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Ashley Sawyer participou de episódio da segunda temporada de ‘Catfish’ (Foto: Reprodução/MTV)

A participante de um episódio da segunda temporada do programa “Catfish”, Ashley Sawyer, morreu aos 23 anos nos Estados Unidos. Segundo a MTV americana, responsável pela série, a causa da morte é desconhecida.

“A MTV está profundamente triste por saber que Ashley Sawyer morreu”, afirmou a emissora em nota. “Nossas condolências, pensamentos e orações vão à sua família e aos seus amigos.”

“Catfish” é uma série-documentário que investiga pessoas com relacionamentos pela internet e que mentem sobre sua identidade aos parceiros virtuais.

O episódio com a participação de Sawyer foi transmitido nos EUA em 2013. O capítulo mostrou que tanto ela quanto Michael Fortunato, com quem Sawyer tinha um relacionamento digital por sete anos, mentiam um para o outro.

Ele morreu um mês depois da transmissão aos 26 anos de idade por embolia pulmonar.

À MTV americana, a irmã de Sawyer, Jessica Ross, afirmou que Ashley havia completado um programa de reabilitação e morava no Alabama.

Source Article from http://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/2016/05/ashley-sawyer-participante-do-programa-catfish-morre-aos-23-anos.html

Republican Mark Harris said Tuesday he will not run in the new election for North Carolina’s 9th congressional district, citing his “extremely serious” health condition.

It comes just days after the North Carolina State Board of Election unanimously voted for a new election after the district’s House race from 2018 was marred by claims of ballot fraud.

NORTH CAROLINA ELECTION BOARD CALLS NEW ELECTION IN DISPUTED HOUSE RACE

“After consulting with my physicians, there are several things that my health situation requires as a result of the extremely serious condition that I faced in mid-January,” Harris said in a statement. “One of those is a necessary surgery that is now scheduled for the last week in March.”

Harris added, “I have decided not to file in the new election for Congressional District 9.”

Last week, Harris, who outpaced Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the contested race, said in court he has suffered two strokes since the election and was “struggling” to get through the hearing.

McCready has said he will run again.

In his statement Tuesday, Harris threw his support behind Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing.

“The North Carolina Republican Party fully supports Dr. Harris’ decision,” North Carolina Republican Chairman Robin Hayes said. “The most important thing for him to address is his health. This has been a grueling process for all involved, and we unequivocally support his call for a new election.”

Last week, Harris acknowledged a new election should be held after days of testimony in a hearing on ballot-tampering.

“I believe a new election should be called,” Harris said. “It’s become clear to me that public confidence in the 9th District has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted.”

In his sworn testimony, Harris said that he was assured by political operative – and convicted felon – Leslie McCrae Dowless that campaign workers would never collect absentee ballots, despite concerns from Harris’ son, John, that Dowless was illegally collecting and turning in ballots from voters.

One of the methods participants said Dowless used was to hire workers to collect absentee ballots from voters who received them, and then turn them over to him, according to an elections board investigation.

State election law prohibits anyone other than a guardian or close family member from handling mail-in ballots. Harris’ team initially said in a legal briefing submitted to the elections board last week the board should certify him the winner — no matter what Dowless did for the campaign.

Harris’ comments calling for a new election came a day after his son took the stand in emotional testimony that left his father in tears.

“I raised red flags at the time the decision was made to hire Mr. Dowless,” John Harris said in his testimony on Wednesday.

Fox News’ David Lewkowict and Andrew O’Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.  

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-mark-harris-wont-run-in-new-nc-election-citing-serious-health-condition

The fight to keep TikTok alive in the U.S. has been a confusing geopolitical battle, and it got more confusing on Wednesday morning after Maria Bartiromo, a news anchor with Fox Business, stated that Oracle chief Larry Ellison told her Masayoshi Son of Softbank would be on the board of TikTok. 

Ellison, who has appeared on Mornings with Maria before and was scheduled to appear on Wednesday but backed out, apparently told Baritromo earlier this week that four out of the five TikTok board seats will be filled by Americans, and “the fifth one is likely going to be Japanese, Masa Son,” said Baritromo. 

That is not true, a source close to the negotiations tells Forbes. “Even the Oracle folks have no idea why Larry Ellison would have said that or why Maria would say that, but no, Masayoshi Son will not be on the board,” the source says.

TikTok and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for SoftBank declined to comment. 

The lapse in communication between ByteDance, the Beijing-based owner of TikTok, and Oracle, has become a theme in the unprecedented negotiations to make the hugely popular social app a U.S.-based company. These efforts were sparked by President Donald Trump, who threatened to ban the social media app in August over security concerns that the Chinese government would use TikTok to spy on American citizens. He gave ByteDance until September 15 to give up control of its U.S. operations. 

In the weeks following Trump’s order, various companies were thrown out as buyers, with Oracle and Microsoft coming out as the top contenders. Two days before the deadline, Microsoft released a statement that ByteDance had declined its offer to buy the company’s U.S. operations. 

Though Oracle won over Microsoft, critics soon pointed out that Oracle’s plan for a “partnership” with TikTok would not be a full sale, thus not meeting President Trump’s requirements for the deal. On September 19, Oracle and Walmart announced it would be acquiring 20% of TikTok Global, a new parent company of TikTok which would be responsible for all of the app’s services in the U.S., and well as most of the world. As part of the deal, Oracle would become TikTok’s cloud provider. The White House gave its blessing on the deal. 

Two days after that announcement, however, ByteDance and Oracle came out with contradictory statements about who would be in charge of TikTok Global. ByteDance said TikTok Global would be a “100 percent” fully owned subsidiary, while Ken Gleuck, a executive vice president at Oracle, said ByteDance would have no ownership in TikTok Global. It remains unclear who will ultimately own TikTok—and, apparently, who will serve on its board.

“There has just been a lot of silliness around all this,” the source said to Forbes.

Source Article from https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2020/09/23/larry-ellison-says-masayoshi-son-will-serve-on-tiktok-board-but-thats-in-dispute/

Estados Unidos impuso sanciones financieras al vicepresidente de Venezuela, Tareck El Aissami, oficialmente designándolo un narcotraficante, informó este lunes el Departamento del Tesoro en un comunicado.

El Aissami, un influyente dirigente y persona muy cercana al fallecido Hugo Chávez, designado vicepresidente por el presidente Nicolás Maduro el 4 de enero, fue incluido en una lista de sanciones de la OFAC, una oficina del departamento del Tesoro estadounidense.

Un socio de El Aissami, el empresario Samark José López Bello, también fue incluido en las sanciones, que congelan los bienes que ambos pudieran tener en Estados Unidos y prohíbe a cualquier ciudadano o compañía estadounidense a hacer negocios con cualquiera de los señalados.

“Las acciones de la OFAC son la culminación de una investigación de varios años (…) contra los importantes traficantes de narcóticos en Venezuela y demuestra que el poder y la influencia no protege a aquellos que realizan estas actividades ilegales”, dijo su director interino, John Smith, según la nota del Tesoro.

El Aissami, que fue gobernador del estado Aragua y ministro del Interior, “facilitó los cargamentos de narcóticos desde Venezuela”, detalló el Tesoro, señalando que el funcionario “supervisó o fue dueño parcial” de cargamentos de más de mil kilogramos de droga, que salieron de Venezuela con destinos como México y Estados Unidos”.

El exministro recibió pagos del narcotraficante venezolano Walid Makled y también tenía lazos con el violento cartel mexicano Los Zetas, según denuncia el Tesoro.

Source Article from http://www.elpais.com.uy/mundo/eeuu-califica-narcotraficante-vicepresidente-venezuela.html

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No es la primera vez que hay protestas en un evento de Donald Trump.

Un mitin del precandidato republicano a la presidencia de Estados Unidos Donald Trump tuvo que ser pospuesto de manera indefinida este viernes después de que cientos de manifestantes empezaran a protestar dentro y fuera del recinto en el que se debía celebrar el evento.

Imágenes de la televisión estadounidense mostraron a decenas de personas en el interior del recinto de la Universidad de Illinois en Chicago portando pancartas en contra de Trump y cantando consignas contra el magnate.

También se oyeron gritos a favor del precandidato demócrata a la Casa Blanca Bernie Sanders.

Algunos de los manifestantes se enfrentaron directamente con los los seguidores de Trump.

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La policía evacuó el lugar para evitar disturbios más graves.

Desde la campaña de Trump enviaron un comunicado en el que explicaron que decidieron cancelar el evento tras hablar con las autoridades.

La policía evacuó el lugar para evitar disturbios más graves.

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Algunos manifestantes fueron retirados por los servicios de seguridad de Trump.

En el exterior del recinto deportivo había cientos de personas congregadas que fueron abandonado el lugar sin que hubiera incidentes graves.

En declaraciones a la cadena CNN tras la suspensión del evento, Donald Trump aseguró que lo que habían hecho los manifestantes era “una violación de la libertad de expresión”.

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Los disturbios ocurrieron en el interior del recinto de la Universidad de Illinois en Chicago.

Disturbios en otros eventos

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Varios manifestantes han sido expulsados de eventos de Trump en las últimas semanas.

No es la primera vez que hay protestas en un evento de Donald Trump, quien encabeza el proceso de primarias para convertirse en el candidato republicano de cara a las elecciones presidenciales de noviembre en EE.UU.

Varios manifestantes han sido expulsados de sus eventos en las últimas semanas y en algunos casos se han visto imágenes de algunos seguidores de Trump agrediendo a los que protestaban.

Este mismo jueves uno de los seguidores de Trump fue acusado de un delito de asalto después de que se hicieran públicas unas imágenes en las que se le veía pegar un puñetazo a un joven afroestadounidense en un mitin del magnate en Carolina del Norte.

En la mañana de este viernes 32 personas fueron detenidas por protestar durante un evento de Trump en San Luis, en Missouri.

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Algunos manifestantes portaban carteles que hacían referencia a las palabras pronunciadas por Trump hace unos meses sobre los inmigrantes mexicanos, de los que dijo que “son violadores”. Este joven lleva una pancarta que dice: “No somos violadores”.

Algunos han culpado de estos episodios de tensión a la retórica en contra de los inmigrantes ilegales y los musulmanes utilizada por Trump durante su campaña y al hecho de que el magnate “no ha condenado de forma contundente” la violencia empleada por algunos de sus seguidores.

Este viernes Trump aseguró: “No me gusta la violencia (…) pero hay grupos de agitadores que causan problemas y están felices de causar problemas y coartan la libertad de expresión de otros. (…) Protestar es su carrera. Han hecho un negocio de protestar”.

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En el exterior del recinto deportivo había cientos de personas congregadas.

Source Article from http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/03/160311_eeuu_elecciones_trump_mitin_disturbios_jg

HONG KONG — Beijing on Thursday lambasted President Donald Trump for backing legislation supporting human rights in Hong Kong, condemning the U.S. for its “stark hegemonic acts” and for interfering in the semiautonomous region’s affairs.

In response to the U.S. move, activists chanted “Stand with Hong Kong” and “Save Us,” and urged the world to follow in America’s footsteps. Joshua Wong, a prominent activist who was among democracy supporters who lobbied for the new U.S. laws, praised them as a “remarkable achievement,” with human rights triumphing over crucial U.S.-China trade talks.

On Wednesday, Trump signed two bills into law. One prescribes economic sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials found guilty of human rights abuses. The second bill bans the export of certain nonlethal munitions to the former British colony’s police.

A protester holds American flags during a demonstration in Hong Kong’s financial district on Thursday.Kin Cheung / AP

“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China, and the people of Hong Kong,” said Trump in a statement released by the White House. “They are being enacted in the hope that leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences leading to long term peace and prosperity for all.”

China, which has been struggling to contain anti-government protests roiling Hong Kong for nearly six months, responded with a stream of angry replies.

“We urge the U.S. to not continue going down the wrong path, or China will take countermeasures, and the U.S. must bear all consequences,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The editor of the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, responded sarcastically to Trump’s message.

“Out of respect for President Trump, the U.S. and its people, China is considering [putting] the drafters of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on the no-entry list, barring them from entering Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao,” Hu Xijin wrote in a post on Twitter.

Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong expressed “extreme anger” toward the U.S., and added that Hong Kong belongs to China and “the Chinese have the ability to deal with Hong Kong affairs.”

Hong Kong’s government joined in, describing the bills’ passage as “unnecessary and unwarranted,” and warning that they would strike a blow against the “relations and common interests” of Hong Kong and the U.S.

Thousands, many waving American flags, gathered in Hong Kong’s financial district to celebrate the bills signed by Trump.

“This rally is to show our gratitude to America and also President Trump for passing the bill,” said Sunny Cheung, the rally organizer.

Student David So agreed.

“I think it’s a happy news,” he said. “It’s an international recognition on today’s Hong Kong situation.”

“Ultimately it’s up to us. The bills have their deterrent effects but Hong Kongers are the real ones who fight on,” he added.

Millions of Hong Kongers initially took to the streets over the summer to protest a controversial extradition bill that many feared would extend Beijing’s control over the city. The amorphous movement has developed wider demands for greater democracy, such as establishing an independent commission of inquiry into police brutality and universal suffrage.

So the U.S. bills are a major boost for the protesters, according to Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong.

“Certainly, a lot of us are quite helpless in front of Beijing and Carrie Lam’s administration and the police,” he said, referring to the territory’s beleaguered chief executive. “I think what worries the Chinese authorities [is] the turning tide in the public opinion of the United States and the Western world.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/beijing-hits-out-after-trump-signs-laws-backing-hong-kong-n1092991

Republican U.S. House candidates shattered expectations in the 2020 election, in part because independents and some Democratic voters “connected the dots” between liberal Democratic governance and the economic deterioration in their communities, according to one GOP lawmaker.

U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California, a Sacramento-area Republican and member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said on Fox News’ “Hannity” that people in liberal and Democratic precincts have seen firsthand how the left’s policies have failed them.

He said that in many places where there is a uniform left-wing hold on political power, constituents are often left dealing with rampant homelessness, high taxes, failing public schools, unemployment and skyrocketing energy costs.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE US HOUSE ELECTION RESULTS

“That’s what the Democratic left delivers,” he said, adding that many voters in his home state have recognized the problem.

“And I think Californians are getting fed up with that and I think Americans across the country are looking at places like California and New York and saying we don’t want to go there,” McClintock continued, pointing to two otherwise Democratic-stronghold states where House Republicans made their greatest gains.

“That’s why the Georgia election is so important,” he added, pointing to the state where two U.S. Senate runoff elections on Jan. 5 will determine control of the chamber.

In New York, state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican who was her party’s nominee against Bill de Blasio in New York City’s 2017 mayoral election, unseated U.S. Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y.

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In doing so, the Staten Island lawmaker became the only Republican congressmember within New York City. 

In McClintock’s California, several Republicans in hotly contested races have emerged victorious, including Rep.-elect David Valadao, R-Calif., whose victory was announced by host Tammy Bruce during “Hannity.”

Elsewhere in the state, Reps.-elect Young Kim and Michelle Steel defeated their Democratic incumbent challengers, as the GOP added to its ranks in the House despite predictions it would lose about a dozen net seats.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-mcclintock-california-gop-house-wins-show-some-democratic-voters-connecting-the-dots-on-liberal-left

With a presidential bid underway, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is pivoting on weed, saying Monday morning that she supports legalizing marijuana and smoked weed in college.

Asked during an interview on morning radio show The Breakfast Club about whether she supports legalization, Harris said, “Look, I joke about it, half joking — half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”

As is customary for presidential candidates, Harris was also asked on Monday whether she’s ever smoked weed. She said she had, in college, adding, “I did inhale. It was a long time ago, but yes.”

“Listen,” she said, laughing, “I think [marijuana] gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy in the world.”

The Harris who was cracking jokes during the Monday morning interview is basically unrecognizable compared with the Harris of just a few years ago.

In 2010, while Harris was San Fransisco district attorney and running for state attorney general, she came out in opposition to Proposition 19. The measure would have legalized marijuana in California, and in a statement shared with The New York Times, Harris said Prop 19 would encourage “driving while high” and drug use in the workplace.

As CBS reported at the time, both Harris and her Republican opponent, then-Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, refused to give a straight answer during a debate when they were asked whether they’d defend Prop 19 if it passed.

Prop 19 ultimately did not pass, with 53.5 percent of California voters voting no on the measure. California voters put Harris in the Attorney General’s office that year, as well.

Four years later, Harris was up for re-election, and her Republican opponent Ron Gold made legalizing recreational marijuana part of his platform. When a local news reporter asked Harris what she thought of Gold’s position, Harris said, “He’s entitled to his opinion,” before bursting into laughter.

Harris first announced her support for legalizing marijuana just last year, long after her home state and several others around the country legalized its use. In a book released last month, she called for legalizing and regulating the drug, as well as expunging nonviolent marijuana-related offenses “from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives.”

Harris’s pivot comes amidst increased scrutiny of her prosecutorial record. In addition to her earlier comments about weed, Harris has a complicated prosecutorial history with sex work, school truancy, and wrongful convictions.

During her time as California’s attorney general, Harris fought against a movement to legalize sex work in the state, arguing, as LA Weekly reported in 2015, that anti-sex work laws protect people from human trafficking, something many advocates and sex workers have repeatedly refuted.

As ThinkProgress has previously reported, sex workers and their allies say that criminalization only further endangers them.

“We know what best practices around addressing exploitation in labor are, and it’s not making people more isolated and more vulnerable,” Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice told ThinkProgress last year.

A truancy program Harris instituted while she worked as San Fransisco’s district attorney has also come under fire in recent weeks. The program began in 2008, and, in an effort to to get chronically truant kids to school, Harris’s office threatened to prosecute their parents.

Harris’s office argues that the program is actually a progressive policy, as a spokesperson for Harris told Vox, “A critical way to keep kids out of the criminal justice system when they’re older or prevent them from becoming victims of crime is to keep them in school when they’re young.”

But progressive criminal justice advocates say the program was dangerously misguided.

“You’re essentially threatening people with prison when there’s underlying poverty issues that are potentially preventing them from having their kids show up to school on time,” Jyoti Nanda, who runs runs a youth and justice clinic at UCLA, also told Vox. “It’s using a crime lens to address what’s really a public health issue.”

Perhaps the most disturbing detail of Harris’s record, however, hasn’t gotten as much attention. As The New York Times outlined in January, California’s former top lawyer has a history of defending wrongful convictions.

In 2015, according to the Times report, Harris’s prosecutors likely could have freed George Gage, a man who was charged with sexually abusing his stepdaughter. Gage was convicted largely on the basis of his stepdaughter’s testimony, despite the fact that his stepdaughter’s mother described her child as a “pathological liar,” and the fact that Gage was forced to act as his own lawyer. Harris sent the case to mediation and refused dismiss it. Gage remains in prison.

Similarly, as the Times reported, Harris worked to keep another man, Daniel Larsen, in prison for possession of a concealed weapon even though there was compelling evidence of his innocence, arguing that he failed to raise his arguments in a timely fashion.

Harris also defended Johnny Baca’s murder conviction, even though a judge found that a prosecutor presented false testimony during the trial. Harris later “fought tooth and nail,” as Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher put it to The Press-Enterprise, to keep the transcript that proved the false testimony out of the court’s hands.

“It looks terrible,” Fletcher told the paper.


Source Article from https://thinkprogress.org/harris-record-weed-history-ce37afd239ce/

President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Friday, setting in motion a historic confirmation process for the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation.

“Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I’m here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution, to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America,” Biden said at the White House as he introduced Jackson.

“For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” Biden said. “I believe it’s time that we have a court reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications, and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.”

Senate Democratic leaders hope to have a vote confirming Jackson to the court by mid-April.

Jackson, 51, currently sits on DC’s federal appellate court and had been considered the front-runner for the vacancy since Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.

“I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyond measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith,” Jackson said.

“Among my many blessings, and indeed the very first, is the fact that I was born in this great country,” she added. “The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. I was also blessed from my early days to have had a supportive and loving family. My mother and father, who have been married for 54 years, are at their home in Florida right now and I know that they could not be more proud.”

RELATED: Republicans attack Biden Supreme Court pick as pawn of ‘radical Left’

Though historic, the choice of Jackson will not change the ideological makeup of the court. The court currently has six conservative justices and three liberal justices – and the retiring Breyer comes from the liberal camp. The court is already poised to continue its turn toward the right with high-profile cases and rulings expected from the court in the coming months on abortion, gun control and religious liberty issues.

Biden met with Jackson for her Supreme Court interview earlier this month, a senior administration official said, in a meeting that the White House managed to keep secret. Jackson received and accepted Biden’s offer in a call Thursday night, a source familiar with the decision told CNN, yet was present for DC Circuit Court hearings Friday morning.

The White House considered delaying the announcement, given the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but believed it was critical to get the second phase of the confirmation process moving, the official said.

Chance to excite Democrats

Biden’s pick is a chance for him to fire up a Democratic base that is less excited to vote in this year’s midterm elections than it has been over the past several election cycles. The selection gives Biden a chance to deliver on one of his top campaign promises, and he’ll hope that the Black voters who were crucial to his election win will see this as a return on their investment.

While Jackson was the leading contender, the official said the President gave “considerable weight” to other finalists, including Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.

For more than a year, the President had familiarized himself with her work, reading many of her opinions and other writings, along with those of other contenders.

But Biden was also was impressed by her life story, including her rise from federal public defender to federal appellate judge – and her upbringing as the daughter of two public school teachers and administrators.

“Her parents grew up with segregation, but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of America,” the President said Friday.

“Her opinions are always carefully reasoned, tethered to precedent and demonstrate respect for how the law impacts everyday people,” Biden said. “It doesn’t mean she puts her thumb on the scale of justice one way or the other. But she understands the broader impacts of her decisions, whether it’s cases addressing the rights of workers or government service. She cares about making sure that our democracy works for the American people. She listens. She looks people in the eye – lawyers, defendants victims and families – and she strives ensure that everyone understands why she made a decision, what the law is, and what it means to them. She strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice. That’s something all of us should remember. And it’s something I’ve thought about throughout this process.”

Nomination process

Eyes will now turn to the Senate, where Biden’s Democratic Party holds the thinnest possible majority. The President will hope that Jackson can garner bipartisan support, but Democrats will need all their members in Washington to ensure her confirmation.

Unlike for most major pieces of legislation, Democrats do not need Republican help to confirm a Supreme Court justice and can do it with their 50 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a deadlock. When Jackson was confirmed to the appellate bench, she had the support of three Republican senators. Harris, whom the White House said played an active role in the selection process, was working the phones Friday morning, calling senators as the news was reported.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated that he wants to push a nominee through the process quickly, using Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s Senate proceedings as a model for Jackson’s confirmation timeline. And Sen. Dick Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN recently that he expects to have a hearing within a few weeks of the selection.

The goal of the leadership is to have the nominee confirmed by the April 11 recess.

Jackson is expected to have her courtesy meetings with senators next week, according to a person familiar with the plans. It’s common for Supreme Court nominees to meet with the leadership on both sides, then members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Biden first committed to nominating a Black female US Supreme Court justice when he was running for president in 2020. On a debate stage in South Carolina, Biden argued that his push to make “sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court” was rooted in an effort to “get everyone represented.”

Though there are currently no Black women serving in the United States Senate in a position to vote for the nominee, Black female House members, all Democrats, applauded Biden for “fulfilling his campaign promise.”

Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio said the nomination is “something that I will remember forever.” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey said Jackson will “bring a new, necessary perspective” to the court and “will also be an inspiration to Black women and girls everywhere.” Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida said she “never dreamed that, in my lifetime, I would see a Black woman nominated” to the Supreme Court.

Jackson was born in the nation’s capital but grew up in the Miami area. She was a member of the debate team at Miami Palmetto Senior High School before earning both her undergraduate degree and law degree at Harvard.

Personal history

She also previously clerked for Breyer and served as a federal public defender in Washington – an experience that her backers say is fitting, given Biden’s commitment to putting more public defenders on the federal bench. She was also a commissioner on the US Sentencing Commission and served on the federal district court in DC, as an appointee of President Barack Obama, before Biden elevated her to the DC Circuit last year.

Jackson thanked Breyer in her speech.

“Justice Breyer, in particular, not only gave me the greatest job that any young lawyer could ever hope to have, but he also exemplified every day, in every way, that a Supreme Court justice can perform at the highest level of skill and integrity, while also being guided by civility, grace, pragmatism and generosity of spirit,” Jackson said. “Justice Breyer, the members of the Senate will decide if I fill your seat, but please know that I could never fill your shoes.”

At her 2021 confirmation hearing for the appellate court, she connected her family’s professions – her parents worked in public schools – to her decision to work as a public defender.

“I come from a background of public service. My parents were in public service, my brother was a police officer and (was) in the military,” she said at the time, “and being in the public defenders’ office felt very much like the opportunity to help with my skills and talents.”

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, is a relative by marriage and introduced her at the 2013 hearing for her district court nomination.

Ryan also congratulated Jackson Friday.

“Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal,” Ryan said.

At the White House Friday, Jackson noted that an uncle was previously given a life sentence on drug charges, an issue of which she hasn’t previously spoken about publicly.

“You may have read that I have one uncle who got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence,” Jackson said. “That is true, but law enforcement also runs in my family. In addition to my brother, I had two uncles who served decades as police officers, one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of Miami, Florida.”

In 2008, when Jackson was in private practice and well before she became a judge, Jackson referred her uncle’s file to WilmerHale, a law firm that handles numerous clemency petitions, according to a spokesperson for the firm.

The firm submitted the petition on Brown’s behalf on October 7, 2014, and Obama commuted his sentence on November 22, 2016. According to the firm, Jackson had “no further involvement in the matter” after making the referral. Jackson’s chambers said she would decline comment on the issue.

“I am standing here today by the grace of God as testament to the love and support that I’ve received from my family,” Jackson added Friday.

Republicans signal potential opposition

As a judge in DC – where some of the most politically charged cases are filed – Jackson’s issued notable rulings touching on Congress’ ability to investigate the White House. As a district court judge, she wrote a 2019 opinion siding with House lawmakers who sought the testimony of then-White House Counsel Don McGahn. Last year, she was on the unanimous circuit panel that ordered disclosure of certain Trump White House documents to the House January 6 committee.

As a judge, some other notable cases she has in her record are a 2018 case brought federal employee unions where she blocked parts of executive orders issued by Trump, and a case where she ruled against Trump policies that expand the categories of non-citizens who could be subject to expedited removal procedures without being able to appear before a judge.

Jackson penned more than 500 opinions in the eight years she spent on the district court.

Though Biden has said that he’d pick a nominee with bipartisan appeal who is “worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency,” his decision to name the first Black woman to the court is already facing Republican opposition. Several Senate Republicans have told CNN they disagreed with the President’s decision to name a Black woman to the court rather than judging a nominee squarely on their credentials, even though Ronald Reagan and Trump both said they’d name a female justice to the Supreme Court when they were on the campaign trail.

Even before Biden nominated Jackson, GOP senators and Senate candidates were already concluding that she’d be far left, throwing cold water on the names floated as being on Biden’s potential short list and calling for a slow confirmation process. Still, Republicans are limited in their ability to block a Supreme Court nominee, and Jackson may win the support of some GOP senators.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine all voted for Jackson last summer when she was confirmed as a circuit court judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the second most important court in the country.

Collins touted Jackson’s “impressive academic and legal credentials” following the announcement. But Graham, who had expressed support for Childs, suggested Jackson does not have his approval, saying in a tweet that the choice of Jackson “means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.” Graham added that he expects a “respectful but interesting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for a “rigorous, exhaustive” review of Jackson in a statement.

“I also understand Judge Jackson was “impressive academic and legal credentials the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself,” McConnell said.

This story has been updated with additional developments, reaction and background information.

CNN’s Eva McKend, John Harwood and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Russia has closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, in response Ukraine-related sanctions targeting its aviation sector.

Some of the banned countries had already been identified, while others were named by the aviation authority Rosaviatsia for the first time on Monday following the punitive measures imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The flight bans are expected to hurt airlines that fly over the world’s biggest country to get from Europe to Asia. They are likely to force them to find new routes.

Rosaviatsia said that flights from those countries could in exceptional circumstances be authorised if they secure special clearance from Russia’s aviation authority or foreign ministry.

It listed the countries as Albania, Anguilla, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, British Virgin Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Jersey, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the invasion of Ukraine a “special operation” and justified it by saying “neo-Nazis” rule the country and threaten Russia’s security – a charge Kyiv and Western governments say is baseless propaganda.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-imposes-sweeping-flight-bans-airlines-36-countries-2022-02-28/

Experts at Johns Hopkins University estimate more than 79,000 worldwide coronavirus patients have recovered from the disease. People recovering from coronavirus have called it “not even comparable” to the flu, and reported difficulty breathing as well as fevers. Dr. Tara Narula speaks with a handful of people recovering from coronavirus, including a woman who claims she had a fever so high it led to hallucinations.

Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wak8UQebNDs

South Bend mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg faced his constituents at a tense town hall Sunday afternoon one week after the fatal shooting of Eric Logan, an African American man, by South Bend Police Sgt. Ryan O’Neill, a white police officer.

Attendees shouted their concerns and their disappointment at city officials for not taking swifter action to address the strained relationship between the police department and the black community. Buttigieg noted the complex relationship between minorities and police extends beyond the incident that occurred on June 16.

“There is a lot beneath the surface when it comes to trust and legitimacy around policing and race in our city,” the South Bend mayor said.

Buttigieg told attendees that the city has made progress in regard to the promotion process, raising police discipline standards and increasing public data online. And Buttigieg said that he will send a letter to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to look into the city’s police department.

He also said he told the prosecutor handling the case that he thinks an independent investigator should take over the case. The St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit is investigating the shooting.

But Buttigieg also acknowledged he has failed to diversify the police department and ensure that officers wear body cameras. O’Neill’s body camera reportedly wasn’t activated during last Sunday’s incident.

“As the mayor of the city, I want to acknowledge that those last two lines of effort, the effort to recruit more minority officers to the police department and the effort to introduce body cameras, have not succeed,” he said. “And I accept responsibility for that.”

In the question-and-answer section, one attendee told Buttigieg to reorganize his department by Friday of next week to “get the racists off the streets,” in reference to law enforcement officers.

Buttigieg responded to shouts from the crowd, “I will say that if anyone who is on patrol is shown to be a racist, or to do something racist in a way that is substantiated, that is their last day on the street.”

Pete Buttigieg seen at a town hall on the night of Sun., June 23, 2019, in South Bend, Indiana.


WSBT-TV



South Bend Common Councilwoman Regina Williams-Preston, who was present at the meeting, called on Buttigieg to expand his outreach among the African American leaders in South Bend. 

“There needs to be more meaningful conversations with a more diverse group because what you see tonight is that African Americans are not monolithic,” Williams-Preston said. 

In a press gaggle after the town hall, an emotional Buttigieg said it was his job to hear from the community, regardless of what the ramifications may be.

“I just think it is my job,” Buttigieg said. “I don’t know if it is smart or not. I don’t know if it is strategic or not, but it is my city and I have a relationship with everybody in this city…And when somebody loses their life because of a civilian or because of an officer and it is happening all over the country, but it is happening here. Then I feel like it is my job to face it.”

Rev. Michael Patton, who is the president of the South Bend chapter of the NAACP, moderated the discussion with Buttigieg and South Bend Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski. 

In an interview Friday afternoon with CNN, Patton supported Buttigieg’s efforts after the shooting, saying he has been doing a “phenomenal job.” Patton has also thrown his support behind Buttigieg in the presidential race.

“I certainly see our mayor as someone who potentially could lead our country as well. He’s led our community, South Bend, well,” Patton said. “I believe that he has — I have full confidence that he could lead our nation as well.”

A resident seen at a town hall hosted by South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sun., June 23, 2019.


WSBT-TV



Lwan Easton, a 37-year-old South Bend resident who attended the town hall, said the city needs to unite, but said he didn’t expect much going into the town hall. 

“I just think it’s maybe a ploy to just kind of get us all together to talk, try to calm tensions and try to build confidence in the people that they going to figure everything out,” Easton said. 

According to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, O’Neill was responding last Sunday to a report of a person breaking into cars. According to a release from the office, O’Neill encountered Logan in an apartment building parking lot and Logan allegedly approached O’Neill with a knife. O’Neill then reportedly discharged his weapon, shooting Logan in the abdomen.  

This town hall comes days before Buttigieg is scheduled to participate in the Democratic primary debates. Buttigieg, who has been on and off the campaign trail since the incident, said he is still planning to debate his fellow candidates later this week.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mayor-pete-buttigieg-faces-community-members-in-south-bend-town-hall/

The possible visit has also created political complications for the White House. “The military thinks it’s not a good idea right now,” President Joe Biden said of the trip July 20.

Pelosi herself has long been a critic of China for its record on human rights. In 1991, she showed up in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with a banner that paid tribute to dissidents who were murdered in pro-democracy protests there two years earlier. Chinese authorities briefly detained her, as well as then-Reps. Ben Jones (D-Ga.) and John Miller (R-Wash.), over their protest.

“Tiananmen Square is a magnet for us. There is no way we could come here without being drawn to the square,” Pelosi said at the time.

China has considered Taiwan part of its territory since Mao Zedong established a communist state on the mainland in 1949 and nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. The U.S. did not recognize the mainland’s government until the 1970s; since then, American governments have had awkward, indirect relationships with Taiwan.

In her statement, Pelosi said she was traveling with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.).

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/31/pelosi-asia-trip-taiwan-00048822



















 

 

LOS ANGELES, July 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — KWHY-TV Noticias 22, the MundoFOX Los Angeles television network affiliate’s award-winning newscast, Noticias 22, “La voz de Tu Ciudad,” “The voice of your city”, scored as the fastest growing late Spanish language newscast in Nielsen’s recently completed July 2015 Sweeps for Los Angeles, the city with the largest Hispanic market in the nation.

“Our growth is a strong statement of relevance and support to our news team and editorial direction,” stated Palmira Perez, Noticias 22 MundoFOX News Anchor. “Noticias 22 continues to produce the most engaging, compelling news and information daily for our community, and as part of Meruelo Media, together we’re committed to journalistic excellence,” added Otto Padron, President of Meruelo Media.

KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX Los Angeles July 2015 Sweeps Highlights:

  • KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX at 10:00 p.m. posted significant “year-to-year” growth in average ratings among the key demographic Adults 18-49, up 35% from the July 2014 Sweeps.
    • All the other Spanish-language late local newscasts were down, including those on KRCA/Estrella (-22%), KVEA/Telemundo (-1%) and KMEX/Univision (-2%). (Based on Monday to Friday average ratings.)
  • Among Adults 25-54, ratings for KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX at 10:00 p.m. were up 34% from the July 2014 Sweeps, more than the late newscast on KMEX/Univision (+15%) and KVEA/Telemundo (+7%), with KRCA/Estrella falling 19%.

Source: Los Angeles NSI Ratings, July 2015

For more information on KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX, please visit www.mundofox22.com.

About Meruelo Media

Meruelo Media (MM) is the media division of The Meruelo Group.  MM currently operates two Southern California Legendary media platforms; the classic hip-hop and R&B radio station, 93.5 KDAY and one of Los Angeles’ oldest Hispanic TV stations, KWHY-TV Canal 22, which is currently the flagship of MundoFOX Television Network.  MM also owns the first and only US Hispanic Super Station, Super 22, airing on its KWHY-TV second digital stream and reaching over 6 Million Homes over various multiple video delivery providers.  MM also broadcasts in Houston and Santa Barbara.  The Meruelo Group is a minority owned, privately-held management company serving a diversified portfolio of affiliated entities with interests in banking and financial services; food services, manufacturing, distribution and restaurant operations; construction and engineering; hospitality and gaming; real estate management; media, public and private equity investing. For more information please visit www.meruelogroup.com.

Rebekah Salgado
rsalgado@meruelogroup.com 
562.228.8191

 

 

 

SOURCE Meruelo Group / Meruelo Media

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Source Article from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kwhy-tv-noticias-22-mundofox-reigns-as-las-fastest-growing-late-spanish-newscast-in-july-2015-sweeps-300121156.html

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sits for a portrait in the Lawyer’s Lounge at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Shuran Huang/NPR


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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sits for a portrait in the Lawyer’s Lounge at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Shuran Huang/NPR

Does Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 86-year-old feminist icon, have any regrets about her professional life?

Hardly.

“I do think that I was born under a very bright star,” Ginsburg said, recounting her life and the obstacles that faced her.

Ginsburg added: “I’ll tell you what Justice [Sandra Day] O’Connor once said to me. She said, ‘Suppose we had come of age at a time when women lawyers were welcome at the bar. You know what? Today, we would be retired partners from some large law firm, but because that route was not open to us, we had to find another way, and we both end up in the United States Supreme Court.’ “

Don’t see the video? Click here.

Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School at the top of her class in 1959, but she was well aware of the barriers to women. She “didn’t think there was much to be done about it.” She clerked for a U.S. District Court judge, but “no law firm in the city of New York” would “hire me,” she said.

She worked on a project on civil procedure that took her to Sweden before she eventually took a job at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey in 1963.

“Then the women’s movement came alive at the end of the ’60s,” and “there I was, a law school professor with time that I could devote to moving along this change.”

That is an understatement.

For more than a decade prior to her first judicial appointment in 1980, Ginsburg led the legal fight for gender equality. And, in our interview last week, she singled out that work, not any of her Supreme Court opinions, as perhaps her greatest accomplishment.

“In the ’70s, there were many things that came together that led the court for the first time” in its history “to strike down gender classifications as unconstitutional, as a denial of equal protection of the laws,” Ginsburg said. “That was an exhilarating 10 years in my life. In doing that, and then this job, well, it really is the best job in the world for a judge.”

The highlights of her crusade in the 1960s and ’70s are recounted in two recent movies — RBG, a documentary, and On The Basis Of Sex, a biopic.

Ginsburg’s first Supreme Court victory came in 1971 when she filed the lead brief in Reed v. Reed, a case testing whether a state could automatically prefer men over women as executors of estates. The answer was, “No.”

It was the first time the Supreme Court had ever struck down a state law because it discriminated based on gender. And that was just the beginning.

Ginsburg founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and would go on to become the first tenured female professor at Columbia Law School.

As the chief architect of the battle for women’s legal rights, she devised a strategy that was characteristically cautious, precise and single-mindedly aimed at one goal: winning.

Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist administers the oath of office to newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with President Bill Clinton on Aug. 10, 1993.

Kort Duce/AFP/Getty Images


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Because she often had to persuade establishment-oriented male judges, she frequently picked male plaintiffs. In Weinberger v. Weisenfeld, for instance, she represented Stephen Weisenfeld, whose schoolteacher wife, the family’s principal breadwinner, died in childbirth.

Ginsburg convinced the Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional gender discrimination for the Social Security Administration to deny widower Weisenfeld the same benefits that would have been given to a widow for child care.

In another case, she took on the U.S. military, representing Sharron Frontiero, a lieutenant in the Air Force who was denied a dependent’s allowance for her husband that would have been automatically granted for the wife of any military member. The Supreme Court agreed with Ginsburg that the law unconstitutionally discriminated based on gender.

Over the course of a decade, Ginsburg would win landmark victories in five of the cases she argued before the high court.

In a prior NPR interview, she explained the legal theory she sold to the Supreme Court this way:

“The words of the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause — ‘Nor shall any state deny to any person the equal protection of the laws’ — well, that word, ‘any person,’ covers women as well as men. And the Supreme Court woke up to that reality really in 1971.”

Going forward, even with a majority-conservative court, Ginsburg said she believes the country has come too far to go back.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any turning back to old ways,” she said, adding, “When you think about — the world has changed really in what women are doing. I went to law school when women were less than 3% of lawyers in the country; today, they are 50%. I never had a woman teacher in college or in law school. The changes have been enormous. And they’ve just — they’ve gone much too far [to be] going back.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/07/28/745304221/does-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-have-any-regrets-hardly

Rep. Adam SchiffAdam Bennett SchiffDems split in response to ‘impeach the motherf—er’ comment Trump’s idea to declare national emergency raises legality questions Schiff: Trump cannot criticize language after turning my name into a profanity MORE (D-Calif.) said Sunday that President TrumpDonald John TrumpConway’s husband rips Trump for saying Tlaib ‘dishonored’ herself with profane call for impeachment Trump says he’s pushing for steel barrier instead of concrete wall amid standoff with Dems Trump supporter eyes moving factory to Mexico over tariffs MORE “is not in a position to talk about language” because “no one has done more to debase the political sphere than Donald Trump.”

“I’m in a unique position to say this,” Schiff noted, “considering the president turned my name into a profanity.”

Trump in a November tweet labeled Schiff as “little Adam Schitt.”

Trump last week criticized Rep. Rashida TlaibRashida Harbi TlaibConway’s husband rips Trump for saying Tlaib ‘dishonored’ herself with profane call for impeachment Dems split in response to ‘impeach the motherf—er’ comment Freshman House members: Calls for impeachment ‘premature’ MORE (D-Mich.), who just took office, after she said the new Democratic majority would “go in and impeach the motherf—er.”

“I thought her comments were disgraceful,” Trump said Friday.

Several Democrats have distanced themselves from Tlaib’s remark, including Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who earlier in the CNN program said his constituents would never speak that way about the president.

“Even the most progressive of the constituents I have,” he said. “They know better than to use that kind of language about the president of the United States, regardless of the coarse language that the president uses in public.”

Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Patricia D’Alesandro PelosiPelosi: ‘We have a problem’ if Trump is against governance Dems split in response to ‘impeach the motherf—er’ comment Schiff: Trump cannot criticize language after turning my name into a profanity MORE (D-Calif.) previously said of Tlaib’s remark that “I wouldn’t use that language,” but added that she is “not in the censorship business.”

Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick MulvaneyJohn (Mick) Michael MulvaneySchiff: Trump cannot criticize language after turning my name into a profanity Mulvaney: No one blames Trump for ‘coarsening’ public discourse Mulvaney: ‘No idea’ which presidents told Trump they wish they’d built border wall MORE, also on CNN’s Sunday show, defended Trump’s use of “coarse” language, saying it did not mean he is “coarsening” public discourse overall.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/424054-schiff-trump-cannot-criticize-language-after-turning-my-name-into


México, DF.- Esta mañana, en el Bosque de Chapultepec de la Ciudad de México se realizó la primera carrera de novias, en la cual lucieron sus vestidos blancos, con ramo en mano, coronas y tenis.

A las 7 y media de la mañana se dio la salida para esta peculiar carrera, en donde corrieron novias de todo tipo. Más de mil novias participaron en este evento, el cual se dividió en dos categorías: casadas y solteras.

En la categoría de las casadas, Rebeca Escobar quedó en primer lugar, mientras que las solteras el triunfo fue para Hortencia Pérez.

Quien se llevó la admiración fue María Esther Agüero, de 53 años, quien a través del “aplausómetro” de las y los asistentes se llevó el primer lugar al mejor vestido de novia.

Además se realizó una rifa de 70 mil pesos, el cual será utilizado para cubrir los gastos de boda de la ganadora.

Source Article from http://www.aztecanoticias.com.mx/notas/sociedad-y-medio-ambiente/246695/realizan-carrera-de-novias-en-la-ciudad-de-mexico