Por Annie Grayer, CNN

Según la representante republicana Nancy Mace y documentos revisados ​​por CNN, los contribuyentes de EE.UU. han pagado más de US$ 300.000 en acuerdos confidenciales por acoso sexual en nombre de seis exmiembros de la Cámara de Representantes o sus oficinas.

La Oficina de Derechos Laborales del Congreso se vio obligada a entregar los documentos del acuerdo al Congreso tras una citación judicial de Mace, quien ha ayudado a liderar una iniciativa en el Capitolio para impulsar la transparencia y la rendición de cuentas tras las acusaciones de conducta sexual inapropiada que llevaron a dos renuncias de alto perfil.

Un análisis realizado por CNN de más de 1.000 páginas de expedientes, que incluyen notas de abogados, documentos de acuerdos y denuncias formales, ofrece una perspectiva de las acusaciones de que ciertos miembros se aprovecharon de sus posiciones de poder para maltratar a su personal.

La Oficina de Derechos Laborales del Congreso interviene en una variedad de quejas contra los miembros, no exclusivamente por acoso sexual.

Desde el 1 de enero de 1996 hasta el 12 de diciembre de 2018, la oficina aprobó 349 indemnizaciones o acuerdos extrajudiciales para resolver quejas contra oficinas del poder legislativo, según indicó su asesor jurídico en una carta enviada al presidente de la Comisión de Supervisión de la Cámara de Representantes, James Comer, obtenida por CNN.

Un total de 80 de esos casos fueron resueltos por una oficina de la Cámara o del Senado por diversos motivos. De este subconjunto, siete casos derivaron en pagos para abordar denuncias de acoso sexual.

Los pagos a los que se hace referencia en la carta se realizaron con fondos públicos provenientes de una cuenta del Tesoro que ya no está disponible para los legisladores.

Veintitrés expedientes de casos de acuerdos extrajudiciales en la jurisdicción de la Oficina de Derechos Laborales del Congreso fueron destruidos de conformidad con la política de retención de registros de dicha oficina.

“Esta ‘Política de Retención de Registros de OCWR’ se implementó en 2013 para alinear a OCWR con las prácticas habituales de retención de registros en todo el Gobierno”, escribió el Asesor Jurídico General John N. Ohlweiler.

En términos generales, los acuerdos de conciliación revisados ​​por CNN no implican que la oficina acusada admita haber cometido irregularidad alguna, sino que establecen que la oficina acepta el acuerdo “para evitar las molestias de un litigio prolongado y los gastos que dicho litigio supondría para las partes y los contribuyentes”, como se lee en uno de los acuerdos.

Los acuerdos también detallan cómo la oficina debe gestionar las cuestiones relacionadas con los términos y condiciones de la rescisión del contrato laboral del demandante.

Tras los cambios normativos implementados en 2018 a raíz del movimiento #MeToo, los miembros ya no podían depender de los fondos públicos para llegar a acuerdos extrajudiciales.

La Comisión de Ética de la Cámara de Representantes anunció en un comunicado reciente que, desde la entrada en vigor de la nueva ley, “la Comisión no ha recibido notificación alguna de indemnizaciones o acuerdos relacionados con acusaciones de acoso sexual por parte de un miembro”.

El lunes, Mace mencionó en una publicación de X a seis exlegisladores o a las oficinas de legisladores involucrados en los acuerdos extrajudiciales que suman más de US$ 300.000.

La mayoría de los miembros mencionados por la congresista renunciaron al Congreso tras enfrentar públicamente acusaciones de conducta sexual inapropiada, entre ellos los exdiputados John Conyers, demócrata de Michigan, y Blake Farenthold, republicano de Texas.

En varios de estos casos, se informó públicamente antes de sus renuncias que el

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Jeff Bridges often carries a camera on set.

The Oscar winning actor's black and white photographs are currently on display at Tamsen Gallery on State Street in Santa Barbara.

That's where the Santa Barbara Literary Festival held an Author Wine Gathering.

Visitors enjoyed seeing his panoramic images and one of his cameras on display.

Many of the photographs are of his famous costars.

The Jeff Bridges show at the Tamsen Gallery runs through May 30.

For more information visit https://tamsengallery.com

The post Jeff Bridges photography at Tamsen Gallery appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

CNN

By Jacqui Palumbo, Oscar Holland, Bianca Betancourt, Jennifer Arnow, CNN│Photographs by Lanna Apisukh

New York (CNN) — Hundreds of stars ascended the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Met Gala on Monday evening, bringing a range of interpretations to this year’s dress code, “Fashion is Art.”

Guests climbed the front steps against a verdant backdrop reminiscent of Monet, with the museum creating a garden-like setting of romantic hanging florals, barriers of green hedges, pots of lavender and a carpet resembling mossy bricks.

The theme mirrored an accompanying exhibition titled “Costume Art” at the Met’s Costume Institute, for which the gala is a major source of income. This year, the Met Gala raised a record $42 million, up from last year’s record of $31 million, the museum announced at a press conference before the event.

The night’s co-chairs included Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Venus Williams, Nicole Kidman and Beyoncé — who returned to the event after a decade-long hiatus in a glittering skeleton gown by Olivier Rousteing, bringing daughter Blue Ivy along for her Met Gala debut.

Organizers suggested that guests might “express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form.” Stars looked to the canon of art history for inspiration, with early looks taking subtle cues from the theme, and more theatrical takes coming over the course of the evening.

This year brought unusual controversy due to the event’s primary sponsors, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, with protests planned around New York City — and one protester attempting to breach the perimeter of the event before being stopped by police. Sánchez Bezos seemed to send a message through her own look for the night — a Schiaparelli gown riffing off of the John Singer Sargent portrait of Madame X, a depiction of a socialite that caused its own scandalous reception.

Some of the most dramatic looks of the night played with anatomy and the body, from Beyoncé’s show-stopping skeleton to Lisa’s Robert Wun-designed white veiled gown that framed her face with extra pairs of arms. Heidi Klum disguised herself as a living statue, and Bad Bunny was (nearly) unrecognizable by aging himself several decades.

“I always try to do something different,” the singer told Vogue on the red carpet, joking that it took “53 years” to create his look.

CNN’s Rachel Tashjian contributed to this report.

Stream CNN FlashDoc’s new documentary “Behind the Bob: Vogue’s Anna Wintour,” exploring Wintour’s decades-long reign, on the Read more

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Taxpayers have paid more than $300,000 in confidential sexual harassment settlements on behalf of six former members of the House of Representatives or their offices, according to GOP Rep. Nancy Mace and documents reviewed by CNN.

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights was compelled to turn over the settlement documents to Congress following a subpoena from Mace, who has helped lead an effort on Capitol Hill to push for transparency and accountability following sexual misconduct allegations that led to a pair of high-profile resignations.

A CNN review of over 1,000 pages of case files, including counsel notes, settlement documents and formal complaints, offers a window into allegations that certain members leveraged their positions of power to mistreat their staff.

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights is involved with a range of complaints against members, not exclusively sexual harassment claims.

From January 1, 1996, through December 12, 2018, the office approved 349 awards or settlements “to resolve complaints against legislative branch offices,” its general counsel said in a letter sent to House Oversight Chair James Comer obtained by CNN. Eighty of those cases were settled by a House or Senate office for a host of different reasons. From that subset, seven cases led to payments to address allegations of sexual harassment. The payments referenced in the letter used taxpayer money from a Treasury account that no longer exists as an option for lawmakers.

Twenty-three case files of settlements in the jurisdiction of the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights were destroyed pursuant to the office’s record retention policy.

“This ‘OCWR Record Retention Policy’ was put in place in 2013 to align OCWR with regular government-wide record retention practices,” General Counsel John N. Ohlweiler wrote.

The general language of the settlement contracts reviewed by CNN do not have the accused office admitting to any wrongdoing, but rather state the office is agreeing to the settlement “to avoid the inconvenience of protracted litigation and the expense to the parties and the taxpayers of such litigation,” as one settlement read. The settlement agreements also lay out how the office is meant to handle questions related to the terms or conditions of the claimant’s termination of employment.

Following policy changes made in 2018 in the wake of the #MeToo Movement, members could no longer rely on taxpayer dollars for settlements. The House Ethics Committee announced in a recent statement that since the enactment of the new law, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment by a member.”

Mace named six former lawmakers or lawmakers’ offices involved in the settlements totaling more than $300,000 in an X post on Monday. Most of the members named by the congresswoman resigned from Congress after publicly facing allegations of sexual misconduct, including former Reps. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, and Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican.

In several of these cases, it was publicly reported prior to their resignations that the member had used taxpayer funds for settlements.

CNN has attempted to reach out to either the former member or a representative for all six members named by Mace. Three of the former lawmakers named by the congresswoman, including Conyers and Farenthold, are deceased.

In 2017, the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Conyers, who at the time denied any wrongdoing, but did not dispute the existence of a settlement or payment. The documents show that a severa

By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

(CNN) — When Beyoncé was announced as a co-chair of this year’s Met Gala, it signaled the end of her decade-long hiatus away from the annual Costume Institute fundraiser — which became a globally watched phenomenon in the 2010s thanks to appearances from superstars like her.

It wasn’t a surprise then that the singer arrived at the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a look that combined the illusion of a naked dress with an unfathomable number of crystals, a headpiece, and a feathered train that took six people to carry. After all, those are the hallmarks of a Beyoncé Met Gala look. What was more unexpected was her oldest daughter, Blue Ivy, stepping out just behind her for her very first Met Gala appearance.

“It feels surreal because my daughter is here. She looks so beautiful. It’s incredible to share it with her. She is ready,” Beyoncé told Vogue on the red carpet. What she was looking forward to most: “Just experiencing this through the eyes of Blue.”

Throughout last year’s Cowboy Carter Tour, the teen shadowed her mom in looks coordinated for the shows, which, along with her sweet moments with younger sister Rumi, quickly became one of the most talked-about highlights.

But at the Met Gala, Blue Ivy charted her own path. Beyoncé’s showstopping ensemble, designed by Olivier Rousteing, who stepped down from Balmain last year, was quite literally an opulent skeleton — part armor, part gown, with ombre feathers trailing behind her. Next to her, Blue Ivy opted for crisp white Balenciaga, wearing a wide-lapeled bomber jacket over a corseted bubble-hemmed gown, along with a pair of shades. Beyoncé often relies on her longtime collaborators like Rousteing, and the garments came together with styling by Ty Hunter, who has worked with her since her Destiny’s Child days and appeared next to her on the red carpet. Blue Ivy is still stepping into her style, opting for Pierpaolo Piccioli’s new vision for Balenciaga.

The Carter family (yes, Jay-Z was there, too — in Louis Vuitton) were not the last to arrive, since that honor usually goes to Rihanna, who knows how to make the final entrance. But they did cap the night with a Big Moment, after a dizzying number of guest arrivals and interpretations all hoped to best interpret the theme “Fashion is Art.”

It was an open brief, and while there was plenty of Klimt-inspired gold, soft-hued Grecian draping and even a splash of “Judith-beheading-Holofernes” red (as interpreted by Lena Dunham), many celebrities chose to focus on the overarching theme throughout the exhibition of the interplay between the body and fashion as a form of art. And Rousteing has spent years creating sculptural tour costumes for the singer that do just that. At the Met Gala, her gown was about “celebrating what God gave you,” she explained on the red carpet — down to the last glittering finger bone.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Look of the Week: Beyoncé brings Blue Ivy for the teen’s Met Gala debut appeared first on News Channel 3-12.