policy

Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on Wednesday evening through the promise of the Senate Democrats to be a marathon of speeches overnight to protest against the nomination of Russell Vought, who has connections to the 2025 project to move the White House household office.

VOUGHT was appointed director of the Management and Household Office, which he previously held partly of President Donald Trump's first term. VolgetA political advisor was previously vice chairman of the Heritage Action for America Lobbies For the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank behind project 2025.

Chuck Schumer, Chairman of the Senate Minister from New York, said during a speech within the Senate around 3:30 p.m. that the meeting would go overnight.

“We want the Americans every hour, regardless of whether it is at 8:00 p.m. or 3 a.m. how bad Russell is vougt and how he represents them in their daily life when he was put as an omb manager,” said Schumer.

Warren spoke for an hour on Wednesday evening as a part of the 30-hour stop to delay vought's nomination. She banged the 2025 and Vouugges project and called him “one of the main architects of Project 2025.”

“Donald Trump is worthwhile by inviting him to the government to carry out the Republican blueprint to make our government population live in the picture that Russ and other extremist Republicans agree,” said Warren. Revise our economy to profit the richest amongst us and pay everyone else for it. “

Warren described the effects of Trump's federal expenditure on Massachusetts and other guidelines.

She said a non -profit organization in Worcester could not access her contracts. Early educators are afraid of losing federal financing, and the families they serve are “afraid to separate and even go outside”, while Trump increases the deportation plans of immigration, said Warren.

She also described a small company in Lynnfield and a cancer patient whose history was shown in that rely on grants and funds from the National Institutes of Health.

“Families all over the country, in Red States and Blue States feel the effects of these guidelines. All ”, said Warren.

On Thursday evening, VOUGHTS is expected to be confirmed. In a response from the California Senator Adam Schiff, the Republican Senator Markwayne Mulllin from Oklahoma said “great”.

“We'll see you on the ground tomorrow at 7 p.m. wrote On X.

SEATTLE — Dan Evans, a preferred Republican governor of Washington state who served three terms within the Senate and left in frustration because he found the chamber too acrimonious and boring, has died. He was 98.

Evans died on Friday, said the University of Washington, where he served as regent and where the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance bears his name.

“Dad had an extraordinarily full life,” his sons – Dan Jr., Mark and Bruce Evans – said in a written statement quoted by The Seattle Times. “Whether he was holding public office, working to improve higher education, or mentoring aspiring civil servants … he just kept getting involved in things until the end. He touched many lives. And he did it without sacrificing his family.”

Evans was a dominant force in Washington politics for a long time and, until current Governor Jay Inslee took office, was the one person to be elected governor thrice.

Born in Seattle in 1925, Evans was a civil engineer before entering politics. He was elected to the state legislature in 1956 and won the governorship in 1964, defeating two-term incumbent Democrat Albert D. Rosellini and prevailing in a nasty yr for his Republican party, by which President Lyndon Johnson soundly defeated Republican Barry Goldwater.

Known as a moderate to liberal Republican, the outdoorsman helped create recent recreation and park areas within the state and supported clean air and water laws. He established the primary state Department of Ecology, which President Richard Nixon used as a model for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Evans also unsuccessfully campaigned for the introduction of a state income tax and decided to not run for a fourth term.

After leaving the governor's residence in 1977, Evans remained in Olympia and served as president of the Evergreen State College. Evans had helped found the state school when he signed a bill authorizing the liberal arts college, and as governor he also supported the creation of the state's community college system.

During his time on the state's helm, he rose to national prominence and was the keynote speaker on the 1968 Republican National Convention. In 1976, he was mentioned as a possible running mate for President Gerald Ford. Evans was never a fan of Ronald Reagan, supporting Ford in 1976 and initially supporting George HW Bush in 1980.

Evans was a preferred Republican in a predominantly Democratic state and would have been a secure bet as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. However, he often dismissed such comments, saying in 1972, “I don't particularly like Washington, D.C. … and I couldn't stand being in the Senate.”

In later years, Evans served as a regent on the University of Washington, his alma mater, and served on quite a few nonprofit and company boards.

Originally published: September 21, 2024 at 2:59 p.m.

crime

Former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran was found guilty on Wednesday on 23 counts related to fraudulently applying for unemployment advantages resulting from the pandemic and lying on tax returns, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Tran, a Republican from Fitchburg, served as a state senator from late 2017 to early 2021. He was arrested in November after being charged with 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns.

The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tran's conviction Wednesday evening and said an official press release with further details would follow. As of Thursday morning, that press release had not been issued.

#BREAK Former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran has been found guilty by a federal jury on 23 counts stemming from his fraudulent application for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and false statements on various federal tax returns. Official press release follows.

— U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts (@DMAnews1) 11 September 2024

Prosecutors alleged that Tran fraudulently filed for unemployment advantages after his term expired in 2021, regardless that he had already been hired as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based auto parts company. They said he fraudulently collected $30,120 in unemployment advantages while working as a paid consultant.

Officials also alleged that Tran concealed greater than $50,000 in consulting income he received from the auto parts maker on his 2021 tax return. In addition, they alleged that Tran collected hundreds of dollars in rent from tenants of a Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022, which he also concealed from the IRS.

“Dean Tran was once elected to serve taxpayers, but today we arrested him for allegedly defrauding them of tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits intended as a lifeline for those struggling to survive due to the pandemic,” Jodi Cohen, special agent in control of the FBI's Boston Division, said last 12 months when Tran was arrested. “This former state senator allegedly made a conscious decision to repeatedly lie about his employment status and underreport his income from rental properties so he could get a tax break.”

His trial began on September 3 in Boston. Tran told the newspaper that he denies all allegations and accused the U.S. Attorney's Office and federal investigators of being politically biased against him because he’s a Republican.

Last June, Tran was charged in a separate case The case involved an alleged try and cover up a “bogus job offer” from the sister's company. As a part of their unemployment insurance investigation, authorities were looking into an alleged job offer from trans sister Tuyet Martin of Pelham, New Hampshire.

Prosecutors alleged that Tran and Martin drafted a letter offering Tran a job at Martin's Asian food company, Alecon Enterprises, Inc. Tran allegedly signed Martin's name and backdated the letter several months before submitting it as a part of his appeal after being denied advantages. They say Martin withheld and attempted to delete emails between her and Tran regarding the letter, and that Martin made false statements to a federal grand jury in July 2023.

Mike Barbanica, an Antioch city councilman and native businessman, has received the support of California Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, in his bid for Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in District 5.

Glazer represents Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

“Mike Barbanica is a no-nonsense leader with the skills and expertise to effectively impact the issues we face in Contra Costa County,” Glazer said in a press release. “Mike shares my belief that politics is about service and progress, and I am confident he will bring a sense of civility and respect for diverse opinions that we need more of in elected office.”

Barbanica, meanwhile, said Glazer was “an icon of principled leadership, someone who believes in putting results over rhetoric and people over politics.”

“This approach can help us improve our homeless, housing and crime problems, and that will be my approach on the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors,” he said.

Additional endorsements got here from Assistant District Attorney Mary Knox, Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston, Clayton Mayor Jim Diaz, Hercules Mayor Dan Romero, Brentwood City Councilman Tony Oerlemans and other retired officials.

Barbanica and his wife Kristine operate a small property management and real estate brokerage business, Blue Line Property Group, helping families access housing. He is a retired Pittsburg police lieutenant and decorated officer who served for greater than 20 years.

Barbanica is running for the open seat in Contra Costa's District 5, which covers the northern portions of Contra Costa, from Hercules to Antioch, and includes Martinez and Pittsburg.

Barbanica will face Pittsburg City Councilwoman Shanelle Scales-Preston within the race for supervisor in November.

Scales-Preston previously received support from Congressman Mark DeSaulnier.
Congressman John Garamendi and retired Congressman George Miller, together with California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, California State Senate Nancy Skinner and California State Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond, in addition to local officials including the mayor of Brentwood, Joel Bryant, and Oakley Mayor Anissa Williams, Pittsburg Mayor Juan Banales and Concord Mayor Edi Birsan, amongst others.

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Former U.S. Senator and two-term Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq War, has died. He was 87.

Graham's family announced the death on Tuesday in an announcement published on X by his daughter Gwen Graham.

“We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, a dedicated public servant and, more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather,” the family said.

Graham, who served three terms within the Senate, unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, emphasizing his opposition to the Iraq invasion.

But his candidacy was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he never managed to achieve enough traction with voters to catch up, so he dropped out in October. He didn’t seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.

Graham was a person with many flaws. He perfected the political ploy “work days” of spending a day doing various jobs, from horse stable guard to FBI agent, and kept a meticulous diary by which he noted almost everyone he spoke to, every thing he did ate, the TV shows he watched, and even his golf scores.

Graham said the notebooks were a piece tool for him and he was reluctant to explain his emotions or personal feelings in them.

“I check them for calls to make, memos to dictate, meetings to follow up on and things people are promising,” he said.

Graham was among the many early opponents of the Iraq war, saying it diverted America's focus from fighting terrorism, with a concentrate on Afghanistan. He also criticized President George W. Bush for not having an occupation plan for Iraq after the U.S. military overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Graham said Bush dragged the United States into the war by exaggerating claims concerning the danger posed by Iraq's weapons of destruction, which were never found. He said Bush falsified intelligence data and argued that this was more serious than the sexual misconduct problems that led the House of Representatives to question President Bill Clinton within the late Nineteen Nineties. This led him to launch his temporary, failed presidential run.

“The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction created by the Bush administration, and only the Bush administration,” Graham said in 2003.

During his 18 years in Washington, Graham worked well with colleagues of each parties, particularly with Republican Connie Mack of Florida during their 12 years together within the Senate.

There was hardly anyone higher as a politician. Florida voters hardly saw him as the rich, Harvard-educated lawyer he was.

Graham's political profession spanned five many years, starting along with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.

He won a state Senate seat in 1970 and was elected governor in 1978. In 1982 he was re-elected. Four years later, he won the primary of three terms within the U.S. Senate, ousting Republican incumbent Paula Hawkins.

Graham continued to be popular with Florida voters – winning re-election by wide margins in 1992 and 1998, when he won 63 of 67 districts. In that last election, he defeated Charlie Crist, who later served as Republican governor from 2007 to 2011.

“He blew me away, and as the campaign progressed I learned even more about why that is,” Crist said Tuesday night. “I learned to respect him even more than I already did and to love him for the good, decent man he was.”

Crist, who has since switched parties and most recently served as a U.S. representative, said Graham had an influence on him.

“When he was governor, I always felt like he was trying to govern for the people of Florida — in no way political or partisan — and I took that to heart and tried to emulate it a little bit,” Crist says said.

House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi called Graham “a patriotic American” and thanked him for his “outstanding public service.” She highlighted his work investigating 9/11 and said he had “courageously opposed entering the war in Iraq.”

“He brought his love for his family and his state of Florida to the Senate, where he served with great dignity and courage,” she said in an announcement Tuesday.

Even in Washington, Graham never took his eyes off the state and the leadership in Tallahassee.

When Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature abolished the Board of Regents in 2001, Graham saw it as a move to politicize the state university system. He led a successful petition campaign the following yr for a state constitutional amendment that established the Board of Governors to assume the role of regents.

Daniel Robert Graham was born November 9, 1936, in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest “Cap” Graham, had moved from South Dakota and began a big dairy business. As a teen, young Bob milked cows, built fences and shoveled manure. One of his half-brothers, Phillip Graham, was editor of the Washington Post and Newsweek until he committed suicide in 1963, only a yr after Bob Graham graduated from Harvard Law.

Graham was student body president at Miami Senior High School and attended the University of Florida, graduating in 1959.

In 1966, he was elected to the Florida legislature, where he focused totally on education and health care issues.

Graham got off to a rocky start as Florida's chief executive and was named “governor.” Jello” for some early indecision. By overcoming several serious crises, he has shattered this label.

As governor, he also signed quite a few death warrants, founded the Save the Manatee Club with entertainer Jimmy Buffett, and led efforts to ascertain several environmental programs.

Graham pushed through a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development and launched the Save Our Everglades program to guard the state's water supplies, wetlands and endangered species.

“That was an important a part of my development as a public servant, learning on a really human level what the people of Florida expect, what they need, what their ambitions are, after which attempting to interpret that and translate that into policy “Improve your life,” Graham said in 2004 as he left his last job as a Christmas gift wrapper.

After leaving public life in 2005, Graham spent much of his time at a public policy center named after him on the University of Florida, pushing the Legislature to require more civics instruction within the state's public schools.

Graham was considered one of five members chosen by President Barack Obama in June 2010 for an independent commission to research an enormous BP oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico that threatened marine life and beaches in several southeastern Gulf states.