Earlier this week, New York's The City newspaper reported on the bizarre moment when one of Mayor Eric Adams' longtime advisors, Winnie Greco, offered a reporter cash in a bag of Herr's Sour Cream & Onion chips. Now, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, another of the mayor's aides, has been slapped with criminal charges alleging — guess what — cash-for-favors exchanges. Here's the latest on the whole saga, including a response from Bob Clark, vice president of marketing for Herr Foods Inc. "While we can’t speak to the details of the story," he said, "we can confirm that our Sour Cream & Onion flavor is money."
THE CITY - NYC News
The Chips Fall as Rivals Fry the Mayor
The jokes and jabs are flying as one of Eric Adams’ closest advisors was slapped with new criminal charges the day after another longtime aide of...
 #NewYork #NewYorkPolitics #Corruption #EricAdams #AndrewCuomo #ZohranMamdani #Chips #SourCreamChips
No Jeffrey Epstein client list or blackmail scheme exists, convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell told the U.S. Department of Justice last month. ABCNews.com reports:
ABC News
Ghislaine Maxwell provided no incriminating information during meetings with deputy AG on high-profile individuals who interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, transcript shows
Ghislaine Maxwell said she never witnessed any inappropriate activity by Donald Trump or Bill Clinton, according to a transcript of her meeting las...
 #News #JeffreyEpstein #GhislaineMaxwell
America's partisan gerrymandering mess dates back to a 2019 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Rucho v. Common Cause, "the five Republican judges held that court challenges to partisan gerrymanders could not go forward in federal courts because such cases present a 'political question,'" Jay Willis writes for Balls and Strikes. "What is happening in Texas and California and elsewhere right now demonstrates just how vapid and hollow the reasoning in 'Rucho' always was. You do not have to have a law degree to understand that a Texas map that transforms a 56-42 advantage into a 79-21 blowout is not, in any meaningful sense, fair. You do not need to be a Supreme Court justice to understand that a California map that would turn Kamala Harris’s 58 percent vote share in 2024 into 94 percent of power in the House does not allow for equal participation in the political process. But this is the price that 'Rucho' is forcing millions of voters to pay."
Balls and Strikes
John Roberts Is Responsible For America’s Embarrassing Gerrymandering Mess
In Rucho, the conservatives worried about courts answering hypothetical questions that might be hard. All they did is prevent courts from answering...
 #USLaw #USSupremeCourt #SupremeCourt #JohnRoberts #RuchoVCommonCause #Rucho
New Orleans may be about to become the first U.S. city with a program that uses facial recognition technology to surveil people in real time. City officials are voting next Thursday on the ordinance covering this, which they say explicitly states that data cannot be used for immigration enforcement. Critics say that those protections are not strong enough to withstand state or federal pressure, particularly under a new law that establishes criminal penalties for law enforcement officials that decline ICE requests for cooperation. Here's the full story from @npub1hpgg...yrre.
Bolts
New Orleans May Hand Its Police Live Facial Recognition Tech. Critics Warn It'll Help ICE. - Bolts
The cameras are mounted across downtown New Orleans: hanging from balconies on Bourbon Street, bolted to the exterior walls of bars and four-star h...
 #USNews #NewOrleans #Immigration #ICE #Technology #Tech #Surveillance
Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif was killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike. Kareem Shaheen, Middle East and Newsletters Editor at New Lines magazine, writes about the life, career and death of this 28-year-old father of two. "I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you,” al-Sharif wrote in the will and final message that was released after his death. “Do not forget Gaza… And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.” Find the full text of this note at the second link, which is from OpenDemocracy.
New Lines Magazine
The Courage and Death of Anas al-Sharif
The Palestinian journalist’s life was devoted to truth and dignity, and his death lays bare Israel’s impunity in Gaza
openDemocracy
‘Israel has succeeded in killing me’: Reporter’s last words
Palestinian journalist Anas Jamal Al-Sharif was killed along with four Al Jazeera colleagues in an Israeli air strike
 #Gaza #Journalism #Media #Palestine #Israel #AnasAlSharif #RIP
Trump is right that D.C. has a serious crime problem. But he has the wrong answer for how to fix it, says Charles Fain Lehman in [@TheAtlantic](
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The Atlantic
Trump Is Right That D.C. Has a Serious Crime Problem
But he has the wrong answer for how to fix it.
 #Trump #DC #USPolitics #Politics #News #Crime
U.S. President Trump says he will nominate E.J. Antoni, chief economist for the Heritage Foundation, to replace Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who he fired last week after a disappointing jobs report. "Antoni, a contributor to the Project 2025 policy rubric, has been a longtime skeptic of BLS data. On Bannon’s podcast last week, Antoni called for McEntarfer to be fired shortly before Trump pulled the trigger," NBC reports.
NBC News
Trump to nominate longtime skeptic of Bureau of Labor Statistics as new agency head
Trump's naming of conservative economist E.J. Antoni comes after he fired the previous BLS commissioner, claiming without evidence that the July jo...
 #News #USNews #TrumpAdministration #LaborStatistics #JobsReport
A judge ordered the release of mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia today, but the release was immediately paused by a second judge at the request of lawyers for both the U.S. government and Abrego. NBC explains why.
NBC News
Judge pauses Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release from federal custody
The order followed back-to-back rulings that ordered Abrego's release and blocked his detention by immigration authorities in Tennessee.
 #USGovernment #KilmarAbregoGarcia #Immigration #USNews
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has quietly updated its policies to comply with President Trump's executive order banning trans women from competing in women's sports. Without mention of the word "transgender," the committee updated its "Athlete Safety Policy" to say that it would ensure that "women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201." Executive Order 14201 was announced on Feb. 4 2025 under the title: "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports." Here's more from NBC.
NBC News
U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee will comply with Trump's ban on trans women in women's sports
The policy update doesn't use the word "transgender," but it says it will comply with President Donald Trump's executive order on the matter.
 #Sports #WomensSports #LGBTQ #TransRights #HumanRights
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice recommended that a former police detective convicted of excessive force in the case of Breonna Taylor should serve a single day in prison. The judge in the case disagreed, and today sentenced former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Brett Hankison to 33 months in jail. Here's more from NBC.
NBC News
Ex-cop convicted of excessive force in Breonna Taylor case gets 33 months
Prosecutors said the former Louisville police detective fired through a window and a sliding glass door in the botched raid that killed Taylor.
 #BreonnaTaylor #USNews #News #DepartmentOfJustice