Also on today’s menu:
Governors Seek Action On Drug Shortages
AG: Trump Overstated Net Worth By $2.3 Billion
Court Exonerates Joker Charged As Terrorist
Mississippi’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has announced that a group of hunters captured the longest alligator ever recorded in the state, a day after the hunting season opened.
Donald Woods, Will Thomas, Joey Clark, and Tanner White — all residents of the state — harvested an 802.5-pound male alligator in west Mississippi’s Sunflower River. It measured 14 feet, three inches long, breaking the previous record by more than two inches, according to the department.
The hunters posed for a picture by hoisting it with a forklift at Red Antler Processing in Yazoo City, located in a designated alligator hunting zone.
The alligator hunting season continues in Mississippi until September 4.
Governors Seek Action On Drug Shortages
In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and 10 other governors asked to have congress address “extensive shortages” of certain prescription medications, many of them — more than 80 percent — relying on China, India, and other foreign companies for their active ingredients.
“These shortages are not new, but they are becoming more frequent and more severe,” the governors wrote. “Pharmacists in our states are having to tell patients that they don’t have critical medicine available. Nobody should have to experience that kind of worry, especially not in the United States of America.”
They are asking congress to address current federal restrictions on the ability of the Federal Drug Administration and medical companies to reveal where prescription drugs are coming from and how they are tested for quality, especially drugs originating overseas.
“Many overseas manufacturing plants have aging systems and processes. Once prescription drugs are in the United States, they are quality-tested, but the risk of something going wrong is high. If a batch of prescription drugs comes to America and fails the quality tests, it could create a serious nationwide shortage of a lifesaving medication. Congress needs to improve the inspection process for these manufacturers to decrease the risk that everyday Americans are currently facing,” the letter states.
Others signing the letter are Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.
AG: Trump Overstated Net Worth By $2.23 Billion
New York Attorney-General Letitia James asked a judge to declare that, by inflating the values of more than a dozen assets by hundreds of millions of dollars, Donald Trump committed fraud under the state’s Executive Law. She said Trump had submitted false statements to bankers and insurers and overstated his net worth by as much as $2.23 billion.
James said evidence in her civil case showed “repeated and persistent fraudulent use” by Trump and his family business of false and misleading financial statements from 2011 to 2021.
“The cumulative effect of these numerous deceptive schemes to inflate Mr. Trump’s assets, and hence his net worth, is staggering,” and is “just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception [the state] is prepared to expose at trial,” James said in her court filing on August 30.
Lawyers for Trump and the other defendants filed their own papers seeking to end what they called James’ “crusade against President Trump” and dismiss the entire case.
The attorney-general is seeking at least $250 million from Trump, his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and others, and wants to stop the Trumps from running businesses in New York. A trial before New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron is scheduled for Monday, October 2.
Court Exonerates Joker Charged As Terrorist
Three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Waylon Bailey’s Facebook post joking that the sheriff’s office had issued an order to shoot people infected with the coronavirus was protected speech under the First Amendment and that he should not have been charged with felony terrorism in March 2020.
There “were no facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe that Bailey’s post caused sustained fear,” the judges wrote. “No members of the public expressed any type of concern. Even if the post were taken seriously, it is too general and contingent to be a specific threat.”
Bailey said he was confused when about a dozen SWAT members from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office arrived at his Alexandria, Louisiana, home with weapons and bulletproof vests, arresting him without a warrant. They later argued that Bailey’s post was a terroristic threat.
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