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Hey guys! Thrilled to join the forum. I hear you all lovingly refer to Ottumwa as the armpit of Iowa. Can't say I disagree entirely, but come on—there are some hidden gems! Like our fabulous factories and that not-so-famous bridge. Excited to dive into the discussions and defend my beloved "armpit"!

Millions of Americans who smoke could soon see an increase in their prices, as Democrats target tobacco and nicotine to help finance their $3.5 trillion economic package.
The new proposal put forward in the House this week would raise or impose taxes on a wide array of products: It would hike existing federal levies on cigarettes and cigars while introducing new taxes on vaping. Democrats say the changes could help them raise $100 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.

Health experts and activists have heralded Democrats’ efforts, arguing that higher taxes on tobacco could help crack down on a dangerous, deadly habit among a nation of roughly 34 million cigarette smokers. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids this week estimated the increases could reduce the total number of smokers by 1.1 million in the first year after the law is adopted, while deterring over half-a-million kids from becoming addicted.



But the ideas still have brought fresh criticism, particularly from Republicans, who also oppose the broader thrust of President Biden’s economic agenda. Tobacco excise taxes are assessed on companies, which generally pass the expenses to consumers in the form of price increases. To GOP lawmakers, the higher taxes put Democrats at risk of violating Biden’s promise during the 2020 campaign not to raise rates on Americans who make less than $400,000 each year.
Democrats sorting through painful sacrifices as social bill enters final stretch
The heaviest users of cigarettes and other tobacco products tend to be middle-income or lower-income Americans, federal data shows. As many as 80 percent of smokers have incomes less than $200,000 annually, according to data presented to the House Ways and Means Committee, the tax-focused panel that debated the idea on Tuesday. Other federal data shows that the greatest number of smokers are those who make at or below poverty-level wages.
But Democrats have argued their efforts do not violate Biden’s pledge. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the administration’s thinking, said smoking is not a required cost for working families and the introduction of higher taxes would not directly affect their incomes. The aide also highlighted the public health imperative behind the idea, given the well-known dangers of a practice they are trying to discourage.



Asked if the new proposal runs afoul of the president's past promise, Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, responded: “Absolutely, no question.”
But, he cautioned, it does not mean it is bad policy. “It clearly is a tax increase, and it clearly has benefits,” Gleckman said.
For now, the mere proposal itself reflects the all-out scramble on Capitol Hill as Democrats scrounge for any money they can find to cover the costs of their new spending ambitions. At no point this year had Biden or his congressional allies publicly embraced higher tobacco taxes, even as they pursued new spending to rethink federal health care, education and safety-net programs.

Democrats hope to raise most of the required revenue from a slew of additional tax increases, including higher rates on wealthy Americans, profitable corporations and investors. The party’s House lawmakers have debated the ideas in recent days as they race to complete work on their sprawling $3.5 trillion package by Wednesday.


The little-noticed tobacco taxes aroused discussion a day before that deadline, as the House Ways and Means Committee continued its marathon stretch of legislative sessions to write the fuller bill. The proposal put forward by the panel’s chairman, Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), aims to increase rates using a complicated set of calculations based on the type of tobacco product, its sale weight or total nicotine content.
For cigarettes in particular, the tax increases could ultimately result in smokers paying about $1 more per pack, according to Ulrik Boesen, a senior policy analyst tracking excise taxes for the Tax Foundation. He said it is harder to track the exact effect on vaping since it may vary considerably based on a company’s products, their potency and how it chooses to pass any added expense onto purchasers.

For some Americans, though, the added expenses could total hundreds of dollars annually. Boesen said that could fall hardest on Americans at the lower end of the economic spectrum, pointing to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicates that 1 in 5 adults making less than $35,000 a year are smokers.






The U.S. government last raised federal excise rates on tobacco in 2009, though state legislators in the meantime have layered on their own additional taxes targeting these products. Matthew Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the increases historically have served their intended purposes, deterring people from smoking while reducing health care costs.
The group said this week that Democrats’ plan also could make a marked difference at a time when e-cigarettes, which are untaxed at the federal level, are increasingly on the rise among millions of younger Americans — so the new taxes could further deter their use as well. The Food and Drug Administration recently cracked down on the industry as it continues to review whether one company, Juul Labs, can sell its products in the United States.

The tobacco tax hike belongs to an even wider array of potential increases in Democrats’ broader $3.5 trillion plan that seek to incentivize or discourage behavior. The still-forming spending bill uses a mix of tax credits and payments to try to reduce carbon emissions, for example, and to keep companies from offshoring jobs and profits. And it similarly dangles tax breaks in front of Americans who purchase new or used vehicles and bicycles that are energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.


But the tobacco tax still seemed to conflict with the president’s pledge, even as its foremost supporters said it should not matter given its long-term benefits. That prompted Republicans to tee off on the idea Tuesday. Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee, at one point faulted Democrats for striking the wrong balance — seeking tax increases on tobacco that could hurt lower-income Americans, while supporting tax breaks for wealthier families who can buy electric cars.
“We’ve got folks making less [and] paying more taxes, and folks making a lot are getting a tax break,” he said.

Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on additional sex crimes charges, Manhattan prosecutors said at a Thursday hearing, according to the Associated Press.
The indictment for the disgraced Hollywood producer remains under seal until Wednesday. The new charges come ahead of a retrial for Weinstein, after a previous rape conviction collapsed this year.


Prosecutors said last week that they started presenting evidence to a grand jury that included up to three additional allegations against Weinstein, AP reported.
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Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned in April by the New York Court of Appeals, reversing a case that helped launch the #MeToo movement, and outraging sexual violence survivors.

Weinstein was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison in the New York trial. He was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant, Mimi Haleyi, at his apartment in 2006; and of rape in the third degree for an attack on aspiring actress Jessica Mann at a hotel in 2013.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli..._magnet-harvey-weinstein_inline_collection_14

But in a 4-3 split decision, a majority of the appellate judges concluded that the trial court erroneously allowed other women to testify about Weinstein’s alleged pattern of abuse, even though he was not being prosecuted for crimes against those witnesses.

“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” associate judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the ruling.

Weinstein, 72, has remained in prison since the reversal, because he also faces a 16-year sentence in a separate case in California, where he was convicted in 2022 of rape, forced oral copulation and sexual misconduct.
British prosecutors discontinued indecent assault charges from 2022 against Weinstein last week, after determining there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction,” according to a news release from Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division.
The movie mogul is still at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan recovering from heart surgery he underwent earlier this week, Weinstein’s spokesman Juda Engelmayer said.

The new season starts November 7th 2021. That is this year. Will you be watching Dexter fans? Previews of it don't look terrible but well see. The ending of 8 was so bad.

Just watched 20/20 episode last night on the murder of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel.

Question for you Florida people - why in the hell weren't the Adelson's charged? They clearly hired the killers. What's the scope?

Let the fun commence!

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Convicted former Democratic U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ramping up an effort to get politicians to encourage President Joe Biden to pardon the former congressman before the Democratic president leaves office early next year.


Jackson, who served about 17 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2013 to conspiring to defraud his campaign fund of roughly $750,000, has enlisted the help of south suburban mayors from his former congressional district and also put out a general call on his Facebook page for others to write letters of support to Biden.


“If you would like to write a letter on my behalf on your (stationery), a church resolution, on official (stationery), please send to me in messenger because I have to upload it to the pardon office and to my file,” Jackson wrote in a Facebook post Sept. 6.


That was the same day NBC News reported nine south suburban mayors had sent a letter to the White House requesting Jackson be pardoned. Jackson shared the NBC story and a copy of the letter in one of his posts that day on Facebook. But neither Jackson, who served in Congress from 1995 until he resigned amid burgeoning controversies in 2012, nor the NBC story mentioned the letter was drafted with Jackson’s involvement and at his request.


Jackson’s pardon effort comes less than a month after the former congressman’s father, civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was honored on the United Center stage during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on the same night Biden spoke.


In an email to the Tribune on Thursday, Jackson downplayed his role in encouraging the pardon push and referred questions to one of the nine south suburban mayors who signed the letter, Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld, who, Jackson said, “has been leading the effort for my full pardon in the south suburbs.”


“At this point, I believe it is most appropriate that he speak to the effort that he has initiated in the Southland,” Jackson wrote.


But Hofeld told the Tribune and the Daily Southtown on Tuesday that Jackson called him in mid-August to see if he and other mayors would write a letter supporting a pardon.


Hofeld, who’s been mayor in Homewood since 1997, said he was happy to help Jackson and that the two had a warm working relationship while they were both elected officials. Hofeld said he composed the letter, shared it with other mayors and emailed it to Jackson.


Homewood and other communities Jackson represented while he was in Congress benefited during his time in office, regardless of “his improprieties,” Hofeld said, adding federal funds for a rail park and rail viewing platform in Homewood were secured with Jackson’s help.


“In talking with other mayors they felt the same, he helped us all,” said Hofeld, who said he met with Jackson at Village Hall Sept. 6, the same day the letter was sent to the White House.


In their letter, the mayors — three of whom didn’t hold the office while Jackson was in Congress and one of whom overlapped with his tenure for only a year — wrote that they “could always count on him to recognize and support our communities’ needs.”


“We do not want to diminish his misuse of campaign funds and his subsequent conviction; however, he has more to give to society. He knows this, and we who have worked with him, believe it,” wrote the mayors, including Vernard Alsberry of Hazel Crest, Terry Matthews of South Chicago Heights, Don DeGraff of South Holland, James Ford of Country Club Hills, David Gonzalez of Chicago Heights, Richard Reinbold of Richton Park, Thomas Brown of East Hazel Crest and Terry Wells of Phoenix.


“Like you,” the mayors wrote to Biden, “we also make decisions that affect people in their everyday life. Oftentimes we must reflect upon ‘never judge a man based on his worst day.’ We believe that Congressman Jackson has better days ahead.”


Alsberry, who was first elected mayor a year after Jackson resigned from Congress, credited the former lawmaker with being a major booster for a still-unbuilt airport in the far south suburbs. Alsberry called Jackson, “the one who carried the water.”


Jackson, 59, “got in trouble, he did his time and it is time to get on with the rest of his life,” Alsberry said. “He’s still a young man.”


Also noting Jackson’s support for the long-discussed south suburban airport, Richton Park’s Reinbold said Jackson “was an advocate, not just for Richton Park but the entire district.”


Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice, which handles pardon requests, responded to a request for comment on Jackson’s case. Department of Justice records show Jackson made his initial request in 2022.


Hofeld said Jackson showed him other letters of support that have been submitted on his behalf, including from people Jackson served with in Congress.


Jackson’s successor, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson, encouraged the Biden administration to pardon Jackson, Kelly spokeswoman Jessica Lee said this week. Lee declined to provide a copy of any letter Kelly sent on Jackson’s behalf and said the congressman had no comment on why she feels he deserves a pardon.


Two years ago, then-U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago, a civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader in the 1960s, sent the Biden administration a letter requesting a pardon for Jackson. Rush’s successor, Jackson’s younger brother, U.S. Rep Jonathan Jackson of Chicago, had no immediate comment through a spokesperson on whether the first-term congressman had requested a pardon for his older brother.


In the Thursday email to the Tribune, Jesse Jackson Jr. said he’s also received letters of support from U.S. Rep. Danny Davis of Chicago, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who appeared on the DNC stage with Jackson Sr. and two of his other sons.


Jesse Jackson Sr. and his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition also have sent a letter to Biden requesting Jackson Jr. be pardoned and Jackson Sr. has hand-delivered letters to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Jackson Jr. said in the email.


Pardoning Jesse Jackson Jr., whose father Biden ran against in a crowded Democratic presidential primary field in 1988, could be fraught for the president. That’s particularly the case as he has publicly said he will not pardon his own son, Hunter, who’s been convicted on federal gun charges and recently pleaded guilty in a separate federal tax case.

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As an investigator watched cleaners walk into a pork processing plant, she noticed something unusual: A few carried “pink and purple sparkly backpacks” as they entered the Sioux City, Iowa, facility around 11 p.m.

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That observation became evidence in a probe that now has led a Tennessee-based sanitation company to agree to pay nearly $650,000 in fines for hiring at least two dozen children to work overnight in slaughterhouses and meatpacking facilities. In at least one case, a child was seriously injured.

A federal judge on Monday approved a consent order finding that Fayette Janitorial Service LLC sent teens as young as 13 to scrub razor-edged machinery with high-powered hoses, scalding water and dangerous chemicals. The agreement requires Fayette Janitorial to hire a third-party consultant — who will be tasked with monitoring the company’s compliance with federal labor law — within 90 days. It also stipulates that the company must establish a toll-free hotline number for people to anonymously report possible child labor violations to the consultant.


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“As we’ve unfortunately seen in this case, employers’ violations of federal child labor laws have real consequences on children’s lives,” Jessica Looman, administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a news release announcing the probe. “Our actions to stop these violations will help ensure that more children are not hurt in the future.”
Fayette Janitorial CEO Matthew R. Armour said in a statement to The Washington Post that the company cooperated with the Department of Labor and has invested in technologies that have “closed the gap that allowed this situation to arise.”
“The realization that the use of fraudulent identification documents had allowed individuals under the age of 18 to circumvent our policies and procedures required immediate action,” Armour said, adding: “Our goal remains to ensure a safe and compliant work environment for all of our employees.”



The crackdown on the company comes amid a surge of high-profile cases involving children — mostly migrants — working in some of the nation’s most dangerous industries. Federal law has for nearly a century barred anyone under 18 from holding “particular hazardous” or “detrimental” occupations — including operating or cleaning the machines found inside meat and poultry processing plants.
Despite this ban, the Labor Department has recorded an 88 percent increase in children being employed illegally since 2019. In fiscal 2023, a year marked by a Republican-led push to relax child labor protections, the agency found that nearly 5,800 children had been illegally hired.
“Children in hazardous occupations drove the Fair Labor Standards Act’s passage in 1938,” Christine Heri, an attorney with the Labor Department, said in a news release Monday. “Yet in 2024, we still find U.S. companies employing children in risky jobs, jeopardizing their safety for profit.”



The investigation into Fayette Janitorial’s “use of oppressive child labor” began in October, according to a complaint filed by the Labor Department in February. Investigators spent weeks surveilling a Seaboard Triumph Foods facility in Iowa and a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia and interviewing workers — dozens of whom appeared to be younger than 18, court documents state.
The children’s youthful features and small sizes made them easy to spot — as did one worker’s shirt that said, “Class of 2025 South Sioux City High School,” according to the complaint. Though some of the workers claimed to be adults, investigators were able to match their photos with school records.
At Seaboard Triumph Foods, a 16-year-old worker who had been employed there for two years told investigators he worked as many as 54 hours each week cleaning a machine “that cuts the hogs’ ears.” His shifts began late at night and stretched into the early morning, even while school was in session, according to the complaint.



Inside the Perdue plant, which processes about 1.5 million chickens per week, investigators said at least 15 children were hired by Fayette Janitorial to sanitize similarly dangerous machinery. One child’s arm was mangled in February 2022 while he cleaned debris from a conveyor belt used to pack chicken drumsticks, the complaint says. The 13-year-old, identified as Minor Child J, was hospitalized for 12 days and missed school for months, investigators wrote.
In September, more than a year after the incident, Fayette Janitorial informed Perdue that a worker had been hospitalized, and it “admitted in the email … that it was notified that Minor Child J was a child in May 2022,” the complaint says.
“Despite knowing this, Fayette continued to employ Minor Child J past May 2022 and other minor children at the Perdue Facility,” investigators wrote.



A spokeswoman for Perdue said in a statement to The Post that the company terminated its contract with Fayette this year and “strengthened the screening and monitoring process for all our third-party contractors.”

“Underage labor has no place in our business or industry,” wrote Andrea Staub, Perdue’s senior vice president of corporate communications. “It is unacceptable and runs counter to our values as a 104-year-old, family-owned company. Perdue has strong safeguards in place to ensure that all associates are legally eligible to work in our facilities — and we expect the same of our vendors.”
Seaboard Triumph Foods also said it has severed ties with Fayette, which provides contract sanitation and cleaning services for meat and poultry processing facilities in more than 30 states, according to the Labor Department.
“Every employer has a legal and moral obligation to make certain they are not employing children in dangerous jobs,” Michael Lazzeri, an administrator at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement. “With this agreement, we are ensuring Fayette Janitorial Service takes immediate and significant steps to ensure they never put children in harm’s way again.”