Portsmouth vice mayor must pay $775,000 for defaming ex-city auditor, jury rules

A jury ruled Portsmouth Vice Mayor Elizabeth Psimas defamed the city auditor in comments to the media and should pay him $775,000 in damages.

“Her statements to the press were gratuitous and unnecessary,” said Christian Connell, the lawyer for former auditor Jesse Andre Thomas, who was fired in 2016. “If she wanted to critique him as her employee and subordinate, she certainly had the right to do that. But she didn’t need to do it publicly ... in a way to basically destroy him.”

Connell had sought $1.5 million in the suit he filed on behalf of Thomas last year. The jury reached its decision on Monday after a four-day trial that began last week in Norfolk Circuit Court.

In an email, Psimas declined to comment on the case “because it has not yet been concluded.” She cited the advice of her attorney, Alan Rashkind, who also declined to speak.

Read more: https://pilotonline.com/news/government/local/article_40b7b85e-ed05-11e8-8978-6b6501f4d529.html

Ticked off: UVA physician connects the dots on a perplexing allergy to meat

Center of conspiracy: Defamation suit targets Alex Jones

Infowars founder Alex Jones has made a career out of broadcasting anti-government and right-wing conspiracy theories on his website and various radio shows. Last year, he put local man Brennan Gilmore in his crosshairs, alleging that the Charlottesville musician is a deep state operative on George Soros’ personal payroll who helped orchestrate the August 12, 2017, car attack. But Gilmore is fighting back with a federal defamation lawsuit, which he filed last spring.

Attorneys for Jones and multiple other defendants were in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on November 13 to argue motions to dismiss the lawsuit. They say Gilmore’s crew filed the lawsuit in the wrong court, and moreover, that their clients’ actions were protected by the First Amendment.

If Gilmore’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s taken on several roles across town, including playing guitar in Wild Common, being Tom Perriello’s chief of staff during the Democrat’s gubernatorial run, and filming a video that immediately went viral of a Dodge Challenger ramming into a group of counterprotesters at the August 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally.

It’s that video that has made him a target for right-wing conspiracy theories allegedly created by Jones and other defendants, who are listed as Lee Stranahan, Lee Ann McAdoo, Scott Creighton, James Hoft, Derrick Wilburn, former Florida Republican congressman Allen B. West, and Free Speech Systems, LLC.

Read more: http://www.c-ville.com/center-of-conspiracy/#.W_T8_ttKjRY

Army Corps Suspends Atlantic Coast Pipeline Permit

Following requests from Appalachian Mountain Advocates (Appalmad) attorneys, the Norfolk, Huntington, and Pittsburgh districts of the Army Corps of Engineers have each suspended its authorization of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. As a result, ACP lacks authorization to do any instream or wetland construction anywhere along its route.

Appalmad has argued this action was necessary in light of a recent federal court ruling that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s reliance on Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 was improper. The NWP was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. It allowed contractors to trench through the bottom of streams and rivers. The Corps’ decision has had the effect of forcing the ACP to temporarily suspend water crossings along the entire project until it can obtain a satisfactory permit.

Appalachian Mountain Advocates represents the Sierra Cub, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Appalachian Voices, and Chesapeake Climate Action Network in this action.

http://www.appalmad.org/2018/11/20/army-corps-suspends-acp-permit/
(no more at link)

link to permit suspension orders: https://bluevirginia.us/2018/11/a-decision-northam-cant-rig-army-corps-norfolk-district-suspends-authorization-for-work-on-atlantic-coast-pipeline

Virginia lawmakers announce proposals to legalize sports betting

State Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, said Tuesday he’ll introduce legislation to legalize sports betting in Virginia as part of a plan he says would reduce tuition at the state’s community colleges.

A few hours later, Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, announced his own sports betting proposal, floating a 15 percent tax on revenue that he estimated would bring in $41 million a year to fund research at state universities.

The flurry of legislative interest follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that struck down a federal ban on sports betting outside of Nevada.

“Sports gaming is going to be legal across the United States,” Petersen said in a statement. “There is no reason to keep it illegal, when our neighboring states are already moving to legalize. We should keep that business in Virginia, along with the tax revenue.”

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog/virginia-lawmaker-plans-legislation-to-legalize-sports-betting-direct-tax-revenue-to-community-colleges/

Virginia's Medicaid expansion drawing thousands more enrollees than initially projected

Less than two weeks after Virginia opened registration for its expanded Medicaid program, officials say they’ve already drawn thousands more applicants than initially anticipated.

The state had expected the new program to enroll 300,000 over the next year and a half. They now expect that number to reach 375,000. The new estimates won’t alter the total expansion population, which the state has said will be about 400,000.

Officials attributed the increase to automatic enrollment of residents who are already signed up for other social benefit programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

“The idea is that, the people in SNAP, the food stamp program, we know who they are, we know what their income level is and we can expedite their enrollment by getting them to answer just two different questions,” legislative fiscal analyst Mike Tweedy told members of the Senate budget committee Friday during their retreat in Williamsburg.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2018/11/16/virginias-medicaid-expansion-drawing-thousands-more-enrollees-than-initially-projected/

Judge scraps part of suit filed by NRA, over emails received after Parkland shootings

TALLAHASSEE -- Though he described disputed emails as “disgusting,” a federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit in which the National Rifle Association’s Florida lobbyist alleged she received harassing and threatening emails after the February mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle dismissed NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer’s claims against California attorney Lawrence Sorensen, who sent two emails to Hammer that included photos showing injuries from gunshot wounds. Hammer filed a lawsuit in July against Sorensen and three other unrelated men because of emails she received — with Hinkle’s dismissal limited to Sorensen.

In the ruling, Hinkle wrote that Sorensen sending the emails “unsolicited to anyone, even a public figure who advocates gun rights, was inappropriate, indeed disgusting.”

But the judge said Sorensen did not threaten Hammer and that the emails are protected by the First Amendment.

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article221922045.html

'Banking while black': Woman sues Wells Fargo alleging teller refused to cash her check.

All Satara Monroe wanted to do was cash her paycheck, make a stop at the grocery store and go home.

But she said her plans were ruined when a bank teller at a Pompano Beach Wells Fargo accused her of committing fraud. The quick errand turned into an hour-long interrogation by police, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 5 in federal court in South Florida.

“I felt targeted,” Monroe told the Miami Herald Monday. “There wasn’t anyone else being harassed the way I was harassed.”

Michelle Palomino, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, said in a statement, “Wells Fargo opposes discrimination of any kind, and strongly denies Ms. Monroe’s allegations.”

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article221927390.html

'I think he's the future': Despite loss in governor's race, Gillum still has political clout

Andrew Gillum’s historic run for Florida governor may not have brought him all the way home, but it did set the stage for a promising future for the former mayor of Tallahassee, several friends, consultants and political analysts told the Tallahassee Democrat.

That future includes running for higher office, making public speaking engagements, a regular pundit spot on cable news network, and a return to his old bosses at People for the American Way.

“I think he’s the future,” said Reggie Cardozo, a political consultant who has known Gillum since their college days working for the state Democratic Party. “Folks like me thought win, lose, or draw he is the future. Whatever it is he wants to do he most definitely has the ability to do. This is not a loss that hurts him or prohibits him from doing whatever he wants.”

Gillum campaigned hard and took a close second to Tea Party Republican Ron DeSantis, a three-term congressman whose campaign was buoyed by the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Even though the .41 percent margin was close enough to trigger a machine recount, the final numbers didn't move the needle enough to change the Election night outcome.

Read more: https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/20/andrew-gillum-democrats-2020-election-politics/2029527002/

Florida files lawsuit against Walgreens, CVS for allegedly 'playing a role' in opioid crisis

On Friday, state Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Florida is suing the nation's two largest drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, alleging that they "played a role" in furthering the national opioid crisis.

The state alleges that the two chains are responsible for overselling addictive painkillers, as well as not taking precautionary measures to stop illegal sales. The companies join Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, as well as several other opioid distributors, as defendants in the lawsuit.

In a news release, Bondi noted that the companies failed to stop "suspicious orders of opioids" and "dispensed unreasonable quantities of opioids from their pharmacies."

"We will continue to pursue those companies that played a role in creating the opioid crisis," Bondi said. "Thousands of Floridians have suffered as a result of the actions of the defendants."

Read more: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/11/19/florida-files-lawsuit-against-walgreens-cvs-for-allegedly-playing-a-role-in-opioid-crisis