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☆ Florida Gov. DeSantis attacks Manhattan DA over possible Trump charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis took aim at the Manhattan district attorney Monday over his expected prosecution of a hush money case against former President Donald Trump. The remarks came as some of Trump's allies and campaign surrogates have taken note of DeSantis' silence about the possibility of criminal charges being filed against the former president. Jason Miller, Trump's senior campaign advisor, grumbled in a tweet over the weekend about the "radio silence" from DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who launched her own presidential campaign last month. Trump slammed DeSantis over his record on ethanol at a campaign event in Iowa last week. "So DeSantis thinks that Dems weaponizing the law to indict President Trump is a 'manufactured circus' & isn't a 'real issue,'" Trump Jr. tweeted.

☆ Trump thrives on 'chaos and turmoil' when it's on his terms, Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, says. But an indictment 'never helps anybody.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Chris Christie, a former district attorney, said Trump thrives on "chaos and turmoil." But an indictment "never helps anybody," Christie said on ABC's "This Week." And so he wants to create the chaos and turmoil on his terms," Christie said. However, Christie, who is also a former district attorney, added: "But look at the end, being indicted never helps anybody. "I don't think that the American people will probably see this as a huge crime," Christie said.

☆ Citing 'death threats,' Texas judge asked attorneys to keep news of hearing on legality of abortion pill quiet
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine wants Judge Kacsmaryk to nullify the FDA's medical approval of mifepristone, which would effectively ban the abortion pill across the US. But Kacsmaryk asked the attorneys to not to publicize the hearing, citing security concerns. Those present at the Friday conference call included lawyers from the Justice Department, the abortion pill maker Danco Laboratories, and a group that opposes abortion called the Alliance Defending Freedom. A group of physicians who oppose abortion called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine asked Kacsmaryk in November to order the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. The abortion pill has become the central flashpoint in the legal battle over access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade last June.

☆ Elon Musk publicly mocks Twitter worker with disability who is unsure whether he’s been laid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk publicly scoffed at a Twitter employee’s uncertainty about whether he had been laid off in a recent round of cuts and spoke dismissively of the employee’s disability in a series of tweets Monday night. Haraldur Thorleifsson, an Iceland-based Twitter senior director, tweeted at Musk that access to his computer had been cut off nine days earlier, when Twitter reportedly laid off some 200 employees. It’s not the first time Musk, one of the richest men in the world, has publicly mocked employees at Twitter, the company he bought for $44 billion last year. Hundreds of former Twitter employees are now taking legal action against the company, alleging broken severance promises and, in some cases, discrimination, including against disabled employees. Following the exchange with Musk, Thorleifsson said in a tweet that Twitter’s HR head had confirmed he is no longer employed at the company.

☆ Prosecutors in Alec Baldwin 'Rust' shooting case are getting heat over apparent missteps
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The charges stem from the October 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of independent film "Rust." She won the race in November but stayed on the "Rust" case. In September, Torraco donated $250 to Reeb's campaign, assuming that if Reeb won the legislative race, she would automatically recuse herself frocrat, andm the "Rust" case. Media circusThe case has received significant media attention, which has persisted due to Baldwin and the prosecutors' press communication. Beyond that, Heather Brewer, the DA's spokesperson specifically hired for the "Rust" case, has made several heated statements about Baldwin and his attorneys on behalf of the DA's office.

☆ She was weeks away from maternity leave at Twitter. Then Elon Musk took over
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Twitter now reportedly has fewer than 2,000 employees following more cuts late last month, down from around 7,500 before Musk took over. CNN“We were on the Twitter-coaster, the Elon Musk chapter, for seven months,” Ali said. De Caires is one of the former Twitter employees taking legal action against the company following mass layoffs after Musk took over. Jeff Chiu/APInstead, Twitter employees say they heard very little from their new leader in the days immediately after his takeover. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan is representing around 1,500 former Twitter employees taking legal action against the company following Musk's takeover.

☆ New documentary reveals how Jared Fogle led a 'double life' as a 'puppet master' who committed child sex acts while pitching sandwiches for Subway
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Jared Fogle became Subway's pitchman after losing 245 pounds by mostly eating the chain's subs. He filmed over 300 ads for Subway before pleading guilty to child sex acts in 2015. Jared Fogle became a pop-culture icon after being tapped as the face of Subway in 2000. A random tip in 2015 finally exposed him as a child sex predator. Here are the most revealing highlights:Jared Fogle led a "double life," according to a documentary about his child sex crimes.

☆ ‘Leon Russell:’ Review: Ringmaster of Rock ’n’ Roll’s Circus
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( David Kirby | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Most rock bios begin with 30 or 40 pages on their subjects’ early years and end with a look at what is often a retirement marked by neglect and what-ifs. Not this one. With “Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History,” Bill Janovitz gets right down to business, as did his subject: one of the most electrifying stage performers of his day, a chart-topping recording artist, and a singer/songwriter/keyboardist/guitarist/producer who worked with a pantheon that included many of the rock, pop, and country stars of our time. Leon Russell went to work early and never stopped. Never one to let his Brylcreemed good looks be marred by a piece of flying glass, Lewis told the frightened teens behind him to keep chooglin’ while he slipped out the back way and tore off into the night in his Caddy.

☆ Nikki Haley on Republicans' tepid midterms: The party 'looked like chaos'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Republicans came across as chaotic during the midterms, Nikki Haley said. And from an independent standpoint it looked like chaos, and they didn't want to be a part of that." Democrats have also singled out Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia as representative of the party. In preliminary exit polls following the midterms, about equal proportions of voters said both Republicans and Democrats were "too extreme." Despite Republican disappointment over the midterms, the party did secure a narrow majority in the US House.

☆ A juror in Georgia's Trump investigation gabbed about her experience on TV. Experts say that's actually OK.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The forewoman of Georgia's special grand jury investigating Trump gave a series of media interviews. Kohrs declined, however, to answer the question on everyone's mind: Whether the special grand jury, in its still-secret report, recommended criminal charges against Trump himself. Willis empaneled the special grand jury in May 2022. Fani Willis, right, will now choose whether to impanel an ordinary grand jury to consider charges against Trump. That extra step between Kohrs's special purpose grand jury, and another grand jury that has yet to be empaneled, is another reason why Kohrs's comments are of little consequence, Rahmani said.

☆ Travelers say hotel resort fees have gotten completely out of control. Now Biden wants to get rid of them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Resort fees are a top frustration for travelers, who are dismayed by the added costs to hotel rates. President Biden in his recent State of the Union address called on lawmakers to bar resort fees. How resort fees began to spreadResort fees aren't a totally new phenomenon. As the resort fees migrated to other properties, they took on other names, like "amenity fees" or "facility fees." President Biden spoke out against resort fees during his State of the Union address earlier this month.

☆ Protesters "fight for Israel's soul" as parliament readies judicial overhaul
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Maayan Lubell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Polls have found that most Israelis want the reforms slowed to allow for dialogue with critics - or shelved altogether. Ahead of the afternoon reading, protesters posted online videos of themselves trying to prevent lawmakers from Netanyahu's coalition leaving for the Knesset. "Demonstrators who talk about democracy are themselves bringing about the end of democracy when they deny elected delegates the fundamental right in a democracy - to vote," Netanyahu said in a statement. Opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted that demonstrations would mount "in the fight for the soul of the nation". Israel's head of state, President Isaac Herzog, has repeatedly urged the government and opposition to hold compromise talks.

Embattled Rep. George Santos grabbed a premier center aisle seat ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address. Seated beside Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Santos soon discovered that not everyone — including some Republicans — was interested in seeing him. Santos sat just in front of Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and behind Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippi. Seats are reserved for senators as a group in the front of the chamber and House members sit behind them. House members can claim preferred spots during the day but they have to camp out there to reserve them for the entirety of the speech.

☆ Tom Brady Retires: The Revised Edition
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Ben Shpigel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is retiring from football. His seven Super Bowl titles are more than any single organization has won. He was twice foiled in the Super Bowl by the New York Giants. Brady racked up yardage but Tampa Bay fired its offensive coordinator, Byron Leftwich. Look again, though, at the piercing final play from that game: A 30-yard Rams field goal, the ball snapped from the Tampa Bay 12-yard line.

☆ I'm a Cirque du Soleil performer. I grew up in the circus, and now I travel the world with my husband and kids.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Jill Schildhouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Her husband works alongside her, and their kids travel with them. Then, at age 20, I was invited by Cirque du Soleil to join the Flying Trapeze troupe of Zaia in Macau, China. Working for Cirque du Soleil, I have a lot more consistency. I see my husband 24/7I met my husband, Ammed Tuniziani — a third-generation performer who comes from a traditional circus family in Venezuela — while working with Cirque du Soleil. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and everything is complimentary — it's one of the benefits that comes with being on tour with Cirque du Soleil.

☆ A man died after being crushed by a pop-up street urinal in central London
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A man working on a telescopic urinal in London was killed after being crushed beneath it. The urinals are stored underground during the day and are raised to street level at night. The pop-up toilets are stored underground during the day and are raised to street level at night for people to use, an initiative designed to discourage urination on the street. "We have been on site supporting our contractor and the emergency services and will assist all investigations in any way we can." A second telescopic urinal has also been shut down by the council as a precaution, according to LBC.

☆ Twitter faces lawsuits over unpaid rent for U.S. HQ, U.K. office
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter is facing a lawsuit over allegations it failed to pay rent for its head office, according to California court documents. The owner of its premises in central London, meanwhile, said it’s taking the company to court over rental debt. Twitter has already been taken to court this month for falling behind on rent at another San Francisco office. The company, Sri Nine Market Square LLC, said Twitter “breached the Lease by failing to pay monthly rent and additional rent” for January amounting to $3.4 million. After using those funds, the landlord says Twitter still owes $3.16 million in unpaid rent and is seeking late fees and interest plus attorneys’ fees.

But the perceived spectacle means that not only will Murdaugh be on display — so will the county seat of Walterboro, population 5,460. “We didn’t want this, but it’s happening, and it’s here,” Scott Grooms, Walterboro’s director of tourism and downtown development, said last week. A portrait of Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., Alex Murdaugh's late grandfather, was removed from the Colleton County Courthouse ahead of Alex Murdaugh's trial. From left, Paul, Margaret and Alex Murdaugh. While he didn’t know Alex Murdaugh personally, he said few with longstanding ties in the area had not been touched by the Murdaughs’ orbit in one way or another.

☆ An actor who stuck thousands of headshots around New York and London has been signed up by an agent
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Medhi Hamadouchi found an agent after sticking thousands of headshots around New York and London. "All the stars aligned in this case," Hamadouchi's new agent Paul Byram told Insider. "All the stars aligned in this case and we are all very happy with the outcome," Paul Byram told Insider. Earlier this month, Hamadouchi redoubled his efforts with 5,000 headshots stuck on walls in places such as Oxford Circus Tube station. Local authorities asked him to stop fly-posting, Hamadouchi told Variety — and he once fled from someone he thought was a council officer.

☆ UK seeks stronger powers to stop disruptive protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( William James | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion take part in a demonstration at Oxford Circus in London, Britain, April 9, 2022. The government passed legislation to address this in 2022, but is planning to go further with a new set of laws known as the Public Order Bill. The government wants to amend the Public Order Bill before it becomes law to broaden the legal definition of 'serious disruption', give police more flexibility, and provide legal clarity on when the new powers could be used. The government says the new laws, if passed, will mean police can shut down disruptive protests pre-emptively. It builds on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, passed in April 2022, which sparked several large 'kill the bill' protests.

☆ Sister of murdered Idaho student, Kaylee Goncalves, says it's chilling to learn 'true evil was watching'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them,” Alivea Goncalves, 26, sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, 21, said in an interview with NewsNation on Sunday. "That’s really difficult, it’s really difficult, not to wish that you had done more and wish that you had known more." A private security officer sits in a vehicle on Jan. 3 in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November. It's unclear if Alivea was there, but she told NewsNation she plans to be at "every single" hearing throughout the case. In a previous interview with NBC's “TODAY,” Alivea Goncalves called her sister “the ultimate go-getter.”

And while it’s still possible that some other modest pieces of legislation can be brought to a vote and passed in the House, the political dynamics inside the House GOP will make even the most milquetoast bipartisan and nonideological issues difficult to pass. Just for context — it’s been 100 years since an incoming House has failed to elect a speaker on its first roll call. It’s one that may, in fact, match the former president in malevolency and outpace him in ineptitude. Just look at what has taken place over the last several weeks in the lead-up to this week as Freedom Caucus members have been jockeying for power. To win enough votes for speaker, McCarthy has been hard at work horse-trading with the extreme right wing of his party to secure his speakership.

☆ A sexy Vegas circus paid $2.5 million in cash to buy a California town in the Mojave Desert and build a 'permanent Burning Man'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Nipton was previously owned by Jerry Freeman and Roxanne Lang, a California couple who purchased the town for about $200,000 in the 1980s. The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe sales history for the town is a bit murky. The following year, American Green abandoned its ambitious plans for the town and sold the property to a Scottsdale-based energy company for $7.1 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. Other groups like a religious cult, a cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and investors who wanted to build a train line to Las Vegas have also tried to buy the property, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, the Wall Street Journal also reported that Freeman and Lang were the ones who sold Nipton to Spiegelworld.

☆ With big bets on Musk, these funds may have a Tesla problem in '23
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Those funds dropped by an average of 42.1% last year, more than double the average 17% decline among U.S. stock funds, according to Morningstar. The $6 billion Baron Partners Retail fund, which leads all US mutual funds with about 52% of its assets in Tesla shares, fell nearly 43% last year, while the $54 million Zevenbergen Genea Institutional fund, which has 13% of its assets in Tesla, fell nearly 59%. Tesla fell about 65% last year, with declines accelerating after Musk decided to buy social media network Twitter, which some investors see as a distraction to the chief executive. His net worth has fallen by more than $100 billion, according to Forbes, bumping him from the position of world's richest person. The fund fell 67% last year, putting it near the bottom of all U.S. equity funds.

Share this -Link copiedConservatives opposed to McCarthy seen huddling in chamber during third vote During the third ballot vote for speaker, several House Republicans who have opposed McCarthy to be speaker were seen huddling in the back of the chamber. McCarthy lost twice earlier in the day, with 19 conservatives casting their ballots for Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, in the second round. Share this -Link copiedDemocrats mock Republicans over inability to elect House speaker Now in the minority, House Democrats appeared to enjoy the GOP divisions over electing a speaker Tuesday. Share this -Link copiedPelosi reacts to Republicans' struggling to elect GOP speaker As House Republicans struggled to elect their own speaker now that they have the majority, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested the GOP is ruining Congress as an institution. Pelosi stepped down as the Democratic leader after serving as House speaker twice.

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