Top Eric Adams appointee did business with Trump and a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the U.

Source: CNBC

New York Mayor Eric Adams has appointed to a top city job a veteran real estate executive with ties to influential businesses and officials who have come under legal scrutiny, including the Trump Organization and Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Edward Mermelstein, whom Adams named earlier this month to be commissioner of New York’s international affairs office, also is linked to public relations executive Ronn Torossian, an Adams ally who has worked for several high-profile figures over the years and has gained a reputation for being a confrontational firebrand. Torossian’s clients have included the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been criticized for anti-democratic power grabs.

Details of these connections had yet to be reported since Mermelstein was appointed earlier this month to be commissioner of international affairs, who acts as the primary liaison between the city government, foreign leaders and the United Nations. Marjorie Bloomberg Tiven, who held the position while her brother Michael Bloomberg was mayor, once said the job is meant to ensure “your head of government is behaving in a way that doesn’t offend other heads of government.”

Mermelstein is a Russian-American foreign investment attorney who has given “expert help navigating the complex foreign investment process in the United States,” according to his still-active personal website. The mayor’s office website says he came to the United States in the 1970s as a refugee from Ukraine.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/21/ny-mayor-eric-adams-appoints-exec-linked-to-trump-organization-russian-oligarch.html

Joe Madison ends his voting rights hunger strike at 74 days

Manchin chides Democrats over filibuster, saying he can't support 'such a perilous course'

Source: The Hill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) warned Democrats against trying to change the legislative filibuster and lamented the state of the Senate, hours before a months-long fight over Senate rules will come to a head.

Manchin went through a laundry list of reasons explaining why he supports the 60-vote threshold for most major legislation and argued that the pitch from his Democratic colleagues about wanting to restore the Senate is "simply not true."

"For the last year, my Democratic colleagues have taken to the Senate floor, cable news airwaves, pages of newspapers across the country, and to argue that repealing the filibuster is restoring the vision the founding fathers intended for this deliberate body. My friends, that is simply not true. It's not true," Manchin said.

Manchin added that his Democratic colleagues "would use the nuclear option to override a rule that we have used ourselves, but now seem to find unacceptable."

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/590494-manchin-chides-dems-over-filibuster-saying-he-cant-support-such-a-perilous#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16426565533032&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fsenate%2F590494-manchin-chides-dems-over-filibuster-saying-he-cant-support-such-a-perilous

Manchin: Primary me if you want, I won't go 'nuclear'

Source: Politico

Joe Manchin made clear that his party’s push to isolate him and fellow centrist Kyrsten Sinema won’t force his hand on rules changes, once again rejecting Democrats' proposed reforms to the Senate’s filibuster rules.

The West Virginia Democrat actually seems to welcome the isolation. He told reporters ahead of a Democratic Caucus meeting he would not go along with instituting a talking filibuster, which could be used to evade the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, nor would he entertain a rules change by a simple majority.

Asked about his party's priorities, Manchin said people are most worried about inflation and coronavirus right now. He added that he’d welcome a primary challenge over his filibuster position if he runs again for reelection: "I've been primaried my entire life. That would not be anything new for me.”

“The majority of my colleagues in the Democratic caucus have changed their minds. I respect that. They have a right to change their minds. I haven’t. I hope they respect that too. I’ve never changed my mind on the filibuster,” Manchin said.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/18/senate-dems-filibuster-showdown-election-reform-527308

Gov. Youngkin signs 11 executive actions on first day in office, ending critical race theory in scho

Source: WTKR

RICHMOND, Va. - Governor Glenn Youngkin signed 11 executive actions on his first day in office, including orders allowing parents to opt out of mask mandates in Virginia schools, withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and ending "the use of divisive concepts, including critical race theory, in public education."

The list of executive orders and directives Youngkin signed is as follows, per his office:

Executive Order Number One delivers on his Day One promise to restore excellence in education by ending the use of divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory, in public education.

Executive Order Number Two delivers on his Day One promise to empower Virginia parents in their children’s education and upbringing by allowing parents to make decisions on whether their child wears a mask in school.

Read more: https://www.wtkr.com/news/gov-youngkin-signs-11-executive-actions-on-first-day-in-office-ending-critical-race-theory-in-schools-vaccine-mandates-for-state-employees

Biden all but concedes defeat on voting, election bills

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — All but conceding defeat, President Joe Biden said Thursday he’s now unsure the Democrats’ major elections and voting rights legislation can pass Congress this year. He spoke at the Capitol after a key fellow Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, dramatically announced her refusal to go along with changing Senate rules to muscle the bill past a Republican filibuster.

Biden had come to the Capitol to prod Democratic senators in a closed-door meeting, but he was not optimistic when he emerged. He vowed to keep fighting for the sweeping legislation that advocates say is vital to protecting elections.

“The honest to God answer is I don’t know whether we can get this done,” Biden said. He told reporters, his voice rising, “As long as I’m in the White House, as long as I’m engaged at all, I’m going to be fighting.”

Sinema all but dashed the bill’s chances minutes earlier, declaring just before Biden arrived on Capitol Hill that she could not support a “short sighted” rules change.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-joe-biden-voting-elections-wv-state-wire-28fce7f5190404f5091158c912bf8d5d

Joe Manchin praises Kyrsten Sinema's refusal to tweak filibuster as voting rights bill stymied

Source: The Independent

Sen Joe Manchin praised fellow conservative Democrat Sen Kyrsten Sinema’s speech in which she indicated she would not vote to eliminate the filibuster to advance voting rights legislation.

Mr Manchin spoke with The Independent on the way to a meeting between President Joe Biden and Democratic senators as the White House seeks to enact legislation ahead of the 2022 midterms and the next presidential election.

“Very good,” Mr Manchin said of his colleague’s remarks. “Excellent speech.”

Other Democrats were less complimentary. “I’d say the speech kind of speaks for itself,” Sen Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/manchine-sinema-filibuster-voting-rights-b1992627.html

Manchin doubles down on filibuster ahead of Biden's speech

Source: The Hill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) doubled down Tuesday on his support for the filibuster as President Biden heads to Georgia to publicly push for changes to the Senate rule in order to pass voting rights legislation.

“We need some good rules changes to make the place work better. But getting rid of the filibuster doesn’t make it work better,” Manchin told reporters.

Given support from Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most bills to advance in the Senate, Democrats acknowledge that getting rid of it altogether isn’t on the table.

Instead, they are discussing smaller changes including moving to a talking filibuster, where opponents could delay the bill for as long as they could hold the floor but legislation would ultimately be able to pass with a simple majority. They are also mulling a carveout that would exempt voting rights legislation from needing 60 votes.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/589169-manchin-doubles-down-on-filibuster-ahead-of-bidens-speech

Can I turn an essay into text by scanning it?

Long story short, I can't find the .txt (or .doc) file on my computer of an essay I wrote about 25 years ago. However, I have the actual physical paper in mint condition.

I need it in text form. Now, I know I could do it the hard way and manually type it out, but that would take several hours. Is there any way that I could scan it and turn it into text? If yes what free programs can do this for me?

Biden has lowest first-year Senate confirmation rate among last three presidents, according to new r

Source: CNN

Biden has lowest first-year Senate confirmation rate among last three presidents, according to new report

Washington (CNN)President Joe Biden has the lowest Senate confirmation rate of first-year nominations among the last three presidents, according to a new report from a group that studies presidential transitions.

"In Biden's first year, the Senate confirmed only 41% of his nominations. While a small number were withdrawn by the president, 118 were 'returned' at the end of the Senate's session -- meaning the president would either have to nominate that person again in the next session or nominate someone else," according to the report from the Center for Presidential Transition, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, DC.

The group, which said its data represents "nominations for all civilian positions including ambassadors, judges, marshals and US attorneys," reported that as of last week, 171 of the nominations Biden made in 2021 are still awaiting a vote.

Biden's 41% continues a downward confirmation rate trend among recent presidents, the group said, noting that 75% of George Bush's first-year nominees were confirmed, while 69% of Barack Obama's were approved and 57% of Donald Trump's were OK'd by the Senate during his first year in office.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/09/politics/biden-senate-confirmation-numbers/index.html