Cori Bush Rep mo

oddly blank?

sit in on steps?

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an 1 24

The Biden administration's Department of Justice has officially opened a criminal investigation into Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) for allegedly misappropriating public money.

Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman tweeted the news of the investigation on Tuesday, citing "six sources familiar with the matter." He added that the DOJ had subpoenaed the House Sergeant-at-Arms for records pertaining to "misspending of federal security money." Punchbowl reporter Max Cohen attempted to ask the congresswoman for comment on the investigation, but was unable to and tweeted that he was "reprimanded" for the interaction "as she had a toothache."

Bush has not yet issued a public response to the allegations, but her Democratic primary opponent Wesley Bell — the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County in Missouri — stated that constituents "deserve a representative they can trust who will show up and get results for them."

"As a prosecutor, I understand that Rep. Bush is entitled to due process," Bell stated. "It is my hope that Rep. Bush will cooperate fully with the investigation and be transparent with the public in responding to the legitimate concerns they are likely to have."

Bush was previously the subject of a complaint lodged with the Federal Election Commission by the watchdog group Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) that she had paid her husband thousands of dollars for private security, even though he didn't have a valid license to run a security-based company. California Target Book research director Rob Pyers tweeted that Bush's campaign committee spent over $750,000 on security expenses, which was "far and away the campaign's biggest expense category."

"It appears Rep. Bush's campaign may have made payments for services that were unnecessary or above fair market value because of her personal relationship with the payee," FACT executive director Kendra Arnold wrote in the complaint. “If so, these payments would qualify as either impermissible payments to a family member or an impermissible gift."

However, Bush — who was a high-profile activist in Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of officer Darren Wilson — countered that high security expenses were necessary.

"I'm going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life, and I have too much work to do, there are too many people that need help right now for me to allow that," Bush said in 2021.

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~ boebert

ref

ENERGYWIRE | House Republicans’ attempt to scold President Joe Biden for his massive releases from the federal government’s oil stockpile was quickly overshadowed by allegations of “white supremacist” commentary and lies.

The House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs dedicated its first hearing of the Republican majority to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, using it as an attempt to denounce Biden’s sales of more than 200 million barrels of crude as a political maneuver that threatened national security.

But the Wednesday hearing quickly went off the rails.

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, the panel’s top Democrat, argued that Alex Epstein, one of the Republican’s pro-fossil-fuel witnesses, had “previously espoused white supremacist views,” citing his writings in theDuke Review, a conservative newspaper, during his studies at Duke University more than two decades ago.

“The African and African American studies department has 23 classes. In many of these classes, African culture is presented, not as inferior to Western culture, but on equal footing with it. The same is done with Latin American, Indian,...

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vid

Witnesses and testimonies:Mr. Alex Epstein

President

Center for Industrial Progress

Document

Dr. Ilia Bouchouev

Managing Partner

Pentathlon Investments, LLC

Document

Demond Drummer (Minority Witness)

Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy

The New School

Document

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common dr an 12 22

With colder winter weather looming, a new analysis released Tuesday shows that the nine largest energy utility companies in the U.S. raked in nearly $14 billion in combined profits during the first three quarters of this year—and dished out roughly $11 billion to their wealthy shareholders—as tens of millions of U.S. households struggled to pay their utility bills due to soaring costs.

The watchdog group Accountable.US found thatNextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Company, Dominion Energy, Constellation Energy, Eversource Energy, Entergy Corporation, DTE Energy, and CMS Energy Corporation brought in $13.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year. The firms, the nine largest in the U.S. by market capitalization, returned over $11.2 billion to shareholders during that period in the form of dividends and stock buybacks.

The utility giants' massive profits have come at a cost to U.S. households, roughly 20 million of which are behind on their utility payments as providers continue to raise rates across the U.S., pushing home energy costs to unaffordable levels and prompting warnings of a "tsunami of shutoffs."

The Center for Biological Diversity recently estimated that utilities have shut off households' power 440,000 times across 15 states that have made their rates publicly available, a large increase from last year.

"Well-heeled utility company CEOs are holding consumers' feet to the fire with exorbitant energy prices," Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable.US' Economic Security and Corporate Power program, said in a statement Tuesday. "Not because they have to, judging by their own high profits and generous giveaways to wealthy investors—but because they can with colder weather on the horizon."

"To prey on families who use a necessary service with unreasonable and unjustified rate hikes is corporate greed at its worst," Zelnick added.

The Accountable.US analysis shows that the same large utility companies raking in huge profits and paying their executives massive compensation packages are driving price increases nationwide.

Southern Company's Georgia subsidiary, for instance, "had a near-12% rate hike approved in June 2022—and in August 2022, its Tennessee subsidiary was granted a rate hike that would result in typical monthly home heating bills rising by about 25%," the analysis notes.

[twt]

nbc reported in October that "nationwide, investor-owned utilities have requested rate increases amounting to nearly $12 billion from the beginning of the year through the end of August."

Zelnick argued that utility giants' price hikes are part of a broader trend of corporate price-gouging, a practice that companies frequently excuse by pointing to higher overall inflation throughout the economy.

"Like so many other industries during the pandemic, utility companies have chased higher and higher profits and enriched investors rather than keep prices stable for working families," said Zelnick. "While the economy is seeing signs of slowing inflation, it is clear corporate greed continues to be a primary driver of high costs on everything from groceries to heating bills—a problem that won't be solved by the Fed's one-track-minded policy of excessive interest rate hikes that threaten millions of jobs."

Utility firms' greedy behavior throughout the coronavirus pandemic has drawn the attention of progressive lawmakers such as Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who in September introduced a resolution that would recognize access to utilities such as electricity and heating as a basic human right.

The Resolution Recognizing the Human Rights to Utilities has not yet received a vote.

"Utilities are the foundation we build our lives upon," Tlaib said in a statement upon introduction of the measure. "In the richest country the world has ever known, it is an outrage that millions of Americans struggle with utility insecurity, substandard and dangerous services, and inhumane shutoffs."

"It's time to change the conversation around what we all deserve, take the profit motive out of providing the basics of a good life, and give every American the opportunity to thrive," Tlaib added.

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