlement, Facebook will stop using an advertising tool for housing ads that the government said employed a discriminatory algorithm to locate users who ‘look like’ other users based on characteristics protected by the Fair Housing Act, the Justice Department said. By Dec. 31, Facebook must stop using the tool once called ‘Lookalike Audience,’ which relies on an algorithm that the U.S. said discriminates on the basis of race, sex and other characteristics.
Facebook also will develop a new system over the next half-year to address racial and other disparities caused by its use of personalization algorithms in its delivery system for housing ads, it said.
If the new system is inadequate, the settlement agreement can be terminated, the Justice Department said. Per the settlement, Meta also must pay a penalty of just over $115,000.
The announcement comes after Facebook already agreed in March 2019 to overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit and employment ads as part of a legal settlement with a group including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Fair Housing Alliance and others.
The changes announced then were designed so that advertisers who wanted to run housing, employment or credit ads would no longer be allowed to target people by age, gender or zip code.
The Justice Department said Tuesday that the 2019 settlement reduced the potentially discriminatory targeting options available to advertisers but failed to resolve other problems, including Facebook’s discriminatory delivery of housing ads through machine-learning algorithms.” Read more at AP News
FILE - Arati Prabhakar, left, the director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency speaks after introducing then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter to speak Sept. 9, 2015, at the opening of the DARPA conference at the America's Center in St. Louis. President Joe Biden has chosen Arati Prabhakar to be his science adviser. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, File)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden nominated the former head of two federal science and engineering agencies to be his science adviser, who if confirmed by the Senate, will be the first woman, person of color and immigrant to hold that Cabinet-level position.
Biden nominated engineer and physicist Arati Prabhakar, who during the Obama administration directed the James Bond-like Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which came up with the Internet and stealth aircraft, to the science adviser job, which also includes running the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhakar helped kick-start work in DARPA that eventually led to the type of RNA vaccine used to develop shots for COVID-19. In the 1990s, starting at the age of 34, she was the first woman and youngest person to run the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Prabhakar would take over after Biden’s initial science adviser, Eric Lander, resigned when a White House investigation found he bullied staff members amid complaints about how he treated co-workers. It was the first such resignation of the Biden administration. Lander had previously been criticized for downplaying the contributions of women in science. He would be replaced by Prabhakar, who was also the first woman to earn a doctorate in applied physics from Caltech, after getting a master’s and bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.” Read more at AP News
“The Colorado Avalanche made two decisions before Wednesday night's Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final.
They inserted Nazem Kadri into the lineup for the first time since he had thumb surgery during the Western Conference final and they went back to goaltender Darcy Kuemper after he was pulled in Game 3.
The moves paid off as Kuemper made 37 saves and started a play in overtime that Kadri finished off for a 3-2 victory. That gave the Avalanche a 3-1 series lead against the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Colorado can wrap up its first championship since 2001 with a victory at Denver’s Ball Arena on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ABC).” Read more at USA Today
“TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Now this hound has something to toot his horn about.
A bloodhound named Trumpet won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Wednesday night, marking the first time the breed has ever snared U.S. dogdom’s most coveted best in show prize.
Rounding the finalists’ ring with a poised and powerful stride, Trumpet beat a French bulldog, a German shepherd, a Maltese, an English setter, a Samoyed and a Lakeland terrier to take the trophy.
‘I was shocked,’ said handler, co-breeder and co-owner Heather Helmer, who also goes by Heather Buehner. The competition was stiff, ‘and sometimes I feel the bloodhound is a bit of an underdog.’
After making dog show history, does Trumpet have a sense of how special he is?
I’ think he does,’ his Berlin Center, Ohio-based handler said.
After his victory, Trumpet posed patiently for countless photos, eventually starting to do what bloodhounds do best — sniff around. He examined some decorative flowers that had been set up for the pictures, not appearing to find anything of note.” Read more at AP News
“FILE -Baltimore Ravens rookie linebacker Jaylon Ferguson walks off the field after an NFL Football rookie camp, Saturday, May 4, 2019, in Owings Mills, Md. Ravens linebacker Jaylon Ferguson has died at age 26, his agent confirmed Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Gail Burton, File)
Jaylon Ferguson, who set an FBS record for career sacks while at Louisiana Tech and then played the past three seasons in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, has died. He was 26.
Police said Wednesday the cause of death was still to be determined.
‘On June 21, 2022, at approximately 11:25 p.m., Northern District patrol officers responded to a home in the 400 block of Ilchester Avenue for a report of a questionable death,’ Baltimore police said. ‘Once there, officers located 26-year-old Jaylon Ferguson, unresponsive, being treated by medics. Ferguson never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on the scene by medics. No signs of trauma was found or foul play suspected at this time.’” Read more at AP News
“NEW YORK (AP) — Historian George Chauncey has received a $500,000 lifetime achievement award from the Library of Congress, the John W. Kluge Prize, the first time the honor has gone to a scholar in LGBTQ studies.
The prize is given for achievement in the study of humanity. Chauncey, a professor of American history at Columbia University, is known for such books as ‘Gay New York’ and ‘Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today’s Debate over Gay Equality.’
‘Professor Chauncey’s trailblazing career gave us all better insight into, and understanding of, the LGBTQ+ community and history,’ Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement released Wednesday. ‘His work that helped transform our nation’s attitudes and laws, epitomizes the Kluge Center’s mission to support research at the intersection of the humanities and public policy.’
The Kluge prize is named for the late philanthropist and television mogul. Previous winners include Drew Gilpin Faust and John Hope Franklin.
‘I am deeply honored to receive the Kluge Prize,’ Chauncey said in a statement, ‘and grateful that the Library of Congress has recognized the importance and vibrancy of the field of LGBTQ history.’” Read more at AP News