Comment on Saudi Arabia stays on UN Human Rights Council despite 19 beheadings

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a conservative-led attack that could have undermined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The justices ruled 7-2 that the way the CFPB is funded does not violate the Constitution, reversing a lower court and drawing praises from consumers. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion, splitting with his frequent allies, Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, who dissented. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, car loans and other consumer finance.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ, MICHELLE L. PRICE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press) NEW YORK — With prosecutors’ hush money case against Donald Trump barreling toward its end, their star witness will be back in the hot seat Thursday as defense lawyers try to chip away at Michael Cohen’s crucial testimony implicating the former president. The trial, now in its fourth week of testimony, is resuming in Manhattan with potentially explosive defense cross-examination of Cohen, whose credibility could determine the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s fate in the case. Cohen is prosecutors’ final witness — at least for now — as they try to prove Trump schemed to suppress a damaging story he feared would torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign and then falsified business records to cover it up. With the defense not expected to call many — if any — witnesses, Cohen’s cross-examination is a pivotal moment for Trump’s team, which must convince jurors that his once-loyal attorney and fixer can’t be believed.

Armando Payan has watched northern Denver change over several decades as thousands of residents have moved to Globeville and other neighborhoods near downtown, bringing more traffic with them. But one nearby piece of infrastructure — the shadowy, run-down 38th Street underpass that crosses below railroad tracks — has caused him headaches for years, with little change despite the population growth. “It’s a horror story,” Payan said, with low clearance, a narrow two-lane road and flooding during heavy rains.

Gov. Jared Polis signed two gun-reform measures into law Wednesday that will tighten requirements on the storage of firearms in vehicles and bolster funding to investigate gun crimes in Colorado. “If you’re going to be a gun owner, then we need to make sure we are responsible gun owners,” said Sen.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and COLLEEN LONG (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has blocked the release of audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents, arguing Thursday that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes. The dispute over access to the recordings is at the center of a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress and more broadly to hinder the Democratic president’s reelection effort in the final months of the closely contested campaign. “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a scathing letter to House Republicans ahead of scheduled votes by two House committees to refer Garland to the Justice Department for the contempt charges over the department’s refusal to hand over the audio. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate,” Siskel added. Garland separately advised Biden in a letter made public Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege, which protects a president’s ability to obtain candid counsel from his advisers without fear of immediate public disclosure and to protect confidential communications relating to official responsibilities. The lawmakers’ needs, Garland wrote, “are plainly insufficient to outweigh the deleterious effects that the production of the recordings would have on the integrity and effectiveness of similar law enforcement investigations in the future.” The Justice Department also warned Congress that a contempt effort would create “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” with Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte saying: “It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress. Siskel’s letter to lawmakers comes after the uproar from Biden’s aides and allies over special counsel Robert Hur’s comments about Biden’s age and mental acuity, and it highlights concerns in a difficult election year over how potentially embarrassing moments from the lengthy interview could be exacerbated by the release, or selective release, of the audio. The transcript of the Hur interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details — something longtime aides says he’s done for years in both public and private — but otherwise showing deep recall in other areas.

Isn’t that just swell—now these eyesores can blot beautiful bodies of water too, all while leaching toxic compounds directly into the water supply.