News

"We are raising funds to support a critical legal defense in the fight against unchecked corporate power and a system that continues to favor the few over everyone else. This case isn't just about one individual—it's about challenging a status quo that protects the interest of the powerful at the expense of justice and fairness," read one of the fundraising pages that was quickly removed by GoFundMe.

Summary

A Gallup poll shows 62% of Americans believe the government should ensure universal healthcare coverage—the highest support in over a decade.

While Democratic backing remains strong at 90%, support among Republicans and Independents has also grown since 2020.

Public frustration with the for-profit healthcare system has intensified following the arrest of a suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, reportedly motivated by anger at the industry.

Recent controversies, including Anthem’s rollback of anesthesia coverage cuts, and debates over Medicare privatization highlight ongoing dissatisfaction with the system.

• Trump transition weighs plan to cancel USPS contracts to build large EV fleet Postal service plans to spend billions on EV chargers and roughly 66,000 new trucks Contract cancellation likely part of sweeping executive order on EVs

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's transition team is considering canceling the U.S. Postal Service's contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The move, which could be unveiled in the early days of Trump’s administration that begins on Jan. 20, is in line with Trump's campaign promises to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to decarbonize U.S. transportation to fight climate change – an agenda Trump has said is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy.

Reuters has previously reported that Trump is planning to kill a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, and plans to roll back Biden's stricter fuel-efficiency standards.

The sources told Reuters that Trump’s transition team is now reviewing how it can unwind the postal service's multibillion-dollar contracts, including with Oshkosh (OSK.N), and Ford (F.N) for tens of thousands of battery-driven delivery trucks and charging stations.

Oshkosh shares fell by roughly 5% to 105.65 per share after the Reuters report.

Excerpt:

> Prosecutors highlighted “about $10,000 — $8,000 in U.S. dollars and then $2,000 in foreign currency that was found on his person,” CNN correspondent Danny Freeman said following the court hearing. > > “Also they said that he had a Faraday bag,” which blocks cell signals, a move that prosecutors alleged marked “an indication of criminal sophistication and reason they should hold him on bail,” Freeman continued. > > After prosecutors made the claims, Mangione said he would like to “correct two things.” > > “I don’t know where any of that money came from — I’m not sure if it was planted. And also, that bag was waterproof, so I don’t know about criminal sophistication,” the suspect said in a statement that suggested police framed him.

>Luigi Mangione shouts a message to the American people on his way to court:

>“This is completely unjust and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience.”

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/72283

Summary

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell warned Rudy Giuliani he could face imprisonment for allegedly continuing to defame Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, despite a $148 million defamation judgment and a permanent injunction against him.

Giuliani sought a 30-day extension to respond, citing difficulty finding legal representation, but Howell expressed skepticism over further delays.

Freeman and Moss accused Giuliani of violating the court order, with their lawyer previously suggesting potential prison time for related “bankruptcy crimes.”

Giuliani claims bias against him in the case.

Summary

New York AG Letitia James will continue pursuing a $454M civil fraud judgment against Donald Trump despite his presidential return.

A 2023 ruling found Trump and his sons inflated his net worth to secure favorable loans, with interest raising the owed amount to $490M.

Trump has appealed, but the AG argues civil litigation does not interfere with presidential duties.

Trump's lawyer urged dismissal for national unity, citing dropped criminal cases, but James rejected the request.

A decision on the appeal is pending.

Summary

Elon Musk has emerged as a key enforcer of Donald Trump’s agenda, warning Republicans against opposing Trump’s policies and Cabinet picks.

Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, played a significant role in Trump’s election victory, spending heavily in swing states and funding groups like RBG PAC to broaden voter appeal.

Musk has hinted at funding primary challenges against GOP lawmakers who resist Trump, creating a “naughty and nice list” with ally Vivek Ramaswamy.

With allies in Trump’s administration and influence through his platform X, Musk’s political clout is growing rapidly.

Summary

Broward County State Attorney Harold F. Pryor plans to vacate up to 2,600 convictions tied to a controversial 1988-1990 sting operation in which deputies sold crack cocaine manufactured by the sheriff's office.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that such practices violated due process, but many convictions remain on record.

Some individuals faced harsher penalties for buying drugs near schools.

Pryor, supported by Sheriff Gregory Tony, aims to right this injustice and assist affected individuals in sealing or expunging their records.

Summary

The Arctic experienced its second-hottest year on record, with the tundra shifting from a carbon sink to a carbon source due to melting permafrost releasing greenhouse gases like methane.

The NOAA’s Arctic report highlights Arctic amplification, where melting ice and snow expose darker surfaces that absorb more heat, driving regional warming 2-4 times faster than lower latitudes.

Consequences include rising sea levels, extreme wildfires, and unprecedented emissions—wildfires alone exceeded Canada’s economic emissions.

Arctic sea ice has declined 50% since the 1980s, signaling a rapidly transforming and unstable ecosystem.

Summary

New York Mayor Eric Adams is facing scrutiny for his apparent shift to the right, aligning with Trump’s immigration policies and suggesting cooperation with mass deportations.

Critics link this to his federal corruption trial over alleged fundraising abuses, speculating Adams is currying favor with Trump to ease legal pressures.

His hardline immigration stance, including deporting accused (not convicted) migrants, has sparked backlash from civil rights groups.

Analysts suggest Adams’ moves aim to secure re-election by appealing to centrist voters and adapting to Trump’s incoming administration.

Adams hasn’t ruled out switching parties.

> Alabama law allows public participation in “any proceeding” before the PSC, but the commission says determining how electricity fuel costs affect consumers’ bills does not constitute a “proceeding.” Alabama’s last official fuel cost “proceeding” was in 2008.

Not to take away from the CEO shooter, but I read this and felt it should be shared.

Article copy:

SAYDNAYA, Syria (AP) — They came from all over Syria, tens of thousands. The first place they rushed to after the fall of their longtime tormentor, former President Bashar Assad, was here: Saydnaya Prison, a place so notorious for its horrors it was long known as “the slaughterhouse.”

For the past two days, all have been looking for signs of loved ones who disappeared years or even decades ago into the secretive, sprawling prison just outside Damascus.

But hope gave way to despair Monday. People opened the heavy iron doors lining the hallways to find cells inside empty. With sledgehammers, shovels and drills, men pounded holes in floors and walls, looking for what they believed were secret dungeons, or chasing sounds they thought they heard from underground. They found nothing.

Insurgents freed dozens of people from the Saydnaya military prison on Sunday when Damascus fell. Since then, almost no one has been found.

“Where is everyone? Where are everyone’s children? Where are they?” said Ghada Assad, breaking down in tears.

She had rushed from her Damascus home to the prison on the capital’s outskirts, hoping to find her brother. He was detained in 2011, the year that protests first erupted against the former president’s rule – before they turned into a long, grueling civil war. She didn’t know why he was arrested.

“My heart has been burned over my brother. For 13 years, I kept looking for him,” she said. When insurgents last week seized Aleppo — her original hometown — at the start of their swiftly victorious offensive, “I prayed that they would reach Damascus just so they can open up this prison,” she said.

Civil defense officials helping in the search were as confused as the families over why no further inmates were being found. It appeared fewer were held here in recent weeks, they said.

But few were giving up, a sign of how powerfully Saydnaya looms in the minds of Syrians as the heart of Assad’s brutal police state. The sense of loss over the missing — and the sudden hope they might be found -- brought a kind of dark unity among Syrians from across the country.

During Assad’s rule and particularly after the 2011 protests began, any hint of dissent could land someone in Saydnaya. Few ever emerged.

In 2017, Amnesty International estimated that 10,000-20,000 people were being held there at the time “from every sector of society.” It said they were effectively slated for “extermination.”

Thousands were killed in frequent mass executions, Amnesty reported, citing testimony from freed prisoners and prison officials. Prisoners were subjected to constant torture, intense beatings and rape. Almost daily, guards did rounds of the cells to collect bodies of inmates who had died overnight from injuries, disease or starvation. Some inmates fell into psychosis and starved themselves, the human rights group said.

“There is not a home, there is not a woman in Syria who didn’t lose a brother, a child or a husband,” said Khairiya Ismail, 54. Two of her sons were detained in the early days of the protests against Assad – one of them when he came to visit her after she herself had been detained.

Ismail, accused of helping her son evade military service, spent eight months in Adra prison, northeast of Damascus. “They detained everyone.”

An estimated 150,000 people were detained or went missing in Syria since 2011 — and tens of thousands of them are believed to have gone through Saydnaya.

“People expected many more to be here ... They are clinging to the slightest sliver of hope,” said Ghayath Abu al-Dahab, a spokesman for the White Helmets, the search and rescue group that operated in rebel-held areas throughout the war.

Five White Helmet teams, with two canine teams, came to Saydnaya to help the search. They even brought in the prison electrician, who had the floor plan, and went through every shaft, vent and sewage opening. So far, there were no answers, Abu al-Dahab said.

He said the civil defense had documents showing more than 3,500 people were in Saydnaya until three months before the fall of Damascus. But the number may have been less by the time the prison was stormed, he said.

“There are other prisons,” he said. “The regime had turned all of Syria into a big prison.” Detainees were held in security agencies, military facilities, government offices and even universities, he added.

Around the Y-shaped main building of the prison, everyone kept trying, convinced they could find some hidden chamber with detainees, dead or alive.

Dozens of men tried to force a metal gate open until they realized it led only to more cells upstairs. Others asked the insurgents guarding the prison to use their rifle to lever open a closed door.

A handful of men were gathered, excavating what looked like a sewage opening in a basement. Others dug up electrical wiring, thinking it might lead to hidden underground chambers.

In a scene throughout the day, hundreds cheered as men with sledgehammers and shovels battered a huge column in the building’s atrium, thinking they had found a secret cell. Hundreds ran to see. But there was nothing, and tears and loud sighs replaced the celebrations.

In the wards, lines of cells were empty. Some had blankets, a few plastic pots or a few names scribbled on walls. Documents, some with names of prisoners, were left strewn in the yard, the kitchen and elsewhere. Families scoured them for their loved ones’ names.

A brief protest broke out in the prison yard, when a group of men began chanting: “Bring us the prison warden.” Calls on social media urged anyone with information of the secret cells of the prison to come forth and help.

Firas al-Halabi, one of the prisoners freed when insurgents first broke into Saydnaya, was back on Monday visiting. Those searching flocked around him, whispering names of relatives to see if he met them.

Al-Halabi, who had been an army conscript when he was arrested, said he spent four years in a cell with 20 others.

His only food was a quarter loaf of bread and some burghul. He suffered from tuberculosis because of the cell conditions. He was tortured by electrocution, he said, and the beatings were constant.

“During our time in the yard, there was beating. When going to the bathroom, there was beating. If we sat on the floor, we got beaten. If you look at the light, you are beaten,” he said. He was once thrown into solitary for simply praying in his cell.

“Everything is considered a violation,” he said. “Your life is one big violation to them.”

He said that in his first year in the prison guards would call out hundreds of names over the course of days. One officer told him it was for executions.

When he was freed Sunday, he thought he was dreaming. “We never thought we would see this moment. We thought we would be executed, one by one.”

Noha Qweidar and her cousin sat in the yard on Monday, taking a rest from searching. Their husbands were detained in 2013 and 2015. Qweidar said she had received word from other inmates that her husband was killed in a summary execution in prison.

But she couldn’t know for sure. Prisoners reported dead in the past have turned up alive.

“I heard that (he was executed) but I still have hope he is alive.”

Just before sundown on Monday, rescue teams brought in an excavator to dig deeper.

But late at night, the White Helmets announced the end of their search, saying in a statement they had found no hidden areas in the facility.

“We share the profound disappointment of the families of the thousands who remain missing and whose fates are unknown.”

Written by: SARAH EL DEEB El Deeb is part of the AP’s Global Investigative team. She is based in the Middle East, a region she covered for two decades

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Honestly this should be talked about more, I have a feeling Syria is not the only place where a 'prison' like this exists. For those who don't click on link, there are a few interesting photos inside and a few links are all you are missing.

Summary

McDonald’s locations in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Altoona, Iowa, were flooded with false 1-star reviews after the arrest of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s suspected killer at an Altoona, PA, McDonald’s.

Users posted claims of rats, poor service, and references to the employee who reported the suspect.

Some reviews mocked the arrest, calling the location “Narc-donalds” and joking about the staff’s actions.

The surge in reviews appears to be a mix of humor and criticism tied to the high-profile arrest.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/16010933

> Source > https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/new-jersey-latest-state-prohibit-bans-books-school-116604778

Summary

A DOJ watchdog report revealed that federal prosecutors violated internal policies when seizing reporters’ phone records during media leak investigations under the Trump administration.

Rules requiring oversight by the News Media Review Committee were bypassed, and nondisclosure agreements lacked proper approval.

The investigation also targeted congressional staffers and officials.

While no political bias was found, the findings renew concerns amid potential policy shifts under Trump’s new pick for attorney general.

The DOJ has long struggled to balance press freedom with safeguarding national security.

A US woman who flew to Australia with a gold-plated pistol in her luggage has been sentenced to a year in jail, despite claiming she brought it with her for protection.

Liliana Goodson pleaded guilty to charges of illegally importing an unauthorised firearm and illegally importing ammunition.

On Monday, the 30-year-old was sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court to the 12-month jail term, of which four months will be served in full-time custody.

Summary

> California has an aggressive mandate for zero-emission trucks, which are powered by electricity or hydrogen. But trucking companies face big obstacles — and people are still breathing dangerous diesel exhaust.

Summary

Whistleblowers at Boeing allege widespread safety lapses, including missing or defective parts and improper assembly practices, driven by pressure to maintain production schedules.

A January incident where a door panel blew off a new 737-9 Max mid-flight has sparked investigations, with insiders like Sam Mohawk revealing that thousands of faulty parts may have been installed on planes.

Other whistleblowers describe similar concerns over quality control failures, managerial indifference, and retaliation for speaking out.

Boeing denies safety risks but faces ongoing FAA investigations amid heightened scrutiny over its practices.

Summary

> California’s card room industry spent over $3 million targeting four lawmakers as payback for their votes on a gambling bill. Three of the lawmakers lost.

Summary

College enrollment among 18-year-old freshmen fell 5% this fall, with declines most severe at public and private non-profit four-year colleges.

Experts attribute the drop to factors including declining birth rates, high tuition costs, FAFSA delays, and uncertainty over student loan relief after Supreme Court rulings against forgiveness plans.

Economic pressures, such as the need to work, also deter students.

Despite declining enrollment, applications have risen, particularly among low- and middle-income students, underscoring interest in higher education. Experts urge addressing affordability and accessibility to reverse this trend.

Summary

Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to give his son Lachlan complete control over his media empire has failed.

A Nevada court ruled against Murdoch, stating he acted in bad faith and attempted to manipulate the family trust.

This decision, if upheld, will likely impact the future of Murdoch’s right-wing media empire, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

>Within hours of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s death by a gunman in Midtown Manhattan, the major media went full North Korea, lavishing praise on the sainted business leader. The Washington Post reported that the “smart and affable” Thompson had a “focus on keeping premiums low,” citing an unnamed company staffer who we’re to believe “spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their job.”

Donald Trump has said Robert F Kennedy Jr, his nominee for health secretary, may investigate a supposed link between vaccines and autism – despite a consensus among the medical establishment debunking any such connection.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC, the US president-elect claimed an investigation was justified by the increasing prevalence of autism diagnoses among American children over the past 25 years.

“When you look at what’s going on with disease and sickness in our country, something’s wrong,” Trump said after the interviewer, Kristen Welker, asked him if he wanted to see some vaccines eliminated – a position for which Kennedy has argued.

“If you take a look at autism, go back 25 years, autism was almost nonexistent. It was, you know, one out of 100,000 and now it’s close to one out of 100.”

Summary

Trump announced plans to end birthright citizenship via executive action, despite its constitutional basis in the 14th Amendment.

He also outlined a mass deportation policy, starting with undocumented immigrants who committed crimes and potentially expanding to mixed-status families, who could face deportation as a unit.

Trump said he wants to avoid family separations but left the decision to families.

While doubling down on immigration restrictions, Trump expressed willingness to work with Democrats to create protections for Dreamers under DACA, citing their long-standing integration into U.S. society.