NY AG James Will Move to Seize Trump’s Assets If He Does Not Pay $355 Million Fraud Fine

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday indicated that she would ask the court to seize former President Donald Trump’s assets, including his real estate properties, if he does not pay the roughly $355 million a judge fined him in her civil fraud case.

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WikiLeaks Founder Assange Begins Major Legal Fight Against Extradition to U.S.

Julian Assange Trial

Julian Assange’s attorneys on Tuesday began a major legal challenge in the United Kingdom to stop the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to the United States on espionage charges. 

Assange, who has been in a maximum security prison in London for the past five years, was unable to attend the first day of a two-day High Court hearing due to his health, his attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, said, according to The Associated Press. 

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Congressional Watchdog Questions Reliability of U.S. Financial Statements, Cites ‘Serious Financial Management Problems at the Department of Defense’

The Pentagon

A Congressional watchdog said Friday that it was again unable to determine if the federal government’s consolidated financial statements were reliable.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’s research arm, said it was hampered by “serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense,” problems in accounting for transactions between federal agencies, weaknesses in the process for preparing the statements and inadequate support for the cost of loan programs from the Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

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New Study Finds That CO2 is Increasing the Rate by Which the Globe is Greening, Even Under Drought

Coal Plant

A new study finds that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are driving increased plant growth that’s greening the Earth, even in areas experiencing drought.

The peer-reviewed study, which was published in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Conservation, finds that the phenomenon known as “global greening” is an indisputable fact. The rate of global greening has increased slightly, and drought has only slowed, but not stopped, the process.

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Virginia AG Jason Miyares Joins Coalition Demanding Federal Funding to Support Commonwealth Crime Victims

Virginia A.G. Jason Miyares

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares confirmed on Friday that he joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general calling on the Department of Justice’s Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund to provide additional resources to commonwealth citizens who are victims of crimes.

The VOCA Fund, originally established by a federal law signed in 1984, is financed by fines and penalties paid by individuals convicted in federal cases and funds to provide various services, including financial assistance, to victims of crimes.

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Commentary: Non-Citizens Have Been Voting Since 2008

Why would a president running for reelection refuse to meet with the Speaker of the House to discuss a national crisis that most voters blame on the president himself? This would be regarded as bizarre behavior under any circumstances, but it’s particularly perverse considering that the crisis in question is illegal immigration — the signature issue of Biden’s probable challenger in November. Moreover, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, 63 percent of the voters disapprove of the way he has handled immigration. Yet Biden refuses to discuss the problem. It’s almost as if he thinks it somehow works to his advantage.

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New Data Centers Set to Stress U.S. Electric Grid Further

Electric Substation

For the past couple of years, assessments of the national electric grid’s ability to deliver power during peak demand periods, such as heat waves and cold snaps, have shown increasing risk for blackouts.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the nation’s grid watchdog, finds the main cause is retirements of coal plants without enough natural gas plants coming online.

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