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Biden admin begins enforcing nationwide light bulb bans, igniting backlash from GOP: ‘Liberal fantasies’

The Biden administration will begin enforcing a nationwide ban on various types of popular light bulbs Tuesday as part of its aggressive energy efficiency agenda.

Under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) regulations, manufacturers and retailers will be prohibited from selling incandescent and similar halogen light bulbs which represent a sizable share of current light bulb supplies. Instead, manufacturers and retailers must sell light-emitting diode, or LED, alternatives or risk substantial federal penalties.

‘It’s impossible for Democrats to leave us alone. States must fight back,’ Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., tweeted ahead of the ban enforcement.

‘President Biden continues to push liberal fantasies through his weaponized federal agencies,’ Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., added. ‘The Department of Energy should be focused on American energy independence, not on what lightbulbs you can or can’t purchase for your home or business.’

In April 2022, months after first proposing the rulemaking, the DOE finalized regulations prohibiting certain light bulbs over their low energy efficiency levels. According to the DOE announcement, the regulations are projected to save consumers an estimated $3 billion per year on utility bills and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next three decades.

The DOE has warned retailers for months about its light bulb ban enforcement to ensure industry-wide compliance.

‘The lighting industry is already embracing more energy efficient products, and this measure will accelerate progress to deliver the best products to American consumers and build a better and brighter future,’ Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last year.

While U.S. households have increasingly switched to LED light bulbs since 2015, fewer than half of households reported using mostly or exclusively LEDs, according to the most recent results from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey.

Overall, 47% use mostly or only LEDs, 15% use mostly incandescent or halogens, and 12% use mostly or all compact fluorescent (CFL), with another 26% reporting no predominant bulb type, the federal data showed. In December, the DOE introduced separate rules banning CFL bulbs, paving the way for LEDs to be the only legal light bulbs to purchase.

According to the survey data, LEDs are also far more popular in higher-income households, meaning the energy regulations will particularly impact lower-income Americans. While 54% of households with an income of more than $100,000 per year used LEDs, just 39% of households with an income of $20,000 or less used LEDs.

‘We believe that further regulatory interference in the marketplace is unwarranted given that more energy efficient lighting choices, namely light-emitting diode bulbs, are already available for those consumers who prefer them over incandescent bulbs,’ a coalition of free market and consumer groups opposed to incandescent bulb bans wrote in a comment letter to the DOE last year.

The groups added that estimates of the climate benefits of energy efficiency rules are ‘speculative, assumption-driven, and prone to bias in the hands of agencies with a regulatory agenda.’

The DOE’s rule in April 2022, meanwhile, reversed a Trump administration rule that sought to protect incandescent light bulbs and allow consumers to choose which products they want to purchase. Former President Donald Trump was also personally opposed to LED light bulb adoption, remarking in 2019 that they are often more expensive, not good and make him ‘look orange.’

Environmental groups that opposed the Trump administration’s actions, have cheered the Biden administration for cracking down on incandescent light bulbs. Joe Vukovich, an energy efficiency advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said rules banning inefficient light bulbs were ‘long overdue.’

Meanwhile, over the last several months, the DOE has unveiled new standards for a wide variety of other appliances including gas stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators, dishwashers, water heaters and air conditioners. 

And according to the current federal Unified Agenda, a government-wide, semiannual list that highlights regulations agencies plan to propose or finalize within the next 12 months, the Biden administration is additionally moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances, including consumer furnaces, pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers.

Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

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You have a month left to get your share of Facebook’s $725 million settlement — here’s how

Facebook users have less than one month left to apply for their share of a $725 million settlement over the social network’s privacy violations, part of the lengthy fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that rocked the U.S. electoral process and Silicon Valley.

The settlement, signed in December 2022, was the largest class action settlement of its kind, according to Keller Rohrback, the law firm that brought the class action suit. It ended years of litigation over Facebook’s role in improper data sharing with a data consultancy firm used by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In all, the Cambridge Analytica scandal cost Meta, Facebook’s parent company, nearly $5.9 billion. Beyond the $725 million settlement, the company paid a record $5 billion settlement to the Federal Trade Commission, alongside a further $100 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Facebook rebanded itself as Meta in 2021 and settled the suit a year later. In some ways, it’s a much different company than it was during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The company has since expanded further into the metaverse with new hardware products like the Quest 3, coming this fall. It’s also revealed its Llama 2 large language artificial intelligence model, Reels to compete with TikTok and, more recently, Threads, which is taking on Twitter.

More from CNBC

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The breach forced Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress and to take out full-page ads where he apologized for the missteps. “I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time. We’re now taking steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Zuckerberg said.

The $725 million settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing.

Facebook users can make a claim by visiting Facebookuserprivacysettlement.com and entering their name, address, email address, and confirming they lived in the U.S. and were active on Facebook between the aforementioned dates.

People who had an active U.S. Facebook account between May 2007 and December 2022 have until Aug. 25 to enter a claim. Individual settlement payments haven’t yet been established because payouts depend on how many users submit claims and how long each user maintained a Facebook account.

Rohan Goswami, CNBC

Rohan Goswami is an associate reporter on CNBC’s technology team.

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Ford is recalling 870,000 F-150 pickups due to potentially faulty parking brakes

Ford is recalling more than 870,000 newer F-150 pickup trucks in the U.S. because the electric parking brakes can turn on unexpectedly.

The recall covers certain pickups from the 2021 through 2023 model years with single exhaust systems. Ford’s F-Series pickups are the top-selling vehicles in the U.S.

The company says in documents posted by government safety regulators Friday that a rear wiring bundle can come in contact with the rear axle housing. That can chafe the wiring and cause a short circuit, which can turn on the parking brake without action from the driver, increasing the risk of a crash.

Drivers may see a parking brake warning light and a warning message on the dashboard.

Ford says in documents that it has 918 warranty claims and three field reports of wire chafing in North America. Of these, 299 indicated unexpected parking brake activation, and 19 of these happened while the trucks were being driven.

The company says it doesn’t know of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem.

Dealers will inspect the rear wiring harness. If protective tape is worn through, the harness will be replaced. If the tape isn’t worn, dealers will install a protective tie strap and tape wrap.

Owners will be notified by letter starting Sept. 11.

Owners with questions can call Ford customer service at (866) 436-7332.

The Associated Press
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Former Bed Bath & Beyond investor Ryan Cohen must face emoji-inspired shareholder suit

A U.S. judge has ruled that former Bed Bath & Beyond investor Ryan Cohen can be sued by investors over a tweet he posted featuring an emoji that seemed to indicate an endorsement of the home goods retailer before it declared bankruptcy earlier this year.

The decision, issued Thursday by District Judge Trevor McFadden of Washington, D.C., concluded that Cohen and his company must face plaintiffs’ fraud claims, including their allegation that Cohen’s smiley moon emoji was a fraudulent misrepresentation.

In 2022, Cohen took a big stake in the tottering home goods giant, prodding the company to install three allies as board members and publicly floating his ideas for revitalizing the business.

Cohen’s hundreds of thousands of social media followers took note, turning Bed Bath & Beyond into a hot topic on social media forums for investors.

On August 12, 2022, Cohen posted a tweet responding to a CNBC story predicting that Bed Bath & Beyond’s share price would drop to $1. The CNBC story was accompanied by a photo of a woman shopping at a Bed Bath store. Cohen reposted the CNBC story with a quip — “at least her cart is full” — and an emoji of a smiling moon.

Cohen’s tweet, posted on a Friday, reverberated across Reddit and Twitter that day and over the following weekend.

In posts and tweets responding to Cohen’s message, many investors said they interpreted his use of the smiley moon emoji as a signal that he still believed Bed Bath & Beyond shares were ‘headed to the moon.’

That phrase has become a common idiom among so-called meme-stock investors indicating that the stock is poised to soar, McFadden said.

“So meme stock investors conceivably understood Cohen’s tweet to mean that Cohen was confident in Bed Bath and that he was encouraging them to act,” he wrote.

Buoyed by heavy volume, Bed Bath & Beyond shares rose from $10.63 on the Friday morning before Cohen’s tweet to $16 at the close of trading on Monday.

The share price continued to skyrocket after Cohen filed a document at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday night, formally disclosing his stake in the company. The filing made no mention of plans to sell. Bed Bath & Beyond’s share price topped out the following day at nearly $30 in trading so frenzied that it was halted several times due to volatility.

Over the next two days, Cohen quietly exited his position, which reportedly netted him $68 million.

When Cohen revealed he had sold all his shares in the company, Bed Bath & Beyond’s stock price plummeted. By August 22, shares were trading below $10. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy the following April.

By January, investors had filed a securities fraud class action alleging they’d been duped by Cohen and his company, RC Ventures.

Among their claims: Cohen posted the smiley moon emoji because he knew his followers would read it as a sign of his confidence in the company, even though his true intention, according to the shareholders’ complaint, was to drive up the share price before he ditched his stake.

Neither Cohen, his company RC Ventures not his attorneys immediately responded to requests for comment from NBC News and Reuters.

Lead plaintiffs lawyers Omar Jafri and Jeremy Lieberman of Pomerantz did not respond to a Reuters query.

McFadden appears to be the second judge to hold that emojis have particular meaning to investors. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of Manhattan ruled last February in Friel v. Dapper Labs, Inc., that when a seller of non-fungible tokens posted a tweet with emojis of a rocket ship and money bags, the emojis signified a promise of profitability.

Cohen’s lawyers from Vinson & Elkins downplayed that case in their motion to dismiss the Bed Bath class action. They argued that it was unreasonable to infer a promise of profitability from the moon emoji in Cohen’s tweet, considering that Cohen reposted the CNBC article predicting a crash in Bed Bath & Beyond’s share price.

At worst, Cohen argued, the emoji was immaterial puffery.

“It is not plausible that an investor would have made an investment decision based on Mr. Cohen’s obscure tweet at a time when BBBY’s public financials showed the company’s sales declining precipitously, its losses skyrocketing and its cash dwindling,” Cohen’s lawyers argued.

Shareholders must show an alleged misrepresentation was false, Cohen’s brief asserted, but “there is no way to establish objectively the truth or falsity of a tiny lunar cartoon.”

McFadden, however, said the emoji was neither puffery nor immaterial to Cohen’s followers, who reasonably saw him as “as an insider sympathetic to the little guy’s cause.”

It was “not crazy,” the judge said, for the meme stock investors to read Cohen’s smiley-moon emoji as expert guidance to stick with Bed Bath & Beyond despite troubling reports on the company’s health.

“A fraudster may not escape liability simply because he used an emoji,” the judge said.

A follow-up hearing date was not immediately available.

Rob Wile

Rob Wile is a breaking business news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Reuters
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MrBeast sues his food delivery partner over ‘low quality’ food

YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, known to his 172 million subscribers as MrBeast, filed a lawsuit on Monday against his food delivery service partner, Virtual Dining Concepts, claiming the company damaged his reputation by serving customers “low quality” and, at times, “inedible” food.

Donaldson, famous for his expensive stunts and viral charity projects, partnered with the Florida-based “virtual dining” brand to launch MrBeast Burger, which in December 2020 began selling branded burger-and-fries combos through restaurants and commercial kitchens across the U.S. Customers order through major food delivery service apps or via the MrBeastBurger website, which states menu items are available “for restaurants to prepare out of their existing kitchens as a way to generate a new revenue stream.’

But Donaldson, who in November became the most-followed individual YouTuber, is now seeking to end his agreement with Virtual Dining Concepts, citing a lack of quality control and noting that his complaints “fell on deaf ears.” 

A spokesperson for Virtual Dining Concepts did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. A representative for Donaldson declined to comment. 

The “goal of the business,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York, “was simple: relying entirely on the strength of MrBeast’s brand, the business would create a virtual restaurant with a selection of MrBeast-branded food items, but would then partner with existing restaurants who would prepare those items and share in a significant portion of the revenue from their sales.”

However, the lawsuit claims, “Virtual Dining Concepts was more focused on rapidly expanding the business as a way to pitch the virtual restaurant model to other celebrities for its own benefit, it was not focused on controlling the quality of the MrBeast Burger customer experience and products.”

Customers received orders that were “delivered late, in unbranded packaging, fail to include the ordered items, and in some instances, were inedible,” the lawsuit states.

Attorneys for the YouTuber submitted examples of thousands of reactions online about the food, including screenshots and links to YouTube reviews as well as viral images of customers saying they were served raw meat. In some complaints made by consumers, MrBeast was blamed for the poor service.

“Customers have referred to the burgers as being ‘disgusting,’ ‘revolting,’ and ‘inedible.’ They have claimed that ‘it is sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,’ ‘MrBeast is being cancelled over burgers;’ ‘never had something so nasty;’ ‘inaccurate marketing;’ ‘Orlando’s worst burger;’ ‘big name, poor food;’ ‘very upsetting for the high price;’ and ‘likely the worst burger I have ever had,” the complaint states.

The suit also claims that the images of Donaldson are being used without permission and that Virtual Dining Concepts registered MrBeast-related trademarks they were not allowed to register. 

As of Monday afternoon, MrBeast Burger, as well as imagery of Donaldson, was still featured on Virtual Dining Concepts’ website. 

“Virtual Dining Concepts repeatedly denied MrBeast his valuable approval rights by posting his name, image, and brand on social media and elsewhere without first obtaining his written approval and consent,” the lawsuit claims. “Further, in violation of their agreements and trademark law, Virtual Dining Concepts registered various trademarks throughout the world using MrBeast’s name and brand, without any right to do so and without his consent or knowledge (and they listed themselves as the sole owners of the trademarks).”

The news of the lawsuit, which was first reported by Bloomberg, comes as ‘ghost kitchens’ see a boom on food delivery apps. The celebrity “ghost restaurant” has been a particularly fruitful market. Virtual Dining Concepts lists Mariah Carey’s “Mariah’s Cookies,” Bravo’s “The Real HouseBowls,” and baker Buddy V’s “Cake Slice” as some of its other ventures. 

Despite the negative reviews, MrBeast Burger generated “millions of dollars,” according to the lawsuit. However, “MrBeast has not received a dime,” the lawsuit states.

MrBeast has generated backlash before, including for his snack brand Feastables, but he said in a tweet that he enjoys “Feastables 100x more” than MrBeast Burger. 

On June 16, when a fan asked in a tweet “Is @MrBeastBurger done?” Donaldson himself replied.

“Yeah, the problem with Beast Burger is i can’t guarantee the quality of the order,” Donaldson tweeted. “When working with other restaurants it’s impossible to control it sadly And tbh I just enjoy Feastables 100x more. Making snacks is awesome and something I’m way more passionate about.”

The complaint claims that because of the poor customer service experience and poor quality of the items served at MrBeast Burger, “MrBeast’s reputation and brand has, indeed, been materially and irreparably harmed.”  

Kalhan Rosenblatt

Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.

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Kentucky education commissioner leaves for Western Michigan University job

Kentucky’s education commissioner is leaving to take a job at a university in Michigan.

Commissioner of Education Jason Glass said Monday that he will step down on Sept. 29 to become an associate vice president of teaching and learning at Western Michigan University. Glass was appointed to the state education department’s top job in 2020.

Glass arrived in the job six months into the COVID-19 pandemic ‘and made swift and strategic responses to ensure that learning continued and that the health and well-being of students and educators remained a top priority,’ a media release from the Department of Education said.

Glass, who served under Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, was repeatedly criticized by Republican lawmakers and GOP gubernatorial candidates for his support for inclusive LGBTQ policies in schools. Glass had been looking for a new job out of the state since at least May.

Glass thanked the state at the Department of Education and said he has ‘a heart full of gratitude.’

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Devon Archer confirms Joe Biden ‘lied’ about knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings, Comer says

FIRST ON FOX: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Devon Archer confirmed in his appearance Monday that President Biden ‘lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved.’

Comer’s comments come after Archer, a former business associate and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing Monday. 

Archer said that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’

‘Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family,’ Comer said. ‘When Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States, he joined Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business associates in person or by speakerphone over 20 times.’

‘When Burisma’s owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to ‘call D.C.’ after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai,’ Comer continued.

‘Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family’s business dealings and his involvement?’ He asked. ‘It begs the question what else he is hiding from the American people.’

Comer said the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability ‘will continue to follow the Bidens’ money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened.’

Archer’s attorney, Matthew L. Schwartz, the managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, released a statement Monday following his client’s testimony. 

‘We are aware that all sides are claiming victory following Mr. Archer’s voluntary interview today,’ Schwartz said. ‘But all Devon Archer did was exactly what we said he would: show up and answer the questions put to him honestly and completely.’ 

Schwartz added: ‘Mr. Archer shared the truth with the Committee, and we will leave to them and others to decide what to do with it.’

Comer detailed the ‘key takeaways’ from Archer’s hours-long testimony Monday.

Archer, who served on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings alongside Hunter beginning in 2014, told lawmakers that the value of adding Hunter to the board was to build the company’s ‘brand.’

Archer, according to Comer, confirmed that then-Vice President Joe Biden was ‘the brand.’

Archer also testified that ‘Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it.’ 

Archer said he believed that Hunter Biden being on the board and the ‘Biden brand’ contributed to Burisma’s longevity, according to Comer’s office, and suggested that people would have been ‘intimidated to mess with Burisma legally because of the Biden brand.’

Meanwhile, Archer testified about an interaction in December 2015, involving Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharski—an executive at the firm.

Archer said Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from D.C.’ in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin ousted. Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption.

According to the source, Archer testified that on Dec. 4, 2015, Hunter Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘called D.C.’ to discuss the matter. Archer testified that Biden, Zlochevsky, and Pozharski stepped away to take make the call.

It is unclear if Hunter and the Burisma executives spoke directly to Joe Biden on the matter.

At the time, though, Joe Biden was in charge of U.S.-Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.

A source said that Archer testified that just days later, on Dec. 9, 2015, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine and made a speech. Biden, during the speech, said the government needed to fix the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. 

‘This is the most revealing aspect of Archer’s testimony and maybe the most important in our entire investigation so far,’ House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan told Fox News Digital. 

The testimony comes after Fox News Digital first reported on an unclassified version of an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, which contained allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden allegedly ‘coerced’ Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting Shokin fired.

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and at the time, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving thousands of dollars per month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

Comer said that the December 2015 phone call from Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski to D.C. ‘raises concerns that Hunter Biden was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.’

Federal prosecutors during Hunter Biden’s court appearance last week, in which he pled not guilty to federal tax crimes and a felony gun charge, hinted that the Justice Department is investigating Hunter for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Meanwhile, Comer said that Archer testified that Hunter Biden put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the speakerphone during business meetings over 20 times—despite the White House, and Biden himself, denying ever having been in business with Hunter or having ever been involved.

The phone calls and meetings, according to Archer, included a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners— a joint-venture between Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.

Archer also testified that then-Vice President Biden had coffee with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR, in Beijing. Then-Vice President Biden even wrote a letter of recommendation for college for Li’s daughter.

Fox News Digital first reported that Biden wrote the recommendation letter last year.

Other ‘key’ takeaways, according to Comer, included that Archer confirmed Joe Biden was referred to as ‘my guy’ by Hunter Biden.

Archer also testified that in the spring of 2014, then-Vice President Biden attended a business dinner with his son, Hunter, and his associates at Café Milano in Washington, D.C. Elena Baturina, a Russian oligarch who is the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, attended the dinner.

‘Notably, the Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina,’ Comer’s office said.

The White House reacted to Archer’s testimony Monday afternoon. 

‘It appears that the House Republicans’ own much-hyped witness today testified that he never heard of President Biden discussing business with his son or his son’s associates, or doing anything wrong,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams told Fox News Digital. ‘House Republicans keep promising bombshell evidence to support their ridiculous attacks against the President, but time after time, they keep failing to produce any.’ 

‘In fact, even their own witnesses appear to be debunking their allegations. Instead of continuing to waste time and resources on this evidence-free wild goose chase, House Republicans should drop these stunts and work with the President on the issues that actually impact Americans’ daily lives, like continuing to lower costs, create jobs, and strengthen health care,’ Sams said. 

Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.

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Wisconsin judge drops GOP lawmaker’s military voting records suit

A Wisconsin judge has dismissed a GOP state lawmaker’s lawsuit over military voting records, saying Friday that the challenge should have been brought against a local elections official, not the statewide elections commission.

Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the former head of the Assembly elections committee who has promoted election conspiracy theories, and a local veterans group sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission in November in an attempt to stop military absentee ballots from being counted in the 2022 midterm.

The lawsuit came in response to the actions of a top Milwaukee elections official who falsely requested military absentee ballots and sent them to Brandtjen’s home. Kimberly Zapata, the former deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, claimed she was trying to expose a vulnerability in the voting process. She now faces charges of election fraud and misconduct in office.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Maxwell refused to order military absentee ballots to be sequestered in November, issuing his decision just 14 hours before polls opened.

Local elections officials are required by state law to keep a list of eligible military voters in their jurisdictions. Brandtjen and the Concerned Veterans of Waukesha County wanted to obtain updated lists to see whether clerks were complying with the law. In his ruling Friday dismissing the lawsuit, Maxwell said it should have been filed against a municipal clerk, and not the elections commission, which is responsible for issuing guidance and providing support to local officials who actually run elections.

‘The Court agrees with the assertion that WEC’s guidance ought to have more information for local election officials on how to utilize the military ballot list and perhaps how to audit the list and ballots to ensure that there are not fraudulent military ballots being cast, but the Court does not have the authority to require such additional guidance,’ Maxwell said in his ruling.

Other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities in the military absentee voting process are ongoing. A bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers in May proposed requiring service members to provide their Department of Defense identification number when requesting a military absentee ballot. Local clerks would then be required to verify the voter’s identity using that information.

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Devon Archer: Hunter Biden, Burisma execs ‘called DC’ to get Ukrainian prosecutor fired

Devon Archer testified Monday that Hunter Biden and top executives of Burisma Holdings ‘called D.C.’ in 2015 to ask the Obama administration to help fire the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the firm, a source familiar with his testimony told Fox News Digital.

Archer, a former business associate and longtime friend of Hunter Biden, testified for hours before the House Oversight Committee Monday.

Archer testified that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times, and said Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’ Archer was on the board of the natural gas firm along with Hunter Biden.

He also testified about an interaction in December 2015, involving Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadym Pozharski — an executive at the firm.

Archer said Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘placed constant pressure on Hunter Biden to get help from D.C.’ in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin ousted. Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption.

According to the source, Archer testified that in December 2015, Hunter Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski ‘called D.C.’ to discuss the matter. Archer testified that Biden, Zlochevsky and Pozharski stepped away to make the call.

It is unclear if Hunter and the Burisma executives spoke directly to Joe Biden on the matter.

At the time, though, Joe Biden was in charge of U.S.-Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.

A source said that Archer testified that just days later, on Dec. 9, 2015, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine and made a speech. Biden, during the speech, said the government needed to fix the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. 

‘This is the most revealing aspect of Archer’s testimony and maybe the most important in our entire investigation so far,’ House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan told Fox News Digital. 

The testimony comes after Fox News Digital reported on an unclassified version of an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, which contained allegations that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden allegedly ‘coerced’ Zlochevsky to pay them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting Shokin fired.

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire prosecutor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and at the time, Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board receiving thousands of dollars per month.

The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

Biden allies maintain the then-vice president pushed for Shokin’s firing due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and say that his firing was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.

That form said Pozharski said the reason Hunter Biden was hired was ‘to protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems.’

Fox News Digital has reported that on Nov. 2, 2015, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter Biden, emphasizing that the ‘ultimate purpose’ of the agreement to have Hunter on the board was to shut down ‘any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine,’ referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay.

The White House has said President Biden was ‘never in business with his son.’

Archer’s testimony comes as part of the House Oversight Committee’s months-long investigation, which Republicans say has yielded evidence related to the Biden family’s alleged foreign business schemes — including that the Biden family and its business associates created more than 20 companies and received more than $10 million from foreign nationals while Joe Biden served as vice president.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said that some of these payments could indicate attempts by the Biden family to ‘peddle influence,’ and said the family appeared to take steps to ‘conceal the source and total amount received from the foreign companies.’

Meanwhile, the White House released a statement following Archer’s testimony: 

‘It appears that the House Republicans’ own much-hyped witness today testified that he never heard of President Biden discussing business with his son or his son’s associates, or doing anything wrong,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams told Fox News Digital. ‘House Republicans keep promising bombshell evidence to support their ridiculous attacks against the President, but time after time, they keep failing to produce any.’ 

‘In fact, even their own witnesses appear to be debunking their allegations. Instead of continuing to waste time and resources on this evidence-free wild goose chase, House Republicans should drop these stunts and work with the President on the issues that actually impact Americans’ daily lives, like continuing to lower costs, create jobs, and strengthen health care,’ Sams said. 

In February 2022, Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through ‘fraudulent and deceptive means,’ according to the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department, over the weekend, sought to set a date for Archer’s sentence to begin.

Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.

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Oklahoma Legislature overrides Stitt veto, upholds tribal tobacco compact

The Oklahoma Legislature on Monday overrode Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill expanding Native tribes’ tobacco sales compact with the state for another year.Stitt, a Cherokee Nation member himself, has pushed to revise the compact’s language to ensure tribes are prevented from expanding where tobacco is sold.‘I do not believe Oklahomans want eastern Oklahoma to be turned into a reservation,’ Stitt has said, promising a fight to ‘make sure that we’re one state with one set of rules.’

Native American tribes in Oklahoma will get to keep their existing agreements on how they share money from tobacco sales with the state.

The Oklahoma House voted on Monday to override Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that extends agreements on selling tobacco for another year. In a bipartisan vote during a special session, the Republican-controlled House met the two-thirds vote needed to override. The Senate overrode the governor’s veto last week.

As a result, any tribe with an existing agreement on tobacco sales can opt to extend the terms of that agreement until Dec. 31, 2024. Leaders from several of the state’s most powerful tribes were in the gallery for Monday’s vote.

The override is the latest development in an ongoing dispute between the Republican governor and several Oklahoma-based tribes. Stitt, himself a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, has said he wants to adjust the compact language to make sure tribes don’t expand where they sell tobacco as a result of a landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s historical reservation still existed.

Since that decision, lower courts have determined the reservations of several other Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole, are still intact.

‘I do not believe Oklahomans want eastern Oklahoma to be turned into a reservation,’ Stitt said. ‘I will fight as long as I’m governor to make sure that we’re one state with one set of rules.’

The current tobacco compacts, which allow the state and tribes to evenly split the tax revenue on the sale of tobacco on tribal land, generate tens of millions of dollars each year in revenue for both the state and tribes.

Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said last week he wants to give the governor more time to renegotiate the terms of the deal and has been openly critical of Stitt’s disputes with the tribes. Treat, a Republican, also said he would consider changing state law to give the Legislature a greater role in compact negotiations if the governor doesn’t negotiate in good faith.

Stitt also announced Monday that his office has filed a lawsuit against Treat and House Speaker Charles McCall in the Oklahoma Supreme Court seeking clarification on who has the authority to negotiate compacts with the tribes.

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