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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 12:14:16 GMT -8
Someone stole my strategic conquest board game. They must be a Risk taker.
Not Bad for Washington Gridlock
Five major bills Congress passed in 2022
A sweeping climate, health and tax bill
The Inflation Reduction Act represents the largest attempt in U.S. history to combat climate change with a $369 billion package of clean-energy funding covering cars and homes and businesses. It also aims to curb methane emissions and sets aside money for communities heavily affected by air pollution and other climate-related issues.
A new election law aimed at preventing another Jan. 6
The massive government funding bill that passed Friday included a major election reform package designed to prevent future presidential candidates from stealing elections.
The Electoral Count Reform Act will revise the 1887 Electoral Count Act to make clear the vice president cannot discount electoral votes. It’ll raise the threshold for objections from one member of each the House and Senate to one-fifth of both chambers. It’ll also prevent competing slates of electors and simplify state certification with mechanisms to assure the rightful winner is certified.
The toughest new gun law in nearly 30 years
For the first time in nearly three decades, Congress tightened gun laws, in response to growing public support for action to address mass shootings that have become common in the U.S.
The Safer Communities Act — a bipartisan bill led by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas — include grants for states to pass “red flag” laws designed to block people who could pose a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or owning a firearm.
A law to improve U.S. competition with China
The CHIPS and Science Act is both a major piece of legislation and a message that the U.S. doesn’t intend to fall behind China when it comes to global competitiveness.
The law — which grew out of a bill first negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. — makes a whopping $280 billion investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax breaks for the production of chips.
Enshrining same-sex marriage
One of the final acts of the Democratic-controlled Congress was to pass a law that codifies federal protections for marriages between same-sex and interracial couples.
The Respect for Marriage Act — led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay American elected to the Senate — forces the federal government to recognize legally performed same-sex marriages and to ensure couples full benefits “regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.” It will not require states to grant marriage licenses against state law, but same-sex couples will enjoy the benefits if they get married in a different state.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 12:15:48 GMT -8
You'll Where the Money Went, When You Give it To an Incompetent
Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul’s Alameda Research, the hedge fund’s former chief told a judge when she pleaded guilty to her role in the exchange’s collapse.
Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research, said she agreed with Bankman-Fried to hide from FTX’s investors, lenders and customers that the hedge fund could borrow unlimited sums from the exchange, according a transcript of her Dec. 19 plea hearing that was unsealed on Friday.
“We prepared certain quarterly balance sheets that concealed the extent of Alameda’s borrowing and the billions of dollars in loans that Alameda had made to FTX executives and to related parties,” Ellison told U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan federal court, according to the transcript.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 12:22:00 GMT -8
Creeping Toward SvatoveThe latest advances show that Ukraine has reportedly liberated a series of four villages just west of Svatove. This would seem to put Ukraine in control of the critical junction between the P66 and P07 highways, and position them to take the high ground above the city. Meanwhile, the administrative offices of the local “Luhansk People’s Republic” have reportedly been deserted, as Russian officials flee Svatove. It’s been over two months since the city of Lyman was liberated, and in that time Ukraine has slowly moved toward the cities of Kreminna and Svatove. At both locations, Ukraine has seemingly tried to duplicate the tactics that allowed them to take Lyman with relatively few losses — capture surrounding villages, cut off supply routes, and gradually close in while leaving Russians a single route of escape. However, that’s been much more difficult at Svatove and Kreminna, because the main highway in the area runs north—south, Ukrainian forces were approaching from the west, and the muds of fall have made it nearly impossible to move along the area’s dirt roads. However, in the last few days Ukrainian forces have reportedly battled their way ever closer to Kreminna, fighting through woodlands south of the city and advancing down a single heavily-mined highway from the west. And now there are reports of even more rapid movement near Svatove, where a breakthrough appears to have resulted in the rapid liberation of a string of villages, putting Ukranian forces in position to move on the city. 
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 12:31:56 GMT -8
It's Probably a Bad Idea to Spread Rumors. Fortunately, I Don't Care. I Love It!
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 12:39:05 GMT -8
Now Would You Like to Live on $15,000 Per Year? That's the Federal Minimum Wage.
Dozens of cities and states around the country will hike their wage floors when the ball drops on New Year’s, thanks largely to annual cost-of-living increases tied to minimum wage laws in recent years.
A new analysis from the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group that promotes higher minimum wages, shows that 23 states and 41 cities and counties will implement increases at the start of 2023. The new minimums will be at least $15 per hour in 40 of those jurisdictions — most of them expensive urban areas — reflecting the long-term success of the Fight for $15 labor campaign that began a decade ago.
Another five states and 22 cities and counties will boost their wage floors later in the year. (Read NELP’s full report below.)
Six states will be at or above $15 per hour on New Year’s Day: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Here are all 23 states increasing their minimum wages at the start of 2023, their current minimums, and the new rates:
Alaska: $10.34 to $10.85
Arizona: $12.80 to $13.85
California: $15.00 ($14.00 for small employers) to $15.50
Colorado $12.56 to $13.65
Delaware: $10.50 to $11.75
Illinois: $12.00 to $13.00
Maine: $12.75 to $13.80
Maryland: $12.50 ($12.20 for small employers) to $13.25 ($12.80)
Massachusetts: $14.25 to $15.00
Michigan: $9.87 to $10.10
Minnesota: $10.33 ($8.42 for small employers) to $10.50 ($8.63)
Missouri: $11.15 to $12.00
Montana: $9.20 to $9.95
Nebraska: $9.00 to $10.50
New Jersey: $13.00 to $14.00
New Mexico: $11.50 to $12.00
New York: $15.00 for New York City, Long Island and Westchester County ($13.20 upstate) to $15.00 ($14.20)
Ohio: $9.30 to $10.10
Rhode Island: $12.25 to $13.00
South Dakota: $9.95 to $10.80
Vermont: $12.55 to $13.18
Virginia: $11.00 to $12.00
Washington state: $14.49 to $15.74
Many of the increases are greater than in typical years, due to the high inflation rate that persisted throughout 2022. State and local laws often tie their wage floor hikes to an inflation index so that they readjust each year in line with consumer prices.
The local raises come at a time when Congress has largely abandoned the federal minimum wage, which remains just $7.25 per hour and applies in any jurisdiction that doesn’t mandate a higher one. The last federal increase was implemented in 2009, as part of a series of hikes signed into law during the presidency of George W. Bush.
$15 Per Hour is $31,000 Per Year, Hardly a Lot
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 13:05:28 GMT -8
Judge Tells Kari to Go Jump in a Lake
A judge has thrown out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.
In a decision Saturday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, found that the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that Lake had alleged had affected the result of the 2022 general election. Lake will appeal the ruling, she said in a statement Saturday.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses didn’t have any personal knowledge of intentional misconduct.
“The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson said.
Lake, who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most of the other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake has not. Instead, she asked the judge to either declare her the winner or order a revote in Maricopa County.
In the ruling, the judge acknowledged the “anger and frustration” of voters who were inconvenienced in the election and noted that setting aside the results of an election “has never been done in the history of the United States.”
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 13:08:09 GMT -8
How Do You Fight a War Without Ammo?
Russia's war effort in Ukraine is being hampered by a shortage of munitions that is limiting the amount of strikes its forces can carry out, according to British defense officials.
In its daily update, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that Russia has dealt with troop shortages by augmenting its forces with "tens of thousands of reservists since October."
This followed a partial mobilization that was announced the previous month by Russian President Vladimir Putin, although the draft was beset with complaints that it was botched.
Despite this increase in personnel "a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations," the defense officials said.
The assessment said that "the limited availability of cruise missiles" had meant that Russia had probably limited long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure to around once a week. It added that Russia was also unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to allow for large-scale offensive operations.
The officials concluded that "a vulnerability" of how Russian military operations were conducted was that "even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets."
Newsweek has contacted Russia's defense ministry about the daily assessment, which emphasizes Ukrainian gains and Russian losses.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 13:13:49 GMT -8
Luddites Screw Over a Town
Local opponents have succeeded in killing plans for a solar array in rural Ohio that now becomes one of the largest renewable energy projects in the country canceled because of resistance from nearby residents and their elected leaders.
Mark Schein, a farmer whose land near Williamsport would have hosted part of the project, learned of the change of plans Thursday in a brief phone call with the developer, EDF Renewables. The company decided to withdraw its proposal to build the 400-megawatt Chipmunk Solar project in the face of a grassroots campaign and in light of state regulators’ recent rejections of projects that have local opposition.
Chipmunk will be the second-largest solar array in the United States to have been submitted for regulatory approval and then withdrawn because of local opposition in at least two years. The largest was Battle Born Solar, an 850-megawatt project in Nevada that was canceled by its developer last year, according to a database maintained by the research firm Wood Mackenzie.
"I’m disappointed, and there are a couple people here in the community I don’t think I’ll speak to for the rest of my life," Schein said, referring to neighbors who sunk the project.
EDF confirmed its plans in a filing Thursday afternoon with the Ohio Power Siting Board and in a letter to the Pickaway County government.
"While we were hopeful the project would come to fruition, the nature of development activities, which are sometimes out of our control, have forced us to make the difficult decision to no longer proceed," the company said in the letter.
The opposition group said through its attorney that it had no comment.
With the demise of the project, the community is losing a projected $3.6 million per year in tax revenue, most of which would have gone to public schools. Property owners who signed leases with EDF will forgo a projected $3 million per year in lease payments, according to the company.
Based on an anticipated lifespan of 30 years, the cancellation means local governments in this small, rural county stand to lose about $100 million.
Last year at this time, it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine that the Ohio Power Siting Board would approve the proposal in time for construction to begin in 2023. At that point, the board had never rejected a solar project.
The outlook changed, largely because of the efforts of local opponents who said solar power would hurt the community by taking farmland out of production, reducing property values and damaging soil and water. They campaigned through yard signs and lobbying public officials, and they succeeded in getting the county and township governments to pass resolutions opposing the project.
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Post by mhbruin on Dec 24, 2022 13:16:45 GMT -8
The Night When the Lights Went Out in Georgia (In the Grand Jury Room).
A A special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election in Georgia appears to be wrapping up its work, but many questions remain.
The investigation is one of several that could result in criminal charges against the former president as he asks voters to return him to the White House in 2024.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who began investigating nearly two years ago, has said she will go where the facts lead. It would be an extraordinary step if she chooses to bring charges against Trump himself.
“Even if he’s acquitted by a jury, for him to face trial and to have a public trial with evidence on the record would be an epic thing for American history,” Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham said.
Here's what we know as the special grand jury appears to be winding down:
Over about six months, the grand jurors have considered evidence and heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including high-profile Trump associates and top state officials. A prosecutor on Willis’ team said during a hearing in November that they had few witnesses left and didn’t anticipate the special grand jury continuing much longer.
The grand jurors are expected to produce a final report with recommendations on potential further action. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s supervising the panel, will review the report and recommend to the court's chief judge that the special grand jury be dissolved. The judges of the county Superior Court will then vote on whether to let the special grand jurors go or whether more investigation is necessary.
The special grand jury cannot issue indictments. Willis will decide whether to go to a regular grand jury to pursue criminal charges.
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