<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="9178809" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gerald-fauth">Gerald Fauth</keyword>, the brother-in-law of GOP Sen. <keyword id="325982" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Richard-Burr">Richard Burr</keyword> of North Carolina and a Trump appointee, dumped up to $280,000 in stocks on February 13, the same day Burr unloaded up to $1.72 million in his own shares, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/burr-family-stock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProPublica reported</a>.</li><li>Burr is the chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information.</li><li>Someone who picked up Fauth's phone hung up when ProPublica reached out to ask whether he and Burr had discussed the stock sales in advance.</li><li>Burr's committee was getting daily briefings on the threat of the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> around the time he dumped his stock, shortly before the stock market plunged amid fears of a global outbreak.</li><li>The Justice Department is currently investigating the actions of US lawmakers who sold stocks before the market tanked, and the <keyword id="6355946" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="fbi">FBI</keyword> has reportedly contacted Burr's office as part of the probe.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Sen. Richard Burr's brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, dumped up to $280,000 in stocks on the same day Burr did, as the coronavirus began gaining a foothold in the US, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/burr-family-stock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ProPublica reported Wednesday</a>.In all, he sold between $97,000 and $280,000 in shares from six companies, including a number of stocks that were particularly hard hit when the stock market and US economy began cratering amid the <keyword id="43587" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic">pandemic</keyword>, according to ProPublica.Fauth also has a position on the National Mediation Board and was tapped for the post in 2017 by President Donald Trump.Someone who picked up Fauth's phone hung up when ProPublica reached out to ask whether he and Burr had discussed the stock sales in advance.Burr, of North Carolina, is the chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to the federal government's most classified and sensitive information.According to Reuters, Burr's committee was getting daily briefings on the threat of the coronavirus around the time he dumped his stock.The Senator unloaded up to $1.72 million in stocks on February 13, days after reassuring the public that the Trump administration was well prepared to handle the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.A source familiar with the matter told CNN his committee did not get a briefing the week he sold his stocks.In a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/coronavirus-prevention-steps-the-u-s-government-is-taking-to-protect-you-sen-alexander-and-sen-burr?fbclid=IwAR2R3votXPASebZSvTg48Q1wB2igDto93OMFP8igawuSj_OgSY1ftuWO_HI">February 7, op-ed for Fox News</a>, Burr — along with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — acknowledged that "Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus" at a time when the number of cases in China was still skyrocketing.The senators added, however, that "Thankfully, the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress, and the Trump Administration."According to Burr's <a href="https://efdsearch.senate.gov/search/view/paper/156b69ba-6f48-4a32-b796-707093c476c6/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">financial disclosure form</a>, he started dumping stock on February 13, six days after writing that op-ed.He made a total of 33 separate transactions, unloading anywhere from $1,001 to $100,000 worth of stocks in different companies.Burr defended his actions the day after ProPublica first reported on the stock sales, saying in a statement, "I relied solely on public <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13. Specifically, I closely followed CNBC's daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time."He added: "Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight, however, I spoke this morning with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and asked him to open a complete review of the matter with full transparency."ProPublica's report came hours after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-secret-recording-captures-gop-senator-privately-raising-alarm-2020-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NPR reported</a> it had obtained a recording that features Burr raising dire concerns about the coronavirus to members of a private Washington club."There's one thing I can tell you about this: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything we have seen in recent history. It's probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic," Burr said in the recording, according to NPR."Every company should be cognizant of the fact that you may have to alter your travel," Burr added. "You may have to look at your employees and judge whether the trip they're making to Europe is essential or whether it could be done on video conference. Why risk it?"After ProPublica published its report, it surfaced that several other US senators had also dumped millions in stocks right before the markets plummeted amid fears of the coronavirus.Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia sold off shares after a closed-door briefing on the outbreak on January 24. Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California also unloaded stocks in the weeks after the briefing. All of the senators have denied any wrongdoing.CNN reported in March that the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-justice-department-investigates-lawmakers-who-dumped-stock-cnn-2020-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Justice Department is investigating the actions of US lawmakers who sold stocks</a> before the market plunged amid coronavirus fears. The FBI has reportedly reached out to Burr as part of the probe.In a statement to CNN, Alice Fisher, a lawyer for Burr, said he "welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate."Loeffler, Inhofe, and Feinstein's offices said the lawmakers have not been contacted by the FBI. Inhofe and Loeffler said their stock transactions are held by third parties, while Feinstein said that her husband had sold the stocks and that she holds "all assets in a blind trust of which I have no control."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-burr-brother-in-law-gerald-fauth-dumped-stocks-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

GOP Sen. Richard Burr's brother-in-law, a Trump appointee, dumped up to $280,000 in stocks the same day Burr did before the market plunged

<ul><li>The <keyword id="11898795" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sec" source="Orion">SEC</keyword> is investigating whether Sen. <keyword id="12205030" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="richard-burr" source="Orion">Richard Burr</keyword> and his brother-in-law traded off of inside information ahead of the <keyword id="11893994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19" source="Orion">COVID-19</keyword> market crash, according to ProPublica.</li><li>Gerald Fauth reportedly called his broker to sell stock a minute after getting off the phone with Burr.</li><li>The <keyword id="11895235" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="stock-market" source="Orion">stock market</keyword> soon after experienced its fastest bear market ever, with the S&amp;P 500 falling 35% in five weeks. </li></ul><hr />Sen. Richard Burr and his brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, are under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for <keyword id="11938290" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="insider-trading" source="Orion">insider trading</keyword>, according to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/burrs-brother-in-law-called-stock-broker-one-minute-after-getting-off-phone-with-senator?campaign_id=4&amp;emc=edit_dk_20211029&amp;instance_id=44081&amp;nl=dealbook&amp;regi_id=61427258&amp;segment_id=72976&amp;te=1&amp;user_id=6ce77f080f3d64e6312881475ed3b6767f080f3d64e6312881475ed3b676">a ProPublica report.</a>While chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2020, Burr was briefed about the significant threat COVID-19 posed to the US economy, which was non-public material information at the timeAfter the briefing, the North Carolina Republican sold <keyword id="11893878" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="stocks" source="Orion">stocks</keyword> and then called Fauth. Just one minute after that phone call, Fauth called his broker to sell stocks, according to the report, which cited filings made by the SEC.The trades occurred on February 13, when Fauth sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies, including several that were eventually hit hard by the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. Burr himself had sold more than $1.6 million worth of stocks, according to the report.Days later, the S&amp;P 500 topped out on February 19 and then crashed, experiencing its fastest bear market on record. The index tumbled as much as 35% in about five weeks as investors sized up the devastating impact COVID-19 would have on the economy. The SEC's filings come as the agency seeks to compel Fauth to comply with a subpoena that he has dodged for more than a year, citing a medical condition. That's despite Fauth's continued work at the National Mediation Board, which he was appointed to in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump. President Biden reappointed him to the board.The irony of it all is had Burr and Fauth held onto their shares, they would have been well rewarded, given that the market has since surged more than 100% to record highs.In response to prior reports about Burr's early 2020 <keyword id="6368158" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trading" source="Orion">trading</keyword> activity, his attorney told ProPublica that "Senator Burr participated in the stock market based on public information and he did not coordinate his decision to trade on February 13 with Fauth."

The SEC is reportedly looking into a senator and his brother-in-law dumping stock ahead of the COVID-19 market crash

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/financial-conflicts-congress-members-rated-2021-12"></a><div type="image" title="Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) walks through the Senate Subway for a series of amendment votes in the Capitol Building on August 03, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Senate has moved on to the amendments process this week for the legislative text of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which aims to fund improvements to roads, bridges, dams, climate resiliency and broadband internet." height="1057" width="1409" msid="88300635" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Some experts see the SEC as the agency best suited to police <keyword id="11938290" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="insider-trading" source="Orion">insider trading</keyword> by members of <keyword id="11893699" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="congress" source="Orion">Congress</keyword>.</li><li>It is investigating GOP Sen. <keyword id="12205030" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="richard-burr" source="Orion">Richard Burr</keyword> and his brother-in-law over a stock sell-off.</li></ul>It was the <keyword id="12169748" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="stock-act" source="Orion">STOCK Act</keyword>'s moment in the sun.Days before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the United States and sent <keyword id="11893875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="markets" source="Orion">markets</keyword> crashing, Sen. Richard Burr sold off a significant portion of his stocks, raising suspicion that he was trading based on inside information gleaned from daily intelligence briefings. The <keyword id="11897354" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="justice-department" source="Orion">Justice Department</keyword> opened a criminal investigation into whether Burr violated a law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act. After months of work, the department <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doj-closed-investigation-into-burr-pandemic-stock-trades-reports-2021-1">closed</a> the case without bringing charges against the Republican senator from North Carolina. The US Senate Select Committee on Ethics, meanwhile, has taken no public action against Burr.But Burr is not entirely cleared. Almost a year later, another enforcement agency — the Securities and Exchange Commission — continues to pursue him on civil grounds.The SEC's investigation presents a test of the agency's appetite for enforcing the STOCK Act, a 2012 law designed to defend against conflicts of interest and force lawmakers to become more transparent about their personal finances.But federal authorities have never prosecuted a federal lawmaker under the STOCK Act, and lawmakers have serially ignored the law's requirement to disclose their personal stock trades within 30 to 45 days of them being made.<div type="image" title="gary gensler sec chair" height="1330" width="1773" msid="88300637" hostid="261"></div><h2>The SEC is independent, but it can only do so much</h2>In interviews, former SEC and congressional staffers said the SEC has certain advantages over the Justice Department that could position it as the enforcement muscle behind the STOCK Act. Foremost, while the Justice Department has a tradition of independence, it nonetheless exists within an executive branch led by either a Republican or Democratic president.The SEC's status as an independent commission, with seats divided between Democratic and Republican appointees, could therefore protect it from criticism that cases are politically motivated. And the commission has decades of experience monitoring markets for unusual activity and bringing insider-trading cases."The SEC understands how the financial markets work and, frankly, has a lot of expertise in bringing insider-trading cases," said Tyler Gellasch, a former Senate aide who helped draft the STOCK Act. "It also helps that the SEC is an independent agency, so its actions are often viewed as more cautious, and less overtly partisan."An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.Still, hurdles abound for any law-enforcement agency in the policing of elected lawmakers' financial trading.In the Burr investigation, the Justice Department ran into novel legal issues surrounding the communications of lawmakers. For example, when the Justice Department seized Burr's cellphone, it needed to navigate around restrictions raised by the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/politics/richard-burr-prosecutors-stocks/index.html">Constitution's speech or debate clause</a>, which broadly shields lawmakers from scrutiny over legislative activity.The SEC is nevertheless pressing ahead. The commission went to federal court in Manhattan to force <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-burr-brother-in-law-gerald-fauth-dumped-stocks-2020-5">Burr's brother-in-law</a> Gerald Fauth to sit for an investigative interview. According to an SEC <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.568663/gov.uscourts.nysd.568663.4.0.pdf">filing</a>, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/burrs-brother-in-law-called-stock-broker-one-minute-after-getting-off-phone-with-senator">Burr called Fauth</a> after selling off more than $1.6 million in stock. After <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.568663/gov.uscourts.nysd.568663.4.0.pdf">50 seconds on the phone</a>, Fauth called his broker and dumped his own stock, the filing shows.Fauth sat for the interview in late November.<iframe src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/players/HNMuzmPa-yyM9LDiu.html" width="100%" height="100%" style="position:absolute;" title="Sen. Richard Burr faces investigation for selling his stocks days before pandemic gripped US"></iframe><h2>Proving insider trading 'gets sticky'</h2>In the face of the Justice Department investigation, Burr said he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-burr-idUSKBN29P04F">based his trading</a> on publicly available information about the emerging coronavirus, such as <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> reports from CNBC. His case underscores how investigators can struggle to decipher when information — from a briefing or other closed-door setting — reaches the point of providing a degree of material, nonpublic detail that could lead to insider trading."Where it gets sticky is when the member of Congress has additional information that is not known to the public, that is more specific, and that a reasonable investor would want to know. And what the Burr case illustrates is the difficulty for the government of distinguishing between information that is, in some respects, public and, in other respects, not," said Daniel Hawke, a partner at the law firm Arnold &amp; Porter and former chief of the SEC's market-abuse unit.Hawke noted that the political sphere also features a wider exchange of information that would make it difficult for the SEC or another law-enforcement agency to draw a connection between a lawmaker's stock trade and inside information. For the SEC, it's not as simple as monitoring the trading around the time of a business move such as a merger or acquisition.Unlike an M&amp;A context, "where maybe only a handful of people working on a deal actually know what's going on, one of the challenges on the Hill is that it's an information exchange," Hawke said. "Information is being received and disseminated constantly. Figuring out how to surveil that, how to determine what information is significant and what information isn't — that's very difficult and time-consuming, and takes a lot of manual effort." <h2>The STOCK Act only goes so far</h2>While independent, the SEC also faces a real political dilemma when investigating a member of Congress.In 2019, former Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican from New York, pleaded guilty to insider trading and reached a settlement with the SEC resolving charges that he tipped his son off to negative trial results for a pharmaceutical drug. A federal judge later sentenced Collins to more than two years in prison, but then-President Donald Trump <a href="https://buffalonews.com/news/pardoned-by-trump-a-contrite-collins-returns-home-a-changed-man/article_4a914ae4-4608-11eb-9974-0715d91f7b6b.html">pardoned him</a> in December 2020. The STOCK Act didn't come into play in Collins' case because he learned of the negative trial results in his capacity as a member of the drug company's board, not as a member of Congress. The House and Senate have oversight powers over the agency and regularly summon the SEC leadership to appear at committee hearings. SEC Chair Gary Gensler <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CL5WfevHjI">testified</a> before the House Committee on Financial Services in October.The SEC also relies on congressionally authorized funds for its annual budget, meaning that any investigation into a lawmaker is inherently an inquiry into the commission's appropriators.For government-ethics advocates, that state of affairs has revealed how Congress failed — perhaps by its own choosing — to set up a robust enforcement regime for the STOCK Act.The answer, advocates said, is to prohibit lawmakers from trading stocks while serving in Congress."That's the serious way to do this," said Meredith McGehee, a government ethics expert who lobbied on the STOCK Act."Everything else is a Band-Aid."

The SEC could be the last, best hope to keep members of Congress from insider trading. The agency already has one Republican senator on its radar.

Welcome back to <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">10 Things in Politics</a>. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">Sign up here to receive this newsletter</a>. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576">here for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider">here for Android</a>. Send tips to <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.Here's what we're talking about:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-guidance-trick-or-treat-celebrate-halloween-covid-coronavirus-mask-2021-10"></a><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-pete-buttigieg-2024-democratic-primary-biden-2021-10">Kamalaworld is worried about a difficult, messy Democratic primary if it's Harris versus Buttigieg in 2024</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/senators-worry-more-sexual-predators-victims-after-huma-abedin-allegations-2021-10">Senators worry about who else an unnamed senator may have sexually abused</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-strikes-deal-with-manchin-sinema-cuts-social-benefits-plan-2021-10">Biden releases slimmed-down $1.75 trillion spending plan</a></li></ul>With Phil Rosen.<hr />1. 2024 VISION: The KHive is expecting a messy 2024 primary if President Joe Biden opts against running for reelection. People in Vice President Kamala Harris' orbit have taken note of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's rise, especially as Buttigieg supporters begin to plot their own 2024 plans.Here's what else former Harris staffers, fundraisers, and Democratic insiders are saying about 2024:"I don't know if Secretary Buttigieg wants that smoke": Democratic strategists and Harris supporters are issuing a brushback pitch to Buttigieg after Insider reported that some of his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/buttigieg-2024-harris-presidential-campaign-biden-donors-2021-10">top fundraisers were musing</a> that he'd be a better presidential candidate than Harris. People close to Buttigieg stress that he has nothing to do with the 2024 talk. People close to him and the vice president also stress that the two have become friendly colleagues.<ul><li>The full quote: "It would be messy, and honestly I don't know if Secretary Buttigieg wants that smoke, given what ultimately limited his campaign in 2020 - that it was viewed to be not diverse, not representative of a changing country, that it was essentially viewed as a way station for disaffected white liberals," a Democratic strategist who has worked on presidential campaigns told my colleagues.</li></ul>Many don't think Harris would clear the field: "I don't think she's got a stranglehold on the party," a former Harris staffer told my colleagues. "I don't think it's like Al Gore for Bill Clinton."<ul><li>Others to look out for: Insiders also think the 2020 hopefuls Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren could run again if Biden bows out. (Biden has said he intends to run again.) Terry McAuliffe is also mentioned, but he's engaged in a tight battle to reclaim his old job as Virginia governor.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-pete-buttigieg-2024-democratic-primary-biden-2021-10">Read more about what Harris loyalists are saying about 2024 and why Democrats say they're gearing up for another "messy" fight.</a><hr />2. Democrats have a framework for their massive spending plan: The White House unveiled a $1.75 trillion social-spending plan, dramatically curtailing Biden's economic ambitions in an effort to appease centrist holdouts like Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. There's still no final bill text. Some Democrats have also pledged to push for changes after the outline confirmed major areas like paid family leave and lowering prescription-drug prices were not included, making it unclear how much longer talks will continue. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-strikes-deal-with-manchin-sinema-cuts-social-benefits-plan-2021-10">Here's a look at what else made the cut</a>.<ul><li>A historic climate investment: Biden's plan calls for $555 billion in spending to address the climate crisis by incentivizing Americans to install solar panels and buy electric vehicles, spurring the creation of green energy jobs, and building a new Civilian Climate Corps that'd seek to provide more than 300,000 union jobs. Per The Washington Post, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/28/climate-biden-build-back-better/">it'd be the biggest clean-energy investment in US history</a>. | <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-climate-plan-biggest-investment-reconciliation-glasgow-summit-2021-10">The details</a>.</li></ul><hr />3. Biden's infrastructure plan remains stalled: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again pulled a vote after progressives threatened to torpedo the $1 trillion bipartisan proposal over concerns about the much-larger budget deal. Biden delayed his foreign trip to visit with House Democrats directly and told them, "I don't think it's hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week." <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pelosi-speeds-toward-infrastructure-vote-amid-progressive-pushback-2021-10">Here's where things stand</a>.<hr /><div type="image" title="huma abedin" height="1607" width="2142" msid="87363482" hostid="261"></div>4. Senators worry about who else an unnamed senator may have sexually abused: Sitting senators are concerned after the longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin wrote in a book that an unnamed senator forcibly kissed her in 2005. Abedin did not disclose the senator's party or whether he's still serving in the chamber. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/senators-worry-more-sexual-predators-victims-after-huma-abedin-allegations-2021-10">More on senators' reactions to the bombshell allegation</a>.<hr />5. Biden administration considers $450,000 settlements to families separated at the border under Trump: The sums under discussion are $1 million payouts per family, or $450,000 per individual, potentially totaling $1 billion, but the figures are subject to change, The Wall Street Journal reports. Lawyers representing the families are requesting at least $3.4 million a family. Most of the lawsuits allege that the children separated from their parents suffered both short-term and long-term trauma from their experiences. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-considering-450000-each-for-families-separated-at-border-wsj-2021-10">More on what the Biden administration is considering after Trump's widely panned zero-tolerance immigration policy</a>.<hr /><div type="image" title="Richard Burr" height="1334" width="2000" msid="87363484" hostid="261"></div>6. Feds are still investigating a GOP lawmaker over possible insider trading: Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina's dumping of more than $1.6 million in stock just a week before the market tanked in February 2020 amid coronavirus fears continues to draw the interest of federal regulators, ProPublica reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Burr called his brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, after unloading his own stocks. Fauth then quickly sold off up to $280,000 worth of stock. The SEC says Burr had access to nonpublic information about how the coronavirus would affect the economy because of his status at the time as the leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee. <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/burrs-brother-in-law-called-stock-broker-one-minute-after-getting-off-phone-with-senator">Here's what else the feds are revealing about their lengthy investigation</a>.<hr />7. Facebook rebrands as Meta: "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-new-name-meta-rebrand-metaverse-zuckerberg-apps-2021-10">From now on, we'll be metaverse first, not Facebook first</a>," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a company event. Zuckerberg later scoffed at the notion that Facebook was changing its name because of the increased federal scrutiny and litany of bad press stemming from a whistleblower's revelations about the social network. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-name-change-meta-papers-whitleblower-zuckerberg-contreversey-ridiculous-2021-10">More on the future of Facebook and why Zuckerberg is so focused on the metaverse</a>.<hr />8. New York is bracing for staffing issues over its vaccine mandates: City officials are making contingency plans while bracing for the possibility that thousands of city workers could be placed on unpaid leave starting Monday once the first phase of the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate takes effect, The New York Times reports. As of Thursday morning, a third of the workers in the fire and sanitation departments - and a fourth of the police force - had not yet shown proof of their vaccination. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/nyregion/nyc-police-vaccine-mandate.html">More on New York City's mandate and the defiant streak some workers are taking</a>.<hr />9. Andrew Cuomo faces a criminal charge over groping allegation: A criminal complaint has been filed against the former New York governor over an allegation of forcible touching at the governor's mansion, The Times reports. Cuomo resigned in August in the wake of a state attorney general's report that documented scores of claims of sexual harassment by Cuomo. Cuomo has repeatedly denied forcibly touching anyone.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cuomo-criminal-complaint-sex-crime-governors-mansion-incident-reports-2021-10"> Everything else we know about the charge Cuomo is facing</a>.<hr /><div type="image" title="nurse costume" height="1200" width="1600" msid="87363487" hostid="261"></div>10. Take a look at how Halloween costumes have changed over the years: Classic getups like clown costumes used to look friendly but are now terrifying. People used to wear actual nurse outfits when dressing up for Halloween, but now equivalent costumes are skimpy and scandalous. <a href="https://www.insider.com/classic-halloween-costumes-vintage-now-2018-10">Here's how 10 classic costumes have changed</a>.<hr />Today's trivia question: Who was the first US president to fly on a plane specially designed for the commander in chief? Email your answer and a suggested question to me at <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.<ul><li>Yesterday's answer: Then-Sen. Barack Obama made his first - and so far only - "SNL" appearance during a cold-open sketch in which he wore a mask of himself to a Halloween party hosted by the Clintons. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njyg0ZzfhyI">"I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween," Obama joked</a>.</li></ul>That's all for this week. Happy Halloween!

You Searched For "gerald fauth" and got 4 results

GOP Sen. Richard Burr's brother-in-law, a Trump appointee, dumped up to $280,000 in stocks the same day Burr did before the market plunged

Sonam Sheth

The SEC is reportedly looking into a senator and his brother-in-law dumping stock ahead of the COVID-19 market crash

Matthew Fox

The SEC could be the last, best hope to keep members of Congress from insider trading. The agency already has one Republican senator on its radar.

C. Ryan Barber

10 Things in Politics: Kamalaworld frets about 2024

Brent D. Griffiths