Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Wednesday, July 3, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we’ve got some very compelling stories to share with you today, and here’s what’s going on.
Sentencing in former President Donald Trump’s criminal case is delayed, Republicans in Arizona say you need to be a U.S. citizen to vote in the presidential election, and 200 missing children are found. Also, a jury punishes an insurance company over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and banks are making huge money off the Fed.
Judge Delays Trump Sentencing in New York Case
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is delaying the sentencing of former President Trump from July 11 to Sept. 18 after attorneys on both sides requested permission to argue over the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this week on presidential immunity.As you may recall, in the New York case, former President Trump was charged with falsifying business records, he pleaded not guilty, and a jury convicted him on all 34 charges in May. The 34 documents that were found to be falsified were created in 2017, when he was president. Attorneys for the former president had moved to limit the scope of evidence in the case to exclude the president’s official acts, but the judge, at the time, had denied the motion.
In light of Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, President Trump’s attorneys now say that Justice Merchan ruled incorrectly on the motion. During the trial, prosecutors described an incident in the Oval Office and introduced statements by the president and a witness who testified about working for the president in the White House. The former president’s attorneys say this official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury.
The high court’s ruling held that a president “may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”
You should know that attorneys for former President Trump are also moving to throw out the New York criminal case altogether.
GOP Files Emergency Motion to Block Voting Without Proof of Citizenship for 2024 Race
The RNC and members of Arizona’s Legislature filed a motion this week to stay a federal court order and block voters who do not have proof of citizenship from voting in this year’s presidential elections.At issue is a pair of critical election laws. The first one, HB 2492, made it legal for the state to require proof of citizenship in order to cast a ballot in Arizona. The second measure, HB 2243, required election officials to report the number of voters in the state who didn’t list their citizenship status.
Voting rights groups filed lawsuits against both laws, and a federal judge found that HB 2492’s requirement for individuals using a state registration form to include their state or country of birth violates a provision of the Civil Rights Act and a section of the National Voter Registration Act. So, the judge struck down those portions of the laws, prompting the RNC’s emergency motion this week.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said they filed the emergency motion with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because they believe noncitizen voting compromises elections, which should be decided by Americans. The motion also said the blocked portions of the law should be kept in place during the ongoing appeal process because it would impact the upcoming presidential election.
So you know, Arizona’s secretary of state has asked the court to deny the RNC’s request because he says it’s too close to the election.
Also, data provided by the Arizona attorney general’s office shows that it has not prosecuted anyone who was a noncitizen and illegally voted in an election since 2010.
US Marshals Find 200 Missing Children in Nationwide Operation
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) found the missing children, including sex trafficking victims, abused children, and runaways, in a nationwide operation over the course of six weeks.The Marshals Service carried out Operation We Will Find You 2 along with federal, state, and local agencies from May to June. The operation took place in several states including Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, the Carolinas and New York. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) offered technical assistance in the operation.
Of the 200 children found, 173 were endangered runaways, one was a family abduction, another was a non-family abduction, and 25 were considered otherwise missing. The youngest person recovered was a 5-month-old baby.
One case in North Carolina involved a one-year-old who was reported missing after the child’s mother failed to surrender her to the Department of Social Services.
Another case involved a 12-year-old girl who went missing from her family home in Oregon in May after she reported being sexually abused by family members. Police officers say they contacted the child on her cell phone and that she agreed to meet them at a grocery store. The child and a friend then called the police back, telling them her father was trying to force her into his car. The Marshals Service was able to intervene and rescue the child.
USMS Director Ronald Davis says one of his agency’s most important missions is locating and recovering the nation’s missing children, calling it a critical priority as thousands of additional at-risk children remain missing. It’s a thought echoed by the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who adds that every child deserves to grow up safe from harm.
Jury Awards $687,000 to BlueCross BlueShield Scientist Fired for Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
A federal jury has awarded $687,000 to a research scientist who was fired from BlueCross BlueShield in Tennessee in November 2021, for refusing to comply with the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.The lawsuit stated that officials from BlueCross BlueShield told Tanja Benton in August 2021 that she would need to be “fully vaccinated” in order to keep her position. She refused, saying aborted fetal cell lines were involved in the development of the COVID vaccines and that she could not, “in good conscience consume the vaccine, which would not only defile her body but also anger and dishonor God.”
BlueCross BlueShield said her position involved regularly interacting with the public, thereby requiring her to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but Ms. Benton disagreed, saying her position had become fully remote in 2020. She was also told to pursue other positions within the company, but she was fired in November 2021, and told five days later that all company positions now required the vaccine.
Her lawsuit accused BlueCross BlueShield of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says an employer may not fire, or otherwise discriminate against anyone with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of that person’s religion.
So you know, there is one exception for employers, which states if they can prove that accommodating the employee would create an undue hardship for the company, then they can fire that employee.
Ms. Benton, who at the time had been with the firm for 16 years when she was fired, was awarded more than $177,000 in back pay, $10,000 in compensation, and $500,000 in punitive damages.
Fed Paid Banks and Funds $400 Billion Over 2 Years for Sitting on Cash
While inflation has devastated much of the economy, the banking industry has actually benefited from the Federal Reserve’s actions to control inflation.Over the past two years, the U.S. central bank, which is also known as the Federal Reserve, has paid out more than $400 billion to banks and money market funds in interest payments and other transactions meant to limit lending in order to fight inflation.
The billions of dollars paid to the banks come from a 5.4 percent annual interest rate the Fed pays on “reserves”—that’s any money a bank leaves parked at the Fed overnight. Interest on reserves creates a strong incentive for banks to only lend at rates higher than what the Fed offers, since leaving deposits in their Fed accounts requires virtually no work and no risk. The Fed used this mechanism to tighten credit, depress demand, and thus ease price inflation pressure.
Another mechanism the Fed uses is called the “reverse repurchase agreement” or reverse repo, where they sell treasuries with an agreement to buy them the next day for a slightly higher price. The price difference is expressed by the Fed as an annual rate, which is currently at 5.3 percent.
You should know that while the banks are benefitting, they have not passed on their windfall to customers, as deposit rates remain very low compared to the rates the banks are receiving from the Fed.
Interesting to note, the Fed has been authorized by Congress to pay interest on reserves since 2008. For many years, the interest was only about 0.1 percent as the Fed was keeping rates near zero. In 2022, however, inflation spiked to a 9 percent annual rate, prompting the Fed to quickly raise the rates.
Interest on reserves and reverse repos have cost the Fed about $3.5 billion a week, based on the weekly averages of reserve balances at the Fed and daily reverse repo volumes.
So you know, the markets are expecting the Fed to start lowering the rates later this year, possibly beginning in September, although the cuts are expected to be gradual.
Looks like our time is just about up for today, so let’s call it a wrap for the Wednesday edition of the Epoch Times News Brief.
Before we shut the studio down, just a request. If you have some free time today, we hope you’ll tell some folks you know about our program, as we’re always trying to grow our ever-expanding News Brief family.
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*(Don’t forget the News Brief Motto): We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap things up with a very notable quote:
It was Frank Sinatra who said: “The best revenge is massive success.”
In other words, if someone says you can’t do it, prove ‘em wrong and do it—and do it in a stunning manner!
Sinatra had an amazing life, and during his career, he sold roughly 150 million records all over the planet—and he did it all “his way,” as I’m sure you know.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas, and thanks a million for spending some time with us today. Enjoy the rest of Wednesday, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for the Thursday edition, the 4th of July edition of the Epoch Times News Brief!
Have an incredible day today, and bye for now.
