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Clarence Thomas accepted a free yacht trip to Russia and got flown out on a complimentary helicopter ride to Putin's hometown, 2 Democratic senators say

• Democratic senators have accused Justice Clarence Thomas of accepting undisclosed gifts and trips.
• They say he accepted gifts such as a yacht trip to Russia and a chopper ride to Vladimir Putin's hometown.
• The senators want an investigation into potential tax fraud and ties between Thomas and Harlan Crow.

Two Democratic senators have accused Justice Clarence Thomas of accepting a free trip to Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon filed a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland on July 3, asking to open an investigation into the Supreme Court judge.

The letter said there was a "serious possibility of tax fraud" and accused Thomas of having "secretly accepted gifts and income potentially worth millions of dollars."

The letter's appendix , which lists 35 undisclosed gifts, shows a "yacht trip to Russia and the Baltics" and a "helicopter ride to Yusupov Palace, St. Petersburg," both listed under the year 2003.

St. Petersburg, Russia, is Putin's birthplace and where he grew up. The president now resides in Moscow.

The appendix list is titled "Likely Undisclosed Gifts and Income from Harlan Crow and Affiliated Companies." Harlan Crow is a real-estate developer and the former chairman and CEO of the Trammell Crow Company.

The senators cited a ProPublica report from May last year detailing Thomas' hushed-up financial ties to Crow.

The report said that apart from the Russia trip, Crow also funded Thomas' grandnephew Mark Martin 's boarding-school fees, which cost "more than $6,000 a month."

In their letter, the senators wrote that other gifts from Crow included "multiple instances of free private jet travel, yacht travel, and lodging," as well as "gifts of tuition for Justice Thomas's grandnephew," "real estate transactions," "home renovations," and "free rent for Justice Thomas's mother."

In September, Thomas said he'd accepted three trips on a private plane owned by Crow . He didn't mention any other gifts.

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Whitehouse and Wyden aren't the only Democrats who've voiced concerns over Thomas' sketchy financial ties.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York filed articles of impeachment against Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday.

"Justice Thomas and Alito's repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law," her statement reads.

Representatives for Thomas, Whitehouse, Wyden and Crow didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Watch: Why Clarence Thomas' lavish vacations with a GOP donor are in the spotlight

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The most boats ever will compete in the 100th Bayview Yacht Club race to Mackinac Island

Billed on its website as the “world’s longest continuously run long-distance freshwater yacht race,” the 100th Bayview Mackinac Race is set to start Saturday.

A record-setting 334 boats have registered for the 100th year of the race, shattering the record of 316 in 1985 and a huge contrast compared with the 200 boats that raced last year, said David Stoyka, spokesman for the Bayview Yacht Club, which puts on the race.

Bayview Yacht Club says boats start leaving the Black River in Port Huron around 8 a.m. on race day and will continue leaving until around noon. From the Black River, they will proceed up the St. Clair River, under the Blue Water Bridge, into Lake Huron.

The first scheduled start time in Lake Huron is 11:30 a.m., with starts every 10 minutes until approximately 1:30 p.m. The starts may be delayed due to weather conditions.

This year, for the 100th running, the race will follow the original 1925 route and span 204 nautical miles. From the starting point, the boats will head north along the Michigan shoreline, passing south of Bois Blanc Island, sailing west to east at the finish line between Round Island and Mackinac Island, organizers said.

The range of boats are expected to finish in between 30 and 60 hours.

The sailors

Teams at all skill levels have entered the race, which draws competitors from around the world.  The highly skilled racers know they will cross the bow of competitors within inches. Still, there's always risk of a crash with the slightest miscalculation.

"Everybody recognizes this is super intense," said champion sailor  Tim Prophit , 65, of St. Clair Shores, past commodore of Bayview Yacht Club and owner of Fast Tango, a North American 40 sailboat.

The teams are vying for trophies and flags to show their accomplishments.

The J.L. Hudson Trophy is awarded to the boat with the best corrected time in Division I, and the Canadian Club Classic Trophy is awarded to the boat with the best corrected time in Division II.

How can spectators follow the race?

Spectators can go to bycmack.com during the race and click on “RaceTracking” link to watch real-time GPS positioning of all the race boats, or, on your mobile device, download the free app YB Races and select the current race.

Boats will start arriving at Mackinac Island on Sunday afternoon and continue until Monday evening, all dependent upon the wind.

Finishes can be seen from Windermere Point on Mackinac Island at the south end of Main Street.

Sailors who have completed 25 Bayview Mackinac races are called “Old Goats,” according to the club, while those who have completed 50 are called “Grand Rams.” 

"Double Goats" are sailors who have completed 25 Bayview Mackinac races and 25 Chicago Yacht Club race to Mackinac races. This year’s Chicago to Mackinac race encountered strong winds in Lake Michigan , snapping some boats’ masts and tossing one sailor overboard. No one was hurt.

Volunteers who have served for 15 years on the Race Committee are honored with the title “Old Forts,” as designated by the Race Committee.

This story includes material from a staff report by former Free Press reporter Phoebe Wall Howard and from the Bayview Yacht Club.

Watch CBS News

St. Paul's Harriet Island transforming ahead of Yacht Club Festival

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Music and Concerts | The Black Crowes cancel Friday night…

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Music and concerts, music and concerts | the black crowes cancel friday night performance at minnesota yacht club festival, organizers say there is an ‘illness in the band’.

Organizers of the two-day festival held on St. Paul’s Harriet Island Regional Park announced the news on social media : “Due to illness in the band, The Black Crowes will not be appearing at Minnesota Yacht Club this weekend. The band apologizes to their fans for any inconvenience.”

The post did not share any details on possible refunds, but the festival’s website contains this line on its ticket and wristband policy page: “All sales are FINAL — no refunds and no exchanges.”

RELATED: What to know if you’re headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival

The festival did not add a replacement act, but reworked Friday’s schedule and gave several acts more time on stage.

The revised lineup includes: Gully Boys (1-2 p.m.), Harbor and Home (2-2:40 p.m.), Morgan Wade (2:40-3:40), Michigander (3:40-4:40), Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (4:40-5:40), Durry (5:40-6:40), Gwen Stefani (6:45-8), The Head and the Heart (8-9) and Alanis Morissette (9-10:30).

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StarTribune

Festival, ahoy a dozen things to know about st. paul's minnesota yacht club.

It's the biggest music festival launched in the Twin Cities in 12 years. It's expecting more than 30,000 musicheads per day. And it's being produced by the same company that puts on Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits fests.

There's a lot to learn about the Minnesota Yacht Club — especially for deprived Twin Cities music lovers who haven't been to a big, nationally promoted festival like this since Live Nation's ill-fated River's Edge Music Festival on the same site in 2012.

With its inaugural voyage scheduled Friday and Saturday at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul, the river-themed event features a Gen-X-nostalgic all-rock lineup led by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alanis Morissette, Gwen Stefani, Black Crowes, the Offspring, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Hold Steady and a dozen more acts. New Orleans' soul-funk troupe Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are the only non-rock act on the bill, and they actually rock harder than most of them.

Here are some pointers, talking points and pointed opinions going into this weekend's mega-bash.

1. Saturday's single-day tickets are sold out. Even though they just played in town last year , the Chili Peppers' day as headliners quickly proved more popular than Morissette's. However, two-day general admission festival passes (now $255) and one-day Friday tickets ($135) were still available at press time via minnesotayachtclubfestival.com .

2. No, it's not a "yacht rock" festival. There actually has been a lot of confusion about this. The event's name is simply a fun spin on its riverside location and the relative irony of someone having a yacht in Minnesota. It has nothing to do with the genre of music associated with breezy and cheesy '70s-'80s hitmakers like Toto, Seals & Crofts and Christopher Cross. How fun would it have been to see one of those acts sandwiched between the Hold Steady and Offspring, though?

3. Boats actually are part of the experience. "Riverboat VIP" ticket holders ($825) can lounge in air-conditioning on the Jonathan Padelford and even take a 60-minute cruise on the paddleboat during the fest. Why anyone would want to go to a music fest to set sail for South St. Paul, we're not sure, but it's a unique idea for a festival.

4. The company behind it is in the festival business. C3 got its start with the hugely successful Austin City Limits Music Festival in the early 2000s before turning Lollapalooza into a one-weekend Chicago event. Live Nation bought a 51% stake in the company in 2014 but mostly leaves C3 to do its own thing when it comes to festivals. Other fests in its portfolio include Boston Calling, Atlanta's Shaky Knees and New York's Governors Ball — all steeped in unique branding and preparations for each city.

"We've been talking to the city well over a year now and working with them on the logistical plans," C3 promoter Tim Sweetwood said of MYC.

5. There will be only two stages (and no overlapping performances). While many festivals require fans to make tough decisions and Iditarod-like treks between competing stages — OK, maybe that's being a little dramatic — the setup at MYC in its first year features just two stages with alternating music that never runs concurrently. Dubbed the Skipper Stage and Crow's Nest Stage, they are only about a quarter-mile apart, too.

6. Gwen Stefani's appearance is the rarest among the top names. Last seen in town making a surprise appearance with husband Blake Shelton at the TC Summer Jam in 2022 , the former No Doubt singer and ex-coach on NBC's "The Voice" has not been performing a lot of late; just a handful of fly-in gigs this summer.

In the solo gigs she has done in 2024, Stefani has been revisiting many songs from No Doubt (with whom she reunited at Coachella fest in April ), including "Don't Speak," "Just a Girl" and "Hella Good."

7. The lineup isn't entirely a nostalgia trip. All these aforementioned acts make it look exclusively like a '90s and early '00s throwback fest, but there are actually modern stars and buzzmakers on the lineup.

Texas slinger Gary Clark Jr. has been the most thrilling blues-rock guitarist on tour over the past decade . Harmonious Seattle rockers the Head and the Heart have racked up a swath of radio hits and TV/film placement with songs like "Lost in My Mind." Twangy singer Morgan Wade has made a couple of well-reviewed records with Jason Isbell's guitarist Sadler Vaden as her producer. Indie-rocker Michigander is a critical favorite.

The Twin Cities' own pop-rock darlings Hippo Campus have become a big draw , too, recently playing New York's Governors Ball festival and selling out the Armory in Minneapolis.

8. There's good local representation. In addition to Hippo Campus, we'll see hard-charging local faves Gully Boys help kick off the fest Friday ahead of viral sensations Durry . On Saturday, fuzz-rocky kids Bugsy play before a fun afternoon twofer with Soul Asylum and the semi-local Hold Steady. As rock-only lineups go — musical diversity is not Yacht Club's strong suit — these are some of the state's most relevant acts present or past playing live in 2024.

9. The list of items you're allowed to bring in is short. Leave the chairs, coolers and umbrellas at home. Only small fanny packs, clutch purses, emptied hydration packs or small clear bags are allowed in. Other permissible items include: phones, baby strollers, blankets/towels, binoculars, reusable water bottles, non-aerosol sunscreen (3.4 ounce max) and Frisbees. For our sake, though, please don't bring any Frisbees.

10. There's a longer list of alternative transportation options. Coming from Austin, Texas, a city with notorious traffic problems, C3 makes a point of encouraging biking, ride-sharing and public transit options at all its festivals.

There's a designated rideshare dropoff site (Uber, Lyft, taxi) near the Wabasha Street entrance at 49 E. Fillmore Av. Bike lots are located at both that entrance and the second set of gates along W. Water Street (bring your own lock). For light rail, the Green Line's Central Station is a half-mile walk away. Ample public bus route stops also can be mapped out via metrotransit.org .

11. Harriet Island isn't really an island, and it isn't all that hard to get to. You wouldn't know it from the maps on the festival's website — or if you're one of those uppity Minneapolitans who never visit the other Twin City — but you can approach the park from the southwest side of the river as well as the downtown side. There are assorted parking options over there, too.

12. This is just a start. "It's sort of a slow burn to start," C3′s Sweetwood said, promising expansion in the years to come. "We'll try to give it a little more color and better branding, the kind of things we have a good feel for at C3, being primarily a festival producer."

Minnesota Yacht Club

Friday lineup (in order, 12:45-10:30 p.m.): Harbor and Home, Gully Boys, Michigander, Morgan Wade, Durry, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Head and the Heart, Gwen Stefani, Black Crowes, Alanis Morissette.

Saturday (1-10:30 p.m.): Nico Vega, Bugsy, Wilderado, Soul Asylum, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Hippo Campus, the Hold Steady, the Offspring, Gary Clark Jr., Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Tickets: $135-$925 Fri. only, $255-$1,395 two-day.

Website: minnesotayachtclubfestival.com .

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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• Chili Peppers, Alanis top '90s-heavy lineup for first Minnesota Yacht Club Festival in St. Paul Jan. 30
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