The Daily Caller reported that Shapiro had positioned himself at the forefront of the Democratic Party’s internal conflict over Israel, which resulted in leftists closely examining his record as Harris considers him as her potential running mate.
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Shapiro urged young Americans protesting Israelis’ counteroffensive in Gaza to study the war’s history.
Shapiro’s record on Israel is under intense scrutiny as he emerges as Harris’s possible vice president pick. This scrutiny highlights a divide among Democrats over Israel, with some people opposing Joe Biden’s approach to what’s going on in Gaza.
Not surprisingly, Shapiro, an ethnic Jew, faces even deeper skepticism over his views on Israel compared to other potential candidates with similar stances.
One of the Democratic voters, Rick Giordano, expressed concerns about whether the United States is ready for a Jewish vice president.
“I work [in] construction. A lot of guys are very opinionated. So, I would like to see Josh. But I am a little worried about his being Jewish. [It doesn’t] affect me. I don’t think it affects him. But I worry about the rest of the country if that would hurt the ticket. I hope not,” he said.
Shapiro’s consistent support for Israel and his condemnation of anti-Semitism, especially its infamous instances that happened on college and university campuses during the pro-Hamas protests, has drawn criticism from some Democrats, among whom was Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, who argued Shapiro’s rhetoric has been unnecessarily provocative.
“He’s got the cadence of [Barack] Obama and the personal style of Bill Clinton, making you feel like you’re [the only] person in the room. But I think he stepped on himself with some rhetoric that was just over the top and unnecessarily so,” he said.
(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) It was recently revealed that both CNN and ABC News started experiencing financial difficulties due to Americans’ disinclination to watch nonstop far-left propaganda, which resulted in the networks shutting down entire departments, laying off workers, and slashing their budgets.
The Hill reported that CNN permanently shut down its entire opinion section since nobody wants to read another column about how Donald Trump is supposedly horrible.
According to a source directly familiar with the move, certain writers were notified of the change by email on July 31, 2024.
“Just a quick note to let you know that, unfortunately, CNN has decided to shut down the opinion section. I hope our paths cross elsewhere!” an opinion editor wrote in the email.
The news source contacted CNN for comment, and the company’s senior executive responded that they “did make the decision at the beginning of the month to sunset the opinion vertical on CNN.com,” which resulted in shutting down the opinion section.
Claire Atkinson of the Business Insider wrote on Substack that the section will be closed this month.
The New York Postreported that ABC News is also not doing very well, with the company’s staffers bracing for significant cuts as the Disney-owned network slashes budgets. It was revealed that even those at top-rated Good Morning America are on the chopping block.
An insider said that Disney told the company that it must reduce its bottom line by $19 million, up from previous projections of $17 million, before the end of Disney’s fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2024.
It was also revealed that the network would start deploying local reporters instead of sending national correspondents to cover events. This practice becomes increasingly common when the network realizes it needs to save money.
“It’s going to be very difficult. The network is really cut close to the bone,” the source said.
(Headline USA) San Francisco Mayor London Breed is proposing paying drug-addicted welfare recipients cash to stay sober.
Along with San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Breed introduced a bill called “Cash Not Drugs,” which would provide the city’s welfare recipients with $100 in the form of a gift card or electronic benefit transfer every time they submit a negative drug test, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The underlining principle of ‘Cash Not Drugs’ is a simple one,” Dorsey said in a statement. “A humane and effective approach to San Francisco’s drug crisis should also include rewarding good behavior and not just punishing bad behavior.”
Breed said she wants it to be “easy to get treatment as it is to go out there and buy dope.”
The issue has been a pet cause of hers, having who lost her sister to a drug overdose.
“Whatever it takes to get people on the right path, that’s what we need to do,” she said.
However, on Breed’s watch the epidemics of homelessness and open drug abuse have continued to grow, turning one of the country’s most beautiful and beloved urban treasures into a literal s**thole.
San Francisco is running other programs that critics say make it impossible for addicts to get sober in the first place. The city’s “Managed Alcohol Program” for example, dispenses “controlled doses” of vodka and beer to homeless people at specific times of the day.
Breed’s bill could also undermine the voter-passed Proposition F, which allows the city to withhold welfare payments to recipients if they test positive for drugs and refuse to partake in a free treatment program. Welfare could only be withheld if they refuse treatment, not just if they test positive for drugs. The new policy is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Breed has oscillated between a laid back approach to her city’s homelessness and drug crisis to a supposedly tough-on-crime approach.
“San Francisco is a compassionate city, but our compassion cannot be mistaken for weakness or indifference,” she tweeted earlier this year. “We need a safer San Francisco, and we need it now.”
(Headline USA) Boeing named a longtime aerospace industry veteran Wednesday as its next chief executive, who will take over a company rocked by legal, regulatory and production problems and mounting financial repercussions.
Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, a former CEO at Boeing supplier Rockwell Collins, will succeed David Calhoun as CEO and president effective Aug. 8, the company said. Calhoun said in March that he would retire at the end of the year, and analysts generally praised the quicker transition.
Boeing announced its new CEO as it reported a loss of more than $1.4 billion on falling revenue during the second quarter. The loss was wider and the company’s revenue lower than Wall Street’s dismal expectations, as both Boeing’s commercial-airplanes business and defense unit lost money.
The disappointing results come at a tumultuous time for Boeing, which is the subject of multiple investigations into its safety culture and manufacturing quality.
The American aerospace giant agreed to plead guilty this month to a federal fraud charge in connection with its 737 Max jetliner and two crashes that killed 346 people.
The Federal Aviation Administration increased its oversight of the company and limited the number of planes it could produce after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines Max flying at an altitude of 16,000 feet. No one was seriously hurt, but the frightening incident and subsequent scrutiny have damaged Boeing’s reputation.
Boeing Chairman Steven Mollenkopf said Ortberg was chosen after a “thorough and extensive search process” and “has the right skills and experience to lead Boeing in its next chapter.” Ortberg has earned a reputation for running complex engineering and manufacturing companies, Mollenkopf said.
The company waived the mandatory retirement age of 65 for Ortberg, a spokesperson said. Boeing did the same for Calhoun days after he turned 64 in 2021.
Ortberg emerged as a leading candidate only recently. Others who were reportedly considered for the job included Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive and now CEO of its most important supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, and another longtime Boeing executive, Stephanie Pope, who recently took over the commercial airplanes division.
Ortberg led Rockwell Collins from 2013 to 2018, when it merged with United Technologies and wound up as part of RTX, the company formerly known as Raytheon. He retired from RTX in 2021.
Richard Aboulafia, a longtime aerospace analyst and consultant and recently a harsh critic of the company, said the hire is great news for Boeing.
“He is a deeply respected leader in the aerospace industry, and brings more hope for a better future than the company has enjoyed in decades,” Aboulafia said.
Deutsche Bank analyst Scott Deuschle said Ortberg “has an engineering background, experience in the aviation industry, and experience as a public company CEO.”
In a statement issued by Boeing, Ortberg said, “There is much work to be done, and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Calhoun will serve as a special adviser to the Boeing board until next March.
Like Calhoun, who took over as CEO in the wake of the two Max crashes, Ortberg inherits the leadership of a company facing ongoing crises and criticism from inside and outside the company.
Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, is pushing back against whistleblower allegations of manufacturing shortcuts that crimp on safety.
It is dealing with supply-chain problems that are hindering production, which it hopes to fix in part by re-acquiring Spirit AeroSystems, a key contractor. It faces a threatened strike this fall by its largest union, the International Association of Machinists.
The company is still trying to persuade regulators to approve two new models of the Max and a bigger version of its two-aisle 777 jetliner. And it faces a multi-billion-dollar decision on when to design a new single-aisle plane to replace the Max.
The quarterly earnings reported Wednesday reflected the continuing challenges at Boeing. The reported loss of $1.44 billion for the second quarter compared with a loss of $149 million a year earlier. Since the start of 2019, Boeing has lost more than $25 billion.
Excluding special items, the second-quarter loss worked out to $2.90 per share. Analysts expected a loss of $1.90 per share, according to a FactSet survey.
Revenue dropped 15%, to $16.87 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s average forecast of $17.35 billion. The commercial airplanes division had an operating loss of $715 million, and revenue plunged 32% as Boeing delivered fewer passenger jets to airlines—92 planes, compared with 136 a year earlier.
The FAA limited Boeing’s production of Max jetliners shortly after the Alaska Airlines incident, but Boeing hasn’t even hit the FAA limits as it seeks to fix its manufacturing process. The company said Wednesday that it is sticking with its plans to boost production of the Max to 38 per month by year end.
Boeing took a charge of $244 million to cover a fine it agreed to pay as part of its plea deal with the Justice Department in connection with development of the Max. A federal judge in Texas will soon consider whether to approve the agreement, which also calls for the appointment of an independent compliance monitor and for Boeing to invest at least $455 million “in its compliance, quality, and safety programs.”
Many families of the people who died in the two Max crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia less than five months later, oppose the deal and plan to ask the judge to reject it.
Boeing’s defense and space unit lost $913 million because of $1 billion in setbacks to four fixed-price government contracts, including a deal to build two new Air Force One presidential jets. The smaller services business earned $870 million.
On Wednesday, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins belligerently asked Cotton whether speaking about Harris’s racial identity “increased or decreased” the Republican Party’s chances of winning the 2024 election.
A fired-up Cotton suggested Harris should face those questions, citing her absence from major media interviews and her past critical remarks about President Joe Biden’s disturbing record on race.
“Four years ago, Joe Biden said, if you don’t vote for him, ‘you ain’t black.’ Could you imagine a more insulting comment?” Cotton told Collins. “Joe Biden is presuming to judge the political views of one-eighth of our fellow citizens based on their skin… skin color. Did you did you ever ask Kamala Harris to condemn his remarks? Did asked her if that was racist?”
Recounting Harris’s infamous moment during the 2020 Democratic debate, Cotton asked, “Did you ask Kamala Harris why she’s willing to serve as vice president for a man she essentially called racist and a segregationist? Have you or anyone else in the media as Kamala Harris those questions, Kaitlan?”
Collins, seemingly stunned by Cotton’s swift pushback, retorted, “I covered the Biden-Harris white house. We obviously have asked for her to come on, but my question is for you about this.”
In 2020, Biden, then a former vice president seeking the Democratic nomination for the presidential election, infamously questioned the race of Black Americans potentially supporting Trump.
“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden bafflingly told radio host Charlamagne Tha God during a May 2020 interview.
Nearly a year earlier, Harris, then a Democratic candidate for president, blasted Biden over his disturbing adulation of former segregationist senators and opposition to federal school busing during segregation.
“It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on the segregation of race in this country,” Harris told Biden, alluding to his decades-long friendship with the late Sens. James Eastland, D-Miss., and Herman Talmadge, D-Ga.
“You also worked with them to oppose busing,” Harris added. “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.”
(Headline USA) Congressional Republicans announced that they were investigating Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security adviser for alleged ties to the Iranian regime.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to Harris, who is now the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, demanding answers about Philip Gordon’s role with her campaign.
Gordon, who served under the Obama administration and played a key role in the negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal, joined Harris’s office in 2022. He has close ties to two aides in the Biden administration who were found to be involved in an Iranian influence campaign: Iran special envoy Robert Malley and Pentagon aide Ariane Tabatabai.
In 2020, Gordon co-authored a piece with Tabatabai arguing against imposing additonal sanctions on Iran. In another op-ed, they claimed sanctions could lead to new Iranian efforts to “lash out with attacks on its neighbors, and on Americans and American interests in the MIddle East.”
These claims were “wrong” and obviously “biased in favor of Tehran,” Stefanik and Cotton argued.
“Mr. Gordon was also closely associated with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), another Iranian influence organization that allegedly collaborates with Tehran,” they added, pointing to the adviser’s speaking engagements at the group’s 2014 and 2016 leadership conferences.
Tabatabai remains employed by the Defense Department as a chief of staff to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict. But Malley was suspended without pay in 2021, and his clearance was pulled.
Stefanik and Cotton asked Harris’s office to explain whether Gordon still has a security clearance, and whether he was similarly investigated after the ties between Tabatabai, Malley and Iran came to light.
“The Biden–Harris Administration policy of appeasing Iran and abandoning Israel will only worsen if Kamala Harris and her Iranian apologist staff are elevated,” Stefanik said in a statement. “I am proud to join Senator Cotton to demand accountability.”
(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Italian boxer Angela Carini bowed out of an Olympic boxing match with Algerian transgender boxer Imane Khelif, after 46 seconds of fighting, according to Fox News.
After several seconds of fighting, Carini got her cornermen to call off the bout. The referee called the match for Khelif as Carini walked away and broke down in tears.
An absolute travesty at the Olympics.
Angela Carini is forced to box against a biological male. She quits after just 45 seconds, and cries hysterically as her opponent is declared the winner.
Reports indicated that Carini had an argument with her coaches about the fairness of the bout.
“I got into the ring to fight,” she said, via Italy’s ANSA. “I didn’t give up, but one punch hurt too much and so I said enough. I’m going out with my head held high.”
Emanuele Renzini, Carini’s coach, said both she and all of Italy wanted Carini to refuse to fight at all.
“It would have been easier not to show up, because all of Italy had been asking her not to fight for days,” she said. “But Angela was motivated and wanted to do it. Of course, when she met her opponent at the draw, she said ‘it’s not fair.'”
Khelif previously failed to meet gender eligibility standards in the 2023 World Championships, hosted by the International Boxing Association.
The tests proved that Khelif and a few other boxers had XY chromosomes, attempting to pose as women to gain access to the competition.
Khelif and the Algerian Olympic Committee denied the claims.
One Italian news outlet reported that Khelif was intersex, not transgender.
“In contrast to the reports that have been circulating, the Algerian athlete Imane Khelif is not a trans woman,” said Rosario Coco, president of Gaynet Communications in Italy. “From the information we have about her, she is an intersex person, who has always socialized as a woman and has a sporting history in women’s competitions.”
Women competing against biological men in female sports competitions are often left severely injured, including Payton McNabb, who was paralyzed by a ball spiked by a transgender competitor.
“It’s dangerous to have the two sexes competing together, and just not ok,” she said regarding Carini’s bout. “This is morally wrong and evil… It used to be illegal for men to beat up women, and now people are putting it on TV and watching it. It’s such a weird reality we are living in now.”
(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Although Vice President Kamala Harris may mispronounce the name, it is a well-known fact that there is only one true “Kamala” Harris.
That would be James Arthur Harris—the 6-foot-7, 380-pound professional wrestler, who sadly passed away in 2020 at the age of 70, just months before his namesake imitator was elevated into the office of vice president.
Surprisingly, the two had several things in common apart from their name:
BOTH ASSUMED FAKE IDENTITIES
Recently, the vice president (a Jamaican–Indian from California who spent her teen years in Canada) has appropriated the identity of a black Southerner (borrowing a page from Kenyan–Hawaiian Barack Obama, who spent several years of his youth in Indonesia).
— News That Matters (@ThatmattersNews) July 31, 2024
The sudden identity shift forced her rival, former President Donald Trump, to observe during a Q&A with black journalists on Wednesday that he had been unaware of his opponent’s newly assumed association with the African–American community.
“I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, and she was always of Indian heritage and only promoting Indian heritage,” said Trump—who even donated $6,000 to one of Harris’s campaigns for California attorney general.
“I didn’t know she was black until a couple of years ago, when she happened to turn black,” he continued. “So, I don’t know—is she Indian or black?”
Meanwhile, the other Harris was a genuine black Southerner who appropriated the identity of an African headhunter.
Going under the stage name “Kamala the Ugandan Giant,” the Mississippi-born performer/athlete had a storied career as one of the early villains of the World Wrestling Federation.
BOTH WERE NEMESES OF THE HULKSTER
Wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan (né Terry Gene Bollea) provided one of the highlights of the recent Republican National Convention when he put to rest any muted speculation about his political leanings by revealing himself to be a staunch Trump supporter.
As was the case with several public figures—including billionaire Elon Musk—Hogan explained that the assassination attempt on Trump had led him to realize he had no choice but to use his gifts for the good of the nation.
“As an entertainer, I try to stay out of politics,” he said. “But after everything that’s happened to our country over the past four years, and everything that happened last weekend, I can no longer stay silent.”
Hogan marveled that Trump’s unwavering, indomitable dedication to serving the American people was on full display as he rose up, blood dripping from his ear, and pumped his fist defiantly in the air.
Then, the childhood idol of many a Reagan-era millennial disclosed in dramatic fashion that Trump was now his role model.
“[W]hat happened last week, when they took a shot at my hero and they tried to kill the next President of the United States—enough was enough,” Hogan said, ripping off his shirt. “And I said, ‘Let Trump-a-mania run wild, brother; let Trump-a-mania rule again. Let Trump make America great again.'”
It would be three days before President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, with some suggesting it was Hogan’s intimidation—and not the coercion of Democrat party elites—that forced his exit.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Biden dropped right after the Hulkster got involved. pic.twitter.com/i2Xk51Docp
— Tony Ortiz (Current Revolt) (@CurrentRevolt) July 21, 2024
And now that Biden’s former running mate has assumed the mantle of de-facto Democrat nominee, the guns she has to fear the most might not have any bullets in them if Hogan exercises his right to bare arms.
That's right brother! Joe Biden didn't want a piece of the Hulkster and dropped out! Let Trump-A-Mania reign! pic.twitter.com/ExsPjbu1G0
— Your Frat Bro Teddy (@LetsRideTeddy) July 21, 2024
As for the other Kamala, his rivalry with Hogan is one of legend, and pretty much speaks for itself (spoiler: The Hulkster wins).
Trump has hammered the former prosecutor for her affront on law and order—which he said, during a recent rally in North Carolina, had raised some $35 million to support violent criminals in domestic terrorist organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
Trump slams Kamala Harris for supporting the Minnesota Freedom Fund: "Kamala Harris wants to be the president for savage criminals and illegal aliens. I will be the president for law-abiding Americans of every race, religion, color and creed." pic.twitter.com/q3ahZFv0WK
In fact, the former president recently booked $83 million in ad time for five key battleground states, where he plans to highlight the specific impact that the pro-crime advocacy effort yielded, featuring some of the criminals who benefited from it.
Meanwhile, following his retirement from wrestling, the other Kamala devoted his energy to exploring a broad array of interests, which included activism, songwriting and even an authoring an autobiography, Kamala Speaks.
In 2006, Harris released, via his website, an album titled The Best of Kamala, Vol 1, featuring 10 tracks from his prodigious song catalog.
Unfortunately, the album failed to garner much critical acclaim, and its commercial success remains unclear. However, it has assumed something of a cult status among dedicated fans.
With the eponymous Democrat candidate suddenly saturating most mainstream media coverage—and even poaching Google search results from Trump—there is a strong chance that this uncut gem of a recording may posthumously find its way back into the Zeitgeist.
That means that the so-called “Brat” Summer could give way to a “Booty Girl” Fall.
Far from conjuring up the twerking talents of a Megan Thee Stallion, the album’s island-infused fourth track, “Booty Girl” is a deceptively sweet homage to Harris’s then-6-year-old granddaughter.
“I was sittin in a Walmart parking lot / When up popped my grandbaby ‘Booty Girl’—you know, she talks a lot,” he sings.
However, one of the album’s more controversial tracks is a tribute to the late Stanley “Tookie” Williams, a former Crips gangleader and convicted murderer.
Williams killed four people in cold blood—including three Taiwanese immigrants from a single family—using a shotgun at close range during a 1979 robbery spree.
He claimed later in life to have turned over a new leaf in prison, becoming a cause célèbre for public figures such as rapper Snoop Dogg (a fellow Crip), and actor Jamie Foxx (who starred in a 2004 biopic about Williams shortly before his Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles that same year).
Despite the public pressure campaign, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected his clemency appeal, and Williams was put to death by lethal injection in December 2005.
Harris’s soulful tribute approaches capital punishment from what appears to be a Christian perspective: “Man can take this life / But politician won’t play a role in the next one. / What did you gain by killing a man? / Just the devil who think he has won.”
Undoubtedly, the connections between the two Kamalas don’t end there.
If there is a Vol. 2 somewhere that can answer these questions and more, perhaps the recent wave of Kamala-steria will compel Booty Girl to come forward with it.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Intercept has reported that officials in Butler County, Pennsylvania, are refusing to release 911 recordings from the rally in which former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated.
The Intercept reported Saturday that it filed a records request for the recordings shortly after the assassination attempt. On Monday, the county reportedly denied that request, citing part of the statute that generally exempts 911 recordings from disclosure.
“It is the policy of Butler County only to release 911 audio under court order or by subpoena,” a county public records clerk told The Intercept. “Therefore, the request is denied.”
The Intercept is appealing the denial. The publication said a “crucial provision” in state law gives Butler County the ability to release the 911 recordings.
“Pennsylvania agencies and courts can release 911 recordings if they determine that ‘the public interest in disclosure outweighs the interest in nondisclosure,’” the news outlet reported.
Melissa Bevan Melewsky, a media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, reportedly said that other outlets are running into similar situations.
“The carveout is there for situations where the public interest in the recordings is high, a situation like this,” Melewsky told The Intercept.
“Obviously there is huge public interest — legitimate, compelling public interest — in hearing these recordings,” added attorney Joy Ramsingh, who previously adjudicated Office of Open Records appeals.
“Potential embarrassment to the agency is not supposed to be part of the test,” she told The Intercept. “At a minimum, they need to be articulating to the public why they won’t release them. My gut tells me it has something to do with potential embarrassment to the agency.”
The 911 recordings from the July 13 Trump rally in Butler are one of the many pieces of evidence yet to be made public. Members of Congress are complaining that they’re being totally stonewalled by Homeland Security and the Secret Service.
As for Secret Service communications from that day, former Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle claimed that they weren’t recorded.
Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher L. Paris also said last week that he’s yet to received the Secret Service’s operations plan for July 13. Pennsylvania State Police are conducting a parallel investigation to the FBI’s probe into the shooting.
(Headline USA) The attorney general for Washington, D.C., sued StubHub on Wednesday, accusing the ticket resale platform of advertising deceptively low prices and then ramping up prices with extra fees.
The practice known as “drip pricing” violates consumer protection laws in the nation’s capital, Attorney General Brian Schwalb said.
“StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense,” he said in a statement.
The company said it is disappointed to be targeted, maintaining its practices are consistent with the law and competing companies as well as broader industry norms. “We strongly support federal and state solutions that enhance existing laws to empower consumers, such as requiring all-in pricing uniformly across platforms,” the company said in a statement.
The lawsuit, meanwhile, says StubHub hides mandatory “fulfillment and service” fees until the end of a lengthy online purchasing process that often requires more than a dozen pages to complete as a countdown timer creates a sense of urgency.
That makes it “nearly impossible” for buyers to know the true cost of a ticket and compare to find the best price, he said. Fees vary widely and can total more than 40% of the advertised ticket price, the lawsuit alleges.
StubHub, which is based in New York, is one of the world’s largest resale platforms for tickets to sports, concerts, and other live events.
Sally Greenberg, CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group National Consumers League, applauded the lawsuit. “Hidden fees in the ticketing industry have truly gotten out of control. The price that is advertised is the price that we should pay — full stop,” she said. Ticket fees were also part of a sweeping antitrust lawsuit the Justice Department filed against Ticketmaster and its parent company in May.
StubHub used to advertise the “all-in” cost of a ticket about a decade ago, but changed after finding that people are more likely to buy tickets at higher prices with the “drip pricing” model, he said.
Washington residents’ per-capita spending on live entertainment outpaces that of many other major U.S. cities and since 2015, StubHub has sold nearly 5 million tickets in Washington and reaped about $118 million in fees, the suit states.
The lawsuit seeks damages and to block the pricing practices. Schwalb settled another lawsuit last year with the Washington Commanders over fans’ season ticket deposit money.
