News of the World

[kyonides]

Ernst Decries Thousands of Federal Workers
Who Fraudulently Received COVID Unemployment Checks

Thousands of federal workers applied for and received COVID-19-related unemployment benefits and continued getting their regular paychecks during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who’s calling for a federal investigation to identify the offenders and recover the tax dollars improperly paid to them.

“Staff from numerous government agencies, including the IRS, TSA [Transportation Security Administration], FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], the U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, and the Secret Service, have been detected receiving jobless benefits while also being on the federal government’s payroll,” Ernst said in a Jan. 30 statement.

“Some were even paid overtime at the same time [they were] claiming to have lost wages due to the pandemic. Others were so blatant, they actually applied for jobless benefits from their work computers.

“In addition to fleecing taxpayers, these unscrupulous bureaucrats have also tarnished the reputation of the other dedicated civil servants, many of whom worked long hours in essential jobs during the pandemic.”

More than $5 trillion in federally funded COVID-related benefits—including $716 billion in state-administered unemployment compensation—were authorized in response to the pandemic, which began in January 2020. More than 1 million Americans have died as a result of COVID-19.

Court Rejects Johnson & Johnson Bankruptcy Strategy
for Tens of Thousands of Baby Powder Lawsuits

A decision handed down by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed a Chapter 11 petition filed by a recently created J&J subsidiary LTL Management in October to address more than 38,000 lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging the company’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Before the bankruptcy filing, J&J faced costs from $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, including one in which 22 women were eventually awarded a judgment of more than $2 billion, according to court records.

“Applied here, while LTL faces substantial future talc liability, its funding backstop plainly mitigates any financial distress foreseen on its petition date,” wrote a three-judge panel on Monday. They noted that “good intentions” like protecting the “J&J brand or comprehensively resolve litigation … do not suffice alone,” they wrote.
...
A legal scholar with the University of Richmond told the paper that J&J will now have to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “The only prospect left for J&J is an appeal to the Supreme Court,” Carl Tobias said, “which grants review in a minuscule percentage of appeals.”

A jury in Missouri ordered the New Jersey-based company to pay some $4.7 billion in damages to dozens of women who asserted their cancer was caused by the company’s talc products. The company appealed to cut the payout in half, but it has still paid more than $2 billion in damages.

Trump Secures Federal Extension for Disclosing His Personal Finances

Federal Election Commission lawyer Lisa Stevenson told Trump attorney Derek Ross on Jan. 27 that the FED is granting his team a request for another 45-day extension, according to a brief letter published online (pdf). Trump was previously given an extension on Dec. 16, according to Bloomberg News.

“While President Trump has made diligent effort to prepare his report, due to the complexity of his financial holdings, President Trump needs additional time to compile the necessary information and complete the report,” his lawyer wrote to the agency on Jan. 26 (pdf).

Under federal law, presidential candidates are mandated to report information on their assets, income, and debt within 30 days of becoming a candidate. They can file for two 45-day extensions.

The FEC’s extension was granted after Trump made his first campaign appearance in several primary states, including in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

He is the first Republican to announce a 2024 White House bid.

Former Twitter Execs Set to Testify Before Congress on Hunter Biden Laptop Case

In an emailed statement to NTD News, House Oversight Committee Communications Director Jessica Collins confirmed that former Twitter executives Vijaya Gadde, James Baker, and Yoel Roth will testify before the committee on Feb. 3. Collins further confirmed that the platform’s handling of the Biden laptop allegations will be a point of focus for the committee, which is now under Republican control.

The hearing comes about a month and a half after new Twitter owner Elon Musk began releasing tranches of the company’s internal communications to journalists in an ongoing series dubbed the “Twitter Files.”

In December, the sixth installment of the Twitter Files indicated that FBI employees flagged content on Twitter that Twitter employees would then review and often remove from the website.

In the seventh installment of the Twitter Files, journalist Michael Shellenberger detailed Twitter communications suggesting the FBI had conditioned the platform in advance to distrust troves of documents like the ones the New York Post reported on in its Hunter Biden laptop articles.
...
FBI officials communicated and warned Twitter executives throughout 2020 that state actors would likely attempt “hack-and-leak operations” in October 2020 to discredit the Biden family. Those FBI communications specifically warned that such efforts could target Hunter Biden.

The New York Post obtained a copy of the documents from the allegedly abandoned laptop and published a series of articles in October of 2020 that revealed what the contents of the laptop showed regarding various foreign business activities in which Hunter Biden was involved.

3 EMTs Fired After Video Released of Tyre Nichols’ Arrest

The Memphis Fire Department said it fired three employees following the release of video footage that showed the deadly arrest of Tyre Nichols and the immediate aftermath.

Nichols, 29, died in hospital on Jan. 10, three days after his violent encounter with Memphis police officers when they tried to arrest him in a traffic stop gone wrong. The City of Memphis released video footage of Nichols’ interactions with police officers on Jan. 27.

The fire department statement released on Monday said an internal review found that emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMicheal Sandridge “failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols” after they arrived, while fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker remained in her vehicle.

Nichols was handcuffed on the ground, leaning against a police vehicle. He was left there for 14 minutes without medical attention after Long and Sandridge arrived at the scene.
...
Fire Chief Gina Sweat said that Long, Sandridge, and Whitaker “violated numerous [fire department] policies and protocols,” and as a result, the three “have been terminated.”

“Their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department and are not reflective of the outstanding service the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department provide daily in our community.”

Jury Acquits Pro-Life Activist Whose Home Was Raided by FBI

Pro-life activist Mark Houck was found not guilty by a federal court in Philadelphia on Jan. 30 on charges that arose from an October 2021 altercation outside a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Houck was accused of twice violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

Specifically, the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Houck assaulted Bruce Love, a 72-year-old clinic escort, on two occasions—once by pushing him to the ground as he was escorting patients from the clinic and a second time during a verbal altercation in front of the facility.

Houck’s attorneys, however, argued that Love was “extremely aggressive” and had been “harassing” Houck’s 12-year-old son before any altercation ensued.

Houck, a father of seven, was arrested by the FBI in September in an early morning raid that was widely criticized by conservatives as evidence of the Biden administration’s political weaponization of the agency.

“If he was truly a danger to the community, they wouldn’t have waited a year to prosecute,” noted Patrick Breen, Houck’s attorney and vice president of the Thomas More Society, following Houck’s arrest.