i. biography. ii. statistics. iii. connections.

NAME / Saul Elisha Weissberg AGE / 52, born on November 23rd, 1971 GENDER & PRONOUNS / Cis man, he/him. ORIENTATION / Bisexual MARITAL STATUS / Single, divorced x3 HOMETOWN / Manhattan, New York City, New York RESIDENCE / Summit Lake, Providence Peak, Colorado as of 2021 OCCUPATION / Family Law Attorney specializing in divorce at the Law Office of Saul E. Weissberg, LLC

SUMMARY,

trigger warnings — parental death, drugs mention.

Grew up in a very successful family with two parents and a twin brother. The lineage of the Weissbergs includes many doctors, lawyers, professors, and even a senator or two. That meant Saul had a lot to live up to, which he initially flouted until his father’s death in 1987. After the loss of his father, Saul started to take his future seriously and studied as hard as he could to be accepted into an ivy league school. (Honestly, his family members could’ve bought him into any of them, but he wanted to be accepted on his own merit.)

His hard work paid off and that ivy league school ended up being Columbia University. Out on his own in Manhattan, Saul developed a work hard, play hard philosophy. It was early ‘90s New York City and the c*caine was a-plenty, so you can imagine just how hard Saul played. The only problem was that his brother wasn’t with him, but they needed some independence from each other (and Levi probably didn’t want to witness his twin brother be a ho anyway).

Though he didn’t grow up in a conservative hellhole, at least not as much as compared to other cities in the early nineties, Manhattan was the first time Saul was allowed to experiment not only with drugs and alcohol, but with women and men. All bets were off for Saul, but he still somehow managed to graduate from Columbia with honors and a promising future.

From Columbia University to Columbia Law School: Saul wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be an attorney just like dad. Family Law particularly interested him due to the amount of money divorce lawyers could earn, and well, he likes to know the tea™ so it seemed a perfect fit. He graduated with a juris doctor, a new wife, and an infant son.

Saul was a natural born shark at his job and a burgeoning workaholic, which led to the failure of his first marriage. Katie took their son, Micah, and moved to the suburbs to raise him in a more stable environment. Saul became a weekends and holidays dad, too busy with work to devote Micah with the attention he needed. As much as Saul loved his son, it was for the best. He learned that he wasn’t suited to be a family man, so when he met his second wife, he stressed he didn’t want to have any more children… unfortunately, all she wanted was a baby, so his second marriage ended in flames just the same.

All of his hard work paid off. He made partner at thirty-two, had more money than he could dream of, a son that idolized him (though Saul didn’t deserve it), and could count himself among the many successful Weissberg men before him. He still believed in the work hard, play hard philosophy, but as he grew older, the nightclubs and dive bars turned into charity galas and country clubs. The people of New York thought of him as sophisticated and Saul earned the reputation of a cutthroat divorce attorney that represented Real Housewives and rich ex-wives.

He loved his life in Manhattan. He loved his job, he loved his rent-controlled penthouse apartment, he certainly loved the money, and even loved the dirty streets of New York. There was no one in the world that was going to convince him to leave. Until, of course, ex-wife the third. They had been married for a few years, (somewhat) happily, but her older sister, the esteemed Dr. Kathleen Clark, had moved back to their hometown of Providence Peak, Colorado. After that, his wife would not stop begging Saul to move out west.

Though he was happy with his life in Manhattan, there were things he wanted to change; he had mentioned the idea of starting his own firm a few times, and it might be nice to live in an actual house where his son might bring grandchildren one day. (Really, he had been living in apartments since George H.W. Bush had been in office!) All facts that his wife exploited in her begging, naturally. Plus, it would make her happy. Happy wife, happy life—despite the thirty long career with evidence to the contrary. 

Eventually, he relented, and the couple came to Providence Peak in January 2021. Unfortunately, their marriage barely survived the move, and didn’t survive him opening his own firm. His work was supposed to be lessened by moving out to Providence Peak, expecting a lighter workload with a smaller city, but starting his firm made him busier than ever. His wife was happy to be home, but unhappy with her avoidant husband and with her sister constantly in her ear, telling her to leave him. They divorced in late 2022, more acrimoniously than his second wife, but less than his first.

Saul considered going back to Manhattan now that his marriage had ended, constantly complaining about the mountain air and lack of culture and friendly people, but ultimately decided to stay. Having just started his firm, it was successful but still needed room to grow, and he just bought a house in Summit Lake with the intention to retire in ten years. There was really no other choice, he had to stay in Colorado.

So, that’s what Saul has been doing for the past three years—growing his business from out under the shadow of Chapman & Sons, trying to avoid his ex-wife around town, and causing as much chaos as he possibly can to entertain himself.

PERSONALITY,

Let's get this straight upfront: Saul is a messy, messy bitch. He enjoys nothing more than gossiping with the old ladies in town and having his nose in everyone's business. If you have something going on in your life, he wants to know about it AND give his opinion!!

He is as greedy as he is messy, too. He loves nothing more than making money, having the judge rule in his client's favor, and wearing designer suits. Unfortunately, his firm is still young, and with (stinky 😝) Chapman & Sons in town before Saul was even born, he's got a long way to go before his firm is truly successful.

He's got a natural charm to him that some people percieve as smarmy, others find it attractive. He's good for a good time, even in his fifties, and while he can be irritating at times, he can also be really funny so no one has murdered him for being annoying yet.

Despite the three failed marriages, he's a good person to have in your corner as a client or as a friend—he’s a lawyer, there’s nothing he loves more than to win, and if he needs to, he’ll give a verbal lashing like you wouldn’t believe. To put it plainly, he's a better friend than a husband.

Somehow, he keeps convincing people to marry him. When he wants to be, he can loving and seductive, but he's emotionally distant and unserious by default. His three decade long career should stop him from ever wanting to get married, but he did genuinely love all three wives at some point in his life. (He was also only ever married to women because it wasn't legal to marry any of his boyfriends at the time, so maybe he'll trade in wife #4 for husband #1?) He views himself as a hopeful—but realistic—romantic.

WANTED,

specific connections,

HIS EX-WIFE / Thalia Clark-Weissberg, or maybe back to Clark now, is the most recent ex-wife of Saul, and the younger sister of University President Dr. Kathleen Clark. Their marriage ended mostly ambicably, but there's still some open wounds between the two. I'm putting in an official wanted connection over at the main for this role, but if anyone wants to pick her up, please message me! I've left a lot of their history vague so we can plot it all out together.

HIS SON / Micah Weissberg (name can be changed) is the only known child of Saul. Their relationship is fraught because Saul and Katie divorced when Micah was very young and she moved Micah out to the suburbs to be raised away from the chaos of the city. Saul wasn't a very present father, but Micah followed the family tradition to be a lawyer, and Saul has been trying to reconnect since he turned the big 5-0.

general connections,

CLIENTS / Saul is a highly successful divorce lawyer, so if your muse or someone in their life has filed for divorce in the past three years, it's likely he's their lawyer. While he specializes in divorce, he practices all areas of family law, so custody disputes, adoption or foster care proceedings, etc. are under his purview! If your muse needed a lawyer and didn't go to Chapman down the street, then it was probably Saul that took on their case!

BEST FRIEND (0/1) / Saul has many friends, but this specific person is his best friend (in Providence Peak, at least). The person he'd call the moment something interesting happened to gossip about it, the one person he shows some vulnerability to, the one person he divulges all his feelings to, and vice versa!

FRIENDS / Saul is an acquired taste, but he's a fun guy to have around. If you want to gossip over brunch, dance all night, or have a cry-sesh over wine, he's your man.

ENEMIES / On the flip side of that, he can also be a petty enemy. Maybe your muse got a divorce and Saul was representing their spouse, maybe he made a bitchy comment at the wrong moment, maybe your muse doesn't like his flashy ways, or they just don't like the cut of his jib. The possibilities are endless.

ROMANTIC INTERESTS (36+) / There's a reason he was able to get three different women to marry him across multiple decades, alright? It'll probably be a casual fling, but knowing his track record, it could lead somewhere serious.

SEXUAL PARTNERS (34+) / Casual hookups, friends-with-benefits, a situationship, whatever you think your character would be interested in with him.

GO-TO DATE (1/1) / Since he's trying not to get wrapped up in another serious relationship, he needs a platonic friend to take as a date to town events and fancy dinners! @yasdogan

MENTEE or INTERN / Is your muse thinking about joining the legal profession? Do they want someone to mentor them? Do they enjoy grabbing coffees and gossiping? Saul's hiring!

CHILD FIGURES (1/2) / Saul has a very distant relationship with his son that still lives in New York, but he does have fatherly tendencies within. Since there's a lot of young characters (meaning anyone under the age of 34 basically since they're babies in Saul's opinion lol) in the rpg and I believe Saul is the oldest in the rpg currently, these muses would view Saul as a surrogate father in some fashion. He would view them as a lowkey do-over of the relationship he missed out on with his actual son, so they'd come to him whenever they need advice or borrow some money, etc. I can't say he'll be a good influence, but he'll be an influence nonetheless. Note: these relationships will absolutely 100% be kept completely platonic. @deanchaiyachet / open

NEIGHBORS / Anyone that lives in Summit Lake, I'd specifically love to set who lives to the left or right of his property! Any sort of dynamic goes, though I'd imagine he's not a bad neighbor because he's rarely home lol. I'd also love for someone to come feed his cats during the day when he's too busy at work!

and anything else we can think of!! just dm me or ask for my discord!!

Charlie Cox's 'Boardwalk Empire' Performance Prepared Him to Play Daredevil

By Liam Gaughan  December 31, 2022 (X)

By elevating one of the greatest shows of all time, Cox signified that he was ready to lead a gritty series of his own.

It’s Charlie Cox’s world right now, and we’re all just living in it. 

Although many Marvel fans feared that Cox would never get the chance to play Matt Murdock again after Daredevil was shockingly canceled on Netflix, Cox returned for a surprise cameo appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It wasn’t just a brief wink to the fans; it was an announcement that the devil was back. Cox returned for a featured role in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and is prepping work on the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again. In the meantime, he already has another hit series on his hands with the Netflix spy thriller Treason. It seems like Cox had returned out of nowhere, but anyone who watched him on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire knew that he was always destined to be a star.

While Cox had been positioned as the lead of Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust in 2007, the film unfortunately failed financially, despite promising reviews for the exciting Neil Gaiman adaptation. It would be almost a decade before Cox stepped into the role of “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen,” but he wasted no time by stepping into playing one of the best characters in Boardwalk Empire. The HBO crime saga was one of the buzziest shows of the early “peak TV” era, and Cox was already stepping into a critically-acclaimed hit that featured one of the all-time greatest television characters in Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson.

Cox first appeared in Season 2 as Owen Sleater, a young IRA volunteer who comes to join Nucky’s enforcers in Atlantic City. While adding another face to the rich tapestry of characters could have complicated a story that was already dense, Cox was able to explore the all-consuming nature of the criminal lifestyle with his emotional performance. Owen is an endearing, spirited idealist who serves as a bright spot in a very bleak series, and his grasp on reality evolves in utterly heartbreaking ways. With charisma, moral ambiguity, and romance, Boardwalk Empire’s Owen Sleater set the precedent for Matt Murdock.

When you’re acting alongside an actor as legendary as Buscemi, you have to differentiate yourself in order to stand out. Cox doesn’t look or act like any of Nucky’s other goons; he seems like a straight-laced political revolutionary who is willing to sacrifice his life for a good cause. While he easily charms Nucky’s wife Margaret Schroder (Kelly Macdonald) and the housemaid Katy (Heather Lind), he doesn’t leave his initial meeting with Nucky without making a promise that he can handle the rougher sides of the bootlegging business. These are quickly shown to be no false claims; Owen brutally stops Commodore Louis Kaestner's (Dabney Coleman) men from disrupting Nucky’s casino in a shocking moment of violence.

It could have been hard to relate to Owen after seeing what he was capable of, but Cox shows how his blissful ignorance has led him to this line of work. He’s grateful to prove himself to someone as influential as Nucky, and he takes every opportunity possible to show that he will follow his duty to the bitter end.

Nucky finds that he’s willing to confide in Owen because of his loyalty, and makes the decision to give him the role of his personal driver and bodyguard. It’s here that we see how ambition corrupts Owen’s soul; by being so close to Nucky’s inner circle, Owen begins to pick up on the skills that could make him a career criminal. He deals with some of the same moral quandaries and Catholic guilt that made Daredevil one of the MCU’s most interesting heroes.

Owen’s Importance to Nucky Is Clear

Owen is particularly needed in Season 2 as Nucky begins to distance himself from Jimmy Darmondy (Michael Pitt), his previous protégé. Jimmy turns from gratefulness to resentment, betraying his former mentor in order to make a bid at leading his own crime ring. It feels like Nucky has a paternal role to fill (as he’s sworn to keep his own children out of harm’s way), and Owen’s dedication gives him a new potential heir. Boardwalk Empire is rarely heartwarming, and while it’s clear that Nucky still sees Owen as a pawn. However, there’s a tenderness to their conversations that has become absent from his relationship with Jimmy.

Owen shows his fierceness when he cuts down the traitor Del Grogan (Gary Tory) in “Peg of Old,” which only makes his disruption of the Thompson family unit more interesting. Despite his romantic fling with Katy, Owen is unable to deny his attraction to Margaret, who is similarly helpless to resist his charms. Margaret and Owen are two outsiders who haven’t totally figured out their futures; Owen is still an immigrant who isn’t used to American culture, and Margaret has had to set aside her concerns about her children’s safety in order to stay with Nucky. They’re two young members of the faith who must deal with never having a normal life again; this was one of the essential elements of Daredevil, as Matt found that he would never be able to restore his romance with Elektra (Elodie Yung) or Karen (Deborah Ann Wolf).

Owen Ultimately Reaches a Heartbreaking End

This doomed romance serves as one of the critical plot points of Season 3. Despite saving Nucky’s brother Eli (Shea Whigham) and landing a critical deal with Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), Owen finds comfort in his breaks from duty in the moments he gets to share with Margaret. Despite everything that he has seen, Owen still holds on to the dream that one day they will be able to run away together. If Matt’s belief in the goodness of people served as his moral compass in Daredevil, Owen’s faith that his romance will be lifelong only signifies his destiny. His death in “A Man, A Plan…” is jaw-dropping, but it comes as a needed shock to finally show the splintering of Nucky and Margaret's relationship.

Boardwalk Empire never returned with the same vigor after Cox’s absence; Seasons 4 and 5 failed to introduce new allies for Nucky that were able to show the complexity of criminal duty. While Owen’s death is shocking, it’s an effective moment in the series that sets it forward toward a path of no return. By elevating one of the greatest shows of all time, Cox signified that he was ready to lead a gritty series of his own. It finally feels like his continued excellence has been appreciated.

~*~

The former president arrived in New York on Thursday to answer questions as part of James' $250 million lawsuit alleging that The Trump Organization inflated or undervalued the worth of a number of assets and properties to obtain benefits such as better bank loans and reduced tax bills. Trump last appeared for a deposition in the civil case in August 2022. He invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination hundreds of times before answering the questions. In a statement on Thursday, Trump's attorney Chris Kise confirmed that the former president spent "nearly seven hours" answering questions in New York as part of his latest deposition hearing. "The transactions at the center of this case were wildly profitable for banks and Trump entities," Kise said. "When the facts of this success, and not politically engineered soundbites, are out in the open, everyone will scoff at the notion that any fraud took place." Katie Phang, a lawyer and MSNBC legal analyst, suggested that it was a "colossal mistake by Trump to testify today before James' office, let alone for 7 hours..." Responding to Phang's tweet, Dave Aronberg, a state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, said he was "shocked" that Trump "didn't invoke the Fifth Amendment" on Thursday. "Same," Phang replied. "He still has serious exposure from the asset fraud investigations." On April 4, Trump became the first U.S. president in history to be charged with a crime as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into allegations of falsified business records in relation to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with the former president a secret ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Trump Organization listed $130,000 as legal fees. This was when Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was reimbursed for the money he gave to Daniels. This was something prosecutors allege violated federal election laws. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges against him, leading to speculation that the former president would invoke his Fifth Amendment right again while appearing for his deposition in James' case to protect himself in the criminal investigation. "Typically when a defendant is indicted, that makes him more likely to take the Fifth, not less," Mariotti said. Replying to Mariotti's post, Eric Columbus, a former Department of Justice official, speculated that Trump decided not to invoke the Fifth Amendment on Thursday. He "may have (reasonably) concluded that the limited scope of the indictment, coupled with press reports, indicates that the Manhattan DA isn't pursuing any other charges against him." Trump previewed his deposition hearing in a Truth Social post on Thursday. In the post, he attacked the case and accused James, who is Black, of being "racist" towards him. "Just arrived in Manhattan for a deposition in front of New York State's RACIST, TRUMP HATING Attorney General, Letitia 'Peekaboo' James, in another unjust & ridiculous persecution of The 45th President of the United States," Trump wrote. "I built an excellent & prosperous company, employed thousands of people, built magnificent structures all over the world, but particularly in New York. I now have to prove it to this LOWLIFE who campaigned on a 'I will get Trump' platform, even before knowing anything about me!" Trump's office has been contacted for comment via email.

Katie Sample - phaware® interview 392

Attorney Katie Sample discusses losing her husband to complications following a bone-marrow transplant. Two years later, while still in mourning, this single-mother from Long Beach, California was diagnosed with Ideopathic Pulmonary Hypertension.  

My name is Katie Sample. I'm 39 years old. I live in Long Beach, California. I was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension in March of 2020. I'm an attorney. I graduated law school in 2008, which was a recession time actually. I got my first job in the law off of Craigslist. I felt very lucky to get that job. At that job, I met my husband, who was a partner in the firm. We worked together over the next 10 years, which was wonderful. When I met my husband, he was about five years out of having a bone marrow transplant following a leukemia diagnosis in his late thirties. He was treated at City of Hope. He underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy, a round of radiation, and then had a bone marrow transplant in 2005. His cancer never came back. He was always cancer-free during our time together, but he did have ongoing health issues after having a bone marrow transplant. He had what's called graft-versus-host disease, where his body was sort of rejecting the transplant. For a lot of patients, those rejection issues can dissipate with time. But for my husband, it did not dissipate. He was on high doses of prednisone and other medications to suppress his immune system to kind of keep that in check. But when you're on immunosuppressants, then you become very susceptible to infection. For my husband, that meant that he often had bouts in the hospital from infections that would become dangerous. He had infections that got into his bloodstream and became life threatening a couple of times. But overall, he was a very functional person. He worked full-time as an attorney and a trial lawyer. We loved the work that we did together. It was his really number one joy. We got married in 2013, and I had my son in 2016. In 2018, my husband was in the middle of a trial, which was out in San Bernardino. For those of you who are not from California, that's kind of an inland area. It takes about an hour and a half or two hours with traffic from Long Beach. He was commuting back and forth to court, very busy. On the tail end of that trail, he started retaining fluid. We knew that that meant that something was wrong. Usually that means your heart isn't pumping right or your kidneys aren't working right. He went to City of Hope and deliberately didn't pack a bag, because he thought that that would be bad luck that they would admit him. He was right. He went to City of Hope and they did admit him. Before they checked him in, he left to go to Target and get some pajamas for the night before I could bring a bag. That was kind of where everything changed. He was diagnosed as being in kidney failure, because of some of the medications he was on had put too much stress on his body. They wanted to wait it out and see if he was going to have to go on dialysis, which he ultimately did. It turned into a very extended hospital stay. He was in the hospital for about a month when we were finally talking about having him be discharged and go outpatient to continue dialysis on an outpatient basis. All of a sudden, everything changed when a nurse heard a crackle in his lungs when she was doing a routine check. He was diagnosed with pneumonia, which put alarm bells off pretty quickly. City of Hope knows that when an immunosuppressed patient is diagnosed with pneumonia, it can be very dangerous. For the next week, he was stable, but not improving. Then all of a sudden, he took very scary turn when they wanted to do a CT scan. He went into basically an arrest with his breathing and they had to intubate him. From there, he never recovered. It was a very difficult thing being at the hospital and having a two year old. Ultimately, I was the caregiver who had to make the decision to let him go, and I knew that that was what he would've wanted. We let him go on April 13th, 2018. I stopped working for a long time and just took some time to be with my son and my family. I started traveling and kind of just doing some soul searching on how I was going to move forward. It was in my travels that my life really changed, because I started to notice that I was very short of breath when I was on some of these trips. First, I went to Iceland with a couple of girlfriends from college, and it was a big adventure trip. We were hiking a lot. We were doing a lot of outdoorsy things. I noticed that I was having a lot of trouble keeping up. I was fatigued. I was more tired than the other girls. But I just kind of ignored it. Everyone thought, "Hey, you're grieving and you're in this situation. You're probably a little out of shape." Life went on. Then three months later, I went to the Middle East again with girls from college. I had a friend from college whose husband had gotten a job in Abu Dhabi. We went to Dubai, Abu Dhabi. We went to a country called Oman. Then we went to Jordan. At the end, we hiked Petra, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In that hike, I was so short of breath and lightheaded. The other girls went ahead of me. I didn't know if I could finish the hike. I saw all of these older travelers passing me. There was a very heavy set gentleman, probably 30 years older than me, who passed me. He himself was struggling and he still passed me. I thought, there's something wrong here. Him hacking up his lungs, he's probably a smoker, still moving beyond where I was. I knew that something wasn't right. I kept telling friends and family I felt short of breath and everyone again said, "You probably have asthma. Just you're fine." I never went to a doctor about it. I just ignored it. I had gone back to work in June of 2019. I was working full-time. I had my son. I was very busy. I just didn't really put a lot of thought into what might be going on with me. Then one night I left work and I was walking up the stairs of our parking structure and I felt so lightheaded, I knew I was going to faint. I made it to my car. I opened my car door. I slouched into the front seat of my car. The next thing I know, I woke up and I had fainted. I immediately called friends and family and said that I had fainted, but I felt well enough to drive home, which I should not have done. I went home and my parents said, "You need to go to the ER. You've fainted. Something's wrong." I said, "Nope, not going to go. I'm fine," but they convinced me the next morning to go to the ER. So I did. You have to remember, this is now February of 2020. It was really just the beginning of COVID. The ER was packed. They didn't have room for me at all. They did a number of tests on me, but no one even came back to talk to me and tell me what the results of my echo were. When I finally insisted on knowing what was going on, the ER doctor on the floor quickly looked at my echo and said everything was normal, but that they wanted to run more tests, because they were concerned that my resting heart rate was near a hundred and my EKG had been abnormal. Even the doctors made excuses for that and said, "Maybe your heart just fires abnormally. Maybe that's your norm." I don't look sick. I'm young and I'm petite, and so everyone thinks you must be healthy. I wound up signing AMA paperwork, which is against medical advice, and I left that ER, because they weren't telling me that anything was wrong. I had been there for a full day and they didn't have a room to admit me. I didn't want to spend overnight in a communal ER space. So I went home. In the middle of the night, a cardiologist who was on call from that ER took a look at my echo and realized that there was something severely wrong with the right side of my heart. He thought that I had a pulmonary embolism. He called and left a voicemail in the middle of the night, which I didn't get until the next morning, and said, "You are in a life or death situation. You need to go to a hospital immediately. Call 911." When I woke up, I called 911. An ambulance took me to a different bigger hospital that I asked them to take me to, which is Long Beach Memorial. I was there for the next four days, where they quickly did CT scans and tests to determine whether or not I had a pulmonary embolism. I didn't, but they could see that the right side of my heart was extremely enlarged and that something was very, very wrong. Within a few days of being at the hospital, they had tentatively diagnosed me with pulmonary hypertension. They could not find a reason why. My diagnosis is idiopathic. They then said that I could go home, but they wanted to do a right heart catheterization on March 4th to confirm my diagnosis, which they did do. It confirmed that I had pulmonary arterial hypertension. My pressures were extremely high. I believe it was something like 140 was the top number and it should be between 20 and 25. I had a very severe case, and my heart was very enlarged, so I was in heart failure. They told me, "Your best chance here is that you need to go to UCLA," because that's where the biggest pulmonary hypertension treatment center is in Southern California. That's where I went. I had gone from being very high functional and continuing to work every day to feeling like I could not get out of bed. I had no energy, and I didn't know how I was going to move forward in my life. I felt like I was basically permanently disabled. Mentally, I was in a very dark place. I couldn't stay off Google and reading that my life expectancy might be two or three years. My son was little. My husband had already passed. It was just a nightmare. I found Richard Channick at UCLA and he was just a light. He saw me. He got me on medication right away, which immediately made a big difference. He told me that I needed to not look at Google and I needed to know that he has patients that have lived with this disease for decades, even 30 years. That really I'm going to do how I'm going to do. It depends on whether I'm a responder or not. He calls it a responder, a non-responder. We saw pretty clearly right away that I was a responder. There was some hope, but there have still been ups and downs. He put me on two medications to start with, and I did feel a big improvement right away. I had been on disability for a while after my diagnosis. After my medication levels were where there were supposed to be and I was feeling better, I did go back to work. But Rich did another right heart catheterization I want to say in September 2020, probably about six months after my diagnosis. My numbers were down, but my top number was still around 90 or 100. He wasn't as happy with my progress as he wanted to be. He decided that we needed to be aggressive and go on a third medication. I went on Uptravi. For those in the PH community, you know that that's a pretty hard medication to go on. There's a lot of side effects. You have to titrate on it. For some people it's easier than others. I had a very difficult time titrating. When you're titrating, you're supposed to stay on a level just for about a week at a time, and then you can step up. It took me much longer. For a while, I had to stay at a level for about a month before I could really titrate up again. I wasn't sure if I was going to even be able to handle going to the max dose, which is 1,600 micrograms twice a day. I got stuck at like 800 micrograms. I really had a hard time with it. I was very sick from the medication, but ultimately those side effects dissipated and I was able to get to the max. It's really changed my life. I'm so glad that Rich convinced me that I needed to go up to a third med and get to that level on the medication, because I've now seen a vast improvement. We did another right heart catheterization. My numbers are down. My top number is now in the mid-forties. I want to say 45. That's a big difference from 145 when I was diagnosed. It's still considered I want to say moderate, but my six minute walk test is very good. Very functional. He's happy with all of my progress. I haven't had to go on intravenous medication yet. So I've been stable where I'm at. But I still have good and bad days, just like anybody with chronic illness. All the while, I'm trying to be a mom and work full-time. I look healthy, so it's hard. People don't always understand everything that I'm experiencing, because they assume that I am a healthy 40 year old woman. For me, the biggest thing is that I wanted to travel again, and the pandemic and my health situation kind of took that away for me. Travel was always something that was very important to me. Here in November, I have my first international trip planned since I've been diagnosed. I am going to Spain and to Portugal to celebrate my 40th birthday on November 17th. My advice is to listen to that voice in your head or that gut feeling. If you know that something is off with your body, don't ignore it or put it off to the wayside. As a caregiver to my husband, I never ignored any symptom that he voiced to me. I was his biggest advocate, and I was really an aggressive advocate on his behalf. If he said something was wrong, I was paging the doctors. I was sending messages in the portal. I did not let it go untreated. It's so ironic that when it came to my own symptoms, even when people were urging me to seek medical care after I had fainted, I kept wanting to ignore it. I think I didn't want to face that there might be something really wrong, because I think deep down I knew that something was really wrong. I had always been an active, healthy person, and it wasn't normal for me to be that fatigued and that short of breath. I knew that I wasn't just overtired or overworked or grieving. I knew that there was something going on with my body. For anyone who has that feeling, go to the best medical provider or at least your general practitioner. Try to find a specialist like I have at UCLA, who can really do the workup that you need. To get diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, you do ultimately need to have the right testing and the right heart catheterization to confirm the diagnosis. I was lucky that at Long Beach Memorial, they were a big enough medical center where they were equipped to do all of those tests and had a cardiologist and a pulmonologist who were well versed with pulmonary hypertension and knew to give me that workup and begin my journey with the diagnosis that I was given in March of 2020. My name is Katie Sample, and I'm aware that I'm rare.

Learn more about pulmonary hypertension trials at www.phaware.global/clinicaltrials. Follow us on social @phaware Engage for a cure: www.phaware.global/donate #phaware Share your story: [email protected]

Listen and View more on the official phaware™ podcast site

Standard post published to The Stephens Law Firm Accident Lawyers at July 13, 2022 17:01

You don’t want to face the devastation of a car accident alone. As soon as you ascertain that you’re not critically injured, your first order of business is a cursory online search for “accident lawyers near me.” This ensures that you get effective legal representation from the get-go. Stephens Law Firm Accident Lawyers is always ready to take on your car accident case.

With decades of experience handling such cases, calling puts you one step closer to getting justice and protecting your rights! Don’t think that the at-fault party and their insurance company will offer you compensation out of the goodness of their hearts. That rarely happens in the real world. You need good legal representation to stand a chance of getting compensated for injuries.

Think of our attorneys as your advocates during such difficult times. We are the typical personal injury lawyers near me kind of attorneys, ready to take up your case all the way to court if necessary. Contact us today!

Stephens Law Firm Accident Lawyers 440 Cobia Dr Suite 601, Katy, TX 77494

https://tinyurl.com/Katy-TX-Injury-Attorney

Learn more

source https://local.google.com/place?id=1833880846876630065&use=posts&lpsid=3942825575346215854

very quick character guide

i have full character profiles ... somewhere ... on this blog, but if anybody ever wants quick descriptions of the main seven characters, they’ll be here.

lucy callaghan: five-foot-three with red lips and a silver tongue. competitive student who becomes a professor of english literature; writes about victorian women and illness. teen mom to phd. will’s wife; elenore and emma’s mother. emotionally repressed but generally good-hearted. will tell you she loves you but struggles to know how everyone wants to be loved. blunt and full of passion.

will o’connor: taller than your refrigerator with a cackle he almost can’t control. clever as the devil but can’t spell his way out of a paper bag. teen dad to attorney-at-law. practices family law because there’s nothing more important to him than a family, however it looks. lucy’s husband; elenore and emma’s dad. won’t tell you he loves you but will show you everyday. adrenaline junkie and total geek.

sadie doyle: could have been a supermodel, freckles and all. sweeter than honey from the bee, with a reckless side. older twin sister of sam and future guidance counselor. daniel’s wife; michael, rosemary, and billy’s mom. cares more about you than she cares for herself. heart on her sleeve and maternal from the start.

sam doyle: born to be the cover of tiger beat. witty, poetic, and openly queer with a hatred of the american school system. younger twin brother of sadie and future owner of his own record shop (though he is not long for this world). connoisseur of music history and sommelier of slurpees. gregarious and mysterious.

daniel deluca: short king who becomes the casanova of st. catherine’s. quiet, calm, and fiercely loyal, clichés aside. future landscape hero (the name of the business he takes over from his father-in-law). sadie’s husband; michael, rosemary, and billy’s dad. will mess you up if you hurt someone he loves. staunch internal values.

steph armstrong: spirited blonde with a lust for life that would put iggy pop to shame. outgoing, friendly, and brave as can be. sam’s first love and katie’s wife. future artist and record shop/boutique owner. loves to dance but mishears song lyrics at an alarming rate. independent but craves companionship.

charlie doyle: lanky six-foot-four jazz prodigy, which feels like a contradiction in terms. introverted, in love with his marlboros, and mortally wounded by his mother’s favoritism. younger brother to twins sadie and sam. future pianist in a brooklyn jazz bar. carrie sullivan’s unfaithful husband; cordelia’s distant father. unbeknownst only to him, the villain in this story.

High-Conflict Divorce Lawyers in Houston

Couples contemplating divorce do so because there has been a break-down in their marital relationship.There is therefore some form of inherent conflict that exists in any divorce proceeding. In situations where the couples have minor children and / or where the couple’s marital assets are intertwined and entangled, it is often difficult to work through disentangling the marital assets and resolving child custody issues when emotions are still very raw.

Broadly speaking, divorcing couples typically have to resolve children issues (if children are involved) and property issues.

Children issues refer to such issues as who gets primary custody of the children, and what type of visitation, possession and access rightsthe other party gets.

Property issues refer to determination of what property is characterized as separate property or community property, as well as how the community property will be divided.

A divorce is not necessarily high-conflict because the parties disagree over children or property issues. The tactics used by the parties in trying to resolve these issues and / or the degree of negative emotional feeling or hostility directed by one or both parties to each other, is what heightens a garden-variety contested divorce and elevates it to a high conflict divorce.

In high conflict divorce cases, the parties are usually more interested in battling each other, responding to every action from the opposing party, inflicting harm/pain on each other, and trying to out-do the other side. From our experience, one or both parties have extreme difficulty in looking beyond their pain and often seek to use the court system as a weapon to inflict pain on the other side.

Sadly, it is not unusual to see situations where one party is consistently initiating and stoking conflict by filing motions after motions and engaging in actions that must be responded to by the other party.

High conflict divorce cases result in excessive legal expenses for the couple; more importantly, high conflict divorce proceedings are often destructive to minor children and could lead to long lasting psychological damage for the children—who are caught up in the middle of the conflict.

Our attorneys at Anunobi Law PLLC have extensive experience in handling high conflict divorce cases in courts all over Harris County, Fort Bend County, and Montgomery County. We aggressively advocate for our clients but we never lose sight of fighting for what is in the best interest of the children.

In property cases, we have in-house expertise in data analysis and financial analysis and are able to guide our clients into making fact/evidence-based decisions as opposed to emotional decisions.

Additionally, we have a cadre of professionals that we often work with to help resolve our high conflict divorce cases, including child psychologists, investigators, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), valuation and tracing experts.

If you are involved in a high conflict divorce and need the guidance and assistance of a skilled and reputable law firm, we would love to hear about your case and assist you through this difficult time.

Contact us at 832-538-0833 or by email at [email protected], to set up an immediate appointment.

Please compare this with your version.

Notice that this is informative—explains the concept, demonstrates that we know what we are talking about, uses appropriate key words, closes out with referring them to us—without sounding like a snake oil salesman—or using legal terms inappropriately. The above format is pretty much the format that I am looking for. 

Please use this format to rewrite the other blog you sent me for my other site. It is important to me that you all send me good quality blogs that are well researched and well written and that sound polished. It does not help me if I have to spend too much of my time to edit/rewrite the blog.

Thanks

Chidi

Daredevil Imagine: Helping Young Kids With Homework

Anatoly: Tolya is such a (not-so)secret NERD who loved school right up until the mob life basically forced him to drop out at 17. He’s super involved in your son’s education and seeing him learn -- he wants him to go to a great college and get the opportunities and life that he never had in Russia.

Kolya happily goes to him for everything but English help (Anatoly tried for about two minutes before you heard a yell of “MAMA” in unison). Some of your most contented moments are of watching them together at the table and seeing them both light up when Kolya can work through something hard correctly. 

Vladimir: Despite dropping out at 13 and constantly criticizing the American school system, he would do anything for your daughter and has bragged that she was a genius basically since she was born -- he was constantly getting excited and telling you to come over and see whatever task she did (“Vova, I know she’s ‘the smartest baby on the planet,’ but I’ve seen her match shaped blocks to their holes probably 800 times.” “Da, but she did it so fast today!”) 

He actually has a great memory and comes up with dumb rhymes and wordplay to help Nadia remember things like dates and events (”Columbus came here in 1492, killed all the natives and stole their land too”). And since he was making Molotov cocktails in elementary school (which you expressly forbade him to repeat with your daughter), he’s the perfect person to help out with non-lethal science projects (despite his muttering of “What is point if she cannot use it as a weapon?,” like when the three of you made a volcano with baking soda that destroyed the kitchen, and your ribs hurt from laughing.

Matt: If he wasn’t an attorney, you think he should’ve been a teacher. He was so, SO good with kids, and he told you how much it meant to have his dad there to encourage him with his schoolwork, so he wanted to be sure to do the same. You tended to help a little more just due to the nature of work and Daredevil keeping him pretty busy, but he always made some kind of time to sit down with your son and check up on his day and if he needed help with anything. Your son always patiently read out loud, and your heart melted seeing Matt grin and ruffle Jack’s hair with a “Good job.” 

Foggy: Foggy is a disaster of a teacher, which he attributes to having to “squish everything out of my brain that wasn’t case law for years,” but he’s a great support nonetheless. When your daughter gets overwhelmed or upset at difficult questions or starts panicking about an upcoming test, he’s always there to swoop in with a big hug and a reminder that school is important, but ice cream is also important, and that she and her Dad must absolutely have some before thinking any harder, because “ice cream is one of the world’s best brain foods.” You just smiled and waited for them to come home in a half hour or so, Katie calmed down and presenting you with your favorite cone.

Frank: Frank loved the twins, but he could get frustrated when they didn’t understand something -- or when he didn’t. God bless him, he really did try to help them with their math homework, but within what felt like seconds, you heard his scrape of the chair and their giggles of “Oooooo, Daddy swore!” as he came over to you, hands running through his hair in distress: “You’ve got to be kidding me!! They call this MATH?? Why the hell are there letters then, huh??” You then led the real homework help, and Frank was there with high fives and M&Ms to toss in their mouths as a reward (“Honey, they aren’t seals.” “Eh, yeah, but look how happy they are. ARF, ARF, KIDDOS!”)

Star, May 3

You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Shiloh Jolie-Pitt

Page 1: Christina Aguilera at 40 -- she talks about child stardom, learning to love her body, and what she wants her daughter Summer to know

Page 2: Contents, Renee Zellweger, Phoebe Dynevor and James McAvoy at the BAFTAs in London

Page 3: Mariska Hargitay and Law & Order: SVU co-star Ice-T take a selfie during a break from shooting the cop drama in NYC, Heather Graham at the beach in Mexico, stepping into the America's Got Talent studio Sofia Vergara elevated her casual cropped jeans with strappy platform sandals in L.A., Jason Momoa cutting a rug with an unidentified partner ahead of filming a scene for his upcoming fantasy film Slumberland in Toronto

Page 4: Colton Underwood comes out -- saying he's the happiest and healthiest he's ever been, the former Bachelor clarifies his orientation

Page 5: Lena Dunham is no stranger to controversy, so it comes as no surprise that her foray into fashion design has also come under fire as she partnered with a plus-size label to create the capsule collection 11 Honore x Lena Dunham, but the kicky line quickly came under fire as critics are calling it tone-deaf, mediocre and not inclusive at all since its largest size is a 26 and some are even going so far to call Lena a grifter who gained weight in order to make money off the plus-size community but Lena, who underwent a hysterectomy at 31, has pointed to early menopause as the cause of her straight-up gut -- while Lena refuses to be intimidated by bullies, she is listening to the complaints about sizes and is planning to address it

* Once a cautionary tale of the perils of child stardom, at age 40 Macaulay Culkin is a father himself as he and girlfriend Brenda Song welcomed a son, Dakota -- he's finally overcome his demons and Brenda has been a huge influence on his life and helped him get back on the straight and narrow and he's even pursuing acting again, shooting season 10 of American Horror Story; his life has taken such a positive turn

* A year after announcing her split from Jay Cutler, Kristin Cavallari is seeing the upside of divorce, saying it's made her a better mom in some ways because she has her kids half the time now so when she has them for her week, she is so incredibly present with her kids Camden, Jaxon and Saylor and she is not distracted by her phone or anything else; she is with them -- Jay and Kristin each have the kids 182.5 days a year and court papers also revealed that her ex is allowed two phone calls and two FaceTime or Skype calls a week and vice versa so now every moment is precious and if someone is having a temper tantrum or something, she remains calm because she knows that she is losing them in a few days

Page 6: Gwen Stefani is widely thought to have had some help in the nips and tucks department, and as her wedding to Blake Shelton approaches, he is starting to object to her constant tweaking of her face -- she's always messing with it by getting more fillers and Botox and Blake is afraid of what he'll see at the altar and he's freaking out at Gwen's increasingly extreme beauty routine which is becoming increasingly over-the-top; Gwen can barely move her face to smile at him anymore and it looks weird -- while he frets, he's trying to reassure his wife-to-be because Blake thinks she's beautiful just the way she is

* As an executive producer on the long-running Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay has tasked the writers to come up with more storylines featuring one of her favorite characters: defense attorney Trevor Langan, played by none other than her husband Peter Hermann -- Mariska and Peter originally met and fell in love when Peter guest-starred on the show and she loves to keep that magic alive by bringing him back to play Trevor but the trouble is he is busy with his own gigs as a series regular on Younger and his recurring role on Blue Bloods and Peter loves working with his wife, but he has his own acting career apart from Mariska -- still, he may soon have his day in court because Peter understands how Mariska feels and is trying to work his schedule to allow him some guest spots in the near future

Page 8: Star Shots -- Lenny Kravitz with a guitar flaunted his well-sculpted midsection during a stroll on the beach, Suki Waterhouse with her on-the-go grub on the set in Liverpool

Page 9: Louisa Jacobson and Taissa Farmiga and Denee Benton on the set of The Gilded Age in NYC, Conan O'Brien sipped on a soda at lunch in L.A., Katy Perry in the American Idol bathroom

Page 10: Kate Hudson with mom Goldie Hawn and kids Ryder and Rani, Kate Hudson twirled solo modeling in a pal's swimwear collection, Jude Law's daughter Iris Law who will make her acting debut in Danny Boyle's upcoming Sex Pistols biopic makes a call in London

Page 12: Kelly Osbourne handed out items at a food distribution event as the Islamic Center for Southern California, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the gym, despite a no-social warning a cheeky Nicole Kidman shared a pic from the set of Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos in which she portrays Lucille Ball

Page 13: Anabella Sciorra and Donnie Wahlberg gloved up for a Blue Bloods scene in NYC, Heidi Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz started their morning during a walk on the beach in L.A.

Page 14: Travis Barker showed off his body art stepping off a Hollywood tour bus shirtless after filming a music video, a cheerful Britney Spears gave a fun look into her wardrobe in a pink floral frock, Scott Disick and Amelia Hamlin color-coordinated for a walk near the beach in Miami

Page 16: Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter put up their dukes to promote their Celebrity Boxing Match in Philadelphia, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and husband Nick Jonas at the BAFTAs in London, Ellen DeGeneres on the phone during a stroll in her main hood of Montecito

Page 18: Normal or Not? A denim-on-denim clad Jay Leno scratched an itch while filming a project in Los Angeles -- not normal, dressed in a Siggi sweatshirt Katie Holmes picked up some seasonal blooms on Manhattan's Upper East Side -- normal, Kate Beckinsale multitasked during a car ride by applying undereye patches -- not normal

Page 19: Gavin Rossdale appeared to be pleased with his Kitson purchase by doing a little dance after leaving the popular L.A. store -- not normal

Page 20: Fashion -- stars wow in statement-making capes -- Gisele Bundchen, Charlize Theron, Zoey Deutch

Page 21: Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning

Page 24: Justin Bieber: How Love Saved Me -- the formerly troubled pop singer gives praise for wife Hailey Bieber

Page 25: Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance has already cooled and the pair are giving each other space -- turns out Olivia and Harry don't actually have much in common -- the two jetted to London after wrapping Don't Worry Darling, but they were soon waylaid by their respective responsibilities as Olivia has been spending time with her kids Otis and Daisy while her ex Jason Sudeikis shoots Ted Lasso while Harry, who was spooked by how quickly intense things got, is gearing up for his role in My Policeman -- for now, the two have decided to reassess things when they're back in L.A., which leaves the window open for Jason, whose strategy was to let her and Harry fizzle out, then see where she is at, and it's going according to plan

* Jennifer Lopez calls off her relationship with Alex Rodriguez

* Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher are better than ever after overcoming a rough patch, one that had their inner circle convinced they were headed for divorce -- Mike had a serious roving eye that made Carrie anxious and she would treat him like he was Mr. Underwood and tensions between the two were at an all-time high when the pandemic hit, forcing the two into extra one-on-one time, but as it turns out, their new routine is just what they needed because they set boundaries, divided up tasks and put time aside for fun things and they prioritized romance, which has made all the difference -- Carrie and Mike are re-committed to their marriage and they've been through so much so much and neither wants to throw it away

Page 26: Cover Story -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's model kid -- Shiloh Jolie-Pitt the gorgeous teen is ready for her close up, but Brad and Angie are at odds about Shiloh's new passion -- Shiloh's been experimenting with girlier styles lately, including growing out her hair and she's at the age where she's starting to change things up -- Brad isn't thrilled about Shiloh's modeling dreams and idea of her walking into the lion's den gives him cause for concern -- Angelina began modeling at 16, just one year older than Shiloh and Shiloh knows that's what set her mom on her path to fame and Shiloh is constantly asking Angie about the pros and cons of the modeling world

Page 29: Model Kids -- these celeb offspring also know how to strike a pose -- Hailey Bieber, Sofia Richie, Amelia Hamlin, Lily-Rose Depp, Brooklyn Beckham, Paris Jackson, Kendall Jenner, Corinne Foxx, Ireland Baldwin, Margaret Qualley, Kaia Gerber, Leni Klum, Patrick Schwarzenegger

Page 30: Prince William and Prince Harry: Behind Closed Doors -- the estranged princes are forced to reckon with their rift as the royal family gathers for Prince Philip's funeral

Page 32: High Anxiety -- it's not so simple for celebs who struggle with panic attacks -- Emma Stone, Stephen Colbert, Amanda Seyfried

Page 33: Hugh Grant, Ryan Reynolds, Ariana Grande

Page 36: Beauty -- nail it -- self-care essentials to score the perfect at-home manicure and pedicure -- Kaley Cuoco

Page 38: Style -- cute cases -- step up your tech, and fashion, game this season with a trendy cellphone cover -- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Page 40: Entertainment

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Corey Feldman embraced wife Courtney Anne Mitchell as the two ventured out for a romantic outing in L.A.

There is a long tradition of political appointees moving into academia — former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice returned to Stanford University as a professor, ex-CIA director Robert Gates was a dean and then president at Texas A&M University, and former secretary of health and human services Sylvia Mathews Burwell is president of American University.

But in recent months, some students and faculty have argued colleges should apply more scrutiny to former Trump officials looking to make similar transitions.

The backlash was swift at Carnegie Mellon University in June when the school announced former Trump official Richard Grenell was hired for a one-year fellowship. In an open letter to university administrators, critics said Grenell, who served as acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany, “has a well-documented record of sexism and support for racist political movements.” Criticism grew in November when Grenell falsely claimed that voter fraud had cost Donald Trump a second term.

Carnegie Mellon officials defended the hire but formed committees to study both Grenell’s appointment and the university’s hiring procedures. In one letter to the community, campus leaders acknowledged tension between the institution’s embrace of free expression and “diversity as a core value.”

Similar disputes are playing out at other universities. A petition circulating at Harvard University demands that the school vet Trump administration officials “for their role in undermining” democracy before they are invited to teach or speak on campus. In the District, an open letter from Georgetown University faculty asked the administration to develop standards for Trump appointees before extending invitations to campus. A George Washington University student argued in a column that the school should reject job applications from Trump officials.

Critics point to Trump’s appointees’ support of controversial policies — from the president’s “zero tolerance” immigration strategy that separated thousands of families to the administration’s restrictions on transgender troops. High-ranking officials have been criticized as complicit in a presidential term marked by allegations of racism or have drawn ire after making incendiary remarks of their own.

The backlash became even louder after the president incited thousands of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to overturn his election loss.

But others say efforts to keep Trump officials from campuses undermine universities and their responsibility to foster diverse perspectives, including viewpoints that make some students uncomfortable.

The debate will prompt a public clash between these institutions’ mission to promote the exchange of ideas and a renewed focus on inclusion sparked by the racial justice movement that swept the country last summer.

“They’re going to have to do the hard job of figuring out, even if we disagree with this person’s politics, are our issues about politics, or are they about behavior?” said Jonathan Aldrich, a CMU professor and member of the committee examining hiring who is skeptical of Grenell’s appointment. “And maybe if there’s serious doubt, we should give the benefit of the doubt to the person.”

False claims of voter fraud amplify tension

Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit that seeks to protect free speech on college campuses, called attempts to keep some Trump officials from campuses “a well with no bottom.”

“I think it’s likely to lead for a tit-for-tat campaign that’s going to lead campuses basically scrambling to find somebody, anybody, who can talk interestingly about an issue without being subject to a de-platform campaign,” he said.

At Carnegie Mellon, one of the committees created to review Grenell’s hiring scrutinized the platform he was given. In a report released weeks after he received a fellowship at the university’s Institute for Politics and Strategy, committee members wrote that they had examined several of his Twitter posts that provoked outrage, including one in which he called the coronavirus “the Chinese flu” and another where he suggested that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow “take a breath and put on a necklace.”

While those tweets are “(at most) minor infractions,” the committee determined, many of Grenell’s statements were “dismissive and disrespectful of the opinions of others.” The report concludes that although the university acted appropriately in hiring Grenell, officials should have invited input from other community members before making the decision.

Then Trump lost the election, and Grenell began falsely alleging widespread voter fraud. Nearly three dozen CMU student organizations petitioned administrators to denounce Grenell’s statements and take “corrective action.” University President Farnam Jahanian responded with a detailed defense of Grenell’s freedom of expression and the importance of diverse viewpoints.

Darya Kharabi, who graduated from CMU in December, said they appreciate hearing from people with different ideologies — including conservative ones — but feel that Grenell fails to uphold the university’s value of inclusion. They’re also concerned about his promotion of election misinformation and what they see as his complicity in the Capitol attack.

“When you start to censor one side, what are you going to do when you start censoring the other?” Kharabi said, of the value of free expression. “And really, I think the line is drawn at hate speech, at racism and at blatant rudeness.”

A university spokesperson declined to make Jahanian available for comment and responded to an email sent to Grenell and his supervisor to say that they would not grant interviews.

But in an announcement of the committee to study hiring policy and academic freedom, Jahanian acknowledged an increasing tension between that freedom and the university’s commitment to promoting an inclusive environment.

“These are very nuanced issues and making sure we all understand the tenuous boundaries that exist within these spheres is not only valuable but critical to ensuring that short-term decisions do not compromise deep-rooted, foundational values,” Jahanian wrote.

A history of battles over speech on campus 

When American University’s Sine Institute of Policy and Politics named retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster a fellow in November, some faculty members pushed back. McMaster and Trump chafed against each other, sometimes publicly, during his year of service as the president’s national security adviser.

Since leaving the Trump administration, McMaster has taught graduate business classes at Stanford University, and he holds fellowship positions in the university’s Hoover Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

“It’s troubling that AU would give him that honor,” said Sharon Weiner, an international service professor at AU. “The Trump administration has promoted ideas and policies that are racist, sexist, xenophobic and problematic. To my knowledge, [McMaster] has not spoken out against the Trump administration’s authoritarian policies.”

But others in the community welcomed McMaster. Katy Selinger, president of AU’s College Republicans chapter, said students expect faculty to “respect the range of political persuasions that exists within American University’s student body.”

Amy Dacey, the Sine Institute’s executive director, defended McMaster’s appointment and said the institute recruits experts from diverse backgrounds and industries “with the hope of building effective, bi-partisan policy solutions.”

“As a military and national security expert and the author of numerous books, including most recently a book on the most pressing national security threats facing the United States, McMaster will discuss strategic competence and elements of elective leadership,” Dacey said in a statement. “We believe Lt. General McMaster and our other five fellows are uniquely situated to offer valuable and varied insight on crucial policy issues.”

Through an AU spokesperson, McMaster declined a request for comment.

As similar conversations unfold on campuses throughout the country, Paul Musgrave, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has argued that each person who leaves the Trump administration should be assessed differently.

“You may disagree with his policy proposals, but they are within the normal range of disagreement,” Musgrave said of McMaster.

But, he added, “If someone used their position to promote policies that did harm to people and our democracy, those people should not be granted positions at universities.”

These issues are not unique to the Trump administration: Former attorney general Alberto Gonzales was protested at Texas Tech University after being hired to teach political science in 2009. Students and faculty criticized his role in some of the Bush administration’s most controversial decisions, including the treatment of terror suspects and the use of interrogation techniques that human rights groups consider to be torture.

Gonzales, who is now a professor and law school dean at Belmont University in Nashville, said he understands why he was not immediately embraced by everyone at Texas Tech. But he thinks campuses looking to hire ex-government officials should try to understand the circumstances around controversial decisions.

“You don’t get it right all the time. I think most people don’t appreciate how hard these decisions are that are made at the White House,” he said. “I can live with the decisions that I made because of the fact that I know I acted in good faith based on what I understood to be lawful.”

Gonzales also said it can be counterproductive to ban certain perspectives from campus and, in many cases, students are “willing to listen and give you an opportunity to prove yourself.”

Janet Napolitano, former president of the University of California system, speaks during a legislative committee meeting in May 2017. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) 

Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of homeland security under President Barack Obama who became president of the University of California system, also defended the importance of universities hiring ideologically diverse faculty members. But she said administrators have to consider whether a job candidate will contribute to the campus discourse.

“You have to evaluate, what’s the basis for what they’re saying?” Napolitano said. “Is it grounded in anything other than, say, racial bias?”

Napolitano recalled that some UC students were upset when she was hired because she presided over a record number of deportations of undocumented immigrants while serving as DHS secretary. She said she met with those students to talk about why she made certain decisions.

“I’m not sure I persuaded all of them, … but at least we had that discussion,” said Napolitano, who stepped down as UC system president last year. “I think they learned something.”

Pushing for ‘accountability’

Far from a wholesale ban on Trump appointees working or speaking on campus, Harvard graduate student Diego Garcia Blum said he and others who signed that school’s petition want the university to publicly release the criteria it will use to evaluate who can come. 

When conservative students protested a visiting fellowship awarded in 2017 to Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who leaked classified intelligence materials to anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, Harvard administrators withdrew the honorary title but allowed her to speak. And after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) objected to Congress’s certification of the presidential election results this month, Harvard administrators removed her from the senior advisory committee of the university’s Institute of Politics.

Administrators have not responded to the petition about Trump officials, Blum said. A Harvard spokesperson declined to make university officials available for comment, and the Harvard Republican Club did not respond to an interview request.

Hans-Joerg Tiede, director of research at the nonprofit American Association of University Professors, recommended that universities find ways to include students and faculty in decisions about potentially controversial hires. A person’s political affiliation is “almost never professionally relevant,” he said, while allegations of misconduct in previous work would be.

Blum said Harvard students want transparency, not to silence anyone.

“We’re not trying to ‘cancel’ anybody,” he said. ”If you’re going to bring them, bring them to campus. But they should be challenged fully and completely for what is happening and not let anything be swept under the rug.”

I just read the obey me after life ell crossover and I'm so excited to see the next post because it was 🔥🔥🔥 but now my brain at 3 am is chugging out a custody battle for mc fanfic that I'll never write and I'm holding you accountable for it

Finally finished! This is a lot longer than I thought it would be, but I still had a lot of fun writing it.

AFTERL!FE X OBEY ME CROSSOVER

The air was buzzing with tension. Hushed voices filled the room as spectators poured into the courtroom, both from Devildom and the Otherworld. Humans and demons sat in the audience, waiting for the historical decision made today. No human from the Otherworls had ever been sentenced to work at Devildom, but that was about to change.

Both the defendants and plaintiffs sat at the front of the room. On the left side, the Morningstar family were checking over all their belongings to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything. Besides them was the future king of Devildom, Diavolo, and his butler, Barbatos. Lucifer was talking to Diavolo with great concern, pointing to Solomon, who was shuffling through the endless papers on his desk. Although the sorcerer had never touched a law textbook in his life, the Otherworld laws had a strict human-attorney-only (dead or alive) policy.  While Lucifer insisted on contacting his lawyer contacts in the human realm, Diavolo opted for Solomon. The future king of Devildom claimed that Solomon had the best understanding of their situation and that his slithery tongue would be the cause for their victory. Lucifer could only hope that he was right.

On the right side was noisy chatter from Nyang Lead Manager, Housemaster Sei, and the soul reapers from the 14th Department. Unlike Lucifer, the reapers were confident and relaxed. They had the upper-hand in the situation as Youssef, the lawyer with an record-breaking winning streak, was their attorney. The only being that was anxious was the Lead Manager, who was too busy hissing at Youssef to notice the judge entering the room.

As the judge walked into the room, the crowd became silent. Behind her was the manager of the 14th Department-- the focus of the case. The judge stood at the center podium while the manager positioned themselves behind the left podium.

"Welcome everyone. Today we will begin the formal proceedings for the civil case Morningstar vs. The 14th Department." The judge slammed the gavel on the podium. "I will decide whether the manager of the 14th Department should transfer to Devildom or continue their activites in the Otherworld. We will begin the proceedings by asking the plaintiff to state their case."

That was Solomon's cue. He stood up and cleared his throat. "Your honor, the Morningstar family-"

"Make it quick, dumbass. You guys are gonna lose anyways," Quincy shouted from the opposite side.

The entire court turned to him, including the judge. "Sir, I highly suggest that you compose yourself in this professional environment or else your will be forcibly removed. Mr. Solomon, you may continue."

Ethan rolled his eyes and whispered, "Great going, you brat."

Mammon and Levi snickered as Quincy crossed his arms and glared at them.

Solomon glanced at his papers once more, before continuing. "As I was saying, the Morningstar family believes that the 14th Department's manager is best suited for Devildom. They have already spent an entire year as an exchange student and returned for an additional amount of time. We believe that their managerial expertise would benefit the exchange program as the manager would be in charge of guiding new exchange students. As a human, they would be able to provide emotional support and act as a resource for information....."

The brothers watched in amazement as Solomon handled himself with poise and grace. Diavolo grinned and elbowed Lucifer's ribs. I told you he'd be great.

"Wow, he's almost as good as Lucifer," Satan said.

"Who knew that academia could be so sexy?" Asmo whispered.

"Looool so you're into nerds now?" Levi asked.

"I'm hungry," Beel groaned.

"Shut up, all of you. Or else I'll hang you from the roof by your feet," Lucifer hissed.

"Hey, I didn't say anything! Why ya threaten' me?" Mammon exclaimed.

Meanwhile, the soul reapers began to worry. Solomon was a lot more throughout than they had expected. The longer he talked, the more likely the judge would agree with him. Ell, in particular, was so anxious that he went on another sneezing fit. Although Licht tried to assure him that everything would be alright, Ell couldn't ignore the possibility of losing the manager. He was supposed to be their guardian angel. What type of angel was he if he couldn't protect them from other people? Fortunately, Housemaster Sei anticipated this, so brought a noise-canceling mask for the angel.

Once  Solomon finished presenting his case, the judge spoke. "Thank you, Mr. Solomon. Now we will ask the defendant to speak."

Yousseff shuffled his papers. He took a deep breath and stood before the court.

"Your Honor," he started. "The 14th Department believes that the manager should not transfer to Devildom. This the first manager in the soul reaper history. Consider it a test run, if you will. With the manager, we will be able to determine whether having a manager is effective in soul reaper activity, especially purification rates."

He took a paper filled with graphs and charts. "According to this report from the Reaper Archives,  the 14th Department had the lowest purification rates last 5 years."

"What the hell? Is he trying to embarrass us?" Sian shook his head.

"Have some trust in him. After all, he's the lawyer," Nine shrugged.

"With this in mind, the department leaders believed that we would benefit from additional managerial support. And ever since then, our purification rates have increased by 30%. Furthermore, we are the only department to have such a large in increase in rates while maintaining the ethical aspect of purification." Youssef continued.

"If that is the case, why not take another human as the manager? Mr. Solomon made it clear that the manager was the first exchange student who has extraordinary magical capabilities, so their presence is important in Devildom. What makes them so special that you cannot retrieve a replacement?"

"Yeah, why can't y'all just pluck another human from your Otherworld thingy?" Mammon leaned back in his seat.

"How about I pluck your glasses and shove them up your ass," Quincy snorted.

"Why use glasses when there are a whole variety of toys? That's much more fun, no?" Asmo said.

"Sir-" The judge started.

"There are children in the room, you filthy, narcissistic freak," Ethan snorted.

"Order!" The judge shouted.

"Don't talk to my brother like that!" Satan shouted.

"Then stop trying to steal our manager, or else I'll bite you!" Kati growled.

Mammon laughed. "Listen pipsqueak. You see Beel over here?" He patted Beelzebub's muscles. "He'd swallow you whole and eat the rest of your team."

"Well I'll be happy to inform you that I've got a whole magical book on how to control demons," Ghilley held up a golden book in his hands.

"Order in the court!" The judge shouted again.

Lucifer glared at the soul reaper, his wings slowly unveiling themselves from his back. "Where did you find that?"

The judge sighed. "Sir, didn't I just-"

Quincy snickered. "What? Now you're scared of some tiny book? I thought you were supposed to have big ego. You know, after God kicked you out of-"

Lucifer lunged for the younger demon. Mori pulled out his cards and threw them at Lucifer's direction. The Avatar of Pride dodged, shifting his target to Mori. But before he could cause further damage, Diavolo and Barbatos grabbed his arms.

"I'm so sorry for Lucifer's outburst. However Quincy, that's a large statement from a demon with a major inferiority complex," Diavolo's smile was tight and thin.

"Alright let me at this motherf-" Quincy ran, but Ethan and June held him back.

"Order in the court!" The judge slammed the gavel. "The next person to speak out of turn will be permanently banned from this establishment."

Everyone sat back in their seats, sending glares to the opposition. The judge looked at Youssef, who continued his case.

Once Youssef ended presenting his case, the judge thanked him and reexamined the paper on their desk.

After a minute a long minute of silence, the judge removed her glasses. "Well both sides make compelling arguments with the manager's prescience needed at both locations. However, we're missing the most important part."

She turned to the manager. "My decision is entirely based on your response to this question, so I'd like you to answer it with some thought."

The manager nods. "I'm ready."

"Do you want to stay in the Otherworld or live in Devildom?"

Texas: 7 Charged in $16M Covid-Relief Fraud Scheme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Seven Charged in Connection with a COVID-Relief Fraud Scheme Involving more than 80 Fraudulent Loan Applications Worth Approximately $16 Million

Seven individuals across two states were charged in an indictment unsealed today for their alleged participation in a scheme to obtain approximately $16 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Amir Aqeel, 52, and Pardeep Basra, 51, both of Houston, Texas; Rifat Bajwa, 51, of Richmond, Texas; Mayer Misak, 40, of Cypress, Texas; Mauricio Navia, 41, of Katy, Texas; and Richard Reuth, 57, of Spring, Texas, are expected to make their initial appearances today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison.

They are all charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.  The indictment also charges Aqeel with three counts of money laundering.

Also named in the Houston indictment is Siddiq Azeemuddin, 41, of Naperville, Illinois.  He also faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.  Azeemuddin will appear today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather K. McShain of the Northern District of Illinois. 

“These defendants allegedly participated in a scheme to capitalize on the pandemic by filing at least 80 fraudulent PPP applications and enriching themselves by $16 million, spending it on luxury items such as a Porsche and Lamborghini automobiles,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.  “The department and our law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively pursue those who would seek to illegally exploit the ongoing national emergency for their own benefit.”

...

The indictment alleges all conspired to submit more than 80 fraudulent PPP loan applications by falsifying the number of employees and the average monthly payroll expenses of the applicant businesses. In support of these fraudulent loan applications, they conspired to submit, and did submit, fraudulent bank records and/or fake federal tax forms, according to the charges.  Some of the PPP loan applications were allegedly submitted on behalf of companies the defendants controlled.

Other loan applications were submitted on behalf of entities that third-parties allegedly owned, according to the indictment.  In exchange for these, several of the defendants received large kickbacks, according to the charges.

The indictment further alleges the defendants laundered a portion of the fraudulent proceeds by writing checks from companies that received PPP loans to fake employees.  Those that received checks included some of the defendants and their relatives, according to the charges.  The fake paychecks were then allegedly cashed at Fascare International Inc. dba Almeda Discount Store – a cash checking company Azeemuddin owned.

The indictment alleges that over 1,100 fake paychecks totaling more than $3 million in fraudulent PPP loan proceeds were cashed at Azeemuddin’s business.

Federal agents also executed 45 seizure warrants in conjunction with the case.  Some of items seized included a Porsche and a Lamborghini allegedly purchased with illegally obtained funds.

This is an ongoing investigation.  If the public has further information regarding this fraud, please contact the Department of Homeland Security at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

The CARES Act is a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through the PPP.  In April 2020, Congress authorized over $300 billion in additional PPP funding.

The PPP allows qualifying small-businesses and other organizations to receive loans with a maturity of two years and an interest rate of one percent.  PPP loan proceeds must be used by businesses on payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities.  The PPP allows the interest and principal on the PPP loan to be forgiven if the business spends the loan proceeds on these expense items within a designated period of time after receiving the proceeds and uses at least a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses. 

A federal criminal indictment is merely an accusation.  A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case was investigated by the SBA-OIG; HSI; FHFA-OIG; FDIC-OIG and TIGTA.  Trial Attorneys Louis Manzo and Della Sentilles of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rodolfo Ramirez and Kristine Rollinson for the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.

Anyone with general information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice.  Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.

Attachment(s):  Download Aqeel Indictment

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Women’s groups and prominent feminist figures have remained almost universally silent over a former staffer’s accusation of sexual misconduct against former Vice President Joe Biden—including those individuals and groups who came to express regret for how the Democratic Party handled similar accusations made against President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

The collective non-response from mostly Democrat-aligned groups comes as potential female running mates struggle themselves in responding to the Biden allegation, which has the potential to upend his campaign against President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women in alleged incidents spanning decades. And it echoes the division among progressives when the #MeToo movement revived scrutiny of Clinton’s own alleged sexual misconduct.

The Daily Beast contacted 10 top national pro-women organizations for this story, including Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the National Organization for Women. Most organizations did not respond to a detailed request for comment about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office who has accused the former vice president of forcibly penetrating her with his fingers in the early 1990s. Others replied and did not provide a statement. 

One prominent women’s political group cited a scheduling conflict and asked to be kept “in mind for other opportunities!” When pressed if the following day would work better, an associate said it would not, citing another scheduling conflict. 

The near-total lack of acknowledgement from nearly a dozen leading pro-women organizations comes as new corroboration has emerged with respect to the allegation, which the Biden campaign has categorically denied. Neither the Biden campaign nor Reade responded to requests from The Daily Beast for comment Tuesday. 

It also is taking place as prominent elected women in the Democratic Party rally to Biden’s side. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton became the latest to offer her endorsement of Biden’s candidacy—a symbolic passing of the torch from one presidential candidate to another, but a moment that also served as a reminder of moments in recent party history when accusers were almost uniformly dismissed.

In 2017, attorney Patricia Ireland, who served as president of the National Organization for Women for the entirety of the Clinton administration, told The Washington Post that she wished she had “done more to be supportive” of Paula Jones, the former Arkansas state employee who alleges that Bill Clinton sexually harassed her during his time as governor.

“For Paula Jones, there were nice distinctions that people made: She didn’t work for him, he didn’t have the power to hire or fire her,” Ireland said at the time. “But that ignores the reality that he was a very powerful man.”

During the same period, feminist icon Gloria Steinem told The Guardian that she regretted some parts of her aggressive defense of Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, including a New York Times op-ed in which she dismissed accusations of sexual misconduct against the president. “Even if the allegations are true,” Steinem wrote in the 1998 op-ed, “the president is not guilty of sexual harassment. He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass. President Clinton took ‘no’ for an answer.”

Steinem told the Guardian that “I wouldn’t write the same thing now because there’s probably more known about other women now. I’m not sure… What you write in one decade you don’t necessarily write in the next.”

But neither Ireland nor Steinem responded to a request for comment about Reade’s accusations against Biden. Bill Clinton has long denied Jones’ claims, settling a lawsuit she filed in 1998 for $850,000 with no apology or admission of wrongdoing.

Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Reade accused Hillary Clinton of “enabling a sexual predator.”

“Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct,” Reade said in response to Clinton’s endorsement. “We don’t need that for this country. We don’t need that for our new generation coming up that wants institutional rape culture to change.”

Reade first accused Biden of digitally penetrating her in a podcast interview with journalist Katie Halper in March. Two other people, including Reade’s brother and a friend who has remained anonymous, told various outlets that Reade had told them about certain aspects of the alleged assault and her subsequent dismissal from Biden’s office over the years.

On Monday, Business Insider quoted a former neighbor of Reade’s recounting that the ex-staffer had disclosed details of the alleged assault when she lived next door to her in the mid-1990s. “This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it,” Lynda LaCasse, Reade’s former neighbor, told the outlet.

On April 24, Reade told The Intercept that her mother called into Larry King’s cable-news program to discuss “problems” her daughter experienced with a prominent lawmaker in 1993. In the episode, a caller from San Luis Obispo, California—where property records indicate Reade’s mother lived at the time—asked the host “what a staffer might do besides go to the press in Washington.”

“My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator and could not get through with her problems at all,” the caller said. “The only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.” 

Reade said on Twitter that it was her mother’s voice. “This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me.”

Biden’s defenders have argued that Reade’s story has changed over time—she previously had said only that she felt Biden had inappropriately touched her and made her feel uncomfortable. But sexual-assault victims’ advocates have noted that its common for victims to hold back on details as they recount their traumatic experiences. 

Various aides to Biden have said they have no recollection of any assault incident happening. And Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement this month that “this absolutely did not happen,” and that “Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women.” Bedingfield added: “He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard—and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue.”

Over the past several days, the Biden campaign has signaled that it is paying additional attention to issues that disproportionately affect women. On Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), one of the contenders thought to be on Biden’s shortlist of potential running mates, was a guest on a virtual town hall with black leaders on coronavirus’ impact on women of color. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), another possible running mate and former Biden rival, was also featured in a virtual forum addressing similar women’s focused issues late last week. 

On Tuesday, in introducing Clinton during a virtual town hall, Biden declared she is “the woman who should be president of the United States right now.”

“I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you,” Clinton said during the event to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on women. “This is a moment where we need a leader, a president, like Joe Biden.” Biden, she said, has been “preparing for this moment his entire life.” The former vice president reciprocated by saying it was a “wonderful personal endorsement.” 

On Monday, in offering her own backing, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi called him a “partner for progress in the White House.” 

Four years ago, women’s groups threw their weight behind Clinton’s historic campaign as the Democratic Party’s first female nominee. But they remained largely out of the primary in 2020, when an unprecedented number of women campaigned with that similar goal in mind. Still, some groups haven’t been shy about criticizing parts of Biden’s past record relating to women.

In the early stages of Biden’s campaign, Planned Parenthood Action Fund took issue with a position he previously held around support for the Hyde Amendment, a provision that sought to restrict the use of federal money for abortion. In June 2019, the group’s executive director specifically called out Biden by name, reminding him that “the Democratic Party platform is crystal-clear” around repealing Hyde. Biden later denounced his support of the amendment. 

Now, as Biden faces a sexual-assault allegation as the presumptive nominee, his past record and prominent female defenders are facing a new round of scrutiny. In particular, the decision to select a female running mate delighted many party activists and women’s rights advocates when Biden announced it in March, but is taking on a new form as the Reade allegation receives additional corroboration. 

Already, potential nominees are having to answer questions about the allegation. The Daily Beast recently contacted the most prominent figures thought to be considered as possible contenders about Reade’s claim, including Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.

Among the seven Democratic women’s offices reached, only Abrams commented, telling The Daily Beast that “women have the right to be heard” and adding, in part, that “nothing in the Times review suggests anything other than what I already knew: That Joe Biden is a man of highest integrity who will make all women proud as our next president.”