Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 5-1-18

White House And Political News
President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen is under criminal investigation, for the payment of adult star Stormy Daniels among other things, and according to a judge will likely be indicted. Many feel he will flip on Trump.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson Proposing To Triple Subsized Housing Payments For Poor Folks
Lawyer Says Trump’s Personal Lawyer Will Flip; He Will Likely Be Indicted
HUD Secretary Ben Car- son proposed far-reaching changes to federal housing sub- sidies last Wednesday, tripling rent for the poorest households and making it easier for housing authorities to impose work re- quirements.
Carson’s proposals, aimed at low-income Americans re- ceiving federal assistance, amount to a comprehensive ef- fort by the Trump administra- tion and Republicans in Congress to restrict access to the safety net and reduce the levels of assistance.
The proposals — affecting housing, food stamps and Med- icaid — would require congres- sional approval.
Trump earlier this month signed an executive order di- recting federal agencies to ex- pand work requirements for low-income Americans receiv- ing Medicaid, food stamps, pub- lic housing benefits and welfare. The agencies are supposed to issue recommendations to the White House within 90 days.
The initiative unveiled by Carson last week would raise the rent for tenants in subsi- dized housing to 35 percent of gross income (or 35 percent of their earnings working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage), up from the current standard of 30 percent of ad- justed income. About half of the 4.7 million families receiving housing benefits would be af- fected, HUD officials said.
The cap on rent for the poor- est families would rise to about
BEN CARSON
$150 a month — three times higher than the existing $50 ceiling. About 712,000 house- holds would see their monthly rents rise to $150, the officials said.
“There is one inescapable imperative driving this reform effort,” Carson said in a call with reporters. “The current system isn't working very well. Doing nothing is not an option.”
The HUD secretary said gov- ernment spending on housing increases every year — without reaching the vast majority of those who qualify for aid. Only 1 in 4 eligible families receive housing benefits, he said. The rest remain on the waiting list for years and may never receive help.
“Every year, it takes more money, millions of dollars more, to serve the same number of households,” Carson said. “It's clear from a budget per- spective and a human point of view that the current system is
unsustainable.
HUD wants to scrap rules
allowing deductions for medical and child-care costs when de- termining rent, which Carson said gave some tenants an un- fair advantage.
Housing advocates criti- cized the HUD proposals as “cruel hypocrisy,” coming on the heels of tax breaks to wealthy Americans and corpo- rations.
“When we are in the middle of a housing crisis that’s having the most negative impact on the lowest-income people, we shouldn’t even be considering proposals to increase their rent burdens,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Carson’s proposed bill would also allow public housing authorities to impose work re- quirements. Currently, only 15 out of 3,100 housing authorities across the country require some sort of work or job training in return for benefits, HUD offi- cials said.
Seniors over the age of 65 and individuals with disabilities would be exempt from the rental increases for the first six years. They would also be ex- empt from any work require- ments.
The proposal would also move to verify tenants’ house- hold income every three years instead of annually, which Car- son said would encourage resi- dents to work more without immediately facing a rent in- crease.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer said on Sunday Donald Trump was in “panic mode” and expected his attorney Michael Cohen to cooper- ate with investigations into the president.
“Mr. Trump and the ad- ministration have concluded what I’ve been saying for weeks,” said Michael Ave- natti, on CNN’s State of the Union. “That Michael Cohen is in a lot of trouble and he’s going to flip on the president.”
Cohen’s office, hotel room and home were raided by the FBI last month, after a refer- ral to the southern district of New York by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is in- vestigating Russian election interference and alleged links between Trump aides and Moscow. Trump has denied collusion and called
the investigation a “witch- hunt”.
FBI agents were looking among other things for doc- umentation relating to Cohen’s orchestration shortly before the 2016 elec- tion of a payment to Daniels of $130,000, in return for her silence over a sexual re- lationship she claims to have had with Trump.
Adult film star, Daniels, whose real name is Stepha- nie Clifford, is suing to be released from the deal. She also alleges defamation by Cohen. Cohen indicated he will invoke his fifth amend- ment right to avoid self-in- crimination.
On Friday, the judge in California granted Cohen a 90-day delay, given that he is under criminal investigation in New York and that an in- dictment is “likely”.
Judge That Tampered With Election
Cuba Has A New President
Gets Probation; Woman Who Voted
Cuba has been synonymous with the name “Castro” since 1959.
First, Fidel Castro, who was its dictator, who led the Revolu- tion until 2006, and then his brother, Raúl, who added the presidency to his leadership of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in 2006 (officially 2008), after Fidel’s illness and death.
They first came to interna- tional attention as guerrilla fighters seeking to revolutionize an economically and socially di- vided Cuba during the 1950s, when it was under U. S. neocolo- nial rule.
While Fidel occupied the spotlight and became the coun- try’s president, Raúl also played an active part in shaping the rev- olution, its ideology, and its in- ternational relations.
In March, Cuba’s election process kicked into action with elections for neighborhood rep- resentatives, and then with mu- nicipal elections. The result was the election of 605 members to what the country calls the Na- tional Assembly.
While On Probation Gets Prison
Judge Russ Casey was ac- cused of turning in fake signa- tures in order to appear on the March primary ballot in Tar- rant County, Texas. This week during his court hearing, the judge pleaded guilty to tamper- ing with a government record.
Casey was sentenced to two years in jail, however, rather than going behind bars, he will serve five years on probation.
He wrote: ”I apologize to the citizens of Tarrant County, the Tarrant County Republican Party, my family and friends for the way that I have ended my judicial career," Casey wrote in a statement, following the court hearing. "Today's proceedings have begun my transition from public to private life."
His not-so-harsh punish- ment, has sparked controversy, particularly in light of the case of Texas woman Crystal Mason, who was sentenced to five years in prison after she "il- legally" cast a ballot in the 2016
Texas Republican Judge Russ Casey gets a slap on the wrist after knowingly tampering with an election, but Crystal Mason, who unknowingly voted, gets harsh sentence.
election.
Mason was on supervised
release following a three-year tax fraud prison stint, and says she wasn't aware of her inabil- ity to vote while she was on pro- bation.
Basically, Mason received a much harsher punishment for accidentally committing voter fraud, while an appointed judge who intentionally broke the law received a slap on the wrist.
The new president of Cuba is Miguel Diaz-Canel, shown with its former president, Raul Castro. The Castro brothers, the late Fidel and Raul have ruled Cuba since 1959.
Last week, on April 18th, the National Assembly voted to nominate the candidate for pres- ident, as well as the members of the Council of State. On April 19th, presidential candidate, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was elected by 603-1 vote.
Both the date and the candi- date are significant. Crucially, Miguel Díaz-Canel is the first non-Castro to lead Cuba. His as- cendance to the presidency coin- cides with the dramatic failure of the CIA-funded ‘Bay of Pigs In- vasion in 1961, which sought to end the revolution and oust the
Castro leadership. This an- niversary is particularly signifi- cant given the increasing hostility towards Cuba under the Trump administration.
Miguel Díaz-Canel enjoyed the support of Raúl Castro himself and has been a very ac- tive member of the Cuban Com- munist Party for some 30 years.
He trained as an electrical en- gineer, served as Minister of Higher Education between 2009 and 2012, and was elected First Vice President of the Cuban Communst Party in 2013, occu- pying key posts at difficult times.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2018