Month: March 2024

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump said in a court filing on Monday that he has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him.  Trump’s lawyers said he needs to post a bond for the full amount by next week in order to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from being able to collect while he appeals, but they have not had any success getting a bond.

The filing said: “Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility.’ These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers. Their efforts, including “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world,” have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented.”

The filing added that other bond companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral and will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities),” and also noted those companies typically “require collateral of approximately 120% of the amount of the judgment” totaling @ $557 million. In addition, sureties would likely charge bond premiums of approximately 2 percent per year with two years in advance—an upfront cost over $18 million .. the actual amount of cash or cash equivalents required ‘to collateralize the bond and have sufficient capital to run the business and satisfy its other obligations’ approach[es] $1 billion.”

In a filing last month, Trump’s lawyers asked that the bond amount be reduced to $100 million, but Monday’s filing argues he shouldn’t have to put up any bond at all.  His attorneys are now arguing that the $464 million penalty is “grossly disproportional” and cited the argument that “there are no victims, as there were no damages and no financial losses.”

Trump also asked that if the state Appellate Division denies his request, they enter a temporary stay so he can try to make his case to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. A 30-day automatic stay of the judgment handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron is set to expire March 25, at which point James would be clear to start seizing Trump’s assets unless the appeals court steps in.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced a comprehensive ban on using and importing cancer-causing asbestos, a carcinogen still used in some vehicles and in some industrial facilities and other products in the U.S.  The new rule would ban chrysotile asbestos, the only ongoing use of asbestos in the United States. The substance is found in products such as brake linings and gaskets and is used to manufacture chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the final rule a major step to protect public health: ““The science is clear – asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health, that’s why EPA is so proud to finalize this long needed ban on ongoing uses of asbestos. With today’s ban, EPA is finally slamming the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in over 50 countries. This historic ban is more than 30 years in the making, and it’s thanks to amendments that Congress made in 2016 to fix the Toxic Substances Control Act.” 

The final rule marks a major expansion of EPA regulation under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled regulations governing tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, including substances such as asbestos and trichloroethylene that for decades have been known to cause cancer yet were largely unregulated under federal law. Known as the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, the law was intended to clear up a hodgepodge of state rules governing chemicals and update the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that had remained unchanged for 40 years.

Raw chrysotile asbestos was imported into the U.S. as recently as 2022 for use by the chlor-alkali industry, which makes asbestos diaphragms to make sodium hydroxide and chlorine, used to disinfect drinking water and wastewater. It is also used to make aftermarket automotive brakes and linings and other vehicle friction products, as well as sheet gaskets. Eight such plants remain in the U.S.

The EPA banned asbestos in 1989, but the rule was largely overturned by a 1991 court decision that weakened the EPA’s authority under TSCA to address risks to human health from asbestos or other existing chemicals. The 2016 law required the EPA to evaluate chemicals and put in place protections against unreasonable risks.

Exposure to asbestos has been linked to cases of lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. The EPA said the announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, a whole-of-government initiative to end cancer in the U.S.

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A suspect is still at large in the shooting that left two people dead and five injured early Sunday in Northwest, D.C. early Sunday morning. During a news conference from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Third District officers responded to a reported shooting around 3 a.m. on Sunday at the intersection of 7th Street NW and P Street NW, about seven blocks east of Logan Circle and four blocks north of Mt. Vernon Square. The shooting occurred near the Kennedy Recreation Center.

Officers at the scene learned that at least seven people were shot during the incident, with two people dead and the remaining victims were taken to a local hospital for treatment of their injuries. Police were continuing the search on Sunday for a suspect who they said fled on foot.  According to the Metropolitan Police Department, investigators were searching for a Black man with “average build, wearing light pants, blue shirt. Last seen on foot southbound on 7th Street NW. DO NOT TAKE ACTION CALL 911.”

Executive Assistant Chief Jeffrey Carrol said during a news conference Sunday morning: “We’re asking anyone who may have any information related to this incident or may have witnessed it, to contact the Metropolitan Police Department.” A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, police said.

According to police department crime statistics, Sunday’s shooting came amid a 35% increase in homicides in Washington, D.C., compared to the same period in 2023.

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Following a two-day manhunt a suspect is in custody for the murder of a New Mexico State Police officer, who was shot and killed on a highway near Tucumcari, New Mexico last week.  Officer Justin Hare, 35, was shot without warning around 5 a.m. local time Friday morning when he responded to a call of a driver with a flat tire on Interstate 40 near milepost 318, state police previously said. Hare died after being transported to a local hospital.

New Mexico state police posted Sunday on social media that the suspect, 32-year-old Jaremy Smith of South Carolina, was captured following an officer-involved shooting on Sunday with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office did not provide further details. Smith has a criminal history in South Carolina, including allegations of hostage taking, burglary and armed robbery; he also has spent time in Albuquerque. The vehicle with the flat tire belonged to a paramedic in Marion County, South Carolina, 52-year-old Phenesia Machado-Fore, who was found murdered Friday after she was reported missing from the area. Smith is a person of interest in the South Carolina case as well.

New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said Smith approached the passenger side of Hare’s patrol vehicle. After a short conversation in which Hare offered him a ride to town, Smith allegedly opened fire without warning; he then allegedly walked to the driver’s side, opened fire on the officer again and pushed him to its passenger side, got in the patrol vehicle and drove off.  Colleagues were alerted to Hare’s situation after the officer did not respond to radio traffic, and later appeared to have been able to depress a panic button common on police radios.  A responding officer saw Hare’s patrol vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, but by the time the officer reached the vehicle,it had crashed on an interstate frontage road and was abandoned. Hare was found along the same frontage road, where he was taken to a hospital. The suspect had vanished.

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