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White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 24, 2017.

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Last Updated Aug 19, 2017 4:54 PM EDT

Maryland Democrats are demanding a slew of records from Kushner Companies LLC after reports that its subsidiaries' apartment complexes receiving public housing payments are getting judges to order the arrest of delinquent renters and making rent payments unnecessarily difficult for tenants.

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner stepped down as CEO of Kushner Companies when he joined the White House, but retains a significant financial stake in the business. The firm has received $6.1 million in federal rental subsidies through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for three apartment complexes in Maryland since January 2015, according to a recent Baltimore Sun report.

Those subsidies help tenants pay their rent. But the Sun reported Kushner Companies is "the most aggressive [firm] in Maryland" in using a debt collection tactic that urges judges to arrest people who fail to appear in court for unpaid rent, and has sought the civil arrest of more than 100 former tenants. The New York Times and ProPublica also recently reported Kushner Companies doesn't allow residents to pay rent with money orders, requiring individuals and families without checking accounts to visit a local Walmart or cash express company and pay $3.50 for every transaction.

"If these reports are accurate, they raise very serious and troubling concerns about whether Kushner Companies and its subsidiaries are complying with HUD's housing quality standards to ensure the safety and health of their own tenants," Maryland Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and four other Maryland Democrats in the House, wrote to Kushner Companies on Friday.

But the Democratic members are also interested in any communication between the president's son-in-law and his company, or between the White House and Kushner Companies, that could reveal potential conflicts of interest.

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The senators and representatives gave Kushner Companies until Sept. 8 to provide the following records:

Kushner Companies insists it is complying with federal housing laws and regulations.

"We are in compliance with the requirements of the federal housing choice program," said Emily Wolf, general counsel for Kushner Companies, in a statement. "We exercise our legal rights under the relevant provisions of Maryland law only as a last resort after all other reasonable attempts to collect rent payments are unsuccessful."

This isn't the first time Kushner's business ties have drawn scrutiny.Kushner Companies was recently subpoenaedover its use of EB-5 visas, a federal investment-for-visa program, to fund developments. In May,Kushner's sister highlighted her White House connectionsto potential EB-5 investors in China.

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Maryland Democrats demand records from Kushner Companies-owned housing - CBS News

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Trump remarks could sidetrack Democrats from other issues Miami Herald President Donald Trump's widely criticized response to white supremacist violence in Virginia has left Democrats in a quandary: how to seize the moral high ground without getting sucked into a politically perilous culture war. Democrats have denounced ... The AP Notices: Democrats May Be Making a MistakePower Line (blog) Democrats Shouldn't Fear the Confederate Statue FightBloomberg The fight over Confederate statues could make or break DemocratsVICE News Tampabay.com -National Review all 1,921 news articles »

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Trump remarks could sidetrack Democrats from other issues - Miami Herald

President Trump makes an announcement on the introduction of the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Aug. 2, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is endorsing a resolution from House Democrats to censure President Trump after his response to the violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York, Bonnie Watson of New Jersey and Pramila Jayapal of Washington on Wednesday introduced the first censure resolution against the president. The censure movement came a day before Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, announced he plans to introduce articles of impeachment against the president.

"The president's repulsive defense of white supremacists demands that Congress act to defend our American values," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a Friday statement.

"Every day, the president gives us further evidence of why such a censure is necessary," Pelosi continued. "Indeed, with each passing day, it becomes clearer that the Republican Congress must declare whether it stands for our sacred American values or with the president who embraces white nationalism. Democrats will use every avenue to challenge the repulsiveness of President Trump's words and actions."

A censure is a public reprimand, formally disapproving of a public official.

Democrats' criticism of Mr. Trump has intensified since theSaturday white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, which resulted in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer when a driver mowed down a crowd of counter-protesters. Mr. Trump at first said there was hatred on "many sides."

On Monday, he condemned white supremacism, but on Tuesday, he again blamed "both sides" for the violence and said there were "very fine people" among the attendees protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.

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Pelosi endorses Democrats' resolution to censure Trump - CBS News

On the 14th of August, a left wing mob supported by the Democratic governor pulled down and smashed a century old memorial to the Confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina. For days now the liberal media and Democratic Party have refused to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and its ally the anarchist AntiFa, as sharing blame with the Alt-Right for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. These organizations, BLM and AntiFa, are the storm troopers of the Democratis Party.

A vote for a Democrat is a vote for anarchy, lawlessness, mob rule, violence, and dictatorship. If the Democratic Party ever gains power in this country again, you can rest assured that your rights as an individual will be subject to the whims of an extremist, left-wing, fascist government. Remember this when you go to the polls. Your very freedom depends on keeping the Democratic Party out of power in this country.

The Democratic Party has shown without any reservation it is not beneath using the tactics used in 1930s Germany to gain control of your lives.

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Beware the Democrats - Dothan Eagle

Democrats in Michigan and a handful of other states need to win some statewide races by 2020. Otherwise, they risk ensuring Republican majorities for another decade--even if Democrats get more votes at election time.

Thats according to David Daley, author of the Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal Americas Democracy. Daley appeared on Michigan Radios Stateside to discuss the book last year. A new paperback version was just released with an epilogue analyzing the 2016 presidential election.

Ratf**ked lays out what Daley calls theREDMAP plan, a surgical by Republican operatives effort to re-draw district lines to the partys advantage after the 2010 census.

Daley says that effort was wildly successful. For proof, he points to Michigan, which he calls one of the most gerrymandered states in America.

In 2012, Democrats in U.S. House and State House races received more votes than Republicans statewide.

Yet Republicans hold large majorities in both delegations: a 63-47 majority in the State House, and 9 out of 14 seats in the U.S. House. Daley attributes that to the REDMAP effort.

Republicans drew masterful lines after the 2010 elections when they took control of the entire state, Daley said. And by having complete control, they were able to draw exactly the lines they wanted without any Democrats in the room.

The technology and the information that mapmakers have at their disposal now is so much better than at any time in the past, you can draw unbeatable lines that last for an entire decade. And thats what has happened so far in Michigan.

In 2012, Daley says Democrats once again received more votes than Republicans in total statewide races. Yet they lost seats in the state legislature.

What changed in between there [and 2008]? The district lines changed, Daley said. And they changed surgically.

Daley says Democrat Mark Schauer, who unsuccessfully challenged Rick Snyder in the 2014 governors race, knows this better than most. He says Schauer was effectively re-districted out of his West Michigan district, as Republicans sought to create a solid majority of safe Republican districts through creative, but very strategic, mapmaking.

Schauer is now working with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, an effort to reverse the bleeding that happened when Republicans gained seemingly bulletproof majorities in state legislatures and on U.S. House maps in a number of key states, including Michigan.

The Democrats really fell asleep at the switch in 2010, and they did not understand what was happening, Daley said. Now Democrats need a strategy to counter that at the state level, and while people like Schauer are aggressive advocates for the cause, hes not sure if Democrats as a whole are on the ball.

I am not completely convinced the party has a winning strategy, or that they have much of a strategy right now at all, Daley said. They have to really rebuild the party in places where it has atrophied and been completely hollowed out. And I dont see those efforts underway right now.

Daley warns that if Democrats "cant find a way to get a seat at the table in redistricting after 2020, they will not have another shot at these maps until 2031."

There are a couple of alternative possibilities, though. Michigan is one of a handful of key states with citizen-led efforts to tackle gerrymandering, and that effort cleared one hurdle this week.

The Board of State Canvassers approved ballot language from the group Voters Not Politicians. They advocate a ballot proposal that would put re-districting power into the hands of a non-partisan committee. The group now has 180 days to gather more than 315,000 signatures to put the measure closer to the 2018 ballot.

Daley calls that effort, and similar initiatives in other states, an incredibly positive development.

You are now seeing in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in North Carolina, a real renewal of efforts to be sure that our elections are fair, that our votes matter, and that politicians do not have the power to choose their own voters, he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court could also weigh in on the matter. Daley says courts have never set a standard for when partisan gerrymandering becomes unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court has agreed to take up a Wisconsin case, Gill v. Whitford, that gives it an opportunity to do so.

Whatever happens, Daley says partisan gerrymandering of any kind is deeply dangerous and toxic for a democracy. People want their elections to be fair.

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Author: Democrats--or someone else--need to take on Michigan gerrymandering by 2020 - Michigan Radio