(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: 11 things you need to know this Wednesday – April 13, 2022

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Men charged in Homeland Security impersonation plot to be released from jail pending trial – The two men accused of impersonating federal agents will be released from jail, a federal judge ruled Tuesday after three days of marathon hearings where prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed over whether the men were operatives of a hostile government.

Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey said the Justice Department had not met the legal standard required to keep either Arian Taherzadeh or Haider Ali in jail. – READ MORE

Alert: NY Lt. Governor Arrested on Federal Bribery Charges – The second-highest-ranking official in New York has been arrested on federal bribery charges.

New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin (D) surrendered to law enforcement on Tuesday morning as he was facing a federal indictment, according to The New York Times. – READ MORE

Bird Flu Spreads Across US, Egg Prices Soar – A contagious strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza wiped out flocks across the US and killed millions of birds. The direct effect has been a nasty ripple effect of tight poultry meat and egg supplies, sending retail prices sky-high — adding to record-high food inflation.

The latest estimates from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) show around 24 million poultry birds like chickens and turkeys have died or been culled due to the virus since February. – READ MORE

Joe Biden Moves to Boost Ethanol Production Even as Corn Prices Spike – President Joe Biden will announce his decision to lift Environmental Protection Agency regulations on E-15 ethanol on Tuesday, allowing it to be sold during the summer.

The president is scheduled to travel to an ethanol plant in Iowa for the announcement even as corn prices have jumped in anticipation of a shortage in reaction to Russia’s escalation of their war in Ukraine. – READ MORE

Bidenflation: Energy Prices Soar 32% Overall in the Last 12 Months – American families are seeing a challenging time paying energy bills as prices continue to surge while inflation soars, with no end in sight.

The overall energy price of rose 32 percent compared with a year ago, data from the Department of Labor showed on Tuesday. And from February to March of this year, the prices rose 11.4 percent. – READ MORE

Bidenflation — American Families Face Steeply Higher Food Prices: Beef, Bacon, Coffee, Cereal, Milk, Baby Food – American families had a more challenging time putting food on the kitchen table in March as everyday food prices continued to surge — with no end in sight — while inflation soared. The kitchen table itself even got more expensive.

The overall food prices rose 8.8 percent compared to a year ago, data from the Department of Labor showed on Tuesday. In fact, the data also showed that inflation climbed to the biggest year-over-year increase since December 1981, as the consumer price index rose 8.5 percent in March compared to a year ago. – READ MORE

Nine Million Americans Priced Out Of Housing Market As Affordability Crisis Worsens –The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates millions of Americans have been priced out of the housing market since January as sky-rocketing mortgage rates spark an affordability crisis.

Nadia Evangelou, a senior economist and head of forecasting at NAR, said 9 million homebuyers had been priced out of the market. Out of that total, about 3 million millennials. – READ MORE

Dems pass law forcing private businesses to advertise for them or pay $500 a day in fines – Lest residents not be sufficiently grateful for their actions, Illinois politicians are trying to force retailers to post signs informing the public of some “tax relief” actions that were taken as part of the state’s new budget.

Legislation demands, on pain of being fined, that gas stations post stickers on pumps proclaiming that a gas tax increase that would have taken effect July 1 has been scrapped, according to The Center Square. – READ MORE

People ‘Don’t Want To Go Back’: California Democrat Wants A Four-Day Work Week – A new proposal in California would shorten the standard workweek to 32 hours for companies with more than 500 employees.

AB-2932 would leave the official workday at eight hours but require overtime for workers putting in more than 32 hours or four full days in a week. – READ MORE

FDA Floats Moving COVID-19 Vaccines To Flu-Like Model – Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials have proposed a future model for developing new COVID-19 vaccines that would be built on the approach to creating influenza vaccines.

Accumulating data suggest the current COVID-19 vaccines, based on a virus strain that is now generations old, “may need to be updated at some point to ensure the high level of efficacy demonstrated in the early vaccine clinical trials,” the FDA said. – READ MORE

Faulty Police Field Tests Said This Trucker Was Carrying 700 Gallons of Meth. It Was Diesel. – Police and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents in Pharr, Texas, thought they had intercepted a massive meth smuggling operation this February. Juan Carlos Toscano Guzman, a Mexican national, spent nearly six weeks in jail accused of transporting roughly 700 gallons of liquid methamphetamine. But it turned out not to be illicit drugs at all, just the result of unreliable drug field tests that have led to hundreds of other wrongful arrests.

The case, first reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, started when a Pharr police officer noticed three men transferring liquid out of large barrels next to a tanker truck. The officer noticed strange crystallization around the barrels and called in backup. – READ MORE