NEWS - THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022 - NEWS
The former Trump White House aide who spoke to the Jan. 6 committee Tuesday is under fire. Defenders say her critics should testify under oath. LA Times
VOA VIEW: The campaign to discredit Hutchinson began when she started her lies and deception.
Turkey is one of the oldest members of NATO and also one of its most problematic LA Times
VOA VIEW: A good question.
A pro-gun group asked a federal judge Wednesday to order the NYPD to loosen rules on concealed firearms after last week's Supreme Court decision. New York Post
VOA VIEW: As they should and win.
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Consumers know better. They see the economic storm clouds looming. So, too, do some economists, who think we may already be in a soft recession. New York Post
VOA VIEW: Not soft, recession.
Looks like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream couldn’t stand up to the heat. New York Post
The gubernatorial hopeful will need about a third of the vote across the five boroughs to beat out Hochul. New York Post
VOA VIEW: A Zeldin win could help save NY.
A reluctance by some liberal district attorneys to bring criminal charges against abortion providers is already complicating the legal landscape in some states. New York Times
VOA VIEW: Liberals will lose the legal battle.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mr. Meadows, the White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, described him as scrolling through his phone as rioters approached the Capitol. New York Times
VOA VIEW: Hutchinson is a lying idiot.
Mr. Cipollone, who repeatedly fought the president’s extreme plans to overturn the election, had resisted publicly testifying to the panel. New York Times
VOA VIEW: Attorney/Client privilege is still valid.
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Alcohol can stay in your system for a multitude of hours, yet the exact time is dependent on factors such as weight, age, medications and health.
USA Today
Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed the Republican running against Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who last week gave powerful testimony to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: It happens when you lie.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused the Supreme Court of having a bias toward Christianity, after it recently sided with a high school football coach who prayed on the 50-yard line. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: AOC is an idiot.
Afghanistan's Taliban, Nigeria's Islamist militants and Iran's supreme leader are among the world's top persecutors of Christians, according to an annual report by an international advocacy group. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: It's clear for all to know.
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Democrats have seized on the abortion issue to boost their chances in November but a new poll shows that for most voters, nothing is more important than the economy. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: Dems will lose big in November.
There's at least one thing that Americans on both sides of the political aisle can agree on: the nation's bleak outlook. Washington Times
VOA VIEW: The truth hurts Dems.
A 3.5 magnitude earthquake struck near Elgin, South Carolina, on Wednesday. On Sunday, a 3.4 magnitude earthquake struck the same area. ABC
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The widow of Zhiwen Yan, a Chinese food delivery worker who was fatally shot in Queens, is speaking out after her husband’s alleged killer was released on bail. ABC
The FBI has opened a widening investigation into sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans, looking specifically at whether priests took children across state lines to molest them ABC
Here's what to know about access to "medication abortion" following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. CBS
VOA VIEW: Knowing the facts is important.
A majority of Texans want abortion to be legal in all or most cases, many said they didn't know much about the state's "trigger" law. CBS
VOA VIEW: "Unsafe" is not the proper word, it should be "illegal."
The judge had demanded affidavits from dozens of Trump Organization employees and attorneys, and Trump himself is scheduled to be deposed next month. CBS
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Jackson will be sworn in on Thursday at noon, when Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement becomes official. CBS
VOA VIEW: A liberal swap for a fanatic liberal.
Major corporations rush to safeguard workers' reproductive rights after Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. CBS
VOA VIEW: There will be lawsuits.
You can contribute much more than IRS rules appear to allow, making a Roth's tax-free withdrawals even more valuable CBS
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U.S. stock index futures were flat overnight trading Wednesday. CNBC
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell vowed Wednesday that policymakers would not allow inflation to take hold of the U.S. economy over the longer term. CNBC
VOA VIEW: How long is "long run"?
Turkey "got what it wanted" from the deal with Sweden and Finland penned Tuesday night, the Turkish president's office said in a statement. CNBC
VOA VIEW: Biden sold US assets.
The market for carbon removal is expanding rapidly, and hundreds of millions are pouring in as tech companies and the government look to fund new technologies. CNBC
Your credit utilization rate is the percentage of your overall line of credit that you use each month, and can account for up to 30% of your credit score. CNBC
A leader of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over China-related data security concerns. CNBC
VOA VIEW: As they should.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Wednesday he will not run in the nation's upcoming elections, its fifth vote in three years. UPI
VOA VIEW: His job performance has not been good.
An attorney for Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the House Jan. 6 Committee that it has "no basis" to interview her and needs "better justification" to agree to do so. UPI
Speaking at a key NATO summit in Spain on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the United States will increase its military operations in Europe and will help create a permanent NATO headquarters in Poland. UPI
VOA VIEW: Biden makes money promises.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowed its own 2020 landmark decision where it broadened the jurisdictional rights of Native Americans on reservations in Oklahoma. UPI
The Federal Trade Commission sued Walmart, alleging that the retailer turned a blind eye to scammers using its money transfer services to defraud Walmart customers of more than $197 million. UPI
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COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
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Voice Of America
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Raise your hand if you’re surprised that the trillions of dollars spent on COVID-19 relief gave way to billions of dollars in government waste, fraud and abuses. Based on recent reporting, you might think this type of carelessness with taxpayers’ money has never before happened. Sadly, such waste and fraud are normal byproducts of most government programs. In other words, fraud and waste was inevitable.
Too much focus on waste and fraud misses a more important problem: Lots of the COVID-19 spending that doesn’t qualify as wasteful or fraudulent was nonetheless misspent. When the pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, people all over the country panicked. Everyone seemed to agree that the right thing to do was pump the nation full of as much money as possible, as fast as possible. As a result, nearly everyone — married, unmarried, employed, unemployed, through businesses small and large — got cash through the $2 trillion CARES Act.
Some people did raise the potential for fraud. We were told that there was no time to put in place measures sufficient to prevent it. However, the CARES Act did create an oversight mechanism called the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. The committee had a difficult task due to the enormous size of the relief bill, a hardship compounded by the fact that the program had to become functional before it could even start looking into the spending. Dollars were pouring forth fast from Washington, and the committee was basically behind from the start.
Then Congress added another two relief bills totaling around $3 trillion and including extensions of some programs implemented in the CARES Act. It’s now clear that an enormous amount of the eventual $5 trillion was spent “improperly,” and that some was downright fraudulent. For instance, according to the Labor Department, at least $163 billion of the $873 billion in unemployment insurance benefits was spent in error, and little of this sum was recovered. Making matters worse is that a significant share of the $163 billion was claimed by organized fraudsters and scammers in the United States and countries like China and Russia. There is also the COVID money that was given the illegal migrant expenses.
