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Court clears path for Trump to be questioned in sexual assault defamation lawsuit: report
March 30, 2021
In a brief one-sentence ruling from New York's highest court, former president Donald Trump was informed that he can be questioned by attorneys as part of a defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her.
According to Reuters, former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos may proceed with her lawsuit against the host of the program after the Court of Appeals tossed Trump's attempt to stay out of court because he was president at the time she sued him.
<p>The report states, "Lawyers for the woman, Summer Zervos, had asked the high court to nix the appeal and return her defamation suit to a trial court for both sides to continue pretrial evidence-seeking that could eventually enable Zervos' lawyers to quiz Trump under oath, and his to question her. Deadlines for such questioning, known as a deposition, had been set for last year before Trump appealed to the high court."</p><p>According to the woman's attorneys, Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza, "Now a private citizen, the defendant has no further excuse to delay justice for Ms. Zervos, and we are eager to get back to the trial court and prove her claims."</p><p>You can <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/court-lets-summer-zervos-defamation-suit-vs-trump-proceed-again/2342412/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">read more here</a>.</p>
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Thousands of people will likely die in the coming weeks because President Joe Biden's administration has failed to act on pleas by nonprofits and others to help keep water service on to help people avoid Covid infections.
Michigan, where Covid cases have increased about 77% since mid-February, is scheduled to end its moratorium on water shutoffs tomorrow (March 31). Other states where bans on water shutoffs enacted because of the pandemic are scheduled to end include Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
<p>"Anybody who lives in this country has the <a href="https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/02/as-michigans-water-shutoff-ban-approaches-end-affordability-fight-continues-in-congress-courts.html#:~:text=Last%20year%2C%20the%20city%20issued,pay%20through%20at%20least%202022." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">right to clean water,"</a> said Rep. <a href="https://debbiedingell.house.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Debbie Dingell</a> (D-Mich.)</p><blockquote>Groups are urging the Biden administration to halt water shutoffs during the pandemic and support a law that would forgive unpaid water bills that accumulated during the pandemic.<br/></blockquote><p>In January, a coalition of 636 groups led by <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/who-we-are/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Food & Water Watch</a> sent the Biden White House a draft executive order that would prohibit utility shutoffs. They <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/03/26/biden-stimulus-water-shutoff-ban/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">didn't get a response.</a></p><p>The nonprofit and other groups are <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">urging</a> the Biden administration to halt water shutoffs during the pandemic and support a law that would forgive unpaid water bills that accumulated during the pandemic.</p><p>Households with water have greater protection against Covid through handwashing and improved sanitation.</p><p>Cornell University Prof.<a href="https://aap.cornell.edu/people/mildred-warner" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Mildred Warner</a> and post-doctoral associate <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/xue-zhang" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Xue Zhang</a> <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IB_2103_CornellWaterCOVID-WEB.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">analyzed</a> COVID cases and deaths in 2020 and found that states that prevented utilities from shutting water off during the pandemic had significantly lower growth rates of infections and deaths.</p><p>More than 9,000 Covid deaths in our nation last year might have been prevented if utilities hadn't shut off water because of unpaid bills.</p><p>"The <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/26/us-water-shutoff-moratorium-may-have-prevented-nearly-500000-covid-19-cases-study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pain and suffering</a> caused by [the] Covid pandemic were exacerbated by political leaders who failed to take action to keep the water flowing for struggling families," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/who-we-are/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Food & Water Watch</a>, which helped produce the Cornell study.</p><p>Dingell and Rep. <a href="https://tlaib.house.gov/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rashida Tlaib</a> (D-Mich.) introduced a bill, <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/hr616/text" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">H.R. 616,</a> that would prohibit residential water shutoffs during the pandemic and create a $1.5 billion fund to help people pay water bills.</p><p>The Cornell researchers found that a nationwide ban on water shutoffs might have prevented <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IB_2103_CornellWaterCOVID-WEB.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nearly half a million people from being infected</a> with Covid last year. Keeping the water on could have reduced Covid cases by almost 4% and Covid deaths by 5.5% in the 41 states without complete bans from April 17, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.awwa.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">American Water Works Association,</a> which represents more than 4,300 public water and wastewater utilities, recommended that utilities<a href="https://www.awwa.org/Resources-Tools/Resource-Topics/Coronavirus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> postpone water shutoffs</a> during the pandemic.</p><p>Unaffordable water bills are a growing problem. A 2017 study found that water bills were <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169488" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unaffordable</a> for about 12% of households. Federal funding for water and sewer systems <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/54539" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fell by 77%</a> in real dollars from 1977 to 2017.</p><p>Households have an estimated <a href="https://www.nacwa.org/docs/default-source/resources---public/water-sector-covid-19-financial-impacts.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nearly $9 billion in water and sewer debt</a> that has built up during the pandemic.</p>
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'It will be Herculean' for Chauvin's lawyers to overcome evidence in George Floyd killing: CNN legal analyst
March 30, 2021
CNN legal analyst Laura Coates on Tuesday said that former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin's lawyers have a tough task ahead of them after seeing early evidence president at the trial.
Coates explained that Chauvin's defense attorneys would have to prove that George Floyd was such a potential danger to police officers that it would justify Chauvin keeping his knee on his neck for nine straight minutes and never checking his pulse even after he had stopped moving.
<p>"Unless they can show somehow that he was a threat to the officers, and a need for the use of any force, let alone excessive force, they're going to have a more than an uphill battle," she said. "It will be Herculean for them to overcome this presentation of evidence."</p><p>Coates then said she expected prosecutors to call at least five witnesses who would all tell the same stories about how they heard Floyd pleading with Chauvin that he couldn't breathe before he lost consciousness and eventually died, which would help solidify the narrative of what happened in the minds of jurors.</p><p>"These themes are going to be a part of the trial to stick in the juror's mind," she explained.</p><p><em>Watch the video below</em>.<br/></p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZI41h10Iu1w" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>
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