Watch: Southern California teen shoves bear off wall to protect dogs in back yard – NBC News
Watch: Southern California teen shoves bear off wall to protect dogs in back yard – NBC News
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A COVID-19 Vaccine Could Get West Virginians Cash, Guns Or Trips – NPR
A COVID-19 Vaccine Could Get West Virginians Cash, Guns Or Trips – NPR

West Virginians who get vaccinated from the coronavirus could get more than stickers. On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice announced a lottery incentive program to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus.

John Raby/AP


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West Virginians who get vaccinated from the coronavirus could get more than stickers. On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice announced a lottery incentive program to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus.

John Raby/AP

West Virginia is giving its vaccine incentive program a boost to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus, Gov. Jim Justice announced on Tuesday.

All residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine will be enrolled in the chance to win a college scholarship, a tricked out truck, or hunting rifles, in addition to a $1.588 million grand prize. The program, which will run from June 20 through Aug. 4, will be paid for through federal pandemic relief funds.

“The faster we get people across the finish line the more lives we save. That’s all there is to it,” Justice said. “If the tab just keeps running the cost is enormous. The hospitalizations are enormous. We have to get all of our folks across the finish line.”

Justice announced in April that West Virginians ages 16 to 35 who got vaccinated could get a $100 savings bond. The immunization drive in the state has since drastically slowed after showing a strong early start.

The state reports 51.1% of the state population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Justice hopes the state’s new offers of a $588,000 second prize, weekend vacations to state parks, lifetime hunting and fishing licenses, and custom hunting shotguns will boost that number.

West Virginians who have been fully vaccinated will need to register to be entered to win the newly announced prizes at a later date.

The vaccine incentive scheme has taken off across the nation as governors attempt to entice residents who may be reluctant, into getting immunized from the coronavirus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported as of Tuesday night that 40.9% of the population has been fully vaccinated. President Biden is aiming to get at least 70% of the U.S. adult population to have one vaccine shot and 160 million adults to be fully vaccinated by July 4.

Ohio, one of the first states to adopt a lottery campaign for vaccinated adults, reported an uptick in administered vaccines following the announcement. The week after the lottery was announced, vaccinations soared 55% for residents ages 20 to 49. For those in the 16 to 17 age group, saw a 94% jump

Several states, including California, Colorado and Maryland, have announced similar incentive programs since.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002345101/guns-trucks-and-trips-west-virginia-expands-prizes-for-vaccinated-residents

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Biden puts Harris in charge of efforts to protect voting rights | TheHill – The Hill
Biden puts Harris in charge of efforts to protect voting rights | TheHill – The Hill

President BidenJoe BidenRNC warns it will advise presidential candidates against future debates if panel doesn’t make changes Washington Post issues correction on 2020 report on Tom Cotton, lab-leak theory Graham says Israel will request billion from US after Gaza war MORE on Tuesday tasked Vice President Harris with leading his administration’s efforts to protect voting rights, adding an urgent and complex issue to her growing portfolio.

Biden made the announcement during a speech in Tulsa, Okla., where he marked the 100th anniversary of a massacre in which a white mob killed hundreds of Black people and destroyed a thriving community known as Black Wall Street.

The president pointed to the systemic challenges facing Black Americans 100 years later, including threats to the right to vote as multiple states debate and pass laws that experts say will make it more difficult for minorities in particular to cast their ballot.

“To signify the importance of our efforts, today I’m asking Vice President Harris to help these efforts and lead them among her many other responsibilities,” Biden said. “With her leadership and your support, we’re going to overcome again, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work.”

Biden called the challenges to voting rights in recent months a “truly unprecedented assault on our democracy.” Georgia, Florida and Arizona, all competitive states in the 2020 election, have seen Republican-led legislatures drastically overhaul voting procedures. Texas is looking to pass a similar law, though Democratic lawmakers there managed to thwart its passage over the weekend.

In a subsequent statement, Harris said she would engage the public, voting rights groups, community organizations and the private sector “to help strengthen and uplift efforts on voting rights.” She noted nearly 400 bills have been introduced at the state level since the 2020 election to make it more difficult for some Americans to vote.

“The work ahead of us is to make voting accessible to all American voters, and to make sure every vote is counted through a free, fair, and transparent process,” Harris said. “This is the work of democracy.”

Biden called on voting rights groups to redouble their efforts to register and educate voters, and he expressed hope that June would be a “month of action on Capitol Hill” as the Senate prepares to take up the For the People Act, a sweeping elections bill passed earlier this year in the House.

“I hear all the folks on TV saying, ‘Why doesn’t Biden get this done?’ ” he said Tuesday. “Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends.”

The president appeared to be referring to Sens. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinBiden calls out moderate Democratic senators, urges ‘action’ Infrastructure negotiations enter make-or-break week Biden puts Harris in charge of efforts to protect voting rights MORE (W.Va.) and Kyrsten SinemaKyrsten SinemaBiden calls out moderate Democratic senators, urges ‘action’ Biden puts Harris in charge of efforts to protect voting rights trillion in taxes, trillion in spending, trillion in borrowing — what could go wrong? MORE (Ariz.), two centrist Democrats who have been outspoken about their opposition to certain progressive priorities and to ending the legislative filibuster that requires a bill gets 60 votes in the Senate to pass.

While Manchin and Sinema vote with Democrats more frequently than with Republicans, they receive most of the scrutiny when Democratic priorities are unable to garner majority support within the party conference in the Senate. 

Manchin has urged his party to focus more narrowly on strengthening the 1965 Voting Rights Act rather than try to pass a more expansive bill that is unlikely to garner enough support to pass the Senate.

But several Republicans are balking at supporting even the pared-down legislation and are dismissing Democrats’ alarm bells about the state-level actions as political. 

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/556374-biden-puts-harris-in-charge-of-efforts-to-protect-voting-rights

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Fauci denied being ‘muzzled’ by Trump early in pandemic, emails show – New York Post
Fauci denied being ‘muzzled’ by Trump early in pandemic, emails show – New York Post

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci had little patience for claims his messages in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic were being restricted by the Trump administration, a tranche of newly public emails shows.

The more than 3,200 pages of emails, obtained by Buzzfeed News and covering a period between January and June of 2020, are dotted with messages to Fauci from public health experts and ordinary Americans alike asking a variation of the same question: “Have you been muzzled?”

That’s the subject line of a March 1, 2020, email to Fauci from a man named Thomas Murray, who describes himself as a “nuclear/aerospace engineer who subsequently obtained an MPH [Master of Public Health degree] at the University of Washington”.

“The news media is reporting that the White House has muzzled you. Is that true?” asked Murray, who further asked Fauci to “let me know if I should stay silent or become noisy.”

The report said Fauci, seen here with then-President Trump in April 2020, received emails from various different people asking him questions if he was forced to be withholding.
Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Please stay silent since I have not been muzzled,” Fauci responded. “I will be on multiple TV shows tomorrow and was on FOX this AM. No one is censoring me.”

In response to a similar inquiry the same day from syndicated columnist Bob Franken, Fauci said: “I have never been given orders to get approval from the VP’s [Mike Pence] people to speak publicly about coronavirus. Ever since I have been doing this since the Reagan administration, whenever a member of the Executive Branch such as me gets invited and goes on National TV such as the Sunday Talk shows, there is always a routine process of clearing it with your department (in this case HHS) who then clears it with the White House. This is routine and has been true for the Reagan, Bush ’41, Clinton, Bush ’43, Obama, and now the Trump administration. That is merely a formality so that they know what is coming out from the executive branch … I have never been muzzled or told that I could not speak out publicly about anything during this administration.”

The following day, Fauci got a message from University of Pittsburgh immunology professor Mark Jay Shlomchik asking whether reports that the White House had blocked Fauci from speaking publicly about the virus without approval was true.

“If it is, I think that — in the interests of public health and the integrity of science in the US — you must not acquiesce but instead resign and speak out,” Shlomchik wrote. “If it is not true, then please refute it and set the record straight.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci continually defended his actions and words in the emails.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The story is not true,” Fauci responded tersely. “I am not being muzzled or censored.”

Not completely mollified, Shlomchik urged Fauci to make the same statement publicly.

“Your personal integrity is at stake here in the community and the world, and is a proxy for the integrity of science and medicine,” he wrote at one point.

“I have been very explicit in stating publicly that I am not being muzzled or censored,” Fauci retorted. “I say exactly what I want to say based on scientific evidence. I have stated this on multiple TV programs over the past few days including at a major press conference with many, many reporters present including several TV cameras. I could not possibly be more public about this. No censor. No muzzle. Free to speak out.”

Fauci appeared to reach the end of his rope on March 8, when he was copied on an email from activist and Yale School of Public Health associate professor Gregg Gonsalves to members of the White House coronavirus task force.

“All we see is genuflection in word and deed from most of you to a White House that wants this all to magically go away,” Gonsalves wrote. “Yes, I know you’re all doing your best and behind the scenes our federal government is hard at work … But time is running out. We need vocally, unequivocal leadership now, that offers real guidance to communities about what to do, what might happen next … The status quo is untenable. It’s going to get people killed by this virus.”

“I am surprised that you included me in your note,” Fauci fired back. “I genuflect to no one but science and always, always speak my mind when it comes to public health. I have consistently corrected misstatements by others and will continue to do so.”

“Tony, that part of the message was not directed at you,” responded an apparently chastened Gonsalves, who added that “[then-CDC Director Robert] Redfield and [then-Health and Human Services] Secretary [Alex] Azar haven’t been as forthright as you have … Most of the career civil servants on the email were copied not to chastise, it’s the political appointees that most think got us into this mess.”

Dr. Fauci, seen here with then-President Trump in March 2020, plays a key role in the Biden administration’s pandemic response.
Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The relationship between Trump and Fauci was a constant source of speculation among the mainstream media early in the pandemic, when the White House task force held daily press briefings. By the time the 2020 presidential election rolled around, Trump was teasing the possibility that he’d dismiss Fauci if he got re-elected.

Since President Biden took office, Fauci has defended the new administration’s statements on the pandemic, including Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim that they had to “start from scratch” on vaccine distribution. In March, Fauci criticized Trump for tweeting in April 2020 that states should be “liberated” from lockdowns, saying the statement “hit me like a punch to the chest.” Trump fired back by calling Fauci and another coronavirus task force member, Dr. Deborah Birx, “self-promoters.”

The former president continued to jab Fauci in an interview with Newsmax last week.

“I always got along with [him] pretty well,” Trump recalled, “but I usually did the opposite of what he wanted.”

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/06/01/fauci-denied-being-muzzled-by-trump-early-in-pandemic-emails-show/

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Off-Duty Firefighter Kills Colleague in Agua Dulce Fire Station Shooting, Fire Chief Says – NBC Southern California
Off-Duty Firefighter Kills Colleague in Agua Dulce Fire Station Shooting, Fire Chief Says – NBC Southern California

An off-duty firefighter opened fire Tuesday morning at a fire station north of Los Angeles, killing a 44-year-old member of the LA County Fire Department, fire officials said.

The shooting happened just before 11 a.m. at Los Angeles County Fire Station No. 81 in the 8700 block of Sierra Highway in Agua Dulce and touched off a rapidly unfolding series of events that ended with a standoff and fire that burned for hours at a property about 10 miles away in Acton.

Details about what led the gunfire were not immediately available, but authorities said it stemmed from some sort of dispute involving the shooter, also a member of Station 81, and victims.

Local

Local news from across Southern California



Fire Chief Daryl Osby identified the slain firefighter as a 44-year-old specialist engineer who had been with the department for more than 20 years. The victim’s name was not released early Tuesday afternoon.

“This morning when I received the news, it was some of the worst news that I’ve heard in my career,” Osby said. “As a fire chief, I’ve dealt with a lot of death and a lot of fallen members of my department. I’ve always prayed that we would never have a line of duty death. I never thought that if it occurred, that it would occur in this fashion. 

This morning when I received the news, it was some of the worst news that I’ve heard in my career.

Fire Chief Daryl Osby

“I know that as firefighters, we are in a profession of providing assistance to others, but I ask that in this particular situation that we ask you for your support, that we ask you for your assistance, that we ask you for your prayers in our time of need.”

A 54-year-old fire captain was shot and injured. The victim remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon in critical, but stable, condition.

During the initial call for help from the fire station to dispatch, the person who made that call was able to identify the attacker by name. Witnesses said the shooter left the scene in a pickup truck, law enforcement sources told NBCLA.

Deputies followed the truck to an Acton house about 10 miles from the shooting scene where a fire broke out. At some point, the individual indicated there were weapons on the property and anyone who approached would be shot, law enforcement sources said. 

Several law enforcement department SUVs and armored SWAT vehicles were parked in the neighborhood in the 2700 block of Bent Spur Drive.

Water-dropping helicopters, usually deployed to fight wildfires, attacked the flames. The fire was out early Tuesday afternoon. No other structures were damaged.

A body, believed to be that of the shooter, was found at the property, investigators said. No shots were fired by deputies during the standoff, leading authorities to believe the man died from a self-inflicted gunshot, investigators said.

The body had not been positively identified.

Source Article from https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/firefighter-killed-shooting-fire-station-santa-clarita-agua-dulce/2607728/

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Democrat Melanie Stansbury wins New Mexico special election for US House seat, CNN projects – CNN
Democrat Melanie Stansbury wins New Mexico special election for US House seat, CNN projects – CNN

By Ethan Cohen, Rachel Janfaza and Eric Bradner, CNN

Updated 12:38 AM ET, Wed June 2, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/01/politics/new-mexico-1st-district-special-election/index.html

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Biden seemingly blasts Sinema, Manchin for ‘voting more with my Republican friends’ – Fox News
Biden seemingly blasts Sinema, Manchin for ‘voting more with my Republican friends’ – Fox News
Video

‘The Five’ react to Biden’s spending proposal to close race wealth gap

The President unveils plan to combat racial injustice; ‘The Five’ weighs in

President Biden laid blame Tuesday on two Democratic senators for Congress’ failure to pass voting rights legislation, apparently a reference to Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

“I hear all the folks on TV saying why doesn’t Biden get this done?” the president said in an address after meeting survivors of the Tulsa race massacre at the Greenwood Cultural Center.

“Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate, with two members of the Senate who vote more with my Republican friends,” he added, a rare public rebuke of members of his own party. 

“June should be a month of action on Capitol Hill,” Biden said, as he appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the White House’s efforts to expand voting rights.  Biden vowed to “fight like heck” to get the For the People Act, already passed by the House, through the Senate. 

BIDEN TAPS HARRIS TO LEAD WHITE HOUSE FIGHT TO EXPAND VOTING RIGHTS 

Both Manchin and Sinema vote with the president nearly 100% of the time, but they are opposed to nuking the 60-vote filibuster, a move that would likely be necessary to pass the sweeping For the People Act. The senators have been pressed to change their position on the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle, which is meant to prompt deliberation, especially after not enough Republicans voted with Democrats to form the Jan. 6 commission to study the Capitol riot. 

Manchin also opposes the For the People Act, the election overhaul bill that would expand mail-in voting and would create automatic voter registration. He’s said the bill is too broad and too partisan. 

BIDEN CALLS TEXAS VOTING BILL ‘WRONG AND UN-AMERICAN’ 

But Manchin has voiced support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would require states with a record of discrimination in voting to pre-clear new voting restrictions with the federal government. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden’s remarks come as GOP-led states across the nation have proposed election security measures in light of the 2020 election. 

Texas Republicans ran into an unexpected hurdle over the weekend when state Democrats walked out of the state House chamber to temporarily deny Republicans the quorum needed to hold a final vote on a controversial voting bill. Voting restrictions have already become law in the months since the election in Georgia, Florida and Iowa, drawing the ire of Democrats, who broadly say the legislation targets voters of color, and prompting condemnation from some major corporations. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-sinema-manchin-voting-republicans

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Michael Flynn Suggests that a Coup Should Happen in the U.S. – The New York Times
Michael Flynn Suggests that a Coup Should Happen in the U.S. – The New York Times

Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser, suggested that a military coup was needed in the United States during a Memorial Day weekend conference organized by adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, drawing criticism from political scientists, veterans, Democrats and a handful of prominent Republicans.

Appearing at the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” conference in Dallas, Mr. Flynn listened to an audience member ask, “I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here” — referring to the Myanmar military’s overthrow of a quasi-democratic government and brutal crackdown on dissent, which some QAnon supporters have cited approvingly. Mr. Flynn replied: “No reason. I mean, it should happen here. No reason.”

Many criticized the comment, including Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican who was kicked out of her House leadership position this month for criticizing former President Donald J. Trump and saying she would do everything possible to ensure he was not the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2024. On Twitter, Ms. Cheney said, “No American should advocate or support the violent overthrow of the United States.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/politics/flynn-coup-gohmert-qanon.html

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Texas GOP to revive voting bill, Democrats plot next move – The Associated Press
Texas GOP to revive voting bill, Democrats plot next move – The Associated Press
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San Jose Shooting: Harrowing Body Camera Footage Shows Moment Deputies Found VTA Gunman – CBS San Francisco
San Jose Shooting: Harrowing Body Camera Footage Shows Moment Deputies Found VTA Gunman – CBS San Francisco

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office early Tuesday evening released dramatic body camera video from deputies who first responded to the mass shooting at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) railyard in San Jose last week.

“The work they did that day is heroic,” said KPIX Security Analyst Jeff Harp.

The video clip shows almost four-and-a-half minutes of the tense approach deputies and police officers made with their guns drawn across the railyard and into the buildings where the shootings took place.

“By the size of this building, the fact that they were able to go into the office area where he was located is amazing,” said Harp. “They did it right, I mean, they went to the sound of the gunfire. I’ve trained in these scenarios a number of times. It’s very, very difficult.”

VTA employee Samuel Cassidy went on a bloody rampage early last Wednesday morning, killing nine of his coworkers before turning a gun on himself as authorities converged on him.

Authorities with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the San Jose Police Department, along with additional investigators from federal agencies including the FBI and the ATF, have been unraveling the horrific timeline of the mass shooting at the VTA facility and a possible motive behind the shooting since last week.

The body camera video was released by the sheriff’s office at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and can be seen below. Warning: Graphic Content

The 57-year-old Cassidy fired 39 bullets before killing himself as police officers and sheriff’s deputies closed in. The gunman was armed three semiautomatic handguns and 32 loaded high-capacity 12 round magazines, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.

In the video clip released Tuesday, a first contact team of a Sheriff’s Sergeant, a Sheriff’s Deputy and three San Jose Police officers are seen crossing the railyard before making a tense ascent of an exterior staircase on the outside of Building A at the VTA facility where the shooter was thought to be located.

At the top of the stairs, the deputies encounter a VTA employee who raises his hands over his head and backs slowly towards authorities before handing over his key card so they can access the building.

The deputies and officers proceed through the building, hearing gunshots nearby as they move cautiously from room to room. Authorities eventually come upon Cassidy sitting at a desk near the top of a stairwell, dead from self-inflicted gunshots.

Authorities said Cassidy initially shot himself under the chin, but when that didn’t prove fatal, he shot himself a second time in the head. However, before he took his own life, he fired upon deputies first. The bullet pierced a window at the entrance of the room where the suspect was found. However, whether it was intended for law enforcement who had just arrived remains under investigation.

Sheriff Laurie Smith said more than 100 employees were at the rail yard that day, and that more lives would have been lost had it not been for the deputies’ and officers’ quick entry into the building. The agencies often train together.

“This protocol, I believe, saved lives. He had a lot of additional ammunition,” Smith said. “We’ll never forget those innocent victims whose lives were taken by a crazed coward.”

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner on Tuesday evening issued an autopsy report confirming that Cassidy’s death was a suicide by multiple gunshot wounds to the head.

“Although rare, this can occur in suicides in which the first shot to the head was not immediately fatal,” the release from the Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office read. The statement also said its conclusion came “following a thorough crime scene investigation and autopsy.”

According to the timeline provided by the sheriff’s office, dispatch first received the call regarding the shooting at about 6:35 a.m. Remarkably, only ten minutes had passed by the time authorities had found Cassidy dead by his own hand.

It took over two days for authorities and bomb squad personnel to clear the huge arsenal of explosives, weapons and ammunition found at Cassidy’s San Jose home where he had intentionally started a fire before heading to the VTA facility.

Among the items found by authorities investigating the house on Angmar Court in East San Jose were a dozen weapons, 17 Molotov cocktails and approximately 25,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.

Last week, Smith said she believed that some or all of the victims were targeted.

“It appears to us at this point that he said to one of the people there: ‘I’m not going to shoot you,’” Smith said. “And then he shot other people. So I imagine there was some kind of thought on who he wanted to shoot.”

A federal official confirms to CBS News that Cassidy had been detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after returning to the States from the Philippines in 2016 due to the writings found in his possession. The Wall Street Journal first reported this.

According to the New York Times, in addition to a notebook that Cassidy had written in detailing how much he hated the VTA, officials found books on the subjects of terrorism and manifestoes.

Cassidy reportedly told agents he had no problems with people at work. The information regarding the 2016 incident is contained in a DHS memo concerning the encounter.

VTA on Monday said there was currently no timeline for re-opening light rail service after the deadly mass shooting last week.

Source Article from https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/06/01/san-jose-shooting-vta-rail-yard-santa-clara-county-sheriff-body-camera-footage-vta-massacre/

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Republicans are putting America’s democracy in mortal danger, more than 100 scholars warn – Business Insider
Republicans are putting America’s democracy in mortal danger, more than 100 scholars warn – Business Insider
  • Over 100 democracy scholars warned that the GOP is putting US democracy in mortal danger.
  • The scholars excoriated Republicans for rejecting the 2020 election results.
  • They also criticized GOP-led efforts across the country to restrict voting access.
  • See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Republican efforts to restrict voting across the US are posing an existential threat to democracy in the US, over 100 scholars of democracy warned in a new statement released by the New America think tank on Tuesday.

“We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy who have watched the recent deterioration of US elections and liberal democracy with growing alarm,” the statement said. “Specifically, we have watched with deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election.”

The scholars said that the GOP-led initiatives “are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections.”

“Our entire democracy is now at risk,” the scholars said. “History will judge what we do at this moment.”

The professors, deans, and other scholars who signed the statement come from a range of universities and institutions across the US, including Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Duke, and Stanford.

Over the past few years, and particularly since the fatal insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, top scholars have repeatedly said that the GOP has morphed into a fundamentally antidemocratic party determined to win elections by any means.

Republican efforts to whitewash the events of January 6 and shield former President Donald Trump from blame for the riot have increased alarm in this regard. Trump provoked the deadly insurrection and was impeached as a result, but Republican leaders have continued to kowtow to the former president.

“Elected Republican leaders have had numerous opportunities to repudiate Trump and his ‘Stop the Steal’ crusade, which led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6,” the scholars said in the new statement. “Each time, they have sidestepped the truth and enabled the lie to spread.”

Top Republicans across the US have refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, perpetuating the false notion that President Joe Biden did not legitimately win. There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and voter fraud is extraordinarily rare in the US more generally.

Meanwhile, Republican-led legislatures nationwide have taken steps to make it harder to vote. At least 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the vote between January 1 and mid-May, a tracker from Brennan Center for Justice showed.

The democracy scholars in the new statement on Tuesday condemned Republicans for rejecting the 2020 election results and for continuing to push for antidemocratic laws.

“These actions call into question whether the United States will remain a democracy,” they said, referring to these recent actions as “a betrayal of our precious democratic heritage.”

The scholars urged Congress to suspend the filibuster — and do whatever else is necessary — to pass national voting and election-administration standards that would guarantee “the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want.”

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/us-democracy-danger-gop-voting-restrictions-over-100-scholars-warn-2021-6

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Joe Biden calls for US to confront its past on 100th anniversary of Tulsa massacre – The Guardian
Joe Biden calls for US to confront its past on 100th anniversary of Tulsa massacre – The Guardian

Joe Biden has used the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre as a rallying cry for America to be honest about its history, insisting that great nations “come to terms with their dark sides”.

On Tuesday Biden became the first sitting US president to visit the site where, on 31 May and 1 June 1921, a white mob murdered up to 300 African Americans and burned and looted homes and businesses, razing a prosperous community known as “Black Wall Street”.

In an emotional speech punctuated by intense applause, Biden pleaded for America to confront its past and admit that a thread of hatred runs from Tulsa through more recent displays of white supremacy in Charlottesville, Virginia, and at the US Capitol in Washington on 6 January.

He also drew a connection to a Republican assault on the voting rights of people of colour and announced that Kamala Harris, the first woman of colour to serve as vice-president, would lead the White House effort to resist it.

Biden speaks at the Greenwood Cultural Center. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Biden began by speaking directly to the last three survivors of the massacre, centenarians Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle, who received a standing ovation from an audience of around 200 made up of survivors and their families, community leaders, and elected officials.

“You are the three known remaining survivors of a story seen in the mirror dimly but no longer,” said Biden, a comparatively youthful 78. “Now, your story will be known in full view.”

Knowledge of this violent attempt to suppress Black success in Greenwood, Tulsa, fell victim to a decades-long conspiracy of silence. The atrocity was not taught in schools, even in Tulsa, until the mid-2000s and was expunged from police records. Those who threatened to break to the taboo faced disapproval or death threats. Even many Black residents preferred not to burden their children with the story.

Biden said: “For much too long the history of what took place here was told in silence, cloaked in darkness. But just because history is silent it doesn’t mean that it did not take place and, while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they can’t be buried, no matter how hard people try. So it is here: only with truth can come healing and justice and repair.”

The argument was a striking contrast from his predecessor, Donald Trump, who promoted a heroic vision of American history. On the massacre’s 99th anniversary, Trump had posed with a Bible outside a historic church after security forces teargassed protesters outside the White House. He headed to Tulsa later that month for a campaign rally that breached coronavirus safety guidelines.

Tulsa race massacre survivor Hughes Van Ellis reacts with a salute as he and fellow survivor Viola Fletcher listen to Joe Biden’s speech. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

After studying an exhibition on this lost “boom town” at the Greenwood Cultural Center, Biden’s message appeared to be the opposite of “Make America great again” – an acknowledgment that America’s history includes slavery and segregation, and that only looking that fully in the face can allow it to move forward.

Challenging the language used to describe the one of the worst chapters in the country’s history of racial violence, the president followed a moment of silence with a pointed statement: “My fellow Americans, this was not a riot. This was a massacre.” The hush gave way to prolonged applause inside the room.

He went on: “Among the worst in our history. But not the only one and for too long, forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened, there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory, our collective memory…

“We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know,” he continued. “We should know the good, the bad, everything. That’s what great nations do. They come to terms with their dark sides. And we’re a great nation.”

The president noted that, while Greenwood’s Black community recovered, it was marginalised again by housing “red lining” and urban renewal projects including highways – a pattern seen in many American cities.

He promised that his administration would address racism at its roots, expanding federal contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses, investing tens of billions of dollars in communities like Greenwood and pursuing new efforts to combat housing discrimination.

Notably, Biden also used the platform to condemn efforts in recent months by Republican state legislators to impose voting restrictions – likely to have a disproportionate impact on people of colour – as a “truly unprecedented assault on our democracy”.

Biden said he had asked Harris to lead his administration’s efforts to protect voting rights. “With her leadership and your support, we’re going to overcome again, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work,” he said.

Survivors Hughes Van Ellis and Viola Fletcher are greeted by Rev Al Sharpton at a rally during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Harris released a statement that noted almost 400 bills have been introduced at the state level since the last presidential election to make it more difficult for some people to vote. “The work ahead of us is to make voting accessible to all American voters, and to make sure every vote is counted through a free, fair, and transparent process,” she said. “This is the work of democracy.”

Biden has made numerous policy speeches as president but the convergence of history, racial justice and the audience on Tuesday seemed to strike a particular chord in him. It was the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in 2017 that moved him to end political retirement and run for president again.

“What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and domestic terrorism with the through-line that exists today still,” he said, prompting a cry of assent from the audience. “Just close your eyes and remember what you saw in Charlottesville four years ago on television.”

Biden added that Fletcher, 107, said the 6 January insurrection, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol, “broke her heart” and “reminded her of what happened here in Greenwood a hundred years ago”. He noted that hate crimes continue to target Asian Americans and Jewish Americans.

“Hate’s never defeated. It only hides. It hides. And given just a little bit of oxygen by its leaders, it comes out from under the rock like it’s happening again, as if it never went away. So folks, we must not give hate a safe harbour.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/01/joe-biden-tulsa-race-massacre

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Biden suspends oil-drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge – NBC News
Biden suspends oil-drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic refuge – NBC News
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Firefighter killed in ‘tragic’ shooting at LA County Fire Station 81; investigation linked to house fire – FOX 11 Los Angeles
Firefighter killed in ‘tragic’ shooting at LA County Fire Station 81; investigation linked to house fire – FOX 11 Los Angeles

Off-duty firefighter suspect in shooting at Station 81 in Agua Dulce

An off-duty firefighter opened fire Tuesday at Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 81, killing a fellow firefighter and injuring another. The suspect then fled to his home in nearby Acton, barricaded himself inside, and set the house on fire before he was believed to have been found dead.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – An off-duty firefighter opened fire Tuesday at Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 81 in the Agua Dulce area, killing a fellow firefighter and injuring another. The suspect then fled to his home in nearby Acton, barricaded himself inside, and set the house on fire before he was believed to have been found dead. 

“I never thought one of our firefighters would face danger at one of our own community fire stations,” said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby. 

LACFD Chief gives update on station shooting that killed firefighter specialist

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby gives an update on the deadly shooting at one of the department’s stations.

The firefighter specialist who was fatally shot, a 44-year-old male, was a twenty-year veteran of the department, Osby said. 

“He was a brave, committed, loyal member of the fire department,” the chief told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Firefighter killed in ‘tragic’ shooting at LA County Fire Station 81; investigation linked to house fire

A 54-year-old fire captain was airlifted to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia with multiple gunshot wounds. He is currently listed in critical but stable condition and is expected to survive.

Osby said that the off-duty-firefighter, who was also a firefighter specialist, came to the fire station, located in the 8700 block of Sierra Highway, shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday and shot the two victims.

Shots fired at LA County Fire Station 81

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed there was one gunshot victim at Fire Station 81 on the morning of June 1.

(FOX 11)

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Sheriff’s officials said when they responded to the fire station after the shooting, witnesses identified the suspect, who fled the firehouse in a white Toyota pickup. They followed the suspect to his home, located in the 2600 block of Bent Spur Drive in Acton.

Authorities said the suspect barricaded himself inside his home and allegedly set the house on fire. 

Video from SkyFOX showed a body in the pool on the property of the house fire. Authorities later confirmed that the deceased individual is believed to be the suspect, who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Fire near scene of shooting investigation

A shooting was reported Tuesday at Los Angeles County Fire Dept. Station 81 in the Agua Dulce neighborhood, a rural area located northeast of Santa Clarita.

The fire completely destroyed the residence. After the home burnt to the ground, SWAT team members were able to move onto the scene.

(FOX 11)

The coroner’s office will respond to the scene in order to remove the body and identify the deceased.

Osby said he cannot comment on whether there was any pending internal disciplinary action against the off-duty firefighter who opened fire at the firehouse. He also said he could not speak to a possible motive for the shooting.

“My heart is with our @LACOFD firefighters and the families of those affected,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger wrote on Twitter.

Supervisor Hilda Solis ordered flags at all county buildings will be flown at half-staff. 

“My most sincerest condolences to the family of the firefighter who was tragically killed in today’s shooting at Fire Station 81 in Agua Dulce,” Solis wrote.

Additional details were not immediately available.

If you’re in distress due to recent incidents of mass violence, please know that there is help is available. Talk to experienced counselors at the Disaster Distress Helpline for 24/7 emotional support. Call or text 1-800-985-5990. Click here for additional resources.

Tune in to FOX 11 Los Angeles for the latest Southern California news.

Source Article from https://www.foxla.com/news/active-shooter-reported-at-la-county-fire-station-81-in-agua-dulce

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Democrats’ 2020 defeats haunt them in voting rights fight – POLITICO
Democrats’ 2020 defeats haunt them in voting rights fight – POLITICO

“We’re using the tools we have. But as the minority party, we can only do that so long,” said Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin-based lawmaker who helped lead the weekend walkout. “We need to ultimately flip this House to be able to stop this right-wing agenda and focus on the needs of Texans.”

“Clearly, leadership was emboldened by the fact that Democrats didn’t flip those seats and find their majority in the House,” added state Sen. Beverly Powell, a Fort Worth-area Democrat.

Democrats’ ability to only derail, but not end, the push in Texas left party officials begging congressional Democrats to intervene by passing new federal voting rights legislation.

“These folks at the legislature have demonstrated that they’re willing to do what it takes, but we need backup,” said Lina Hidalgo, the Democratic chief executive of Houston’s Harris County. “For better or worse, that challenge stops at the foot of the U.S. Senate. Really, it’s a plea for help.”

Texas Republicans are expected to take up a version of their bill — which failed to pass Sunday after much of the state House Democratic caucus walked out and broke quorum — in a yet-to-be-called special session. The push to restrict voting rules has become a GOP priority in state governments across the country, as former President Donald Trump continues to lie and spread conspiracy theories about the election results.

GOP Gov. Greg Abbott called “election integrity” a “must-pass emergency” item in a statement.

“I expect legislators to have worked out their differences prior to arriving back at the Capitol so that they can hit the ground running to pass legislation,” Abbott said in his statement. Abbott also said he would veto the part of the budget that funds the legislative branch as retribution, tweeting that there is “no pay for those who abandon their responsibilities.”

An aide to Abbott said a decision on the timing of the special session was not imminent. Texas and other states are already planning special legislative sessions later this year to address redistricting after the Census Bureau releases local-level population data necessary to draw new political maps.

Republicans’ election bill took aim, in particular, at practices put in place by Harris County, the state’s largest county — and an increasing source of strength for Democrats.

The bill would have banned drive-through and 24-hour voting, which Harris County officials piloted during the 2020 election. The bill also added further restrictions to mail voting in Texas, on top of existing eligibility requirements that mean most Texas voters are not eligible to cast ballots that way. And it would have banned election authorities from allowing in-person early voting before 1 p.m. on Sundays, which was seen as an attempt to limit “Souls to the Polls” events popular among Black churches. (State Rep. Travis Clardy, a Republican involved in final negotiations of the bill, told NPR News on Tuesday the reduction of voting hours on Sunday was a “mistake” and wasn’t intended to be in the final bill.)

The legislation also included a provision allowing a court to “declare [an] election void” if it determined the number of “illegally cast” votes was “equal to or greater than the number of votes necessary to change the outcome of an election, without “attempting to determine how individual voters voted.”

Democratic lawmakers pledged to fight again in the special session over similar proposals. “If people want to be pragmatic and roll up sleeves and come up with a proposal, we know how to do that. If people want to fight, we know how to do that,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who represents a San Antonio-based district. “You tell me what Republicans show up [with] and I’ll tell you what kind of session we’re going to have.”

But Texas Democrats likely won’t be able to run out the clock forever. Instead, some are hoping their extraordinary delay over the weekend will spur Democrats in Washington to make their own voting rights push.

Two pieces of voting legislation are in the works but effectively stalled in the 50-50 Senate right now. One is a sweeping election and campaign finance reform bill, H.R. 1, that would institute federally mandated floors for state election procedures — like requiring no-excuse absentee voting and same-day voter registration. Another bill would require certain states and jurisdictions to have changes to election procedures approved by either the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington, restoring “preclearance” requirements in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were stripped out by a 2013 Supreme Court decision.

In a statement over the weekend President Joe Biden called the Texas bill “an assault on democracy,” calling for Congress to pass the two proposals. He also tapped Vice President Kamala Harris as his point person on voting rights in a speech in Tulsa, Okla., on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote on H.R. 1 during the final week of June. But the final fate of the bill remains uncertain. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) remains the only Senate Democrat who hasn’t signed onto the sweeping package. And Manchin and a handful of other Democratic senators have also resisted calls to scrap or modify the filibuster, which effectively requires 60 votes to move most legislation in the chamber.

The update to the Voting Rights Act has yet to be introduced in Congress.

Martinez Fischer, who also helped lead the weekend walkout, said he hoped their protest would “wake the nation up,” and called on the Senate to move on H.R. 1.

“It’s important for Leader Schumer and leaders in the Senate to understand just where we are — at a crossroads in America,” he said. “I recognize that there are certain senators that believe that eliminating the filibuster is tantamount to destroying our country. And my only response to that is that there are people who want to destroy our country state by state, and we have to recognize that and that there is a greater good.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/01/texas-democrats-voting-rights-fight-491529

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Biden Recognizes Pride Month, Vowing to Fight for LGBTQ Rights – The New York Times
Biden Recognizes Pride Month, Vowing to Fight for LGBTQ Rights – The New York Times

And during his first address to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Biden said he would continue pressing lawmakers to pass the Equality Act, which would provide civil rights protections to the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

As the Biden administration has put an emphasis on diversity in the federal government, the White House noted on Tuesday that 14 percent of all presidential appointees identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, was the first openly gay cabinet secretary confirmed by the Senate, and Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services, was the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

But state legislatures across the country are advancing measures that seek to limit rights. On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, signed into law a bill that barred transgender female student-athletes from competing in women’s sports. Across the country, there are currently 250 bills that seek to target transgender people and limit local protections. Of those, 24, including Mr. DeSantis’s bill, have been signed, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

“We know we have real partners in advancing equality,” Mr. David said. “That’s so important, particularly now, where we’re seeing backlash in certain states.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the Florida law. It also did not say whether Mr. Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris planned to participate in any in-person Pride events this month.

Mr. Biden, a politician whose own views on gay rights have evolved over his decades in public life, did not always identify with the positions of the L.G.B.T.Q. activists with whom he consulted during the presidential transition, seeking policy recommendations. In 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, blocking federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Two years earlier, he voted to cut off federal funds to schools that taught the acceptance of homosexuality.

Some of his Democratic presidential primary opponents, like Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, tried to make an issue of those votes during the campaign last year. But gay rights advocates have generally accepted that the views of Democratic leaders have evolved significantly over the years, and they credit Mr. Biden with being ahead of many other elected officials in his party.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/politics/biden-pride-lgbtq.html

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What would you do if a bear attacked your dog? In a viral TikTok, a teen tried a shove. – The Washington Post
What would you do if a bear attacked your dog? In a viral TikTok, a teen tried a shove. – The Washington Post

The footage opens with the bear, two cubs in tow, ambling along the wall. The family’s four dogs — one large, the others very small — burst onto the screen, tearing toward the intruder. The cubs take off. But three times, the bear reaches down and swats at the dogs.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/06/01/teenager-shoves-bear-dogs/

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Fact-checking Sidney Powell’s claim Trump could be reinstated – CNN
Fact-checking Sidney Powell’s claim Trump could be reinstated – CNN

By Tara Subramaniam, CNN

Updated 6:25 PM ET, Tue June 1, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/01/politics/powell-trump-inauguration-fact-check/index.html

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Biden delivers remarks on Tulsa Race Massacre after meeting with survivors – ABC News
Biden delivers remarks on Tulsa Race Massacre after meeting with survivors – ABC News

President Joe Biden visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, to mark the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, becoming the first sitting president to visit the historic Greenwood neighborhood to acknowledge the atrocities that took place there.

Biden toured the Greenwood Cultural Center and then privately met with survivors ahead of remarks in which he announced new actions his administration is taking to narrow the racial wealth gap between Black and white Americans.

Biden also called for June to be “a month of action on Capitol Hill” on voting rights legislation and announced he’s appointing Vice President Kamala Harris to spearhead the administration’s efforts to combat, what he called, “the assault on the right to vote.”

The president was introduced by Lauren Usher, a descendent of a Tulsa Race Massacre victim. The living survivors — aged 101 to 107 — looked on during his speech.

“You are the three known remaining survivors of a story seen in the mirror dimly. But no longer. Now, your story will be known in full view,” Biden began.

He acknowledged that the history of the attack has been whitewashed and overlooked in the past 100 years — made evident by the fact, he said, that he is the first president to visit Greenwood.

Repeating a line he said on an earlier tour of the center, Biden told the audience of roughly 200, “It wasn’t a riot, it was a massacre.”

Biden met with the three living members of the Greenwood community who survived the massacre ahead of his remarks: Viola “Mother” Fletcher, Hughes “Uncle Red” Van Ellis and Lessie “Mother Randle” Benningfield Randle.

All three testified before Congress last month, calling for reparations — but Biden did not directly call for them in his speech, despite descendants wanting to have that conversation. Last year, they filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa and others demanding compensation for what they called the ongoing “public nuisance” inflicted on them and other families for decades following the attack.

In his remarks, Biden detailed the events which sparked the white mob to descend on Greenwood. Gunshots were fired outside a courthouse after a young, Black man was accused of assaulting a white, female elevator operator and arrested.

“It was an innocent interaction that turned into a terrible, terrible headline allegation of a Black male, teenager attacking a white female teenager,” Biden said, explaining that crowds gathered outside the court.

“Literal hell was unleashed,” he said.

On the evening May 31, 1921, and into the following day, a mob of armed, white men flattened the all-Black Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa known as “Black Wall Street.”

“A mob tied a Black man by the waist to the back of their truck with his head banging along the pavement as they drove off. A murdered Black family draped over the fence of their home, outside. An elderly couple knelt by their bed, praying to God with their heart and their soul, when they were shot in the back of their heads,” Biden said. “Private planes dropping explosives, the first and only domestic aerial assault of its kind on an American city, here in Tulsa.”

Painting the picture that Mother Fletcher says she lives with each day, Biden said, “100 years ago, at this hour on this first day of June, smoke darkened the Tulsa sky, rising from 35 blocks of Greenwood that were left in ash and ember, razed, in rubble.”

With members of law enforcement and government employees working against Black residents, the state of Oklahoma recorded only 36 deaths, but a 2001 commission reported the number killed was as high as 300. The commission found an estimated $1.8 million in damages — renewing calls for reparations — which would come out to more than $25 million in 2021. As many as 10,000 residents were displaced or put in internment camps after the massacre was painted as a “riot” to prevent Black businesses from collecting on insurance claims.

“I come here to help fill the silence because in silence wounds deepen,” Biden said to applause. “As painful as it is, only in remembrance do wounds heal.”

Biden, at one point, called for a moment of silence for the descendants of Greenwood.

“May their souls rest in peace,” he said, hanging his head.

He also warned against complacency, saying, “hate is never defeated” but “only hides.”

“Folks, we can’t — we must not give hate a safe harbor,” Biden said. “Terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today — not ISIS, not al-Qaida, white supremacists.”

In an attempt to begin to make amends, the president proposed a broader agenda to address racial inequities beyond Tulsa in his remarks — starting with atoning for the federal government.

New steps the administration wants to take include directing more federal contracts to small and minority-owned businesses, expanding access to homeownership and launching infrastructure programs intended to repair neighborhoods like Greenwood.

But the NAACP and other civil rights groups criticized Biden for not including steps Tuesday to reduce student loan debt — one of the biggest obstacles preventing Black Americans from accumulating wealth, advocates say.

“Student loan debt continues to suppress the economic prosperity of Black Americans across the nation,” Derrick Johnson, the NAACP president, said in a statement. “You cannot begin to address the racial wealth gap without addressing the student loan debt crisis.”

Asked by ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers about the omission en route to Tulsa on Air Force One, Jean-Pierre pivoted from the question by talking about the president’s proposal to invest in historically Black colleges and universities as part of his American Families Plan.

“These institutions are critical to helping underrepresented students move to the top of the income ladder,” she said. “President Biden is calling for a historic investment in affordability through subsidized tuition and expanding institutional — and grants.”

Biden has not called for reparations for Black Tulsa massacre descendants but has expressed support for H.R. 40 — a bill which would form a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans — which is awaiting a full House vote.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-shine-light-tulsa-race-massacre-remarks-meeting/story?id=78020930

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Lt. Gov. Patrick rips Texas Dems’ walkout over voting legislation: ‘Not the way democracy works’ – Fox News
Lt. Gov. Patrick rips Texas Dems’ walkout over voting legislation: ‘Not the way democracy works’ – Fox News
Video

Texas lt gov defends gov’s threat to defund state legislature as Dems stage walkout to block voting bill

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ that state Democrats walking out of voting on the sweeping election bill is ‘not the way democracy works.’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick scolded state Democrats on “America’s Newsroom,” Tuesday, after senators staged a walkout on a vote on sweeping voting legislation over the weekend, prompting Gov. Greg Abbott to threaten to defund the state legislature.

DAN PATRICK: There were two parts of this bill, the first part is the Democrats are trying to just say, you know what, if we don’t like losing a vote, we’ll just leave. We’ll break quorum, meaning there aren’t enough people on the floor to bring a bill to the floor, which was Senate Bill 7 about election security and integrity. So they walked. In fact, not only did they walk off the floor with a few hours to go before the deadline, but I actually got a call from someone asking if they went to an Indian reservation, could the state police come and get them? 

In other words, they were planning potentially not to come back at all. The reason for the governor’s action to say if you don’t come back at all for a special session, we’re going to stop your salaries — which are $600 a month for legislators, that’s not the key. It’s for all their staff. They’d have to fire all of their staff. And so we have a bill or rule in Texas that says if a speaker or the lieutenant governor — I control the Senate — believes Democrats or anyone would walk, we could lock the doors to keep them in or we can send the state police to get them back.

But the speaker of the House, and this is the second part of this bill, the speaker of the House told the Democrats earlier that evening he would not lock the doors, he would not send the state police. And then he didn’t set this bill until four hours to go till midnight, which made it easy for them to walk out. So I blame this on the speaker, who is a Republican, for the rules, and I blame it on the Democrats for just walking away and saying, I can’t win the vote so I’m going home. That’s not the way democracy works.

WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE:

Video

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-voting-law-dems-walkout-dan-patrick

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Biden Suspends Drilling Leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – The New York Times
Biden Suspends Drilling Leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – The New York Times

In 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress included language in a tax bill establishing a leasing program as a way of generating revenue for the federal government. But an environmental review, required under federal law, was only completed last year.

Environmental groups and others immediately sued the Trump administration, saying the review was faulty. For one thing, they said, the analysis discounted the impact of climate change.

While the issue remained in the courts, the Trump administration went ahead with a lease sale in early January of this year.

There had been little interest in the leases, at least publicly, from major oil companies, given the high cost of producing oil in the Arctic, the growing desire to reduce fossil fuel use, and the reputational risks of drilling in such a pristine area. After lobbying from environmental organizations and Native groups, major banks had pledged not to finance any drilling efforts in the refuge.

The apparent lack of interest was borne out in the sale. Only two companies, neither of them major producers, made bids to acquire 10-year rights to explore and drill for oil on two tracts totaling about 75,000 acres.

A state-owned economic development corporation in Alaska, offering the minimum of $25 an acre, was the sole bidder on the other tracts, totaling about half a million acres. That raised legal issues, including whether the state had standing to purchase leases, that have not been resolved.

Kristen Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, one of the groups that had sued the Trump administration, said the leasing program and resulting sale were the result of a “flawed and legally deficient process.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/climate/biden-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html

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