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US News:
Durham probe: Judge denies Sussmann motion to dismiss case; trial to begin next month
Sussmann, in February, filed a motion to dismiss the case against him. Sussmann was charged with making a false statement to a federal agent, and has pleaded not guilty
.In a court filing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper outlined the charges against Sussmann brought by the Durham impaneled grand jury last year.
“The FBI opened an investigation based on the information Sussmann provided, but ultimately determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the existence of a communication channel between the Trump campaign and the Russian bank,” Cooper wrote. “Sussmann has pled not guilty to the charge and denies lying to the FBI.”
Cooper wrote that Sussmann’s “sole argument for dismissal” of his case is that “even taking the allegations in the Indictment as true, his purported misrepresentation to Baker was immaterial as a matter of law and therefore cannot support a conviction” under U.S.C. 1001 – making false statements to a federal agent.
California Lawyer Quits Over Allegation Newsom Meddled in Activision Case
Proctor said in the email to staff that in recent weeks, California Governor Gavin Newsom and his office “began to interfere” with the Activision suit.
“The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation,” Proctor wrote in the email, which was seen by Bloomberg. “As we continued to win in state court, this interference increased, mimicking the interests of Activision’s counsel.”
Proctor wrote that Wipper had “attempted to protect” the agency’s independence and was “abruptly terminated” as a result. “I hereby resign, effective April 13, 2022, in protest of the interference and Janette’s termination,” Proctor wrote.
Wipper is “evaluating all avenues of legal recourse including a claim under the California Whistleblower Protection Act,” said her spokeswoman, Alexis Ronickher.
South Dakota attorney general impeached over fatal car crash
The House voted 36-31 to impeach Ravnsborg and charged him with committing crimes that caused someone’s death, making “numerous misrepresentations” to law enforcement officers after the crash and using his office to navigate the criminal investigation, according to the articles of impeachment.
Investigators determined that Ravnsborg was distracted while he was driving and his car crossed completely onto the highway shoulder before hitting Boever, who was carrying a flashlight.
The investigators said officers didn’t believe some of Ravnsborg’s initial statements.
Ravnsborg will be temporarily removed from office pending an impeachment trial in the South Dakota state Senate. No date has been set for the trial. However, the state constitution says the Senate must wait at least 20 days before impeachment hearings can begin.
All 7 US soldiers who last saw decapitated paratrooper alive face charges
Roman-Martinez went missing in May 2020 while on a camping trip on a remote island in the Outer Banks with Sgt. Samuel Moore, Spcs. Juan Avila, Alex Becerra, Joshua Curry and Benjamin Sibley, Pfc. Samad Landrum, and Pvt. Annamarie Cochell.
Martinez was last seen alive on May 22, 2020. Six days later his head washed up on a nearby shore.
Roman-Martinez’s body has not been found. An autopsy of his available remains lists Roman-Martinez’s manner of death as a homicide.
Becerra will be the first of the seven soldiers to face trial, with trial dates set between May 31 and June 3. Moore’s is set for a trial between June 21 and 24. Avila’s trial is scheduled for July 25 to 28. Curry’s trial is scheduled for Aug. 2 to 5. Sibley’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 12 to 15. Landrum’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 19 to 22. Cochell’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 26 to 29.
Police: 32-year-old woman flies from SF to Michigan for meet-up with 15-year-old boy
A 32-year-old woman is facing charges after she flew in from San Francisco, rented an Airbnb in Royal Oak and then sent multiple Ubers to pick up a 15-year-old Novi boy she’d been communicating with for more than a year, police said.
Stephanie Sudarin Sin was arrested April 10 and arraigned the following day on one count each of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime. Held in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $100,000, Sin faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted.
According to Novi Police Lt. Jason Meier, Sin and the teen boy met on a social media app and communicated via text messages.
Attempting the meet-up in Royal Oak, she allegedly ordered several Uber rides to his home, and the boy eventually told his parents. His father then contacted police.
Store owner opens fire on suspected shoplifters, accidentally striking 9-year-old girl, police say
Marqel Cockrell, the co-owner of Sole Addicts, opened fire on suspected shoplifters that he chased out of his store at a mall in Victorville on Tuesday, accidentally striking a 9-year-old girl, investigators say.
America’s Highest Earners and Their Taxes Revealed
Which people and professions rake in the most income year after year? Which are most adept at shielding that money from the taxman? And what does this tell you about America?
The top earners, of course, are often fodder for lists — but those are usually based on estimates or even speculation.
A trove of IRS data obtained by ProPublica has the definitive answers, revealing the incomes and tax rates of the 400 Americans with the highest incomes from 2013 to 2018. It took an average of $110 million per year in income to crack that list — with plenty of names you would expect and some that may surprise you.
We’ll also show how much the 400 paid in federal income taxes.
America’s Top 15 Earners and What They Reveal About the U.S. Tax System
Thanks to an analysis of its unprecedented trove of IRS data, ProPublica is revealing the 15 people who reported the most U.S. income on their taxes from 2013 to 2018, along with data for the rest of the top 400.
The analysis also shows how much they paid in federal income taxes — and it demonstrates how the American tax system, which theoretically makes the highest earners pay the highest income tax rates, fails to do so for the people at the very top of the income pyramid.
The top 400 earners pay noticeably lower tax rates than the merely rich; and, if you include payroll taxes, a married couple making $200,000 a year could end up paying higher tax rates than a person making $200 million a year.
Brooklyn shooting suspect in police custody
Fox News’ Bryan Llenas confirms reports Frank James was arrested.
Brooklyn suspect PROVES government’s anti-conservative BIAS
The suspect potentially responsible for injuring several inside a Brooklyn subway station on Tuesday is far from a white-supremacist.
In fact, he posted dozens of videos on social media in recent years railing against white people who, he said, ‘commit genocide against one another.’
He likely is battling significant mental issues, but this man further PROVES how our government’s efforts to frame conservative Americans as a serious threat is yet another falsehood they’ll continue to push.
So, for those conservatives who feel the government, the nation, or our systems are stacked against you, Glenn has some advice: ‘
Don’t listen to anybody who says you can’t do it. Don’t listen to anybody who is saying the whole world is against you. No it’s not.’
Inflation rose at fastest pace in 40 years in March as consumer prices jumped 8.5%
Inflation hit a fresh 40-year high as continuing surges in gasoline, food and rent costs more than offset moderating prices for used cars.
The consumer price index leaped 8.5% annually, the fastest pace since December 1981, the Labor Department said Tuesday, likely cementing Federal Reserve plans for an unusually large half-point interest rate hike early next month.
Meanwhile, worker shortages in the U.S. are prompting companies to boost pay sharply to attract job candidates, leading them to lift prices to maintain profit margins.
Excluding volatile food and energy items, so-called core prices rose 6.5% annually in March, the largest advance since August 1982.
First Texas bus drops off migrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC
A bus from Texas arrived in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning, transporting dozens of illegal immigrants as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan to counter federal immigration policies during an ongoing border crisis.
The bus pulled up at approximately 8 a.m. local time, blocks away from the U.S. Capitol building. Fox News has learned that they came from the Del Rio sector in Texas, after coming to the U.S. from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
Upon the bus’s arrival in Washington, D.C., individuals disembarked one by one except for family units who exited together. They checked in with officials and had wristbands they were wearing cut off before being told they could go.
Buses of migrants begin arriving in DC
Dozens of migrants reportedly transported from Texas to Washington D.C.
DOJ Spied on Journalists’ Apple & Google Accounts; Veritas Files Motion Demanding Return of Property
DOJ Secretly Spied on Journalists’ and Security Detail’s Apple and Google Accounts;
Project Veritas announced today that Apple and Google came forward and provided documents showing that President Biden’s Department of Justice issued nine secret subpoenas to them for multiple Project Veritas journalists’ private information.
The DOJ’s spying campaign represents the latest example of governmental misconduct in, what appears to be, a politically motivated investigation.
Tucker: This could break the Democratic Party
Fox News host gives his take on censorship on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
Politics:
Bill Maher Reveals the One Thing That Might ‘Tip Me Over to the Republican Side’
Bill Maher continues to insist that his politics haven’t changed — but the landscape is shifting beneath his feet so fast that the prolific GOP-bashing host of HBO’s “Real Time” suggested on Joe Rogan’s podcast this week that even he may have a tipping point to cross over to the Republican Party.
Maher suggested that runaway government spending — and the grift that comes along with it — just might be the thing that changes his stripes. Rogan and Maher began by riffing on the enormous spending packages the federal government has floated of late, including the Democrats’ doomed “Build Back Better” package and the Trump-era COVID-19 stimulus packages, and how much of that money winds up in the hands of fraudsters and grifters.
Maher went on to make the connection to California’s now-defunct Pacific Coast railroad line, which absorbed hundreds of millions of federal and state dollars only to break down and fade to oblivion.
Is Dr. Oz a Conservative? | Ep. 132
As Republicans in and out of Washington open up their ink pads to rubber stamp Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation, Donald Trump endorses Dr. Oz for U.S. Senate in the Pennsylvania GOP primary.
But what are Dr. Oz’s politics, exactly? And would he join Team Spine or Team Squish in the world’s greatest deliberative body? This is The Liz Wheeler Show.
Inflation is essentially a tax on Americans: DeAngelis
FOX Business correspondent Jackie DeAngelis weighs in on President Biden’s repeated claim that the inflation crisis is Vladimir Putin’s fault and discusses the impact of rising fuel costs.
Neocons leading the way: Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald tells ‘The Ingraham Angle’ that neocons seem to be the most beloved and admired and influential people within the Democratic Party.
Candace Owens destroys Al Sharpton’s hypocrisy: ‘lying full-time to Black America’
Owens criticizes MSNBC host Al Sharpton for hypocritical stance on liberals not roughing it on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
World News:
US Sets Up New Mideast Naval Task Force Amid Strained Gulf Ties
The US Navy said on Wednesday it was establishing a new multinational task force that would target arms smuggling in the waters around Yemen, the latest American military response to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The effort follows a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks this year on the two Gulf countries, which have since received additional American military assistance but see the United States as weakening its commitment to the region.
The task force would consist of between two to eight vessels and is part of the 34-nation Combined Maritime Forces, which Cooper also commands, that has three other task forces in nearby waters targeting smuggling and piracy.
VIDEO: Protest held outside Tallinn`s Russian embassy against women raped in war
Demonstrations against Russian aggression in Ukraine continued for the third day in Tallinn on Wednesday.
Ukraine war: Mass surrender of troops in Mariupol, says Russia
The city’s Deputy Mayor, Serhiy Orlov, told the BBC that Ukrainian troops there were still fighting.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Mariupol, Ukraine says.
Fighting appears to be continuing around the giant Azovstal steel works in the port, which is one of two areas not under Russian control.
Russian television has broadcast footage which it says shows marines giving themselves up at the steel works.
But an adviser to Ukraine’s president insisted that the marines had in fact broken through to connect with Azov battalion forces in another pocket.
All Russian ground forces have entered Ukraine’s eastern flank: senior US defense official
Security officials have been sounding the alarm that the Kremlin’s inability to take the capital city of Kyiv meant it would launch a major offensive in eastern Ukraine.
Russia launched its second convoy this week and ground forces are flooding across Ukraine’s northern border into the Lunhask region, the official said.
“I think you’d go so far as to say all their ground forces are either in the Donbas – Luhank Oblast or the Donetsk Oblast – and then in the south arrayed all the way from Mariupol down to Mykolaiv,” the official added.
Defense officials have warned that Russia’s determination to continue with its “special military operation” in a concentrated location like the Donbas, will mean an even more brutal fight ahead.
Ukraine war in photos, April 13: War in the east
As we have reported in recent days, the Russian war on Ukraine is increasingly an assault on the eastern part of the country. Wednesday’s photographs take us there — from the military and civilian vantage points both.
A child at the entrance of a bunker in Severodonetsk, in the Donbas region, while other children played inside the bunker.
Aboveground, reminders of why so many people were spending time underground: a crater in the street; and in Kramatorsk — where a Russian airstrike killed dozens of would-be evacuees last Friday — the aftermath of an airstrike on a school.
Palestinian Killed as Ramadan, Passover Tensions Threaten to Boil Over
A 14-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli security forces after hurling a pipe bomb at an Israeli vehicle near the West Bank town of Husan just south of Bethlehem.
Earlier on Wednesday, security forces arrested four Palestinians in the West Bank suspected of planning to carry out an attack in Israel on Passover which starts this week.
Three Palestinians were arrested in Silwad and one in Kaubar near Ramallah. Clashes erupted between Israeli forces and local residents, who hurled stones that them.
On Wednesday morning, a 34-year-old Palestinian activist was killed on in clashes with Israeli forces in Nablus, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and at least 16 others were wounded.
Amid terror warnings, security forces begin to patch holes in West Bank barrier
Engineering work began Wednesday to seal gaps in the West Bank security barrier used by Palestinians to enter Israel illegally, defense officials said.
The army said it was fixing up holes over dozens of kilometers of the fence and was digging trenches to prevent vehicles from crossing through the so-called “seam zone” area along the West Bank security barrier.
In addition, other efforts were being made to strengthen defenses along the barrier, the IDF said.
The work started following several deadly terror attacks in Israel, including two in which terrorists from the northern West Bank entered Israel via large holes in the barrier. Forces have been put on high alert for more attacks in the run-up to the Passover holiday, and have been carrying out raids near Jenin to crack down on alleged terror activity.
Israel to reinforce seamline defenses; Iran not to tie future to nuclear talks TV7Israel News 13.04
1) Israel moves to bolster its fortifications along the seam-line of the West Bank districts of Judea and Samaria – as part of efforts to prevent illegal penetration of terror elements.
2) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns his government not to tie Iran’s future to the success or collapse of the nuclear talks with the West.
3) A truce between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition holds for a fourth day since coming into force.
Finland, Sweden move ahead toward possible NATO membership
European Union nations Finland and Sweden reached important stages Wednesday on their way to possible NATO membership as the Finnish government issued a security report to lawmakers and Sweden’s ruling party initiated a review of security policy options.
Finland, a country of 5.5 million, shares the EU’s longest border with Russia, a 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) frontier. Sweden has no border with Russia.
Russia, for its part, has warned Sweden and Finland against joining NATO, with officials saying it would not contribute to stability in Europe.
The only real option to NATO membership could be an enhanced bilateral military cooperation added with the United States and Nordic NATO member Norway, Finnish experts have said.
Marin and Andersson lead the ruling Social Democratic Parties in their respective countries. The parties are expected to announce their NATO views in early and late May, respectively. Parliaments in both countries are ready to finally decide the matter — something that could happen in Finland in late May and a bit later in Sweden.
Ordinary Brits deserve better than the least worst option. Time to return power to the people
Farage reacts as Boris Johnson fined.
This government is a complete shower.
Commentary/Opinion:
How Social Media Is Speeding Up The Radicalization Of The Left & Right Wing
Claire Lehmann and talk about the success of Quillette magazine, left-wing authoritarianism, gender dysphoria, mentorship, stereotypes, social media, ingroup preference, moral reasoning, aggressive empathy, and more.
Claire Lehmann is the founding editor of Quillette magazine. She works with journalists whose kind of content or views make finding a platform difficult. Quillette has published exciting articles by Coleman Hughes, Rav Arora, Rob Henderson, and Kevin Mims—to name a few.
Sex and the Schools, or, An Essay You Don’t Want to Read
The simple truth of the matter is that America’s government schools are intellectually bankrupt and morally corrupt. To suggest otherwise is either disingenuous or a form of head-in-the-sand-ism.
Officially, America’s schools claim to teach no moral values per se. But that claim is contradicted by the fact that they constantly push moral values such as “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” “tolerance,” moral relativism, and egalitarianism.
Such “values” are intended to strip children of any standards or principles they may have previously embraced, so that the teachers can replace the sometimes conservative cultural values of the kids’ parents with the political values of today’s postmodern, cultural Left—namely, egalitarianism, multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism, transgenderism, “social justice,” socialism, etc.
The primary function of teachers today is no longer to be the transmitters of knowledge but to serve as agents of social and political change. This is what they are taught to be in the teacher-training institutions or the so-called “ed” schools.[1]
It is a well-known fact that America’s Education Deep State (i.e., federal and state education departments, the teacher-training institutions, the teachers’ unions, curriculum designers, textbook publishers, local school boards, and even now the College Board which administers the SAT), has invested enormous time and resources in pushing the ideology and agenda of what is often called cultural Marxism and what is more narrowly known as “Critical Theory.”