Good morning. 
Summer in Whitewater begins with partly sunny skies, scattered thundershowers, and a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:16 AM and sunset 8:36 PM, for 15h 20m 24s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1975, Jaws is released in the United States, starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters.”
Recommended for reading in full —
Jon Swaine and Emma Brown report ‘Italygate’ election conspiracy theory was pushed by two firms led by woman who also falsely claimed $30 million mansion was hers:
According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.
Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations [that push the claim] are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.
[Her] Institute for Good Governance’s registered headquarters since late last year has been the historical North Wales Farm, a 22-bedroom mansion in Warrenton, Va., state records show. The property is listed for sale at just under $30 million.
On the day after the 2020 election, Edwards sat for an interview at North Wales with a television crew from Iceland, where she has business interests. Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage. “This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”
She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.
“So this is where you live?” she was asked.
“Yes.”
“This is your property?”
“Yes.”
When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.
But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.
“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?”
The North Wales mansion was for sale at the time, and Edwards was a licensed Realtor in the area, according to the firm’s website. Hers was not the firm Ford’s widow had hired to sell the property.
Edwards declined to comment. “I am not giving media interviews at this time,” she said in a text message.
Joyce White Vance writes Garland inherited a booby-trapped DOJ. Here’s why it won’t be easy to fix:
Attorney General Merrick Garland knew he’d inherit some ticking time bombs when he took charge of the Justice Department. What he didn’t know, apparently, until the New York Times reported it this month, was that one of them was this: Under the Trump administration, the department subpoenaed Apple for information that included accounts belonging to Democratic members of Congress and their staff and families, and concealed that fact from them for almost four years.
….
It will take a top-to-bottom review of the Justice Department to root them out. And it has to happen fast.
The sheer scope of that review will be daunting. The Justice Department has an enormous docket of pending investigations and cases. In 2020, U.S. attorneys’ offices alone indicted in more than 57,000 criminal cases and handled 92,860 civil matters.
This French village has a statue, a song, and ceramics in cicadas’ honor:
According to the conspiracy theory known as “Italygate,” people working for the Italian defense contractor, in coordination with senior CIA officials, used military satellites to switch votes from Trump to Joe Biden and swing the result of the election.
Though her name was not mentioned in either document, both Virginia organizations [that push the claim] are led by Michele Roosevelt Edwards, according to state corporate filings reviewed by The Washington Post. Edwards is a former Republican congressional candidate who built a reputation as an advocate for the Somali people and as someone who could negotiate with warlords and pirates in the war-torn region.
[Her] Institute for Good Governance’s registered headquarters since late last year has been the historical North Wales Farm, a 22-bedroom mansion in Warrenton, Va., state records show. The property is listed for sale at just under $30 million.
On the day after the 2020 election, Edwards sat for an interview at North Wales with a television crew from Iceland, where she has business interests. Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage. “This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”
She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.
“So this is where you live?” she was asked.
“Yes.”
“This is your property?”
“Yes.”
When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.
But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.
“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?”
The North Wales mansion was for sale at the time, and Edwards was a licensed Realtor in the area, according to the firm’s website. Hers was not the firm Ford’s widow had hired to sell the property.
Edwards declined to comment. “I am not giving media interviews at this time,” she said in a text message.
Joyce White Vance writes Garland inherited a booby-trapped DOJ. Here’s why it won’t be easy to fix:
Attorney General Merrick Garland knew he’d inherit some ticking time bombs when he took charge of the Justice Department. What he didn’t know, apparently, until the New York Times reported it this month, was that one of them was this: Under the Trump administration, the department subpoenaed Apple for information that included accounts belonging to Democratic members of Congress and their staff and families, and concealed that fact from them for almost four years.
….
It will take a top-to-bottom review of the Justice Department to root them out. And it has to happen fast.
The sheer scope of that review will be daunting. The Justice Department has an enormous docket of pending investigations and cases. In 2020, U.S. attorneys’ offices alone indicted in more than 57,000 criminal cases and handled 92,860 civil matters.
This French village has a statue, a song, and ceramics in cicadas’ honor: