State attorney general will investigate LA redistricting

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

California Atty. Gene. Rob Bonta said Wednesday that his office would investigate the Los Angeles redistricting process that took place last fall, saying an inquiry is needed to “restore confidence” in the line-drawing of the city’s 15 council districts.

The announcement comes days after The Times published a recording in which then-council President Nury Martinez is heard making racist remarks while talking with fellow Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and labor leader Ron Herrera about how the city’s council district boundaries should be redrawn. This conversation focused on how the group could maintain Latino political power while also ensuring they and their colleagues would have districts that help them win reelection.

“We’ll be conducting our investigation, and when it’s full and thorough and comprehensive and complete, we’ll have something to share about what liability there might be, either civil or criminal,” said Bonta, a former member of the state Assembly who was appointed attorney general last year.

Bonta said his office had reviewed information — which he didn’t detail — and the law “to determine whether we feel we have a good-faith basis to launch an investigation.”

“And after conducting that process and completing that process — it was not complete yesterday, but it’s now complete — we believe we have a basis … for an investigation,” Bonta said.

Calls for resignations and government structural reforms reverberated across LA after the leaked audio surfaced.

A group of 30 civic leaders sent a letter Wednesday to act City Council President Mitch O’Farrell asking for the council to support a ballot measure to amend the City Charter to create an independent redistricting commission.

At one point in the recording, Herrera, head of the LA County Federation of Labor, is heard telling the councilmembers: “My goal in life is to

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Bright Health Pulling Insurance Plans Including Obamacare From Nine States

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Bright Health Group is pulling individual Obamacare and family health insurance plans from nine states, which will force hundreds of thousands of Americans to choose new healthcare coverage for next year.

Thehealth insurance company Tuesday”health insurance company Tuesday said it will “no longer offer Individual and Family Plan products through Bright HealthCare in 2023, or Medicare Advantage products outside of California and Florida.” The announcement came on a day Bright Health said raised $175 million “that is expected to close in the coming weeks and take the business through profitability.”

It’s unclear exactly how many enrollees will be impacted by the decision and faced with choosing new health plans for 2023. Bright Health, which became a publicly traded company just last year, had about 1 million total health plan enrollees projected for 2022, the company has said.

Bright Health couldn’t be reached this morning for comment on how many health plan subscribers would be impacted, but the move impacts customers in at least nine states, according to its press release on the exits.

“With this announcement, in addition to the previously announced market exits, Bright HealthCare will not offer Individual and Family health plans in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee after 2022,” the company said.

By scaling back to its largest healthcare markets, Bright Health said the company will be “profitable on an Adjusted EBITDA basis in 2023 and will serve underserved populations through its risk-bearing care delivery business, Medicare Advantage products, and the ACO REACH Program in states that covers 26% of the aging US population.”

“We have demonstrated the power of the Fully Aligned Care Model in serving aging

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Civil Rights Lawyer Ben Crump: ‘The Federal Government Broke its Promise to Black Farmers’ | LISTEN

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Ben Crump - Twitter
Ben Crump – Twitter

*Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump joined SiriusXM Urban View host Joe Madison and spoke about a new class action lawsuit against the federal government to support John Boyd of the National Black Farmers Association and all the socially disadvantaged farmers who didn’t receive the billions of dollars they were promised.

“This is just a travesty of justice. The federal government promised in the American Rescue Plant Act when they gave bailouts to everybody during the pandemic, that they would give the black farmers $5 billion. And they told the black farmers that we want you to maintain or expand your operations so you can help strengthen the American food supply during the Covid19 pandemic. And the black farmers naively trusted and relied on the federal government‘s promise. And then just like they did 150 years ago, the federal government broke its promise to black farmers, like they broke their promise to black soldiers who were promised 40 acres and a mule after they fought for the Union Army and helped preserve the United States of America. And so we refuse to let them be able to get away with this without fighting them in court and without having this class action lawsuit to make them not have these farmers face foreclosure. Joe Madison, these farmers are literally losing their farms to the United States Department of Agriculture. I mean, the same people who just made them this promise are now have their subsidiary financial institutions foreclosing on the black farmers, and the height of hypocrisy, Joe. The height of hypocrisy,” Crump told Madison.

Source: SiriusXM’s Joe Madison The Black Eagle on SiriusXM Urban View channel 126.

Benjamin Crump: “The Federal Government Broke Its Promise To Black Farmers” or listen BELOW

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Is Every Website Playing Videos Violating the VPPA?

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton
A pile of VHS tapes.

Image: TurboYoda (Shutterstock)

In 1987, Ronald Reagan was nominated for Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Bork was an extreme, hard-line conservative whose views included the idea that Roe v. Wade should be overturned because he believed there was no constitutional right to privacy whatsoever. In response, a Washington, DC video store leaked a list of his movie rentals, which included films like A Day At the Races and The Man Who Knew Too Much. It was nothing salacious, but Republicans were furious. Bork’s nomination was rejected.

The next year, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) in response. Bork faded away; the VPPA lived on. Back then, it was probably hard to imagine the world of the internet, where companies spy on our every move and send the data to countless third parties, but here we are. The Reagan-era law says that “video tape service providers” (or anyone who offers similar services) can’t disclose personally identifiable information about what you watch without your informed, written consent. If a company breaks the law, they owe a cool $2,500 to every plaintiff in a class action suit, not counting potential punitive damages and attorneys fees. That could add up to millions of dollars fast. And depending on how you interpret the VPPA in 2022, a majority of the millions of websites that show videos could be breaking the law. More than a few lawyers see it that way.

A few months ago, I began seeing Instagram ads asking me to join class actions over alleged video privacy violations. One blaring exhortation read, “Do you have an account with the NY Post? Have you watched videos on nypost.com? If so, you may be entitled to compensation.” A little digging unearthed and absolute flood of

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Brittney Griner’s lawyer says WNBA star fears she may never be released from Russian prison

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug possession charges, is growing increasing nervous about the prospects of being released, her lawyer said.

Griner was in Russia to compete during the WNBA offseason when Russian authorities said she had vape canisters with cannabis oil inside her luggage while traveling through an airport in Moscow in February.

The Biden administration reportedly talked about a potential prisoner swap to free her and another American held in a Russian jail, Paul Whelan. But Griner’s lawyer, Alexandr D. Boykov said he spoke with her Tuesday and said she is far from hopeful.

“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” Boykov said in an interview with the New York Times. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”

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WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom after a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022.

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom after a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Another growing concern for Griner is the condition of the prison she may end up in, Boykov noted. She said she is only outdoors once a day and is forced to spend the remainder of her time in a small cell with two other prisoners.

BRITTNEY GRINER SITUATION DETERS WNBA PLAYERS FROM RUSSIA, CITING SAFETY

In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison. Her appeal, which the US has called “another sham judicial proceeding,” has been scheduled for Oct. 25.

American basketball star Brittney Griner in a Russian prison.

American basketball star Brittney Griner in a Russian prison.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Prior to the appeals court hearing, Boykov called

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Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is “Heist” by Private Firms to Defraud the Public

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez.

A major investigation by The New York Times this weekend has found many of the nation’s largest health insurance companies have made billions of dollars in profits by exploiting the government’s Medicare Advantage program. Eight of the 10 largest Medicare Advantage providers have overbilled the government. Six of the 10 have been accused of fraud by the government or company whistleblowers.

This comes as the number of people enrolled in the privatized system continue to grow. Projections show that by next year more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries will be enrolled in a private plan.

Under the system, health insurers get more government funding for sicker patients, which has given the companies an incentive to make patients appear more ill than they actually are. UnitedHealth, Humana, Kaiser and other health insurance companies have been sued for fraud for overdiagnosing patients to bump up profits. The cost to taxpayers is staggering. Overbilling by health insurance costs the government an estimated $12 billion to $25 billion in 2020. The New York Times reports doctors at Kaiser were offered bottles of Champagne and bonuses if they added additional illnesses to the medical records of their patients so the company could make more money.

Joining us now is Wendell Potter, former executive for the health insurance companies CIGNA and Humana. Potter is now the president of the Center for Health and Democracy and the president of Business Leaders for Health Care Transformation. He’s author of the book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Wendell, joining us from

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Alabama inmate endured ‘torture’ during execution attempt, attorneys say

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

MONTGOMERY, Ala — An Alabama inmate said prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour as they tried to find a vein during an aborted lethal injection last month. At one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before state officials made the decision to call off the execution.

Attorneys for 57-year-old Alan Eugene Miller wrote about his experience during Alabama’s Sept. 22 execution attempt in a court filing made last week. Miller’s attorneys are trying to block the state from trying a second lethal injection.

Two men in scrubs used needles to repeatedly probe Miller’s arms, legs, feet and hands, at one point using a cell phone flashlight to help their search for a vein, according to the Oct. 6 court filings. The attorneys called Miller the “only living execution survivor in the United States” and said Alabama subjected Miller “to precisely the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain that the Eighth Amendment was intended to prohibit.”

Alabama has asked the state Supreme Court to set a new execution date for Miller, saying the execution was canceled only because of a time issue as the state faced a midnight deadline to get the lethal injection underway.

“Despite this failed execution, the physical and mental torture it inflicted upon Mr. Miller, and the fact that the Defendants have now botched three lethal injection executions in just four years, Defendants relentlessly seek to execute Mr. Miller again—presumably by lethal injection,” attorneys for Miller wrote, referencing an execution that was canceled and another that took three hours to get underway.

“What then, in Defendants’ view, is a constitutional amount of time to spend stabbing someone with needles in an attempt to kill them?” his attorneys wrote.

The 351-pound inmate testified in an earlier court hearing that medical

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New abortion protections, legal services coming to CT

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

HARTFORD — A network of volunteer private attorneys will help provide free legal guidance to both in-state and non-residents seeking access to abortion and other reproductive services under Connecticut’s “safe harbor“ law, Attorney General William Tong announced on Tuesday.

Tong, in a news conference in the State Office Building with about 30 advocates and lawmakers, said last spring’s US Supreme Court decision overturning 50 years of national abortion rights has changed the legal landscape in many ways, some of which might not be known until time passes and elections are decided.

Promising to “build a firewall” against the nationwide conservative campaign to prohibit reproductive rights, Tong will also appoint a new special counsel for reproductive rights in his office’s Civil Rights Unit to safeguard abortion access and reproductive care in Connecticut and nationwide.

“This is about law enforcement,” Tong said. “Enforcing the law of the state of Connecticut, right? And we’re going to put muscle behind that law enforcement, making sure that patients and providers are protected. Today is about making sure what our priorities are.”

Safety, access, affordability and protecting patients from prosecution, civil suits and professional sanctions are the main goals, in addition to a shopping list of possible legislation for the next General Assembly, especially targeting the high mortality rate for Black women in Connecticut, as well as deceptive advertising for so-called crisis pregnancy centres, advocates said.

The Connecticut-based lawyers will join a New York State advice system already in place at 212-899-5567. “It is an army of lawyers,” Tong said, crediting New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Abused women who want to assure their personal privacy, students and foreign-born women elements of the state’s law and other women in a variety of circumstances were encouraged to use the hotline, which will supplement the

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“I Don’t Even Know if It’s Legal” for Chevy Chase to Appear in Community Movie [Updated]

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

The post Dan Harmon: “I Don’t Even Know if It’s Legal” for Chevy Chase to Appear in Community Movie [Updated] appeared first on Consequence.

Dan Harmon was asked if Chevy Chase would return for the recently-announced Community movie coming to Peacock, and the series creator joked, “I don’t even know if it’s legal for him to come back.

“That may be out of my hands,” he continued. “Maybe something I sign for with an insurance company, I really don’t know.” On a more serious note, he said, “Everyone wants to know, is so-and-so coming back? I can’t really speak to that.”

Harmon and Chase famously disagreed about the direction of the latter’s character Pierce, and Chase used the N-word during at least one heated exchange. Donald Glover, who also starred on the show, has spoken about his many racist interactions with Chase, including being told, “People think you’re funnier because you’re Black.”

The 78-year-old Chase remains unrepentant. When questioned about the Saturday Night Live and Community cast mates who all seemed to hate him, Chase responded, “I don’t care.”

Harmon also clarified details about the Community movie in the new interview. He had previously been reported as a writer on the project alongside Andrew Guest, but he said — possibly joking — “No, I don’t want to do that.”

He added, “I’m working with Andrew Guest — he was a great Community writer in the… I don’t want to say ‘peak’ days… but Andrew was classic Community. He wrote the “Dungeons and Dragons” episode. He’s going to help me make sure I don’t pull a ‘Harmon’ when that script is getting executed, so we can actually deliver it and start executing it.

“We don’t have a director attached and that’s about it,” he said. Check out that

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California attorney general to investigate LA City Council after leak of audio with racist remarks

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

California’s attorney general announced Wednesday his office will investigate the Los Angeles City Council to determine whether any laws were broken after an audio recording of racist remarks surfaced this week.

“The investigation comes on the heels of leaked audio revealing deeply concerning remarks tied to the city’s 2021 redistricting efforts,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

The independent probe will seek to determine whether there were any violations of state or federal voting rights laws and transparency laws, Bonta said.

City Council members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have apologized for their roles in a meeting last year, which was secretly recorded.

Martinez resigned as council president this week, and she announced Wednesday that is resigning from her seat on the council.

In the leaked audio, Martinez likened the Black son of council member Mike Bonin, who was 2 years old at the time, to an animal. She is also heard on the recording implying that the county’s progressive district attorney shouldn’t be supported because he’s “with the Blacks.”

The 2021 audio was from a political strategy meeting attended by a handful of Latino Democrats on the council. It was first reported Sunday by the Los Angeles Times.

The meeting, which Bonta said was about redistricting, was attended by the three council members, as well as Ron Herrera, the president of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Bonta said in the statement that he was “deeply appalled” by the remarks from some of Los Angeles’ highest-ranking officials.

“Their comments were unacceptable, offensive, and deeply painful,” he said. “There is no place for anti-Black, antisemitic, anti-Indigenous, anti-LGBTQ, or any kind of discriminatory rhetoric in our state, especially in relation to the duties of a public official.”

The recording surfaced on

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