Clarence Thomas: The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durban says new information reveals that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took more trips on the private plane of Republican donor Harlan Crow than previously revealed. Durban said there’s evidence of trips as far back as 2017 that Thomas failed to disclose and that when Thomas recently updated his financial disclosures he failed to include the trips on Crow’s private jet. A spokesperson for Crow revealed yesterday that Crow reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to disclose trips by Thomas going back seven years. Â
Trump’s meeting: What went on in the closed door meeting among Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday has started to leak out. The Republicans had a cake on hand to celebrate Trump’s 78th birthday, which is today. Trump trashed Milwaukee, where the Republican convention will be held as being a horrible city. Trump went into a rant criticizing singer Taylor Swift and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump asked far-right radical Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to be nice to House Speaker Mike Johnson. Greene tried to throw him out of the speakership. Trump, who has pledged to push for a nationwide ban on women’s reproductive rights, told the Republicans not to be afraid of the issue.
Sanctions against Russia: New U.S. sanctions have forced a halt in the trading of dollars and euros on Russia’s primary money exchange, the Moscow Exchange. The new sanctions were announced yesterday and are aimed at interfering with the flow of money in Russia to make it more difficult for Russia to fight its war against Ukraine. Russia’s central bank said that while they can’t be traded on the exchange for now, individuals still can trade U.S. dollars and euros for Russian currency at local banks.
Musk’s pay package: Tesla shareholders have voted approval of the 2018 pay package for CEO Elon Musk that was thrown out by a judge who determined the company’s board did not act properly when it gave the pay package to Musk. The pay package includes a lot of Tesla stock that has been valued as being worth about $45 million. While the vote by shareholders that was recorded at the company’s annual meeting in Austin does not override the judge’s ruling, it does give Musk ammunition to go back to court and dispute what the judge did.
In vitro fertilization: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says that the Republicans who yesterday blocked a Senate bill to guarantee access to in vitro fertilization are the same ones that pushed hard to throw out Roe v. Wade. Schumer also pointed out that Senate Republicans last week blocked a bill that would have guaranteed access to contraception. Republican GOP Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted with the democrats to move the in vitro fertilization bill forward in the legislative process.
Mifepristone: The Center for Reproductive rights says that the Supreme Court’s ruling throwing out a challenge to the availability of the abortion drug mifepristone does not ensure that the drug will remain available. The Supreme Court voted that the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine lacked standing to bring the case to overturn the decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that expanded the availability of the drug. The Center for Reproductive Rights points out that three states, Kansas, Missouri and Idaho that were allowed to intervene in the case by a lower court, could now try to keep the issue alive in the lower court by bringing a new case that could wind up in the Supreme Court and require a ruling on the merits.
