Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declares victory over socialist challenger

Source: CNN

(CNN)Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declared victory Tuesday night in his write-in campaign for a fifth term. Brown lost the Democratic primary earlier this year to Democratic Socialist India Walton.

As of 12:30 a.m. ET, about 59% of votes had been cast for write-in candidates, and 41% had gone for Walton. Brown's campaign likely accounts for the strong showing for write-in candidates on the ballot, but Erie County won't begin to tabulate the write-in votes until November 17.

That makes it impossible to say definitively who voters wrote in, despite Brown's victory declaration.

After effectively sitting out the nominating contest and refusing to engage with or debate Walton, Brown launched a well-funded general election campaign asking voters -- this time including Independents and Republicans -- to "Write Down Byron Brown."

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/11/03/politics/buffalo-mayor-byron-brown/index.html

Brooklyn lawyers plead guilty to a charge in Molotov cocktail case tied to George Floyd protest

Source: CNN

(CNN)Two lawyers who federal prosecutors say took part during an anti-police brutality protest last year in making a Molotov cocktail and throwing it at an empty New York Police Department vehicle have each pleaded guilty to one charge related to the incident.

Colinford Mattis, 34, and Urooj Rahman, 32, each pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Brooklyn courtroom to a count of knowingly making and possessing a destructive device -- one of several charges brought by prosecutors.

Each attorney could face up to 10 years in prison, US District Judge Brian Cogan said, adding the two would face "virtually certain disbarment." Both have been free on bond.

"I deeply regret my conduct, and wish I'd made better choices on that night," Mattis told Cogan during Wednesday's plea hearing. He noted he is being treated for substance abuse and completed inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse in May.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/20/us/new-york-lawyers-molotov-cocktail/index.html

Yellen says Democrats raise proposed IRS bank reporting threshold to $10,000

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday she welcomed a revised proposal from congressional Democrats to raise a bank account tax reporting threshold to $10,000 in annual transactions from a proposed $600 level, with an exemption for wage earners.

The change was made after major opposition https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-banking-lobby-groups-oppose-proposed-tax-reporting-law-2021-09-17 from banking and other lobbying groups who charged that initial proposal would raise financial privacy concerns by requiring financial firms to track and submit to the Internal Revenue Service data on aggregate inflows and outflows from every bank account above a minimum threshold of $600 a year.

The Treasury has argued that the proposal, part of President Joe Biden's massive "reconciliation" social spending and tax hike package, would not track individual transactions but was aimed at making it harder for wealthy Americans to hide sources of income from taxation, allowing the IRS to target them for audits.

The Treasury estimates that the cost of tax evasion among the top 1% of taxpayers exceeds $160 billion annually, part of a "tax gap" between taxes owed and those collected estimated at more than $7 trillion over a decade.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/u-treasurys-yellen-says-democrats-160733714.html

Congresswoman Maxine Waters' Twitter account hacked

Biden DOJ shields ex-Trump officials from testifying about election fraud cases

Source: Politico

A top official in President Joe Biden's Justice Department blocked efforts by Senate investigators to probe the handling of voter fraud complaints in the aftermath of the 2020 election, according to transcripts released Thursday.

As Senate Judiciary Committee aides investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election questioned top Trump-era Justice Department officials, a DOJ attorney present for the interviews intervened repeatedly to say such questions were outside the scope of the panel’s inquiry.

The official, veteran DOJ attorney Bradley Weinsheimer, cited guidance he issued in July that paved the way for congressional testimony but limited the topics former DOJ officials were permitted to discuss. But his assertions drew repeated, and sometimes pointed, challenges from Judiciary Committee aides in both parties, the transcripts show.

“It strikes me as completely within the scope of this interview,” said Sara Zdeb, chief oversight counsel for Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), after Weinsheimer intervened to block an answer from Byung Pak, a former U.S. attorney from the Atlanta area. Pak resigned on Jan. 4 under pressure from Trump to interfere in election-related matters.

Read more: https://www-politico-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/10/07/doj-shields-ex-trump-officials-515594?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#aoh=16336432213590&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2F2021%2F10%2F07%2Fdoj-shields-ex-trump-officials-515594

Matt Gaetz's Wingman Asks for Another Sentencing Delay While Cooperating With Feds

Source: Daily Beast

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R) pal, Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who pleaded guilty to six federal crimes including sex trafficking a minor in May, is nudging a judge to further delay his sentencing until March 2022 because he is still cooperating with federal authorities as part of his plea deal. In a recently filed motion, Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller said that the delay was necessary because Greenberg’s cooperation with investigators “cannot be completed prior to the time of his sentencing.”

Greenberg’s sentencing was previously pushed back several months from Aug. 19 to Nov. 18. “The parties expect that Mr. Greenberg will participate in additional proffers, and a continuance would provide Mr. Greenberg with additional time to do so prior to his sentencing,” the motion states. Greenberg faces a mandatory minimum of 12 years in federal prison for his offenses, but prosecutors have signaled he could obtain a softer sentence if his cooperation provides them with substantial help.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetzs-wingman-joel-greenberg-asks-for-another-sentencing-delay-while-cooperating-with-feds

Manchin says reconciliation bill must include controversial Hyde Amendment

Source: The Hill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said late Wednesday that an expansion of Medicaid that Democrats are seeking to pass as part of their massive reconciliation bill must include the Hyde Amendment to get his support.

"Yeah, we're not taking the Hyde Amendment off. Hyde's going to be on," Manchin told National Review when asked about a proposed Medicaid-like program in the reconciliation bill.

"It has to be. It has to be. That's dead on arrival if that's gone," Manchin, who has described himself as "pro-life, and proud of it," added.

Under the Hyde Amendment, Medicaid and other federal programs are prohibited from covering abortion expenses. Government spending bills have included the stipulation since 1976.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/574621-manchin-says-reconciliation-bill-must-include-controversial-hyde-amendment%3famp

Top generals contradict Biden, say they urged him not to withdraw from Afghanistan

Source: Politico

Top generals told lawmakers under oath on Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan — directly contradicting the president’s comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.

The remarkable testimony pits top military brass against the commander-in-chief as the Biden administration continues to face tough questions about what critics are calling a botched withdrawal that directly led to the deaths of 13 American service members, scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport, and the abandonment of American citizens and at-risk Afghans in the war-torn country.

Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services in a hearing Tuesday that he recommended maintaining a small force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan earlier this year.

He also noted that in the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, he advised that the U.S. maintain a force almost double the size, of 4,500 troops, in Afghanistan.

Read more: https://www-politico-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/09/28/top-generals-afghanistan-withdrawal-congress-hearing-514491?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#aoh=16328563553134&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2F2021%2F09%2F28%2Ftop-generals-afghanistan-withdrawal-congress-hearing-514491

House approves $1 billion for Israel's Iron Dome defense system

Source: CNN

(CNN)The House on Thursday easily approved a bill to provide funding for Israel's Iron Dome after it was removed from a separate bill to prevent a government shutdown and suspend the nation's borrowing limit.

The $1 billion in funding allocated for the aerial defense system had initially been included in the must-pass legislation that the House considered earlier in the week, but the provision was removed from the final version to appease a group of progressives who said they would sink the legislation unless that funding was struck from it.

The bill now goes to the Senate where it's unclear when it will get a vote.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer created a separate bill to bring to the floor Thursday under suspension, which means it bypassed the normal rules required to pass the bill and required a two-thirds majority to pass.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/09/23/politics/iron-dome-house-vote/index.html

DHS seeks contractor to run migrant detention facility at Gitmo, guards who speak Haitian Creole

Source: MSNBC

WASHINGTON — As it scrambles to deal with the surge of Haitian migrants at the southern border, the Biden administration is seeking a private contractor to operate a migrant detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with a requirement that some of the guards speak Spanish and Haitian Creole, according to government records.

A little-known immigrant holding facility on the base has a capacity of 120 people, the records say, and it "will have an estimated daily population of 20 people," according to a solicitation for bids issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security.

"The service provider shall be responsible to maintain on site the necessary equipment to erect temporary housing facilities for populations that exceed 120 and up to 400 migrants in a surge event," the contract solicitation says.



Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1279886