Post by mhbruin on Nov 24, 2021 9:35:40 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 453 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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France Has that Wrist Slap Thing Down
France and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail a fellow French footballer with a sex tape.
A judge handed Benzema a one-year suspended jail term and ordered him to pay a €75,000 (£63,000; $84,000) fine.
Benzema, 33, was one of five people put on trial last month over an attempt to extort Frenchman Mathieu Valbuena.
The scandal has stunned the football community in France and both players lost their national team places.
The case dates back to June 2015, when the two footballers were at a French training camp.
At the camp, Benzema put pressure on Valbuena to pay off the blackmailers, whom he had conspired with to act as an intermediary, prosecutors said.
Benzema has always denied the allegations and insisted he was only trying to help Valbuena get rid of the compromising video.
Benzema has since returned to the France team and is expected to start for Real Madrid on Wednesday night when they play FC Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League.
Benzema is Worth $75 Million. That $84,000 Fine Will Really Sting.
"Benzema" Sounds Like What You Get If You Mix Benadryl and Noxzema.
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The Albatross Thrill is Gone
When relationships end it might be because the spark has disappeared, or maybe you just can't make time for one another.
But can climate change cause break-ups?
It might do, according to a new study which suggests albatrosses - some of the world's most loyal creatures - are "divorcing" more.
Research published in the Royal Society journal looked at 15,500 breeding pairs in the Falkland Islands over 15 years.
Albatross divorce is basically just cheating, in human terms. It's when one part of a couple mates with a different individual.
Like humans, albatrosses also have an awkward growing-up phase, trying (and sometimes failing) to figure out the best way to get into a relationship.
But ultimately, when they find a good match, they normally stick together for life.
Just 1% of albatrosses separate after choosing their life partner - much lower than the human divorce rate in the UK.
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The Family That Detects Together, Collects Together
A 13-year-old girl uncovered a hoard of Bronze Age axes on her third metal-detecting trip.
Milly was scouring a field near Royston, Hertfordshire, when she made the find - the first of 65 artefacts dating from about 1300BC.
When her father dug out the first one, Milly said they joked it might be an axe - and it was.
Archaeologists were called in to excavate the entire hoard, which will be sent to the British Museum, London.
Milly, from Suffolk, had only recently taken up her father's favourite hobby of metal-detecting.
The pair were on an organised trip when they came across the first axe head.
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Haven't We All Sat In Parliament With a Crying Baby in the Seat Behind Us?
An MP has said it "has to be possible for politics and parenting to mix" after being told she cannot sit in the Commons with her three-month-old son.
Labour's Stella Creasy was informed it was against the rules to bring a child to a debate at Westminster Hall after doing so on Tuesday.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked a committee of MPs to review the rules.
Ms Creasy said she was "pleased to hear this" - as rules meant she could not be in the chamber for his statement.
Sir Lindsay said it was "extremely important" for parents to be able to participate fully in the work of the House, which is why it had a nursery.
"Rules have to be seen in context and they change with the times," he told the House.
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This is not normal. Nothing about this is normal
A pair of payments the Republican National Committee made to a law firm representing former President Donald Trump is raising questions among former and current GOP officials about the party's priorities in a critical election year and its ability to remain neutral -- as long-standing RNC rules require -- in the 2024 presidential primary.
The separate payments to Fischetti and Malgieri LLP totalling $121,670, listed in the committee's latest filing to the Federal Election Commission, were first reported on Monday. Ronald Fischetti, a partner at the New York-based firm, was hired by the Trump Organization in April amid ongoing investigations into the real estate company's financial practices by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and state Attorney General Letitia James.
A spokesperson for the RNC said the party's executive committee recently "approved paying for certain legal expenses that relate to politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump," and defended the payments as "entirely appropriate" as the party "continues assisting in fighting back against the Democrats' never ending witch hunt and attacks on [Trump]."
However, some RNC members and donors accused the party of running afoul of its own neutrality rules and misplacing its priorities. Some of these same officials who spoke to CNN also questioned why the party would foot the legal bills of a self-professed billionaire who was sitting on a $102 million war chest as recently as July and has previously used his various political committees to cover legal costs. According to FEC filings from August, the former President's Make America Great Again committee has paid Jones Day more than $37,000 since the beginning of the year, while his Make America Great Again super PAC has paid a combined $7.8 million to attorneys handling his lawsuits related to the 2020 election.
"This is not normal. Nothing about this is normal, especially since he's not only a former President but a billionaire," said a former top RNC official.
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Today's Investment Tip
Nobody in their right mind likes to pay higher prices for stuff. But if you're an investor, there is a way to profit from inflationary trends — and it might be time to start adjusting your portfolio accordingly.
Consumer staples giants like Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi (PEP) can benefit from rising prices — as long as they are able to pass on some of those costs to customers. And that's what some companies are doing.
J.M. Smucker, which makes a wide range of products including Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee, has been raising prices, for example. And that has not appeared to hurt demand, or the stock. Shares of Smucker (SJM) rose more than 5% Tuesday after the company reported earnings and sales that topped forecasts.
Smucker chief financial officer Tucker Marshall noted during a conference call that the company has been able to offset increased costs for coffee and transportation with higher prices.
Even some retailers are finding they can raise prices to offset higher costs and not alienate customers in the process.
Apparel company Guess (GES), which reported strong earnings and sales Tuesday afternoon, said that it is managing rising cotton prices by cutting down on discounts in its stores. Guess shares surged nearly 15% Wednesday on the news.
And the Company I Own Does the Right Thing
Most major retailers have announced plans to remain closed this Thanksgiving Day, as they did last year, when a combination of capacity restrictions, social distancing regulations and a customer base reluctant to be in enclosed areas with large numbers of people made in-store shopping unfeasible. Target, however, took it a step further: It announced Monday that it will make shuttering its stores on Thanksgiving Day permanent.
Actually, I Only Own a Few Shares of Target
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Wanna' Get Away? You Can Visit The Shire Soon.
New Zealand will allow fully vaccinated international travelers into the country from next year, in a gradual easing of its strict border restrictions that have been in place for more than 18 months to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Fully vaccinated citizens, residents and tourists will be allowed to enter the country in three phases, Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins explained during a news conference on Wednesday, November 24.
The border will first open to New Zealand citizens and residents traveling from neighboring Australia on January 16, before expanding to include New Zealanders the rest of the world on February 13.
Fully vaccinated visitors from all other countries, except those deemed "high risk," can visit the Pacific Island nation from April 30, Hipkins said.
Or You Can Visit Afghanistan Right Now
The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in early 2001 shocked the world and highlighted their hard-line regime, toppled soon after in a U.S.-led invasion.
Now back in charge of Afghanistan and eager to present a softer image, the militant group is running the site as a tourist attraction.
For around $5, curious visitors can wander around and take photos of the giant holes in the cliff face where the ancient Buddha statues once stood.
Under a white Taliban flag, soldiers man a booth and write out admission tickets.
Sidiq Ullah, who is a supporter of the militant group, came to see the historic site this week with friends from Kandahar, around 350 miles southwest of Bamiyan. Now that the Taliban are in control, he said, he feels free to tour the country.
“I was young when these were destroyed, about 7 years old, and since then it has been a dream to come and see what happened here,” he said.
“I’m happy it was destroyed. I’m here to see the ruins actually.”
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And College Bands All Across the Country Are Playing It At Football Games
Rapper Lil Nas X's hit song about gay sex was nominated Tuesday for three Grammy Awards, catapulting LGBTQ narratives to the highest echelon of achievement in the music industry.
The provocative song — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” — is up for song of the year, record of the year and best music video at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which are being held Jan. 31 in Los Angeles.
Its title is a reference to the gay romance novel and 2017 film “Call Me By Your Name.” But its lyrics are less about love and more about lust, with lines including “romantic talking? You don’t even have to try” and "I’m not fazed, only here to sin."
But They Don't Play "Dixie" Any More. Now If We Can Just Get Rid of "It's Boring and It's Slow. It's the Only Song You Know."
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He Pepper Sprayed Police At the Capital. Then He Went to Basic Training.
The FBI has arrested a supporter of former President Donald Trump who sprayed cops with pepper spray, smashed out a window and broke into the U.S. Capitol before he went to basic training for the U.S. Air Force.
Aiden Bilyard was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to court records. He faces a host of charges, including felony civil disorder, assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and several other misdemeanors.
After being identified by online sleuths operating under the “Sedition Hunters” banner who had nicknamed him #HarvardSweats, Bilyard was interviewed by the FBI at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, back in August.
“At the time, BILYARD was attending basic training for the United States Air Force but has since separated from the Air Force and moved back home to Cary, North Carolina,” an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit unsealed Tueday.
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The Price of Associating With the Previous Guy
Two attorneys have been ordered to pay nearly $187,000 in legal fees after unsuccessfully challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election in a lawsuit that a federal judge called “defamatory,” an “abuse of the legal system” and a means to foment violence.
In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter ordered attorneys Gary D. Fielder and Ernest John Walker to cover the legal fees incurred by Facebook, the voting company Dominion, the nonprofit the Center for Tech and Civic Life, and officials with the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“Counsel should think long and hard, and do significant pre-filing research and verification, before ever filing a lawsuit like this again,” Neureiter said. “This lawsuit has been an abuse of the legal system and an interference with the machinery of government.”
Fielder and Walker had baselessly accused Facebook, Dominion, the CTCL, and state officials of plotting to steal the election from former President Donald Trump by altering votes, using unreliable voting machines, and counting illegal votes, among other tactics. They sought $1.6 billion in damages on behalf of the nation’s 160 million voters.
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Tonight We're Gonna' Party Like It's 1969. (But With a Mask)
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the U.S. job market is rebounding rapidly from last year's coronavirus recession.
Jobless claims dropped by 71,000 to 199,000, the lowest since mid-November 1969. But seasonal adjustments around the Thanksgiving holiday contributed significantly to the bigger-than-expected drop. Unadjusted, claims actually ticked up by more than 18,000 to nearly 259,000.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, also dropped — by 21,000 to just over 252,000, the lowest since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic slammed the economy.
Since topping 900,000 in early January, the applications have fallen steadily toward and now fallen below their prepandemic level of around 220,000 a week. Claims for jobless aid are a proxy for layoffs.
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Meanwhile, the Sacklers Enjoy Their Billions
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said Tuesday in a verdict that could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.
Lake and Trumbull counties blamed the three chain pharmacies for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1 billion, said their attorney, who in court compared the pharmacies' dispensing to a gumball machine.
How much the pharmacies must pay in damages will be decided in the spring by a federal judge.
It's the first time pharmacy companies completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that killed a half-million Americans over the past two decades.
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They Won't Collect $25 Million, But Garnishing Wages Will Be Fun
Nine people injured during the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, are entitled to more than $25 million in financial compensation, a jury declared Tuesday in reaching a partial verdict. But it could not agree on the most serious claims that the defendants — about two dozen white supremacists, neo-Nazis and key organizers — engaged in a conspiracy to commit violence under federal law.
The jury of 11 deliberated for more than three days following four weeks of testimony in the civil trial in a federal court in Charlottesville. The plaintiffs, all from Charlottesville, described broken bones, the bloodshed and emotional trauma resulting from the mayhem. The defendants, some self-described racists and white nationalists, argued they were exercising their First Amendment rights in organizing and participating in the rally.
The case, known as Sines v. Kessler, was the first major lawsuit in years to be tried under the so-called Ku Klux Klan Act, a rarely used federal law codified after the Civil War. It was installed to diminish the power of white supremacists and protect African Americans, prohibiting discrimination in voting and other rights.
In making its decision, the jury had to find that the defendants, who include Jason Kessler, the lead organizer of the rally, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who coined the term "alt-right," entered into a conspiracy to commit violence. But the jury was deadlocked in the first two claims of a federal race-based "conspiracy to interfere with civil rights" and "action for neglect to prevent."
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A Serious Warning About Online Shopping
As supply chain issues disrupt the holiday shopping season, scammers are making things worse by taking advantage of those challenges with fake websites.
A new Bankrate survey found that 77% of American adults reported having product-related shopping problems, with nearly half of those for items that were either out of stock or backordered. Scammers are aware of those issues as they, too, approach their big season.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions CEO Haywood Talcove said the company has seen a 2,000% increase in consumers who say they've lost money to scammers posing as legitimate online retailers. The increase, which he said is driven by the ongoing supply chain issues, equals over 5,000 fake sites, up from just 100 or so earlier this year.
"When you go to some of the big-box stores — whether it be Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy — they don't have the toy that you want in stock and then you google it. Then you find this really boutique company that is offering the bicycle that your daughter wants and you think, 'You know what? I'm going to get it,'" Talcove told CBS News' consumer investigative correspondent Anna Werner.
"It's a front for a transnational criminal group," Talcove said.
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It's Deja Vu All Over Again
As families prepare to gather over the Thanksgiving holiday, some hospitals across the country are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages, and surges tied to holiday gatherings could make it worse.
A potentially weekslong closure of a New York emergency department Monday was sparked by a staffing shortage after unvaccinated health care workers were not allowed to continue work due to a state rule. Mount Sinai South Nassau's emergency room in Long Beach will direct patients to its Oceanside emergency department.
Officials in Denver said hospitals are filling up, with about 80% of those hospitalized for COVID-19 being unvaccinated, 9News reported. Dr. Robin Wittenstein, CEO of Denver Health, told the outlet their system is on the "brink of collapse."
"We are here today because too many people chose not to get vaccinated even though they were eligible," said Denver Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Bob McDonald.
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43 Tears In Prison Based on One Witness Who Recanted
Kansas City inmate Kevin Strickland has been exonerated after a Missouri judge overturned his 1979 conviction for a triple homicide on Tuesday. Retired Missouri Judge James Welsh ordered the 62-year-old, who spent 43 years in prison, be immediately released.
Welsh ruled that Strickland's conviction should be overturned since it was not based on physical evidence but on eye-witness testimony from Cynthia Douglas, the sole survivor of the shooting, who later recanted her account.
"It is important to recognize when the system has made wrongs and what we did in this case was wrong," Missouri prosecutor Jean Peters-Baker said in October.
During his time in prison, Strickland has maintained that he was not involved in the triple homicide.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with these murders. By no means was I anywhere close to that crime scene," Strickland insisted in October during an evidentiary hearing, according to CBS affiliate KCTV.
The triple homicide occurred on April 25, 1978. Douglas was drinking and smoking with Larry Ingram, 21, John Walker, 20, and Sherrie Black, 22, at a house that was a popular hangout spot when four men entered the house and shot them. Only Douglas survived and later agreed with police that Strickland could have been one of the men, picking him out of a lineup.
His first trial ended with a hung jury, but a second trial and jury found Strickland guilty of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.
In 1979, Vincent Bell and Kilm Adkins confessed to being part of the group that committed the murders and told police that Strickland was not involved, according to court filings. Douglas also told multiple family members and friends that she wrongly identified Strickland. She even sent a message to the Midwest Innocence Project, according to court filings.
Douglas died in 2015 but Peters-Baker used her multiple recantations in the appeal as evidence Strickland was wrongly convicted. Now, he is a free man.
Meanwhile They Can't Protect Us From Real Criminals Like the Sacklers
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Are They Making Chips In Texas Because the Salsa is So Good There?
Samsung has said it will build a $17bn (£12.7bn) semiconductor factory in Texas, amid a global shortage of chips used in cars, phones and other electronic devices.
The plant just outside Austin would be the South Korean company’s biggest US investment and is expected to be operational in the second half of 2024.
Samsung had also considered sites in Arizona and New York for the factory, which will be much bigger than its only other US chip plant, also in Austin.
Samsung said the new facility would boost production of hi-tech chips used for 5G mobile communications, advanced computing and artificial intelligence, and also improve supply chain resilience.
The chip shortage has become a significant business obstacle and a serious US national security concern. Shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have led to supply issues, hampering production of new vehicles and electronic devices for more than a year. National security has also become an issue because many US companies are dependent on chips produced overseas, particularly in Taiwan, which China has long claimed as its own territory.
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When Winning is Losing
Parents in southern Mexico say they are being threatened by a gang after their children's nursery won 20m pesos ($950,000; £710,0000) in a lottery.
The nursery has just over two dozen pupils and their parents were put in charge of administering the prize.
Soon after their win was made public, they received threats from an armed group, which demanded that they use the money to buy weapons for the gang.
The families say they had to flee their village and have been living rough.
Gang violence is rife in Mexico and armed groups often try to recruit locals in their fight with rivals for control of territory.
A number of the 500-peso tickets in Mexico's much-publicised "plane lottery" were bought by anonymous benefactors and donated to poor schools and nurseries across the country.
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Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People Fully Vaccinated | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Nov 23 | 1,126,545 | 230,669,289 | 195,973,992 | ||
| Nov 22 | 1,521,815 | 230,732,565 | 196,398,948 | 93,668 | 1,009 |
| Nov 21 | 1,774,196 | 230,298,744 | 196,284,442 | 91,021 | 985 |
| Nov 20 | 2,136,513 | 229,837,421 | 196,128,496 | 90,823 | 996 |
| Nov 19 | 1,952,717 | 229,291,004 | 195,920,566 | 92,852 | 1,047 |
| Nov 18 | 1,870,564 | 228,570,531 | 195,713,107 | 94,260 | 1,069 |
| Nov 17 | 1,811,047 | 228,175,638 | 195,612,365 | 88,482 | 1,032 |
| Nov 16 | 1,608,906 | 227,691,941 | 195,435,688 | 85,944 | 1,028 |
| Nov 15 | 1,582,519 | 227,133,617 | 195,275,904 | 83,671 | 1,029 |
| Nov 14 | 1,375,998 | 226,607,653 | 195,120,470 | 80,823 | 1,043 |
| Nov 13 | 1,370,279 | 226,157,226 | 194,951,106 | 80,590 | 1,049 |
| Nov 12 | 1,335,066 | 225,606,197 | 194,747,839 | 78,552 | 1,038 |
| Nov 11 | No Data | 73,218 | 999 | ||
| Nov 10 | 1,316,294 | 224,660,453 | 194,382,921 | 76,458 | 1,051 |
| Nov 9 | 1,316,228 | 224,257,467 | 194,168,611 | 74,584 | 1,078 |
| Nov 8 | 1,300,925 | 223,944,369 | 194,001,108 | 73,312 | 1,078 |
| Nov 7 | 1,265,361 | 223,629,671 | 193,832,584 | 71,867 | 1,068 |
| Nov 6 | 1,254,975 | 223,245,121 | 193,627,929 | 71,327 | 1,079 |
| Nov 5 | 1,283,684 | 222,902,939 | 193,425,862 | 71,517 | 1,071 |
| Nov 4 | 1,188,564 | 222,591,394 | 193,227,813 | 71,241 | 1,102 |
| Nov 3 | 1,068,184 | 222,268,786 | 192,931,486 | 70,431 | 1,109 |
| Nov 2 | 1,112,624 | 221,961,370 | 192,726,406 | 71,029 | 1,130 |
| Nov 1 | 1,243,313 | 221,760,691 | 192,586,927 | 74,798 | 1,190 |
| Oct 31 | 1,203,517 | 221,520,153 | 192,453,500 | 71,207 | 1,151 |
| Oct 30 | 1,114,502 | 221,221,467 | 192,244,927 | 71,690 | 1,156 |
| Oct 29 | 1,008,247 | 220,860,887* | 191,997,869 | 69,197 | 1,104 |
| Oct 28 | 1,086,543 | 221,348,530 | 191,242,432 | 68,177 | 1,086 |
| Oct 27 | 959,348 | 220,936,118 | 190,990,750 | 68,792 | 1,129 |
| Oct 26 | 796,148 | 220,648,845 | 190,793,100 | 68,151 | 1,098 |
| Oct 25 | 786,321 | 220,519,217 | 190,699,790 | 65,953 | 1,159 |
| Oct 24 | 768,503 | 220,351,217 | 190,578,704 | 59,129 | 1,122 |
| Feb 16 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | |
| % of Total Population | 69.5% | 59.0% |
| % of Population 12+ | 80.3% | 69.1% |
| % of Population 18+ | 82.2% | 71.0% |
| % of Population 65+ | 99.9% | 86.4% |
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France Has that Wrist Slap Thing Down
France and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema has been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail a fellow French footballer with a sex tape.
A judge handed Benzema a one-year suspended jail term and ordered him to pay a €75,000 (£63,000; $84,000) fine.
Benzema, 33, was one of five people put on trial last month over an attempt to extort Frenchman Mathieu Valbuena.
The scandal has stunned the football community in France and both players lost their national team places.
The case dates back to June 2015, when the two footballers were at a French training camp.
At the camp, Benzema put pressure on Valbuena to pay off the blackmailers, whom he had conspired with to act as an intermediary, prosecutors said.
Benzema has always denied the allegations and insisted he was only trying to help Valbuena get rid of the compromising video.
Benzema has since returned to the France team and is expected to start for Real Madrid on Wednesday night when they play FC Sheriff Tiraspol in the Champions League.
Benzema is Worth $75 Million. That $84,000 Fine Will Really Sting.
"Benzema" Sounds Like What You Get If You Mix Benadryl and Noxzema.
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The Albatross Thrill is Gone
When relationships end it might be because the spark has disappeared, or maybe you just can't make time for one another.
But can climate change cause break-ups?
It might do, according to a new study which suggests albatrosses - some of the world's most loyal creatures - are "divorcing" more.
Research published in the Royal Society journal looked at 15,500 breeding pairs in the Falkland Islands over 15 years.
Albatross divorce is basically just cheating, in human terms. It's when one part of a couple mates with a different individual.
Like humans, albatrosses also have an awkward growing-up phase, trying (and sometimes failing) to figure out the best way to get into a relationship.
But ultimately, when they find a good match, they normally stick together for life.
Just 1% of albatrosses separate after choosing their life partner - much lower than the human divorce rate in the UK.
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The Family That Detects Together, Collects Together
A 13-year-old girl uncovered a hoard of Bronze Age axes on her third metal-detecting trip.
Milly was scouring a field near Royston, Hertfordshire, when she made the find - the first of 65 artefacts dating from about 1300BC.
When her father dug out the first one, Milly said they joked it might be an axe - and it was.
Archaeologists were called in to excavate the entire hoard, which will be sent to the British Museum, London.
Milly, from Suffolk, had only recently taken up her father's favourite hobby of metal-detecting.
The pair were on an organised trip when they came across the first axe head.
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Haven't We All Sat In Parliament With a Crying Baby in the Seat Behind Us?
An MP has said it "has to be possible for politics and parenting to mix" after being told she cannot sit in the Commons with her three-month-old son.
Labour's Stella Creasy was informed it was against the rules to bring a child to a debate at Westminster Hall after doing so on Tuesday.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has asked a committee of MPs to review the rules.
Ms Creasy said she was "pleased to hear this" - as rules meant she could not be in the chamber for his statement.
Sir Lindsay said it was "extremely important" for parents to be able to participate fully in the work of the House, which is why it had a nursery.
"Rules have to be seen in context and they change with the times," he told the House.
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This is not normal. Nothing about this is normal
A pair of payments the Republican National Committee made to a law firm representing former President Donald Trump is raising questions among former and current GOP officials about the party's priorities in a critical election year and its ability to remain neutral -- as long-standing RNC rules require -- in the 2024 presidential primary.
The separate payments to Fischetti and Malgieri LLP totalling $121,670, listed in the committee's latest filing to the Federal Election Commission, were first reported on Monday. Ronald Fischetti, a partner at the New York-based firm, was hired by the Trump Organization in April amid ongoing investigations into the real estate company's financial practices by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and state Attorney General Letitia James.
A spokesperson for the RNC said the party's executive committee recently "approved paying for certain legal expenses that relate to politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump," and defended the payments as "entirely appropriate" as the party "continues assisting in fighting back against the Democrats' never ending witch hunt and attacks on [Trump]."
However, some RNC members and donors accused the party of running afoul of its own neutrality rules and misplacing its priorities. Some of these same officials who spoke to CNN also questioned why the party would foot the legal bills of a self-professed billionaire who was sitting on a $102 million war chest as recently as July and has previously used his various political committees to cover legal costs. According to FEC filings from August, the former President's Make America Great Again committee has paid Jones Day more than $37,000 since the beginning of the year, while his Make America Great Again super PAC has paid a combined $7.8 million to attorneys handling his lawsuits related to the 2020 election.
"This is not normal. Nothing about this is normal, especially since he's not only a former President but a billionaire," said a former top RNC official.
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Today's Investment Tip
Nobody in their right mind likes to pay higher prices for stuff. But if you're an investor, there is a way to profit from inflationary trends — and it might be time to start adjusting your portfolio accordingly.
Consumer staples giants like Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi (PEP) can benefit from rising prices — as long as they are able to pass on some of those costs to customers. And that's what some companies are doing.
J.M. Smucker, which makes a wide range of products including Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee, has been raising prices, for example. And that has not appeared to hurt demand, or the stock. Shares of Smucker (SJM) rose more than 5% Tuesday after the company reported earnings and sales that topped forecasts.
Smucker chief financial officer Tucker Marshall noted during a conference call that the company has been able to offset increased costs for coffee and transportation with higher prices.
Even some retailers are finding they can raise prices to offset higher costs and not alienate customers in the process.
Apparel company Guess (GES), which reported strong earnings and sales Tuesday afternoon, said that it is managing rising cotton prices by cutting down on discounts in its stores. Guess shares surged nearly 15% Wednesday on the news.
And the Company I Own Does the Right Thing
Most major retailers have announced plans to remain closed this Thanksgiving Day, as they did last year, when a combination of capacity restrictions, social distancing regulations and a customer base reluctant to be in enclosed areas with large numbers of people made in-store shopping unfeasible. Target, however, took it a step further: It announced Monday that it will make shuttering its stores on Thanksgiving Day permanent.
Actually, I Only Own a Few Shares of Target
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Wanna' Get Away? You Can Visit The Shire Soon.
New Zealand will allow fully vaccinated international travelers into the country from next year, in a gradual easing of its strict border restrictions that have been in place for more than 18 months to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Fully vaccinated citizens, residents and tourists will be allowed to enter the country in three phases, Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins explained during a news conference on Wednesday, November 24.
The border will first open to New Zealand citizens and residents traveling from neighboring Australia on January 16, before expanding to include New Zealanders the rest of the world on February 13.
Fully vaccinated visitors from all other countries, except those deemed "high risk," can visit the Pacific Island nation from April 30, Hipkins said.
Or You Can Visit Afghanistan Right Now
The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in early 2001 shocked the world and highlighted their hard-line regime, toppled soon after in a U.S.-led invasion.
Now back in charge of Afghanistan and eager to present a softer image, the militant group is running the site as a tourist attraction.
For around $5, curious visitors can wander around and take photos of the giant holes in the cliff face where the ancient Buddha statues once stood.
Under a white Taliban flag, soldiers man a booth and write out admission tickets.
Sidiq Ullah, who is a supporter of the militant group, came to see the historic site this week with friends from Kandahar, around 350 miles southwest of Bamiyan. Now that the Taliban are in control, he said, he feels free to tour the country.
“I was young when these were destroyed, about 7 years old, and since then it has been a dream to come and see what happened here,” he said.
“I’m happy it was destroyed. I’m here to see the ruins actually.”
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And College Bands All Across the Country Are Playing It At Football Games
Rapper Lil Nas X's hit song about gay sex was nominated Tuesday for three Grammy Awards, catapulting LGBTQ narratives to the highest echelon of achievement in the music industry.
The provocative song — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” — is up for song of the year, record of the year and best music video at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which are being held Jan. 31 in Los Angeles.
Its title is a reference to the gay romance novel and 2017 film “Call Me By Your Name.” But its lyrics are less about love and more about lust, with lines including “romantic talking? You don’t even have to try” and "I’m not fazed, only here to sin."
But They Don't Play "Dixie" Any More. Now If We Can Just Get Rid of "It's Boring and It's Slow. It's the Only Song You Know."
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He Pepper Sprayed Police At the Capital. Then He Went to Basic Training.
The FBI has arrested a supporter of former President Donald Trump who sprayed cops with pepper spray, smashed out a window and broke into the U.S. Capitol before he went to basic training for the U.S. Air Force.
Aiden Bilyard was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to court records. He faces a host of charges, including felony civil disorder, assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon, destruction of government property, entering and remaining in a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and several other misdemeanors.
After being identified by online sleuths operating under the “Sedition Hunters” banner who had nicknamed him #HarvardSweats, Bilyard was interviewed by the FBI at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, back in August.
“At the time, BILYARD was attending basic training for the United States Air Force but has since separated from the Air Force and moved back home to Cary, North Carolina,” an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit unsealed Tueday.
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The Price of Associating With the Previous Guy
Two attorneys have been ordered to pay nearly $187,000 in legal fees after unsuccessfully challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election in a lawsuit that a federal judge called “defamatory,” an “abuse of the legal system” and a means to foment violence.
In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter ordered attorneys Gary D. Fielder and Ernest John Walker to cover the legal fees incurred by Facebook, the voting company Dominion, the nonprofit the Center for Tech and Civic Life, and officials with the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“Counsel should think long and hard, and do significant pre-filing research and verification, before ever filing a lawsuit like this again,” Neureiter said. “This lawsuit has been an abuse of the legal system and an interference with the machinery of government.”
Fielder and Walker had baselessly accused Facebook, Dominion, the CTCL, and state officials of plotting to steal the election from former President Donald Trump by altering votes, using unreliable voting machines, and counting illegal votes, among other tactics. They sought $1.6 billion in damages on behalf of the nation’s 160 million voters.
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Tonight We're Gonna' Party Like It's 1969. (But With a Mask)
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the U.S. job market is rebounding rapidly from last year's coronavirus recession.
Jobless claims dropped by 71,000 to 199,000, the lowest since mid-November 1969. But seasonal adjustments around the Thanksgiving holiday contributed significantly to the bigger-than-expected drop. Unadjusted, claims actually ticked up by more than 18,000 to nearly 259,000.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, also dropped — by 21,000 to just over 252,000, the lowest since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic slammed the economy.
Since topping 900,000 in early January, the applications have fallen steadily toward and now fallen below their prepandemic level of around 220,000 a week. Claims for jobless aid are a proxy for layoffs.
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Meanwhile, the Sacklers Enjoy Their Billions
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said Tuesday in a verdict that could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.
Lake and Trumbull counties blamed the three chain pharmacies for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1 billion, said their attorney, who in court compared the pharmacies' dispensing to a gumball machine.
How much the pharmacies must pay in damages will be decided in the spring by a federal judge.
It's the first time pharmacy companies completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that killed a half-million Americans over the past two decades.
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They Won't Collect $25 Million, But Garnishing Wages Will Be Fun
Nine people injured during the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, are entitled to more than $25 million in financial compensation, a jury declared Tuesday in reaching a partial verdict. But it could not agree on the most serious claims that the defendants — about two dozen white supremacists, neo-Nazis and key organizers — engaged in a conspiracy to commit violence under federal law.
The jury of 11 deliberated for more than three days following four weeks of testimony in the civil trial in a federal court in Charlottesville. The plaintiffs, all from Charlottesville, described broken bones, the bloodshed and emotional trauma resulting from the mayhem. The defendants, some self-described racists and white nationalists, argued they were exercising their First Amendment rights in organizing and participating in the rally.
The case, known as Sines v. Kessler, was the first major lawsuit in years to be tried under the so-called Ku Klux Klan Act, a rarely used federal law codified after the Civil War. It was installed to diminish the power of white supremacists and protect African Americans, prohibiting discrimination in voting and other rights.
In making its decision, the jury had to find that the defendants, who include Jason Kessler, the lead organizer of the rally, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who coined the term "alt-right," entered into a conspiracy to commit violence. But the jury was deadlocked in the first two claims of a federal race-based "conspiracy to interfere with civil rights" and "action for neglect to prevent."
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A Serious Warning About Online Shopping
As supply chain issues disrupt the holiday shopping season, scammers are making things worse by taking advantage of those challenges with fake websites.
A new Bankrate survey found that 77% of American adults reported having product-related shopping problems, with nearly half of those for items that were either out of stock or backordered. Scammers are aware of those issues as they, too, approach their big season.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions CEO Haywood Talcove said the company has seen a 2,000% increase in consumers who say they've lost money to scammers posing as legitimate online retailers. The increase, which he said is driven by the ongoing supply chain issues, equals over 5,000 fake sites, up from just 100 or so earlier this year.
"When you go to some of the big-box stores — whether it be Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy — they don't have the toy that you want in stock and then you google it. Then you find this really boutique company that is offering the bicycle that your daughter wants and you think, 'You know what? I'm going to get it,'" Talcove told CBS News' consumer investigative correspondent Anna Werner.
"It's a front for a transnational criminal group," Talcove said.
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It's Deja Vu All Over Again
As families prepare to gather over the Thanksgiving holiday, some hospitals across the country are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages, and surges tied to holiday gatherings could make it worse.
A potentially weekslong closure of a New York emergency department Monday was sparked by a staffing shortage after unvaccinated health care workers were not allowed to continue work due to a state rule. Mount Sinai South Nassau's emergency room in Long Beach will direct patients to its Oceanside emergency department.
Officials in Denver said hospitals are filling up, with about 80% of those hospitalized for COVID-19 being unvaccinated, 9News reported. Dr. Robin Wittenstein, CEO of Denver Health, told the outlet their system is on the "brink of collapse."
"We are here today because too many people chose not to get vaccinated even though they were eligible," said Denver Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Bob McDonald.
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43 Tears In Prison Based on One Witness Who Recanted
Kansas City inmate Kevin Strickland has been exonerated after a Missouri judge overturned his 1979 conviction for a triple homicide on Tuesday. Retired Missouri Judge James Welsh ordered the 62-year-old, who spent 43 years in prison, be immediately released.
Welsh ruled that Strickland's conviction should be overturned since it was not based on physical evidence but on eye-witness testimony from Cynthia Douglas, the sole survivor of the shooting, who later recanted her account.
"It is important to recognize when the system has made wrongs and what we did in this case was wrong," Missouri prosecutor Jean Peters-Baker said in October.
During his time in prison, Strickland has maintained that he was not involved in the triple homicide.
"I had absolutely nothing to do with these murders. By no means was I anywhere close to that crime scene," Strickland insisted in October during an evidentiary hearing, according to CBS affiliate KCTV.
The triple homicide occurred on April 25, 1978. Douglas was drinking and smoking with Larry Ingram, 21, John Walker, 20, and Sherrie Black, 22, at a house that was a popular hangout spot when four men entered the house and shot them. Only Douglas survived and later agreed with police that Strickland could have been one of the men, picking him out of a lineup.
His first trial ended with a hung jury, but a second trial and jury found Strickland guilty of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.
In 1979, Vincent Bell and Kilm Adkins confessed to being part of the group that committed the murders and told police that Strickland was not involved, according to court filings. Douglas also told multiple family members and friends that she wrongly identified Strickland. She even sent a message to the Midwest Innocence Project, according to court filings.
Douglas died in 2015 but Peters-Baker used her multiple recantations in the appeal as evidence Strickland was wrongly convicted. Now, he is a free man.
Meanwhile They Can't Protect Us From Real Criminals Like the Sacklers
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Are They Making Chips In Texas Because the Salsa is So Good There?
Samsung has said it will build a $17bn (£12.7bn) semiconductor factory in Texas, amid a global shortage of chips used in cars, phones and other electronic devices.
The plant just outside Austin would be the South Korean company’s biggest US investment and is expected to be operational in the second half of 2024.
Samsung had also considered sites in Arizona and New York for the factory, which will be much bigger than its only other US chip plant, also in Austin.
Samsung said the new facility would boost production of hi-tech chips used for 5G mobile communications, advanced computing and artificial intelligence, and also improve supply chain resilience.
The chip shortage has become a significant business obstacle and a serious US national security concern. Shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have led to supply issues, hampering production of new vehicles and electronic devices for more than a year. National security has also become an issue because many US companies are dependent on chips produced overseas, particularly in Taiwan, which China has long claimed as its own territory.
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When Winning is Losing
Parents in southern Mexico say they are being threatened by a gang after their children's nursery won 20m pesos ($950,000; £710,0000) in a lottery.
The nursery has just over two dozen pupils and their parents were put in charge of administering the prize.
Soon after their win was made public, they received threats from an armed group, which demanded that they use the money to buy weapons for the gang.
The families say they had to flee their village and have been living rough.
Gang violence is rife in Mexico and armed groups often try to recruit locals in their fight with rivals for control of territory.
A number of the 500-peso tickets in Mexico's much-publicised "plane lottery" were bought by anonymous benefactors and donated to poor schools and nurseries across the country.
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