“The Senate on Thursday voted to avert a looming strike of the nation’s railway workers by forcing a labor agreement. A bipartisan majority of senators approved a House bill that will codify a tentative agreement between the rail companies and rail unions, which was brokered in September and subsequently rejected by some of the workers. The Senate separately voted down two additional provisions to address the labor dispute: whether to institute a 60-day extension of the so-called cooling off period between both sides and whether to grant workers seven days of paid sick leave. … President Joe Biden vowed in a statement on Thursday to sign the rail agreement bill ‘as soon as it comes to my desk.'” (12/01/22)
“Ukraine’s armed forces have lost up to 13,000 soldiers so far in the war against Russia, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has said. His comments are believed to be the first estimate of dead since late August, when the head of the armed forces said nearly 9,000 military personnel had been killed. ‘We have official figures from the general staff, we have official figures from the top command, and they amount to (between) 10,000 and 12,500 to 13,000 killed,’ Mr Podolyak told the Kanal 24 channel. ‘We are open in talking about the number of dead,’ he added, saying more soldiers had been wounded than had died. … Oleksiy Arestovych, another of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s advisers, claimed on Wednesday that the Russian death toll was around seven times that of Ukraine’s.” (12/02/22)
“A three-judge federal appeals court panel in Atlanta ruled that the special master review process that oversaw the Justice Department’s use of non-classified evidence collected earlier this year at Donald Trump’s Florida residence must end. The unanimous decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reversed the decision of Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge from Florida who granted Trump’s request for the review and appointed semi-retired federal Judge Raymond Dearie of New York as an independent arbiter, or special master, to sift through the documents for any that may be subject to claims of privilege by the former president. … Trump can now ask the full 11th Circuit to rehear the case or appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.” (12/01/22)
“South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a possible impeachment threat over the ‘Farmgate’ scandal. The president has been accused of covering up a $4m (£3.3m) theft from his farm in 2020, including kidnapping and bribing the burglars into silence. A three-volume report from an independent panel has found that Mr Ramaphosa abused his position and may have broken an anti-corruption law. He has denied wrongdoing, and said just $580,000 of cash was stolen. He said the money was from selling buffalo. The panel’s findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings next week. The report has led to calls for him to resign.” (12/01/22)
“A Republican-led county in Arizona that flouted a statutory deadline for election certification ended up certifying its results Thursday shortly after a judge ordered officials there to take action. Officials in Cochise County voted 2-0 to accept the results of the Nov. 8 election, enabling statewide certification to move forward Monday. Ann English, the sole Democrat on the three-member Board of Supervisors, and Vice Chair Peggy Judd, a Republican, voted to approve the election results. GOP member Tom Crosby was absent. ‘I am not ashamed of anything I did,’ Judd said before the vote. Judd added that she felt compelled to act because of the judge’s order but doesn’t ‘like to be threatened.’ Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sued Cochise County this week after the two Republicans on the board voted to further delay certifying the election results. The county previously postponed certification at a Nov. 18 meeting.” (12/01/22)
“Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the state’s medical licensing board to subject abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard to disciplinary sanctions as the two battle over abortion in the state. … In June, Bernard publicly disclosed that she had provided abortion care for a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled from Ohio to Indiana for care. At the time, there was a six-week abortion ban in place in Ohio. … Rokita claimed he is not reporting Bernard to the medical board for performing an abortion, saying his office is not trying to expose anyone’s medical file. In a statement released Wednesday, Rokita alleges that Bernard ‘failed to uphold legal and Hippocratic responsibilities by exploiting a 10-year-old little girl’s traumatic medical story to the press for her own interests.'” (12/01/22)
“Joel Greenberg, a former associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday for sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes, AP reports. Greenberg had been a central figure in a federal sex crimes investigation involving Gaetz, though the representative has not been charged with a crime and has denied any wrongdoing. … Before the sentencing, Greenberg’s lawyer told a federal judge his client deserved leniency for his crimes because he assisted in investigations of 24 people, including eight involving sex crimes. … Greenberg’s arrest led to a federal investigation into Gaetz over allegations he paid a 17-year-old girl for sex.” (12/01/22)
“Nigeria has charged a student with ‘criminal defamation’ over a tweet he posted about the physical appearance of the country’s first lady. Aminu Adamu was arrested at his university in northern Jigawa state on 18 November and transferred to the capital, Abuja, five months after his online post about Aisha Buhari, the president’s wife. … According to the court documents, Adamu said he had commented on a photo of the first lady on Twitter. It was not clear whether he had intended to make a joke or to accuse her of corruption.” [editor’s note: From what I can tell from other stories, none of which just come out and say it, he seems to have accused her of becoming “fat” on “poor people’s money” – TLK] (12/01/22)
“Google is challenging a record European Union antitrust fine that took aim at the Android operating system’s role in restricting mobile competition and consumer choice. The company said Thursday that it filed the appeal against the 4.125 billion euro ($4.3 billion) penalty ‘because there are areas that require legal clarification from the European Court of Justice,’ the EU’s top court. Google previously appealed to a lower tribunal, which had slightly lowered the original 4.34 billion-euro penalty in a decision largely siding with the European Commission. It’s the largest-ever antitrust fine issued by the commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top competition watchdog. In its 2018 decision, the commission found that the dominance of Google’s Android resulted in less competition and consumer choice. The U.S. tech giant had argued that free and open-source Android resulted in cheaper phones and spurred competition with its chief rival, Apple.” (12/01/22)
“A New Hampshire man is accused of posting a fake Craigslist ad for a free trailer with a legislative candidate’s number on the day of the election, later telling investigators he meant it to be a joke after a flood of unwanted calls and texts jammed up the candidate’s cellphone. Michael Drouin, 30, of Merrimack, was indicted on a felony charge of interference with election communications …. The candidate, Bill Boyd, a Republican who went on to win, turned off his phone after receiving more than 37 phone calls or text messages in 45 minutes on the morning of the election, prosecutors said.” [editor’s note: I’ve been tempted to do something like this to the spam calls from Warnock’s minions; hell, I don’t even live in Georgia! – SAT] (12/01/22)
