Russian Oligarch Sues the U.S. Over Sanctions

Source: New York Times

By Kenneth P. Vogel and Alan Rappeport
March 15, 2019

WASHINGTON — Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, sued the United States government on Friday, demanding it lift sanctions that he claimed have cost him billions of dollars, made him “radioactive” in international business circles and exposed him to criminal investigation and asset confiscation in Russia.

In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court in Washington, Mr. Deripaska said that the sanctions, leveled in April by the Treasury Department, should be struck down because they deprived him of due process and relied on unproven smears that fell outside the sanctions program.

The lawsuit called Mr. Deripaska “the latest victim of this country’s political infighting and ongoing reaction to Russia’s purported interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections,” and asserted that “the general hysteria surrounding Deripaska prevents him from having a meaningful opportunity to challenge” the sanctions “through the normal channels for doing so.”

The sanctions were imposed in retaliation for “a range of malign activity around the globe” by Russia, including its election interference and its incursions into neighboring Ukraine, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said at the time.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/us/politics/oleg-deripaska-russia-sanctions.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Bernie Sanders on the Today Show 1981

ADVOCATE SAYS PAST ADMINISTRATIONS HAVE SIDED MORE WITH SAUDIS THAN 9/11 FAMILIES

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3/11/2019

An advocate for 9/11 families told Hill.TV in an interview that aired Monday on "Rising" that past U.S. administrations have sided more with the Saudi government than the families of victims despite links between Riyadh and the attacks nearly 20 years ago.

"They've all handled it the same," Terry Strada, the national chairwoman of 9/11 Families and Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, told co-host Krystal Ball last week. "They have sided with the Saudis more than they have sided with the 9/11 families."

"However, President Trump has not done anything to my knowledge that has hurt us. He actually supported the bill that we had to enact, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, right when he was being elected as president," she continued.

"But Democrat, Republican, past administrations, they usually side with the Saudis," she said. "Obama, he vetoed the bill that we needed to pass, and we came back and overrode his veto. Unanimously we passed it out of the Senate, unanimously out of the House, and then we came back with a veto override, his one and only veto override of his entire presidency."

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/433511-advocate-says-past-administrations-have-sided-more-with-saudis-than-9-11

Inside Biden and Warren's Yearslong Feud

He sided with the banks in Congress. She was a crusading law professor on the make. In 2020, are we about to get a rematch?

By THEODORIC MEYER March 12, 2019

February morning in 2005 in a hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Joe Biden confronted Elizabeth Warren over a subject they’d been feuding over for years: the country’s bankruptcy laws. Biden, then a senator from Delaware, was one of the strongest backers of a bill meant to address the skyrocketing rate at which Americans were filing for bankruptcy. Warren, at the time a Harvard law professor, had been fighting to kill the same legislation for seven years. She had castigated Biden, accusing him of trying “to sell out women” by pushing for earlier versions of the bill. Now, with the legislation nearing a vote, Biden publicly grappled with Warren face to face.

Warren, Biden allowed, had made “a very compelling and mildly demagogic argument” about why the bill would hurt people who needed to file for bankruptcy because of medical debt or credit card bills they couldn’t pay. But Biden had what he called a “philosophic question,” according to the Congressional Record’s transcript of the hearing that day: Who was responsible? Were the rising number of people who filed for bankruptcy each year taking advantage of their creditors by trying to escape their debts? Or were credit card companies and other lenders taking advantage of an increasingly squeezed middle class?

Warren blamed the lenders. Many credit card companies charged so much in fees and interest that they weren’t losing money when some of their customers went bankrupt, she said. “That is, they have squeezed enough out of these families in interest and fees and payments that never paid down principal,” Warren said.

Biden parried. “Maybe we should talk about usury rates, then,” he replied. “Maybe that is what we should be talking about, not bankruptcy.”

“Senator, I will be the first. Invite me.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/12/biden-vs-warren-2020-democratic-primaries-bankruptcy-bill-225728

CNN to feature Gabbard, Delaney, Buttigieg at SXSW town hall

CNN is set to host a town hall next month with three Democratic presidential hopefuls – former Rep. John Delaney (Md.), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg – at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Texas.

The March 10 event, moderated by CNN "State of the Union" and "The Lead" host Jake Tapper and the network's chief political correspondent Dana Bash, will be broadcast from the Moody Theater in Austin, the network announced Thursday.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1101138993243148288?s=19

Delaney, who served three terms in Congress and opted not to run for reelection last year to pursue a presidential bid, will be the first candidate featured at the event starting at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Gabbard at 8 p.m. and Buttigieg at 9 p.m.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/432057-cnn-to-feature-gabbard-delaney-buttigieg-at-sxsw-town-hall

TODAY: Booker, Lee, Khanna to Introduce Landmark Marijuana Legalization Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), today will reintroduce their landmark bill to end the federal prohibition on marijuana.



The Marijuana Justice Act seeks to reverse decades of failed drug policy that has disproportionately impacted low-income communities and communities of color. Beyond removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances – making it legal at the federal level – the bill would also automatically expunge the convictions of those who have served federal time for marijuana use and possession offenses, and it would reinvest in the communities most impacted by the failed War on Drugs through a community fund. This community reinvestment fund could be used for projects like job training programs, re-entry services, and community centers



The bill would also incentivize states through the use of federal funds to change their marijuana laws if those laws were shown to have a disproportionate effect on low-income individuals and/or people of color.



By going further than simply rescheduling marijuana with expungement and community reinvestment, Booker, Lee, and Khanna’s bill is the most far-reaching marijuana legislation ever to be introduced in Congress.

https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/today-booker-lee-khanna-introduce-landmark-marijuana-legalization-bill/

Tucker Carlson LOSES IT On Guest Rutger Bregman

Arizona Students Plan School Walkout to Demand Action on Climate Change

A group of Phoenix students plan to join youth rallying across the nation next month to demand action on climate change.

They're preparing to walk out of school on Friday, March 15, to urge Arizona politicians to reduce emissions and avert a climate crisis.

"I feel like our state legislators aren't taking the precautions that they should be to prevent this crisis and all these issues that are affecting us," said Aditi Narayanan, 16, a junior at BASIS Phoenix.

Currently, about 15 students in their leadership team in the Valley and around Arizona are organizing to participate in the walkout, according to Narayanan. They plan to gather outside of the Capitol around 4 p.m. on the day of the event, a Friday, after leaving school.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-students-plan-walkout-to-demand-climate-change-action-11218301

How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games

Long read this is ESPN's cover story

How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games

In 2007, NBA ref Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to betting on games he officiated. But it was never proved that he fixed them -- until now. Our two-year investigation reveals how he did it, whom he did it with and the millions that flowed from the conspiracy.



ACT 1: A CONVENIENT HALF-TRUTH
James "Jimmy" "Bah-Bah" "The Sheep" Battista was a stressed-out, overweight, Oxy-addicted 41-year-old, in the hole to some underground gamblers for sums he'd sort of lost track of, when he settled in to watch an NBA game for which he believed he'd just put in the fix. It was January 2007. A month or so back, not long before Christmas, he'd done something audacious: He'd sat down and cut a deal with an NBA referee. Now he feared the scheme had become too obvious.

"You wanna get paid?" Battista had said to the ref. "Then you gotta cover the f---ing spread." The bribe was only two dimes, $2,000 per game -- an outrageous bargain. If the pick won, the ref got his two dimes. If the pick missed, the ref owed nothing; Battista would eat the loss. A "free roll," as they call it. But this referee didn't lose much. His picks were winning at an 88 percent clip, totally unheard of in sports betting for any sustained period of time. They were now entering the sixth week of the scheme -- what you might call a sustained period of time.

Cast of characters
(in order of appearance)

James "Bah-Bah" "Sheep" Battista
Underground bet broker, or mover, who was at the center of the Tim Donaghy betting scheme.

Tim Donaghy
Veteran NBA referee who wagered on his own games but was never charged with manipulating them.

Tommy Martino
High school friend of Donaghy and Battista who served as the go-between in the betting scheme during the 2006-2007 NBA season.

Jack Concannon
Suburban Philadelphia insurance salesman and friend of Donaghy who, in spring 2003, partnered with Donaghy to bet on NBA games that the referee was working.

Pete "Rhino" Ruggieri
Gambler, bookmaker and sometime partner of Battista and the Animals betting office who took over the Donaghy scheme after Battista went to rehab but quickly ended the operation.

Kim Donaghy
Wife of Tim Donaghy at the time of the scandal. Filed for divorce immediately after the investigation became public.

Phil Scala
FBI special agent and head of the investigative unit focused on the Gambino crime family at the time of the investigation. Supervisor of the FBI probe.

David Stern
NBA commissioner at the time of the scandal.

Battista had known the ref, Timmy Donaghy, for 25 years. They'd gone to the same parochial high school in the working-class Catholic neighborhoods of Delaware County, just outside Philadelphia -- Delco, as it's sometimes called -- where the sports bars are abundant, where a certain easy familiarity with all forms of gambling prevails, where guys have bookies like they've got dentists.

Battista was a creature of that world. He was what's known as a mover. Strictly speaking, movers are neither gamblers nor bookmakers. They're a species of broker that provides services to sports bettors, laying down wagers on their clients' behalf with bookmakers of various types around the world, legal and not. Battista was positioned well enough in that world that, without Donaghy's knowledge but based on Donaghy's picks, he'd helped set up a kind of loose, disorderly hedge fund. Several people from the sports-betting underworld had, in effect, staked Battista a bankroll -- a fund he was now using to bet on games officiated by this one NBA referee. One member of the group called it "the ticket" and "the company."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games

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Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid settle grievance case against NFL

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid have reached a settlement with the NFL concerning their collusion grievances against the league, it was announced Friday.

"For the past several months, counsel for Mr. Kaepernick and Mr. Reid have engaged in an ongoing dialogue with representatives of the NFL," attorney Mark Geragos and the NFL said a joint statement issued Friday. "As a result of those discussions, the parties have decided to resolve the pending grievances. The resolution of this matter is subject to a confidentiality agreement so there will be no further comment by any party."

Kaepernick filed a grievance last fall under the collective bargaining agreement alleging collusion against signing him to an NFL contract.

The filing, which demanded an arbitration hearing on the matter, said the NFL and its owners "have colluded to deprive Mr. Kaepernick of employment rights in retaliation for Mr. Kaepernick's leadership and advocacy for equality and social justice and his bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States."

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/26004715/colin-kaepernick-eric-reid-settle-grievance-case-nfl