Month: September 2024

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Solar energy firm Lumio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after getting caught up in a “severe liquidity crisis” following a fall in market demand.

The Utah-based company made the filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to “complete a value-maximizing sale process and strengthen its financial position,” according to a Sept. 3 statement. The company has already entered into an agreement with an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, which has agreed to buy “substantially all” of the firm’s assets for $100 million in a credit bid. In the case the bid is successful, White Oak also intends to provide “significant equity ownership” to Lumio employees.

“The company anticipates completing the sale process in less than two months. During the sale process, the company’s operations will continue as usual without interruption,” the statement said.

In a court declaration, Jeffrey T. Varsalone, a Lumio board member, said the company has faced a “severe liquidity crisis” over the past year, which he attributed to “a sharp decline in demand in the solar market and various macroeconomic headwinds.”

Varsalone blamed increases in inflation and a subsequent jump in interest rates to have resulted in “reduced demand across the entire solar power industry,” thus negatively affecting Lumio’s financial performance.

The reduced demand and revenue eventually led to the deterioration of Lumio’s liquidity position, the board member said.

White Oak has provided Lumio with $8 million, which is expected to support the company’s operations as the sales process proceeds.

“Today’s announcement marks an important step forward for Lumio and a continuation of our deliberate efforts to position the business with the strategic, operational, and financial foundation to operate at the forefront of the solar industry as it enters its recovery phase,” Lumio CEO Andrew Walton said.

“With enhanced financial stability and the support of new ownership following the completion of our sale process, we will be well-positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities.”

Solar Bankruptcies

Multiple solar companies have gone bankrupt over the past year. Last month, San Jose-based SunPower, for example, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with $1.1 billion in debts.

The company had announced in April that it would lay off around 1,000 employees to transition to a “low fixed-cost model.” The firm said the solar market had been “slower to recover” than it initially expected.

In February, solar installer Sunworks and three subsidiaries ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy.

According to a post by Solar Insure, a provider of solar-monitoring and warranty-protection services, there have been more than 100 solar bankruptcies in 2024 alone, a number “unseen before” in its “almost 20 years in the solar sector,” the company said.

The firm blamed factors such as high interest rates and borrowing challenges faced by solar companies for contributing to the bankruptcies. High rates make borrowing expensive, discouraging customers from installing solar devices. The rise in rates boosted the cost of capital for businesses, affecting their financial situation.

“Smaller contractors, in particular, struggled to absorb these increased costs, lacking the financial buffers of larger firms. This disparity led to a disproportionate impact on these smaller players, many of whom were forced to close their doors,” the post said.

During an interview with The Epoch Times earlier this year, Solar Energy Industries Association spokesman Morgan Lyons said they “expect installations to fall off sharply in 2024.”

A new rule implemented in April 2023 by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) substantially reduced the amount of money customers who installed solar energy can make by selling excess energy back to the grid.

“All over California we are seeing the grim reality of how the CPUC’s cuts to solar are taking livelihoods away from thousands of families,” Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, said in a statement in December 2023.

Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.

Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

French President Emmanuel Macron has named the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s next prime minister.

Barnier’s new role was announced on Sept. 5 after a caretaker government was in place for more than 50 days.

Barnier’s new role was announced on Sept. 5 after a caretaker government was in place for more than 50 days.

The 73-year-old led the EU’s talks with Britain from 2016 to 2021 over its exit from the bloc.

Before that, the conservative politician held roles in various French governments and also served as the EU’s commissioner.

Barnier’s appointment follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who could form a new government, two months after a snap election defeat.

The leader of the right-wing populist National Rally Party and Macron’s two-time presidential rival, Marine Le Pen, said on social media platform X that Barnier “seems to meet at least the first criterion” that had been requested.

Michel Barnier semble répondre au moins au premier critère que nous avions réclamé, c’est-à dire, quelqu’un qui soit respectueux des différentes forces politiques et capable de pouvoir s’adresser au Rassemblement national, qui est le premier groupe de l’Assemblée nationale. pic.twitter.com/tW7rjULMNA

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) September 5, 2024

“That is to say, someone who is respectful of the different political forces and capable of addressing the National Rally, which is the first group in the National Assembly,” she said.

However, Le Pen wrote that she would “not participate in a government of any kind whatsoever of Mr Barnier’s.”

“For the rest, that is to say on the fundamental issues, we are waiting to see what Mr Barnier’s general policy speech is and the way in which he leads the compromises that will be necessary on the budget,” she wrote.

National Rally’s president, Jordan Bardella, said that “after an interminable wait, unworthy of a great democracy” his party acknowledged Barnier’s appointment.

“We will judge his general policy speech, his budgetary decisions and his actions on the evidence,“ he said. ”We will plead for the major emergencies of the French, the cost of living, security, immigration, to finally be addressed, and we reserve all political means of action if this is not the case in the coming weeks.”

‘Democratic Coup’

The left-wing New Popular Front alliance (NFP) had nominated civil servant Lucie Castets for prime minister.

“The President has just decided to officially deny the result of the legislative elections that he himself had called,” NFP leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said. “It is not the New Popular Front, which came out on top in the election, that will have the prime minister. … The election was therefore stolen from the French people. The message was denied.”

Left-wing lawmaker Mathilde Panot, who, like Melenchon, is part of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), which includes the Communist Party, the Greens, and the Socialist Party, called for its supporters to join them “on the streets” on Sept. 7 to protest against an “unacceptable democratic coup in a democracy.”

Last month, Macron said he would not agree to a government led by the left-wing NFP, further extending the ongoing multi-party stalemate that prevented the nation from forming a government since a snap election in June.

He said at the time that France needed institutional stability and that a government led by the NFP would immediately face a no-confidence vote from all other parties.

“The Socialist Party, the Greens and the Communists have not yet proposed ways to cooperate with other political forces. It is now up to them to do so,” Macron said.

He said he would start new consultations with party leaders on Sept. 3, and he urged the left to cooperate with other political forces.

Macron called a snap election on June 9 that delivered a hung parliament, creating political uncertainty. He has been holding talks on a new government since the election and said he would continue to do so.

No group emerged from the snap election with a clear majority, with the vote evenly split among the NFP, Macron’s centrist political party En Marche, and the right-wing National Rally.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Putin has continued to downplay Ukraine’s major Kursk invasion, which has resulted in Russian territory occupied by Kiev forces, and has instead maintained that capturing and holding all the Donbass in eastern Ukraine remains the goal.

“We have to deal with these thugs who made it into Russia,” he said at an event while visiting Russia’s east on Thursday. He’s yet to launch a broader general mobilization despite the assault on Kursk and the border region. 

He presented the Kursk operation as essentially a trap which he will not fall into. “The aim of the enemy [in Kursk] was to force us to worry, hustle, divert troops and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective,” Putin described at a forum in Vladivostok.

Putin further painted a picture of the Kursk operation already having backfired on the Zelensky government. He said Ukraine’s leadership sent “quite well-prepared units” into Kursk – but this only served to allow for Russia to make a quicker advance in Donetsk. 

“The enemy weakened itself in key areas, our army has accelerated its offensive operations,” he asserted. He still sought to emphasize that Russian forces have begun to push the Ukrainian invaders back from Russian territory, however. But Putin said, “Our armed forces have stabilized the situation and started gradually squeezing [the enemy] out from our territory.”

Yet the Kursk fight has been on since Aug. 6 – and this alone has been a big symbolic blow for Kremlin war planners. It is the biggest incursion into Russia since WW2. “It is the holy duty of the Russian army to do everything to throw out the enemy from this territory and to protect our citizens,” Putin additionally declared.

President Zelensky in an interview with NBC this week claimed that Moscow had been forced to divert 60,000 soldiers from Ukraine to Kursk, but this has not been verified. 

Currently there is broad consensus among analysts that Ukraine’s eastern city of Pokrovsk could fall at any moment. Russian forces are within five miles away, amid shelling and attacks on the city’s outskirts. If Pokrovsk falls, Russia will be in a position to more easily gobble up the rest of Donetsk, after which its hold on the whole of Donbass will be secured.

Al Jazeera reviews the situation, utilizing fresh battlefield maps, as follows:

Meanwhile Russian forces continued to press on towards Pokrovsk, a city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region which has been their focus since they seized Avdiivka in February. They have formed a 29km (18 mile) long salient stretching to the west of Avdiivka since then and are within about 8km (5 miles) of the outskirts of Pokrovsk.

During the past week, Russian forces overran Novohrodivka and entered Hrodivka, two towns east of Pokrovsk. They also claimed to be on the outskirts of Myrnohrad, a town immediately to the east of Pokrovsk.

2/ Russian forces recently advanced in the Pokrovsk direction amid continued offensive operations in the area on September 4.

Geolocated footage published on September 4 indicates that Russian forces recently advanced south of Novohrodivka and marginally advanced west of… pic.twitter.com/PdlGexfStd

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) September 5, 2024

With all eyes on Pokrovsk in Ukraine and Kursk in Russia, the White House is still said to mulling greenlighting long-range missiles for Kiev, and their possible use on targets inside Russia.

The latest news wire out of Washington and from the administration is that the “US sees little value in sending Ukraine long-range ATACMS” systems.

Intel and Japan are teaming up.

In fact, the Japanese national research institute is going to be teaming up with Intel to “build a research and development center in Japan for cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing technology”, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia.

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), under the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, will establish a new facility in three to five years equipped with extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technology.

Intel will contribute its expertise in chip manufacturing using EUV. The center, the first of its kind in Japan, will allow equipment and materials manufacturers to pay a fee for prototyping and testing.

Nikkei reports that the initiative aims to strengthen Japan’s capabilities in the chip manufacturing sector, with total investment expected to reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) is crucial for semiconductor manufacturing at scales of 5 nanometers and smaller, allowing more transistors to fit on a chip and increasing computing power.

And EUV equipment is expensive, costing over 40 billion yen ($273 million) per unit, making it a significant investment for suppliers of materials and equipment.

The U.S. has tightened restrictions on EUV-related exports to China amid growing strategic competition with China, slowing the return of research data to Japan. Having EUV equipment available at a domestic research facility will reduce this barrier, according to the report. 

ASML Holding, based in the Netherlands, is the leading manufacturer of EUV lithography equipment. However, semiconductor production involves over 600 steps, requiring a broad range of specialized equipment and materials.

Japanese companies like Lasertec dominate the EUV inspection equipment market, and firms like JSR specialize in photosensitive materials for silicon wafer circuits.

Intel aims to strengthen ties with these Japanese suppliers through the new research center.

Authored by Adam Brandon via RealClearPolitics,

We live in an era in which cable television news is set to go the way of the 8-track tape player, and the changing media landscape is profoundly impacting how Americans get their political news.

As CNN, Fox, and MSNBC’s audiences shrink and age, the influencer era in American politics is officially underway.

If you need any convincing, zoom in on the Republican and Democratic conventions that wrapped up a few weeks ago. According to a recent RealClearPolitics article, around 200 content creators (or influencers) received credentialed invitations to the Democratic National Convention. This included exclusive access to VIP parties and events, as well as the chance to meet some of the delegates involved in the selection process.

Based on your age, it’s relatively easy to predict how you consume news. Boomers and Gen X primarily watch cable news, while younger generations consult social media, the internet, and podcasts for their information. This makes sense, as younger audiences tend to scroll endlessly through their phones, while older generations like to sit in front of the TV after dinner and watch cable.

This is why so much campaign money was spent on TV ads in recent elections. After all, that’s where you could reach citizens with a higher voting propensity.

But this old model is dated, and here’s why.

2024 is poised to be the first election in which millennials (ages 28-43) and Gen Z (under 27 voters) make up the majority. This new bloc of younger voters isn’t watching cable TV, and they’re definitely not seeing the political ads that cost modern campaigns a significant percentage of their war chests.

Airing ads on TV might have worked in 2004, but it will have limited success in 2024 – and that’s a big deal.

For a variety of reasons, the Republican Party has historically had trouble resonating with younger voters. This partially explains their electoral disappointments in 2020 and 2022, respectively. But instead of trying to rework their strategy to court this demographic, Trump and the GOP are doubling down on an old and outdated model. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, broadcast TV ads supporting Trump ran nearly 44,000 times across the country compared to only 33,000 for Kamala Harris/Joe Biden.

Rather than focusing on the young, independent swing voter, Trump continues to splurge on airwave advertisements. This might effectively get his base riled up and excited about the upcoming November election, but it won’t reach young people.

Today, political independents are the fastest-growing demographic in the country. These voters overwhelmingly skew millennial and are predominantly concentrated in the suburbs. Millennials are drastically different from any generation that’s come before them. They’re the first generation to come of age with the internet, and their consumption habits reflect this.

By all indications, Kamala Harris is working to broaden the Democratic coalition, primarily through her work to reach these independent voters. Team Harris has spent about $72 million through her digital ad campaigns alone compared with Trump’s $16 million.

For example, the DNC featured an influencer named Merrick Hanna. Hanna has more than 32 million followers/subscribers on TikTok alone. Let’s compare this with Fox News, which had 2.27 million primetime viewers for the entire month of August. The irony is that the people watching Fox News likely already know how they will vote.

As you can see, cable TV ads have all but lost their efficacy.

If you want to know why Kamala Harris is ahead in the polls, it’s because she’s making a concerted effort to talk to new and undecided voters outside of her key voting bloc, while Trump continues to preach to his loyal base.

Older generations can roll their eyes at influencers for their flamboyant and excessive behavior. But there is absolutely no denying their effectiveness at reaching mass audiences of young people at a shockingly low cost.

It’s often said that politics is downstream of culture. And culture is incredibly dynamic. Historians and political scientists frequently point to the 1960 presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. People who listened to the radio walked away thinking that Nixon won, while those who watched the debate featuring the handsome and well-tanned Kennedy thought the opposite.

Kennedy was more effective at using television to his campaign’s advantage. Today, whoever is more effective at leveraging social media will see a similar boost.

Old tactics simply don’t work in this new age, and both parties would be wise to recognize this.

Like it or not, the influencer age is here to stay.

Following a massive price surge in cocoa prices in New York earlier this year, where prices topped nearly $12,000 per ton before bottoming out in the low $7,000s and resulting in what technical analysts say is a triangle pattern, prices are expected to stay rangebound as compression indicates a major move nears. 

Bloomberg cites new data from the International Cocoa Organization that says demand will exceed production by 462,000 metric tons. That’s about 5.2% more than the ICCO’s May forecast of a 439,000-ton deficit. This is a much larger shortage than the initial outlook published in February. 

In the Friday report, ICCO wrote that global cocoa supplies remain depressed due to “adverse weather conditions, aged trees, pests and diseases that affected production in major cocoa areas during the season under review.” 

Global cocoa production this season is 4.33 million tons, 2.9% below ICCO’s previous forecast. Grinding estimates are expected to be 2.1% lower, at 4.75 million tons. 

Bloomberg noted, “New York futures are up around 80% this year as poor harvests in West Africa curbed supplies, though prices have pared back from record highs. The region’s cocoa industry is still grappling with lasting issues like crop disease, and new trees take at least three years to reach fruit-bearing maturity. That’s constraining how quickly production can ramp up to ease the shortage.” 

New York bean prices are locked in a triangle formation of compressing price action, indicating that a big move might be on the horizon. 

New data from ICE exchange-monitored warehouses shows US cocoa stockpiles have slumped to the lowest levels since early 2009. 

Meanwhile, candy companies such as Hershey have been pushing higher cocoa costs to customers. The PA-based company has already slashed its sales and earnings outlook for the year as shoppers have decreased purchases of higher-priced chocolates and candies. In other words, demand destruction has emerged. 

Let’s not forget that oil trader Pierre Andurand remains bullish on the view that the stocks-to-grinding ratio for the world at the end of the year will be at its lowest ever “and potentially run out of inventories late in the year.” 

Authored by Alex Xenos via RealClearPolitics,

Since the 2000 presidential election, the left has worked to undermine the legitimacy of the Electoral College, labeling it a relic of slavery. No doubt, if Donald Trump returns to the White House while again losing the popular vote, these attacks will be renewed with fervor. In fact, it has already begun as commentators denounce the undemocratic nature of the system. Just last month, the New York Times published a piece trashing the Constitution and asserting that the Electoral College’s only purpose was to protect slavery. These critiques are based on misconceptions and hostility toward the very structure of our Constitution.

The History

Our method of electing the president came about through compromise. The framers agreed upon a system that ensured the states had a say in choosing the president. The Constitution gives each state a share of electors, and the states decide for themselves how to select those electors.

At the time of the constitutional convention, popular elections would have favored the North because the North’s population of free persons would have outstripped the South’s. This dynamic is why the South pushed for a system that proportioned the electoral vote based on population, including slaves.

But nothing in the Electoral College system inherently favored slavery. You could have had an Electoral College system that did not count slaves as part of the population for the purpose of distributing electors. Thus, it was the counting of slaves in proportioning electors via the infamous two-thirds clause that protected slavery.

In fact, even if slavery had never existed, the states would never have agreed to a method of electing the president that stripped them of having a say in the matter. Protecting state sovereignty and ensuring less populous states had influence were key features of the compromise. Therefore, slavery may have been one of several reasons for the compromise, but it certainly was not the reason.

The Merits

The way state delegations elect the chief executive may have been the product of compromise, but that does not detract from the merits of the system, which include geographic representation and respect for state sovereignty. This is true even if you believe the Electoral College is a part of slavery’s legacy.

In a national election, in a country as large and diverse as ours, representation based on geographic segments of the population is far superior to the mob rule of a purely popular vote. We are not a monolithic society. Life and perspectives vary based on location. This is especially true when you consider the differences between state governments, which attract different types of people.

America is an enormous nation, and a system based solely on the popular vote would allow densely populated cities to dominate. This dynamic is particularly problematic when one considers that urban populations often want to impose their culture and policy preferences on others, whereas rural populations generally want to be left alone. Just think about how Democrats want virtually everything to be regulated nationally by the feds.

But regardless of this left-versus-right paradigm, it is simply better to give the different geographic elements of the nation and the states a voice on national matters to somewhat lessen the ability of the majority to steamroll political minorities.

Furthermore, as much as the left would love to abolish the states, there is no United States without the states themselves. Our federalist system allows for better representation of different segments of our population and, therefore, allows for better governance. The states, as separate sovereigns, must have a say in who becomes president.

The Electoral College also affects the politics of presidential campaigns. Candidates are forced to consider the respective views held in different states, particularly of those voters in the less partisan swing states. This political circumstance has a way of diffusing power and lessening the focus on densely populated cities, allowing for perspectives outside of the urban thought bubble to participate.

Another popular attack on the Electoral College is that it is undemocratic. But American government was never meant to be based on democracy. Rather, democracy was meant to be a component, albeit an important one, of our constitutional republic. The protection of liberty and the rights of individuals are far more important than the ability of the majority to impose their will.

Moreover, the president is not even supposed to be a representative of the people in our constitutional system. That is what the House of Representatives is for. Thus, the argument against the Electoral College is an argument not just against our Constitution’s federalist principles but against the Constitution’s separation of powers as well.

Our Electoral College system might not be perfect, but it is far better than an election by direct popular vote, which disregards our federalist principles.

Alex Xenos is an attorney and a Young Voices contributor. His writing has appeared in the Boston Herald, The American Spectator, DC Journal, and NH Journal, among other publications. Follow him on X @AMXenos.

The downturn in the diamond market is nothing short of breathtaking. Prices are in free fall as cash-strapped consumers have been shunning luxury goods, grappling with failed Bidenomics that unleashed an inflation storm and resulted in high interest rates. Compounding the issue, the rising demand for lab-grown diamonds has pressured the prices of natural stones. 

According to Bloomberg data, citing the Diamond Standard Index, diamond prices have plunged to the lowest on record, with data going back to early 2002. The index has lost 45% of its value since March 2022.

Since diamonds are a consumer-driven market, the fierce bear market in prices signals that the industry is in trouble, as well as signals that low/mid-tier consumers are in trouble. In less than a week, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, with tens of thousands of stores nationwide, have warned that their core customer bases are under pressure. These discount retailers offer a unique glimpse into consumer sentiment that is not manipulated by government statisticians at the BLS.  

De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer by value, recorded its worst year in two decades earlier this summer. Its parent company, Anglo American, recently announced plans to divest and spin off its 85% stake in the diamond subsidiary. 

CEO Duncan Wanblad acknowledged the challenges De Beers has faced. In May, he said, “It is sitting at the bottom of a cycle. That cycle is more macroeconomic than fundamental.”

The diamond and luxury goods industry was a major beneficiary of the helicopter money the US government dished out during the Covid era. However, as soon as pandemic savings dried up and the Biden-Harris team ignited an inflation storm through failed Bidenomics, consumers had to quickly dial back spending on diamonds, Rolexes, handbags, and Gucci loafers. 

There has also been downward pressure from Gen Z’s distaste for marriage. Some millennials are too broke to afford natural stones and have gravitated to lab-grown diamonds. In recent years, the rapid growth of artificial stones has pressured natural stone prices. 

In addition to a collapse in diamond prices, the Bloomberg Subdial Watch Index, which tracks prices for the 50 most-traded watches by value on the secondary market, has sunk nearly 18% in 24 months. 

Looking at wine prices on the London International Vintners Exchange, the Live-ex Fine Wine 50 index has plunged below Covid lows, with a 5-year return of around 8.4%. 

Let’s not forget that classic automobiles, such as Packard Roadsters and Ford Thunderbirds, or mainly classics before the 1960s, are not selling well at auctions. Baby boomers overpaid for these vehicles, while GenXers and millennials instead seek cars from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, such as 911 Turbos. So much for the old folks trying to dump their 1930s Packards at auction bought a decade or two ago. The market is no longer there.   

And the fancy artwork market reverses…

Overall, this note offers a view into consumer health. Low—and mid-tier households are certainly feeling recession-like pressures. Next up, a pullback in spending from higher income households? 

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sept. 4 that Chinese consul general Huang Ping is no longer holding his position after her request to the U.S. State Department that he be ousted. The State Department said the diplomat left because he reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation.

On Sept. 3, a former top-level aide to Hochul was charged with spying for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Hochul said she reached out to the White House and U.S. Secretary of State after the arrest and indictment of Linda Sun. She asked that the Chinese consul general be removed from his position immediately.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Hochul spoke to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Sept. 4. Miller said the consul general was not expelled but rather reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation. When it comes to the status of employees at these missions, the department reaches out to the foreign country, he said.

“I have conveyed my desire to have the counsel general from the People’s Republic of China and the New York mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the counsel general is no longer in the New York mission,” Hochul said at the press conference.

She said her request was meant to send a message.

“I believe that the Chinese government with their behavior in doing this and working with Linda Sun is not acceptable,” Hochul said. “It’s a statement by us, that we’re not tolerating this, and anybody who represented that government needs to move on. That was what we made clear.”

Sun was charged with acting on behalf of the CCP, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Her husband and codefendant, Christopher Hu, was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, bank fraud, and misuse of means of identification.

Sun was dismissed from Hochul’s office in March 2023 for alleged misconduct, and the governor’s office is cooperating with the investigation.

Hochul said on Sept. 4 that Sun’s arrest showed that governments at all levels “certainly” should be more vigilant.

“This is an individual who started way before my time, was put in the position of liaison to the Asian community and global trade issues,” Hochul said.

Sun held state government roles from 2012 to 2023 and allegedly forged Hochul’s signature on invitations that would allow Chinese officials to illegally enter the United States and meet with government officials. She also allegedly used her position to block Taiwanese representatives from meeting government officials and edit then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s statements to remove references to Taiwan as a country.

According to the indictment, Sun found ways to allow CCP officials to gain access to New York state leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic, at one time even calling an official on her phone during a private conference call between multiple state departments, warning the CCP official, “Keep your phone muted.” The official wrote to Sun that the call had been “very useful.”

The indictment also alleges that Sun received millions of dollars in return for her work for the CCP and never declared her role as a foreign agent or the benefits she received. Sun and Hu pleaded not guilty during their initial court appearance in Brooklyn on Sept. 3 and will be released on bond.

Hochul said at a separate event on Sept. 4 that Sun had no access to security or government documents “so there was a limit to it,” but Sun used her position to promote CCP views in official proclamations while “diminishing any involvement” with Taiwan.

She said Sun had also been able to use her position to obtain visas for CCP officials, and that her office had alerted law enforcement to some “evidence that didn’t look right.”

“To think that any foreign agent, any foreign government to infiltrate a government organization like the state of New York has to be addressed,” she said.

A illegal weed growing operation was found – of all places – in a home owned by an Oakland police officer this spring. 

State Department of Cannabis Control officers discovered about $1 million worth of illegal marijuana in a Bay Area neighborhood in Antioch. One of the three raided houses was owned by Oakland Police Officer Samson Liu, 38, who was placed on administrative leave on April 30.

The Oakland Police Department, citing an ongoing investigation, did not disclose the officer’s name, but CNN identified him. Records show Liu bought a 2,800-square-foot house in Antioch in 2020 for $608,000.

The department said it “is aware of the allegations made against one of our members and is cooperating with outside law enforcement agencies on the case”, according to the LA Times.

The LA Times report says that the raid underscores the scale of illegal marijuana operations in California and the involvement of Chinese organized crime since legalization in 2016, according to the cannabis control agency.

Law enforcement described these operations as sophisticated and linked to “Chinese criminal syndicates” but provided no further details due to ongoing investigations. 

A Los Angeles Times investigation recently revealed that contraband pesticide use has spread across California’s cannabis farms, both illegal and licensed, over the past three years.

These toxic substances were found in at least six counties, including Siskiyou County, where half of 25 illegal farms raided in July 2023 had pesticides present, causing three officers to need medical treatment after exposure, according to the report.