US News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16206335

The Texas governor’s pardon of a former Army sergeant who fatally shot a Black Lives Matter demonstrator undermines the state’s legal system and constitution and should be reversed, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Travis County District Attorney José Garza said he is filing request with the Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s highest criminal court — to review the pardon issued by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, which he said made a mockery of the legal system and put politics ahead of justice.

“We will continue to use the legal process to seek justice,” Garza said during a news conference in Austin.

Daniel Perry shot and killed Garrett Foster during a protest in downtown Austin in July 2020. Perry was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison in May 2023, prompting immediate calls for a pardon from conservative figures. Abbott issued the pardon last month and Perry was quickly released from prison.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16173032

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/22554071

A company that breeds animals for medical testing has been fined a record $35m (£27m) after 4,000 beagles were rescued from its facility in Virginia in 2022.

The fine against Envigo RMS LLC for animal cruelty is the largest fine ever issued under the Animal Welfare Act, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

“Envigo promoted a business culture that prioritized profit and convenience over following the law,” Christopher Kavanaugh, the US attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement.

“This callous approach led to dire consequences: the inhumane treatment of animals and the contamination of our waterway,” he said.

Envigo's parent company, Inotiv, has agreed to pay the record eight-figure settlement. It has also agreed to not breed dogs for the next five years.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16186382

#A Year of Elections in Democracies Around the World Is Revealing Deep Dissatisfaction Among Voters

@politics @usnews @democracy

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/17772512

cross-posted from: https://vger.social/post/2359842

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16184505

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/22547837

In a lawsuit, Lauren Pisciotta alleges the star sent her lewd texts and performed sex acts while on the phone with her, according to US media.

She claims she was fired in 2022, but that a $3 million (£2.4 million) severance package was never paid.

The BBC has contacted West's lawyer for a response to her allegations, but has yet to receive a reply.

The lawsuit was first reported in the US by TMZ, and later confirmed by Rolling Stone, The Wrap and US Weekly, which says court papers were filed on Monday in the US.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16185371

The former president was found guilty last week of falsifying business records.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/15086231

• Elon Musk accused of illegally selling $7.5 billion in Tesla stock in Q4 2022.
• Lawsuit alleges Musk and board violated fiduciary duties by selling shares ahead of disappointing vehicle sales data.
• Shareholder seeks disgorgement of $3 billion in illegal gains and damages from directors for reckless behavior.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16155269

Ultra-wealthy Republican donors are rallying behind former US President Donald Trump following his historic trial and criminal conviction. 

Trump, the Republican candidate for this November's White House election, was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid to former adult-film star Stormy Daniels. 

While he has lagged behind Joe Biden and the Democrats' fundraising efforts, the conviction injected new life into his electoral bid - with his campaign announcing that it raised nearly $53m (£41.6m) in just 24 hours after the verdict.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16142712

Former President Donald Trump's campaign and businesses have provided "Significant financial benefits" to nine of the witnesses in his criminal cases, ProPublica reported Monday morning - shrugging off a threatening cease-and-desist letter sent by Trump's attorney.

The detailed report by ProPublica's Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski describes how nine individuals who have been named as witnesses received benefits that included "Large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump's media company" from Trump's various campaign committees and businesses.

These benefits "Often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump," said the report, highlighting one example of Trump aide Dan Scavino, who was given a "Plum position on the board of Trump's social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified." Other well-known names in Trump's circle mentioned in the article include campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, campaign head Susie Wiles, lawyer Evan Corcoran, and former Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Salary increases, bonuses, promotions, and other benefits, can be evidence of witness tampering, the ProPublica article explained, if prosecutors can show that these employment changes occurred separate from normal business operations and the "Perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony." Even if no new charges are brought against the former president who is now a convicted felon, the details of these benefits could be used by prosecutors in Trump's still-pending cases to "Undermine the credibility" of these witnesses if the defense calls them to provide testimony helpful to Trump.

The Trump Org and various campaign entities have, of course, denied that any wrongdoing took place, and denied that Trump had knowledge or direct involvement in compensation issues.

One former aide compared working for the Trump Organization, his large company, to "a small family business" where every employee "In some sense reports to Mr. Trump." Former aides have said Trump demands unwavering loyalty from subordinates, even when their duties require independence Trump's former campaign manager and former campaign adviser were convicted on federal witness tampering charges in 2018 and 2019.

Trump posted on social media that he had read about a Georgia politician who "Will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury. He shouldn't." One witness has said publicly that, when he quit working for Trump in the midst of the classified documents criminal investigation, he was offered golf tournament tickets, a lawyer paid for by Trump and a new job that would have come with a raise.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16157729

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16114517

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a closely watched challenge to the state’s restrictive abortion ban, ruling against a group of women who had serious pregnancy complications and became the first in the U.S. to testify in court about being denied abortions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In a unanimous ruling, the all-Republican court upheld the Texas law that opponents say is too vague when it comes to when medically necessary exceptions are allowed. The same issue was at the center of a separate lawsuit brought last year by Kate Cox, a mother of two from Dallas, who sought court permission to obtain an abortion after her fetus developed a fatal condition during a pregnancy that resulted in multiple trips to an emergency room.

Abortion rights activists have struggled to stem the tide of restrictions that have taken effect in most Republican-led states since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe vs Wade, which for nearly 50 years had affirmed the constitutional right to an abortion. 

The court said the law’s exceptions, as written, are broad enough and that doctors would be misinterpreting the law if they declined to perform an abortion when the mother’s life is in danger.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/17716166

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/17713638

““If we jail Trump, get rid of Maga, end the electoral college, ban voter ID, censor free speech, we’ll save democracy,” says one meme in a QAnon channel on Telegram that depicts Biden in a Nazi uniform with a Hitler mustache”

Apparently they at least understand their opponent’s view .

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16155666

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16144196

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek sparked an online backlash after a social media post in which he said the cost of creating "content" is "close to zero".

The boss of the streaming giant said in a post on X: "Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content. This has sparked my curiosity about the concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life.

"While much of what we see and hear quickly becomes obsolete, there are timeless ideas or even pieces of music that can remain relevant for decades or even centuries.

"Also, what are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?"

Music fans and musicians were quick to call Ek out, with one user, composer Tim Prebble, saying: "Music will still be valued in a hundred years. Spotify won't. It will only be remembered as a bad example of a parasitic tool for extracting value from other peoples music. (or "content" as some grifters like to call it)."

Musicians weighed in too, with Primal Scream bassist Simone Marie Butler saying: "Fuck off you out of touch billionaire."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16128511

In a bizarre mixed ruling combining several challenges to a 2021 election law, Kansas’s supreme court has ruled that its residents have no right to vote enshrined in the state’s constitution.

The opinion centering on a ballot signature-verification measure elicited fiery dissent from three of the court’s seven justices. But the majority held that the court failed to identify a “fundamental right to vote” within the state.

The measure in question requires election officials to match the signatures on advance mail ballots to a person’s voter registration record. The state supreme court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged that. The majority of justices on the state supreme court then rejected arguments from voting rights groups that the measure violates state constitutional voting rights.

…

Justice Eric Rosen, one of the three who dissented, wrote: “It staggers my imagination to conclude Kansas citizens have no fundamental right to vote under their state constitution.

“I cannot and will not condone this betrayal of our constitutional duty to safeguard the foundational rights of Kansans.”

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch married for the fifth time at age 93, to his 67-year-old girlfriend Elena Zhukova, at his farmhouse in California.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16114459

Despite being asked to clean up after themselves, about 3,000 students celebrating Memorial Day weekend left piles of debris

College students celebrating Memorial Day weekend by California’s Shasta Lake left behind hoard of trash, according to US Forest Service officials.

Last weekend, approximately 3,000 students from the University of California, Davis and the University of Oregon partied at Shasta Lake, a 30,000-acre reservoir in the golden state, and left piles of debris cluttered around the lake.

According to forest service officials, despite being asked to clean up after themselves, the students left behind trash including cups, cans, plastic wrappers and pool floats.

Speaking to CBS, Shasta-Trinity National Forest recreation staff officer Deborah Carlisi said that staff members handed out trash bags to students for them to pack up their items.

“Some students used them, some students didn’t,” Carlisi said. A three-person cleanup crew ultimately spent six hours picking up the trash around the lake. Nevertheless, not all the trash was removed.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16114642

A fifth-grade teacher in Massachusetts has been placed on paid leave after a series of incidents including holding a mock slave auction, using a racial slur, and calling out the student who reported the slur, a school official said.

Officials did not name the teacher at the Margaret A. Neary Elementary School in Southborough, a town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Boston. 

District Superintendent Gregory Martineau told parents in a statement this week that he first learned about the incidents from parents in April. 

He said the first incident — a mock slave auction — took place in January during a history lesson on the economy of the Southern colonies.

“The educator asked two children sitting in front of the room, who were of color, to stand, and the educator and class discussed physical attributes (i.e., teeth and strength),” Martineau wrote.

…

In the second incident, in April, the teacher was reading aloud from a book and used a slur, which the district later discovered does not appear in the book, officials said. Martineau told parents in his statement that dehumanizing words such as slurs should not be spoken by employees or students.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16112533

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16118914