Source: AJC

Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled to sign legislation before Monday’s veto deadline that would overhaul a Civil War-era state law that allows Georgians to arrest someone they believe has committed a crime.

The law was thrust back into the spotlight after it was cited by a prosecutor who said police should not charge three white men who followed Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black Brunswick-area man, before one shot and killed him. The three have since been charged with murder and pleaded not guilty, citing the citizen’s arrest statute.

Arbery’s mother is expected to attend Monday’s 2 p.m. bill signing ceremony.

House Bill 479 was a bipartisan priority after Arbery’s death this year and passed the General Assembly with broad support — only one lawmaker voted against the measure.

HB 479 would repeal citizen’s arrest from state law while still allowing employees at businesses, those conducting business on someone else’s property, security officers, private investigators and inspectors at truck scales to detain someone they believe has committed a crime. The bill also would allow law enforcement officers to make arrests outside their jurisdictions.



Read more: https://www.ajc.com/politics/kemp-to-sign-overhaul-of-georgias-citizens-arrest-law-today/L2M4VWMY4RAD3LQYEJUG26TGWU/

Source: ABC News

California’s population fell by more than 182,000 people in 2020, marking the first year-over-year loss ever recorded for the nation’s most populous state.

State officials announced Friday that California’s population dipped 0.46% to just under 39.5 million people from January 2020 to January 2021.

The news comes one week after the U.S. Census Bureau announced a paltry population growth for California, resulting in the state losing a congressional seat for the first time because it grew more slowly than other states over the past decade.

But the census numbers reflect the state’s population in April 2020. The new state numbers released Friday reflect the state’s population as of January 2021.

The state four most populated cities -- Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco -- lost a combined 88,000 people. LA dropped the most at nearly 52,000 and has now lost about 75,000 people in the last three years to fall to an overall population of just over 3.9 million.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/californias-population-fell-time-history-77558322

Source: NBC News

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the appeal of a former West Point cadet who said she was raped at the academy, but Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should have taken the case to correct decades of injustices.

The woman, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, sued two senior officers who were West Point administrators, arguing that the U.S. Military Academy's sexual assault policies were inadequate, failing to protect students from sexual violence. She said a fellow cadet raped her when they went walking late one night in 2010 during her second year at West Point.

But lower courts threw her case out, citing a 1950 Supreme Court decision that said military personnel cannot sue for injuries "incident to" their military service, even though the federal law specifying when the federal government can be sued carves out injury claims arising out of "combat activities" in wartime.

Thomas said Monday that the 71-year-old case, known as Feres v United States, was wrongly decided. Jane Doe "could have brought these same claims had she been a civilian contractor employed by West Point instead of a student."



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/justice-clarence-thomas-says-ex-west-point-cadet-should-be-n1266144

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Justice Thomas and the ACLU, on the same side of a case, who woulda thunk it.

Source: Bloomberg

Investors snapped up $1.2 billion of bonds linked to a San Francisco office tower that makes up much of Donald Trump’s fortune.

The AAA slice of the commercial mortgage-backed security sold Friday with a discount margin, or risk premium, of 125 basis points over one-month Libor -- roughly in line with other recent office-tower deals.

...

The complex, among the tallest buildings in San Francisco, is one of two Trump-linked office towers that Vornado is refinancing. The other is in New York. While Vornado majority owns them, Trump’s 30% stake is the most valuable part of his portfolio, making up about one-third of his $2.3 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The refinancing -- and cash windfall for Vornado and Trump -- comes months after several banks tied to the former president said they would no longer work with him after the deadly U.S. Capitol riot in January.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-30/trump-scores-617-million-of-cash-with-vornado-from-tower-bonds

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I guess he isn't going bankrupt anytime soon.

Source: Law and Crime

Democrats Criticize Justice Barrett for Declining to Recuse from Case of Koch-Funded Group that Spent Heavily on Ads to Confirm Her

Democrats criticized Justice Amy Coney Barrett over her decision not to recuse herself from a case that the Supreme Court heard on Monday morning involving a conservative group who financially supported her confirmation last year.

“Justice Barrett is ignoring important ethical standards to rule on a case that could open our democracy to further infiltration by dark-money influence, perhaps permanently,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told Forbes. “Her choice to press forward in spite of recusal laws also creates a troubling new precedent, and undermines public confidence in the integrity of the Court.”

The nation’s high court heard oral arguments in two consolidated cases stylized as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez and Thomas More Law Center v. Bonta on Monday morning. The companion cases both concern First Amendment challenges to a California law which requires some opaque nonprofit groups to divulge certain donor information to the IRS.

The lead petitioner in the case is a nonprofit run by billionaires David Koch and Charles Koch. During Barrett’s relatively painless confirmation process, the group spent in excess of $1 million on ads boosting her image.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/democrats-criticize-justice-barrett-for-declining-to-recuse-from-case-of-koch-funded-group-that-spent-heavily-on-ads-to-confirm-her/

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Source: NPR

Democratic members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees are asking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from participating in a case involving a conservative nonprofit with ties to a group that gave at least $1 million to fund a "national campaign" to win Senate confirmation of her Supreme Court nomination.

At her confirmation hearing, Barrett refused to answer questions about whether she would recuse in the case, which was then pending before the court, but had not been granted review. At the time, she said it would "not be appropriate for me as a judicial nominee to offer an opinion about such abstract issues or hypotheticals."

But after she was confirmed, the court agreed to review the case, and there was no indication of a Barrett recusal.

The case, which is to be argued next week, was brought by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, created by the conservative Koch brothers. It challenges a California law, similar to those in other states, that requires tax-exempt nonprofits to attach to their state tax filing an IRS form that discloses the identity of their large donors. The foundation is seeking a broad constitutional ruling that would keep its donor identities secret.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989595589/democrats-ask-justice-barrett-to-recuse-in-case-involving-nonprofit-donor-privac

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This one is tricky. This group funded ads on her behalf, but there's no evidence that she ever met with, spoke with, or even knew of their support. If funding a campaign qualifies without any sort of notification or sign off, it would seem an exploitable way for a group to get a Justice they don't think will support them to recuse

Source: Reuters

Russia will soon have more than 120,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, calling for new Western economic sanctions to deter Moscow from “further escalation”.

Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Western officials say the concentration of forces is now larger than during that annexation. The figure given by Kuleba is higher than Ukraine’s previous estimate of 80,000 Russian troops, of which 50,000 were new deployments.

"Russian troops continue to arrive in close proximity to our borders in the northeast, in the east and in the south. In about a week, they are expected to reach a combined force of over 120,000 troops," Kuleba told an online news conference.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-reach-over-120000-troops-ukraines-border-week-ukraine-says-2021-04-20/

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You don't amass that many troops unless you're going to use them. Say goodbye to Ukraine, and welcome the resurgence of Russian global power. Oil prices going up is also super beneficial to the Russian economy.

Source: The Hill

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has reportedly sold a book, receiving an advance of $2 million.

Three industry sources close to the matter told Politico that Barrett's book will deal with how judges are not supposed to bring their personal feelings into their rulings.

One industry source told Politico that the "eye-raising amount" is likely the most a justice has received since Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor sold their own books.

...

Barrett was pressed by Democratic lawmakers during her confirmation hearing on how she would rule on certain cases having to do with Roe v. Wade, the Second Amendment and the Affordable Care Act. Barrett avoided answering such questions, saying that, like the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she would not offer "previews" on specific cases.



Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/549062-amy-coney-barrett-received-2-million-advance-for-book-deal-report

Source: AP

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured while confronting rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection, suffered a stroke and died from natural causes, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office ruled Monday, a finding that lessens the chances that anyone will be charged in his death.

Investigators initially believed the officer was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, based on statements collected early in the investigation, according to two people familiar with the case. And they later thought the 42-year-old Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance — possibly bear spray — that may have contributed to his death.

But the determination of a natural cause of death means the medical examiner found that a medical condition alone caused his death — it was not brought on by an injury. The determination is likely to significantly inhibit the ability of federal prosecutors to bring homicide charges in Sicknick’s death.

Federal prosecutors have charged two men with using bear spray on Sicknick during the Jan. 6 riot. The arrests of George Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, and Julian Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, were the closest federal prosecutors have come to identifying and charging anyone associated with the five deaths that happened during and after the riot.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-politics-homicide-b497800805aedae48b72bc4837b90042

Source: CNBC

President Joe Biden will hold his second infrastructure meeting with Democratic and Republican members of Congress on Monday, as GOP lawmakers push to shrink the president’s more than $2 trillion plan.

Biden aims to approve a package in the coming months that revamps U.S. roads, bridges, airports, broadband, housing and utilities, and invests in job training along with care for elderly and disabled Americans. Republicans have signaled they could support a scaled-back bill based around transportation, broadband and water systems.

The president has said he wants to craft a bipartisan bill, but Democrats would move to pass legislation on their own through budget reconciliation if they fail to strike a deal with the GOP. As the parties have disparate visions of what qualifies as infrastructure and how big of a role the government should take in the process, it is unclear what could win support from both Democrats and Republicans.

Asked Sunday if he would back a roughly $800 billion infrastructure proposal floated by some of his Senate colleagues, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, did not explicitly endorse the figure but signaled he could support a plan with transportation and broadband at its center.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/infrastructure-bill-joe-biden-will-meet-with-bipartisan-lawmakers.html

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Operation Convince Joe Manchin is now a go.