Light News Dump

Elizabeth Warren Calls for Trump’s Impeachment On The Senate Floor
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4796342/elizabeth-warren-calls-impeachment-proceedings-begin-president-trump

Oregon House passes bill to eliminate religious, philosophical vaccine exemptions
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/442399-oregon-lawmakers-pass-bill-to-eliminate-religious-philisophical-vaccine

Trump Is Confused About Social Media. He’s Not Alone. - The First Amendment doesn’t say you can tweet whatever you want.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/opinion/twitter-facebook-first-amendment.html

U.S. judges order Ohio to revamp Republican-drawn gerrymandered districts
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-ohio/u-s-judges-order-ohio-to-revamp-republican-drawn-gerrymandered-districts-idUSKCN1S91TD

Trump said Putin isn’t looking to get involved in Venezuela. Two days later, Russia’s and Venezuela’s foreign ministers meet.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/05/trump-said-putin-isnt-looking-get-involved-venezuela-two-days-later-russia-venezuelas-foreign-ministers-meet/?utm_term=.0b958c31ed0b

Germany’s health minister proposes a $2,790 anti-vaxxer charge. The country’s health minister also suggests banning unvaccinated children from daycares.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/germanys-health-minister-proposes-a-2790-anti-vaxxer-charge/

7.2 magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/papua-new-guinea-earthquake-magnitude-damage-latest-update-a8902246.html

In Trump vs. California, the state is winning nearly all its environmental cases
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-california-trump-environmental-lawsuits-20190507-story.html

Trump Organization ‘Sold Property to Shell Company Linked to Maduro Regime,’ Says Report. The Trump Organization sold a luxury ocean-view property in the Dominican Republic to a shell company that appears to be tied to figures from Venezuela’s Maduro regime, the Miami Herald reports. The property was sold to Venezuelans who are reportedly linked to a Diosdado Cabello, the second most powerful man in President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Cabello is now under U.S. sanctions for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering but, in April 2015, the Trump Organization sold the property to a Costa Rican company that has been linked to a Venezuelan woman named Marlene Coromoto Arenas Colina. She’s married to Pedro Fritz Morejón, the former Venezuelan tourism minister under late President Hugo Chávez, both of whom have been linked to Cabello, who is vice head of Venezuela’s Socialist Party. There’s no evidence of anything illegal, the Herald reports, but the sale is under scrutiny as Trump attempts to remove Maduro and blame past U.S. presidents for not driving Venezuela’s socialist governments from power. The Trump Organization refused to comment.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-organization-sold-property-to-shell-company-linked-to-maduro-regime-says-report

Andrew Gillum Wants the Supreme Court to Be a Central Issue in 2020
https://www.thenation.com/article/andrew-gillum-supreme-court-2020/

FBI director tells Congress he has no evidence of ‘spying’ on Trump campaign
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-director-tells-congress-he-has-no-evidence-of-spying-on-trump-campaign/2019/05/07/075e6f3a-70cc-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?utm_term=.337ffc8d8fdd

FBI chief Wray says spying didn't occur on Trump campaign, refuting AG Barr
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fbi-chief-wray-says-spying-didn-t-occur-trump-campaign-n1002806

Rep. Brian Sims Confronts Pro-Life Protesters at Planned Parenthood Clinic: 'What You’re Doing Here Is Disgusting'
https://www.newsweek.com/brian-sims-planned-parenthood-protesters-abortion-clinic-dox-1417557

Republicans killed the fiduciary rule. Sales of questionable investment products soared
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fiduciary-rule-investment-products-20190507-story.html

Judge rules EPA must enforce Obama-era landfill pollution regs
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/442444-judge-rules-epa-must-enforce-obama-era-landfill-pollution-regs

Warren, Warner, Cummings, Krishnamoorthi Reintroduce Legislation to Hold Equifax and other Credit Reporting Agencies Accountable for Data Breaches
https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/warren-warner-cummings-krishnamoorthi-reintroduce-legislation-to-hold-equifax

Economists quit Trump admin after their studies showed tariffs hurt US farmers
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/442452-economists-quit-trump-admin-after-their-studies-showed-tariffs-hurt

A series of clips from 2004 where Elizabeth Warren lays out the coming mortgage crisis and its causes
https://twitter.com/TheLoveBel0w/status/1125600141694701568

White Supremacists Crash Arkansas Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/white-supremacists-crash-arkansas-holocaust-remembrance-day-event/

Trump administration wants to allow debt collectors to call 7 times a week and text, email as much as they want
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trump-administration-wants-allow-debt-collectors-call-times-week-text-email-much-they-want/

Trump’s Taxes: N.Y. Lawmakers Move Closer to Allowing Release of His State Returns
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/nyregion/trump-ny-tax-returns.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

After a live appearance on ⁦@FoxNews⁩, the ⁦@WhiteHouse⁩ Deputy Press Secretary ⁦@hogangidley45⁩ has no time to answer questions from other media. – at The West Wing
https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1125811778317967361

Three years after the leak of the Panama Papers exposed a worldwide network of tax-avoiding shell companies, federal prosecutors brought charges Tuesday against four men tied to the law firm Mossack Fonseca. In a tangled 67-page indictment, U.S. prosecutors charged four men tied to the firm. The ones captured by authorities are Dirk Brauer, a 54-year-old German investment advisor for Mossfon Asset Management; Richard Gaffey, a 74-year-old U.S. accountant; and Harald Joachim von der Goltz, an 81-year-old German-born client.
https://www.courthousenews.com/us-charges-four-for-tax-dodges-in-panama-papers-probe/

State Department Continues Fight to Strip Gay Couple’s Two-Year-Old Son of Birthright Citizenship
https://www.thedailybeast.com/state-department-continues-fight-to-strip-gay-couples-two-year-old-son-of-birthright-citizenship

Pelosi, Schumer Joint Statement on Senator McConnell’s Declaration of ‘Case Closed’ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Leader Chuck Schumer issued this joint statement after Senator McConnell’s declaration on the Senate Floor that the Mueller Report is “case closed”:
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/5719-2/

Pelosi, Schumer Joint Statement on Senator McConnell’s Declaration of ‘Case Closed’

May 7, 2019

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Leader Chuck Schumer issued this joint statement after Senator McConnell’s declaration on the Senate Floor that the Mueller Report is “case closed”:

“Senator McConnell’s declaration of ‘case closed’ is a stunning act of political cynicism and a brazen violation of the oath we all take.  The Special Counsel report laid out eleven instances of the President’s obstruction, and left a raft of unanswered questions about coordination between the President’s campaign and Russia.  These are not trivial or political questions – they go to the wellspring of our democracy.  When a President is allowed to violate the law with impunity, and when a foreign power is allowed to interfere in our elections, it gnaws at the roots of the great oak that is our democracy, and could very well topple it.

“On every issue that matters in people’s lives, the Administration and a complicit Republican Senate are waging an unprecedented, unwarranted, unconstitutional and utterly dangerous campaign of stonewalling.  Senator McConnell continues to brag about being the ‘grim reaper,’ sending bipartisan House legislation to a Senate legislative graveyard, as the Administration refuses to respect Congress’s constitutional oversight role and provide Congress and the American people with the truth.

“There is a dark connection in Washington between Senator McConnell, Attorney General Barr and President Trump: each preventing progress for the people, acting as handmaidens to a special interest agenda that is anti-government, anti-science and against meeting the needs of hard-working families.”