Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Thursday, July 25, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some remarkable stories to share with you today, and here’s what’s going on.
Bodycam footage from a rooftop at former President Donald Trump’s rally has just been released. We’re learning that local police left their post as they looked for the would-be shooter, and a judge rules in favor of SpaceX in its lawsuit against the federal government. Also, beware of scammers when using those cash apps, and home sale prices are hitting record highs.
Sen. Grassley Releases Rooftop Bodycam Footage Taken After Trump Assassination Attempt
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has released graphic body cam footage taken on a rooftop immediately following the attempted assassination of the former president, which he says proves the “catastrophic security failure” that took place on July 13.The video, obtained from Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit in compliance with congressional requests, shows a conversation between local law enforcement and a Secret Service agent standing on the rooftop of the building where the shooter opened fire, shot the president, killed one man, and injured two other men.
One Beaver County officer and a Secret Service agent can be heard discussing the timeline of events that they believe led up to the assassination attempt, including whether the man lying next to them is the same man seen in a photo sent out by a member of Beaver County’s sniper team. Three other officers are also seen in the video, which appears to show the body of the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, and a long trail of blood, although the shooter’s body has been blurred.
You should also know that elsewhere in the footage, the officers and the agent can be seen discussing two people who were detained because they were caught recording the shooter before he opened fire on former President Trump and the crowd.
Mr. Grassley says the bodycam footage confirms four things. First, that local law enforcement saw the shooter prior to his presence on the roof. Second, it shows that local officers shared pictures of the suspected shooter with the Secret Service, raising questions “with respect to exactly when the pictures were shared.” Third, the conversation shows law enforcement lost track of the suspected shooter, and lastly, the video shows that law enforcement wanted access to a drone to secure the water tower after the shooting.
Interesting to note, the release of that body cam footage comes after Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, resigned on Tuesday morning.
Pennsylvania Police Commissioner Says Officers Left Post to Look for Trump Assassin
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Col. Christopher Paris told members of Congress that local law enforcement did leave their post at a critically positioned second-story window in the AGR building complex. That particular location displayed an overview of the Trump rally venue, where Thomas Crooks shot the former president, killed one man, and injured two other men.The commissioner testified earlier this week in front of a House Homeland Security hearing. He was asked about the presence and actions of officers from the Butler Emergency Services Unit (ESU), including if the officers had left their post prior to shots being fired. Col. Paris explained that the ESU is a specialized team made up of multiple agencies, which is similar to a SWAT or special weapons and tactics team.
You should know that Col. Paris confirmed that the officers left their vantage point to search for a suspicious individual, who was later identified as Mr. Crooks. The commissioner said that the decision was made after Mr. Crooks was identified as a suspicious person for not entering the secure perimeter of the venue and for carrying a rangefinder, which further intensified their concerns.
Interesting to note that when asked if the ESU officers could have had a clear shot at Mr. Crooks as he crawled up to the top of the roof, Col. Paris declined to speculate, saying a specific timeline of events has not yet been established.
Judge Rules for Musk’s SpaceX in Lawsuit Against National Labor Relations Board
A federal judge has just issued a ruling in favor of SpaceX founder Elon Musk.U.S. District Judge Alan Albright ruled that National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) officials are likely unconstitutionally protected from removal by the president, and granted an injunction to block proceedings initiated against SpaceX by the NLRB.
SpaceX, which builds and launches rockets and other spacefaring vehicles, filed the legal action in April in Waco, Texas, asking for the preliminary injunction. Lawyers for Mr. Musk said the company would be harmed if an injunction was not issued.
They pointed to Article II of the Constitution, which gives the U.S. president all executive power. Court precedent had stated that the president must have unrestricted power to remove officers, including administrative law judges. But under federal law, NLRB members can only be removed for neglect or malfeasance, and the board’s judges can only be removed if a different board decides there is good cause.
Government attorneys opposed the injunction request made by SpaceX, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1935, which found that the president does not have the “illimitable power of removal” of executive officers.
Interesting to note that the judge added that no part of the injunction “prevents Congress from using a constitutional means to achieve its goals.”
Zelle, Major Banks Fail to Assist Most Fraud Victims: Senate Report
Zelle, a popular money-transferring app, and the three major banks that own the platform haven’t done enough to stop fraud and reimburse defrauded victims. That’s what the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations concluded in a 62-page report that was released yesterday.The 13-month investigation found that consumers who fell victim to scams weren’t adequately reimbursed by financial institutions. The report revealed that Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo—the principal owners of the payment network—collectively reimbursed just 38 percent of the $166 million in submitted fraud disputes in 2023.
Investigators also found that nine out of 10 consumers who said they were scammed on the app were not reimbursed.
This past spring, subcommittee members were provided with testimony from some of those individuals, including a 94-year-old woman. She said she was targeted by scam artists who had personal information about her brother and convinced her and the family that he had been arrested and urgently needed bail money. Another person, a college student, lost $2,400 after being tricked into believing she was hired for a summer job opportunity with a professor at a university.
The subcommittee’s report discovered that the speed of Zelle’s payment network is what appeals to the fraudsters, since Zelle payments are generally instant and irreversible.
Senate Democrats argue that the principal owners should reimburse clients who have collectively lost millions of dollars in fraud on the app, while some Republicans on the panel said it’s not the banks’ fault, it’s the criminals’ fault, and that the banks could create a fee system that can be used to create a pot of money to reimburse fraudulent transactions.
You should know that banking officials are concerned, saying that even one client harmed is too much, and have promised to work with lawmakers to establish a national task force and framework that helps victims and fights the scammers.
US Homes Hit ‘Highest Price Ever Recorded’ as Sales Numbers Fall: Report
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is reporting that the sale of existing homes fell by 5.4 percent in June compared to May, even as the median sales price reached the “highest price ever recorded.” Yet, all four U.S. regions—Northeast, Midwest, South, and West—posted lower sales for the month.NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun says homes are sitting on the market longer, and sellers are receiving fewer offers, which he says describes a gradual shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Mr. Yun also said that the supply and demand dynamics are closer to what he calls balanced market conditions.
You should know that the decline in home sales is happening at the same time as mortgage rates continue to go up. The real estate brokerage firm Redfin says that buyers backed out of deals at a “record rate” last month. In raw numbers, nearly 56,000 home-purchase agreements were canceled in June, which is nearly 15 percent of homes that went under contract that month—and that’s the highest percentage of any June on record.
A Redfin agent says that many buyers are backing out due to minor issues because the monthly costs associated with buying a home today are just too high. Agents also said that some buyers are just waiting for the interest rates to come down. However, a key factor that would push mortgage rates down is the U.S. Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.
Unfortunately, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell recently told Congress that inflation would need to come down first before the agency can start reducing the rates.
By the way, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has been above 6 percent since September 2022.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Thursday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
If you have some free time today, it would sure mean a great deal to us if you could tell some folks you know about our program, and that’s because we’re always trying to grow the News Brief family and in our family, there’s always room for one more.
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And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote.
This one comes to us from Virginia Satir, who was an American author and psychotherapist. She said: “We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”
I guarantee someone needs your hug today.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your Thursday, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief. Don’t let the day slip by without eating something healthy, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, and as always, have a superb day today. Bye for now.
