Morning Headlines - Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

U.S. and World Headlines

Trump Charged With Trying To Delete Mar-A-Lago Surveillance Footage In New Indictment

The Justice Department is accusing former President Trump of attempting to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago property in a new superseding indictment filed in the classified records case Thursday.

The DOJ says Trump acted with a new co-conspirator to try to delete the footage and also charged him with an additional Espionage Act charge.

The superseding indictment brings the total number of counts facing the former president to 40 and adds a charge based on the military documents Trump boasted of having in a meeting — warning he couldn’t share them since he failed to declassify them.

It accuses Trump of acting with Carlos de Oliveira, the property manager of the hotel, and Trump’s other co-defendant Walt Nauta with trying to delete the footage.

What's Next For Hunter Biden, Now That His Plea Deal Is On Hold?

After what was expected to be a perfunctory initial appearance by Hunter Biden in federal court on Wednesday descended into chaos, with his plea deal with federal prosecutors falling apart, the path forward isn't so clear cut for the president's son.

Their tentative plea agreement fell apart Wednesday, after Noreika said she couldn't sign off on the deal, which would have had him plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a diversion program to avoid a gun charge. The judge cited a disagreement between prosecutors and the defense team over whether the deal meant Hunter Biden would be shielded from prosecution on other potential charges in the future.

Anheuser-Busch To Lay Off Hundreds Of Workers After Bud Light Boycott Hammers Sales

Anheuser-Busch plans to lay off hundreds of corporate employees, a company spokesperson told ABC News on Thursday.

The layoffs come months after a product endorsement from Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, in April set off a consumer boycott among conservatives that hammered sales.

The layoffs will affect "less than 2%" of the company's U.S. employees, the company said. That figure amounts to roughly 380 workers, since the company's website says it employs a total of about 19,000 U.S.-based workers.

Senate OKs Defense Bill, Setting Up Clash With House Over Abortion, LGBTQ Measures

The Senate passed its annual Pentagon policy bill in a blowout vote Thursday, setting up battle lines with a conservative version that narrowly cleared the Republican-led House this month.

The bipartisan 86-11 vote capped off two weeks of debate on the $886 billion bill that saw the upper chamber sidestep many of the culture war issues that House members approved largely along party lines.

Next, Senate and House leaders must iron out their differences and produce a compromise version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act that can win President Joe Biden’s signature and continue a 62-year streak of the bill becoming law each year.

But the disagreements run deep in the competing bills.

CDC Detects Coronavirus, HIV, Hepatitis And Herpes At Unlicensed California Lab

Local and federal authorities spent months investigating a warehouse in Fresno County, California, that they suspect was home to an illegal, unlicensed laboratory full of lab mice, medical waste and hazardous materials.

According to court documents, city officials inspected the location at 850 I St. on March 3 for building violations and found various chemicals being stored. On March 16, an inspection by county public health officials allegedly turned up medical devices thought to have been developed on-site, such as Covid and pregnancy tests.

Hundreds of mice at the warehouse were kept in inhumane conditions, court documents said. The city took possession of the animals in April, euthanizing 773 of them; more than 175 were found dead.

Wisconsin Headlines

Medicaid Unwinding: A Return To Program Integrity

Medicaid programs across the nation finally return to business as usual – providing taxpayer-funded benefits only to those who are eligible – resuming normal operations where recipients are asked to show they still qualify for the program in order to renew and retain coverage.

As we predicted, the mainstream media is pumping out stories about cruel eligibility checks leaving people without health coverage.

While an unbiased, unemotional summary might say ‘Millions of people who do not qualify for government benefits reserved for low-income people living in poverty are removed from Medicaid rolls, as program integrity is restored to the largest, most costly means-tested transfer program in the U.S.,’ PBS screamed “Millions may be kicked off Medicaid.’

Milwaukee County Approves Sales Tax Increase As Part Of Plan To Avoid Bankruptcy

The Milwaukee County board voted July 27 to nearly double the county’s sales tax, two weeks after the city of Milwaukee approved a local sales tax increase as part of a bipartisan plan to avoid bankruptcy.

Both the city and county, which make up the state’s largest metropolitan areas, faced running out of money without additional revenue to pay for basic services such as police and fire protection, park maintenance and libraries.

Milwaukee leaders, together with a broad statewide coalition, successfully lobbied the Republican-controlled Legislature to increase funding for all local governments in the state by $275 million and tie future increases to state sales tax revenue under a plan signed into law by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Watermark Absentee Ballots

Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are again focusing on the absentee ballot process as campaigning for the 2024 election season is underway.

Representative Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) and Senator Romaine Quinn (R-Cameron) are introducing a bill that would require all absentee ballots to be printed with a watermark.

The new legislation comes as part of a continued effort on behalf of some GOP officials claiming the 2020 election was stolen due to a flawed mail-in ballot system.

County clerks have criticized the bill saying lawmakers are uninformed and their process for counting ballots is transparent.

Wisconsin Small Businesses Landed Over $1B In Federal Contracts Last Year

Wisconsin small businesses last year secured more than $1 billion in federal contracts for the second year in a row, according to the latest U.S. Small Business Administration figures.

The federal agency this week announced more than $5.9 billion was spent on federal contracts in Wisconsin in fiscal year 2022, including nearly $1.03 billion — or about 17 percent — going to small businesses. In fiscal year 2021, those figures were about $6.1 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.

Since 2010, the figure for small businesses in the state hadn’t exceeded $900 million, even in years when the total amount going to all Wisconsin businesses was higher.

Madison Man Sentenced To 72 Months For Illegal Gun Possession

Zendel Rolack, 26, Madison, Wisconsin, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 72 months in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a felon. This prison term will be followed by a 3-year term of supervised release. Rolack pleaded guilty to this offense on March 1, 2023.

The Fitchburg Police Department executed a search warrant at a residence in Oregon, Wisconsin on October 5, 2021, as part of an investigation of a shooting that occurred in Fitchburg on September 29, 2021. At the residence, officers arrested Rolack and the shooting suspect, Alexander Jefferson-Cooper. During a search of a room being used by Rolack as a bedroom, officers located multiple firearms, extra ammunition, firearm magazines, and controlled substances.