Domestic Glance
Reinsurers insure insurance companies, and have been raising rates in recent years because of steepening losses, which industry players put down in part to the impact of climate change. Higher reinsurance rates can affect the premiums which insurers charge to their customers.
U.S. property catastrophe reinsurance rates rise up to 50% on July 1-report
Hunter Biden to plead guilty to two tax charges, resolve federal gun violation: DOJ
Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of tax evasion in federal court in Delaware and participate in a pretrial program for a firearm offense, after a multi-year investigation into his tax matters, a case with implications for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign and dealings with congressional Republicans.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss filed a letter in federal court Tuesday citing the charges and the plea agreement. In one case, Biden will plead guilty to the tax charges, which allege willful failure to pay federal income tax. In another case, Biden agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement for the gun offense, in which he acknowledged unlawful possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver, despite being addicted to drugs.
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, dies aged 92
Daniel Ellsberg, a US government analyst who became one of the most famous whistleblowers in world politics when he leaked the Pentagon Papers, has died. He was 92. His death was confirmed by his family on Friday.
In March, Ellsberg announced that he had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Saying he had been given three to six months to live, he said he had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy and had been assured of hospice care.
“I am not in any physical pain,” Ellsberg wrote, adding: “My cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my favourite foods!”
The Pentagon Papers covered US policy in Vietnam between 1945 and 1967 and showed that successive administrations were aware the US could not win.
Pastor, son charged with dealing weed, mushrooms out of North Carolina church
A North Carolina pastor and his son are facing felony drug charges after authorities said they caught the pair operating an illicit drug operation out of a church.
Josh Price, 50, and Matthew Price, 28, were arrested this week after deputies seized about 12 pounds of marijuana, nearly 32 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 41 THC vape pens, 20 marijuana plants, and about 2 pounds of tetrahydrocannabinol wax (THC wax) from South Side Baptist Church, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Deputies responded to the church in Lexington, about 60 miles northeast of Charlotte, after receiving reports someone staying in the fellowship hall behind the church was manufacturing marijuana.
Oklahoma High Court Strikes Down 2 Abortion Bans
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional, but the procedure remains illegal in the state in most cases.
In a 6-3 ruling, the high court said the two bans are unconstitutional because they require a “medical emergency” before a doctor can perform an abortion. The court said this language conflicts with a previous ruling it issued in March. That ruling found the Oklahoma Constitution provides an “inherent right of a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy when necessary to preserve her life.”
NYC chief housing officer set to resign amid dual crises of homelessness, migrant arrivals
New York City’s Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz is set to leave her post in the Adams administration by early July, she told Gothamist, leaving open a critical role tasked with overseeing the city’s response to its growing housing and homelessness crises.
Mayor Eric Adams appointed Katz — a former city housing official, supportive housing administrator and policy expert — to the role at the beginning of his first-term in January 2022.
The newly created position was a partial response to calls for a deputy mayor to coordinate the various agencies that handle housing, including the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, NYCHA and the Department of Social Services.
In an exclusive interview, Katz said she did not yet know where she’ll go next, but plans to take the summer off.
Strict abortion bans fail in deep-red South Carolina and Nebraska
Abortion bans in deeply conservative Nebraska and South Carolina each fell a single vote short of passing in their legislatures amid heated debates among Republicans, yet another sign that abortion is becoming a difficult issue for the GOP.
As the last vote was cast in Nebraska, where abortion is currently banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy, cheers erupted outside the legislative chamber, with opponents of the bill waving signs and chanting, "Whose house? Our house!"
In South Carolina, Republican Sen. Sandy Senn criticized Majority Leader Shane Massey for repeatedly "taking us off a cliff on abortion."
"The only thing that we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion again and again and again, is for us to slap you back with our words," she said.
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