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Biden Invited to Address Joint Session of Congress on April 28

(Bloomberg) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited President Joe Biden to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 28. The address will come just before his 100th day in office. “Nearly 100 days ago, when you took the oath of office, you pledged in a spirit of great hope that ‘Help Is On The Way.’ Now, because of your historic and transformative leadership, Help Is Here,” Pelosi said in a letter to the president. “In that spirit, I am writing to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday, April 28, to share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment.”

mucifer

Congressional Black Caucus celebrates first White House visit in four years

(The Hill) The last time the caucus visited the White House was in March 2017, when White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond — who was then in the House and served as chair of the CBC — pressed former President Trump to focus on issues that were important to African Americans.

Nevilledog

Biden Chooses Stats Expert to Lead Census Bureau

(Courthouse News) President Joe Biden intends to nominate one of America’s leading statisticians, Robert Santos, as director of the U.S. Census Bureau, the White House announced on Tuesday. Santos currently serves as the president of the American Statistical Association and as vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute in Washington.

The veteran statistician, who is a third-generation native Mexican American, would be the first person of color to permanently lead the Census Bureau if he is confirmed by the Senate following Biden’s official nomination.

JHB

Wednesday TOONs

TomCADem

Cruz, Hawley, Lee want to "break up" MLB as punishment for protesting Georgia voting restrictions

(Salon) Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced a bill that would end the MLB's antitrust exemption, which dates back to a 1922 Supreme Court decision, in response to its protest of the Georgia law. The senators discussed the proposed change as a matter of fairness at a news conference on Tuesday, criticizing corporations for seeking "handouts" and "subsidies," even though all three of them voted to drastically slash corporate taxes and have backed numerous corporate subsidies they like. The trio made clear that the bill was in response to a corporate action they disagreed with.

demmiblue

CEOs and Corporations protest Republican voter suppression

Hundreds of CEOs and more than 110 corporations ran double full page ads in the New York Times and Washington Post. "For American democracy to work for any of us, we must ensure the right to vote for all of us."

TexasTowelie

Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds

(New York Times) The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator. In a 104-page document, the inspector general, Michael A. Bolton, criticized the way the Capitol Police prepared for and responded to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The report was reviewed by The New York Times and will be the subject of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.

Mr. Bolton found that the agency’s leaders failed to adequately prepare despite explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a threat to law enforcement and civilians and that the police used defective protective equipment. He also found that the leaders ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — like stun grenades — to put down the onslaught.

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Former Trump official Sebastian Gorka banned from YouTube over election conspiracy theories

(Salon) Former Trump White House senior adviser turned right-wing radio host Sebastian Gorka was permanently booted off of YouTube over the weekend after receiving his third strike on the platform in 90 days for touting unhinged election conspiracy theories. Gorka's channel was suspended for misleading users on the platform by pushing the baseless claim that the 2020 election was plagued with widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Salon found the infamous Trump flack, formerly accused of wearing Hungarian pro-Nazi regalia, was pushing voter fraud claims as recently as last week in a video entitled: "Can We Stop the Next Steal?"

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

Indicted Matt Gaetz Pal Paid Former Teen's Legal Fees While Under Investigation

(Huff Post) The indicted ex-tax collector friend of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) paid for a lawyer for the underage teenager at the heart of sex trafficking charges against him, according to a bombshell WhatsApp chat obtained by Politico. Politico reported that Joel Greenberg was in a “panic” just days before the federal indictment on 33 different charges including identity theft, financial crimes and sex trafficking.

In a chat with a friend who later discussed the messages with Politico, the former Seminole County tax collector referred to the unidentified young woman as “Vintage 99,” a name with her birth year that she reportedly used online. “I’m having to pay for vintage 99 to retain [a] lawyer,” Greenberg wrote in the chat, saying federal agents “contacted her and are wanting her to talk,” Politico reported. “She doesn’t want to talk to them,” he added.

applegrove

Matt Gaetz's Friend Has Been Cooperating for Months

(Political Wire) “A former local official in Florida indicted in the Justice Department investigation that is also focused on Rep. Matt Gaetz has been providing investigators with information since last year about an array of topics,” the New York Times reports. “Joel Greenberg, a onetime county tax collector, disclosed to investigators that he and Mr. Gaetz had encounters with women who were given cash or gifts in exchange for sex.”

Key detail: “Mr. Greenberg began speaking with investigators once he realized that the government had overwhelming evidence against him and that his only path to leniency lay in cooperation.”