The Rest of the Story for June 28th

There was a lot of news today. Here are some other important stories:

Politico:

McConnell warns Trump, GOP on health bill failure

Mitch McConnell is delivering an urgent warning to staffers, Republican senators and even the president himself: If Obamacare repeal fails this week, the GOP will lose all leverage and be forced to work with Chuck Schumer.

President Donald Trump continued to float the possibility on Monday that Congress and the White House would simply let Obamacare’s individual markets collapse if the GOP’s repeal effort goes down later this week. But McConnell called up Trump recently, according to people with knowledge of the call, to deliver a reality check. 

Translation: McConnell would rather do a bad bill with the Democrats than do nothing at all. He gets the bear for that one:

Speaking of legislative stupidity...

The Hill:

Lawmaker loses $17M on pharma stock pitched to colleagues

A Republican congressman lost close to $17 million on Tuesday when stock in an Australian pharmaceutical company he allegedly promoted to other lawmakers plunged to pennies per share.

Shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics fell more than 90 percent in Sydney after a multiple sclerosis drug being tested by the pharma company showed no signs of working.

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), the largest stockholder in the company, lost roughly $17 million as Innate’s stock price sunk after the news broke Tuesday morning, according to Bloomberg. Collins sits on the company’s board of directors.

While Collins is up-front about owning the stock, that doesn't make him less shady:

Several GOP lawmakers told The Hill this month that Collins had pitched stock in the company to Republican colleagues, and had bragged during a dinner party that he’d help fellow lawmakers make money on the tip.

“If you get in early, you’ll make a big profit,” Collins told a group of House Republicans last summer.

Collins denied to The Hill earlier this month that he ever recruited members to buy Innate stock, nor bragged about making anyone richer. Collins, reportedly worth as much as $66 million, is one of the wealthier members of Congress.

 Rule of thumb: Never take stock tips from politicians.

Speaking of politicians....

The Hill:

Chaffetz calls for $2,500 legislator housing stipend

Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate lawmakers should receive a $2,500 per month housing allowance — something he explained would help ease housing costs for members who can’t afford two mortgages or rents.

“I really do believe Congress would be much better served if there was a housing allowance for members of Congress,” Chaffetz told The Hill in an interview in his Capitol office, where he sleeps whenever he’s in Washington. “In today’s climate, nobody’s going to suggest or vote for a pay raise. But you shouldn’t have to be among the wealthiest of Americans to serve properly in Congress.”

...While Chaffetz said $174,000 a year is a “handsome” congressional salary, he explained that subsidizing lawmakers’ housing costs in the pricey D.C. metro area could actually save taxpayer dollars. If he had a proper home in Washington rather than a cot in his office, Chaffetz said, he wouldn’t need to fly home every week on the taxpayers’ dime, and his wife, Julie, could visit more often.

A 2017 Kiplinger report ranked Washington as the sixth-most expensive city in the country to live.

A $2,500 monthly allowance would cost taxpayers about $30,000 a year per lawmaker, or roughly $16 million a year for all 535 members.

Cut twice that much from the federal budget, and it's yours.

Finally, in other news...

Miami Herald:

Jacksonville black man ticketed for crossing street without identification 

A young African-American man is stopped for jaywalking. A white law enforcement officer sternly orders him to the police car, threatens to put him in jail, and tells him he needs to have identification on him at all times — and tickets him for not carrying his ID.

Miami Beach, 1962? No, Jacksonville, 2017.

Such was the encounter between Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer J.S. Bolen and Devonte Shipman last week.

Bolen accused Shipman, 21, and a pal of jaywalking. And, as the video posted June 20 to Shipman’s Facebook’s page showed, such behavior would not be tolerated on Bolen’s watch.

The video opens with Shipman asking what he did wrong. Bolen tells Shipman: “Take your camera and point it across there at the red hand,” and then says that Shipman and his friend crossed against the light.

“My bad,” Shipman says to Bolen, who tells him that jaywalking is a $65 fine and orders him to the police car. Shipman, at first, refuses. Bolen then threatens: “I’m about to put you in jail” for resisting an officer without violence.

As Shipman walks toward the car, Bolen asks for his identification. Shipman says he doesn’t have it and Bolen snaps, “That’s another infraction. In the state of Florida, you have to have an ID card on you identifying who you are or I can detain you for seven hours until I figure out who you are.”

That’s not the law, however.

One of Bolen’s citations says Shipman violated Florida Statute 322.15, which states, “Every licensee shall have his or her driver license, which must be fully legible with no portion of such license faded, altered, mutilated, or defaced, in his or her immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle and shall present or submit the same upon the demand of a law enforcement officer or an authorized representative of the department.”

Shipman wasn’t operating a motor vehicle, though. He was operating his feet.

In Officer Bolen's defense, traffic was supposedly stalled while Shipman and his friend were crossing the street against the light. So the jaywalking charge was appropriate, even if the ID charge was wrong.