Category: National Issues
Backlash grows against Georgia voting rights law
Georgia lawmakers are on defense as prominent companies and business executives have come out in opposition to legislation signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) that has been criticized as an effort to stifle minority voters.
Georgia-based Coca-Cola and Delta on Wednesday joined a growing number of corporations this week criticizing the omnibus bill, S.B. 202.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey called the new measures “unacceptable” and “a step backwards,” while Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the bill “includes provisions that will make it harder for many underrepresented voters, particularly Black voters, to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representatives.” Continue reading.
Arizona GOP Hires Conspiracy Theorist To Conduct Third 2020 Election ‘Audit’
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann announced that she has hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm led by a Donald Trump supporter who was active in pushing “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, to conduct an audit of the state’s election results.
This is the third audit to be conducted in the state as Republicans continue to push the lie that the election was stolen from Trump due to mass voter fraud — a lie that’s been debunked multiple times by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and two previous audits of Arizona’s ballots.
Fann said the third audit will consist of a full hand recount of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state and formerly a Republican stronghold. Continue reading.
Economy adds whopping 916,000 jobs as recovery accelerates
The U.S. added a whopping 916,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 6 percent in March as the recovery from the coronavirus recession chugged ahead, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The March jobs report showed the U.S. economy picking up speed as COVID-19 vaccinations accelerated, restrictions eased and President Biden signed a $1.9 trillion relief plan meant to give struggling households and businesses a bridge to the other side of the pandemic.
Economists had projected the U.S. to gain 675,000 jobs in March as consumer and business confidence rose, manufacturing activity sped up and workforce management companies reported steady rises in hiring and hours worked. Continue reading.
Georgia Faces Mounting Corporate, Political Pressure to Undo Voting Law
Activists are calling for boycotts of companies headquartered in Georgia to pressure them to do more to reverse the new restrictions.
POLITICS DIDN’T STOP Georgia from enacting a sweeping election law making it harder for people to vote. But voting right advocates are banking on corporate America to undo the dramatic new restrictions, including a provision that makes it illegal to pass out snacks and water to people waiting hours in line to cast ballots.
After Democrats scored pivotal victories in the long-red state – taking Georgia in the presidential race and picking up two critical seats in the U.S. Senate – the GOP-run state legislature responded quickly, passing a package that has the effect of putting up barriers for Black communities to vote. Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, signed the measure the same day.
Now, activists are calling for boycotts of companies headquartered in Georgia to pressure them to do more to reverse the restrictions. President Joe Biden, who last week called the law “un-American” and a thinly disguised effort to suppress the Black vote, took a step further Wednesday night, telling ESPN he would “strongly support” moving Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta if things don’t change. Continue reading.
Florida Law Firm Refutes Gaetz’s ‘False And Defamatory’ Extortion Claims
A Pensacola law firm has fired back at Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) claims accusing one of its attorneys of extortion.
According to MyNBC15, Beggs & Lane Attorneys and Counselors at Law released a statement in defense of its partner David L. McGee, also a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Florida, whom the controversial lawmaker has accused of extorting his family for millions of dollars.
As reports of sex trafficking allegations involving Gaetz were made public on Tuesday, he appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight where he claimed McGee “attempted to extort $25 million from Gaetz and his family in exchange for McGee making the investigation ‘go away.'”
The following day the law firm released a statement in response to Gaetz’s claims. Continue reading.
Oath Keepers founder, associates exchanged 19 calls from start of Jan. 6 riot through breach, prosecutors allege
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, his deputy and three members who guarded Roger Stone exchanged nearly 20 phone calls over three hours on Jan. 6, coinciding with the first assault on police barricades protecting the U.S. Capitol and spanning the time the three members breached the building, prosecutors charged Thursday.
In a new indictment adding previously charged Stone guards Joshua James, 33, of Arab, Ala., and Roberto Minuta, 36, of Prosper, Tex., to an Oath Keepers conspiracy case that now has 12 defendants, prosecutors bluntly laid a path to Rhodes and a person they said he put in charge of his group’s operations that day.
Prosecutors identified that individual only as “Person 10.” Rhodes in interviews has said he tapped a former Army explosives expert and Blackwater contractor nicknamed “Whip” as on-the-ground team leader. Continue reading.
Justice Dept. Inquiry Into Matt Gaetz Said to Be Focused on Cash Paid to Women
The congressman and a former official in Florida sent money to the women using cash apps, receipts showed.
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz and an indicted Florida politician is focusing on their involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments, according to people close to the investigation and text messages and payment receipts reviewed by The New York Times.
Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes, initially met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances, according to three people with knowledge of the encounters. Mr. Greenberg introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them, the people said.
One of the women who had sex with both men also agreed to have sex with an unidentified associate of theirs in Florida Republican politics, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Mr. Greenberg had initially contacted her online and introduced her to Mr. Gaetz, the person said. Continue reading.
US faces pivotal moment in COVID-19 fight
The U.S. is facing a pivotal moment in the fight against COVID-19, as a new rise in cases poses a threat even as vaccinations make progress.
Cases are up about 12 percent nationally compared to the previous week, averaging around 62,000 cases per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The figures come as CDC Director Rochelle Walensky issued a dire warning this week of “impending doom” in the nation’s coronavirus battle.
Still, the country is in a markedly different place from previous COVID-19 surges, due in large part to the hope on the horizon from vaccine availability. The vaccination campaign is moving at a solid pace, often exceeding 3 million shots per day. Continue reading.
Florida firm hired to oversee Maricopa County, Arizona vote audit promoted Trump’s debunked election fraud lies
Once a deep red state that was synonymous with the GOP conservatism of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, Sen. John McCain, Arizona has evolved into a swing state where Democrats won the 2020 presidential election and now occupy both of its U.S. Senate seats. Democrats have fared especially well in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix — and the Arizona State Senate has hired a technology company to oversee a recount of 2020 general election ballots in that county. According to the Arizona Republic, that company, the Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, has a history of promoting bogus election fraud claims.
Arizona Republic reporters Andrew Oxford, Jen Fifield and Ryan Randazzo explain, “Cyber Ninjas will lead a team that includes three other firms as part of a $150,000 contract the Senate has awarded to conduct an unprecedented audit of the election results in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county. But a deleted Twitter account that appears to belong to Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan suggests he has already made up his mind about the security of Arizona’s elections. It includes a litany of unsubstantiated allegations about fraud in the last election.”
A Twitter post that Logan shared in late 2020, according to the Arizona Republic reporters, read, “I’m tired of hearing people say there was no fraud. It happened, it’s real, and people better get wise fast.” And Logan, they add, “also appears to have shared posts by Sidney Powell, an attorney who supported former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories about the last election.” Continue reading.