The indictment that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is currently seeking against former President Donald Trump—over his payment to silence a porn star about their sexual affair—is based on a crime that was so flimsy it was never viewed as a standalone criminal case, according to three attorneys who have worked on that investigation.

These insiders spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, because they are not authorized to discuss the ongoing criminal investigation.

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His decision to bring back what has been deemed the “zombie” case surprised several insiders who have been briefed on the various iterations of the Stormy Daniels case over the years.

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“The hush money case had no exact state charge. It should have been the feds,” said a second person who spoke to The Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/manhattan-district-attorney-insiders-worry-the-trump-stormy-daniels-alvin-bragg-hush-money-case-is-weak-sauce?source=twitter&via=desktop

HARTFORD, Conn. | The son of one of 10 people killed at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 is suing gun-maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. over how it marketed the firearm used in the massacre — following the litigation road map set by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.

The lawsuit — filed Tuesday in state court in Connecticut, where Sturm, Ruger & Co. is based in Fairfield — accuses the company of marketing its AR-556 pistol in a “reckless” and “immoral” way that promoted its killing capability. It seeks an undisclosed amount of damages.

Nathaniel Getz, whose mother, Suzanne Fountain, was killed in the March 22, 2021, shooting at a King Soopers store in Boulder, filed the lawsuit — the first relative of the 10 victims to do so, said his lawyer, Andrew Garza.

“We filed the lawsuit to both to seek justice for the family of the victim, but also to hold them accountable and to serve a preventative function as well, to protect future victims,” Garza said in phone interview Wednesday.

https://sentinelcolorado.com/news/metro/son-of-colorado-mass-shooting-victim-sues-gun-maker-ruger/

Interim Chief Art Acevedo previously worked as adviser to Truleo, the company department plans to hire

The technology is billed as a “virtual sergeant” — an omnipresent artificial intelligence capable of reviewing every minute of every police officer’s body camera footage across an entire department, analyzing how each officer handled every call.

The Aurora Police Department plans to implement just such AI tech in the near future, becoming the first law enforcement agency in Colorado to do so.

The department is finalizing a contract with Truleo, a company that uses artificial intelligence software to analyze police officers’ speech as recorded by their own body cameras. The software not only transcribes the audio and looks for keywords, but interprets the meaning of what officers say and analyzes text in context.

Truleo then looks for speech that either displays professionalism — like politeness, gratitude or offering an explanation — or is evidence of negative behaviors, such as insults, profanity and threats. It can flag potentially negative interactions to supervisors as well as measure an officer’s professionalism.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/03/07/ai-body-cameras-truleo-aurora-police/

CNN commentator lobbied for Norfolk Southern; the network didn’t tell its audience during East Palestine discussion

CNN’s State of the Union and host Dana Bash held a Sunday roundtable discussion about the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment featuring CNN political commentator David Urban, who said that “there's plenty of blame to go around on this” and pivoted to criticizing the Biden administration. CNN never disclosed or asked Urban about his work for Norfolk Southern, which paid him and his then-lobbying firm over a million dollars.

Urban was until 2020 the president of the lobbying firm American Continental Group, where he lobbied for Norfolk Southern on “transportation issues related to railways” starting in 2009, according to federal disclosure forms. He and his firm collected at least $1,140,000, according to a calculation of federal data by ProPublica.

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During the segment, Bash said that the Trump administration rolled back regulations, to which Urban replied: “There's plenty of blame to go around on this, on these kind -- when these kinds of things happen. But what's important is what we do moving forward, right, to take care of the people in these towns and communities.” He then went on to criticize the Biden administration for allegedly “sloughing off” the crisis.

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CNN has continued to employ Urban despite a dizzying array of ethical problems. For example:

Urban urged a military strike against Iran without any disclosure that he worked for defense contractors.

Urban praised then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper without the network disclosing that he personally lobbied the Defense Department on behalf of defense contractors.

Urban repeatedly attacked environmental protections without disclosing he lobbied for fossil fuel-related clients including Norfolk Southern, which transports coal.

Urban repeatedly pushed for the passage of a trade agreement on-air after he was hired to lobby for it. The network didn’t disclose the conflict of interest.

Urban touted a lobbying client’s opposition to a tax bill without any disclosure that they paid him.

https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnn-commentator-lobbied-norfolk-southern-network-didnt-tell-its-audience-during-east-palestine

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