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Full List of Republican Senators Who Receive Funding From the NRA —Newsweek

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2 years ago

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BY  (Culled from the Newsweek)

The political influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is once again in the spotlight in the wake of the mass shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The shooting reignited the debate regarding gun control laws in the U.S. after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at the Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.

While several Republicans tweeted after the shooting that they are offering their thoughts and prayers to the victims, others have pointed out that there are a number of GOP senators who have received millions of dollars of donations from the NRA over the years.

According to data compiled by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2019, about two dozen sitting Republican senators have received contributions from the NRA. Of those senators, 16 have received more than $1 million.

Topping the list is Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who received more than $13 million in NRA contributions. The NRA money donated to Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was raised by a number of social media users after Romney tweeted his condolences in the wake of the Uvalde mass shooting.

Some of Texas’ highest-ranking Republicans will take part in a massive National Rifle Association convention being held in Houston this weekend. Their participation, and long ties to the gun lobby, is seen by some voters as obscene after the school shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday that killed 21 people including 19 children.

“Grief overwhelms the soul. Children slaughtered. Lives extinguished. Parents’ hearts wrenched. Incomprehensible,” Romney wrote. “I offer prayer and condolence but know that it is grossly inadequate. We must find answers.”

Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, tweeted in response to Romney: “Grief does not overwhelm the soul nearly as much as $13M from the NRA overwhelms your bank account. The answer you seek is the money you continue to take.”

Broadcaster Soledad O’Brien added: “The NRA gave you just under 14 million dollars, sir. I frequently call this man a coward. Maybe one day the words he says and what he actually does, will match.”

Senators Richard Burr and Roy Blunt followed Romney on the list of GOP lawmakers who received the highest amount of NRA contributions, with North Carolina’s Burr receiving close to $7 million and Blunt of Missouri taking in over $4.5 million from the NRA.

Other Republicans who received significant money from the NRA include Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Ted Cruz, who is due to appear at an NRA meeting in Houston over the weekend, just days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, has received more than $175,000 from the group.

In the wake of the Uvalde massacre, Cruz has frequently pushed back on calls for gun law reforms in the only country in the world where school shootings regularly occur.

Republican Senators Who Receive Funding From the NRA

  • Mitt Romney (Utah) $13,647,676
  • Richard Burr (North Carolina) $6,987,380
  • Roy Blunt (Missouri) $4,555,722
  • Thom Tillis (North Carolina) $4,421,333
  • Marco Rubio (Florida) $3,303,355
  • Joni Ernst (Iowa) $3,124,773
  • Rob Portman (Ohio) $3,063,327
  • Todd C. Young (Indiana) $2,897,582
  • Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) $2,867,074
  • Tom Cotton (Arkansas) $1,968,714
  • Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) $1,475,448
  • Josh Hawley (Missouri) $1,391,548
  • Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) $1,306,130
  • Ron Johnson (Wisconsin) $1,269,486
  • Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) $1,267,139
  • Mike Braun (Indiana) $1,249,967
  • John Thune (South Dakota) $638,942
  • Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) $341,738
  • Richard Shelby (Alabama) $258,514
  • Chuck Grassley (Iowa) $226,007
  • John Neely Kennedy (Louisiana) $215,788
  • Ted Cruz (Texas) $176,274
  • Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) $146,262
  • Steve Daines (Montana) $123,711
  • Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) $109,547
  • Roger Wicker (Mississippi) $106,680
  • Rand Paul (Kentucky) $104,456
  • Mike Rounds (South Dakota) $95,049
  • John Boozman (Arkansas) $82,352
  • John Cornyn (Texas) $78,945
  • Ben Sasse (Nebraska) $68,623
  • Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) $66,758
  • Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) $55,961
  • Mike Crapo (Idaho) $55,039
  • Jerry Moran (Kansas) $34,718
  • John Barrasso (Wyoming) $26,989
  • John Hoeven (North Dakota) $22,050
  • Susan Collins (Maine) $19,638
  • James Lankford (Oklahoma) $18,955
  • Jim Risch (Idaho) $18,850
  • Tim Scott (South Carolina) $18,513
  • Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) $13,255

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Lifestyle

Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired

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1 week ago

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April 25, 2024

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.

In the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Emilio Garcia said that after a night out in 2022 in Ibiza, Spain, he was in an SUV with the hip-hop star when she began having sex with another woman right next to him. He was unable to get out of the moving car, and would have been in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country even if he was able. Garcia was “embarrassed, mortified and offended throughout the whole ordeal,” according to the lawsuit.

Alex Spiro, Megan’s lawyer, said she would fight the lawsuit in court.

“This is an employment claim for money — with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to attempt to embarrass her,” Spiro said.

The next day Megan told Garcia never to discuss what he saw and berated and fat-shamed him, the lawsuit said. The complaint also said Garcia, who had already considered quitting because he was overworked and underpaid in a hostile work environment aggravated by Megan’s possessiveness and abusiveness, was misclassified as an independent contractor but treated as an exclusive employee.

Garcia raised those issues in the conversation with Megan, and was fired the following day after four years of working for her, the suit said. He has since filed a job discrimination complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.

The lawsuit, first reported by NBC News, names as defendants Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete; her companies Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment and Hot Girl Touring; and her label, Roc Nation. A defense response has yet to be filed. There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from a representative of Roc Nation.

Garcia is seeking financial damages to be determined at trial, alleging he has suffered severely both emotionally and physically because of his treatment on the job, the firing and having to witness the scene in the SUV.

Megan, 29, was previously involved in major legal drama — and underwent a torrent of online abuse — as the victim of a shooting by rapper Tory Lanez, who a jury found fired at her feet on a street in the Hollywood Hills in 2020. She testified at the trial where jurors convicted Lanez of three felonies and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Already a major rising artist at the time of the shooting, Megan has since become one of hip-hop’s biggest stars. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles with “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”

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Body of O.J. Simpson to be cremated this week; brain will not be studied for CTE

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2 weeks ago

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April 16, 2024

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April 15 (UPI) — The body of O.J. Simpson, who died last week at the age of 76, is to be cremated, a lawyer representing the ex-football superstar’s estate said, adding his brain will not be donated for research.

Malcolm LaVergne, Simpson’s longtime attorney and executor, told the New York Post that his client’s body is to be cremated Tuesday in Las Vegas.

He said Simpson’s family also gave a “hard no” to scientists seeking to examine the former running back’s brain for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is better known as CTE.

CTE is a rare and little understood brain disorder that is likely caused by repeated blows to the head. According to the Mayo Clinic, CTE results in the death of nerve cells in the brain and the only way to definitively diagnose it is with an autopsy of the organ after death.

Memory and thinking problems, confusion, personality changes and erratic behavior, including aggression, depression and suicidal ideation, are among CTE’s symptoms, the Alzheimer’s Association said.

The disease has been found in those who play contact sports, including football and hockey.

LaVergne confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that at least one person has called seeking Simpson’s brain.

“His entire body, including his brain, will be cremated,” he said.

Simpson died Wednesday following a battle with cancer.

Known by the nickname “The Juice,” Simpson was a NFL superstar during the 1970s, which made him a household name that propelled him into film and television during the next decade.

But his stardom would come crashing down in the mid-1990s when he was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

His high-profile trial lasted months, but ended with his acquittal.

In 2008, he was found guilty on a dozen charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery, and was paroled in 2017 after serving nine years of his 33-year sentence.

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Africa

Donors raise more than 2 billion euros for Sudan aid a year into war

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April 16, 2024

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PARIS/CAIRO, April 15 (Reuters) – Donors pledged more than 2 billion euros ($2.13 billion) for war-torn Sudan at a conference in Paris on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said, on the first anniversary of what aid workers describe as a neglected but devastating conflict.
Efforts to help millions of people driven to the verge of famine by the war have been held up by continued fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), restrictions imposed by the warring sides, and demands on donors from other global crises including in Gaza and Ukraine.
Conflict in Sudan is threatening to expand, with fighting heating up in and around al-Fashir, a besieged aid hub and the last city in the western Darfur region not taken over by the RSF. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge in the area.
“The world is busy with other countries,” Bashir Awad, a resident of Omdurman, part of the wider capital and a key battleground, told Reuters last week. “We had to help ourselves, share food with each other, and depend on God.”
In Paris, the EU pledged 350 million euros, while France and Germany, the co-sponsors, committed 110 million euros and 244 million euros respectively. The United States pledged $147 million and Britain $110 million.
Speaking at the end of the conference, which included Sudanese civilian actors, Macron emphasized the need to coordinate overlapping and so far unsuccessful international efforts to resolve the conflict and to stop foreign support for the warring parties.
“Unfortunately the amount that we mobilised today is still probably less than was mobilised by several powers since the start of the war to help one or the other side kill each other,” he said.
As regional powers compete for influence in Sudan, U.N. experts say allegations that the United Arab Emirates helped arm the RSF are credible, while sources say the army has received weapons from Iran. Both sides have rejected the reports.
The war, which broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF as they vied for power ahead of a planned transition, has crippled infrastructure, displaced more than 8.5 million people, and cut many off from food supplies and basic services.
“We can manage together to avoid a terrible famine catastrophe, but only if we get active together now,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, adding that, in the worst-case scenario, 1 million people could die of hunger this year.
The United Nations is seeking $2.7 billion this year for aid inside Sudan, where 25 million people need assistance, an appeal that was just 6% funded before the Paris meeting. It is seeking another $1.4 billion for assistance in neighbouring countries that have housed hundreds of thousands of refugees.
The international aid effort faces obstacles to gaining access on the ground.
The army has said it would not allow aid into the wide swathes of the country controlled by its foes from the RSF. Aid agencies have accused the RSF of looting aid. Both sides have denied holding up relief.
“I hope the money raised today is translated into aid that reaches people in need,” said Abdullah Al Rabeeah, head of Saudi Arabia’s KSRelief.
On Friday, Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry protested that it had not been invited to the conference. “We must remind the organisers that the international guardianship system has been abolished for decades,” it said in a statement.

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