Despite claims of Trump-era 'energy independence,' the US never stopped importing foreign oil

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/energy-independence-fact-check/index.html

In fact, contrary to prominent Republicans' suggestions over the last month that the US had just recently started consuming Russian energy under Biden, US energy imports from Russia spiked during the Trump presidency.

And that isn't the only thing Republicans have gotten wrong.

Contrary to claims from Trump and other Republicans, Biden has not "shut down" American energy: US crude oil production in Biden's first year was higher than in each of Trump's first two years and just narrowly shy of production in Trump's last year, though substantially lower than production in Trump's record-setting third year. And experts say it is economic factors and cautionary pressures from Wall Street, not anything Biden has done, that has made US oil companies reluctant to dramatically ramp up production from current levels.

"Gas is high because they shut down production in the U.S.” under the Biden administration. - false

 https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/mar/09/facebook-posts/oil-production-bidens-first-year-par-trump/

Gas prices soared to an average $4.173 per gallon on March 8, according to AAA, breaking a 2008 record.

Oil production in the U.S. in President Joe Biden’s first year was on par with 2020 and higher than in two of the four years Trump was president.

Increased consumer demand, inflation and the war in Ukraine are among the factors in the rising price at the pump, experts say.

Trump and Boebert’s Oil Spin

 https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/trump-and-boeberts-oil-spin/

The average gross exports so far during the Biden administration are higher than the average during the Trump administration, Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at the Brookings Institution and the director of the Department of Energy’s Office of International Climate and Clean Energy under Obama, told us in an email.

“But the real issue here is way beyond anything either administration did – it’s about global oil prices,” Gross said. “Presidents can’t do much to control those, they are set in the global marketplace, although politicians suffer when gasoline prices rise. As the swing producers, OPEC decisions make a difference here and that’s why presidents often jawbone OPEC to produce more to bring oil prices down. It’s not because we are any more dependent on the Middle East than we were last year.”

Freshly lost suitcases said thrown out amid airport chaos, as hundreds more pile up

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/freshly-lost-suitcases-said-thrown-out-as-hundreds-pile-up-amid-airport-chaos/

With hundreds of lost suitcases piling up amid recent travel snafus at Ben Gurion Airport, some luggage that became separated from travelers flying abroad has been thrown into the garbage, Channel 12 news reported Sunday.

Some members of the airport staff were said to have first rummaged through the contents of the bags that were tossed, looking for valuables.

Trump Avoids Word 'Vaccine' at Alaska Rally After Boos Over It in Alabama

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-avoids-word-vaccine-alaska-rally-after-boos-over-it-alabama-1723229

"We did so much in terms of therapeutics, and a word that I'm not allowed to mention—but I'm still proud of that word," he said. "We did that in nine months, and it was supposed to take five years to 12 years and nobody else could've done it. But I'm not mentioning it in front of my own people."

Putin Ally Lukashenko Faces Revolt From Officers Against Ukraine War

 https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-lukashenko-faces-revolt-officers-against-ukraine-war-1723224

Senior officers from the fifth brigade of the Special Forces warned in an open letter to Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, against sending troops to fight in Ukraine, describing that such decision is "pure suicide," the Express reported Saturday.

"By entering the war against Ukraine, Belarus will be evicted from the community of civilized states and will be an international outcast for many years to come," the military officers wrote.

Belarus has allowed Russia to station its troops and carry out large-scale military drills in the country since the beginning of the war, which started in late February. Meanwhile in May, Belarus launched large-scale drills of its military forces in order to test its army's combat readiness, according to the Belarusian defense ministry.

4 days in January: Trump push for Capitol coda to 2020 vote

 https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-presidential-elections-election-2020-congress-eb90b5a11a77fe528fa610cccb442c1e

It would have been something never quite before seen in America — a defeated president, Donald Trump, standing at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a mob of supporters, some armed, contesting the election outcome.

Trump intended to go there that day. His allies had been planning for the moment, envisioning the president delivering a speech outside the building or even entering the House chamber amid objections to Congress certifying the 2020 election results for Democrat Joe Biden.

“He’s going to look powerful,” mused Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to a young White House aide four days earlier.

Baruch Lebovits, convicted child abuser whose case shed light on Hasidic justice system, dies at 71

 https://www.jta.org/2022/07/06/obituaries/baruch-lebovits-convicted-child-abuser-whose-case-shed-light-on-hasidic-justice-system-dies-at-71

Both Lebovits and Kellner are household names, according to a source in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn — Lebovits as a serial sex offender, and Kellner as an example of what can happen to those who go outside the community’s legal system to civil authorities.

Nurse reveals how she pranks Covid deniers who call her a crisis actor

Remember the IRS Scandal? It was Fake News All Along

 https://www.newsweek.com/remember-irs-scandal-it-was-fake-news-all-along-681674

Once that news broke, we were off to the races. Despite a complete lack of evidence, Republicans in Congress immediately claimed that this was a political hit job directed from on high in the Obama Administration. Not only was there no evidence to support such claims, but the TIGTA report had made clear that the IRS had already stopped using those filters.

IRS targeting controversy

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_targeting_controversy

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.^[3] A leading U.S. counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.^[4][5]

Lauren Boebert 'Genocide Squad' Abortion Comments 'Disgraceful': Dershowitz

 https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-genocide-squad-abortion-comments-disgraceful-alan-dershowitz-1723146

Dershowitz said that the way Kavanaugh was treated was "absolutely disgraceful," but he also responded to Boebert's remarks.

"Look, I oppose the reversal of Roe v. Wade," Dershowitz said. "I think, by the way, what Congresswoman Boebert said—calling people on my side of the issue the 'genocide squad' and saying that we are prepared for babies already born to be killed—is even more disgraceful than anything that happened to the justice.

LGBTQ couples to take advantage of ZOOM civil marriages ruling

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356239

The Central District Court ruled in a precedent-setting decision that the State will be required to register as married Israeli citizens who married 'abroad' in a civil ceremony via ZOOM, even if they never physically leave Israel's borders, Reshet Bet reported.

According to the report, the State has the option of appealing to the Supreme Court. Should the Supreme Court uphold the ruling, the State will have no choice but to recognize these ZOOM marriages.

Israel Grants Residency Status to Rabbi Convicted of Child Sex Abuse

 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-07-07/ty-article/.premium/israel-grants-residency-status-to-rabbi-convicted-of-child-sex-abuse/00000181-d80b-d9a3-a3e1-fdbb8dc00000

In 2002, Lanner was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls who were students in the 1990s at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Ocean Township, New Jersey, where he was principal [https://www.jta.org/2002/10/11/ny/lanner-gets-7-year-prison-term]. An appeals court later dismissed one of two child endangerment charges against him [https://www.jta.org/2005/02/18/ny/split-ruling-on-lanner-appeal]. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, served nearly three years and was released on parole in early 2008.