Month: August 2024

A Wells Fargo employee was found dead at an office in a Tempe, Arizona, four days after scanning into work.

According to the Tempe Police Department, 60-year-old Denise Prudhomme checked into work on Friday, Aug. 16 around 7 a.m., and never scanned back out. Tempe police responded to the Wells Fargo office in the 1100 block of West Washington Street after on-site security called the police about an employee they believed to be dead on Tuesday, Aug. 20; she was pronounced dead at 4:55 p.m.

Per NBC affiliate KPNX of Mesa, Arizona, Sgt. Ryan Cook said police found Prudhomme in a cubicle on the third floor of the multi-level Wells Fargo building, away from the main aisle. An employee who spoke to KPNX on the condition of anonymity said a colleague found her at her desk while walking around the building and that several people had smelled a foul odor, but believed it to be faulty plumbing.

Sgt. Cook said that the cause of death is is pending determination by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner, but police say a preliminary investigation did not show any obvious signs of foul play. The Office of the Medical Examiner will make a further medical determination.

In a statement provided to CBS News affiliate AZFamily, Wells Fargo said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague at our Tempe office. Our thoughts and prayers are with their family and loved ones during this difficult time. Counselors, through our Employee Assistance Consulting service, are available to support our employees. We are fully cooperating with the Tempe Police Department in their investigation and will direct all further questions to them.”

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A recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed scores of health violations by meat company Boar’s Head at its Virginia facility, which is at the center of a nationwide recall of their deli meats that have been linked to multiple deaths across more than a dozen states. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) announced 14 more illnesses since its previous update earlier this month, bringing the total up to 57 across 18 states – marking the largest listeriosis outbreak of its kind in the U.S. since 2011, linked to cantaloupe.

The CDC confirmed that nine deaths have now been reported, adding Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico and South Carolina to the roster of 17 states with known listeria cases tied directly to the Boar’s Head outbreak.  All 57 people have been hospitalized in the latest outbreak, the agency confirmed, adding that six new deaths include one from Florida, one from Tennessee, one from New Mexico, one from New York and two from South Carolina.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (‘USDA’), a Boar’s Head liverwurst sample tested positive for the outbreak strain of listeria monocytogenes last month, at which time the food manufacturer issued a recall of all items produced at its Virginia-based facilities and paused operations. The recall was expanded from its initial notice on July 26, and mow includes approximately 7 million pounds of 71 products produced between May 10, 2024, and July 29, 2024, under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. The items include ready-to-eat meats and poultry products intended for slicing at retail delis, plus some packaged items.

Per the CDC: “Everyone should check their homes for any remaining recalled Boar’s Head products since they can have long a shelf-life. Look for ‘EST. 12612’ or ‘P-12612’ inside the USDA mark of inspection on the product labels. Some of the products have sell by dates into October 2024.”

In its newly released records, the USDA said that inspectors for the agency detailed dozens of regulatory violations at the plant including black mold, mildew, cobwebs and insects repeatedly found throughout the site. All operations at Boar’s Head’s Jarrat, Va., plant have been suspended, with company officials working to disinfect the facility and retrain its current employees. According to a company spokesperson, no meat products will be sent out “until it meets the highest quality and safety standards.”

Boar’s Head company spokesperson Elizabeth Ward said in a statement: “As a USDA-inspected food producer, the agency has inspectors in our Jarratt, Virginia plant every day and if at any time inspectors identify something that needs to be addressed, our team does so immediately, as was the case with each and every issue raised by USDA in this report.”

The CDC recommends heating deli meats sliced at any deli counter to an internal temperature of 165 degrees or until the meat is steaming hot. Consumers also can protect against listeria by cleaning their refrigerators and any containers or surfaces that might have contacted sliced deli meats.

For the full product list of recalls, check here.
For detailed label information, head here.

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined the Biden’s administration latest student loan debt relief plan. In a brief order, the court denied an emergency request filed by the administration seeking to lift a nationwide injunction imposed by an appeals court.

The justices turned down a request from the Justice Department to lift a sweeping appeals court order that blocked the program (known as the SAVE plan) which has been the subject of legal challenges from more than a dozen GOP-led states in recent months. The Court’s unsigned order said that it “expects that the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch.” There were no noted dissents.

The Education Department paused loan payments for borrowers enrolled in the program earlier this month because of the ongoing legal proceedings.  The Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s earlier plan last year that would have benefited more than 40 million Americans and forgiven nearly half-a-trillion-dollars in loans.

The latest program is an income-driven repayment plan in which monthly payments of a loan are based on the borrower’s income. The SAVE plan lowers monthly undergraduate loan payments to 5% of a borrower’s’ discretionary income above 225% of the federal poverty line — up from 150% — and provides for shorter repayment periods and earlier loan forgiveness for borrowers with smaller starting balances. The administration said it had the authority to make these changes under the Higher Education Act and estimated that out of the 8 million borrowers who enrolled in the SAVE Plan, 4.5 million have monthly payments of $0.

The brief unsigned order saw the Court reject the states’ request to lift that appeals court’s stay, noting that “the states said they do not require relief from the Supreme Court as long as the 8th Circuit’s order is in place.” The 8th Circuit’s decision blocks implementation of the program for borrowers nationwide and is at odds with the order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in the dispute involving the three other states, which kept the SAVE plan intact during legal proceedings.

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On Wednesday, a federal appeals court revived former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel Wednesday granted former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a new libel trial, faulting the trial judge for dismissing the case before the jury had reached a verdict. The jury was allowed to continue deliberating before ultimately finding the newspaper not liable in February 2022.

Senior United States Circuit Judge John M. Walker Jr. wrote in the opinion: “Unfortunately, several major issues at trial — specifically, the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction, a legally erroneous response to a mid-deliberation jury question, and jurors learning during deliberations of the district court’s Rule 50 dismissal ruling — impugn the reliability of that verdict. We conclude that the district court’s Rule 50 ruling improperly intruded on the province of the jury by making credibility determinations, weighing evidence, and ignoring facts or inferences that a reasonable juror could plausibly have found to support Palin’s case. No statement in this opinion should be understood as resolving issues of fact.”

Palin sued for defamation in 2017, claiming she was defamed in an editorial when her rhetoric was linked to the Tucson shooting attack that wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  According to the appeals court opinion, the editorial in question said the Giffords shooter’s “rage was nurtured in a vile political climate” and that the “pro-gun right [was] criticized” at the time. The editorial also noted that before the shooting Palin’s political action committee had “circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.”

The libel case against the Times was first reinstated on August 2019, but the district court dismissed her case again under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. The New York Times said in a statement: “This decision is disappointing. We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial.”

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic and vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again.

In a letter to the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, Zuckerberg alleged that White House officials “repeatedly pressured” Facebook for months to take down “certain COVID-19 content including humor and satire,” and “expressed a lot of frustration” when the company didn’t agree. In the letter dated Aug. 26 and posted on the committee’s Facebook page and X account: “I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it ..  I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today. We’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

The White House responded in a statement that, “When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this Administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.”

In early 2021, Facebook appended what Zuckerberg called labels with “credible information” to posts about COVID-19 vaccines. Originally, in April 2020 – when the virus had led to global shutdowns and other pandemic restrictions — Facebook had warned users about sharing misinformation about COVID-19.

Zuckerberg also said he would no longer donate money to widen election access for voters through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the company that runs the philanthropy for him and his wife, Priscilla Chan. The couple previously donated $400 million to help local election offices prepare for voters in the 2020 presidential election. Said Zuckerberg: “I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other .. My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another – or to even appear to be playing a role. So I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.”

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On Tuesday, Special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. A federal grand jury charged former President Donald Trump with the same offenses that he originally faced in his criminal election interference case in Washington, D.C.

Smith said in a separate court filing that the new indictment was filed in order to “respect and implement” the views and instructions of a recent Supreme Court decision granting former presidents “presumptive immunity” for their official acts in office. Prosecutors have not dropped any of the four charges that they initially brought against Trump, but the reworked indictment including allegations about Trump’s conduct, including his attempts to use the Justice Department to promote his false claims of election fraud. It also adjusts how prosecutors describe the allegations they are continuing to bring about Trump’s election subversion schemes.

The superseding indictment was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the criminal case against Trump, adding that the Department of Justice does not oppose letting Trump waive his appearance at an arraignment on the new indictment.

The special counsel’s office said: “The superseding indictment, which was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in this case, reflects the Government’s efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court’s holdings and remand instructions in Trump v. United States.”

Trump faces one count each of 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.

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