Uncivilized

An outside ethics group filed ethics complaints Wednesday against seven U.S. House lawmakers — four Democrats and three Republicans — over failing to report stock trades. One of the members of Congress — Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York — failed to file required reports on approximately 300 transactions, according to the complaint from the Campaign Legal Center. Five of the seven lawmakers sit on the powerful House Financial Services Committee. It’s the latest example of a bipartisan trend that has emerged almost 10 years after Congress overwhelmingly passed a law to provide transparency and show lawmakers aren’t profiting from their jobs: Members of Congress are ignoring the disclosure law. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

Donald Trump claimed his first scalp of the campaign cycle this week, forcing Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio) — a rising GOP star and one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the former president — into an early retirement. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

•Afghan survivors of errant US drone strike seek probe• •Colorado high school shooter sentenced to life in prison• •Exhausted restaurant workers now face the risk of vicious anti-vaxxers• --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh will surrender to authorities on Thursday, a day after a man was arrested for allegedly attempting to stage Murdaugh's suicide so his son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy, his legal team said. The development came on the same day that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said it opened a criminal investigation into the 2018 death of a longtime housekeeper and nanny for the Murdaugh family. Murdaugh, 53, has not been charged with a crime. His legal team said that he will surrender to authorities in Hampton County. Murdaugh was shot in the head on Sept. 4, three months after the unsolved slayings of his wife and adult son, but suffered a superficial wound and survived. Murdaugh's attorney said Murdaugh was depressed and enlisted a man to kill him, believing his life insurance had a suicide clause. On Wednesday, there was another unexpected turn in the case when the state law enforcement division, or SLED, said it was opening a criminal investigation into the death of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. The agency said the decision was based on a request from the Hampton County coroner and on "information gathered" during a separate investigation involving Alex Murdaugh. Gloria Satterfield.Brice W. Herndon and Sons Funeral Home Satterfield's death "was not reported to the coroner at the time, nor was an autopsy performed," Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper wrote in a letter to state investigators in her request. "On the death certificate, the manner of death was ruled 'natural,' which is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident." Her family said in a statement that it was a "sad day" for them following the announcement of the investigation. "The news of the opening of a criminal investigation causes more questions at a time when the family just wanted answers regarding the claims that were asserted in connection with the death of their mother and any settlements reached," the statement said. "Today this nightmare escalated for the family with the news of the opening of the criminal investigation into the death of Gloria Satterfield." Earlier Wednesday, an attorney for Satterfield's family filed a lawsuit in Hampton County court accusing Murdaugh and others of breach of fiduciary duty in failing to pay them as part of a wrongful death settlement. Satterfield was 57 when she died in February 2018 from injuries sustained from a fall in the Murdaugh home, where she was employed for more than two decades. According to the suit, "the exact details of the fall remain unclear" to her two sons, Michael "Tony" Satterfield and Brian Harriott, who were supposed to get $475,000 in direct payment to "compensate them for the grief, sorrow and mourning associated with the loss of their mother." The home was insured through Lloyd's of London, according to the suit. Murdaugh initially pledged that he was "going to take care of the boys," the suit added, by suing himself to collect on personal liability insurance through Lloyd's. But nearly two years after a partial settlement was reached with the insurance firm, a "stipulation of dismissal" was filed in October 2020, purportedly ending the estate's claims against Murdaugh. He also signed the stipulation, according to an exhibit attached to the suit. Ronald Richter Jr., an attorney for Satterfield's family, told NBC News they've received "not a dime." Another attorney, Eric Bland, said Satterfield's sons didn't previously want to make waves. "It's hard. One of our clients is special needs, the other lives in a small Southern town ... and they didn't ask questions," he said. They previously "tried to call their lawyers and didn't get a response, but they didn't take it beyond that. They were scared." A Murdaugh family spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

Australia had announced in 2016 that French company DCNS had beat out bidders from Japan and Germany to build the next generation of submarines in Australia’s largest-ever defense contract. Top French officials made clear they were unhappy with the deal, which undercuts the DCNS deal. “The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret,” French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and defense minister Florence Parly said in a joint statement. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

•U.S. top general secretly called China over fears Trump could spark war-report• •California Governor Newsom defeats Republican recall effort• •U.S. Senate panel may force Afghanistan answers from Biden administration• *Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

California’s recall on Tuesday will be the biggest election since Joe Biden became president, and its results may hint at the political trajectory of the country. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is seen as having the upper hand in his bid to fend off the GOP-fueled recall. Republican talk show host Larry Elder is the leading Republican replacement. But California’s recalls are like no other elections. Voters first have to decide whether to recall the officeholder — in this case, Newsom — and then answer a second ballot question over who should be the replacement. This unorthodox process has had wild outcomes before — it led to actor Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming governor in 2003. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

I am waiting for my case to come up and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder and I am waiting for someone to really discover America and wail and I am waiting for the discovery of a new symbolic western frontier and I am waiting for the American Eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right and I am waiting for the war to be fought which will make the world safe for anarchy and I am waiting for the final withering away of all governments and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed and I am anxiously waiting for the secret of eternal life to be discovered by an obscure general practitioner and I am waiting to set sail for happiness and I am waiting for a reconstructed Mayflower to reach America with its picture story and tv rights sold in advance to the natives and I am waiting for the lost music to sound again in the Lost Continent in a new rebirth of wonder --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. However, Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt. Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

Businesses across the Triangle are struggling with a labor shortage after the economy was upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

A lumber company in Boise, Idaho, where President Joe Biden said he received his first job offer said it has "no record" to show for it. Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

•Amazon to open 2 cashier-less Whole Foods stores next year• •World stocks slide on worries over pandemic, recovery• •World stocks slide on worries over pandemic, recovery• Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

When the last mourners departed and funeral director Shawn Troy was left among the headstones, he wept alone. For five decades, the closing words at countless funerals in this town of 4,400 had been delivered by his father, William Penn Troy Sr. Now the elder Troy was gone, one of many Black morticians claimed by a pandemic that has taken an outsized toll on African Americans, after months of burying its victims. And as Shawn Troy stepped forward to speak in place of a man well known beyond his trade -- for his work in county politics and advocacy of its Black citizens -- the emptiness felt overwhelming. Not just his family, but his community, had lost an anchor. Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant. Free 30 Day Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message

A U.S. woman who fought through a smoke bomb and gunfire to escape Kabul has been left shocked and traumatized at the Biden administration's failure to keep Americans in the loop ahead of their botched evacuation. 30 Day Audible Plus Free Trial: https://amzn.to/3zNpshv --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/salisburyobserver/message