There is an interesting case out of Australia that will confirm the concerns of many parents over food for young children. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) brought a legal action against Heinz in June after reviewing a complaint by the Obesity Policy Coalition about the sugar content of the food. The Commission determined that the level of added sugar would qualify the food — which is sold as a “natural” and healthy choice — as a confectionary item like junk food. The focus is a product line called “Little Kids Shredz.”
Below is my column in the Washington Post on the controversy over the possible use of pardon authority by President Donald Trump to protect his family and aides involved in the Russian investigation. Trump’s tweet reference to his “complete power to pardon” fueled rumors that he is considering pardons, including a possible self-pardon.
Another controversy over free speech was triggered this week on social media by an academic expressing hateful views. Various people have called for San Diego State University Political Science Professor Jonathan Graubart to be fired after denouncing those wishing Sen. John McCain best wishes for his recovery. Graubart called McCain a “war criminal” and said that he was “annoyed” by all of the expressions of sympathy for his dire cancer prognosis. Others at the school supported and shared his views.
Below is column in USA Today on the widening number of ethical issues generated during the Trump Administration. I have been critical of some of the practices of the Trump Administration from nepotism to retroactive waivers to failures to divest. However, there should be equal concern and attention over some of the actions of Trump critics. It seems that the rising political passions are blinded both sides to core ethical principles and considerations.
Here is the column.
Baxley, Georgia was the scene of a deeply disturbing confrontation between two customers and a restaurant owner. Qwik Chik owner Jeanette Norris is shown being repeatedly punched by a woman whose male companion then slugged her teenage daughter. The suspects were identified by police as Nathaniel and Latasha Smith (right).
Continue reading “Police Seek Georgia Couple In Videotaped Assault on Restaurant Owner and Daughter”
This weekend my column on the Trump pardon controversy ran in the Washington Post. (Notably, while the first title referenced a President pardoning himself, the later title referenced pardoning aides which was the thrust of the column). As I have stated in the press, I consider this one of the most difficult questions in the Constitution. I wrote that there is nothing in the Constitution that says that a president cannot self-pardon and that this was a very close and unresolved question. The same day, a column ran that said conclusively that the self-pardon are clearly and textually barred by the Constitution. That column was written by Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe, Minnesota Professor Richard Painter, and Brookings Institution fellow Norman Eisen. I must respectfully disagree despite my respect for the prior work of all three of these men. While I believe that it would have been better for the Framers to expressly bar self-pardons, they did not do so. What is left is a difficult interpretive question that is not answered by the arguments made in the column. Indeed, some of the arguments are challengeable on either a historical or legal basis. This is an issue that could easily go either way in the courts. In the meantime, President Trump this morning fueled greater speculation with a tweet referring to his “complete power to pardon.”
Continue reading “Self-Pardons: A Response To Tribe, Painter, and Eisen”
For an Administration that has long complained about the effort of “the deep state” to undermine President Trump, the most recent leak detailed in the Washington Post will confirm an openly hostile intent by people within the intelligence community. The Post published accounts of how Russia’s ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters with then Sen. Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race. If true, the account would conflict with Sessions earlier denials.
The media is reporting that President Donald Trump’s legal team is investigating possible conflicts of interest by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Today I ran a column in USA Today on those conflicts of not just Mueller but Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. I have great respect for Mueller but I believe it was a mistake of Rosenstein to select him given his history with Comey and his reported interview with Trump for Comey’s job. Nevertheless, as I have stated since this story broke this morning, I am very concerned with any concerted effort to investigate the investigators. Such an approach is less evidence of a strategy as a spasm. Clearly, defense counsel has a right — if not an obligation — to raise any known conflicts of interest with the Justice Department. Yet, such investigations can easily get out of hand and can trip legal wires if aides are too aggressive in investigating the investigators.
Continue reading “Report: White House Investigating Mueller”
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on how critics of Donald Trump have been calling for radical extensions or interpretations of criminal provisions against core figures. The implications for such interpretations of crimes like treason need to be considered by critics.
The Chinese government is searching for a plump counter-revolutionary with a taste for honey and irony. Yes, the Communist regime has banned Winnie the Pooh who is apparently a running dog exploiter bent on turning workers against the one and true Party. The regime learned that the image of Pooh was being used as a surrogate for Xi Jinping as a way of getting around censorship laws (Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo is portrayed as Eeyore). As a result, Pooh and presumably his capitalist overlord Christopher Robin are no longer welcomed in China.
Continue reading “The Chinese Government Moves To Ban The Pooh”
President Donald Trump gave a bombshell interview with the New York Times on Wednesday in which he said that he would not have appointed Jeff Sessions to be attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russian investigation. It was a highly disturbing interview since Sessions recused on the advice of ethics experts at the Justice Department and the overwhelming view of the bar.
Fox News’ Martha MacCallum aired an interesting interview with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week in which the Rosenstein reaffirmed something that I have previously said: the memos leaked by James Comey were FBI documents and their release violated FBI rules and regulations. The media has largely ignored indications that some of the memos were indeed classified and that Comey broke FBI rules by leaking material to his friend (with the intent of his giving the information to the media). Rosenstein however did not address one glaring issue of his own: his own conflict of interest in continuing to oversee the Special Counsel investigation while being an obvious and important witness in that investigation.Continue reading “Rosenstein: Comey Memos Were Confidential and Improperly Leaked”
North Korea’s tourism agency is launching a campaign to attract tourists with promises of surfing (and curiously rice planting) despite its murder of Otto Warmbier, 22, who was enticed to North Korea as a tourist and then arrested when he stole a hotel propaganda poster. He was tortured and return to his family years later in a coma (only to die shortly after his return).
Continue reading “North Korea: Come For The Surfing, Stay For The Beatings”
A new study has called for a concerted effort to cite academics of color and greater diversity to make from the hold of “white heteromasculism” on research. Geographers Carrie Mott (professor at Rutgers University) and Daniel Cockayne (professor at University of Waterloo in Ontario) has identified the reliance on research by white males as a “system of oppression” benefitting “white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.” Cisgendered refers people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.
The judges and court staff at Seattle’s King County Courthouse have been fighting to get something done about the disgusting conditions around the outside door. Homeless people left excrement and urine around the door — a stench that is deterring jurors and others from coming into the building. Judges have asked for the city to take action and clean up the unsanitary conditions with a simple power washing and better policing. That would seem a no brainer but objections were heard from city council members, including one who reportedly said that the use of hoses might be racially insensitive or traumatic.Continue reading “Seattle Court Request For Clean Up Leads To Controversy Over Race and Resources”