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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:29:55 GMT -8
I named one dog was named Rolex and the other Timex. They're watch dogs. Habba Bad Day? Let's Try for Another.A Legally Besieged Trump Focuses on a Personal Goal: Revenge Against Hillary ClintonFormer President Donald Trump is a busy man. He faces four different indictments, 91 felony charges, a quickly depleting political war chest, and is running for president. And yet, with all of his own legal problems, Trump is focused on a revenge lawsuit against his old political rival Hillary Clinton and her allies. Most bizarre of all, Trump and his lawyer, Alina Habba, are suing Clinton in a manner that could land them a huge fine—which would be a second fine for this lawsuit. Back in January, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks berated Trump and Habba for wasting everyone’s time in a blistering order that personally sanctioned them $937,989. A photo illustration shows pastor Stephen Lee at the pulpit in black and white with Donald Trump looming behind him in orange. “This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it,” Middlebrooks wrote, ripping into Trump and his lawyer for firing an indiscriminate spray of rubbish in “a quintessential shotgun pleading” that merely served “a political purpose.” Middlebrooks was describing the way that Trump sued everyone he has publicly blamed for fueling pernicious conspiracies that he’s a Kremlin agent: Clinton, her 2016 campaign chair, Democratic lawyers, and FBI officials who launched the infamous Crossfire Hurricane investigation looking into Trump-Russia connections. Then came the so-called Durham Report in May. In it, Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Durham tried to defend the spectacular failure of his four-year investigation into potential malfeasance by the feds who investigated the Trump-Russia debacle. While Fox News pundits waved it around as evidence of a Deep State anti-MAGA conspiracy, keen observers noted that it contained no bombshells and largely failed to glean much useful information—resulting in a low-end guilty plea and two failed prosecutions. To some, it read like a rehash of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s behemoth report about the headache-inducing drama published back in December 2019. Now, Trump and Habba are trying to reanimate their dead lawsuit by claiming that the Durham Report “seismically alters the legal landscape of this case.” In a court filing last month, Habba asserted that it “corroborates many facts and allegations about which this court expressed skepticism,” going on to boldly warn the judge—on the very first page—that she plans to ask him to step aside. “The orders entered by this court imposing sanctions against President Trump and his counsel raise reasonable questions as to the appearance of impartiality,” she wrote, “and therefore a motion to disqualify is forthcoming.” For another 18 pages, Habba describes all the ways the Durham Report somewhat aligns with the hundreds of allegations she made in her initial lawsuit. |
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:31:42 GMT -8
"Hire More Attorneys"
Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday, a former prosecutor stated Donald Trump's latest delaying tactic to bump out his Washington D.C. trial to 2026 will not only be slapped aside by District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Tanya Chutkan but she will probably instruct him to expand his legal team to meet her schedule.
Speaking with host Alex Witt, Kristen Gibbons Feden was asked about the millions of pages of documents Trump's lawyers need to review to prepare his defense over accusations he conspired to steal the 2020 presidential election so he could remain in office.
According to Feden the motion for a trial delay until 2026 has no chance of being granted by Judge Chutkan who has already indicated she expects a speedy trial.
Asked by host Witt if this was another case of Trump's "Delay, delay, delay tactics,' the former prosecutor stated," It could be wrapped up absolutely."
But the Trump lawyers do make a really good point," she admitted. "When you talk about the very first production of documents being 11 million pages, the trial date pushed out a year and a half makes sense, but again the court is not going to allow that."
"What I think she is going to say is, 'Look, Mr. Trump, it's time for you to hire more attorneys if you cannot handle the production and if you cannot, allow that to be part of your defense. So she is absolutely going to force that to be wrapped up before the end of next summer. Absolutely."
After All. You're Not Planning on Paying them Anyway.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:35:20 GMT -8
Souhtern States: You Have to Carry the Baby to Term. We Don't Care if You and the Baby Die During DeliveryWhen Katie Chubb announced in 2021 she was planning to open a freestanding birth center in Augusta, Georgia, it seemed like everybody in town was excited about it. She met with local physicians and nurses who said they would welcome her Augusta Birth Center as a provider of midwifery services for low-risk pregnancies. Hundreds of people signed the interest form on her website. She met with the head of obstetrics at University Hospital (now Piedmont Augusta), located less than a mile from the proposed birth center location, who responded positively, she said. But when Chubb submitted her 800-page application to the state health department for a so-called Certificate of Need — a requirement to open a licensed birth center in Georgia — she discovered that not everybody in town was enthusiastic about the Augusta Birth Center. Two local hospitals, including the one she'd met with, filed letters of opposition with the state. They cited several concerns, including a belief that the center hadn't demonstrated its services were needed in the community. Those hospitals, plus a third in the area, refused to sign a written agreement with Chubb saying they would accept emergency transfers from the birth center. As a result, the state denied Chubb's application. The property in downtown Augusta that she'd planned to purchase for the birth center remains vacant and filled with weeds, since the sale was contingent upon her receiving state permission to open. With the future of the business uncertain, her main funder backed away. The South has long had poorer birth outcomes than the rest of the country. Most of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the nation are in Southern states, which tend to have higher rates of poverty and the types of health conditions — such as high blood pressure — that make pregnancy more dangerous. Access to care is thinning out: More than half of rural hospital closures over the past two decades have been in Southern states. Supporters say birth centers can help improve that record. Nationwide, birth alternatives such as freestanding centers and midwifery care have surged in popularity, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted increased interest in out-of-hospital birth options. The number of birth centers nationwide has doubled over the past decade, while midwife-attended births now account for about 12% of all births. Hospitals block much-needed birth centers in the South
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:36:24 GMT -8
Is the War Coming Home?
Russia says that a Ukrainian drone has struck a railway station in the Kursk region, injuring five people.
Another drone is said to have landed in the Rostov region - which shares a border with Ukraine, like Kursk - but no injuries were reported.
Russia also said it stopped a drone that was heading for Moscow, which then crashed in an unpopulated area.
Allegations of drone strikes inside Russia have become increasingly common in recent months.
Although Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility for specific drone strikes, President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said that attacks on Russian territory are an "inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process".
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:41:10 GMT -8
With Great Climate Change, Comes Great Mosquitos
Florida health officials are now issuing warnings for a rise in cases of dengue fever in South Florida.
Eleven locally-acquired cases of the disease have been found in Broward County and Miami-Dade County so far this year.
However, that's not the only mosquito-borne illness Floridians have seen on the rise this summer. Sarasota County saw an outbreak of malaria back in June with seven cases. How do the two diseases compare to one another?
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Another case of rare "locally acquired" malaria, this one in the Washington, D.C. area, has been reported amid a string of such infections since May, officials said Friday.
The unidentified patient had not traveled recently outside the United States, the Maryland Department of Health said in a statement. The person was hospitalized and is recovering, it said.
Dr. David Blythe, director of the health department’s infectious disease division, said the patient was from the D.C. area and had gone to a hospital after experiencing fever and sweating, according to NBC Washington.
It's been 40 years since Maryland has seen a case of locally acquired malaria, state Health Department Secretary Laura Herrera Scott said in the statement.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:43:25 GMT -8
More women than men have college degrees. That's good news for Democrats.Back in 1970, only 11% of Americans 25-or-older had a bachelor’s degree. The number has risen every decade to roughly 38% in 2021, according to the data from the Census’s Current Population Survey. The jump since 2010 has been especially sharp and one of the big drivers of that has been more women completing their four-year degrees. In fact, in the last decade, women surpassed men in college completion. 
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:48:38 GMT -8
How Tennessee’s Justice System Allows Dangerous People to Keep Guns — With Deadly Outcomes
The problem of how, or even whether, to separate dangerous people from their guns is now front and center on the state and national agenda. Next week, legislators will gather for a special session on public safety in response to a Nashville school shooting in March that claimed the lives of three young children and three school staffers. And this fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case on whether it’s constitutional to bar people subject to domestic violence orders from possessing guns. There’s a lot at stake in Tennessee, which consistently ranks in the top 10 states in the rate of women killed by men. As in most states, Tennesseans convicted of certain types of felonies and domestic violence misdemeanors or who are juveniles or subject to protection orders are explicitly prohibited from possessing guns. But while other states have policies to get people to turn over their weapons, Tennessee’s laws offer few mechanisms to retrieve guns after someone has been barred from having them. Law enforcement rarely goes to someone’s home to make sure they don’t have a firearm, unless an incident prompts them to. And at protection order hearings, judges seldom ask follow-up questions about weapons like: “How many guns do you have? Where are they kept?” Or even, “Who are you going to give them to, now that you’ve been ordered to relinquish them?” That last question is part of a dangerous loophole in Tennessee called third-party dispossession. In some states, when people are ordered to give up their guns, they have to give them to law enforcement or a licensed firearms dealer. However, in about a dozen states including Tennessee, they can also give guns to a friend or a relative.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:49:54 GMT -8
Hilary Is a First for California. It May Not Be the Last.
What has kept the hurricanes away from California for so long? The answer lies in two factors that fend off hurricanes: cold sea surface temperatures and high vertical wind shear.
Cold sea surface temperatures suppress hurricane formation because hurricanes get their energy and moisture by evaporating surface waters, which is much harder to do when the water is cold. Because of ocean currents, the waters of the eastern Pacific are far colder — by as much as 9 degrees — than the same latitude in the western Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. [...]
So why has Hurricane Hilary grown stronger given the conditions of the eastern Pacific? Mostly because current conditions are not as hostile to hurricanes as usual. July was the hottest month in recorded history, and since the Earth’s surface is mostly water, a lot of that heat has gone into the oceans. At the moment, the waters around Cabo San Lucas are 88.3 degrees — more than 4 degrees hotter than normal and basically the same temperature as the water around Key West.
Meanwhile, a growing El Niño event (which occurs when the cold waters that usually rise from the Atacama Trench off Peru are prevented from reaching the ocean’s surface ) has decreased vertical wind shear in the eastern Pacific, allowing more hurricanes. These conditions have led to a string of storms in the region, including Hurricane Dora, which was one of the longest-lived Pacific hurricanes on record and was responsible for the strong winds that added to the devastating wildfires on Maui, Hawaii.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:53:09 GMT -8
Is Merrick Garland Still Sleeping?
A coördinated effort to copy and disseminate voting-machine software, orchestrated by lawyers working for Trump and facilitated by election officials loyal to him, as alleged in the Georgia indictment, is an unimaginable violation. But the indictment also reveals how limited state action is. A multi-state conspiracy to steal election data is a federal crime, but, so far, these cases have been pursued piecemeal, absent involvement of the Department of Justice.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 20, 2023 8:57:43 GMT -8
Who Won the Week?
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D), for signing a bill that makes it easier for victims of gun violence to sue gun makers, and regulates gun company advertising
The rescue and relief workers working 24/7 on Maui
President Biden: gets praise on anniversary of Inflation Reduction Act; schedules visit to Maui to view fire damage; economic forecasters give economy thumbs-up; hosts leaders of Japan & South Korea
The Montana state court that ruled in favor of the young people who accused the state of violating their constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment” by embracing fossil fuels
The wheels of justice, as Republican party leader and former president Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants get indicted by a Georgia grand jury for a list of crimes 98 pages long
You Tube, for increasing its efforts to fight medical misinformation by cracking down on accounts posting bogus cancer research and quack cures, along with new rules banning false health claims generally
Students in Pennsylvania, as lawmakers approve the largest K-12 public-education funding increase in state history and guaranteed universal free breakfast
Recreational marijuana, which will be added to the ballot in Ohio this November
Spain, Women's World Cup champions
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