Bits and Pieces, a Miscellany

I really sympathize with Tahlequah, the orca mother, whose baby died soon after birth.  She has been carrying her dead calf on her head for 17 days, and has traveled over 1,000 miles since the death.  The oceanographers who have been studying her and the J pod of orcas off the coasts of Alaska and Washington are beginning to worry about her condition.  They don't know if other members of her pod are providing her with food, or if she is fasting.  Another member of the pod, a 3 1/2 year-old male, is is very poor condition and appears to be starving to death.  It is believed that he might have a huge parasite infestation or an infection of some type.

Wilbur L Ross Jr is the current Secretary of Commerce for the United States.  It has recently been reported that he has "grifted" (or swindled) about $120 million from business associates over the past 20 years.  And is still laughed at for being such a tight-wad that he steals hands fulls of Sweet'N'Low artificial sweetener from restaurants so he won't have to spend his own money to purchase a box for home use....

New York Republican and US Representative Chris Collins has been arrested by the FBI and charged with insider trading.  Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York allege that Collins, while he was a board member of the Australian company Innate Immunotherapeutics, gave a tip to his son Cameron last year about a failed drug trial that would soon  be announced.  His son used that information to dump the company's stock and avoid a six-figure loss, the Justice Department alleges, and Cameron Collins passed that information along to his father-in-law.  Both of those men were charged along with Collins.  All three pleaded not guilty.
  Since July 2017, Federal Election Commission records show Collins' campaign has been paying up to $60,000 per month in legal services to prestigious law firm BakerHostetler.  The firm is representing Collins in the case.  While it is legal to use campaign funds to pay for legal fees, it's not clear if donors or consitituents knew their money was paying for Collins' legal fees.  These legal fees covered the time period of two separate House of Representatives probes, including one by the Office of Congressional Ethics and another by the House Ethics Committee.

A District of Columbia Federal District Judge - Emmet Sullivan - erupted at the Trump administration yesterday when he learned that two asylum seekers fighting deportation were, at that moment, being deported and were on a plane to El Salvador. Judge Sullivan then blocked the administration from from deporting the two plaintiffs while they are fighting for their right to stay in the United States. He excoriated the administration and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of court.
  Sullivan agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union that the immigrants they are representing in a federal lawsuit should not be deported while their cases are pending.  The emergency hearing in the case turned quite dramatic when attorneys discovered partway through the hearing that two of their clients were on a plane to El Salvador.  The government raced to comply with the court's order, and by Thursday evening the immigrants had arrived back in Texas after being turned around on the ground in El Salvador.

ProPublica, a non-profit outfit that seeks to provide free public information, dropped a bomb-shell the other day, when they released their report on the three men pulling the strings at the Veteran's Administration.  All of their information came from making FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, and from one-on-one interviews.  David Shulkin, the VA administrator, was pushed out by the current group in the White House - or so it was thought.  The FOIA papers show that three of Trump's golf cronies from Mar-a-Lago are now running the VA, from behind a curtain - just like the Wizard of Oz.  The three men are: Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment; Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service "concierge" medical care; and Marc Sherman.  All are members of Mar-a-Largo; none has ever served in the military, and none have hands-on business experience running a medical center, let alone the vast beast that is the Veteran's Administration.
   For complete information see:  https://www.propublica.org/article/ike-perlmutter-bruce-moskowitz-marc-sherman-shadow-rulers-of-the-va

And since Justify, the American Triple Crown winner of this year was forced to retire due to a recurring injury in his left leg, the Breeders Cup Classic for this year is now wide open.  The Breeders Cup races will be held at Churchill Downs on November 2nd and 3rd this year, so be sure to mark your calendar!