Turns out “Steve,” which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, is no aurora. It’s an entirely new celestial phenomenon, with a different atmospheric process to an aurora.
The conclusion was made by researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada, who authored a study which was published in Geophysical Research Letters.
“So right now, we know very little about it,” Bea Gallardo-Lacourt, a space physicist and the study’s lead author, said in a statement online.
“And that’s the cool thing, because this has been known by photographers for decades. But for the scientists, it’s completely unknown.”
Image: Getty Images
Researchers refer to “Steve” as a “skyglow,” to make it distinct from an aurora. Auroras are produced when charged particles from the sun collide with the magnetic fields in Earth’s ionised upper atmosphere (the ionosphere), generating a stunning light display.
A NOAA satellite, POES-17, didn’t detect any charged particles raining down to Earth’s upper atmosphere when “Steve” took place, likely suggesting the “skyglow” could be a result of something else completely.
The next step for researchers is to see if streams of fast ions and hot electrons in the ionosphere are responsible for “Steve,” or if the light is produced in higher atmosphere.
Former NBA star Corey Maggette was named the 2018 BIG3 MVP after leading Power to a 7-1 regular-season record, per Kyle Boone of CBS Sports.
The 14-year NBA veteran was limited to just one game last season because of injuries but came through this year with 16.9 points and 3.1 assists per game in eight contests. Each ranked among the top five in the league, per the BIG3 official site.
Maggette was also named Captain of the Year as he tries to lead his squad to a championship in Friday’s final.
Although the 38-year-old had never won an award in the NBA and was never named an All-Star, his second career seems to be going well.
Among the other notable award winners, Gary Payton was named the top trash-talker.
Payton had also been known as an elite trash-talker through his Hall of Fame career, and that hasn’t stopped in the three-on-three tournament, as he showed in July:
Chris “Birdman” Andersen was named the Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league with 1.4 blocks per game, while the league’s leading scorer at 18.0 points per game, Al Harrington, was called Too Hard to Guard.
Power, which features Maggette as well as Cuttino Mobley and Glen Davis, will take on 3’s Company for the championship, a squad that includes DerMarr Johnson and Baron Davis.
Earlier this summer, the Santa Clara County Fire Department sent a team to fight the largest wildfire in the history of California.
The problem? During the fire, Verizon throttled the department’s “unlimited” data once it reached its limit.
As part of its emergency services, the department “relies upon Internet-based systems to provide crucial and time sensitive public safety services,” Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in an addendum added this week to a lawsuit fighting to overturn the FCC’s net neutrality repeal.
“The Internet has become an essential tool in providing fire and emergency response, particularly for events like large fires which require the rapid deployment and organization of thousands of personnel and hundreds of fuel engines, aircraft, and bulldozers,” Bowden continued in his declaration, as Ars Technica first reported.
Bowden detailed how his department’s data service from Verizon Wireless was limited, or throttled, and how his team was “forced” to use other fire agencies’ ISPs and personal devices to effectively communicate and coordinate firefighting plans. Eventually Verizon stopped throttling the department’s data after they paid for a more expensive plan.
On Tuesday afternoon a Verizon spokesperson told Mashable in an email that the “situation has nothing to do with net neutrality.” Instead the throttling and extra cost for the Santa Clara Fire Department was “a mistake in how we communicated with our customer about the terms of its plan.”
For the firefighters, this was a dangerous mistake.
“This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services,” Bowden wrote. “Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire’s ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services.”
“This was a customer support mistake”
Verizon on Tuesday said the fire department’s plan shouldn’t have mattered. “Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
“In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake. We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward.”
Just a “customer support mistake,” everyone. We’re sure California’s firefighters feel very reassured.
Everyone who’s read Harry Potter will have fond memories of practicing their wand twirling action in front of the mirror, muttering “Expelliarmus” over and over again in the vague but undying hope that something will actually happen and that magic is indeed real.
Even though our Hogwarts letters may have never arrived, though, we’ll always have the memories. And the spells.
Harry Potter readers recently voted on their favourite spells as part of a world-wide survey by Bloomsbury Children’s Books — you can probably guess which Harry Potter spell got the top vote, but there are still a few surprises in here…
10. Riddikulus.
Transforms nasty Boggarts from something scary into something silly.
9. Obliviate.
The charm Gilderoy Lockhart uses to accidentally wipe his own memory, the big buffoon.
8. Sectumsempra.
A mouthful of a curse invented by troubled teen Severus Snape.
7. Avada Kedavra.
We all know what this one does. How did it manage to make the top 10 favourite list, though?
6. Alohomora.
That one Hermione keeps using to unlock doors when they go sneaking around in the first book.
5. Lumos.
The spell equivalent of that little torch app on your iPhone.
4. Expelliarmus.
Basically the only spell Harry ever uses when he’s in a duel.
3. Wingardium Leviosa.
Makes things levitate. Sounds fun.
2. Accio.
The perfect charm for lazy people who can’t be bothered to get up and fetch the TV remote.
1. Expecto Patronum.
The Harry Potter spell to end all Harry Potter spells.
Image: BLOOMSBURY
Gets rid of pesky Dementors by summoning a badass Patronus to chase them away.
Just hours before special counsel Robert Mueller landed a guilty verdict from Donald Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the Senate’s most important swing vote was quizzing the president’s Supreme Court nominee on presidential power.
“I wanted to hear Judge Kavanaugh’s views on whether special counsels were appropriate at times while a president is in office,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “And he said yes: ‘That no person was above the law.’”
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The response seemed to satisfy Collins, one of the few Republicans who has been stumping to protect Mueller from presidential interference as Trump rages against the probe. And it capped a 130-minute meeting that couldn’t have gone better for Kavanaugh with the senator who is very likely to determine his fate on the Senate floor in a few weeks.
As she faces a crush of ads urging her to reject the Supreme Court nominee for his conservative stance on abortion rights, Collins sounds increasingly positive on Kavanaugh’s nomination. She refuses to say she’s even leaning in favor of Kavanaugh, but on topics from health care to abortion to the special counsel the nominee placated her with his answers.
“He is clearly well credentialed, has appropriate experience, is thoughtful in his approach to the issues, emphasized his belief in an independent judiciary, underscored his commitment to stare decisis,” Collins said in a 25-minute interview in her office late Tuesday. “I’m just not — I want to make sure I have the benefit of the hearings before reaching a decision.”
Collins’ relative warmth toward Kavanaugh has Republicans on the precipice of confirming the Supreme Court nominee before the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans can unilaterally confirm Supreme Court justices, and Democrats’ only hope of beating Kavanaugh starts and ends with the Maine senator standing against Trump’s nominee.
The pivotal role and proud moderate Republican has drawn more than $700,000 in ads aimed at getting Collins to vote no and a grass-roots campaign from pro-abortion rights. Liberal groups are outspending conservatives in Maine by a margin of more than 2-to-1 in ad wars that nationally favor Republicans, according to spending data reviewed by POLITICO.
But it seems to have backfired with Collins, who does not take kindly to political pressure and voted against Obamacare repeal along with GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona. She said on Tuesday that “pressure campaigns, whether they’re from the left or the right, have no influence on me.”
In fact, just a day after Trump nominated Kavanaugh, Vice President Mike Pence visited Senate Republicans and crowed that frequent Collins critic Rush Limbaugh supported the judge. Under her breath, Collins said Limbaugh’s support wasn’t necessarily something to brag about, according to two attendees, underscoring that a hard whip operation on Collins simply won’t work.
“Not at all. That’s been my experience. Letting her do her due diligence is the best way. And respect her right as an individual senator,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), who’s responsible for rounding up Kavanaugh’s votes. But he added: “I feel comfortable about where we are right now.”
The campaign to press Collins to vote against Kavanaugh, led by Demand Justice, has focused on Roe v. Wade, which Kavanaugh has suggested is wrongly decided. In one ad, the group says that “a vote for Kavanaugh is a vote to overturn Roe.”
Collins prides herself as one of just two GOP senators who regularly votes in favor of abortion rights, along with Murkowski, the other undecided Republican. And she said on Tuesday in the meeting with Kavanaugh, she “pressed him very hard on this issue.”
“He answered that he believes very strongly that precedent is a fundamental principle of our judicial system, that it’s important, these are words that he used, ‘for predictability and stability.’ That he’s not a ‘rock the boat’ kind of judge,” Collins recalled. “He certainly gave a very strong answer.”
The fourth-term senator was relieved to hear Kavanaugh say that Roe v. Wade is “settled law.” And even though that might be sufficient to her vote, it was a throwaway line to most Democrats and pro-abortion rights groups.
“This is not as simple as Judge Kavanaugh saying that Roe is settled law. Everything the Supreme Court decides is settled law until it unsettles it,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “Typical judicial dodge.”
Yet Collins is Schumer’s best hope in stopping Kavanaugh as arguably the least conservative Senate Republican. He’s been able to keep all of his Democrats from publicly supporting Kavanaugh, including three moderates who supported Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination. But that calculus falls apart if Collins and Murkowski are yes votes.
Murkowski said the two shouldn’t be viewed as a bloc.
“Sen. Collins and I never coordinated on Obamacare repeal. We’re not coordinating on Kavanaugh. She’s doing her due diligence, I’m doing mine,” Murkowski said.
Asked if Democrats are expecting Collins to vote no, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) replied: “I wouldn’t assume.”
“I respect her very much and count her as a great friend. I’ll let her speak for herself on this,” he said. “It’s the nature of this job: If you don’t want to fight fires, don’t be a firefighter. If you don’t want to take tough votes, stay out of the Senate.”
It’s difficult to overstate just how difficult this vote may end up being for Collins, who enjoy a strong reputation among all 99 of her colleagues in both parties. Not only is she about to disappoint about half of them no matter how she votes, but she is tangling with Planned Parenthood over the nomination just a year after they gave her an award for fighting for funding for the group.
“It baffles me that Planned Parenthood keeps launching these attacks on me,” Collins said, referring to advertisements targeting her. “I have voted for 21 years now for funding for Planned Parenthood. And yet, they continue to question my commitment. And that is extremely aggravating and unfair.”
The political pain could reverberate beyond just this fight. Collins is up for reelection in 2020, and Protect Our Care, a liberal health care coalition, released polling on Tuesday suggesting that she will make herself more vulnerable if she votes against Kavanaugh.
Maine voters have typically rewarded moderate senators with reelection. But Kavanaugh’s nomination does not seem popular in the state, according to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who said he’s received “thousands” of messages about Kavanaugh, most of them against.
Yet if Collins is feeling any stress from her constituents on Kavanaugh, it pales in comparison to the outcry against Obamacare repeal last year, she said. On July 4 last year, she was besieged by Mainers worried about their health care; this year in Bangor she said there were “literally two people” who mentioned the Supreme Court vacancy.
“The contrast is enormous,” she said. “Now, I should probably stop saying that. Because every time I say that people jam my phone lines.”
Welcome to another chapter in the bizarre saga of Azealia Banks/Grimes/Elon Musk!
Azealia Banks — who claims she was abandoned by Grimes and trapped in Elon Musk’s mansion while he tripped acid — has been dropping juicy screenshots hinting at the unfolding drama in her Instagram stories.
On Tuesday, Banks posted a screenshot of a conversation between her and an unnamed source. She circled a text that said, “I made you look really good today. The attorneys like you and said you’re smart.”
The texts also discuss “damages that Claire caused” — Claire is Grimes’ birth name.
In another screenshot posted to Azealia Banks’ story, a person alleged to be Grimes says that “he” (Musk) “got into weed” because of her influence and that when he decided to take Tesla private, the stock would be worth $419 each.
“So he rounded up to 420 for a laugh and now the sec is investigating him for fraud,” Grimes texted.
Image: instagram/azealiabanks
Image: INSTAGRAM/AZEALIABANKS
Banks circled those texts and called Grimes “a pathological liar.”
Lost in all the messiness of this situation? Here’s a timeline of this wild ride:
Jul. 30: Grimes announced that she was working with Azealia Banks on her next album.
well i’ve started like 4 beats for her now lol she has to come to la to finish
Aug. 10: Banks arrives at Elon Musk’s mansion in L.A.
In an Instagram DM, she later toldBusiness Insider that Musk was “scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet” and that he wasn’t cute in person.
Also, Musk and Grimes left for DefCon together, leaving Banks in his house.
Great Q&A @defcon last night. Thanks for helping make Tesla & SpaceX more secure! Planning to open-source Tesla vehicle security software for free use by other car makers. Extremely important to a safe self-driving future for all.
Aug. 12: Apparently Banks gets trapped in Musk’s house, and things start getting weird.
Buckle up everyone, THIS is where it gets fun! That Sunday night, Banks compared staying in the Musk mansion to the real-life version of Get Out, and then exposed Musk for “being too stupid to know not to go on Twitter while on acid.”
She also claimed that she wasn’t allowed to bring her boyfriend with her, and said “it was probably some weird threesome sex shit to begin with.”
Aug. 13: Musk clarifies his now-memed “funding secured.” Also, Banks has more to say.
Apparently Saudi Arabia is going to help Tesla go private, according to a note on the company’s website.
Azealia Banks, meanwhile, continued her rant about her weekend at Elon’s on another Instagram story. She said that Musk was “better off hiring an escort” because Grimes can’t keep quiet about the business.
While dragging both Grimes and Elon Musk through personal attacks and going off on a diatribe about the colonization of South Africa, Banks also hinted at Grimes spilling secrets.
Musk, meanwhile, told Gizmodo he didn’t know Banks and that he “has never even met [Banks] or communicated with her in any way.”
But Banks sent Business Insider an alleged screenshot of a conversation between her and Mac Boucher, Claire’s brother, that said, “Elon will meet with you tonight.”
Three days later, Elon admitted to seeing Banks “for two seconds” in a New York Times interview.
Just when you think it doesn’t get crazier than Elon vs. the shorts, you find out about the Azealia Banks Vs. Grimes/Elon craziness and realize THERE COULD BE SO MANY MORE LEVELS OF CRAZY TO GO.$TSLApic.twitter.com/A5YEqwXbP1
Aug. 18: Banks posts more screenshots and now we know too much about Musk’s genitalia.
Banks, our screenshot queen, posted more receipts on her Instagram story. “Elon Musk has been tapping my phone all week,” she claimed, posting screenshots of texts allegedly between her and Grimes from before their meeting.
In the texts, Grimes roasts Musk for his “weird accent that doesn’t actually exist,” but brags about his “giant dick.”
Let’s also just appreciate Banks calling Musk a “wild thornberry.”
Basically, though, the screenshots seem to show that Musk at least knew Banks was planning on a visit.
Aug. 19: Grimes and Musk stop following each other.
The internet’s most confusing couple stopped following each other on Instagram, and Musk unfollowed Grimes on Twitter. Considering Musk’s bizarre Twitter presence, this could mean nothing. Right?
Aug. 20: Musk deletes his Instagram and Banks says he has her phone.
Musk told Gizmodo that he deleted his Instagram account because he didn’t “like it.”
The same day, Banks called him out on her infamous Instagram story, begging for her phone back. This is where it gets even spicier — in deleted story videos, she complains about how she wants to go home and says “none of this shit has anything to fucking do with me.”
“Honestly, what the fuck is even going on,” she asks in one of the videos. “What the actual fuck is going on?”
Self-proclaimed “Teslaqologist” and “founder of the Canadian Institute of Cultural Teslaqology” @ravenvanderrave tweeted screen recordings of the videos. You can check out the full thread here.
Aug. 21: More screenshots, and now attorneys are involved?
Banks posted more screenshots on her story that alluded to “damages that Claire caused.” She also said on her story that she was finally leaving Los Angeles, sans phone, and that she couldn’t “stay here for anymore of this shit.”
“If you knew that you couldn’t work … you should have just told me to stay my ass home,” she ranted on her story. Banks also pointed out that Musk “sent that first tweet” before she even got on her flight, and that she could have easily stayed.
Twitter users, meanwhile, wonder what the heck Banks could have had on her phone.
Maybe video of an acid fest? Sky’s the limit with this bunch.
— Smartish Elon for Prison (Xenomorpher) (@xenomorpher1) August 21, 2018
Theory:
1Banks records damaging Elon conversation
2Elon lies he never saw Banks (changes story later to say briefly saw, never in ear shot tho…why lie about this in 1st place?)
3Elon and Grimes fight over why Banks was brought to his house
Yes, it’s true: The promise of self-driving cars zooming around while their human operators doze off, read, or watch movies is not quite here yet.
But who said that had to happen right now or we’ve missed our chance at driverless vehicles forever? On Monday, The Outline published an article titled “The self-driving car that will never arrive,” calling self-driving cars “delusional” and part of “our grossest capitalistic dreams.” It’s just the latest from those who believe driverless cars and other artificial intelligence innovations are an unrealistic pipe dream.
But innovation happens incrementally, step by step. Just because it’s not instantaneous doesn’t mean it will never happen.
And things are happening. Right now, clunky, top-heavy sensor- and camera-loaded vehicles are carefully driving around sunny, wide boulevards of Phoenix, Arizona, or geo-fenced areas of Frisco, Texas, or highly controllable senior living communities in Florida and San Jose. Admittedly, fatal mistakes are a huge, tragic problem that set back the entire industry. But that’s not the end of the line for self-driving advancements.
Waymo is leading the charge here, clocking in 8 million self-driven miles and gearing up for a truly driverless taxi service. It’s been driving around “early riders,” like this Phoenix family, and showing how driverless can work in a world still filled with traditional vehicles. Sure, we’re given access to Waymo’s progress to whet our appetites about what could be, to keep the hope alive about a driverless future. But it’s not entirely baseless.
Lyft’s partnership with Aptiv just hit 5,000 rides in their commercial self-driving program in Las Vegas, where they charge users for a self-driven ride with a safety driver and operator up front.
A self-driving Lyft on the Vegas Strip
Image: Aptiv-Lyft
Autonomous shuttle services in what The Outline reduced to a “carnival ride” — cordoned-off, safe, predictable areas — are ramping up. It’s not a futuristic utopia, but this is how we get there.
It’s so much easier to test and put this tech on the roads that way. The soon-to-launch Waymo taxi service is a more complex version of those self-contained obstacle courses.
Ford’s self-driving report out last week clearly laid out plans to start offering vehicles for ride-hailing and delivery services in 2021. GM’s Cruise similarly has not-too-soon-but-still-coming-up deadlines. And remember, this isn’t even for mainstream use.
No researcher, academic, or even “greedy” company spokesperson or executive I’ve talked with has ever predicted everyday consumer use of self-driving cars coming any time soon. But, “I have little doubt that self-driving cars are going to happen,” Washington University in St. Louis computer science and engineering professor Sanjoy Baruah told me last month. It’s just a matter of which company will do it first.
Startups and researchers are well aware they’re operating vehicles mainly on highways without the complexities of urban areas and other environments. Situations in downtown Manhattan or snowy Buffalo, New York, make it way too difficult to implement globally. We’re not there yet. We’re seeing the first uses of self-driving in taxi and fleet services. These are very much controlled by the companies themselves; no regular driver is given keys to this expensive equipment and told to drive safely.
That’s what we need to reach a new way of moving around. We’re allowed to aspire and dream big. It’s not delusional even if those aspirations are recalibrated along the way. It happens.
We’ve already got a bevy of semi-autonomous features to help society understand and accept how this tech could eventually work. Eventually.
A Cox Automotive survey of more than 1,250 Americans released last week found that consumers want autonomous features in their cars. Collision avoidance, lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control, and parking assistance all were considered highly desirable.
So while almost 50 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t ever buy a driverless Level 5 autonomous vehicle, the appeal of Level 2 — essentially what Tesla’s Autopilot already offers — is up 9 percent from a 2016 survey.
Just like the naysayers of yore poo-pooing the rise of the internet, the self-driving skeptics are going to look silly as they desperately hold onto their human-controlled steering wheels. Eventually. This takes time.
According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Posey “faces likely hip surgery that would cut short his season.”
Manager Bruce Bochy revealed there have been discussions about the surgery when he said: “I’ll be honest with you. We have discussed that. We talked about it. Nothing’s been determined yet. Because we want him ready for next year. We’re discussing that now.”
Giants executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean said, “I’d say that that’s a safe assumption,” when asked about the surgery happening soon.
Posey has served as a cornerstone piece of San Francisco’s roster for nearly a decade. He’s helped lead the franchise to three World Series titles, was named the National League MVP in 2012 and leads all catchers in WAR since his 2009 debut, per FanGraphs.
The 31-year-old Georgia native has also remained mostly durable despite the physically demanding position. He entered 2018 having played at least 140 games in six straight seasons. He missed this year’s All-Star Game while recovering from the hip injury, though.
Nick Hundley will slide into the starting lineup and figures to receive the lion’s share of the playing time behind the dish.
Ultimately, the Giants are going to need a late-season surge to earn a playoff berth in the National League. Being without Posey for any type of extended period would be a major blow to those efforts given his all-around on-field contributions and clubhouse leadership.
Inmates set to hold work stoppages, hunger strikes, and sit-in protests in massive nationwide action.
Inmates in prisons across the United States are preparing to take part in a national protest aimed at bringing urgent reform to a system they say abuses and exploits them.
Among the demands of protesters are “immediate” improvements to prison conditions, that fair wages be paid to inmates for their labour, the possibility of parole for all prisoners, and the restoration of voting rights to felons. Those taking part in the strike will hold labour stoppages, sit-ins, hunger strikes and spending boycotts.
Conditions in US prisons have long been criticised by reform advocates. At present almost 2.3 million people are held in various correctional facilities and immigration detention centres in the US. Violence is a daily fact of life for many inmates, with an estimated 19 percent of male prisoners saying they have been assaulted by other inmates. Yet prisons are also a lucrative business; private prison companies routinely sign contracts with local and state authorities, despite research suggesting that inmate-on-inmate violence is significantly higher in privately-run facilities. In 2017, the Justice Department declared it would again use private facilities to hold federal inmates, a volte-face from an Obama administration directive to let existing federal contracts with private companies expire without the possibility of renewal.
Organisers of the forthcoming national strike say it will solidify and refine a spirit of protest that was shown in a national strike two years ago. In that protest, more than 24,000 prisoners in a dozen states took part. But, in the era of the Trump administration, what will be different this time? Join the conversation at 19:30 GMT to find out.
Today on The Stream we speak with:
Chandra Bozelko @ChandraBozelko
A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife on charges of improperly using hundreds of thousands of campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including family vacations and dental work.
Hunter is also accused of filing false campaign reports and wire fraud.
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The late-August indictment is a huge problem for California Republicans. Unless Hunter were to pass away in the next 10 days – Aug. 31 – there is no way to replace him on the ballot this November, according to the California Secretary of State’s office. There is also no write-in option under state law.
While the San Diego-based district is solidly Republican and Hunter was moving toward reelection despite his legal problems, Tuesday’s indictment may cost the GOP a badly needed House seat.
The grand jury indictment paints a picture of the Hunters as a couple with serious financial problems who began dipping into about $250,000 worth of campaign funds to pay their expenses. The Hunters allegedly overdrew their joint checking account more than 1,100 times during a seven-year period, leading to thousands in overdraft charges, according to the indictment. Their credit cards were also maxed out, leading to additional charges.
“By virtue of these delinquencies – as well as notifications of outstanding debts and overdue payments from their children’s school, their family dentist, and other creditors – the HUNTERS knew that many of their desired purchases could only be made by using Campaign funds,” the indictment alleges. “The goal of the conspiracy was for DUNCAN HUNTER and MARGARET HUNTER to enrich themselves, and others at their direction, by converting Campaign funds for their own personal benefit and enjoyment, and for the personal benefit of others with whom the HUNTERS had personal relationships.”
Hunter’s attorney, Gregory Vega, claims the prosecution of his client is politically motivated. Vega has sent letters to the Justice Department complaining that two of the federal prosecutors involved in the Hunter case attended a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Aug. 2015. Hunter was a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency.
Vega wanted the case handled by another federal prosecutor, or the criminal investigation brought to an end without an indictment. The DOJ declined those requests.
Vega also wrote to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, on Aug. 6 complaining that the “overt political leanings of two individuals intimately involved in the investigation, combined with, among other things, the Southern District’s sudden, inexplicable rush to indict my client before the general election without affording him sufficient due process, create an actual and/or apparent conflict that cannot be ignored.”
According to a statement from the Justice Department, during the period from 2009 to 2016, the “Hunters illegally used campaign money to pay for personal expenses that they could not otherwise afford. The purchases included family vacations to Italy, Hawaii, Phoenix, Arizona, and Boise, Idaho; school tuition; dental work; theater tickets; and domestic and international travel for almost a dozen relatives.”
Prosecutors allege that the Hunters falsely mislabeled their personal expenses “campaign travel,” “dinner with volunteers/contributors,” “toy drives,” “teacher/parent and supporter events,” “gift cards” for charitable donations, and “gift basket items.
Hunter, 41, is a second-generation lawmaker; his father served in the House from 1980 to 2008. The younger Hunter is a former U.S. Marine and serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Hunter’s indictment endangers a traditionally conservative southern California seat long held by Republicans, including Hunter’s father, Duncan Hunter, Sr., a legend in the San Diego area. Within minutes of the indictment, Cook Political Report announced that it would move Hunter’s seat from “solid” Republican to “likely” Republican, noting that the race suddenly became competitive.
Republicans in the San Diego area and in Washington decided months ago to stick with Hunter rather than force him to retire, taking his word that the matter would go away. It’s why Hunter soundly defeated several Republicans who challenged him for the seat earlier this year — one, a local GOP major who warned that Hunter’s indictment would leave Republicans without a candidate.
Now, the party’s decision is backfiring. Hunter’s name will continue to appear on the ballot this fall next to a progressive Democrat, Ammar-Campa Najjar, rather than another Republican.
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Daily Trends Hunter 