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[1/2] Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is seen on video during the hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 9, 2022. The Justice Department is also seeking a sentence of 21 years for another Oath Keepers leader, Kelly Meggs, who was also found guilty in November of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, D.C., jury. The same Washington jury that convicted Rhodes and Meggs cleared three other co-defendants, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell, of seditious conspiracy. The charges of seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Four other members of the Oath Keepers were convicted in January of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the attack.

☆ Walmart names insider Latriece Watkins as US merchandising chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 5 (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N) appointed Latriece Watkins as its U.S. chief merchandising officer, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday, days after Charles Redfield stepped down from the role. Watkins, who joined the company 24 years ago, has served in several roles across Walmart U.S. and Sam's Club. Last month, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner wrote to associates that Redfield would step down and assume an advisory role supporting the U.S. business effective May 1. Watkins' appointment takes place at a time when consumer spending power has been reduced by high inflation, hurting Walmart's business and leading the company to adopt a cautious stance on 2023. "We have a rich history of strong leaders who embrace this constant change, set bold visions for our teams and best represent the humanity that is Walmart," Furner wrote in the memo.

☆ Fact Check-Story of Arkansas woman raising deer indoors stems from satire
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An amusing story about the arrest of an Arkansas resident named Bridgette Watkins who allegedly raised deer indoors with the intention of training them to attack hunters is not real and originated on a satire page. The story and the photos could be traced to a Facebook post from a parody account that describes its content as satirical(here). The bio of the Facebook page, called Arkansas Game Fish, reads, “Satire page just for laughs.”(here). The page also posted a disclaimer saying “This is a satire page” just hours before sharing the Bridgette Watkins story (here). The page appears to be a parody of an Arkansas government agency: Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (www.facebook.com/ARGameandFish).

☆ Gen Zers are taking over college cities — after they graduate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Gen Z is moving in droves to college towns after they get their degree. Alex Akmal and her partner, Alex, along Memorial Union Terrace on Lake Mendota. Gen Z bonds have been cemented even more because many young people are delaying marriage and having children, the center found. After her studies, she said she might move to Washington, D.C., an even larger Gen Z hangout with those offerings and more. For whatever reason they are coming to these cities, these Gen Zers are here to stay.

For years, the giant cryptocurrency exchange Binance has had a reputation for dodging regulators and skirting financial rules, all without significant consequences. Now the world’s largest crypto exchange is facing mounting legal pressure. Justice Department prosecutors are investigating the exchange for money laundering violations, as the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the company’s business practices. Last month, another agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, sued Mr. Zhao, accusing him of compliance failures that allowed criminals to launder money on Binance. “It’s the biggest exchange for crypto, and if it gets clamped down on, that’s going to be a big deal,” said Hilary Allen, a crypto expert at American University.

☆ Aston Villa go fifth in Premier League with 1-0 win over Fulham
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BIRMINGHAM, England, April 25 (Reuters) - Defender Tyrone Mings scored a brilliant header from a set piece as Aston Villa beat Fulham 1-0 at Villa Park on Tuesday to lift them to fifth in the Premier League table, a step closer to ensuring European football next season. Villa are on 54 points after 33 games, one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur and five behind fourth-placed Manchester United. Fulham, whose European dreams were derailed by a run of four defeats in March and April, are ninth on 45 points. Fulham suffered a blow when midfielder Willian was injured in the warm-up and was unable to play, with Manor Solomon taking his place. Fulham found their feet in the second half but once again their attack failed to fire and, despite enjoying more possession, they did little to threaten Emiliano Martinez in the Villa goal.

CompaniesCompanies Law Firms Grail Inc FollowIllumina Inc Follow(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said it will accelerate reviewing Illumina Inc's challenge to a federal agency order requiring the biotechnology company to divest cancer diagnostic test maker Grail LLC. The agency said Illumina had not shown why the appeals court needed to speed up its consideration of the antitrust dispute. San Diego-based Illumina, which specializes in gene sequencing, is appealing an April 3 FTC order that said the company's $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail will curb competition in the cancer-testing market. The FTC in 2021 sued Illumina over its bid for Grail, a former subsidiary of the company. The case is Illumina Inc and Grail Inc v. Federal Trade Commission, 5th U.S.

☆ Haaland at it again as Manchester City cut gap to Arsenal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Martyn Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - Manchester City goal machine Erling Haaland reached yet another milestone in his incredible debut season in the Premier League when his two goals helped his side to beat Leicester City 3-1 and move to within three points of leaders Arsenal on Saturday. With Arsenal in action at West Ham United on Sunday, Manchester City seized their chance to apply more pressure by dismantling 19th-placed Leicester before halftime. City now have 70 points from 30 games with Arsenal on 73. Villa have 50 points, with Tottenham on 53 and fourth-placed Manchester United and Newcastle United both on 56. Newcastle and Manchester United, who face Nottingham Forest on Sunday, have played fewer games than Villa and Tottenham.

☆ Man City cruise to win over Saints, Newcastle maintain top-four push
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Martyn Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

loadingLeaders Arsenal play Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday where the London side seek a first league win since 2012. Manchester United maintained their top-four pursuit while at the bottom there were vital victories for Bournemouth and West Ham United. Leicester City's plight worsened as the 2015-16 Premier League champions suffered a seventh defeat in eight league games as they lost 1-0 at home to Bournemouth to stay 19th. Newcastle's fifth consecutive win moved them up to 56 points from 29 games -- the same as Manchester United who beat Everton 2-0 in Saturday's early kickoff. SON MILESTONETottenham's Son Heung-min scored his 100th Premier League goal with a sublime 10th-minute curler -- the first Asian player to reach that milestone.

☆ Fact Check-‘QAnon Shaman’ was not freed early due to footage proving Jan. 6 riot was ‘hoax’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jacob Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli or the “QAnon Shaman”, is due to be released early from prison in the U.S. due to a combination of factors including good behavior, according to his attorney. Posts online, however, are saying he was released early due to footage of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol showing he was wrongly sentenced or that the event itself was a hoax. Chansley was not released as a result of the video footage released through Tucker Carlson.”In February 2023, TV host Tucker Carlson said he’d been given access to thousands of hours of video footage from the Capitol riot (here). Reuters has debunked multiple other claims alleging the Capitol storming was a hoax (here), (here) and (here). Jacob Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli or “QAnon Shaman”, was not released from prison early because of Jan 6.

☆ Elon Musk's $1 million Twitter bounty
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk's $1 million bounty. Twitter CEO Elon Musk has some kind of bounty out for whomever is behind the botnets that he says target certain users and suppresses the reach of their tweets. Million dollar bounty if convicted" in response to a Twitter user who claimed that botnets "silence" certain accounts. Musk and the user were referring to a thread where another user analyzed Twitter's recently open-sourced algorithm. Twitter users called attention to the difficulty in seeing direct messages that mention "gay", "queer", and "trans."

☆ The QAnon Shaman's new roommates after he got out of jail had no idea who he was, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jacob Chansley, a January 6 rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman," has been released from prison early. Chansley is carrying out the rest of his prison sentence in a halfway house in Arizona. His new roommates told The New York Post on Sunday they had no idea who he was. A prison spokesperson told Insider's Natalie Musumeci that he was transferred from Arizona's Federal Correctional Institution Safford to "community confinement" overseen by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Phoenix Residential Reentry Management Office last week. Chansley's projected release date from any kind of federal custody is May 25, the spokesperson added.

☆ Watkins and McGinn earn Villa 2-0 win Chelsea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 1(Reuters) - Goals from prolific striker Ollie Watkins and captain John McGinn earned Aston Villa all three points in a pulsating 2-0 Premier League mid-table win at Chelsea on Saturday. Watkins took his chance in the 18th minute after a mistake from retreating defender Marc Cucurella, who headed a long ball into his path and he calmly lobbed his shot over advancing Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Chelsea, who enjoyed some 69% possession and 26 shots but as so often this season proved toothless in front of goal, came out guns blazing in the second half only to concede a corner from a Villa break. The ball came out to McGinn and he sent a searing shot from 20 metres past the diving Kepa and into the bottom corner in the 56th minute. Reporting by Clare Lovell, editing by Pritha SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 'QAnon Shaman' Jacob Chansley was released early from prison, and a former prosecutor said it's totally normal to have sentences reduced
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

January 6 rioter Jacob Chansley, known as the "QAnon Shaman," has been released from prison early. Chansley was moved to a halfway house in Arizona, his trial lawyer told Insider. Chansley was let out of prison after serving 27 months of his 41-month sentence. Chansley's projected release date from any kind of federal custody is May 25, the Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said. Former New York prosecutor Mark Bederow told Insider that it is "common" for federal inmates to get their sentences lessened under the First Step Act, which was passed in 2018.

☆ Office Doom Loop: Landlords Face a Reckoning As Companies Move to Fancy Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles has a sterling pedigree, but even that can't save it from the doom loop facing many older office towers. A huge swath of America's office market is vulnerable to these twin threats of being under-equipped with amenities and underwater financially. This behavioral shift has deeply cut into demand for office space. The amount of sublease space nationally more than doubled from 118.5 million square feet at the end of 2019 to 242.8 million square feet at the end of 2022, Colliers stated. Lenders are often reluctant, he said, to seize office buildings because of the costs and expertise required to operate the properties.

☆ Investing in Space: The latecomer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. A small group of Virgin Orbit employees are rolling back into the company's Long Beach, California, headquarters today. Virgin Orbit this week announced a partial resumption of operations, potentially bolstered by a surprising new backer: private investor Matthew Brown. A person close to the Virgin Orbit deal described Brown as a "latecomer" and said company leadership initially considered his bid "super fringe." From another investor's perspective, Virgin Orbit was "the most likely to succeed after Rocket Lab " in the small satellite launch market.

☆ Elon Musk thought it was unfair to jail the 'QAnon Shaman' who broke into the Capitol, but the DOJ says none of the footage was withheld and Tucker Carlson only showed 4 minutes of it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A Proud Boy wants to dismiss his seditious-conspiracy case based on Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6 footage. The DOJ responded on Sunday that all of the footage was already provided during discovery. Elon Musk previously suggested there was a miscarriage of justice by jailing the "QAnon Shaman." Chansley's former attorney, Albert Watkins, also said that he had not seen the footage aired on Carlson's show, The Washington Post reported. "In the weeks prior to the plea repeated requests were made to make sure we had all the video footage," Watkins wrote in an email.

☆ Proud Boy argues that Tucker Carlson's misleading January 6 footage should be reason to dismiss his seditious-conspiracy case
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tucker Carlson's January 6 footage has been brought up in a January 6 seditious conspiracy trial. Lawyers representing a Proud Boys member asked a federal judge to dismiss his case. He and the co-defendants — Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl — have pleaded not guilty. The lawyers cited the Washington Post's reporting that Albert Watkins, Chansley's lawyer, never saw that footage during his client's case. It's not the first time the Proud Boys members have asked for their case to be dismissed.

☆ House Republicans target the CFPB as the agency takes aim at 'junk fees'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers discussed ways to reform, or altogether defund, the nation's foremost consumer protection agency on Thursday, as the regulator takes aim at illegal "junk fees" levied on consumers. GOP lawmakers in the hearing criticized the Biden administration's push to eradicate "junk fees," largely regulated by the CFPB. On Wednesday, the agency released a list of illegal junk fees encompassing deposit accounts; auto and mortgage loan servicing; and payday and title lending. Subcommittee member Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said Chopra has used junk fees as an excuse to expand his authority. The CFPB's working definition of junk fees is "any fee they don't like," argued Devin Watkins, an attorney at the conservative-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute.

☆ Arsenal go five points clear, Leeds and West Ham boost survival hopes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Martyn Herman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Gabriel Martinelli's goal just after halftime sealed the points for Arsenal to crank up the pressure on second-placed Manchester City, who were playing struggling Bournemouth later on Saturday. "We deserved the result and we are so happy with the three points," Martinelli told Sky Sports. Arsenal, bidding for a first title since 2004, have 57 points from 24 games played while champions City are on 52 ahead of their 25th game at Bournemouth (1730GMT). RELEGATION BATTLEThe relegation battle is shaping up to be especially tense this season with clubs changing positions on a weekly basis. West Ham climbed to 16th place with 23 points from 24 games, two above Everton who are third from bottom.

☆ Two sheriff's deputies suspended for role in Tyre Nichols incident
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Shelby County sheriff on Wednesday suspended two deputies without pay for five days for unspecified conduct after they appeared at the scene where Memphis city police severely beat Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died three days later. Memphis lies within Shelby County, Tennessee, and while city police usually have jurisdiction within city limits, county sheriff's deputies may also respond. Among those responding to the scene were Shelby County sheriff's deputies Jeremy Watkins and Johntavious Bowers, the sheriff's department said in the statement. Reuters could not determine if the deputies were represented by lawyers who could make a statement in their defense. The Shelby County Deputy Sheriffs Association, the deputies' union, could not be reached for comment.

☆ YouTube creators testing its new song-licensing feature are feeling sticker shock from prices as high as $18,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Dan Whateley | Amanda Perelli | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Some Creator Music licenses have a set price, while others have custom pricing based on a channel's size. Prices for a song license in Creator Music can vary widely based on a creator's subscriber count. Music rights holders regularly crack down on brands that use songs in social-media posts without paying for a license. YouTube has gradually introduced features over the past decade-and-a-half to compensate music rights' holders on its platform. The company is also setting aside revenue for music rights holders as it introduces revenue-sharing on Shorts this month.

☆ Boies, co-counsel move to grab control of all private FTX cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, that the judge overseeing their Miami cases, U.S. District Judge Michael Moore, has already proven in their brand ambassador cases that he can steer FTX cases quickly and efficiently. Not everyone pursuing claims on behalf of FTX customers agrees with Boies and Moskowitz. (To be clear, these private cases are different from cases that could be brought by a court-appointed receiver or trustee in FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy.) If the cases go to California, the California slate is a likelier candidate. It will be a few months before any ruling on the Boies and Moskowitz consolidation petition.

☆ Defiant Man City see off Villa to close gap on Arsenal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MANCHESTER, England, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Manchester City produced a defiant response to the Premier League's charge sheet as they comfortably beat Aston Villa 3-1 to close to within three points of leaders Arsenal on Sunday. Goals by Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez put the result beyond doubt by halftime as City got back on track following last weekend's loss at Tottenham Hotspur. Villa were left with mission impossible when Mahrez tucked away a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Jacob Ramsey was adjudged to have tripped former Villa player Jack Grealish. Champions City have 48 points from 22 games to Arsenal's 51 from 21 and can go top if they win at Arsenal on Wednesday. "It was a bad result, but we have to learn and use it in the next matches."

☆ The Paradox of Prosecuting Domestic Terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( James Verini | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +52 min

The preventive approach to domestic terrorism goes back even further than the 1990s and it begins with the basic police work and surveillance of the joint terrorism task forces. In fact, there is no section of the U.S. Criminal Code that criminalizes domestic terrorism as such. The absence of clear law around domestic terrorism, and the imperatives of prevention, mean that investigators and prosecutors who work domestic terrorism cases must focus on more common charges: weapons violations, illegal drug possession, burglary, aiding and abetting and so forth. But this was not enough to overrule the fear of domestic terrorism that was gripping the nation and that hung in the courtroom. It reflected the legal paradoxes of the case and domestic terrorism law in general or, maybe more accurately, the absence of it.

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