Indivior Solutions Pleads Guilty To Felony Charge And Indivior Entities Agree To Pay $600 Million To Resolve Criminal And Civil Investigations As Part Of DOJ’s Largest Opioid Resolution
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/indivior-solutions-pleads-guilty-felony-charge-and-indivior-entities-agree-pay-600-million
Former CEO and Founder of Technology Company Charged in Investment Fraud Scheme
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-ceo-and-founder-technology-company-charged-investment-fraud-scheme
Singaporean National Pleads Guilty to Acting in the United States as an Illegal Agent of Chinese Intelligence
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/singaporean-national-pleads-guilty-acting-united-states-illegal-agent-chinese-intelligence
US Commander: ISIS Not Resurging in Iraq, US Can Cut Troops
Gen. Ekman predicts 'slow reduction of US forces'
With the US keeping troops in Iraq to prepare for the “resurgence” of ISIS, deputy commander Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman says that ISIS simply isn’t resurging, and is significantly diminished. He said this will allow the US to reduce its troop levels, predicting a “slow reduction of US forces.”
This offers flexibility ahead of US talks with Iraq’s government on the future troop levels in the country. Iraq asked the US to leave, and the US refused, citing ISIS. Without the ISIS excuse, troop cuts are almost certainly to be on the table.
This makes the admission that ISIS isn’t recovering surprising, as it’s long been the go-to excuse for the US to keep operations going, and there really aren’t a lot of other pretexts for involvement in Iraq, where the parliament is virtually unanimous in wanting the Americans gone.
The US has a few thousand troops left in Iraq, and probably no drawdown will be announced before negotiations with Iraq. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has implied that troop cuts would also come at the expense of aid to Iraq, so the US may use it as leverage.
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/07/23/us-commander-isis-not-resurging-in-iraq-us-can-cut-troops/
Democrats Press Trump Appointees to Recuse From Felon Voting Case
More and more, Democrats push Republican-appointed judges to bow out of politically sensitive cases
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing three Trump appointees on a federal appeals court to explain why they haven't recused themselves from a politically charged case implicating the voting rights of 750,000 felons in Florida, a perennial swing state.
Progressive advocates for criminal justice reform say restoring ballot access to convicted felons is a key step toward reentering society on equal footing. A 2019 Florida law requires felons to pay off all fines and restitution before their voting rights are restored.
Civil rights groups challenging the requirement—with the backing of Democratic lawmakers—say Judges Robert Luck and Barbara Lagoa should recuse themselves from the dispute because they were briefly involved with the controversy as members of the Florida Supreme Court. The third judge, Andrew Brasher, backed out of the case on separate grounds.
"As the first branch, it falls to Congress to oversee the federal judiciary," the senators wrote in letters to Luck and Lagoa. "That oversight includes a responsibility to ensure that sitting federal judges honor their commitments to the Senate and the public and follow all applicable rules and codes of judicial conduct."
The statement keeps with the increasingly aggressive tack Democratic lawmakers have taken against Republican-appointed judges in politically sensitive cases. Otherwise powerless to stop the confirmation of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, Democrats have brought pressure to bear on right-leaning tribunals with recusal motions, courthouse rallies, and pointed amicus briefs.
Lawyers defending the Florida law said the request was "frivolous."
"While movants and their Senate allies invoke statutes and ethical canons designed to promote public confidence in the judiciary, it is they who threaten the judiciary's independence by calling into question the integrity of two of this court's members without even a colorable basis for doing so," they wrote in legal filings.
In 2018 Florida voters enacted a state constitutional amendment to extend voting rights to felons, provided they have fulfilled "all terms of sentence." In turn, the Florida legislature passed a law clarifying that "terms of sentence" includes fees and compensation to victims. Governor Ron DeSantis (R.) asked the state supreme court to weigh in on the matter. Luck and Lagoa were present at oral arguments on the issue, but were confirmed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before the court released its opinion.
https://freebeacon.com/courts/democrats-press-trump-appointees-to-recuse-from-felon-voting-case/
Philly DA warns federal officers could be arrested if they storm Pennsylvania protests
Larry Krasner accused President Trump of 'acting like an authoritarian dictator'
The district attorney in Philadelphia is warning federal officers that they could face arrest if they bring their tactics of "abuse of power" to his city.
District Attorney Larry Krasner accused President Trump of "acting like an authoritarian dictator," he said on an appearance on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" Thursday and cautioned him not to send federal agents to his city.
The stern words come as agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Federal Protective Service, and U.S. Marshals Service were deployed to Portland, Ore. and Washington, D.C., to quell pockets of violence stemming from otherwise peaceful demonstrations denouncing police brutality and racial inequality.
Trump said the agents are there with the purpose of protecting federal buildings and property from destruction, as protesters continue to light fires and vandalize many edifices in different cities.
However, reports of excessive force by federal officers on protesters, and agents who failed to properly identify themselves during demonstrations or give adequate reasoning for sweeping arrests, have pushed the Justice Department to open an investigation into the officers' conduct.
Krasner says the extra strongarming isn't needed in Philadelphia.
"While the City of Philadelphia has not received any formal notification that federal agents will be sent here, we would use all available means to resist such an abuse of power," the district attorney said in a tweet on Monday.
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Philadelphia police are facing backlash themselves, and one member of the city's SWAT team will be dismissed Friday after video surfaced of officers spraying peaceful demonstrators with pepper spray while the protesters were trapped on Interstate 676 by officers on either side of the highway.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/philly-da-warns-feds-arrested-storm-protests
CHICAGO: Senator Duckworth (D-Ill.) Tells The Real Reason Federal Troops Are Headed There — Human Trafficking
Duckworth To DHS: ‘Don’t Even Think About’ Sending Federal Police To Chicago | MSNBC
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Chicago Mayor Hires Gangs To Spell Out ‘Trump Is Bad’ With Bullet Holes.
‘Absolutely insane!’ Chicago mayor tells citizens of violence-ravaged city to call 9-1-1… if federal officers ‘step out of line.’
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/chicago-senator-duckworth-d-ill-tells-the-real-reason-federal-troops-are-headed-there-human-trafficking/
GOP Rep. Gohmert Introduces Resolution To Ban Democratic Party
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas introduced a resolution on Thursday to ban the Democratic Party or any other political party that supported slavery.
Gohmert’s resolution also calls on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have all items removed from the House of Representatives wing of the U.S. Capitol or the connected House office buildings that name any political party or organization that supported slavery.
The move came a day after a measure supported by Pelosi regarding Confederate statues passed the House. That bill calls for the removal from the Capitol statues of those who backed the Confederate States of America, Politico reported.
Gohmert explained in a statement regarding his resolution that “a great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred.”
“Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan,” he said.
The conservative stalwart went on to argue that in light of calls to rename schools, military bases and city streets, the Democratic Party should follow suit.
Home / News / GOP Rep. Gohmert Introduces Resolution To Ban Democratic Party
GOP Rep. Gohmert Introduces Resolution To Ban Democratic Party
July 24, 2020 - News
Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas introduced a resolution on Thursday to ban the Democratic Party or any other political party that supported slavery.
Gohmert’s resolution also calls on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have all items removed from the House of Representatives wing of the U.S. Capitol or the connected House office buildings that name any political party or organization that supported slavery.
The move came a day after a measure supported by Pelosi regarding Confederate statues passed the House. That bill calls for the removal from the Capitol statues of those who backed the Confederate States of America, Politico reported.
Gohmert explained in a statement regarding his resolution that “a great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred.”
“Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan,” he said.
The conservative stalwart went on to argue that in light of calls to rename schools, military bases and city streets, the Democratic Party should follow suit.
“Whether it be supporting the most vile forms of racism or actively working against Civil Rights legislation, Democrats in this country perpetuated these abhorrent forms of discrimination and violence practically since their party’s inception,” Gohmert said.
“To avoid triggering innocent bystanders by the racist past of the Democratic Party, I would suggest they change their name. That is the standard to which they are holding everyone else, so the name change needs to occur,” he concluded.
In his resolution, Gohmert pointed out that the Democratic platform in the 1840s and ’50s, before the outbreak of the Civil War, explicitly called for Congress not to interfere with the institution of slavery and warned to do so would “endanger the stability and permanency of the Union.”
The document further highlighted that Democrats in Congress did not offer one vote in support of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment, guaranteeing the newly freed slaves equal protection of the law, and the 15th Amendment, granting them the right to vote.
Gohmert noted the Democratic President Woodrow Wilson introduced a segregation policy in the U.S. government in 1912.
Additionally, it was Democrats who waged a 75-day filibuster in the Senate in an attempt to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Republicans supported that legislation in higher percentages than Democrats in both the Senate and the House.
In contrast to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party was founded to halt the growth of slavery in the 1850s.
The party’s first president, Abraham Lincoln, oversaw slavery’s demise.
http://www.cuzzblue.com/2020/07/gop-rep-gohmert-introduces-resolution.html
Killings of Police Officers Are Up 28% This Year: Reports | Law & Crime
The killing of a Washington State police officer on July 13 marked the death of the 32nd U.S. law enforcement officer in 2020 — a year which has seen violent protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd and a 28% increase in “felonious officer deaths over the same period in 2019.” That’s according to ABC News, which cited a review of FBI data. Seven of those 32 officers were “ambushed,” the report says.
Accompanying the cries for police reform in the wake of Floyd’s death “was a rise in an anti-police sentiment that, experts say, manifested itself in attacks on officers, patrol vehicles and precinct stationhouses, leaving cops around the country feeling under siege,” ABC said.
It is unclear to some experts whether correlation necessarily means causation in the case of this year’s spike in the killings of law enforcement officers: though the Floyd death and the rise in officer deaths are temporally related, a professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York told ABC that it is probably too early to draw a direct link between the two data points.
“There is a constant search for the scapegoat for whatever is happening in the society and the scapegoat ends up being law enforcement regardless of what it is that people have grievances about,” Maria “Maki” Haberfeld told ABC.
lawandcrime.com/police/killings-of-police-officers-are-up-28-so-far-in-2020-reports/
CDC Director: ‘Critically Important for Public Health to Open Schools This Fall’
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tweeted Friday that it is “critically important for public health to open schools this fall.”
It is critically important for our public health to open schools this fall. CDC resources will help parents, teachers and administrators make practical, safety-focused decisions as this school year begins. https://t.co/QSCGa85yT2 pic.twitter.com/hyajzvIgET
— Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) July 24, 2020
Dr. Robert R. Redfield also posted a warning to parents that “school closures have disrupted normal ways of life for you and your children and they have had negative health consequences on our youth”:
Parents: School closures have disrupted normal ways of life for you and your children and they have had negative health consequences on our youth. See CDC resources on safely reopening schools: https://t.co/rKLn9kLKZt pic.twitter.com/1WrmIT3nQ8
— Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) July 24, 2020
In an updated advisory Thursday, the CDC emphasized the importance of children returning to school this fall for their educational and social development.
At the same time, the U.S. health agency stressed to concerned parents that “the best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children.”
The CDC stated:
Children appear to be at lower risk for contracting COVID-19 compared to adults. To put this in perspective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of July 17, 2020, the United States reported that children and adolescents under 18 years old account for under 7 percent of COVID-19 cases and less than 0.1 percent of COVID-19-related deaths. Although relatively rare, flu-related deaths in children occur every year. From 2004-2005 to 2018-2019, flu-related deaths in children reported to CDC during regular flu seasons ranged from 37 to 187 deaths. During the H1N1pandemic (April 15, 2009 to October 2, 2010), 358 pediatric deaths were reported to CDC. So far in this pandemic, deaths of children are less than in each of the last five flu seasons, with only 64.
The CDC also stated that studies suggest “COVID-19 transmission among children in schools may be low.”
“Based on current data, the rate of infection among younger school children, and from students to teachers, has been low, especially if proper precautions are followed,” the CDC continued. “There have also been few reports of children being the primary source of COVID-19 transmission among family members.”
The agency observed that extended school closures are harmful to many children who may suffer “severe learning loss” without in-person instruction:
Disparities in educational outcomes caused by school closures are a particular concern for low-income and minority students and students with disabilities. Many low-income families do not have the capacity to facilitate distance learning (e.g. limited or no computer access, limited or no internet access), and may have to rely on school-based services that support their child’s academic success.
The CDC observed that in-person instruction in schools also “provides children with access to a variety of mental health and social services, including speech language therapy, and physical or occupational therapy to help the physical, psychological, and academic well-being of the child.”
On Wednesday, Redfield told ABC’s Good Morning America that he would “absolutely” send his grandchildren back to school in the fall despite concerns about the coronavirus:
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: @CDCDirector Dr. Robert Redfield on how bad the COVID-19 crisis could get. “It is very hard to predict.”https://t.co/aQQ6s3kY6z pic.twitter.com/PbiMPVNNHQ
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 22, 2020
“It’s not public health versus opening the school versus reopening schools and the economy,” he said. “It’s public health versus public health.”
The CDC continued in its latest advisory:
Schools are an important part of the infrastructure of our communities, as they provide safe, supportive learning environments for students, employ teachers and other staff, and enable parents, guardians, and caregivers to work. Schools also provide critical services that help meet the needs of children and families, especially those who are disadvantaged, through supporting the development of social and emotional skills, creating a safe environment for learning, identifying and addressing neglect and abuse, fulfilling nutritional needs, and facilitating physical activity. School closure disrupts the delivery of in-person instruction and critical services to children and families, which has negative individual and societal ramifications.
https://www.breitbart.com/education/2020/07/24/cdc-director-critically-important-public-health-open-schools-fall/
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot Deploys Police to Guard Her Home on Night She Orders Removal of Columbus Statue
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot deployed dozens of police officers on Thursday to form a human barricade around the block where she lives. This was the same day she ordered the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park in the overnight hours.
Now: CPD estimating 1000 to 1500 people marching toward the home of @LoriLightfoot. Some wearing gloves and googles. All per internal CPD communication. #Chicago
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) July 24, 2020
The local CBS affiliate reported on the scene in Chicago, where the Trump administration is sending federal police to help quell the ongoing violence, as shooting deaths occur on a daily basis:
About 1,000 protesters gathered in Logan Square Thursday night calling for racial justice and police reform. The protesters were gathered at Kimball and Wrightwood avenues, close to where Mayor Lori Lightfoot lives, as of 9:15 p.m.
The group included representatives of Black Lives Matter and Good Kids Mad City, and they are also calling for the defunding of police.
The protest began at the actual Logan Square at Milwaukee and Kedzie avenues. It grew considerably as it moved through the neighborhood.
Folks are manning the barricade with umbrellas as a organizer encourages protesters to "put hands on" any agitators they see.
The police presence here has nearly doubled since they got here.#Chicago #ChicagoProtests pic.twitter.com/NOx1lWIQ2U
— Tyler LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) July 24, 2020
At the same time protesters were pressing in on Lightfoot, the mayor, who is in her first term, ordered that a statue of Christopher Columbus be removed in the dead of night.
The Chicago Tribune reported on the statue removal:
Hoping to avoid another high-profile confrontation between police and protesters like the clash that happened last week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the statues of Christopher Columbus removed from Chicago’s Grant and Arrigo parks overnight.
Lightfoot’s abrupt move in the dark of night was an about-face for the mayor, who has opposed taking down statues of the Italian explorer on the grounds that it would be erasing history. The mayor’s office statement Friday morning said that the city would soon announce “a formal process to assess each of the monuments, memorials, and murals across Chicago’s communities, and develop a framework for creating a public dialogue to determine how we elevate our city’s history and diversity.”
Not all Italian American leaders in Chicago are on board with the decision, but it has received the blessing of some groups, sources said. By taking the statues down, Lightfoot may draw criticism from those who believe she caved to activist demands.
“What has become of Chicago? We have a mayor forced into submission by anarchy & mob-rule? No more public process, official discourse, or on-the-record debate. The lesson learned is that if you want action from Lightfoot, show up en mass at her house & she will cave every time,” Alderman Raymond Lopez tweeted:
What has become of Chicago? We have a mayor forced into submission by anarchy & mob-rule? No more public process, official discourse, or on-the-record debate. The lesson learned is that if you want action from Lightfoot, show up en mass at her house & she will cave every time.
— Ald. Raymond Lopez (@RLopez15thWard) July 24, 2020
“This step is about an effort to protect public safety and to preserve a safe space for an inclusive and democratic public dialogue about our city’s symbols,” Lightfoot said the statement. “In addition, our public safety resources must be concentrated where they are most needed throughout the city, and particularly in our South and West Side communities.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/24/chicago-mayor-lightfoot-deploys-police-guard-home-night-orders-removal-columbus-statue/
British Universities Must Cut Reliance on Chinese Money to Maintain Independence: Think Tank
A think tank has warned that British universities have become “worryingly dependent” on foreign income, especially from China, with two-thirds of revenue raised from charging Chinese students going to some of the UK’s top research institutes.
A report by the centre-right think tank Onward found that of the £5.8 billion income universities derive from overseas, non-EU students, more than a third — £2.1 billion — comes from China. Around £1.4 billion of that went into the elite Russell Group of universities alone.
The report, published on Wednesday, also argues that an increase in overseas students has crowded out British students from some of the top universities in the past four years, including at Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Imperial College London, University College London, and the London School of Economics.
“As previous Onward research shows, the growth of international students at Oxford and Cambridge has been matched with a decline in the number of state school pupils winning places at these institutions,” the report said.
Further, in last year’s intake, more Chinese students were accepted into UK universities than “the number from the South West, or Yorkshire and the Humber, or the East Midlands, or Wales, the North East or Northern Ireland”. The Higher Education Statistics Agency found in January that 35 per cent of all non-EU overseas students are from China.
Ten British universities are dependent on Chinese students for more than a quarter of their income including Glasgow, Liverpool, and Sheffield universities (28 per cent); Imperial College London (26 per cent); and University College London and the University of Manchester (26 per cent).
Significantly, this dependence also creates fragility in terms of academic independence, with the report warning that “there are well-founded concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or organisations that it controls have sought — in some cases successfully — to undermine academic freedom and the integrity of scientific research on UK campuses”.
Red Guards in Britain: China Ambassador Calls on Chinese Students in UK to ‘Serve the Motherland’ https://t.co/sQO9oyim1Z
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 5, 2020
Onward’s director and author of the report Trading Places said: “While overseas students generate valuable income and international focus on UK campuses, universities have become worryingly dependent on them for their finances, undermining their independence, credibility and long-term sustainability.
“Britain has never had a serious debate about the growth of overseas students. Yet the viability of the UK’s most prestigious universities – to say nothing of billions of pounds of science funding – is now decided not in Parliament but in countries thousands of miles away.
“Even more worrying is that a third of overseas funding comes from China, a country whose government has shown itself unafraid of threatening to cut student flows in response to criticism and whose commercial partnerships with UK universities are increasingly under scrutiny.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/23/uk-universities-must-cut-reliance-chinese-money-maintain-independence-think-tank/
TEXAS REP. DAN CRENSHAW JOINS DEMS IN VOTE TO REMOVE STATUES
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) voted with House Democrats on legislation to remove Confederate statues from Washington, D.C., and defended the decision on social media by claiming that the Confederacy represents the Democratic Party’s “racist past” and he was happy to help them “confront” such previous wrongdoings.
On Wednesday night, Crenshaw sided with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who recently called for 11 statues of Confederate leaders from the Capitol building. Of the statues, 9 represent individuals who at some point were registered Democrats.
As Just the News notes, “The other two Confederates, Edmund Kirby Smith and Robert E. Lee, did not have a documented political affiliation, according to historical accounts.”
Crenshaw was one of six Republicans to break party lines and join Democrats in voting to remove statues representing American history.
In defense of his vote, Crenshaw asserts that “Republicans won the civil war,” while “Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.”
“I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence,” wrote Crenshaw.
Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history.
Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.
I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence.https://t.co/D9KGH4Kz6b
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 22, 2020
“I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence,” wrote Crenshaw.
Statues Pelosi demands be removed from the Capitol include depictions of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Alexander Hamilton Stephens.
Last year, Crenshaw signaled to Democrats that he would work with them on red flag laws and other gun control legislation, going as far as to call critics of red flag gun confiscation laws emotional and uninformed.
https://thedcpatriot.com/wow-texas-rep-dan-crenshaw-joins-dems-in-vote-to-remove-statues/
Facebook Agrees To Pay $650 Million As Part Of Lawsuit Over Facial Recognition Technology
Three Illinois residents sued Facebook in 2015 for allegedly violating the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires written consent before company's collect face scan data
A federal judge threw out the original proposed settlement of $550 million in June, questioning if it was a satisfactory amount for the case
Both parties have reportedly agreed to the new settlement and are awaing the judge's approval
Facebook has agreed to pay $650 million as part of its settlement for a lawsuit surrounding the company’s facial recognition technology and alleged privacy violations committed by the social media giant. The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by three Illinois residents who alleged Facebook violated their privacy under state law.
“We are focused on settling as it is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter,” Facebook said in a press release.
Both sides have reportedly agreed to the settlement and are awaiting the judge’s approval.
The lawsuit revolved around Facebook’s built-in face scan feature, which scans uploaded user pictures to identify people in the picture and make friend or group recommendations. However, the Illinois residents argued that Facebook scanned and collected their faces without written consent. This would violate Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires written consent before any type of data can be collected.
Facebook’s new settlement is $100 million more than the previous $550 million proposed settlement Facebook offered in January. However, that settlement was thrown out in June by U.S. District Judge James Donato, who was overseeing the case in California and questioned Facebook’s offer.
“It's $550 million. That's a lot,” Donato said in court on June 4. “But the question is, is it really a lot?
“They are taking what is effectively a 98.75 percent discount off of the amount that the Illinois legislature said might be due in this case if you proved up your case.”
Facebook’s attorney Michael Rhodes argued this at the time and insisted the plaintiffs may receive more than $150 million each.
“This is an extraordinary amount of recovery, and I think that we're being too conservative on what we think the per claim eligible form will end up producing,” Rhodes told Donato at the June 4 hearing.
Under the new settlement, the plaintiffs will receive between $200 and $400 million each.
https://www.ibtimes.com/facebook-agrees-pay-650-million-part-lawsuit-over-facial-recognition-technology-3016844
Soros Funds Campaign of St. Louis Prosecutor Charging Couple for Protecting Home from BLM Protestors
A controversial city prosecutor investigated for abusing her power to pursue a bogus criminal case against a political nemesis and fined for campaign finance violations just received a hefty reelection contribution from leftwing billionaire George Soros. Her name is Kimberly Gardner and in 2016 she made history for getting elected as St. Louis Missouri’s first black chief prosecutor after serving in the state legislature. Gardner ran on a platform of reforming the criminal justice system, has wrongfully charged cops and conducted a two-year witch hunt of former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who was exonerated of all wrongdoing. In that case, Gardner was forced to withdraw her indictment accusing the Republican governor of felony invasion of privacy for supposedly taking a compromising photo of his mistress and using it to keep her quiet about the extramarital affair.
Now the Soros-backed prosecutor is targeting the St. Louis couple, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, that defended their home last month when hundreds of Black Lives Matters protestors trespassed onto their property on their way to the St. Louis mayor’s house. The McCloskeys, both attorneys, confronted protestors with guns and demanded they leave their property. A local newspaper report describes the incident like this: “Americans saw the story they wanted to see. Some saw respected professionals fearing for their safety, reasonably exercising their Second Amendment rights to defend their home from violent trespassers. Others saw an overwrought, older affluent couple, recklessly pointing their weapons and asserting their white privilege.” The local prosecutor subscribes to the latter version. This week Gardner, whose official title is St. Louis Circuit Attorney, charged the McCloskeys with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/soros-funds-campaign-of-st-louis-prosecutor-charging-couple-for-protecting-home-from-blm-protestors/
New Evidence Linked Turkish Forces To Recent Drone Attack On Russian Troops In Northeastern Syria
A new evidence linking Turkish forces to the recent drone attack on Russian troops in northeastern Syria was uncovered, the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) reported on July 24.
The attack took place on July 16 near the town of al-Darbasiyah in the northern countryside of al-Hasakah. A suicide drone targeted a gathering of Russian and Syrian troops who were investigating an earlier strike on the area. Three Russian service members and three others of the Syrian Arab Army were injured.
ANNA team inspected the attack site, where a Turkish-made 60 mm mortar was found. The shell was one of two fired at the area. Russian troops, who were later attacked by a drone, visited the area to investigate the shelling.
The Turkish mortar shell landed inside a minivan and failed to explode. Only a few days later, it was uncovered.
The shell proves that Turkish forces were behind the first strike that attracted Russian troops to the scene of the drone attack. The drone itself, a quadcopter, is similar to a type made by Turkey’s STM known as KARGU.
Russia is currently investigating the incident. According to Kurdish sources, a team of Russian investigators visited the attack site on July 18.
The motives behind the attack on Russian troops in northeastern Syria remain unclear. If Turkey was indeed responsible, its relations with Russia will be severally damaged. Russia responds to any attack on its troops in Syria politically or militarily.
https://southfront.org/new-evidence-linked-turkish-forces-to-recent-drone-attack-on-russian-troops-in-northeastern-syria-video/
Former Poroshenko Ally Admits Euromaidan In 2014 Was Entirely Funded By “Organized Criminal Group”
On July 21st, Ukrainian businessman and politician David Zhvania revealed some open secrets of the Ukrainian politics, including crimes that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had carried out. The irony of the situation is that Zhvania was, at one point, the leader of Poroshenko’s campaign headquarters.
He said that Euromaidan was ruled by criminal groups led by the people who were leading the parties that came into power following the coup – the BPP (Bloc of Petro Poroshenko) and the National Front.
He also said that he had participated in giving multimillion-dollar bribes to European officials in exchange for their support to Poroshenko’s election as president.
The former member of Ukrainian parliament, in his video message, said that Ukraine is threatened with a new coming to power of Poroshenko.
“A creeping revenge is taking place in the country – Zelensky’s rating falls, and Poroshenko and his entourage are again striving for power. I cannot look at it calmly, so I decided to give this press conference. Warn the citizens of Ukraine not to make a mistake. Tell everyone. who is Poroshenko and his entourage.
This is a criminal group that from the very beginning participated in the Maidan solely for the sake of seizing power and personal enrichment,” Zhvania said.
He said that following the 2014 Maidan, an organized criminal group took power in Ukraine, and he admitted that he was part of it.
According to Zhvania, it was this criminal group that financed the protests and thwarted any options for agreements with the authorities (the Yanukovich government), which were designed to avoid escalation.
“I was also a member of the organized criminal group, which seized power in 2014 on the wave of popular protests. We financed the Maidan, we fueled protest moods in the media, thwarted the government’s peace initiatives, conducted separate negotiations with deputies of the Party of Regions, and negotiated with foreign embassies.
The organized criminal group included Martynenko, Poroshenko, Turchynov, Yatsenyuk, Klitschko. Each of whom has attached its own group. Turchinov, for example, brought Pashinsky and Parubiy,” Zhvania said and added that he was ready to testify on this matter.
After the coup victory, Zhvania’s group engaged in political corruption to secure the presidency for Poroshenko.
“I and Klimkin (note: Klimkin later became the foreign minister) directly participated in the transfer of 5 million euros through the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany for one high-ranking European official at that time in order to ensure support for Poroshenko as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine from the EU. I am ready to provide the circumstances of this to the investigating authorities,” Zhvania claimed.
In his opinion, Poroshenko became president as a result of the consensus of the oligarchs. And he took on certain obligations to them, which in most cases he carried out.
According to Zhvania, during his tenure as president, Poroshenko acquired approximately $3.4 billion in bribes.
The former politician hoped that President Zelensky “will have enough political will to bring the case of Poroshenko and his entourage to an end.”
“Poroshenko today, on the eve of local elections, may try to run for mayor. Before Maidan, it was his dream – he humiliatingly begged Yanukovych for the right to run for mayor of Kiev, was ready to give a bribe for this. Yanukovych did not allow, and Poroshenko did not dare to disobey,” Zhvania said and promised to reveal more in the following weeks.
https://youtu.be/JChtKpaulOs
https://southfront.org/former-poroshenko-ally-admits-euromaidan-in-2014-was-entirely-funded-by-organized-criminal-group/
Sara Carter: Explosive New Docs Prove Higher-ups Gave Orders To Spy On Trump Campaign
Explosive documents were released yesterday detailing a June 2016 defensive briefing given to then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, former national security advisor Michael Flynn and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — Sara Carter appeared on Hannity last night to discuss the news and how it reveals the extent to which the Trump campaign was spied on.
“These documents are explosive,” Carter reported. “It was 2016 and here’s Joe Pientka debriefing basically Trump, Governor Christie, and Michael Flynn. And then in January, he goes back to the White House with Peter Strzok— he’s the one that’s interviewing Michael Flynn.”
Carter explained how higher-ups, including President Obama himself, were giving directives on the spying directed at the Trump campaign.
#ICYMI @SaraCarterDC On @seanhannity tonight 👀 pic.twitter.com/l8dXhRE45Q
— Jennie Taer 🇺🇸🇮🇱✡️ (@JennieSTaer) July 24, 2020
Carter said Strzok, Pientka, and others were “directed by people above them. That is Andrew McCabe, that’s James Comey, and that’s those folks that were at the White House. Including the President, who knew everything that was going on.”
Hannity noted Obama needs to answer to these questions.
To read Sara’s breaking report on the declassified Trump, Flynn defensive briefing,
https://saraacarter.com/sara-carter-explosive-new-docs-prove-higher-ups-gave-orders-to-spy-on-trump-campaign/
BP Agents Find 28 Pounds Of Meth In A Mother’s Car — With Her Six-Year-Old Inside
Drug trafficking has gotten creative in recent years — from lining the bottom of a car, stuffing drugs up the exhaust pipe, to even filling the gas tank — but it comes as a surprise when a drug transport involves a six-year-old girl.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent pulled a car over on Interstate 5 on the evening of July 21. After agreeing to a search, the mother was soon discovered, by a police K-9, to be carrying 28.8 pounds of methamphetamine — with her young child in the vehicle.
28 bundles of meth were found inside the car’s gas tank and the mother was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Her young daughter was handed over to local child protective services.
The vehicle was seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.
https://saraacarter.com/bp-agents-find-28-pounds-of-meth-in-a-mothers-car-with-her-six-year-old-inside/
Leading pro-life professor, critic of North Carolina gov. found dead at home
Conservative Professor Mike Adams took the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to court multiple times for discriminating against him.
WILMINGTON, North Carolina, July 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― A well-known pro-life professor, columnist, and critic of the governor of North Carolina was found dead at home yesterday.
Police are investigating the death of Mike S. Adams, the tenured University of North Carolina-Wilmington professor who became a lightning rod for left-wing hate after posting a series of tweets his critics claimed were sexist and racist.
Described by pro-life author Dave Sterrett as “a bold voice for the unborn,” Adams’ most recent tweets included “Abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being” and “It is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.” Adams publicly debated abortionist Willie Parker in 2019.
According to CBS, deputies from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office found Adams’ body after coming to his Wilmington home to do a “wellness check.” Adams, 55, was to take early retirement from UNCW on August 1, having been forced out by an administration under siege by left-wing protests demanding his firing. The professor of sociology and criminology had reached a settlement of $504,702 from the university for lost wages and benefits.
Critical of Governor Roy Cooper’s lockdown orders, one of Adams’ most controversial tweets stated that the universities should stay open but that non-essential majors, like Women’s Studies, should go. A May 30 tweet addressed the governor as “Massa Cooper,” a reference to the slave-“owner” relationship in the antebellum South, and described North Carolina under lockdown as a “slave state.”
“This evening I ate pizza and drank beer with six guys at a six seat table top. I almost felt like a free man who was not living in the slave state of North Carolina,” he wrote. “Massa Cooper, let my people go!”
The remarks supporting or condemning the tweet have now been joined by tweets celebrating Adams’ death.
Conservative activists with Young America’s Foundation (YAF), as well as commentator and author Michelle Malkin, mourned his death.
Longtime Townhall Columnist Mike Adams Has Died https://t.co/xyhlBP42A7
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 24, 2020
We are devastated to hear of the passing of @MikeSAdams. Professor Adams was a beloved freedom fighter and YAF speaker. Our prayers go out to his family. pic.twitter.com/1gx4PnszyM
— YAF (@yaf) July 23, 2020
We are devastated to hear of the passing of @MikeSAdams. Professor Adams was a beloved freedom fighter and YAF speaker. Our prayers go out to his family. pic.twitter.com/1gx4PnszyM
— YAF (@yaf) July 23, 2020
Oh this is terrible news. @MikeSAdams was smart, brave, always cheerful & a gentleman of great faith. In shock. We always vowed to do the #manitouincline together and never did. I’m heartsick. https://t.co/2XTAQIr5tc
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 24, 2020
Unlike so many phony champions of free speech, @mikesadams was the real deal. He faced enormous campus pressure to conform. Defied #CancelCulture —and pushed back not only against the Left, but also gatekeepers of the Right. He was a strong & gracious Christian. Gone too soon.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 24, 2020
“Mike wasn’t just a free speech warrior; he was a free speech general,” wrote the students of UNCW’s YAF chapter. “Every conservative student at UNCW owes Mike Adams a debt which we can only hope one day to repay.”
Today is a sad day at our little chapter. Our dear and beloved advisor and mentor, Mike Adams, has passed away. Below is our statement, YAF at UNCW will never be the same. pic.twitter.com/el7xCjiud8
— UNCW YAF (@YAFUNCW) July 24, 2020
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leading-pro-life-professor-critic-of-north-carolina-gov-found-dead-at-home?utm_source=featured&utm_campaign=standard
NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Quotes Karl Marx in Radio Interview (AUDIO)
Mayor Bill de Blasio
The mask is completely off.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday quoted Karl Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto’ during a radio interview.
De Blasio previously praised Cuban Communist revolutionary Che Guevara and now he’s quoting the father of Communism.
The NYC Mayor spoke about police reforms and COVID testing during his weekly appearance on WNYC.
De Blasio told WNYC radio host Brian Lerner that “my focus has not been on the business community and the elites” in response to a report that said his antipathy toward private sector interests was slowing NYC’s economic recovery from COVID, “I am tempted to borrow from Karl Marx here.”
De Blasio then quoted from Karl Marx’s infamous “Communist Manifesto.”
“There’s a famous quote that ‘the state is the executive committee of the bourgeois’ and I use it openly to say, ‘No,’” de Blasio said.
“I actually read that as a young person and I said, ‘That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.’”
He added, “The business community matters, we need to work with the business community, we will work with the business community — but the city government represents the people, represents working people, and mayors should not be too cozy with the business community, governors should not be too cozy with the business community.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-quotes-karl-marx-radio-interview-audio/
Fox Suddenly Cuts Away From White House Press Briefing After Portland Violence Shown
Fox News abruptly cut away from Friday's White House press briefing after Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany played a video of the ongoing riots in Portland, Oregon.
"We were not expecting that video," said Fox host Harris Faulkner, adding "Our management here at Fox News has decided we will pull away from that at this time
Some have speculated over social media that the decision to was made due to an uncensored portion of the clip containing graffiti with "fuck the police" on it, while others claim the network has run similar footage, and that the network cut away long after that portion of the White House's clip.
Networks hate it when they can't control the narrative…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fox-suddenly-cuts-away-white-house-press-briefing-after-portland-violence-shown