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☆ Fed directs big banks to disclose how they are preparing for climate change risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"The Fed has narrow, but important, responsibilities regarding climate-related financial risks – to ensure that banks understand and manage their material risks, including the financial risks from climate change," Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr said. "The exercise we are launching today will advance the ability of supervisors and banks to analyze and manage emerging climate-related financial risks." A financial stability report in late 2020 first discussed the possibility of the Fed examining how prepared the institutions it oversees are for economic impacts from climate change. In addition, banks are being asked to "consider the impact of additional physical risk shocks for their real estate portfolios in another region of the country." The final report will focus on aggregate information provided by the banks about how they are incorporating climate risks into their financial plans.

☆ Republican candidate's wife arrested, charged with casting 23 fraudulent votes for her husband in the 2020 election
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

According to prosecutors, Taylor cast 23 fraudulent votes for her husband in the 2020 election. Jeremy Taylor, the husband, is an elected Republican. In all, prosecutors allege, she engaged in 26 counts of providing false information and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. The aim, prosecutors allege, was to get her husband, Republican politician Jeremy Taylor, elected to public office. But Taylor was more successful in the fall 2020 general election, where he ran as a Republican candidate for the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors.

☆ Rep. Katie Porter’s Senate campaign conundrum
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Lincoln Mitchell | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The GOP is likely to have a better chance in Porter's district with her out of the picture. Enter Katie Porter, the first candidate to announce her intention to run for Feinstein’s seat. Her Senate run has a potential downside for national Democrats that should be clear. The problem Porter’s campaign raises for the Democrats has nothing to do with her chances of winning or what she would do in the Senate. If they decide to seek the Senate seat, there will be no cost to House Democrats because their replacements are almost sure to be Democrats as well.

☆ Facebook considered reviving a disused railway line to make it easier for workers to reach its Menlo Park headquarters, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Facebook spent $20 million on plans to revive a railway line that would run near its office. Meta's Juan Salazar told The New York Times it wanted to reduce congestion caused by its staff. Political pressure and impatience put pressure on plans that were abandoned after the pandemic. Slocum told the Times he approached tech companies including Facebook in 2017 to discuss securing funds. Parts of the railway were expected to be operational by 2028, per the Times report.

☆ Los Angeles County to pay Black family $20 million to buy back wrongly seized beach
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Los Angeles County will spend $20 million to purchase a prime beachfront property from the heirs of an African-American couple who were given the land back a century after local officials unjustly stripped it from them. The Bruce family has informed county officials that they have decided to sell Bruce's Beach to the county for the estimated value of the Manhattan Beach property, Janice Hahn, chairperson of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said in a tweet on Tuesday. Before it was taken by the county, the property had been a rare resort where Black people could gather and enjoy the beach in segregated and discriminatory Los Angeles County of the early 20th century. When it was returned, the Bruce family had agreed to lease it to the county for $413,000 per year, while the county retained the right to buy it. Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago Editing by Peter GraffOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The city did nothing with the property, and it was transferred to the state of California and then to Los Angeles County. The county built its lifeguard training headquarters on the land, which includes a small parking lot. And then it turned into a tragic story for my family,” Anthony Bruce, the great- great-grandson of the Bruces, previously told NBC News. And unfortunately, my family was the victim of a hate crime and the prejudice that was around during those times. Hahn learned about the property’s history and launched the complex process of returning the property, including determining that two great-grandsons of the Bruces are their legal heirs.

☆ Ex-academic forges a new career denying Trump's 2020 election loss
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +27 min

“The war is just getting started,” Clements told his 100,000 Telegram followers on Nov. 16. His rise in the movement began in January 2021, when a dispute with his employer, New Mexico State University, over the U.S. Capitol riot went public. ‘I will not take the jab’Clements’ swift rise in election-denier circles caused a stir at New Mexico State, where he continued to teach. Flynn co-founded the America Project, a well-capitalized right-wing group that has financed lawsuits and campaigns challenging the 2020 election results and the integrity of U.S. voting systems. One of their roles is to certify election results, which until the Trump era was typically a rubber-stamp formality.

CNN —Defeated Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed suit in Arizona Superior Court challenging the certification of the state’s election. “Accordingly, Lake is entitled to an order setting aside the election in its entirety and ordering a new election,” Lake’s attorneys write in the suit. All four GOP nominees that were at the top of the Arizona ticket had echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Arizona was a key 2022 battleground for governor and Senate, and likely will be again for president in 2024. Lake has repeatedly said she would not have certified Joe Biden’s win in Arizona in 2020.

☆ San Francisco votes to pause policy that would allow police to use deadly robots
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to put the brakes on a controversial policy that would have let police use robots for deadly force, reversing course just days after their approval of the plan generated fierce pushback and warnings about the militarization and automation of policing. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to explicitly ban the use of robots in such a fashion for now. So far, only San Francisco and Oakland have discussed lethal robots as part of that law. Some San Francisco officials wanted to proceed with allowing robots to use deadly force in certain cases, arguing nothing substantive had changed to warrant a reversal. But the vote to advance the broader police equipment policy — including the ban on lethal robots — passed unanimously.

☆ San Francisco has backtracked on a policy that would have allowed police robots to use deadly force, following backlash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

San Francisco officials have halted a policy that would have let police robots use deadly force. A final vote on the policy is expected to take place next week, per the San Francisco Chronicle. The new amendment allows San Francisco police to use remote-controlled robots but explicitly bans the use of deadly force, per the San Francisco Chronicle. Per NPR, the first time a robot used deadly force was in 2016 when police in Dallas used one equipped with an explosive. Representatives for San Francisco's Board of Supervisors did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.

The vote came about after California passed a law last year requiring law enforcement departments to seek approval for use of military-style equipment. We live in a time when unthinkable mass violence is becoming more commonplace," San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said in the statement. "We need the option to be able to save lives in the event we have that type of tragedy in our city.”Police Chief William Scott speaks during a news conference in San Francisco in 2019. “We run a very serious risk of misuse by police of a robot to inflict deadly force,” he said. Preston said he hoped that outrage following the first vote in San Francisco would sway more of his fellow board members to vote against the measure Tuesday.

☆ Holdout Arizona County Certifies Midterms Results After Court Order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura Kusisto | Eliza Collins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cochise County, Ariz., elections officials voted Thursday to certify the results of the midterm elections following a court order, ending a gambit that had left the fate of tens of thousands of votes in the state uncertain. The county’s three-member board of supervisors voted 2-0 in favor of certification, shortly after an Arizona judge ordered them to certify the results immediately. One Republican member of the board didn’t participate in the vote.

☆ Arizona county that balked at certifying election results finalizes tally after court order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A Republican-led county in Arizona that flouted a statutory deadline for election certification ended up certifying its results Thursday shortly after a judge ordered officials there to take action. Officials in Cochise County voted 2-0 to accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, enabling statewide certification to move forward Monday. Ann English, the sole Democrat on the three-member Board of Supervisors, and Vice Chair Peggy Judd, a Republican, voted to approve the election results. Hobbs lauded Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley's order compelling the county to canvass its results. Voters in Cochise County largely favored Lake, a prominent election denier who has refused to concede.

☆ Arizona county certifies midterm election vote after court order
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Ned Parker | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 1 (Reuters) - A conservative, rural Arizona county that had defied a state deadline to certify its Nov. 8 midterm election results relented on Thursday after a judge said state law required the approval. Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley ruled at a hearing on Thursday that the Cochise County board of supervisors did not have the right to block certification. “The board of supervisors has a nondiscretionary duty to canvas the returns,” McGinley said during the livestreamed hearing, citing Arizona law. Arizona law requires counties to certify election results by Nov. 28, ahead of the state's certification on Dec. 5. Soon after the court hearing on Thursday, the board approved the election results.

☆ Judge forces GOP officials in Arizona's Cochise County to certify midterm results, ending a high-stakes confrontation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Officials in Cochise County, Arizona, voted 2-0 to accept the results of the midterms on Thursday. Their vote came shortly after a judge ordered them to certify the vote. Two officials on the three-member board signed off on the vote, while the third was not present. McGinley then ordered the board to sign off on the vote by that afternoon. It was suggested that Cochise County's refusal to certify its results could cost Republicans a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sued a Republican-controlled county Monday after it refused to certify its election results by the state's statutory deadline. The lawsuit, filed in Arizona Superior Court, aims to compel the Cochise County Board of Supervisors to certify the county's results from the Nov. 8 election. Officials in Cochise, one of 15 counties in the state, voted earlier in the day against certifying its election results. Under state law, Arizona is supposed to certify its results by Dec. 8 — with or without certification from all of the counties. Cochise County is the only county in the state that refused to certify its results.

☆ Maricopa County report rebuffs claims by Republicans who sowed doubt on election integrity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Officials in Arizona's largest county are blaming prominent Republicans for sowing doubt about a secure alternative for voters who encountered malfunctioning vote tabulation machines on Election Day. Maricopa County issued a report on the voting glitches Sunday, a day before it is set certify the results of the November election and a week after the state's Republican attorney general's office demanded answers on widespread voting machine glitches on Election Day. Some GOP politicians and pundits swiftly seized on those issues to push misleading or false information. Lake, who lost to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, attacked Maricopa County officials over both the technical issues on Election Day and the prolonged vote count. Last week, Maricopa County confirmed that Bill Gates, the chairman of the county’s board of supervisors, had been moved to an undisclosed location for his safety following threats on social media related to the midterm elections.

☆ Republicans in one Arizona county refuse to certify election results
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Ned Parker | Linda So | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

-Republican officials who have embraced voter fraud theories resisted certifying the midterm election results in one Arizona county on Monday, defying a state deadline and setting the stage for a legal battle. REUTERS/Jim UrquhartoIn Cochise County, a conservative stronghold in southeastern Arizona, the two Republican members of the three-person board of supervisors voted to postpone certifying the county’s election results. On Monday, the Mohave board ultimately certified its election results but also criticized Maricopa’s performance. Arizona law requires counties to certify election results by Nov. 28, ahead of the state’s certification on Dec. 5. “In the last year, it’s become an unprecedented dereliction of duty for county officials to violate their oaths of office and refuse to certify election results, citing ‘gut feelings’ or alleged problems in jurisdictions other than their own,” Becker said.

☆ In Arizona, election deniers refuse to back down
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Ned Parker | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Republican candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters protest outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center as vote counting continues inside, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., November 12, 2022. The defeat of Lake and other election deniers was seen as a powerful rebuke of candidates who echoed Trump’s myths of a stolen election. Republican activists urged voters not to use the secure box on Election Day, according to Maricopa County officials. Maricopa County on Sunday released a report detailing voter numbers by location on Election Day and was scheduled to certify election results on Monday. DELAYS IN CERTIFICATIONElsewhere in Arizona, two conservative counties, Mohave and Cochise, do not plan to certify election results until Monday, the final day to formally do so, following pressure by election deniers.

☆ GOP election officials in two Arizona counties are delaying certifying their votes on the basis of unproven voting machine claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Election officials in two Arizona counties are delaying certifying the midterm election results. The officials are citing unproven claims about voting machines in Maricopa County. The decision was made in protest against what some Republicans claim are irregularities in the midterm vote in Maricopa County, the state's largest county. Voting machines have long been the subject of far-right conspiracy theories, especially following Donald Trump's 2020 presidential election defeat, though no claims have been proven. On November 2o it was reported that Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich had demanded that county officials provide a report on voting machine issues during the midterms.

☆ Maricopa County elections official moved to 'undisclosed location' for his safety following social media threat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A top elections official in Maricopa County, Arizona, has been moved to an undisclosed location for his safety following threats on social media related the midterm elections, the county confirmed to NBC News on Monday. The official, Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Election workers like Gates have experienced a rise in threats following the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s election lies. No one has been disenfranchised,” Gates told reporters in downtown Phoenix on Election Day, following reports of equipment problems. “We have hiccups,” Gates told NBC News at the time.

☆ FTX employees were claiming expenses through online chat and random managers used emojis to approve them, new CEO says in bankruptcy filings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

FTX employees claimed expenses through chat messages, its new CEO said. Random managers would then approve the official claims by using personalized emojis, John Ray added. In his damning report, Ray said FTX failed to keep communication, hiring, and financial records. New CEO John Ray said FTX employees submitted payment requests to a "disparate group of supervisors," who would approve expenses "by responding with personalized emojis," FTX's Thursday bankruptcy filing shows. Ray said FTX "never had board meetings" and that the exchange used employees' personal names to purchase real estate in the Bahamas with corporate funds.

☆ Faucets poised to run dry for hundreds of Arizona residents by year's end
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Deon J. Hampton | Deon J. Hampton Is A National Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Scottsdale residents also were urged to reduce their usage as a first step toward more stringent restrictions. Some Rio Verde Foothills residents said they don't know how such an important issue could have dragged on so long without a resolution. Rio Verde Foothills resident Jennifer Simpson. Rio Verde Foothills. “I’m sure that if there’s no access to water, we’d be up in arms.”Many Rio Verde Foothills residents say they feel abandoned.

☆ Fact Check-Canvass bags shown in live feed are used to legally transport ballots and results reports to the Election Department, Maricopa County says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Claims on social media that a photo of a pile of black bags at Arizona’s Maricopa County central tabulation location shows something fraudulent are missing key context. A spokesperson for the Elections Department of Maricopa County told Reuters the photo shows “canvass bags” used to transport voted ballots and results reports from polling locations. “This is from the live feed from Maricopa County a few minutes ago. The image circulating online captures a moment of the live video feed provided by Maricopa County Elections Department (here) (select Tabulation – View 1). In a press conference, Maricopa County District Supervisor Bill Gates said the county would have their “last big drop of votes” after 6 pm that day.

☆ Emoji for expenses, penthouses and slipshod accounting: The most damning details from new FTX CEO's report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Penthouses, perks and personal items"In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX Group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors. Other reports have detailed lavish perks allegedly given to FTX employees in the Bahamas. Ray's filing indicated that corporate funds were used to purchase homes for employees and advisors, sometimes in their name. For example, employees of the FTX Group submitted payment requests through an online 'chat' platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis." It isn't immediately clear what platform FTX used, although the company is known to have used Slack for internal communications.

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