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Why sharks aren’t out to get you

Shark attacks capture a disproportionate share of public attention, given their rarity (cows kill more people annually).

Historian of marine science Samantha Muka, of Stevens Institute of Technology, doesn’t dismiss the fear that a great white shark can inspire. But Muka offers a reminder not to assign sharks human-like motives.

Find out more in the video above.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why the Fed is taking a hammer to the housing market

The Federal Reserve’s rapid interest rate hikes are taking a serious toll on the housing market. Home prices and sales have fallen throughout the year as buyers recoil from rising mortgage interest rates — one of the first sectors of the economy affected by Fed rate hikes.  

As the Fed boosts its baseline interest rate range, borrowing costs for consumers and businesses rise along the way. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.3 percent at the end of last week, according to Freddie Mac, up from 3.1 percent at the start of the year. 

While mortgage rates have fallen slightly since peaking in the wake of the Fed’s June rate hike, the sharp increase in interest rates has already taken a hammer to what had been a historically hot housing market. 

“The recent decline in affordability has been driven largely by higher mortgage rates. This stands in contrast with last year, when higher home prices were the main driver,” wrote Goldman Sachs economist Vinay Viswanathan in a Friday research note. 

Housing prices and sales rose at double-digit rates in 2020 as a result of near-zero Fed interest rates, trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus and months of pandemic-related lockdowns that drove a surge of homebuying.  

Sales slowed slightly in 2021 under the weight of higher prices, but a severe shortage of homes and the Fed’s refusal to raise interest rates helped keep prices high and borrowing costs low for buyers who could keep up with the market. 

The Fed is now moving the market in the opposite direction by making it more expensive to buy homes already inflated by years of rapid price increases.  

“Housing is an interest rate sensitive sector. As mortgage rates rose over the past couple of months, we saw buyers pull back in response to the higher housing costs,” wrote Ali Wolf, chief economist for housing data firm Zonda, in a Friday email. 

“Many pundits emphasize home price levels, but ultimately, people buy homes based on the monthly payment. Rising home prices combined with higher mortgage rates are driving up the monthly mortgage payment, which is impacting housing affordability,” she wrote. 

Wolf said 11 percent of U.S. homebuilders slashed their prices in June from May, according to Zonda data, to help keep up sales. Home sale cancellations also jumped to 14.9 percent in June, according to brokerage firm Redfin, the highest rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Slowing the housing market is a tough break for potential sellers, who had hoped to cash in on the steep climb in prices over the past two years. Housing prices are also not included in the inflation rate, so a decline in sale prices will not have a direct impact on the federal government’s price growth data. 

Even so, the drop-off can play a key role in the Fed’s fight against inflation.  

As home sales decline, so will the spending on the listing and transaction costs, moving services, furniture, repairs, renovations that come along with buying or selling a house.  

Lower home prices may also ease pressure on inflation through what economists call “wealth effects.” 

Americans with ample income may not be affected by rising interest rates on credit cards, which increase in lockstep with the Fed’s baseline interest rate. But the Fed’s rate hikes will also reduce their wealth — and perhaps spending — by shrinking the value of their homes, stocks and other financial assets. 

American homeowners expect the price of their houses to fall by a median of 5.8 percent over the next year, according to the Federal Reserve of New York’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, a figure that’s down from 4.4 percent in May. The monthly drop was the second largest in the history of the survey, and the expected price decline is the worst since February 2021. 

Rising concerns about a recession have also prompted some potential buyers to wait until economic storm clouds pass, Wolf said, while others have been priced out by rising mortgage rates. 

“The higher cost of homeownership is pricing some potential buyers out of the market but is also changing the math in the rent-versus-own discussion,” she explained. “Many prospective buyers are choosing to sit on the sidelines to wait and see how both the economy and housing market progress before making the decision to purchase.” 

A steady decline in home prices could help bring down inflation while also making houses more affordable. The U.S. suffered from an affordable housing shortage long before COVID-19 struck, and the pandemic only exacerbated the lack of homes within reach of many first-time buyers. 

Fewer buyers means less competition for homes on the market, which could make homes slightly more affordable as the market corrects. But a longer-term lack of construction may leave homebuyers with little relief when the market turns around again. 

“The U.S. housing market is undersupplied long-term when looking at population figures, but the market can bounce from undersupplied to oversupplied cyclically. If demand slows enough, builders may find themselves with more homes than buyers that are willing to buy them,” Wolf said. “Builders won’t want to bring more homes to the market if they aren’t sure they will sell them.”

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell ultimatum endangers China competition bill

The fate of bipartisan legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness with China could be imperiled by political battles. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) aims to pass a party-line economic package to lower drug prices and raise taxes on high earners despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) threat to block the China-centric measure if Democrats move forward with a reconciliation bill. 

The push and pull between Senate leaders could undermine legislation that would provide $52 billion in subsidies to restore domestic semiconductor manufacturing, along with other measures aimed at shoring up the nation’s supply chains and reducing U.S. dependence on China.  

That funding was at one time viewed as almost inevitable — several chipmakers unveiled plans to build multibillion-dollar facilities in the U.S. contingent on federal dollars — but recent developments have thrown its future into question.  

“I think people’s outlook was a little bit too rosy earlier in the year, knowing that there’s no action-forcing event like a statutory deadline to make people come to the table,” said Stewart Verdery, CEO of Monument Advocacy and a former Senate GOP aide.  

“There’s this constant tug of war between Schumer and McConnell on every issue, and this has somewhat gotten caught in the crossfire.” 

The Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) last year with bipartisan support, including McConnell’s vote. The House passed its own version of the bill that includes more aggressive trade measures in February. Lawmakers have been negotiating a final bill in a conference committee, but talks slowed down following McConnell’s ultimatum.  

“Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill,” McConnell said in a tweet last month, which drew backlash from President Biden and other Democrats. 

Lobbyists for chip manufacturers and others in the semiconductor supply chain, eager to scoop up billions in new subsidies, have inundated lawmakers with meetings, calls and letters pressuring them to pass the bill.  

They’re warning that the U.S. could lose out on chipmaking facilities if lawmakers don’t pass the legislation before the August recess, when Congress is expected to go into campaign mode ahead of November’s elections. 

While some senators view those warnings as a bluff, other officials have taken them seriously. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last month that Taiwan-based semiconductor manufacturer GlobalWafers will only build a massive new factory in Texas if it knows funding is on the way, and the company must make its decision soon.   

“It has to be done before they go to August recess. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly. This deal … will go away, I think, if Congress doesn’t act,” Raimondo said in an interview on CNBC’s “Mad Money.”  

Intel announced a $20 billion chipmaking facility in Ohio in January but cautioned that it was contingent on federal funding. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger recently warned that if Congress doesn’t pass the bill, the company could instead expand its facilities in Europe, where lawmakers have authorized $46 billion to spur semiconductor production.  

“The rest of the world is not waiting for the U.S. to act. Our global competitors are investing in their industry, their workers, and their economies, and it is imperative that Congress act to enhance U.S. competitiveness,” a group of 100 top executives at major companies, including Google, Amazon, Dell and Microsoft, wrote in a recent letter to congressional leaders.  

Some business groups have appeared to take McConnell’s side in fighting the reconciliation bill, which includes a measure that would dent drugmakers’ profits by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices. 

The National Association of Manufacturers on Monday sent a letter to top lawmakers to prioritize the chips bill while also urging Senate Democrats to abandon their reconciliation package. 

“The Chamber’s legislative priorities remain unchanged since the beginning of the year: defeat the tax and spend reconciliation bill and enact legislation very similar to the Senate-passed Bipartisan Innovation bill,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief policy officer Neil Bradley. 

It’s not clear that lawmakers could reach a deal before the August recess, even if McConnell dropped his threat or Schumer’s reconciliation talks with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) fell apart. 

Senate Democrats have a packed July calendar that includes year-end spending legislation, the annual defense package, judicial nominations and potentially a bill to crack down on tech giants in addition to negotiations over what kind of measures will make it into reconciliation.  

Lawmakers must also work out vast differences between the Senate and House China competition bills before creating a final product that could pass the House and win 60 Senate votes. 

Numerous points of contention surrounding trade, immigration and subsidies still haven’t been resolved. Those include a measure that would create a broad exclusion process within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to allow companies to dodge China tariffs, which has drawn scorn from Democrats and a small number of Republicans. 

“This provision would be a boon to Washington lobbyists and special interests who could nearly guarantee an exclusion for any client by so overwhelming USTR with exclusion requests, that it would be impossible for the agency to conduct a thorough review within the 90-day statutory window,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) wrote in a letter to conference committee members last week. 

Senate aides have suggested that the House could simply pass the USICA to bypass McConnell’s blockade and send the bill to Biden’s desk. But that’s seen as a last resort, as Democratic leaders in the House don’t see sufficient support for the Senate-passed bill in their caucus.  

Complicating things further, Schumer on Sunday announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, while Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) revealed a positive test on Monday, likely pushing back Democrats’ legislative agenda if they’re forced to postpone votes. 

While unlikely, it’s possible that lawmakers could pass the bill after returning from the August recess, but that might not come until after the midterm elections.  

“House Democrats would have to give up on some of the add-ons that they put into their process, and they’ve been reluctant to do that publicly just yet,” said Monument’s Verdery. “But I can see that happening in September, or a lame-duck session when both sides are at the 5-yard line.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Seven governor races to follow in midterms

Thirty-six states could see new governors elected in November, and many of the races are heating up.  

Gubernatorial races are drawing increased interest as prominent decisions — from pandemic restrictions to abortion — fall to the states. At the same time, they will likely be buffeted by the same issues as other campaigns, including inflation.  

A flipped governor’s mansion could indicate a shift ahead of the 2024 presidential election.  

Here are seven races for governor to keep an eye on in 2022:  

Arizona  

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs appears to be the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination ahead of the Grand Canyon State’s Aug. 2 primaries.  

The Republican side is a little murkier — and is shaping up to be a proxy war of sorts between former President Trump and the current, term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.  

Ducey last week endorsed Karrin Robson as his successor, and she’s narrowed the gap with Trump-endorsed GOP front-runner Kari Lake just as early voting begins.  

In 2020, Trump lost Arizona by less than half a percentage point, and the state remains a sore spot for him.   

Lake has promised to keep Trump-era policies intact in Arizona, including finishing the border wall Trump said he would build.    

Georgia  

The competition between Stacey Abrams (D) and Brian Kemp (R) was heated when they faced off for governor in 2018. When Kemp won, Abrams accused him of racially motivated voter suppression and took weeks to officially end her campaign.   

Abrams has since built a national profile and a coalition of new voters, and just last week a spokesperson for her campaign told The Hill they’ve raised about $22 million in two months — far outpacing Kemp’s campaign.  

Polls show Kemp and Abrams are tied. 

But Kemp easily defeated a Trump-backed primary challenger and, despite Georgia going blue for the first time in decades by electing President Biden and Sens. Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, Republicans remain confident they’ll be able to keep the governor’s mansion.  

Kansas  

 In 2018, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) managed what many thought unlikely: winning as a Democrat in deep-red Kansas, including in several counties that had gone for Trump two years prior.  

But this year, Kelly is running against the state’s conservative Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who easily won his reelection in 2018.   

In 2020, Schmidt was one of 17 Republican attorneys general to file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election results. So an endorsement from Trump was unsurprising, though potentially impactful in a state where the former president pulled in 56 percent of votes in 2020.  

Still, in 2018, Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) also received a Trump endorsement, and Kelly managed to pull 5 points ahead to win that election.  

Democrats in the state view Kelly’s reelection as particularly crucial because Republicans control the legislature and most other statewide offices.  

Michigan   

Gretchen Whitmer quickly rose to national prominence after her election in 2018, becoming one of the faces of the country’s pandemic response and, eventually, one of several women on Biden’s list of potential vice presidents.  

Despite this, Republicans are hopeful they can turn the state red — after all, Trump lost the state by a narrow margin in 2020, and Michigan was the site of large and ongoing protests against coronavirus restrictions.   

But it’s been a chaotic time for the Michigan GOP.   

Five of the party’s original candidates were knocked off the ballot, and former front-runner Ryan Kelley is facing charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.  

The most recent polls show Tudor Dixon surging 11 points ahead of her Republican competitors. She earned the support of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and Right To Life of Michigan, as well as state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey.  

Whitmer heads into election season with a 49 percent approval rating.   

Nevada  

When Democrat Steve Sisolak was elected in 2018, he broke a decades-long streak of Republican governorship in Nevada.   

Now, he’s battling Trump-backed Republican hopeful Joe Lombardo for a second term.   

Polls taken before the primary, like one from the University of Nevada, Reno, showed Sisolak defeating his potential Republican challengers, including Lombardo, by double digits. 

But a more recent survey from the conservative Club for Growth showed that gap at just 2.8 percent.  

According to the same University of Nevada, Reno poll, voters disagree on what the most important issues of the election are.   

It found that though both Democrats and Republicans agree inflation is a key issue, Democrats voted health care as more important. Republicans ranked immigration as a top issue, while Democrats voted climate change as one of theirs.     

Pennsylvania  

The last few years have seen Pennsylvania flipping between parties. In 2016, Trump won the state’s 20 electoral votes. But in 2020, Biden won the state back for Democrats.  

With Gov. Tom Wolf (D) term-limited, Republicans saw a prime opportunity to take back the governor’s mansion this year.  

But those chances may have been complicated by state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s (R) May primary victory. Mastriano centered much of his campaign around Trump’s claims the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him and earned the former president’s endorsement.  

Some of his other policy stances — such as ending no-excuse vote by mail and completely outlawing abortions even in cases of incest, rape or if the life of the pregnant person is at stake — also have some Republicans worried, and he trails in the polls.  

But Democrats are fretting as well. Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) leads Mastriano by 4 points, a smaller margin than many were expecting, though he has pulled support from top Republicans.   

With the governor in charge of certifying the state’s 2024 presidential winner, this gubernatorial election is imperative for both parties.  

 Wisconsin  

Tony Evers eked out a 1.1 percent victory over incumbent Scott Walker in 2018. Now, Evers is competing against a familiar face: Rebecca Kleefisch, Walker’s lieutenant governor of eight years.

Kleefisch was the first Republican to announce her candidacy. Even as others entered the race, she remained a Republican favorite, earning endorsements from former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and organizations like Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.   

But last month, Tim Michels pulled an endorsement from Trump, who won the state in 2016 and lost by less than a percentage point in 2020. As voters head to the ballot box, a Trump endorsement could influence the more than 1.6 million supporters who voted for him in 2020.

Kleefisch trails 26 percent to Michels’s 27 percent ahead of the state’s Aug. 9 primary, according to the latest Marquette Law School poll.  

Still, Evers leads both Republican favorites in the poll. Forty-seven percent of respondents supported Evers to Kleefisch’s 43 percent, and 48 percent supported him to Michels’s 41 percent.   

Source: TEST FEED1

LeBron James: I 'wasn't knocking our beautiful country' with Griner remarks

Los Angeles Lakers star forward LeBron James on Tuesday night clarified remarks he made on the ongoing detainment of WNBA star Brittney Griner, saying he wasn’t trying to knock “our beautiful country”. 

“My comments on “The Shop” regarding Brittney Griner wasn’t knocking our beautiful country,” the NBA superstar wrote in a tweet on Tuesday.

“I was simply saying how she’s probably feeling emotionally along with so many other emotions, thoughts, etc inside that cage she’s been in for over 100+ days! Long story short #BringHerHome,” he added.

James, a four-time NBA champion, tweeted the statement after facing backlash for remarks he made in his television show “The Shop-Uninterrupted,” where he suggested that Griner, 31, had every right to be upset that her country has not secured her release from Russia. 

“Now, how could she feel like America has her back?” James said in the 30-second episode trailer released Tuesday, adding that “I will be feeling like do I even want to go back to America?” 

Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and Olympic Gold Medalist, has been held by Russian authorities since February, being accused of having vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport. 

Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Pheonix Mercury, is currently on trial in a Russian court. If convicted, she faces a possible 10-year prison sentence.

Griner’s head coach Vanessa Nygaard mentioned James as a point of comparison while discussing the situation with Griner.

“If it was LeBron, he’d be home, right?” Nygaard asked reporters in attendance. “It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a Black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that’s what hurts a little more.”

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is reportedly planning to travel to Russia in the coming weeks to meet with Moscow officials in talks aimed to return Griner to U.S. soil. 

Vice President Harris, who recently talked with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, along with President Biden, said in a CBS “Face The Nation” interview that bringing Griner home remains on their “highest priority list” for the administration.

Source: TEST FEED1

Three charged over stolen lyric notes from The Eagles' Don Henley

New York authorities have charged three individuals concerning their possession of one hundred pages of lyric notes from the Eagles’ frontman Don Henley. 

In a news release on Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) announced that Glenn Horowitz, 66; Craig Inciardi, 58; and Edward Kosinski, 59, had all been charged as part of the scheme.

The manuscripts were originally stolen by a writer who had been hired to pen a biography of the rock band more than 40 years ago, according to court documents. The author purportedly sold the manuscripts to Horowitz in 2005. Horowitz, a rare book dealer, then sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski. 

After learning about the stolen manuscripts, Henley himself sought to intervene, including by filing a police report. 

The individuals at the center of the alleged theft engaged in a years-long battle with the Eagles frontman to prevent him from recovering the material. Horowitz and Inciardi both went so far as to fabricate the manuscripts’ provenance. Inciardi and Kosinski used the false statement of provenance to coerce the frontman to re-purchase his stolen manuscripts. 

The individuals also sought to sell the stolen manuscripts through Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses, but all withheld information on Henley’s claims from potential buyers. 

Authorities conducted a series of search warrants and retrieved Henley’s stolen manuscripts, including 84 pages to songs from the Eagles’ 1977 album Hotel California, which included lyrics from songs such as “Hotel California,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and “New Kid In Town,” the news release said. 

Authorities added that Horowitz attempted to prevent himself from being criminally prosecuted by creating a new false statement of provenance which claimed that band member Glenn Frey, who died in 2016, was the original owner of the stolen material. 

“New York is a world-class hub for art and culture, and those who deal cultural artifacts must scrupulously follow the law. There is no room for those who would seek to ignore the basic expectations of fair dealing and undermine the public’s confidence and trust in our cultural trade for their own ends,” Bragg said in a statement. 

“These defendants attempted to keep and sell these unique and valuable manuscripts, despite knowing they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could turn a profit.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Newsom signs bill allowing gun makers to be sued for negligence

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday signed into law a bill allowing victims of gun violence and others to sue firearm manufacturers.

The Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, which wholly takes effect in July 2023, allows individuals, local governments and the California attorney general to sue gun manufacturers if their firearms are used irresponsibly or have caused harm.

In a video statement on Tuesday, Newsom said that “nearly every industry is held to account when their products cause harm or injury.”

“All except one: the gun industry,” the governor said. “Today, California is going to change that. They can no longer hide from the mass destruction that they have caused.”

Gun manufacturers are typically shielded from civil lawsuits under the 2005 federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, but they can still be held liable for negligence or breach of contract. They are also not the only industry with shield laws, with the pharmaceutical industry also having some protections under federal law.

California’s new Firearm Industry Responsibility Act works within an exemption of the 2005 federal law by allowing lawsuits to proceed if gun makers violate state laws related to the sale and marketing of firearms, according to Newsom’s office.

California’s new law follows a spate of deadly mass shootings in the U.S. this year, including in May when a gunman shot up a church in Laguna Woods, Calif., killing one person before citizens detained him and hogtied him to a chair.

The California chapters of advocacy organizations Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action applauded the new law as a step toward reducing gun violence, which they said kills more than 3,000 Californians a year.

“Gun manufacturers that have helped fuel the gun violence epidemic in this country for too long have gone without being held accountable for their reckless and dangerous actions,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, in a Tuesday statement. “California is helping turn the tide and bring real accountability.”

But the news comes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that made it more difficult to conceal and carry a handgun outside the home, expanding the Second Amendment’s constitutional right to bear arms. The Firearm Industry Responsibility Act is likely to be challenged in court and could be ruled unconstitutional after the Supreme Court ruling.

Newsom, who is flirting with a potential 2024 White House bid, has continued to take action against gun violence. He also signed into law this month a measure prohibiting the marketing of firearms to minors and another statute expanding gun violence prevention grants.

The governor is expected to sign other gun control measures into law this summer, including one that allows private citizens to sue gun manufacturers and dealers for at least $10,000 if a firearm has caused harm or injury.

That bill is modeled after a Texas law passed last year, which circumvented then-existing precedent Roe v. Wade to deputize individuals to sue those who provide or aid an abortion.

Mike Gipson, a state Democrat who sponsored the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act, said California will “not turn a blind eye to the gun industry’s direct responsibility for the killing machines they let flood our streets and murder our loved ones.”

“Other industries and their products, even non-lethal, are held to this standard of accountability,” Gipson said in a statement on Tuesday. “Today, we stand together against the naysayers to create the type of parity that will save lives, setting a standard for others in the nation to follow.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Mike Flood sworn in to replace former Nebraska Rep. Fortenberry

Mike Flood, a Republican from Nebraska, was sworn into office on Tuesday to replace former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) after Fortenberry resigned from office following convictions on three felonies.

Flood, who previously served as speaker of the Nebraska legislature, won a special election late last month to succeed Fortenberry in the Cornhusker State’s 1st Congressional District. He bested state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks (D) for the seat.

The congressman will serve the remainder of Fortenberry’s term, which ends in January 2023. He will face Pansing Brooks for reelection in November.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) administered the oath of office to Flood on the House floor Tuesday evening. He was surrounded by members of the Nebraska delegation.

In remarks following the oath, Flood said he was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity to serve in Congress, and vowed to work to “find solutions to America’s toughest problems.”

“When the people of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District woke up this morning, they simply wanted to know that their elected officials and leaders were working to solve problems, create opportunities for their children and make sure our homeland is safe,” Flood said on the House floor.

“In that spirit, with a deep sense of abiding love for our country, I look forward to working with all of you to find solutions to America’s toughest problems. I pledge to be honest, work for the betterment of our country, and conduct myself in such a way that I honor this institution, the People’s House,” he added.

The new congressman also noted that he was being sworn in on what would have been his mother’s 79th birthday.

“My mom passed away in January and today would have been her 79th birthday. And although she’s a Democrat, I know she is smiling from heaven as I took my oath tonight,” he said.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a statement said Flood “stands for strong conservative values and he has a dedicated conviction in the right to life.”

“I am looking forward to working with Mike on the issues impacting the constituents of our districts and Americans across the country. This is a great day for the people of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, who will once again have a Representative who will fight for them here in Congress,” he added.

Fortenberry announced in late March that he was resigning from office, two days after a federal jury in California found him guilty of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements to authorities.

He was accused of making false statements regarding a $30,200 campaign donation that authorities said was made by a Nigerian businessman during a 2016 fundraising event in California. Under federal law, contributions and donations from foreign nationals to local, state or federally elected officials are not allowed.

He was sentenced to two years of probation last month. He was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and perform 20 hours of community service.

Source: TEST FEED1