Management company owned by Jared Kushner files to evict hundreds of families as moratoriums expire

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White House adviser’s company, Westminster Management, and other landlords prepare to remove tenants behind on rent during the pandemic.

Westminster Management, an apartment company owned in part by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, has submitted hundreds of eviction filings in court against tenants with past due rent during the pandemic, according to interviews with more than a dozen tenants and a review of hundreds of the company’s filings.

A state eviction moratorium currently bars Maryland courts from removing tenants from their homes, and a federal moratorium offers renters additional protection. But like other landlords around the country, Westminster has been sending letters to tenants threatening legal fees and then filing eviction notices in court ― a first legal step toward removing tenants. Those notices are now piling up in local courthouses as part of a national backlog of tens of thousands of cases that experts warn could lead to a surge in displaced renters across the country as eviction bans expire and courts resume processing cases.

Many of the Westminster tenants facing eviction live on low or middle incomes in modest apartments in the Baltimore area, according to tenants. Some of them told The Washington Post they fell behind on rent after losing jobs or wages due to the pandemic. Continue reading.

Here’s what happens if Trump tries to sue his way to victory

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A hearing on Wednesday in an election case captured in miniature the challenge for the Trump campaign as it gears up for what could become an all-out legal assault on presidential election results in key swing states: It’s easy enough to file a lawsuit claiming improprieties — in this case, that Pennsylvania had violated the law by allowing voters whose mail-in ballots were defective to correct them — but a lot harder to provide evidence of wrongdoing or a convincing legal argument. “I don’t understand how the integrity of the election was affected,” said U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage, something he repeated several times during the hearing. (However the judge rules, the case is unlikely to have a significant effect; only 93 ballots are at issue, a county election official said.)

“A lawsuit without provable facts showing a statutory or constitutional violation is just a tweet with a filing fee,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Levitt said judges by and large have ignored the noise of the race and the bluster of President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed. “They’ve actually demanded facts and haven’t been ruling on all-caps claims of fraud or suppression,” Levitt said. “They haven’t confused public relations with the predicate for litigation, and I would expect that to continue.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Tweeting Isn’t Crazy. It’s Strategic, Typos and All.

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A network of right-wing operatives and activists — and the president himself — spread disinformation about Joe Biden with one simple hashtag.

In the morning hours of Oct. 30, as most of the country slept, President Trump was binge tweeting again.

At 2:32 a.m., he told his 87.3 million Twitter followers: “Way ahead in Texas! Watch the Great Red Wave!”

Minutes later, he tweeted the hashtag #BidenCrimeFamiily, with a typo in the word “family.” That was it. No context, no link. Continue reading.

In the Know: November 6, 2020

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2020 Election News
Election Highlights: Biden Pulls Ahead in Pennsylvania, Edging Closer to Victory, New York Times
Fight for Senate majority boils down to Georgia, The Hill
The Rise and Fall of the ‘Stop the Steal’ Facebook Group, New York Times
Facebook Removes Pro-Trump Group Urging ‘Boots On The Ground’, NPR
Fox News Meets Trump’s Fraud Claims With Skepticism, New York Times
Trailing his opponent, Democrat Jon Ossoff prepares for a runoff in the Georgia Senate race, New York Times
Mark Kelly projected to oust McSally; Dems now control 48 Senate seats, Washington Post
More women than ever before were elected to Congress — Here are their historic ‘firsts’, NBC

DFL CD 1 Candidate Dan Feehan
Feehan concedes defeat in 1st District race, Rochester Post Bulletin

Governor Tim Walz
Gov. Walz aims to lighten load on teachers with executive order, Pioneer Press
Safe learning executive order adds guidance including special education protections, St. Cloud Times

Continue reading “In the Know: November 6, 2020”

Florida poll worker details the physical and verbal abuse he experienced from Trump ‘cult members’ on Election Day

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Whatever the ultimate outcome of the 2020 presidential race — as of Thursday morning, November 5, the vote-counting continues in Pennsylvania, Georgia and a few other states — President Donald Trump can say with certainty that he won Florida’s 29 electoral votes. What Trump won’tsay is that at Florida polling places, the behavior of some of his supporters was atrocious. And attorney/poll worker Jeffrey A. Kasky, in a November 4 op-edfor Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, describes some of the abuse and harassment MAGA extremists subjected him to in West Boca Raton.

“I did not sign up for this,” Kasky complains in his op-ed. “When I registered to be a poll worker, I looked at it as an active, nonpartisan way to contribute to our democracy. I thought that working the polls was essential to helping others — particularly those whose votes are often suppressed — have access to open and fully staffed polling places where they could exercise one of the foundations of our democracy by voting for president.”

According to Kasky — who has no party affiliation and is neither a Republican nor a Democrat — the actions of Trump supporters in Palm Beach County were inexcusable. Continue reading.

Minnesota Republican Leaders Back Trump’s Attack on Democracy

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the DFL Party sharply criticized Minnesota Republican leaders for supporting President Trump’s efforts to undermine American democracy as mail-in ballots began to tip the scales against Trump in key swing states.

During a news conference on Thursday evening, President Trump began by falsely declaring that, “if you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.” Trump went on to claim that “officials overseeing the counting in Pennsylvania and other key states are all part of a corrupt Democrat machine” which is trying to “silence our voters and manufacture results” without a shred of evidence.

Trump’s claims are aimed squarely at damaging the legitimacy of a free and fair American election, and they come amidst armed and escalating protests at ballot-counting sites and even possible threats of violence. 

Continue reading “Minnesota Republican Leaders Back Trump’s Attack on Democracy”

Uncertainty, Trump loom over packed year-end agenda

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Uncertainty is hanging over the congressional year-end agenda as Washington waits to see who will win the White House and Senate majority and tries to gauge President Trump’s willingness to cut big deals if he loses. 

Doubt about who will hold power, and the appetite for year-end barn clearing, is colliding with a lengthy to-do list that includes a fight over Confederate-named bases and hopes of getting a fifth coronavirus relief deal. 

Lawmakers also need to pass a government funding bill by Dec. 11 to avoid an end-of-Congress shutdown just before the holidays and with only weeks to juggle the competing items.  Continue reading.

‘This is disturbing’: DOJ claims armed feds are allowed to inspect state vote-counting locations

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As ongoing vote tabulation in several key battleground states continues to slowly narrow President Donald Trump’s path to reelection, the New York Times reported late Wednesday that the Justice Department has told federal prosecutors that U.S. law permits armed federal agents to enter ballot-counting locations to investigate alleged “fraud,” heightening fears of possible intimidation efforts by the Trump administration.

News of the Justice Department’s early Wednesday email came after Trump spent much of that day lying about vote-counting procedures and peddling baseless claims of suspicious activity as he watched his slim leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania vanish.

The Times noted that the Justice Department’s email, authored by Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, “created the specter of the federal government intimidating local election officials or otherwise intervening in vote tallying amid calls by President Trump to end the tabulating in states where he was trailing in the presidential race.” Continue reading.

‘Red alert’ for hospital ICU beds in Twin Cities amid COVID-19 surge

Only nine intensive care beds were available in the Twin Cities on Wednesday morning amid a surge in COVID-19 that is sending more Minnesotans into hospitals.

Metro ICU bed space grew scarce as nurses and other caregivers were unavailable because of their own infections or viral exposures that required quarantines in central Minnesota and other parts of the state.

“We’re at a red alert for ICU beds,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “It’s bad.” Continue reading.

Egging On His Most Violent Supporters, Trump Tweets ‘Defend Your President’

Donald Trump’s campaign urged supporters on Wednesday to “DEFEND YOUR PRESIDENT” just days after his warning that a full vote count might cause armed rebellion.

While the 2020 election remains uncalled, as of Wednesday morning Joe Biden held a lead in enough states to win the White House.

Trump, who has been demanding for months that the election be decided based only on the votes counted by Election Day, appeared to be egging on his violent extremist supporters. Continue reading.