This story, with Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez in the two leads, arises out of an era - all too relevant to our own - of domestic corruption, racial exploitation and global terror. But it emerges as a testament to the inexplicable powers of desire and love to survive and overcome even the most crippling of human barriers.
Federal prosecutors are investigating Brooklyn Council member Farah Louis, her sister Debbie Louis, and Edu Hermelyn for possible bribery related to BHRAGS Home Care Inc., which has received over $200 million in city contracts for migrant shelter services.
More than half the population of the Republic of Congo, sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville, lives below the poverty line, despite the country possessing one of the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa. Hydrocarbons accounts for more than three-quarters of export earnings. Critics of the government say the country's growth has been hindered by the fact that huge amounts of revenue generated by oil has found its way into the pockets of senior officials.
The sad-eyed research scientist might be, as the title suggests, some kind of spy, perhaps working to undermine the U.S.-backed military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. The film's amber light and ample bell-bottoms situate it firmly in the late 1970s, a time of repressive dictatorships and jittery paranoia, triggered by political malfeasance and instability across the world.
John Diehl, the former Republican house speaker, received about $380,000 in federal loans for his law firm between 2020 and 2022 through a program intended to help cover operating expenses for businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. But Diehl admitted in a September plea agreement that he instead used the money for personal expenses such as country club dues, swimming pool maintenance, his home mortgage and vehicle payments for a Tesla, Audi and Jeep.
During an investigation into fraudulent unemployment assistance, federal law enforcement asked Tran about a false letter he gave to unemployment agency officials in an attempt to have his benefits reinstated after they were temporarily suspended, said prosecutors.
Vazquez accepted a plea deal in 2025 after she was accused of participating in a bribery scheme while in office. The White House has confirmed to United States media that President Donald Trump plans to grant a pardon to a former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vazquez Garced. On Friday, CBS News broke the story that a pardon was imminent, and Trump administration officials have since tied the pardon to the president's campaign against what he considers lawfare.
A casual disregard for human life contrasts with a colorful, hard-partyin' atmosphere of 1977 Carnaval in Brazil in The Secret Agent, director Kleber Mendonca Filho's momentous epic, a mercurial adventure in filmmaking that reminds us of how dangerous but important it can be to resist an unjust system. Secret Agent also urges us to be aware of the swath of corruption that settles in places high and low and to respect and embrace the bloodlines that flow through us.
The dairy industry sought a deal with President Richard Nixon to write a huge campaign check to his reelection campaign-in exchange for price supports that would artificially raise the cost of milk. But federal law strictly limited the amount it could donate. So Nixon's henchmen devised a workaround: Dairy companies would funnel $2 million through various Republican Party committees, which could then transfer the cash to Nixon's campaign.
Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell pleaded guilty Thursday to a conspiracy charge tied to a federal investigation of Democratic political operatives. The case involves Gov. Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and a former advisor to gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. The three allegedly conspired to siphon funds from Becerra's dormant state campaign account between February 2022 and September 2024.
A former aide to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo is on trial facing charges she acted as an undisclosed agent to the Chinese government in exchange for millions of dollars in business transactions and benefits secured through Chinese officials. Sun is accused of political activities intended to influence the public on China's behalf, and committing wire and visa fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes in procuring a bounty from the Chinese government.
The federal indictment lists four other co-conspirators. It alleges that Williamson was part of a scheme involving Sean McCluskie, who was Becerra's chief of staff at the time of the alleged conduct. Becerra is a former California attorney general who was appointed health secretary by former President Joe Biden. He is not implicated in the indictment. The indictment alleges that Williamson and McCluskie took money from Becerra's dormant campaign account and funneled it to McCluskie, about $225,000 over a period of more than two years.
The speed at which Trump tore down a part of the people's house is also in keeping with the speed at which he's been tearing down democracy. Trump just assumes unrestrained power, and no one stops him, even if his actions are lawless. What we've learned from Trump is that it's easy to wreck something. But rebuilding something is going to be much, much harder. How do you put the rubble back together?
On 1 November 2024, a concrete canopy collapsed at the railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, killing 16 people. The tragedy triggered the longest wave of protests the country had seen in a decade a spontaneous uprising against corruption, negligence and the arrogance of power. One year on, the cracks in Serbia's concrete have turned into fissures in its political foundations.
Trump's shameless corruption is not a deviation from American history but its fulfilment. Every era of American government has had its scandal. Trump's innovation is to make scandal itself a governing philosophy. Although it is tempting to see the Trump regime's corruption its open profiteering, its use of the state as an instrument of vengeance and self-enrichment as a perversion of American democracy, the truth is more unsettling: it's a mirror.
When a Paris court handed Nicolas Sarkozy a five-year prison sentence on Thursday for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to get election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi it was a historic moment for modern France. The rightwing Sarkozy, who served as president between 2007 and 2012, was known in office not just for his hard line on immigration and national identity but for championing harsher sentencing for delinquents.
A television commercial is a way of selling a product. A candidate's bid for votes should be a higher order of expression...with moral implications for the kind of people we are...and the kind we want to become. But, increasingly, candidates are merging the two...selling themselves like an underarm deodorant... in commercials just long enough to pound in some mindless slogan...that cheapens candidate... and voter alike,
* "Firms that aren't willing or able to compete with the highest-paying players are instead competing on flexibility." Which is, frankly, the right business strategy. [ Law.com] * A lawyer for the Korean workers rounded up by ICE - throwing the whole U.S.-South Korean economic alliance in turmoil - says they all had legal visas at the time. Because of course that's how this turns out. [ AP]
Eric Adams, buried in the polls and destined for an infamous single term as mayor of New York, let it be known last week he wasn't going anywhere. Rejecting numerous reports that had him taking federal jobs or even an ambassadorship in the Trump administration, Adams said he was still running for reelection. And he made it clear whom he blamed for trying to force him out: Andrew Cuomo.
