Wed: To Err is Human, Private Equity Really Screws Things Up

Of Course They Have No Shame.  They are Representing Previous Guy

Trump lawyers keep making 'embarrassing' requests: 'I don’t think they have any shame'

Donald Trump's lawyers keep making long-shot bids to end his New York fraud trial, and observers have laughed at loud at their far-fetched efforts.

Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge who's presiding over the case, has already found Trump liable for fraud in a summary judgment before the proceedings started, but the former president's legal team has asked three separate times for a "directed verdict," which would end the case in his favor and almost never works, reported The Daily Beast.

“Three times is excessive," said retired state judge Carolyn E. Demarest. "I think they're just taking a shot in the dark here. It just sounds like a ‘Hail Mary’ pass."

Demarest doesn't recall a single instance where she granted a request for a directed verdict in nearly 35 years on the bench, and the Trump legal team's have "elicited muted laughter in the courtroom," according to The Daily Beast, because they're so unusual in the first place and almost never happen while the trial is still underway.

“It would be very, very rare to direct a verdict before the evidence is complete," Demarest said. "At the end of the entire case, you might ask for a directed verdict, because you’d say, ‘They didn’t prove it.’ In very rare circumstances, it’s possible the case wasn’t proved. But that would be one request for a directed verdict."

Another former state judge compared the requests to a criminal trial where a defense attorney asked for the charges to be dismissed, although Trump is facing potentially huge monetary damages, and not prison time.

“It’s not anything that’s unethical or improper," said retired judge Alan David Marrus. "It’s letting the judge know their client wants one."

“They serve at the pleasure of Mr. Trump," Marrus added. "When push comes to shove, if the client says, ‘I want you to do this,’ they can be relieved. I don’t think anything President Trump does embarrasses him. The lawyers are an extension of his client. The only thing embarrassing is if they have to appear before this judge again, and they probably won’t.”

Directed verdicts, although rarely granted, are meant to ask a judge or jury to keep an open mind, but Engoron has already concluded Trump broke the law by lying to banks and will determine the penalty after hearing all the testimony.

“A directed verdict motion says this: There’s not enough evidence here for the case to go to a jury," Pace University law professor Randolph M. McLaughlin, laughing. "The only wrinkle here is, there's no jury! They’re asking the judge to direct a verdict against himself."

“I’ve never heard of a lawyer asking on multiple occasions for a directed verdict – I’ve never heard of it,” McLaughlin added. “I understand you have to make motions, but some of what they’re doing borders on frivolousness. I don’t think they have any shame at all.”

To Err is Human, But It Takes Private Equity to Really Screw Things Up

Two U.S. senators have launched a bipartisan investigation into secretive and powerful private-equity firms’ involvement in health care in the nation, demanding documents and information from executives associated with two hospital systems to assess how much profit they have generated through their complex financial arrangements and whether the deals harmed patients and clinicians.

Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, and Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who is the committee’s ranking member, are spearheading the inquiry. It began in March when Grassley requested information from private-equity giant Apollo Global Management, owner of Ottumwa Regional Health Center, a Lifepoint Health facility in southeast Iowa where a male nurse assaulted at least nine sedated patients in 2021 and 2022. The nurse later died from an overdose at the facility.

“When it comes to our nation’s hospitals, a business model that prioritizes profits over patient care and safety is unacceptable,” Grassley said in a statement. “The shocking events at Ottumwa Regional Health Center prompted me to ask tough questions about how financial maneuvers by private equity and related companies have negatively impacted the resources, and thereby the patient care, at our rural hospitals. I look forward to working with Senator Whitehouse to get answers and ensure that our nation’s hospitals provide high-quality health care to the communities and patients they serve.”

Killers Are Making the Switch to the Glock Switch

Houston Police Officer William Jeffrey knew danger lurked on the other side of the door when he arrived to serve a felony arrest warrant in September 2021.

What he couldn’t have known was how much danger.

“Deon, it’s Houston Police. Let’s do this the easy way,” Jeffrey said, as his body camera rolled.

Within seconds, a burst of automatic weapons fire pierced the door and struck his chest, ending his life. He was one of many recent victims of what law enforcement officials say is a growing threat: Handguns and rifles illegally modified with a small device to shoot like machine guns. Referred to as “Glock switches” or “auto sears,” these devices have proliferated on the streets, officials say, amplifying the impact of gun violence. Tiny, cheap and easy to install, they are being imported from China, but also are being made with 3D printers.

“My father was shot more than a dozen times,” Jeffrey’s daughter Lacie told NBC News. If the shooter had been firing a regular gun, she said, “my dad could have probably gotten out of the way. He probably could have moved. But he didn’t have a chance because of the rapid fire.”

The gunman, Deon Ladet, was killed when police returned fire. Earlier this year, a man who killed the police chief in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, fired a converted machine gun at pursuing officers before they shot and killed him. In November, a fleeing suspect shot and wounded a Dallas police officer with a modified handgun.

At the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, machine gun conversion devices have become one of the top enforcement priorities. An ATF report on guns used in crimes found that the number of machine gun conversion devices seized by law enforcement went up 570% from 2017 to 2021, and officials say preliminary numbers from 2023 show another huge increase.

“New machine guns have been against the law in the United States since 1934, the days of Al Capone and the Tommy gun,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said. “But we’re seeing them all over the place … we’re talking about the rate of fire being 800 or even 1,000 or more rounds a minute. Think about how many bullets that is.”

He said conversion devices are increasing the danger to already-outgunned police officers and increasing the risk of stray bullets hitting bystanders. ATF firearms experts demonstrated the devices for NBC News at a law enforcement firing range in Washington, D.C.

“There are all kinds of different machine gun conversion devices that are incredibly deadly,” Dettelbach said. “Some of them just go on normal Glock-type handguns. This is, this is a Glock weapon, right? Doesn’t look like anything different. Right? This little square piece of plastic that comes off the back makes this into a fully automatic weapon that is capable of causing mass casualties.”

Converted handguns are extremely difficult to aim and control, he said.

Bye, Bye, Bye

Two months after his historic ouster as House speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy announced Wednesday that he is resigning from his congressional seat in California.

His announcement capped a stunning end for the one-time deli owner from Bakersfield, who ascended through state and national politics to become second in line to the presidency before a contingent of hard-right conservatives engineered his removal in October.

McCarthy is the only speaker in history to be voted out of the job.

Buh-Bye

One of the most prominent Republicans in the House jolted the political world when he announced his retirement on Tuesday, but there had already been signs that North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry was ready to move on after a long career in Congress that began when he was just 29 years old.

We Don't Talk About Methane

Glaciers in Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the Arctic Circle, are warming twice as fast as the Arctic, which is warming four times faster than the planet. A new study has found that this exceptional warming is in a vicious feedback loop where albedo is lost, warming the ice, melting the glaciers of these islands, and generating a new source of carbon emissions.

As a result, a new methane feedback loop that feeds on and accelerates itself has been revealed.

People don’t like to talk about methane, but there is yet another source seemingly everywhere you look.

The methane-laced meltwater formed during the glaciers' retreat becomes groundwater below the ice stream. The newly formed groundwater springs previously hidden from science are rich in methane capped by the glacier from being released into the atmosphere. The permafrost in the tundra is capped by frozen soil that keeps methane and CO2 underground.

Once the thinning or rapid retreat of the glacier is enough to expose the surface, methane-saturated water gurgles out and enters the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas.

Bordering on Insantiy

A classified briefing for senators on the White House's request for aid for Israel and Ukraine became "heated" with Republican members storming out of the meeting Tuesday.

The briefing, led by the secretaries of Defense and State as well as the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, was held behind closed doors to allow all 100 senators to ask questions about the administration's funding request.

But it fell apart, senators from both parties said, after Republicans began asking about the border. GOP members in both chambers have demanded serious changes to immigration policy to address rising migrant crossings in exchange for passing new aid for Ukraine.