Osceola County officials have issued a burn ban Monday on all types of outside burning, including open fire pits, campfires and yard debris.According to a release, officials say this comes as dry conditions persist. “The burn ban is effective immediately and will be lifted as weather and vegetation conditions improve,” the release said.The ban will be enforced by Osceola County Code Enforcement, Law Enforcement and Emergency Services personnel. Osceola County Fire Rescue will continue to monitor conditions to determine when the burn ban will be lifted. The burn ban comes one day after the city of St. Cloud issued a burn ban, and a nursery near Kissimmee was involved in a 3-alarm brush fire.
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. —
Osceola County officials have issued a burn ban Monday on all types of outside burning, including open fire pits, campfires and yard debris.
According to a release, officials say this comes as dry conditions persist.
“The burn ban is effective immediately and will be lifted as weather and vegetation conditions improve,” the release said.
The ban will be enforced by Osceola County Code Enforcement, Law Enforcement and Emergency Services personnel.
Osceola County Fire Rescue will continue to monitor conditions to determine when the burn ban will be lifted.
The burn ban comes one day after the city of St. Cloud issued a burn ban, and a nursery near Kissimmee was involved in a 3-alarm brush fire.
A top Trump administration lawyer pressed a federal judge Wednesday to block a newly enacted California law that bans most law enforcement officers in the state from wearing masks, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Tiberius Davis, representing the U.S. Department of Justice, argued at a hearing in Los Angeles that the first-of-its-kind ban on police face coverings could unleash chaos across the country, and potentially land many ICE agents on the wrong side of the law it were allowed to take effect.
“Why couldn’t California say every immigration officer needs to wear pink, so it’s super obvious who they are?” Davis told U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder. “The idea that all 50 states can regulate the conduct and uniforms of officers … flips the Constitution on its head.”
The judge appeared skeptical.
“Why can’t they perform their duties without a mask? They did that until 2025, did they not?” Snyder said. “How in the world do those who don’t mask manage to operate?”
The administration first sued to block the new rules in November, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the No Secret Police Act and its companion provision, the No Vigilantes Act, into law. Together, The laws bar law enforcement officers from wearing masks and compel them to display identification “while conducting law enforcement operations in the Golden State.” Both offenses would be misdemeanors.
Federal officials have vowed to defy the new rules, saying they are unconstitutional and put agents in danger. They have also decried an exception in the law for California state peace officers, arguing the carve out is discriminatory. The California Highway Patrol is among those exempted, while city and county agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, must comply.
“These were clearly and purposefully targeted at the federal government,” Davis told the court Wednesday. “Federal officers face prosecution if they do not comply with California law, but California officers do not.”
The hearing comes at a moment of acute public anger at the agency following the fatal shooting of American protester Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis — rage that has latched on to masks as a symbol of perceived lawlessness and impunity.
“It’s obvious why these laws are in the public interest,” California Department of Justice lawyer Cameron Bell told the court Wednesday. “The state has had to bear the cost of the federal government’s actions. These are very real consequences.”
She pointed to declarations from U.S. citizens who believed they were being abducted by criminals when confronted by masked immigration agents, including incidents where local police were called to respond.
“I later learned that my mother and sister witnessed the incident and reported to the Los Angeles Police Department that I was kidnapped,” Angeleno Andrea Velez said in one such declaration. “Because of my mother’s call, LAPD showed up to the raid.”
The administration argues the anti-mask law would put ICE agents and other federal immigration enforcement officers at risk of doxing and chill the “zealous enforcement of the law.”
“The laws would recklessly endanger the lives of federal agents and their family members and compromise the operational effectiveness of federal law enforcement activities,” the government said in court filings.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent on duty Aug. 14 outside the Japanese American National Museum, where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference in downtown Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Davis also told the court that ICE‘s current tactics were necessary in part because of laws across California and in much of the U.S. that limit police cooperation with ICE and bar immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, such as schools and courts.
California contends its provisions are “modest” and aligned with past practice, and that the government’s evidence showing immigration enforcement would be harmed is thin.
Bell challenged Department of Homeland Security statistics purporting to show an 8,000% increase in death threats against ICE agents and a 1,000% increase in assaults, saying the government has recently changed what qualifies as a “threat” and that agency claims have faced “significant credibility issues” in federal court.
“Blowing a whistle to alert the community, that’s hardly something that increases threats,” Bell said.
On the identification rule, Snyder appeared to agree.
“One might argue that there’s serious harm to the government if agents’ anonymity is preserved,” she said.
The fate of the mask law may hinge on the peace officer exemption.
“Would your discrimination argument go away if the state changed legislation to apply to all officers?” Snyder asked.
“I believe so,” Davis said.
The ban was slated to come into force on Jan. 1, but is on hold while the case makes its way through the courts. If allowed to take effect, California would become the first state in the nation to block ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers from concealing their identities while on duty.
Cristiano Ronaldo will likely avoid missing any Portugal matches at the men’s World Cup, despite receiving a red card in a qualifier.
Ronaldo swung an arm and struck Ireland defender Dara O’Shea with an elbow during Portugal’s 2-0 loss in Dublin earlier this month.
FIFA published a disciplinary verdict that imposed a three-match ban, judging Ronaldo’s action to be an example of “violent conduct”.
But two of those matches are deferred for a one-year probation period.
Ronaldo served a mandatory one-match ban when Portugal played its final qualifying match last week, a 9-1 win over Armenia that sealed its place at the World Cup in North America and Mexico.
FIFA cited its disciplinary rules that allowed for parts of a sanction to be probationary, though it was rare in cases of a three-match ban for two of them to be deferred.
Draw change
Meanwhile, FIFA announced the World Cup draw would reward the four highest-ranked teams: Spain, Argentina, France and England.
They will be placed in separate sections of a new tennis-style seeded tournament bracket.
Defending champion Argentina’s passage to the semifinals appears easier. (Getty Images/Soccrates: Eric Verhoeven)
The draw procedure means the top four teams in the latest rankings will — if they finish top of their respective round-robin groups — avoid each other until the semifinals of the June 11-July 19 tournament.
The rule aims to maintain competitive balance in the expanded 48-team format.
At previous World Cups, the path for teams into and through the knockout phase was decided by the group in which they were drawn.
FIFA also revealed the four pots for the final draw, which takes place on December 6 AEDT in Washington.
The Socceroos will be drawn from pot two.
They are the lowest-ranked team in their 12-team pot, which also includes their continental rival Japan and world number 10 Croatia.
Forty-two teams have already qualified for the World Cup.
The other six entries will be decided in March when European and global play-off brackets are scheduled.
Those teams all will come out of the draw pot of lowest-ranked teams.
The U.S. International Trade Commission decided on Friday to hold a new proceeding to determine whether imports of Apple’s updated Apple Watches should be banned as part of a patent dispute with medical monitoring technology company Masimo.
The ITC said in an order that it would investigate whether Apple Watches that were redesigned to circumvent a previous import ban issued by the commission still infringe Masimo patents covering blood-oxygen measurement technology.
The commission set a target to finish the investigation within six months.
Apple said the case was a meritless attempt to block its smartwatches’ blood oxygen feature and that Masimo had copied its watch design in order to bring the complaint.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
Apple, Masimo fighting on multiple fronts
The case is part of a contentious, multi-front patent fight between Apple and Masimo, an Irvine, California-based medical monitoring technology company that has accused the tech company of hiring away its employees to steal its pulse-oximetry innovations.
The commission blocked imports of Apple’s Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches in 2023 after finding that Masimo’s patents were infringed. Apple removed blood-oxygen reading technology from its watches to avoid the ban, but reintroduced an updated version of the technology in August with approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Masimo has sued Customs over the approval, while Apple has separately challenged the ITC’s ban at a federal appeals court.
Masimo has also sued Apple in California federal court for patent infringement and trade-secret theft. A jury in Santa Ana determined separately on Friday that Apple owes $634 million in damages for infringing a Masimo patent.
A California judge declared a mistrial in Masimo’s trade-secret case against Apple in 2023 after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Apple won a minimal $250 verdict against Masimo in Delaware last year in a countersuit over allegations that Masimo’s smartwatches infringe two Apple design patents.
Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Additional reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rod Nickel and Shri Navaratnam
There are many stresses that come with being an LGBTQ+ youth: fear, isolation, bullying, feeling as if the world hates you, loved ones pressuring you to change.
Those realities come into sharper view in the first release of findings from an ongoing study by the Trevor Project to track the mental health of about 1,700 youth across the U.S. over an extended period of time.
Researchers from the West Hollywood-based nonprofit saw a sharp increase in mental distress among the participants. Over the course of one year, the proportion of participants who reported anxiety symptoms rose from 57% to 68%.
As political rhetoric in the last couple of years has boiled over on issues such as teaching about LGBTQ+ identity in schools, transgender students playing on sports teams and whether to allow gender-affirming care, the share of youth who said they’d experienced symptoms of depression rose from 48% to 54%. Those reporting having suicidal thoughts went from 41% to 47%.
Transgender and nonbinary youth were nearly twice as likely to say they’d struggled with anxiety and suicidal thoughts than their cisgender peers — a pattern that held steady throughout the first year of data collection on participants in this group.
“This allows us to clearly and unequivocally document what we know to be true: The manner in which LGBTQ+ youth are treated in this country harms their health and risks their lives, and it is only getting worse,” Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement.
Even in California, a state that’s considered a haven for trans people, the climate seems to be shifting. In a surprising move for an elected official who has proclaimed support for the trans community, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a bill that would have required 12 months of hormone therapy coverage for transgender patients in California, citing cost concerns.
Another striking finding in the study: An increase in the proportion of youth who said they’ve faced pressure to undergo “conversion therapy,” a controversial and scientifically dubious counseling process that its advocates claim can suppress or erase same-sex desire, change the gender identity of youth who identify as trans and discourage those are questioning.
But reports of being threatened with conversion therapy doubled in the first year of tracking, with 22% of respondents saying they experienced this intimidation, up from 11% at the start of the study. The percentage of those who said they’d been exposed to conversion therapy in some way climbed from 9% to 15%.
The findings come as the Supreme Court hears arguments in one of the most closely watched cases of its current term. In Chiles vs. Salazar, a Christian counselor has argued that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth violates her free speech rights in voluntary therapy sessions with questioning minors. Members of the court’s conservative majority, who prevailed earlier this year in a decision upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, openly voiced skepticism about the Colorado ban in hearings this week. The court’s decision is expected to rule in case by the end of its session in June.
“Many people believe it to be a relic of the past, but the data indicate that these dangerous practices are still happening,” said Dr. Ronita Nath, Trevor Project’s vice president of research. She added that threats of and exposure to conversion therapy contributed to future depression and suicidal thoughts among study participants.
The researchers started recruiting in September 2023. Each participant filled out mental health surveys every six months after joining the study.
This is the first time that the Trevor Project has monitored changes in queer youth mental health over such a long period. Nath said this type of sophisticated, long-range study is important for public health providers and policymakers alike because it provides fresh evidence of a cause-and-effect link between societal risk factors — such as pressure to undergo conversion therapy and a lack of access to affordable mental health services — and future crises.
“Societal and structural conditions are driving these mental health outcomes, not just coinciding with them,” Nath said.
The study did identify some positives: The percentage of LGBTQ+ youth who reported feeling supported at school rose from 53% to 58% over the course of the first year. Also, 73% of participants said they sought help from friends, up from 45% at the beginning of the first year.
Many who took part in the study, however, said they avoided seeking care either because they couldn’t afford it or because they worried they’d be stigmatized for having a mental health crisis.
Only 60% of respondents said they had access to mental health services by the end of their first year in the study, down from the 80% at the start of their tracking.
On the other hand, 75% of those who did get counseling over the course of their first year in the study said they benefited from it, up from 61% at the start.
The proportion of youths who said they sought help during suicidal episodes doubled to 64% in that time frame, though, which points to the increased level of distress youths experienced in that span, Nath said.
The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.””Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.
WASHINGTON —
The State Department said Wednesday that it has fired a U.S. diplomat over a romantic relationship he admitted having with a Chinese woman alleged to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The dismissal is believed to be the first of its kind for violating a ban on such relationships that was introduced late last year under the Biden administration.
The Associated Press reported earlier this year that in the waning days of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, the State Department imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviewed the case and determined that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said.
The statement did not identify the diplomat, but he and his girlfriend had been featured in a surreptitiously filmed video posted online by conservative firebrand James O’Keefe.
One of the most popular ways to get your nails done is now banned in parts of Europe. And an expert says that should give everyone pause. “I was counseling patients or trying to steer them in other directions or alternatives,” said Dr. Farah Moustafa, a dermatologist and the director of Laser and Cosmetics at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.That included Yara, who has been getting gel manicures regularly for about a decade. “I get them done every two or three weeks,” she said. “It makes my nails look very shiny and hardens them. It also lasts longer.”But when she noticed her nails getting really weak, she turned to Moustafa for advice.”She recommended that I stop getting gel nail polish done,” Yara said. Moustafa said she’s been worried about gel manicures for years, before the European Union banned the polish because of a chemical that may raise concerns about fertility. “The ban was based on some animal studies in which rats were fed large quantities of TPO and they were found to have fertility issues, and it was reproductively toxic,” Moustafa said. TPO stands for trimenthylbenzoyl diphenylphoshine oxide — a long name for a chemical agent that allows the nail polish to harden when exposed to UV light. That’s long been the appeal of gel polish: the shiny seal that makes the color last for weeks instead of days. There have been no scientific studies that definitively establish a link between TPO and health risks in humans. And a ban in the United States is seen as unlikely. Moustafa said, the chemical aside, the UV exposure has always worried her when it comes to gel. “The UV exposure is not good for your hands long-term and does increase your risk of skin cancer of the nail bed,” she said. “It’s like a tanning bed for your nails.”Moustafa suggests patients look at the labels before picking their polish or consider alternatives like dip powder or dazzle dry. For Yara, it was enough to make her hit pause, even though she admits she loves gel polish.”I’m going to try my best to stick with it,” she said. “I’ll probably do it occasionally when I have a wedding or something. But for now, day to day, I think I’m going to stick to regular nail polish.”
BOSTON —
One of the most popular ways to get your nails done is now banned in parts of Europe. And an expert says that should give everyone pause.
“I was counseling patients or trying to steer them in other directions or alternatives,” said Dr. Farah Moustafa, a dermatologist and the director of Laser and Cosmetics at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
That included Yara, who has been getting gel manicures regularly for about a decade.
“I get them done every two or three weeks,” she said. “It makes my nails look very shiny and hardens them. It also lasts longer.”
But when she noticed her nails getting really weak, she turned to Moustafa for advice.
“She recommended that I stop getting gel nail polish done,” Yara said.
Moustafa said she’s been worried about gel manicures for years, before the European Union banned the polish because of a chemical that may raise concerns about fertility.
“The ban was based on some animal studies in which rats were fed large quantities of TPO and they were found to have fertility issues, and it was reproductively toxic,” Moustafa said.
TPO stands for trimenthylbenzoyl diphenylphoshine oxide — a long name for a chemical agent that allows the nail polish to harden when exposed to UV light. That’s long been the appeal of gel polish: the shiny seal that makes the color last for weeks instead of days.
There have been no scientific studies that definitively establish a link between TPO and health risks in humans. And a ban in the United States is seen as unlikely.
Moustafa said, the chemical aside, the UV exposure has always worried her when it comes to gel.
“The UV exposure is not good for your hands long-term and does increase your risk of skin cancer of the nail bed,” she said. “It’s like a tanning bed for your nails.”
Moustafa suggests patients look at the labels before picking their polish or consider alternatives like dip powder or dazzle dry.
For Yara, it was enough to make her hit pause, even though she admits she loves gel polish.
“I’m going to try my best to stick with it,” she said. “I’ll probably do it occasionally when I have a wedding or something. But for now, day to day, I think I’m going to stick to regular nail polish.”
On Friday morning, Donald Trump, in a much-anticipated phone call with China’s President, Xi Jinping, was expected to discuss a range of issues, including their two countries’ ongoing trade war, the fate of Taiwan, and a settlement to what has become a months-long international drama over TikTok, the Chinese-owned social-media app that briefly went dark in the U.S. earlier this year. The platform’s critics point to serious concerns with it, including that its use has widespread negative effects on the mental well-being of children and teens, that its content promotes pro-Chinese points of view, and that the company could endanger national security, given the giant trove of data it collects on its American users. After the call, near the end of a typically discursive Truth Social post, Trump announced, almost as an aside, that the issue had been approved: “The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”
Last spring, in the final months of his term, President Biden signed a law that would shut down TikTok in the U.S. if the app’s stateside operations were not sold to an American entity by the last day of his Presidency. It was the culmination of years of bipartisan concerns that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, and its proprietary algorithm presented a national-security threat. TikTok sued the government and, nine days before the law was set to go into effect, during oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that the Chinese government could use the information gathered by the app to “develop spies, to turn people, to blackmail people—people who, a generation from now, will be working in the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. or in the State Department.”
The court upheld the ban and, for a mere fourteen hours, TikTok went dark in the U.S. But one of President Trump’s first actions when he returned to the White House on January 20th—with TikTok’s C.E.O., Shou Chew, in attendance at his Inauguration—was to sign an executive order that paused the ban for seventy-five days. “Essentially, with TikTok I have the right to sell it or close it,” Trump said at the time. The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, sent letters to major tech companies, including Apple and Google, asserting that Trump had the power to override the terms of a law that had been passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court. “The President previously determined that an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform would interfere with the execution of the President’s constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs,” Bondi wrote.
The President would go on to extend the pause four more times, the latest extension coming on September 16th. “We have a deal on TikTok,” Trump told reporters that day. “We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it.” After Biden signed the law, a flurry of potential bidders had surfaced. In January, I wrote about the billionaire internet activist Frank McCourt and his “people’s bid” for TikTok, which he used to draw attention to his vision of a data-autonomous web; the investor Kevin O’Leary, a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful, from “Shark Tank,” had joined the effort. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary during Trump’s first term, had signalled that he was interested in buying TikTok with a group of investors, and the Wall Street Journalreported that Bobby Kotick, the former C.E.O. of the video-gaming company Activision, was similarly intrigued. But when I spoke to Kotick last winter, he told me that Elon Musk—the owner of X, Tesla, and SpaceX—who was then a close ally of President Trump’s, would make an ideal buyer.
One company, however, has long been associated with a potential TikTok deal: Oracle. During the first Trump Administration—when Trump himself tried to ban TikTok—Oracle was part of a negotiated compromise that allowed TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. In a partnership known as Project Texas, Oracle’s servers were chosen to host the data of American TikTok users. Some were skeptical that the plan alleviated national-security concerns. In a December, 2024, D.C. Circuit Court ruling, Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote, “Even when TikTok’s voluntary mitigation measures have been fully implemented, the ‘source code supporting the TikTok platform, including the recommendation engine, will continue to be developed and maintained by ByteDance subsidiary employees, including in the United States and in China.’ ”
After signing the executive order delaying the ban, Trump put Vice-President J. D. Vance in charge of finding a solution. The assumption was that TikTok would bring on additional American investors to dilute Chinese shares, thus satisfying the requirement of an American owner. In March, Oracle held talks with congressional leaders about the deal. One person privy to the discussions told Politico that the proposal would make the government dependent on Oracle’s security guarantees. “If the Oracle deal moves forward, you still have this [algorithm] controlled by the Chinese,” the person said. “That means all you are doing is saying ‘trust Oracle’ to disseminate the data and guarantee there is no ‘back door’ to the data.” Amazon entered the fray with a last-minute bid. But Trump’s stringent tariffs on Chinese goods killed the deal, and he decided to delay any decision—his initial order was set to expire in early April—while negotiations continued behind the scenes.
A Democratic candidate for governor of California will be giving TikTok a go, but with a caveat: He’ll only post videos in Spanish.At least for now.Former Biden administration Health Secretary Xavier Becerra is embracing the popular short-video app to target Spanish-language users. His campaign and surveys note that Hispanic adults use TikTok in much higher numbers than Black and white adults.Congress last year passed a ban on TikTok, calling it a potential national security threat, but President Joe Biden, who signed the bill into law and was Becerra’s boss at the time, announced before leaving office that he wouldn’t enforce it. After the Supreme Court ruled the ban constitutional, President Donald Trump suspended it on his first day in office to give the China-based company ByteDance, which opposed the ban, time to find a new buyer.Trump, a Republican, had tried to ban dealings with ByteDance during his first term, but he joined the TikTok platform last year and has millions of followers. He has repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to find a buyer and has hinted occasionally, as recently as Monday, that there was a deal over the future of the social media app, but without offering details. The White House started its own TikTok account last month.Becerra’s new approach is part of an effort by Democrats to counter the rightward swing that was seen last year both in red states such as Texas and Florida and blue states such as California, New Jersey and New York, where Trump improved his numbers among Latinos.The idea is to lock in a key user base by pushing out content early on a platform politicians are still largely experimenting with. The effort comes when the Trump administration is phasing out multilingual services as part of the president’s push to make English the official language of the United States.Candidates running in the 2025 elections in New Jersey and Virginia are already adapting their campaigns to appeal to Hispanics, who may have stayed away from the polls or voted for Trump based on his economic promises. But strategists say that it’s still very much up for debate whether the trend will hold.”It’s critical to communicate in the language and on the platforms where voters spend their time and get their information,” Becerra said in a statement.A 2024 Pew Research Center survey concluded that while TikTok has seen significant user growth in a short time, the demographics were different depending on race and ethnicity. Nearly half of Hispanic adults reported using it compared with 39% of Black adults and 28% of white adults.Becerra’s campaign says it will push out a mix of videos with him speaking directly to the camera, policy explainers and behind-the-scenes clips from the campaign trail. It also plans to collaborate with influencers and publish videos created by supporters. All in Spanish.”The working-class Latinos Democrats need to win back aren’t necessarily going to a Spanish-language website, but they are scrolling and watching vertical video in their free time,” said José Muñoz, a Democratic strategist advising the campaign and a former press secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.In the New Jersey governor’s race this year, both Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli are participating in Spanish-language town halls on Univision, where Hispanic voters will ask the candidates questions. In Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger speaks Spanish in a radio ad about being a mother of three girls who attended public school.”I know how difficult things are for families these days,” she says in Spanish.One of Becerra’s challengers in the 2026 California governor’s race, Katie Porter, has quickly established herself as a leading contender in the Democratic primary and has already built a sizable following on TikTok, with more than half a million followers, compared with about 200,000 followers on Instagram and 164,000 on Facebook.In his introduction video, Becerra says his priority is to make housing more affordable and reduce health care costs.”I am the only candidate in this race who will speak to you in Spanish on this platform,” he said. “But I want this to be a two-way conversation. I want to learn what worries you the most and what you want from the next California governor.”See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
A Democratic candidate for governor of California will be giving TikTok a go, but with a caveat: He’ll only post videos in Spanish.
At least for now.
Former Biden administration Health Secretary Xavier Becerra is embracing the popular short-video app to target Spanish-language users. His campaign and surveys note that Hispanic adults use TikTok in much higher numbers than Black and white adults.
Congress last year passed a ban on TikTok, calling it a potential national security threat, but President Joe Biden, who signed the bill into law and was Becerra’s boss at the time, announced before leaving office that he wouldn’t enforce it. After the Supreme Court ruled the ban constitutional, President Donald Trump suspended it on his first day in office to give the China-based company ByteDance, which opposed the ban, time to find a new buyer.
Trump, a Republican, had tried to ban dealings with ByteDance during his first term, but he joined the TikTok platform last year and has millions of followers. He has repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to find a buyer and has hinted occasionally, as recently as Monday, that there was a deal over the future of the social media app, but without offering details. The White House started its own TikTok account last month.
Becerra’s new approach is part of an effort by Democrats to counter the rightward swing that was seen last year both in red states such as Texas and Florida and blue states such as California, New Jersey and New York, where Trump improved his numbers among Latinos.
The idea is to lock in a key user base by pushing out content early on a platform politicians are still largely experimenting with. The effort comes when the Trump administration is phasing out multilingual services as part of the president’s push to make English the official language of the United States.
Candidates running in the 2025 elections in New Jersey and Virginia are already adapting their campaigns to appeal to Hispanics, who may have stayed away from the polls or voted for Trump based on his economic promises. But strategists say that it’s still very much up for debate whether the trend will hold.
“It’s critical to communicate in the language and on the platforms where voters spend their time and get their information,” Becerra said in a statement.
A 2024 Pew Research Center survey concluded that while TikTok has seen significant user growth in a short time, the demographics were different depending on race and ethnicity. Nearly half of Hispanic adults reported using it compared with 39% of Black adults and 28% of white adults.
Becerra’s campaign says it will push out a mix of videos with him speaking directly to the camera, policy explainers and behind-the-scenes clips from the campaign trail. It also plans to collaborate with influencers and publish videos created by supporters. All in Spanish.
“The working-class Latinos Democrats need to win back aren’t necessarily going to a Spanish-language website, but they are scrolling and watching vertical video in their free time,” said José Muñoz, a Democratic strategist advising the campaign and a former press secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In the New Jersey governor’s race this year, both Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli are participating in Spanish-language town halls on Univision, where Hispanic voters will ask the candidates questions. In Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger speaks Spanish in a radio ad about being a mother of three girls who attended public school.
“I know how difficult things are for families these days,” she says in Spanish.
One of Becerra’s challengers in the 2026 California governor’s race, Katie Porter, has quickly established herself as a leading contender in the Democratic primary and has already built a sizable following on TikTok, with more than half a million followers, compared with about 200,000 followers on Instagram and 164,000 on Facebook.
In his introduction video, Becerra says his priority is to make housing more affordable and reduce health care costs.
“I am the only candidate in this race who will speak to you in Spanish on this platform,” he said. “But I want this to be a two-way conversation. I want to learn what worries you the most and what you want from the next California governor.”
Vote-by-mail ballots are shown in sorting trays (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Trump is moving to eliminate mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Mail-in ballots are corrupt,” said the President at the White House today. “You can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots.”
The president shared a post on Truth Social which outlined his plan “to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots,” and it targets what he called “highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial voting machines.” Mr. Trump has previously claimed there has been widespread voter fraud involving mail-in ballots and pledged to fight for election integrity.
Mr. Trump insisted there needs to be change when it comes to the matter.
“All of the money they’ve spent, it’s approximately ten time more expensive than paper ballots, and paper ballots are very sophisticated with the watermark paper and everything else.”
While the president’s post is calling for an end to the mail-in ballots, an effort to dramatically overhaul the way federal elections are run has faced legal roadblocks in recent months.
Maryland is under an open air burning ban, which includes charcoal grills and campfires.
Did you gather some wood for a campfire this weekend? The Maryland Department of Natural Resources says now’s not the time to light it up.
The state is under an open air burning ban — which includes charcoal grills and campfires.
Open-air burning is defined by state law as a fire where anything is burned outside or in a receptacle other than a furnace, incinerator or fireplace attached to a stack or chimney. You are still allowed to use a propane grill.
The ban comes after extremely dry conditions throughout the state have led to wildfires.
Any burning in violation of the ban could cost you. The first citation is $125.
“While fines may be imposed for violations, the most important result of a ban of this type is that it communicates to the public the severity of the situation, and the critical need to act responsibly to protect lives, property and our environment,” said State Forester Anne Hairston-Strang.
Some local counties were under a fire weather warning on Friday.
Since the beginning of October, the Forest Service in Maryland has responded to more than 24 wildfires that have burned 75 acres, according to a news release.
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(FOX40.COM) — The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted an ordinance that will ban the sale of certain products containing intoxicating cannabinoids derived from hemp.
The ordinance, which applies to businesses in the unincorporated County, was passed Tuesday and becomes effective on Nov. 21.
“Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our community, particularly our children and adolescents,” said District 3 Supervisor Rich Desmond. “By prohibiting the sale of these intoxicating hemp products, we are taking a proactive step to eliminate the risks associated with unregulated substances that can lead to health emergencies.”
According to Sacramento County, loopholes in the Farm Bill of 2018 and Assembly Bill 45 allowed unregulated products containing intoxicating cannabinoids to be sold in locations such as smoke shops, gas stations, and convenience stores.
“Because people of any age could purchase those unregulated products, there was a subsequent rise in emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to ingestion and adverse events, particularly in young children and adolescents,” Sacramento County said.
The amended ordinance prohibits sales of chemically or synthetically altered industrial hemp products with a concentration of higher than .3% of THC.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered the nation’s internet service providers to block the social media platform X. The New York Times reports that the order stems from owner Elon Musk’s refusal to appoint a legal representative for his case and comply with Moraes’ order to shut down X accounts he deemed as harmful to the democratic process. The order has been published online by Brazilian news site Poder 360.
The justice issued a deadline to telecom companies and tech giants to remove the X from its app stores and platforms. Apple and Google have five days to take down the social media app from its app stores. Brazil’s telecommunication’s agency Anatel has confirmed it has received the order, and ISPs in the country have just 24 hours to comply with the order.
Justice Moraes’ order doesn’t just block the country’s access to X. It also makes it a crime to use the app through a virtual private network (VPN). Anyone caught accessing X with a VPN could face a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian Real (around $8,900).
Justice Moraes also froze the Brazillian bank accounts of SpaceX’s Starlink internet service provider on Thursday to further pressure Musk to comply with the court’s order. SpaceX, like X, is a private company majority owned by Musk, and X has $3 million in unpaid fines related to its case in the country. The day before, Justice Moraes issued a threat to ban the X platform entirely across Brazil if the social media company did not appoint a legal representative in the country. The deadline passed without any change to the court’s docket so the judge followed through on his promise.
Starlink expressed its disapproval with the order, vowing to fight the ruling. It even threatened to make its services free to customers to subvert the justice’s order.
The legal fight between Justice Moraes and Musk has been fuming for months. The Supreme Court Judge is also Brazil’s electoral authority and has been monitoring and issuing orders to candidates to steer clear of spreading false information through internet and social media channels.
Brazil’s 2022 presidential election between infamous incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and challenger and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was reportedly filled with attempts to present voters with false information. Justice Moraes was, until recently, president of the nation’s Superior Electoral Court, which gave him the power to order takedowns of content that violated previous court orders. The judge issued a similar block of the messaging app Telegram for failing to freeze offending accounts, which was lifted after compliance.
Musk characterized Moraes’ directives to take down or freeze similar misinformation accounts from X as “censorship orders.” Earlier this month, Musk expressed his continued refusal to comply with the court by closing X’s Brazilian office in order “to protect the safety of our staff.” X’s Global Governments Affairs team also promised to publish all of “Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings.”
French Olympic sprinter Sounkamba Sylla took to social media days before the 2024 Olympic Games began, saying she would not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony because of her hijab.
“You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf,” Sylla wrote on her private Instagram, according to The Associated Press.
The criticism was the latest in an ongoing controversy over France’s rule prohibiting female Muslim athletes from wearing the hijab, or headscarves, during the Olympics. The athletes, while competing for France, are considering civil servants and must adhere to principles of secularism, according to the country’s rules.
French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra later said she’d be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony and the Games by covering her hair in a way that did not appear religious.
An overview of the Trocadero venue with the Eiffel Tower in the background, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024.
Francois-Xavier Marit/Pool Photo via AP
Bans on hijab in French sports
Bans on wearing hijab in French sports have applied at all levels, including amateur and youth levels, even outside the Olympics, according to Amnesty International.
There isn’t a national law or policy banning hijabs in sports, but individual sports federations have their own regulations prohibiting the headscarf. Football (soccer), basketball and volleyball are some of the team sports banning them, Anna Blus, a women’s rights and gender justice researcher at Amnesty International, told ABC News.
A ban against wearing the hijab in football was instituted in 2006. In basketball, it began in 2022 and in volleyball in 2023.
“We have documented over the years — (for) around 20 years — measures are being introduced constantly to limit Muslim women’s rights,” Blus said of France.
“There’s definitely been an increase in these types of measures in different areas of life over the past 20 years,” Blus said.
Ibtihaj Muhammad, from United States, waits for match against Olena Kravatska from Ukraine, in the women’s saber individual fencing event at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File
In 2023, France’s highest administrative court sided with the French Football Federation allowing its hijab ban in the sport.
“The reasoning it gave was very, very problematic, because it said that these types of bans like the one in the Football Federation, were legitimate — the justification could be to avoid clashes or confrontation,” Blus said.
“It’s suggesting that clashes or confrontations might occur if someone wears a hijab, and that in order to protect that athlete, she can be banned, and she should be banned from wearing it. It’s extremely problematic,” Blus said.
Basket Pour Toutes, a collective that says it is fighting against discrimination in basketball, said the argument the ban seeks to maintain public order “tends to stigmatize a part of the population which is already the subject of numerous prejudices,” the group said on its website.
Basket Pour Toutes, which translate to “Basketball for all” in English, also said “secularism is not above fundamental freedoms.”
“The (French Federation of Basketball) maintains that the ban on equipment with religious connotations is based on the principle of neutrality which itself derives from the principle of secularism. But this duty of neutrality only applies to public service agents and not to its users,” Basket Pour Toutes wrote.
Since the court decision came out, the Hijabeuses — a collective of female athletes who wear the hijab and had brought the complaint against the Football Federation — have made an application to the European Court of Human rights, which has jurisdiction over France.
Egypt’s Dina Meshref in action at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 24, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.
AP Photo/Kyusung Gong
Their application is still pending and could likely take a couple of years, Blus said.
“Litigation is only one kind of tool that can be used and it takes many years sometimes,” Blus said. “I think there is much more that we can do as human rights organizations and as campaigners to stand against these types of discriminatory measures.”
Human rights groups criticize bans
Human rights groups have called on the International Olympic Committee to publicly ask sporting authorities in France to overturn bans on wearing the hijab in the Olympic Games and at all levels of sport, saying prohibitions are in place across at least six sports.
“The country’s discrimination against women and girls wearing the hijab is particularly concerning given the IOC’s celebration of Paris 2024 as the first ‘Gender Equal Olympics,’” the groups — including Human Rights Watch, Basket Pour Toutes and the World Players Association — wrote in a joint letter to the IOC.
“Women and girls in France who wear the hijab have been and are being prevented from playing multiple sports including football, basketball, judo, boxing, volleyball and badminton — even at youth and amateur levels. The hijab bans in sports have resulted in many Muslim athletes being discriminated against, invisibilised, excluded and humiliated, causing trauma and social isolation — some have left or are considering leaving the country to seek playing opportunities elsewhere,” the letter said.
Gold medalist Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt poses during the medal ceremony for women’s kumite +61kg karate at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.
AP Photo/Vincent Thian
Other athletes, including Diaba Konate, a French basketball player who played for Idaho State and University of California, Irvine up until this past April, have also criticized the ban. Konate said she was kept from being able to play for the French National Team again. She’s not on the French team playing in the Olympics.
“I love basketball, my family, and my faith,” Konate said in an open letter. “It would break my heart to give up any one of those, and yet that is what the current French Federation of Basketball guidelines are forcing me to do.”
Blus said activism among Muslim athletes and activists in France is growing in a very difficult environment.
“It’s really important that big international organizations, such as ours, express their solidarity with Muslim women, because they have very often — really particularly in France, but also in other countries — (been) subject to negative stereotypes, demonization, homogenization of what it might mean to them to wear hijab,” Blus said.
“It’s really a matter of feminist solidarity and of women’s rights and human rights,” Blus said.
More Details On The Executive Order Passed By The Virginia Governor
According to CNN, Gov Youngkin issued the executive order on Tuesday, July 9. The outlet reports that the legislation intends to “limit or ban cell phone use in public schools.” Additionally, the order reportedly requires the Virginia Department of Education to “establish guidelines for a cell phone-free education.”
The outlet reports that Gov. Youngkin believes the decision is an “essential action” to “promote a healthier and more focused educational environment.”
“Creating cell phone and social media-free educational environments in Virginia’s K-12 education system will benefit students, parents, and educators,” Youngkin reportedly explained. “Today’s Executive Order both establishes the clear goal to protect the health and safety of our students by limiting the amount of time they are exposed to addictive cell phones and social media and eliminates clear distractions in the classroom.”
According to the outlet, Virginia isn’t the only place where schools have vowed to place limits on cell phone use. CNN reports that last month, the New York City Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that “they would similarly move to limit cell phones in their schools.”
When Will The Order Go Into Effect & What’s The Reaction So Far?
According to the outlet, a draft of Virginia’s new cell phone policy in public schools is reportedly expected to be submitted by August 15. Final adjustments should be made by September, and the policy should go into full effect by January 1, 2025.
WAVY adds that school districts within the state have already begun discussing the new policy. Furthermore, the outlet reports that Virginia Beach City Public Schools have already implemented a cell phone ban. However, it still poses challenges and requires equal support from school officials and parents.
“Our teachers work hard to address it,” Virginia Beach City Public Schools Chief School Officer Matthew Delaney told the outlet. “They work with our families to address it collectively. We believe the adults have to come together to support our teachers in creating the best learning environment for our kids.”
Donald Robertson, the superintendent of VBCPS, says their policy does not require cell phones to be confiscated from students. Instead, it expects “students to be off of them during instructional time.”
According to WSLS, schools in Roanoke, Virginia, which have also implemented a similar policy, are now determining whether they should up the ante and restrict cell phones from classrooms “entirely.” The outlet adds that Roanoke County Schools has sent a survey to parents for their input on the matter.
Cell Phone Use Recently Came Between THIS Rapper & A Crowd At Essence Fest
It appears that the issue of heavy cell phone use is not only a problem in classrooms. As The Shade Room previously reported, earlier this month, Busta Rhymes went off on a crowd at Essence Fest for being too distracted by their phones during his performance.
“Ayo, f**k those camera phones too, let’s get back to interacting as humans,” the rapper emphatically told the crowd. “Put those weird a** devices down! I ain’t from that era… F**k your phone!”
BERLIN — Germany will bar the use of critical components made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in core parts of the country’s 5G networks in two steps starting in 2026, the nation’s top security official said Thursday.
Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, has long mulled what to do about components made by Chinese suppliers in its new-generation cellphone networks.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said critical components from Huawei and ZTE will be barred from 5G core networks by the end of 2026, while “critical management systems” from the two manufacturers in 5G access and transport networks must be replaced by the end of 2029.
The decision follows negotiations in recent weeks with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica, which operate Germany’s 5G networks, and agreements will be signed with all three companies, the Interior Ministry said.
“We have examined the risks from critical components manufactured by Huawei and ZTE in German 5G cellphone networks very carefully,” Faeser said as she announced the “clear and strict agreement” with German operators.
“With this, we are protecting the central nervous systems of Germany as a business location — and we are protecting the communication of citizens, companies and the state,” she said. “We must reduce security risks and, unlike in the past, avoid one-sided dependencies.”
Today’s threats underline the significance of secure telecommunications infrastructure, particularly “with a view to dangers from sabotage and espionage,” Faeser said.
The United States in recent years successfully pushed European allies such as Britain and Sweden to ban or restrict Huawei equipment in their phone networks over fears Beijing could use it for cybersnooping or sabotaging critical communications infrastructure — allegations Huawei has denied repeatedly. Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have taken similar action.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government last year drew up a strategy for relations with China that refers to a “systemic rivalry” with the Asian power and a need to reduce risks of economic dependency, but highlights Berlin’s desire to work with Beijing on challenges such as climate change and maintain trade ties. The strategy drew criticism from Beijing.
Scholz visited China in April on his second trip to the country since he took office at the end of 2021.
Asked about Thursday’s expected announcement at a daily briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that Huawei and other Chinese companies have been building high-quality infrastructure for Europe and creating many jobs, and “there is no evidence that they endanger the national security of European countries.”
“Politicizing economic, trade, and sci-tech issues will only undermine normal technical exchanges and cooperation and is not in the interest of any party,” he said.
Mutual suspicion between Western countries and China has mounted since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
On Wednesday, NATO allies including Germany called China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war and expressed concerns over Beijing’s nuclear arsenal and its capabilities in space. Beijing responded by accusing NATO of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia.
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Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, joined WTOP Saturday to express his support for the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the bump stock ban.
The Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks Friday, ruling that the administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority when it outlawed the gun accessory.
Bump stocks replace a rifle’s stock and harness the gun’s recoil energy, allowing the trigger to bump against the shooter’s stationary finger. Equipped with bump stocks, guns can fire at a speed similar to that of an automatic weapon.
The initial ban came down after a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in modern U.S. history. The gunman, who used semiautomatic rifles fitted with bump stocks, fired more than 1,000 rounds into the crowd in 11 minutes.
The Supreme Court’s ruling has pushed firearms to the forefront of national conversation. Philip Van Cleave, gun rights advocate and president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, joined WTOP’s Nick Iannelli on Saturday to express his support for the court’s decision to reverse the ban.
Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave tells WTOP’s Nick Iannelli why he supports the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Trump administration’s bump stock ban
Listen to the interview or read the full transcript below. The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Nick Iannelli: Alright, Philip. So can you explain to us what you view this as? I understand it’s a win in your eyes, right? The Supreme Court’s ruling — that’s a victory for you?
Philip Van Cleave: Absolutely. It’s not that we love bump stocks — they’re OK, you know? But the idea was that the BHGS overstepped their legal bounds. They were making law and that could not be tolerated. Congress makes law, not these agencies, so that’s why we sued them over this — for that very reason that they’ve overstepped their bounds.
Nick Iannelli: Why would someone need bump stocks, though? What, in your view, is the point of having bump stocks for firearms?
Philip Van Cleave: Well, they’re fun to shoot. America, freedom is not about what you need. We got mostly what we need. We need food, we need water, we need one pair of shoes. We don’t need 10 pairs of shoes — we have what we want in America. And if you want to shoot with a bump stock, you know, you go through a lot of ammo, but it’s fun to shoot at a range. Why not? That’s what freedom is about.
Nick Iannelli: So it’s more about recreation than anything else, it sounds like.
Philip Van Cleave: Oh, absolutely. I don’t see using a bump stock really much in self-defense. You could, but that’s not the reason for it, really. Just going out and having fun. If you’ve ever fired a gun that fires that quickly, it’s a lot of fun to shoot.
Nick Iannelli: A lot of this was about whether bump stocks turn guns into quote-unquote “machine” guns? What is your thought on that? Do you think that bump stocks effectively turn guns into machine guns?
Philip Van Cleave: No, no they do not. The gun’s trigger works exactly the same as it always did. All this does is it harnesses the recoil of the gun to help you pull that trigger quicker. I can do the same exact thing without a bump stock. It’s a matter of how you hold the gun. And pushing forward on the gun with one hand and holding your trigger finger out with the other, you can create the same effect with a bump stock just with your bare hands if you know how to do it. Is it real accurate? No. I don’t know that either of them are super accurate, but anyhow, it’s really just a recreational thing.
Nick Iannelli: So when someone says that bump stocks make guns more dangerous or more deadly, what is your response to that argument?
Philip Van Cleave: Well, that’s what they say about everything when it comes to guns. If the other side loses on something, “Oh, the world’s gonna end. The world is more dangerous now.” No, there were there were tens of thousands of bump stocks out there. We had one or two incidents with them. Well, heck, if we did that we wouldn’t have any cars to drive. No, you don’t take away civil liberties, you don’t take everybody’s rights because a couple bad people do bad things. You give up your rights that way. It’s just not the way to do business.
Nick Iannelli: OK, Philip, thanks for coming on with us.
Philip Van Cleave: Sure. Glad to be on. Thank you.
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Measures in Springfield that would ban hemp-derived cannabis beverages in Illinois — a move that the state’s breweries say would have dealt a big blow to operations — did not go forward. That includes legislation that would have begun regulating delta-8 and other forms.
All parties involved, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, say the issue will come up again during the next session — the growing industry needs rules, they argue. In the meantime, the summer should provide some data in terms of how popular THC-infused drinks can be in Illinois. Observers believe the state could generate larger sales — and tax dollars — compared to Minnesota. Minnesota, whose lawmakers have embraced the drinks, has become
THC drinks have been a lifeline for struggling breweries aiming to diversify revenue streams. Breweries say they were caught off guard by bills that were introduced to regulate the THC industry — actions they say they support — and then altered to crush their business. There’s the belief that no one wants the drinks truly banned, but larger players want to weed out smaller competitors that were first to market before introducing their own brands.
Security patrols backed by Boka, LEYE, and One Off start in West Loop
It’s been a year since news that some of Chicago’s major restaurant groups — Boka, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and One Off Hospitality Group — were organizing to deploy private security patrols in West Loop and Fulton Market. The owners of restaurants including the Publican, Aba, and Girl & the Goat, have gotten their wish. Block Club Chicago reports P4 Security Solutions is working with the groups and patrol SUVs have been spotted outside the restaurants in those neighborhoods.
The restaurants are part of the Fulton Market District Improvement Association, and the patrols are “entirely funded by contributions from businesses and organizations.” Security guards carry handcuffs and are armed. Their shifts extend to 3 a.m., according to Block Club. Chicago police have launched nightlife or “entertainment patrols” in areas like Wicker Park and the Near West Side. P4 is supposed to augment that and serves Bucktown and Lincoln Park. Greektown is another area that has its own patrols.
Springfield keeps the tipped minimum wage
Observers who witnessed One Fair Wage’s efforts in Chicago to abolish the tipped minimum wage could see this building. Lawmakers in Springfield did not move forward with the measure to abolish the tipped minimum wage statewide, but the campaign is still going national. The National Restaurant Association, which earlier in May hosted its annual show in Chicago, is gearing up its opposition to the effort. After lawmakers finished their session in Springfield ended, the association sent a statement to Eater defending the tip credit (a government subsidiary fills in the gap, and allows restaurants to pay workers below the minimum wage) as a “win-win-win for tipped restaurant workers, restaurant operators, and customers.”
“This win for Illinois restaurants will help keep menu prices down and will protect the jobs and high-earning potential of tipped workers in vibrant Illinois restaurant communities,” a statement from NRA Executive Vice President for Public Affairs Sean Kennedy reads.
North Center diner closed after a Thursday fire
Irene’s Finer Diner in North Center is closed indefinitely after a fire on Thursday at 2012 W. Irving Park Road. The owners announced the news on Friday morning: “We’re deeply saddened to share that due to a recent fire, we are forced to close for further notice. We are very grateful that no one was harmed. We’ve put a lot of heart and sweat into this diner, and will keep you posted on when we can welcome you once again for breakfast.”
5419 N Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 60640 (773) 878-7340
CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Donald Trump says it should be left up to the states whether they want to prosecute women for getting abortions or whether to monitor their pregnancies.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee declined to comment on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been embroiled in an intense legal battle.
The comments, published Tuesday in Time magazine, are consistent with Trump’s recent attempts to seek a more cautious stance on the issue, which has become a vulnerability for Republicans and has driven turnout for Democrats.
TikTok is again facing an imminent threat from Congress.
On Wednesday, House Republicans added a hot-button bill that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban to a wide-ranging foreign aid package intended to help Israel and Ukraine.
House Speaker Mike Johnson aims to hold a vote on the aid package as early as Saturday. If approved, it could fast-track what has become the most serious risk to TikTok’s US business since former President Donald Trump first proposed a ban of the popular app in 2020.
An earlier version of the TikTok bill sailed through the House in March, but it has become bogged down in the Senate. By including it in the aid package, House Republicans hope to force the Senate to a quick vote on a measure supporters say is necessary to protect Americans’ personal data from the Chinese government.
Opponents, including TikTok and a range of civil society groups, have argued the bill risks violating TikTok users’ First Amendment rights.
In pressuring Senate colleagues to approve the TikTok bill alongside military equipment for Ukraine, House Republicans are angling to avoid the lengthy regular process that could delay a Senate vote on the app, which has 175 million U.S. users. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the House TikTok bill if it reaches his desk.
The latest version of the TikTok bill contains some updates. For example, it sets out a nine-month timeframe for the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to sell the social media company. If it misses the deadline, TikTok would be banned from U.S. app stores.
That proposed time limit is longer than the roughly six months proposed in previous legislation. The new bill would also give the president the option to extend the deadline by another 90 days if he determines there’s been progress toward a sale.
The changes appear aimed at addressing concerns by some senators that the original six-month deadline was too short. Whether the revisions are enough to gain Senate approval, however, remains unclear, as some leading senators have signaled desires for a slower approach to a TikTok bill.
One key senator who was doubtful of the initial House TikTok bill appeared satisfied.
“I’m very happy that Speaker Johnson and House leaders incorporated my recommendation to extend the ByteDance divestment period from six months to a year,” said Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, in a statement. “As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done. I support this updated legislation.”
For years, U.S. policymakers have expressed fears that TikTok’s links to China through its parent company could allow the Chinese government unauthorized access to TikTok’s US user data. That information could potentially help the Chinese government identify intelligence targets or facilitate disinformation campaigns, they have said. Some other countries such as India have already banned TikTok.
TikTok has pushed back strongly against those claims, saying there is no evidence the Chinese government has accessed U.S. user data to date and that the company has taken steps to insulate Americans’ personal information. That includes Project Texas, an initiative that involved moving TikTok’s U.S. user data onto servers controlled and overseen by Oracle, the US technology giant.
Some policy experts say a more comprehensive way to deal with TikTok’s potential national security risks would be for Congress to pass a national privacy law that regulates how all businesses and organizations can handle Americans’ personal information.
This month, Cantwell and her Republican counterpart in the House, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, unveiled a proposal that could do just that, breaking a yearslong deadlock over key issues including the scope and reach of a unified, national data privacy standard.
