The John Rothmann Show Podcast: Recent Episodes
The John Rothmann Show
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Ron Snouffer is an insurance expert and public adjuster. He fights for the rights of property owners.
Insurers aren’t supposed to jack up premiums in random states to make up for large payouts to hurricane victims, but what happens if some insurance companies fail? Could it have a ripple effect on rates across the country?
Hurricane Ian is expected to undermine the already precarious market for property insurance in Florida, supercharging premiums and exposing gaps in coverage.
Why it matters: Ian's trail of wreckage will inevitably trigger a host of insurance claims by homeowners, saddle those without flood coverage with devastating losses and bludgeon the strained finances of the state's insurers.
Driving the news: Property losses from Ian are expected to amount to "one of the largest catastrophic loss events" in U.S. history, likely exceeding $30 billion, says Mark Friedlander, a Florida-based spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute (III).
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What do you see as the solution to the inciting divisive rhetoric in post 2016 politics?
Chatter about a Civil War increases after every major setback Trump faces. The Trump mimicking candidates are loving it. The practice is divisive and the exact opposite of One Nation, indivisible. So, why do the same people that claim to be “patriots” keep doing it?
Soon after the F.B.I. searched Donald J. Trump’s home in Florida for classified documents, online researchers zeroed in on a worrying trend.
Posts on Twitter that mentioned “civil war” had soared nearly 3,000 percent in just a few hours as Mr. Trump’s supporters blasted the action as a provocation. Similar spikes followed, including on Facebook, Reddit, Telegram, Parler, Gab and Truth Social, Mr. Trump’s social media platform. Mentions of the phrase more than doubled on radio programs and podcasts, as measured by Critical Mention, a media-tracking firm.
More than a century and a half after the actual Civil War, the deadliest war in U.S. history, “civil war” references have become increasingly commonplace on the right. While in many cases the term is used only loosely — shorthand for the nation’s intensifying partisan divisions — observers note that the phrase, for some, is far more than a metaphor.
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It is Fleet Week in San Francisco. Are you coming to the city to see the Blue Angels and the ships?
What is Fleet Week?
San Francisco Fleet Week is one of the country's largest celebrations of the U.S. armed forces. The celebration was started in 1981 by then San Francisco Mayor, Diane Feinstein. Organizers say following the pandemic huge crowds turned out for Fleet Week last year, and they're predicting big crowds again this year.
Where is it?
Most official Fleet Week activities take place along The Embarcadero and Marina Greens. If you're looking for the best seating for the airshow, the Marina Green is the place to be. The Presidio Tunnel Tops, Twin Peaks, Pier 39 and Crissy Field will also provide great views. Watching the Air Show is free, but premium seating is available for purchase.
City leaders are advising visitors, as they have in years past, to use public transit and say if you must drive, be sure to not leave any valuables in your vehicle, in fact they're warning people who drive to clear any valuables out of their car even before they park, just in case burglars are watching.
What's new in 2022?
Organizers say for the first time ever Navy F-35's will be at San Francisco's Fleet Week. Two of the F-35's will be on display for visitors to enjoy.
Say something good about yourself - it’s ‘Toot your Flute” Day
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A Bay Area mayor is being criticized for how he's handling a homeless encampment. The mayor of Richmond shared the addresses of his rivals on the City Council with several people living in RV's along Rydin Road. In an email, Mayor Tom Butt told the residents living at the encampment to park their RV's outside of the council member's homes and said they were "RV-friendly parking spots." Council members wanted to give the Rydin Road residents $1700 to leave the encampment, with the possibility of getting $7,000 if they found other housing. Butt didn't agree with that plan, instead he wanted to open an RV parking site. Neighbors were against that. The city is trying to solve their homeless crisis as the number of people living on the streets has gone from 333 to 632 people in three years.
Did he cross the line as far as telling people to park in front of other council members' homes…or is he working to get things done and making a point while doing it?
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President Biden convened a meeting at the White House to mark 100 days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and assess the impact that has had on the country. He argued that Republicans were doubling down on “extreme” policies, including a national ban at 15 weeks of pregnancy. “It’s really scary … that in some states they’re already succeeding when the top decision came down,” Biden said.
Administration officials focused on a White House report noting that abortion bans have taken effect in more than a dozen states and close to 30 million women of reproductive age now live in a state with a ban. The event comes as Democrats seek to galvanize voters on the issue of abortion ahead of the November midterm elections.
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The one and only Jan Wahl returns for her favorite disaster movies to share with John Rothmann, and be prepared for some cinematic treats!
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It's a question on the mind of many concerned Americans. Should Ukraine be let into NATO, escalating the conflict with Russia to new levels? Or should the country be left in the dark for Russia to stomp over? John gives his thoughts and takes calls from many on this difficult topic.
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Reactions are pouring in from Wednesday's shooting in East Oakland that affected students in several connected schools. John gets the pulse of the public on the issue of gun control and gang activity, and what should be done to prevent this tragedy from occurring again.
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votemarie.com
jillyee.com
Why moderate candidates Jill Yee & Marie Hurabiell have visions on how to solve the systemic CCSF issues rather than kicking the problems down the road. The moderate candidate uphill challenge: the incumbents and the Union slates having different positions on how to solve CCSF issues.
Jill Yee: Was born in San Francisco and raised in the Western Addition. Her parents were immigrants and City College was her only option for college. She credits City College as the springboard for all of her successes. She knows first hand how City College can change lives and its benefits extend across generations. She was honored to have the opportunity to return to City College to teach Psychology, she earned tenure, was later elected Department Chair of Behavioral Sciences and was then selected to serve as Dean of 11 Departments in the School of Social Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, Ethnic Studies and Social Justices. Jill also has a law degree.
Jill has extensive experience at City College, spanning over 40 years. She has an insider's perspective. Her dedication and commitment to the college speaks for itself.
Marie Hurabiell: is an eighth generation San Franciscan, is a founder and board member of Ellipsis Health, Inc., a technology company using speech analytics to gauge the behavioral health of patients in real-time. Following a federal clerkship in Los Angeles, she started her law career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in San Francisco. She later served as General Counsel at both Knight Ridder Digital and Red Herring Communications and ran her own law firm. Ms. Hurabiell has led fundraising efforts for organizations such as Georgetown University, San Francisco Ballet, Wender Weis Foundation for Children, Phillips Exeter Academy, The Hamlin School, and the International Museum of Women.
Ms. Hurabiell has served on numerous boards, including the Presidio of San Francisco (Chair, Vice Chair and Chair of the Audit & Finance Committee) , Georgetown University Board of Regents, where she engaged in crafting the successful Design Curriculum initiative; Holy Family Day Home (President & Chair of the Capital Campaign); San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary (President); National Charity League Golden Gate Chapter (VP); and Hamilton Family Center. Hurabiell received her B.A. with Honors from Georgetown University and her J.D. with Honors from the University of Pennsylvania. When not working to improve San Francisco, and more specifically CCSF, she enjoys time with her family, travel, adventures, gardening, reading and laughing as much as possible.
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Are we impotent?
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday recognized the independence of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, hours before holding a signing ceremony to incorporate them into the Russian Federation. Putin signed a decree recognizing the two southern Ukrainian regions as independent states on Friday. He also signed a similar decree earlier in February, when he recognized two breakaway regions in the east of Ukraine, Luhansk and Donetsk, as independent states. Kyiv and Western powers do not recognize the two self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as sovereign states.
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Judge Aileen M. Cannon told Donald Trump’s lawyers Thursday that they did not need to comply with an order from special master Raymond J. Dearie and state in a court filing whether they believe FBI agents lied about documents seized from the former president’s Florida residence.
Thursday’s ruling was the first clash between Cannon, a Trump appointee who has generally shown the former president deference in litigation over the Mar-a-Lago investigation, and Dearie, a federal judge she appointed as an outside expert in the case, who appears to be far more skeptical of Trump.
After Trump’s lawyers requested a special master, Cannon chose Daerie to review approximately 11,000 documents seized Aug. 8 from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and residence and determine whether any should be shielded from investigators because of attorney-client or executive privilege.
An appeals court separately overruled Cannon’s decision that about 100 additional documents that the government says are classified — some of them top-secret — should be part of Dearie’s review.
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, reiterated her belief that the 2020 election was stolen during her interview Thursday with the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson.
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If it seems like the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian came on quickly, you're right.
In just two days, the storm's maximum sustained wind speed more than doubled, from 75 miles per hour on Monday morning, to 155 miles per hour just before landfall on Wednesday morning.
"It doesn't really get much worse than this, to have a strengthening, possibly rapidly intensifying hurricane landfall," said Brent Hewett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Twin Cities.
Though devastating, Hewett says the changes weren't entirely surprising based on the conditions in the Gulf of Mexico that the hurricane encountered during those 48 hours. Moist air and low wind shear both contribute to rapid intensification, and unseasonably warm water provided even more fuel than normal.
Hewett says a very quiet hurricane season prior to hurricane Ian is partially to blame.
"When you don't have a lot of tropical systems in a season, the water is allowed to warm kind of continuously without anything mixing it up," Hewett said.
And if you add those seasonal conditions to years of warming brought on by climate change, experts say this storm had even more fuel.
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Photojournalist Aryk Copley went to Ukraine as a way to better understand international photojournalism as a career, to get international reporting experience, as well as to try to help out as much as he could. He was there for two weeks and followed around three different organizations to see and document the work they were doing. Consider supporting www.underakindroof.com
Also the latest on Ukraine.
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Six people were injured in a school shooting Wednesday in Oakland's Eastmont Hills, police said.
Oakland police officials said the shooting took place at the King Estate campus on Fontaine Street, which houses multiple schools. Officers are looking for at least one shooter, but add other suspects might be involved.
The school has since been cleared by police.
Highland Hospital in Oakland confirms it is treating three of the victims, who all are in critical condition with gunshot wounds. The other three victims were transported to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, according to the hospital.
Police in a late afternoon briefing said all victims are adults affiliated with the school and provided the following updates on their conditions:
- two are suffering from life-threatening injuries
- one victim has been released from the hospital
- two victims are pending release from the hospital
- one victim has injuries that are non-life threatening
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Gov. Ron DeSantis warns Floridians to be prepared for a "major water event" including heavy rain, flooding from Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian’s forecast track shifted again to the southeast late Tuesday, increasing the danger to Florida’s southern Gulf coast as South Florida prepared for squally, rainy weather.
The storm’s top wind speed held at 120 mph but was expected to rise to 130 mph, the threshold for Category 4 strength, by the time the hurricane approaches landfall Wednesday afternoon somewhere on the Gulf coast. Earlier forecasts predicted the storm would weaken before hitting the coast, but the newer track predicts it will make landfall at the peak of its power.
The National Hurricane Center’s 8 p.m. update said Ian will reach Florida’s west coast as “an extremely dangerous major hurricane” as it re-strengthens over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.
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Denmark said Tuesday it believed “deliberate actions” by unknown perpetrators were behind big leaks, which seismologists said followed powerful explosions, in two natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. European leaders and experts pointed to possible sabotage amid the energy standoff with Russia provoked by the war in Ukraine. Although filled with gas, neither pipeline is currently supplying it to Europe. “It is the authorities’ clear assessment that these are deliberate actions -– not accidents,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. But she added that “there is no information indicating who could be behind it.” Frederiksen also rejected the suggestion that the incident was an attack on Denmark, saying the leaks occurred in international waters.
Giorgia Meloni scored a remarkable success in yesterday’s Italian election – and is all but certain to become prime minister. Her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party’s 26% of the vote makes it the largest party nationally. Overall, the rightwing coalition it now leads will have a considerable majority in both houses of parliament. Part of the explanation lies in the weakness of the opposition. The eclectic Five Star Movement (15%) and the centre-left Democrats (19%) did not join forces and, after years of failing to improve working-class living standards, were unable to rally the left’s historic base. Turnout was easily the lowest in the republic’s history, with only 64% of Italians voting.
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The death of a young Iranian woman from a head trauma after her arrest by a hijab enforcement patrol has sparked anger and some protests in the capital Tehran.
The 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who was arrested on Tuesday by the morality police was taken to hospital two hours later from Vozara Detention Center after losing consciousness. She passed away Friday afternoon at Kasra Hospital in northern Tehran. Originally from Saqqez in Kurdistan province, Amini was arrested in her brother’s car on a visit to the capital to see their relatives.
“Mahsa Amini’s death after injuries sustained in custody for an “improper” hijab is appalling. Our thoughts are with her family. Iran must end its violence against women for exercising their fundamental rights. Those responsible for her death should be held accountable,” US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley tweeted Friday.
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There was an asteroid, but it wasn’t threatening the Earth. And there was a spacecraft, relying solely on sophisticated technology. The human heroes of the mission were actually at a physics and engineering lab between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
And there was a collision. In this case it was the final act of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, a spacecraft that launched in November and then raced around the sun for 10 months as it pursued its target — a small space rock, Dimorphos, seven million miles from Earth.
“For the first time, humanity has demonstrated the ability to autonomously target and alter the orbit of a celestial object,” Ralph Semmel, director of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said during a news conference after the crash. The laboratory managed the mission for NASA.
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The official release date is Oct 15 but he’s having a special pre-release show for his hometown at Amoeba this Thursday, Sept 29 at 5pm FREE ALL AGES at Amoeba Music 1855 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117
Little Village presents a special kick-off to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and release party for singer-songwriter Maurice Tani's new album, All In!, at Amoeba Music in San Francisco on Thursday, September 29th at 5pm! All In! is a cross-genre roux of the diversity of the Little Village label set in the framework of Tani’s imaginative, romantic, and social writing. Joining Tani live on the Amoeba stage will be award-winning jazz-blues guitarist Chris Cain, sacred steel artist DaShawn Hickman, vocalist and folk singer-songwriter Aireene Espiritu, Bollywood Bluesmaster Aki Kumar, and more. Get the album at Amoeba SF that day to get into the signing line and meet the band!
You must wear a mask to enter the signing line at this event.
Founded in 2015, Little Village is an arts non-profit that uses music as a tool to increase cross cultural understanding. They record and produce underground artists whose music has not yet been discovered outside of their communities. Through sharing multicultural music with American roots, Little Village works to deepen understanding and promote empathy.
ALL IN! The official release date is next month but advance copy CDs will be available at a special in-store event/release party at Amoeba Music, SF! Go All In! with them on Thursday, September 29, as Sacred steel artist DaShawn Hickman (who'll be in town for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass), master jazz-blues guitarist Chris Cain, folk n' soul songstress Aireene Espiritu, and Bollywood Bluesman Aki Kumar join Maurice, starting at 5 p.m.
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On Saturday, a tweet that contained a picture of an on-duty San Francisco firefighter wearing a "Let's Go Brandon" t-shirt began making rounds on Twitter — which has since prompted SFFD to take disciplinary actions against the City worker. The "Let's Go Brandon" chant — a rallying call that gained cultural prominence when a reporter interviewing the Sparks 300 race winner Brandon Brown at Talladega Superspeedway incorrectly described the chant in the background as "Let's Go Brandon" — has grown into a politically subversive slogan. The meme-able phrasing is now commonly synonymous with "F**k Joe Biden," though just a more family-friendly version of the profane sentiment. Recently, a San Francisco firefighter was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the slogan splayed across the top on the back.
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The mayor’s office initially defended the practice, saying Saturday in an email statement to The Chronicle that accepting such letters is “reserved for the most dire situations of inappropriate behavior or dereliction of duties.”
But to Supervisors Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen, the fact the letter was undated and issued as a condition of his reappointment appeared to be a controlling mechanism by Breed.
“If she is really calling all the shots, then genuine, independent oversight is not happening,” Ronen told The Chronicle, adding it appears as though Breed is “holding the resignation letter over his head.”
After the dustup, Breed’s office issued an updated statement to The Chronicle on Sunday saying she would drop the practice.
NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) has successfully crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos. Data obtained from DART’s crash will be compared to the data from various computer simulations run by scientists to ascertain whether this kinetic impactor method will remain a viable option in case of an actual threatening asteroid. Scientists don’t yet know the exact mass of Dimorphos but it is estimated to be around five billion kilograms. The DART spacecraft weighs around 600 kilograms
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday rolled out an agenda he says House Republicans would follow should they retake control of the chamber after this year's midterms.
The plan, dubbed the “Commitment to America” marks McCarthy's most concrete attempt to outline a policy agenda to try to persuade voters ahead of November's races, in which the GOP is favored -- but not guaranteed -- to flip the House. The proposal seeks to replicate former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," an agenda released in 1994 when Republicans won control of the House for the first time in decades.
McCarthy's blueprint, first posted online on Thursday, contains four overarching goals: creating "an economy that's strong," "a nation that's safe," "a future that's built on freedom" and "a government that's accountable."
An Arizona Superior Court judge ruled Friday that a 1901 ban on nearly all abortions in that state can be enforced, a decision that is likely to see an appeal and is all but certain to galvanize female voters to turn out in greater numbers in the state's closely contested US Senate and governor's races. In ruling that Arizona's near-total ban on abortion could take effect, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson granted a request by the state's Republican attorney general to lift a court injunction that had barred enforcement of Arizona's pre-statehood ban on abortion after the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973. "The court finds that because the legal basis for the judgment entered in 1973 has now been overruled, it must vacate the judgment in its entirety," Johnson wrote in the ruling released Friday.
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Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump are engaged in a behind-the-scenes legal struggle to limit the scope of a federal grand jury investigation into the role he played in seeking to overturn the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.
The closed-door battle, unfolding in Federal District Court in Washington, has centered on how far Mr. Trump can go in asserting attorney-client and executive privilege as a means of keeping witnesses close to him from answering potentially damaging questions in their appearances before the grand jury, the people said.
The issue is important because it will determine how much evidence prosecutors can get from an inner circle of some of Mr. Trump’s most trusted former lawyers and advisers. The outcome will help to shape the contours of the information that the Justice Department will be able to gather, as it looks into Mr. Trump’s involvement in the chaotic events after the election that culminated in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
That process continues even as the Justice Department also pursues a separate criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of government documents that he took with him when he left office, including hundreds marked as classified.
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Whether the panelists decide to endorse direct-cash payments or other forms of compensation, such as land grants and subsidized education, could have wide ripple effects as the task force is the first state-led reparations effort in the nation.
But the path forward is fraught. Beyond external opposition from conservative critics of reparations, bitter internal disputes have spilled over into heated exchanges that overshadowed several of the task force’s past meetings.
Task force Chair Kamilah Moore, an attorney and scholar on reparations, said she hopes the committee can reunite around a common purpose after it took a five-month hiatus and issued a sweeping interim report in June.
“I definitely am hoping that things can become more collegial,” she told The Chronicle. “Reparations is a very controversial topic, it always has been. That might explain some of the passion.”
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Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is calling lawmakers into session to take up a constitutional amendment allowing statewide referendums, citing support from Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson for a public vote on the issue of abortion. The amendment would ultimately give the public a say in whether abortions should resume in Wisconsin by allowing residents to bring referendum questions to the ballot — a practice known as direct ballot initiatives that is not allowed in Wisconsin. But Republican lawmakers who control the state Legislature immediately rejected the idea. If they had agreed, Wisconsin would have joined 26 states that allow referendum questions driven by the public. "At the end of the day, Wisconsinites and women in particular, are not only stripped of their reproductive freedom, they currently don't have a right to enact the change that needs to protect that freedom without having to get permission from the Legislature. That's just wrong and it's time to change that," Evers said.
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Insults, accusations and talk of war crimes and nuclear holocaust dominated the world’s premier diplomatic stage on Thursday, as the United Nations Security Council met to debate how and whether anyone would be held accountable for the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov called Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a “bastard,” but was not around long enough to hear what many of his counterparts had to say. After arriving 90 minutes late to the meeting — and missing the briefings given by António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, and Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court — Mr. Lavrov left early.
The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, denounced President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for saying on Wednesday that he could use all arms available to him in the war, interpreted by officials in both Russia and the West as a veiled reference to nuclear weapons.
“Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately,” Mr. Blinken told the Security Council, in some of his sharpest comments since the war began. “Tell President Putin to stop the horror he started.”
“One man chose this war. One man can end it,” he added. “Because if Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.”
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In his first TV appearance since a court-authorized search of his Florida home last month, Donald Trump reasserted Wednesday that any documents taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago were declassified while he was in office, adding that a president can carry that out “even by thinking about it.”
The warrant authorizing the search of former president Donald Trump’s home said agents were seeking documents possessed in violation of the Espionage Act.
“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. Prosecutors have said that about 100 of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified, including some labeled top secret.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified,” the former president added.
“You’re the president — you make that decision.”
Trump’s comments were made ahead of a Wednesday appeals court decision that the FBI can use the seized documents in its criminal investigation. His appearance also followed an announcement earlier in the day that New York Attorney General Letitia James was filing a lawsuit accusing him and his three children of manipulating property values to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax officials.
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Supervisors have approved a trial run allowing police to monitor in real time private surveillance cameras in certain circumstances, despite strong objections from civil liberties groups alarmed by the potential impact to privacy.
San Francisco, like many places across the country, is struggling to balance public safety with constitutional protections. The ability to monitor in real time was requested by San Francisco Mayor London Breed and supported by merchants and residents who say police officers need more tools to combat drug dealing and retail theft that they say have marred the city's quality of life.
It is temporary and will sunset in 15 months.
The vote was 7-4, with some supervisors astonished that the governing board of politically liberal San Francisco would consider granting more powers to law enforcement in a city that celebrates its activism. Others pushed back, saying they were tired of sophisticated criminal networks taking advantage of San Francisco's lax attitude toward retail theft and other property crimes.
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday restored the Justice Department’s access to documents with classified markings that had been seized last month from former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida residence, handing a victory to federal investigators in their efforts to examine Mr. Trump’s hoarding of sensitive government records.
In a strongly worded 29-page decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit blocked part of an order by a federal judge that had temporarily barred the department from using the classified materials in its inquiry into whether Mr. Trump illegally retained national defense documents and obstructed the government’s repeated efforts to recover them.
At times in his pre presidential life, Donald Trump represented himself as a real-estate mogul, a television star, a business visionary, and a salesman par excellence. But according to a complaint filed today by NY AG Letitia James, the Trump Organization was actually just a massive fraud with incidental sidelines in property development, merchandising, and entertainment.
The basic scheme alleged in the complaint is straightforward. Trump would use different valuations for properties depending on what he needed: When he wanted to lower his taxes, he’d claim a low valuation; if he wanted to obtain loans on more favorable terms, he would inflate the valuation. His overarching goal was to inflate his claimed personal net worth year over year, which in turn allowed him to obtain better loans by personally guaranteeing them—all built on bogus claims about his assets.
“Claiming you have money you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal,” James said at a press conference. “It’s the art of the steal.”
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President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning announced a “partial mobilization” in Russia to replenish the ranks of a “special military operation” meant to be long over by now. Yet few observers or political stakeholders in the West think this half-cocked call-up will fundamentally alter the calculus on the battlefield, where Ukraine's counter offensives have been surprisingly effective. Moreover, Putin’s vague threats against the “collective West'' have been met with more shrugs and yawns in the United States and Europe. If anything, there is more panic in Russia.
Partial mobilization, Russia’s first since World War II, falls well short of mass conscription and is likely to be confined (for now) to the country’s 300,000 reservists. Contract soldiers already deployed in Ukraine will see their service indefinitely extended just as the weather cools and winter approaches. “This is a very risky step from Putin,” a senior Western intelligence officer told Yahoo News. “There are big doubts whether this call-up will succeed in the first place, and if not, what message will it send. It also increases public antiwar and anti-regime sentiment throughout Russia.”
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Two people were shot outside Oakland City Hall Tuesday afternoon, an Oakland city official confirmed to KRON4 and one of them has died, according to a tweet from Oakland PD. The second victim was transported to the hospital and is undergoing surgery. The incident took place while a city council meeting was happening in the building. Gunshots were heard outside the building at about 2:15 p.m. The city official confirmed that two people were shot at Frank Ogawa Plaza. OPD confirmed the shooting on Twitter.
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Former President Donald Trump’s battle with the FBI over its search of Mar-a-Lago has moved from South Florida to New York City, where a court-appointed “special master” on Tuesday indicated he has a very simple test for whether he sides with the Department of Justice.
The special master, Raymond J. Dearie said Tuesday that if Trump’s lawyers don't officially counter whether the documents the former president took are classified, then Dearie will side with the DOJ.
“As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it,” he said.
Dearie, a semi-retired federal judge in Brooklyn who’s playing the role of temporary referee, wants to speed up the process and get federal agents back on track. And while Trump has been alleging on social media that he already declassified the records he swiped from the White House, Dearie is demanding that Trump put up or shut up. The senior judge is asking that Trump’s team assert—in sworn affidavits where lies could mean jail time—whether or not Trump actually declassified them.
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President Joe Biden says the discovery of top-secret documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate raised concerns that sensitive data was compromised and called it “irresponsible.”
Biden, who rarely does interviews, spoke to CBS’ “60 Minutes” in a segment that aired Sunday. He said that when he heard about classified documents taken from the White House, he wondered how “anyone could be that irresponsible.”
Biden added: “And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?”
The president said he did not get a heads-up before the Trump estate was searched, and he has not asked for any specifics “because I don’t want to get myself in the middle of whether or not the Justice Department should move or not move on certain actions they could take.”
The FBI says it took about 11,000 documents,including roughly 100 with classification markings found in a storage room and an office, while serving a court-authorized search warrant at the home on Aug. 8. Weeks after the search, Trump lawyers asked a judge to appoint a special master to conduct an independent review of the records.
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Three blockbuster storms struck different coasts this weekend, causing widespread damage in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Japan. Their damage offers examples of what we can expect more of in a rapidly warming world.
In Alaska: The most intense storm ever recorded in the Bering Sea during the month of September blasted communities across a 1,000-mile stretch of Alaska's western coastline with hurricane-force winds and record storm surge flooding.
- The villages hit include names familiar to the climate community for being vulnerable to erosion and seeking to move to higher ground, such as Kivalina and Shishmaref.
- Severe flooding was also seen in Nome, the endpoint of the Iditarod sled dog race. The flooding there beat any seen since November 1974.
- By battering already vulnerable coastal communities, the storm will make them more susceptible to the Bering Sea's notorious winter storms.
In Puerto Rico: Hurricane Fiona struck on Sunday, causing an island-wide blackout that illustrates the country's challenges with repairing its electrical grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
- Hardening infrastructure against increasingly potent extreme weather events is a major challenge facing the U.S.
- At one point Sunday evening, nearly the entire island was under a flash flood warning, with "catastrophic" flooding underway.
In Japan: Typhoon Nanmadol, the country's fourth-most intense typhoon to make landfall, struck the island of Kyushu on Sunday morning eastern time.
- The storm dropped more than two feet of rain in 24 hours on parts of that island, threatening to cause landslides, along with wind and storm surge flooding.
- Climate change is enabling hurricanes and typhoons to dump more rainfall and stay stronger further north.
Prior to its landfall, the storm had rapidly intensified — a process with climate change ties and reached Category 4 intensity.
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US President Joe Biden has again said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China.
Asked in a CBS interview if US troops would defend the island, Mr Biden said: "Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack."
The remarks prompted the White House to clarify that the official US policy - which doesn't commit to military action on Taiwan - had not changed.
Beijing said it "deplores and firmly opposes" Mr Biden's pledge of action.
The foreign ministry said it had lodged "stern representations" with Washington over the remarks, broadcast in a CBS 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.
Taiwan is a self-ruled island off the coast of eastern China that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
Washington has always walked a diplomatic tightrope over the issue.
On the one hand it adheres to the One China policy, a cornerstone of its relationship with Beijing. Under this policy, the US acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan.
But it also maintains close relations with Taiwan and sells arms to it under the Taiwan Relations Act, which states that the US must provide the island with the means to defend itself.
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President Biden’s off-the-cuff comment during a “60 Minutes” interview that “the pandemic is over” has sparked outrage from all sides. Republicans are accusing Biden of hypocrisy as he asks Congress for more covid-19 funding, while some on the left point to the disease’s continued death toll as evidence that the pandemic is nowhere near its finish line.
These criticisms don’t detract from Biden’s point. He’s right. By multiple definitions, the pandemic is over. That doesn’t mean that the coronavirus is no longer causing harm; it simply signals the end of an emergency state as Covid has evolved into an endemic disease.
A pandemic is something that upends our daily lives and profoundly alters the way that we work, go to school, worship and socialize. That was certainly the case in March 2020.
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Joe Biden was asked a very simple question in an interview that aired Sunday: Had he decided whether to run again for president in 2024? The answer he gave was anything but straightforward. "Look, my intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again," Biden told "60 Minutes." "But it's just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen." Which is an interesting way to answer that question!
Especially when you consider the following:
1) Biden, currently 79, is the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term.
2) He repeatedly cast himself as a "bridge" candidate to a younger generation on the campaign trail in 2020.
3) Speculation has swirled almost since the day he took the oath of office about whether he will run for reelection.
Biden has to know that an answer like the one he gave on Sunday will only fuel the whispers that he may not be running again.
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There are literally hundreds of movies, TV shows and documentaries about Queen Elizabeth the Second, British royals..and royals from all over the world. Here are a few of their favorites:
1/ The Queen
2/ Mrs Brown
3/ The King’s Speech
4/ Nicholas & Alexandra
5/ The Lion in Winter
6/ The Little Princess
7/ The King & I
8/ The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex
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“Inviting a mob to return to the streets is exactly what happened here on Jan. 6, 2021. This president knew what he was doing...and we saw the results,” Durbin added. “His careless, inflammatory rhetoric has its consequences.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Trump ally and member of the Homeland Security Committee, said after the briefing that the Justice Department needed to be more transparent about the justification for the search in order to push back against “conspiracies.”
“You have to give people good information so these rumors don’t continue,” Scott said, condemning attacks on law enforcement. “I don’t know why they raided the former president’s house ... They know the conspiracy theories that are out there. So convince people that they’re not true.”
The FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida sparked a political firestorm last month. According to a Justice Department court filing released in August, prosecutors obtained a search warrant for the estate after receiving evidence there was “likely” an effort to conceal classified documents at the residence in defiance of a grand jury subpoena. Agents recovered highly classified records mixed among personal items, in addition to dozens of empty folders with classified markings.
The DOJ and Trump’s lawyers are now in the midst of legal deliberations on an outside review of the seized documents.
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John explores a comparison to the Holocaust
Joining CNN’s John Berman Thursday morning to discuss his new documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” Burns took aim at the Florida governor for flying two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard this week, calling it a “disturbing” play of political theater.
“All of your documentaries are about history,” Berman began, “but all of them also make you think about where we are. We woke up to the news this morning that Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida sent two planeloads of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, including kids and whatnot. And I’m not saying, this is not a 1-for-1, this is not a parallel here in any way, but it does address some of the same themes that are part of this documentary.”
Sitting with co-director Lynn Novick, Burns agreed.
“Well, it’s the abstraction of human life. It’s basically saying that you can use a human life that is as valuable as yours or mine or Lynn’s and to put it in a position of becoming a political pawn in somebody’s authoritarian game. This is coming straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” he said.
The documentarian then pointed to other instances in DeSantis’ governance that has highlighted his refusal to participate in the democratic process.
“This is what’s so disturbing about DeSantis, is to use human beings, to weaponize human beings for a political purpose – it’s like when somebody disagrees with him in Florida, like the Walt Disney Company, he punishes them,” Burns continued. “This is not the actions of a person participating in a democratic process in which there’s an exchange of ideas. This is about punishing political enemies, putting on shows, political shows, political theater. And in this case, this is with the lives of human beings.”
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Opposing sides came out to rally outside the offices of the Castro Valley Unified School District Wednesday. The cause? A series of progress pride flag murals that are being painted on the grounds of every school in the district.
"All this project is about is creating a safer school environment for every kid," said Austin Brucker of Castro Valley Pride.
The idea for the murals began as a student-led initiative - and the school board approved the plan earlier this year.
Supporters say they'll be a sign that the district is an inclusive and safe place for everyone.
Especially during a time when many in the LGBTQ community feel like they're under political attack.
"I'd say 80% of the school is supportive. Like, very supportive," said student, Nolan Stoneburner.
The murals have gained national attention in recent days after the story got picked up by multiple right wing outlets.
"For the past week, the school district as well as Castro Valley Pride, have been the direct targets of hundreds and hundreds of hateful comments and emails and calls," said Bruckner.
Pride flag murals at Castro Valley schools cause opposing rallies, gain national attention.
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A Brooklyn-based federal judge was selected on Thursday to serve as an independent arbiter to review the materials seized in the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Florida home.
The special master will be Senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward as a possible candidate for the special master role by Trump, who had sued in court to obtain the review. The Justice Department also endorsed Dearie's appointment.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon also rejected the Justice Department's bid to resume its criminal investigation into classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago last month. The denial sets the stage for the department's dispute with Trump over the search to move quickly to an appeals court and potentially the US Supreme Court.
An intelligence community review of the documents has been paused since last week when Cannon ordered the criminal investigation to stop for the moment. DOJ says the two reviews cannot be separated and plans to appeal.
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Two planes carrying migrants were sent by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday night, his office said, infuriating Democratic politicians and prompting a frenzied response that included humanitarian aid by locals and assistance by Massachusetts officials.
It's the latest in a series of moves by Republican governors to transport migrants to northern liberal enclaves to protest what they say are inadequate federal efforts on southern border security. Located off the coast of Massachusetts and long known as a posh summer destination for wealthy vacationers, Martha's Vineyard provided an unusual and unexpected place for the migrants to be sent.
"We are not a sanctuary state, and it's better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction, and yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures," DeSantis said on Thursday, a day after claiming credit for sending the two planes to the island. "Every community in America should be sharing in the burdens. It shouldn't all fall on a handful of red states."
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John Rothmann defends Roe v. Wade with KGO 810 listeners.
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Members of one union rejected a tentative deal with the largest U.S. freight railroads Wednesday, while two ratified agreements and three others remained at the bargaining table just days ahead of a strike deadline, threatening to intensify snarls in the nation’s supply chain that have contributed to rising prices.
About 4,900 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 19 voted to reject the tentative agreement negotiated by IAM leadership with the railroads, the union said Wednesday. But the IAM agreed to delay any strike by its members until Sept. 29 to allow more time for negotiations and to allow other unions to vote.
Railroads are trying to reach an agreement with all their other unions to avert a strike before Friday’s deadline. The unions aren’t allowed to strike before Friday under the federal law that governs railroad contract talks, which include BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Kansas City Southern and the U.S. operations of Canadian National.
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Marc remembers cooking for Queen Elizabeth.
www.chefmarc.com
Marc Vogel, (ChefMarc) a native San Franciscan, started cooking early, inspired by his mother who was a scratch baker. Having seven brothers and sisters, it was vital that he could fend for himself in the kitchen. Opening his first restaurant, Wolfmans in San Francisco, at the age of 21, he had an early immersion in the business. Seeking more challenges he started entering local, regional and national cooking contests with his recipes. He won the Napa cook-off five times in several categories and best of show, and the Lamb town contest in Dixon. His ‘Walnesto’ recipe took first in a national contest by the California Walnut Board and Colavita Olive oil. In addition, his lamb recipes are in several thousand markets, supermarkets and gourmet stores throughout the U.S.
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Should a former president promote Q-Anon?
Donald Trump embraced QAnon’s “The storm is coming” meme as he went on a “retruthing” spree on his social media website Truth Social. The one-term president re-posted an image of himself wearing a Q pin on his suit jacket above the “storm” caption and “WWG1WGA.”
Trump has in the past promoted QAnon accounts, though the recent flurry of posts was Trump’s strongest embrace of the right-wing conspiracy theory movement yet.
Both phrases are commonplace in the QAnon-sphere.
The “storm” is a conspiracy theory that eventually Trump will release his secret plan to defeat the deep state and MAGA opponents and sweep back into power.
It is at this moment that the deep state’s leaders are arrested and sent to Guantanamo Bay, according to research on QAnon. The second phrase stands for “Where we go one, we go all” and is a rallying cry that comes from the 1996 Jeff Bridges sailing adventure White Squall. Trump’s followers on Truth Social appeared to love the re-truths. “God is bringing the Storm, DJT is rallying the troops,” one wrote.
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A Florida prosecutor said responses from various allies of former President Trump to reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had issued dozens of subpoenas in its Jan. 6 probe show Attorney General Merrick Garland’s prosecutorial strategy has given Trump allies “a false sense of security.”
“The fact that [Stephen] Bannon and other MAGA leaders seem shocked that this happened shows to me that Merrick Garland has lulled many in Trump World into a false sense of security,” Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Fla., said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Monday.
“This is the kind of slow build that Attorney General Garland has been known for in his prosecutorial career. It’s like that boiling frog that doesn’t recognize the temperature has been turned up until it’s too late,” he added.
The Florida prosecutor’s comments come amid reports that the Justice Department issued around 40 subpoenas in the past week as part of its investigation into efforts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
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At least 97 current members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work or reported similar transactions by their spouse or a dependent child, an analysis by The New York Times has found.
U.S. lawmakers are not banned from investing in any company, including those that could be affected by their decisions. But the trading patterns uncovered by the Times analysis underscore longstanding concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest or use of inside information by members of Congress, government ethics experts say.
Times reporters analyzed transactions between 2019 and 2021 using a database of members’ financial filings called Capitol Trades created by 2iQ Research. They matched the trades against relevant committee assignments and the dates of hearings and congressional investigations.
When contacted, many of the lawmakers said the trades they reported had been carried out independently by a spouse or a broker with no input from them. Some have since sold all their stocks or moved them into blind trusts. Two said the trades were accidental.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom is escalating his feud with Republican-led states that have restricted access to abortion after the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this summer rolling back the federal right to those services that was enshrined in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
As part of his effort to make California a safe harbor for women seeking abortions, Newsom, a Democrat, launched a new state website on Tuesday aimed at connecting women who live out of state with reproductive health care, including a tool that would help them find a provider and how to seek financial assistance for those services.
In a video introducing the site, the California governor touched on the privacy concerns many of those red state women now face -- noting the website abortion.ca.gov will not track them or their personal information -- as conservative lawmakers in some states weigh laws to prevent their state's residents from seeking care across state lines.
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SusanReynolds.substack.com Gotham by the Bay @SusanDReynolds
As part of the SFNext project to help San Francisco residents solve some of the city’s problems, we polled more than 1,650 people to measure attitudes on what’s working, what isn’t, performance of city government, the future of the city and more.
John Whitehurst, a political consultant, said he has “never seen voters more upset and angry in San Francisco than they have been over the last two years and continue to be, and that anger gets expressed in many ways. Two ways, recently, include the district attorney recall and the Board of Education recall.”
Roughly one-third of the respondents said they were likely to leave within the next three years. A large majority, 65%, said that life in the city is worse than when they first moved here. Less than one-quarter of respondents said they expected life in San Francisco to improve in two years. More than one-third said it would worsen.
San Franciscans were largely in agreement about the city’s biggest problems: Homelessness took first place, followed by public safety and housing affordability. When asked if, three years from now, those problems would be significantly less severe, nearly 70% of people said either “slightly likely” or “not likely at all.”
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US stocks plunged Tuesday following the hotter-than-expected August inflation report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,200 points to notch its worst day since June 2020.
August CPI revealed inflation rose 8.3%, compared to the same month in 2021. That is lower than July's 8.5% but higher than the expected 8.1%. The hot reading comes despite falling gas prices.
Core CPI, which doesn't include volatile energy prices and food, increased 6.3% compared to August last year.
July's CPI reading was 8.5%, and was 9.1% in June, which was the highest level in four decades.
"One thing was clear after today's report - Treasury Secretary Yellen clearly didn't get a sneak peek at the data," said Michael Reinking, senior market strategist at the New York Stock Exchange. "Today's data was disappointing, especially related to core inflation which showed widespread gains across components."
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John begins the hour by discussing the awful climate situation in Pakistan, affecting schoolchildren and the elderly alike. He then gets word of the DOJ appointing a Trump-approved judge, and takes the rest of the hour to discuss this.
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The reports out of Ukraine are stunning, more and more cities are being liberated from Putin. It appears that Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. But is it too good to be true? John looks at the reports closely and takes your calls to get to the bottom of the war's real status.
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As the United Kingdom continues to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth, John examines her legacy on the throne. Also, find out what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that has him being criticized by Rothmann.
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An extraordinary hour on the John Rothmann Program. Bay Area Radio Hall of Famer Ken Dito had a major stroke, but with proper care and immediate treatment, he not only survived but thrived. The man to thank for this was Dr. Sean Culley, a Neurosurgeon at Kaiser Permanente Redwood City. they both talk about their experiences with John, as well as warning signs for a stroke.
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Florida has decided against making October LGBTQ History Month. This comes as a trend of anti-pride legislation has been prevalent is the sunshine state, and John wants to talk about it.
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King Charles had his first public speech since his mother's death on Thursday, and many found themselves impressed by the new king. John Rothmann talks about what stood out to him, and what he thinks about the call for royal unity.
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Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60%, close to weapons-grade, has grown to enough, if enriched further, for a nuclear bomb, a report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog showed on Wednesday.
Passing that threshold is a milestone in the unraveling of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which capped the purity to which Iran was allowed to enrich uranium at 3.67%, well below the 20% it achieved before the deal and the roughly 90% that is weapons grade.
Washington's withdrawal from the deal under then-President Donald Trump and its reimposition of sanctions against Tehran that had been lifted under the deal prompted Tehran to breach the deal's nuclear restrictions.
"Iran now can produce 25 kg (of uranium) at 90% if they want to," a senior diplomat said in response to Wednesday's International Atomic Energy Agency report seen by Reuters when asked if Iran had enough material enriched to 60% for one bomb.
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Israeli scientists say they have identified antibodies that are so powerful in neutralizing the coronavirus that they could eliminate the need for more vaccine boosters.
A research team at Tel Aviv University experimented with numerous antibodies and found that two in particular neutralize all known strains of the coronavirus, including Delta and Omicron, in a lab setting.
A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled Wednesday that the state's 1931 abortion ban violates the state constitution, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by ABC News. The ruling permanently bars the attorney general and county prosecutors from enforcing the ban in the state, effectively legalizing abortions in Michigan.
South Carolina senators rejected a ban on almost all abortions Thursday in a special session called in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Although Republicans had a majority of votes to pass the ban, Republican Sen. Tom Davis threatened to filibuster and proponents of the ban could not get the extra votes to stop him.
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The Justice Department is appealing a court-ordered special master review of the materials seized by the FBI at former President Donald Trump's Florida home, it said Thursday.
The Justice Department is also asking US District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointee who ordered the special master, to pause part of her order, originally delivered on Labor Day, with the prosecutors saying the government has halted the intelligence community's review of classified documents.
The FBI seized more than 100 classified records during the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, according to the DOJ, but there's no way to separate the intelligence community's review and the FBI criminal investigations, the government said in its request for the partial stay with Cannon.
The Justice Department had vigorously opposed the appointment of a special master, which is a third-party attorney tasked with reviewing evidence and filtering out privileged documents. The department argued to Cannon the independent review wasn't necessary, given the internal DOJ filter practices that had been used in the search.
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“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the palace said in a stark, two-line statement affixed to the front gate of Buckingham Palace. “The King and Queen Consort will
remain at Balmoral this evening and return to London tomorrow,” it said, referring to Charles and his wife, Camilla.
In itself, the queen’s death is a watershed moment. But it also comes at a time of acute uncertainty in Britain. A new prime minister, Liz Truss, has been in office for only three days, following months of political turmoil in the British government. The country faces its gravest economic threats in a generation, besieged by inflation, soaring energy bills and the specter of a prolonged recession.
The death of Elizabeth sets in motion a royal transition more complicated than any change in prime ministers. It will be meticulously choreographed in its rituals, but what kind of monarchy it will produce is a mystery. At 73, Charles is the oldest person to become monarch in British history — a familiar figure, to be sure — but one who has made clear he wants to transform the nature of the royal family.
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Barack and Michelle Obama returned to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their official White House portraits, in an East Room ceremony hosted by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
“Barack and Michelle, welcome home,” said Joe Biden, who served as vice president under Obama for eight years.
John Rogers, chairman of the White House Historical Association, said Wednesday’s ceremony was also a celebration of “the unlikely story that is America,” noting the Obamas as the first Black American first family at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Today is a reminder that America is governed not by a disconnected series of presidents, but rather by the enduring presidency,” Rogers said. “And within the greater story that’s told by the 43 other portraits, we boldly celebrate their contrast and their confluence … as distinguished chapters in the American narrative.”
The event also marked the return of the long-standing tradition of sitting presidents welcoming their predecessors — regardless of party — to the White House to unveil their official portraits.
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California’s capital experienced its hottest day ever observed Tuesday — hitting an unprecedented 116 degrees and exceeding previous September records by a landslide of seven degrees. This latest peak, amid a historic heat wave torching the state, follows a year of significant extremes in Sacramento: In the past 12 months, before this record hot day, the state capital experienced its wettest day on record last October, an event bookended by a record-long dry stretch that wreaked havoc on agriculture throughout California’s Central Valley.
The most recent heat has fueled dangerous wildfire weather, and there’s continued risk of power shortages. Rolling blackouts have been a constant threat in the Golden State in the past several days, as the state’s grid operator experiences record demand.
The extreme droughts and deluges are two sides of the same coin — all of these records made more probable by a warming planet.
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The FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year, according to government court filings, after months of negotiations with advisers to former president Donald Trump, a subpoena and a court-approved search. Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. One included details of a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.
The documents were found mixed with thousands of unclassified items at Mar-a-Lago more than a year after he left the White House. They could be used as evidence in the government’s ongoing investigation into possible mishandling of classified information, as well as possible hiding, tampering or destruction of government records. A federal judge has agreed to a request from Trump to appoint an outside expert to examine the documents and determine whether any should be shielded from investigators because of attorney-client or executive privilege.
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A document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities, was found by FBI agents who searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club last month, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring concerns among U.S. intelligence officials about classified material stashed in the Florida property.
Some of the seized documents detail top-secret U.S. operations so closely guarded that many senior national security officials are kept in the dark about them. Only the president, some members of his Cabinet or a near-Cabinet-level official could authorize other government officials to know details of these special-access programs, according to people familiar with the search, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive details of an ongoing investigation.
Documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis, not just top-secret clearance.
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A historically severe September heat wave is baking the West, breaking hundreds of records, posing a danger to public health and pushing California’s power grid to the limit. Some records have been shattered by wide margins as the scorching air mass exacerbates the fire danger in the drought-stricken region.
As San Jose and Sacramento soared to all-time records of 109 and 114 degrees Tuesday afternoon, California’s Independent System Operator (ISO) said the state’s electric grid is under heavy strain and warned consumers “to be prepared for possible outages” Tuesday evening.
“As the state faces the hottest day in this prolonged, record-breaking heat wave, grid conditions are expected to worsen,” the grid operator wrote in a news release. “If needed, ISO could order utilities to begin rotating power outages to maintain stability of the electric grid.”
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Judge Aileen Cannon at the same time temporarily blocked the Department of Justice from reviewing or using the seized material for investigative purposes, until the special master’s examination of the documents is completed, or until a further court order.
That independent third party will examine “the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege,” Cannon wrote in her order in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Cannon said her order would not impede an ongoing review of classified documents found at Trump’s residence and the assessment of any possible damage on U.S. intelligence by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
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A federal judge agreed to appoint a special master to review records seized by the FBI during its search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, a move that is likely to delay the Justice Department's criminal investigation.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in West Palm Beach, Florida, granted Trump's request for a special master, an independent third party who is sometimes assigned in sensitive cases to review materials that could be covered by attorney-client privilege.
Cannon said the person will be tasked with reviewing documents that are not just covered by attorney-client privilege, but any records possibly covered by executive privilege as well.
The decision to allow a special master to review documents that could be covered by executive privilege, a legal doctrine that can shield some White House records from disclosure, is uncharted legal territory.
Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to stop reviewing the records as part of its criminal investigation, a move that will likely at least temporarily hinder its ability to continue investigating.
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What is a special master? A special master is a third-party attorney appointed by a court to oversee part of a certain case.
The special master will oversee the Justice Department's review of the evidence gathered from his beach club and filter out privileged material that may have been seized in the search.
It also halts the DOJ from continuing its review of the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago "pending completion of the special master's review or further Court order."
Why did Trump want a special master appointed? Trump's legal team argued that a special master is necessary to ensure the Justice Department returns any of his private documents seized during the search of Mar-a-Lago.
Generally speaking, it is not outside the legal norm for Trump to want a special master involved in the review of the evidence seized from his Florida residence.
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David Pietrusza's new book, "Roosevelt Sweeps Nation," is garnering rave reviews from critics and readers alike, including John Rothmann. they'll talk about FDR's legacy and comparisons from his speeches to ones made today by President Biden, plus your calls.
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With more information and images leaking on the Trump Mar-a-Lago classification scandal, John wants to talk to the listeners about the new evidence. He also discusses Biden's speech on this subject from Thursday night, and gives his opinion on what the outcome should be.
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While Biden spent much of his speech railing against MAGA Republicans and positioning them as a major existential threat to America’s political project, he stopped himself from going a step further and, with equal force, calling out the social forces this movement feeds off — chiefly, white supremacy.
“No matter what the white supremacists and extremists say, I made a bet on you, the American people, and that bet is paying off,” Biden said towards the end of his speech, in a coy and singular reference to what ideologically underpins the MAGA movement.
Biden may not have wanted to alienate purple and red Americans who, one would imagine, do not enjoy being identified as racists. But in the absence of identifying the threat of white supremacy, he reinforces fears amongst civil rights activists and progressives that the ideology’s pernicious and pervasive effects will prevail. And the stakes are simply too high.
“Political violence has always been the answer for white supremacists,” as Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation, noted after the speech.
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“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic,” Mr. Biden said, noting that not all Republicans follow Mr. Trump’s ideology. “But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
Citing the “extraordinary experiment of self-government” represented by the American Constitution, Mr. Biden said that “history tells us a blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.”
“MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards,” Mr. Biden said. “Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”
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According to White House Deputy Press Secretary Chris Meagher, President Biden plans to talk about the “soul of the nation” during tonight’s speech.
Meagher says the president’s speech will stress what he believes are America’s core values like democracy, our standing in the world, a woman’s right to choose, and equality.
The White House says the speech is not political despite it being so close to the midterm elections. Either way, RNC Communications Director Danielle Alvarez says Democrats will have a tough time selling President Biden’s priorities.
“They will have to answer for rampant crime. They will have to answer for an open border. They will have to answer for a botched Afghanistan withdrawal. They will have to answer for all of these failures that they’re struggling with as a result of Joe Biden and the Democrats poor leadership,” said Alvarez.
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Operators of California's power grid called for statewide voluntary conservation of electricity on Wednesday and Thursday as a heat wave spread over the West and they warned that there could be energy shortages if conditions worsen.
The call for conservation between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on both days came as excessive-heat warnings expanded to all of Southern California and up into the Central Valley, and were predicted to spread into Northern California later in the week.
On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom discussed the heat wave expected to impact California and the West Coast, lasting through Labor Day weekend until next Wednesday.
He shared ways Californians can stay safe from extreme heat, the strain the extreme weather will place on the grid, and state actions to respond to the immediate emergency and accelerate the state's transition away from fossil fuels that worsen extreme heat.
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Trump's lawyers said they wanted the special master to decide questions of executive privilege, not just the limited question of attorney-client privilege. Some legal experts have said that executive privilege exists during a dispute between different branches of government, not the same one, as in this case.
In Wednesday's response, Trump's attorneys downplayed the Justice Department's concerns about the classified material found at Mar-a-Lago, saying in the filing that there was no "cause for alarm."
They added that the Justice Department "significantly mischaracterized" in their filing of a meeting in June between prosecutors and Trump's legal team. And, they added, that without a special master, prosecutors will "impugn, leak and publicize" details of its investigation.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) lost to Democrat Mary Peltola in a special election to fill the state’s vacant House seat, Alaska officials announced Wednesday, more than two weeks after polls closed—thwarting Palin’s plans for a political comeback, at least for now.
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Former President Donald Trump was mercilessly mocked after demanding that he be retroactively declared the 2020 presidential election winner or be allowed to hold a "new election."
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday that unspecified "conclusive" information proved the FBI had "buried" an investigation into a laptop previously owned by Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 election winner President Joe Biden. The former president claimed that the FBI's alleged "interference" into the election could only be remedied by him being declared the winner almost two years after he lost, or by the "minimal solution" of calling a new election that could lead to his reinstatement.
"This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country," Trump wrote. "REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!"
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NASA scrubbed the much-anticipated first flight of its Space Launch System rocket on Monday after a series of problems with the rocket and the fueling procedures could not be resolved quickly.
John took this opportunity to discuss the numerous inventions employed daily to save lives, improve environmental sustainability, and keep humans healthy.
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A House oversight subcommittee asked regulators and industry leaders on Tuesday to explain what they are doing to stop cryptocurrency fraud and other scams perpetrated on consumers.
Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, head of the Economic and Consumer Policy subcommittee, asked leaders of the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Federal Trade Commission for more information on the steps they are taking to curb the growth of fraud and consumer abuse linked to cryptocurrencies.
The inquiries come as the cryptocurrency market has seen immense volatility, as bitcoin lost nearly half its value at one point this year and other cryptocurrencies fell even more.
“Despite these vulnerabilities, the federal government has been slow to curb cryptocurrency scams and fraud. Existing federal regulations do not comprehensively or clearly cover cryptocurrencies under all circumstances," reads one letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Five of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges were also sent inquiry letters, requesting documents on company policies regarding the removal of fake accounts.
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President Biden gave a forceful defense of the F.B.I. during a speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and called out allies of former President Donald J. Trump for failing to condemn those who attacked law enforcement during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
During a visit to a key swing state, Mr. Biden took what have been political vulnerabilities for the White House — policing and rising crime — and cast them as strengths ahead of the congressional elections in November.
“It’s sickening to see the new attacks on the F.B.I.,” Mr. Biden said, referring to some congressional Republicans who have called to “defund” or even “destroy” the F.B.I. over its search of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8.
“I’m opposed to defunding the police,” the president added, speaking at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “I’m also opposed to defunding the F.B.I.”
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"Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev died this evening.
The man credited with introducing key political and economic reforms to the USSR and helping to end the Cold War had been in failing health for some time.
With his outgoing, charismatic nature, Gorbachev broke the mold for Soviet leaders who until then had mostly been remote, icy figures. Almost from the start of his leadership, he strove for significant reforms, so the system would work more efficiently and more democratically. Hence the two key phrases of the Gorbachev era: "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring).
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Human-driven climate change has set in motion massive ice losses in Greenland that couldn’t be halted even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gasses today, according to a study published Monday. The findings in the journal Nature Climate Change project that it is now inevitable that 3.3 percent of the Greenland ice sheet will melt — equal to 110 trillion tons of ice, the researchers said. That will trigger nearly a foot of global sea-level rise.
The predictions are more dire than other forecasts, though they use different assumptions. While the study did not specify a time frame for the melting and sea-level rise, the authors suggested much of it can play out between now and the year 2100.
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A U.N. nuclear watchdog team set off on an urgent mission Monday to safeguard the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine, a long-awaited trip the world hopes will help avoid a radioactive catastrophe.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for the International Atomic Energy Agency experts who will visit the plant in a country where the 1986 Chernobyl disaster spewed radiation throughout the region, shocking the world and intensifying a global push away from nuclear energy.
“Without an exaggeration, this mission will be the hardest in the history of IAEA,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Underscoring the urgency, Ukraine and Russia again accused each other of shelling the wider region around the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which was briefly knocked offline last week. The dangers are so high that officials have begun handing out anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.
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“The president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second largest health care bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.”— White House chief of staff Ron Klain
Klain cleverly framed his quote. He name-checks some of the most effective or popular presidents — and then does not say that President Biden topped their achievements, only that it’s the “largest” since then.
It’s important to keep in mind that comparing federal programs separated by decades is very difficult. A simple inflation adjustment can be misleading, given differences in the size of the U.S. population. Economists generally will compare as a percentage of the gross national product (GNP), the broadest measure of the economy, or the cost as a percentage of the nation’s output.
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Amid growing fears about political violence in the US, a senior Republican senator predicted “riots in the streets” if Donald Trump is prosecuted for mishandling classified information.
Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, made his remarks about the ex-president while speaking to Fox News’s Sunday Night in America, hosted by Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman from the same state.
Graham said: “Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It’s all about getting him. There’s a double standard when it comes to Trump.”
Alleging a failure by the FBI to investigate Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, Graham added: “I’ll say this, if there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle … there’ll be riots in the streets.”
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Susan and John discuss the double standards in San Francisco politics.
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South Carolina state Rep. Neal Collins, who voted for a six-week abortion ban last year, now apparently regrets doing so after a judge let that law take effect in June and the horrific yet extremely predictable consequences have begun.
Now that the state House is considering a new, near-total ban, Collins is upset about the reality that he helped bring about. The second week the law was in effect, a doctor in Anderson, South Carolina, told Collins about a pregnant 19-year-old who came to the emergency room after her water broke at 15 weeks, Collins told his colleagues during a hearing. The fetus can’t survive if delivered at that stage, the doctor told him, but it still had fetal cardiac activity so hospital attorneys told doctors they couldn’t intervene with a dilation and evacuation procedure. They had to discharge her and wait for her to finish miscarrying.
A Louisiana mother said she was denied an abortion even though doctors told her that her baby had a rare birth defect and would not survive. Nancy Davis said she found out 10 weeks into her pregnancy that her unborn child had a condition called Acrania, where the fetus' skull does not form inside the womb. The Fetal Medicine Foundation said a baby born with this "lethal condition" does not survive past the first week. Davis' doctors advised that she get an abortion, she said at a news conference Friday. But her doctors said they would not able to perform the procedure because of the state's ban on abortions.
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A redacted FBI affidavit used to convince a judge to approve a search warrant for former President Trump’s Florida home noted that authorities found 184 classified documents in their initial review of recovered boxes in an effort that began just a few months after he left office.
Authorities’ concern that Trump may have additional national security information at his private residence was spurred by a review of the 15 boxes recovered by the National Archives in January.
The affidavit indicates that among the 184 documents were 25 that contained top secret information, including those gained from “clandestine human sources,” information prohibited from being shared with foreign governments, and information obtained by monitoring “foreign communications signals.”
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Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant was cut off from the country’s electricity grid, setting off a mass power outage in the adjacent area after fires damaged its last functioning transmission line, Ukraine’s nuclear power company said Thursday.
Emergency backup systems kicked in and helped sustain crucial operations, but the incident heightened fears of a disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is also the largest atomic energy plant in Europe and is located in an area occupied by invading Russian forces.
Fighting in the vicinity of the plant has led to acute worries of a potential catastrophe and to urgent calls from many world leaders for U.N. nuclear experts to be allowed to visit the site.
Russian and Ukrainian officials traded blame for shelling at the plant, which they said had resulted in the disconnection from the power grid — the first time it has ever been cut off.
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Former President Trump on Wednesday called on Republicans to boot Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) from his post as Senate minority leader, accusing the senator of being a “pawn for the Democrats.”
In a statement, Trump cited a Wednesday story from The Federalist about McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao’s alleged ties to China in calling for the senator’s ouster from his longtime leadership post.
“Mitch McConnell is not an Opposition Leader, he is a pawn for the Democrats to get whatever they want,” Trump said in his statement. “He is afraid of them, and will not do what has to be done. A new Republican Leader in the Senate should be picked immediately!”
Trump has feuded with McConnell, who he has dubbed “Old Crow,” since the Senate leader denounced the former president in Congress for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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A redacted version of the affidavit justifying the FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence must be unsealed in federal court by noon Friday, a judge ordered Thursday afternoon.
The order arrived hours after Justice Department lawyers submitted proposed redactions they felt were necessary to avoid jeopardizing witnesses or undermining the high-profile investigation into the handling of classified documents, which the Justice Department has characterized as still in the “early stages.”
Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart apparently agreed with the government’s proposed redactions and, in response to requests from multiple news organizations, ordered the affidavit to be made available for public view.
The affidavit likely contains key information about the investigation into classified documents that were kept at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private resort after he left office, including why FBI agents suspect crimes may have been committed.
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California is expected to vote on Thursday to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.
“The climate crisis is solvable if we focus on the big, bold steps necessary to stem the tide of carbon pollution,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
The landmark move toward electric vehicles would be phased in over several years, with a target of 35 percent of new vehicles that don’t emit fossil fuels being set for 2026, a target of 51 percent for 2028, 68 percent for 2030, and finally a target of 100 percent for 2035.
The California Air Resource Board will vote to implement the measure on Thursday, with board member Daniel Sperling telling CNN that he is “99.9 percent” confident that it will pass. “This is monumental,” Sperling added. “This is the most important thing that CARB has done in the last 30 years. It’s important not just for California, but it’s important for the country and the world.”
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The San Francisco Board of Education voted unanimously August 2 to officially admonish commissioner Ann Hsu, saying a racist statement she made on a recent candidate questionnaire was "hurtful and perpetuates harmful stereotypes."
The board wrote that Hsu's comments, "come at a time when the Board is in the process of reforming its behaviors and processes to produce better outcomes for students."
The emotional meeting prompted an outpouring of comments from many Black, Latinx and Asian families, all of whom expressed hurt and pain over the discussion. At one point during public comment, dueling camps of families shouted "Racist! Racist!" and "Support Ann Hsu!" at each other.
Hsu voted for her own admonishment. Speaking to the crowd, she said systemic biases need to be overcome, "but canceling one another is not the way to do it."
Since Hsu’s statement came to light last month, the backlash against her has been swift. But that outcry is also being countered by a significant contingent of voices calling for Hsu to hold on to her job.
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After more than a year of debates, protests, meetings and deliberations, President Biden is fulfilling a campaign promise to cancel some of the federal student debt held by millions of Americans.
Under the plan, borrowers can qualify for up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness, and recipients of Pell Grants are eligible for an additional $10,000 in forgiveness. Only borrowers earning under $125,000 per year — or $250,000 per year, for a married couple filing taxes jointly — qualify. The Biden administration also announced that it is extending the current moratorium on payments until Dec. 31 and implementing a new cap on the maximum monthly payments of undergraduate borrowers, among other changes.
The White House estimates roughly 43 million federal student loan borrowers are eligible for forgiveness, and about 20 million could have their debt completely wiped out, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on Wednesday. The policy will deliver the single largest discharge of education debt on record.
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For the second time in eight years, Democratic voters elected Crist as their nominee for governor, choosing the seasoned veteran over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was vying to become the state's first female governor. Crist now has just 11 weeks to unite his party, energize the Democratic base and convince independent voters that the state needs a new direction.
The Senate race between Rubio and Demings is on.
The two have been focused on each other for months — their primaries were not competitive — but on Tuesday night, the contours of the race were clear: Rubio plans to brand Demings a "Pelosi Puppet" who is inextricably linked to President Joe Biden, while Demings plans to attack Rubio as ineffective, selfish and wedded to a Republican Party dominated by Trump.
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U.S. officials in the national security community expressed shock and concern at the former president’s cavalier treatment of classified material. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said they were astonished at the “recklessness” of the move.
It’s an “affront” to “those people who’ve spent their lives protecting and enforcing a rules-based order only to have someone come along and use his special access to unlawfully collect and retain highly classified documents,” the person said.
It can take up to a decade to declassify certain information, said one former defense official who still holds a security clearance, so the fact that Trump took hundreds of pages of classified material is “one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.”
“There’s no gray area here. I’m just appalled,” the person said.
Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican currently running for re-election in a competitive race in the Santa Clarita area, drew outrage after comparing the Biden administration and the Democratic Congressional majority to the Nazi regime.
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15 years and 10,000 dogs, did you ever imagine so many people would care about and want older dogs (20 each week coming in and going out)?
Currently, rescue animals are staying in shelters longer, what is happening across the U.S. right now? We heard so many pets were adopted during the pandemic, are they being returned?
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Just a few weeks ago, triple-digit temperatures and drought conditions were baking North Texas and drying up the Trinity River in Dallas. But overnight, rain pounded the region and filled up the river basin.
The rain was so powerful that an apartment in downtown Dallas quickly ended up with two feet of water inside.
It also caused power outages at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on Monday afternoon, leading to more than 250 flight cancellations.
In Utah's Zion National Park, torrential rains turned hiking paths treacherous, putting park goers at risk. One person was filmed clinging to a large tree trunk in fast-moving flood waters. The search continues for a 29-year-old woman from Tucson, Arizona, who was hiking with her friends when the storm hit.
"There are more than 20 people working on a search and rescue operation, and they're working all along the length of Zion Canyon," said Zion National Park spokesman Jonathan Shafer.
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In one exchange on “CNN Newsroom,” Acosta asked Wolf point-blank who won the 2020 election and whether he believed Biden triumphed “fair and square.” Wolf acknowledged that Biden was president, but failed to respond directly, claiming that illegalities and fraud existed in elections and should be investigated. (There’s no evidence election fraud affected the 2020 vote.)
Acosta pointed out that Trump pressed his election lies in lawsuits that were shot down more than 60 times in court (often by Republican judges and even some appointed by Trump).
When Wolf said both the left and right “do not have confidence in our election system,” Acosta replied: “Our elections are fine.”
“You are the former acting secretary of Homeland Security and you’re spreading doubt and fear,” Acosta continued.
“These are facts,” Wolf said.
“No, these are alternative facts,” Acosta followed.
Wolf made a toothless call for integrity in elections. A frustrated Acosta snapped that “we also need to have integrity among officials who work in government and who have left the government who will tell the American people the truth.”
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Congressional Republicans vowed Monday that they will continue to investigate Dr. Fauci’s conduct as the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who advised the Biden administration’s Covid-19 strategy and public communications, even after he leaves his post in the federal government.
“Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID. He owes the American people answers,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted. “@HouseGOP majority will hold him accountable.”
Fauci announced Monday that he would be resigning from his roles as chief medical adviser to President Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, effective December. The 81-year-old doctor served in government for over 50 years. He noted that he will not be retiring but will “pursue the next chapter of my career.”
Throughout the pandemic, Fauci was accused of misleading the American people as to the risks, origin, and efficacy of mitigation measures for the Covid-19 virus.
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The line could open for service by as soon as 2033, the authority projects. Stations are slated for San Francisco International Airport/Millbrae and the Caltrain Mission Bay station at Fourth and King streets, which would eventually be replaced by a station in the basement of Salesforce Transit Center.
Major hurdles to the project remain. For starters, California hasn’t figured out where it will get up to $25 billion needed to build the San Francisco and Silicon Valley bullet-train extensions.
Nevertheless, approval of the project’s final spur north into the heart of the Bay Area is a significant milestone. It’s also the latest in a series of wins for high-speed rail in recent months, a reprieve after years of spiraling costs and litigation caused some Democratic state legislators to consider pulling the plug.
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The Biden administration urged Russia Friday to surrender Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and avoid a potential reprise of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — amid speculation that Moscow is considering shelling the facility in a “false flag” operation. Russian forces have held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant since March. Recently, the plant has served as a base for several Russian artillery units that have kept up constant fire on the nearby Ukrainian front lines. “We are very concerned about military operations at or near any of Ukraine’s nuclear power facilities,” a senior US defense official said Friday. “We’ve been very clear that fighting near a nuclear power plant is dangerous and irresponsible, and we want the fighters and Russia to operate with extreme caution and conduct no actions that would result in a potential radiological release.”
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U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Tuesday that the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club shows the federal government was akin to the actions of the Gestapo, the notorious secret police in Nazi Germany.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, condemned Scott’s statement, calling it “repulsive” and said the senator should apologize for using “such a disturbing and reckless analogy.”
“To compare the serving of a search warrant authorized by a Federal judge and the US Department of Justice to the conduct of the Nazi secret police who directed the deportation of Jews to ghettos, concentration camps and mass murder sites is not just factually errant and irresponsible, it is repulsive,” Wasserman Schultz said via email. “Jews never stood a chance against Hitler’s Gestapo police. What a dumb, disgraceful, insensitive and dangerous thing to say.”
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Brian Stelter, the top media reporter at CNN, is leaving the network after executives decided to cancel his Sunday show, “Reliable Sources,” in one of the first big programming moves under new leadership at the company. The final edition of the show will be on Sunday, a spokesman for CNN said on Thursday. The cancellation of “Reliable Sources” — a show that has aired for about three decades — is a striking change by Chris Licht, the new chairman of CNN, who took over this spring after the sudden resignation of Jeff Zucker. Mr. Zucker left after failing to disclose a romantic relationship with another top CNN executive. Under Mr. Licht, CNN has eschewed the “breaking news” banners that once heralded stories large and small, and political news shows have tried to book more conservative voices. He has given few other public clues about any possible broader changes at the cable network.
The decision to cancel the show is part of CNN’s “refreshed Sunday lineup,” the company spokesman said on Thursday. The lineup will include a number of new programs, such as “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” an interview program featuring the veteran Sunday show interlocutor
.
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As San Francisco students headed back to school Wednesday, there was hope among parents, teachers and education officials that, for the first time in three years, the district would be laser-focused on student learning and free of scandals.
Teachers, parents, elected officials, police officers and many others stood outside the gates ringing cowbells and clappers while wishing students a great first day as they entered the campus on a red carpet.
Health teacher Ben Borelli said, despite recent controversies and struggles facing the district, none of that mattered when the students showed up.
“Certainly during the school day when the kids are here, the focus is on the learning and the kids,” he said.
The first day of classes for the district’s 49,000 students appeared to offer a greater sense of pandemic-era normalcy this year, with no mask mandate, limited coronavirus testing and more lenient exposure recommendations, although many students and staff continued to wear masks.
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Another day, another school board attempting to ban books that reference subjects like racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and the Holocaust. This time, a Texas school district near Fort Worth is removing and reviewing dozens of books that were previously “challenged” by parents, and are now being reviewed again per the school board’s new policy. The titles include the Bible, an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, and more, according to The Texas Tribune.
All of this is due, in part, to the board adding three new conservative members, whose campaigns received unprecedented funding from the Christian political action committee Patriot Mobile Action and who ran on the over-hyped issue of critical race theory.
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In the days since the FBI seized classified and top secret documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the former President and his allies have claimed that Trump had a "standing order" to declassify documents he took from the Oval Office to the White House residence.
But 18 former top Trump administration officials tell CNN they never heard any such order issued during their time working for Trump, and that they believe the claim to be patently false.
Several officials laughed at the notion. One senior administration official called it "bullsh*t." Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff went on the record to knock down the claim.
"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff for 17 months from 2017 to 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."
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The grinding megadrought that’s plagued the southwestern United States since 2000 plunged to a new level of seriousness on Tuesday, August 16, as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that the first-ever Tier 2 water restrictions will take effect in January 2023 along the Colorado River. Generous monsoon rains over parts of the Southwest this summer have done little to blunt the grim longer-term prognosis.
Based on the latest set of two-year projections (called the 24-month study), the water level at Lake Mead will drop to near 1048 feet by next January 1, putting it just below the Tier 2a threshold of 1050 feet.
The Colorado River, and the 40 million people – plus billions of dollars in agriculture – that draw on its water across the Southwest, were already in the midst of stringent cuts after a previous 24-month study, released in August 2021, that put into place Tier 1 restrictions (itself an unprecedented step at the time) starting in January 2022. The range that triggers Tier 1 for Lake Mead is 1050-1075 feet.
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Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.
The effort, which breaks the group's previous $45 million spending record set in 2020, comes about two months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that created a constitutional right to have an abortion. It will be waged by the organization's political and advocacy arms and will focus on governor's offices, U.S. Senate seats and legislative races in nine states where abortion rights could be restricted or expanded depending on the outcome at the ballot.
Now, for the first time, Republicans who have long campaigned against abortion and Roe v. Wade will face voters on an issue that is no longer hypothetical and carries real life consequences.
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Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is laying out her future political plans, including a possible run against Donald Trump in 2024, after conceding defeat in the primary election for her House seat. Her loss on Tuesday followed unyielding criticism since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capital of the former president and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
"This primary election is over, but now the real work begins," Cheney said in her concession speech Tuesday night, noting that she had called opponent Harriet Hageman to congratulate her.
Cheney acknowledged in a Wednesday interview on NBC's Today she was "thinking" about running for president in 2024.
For her 2022 House race, Cheney raised $14 million, a record for any primary in Wyoming's history, and she spent about half of it. The vast majority of donations came from out of state, and she has built up a network she could tap into in the future.
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I truly believe the 2020 election was stolen. Go see 2000 Mules, or real Mollie Hemmingway’s book, Rigged.
I truly believe the FBI, the DOJ, and the Washington establishment, which includes many Republicans, will do anything to keep President Trump off the 2024 ballot.
I truly believe the raid on Mar-a-Lago was illegal, and was designed to find something, anything, that could, and will, be taken to a Washington D.C. grand jury.
President Trump will be indicted on some charge; he will be convicted, and he will be sentenced to prison.
If you think that eighty million voters, or whatever number you think voted for him in 2020, will just sit back and watch it happen, you are sadly mistaken.
We are indeed in scary times. But the scary party is the democrat party, not the republicans. Dems will go to the end of the earth to retain power.
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Tonight’s big news will be the fate of Representative Liz Cheney, whose latter-day conversion from dedicated Republican partisan to Donald Trump’s chief inquisitor in Congress has been one of the most compelling storylines of the last 18 months.
In just a few hours, we should know whether Cheney is able to retain her seat as Wyoming’s lone House member while helping investigate her own party’s leader — or whether her decision to do so has made her anathema to Republican base voters.
Surveys show Cheney well behind her primary opponent, a Trump supporter named Harriet Hageman, even though she has vastly outraised and outspent her challenger thanks to her much louder national megaphone. But it’s precisely her fame that has probably doomed Cheney with Trump’s core voters, who see her as an apostate and a traitor to their cause.
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For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures more drought, federal officials announced Tuesday.
Though the cuts will not result in any immediate new restrictions — like banning lawn watering or car washing — they signal that unpopular decisions about how to reduce consumption are on the horizon, including whether to prioritize growing cities or agricultural areas. Mexico will also face cuts.
But those reductions represent just a fraction of the potential pain to come for the 40 million Americans in seven states that rely on the river. Because the states failed to meet a federal deadline to figure out how to cut their water use by at least 15%, they could see even deeper cuts that the government has said are needed to prevent reservoirs from falling so low they cannot be pumped.
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An agreement between the Minneapolis teachers union and the Minneapolis Public Schools which stipulates that White teachers will be laid off before teachers of color, regardless of their seniority, violates the Civil Rights Act, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, several critics warned.
In an effort to revise how the district hires and retains teachers of color, the new contract states that teachers will be subject to layoffs or job changes in “order of seniority,” unless the teacher is part of an “underrepresented group.” The Minnesota Reformer reported that MPS teachers of colors face job changes and budget cuts at a higher rate than their white counterparts. On top of that, 23 percent of teachers laid off in the 2020-21 school year were Black and brown while only making up 18 percent of the workforce.
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President Joe Biden signed a sweeping $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill into law at the White House on Tuesday -- marking a major victory for his administration and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections.
Biden said during a signing ceremony in the State Dining Room that the legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, is "one of the most significant laws in our history."
"With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost," Biden told an audience of Democratic members of Congress and administration officials. "For a while people doubted whether any of that was going to happen, but we are in a season of substance."
The bill signing is the latest celebration of a major legislative accomplishment for Biden this summer, having already held bill signings at the White House last week for a bill aimed at increasing domestic semiconductor production and increasing benefits for veterans affected by toxic burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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In another era, Liz Cheney would have been exactly the kind of candidate Republican leaders would champion. She has the voting record, the pedigree, the fortitude, the eloquence and the smarts they might look for in the party's first female presidential nominee. But in this, the Era of Trump, traditional political strengths have been supplanted by blind loyalty to the standard bearer. So it is that Wyoming's sole member of Congress has become a pariah in her own party, stripped of her House leadership position, expelled by her state's GOP, widely derided and essentially banished for having the audacity to fight for something conservatives like her used to hold dear: America's democracy. Because Cheney had the gall to take on Donald Trump and his insurrectionists, the former president has taken on Cheney by promoting her primary challenger. On Tuesday, if the polls are to be believed, Cheney will lose. But shed no tears for Liz Cheney. Her star has never shone more brightly.
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Rep. Liz Cheney is not backing down, even as poll numbers reveal an uphill battle to reelection. Ahead of the Wyoming Republican primary election on Aug. 16, Cheney, 56, released her final ad campaign in her bid to earn the GOP's nomination for House of Representatives. During the nearly two-and-a-half-minute video posted Thursday, Cheney condemns the lies surrounding the 2020 presidential elections. "America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth," Cheney said. "The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen in insidious, it preys on those who love their country, it is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law." Talking to the citizens of her state and across the country, Cheney affirmed that while the lies make up former President Trump's legacy, "it cannot be the future of our nation." She continued, explaining that history has proven that "poisonous lies destroy free nations."
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The FBI is warning of calls for civil war and a dirty bomb threat against its D.C. headquarters following its raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In a leaked bulletin, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they have seen an increase in “violent threats” against law enforcement, government officials and judges in the week since the agents executed the search warrant at Mr. Trump’s residence.
The bulletin warned of talk to place a dirty bomb in front of FBI headquarters and “general calls” for a civil war and armed rebellion. Investigators also are monitoring threats against the federal judge who approved the warrant to search Mr. Trump’s residence.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said last week there has been a noticeable uptick in threats against law enforcement since the Mar-a-Lago raid.
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With California enduring historic drought amplified by global warming, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a new plan to adapt to the state’s hotter, drier future by capturing and storing more water, recycling more wastewater and desalinating seawater and salty groundwater.
The governor’s new water-supply strategy lays out a series of actions aimed at preparing the state for an estimated 10% decrease in California’s water supply by 2040 because of higher temperatures and decreased runoff. The plan focuses on accelerating infrastructure projects, boosting conservation and upgrading the state’s water system to match the increasing pace of climate change, securing enough water for an estimated 8.4 million households.
“The hots are getting a lot hotter. The dries are getting a lot drier,” Newsom said. “We have to adapt to that new reality and we have to change our approach.”
Newsom called it “an aggressive plan to rebuild the way we source, store and deliver water so our kids and grandkids can continue to call California home in this hotter, drier climate.”
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened Covid-19 guidelines on Thursday, freeing schools and businesses from the onus of requiring unvaccinated people exposed to the virus to quarantine at home.
The changes are a sharp move away from measures such as social distancing requirements and quarantining, which had polarized much of the country, and effectively acknowledge the way many Americans have been navigating the pandemic for some time. The agency’s action comes as children across the country return to school and many offices have reopened.
“We know that Covid-19 is here to stay,” Greta Massetti, a C.D.C. epidemiologist, said at a news briefing on Thursday. “High levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection, and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death, have put us in a different place.”
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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department has filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal portions of a search warrant and property receipt served at a court-approved FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this week.
In his statement, Garland said that the Justice Department filed the motion to unseal the receipt and portions of the warrant in light of Trump’s decision to publicly confirm the search of his residence. Though he did not reveal the basis of the search, Garland confirmed that he personally approved the department’s decision to seek a search warrant of Trump’s home. Garland also said that the “department does not take such a decision lightly” and made clear that it was not a possibility for the department to take a “less intrusive” approach. Garland concluded his statement by renouncing “recent unfounded attacks” on Justice Department and FBI officials.
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As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco is barred by federal tax law from participating in political campaigns. But one of the group’s board members is William Oberndorf, who is also on the board of a similarly named group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, a 501(c)(4) that is allowed to get involved in campaigns and spent millions trying to get Boudin removed from office.
Jenkins’ disclosure provoked controversy because she said she worked on the Boudin recall in a volunteer capacity. Here’s what we know about the revelation’s impact and what could come next:
Quentin Kopp, a retired judge and former member of the San Francisco Ethics Commission who supported the recall of Boudin, said Jenkins does not appear to have broken any law.
“The fact that she didn’t disclose she was being paid — that’s what voters can evaluate in November,” Kopp said, referring to the special election for district attorney.
“She wouldn’t be the first candidate for office who didn’t disclose all relevant facts pertaining to any campaign issue,” he said.
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“Another day in paradise,” Donald Trump cheerfully observed after FBI agents raided his home in Florida as part of a criminal investigation. There is no reason to assume he was being sarcastic. The raid had conjured a Trumpian Eden: the nation’s eyes were riveted upon him once again; Republican legislators who had been edging away rallied behind him, as did potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination; some of his supporters were again calling online for a civil war to defend their champion. Trump was able to present himself in his favorite light, as the victim of dark, partisan forces out to protect the establishment by dragging him down. Having trashed the FBI and Department of Justice for years, he had prepared not just his core believers but probably half the country to suspect that the rule of law was being undermined, not honored.
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After facing criticism over comparing abortion to the Holocaust, State Sen. and Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey doubled down on the comments during a radio interview, claiming that a group of rabbis supported the comparison, something that the group denies.
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We are still discussing the news of the day as it trickles in; the FBI served a search warrant on Trumps' Florida residence this morning, and then Trump himself sent out a long press release via Truth Social, which was then reposed to Twitter -- which is how the White House even found out about it.
As all this unfolds the calls flood in, and John Rothmann takes 'em from all political corners. Lots of folks react and opine here on KGO!
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As news spreads of the FBI's search warrant served on Donald Trumps' Mar-A-Lago Florida residence, the political pundits are in overdrive; callers across the spectrum found a voice on KGO with John Rothmann this evening. This superseded other topics of the day.
In other news however, Olivia Newton John passed away today; you'll hear John discuss this and credit Karen Reid for her Newton John musical selections throughout the show. Unfortunately, KGO has to block published music from our podcasts for licensing reasons, so you won't hear the music here.
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Even as John sat down in his chair at 4:00 pm, the ABC National News was breaking the story of the FBI Raid on Trumps' property in Mar-A-Lago. We threw the prepared topics of the day aside and digested the news with you here on KGO in real time for all three hours of the show! We took calls all across the political spectrum, as the news slowly trickled in.
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They're at it again with all kinds of classic movie clips and trivia -- todays' theme is couples and duo's that work really well on screen! Some of the clips had to be edited for the podcast edition to remove musical elements.
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Whether you're a Trump supporter or a Biden enthusiast, or somewhere in between - John takes calls from all of you! Biden is getting credit for a bunch of things recently: better jobs report, Senate spending bill moving forward, and more. Should he get credit? Does it change the upcoming midterms? John Rothman wants to know and takes your calls to find out.
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Joe Biden has gotten some political wins of late; most recently the blowout Jobs Report shows that the economy may be in better shape than some thought -- should Joe get credit? A vigorous debate ensued, with the lines loaded here on KGO!
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Breaking news this afternoon as talk show host & conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is hit with hefty penalties in his Texas defamation trial. The men and women of the jury awarded punitive damages in excess of 45 million dollars. John gets your reactions as you call in to KGO!
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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she would soon be ready to “move forward” on a revised version of Senate Democrats’ health care, climate and deficit-reduction package, after party leaders agreed to scale back some of their original tax proposals.
The new approach — along with other changes to the proposal known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — satisfied Sinema’s chief concerns and helped set in motion a plan to approve it as soon as this weekend.
In a statement, Sinema said Democrats had “agreed to remove” a key tax targeting wealthy investors. She also suggested they had made additional, unspecified changes to a second provision that aims to impose a new minimum tax on corporations that currently pay nothing to the U.S. government.
From here, Sinema said she would await a final review from the chamber’s parliamentarian — a critical step in the process that allows Democrats to move their spending bill — at which point she would “move forward.”
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Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister who has consolidated autocratic power with hard-right opposition to immigration and liberal democracy, addressed a crowd of thousands of American admirers in Dallas on Thursday with a red-meat speech that could have easily been delivered by any Republican candidate on the campaign trail this year.
Orban presented the two countries as twin fronts in a struggle against common enemies he described as globalists, progressives, communists and “fake news.” “The West is at war with itself,” Orban said. “The globalist can all go to hell. I have come to Texas,” he added, stumbling over a famous slogan attributed to Texas legend Davy Crockett.
The speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) went ahead despite Orban’s latest controversy: a speech in which he railed against Europe becoming “mixed race,” saying that Europeans did not want to live with people from outside the continent. One of his own close advisers resigned in protest, calling the speech “pure Nazi.”
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Former vice president Dick Cheney, in a campaign ad for his eldest daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, said former president Donald Trump is a “coward” and the greatest threat to the nation in its 246-year history.
“He is a coward,” Cheney says in the ad, which was released Thursday. “A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it.”
Liz Cheney faces a tough primary on Aug. 16 for Wyoming’s sole congressional seat, with Trump-backed Harriet Hageman favored to win.
Trump, Cheney said, “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”
The former president has repeatedly spread false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election. The House impeached him on a charge of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters intent on stopping the confirmation of Joe Biden’s electoral college win.
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Why are America’s schools so short-staffed? Experts point to a confluence of factors including pandemic-induced teacher exhaustion, low pay and some educators’ sense that politicians and parents — and sometimes their own school board members — have little respect for their profession amid an escalating educational culture war that has seen many districts and states pass policies and laws restricting what teachers can say about U.S. history, race, racism, gender and sexual orientation, as well as LGBTQ issues.
“The political situation in the United States, combined with legitimate aftereffects of covid, has created this shortage,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “This shortage is contrived.”
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The dishonesty of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was spotlighted in a Texas court on Wednesday as a lawyer for a pair of Sandy Hook parents cross-examined the Infowars founder and fact-checked his answers in real-time.
The jury hearing the case will determine how much Jones will have to pay the parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who won a default judgment against him earlier this year. An attorney representing Heslin and Lewis has asked the jury to award $150 million in damages.
Jones, who was the sole witness for the defense during the trial, did not fare well Wednesday as he was cross-examined by the plaintiffs' attorney, Mark Bankston.
In a remarkable moment, Bankston disclosed to Jones and the court that he had recently acquired evidence proving Jones had lied when he claimed during the discovery process that he had never texted about the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.
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As the floodwaters receded, tales of survival emerged Tuesday from victims who were roused from sleep by alerts and quickly found themselves trapped in their homes by floating furniture blocking the doors.
They described the experience as surreal, recalling how they had to ford through waist-deep water to reach loved ones only to be turned back by the swift current or watch as trucks and uprooted trailers were swept away.
William Haneberg, director of the Kentucky Geological Survey, said the rains came so fast there really was no time to escape, even if they heeded the weather service alerts.
“It’s mountainous terrain and the valleys are very narrow," he said. "A lot of the areas affected are very remote. It may take you an hour to go through the curving mountain roads. In a lot of the remote areas, there may only be one way out. So if you wait too long, the bridges may be washed out.”
People also have a tendency to tune out storm warnings, and generational ties to the land in Appalachia make some reluctant to leave, even if they know they live in a flood-prone area, Haneberg said.
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Former President Donald Trump welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to one of his luxury golf resorts barely a week after the Central European leader made remarks that have been compared to Nazi rhetoric.
Trump released a statement saying it was “great spending time with my friend” and that the two were also celebrating Orban’s April electoral victory, in which Trump endorsed him.
Both men are scheduled to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas later this week. Orban will speak to the gathering Thursday afternoon and Trump is to deliver closing remarks on Saturday.
Orban’s presence however invited criticism and dismay following a July 23 speech in Romania in which he said that he wanted to prevent Hungary from becoming a “mixed-race” country and railed against a “flood” of migrants being “forced” on the country.
Zsuzsanna Hegedus, who is Jewish and a long-time Orban ally and adviser, resigned after the speech.
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Under Georgia law, fetuses now have “full legal recognition” as living people. That means their parents can claim them as dependents on their tax returns — even before delivery.
The state’s department of revenue said Monday that it would begin recognizing “any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat … as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption” — amounting to $3000. Taxpayers must be prepared to provide relevant medical records and documents if requested by the department.
The tax benefit is a byproduct of a law that went into effect July 20 banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Georgia House Bill 481 was initially approved in 2019 but was deemed unconstitutional, given the protections granted by Roe v. Wade. Once that long-standing precedent was overturned in June, a federal appeals court cleared the way for Georgia’s abortion ban to become law. The court also agreed that “personhood” could be redefined to include fetuses.
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Some 43 years ago, the United States Congress overwhelmingly passed — and President Jimmy Carter signed into law — the Taiwan Relations Act, one of the most important pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific.
The Taiwan Relations Act set out America’s commitment to a democratic Taiwan, providing the framework for an economic and diplomatic relationship that would quickly flourish into a key partnership. It fostered a deep friendship rooted in shared interests and values: self-determination and self-government, democracy and freedom, human dignity and human rights.
And it made a solemn vow by the United States to support the defense of Taiwan: “to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States.”
Today, America must remember that vow. We must stand by Taiwan, which is an island of resilience. Taiwan is a leader in governance: currently, in addressing the covid-19 pandemic and championing environmental conservation and climate action. It is a leader in peace, security and economic dynamism: with an entrepreneurial spirit, culture of innovation and technological prowess that are envies of the world.
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Primary results: Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri & Washington
- In Arizona’s GOP primary for governor, Trump is backing former television news anchor Kari Lake over business executive Karrin Taylor Robson, who is endorsed by former vice president Mike Pence. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is heavily favored to win the Democratic nomination.
- In Missouri, scandal-ridden former governor Eric Greitens is trying a political comeback in a crowded GOP Senate primary that also includes Attorney General Eric Schmitt. On Monday, Trump endorsed “ERIC,” suggesting he would leave it to voters to choose between the two.
- In Michigan, John Gibbs, a Trump-backed election denier, is trying to topple Rep. Peter Meijer, a freshman Republican who voted to impeach Trump.
- In Washington state, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, both of whom voted for Trump’s impeachment, also face GOP primary challengers.
- Tuesday’s primaries also present tests for several liberal Democratic members of Congress facing more centrist challengers. Among them: Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Andy Levin (Mich.).
- Polls close at 8 p.m. in Kansas, Michigan and Missouri; 10 p.m. in Arizona; and 11 p.m. in Washington state (all times Eastern).
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Senators have reached a deal to pass veterans health care legislation, after the GOP blocked the legislation last week and pushed for multiple amendments.
At his weekly press conference, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said leadership had reached agreement to vote on three amendments at a 60-vote threshold and then pass the legislation, which boosts health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances such as Agent Orange and burn pits. He confirmed shortly after that he had the necessary buy-in from senators to quickly vote on the measure on the floor.
"I believe it will pass and pass this evening, so that's very good news," Schumer added.
The three amendments that will get votes are from Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), according to a Democratic aide.
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The Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco is urging U.S. senators to reject the pending Respect for Marriage Act, which would protect same-sex marriage from a potential rollback by the Supreme Court.
“People who experience same-sex attraction should be treated with the same respect and compassion as anyone, on account of their human dignity, and never be subject to unjust discrimination,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in a July 22 “Dear Senator” letter posted on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It was never discrimination, however, to simply maintain that an inherent aspect of the definition of marriage itself is the complementarity between the two sexes.”
Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should revisit those rulings. Despite some Republican support in the House, the Senate version of the Respect for Marriage Act — which was co-authored by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein —faces a difficult road.
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San Francisco’s Superior Court revoked the right to vote in school board elections from non-citizen parents on Friday in response to Orange County lawyer James V. Lacy’s lawsuit against the city over three months ago.
Superior Court Judge Richard B. Ulmer ruled that the 2016 ordinance that gave voting rights to non-citizen parents—including green card holders, work visa holders, refugees and undocumented immigrants—is “contrary to the California constitution and state statutes and thus cannot stand.”
The writ also includes a permanent injunction prohibiting the city from using the ordinance to allow non-citizen voting in future elections.
Ulmer’s decision came just a month after a Staten Island Supreme Court Justice denied a law that allowed non-citizens to vote in New York elections—deeming it unconstitutional.
“When noncitizens vote in an election, the voting rights of citizens are wrongly diluted,” Lacy said in a prepared statement.
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Between roughly 1855 and 1859, Kansans engaged in a violent guerrilla war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in an event known as Bleeding Kansas which significantly shaped American politics and contributed to the coming of the Civil War.
Tomorrow, voters will be asked to amend the state constitution, and give license to the Republican-dominated legislature to rewrite the state’s laws on abortion. It will be the nation’s first direct electoral test of abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Catholic Church is spending millions to advance the amendment, while a broad coalition of pro-choice organizations is scrambling to stop it, testing a new message tailored to appeal to independents and moderate Republicans. The pitch casts the amendment as an infringement on personal liberties—a government mandate “designed to interfere with private medical decisions.”
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A federal judge on Monday sentenced Guy Wesley Reffitt, the first defendant to go on trial in the Justice Department’s sprawling criminal inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack, to more than seven years in prison, the longest sentence to date in a case stemming from the Capitol riot.
After a six-hour hearing, Judge Dabney L. Friedrich handed down a sentence at the low end of the guideline range. She noted that was still significantly longer than any given so far to any of the more than 800 people arrested in connection with the riot, many of whom have struck plea bargains.
Prosecutors had asked that Mr. Reffitt be given 15 years after adding a sentencing enhancement used in cases of domestic terrorism. But Judge Friedrich rejected those terms, sentencing him to seven years and three months in prison with three years of probation, and ordering him to pay $2,000 in restitution and receive mental health treatment.
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With tensions rising on the eve of Ms. Pelosi’s anticipated arrival in Taipei, the White House said it was concerned that China might fire missiles into the Taiwan Strait, send warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense zone or stage large-scale naval or air activities that cross traditional lines.
“There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with longstanding U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or conflict, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” John F. Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman, told reporters. “Meanwhile,” he added, “our actions are not threatening and they break no new ground. Nothing about this potential visit — potential visit, which oh, by the way, has precedent — would change the status quo.”
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The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden's personal physician.
No American personnel were on the ground in Kabul at the time of the strike.
Senior Haqqani Taliban figures were aware of Zawahiri's presence in the area, the official said Monday, in "clear violation of the Doha agreement," and even took steps to conceal his presence after Saturday's successful strike, restricting access to the safe house and rapidly relocating members of his family, including his daughter and her children, who were intentionally not targeted during the strike and remained unharmed. The US did not alert Taliban officials ahead of Saturday's strike.
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Great characters in film and on TV
ROY MCAVOY (KEVIN COSNER) TIN CUP
MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS
LEAVE IT TO BEAVER STAR TONY DOW WHO PLAYED WALLY
JACK NICHOLSON RANDLE MCMURPHY ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
MARGE GUNDERSON FARGO, FRANCIS MCDORMAND
RON BURGUNDY , WILL FERRILL, ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY
THE BIG LEBOWSKI JEFF BRIDGES THE DUDE
CHRISTINA RICCI WEDNESDAY ADDAMS, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES
RED, MORGAN FREEMAN , THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
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“The BART Board of Directors has voted to reinstate a face mask requirement effective immediately until and inclusive of October 1, 2022, unless further extended by the board,” BART said in an announcement last night.. “The temporary amendment to the District’s Code of Conduct requires riders to wear face masks that fully covers a person's nose and mouth in paid areas of the system with limited exceptions. This requirement applies to trains and all portions of stations beyond the fare gates.”
“Free masks are available at station agent booths and from all safety staff for those who need one,” the announcement says, and adds that “Children ages two and under as well as people with medical conditions that prevent them from wearing masks are exempt from the mandate.”
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The families are furious that former President Donald J. Trump once blamed Saudi Arabia for the terrorist attacks, but is now allowing his golf course to be used for its LIV Golf event.
“We are pleased that people are refocusing attention on this issue,” said Jay Winuk, one of the protest’s organizers. “There is no reason to go over to the scene where yet another atrocity is taking place.”
The group, a band of family members of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, spoke vehemently against the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament being held this weekend at the club owned by a former president, Donald J. Trump.
The group, 9/11 Justice, seeks to bring Saudi Arabian government officials, whom they assert supported the terrorists, to judgment. They are infuriated that Trump once agreed that the Saudi government was responsible, but has changed his tune, they said, to cash in on Saudi efforts to sanitize the nation’s global image through sports.
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Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits weeks after the measure initially sailed through the Senate with 84 votes, angering Democrats, veterans groups and comedian Jon Stewart, a leading proponent to aid the community.
Sen. Jon Tester, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was particularly incensed by the turn of events. Tester, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, other lawmakers and Stewart on Thursday morning joined veterans outside the Capitol — who originally came to Washington to see the bill pass — to assail the GOP.
“It just makes the gut punch that more devastating,” Stewart said, given the number of veterans who came to Washington hoping the bill would pass. “Their constituents are dying.”
“This is a disgrace,” he added.
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Top executives of gun manufacturers defended their products in front of a House committee Wednesday, with the chairwoman accusing them of making money off the blood of Americans.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee questioned firearms manufacturers and multiple experts about the companies' role in an "epidemic" of gun violence.
Gun makers registered more than- $1 billion in sales of assault-style weapons to civilians over the past 10 years as gun deaths and mass shootings soared, the hearing revealed.
Daniel Defense, which made the rifle used in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting in May, raked in more than $120 million in sales of AR-15-style rifles in 2021, up from $40 million in 2019.
Smith & Wesson, which sells the high-powered weapons used in the Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park, Ill., made $253 million over the same period, compared to $108 million the year before.
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Mr. Manchin and Mr. Schumer are working to rally their party around their compromise, put forth in a surprise announcement on Wednesday. It would set aside $369 billion for climate and energy programs, as well as raise taxes on corporations and high earners, while lowering the cost of prescription drugs, extending health subsidies and reducing the deficit.
The abrupt announcement of a deal suggested a potential reversal of fortune for Mr. Biden and the Democrats, who had resigned themselves to the demise of the climate, energy and tax package. They had been preparing to push forward with a scaled-back pairing of the prescription drug pricing measure with an extension of expanded health care subsidies.
“This thing could very well, could not have happened at all,” Mr. Manchin declared on Thursday morning in an interview with Hoppy Kercheval, a West Virginia radio host. “It could have absolutely gone sideways, so I had to see if we can make this work.”
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The mayor of San Francisco announced a legal state of emergency Thursday over the growing number of monkeypox cases, allowing officials to cut through red tape and fight a public health crisis reminiscent of the AIDS epidemic that began devastating the city in the 1980s.
The declaration, which takes effect Monday, was welcomed by gay advocates who have grown increasingly frustrated by what they called San Francisco's lackluster response to a virus that so far has affected primarily men who have sex with men, although anyone can get infected.
"San Francisco was at the forefront of the public health responses to HIV and COVID-19, and we will be at the forefront when it comes to monkeypox," said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who represents the city. "We can't and won't leave the LGBTQ community out to dry."
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A 12-year-old gave passionate testimony on Wednesday at the West Virginia legislature, opposing a new abortion ban that would outlaw the procedure in all but the most extreme cases.
“I play for varsity volleyball and I run track. My education is very important to me, and I plan on doing great things in life,” Addison Gardner of Buffalo Middle School told lawmakers during a special session. “If a man decides that I’m an object, and does unspeakable, tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?”
“Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy? Am I to suffer the mental implications, a child who had no say in what was being done with my body?” she added. “Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life? Does my life not matter to you?”
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“Repairing the World” has been selected as one of the films being shown at the SF Jewish Film Festival on July 31. The film’s producer, Patrice O’Neill, and Jeff Greendorfer are our guests.
NIOT.org REPAIRINGTHEWORLD.ORG Tickets: SFJFF.org
Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life documents a community’s response to hate and anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the assault on three congregations at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. The lives of 11 people were taken on October 27, 2018 in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. As the Jewish community experiences tremendous grief, they face the resurgence of age-old threats that lead to horrific violence. Together with their neighbors, they meet fear with courage as they confront hate and strengthen the connections they have been building for years. Against the backdrop of a tumultuous period in the country, a traumatized community works to heal as they experience the impact and dangers of anti-Semitism, racism, hate speech, and gun violence. Through the voices of survivors, family members, diverse Pittsburgh residents, and leaders, the film shows the powerful display of unity in a moment of crisis, the resilience of a vibrant city, and a community working together to understand what it means to be "Stronger than Hate."
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The fight to keep Laguna Honda afloat continues. In a Thursday afternoon hearing, members of the Board of Supervisors listened to an update from the interim CEO of the troubled hospital, Roland Pickens, about the four-month closure and transfer plan put together by the hospital after the federal government earlier this year moved to curtail its Medicaid funding. The plan, originally meant to be completed in 18 months, was rejected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — which wanted a faster closure or transfer process, according to Pickens. In April, that federal department moved to revoke funding for the 780-bed hospital, citing myriad violations. To continue receiving some $20 million a month in the interim, Laguna Honda was mandated to devise a closure plan that involves transferring its patients — many of whom are elderly and frail. If Laguna Honda stays on track with the four-month plan, it may get an additional two months of funding, pushing the potential closure date to November. But patient advocates and family members have been pressing to stop transferring patients while the hospital works on its recertification.
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The Biden administration has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year US prison sentence, as part of a potential deal to secure the release of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
Russia intends to withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024, according to an announcement from Yuri Borisov, the new head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, in a meeting with Vladimir Putin on July 26, 2022. Borisov also said future efforts will focus on a new Russian space station.
Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom, said on Monday that it would further reduce the amount of natural gas it sends to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Flows had already been cut back to 40 percent of capacity, but Gazprom said that it would crimp them to 20 percent starting today, citing problems with one of the powerful turbines that are manufactured by the German company Siemens Energy. The turbines build pressure within the pipeline to ship the gas long distances.
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Rothmann takes clips from AG Garland onto his program for the 3rd hour. He ponders his comments on "nobody being above the law" as a precedent for Trump's indictment. So should he be? He'll ask his listeners, and you.
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When it comes to anti-abortion laws, Indiana is not messing around. They are heavily criminalizing abortion in the state, causing concern for many of its residents. John, with the help of his callers, wishes to talk about it.
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The San Francisco branch of the NAACP voted unanimously Sunday (105-0) to demand the resignation of San Francisco School Board Trustee Ann Hsu over controversial remarks she made in a public questionnaire. Hsu wrote "unstable family environments" and "lack of parental encouragement" posed challenges for educating Black and brown students. So should she resign? John offers his thoughts and takes ones from callers.
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John Rothmann takes the final hour of the show to ask what Cheney's future holds beyond the Jan 6th committee. Will she be reelected in Wyoming? Censured by the GOP? The next republican presidential candidate? John will take listeners questions about it.
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Pope Francis traveled to Canada as part of his apology to the nation for the abuse served by church leaders upon indigenous peoples throughout the last millennium. John talks about this apology, and asks his listeners if this is enough. Is there more the church can do for reparations?
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John Rothmann opens the show with former Vice President Al Gore's controversial comments on MSNBC. Gore claimed that climate change hesitation is similar to the slow reaction of police officers in the Uvalde school shooting. He takes several calls on this subject during the first hour of the program.
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It’s Friday night, which can only mean one thing: Jan Wahl to talk about movies! This week she’ll talk to John about some of her favorite crime movies, including Seven Days in May and Strangers on a Train.
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Rothmann discusses the Taiwan-china conflict, and takes calls on if Rep. Nancy Pelosi should visit the country in this crisis. Earlier in the hour, he discusses a major Ukrainian win, with wheat.
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With Steve Bannon being convicted by the Jan 6th committee, John dives into what this may mean for Trump and his allies. He'll take calls from listeners and get a statement from Rep. Cheney on the issue.
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Through a range of witness testimonies, the committee demonstrated that Mr. Trump never reached out to the heads of any law enforcement or national security department or agency in the government to seek help in responding to quell the violence. Fox News footage, which Mr. Trump was watching from his dining room, showed how the Capitol Police were under siege, massively outmanned and struggling to repel the crowd. But the president remained unmoved.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, expressed dismay with Mr. Trump’s response in his interview with the committee. “You’re the commander in chief — you’ve got an assault going on in the Capitol of the United States of America and there’s nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero?” General Milley said in audio of his deposition.
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Members of Congress, aides and his own daughter, Ivanka, made pleas to Mr. Trump to call off the violence as it unfolded in front of him on television. But witnesses told the committee that Mr. Trump not only ignored them but repeatedly signaled that he did not want anything done. Text messages and audio obtained by the committee showed that protesters massing at the Capitol were paying close attention to Mr. Trump’s words. Representative Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who helped lead the hearing, said that the president, after learning of the Capitol breach, resisted putting out a tweet saying “Stay peaceful.”
“He told Mark Meadows that the rioters were doing what they should be doing and the rioters understood they were doing what President Trump wanted them to do,” Mr. Kinzinger said, referring to what Mr. Trump told his chief of staff, Mr. Meadows.
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"Here's what will be clear by the end of this hearing," Rep. Kinzinger said. "President Trump did not fail to act during the one hundred and eighty seven minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home. He chose not to act."
Kinzinger claimed that Trump's "plan for January 6th was to halt or delay Congress's official proceeding to count the votes."
"Attacking the Capitol quickly caused the evacuation of both the House and the Senate," Kinzinger said. "The count ground to an absolute halt and was ultimately delayed for hours. The mob was accomplishing President Trump's purpose. So, of course, he didn't intervene."
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The Jan. 6 committee is holding a prime-time hearing tonight, the last of its planned summertime hearings. It will focus on the 187 minutes between when former President Donald Trump's Ellipse speech on Jan. 6 ended and his prerecorded video asking protesters to go home posted to Twitter later that afternoon.
Select committee aides say it will also look at who was talking to Trump and about what, including when he was made aware of the attack on the Capitol.
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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol holds a prime-time hearing on Thursday focused on President Donald Trump’s defiant inaction as a mob stormed the Capitol, ransacked the seat of democracy, assaulted law enforcement and sought to carry out Trump’s demand to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden’s electoral college win.
Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Elaine Luria (D-Va.) — two military veterans — are expected to focus on Trump’s inaction and will question two witnesses in person: Sarah Matthews, Trump’s deputy White House press secretary, and Matthew Pottinger, a former National Security Council official. The hearing begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, gave a geopolitical thumbs up to Russia's war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Tuesday.
"War is a violent and difficult endeavor, and the Islamic Republic is not at all happy that people are caught up in war," Khamenei said, according to his office. "But in the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the helm, the other side would have done so and initiated a war."
The Iranian supreme leader's statement seemed to suggest that Kyiv and its Western allies would have launched a war against Russia had it not invaded Ukraine.
The Iranian supreme leader's full-throated approval of the war stands in contrast to China's more ambiguous approach.
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Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos said former President Donald Trump called this month and pushed him to try to overturn the results of the 20-month-old 2020 presidential election. "He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin," Vos, a Republican, told Milwaukee's WISN in an interview that aired Tuesday. Vos said Trump reached out to him "last week," after the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a decision this month restricting the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in future elections.
Eighteen months after a pair of former school board members in Florida founded Moms for Liberty, the group’s first national gathering drew 500 people, including major Republican figures, to a waterfront hotel in Tampa, demonstrating the growing political influence of these local conservative activists.
The organization’s rapid ascension has been driven by the appeal of its core issues among conservatives, including battling mask mandates in schools, banning library books that address sexuality and gender identity, and curtailing lessons on racial inequity and discrimination, its founders say.
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Extreme temperatures haunted two continents on Wednesday, with more than 100 million people in the United States facing excessive heat conditions and a heat wave that had scorched Western Europe taking aim at Central Europe.
As 100-degree temperatures became uncomfortably routine on both sides of the Atlantic, President Biden said climate change presented a “clear and present danger” to the world. But days after suffering a major setback in Congress on his climate policies, he limited his announcements to a measure expanding offshore wind energy projects, while promising other, unspecified actions down the road.
“Let me be clear: Climate change is an emergency,” Biden said in a visit to Somerset, Mass. “In the coming weeks I’m going to use my power to turn these words into formal, official government actions. When it comes to fighting climate change, I will not take no for an answer.”
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Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chair, said this weekend that the GOP will investigate the Biden family if they clinch a majority in Congress during the midterms.
Stefanik accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter of having "illegal ties to crime" and "relationships with other foreign adversaries, and entities that he should not be involved with," but didn't provide substantiation.
"And Joe Biden profited from that," Stefanik claimed. "So, we intend to investigate."
"We've already made those document requests and we're not going to hesitate when it comes to utilizing our subpoena power," she added. "Because again, the American people deserve accountability and deserve an investigation into what I believe is the Biden crime family."
Stefanik also claimed that the "entire Joe Biden family" had been "profiting" off Biden's position of power, particularly when he was vice president during the Obama administration.
"That is unacceptable in America. And imagine if the Republicans ever did that," Stefanik said. "Democrats would be investigating absolutely every aspect of that."
Are you concerned about global warming?
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The Secret Service informed the House Jan. 6 committee that it was still attempting a forensic search for the phone records on Tuesday morning, when it delivered not the missing text messages the panel was seeking but “thousands of pages of documents” and other records related to decisions made on Jan. 6, according to the agency’s spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi. Later, in an interview, Mr. Guglielmi said the phone records were probably not recoverable.
The committee had subpoenaed the missing text messages and other material from the Secret Service after it was told by the inspector general for the service’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, that the agency was unable to produce some text messages from its agents’ phones from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021.
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Eight months ago, we left COP26 [twenty-sixth conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] with 1.5°C on life support. Since then, its pulse has weakened further. Greenhouse‑gas concentrations, sea‑level rise and ocean heat have broken new records. Half of humanity is in the danger zone from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires.
No nation is immune. Yet, we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction. What troubles me most is that, in facing this global crisis, we are failing to work together as a multilateral community. Nations continue to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for our collective future.
We cannot continue this way. We must rebuild trust and come together — to keep 1.5°C alive and to build climate-resilient communities. Promises made must be promises kept. We need to move forward together on all fronts — mitigation, adaptation, finance, [and] loss and damage.
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The House today passed a bill that would recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level, as 47 Republicans joined Democrats in support of a measure responding to growing concern that a conservative Supreme Court could nullify marriage equality.
The Respect for Marriage Act would codify the federal protections for same-sex couples that were put in place in 2015, when the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges established same-sex marriage as a right under the 14th Amendment. The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defined a marriage as the union between a man and a woman, a law that was struck down by Obergefell but has remained on the books.
The legislation, which passed in a vote of 267 to 157, faces an uncertain future in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans have opposed gay rights measures. But Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, declined on Tuesday to state a position on the measure.
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Meteorologists have warned of a “heat apocalypse” in western France as more than 8,500 further people fled their homes to escape a large wildfire sparked by a searing southern European heatwave that has already caused hundreds of deaths.
Nearly 25,000 people have been forced to abandon homes, holiday rentals and campsites for emergency shelters in the Gironde department west of Bordeaux, while blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee.
Temperatures across southern Europe showed some sign of abating on Monday as the heatwave, during which temperatures have surpassed 40C (104F) across much of the region, moved north, including towards Britain, which was set for its hottest day on record.
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San Francisco will try out six new models after spending 3½ years working on designs and $550,000 on a pilot program that seeks to fix the problems with the city’s current bins, which critics say are one culprit behind the city’s notoriously dirty streets. The green Renaissance models often overflow and are easily broken into, sometimes causing a bigger mess.
Critics slammed the Public Works department over the lengthy and expensive program while agreeing that San Francisco’s streets are unacceptably filthy. The department has defended its decisions.
As a possible replacement to the current bins, Public Works is sending three custom-designed prototypes made by local companies and three off-the shelf models to locations around San Francisco..
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Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress trial will stretch into a second day after lawyers labored through a long Monday session trying to select a jury without preconceived opinions. Bannon is facing criminal charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Bannon, an unofficial adviser to President Donald Trump at the time of the Capitol attack is charged in federal court with defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee that sought his records and testimony.
A Texas congressman challenged President Biden to “come and get” his assault rifles — just hours after the state released an extensive report on the shooting in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two teachers.
“I have a message for the Biden Administration. If you’re thinking about taking our ARs, you can start here in Texas,” Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was elected in District 13, said in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday.
“On behalf of all the law-abiding gun owners in Texas, come and get it,” continued the congressman, who represents a stretch of Texas from Lubbock to Wichita Falls.
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Stanley state lawmaker will chair Idaho Republican Party
Republican delegates elected Rep. Dorothy Moon to the party’s top position at the Idaho GOP State Convention on Saturday. Moon said Idaho was once a “bastion of freedom” but has since been surpassed by other states.
“We have to make sure, with the Democrats coming at us in full force, that we have our barriers up,” Moon said. “Our guns are loaded and ready to keep this state free.”
Moon, a Missouri native, is a three-term House member. She’s a former teacher who co-owns a gold mining company.
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Summer travel dreams through movies and TV
Hotel Portofino
Elvis
On the Town
Sex and the City 2
Vertigo
Out of Africa
Midnight in Paris
Shirley Valentine
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According to the district’s performance analysis,” just 58% of students were proficient in reading last year and 71% were proficient in math. But the outcomes varied greatly by race, with 34% of Latinos and 9% of Black students reading at grade level, compared to 85% of whites and 70% of Asian-Americans.
In math, 81% of white and Asian-American students were proficient in math compared to 41% of Black students and 55% of Latino students. Information from previous years was not immediately available.
The numbers are the first student performance data available since the pandemic, reflecting internal assessment data rather than state standardized testing, which was suspended for two years.
City officials, who have criticized the district for its $125 million budget shortfall and low literacy rates, applauded the renewed focus on kids.
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The House today passed legislation that would protect access to reproductive health care, including the ability to travel across state lines for an abortion, as part of Democrats’ efforts to minimize the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last month.
One bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, would enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade into law. The House already passed the bill last year, but it did not advance in the Senate vote in May. The House passed the bill, 219-210, prompting applause from Democrats in the chamber. All Republicans and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) voted against the measure.
Another bill, the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, would reaffirm the right for someone seeking an abortion to travel freely across state lines. The House passed that measure, 223-205, with three Republicans — Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Fred Upton (Mich.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) — joining all Democrats in backing the bill.
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President Biden said he confronted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directly Friday about the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, telling him in a “straightforward and direct” way that the killing was unacceptable and “making clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now.”
The crown prince, who is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, “basically said that he was not personally responsible for it,” Biden recounted. “I indicated that I thought he was.” U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that MBS, as he is widely known, directed the killing of Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime.
Biden’s comments came at the end of a day when a fist bump between the president and the crown prince — in an image disseminated by the Saudis — quickly took on powerful symbolism ahead of the high-stakes meeting.
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Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to Israeli aircraft early Friday, as the first signs of a nascent normalization process between Jerusalem and Riyadh appeared to take shape.
With US President Joe Biden set to fly to Jeddah from Israel later in the day, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said in a tweeted statement that it was announcing “the decision to open the Kingdom’s airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying.”
The statement did not mention Israel, but Biden is expected to announce from Jeddah the successful brokering of a complicated regional deal that will see Saudi Arabia take steps toward normalization with Israel while taking possession of two islands from Egypt.
The normalization measures include Saudi Arabia opening its airspace to Israeli flights to the Far East in addition to rolling out direct flights between Israel and Saudi Arabia for Muslim pilgrims, a Middle East diplomat said late Thursday, confirming the deal has been clinched.
Saudi Arabia only began allowing Israeli airlines to fly over its territory in a special air corridor for flights to and from the UAE and Bahrain after the Abraham Accords were signed. The change means flights to and from India, Thailand, China, and other locations in the east can cut over the Saudi peninsula, saving hours of flight time.
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The Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021, according to a letter given to the January 6 committee and reviewed by The Intercept. The letter was originally sent by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to the House and Senate homeland security committees. Though the Secret Service maintains that the text messages were lost as a result of a “device-replacement program,” the letter says the erasure took place shortly after oversight officials requested the agency’s electronic communications.
The temperatures in Texas and the Southern Plains are about to be turned up during an already historically hot summer.
Next week, some areas of interior Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas may see their highest temperatures yet, with predicted highs peaking between 102 to 107 degrees.
The core of the heat may concentrate along and just west of the populous Interstate 35 corridor, affecting San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City and Wichita.
The heat will ratchet up just days after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) twice issued conservation appeals (Monday and Wednesday), its power supply pushed to the brink. The state’s beleaguered grid is sure to be tested again.
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Congressional Republicans who oppose abortion rights are struggling to talk about the horrific case of a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel across state lines to Indiana to get an abortion because of strict laws in her home state, Ohio.
The case made international headlines after President Joe Biden decried Republican policies that forced the "already traumatized" child to have to travel out of state to terminate the pregnancy. Republicans and right-wing media criticized Biden, suggesting the case had been fabricated, only for a suspect to be arrested days later.
Confronted with the reality of the case, GOP lawmakers interviewed Thursday appeared to be grappling with how to respond — from confusion to blaming the media.
Many expressed shock that it was even biologically possible for the 10-year-old child to become pregnant. Some said they were torn “morally” about whether abortions should be allowed in cases of incest or rape, as in the Ohio case. And others tried to turn the conversation to the undocumented immigrant who prosecutors allege raped the girl.
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State Sen. Scott Wiener said in a statement Thursday that the city of San Francisco is veering toward a public health crisis due to the uncontrolled spread of the monkeypox virus. The city’s Department of Public Health (DPH) tweeted Wednesday that its walk-in clinic will close for the remainder of the week due to the vaccine shortage. Other city clinics are working through remaining appointments and joining the DPH in “urgently asking for more doses.” As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,700 San Francisco residents had been vaccinated against the virus, according to the San Francisco DPH. Wiener said the vaccination rate will continue to be slow, which will cause a spread in the city and surrounding communities. He said “failure to control this outbreak” will harm residents, especially the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
Don’t panic. This is usually spread skin-to-skin. 1% mortality rate or lower. Older people are partially protected by childhood smallpox vaccines. Vaccines are safe and effective.
SFDPH or SFAIDS Foundation for more information
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https://www.peckarskyforwisconsin.com/
A candidate can say they’re going to ask the tough questions, but when the time comes, will they actually do it?
Peter Peckarsky said it seems like just yesterday when he asked Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, if he “Retained counsel in preparation for a defense against a possible perjury indictment?”
The question was in regards to discrepancies in Kissinger’s testimony regarding his knowledge on former President Richard Nixon’s covert group “The Plumbers” and the Watergate Scandal.
Just as that 1971 press conference ended in an uproar, Peckarsky hopes to shake up the U.S. Senate race in 2022.
Peckarsky said it’s time for change as Sen. Ron Johnson’s post is up in November 2022.
While the field is spread wide with 19 other candidates, 11 being Democratic, Peckarsky said his resume and dedication to the community overqualified him for the public servant position.
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The Guardian Australia reported that Madolline Gourley was traveling from Australia to Canada, where she planned to house- and cat-sit in exchange for free accommodations. Gourley has a travel blog where she documents her cat-sitting excursions. The 30-year-old told The Guardian she was treated like a criminal during her stop in Los Angeles on June 30, when border officials became suspicious about why she was traveling to Canada.
After being photographed, patted down, and interrogated twice, Gourley was asked whether she was pregnant. As she moved from one detention room to the next, she was asked again by an agent if she was pregnant. When she said she wasn’t, she was asked whether she had had an abortion. “I don’t know if she had forgotten, or she wanted to work out if I was lying or something, ” she told The Guardian Australia. “I said no, and she looked at me again and said, ‘Have you recently had an abortion?'” “I don’t know the thought process behind that,” Gourley said. “I just thought, ‘What’s the relevance of that to my situation?'”
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Overall, inflation is likely to moderate in July because gas prices have fallen this month — a gallon of regular gas hit an average of about $5 in June, and the cost is now hovering around $4.63. But fuel prices are volatile, making it impossible to know if today’s lower gas prices will last, and the report suggested that underlying inflation pressures remained intense.
In particular, a core inflation index that strips out food and fuel prices to give a sense of the broad trend remained surprisingly high. That measure climbed 5.9 percent over the year through June, barely a slowdown from last month’s 6 percent increase. Core prices also jumped 0.7 percent from May to June, more than the previous monthly increase.
The global economy has been buffeted by a series of shocks that have pushed inflation higher since the outset of the pandemic. Factory shutdowns and shipping shortages have roiled supply chains, and worker shortages are making it harder for airlines to fly at capacity and for hotels to rent out rooms. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted gas and food supplies.
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If approved by voters, the measure would reverse a decision the Board of Supervisors made less than three months ago on a 7-4 vote to keep JFK Drive car-free permanently. Specifically, JFK Drive would reopen to car traffic on weekdays as well as Saturdays from October to March. The Great Highway from Skyline Boulevard to Lincoln Way would also be open to cars seven days a week under the measure. The ballot measure is sure to intensify the impassioned debate among residents over the future of car-free streets in San Francisco, and car-free supporters have vowed to fight the Access for All measure.
It won’t be the only JFK Drive measure on the November ballot. A group of city supervisors submitted a separate ballot measure last month to codify the Board of Supervisors’ decision on car-free JFK Drive in response to the signature-gathering effort. Both measures would need 50% voter approval to pass, though the supervisors’ measure would supersede the Access for All measure if it gets more votes.
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The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States.
Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5.
“It’s still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase." Whether it will outcompete BA.5, he said, is yet to be determined.
Still, the fact that it has already been detected in many parts of the world even with lower levels of viral surveillance “is an early indication it is spreading,” said Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that supplies viral sequencing information to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The Biden administration on Monday said doctors and hospitals need to follow federal law and provide abortions if there is a medical emergency and the health or life of the patient is at risk, regardless of state law.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations.
Administration officials said the federal government can penalize doctors or hospitals that fail to provide care in those circumstances.
“Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care.”
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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol just wrapped up its seventh public hearing.
The committee focused on the role of extremist groups and how the violent mob came together. The hearing explored the Trump administration's connections to these groups, such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, ahead of the riot.
In closing remarks, Cheney revealed Trump himself attempted to call a witness to the select committee's investigation, and the panel turned over the information to the Department of Justice.
"After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings," Cheney said. "That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice."
She continued: "Let me say one more time; We will take any effort to influence testimony very seriously."
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Next week, I’ll travel to the Middle East to start a new and more promising chapter of America’s engagement there. This trip comes at a vital time for the region, and it will advance important American interests.
A more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways. Its waterways are essential to global trade and the supply chains we rely on. Its energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia’s war in Ukraine. And a region that’s coming together through diplomacy and cooperation — rather than coming apart through conflict — is less likely to give rise to violent extremism that threatens our homeland or new wars that could place new burdens on U.S. military forces and their families.
From the start, my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years. Today, Saudi Arabia has helped to restore unity among the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, has fully supported the truce in Yemen and is now working with my experts to help stabilize oil markets with other OPEC producers.
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Hundreds of firefighters scrambled Monday to prevent a wildfire engulfing an area of rare giant sequoia trees in California's Yosemite National Park. The Washburn fire, in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, was first reported on July 7 and doubled in size over the weekend to 2,340 acres (946 hectares), according to a park report. Yosemite's fire management service said 545 firefighters were battling the blaze, including "proactively protecting" the grove—the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite, with over 500 mature trees.
Further reinforcements were due to be deployed Monday, as the blaze remained out of control with increasingly hot and dry weather forecast, Nancy Phillipe, spokeswoman for Yosemite Fire Information, told AFP.
"It's still showing zero percent containment," Phillipe said.
"We are doing everything we can to put this fire out," including deploying air tankers and helicopters along with ground crews, she added.
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Almost two-thirds of Democratic voters don’t want to see President Joe Biden run for re-election in 2024, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll that follows record-low approval ratings for Biden as the president battles issues such as rising inflation and criticism from some progressive Democrats over his response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
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Brittney Griner pleaded guilty Thursday in a Russian court on drug charges that have led the U.S. government to classify her as "wrongfully detained." Reuters reported from the courtroom that Griner entered a guilty plea. She could face a sentence of up to 10 years, while pressure from her supporters at home calling for her release grows.
Griner, speaking Thursday on the second day of her trial in a suburb of Moscow, has been in Russian custody since Feb. 17.
"I'd like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn't want to break the law," Griner said in English, per Reuters, which was then translated into Russian for the court.
Griner is due back in court next Thursday. Her guilty plea is unlikely to change much, as her pre-trial detention had been extended last Monday for an additional six months.
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“American Cartel,” reveals how lobbyists, lawmakers and K Street attorneys thwarted efforts to stop the deadly flow of pain pills. By Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz.
Today, America’s opioid crisis is worse than ever. Last year, the nation logged a record-breaking 100,000 drug overdose deaths, most of them due to fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin. There is no end in sight as Mexican drug cartels flood the country with shipments of the cheap and highly addictive synthetic opioid.
Most people don’t know the real story of the opioid epidemic. It’s not solely about Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. It’s about how a constellation of drug companies went after the DEA, and how the DEA lost that war, not to the cartels, but to lobbyists and lawmakers and K Street attorneys.
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Washington Post Political Reporter and Post Politics Now Anchor John Wagner
President Biden delivered an emotional speech Friday announcing an array of steps aimed at bolstering abortion rights, responding to growing demands from activists that he take bolder and more forceful action two weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Biden, joined by Vice President Harris, gave his fiery and at times angry remarks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House before signing an executive order to enhance access to reproductive health-care services. While abortion activists generally welcomed the move, many said it would likely do little for women in states where abortion is banned.
Biden himself acknowledged the limits of his executive powers as he railed against the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, calling it “the Supreme Court’s terrible, extreme and, I think, so totally wrongheaded decision.” He said the court’s majority is “playing fast and loose with the facts” by misrepresenting the history of abortion rights in America. “What we’re witnessing wasn’t a constitutional judgment,” Biden said. “It was an exercise in raw political power.”
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Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal.
The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.
Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the company’s board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate.
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Shayna Jacobs is a federal courts and law enforcement reporter on the national security team at the Washington Post
Payton Gendron, who is charged with carrying out a racially motivated massacre at a Tops Friendly Markets store in May, might seek to introduce a psychiatric defense in his state terrorism and hate crimes case, his attorneys said at a court appearance Thursday. The accused gunman, 18, allegedly drove three hours from his Binghamton, N.Y.-area hometown to methodically gun down Black people after casing the site on a previous occasion. Investigators believe he posted a lengthy screed online before the shooting describing his white-supremacist motivations and ideology. Defense lawyers must provide formal notice by Oct. 6, the date of the next court appearance, if they decide to move forward with a psychiatric case. Erie County Court Judge Susan Eagan gave the attorneys a three-month extension from their legally mandated deadline, which passed several days ago.
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Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 67, was shot and killed during a campaign speech in western Japan today. News that the former Prime Minister had been assassinated in broad daylight Friday shocked not only Japan but the entire world, which has come to associate the relatively low-crime nation with strict gun control. Japan, with a population of 125 million, had just 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Tokyo had zero gun incidents, injuries or deaths during that same year, although 61 guns were seized there. Although major universities in Japan have rifle clubs and Japanese police are armed, most Japanese go through life without ever handling, or even seeing, a real gun. Stabbings are more common as a fatal crime. And so the debate over the right to bear arms is a distant issue in Japan and has been for decades.
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A fundraiser set up to help 2-year-old Aiden McCarthy, whose parents were both killed in Monday's mass shooting during a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, has raised about $2.6 million since it was created on Tuesday.
As of Wednesday evening, the GoFundMe has raised $2.58 million, with its organizer, Irina Colon, noting that she created the fundraising effort with permission of the boy's family. The toddler wasn't injured in the shooting.
Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35, were among those killed during the mass shooting, and Aiden was separated from his parents during the chaos.
Remembering James Caan.
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Among tax lawyers, the most invasive type of random audit carried out by the I.R.S. is known, only partly jokingly, as “an autopsy without the benefit of death.” The odds of being selected for that audit in any given year are tiny — out of nearly 153 million individual returns filed for 2017, for example, the I.R.S. targeted about 5,000, or roughly one out of 30,600.
One of the few who received a bureaucratic letter with the news that his 2017 return would be under intensive scrutiny was James B. Comey, who had been fired as FBI director that year by President Donald J. Trump. Furious over what he saw as Mr. Comey’s lack of loyalty and his pursuit of the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump had continued to rail against him even after his dismissal, accusing him of treason, calling for his prosecution and publicly complaining about the money Mr. Comey received a book after his dismissal.
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Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday a plan to allocate $100 million in state funding to have the state make its own insulin. "Nothing epitomizes market failure more than the cost of insulin," said Newsom. "Many Americans experience out-of-pocket costs anywhere from $300 to $500 per month for this life-saving drug."
Half of the funding will go towards developing low-cost insulin products, and the other $50 million will be spent on a California-based insulin manufacturing facility.
This is in hopes of creating new, high-paying jobs and a more robust supply chain in California.
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His guest is Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs columnist, Washington Post
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced his resignation, saying that he is “sad” to be “giving up the best job in the world,” in a speech to the nation Thursday outside No. 10 Downing Street, his official residence.
It comes after more than 50 members of his own government resigned in the past 48 hours in open revolt against his leadership. Ministers and aides, including several members of his Cabinet, said they no longer had faith in his leadership after a series of scandals, the latest involving an ally accused of sexual misconduct.
Johnson insisted he would continue to serve as prime minister until his successor is chosen — despite criticism from many lawmakers from his own party who insisted he should step down now.
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The end of the Fourth of July weekend arrived with a blast of troubling economic developments as bonds flashed signs of a coming recession and oil prices plunged, suggesting that millions of consumers who have spent more than a year rocked by rising prices could face even more upheaval.
Tuesday’s events suggest that gasoline prices could be poised for a sharp descent, though there could be a multi week lag. While the U.S. average has pulled back from its June peak above $5 a gallon, further declines might not be of much consolation to consumers because they could run into an economic downturn that further pressures stocks and could spill into the labor market.
Arizona already lost a Supreme Court Case that mandated proof of citizenship in their state to vote. Now, they are working on an end-around to mandate a citizenship test for people voting by mail, which 70+% of their citizens do.
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That prospect recently drew unmistakably closer, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. First, justices overturned more than a century of legal precedent that had allowed communities in California to limit public gun possession — endangering laws that have spared us from some of the American epidemic of gun deaths by murder, suicide and accident. Then, the court reversed Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion — a right protected by our state constitution as a right of privacy and supported by majorities of Californians of every political party, region and demographic group.
Is the Great American Experiment dead, or simply on life support? And, if it is, how do we revive it?
“The Great American Experiment can be summed up as rejection of the European Ancient Regime in favor of political equality in the form of a constitutional republic. While America’s founding fathers excluded African slaves, native Americans and women from this equality, with devastating results, still the American Revolution was a first step – a turning point in human history.
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Is it time to ban fireworks?
Marc Fisher’s article: ‘Nothing feels safe:’ Americans are divided, anxious and quick to panic
In deadly assaults and harmless bursts of celebratory explosives, a divided nation demonstrated this holiday weekend just how anxious and jittery it has become, as the perennial flare of fireworks saluting American freedom reminded all too many people instead of the anger, violence and social isolation of the past few years.
Oakland police say they located five Athletics’ fans at the Coliseum struck by bullet fragments from what appeared to be celebratory gunfire occurring throughout the city. "These appear to be bullet fragments that may have come from guns being fired in another location," said Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong who continued saying, "as far as a mile away where those bullets could have been fired from."
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Kim speaks with callers about preventing shooting like Highland Park.
Kim’s guest is Lee Hudson to speak about the use of balloons in war.
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Washington Post Contributor Mark Guarino
Authorities on Tuesday charged the man suspected of opening fire on the crowd at a Fourth of July parade in this Chicago suburb with seven counts of first-degree murder and pledged “dozens of more charges” in coming days, as reports of his previous contact with law enforcement prompted residents to ask whether more could have been done to prevent the massacre.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart announced the initial charges against 21-year-old Robert E. Crimo III at a news conference, calling the Monday mass shooting, which also injured more than 30 people, “a premeditated and calculated attack.”
“Lake County will never be the same,” Rinehart said.
Earlier Tuesday, investigators said Highland Park police had in 2019 confiscated 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from Crimo’s residence after a family member told officers he had threatened to “kill everyone,” said Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force.
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Henry Olsen, opinion columnist at the Washington Post
If you’re having trouble grasping why inflation is so politically potent, consider that Americans who enjoyed a Fourth of July cookout on Monday paid 17% more for their food than last year, according to a survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation.
That’s a perfect illustration of a poorly understood aspect of inflation: For most Americans, the inflation they actually experience is often much worse than the 8.6 percent headline rate.
The official government inflation rate comes from the consumer price index, which measures the prices of a basket of goods that reflect the overall annual consumption of items and services that an average urban household pays for.
As a national average, it can never exactly reflect what a particular household faces in any particular city. It assumes that the average family purchases all these goods and services in the same quantities. But that simply isn’t true, and it unintentionally hides how high inflation is for millions of people.
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Kim McCallister is in for John Rothmann
Brittney Griner’s safe return home remains "a priority" for President Joe Biden, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre couldn’t say Tuesday if the president had any plans of speaking with the WNBA star’s family. Griner sent a letter to the White House on Monday pleading with Biden to use his presidential powers to ensure her safe return, adding that she fears that she "might be here forever."
Britney Griner’s wife said it is “very disheartening” that she still has not heard directly from President Biden, even after the WNBA star — who’s been languishing in a Russian jail —sent a handwritten letter to the president, begging him to not “forget” her.
Cheney defended the committee, saying Republicans must choose between Trump and the Constitution. “There are politicians in this country beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to American people and people have been betrayed,” Cheney said. “He consistently has said the election was stolen, when it wasn’t.” “I think absolutely there’s no question that what we saw happen on Jan. 6 was clearly an attempt to delay the count of the electoral votes,” Cheney said.
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Remembering Judy Garland, who would have been 100 on June 10th:
Unfortunately, we can not podcast the songs
Humphrey Bogart - Casablanca
Marilyn Monroe - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Errol Flynn - Gentleman Jim
Rita Hayworth - Gilda
Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly The Babbitt and the Bromine from That’s Entertainment
Clark Gable - It happened One Night
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Down in the polls and facing losing her seat in Congress over her opposition to Donald Trump and membership of the House January 6 committee, Liz Cheney came out swinging in a Republican debate in Wyoming.
“The truth matters,” she said in Sheridan on Thursday night, targeting Harriet Hageman, the candidate endorsed by Trump, and challenging her to say the 2020 election was not stolen.
Hageman did not do so.
Cheney, Hageman and three other candidates will contest the primary on 16 August. Hageman leads by about 30 points in polls.
Cheney, a strict conservative and the daughter of the former congressman, defense secretary and vice-president Dick Cheney, has been seeking to convince Democrats to switch registration and back her.
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A new University of Chicago poll found that over a quarter of a deeply alienated American public, particularly those who identify as Republican, believe that it may “soon be necessary to take up arms” against the government, The poll, a collaboration between Republican and Democratic pollsters Neil Newhouse and Joel Benenson, respectively, surveyed 1,000 registered voters around the U.S.. A slight majority of those, 56%, said they believed the government was corrupt and “rigged against everyday people like me,” with self-identified Republicans polling substantially higher on that question than Democrats.
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The current closures of JFK Drive and the Great Highway are having significant impacts on many residents and visitors to our City. The voters should have a say in the future of these roads. Help us get this on the ballot and make it a fair democratic process. We are advocating for a Sunday, holiday and partial Saturday closure of JFK Drive and reopening of the Great Highway, MLK Drive and Bernice Rodgers Way.
Vin Budhai is one of the lead volunteer organizers with Open the Great Highway. He is a Sunset resident. Paria Dea is the Government Affairs Manager at the de Young and Legion of Honor museums. She is a Richmond resident.They are the Principal Officers for the “Access For All” initiative.
Help sign the petition: Friday, July 1, 10 am - 4 pm in front of the Whole Foods at Stonestown Mall
Tuesday, July 5, 10 am - 4 pm in front of the Legion of Honor Museum
Visit the website for campaign information: Access4AllSF.com
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The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a major blow to climate action by handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate planet-warming emissions from the country's power plants, just as scientists warn the world is running out of time to get the climate crisis under control. It is a major loss for not only the Biden administration's climate goals, but it also calls into question the future of federal-level climate action and puts even more pressure on Congress to act to reduce emissions.
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Biden administration may rescind a Trump-era immigration program that forces certain asylum seekers arriving at the southwestern border to await approval in Mexico.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 5-to-4 ruling, said an immigration law gave the president discretion to return migrants arriving by land to the country from which they came. But that discretion, he continued, did not amount to an obligation.
The key provision, the chief justice wrote, used the word “may” rather than “shall.” That provision, he wrote, “means what it says: ‘May’ means ‘may.’”
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Clarence Thomas suggests Covid vaccines are developed using cells of ‘aborted children’
None of the Covid-19 vaccines in the United States contain the cells of aborted fetuses. Cells obtained from elective abortions decades ago were used in testing during the Covid vaccine development process, a practice that is common in vaccine testing — including for the rubella and chickenpox vaccinations.
A group of doctors, nurses and other health care workers brought the case, suing the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in an objection to the state’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds. The district court issued a preliminary injunction, but the Court of Appeals reversed it and the Supreme Court ultimately declined to hear the challenge on Thursday.
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Rep. Liz Cheney said Wednesday that the Jan 6 committee’s work has shown that former President Donald Trump’s involvement in a plot to overturn the 2020 election was “even more chilling and more threatening than we could have imagined.”
“We have to choose. The Republican Party cannot be both loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution,” Cheney said in a speech Wednesday evening at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. “We stand at the edge of an abyss and we must pull back. We must pull back.”
Cheney said she has been motivated to stand against Trump’s lies about the 2020 election because of her hopes that her children “will continue to live in an America where the peaceful transfer of power is guaranteed ... [and] in an America that is a nation of laws, not of men.”
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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Pope Francis on Wednesday and received Communion during a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, witnesses said, despite her position in support of abortion rights.
Pelosi’s home archbishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, has said he will no longer allow her to receive the sacrament in his archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights. Cordileone, a conservative, has said Pelosi must either repudiate her support for abortion or stop speaking publicly of her Catholic faith.
Cryptocurrency market maker and lending firm Genesis Trading is facing potential losses into the “hundreds of millions,” according to three people familiar with the matter. The losses at Genesis relate in part to exposure to over-leveraged hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and Hong Kong-based crypto lender Babel Finance and are on the order of “a few hundred million dollars,” one of the people said. The losses come as the collapse of Three Arrows Capital sends shockwaves across the crypto lending industry, with numerous firms facing substantial losses from their exposure to the fund.
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Former top White House aide Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday that Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony at the January 6 committee hearing this week changed his mind on defending Donald Trump against charges he'd incited a riot.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump’s political career. Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power ever again. Hutchinson’s resume alone should establish her credibility. The 25-year-old had already worked at the highest levels of conservative Republican politics, including in the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (LA), before becoming a top aide for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In short, Hutchinson was a conservative Trumpist true believer and a tremendously credible one at that. She did not overstate things, did not seem to be seeking attention, and was very precise about how and why she knew what she related and about which testimony was firsthand and which was secondhand but able to be corroborated.
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Amazon is limiting how many emergency contraceptives consumers can buy, joining other retailers who put in place similar caps following the Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade.
Amazon’s limit, which temporarily caps purchase of the contraceptives at three units per week, went into effect on Monday. The company did not share further details on what emergency contraceptive products were limited for purchase, but a listing showed the cap applied to Plan B, the popular “morning after” pill.
A similar policy went into effect Monday at the drugstore chain Rite Aid, which has limited the purchase of Plan B pills to three units per customer due to increased demand. The limit applies to both in-store and online purchases.
Emergency contraception is different from abortion pills used to end a pregnancy. Plan B, which can be obtained without a prescription, contains a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth control pills. If a woman takes Plan B within 72 hours of unprotected sex, she can lower the risk of pregnancy significantly. But if she’s already pregnant, the pill has no effect.
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Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on Tuesday that Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids, removing a major hurdle to the two countries joining the alliance.
Niinistö said in a statement that a joint memorandum on the matter was signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden on Tuesday in Madrid ahead of what is shaping up to be a critical summit.
The joint memorandum underscores the commitment of Finland, Sweden and Turkey "to extend their full support against threats to each other's security," Niinistö said.
"The concrete steps of our accession to NATO will be agreed by the NATO allies during the next two days, but that decision is now imminent," he added.
"Poverty and desperation" led to the deaths of at least 50 migrants abandoned in a Texas lorry, Mexico's president has said.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed trafficking and "a lack of control" at the border - the worst case of migrant deaths due to smuggling in the US.
Nearly two dozen Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were among the dead.
Those found alive, including four children, were taken to hospital.
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Upon learning on Dec. 1 that Attorney General William P. Barr had publicly declared the allegations of widespread voter fraud unfounded, Ms. Hutchinson said Trump slammed his lunch against a wall in his dining room in the White House, as she learned from the valet who cleaned up the broken china and ketchup dripping down the wall.
“There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of him either throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go on to the floor and likely break or go everywhere,” she said of the president.
Ms. Hutchinson said she had been told that on Jan. 6, an irate Mr. Trump, when informed he could not go to the Capitol to join his supporters, sought to wrench the steering wheel away from the Secret Service agent driving him. He continued to press to head there even after they returned to the White House.
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Upset that the crowd at his rally on Jan. 6, 2021, didn’t fill the cordoned-off space on the Ellipse, a furious Mr. Trump ordered security officials to allow people milling outside the security perimeter into the space so the event would appear well attended. Informed that some of those people were standing outside because they had weapons and didn’t want to pass through metal detectors, the president urged that they be allowed in anyway.
“They are not here to hurt me,” he said, according to Ms. Hutchinson, who was within earshot of the president at the time. Using a string of expletives, she testified, Mr. Trump said he wanted the security features removed. She also said the president had been told that the crowd of his supporters were threatening violence and had come armed including with guns, knives, spears and flagpoles, and wearing body armor. Mr. Trump encouraged them to go to the Capitol anyway, a detail that could prove legally problematic for him.
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More than four months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport for cannabis possession, American basketball star Brittney Griner appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing ahead of her trial.
The Phoenix Mercury star, considered in some polls to be the United States’ most gifted female athlete, could face 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs.
Russian long-range bombers struck a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine’s central city of Kremenchuk with a missile on Monday, raising fears of what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an “unimaginable” number of victims in “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.”
Zelenskky said that many of the more than 1,000 afternoon shoppers and staff inside the mall managed to escape. Giant plumes of black smoke, dust and orange flames emanated from the wreckage, with emergency crews rushing in to search broken metal and concrete for victims and put out fires.
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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot announced it will hold a new hearing on Tuesday “to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”
The surprise hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET on Capitol Hill, was announced Monday afternoon. It was not immediately clear what new evidence the committee planned to reveal. The panel did not identify who is scheduled to testify.
Monday’s announcement came days after the committee’s fifth public hearing, which focused on how former President Donald Trump pressured the Department of Justice to help him overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The committee previously planned to hold seven hearings on the initial findings from its nearly yearlong investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and sent members of Congress fleeing for safety.
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a former Washington state high school football coach had a right to pray on the field immediately after games. The 6-3 ruling was a victory for Joseph Kennedy, who claimed that the Bremerton School District violated his religious freedom by telling him he couldn’t pray so publicly after the games. The district said it was trying to avoid the appearance that the school was endorsing a religious point of view.
The Supreme Court decision ending abortion access for millions of Americans did not come as a surprise. But having a leaked preview of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in advance has not dulled the outrage over the end of Roe v. Wade in America. Immediately after the ruling was announced, protesters began assembling outside the Court to express their fury.
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They converged on busy streets, in parking lots and outside government buildings, waving cardboard signs and cheering — though some looked solemn, and at times they wept.
In the wake of Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade, fury erupted across the Bay Area, where residents organized a string of rallies and protests expected to continue well into the evening.
Hundreds of people gathered for rallies outside San Francisco and Oakland city halls. In front of San Francisco’s gold-domed building around 5 p.m., four young women stood back-to-back on a concrete barrier, one chanting “keep your rosaries” until her voice grew hoarse as the crowd roared back “off my ovaries.”
Later, the crowd shouted, “Abort the court!” and some roared in rage. Two women stood on the steps of City Hall, one with “hands off” written on her bared belly and clutching the other, who was weeping.
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During a two-hour meeting in her Senate office with the Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh on Aug. 21, 2018, Senator Susan Collins of Maine pressed him hard on why she should trust him not to overturn Roe v Wade if she backed his confirmation.
Judge Kavanaugh worked vigorously to reassure her that he was no threat to the landmark abortion rights ruling.
“Roe is 45 years old, it has been reaffirmed many times, lots of people care about it a great deal, and I’ve tried to demonstrate I understand real-world consequences,” he continued, according to the notes, adding: “I am a don’t-rock-the-boat kind of judge. I believe in stability and in the Team of Nine.”
Persuaded, Ms. Collins, a Republican, gave a detailed speech a few weeks later laying out her rationale for backing the future justice that cited his stated commitment to precedent on Roe, helping clinch his confirmation after a bitter fight. On Friday, Justice Kavanaugh joined the majority in overturning the decision he told Ms. Collins he would protect.
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The Supreme Court on Friday overruled Roe v Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years in a decision that will transform American life, reshape the nation’s politics and lead to all but total bans on the procedure in about half of the states.
The ruling will test the legitimacy of the court and vindicate a decades-long Republican project of installing conservative justices prepared to reject the precedent, which had been repeatedly reaffirmed by earlier courts. It will also be one of the signal legacies of President Donald J. Trump, who vowed to name justices who would overrule Roe. All three of his appointees were in the majority in the 6-to-3 ruling.
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American women, healthcare providers and pro-choice activists are bracing for Roe v Wade to be overturned as soon as Friday as the US Supreme Court prepares to release case opinions from 10am ET.
The Supreme Court released four case opinions on Thursday morning leaving nine cases remaining ahead of the summer recess at the end of the month, including the widely-anticipated decision on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization .
The court’s decision in the case is poised to impact the right to abortion access for women across America and backpedal on 50 decades of rights that were codified under Roe v Wade in 1973.
In May, a leaked draft decision showed that the court intended to strike down the precedent with the backing of conservative justices – at least three of whom claimed during their confirmation hearings that they would recognize Roe as precedent rather than overturning it.
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The ruling follows the mass shootings last month in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, and was handed down on a day when the Senate neared approval of a set of modest gun control measures, a major step toward ending a yearslong stalemate in Congress.
The 6-to-3 decision again illustrated the power of the six conservative justices, all of whom voted to strike down the New York law, in setting the national agenda on social issues. The court’s three liberal members dissented.
The Second Amendment, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, protects “an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.” States can continue to prohibit guns in some locations like schools and government buildings, Justice Thomas wrote, but the ruling left open where exactly such bans might be allowed.
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The Jan. 6 committee focused its fifth hearing on then-President Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Justice Department to aid in his campaign to overturn the 2020 election. The efforts, public and private, culminated in an Oval Office meeting just days ahead of the Jan. 6 riot in which top Justice officials threatened to resign if Trump went through with a plan to install Jeffrey Clark atop the agency because he was willing to assist in Trump's plans.
Three former senior Justice Department officials who rebuffed Trump at the time testified live: Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general; Richard Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general; and Steven Engel, who led the department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Donoghue testified that Trump told him and Rosen in December to "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
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More than 87 million Americans are currently residing in regions under a drought, with the majority of people concentrated in the southern and western parts of the country. In Nevada, water levels of Lake Mead have fallen to their lowest point in 80 years, and in Texas, the city of Houston is asking residents to voluntarily conserve water. Despite these severe conditions, cooler and wetter weather in the upper Midwest along with rainfall in the high plains region offers some hope for parched land and residents.
Two cars on a BART train heading toward San Francisco jumped the tracks Tuesday afternoon, and an initial assessment shows heat played the main role in the partial derailment.
The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said the partial derailment happened near Hastings Drive and David Avenue in Concord around 5:30 p.m.
Overnight repairs reopened single-track service Wednesday morning, but minor delays of 5-15 minutes were still expected between Concord and Pleasant Hill, according to BART.
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Gov. John Bel Edwards signed sweeping legislation Tuesday that would criminalize abortion in Louisiana and ban the procedure in nearly all circumstances from the moment of implantation if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
The bill added medically futile and ectopic pregnancies to the list of circumstances in which an abortion would be allowed, but the bill’s sponsors fought off multiple attempts to include rape and incest exceptions
“My position on abortion has been unwavering,” Edwards said in a statement. “I am pro-life and have never hidden from that fact. This does not belie my belief that there should be an exception to the prohibition on abortion for victims of rape and incest.”
Even before Edwards’ action, Louisiana’s trigger law was one of the harshest abortion restrictions in the country, banning the procedure before a person could know they were pregnant and not allowing for exceptions in cases of rape and incest. The law would take effect immediately upon the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade in part or in its entirety — an action that is expected to come before the end of the month.
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"By suspending the 18-cent gas tax, federal gas tax, for the next 90 days, we can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief," Biden said in a speech from the White House.
But such a step is a long shot in Congress. Here's what you need to know about the President's proposal and why it's likely to stay just that.
A gas tax holiday is exactly what it sounds like. The typical taxes that are applied to purchases of gasoline and diesel are lifted for a period of time, offering a measure of relief to consumers.
These tax holidays can come from the federal government, state governments or both.
Revenue raised from the federal gas tax helps finance the Highway Trust Fund, which is already short on funding. The federal gas tax hasn't been increased since 1993, when gas was selling for just over $1 a gallon.
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The Supreme Court said Tuesday that Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a tuition assistance program that allows parents to use vouchers to send their children to public or private schools.
The 6-3 ruling is the latest move by the conservative court to expand religious liberty rights and bring more religion into public life, a trend bolstered by the addition of three of former President Trump’s nominees.
"Maine's 'nonsectarian' requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise."
Roberts was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The three liberal justices dissented.
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A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday released a compromise bill aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, taking a substantial step to break a years long impasse in Congress over how to address gun violence.
While the legislation falls short of the sweeping gun control measures Democrats have demanded, if passed it would amount to the most significant action in decades to overhaul the nation’s gun laws.
The 80-page bill would enhance background checks, giving authorities up to 10 business days to review the juvenile and mental health records of gun purchasers younger than 21, and pour federal dollars into helping states implement so-called red flag laws, which allow authorities to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed dangerous. The measure would also, for the first time, ensure that serious dating partners are included in a federal law that bars domestic abusers from purchasing firearms.
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Two Americans captured in Ukraine while fighting with Kyiv's military were "endangering" Russian soldiers and should be "held accountable for those crimes," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday in an interview with NBC News.
The interview marks the first time the Kremlin has commented on the cases of Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both U.S. military veterans, according to NBC.
"They are not [in the] Ukrainian army, so they are not subject to the Geneva Conventions," the Kremlin spokesman said.
Last week, a Russian state TV channel aired videos on social media of Drueke and Huynh.
The circumstances under which the two men were being held were not fully clear, nor who specifically was holding them. Peskov would only say they were being held by "authorities."
As to whether they could face the death penalty, Peskov said: "It depends on the investigation."
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Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers — a longtime Republican who voted for Trump and has said he would again — told the House committee investigating Jan. 6 that “I do not want to be a winner by cheating.”
“I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to,” the Mormon and father of seven said as his voice broke and his eyes filled with tears. “How else will I ever approach [God] in the wilderness of life, knowing that I ask for this guidance only to show myself a coward in defending the course he led me to take?”
Bowers was the first of several witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing to detail efforts by Trump and his inner circle to undo the former president’s 2020 election loss by pressuring state officials to subvert the will of the voters and put forward false slates of electors.
The committee has previously described Trump’s “seven-part plan” to remain in power as a “seditious conspiracy.”
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Disgraced former Missouri governor and GOP Senate candidate Eric Greitens released a wild ad Monday calling on primary voters to order a “RINO hunting permit” in an attack on Republicans known for breaking with former President Donald Trump.
“RINO” – which stands for Republican in Name Only – has been used to label Republican lawmakers who openly criticize the former president or publicly oppose his belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. In recent months, Trump has urged Republicans to vote out lawmakers that have crossed him – most notably Rep. Liz Cheney.
The Greitens ad took the attack on his fellow GOPers to another level.
Monday’s campaign ad was strongly criticized by bipartisan lawmakers, commentators and political pundits – many of whom accused Greitens of inciting violence.
“Eric Greitens is an abuser, a blackmailer, and less than ten years ago — a Democrat. There is no basement too low for him to cover up his past Obama support and blindfold Missourians into believing he represents their values,” Hartzler said in a statement. “To be clear: The only RINO featured in Eric Greitens’ web video is himself.”
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Vaccine advisers to the CDC had voted unanimously on Saturday in support of recommending the two-dose Moderna and three-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to children as young as 6 months.
The long-awaited development is both a triumph and a curiosity to many. The prospect of more protection for more people is, of course, good news. But consider the following: People over 16 have been vaccine eligible for 18 months. Children ages 12 to 15 have been vaccine eligible for 13 months. Children ages 5 to 11 have been vaccine eligible for seven months.
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Legally Texas cannot secede from the union. There has been a myth that it can because of the way it was annexed but the Congressional order of annexation merely stated Texas could - at a future date - divide itself into five states. It says nothing about leaving the union.
The Texas Republican Party officially rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election over the weekend, passing a resolution that falsely blames election fraud in five battleground states for President Joe Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump. The resolution refers to Mr. Biden as "acting" president.
Texas Republicans also passed a number of other far-right resolutions in the platform. The platform calls for the complete abolition of abortion, prohibiting "the teaching of sex education, sexual health, or sexual choice or identity in any public school in any grade whatsoever," and refers to homosexuality as "an abnormal lifestyle choice." The platform also calls for Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, to be overturned.
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Juneteenth, also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day was first celebrated by freed slaves on June 19, 1866, in Texas a year after slavery had ended there. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in January of 1863—two and half years earlier.
It wasn’t until 1980 that the holiday was officially recognized anywhere. Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a state holiday. In 2002, eight other states joined Texas and Missouri followed suit in 2003. In 2008, fifteen more states.
By 2019, 47 states and the District of Columbia had finally recognized or commemorated the day in some way. Between 2020 and 2022, five states (Texas, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Illinois) made it a paid holiday for state employees.
But for more than a century and half between 1866 and 2022, Juneteenth has primarily been a celebration confined to Black communities all across America
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Jan Wahl returns to KGO to discuss her favorite father's day movies with John Rothmann!
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John brings up Trump's accusations and crimes committed, but the question becomes.....should he face jail time? Many callers voice their opinion throughout hour two of the program.
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John fields multiple calls on the debate on Roe v Wade as well as a scandal regarding catholic school and LGTBQ+ flags.
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The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania have backed Ukraine's bid to join the EU, saying it should be given "immediate" candidate status.
"Ukraine belongs to the European family," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a joint briefing in Kyiv.
But he added that Ukraine still had to meet the accession criteria in full.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the 27-member EU would stand by Ukraine until its victory against Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Russia's continuing aggression as a war "against the united Europe", adding that the "most effective weapon" was unity.
And he again appealed for more heavy weapons to be sent urgently for Ukraine to be able to defend itself more effectively and liberate territories seized by Moscow since the start of the invasion on 24 February.
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Top negotiators on a bipartisan gun safety framework deal huddled behind closed doors for several hours Wednesday evening to try to solve remaining differences, but the group's effort to expedite passage of an agreement is stalled, at least for the moment.
Since a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans announced an agreement Sunday on a framework of proposals aimed at curbing gun violence, a bipartisan group of senators has been working to speedily turn the list of ideas into a bill ready for consideration on the Senate floor next week. But two provisions, one focused on incentivizing states to implement violence prevention programs, and another dealing with closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole," are now tying up negotiations. "If we can settle these two issues, I think we're on our way, but I am concerned now given the time it takes and the need to complete our work really by tomorrow that we've got to settle these issues," Cornyn told reporters Wednesday morning.
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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol laid out evidence on Thursday that former President Donald J. Trump was told that his plan to overturn the 2020 election was illegal, but pressured Vice President Mike Pence to go along with it anyway, ultimately whipping up a violent mob against him when he refused to comply.
The panel also presented in chilling detail how Mr. Trump, knowing that rioters had violently stormed the Capitol with Mr. Pence inside, posted a tweet condemning his vice president for failing to reject the election results, sending Mr. Pence fleeing for his life just 40 feet away from the mob that was calling for his execution.
The Proud Boys and other rioters, the committee said, would have killed Mr. Pence had they found him.
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The U.S. Secretary of Defense announced Ukraine is getting an additional $1 billion worth of weapons it needs to thwart advancing Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region.
“I'm especially pleased to be able to announce today that the United States will provide an additional $1 billion security assistance package for Ukraine,” said Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin III during the concluding statements of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. That group consists of 50 national heads of defense departments convening to determine the latest in the war and to coordinate aid. “It includes guided [multiple long-range rocket systems (MLRS)], munitions, 18 more M777 howitzers and the types of vehicles that hold them, and 36,000 rounds of 155 millimeter ammunition.
“Everyone here is acutely aware of the danger Ukraine faces from Russia’s relentless assault on the Donbas.”
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Guns have been a constant in Ryan Busse’s life story. His father taught him to shoot as a boy growing up on a ranch in the high plains of Kansas. That upbringing led him to a dream job at the gun manufacturer Kimber. Over 25 years, he rose to become a senior executive and an influential force within the firearm industry.
“I am responsible for selling millions of guns,” Busse wrote at the start of his book, “Gunfight.” The claim was not a boast. It was more like the beginning of an apology.
With the book, which is part memoir, part treatise on gun policy in America, Busse has inserted himself into the center of a seemingly intractable debate that recharges each time the country confronts another burst of deadly gun violence, including mass shootings, police killings and fatal confrontations like the one involving Kyle Rittenhouse.
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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by 0.75%, the largest move it has made in a single meeting since 1994.
The central bank messaged that further interest rate hikes will come this year, as the Fed leans on higher borrowing costs to dampen demand and work to slow faster-than-expected inflation.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California, and Nevada all receive water from the Colorado River and next year will see a decrease of between 2 million and 4 million acre-feet of water due to the ongoing drought that has gripped most of the Western U.S. (An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land in one-foot-deep water.) Current allotments of water from the Colorado range from 300,000 acre-feet for Nevada to 4.4 million acre-feet for California.
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Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader, has been abruptly moved from the prison where he was serving an 11-1/2 year sentence to a high-security penal colony farther from Moscow.
His chief of staff Leonid Volkov said that when Navalny's lawyer arrived on Tuesday at Correctional Colony No. 2, a prison camp in Pokrov, 119 km (74 miles) east of Moscow, he was told: "There is no such convict here."
But later, regional prison observer Sergey Yazhan said by phone that Navalny had been taken to the IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo near Vladimir, about 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow.
Yazhan is chairman of the local Public Monitoring Commission, an organization tasked with protecting the rights of prisoners in each Russian region and working closely with prison authorities.
Navalny casts President Vladimir Putin's Russia as a dystopian state run by thieves and criminals where wrong is right and judges are corrupt representatives of a doomed elite.
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Over the last two years, as the price of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies surged, crypto start-ups proliferated. Companies that market digital coins to investors flooded the airwaves with TV commercials, newfangled lending operations offered sky-high interest rates on crypto deposits and exchanges like Coinbase that allow investors to trade digital assets went on hiring sprees.
A global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars rose up practically overnight. Now it is crashing down.
After weeks of plummeting cryptocurrency prices, Coinbase said on Tuesday that it was cutting 18% of its employees, after layoffs at other crypto companies like Gemini, BlockFi and Crypto.com. High-profile start-ups like Terraform Labs have imploded, wiping away years of investments. On Sunday, an experimental crypto bank, Celsius, abruptly halted withdrawals.
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In response to the second public hearing of the January 6 committee, former President Donald Trump released a 12-page statement -- yes, 12 full pages! -- seeking to rebut the charges leveled against him. It's filled with the usual name-calling, exaggerations and conspiracy theories that have dominated Trump's post-2020 election life. But it's also a window into the former President's psyche as the January 6 committee weighs whether to recommend a criminal indictment of Trump to the Department of Justice.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/politics/donald-trump-statement-january-6-committee/index.html
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Joe Biden will visit Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia next month, the White House said today. The announcement immediately put the administration on the defensive, given the president’s previous stance that the Saudi regime was a “pariah” because of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights abuses.
One Saudi human rights campaigner called Biden’s decision to meet the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a “betrayal”.
A senior Democratic senator said he understood Biden’s need to work with the Saudis to lessen oil prices, and thereby reduce pressure on US consumers, but called Riyadh’s record on human rights an “outrage”.
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Nearly every corner of the Lower 48 is dealing with some sort of wild weather, with fires, floods, tornadoes and a punishing heat wave all wreaking havoc .Floodwaters have swept away homes, whole bridges and chunks of road, and 100 million Americans have been placed under heatwave warnings to stay at home, as the United States is hit with a surge of extreme weather events over just two days.
Torrential rain and a melting snowpack triggered the deluge that forced the evacuation of some parts of Yellowstone National Park, cutting off electricity and forcing the rare closure of all five entrances indefinitely, just as the summer tourist season kicked off.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, though dozens of stranded campers had to be rescued by raft in south-central Montana.
"This is flooding that we've just never seen in our lifetimes before," said Cory Mottice, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Billings, Montana.
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Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska leads the 48-candidate field in a special primary election for the state’s sole congressional seat, according to a preliminary count of ballots on Sunday.
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Joe Biden has urged US lawmakers to get a deal on gun reforms to his desk quickly as a group of senators announced a limited bipartisan framework on Sunday responding to last month’s mass shootings.
The proposed deal is a modest breakthrough offering measured gun curbs while bolstering efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.
It falls far short of tougher steps long sought by Biden, many Democrats, gun reform advocates and America citizens. For example, there is no proposal to ban assault weapons, as activists had wanted, or to increase from 18 to 21 the age required to buy them.
Even so, if the accord leads to the enactment of legislation, it would signal a turn from years of gun massacres that have yielded little but stalemate in Congress.
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"Bogus." Silly." "Complete Rubbish." "Bulls**t." Those were just a few of the words Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr used to describe Trump’s 2020 election lies. Today, the January 6 Committee thoroughly dissected the anatomy of the Big Lie — and Trump’s former closest aides held the scalpels.
There would’ve been no insurrection without Trump’s lies about the election being stolen. By dismantling the Big Lie, the January 6 Committee established that the entire premise of Trump’s attempted coup was baseless and that Trump knew that these claims were baseless. This further establishes intent.
Today’s hearing took us inside the White House where the decision for Trump to falsely declare victory was made. It methodologically debunked very specific voter fraud lies with Trump’s own aides. And most importantly, it sought to prove that Trump knew his election fraud claims were baseless — but he proceeded to destabilize American democracy anyway.
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The following movies were selected in tribute to the Tony Awards airing on Sunday. Check your local listings.
1/ PETER O’TOOLE (MY FAOVIRTE YEAR)
2/ RENEE ZELLWIGER (CHICAGO)
3/ MARLON BRANDO (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE)
4/ DENZEL WASHINGTON (FLIGHT)
5/ HELEN MIRREN (CALENDAR GIRLS)
6/ GENE WILDER (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN)
7/ COLIN FIRTH (THE KING’S SPEECH)
8/ ELIZABETH TAYLOR/RICHARD BURTON (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW)
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As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’
Climate change and rapid population growth are shrinking the lake, creating a bowl of toxic dust that could poison the air around Salt Lake City.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/climate/salt-lake-city-climate-disaster.html
SALT LAKE CITY — If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store:
The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop.
Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population.
“We have this potential environmental nuclear bomb that’s going to go off if we don’t take some pretty dramatic action,” said Joel Ferry, a Republican state lawmaker and rancher who lives on the north side of the lake.
As climate change continues to cause record-breaking drought, there are no easy solutions. Saving the Great Salt Lake would require letting more snowmelt from the mountains flow to the lake, which means less water for residents and farmers. That would threaten the region’s breakneck population growth and high-value agriculture — something state leaders seem reluctant to do.
Utah’s dilemma raises a core question as the country heats up: How quickly are Americans willing to adapt to the effects of climate change, even as those effects become urgent, obvious, and potentially catastrophic? Dig deeper into the moment.
The stakes are alarmingly high, according to Timothy D. Hawkes, a Republican lawmaker who wants more aggressive action. Otherwise, he said, the Great Salt Lake risks the same fate as California’s Owens Lake, which went dry decades ago, producing the worst levels of dust pollution in the United States and helping to turn the nearby community into a veritable ghost town.
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House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson confirmed to CNN Thursday that the panel plans to release the transcripts from the closed-door depositions that it conducted in its sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the election.
“We’ll make it available,” Thompson said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper after the committee’s first hearing on Thursday.
Thompson also said that the committee planned to cooperate, if requested, with the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6, 2021, while saying the committee’s job wasn’t to determine whether crimes had been committed. The Justice Department last month had asked for transcripts from the committee, but the panel resisted ahead of this month’s hearing.
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Congressional hearings into the deadly U.S. Capitol attack by Donald Trump's supporters opened with the panel presenting a video showing that even the former president's daughter, Ivanka, did not believe his false claims of election fraud.
Even members of his own administration including Attorney General Bill Barr - as seen in video shown by the House of Representatives select committee - rejected Trump's claims of widespread election fraud in his loss to Democrat Joe Biden as untrue.
The hearing began with Barr's video testimony calling the fraud claims "bullsh*t," an argument that had convinced Trump's daughter. "I respect Attorney General Barr. So I accepted what he was saying," Ivanka Trump said in videotaped testimony.
The panel also showed videotaped testimony from other senior Trump White House officials including then-Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff.
"Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one writer put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government," Democratic U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairman, said in his opening statement. "The violence was no accident. It was Trump's last stand."
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"The conspiracy to thwart the will of the people is not over," Democratic U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairman, said in excerpts of his opening statement. "There are those in this country who thirst for power but have no love or respect for what makes America great: devotion to the Constitution, allegiance to the rule of law, our shared journey to build a more perfect union."
Thompson opened the hearing reminding people in the room and a national television audience of the oath of office that members of Congress take. Thompson said lawmakers "swear an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That oath was put to test on Jan. 6, 2021" by domestic enemies with the encouragement of the president of the United States.
"Donald Trump lost the presidential election in 2020. The American people voted him out of office. It was not because of a rigged system. It was not because of voter fraud," Thompson added.
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Lawmakers on the Jan. 6 committee Thursday night plan to present information and testimony to the American people in an effort to show the country, during a primetime congressional hearing, that former President Donald Trump was the key to a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
During Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers are expected to present videos of interviews with former top Trump officials and potentially family members created with the assistance of former ABC News president James Goldston.
The hearing will also feature testimony from two live witnesses — Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and filmmaker Nick Quested.
But a select committee aide said Wednesday the hearing in general will emphasize "ongoing threats to our democracy" related to Trump and Jan. 6.
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The House on Wednesday passed a sweeping gun reform bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle in the U.S. from 18 to 21, even though the legislation doesn’t stand much of a chance of passing in the Senate.
The bill, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, would also bar the sale of large-capacity magazines and institute new rules that dictate proper at-home gun storage. The chamber approved it in a 223-204 vote.
The House earlier voted by a 228 to 199 margin to include the purchasing age provision — under heavy scrutiny after two recent massacres carried out by 18-year-olds — in the broader bill. Democrats backed the proposal in a mostly partly line vote, but it drew a small group of Republican support.
Another component of the legislation, called the Untraceable Firearms Act, would bolster regulations around so-called ghost guns, or those firearms without a serial number. It is far more difficult for law enforcement to track ownership and possession of firearms that lack serial numbers.
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Parents of children injured and killed during last month's mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, implored members of the House Oversight Committee to act quickly on gun control measures.
"If after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today does not move you to act on gun laws, I invite you to my home to help me to clean Zaire's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and my community," said Zeneta Everhart, mother of Zaire Goodman, a survivor of the Buffalo shooting.
The shooting in a Buffalo grocery store left 10 dead and three injured. The shooting in a Uvalde elementary school left 17 injured and 21 dead, including 19 children.
Kimberly and Felix Rubio, parents of Lexi Rubio, one of the students who died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, testified virtually, calling for members to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, to raise the age to purchase assault weapons from 18 to 21 years of age, to implement red flag laws and to strengthen background checks and to repeal gun manufacturers liability immunity.
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Boudin will be removed from office 10 days after the Board of Supervisors formally accepts the election results. The city’s more moderate mayor, London Breed, will choose his immediate replacement, and voters will elect a new district attorney in November.
The result comes as little surprise to residents following numerous polls, almost all of which predicted a decisive defeat for Boudin.
The results capped off a furious debate over crime and criminal justice in San Francisco, with the two sides fighting over Boudin’s approach to incarceration and rehabilitation and his leadership. As his supporters lauded his efforts to find alternatives to jails and prisons — which he said had failed the public for decades — his detractors slammed him as too permissive.
Boudin will depart the office after serving two and a half years of his four-year term.
Supporters of recalling Boudin erupted in cheers and chants of “Recall Chesa” as they toasted drinks after first results showed Boudin’s ouster. People embraced and said they were going to cry, overcome with emotion.
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Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former longtime chairman of the extremist group Proud Boys, was indicted on a new federal charge of seditious conspiracy with four top lieutenants on Monday. The charges expand the Justice Department’s allegations of organized plotting to oppose through violence the certification of President Biden’s election victory, culminating in the attack on the Capitol by a mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
Fox News will not carry the hearing. Instead, the network will stick with its prime-time lineup of opinionated conservative hosts: Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, who have repeatedly downplayed the assault as a mere “footnote” to American history and tried to discredit the congressional inquiry as a ruse to “purge” former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters from the Republican Party.
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Senators buckled down Tuesday for days of additional negotiations on a response to recent high-profile mass shootings, retreating from earlier calls for quick action even as they expressed optimism that a long-elusive deal to address gun violence might eventually be possible.
The calls for patience came as a small bipartisan group of senators continued delicate talks on a legislative package that could include the first significant new federal gun restrictions in three decades, along with provisions dealing with school security and mental health. But they are fighting a tide of recent history demonstrating that Congress’s appetite for action tends to quickly fade as tragedies such as the killings in Buffalo and Uvalde last month fade from the headlines.
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Matthew McConaughey delivered an emotional speech at the White House today urging lawmakers to commit to stricter gun reform legislation.
The 52-year-old Oscar winner used his time at the press briefing room podium to tell the story of those who died last month in the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the actor’s hometown.
Elsewhere in his speech, McConaughey called out the "people in power" in both the Democrat and Republican parties for failing to pass stricter gun laws.
"Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?” said the actor, who is a proponent of universal background checks for gun buyers as well as raising the age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21 and implementing a national waiting period for assault rifles.
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Seldom has a set of congressional hearings opened amid so much anticipation and, at the same time, so little guarantee of success.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol will hold the first of at least a half-dozen public hearings this week, having already promised stunning revelations that would lay bare just how dangerously close the U.S. came to losing its democracy.
“It’s all about democratic resiliency. Can we fortify our institutions and our people against insurrection, coups and violence?” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a committee member, told NBC News. “I hope we will be able to spur the country to make the necessary reforms to solidify democracy.”
Thursday is when the suspense lifts and the nine-member committee gets to tell all.
But what will success look like? The question has weighed on committee members and congressional Democrats who have invited the panel to present both a definitive accounting of the riot and tangible solutions to prevent another.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to "strike at those targets that we have not yet been hitting" in Ukraine if the West provides Kyiv with longer-range weaponry.
In excerpts of an interview for Rossia-1 state television broadcast on June 5, Putin said the "fuss" around providing Western weaponry to Ukraine was a ploy to draw out the conflict.
Putin did not specify what new targets Russia might strike.
Russia launched its unprovoked war on Ukraine on February 24. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in the more than 100 days of fighting since then.
Russia has not released much information about its losses during the conflict, but Western and Ukrainian analysts have said they have been far greater than Moscow originally anticipated.
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Republican state lawmakers sent a bill to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday that empowers local boards of education to allow teachers to carry a gun in the classroom.
Under current law, a teacher would need consent of a board plus more than 700 hours of training to bear arms in school.
But under House Bill 99, that teacher would need consent of the board and to meet certain training requirements, which are capped by the state at 24 hours unless the local board demands more. The legislation, a rewrite of which was only unveiled Tuesday, doesn’t clearly establish any minimum number of training hours, and ample dispute and confusion exists as to what minimum standards the bill calls for.
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It was a small trial, just 18 rectal cancer patients, every one of whom took the same drug.
But the results were astonishing. The cancer vanished in every single patient, undetectable by physical exam, endoscopy, PET scans or M.R.I. scans.
Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an author of a paper published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the results, which were sponsored by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline, said he knew of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient.
“I believe this is the first time this has happened in the history of cancer,” Dr. Diaz said.
Dr. Alan P. Venook, a colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the study, said he also thought this was a first.
A complete remission in every single patient is “unheard-of,” he said.
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PRIDE MOVIES PART 1
It's the month of PRIDE..so here we go with LBGTQ in the movies and TV.
THE CELLULOID CLOSET
SAVING FACE
PRIDE (2014..NOT THE OTHER ONE)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
PRISCILLA QUEEN OT THE DESERT
GENTLEMAN JACK
MILK
CAROL
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Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday after snubbing a subpoena from the House committee investigating Jan. 6 seeking testimony and documents.
In a court appearance Friday, Navarro said he was arrested at the airport while en route to Nashville for a television appearance.He was released without bail and ordered to return to the Washington, D.C., court on June 17.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr met Thursday with the House committee investigating the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021. Questions during the two-and-a-half hour session focused on material in Barr's book, "One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General," and about Trump's claims of fraud, according to the source. Barr had left the Trump administration weeks before the riot, after saying the Justice Department found no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. But Barr was the nation's top law enforcement officer before and after the election that former President Donald Trump baselessly said was stolen from him.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blocked state funding for a new Tampa Bay Rays training facility partly because the baseball team spoke out against gun violence in the wake of back-to-back gun-related massacres in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.
Two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school, the Rays announced a $50,000 donation to Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates policies to prevent gun violence.
DeSantis on Friday hinted at his displeasure with the Rays' remarks, telling reporters at a news conference that it was "inappropriate to subsidize political activism of a private corporation." But he added, "Either way, it's not appropriate, but we were not in a situation where use of tax dollars for a professional stadium would have been a prudent use."
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As a senator, Biden was the author of the assault-weapons ban, which was in place for a decade until 2004. But in today's political climate, the president has few realistic avenues to pursue gun control without congressional action.
Although there are nascent signs of an agreement on potential legislation that would offer state incentives to pass red-flag laws, update school-safety protocols, and changes to background checks, the prospect of bipartisan action on guns typically fades in the weeks after mass shootings.
"This time, it's time for the Senate to do something," Biden said, adding that 10 Republican senators need to be on board with any effort.
"The fact that a majority of Senate Republicans don't want any of these proposals even to be debated, or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable. We can't fail the American people again."
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President Joe Biden called on Congress to ban assault weapons or to raise the age to be able to buy one from 18 to 21 and other measures to curb gun violence in the United States in an address Thursday night. "If we can't ban assault weapons then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21," Biden said. He also called for a ban on high-capacity magazines, background checks, red flag laws and a repeal of the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from legal liability if their weapons are used in violence. The remarks came the day after the 233rd mass shooting in the U.S. this year took place in Tulsa, Okla., that resulted in five people dead including the shooter at Saint Francis Hospital.
"There are too many other schools, too many other day places that have become killing fields, battlefields here in America," Biden said Thursday evening. "The issue we face is one of consciousness and common sense... I want to be very clear. This is not about taking away anyone's guns. It's not about vilifying gun owners."
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President Biden delivers remarks on the recent tragic mass shootings, and the need for Congress to act to pass common sense laws to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives.
Shooter bought rifle right before opening fire in Tulsa
A man who blamed his surgeon for ongoing pain after a recent back surgery bought an AR-style rifle "about an hour" before opening fire at a Tulsa medical office, killing the surgeon and three other people before fatally shooting himself, police said Thursday.
Democratic and Republican US Senators are holding talks this week, mostly virtually, as efforts continue to forge what Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy has called “a significant package” of gun safety measures that will actually pass.
Senators aren’t expected to even broach ideas for an assault weapon ban or other restrictions that could be popular with the public as ways to curb the most lethal mass shootings, the Associated Press noted, adding that the US has not passed a major federal gun control measure since soon after the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut that left 26 dead.
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Sweeping restrictions on outdoor water use go into effect on Wednesday for more than 6 million residents in Southern California as officials work to conserve water during a severe drought.
The conservation rules, among the strictest ever imposed in the state, were set by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, one of the largest water distributors in the country.
Households are now forbidden from watering their lawns more than once a week in many jurisdictions. The goal is to slash water use by 35 percent as the state enters its third straight year of drought.
The rules come after California officials in March announced they were cutting State Water Project allocations from 15 percent to 5 percent of normal amid declining reservoir levels and reduced snowpack. California’s two largest reservoirs have already dropped to critically low levels, and the state this year experienced its driest January, February and March on record.
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The San Francisco Unified School District is dropping the word “chief” from job titles (“chief technology officer,” “chief of staff,” etc.) for its 10,000-strong workforce because — you guessed it — the word is associated with Native Americans. According to spokesperson Gentle Blythe, “While there are many opinions on the matter, our leadership team agreed that, given that Native American members of our community have expressed concerns over the use of the title, we are no longer going to use it.” No substitute has been agreed upon, which suggests how much thought was put into the decision. Not only is this cultural erasure of Native Americans in the service of supposedly removing a source of offense, it is also a symptom of the educational illiteracy of our educators. As Chris Pandolfo at the Blaze notes, “The word ‘chief’ does not have Native American roots. It is an English word borrowed from an Old French word (chef) meaning ‘leader,’ derived from the Latin ‘capus,’ which means captain or chieftain.”
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Elon Musk is demanding that his workers return to the office.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, sent a pair of similar memos on Tuesday to push his employees at SpaceX, the rocket company he runs, and Tesla, the electric carmaker he leads, to spend time in the office.
In his email to SpaceX employees, Mr. Musk told workers that they were required to “spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.” Those who did not do so would be fired, he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.
“The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence,” Mr. Musk said. “That is why I spent so much time in the factory — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, SpaceX would long ago have gone bankrupt.”
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Do you agree or disagree?
Every day in America, there is senseless gun violence. Shootings in our homes, places of worship, schools, and on our streets repeatedly threaten our health and safety. No one is immune to the impact.
We, the physicians, care teams, and staff of Kaiser Permanente, see firsthand the devastating aftermath of gun violence and bear witness to the intergenerational trauma that has both short- and long-term effects on physical and mental health.
Through the Kaiser Permanente Task Force on Firearm Injury Prevention, established in 2018, we are supporting research studies and testing firearm screening tools and counseling interventions that focus on how physicians and clinicians can help prevent firearm injuries. This is important work, and yet it is not enough.
Together with all health care organizations, we must do more to prevent gun violence and educate on its health implications in our society.
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California's first-in-the-nation task force on reparations will release a report Wednesday documenting in detail the harms perpetuated by the state against Black people and recommending ways to address those wrongs. The recommendations include expanding voter registration, making it easier to hold violent police accountable and improving Black neighborhoods. The report to be released by the state Department of Justice marks the halfway point for the two-year reparations task force. The task force voted in March to limit reparations to descendants of Black people who were in the United States at the end of the 19th century.
The report marks the halfway point for the two-year task force’s work. The draft report does not provide a comprehensive reparations plan, which is due to lawmakers next year.
The report is expected to lay out how California supported slavery before it was technically abolished and oppressed Black residents through discriminatory laws and practices in education, home ownership, employment and the courts.
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI, in the first trial of special counsel John Durham's investigation.
The verdict is a major defeat for Durham and his Justice Department prosecutors, who have spent three years looking for wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia probe. He claimed Sussmann lied during a 2016 meeting in which he passed a tip to the FBI about Donald Trump and Russia.
The Washington, DC, federal jury deliberated for six hours over two days before reaching its verdict.
The Sussmann case revolved around his September 2016 meeting with James Baker, a friend who was the FBI's general counsel. Sussmann passed along a tip that led to a four-month FBI inquiry into a possible internet backchannel between the Trump Organization and Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. Both companies denied the claim, and the FBI didn't find any improper cyber links.
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After previously banning 1,500 types of military-style assault weapons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a new bill on Monday that would put a nationwide freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns.
Democrats are expressing cautious optimism and looking for a deal following the recent elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas -- suggesting that this might be the tragedy that breaks a decades-long stranglehold on new gun legislation and proves to Republicans "that the sky will not fall politically for them" if they vote to change gun laws, according to Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democratic negotiator.
Other Democrats are trying to capitalize on momentum even if they don't think a deal will solve the problem of gun violence.
President Joe Biden had kind words for the "rational Republicans" Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, noting "there's a recognition on their part they can't continue like this."
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said on CNN on Sunday he senses "a different feeling among my colleagues after Uvalde."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has given a bipartisan group of lawmakers a week to make some headway.
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Jim Pugh, executive director of Little Village Records speaks with Kim about the upcoming show at Freight & Salvage June 2.
Little Village Presents 5 World Premieres on Thursday, June 2, 2022 8:00 p.m. Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison St. Berkeley, CA 94704 Tix: $20-$24 Freight Website: https://thefreight.org/ 510.644.2020 Littlevillagefoundation.com
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As details of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, continue to unfold, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler on Friday wrote that he is "not okay with the state of this country" and that he "felt like a coward" for not protesting "the lack of delivery on the promise of what our national anthem represents. "Moving forward, Kapler told reporters on Friday that he doesn't plan on taking the field for the national anthem "until I feel better about the direction of our country" and that he needs more time to consider specific actions he might suggest be taken to prevent more tragedies of this type, such as stronger gun control laws.
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Nearly a decade ago, the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school threw the politics of gun violence into a state of suspension for a full week, as conservative politicians waited to hear from the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, before taking a stand.
This week, after another rampage, at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Republican lawmakers didn’t wait for the NRA as they lined up within hours to rebuff any proposed gun-control measures.
That dynamic reflects both the recent decline of the NRA’s power and the logical conclusion of its own increasingly hard-line messaging thatguns and liberty are inextricable from patriotism and that all gun control is a plot to seize weapons and leave owners defenseless. The NRA, which hosted former president Trump at its annual convention today in Houston, has been embroiled in lawsuits and infighting for the last four years, taking a toll on its budget and standing in Washington — and also creating space for more-extreme groups to gain traction.
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Dr. Jeffrey W. Swanson Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Duke University
California is one of at least 19 states and Washington, D.C. with laws that can temporarily seize guns by court order if someone makes a threat to use them. The use of these so-called "red flag" laws depends upon the public saying something before it's too late.
Whether it's Uvalde, Buffalo or San Jose, mass casualty shooters have sometimes sent out warning signals before resorting to gun violence. However, those red flags can be ignored or missed.
California has had a red flag law on the books for six years that allows family, friends, co-workers or neighbors to alert police and the district attorney's office anonymously of a potential threat by a gun owner."Within a few hours, we can go in front of the judge and temporarily remove those weapons," said Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen. "I know that these restraining orders have saved hundreds of lives in our county. "Rosen says more than 200 restraining orders have been issued in the past year, double the number from two years ago. Earlier this week, the law allowed San Jose police to seize guns from someone who had made threats.
"The response from the police and the DA's office is not always going to be a gun violence restraining order and taking the person's guns away," said Rosen. "It may also be a referral to mental health, to drug treatment or to workplace mediation. "He says there's reluctance by individuals to step forward but the process is anonymous and is central to intervention.
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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation's strictest abortion ban, making the state the first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.
State lawmakers approved the ban enforced by civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution, similar to a Texas law that was passed last year. The law takes effect immediately upon Stitt's signature and prohibits all abortions with few exceptions. Abortion providers have said they will stop performing the procedure as soon as the bill is signed.
"I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation that came across my desk and I am proud to keep that promise today," the first-term Republican said in a statement. "From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to protect that baby's life and the life of the mother. That is what I believe and that is what the majority of Oklahomans believe."
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he has encouraged Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to discuss the possibility of bipartisan action to address mass shootings with Democrats. McConnell said Thursday that he had met with Cornyn, who flew back to Texas this week after a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, west of San Antonio, left 19 children and two teachers dead.
McConnell said in an interview on CNN that he had urged Cornyn to talk to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, two Democrats who have called for bipartisan talks on gun safety legislation, "and others who are interested in trying to get an outcome that’s directly related to the problem."
"And so I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that’s directly related to the facts of this awful massacre," the Kentucky Republican said.
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The husband of one of the fourth-grade teachers killed in the Uvalde school shooting Tuesday has died..
Irma Garcia, who was a 23-year veteran teacher at Robb Elementary School, was killed after an 18-year-old gunman entered the campus, barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom and fired dozens of shots — killing 19 students, Garcia and another teacher.
Garcia’s husband, Joe, reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after Irma’s passing. The pair had been together since high school and married for 24 years.
In the wake of mass fatalities at a Texas school, Gov. Greg Abbott speculated that the gunman had mental health issues and called for more to be done. But last month, Abbott slashed $211 million from the state's department that oversees mental health programs, NBC News reports. News outlets also report on how such traumatic events impact kids across the nation.
As Sen. Ted Cruz attended a vigil Wednesday for the victims of the massacre in Uvalde, Tex., he stormed away from an interview after he was asked by a British journalist why mass shootings happen “only in America.”
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The NRA told attendees they will not be able to carry firearms during an event with former President Trump at its Texas conference that will be held just days after a deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in the state.
According to the NRA, the Secret Service is taking control of the hall during Trump's speech and is prohibiting attendees from having firearms, firearms accessories and knives. Ammunition, laser pointers, pepper spray, toy guns, backpacks and other items also won’t be allowed.
The Secret Service will search attendees with magnetometers before they enter the hall, the NRA said.
This isn't the first time firearms have been off-limits during a part of the gun group's annual convention. In 2018 a similar prohibition was put in place during a speech by then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The Secret Service told NPR in a statement at the time that the agency has the "authority to preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those located in open-carry states."
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly set in motion a pair of background-check bills for gun buyers Wednesday in response to the school massacre in Texas. But the Democrat acknowledged Congress' unyielding rejection of previous legislation to curb the national epidemic of gun violence.
Schumer implored his Republican colleagues to cast aside the powerful gun lobby and reach across the aisle for even a modest compromise bill. But no votes are being scheduled.
"Please, please, please damn it — put yourselves in the shoes of these parents just for once,” Schumer said as he opened the Senate.
He essentially threw up his hands at the idea of what might seem an inevitable outcome: “If the slaughter of schoolchildren can't convince Republicans to buck the NRA, what can we do?”
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Gov. Abbott and a variety of state and local officials were holding a press conference to update the public on the Uvalde massacre at Robb Elementary School. It was a governing, not a campaign, event.
After Mr. Abbott had spoken for several minutes, Mr. O’Rourke interrupted to point a finger at the Governor and declare, “This is on you,” referring to the murder of 19 children and two teachers by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. “You said this was not predictable. This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything,” Mr. O’Rourke added. The Democrat was then asked to leave by other officials on the stage, with at least one uttering an epithet.
When Mr. Abbott’s allies saw Mr. O’Rourke step forward, they began yelling at him.
One official ordered the El Paso native to “Shut up!” The state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, told him, “You’re out of line and an embarrassment.” The mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, said he could not believe Mr. O’Rourke was the type of “sick” individual who “would come to a deal like this to make a political issue,” using an obscenity.
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A gunman reportedly killed at least 18 children at a Texas elementary school Tuesday in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since Sandy Hook.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez said 18 children and three adults were dead, based on a briefing by state police. Three people wounded in the attack are hospitalized in serious condition, he said. CNN also reported that 18 children died.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials said the 18-year-old shooter walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde around 11:30 a.m. Central time and opened fire. The shooter was likely killed by responding police, Abbott said.
Federal law enforcement officials said the death toll was expected to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release investigative details.
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Connecticut's Senator Chris Murphy spoke from the Senate floor today.
"Sandy Hook will never, ever be the same," Murphy said, his voice cracking. "This community in Texas will never, ever be the same. Why? Why are we here? If not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through. What Uvalde is going through."
"I am here on this floor to beg — to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues," he said. "Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues may not agree to everything I support, but there is a common denominator we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement..."
He concluded: "What are we doing? Why are we here? What are we doing?"
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr made an impassioned plea Tuesday for Congress to enact gun control, following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 18 children and three adults dead.
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A gunman killed at least 18 children and a teacher on Tuesday in a rural Texas elementary school, officials said, in the deadliest American elementary school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago.
The slayings took place just before noon at Robb Elementary School, where second through fourth graders in Uvalde, a small city west of San Antonio, were preparing to start summer break this week.
Eva Mireles, a teacher of 17 years who taught fourth graders at Robb Elementary, was shot and killed by the gunman while trying to protect her students, her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, said by phone. Ms. Mireles — who was in her early 40s, married and had a child — was “very loved” and an avid hiker who took pride in teaching mostly students of Latino heritage, Ms. Delgado said. “She was the fun of the party.”
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Georgia primary pits Pence-endorsed Brian Kemp against Trump-backed David Perdue, Since the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump has been eager to oust Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for blocking efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened Monday to impose mandatory water restrictions if Californians don’t use less on their own as a drought drags on and the hotter summer months approach.
Newsom raised that possibility in a meeting with representatives from major water agencies, including those that supply Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area, his office said in a press release. The Democratic governor has avoided issuing sweeping, mandatory cuts in water use and instead favored an approach that gives local water agencies power to set rules for water use in the cities and towns they supply.
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A veteran Russian diplomat to the United Nations office in Geneva has handed in his resignation and sent a statement to foreign colleagues criticizing the “aggressive war unleashed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev, who worked as a counselor at Russia’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, told the Reuters news agency: “I went to the mission like any other Monday morning and I forwarded my resignation letter and I walked out.”
In the statement, circulated to a number of diplomatic missions in Geneva, he condemned the invasion of Ukraine and lashed out at Russia’s foreign ministry.
“For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year,” Bondarev said in the statement first published by UN Watch, an advocacy..
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President Biden said today that the United States would intervene militarily if China attempts to take Taiwan by force, a warning that appeared to deviate from the deliberate ambiguity traditionally held by Washington.
The White House quickly downplayed the comments, saying they don't reflect a change in US policy. It's the third time in recent months that Biden has said the US would protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack, only to have the White House walk back those remarks.
During a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Biden was asked if the US would be willing to go further to help Taiwan in the event of an invasion than it did with Ukraine.
"You didn't want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if it comes to that?" a reporter asked.
"Yes," Biden replied. "That's the commitment we made."
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After a pandemic halt, the San Francisco Pride Parade is coming back to the city in June.
Controversy surrounding police officers participating in the parade has already made a comeback, too.
San Francisco police officers said Monday they will not march in the city’s LGBTQ Pride parade this year, an act of protest after the event’s board of directors asked them not to wear uniforms,
In a statement, the San Francisco Police Officers Pride alliance, LGBTQ+ members of the San Francisco Sheriff's Office and the San Francisco Fire Department said they would not participate in the parade under SF Pride's conditions.
According to the statement, SF Pride is asking members of the groups mentioned above to not wear their uniforms when participating in the festivities as to not intimidate participants who are in some way intimidated by the department.
"The San Francisco Pride Committee has asked the LGBTQ+ peace officers to go back in the closet," the statement read.
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We remember Robert “Spider” Cantley, who led the numerous KGO Cure-A-Thons for the Leukemia Society
The US supreme court on Monday gutted constitutional protections that for years have provided a federal lifeline to innocent prisoners facing prolonged incarceration or even execution following wrongful convictions stemming from poor legal counsel given to them by the states.
In a 6 to 3 ruling, the newly-dominant rightwing majority of the nation’s highest court barred federal courts from hearing new evidence that was not previously presented in a state court as a result of the defendant’s ineffective legal representation.
The decision means that prisoners will no longer have recourse to federal judges even when they claim they were wrongfully convicted because their lawyers failed to conduct their cases properly.
The decision eviscerated the supreme court’s own precedent in a move that the three liberal justices called “illogical” and “perverse”. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor slammed the decision, warning it would leave “many people … to face incarceration or even execution without any meaningful chance to vindicate their right to counsel”.
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Our guests are Rebecca Fedorko, SPED Teacher at Sutro Elementary School. Co-Author of the Reading Resolution & Doug Rich,Tier 2 Teacher at McKinley Elementary School
The initial findings of a much anticipated San Francisco Unified School District curriculum audit were released Tuesday, adding to pressure from parents and educators to change how kids are taught to read.
The audit findings point to major deficiencies in the district’s K-five English language arts curriculum as it is written and observed inside classrooms. Those who have been pushing for change are not surprised by the findings and are now hopeful that the district will finally acknowledge the deep problems and commit to change.
At public comment during the Monday meeting, parent Havah Kelley said, “Nothing about what I heard today surprises me. … I’ve been trying to help my son for about five years.”
Literacy is the foundation of equitable education, and far too many SFUSD students leave elementary school without achieving their basic right to read. The most recent SFUSD performance data indicate that 55% of students do not meet standards in English language arts, and there are huge gaps in performance between subgroups. Only 20% of Black students, 15% of English learners and 16% of students with disabilities met standards in English language arts.
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Poll after poll shows that things are really not looking good for Chesa Boudin.
The latest, released Thursday by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and conducted by EMC Research, found that 67% of survey respondents were planning on voting “yes” on the district attorney’s upcoming recall election, while just 31% said they would vote “no.”
This follows three other polls that show, at best, support for Boudin trailing support for the recall by about 10%. Overall polls show him getting recalled by a significant margin.
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The archbishop of San Francisco has prohibited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion in the archdiocese, citing her support for abortion rights.
“I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of penance,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in a letter to Pelosi on Thursday.
The directive applies to the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Pelosi’s congressional district covers much of the city.
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The Supreme Court will vote on the 2nd amendment for the first time in more than a decade. The vote comes amid an uptick in gun sales across the country, John Rothmann shares details.
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Oklahoma lawmakers pass one of the nation's strictest abortion bills banning procedures 'from fertilization', John Rothmann talks to KGO 810 callers about the decsion.
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John Rothmann explains how the United States will provide more aid to Ukraine in their fight against Russia.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday to outlaw protests outside private residences — a move opponents say violates First Amendment rights. The new law will make it a second-degree misdemeanor to picket or protest outside a person’s house to “harass or disturb” that person. Violators will receive a warning, and those who do not stop may be arrested for unlawful residential picketing, a crime punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. DeSantis said the law aims to prevent protests in Florida like the ones outside U.S. Supreme Court justices’ homes in the D.C. area, where abortion rights activists have been demonstrating after an opinion draft from Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was leaked, showing that the court may overturn Roe v. Wade.
Four key climate change indicators all set new record highs in 2021, the United Nations has said, warning that the global energy system was driving humanity towards catastrophe and calling for an urgent transition to renewable energy. Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification all set new records last year, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in its State of the Global Climate in 2021 report released on Wednesday.
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“The American experiment in democracy is in danger like it hasn’t been in my lifetime,” Biden said. “It’s in danger this hour. Hate and fear being given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America but who don’t understand America.”
He pledged, “In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word.”
Back at the White House Tuesday evening, Biden laid the blame for the Buffalo incident and others not just on “wackos” who commit hate crimes, but also those who “fill their brains with false ideas.”
As long as he is president, he said, “I’m going to fight like hell and we’re going to expose everybody.”
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Fox News host Mark Levin blatantly supported the “great replacement theory” Tuesday on his radio show, joining colleague Tucker Carlson and top House Republican Elise Stefanik in pushing a racist conspiracy embraced by the gunman charged in the Buffalo, New York, mass killing. The theory stokes white fear by asserting that elite Democrats and others are scheming to replace white Americans with people of color through immigration or to undermine white influence in other ways. It has gained footing among conservatives, including several mainstream Republican Senate candidates. The accused Buffalo shooter repeatedly cited the white supremacist theory in a 180-page racist screed.
Also, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and more than two dozen of her colleagues are supporting a resolution to "expunge" former President Donald Trump's second impeachment – as pro-Trump Republicans push to rally voters ahead of the midterms.
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President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland at the White House for a meeting Thursday amid their push to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The requests by the long-neutral nations to join NATO have been widely lauded within the alliance as a rebuke of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, though Turkey has expressed reservations.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said his understanding is that Turkey wants to have its concerns over Finland and Sweden addressed but does not intend to block their membership.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday did not hesitate to call the deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, an act of domestic terrorism, condemning the racist ideology of the suspected shooter.
"White supremacy is a poison. It's a poison ... running through our body politic," Biden said, adding that silence is "complicity."
"And it's been allowed to grow and fester right before our eyes," he continued. "No more, no more. We need to say as clearly and as forcefully as we can that the ideology of White supremacy has no place in America. None."
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John Rothmann agrees with Justice Clarence Thomas!
Justice Clarence Thomas says the Supreme Court has been changed by the shocking leak of a draft opinion earlier this month. The opinion suggests the court is poised to overturn the right to an abortion recognized nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade.
The conservative Thomas, who joined the court in 1991 and has long called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned, described the leak as an unthinkable breach of trust.
“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. It’s like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it,” he said while speaking at a conference Friday evening in Dallas.
The court has said the draft does not represent the final position of any of the court’s members, and Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the leak.
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From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans, to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together a changing country.
Martin and Burns break news on almost every page, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. The book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?
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John Rothmann reacts to the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York. Details from the shooter's manifesto revealed this was a racially motivated attack and takes notes from "The Great Replacement Theory" which postulates that Whites will eventually be replaced by minorities. Meanwhile Republican politicians such as Elise Stefanik have been pushing the very similar "Replacement Theory" during appearances and rallies, receiving renewed scrutiny shortly after the Buffalo shooting.
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The Supreme Court removes the cap on loan repayment for political campaigns. Does this allow politicians to line their own pockets with political donations? John Rothmann takes your calls and reactions on KGO 810.
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John Rothmann continues discussing recent shooting in Buffalo, the shooter's Racist views, and motivations lifted directly from his Manifesto. Will changing gun laws do anything to alleviate the chronic mass shootings occurring in our country?
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Suddenly Last Summer
Beach Party
Summertime
Grease
Jaws
In the Heights
Gidget
National Lampoon’s Vacation
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Today, former vice president Mike Pence announced that he will hold a rally with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on the eve of the state’s contested May 24 GOP gubernatorial primary. The move puts Pence at odds with former president Donald Trump, who pushed David Perdue, a former U.S. senator, to challenge Kemp, whom Trump has lambasted for not doing enough to overturn the 2020 presidential elections results in Georgia. In a statement, Pence called Kemp “one of the most successful conservative governors in America.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is looking to further escalate Republicans' war with Disney. The Republican senator has introduced a bill that would limit new copyright protections to 56 years, a change he said would be "retroactive for the biggest entertainment companies" like "woke" Disney.
"Under this legislation, Disney would begin to lose protections for some of its oldest and most valuable copyrights," he said.
If passed, the bill would affect Disney's copyright on Mickey Mouse, who was originally introduced in the 1928 short Steamboat Willie.Disney first received 56 years of copyright protection for Mickey Mouse but pushed for Congress to pass new copyright laws in the 1970s and 1990s, under which the character will not become public domain until 2024.
Hawley says, though, he wants to "crack down on copyright monopolies to ensure they only last long enough to encourage innovation."
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Mr Alito also criticized fellow conservative Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch for his opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, which said that federal civil rights laws protect LGBTQ+ employees, calling Mr Gorsuch’s reasoning “in my view indefensible.”
“It is inconceivable that either Congress or voters in 1964 understood discrimination because of sex to mean discrimination because of sexual orientation, much less gender identity,” he said. “If Title VII had been understood at that time to mean what Bostock held it to mean, the prohibition on discrimination because of sex would never have been enacted. In fact, it might not have gotten a single vote in Congress.”
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Friday for the first time since Russia initiated its invasion of Ukraine. According to a readout from the Pentagon, during the conversation with Shoigu, Austin "urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication." The call is the first time the two officials have spoken since Feb. 18, before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
A Russian lawmaker is warning Friday that recent comments from Poland’s leaders are encouraging Moscow to "put it in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine." Finland is preparing for Russia to cut off gas supplies after leaders in Helsinki backed entering Nato “without delay”.The Kremlin warned it would retaliate with "reciprocal steps, military-technical and other" as it branded Finnish membership to the US-led alliance a risk to Russian security.
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If there’s one thing Justice Samuel Alito got right in his draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, it’s that Roe and later cases upholding it never had the desired effect of settling the issue politically. In its 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision upholding Roe, the Supreme Court had declared that such decisions have “a dimension that the resolution of the normal case does not carry.” The justices added: “It is the dimension present whenever the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution calls the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the Constitution.” Just a year later, however, soon-to-be Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would reflect that Roe had, in fact, “prolonged divisiveness and deferred stable settlement of the issue,” by virtue of how it had been decided. Story continues below advertisement Today, the apparent imminent overturning of Roe has produced a stark indicator of just how irretrievably polarized this issue has become.
Also, As American families deal with a shortage of baby formula across the US, a Florida Republican lawmaker has released images of dozens of boxes of the coveted product at a migrant processing facility near the US-Mexico border. Rep. Kat Cammack shared pictures of “pallets” of infant formula at the Ursula Migrant Processing Center in McAllen, Texas on her Twitter and Facebook pages Wednesday.
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Early last week, after receiving an invitation from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, Rep. Mo Brooks said he had no intention of cooperating with the probe. “I wouldn’t help Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney cross the street — I’m definitely not going to help them and their partisan Witch Hunt Committee,” the Alabama Republican said.
Brooks’ statement added, “[I]f they want to talk, they’re gonna have to send me a subpoena.”
The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol took the unprecedented step Thursday of issuing subpoenas to five Republican congressmen, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The Democratic-controlled committee previously asked the congressmen, which also include Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona, to sit for voluntary interviews, but all had refused.
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Finland must seek immediate membership in NATO, leaders of the Nordic nation said on Thursday, moving to end seven decades outside the Western military bloc in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Finland’s entry would add significant combat power to the alliance while also deepening the East-West divisions that have consumed Europe since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Neighboring Sweden is expected to announce its own NATO bid soon.
Moscow said that Finnish accession, which would add hundreds of miles to NATO’s shared border with Russia, would threaten its security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finnish membership could require new measures by Russia to “balance the situation.”
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For the last hour of the show, John takes a look at a story that he feels isn't getting nearly as much attention as it should. The water crisis in California. With 2 state reservoirs drying up before the summer even starts, concern is high for the supply of H2) in Cali.
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John takes the second hour to dive into the latest on the Roe vs. Wade controversy, as well as what states are reportedly doing about it. Rothmann takes a large amount of callers this hour with a vast array of opinions.
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For the first hour of the program, John looks at a new ruling that may allow 18-22 year olds in California to own guns. Rothmann wants to know what you think. He takes calls and gets a variety of opinions on the topic.
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Citing a list of financial concerns, the City College of San Francisco's Board of Trustees finalized 38 faculty layoffs during a virtual meeting this past Friday. Additionally, a dozen full-time faculty members that were expected to retire this school year will now not be replaced.
The announcement of this massive wave of layoffs comes after years of financial turmoil and a string of budget crises at CCSF — including nearly losing its accreditation“ in 2015 over financial mismanagement. The school was back on the state’s list for “enhanced monitoring” as of a year and a half ago, and a report released in April confirmed the college still faces a $33 million budget shortfall for the upcoming academic year. As a result, CCSF's board announced that it would cut 163 full-time faculty and at least 34 administrative positions this year.
During a Friday afternoon board meeting, school employees learned that 38 faculty positions would be immediately cut — with some of those employees having worked for the City College for years, if not decades. Also, at least 150 part-time staff are expected not to be hired back to the college because of a California higher-education rule that requires part-timers not to take the place of laid-off full-time faculty.
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One week after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would eliminate the constitutional right to abortion. Republican candidates and strategists are increasingly confident that such a decision would not seriously harm the GOP’s chances of regaining House and Senate majorities come November, as Democrats have suggested it might.
That belief is rooted in reams of polling, nearly all of it conducted before the leak, showing that economic challenges, particularly runaway inflation, are by far the most powerful force motivating voters this year, followed by crime and immigration — issues where Republicans believe they will have an enduring advantage. And, so far, they see scant evidence that reproductive rights are set to dislodge those priorities, given the often-muted reaction in states that have already moved to restrict abortion rights.
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Two U.S. Senators from opposite sides of the aisle are teaming up to pass a resolution to urge the Secretary of State to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham say that Ukraine asked the U.S. to designate Russia as a terrorist country, and that doing so would show Ukraine it has the full support of the United States.
“Putin is a thug and a criminal,” Blumenthal said. “That’s why our own national security is at risk.”
“This designation will matter in U.S. law. There are only four other countries that have such designation,” Graham added.
Russia is accused of committing war crimes, such as intentionally targeting civilians in Ukraine. Graham says that he believes that Putin’s goal is to “recreate the Soviet empire of the former Soviet Union as much as he can.”
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President Biden signed into law on Monday afternoon a bill that will expedite the process of sending military aid to Ukraine, as the Eastern European country presses into its third month of fighting off a Russian invasion.
Flanked by Vice President Harris and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, Biden vowed the United States will continue to support Ukraine “in their fight to defend their country and their democracy” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“Every day Ukrainians fight for their lives,” Biden said. “The cost of the fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is even more costly.”
Do you think Biden is right?
Vladimir Putin blamed the West for the war in Ukraine in his Victory Day speech. He also expressed sympathy for the loss of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
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Mark Esper, the former secretary of Defense under President Trump, says that the former president proposed a number of “outlandish” foreign policy proposals while he was in the White House, including pulling troops out of South Korea and shutting down embassies in Africa, according to an excerpt from Esper’s upcoming memoir.
In a new excerpt, shared by Politico. Esper wrote that shortly after he was hired to be the new Pentagon chief in 2019, Trump was railing against NATO and corruption in Ukraine, two personal issues that the rest of the national security and foreign policy team tried to tamp down because they weren’t considered leading concerns at the time.
Trump also said he wanted a “complete withdrawal” of forces from South Korea and that he wished to “bring our people home” from embassies in Africa, according to Esper.
The book: A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times
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Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered the country’s women to cover their faces in public – one of the harshest restrictions imposed on them since the Taliban seized power last year and an escalation of growing restrictions on women that is drawing a backlash from the international community and many Afghans.
“They should wear a chadori (head-to-toe burqa) as it is traditional and respectful,” said a decree issued by Taliban chief Haibatullah Akhunzada that was released by authorities at a function in Kabul on Saturday.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Fawzia Koofi, former Afghanistan parliament deputy speaker, said the Taliban’s decrees regarding women can only be regarded as “oppression and repression”.
“The question is, in the middle of all this suffering for Afghan people, why is the issue of women the only one taking priority,” asked Koofi, while referring to the deepening economic crisis across the country.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with USA Today that a national abortion ban is “possible” if Roe v. Wade gets overturned this summer. “If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies — not only at the state level but at the federal level — certainly could legislate in that area,” McConnell told USA Today when asked if a national abortion ban is “worthy of debate.
”GOP lawmakers have begun to campaign on the exaggerated notion that Democratic lawmakers support abortion until the moment of birth. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell raised the possibility of bringing a national abortion ban to a vote if Republicans take power in the midterms, though the Biden White House would almost certainly veto such a bill.
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Another Friday, another great slate of movies to talk about with Jan Wahl. And this week, it's mother's day movies!
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The new WH press secretary will be the first LBTBQ+ and black woman to take the position, and John talks about what that means. Also, how do we feel about Bitcoin? Is it profitable or a Ponzi scheme?
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On the eve on the 6th, justices of the SCOUTS are in danger. After their reported decision leaked, protests around the capitol have been heated. John will dive into that and much more on this hour of the program
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From Susan:
I’ve been a vocal critic of Boudin’s since before he took office. On the campaign trail in 2019, he bragged that he was “the only person on the stage who had never prosecuted a case.” When you’re vying to become San Francisco’s “top cop,” that’s nothing to brag about. But even more disturbing was Boudin’s defense of those pedaling deadly opioids like fentanyl to the city’s most vulnerable communities, which he considers a “quality of life” issue rather than a crime.
Besides Boudin’s allegiance to victimizers over victims, there is the simple fact that he is unqualified for the job. Over 30 prosecutors have quit or left the office in the last two years — that’s nearly half the legal staff. Two of the attorneys who quit, Brooke Jenkins and Don Du Bain, have joined the recall effort, describing Boudin’s policies as “dangerous.”
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On Saturday, the comedian Trevor Noah stood before a ballroom of 2,600 journalists, celebrities and political figures at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and asked: What are we doing here?
“Did none of you learn anything from the Gridiron Dinner? Nothing,” Mr. Noah said, referring to another elite Washington gathering in April, after which dozens of attendees tested positive for the coronavirus. “Do you read any of your own newspapers?”
By Wednesday, Mr. Noah’s chiding remarks at what he called “the nation’s most distinguished superspreader event” were beginning to appear prophetic as a growing number of attendees, including a string of journalists and Anthony J. Blinken said they had tested positive for the virus.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that President Biden had tested negative on Tuesday after attending the dinner unmasked. Ms. Psaki added that Mr. Blinken was not considered a close contact to Mr. Biden and “has not seen the president in several days.”
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Louisiana lawmakers have advanced a bill that would abolish abortion in the state, grant constitutional rights to "all unborn children from the moment of fertilization" and classify abortion as a homicide crime.
The move on Wednesday came two days after a leaked draft ruling showed the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The court's final ruling is expected in June.
The Louisiana bill is one of a raft of proposals by lawmakers in conservative states to restrict access to abortion and a sign of Republicans feeling emboldened by the leaked draft opinion. Such restrictions could go further than the so-called trigger laws, bans and other regulations that will take effect in some 26 states should Roe be overturned.
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“If the foundation of a house crumbles, the whole house is threatened,” said Samuel Garrett-Pate, a spokesperson for Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy group. “The court is clearly telegraphing exactly where they plan to go next.”
A draft opinion leaked to Politico revealed that the court’s conservative majority is preparing to repeal Roe v. Wade, though it has not issued a formal ruling yet. The draft ruling, if made official, would allow individual states to decide whether to ban the procedure.
The situation led many in the LGBTQ community to question if overturning such a foundational section of privacy law in the United States could lead to a patchwork of laws in Republican states that roll back the community’s rights.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, warned of the implications for LGBTQ rights during a news conference Tuesday about a separate bill he is carrying to make California a refuge for families with transgender children who live in states where Republican-led legislatures have banned gender-affirming health care.
“I’ll be honest, we are living in very, very scary times,” he said of the Roe v. Wade draft opinion.
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A draft opinion suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court was ready to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing the right to abortion sparked a fresh call among progressive Democrats to scrap the Senate's filibuster rule.
"Congress must pass legislation that codifies Roe v. Wade as the law of the land in this country NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there are not, we must end the filibuster to pass it with 50 votes," Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said on Twitter.
Since the start of President Joe Biden's administration, Democrats have wrestled with repealing or modifying the long-held filibuster rule requiring at least 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to advance most legislation, as a way to get around their razor-thin majorities.
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Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade published Monday night would be the worst nightmare scenario for supporters of abortion rights.
Although December's oral arguments looked grim for progressives, many still held out hope that when the justices retreated to their ornate conference room and gathered around the table to cast an initial tally, they would stop short of voting to overrule a decision from a half century ago. The thinking went that Chief Justice John Roberts -- who floated a compromise position at oral arguments -- would vote to uphold Mississippi's 15-week ban but leave intact some federal right to abortion.
And the Chief, some thought, would be able to lure one other conservative justice to his position: Roe would be gutted, but there would be something left.
But it appears, if the draft opinion published by Politico is legitimate, that after that initial vote there was a solid five-vote majority -- including three of former President Donald Trump's appointees -- to strike down Roe.
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GOP Sen. Susan Collins said on Tuesday that a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade published by Politico was "completely inconsistent" with what Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh "said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office."
"If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office," Collins said in a statement. "Obviously, we won't know each Justice's decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case."
Asked if she was misled by Kavanaugh, Collins told CNN, "My statement speaks for itself."
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The draft opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was circulated among the justices in February with the support of at least five of the nine members of the court, but a final decision is not expected to be issued until June or early July. Such drafts routinely change as they are traded among the justices, who offer suggestions, make objections and at times even change their votes, so it is conceivable that the final result may yet be narrower than Justice Alito initially envisioned.
But the disclosure of his draft made clear that a bedrock of American law for the last half-century could be on the verge of being reversed. If the court follows through with some version of Justice Alito’s opinion, the constitutional right to abortion, first established by the court in 1973, would be negated and it would be left to the states to decide whether the procedure should be legal in their jurisdictions or not. The result would be a patchwork of different laws across the country, unless Congress steps in and sets a single national policy again.
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The Supreme Court confirmed that a leaked draft ruling to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was authentic but not final, even as the disclosure triggered political upheaval with potentially broad electoral and legal consequences.
While protesters gathered outside the court, chanting loudly enough for members of Congress to hear at the Capitol across the street, Democrats led by President Biden vowed to make abortion rights a defining issue of the fall midterm elections. Republicans accused liberals of orchestrating the leak to intimidate the court while Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ordered an investigation.
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The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.
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A proposed route between the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area for California’s bullet-train system received final approval Thursday from the California High Speed Rail Authority.
The agency’s board of directors, meeting in Sacramento, voted to certify a massive four-volume report of environmental and social impacts that the route would have on communities, farms, parks and wildlife habitats along the 89-mile stretch of the line from San Jose through Gilroy into Merced County.
That vote set the stage for a second action that formally approved the preferred route, filtered out over a years-long process from among four options involving crossing the Diablo Range via Pacheco Pass west of Los Banos.
“Daily Show” host Trevor Noah didn’t discriminate when it came to the receiving end of his roasts during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The comedian went after President Joe Biden, Democrats, Republicans and members of the media from CNN to Fox News. The headliner took the stage after the event’s two-year pandemic hiatus to deliver the traditional WHCA dinner roast, quipping that it was his “great honor” to speak at the “nation’s most distinguished superspreader event.”
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Lavrov Compares Ukraine’s Zelensky To Hitler. There is no such thing as Jewish blood
'So what if Zelensky is Jewish. The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine'
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said the fact that Ukraine’s leader is Jewish does not negate Moscow’s claimed purpose to “denazify” the country.
In an interview with Italian news channel Zona Bianca, Lavrov was asked about his country’s “denazification” claim when Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish.
“So what if Zelensky is Jewish. The fact does not negatethe Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” Lavrov said, adding that “some of the worst antisemites are Jews.”
In response to Lavrov’s claims, Israel’s Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel told Army Radio they are “delusions that are meant to justify the Russians’ horrific acts in Ukraine.”
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GASLIT
GENTLEMAN JACK
DENIAL
SPOTLIGHT
THE BLACK LEGION (1937)
THE INSIDER
QUIZ SHOW
ERIN BROCKOVICH
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Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma passed a bill on Thursday that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically around six weeks into pregnancy and before many even know they are pregnant.
The Oklahoma Heartbeat Act will take immediate effect as soon as Gov. Kevin Stitt signs the bill, which is expected as early as Friday. Stitt has committed to signing any anti-abortion legislation that comes across his desk and has previously described himself as America’s “most pro-life governor.”
Earlier this month, Oklahoma enacted a different bill that nearly totally bans abortion except in cases where the pregnant person’s life is endangered. Under that bill, anyone who performs an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and up to $100,000 in fines. It will take effect in August unless barred by the courts.
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A member of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and obstruction in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and agreed to cooperate with the government.
The select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will hold at least eight public hearings starting June 9 and will send requests this week for testimony to several GOP lawmakers, including three House members who previously refused to cooperate, the panel’s chairman said Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the G20 summit in November, which will also be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leader of host nation Indonesia said Friday.
We welcome Sherri Franklin from MUTTVILLE.ORG celebrating National Adopt-A-Shelter-Pet Day
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Safer SF Without Boudin is a Democratic-led diverse coalition of community leaders, small business owners, activists and parents joining together to help make San Francisco safer. The campaign is pursuing the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin to ensure that San Francisco has a DA who will promote and uphold public safety and build a safer future for all San Francisco residents. The recall will be on the June 7th ballot as Proposition H for San Franciscans – vote Yes on H to recall Chesa Boudin.
For more information, visit https://www.safersfwithoutboudin.com.
Brooke Jenkins and Don du Bain are two of 62 Assistant District Attorneys who left the San Francisco District Attorney's Office since DA Chesa Boudin assumed office. They joined the Safer SF Without Boudin Campaign as volunteer spokespeople last October.
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Today, the FDA announced its proposed rule on product standards to ban menthol flavoring in cigarettes and non-tobacco flavors in cigars.
"The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
Menthol imparts a minty flavor to a range of consumer products, and in cigarettes and cigars, its use can make tobacco more appealing. The FDA noted in a fact sheet that it also "interacts with nicotine in the brain to enhance nicotine's addictive effects and makes it more difficult for people to quit smoking."
The FDA's enforcement of the rule would not target individual consumers; its rule is intended to confront the industry — manufacturers, distributors and retailers, for instance.
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Today, President Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to bolster Ukraine’s fight against Russia, signaling a burgeoning and long-haul American commitment as Moscow’s invasion and the international tensions it has inflamed show no signs of receding.
The package has about $20 billion in defense spending for Ukraine and U.S. allies in the region and $8.5 billion to keep Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government providing services and paying salaries. The package, which administration officials estimated would last five months, is more than twice the size of the initial $13.6 billion aid measure that Congress enacted early last month and now is almost drained. With the bloody war dragging into its third month, the measure was designed to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that U.S. weaponry and other streams of assistance are not going away.
“The world must and will hold Russia accountable,” Biden said. “And as long as the assaults and atrocities continue, we’re going to continue to supply military assistance.”
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Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive will stay permanently car-free after S.F. supes vote following marathon meeting.
If you think this is unfair, write to openthestreets@gmail.com
The decision resolves one of the most anticipated issues in front of the board in recent months and finalizes the transformation of a thoroughfare that leads to some of the most prominent attractions in the crown jewel of the city’s park system.
The road’s fate has been the subject of intense organizing in recent months, with rallies, letter writing and direct lobbying of supervisors trying to sway the outcome. About 70% of 10,000 respondents to a city survey said they wanted the road to stay closed to cars.
Supporters said keeping the road closed to cars was a safety and environmental issue while opponents said the closure hurt the elderly, those who lived far from the park, the park’s museums and those with disabilities.
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In a contentious exchange at a congressional hearing Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that U.S. support for Ukraine to join NATO contributed to Russia’s decision to invade. Blinken vehemently objected to Paul’s remarks, which were also criticized by Russia experts.
Paul, a libertarian-leaning lawmaker and longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, said that both Republican and Democratic administrations had been “agitating” for Ukraine to join the security bloc — an outcome that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called a red line.
“While there is no justification for Putin’s war on Ukraine, it does not follow that there is no explanation for the invasion,” Paul told Blinken during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “You could also argue that the countries that it has attacked were … part of the Soviet Union,” the senator said.
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The chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, John Bennett, called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to face a firing squad during a campaign event flagged by Right Wing Watch.
Bennett, who is also running for Congress in Oklahoma’s June GOP primary, told the crowd, “We’re fighting communist Democrats, establishment RINOs!”
“We’re fighting against a system that stole the election in 2020 and nobody had been held accountable. We’re in a war with bureaucrats who have forced vaccine mandates on us, mask mandates on us,” he continued.
“And you know what? They’re pushing this wokeness confusion down our throats now. And by the way, we should try Anthony Fauci and put him in front of a firing squad,” he continued, eliciting loud applause and cheers from the crowd.
“And for the Secret Service, if they’re listening, I’m not advocating we kill Anthony Fauci until he’s convicted of his crimes through a court,” the Republican leader joked.
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Russia’s foreign minister has accused Nato of fighting a proxy war by supplying military aid to Ukraine as defense ministers gathered in Germany for US-hosted talks on supporting Ukraine through what one US general called a “very critical” few weeks.
Sergei Lavrov told Russian state media: “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”
He also warned that the risks of nuclear conflict were now “considerable” – a claim Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said showed Moscow had lost its “last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine”.
When asked about the importance of avoiding a third world war, Lavrov said: “I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it.”
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It was called the biggest and strongest rainstorm to hit the Bay Area in a quarter century, but last October's "bomb cyclone" event may be just a preview of what climate change will bring to the Bay Area in the coming decades.
The City of San Francisco commissioned a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that looks ahead to the ways that "extreme precipitation" in the coming decades will impact the Bay Area. And it's the first study of its kind to take the unique topography of the local region into account, forecasting impacts based on two-square-mile segments — compared to earlier studies that looked at the singular impacts for the entire region.
The study projects that storms like the one in October will dump 26% to 37% more water on the Bay Area, when they hit, by the end of the century. The study looked at various storm types and atmospheric river combinations to estimate total storm precipitation totals from 2050 and beyond.
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What happens when San Francisco fails its most vulnerable residents?
Thousands of people have been left to languish and even die in the city’s supportive housing single-room-occupancy hotels, which have been lauded as a tool to manage the homelessness crisis. The buildings are overseen by a city agency that reports directly to Mayor London Breed.
Chronicle reporters Joaquin Palomino and Trisha Thadani visited 16 buildings, interviewed more than 150 residents and frontline workers and reviewed tens of thousands of pages of public records. Their investigation found that leaders have for years neglected the SROs, leaving many residents trying to rebuild their lives in increasingly desperate situations. Of the 515 SRO tenants tracked by SF after leaving permanent supportive housing in 2020, a quarter died while in the program. An additional 21% returned to homelessness. At least 166 people fatally overdosed in city-funded hotels in 2020 and 2021. Since 2016, the year city leaders created the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, the number of homeless people in the city has increased by 56%, according to data exclusively obtained by The Chronicle.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West today not to underestimate the elevated risks of nuclear conflict over Ukraine and said he viewed NATO as being "in essence" engaged in a proxy war with Russia by supplying Kyiv with weaponry. Lavrov also said that the core of any agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine would depend largely on the military situation on the ground.
Lavrov had been asked about the importance of avoiding World War Three and whether the current situation was comparable to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, a low point in U.S-Soviet relations.
Russia, Lavrov said, was doing a lot to uphold the principle of striving to prevent nuclear war at all costs.
"This is our key position on which we base everything. The risks now are considerable," Lavrov said.
"I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it."
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The Supreme Court considered the free speech and religious freedom rights of teachers, coaches and students while hearing a case that could rewrite the rules for prayer in public schools.
During nearly two hours of arguments, the justices debated at what point a private act of faith becomes government endorsement of religion and how far school districts should go to shield young people from potential pressure to engage in religious expression.
The case centers on Joe Kennedy, a football coach who got in trouble for praying at the 50-yard line after games. His former employer, Bremerton School District in Washington state, believes his actions amounted to government, rather than private, speech and unlawfully violated the Constitution’s establishment clause.
Although the justices were asked to consider Kennedy’s specific desire to pray at the 50-yard line, much of Monday’s discussion focused on other, hypothetical scenarios that raise similar legal questions.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy claimed Monday that he didn’t lie last week when he knowingly denied a true story.
The New York Times reported that McCarthy was so mad at President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol that he said he would tell Trump to resign. McCarthy then denied the story, only for the reporters to prove it right with a recording of his remarks.
In his first interview since the story broke, McCarthy sidestepped a question about his private suggestion that Trump should resign by noting that he never followed through with it.
“I never told the president to resign,” McCarthy said during a live Fox News interview from Eagle Pass, Texas, where a Republican delegation had traveled to highlight border security. “It was a conversation that we had about scenarios going forward.”
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1) BRIDGERTON SERIES NUMBER 2 (NETFLIX)
2) THE GREAT (HULU)
3) MONTY PYTHON: ALMOST THE TRUTH (HBO MAX)
4) JULIA (HBO MAX)
5) OUR GREAT NATIONAL PARKS NARRATED BY OBAMA (NETFLIX)
6) INVENTING ANNA (NETFLIX)
7) THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES (HBO MAX)
8) AND JUST LIKE THAT (HBO MAX)
9) CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (NETFLIX)
10) HACKS (APPLE TV)
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U.S. officials are anxiously watching the French presidential election, aware that the outcome of the vote on Sunday could scramble President Biden’s relations with Europe and reveal dangerous fissures in Western democracy.
President Emmanuel Macron of France has been a crucial partner as Mr. Biden has rebuilt relations with Europe, promoted democracy and forged a coalition in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Mr. Macron is in a tight contest with Marine La Pen, a far-right challenger.
Ms. Le Pen is a populist agitator who, in the style of former President Donald J. Trump, scorns European Union “globalists,” criticizes NATO and views President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as an ally.
Her victory could complicate Mr. Biden’s effort to isolate Russia and aid Ukraine. But the very real prospect of a nationalist leading France is also a reminder that the recent period of U.S.-European solidarity on political and security issues like Russia and democracy may be fragile. Poland and Hungary, both NATO members, have taken authoritarian turns.
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Police were searching for suspects late this afternoon in a shooting that wounded four people in northwest Washington.
Stuart Emerman, the assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, told reporters that there is no description of any suspect at this point, though he named Raymond Spencer, 23, as a person of interest. It was not known if Spencer is currently in the area.
Spencer is not a suspect, Emerman cautioned. But police are aware of a video uploaded to the internet message board 4chan that appears to show the shooter opening fire on Edmund Burke School, a college prep school in northwest Washington. The video was uploaded by an individual using the name Raymond Spencer, and police want to speak with him to determine whether he was involved in the shooting.
A man and a woman are in stable but critical condition, Emerman said, updating an earlier report from a police source who said two men had been shot. A girl is also being treated for a minor gunshot wound. All three are being treated at local hospitals.
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Is anything worth paying for on Cable TV?
CNN’s new parent company abruptly pulled the plug on the network’s $100 million venture into online streaming — a spectacular reversal that stunned employees barely three weeks after the launch of the service, known as CNN Plus.
After months of planning and hiring and a huge promotional campaign, CNN Plus drew modest subscription sign-ups and faced uncertain long-term prospects. But insiders and analysts viewed its demise as a result of the brutal calculus of a new corporate owner rather than a comment on its viability.
Notably, the service was conceived and developed under CNN’s former owner, WarnerMedia, but was launched just days before Discovery Inc.’s long-gestating acquisition of the company was finalized. Discovery executives are now in charge of the merged company, called Warner Bros. Discovery, and made the decision to end CNN Plus at the end of the month.
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Almost all politicians lie, but only some are demonstrably liars. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is not only a demonstrable liar; he’s also a sloppy and inartful one.
The clever dissembler knows that it’s wiser to sow doubt and confusion than to deny something outright—and that if you must deny it, be sure the denial can’t be definitively and humiliatingly debunked within hours. McCarthy broke both of those rules yesterday. In the morning, The New York Times published an article revealing how McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were furious at Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
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The political and legal earthquake that emanated Monday from the Tampa chambers of U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle provided the latest example of how an individual jurist — and a single lawsuit, seemingly filed in the right place at the right time — can alter the course of public policy. It is a practice that became more common at the end of the Obama administration and accelerated during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Sen. Mike Lee says the text messages he sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election don’t signal advocacy for overturning the results in favor of Donald Trump.
President Biden will reportedly order government agencies on Earth Day on Friday to take new action to protect old-growth forests, which are central to his agenda of mitigating climate change. The order will direct the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to inventory the nation's mature forests to inform new policies to protect them.
Biden prioritized forest protection during his trip to the U.N.'s COP26 climate change conference in November, where he pledged billions of dollars over the next decade to support the conservation of global forests. He called the effort an "indispensable" piece of his climate agenda. Forests serve as "carbon sinks" for their maintenance of carbon dioxide and are integral to policymakers' strategies for slowing climate change.
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Yesterday, the Florida Senate voted to revoke special benefits that, since the 1960s, have given Disney the ability to essentially self-govern a vast area around its Disney World theme park and issue tax-free municipal bonds. The state’s House, which like its Senate is led by Republicans, is expected to vote for the measure today.
It’s a rapid unraveling of a long relationship. Last month, Disney C.E.O. Bob Chapek, facing a backlash from employees, spoke out against Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay law, which prohibits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity until the third grade, and limits it for older students as well. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is eying a 2024 presidential run, has hit back, calling the company “Woke Disney,” and saying it no longer deserves its long-held special status. “If Disney wants to pick a fight, they chose the wrong guy,” DeSantis wrote in a recent campaign fund-raising email.
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The mayor of the besieged port city of Mariupol said Russian troops have buried as many as 9,000 civilians killed in the conflict in a nearby mass grave in order to cover up “military crimes.”
“The greatest war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol. This is the new Babi Yar,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said, referring to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
Boychenko and the city council in Mariupol accused Russians of burying civilians killed in Manhush, about 12 miles west of Mariupol, in large trenches they had dug. He said “the bodies started disappearing from the streets of the city,” charging that the Russians were “hiding the trace of their crimes and using the mass grave as one of the instruments for that.”
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Something needs to be done.
Six weeks after Gov. Newsom unveiled a far-reaching effort to push more people into court-ordered treatment for severe mental illness and addiction; homeless advocates are calling it legally misguided and immoral as the proposal's first public hearing at the state Capitol has been delayed.
Newsom touted the CARE Court framework last month as an innovative strategy to guide an estimated 7,000 to 12,000 people into housing and much-needed treatment. Under the proposal, family members, behavioral health care providers and first responders, among others, could petition a civil judge to initiate a CARE plan for eligible individuals who lack medical decision-making capacity.
More than three dozen organizations and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Disability Rights California and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, signed an April 12 opposition letter raising serious concerns with Assembly Bill 2830, one of two nearly identical measures moving through the Legislature to implement Newsom's Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Court. The groups often have significant sway among liberal legislative Democrats, the kind of influence that could hinder Newsom's hopes for a new law to be in place by July 1.
In their 14-page letter, the advocates blasted the proposal as involuntary and coercive treatment that would strip individuals of their personal liberties and "perpetuate institutional racism and worsen health disparities." They said CARE Court "flies in the face of any evidence-based approach to ending homelessness" because it prioritizes mental health services — not housing — as the initial step toward recovery, which they said would deviate from California's "housing first" principles.
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Guest David Chiu
Drugmaker Endo Pharmaceuticals has agreed to a $10 million settlement over its role in selling prescription opioids in San Francisco. City Attorney David Chiu announced the settlement Wednesday, five days before a trial is to begin over the toll of opioids here.
Also, a Kentucky jury has awarded a man $450,000 who sued his employer after he asked them not to celebrate his birthday at work — and they did it anyway. Kevin Berling told his manager at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington in 2019 that a birthday celebration would cause him immense stress. His manager didn't heed his request, and Berling suffered a panic attack. The next day Berling had another panic attack when his supervisor chastised him for “stealing his co-workers’' joy and “being a little girl," according to a lawsuit. Berling was fired after the second attack.
Berling had told his supervisor that a birthday celebration would bring back bad childhood memories surrounding his parents’ divorce. The supervisor forgot to pass along his request.
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Guest is Farah Diaz-Tello, IF/WHEN/HOW senior counsel and Legal Director for If/When/How, a reproductive justice advocacy group that is co-sponsoring the legislation. California lawmakers have advanced a bill that would strengthen laws preventing prosecution of pregnant people for pregnancy loss. California already has laws preventing these types of prosecutions. But a bill that passed the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday would let women sue prosecutors for erroneously charging them with crimes related to pregnancy losses.
Also, a teachable moment is ignored at West County High in Sonoma. The incident involved a “promposal” — where one student asks another to prom.
The student was photographed holding a sign that referred to the use of African slaves to grow and harvest cotton, Principal Shauna Ferdinandson said. It said that rather than do what they did, since she is white, she’d be “picking” her date for prom, a copy of the photo obtained by The Press Democrat shows.
The student in the photo, as well as two others who posted the photo on social media, have been disciplined, Ferdinandson said. She declined to discuss the nature of that discipline, citing student privacy laws.
“All across campus people are very upset,” Ferdinandson added. “I think the picture personified some of the feelings and experiences (students of color) have had that have been more subtle, and have brought it to light.”
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The National Rifle Assn. said the bill’s real intent is “to torment the firearms industry through costly litigation in the widest array of circumstances.”
The bill is written so broadly that “almost anyone could bring civil action against the firearm industry,” said the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. “It is an attack on the lawful commerce of firearms with an intent to limit the availability of firearms.”
Roy Griffith, the California group’s legislative director, said the proposal is “clearly in direct conflict with federal law.”
He equated it to allowing lawsuits against carmakers for drunk driving deaths.
“This industry gets protection that no other industry in the United States gets,” Ting responded. “Guns are not cars. The purpose of guns is to harm another individual.”
The Assembly Judiciary Committee advanced the bill on a 7-2 vote.
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Guest: Assemblyman Phil Ting
California lawmakers have advanced a measure that would make it easier to skirt a federal law in order to sue gun-makers. Opponents say the legislation that cleared its first committee Tuesday is ultimately aimed at driving manufacturers out of business. Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting said his legislation would make it easier to sue gun-makers or dealers for liability in shootings that cause deaths or injuries. Federal law blocks most of those types of lawsuits against the gun industry. But New York last year enacted the nation's first law opening up gun-makers to lawsuits. Ting's bill would require firearm makers and dealers to "take reasonable precautions."
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More forms of transportation are today announcing masks are now optional after the Biden Administration said the mask mandate will not be enforced following a court ruling in Florida. Most of the big airlines now say masks are no longer mandatory. In fact, many dropped masks mid flight yesterday to cheering passengers. While other passengers say it was unfair that they boarded on the belief masks were mandatory and then they came down during flight. Today Uber and Lyft have announced they too will no longer require masks be worn during rides. But then it gets weird in Philadelphia where masks are still required in the city so masks are still required in the Philadelphia airport but then they can be dropped when somebody gets on board their plane. It’s a lot of confusion.
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On a late summer night two years ago, Tiburon police asked Yema Khalif to prove he owned YEMA, the local clothing store that bears his name. The fallout from that August 2020 encounter shoved the quiet coastal enclave to the center of a racial justice moment that began just months earlier with George Floyd’s murder.
On Tuesday, the store owners will stand with town officials to announce changes enacted as a result of the incident. The changes include policy and training updates as well as the formation of a Citizen’s Advisory Panel to provide a forum between residents and police; one of the store owners is expected to serve as a member.
“We love our community,” Khalif said in a release. “We wanted to make sure that people in the community are aware of these issues and that Tiburon Police Department made changes to improve policing in the community.”
The unique partnership between the store owners and town officials stemmed from an Aug. 21, 2020, incident that was recorded by an officer’s body worn camera at YEMA in downtown Tiburon.
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The legendary Jan Wahl on a Friday night on KGO? You betcha! Jan and Kim discuss the biggest movies, and find which ones you should avoid and which ones to see RIGHT NOW!
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Kim talks to Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler about the prospect of Musk taking over Twitter, and what this may mean for the world and even Tesla/SpaceX. Also: Would you want to live on a cruise ship? A new trend has many listeners interested and some skeptical.
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ABC News correspondent Dave Packer joins Kim to discuss a new FDA authorized COVID-19 breath test. Also, a discussion on having 3-year college degrees as the norm with Washington Post writer Jon Marcus
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Guest is Michael Laris, Transportation reporter
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of Florida said the mandate exceeds the statutory authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Wearing a mask cleans nothing. At most, it traps virus droplets. But it neither ‘sanitizes’ the person wearing the mask nor ‘sanitizes’ the conveyance,” Mizelle wrote.
Some doctors say it’s time to rename low-grade prostate cancer to eliminate the alarming C-word. Cancer cells develop in nearly all prostates as men age, and most prostate cancers are harmless. Changing the name could lead more low-risk patients to skip unnecessary surgery and radiation.“This is the least aggressive, wimpiest form of prostate cancer that is literally incapable of causing symptoms or spreading to other parts of the body,” said University of Chicago Medicine’s Dr. Scott Eggener, who is reviving a debate about how to explain the threat to worried patients.
“If you reduce anxiety, you’ll reduce overtreatment,” said Dr. David Penson of Vanderbilt University. “The word ‘cancer,’ it puts an idea in their head: ‘I have to have this treated.’”
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Guest: Sal Rizzo, Washington Post reporter Disease trackers are monitoring the spread of new, highly transmissible versions of the omicron variant in New York state and Europe, the latest evidence of the caronavirus’s ability to overhaul its genetic profile and pose a fresh threat.
It is too soon to predict how far the new sub variants might spread and how sick they might make people, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Today - Joaquin Ciria - a man who has been in prison for 32 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit has his conviction overturned and a new trial was set. It’s because of the Innocence Commission out of the San Francisco DA’s Office. “Our office is proud of and grateful for the work of the Innocence Commission in rectifying the wrongful conviction of Mr. Ciria,” Boudin said in an emailed statement. “Although we cannot give him back the decades of his life lost we are grateful that the court has corrected this miscarriage of justice.”
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Guest is Andy Field, ABC News Correspondent
Pressure is mounting for President Biden to visit Ukraine after his administration said it is considering sending a senior official to the embattled country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday both expressed an interest in having Biden visit Ukraine; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the war-torn country earlier this month. Zelensky told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he expects the U.S. leader will do so. “I think he will. And I think he — but it’s not — I mean, it’s his decision, of course. And about the safety situation, it depends. I mean that. But I think — I think he’s the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see,” Zelensky said. Kuleba said a visit from Biden “would be an important message of support for us” during an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” and he noted that a meeting between the two presidents could “pave the way” for new supplies, weapons and discussions on a possible political settlement to end the conflict.
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Despite the benefits unmanned vessels might provide, experts have questions about what the Navy wants them to do: Do they want vessels that can operate autonomously deep into the sea for weeks on end? Do they simply want vessels that can fire missiles without risking lives? Do they want a large number of ships that can be built, maintained and operated at a lower price?
Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended her service representing California in the Senate in the wake of a report that colleagues of hers are concerned about her ability to continue serving, and she said she does not plan to step down before the end of her term, which runs through 2024.
Every April 15, Major League Baseball goes to great lengths to honor Jackie Robinson on the anniversary of the day, now 75 years ago, when he broke the sport’s color barrier. On that day, every player wears his iconic No. 42, which is otherwise retired across the majors.
Honoring Robinson is a year-round endeavor, too, for MLB and the country at large. In 1987, baseball renamed its rookie of the year awards in his honor. He has been on postage stamps and a commemorative silver dollar. His bust is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His uniform number became the title of a movie about his life. Posthumously, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal.
His legacy, in other words, is wide-ranging and everlasting.
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To find out where the COVID pandemic is headed, look in the sewer. As the United States enters year three of the coronavirus pandemic, disease trackers are trying to stay one step ahead of the constantly evolving virus — by hunting for it in feces.
Eventually, the CDC plans to use wastewater surveillance to gather data on other pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, norovirus, influenza, a deadly fungal pathogen called Candida auris and food-borne infections caused by E. coli and salmonella.
About 50 eighth-graders from two Marin schools tested positive this week for COVID-19 after returning from a spring break trip to Washington, D.C.
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Texting etiquette with Tatum Hunter: 1)Think of group texts like a dinner party 2)We’re done fighting over capital letters and punctuation 3)Responses aren’t mandatory, but acknowledgments are nice 4)Don’t be a texting wet blanket 5)No scary mysteries 6)It’s okay to get serious 7) Respect workplace texting boundaries 8) Don’t text during important real-world moments
Jason Tharp wants to write books for weird kids — because he was one. On April 6, as Tharp prepared to read “It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn!” to students the next day at an elementary school in the Buckeye Valley Local School District, north of Columbus, he got a call from the principal saying higher-ups didn’t want him reading the book.
“I just straight up asked him, ‘Does somebody think I made a gay book?’ ” Tharp said. “And he said, ‘Yes. … The concern is that you’re coming with an agenda to recruit kids to become gay.’ ”
Brayden Murdoch with the National Weather Service.
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President Joe Biden says Russia's attack on Ukraine and Ukrainians amounts to "genocide." And Biden accuses President Vladimir Putin of trying to "wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian." Declaring any targeted campaign aimed at wiping out a group as genocide is not just a strong word - it could carry obligations to act. That's partly because of a genocide treaty approved by the U.N. General Assembly in the years immediately after World War II, and signed by the United States and more than 150 other nations. The convention was the work of campaigners including a Polish Jew who'd seen his family murdered by Adolf Hitler and Hitler's accomplices.
Do you think this is a case of genocide? It seems like a land grab, not a concerted effort to exterminate a single group of people… what do you think? Are we using the word genocide appropriately here?
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If you’re feeling stress and exhaustion after returning to the office part-time, you’re not alone.
Hybrid work, which includes working in-office and remotely, can be frustrating, but there are ways to ease the pain.
As companies mandate people back to the office, workers across the nation are finding the switch to be messy, inconvenient and in some cases even pointless. But work experts say with just a few tweaks, workers may be able to make the transition less jarring and more productive. They can make their mornings less stressful, get more benefits from the office and even be able to lower the anxiety they may feel back in the office.
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Cuba Gooding Jr. pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in his Manhattan sex abuse case Wednesday and will avoid jail time, according to sources close to the case.
The 54-year-old “Jerry Maguire” actor — who faced six counts of sexual abuse and forcible touching — copped to a misdemeanor forcible touching charge in Manhattan Criminal Court for non-consensually kissing a woman at a nightclub in 2018, according to prosecutors.
The plea deal, which allows the star to keep working, requires him to continue treatment for alcohol abuse, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
If he complies with the terms of the deal, the charge will be reduced to a non-criminal violation in six months.
“We fully credit and believe all of the survivors in this case and thank all of the women and other witnesses who cooperated with our office during the pendency of our investigation,” ADA Coleen Balbert said during the actor’s court appearance.
Gooding had faced up to a year behind bars for groping three women at Manhattan hotspots in 2018 and 2019.
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The call to take her place in baseball history, one that Alyssa Nakken had long prepared for, came in the third inning Tuesday night, when the San Francisco Giants’ first base coach was ejected for responding to what he said was a racist remark.
Nakken, an assistant who works with Giants players on baserunning and outfield defense, became the first woman in MLB history to coach on the field after the ejection of Antoan Richardson. When called upon, she left her spot in the batting cage, replaced her sweatshirt with her No. 92 jersey and grabbed a batting helmet.
“I think we’re all inspirations doing everything that we do on a day-to-day basis and I think, yes, this carries a little bit more weight because of the visibility, obviously there’s a historical nature to it,” she said (via the Associated Press) after the Giants’ 13-2 victory over the San Diego Padres. “But again, this is my job.”
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Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was removed from the voter rolls in North Carolina. Meadows, who used to represent the state’s 11th district in the House of Representatives, is being investigated by North Carolina for allegations that he committed voter fraud in the 2020 election. Notably, Meadows has been a key figure in the congressional investigation of the events of Jan 6, after personally participating in discussions about challenging the election results and advocating for voter fraud investigations during his time in the West Wing.
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San Francisco police officers were faced with a new challenge after stopping an autonomous vehicle with no-one inside. Officers approached the car, operated by Cruise, because it had been driving without headlights. In the incident, captured on film, an officer remarks that there "ain't nobody in it" before the car moves to what Cruise said was a safer location.
The company said the headlights issue was a result of human error.
Cruise, which is owned by General Motors and develops self-driving technology, has been testing autonomous vehicles (AVs) in San Francisco.. Earlier this year it started allowing members of the public who join a waiting list to hail free night-time rides. Cruise tweeted: "Our AV yielded to the police vehicle, then pulled over to the nearest safe location, as intended. An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued."
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Keith Truong, owner of Ambrosia Bakery, said, “Those two trees are in front of a huge stop sign. So for the customer’s safety I took action in my own hand. What happened is that the gardener I hired over-trimmed the tree.” He was unaware that it was illegal to trim street trees and that the fine was onerous. The fine is $4,460. The dispute goes back to September, when management contacted DPW to complain that two trees were blocking signage, Gordon said. The bakery owners were told that the trees in question were scheduled for pruning in 2022. The city is responsible for the care of more than 125,000 street trees, carried out by the Bureau of Urban Forestry.
The firm sues on behalf of a handful of disabled clients who, in most cases, have never even visited the businesses and claim violations that are typically fabricated. For example, two restaurants in San Francisco’s Chinatown were accused of serving food at outdoor tables that were too low to accommodate wheelchairs — at a time when both were providing only takeout meals because of the pandemic.
The businesses settle the suits, for $10,000 or more, because defending them would typically cost between $50,000 and $100,000 in lawyers’ fees and expenses, the district attorneys said. They said the firm has shifted its focus to the Bay Area for the last year with “serial filers” from Southern California, particularly targeting small businesses run by immigrants who may not be fluent in English.
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Our guest, Robert Molnar, worked with Steve Poizner for nearly 20 years in the private sector and public sector (4 years at the CDI on Commissioner Poizners leadership team).
Quoting Poizner: “I’m one of hundreds of thousands of Californians who have lost coverage on their homes as insurers invoke the problem of wildfire risk. I’m a former insurance commissioner of California. If it happened to me, it can happen to you.
Things weren’t always this dire for Californians. A few years ago, my insurance company assured me that if I took steps to protect my home, then my coverage would be renewed. I live in a hilly suburban area with lots of trees just 15 minutes from San Jose airport. At a cost of thousands of dollars, I put in state-of-the-art vents on all openings in my home where fire or wind-blown embers could enter; pruned trees to keep them away from a deck; and thinned foliage in my yard to create “defensible” space. No wildfire has ever threatened my home in the 25 years I have lived in Silicon Valley. Satisfied with my efforts, the company insured me year after year.”
Until now.
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Police are searching for the shooter who opened fire Tuesday in a New York subway station, leaving at least 29 people injured and turning the morning commuter rush into a scene of horror.
None of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, New York Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said during an afternoon briefing. Sewell said The shooter put on a gas mask and apparently opened a canister on the train, filling the subway car with smoke and then shooting multiple people on the train and the platform in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
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It’s become a regularly occurring story line: Law enforcement agencies issue dire warnings, saying that officers have overdosed from an exposure to fentanyl, through the air, skin contact or even through administering CPR to someone experiencing an overdose, underscoring the dangers of the powerful synthetic opioid.
Last month, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that three deputies became dizzy and were hospitalized after searching a vehicle they suspected contained fentanyl, punctuated by photographs of first responders in hazardous materials suits. The deputies suffered no serious injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said. Law enforcement officials across the country have issued dire warnings about secondary exposure to fentanyl, but medical experts said that is a misconception.
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B.A.2 is here and by all estimations we are going to be dealing with COVID for a long time. How do we move forward and still protect the most vulnerable among us?
Pacific Gas & Electric has agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two major wildfires started by its aging power lines in Northern California, prosecutors announced Monday. PG&E does not admit wrongdoing in the two settlements reached with prosecutors for last year's Dixie Fire - one of the largest wildfires in California's history - and the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. The deals expedite damages payments to the hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed.
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National security advisor Jake Sullivan said U.S. intelligence discovered that “there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target” civilians in Ukraine.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Sullivan told host Jon Karl that the “horrifying” images of mass casualties in Ukraine were “downright shocking,” but they were “not surprising.” He said U.S. intelligence presented the information before the war began.
“We, in fact, before the war began, declassified intelligence and presented it indicating that there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target civilians who oppose the invasion, to cause violence against them,” he said. “To organize efforts to brutalize them in order to try to terrorize the population and subjugate it.
“So this was something that was planned.”
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San Francisco crime rates drastically shifted in the pandemic. These charts show what’s happening now
Robbery, Larceny or Burglary - What Are the Differences?
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Legislators in California are considering a law that would change the definition of a workweek. The idea is a better work/life balance. But, are there unforeseen consequences?
Could California mandate a four-day workweek? A state bill is pushing for the change
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(CNN)Will Smith will not be allowed to attend the Academy Awards for the next 10 years, as a result of his slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage during this year's Oscar ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in a statement obtained by CNN.
"The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards," Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement on Friday.The decision was made during a Board of Governors meeting held earlier in the day in Los Angeles. The meeting, initially scheduled for April 18, was expedited after Smith announced his resignation from the Academy last week.
Smith issued a quick, concise statement on his ban from the Oscars for the next decade.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/entertainment/will-smith-academy-sanctions-decision/index.html
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Baseball starts today and the Giants toss out their first pitch at home tomorrow. Adam Copeland breaks down the outlook for the Giants.
A Pew Research Center poll found 70% of Americans now consider Russia an enemy of the United States.
That figure is up from 41% in January.
The opinion is relatively bipartisan in nature as well, with 72% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans believing Russia is an enemy.
Public opinion of Russia is overwhelmingly negative, according to the survey, which found 92% of Americans say they have an unfavorable view of the country, including 69% who have a very unfavorable view.
The survey was conducted between March 21 and 27, about a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It also found that 7% of U.S. adults have an overall favorable opinion of Russia.
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The Police Department declined to elaborate on the gang affiliation of the individuals suspected to have been involved in the shooting in a statement released Wednesday, but said “gangs and gang violence are inseparable from the events that drove these shootings.”
“This tragedy downtown is a very public example of what families in many of our neighborhoods know too well,” Police Chief Kathy Lester said in a statement.
“The suffering inflicted by gang violence does not limit itself to gang members. It spills over to claim and shatter innocent lives and harm our entire community,” Lester said.
Police said the investigation was ongoing and that the number of identified shooters could grow beyond five people.
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The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, shattering a historic barrier by securing her place as the first Black female justice.
Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer, solidifying the liberal wing of the 6-3 conservative-dominated court.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has filed a complaint against Jimmy Kimmel with the Capitol Police over a joke, and she apparently isn’t kidding. The Georgia Republican tweeted a clip of Kimmel from the late-night host’s Tuesday monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which the comic said of Greene, “This woman, Klan mom, is especially upset with the three Republican senators who said they’ll vote yes on Ketanji Brown Jackson, who’s nominated for the Supreme Court. She tweeted, ‘Murkowski, Collins, and Romney are pro-pedophile. They just voted for KBJ.’ Wow, where is Will Smith when you really need him?”
Greene’s tweet included her written message, “@ABC, this threat of violence against me by @jimmykimmel has been filed with the @CapitolPolice.”
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The CCSF Board of Trustees has approved sending layoff notices advising 50 tenured and tenure-track faculty they are about to lose their jobs. If finalized at the end of April this will result in further decimation of the school. CCSF Math Faculty and a key member of the faculty union (AFT 2121) bargaining team Clare Heimer joins John to discuss this major issue.
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Rothmann and Kim McCallister dive into a new study that found Bay Area counties with the highest COVID rates in CA, though medical professionals don't think the numbers pose any risk. Later in the hour, John and the issue of inflation with energy prices.
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Despite NATO's fight to protect Ukraine during the Russian invasion, 63 republicans in the house declined to offer support for the organization. Rothmann is disappointed by this, and he'll discuss and get opinions from callers throughout the hour.
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John Rothmann welcomes KGO 810's digital team Maureen and Mari to explain how they carry the conversations from on air to social media and the presence of digital in today's world.
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Lawmakers in Oklahoma on Tuesday approved a near-total ban on abortion, making it the latest Republican-led state to forge ahead with stringent abortion legislation. The measure would make performing an abortion “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency” a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $100,000.
The UK, US, and Australia will begin co-operating on research into hypersonic weapons and how to defend against them.. It follows the development of hypersonic missiles by China and Russia and their purported use by Russia in Ukraine last month. Hypersonic weapons are those that exceed five times the speed of sound.
Without Sarah Palin, there is no Donald Trump. So it makes perfect sense that the former President threw his support behind the former Alaska governor's House candidacy
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the Russian military of carrying out the worst crimes since World War Two. He told the UN security council that civilians had been murdered and Russian tanks had crushed people "for pleasure".
He called for those responsible to be tried as Nazis were at Nuremberg.
Gruesome images of bodies lying in the street in towns such as Bucha have generated condemnation worldwide.
As expected, President Volodymyr Zelensky launched a ferocious, passionate attack on the Russian military for its alleged violations in Bucha and elsewhere.
He says there's no difference between this and the actions of terrorists, except that Russia is a member of the UN Security Council.
Mr Zelensky said the UN had to act, because not doing so would mean there was no point to the world body.
"Are you ready to close the UN? And the time of international law is gone? If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately," he said, adding that "accountability must be inevitable".
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The ICC doesn’t try people in absentia. They have to come before the court in person. That’s been a struggle for the ICC over time. The ICC tries individuals. It does not try states. For instance, in the current conflict, Russia would not be a defendant, but Vladimir Putin could be a defendant.
Practically speaking, in order for Putin and other senior leadership to face any kind of charge, there would have to be regime change in Russia. If there were to be charges, and if Putin remains head of state, it becomes very complicated, as we’ve seen with other heads of state who have been indicted and then not brought to bear before the ICC for years because they take steps to avoid physical presence before the court. The most prominent example of this is the former president of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir.
War-crimes charges related to the inappropriate targeting of civilians are certainly on the list for consideration.
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Sunday evening, President Joe Biden called on Congress to act following the shooting.
"But we must do more than mourn; we must act. That is why my Administration has taken historic executive action to implement my comprehensive gun crime reduction strategy — from standing up gun trafficking strike forces to helping cities across the country expand community violence interventions and hire more police officers for community policing," President Biden said, in part.
He urged Congress to act by banning ghost guns, requiring background checks, banning assault weapons and more.
"Pass my budget proposal, which would give cities more of the funding they need to fund the police and fund the crime prevention and intervention strategies that can make our cities safer. These are just a few of the steps Congress urgently needs to take to save lives," Biden said.
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Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney brought to three the number of Republican senators to say they would vote in favor of supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson as Joe Biden’s nominee to the US supreme court.
Murkowski of Alaska put out a statement on Monday evening saying: “After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the US supreme court”
Then Romney, the Utah senator and former presidential candidate, issued a statement in which he praised Jackson as a well-qualified jurist and “a person of honor”. He congratulated her on “her expected confirmation”.
Last week the Republican Susan Collins of Maine was the first from her party to say she was a “yes” on Jackson, guaranteeing a bipartisan aspect to her confirmation days after an acrimonious Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill.
Jackson is unlikely to need any Republican votes but the support of the moderates Murkowski, Romney and Collins, at least, will be a huge fillip to Joe Biden’s efforts to appeal across the aisle.
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Summer of Soul
CODA
West Side Story - Ariana Deboce
Liza Minelli & Lady Gaga
Will Smith
Tammy Faye - Jessica Chastain
Opening with three hosts
Godfather tribute
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Snowpack in the California Sierra this winter is just 38% of normal, California water officials said Friday, in the latest sign the state’s drought is growing more devastating by the month.
South of Lake Tahoe at Phillips Station, where officials set out Friday to conduct the annual end-of-winter snowpack measurement, the snow depth was just 2.5 inches. The average April 1 snow depth is 66.5 inches at this location, officials said.
More importantly, that 2.5 inches of snow only contained the equivalent of 1 inch of water -- a scant 4% of average for April 1, according to Sean de Guzman, an engineer with the California Department of Water Resources.
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The affluent city of Shanghai is going through a staggered lockdown this week as it battles its biggest surge of COVID cases in two years. – more than 5,000 new cases daily, a relatively huge amount for a city which had enjoyed near-zero cases for the last two years.
The stringent quarantine measures include home isolation for all residents and cancellation of all public transport while authorities test all 25 million residents – first in the city's eastern Pudong district, then in western Puxi district starting Friday.
The speed at which the lockdown was announced left the city's residents scrambling to secure food and supplies. Stay-at-home orders are also limiting residents from seeking medical care unrelated to COVID.
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President Joe Biden hailed the March jobs report, saying it shows that the U.S. economy “has gone from being on the mend to on the move.”
America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the highest inflation in 40 years.
The government’s report showed that last month’s job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6 percent. That’s the lowest rate since the pandemic erupted two years ago and just above the half-century low of 3.5 percent that was reached two years ago.
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Russia accused Ukraine of escalating their war by carrying out a helicopter attack against a fuel depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, in what appeared to be Ukraine’s first airstrike on Russian soil since the invasion began.
Ukrainian officials would not confirm or deny the attack, suggesting that it could be a Russian error or even linked to Russian helicopter pilots who had refused to fly into Ukraine. These officials suggested that Moscow should sort out what was happening on its own territory.
Despite this apparent trolling, many military and intelligence analysts said it had been a Ukrainian attack carried out by two Mi-24 helicopters that swept in low; fired rockets at the fuel depot, causing a massive explosion and igniting fuel tank fires; and then departed, still flying at a very low altitude. No casualties were reported.
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Susan and John talk about the recall about Chesa Boudin, drug use in the Tenderloin, the recent Board of Education recall, and the future of politics in San Francisco.
Gotham by the Bay GothamByTheBay.com
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TDOV was created to celebrate the lives of trans people. According to GLAAD, only 20% of Americans personally know a transgender person - meaning most learn about transgender people through the media.
New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani sparked controversy for invoking his daughter when talking about transgenderism.
“I have changed the diapers,” Giuliani said. “I have looked under the hood. She’s a woman. I’m going to be the last guy in a long time that looks under the hood right there. But guess what? She was born a woman, and she’s going to stay a woman. It’s that simple.”
His remarks were a jab at transgender people who identify with a gender different than the one assigned to them at birth.
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A federal judge in Florida issued a forceful ruling today that blocked parts of Florida’s controversial election law, finding that some of the GOP-crafted restrictions it contained were passed “with the intent to discriminate against Black voters.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker invalidated certain limits the law placed on ballot drop boxes, voter registration by third parties and the distribution of water to those waiting in line to vote, determining the restrictions violated the Voting Rights Act and constitutional protections.
“At some point, when the Florida Legislature passes law after law disproportionately burdening Black voters, this Court can no longer accept that the effect is incidental,” wrote Walker.. “Based on the indisputable pattern set out above, this Court finds that, in the past 20 years, Florida has repeatedly sought to make voting tougher for Black voters because of their propensity to favor Democratic candidates.”
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Freight & Salvage Hosts Little Village’s April First No Foolin’ Artist Revue featuring Aki Kumar, Tia Carroll, Skip The Needle, Marcel Smith, Mariachi Mestizo, and Nick Clark.
They will be backed by the Greaseland All Star Band
Friday, April 1, 2022 8:00 p.m.
Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison St. Berkeley
Tix: $10-$20 For more information: 510.644.2020
littlevillagefoundation.org
The mission of Little Village, a nonprofit record company that seeks to shine the light of awareness on musicians who might not otherwise be heard. We believe that a life filled with diverse music builds empathy making for stronger communities. The artists range in genres, come from non-traditional backgrounds and are as diverse in cultural influences as they are in ethnic seasoning. The music represents mariachi, folk, blues, gospel, rock, spoken word, roots, soul, and so much more!
Pamela Rose is on Little Village’s Board of Directors. She is a San Francisco based jazz and blues vocalist who has been performing and recording music for the past 40 years. Her work celebrating women in jazz and blues has been featured on stages across the country. Rose is on the faculty of the California Jazz Conservatory and has seven recordings under her name.
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California’s Reparations Task Force voted Tuesday to define those who are eligible for reparations as descendants of African Americans enslaved in the U.S. or of free Black people living in the country before the end of the 19th century.
Much of the discussion among the task force members focused on differing interpretations of the state law that created the panel and on if all Black Californians should receive some form of reparation because of the lasting effects of slavery and the discrimination that has continued long after abolition. After hours of tense debate, the group voted to tie reparations to lineage.
“This measure is about reparations for those who are harmed by chattel slavery in this country,” said the Rev. Amos Brown, a civil rights leader and vice chair of the task force.
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Hunter Biden finds himself under investigation for allegations that include failure to pay federal taxes, failure to register as a foreign agent, and possible money laundering. He has said he was messed up on drugs during the time period under investigation, and while we're certainly sympathetic to those who get addicted to drugs, it kind of seems like a too-convenient excuse. If he gets indicted, Republicans are going to have a field day blaming his father for the son's misdeeds.
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Sen. John Thune has officially said he will oppose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The South Dakota Republican says he is concerned she will allow her personal political opinions to shape her judicial decisions.
The Judiciary Committee is expected to recommend her nomination to the full Senate in a vote on April 4. Democrats can confirm her without one Republican vote in the 50-50 Senate, as long as every Democrat supports her and with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie breaking vote.
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U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by advisers about his military’s poor performance in Ukraine, according to the White House. The advisers are scared to tell him the truth, the intel says. The findings, recently declassified, indicate that Putin is aware of the situation on information coming to him and there now is persistent tension between him and senior Russian military officials.
Russian tankers transporting oil and petroleum products have been disappearing from tracking systems. Dark activity, or when a ships’ transponders are turned off for at least a couple of hours, is up 600% compared to before the Ukraine War began, maritime risk management company Windward said.
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There is no other way of saying it. President Biden is only using Title 42 to expel asylum seekers from what former President Donald Trump called “s---hole countries.” No one can say that’s not true when Biden is exempting Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion from the public health rule that Trump imposed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. will take in some 100,000 Ukrainians with open arms. Can anyone really imagine boarding all these Ukrainians in airplanes and flying them back to their country under siege? Of course not. That would be inhumane and against international law.
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Fox Nation presenter Lara Logan suggested that Charles Darwin was paid by the Jewish Rothschild family to invent the theory of evolution during an episode of the right-wing podcast And We Know on Monday.
"Does anyone know who employed Darwin? Where does Darwinism come from?" Logan asked. "Look it up. The Rothschilds."
"I'm just saying Darwin was hired by someone to come up with a theory based on evidence," she added before saying that evolution is a chicken or egg debate and cannot be answered scientifically.
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Sen. Mitt Romney warned that a second term with Donald Trump as president could upend the NATO alliance. “I think if President Trump were to return as president that the nations of the world would say that they really have to rethink their own national security and the extent to which they want to be aligned with us and instead be aligned with someone else,” Romney told Kasie Hunt in an interview for CNN+ released Tuesday. Asked if Trump permanently damaged NATO, Romney — one of the few prominent Republicans willing to speak against Trump — said the former president’s America-first approach “frightens other members.”
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White House logs that were given to the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol have a gap of more than seven hours in former President Trump’s phone records on Jan. 6, 2021, documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News reportedly show.
The news outlets reported that the gap in Trump’s communications stretches from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on the day of the attack, contradicting reports on several phone calls Trump had during that time period.
Trump has repeatedly promoted dubious claims of foreign business dealings by Hunter Biden, specifically alleging that he received millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow’s late mayor, Yury Luzhkov.
“She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said, in an interview conducted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I think we should know that answer.”
Trump failed to mention that he himself sought to do business with Luzhkov’s government in the late 1990’s. Trump also was pursuing high-profile real estate deals in Russia as recently as 2016, including a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.
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A federal judge ruled on Monday that former President Donald J. Trump and a lawyer who had advised him on how to overturn the 2020 election most likely had committed felonies, including obstructing the work of Congress and conspiring to defraud the United States.
Mr. Trump has not been charged with any crime, but it essentially ratified the committee’s argument that Mr. Trump’s efforts to block Congress from certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Electoral College victory could well rise to the level of a criminal conspiracy.
“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” wrote Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California. “Our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power, epitomized by George Washington laying down his sword to make way for democratic elections. Ignoring this history, President Trump vigorously campaigned for the vice president to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election.”
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Chris Rock and Will Smith had an altercation during the 2022 Oscar telecast. Rock appeared on stage to present the Oscar for documentary feature and made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith being in “G.I. Jane” because of her shaved head. Smith then took the stage to slap Rock. Although it appeared to be a joke at first, Smith returned to his seat and yelled at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!”
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President Joe Biden concluded his powerful speech this weekend in Poland about Vladimir Putin's barbaric attack on Ukraine with this line about the Russian leader: "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
White House officials later sought to make it clear Biden was not calling for "regime change," but it was no gaffe.
Biden is correct. Dean Obeidallah Putin -- whom Biden has rightfully called a "war criminal" -- should not remain in power given his horrific attack on Ukraine, his role in slaughtering civilians in Syria and his efforts to undermine Western democracies, including during the 2016 US presidential campaign.
President Biden is defending controversial remarks he made over the weekend in which he appeared to call for regime change in Russia — off-script comments that were quickly walked back by his administration. "I am not walking anything back," he told reporters.. "I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel, and I make no apologies for it."
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1) NIGHTMARE ALLEY
BEST PICTURE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, PRODUCTION DESIGN
2) BEING THE RICARDOS
SUPPORTING ACTOR
3) CRUELLA
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
4) KING RICHARD
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
5) CODA
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
6) SUMMER OF SOUL
BEST DOCUMENTARY
7) BELFAST
BEST SCORE (VAN MORRISON)
8) WEST SIDE STORY
BEST PICTURE, COSTUME, PRODUCTION DESIGN, DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHY
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are throwing their support behind Justice Clarence Thomas amid new scrutiny over his participation in Trump-related Supreme Court decisions. Thomas is facing calls to recuse himself from any Supreme Court cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack or the 2024 election, if former President Trump runs again. The calls come in the wake of new reports that his wife, Ginni Thomas, urged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to make an aggressive effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. But the two GOP leaders are standing by Thomas.
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For the first time since satellites began observing Antarctica nearly half a century ago, an ice shelf has collapsed on the eastern part of the continent, scientists said.
The collapse of the 450-square-mile Conger ice shelf in a part of the continent called Wilkes Land occurred in mid-March. It was first spotted by scientists with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and appeared in satellite images taken on March 17, according to the National Ice Center in the United States.
Ice shelves are floating tongues of ice at the end of glaciers that in Antarctica serve as outlets for the continent’s massive ice sheets. Stresses cause cracks in the floating ice, and meltwater and other factors can cause the fissures to erode and grow to a point where the shelf disintegrates rapidly.
According to the National Ice Center, the largest fragment of the Conger shelf after the collapse was an iceberg, named C-38, that was about 200 square miles in size.
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A top Russian general gave some of the most detailed public remarks to date on Russia's military strategy in Ukraine, claiming on Friday that the "first stage" of Russia's military plan is now complete, with their primary focus now centered on eastern Ukraine.
"In general, the main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed," Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said in a Friday briefing. "The combat potential of the armed forces of Ukraine has been significantly reduced, allowing us, I emphasize again, to focus the main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbas."
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To make up for the loss, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to temporarily raise water and wastewater rates 5% for retail customers starting April 1.
Already, some Bay Area water providers have enacted such drought surcharges. This month, the Alameda County Water District, which serves Fremont, Newark and Union City, began adding 79 cents to the price of every 100 cubic feet of water, or 748 gallons, consumed, meaning an increase of about $6 to the average monthly bill. Other suppliers in the region, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, may consider similar surcharges in coming months.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday announced he will not vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court, citing her responses this week to questions about "court packing."
On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sent a letter to the school district saying the celebrations constituted “sex education.” Without consent from parents, the district’s Pride Week is “breaking state law,” he said.
Prosecutor Mark Pomeranz, who investigated Donald J. Trump, believed that the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations.”
Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.
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President Biden said Thursday at a press conference in Brussels that NATO is united amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir "Putin was banking on NATO being split," Mr. Biden said in the whirlwind press conference. "NATO has never, never been more united than it is today."
Mr. Biden also said he supported expelling Russia from the G20, the group of the 20 biggest economies in the world, but conceded "that depends on the G20."
Mr. Biden's comments came only hours after an emotional plea by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told NATO leaders that if there isn't more invention from Europe, the Russian invasion will spread to Poland, a NATO country. Zelenskyy asked that the alliance provide "effective and unrestricted" support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian onslaught.
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Madeleine K. Albright, a child of Czech refugees who fled from Nazi invaders and Communist oppressors and then landed in the United States, where she flourished as a diplomat and the first woman to serve as secretary of state, died on Wednesday in Washington. She was 84. The cause was cancer, her daughter Anne said.
Enveloped by a veil of family secrets hidden from her for most of her life, Ms. Albright rose to power and fame as a brilliant analyst of world affairs and a White House counselor on national security. Under President Bill Clinton, she became the country’s representative to the United Nations (1993-97) and secretary of state (1997-2001), making her the highest-ranking woman in the history of American government at the time.
Despite pledging to allow girls of all ages to attend classes when schools reopened this week, the Taliban’s Education Ministry issued a last-minute reversal that banned girls beyond the sixth grade from returning.
The Walt Disney Company, one of the world’s biggest media and entertainment empires, prides itself on a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) friendly culture. But today its reputation for inclusivity and tolerance is under scrutiny – as are its deep ties to the political establishment and the lack of LGBTQ representation in its films.
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Anatoly Chubais, a high-ranking Russian official who led the country’s post-Soviet economic reforms, has resigned from his post and fled the country in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, news outlets reported Wednesday, making him the first high-level figure to officially distance himself from the Kremlin.
Chubais, 66, and his spouse have fled to Istanbul, according to Russian media outlet RBC. Late last month, Chubais posted a photo of Boris Nemtsov, a leading Russian opposition figure murdered on a Moscow bridge in 2015, on social media, which was interpreted as a sign of opposition to the war, according to media reports.
What do you think?
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Senator Lindsey Graham and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson got into the most heated exchange of the morning after the senator revived a line of attack on the judge’s sentencing record in cases involving images of child sexual abuse. The flashes of temper were particularly striking coming from a senator who voted less than a year ago to confirm Judge Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sen. Mike Braun told reporters that he didn’t want a justice who was an “activist,” and that the court’s decision on Roe v. Wade was an example of such activism. Braun argued that such issues should be left up to the states and that striking down Roe would bring “it back to a neutral point, to where that issue should never have been federalized.” This prompted the question about whether he felt the same way about interracial marriage, which the court legalized in 1967, to which Braun, again, said yes.
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John Rothmann concludes the show with discussions about Climate Change, and how factors such as the conflict in Ukraine can have an effect on our climate if things go a certain way. Did Hunter Biden's laptop ever have anything of importance on it in the first place? Now with Russia's recent actions should Hunter's laptop receive renewed scrutiny? John takes your calls and questions.
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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's first day of Supreme Court hearings has concluded, one of the main questions asked was Justice Jackson's stance on the Constitution. Does she interpret the Constitution as it was originally written or does she believe the Constitution is a "living" document. John Rothmann presents the same question to the listeners and takes their calls.
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In a recent conference President Joe Biden warns of upcoming cyberattacks from Russia. What does this mean if the U.S. is severely affected by Russia's Cyberattacks? Should Cyberattacks be considered an act of war? John Rothmann answers your questions and takes your calls.
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John Rothmann goes over the 94th Academy Award Movie Nominees with movie critic and friend of the show Jan Wahl (janwahl.com)
1.CODA (Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant)
2.Power of the Dog (Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst)
3.Belfast (Jude HIll, Lewis McAskie, Caitriona Balfe)
4.West Side Story (2021) (Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose)
5.Nightmare Alley (Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett)
6.Don’t Look Up (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep)
7.King Richard (Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal)
8.The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones)
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John Rothmann continues to answer calls and questions concerning Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, the United States and NATO. Conservative Lawmakers are pushing for law enforcement to investigate election fraud and possibly send Policemen to polling places.
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The Military and Humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues. Vladimir Putin holds a rally in Moscow where some attendees were reportedly paid $5 to attend. John Rothmann takes your calls and questions on the continuing conflict in Eastern Europe.
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A group of Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday proposed sending every California taxpayer a $400 tax rebate check to reduce the financial pain they’re suffering because of gas prices and the rising costs of everyday goods.
But it’s by no means a done deal, so don’t expect to see any checks in the mail next week.
Here’s what is known so far:
All Californians who pay state income taxes would receive a $400 rebate, regardless of their income. So, in theory, billionaire Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and the manager of your local In-N-Out would both receive a rebate of $400. Because the payments would be sent to each individual taxpayer, married couples would receive $800.
Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) said the rebates should be sent out as soon as possible and that the state should not wait until the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom agree on the entire state budget, which is traditionally completed in late June.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky evoked the Holocaust in his address to Germany’s parliament Thursday, telling lawmakers that vows to never let the atrocity be repeated are empty in light of a failure to prevent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Every year politicians repeat ‘never again,'” the Ukrainian leader said, referring to annual Holocaust commemorations.
“And now, we see that these words simply mean nothing. A people is being destroyed in Europe,” he said, noting that 108 children had been killed in his country since the start of the Russian offensive.
Zelensky stressed that the future of the continent was at stake in the current war and argued that governments across the West were failing to meet the moment.
“Help us stop this war,” he said.
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On Monday, the Idaho House passed Senate Bill 1309, which, like in Texas, would prevent pregnant people from obtaining abortions after six weeks. Idaho’s spin? Rather than empowering any old private citizens to sue to enforce the law, it specifically allows family members of the fetus—including family members of a rapists— to sue abortion providers for up to four years after the procedure, for a minimum of $20,000 in damages. While Idaho has so humanely said that the rapists themselves could not sue, under the proposed legislation, they could get their parents and siblings to do so, as well as the would-be brothers and sisters of the fetus in question. Oh, and apparently nothing in the bill would prevent a rapist with, say, 10 siblings from having every single one of them sue individually and then collecting their cash.
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A committee to protect San Francisco Bay recommended Wednesday that the Port of Oakland keep Charles P. Howard Terminal for maritime use rather than allowing the Oakland A’s to build a new ballpark there. The Seaport Planning Advisory Committee voted 5-4-1 to recommend to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission that Howard Terminal be maintained for Port use.
The commission is expected to vote June 2 on the same question, a vote that is necessary by law and could derail the plan to keep the A’s in Oakland.
Wednesday’s vote by the Seaport Planning Advisory Committee, whose main aim is to prevent San Francisco Bay fill, is not binding. It’s merely a recommendation.
Jim McGrath, who chaired the meeting and worked for 16 years at the Port of Oakland, said the possibility of saving 40 acres of San Francisco Bay from being filled in was important to his vote to keep Howard Terminal for maritime use.
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The Senate unanimously condemned Putin as a war criminal.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, a rare show of unity in the deeply divided Congress.
The resolution, introduced by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and backed by senators of both parties, encouraged the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and other nations to target the Russian military in any investigation of war crimes committed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"All of us in this chamber joined together, with Democrats and Republicans, to say that Vladimir Putin cannot escape accountability for the atrocities committed against the Ukrainian people," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
Russia calls its actions a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. Putin has also called the country a U.S. colony with a puppet regime and no tradition of independent statehood.
How do you negotiate with a war criminal?
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At a private event in Virginia, senior Republican senator Mitt Romney delivered a stark warning about the threat to US democracy in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We are really the only significant experiment in democracy, and preserving liberal democracy is an extraordinary challenge,” the Utah senator and former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee said, according to attendees at the event in McLean, Virginia, who spoke to CBS News.
The event was held to raise funds for Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican whose opposition to Donald Trump over his attempt to overturn his election defeat and the January 6 riot has attracted a far-right challenger backed by the former president and the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, in her primary this year.
Romney, CBS reported, cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was following an authoritarian playbook “rehearsed time and time again, over the many thousands of years of world history”.
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Mississippi has the largest population of Black Americans of any state in the US, with a civil rights history central to the nation’s story. On 14 March, Republican Governor Tate Reeves signed a bill into law that would ban classroom lessons that he says are used to “humiliate” white students who are “force-fed an unhealthy dose of progressive fundamentalism that runs counter to the principles of America’s founding.” Senate Bill 2113 – which includes “critical race theory” in its title but does not define or describe it – prohibits schools from teaching or affirming that “any sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” But Republican state legislators have argued that schools should not teach students about the enduring impacts of enslavement and racism, none of which is in the bill, and have struggled to define the phrase in the bill’s title.
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Ukraine has praised the courage of three European leaders who made a long, hazardous journey by rail from Poland to Kyiv in a show of support as the city came under further Russian attack.
The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday evening as a curfew began in Kyiv.
The trip was a Polish idea, after the EU warned of potential security risks.
The Czech prime minister said Ukraine was fighting for its freedom.
"We admire your brave fight," Petr Fiala wrote in a tweet after the meeting. "We know that you're also fighting for our lives. You're not alone, our countries stand by your side."
Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki said that Europe would never be the same if it lost Ukraine. Instead, he wrote, it would be a "defeated, humiliated and pathetic version of its former self".
Mr Morawiecki, Mr Fiala, and Slovenia's Janez Jansa are the first international leaders to visit President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian prime minister since Russia unleashed war on its neighbor on February 24.
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A convoy of truck drivers and others protesting COVID-19 restrictions caused major traffic delays in D.C. during Monday’s evening rush hour.
The convoy brought traffic to a grinding halt on some roadways as hundreds of trucks and SUVs headed into the District and police and transportation officials blocked exit ramps to limit access to the downtown area.
Backups could be seen at about 4 p.m. along I-695 near the exits for the U.S. Capitol, as well as on the 14th Street Bridge and I-395.
Local authorities warned drivers to expect rolling road closures as the People’s Convoy passed through D.C. and headed back to Hagerstown, Maryland.
A line of tractor-trailers with American flags and signs could be seen, including one reading “Freedom.”
On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.
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Fallout from China’s race to halt its worsening coronavirus outbreak is growing as authorities order lockdowns and other restrictions across more of the country.
All 24 million residents of northeastern Jilin province, which borders Russia and North Korea, were locked down on Monday, the first time since Covid-19 was first detected two years ago in Wuhan that such restrictions have been imposed on an entire province. Shenzhen city began a weeklong lockdown on Monday, closing public transport, nonessential businesses and schools, while companies in Shanghai began shutting down over the weekend.
Whether authorities can swiftly end the outbreak will not only test China’s pandemic strategies against the more infectious Omicron variant behind the latest wave, but also has major implications for the rest of the world. China’s current restrictions have already disrupted global supply chains
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday that the prospect of the nuclear conflict is "within the realm of possibility" as Russia continues its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.What he's saying: "Raising the alert of Russian nuclear forces is a bone-chilling development. The prospect of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, is now back within the realm of possibility," Guterres said.
"Ukraine is on fire," Guterres added. "The country is being decimated before the eyes of the world." He also called for the security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, some of which have been attacked by Russian forces.
Guterres said that he has been in "close contact" with several countries, including China, France, Germany, India, Israel and Turkey, to discuss mediation efforts to bring an end to the war.
The UN chief also announced that the organization will allocate a further $40 million from its Central Emergency Response fund as humanitarian aid for Ukraine.
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The Quiet Man
Belfast
Brooklyn
My Left Foot
Far and Away
The Crying Game
In America
Waking Ned Devine
The Last Hurrah
THE LARK THEATER PRESENTS AWARDS NIGHT ON THE BIG SCREEN
Telecast LIVE from Hollywood – SUNDAY, MARCH 27TH beginning at 4pm
The Lark Theater, 549 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur
Hollywood’s biggest award show returns to the Lark big screen. Telecast LIVE from Hollywood. A night of movie magic, delicious food and drinks served on the Gilardi Marquee Terrace…and an early look at the Lark renovation before the official opening! Hosted by TV/Radio Personality, Jan Wahl
TICKETS: by phone (415) 924-5111
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Donald Trump’s affection for Vladimir Putin never seemed to bother Republicans in Congress. It’s made them a little uncomfortable, however, as the Russian president continues to unleash hell on Ukraine in an invasion that has killed thousands and laid waste to one of America’s allies. Trump initially praised the invasion as “genius” before reversing course and calling it a “Holocaust,” although he couldn’t bring himself to criticize Putin. Sean Hannity gave Trump another opportunity to do so on Thursday night — several, in fact — but he still couldn’t do it.
“You came under some fire when you said Vladimir Putin is very smart,” Hannity said. “I think I know you a little bit better than most people in the media, and I think you also recognize he’s evil, do you not?”
Trump ignored the question and said that when he called Putin smart he was talking about how he sent tanks into separatist-backed regions of eastern Ukraine.
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“We will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine. Direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War Three, something we must strive to prevent.
But we already know Putin’s war against Ukraine will never be a victory. He hoped to dominate Ukraine without a fight. He failed. He hoped to fracture European resolve. He failed.
He hoped to weaken the transatlantic alliance. He failed. He hoped to split apart American democracies, in terms of our positions. He failed.
The American people are united. The world is united. And we stand with the people of Ukraine. We will not let autocrats and would-be emperors dictate the direction of the world.
Democracies are rising to meet this moment, rallying the world to the side of peace and the side of security.
We’re showing our strength, and we will not falter.”
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John takes two topics on during his third hour. He first talks about MLB and MLBPA finally coming to an agreement on a CBA, allowing the MLB season to start. He also discusses a controversial Florida bill that would heavily restrict CRT teaching in schools.
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John takes the first two hours of the program to talk about the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Putin's talks with Ukraine are going nowhere, and Russian soldiers continue to use forceful action against it's citizens. So what do we do now? Rothmann gives his thoughts, as well as the listeners throughout the show.
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The wooden ship Endurance has been located remarkably intact about 10,000 feet underwater in the Weddell Sea.
"This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see 'Endurance' arced across the stern," said Mensun Bound, a maritime archaeologist and the director of exploration on the expedition, called Endurance22.
As World War I was beginning in 1914, the British explorer Shackleton set out to traverse Antarctica. The plan was for Shackleton to take 27 men on two ships, the Endurance and the Aurora, that would arrive at different locations on the continent to explore two routes by which to sledge across the ice. But in January 1915, the Endurance became trapped in ice off the coast of Antarctica.
The men lived on the ship for months, but pressure from the ice began to slowly crush it. On Oct. 27, 1915, Shackleton gave the order to abandon the Endurance.
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President Joe Biden announced an import ban on oil from Russia on Tuesday in response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and in addition to other severe sanctions imposed on the country by the U.S. and its allies.
"Russia's aggression is costing us all and it's no time for profiteering or price gouging," President Biden says directly to oil and gas companies.
Petroleum experts said it’s hard to predict if and when gas prices will start to go down, but they anticipated the record-high prices would likely linger in the coming weeks as Russia continues its assault on Ukraine.
“As long as this war continues — and any further actions taken against Russia or Russia retaliating against the United States and its allies — it will have a big impact on gas prices,” said Aldo Vazquez, a spokesperson for AAA.
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Our guests:
Megan Bourne de Young Chief of Staff & Secretary to the Board of Trustees
Richard M. Skaff is the Founder and Executive Director of Designing Accessible Communities – a 501C3 Non-profit Organization. He is the former Deputy Director of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office on Disability. Prior to that, Richard served in many other roles, including Program Manager/Chief Building Inspector (ADA and Disability Access Coordinator) for San Francisco Department of Public Works and Executive Director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Port Tenants Association. He is a longtime advocate for persons with disabilities.
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A Texas man accused of allegedly bringing a semiautomatic pistol to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, interfering with police, and then telling his children that "traitors get shot" when they wanted to turn him into authorities, was found guilty Tuesday on all charges. The jury took less than four hours to deliberate in the first January 6 case to go to trial.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a longtime leader of the Proud Boys far-right group, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he conspired with followers who attacked Congress last year — a high-profile indictment unsealed the same day Jan. 6 prosecutors won their first trial conviction from a D.C. jury.
A federal judge said late Monday that the Justice Department cannot charge Jan. 6 defendants with obstructing Congress’s certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory unless the defendants tampered with official documents or records in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the British Parliament on Tuesday via video, receiving a standing ovation. He recounted events from each of the last 13 days since Russia invaded and repeated calls for tougher sanctioning of Russia and for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost,” Zelensky said. “We will fight in the forests, on the shores, in the streets.”
The refrain echoed a line from a stirring speech by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II.
“The question for us now is to be or not to be,” Zelensky said, evoking Shakespeare. “I can give you a definitive answer: It’s definitely to be.”
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A convoy of truckers and other supporters circled the capital on the Beltway for a second day on Monday, protesting Covid-19 mandates and hoping to attract attention from lawmakers.
Brian Brase, a convoy organizer, told participants gathered at a staging area in Hagerstown, Md., that the convoy would again avoid entering Washington, D.C. He stressed that the protesters did not want to spur a violent event like the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which he said would discredit the group.
And he said the group did not intend to tie up traffic.
“We don’t want to shut down the Beltway,” Mr. Brase said. “We want them to hear us roar.”
The protests come at a time when many pandemic-related mandates and restrictions -- imposed by state and local governments rather than lawmakers in Washington -- have already begun being lifted in much of the country.
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- Ukraine should have the right to freely choose its economic and political associations, including with Europe.
- Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago, when it last came up.
- Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people. Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. Internationally, they should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland. That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia.
- It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to annex Crimea. But it should be possible to put Crimea’s relationship to Ukraine on a less fraught basis. To that end, Russia would recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections held in the presence of international observers. The process would include removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.
These are principles, not prescriptions. People familiar with the region will know that not all of them will be palatable to all parties. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction. If some solution based on these or comparable elements is not achieved, the drift toward confrontation will accelerate. The time for that will come soon enough.
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Mutually assured destruction depends heavily on the premise that rational leaders will step away from the brink of the nuclear abyss in the interests of their countries and the survival of the world. The flaw in this questionable theory was the possibility that control of nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of an insane leader.
Now the Ukraine crisis has raised the fear that Putin has become unstable and therefore more dangerous. Perhaps. But the distinction between a madman and a putatively rational leader who sees his interests in serious jeopardy is irrelevant. Truman, who ordered the attack on Hiroshima, was one of our most rational presidents. A nuclear war is as likely to be sparked by a desperate, cornered leader as by a madman. We cannot depend on Putin’s mental health to keep us safe from a nuclear exchange.
The war in Ukraine is a showdown between autocracy and a liberal free world. The outcome is much more likely to be determined by force than by diplomacy and sanctions. It would be wonderful if nuclear weapons could be removed from the calculus of force that will stop Putin. Unfortunately, history suggests otherwise.
By John M. Crisp
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NATIONAL SUICIDE HOTLINE - 800-273-8255
The parents of Stanford soccer goalie Katie Meyer revealed on Friday morning that their daughter died by suicide on Tuesday at the age of 22.
Meyer was found dead in an on-campus residence and Santa Clara County, Calif. authorities determined the cause of death, noting that there was no sign of foul play involved.
Katie Meyer's parents, Steven Meyer and Gina Meyer, spoke with the TODAY show about their daughter's death and announced that they have set up a foundation in her name. The parents said they spoke to Katie hours before her death and had no signs that anything was wrong with her. They said she was seemingly in great spirits.
"She died by suicide. The last couple days are like a parent's worst nightmare and you don't wake up from it," they told TODAY. "So it's just horrific. I don't even think it's hit us yet. We're still in shock. But we had no red flags ... We're just struggling right now. We are struggling to know what happened, and why it happened. We're just heartbroken, so heartbroken."
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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said Wednesday that there was enough evidence to conclude that former President Donald Trump and some of his allies might have conspired to commit fraud and obstruction by misleading Americans about the outcome of the 2020 election and attempting to overturn the result.
In a court filing in a civil case in California, the committee’s lawyers for the first time laid out their theory of a potential criminal case against the former president. They said they had accumulated evidence demonstrating that Trump, conservative lawyer John Eastman and other allies could potentially be charged with criminal violations including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the American people.
The filing also said the men might have broken a common law statute against fraud through Trump’s repeated lies that the election had been stolen.
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Senator Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of President Vladimir V. Putin, saying in a television interview as Russian forces shelled a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that somebody in Russia should “step up to the plate” and “take this guy out.”
“The only people who can fix this are the Russian people,” Mr. Graham continued. “Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty and live in darkness, you need to step up to the plate.”
In Russia, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, described Mr. Graham’s statement as an instance of a “hysterical Russophobic fit” that had captured the United States. “These days, not everyone can keep a sound mind,” Mr. Peskov said. “Unfortunately, many people go mad.”
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(FROM TUESDAY) Hear John's fascinating reaction to Biden's State of the Union on Tuesday.
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(FROM TUESDAY) Leading up to the State of the Union speech, John gets his listeners opinions on the Ukraine-Russian conflict. Many different sentiments are displayed, and John predicts what Biden will talk about in the upcoming address.
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The U.N. refugee agency says 1 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion less than a week ago, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed.
The tally from UNHCR amounts to more than 2 percent of Ukraine’s population on the move in under a week. The U.N. agency has predicted that up to 4 million people could eventually leave Ukraine but cautioned that even that projection could be revised upward.
UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday that “at this rate” the outflows from Ukraine could make it the source of “the biggest refugee crisis this century.”
On March 1, dozens of self-identified right-wing nationalists marauded through the city center of Przemysl, Poland, and harassed refugees who looked to be people of color, the witnesses said. Many non-white refugees have arrived in the city while they evacuate Ukraine.
As this humanitarian crisis goes on, many fear extremism will continue to cause trouble for refugees of color trying to escape the war.
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The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to reprimand Russia for invading Ukraine and demanded that Moscow stop fighting and withdraw its military forces, an action that aims to diplomatically isolate Russia at the world body.
The resolution, supported by 141 of the assembly's 193 members, passed in a rare emergency session called by the U.N. Security Council while Ukrainian forces battled to defend the port of Kherson in the face of air strikes and a devastating bombardment that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
The text of the resolution deplores Russia's "aggression against Ukraine." The last time the Security Council convened an emergency session of the General Assembly was in 1982, according to the U.N. website.
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The US has delivered hundreds of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine for the first time over the last few days, including over 200 on Monday, according to a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter.
Earlier this year the US gave the green light to Baltic countries including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send American-made weaponry that they have to Ukraine, including Stingers. But until now the Biden administration had held off on the US providing the Stingers directly to Ukraine, while they have provided other lethal weaponry.
Some members of Congress have been pushing for additional Stinger missiles to be sent to Ukraine for months. The Ukrainians have repeatedly made pleas for more weaponry from the US, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons.
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In the hotter and more hellish world humans are creating, parts of the planet could become unbearable in the not-so-distant future, a panel of the world’s foremost scientists warned Monday on the escalating toll of climate change.
Unchecked greenhouse gas emissions will raise sea levels several feet, swallowing small island nations and overwhelming even the world’s wealthiest coastal regions. Drought, heat, hunger and disaster may force millions of people from their homes. Coral reefs could vanish, along with a growing number of animal species. Disease-carrying insects would proliferate. Deaths — from malnutrition, extreme heat, pollution — will surge.
These are some of the grim projections detailed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body dedicated to providing policymakers with regular assessments of the warming world.
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The first talks between Ukraine and Russia aimed at halting the Russian invasion were eclipsed today by a deadly Russian rocket assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, that raised new alarms about how far the Kremlin was willing to go to subjugate its smaller neighbor.
As the Ukrainian-Russian talks ended with little more than an agreement to meet again, the bombardment signaled a potential turn in the biggest military mobilization in Europe since World War II, in which Russia has met unexpectedly stiff resistance by Ukrainians and strong condemnation from much of the world.
“Today showed that this is not only a war, it is the murder of us, the Ukrainian people,” Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, said in a video posted on Facebook. “This is the first time in its many-year history that the city of Kharkiv has been through something like this: shells that hit residential homes, killing and maiming innocent citizens.”
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Satellite images show Russian troops are attacking Ukraine on multiple fronts and are advancing on the capital city of Kyiv. Today, a convoy consisting of hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and support vehicles stretched 17 miles long and was less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the center of Kyiv. The city is home to nearly 3 million residents.
The images from Maxar Technologies also captured signs of fighting outside Kyiv, including destroyed vehicles and a damaged bridge.
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- The Ukrainian Red Cross
- The Voices of Children Foundation
- Razom for Ukraine
- UNICEF
- United Help Ukraine
- Army SOS
- Caritas Ukraine
- Territory of Kindness
- Save Life of Ukraine
- People In Need
- Save the Children
- CARE USA
- Support Ukrainian journalism
- NOVA UKRAINE
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Russia has vetoed a resolution brought up in the U.N.'s Security Council that would have condemned its invasion of Ukraine. Russia cast the sole vote against the measure. The surprising vote was the abstention by China, which effectively cast Russia as alone among the world powers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a dire warning Friday, telling his country that "this night will be harder than the day."
"This night, the enemies uses on all fronts all their power to destroy our resistance," Zelensky said in a pre-recorded video, according to Reuters. "In a mean and brutal way, and not in a human way. This night, they are going to storm. All of us should understand what is awaiting us this night. We have to hold out. Ukraine's destiny is being decided right now."
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Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital today, with explosions and gunfire sounding in the city as the invasion of a democratic country fueled fears of wider war in Europe and triggered new international efforts — including direct sanctions on President Vladimir Putin — to make Moscow stop.
Amid reports of hundreds of casualties from the warfare — including shelling that sliced through a Kyiv apartment building and pummeled bridges and schools — there also were growing signs that Russia may be seeking to overthrow Ukraine’s government, which U.S. officials have described as Putin’s ultimate objective.
Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy appealed for a cease-fire and warned in a bleak statement that multiple cities were under attack. “Tonight they will storm,” he said.
U.S. defense officials believe the Russian offensive has encountered considerable resistance and is proceeding slower than Moscow had envisioned. That’s something of a reversal from the run-up to the attack, when U.S. officials appeared more alarmed than their counterparts in Kyiv at the pace of Russian operations.
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His new book: The Career that Dripped with Horror - www.stanleybooks.net
The sequel to John Stanley's "I Was a TV Horror Host" (2007) in which you will be exposed to nearly 800 photographs (many signed by movie and TV stars and in print for the first time) and around 80 monster-horror sketches, many taken from his "Creature Features Movie Guide" books. You will enter a unique realm of science-fiction, fantasy and horror . . . what Stanley considers his deepest (and sometimes funniest) one-on-one interviews. He enjoyed almost six years as "Creature Features" host in the San Francisco-Bay Area and 33 years as an entertainment writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. This blending of two careers is one unique and awesome mixture of gory joy.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began early Thursday morning, with shelling and rocket attacks on several major cities including the capital, Kyiv, and dozens of deaths.
Explosions thundered in the dim light before dawn, minutes after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia cynically declared the start of a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” Ukraine but not occupy the country. His announcement came as the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting, stunning ambassadors who had to deliver impromptu reactions to the rapidly changing events.
Hours before the attacks began, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made a dramatic televised plea to the people of Russia, saying he wanted to speak to them directly after Mr. Putin had rejected his phone call.
“Listen to the voice of reason,” Mr. Zelensky said. “The Ukrainian people want peace.”
They did not get it.
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Biden denounced Vladimir Putin’s decision to move forward with the invasion. In a speech at the White House this afternoon, Biden told the nation:“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.”
Biden announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions and elite families. The sanctions call for Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, to be severed from the US financial system, restricting the bank’s access to transactions made in the American dollar. Full sanctions will also be imposed on four other financial institutions, including Russia’s second-largest bank of VTB, freezing all of their US-based assets.
Biden did not call for Russia to be banned from the Swift banking system, and he is not issuing direct sanctions on Putin, as some lawmakers have called for. Biden said some European leaders do not support cutting off Russia’s access to Swift, and he claimed direct sanctions on Putin were still possible, although he did not explain why he is not taking that step now.
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The convoys follow the recent Canadian truckers’ protest which shut down the busiest US-Canada border crossing and besieged the streets of the capital, Ottawa, for weeks to protest against government pandemic restrictions. The multiple blockades were broken up by police last week, with more than 100 arrests. The websites organizing the American trucker convoys directly reference the inspiration of the Canadian movement. A statement on the People’s Convoy website pays homage to “our brave and courageous neighbors to the north – our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge”. The US convoys seek an immediate lifting of what they say are heavy-handed government pandemic restrictions, like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. The American Truckers Freedom Fund website says the group is protesting against “the unscientific, unconstitutional overreach of the federal government”.
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Though it was billed as a grass-roots, nonpartisan event intended to oppose government Covid-19 mandates, a trucker demonstration that left California for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday appeared to be tightly aligned with far-right organizations and activists.
Many of those behind the demonstration, which was planned as an American version of the past month’s chaotic Canadian protest, have connections to the violent attack on the Capitol in January 2021, or supported the lie that fraud in the 2020 presidential election was to blame for Donald J. Trump’s loss.
“We’re just trying to show what the people who back us believe — and our own beliefs — of what our country needs to go back to,” said Jeff Sandberg, a Republican truck driver from Texas whose vehicle was hauling a massive banner covered in slogans such as “We Will Not Comply!!” and “Let’s Go Brandon,” a meme created to insult President Biden.
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Trump called the Russian president a “genius” for declaring a portion of Ukraine independent before ordering a “peacekeeping” force to roll in.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki meanwhile condemned Mr Trump – who has spoken fondly of Mr Putin before – and told reporters: “As a matter of policy, we try not to take advice from anyone who praises president Putin and his military strategy, which I believe is what happened there”.
The former US secretary of state, meanwhile, said he has “enormous respect” for the “savvy” and “shrewd” Russian president.
“I consider him an elegantly sophisticated counterpart, and one who is not reckless but has always done the math,” Mr Pompeo said during an interview with C-Span on 18 February.
“And we might disagree with his priorities, we may disagree with his math, we certainly disagree that the interests that he seeks are reasonable for his country, in many cases, but we should
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For the third hour of the program, Rothmann splits into two riveting stories. Firstly, the convicted Arbury killers were also found guilty of committing a hate crime, and John has thoughts. Also, the GOP celebrated President's Day by spitting on the tradition of honoring all presidents.
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John takes the first 90 mins of his program to determine what Russia will do next. As of Tuesday, "peacekeepers" had entered the country of Ukraine with a promise to only go into the independent eastern states. John and many others see right through Putin's comments, seeing that it is only a matter of time before they invade.
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For the final hour, John and Kim McAllister talk about the renaming of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. Some residents are upset with the renaming, but some feel it is necessary. See what John and Kim had to say on the final hour of the program.
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With an invasion looming, John takes two hours to discuss the looming Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is a tense subject, and many tough points are discussed....but an incredible time is spent on the subject.
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On this president's day, Rothmann begins a special first hour by bringing on William Ridings to discuss our past presidents. Which were the best? Which are the worst? Are some underrated and misunderstood? They go into all of that, and take your phone calls.
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Sunrise at Campobello
the President’s Lady
Hyde Park on Hudson
Jefferson in Paris
the Missiles of October
Frost/Nixon
Young Mr Lincoln
Lincoln
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Dwight Chapin served as personal aide and then Deputy Assistant to President Richard Nixon, with responsibility for the planning and execution of the president’s schedule and appearances. He served as acting Chief of Protocol for the president’s 1972 historic trip to China. After his time in the White House, Chapin was publisher of Success magazine, then Managing Director, Asia, for Hill & Knowlton public relations. For the past twenty-five years he has managed his own consulting firm focused on communications and strategic planning. He lives in Riverside, Connecticut, with his wife, Terry. The President’s Man is his first book.
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President Biden said he is now convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine, but emphasized that room for diplomacy remains.
"As of this moment, I am convinced he's made the decision," Biden said during remarks at the White House.
The President also said the US believes Russian forces intend to attack Ukraine "in the coming week" or sooner, and that an attack will target the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Throughout recent days, the Biden administration has publicly disclosed several intelligence details on Russian movements -- a marked shift in how US national security officials typically operate. The administration's decision to discuss their movements "loudly and repeatedly," Biden said Friday inside the Roosevelt Room, was made "to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving."
"Make no mistake. If Russia pursues its plans, it will be responsible for a catastrophic and needless war of choice," he added.
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New York is similarly grappling with intraparty division as it positions itself to pass the first statewide ban on gas in new construction.
In New York City, new construction under seven stories must be fully electric beginning in 2024 and buildings over seven stories have to meet the standard in 2027. That time frame matches recommendations made by the state Climate Action Council, which is tasked with recommending policies so the state can meet its target of reducing emissions 40 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels.
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Donald Trump's longtime accountants have suddenly severed all ties with the former president and his business — quitting while in the midst of preparing his and Melania Trump's tax returns.
In a letter made public Monday by New York's attorney general, Letitia James, the accounting firm, Mazars USA, told the Trump Organization's top corporate lawyer it had stepped away from Trump and his business because of questions about the reliability of key company financial statements.
State Judge Arthur F. Engoron rejected Trump's request to nullify subpoenas from the state attorney general and ordered him to turn over subpoenaed documents to Attorney General Letitia James within 14 days. Trump and his children must appear for a deposition within 21 days.
Judge Engoron wrote that a refusal to subpoena Trump "would have been blatant dereliction of duty (and would have broken an oft-repeated campaign promise)."
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Ukraine's democratically-elected president Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator, and again questioned why the US isn't on Russia's side. On his Monday show, Carlson claimed Democrats in the US were wrongly framing the Russia-Ukraine military crisis as a good-versus-evil story because, he claimed, Ukraine was not a democracy. Carlson has previously sought to directly compare Russia to Ukraine despite their different political systems — Russia is an authoritarian regime while Ukraine is considered a democracy. "It's run by a dictator who's friends with everyone in Washington," Carlson said of Ukraine, before attacking GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney for defending Kyiv. (Kinzinger and Cheney are not the only Republicans who have expressed support for Ukraine, but many conservatives have singled out the duo for taking part in the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.)
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Our guests are Megan Bourne, Chief of Staff at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Patricia Arack, leader of "Concerned residents of the Sunset", an organization started in October 2020 in response to the harm that was experienced by residents in the Sunset due to the Great Highway closure.
Parkaccess4all believes all SF residents and visitors to our city should be able to enjoy Golden Gate Park. JFK Drive provides access to the East end of Golden Gate Park. At the start of the pandemic, it was closed to provide additional outdoor space for nearby residents while they sheltered-in-place. This initiative was set to expire when the City’s shelter-in-place order was lifted. Now that San Francisco is reopening, it is time to restore JFK Drive to its pre-pandemic configuration! The continued closure of JFK Drive restricts access for people with disabilities, seniors, families with young children, those who do not live close to the Park, and those who cannot afford to pay for parking. We believe in – and will keep advocating for – a Golden Gate Park accessible for all. Let’s move forward with keeping the road open with shared use on weekdays, while remaining closed Sundays and holidays year-round, with the addition of Saturdays for six months of the year. This was a compromise brokered between stakeholders in 2007 and it has worked well for many years before the pandemic. Reinstating it would provide access for the many people who have been severely affected by the closure.
Park Access 4 All is a movement of disability rights activists, seniors and senior groups, community leaders, Park neighbors, first responders, a park institution, and workers who want Golden Gate Park to be accessible for all visitors.
Learn more and join us in advocating for restored access to JFK Drive at parkaccess4all.org
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San Francisco residents recalled three members of the city’s school board Tuesday for what critics called misplaced priorities and putting progressive politics over the needs of children during the pandemic.
“The voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a well-run school system above all else,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well.”
The school board has seven members, all Democrats, but only three were eligible to be recalled: school board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins.
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Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, whose doping case has rocked the Beijing Olympics, had three drugs that could be used to treat heart conditions in the sample she provided last December, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
In addition to testing positive for the banned angina drug trimetazidine, the New York Times report said the Stockholm laboratory that analyzed Valieva's sample also found evidence of two other heart medications that are not on the banned list: hypoxen and L-Carnitine.
"It's a trifecta of substances — two of which are allowed, and one that is not allowed," United States Anti-Doping Agency Chief Executive Officer Travis Tygart said in the report.
Tygart added that the benefits of such a combination "seem to be aimed at increasing endurance, reducing fatigue and promoting greater efficiency in using oxygen."
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When the families of nine of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School began their lawsuit against the gunmaker of Bushmaster AR-15 style rifle, their goal was to spare other families the pain that had upended their own lives. Today,, the victims’ families marked a victory in that effort with the announcement of a $73 million settlement with the now-bankrupt Remington Arms, which manufactures the Bushmaster. “They had the motivation to do whatever they could … so that other families — whether they are in a suburb or township or city — would not have to go through the kind of pain and the loss that they had,” Joshua Koskoff, an attorney for the families, said during a Tuesday news conference.
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Today, President Joe Biden made an appeal for diplomacy to continue as the world watches to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders an invasion of neighboring Ukraine, but also warned that a Russian attack on Ukraine will "be met with overwhelming international condemnation."
In a speech at the White House, Biden said to Russian citizens that the US and its allies are not a threat to them and that there's "plenty" of room for diplomacy with Russia to avoid a conflict in Europe.
"The United States and NATO are not a threat to Russia. Ukraine is not a threat to Russia. Neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not -- do not -- have plans to put them there, as well. We're not targeting the people of Russia. We do not seek to destabilize Russia. To the citizens of Russia: you are not our enemy," Biden said.
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Kern County officials this week posted a recruitment video on social media urging Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who are opposed to vaccine mandates to apply for positions with their neighbor to the north. “Take back your freedom and apply today to work at the Kern County Sheriff’s Office,” the one-minute video says. “You deserve a job that welcomes you, and your values, with open arms.” The video was posted Wednesday, a day after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors moved to remove from Sheriff Alex Villanueva enforcement responsibilities for COVID-19 vaccination. Villanueva has repeatedly said he will not fire deputies who refuse to get vaccinated.
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The Kremlin signaled Monday it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current Ukraine crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the U.S. and European allies increasingly fear.
Questions remain about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, however. And countries are evacuating diplomats and on alert for possible imminent war amid the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War.
On a last-ditch diplomatic trip, Germany’s chancellor said there are “no sensible reasons” for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue.
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Sen Roger Marshall calls for Biden mental acuity test
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said Sunday he may sponsor legislation requiring President Joe Biden to take an annual mental test, suggesting that the President’s cognitive capacity is in decline.
“I think we’re all concerned for President Biden’s mental health,” Marshall said. “I think if you compare today’s films from some of his films even a year ago, you see a deterioration in his mental capacity. Maybe we need to be proactive.”
He said he was looking into filing legislation with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan that would require the president to take a mental test alongside his annual physical.
He said he was looking into filing legislation with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan that would require the president to take a mental test alongside his annual physical.
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Leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show, much ado was made over the fact that this would be the first year that hip-hop occupied the center of the concert. It was marketing copy that overlooked the glaring lateness of the achievement — that rap was finally getting the spotlight in perhaps the 20-somethingth year of hip-hop occupying the center of American pop music. Does progress this delayed still count as a breakthrough?
After several years of grappling with an assortment of racial controversies, the N.F.L. likely wanted credit for showcasing Black music — especially hip-hop, the lingua franca of American pop culture — this prominently.
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The chair of the House Oversight Committee is seeking answers about the removal of 15 boxes of White House documents to former President Trump's Florida residence, the latest twist in the saga of Trump's treatment of official records while in and after leaving office.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., sent a letter to David Ferriero, the archivist of the U.S., seeking information about the records, which the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
"I am deeply concerned that these records were not provided to NARA promptly at the end of the Trump Administration and that they appear to have been removed from the White House in violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA)," Maloney wrote. "I am also concerned by recent reports that while in office, President Trump repeatedly attempted to destroy presidential records, which could constitute additional serious violations of the PRA."
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President Joe Biden issued a warning Thursday to any Americans who remain in Ukraine as Russia continues to threaten an invasion: Leave.
"American citizens should leave now," Biden said in an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt.
“It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly,” he said.
Holt asked Biden what scenario could prompt him to send troops to rescue Americans fleeing the country. Biden replied: “There’s not. That's a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”
"We’re in a very different world than we’ve ever been," he added.
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Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering America’s consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982.
There are few signs that inflation will slow significantly anytime soon. Most of the factors that have forced up prices since last spring remain in place: Wages are rising at the fastest pace in at least 20 years. Ports and warehouses are overwhelmed, with hundreds of workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest, out sick last month. Many products and parts remain in short supply as a result.The steady surge in prices has left many Americans less able to afford food, gas, rent, child care and other necessities.
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Jan Wahl has returned to share 8 of her favorite Valentine's Day movies in time for the big day on Monday. Be sure to listen in and see if your favorite is mentioned!
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For Hour 2, John has Marina Times journalist Susan Dyer Reynolds on to talk about some of the biggest conflicts around SF politics, including a school board recall and a city hall scandal with information from a former assistant.
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John tackles two hot topics for his first hour. To begin he looks at a Arizona campaign ad aimed at Biden, Pelosi, and Mark Kelly. It involves a western style shooting showdown, which given Kelly's wife Gabby Giffords, doesn't sit well. Even more, the Ukraine situation has reached a boiling point and Rothmann has the latest.
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This isn't a 30 minute discussion. Not even a 60 minute discussion. John takes 90 minutes to discuss if it is too early or too late to pull back the mask mandate. He takes a ton of calls on the subject from all different viewpoints, these are conversations you won't want to miss on the John Rothmann program.
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On the second hour of the John Rothmann program, he'll take a look at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's "Don't Say Gay" bill and assess if it is a good idea. After fielding some comments from callers, he then goes a step further and wonders if our high school Sex Ed system is working.
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John's first hour focuses on the recent trucker protests in Ottawa, and how it may spill over into the U.S. In fact, an Arizona congressman is calling for a trucker blockade in LA for Super Bowl weekend. Rothmann gives his thoughts and takes opinions from callers for this exciting hour of radio.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized the Republican National Committee (RNC) for its censure of Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and broke with their language on the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, calling it a “violent insurrection.” “It was a violent insurrection with the purpose of trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election. ... That’s what it was,” McConnell said. The RNC sparked fierce backlash after it described Jan. 6, when a mob of former President Trump’s followers breached the Capitol, as “legitimate political discourse” in a resolution censuring Kinzinger and Cheney.
Withstanding hunger pangs, weakness, and health concerns, Westlake Middle School staff members Moses Omolade and Andre San-Chez stood firm on Tuesday—day eight of their hunger strike against likely school closures in Oakland Unified School District—declaring the strike will not end until their demands are met and the school board votes against the plan, which would close or merge more than a dozen schools this year and next.
The strike is one of several actions that Oakland community members have led during the last week to protest the plan, which is being proposed as a way to trim OUSD’s budget deficit.
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On Monday, the Supreme Court put back into effect Alabama’s proposed district maps for the 2022 congressional election cycle — even though two district courts had thrown them out on the grounds that they diluted Black votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The 5-4 ruling came with no majority opinion. Rather, the court issued unsigned and unexplained “stays” of the district court decisions, while agreeing to hear Alabama’s appeal of those rulings on their merits during its next term (which starts in October).
The four dissenters — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — all agreed that the court should take up the merits of Alabama’s appeals. But they vehemently disagreed with the majority’s decision that in the interregnum, the unlawful maps should immediately go back into effect by dint of an unexplained and unsigned emergency order.
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- CODA
- WEST SIDE STORY
- BELFAST
- BEING THE RICARDOS
- THE POWER OF THE DOG
- SPENCER
- SUMMER OF SOUL OR WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED
- KING RICHARD
- RESPECT
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When GoFundMe shut down funding Friday for the truckers’ Freedom Convoy, it didn’t just clobber Canadian rig drivers. It dealt a blow to the rights of Americans. Silicon Valley executives are trying to limit the causes Americans support, favoring leftist ones and canceling conservatives. Canadian truckers launched a convoy to Ottawa last month, to protest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandate on all rig drivers. Never mind the absurdity of requiring a truck driver alone behind the wheel for 18 hours a day to be vaccinated. The convoy set up a fundraising site on GoFundMe to pay for fuel, food and lodging. Many Americans rushed to support it. It had reached $10 million in donations when GoFundMe pulled the plug.
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Beer, wine and hard liquor will be offered again starting on February 16, the airline said in a news release. American Airlines is the only one of the four largest US carriers that has not resumed alcohol sales. On Southwest, non-alcoholic beverage service will also be expanded on February 16 to include options such as tonic water, Coke Zero and hot chocolate. The beverage service is available on flights of 176 miles or more.
.VTA joins other Bay Area transit agencies adopting the new policy, including BART, AC Transit, Caltrain, Muni, SamTrans, SMART, and Golden Gate Transit.
Workers at the Santa Clara County public transit agency will have 60 days to comply with the policy once it goes into effect, according to a company-wide memo issued earlier this week. Workers who don’t receive a vaccination or religious or medical exemption within that time frame face termination
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After Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address in 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could hardly contain her disgust with the then-president’s avalanche of lies. In fact, the California Democrat, seated behind Trump, was seen literally tearing her copy of the address as a way of registering her revulsion.
Exactly two years ago today, it led the Republican to make a bizarre claim. “[I]t’s an official document,” the then-president told reporters. “You’re not allowed. It’s illegal what she did. She broke the law.”
As legal experts — and those in touch with common sense — were quick to point out, Trump’s argument was insane. Pelosi was handed a photocopy of a speech. She could tear it up, light it on fire, turn it into paper airplanes, or anything else she chose. There were no legal requirements forcing the Speaker to preserve the photocopy or treat it with any deference.
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For the last hour of the week, John has film guru Jan Wahl on to review some of the top movies for the Winter Olympic season. They also ponder why a famous landmark SF movie theater is permanently closing this week.
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John sticks around for an extra 30 minutes to talk with his callers about the SF School Board recall that is dominating the headlines.
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Rothmann decides to mix it up for Hour 2. For the first half, he looks into NATO's relevance in the modern day with the Russia-Ukraine situation. For the second half, he takes a variety of opinions on transgender youth in sports. Should trans athletes get their own league? Should they choose their division?
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For John's first hour, he dives into the Mike Pence speech delivered today. In his words, Pence described his view on the Jan. 6th attacks, and didn't hold back in criticizing the former president.
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Our guests are:
Ann Hsu, Former Silicon Valley Tech Executive - President of Galileo HS PTSA - Chair SFUSD: Citizen Bond Oversight Committee - Co-organizer Asian American Task Force.
Matt Gonzalez, Former President Board of Supervisor - 2008 Presidential Election: Ralph Nader’s VP Candidate (Green Party) - Artist - currently: SF Public Defender
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A Texas school district reportedly says it won't remove a biography about Michelle Obama following a complaint from a parent who said they felt the book unfairly portrays former President Trump as a bully.
The book — titled Michelle Obama: Political Icon by Heather E. Schwartz — is among at least 86 that Texas parents have recently attempted to have banned.
In a statement provided to PEOPLE, Schwartz said she was "shocked that anyone would want to ban" her book, which was written for children.
"This is a nonfiction book that doesn't strike me as at all controversial," the author said, in part. "I take great pains in my work to present fact-based information and avoid any political slant."
Schwartz continued in her statement: "As an author, a reader, and a parent, I'm against book banning on principle. There couldn't be a safer way for kids to learn about difficult topics, gain
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Ron Johnson was one of three Republican U.S. senators to attend a Jan. 4, 2021, meeting convened by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell as loyalists to then-President Donald Trump sought to gather information and rally support to delay certification of President Joe Biden's election victory.
Johnson attended the meeting virtually, while Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, and Sen.Cynthia M. Lummis, R-Wyoming, were in a crowded conference room with others at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The Post reported: "What the senators heard from a handful of presenters were some of the most fantastical claims among those alleging that the election had been stolen — including, according to Cramer, that the 2020 vote had been influenced by foreign powers and that proper investigation required gaining access to voting machines around the country."
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An overnight raid by United States special forces in northwestern Syria led to the death of the Islamic State terror group's top leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, President Joe Biden said Thursday.
As U.S. forces closed in, Al-Qurayshi detonated a suicide bomb "in a final act of desperate cowardice," Biden said. The blast killed not only the ISIS leader, but also his wife and their two children, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
A senior deputy of al-Qurayshi and his wife were also killed after attacking U.S. forces, Kirby said, and a child was killed during the gunfight. All U.S. forces emerged safe from the raid, which Biden said was carried out under his direction.
Kirby said U.S. forces also safely evacuated ten people from the building, including eight children, and had positively identified al-Qurayshi's remains using DNA and fingerprint analysis.
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US officials alleged Thursday that Russia has been preparing to "fabricate a pretext for an invasion" of Ukraine by creating "a very graphic propaganda video" that would depict a fake attack by Ukraine against Russia.
The US' disclosure of the alleged plot is the latest in a series of revelations designed to blunt the impact of any pretext Russia may use to invade Ukraine, and comes after US officials warned that Moscow could use a false flag operation to justify such an invasion. Russia has continued building up forces and military equipment along Ukraine's borders, despite diplomatic efforts by the US and allies to de-escalate the situation.
Speaking at a Pentagon briefing Thursday, press secretary John Kirby said that the US believes the Russian government "is planning to stage a fake attack by Ukrainian military or intelligence forces against Russian sovereign territory or against Russian-speaking people" in order to create false rationale for an invasion.
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The rift stems from a police use-of-force case against Officer Terrance Stangel, who is facing criminal battery and assault charges for allegedly beating a man with a baton. The incident occurred while Stangel and other officers responded to a domestic violence report.
Last week, Stangel’s attorney argued that the case should be dismissed due to what she called “misconduct” in the DA’s handling of the case. In a pretrial hearing, DA Investigator Magen Hayashi testified that she felt she could be fired if she did not sign the affidavit against Stangel as prosecutors wished, and was instructed not to share information with police investigating the underlying domestic violence case.
Hayashi’s affidavit, containing the findings from her investigation, was presented as evidence of probable cause to charge Stangel.
The memorandum of understanding between police and prosecutors states that investigators from the two departments should be kept apprised of each others’ probes.
Also: President Joe Biden is sending about 2,000 U.S.-based troops to Poland and Germany and shifting 1,000 soldiers from Germany to Romania as demonstrations of American commitments to allies on NATO’s eastern flank amid fears of a possible Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
In announcing the moves, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the U.S. forces will not enter Ukraine and will move to their new positions in coming days under U.S. command.
“These are not permanent moves,” he said, stressing that the purpose is to reassure allies at a time of heightened tension over Russia’s unusual buildup of military forces along Ukraine’s border. Kirby said the Russian buildup has continued, even in the last 24 hours.
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“Gun violence is a public health crisis that continues to threaten every corner of our city,” said Mayor Adams. “We pray for all the victims of violence and their families who are suffering, but we are going to do more than pray — we’re going to turn our pain into purpose. Public safety is my administration’s highest priority, which is why we will remove guns from our streets, protect our communities, and create a safe, prosperous and just city for all New Yorkers.”
Mayor Adams’ roadmap calls for both intervention and prevention to end the gun violence epidemic affecting New York, and calls on the federal government and New York state to partner with his administration and other city entities to take immediate action to reduce gun violence.
Over the longer term, Mayor Adams also plans to transform New York City and address the root causes that lead to gun violence by growing economic opportunities, improving the education of city children, providing greater access to mental health support, and more.
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Last week, the Oakland school community was shocked to learn that 19 OUSD public schools may close or be merged in the next two years. Now, we’re learning that a final vote on the action could be made as early as next week.
Dozens of teachers, students, even some administrators walked out of Westlake Middle School at noon Tuesday. They are upset with a recommendation by the school district that it close or merge about a dozen schools by June, and more schools next year, to help resolve the district's budget crisis.
"We just think this is not the right move to balance the budget. It should not be balanced on the backs of the students, the staff who work here. We've had enough of this kind of treatment. We're going to fight for it," said Westlake English teacher Sam Homrich.
The school district says it has deficits approaching $20 million, even after making $40 million in cuts for next year.
The district also says many of its schools are under-enrolled, that it's too expensive to keep them all open.
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At last, President Biden has a chance to atone for his mistreatment of Anita Hill. Three decades after Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings, the president could put the first African American woman on the Supreme Court. He vowed Thursday to keep his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman after Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 83, announced plans to retire when the court’s term ends this summer.Biden, 79, is an old man in a young country. Of the 115 justices to serve on the Supreme Court, 16 have been confirmed since Biden was elected to the Senate half a century ago. Assuming Democrats can confirm his nominee through a 50-50 Senate, Biden is poised to select just the third African American and sixth woman ever to serve.
The president hopes to announce his choice by the end of February. Sadly, relatively few Black women serve as federal appellate judges, which has been the traditional pipeline for justices. (Biden has nominated eight Black women to circuit courts since taking office, and five have been confirmed.) “But he does not believe that is a prerequisite,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
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More than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities received bomb threats today, the first day of Black History Month. Howard University was among the first to issue a shelter-in-place order earlier today — just a day after the school and several other historically Black colleges and universities received similar threats. “A bomb threat against the university is being investigated," an alert from Howard University said, according to NBC Washington. "All persons on campus are advised to shelter in place until more information is available."
Brian Flores, who was fired as coach of the Miami Dolphins last month and was rejected for new jobs with other clubs, has sued the N.F.L. and its 32 teams alleging that they have discriminated against him and other Black coaches in their hiring practices.
His filing in federal court comes just days after the Giants, one of the teams he interviewed with for a position, named Brian Daboll, who is white, as their head coach.
Flores cited text messages he said were sent by his former boss, New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. In the messages, Belichick appears to congratulate Flores for winning the Giants’ job, which he had yet to interview for at that point. Flores responded by asking if Belichick had intended the message for Daboll, who interviewed before Flores’s scheduled meeting.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Monday lashed out at protests against pandemic restrictions over the weekend in Ottawa, chastising demonstrators for desecrating war memorials, wielding Nazi symbols and stealing food from the homeless. The protest was a culmination of a group of Canadian truckers and their supporters who drove from Western Canada to Ottawa to challenge government vaccine mandates.
Speaking from self-isolation after he and two of his children tested positive for COVID, Mr. Trudeau said he understood the frustrations of Canadians, exasperated by a pandemic that has taken a heavy toll. But he criticized the protesters for flying “racist flags,” hurling abuse at small business owners, spreading disinformation and, in one case, going to a homeless shelter in downtown Ottawa and demanding food.
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This banning of the graphic novel, "Maus," was evocative of Nazi book burning of the 1930s. That episode was likewise executed in the supposed interest of students, by the German Student Union, whereby repressive elements of German society and government utilized teens as useful stooges to carry out their campaign of repression. They acted, they said, to rid their nation of un-German literature.
Closer to home, the Wentzville School District has decided to ban Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye." Most book banning in America is based upon the specious principle that children are not psychologically ready for the topics of violence, sex (in particular, homosexuality), racism, critical race theory and more. If that is the case, why then do some of these censors likewise seek to ban the same books from the public libraries? Perhaps they feel that some issues — most notably racism — should never be addressed.
People might think that these proscriptive philosophies could never happen here. But it is today, right now. School boards, library functionaries and the American people at large must not tolerate this systematic prohibition of our basic right to read and learn.
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Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that if elected to a new term as president, he would consider pardoning those prosecuted for attacking the United States Capitol on Jan. 6 last year. He also called on his supporters to mount large protests in Atlanta and New York if prosecutors in those cities, who are investigating him and his businesses, took action against him.
The promise to consider pardons is the furthest Mr. Trump has gone in expressing support for the Jan. 6 defendants.
“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” he said, addressing a crowd at a fairground in Conroe, outside Houston, that appeared to number in the tens of thousands. “We will treat them fairly,” he repeated. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”
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President Biden said Friday that he will move US troops to NATO allies in Eastern Europe in the "near term," marking a new phase in the US response to Russia's escalation on the Ukrainian border, which US officials fear could soon lead to an invasion.
"I will be moving US troops to Eastern Europe in NATO countries in the near term," Biden told reporters when asked about a timeline for moving the troops, adding that he did not have any updates on the situation in Ukraine.
As many as 8,500 US troops had been placed on heightened alert earlier this week to prepare to deploy to Eastern Europe -- including units with "medical support, aviation support, logistical support" and "combat formation," according to a Pentagon spokesman.
Biden's comments come hours after the top US military general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, warned a Russian invasion of Ukrain would be "horrific" for the country and would result in "significant" casualties as he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose a diplomatic path instead.
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Do you appreciate the police?
Officer Jason Rivera, who was fatally shot while responding to a 911 call one week ago, was remembered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as a sea of officers gathered outside to salute one of their own.
Dominique Luzuriaga, the wife of Officer Jason Rivera, criticized the new Manhattan district attorney while delivering a tearful eulogy for her husband, telling an audience of police officers, “we’re not safe anymore.”
“I know you were tired of these laws,” Ms. Luzuriaga said, addressing her husband as she spoke. “Especially the ones from the new D.A. — I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now.”
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Fox News host Dan Bongino has been permanently banned from YouTube. “We terminated Dan Bongino’s channels for circumventing our Terms of Service by posting a video while there was an active strike and suspension associated with the account," they said.
Bongino was originally suspended earlier in January for a video in which he claimed that masks do not help prevent the spread of Covid. In a clip posted to his secondary YouTube channel earlier this month, he referred to masks as “useless” for preventing the spread of the virus.
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The Castro Valley school board unanimously approved a contract Wednesday night with a controversial consortium of ethnic studies teachers who have expressed strong opposition to Israel and to pro-Israel Jewish organizations.
Jewish organizations lobbied mightily to remove mention of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement from the statewide model curriculum approved last March, and to add a discussion of antisemitism and Jews. While those efforts were successful, use of the model to meet the mandate is only encouraged, not required.
Federal prosecutors are reviewing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states that he lost, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday. "We've received those referrals. Our prosecutors are looking at those and I can't say anything more on ongoing investigations," Monaco said in an exclusive interview. The fake certificates falsely declaring Trump's victory were sent to the National Archives by Trump's allies in mid-December 2020. They have attracted public scrutiny amid the House's January 6 investigation into the pressure campaign that sought to reverse Trump's electoral defeat.
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On Wednesday, the Biden administration canceled a pair of mineral leases that date back to the 1960s, concluding that the Trump administration skirted legal obligations when it renewed the leases in 2019.
Twin Metals Minnesota, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chilean mining firm Antofagasta, has, for years, been trying to mine at the doorstep of the 1.09 million-acre Boundary Waters — the most visited wilderness area in the country.
Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes, the Interior Department’s principal deputy solicitor, wrote that the Trump administration had “improperly” renewed the leases and violated department regulations by “customizing lease terms specifically for Twin Metals.”
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent critic of President Joe Biden, said on Tuesday that he is seeing "encouraging" signs from the administration about its approach to deterring further Russian aggression towards Ukraine.
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