Tag: House

More Than Dozen Injured As House Collapses

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SRINAGAR: At least sixteen women were injured after a house collapsed in Khanetar village of Poonch district on Thursday.
Quoting an official, KNO reported that the incident happened when people had assembled in the house of Zakir Hussain Shah of Khanetar village to mourn death of a family member.
He said that due to heavy load amid large presence of mourners, roof of the house collapsed, resulting in injuries to 16 women.
The injured have been rushed to a hospital for treatment, he said. (KNO)

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#Dozen #Injured #House #Collapses
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 13, 2023
Ex-journalist held for house break-ins; valuables worth Rs 20 lakh recovered

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Thane: Police have arrested a 32-year-old former journalist from Dombivli in Maharashtra’s Thane district for allegedly stealing valuables by breaking into houses, an official said on Wednesday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone III – Kalyan) Sachin Gunjal said, “Of late, the number of house break-in and theft cases had gone up in the Kalyan-Dombivli region.
The police had formed teams that worked on various leads, including the CCTV footages and intelligence inputs, finally nabbed the accused.”

The police recovered from him 47 ‘tola’ gold ornaments and a couple of laptops worth Rs 20 lakh, he said.
With his arrest, the police claimed to have solved eight cases of house break-in and thefts in the region.
The accused is well-educated and worked as a journalist in a leading newpaper in Mumbai till 2011. He got addicted to dance bars and in order to earn quick money, he started targeting houses for thefts, the police official said.
“He used to strike the locked houses and loot the ornaments,” he added.
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#Exjournalist #held #house #breakins #valuables #worth #lakh #recovered
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 13, 2023
Inside Jeff Zients’ White House charm offensive

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Recently, after dropping in on National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, he joined the NSC’s all-staff meeting that had been underway. Zients has also wandered across West Executive Drive and into the EEOB, as he did last week for Ike’s Taco Tuesday lunch, the staffers said.
“Jeff is definitely getting his steps in,” one staffer quipped.
Zients is known as an experienced manager comfortable with delegating assignments down the chain of command and setting internal deadlines for goals, results and determining next steps. But he has also spent his early time in the chief of staff role brandishing his accessibility and building relations. It’s not just the random stop-bys and taco noshing. Starting this week, he will start holding town halls on campus to facilitate more direct communication among staff. The first is set for Friday.
The meetings, which will be open to several dozen aides chosen by lottery to attend in person, will provide “an opportunity to hear from senior staff on policy and priorities and for staff to provide feedback to the Chief of Staff and White House leadership,” one White House official told West Wing Playbook.
The plan is for Zients and one or two other senior officials to give a short presentation at the outset and then open things up for roughly 45 minutes of questions, the official said.
It’s not clear how frequently the gatherings will take place, possibly every few months, but more are in the offing to accommodate those who aren’t invited to this week’s, which will take place in the EEOB’s South Court auditorium. And all administration staffers will get a Zoom link to watch live.
The town hall idea comes on top of other traditions Zients has implemented inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., including Wednesday morning bagel deliveries from Call Your Mother, the D.C. franchise he helped start.
Zients has also penned hand-written thank you notes to several staffers and continues to utilize the chief of staff’s office — and outdoor patio — for Friday happy hours. According to people familiar with the gatherings, he’s held recent happy hours for members of the budget team and for those involved in the reopening of the Navy Mess, the basement cafeteria where staffers with access often eat breakfast and lunch.

Zients is a familiar face to many given his work leading the administration’s early Covid-19 response and, last year, a quiet effort to manage staff transitions following the midterms. And at Biden’s request last year, he helped oversee the building and launch of the government website for the administration’s student loan forgiveness program, working with the Office of Management and Budget and Dept. of Education to ensure the site, where people can determine if they qualify, was operational. The role, which has not been reported on previously, was a reprisal of Zients’ initial work with then-Vice President Biden to fix the glitch-prone online healthcare marketplace during the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act roll-out in 2013.
Despite all that history, he also embarks on the staff outreach from the perch of a relative outsider in a White House filled with longtime Biden loyalists. His predecessor, Ron Klain, had worked with the president for decades and had years-long relationships with other staffers and Democratic lawmakers.
Zients, who is an increasingly active caller and texter (although this reporter’s most recent text to Zients went unresponded to 🙁), has worked to keep in touch with staff in the building and a growing number of key allies on the Hill. According to a person familiar with the conversation, he texted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the leader of the House Progressive Caucus who had a close relationship with Klain, on Tuesday to discuss her Seattle Times op-ed praising Biden’s economic agenda.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 13, 2023
The White House is welcoming the latest inflation numbers. Others aren’t so sure.

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Beneath the headline number there’s trouble. So-called core inflation — which strips out volatile energy and food prices — actually rose in March on an annual basis. That will probably do nothing to deter Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in his war on inflation.
A sharp drop in bank lending after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank may do some of the Fed’s work for it by squeezing borrowers. But that — and the Fed’s continued inflation fight — could also tip a precariously balanced economy toward a slump.
Here’s how the latest inflation numbers are likely to go over with Biden and other key players:
Biden: The drop in the headline CPI figure to the lowest rate in nearly two years could boost the president since spiking inflation and the possibility of a Fed-induced recession are among the biggest existential threats to his winning a second term.
Biden’s strongest political selling points are a remarkably resilient job market and rising wages, especially among lower-income earners. Anything that undermines these pillars — including inflation turning higher again and wiping out wage gains — gives the White House nightmares.
The latest inflation numbers, while mixed, were certainly no nightmare for the administration.
“We think this is good news to the extent that headline inflation fell and is now at 5 percent, down from 9.1 percent last summer,” White House economic adviser Heather Boushey said in a Yahoo! News interview. “So things are moving in the right direction.”
She added: “We are interpreting this as movement in the right direction especially when combined with last Friday’s labor market data.”

That report showed the economy created 236,000 jobs in March, defying yet again widespread expectations of a sharp slowdown as Fed rate hikes pump the brakes on growth in many sectors (think housing and manufacturing).
Powell: What may look good for Biden won’t go over as well with the Fed chair.
The central bank chief likely smiled when he saw the headline figure dropping to 5 percent, but probably not when he got into the details.
Core prices — which the Fed believes give a truer picture of where inflation is at — actually jumped 5.6 percent in March on an annual basis, up from 5.5 percent in February and the first yearly increase since September. So this thing’s not over yet.
And while the Fed’s rate-hike campaign is curbing the price spikes, inflation remains well above the central bank’s target of 2 percent annually. (Imagine that up until two years ago, the Fed’s biggest concern was that inflation was too low.)
Powell has repeatedly said in press conferences and speeches that while bringing down overall inflation is good, he and his colleagues need to see core inflation dropping as well before they can be confident their job is done.
Still, central bank officials are now debating whether to pause the rate increases at their next meeting in May amid some signs of softening in the economy and continued fallout from the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank last month. (The CPI numbers don’t take into account the impact of those failures).
Wall Street is looking for one more quarter-point hike and then a pause — followed by potential cuts later this year or early next. (Powell has dismissed the possibility of rate cuts this year).
Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chair: Republicans pounced on the report to hammer Biden on inflation despite the drop in the overall figure.
“Inflation is up, wages are down, and Americans are struggling to stay afloat in Biden’s failed economy,” McDaniel said in a statement.
“Democrats have neither answers nor solutions — their policies only worsen the economic burden on families, yet Biden wants taxpayers to foot the bill for his $6.9 trillion tax-and-spending spree that will send inflation soaring even higher.
Biden’s poll numbers generally and on the economy in particular remain deeply underwater — but tend to rise and fall with inflation. He’ll need much faster progress to get the numbers moving higher.
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon — Dimon, CEO of the biggest bank in America, will certainly appreciate the dip in the headline number. But he and other financial industry titans have larger concerns, including a decline in bank lending that is likely to accelerate after all the rate hikes and bank failures.
A recent report showed bank lending plunged by more than $100 billion in the last two weeks of March — the largest such decline on record.
Banks are tightening up standards for lending — and consumers and businesses are struggling with higher rates — which can lead to a sharp recession if a real credit crunch occurs and money stops flowing freely into the U.S. economy.
Bank CEOs like Dimon worry that the Fed remains behind in its inflation fight and may have significantly more work to do to rein in prices.
“I have all the respect for Powell,” Dimon said in a recent CNBC interview. “But the fact is we lost a little bit of control of inflation.”
He and other executives aren’t yet calling for an imminent recession. But they are getting prepared for one.
“Out in front of us, there’s some scary stuff. You and I know there’s always uncertainty,” Dimon said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 12, 2023
Bragg sues House Republicans over ‘campaign of harassment’ amid Trump probe

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The new litigation was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee. It stems from the first subpoena issued in a sweeping House GOP investigation into Bragg’s office. Republicans launched their probe, led by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), while rallying to Trump’s side ahead of his indictment.
Vyskocil replied to Bragg’s lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, indicating that she would not grant his motion for a temporary restraining order. Instead, she ordered Bragg to serve the lawsuit on Jordan by 9 p.m. Tuesday and for Jordan and the committee to respond to the filing by April 17. Vyskocil said she would hold a hearing on April 19.
Meanwhile, Jordan and members of his committee will take their defense of Trump to a new height by heading to New York on Monday, ramping up their public pressure campaign against Bragg. And the Ohioan quickly took to Twitter to push back on Bragg’s suit.
“First, they indict a president for no crime,” Jordan wrote. “Then, they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask questions about the federal funds they say they used to do it.”
The three GOP lawmakers have also been quietly preparing for a potential court battle. They warned in a March response to Bragg’s office that they believed any subpoena would survive a “three-prong test” previously laid out by the Supreme Court that is meant to “determine the legal sufficiency of a congressional subpoena.”
Pomerantz told Jordan and the Judiciary Committee on March 27 that he would not testify voluntarily, citing an instruction he received from Bragg’s office earlier in the month. That instruction came in a letter, dated March 25, in which Bragg’s general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, told Pomerantz that the Judiciary Committee subpoena raised “concerns about federalism, state sovereignty, the limits on congressional power, and the purpose and legality” of the probe.
The battle over Pomerantz could also portend a more prolonged fight between House Republicans and Bragg’s office. Jordan sent a letter on Friday to Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel to the New York County District Attorney’s Office, requesting closed-door testimony. (He took a similar step with Pomerantz before issuing his subpoena.)
And Jordan hasn’t ruled out subpoenaing Bragg himself. Judiciary panel staffers were already laying some of the groundwork for that step, but their timeline is in limbo amid a volley of letters back-and-forth with Bragg’s office. Responses from the DA’s office have not ruled out cooperating and instead pushed for more details on what the three GOP lawmakers would want to discuss as part of any sitdown interview.

Pomerantz began working on investigations into Trump under former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and continued after Bragg took office in December 2021. However, Pomerantz and a colleague abruptly resigned about two months later, with reports quickly emerging that Bragg had balked at launching the wide-scale tax-and-insurance fraud prosecution of Trump that Pomerantz favored.
Two months ago, Pomerantz released a book accusing Bragg of abandoning a winnable criminal case against Trump. Just before the book was published, Bragg sent the author and the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, a letter urging a delay and warning that Pomerantz had a duty to clear any manuscript about his work in advance with Bragg’s office.
The book was published as scheduled, and Pomerantz insisted he’d abided by his duties. “I am confident that all of my actions with respect to the Trump investigation, including the writing of my forthcoming book, are consistent with my legal and ethical obligations,” he said in a statement at the time.
Bragg never sued to block Pomerantz’s book or interviews he granted in connection with its release. However, the district attorney’s new lawsuit does seek orders forbidding the former prosecutor from complying with the House subpoena. It’s unclear whether the DA will ask the judge for a broader order that limits Pomerantz’s ability to discuss his interactions in the office.
Bragg also used his lawsuit to swing back at Trump’s attacks on him, noting that they led to threats to his office.
“Mr. Trump in particular has threatened New York officials with violent and racist vitriol,” Bragg’s filing states. “These statements have had a powerful effect. District Attorney Bragg has received multiple death threats. In one instance, he received a package containing suspicious white powder with a note making a specific death threat against him.”
Bragg’s lawsuit features a chronology of Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee’s public statements attacking the DA and bashing the investigation of Trump, which he says betrays the political nature of the GOP investigation. He contends that those Republican statements are evidence that the committee lacks a “legitimate legislative purpose” for probing his office — and is instead using it to punish a political adversary engaged in a criminal investigation.
To bolster that position, Bragg cites the Supreme Court’s decision in another Trump-related matter: Democrats’ yearslong effort to get the former president’s financial records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA. In its opinion, the court endorsed Congress’ sweeping power to investigate matters it plans to legislate, but acknowledged some limits on that power.
“The purported legislative purposes Chairman Jordan has invoked to support the subpoena are unsupported, speculative, specious, and/or unconstitutional. The subpoena is more broad than reasonably necessary to support any claimed congressional objective,” Bragg’s office contends.
But courts have long been wary of policing Congress’ investigative power, and even more loath to delve into the mindset of individual lawmakers who are pursuing politically explosive investigations. However, Bragg’s lawsuit may tie up Congress’ ability to garner testimony and information related to the Trump probe while it plays out in court.
Erica Orden contributed to this report.

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#Bragg #sues #House #Republicans #campaign #harassment #Trump #probe
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 12, 2023
A group of House progressives are urging the Justice Department to drop charges and an extradition request against Julian Assange.

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The formal ask comes as the U.S. government is reeling from another significant leak of classified information.

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#group #House #progressives #urging #Justice #Department #drop #charges #extradition #request #Julian #Assange
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
White House announces increased sanctions to combat fentanyl trafficking

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Washington will build a global coalition to combat the illicit synthetic drug trade, the statement said, in an effort to “develop solutions, drive national actions, and create synergies and leverage among like-minded countries.”
The sanctions come as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and members of his security cabinet plan to meet with U.S. officials this week about fentanyl and arms trafficking.
President Joe Biden’s push to counter drug traffickers also coincides with numerous lawmakers’ critiques that his administration has not done enough to stem the tide of drugs flowing from Mexico. As tensions with the southern neighbor rise, prominent Republicans have even called for bombing drug cartels in Mexico to solve the problem.
Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, has floated the idea of sending “special forces” and using “cyber warfare” to target cartel leaders. Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at war with the cartels.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he’s open to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to target drug lords — even without Mexico City’s permission.
“We need to start thinking about these groups more like ISIS than we do the mafia,” Waltz told POLITICO.
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to clarify that the U.S. is increasing preexisting sanctions.
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#White #House #announces #increased #sanctions #combat #fentanyl #trafficking
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
White House says ignoring judge’s abortion pill ruling would set a ‘dangerous precedent’

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The White House said on Monday that it would be a “dangerous precedent” for the administration to ignore a federal judge’s decision last week blocking the sale of an abortion pill.
“But I’ll say this, you know, as a dangerous precedent is set for the court to set aside the FDA’s and expert judgment regarding a drug’s safety and efficiency, it will also set a dangerous precedent for this administration to disregard a binding decision,” White House press secretary Jean-Pierre said at her briefing on Monday. “We are ready to fight this. This is going to be a long fight. We understand this. We stand by FDA approval of mifepristone.”
Jean-Pierre’s comments came after a federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday to suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a drug that can be used in tandem with another to induce an abortion. Though it isn’t set to take effect for a week, the decision virtually bans the sale of the pills across the country.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
House must have leader of opposition, says SC

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that a House must have a leader of opposition as it asked the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council chairman’s office to file its response on a plea moved by a Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala observed, “A House must have a leader of opposition”.
The remarks of the bench came after advocate MS Dhingra, appearing for UP Legislative Council chairman’s office, sought time to file the reply.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on May 1.
Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC Lal Bihari Yadav in his plea has challenged an Allahabad High Court order that upheld the withdrawal of his recognition as the leader of opposition.
On February 10, the top court had agreed to hear Yadav’s plea and issued a notice to the office of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council chairman, whose notification dated July 7, 2022 withdrew the petitioner’s recognition as the LoP.
Yadav had submitted that the LoP is the leader of the single-largest opposition party in the House.
The top court had said, “What we have to see is whether there is any restriction provided under the statute that the leader of the opposition will be the one from the party having a certain number of seats.”

In the 100-member House, 90 are elected and 10 nominated.
The notification from the House chairman’s office says the LoP will be from a party that enjoys at least 10 per cent of the total strength of the House.
Yadav has said in his arguments that the SP should get the LoP post as it has nine members which is 10 per cent of 90 elected members. The government has opposed his argument, saying it should be 10 per cent of the total strength, and a party with at least 10 members is eligible to get the post.
On October 21 last year, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had dismissed Yadav’s plea that had challenged the notification issued by the principal secretary of the legislative council, de-recognising him as the LoP.
The high court had said in view of the prevailing law, Yadav did not have an inalienable right to be appointed or to continue as the LoP.
It had said the Uttar Pradesh State Legislature (Members’ Emoluments and Pension) Act, 1980 does not prescribe any mechanism for recognising an LoP.
“The chairman of the Vidhan Parishad was not bound to be guided only by the criterion of recognising the leader of an opposition party, which has the greatest numerical strength. The rules provide for discretion of the respondent no.1 (legislative council chairman) to recognise and/or de-recognise a leader of opposition,” it had said.
According to the petition, Yadav was elected as an MLC in 2020 and designated as the LoP in the Legislative Council on May 27, 2020.
But the Legislative Council Secretariat de-recognised him as the LoP when the SP’s strength in the House fell short of 10 — the minimum number of members required for the largest opposition party to get the post.
Yadav has pleaded that the principal secretary’s decision was “illegal and arbitrary”.
He has sought a direction to stay the operation of the July 7, 2022 notification by which his recognition as the LoP in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council was withdrawn.
The SP leader has also sought the quashing of the notification.
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#House #leader #opposition
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 10, 2023
Body of missing 2-year-old found in suitcase in neighbour’s house

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Greater Noida: In a shocking incident, the body of a two-year-old toddler, who was missing for two days now, was on Sunday found stuffed in a suitcase lying in her neighbour’s house in Greater Noida, police said. The neighbour is absconding.
The incident was reported from Devla village in Surajpur area.
The victim was one of the two children of Shiv Kumar and his wife who lived in a rented accommodation in Devla. On April 7, Shiv Kumar, who worked in a local factory, was on duty, and his wife stepped out to go to the market, leaving both children at home. When she returned, her daughter was missing. She inquired around the neighbourhood but found no trace of her, and finally approached the police. Police filed a missing complaint and launched a search but it was also fruitless.

On Sunday afternoon, the family noticed a stench from their next-door neighbour’s house, which was locked, and alerted the police. A police team from Surajpur reached the area and searched the house, only to find the body of the missing girl in a suitcase there.
It was found that the house was of a man named Raghavendra, who had also joined the search for the girl after her mother found her missing from home, but had subsequently disappeared.
Police have sent the body of the child for a post-mortem examination and are probing further.
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#Body #missing #2yearold #suitcase #neighbours #house

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 10, 2023