BAD BOY: Music mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs was arrested at a New York hotel last night following his indictment by a federal grand jury. The indictment was sealed but it’s expected that Combs is charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and possibly some weapons offenses.

  Combs was in New York expecting to be arrested. His legal team issued a statement saying, “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community.” The statement said, “He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal.”

  The 54-year-old Combs was a key figure in the rise of hip-hop, his Bad Boy Records establishing the careers of such stars as Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. But he’s been under scrutiny since his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, sued him last November accusing him of years of sexual and physical abuse. Other women have sued as well, accusing Combs of abuse and sex trafficking.

  Combs has called the accusations in the lawsuits “sickening allegations” from people looking for “a quick payday.” He settled the suit with Ventura … quickly. 

  Earlier this year federal agents raided Combs’ Los Angeles and Miami homes and confiscated his electronic devices. Authorities said at the time that it was part of a sex trafficking investigation.

SECURITY BREECH: With the Secret Service under question after the July attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told reporters that agents had not swept the perimeter of the Florida Golf course where a gunman laid in wait before the former president teed off on Sunday. 

  “The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there,” Rowe said. The golf outing was a short notice decision that was not on Trump’s official schedule, Rowe said, even though Trump frequently plays on Sundays.

  Rowe did not say whether agents had enough time to perform the sweep before Trump began to play.

  The man suspected of planning to shoot Trump was charged yesterday only with being a felon in possession of a gun and having a gun with an obliterated serial number. It’s an indication that prosecutors may have trouble charging him with more serious crimes.

  Ryan Routh was believed to be lying in wait with a rifle while Trump was playing golf. Routh never fired a shot and drove off after being fired upon by the Secret Service.

  Investigators are digging into Routh’s background and whether he may have made any threats.  Routh had criticized Trump on social media and is a big supporter of US military aid for Ukraine.

IT’S POLITICAL: In his campaign to lock down the working class vote, Donald Trump has proposed eliminating taxes on tips, overtime hours, and social security benefits, all of which would cost the federal government and the social security system billions of dollars while growing the federal deficit.

  His tax proposals also reveal his duplicity.

  Trump’s proposals do not account for the effects. Take Social Security for instance. Depending on your income, 50 percent or more of taxes on Social Security benefits go right back to Social Security. Cutting taxes on benefits means payroll taxes would have to be increased or benefits decreased.

  About people who work overtime he said, “For too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them” and that “police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers and machine operators” would finally “catch a break.”

  About 55 percent of American workers are paid hourly. The Tax Foundation, a think tank, estimates that eliminating income taxes on overtime would cost the government $227 billion over 10 years if applied to the income tax — and that would jump by another $145 billion if payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare also were eliminated.

   But here’s the duplicity. During Trump’s presidency, the Labor Department pushed 3.2 million workers out of the pay category that made them eligible for overtime. Another 5.2 million workers lost overtime payments by businesses allowed to reclassify hourly employees as managers or executives. 

FLIPS AND SPINS: American gymnast Jordan Chiles, who was stripped of her bronze medal over a technicality at last month’s Paris Olympics, filed an appeal in Switzerland’s Supreme Court to reclaim her title.

  Chiles initially finished fifth but filed an inquiry into her score which resulted in her being elevated to third place. Then the Court of Arbitration for Sport reversed that decision saying Chiles’s coach had not announced the inquiry within the time limit, even though there is video evidence that she did.

  Maurice M. Suh, a lawyer for Chiles, said, “Every part of the Olympics, including the arbitration process, should stand for fair play.”

THE SPIN RACK: Disgraced former BBC anchor Huw Edwards, once one of the best-known news presenters in England, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years for possessing indecent images of children. — Reversing the work-at-home accommodation spawned by the Covid pandemic, Amazon told its corporate employees that they’ll have to return to the office full time by January. — Beaches in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware were closed to swimmers after medical waste, including used hypodermic needles and feminine hygiene products washed up in popular ocean-front spots. The National Park Service said they did not know the source of the debris. — Harvard University says that its number of Black students has dropped since the Supreme Court shot down affirmative action in college admissions.

BELOW THE FOLD: In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”  Twitter/X owner Elon Musk replied, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post included a thinking-face emoji.

  Then Musk quickly took down his post commenting that, “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.” 

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