Breaking News Events - Page 233

homoe · 03-18-2021, 10:33 AM

Sanders, Warren legislation would hike taxes to curb 'absurd' CEO pay.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and several Democratic lawmakers re-introduced legislation on Wednesday that would raise taxes on companies that pay their CEOs more than 50 times the pay of a median worker. Sanders unveiled the bill hours before leading a Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on income and wealth inequality.

Sanders invited Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify during the hearing, but Bezos declined. An Amazon (AMZN) worker fighting for a union in Alabama did join the hearing. Sanders accused Bezos of trying to stop workers from forming a union, and blasted him for amassing tens of billions in wealth throughout the pandemic while many of his workers struggled.

"Amazon and Jeff Bezos are not alone. The American people are increasingly disgusted with the corporate greed they're experiencing every single day," said Sanders at the hearing. "They're sick and tired of CEOs that now make 320 times more than their average employees, while at the same time giving themselves big bonuses, golden parachutes and yet they cut back on the healthcare that their workers have."

Sanders pointed to an Economic Policy Institute Study that found CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019.

homoe · 03-18-2021, 10:45 AM

Michael Cohen says Trump is in for a 'proctological exam of the highest order' by New York prosecutors.

....

...

Today in uncomfortable metaphors: former Trump fixer Michael Cohen says his old boss is in for some proctological discomfort.

The Washington Post reports that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's investigation into former President Donald Trump is heating up. Last month, Vance's office received Trump's tax records and began digging through the millions of pages of financial records from the past decade.

Including the Manhattan inquiry, the Post reports at least six ongoing investigations that could involve Trump, as well as 29 lawsuits in which he or one of his companies is named as a defendant.

"The sheer volume of these legal problems indicates that ... Trump has fallen to a point of historic vulnerability before the law," writes the Post. Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and longtime fixer who was convicted of campaign finance violations and fraud in 2018, seems to agree.

Cohen called Vance's investigation "a proctological exam of the highest order." "The level of review is unprecedented in Trump's corporate history," he said.

Previously, Cohen predicted the inquiry would end in jail time for the former president, saying Trump ought to start shopping for a "custom made jumpsuit" because "it does not look good for" him. Cohen has spoken with Vance's investigators seven times, but is not privy to all the specifics that may be found in Trump's financial documents.

FireSignFemme · 03-19-2021, 02:20 PM

Unbelievable. I'm not sure some reports say five others four, but in any case some guy killed family members and a friend who was visiting them over stimulus money and one of them was a child. Now get this, for just $700.00! Yep the little girl's mother got a $1,400.00 stimulus check for herself. Not him, not the child – herself and he demanded half of it. She wouldn't give it to him. So he shot the place up, killed them. Then ran and hid in some neighbor's attic. I don't know maybe this idiot thought it was for the child and since the child was half his he should get half the money. Fortunatly someone in the home managed to survive, ran for their life, reported it to the police and the murderer is locked up now.

GeorgiaMa'am · 03-20-2021, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireSignFemme

Unbelievable. I'm not sure some reports say five others four, but in any case some guy killed family members and a friend who was visiting them over stimulus money and one of them was a child. Now get this, for just $700.00! Yep the little girl's mother got a $1,400.00 stimulus check for herself. Not him, not the child – herself and he demanded half of it. She wouldn't give it to him. So he shot the place up, killed them. Then ran and hid in some neighbor's attic. I don't know maybe this idiot thought it was for the child and since the child was half his he should get half the money. Fortunatly someone in the home managed to survive, ran for their life, reported it to the police and the murderer is locked up now.

Incredible. People are just going crazy with guns. Maybe those people with the aluminum foil hats are onto something - maybe we should all take precautions and wear our own hats when we go outside.

homoe · 03-22-2021, 06:05 PM

Fox News host apologizes for error after telling Trump that Biden's DHS secretary had stepped down.

https://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-harr...175325392.html

homoe · 03-22-2021, 06:09 PM

Second batch of payments expected on Wednesday March 24.

https://www.yahoo.com/money/stimulus...175410097.html

homoe · 03-28-2021, 02:44 PM

Birx reveals she received a 'very uncomfortable' phone call from Trump after giving interview warning of severity of pandemic.

Of all the doctors CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta interviewed for the network's upcoming documentary COVID War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out, which will air Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, was "perhaps the most" introspective, he said.

In one of the clips CNN has shared ahead of the airing, Birx said she believes the majority of coronavirus deaths after the initial surge in the United States could have been prevented. In another excerpt, discussed by Gupta and Dana Bash on Sunday's edition of State of the Union, Birx is seen telling Gupta that she knew she was "being watched" during her time in the Trump administration, noting that everyone "was waiting for me to make a misstep." She revealed that an interview she did with Bash over the summer, in which she warned about the severity of the virus, even in seemingly isolated regions of the U.S., particularly angered former President Donald Trump and his team.

Sidebar: Perhaps now she should be worried about the anger of the families of those that may of been spared if she'd spoke up and worried less about any missteps and Trump!

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...005853847.html

homoe · 03-30-2021, 07:53 AM

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is slamming two of his most prominent coronavirus advisers. He says Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx are “two self-promoters trying to reinvent history.”

Fauci is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, and in a statement released Monday evening, Trump calls him “the king of ’flip-flops.” He accuses Fauci of “moving the goalposts to make himself look as good as possible.”

Birx managed the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, and Trump says she “is a proven liar with very little credibility left.”

https://kvoa.com/news/national-news/...elf-promoters/

homoe · 03-31-2021, 08:29 PM

New York State prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have subpoenaed the personal bank records of the company’s chief financial officer and are investigating gifts he and his family received from Trump, according to a new report.

According to the New York Times, Manhattan prosecutors have turned their attention toward Allen Weisselberg, who has overseen the company’s finances for decades. Sources told the Times prosecutors working for Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. seem to be working to gain Weisselberg’s cooperation in their investigation into whether Trump and the company falsely manipulated property values to receive loans and tax benefits.

Though Weisselberg has not been accused of wrongdoing, if prosecutors were to discover any possible illegal activity through a review of his personal finances, they could then use that information to push him to cooperate with the investigation.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ny-prosec...202351356.html

homoe · 05-12-2021, 02:12 AM

More GOP-Run States Announce Cuts To Federal Unemployment Benefits....

They’re yanking the extra $300 and other benefits Congress put in place during the pandemic.

Really, does anyone think people are sitting home becoming millionaires because of a measly three hundred extra dollars?!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/misso...b0909247fc2221

Gemme · 05-13-2021, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homoe

More GOP-Run States Announce Cuts To Federal Unemployment Benefits....

They’re yanking the extra $300 and other benefits Congress put in place during the pandemic.

Really, does anyone think people are sitting home becoming millionaires because of a measly three hundred extra dollars?!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/misso...b0909247fc2221

homoe, several industries, including my own are struggling to find people willing to go back to work because....YES....they are making just as much if not more from the added $300/week unemployment benefits than they would make working in the fields suffering the most, which offers zero incentive to get back to work.

This is good news for hospitality, food and retail industries because, like me, the other workers who have been covering the shifts and working 6 or 7 days a week and/or regular double shifts for months and months are tired, stressed out and ready to have time off again. And don't forget about the medical personnel that have been stretched to the max since the beginning of the pandemic. They got the brunt of everything during this whole thing worse than anyone else.

homoe · 05-14-2021, 08:43 AM

Mary Papenfuss·Trends Reporter, HuffPost
Thu, May 13, 2021, 10:05 PM

Kroger grocery company CEO Rodney McMullen cut COVID-19 hazard pay for food workers last year just months into the pandemic — then scooped up a record $22.4 million in compensation for himself, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

McMullen’s pay package was revealed Thursday in a regulatory filing. His compensation rose almost 6% from the prior year, padded by a bigger bonus, a salary hike and stock awards, Bloomberg noted. That was McMullen’s biggest take ever since he became CEO in 2013.

Median pay for Kroger’s workers fell 8%, to an annual $24,600. Kroger’s full-time workers, however, did get a bonus a year ago: $300. The Cincinnati-based company, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, employs about 465,000 people.

McMullen early last year proudly announced a $2 hourly hazard increase — which he termed a “Hero Bonus” — for store and warehouse employees who continued to work as they risked contracting the coronavirus.

But the bonus was cut in May 2020, even as COVID-19 surged, sparking a storm of controversy. “The hazard pay is disappearing. The hazard is not,” Bloomberg noted at the time.“How do you go from a hero to zero when there’s still a pandemic out there?” asked one worker.

Kroger has closed stores this year rather than comply with city ordinances that require hazard pay for grocery store workers.

homoe · 05-16-2021, 08:59 AM

Inflation fears have rocked the stock market in recent weeks as investors wrestle with the prospects for substantially higher interest rates for the first time in years. Yet inflation also poses a threat to retirees who rely on Social Security for most or all of their financial support. Those living on fixed incomes have to find ways to stretch their money further even when prices are on the rise.

Fortunately, Social Security institutes annual cost of living adjustments (COLA) that are supposed to address the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation. With energy prices on the rise and the latest inflation report showing price hikes across many other parts of the economy, retirees could end up seeing their biggest COLA in years when 2022 rolls around.

The April inflation report came out earlier this week, and some investors were shocked. The headline number showed a 0.8% rise in the Consumer Price Index for the month. That followed a 0.6% jump in March, and brought the gain over the past 12 months to 4.2%. That's the largest 12-month increase since 2008. Core inflation (which excludes volatile food and energy prices) rose an even higher 0.9% in April. Investors are used to food and energy prices being volatile. But big gains in other areas are more unusual, and they have many economists on edge.

How Social Security COLAs rely on the CPI

To calculate its COLAs, the Social Security Administration looks at a slightly different measure of inflation called the CPI-W. That index rose 0.9% in April to a level of 261.237.

That number is up 4.7% from where it was a year ago. However, to calculate the COLA, the SSA will take the average CPI-W figures for the months of July through September and compare them to last year's average over the same period. The average from the 2020 period was 253.412, which resulted in a COLA of 1.3% at the beginning of this year.

If the CPI-W stays where it is throughout the pivotal summer months, then it would result in a 3.1% COLA for 2022. That'd be the biggest jump in Social Security payments since the 3.6% rise that recipients got at the beginning of 2012 -- and that followed two years during which there was no benefit increase at all.

Meanwhile, if inflation keeps rising, COLAs could be even higher. There's a lot of time between now and the September inflation report that will come out in mid-October.

High COLAs aren't necessarily good

More money is always helpful for those on fixed incomes, but the real question is whether retirees will end up feeling an outsize pinch from the higher costs that are driving up inflation. For those hoping to travel, higher prices for transportation and hotels could crimp budgets. Even the somewhat smaller increases in other key areas could eat up check increases quickly.

Nevertheless, if higher prices are here, then the least Social Security can do is to fulfill its promise to try to keep up. A super-sized COLA might help cushion the blow at least somewhat for retirees who rely on the benefit program.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/...mpaign=article

homoe · 05-19-2021, 09:46 AM

Tue, May 18, 2021, 8:36 PM
The FBI is investigating whether a U.S. defense contractor illegally directed money to Sen. Susan Collins’s 2020 reelection campaign, Fox News has learned.

FBI personnel searched electronic devices belonging to Martin Kao, a former CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, seeking evidence that he orchestrated an effort to funnel alleged illegal contributions to help Collins, a Maine Republican, in her 2020 reelection bid, according to a recently unsealed search warrant application.

Authorities also seized cell phones belonging to Kao and colleague Clifford Chen, the document said.

Federal agents requested the warrant, citing evidence that Kao reimbursed friends and family members about $45,000 in donations they made directly to Collins’ campaign, violating a federal law that bans donations made in the name of another person.

IF only she'd stuck to her original statement!

homoe · 05-19-2021, 05:44 PM

Axios

The House of Representatives voted 252-175 on Wednesday to pass a bill to set up a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Why it matters: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP leadership oppose the commission, but 35 House Republicans voted in support of the bill, underscoring the fault lines within the party in the aftermath of the insurrection.

The amount of Republican support makes it far more difficult for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to try and dismiss the commission outright as a partisan effort.

What's next: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has promised the bill will get a vote, but it's still unclear how many Republicans will get on board.

McConnell told fellow Republicans Tuesday he could not support the agreement in its current form, two sources familiar with his remarks told Axios' Alayna Treene, and formally announced his opposition from the Senate floor on Wednesday.

10 GOP senators are needed for the proposal to pass.

The creation of the commission has been delayed for months because Republicans have insisted its scope should be expanded to include violence by far-left protesters last summer after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) has argued it would be "duplicative and potentially counterproductive" because Congress and the federal government are carrying out other investigations into the riot.

Many Republicans are concerned the bill will be weaponized to subpoena members and could alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump — who was impeached by the House for inciting the riot.

Catch up quick: House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) announced last week that negotiators had reached an agreement with Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) on the commission. Katko is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the aftermath of Jan. 6.

It said the 10-person bipartisan commission "will be charged with studying the facts and circumstances of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy" and would have the authority to issue subpoenas.

Based on the legislation passed by the House, the commission will be required to issue a final report with findings and recommendations to "prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions" by Dec. 31, 2021.

Former President Trump, who was impeached by the House for inciting the riot, criticized the commission in a statement on Tuesday, and urged House and Senate Republicans to not support what he called a "Democrat trap."

House Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters the House would pursue a a select committee of some kind even if the commission does not pass the Senate.

homoe · 05-23-2021, 05:25 PM

Alex Rodriguez's new era starts now.

The former MLB player is ready to move on and start his next chapter, which comes a little over a month after he and Jennifer Lopez decided to end their engagement. On Sunday, May 23, the 45-year-old star took to Instagram Stories to share an update with his fans.

"I am about to step into a new beginning in my life," he began his caption. "Anything that doesn't serve me is clearing out of my life. New energy is emerging. New levels are unlocking for me mentally, physically, and spiritually."

He concluded, "I am remaining patient and know that this new phase of my life is coming."

That 'a boy A-Rod keep a stiff upper lip!

homoe · 05-23-2021, 05:33 PM

Allan Smith
Sun, May 23, 2021, 8:14 AM
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he is not getting vaccinated because he already had Covid-19.

Speaking with a conservative radio host on WABC radio, Paul, an Ophthalmologist, said he won't change his mind unless he sees evidence that people who have already been infected are again getting very sick, needing hospitalization or dying.

"Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers, or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity," Paul said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those who have been previously infected get vaccinated because experts are not certain of how long natural immunity lasts.

Sidebar: And even if evidence is shown to this SOB, I doubt he'll believe it want to argue over it!

GeorgiaMa'am · 05-23-2021, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homoe

Alex Rodriguez's new era starts now.

. . .

"I am about to step into a new beginning in my life," he began his caption. "Anything that doesn't serve me is clearing out of my life. New energy is emerging. New levels are unlocking for me mentally, physically, and spiritually."

He concluded, "I am remaining patient and know that this new phase of my life is coming."

It sounds suspiciously like he just quoted his horoscope for the day.

nhplowboi · 05-25-2021, 05:51 AM

OK that made me laugh out loud Ma'am.
Thanks I needed that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

It sounds suspiciously like he just quoted his horoscope for the day.

homoe · 05-25-2021, 04:19 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — An indictment against Steve Bannon was dismissed Tuesday over the objection of prosecutors who said it should stand despite ex-President Donald Trump's decision to pardon his former chief strategist.

Bannon, Flynn, Roger Stone,........

My guess is we'll never see these A-holes in Orange Jumpsuits either!

03-18-2021, 10:33 AM	#4641
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Watch the wealthy and GOP's go ballistic........ Sanders, Warren legislation would hike taxes to curb 'absurd' CEO pay. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and several Democratic lawmakers re-introduced legislation on Wednesday that would raise taxes on companies that pay their CEOs more than 50 times the pay of a median worker. Sanders unveiled the bill hours before leading a Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on income and wealth inequality. Sanders invited Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify during the hearing, but Bezos declined. An Amazon (AMZN) worker fighting for a union in Alabama did join the hearing. Sanders accused Bezos of trying to stop workers from forming a union, and blasted him for amassing tens of billions in wealth throughout the pandemic while many of his workers struggled. "Amazon and Jeff Bezos are not alone. The American people are increasingly disgusted with the corporate greed they're experiencing every single day," said Sanders at the hearing. "They're sick and tired of CEOs that now make 320 times more than their average employees, while at the same time giving themselves big bonuses, golden parachutes and yet they cut back on the healthcare that their workers have." Sanders pointed to an Economic Policy Institute Study that found CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019.

03-18-2021, 10:45 AM	#4642
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Michael Cohen says Trump is in for a 'proctological exam of the highest order' by New York prosecutors. ....... Today in uncomfortable metaphors: former Trump fixer Michael Cohen says his old boss is in for some proctological discomfort. The Washington Post reports that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's investigation into former President Donald Trump is heating up. Last month, Vance's office received Trump's tax records and began digging through the millions of pages of financial records from the past decade. Including the Manhattan inquiry, the Post reports at least six ongoing investigations that could involve Trump, as well as 29 lawsuits in which he or one of his companies is named as a defendant. "The sheer volume of these legal problems indicates that ... Trump has fallen to a point of historic vulnerability before the law," writes the Post. Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney and longtime fixer who was convicted of campaign finance violations and fraud in 2018, seems to agree. Cohen called Vance's investigation "a proctological exam of the highest order." "The level of review is unprecedented in Trump's corporate history," he said. Previously, Cohen predicted the inquiry would end in jail time for the former president, saying Trump ought to start shopping for a "custom made jumpsuit" because "it does not look good for" him. Cohen has spoken with Vance's investigators seven times, but is not privy to all the specifics that may be found in Trump's financial documents.

03-22-2021, 06:05 PM	#4645
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Talk about having egg on your face....... Fox News host apologizes for error after telling Trump that Biden's DHS secretary had stepped down. https://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-harr...175325392.html

03-22-2021, 06:09 PM	#4646
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Stimulus checks...... Second batch of payments expected on Wednesday March 24. https://www.yahoo.com/money/stimulus...175410097.html

03-30-2021, 07:53 AM	#4648
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Trump blasts Fauci and Birx as ‘self-promoters..... WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is slamming two of his most prominent coronavirus advisers. He says Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx are “two self-promoters trying to reinvent history.” Fauci is the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, and in a statement released Monday evening, Trump calls him “the king of ’flip-flops.” He accuses Fauci of “moving the goalposts to make himself look as good as possible.” Birx managed the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, and Trump says she “is a proven liar with very little credibility left.” https://kvoa.com/news/national-news/...elf-promoters/

03-19-2021, 02:20 PM	#4643
FireSignFemme Senior Member How Do You Identify?: N/A Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: WA Posts: 4,434 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 37,962 Thanked 10,500 Times in 3,158 Posts Rep Power: 21474849	Unbelievable. I'm not sure some reports say five others four, but in any case some guy killed family members and a friend who was visiting them over stimulus money and one of them was a child. Now get this, for just $700.00! Yep the little girl's mother got a $1,400.00 stimulus check for herself. Not him, not the child – herself and he demanded half of it. She wouldn't give it to him. So he shot the place up, killed them. Then ran and hid in some neighbor's attic. I don't know maybe this idiot thought it was for the child and since the child was half his he should get half the money. Fortunatly someone in the home managed to survive, ran for their life, reported it to the police and the murderer is locked up now.

03-28-2021, 02:44 PM	#4647
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Birx reveals she received a 'very uncomfortable' phone call from Trump after giving interview warning of severity of pandemic. Of all the doctors CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta interviewed for the network's upcoming documentary COVID War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out, which will air Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, was "perhaps the most" introspective, he said. In one of the clips CNN has shared ahead of the airing, Birx said she believes the majority of coronavirus deaths after the initial surge in the United States could have been prevented. In another excerpt, discussed by Gupta and Dana Bash on Sunday's edition of State of the Union, Birx is seen telling Gupta that she knew she was "being watched" during her time in the Trump administration, noting that everyone "was waiting for me to make a misstep." She revealed that an interview she did with Bash over the summer, in which she warned about the severity of the virus, even in seemingly isolated regions of the U.S., particularly angered former President Donald Trump and his team. Sidebar: Perhaps now she should be worried about the anger of the families of those that may of been spared if she'd spoke up and worried less about any missteps and Trump! https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...005853847.html

03-31-2021, 08:29 PM	#4649
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	NY Prosecutors Subpoenaed Trump Organization CFO’s Personal Bank Records New York State prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have subpoenaed the personal bank records of the company’s chief financial officer and are investigating gifts he and his family received from Trump, according to a new report. According to the New York Times, Manhattan prosecutors have turned their attention toward Allen Weisselberg, who has overseen the company’s finances for decades. Sources told the Times prosecutors working for Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. seem to be working to gain Weisselberg’s cooperation in their investigation into whether Trump and the company falsely manipulated property values to receive loans and tax benefits. Though Weisselberg has not been accused of wrongdoing, if prosecutors were to discover any possible illegal activity through a review of his personal finances, they could then use that information to push him to cooperate with the investigation. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ny-prosec...202351356.html

05-12-2021, 02:12 AM	#4650
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	More GOP-Run States Announce Cuts To Federal Unemployment Benefits.... They’re yanking the extra $300 and other benefits Congress put in place during the pandemic. Really, does anyone think people are sitting home becoming millionaires because of a measly three hundred extra dollars?! https://www.huffpost.com/entry/misso...b0909247fc2221

05-14-2021, 08:43 AM	#4652
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Kroger CEO Cut Workers' COVID-19 Hazard Pay, Grabbed Record $22.4 Million Package Himself... Mary Papenfuss·Trends Reporter, HuffPost Thu, May 13, 2021, 10:05 PM Kroger grocery company CEO Rodney McMullen cut COVID-19 hazard pay for food workers last year just months into the pandemic — then scooped up a record $22.4 million in compensation for himself, Bloomberg reported Thursday. McMullen’s pay package was revealed Thursday in a regulatory filing. His compensation rose almost 6% from the prior year, padded by a bigger bonus, a salary hike and stock awards, Bloomberg noted. That was McMullen’s biggest take ever since he became CEO in 2013. Median pay for Kroger’s workers fell 8%, to an annual $24,600. Kroger’s full-time workers, however, did get a bonus a year ago: $300. The Cincinnati-based company, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, employs about 465,000 people. McMullen early last year proudly announced a $2 hourly hazard increase — which he termed a “Hero Bonus” — for store and warehouse employees who continued to work as they risked contracting the coronavirus. But the bonus was cut in May 2020, even as COVID-19 surged, sparking a storm of controversy. “The hazard pay is disappearing. The hazard is not,” Bloomberg noted at the time.“How do you go from a hero to zero when there’s still a pandemic out there?” asked one worker. Kroger has closed stores this year rather than comply with city ordinances that require hazard pay for grocery store workers.

05-16-2021, 08:59 AM	#4653
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	2022 Could Give Social Security Checks Their Biggest Boost in a Decade.. Inflation fears have rocked the stock market in recent weeks as investors wrestle with the prospects for substantially higher interest rates for the first time in years. Yet inflation also poses a threat to retirees who rely on Social Security for most or all of their financial support. Those living on fixed incomes have to find ways to stretch their money further even when prices are on the rise. Fortunately, Social Security institutes annual cost of living adjustments (COLA) that are supposed to address the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation. With energy prices on the rise and the latest inflation report showing price hikes across many other parts of the economy, retirees could end up seeing their biggest COLA in years when 2022 rolls around. The April inflation report came out earlier this week, and some investors were shocked. The headline number showed a 0.8% rise in the Consumer Price Index for the month. That followed a 0.6% jump in March, and brought the gain over the past 12 months to 4.2%. That's the largest 12-month increase since 2008. Core inflation (which excludes volatile food and energy prices) rose an even higher 0.9% in April. Investors are used to food and energy prices being volatile. But big gains in other areas are more unusual, and they have many economists on edge. How Social Security COLAs rely on the CPI To calculate its COLAs, the Social Security Administration looks at a slightly different measure of inflation called the CPI-W. That index rose 0.9% in April to a level of 261.237. That number is up 4.7% from where it was a year ago. However, to calculate the COLA, the SSA will take the average CPI-W figures for the months of July through September and compare them to last year's average over the same period. The average from the 2020 period was 253.412, which resulted in a COLA of 1.3% at the beginning of this year. If the CPI-W stays where it is throughout the pivotal summer months, then it would result in a 3.1% COLA for 2022. That'd be the biggest jump in Social Security payments since the 3.6% rise that recipients got at the beginning of 2012 -- and that followed two years during which there was no benefit increase at all. Meanwhile, if inflation keeps rising, COLAs could be even higher. There's a lot of time between now and the September inflation report that will come out in mid-October. High COLAs aren't necessarily good More money is always helpful for those on fixed incomes, but the real question is whether retirees will end up feeling an outsize pinch from the higher costs that are driving up inflation. For those hoping to travel, higher prices for transportation and hotels could crimp budgets. Even the somewhat smaller increases in other key areas could eat up check increases quickly. Nevertheless, if higher prices are here, then the least Social Security can do is to fulfill its promise to try to keep up. A super-sized COLA might help cushion the blow at least somewhat for retirees who rely on the benefit program. https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/...mpaign=article

05-19-2021, 09:46 AM	#4654
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Susan Collins campaign donator..... Tue, May 18, 2021, 8:36 PM The FBI is investigating whether a U.S. defense contractor illegally directed money to Sen. Susan Collins’s 2020 reelection campaign, Fox News has learned. FBI personnel searched electronic devices belonging to Martin Kao, a former CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, seeking evidence that he orchestrated an effort to funnel alleged illegal contributions to help Collins, a Maine Republican, in her 2020 reelection bid, according to a recently unsealed search warrant application. Authorities also seized cell phones belonging to Kao and colleague Clifford Chen, the document said. Federal agents requested the warrant, citing evidence that Kao reimbursed friends and family members about $45,000 in donations they made directly to Collins’ campaign, violating a federal law that bans donations made in the name of another person. IF only she'd stuck to her original statement!

05-19-2021, 05:44 PM	#4655
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	35 House Republicans vote with Democrats to pass bill establishing Jan. 6 commission... Axios The House of Representatives voted 252-175 on Wednesday to pass a bill to set up a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Why it matters: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP leadership oppose the commission, but 35 House Republicans voted in support of the bill, underscoring the fault lines within the party in the aftermath of the insurrection. The amount of Republican support makes it far more difficult for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to try and dismiss the commission outright as a partisan effort. What's next: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has promised the bill will get a vote, but it's still unclear how many Republicans will get on board. McConnell told fellow Republicans Tuesday he could not support the agreement in its current form, two sources familiar with his remarks told Axios' Alayna Treene, and formally announced his opposition from the Senate floor on Wednesday. 10 GOP senators are needed for the proposal to pass. The creation of the commission has been delayed for months because Republicans have insisted its scope should be expanded to include violence by far-left protesters last summer after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. McCarthy (R-Calif.) has argued it would be "duplicative and potentially counterproductive" because Congress and the federal government are carrying out other investigations into the riot. Many Republicans are concerned the bill will be weaponized to subpoena members and could alienate members of the GOP base, as well as former President Trump — who was impeached by the House for inciting the riot. Catch up quick: House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) announced last week that negotiators had reached an agreement with Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) on the commission. Katko is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the aftermath of Jan. 6. It said the 10-person bipartisan commission "will be charged with studying the facts and circumstances of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked the attack on our democracy" and would have the authority to issue subpoenas. Based on the legislation passed by the House, the commission will be required to issue a final report with findings and recommendations to "prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions" by Dec. 31, 2021. Former President Trump, who was impeached by the House for inciting the riot, criticized the commission in a statement on Tuesday, and urged House and Senate Republicans to not support what he called a "Democrat trap." House Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters the House would pursue a a select committee of some kind even if the commission does not pass the Senate.

05-23-2021, 05:25 PM	#4656
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Alex Rodriguez's new era starts now. The former MLB player is ready to move on and start his next chapter, which comes a little over a month after he and Jennifer Lopez decided to end their engagement. On Sunday, May 23, the 45-year-old star took to Instagram Stories to share an update with his fans. "I am about to step into a new beginning in my life," he began his caption. "Anything that doesn't serve me is clearing out of my life. New energy is emerging. New levels are unlocking for me mentally, physically, and spiritually." He concluded, "I am remaining patient and know that this new phase of my life is coming." That 'a boy A-Rod keep a stiff upper lip!

05-23-2021, 05:33 PM	#4657
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Rand Paul says he won't get a Covid vaccine..... Allan Smith Sun, May 23, 2021, 8:14 AM Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he is not getting vaccinated because he already had Covid-19. Speaking with a conservative radio host on WABC radio, Paul, an Ophthalmologist, said he won't change his mind unless he sees evidence that people who have already been infected are again getting very sick, needing hospitalization or dying. "Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers, or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity," Paul said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those who have been previously infected get vaccinated because experts are not certain of how long natural immunity lasts. Sidebar: And even if evidence is shown to this SOB, I doubt he'll believe it want to argue over it!

05-25-2021, 04:19 PM	#4660
homoe Practically Lives Here How Do You Identify?: Butch Relationship Status: ..... Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: 30 minute ferry ride from Seattle Posts: 38,565 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 20,811 Thanked 33,586 Times in 14,918 Posts Rep Power: 21474889	Indictment against former Trump advisor Bannon is dismissed... NEW YORK (AP) — An indictment against Steve Bannon was dismissed Tuesday over the objection of prosecutors who said it should stand despite ex-President Donald Trump's decision to pardon his former chief strategist. Bannon, Flynn, Roger Stone,........ My guess is we'll never see these A-holes in Orange Jumpsuits either!