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Trump Hires #BillionDollarLawyer – The New York Times

Trump Hires #BillionDollarLawyer - The New York Times

ATLANTA — Amid a deepening swirl of federal and state investigations, former President Donald J. Trump has hired a prominent Atlanta lawyer to represent him in a criminal inquiry into election interference in Georgia.

The lawyer, Drew Findling, has represented an array of rap stars including Cardi B, Gucci Mane and Migos, and is known by the hashtag #BillionDollarLawyer. But he is also well regarded for a range of criminal defense work that he has done in Georgia, and his hiring of him underscores the seriousness of the investigation — as well as the potential legal jeopardy for Mr. Trump.

The investigation is being led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta. At least 17 people have been designated as targets who could face criminal charges. Mr. Trump is not among them, but a special grand jury is continuing to consider evidence and testimony, with several top Trump advisers still to appear. Ms. Willis has said that she is weighing a number of potential criminal charges, including racketeering and conspiracy.

In a hearing on Tuesday, a state judge told lawyers for Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, that their client needed to travel to Atlanta to testify next week. On Wednesday, lawyers for Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina faced a skeptical reception from a federal judge to their efforts to quash a subpoena from Ms. Willis’s office seeking the senator’s testimony. The lawyers for Mr. Graham who appeared in court included Donald McGahn, former White House counsel for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Findling brings decades of trial experience ranging from high-profile murder cases to local political corruption scandals. But in the past, he has been openly — indeed, scathingly — critical of the former president.

2018 post on Twitter, after Mr. Trump criticized LeBron James, Mr. Findling referred to Mr. Trump as “the racist architect of fraudulent Trump University.” In 2017, after Mr. Trump fired the US attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, Mr. Findling said on Twitter that the firing was “a sign of FEAR that he would aggressively investigate the stench hovering over this POTUS.”

I have also called Mr. Trump’s history of harsh comments about the five Black and Latino men who as teenagers were wrongly convicted of the brutal rape of a jogger in Central Park “racist, cruel, sick, unforgivable, and un-American!”

In a phone interview on Thursday, Mr. Findling explained his decision to take on Mr. Trump by referring to John Adams, who took the unpopular position of representing British troops after the Boston Massacre.

“I do not believe that we choose our client or clients based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, political belief or the substantive issues involved in the crime,” he said. “We have our personal lives and we have our personal politics, and I don’t apologize for my personal politics,” he added.

Mr. Findling also drew upon the kinds of First Amendment issues that often arise in criminal cases at the nexus of hip-hop and crime and maintained that Mr. Trump had done nothing improper in Georgia. He mentioned Mr. Trump’s infamous taped phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, and specifically addressed the moment when Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes that could overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in Georgia, which some legal experts say may amount to solicitation to commit election fraud under Georgia law.

“Somebody listens to a rap song that lasts for four minutes and 11 seconds and pulls one verse out and tries to conjure up some type of criminal case out of it,” said Mr. Findling, who said that in both the phone call and a rap song, context was crucial.

The conversation with Mr. Raffensperger, he added, amounted to an effort to “negotiate a resolution” to a civil legal matter.

Mr. Findling said he was part of a Georgia-based legal team now working for Mr. Trump that includes Jennifer Little, a former DeKalb County prosecutor, and Dwight L. Thomas, a veteran defense lawyer who previously worked with the Office for Civil Rights at the US Education Department.

“The presence of this high-priced and high-powered legal talent signifies the exceptional national importance of the fast-moving investigation and the likely imminent charges against the former president and possibly others in his circle,” said Norman Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment. Mr. Eisen was a co-author of a 114-page Brookings Institution analysis of the Georgia case last year that found Mr. Trump “at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes.”

That Mr. Trump would choose a lawyer well known in the hip-hop world is not out of character for the former president, who has a long and complicated history of interacting with famous rap figures. Mr. Trump earned the support of Kanye West and pardoned or commuted sentences for a number of influential rap figures, including Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.

Mr. Findling has previously been sharply critical of a crackdown by Ms. Willis on rappers and those accused of being gang members; he represents YFN Lucci, an Atlanta rap artist who was indicted on murder and racketeering charges in Fulton County last year.

Mr. Findling also has extensive experience with political clients. In 2013, he helped win the acquittal of Victor Hill, the sheriff of Clayton County, Ga., who had been indicted on a host of corruption-related charges after an investigation by a special grand jury. Mr. Hill also retained Mr. Findling after he was federally indicted last year on numerous civil rights charges for the alleged mistreatment of detainees at the local jail. He has been suspended from his position pending a trial set for October.

Mr. Findling also recently represented Mitzi Bickers, who once worked in the administration of the former mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, a Democrat. Ms. Bickers was convicted in March on nine federal corruption counts as part of a multimillion-dollar contracting and kickback scandal.

And he is representing John Oxendine, the former insurance commissioner of Georgia, a Republican who was indicted in May on federal charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Esther Panitch, a veteran Atlanta-area criminal defense lawyer and Democratic nominee for a state House seat, has known Mr. Findling for years. She called him “brilliant.”

“That being said, he needs a client who will listen to him,” she said, adding: “You can’t hold Drew responsible if his client refuses to take his advice. And Trump is the kind of client that lawyers fear. Because he can’t be controlled.”

Joe Coscarelli contributed reporting.

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Beto O’Rourke drops F-bomb on gun control heckler while discussing Uvalde shooting

Beto O'Rourke drops F-bomb on gun control heckler while discussing Uvalde shooting

Update: 4:56 pm with Abbott spokesman saying heckler was not affiliated with governor’s campaign.

Beto O’Rourke is defending the F-bomb he dropped Wednesday night while confronting a heckler who he said was laughing during his remarks about the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers.

The incident occurred during a rally in Mineral Wells as O’Rourke began talking about the need to curb mass shootings like the one that happened May 24 at Robb Elementary School. A man in the crowd could be seen and heard laughing as O’Rourke talked about Uvalde, prompting the Democratic nominee for governor to respond with an expletive.

“It may be funny to you, motherf—–, but it’s not funny to me,” O’Rourke said to the heckler.

The moment caused a stir on social media, and the Democrat’s campaign addressed it.

“There’s nothing funny about 19 kids being shot to death in their classrooms, and there’s nothing okay about refusing to act so it doesn’t happen again,” said Chris Evans, O’Rourke’s chief spokesman.

In a tweet after the Mineral Wells rally, O’Rourke defended his stance.

“Nothing more serious to me than getting justice for the families in Uvalde and stopping this from ever happening again,” he tweeted.

Mark Miner, the chief spokesman for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said Thursday that the Mineral Wells heckler was “not affiliated in any way” with the governor’s reelection campaign.

Though O’Rourke was criticized for using expletives on the campaign trail during his race against Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, the Mineral Wells crowd applauded wildly after the moment Wednesday night.

It wasn’t the first time he had an exchange with a heckler over Uvalde, either. He addressed someone laughing at an event in Snyder last month when Uvalde came up.

O’Rourke, a former El Paso congressman, is running for governor against incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The Uvalde massacre has been a flashpoint in the campaign, with high emotions over mass shootings in El Paso and elsewhere in Texas. During a news conference after the shooting, O’Rourke confronted Abbott and was escorted out of the room.

The full video of the town hall in this tweet includes the explicit language that may offend some.

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Merrick Garland: DOJ filed motion to unseal Mar-a-Lago warrant and property receipt

Merrick Garland: DOJ filed motion to unseal Mar-a-Lago warrant and property receipt

Garland also said he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.”

I have noted that the department did not comment on the search on the day that it occurred. I pointed out that the search was confirmed by Trump that evening. He said that copies of the warrant and the warrant receipt were provided to the Trump lawyers who were on site during the search.

“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search, the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland said. “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor. Under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing. “

The statement comes after days of silence from the Justice Department with regard to the search, as is the department’s normal practice for ongoing investigations. Garland stressed that some of the department’s work must happen outside of public view.

“We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations,” he said, while explaining that he would not provide more detail about the basis of the search.

Trump and his legal team have not yet reached a decision on how to respond to the Justice Department’s motion to unseal the warrant, a source familiar with their thinking told CNN.

In a pair of posts to Truth Social following Garland’s statement, Trump continued to claim that his attorneys were “cooperating fully” and had developed “very good relationships” with federal investigators prior to Monday’s search at Mar-a-Lago.

“The government could have had whatever they wanted, if we had it,” Trump said. “Everything was fine, better than most previous Presidents, and then, out of nowhere and with no warning, Mar-a-Lago was raided, at 6:30 in the morning, by VERY large numbers of agents, and even ‘safecrackers. ‘”

The Justice Department has been instructed by the court to confer with Trump about his request to unseal certain warrant documents from the FBI Mar-a-Lago search and to tell the court by Friday 3 pm ET if he opposes their release.

Justice Department asks court for documents to be released

The FBI executed a search warrant Monday at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents, that may have been brought there.

Newly filed court documents outline what the Justice Department has officially moved to do Thursday.

“On August 8, 2022, the Department of Justice executed a search warrant, issued by this Court upon the requisite finding of probable cause… at the premises located at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach, Florida 33480, a property of former President Donald J. Trump,” the motion reads.

“At the time the warrant was initially executed, the Department provided notice directly to former President Trump’s counsel. The Department did not make any public statements about the search, and the search apparently attracted little or no public attention as it was taking place. Later That same day, former President Trump issued a public statement acknowledging the execution of the warrant.In the days since, the search warrant and related materials have been the subject of significant interest and attention from news media organizations and other entities,” the Justice Department writes.

DOJ then argues for unsealing the search warrant, citing “the intense public interest presented by a search of a residence of a former President.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks on FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago

The filing confirms that the search warrant was “signed and approved by the Court on August 5.” On Thursday, the DOJ filed “the redacted Property Receipt listing items seized pursuant to the search,” according to its unsealing motion.

“Former President Trump, through counsel, was provided copies of each of these documents on August 8, 2022, as part of the execution of the search,” the filing adds.

Earlier this year, officials from the National Archives arranged the retrieval of 15 boxes of presidential documents from Mar-a-Lago. In June, federal investigators served a grand jury subpoena and took away sensitive national security documents.

Then, according to sources, prosecutors developed evidence that there were potentially classified documents with national security implications remaining at the property.

FBI officials under attack

Republican lawmakers have lashed out at the department, calling the search politically motivated. Several lawmakers on the right have called for increased oversight of the department, and some have even suggested defunding the FBI or that agents planted evidence at the Florida estate.

Violent threats also have exploded online since the search. Posters have written things like “Garland needs to be assassinated” and “kill all feds.” The biography and contact information of a federal magistrate judge who appears to have signed the search warrant used to execute the search at Mar-a-Lago has been wiped from a Florida court’s website after he too became the target of violent threats.

In a message reviewed by CNN on Thursday moments ahead of the public statement, FBI Director Chris Wray told the bureau’s employees their “safety and security” was his “primary concern right now.”

Feds removed documents from Mar-a-Lago in June with grand jury subpoena

“There has been a lot of commentary about the FBI this week questioning our work and motives,” Wray said. “Much of it is from critics and pundits on the outside who don’t know what we know and don’t see what we see. What I know — and what I see — is an organization made up of men and women who are committed to do their jobs professionally and by the book every day; this week is no exception.”

In his public comments, Garland also called out the “unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors.”

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked. The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated patriotic public servants,” he said. “Every day, they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.

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Rocky Mount officer Thomas Robertson sentenced to over 7 years in Jan. 6 riot

Rocky Mount officer Thomas Robertson sentenced to over 7 years in Jan. 6 riot

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A Virginia police officer who prosecutors say lied about his actions before, during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, including his military service and his marriage, was sentenced Thursday to 87 months in prison.

Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker were members of the police department in the small western Virginia town of Rocky Mount when they joined the mob that stormed the Capitol. Both have since been fired.

“You were not some bystander who just got swept up in the crowd,” Judge Christopher R. Cooper said at Robertson’s sentencing Thursday in US District Court in Washington. “It really seems as though you think of partisan politics as war and that you continue to believe these conspiracy theories.”

Robertson, 49, was found guilty by a jury earlier this year of six crimes, including using a large wooden stick to block police outside the Capitol and destroying his phone when he got home. Fracker, who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, testified at the trial.

Cooper said Robertson’s case was similar to that of Guy Reffitt, a member of the far-right anti-government militia group Three Percenters, who confronted an officer outside the Capitol with a gun. Reffitt was sentenced to 87 months in prison by a different judge.

At his sentencing, Robertson depicted his actions on Jan. 6 as an aberration in the life of a respected member of a law-abiding and respectable community. The government’s filings suggest he became radicalized under the influence of those around him, including the chief of a small neighboring police department and a retired FBI agent.

Prosecutors took the unusual step of publishing two detailed FBI investigations into the claims Robertson made in his appeal for mercy.

Retired police chief Dennis Deacon wrote the court saying that he had helped train Robertson as a police officer and that these crimes were “completely out of character.”

The agent produced a text conversation from March 2021, in which Robertson told Deacon, “I can kill every agent that they send for at least two weeks” and that he was “prepared to die in battle.” Deacon replied that Robertson should “be smart, pick battles, plan logistics, very carefully recruit and hope its not going to come down to it… we need a place to go… remote, defensible, water, very rugged terrain.”

Cooper said he found it particularly “disturbing” that Robertson made those comments after law enforcement officers were critically injured at the Capitol.

In an interview, Deacon said he was telling Robertson to recruit “friends” for “whatever inevitable things may happen … a flood or a hurricane,” or in the “extremely unlikely” event that “the government is overthrown by others from outside.”

Deacon retired last year as chief of police in Boones Mill, Va., near Rocky Mount. (When he was promoted in 2013, he said he was also the only officer on the force; there have been as many as seven.)

Another man described as a retired FBI agent went to the Capitol with Robertson and Fracker but did not go inside, according to the court records. That man, who could not be reached for comment, called the Capitol Police “cowards” who “will be on their knees before us” in text messages to Robertson, records said.

Fracker is set to be sentenced on Tuesday.

In his letter to the court, Fracker said he had been labeled a “rat,” a “snitch” and a “back stabber” by community members for testifying against Robertson. “It really is just heart breaking,” he said.

Robertson was a mentor to him and a “once valued father figure,” Fracker wrote.

A video from the Jan. 6 hearing on June 9 used multiple sources, including security and body camera footage, to walk viewers through the attack on the Capitol. (Video: The Washington Post)

At least two dozen people with past or current law enforcement affiliations are charged with criminal involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. Michael German, a former FBI agent who has studied far-right radicalization of police at NYU Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice, said the bureau is in “continuing denial” about the problem.

“Law enforcement has a lot of power to harm people,” he said. “Why don’t we see an aggressive project designed to protect the public?”

In a statement from the FBI, a spokeswoman said: “We cannot and do not investigate ideology. The FBI investigates when someone crosses the line from expressing beliefs to violating federal law.”

Robertson’s letter to the court explained his angry social media posts before the riot as a product of alcohol abuse and isolation while his wife was working in New York.

“I was… all alone at home,” he wrote. “I sat around at night drinking too much and reacting to articles and sites given to me by Facebook algorithms.”

However, an FBI agent wrote that Robertson’s wife went to New York after Jan. 6, not before, and that Robertson appeared to be having an extramarital affair while she was gone. Moreover, the agent said that if Robertson was drunk when he wrote the messages on Facebook that he would meet Joe Biden’s victory with violence, he was either drinking on a police shift or just before one.

At his sentencing, Robertson blamed Fracker for destroying their phones after the riot, something prosecutors noted is contradicted by both trial testimony and text evidence.

“Truth has no meaning to this defendant,” Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Aloi said in court. “He’ll say whatever he thinks he needs to say to get out of a situation.”

Robertson also misled the court, Rocky Mount police, journalists and friends about his military achievements, according to the FBI. He has indicated in various interviews and conversations that he trained as an Army sniper, Ranger and parachutist in the 1990s; he served as an infantryman, sniper and sergeant when he reenlisted in the 2000s; and received a Bronze Star and was awarded a Purple Heart after an injury.

The FBI agent said that Robertson was discharged three weeks into basic training in 1991 for “lack of motivation”; he reenlisted in 2006 but served only as a military police officer and had no apparent training for any other specialty. He spent about eight months in Iraq with the Virginia National Guard and then went to Afghanistan as a contractor in 2011. He was injured there, but contractors are not eligible for the Purple Heart. The agent also said that Robertson exaggerated his recovery time on him.

The agent suggested that Robertson may have committed a crime with those falsehoods, under a law that prohibits using “stolen valor” for material benefit.

Defense attorney Mark Rollins said that while Robertson “may have boasted about his background” and “made some clear mistakes,” he served his country and community in ways that cannot be faked. “He has always served his fellow man,” Rollins said. “He’s bled for this country.”

Robertson was released after his arrest in January 2021 but was jailed months later after going on what Cooper described as a “remarkable shopping spree for high-powered assault weapons” while becoming “further radicalized.” Robertson could be charged with illegal firearm possession, the judge noted.

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Armed man tries to breach Cincinnati FBI office, causing standoff

Armed man tries to breach Cincinnati FBI office, causing standoff

A standoff has ended after an attempted breach of a Cincinnati FBI building led to a pursuit of an armed suspect in Clinton County, according to officials with Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Clinton County Emergency Management Agency. According to Ohio State Highway Patrol, it started around 9 am when an armed man attempted to breach FBI Cincinnati’s visitor screening facility. An alarm went off and FBI special agents responded when the man fired a nail gun at law enforcement personnel, sources tell NBC. The man then held up an AR-15-style rifle before fleeing in a vehicle north onto I-71 leading Ohio State Highway Patrol on a pursuit. Police said during the pursuit, the suspect fired shots from his vehicle before getting off the highway, stopping near Smith Road in Clinton County. That’s when police said the suspect and officers exchanged gunfire, leading to a standoff. No officers were injured during the exchange of gunfire. It’s unclear if the suspect was struck by gunfire or injured. Clinton County Emergency Management Agency said the standoff has ended but some operations are continuing at the scene. No further details have been released yet. Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh shared the following statement on the attempted breach: “As many are aware, there was an incident this morning where an armed individual attempted to breach the Cincinnati branch of the FBI. This situation is still developing. I condemn violence in any form. It is important to support peaceful disagreement and for the public to go through proper channels to express that disagreement with government institutions. The Bailiff’s Division of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts shares responsibility for courtroom security at the Hamilton County Courthouse. Along with our partners at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office, our Criminal Bailiffs keep our judges, clerks, courtroom staff, and the public safe. For that reason, we take any incidence of violence or threats of violence directed against our justice system and the rule of law very seriously. We hold out hope for a peaceful resolution to this situation.”This is a breaking news story, WLWT is working to learn more and will continue to update with the latest information as it comes in.

A standoff has ended after an attempted breach of a Cincinnati FBI building led to a pursuit of an armed suspect in Clinton County, according to officials with Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Clinton County Emergency Management Agency.

According to Ohio State Highway Patrol, it started around 9 am when an armed man attempted to breach FBI Cincinnati’s visitor screening facility.

An alarm went off and FBI special agents responded when the man fired a nail gun at law enforcement personnel, sources tell NBC. The man then held up an AR-15-style rifle before fleeing in a vehicle north onto I-71 leading Ohio State Highway Patrol on a pursuit.

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Police said during the pursuit, the suspect fired shots from his vehicle before getting off the highway, stopping near Smith Road in Clinton County.

That’s when police said the suspect and officers exchanged gunfire, leading to a standoff. No officers were injured during the exchange of gunfire. It’s unclear if the suspect was struck by gunfire or injured.

Clinton County Emergency Management Agency said the standoff has ended but some operations are continuing at the scene. No further details have been released yet.

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Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh shared the following statement on the attempted breach:

“As many are aware, there was an incident this morning where an armed individual attempted to breach the Cincinnati branch of the FBI. This situation is still developing. I condemn violence in any form. It is important to support peaceful disagreement and for the public to go through proper channels to express that disagreement with government institutions. The Bailiff’s Division of the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts shares responsibility for courtroom security at the Hamilton County Courthouse. Along with our partners at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office, our Criminal Bailiffs keep our judges, clerks, courtroom staff, and the public safe. For that reason, we take any incidence of violence or threats of violence directed against our justice system and the rule of law very seriously. We hold out hope for a peaceful resolution to this situation.”

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This is a breaking news story, WLWT is working to learn more and will continue to update with the latest information as it comes in.

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Attorney General Garland to give statement from DOJ

Attorney General Garland to give statement from DOJ

Attoney General Merrick Garland is set to deliver a statement to the press on Thursday afternoon from the Department of Justice.

Garland has been under pressure to speak about the FBI’s search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday.

It is not clear if Garland will discuss the matter on Thursday. The Department of Justice did not indicate the subject to be addressed by the attorney general.

It is standard practice for the agency to not publicly reveal details about ongoing investigations.

The search at Trump’s home is believed to be related to classified material that the National Archives and Records Administration believed had been improperly taken by Trump.

Republicans have widely condemned the FBI’s search, accusing it of being politically motivated.

The White House has said President Biden had no knowledge the search was going to take place.

The New York Times earlier Thursday reported that Trump had been subpoenaed this spring for the documents.

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Austin Onlyfans, Instagram model charged with murdering boyfriend

Austin Onlyfans, Instagram model charged with murdering boyfriend

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An OnlyFans and Instagram model from Austin who reportedly stabbed her boyfriend to death in Florida was arrested and charged for murder.

Courtney Clenney, also known as Courtney Tailor, was arrested on Wednesday in Hawaii. She is charged with second-degree murder for the April 3 stabbing of 27-year-old Christian “Toby” Obumseli, according to the Hawai’i Police Department. Obumseli was a Texas Tech University alumnus.

The Miami Police Department described Obumseli’s death as a domestic violence incident that involved a fight and ended with a stabbing, NBC reports.

Clenney’s defense lawyer, Frank Prieto, told KXAN’s sister station in Florida she acted in self-defense.

“Obumseli attacked her and choked her that evening; Courtney had no choice but to meet force with force,” Prieto said in a statement to NBC 6. “Further, we are disappointed that the State Attorney sought an arrest warrant in this matter; we have cooperated with the investigation from the beginning with both the State and the City of Miami Police Department. We have always offered to self-surrender if charges were filed in an effort to begin the legal process of clearing her of the charges.”

Clenney is being held at the East Hawai’i Detention Center and is expected to make a first court appearance Thursday, the department said. She will eventually be extradited to Florida.

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Newsom unveils new water strategy, warning California’s supply could drop 10 percent by 2040

Newsom unveils new water strategy, warning California's supply could drop 10 percent by 2040

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced a set of revamped water strategies on Thursday, warning that the state’s supply is expected to plunge by up to 10 percent by 2040.

In anticipation of these shortfalls, Newsom unveiled a 16-page action document that focuses on “adapting to a hotter, drier future” by adjusting state priorities “based on new data and accelerating climate change.”

Among the strategies are plans for the expansion of water storage and water recycling capacity, as well as the elimination of water waste and the deployment of new technologies.

“The science and the data leads us to now understand that we will lose 10 percent of our water supply by 2040 — if all things are equal, we will lose an additional 10 percent of our supply by 2040,” Newsom said at a press conference in the Bay Area city of Antioch on Thursday.

“As a consequence of that deeper appreciation, that deeper understanding, we have a renewed sense of urgency to address this issue head on,” the governor continued. “But we do so from a multiplicity of perspectives and ways, not just from a scarcity mindset.”

One of these ways, as outlined in the supply strategy document, involves creating a storage space for up to 4 million acre-feet of water. Doing so, according to the document, would allow the state “to capitalize on big storms when they do occur and store water for dry periods.”

Another strategy included in the document involves recycling and reusing at least 800,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2030, which could optimize the use of wastewater currently released into the ocean.

An average California household uses between one-half and one acre-foot of water each year, according to the Water Education Foundation. California has about 13.1 million households, based on US Census data.

The governor’s plans also call for freeing up 500,000 acre-feet of water for new purposes each year by permanently eradicating water waste and using water more efficiently.

Newsom characterized these strategies as “moving away from a scarcity mindset to one more of abundance.”

“How can we take the existing resources and be more resourceful, in terms of advancing policies, and direct our energies to create more water, to capture more water?” I have asked.

Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, stressed that implementing these plans will require a firm partnership with local municipalities.

The new strategy, she said, “means we have to do absolutely everything.”

Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the State Water Resources Control Board, echoed these sentiments, adding that “Mother Nature is not providing us the budgets that we all thought that we were going to depend upon.”

“But there is a path forward,” Esquivel said, stressing the importance of creating and investing “in a 21st-century way.”

One such way, according to the strategy document, requires California to “move smarter and faster” to upgrade its water systems. Such modernization effort could generate enough water for more than 8.4 million households.

Additional water could become available by capturing stormwater, diversifying supplies and optimizing high flows during storm events, as well as through desalinating ocean water and salty—or brackish—water in groundwater basins, according to the document.

Thursday’s press conference took place near the site of a forthcoming, $110 million brackish water desalination plant. That facility will be the first such site in the San Francisco Bay Delta, Antioch’s mayor, Lamar Thorpe, said at the press conference.

The plant, Thorpe said, will “provide the city with a reliable source of drinking water for generations to come.”

With the desalination construction site in the background, Newsom urged Californians to adapt to a changing reality, noting that the new strategies include “specific goals with specific timelines and dollar figures.”

And those dollars, he said, will come from last year’s $5.2 billion surplus and this year’s $2.8 billion surplus.

Californian will be using these funds “to update, not just promote” these critical water supply plans — “moving these projects and doing them with urgency,” without “waiting for the voters,” according to Newsom.

“Money’s not the issue. It’s our ability to attract those dollars, by being more aggressive to draw down those dollars because we have a plan,” the governor added.

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Twitter announces strategy to combat election misinformation

Twitter announces strategy to combat election misinformation

Check out what’s clicking on FoxBusiness.com.

Twitter announced in a Thursday blog post that it is taking steps to combat misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

The social media giant said it would activate enforcement of the Civic Integrity Policy.

The policy covers harmful misleading information about elections and civic events, including false information about the election’s outcome.

Tweets may be linked with credible information or helpful content, and users could see a prompt prior to liking or sharing labeled tweets.

FORMER TWITTER EMPLOYEE CONVICTED OF ACCEPTING BRIBES FROM SAUDI ARABIA, SHARING PRIVATE USER INFORMATION

The company noted that decreases in engagement with labeled tweets were noted.

Twitter app

In this photo illustration, the logo of Twitter can be seen on a smartphone on March 10, 2022, in Berlin, Germany. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images / Getty Images)

In cases where there is potential for harm, the tweet may not be liked or shared.

Twitter said it would remain vigilant, looking for fake accounts.

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The Twitter Headquarters

A Twitter logo is seen outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, California, April 25, 2022. (Reuters/Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Other initiatives include “prebunks” that will “get ahead of misleading narratives,” state-specific event hubs that are rolled out nationwide, a dedicated explore tab with national and local news as well as voter education public service announcements, candidate account labels on candidate tweets and profile pages, and improved recommendations.

“Earlier this year, in the US and Brazil, we tested ways to prevent misleading Tweets from being recommended through notifications. Early results show that impressions on misleading information dropped by 1.6 million per month, as a direct result of the experiment,” Twitter wrote .

twitter-logo

The logo for Twitter is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, June 1, 2022. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

The tech company said it would apply additional proactive safeguards for the accounts of government officials, candidates and journalists, including increased login defenses, expedited account recovery support, and more “sophisticated” detections and alerts.”

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As election day nears, Twitter wrote that it would continue to share real-time information about its strategy.

“Twitter plays a critical role in empowering democratic conversations, facilitating meaningful political debate, and providing information on civic participation – not only in the US, but around the world. People deserve to trust the election conversations and content they encounter on Twitter,” it concluded.

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Juvenile arrested, charged in Northfield shooting deaths

Juvenile arrested, charged in Northfield shooting deaths

A juvenile has been arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of a Northfield woman and her two sons. The juvenile has been charged in the juvenile system with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of falsifying physical evidence in connection with the Aug 3 shooting deaths of Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and her sons Benjamin Sweeney, 4, and Mason Sweeney, 1, in Northfield.The suspect’s identity has not been released because the suspect is a juvenile.Investigators said the bodies of Kassandra, Benjamin and Mason Sweeney was found in their home at 56 Wethersfield Drive on Aug. 3 by police responding to a 911 call. Autopsies determined that each died of a single gunshot wound. There was no word of a possible motive. Officials said that because the suspect is a juvenile, the law prevents them from releasing any other details.

NORTHFIELD, NH—

A juvenile has been arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of a Northfield woman and her two sons.

The juvenile has been charged in the juvenile system with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of falsifying physical evidence in connection with the Aug. 3 shooting deaths of Kassandra Sweeney, 25, and her sons Benjamin Sweeney, 4, and Mason Sweeney , 1, in Northfield.

The suspect’s identity has not been released because the suspect is a juvenile.

Investigators said the bodies of Kassandra, Benjamin and Mason Sweeney were found in their home at 56 Wethersfield Drive on Aug. 3 by police responding to a 911 call. Autopsies determined that each died of a single gunshot wound.

There was no word of a possible reason. Officials said that because the suspect is a juvenile, the law prevents them from releasing any other details.

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