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Pelosi Says Invoice on Investing Guidelines for Lawmakers Will Face Vote This Month

Pelosi Says Bill on Investing Rules for Lawmakers Will Face Vote This Month

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democrats would bring legislation into the House this month that would impose new restrictions on lawmakers’ ability to buy and sell stocks.

Her announcement comes after months of negotiations over whether and how to limit personal financial activities by members of Congress that could create real or perceived conflicts of interest with their public duties. And it came a day after the New York Times published an analysis showing that between 2019 and 2021, 97 congressmen and senators or their immediate family members reported trading in stocks, bonds or other financial assets mandated by committees, who they were could have been influenced serve on.

Ms Pelosi declined to give details of the proposed legislation other than calling it “very strong”.

“We believe we have a product to launch this month,” Ms. Pelosi said during her weekly news conference at the Capitol.

In the seven months since Ms Pelosi first signaled her support for legislation to tighten stock trading in Congress, there have been few signs of legislative progress likely to pass the House. A number of slightly different bills have been proposed in both the House and Senate, some with bipartisan support.

The slump in equity and bond markets this year has been painful and it remains difficult to predict the future.

  • Navigating in uncertainty: What should investors do in the face of repeated dizzying changes in direction in stock markets? Nothing, says our columnist.
  • college savings: As the stock and bond markets tumble, 529 plans crash. What’s a family to do? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but you have options.
  • Persistent Meme Stocks: The frenzy in which traders rallied on social media and drove up the stock prices of companies like GameStop can no longer be explained simply as a pandemic phenomenon.
  • Junk Bonds: Companies with poor credit ratings, whose debt is often labeled “junk,” are now taking the opportunity to borrow more money.

“For months, House and Senate leaders have promised action,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat and the main sponsor of a bipartisan trade curb proposal by the Legislature. “It’s long past time to move forward.”

One version of a legal framework in the House of Representatives, outlined in a late August memo reviewed by The Times, would effectively ban lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children from trading in individual stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and other financial assets that are tied to specific companies.

Under the framework that forms the basis of current negotiations for a proposed law, congressmen would either have to divest these assets or place them in a blind trust in which they would have no visibility or interest. Legislators would still be allowed to invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and some other categories.

According to the memo, the new legislation would also require more detailed transaction disclosures for permitted investments — for example, by narrowing published value ranges of assets — and toughen penalties for those who evade or break the law.

“Congress can add some bite to these penalties, which will encourage compliance and result in harsher penalties for violations,” the memo said.

According to the memo, members of the Supreme Court would be subject to the same restrictions. So would senior congressional officials, according to a Democratic official in the House of Representatives.

Congressional leaders have faced increasing pressure in recent months to crack down on their peers’ financial activities. An ongoing investigation by website Insider that began last year has found 72 examples of lawmakers who have violated applicable laws by late, inaccurate or not filing transaction reports.

A poll conducted earlier this year showed that nearly two-thirds of respondents supported a blanket ban on members of Congress from trading in individual stocks. And with public confidence in Congress down to just 7 percent in June, many lawmakers are reluctant to ignore voters’ demands.

“Congress is mired in a crisis of institutional legitimacy, caused in part by reports by members of both parties who appear to be benefiting from their public trust,” wrote Noah Bookbinder, president of Washington nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, in a letter on Wednesday calling for sweeping restrictions on trade by members of Congress.

In a separate news conference on Tuesday, other senior House Democrats signaled confidence that progress was being made on new trade restrictions.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, leader of the House Democrats, said he expects legislation “soon” from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat who has commissioned Ms Pelosi to draft a bill that has broad support can.

It’s not clear if the Senate will pass legislation on the issue this year. A number of senators have been working on proposals, but none appear to have garnered the 60 votes required for passage by the Senate.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, who is working on one of the proposals, said Wednesday, “I am committed to getting the stock trading ban in Congress across the finish line. I’ve carried this fight for a decade and I will not let it die.”

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Politics

Lawmakers Unite in Bipartisan Fury Over Afghanistan Withdrawal

Lawmakers Unite in Bipartisan Fury Over Afghanistan Withdrawal

Moderate Democrats are angry with the Biden administration for their dire plans to evacuate the Americans and their allies. Liberal Democrats, who have long tried to end military engagements around the world, grumble that the images from Kabul are damaging their cause.

And Republicans, who months ago hailed former President Donald J. Trump’s even faster schedule to end US military involvement in the nation’s longest war, have brushed aside their earlier encouragement to accuse President Biden of humiliating the nation.

If Mr Biden hoped to find cover from politicians from both parties who had achieved broad consensus on the withdrawal, he has found little so far.

Faced with images of panicked Afghans bullying Kabul airport and inundated with appeals from Afghans seeking refuge, some Democrats openly attacked their president’s performance on Monday.

“I’ve been asking the administration for a refugee evacuation plan for months,” said Seth Moulton, Rep., Democrat of Massachusetts and former Marine Corps captain. “I was very clear: ‘We need a plan. We need someone to be in charge. ‘ To be honest, we still haven’t really seen the plan. “

“You had the opportunity for weeks. They had an amazing coalition of liberal and conservative lawmakers ready to assist the government in this effort, ”continued Moulton, who serves on the Armed Services Committee. “In my opinion, this was not only a national security mistake, it was also a political mistake.”

Some Liberal Democrats made appearances on television broadcast by White House officials on Twitter ahead of Mr Biden’s speech to the nation at the White House in defense of the President. However, finding few vocal defenders, administrative aides distributed topics to talk to Democrats in Congress to bolster the president’s position.

The government said the collapse of the Afghan government and the resulting chaos were not indictments of US policies, but evidence that the only way to prevent a disaster would have been to increase the presence of American troops. And in response to critics who say the president was caught on the wrong foot, the topics of the conversation read: “The government knew that there was a possibility that Kabul could fall to the Taliban. It wasn’t inevitable. It was a possibility. “

Rep. Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, who has been one of the fiercest voices against the wars that followed the 11th attacks for more than two decades, added, “We’ve been there for 20 years, spent over $ 1 trillion and trained over 300,000 of the Afghan armed forces. “

Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Democrat of Massachusetts and a former Marine officer who served in Helmand Province, argued that Mr Biden’s only possible options would be to increase the American military presence in Afghanistan as the deadline for withdrawal agreed by Mr Trump. came and went – or to “finally tell the American people the truth”.

“What I have heard from voters,” he said in an interview, “is that what we are seeing in Afghanistan is worrying, but that people appreciate the President’s integrity for emphasizing that there is no end there are. Twenty years has been a long time to give Afghan leaders time to sow the seeds of civil society and instead they have only sown the seeds of corruption and incompetence. “

Updated

Aug. 16, 2021, 3:50 p.m. ET

In private, the Liberal Democrats were appalled by the widening catastrophe that Afghan refugees were exposed to. And some worried that the images of chaos in Kabul would serve as a cudgel for restrictive Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, to crack down on Democrats pushing for permits to use military force to be revoked who were in 1991 before the Gulf War, in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, and in 2002 before the US invasion of Iraq.

The Democratic left flank has pushed for substantial cuts in military spending and the Department of Defense’s overseas operations, as well as a realignment of government priorities for poverty reduction, education and childcare. But they now have to grapple with indelible images of the cost of US withdrawal.

Rep. Daniel Crenshaw, Republican of Texas and former Navy SEAL, wielded that stick when he said of Fox and Friends on Monday, “We’re getting this because we’re focusing on hollow slogans like ‘Bring the Troops Home’ and ‘No Endless Get more. ‘”

Mr McConnell, who had been ruthless during Mr Trump’s tenure in his disdain for the former president’s desire to keep his campaign promise and withdraw troops from Afghanistan, pounded Mr Biden in a statement, saying that the nation’s enemies ” watch “embarrassment of a superpower that has been laid deep.”

“America’s two decades of engagement in Afghanistan have had many writers,” said McConnell. “Just like the strategic missteps along the way. But while the monumental collapse predicted by our own experts is happening in Kabul today, the responsibility rests directly on the shoulders of our current commander in chief. “

Few Republicans, however, were willing to allude to the role of one of Mr Biden’s predecessors – or that Mr Trump had supported an even faster withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and, in April, called ending the war “a wonderful and positive thing”. “

Rep. Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, accused Biden on Monday of “abandoning Trump’s peace plan and exit strategy and creating his own arbitrarily”. In February, he wrote to Mr Biden pleading with him to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan “in the coming weeks”.

But in a sign that lawmakers believed the withdrawal from Afghanistan was still supported by large American voters – at least for now – even some notoriously radical Republicans refrained from condemning the decision themselves.

“There is a difference between the decision to back out and the way that decision was carried out,” said Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, on Fox and Friends.

“Whatever you think of the initial decision, the execution of Joe Biden was ruthlessly negligent,” he said, adding that “everything” Biden “might have to wait a few more months” to begin the withdrawal.

The political ramifications of the chaos and possible bloodshed in Afghanistan are not clear either in next year’s mid-term congressional elections or in the 2024 presidential election. Mr Trump felt the political advantage of retreating when he signed a peace deal with the Taliban and even invited Taliban leaders to Camp David from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan ahead of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. (The idea was quickly foiled.)

As soon as the images of Kabul fade off television screens this week, relief that the war was over – at least for US troops – could be the dominant emotional outcome.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona and a former Marine who served in Iraq, said in a long statement on Twitter that the American public simply “stopped caring about Afghanistan years ago.”

“Our military has not abandoned Afghanistan. The American people have not abandoned Afghanistan, ”wrote Mr Gallego. “Hubris of us, the elites in Washington, DC, did that. We did not understand Afghanistan and we did not understand the will of the American public for a long commitment … again. “

Jonathan Weisman contributed to the coverage.

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Politics

Lawmakers Grapple Nagging Infrastructure Element: Tips on how to Pay for It

Lawmakers Grapple Nagging Infrastructure Detail: How to Pay for It

Beyond the questionable economics of the measure is politics: Conservative groups backed by money interests and grassroots activists hover an old specter of puffed up federal agents who persecute innocent taxpayers.

The campaign to end the commission is led by a well-known figure, Mr. Norquist, whose network of conservative activists has worked for decades to cut taxes and strangle the IRS. Mr Norquist said Tuesday that his weekly Conservative meeting in Washington – a center of power during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama – has grown when it went virtual during the pandemic.

The meeting has about 160 attendees, including members of Congress, and is complemented by 40 state-level activist meetings – all currently focused on the IRS.The pitch to Republican lawmakers is that increasing enforcement will not affect Fortune 100 companies that already have in-house tax auditors to ensure compliance, but small businesses in their states – such as restaurants, bars, hairdressers, nail salons, and food trucks – take cash for payment.

“We’re letting the elected officials know that this is how people will understand this in the future,” said Norquist.

Such threats have been well received.

“It bothers a lot of Republicans, and I want a lot of Republicans to vote for it,” said Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, of the IRS ruling, “so I hope it can be modified, narrowed – or otherwise.”

But Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and negotiator, said Tuesday night, “I don’t think we’ve lost anyone,” as she and her colleagues continued to work out details.

Limiting them or throwing them overboard could lead some Republicans to accept the argument that infrastructure investments are at least partially worthwhile through improving economic efficiency and competitiveness. Some lawmakers, Democrats in particular, have argued that spending on roads, bridges, tunnels, and transit is an investment in economic efficiency and does not need to be fully offset as it is partially self-paying, much like Republicans argue that tax cuts do pay off themselves .

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Health

CDC director testifies earlier than Home lawmakers on company’s finances

‘We are following the science’

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CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky testifies before Congress Wednesday about the agency’s annual budget as the US battles the Covid-19 pandemic that killed nearly 600,000 Americans.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also testified before the subcommittee on home remedies, labor, health and human services, education and related facilities on Wednesday.

The hearing comes just over a week after Schuchat announced her resignation from the health department after 33 years. It also comes because the agency has received criticism of its updated guidelines on face masks for fully vaccinated Americans.

The CDC announced on May 13 that fully vaccinated individuals would no longer need to wear face masks or stay 6 feet away in most environments, whether indoors or outdoors. Unvaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks as they continue to be at risk of mild or serious illness, death, and the risk of spreading the disease to others.

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Business

U.S. Home lawmakers search Boeing, FAA data after manufacturing issues

U.S. House lawmakers seek Boeing, FAA records after production problems

A Boeing logo is on the fuselage of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft manufactured by Boeing Co. on display ahead of the opening of the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, UK on Sunday 13 July 2014.

Simon Dawson / Bloomberg

Two key House Democrats are soliciting records from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration after discovering production problems with the company’s 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Chair of the Transportation Committee, and Rick Larsen, D-Wash., Chair of the Aviation Sub-Committee, requested a list and descriptions of FAA inspections at the 737 manufacturing facility in Renton, Wash., Since 2017 and the Dreamliner South Carolina factory since 2015, according to a letter they sent to Dave Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, Tuesday that has been audited by CNBC.

Among other things, they requested records of supervision, the results of audits and the number of Boeing employees assigned to perform supervisory tasks at each location.

“While it is important that Boeing continue to voluntarily report such issues to the FAA, we are concerned that even after the longest civil airliner establishment in history, persistence of quality control and manufacturing defects – in two different cases – aircraft programs – remain “wrote the legislature. “This naturally raises questions about whether the FAA adequately oversees Boeing’s commercial aircraft programs, as well as Boeing’s internal quality controls and safety culture.”

The request comes less than a year after a report by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure informed Boeing about the design and development of the 737 Max and the FAA for oversight failures. Two of these planes crashed between October 2018 and March 2019, killing all 346 people on the flights.

Boeing said last year it found the wrong clearance in some areas of the 787 fuselage. After inspections and a five-month break, delivery of the wide-body aircraft resumed in March. Regardless, an electrical issue with Boeing’s best-selling 737 Max grounded more than 100 aircraft in April, despite the FAA approving a solution last week.

Legislators asked for replies by June 8, but said that “continued production of these records will be considered if you cannot fully complete your answer by that date”.

A Boeing spokesman said the company is looking into the request.

The FAA did not respond immediately.

The agency announced last month that it was reviewing Boeing’s process for minor design changes, as well as the causes of the electrical problem on the 737 Max. This problem is not related to the system involved in the two major crashes.

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Politics

Progressive Lawmakers to Unveil Laws on Vitality and Public Housing

Progressive Lawmakers to Unveil Legislation on Energy and Public Housing

“Public housing has been neglected, and it’s getting worse and worse, and we won’t stand up for it anymore,” said Schumer. The president’s plan is “a good start, but not enough”.

Mr Sanders, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and allies envision the proposal, which will cost between $ 119 billion and $ 172 billion over 10 years to meet the needs of their constituents, according to an estimate by the New York Times. The aim is to create thousands of maintenance and construction jobs.

“Probably our best bet would be a bill – and it should be a big bill,” Sanders said in an interview. “I think it’s easier and more efficient for us to work as hard as possible on a comprehensive infrastructure plan that includes both human infrastructure and physical infrastructure.”

Republicans who have tried in recent years to arm the Green New Deal as a tremendous federal overreach that would harm the economy have already embraced the climate and housing provisions in Mr Biden’s plan well beyond the traditional definition of infrastructure. Mr Biden is also preparing a second proposal that could focus even more on projects outside what Republicans call “real” infrastructure, bringing the total cost to $ 4 trillion.

“Republicans are not going to work with Democrats on the Green New Deal or raising taxes to pay for it,” Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso said at a news conference last month. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, has repeatedly warned that the infrastructure plan is “a Trojan horse” for Liberal priorities, while Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, Republican of House No. 2, stated last week that ” there is a lot of Green New Deal that would drive voters to turn away from the Democrats.

“I think the expansive definition of infrastructure we see in this type of Green New Deal wish-list is being challenged,” West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito told Fox News last week. “I don’t think Americans think of infrastructure when they think of housekeeping and other things that are in this bill.”

Recognizing the Republicans’ opposition to Mr Biden’s plan and the lure of bipartisan legislation, some lawmakers have raised the possibility of passing a smaller bill first dealing with roads, bridges, and broadband with Republican votes before the Democrats go fast Use the budget vote process to bypass the filibuster and push the rest of the legislative proposals unilaterally through both chambers.

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Business

Fb, Google and Twitter C.E.O.s to Face Lawmakers Once more: Dwell Updates

Jack Dorsey, left, the chief executive of Twitter; Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google; and Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 25.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Lm Otero Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press

The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will face skeptical lawmakers again next month when a congressional committee questions them about the ways disinformation spreads across their platforms.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee said Thursday that it would hold a hearing on March 25 with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sundar Pichai of Google and Jack Dorsey of Twitter.

The committee has been examining the future of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that shields the platforms from lawsuits over much of the content posted by their users. The attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, which included participants with ties to QAnon and other conspiracy theories that have spread widely online, has renewed concerns that the law allows the platforms to take a hands-off approach to extremist content.

“For far too long, Big Tech has failed to acknowledge the role they’ve played in fomenting and elevating blatantly false information to its online audiences,” a group of the committee’s top Democrats said in a statement. “Industry self-regulation has failed.”

Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, said the company “believes it’s time to update the rules of the internet, and this hearing should be another important step in the process.”

The House Judiciary Committee announced its own set of hearings on the tech industry on Thursday. It said it would hold multiple hearings on how to update antitrust laws to address the power of the tech giants. The committee questioned chief executives before concluding a lengthy investigation into the companies last year.

The Judiciary Committee’s first hearing will take place on Wednesday.

An all-electric Renault Zoe. Renault’s chief executive, Luca de Meo, last month presented a plan to return the automaker to profitability.Credit…Samuel Zeller for The New York Times

Renault, the French carmaker, reported a loss of 8 billion euros, or $9.7 billion, in 2020 as the pandemic gutted sales, but the company said that was profitable in the later part of the year.

Most of the annual loss stemmed from Renault’s stake in its troubled partner, Nissan. Losses at the Japanese carmaker drained €5 billion from the bottom line, Renault said. In addition, Renault car sales plunged 20 percent for the year, to just short of three million vehicles.

“After a first half impacted by Covid-19, the group has significantly turned around its performance in the second half,” Luca de Meo, Renault’s chief executive, said in a statement, without giving a figure. He said that 2021 was “set to be difficult given the unknowns regarding the health crisis as well as electronic components supply shortages.”

In 2021, shortages of semiconductors, a problem for almost all carmakers, could cut production by as much as 100,000 vehicles, Renault said.

Mr. de Meo, who became Renault’s chief executive in July, last month announced a plan to return to profitability that includes cuts in production capacity, sales of fewer models and increased parts sharing among vehicles to simplify manufacturing.

A tractor trailer is stuck in the ice and snow in Killeen, Texas. The winter storms that wreaked havoc across the South and Midwest have affected futures for oil and natural gas prices.Credit…Joe Raedle/Getty Images

  • Oil futures are trending downward after jumping earlier in the week, while natural gas gyrated through the day. Both were affected by the fierce winter storms that caused millions of people to go without power across Texas this week.

  • West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude, was down 2 percent on Friday, to about $59.35 a barrel. It had jumped 6 percent between Friday and Wednesday, as oil production was hindered by the weather.

  • Natural gas futures, which rose as a result of the storms, have moved up and down in recent days. On Friday they initially fell 3 percent before rebounding and eventually gaining nearly 1 percent from Thursday’s close. They still remain elevated from last week.

  • Word that the Biden administration was offering to restart talks to restore an accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program was seen as weighing on oil prices. Lifting sanctions against Iran could allow it sell more oil on the global market. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down 1.2 percent on Friday, to just over $63 a barrel.

  • Wall Street had an upbeat start of trading on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent after falling 0.4 percent on Thursday, halting four consecutive days of gains.

  • Shares of Uber rose 0.5 percent after Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that the company’s drivers must be classified as workers entitled to a minimum wage and vacation time. The case had been closely watched because of its ramifications for the gig economy.

  • European markets were broadly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.5 percent and FTSE 100 in Britain gaining 0.2 percent. Asian markets closed mixed, with the Nikkei in Japan down 0.7 percent while the Shanghai composite in China rose 0.6 percent.

  • Purchasing managers index data for February, from Markit, showed a range of trends across Europe. The France composite output index hit a three-month low, reflecting the restrictions on business activity imposed by the latest lockdown. The Germany composite index rose, helped by an export-led manufacturing upturn.

  • In Britain, retail sales fell 8.2 percent in January compared with the preceding month, government data said, a downturn that was sharpened by a lockdown that started in the new year. But the decline was less than expected, and also not as bad as the 22 percent drop seen in April, when Britain went into an earlier lockdown. The Office of National Statistics said some of the improvement probably came from businesses learning to adapt to lockdowns, with more online and click-and-collect sales.

Manessa Grady and her sons Zechariah, 8, left, and Noah, 9, were among the millions of Texas residents who lost power this week.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

In California, wildfires and heat waves in recent years forced utilities to shut off power to millions of homes and businesses. Now, Texas is learning that deadly winter storms and intense cold can do the same.

Bill Magness, the president and chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, said on Thursday that Texas was “seconds and minutes” from a catastrophic blackout this week as rotating outages were used to control the flow of electricity.

The country’s two largest states have taken very different approaches to managing their energy needs — Texas deregulated aggressively, letting the free market flourish, while California embraced environmental regulations. Yet the two states are confronting the same ominous reality: They may be woefully unprepared for the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters caused by climate change.

Blackouts in Texas and California have revealed that power plants can be strained and knocked offline by the kind of extreme cold and hot weather that climate scientists have said will become more common as greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere.

The problems in Texas and California highlight the challenge the Biden administration will face in modernizing the electricity system to run entirely on wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and other zero-emission technologies by 2035 — a goal that President Biden set during the 2020 campaign.

The federal government and energy businesses may have to spend trillions of dollars to harden electricity grids against the threat posed by climate change and to move away from the fossil fuels responsible for the warming of the planet in the first place. These are not new ideas. Scholars have long warned that American electricity grids, which are run regionally, will come under increasing strain and needed major upgrades.

“We really need to change our paradigm, particularly utilities, because they are becoming much more vulnerable to disaster,” Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, said about blackouts in Texas and California. “They need to always think about literally the worst-case scenario because the worst-case scenario is going to happen.”

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Congressman Calls Robinhood’s Help Line and Gets Voicemail

After telling the House Financial Services Committee about the suicide of Robinhood user Alex Kearns, who died believing he had lost $730,000 on the brokerage app, Representative Sean Casten called its help line.

June 2020, Alex Kearns, who was 20 years old at the time, from Naperville, Illinois, killed himself, largely thanks to a bug in the Robinhood system. The bug was that he turned on the app, it said he owed $730,000 that he did not have, because of options positions that he thought canceled out but didn’t appear to. He called the help line. The help line, of course, was not manned, as we’ve discussed. He sent several panicked emails — three, to be precise — did not receive a response. Ultimately there was a response from the emails saying that, in fact, his positions were covered. But by that point, it was too late, because he had taken his own life. The — this is a gentleman who is 20 years old. Under Illinois law, he was not allowed to buy a beer, but he was allowed to take on $730,000 in positions and exposure that he did not have the liquidity to cover. Your mission, Mr. Tenev, is to democratize finance. But the history of financial regulation is to protect people like Alex Kearns from the system. As the old joke goes, if you’re playing poker and you can’t figure out who the fish is at the table, you should leave the table because you’re probably the fish. And there is an innate tension in your business model between democratizing finance, which is a noble calling, and being a conduit to feed fish to sharks. So I’m nervous. I think I got an exposure. And I call your help line now. Let’s call and let’s listen in the time we have remaining to what I’m going to hear on the other end of the phone. Voicemail: “Thank you for calling Robinhood. Please visit us at robinhood.com or on our app for support. If you have an urgent trading need, please make sure to include details of it when reaching out. Thanks have a great day.”

Video player loadingAfter telling the House Financial Services Committee about the suicide of Robinhood user Alex Kearns, who died believing he had lost $730,000 on the brokerage app, Representative Sean Casten called its help line.CreditCredit…via C-Span

The chief executives of Robinhood, Reddit, Citadel and Melvin Capital Management were among the witnesses at a hearing on the GameStop trading frenzy held by the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday.

  • Vlad Tenev, the chief executive of Robinhood, was the target for both Democrats and Republicans, fielding more than half of the lawmakers’ questions. “I love your company because it does, when correctly managed, provide investment opportunities for individuals who are currently frozen out of the markets for one reason or another,” said Representative Anthony Gonzalez, Republican of Ohio. He added: “At the same time, though, I believe a vulnerability was clearly exposed in your business model.”

  • Representative Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat, capped his sharp questioning of Mr. Tenev, in which he relayed the story of a 20-year-old college student who killed himself last summer believing that he’d lost more than $700,000, by dialing the Robinhood help line and letting everyone listen in as a short message was played and the call was terminated. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said Robinhood’s decisions had “harmed customers,” and accused it of passing on hidden costs to its customers.

  • Keith Gill — known on YouTube as Roaring Kitty — testified that his interest in the company was based on his belief that the market was underestimating the brick-and-mortar retailer’s value. His testimony included winking references — such as dangling what appeared to be his oft-worn red headband off a picture of a kitten visible over his shoulder and the statement “I am not a cat” — to internet meme culture.

  • Several harsh questions were directed at Kenneth C. Griffin, the chief of Citadel. Members of Congress asked skeptical questions about Citadel’s practice of paying to trade against customers at online brokers like Robinhood. Mr. Griffin tried to explain the intricacies of the business but was often cut off. “Our folks are tired of bailing you all out when you screw up and gamble with the retirement fund. And that’s exactly what happens every single moment,” Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, said to him.

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Politics

Lawmakers, activists name for elimination from Congress

Lawmakers, activists call for removal from Congress

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), wearing a mask that reads “Trump won,” speaks to a colleague on the opening day of the 117th Congress on the opening day of the 117th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 3. 2021.

Bill O’Leary | Reuters

Lawmakers and activists are calling for newcomer GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to be removed from the House Education Committee and from Congress.

Recently, videos and social media activity from 2018 and 2019 have resurfaced depicting Greene harassing a Parkland, Florida survivor, falsely indicating that several fatal school and mass shootings were carried out, suggesting the Pointing out support for the execution of prominent Democrats and expressing approval from afar -right conspiracy theories.

“It is absolutely appalling, and I think the focus must be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives if they disregard the deaths of these children,” House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi said at a weekly news conference Thursday.

Democratic MP Jahana Hayes distributed a letter Thursday urging the Republican leadership of the House to remove Greene from her appointment on the House Committee on Education and Labor. Hayes represents Connecticut’s 5th district, including Newtown, where the 2012 deadly mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School took place.

California Democratic MP Jimmy Gomez announced Thursday that he would introduce a resolution to expel Greene from Congress, which would require a two-thirds majority to pass.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch also expressed support for Greene’s removal from Congress. Parkland belongs to the Florida district of the Democrat, where the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took place in 2018.

The Georgia chapter of the youth-led gun safety organization March For Our Lives held a demonstration outside Greene’s office in Rome, Georgia, Friday morning. The group organized the event in response to a resurfaced video of Greene panting David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shootout and co-founder of March For Our Lives, in 2019.

Activists called for the immediate resignation or expulsion of the congressmen. A petition calling for Greene’s resignation by March For Our Lives received more than 100,000 signatures in 24 hours.

“We’re tired of them shaming our region,” said Omar Rodriguez, organizer of the Northwest Georgia Justice Coalition and voter in Greene’s district, at the demonstration. “Greene is not one of us.”

Gun violence prevention groups Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action also called for Greene to step down.

The Republican Jewish Coalition released a statement Friday that the group “never endorsed or supported Marjorie Taylor Greene. We are offended and appalled by her comments and actions.”

“It is way outside of the mainstream Republican Party and the RJC is working closely with the Republican leadership of the House on the next steps in this matter,” the group said.

A spokesman for Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement that Greene’s comments were “deeply troubling” and “Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with Congressman about it.”

In a Thursday interview on CNN, Hogg had a message to McCarthy: “If you say this is not your party, actually call them out and hold them accountable because Republicans always pretend they are the party of decency and respect. “

“But would the Party of Decency and Respect ask whether or not school shootings took place? Would they harass the survivors of those shootings for having different opinions than they did?” Asked Hogg.

Greene’s office did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. The Congresswoman released a defiant statement on Friday in response to mounting criticism and tried to draw attention to next year’s midterm elections.

Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, said Friday she was moving her office from Greene after the Georgia Congresswoman “cursed” her.

Regarding the deadly January 6 uprising in the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, Bush noted that she had “called for the expulsion of members who instigated the uprising from day one.” Greene supported efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win and was one of 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against the election results after the Capitol attack.

A news crew from NBC subsidiary WRCB was reportedly removed from an event at City Hall on Wednesday and threatened with arrest after trying to ask Greene a question.

Ahead of her November 2020 election, Greene fueled the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose supporters believe a cabal of satanic, pedophile Democrats and other institutional figures control the government and intend to undermine former President Trump.

Prominent QAnon supporters were among the pro-Trump extremists who stormed the Capitol during the uprising that killed five people.

The new lawmaker began her Congressional candidacy in the 6th district of Georgia and then decided to run in the 14th district when incumbent Tom Graves announced that he would not seek re-election. Her Democratic opponent was eliminated and Greene won her seat in the Northern Georgia district by almost 50 percentage points.

Categories
Entertainment

Lawmakers Push for ‘Selena’ to Be Added to Nationwide Movie Registry

Lawmakers Push for ‘Selena’ to Be Added to National Film Registry

First there was Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the pioneering Latina singer who inspired a generation of artists and was killed on the cusp of national fame. Then there was Selena, the movie that polished her legend and brought another Latina artist to fame.

Tribute albums, a Netflix series, and podcasts followed, and now, more than two decades after the film was released in 1997, a group of lawmakers are pushing for “Selena” to be listed on the national film register, declaring that his Taking up pressure on Hollywood could increase Latino representation in the ranks of the industry. The legislature’s efforts have been welcomed by film and Latino study experts, who said it was long overdue.

“It’s a recognition of Chicana and Latina talent in acting and representation,” said Theresa Delgadillo, professor of Chicana and Latina studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “and a music innovator at the center.”

Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez broke into the male-dominated Tejano music industry in Texas, winning critical admiration, large following, and then a Grammy in 1994. A year later, only 23, she was shot dead by the founder of her fan club. Her English-language debut “Dreaming of You” was released posthumously.

For over a quarter of a century after her death, Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez remains a pop culture icon, especially among Mexicans and Latinos from her native Texas. At Spotify, she has more than five million listeners a month. “This month the Grammys will honor her with a special merit award.

But the 1997 film with Jennifer Lopez as Selena and Edward James Olmos as her Father, deserves credit too, said Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat who leads the effort in Congress. In an interview, he said that Latino creators and their stories are too often pushed aside by gatekeepers of American culture like Hollywood and the national register, and that Latinos in all media are too often portrayed by negative stereotypes such as gang members, drug dealers, and hypersexualized women.

“Hollywood is still the picture-defining institution in the United States,” Castro said of his project for a more balanced representation. “All of us walking around with brown skin or a Spanish surname have to face the stereotypes and narratives created by American media, and historically some of the worst stereotypes have come out of Hollywood.”

In a letter from the 38 members of the Hispanic Caucus in Congress, Castro wrote that “the exclusion of Latinos from the film industry” “reflected the way Latinos continue to be excluded from America’s full promise – a problem that is yet to be resolved when our stories can be fully told. “

He said the National Film Registry could “help break down this exclusion by preserving important cultural and artistic examples of American Latino heritage”.

Each year a committee selects 25 films to be included in the national register established by Congress in 1988. Of the 800 films in the register, at least 17 are examples of Latino stories, including “El Norte”, “The Devil Never” Sleep “ and “Real women have curves,” said Brett Zongker, a spokesman for the Library of Congress. From 11 Latino directors on the list, 9 are men and two are women.

Although the film register tries to reflect the diversity in America, Zongker said, “Unfortunately, women and people with color are underrepresented in film history, especially as directors.”

The gap between Americans and the main cast extends to speaking roles. Although Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States, making up 18.5 percent of the population, a 2019 study found found that only 4.5 percent of all speaking characters in 1,200 highest-grossing films from 2007 to 2018 were Latino.

Mr Castro said he is still collecting entries on other films to submit, but “Selena” as a particularly loved film is the focus of efforts. Frederick Luis Aldama, a Latino film and television professor at Ohio State University, said the film “shows the complexity, dignity, humanity, and wealth of a Latino father and daughter, and it really shows us that we are not just the ‘bad hombres, as the twitter feeds have told the world over the past few years. “

Whether the film register accepts it or not, a wave of appreciation for the work of Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez has gripped the entertainment industry.

“They have these kind of artists that we lost when they flourished,” said Daniel Chavez, professor of Latin American studies at the University of New Hampshire. “These young characters become mythical in a way.”

In addition to the upcoming Grammy, Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez was recognized in the National Recording Registry last year for her 1990 album “Ven Conmigo”. The Netflix show “Selena: The Series” premiered last year and will return in May. And a podcast about her legacy titled “Anything for Selena” released its first episodes last week.

The podcast host Maria Elena Garcia said that as a young girl struggling with her identity, she was inspired by how Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez took on her Mexican and American heritage without apology.

“She was whole in both places,” Ms. Garcia said in an interview. “Although she didn’t sound like Mexican-born people, she told them it was, and I can say, my heritage. It was incredibly profound to me, even though I was a little girl. “

When Ms. Garcia saw her success, she added on the podcast and felt like “she brought us with her”.

It was this sense of representation for young Latinas that drove filmmaker Gregory Nava to direct Selena, he said. While pondering whether to make the film in the mid-1990s, Mr. Nava remembered a walk in Los Angeles and saw two young Mexican girls wearing Selena t-shirts. “Why do you love Selena?” he asked her.

“Because she looks like us,” they said.

“Our stories need to be told,” said Mr Nava in an interview. “These young girls that I made ‘Selena’ for are all grown up and have young girls and they need nicer pictures of who we are.”

Some scenes from “Selena” have proven to be big for many Latinos, like one in which Mrs. Quintanilla-Pérez and her father Abraham Quintanilla talks about the problems Mexicans face when they simply speak English and Spanish for different audiences.

“Being Mexican-American is tough,” says Mr. Olmos as Mr. Quintanilla. “Anglos jump over you if you don’t speak perfect English. Mexicans jump over you if you don’t speak Spanish perfectly. We have to be twice as perfect as everyone else. “

In the end, Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez became an idol for many Mexicans and Americans alike, but the effect of the film is probably felt most strongly in Texas, the singer’s homeland. “Selena” was made on a small budget, said Mr. Nava. When trying to re-enact Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez’s last appearance at the Houston Astrodome, he reached out to the ward for help.

“I insisted we shoot in Texas because I wanted to shoot in their country,” said Mr. Nava. “She was the earth, sky and sun of Texas.”

In newspaper advertisements, he asked the community to dress as if they were going to the opening concert of Ms. Quintanilla-Pérez’s concert. Mr. Nava said more than 35,000 people showed up.

And droves came out for other scenes, including an additional one who was later elected to Congress, Mr. Castro.

Categories
Politics

Kevin McCarthy tells GOP lawmakers Trump bears some accountability

Kevin McCarthy tells GOP lawmakers Trump bears some responsibility

Kevin McCarthy, Minority Chair of the House of Representatives, R-Calif., Right, and Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, hold a press conference at the Visitor Capitol after meeting the House Republican Conference on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 Center through.

Tom Williams | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

His reported comments come as Democrats, who have a majority in the House of Representatives, are indicting Trump of inciting insurgency. Vice President Mike Pence has so far refused to invoke the 25th amendment to the constitution and remove Trump from office.

Democrats say Trump and some of his allies are responsible for the invasion that came after asking supporters at a White House rally to “fight” him to seek confirmation of Joe Biden’s election as president Block Congress.

McCarthy is still against the charges against Trump and said in a letter to colleagues in the GOP House on Monday that this would “have the opposite effect of bringing our country together”.

However, the letter received from NBC News listed four possible measures to counter the insurgency, none of which are named Trump.

The four options McCarthy cited would supposedly ensure that what happened “is rightly denounced and prevented in the future”.

These include: “A censure decision according to house rules”, “A non-partisan commission to investigate the circumstances of the attack”, “Reform of the 1887 Census Act” and “Legislation to promote voter confidence in future federal elections”. “”

The last point reflects the fact that many GOP voters and members of the Republican House believe that Trump was betrayed by widespread electoral fraud because of an election victory.

However, no court has determined that there was such fraud, despite numerous lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its deputies since election day.

Before William Barr resigned as US attorney general after the election, William Barr had said there was no evidence of the type of fraud Trump alleged that voided Biden’s victory.