Month: September 2022

On Thursday, House Democrats passed a package of new police reform bills that would fund recruitment and training for police departments across the country, including new language for police accountability. Early in the day a procedural vote on the bills narrowly passed 216-215 when a group of progressive Democrats objected to providing more funding to police departments. It now heads to the Senate.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said: “The Invest to Protect Act will ensure that local police departments across our country have what they need to recruit and retain the finest officers, to provide necessary training, and to invest in providing mental health resources for our officers.” 

California Democratic Rep. Katie Porter sponsored one f the bills, which would create a grant program for departments to hire and dispatch mental professionals instead of law enforcement officers when incidents involve behavioral health needs. Another bill provides funding to police departments with fewer than 200 officers and also allows the funding to be used for data collection about police and community safety.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it charged the aircraft maker Boeing and former CEO Dennis Muilenburg with making significant misleading public statements about the plane and an automated flight-control system that was implicated in the crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

Boeing Co. will pay $200 million to settle charges that the company and its former CEO misled investors about the safety of its 737 Max after two of the airliners crashed, killing 346 people. While neither Boeing nor Muilenburg admitted wrongdoing, they offered to settle and pay penalties, including $1 million to be paid by Muilenburg, who was ousted in December 2019, nine months after the second crash.

The SEC said Boeing and Muilenburg knew that the flight system, known as MCAS, posed a safety issue but promised the public that the plane was safe. The SEC said they also falsely claimed that there had been no gaps in the process of certifying the plane in the first place.

Boeing said it has made “broad and deep changes across our company in response to those accidents” to improve safety and quality: “Today’s settlement is part of the company’s broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 Max accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders.”

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New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization, alleging an illegal scheme that amassed $250 million by fraudulently overvaluing assets. The civil lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, seeks to recover $250 million that James said was received through deceptive practices. James is also seeking to bar Trump and his children – Eric, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. – from serving as officers or directors in any New York company, and Trump himself would also be barred from entering any commercial real estate transactions or applying for loans for five years.

James said during a news conference, “I want to be clear, white-collar financial crime is not a victimless crime. When the well-connected break the law to take in more money than they are entitled to, it reduces resources to working people, to regular people, to small businesses and all taxpayers. Everyday people cannot lie to a bank about how much money they have in order to get a favorable loan to buy a home or to send their kid to college. And if they did, the government would throw the book at them. Why should this be any different?”

The lawsuit alleges that the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities in a fraudulent scheme that touched all aspects of Trump’s business, properties and golf courses. The lawsuit also names former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and longtime company executive Jeff McConney and includes 23 properties in the Trump Organization portfolio.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba called the allegations politically motivated and meritless, saying in a statement: “Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the attorney general’s political agenda. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the attorney general’s meritless claims.”

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President Biden condemned Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine during his keynote address at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. During his remarks at U.N. headquarters in New York City as part of the General Debate, Biden said President Vladimir Putin is acting aggressively and irresponsibly by threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Biden said Russia has violated the tenets of the United Nations by going to war with Ukraine in February, and  called the military aggression “outrageous”. He pushed the United Nations to support Ukraine: “The world should see these outrageous acts for what they are. Putin claimed he had to act because Russia was threatened. No one threatened Russia and no one other than Russia sought conflict. In fact, we warned he was coming.” Biden pointed to Russian attacks that have targeted civilian centers, residential areas, schools, hospitals, rail stations, and said evidence of war crimes is everywhere: “This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple. That should make your blood run cold.”

Biden noted that 141 countries have condemned Russia for the war and dozens have given billions in emergency aid.  He said Putin must pay, or else it will only motivate other autocratic regimes to act in a similar fashion in the future:  “If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequences, then we put at risk everything this institution stands for. This past year, the world was tested as well. We did not hesitate. We chose liberty. We chose sovereignty. We stood with Ukraine. Like you, the United States wants this war to end, on just terms. On terms, we all signed up for. You cannot seize a nation’s territory by force. The only country that is standing in the way of that is Russia.”

Putin, in a rare national address on Wednesday, threatened to use nuclear weapons in the conflict and said he was partially mobilizing hundreds of thousands of reservists in Russia to bolster the military in Ukraine. It’s believed to be the first troop mobilization in Russia since World War II.  Putin said: “I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and some components are more modern than those of the NATO countries. And at the threat to the territorial integrity of our country, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff.”

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Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, have filed a class action lawsuit against the city, its current and former mayors, city officials and engineering companies, alleging that years of neglect culminated in a recent water crisis for more than 150,000 people.  Last week, the city finally had clean water restored following a boil water advisory from July when tests showed water quality was “cloudy.”

The residents asked the court in the lawsuit to force the city to repair the water system and to cancel any bills or debts held by residents for unsafe water or water that was not delivered, and also asked for community health centers to care for people who may have been injured by contaminated water and for an unspecified amount of money for damages.

Flooding of the Pearl River exacerbated the water crisis by causing water pressure issues in the city’s already-damaged system. The plaintiffs also allege that they were poisoned by lead and other contaminants released in Jackson’s drinking water before the water supply failed in August. The lawsuit reads: “These residents lack more than just drinking water, or water for making powdered baby formula, cooking, showering, or laundry. During the long period where the city pipes had no water pressure — and were unable to facilitate the flow of water — residents of Jackson could not flush their toilets for days at a time. This public health crisis, decades in the making, was wholly foreseeable by Defendants’ actions and has left Jackson residents in an untenable position — without access to clean, safe water in 2022 in a major United States city.”

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On Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced charges were filed against 47 people accused of carrying out the biggest Covid fraud scheme to date, stealing $250 million in a plot that exploited a federal program designed to feed needy children in Minnesota. U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger said in a statement: “This was a brazen scheme of staggering proportions. The defendants worked extremely fast, stealing money at a breakneck pace,” he added at a news conference announcing the charges.”More than 125 million fake meals are at issue in this case.”

Prosecutors say the fraud was overseen by Aimee Bock, who ran a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. She has denied wrongdoing and argued that if fraud occurred, it was without her knowledge.  Prosecutors say charities, restaurants and individuals were involved in the fraud by claiming they were providing meals for thousands of underserved children — but in fact, the money was going to commercial real estate, luxury cars, and fancy homes. Nonprofits such as Feeding Our Future were supposed to sponsor and oversee the restaurants, community centers and other places where the meals were to be provided.

The indictments say Feeding Our Future opened more than 250 meal distribution sites throughout Minnesota and fraudulently obtained and disbursed more than $240 million in funds from the Federal Child Nutrition Program, run by the Agriculture Department. Many of the defendants are charged not only with fraud but with bribery because the government alleges the charities took kickbacks from the food sites in exchange for steering them federal grants.

The FBI said in court records that in the summer of 2020, state officials became suspicious of the large number of meals being claimed at sites sponsored by Feeding Our Future and sought to deny payments at many of them. State officials ultimately contacted the FBI, which began investigating, and conducted a series of raids in January that closed down the funding streams. The Justice Department has seized property, vehicles and bank accounts worth $50 million so far.

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