“Your thought sees power in armies, cannons, battleships, submarines, aeroplanes, and poison gas. But mine asserts that power lies in reason, resolution, and truth. -- – Khalil Gibran
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| DAILY SPECIALS |
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| TRUMP’S LAWYERS PETTIFOGGING MOUTHPIECES |
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| PAUL MANAFORT |
SUPREME COURT RULING UNLIKELY TO AFFECT MANAFORT CASE: A
Supreme Court ruling Monday on the privacy rights of an unauthorized rental car
driver is unlikely to impact a similar fight over a storage locker searched
during the investigation into Paul Manafort, President Donald
Trump's former campaign chairman, legal experts said. The justices ruled
unanimously that the driver of a rental car has rights limiting searches of the
vehicle under the Fourth Amendment, even if he doesn't appear on the rental
contract and wasn't supposed to be behind the wheel. Manafort is locked in a
similar dispute with prosecutors from special counsel Robert
Mueller 's office over the FBI's search of a rented storage locker
last year.
— FBI agents got a peek at the locker with the help of Alexander
Trusko, an assistant to Manafort at the time, then used what they saw to
help them get a warrant for a more thorough search. Lawyers told POLITICO's Josh
Gerstein that the fact that Manafort's name does appear on the rental
contract gives him a stronger privacy claim than the person in the rental car
case decided Monday, but they still expect Manafort's motions to suppress the
evidence to be turned down. They say the two judges considering the issue in
Manafort's case are likely to rule that Trusko had "common authority"
over the locker — especially since he was the lead renter on the contract — and
that as long as it appeared that he did, the evidence will be admissible even
if Manafort wouldn't have approved of letting agents in. "It sounds like
the government is going to win that one," said Michael
Mannheimer , a law professor at Northern Kentucky University.
A Manafort spokesman declined to comment. [POLITICO
Influence, May 15, 2018]
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| FROM THE PORCH |
Life expectancy: Experts
say U.S. life expectancy started to fall after 1980 largely because income
inequality began to accelerate and the U.S. didn't keep up with the rest of the
world's investments in social safety-net programs.
- “Social underfunding probably has more long-term implications than
underinvestment in medical care,” Johns Hopkins professor Gerard Anderson
said. [Axios Vitals: Tuesday, May 15]
HOW A FAKE NEWS STORY SPREADS: Shawn Musgrave and I broke down the life-cycle of a fake news story - in
this case one alleging that the Supreme Court had banned Sharia law and Islam
from being taught in schools. We spoke with people who shared the story, as
well as experts on the psychology of sharing, to explain why this article,
first published more than a year ago, continues to circulate today. "The
most interesting thing to me about why we share fake news is that it's exactly
the same reason that we share regular news," said Jonah Berger, a
marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
"What does it say about me to share this thing? Just like the car we drive
and the clothes we wear says something about us." [Morning Media, May 15,
2018]
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| EDUCATION |
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| TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE |
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| U.S. SUPREME COURT |
SCOTUS WATCH: The Supreme Court may
issue opinions today on several big employment and immigration cases. Watch
for:
— NLRB v. Murphy Oil, about whether employers may use arbitration agreements to block employees from engaging in class-action lawsuits.
Janus v. AFSCME, about whether mandatory
"fair share" fees that public-employee unions charge union
non-members to cover their portion of collective bargaining costs constitute
compelled speech. The justices are expected to rule against the fees, dealing a serious
financial blow to public-employee unions..
— Trump v. Hawaii, about the constitutionality
of the latest iteration of President Trump's travel ban policy. The
justices appeared split on the policy during oral arguments in late April.
[POLITICO's Morning Shift, May 14, 2018]
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| U.S. MILITARY |
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| READ |
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| LEAKS |
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| JUDICIAL MATTERS |
NOPE: The Air Line
Pilots Association and other labor unions hoping to reverse DOT's decision to
let Norwegian Air International fly to the United States have fallen flat in
federal appeals court. They contended that NAI's "business model and labor
practices are not in the public interest," but "their petition fails
on the merits as neither federal law nor international agreement requires the
[Transportation] secretary to deny a permit on freestanding public-interest
grounds where, as here, an applicant satisfies the requirements for obtaining a
permit," a judge said. [POLITICO's Morning Transportation,
May 14, 2018]
• New fund alert: Crypto
company Ripple this morning said that it has formed Xpring Ventures, which will
"invest in and support proven entrepreneurs building projects using XRP.
No fund size was disclosed, but we're told that its investments will be
"denominated" in XRP rather than in dollars.
- More traditional NFA: Trail Post Ventures has launched as a
consumer brand-focused VC firm in San Francisco, co-founded by Nick Mendel
(ex-I-banker w/ Piper Jaffray) and Will Schmitt (ex-Beechwood Capital). [Axios Pro Rata: Monday, May 14]
• Aurora Cannabis (TSX: ACB) is paying US$2.51
billion to acquire Canadian marijuana producer MedReleaf (TSX: LEAF). The
C$29.44 per share price represents an 18.2% premium to Medreleaf’s Friday
closing price. http://axios.link/RnAC [Axios Pro Rata: Monday, May 14]
🚑 Celsius Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-based drug developer focused on
single-cell genomic sequencing, raised $65 million in Series A funding from
Third Rock Ventures, GV, Heritage Provider Network, Casdin Capital and
Alexandria Venture Investments. http://axios.link/t2k2
• VidMob, a New York-based video creation platform,
raised $6.4 million in new Series A funding (round total now $13.9m). You &
Mr Jones was joined by return backers investors Manifest Growth, Interlock
Partners, Acadia Woods and Macanta Investments. www.vidmob.com
• Trinity Merger, a real estate-focused SPAC formed
by Trinity Investments, raised $300 million in its IPO. http://axios.link/TVHa [Axios Pro Rata: Tuesday, May 15]
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| FCC |
BUSINESSES PUSH FCC TO CLARIFY ROBOCALL STATUTE
— A mix of groups including the Chamber of
Commerce, the American Bankers Association and the Electronic Transactions
Association petitioned the FCC in a filing posted last week to
get cracking on bringing some clarity to the rules surrounding the 1991
Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the statute governing robocalls. A federal
court struck down parts of Obama-era limits in March, and these businesses urge
the FCC to, among other things, follow the "logical roadmap" of the
court ruling on how the FCC should define an auto-dialer. "The TCPA
landscape is dysfunctional and in need of clarity from the FCC," the
groups complained. "The statute, originally intended to target a specific
abusive telemarketing practice, has been expanded by courts and the FCC,
turning it into a breeding ground for frivolous lawsuits against legitimate
businesses trying to communicate with their customers." [POLITICO's
Morning Tech, May 14, 2018]
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| FAMILY |
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| CANDIDATES |
In his
statement, Pritzker says the election is about
"uniting Democrats across the state around a progressive agenda that will
bring real change to Illinois." "Daniel Biss and I have a relationship
rooted in the shared values that lead us both to fight for a progressive income
tax, campaign finance reform, legalizing marijuana, and healthcare for
all." [POLITICO Illinois Playbook, May 14, 2019]
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
Any commercial or business interest information shared is purely informational, not an endorsement. I have no connection with any such commercial or business interest.
Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended.
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