Monthly Archives: July 2020

Freedom of Information Act documents turned over to New Jersey paint more of a picture of what happened leading up to and in the wake of the Department of Justices decision to alter its opinion on the federal Wire Act in 2018.

Online Poker Report has received the results of the request from NJs attorney general. AG Gurbir Grewal was looking for information relating to outside groups lobbying efforts in the FOIA request. In particular, he was trying to find a link between the DOJ opinion and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a longtime opponent of online gambling in the United States.

The 2018 Wire Act opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel changed the DOJs stance on the Wire Act, saying it applies to all forms of interstate gambling, not just sports betting. That stance threatens the legality of online casinos, online poker and online lotteries in states that have legalized any of those things, in addition to other things, including multi-state lottery products.

A federal court has already rejected the new DOJ memo; the case is still active in appeals court.

Heres what we learned from the FOIA documents. While there is no smoking gun linking Adelson or his lobbying group to the DOJs change on the Wire Act, it does detail interactions between the department and outside sources.

All documents and emails referenced below are from the FOIA request.

The FOI uncovered that as early as March of 2017, some at the DOJ were already looking at changing the departments opinion on The Wire Act. According to guidance from the DOJ in 2011, the Wire Act applied only to sports betting and other forms of gambling that might cross state lines.

This correspondence took place more than a year and a half before the new OLC memo (written in 2018, and released in early 2019). It also roughly coincides with outside efforts to effect this change from a law firm (Cooper and Kirk) that works with the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. CSIG is believed to be bankrolled by Adelson.

Heres an email from February of 2017, an introduction of a lawyer for a firm that works with CSIG, that likely led to a memo from Cooper and Kirk on the Wire Act.

That led to email exchanges in 2017 where CSIG lawyers were interacting with the DOJ in March and trying to set up a meeting. The email below is from Acting Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General James Mann:

More on DOJ actively engaging with someone from Steptoe on the issue, which seems to imply the DOJ working actively with outside sources regarding the Wire Act opinion:

CSIG, as we already knew before the FOIA, submitted its Wire Act memo in April 2017:

The issue continued to have momentum in May:

Graham is Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has long advanced Adelsons agenda on other topics as well as online gambling.

The issue made its way to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein a week later in a memo that was entirely redacted except for a footnote:

While not a smoking gun, it would be quite the coincidence if these lobbying efforts started and the reaction started soon thereafter. The DOJ attempts to distance itself from those lobbying efforts in answering reporters questions after the Wire Act opinion was released in 2019:

Interestingly, the CSIG had a press release ready to go soon after the Wire Act opinion was released.

Then acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker denied any influence in the crafting of the opinion.

Regardless, a lot of the heavy lifting on the early understanding of the Wire Act opinion happened well in advance of the opinion actually dropping, and a lot of people in the DOJ were thinking about it.

This is perhaps not shocking, as the DOJ is part of the executive branch.

Nevertheless, multiple people at the White House (WH below) were interested in what was going on around the Wire Act. This could just be standard operating procedure to loop in White House on a change in the interpretation of the law, but there was a lot of White House interest.

Here is an email chain that came just as Online Poker Report broke the news that a Wire Act opinion was coming (the Twitter post referenced is a link to OPRs story in December):

More from a few days later:

More after the opinions release:

The FOIA request had hoped to turn up more evidence that Adelson was working with the DOJ and/or the White House to change the Wire Act interpretation. While it didnt do that, it did demonstrate a lot of White House involvement that could potentially be explained by the normal course of business.

Adelson has been a large donor to the campaign of President Donald Trump and has demonstrated he has the presidents ear on other issues.

The FOIA request also turned up lots of correspondence with the DOJ about the 2011 and 2018 Wire Act opinions.

Notable, former US Sen. Ron Paul urged the DOJ to keep the opinion in place way back in June of 2017:

Its not entirely clear why Paul was writing this at this exact moment in time, but he had been an opponent of repeated Congressional efforts to change the Wire Act to cover online gambling.

Former Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning also wrote the DOJ asking for the 2011 opinion to stand, according to the FOIA documents.

The FOIA also includes a number of other letters regarding the status of the opinion before and after it was issued.

A sidenote to all the documents in the request: Shortly after the US Supreme Court ended the federal ban on sports betting, the NCAA and the NFL had a meeting with the DOJ. This had been previously reported.

Its not clear if the Wire Act would have come up at this meeting, but it is included in the FOIA documents:

A letter from the NCAA and NFL to the DOJ did mention the Wire Act in passing.

The rest is here:
What We Learned From New FOIA Documents About The DOJs Wire Act Opinion - OnlinePokerReport.com

WednesdayJul15,2020at12:01AM

Ronald Paul Ford Sr. Ambridge Formerly of Moon Township Ronald Paul Ford, Sr., passed away peacefully on July 11, 2020, at the age of 63. Born on August 5, 1956, in Sewickley, he was the son of the late Elizabeth and Henry Ford, Sr. Ronald loved cars and spending time with his beloved grandchildren. Ronald is survived by his children, Heather Ford of Daytona Beach, Fla., Holly Neff (Ron) of Ambridge, and Jason Ford of Ambridge; 11 grandchildren; and siblings, Susan Hillman of Sewickley, Linda McDermott (Roger) of Ambridge, Diane Hathaway of Ambridge, Henry G. Ford Jr. (Clara) of Hampton, Va., and Garry P. Ford Sr. (Darlene) of Bedford. In addition to his parents, Ronald was preceded in death by his son, Ronald Ford Jr. and his brother, Terry A. Ford. Visitation will be held at COPELAND SEWICKLEY FUNERAL HOME, 702 Beaver St., http://www.copelandfuneralhomes.com, on Thursday, July 16, from 4 to 7 p.m. where his funeral service will be held on Friday at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in Sewickley Cemetery.

Originally posted here:
RONALD PAUL FORD SR. - Obituaries - The Times - The Times

The BEASTSare unleashed once again! Created by sculptorand artistPaul Harding,the dieselpunk horror-adventureBEASTS OF THE BLACK HAND, is returning with an all-new graphic novel.BEASTS OF THE BLACK HAND Volume 2: The Viking Leagueis now on Kickstarter, with a campaign to produce a hardcover sequel to the landmark initial volume, viaOminous PressandCreation.Ink.

Written byRon Marz, drawn byMatthew Dow Smith, and colored byNanjan Jamberi, the sequel will be a lavish, 64-page oversize hardcover, just like Volume 1, which was produced thanks to a highly-successful Kickstarter campaign. Once successfully funded, Volume 2 is expected to be released in December.

Set at the close of the First World War in a world where dieselpunk technology is transforming the world, Volume 1 introduced British secret agent Oswald Rayner as he assassinated the Mad Monk, Rasputin. Rayner is charged with battling the nefarious Black Hand, a secret cabal of sorcerers bent on unleashing monsters upon Europe. Rayner is aided by a team that includes his driver and mechanic, Biffy Dunderdale; French Hello Girl Oleda Marchand; and American war hero Henry Johnson.

Having thwarted Maria Rasputins machinations to destroy the Versailles peace conference, Volume 2 finds Rayner and his team battling the Black Hand in Eastern Europe, as well as Germany, where the fascist Viking League is rising to power. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure known as the Teutonic Knight has appeared in Berlin, his loyalties unknown.

Im so excited to reunite with Ron and Matt forVolume 2.Everythingaboutthis story is bigger, better, and darker. Were really turning loosethe monsters in this one,Paul Harding said.

Both Volumes 1 and 2 will be available will be available via the Kickstarter, with standard covers byMatthew Dow Smith, and limited sculpture variant covers byPaul Harding. Other rewards include collectible, limited-edition, single-issue comics with exclusive variant covers by artists includingMatthew Dow Smith, Eric Powell, Mike McKone, Mark Nelson, Meghan Hetrick, and others. Additional variant covers will be announced throughout the campaign by an all-star collection of artists, includingRachael Stott, Tom Mandrake, and more.

There are also sculpture rewards crafted byPaul Harding and Creation.Ink, limited-edition prints, and T-shirts.

Paul Hardingis a sculptor whose work has premiered through DC Collectibles, Gentle Giant, MarvelLegends, Sideshow, and more. Legendary writerRon Marzhas worked for every major publisher with acclaimed runs onSilver Surfer, Green Lantern, Witchblade, and others.Matthew Dow Smith, known for both his art and writing, has art credits ranging fromBatmanandWonder WomantoDoctor WhoandX-Files.

The Kickstarter campaign is live now, and ends on Aug. 13.

NEWS WATCH: Beasts of the Black Hand 2 From Paul Harding, Ron Marz and Matthew Dow Live on Kickstarter Now

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Storytelling has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember, I look forward to offering opinions and insight on some of the best stories being told today.

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NEWS WATCH: Beasts of the Black Hand 2 From Paul Harding, Ron Marz and Matthew Dow Live on Kickstarter Now - Comic Watch

Camila Russo is the founder of The Defiant and author of The Infinite Machine, the first book on the history of Ethereum, which launches today. Read an extract here.

Almost five years ago on July 30, 2015, part of the Ethereum team had gathered in Berlin to see the network they helped build go live. A big screen overhanging their worktables served as the countdown clock for when the test network reached block 1,028,201. Thats the palindrome and prime number they picked as the key which would launch the mainnet. Others were waiting for the launch in Ethereum hubs in Amsterdam, Toronto, New York and Zug, Switzerland.

It was the culmination of months of work, where core developers did the heavy lifting on the technical side, but which also included designers, marketers, and community managers.Ethereans knew a distributed network with no community would fail.

Ethereum turns five on July 30, 2020. CoinDesk is marking five years of Ethereum with a series of retrospective stories and live-streamed Twitter conversations. There are even some Easter eggs for eagle-eyed readers. Tune in to our CoinDesk Live sessions July 27-31 at 4 p.m. Eastern each day or call +1 (661) 4-UNICRN.

Early Ethereum team members had also spent endless hours with lawyers leading up to the ether sale, some co-founders had gone through bitter fights, while many others had ravaged their savings working with no salaries towards one goal: Making the vision Vitalik Buterin laid out on a white paper in November 2013, a reality.

Its happening

When the test network hit the predetermined block at 4:26 p.m. in Berlin, a meme of Ron Paul, jubilant, with his arms up and surrounded in green laser beams and white block letters that read ITS HAPPENING, popped up on the monitor. The Ethereum team opened a bottle of champagne while rocket emojis filled chat rooms.

The Ethereum network quickly left other blockchain upstarts behind and has since grown to become the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, with ethers market capitalization (as of writing) at just under $30 billion.

Minecraft of crypto-finance

But a better measure of success is to examine whether Ethereum builders achieved what they set out to do. Ethereum aims to be a fully-fledged, Turing-complete (but heavily fee-regulated) cryptographic ledger, which allows developers to build any application they can dream of on top, Vitalik wrote in the white paper, which inspired early team members to drop everything and join him in building it.

Rather than being limited to a specific set of transaction types, users will be able to use Ethereum as a sort of Minecraft of crypto-finance that is to say, one will be able to implement any feature that one desires simply by coding it in the protocols internal scripting language, he wrote. Minecraft is a sandbox-style video game, which gives players flexibility to explore and build whatever they want in the games virtual world.

Vitalik, who was 19 years old at the time, listed on the Ethereum white paper the applications he envisioned could be built on top of this generalized platform:

Sub-currencies representing assets such as USD or gold to company stocks and even currencies with only one unit issued to represent collectibles or smart property.

Financial derivatives, such as hedging contracts. He notes that financial contracts of any form do need to be fully collateralized; the Ethereum network controls no enforcement agency and cannot collect debt.

Identity and reputation systems where users can register their names in a public database alongside other data, for example, for domain-name systems.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, which replicate traditional companies but use blockchain technology for enforcement. The entity would have shareholders who collect dividends and decide how the corporation automatically allocates its funds, using either bounties, salaries or even more exotic mechanisms such as an internal currency to reward work.

Also listed were crop and generic insurance, decentralized data feeds, gambling and prediction markets, a full-scale on-chain stock market and an on-chain decentralized marketplace.

Five years later, all of the use cases envisioned by Vitalik have become a reality, though some with more success than others.

Sub-currencies success

What Vitalik called sub-currencies what we now know as tokens, stablecoins and NFTs have arguably been the most successful applications on Ethereum so far. Valued at over $33 billion, Ethereums ERC-20 tokens represent almost 13 percent of total cryptocurrency market capitalization, according to Etherscan. Together with ether, all of the Ethereum ecosystem is about one-fourth of crypto.

The innovation of entrepreneurs being able to issue their own coins and sell them to anyone in the world in fundraising rounds, which for the first time didnt need venture capitalists or banks, helped fuel one of the most spectacular speculative manias in 2017-2018. This past year, most growth has come from stablecoins, with tokens pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar trading at about $12 billion thats about three times stablecoin market cap a year ago, according to Messari data most of which is on Ethereum, due mainly to Tethers migration to the network.

Non-fungible tokens and their marketplaces had their biggest moment with CryptoKitties in late 2017, but the space is arguably one of the brightest spots for innovation within Ethereum, with use cases from in-game items to art and limited-edition fashion.

Dexs and derivatives

On-chain stock exchanges are todays decentralized exchanges. While they still represent a fraction of total volume traded on centralized crypto exchanges, growth has been staggering. Almost $5.7 billion have traded so far on DEXs this year, or more than twice the value trading hands in all of 2019, according to Dune Analytics. Beyond volume metrics, DEXs are delivering on the cypherpunk dream of seamless, global, non-custodial trading of cryptocurrencies.

Financial derivatives are also flourishing. Synthetic assets platforms such as Synthetix and UMA allow almost any assets to be represented on the Ethereum blockchain, while margin trading platforms such as dYdX have enabled futures trading, the most popular asset in centralized crypto finance.

Meanwhile, lending platforms including Compound and Aave allow users to gain interest on their crypto deposits, and tokenize those deposits so they can be simply bought on an exchange and held in users wallets.

DAOs started out early in Ethereum history as one of the strongest projects. The DAO attracted, at the time, the most capital ever for an Ethereum fundraiser, though we all know how that ended. After a traumatic experience, the Ethereum community steered clear of decentralized organizations for a couple of years, until 2019 ushered a DAO revival. Initially, these entities were focused on distributing donations, but that quickly evolved into for-profit DAOs, like The LAO and VentureDAO.

Ethereum has also given rise to applications in prediction markets, identity systems and insurance, but theyre lagging financial applications in terms of volume and adoption.

Internet of value

Financial applications have had the greatest success on Ethereum so far, arguably because it provides something that just cant be replicated by the current financial system, or by bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency. Its a global network thats built to transfer value, and it can also process computer programs to allow for more sophisticated financial transactions. Value held in these financial platforms has soared to more than $2 billion this year, a fivefold increase from a year ago.

Ethereum has successfully become the Minecraft of crypto finance, as Vitalik envisioned. But beyond becoming a platform that can support all these different kinds of applications, the biggest impact is its creating an actual internet of value. Its a network that enables fast, cheap, global value transfers and the ability to program that money to become anything from futures contracts to collectibles to derivatives pegged to stocks, forex and commodities. And its allowing users of this system to take charge of their own assets and data.

Almost any network metric will show there is demand for permissionless, trustless systems. Active addresses are near a record at just under 568,000, a stone throws away from bitcoins 745,000, according to CoinMetrics. Transaction fees paid to the networks miners have surpassed bitcoins, while daily transaction count is almost four times that of the biggest cryptocurrency at about 1 million, the data show.

A good problem to have

The question isnt whether theres demand for Ethereum, but whether the network will continue developing fast enough to meet that demand. The wait for ETH 2.0, which would allow Ethereum to scale, has been a constant in Ethereums history. A barebones proof-of-stake chain, which was slated to launch early this year, has been delayed and now its unclear whether it will launch this year at all.

But progress with Layer 2 solutions, which take transactions off-chain, has been encouraging. Teams working on Optimistic Roll-Ups are testing prototypes, while solutions using Plasma and Zero Knowledge technology are live right now and able to handle thousands of transactions per second. While the wait for ETH2.0 continues, the wait for Ethereum scaling is over.

The next five years will be about strengthening these scaling solutions and making these financial applications more robust and secure. It will also be necessary to create better crypto onramps and building apps in the less developed areas of Ethereum, like identity and insurance. The result will be this Minecraft of finance stops being an insiders secret and more players can join.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Five Years On, Ethereum Is the Minecraft of Crypto-Finance - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

By Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) -- The Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating a traffic stop earlier this month that ended with an officer using his knee to restrain a 17-year-old boy.

The department says it was prompted by video shot by a bystander and posted to social media, appearing to show the suspect face-down on the street with an officer's knee over him as his hands are in the process of being restrained.

"We must make sure that we have conducted a process based solely on the law, and not on emotions," Chief Murphy Paul said at a Monday news conference. The chief says they can't reveal the 17-year-old's name or what led to the boy's restraint because he is a juvenile. "I just spoke to the family of the young man, and I can tell you they are upset," said Chief Paul.

The department released bodycam and dashcam video Tuesday -- showing portions from several angles of the July 6 incident -- after getting permission from a juvenile court judge. The apprehension followed a 54-minute police chase in which the juvenile was a passenger.

Internal Affairs Commander Sgt. Myron Daniels says a key factor in determining whether the officer's force was justified will be the exact placement of the officer's knee. "A knee on a back is used as a control method, but not on the neck. The neck is off-limits," Daniels said. "And as you can see, based on that, at no point was the subject, the juvenile's air restricted in any way."

But an attorney for the juvenile's family tells CNN affiliate WAFB they don't think the location of the officer's knee is the critical issue. "When you are on your knees with your hands up, you don't get much more submissive than that," said Ron Haley Monday night. "Why was he handled in such a rough manner? He was not armed. He was not posing a threat."

The two officers involved in the 17-year-old's restraint have not been identified, but Sgt. Daniels says they are both on paid administrative leave during the investigation. "I promise you as your chief of police that we will conduct a thorough investigation," Chief Paul said.

The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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Baton Rouge Police investigating officer who used knee to restrain 17-year-old suspect - WDJT

Haines businesses will have another chance to apply for CARES Act funding, the biomass project is officially terminated, and SEARHC will provide COVID-19 testing for asymptomatic travelers to Haines.

The Haines Borough Assembly voted to reopen the application window for Haines Small Business Emergency Grants, since over half the money remains unspoken for. That was at the request of Borough Finance Director Jila Stuart. She said there are several reasons that businesses have not applied.

Theres been a lot of confusion about whether or not accepting a municipal CARES Act grant will make a business ineligible for the Alaska CARES program which offers a lot more money than were offering, she said.

That remains unclear. Some businesses could not apply because their business licenses are not up to date. Some tax exempt businesseslike childcare and healthcare servicesdid not file their tax returns and were therefore ineligible for grants. The assembly voted against including them. The application will remain open until July 31st.

The Haines Borough will pay Southeast Regional Health Consortium $50,000 to test asymptomatic travelers at the Haines Health Clinic. In July SEARHC began offering free testing to asymptomatic on the weekend.

Acting borough manager Alekka Fullerton said the additional funds are to reduce testing delay for travelers who arrive midweek.

If someone comes in on the ferry for instance on Sunday, they would wait a whole week to be tested and a whole nother week to get their results back. Meanwhile theyd be running around Haines without testing or results, Fullerton said.

The motion passed unanimously.

The assembly voted to abandon a plan to heat municipal buildings using a biomass boiler. Assembly member Stephanie Scott was opposed. Public facilities director Ed Coffland said the years-long, repeatedly postponed project is uneconomical.

Assembly member Paul Rogers moved to nix the project.

We dont have another million and a half dollars and I dont see us having another million and a half dollars in the foreseeable future. I think its ridiculous to try to proceed to try to proceed and keep putting a band-aid on an arterial bleed, he said.

Coffland said roughly $900,000 in grant funding for the project will be returned to the grantor later this year.

Haines resident Ron Jackson requested that the assembly formally reprimand Assembly member Paul Rogers for the way he behaved around the firing of former borough manager Debra Schnabel.

Jackson said Rogers should be censured for attempting to usurp the supervisory authority of the assembly and for belittling the manager in a public meeting.

The assembly voted 4-2 against censuring Rogers with Zephyr Sincerny and Stephanie Scott in favor. Assembly member Gabe Thomas said a reprimand would only increase divisiveness.

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Haines businesses will have another chance to apply for CARES Act funding - KHNS Radio