Judge asked to decide if Trump property valuations were fraud or "genius"
CBSN
Did former President Donald Trump commit fraud when he valued properties far higher than appraisers when applying for loans, or was he applying his "investment genius" to the valuations?
That question was at the center of a Friday hearing, ahead of a scheduled Oct. 2 civil trial stemming from a 2022 lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing Trump and others of systematic fraud.
The lawsuit is seeking $250 million from the Trumps and their company, as well as several additional sanctions designed to limit their ability to do business in the state. James has also asked the judge in the case to rule before trial that Trump and his company provided banks with financial statements that purposefully misrepresented his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion.

The peace and tranquility of Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco – home to 500+ acres of old-growth redwoods – make it just about the last place you'd expect to find a fight brewing. "The fact that they're taking down whole groups of signs about climate change and our nation's history is disappointing, and embarrassing," said retired U.S. Park Ranger Lucy Scott In:

We share our planet with maybe 10 million species of plants, animals, birds, fish, fungi and bugs. And to help identify them, millions of people are using a free phone app. "Currently we have about six million people using the platform every month," said Scott Loarie, the executive director of iNaturalist, a nonprofit.

At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead. In:










