Jason Isbell announced via Twitter that he will be donating his royalties from Morgan Wallen’s album “Dangerous: The Double Album” to the NAACP.
UNITE HERE Local 11 Announces Growing Support of Chateau Marmont Boycott as Stonewall Democratic Club and West Hollywood Elected Leaders Sign On
Tom Williams/GettyRep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) did not buy or sell any stocks in his first 13 months as a congressman. That changed in March 2020, when he made half a dozen buys as the largest economic relief package in history was written and debated.Five of those purchases came in the three days between March 25 and 27, as the Senate and House voted on the CARES Act and former President Trump signed it into law. Crenshaw, who supported the bill, did not initially disclose the transactions, in violation of the STOCK Act, a law that requires members of Congress to tell the public when they engage in securities trades. Months later he amended his records to reflect the purchases.The trades, which are listed only in a range of values, add up to a maximum of $120,000, and do not compare in size or volume to the kinds of headline-grabbing transactions executed ahead of the pandemic by Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. They only appeared in December, when Crenshaw amended his annual report, originally submitted in August.“You’re referencing financial disclosures that use a range to report stock purchases, and you’re choosing the upper end of the range to come up with that $120,000 figure,” Justin Discigil, Crenshaw’s communications director, told the Daily Beast in an email. “The real number is around $30,000 at most,” Discigil said, and “in no way were his purchases unethical or related to official business.”The timing, however, along with Crenshaw’s own trading history and connections to the industry, raises questions about why he made the purchases and failed, twice, to disclose them.“Members of Congress should not be actively trading securities in the middle of a crisis. It shows that when the market crashes, that person is thinking about themselves and using the volatility to their own advantage,” said Ben Edwards, a securities law expert and professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Las Vegas Nevada. “We all have a limited amount of attention, and if you’ve got one eye on your stock portfolio, then you’re not giving that crisis or the American people the full attention they demand.”Crenshaw, elected in 2018, had never traded individual stocks in office until that crisis struck, according to public records. Then, when global markets crashed on March 12, Crenshaw bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Amazon. Two weeks later, while Congress voted on the CARES Act, Crenshaw bought stocks valued at the same price range in Southwest, Boeing, energy infrastructure manfacturer SPX, and Kinder Morgan, a Texas-based company specializing in pipeline construction. He also bought into an index fund tied to the performance of the S&P 500.While it’s unclear why Crenshaw did not initially disclose the transactions, they came as an increasing number of high-profile lawmakers were getting snared in an insider-trading scandal. Except for the Amazon purchase, all of Crenshaw’s transactions came a week after ProPublica reported that Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) had sold up to $1.72 million on the heels of private coronavirus briefings. On March 20, The Daily Beast reported that Loeffler and her husband had sold off seven figures worth of stock following her first confidential briefings on the pandemic. Scrutiny soon fell on trades executed by Sens. David Perdue (R-GA), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John Hoeven (R-ND), spurring investigations by the Justice Department, the Senate Ethics Committee and the Securities and Exchange Commission. None of the lawmakers faced criminal charges. Perdue and Loeffler lost their re-election bids to Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock in runoff elections this January.In response to the scandal, the Campaign Legal Center analyzed all congressional stock trades made between Feb. 2 and April 8, finding that a dozen senators made a combined 127 transactions in the timeframe, and 37 House members made at least 1,358 transactions.Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw Dunks on Newly Elected QAnon Queen, Marjorie Taylor Greene Crenshaw’s name did not make it into those media reports, however, because he hadn’t disclosed his purchases. The STOCK Act, a 2012 law intended to deter federal elected officials from trading on inside knowledge, requires congress to post all transactions within 45 days. Not only did Crenshaw fail to disclose the transactions at the time, he didn’t include them in his annual disclosure, filed in August. And while that filing shows that Crenshaw holds the new assets, the form also requires members to list the transactions, including the dates, which Crenshaw left blank. They only appeared when the Lone Star Republican filed an amended annual report in December.Crenshaw’s spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the Harvard alum and former Navy SEAL had filed that amendment “to fix clerical issues in his report like making sure dates were correct.”At the time of the transactions, congress was scrambling to put together the CARES Act, a monumental emergency relief package that cost more than $2 trillion, and which Crenshaw supported. The Republican-led Senate approved the bill on March 25, the day Crenshaw bought stock in SPX and the S&P 500 fund. The package passed the House the next day, when Crenshaw scooped up Southwest and Kinder Morgan, and was signed into law by Trump on March 27, the day that Crenshaw acquired his stake Boeing.At the time, Crenshaw sat on the House committees for Budget and Homeland Security. Boeing in particular lobbied heavily, and successfully, for a piece of the CARES Act, asking at first for $60 billion and later hoping to receive a $17 billion slice that lawmakers set aside for “businesses critical to maintaining national security.” The nonpartisan Institute on Tax and Economic Policy said at the time that it was “generally understood that the bill’s authors want much, if not all, of this $17 billion to go to a single company: Boeing.” But in late April, the manufacturer passed on the deal, opting instead to raise $25 billion in private investment thanks to moves that the Federal Reserve made independently of the CARES Act. The day that Crenshaw bought Boeing, markets snapped their brief positive burst, and the company led the boards that day in losses. His investment has now grown more than 38%. Boeing’s employee PAC gave $3,000 to Crenshaw’s 2020 campaign.All of Crenshaw’s purchases have shown returns, with the biggest yields from Boeing, Amazon and Southwest Airlines. Amazon bounced up from about $1,820 a share on March 12 to $2,979 today, and Southwest Airlines rose from around $41 to a little over $60.“It’s not hard to see that airlines would be among the hardest-hit stocks in a global pandemic that restricted air travel,” Edwards said. “So the short-term is that they’re going to get hammered, but in the long term, the sky is going to be busy again.” That calculation includes the likelihood that the federal government would pitch in to keep the industry aloft, and in mid-April the airlines got their $25 billion bailout.Edwards said that while the limited available information makes it impossible to know why Crenshaw and other officials make specific trades, new reforms introduced in response to the trading scandal would make such transactions impossible.“Some of the proposals for limiting stock purchases would really cut back on activity like this. For instance, Senator Warren’s plan would prohibit buying and selling individual stocks, and just allowing members to track markets through index funds,” he said. “Another proposal is to require lawmakers to disclose their trading plans in advance, which executives of publicly traded companies already do. That would reduce the likelihood or suspicion that they’re using private information or their own legislative powers to their advantage.”Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told The Daily Beast in November that lawmakers in the public’s trust shouldn’t risk even the appearance of having a personal financial stake in their government work."It is nearly impossible to make decisions affecting an industry and then receive a personal financial benefit without appearing to have a conflict of interest," Payne said. "Even if officials rely on financial advisors to make trading decisions on their behalf, the perception of conflicts of interest remains, because the public does not know if there are winks and nods prompting the trades."Last week, Business Insider reported that Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), an advocate for transparency, had failed to disclose dozens of stock transactions over the course of 2020. Malinowski, who like Perdue — but unlike Crenshaw — claims that a third-party financial adviser independently executes his trades, said that his time in the barrell sharpened his appetite for reform.“This does reinforce my view that members of Congress should not be invested in the stock market or, if they are, they should not have any visibility into the stocks they own,” Malinowski later told NJ.com. “Inevitably, even if the decisions are made by an investment firm with no input from the member of Congress, there can be this perception of influence because what we do in Congress affects every aspect of the economy.”Crenshaw doesn’t own many individual stocks, currently. Beyond the trades in March, he only holds shares in Alphabet — Google’s parent company — and a small stake in Schlumberger, a global oilfield services provider primarily based in Europe, with a branch in Houston. The energy-dependent metropolis also hosts Kinder Morgan, but the offices of both companies are located just outside the lines of Crenshaw’s gerrymandered district.The trades intersect with Crenshaw’s government work, specifically in energy. The oil and gas industry contributed a total $453,247 to his 2020 re-election efforts, and was his largest industry patron in terms of PAC donations. And while this may not have posed a direct conflict of interest last year, that may no longer be the case: On Jan. 21, House Republican leadership took Crenshaw off of his Homeland Security and Budget committee assignments and moved him to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Most U.S. visa applicants who were denied because of former President Donald Trump's travel ban on 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries can seek new decisions or submit new applications, the State Department said on Monday. President Joe Biden overturned Trump's so-called Muslim ban on Jan. 20, his first day in office, calling it "a stain on our national conscience" in his proclamation. State Department spokesman Ned Price said applicants who were refused visas prior to Jan. 20, 2020, must submit new applications and pay a new application fee.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined with Amanda Gorman for a virtual Q&A to mark International Women’s Day, and the youth poet laureate had a semi-personal question for both of them: “I have some interest in the public sphere, and I wanted to ask: What advice would you give […]
Mar. 8—For several weeks, local museums have been permitted to be reopen to patrons. Local museum directors say they're grateful ... and art lovers seem to be, too. In the three weeks since Skagit County moved to Phase 2 of Healthy Washington, the state's COVID-19 reopening plan, museums have been allowed allow visitors at 25% capacity. Museum of Northwest Art Executive Director Joanna Sikes ...
Mar. 8—Clark County recorded 100 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths since Friday, according to the latest data released Monday by Clark County Public Health. The new cases work out to an average of about 33 new cases a day over three days, up slightly from last week's average of about 29 new cases a day, according to Public Health data. They lift the county's total to 18,567 cases to date. ...
Mar. 8—Clark College first-year president Karin Edwards spoke on advancing racial equity in higher education, continuing budget challenges facing the college and how the school has responded to COVID-19 in her virtual State of the College Address. The 35-minute address late last week was the school's second attempt at delivering Edwards' message. It cited technical issues when the pre-recorded ...
Mar. 8—Two people were found dead early Monday morning after a fiery two-car crash on the northbound span of the Interstate 205 Bridge. The investigation into the crash led to an hours-long closure of the freeway. Portland Police Bureau officers responding to reports of the crash at 1:10 a.m. found one vehicle engulfed in flames. The drivers of both vehicles died at the scene. It has been ...
Mar. 8—WALTON — Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors" states in Act 3, Scene 1 that "There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in." But the 38 musicians of Lewis Cass' inside marching band want everyone to know they can get into this. In its fifth year, the Indoor Winds band continues to excel and bring home first-place at statewide events. They're hoping to continue that trend on ...
WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that a limited number of tickets to its two-night pop culture extravaganza, WrestleMania presented by SNICKERS, will go on sale next Tuesday, March 16 starting at 10 AM ET. WrestleMania will take place Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay and stream live exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network everywhere else.
Mar. 8—At 10:14 a.m. Sunday, Cass County Historical Society and Museum Executive Director Thelma Conrad announced her retirement on Facebook. Conrad had served in her position for 20 years, and her Facebook message included a call for Cass County residents to support the society, museum and board of directors. According to her resignation letter, which she sent a copy of to the Pharos-Tribune, ...
Mar. 8—It may look a bit different this year, but the hunt will be on. Canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, Danielle Terhune, recreation director of the Logansport Parks Department, said it was high-time for families to get together and enjoy an outdoor extravaganza. After all, she said, "Everybody loves a treasure hunt." And that's why the Parks Department has opted to hold its annual Easter ...
Mar. 8—Indiana's winter utility disconnection moratorium ends on March 15. Consumers who need to make payment arrangements with their utilities are urged to contact their service providers immediately, and not wait until they receive shut-off notices. "If you are behind on your bills and cannot pay the balance on time and in full, it is important to contact the utility as early as possible to ...
Dow Jones futures were little changed Monday. The Dow hit a record high, while the tech sell-off continued amid rising Treasury yields. Tesla stock dived.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 8, 2021) - Crystal Bridge Enterprises Inc. (TSXV: CRYS.P) (the "Company") is pleased to provide an update regarding its Qualifying Transaction (the "Transaction") with Alpha Cognition Inc. ("ACI"), as previously announced on July 14, October 28 and December 4, 2020. The Company is pleased to announce that ACI has obtained an interim order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia providing for, among other things, the holding of ...
RADNOR, Pa., March 08, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against Clover Health Investments, Corp. (NASDAQ: CLOV) (“Clover”) on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Clover publicly traded securities between October 6, 2020 and February 4, 2021, inclusive (the “Class Period”), and/or purchased or acquired Clover securities pursuant or traceable to Clover’s registration statement and prospectus issued in connection with the December 2020 Merger. Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Clover publicly traded securities during the Class Period may, no later than April 6, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Adrienne Bell, Esq. (484) 270-1435; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at info@ktmc.com; or click https://www.ktmc.com/clover-health-investments-corp-securities-class-action?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=clover According to the complaint, Clover provides health insurance services. Clover was taken public through a reverse merger with IPOC, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (the “Business Combination”). Prior to the Business Combination, IPOC traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The Class Period commences on October 6, 2020, when Clover issued a press release announcing its intention to become a public company through a merger with IPOC. On October 20, 2020, Clover filed its registration statement and preliminary proxy statement/prospectus on a Form S-4 with the SEC (the “Registration Statement”). The Registration Statement was amended on December 9, 2020 and December 10, 2020, and was declared effective on December 11, 2020. The Registration Statement touted Clover’s growth as strong and organic. On February 4, 2021, before market hours, Hindenburg Research published a research report that revealed that Clover’s flagship platform, Clover Assistant, was the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigation for a variety of issues, including illegal kickbacks, marketing practices, and undisclosed related-party transactions. Hindenburg discovered that Clover’s sales growth was not driven by technology, but by deceptive sales practices. Following this news, Clover common stock (CLOV) fell $1.72 per share, or 12.3%, to close at $12.23 per share on February 4, 2021, and Clover warrants (CLOVW) fell $0.18 per warrant, or 5%, to close at $3.39 per warrant on February 4, 2021. On February 5, 2021, before the market opened, Clover filed a Form 8-K disclosing that the SEC was conducting an “investigation and requesting document and data preservation for the period from January 1, 2020, to the present, relating to certain matters that are referenced in the [Hindenburg Research report].” Following this news, Clover common stock (CLOV) fell $0.53 per share, or 4.3% during intraday trading on February 5, 2021, and Clover warrants (CLOVW) fell $0.28 per warrant, or 8.2% during intraday trading on February 5, 2021. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Clover was under active investigation by the DOJ for at least 12 issues ranging from illegal kickbacks, to marketing practices, to undisclosed related-party deals; (2) the DOJ’s investigation presented an existential risk to Clover, since it derives most of its revenues from Medicare; (3) Clover’s sales were driven by a major undisclosed related-party deal and misleading marketing targeting the elderly, not its purported “best-in-class” technology; (4) a significant portion of Clover sales were from an undisclosed relationship between Clover and a brokerage firm controlled by Clover’s Head of Sales; and (5) as a result, the defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Clover investors may, no later than April 6, 2021, seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP, or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com. CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLPJames Maro, Jr., Esq.Adrienne Bell, Esq.280 King of Prussia RoadRadnor, PA 19087(844) 887-9500 (toll free)info@ktmc.com
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday announced that the Biden administration will invest $250 million in federal grants to community organizations that work to address gaps in the response to COVID-19, according to an official at the Department of Health and Human Services. CBSN's "Red & Blue" host Elaine Quijano has more.
The New York Jets have placed the franchise tag on safety Marcus Maye prior to Tuesday's tag deadline. Both sides can still negotiate a long-term deal up until July 15th. Maye was the Jets 2nd-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
As Ray continues to lead the mission in Syria, the stakes grow higher when members of Bravo team learn the truth about their target, on SEAL TEAM, Wednesday, March 10 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Yahoo Home