FBI Raids Election Office. South Florida Councilman Under Fire Over N-Word.

The FBI executed a warrant to raid Georgia's Fulton County election office, seeking records related to the 2020 elections, including agency computers and ballots. This action aligns with former President Trump's claims of widespread voting fraud and is framed as part of an administration's pattern of using the DOJ against perceived political enemies. Concurrently, a DOJ lawsuit in Oregon to seize private voter information was dismissed, with the ACLU arguing it undermined voting freedom and privacy.

The FBI raided an election office in Georgia's Fulton County outside Atlanta on Wednesday. The warrant sought a number of records related to the 2020 elections, agency's computers and ballots that they believe were held at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City as part of an investigation into possible election interference. In Oregon, a judge has dismissed a DOJ lawsuit seeking to seize private voters information. The ACLU argues that the DOJ actions undermine the freedom to vote and voter privacy.

TikTok and Snap reached undisclosed settlements in a product liability lawsuit brought by a 20-year-old woman, KGM, and her mother. The lawsuit alleged that the platforms' algorithms and automatic push feeds caused addiction, body dysmorphia, suicide ideation, and other mental illnesses. Cases against Meta and YouTube are proceeding to jury selection, and numerous similar lawsuits, including those from school boards dealing with student mental health crises, are expected to follow.

Tik Tok and Snap, they actually settled this case with um with a person by the name of KGM. All right, a young woman who's 20 years old. We don't know her name for obvious purposes. But that being said, she sued all four of these entities. And what she said was there's really a product liability case. there's a product issue with your product and that it is um it is is a it was a reckless process and the way that you came together to put your product knowing that the algorithms that the automatic push feeds would cause her to have an addiction and essentially feel bad about herself, how she looked, uh have suicide ideiations, feel bad about um her body, body dysmorphia in effect causing mental illness. We're talking about school boards that are that are plaintiffs because these school boards are saying that now we are dealing with so many mental health issues because of your snap, your algorithm, your automatic feeds and they are now plaintiffs in this case.

The Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island, Georgia, a descendant community of enslaved people, successfully voted against an ordinance that would have allowed outsiders to build larger vacation homes (over 1,400 sq ft). This victory protects their land, culture, and prevents gentrification, which would bring tax issues and alter the historical landscape preserved for hundreds of years. The community's relentless advocacy, despite being small in number, involved fighting for the referendum and overcoming procedural obstacles.

This has to do with protecting and preserving land and culture. What's going on is that there are ordinances in place in the Sapalo Island saying that you cannot build a house that's over 1400 ft. So, these outsiders have been coming in and saying, 'I need a place to vacation with my family.' This 1400 square feet limitation that you have, it won't do. So they fought in order to get an ordinance in place to build bigger bigger homes. Well, the community said no. They fought first of all to to even be able to have a referendum... the vote just recently came in within the past few days and the people who came out and voted said no we do not want these homes to be built to be built built bigger than 1,400 square ft. Why? You've got tax issues that come along with that. You've got people who come in um and and change the the land, change the culture, change everything about what's going on and what has been preserved over hundreds of years. If they had lost this vote, they literally have been inviting gentrification to come in and take place.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez meticulously detailed how CVS Health's vertical integration—owning Aetna insurance, Oak Street Health clinics, CVS pharmacies, CVS Caremark (PBM), and drug manufacturer Core—creates a 'captive strategy.' She argued that this concentration of market power allows CVS to control every step of a patient's healthcare journey, dictating drug prices and maximizing profits at the expense of patients, who face '1,000% markups' on essential medications. She advocated for breaking up such conglomerates, akin to historical actions against banking monopolies.

Mr. Joiner, you are the CEO of CVS Health, correct? Correct. And, um, I actually don't know how many Americans know this, but CVS Health owns Etna, the health insurance company. Correct. Correct. And CVS, which owns Etna, also owns Oak Street Health Medical Clinics. Correct. Yes, it does. And in addition to that, they own, of course, CVSarmacies and CVS Health um also owns CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit manager... This is what's known as a captive strategy... The price Kate pays for that medication is dictated by Etna, CVS, Caremark and they also own the drug manufacturer Core to this. Mr. Joiner, this is quite a bit of market concentration. Wouldn't you agree? Um no, I wouldn't agree that it's market concentration. I would suggest it's a model that works really well for the consumer. Yeah. Um it I think it works very well for CVS... the health insurance gets a cut, the pharmacy benefit manager gets a cut, the drug manufacturer gets a cut and the patient gets screwed. We're talking about,000% markups on medications for cancer and HIV... I think corporate monopolies are a problem and this vertical integration is destroying people's ability to access care... We should be considering that in our healthcare system and if we believe in competition I think we should put our votes and our legislation in alignment with that and consider breaking up this industry in order to allow the competition that that um prevents this kind of vertical integration and abuse of power.