A case brought by the DOJ was just denied a jury trial because Google cut a check for $2 million dollars.
Business practices that likely impacted business and consumers to the tune of billions in potential damages, a company that generates $60 Billion in revenue on search and ads every fiscal quarter, a judge looked at the DOJ brief and said:
#RussVought has helped craft proposals for Trump to deploy the #military to quash #CivilUnrest, seize more #control over the #DOJ & assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations —& that’s just on Trump’s 1st day…
Since #Trump left office, Vought has led the Center for Renewing America, part of a network of #conservative advocacy groups staffed by fmr & potentially future Trump admin ofcls.
Each page yesterday took him just a little more than a minute, so this will take >30 mins.
Between that & the testimony readbacks, also expected to take >30 mins, there will likely be >1 hour this morning w/the jury in the courtroom, not actively deliberating.
Court decision o' the day, allowing a false-advertising class action to proceed against Cold Stone Creamery because its pistachio ice cream contains no pistachio. The decision is full of bad puns and song lyrics about ice cream including Weird Al's "I Love Rocky Road".
Police tried to extract a confession from this guy, and told him his father was dead when he actually wasn't.
Then they said they'd kill his dog:
"At one point during the interrogation, the investigators even threatened to have his pet Labrador Retriever, Margosha, euthanized as a stray, and brought the dog into the room so he could say goodbye. 'OK? Your dog’s now gone, forget about it,' said an investigator."
As of Jan, Chief Justice #JohnRoberts earns an annual salary of $312,200, while associate justices each earn $298,500. The judiciary’s rules limit justices to “outside earned income” of no more than about $32k per year, which many collect through teaching positions.
Book-writing payments do not count as outside income…. ≥4 #SCOTUS justices have forthcoming #books about their lives & the #law. Reports released Fri show #Kavanaugh is at work on a book, for which he has so far received $340k.
#NewYork Education Department Hindered an Abuse Investigation at Boarding School for #Autistic Youth
A judge ruled that the agency must cooperate in a #disability rights investigation into Shrub Oak International School, which charges up to $573K/year but has no meaningful oversight.
A ProPublica investigation found that would-be whistleblowers could not get state authorities to intervene at the #school.
FYI
I’ve decided not to report much on #HunterBiden’s trial. It is evident that he, Beau’s widow, & the #Biden family were in deep #grief.
In that grief, Hunter & Hallie self-medicated w/a highly addictive drug. Hunter already had a predisposition to #addiction, & he did what people addicted to drugs & alcohol do — made terrible decisions.
He admitted it & admitted to committing crimes during his addiction.
Detailing that painful time for the purpose of humiliating his family is cruel.
#SCOTUS Justice Samuel A. #Alito Jr. has offered multiple accounts of how politically charged flags [#insurrectionist flags] came to fly outside his homes in VA & NJ — the type of display that is generally off-limits for judges, who must remain #impartial & avoid even the appearance of #bias as they handle cases.
…#Alito told Fox News …the neighborhood dispute began when his wife went to speak w/their neighbor Emily Baden in Jan 2021. #MarthaAnnAlito was upset the woman was displaying an anti #Trump sign, w/an expletive, “within 50 feet of where children await the school bus,” as Bream put it on…[social media].
But Fairfax County schools were shuttered at the time because of the coronavirus pandemic & had been since March 2020.
…Justice #Alito has portrayed Baden & her then-boyfriend as the aggressors in the dispute, writing in letters to Congress that his neighbors had displayed a sign “attacking” his wife “personally.” But photos provided by Baden & interviews w/a neighbor indicate the signs made no explicit mention of #MarthaAnnAlito.
One featured the off-color reference to #Trump on one side & the phrase “Bye Don” on the other. A 2nd read “Trump Is a Fascist,” while a 3rd read “You are Complicit.”
…Baden said it was #MarthaAnnAlito who confronted them on a handful of occasions…. #Alito told FoxNews a key moment in the dispute came when he & his wife were walking in the neighborhood after the initial conversation. A man got into an argument w/Martha-Ann & called her a vulgar epithet…acc/to the justice. In his letters to Congress, Alito also said the man followed them down the street.
Baden said…that…it was actually she who uttered the epithet, an acct corroborated by a neighbor who heard it.
#Alito told Fox that following the exchange his wife was “distraught” & raised the upside-down flag. A photo…showed the #flag flying on Jan 17, 2021.
The encounter between #MarthaAnnAlito, Baden & her boyfriend occurred a month AFTER the #UpsideDown flag was raised, acc/to a phone call placed to police that day. A VA govt spox confirmed that call was on Feb 15, 2021.
The federal #government is facing a dwindling window to #regulate the use of #ArtificialIntelligence in campaigns before the #2024election. The #FCC chair announced a plan last month to require #politicians to disclose #AI use in TV & radio #ads. But the prop is facing opposition from a #FEC top ofcl, which has been considering its own new rules on AI campaign use.
A 2nd #Trump admin could #weaponize existing government agencies to dismantle democracy itself.
This article is part of “Project 2025: The Plot Against #America,” a Nation special issue devoted to unpacking the right’s vast & chilling program for a 2nd Trump term.
managing elections to benefit himself & his #Republican allies; gutting public broadcasting & constraining #press#freedom; & undermining civil society. #Trump, who…demanded that the results of #Georgia’s 2020…[election] be “recalculated” to give him a win, wants the trappings of #democracy w/o the reality of electoral consequences. That’s what #propaganda experts Edward Herman & Frank Brodhead described as “demonstration elections,” in which…wins are assured for the #authoritarians….