August 9, 2023

Wednesday, August 9, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

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In case you are expecting action in Georgia, maybe don’t expect much until next week.

Trump Georgia Election Inquiry: Grand Jury Likely to Hear Case Next Week.

Fulton County, District Attorney Fani Willis.

The fourth criminal case involving Donald J. Trump is likely to come to a head next week, with the district attorney in Atlanta expected to take the findings from her election interference investigation to a grand jury.

The Georgia investigation may be the most expansive legal challenge yet to the efforts that Mr. Trump and his advisers undertook to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election. Nearly 20 people are known to have been told that they could face charges as a result of the investigation, which Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has pursued for two and a half years.

Ms. Willis has signaled that she would seek indictments from a grand jury in the first half of August. In a letter to local officials in May, she laid out plans for most of her staff to work remotely during the first three weeks of August amid heightened security concerns. Security barriers were recently erected in front of the downtown Atlanta courthouse, and at lunchtime on Tuesday, 16 law enforcement vehicles were parked around the perimeter.

On Tuesday afternoon, two witnesses who received subpoenas to appear before the Fulton County grand jury said in interviews that they had not received notices instructing them to testify within the next 48 hours, a sign that the case will not get to the jury until next week.

Earlier this month, Mr. Trump was indicted in a federal case brought by the special counsel Jack Smith, in an investigation also related to election interference that listed a number of unindicted co-conspirators. The Georgia inquiry, elements of which overlap with the federal case, involves not just the former president, but an array of his aides and advisers at the time of the 2020 election, several of whom are expected to face charges.

If Mr. Trump were to be convicted in a federal prosecution, he could theoretically pardon himself if he were re-elected president. But presidents do not hold such sway in state matters. Moreover, Georgia law makes pardons possible only five years after the completion of a sentence. Getting a sentence commuted requires the approval of a state panel.

Two grand juries have been hearing cases at the Fulton County Courthouse during the current Superior Court term, which began on July 11 and runs through Sept. 1. Twelve of 23 jurors need to agree that there is probable cause to hand down criminal charges after hearing evidence in a case.

“The work is accomplished,” Ms. Willis recently told a local TV station. “We’ve been working for two and a half years. We’re ready to go.” (New York Times).

Joe is always busy.

Supreme Court reinstates regulation of ghost guns.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is reinstating a regulation aimed at reining in the proliferation of ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers that have been turning up at crime scenes across the nation in increasing numbers.

The court on Tuesday voted 5-4 to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Biden administration’s regulation of ghost gun kits. The regulation will be in effect while the administration appeals the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans — and potentially the Supreme Court.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas would have kept the regulation on hold during the appeals process.

The Justice Department had told the court that local law enforcement agencies seized more than 19,000 ghost guns at crime scenes in 2021, a more than tenfold increase in just five years. (PBS Newshour).

Politico - “At issue are kits used to make homemade firearms, which are commonly called ghost guns because they don’t have serial numbers that make them traceable.”

“The ruling is a temporary victory for the administration, but a lawsuit challenging the regulations will continue in the lower courts.

Two conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — joined with the court’s three liberals to allow the government to begin enforcing the regulations that were celebrated by groups pushing for tighter gun laws. Four other conservative justices dissented.”

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Kamala is always busy.

‘I’m not going to say the word “acting”’: Kamala Harris defends Julie Su amid Secretary of Labor nomination fight.

It has been 147 days since President Joe Biden nominated Su, the first Cabinet-level official to be replaced in his administration.

Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear on Tuesday that she would call Julie Su simply the Labor secretary, intentionally leaving out “acting” from her title.

Harris made the pointed reference to the lingering uncertainty surrounding the Biden administration’s nominee for the post on a visit to a Philadelphia union hall, where she announced new union-friendly labor changes.

While introducing members of the administration in the audience, Harris called out “acting Secretary Julie Su” but quickly backtracked: “I’ll call her Labor secretary. I’m not going to say the word ‘acting.’”

“I’ve known her for many years. And she is a true fighter for the working people and working families of America. Thank you!” the vice president added.

Because Su was previously confirmed as deputy secretary, the Department of Labor’s succession policy allows her to continue her duties indefinitely until a successor is appointed. Still, congressional Republicans have tried to prevent Su from continuing to serve without approval, accusing Biden of sidestepping the confirmation process and urging him to withdraw the nomination. (Politico).

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Trump seems to have said aloud in New Hampshire - he doesn’t like being in America. Can he please move away!

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“They” are going after fairness.”Their” fight to maintain the status quo continues.

Group behind affirmative action cases sues venture fund backing Black female founders for racial bias, a potential precursor to attacks on corporate DEI.

Delay and distract.

Last week, a conservative activist group behind the Supreme Court case that limited affirmative action in higher education sued early-stage venture capital fund Fearless Fund for racial discrimination. Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, led by general partners Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons, backs women of color entrepreneurs.

When the Supreme Court issued its affirmative action decision in June, diversity and inclusion experts warned that the corporate world could soon see similar challenges come its way. “Everyone’s been waiting for the other shoe to drop,” says Susan Lyne, managing partner at BBG Ventures, another early-stage fund that invests in diverse founders. Now, it has.

Fearless Fund is somewhat of an underdog target—perhaps an intentional strategy. Its largest checks are around $2.5 million. The grant program specifically targeted by this lawsuit awards $20,000 to Black women entrepreneurs—a small effort to mitigate the reality that Black women founders receive less than 1% of U.S. VC funding. In its suit, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, alleges that Fearless violates the Civil Rights Act prohibiting racial bias in private contracts by only awarding grants to Black women. The fund has so far declined to comment on the suit.

Arian Simone, left, presents a Fearless Fund grant in 2022.

The outcome of this case could have implications far beyond one small Atlanta-based fund, from larger VC firms that explicitly invest in diverse founders to diversity and inclusion efforts among the behemoths of corporate America.

“I anticipated this and knew this would happen,” says Brittany Hale, an attorney currently serving as the interim CEO of digitalundivided, the organization that supports and tracks data about Black and Latinx women founders and entrepreneurs. “Attempts like this lawsuit only work to distract and delay from the important progress that needs to be made.”

While Fearless is relatively small, larger organizations are likely to come to the fund’s aid. Hale expects “strange bedfellows” to file amicus briefs in this case given the potential implications of the outcome. Mastercard has partnered with the fund on its grant program, for example, and other investors in the fund include Bank of America and Costco.

Lyne of BBG Ventures isn’t too worried about the potential fallout at her own fund. BBG Ventures’ investment thesis is to back teams with at least one diverse founder. “I could defend very strongly that this is based on our best assessment of the investment opportunity,” she says. “But I do think there will be suits brought against funds that are focused on diverse founders or female founders.”

Hale understands why founders who often receive this kind of funding might be nervous. But she reminds them: “They are innovators, they are powerful, they are successful. And they have succeeded in climates worse than this and will continue to succeed and prevail in climates better than this.” (Broadsheet, Fortune).
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The SAG-AFTRA Strike. The WGA Strike.

CNN - As writers’ strike nears 100-day mark, a potential deal with Hollywood studios is nowhere in sight.”

If you have been wondering how to support striking SAG-AFTRA actors and WGA writers, consider making a donation. Here is a link.

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Massachusetts calls for Federal help on migrant influx.

Maura Healey calls on federal government to provide ‘urgent action’ as shelters housing migrants and refugees reach capacity.

Massachusetts governor declares emergency and urges help for migrants.

Massachusetts governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as shelters housing migrants and refugees reached capacity, and called on the federal government to help.

In a letter addressed to US secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas, Healey said: “To our partners in the federal government, Massachusetts has stepped up to address what sadly has been a federal crisis of inaction that is many years in the making.

“But we can no longer do this alone. We need federal partnership, federal funding, and urgent federal action to meet this moment and to continue to serve some of our most vulnerable families.”

The state has about 5,600 families in shelters – a sharp increase from last year’s 3,100. Another 1,800 or so families without homes are currently housed in hotels and motels. (The Guardian).

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Covid Update.

What to know about the new covid subvariant EG.5, nicknamed ‘Eris.’

The coronavirus has not disappeared. With the advent of successful vaccinations and better social management, however, it has waned.

Globally, over 1 million new covid-19 cases and more than 3,100 deaths were reported in the 28 days up to Aug. 3, according to the latest World Health Organization report — bringing the death toll to almost 7 million since the pandemic began.

The attention of public health experts around the world is being piqued by a new subvariant, known as EG.5, which is becoming a dominant strain in countries including the United States and Britain.

Here’s what we know.

What is the EG.5 coronavirus variant?

The EG.5 coronavirus is a subvariant and descendant of omicron — which remains the world’s most prevalent coronavirus strain.

EG.5 has narrowly surpassed other omicron descendants circulating in the United States, and now accounts for the largest proportion of Covid cases nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Twitter users and some media outlets have unofficially nicknamed the subvariant “Eris” in keeping with Greek nomenclature, but this name is not used officially by the WHO.

All viruses evolve and change over time. In its latest update, the WHO designated EG.5, which includes a similar EG.5.1 strain, as one of its “variants under monitoring,” so it is not yet a variant of interest or concern.

The virologist and researcher Stuart Turville, an associate professor at Sydney’s University of New South Wales, called the EG.5 variant “a little bit more slippery” and “competitive” than its counterparts, able to “navigate better the presence of antibodies” produced by vaccines.

It is, however, only incrementally different from other subvariants, having evolved slightly to “give it a better ability to engage and enter cells a little bit better,” he said.

A covid uptick is here. Good luck finding a free test.

Professor K. Srinath Reddy at the Public Health Foundation of India likened the subvariant to one of “several Barbies in the same film” — noting that it was essentially a variation of other omicron descendants.

EG.5 belongs to a family of subvariants “all within the overall umbrella of omicron,” he said in an interview. As with other omicron variants, it is “less invasive and lethal in the body” and “this still remains the general observation,” for EG.5, noted Reddy, a physician.

“It’s clear we’re going to be seeing this particular variant have its own day in the sun or period of dominance for some time before it’s replaced by yet another variant,” he said. “That’s the nature of the virus.”

EG.5, although more infectious, is not more virulent, and the response to it is generally the same as for other variants because “the impact on the human body is just about the same,” he added.

How dangerous might EG.5 be?

“There’s currently no evidence to suggest that it causes more-severe illness,” Andrea Garcia, the American Medical Association’s vice president for science, medicine and public health, said in late July. “And the CDC is indicating that it does appear to be susceptible to coronavirus vaccines, which is good news,” she added.

(Washington Post).

If you want to read more about this COVID variant, click here.

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BIG, GOOD Breakin’ News From Ohio.

In yesterday’s special election, Ohio voters overwhelmingly DEFEATED (69.44% to 30.56%) the Republican-backed ballot initiative known as Issue 1, which would have doomed hopes of amending the state constitution to protect abortion rights this fall.

The backlash against the overturning of Roe continues. First Kansas. Now Ohio.

One more thing.

and then there is this guy.

Ohio Democratic Senator, Sherrod Brown, up for re-election in 2024.

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