Source: Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal probe into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes.

Joel Greenberg, former tax collector for Seminole County, had pleaded guilty to six federal crimes, also including identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Prosecutors said he paid at least one girl to have sex with him and other men.

“Nothing justifies my actions. My conduct is so shameful. I feel remorse for what I’ve done,” Greenberg said in court Thursday.

Greenberg’s attorney had asked U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell for leniency, saying that his client had assisted in investigations of 24 people, including eight for sex crimes. Defense attorney Fritz Scheller said that Greenberg’s cooperation has led to four federal indictments, and that he believed additional ones were expected in the coming month.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/crime-arrests-florida-congress-government-and-politics-d657eda08a857f4c0a07d293bb109308

Source: The Hill

Amid pressure on Congress to pass a bill that would avert a rail shutdown, ​​Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that he won’t back any deal that lacks support from rail workers.

“Just because Congress has the authority to impose a heavy-handed solution does not mean we should. It is wrong for the Biden Administration, which has failed to fight for workers, to ask Congress to impose a deal the workers themselves have rejected. I will not vote for any deal that does not have the support of the rail workers,” Rubio said in a statement.

A shutdown looms due to an ongoing labor dispute between rail workers and operators. President Biden on Monday urged lawmakers to “immediately” pass legislation that would adopt a tentative labor agreement “without any modifications or delay” in order to avoid what the president said could be “a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.”

The tentative agreement, which negotiators reached in September but has been rejected by some rail unions, would boost union members’ wages by 14 percent and increase wages and medical care for workers whose pay had been frozen.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/policy/transportation/3754746-rubio-says-he-wont-vote-for-any-deal-that-lacks-support-of-rail-workers/amp/

Source: Denver Post

The person suspected of killing five and wounding 18 after opening fire in a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs is nonbinary, their defense attorney wrote in court filings Tuesday.

Joseph Archambault and Michael Bowman, the state public defenders for suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich, filed a slew of motions Tuesday and included a footnote about Aldrich’s identity.

“Anderson Aldrich is nonbinary,” the footnote states. “They use they/them pronouns, and for the purposes of all formal filings, will be addressed as Mx. Aldrich.”

They are scheduled to make their first court appearance virtually from the jail on Wednesday.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.denverpost.com/2022/11/22/anderson-lee-aldrich-club-q-shooting-non-binary/amp/

Source: Newsweek

After numerous calls for harsh punishments in recent days, the Iranian parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty for protesters.

Iran has been experiencing unprecedented levels of protests and civil unrest since the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was arrested by the country's "morality police" for supposedly wearing an "improper" form of hijab during a visit to Tehran and allegedly beaten severely while in custody. The beatings are believed to have led to her death from a fatal head injury, but Iranian authorities have denied the accusation.

In the wake of Amini's death, there have been large-scale nationwide protests the likes of which Iran has not seen in decades. Female protesters have notably taken to burning their hijabs and cutting their hair in public in defiance of the rules imposed by Iran's Islamic government, under the leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian lawmakers have, in recent days, called for strict punishments for the protesters who have been arrested. On Monday, CNN reported that a letter signed by 227 members of the Iranian parliament urged that the protesters be given harsh punishment that "would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time."

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/iran-votes-execute-protesters-says-rebels-need-hard-lesson-1757931

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Election Commission official Kimberly Zapata fired after fraudulently requesting military ballots, mayor says

A Milwaukee election official could face criminal charges accusing her of fraudulently requesting absentee ballots reserved for members of the military and sending them to a Republican lawmaker known for embracing unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Milwaukee Election Commission deputy director Kimberly Zapata, 44, of South Milwaukee, was fired by Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson this week after Johnson discovered she had requested the ballots. Johnson said Zapata said she committed the crime to show voter fraud was possible.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/11/03/mayor-says-milwaukee-election-worker-fired-over-ballot-fraud/69616108007/

Source: Market Watch

A White House tweet on Tuesday taking credit for the upcoming big cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits drew a clarification from Twitter, along with criticism from Republicans.

The White House then deleted the tweet on Wednesday, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying officials did that because it was not complete and lacked relevant information.

“Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership,” the White House said in the tweet.

Twitter appended a note to the post on its social-networking service, pointing out that the large benefit increase is an automatic adjustment that’s based on the rate of inflation and required by law. That added context about the 2023 COLA of 8.7% is shown below.

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/twitter-adds-fact-check-to-biden-white-houses-tweet-bragging-about-social-securitys-cola-of-8-7-11667400888

White nationalist Nicholas Fuentes was re-banned from Twitter on Saturday after he and other right-wingers jumped the gun by creating new Twitter accounts, hoping to return to the platform now owned by Elon Musk.

More: https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-re-banned-from-twitter

Source: Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles detectives are investigating whether a recording last year that captured city councilmembers’ racist remarks was made illegally, the police chief said Tuesday.

The recording’s disclosure earlier this month unleashed a growing scandal in the nation’s second-largest city just weeks before Election Day. The councilmembers’ bigoted discussion — laden with crude insults — laid bare the unequal representation and divided political power along racial lines in Los Angeles.

The council president, Nury Martinez, resigned in disgrace, while two other councilmembers have resisted widespread calls — from the White House down — for their ousters.

The uproar began with the release nearly two weeks ago of a previously unknown recording of a 2021 private meeting involving Martinez and Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, as well as powerful labor leader Ron Hererra, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-criminal-investigations-7718e9b6b9690d3a72ddf9060e00d7a6

Republicans are offering support to conservative Muslims in Dearborn angry over LGBTQ+ affirming books in school libraries.

Driving the news: Dearborn is engaged in debate over a number of books — including "This Book is Gay" — in media centers across Dearborn Public Schools, Michigan's third-largest district.

Hundreds who packed a school board meeting Monday to protest school board members defending the books refused to settle, shutting the meeting down.

The meeting is scheduled to resume tonight at 7pm at the 600-person capacity Stout Middle School auditorium, where posters and signs have been banned, the Free Press reports.

More: https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2022/10/13/gop-unites-conservative-muslims-dearborn-michigan

Source: Yahoo News

President Biden praised Governor Ron DeSantis’, a Republican from Florida, handling of the Hurricane Ian recovery efforts.

President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden arrived in Fort Myers, Florida to meet the victims of Hurricane Ian and hold a press conference with Governor DeSantis. The President and the Governor’s relationship with each other has been a prominent topic as they have previously expressed dislike for each other. However, the President and the Governor have both made it clear that their main priority is the health and well being of Floridians.

Hurricane Ian was a Category 4 hurricane that hit Florida’s west coast. It had been the first time in one hundred years that the west coast of Florida had been hit directly by a hurricane. Over 100 people are reported to have died and search-and-rescue efforts are still underway.

BIDEN: “What the Governor has done is pretty remarkable so far, what is, what he's done. In terms of, you know, it's, it's you know, first of all, the biggest thing the Governor has done and so many others have done, they recognize this thing called global warming. The world is changing. It’s changing.”

Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/president-biden-calls-gov-ron-192956056.html