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Hollywood strikes taking a toll on California's economy 2023-08-05 - Los Angeles — Hollywood scribes met with studio executives Friday for the first time since the Writer's Guild of America went on strike just over three months ago. The more than 11,000 film and television writers that make up the WGA have been on strike since early May. In mid-July, they were joined on the picket lines by the approximately 65,000 actors in the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, SAG-AFTRA, a move that has shuttered nearly all scripted Hollywood production. It marks the first time since 1960 that both guilds have been on strike simultaneously. The economic impact has been especially heightened in California, where film and television production accounts for more than 700,000 jobs and nearly $70 billion a year in wages, according to the California Film Commission. "We are really fighting for the rights of the people who are working and living in the city," Burbank Mayor Konstantine Anthony told CBS News. "And that's really who I represent. I didn't get voted in by studios." Anthony is also an actor along with being mayor of Burbank, which is home to several studios, including Disney and Warner Bros. "If people aren't coming to work, if people are on strike, they're not spending money at their local grocery store," Anthony said. "All of those secondary industries are greatly affected by the loss of that income." That includes Alex Uceda's catering company, which feeds Hollywood production crews. "At the end of last year, we were working like 10, 11 jobs every day," Uceda said. "It drops to maybe one or two jobs now." Uceda, who estimates he has lost about 70% of his business in that time, has had to lay off nearly half his employees since the WGA strike began. Several big stars — including the likes of Oprah, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson — have each made donations of $1 million or more to the SAG-AFTRA's financial assistance program. "I beg all the people from the studio, please, please make it happen, you know, for the good of everyone," Uceda said. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are negotiating separately with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents all the major Hollywood studios. Among the most hotly-contested issues for both groups are residuals from streaming services and the use of artificial intelligence. Earlier this week, the WGA informed its members that Carol Lombardini, AMPTP president, had reached out and "requested" Friday's meeting "to discuss negotiations." "I think it's hopeful, because it's been crickets, it's been silent for a long time," SAG-AFTRA member Chad Coe told CBS News of Friday's meeting. Paramount Pictures, one of the studios involved in the negotiations, and CBS News are both part of Paramount Global. Some CBS News staff are SAG-AFTRA or Writers Guild members, but their contracts are not affected by the strikes.
3 reasons gas prices are climbing again 2023-08-05 - Drivers once again are feeling a pinch when fueling their vehicles, with the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. jumping to $3.82 a gallon, up nearly 30 cents from a month ago. Even though prices are climbing everywhere, the steepest increases are in Midwestern states, which have seen their average gas price rise between 18 cents and 25 cents, according to AAA. The nation's most expensive gas is in California and Washington state, where prices average $5.00 a gallon. The cheapest gas in the nation is in Mississippi, where the average price is $3.32 a gallon. To be clear, gas prices today are nowhere near as high as they were in June 2022, when they reached a record high of $4.62 a gallon. Back then, gas prices across the nation were inching toward $5.00, cramping Americans' summer travel plans. Rising gas prices played a major role in the surging inflation Americans experienced most of last year, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The national average prices began falling in mid-August as the summer days winded down and drivers took to the road less. Typically, when gas prices increase, the main culprit is the cost of oil. This month, however, oil prices are only part of the story. Here are three reasons gas prices are going up. Rising mercury July was one of the hottest months on record for many parts of the nation, including Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. Phoenix, for example, had a recordbreaking 31 straight days of 110 degrees during the day. Such high temperatures meant oil refineries had to reduce their output, as many of them can only operate at temperatures between 32 and 95 degrees, according to CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. The reduced output sent gas prices higher, he said. "Last month's extreme heat played a role in the recent spike in gas prices due to some refineries pulling back," Andrew Gross, AAA spokesperson, said in a recent analysis, adding that refineries are now starting to get back to their normal operations. Rising oil prices Crude oil prices have recently hovered around $80 per barrel, up from around $70 a barrel a month ago. When global oil prices climb, gas prices typically follow suit. Oil prices are climbing in part because Russia, the world's third-biggest oil producer, decided last month to cut production starting in August. Analysts at investment bank UBS expect crude prices to increase $85 to $90 in coming months amid rising oil demand. Falling oil production Saudi Arabia, the second-largest oil producer, also cut its oil exports last month. It slashed production by 1 million barrels per day hoping to keep oil prices elevated. The kingdom said this week it would extend its reduced production until the end of September. "This additional voluntary cut comes to reinforce the precautionary efforts made by OPEC+ countries with the aim of supporting the stability and balance of oil markets," a Saudi Energy Ministry official said Thursday, adding that the cut "can be extended or deepened" if the need arises. The Saudis are particularly keen to boost oil prices in order to fund Vision 2030, an ambitious plan to overhaul the kingdom's economy, reduce its dependence on oil and create jobs for a young population. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cyberattack causes multiple hospitals to shut emergency rooms and divert ambulances 2023-08-05 - Cybercriminals attacked the computer systems of a California-based health care provider causing emergency rooms in multiple states to close and ambulance services to be redirected. The ransomware attack happened at Prospect Medical Holdings of Los Angeles, which has hospitals and clinics in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas. Prospect Medical is investigating how the breach happened and is working on resolving the issue, the company said in a statement Friday. "Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. recently experienced a data security incident that has disrupted our operations," the company said in a statement. "Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists. While our investigation continues, we are focused on addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as possible." The FBI said late Friday that it has also launched an investigation into the breach. "We continue to encourage anyone who thinks they are a victim of this incident to report to ic3.gov or your local FBI field office," the agency said in a statement. Officials with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, the nurses' union at Crozer-Chester Medical System in Springfield, say the hospital has reverted to a paper system because most of the computers are offline, CBS News reported. The computers are unlikely to be back online until next week, according to the labor group. Two hospitals in Rhode Island — Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima — were also impacted, a law enforcement official told CBS News. Globally, the healthcare industry continues to be the top target for cyberattacks in the year ending in March, according to IBM's annual report on data breaches. For the 13th straight year, that sector reported the most expensive breaches of any field, averaging $11 million each. That's nearly double the average impact of a breach on the second-largest sector, finance, at $5.9 million each. John Riggi, the American Hospital Association's senior cybersecurity advisor, said the recovery process can often take weeks, with hospitals in the meantime reverting to paper systems and humans to monitor equipment or run records between departments. Elective surgeries, urgent care centers closed The data breach forced the emergency departments Manchester Memorial and Rockville General in Connecticut to close Thursday. Hospital officials there diverted patients to nearby medical centers. All Prospect Medical-owned health care facilities "are experiencing IT complications" and many services including elective surgeries and urgent care has been closed, the company posted on its website. Podiatry, wound care, women's wellness and gastroenterology services have also been suspended. "Our computer systems are down with the outage affecting all Waterbury Health inpatient and outpatient operations," Prospect Medical's hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, posted on its Facebook page. "We are in the process of reevaluating our downtime capabilities and may reschedule some appointments. Affected patients will be contacted." In Pennsylvania, the attack affected services at Crozer Health facilities including: the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. Crozer closed vital health care services including emergency services at Springfield Hospital and Delaware County Memorial Hospital last year, according to the Delaware County website. — The Associated Press contributed to this report
U.S. businesses add 187,000 jobs in July 2023-08-05 - U.S. businesses add 187,000 jobs in July U.S. businesses added 187,000 jobs in July, keeping pace with June's hiring as employers sought to add staff amid a tight labor market. Job growth has become more muted than earlier this year, Axios managing editor for business and markets Javier David joins CBS News to discuss why.
Wells Fargo customers report missing deposits to their bank accounts 2023-08-05 - Wells Fargo customers took to social media this week to voice their alarm over direct deposits they had made that did not show up in their bank accounts. A rash of customers contacted Wells Fargo on Thursday through X, formerly Twitter, to inform them of the issue as well as voice their frustration. Some insisted they would switch banks. "I'm taking my checking, my savings, and my IRA from Wells Fargo Advisors," one customer said in a tweet. "Safer burying in my backyard!" That same day, more than 100 reports were submitted to website status monitor Downdetector, more than half of which involved mobile deposits. By Friday morning, however, most of the account issues had been resolved, a Wells Fargo representative told CBS MoneyWatch. "A limited number of customers were unable to see recent deposit transactions on their accounts," the spokesperson said in a statement. "The vast majority have been resolved and the few remaining issues will be resolved soon. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience." The spokesperson did not specify what caused the problem. Major inconvenience for some Confusion over the disappearing deposits fueled a host of angry posts on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter). More than a thousand tweets mentioned Wells Fargo on Thursday, data from hashtag analytics tool Tweet Binder shows. You “misplaced” two of my deposits as well as God knows how many others. I’m taking my checking, my savings, and my IRA from Wells Fargo Advisors. Safer burying in my backyard! @BurkeandHerbert I’m on my way! — Lisa (@RealityLuvr) August 3, 2023 One user expressed frustration about having to miss work to pay their rent in person after struggling to deposit the money at three different Wells Fargo branches. "I want [Wells Fargo] to pay me for my time that I now have to take off for work tomorrow to deposit this in person," the user tweeted. Another customer complained that they would not be able to pay their rent at all because their money went missing. "I don't have enough cushion for them to lose a $2K deposit when rent is due," the user said in a tweet. "How does a bank stay in business like this?" 🤬-heart attack. So Wells Fargo has a problem with lost deposits, they are aware but don't know when it will be fixed. I don't have enough cushion for them to lose a $2K deposit when rent is due. How does a bank stay in business like this @WellsFargo — JustJeani🟧 (@JustJeani) August 3, 2023 This isn't the first time Wells Fargo customers' deposits have done a disappearing act. The bank said in March that customers' deposits were "not showing on their accounts" due to a "technical issue," NBC reported.
Employers add 187,000 jobs as hiring remains solid 2023-08-05 - U.S. businesses added 187,000 jobs in July, keeping pace with June's solid hiring as employers sought to add staff amid a tight labor market. Hiring was slightly below the expectation from analysts polled by FactSet that employers had added 200,000 new jobs last month. The unemployment rate edged down to 3.5% from 3.6% in June, the Labor Department said on Friday. Even so, job growth has become more muted than earlier this year, partly as the Federal Reserve has sharply boosted interest rates over the past year, making it costlier for businesses to expand. Even though hiring is cooling, employers are still adding new jobs, easing some concerns that the interest rate hikes could tip the economy into a recession. "The U.S. jobs report was near expectations for July, but the labor market is softening as many employers navigate changing circumstances," said Eric Merlis, managing director and co-head of global markets at Citizens, in a Friday email. He added, "As the Fed works to curb inflation by raising rates to slow the economy, monthly jobs numbers provide a key measure of the impact and they continue to show the resilience of the economy." July's data marks a slowdown from the average monthly hiring over the prior 12 months, when employers on average added 312,000 new positions each month, the Labor Department said. Businesses added jobs last month in health care, social assistance, financial activities and wholesale trade. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is monitoring the economy for signs that inflation, which hit a four-decade high last year, is tempering in response to its series of interest rate hikes. The central bank wants to guide inflation downward to a 2% rate, although in June it stood at 3.1%, still above that goal. "Slower job growth in July could be a welcome sign for the Fed, as they seek to prevent a wage-price spiral, where higher wages due to the low supply of workers lead to increased costs for companies that may subsequently pass on higher prices to consumers," noted Stephen J. Rich, CEO of Mutual of America Capital Management, in a Friday email. Wages rose 0.4% in July, to an hourly average of $33.74, the Labor Department said on Friday. That matched June's wage increase, and was slightly higher than the 0.3% increase expected by some analysts. On an annual basis, average earnings in July increased 4.4% from a year earlier, with wage growth ticking up for production and non-supervisory workers, who make up about 82% of the workforce. "[W]ages did not ease as expected, which will be disappointing to policymakers," noted Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. In June, businesses added about 209,000 jobs, although the Labor Department revised the number downwards to 185,000 jobs on Friday.
Austria's leader wants to make paying with cash a constitutional right 2023-08-05 - Berlin — Austria's leader is proposing to enshrine in the country's constitution a right to use cash, which remains more popular in the Alpine nation than in many other places. Chancellor Karl Nehammer said in a statement on Friday that "more and more people are concerned that cash could be restricted as a means of payment in Austria." His office said that the "uncertainty" is fueled by contradictory information and reports. "People in Austria have a right to cash," Nehammer said. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer delivers his speech during a session of the Parliament in Vienna, Austria, May 12, 2023. LEONHARD FOEGER/REUTERS While payments by card and electronic methods have become increasingly common in many European countries, Austria and neighboring Germany remain relatively attached to cash. The government says 47 billion euros ($51 billion) per year are withdrawn from ATMs in Austria, a country of about 9.1 million people. Protecting cash against supposed threats has been a demand of the far-right opposition Freedom Party, which has led polls in Austria in recent months. The country's next election is due in 2024. Asked in an interview with the Austria Press Agency whether it wasn't populist to run after the Freedom Party on the issue, the conservative Nehammer replied that the party stands for "beating the drum a lot without actually doing anything for this." The chancellor's proposal, according to his office, involves a "constitutional protection of cash as a means of payment," ensuring that people can still pay with cash, and securing a "basic supply" of cash in cooperation with Austria's central bank. Austria is one of 20 countries that are part of the euro area. Nehammer said he has instructed Finance Minister Magnus Brunner to work on the proposal and plans to hold a round table with the ministries concerned, finance industry representatives and the central bank in September. "Everyone should have the opportunity to decide freely how and with what he wants to pay," he said. "That can be by card, by transfer, perhaps in future also with the digital euro, but also with cash. This freedom to choose must and will remain."
Some Wells Fargo Customer Deposits Disappear Because of a ‘Technical Issue’ 2023-08-05 - Some Wells Fargo customers checked their bank accounts this week to discover that their recent deposits had disappeared, causing them to express concern over where the money had gone and, in some cases, to report being late on their bills. The missing funds were caused by “a technical issue,” leaving some customers’ deposits in limbo, Wells Fargo said on social media in response to customer complaints. However, the bank did not say on Saturday how many accounts had been affected or what had caused the problem. “A limited number of customers were unable to see recent check deposit transactions on their accounts,” Wells Fargo said in a statement on Saturday. “All accounts have been resolved and are showing accurate balances and transactions. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.”
Ransomware Attack Disrupts Health Care Services in at Least Three States 2023-08-05 - CharterCARE Health Partners, a Rhode Island affiliate, said on Facebook Thursday that it had to reschedule some of its appointments and to revert to paper records. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that computers were also down at Crozer Health facilities in Delaware County. “Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc. recently experienced a data security incident that has disrupted our operations,” the company said in a statement on Saturday. “Upon learning of this, we took our systems offline to protect them and launched an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity specialists.” The company said it was focused on “addressing the pressing needs of our patients as we work diligently to return to normal operations as quickly as possible.” It did not provide details on the nature of the security breach. Waterbury Hospital, in Waterbury, Conn., said on Saturday that it was continuing to have disruptions. It also said that some of its outpatient and diagnostic imaging services had not been available on Friday or Saturday. On Thursday, it said it was relying on paper records. Cyberattacks on hospitals have become more common, said John Riggi, senior cybersecurity adviser to the American Hospital Association.
The Women’s Magazines of 2023 Are in a Facebook Group and Your Inbox 2023-08-05 - When Kate Middleton wore a Suzannah London dress in different colors to various events, it prompted Ms. Holmes to ask readers what clothing items they had in multiples. She received more than 300 answers. In her newsletter, she compiled the responses in a spreadsheet and featured a dozen products that had been suggested by more than one person. (The Anthropologie ‘Somerset’ Dress! The Madewell Whisper Tank!) Comments poured in: “I just bought my first Nap Dress off of this list!” “People loved that because it was a bunch of testimonials of stuff people try and wear and use and buy,” Ms. Holmes, 43, said. “My audience is women in their 30s and 40s like me, and in some ways, we were the tail-end of the glossy magazine shopping trend, and we definitely experienced the Instagram-influencer beautiful photos.” Now, she said, there’s more of a “community aspect” to consumer recommendations and an interest in what normal people are wearing. For some, these communities are a salve for the sheer amount of stuff for sale online, targeted to them in feeds fueled by algorithms. These women want a review of a review and the truth behind a flawless Instagram picture — has a real person actually tried that face roller? Has anyone else been targeted by ads for that particular eyeliner? As Ms. Moss put it: “So many of the amazing things about the internet are also all of the bad things about the internet when it comes to needing to make a meaningful purchase.” Ms. Malinsky, who started her career at the now-defunct Lucky magazine in 2007 and worked at Glamour and GQ before joining The Journal, tells her newsletter subscribers: “I scroll so you don’t have to.” She sends crisp missives that you can count on one hand: five white T-shirts, five dresses for “extreme heat” or five tips for entertaining on Thanksgiving, with casual photos of herself wearing the clothes she’s endorsing.
‘Vindicating’: An Analyst Who Lowered the U.S.’s Credit Rating in 2011 on Fitch’s Downgrade 2023-08-05 - When Nikola Swann heard that Fitch Ratings had removed the United States from its list of risk-free borrowers this week, he felt a sense of satisfaction. “It was vindicating,” he says. More than a decade ago, Swann played a key role in a similar decision: He was Standard & Poor’s primary analyst for its sovereign credit rating on the United States when the agency became the first ever to downgrade the nation’s long-term credit rating amid a debt ceiling standoff in 2011. At the time, the move was controversial, in part because the Treasury Department pointed out that S&P had overstated the federal debt by about $2 trillion. Bloomberg called the reasons for the downgrade “fundamentally political” in 2011, while others argued that it appropriately reflected a worsening debt crisis. Both a decade ago and this week, partisan politics were cited as one reason for the downgrade. S&P cited “the gulf between the political parties.” Fitch, which made the call two months after the United States narrowly avoided defaulting on its debt, cited “the repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions.”
Berkshire Hathaway Posts Quarterly Profit of Nearly $36 Billion 2023-08-05 - Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by the billionaire Warren Buffett, posted its highest ever quarterly operating profit on Saturday, while gains from stock holdings helped Berkshire swing to an overall profit of nearly $36 billion. Rising interest rates and dividend payouts, as well as a rebound in performance at the Geico car insurer, have been helping Berkshire’s insurance businesses generate more money, with profit up 38 percent from the second quarter of 2022. Berkshire cited rising premiums and a reduction in advertising as among the reasons for Geico’s positive results. That helped offset declines at other businesses including the BNSF railroad, where lower shipments of consumer goods and increased price competition from the trucking industry contributed to a 24 percent drop in overall profit. Investors closely watch Berkshire because of Mr. Buffett’s reputation as a savvy investor and because results from the conglomerate’s dozens of operating units often mirror broader economic trends.
Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 R.V. and the Friend Who Financed It 2023-08-05 - Vehicle loans are generally exempt from those reporting requirements, as long as they are secured by the vehicle and the loan amount doesn’t exceed its purchase price. But private loans like the one between Mr. Welters and Justice Thomas can be deemed gifts or income to the borrower under the federal tax code if they don’t hew to certain criteria: Essentially, experts said, the loan must have well-documented, commercially reasonable terms along the lines of what a bank would offer, and the borrower must adhere to those terms and pay back the principal and interest in full. Richard W. Painter, a White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, said that when it comes to questions of disclosure, the ethics treatment of gifts and income often parallels the tax treatment. But those intricacies aside, he said, “justices just should not be accepting private loans from wealthy individuals outside their family.” If they do, he added, “you have to ask, why is a justice going to this private individual and not to a commercial lender, unless the justice is getting something he or she otherwise could not get.” The Times’s unearthing of the loan arrangement is the latest in a series of revelations showing how wealthy benefactors have bestowed an array of benefits on Justice Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas: helping to pay for his great-nephew’s tuition, steering business to Mrs. Thomas’s consulting firm, buying and renovating the house where his mother lives and inviting the Thomases on trips both domestic and foreign that included travel aboard private jets and a yacht. Justice Thomas has pointed to interpretations of the disclosure rules to defend his failure to report much of the largess he has received. He has said he was advised that the trips fell under an exemption for gifts involving “personal hospitality” from close friends, for instance, and a lawyer close to the Thomases contended in a statement that the justice did not need to disclose the tuition because it was a gift to his great-nephew, over whom he had legal custody, rather than to him. The Thomases’ known benefactors include wealthy men like the Dallas real estate developer Harlan Crow, the conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo and several members of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, which honors people who succeed despite adversity. Among them: the longtime Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, who flew the justice around on his jet.
Still Dreaming of Retirement in the Sun Belt? 2023-08-05 - But the pandemic made travel feel unsafe for years. Mr. Cox underwent treatment for prostate cancer. Ms. Cox’s father moved in and needed care. So they have mostly summered in Goodyear. The number of older Americans like the Coxes who are exposed to extreme heat is increasing, the result of an aging population, continuing migration to heat-prone places and climate change. Researchers say the trend will only get worse. “The places that are hot now are precisely the places getting older,” said Deborah Carr, a sociologist at Boston University and lead author of a recent study of population aging and heat exposure. Phoenix, long a retirement destination, has averaged 108 days a year of 100-plus degree temperatures since 1970. But this year has been brutal: By July 31, Phoenix had already reached 68 days this year with temperatures over 100 degrees. Temperatures hit at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 31 straight days, from the last day of June to the end of July, setting a record. And hazardous heat returned to the city just this weekend. Summer in the Phoenix suburbs has been “miserable,” Ms. Cox said, on a midmorning when the temperature in Goodyear had already reached 106. “You really can’t go out and do things. We haven’t been as sociable as I’d like.”
Special counsel submits request for protective order in Trump election case 2023-08-05 - The office of special counsel Jack Smith asked the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's election case to restrict him from publicly disclosing some of the evidence in the case. NBC News' Julie Tsirkin reports on the latest. Aug. 5, 2023
Indictment of Donald Trump tells a story. His trial will prove it. 2023-08-05 - The 45-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday offers a blistering rebuke of a U.S. president’s desperate plot to stay in power. The full document is a good read, but America will have to wait for the trial to hear and see special counsel Jack Smith’s proof. And what will this extraordinary trial look like? The full document is a good read, but America will have to wait for the trial to hear and see special counsel Jack Smith’s proof. First, we know that there will be a lot of witnesses. A review of the indictment suggests that Smith will have to call 30 to 40 witnesses to substantiate everything in the wide-ranging indictment. The indictment’s description of the “conspiracy to defraud the United States” includes tense confrontations in the Oval Office, phone calls to legislators in seven states, more than 60 lawsuits, attempts to corrupt the Department of Justice, lies to electors, and a final push by Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, to pressure his vice president not to certify Joe Biden’s victory. Smith’s list of witnesses should read like a veritable who’s who of the Republican Party, and will likely include Mike Pence, U.S. congressmen, U.S. Department of Justice officials, White House lawyers and advisers, officials from several states, and at least some of the “fake” electors who signed election certifications even though their candidate lost the race. Second, everything described in the indictment — everything, without exception — must be established by admissible evidence in the Washington, D.C., courtroom. Even the background information included in one of the indictment’s opening paragraphs, which describes how electoral votes are counted under federal law, will likely have to be explained to the jury by an expert witness. The cross-examination of that witness, which could be relevant to Trump’s defense, may be lengthy. (On Thursday, Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.) Smith and his team will endeavor to tell the story laid out in the indictment. But, after the government’s opening statement, that story has to be told through live witness testimony or reliable documents (think emails and text messages). In contrast, the House Jan. 6 committee, which had first crack at many of the witnesses, was not conducting a criminal trial and did not have to comply with the rules of evidence and criminal procedure. For purposes of those blockbuster public hearings, the committee was able to select and play relevant portions of videotaped depositions to illustrate key points. Notably, the near-total boycott of the committee by House Republicans meant that witness testimony went unchallenged. The Constitution affords criminal prosecutors no such luxuries. Government witnesses in Trump’s criminal trials will have to testify live. They will be subject to cross-examination; this is Trump’s right under the Sixth Amendment to confront the witnesses against him. And, for reasons of efficiency, trial judges expect witnesses to testify in a single session about everything relevant to the trial. That means Smith’s witnesses may be asked to testify about a number of events that may not flow chronologically in Smith’s presentation of the case. The jury will have to sort all that out later, with the help of the government’s closing argument. A few witnesses may be called for more limited purposes. Every piece of documentary evidence — an email, a text, a letter, a memo, an electoral certification — has to be authenticated by a live witness before it can be admitted into evidence and shown to the jury. (While Trump can stipulate to a document’s authenticity, he’ll have little incentive to do so.) None of these evidentiary requirements will stymie the special counsel’s team, of course — rules of evidence and procedure are part and parcel of criminal trials. Trial attorneys are also prepared to expect the unexpected, such as jurors who fall ill, witnesses who fail to appear, midtrial discovery disputes, broken copy machines and courthouse power outages. It also seems like the special counsel has pulled every lever in his control to narrow and simplify the trial — for example, by indicting only Trump and not his six alleged co-conspirators. But Jack Smith’s indictment still tells a big story, about Donald Trump’s desperate and wide-ranging attempt to overturn the results of a presidential election. With the limited time left on the clock before the 2024 presidential election, Smith’s biggest challenge will be telling that story to a jury as quickly as he can.
'Extremely volatile situation': Trump could put himself in jail before a prosecutor does 2023-08-05 - Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, whose investigations of Donald Trump and the Trump Organization set the stage for eventual criminal prosecutions, talks with Alex Wagner about the trickiness of holding Trump to account, the Supreme Court as a wild card for Trump's defense, and whether local cases against Trump should give way to the federal cases. Aug. 5, 2023
Why a psychology curriculum can't ignore the people Republicans don't like 2023-08-05 - As Florida governor running for president Ron DeSantis continues to pick fights with the education system in his state, the College Board has made it clear that AP psychology can no longer be offered in Florida because the new requirements reduce the breadth of the course to the point of leaving it incomplete. Rachel Chapman, who teaches AP Psychology in Florida, talks with Alex Wagner about being an educator in Florida why psychology can't pick and choose which people to consider.Aug. 5, 2023
Trump's mask slips further with choice of Alabama political event 2023-08-05 - Donald Trump's first political event fresh off of being charged with violating the Ku Klux Klan Act was in Alabama where state Republicans have openly flouted a court order to make voting districts fair to Black voters. Alex Wagner talks with civl rights attorney Charles Coleman and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg. Aug. 5, 2023
AZ Secretary of State speaks out on the impact of Trump’s election lies 2023-08-05 - AZ Secretary of State speaks out on the impact of Trump’s election lies After Trump posted a threat on social media just one day after his latest arraignment, Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes joins MSNBC’s Ali Velshi to discuss the threats he and his colleagues have faced because of Donald Trump’s election lies.Aug. 5, 2023