Scott

Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood mogul already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York, was sentenced in Los Angeles Thursday to an additional 16 years in prison for charges of rape and sexual assault. Prior to the sentence, Weinstein spoke in court and continued to deny any wrongdoing, calling the case a “setup.” “I maintain that I’m innocent. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/entertainment/harvey-weinstein-sentencing-los-angeles/index.html

EXCLUSIVE: Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sent a letter to Merchant Marine Academy superintendent Joanna Nunan blasting her "flawed understanding" of the First Amendment amid the academy controversy around the covering of a painting depicting Jesus Christ. Cruz sent the letter to Nunan on Tuesday, writing he is "gravely concerned" about the "decision to cover and move the painting ‘Christ on the Water’" painted in the 1940s "which honors mariners lost at sea during World War II." "At the time the painting was placed on the wall, the room ‘served as the Academy’s interfaith chapel’ and did so from 1942 to 1961," Cruz wrote. https://news.yahoo.com/cruz-blasts-merchant-marine-academy-190927102.html

A post with an unapproved video has been removed. The continued use of less-than-credible sources will result in suspensions.

A total of 7.2% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, and younger generations – particularly those 25 and under – are driving the numbers, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Gallup survey of 2022 data also shows that the number of U.S adults who identified as LGBTQ has more than doubled in a decade: In 2012, Gallup found that 3.5% of U.S. adults said they were LGBTQ. That number surged to 7.1% in 2021 before holding steady last year. The fact that the numbers stabilized in 2022 after recent dramatic jumps is not unexpected, Gallup Senior Editor Jeff Jones told USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/22/gallup-poll-lgbtq-identification/11309075002/

Elon Musk announced during a joint press conference with California Gov. Gavin Newsom that Tesla would be returning its global engineering headquarters to California, two years after a dramatic exit that saw the electric car company leave the Golden State for a facility in Austin, Texas. Tesla will open up shop in the former home of Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto, Musk said. The facility will serve as the company’s engineering headquarters while the corporate headquarters remains in Austin. The move returns Tesla to the world’s center of technology and innovation, and puts Musk in closer to proximity to the headquarters of Twitter, which the billionaire tech entrepreneur purchased last year in a massive social media shakeup. https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3869991-tesla-hq-leaving-texas-to-return-to-california-musk-announces/

Companies that make former workers promise not to disparage their former employers in exchange for a severance payment are breaking the law, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday, restoring what it said was an "important principle and longstanding precedent" that employees cannot be coerced into waiving their rights. The decision concerned a Michigan hospital that, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, terminated 11 union employees and asked them — in exchange for a payout — to sign severance agreements barring them from making public comments "which could disparage or harm" the company. In 2020, the NLRB, at the time operating with a Republican majority, twice ruled that such limits on speech were legal, arguing in one of its decisions that severance agreements with nondisparagement clauses are "entirely voluntary." https://www.yahoo.com/news/employers-cant-force-keep-quiet-010927927.html

The Arizona Attorney General's Office concluded months ago there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election results in Maricopa County ― but the state's top prosecutor sat on the information and suppressed mitigating details, newly released records show. An investigative report and two internal memos from 2022 indicate then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich was aware his investigators "did not uncover any criminality or fraud" in the 2020 election weeks before Brnovich reported the county's election system was vulnerable and the process for verification and handling of early ballots was broken. The three documents were made public Wednesday by newly elected Attorney General Kris Mayes, who described them as "deeply unsettling and unacceptable." https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/02/22/mayes-releases-reports-debunking-claims-of-widespread-election-fraud/69932827007/

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Ivanka Trump, the daughter of former President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith, ABC News has learned. The subpoena for the couple is specifically related to the special counsel's probe of Jan. 6 and the activities leading up to that day by the former president and his allies regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources told ABC News. Ivanka Trump and Kushner worked as senior White House advisers to President Trump during his four years in office. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-subpoenaed-special-counsel-investigating/story?id=97398257

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reportedly dismissed claims they were planning to sue the creators of cartoon comedy South Park. An episode titled The Worldwide Privacy Tour features two characters who bear a resemblance to Harry and Meghan, embarking on a tour across the world demanding their privacy. The couple's spokesperson told People: "It's all frankly nonsense. Totally baseless, boring reports." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64730600

And in at least one state, pregnant women are now able to use the HOV lane.

US President Joe Biden has called Russia's decision to suspend the New Start nuclear arms treaty a big mistake. President Vladimir Putin announced the move on Tuesday in his annual address to the nation. The deal, signed in 2010, limits the number of US and Russian nuclear warheads and gives each the power to inspect the other's weapons. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64735708

Former US President Donald Trump has accused federal officials of "indifference" to an Ohio town that is reeling from a toxic train derailment. On a visit to East Palestine, Mr Trump claimed his presence had spurred the Biden administration to devote more resources to this month's crash. Local residents have expressed frustration at what they saw as a lack of answers from officials. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64736679

A powerful winter storm set record cold temperatures in the northern plains of the US, while a heat wave in the southeast set record highs for the month of February – leaving the US with an unusually stark temperature difference of more than 100 degrees. Much of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas currently have temperatures below zero, including minus 9 degrees in Cut Bank, Montana. At the same time, much of the South, from Texas to the Carolinas, has temperatures above 80 degrees, including a scorching 95 in McAllen, Texas. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/weather/winter-storm-us-wednesday/index.html

Yvette Harrell was six weeks pregnant when she fatally shot another woman. Now in prison awaiting trial, she claims her unborn baby is being unlawfully detained. In an emergency petition in a Florida court, Ms Harrell's lawyer argued that jail staff have endangered the child through "a lack of reasonable and necessary prenatal care". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64735537

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It's possible the VP used crimes against humanity instead of war crimes because Putin has continued to call it a Special Military Operation. It's a distinction with very little difference: Unlike war crimes, crime against humanity can also be committed in peacetime, and contrary to genocide, they are not necessarily committed against a specific national, ethnical, racial or religious group. https://trialinternational.org/topics-post/crimes-against-humanity/

Institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030, according to MetLife Investment Management. And a group of Washington, D.C., lawmakers believe that Wall Street needs to back away from the market.“What we’re saying is don’t have private equity buying up single -family homes,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California’s 17th Congressional District. Khanna is the lead author of the Stop Wall Street Landlords Act of 2022. “What’s outrageous is your tax dollars are helping Wall Street buy up single-family homes,” he said in an interview with CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/21/how-wall-street-bought-single-family-homes-and-put-them-up-for-rent.html

As the U.S. economy heads towards economic disaster, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., doubled down on his plan to "fix" Social Security and Medicare after attacks from President Biden and Democrats. "I have no interest in cutting the benefits of Social Security or Medicare, and we can fix this without doing that. We can live within our means," Scott told host Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria" Tuesday. "But they don't want to. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/sen-rick-scott-doubles-down-plan-fix-social-security-medicare-live-within-our-means

A leaked internal strategy document from Vladimir Putin’s executive office and obtained by Yahoo News lays out a detailed plan on how Russia plans to take full control over neighboring Belarus in the next decade under the pretext of a merger between the two countries. The document outlines in granular detail a creeping annexation by political, economic and military means of an independent but illiberal European nation by Russia, which is an active state of war in its bid to conquer Ukraine through overwhelming force. “Russia’s goals with regards to Belarus are the same as with Ukraine,” Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-belarus-strategy-document-230035184.html

US authorities have said Norfolk Southern, whose toxin-laden train derailed in an Ohio town, must pay for the clean-up or face tough penalties. The train, which derailed in East Palestine on 3 February, was carrying vinyl chloride and other potentially hazardous substances. Norfolk Southern is now facing multiple lawsuits filed on behalf of residents, many of whom were forced to evacuate their homes. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64722765

Washington — The Biden administration published a proposal on Tuesday that would disqualify certain migrants from U.S. asylum and allow the government to deport them more quickly, saying the major policy shift is needed to curb unlawful migration to the southern border. The regulations, which will not take effect until after the government responds to comments from the public, would render migrants ineligible for U.S. asylum if they cross the southern border illegally after failing to ask for humanitarian refuge in another country, such as Mexico. Those unable to prove they are not barred from seeking asylum under the rules could be quickly deported without a chance to see an immigration judge. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, which oversee the judges and officers who review asylum cases, will give the public 30 days to comment on the proposed regulations before implementing them. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-asylum-migrants-border-arrivals/

The former face of Mexico's war on drugs has been convicted by a US jury of drug trafficking. Genaro García Luna, once Mexico's security minister, was found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico's biggest crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel. García Luna - who was arrested in the state of Texas in 2019 - had pleaded not guilty. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64726724

Supreme Court justices appeared broadly concerned Tuesday about the potential unintended consequences of allowing websites to be sued for their automatic recommendations of user content, highlighting the challenges facing attorneys who want to hold Google accountable for suggesting YouTube videos created by terrorist groups. For nearly three hours on Tuesday, the nine justices peppered attorneys representing Google, the US government and the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American student killed in a 2015 ISIS attack, with questions about how the court could design a ruling that exposes harmful content recommendations to liability while still protecting innocuous ones. How – or if – the court draws that line could have significant implications for the way websites choose to rank, display and promote content to their users as they seek to avoid a litigation minefield. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/tech/supreme-court-gonzalez-v-google/index.html

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