1111
Judge seeks more details on Trump's clemency for Roger Stone
 A federal judge on Monday demanded more information about President Donald Trump's decision to commute the prison sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the parties provide her by Tuesday with a copy of the executive order that commuted Stone's sentence.
Ousted U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman: Deal Barr Offered ‘Could Be Seen as a Quid Pro Quo’
 The federal prosecutor whom Attorney General Bill Barr ousted in June told House investigators that he was alarmed at the way Barr attempted to replace him, saying that “the “irregular and unexplained actions by the Attorney General raised serious concerns for me,” according to a transcript of the closed-door interview released by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. Geoffrey Berman, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was brought in for a closed-door session of the Judiciary Committee on July 9 to talk about the events surrounding Barr’s public announcement on June 19 that Berman had “stepped down” from his post, even though the U.S. attorney made clear to Barr multiple times that he was not stepping down. The late-night announcement by Barr immediately sparked confusion and raised questions about his involvement in a crucial prosecutor’s office. The next day, Berman said he would leave the job when Barr agreed to let his deputy take over as acting U.S. attorney, as opposed to Craig Carpenito, the U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, whom Barr wanted to install in the position until the Trump administration’s pick, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Jay Clayton, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.Berman, who at SDNY handled sensitive investigations into Trumpworld figures such as Rudy Giuliani, did not comment specifically to the Judiciary Committee on what he believed Barr’s motivations to be, and he studiously avoided any questions about how specific SDNY probes might have factored into the situation. But Berman made clear that the attorney general’s preferred plan would have slowed and complicated the work of the office, and he raised several questions challenging Barr’s handling of the process. Trump Thought He’d Picked His Perfect U.S. Attorney in Geoffrey Berman. He Was Very Wrong.“Why did the attorney general say that I was stepping down when he knew I had neither resigned nor been fired?” Berman asked rhetorically, in response to questions from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY). “Why did the attorney general not tell me the actual reason he was asking me to resign instead of saying that it was to get Clayton into the position? And why did he announce the appointment of Craig Carpenito as acting U.S. attorney when Audrey Strauss was the logical and normal successor?”“Replacing me with someone from outside the district would have resulted in the disruption and delay of the important investigations that were being conducted,” Berman said later. “I was not going to permit that. And I would rather be fired than have that done.” At numerous points, Berman expressed his dismay at Barr’s wish to install Carpenito—who would have retained his previous job in New Jersey—in the job instead of Berman’s top deputy, Strauss, a move he said violated 70 years of precedent at SDNY.According to his opening statement that was obtained by The Daily Beast last Thursday, Berman said that during a private meeting in New York that Barr called to open the discussion, the attorney general praised his performance as U.S. attorney but said the Trump administration wanted Clayton to take the SDNY post. Berman said Barr tried to lure him away by dangling other offers—to head the Department of Justice’s civil rights division and, later, the SEC—but Berman declined. Barr told him that if he did not resign, he would be fired. “I believe the attorney general was trying to entice me to resign so that an outsider could be put into the acting U.S. attorney position at the Southern District of New York, which would have resulted in the delay and disruption of ongoing investigations,” Berman told the Judiciary Committee.At one point in the interview, GOP committee attorney Steve Castor asked if Barr had laid out to Berman a set of actions that would have allowed him to keep his job—if there was any “quid pro quo for you getting to keep your job.”Berman said no, and he confirmed that Barr did not mention any specific SDNY investigations—Castor raised Jeffrey Epstein and Guiliani-related probes—in pressuring him to leave. But Berman did say Barr’s offering of other positions could have been construed as a quid pro quo.“You know, he wanted me to resign to take a position. I assume you could call that a quid pro quo. You resign and you get this, that would mean quid pro quo,” said Berman. Asked to clarify those comments later, he said it wasn’t his term but reiterated that “it could be seen as a quid pro quo, his offering me a job in exchange for my resignation.” Berman is a rare U.S. attorney in that he was not confirmed by the Senate but was appointed by the judges of SDNY to hold the position in April 2018. Berman insisted that, as he was a court-appointed prosecutor, neither Barr nor President Trump had the authority to fire him before the Senate confirmed a successor, but some past legal precedent has indicated the president can fire a court-appointed U.S. attorney. Trump has said he had nothing to do with Berman’s ouster. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
'Not a Welcoming Name': Calls to Drop 'Plantation' Gain Steam Nationwide
 When Dharyl Auguste was 3 years old, he and his parents packed all of their belongings and left their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to immigrate to the United States.The family settled initially in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before moving to nearby Sunrise. When it was time for Auguste to attend middle school, he and his parents relocated again, this time to Plantation, Florida. Auguste welcomed the move, he said, because it was easier for him to see his friends and access public transportation.But something was not right in Plantation."It often came up as a topic between me and friends, and we all had the same feeling that it's not a welcoming name," Auguste, 27, said.In the weeks since the George Floyd protests began, neighborhoods and subdivisions across the country have removed the word "plantation" from their names. In June, Rhode Island -- known formally as the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations -- announced that it would drop the second half of its official name from state documents and websites. (State lawmakers have introduced legislation that would put a name-change referendum on the ballot in November.)Inspired by the social unrest spurred by the death of Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by the neck for more than eight minutes, Auguste started a petition to change the name of Plantation."I was at home sitting in awe as our nation was going through a social awakening," he said in an interview this past week. According to Auguste, images of toppled monuments to slaveholders and Confederate generals fueled him to take action. The petition he created June 7 has been signed more than 11,000 times.Strictly speaking, the word "plantation" refers to a large group of plants or trees in a settlement. But the association with slavery is inescapable."We can't ignore the image conjured by the word 'plantation,'" Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said last month. "We can't ignore how painful that is for Black Rhode Islanders to see that and have to see that as part of their state's name. It's demoralizing. It's a slap in the face. It's painful."Gabriela Koster, who moved to Plantation, Florida, in 2006, agrees."I have been saying for 15 years that I do not think it's an appropriate name for our city," Koster said. "I don't think it serves us well."Koster, 42, who raised her three children in Plantation, described the city as vibrant but said its name dulled some of the city's luster.But Lynn Stoner, the mayor of Plantation, does not necessarily share this opinion."If we change the name, it doesn't change the mindset of what people indicate the problem is," Stoner said. "I think it is just the optics."Stoner has lived in Plantation for 50 years, and she proposed instead that residents be educated on the "racial components and diversity in the community.""I'm more about the education piece," Stoner said at a City Council meeting July 1, during which she also suggested that residents be taught about what should be considered offensive and why. "I feel like changing the name doesn't change the philosophies -- I think that's where the bigger issue is."At the meeting, Stoner criticized an interview that Auguste had recently given on CNN, saying that "he didn't do real well." (She later apologized.) She also asked Auguste during the meeting whether she should use the term "African Americans" or "Blacks"; claimed that the first time she "ever really saw" Black people was when she moved to Plantation; and said that the last three people she had hired were not white.She added that she was taught to treat everyone equally.In response to Stoner's comments, Auguste told the mayor that just because the city's name represented the status quo it did not mean it should stay that way."I'm sure that was the same mentality when slavery was ended," Auguste said. "We have to be more than not racist -- we have to be anti-racist."Because the city of Plantation wasn't incorporated until 1953, many -- including Stoner -- believe that its name is exempt from the correlation with slavery."This isn't just about Black people," the mayor said in an interview Tuesday. "It is about how Black people and people from other countries all relate to each other."Across the country, people are working to change the names of neighborhoods, developments and subdivisions that include the word "plantation." In Hilton Head, South Carolina, efforts to change the names of gated communities and resorts are unequivocally about Black people. Beaufort County, which includes the island of Hilton Head, was founded in 1711. Before the Civil War, there were more than 20 plantations on the island where slave labor produced cotton, indigo, sugar cane, rice and other crops, according to the local government.Today, Hilton Head is a resort town with developments and gated communities whose names often have the word "plantation" in them."It has been co-opted to mean a gated community in the area," said Marisa Wojcikiewicz, who started a petition last month to change the names of the resorts and gated communities. "It is very strange, to say the least, considering that the island is inextricably linked to the plantation economy."According to Wojcikiewicz, whose petition has over 8,000 signatures, a manager of the Hilton Head Plantation development had not entirely shot down the idea of changing the name of the development. Wojcikiewicz said she was surprised to find that some residents of the developments, who are mostly white, older and affluent, supported changing the name.Peter Kristian, general manager of the Hilton Head Plantation property owners association, did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.In Plantation, Florida, Auguste has two options to get the city to change its name. The City Council can vote to have a referendum added to the November ballot for the name change or Auguste can go door to door to collect signatures from at least 10% of the city's 94,000 residents, which would compel a City Council review. In Hilton Head, because the developments and resorts are privately owned, the onus is on the owners and investors to make any name changes.Most people don't want to be told that something they are doing is wrong, according to Wojcikiewicz, particularly when they have never given any thought to how it might be hurtful."Many people are afraid to admit that they were blind to the fact that it is racist," she said. "They think a plantation is this beautiful, expansive, green, calm, Southern idyllic life that everyone wishes they could have. We have deluded ourselves."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
Hamburg sex workers demand Germany's brothels reopen
 Prostitutes demonstrated in Hamburg's red light district late on Saturday evening demanding that Germany's brothels be allowed to reopen after months of closure to curb the spread of coronavirus. With shops, restaurants and bars all open again in Germany, where prostitution is legal, sex workers say they are being singled out and deprived of their livelihoods despite not posing a greater health risk. "The oldest profession needs your help," read a notice held up by one woman in a brothel window in the Herbertstrasse, which was flooded with red light after being dark since March.
Man, 37, who died from coronavirus had dismissed pandemic ‘hype’ on Facebook
 An Ohio man who died of Covid-19 had repeatedly posted on Facebook about his scepticism of the outbreak – and a tweet containing a montage of his posts is now going viral.Richard Rose, 37, died at home in Port Clinton on 4 July just days after he tested positive for Covid-19. The montage of his posts spreading on social media, which has been viewed 3.5 million times, shows that he tested positive and was quarantined on 1 July, when he was already viewing symptoms.
1111
Ghislaine Maxwell ignored FBI orders on day of arrest, had cellphone wrapped in tin foil: feds
 NEW YORK - Ghislaine Maxwell used former members of the British military as security guards and wrapped a cellphone in tin foil to avoid law enforcement detection, prosecutors wrote Monday, calling her "skilled at living in hiding." Manhattan federal prosecutors shared the new details about Maxwell's arrest July 2 at a New Hampshire estate in opposition to her request for $5 million bond. The ...
China coronavirus cases ease on July 13, no new ones in Beijing
 China reported on Tuesday five new coronavirus cases in the mainland for July 13, compared with eight cases a day earlier, the health authority said. All of the new infections were imported cases, the National Health Commission said in a statement. Beijing, which saw a surge in new coronavirus cases a few weeks ago, reported no new cases for the eighth consecutive day.
U.S. Navy battles for second day to save burning warship in San Diego
 Hundreds of firefighters battled through a second day from the air, land and water on Monday to save a U.S. war vessel swept by flames while moored at a San Diego shipyard, as the number of sailors and civilians injured in the blaze rose to nearly 60. The USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship whose xxxx ranks second in the U.S. Navy fleet to that of an aircraft carrier, remained largely shrouded in thick, acrid smoke on Monday as the vessel began listing to its starboard side. The fire, accompanied by at least one large explosion, erupted Sunday morning in the lower cargo hold of the 844-foot-long (257 meter) ship, docked for routine maintenance at its home port at U.S. Naval Base San Diego.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to appeal Dakota Access shutdown
 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday it would appeal a federal judge's decision to shut down the Dakota Access oil pipeline, bringing the Trump administration into a fight already being waged by the owners of the pipeline. Attorneys for the Corps filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, a week after a lower court said the 570,000-barrel-per-day pipeline needed to be shut and emptied within 30 days, citing problems with permits granted by the Corps in 2017. Last week, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the line to be shut and emptied by Aug. 5.
1111
Analysis: Trump turns on Fauci as disaster grows
Florida's staggering new single-day US state record of coronavirus cases underscores how the aggressive opening strategy championed by President Donald Trump and allied governors is turning into one of the worst political and econ
1111
Temporarily not available
1111
Temporarily not available
1111
Temporarily not available
| 1111
| Index |
Date |
Time |
Change |
Value |
1111
Temporarily not available
1111
Temporarily not available
1111
Temporarily not available
|
