Eva Mireles, 44, an educator for 17 years, taught fourth graders at Robb Elementary School, according to her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, who confirmed her niece was among those slain. Delgado said her nephew, Ruben Ruiz, was a police officer with the Uvalde school district and was married to Mireles. The couple shared a daughter who recently graduated from college, Delgado said.
The aftermath of Sandy Hook was the closest Congress has come in the past decade to passing any meaningful changes to the nation’s gun laws, but when a modest bill to strengthen background checks came to a vote in the Senate, only four Republicans voted for it, while four Democrats, none of whom are still serving, voted against it. Since then, there has been only frustration and anger after mass shootings in places of worship, in stores, at a concert, at a nightclub, at a yoga studio and in schools, making many fear that anyplace in the United States could be next.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/24/wake-uvalde-furious-democrats-assail-republicans-over-resistance-tightening-gun-laws/
An FBI affidavit made public last week identified an employee of an influential, unnamed company as being a key participant in a “cabal” steering Anaheim’s government.
The employee of the firm, called “Company A” in the affidavit that’s part of a federal public corruption probe, helped script a statement read by an elected official before the City Council voted to issue bonds and provided input on whom to invite to a covert retreat for community powerbrokers.
Company A is Disneyland Resort, according to a person familiar with the investigation, and the employee is Disneyland Resort Director of External Affairs Carrie Nocella.
Though neither the company nor Nocella have been accused of wrongdoing, their connection to the wide-ranging investigation that led to Harry Sidhu resigning as Anaheim mayor Monday underscores the immense influence the company wields in the city of 350,000 with a budget fueled by millions of visitors each year to the Disneyland Resort.
The company has long played a dominant role in Anaheim politics. Some current and former council members, local activists and a past mayor say Disneyland Resort has parlayed its influence into lucrative tax breaks at the expense of city residents and bankrolled friendly politicians with generous campaign donations. Disney has pushed back against such criticism, arguing that the resort provides the city with an important economic engine and is a job creator.
But the court filing provides an unusually detailed look inside how the company works to shape events away from public view.
Councilman Jose Moreno said Disneyland’s influence over the city was obvious to anyone paying attention.
“That would be the worst kept secret in town,” he said.
In response to questions from The Times about its identification as Company A, Disney said in a statement that, “We have seen media reports of the complaint and no authorities have reached out to us about it.” Nocella, who deleted her Facebook and Instagram accounts last week, declined to comment.
Company A came to light in a 99-page affidavit by FBI Special Agent Brian Adkins in support of a criminal complaint accusing Todd Ament, the former head of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, of lying to a mortgage lender.
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The agent wrote that Ament and an unnamed political consultant “were the ring leaders of a small group of individuals who met in person to discuss strategy surrounding several matters within Anaheim — matters that were often pending, or soon to be pending, before the Anaheim City Council,” Adkins wrote.
The affidavit described Company A Employee — Nocella — as one of the group’s ringleaders “to some extent.”
In advance of a secretive gathering of Anaheim business leaders, consultants and politicians in December 2020, Adkins alleged Company A Employee provided input to Ament and the political consultant about who to invite.
Details about the consultant in the affidavit match Jeff Flint, chief executive and senior partner at FSB Public Affairs, who has represented Disneyland Resort. Flint, who announced last week that he was taking a leave of absence as CEO, denied doing anything wrong.
During a wiretapped phone call on Nov. 30, 2020, between the consultant and an Anaheim politician identified as Elected Official 1, the politician asked if two colleagues had been invited to the retreat.
“No, I talked about it with Todd [Ament] and [Company A Employee],” the political consultant said. “We felt like for this first one we’ll kinda keep things big picture and stick with um, with, um, [Elected Official 4] and [Elected Official 3]. … But, um, [Elected Official 2’s], you know, I think he’s on the team, but he’s just gonna take some management because he’s got competing pressures.”
The subject line for the email invitation to the gathering from Ament’s assistant read: “Retreat 12/2020.” The event was scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the JW Marriott in Anaheim with a “social hour to follow upon conclusion.”
Anaheim City Councilmen Stephen Faessel and Trevor O’Neil along with City Manager Jim Vanderpool have publicly acknowledged attending the retreat.
“As I remember, the major focus of this meeting was on how to get our economy back open, our residents back to work, the distribution of essential products,” Faessel said. “This was exactly the kind of meeting you would have expected City leadership to have at that moment. Sadly, I’ve read with serious concern how this meeting has been depicted. Apparently others may have gone into this with a different perspective than I did.”
The intercepted phone calls detailed in the affidavit depicted the meeting as anything but ordinary, as organizers fixated on including trustworthy people — “family members only” and keeping “the family close” — while debating whether to invite a City Council member described as a possible “double agent.” Ament, at one point, called the group a “cabal.”
According to the affidavit, Nocella and Elected Official 1 were scheduled to attend the retreat.
Almost four months later, Adkins wrote, the political consultant drafted a script about issuing bonds — with input from Company A Employee and Ament — for Elected Official 1 to read at the City Council meeting on March 23, 2021. The item authorized up to $210 million in bonds to make up for pandemic-related revenue shortfalls.
Hours before the meeting, the political consultant texted the assistant for Elected Official 1: Company A “asked to delete reference to [Company A’s parking lot]. Will send to you.”
Sidhu, then mayor, was the only elected official who spoke extensively on that agenda item during the meeting before it passed. Reading from prepared remarks, he referenced Disney in glowing terms: “I believe Disney will continue to invest in Anaheim, strengthening our destination and ensuring Anaheim remains the long-term premier tourist attraction of the West Coast.”
But Company A Employee wasn’t impressed, texting the political consultant that the mayor “reads your script so poorly,” according to the affidavit.
“Lol,” the political consultant replied. “He doesn’t practice.”
Sidhu was linked to the scandal in a separate affidavit in support of a search warrant by Adkins that became public last week. It alleged he gave Major League Baseball’s Angels confidential information on at least two occasions during the city’s negotiations with the team over the $320-million sale of Angel Stadium — and hoped to get a million-dollar campaign donation from the team. Sidhu denied wrongdoing. He has not been charged.
In a statement Monday announcing the resignation, Sidhu’s attorney, Paul Meyer, wrote: “A fair and thorough investigation will prove that [Sidhu] did not leak secret information in the hopes of a later campaign contribution.”
Disneyland Resort has long enjoyed the benefits of its relationship with Anaheim’s government.
City leaders agreed in 1996 to issue $510 million in bonds to finance, among other projects, construction of the $108-million Mickey & Friends parking structure. The resort keeps the parking revenue, and Anaheim will transfer ownership of the garage to Disney once the bonds and $1.1 billion in interest are paid off.
In 2015, the City Council approved shielding Disneyland from any potential tax on ticket sales for 45 years, a massive revenue stream that could have generated an estimated $1 billion or more in revenue for the city. Disneyland promised to build the park’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge expansion — which opened in 2019 — and another major project in the future. City officials granted the company a $267-million tax rebate in 2016 for a luxury hotel.
Disneyland abandoned the hotel project in 2018 and asked the City Council to cancel its 45-year ticket sales tax protection. The resort did so as city voters were set to approve a measure requiring any resort business receiving subsidies to pay its workers a living wage.
At the same time, Disney has directed significant campaign funds to influence city politics. The company contributed $1.3 million in 2021 to the Support Our Anaheim Resort political action committee, a group composed of business owners, community leaders and residents, according to campaign finance filings for the non-election year.
In a profile on the University of the Pacific’s website in March, Nocella, who graduated from the McGeorge School of Law in 2002, recalled working at Disneyland Resort in high school and college long before assuming her current role.
“The best part about my job is being able to sit down with an elected official or a policymaker and share with them our position on certain issues and what we’re doing in their communities,” Nocella said. “That’s important to be successful.”
Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-24/disney-power-broker-anaheim-cabal-fbi-records-shows
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/asia/north-korea-missile-intl/index.html
In 2021, Hurricane Ida cut a path of destruction from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. Vehicles parked in Philadelphia were submerged after the storm brought torrential rain.
Matt Rourke/AP
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Matt Rourke/AP
In 2021, Hurricane Ida cut a path of destruction from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. Vehicles parked in Philadelphia were submerged after the storm brought torrential rain.
Matt Rourke/AP
There will be more hurricanes and tropical storms than usual during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, federal forecasters warn.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts 14 to 21 total storms will grow large enough to be named. Of those, forecasters expect 6 to 10 hurricanes, 3 to 6 of which will have sustained wind speeds above 110 miles per hour.
If the forecast is correct, this will be the seventh year in a row with an above-average number of storms – by far the longest streak in recorded history. The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and ends on November 30, though storms sometimes form outside those dates.
Last year, NOAA updated its definition of a normal hurricane season to reflect the new normal of climate change. It now considers hurricane seasons that are “above-average” to have more than 14 named tropical storms, instead of 12. For context, the record-breaking 2020 hurricane season produced 30 named storms. Not all storms make landfall, but when they do, the damage can be enormous.
Hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. are threatened by storms that form over the Atlantic Ocean and move toward the Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico. That includes many who live far away from where storms generally make landfall, and who may feel a false sense of security as a result.
For example, last year, Hurricane Ida carved a path of destruction across nine states from Louisiana to New England and caused billions of dollars in damage and dozens of deaths along the way.
NOAA emphasized the widespread risk by announcing this year’s hurricane forecast at a press conference in New York City – far from the traditional epicenter of hurricane risk in the U.S. and one of the places hammered by Ida’s rain last September.
“No one is immune from the effects of these tropical storms,” says Deanne Criswell, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A satellite photo shows five tropical storms in the Atlantic in September 2020. Forecasters expect more hurricanes and tropical storms than usual in 2022. This is the seventh year in a row with an above-average number of storms forecast.
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AP
A satellite photo shows five tropical storms in the Atlantic in September 2020. Forecasters expect more hurricanes and tropical storms than usual in 2022. This is the seventh year in a row with an above-average number of storms forecast.
AP
Forecasters say a combination of cyclic regional weather patterns and climate change are driving the escalating hurricane hazards in the U.S.
“There are certain ingredients that drive the intensity and frequency of hurricanes,” says Matthew Rosencrans, the lead hurricane season outlook forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, including how much dust is in the air, how windy it is and how warm the water on the surface of the ocean is.
Some of those ingredients are unrelated to human-caused global climate change. For example, the natural climate variation known as La Niña has been happening for multiple years, and it drives ocean and wind conditions that support the formation of tropical storms in the Atlantic.
But many of the other ingredients for a destructive hurricane season are related to human-caused climate change. Hotter ocean water and hotter air create perfect conditions for hurricanes to form, and to get large and destructive. And sea level rise exacerbates flooding when storms hit land.
An extra warm ocean current is also bulging into the Gulf of Mexico this spring, threatening to release a large and deep blob of hot water during hurricane season. That would create a dangerous hurricane incubator, and make it more likely that a powerful storm would hit Mexico or the U.S. Gulf Coast.
When this current has bulged into the Gulf of Mexico in the past, it fueled some of the most notorious storms in recent history, including Hurricanes Katrina, Ida and Harvey.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/24/1100439822/get-ready-for-another-destructive-atlantic-hurricane-season
- Trump wanted a “course correction” after bad reviews of his Oval Office address on COVID, Kellyanne Conway wrote in her new book.
- Conway suggested engaging with the four living former presidents.
- “‘Ugh,’ he said. ‘They’re all horrible to me,'” Conway wrote.
In March 2020, then-President Donald Trump wanted a “course correction” after “mostly critical” reviews of his Oval Office address on COVID-19, his former senior counselor Kellyanne Conway wrote in her new book.
She suggested engaging with the four living former presidents.
“‘They each have dealt with major crises,'” she recalled telling Trump in “Here’s the Deal: A Memoir,” out Tuesday. “‘It will show leadership, bipartisanship, and calm everyone.'”
Trump, however, wasn’t interested.
“‘Ugh,’ he said. ‘They’re all horrible to me,'” Conway wrote of his response.
Conway pressed on, saying “they haven’t been great,” but added “this is bigger than all that.”
She also thought the move could help him get reelected.
Trump listened to her pitch, she wrote, on how Jimmy Carter could offer advice and George W. Bush would engage. She reminded him of how he and his wife Melania “genuinely got along” with Bush and his wife Laura during Bush’s father’s funeral.
“‘Barack Obama would not decline. He dealt with Ebola and swine flu, and this is serious, too. More serious, it seems,'” she wrote, describing her advice to Trump.
She also told Trump, “‘Bush and Obama would help and then go back to their lives. The only one who may be tough to get rid of is Bill Clinton. He’ll enjoy the spotlight again, loves this stuff, and’—I smiled—’may want to be your best buddy.'”
Trump later told reporters he didn’t want to “bother” the former presidents.
“I don’t think I’m going to learn much and, you know, I guess you could say that there’s probably a natural inclination not to call,” he said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing.
In April 2020, however, he spoke with his campaign rival Joe Biden about ideas for tackling COVID.
“It was a cordial conversation, which I witnessed, and Biden was especially engaged,” Conway wrote. “So much so that, after the call, President Trump looked at me and to my surprise declared: ‘Everyone is wrong. He hasn’t lost it.'”
Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-didnt-want-covid-discussion-with-former-presidents-kellyanne-conway-book-2022-5
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 18 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres. The attacker was killed by law enforcement.
The death toll also included three adults, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. But it was not immediately clear whether that number included the attacker, or how many people were wounded.
The massacre at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were cancelled until further notice. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that added to a yearslong series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim as in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.
President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight and called for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack.
“As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are are willing to live with this carnage?
Many of the injured were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of the complex.
The gunman, who was wearing body armor, crashed his car outside the school before going inside, Sgt. Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN.
He killed his grandmother before heading to the school with two military-style rifles he had purchased on his birthday, Gutierrez said.
“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he said.
Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but the governor identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, Gutierrez said, noting that “he suggested the kids should watch out.”
A Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.
The agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the law enforcement source said.
The school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said that the attacker acted alone.
It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded, but Arredondo said there were “several injuries.” Earlier, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Robb Elementary School has an enrollment of just under 600 students, and Arredondo said it serves students in the second, third and fourth grade. He did not provide ages of the children who were shot. This was the school’s last week of classes before summer break.
Heavily armed law enforcement officers swarmed to the school, with officers in tactical vests diverting traffic and FBI agents coming and going from the building.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting on Air Force One as he returned from a five-day trip to Asia. Biden was scheduled to deliver remarks Tuesday evening at the White House.
Uvalde, home to about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and added to a grim tally of mass shootings in the state that has been among the deadliest in the U.S. over the past five years.
In 2018, a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year before that, a gunman at a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs. In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack.
The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston. Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm.
In the years since Sandy Hook, the gun control debate in Congress has waxed and waned. Efforts by lawmakers to change U.S. gun policies in any significant way have consistently faced roadblocks from Republicans and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA.
A year after Sandy Hook, Sens. Joe Manchin a West Virginia Democrat, and Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, negotiated a bipartisan proposal to expand the nation’s background check system. But as the measure was close to being brought to the Senate floor for a vote, it became clear it would not get enough votes to clear a 60-vote filibuster hurdle.
Then-President Barack Obama, who had made gun control central to his administration’s goals after the Newtown shooting, called Congress’ failure to act “a pretty shameful day for Washington.”
Last year, the House passed two bills to expand background checks on firearms purchases. One bill would have closed a loophole for private and online sales. The other would have extended the background check review period. Both languished in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats need at least 10 Republican votes to overcome objections from a filibuster.
___
Associated Press writers Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Ben Fox in Washington, Paul J. Weber in Austin and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://apnews.com/b4e4648ed0ae454897d540e787d092b2
GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp fended off a challenge by David Perdue in the Republican primary, crushing the Trump-backed candidate by a roughly 3-1 margin.
As a guitar-wielding country singer sang an array of old tunes, Kemp supporters began cheering as various websites called the race for their governor. Kemp backers sampled the bar and chatted with each other at the College Football Hall of Fame building in downtown Atlanta.
Kemp will speak in a meeting room in which the carpeted floor is lined like a football field. A goal post is at the opposite end from the speaker’s stage.
Georgia Democrats voted as expected Tuesday, nominating Stacey Abrams for governor and renominating Sen. Raphael Warnock. Warnock will face former football star Herschel Walker, who easily won the race for Republican nomination after getting the backing of former President Donald Trump.
Georgia was one of four Southern states Tuesday holding primaries in contests that reflect the nation’s greatest fault lines and again test former President Trump’s GOP power.
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., seeks to climb out from behind Trump’s shadow, after the former president revoked his endorsement for Brooks’ senatorial campaign following comments Brooks made about moving on from 2020.
In Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders — once Trump’s White House press secretary — is running to helm the state of Arkansas as governor, a role her father once held. Her opponent in the state’s Republican primary is former radio talk show host Francis “Doc” Washburn.
And several runoff races in Texas will showcase voters’ resolve on abortion rights and whether the influence of the Bush family still holds strong.
Primary roundup:The primary races to watch on Tuesday (and why)
But politicos have Georgia on their mind, where incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is gunning for a second term against Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue, a race that spotlights the deepening cracks within the Republican Party.
Trump is fighting to defeat Kemp, who refused to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election result in favor of Trump. In turn, the former president endorsed Perdue and ponied up $500,000 to a super PAC aimed at preventing Kemp’s reelection. But former Vice President Mike Pence has aligned his interests with Kemp, describing him in a statement announcing they’d throw a rally together as “one of the most successful conservative governors in America.”
Georgia’s gubernatorial primaries will also highlight Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams’ efforts to mobilize voters and turn the Peach state blue.
Plus, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will face five opponents in her first reelection bid after a 14th Amendment challenge to her eligibility as a candidate could have prevented her from running again at all.
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Trump WH press secretary, wins Arkansas gubernatorial primary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, once Trump’s White House press secretary, won the Republican primary in the Arkansas governor’s race.
Her father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, previously held the role for a decade.
Sanders’ campaign has been somewhat unique; she has intentionally taken aim at the “radical left” and placed her state’s issues in the context of the country’s issues.
“As I travel around the state, I keep hearing this criticism, ‘Oh, there’s that Sarah Sanders, nationalizing the race,’” she once said. “And my answer to those people is, ‘You bet I am.’ Because if you’re not paying attention to what is happening in this country, you’re missing what is going on.”
Sanders will likely face Democrat Chris Jones, who is so far leading in his primary.
– Ella Lee, Associated Press
Ken Paxton wins Texas attorney general GOP primary runoff
Embattled incumbent Ken Paxton won the Texas GOP attorney general primary runoff against Land Commissioner George P. Bush, a scion of the Bush family dynasty.
Paxton defeated Bush despite the legal controversies the attorney general is facing, which include charges of securities fraud and a separate FBI investigation.
The attorney general consistently led Bush in the polls leading up to Tuesday’s runoff.
– Mabinty Quarshie
Marjorie Taylor Greene wins primary reelection bid
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose penchant for conspiracy theories and fiery social media posts made her a far-right fan favorite, won her renomination bid to represent Georgia’s 14th Congressional District for another two years.
But the Georgia congresswoman almost didn’t get to run at all.
A group of Georgia voters sought to disqualify Greene from running for office, citing her purported ties to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and calling them violation of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. Greene loudly disputed those charges and said during a hearing about her eligibility that she had “no knowledge” of any attempt to unlawfully interfere with the electoral process.
The claims were dismissed by Georgia’s secretary of state and an administrative law judge.
Greene will likely face Democrat Marcus Flowers in the state’s midterm election, who is currently leading his primary.
– Ella Lee
Kemp camp hopeful GOP will unite against Abrams
As Kemp backers started to celebrate, they expressed confidence – or at least hope – that the Georgia Republicans (and Trump) would come together in the fall to defeat Abrams.
Mark Hamilton, 66, an Atlanta resident and a former aide to Kemp, said he and other Republicans like and respect Trump, but “at the same time, Gov, Kemp is our governor, and we support him.”
Kemp backers said they weren’t sure if Trump would now endorse him, but they expect at least Perdue to work for the governor’s re-election.
No one will out-work Brian Kemp, let’s put it that way,” said Terry Rogers, 68, a political consultant from Clarksville, Ga.
The Uvalde, Texas school massacre put a damper on the festivities. Erick Erickson, the conservative radio talk show host, addressed the crowd and led them in prayer for the victims of the elementary school shooting. The Kemp supporters also observed a minute of silence.
– David Jackson
Democrats confident Abrams can beat Kemp in November
Stephanie Jackson Ali, policy director for New Georgia Project Action Fund, said she is confident Democrat Stacey Abrams will defeat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the general election.
“I think she just needs to tell the truth about all the many ways that Brian Kemp has not served our state and our community,” said Ali.
Ali pointed to the Peach State’s high maternity mortality rates as one reason why Abrams will win in the gubernatorial election.
“I think Brian Kemp’s record speaks for itself. And Stacey Abrams ain’t gotta do nothing but point to it,” Ali said. “And Georgians will make their decision for what works best for them.”
– Mabinty Quarshie
Trump-backed Herschel Walker, former football star, wins primary race
Former football celebrity Herschel Walker will challenge incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock to serve as one of Georgia’s two senators after winning his primary race Tuesday.
Walker, who is backed by former President Donald Trump, beat out five other Republican challengers to be the state’s GOP nominee for one of its Senate seats.
More:Who is Herschel Walker? The former football star is running for Senate in Georgia as a Republican.
Warnock was Georgia’s first Black Senator, and Walker is also Black. Though Georgia will have another African American Senator no matter which candidate wins, Warnock and Walker have vastly different views of what it means to be Black in America. While Warnock has been outspoken on racial issues, Walker has downplayed the effects of racism in America.
The contest between Walker and Warnock could be tight, with RealClearPolitics’ latest polling data between the pair placing Walker a half point ahead of incumbent Warnock. But claims of stalking and abuse by Walker’s past partners and other women could upend his bid for office in the coming months.
– Ella Lee
Sen. Raphael Warnock renominated by Democrats
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock easily won his primary race in Georgia as he seeks to seize his first full term in office.
The Atlanta minister, who serves as pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, became the Peach State’s first Black senator when he defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in a special election runoff in 2021.
Warnock is likely to face former football star Herschel Walker, a Republican, who has the support of former President Donald Trump and establishment GOP lawmakers.
– Phillip M. Bailey
Abrams wins Democratic nomination for Georgia governor
Stacey Abrams will once again be the Democratic nominee for Georgia governor after sailing through the primary contest unopposed.
Abrams lost the 2018 contest for governor against Republican Brian Kemp by less than 2% and refused to concede in the ensuing months, citing voter suppression.
Four years later, Abrams has become a rising star in the Democratic Party nationally as a voice for voting rights. She has led massive registration drives that many have credited with making Georgia a battleground state.
In 2020, Abrams was rumored to be on the short list of President Joe Biden’s potential running mates.
She was also heavily recruited to run for U.S. Senate but bypassed after citing her renewed passion to oppose election law changes being pushed in Republican-controlled state legislatures.
If elected in November, Abrams would be the Peach State’s first Black governor.
– Phillip M. Bailey
Georgia polls close, Abrams wins, other results still pending
Polls across the state of Georgia, where a number of closely watched primary races are underway, closed Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
But the votes aren’t all counted yet, and most races haven’t been called. So far, only Democrat Stacey Abrams’ primary bid for governor has been called in her favor. She will face either Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp or former Sen. David Perdue, who is backed by former President Donald Trump. Kemp is favored to win.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s primary race is also underway, along with the Senate contest between incumbent Rep. Raphael Warnock and football star Herschel Walker.
– Ella Lee
Texas candidates react to elementary school shooting that killed 15
Political candidates in runoff races across Texas shared condolences online Tuesday evening after a gunman killed 14 children and one teacher at an elementary school in south Texas. It’s the state’s deadliest school shooting.
“This is a devastating tragedy. How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough?” Jessica Cisneros, who is running for Congress in Texas’ 28th Congressional District, wrote on Twitter.
Live updates:14 students, 1 teacher killed in Texas elementary school shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott says
Candidates across several races — including Attorney General Ken Paxton, Rep. Henry Cueller and George P. Bush — asked for prayers for peace and strength for Uvalde, where the shooting took place, and the families of the victims.
“I ask you all of you to join me in praying for our fellow Texans impacted by the horrific shooting in Uvalde today,” Paxton tweeted. “Lord, our refuge and strength, we pray for the souls of those lost, those who were wounded, their families, and our brave first responders.”
– Ella Lee
Runoff primary races in Texas
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar is up against Jessica Cisneros in the primary runoff in South Texas.
Cisneros has campaigned against Cuellar for his anti-abortion stance amid the Supreme Court draft opinion leak earlier this month indicating the court will overturn Roe v. Wade. Cuellar is the only Democrat in the House who opposes abortion rights.
Some leaders in the Democratic Party, including House Majority Whip James Clyburn and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are supporting Cuellar, to the ire of abortion supporters in the party.
Meanwhile, in a statewide office, George P. Bush, a Texas Land Commissioner as well as nephew and grand-nephew of former presidents Bush, is an underdog running against Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton faces charges of securities fraud and a separate FBI investigation, and is also under investigation by the state over his failed attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Yet he is still doing well despite these challenges, according to the polls.
– Merdie Nzanga, Mabinty Quarshie, David Jackson
Paper ballots briefly used after isolated malfunction in Dekalb County precinct
AVONDALE ESTATES, Ga. – Election workers briefly switched over to using paper ballots early in the day after a machine malfunction at one precinct in DeKalb County.
Sean Kennedy said he tried to vote at a polling station at Avondale Estates City Hall, but after seeing the line created by the outage, he opted to return later in the day.
“They were doing paper ballots, but I had to go to work,” Kennedy said. “My wife already voted, so I feel bad if I chicken out and don’t do it.”
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Erik Burton, a county elections spokesperson, said that the incident was isolated. Election workers followed protocols before returning to regular voting, Burton said.
The polling location had a line of about 24 people at about 6:30 p.m. EDT. Voters leaving the location place wait times in the 15 to 25 minutes range.
– Catherine Buchaniec, Medill News Service
Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, who lost son to gun violence, calls Texas shooting ‘sickening’
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., called the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas a “sickening, preventable tragedy.”
“Again in America, more families will now be forced to live forever with the pain of losing their precious children to unspeakable, senseless gun violence in a place where they should have been safe, happy, and free,” said McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed in 2012.
Because of redistricting, McBath is running for Georgia’s 7th congressional seat against another incumbent: Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux. Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, has endorsed McBath in the primary race.
“At a time when this nation is still reeling from the pain of recent shootings, we are faced with another sickening, preventable tragedy in Texas,” she added.
“We have to do something to fix this. We can do something to help fix this. We must do something to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them,” she said.
– Mabinty Quarshie
Don’t ‘sleep on midterm elections’
STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. – As voters trickled into Stockbridge First United Methodist Church on Tuesday for the primary elections, 37-year-old Farrah Clark said she hopes people don’t “sleep on midterm elections.”
“It’s very important for us to show up, just as we would do in the presidential race because this is how we get those laws that would benefit us,” Clark, a teacher from Henry County, said. “It’s choosing those right senators to represent us.”
lark said she turned out to vote for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in part because of their healthcare policies. Clark — whose father has diabetes and other health issues where the cost of medication is particularly high — said she liked the two Democratic candidates’ plans to expand Medicaid.
– Julia Shapero, Medill News Service
Who is Sarah Huckabee Sanders?
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is expected to win the GOP primary, making her the odds-on favorite to win the red state in November and replace Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
The former Trump press secretary is running against Francis “Doc” Washburn in the contest.
State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was also in the race, but dropped out, as did Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin.
Sanders was the first formal endorsement from Trump after he left office.
Trump described her as a “warrior who will always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct.”
– Mabinty Quarshie, David Jackson
Flood of early voting in Georgia could mean short lines on election day
LOCUST GROVE, Ga. — After witnessing record turnout during early voting, some Georgia voters said they anticipated short wait times at the polls on Election Day.
“I figured with the way things were going with so many people voting early that it will probably be less crowded today,” said Phil Gilbert. “I walked right in – only person there.”
Georgia saw historic turnout during the state’s early voting voting period. More than 850,000 voters cast a ballot in person or returned an absentee ballot before Election Day, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
– Catherine Buchaniec, Medill News Service
Donald Trump’s take on David Perdue’s potential loss: Not much comment
Donald Trump dealt with the prospect of an endorsed candidate’s loss the best way he knows how: By refusing to talk in detail about it.
Trump declined to discuss the probability that David Perdue will lose the Georgia gubernatorial primary to incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, preferring to discuss his more successful candidates during an interview Tuesday with Fox Business Network.
“We’ve won just about every race,” Trump said, citing endorsed Republican Senate nominees J.D. Vance in Ohio and Ted Budd in North Carolina in particularly. He also cited Herschel Walker, who will likely win a Senate primary in Georgia on Tuesday.
Perdue?
“David Perdue’s a very good man,” Trump said. “And, as you know, Brian Kemp did a very poor job on election integrity … And we’ll see what that means to the voters.”
– David Jackson
Georgia’s Senate Race Draws Support for Warnock
STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. – As voters head to the polls Tuesday, the race for one of Georgia’s Senate seats remains at the forefront of the state’s highly anticipated primary election.
In January 2021, Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock helped Democrats gain control of the U.S. Senate after winning runoffs. But Warnock’s seat is on the ballot again this year because he was elected to fill the remaining two years of former GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson’ term.
In Henry County, Tinecia Cullen said she turned out to vote to cast a ballot for Warnock and help Democrats maintain control of the Senate.
“I think he’s helping,” Cullen said. “ I feel like he really cares about what I really care about.”
Cullen said she identifies with Warnock’s background. She was born and raised in Atlanta and has been to the church where Warnock preaches.
“I worry about the laws that are going to be passed if we don’t have representation,” she said.
– Catherine Buchaniec, Medill News Service
Alabama votes for federal, state offices
Alabama voters go to the polls Tuesday to select nominees for a host of state and local offices, including governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, the Alabama Supreme Court, and the Public Service Commission. Primaries will also be held for U.S. House seats, the State Board of Education, and the Alabama Legislature. There will also be local races around the state.
The U.S. Senate race, to fill the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, is among the highest-profile races. U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks got – and then lost – former President Donald Trump’s endorsement for that spot.
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Polls will open until 7 p.m. A voter who is in line to vote when polls close will be able to cast a ballot.
A candidate will needs 50% or more of the vote to avoid a runoff. If no single candidate in a race gets a majority, the top two vote-getters will advance to a June 21 runoff.
– Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser
When do the polls close?
First polls will close in Georgia at 7 p.m. the only state voting Tuesday in Eastern Time.
Texas polls close at 7 p.m. local time, with the state covering both Central and Mountain Time. Alabama polls also close at 7, and Arkansas ends voting at 7:30 pm, with both states in Central Time.
– Merdie Nzanga
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/24/primaries-georgia-texas-alabama-arkansas-live-updates/9570676002/
“I don’t understand why people here think we are powerless,” Murphy said. “I am so willing to bend over backwards to find compromise.”
Murphy reached out to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to extend his condolences on Tuesday afternoon; the duo has worked in the past on gun legislation. And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he wants to reopen talks about gun safety legislation. Yet Murphy stands out in his caucus with his enduring interest in finding a path to a new gun bill, however small-scale it may seem.
He joined the Senate shortly after a man shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in his home state, a tragedy that sparked Congress’ last truly serious effort to pass gun safety legislation. Roughly nine years ago, most Republicans and a handful of Democrats blocked that bipartisan bid to expand background checks.
In the years since, there have been on-and-off discussions about gun safety as more and more mass shooters kill people in the United States. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in 2019 that background checks and red flag laws would be “front and center” for Congress after a pair of deadly shootings that year, but the chamber took no action.
Now Democrats control the House and Senate, and although the House passed a bill strengthening background checks for gun buyers, nothing has come to the Senate floor for a vote. That’s because Democrats see no path to getting the 10 Republican votes they need to break a filibuster, and they know there’s also no path to weakening the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most bills.
“We can’t budge the Republicans an inch on this issue of gun safety,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was hopeful that his party could at least unify around Steve Dettelbach, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the nation’s chief gun safety regulatory agency, who has a confirmation hearing on Wednesday morning.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) put it more starkly about Republicans: “I don’t know when their morality says to them, ‘maybe we should actually do something instead of doing the bidding of the gun lobby’.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), one of the Democrats who is undecided on Dettelbach, said he was unsure if the latest spate of mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, would affect Dettelbach’s confirmation prospects. But he said it’s up to the Democratic-controlled Congress to at least try and pass legislation.
“The best thing to do is try to get something negotiated out … maybe it’s a good background check [bill] that has good databases behind it to make sure that people who are mentally ill or criminally intended are prevented from getting” guns, Tester said. “All this stuff like arming the teachers or putting armed guards out in front of schools, that’s not what we need to be [doing].”
Democrats largely ruled out a background check vote last week after a man killed 10 people in a racist shooting in Buffalo, focusing instead on a domestic terrorism bill that will get a vote on Thursday.
Tester and Murphy both argued that failed votes on gun safety legislation are not worthwhile at this point. That puts the onus on the shrinking center of the Senate to cut a deal — an exceedingly high bar given the broad GOP opposition to new gun restrictions, period.
“You guys ought to be pushing the people who won’t even budge on anything. I don’t know what it takes to move” them, said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who cut the 2013 deal on background checks with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). “It makes no sense at all that we can’t do common sense things and try to prevent some of this from happening.”
In a 50-50 Senate, any gun legislation that can win 50 Democratic votes and 10 Republicans is likely to be modest. Both conservative Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) mentioned red flag laws as a potential piece of legislation, modeled after their home states’ laws.
“Those need to be refined, a lot of times they’re not enforced or paid attention to,” Braun said of red flag laws. “When it comes to many of these shootings, it’s increasingly involved with mental illness. And we’ve got to be better.”
Tillis said he is “willing to look at anything as long as it doesn’t deny anybody rights for law-abiding citizens. I’ve been there all along and I’ve been wanting to have those discussions.”
Since the Sandy Hook shootings, Murphy said he’s forgotten how many times he’s gone to the Senate floor to talk about gun violence. He called it a horrifying version of “Groundhog Day,” the film that depicts a man forced to live through the same day over and over.
And though he’s seeking to be patient and accommodating, he still preemptively undercut GOP rhetoric about what causes mass shootings: “Spare me the bullshit about mental illness,” he told reporters. “We’re not an outlier on mental illness, we’re an outlier on access to firearms.”
Yet with Democratic control of Congress not guaranteed past December and time ticking down to the elections, Murphy still has work to do. And so in the coming days, he’ll be doing the same thing he’s done for years: trying to get a filibuster-proof majority for gun safety legislation.
“My hope is there will be some interest in action,” Murphy said. “I’ll obviously spend the next few days seeing whether there’s any appetite to moving forward on commonsense legislation. Let’s see. Let’s see.”
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/24/murphy-forges-ahead-on-gun-talks-with-gop-after-texas-shooting-00034951
In 2000, George P. Bush — then 24 and about to enter the University of Texas Law School — recorded a Spanish-language ad for his uncle’s presidential campaign. He looked primed to be his storied family’s next standard-bearer, updated for the 21st century: bilingual, telegenic, the son of a governor and an immigrant from Mexico. The campaign’s ad maker, Mark McKinnon, took to calling him “47,” in anticipation that “P,” as he’s known to friends and family, would before long join his grandfather (George H.W. Bush, 41) and uncle (George W. Bush, 43) in the American presidential pantheon.
Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/05/24/george-p-bush-texas-attorney-general/
An FBI affidavit made public last week identified an employee of an influential, unnamed company as being a key participant in a “cabal” steering Anaheim’s government.
The employee of the firm, called “Company A” in the affidavit that’s part of a federal public corruption probe, helped script a statement read by an elected official before the City Council voted on issuing bonds and provided input on whom to invite to a covert retreat for community powerbrokers.
Company A is Disneyland Resort, according to a person familiar with the investigation, and the employee is Disneyland Resort Director of External Affairs Carrie Nocella.
Though neither the company nor Nocella have been accused of wrongdoing, their connection to the wide-ranging investigation that led to Harry Sidhu resigning as Anaheim mayor Monday underscores the immense influence the company wields in the city of 350,000 with a budget fueled by millions of visitors each year to the Disneyland Resort.
The company has long played a dominant role in Anaheim politics. Some current and former council members, local activists and a past mayor say Disneyland Resort has parlayed its influence into lucrative tax breaks at the expense of city residents and bankrolled friendly politicians with generous campaign donations. Disney has pushed back against such criticism, arguing that the resort provides the city with an important economic engine and is a job creator.
But the court filing provides an unusually detailed look inside how the company works to shape events away from public view.
Councilman Jose Moreno said Disneyland’s influence over the city was obvious to anyone paying attention.
“That would be the worst kept secret in town,” he said.
In response to questions from The Times about its identification as Company A, Disney said in a statement that, “We have seen media reports of the complaint and no authorities have reached out to us about it.” Nocella, who deleted her Facebook and Instagram accounts last week, declined to comment.
Company A came to light in a 99-page affidavit by FBI Special Agent Brian Adkins in support of a criminal complaint accusing Todd Ament, the former head of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, of lying to a mortgage lender.
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The agent wrote that Ament and an unnamed political consultant “were the ring leaders of a small group of individuals who met in person to discuss strategy surrounding several matters within Anaheim — matters that were often pending, or soon to be pending, before the Anaheim City Council,” Adkins wrote.
The affidavit described Company A Employee — Nocella — as one of the group’s ringleaders “to some extent.”
In advance of a secretive gathering of Anaheim business leaders, consultants and politicians in December 2020, Adkins alleged Company A Employee provided input to Ament and the political consultant about who to invite.
Details about the consultant in the affidavit match Jeff Flint, the chief executive and senior partner at FSB Public Affairs, who has represented Disneyland Resort. Flint, who announced last week that he was taking a leave of absence as CEO, denied doing anything wrong.
During a wiretapped phone call on Nov. 30, 2020, between the consultant and an Anaheim politician identified as Elected Official 1, the politician asked if two colleagues had been invited to the retreat.
“No, I talked about it with Todd [Ament] and [Company A Employee],” the political consultant said. “We felt like for this first one we’ll kinda keep things big picture and stick with um, with, um, [Elected Official 4] and [Elected Official 3]. … But, um, [Elected Official 2’s], you know, I think he’s on the team, but he’s just gonna take some management because he’s got competing pressures.”
The subject line for the email invitation to the gathering from Ament’s assistant read: “Retreat 12/2020.” The event was scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the JW Marriott in Anaheim with a “social hour to follow upon conclusion.”
Anaheim City Councilmen Stephen Faessel and Trevor O’Neil along with City Manager Jim Vanderpool have publicly acknowledged attending the retreat.
“As I remember, the major focus of this meeting, was on how to get our economy back open, our residents back to work, the distribution of essential products,” Faessel said. “This was exactly the kind of meeting you would have expected City leadership to have at that moment. Sadly, I’ve read with serious concern how this meeting has been depicted. Apparently others may have gone into this with a different perspective than I did.”
The intercepted phone calls detailed in the affidavit depicted the meeting as anything but ordinary, as organizers fixated on including trustworthy people — “family members only” and keeping “the family close” — while debating whether to invite a city council member described as a possible “double agent.” Ament, at one point, called the group a “cabal.”
According to the affidavit, Nocella and Elected Official 1 were scheduled to attend the retreat.
Almost four months later, Adkins wrote, the political consultant drafted a script about issuing bonds — with input from Company A Employee and Ament — for Elected Official 1 to read at the City Council meeting on March 23, 2021. The item authorized up to $210 million in bonds to make up for pandemic-related revenue shortfalls.
Hours before the meeting, the political consultant texted the assistant for Elected Official 1: Company A “asked to delete reference to [Company A’s parking lot]. Will send to you.”
Sidhu, then mayor, was the only elected official who spoke extensively on that agenda item during the meeting before it passed. Reading from prepared remarks, he referenced Disney in glowing terms: “I believe Disney will continue to invest in Anaheim, strengthening our destination and ensuring Anaheim remains the long-term premier tourist attraction of the West Coast.”
But Company A Employee wasn’t impressed, texting the political consultant that the mayor “reads your script so poorly,” according to the affidavit.
“Lol,” the political consultant replied. “He doesn’t practice.”
Sidhu was linked to the scandal in a separate affidavit in support of a search warrant by Adkins that became public last week. It alleged he gave Major League Baseball’s Angels confidential information on at least two occasions during the city’s negotiations with the team over the $320-million sale of Angel Stadium — and hoped to get a million-dollar campaign donation from the team. Sidhu denied wrongdoing. He has not been charged.
In a statement Monday announcing the resignation, Sidhu’s attorney, Paul Meyer, wrote: “A fair and thorough investigation will prove that [Sidhu] did not leak secret information in the hopes of a later campaign contribution.”
Disneyland Resort has long enjoyed the benefits of its relationship with Anaheim’s government.
City leaders agreed in 1996 to issue $510 million in bonds to finance, among other projects, construction of the $108-million Mickey & Friends parking structure. The resort keeps the parking revenue, and Anaheim will transfer ownership of the garage to Disney once the bonds and $1.1 billion in interest are paid off.
In 2015, the City Council approved shielding Disneyland from any potential tax on ticket sales for 45 years, a massive revenue stream that was estimated to generate more than $1 billion in revenue for the city. Disneyland promised to build the park’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge expansion — which opened in 2019 — and another major project in the future. City officials granted the company a $267-million tax rebate in 2016 for a luxury hotel.
Disneyland abandoned the hotel project in 2018 and asked the City Council to cancel its 45-year ticket sales tax protection. The resort did so as city voters were set to approve a measure requiring any resort business receiving subsidies to pay its workers a living wage.
At the same time, Disney has directed significant campaign funds to influence city politics. The company contributed $1.3 million in 2021 to the Support Our Anaheim Resort political action committee, a group composed of business owners, community leaders and residents, according to campaign finance filings for the non-election year.
In a profile on the University of the Pacific’s website in March, Nocella, who graduated from the McGeorge School of Law in 2002, recalled working at Disneyland Resort in high school and college long before assuming her current role.
“The best part about my job is being able to sit down with an elected official or a policymaker and share with them our position on certain issues and what we’re doing in their communities,” Nocella said. “That’s important to be successful.”
Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-24/disney-power-broker-anaheim-cabal-fbi-records-shows
Survivors of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches and seminaries had pressed the denomination for years to compile and publicize a list of known offenders. Leaders insisted that because of its decentralized structure they had no ability to take action.
The new report revealed that the most recent list contained the names of suspected abusers, with hundreds believed to have been affiliated with the denomination at some point in time. Investigators found that nine people on the list appeared to have remained in active ministry, with two in Southern Baptist settings.
The decision to release the names is the first definitive step the denomination’s leadership has taken since the release of the report sent shock waves through all levels of Southern Baptist society. The committee anticipates the list will be made public on Thursday, according to a statement from the interim president and chief executive, Willie McLaurin.
“Promptly releasing that list is in our best interest, it’s important, it is of immediate concern to the public and to the survivor community, and we need to do it right away,” Gene Besen, the executive committee’s interim counsel, told committee members in a sometimes tense meeting on Tuesday. He said he was moving to release the list “as quickly as we can.”
Mr. Besen said in an interview that his team was in the process of redacting the names of survivors and sources, where appropriate, and redacting any claims that cannot be substantiated through news reports and other sources. “We’re going to err on the side of making the list public as quickly as we can,” he said, adding that researchers may go back and un-redact other names if claims against them prove substantiated later.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/24/us/southern-baptist-sexual-abuse.html
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/asia/north-korea-missile-intl/index.html
UVALDE, Texas – A gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde on Tuesday, killing 14 students and one teacher, Gov. Greg Abbott said. The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Romas, was also killed, Abbott said. Romas was reportedly a student at Uvalde High School or was a former student, Abbott said. Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo said it appears that Romas acted alone.
Abbott said Romas shot his grandmother before he went on the shooting rampage around 11:30 a.m. at Robb Elementary School, where second through fourth graders attend. Romas entered the school with a handgun, and possibly a rifle, and opened fire, Abbott said. He said the shooter was likely killed by responding officers but that the events were still being investigated.
Two law enforcement officers were shot but are expected to be OK, Abbott said.
University Health officials said a 10-year-old girl and a 66-year-old woman were being treated at University Hospital and were in critical condition.
“Texans across the state are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering. We thank the courageous first responders who worked to finally secure Robb Elementary School. I have instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to fully investigate this crime. The Texas Division of Emergency Management is charged with providing local officials all resources necessary to respond to this tragedy as the State of Texas works to ensure the community has what it needs to heal.”
President Joe Biden is expected to address the shooting Wednesday night, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said.
“President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to be briefed regularly as information becomes available. His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event,” she said.
Arredondo said that families of the victims were being notified.
The shooting was the deadliest at a school in Texas history and occurred four years after a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area, the Associated Press reported.
A news conference on what police know about the shooting in the Hill Country community located about 85 miles west of San Antonio is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Hospital officials said several students are being treated in the emergency room. Immediate family members of the injured students are asked to report to the hospital cafeteria on the second floor. UMH staff will keep in constant contact with those family members. Hospital officials ask residents who are not immediate family members to stay away from the hospital.
Students were evacuated to Willie DeLeon Civic Center and that parents are now allowed to pick up their children there.
The district canceled all school activities.
The San Antonio Police Department has sent resources to the school and is standing by to assist as further needed, Police Chief William McManus said.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the county was also sending help to the grief-stricken community.
“It is with profound grief and broken hearts that we learn about the news coming our way this afternoon. We stand united with the community in Uvalde and offer our assistance. We also mourn with them over the lives of those children and adults lost to violence. Bexar County is sending personnel and material from the Office of Emergency Management, the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, and University Hospital to support the ongoing operation,” Wolff said.
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
Source Article from https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/05/24/active-shooter-reported-at-uvalde-elementary-school-district-says/
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/politics/george-w-bush-fbi-threat/index.html
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to be the “beginning of the third world war” that could spell the end of civilisation, the veteran philanthropist and former financier George Soros has warned.
In a ferocious attack on Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros warned that autocratic regimes were in the ascendant and the global economy was heading for a depression.
Soros, who has become a hate figure for the hard right in the US, also heavily criticised the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for cosying up to Moscow and Beijing.
With the mood in Davos already downbeat due to the war in Ukraine, Soros ramped up the gloomy rhetoric to new heights.
“The invasion may have been the beginning of the third world war and our civilisation may not survive it,” he said.
“The invasion of Ukraine didn’t come out of the blue. The world has been increasingly engaged in a struggle between two systems of governance that are diametrically opposed to each other: open society and closed society.”
The 91-year-old former hedge fund owner said the tide had started to turn against open societies in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. “Repressive regimes are now in the ascendant and open societies are under siege. Today China and Russia present the greatest threat to open society.”
Soros, who led the speculative financial attack that drove the pound out of the European exchange rate mechanism 30 years ago, said Europe had responded well to the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion.
“It will take a long time to work out the details, but Europe seems to be moving in the right direction. It has responded to the invasion of Ukraine with greater speed, unity and vigour than ever before in its history.”
He added: “But Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels remains excessive, due largely to the mercantilist policies pursued by former chancellor Angela Merkel. She had made special deals with Russia for the supply of gas and made China Germany’s largest export market. That made Germany the best performing economy in Europe but now there is a heavy price to pay. Germany’s economy needs to be reoriented. And that will take a long time.”
Soros said Putin had won Xi’s agreement to the Russian invasion at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics in early February. But he insisted the Chinese leader was not as strong as he believed.
“Xi harbours a guilty secret. He never told the Chinese people that they had been inoculated with a vaccine that was designed for the original Wuhan variant and offers very little protection against new variants.”
Soros said Xi was unable to “come clean” because he was at a delicate moment in his career. “His second term in office expires in the fall of 2022 and he wants to be appointed to an unprecedented third term, eventually making him ruler for life.”
China’s lockdowns to combat Covid-19 had pushed the economy into freefall but Xi was unable to admit he had made a mistake, he said.
“Coming on top of the real estate crisis the damage will be so great that it will affect the global economy. With the disruption of supply chains, global inflation is liable to turn into global depression.”
Contrary to general expectations, Xi may not get his coveted third term because of the mistakes he had made, Soros predicted.
“While the war rages, the fight against climate change has to take second place. Yet the experts tell us that we have already fallen far behind, and climate change is on the verge of becoming irreversible. That could be the end of our civilisation.
“Therefore, we must mobilise all our resources to bring the war to an early end. The best and perhaps only way to preserve our civilisation is to defeat Putin as soon as possible. That’s the bottom line.”
Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/24/ukraine-invasion-may-be-start-of-third-world-war-says-george-soros
ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump hoped to avoid a stinging defeat in the Georgia governor’s race on Tuesday as Republican primary voters decided the fate of the former president’s hand-picked candidate to lead one of the most competitive political battlegrounds in the U.S.
In all, five states were voting, including Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Minnesota. But none had been more consumed than Georgia by Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
After incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp refused to accept Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia, the former president sought retribution by personally recruiting former Republican Sen. David Perdue to mount a primary challenge. But Kemp emerged as a powerful fundraiser who tapped into the benefits of incumbency. In the final days of the campaign, he unveiled plans for a $5.5 billion, 8,100-job Hyundai Motor plant near Savannah.
Perdue’s allies were bracing for a lopsided defeat, the only question being whether Kemp would win the 50% majority he needed to avoid a runoff election next month.
“We’re not going to have a runoff,” said Matha Zoller, a longtime Republican activist and northeast Georgia talk show host with ties to both Trump and Perdue. “It’s going to be embarrassing.”
The results could raise questions about where power resides within the GOP. While Trump remains deeply popular among the party’s most loyal voters, the opening stage of the midterm primary season has shown they don’t always side with his picks. Other prominent Republicans, meanwhile, are growing increasingly assertive.
Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, rallied with Kemp in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday evening.
“Elections are about the future,” he told the crowd, adding that “when you vote for Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will say yes to a future of freedom here in Georgia. You will say yes to our most cherished values at the heart of everything we hold dear.”
Trump, meanwhile, held a telephone rally for Perdue, describing him as “100% MAGA.”
As 19-year-old Brody Nelson voted Tuesday in the Atlanta suburb of Woodstock, he said Trump’s influence in the governor’s race was a “big deal” in his decision to back Perdue.
“When Trump was in office, he did a lot for this country, and he did a great deal to help small businesses and the people who were struggling in the world compared to the rich and the powerful,” he said.
But Nathan Johnston, a 42-year-old land surveyor, said he was voting for Kemp because of his leadership during “a tough four years.”
“Our economy has been doing good in Georgia,” he said. “We didn’t stay shut down any longer than we had to and worked our way through the pandemic, and the economy is doing pretty good, so I think that reflects well on him.”
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats elsewhere were grappling with ideological and strategic divisions that will determine what kind of candidates to nominate and which issues to prioritize for the November general election.
Democrats were especially focused on a runoff election in south Texas, where longtime incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar was facing a fierce challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros in a race where abortion was a prominent issue. Cuellar is the last anti-abortion Democrat serving in the House.
Republicans were deciding a series of lower-profile primaries.
In Arkansas, former Trump aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders was expected to claim the Republican governor’s nomination. And in Alabama, conservative firebrand Rep. Mo Brooks was running to represent the GOP in the race to replace retiring Sen. Richard Shelby. Brooks, a leading figure at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol attack, initially won Trump’s endorsement, although Trump rescinded it after watching Brooks struggle in the polls.
No state had more consequential elections this week than Georgia, a longtime Republican stronghold that has shifted Democratic in recent elections. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes in 2020, and Democrats narrowly won both Senate seats two months later.
This year, Trump’s obsession with his 2020 loss has loomed over Republican primary elections for governor, Senate and secretary of state.
Trump-backed former NFL star Herschel Walker was poised to win Georgia’s GOP Senate nomination after fending off conservative opponents who raised questions about his history of domestic violence. Walker would face the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, this fall.
Leading Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was also expected to win her primary election in the state’s 14th congressional district, despite a first term notable for her conspiracy theories and controversy.
On the Democratic side in Georgia, two congressional incumbents, Reps. Lucy McBath and Carolyn Bourdeaux, were running against each other in suburban Atlanta, forced into a rare incumbent-on-incumbent primary after Republicans re-drew the congressional map.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Republican primary for governor — and the GOP’s secretary of state contest — will have a direct impact on Georgia’s election system for the 2024 presidential contest.
In the GOP primary for secretary of state, Trump has railed against GOP incumbent Brad Raffensperger, who refused support the former president’s direct calls to overturn the 2020 election. Raffensperger faces three primary challengers, including Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice. The winner will serve as Georgia’s chief election officer in the 2024 presidential election.
Tuesday marked the first Georgia election under a new voting law adopted by the Republican-backed state legislature in response to Trump’s grievances. The changes made it harder to vote by mail, which was popular among Democrats in 2020 amid the pandemic; introduced new voter identification requirements that critics warned might disenfranchise Black voters; and expanded early voting in rural areas that typically vote Republican.
The new law also bans handing out food or water within 150 feet of a polling place, a practice common in urban areas where there are typically long voter lines.
By afternoon, no major or systemwide issue had been reported in Georgia. There were sporadic reports of polling locations opening late, minor equipment troubles and some voters finding themselves at the wrong location.
Early voting totals in Georgia suggested enormous voter interest — especially on the Republican side.
Through last Friday, 857,401 voters had cast early ballots, including 795,567 who voted early in-person, according to the secretary of state. That included 483,149 votes cast by Republicans and 368,949 by Democrats.
Those figures shattered early voting turnout in the 2020 presidential election, when a total of 254,883 Georgians voted early.
Democrats downplayed the voting disparity, noting that the state’s highest-profile contests were playing out on the Republican side.
“While Democrats are uniting behind our candidates, Republicans are in chaos as they run on an extreme agenda and try to outdo each other as the most MAGA candidate,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.
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Peoples reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Woodstock, Georgia, contributed to this report.
Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterms-results-6abc8a67a708c9c90d32022eb08fe544
The commission is required to submit its final report to Congress by Oct. 1, and the Pentagon will have until early 2024 to carry out the commission’s suggestions. The commission also is reviewing a much longer list of Defense Department “assets,” including streets and buildings on military bases.
In developing its recommendations, Howard said the committee sought “to inspire today’s Soldiers and the local communities with names or values that have meaning. These names we are recommending embody the best of the United States Army and America.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Tuesday that the set of recommendations “highlights the Commission’s efforts to propose nine new installation names that reflect the courage, values, sacrifices, and diversity of our military men and women.”
“I thank the members of the Commission for their important, collaborative work with base commanders, local community leaders, Soldiers, and military families,” Austin said. “And I look forward to seeing their complete report later this year.”
House Armed Service Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.) also praised the commission’s recommendations in a statement. “These new names honor and celebrate the strength and diversity of the service members who serve at each of these nine installations, as well as honoring military families and the values that serve as a cornerstone of our democracy,” he said.
If the commission’s proposal is adopted, the nine Army bases would be renamed as follows:
— Fort Benning in Georgia would be renamed Fort Moore to honor Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Julia Moore.
— Fort Bragg in North Carolina would be renamed Fort Liberty, in commemoration of “the American value of Liberty,” according to the commission.
— Fort Gordon in Georgia would be renamed Fort Eisenhower, honoring former President and Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.
— Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia would be renamed Fort Walker in commemoration of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker.
— Fort Hood in Texas would be renamed Fort Cavazos, to recognize Gen. Richard E. Cavazos.
— Fort Lee in Virginia would be renamed Fort Gregg-Adams, commemorating Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams.
— Fort Pickett in Virginia would be renamed Fort Barfoot, which would recognize Tech. Sgt. Van T. Barfoot.
— Fort Polk in Louisiana would be renamed Fort Johnson, in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson.
— Fort Rucker in Alabama would be renamed Fort Novosel, in commemoration of CW4 Michael J. Novosel Sr.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/24/commission-recommends-nine-new-names-for-army-bases-that-honor-confederates-00034799
“The White House did significant outreach with us and tried to listen to our concerns,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a bipartisan think tank that focuses on police practices. “This final executive order is substantively different from the original version, and that’s made a big difference to many of us in law enforcement.”
Mr. Biden has repeatedly emphasized a message of investing in, rather than defunding, the police — wading into a national debate about whether the government should give police departments more resources or spend the money on mental health care and other social services instead.
One of the changes reflected in the executive order, according to the people familiar with the final version, centered on what it would say about standards for using force.
The administration has taken out language that would have allowed federal law enforcement agents to use deadly force only “as a last resort when there is no reasonable alternative, in other words only when necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death.” The earlier version would also have encouraged state and local police to adopt the same standard using federal discretionary grants.
Law enforcement officials complained that the standard would allow second-guessing in hindsight of decisions by officers in exigent circumstances. The final order instead refers to a Justice Department policy issued this week that says officers may shoot suspects when they have “a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”
Jim Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he thought new use-of-force language would “bring more clarity and better guidance to officers” but without causing them to become so risk-averse that they fail to protect themselves and others when necessary.
“It’s not a question of stricter or less strict,” Mr. Pasco said. “It’s a question of better framed. And a better-constructed definition of the use of force.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/24/us/politics/police-executive-order-george-floyd.html