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Donald Trump overcharged Secret Service agents protecting him and his family for rooms at his hotel in Washington while he was president, a new report from House Democrats alleges. The report points specifically to Nov. 28, 2017, when the Secret Service paid $600 apiece for several rooms for agents guarding Trump’s son Eric and his wife, Lara. On the same night, records show, more than 80 rooms were rented out at the Trump hotel at less than $600 a night. Craft booked rooms at the Trump hotel on 20 nights over the 11-month period, spending close to $30,000. But emails the committee obtained from the State Department show she insisted she stay at the Trump hotel.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Trump's, —, Trump’s, Eric, Lara, Kelly Craft, Craft, Albert Pirro, Jeanine Pirro, Pirro, “, Mazars Organizations: Secret, Democrats, Trump International, NBC News, Trump, Trump Corporation of jacking, Secret Service, Democratic, Trump Cabinet, United Nations, State Department, Fox News, Trump Corporation, Republicans Locations: Washington, Trump's Washington, Canada, Craft, Maryland, Doral, Florida

☆ Harris attacks Trump for allegedly giving Putin Covid tests 'when Black people were dying every day by the hundreds'
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Alex-Seitz-Wald-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Alex Seitz-Wald | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

As she steps up her appeals to Black voters, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on a popular Black radio program Tuesday, saying she is still open to slavery reparations and slamming former President Donald Trump for allegedly sending Covid tests to Russia “when Black people were dying” back home. Drawing on a new book by famed journalist Bob Woodward, Harris slammed Trump for reportedly sending Covid-19 testing devices to Putin when the machines were in short supply back home. Harris also stood by her early support for studying the idea of slavery reparations, which she embraced during her first presidential run in 2019. But when she was asked directly Tuesday, Harris responded: “On the point of reparations, it has to be studied. Trump's campaign responded to the attacks in the interview by pointing to polls that find a majority of Black voters think the country is on the wrong track.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Russia “, Harris, ” Harris, Vladimir Putin, Bob Woodward, Trump, Putin, ”, “, belittle, It’s, I’m, Black, Janiyah Thomas, Trump's, Charlamagne, Lenard McKelvey, Kamala, ’, Howard Stern Organizations: Black, Howard University, NBC News, “, belittle Trump, Trump, American Civil Liberties Union Locations: Russia, Detroit, Oakland , California, Trump, United States, America, Ukraine

☆ San Jose Japanese American farm from early 1900s to be demolished for urban housing
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-05 | by ( Claire Wang | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

In San Jose, a center of California’s housing crisis, one of the oldest and last remaining Japanese-owned farms in the state will be demolished to pave the way for urban housing. San Jose is home to one of only three existing Japantowns in the country and the only one built on agricultural roots. In July, the San Jose City Council voted to turn the Sakauye family’s 23-acre fruit orchard into a mixed-used development constituting nearly 1,500 apartment units and town houses. Vanessa Hatakeyama, the acting director of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, said the Sakauye farm is a remnant of San Jose’s agricultural landscape — one that was built by Japanese immigrants — before it was transformed by the tech and suburban housing booms. In July, the San Jose City Council voted to turn the Sakauye family’s 23-acre fruit orchard into a mixed-used development constituting nearly 1,500 apartment units and town houses.

Persons: Vanessa Hatakeyama, ” Hatakeyama, they’d, Eichii, Ed ” Sakauye, Yuwakichi, Sakauye, of San Jose Eichii Sakauye, Edward Seely, “, ”, Rosemary Kamei, Kamei’s, Kamei, Ben Leech, Carolyn Sakauye, Jane May, Leech Organizations: San Jose City, Japanese American Museum of San, ” Preservation, ., Preservation, of San, City, city’s Department of Parks ,, Neighborhood Services Locations: Jose, San Jose, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Silicon, California, Heart Mountain , Wyoming, Heart, of San Jose

☆ EEOC says Globe Life "created, condoned" a work environment that is hostile and abusive to women
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-27 | by ( Susan Antilla | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Federal agency finds Globe Life tolerated nonconsensual touch, unwelcome genital exposure, sexual quid-pro-quos at top agency. EEOC says agents at the Globe Life agency were employees, not contractors. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that Globe Life tolerated a "pervasive pattern of harassing conduct" against women at one of its top-producing sales agencies. American Income Life is one of five wholly owned subsidiaries of Globe Life that sell life, accident, and supplemental health insurance. Globe Life disclosed that risk in its filing this morning with the SEC and said it would fight any such lawsuit vigorously.

Persons: EEOC, —, Arias, Mark P, Carey, Renee Zinsky, Michael Russin, she'd, Zinsky, AIL, Sarah Reay, Matthew D, Trina Orlando, Anne Rose Dana, King, Jennifer Haworth, Simon Arias, partied, marshaling, Globe, Panda, Wilmer Hale, Matt Darden, Abeni Mayfield, Department of Justice —, Deborah A, Kane, Amy Williamson Organizations: Globe Life, Service, Commission, Business, BI, Globe, Arias Organization, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wexford, King & Spalding, Las, Department of Justice, Research, SEC Locations: Southport , Connecticut, Wexford, Pennsylvania, Morgantown , West Virginia, Las Vegas, Columbia , Maryland, Pittsburgh

☆ Opinion | The Ghost of the 1968 Antiwar Movement Has Returned
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, anti-Vietnam War protesters clashed with police officers — whose brutal role in the confrontation was later described by a federal commission as a “police riot” — hijacking the focus of the convention. Those young demonstrators had come of age seeing continual — and effective — protests during the civil rights movement and national mourning after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. The movement against it began mostly on college campuses and grew. Of course, semesters end and students go home for the summer. But their opposition to the war didn’t end with the academic year.

Persons: John F, Kennedy, Robert F, Martin Luther King Jr, ”, Rennie Davis Organizations: Convention, New York Times Locations: Chicago, Vietnam, America

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican regulators have ordered online retailers Amazon and Mercado Libre to reveal their algorithms, and to wall off TV streaming to avoid stifling competition. The COFECE order also covers the biggest Latin American online retailer, the Uruguay-based firm Mercado Libre. The commission said it had laid out corrective measures that would include prohibiting Amazon from promoting its TV streaming service as an incentive for consumers to buy Amazon Prime memberships. The COFECE also ordered Amazon not to take the “logistics” method — the manner of delivering purchases — into account in determining the order or prominence of search results. Online sellers have complained in the past that Amazon Prime forces vendors to use the company's own delivery services.

Persons: Mercado Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Amazon, Mercado Libre, Mexico’s Federal, Economic, U.S . Federal Trade Commission Locations: MEXICO, Mexico, Uruguay, Seattle

☆ EU stops advertising on X over hate speech. Fines could follow next year
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“We have seen an alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech on several social media platforms in recent weeks,” Johannes Bahrke, a European Commission spokesperson, said Friday. That means, should the European Commission find that X has broken DSA rules, the company could be fined as much as $180 million. So far, only two states, Italy and Hungary, have done so, a commission spokesperson told CNN. The European Commission, which recently sounded the alarm on a sharp rise in antisemitism in Europe, has so far stopped short of criticizing Musk directly. A commission spokesperson declined to comment to CNN on Musk’s X post from last Wednesday.

Persons: ” Johannes Bahrke, Bahrke, X, TikTok, ”, Musk, hasn’t, Andrew Bates, “, Ferda, Ataman, Musk ”, Sandra Wachter, ” Wachter Organizations: London CNN, Elon Musk’s, Twitter, European Commission, Commission, Hamas, Facebook, Social, Digital Services, DSA, CNN, Disney, Paramount, Musk’s, White, European, Discrimination Agency, “, Oxford Internet Institute Locations: Israel, Italy, Hungary, Gaza, Pittsburgh, Europe, Germany, Spain, Austria, “, Federal

It's a disruption that Johnson — just two weeks into his job running the House — has said he wants to avoid. “We're running up against the clock on Nov. 17, and we're obviously aware of that,” Johnson said this week, referring to the date that government funding expires. Democrats have made it clear they will not support any funding packages that include policy wins for conservatives. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who the Democratic leader in the House, said they would not “pay a single, right-wing ransom demand” as part of a funding resolution. Democratic lawmakers are also eager to play up the House Republican divisions and to pin any blame for a shutdown squarely on the new speaker and his GOP colleagues.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Johnson —, —, Johnson, “, ” Johnson, Kevin McCarthy, ”, Troy Nehls, Rep, Hakeem Jeffries, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, ” Schumer, ” Sen, Chris Murphy, Sen, Joe Manchin Organizations: WASHINGTON, House Republican, Louisiana Republican, Republican, Republicans, Treasury Department, Small Business Administration, House Republicans, Israel, Hamas, Democratic, GOP, Capitol, Ukraine, Democrats Locations: Washington, Louisiana, Texas, New York, “, Ukraine, U.S, Mexico, United States, Connecticut

☆ Billionaire DeVos family looks to DeSantis, not Trump, in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Octavio Jones | ReutersThe billionaire DeVos family, whose matriarch, Betsy DeVos, served in Donald Trump's Cabinet, appears to be backing a Trump rival in the 2024 Republican presidential contest: Florida Gov. And though the Federal Election Commission filing does not name any member of the DeVos family, the Michigan billionaires own the team. Following publication of this story, Betsy DeVos' chief of staff, Nate Bailey, said she was "undecided and uncommitted on the race for president, as is the entire DeVos family." Leah Millis | ReutersA spokesman for the DeVos family investment firm, RDV, did not respond to requests for comment. But that curriculum is exactly what draws members of the DeVos family to DeSantis.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Octavio Jones, DeVos, Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's, wokeness, Joel Glass, Governor DeSantis, Glass, DeSantis, Dick DeVos, Dan DeVos, Nate Bailey, Bailey, Leah Millis, RDV, Jason Miller, Ron DeSanctimonious, Miller, Betsy, Tudor Dixon, Trump, Joe Biden, Mike, Pence, Darius Garland, Schofield Organizations: Florida Gov, Cambridge Christian School, Trump, Republican, DeSantis, NBA, Orlando, CNBC, Governor, Orlando Magic, . Education, Federal Commission, School, White, Washington , D.C, Reuters, Michigan Republican, Trump's, Make, Inc, FEC, Detroit, RDV, Cleveland Cavaliers, National Basketball Association, Getty Locations: Florida, Tampa , Florida, Michigan, Central Florida, Washington ,, Cleveland , Ohio

☆ Will America Be Ready for Its 250th Birthday?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Jennifer Schuessler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For those planning the United States’ Semiquincentennial in 2026, the past few years have sometimes felt like one long winter at Valley Forge. They’ve had to battle public apathy toward the impending 250th anniversary of American independence, which has hardly been helped by the false starts, recriminations and lawsuits plaguing the federal commission charged with coordinating the celebration. Still, as July 4 approaches, the effort is stepping into overdrive, as planners hit what some wryly call the annual panic button. On Tuesday, the rebooted United States Semiquincentennial Commission, also known as America250, will roll out a public engagement campaign at American Family Field in Milwaukee, where the Chicago Cubs will face the hometown Brewers. And so far, at least 33 states have created commissions, while institutions across the country are steaming ahead with plans for exhibitions and events of their own.

Persons: States ’, They’ve Organizations: States Semiquincentennial Commission, Chicago Cubs, hometown Brewers Locations: States, Valley Forge, recriminations, Milwaukee

☆ More than 100 U.S. political elites have family links to slavery
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +46 min

Then the war came, and according to the family history, Union soldiers plundered Sessions’ 27-room house. About 48 years old at the time, he did not stand a chance to succeed without slavery, the family history suggests. ‘A Better Nation’Some historians and genealogists say there is a valuable reason for white leaders – and other white Americans – to explore their links to slavery. Nicka Sewell-Smith, a professional genealogist with the family history website Ancestry.com, said people frequently ask her what to do with such documents. The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Meeks said in an interview that he has spent years trying to trace his family history back before 1870.

Persons: Black, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, James Lankford, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Joe Biden, –, Donald Trump –, Jimmy Carter, George W, Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Trump’s, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch –, Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, James Clyburn, Henry McMaster, ”, Henry Louis Gates Jr, Gates, ” “, ” Gates, enslavers, Tony Burroughs, Biden, Obama, McConnell, Burroughs, Joseph Maddox, Maddox, Sela, Rubin, James, Sal, Sam ”, Graham, Graham didn’t, Nancy Mace, Drucilla, Drucilla Mace, John Mace, Hector Godbolt, John Mace’s, Godbolt, “, ” Nancy Mace, Henry Coe, Duckworth, Coe, Margaret, Isaac, Warner, George …, Isaac Franklin –, “ There’s, ” Duckworth, George Floyd, Donald Trump, ” Biden, ‘, ’, Ben Affleck, ” Affleck, Independent Angus King, Mo Brooks, ” Brooks, Sean Kelley, Kelley, White, don’t, wasn’t, Richard Sessions, Pete Sessions, Richard’s, William Sessions, John Cowger, Tom Cotton of, ” Cotton’s, Cowger, Cotton, Archibald Crawford, Juneteenth, Shaheen, Pocahontas, Edmond Dillehay, Peter ”, Milly, Lankford, ” Lankford, Joe Wilson, Stephen H, Wilson, Boineau, General David Addison Weisiger, Wilson –, Addison Graves Wilson –, Weisiger “, ” Wilson, Daniel Weisiger, Daniel Weisiger’s, Samuel, Samuel Weisiger, Daniel, Julia Brownley, Jesse Brownley, Brownley, ” Brownley, Thomas Ferguson, Brooks, Manumission, Marie Jenkins Schwartz, ” “ It’s, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, Harvard’s Gates, Sherman, Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Nicka Sewell, Smith, Ancestry.com, ” Sewell, LaBrenda Garrett, Nelson, Garrett, Rick Larsen, John Wiggins, Larsen, – Gilbura, George, Agg –, ” Larsen, Gilbura, Agg, Gregory Meeks, Meeks, Jim Crow South, – Meeks, – “, ” Meeks, “ I’m, I’m, Tom Bergin, Makini Brice, Nicholas P, Brown, Donna Bryson, Lawrence Delevingne, Brad Heath, Andrea Januta, Gui Qing Koh, Tom Lasseter, Grant Smith, Maurice Tamman, Catherine Tai Design, John Emerson, Jane Ross, Emma Jehle, Jeremy Schultz, Blake Morrison Organizations: Reuters, Republicans, U.S, Supreme, Republican, Harvard University, PBS, United States Congress, Representative, WikiLeaks, Sony, Facebook, White, FedEx, National Museum of, 117th, Independent, University of Essex, Geographic, American Economic, Pete Sessions, Sessions, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jeanne Shaheen U.S, CNN, Biden, Trump, ” Reuters, South, South Carolina General Assembly, Confederate, statehouse, Congressional, Chesterfield County, Mount Vernon College, George Washington University, Mo Brooks Former U.S, “, New York Times, United, Federal Government, Union, Black, Southern, Democrat, House Foreign Affairs, Klux Klan Locations: U.S, America, Confederate States, Arkansas, North Dakota, South Carolina, Congress, Black, Northern, Southern, Illinois, Virginia, Frederick County , Virginia, United States, Minnesota, ”, Mo Brooks of Alabama, American, Texas, Mississippi, Chicot County , Arkansas, Chicot County, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Yell County, Yell County , Arkansas, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Frankfurt, Germany, Chesterfield County , Virginia, California, Portsmouth , Virginia, Alabama, Haywood County , North Carolina, Antebellum, United States of America, Washington, Nicholas County , Kentucky, Queens , New York, New York, York County, Mende, Sierra Leone, Africa, Bunce

☆ Americans hate tipping so much it was once banned in 7 states
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

By the 1700's, tipping in Europe had evolved from masters tipping servants to customers tipping service-industry workers. Seven states passed anti-tipping legislation in the early 1900sBy the early 1900s, early grumblings about tipping had escalated into full-fledged anti-tipping movements. But in 1919, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state's anti-tipping law was unconstitutional, and other states followed by striking down or repealing their own similar legislation. Tipping persists in the US todayDespite originating in Europe, tipping has become deeply ingrained in American culture. Today, while many Americans aren't fans of tipping, and some restaurants have tried doing away with the practice, tipping is unlikely to be banned anywhere in the US anytime soon.

☆ Marieke Vervoort: How one Paralympian and triathlete's euthanasia papers extended her life by a decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Throughout her storied career, triathlete and Paralympian Marieke Vervoort captured the imagination of her native Belgium and the wider world. … The fact that that had given her so much mental liberation and spiritual liberation, I thought, was a fantastic story,” Rapaport told CNN Sport. “If I didn’t have the papers, I think I would have already committed suicide,” Vervoort told reporters in 2016. And in this case, having control over decision-making about the end of your life,” Rapaport explained. Vervoort died in October 2019.

☆ Italy became the first Western country to ban ChatGPT. Here's what other countries are doing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Stefani Reynolds | AFP | Getty ImagesItaly has become the first country in the West to ban ChatGPT, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot from U.S. startup OpenAI. watch nowVarious regulators are concerned by the challenges AI poses for job security, data privacy, and equality. "It's more, if you're using AI, these are the principles you should be thinking about," Holmes told CNBC. Ireland is typically the most active regulator when it comes to data privacy since most U.S. tech giants like Meta and Google have their offices there. The U.S. hasn't yet proposed any formal rules to bring oversight to AI technology.

☆ Federal Commission Seeks Data on Gas Stoves’ Health Impact
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( John Keilman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gas stoves have drawn scrutiny in recent years after some studies found that they release pollutants that can increase the risk of some health issues. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would call on companies, scientists and the public to submit research and possible solutions to potential health hazards associated with gas stoves. The request aims to examine the scope and scale of risks associated with using gas ranges, data that can be analyzed and possible solutions, the commission said Wednesday. No regulatory proceeding is being proposed and no ban is under consideration, it said.

☆ Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt tapped for federal biotech commission that allows members to keep biotech investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Eamon Javers | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

On Dec. 30, leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees announced the selection of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and 11 others to serve on a new federal commission on biotechnology. The appointment, however, doesn't require commission members to divest their own personal biotech investments — even as they help shape U.S. policy overseeing the industry. The person didn't say when Schmidt made the decision to donate profits, adding that he hasn't yet named any recipient charities. The new federal commission will likely have a say in steering such investments over the two years of its lifetime. Schmidt's biotech investments are relatively recent.

☆ Biden signs law to help preserve Japanese American WWII incarceration camps
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A new law signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday will help memorialize the history of the U.S. government's incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The legislation, spearheaded by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, would reauthorize funds that help preserve the sites in which tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were detained, including Manzanar in California and Rohwer in Arkansas. “The internment of Japanese American citizens remains one of the darkest and most shameful periods in our history,” Schatz said in a statement about the law. More than 75 years ago, the U.S. government incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans in response to xenophobia and the wartime hysteria that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The findings served as the basis for the Civil Liberties Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, offering a formal apology for the mass incarceration, following a large-scale movement by the Japanese American community.

☆ Hearst Editor Ellen Levine Persuaded Oprah to Launch Magazine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Good Housekeeping had been publishing for more than a century in 1994 when Ellen Levine became the first woman appointed as editor in chief of the magazine, whose original mission was “to produce and perpetuate perfection—or as near unto perfection as may be attained in the household.”She also served as editor of Woman’s Day and Redbook and later in her career was editorial director for Hearst Corp.’s magazine unit. During the Reagan administration, she served on a federal commission studying pornography.

☆ Marjorie Taylor Greene's campaign cleared of wrongdoing after Georgia Democrats accused her of giving too much money to Herschel Walker's campaign
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Georgia Democratic Party accused Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's campaign of violating federal election law. It accused Greene's campaign of exceeding federal limits in supporting Herschel Walker's Senate campaign. The Federal Election Commission, a notoriously deadlocked group, unanimously dismissed the complaint. Hogan alleged that in addition to straight-up donating $2,000 to Walker's campaign, Greene's campaign published more than $3,000 of Facebook advertisements supporting Walker's candidacy. He said the posts were coordinated with Walker's campaign and should count as an in-kind donation, which would therefore place her campaign above the $2,000 contribution limit.

☆ How Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt helped write AI laws in Washington without publicly disclosing investments in AI start-ups
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Eamon Javers | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +18 min

'Conflict of interest'Schmidt's investment was just the first of a handful of direct investments he would make in AI start-up companies during his tenure as chairman of the AI commission. Altogether, Schmidt and entities connected to him made more than 50 investments in AI companies while he was chairman of the federal commission on AI. To Poulson, Schmidt was simply given too much power over federal AI policy. The new entity would continue the work of the congressionally created federal commission, with many of the same goals and much of the same staff. More than a dozen staffers from the federal commission followed Schmidt to the new private sector project.

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