https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2024/09/06/florida-abortion-amendment-petition-signature-fraud-voters/

Isaac Menasche remembers being at the Cape Coral farmer’s market last year when someone asked him if he’d sign a petition to get Florida’s abortion amendment on the ballot.

He said yes — and he told a law enforcement officer as much when one showed up at the door of his Lee County home earlier this week.

Menasche said he was surprised when the plainclothes officer twice asked if it was really Menasche who had signed the petition. The officer said he was looking into potential petition fraud.

Though the officer was professional and courteous, Menasche, who has had little interaction with police in his life, said the encounter left him shaken.

I’m not a person who is going out there protesting for abortion,” Menasche said. “I just felt strongly and I took the opportunity when the person asked me, to say yeah, I’ll sign that petition.”

The officer’s visit appears to be part of a broad — and unusual — effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to inspect thousands of already verified and validated petitions for Amendment 4 in the final two months before Election Day. The amendment would overturn Florida’s six-week abortion ban by proposing to protect abortion access in Florida until viability.

>'Flood the country with guns, just not near me' - Republicans

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/austin-theriault-police-call-assault-rifle_n_66da4adee4b0abbb7b4442b1

Maine state Rep. Austin Theriault, a Republican running for a critical U.S. House seat as a champion of the Second Amendment, called his local sheriff’s office after passing a man wielding what looked like an AR-15 rifle while going into his home.

In a bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Jared Golden that could decide control of the House, Theriault has attacked Golden for endorsing an assault weapons ban after a man with an assault-style rifle murdered 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, in late October last year.

But Theriault, a former champion race car driver who lives in Fort Kent, Maine, has apparently not always been comfortable in the presence of the AR-15, perhaps the best known example of an assault-style rifle.

HuffPost obtained the records of Theriault’s interactions with the Aroostook County, Maine sheriff’s department. Theriault called the Aroostook County, Maine sheriff’s department in the evening of Jan. 10, 2023, to report his concerns about a man wielding what Theriault thought was an AR-15 while the man was entering his front porch.

According to the report, the dispatcher at the sheriff’s department said Theriault “wanted to report a man walking onto his porch holding his AR-15. He didn’t have an address but stated he wanted law enforcement notified in case the man fired shots.”

No shots were fired, the report noted.

In their own write-up of the incident, the officer subsequently tasked with responding to Theriault’s call implied that Theriault might have a tendency to unnecessarily report other people’s behavior to the police.

“Austin Theriault called in advising a male subject he passed was standing on his porch with what appeared to be [an] AR-15 rifle. I reviewed other cards and saw that Austin has called in multiple suspicious complaints to police,” the officer wrote.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/sep/07/elon-musk-first-trillionaire-2027

Elon Musk is on pace to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027, according to a new report from a group that tracks wealth.

Informa Connect Academy’s finding about the boss of electric carmaker Tesla, private rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X (formerly Twitter) stems from the fact that Musk’s wealth has been growing at an average annual rate of 110%. He was also the world’s richest person, with $251bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as the academy’s 2024 Trillion Dollar Club report began circulating Friday.

The academy’s analysis suggested business conglomerate founder Gautam Adani of India would become the second to achieve trillionaire status. That would reportedly happen in 2028 if his annual growth rate remains at 123%.

Jensen Huang, the chief executive officer of the tech firm Nvidia, and Prajogo Pangestu, the Indonesian energy and mining mogul, could also become trillionaires in 2028 if their trajectories hold. Bernard Arnault, the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton boss and the world’s third-richest person with about $200bn, is on track to eclipse a trillion dollars in 2030 – the same year as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta.

A handful of companies have secured valuations of more than $1tn. Berkshire Hathaway most recently topped the valuation in late August, days before its architect Warren Buffett celebrated his 94th birthday. Nvidia joined the $1tn club in May 2023 and in June hit $3tn, positioning it at the time after Microsoft and before Apple as the world’s second-most-valuable company.

However, as CNBC noted, the question of who might be the globe’s first trillionaire has fascinated the public ever since the world crowned its first billionaire in 1916. That was the US’s John D Rockefeller, the founder and at the time largest shareholder of Standard Oil.

Trump Claims Harris’s Rallies Are Smaller. We Counted

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/07/us/politics/harris-trump-rally-crowds-size.html

The sizable support Vice President Kamala Harris has generated at her rallies has rattled former President Donald J. Trump, who has emphasized, and frequently exaggerated, his crowd sizes for years. He has said, often repeating falsehoods, that his crowds are much larger than Ms. Harris’s, and the Harris campaign has returned with their own jabs about the enthusiasm of Trump rallygoers.

We attended six rallies — every campaign event that the candidates held within a three-week period in August — across six states, taking photographs and capturing video and 360-degree footage, to analyze which claims on crowd sizes hold weight. The analysis found that, despite Mr. Trump’s claims, both candidates draw comparably big audiences.

On a Friday night, Mr. Trump drew 11,500 people to the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz. Here’s what it looked like:

On a Tuesday night during the weeklong Democratic National Convention in late August, Ms. Harris drew 12,800 to a campaign event at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis. Here’s a scene from that rally:

The four other campaign events that The Times attended were similarly packed, with audience members generally filling up the space designated for the event. The rallies took place at venues with maximum capacities ranging from 6,800 to 19,300 people, though in some cases sections of seating were cordoned off, and additional seating or standing-only areas were added.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/us/politics/noncitizen-voting-government-shutdown.html

Republicans across the country have spent months pushing the unsubstantiated idea that a swarm of undocumented immigrants is poised to vote illegally and swing the upcoming election to Democrats.

It’s a false narrative, aimed at scoring political points with Republicans’ hard-right base, but it could still create real chaos on Capitol Hill in the run-up to the election.

But House Republicans are hoping to weaponize the idea in their fight with Democrats over funding the government by a Sept. 30 deadline.

Whether the maneuver will give those Republicans the political leverage they are seeking — and how far they are willing to go to try to gain it — is an open question. It may take a government shutdown to find out.
A shutdown showdown

There are plenty of precedents for the coming shutdown showdown, which usually go something like this: Republicans and Democrats reach a stalemate over spending and run out of time for a deal. Republicans demand concessions on a politically charged issue — in this case, addressing illegal voting by immigrants — as the price of agreeing to any more federal funding, gambling that Democrats will fear a voter backlash if they refuse. Democrats balk, gambling that the G.O.P. will shoulder the blame for forcing an unpopular shutdown.

Kentucky active shooter – latest: Police identify fugitive suspected gunman after seven people injured on highway

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/kentucky-active-shooting-highway-london-b2608926.html

An active shooter is at large after opening fire near near I-75 in Kentucky, striking multiple people, to authorities.

Just after 6.30pm, the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office announced that interstate highway at Exit 49 and US 25 — nine miles north of London — was closed due to an “active shooter situation.”

Seven people were injured — not all from gunshot wounds — and none have died as a result of the incident, according to London Mayor Randall Weddle.

As of an hour later, the suspect has not been caught, police said.

“The Suspect has not been caught at this time we are urging people to stay inside!!We will try our best to get you as much information as it becomes available!!” Kentucky State Police Trooper Scottie Pennington wrote on Facebook.

Governor Andy Beshear urged locals to avoid the area in a post on X: “Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County. Law enforcement has shut the interstate down in both directions at exit 49. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available.”

Authorities are urging locals to avoid the area and traffic is being diverted off at Exit 59.

https://www.businessinsider.com/falling-gas-prices-trump-harris-election-issue-2024-9

>Trump has criticized Harris and Biden over gas prices.
>But gas prices are falling, challenging his narrative.

Former President Donald Trump has been using gas prices to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a recent email blast, Trump said fuel prices had "soared, making commuting and travel more expensive." At a rally in Iowa in December, Trump claimed gas prices had soared up to $8 a gallon, which fact-checkers quickly dismissed as false.

The cost of gas has long been a key issue for voters, who — despite global events like war or political instability in oil-rich countries abroad — typically blame high prices on whoever is in the White House. So, it's a well-rehearsed political maneuver for a challenger to attack an incumbent over the cost of gas.

Despite Trump's exaggerations, he's not entirely wrong. Gas prices have risen in recent years. They hit a high of about $4.93 a gallon in mid-2022, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration, which assembles and analyzes data from the US government. That high came just months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of that year, causing fuel prices to spike.

But, a month before the election, gas prices are falling, upending Trump's attack strategy. Gas prices have declined steadily for the last five months, in fact, according to the American Automobile Association. Andrew Gross, a spokesperson for AAA, said that trend is likely to continue.

"There are now 10 states with gasoline averages below $3 a gallon, which means thousands of retail outlets east of the Rockies are selling gas at similarly low prices," Gross said in a press release, which noted that gas demand is low, as is the current cost of oil at about $70 per barrel.

The national average price for a gallon of gas was $3.30, a 6-cent decline from the previous week, AAA said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-activist-forging-guns-into-art-kensington/

At a Philadelphia workshop, guns are taken off the streets and transformed into works of art and everyday items with a powerful message.

Shane Claiborne, a Tennessee native, grew up around guns. But when he moved to North Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, he saw too many lives lost to gun violence.

He felt he had to do something, so two years ago Claiborne opened RAWtools Philadelphia.

"My philosophy is any gun we can chop up makes the world a little safer," he said.

"It's mindboggling what people have," Claiborne said of the weapons collected by the shop. "We've had grenade launchers, Uzis, weapons of war."

A lifelong activist, Claiborne has been to warzones to advocate for nonviolence, but never thought he'd be fighting a war on his home front.

When the Sandy Hook massacre happened in 2012, like many people across the country, Claiborne was hit hard."

"That was one of those wake up moments where our country was like never again, but then we let it happen again and again," he said.

After that, Claiborne joined the RAW effort, breaking down guns into jewelry, art and garden tools. On average, the group collects 1,000 guns a year.

In 2021, Claiborne began his raw war on guns in Philly, and the work is resonating with teens in the area.

"I like how they are changing guns into positive things instead of negative things," one teenager said.

Despite the challenges, Claiborne believes the city can win the war on guns. "Just as metal can change, so can our neighborhoods. So can policies. So can a human heart," he said.

The proceeds from all items sold by RAWtools Philadelphia go toward getting guns off the streets.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-trump-harris-putin-election-disinformation-13b15fcd42e52d77c22454c223e85b95

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia has long sought to inject disinformation into U.S. political discourse. Now, it’s got a new angle: paying Americans to do the work.

This week’s indictment of two Russian state media employees on charges that they paid a Tennessee company to create pro-Russian content has renewed concerns about foreign meddling in the November election while revealing the Kremlin’s latest tactic in a growing information war.

If the allegations prove correct, they represent a significant escalation, analysts say, and likely capture only a small piece of a larger Russian effort to sway the election.

“We have seen the smoke for years. Now, here’s the fire,” said Jim Ludes, a former national defense analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International Relations at Salve Regina University. “I don’t wonder if they’re doing more of this. I have no doubt.”

According to prosecutors, the two employees of RT, a Russian outlet formerly known as Russia Today, funneled $10 million to the U.S. media company, which then paid several popular right-wing influencers for their content — in one case $400,000 a month. Two of those influencers said they had no idea their work was being supported by Russia.

Intelligence officials and private analysts say Russia’s disinformation campaigns are designed to cut off American assistance to Ukraine, clearing the way for a rapid Russian victory after more than two years of bitter conflict.
In the presidential race, Russia supports Donald Trump as the candidate perceived as the least supportive of Ukraine, intelligence officials say. Trump has openly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance. On Thursday, Putin wryly claimed he was pulling for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.

Analysis identifies 8 congressional members who violated stock trading laws.
They were all Democrats
https://www.newsweek.com/stock-act-congress-violations-trading-shares-1947459
Revealed: Members of Congress Who May Have Flouted a Stock Trading Law

eight members of Congress may have broken a law regarding the timely reporting of trades in stocks and other securities, according to disclosures made in August 2024 that appear not have been made within the required deadline.

According to House and Senate financial disclosure documents analysed by Newsweek, the politicians reported financial trades later than a mandatory reporting period, leaving them liable to possible fines.

The law, which covers stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other securities, is designed to ensure that the public are aware of any trades made by elected representatives in a timely and transparent way.

Some members of Congress are now campaigning to impose a ban on all members and their immediate families from trading individual stocks, citing a risk that legislation could be influenced by their possible financial gains and that members could be involved in insider trading on the basis of being privy to information before the public.

Members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell stocks, but lawmakers, their spouses and dependants must publicly disclose any transactions over $1,000 within 30 days or within 45 days of receiving notice of the transaction if it has been made on their behalf, under the 2012 STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act), which also banned insider trading. Members do not need to report the value of their transactions, but must provide a broad numerical range in the periodic transaction reports (PTRs).

If a Congress member discloses their trade after the deadline, they must pay a fine of at least $200, or apply for a waiver to appeal the penalty. Repeat offenders can face increasingly higher fines.