Fish-Eye View of The Freedom Caucus from Inside Their Own Bubble

Here they are - one place they can assemble not observing masking precautions (Twitter image)

 

Article from Forbes today:

Breaking July 29, 2021,01:49pm EDT|

Freedom Caucus Pushes To Oust Cheney And Kinzinger From GOP Conference: ‘Simped For Pelosi’

Topline

"Members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus on Thursday announced an effort to expel Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) from the House Republican conference, the starkest showing yet of growing hostility within the GOP towards the two anti-Trump lawmakers.

Key Facts

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the chair of the Freedom Caucus, said during a press conference on Thursday that a conference rule change has been introduced that would oust any member who takes a committee assignment from the other party.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped Cheney and Kinzinger for a panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all five of his picks when Pelosi refused to seat Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The next step is for the rule change to be considered by an internal committee, according to a source familiar with the process – Biggs expressed confidence the votes are there to expel them, but said that vote likely won’t happen before Congress breaks for its August recess.

Freedom Caucus members said Cheney and Kinzinger have betrayed Republicans by serving on the committee, with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) alleging they’ve “simped for Pelosi” and “done more to hurt the Republican Party than help them.”

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) went so far as to suggest the two lawmakers “abused their power” by taking committee assignments from Pelosi rather than the GOP steering committee.

Kinzinger spokesperson Maura Gillespie told Forbes she is “not surprised by the pettiness of the Freedom Club,” but said it “saddens me to see Members of Congress play such games like this,” accusing them of pushing conspiracy theories “for their own personal gain.”

A Cheney spokesperson said the lawmakers represent a “dangerous rot” rooted in “the Big Lie, conspiracy theories, bigotry and disrespect for the rule of law,” adding that Cheney “knows we have to fight against that to save the party.”

Key Background

Read more Forbes | 2021-07-29

THE DANGER OF 'DE-CODING' > China Woos Rampaging Taliban: Decoding Beijing’s Afghanistan Gameplan

Beyond the Bell 07/29/2021

Watch Out for All Those EV Production Promises! Nikola Founder Charged with Fraud

From The Verge

Nikola founder charged with securities fraud over allegedly fake truck demo

0 New, 11 comments

‘Behold, the Nikola One in motion’

By Russell Brandom Jul 29, 2021, 9:39am EDT

 

In Southern District of New York federal court on Thursday, Nikola founder Trevor Milton was charged with securities fraud. The charges allege that Milton made a series of materially false claims which portrayed the electric vehicle company Nikola as far closer to releasing a functional product than it actually was, and raising more than $500 million of investment in the process.

“Milton sold a version of Nikola not as it was – an early stage company with a novel idea to commercialize yet-to-be proven products and technology – but rather as a trail-blazing company that had already achieved many groundbreaking and game-changing milestones,” the indictment alleges.

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The Media Took the Bait, Calling it ‘Road Testing’. Nikola Then Featured the Video for Arizona Governor Doug Ducey When Announcing Its New Manufacturing Facility

Ducey: “This is a HUGE Announcement”

Specifically, the indictment argues Milton used a staged video to create the false impression its Nikola One semi truck prototype was capable of moving under its own power, when in fact the vehicle was simply rolling downhill. Additionally, Milton falsely claimed the company was producing its own hydrogen fuels at below-market rates and had obtained “billions and billions and billions and billions” of dollars worth of committed truck orders, according to the indictment.

A nominal rival to Tesla, Nikola rose to prominence in 2020 with plans for a pickup truck and tractor trailer cab powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Excitement around the trucks peaked that September, when General Motors announced a $2 billion deal to acquire an equity stake in the company and assist in the release of its Badger pickup truck.

The excitement was short-lived: less than a week after the plans were announced, a report from short-seller firm Hindenburg Research accused the company of fraud. Based on conversations with an anonymous former employee, the report alleged that a much-publicized demonstration had been stage-managed to give the impression that Nikola’s truck was capable of moving under its own power. Instead, the report claimed, “Nikola had the truck towed to the top of a hill on a remote stretch of road and simply filmed it rolling down the hill.”

The indictment echoes this claim. “A few weeks before the event, Nikola’s chief engineer informed Milton that the truck would not be functioning at the unveiling event unless the event was postponed,” prosecutors allege. “Milton made the decision to proceed as scheduled with the knowledge that the vehicle to be unveiled would not be functioning.”

. . .The final version of the video was posted to Nikola’s official YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts with the caption, “Behold, the Nikola One in motion.”

The indictment also gives more detail on precisely how nonfunctional the vehicle was.

> Prosecutors say all electrical components in the truck were powered externally (rather than from the truck’s battery), neither the fuel cell nor hydrogen gas storage tanks had been installed, the air compressor and turbine had not been commissioned, the gearboxes had not been assembled, and the vehicle-level controls were not complete. The dashboard interface that Milton appeared to use to start the truck was an off-the-shelf tablet and was not integrated into the vehicle’s systems in any way, the filing also alleges.

Hindenberg claimed in the report that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Nikola, although the SEC declined to confirm the investigation at the time.

Fallout from the report was swift and devastating.

> General Motors backed out of the equity deal, and Milton stepped down as executive chairman shortly afterward. The company has continued operation but scaled down its ambitions significantly.

In February, Nikola halted work on its planned electric ATV and motorboat, a decision that cost the company $14 million according to regulatory filings.

 

More > RELATED CONTENT ( extracts from https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/ )

". . .After dropping out of college, Trevor Milton started an alarm sales company in Utah called St. George Security and Alarm. He eventually exited the business for $300,000. Our interview with its buyer indicated that Trevor overpromised, resulting in a total loss for the initial acquirer. We also interviewed Trevor’s “50/50” business partner who indicated he was led to believe the exit was much smaller, saying he ultimately received only $100,000 for his “50%”.

Following the alarm business exit, Trevor launched an online classified ads website that sold used cars, called uPillar.com, which eventually failed. (For more on both of these early businesses, see the Appendix at the end of this report.)

Following those two early pursuits, Trevor’s initial foray into alternative energy vehicles was a company called dHybrid, Inc. . .

It Got Off to a Good Start: dHybrid Entered into Agreement with Major Trucking Company Swift to Convert Up to 800 Trucks, a Contract Valued at $16 Million

Shortly after launching dHybrid, Trevor contacted Jerry Moyes, CEO of Swift Transportation to market dHybrid’s conversion technology, according to a source familiar with the company. The team demonstrated the technology on a converted pickup truck to Moyes at Swift’s Phoenix facility.

Moyes was apparently impressed with the demo and Swift eventually signed a development agreement, paying $2 million for a 9% stake in dHybrid, as well as extending a $322,000 loan to the company.

. . .

In another dHybrid investor presentation we reviewed, one slide cites the Swift contract as being $300 million, triggered when EPA certification is achieved:

But once again, per the Swift lawsuit, we see clearly that the contract value was only $16 million. [Pg. 10]

In June of this year, Bloomberg published a piece highlighting that, contrary to Trevor’s claims, the truck was not complete and was missing components.

In response, Trevor blasted the reporter on Twitter and immediately vowed to sue, claiming that everyone knew the truck wasn’t operable and that the parts were sitting right on the table in front of the audience the whole time:

Bloomberg Was Right. The Reveal Was a Farce. More Evidence Corroborates the Bloomberg Piece and Furthers Their Allegations

We have behind-the-scenes photos and other evidence showing just how incomplete the Nikola One was at the time of the 2016 reveal. . .

As time passed and the hype from the December 2016 show faded with no major updates, skepticism began to mount about the Nikola One.

As shown above, no plans were in place to finish development of the Nikola One. Bosch, which had partnered with Nikola following the show, was still quite some time away from delivering working prototypes of Nikola’s next development.

To remedy this ‘hype gap’, Nikola teased a tweet on October 6^th 2017 about an upcoming video:

The first video, which was finally released in January, was for major auto parts manufacturer Phillips, and showed a short clip of the Nikola One easing to a stop sign.

But the main event was another video, entitled “Nikola One in Motion” released the next day on Nikola’s corporate YouTube account and promoted on social media, garnering 230,000 views on Facebook alone. This video appeared to show the truck driving on a level road at a high rate of speed.

The video generated a tremendous amount of buzz and excitement about the pre-production units to be released the following year (which never happened).

But according to a former employee who spoke with Nikola Chief Engineer Kevin Lynk, the video was simply the result of Nikola towing the truck to the top of a hill and rolling it down. 

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Participate in this GREAT OPPORTUNITY RAIL CDC: Restaurant Academy! Apply Now! RAIL CDC has partnered with LISC Phoenix, the Az Asian Chamber of Commerce, and Kroger to host 20-25 businesses in a very beneficial Restaurant Entrepreneurship Academy. This is an excellent opportunity for new and/or existing food-based businesses to connect and learn from RAIL CDC's cadre of expert consultants in Procurement, Pricing, Operation Processes and Safety, HR and Management, Marketing and Sales, Insurance and Business Law, Finance, Cash Flow and more.  Businesses who participate in our Restaurant Academy will attend 5 workshops over an 8 week period starting on August 4th and convening every two weeks. Participating businesses will be paired with expert business technical assistants in between workshops who will help address business needs and build work plans with key business personnel.  This Restaurant Academy will culminate in a special event where the participating businesses will be able to show off their products and skills. Participating business will be marketed through RAIL CDC / Asian Chamber platforms and programs during the academy and will be considered for possible business grants through RAIL CDC programs.  This work is paid for and supported by RAIL CDC partners: LISC Phoenix, Kroger, Lenovo, State Farm, US Bank, MetLife, and of course Az Asian Chamber of Commerce. APPLY NOW!  What is RAIL CDC doing these days? RAIL CDC Accomplishments in 2020 (shortlist) ● Won the 2020 Recognition of Resilience for Equity award from ASU’s Knowledge of Exchange for Resilience  ● Awarded small businesses in two light rail corridors with $40,000 worth of grants with the partnership of LISC and US Bank ● Helped 67 small businesses complete and submit the application for rental and utility assistance through the Mesa CARES Re-emergence program. We helped gather more than $619,750 (amount based on average dollars awarded per business) in rental and utility assistance to the small business community that otherwise would not have been able to benefit from the program due to technology barriers. ● Partnered with the City of Tempe to reach out to 175 small businesses to inform them of the Small Business grant. ● 23 small businesses received technical assistance to fill out the Small Business grants provided by LISC. 20 small businesses in our light rail corridor have received funding of $20,000 ● Helped over 27 small businesses not only apply for the Paycheck Protectio Program, but obtain more than $176,040 to help them survive the storm that is COVID-19. ● Assisted over 100 small businesses to access Grant funding access of $3.9 million dollars in Mesa and in Tempe Many thanks to our staff, volunteers, and partners. An investment in RAIL CDC is an investment in the small businesses & neighborhoods in our community.

Kimbal & Elon Musk Revealed How We Will Farm Food On Mars

REVISED NOTICE: Wednesday 04 August 2021 SPECIAL OPEN MEETING NOTICE OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION

ATTENTION PLEASE:

In the Matter of Electric Vehicles, EV Infrastructure and the
Electrification of the Transportation Sector in Arizona
Docket No. E-00000A-21-0104

Stakeholder Meeting and Workshop

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

10:30 A.M.

Hearing Room One
1200 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007

 

ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Matthew J. Neubert SECRETARY Carolyn D. Buck Phone: 602-542-3931 CDBuck@azcc.gov

COMMISSIONERS Chairwoman Lea Márquez Peterson Sandra D. Kennedy Justin Olson Anna Tovar Jim O'Connor

REVISEDN O T I C E

SPECIAL OPEN MEETING NOTICE OF THE ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION

In the Matter of Electric Vehicles, EV Infrastructure and the
Electrification of the Transportation Sector in Arizona
Docket No. E-00000A-21-0104

Stakeholder Meeting and Workshop

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

10:30 A.M.

Hearing Room One
1200 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007

                                                                            

This shall serve as notice of an open meeting at the above location for consideration and discussion of the items on the agenda and other matters related thereto.  Commissioners may attend the proceedings in person, or by telephone, video, or internet conferencing,and may use this open meeting to ask questions about the matters on the agenda. The parties to the matters to be discussed or their legal representatives are requested, though not required, to attend telephonically.  The Commissioners may move to executive session, which will not be open to the public, for the purpose of legal advice pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03 (A) (3) on the matters noticed herein.

Because of the guidance issued by state and federal officials regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, meetings of 10 or more should be by teleconference only. Only essential Commission staff will attend in person. The public is strongly discouraged from attending in person. 

The public will be able to participate by either watching and listening to the meeting online or listening to the meeting via telephone.  Participants will be invited to and may attend by video or internet conferencing. For those wishing to enter an appearance or provide public comment for a particular item please use the dial in phone numbers. Once the item for which you are appearing or providing public comment is concluded, please hang up and watch the live stream.

Persons with a disability may request reasonable accommodations by contacting the Commission Secretary listed above at least 48 hours before the scheduled commencement of the Open Meeting. 

Agendas are also available online at:  azcc.gov/agendas

Dial-in Phone Number:1-866-705-2554 Passcode to Speak: 241497

                                        1-866-705-2554 Passcode to Listen Only: 2414978

AGENDA

1. Opening remarks – Commissioners
   
   
2. Introduction – Staff
   
   
3. Utility, EV Industry, & Public Presentations on the Long-Term Comprehensive Transportation Electrification Plan Developed in Conjunction with Utilities and Stakeholders Pursuant to Section 3.8 of the Arizona Corporation Commission Staff EV Implementation Plan Adopted in Decision No. 77289 (Jul. 19, 2019) – Presenters (10 Minutes each)
4. (Presentations will be filed in the Docket)
   
   
   1. ILLUME/ E3
   2. Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
   3. Arizona Public Service Company
   4. TEP / UNS
   5. Salt River Project
   6. Tesla
   7. Nikola
   8. ChargePoint
   9. EV.energy
   10. PIRG
   11. American Lung Association
   12. Electric Power Research Institute
   13. SWEEP
   14. Alliance for Transportation Electrification
   15. Advanced Energy Economy
   16. Western Resource Advocates
       
       
5. Public Comments (3 Minutes each)
   
   
6. Additional Comments or Questions and Next Steps
   
   
7. Closing Remarks – Commissioners and Staff

NOTE: NO VOTES ON ANY SUBSTANTIVE MATTER WILL BE TAKEN DURING THIS MEETING.

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Arizona Corporation Commission | 1200 W. Washington Street | Phoenix, AZ 85007