House Office of Diversity and Inclusion could be a culture war casualty
The House office tasked with attracting and supporting diverse staff could succumb to Republican cuts, despite protests from some staffers, advocacy groups and Democrats.
Appropriators last week reported out a fiscal 2024 Legislative Branch bill that would strip the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion of its funding. The move would eliminate the office while shifting some of its functions to the Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer as part of a planned reorganization of services, according to Republicans on the committee.
It’s a move that the GOP argues would streamline human resources and save millions of dollars. But it’s also a critique of the ODI itself and the kinds of services it provides.
“While the office is being eliminated, the functions of the office will continue to be performed in a more efficient and cost-effective manner, without focusing on identity politics,” House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said at a markup of the bill last week.
—CQ-Roll Call
Investors in Donald Trump’s Truth Social media company hit with insider trading charges
NEW YORK — Three investors in Donald Trump’s media company were hit with insider trading charges Thursday, accused of reaping $22 million in illegal profits based on confidential information they told friends about on a gambling vacation.
Florida men Gerald Shvartsman, 45, Michael Shvartsman, 52, and Bruce Garelick, 52, were accused in Manhattan federal court of securities fraud charges carrying up to 20 years in prison. The feds say they spent millions on stocks in Digital World Acquisition Corporation in October 2021, aware it was about to enter a moneymaking merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social.
Garelick shared information he had access to as a board member of Digital World with the Shvartsman brothers in the alleged scheme, with all three selling their stock for a steep profit weeks after the deal was publicly announced, according to the feds.
The trio illegally advised friends on a trip to Las Vegas and Gerald Shvartsman’s employees at a furniture supply store to get in on the action, too, the feds charge.
—New York Daily News
France deploys 40,000 police amid protests over teen’s death
French authorities charged a police officer with murder in the shooting of a teenager earlier this week as the country braced for another night of violent clashes over the killing.
The government is mobilizing 40,000 police officers across the country, including 5,000 in Paris, after clashes on Wednesday night saw groups attacking and setting fires to schools and town halls. More than 180 people were arrested.
Anger erupted on Tuesday after Nahel, 17, was shot at close range in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris. Video posted on social media showed two police officers leaning into a car, with one of them shooting as the driver pulls away. Authorities haven’t released Nahel’s last name.
The police officer who fired the shot was charged with murder on Thursday and is being held in pre-trial detention.
—Bloomberg News
Calif. beachgoers face an unexpected peril: aggressive, biting sea lions
As Southern Californians prepare to flood local beaches in anticipation of the Fourth of July holiday and an oncoming heat wave, experts are warning beachgoers to be vigilant about a surprising hazard: biting sea lions.
As of Tuesday, sea lions had injured at least two people at beaches in Orange County. Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute, which serves Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, has recorded five recent incidents of animals biting beachgoers, including a surfer, paddle boarder, diver and two people on the beach, according to the facility's executive director, Sam Dover.
So what is behind this unusual behavior — and what should you do if you're bitten?
The marine mammals have been experiencing seizures or sickness by the hundreds because of an ongoing bloom of toxic algae, experts say.
—Los Angeles Times
