Latest News
See the latest news and get GPT analysis of articles
Former Lizzo dancers accuse her of sexual harassment and racial discrimination 2023-08-01 - Three former dancers for singer Lizzo have filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Grammy award-winning musician, claiming they were subjected to a severely toxic work environment that included "debauchery" and racially biased taunts of being "lazy" and "snarky." The singer's company, Big Grrrl Big Touring, and dance team captain, Shirlene Quigley, were both named as defendants in the suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. In their complaint, dancers Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez also accuse Lizzo of disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment. "The stunning nature of how Lizzo and her management team treated their performers seems to go against everything Lizzo stands for publicly, while privately she weight-shames her dancers and demeans them in ways that are not only illegal but absolutely demoralizing," the dancers' lawyer, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement. Media representatives for Lizzo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Davis, Williams and Rodriguez, who are all people of color, joined Lizzo's dance team in 2021, according to the suit. During an international tour in Amsterdam earlier this year, Lizzo allegedly pressured the dancers into engaging with nude performers in the city's red light district, the suit states. In their complaint, the dancers describe their former work environment as "overtly sexual" and hostile, claiming that allegedly abusive behavior by the singer contributed to their "emotional distress." Davis and Williams were fired and Rodriguez resigned from Lizzo's dance team, Zambrano said.
Taco Bell exaggerates how much beef it uses in some menu items, lawsuit alleges 2023-08-01 - Jumpstart with Jackie: Man asks Taco Bell where's the beef? Jumpstart with Jackie: Man asks Taco Bell where's the beef? 02:19 A Taco Bell diner is beefing with the fast-food chain, claiming its false advertising led him to buy a pizza that turned out to be very short on meat. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, New York City resident Frank Siragusa alleged that Taco Bell's advertising is "unfair and materially misleading," claiming that the restaurant company overstates how much "beef and/or ingredients" are in its menu items. According to the complaint, photos of Taco Bell's menu items that appear in the store and in food delivery apps show "at least double" the amount of meat and vegetables actually contained in its Crunchwraps and Mexican Pizzas. To illustrate the allegations, the complaint also compares what an attorney for Siragusa say is stock footage of Taco Bell's food with decidedly slimmer examples of actual products the suit said was pulled from Reddit and user reviews. A lawsuit against Taco Bell filed by a New York City resident accuses the fast-food chain of exaggerating the amount of meat and other ingredients in some of its menu items compared with the company's actual offerings. Law office of James C. Kelly These ads "are unfair and financially damaging to consumers," the complaint alleges, calling them "especially concerning now that inflation, food and meat prices are very high and many consumers, especially lower income consumers, are struggling financially." Yum Brands, Taco Bell's parent company, did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment on the suit. An attorney for New York City resident Frank Siragusa alleges that Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza contains less meat than what the company represents in its ads. Law office of James C. Kelly Siragusa isn't the first unhappy restaurant customer to call attention to this supposed discrepancy — the complaint links to a YouTube review, Reddit thread and new articles that bemoan the alleged lack of meat in Taco Bell's menu items. "The first thing I noticed was how small it looked," reporter Anthony Russo wrote for the U.S. Sun shortly after Taco Bell revived the Mexican Pizza last September. "Another thing, it wasn't as beefy as the commercial pictures made it look." However, Russo ultimately concluded that the dish was "edible" and "certainly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be once I opened the box."
Extreme heat costs the U.S. $100 billion a year, researchers say 2023-08-01 - How hot weather affects worker productivity -- and what that means for the economy The kind of extreme heat scorching the U.S. this summer isn't just uncomfortable — it also makes workers less productive and costs the U.S. billions of dollars in lost economic activity. Labor-intensive outdoor professions are most exposed to the debilitating effects of soaring temperatures, while excessive heat can also impair workers' cognitive abilities, research shows. Such weather can increase absenteeism and lead workers to quit early, reducing the number of hours spent on the job, according to the 2023 study by Chinese researchers shows. Exposure to temperatures greater than 85° Fahrenheit leads workers to reduce their workdays by an average of one hour, compared to when air temperatures are 76–80°F, a separate study shows. And as climate change drives more extreme weather, productivity losses are expected to intensify over time, experts warns. Heat can affect a wide range of jobs, from agricultural workers to those who work in factories, warehouses and restaurants as well as airline, telecom, delivery and home health workers New York Times reporter Coral Davenport told CBS News. When workers are fatigued and their output drops, their employers take a hit, while there can be other risks. "Medical researchers have known for decades that when workers are exposed to high heat — over 85 degrees, over 95 degrees — that they are more likely to make mistakes, have injuries, work more slowly," Davenport said. "But something that economic researchers have only just started to put together is that this really has a major impact broadly across the economy for those reasons." A recent study by researchers with the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center estimated that high heat costs the U.S. $100 billion annually in reduced productivity, a figure expected to double by 2030. Such daunting figures exclude related hits from factors including a decrease in tourism and rising health and energy costs. Employers must also make costly investments to adjust their business to account for the rising mercury, including in air conditioning. That can take a particular toll on small and midsize businesses. "It's easily a couple millions dollars investment, and that is not an investment a lot of employers feel like they're able to make," Davenport said. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working on developing a set of national standards that would institute protections for workers exposed to heat. Some business groups have opposed the effort, citing the costs of such remedial measures. "It would probably include things like mandatory rest, mandatory water, potentially requiring some employers to install air conditioning," Davenport said. "And already a lot of business groups have come out against it and said, 'This is going to be too much, this could impose big costs on businesses.' So that debate is happening."
Mega Millions jackpot for tonight's drawing increases to estimated $1.1 billion 2023-08-01 - The Mega Millions jackpot has increased to an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced hours ahead of Tuesday night's drawing. The grand prize was initially estimated to be $1.05 billion after no one matched all six numbers in Friday night's drawing. Whoever wins the jackpot has the option to collect it as an annuity or a one-time cash payment. The cash option for Tuesday night is now estimated to be $550.2 million. The jackpot has been growing since it was last won in April, and 29 drawings have been held since with no one matching the five white balls and gold Mega Ball. Tuesday's drawing is at 11 p.m. Eastern time. The odds of winning the jackpot are about 1 in 302.58 million. The Mega Millions jackpot is the summer's second chance for a billion-dollar windfall. Last month, one winning ticket was sold at a mini market in downtown Los Angeles for Powerball's $1.08 billion jackpot. After it was determined there was a winner, officials said it might take months before they're identified publicly. For Mega Millions, Tuesday night's massive jackpot would be the fourth-largest prize won in the game's history since it started in 2002 and the sixth-largest lottery jackpot in the U.S., according to the California Lottery. In January, one winning Mega Millions ticket sold in Maine won a $1.348 billion jackpot, the game's second largest in its history. The largest Mega Millions jackpot, $1.537 billion, was won in 2018.
Bed Bath & Beyond returns as online only home furnishings brand 2023-08-01 - Overstock to rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond after buying brand's intellectual property Overstock to rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond after buying brand's intellectual property 00:54 Bed Bath & Beyond, the home goods retailer that closed its remaining stores after filing for bankruptcy in April, relaunched Tuesday as an online-only brand under new owner Overstock.com. Overstock's website now redirects visitors to BedBathandBeyond.com, where the former big-box retailer is again selling bathroom, bedroom and kitchen-related products. The online store lets customers peruse a larger array of home furnishings and fixes some problems that were afflicting both Overstock and Bed Bath, according to Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson. "Overstock has a great business model with a name that does not reflect its focus on home," he said in a statement. "Bed Bath & Beyond is a much-loved and well-known consumer brand, which had an outdated business model that needed modernizing." Overstock bought Bed Bath & Beyond in June for $21.5 million during a bankruptcy court-supervised auction. The purchase didn't include Bed Bath & Beyond's remaining brick-and-mortar stores, which closed earlier this summer. The revived Bed Bath & Beyond also said it has reinstated points that shoppers had earned under the company's former loyalty program and refreshed the store's mobile app. Overstock can use whatever bump in its business Bed Bath & Beyond can give it. Johnson told analysts during an earnings call last week that Overstock's active customer and order frequency fell 29% to $4.6 million during the second quarter compared to the year-ago period. "We expect that over time, the relaunch of Bed Bath & Beyond brand, growing mobile app adoption and enhanced loyalty offerings will help improve this metric," he told analysts. Bed Bath & Beyond failed amid a wave of retail bankruptcies in recent years as the economy slowed and Americans became less willing to spend. Cineworld Group (the parent company of Regal Cinema), Party City and Vice Media are just a handful of brands on a longer list of Chapter 11 filings so far this year. Tuesday Morning and Revlon went bankrupt last year. Bed Bath & Beyond opened as a privately held business in 1971 and went public in 1992. As the U.S. economy boomed, the company had a 15-year run of earnings that met or beat Wall Street expectations. But its momentum slowed with the explosion of online shopping. Before filing for bankruptcy, Bed Bath and its children's focused store, Buy Buy Baby, had experienced years of declining sales. After changing its website name, the Overstock brand will quietly dissolve over time, company officials said. Johnson told the Associated Press that the rebrand was necessary because Overstock still confuses some customers and suppliers who believe it is a liquidator, which is how the company got its start in 1999. It transformed in 2004 into a general merchandise retailer, selling a wide variety of items. In 2021, Overstock fine-tuned its strategy to focus on furniture and home decor, doing away with items like clothing and jewelry. Bed Bath & Beyond's relaunch comes nearly a month after the company made a similar move in Canada. Johnson told the AP that the company has added roughly 600,000 new products since last month. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bulb Becomes a Flashpoint as the Sun Sets on Incandescent Lights 2023-08-01 - The switchboard at Lightbulbs.com, a (pretty self-explanatory) e-commerce website, lit up with panicked callers on Tuesday, who all wanted to know if the news was true. Had the government just banned the sale of incandescent bulbs? Yes, mostly. Was this decision part of an elaborate political plot? No, mostly. Just what were fans of incandescent lighting supposed to do now? EBay, maybe? Just like its cousin, the gas stove, the humble light bulb has become a flashpoint in a cultural squabble between regulatory efforts to curb energy consumption and the very American impulse to do whatever one wants in one’s domicile. But unlike the gas stove debate, which grew so heated (sorry) that it drew legislation from Republicans hoping to protect the noble but possibly dangerous appliance, the ban on the sale of most incandescent bulbs went quietly into effect on August 1. (The Biden administration denied trying to ban gas stoves.) The response to the bulb ban was more of a whimper than a battle cry. “Thomas Edison brought the incandescent light bulb to the masses, and in 2023 Joe Biden banned it in America,” officials with the Republican Party of New Mexico wrote in a tweet. “The Biden administration’s government overreach continues.”
It’s Official: Stores Can No Longer Sell Most Incandescent Lights 2023-08-01 - Neither rule is an explicit ban on incandescents. And a few specialized kinds of incandescent bulbs — like those that go inside ovens, and bug lights — are exempt. But most if not all other incandescents will struggle to meet the new efficiency standards, and the same goes for a more recent generation of halogen lights. “Energy-efficient lighting is the big energy story that nobody is talking about,” said Lucas Davis, an energy economist at the Haas School of Business, part of the University of California, Berkeley. “Going from an incandescent to an LED is like replacing a car that gets 25 miles per gallon with another one that gets 130 m.p.g.,” he said. With the new rules in place, the Department of Energy expects Americans to collectively save nearly $3 billion a year on their utility bills. In the past, a knock on LEDs was that they were more expensive to buy, but prices for LED bulbs have fallen rapidly to near parity with incandescents. The cost savings could come as a boost particularly to lower-income households, which spend a larger proportion of their income on utilities. Research has shown that retailers in poorer neighborhoods had also been among the slowest to phase out energy-guzzling bulbs. Over the next three decades, the rules will also cut carbon dioxide emissions by 222 million metric tons the Energy Department said, which it compared to the emissions from 28 million homes in one year.
A Run of Strong Data Buoys Biden on the Economy 2023-08-01 - And in less visible but significant ways, there are signs that Mr. Biden’s signature economic policies may be starting to bear fruit, most notably in a steep rise in factory construction. Government data released Tuesday showed that boom continued in June, with spending on manufacturing facilities up nearly 80 percent over the previous year. The manufacturing sector as a whole has added nearly 800,000 jobs since Mr. Biden took office and now employs the most people since 2008. “The public policy changes that have been put in place over the past two years are now starting to show up in the data,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM. He said the increased investment was “undoubtedly linked” to government policies, in particular the CHIPS Act, which aimed to promote domestic manufacturing, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which targeted low-emission energy technologies to combat climate change. As Mr. Biden gears up for his re-election campaign, perhaps what is most encouraging to him is that consumer confidence is rising to levels not seen since the early months of his tenure in the White House, before inflation surged. Measures by the University of Michigan and the Conference Board suggest consumers have grown happier with the current state of the economy and more hopeful about the year ahead. That change in attitude may reflect an underlying economic reality: The combination of cooling inflation, low unemployment and rising pay means that American workers are seeing their standard of living improve. Hourly wages outpaced price gains in the spring for the first time in two years, giving consumers more purchasing power. National opinion polls still show a sour economic mood — but it appears to be improving slightly. In a new New York Times/Siena College poll, 49 percent of respondents rated the economy as “poor,” compared with 20 percent who called it “excellent” or “good.” That’s an improvement from last summer, when 58 percent of Americans in another Times/Siena poll called the economy “poor” and just 10 percent rated it “excellent” or “good.”
Divvy Wants to Make Rent-to-Own Deals Easy. Many Customers Find Them Hard. 2023-08-01 - “With mortgage rates at all-time highs, our mission is more critical than ever,” Adena Hefets, the chief executive and a founder of Divvy, said in a statement. “Divvy gives renters the power of ownership: Pick out a home, build savings, and have the option to make it your forever home.” But Divvy’s mandatory savings plan also means that renters have a far higher monthly outlay compared with customers of other rent-to-own firms. The higher payments have become a struggle for some customers, especially because of rapid inflation. In the Atlanta area, where it owns about 1,100 homes, Divvy has filed 190 eviction actions so far this year, according to a data analysis by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. In 2022, the company filed 184 evictions in the Atlanta area. Divvy said many of those filings did not result in completed evictions. But it acknowledges that the number of completed evictions in the Atlanta area is higher than it was a year ago because the company now owns more homes there. The company, which charges a 5 percent fee for late payments, said it evicted only as a last resort. The company also said it had taken steps to address customer complaints about repairs. This spring, Divvy said, it put in place a new system to prioritize maintenance requests, including a 24-hour hotline for customers. In April, Divvy also told renters that it would waive one late fee a year on a delinquent payment, apparently in recognition that the higher monthly charge because of its forced savings model is causing some hardships. The Fretts, who are both employed, moved into the Georgia home in May 2022. They said they had been referred to Divvy by a real estate broker who worked closely with the company. At the time, the couple said, they were living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, so they relied on Divvy’s recommended home inspector to tell them if the house passed muster.
Under Hindu Nationalist Leaders, Sectarian Violence Flares in India 2023-08-01 - In the early hours of Monday, on a train bound for Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, a police officer took up his service rifle, fatally shot his superior and then killed three unarmed passengers. All three of the passengers were Muslim men, according to Indian news reports. Audio from cellphone videos of the incident filmed inside the train is muffled, but it sounds as if the officer, Chetan Singh, says in Hindi: “If you want to live in Hindustan, you must vote for Modi and Yogi.” Using an antiquated name for part of South Asia, he appeared to be advocating support for India’s foremost Hindu politicians: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, the leader of India’s most populous state. The violence occurred on the same day as a march led by a Hindu nationalist organization in one of the few northern Indian districts in which Muslims are a majority. The rally, which a Hindu vigilante wanted in the murders of several Muslims had promised to join, dissolved into street fighting, which then gave way to a full-blown riot that spread toward Delhi. As shops, vehicles and a mosque were set ablaze, at least five people were killed, including the mosque’s junior imam, the police said. These scenes — uncoordinated and unrelated, but hardly uncommon in India under Mr. Modi’s tenure — have emerged at an awkward time for the country as it prepares to host the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi in September. Mr. Modi has been promoting an economy-focused “India growth story” around the world and has received leadership accolades in Paris and Washington — a notable achievement given that in 2005 the State Department denied him a visa for nearly a decade over “severe violations of religious freedom” in the wake of massacres in his home state.
BP Reports Sharply Lower Earnings as Oil Prices Slide 2023-08-01 - Behind the Numbers The sharp drop was largely due to lower prices for the oil and natural gas that the company produces and sells. Energy prices soared in the previous spring after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, generating huge profits for oil companies. Since then, all major energy companies have been hit by lower prices, but BP’s earnings fell more proportionally than those of other large oil companies like Chevron and Shell. In an interview, BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, attributed the results to weak profits from products like diesel fuel as well as planned maintenance outages at its refineries. “There’s really no more to the story than that,” Mr. Looney said. In a reminder of how important dividend payments from large energy companies are to investors, BP said it would increase its distribution 10 percent, to about 7.3 cents a share, despite the earnings drop. The company’s stock price rose more than 1 percent in Tuesday trading. German Wind Farms in the Future After launching a whirlwind of changes in both personnel and business strategy when he became chief executive three years ago, Mr. Looney seems to have settled into a company that’s still heavily dependent on oil and gas but making big bets on clean energy. BP, based in London, recently said it would maintain petroleum production levels, but it also recently agreed to pay about $7 billion for the rights to build two large wind farms off Germany. Mr. Looney suggested the price was lower than it might seem because it would be gradually paid over roughly 30 years. He also said he was confident that the projects would meet BP’s profit targets. The power will be used to provide green energy to BP’s two refineries in the country and its extensive vehicle charging system there. “We are delighted with that win in Germany,” he said. ‘Incredibly Strong’ Demand for Oil Oil prices have risen around 20 percent since mid-June, to about $85 a barrel for Brent crude, the international benchmark. Mr. Looney, who has a front-row seat to the oil markets, made the case that the market may remain robust in the near term. Despite worries about the global economy and a faltering recovery in China, “demand for oil has been incredibly strong,” he said. At the same time, he noted that the group of oil producers known as OPEC Plus was being increasingly disciplined about restraining supply while shale oil drillers in the United States were also reining in activity. “Despite a lot of uncertainties in the world, you’d have to believe, from that evidence at least, that prices are going to be strong over the coming months,” he said.
Job Turnover Eased in June as the Labor Market Cooled 2023-08-01 - The most notable changes in June were not in job openings but in hiring and quitting. There were 5.9 million hires in June, down from 6.2 million in May. And the quits rate, a measure of workers’ confidence in the job market and bargaining power, decreased to 2.4 percent, from 2.6 percent in May and down from a record of 3 percent in April 2022. The number of workers laid off was 1.5 million, about the same as in May. Quotable: ‘The labor market is unbalanced.’ “We’re still in an economy where the labor market is unbalanced,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, “with the demand for workers substantially outpacing the supply of workers.” There are roughly 1.6 job openings for each unemployed worker. Why It Matters: The economy moves closer to a ‘soft landing.’ Over the past 16 months, as they have sought to curb inflation and make sure the economy does not overheat, Federal Reserve policymakers have pursued the coveted “soft landing.” That means bringing down inflation to the Fed’s target of 2 percent by raising interest rates without causing a significant jump in unemployment, avoiding a recession. The June JOLTS report provides more optimism that the Fed is approaching that soft landing, as demand for workers remains robust while tapering gradually. Inflation remains high by historical standards — at 3 percent, according to the latest data — but has eased substantially. “This is a really strong labor market that is staying strong but slowing down,” said Preston Mui, a senior economist at Employ America, a research and advocacy group focused on the job market.
The most important thing about Trump's Jan. 6 indictment 2023-08-01 - The indictment of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and plot to interfere with Joe Biden’s installation as president is a critical step in the preservation of America’s rule of law. But, with the likelihood that none of the charges against Trump will be decided before the November 2024 election, it also risks creating a virtual mosh pit of criminal cases. The scheduling and logistics of a massive trial are challenging. Delay is inevitable. The societal benefits of prosecuting all aspects of the illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election are obvious. Wrongdoing is exposed, alleged criminal acts can be evaluated in our judicial system, innocent people can be exonerated, and guilty defendants held liable. But such a sweeping case creates logistical gridlock. Each defendant may have separate counsel, which can multiply the number of motions and pretrial proceedings. The scheduling and logistics of a massive trial are challenging. Delay is inevitable. Given that Trump is the leading Republican candidate for the presidential nomination in the polls and Election Day is less than 16 months away, special counsel Jack Smith cannot afford delay. The new federal indictment of Trump in the District of Columbia may not permit the trial to occur before Election Day. The median time for a criminal felony case to be finished in the U.S. District Court in Washington is nearly 18 months, according to federal statistics as of Dec. 31, 2022. That statistic includes cases in which the defendant pleads guilty. Eighteen months from now will be after Inauguration Day for the next presidential term. Trump already is facing a total 40-count federal indictment in Florida alleging his unlawful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice, as well as prosecution for false entries in business records in New York state court in Manhattan. A fourth indictment against Trump is anticipated before Labor Day from a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia. Trump’s lawyers will raise realistic objections to demands that they meet stringent deadlines for pre-trial discovery, motion practice, and trial preparation for four felony cases in four jurisdictions with only minimal overlapping of facts, witnesses and legal issues. The Department of Justice’s problems have arisen from its own sluggish efforts to investigate Trump’s Jan. 6 involvement before the appointment of Smith last November. The fact that multiple key witnesses were not questioned between January 2021 and November 2023 is glaring evidence of misguided priorities. While federal prosecutors were vigilant as to investigating and indicting the rioters who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, they seemed indifferent to investigating those who organized and implemented the conspiracy to steal Biden’s election. Smith, to his credit, has been proceeding diligently to obtain the evidence leading to Trump’s potential indictment. But that doesn’t solve the current scheduling headaches. The answer must be that the New York criminal trial scheduled for March and the nascent Georgia prosecution must be held in abeyance until the pending Florida and D.C. federal prosecutions proceed expeditiously. Smith may be forced to choose whether to prioritize the Florida classified documents prosecution or the new Jan. 6 charges in order to obtain a jury verdict in the next 16 months. Prosecutors already have estimated 21 court days will be needed to complete the Florida trial and Trump’s defense attorney have given a longer estimate of six to seven weeks. In fact, Smith’s decision may not be his to make. Rather, it may be dictated by Judge Aileen Cannon, who has set a trial date of next May in the classified documents case, rather than this December as sought by Smith. The three new counts added against Trump in the Florida prosecution also poses a risk that the May trial date may be jeopardized, as the superseding indictment raises new claims. If Smith is dissatisfied, his team may push the judge assigned to the D.C. prosecution for an earlier date. The choice could be decided by the calendar, rather than by which prosecution is more important or more trial-ready. In any event, giving predominance to the federal prosecutions is the best course for several reasons. Timing is most crucial for the federal cases because Trump, if elected president in 2024, can direct his chosen attorney general to dismiss both cases with prejudice. In that event, Trump could never be held accountable on either set of charges. The New York criminal trial scheduled for March and the nascent Georgia prosecution must be held in abeyance until the pending Florida and D.C. federal prosecutions. Trump, even if president, has no power to dismiss any state court prosecution. Whether a state judge would postpone a trial while Trump was president, the charges would not be permanently dismissed because of any action by Trump. Moreover, the efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election constitutes the most egregious attack on our democracy ever attempted. Even the classified documents case, which involves national security issues, pales in importance to the Jan. 6 attack on our democracy. Attorney General Merrick Garland last November directed Smith to investigate whether “any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College on or about January 6, 2021.” Smith can still fulfill this obligation, by prosecuting individuals separately without Trump. But the priority right now is clear. And there is no time for delay.
Trump indicted in Jack Smith's 2020 election investigation 2023-08-01 - At least Donald Trump won’t say he was surprised. As recently as yesterday, the former president predicted on his social media platform that he’d be indicted for a third time “any day now.” To know anything about the Republican is to know his words are nearly always unreliable, but in this instance, his expectations were in line with reality: Trump has been indicted as part of Special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election probe. NBC News reported moments ago: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury investigating his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the special counsel’s office announced Tuesday. This is a four-count indictment, charging Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. It was in late March when Trump became the first former American president to be indicted, when a New York district attorney brought charges against the Republican as part of his hush-money-to-a-porn-star scandal. In June, the special counsel’s office filed its first criminal indictment against the former president, as part of his classified documents scandal, making Trump the first former American president to face federal charges. Last week, that story went from bad to worse when the public learned of a new, superseding indictment filed by Jack Smith and federal prosecutors that raised new allegations. Today’s news, in other words, means that Trump has now been indicted for the third time in roughly 18 weeks. As the political and legal worlds absorb today’s developments, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the larger context. When it comes to the alleged crimes committed in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 defeat, we’re accustomed to seeing certain kinds of suspects. Indeed, in the months and years that followed the former president’s exit from the White House, several hundred people have been charged, though most of them have something important in common: They’re relatively obscure figures — rank-and-file Jan. 6 rioters, assorted partisans who thought it’d be wise to pretend to be real presidential electors, etc. — who made the tragic mistake of believing a desperate charlatan’s ridiculous lies. There’s been far less accountability, however, for those who created and disseminated the lies, manipulated their unsuspecting marks, and rejected legitimate election results, all in the hopes of advancing their own undemocratic interests. This afternoon, all of that changed. Instead of one of Trump’s followers getting charged, it was Trump himself.
Why Trump’s indictment by Jack Smith for his actions on Jan. 6 matters most 2023-08-01 - Since Jan. 6, 2021, we have been forced to live with the unfathomable: a president of the United States encouraged an attack on the Capitol designed to undermine the very democracy he was elected to protect and preserve. Adding insult to injury, after witnessing with our own eyes Donald Trump telling an angry mob that they must “fight like hell” or they “won’t have a country anymore,” then directing them to go the Capitol and “stop the steal,” the American people have waited for a full 2 ½ years for Trump to be held accountable for his obvious, readily provable crimes. Trump has now been criminally indicted by a grand jury at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington — just a stone’s throw from the Capitol crime scene — for his attempt to end our representative democracy altogether, by overriding the expressed will of the American voters and unlawfully install himself for a second presidential term. This last factor — what the law calls “general deterrence” — is perhaps the most important vis-à-vis Trump’s crimes regarding Jan. 6 and the 2020 election. This indictment is as important as it is historic. The principles of prosecution set out that the government charges those who break our society’s laws for several reasons: to vindicate the rights of the victim; to protect others in the community who would otherwise be subjected to the continued crimes of the offender; and to hold accountable those who choose to violate the laws that represent the considered values of the citizenry, as embodied in the criminal statutes enacted by the peoples’ duly elected representatives. Another important principle, though one generally associated more directly with sentencing a criminal defendant, is deterring others from committing the same or similar crimes. This last factor — what the law calls “general deterrence” — is perhaps the most important vis-à-vis Trump’s crimes regarding Jan. 6 and the 2020 election. Since John Adams yielded the presidency to Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago, the peaceful transfer of presidential power has been a hallmark of our constitutional form of government. It is a thing of democratic beauty — if not an outright miracle — proving the viability of successful self-governance. Whether via Trump’s pressure campaign on Mike Pence — urging his own vice president to refuse to certify the electoral vote count — his fake elector scheme, or the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump tried his nefarious best to derail that peaceful transfer of power. If Trump was not held to account in a court of law for his democracy-busting crimes, then every four years, Jan. 6 of the year following a presidential election could very well look like Jan. 6, 2021. If federal prosecutors, whether acting as part of the Department of Justice or through a duly appointed special counsel, declined to charge Trump with crimes related to the 2020 election, that would represent the DOJ putting its stamp of approval on everything Trump did in his quest to retain the power of the presidency. If Trump went unindicted, there would be a reasonable, even robust argument that the DOJ inarguably concluded that Trump committed no crimes whatsoever regarding anything to do with the election, because if his acts had been criminal, surely the DOJ would have charged him. Even before this indictment, Trump was facing multiple criminal trials in both state and federal courts. But this particular indictment, for crimes involving Trump’s attempt to corruptly negate the expressed will of the American voters, was necessary to even have a shot at a healthy, indeed a viable, American democracy in the future. If these crimes went unaddressed, it would give future aspiring dictators the green light to do it all again. That is a circumstance our nation could not long endure.
Read: Full text of Trump indictment in Jack Smith's 2020 election probe 2023-08-01 - Donald Trump has been indicted in special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into 2020 election interference and Jan. 6, 2021. The former president faces four counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Read the full text of the indictment below:
Manhunt underway for suspect in fatal Brooklyn gas station stabbing 2023-08-01 - Police are searching for a 17-year-old suspect in connection to the fatal stabbing of a gay man, who was dancing outside of a Brooklyn gas station. NBC News' Antonia Hylton reports.Aug. 1, 2023
Three former dancers accuse Lizzo of weight-shaming, sexual harassment 2023-08-01 - Three of Lizzo’s former dancers have accused the singer of sexual harassment and weight-shaming in a lawsuit. Lizzo is a performer known for embracing body positivity. NBC News' Steven Romo reports.Aug. 1, 2023
Fulton County DA Fani Willis shares racist threat as Trump probe decision looms 2023-08-01 - Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney investigating Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia shared a racist threat she received as her office is preparing to make charging decision in the probe. Aug. 1, 2023
'Barbenheimer' boom might be followed by fallout at theater box offices 2023-08-01 - The spectacular box office success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” has been a boon for brick-and-mortar movie theaters. The two films have grossed a combined $525 million at the North American box office as of Tuesday, shattering records, crowding multiplexes and inspiring a seemingly endless parade of memes. But cinema owners could soon face a plot twist. The simultaneous actors and writers strikes that have upended the entertainment industry might leave theater chains starved of new releases. Hollywood’s major studios are already starting to postpone the release of certain films, including projects that have already wrapped shooting. The majority of film sets have gone dark, too, delaying production on high-profile blockbusters that had been slated to debut next year but may not be ready in time. The timing is inopportune for AMC Theatres, Regal, Cinemark and other leading exhibitors. “Barbenheimer” notwithstanding, theaters are still trying to rebound from the economic wallop of pandemic-era shutdowns and reassert their cultural relevance against the rise of streaming entertainment. (Regal and Cinemark did not respond to interview requests, and a spokesman for AMC declined to comment.) Chris Randleman, the chief revenue officer at Flix Brewhouse, a dine-in movie theater chain based in Texas that has locations in six states, said his company hopes for “a good resolution" for the actors and writers on strike. But heading into the fall, the team at Flix Brewhouse is feeling “tense,” he added. “It’s not the best feeling to see studios say they might push the bulk of their fall and winter schedule, and we’re hoping that can be averted,” he said. “We worked really hard to come back from the pandemic and that really terrible situation. The worst thing now would be to change that and move films around.” In a report published May 3, a day after more than 11,000 screenwriters headed to the picket lines, Moody’s Investors Service, a prominent credit-rating agency, said theater operators would be “most at risk” in the event of a “protracted strike.” We worked really hard to come back from the pandemic. The worst thing now would be to change that and move films around. -Chris Randleman, chief revenue officer at Flix Brewhouse “In a prolonged strike where new theatrical product is spread more thinly or runs dry, these companies could face a difficult time maintaining metrics commensurate with their ratings, particularly if they do not have sufficient committed liquidity or cash balances to withstand a long work stoppage,” wrote Neil Begley, senior vice president for Moody’s Investors Service. The labor stoppages are expected to last for months, and there are no signs that the striking workers and the studios are close to a deal. (The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that bargains on behalf of the studios, represents NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News. Universal Pictures released “Oppenheimer.”) The main reason for the release date changes: SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood actors union, issued rules that prevent stars from participating in promotional campaigns for their movies during the strike — no red carpet premieres, media interviews or other publicity events that marketing executives believe help boost awareness and drive ticket sales. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for example, bumped the premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” from September to April. The awards-courting drama, set in the world of competitive tennis, stars Zendaya, a global superstar who regularly draws wide attention for her media appearances and connects directly with her roughly 183 million Instagram followers. Sony last week announced that the fourth entry in the “Ghostbusters” franchise and the Marvel action saga “Kraven the Hunter” would move from this year to 2024. The studio pulled “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” off the calendar altogether, saying it was “considering several dates depending on how long the strike lasts.” It’s a sequel to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which has grossed a commanding $682,396,158 worldwide this year. Searchlight Pictures, the Disney-owned art-house label, moved the surrealist fantasy “Poor Things” from September to December. Disney is mulling moving the dates for likely Oscar contenders (Taika Waiti’s “Next Goal Wins”) and kid-friendly features (“Wish”), according to Bloomberg. Warner Bros. is considering shifting the November debut of “Dune: Part Two,” one of the most eagerly anticipated blockbusters on the fall lineup, according to Variety. (Zendaya stars in that one, too.) The release date changes are just one ripple effect of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. The major studios and their counterparts in the streaming world have paused production on several films that were penciled in for the summer and fall of 2024, including Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator 2,” “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two” and Universal’s big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked.” The impact on moviegoing “increases the pressure to resolve these strikes sooner than later, because the longer this goes on, the more profound the implications for the industry,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, an analytics company. SAG-AFTRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The union’s members, who have been on strike since July 14, argue they have been disadvantaged by the economics of the streaming era. They are seeking higher base compensation for their labor and stricter protections against the use of artificial intelligence. The members of WGA, who have been on strike since early May, took to the picket lines over similar issues. The commercial triumphs of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” came as a relief to theater chains that were on rockier footing earlier this year after a string of franchise entries underperformed at the box office. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “The Flash” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” all came in below expectations. The completed movies still on the docket for late summer and fall, barring any more calendar changes, include “Gran Turismo,” “Blue Beetle,” “Sax X,” Universal’s “The Exorcist: Believer,” “The Marvels,” “Wonka,” an Aquaman sequel, and an adaptation of the Broadway version of “The Color Purple.” The studios’ choice to defer releases has drawn criticism from observers who believe the companies are squandering the renewed enthusiasm for traditional moviegoing following the success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” In a thread on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, film historian and critic Mark Harris called the decision “self-defeating” and said distributors were preparing to “shoot themselves in the foot.”