Disney Sues DeSantis, Claiming Unlawful Retaliation 

PolitCens Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ very public feud with the Walt Disney Co. entered a new phase this week, when the entertainment conglomerate filed a lawsuit claiming that the governor and his administration violated the company’s First Amendment rights.

Disney, which employs 75,000 people in a cluster of theme parks and hotels in central Florida, said that a series of new restrictions placed on the company were meant to retaliate against it for public criticism of one of DeSantis’ key legislative initiatives. The legislation, commonly known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, restricts the ability of teachers in Florida schools to discuss issues of sexuality and gender identity.

In a series of moves beginning last year, the Florida legislature — at DeSantis’ bidding — stripped the company of the ability to self-govern the land on which its parks and hotels sit, changed the rules governing ride-safety inspections, and took other actions targeting the company. The changes appear to have applied only to Disney, and not to other self-governing districts and theme parks in the state.

The fight with Disney has helped keep DeSantis in the news ahead of what is expected to be an announcement of his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination later this spring. DeSantis is currently second in polls of likely GOP primary voters, trailing former President Donald Trump by a significant margin.

Final straw

This week, a new board appointed to oversee the district where Disney is located moved to void development agreements its predecessor had struck with the company. Those deals, agreed to shortly before the old board was replaced, would have significantly limited the new board’s power over the company.

Within minutes of the vote, Disney announced that it had filed a lawsuit claiming unlawful retaliation.

“A targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech — now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” the suit charges.

For his part, DeSantis on Thursday claimed that the lawsuit lacks merit.

“Do you want one company to have their own fiefdom, or do you want everyone to live under the same laws?” he said to reporters in Israel while participating in an overseas trade mission. “The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida.”

Yearlong drama

The battle between the company and the state began last year, while the state legislature was debating the Parental Rights in Education Act which restricts the ability of teachers to discuss sexuality or gender identity with young children. The law has since been expanded to cover all children through high school.

The language in the bill made it unclear whether, for example, a gay teacher with a same-sex spouse could mention his or her marital status to students, earning it the “Don’t Say Gay” nickname from critics.

After taking an unclear stance on the legislation at the start, Disney’s then-CEO Bob Chapek responded to criticism from the company’s employee base by issuing a strong denunciation of the legislation, saying that it should never have been signed into law, and pledging that the company would work toward its repeal.

The move angered DeSantis and his allies in the legislature. The governor immediately began attacking the company in his public pronouncements as “woke” and pledged to “fight back.” In a fundraising email to supporters he wrote, “If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy.”

Targeted legislation

Within days, Republican state legislator Stephen Roach made it clear that lawmakers were considering action that would eliminate an agreement struck in 1967 to allow Disney broad authority to govern the land on which its parks and hotels are located, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID).

Roach seemed to concede that the change was to punish the company for its complaints about the Parental Rights in Education law.

“If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County,” he said. (The RCID was carved out of land partly in Orange County and partly in Osceola County.)

Over the past few weeks, DeSantis has made other public comments suggesting that he is looking for additional ways to punish Disney.

In recent public comments, he suggested that he and his staff are considering new taxes on the company’s hotels, tolls on the roads that visitors use to travel to the park, and building other projects on nearby state-owned property.

At one news conference, DeSantis floated the idea of locating a new state prison on nearby land. “Who knows? I just think the possibilities are endless,” he said.

Strong claim

First Amendment experts contacted by VOA said that Disney appears to have powerful arguments behind its assertion that DeSantis and the legislature have engaged in unlawful retaliation against protected speech.

“Disney has a quite strong claim here,” RonNell Andersen Jones, a professor of law at the University of Utah, said in an email. “First Amendment doctrine makes clear that it offends the Constitution when [the] government takes actions to retaliate for speech or expressive positions.”

Gregory Magarian, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, agreed.

“It is clear — axiomatic, obvious — that if the government retaliates against a speaker for what they say, that is a violation of the First Amendment,” he told VOA.

Magarian said that in order to overcome Disney’s argument, the state would have to argue that the actions it took against Disney were the result of public policy preferences, and were not meant to punish the company.

“My sense is that the public record, and what DeSantis has said and what legislators have said, will make that a fairly uphill climb,” he said.

Republican doubts

DeSantis, broadly seen as a rising star in the Republican Party, has come under fire from some of his erstwhile political allies in recent days over his unrelenting assault on Disney.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the most powerful Republican politician in Washington, on Thursday criticized the governor’s approach.

“This is a big employer inside Florida,” he said. “I think the governor should sit down with them. I don’t think the idea of building a prison next to a place that you bring your family is the best idea. I think it’d be much better if you sat down and solved the problems.”

Former President Trump, writing on Truth Social, a social network owned by his company, also piled on.

“Disney’s next move will be the announcement that no more money will be invested in Florida because of the Governor — In fact, they could even announce a slow withdrawal or sale of certain properties, or the whole thing. Watch!” he wrote. “That would be a killer.”
…

Why Do Democrats Believe Biden Will Win Again?

PolitCens Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Various polls show that American voters, including Democrats, do not want President Joe Biden to run again in 2024, citing his age as one of the primary reasons. Yet he is almost certain to be the Democratic nominee, and the party appears to have little doubt he will win again. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara explains the reason behind their confidence.
…

Fed Faults Silicon Valley Bank Execs, Itself in Bank Failure

CensorBiz Бізнес, Новини, Статті, Суспільство 0 Comment

The Federal Reserve blamed last month’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on poor management, watered-down regulations and lax oversight by its own staffers, and it said the industry needs stricter policing on multiple fronts to prevent future bank failures. 

The Fed was highly critical of its own role in the bank’s failure in a report released Friday. The report, compiled by Michael Barr, the Fed’s top regulator, said bank supervisors were slow to recognize blossoming problems at Silicon Valley Bank as it quickly grew in size in the years leading up to its collapse. The report also pointed out underlying cultural issues at the Fed, where supervisors were unwilling to be hard on bank management when they saw growing problems. 

Those cultural issues stemmed from legislation passed in 2018 that sought to lighten regulation for banks with less than $250 billion in assets, the report concluded. The Fed also weakened its own rules the following year, which exempted banks below that threshold from stress tests and other regulations. Both Silicon Valley Bank and New York-based Signature Bank, which also failed last month, had assets below that level. 

The changes increased the burden on regulators to justify the need for supervisory action, the report said. “In some cases, the changes also led to slower action by supervisory staff and a reluctance to escalate issues.” 

Separate reports also released Friday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, also faulted the Fed and other regulators for a lack of urgency regarding Silicon Valley’s deficiencies. About 95% of the bank’s deposits exceeded the FDIC’s insurance cap and the deposits were concentrated in the technology industry, making the bank vulnerable to a panic. 

The Fed also said it planned to reexamine how it regulates larger regional banks such as Silicon Valley Bank, which had more than $200 billion in assets when it failed, although less than the $250 billion threshold for greater regulation. 

“While higher supervisory and regulatory requirements may not have prevented the firm’s failure, they would likely have bolstered the resilience of Silicon Valley Bank,” the report said. 

Tighter regulation seen

Banking policy analysts said the trio of critical reports made it more likely regulation would be tightened, though the Fed acknowledged it could take years for proposals to be implemented. 

The reports “provide a clear path for a tougher and more costly regulatory regime for banks with at least $100 billion of assets,” said Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at TD Cowen. “We would expect the Fed to advance proposals in the coming months.” 

Alexa Philo, a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, said the Fed could adopt stricter rules on its own, without relying on Congress. 

“It is long past time to roll back the dangerous deregulation under the last administration to the greatest extent possible and pay close attention to the largest banks so this crisis does not worsen,” she said. 

The Fed also criticized Silicon Valley Bank for tying executive compensation too closely to short-term profits and the company’s stock price. From 2018 to 2021, profit at SVB Financial, Silicon Valley Bank’s parent, doubled and the stock nearly tripled. 

The report also pointed out that there were no pay incentives at the bank tied to risk management. Silicon Valley Bank notably had no chief risk officer at the firm for roughly a year, during a time when the bank was growing quickly. 

The Fed’s report, which included the release of internal reports and Fed communications, is a rare look into how the central bank supervises individual banks as one of the nation’s bank regulators. Typically, such processes are rarely seen by the public, but the Fed chose to release these reports to show how the bank was managed up to its failure. 

Bartlett Collins Naylor, financial policy advocate at Congress Watch, a division of Public Citizen, was surprised at the degree to which the Fed blamed itself for the bank failure. 

“I don’t know that I expected the Fed to say ‘mea culpa’ — but I find that adds a lot of credibility” to Federal Reserve leadership, Naylor said. 

Silicon Valley Bank was the go-to bank for venture capital firms and technology startups for years, but failed spectacularly in March, setting off a crisis of confidence for the banking industry. Federal regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after customers withdrew tens of billions of dollars in deposits in a matter of hours. 

Two days later, they seized Signature Bank. Although regulators guaranteed all the banks’ deposits, customers at other midsize regional banks rushed to pull out their money — often with a few taps on a mobile device — and move it to the perceived safety of big money center banks such as JPMorgan Chase.

Although the withdrawals have abated at many banks, First Republic Bank in San Francisco appears to be in peril, even after receiving a $30 billion infusion of deposits from 11 major banks in March. The bank’s shares plunged 70% this week after it revealed the extent to which customers pulled their deposits in the days after Silicon Valley Bank failed.
…

У Донецькій області через російський обстріл постраждав енергетичний об’єкт – Міненерго

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Російські війська 28 квітня завдали удару по одному з об’єктів генерації електроенергії в Донецькій області, повідомила пресслужба Міністерства енергетики.

«Під час масованого обстрілу, який Росія здійснила 28 квітня, було зафіксовано попадання в один із об’єктів генерації електроенергії в Донецькій області. Ворог здійснив артилерійський обстріл, внаслідок якого було частково пошкоджено обладнання», – йдеться в повідомленні.

Працівники об’єкту не постраждали, наголосили у відомстві.

«Інші об’єкти генерації України під час обстрілу 28 квітня не були пошкоджені. Об’єднана енергетична система працює стабільно з профіцитом потужності», – повідомили в Міненерго.

27 квітня на Харківщині на російській міні підірвався автомобіль, в якому перебувала аварійно-відновлювальна бригада енергетиків «Харківобленерго», – одна людина загинула і четверо зазнали поранень.
…

Допомога у відновленні, виробництво зброї і консульство в Дніпрі – заяви президентів Чехії та Словаччини у Києві

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Президент Чехії Петр Павел і президентка Словаччини Зузана Чапутовою за підсумками переговорів із президентом Володимиром Зеленським у Києві підтвердили свою відданість подальшій підтримці України та висловили готовність долучатися до співпраці в оборонній та інших сферах. Про це повідомляють агенції «Інтерфакс-Україна», «УНІАН» та Офіс президента.

Так, президент Чехії повідомив про підготовку шести проєктів зі спільного з Україною виробництва зброї та боєприпасів, навчальних літаків і ремонту танків з можливістю повного здійснення виробничих робіт на українській території.

«У нас підготовлено шість ключових проєктів спільного виробництва на базі як українських, так і чеських фірм. Щодо конкретних проєктів: це виробництва зброї, боєприпасів, ремонт танків, наприклад Т-62, а також потенційне виробництво навчальних літаків. Для нас передання технологій і виробництва є пріоритетом, щоб це виробництво частково або повністю могло здійснюватися на території України. Кінцевий результат буде використовуватися з урахуванням технологій, які є в обох країнах», – заявив Павел на пресконференції.

Чехія, каже Павел, прагне перейти від допомоги до співпраці, і країни мають все необхідне для такої взаємодії.

«Ми готові запропонувати нашу підтримку та співпрацю у сфері енергетики, транспортної інфраструктури та житлового господарства. Надзвичайно радий тому, що в цих питаннях ми дійшли згоди з паном Зеленським. Ми досягли розуміння, що ця співпраця має відбутися, і ми будемо рухатися, щоб її швидко реалізувати», – наголосив президент Чехії.

За його словами, для поглиблення співпраці Чехія планує відкрити Генконсульство у Дніпрі.

Володимир Зеленський, у свою чергу, відзначив рішення Чехії щодо патронату над відновленням Дніпропетровщини.

Із президентом Словаччини Зузаною Чапутовою обговорювалися відповідні кроки щодо Чернігівщини.

Чапутова також заявила, що «Словацька Республіка – одна з перших країн, яка відправляє групи експертів для документування воєнних злочинів».

«Це потрібно для того, щоб ми могли в майбутньому притягнути винних до відповідальності», – сказала вона.

Павел також запевнив, що Чехія підтримує створення міжнародного трибуналу для розслідування злочинів, скоєних на території України.

Чапутова наголосила на важливості здобуття Україною повноправного членства у Європейському союзі, вказавши, що її країна готова допомагати, щоб цей процес рухався якнайшвидше.

Павел, крім підтримку членства України в ЄС, висловився і за Україну в НАТО. За його словами, Україна заслужила це своєю стійкістю, відвагою, протистоянням і боротьбою за свободу.

Президент України Володимир Зеленський заявив на пресконференції з лідерами Чехії та Словаччини, що сьогодні не може бути жодних штучних обмежень в оборонній допомозі Україні, потрібні амбітні рішення, які зміцнять загальну європейську безпеку.

«Росія повинна програти в цій війні, а її керівництво має бути засуджене за злочин агресії та геноцид проти українців, щоб іншим народам не довелося переживати те, що російський терор приніс українцям», – наголосив Зеленський.

Він подякував словацькому та чеському народам, їхнім лідерам за допомогу в захисті свободи та життя українців.

«Вся надана Україні допомога, кожна надана система ППО, кожен військовий літак, кожна гармата, кожна одиниця бронетехніки, якими ми захищаємося від російської агресії, – це врятовані життя українців і українок», – заявив Зеленський.

Президенти Чехії Петр Павел та президентка Словаччини Зузана Чапутова сьогодні прибули звізитом до України. Чапутова вже була в Україні після повномасштабного вторгнення РФ, а для Павела це перший візит на посаді президента.
…

Ув’язнена в Криму Данилович досі не отримала обіцяне лікування, ще один в’язень потребує операції – Лубінець

SocNet Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

Амета Сулейманова утримують у маленькому підвальному приміщенні – карантинному відділенні СІЗО ще з 11-ма людьми, заявив він
…

Biden Notecard Raises Question of Collusion Between White House, Media

PolitCens Новини, Політика, Суспільство 0 Comment

The White House and a newspaper are denying there was collusion this week when a reporter asked U.S. President Joe Biden a question very similar to what was written on a card Biden held while facing journalists in the White House Rose Garden.

“We do not have specific questions in advance. That’s not something that we do,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded when asked at Thursday’s briefing about the president’s pocket card, titled “Question # 1,” which contained the name and photograph of Los Angeles Times correspondent Courtney Subramanian, along with a question: “How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?”

Close-up images of the notecard were captured by multiple news photographers in the Rose Garden.

Biden, alongside visiting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday, called first on Subramanian, who asked: “Your top economic priority has been to build up U.S. domestic manufacturing in competition with China, but your rules against expanding chip manufacturing in China is hurting South Korean companies that rely heavily on Beijing. Are you damaging a key ally in the competition with China to help your domestic politics ahead of the election?”

Biden responded with an extensive and nuanced comment on the topic.

‘It seems like there’s collusion’

Jean-Pierre explained the following day that Subramanian was one of two correspondents called on by Biden because California has the largest Korean American community of any U.S. state.

“We are mindful on who we pick and who we want to communicate out to,” added Jean-Pierre.

Her response did not satisfy the briefing room audience. Among those denied an opportunity to ask a follow-up question about the matter was Jon Decker, White House correspondent for Gray Television, whose career spans 16 White House press secretaries and five presidencies.

“I was just simply trying to ask her is it her contention that the question that everyone could read on that so-called cheat sheet was not similar to the question that was asked at the White House press conference? And it was similar,” he told VOA.

“I’ve never seen an instance where the president is being given a question from a reporter that covers the president at a pre-announced White House press conference,” Decker added. “It really reflects poorly on the White House press corps, and it reflects poorly on the White House for allowing that to happen. It seems like there’s collusion, and for the public that has distrust, skepticism and even disdain for the media, it doesn’t put us in a good light.”

The White House continued to rebuff inquiries following Thursday’s briefing.

“Karine addressed this very clearly and in-depth in the briefing room today,” responded principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton to VOA, which attempted to pursue the topic of presubmitted questions to the president.

Subramanian has not commented. Her newspaper issued a statement to inquiries from media organizations.

“Our reporter did not submit any questions in advance of the Q&A with President Biden,” said Hillary Manning, vice president of communications for the Los Angeles Times. Subramanian “is in regular contact with the White House press office seeking information for her reporting. You would have to ask the White House who prepared the document for the president and why they included that question.”

April Ryan, Washington bureau chief of The Grio, who refers to herself as the longest-serving black female journalist covering the White House, said while it is not unusual for presidents to have a card listing journalists who could potentially be called on, she had never seen one that contained a picture of the reporter and the “actual question itself.”

Ryan told VOA it is routine prior to news conferences for the president and his principals, who help him with messaging, to discuss potential questions but what occurred Wednesday seemed unprecedented.

Kayleigh McEnany, a press secretary in the previous administration of Donald Trump, on the set of Fox News on Thursday, said “it’s very unordinary to have the question as specific as semiconductors as they pertain to alliances written out and scripted for the president.”

A correspondent, who asked not to be named and covers the White House for a foreign broadcaster, told VOA: “It raises questions of not only President Biden needing a heads up to come up with answers but also transparency of how the White House chooses who gets to ask questions. It is frustrating for reporters who aren’t in their inner circle.”

Reagan, Bush, had a seating chart

The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Tamara Keith of National Public Radio, declined to comment on the issue. The association noted it has no involvement on who gets called on by presidents at news conferences.

During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, the presidents had a seating chart to know where to find a sympathetic questioner, said Charles Bierbauer, who was CNN’s senior White House correspondent from 1983-93.

“The guessing game between the press and the White House has long been to figure out who might ask what of the president at news conferences,” he told VOA.

“I recall presidential aides gleefully telling us when they had anticipated every question. My pattern was to be prepared for the questions I knew I had to ask but always have kind of an offbeat question, too,” recalled Bierbauer, distinguished professor and dean emeritus at the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina.

It is not uncommon for the White House to let a reporter know he or she will be called on during a news conference and to query the reporter about what they might ask, according to former CBS Radio White House correspondent Mark Knoller, who covered eight presidents from Gerald Ford to Trump.

“As a reporter, I always prepared questions on a number of subjects,” Knoller told VOA. “More often than not the White House knows what subjects a reporter is interested in based on questions at briefings and inquiries made previously to the press office. I can’t believe a reporter worth his or her salt would give a detailed question in advance.”
…