A verdict has been reached in the double murder trial of disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, The New York Timesreported on Thursday. The jury's decision, which comes the same day the closing statements were wrapped up, has not yet been revealed, and it is not yet clear when the verdict will be read out.
Murdaugh, who hails from a powerful and wealthy family from the South Carolina Lowcountry, was charged with shooting his wife Maggie and his son Paul at the dog kennels of his family's hunting lodge. Prosecutors have argued that he killed them to cover up evidence of his financial crimes, as he freely admits to have stolen from his law firm and clients to pay for his drug habit.
Murdaugh has maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
During an appearance on Fox News this Wednesday, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) got a few talking points from network anchor John Roberts in regards to her proposed legislation to “save” America’s gas stoves from an alleged ban by the Biden administration.
"[The attack on gas stoves] hasn’t gone away,” Lesko said. “And all of the crises going on, we have banks that are failing, we have a border wide open, we have people that can’t afford gasoline or groceries, and this is the thing that Biden is going to prioritize is banning people’s gas stoves? It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
"...Biden said, oh, we are not going to ban gas stoves, well baloney!" she continued. "They were going to ban stoves in America that people use each and every day. And so my legislation, ‘The Save Our Gas Stoves Act,’ will save gas stoves for Americans so they have a choice.”
Roberts then chimed in, saying "when you take a look at all of the millions of people in America who have and rely on a gas stove to cook nightly meals, breakfast or whatever and all of the restauranteurs who say gas is the best."
“You could think that there’s a lot of people in the country who are probably remembering the old Charlton Heston line, you can have my gas stove when you pry it from my cold dead hands," he added.
Lesko replied that he loved Roberts' take on the matter.
"Maybe I should put that in my talking points for my legislation,” she said.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday has denied a request from Donald Trump’s legal team that sought to block one of his lawyer’s from testifying against the former president in the classified documents case, according to multiple published reports.
“This means Trump's lawyer in the classified docs case is now expected to share notes, audio, etc., includ. material related to his client, Trump,” CBS News’ Robert Costa tweeted.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins confirms Costa’s reporting.
“A federal appeals court is refusing to block Trump's defense lawyer Evan Corcoran from testifying or turning over documents about the former president as part of the criminal investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents,” Collins tweeted.
The ruling is described as a potential game-changer by CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.
“A major ruling, made with astonishing speed,” Honig tweeted.
The next step for Trump’s legal team is the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Costa.
“Trump team could now try to take the matter to the Supreme Court, but it's hard to see how that stops Corcoran from complying with the appeals court order in the meantime,” Costa tweeted.
“Significant to have Trump's lawyer forced to provide notes, materials, and likely testify, potentially soon.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pushed back against a Fox Business correspondent who tried to link inflation to government spending.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence suggested President Joe Biden's budget added to inflationary forces.
"Inflation has been rather sticky, so do you need help from the fiscal side to get inflation down faster?" Lawrence wondered.
"We don't give advice to the fiscal authorities, and we assume that we take fiscal policy as it comes to our front door, stick it in our model along with a million other things, and we have responsibility for price stability," Powell replied. "And we will get inflation down to 2% in time."
Lawrence followed up with a leading question.
"But the spending that's happened is working against what you are doing, right?" he asked. "So it's prolonging inflation?"
Powell, however, argued that government spending was not a top driver of inflation.
"You have to look at the impulse from spending, because spending was, of course, tremendously high during the pandemic, and then as the pandemic programs rolled off, spending actually came down," he pointed out. "So the sort of fiscal impulse is actually not what's driving inflation right now."
"It was at the beginning, perhaps, part of what was driving inflation, but that's not really the story now," he remarked.
At the same press conference, Powell signaled the Fed would soon end its regime of rate hikes.
"We no longer state that we anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate to quell inflation," he explained. "Instead, we now anticipate some additional policy firming may be appropriate."
