ReportWire

Tag: NNT

  • Biden could invoke a 1947 law to pause the dockworkers’ strike

    Biden could invoke a 1947 law to pause the dockworkers’ strike

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Some manufacturers and retailers are urging President Joe Biden to invoke a 1947 law as a way to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers that has shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas.

    At issue is Section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. The law authorizes a president to seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period for companies and unions to try to resolve their differences.

    Biden has said, though, that he won’t intervene in the strike.

    Taft-Hartley was meant to curb the power of unions

    The law was introduced by two Republicans — Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio and Rep. Fred Hartley Jr. of New Jersey — in the aftermath of World War II. It followed a series of strikes in 1945 and 1946 by workers who demanded better pay and working conditions after the privations of wartime.

    President Harry Truman opposed Taft-Hartley, but his veto was overridden by Congress.

    In addition to authorizing a president to intervene in strikes, the law banned “closed shops,” which require employers to hire only union workers. The ban allowed workers to refuse to join a union.

    Taft-Hartley also barred “secondary boycotts,’’ thereby making it illegal for unions to pressure neutral companies to stop doing business with an employer that was targeted in a strike.

    It also required union leaders to sign affidavits declaring that they did not support the Communist Party.

    Presidents can target a strike that may “imperil the national health and safety”

    The president can appoint a board of inquiry to review and write a report on the labor dispute — and then direct the attorney general to ask a federal court to suspend a strike by workers or a lockout by management.

    If the court issues an injunction, an 80-day cooling-off period would begin. During this period, management and unions must ”make every effort to adjust and settle their differences.’’

    Still, the law cannot actually force union members to accept a contract offer.

    Presidents have invoked Taft-Hartley 37 times in labor disputes

    According to the Congressional Research Service, about half the time that presidents have invoked Section 206 of Taft-Hartley, the parties worked out their differences. But nine times, according to the research service, the workers went ahead with a strike.

    President George W. Bush invoked Taft-Hartley in 2002 after 29 West Coast ports locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in a standoff. (The two sides ended up reaching a contract.)

    Biden has said he won’t use Taft-Hartley to intervene

    Despite lobbying by the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation, the president has maintained that he has no plans to try to suspend the dockworkers’ strike against ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

    On Wednesday, before leaving Joint Base Andrews for an air tour of North Carolina to see the devastation from Hurricane Helene, Biden said the port strike was hampering efforts to provide emergency items for the relief effort.

    “This natural disaster is incredibly consequential,” the president said. “The last thing we need on top of that is a man-made disaster — what’s going on at the ports.”

    Biden noted that the companies that control East and Gulf coast ports have made huge profits since the pandemic.

    “It’s time for them to sit at the table and get this strike done,” he said.

    Though many ports are publicly owned, private companies often run operations that load and unload cargo.

    William Brucher, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University, notes that Taft-Hartley injunctions are “widely despised, if not universally despised, by labor unions in the United States.”

    And Vice President Kamala Harris is relying on support from organized labor in her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

    If the longshoremen’s strike drags on long enough and causes shortages that antagonize American consumers, pressure could grow on Biden to change course and intervene. But experts like Brucher suggest that most voters have already made up their minds and that the election outcome is “really more about turnout” now.

    Which means, Brucher said, that “Democrats really can’t afford to alienate organized labor.”

    ____

    AP Writer Colleen Long at Joint Base Andrews and AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Biden could invoke a 1947 law to pause the dockworkers’ strike

    Biden could invoke a 1947 law to pause the dockworkers’ strike

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Some manufacturers and retailers are urging President Joe Biden to invoke a 1947 law as a way to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers that has shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas.

    At issue is Section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. The law authorizes a president to seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period for companies and unions to try to resolve their differences.

    Biden has said, though, that he won’t intervene in the strike.

    Taft-Hartley was meant to curb the power of unions

    The law was introduced by two Republicans — Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio and Rep. Fred Hartley Jr. of New Jersey — in the aftermath of World War II. It followed a series of strikes in 1945 and 1946 by workers who demanded better pay and working conditions after the privations of wartime.

    President Harry Truman opposed Taft-Hartley, but his veto was overridden by Congress.

    In addition to authorizing a president to intervene in strikes, the law banned “closed shops,” which require employers to hire only union workers. The ban allowed workers to refuse to join a union.

    Taft-Hartley also barred “secondary boycotts,’’ thereby making it illegal for unions to pressure neutral companies to stop doing business with an employer that was targeted in a strike.

    It also required union leaders to sign affidavits declaring that they did not support the Communist Party.

    Presidents can target a strike that may “imperil the national health and safety”

    The president can appoint a board of inquiry to review and write a report on the labor dispute — and then direct the attorney general to ask a federal court to suspend a strike by workers or a lockout by management.

    If the court issues an injunction, an 80-day cooling-off period would begin. During this period, management and unions must ”make every effort to adjust and settle their differences.’’

    Still, the law cannot actually force union members to accept a contract offer.

    Presidents have invoked Taft-Hartley 37 times in labor disputes

    According to the Congressional Research Service, about half the time that presidents have invoked Section 206 of Taft-Hartley, the parties worked out their differences. But nine times, according to the research service, the workers went ahead with a strike.

    President George W. Bush invoked Taft-Hartley in 2002 after 29 West Coast ports locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in a standoff. (The two sides ended up reaching a contract.)

    Biden has said he won’t use Taft-Hartley to intervene

    Despite lobbying by the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation, the president has maintained that he has no plans to try to suspend the dockworkers’ strike against ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

    On Wednesday, before leaving Joint Base Andrews for an air tour of North Carolina to see the devastation from Hurricane Helene, Biden said the port strike was hampering efforts to provide emergency items for the relief effort.

    “This natural disaster is incredibly consequential,” the president said. “The last thing we need on top of that is a man-made disaster — what’s going on at the ports.”

    Biden noted that the companies that control East and Gulf coast ports have made huge profits since the pandemic.

    “It’s time for them to sit at the table and get this strike done,” he said.

    Though many ports are publicly owned, private companies often run operations that load and unload cargo.

    William Brucher, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University, notes that Taft-Hartley injunctions are “widely despised, if not universally despised, by labor unions in the United States.”

    And Vice President Kamala Harris is relying on support from organized labor in her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

    If the longshoremen’s strike drags on long enough and causes shortages that antagonize American consumers, pressure could grow on Biden to change course and intervene. But experts like Brucher suggest that most voters have already made up their minds and that the election outcome is “really more about turnout” now.

    Which means, Brucher said, that “Democrats really can’t afford to alienate organized labor.”

    ____

    AP Writer Colleen Long at Joint Base Andrews and AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Water and power outages from Helene test patience

    Water and power outages from Helene test patience

    [ad_1]

    Many residents of the Carolinas still lacked running water, cellphone service and electricity Wednesday as rescuers searched for people unaccounted for after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast and killed at least 166 people.

    What You Need To Know

    • Many residents of the Carolinas still lack running water, cellphone service and electricity as rescuers continue their search for anyone still unaccounted for after Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused flooding far inland

    • More than 1.2 million customers still had no power Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene tore far inland after initial landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast

    • More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days



    President Joe Biden will survey the devastation in the two states as floodwaters receded and revealed more of the death and destruction left in Helene’s path.

    More than 1.2 million customers still had no power Wednesday in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene tore far inland after initial landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Some residents cooked food on charcoal grills or hiked to high ground in the hopes of finding a signal to let loved ones know they are alive.

    “We have to jump-start this recovery process,” Biden said Tuesday, estimating it will cost billions. “People are scared to death. This is urgent.”

    While Biden is in the Carolinas, Vice President Kamala Harris will be in neighboring Georgia.

    Cadaver dogs and search crews trudged through knee-deep muck and debris in the mountains of western North Carolina looking for more victims. At least 57 people were killed in Buncombe County alone, home to city of Asheville, a tourism haven known for its art galleries, breweries and outdoor activities.

    In small Swannanoa, outside Asheville, receding floodwaters revealed cars stacked on top of others and mobile homes that had floated away. Sinkholes pockmarked roads caked with mud and debris.

    Cliff Stewart survived 2 feet of water that poured into his home, topping the wheels on his wheelchair and sending his medicine bottles floating. Left without electricity and reliant on food drop-offs from friends, he has refused offers to help him leave.

    “Where am I going to go?” the Marine Corps veteran said. “This is all I’ve got. I just don’t want to give it up, because what am I going to do? Be homeless? I’d rather die right here than live homeless.”

    Across the border in east Tennessee, a caravan including Gov. Bill Lee surveying damage outside the town of Erwin drove by a crew pulling two bodies from the wreckage, a grim reminder that the rescue and recovery operations are still very much ongoing and the death toll is likely to rise.

    In Augusta, Georgia, Sherry Brown converted power from her car’s alternator to keep her refrigerator running. She has been taking “bird baths” with water collected in coolers. In another part of the city, people waited in line more than three hours to get water from one of five centers set up to serve more than 200,000 people.

    What is being done to help?

    More than 150,000 households have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days, said Frank Matranga, an agency representative.

    Nearly 2 million ready-to-eat meals and more than a million liters of water have been sent to the hardest-hit areas, he said.

    The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, dumping more than 2 feet of rain in places.

    The administration of Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday that more than two dozen water plants remained closed. Active-duty U.S. military units may be needed to assist the long-term recovery, he said, adding that Biden had given “the green light” to mobilizing military assets soon.

    A section of one of the region’s main arteries, Interstate 40, reopened Tuesday after a mudslide was cleared, but a collapsed stretch near North Carolina’s border with Tennessee remained closed.

    How some of the hardest-hit areas are coping

    Residents and business owners wore masks and gloves while clearing debris Tuesday in Hot Springs, North Carolina, where almost every building along the main street was heavily damaged.

    Sarah Calloway, who owns the deli and gourmet grocery Vaste Riviere Provisions, said the storm arrived frighteningly quickly. She helped fill sandbags the day the night before, but they turned out to be useless. The water rose so rapidly that even though she and others were in an apartment on an upper floor, she feared they would not be safe. They called to request a rescue from a swift water team.

    “It was really challenging to watch how quickly it rose up and then just to watch whole buildings floating down the river. It was something I can’t even describe,” she said.

    In the Black Mountain Mobile Home Park in Swannanoa, Carina Ramos and Ezekiel Bianchi were overwhelmed by the damage. The couple, their children and dog fled in the predawn darkness on Friday as the Swannanoa River’s rapidly rising waters began flooding the bottom end of the park.

    By then, trees blocked the roads and the couple abandoned their three vehicles, all of which flooded.

    “We left everything because we were panicking,” Ramos said.

    Mobile service knocked out

    The widespread damage and outages affecting communications infrastructure left many people without stable access to the internet and cell service.

    “People are walking the streets of Canton with their phones up in the air trying to catch a cellphone signal like it’s a butterfly,” said Mayor Zeb Smathers, of Canton, North Carolina. “Every single aspect of this response has been extremely crippled by lack of cellphone communication. The one time we absolutely needed our cellphones to work they failed.”

    Teams from Verizon worked to repair toppled cell towers and damaged cables and to provide alternative forms of connectivity, the company said in a statement.

    AT&T said it launched “one of the largest mobilizations of our disaster recovery assets for emergency connectivity support.”

    The efforts to restore service was made more challenging by the region’s terrain and spread-out population, said David Zumwalt, president and CEO of the Association for Broadband Without Boundaries.

    Destruction from Florida to Virginia

    Helene blew ashore in Florida late Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and upended life throughout the Southeast, with deaths reported in six states: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.

    With at least 36 killed in South Carolina, Helene passed the 35 people who were killed in the state after Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989.

    When Lee, the Tennessee governor, flew to the eastern part of the state to survey damage Tuesday, residents said the governor and his entourage were the first help they had seen since the storm hit.

    “Where has everyone been?” one frustrated local asked. “We have been here alone.”

    [ad_2]

    Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press

    Source link

  • Trump attacks Harris as ‘mentally disabled’

    Trump attacks Harris as ‘mentally disabled’

    [ad_1]

    Republicans on Sunday sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump’s latest insults of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris during a rambling weekend rally in Wisconsin in which he called her “mentally disabled.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Some Republicans have sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump’s latest escalation of personal attacks on Democratic nominee Kamala Harris
    • His comments came during a rambling weekend rally in Wisconsin that devolved into a list of his personal grievances
    • While his tactics are nothing new, it’s not yet clear how those insults will land with undecided voters
    • And with just over a month left before the presidential election, his allies are hoping he instead talks about the economy, immigration or other issues important to the GOP



    Trump escalated his personal attacks on the vice president during what was billed as a speech on immigration following Harris’ trip to the U.S.-Mexico border.

    “Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.”

    Trump has already falsely claimed Harris “turned Black” and regularly insults her as “stupid,” “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.” With just over a month left before the presidential election, his allies pushed him publicly and privately to talk instead about the economy, immigration and other issues.

    “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked about Trump’s comments. “They’re crazy liberal.”

    When asked whether he approved of the remarks, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., sidestepped during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

    “I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America,” said Emmer, who is helping Trump’s running mate JD Vance prepare for Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate. “I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse as the administration that we’ve witnessed for the last four years.”

    When pressed, Emmer said: “I think we should stick to the issues. The issues are, Donald Trump fixed it once. They broke it. He’s going to fix it again. Those are the issues.”

    Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, running for the Senate as a moderate Republican, brought up Trump’s false claims that Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, had previously downplayed her Black heritage. Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black college, and has identified as both Black and South Asian consistently throughout her political career.

    “I’ve already called him out when he had the one interview where he was questioning her racial identity, and now he’s questioning her mental competence,” Hogan told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And I think that’s insulting not only to the vice president but to people who actually do have mental disabilities.”

    If elected, Harris would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to be president. She has not commented on Trump’s recent attacks but has said when asked about other comments that it was the “same old show. The same tired playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan on on how he would address the needs of the American people.”

    Trump said last month that he was “entitled” to personal attacks against Harris.

    “As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country,” he told a news conference then. “I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Russia downs over 100 Ukrainian drones in one of the largest barrages of the war

    Russia downs over 100 Ukrainian drones in one of the largest barrages of the war

    [ad_1]

    More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russian officials say more than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022
    • Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions
    • The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses
    • In Ukraine, 16 civilians were injured in an overnight barrage on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia after Ukrainian military leaders warned that Moscow could be preparing for a new military offensive in the country’s south.

    Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses.

    Seventeen drones were also seen over Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment block and a private home, said Gov. Aleksandr Gusev. Images on social media showed flames rising from the windows of the top floor of a high-rise building. No casualties were reported.

    A further 18 drones were reported over Russia’s Rostov region, where falling debris sparked a wildfire, said Gov. Vasily Golubev.

    He said that the fire did not pose a threat to populated areas, but that emergency services were fighting to extinguish the blaze, which had engulfed 20 hectares (49.4 acres) of forest.

    Russian ground assault warnings

    Elsewhere, 16 civilians were injured in an overnight barrage on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia after Ukrainian military leaders warned that Moscow could be preparing for a new military offensive in the country’s south.

    The city was targeted by Russian guide bombs in 10 separate attacks that damaged a high-rise building and several residential homes, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov wrote on his official Telegram channel. More people could still be trapped beneath the rubble, he said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that the Zaporizhzhia attack had damaged the city’s transport links. “Today, Russia struck Zaporizhzhia with aerial bombs. Ordinary residential buildings were damaged and the entrance of one building was destroyed. The city’s infrastructure and railway were also damaged,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

    The Ukrainian leader appeared Sunday at a memorial service to make the 83rd anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, one of the most infamous mass slaughters of World War II.

    Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is where nearly 34,000 Jews were killed within 48 hours in 1941 when the city was under Nazi occupation.

    “Babyn Yar is vivid proof of the atrocities that regimes are capable of when led by leaders who rely on intimidation and violence. At any time, they are no different,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “But the world’s response should be different. This is the lesson the world should have learned. We must guard humanity, life, and justice.”

    The Ukrainian military warned Saturday that Russian forces may be preparing for offensive operations in the wider Zaporizhzhia region. Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said that Russia was amassing personnel in this direction.

    Ukraine’s air force also reported that 22 Russian drones were launched over the country overnight. It said that 15 were shot down in Ukraine’s Sumy, Vinnytsia, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions, and that five more were destroyed using electronic defenses. The fate of the remaining two drones was not specified.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • At least 64 dead after Helene’s deadly march across the Southeast

    At least 64 dead after Helene’s deadly march across the Southeast

    [ad_1]

    Massive rains from powerful Hurricane Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue, as the cleanup began from a tempest that killed at least 64 people, caused widespread destruction across the U.S. Southeast and knocked out power to millions of people.

    What You Need To Know

    • Massive rains brought by Hurricane Helene have left many people stranded or homeless as the cleanup begins from the monster tempest that killed at least 64 people
    • Helene has caused billions of dollars in destruction across a wide swath of the southeast U.S.
    • More than 3 million customers were without power Saturday, and some face a continued threat of floods
    • Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday and then quickly moved through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, splintering homes and sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams
    • Deaths from the storm have occurred in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia

    “I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,” said Janalea England of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes.

    Helene blew ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane late Thursday with winds of 140 mph.

    From there, it quickly moved through Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it “looks like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air. Weakened, Helene then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains, sending creeks and rivers over their banks and straining dams.

    Western North Carolina was isolated because of landslides and flooding that forced the closure of Interstate 40 and other roads. All those closures delayed the start of the East Tennessee State University football game against The Citadel because the Buccaneers’ drive to Charleston, South Carolina, took 16 hours.

    There have been hundreds of water rescues, none more dramatic than in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday. And the rescues continued into the following day in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where part of Asheville was under water.

    “To say this caught us off guard would be an understatement,” said Quentin Miller, the county sheriff.

    Asheville resident Mario Moraga said it was “heartbreaking” to see the damage in the Biltmore Village neighborhood and neighbors have been going house to house to check on each other and offer support.

    “There’s no cell service here. There’s no electricity,” he said.

    While there have been deaths in the county, Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones said he wasn’t ready to report specifics, partially because downed cell towers hindered efforts to contact next of kin. Relatives put out desperate pleas for help on Facebook.

    The storm, now a post-tropical cyclone, was expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley on Saturday and Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

    It unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with over 2 feet of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.

    And in Atlanta, 11.12 inches of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record keeping began in 1878.

    President Joe Biden said Saturday that Helene’s devastation has been “overwhelming” and pledged to send help. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.

    With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene is the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since Hurricane Hugo killed 35 people when it came ashore just north of Charleston in 1989. Deaths also have been reported in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

    Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage. AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95 billion and $110 billion.

    Evacuations began before the storm hit and continued as lakes overtopped dams, including one in North Carolina that forms a lake featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” Helicopters were used to rescue some people from flooded homes.

    Among the 11 confirmed deaths in Florida were nine people who drowned in their homes in a mandatory evacuation area on the Gulf Coast in Pinellas County, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

    None of the victims were from Taylor County, which is where the storm made landfall. It came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River, about 20 miles northwest of where Hurricane Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity.

    Taylor County is in Florida’s Big Bend, went years without taking a direct hit from a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in a little over a year, the area is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.

    “It’s bringing everybody to reality about what this is now with disasters,” said John Berg, 76, a resident of Steinhatchee, a small fishing town and weekend getaway.

    Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes in a matter of hours.

    Helene was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Trump meets with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in New York

    Trump meets with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in New York

    [ad_1]

    Former President Donald Trump on Friday touted his relationship with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and reiterated his pledge to “settle” the war between the two countries if he is elected in November before he officially takes office. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Donald Trump touted his relationship with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and reiterated his pledge to “settle” the war between the two countries if he is elected in November before he officially takes office
    • Trump’s remarks came ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkyy in New York on Friday
    • Zelenskyy on Friday told reporters he believes he and Trump share a “common view” that Putin cannot prevail in Ukraine 
    • The 2024 election cast a shadow over Friday’s meeting and Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. this week as the result on Nov. 5 could have significant implications for the future of U.S. support for Ukraine amid its battle with Russia
    • Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to stand with Ukraine and warned against isolationism in an implicit criticism of her Republican rival, Trump, and some in the GOP who have followed his lead in their views of America’s place on the world stage

    Trump’s remarks came ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday. 

    “I think long before Jan. 20, before I would take the presidency — it’s Jan. 20, but long before that — I think that we can work out something that’s good for both sides,” Trump said during brief remarks to the press. 

    With Zelenskyy standing by his side during the remarks, Trump spoke highly of the Ukrainian leader, calling him a “piece of steel” and noting that he has “been through a lot.” The former president also went on to assert that he has a “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

    His relationship with both, Trump said, would allow him to nail down a deal to end the more than 2½-year-old war. 

    “I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Trump said. “But, you know, it takes two to tango, and we’re going to have a good meeting today, and I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.” 

    Trump also asserted that Zelenskyy stood up for him by saying the former president “did nothing wrong” on a 2019 phone call between the two that was at the center of Trump’s first impeachment.

    For his part, Zelenskyy on Friday told reporters he believes he and Trump share a “common view” that Putin cannot prevail in Ukraine. He noted the two had not met in person in five years and acknowledged the uncertainty around the election. 

    “That’s why I decided to meet with both candidates,” Zelenskyy added. 

    The 2024 election cast a shadow over Friday’s meeting and Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. this week, where he attended the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly and huddled with lawmakers, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, in Washington. 

    The result on Nov. 5, both in the presidential race as well as contests that will decide which party controls the House and Senate, could have significant implications for the future of U.S. support for Ukraine amid its war with Russia. 

    Harris has pledged to stand with Ukraine and warned against isolationism in an implicit criticism of her Republican rival, Trump, and some in the GOP who have followed his lead in their views of America’s place on the world stage. 

    “So then, the United States supports Ukraine, not out of charity but because it is in our own strategic interest,” Harris said Thursday. “We will continue to provide the security assistance Ukraine needs to succeed on the battlefield.” 

    Trump has lobbed criticisms at Ukraine and Zelenskyy on the campaign trail this week, describing the country as “demolished” and “in rubble” with its people “dead” and questioning the amount of aid the U.S. is providing to its war effort. 

    “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal, Zelenskyy,” Trump said at a campaign event this week. 

    In an interview with The New Yorker this week, Zelenskyy pushed back on the former president’s assertions that he could settle the war in Ukraine and criticized Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance as “too radical.” 

    [ad_2]

    Maddie Gannon

    Source link

  • The U.S. is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

    The U.S. is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

    [ad_1]

    Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes.

    The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

    What You Need To Know

    • Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, straight to their homes

    • The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household in the U.S. to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits to their doorstep through the website, covidtests.gov

    • The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week

    • The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get a an updated COVID-19 vaccine booster and their yearly flu shot


    The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

    “Before you visit with your family and friends this holiday season, take a quick test and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

    U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

    Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

    Before using any existing at-home COVID-19 tests, you should check the expiration date. Many of the tests have been given an extended expiration from the date listed on the box. You can check on the Food and Drug Administration’s website to see if that’s the case for any of your remaining tests at home.

    Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • U.S. economy grew at 3% rate last quarter, final estimate says

    U.S. economy grew at 3% rate last quarter, final estimate says

    [ad_1]

    The American economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual pace from April through June, boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment, the government said Thursday, leaving its previous estimate unchanged.

    The Commerce Department reported that the nation’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — picked up sharply in the second quarter from the tepid 1.6% annual rate in the first three months of the year.

    What You Need To Know

    • The American economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual pace from April through June

    • It was boosted by strong consumer spending and business investment, the government said

    • The nation’s gross domestic product — the nation’s total output of goods and services — picked up sharply in the second quarter from the tepid 1.6% annual rate in the first three months of the year

    • The final GDP estimate for the April-June quarter included figures showing that inflation continues to ease, to just above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target


    Consumer spending, the primary driver of the economy, grew last quarter at a 2.8% pace, down slightly from the 2.9% rate the government had previously estimated. Business investment was also solid: It increased at a vigorous 8.3% annual pace last quarter, led by a 9.8% rise in investment in equipment.

    The third and final GDP estimate for the April-June quarter included figures showing that inflation continues to ease, to just above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The central bank’s favored inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — rose at a 2.5% annual rate last quarter, down from 3% in the first quarter of the year. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation grew at a 2.8% pace, down from 3.7% from January through March.

    The U.S. economy, the world’s biggest, displayed remarkable resilience in the face of the 11 interest rate hikes the Fed carried out in 2022 and 2023 to fight the worst bout of inflation in four decades. Since peaking at 9.1% in mid-2022, annual inflation as measured by the consumer price index has tumbled to 2.5%.

    Despite the surge in borrowing rates, the economy kept growing and employers kept hiring. Still, the job market has shown signs of weakness in recent months. From June through August, America’s employers added an average of just 116,000 jobs a month, the lowest three-month average since mid-2020, when the COVID pandemic had paralyzed the economy. The unemployment rate has ticked up from a half-century low 3.4% last year to 4.2%, still relatively low.

    Last week, responding to the steady drop in inflation and growing evidence of a more sluggish job market, the Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point. The rate cut, the Fed’s first in more than four years, reflected its new focus on shoring up the job market now that inflation has largely been tamed.

    “The economy is in pretty good shape,’’ Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, wrote in a commentary.

    “After a big rate cut in September and considerable further cuts expected by early 2025, interest-rate-sensitive sectors like housing, manufacturing, auto sales, and retailing of other big-ticket consumer goods should pick up over the next year. Lower rates will fuel a recovery of job growth and likely stabilize the unemployment rate around its current level in 2025.’’

    Several barometers of the economy still look healthy. Americans last month increased their spending at retailers, for example, suggesting that consumers are still able and willing to spend more despite the cumulative impact of three years of excess inflation and high borrowing rates. The nation’s industrial production rebounded. The pace of single-family home construction rose sharply from the pace a year earlier.

    And this month, consumer sentiment rose for a third straight month, according to preliminary figures from the University of Michigan. The brighter outlook was driven by “more favorable prices as perceived by consumers” for cars, appliances, furniture and other long-lasting goods.

    A category within GDP that measures the economy’s underlying strength rose at a solid 2.7% annual rate, though that was down from 2.9% in the first quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

    Though the Fed now believes inflation is largely defeated, many Americans remain upset with still-high prices for groceries, gas, rent and other necessities. Former President Donald Trump blames the Biden-Harris administration for sparking an inflationary surge. Vice President Kamala Harris, in turn, has charged that Trump’s promise to slap tariffs on all imports would raise prices for consumers even further.

    On Thursday, the Commerce Department also issued revisions to previous GDP estimates. From 2018 through 2023, growth was mostly higher — an average annual rate of 2.3%, up from a previously reported 2.1% — largely because of upward revisions to consumer spending. The revisions showed that GDP grew 2.9% last year, up from the 2.5% previously reported.

    Thursday’s report was the government’s third and final estimate of GDP growth for the April-June quarter. It will release its initial estimate of July-September GDP growth on Oct. 30. A forecasting tool from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projects that the economy will have expanded at a 2.9% annual pace from July through September.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • California governor signs law banning plastic shopping bags at grocery stores

    California governor signs law banning plastic shopping bags at grocery stores

    [ad_1]

    “Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic shopping bags.

    What You Need To Know

    • “Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom

    • California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers can purchase bags made with thicker plastic that purportedly makes them reusable and recyclable

    • The new measure was approved by state legislators last month and signed Sunday by the governor. It bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026

    • Consumers will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag


    California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.

    The new measure, approved by state legislators last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag.

    State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s supporters, said people were not reusing or recycling any plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found that the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per year in 2004 to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) per year in 2021.

    Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said the previous bag ban passed a decade ago didn’t reduce the overall use of plastic.

    “We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste,” she said in February.

    The environmental nonprofit Oceana applauded Newsom for signing the bill and “safeguarding California’s coastline, marine life, and communities from single-use plastic grocery bags.”

    Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said Sunday that the new ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery store checkouts “solidifies California as a leader in tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.”

    Twelve states, including California, already have some type of statewide plastic bag ban in place, according to the environmental advocacy group Environment America Research & Policy Center. Hundreds of cities across 28 states also have their own plastic bag bans in place.

    The California Legislature passed its statewide ban on plastic bags in 2014. The law was later affirmed by voters in a 2016 referendum.

    The California Public Interest Research Group said Sunday that the new law finally meets the intent of the original bag ban.

    “Plastic bags create pollution in our environment and break into microplastics that contaminate our drinking water and threaten our health,” said the group’s director Jenn Engstrom. “Californians voted to ban plastic grocery bags in our state almost a decade ago, but the law clearly needed a redo. With the Governor’s signature, California has finally banned plastic bags in grocery checkout lanes once and for all.”

    As San Francisco’s mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation’s first plastic bag ban.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • FBI finds violent crime dropped nationwide last year

    FBI finds violent crime dropped nationwide last year

    [ad_1]

    Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike.

    Overall violent crime declined an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before, according to the FBI report Monday. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%.

    What You Need To Know

    • Violent crime in the US dropped again in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike

    • The report released Monday shows overall violent crime ticked down an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before

    • Murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%

    • Violent crime has become a talking point on the campaign trail


    Violent crime has become a focal point in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump recently claiming that crime is “through the roof” under President Joe Biden’s administration. Even with the 2020 pandemic surge, violent crime is down dramatically from the 1990s.

    Here’s what to know about the FBI’s report and the state of crime in the U.S.:

    The numbers

    Crime surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. The rise defied easy explanation, though experts said possible contributors included the massive disruption of the pandemic, gun violence, worries about the economy and intense stress.

    Violent crime across the U.S. dipped to near pre-pandemic levels in 2022, according to the FBI’s data. It continued to tick down last year, with the rate falling from about 377 violent crimes per 100,000 people to in 2022 to about 364 per 100,000 people in 2023. That’s just slightly higher than the 2019 rate, according to Deputy Assistant Director Brian Griffith of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division.

    “Are we looking at crime rates at a return to pre-pandemic levels? I think a reasonable person would look at that and say, ‘Yes, that’s what has happened,’” Griffith said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    Law enforcement agencies in the biggest municipalities in the U.S. — communities with at least 1,000,000 people — showed the biggest drop in violent crime last year — nearly 7%. Agencies in communities between 250,000 and 499,999 people reported a slight increase — 0.3%— between 2022 and 2023.

    Rapes decreased more than 9% while aggravated assault decreased nearly 3%. Overall property crime decreased more than 2%, but motor vehicle theft shot up nearly 13%. The motor vehicle theft rate — nearly 319 per 100,000 people — was the highest last year since 2007.

    The limitations of the FBI’s data

    The FBI collects data through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program, and not all law enforcement agencies in the U.S. participate. The 2023 report is based on data from more than 16,000 agencies, or more than 85 percent of those agencies in the FBI’s program. The agencies included in the report protect nearly 316 million people across the U.S. And every agency with at least 1 million people in its jurisdiction provided a full year of data to the FBI, according to the report.

    “What you’re not seeing in that number are a lot of very small agencies,” Griffith said.

    Other crime reports

    The FBI’s report is in line with the findings of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which earlier this year analyzed crimes rates across 39 U.S cities, and found that most violent crimes are at or below 2019 levels. That group found there were 13 percent fewer homicides across 29 cities that provided data during the first half of 2024 compared the same period the year before.

    On the campaign trail, Trump has cited another recent Justice Department survey to suggest the crime is out of control under the Biden administration.

    The National Crime Victimization Survey, released earlier this month, shows that the violent crime victimization rate rose from about 16 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 in 2023. But the report notes that the rate last year was not statistically different from the rate in 2019 — when Trump was president. And the rate has declined dramatically overall since the 1990s.

    The FBI’s report and the National Crime Victimization Survey use different methodologies and capture different things.

    The victimization survey is conducted every year through interviews with about 240,000 people to determine whether they were victims of crimes. While the FBI’s data only includes crimes reported to police, the victimization survey also aims to capture crimes that were not.

    Because it’s done through interviews with victims, the victimization survey doesn’t include data on murders. And it only captures crimes against people ages 12 and over.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • North Carolina’s Robinson, omitted from Trump rally, avoids comment on report

    North Carolina’s Robinson, omitted from Trump rally, avoids comment on report

    [ad_1]

    North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson avoided directly weighing in during a gubernatorial campaign event Saturday on a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago.

    What You Need To Know

    • North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has avoided directly weighing in during a gubernatorial campaign event on a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago
    • Robinson’s appearance Saturday at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway happened the same day former President Donald Trump held an event elsewhere in the state without Robinson and without mentioning his fellow Republican
    • News reports indicate that Robinson didn’t mention the CNN report or answer questions from reporters on hand
    • He says that while others focus on “garbage” and “trash” meant to “besmirch” people, he is focusing on issues that concern voters



    And Robinson, a Republican who normally functions as one of Donald Trump’s top surrogates in battleground North Carolina, was not mentioned by the former president and current presidential candidate during a Saturday speech elsewhere in the state that lasted just over an hour.

    In his first public appearance since Thursday’s CNN report, Robinson spent several minutes Saturday evening speaking and leading a prayer at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway. He didn’t mention the CNN report or answer questions from reporters on hand, according to news reports.

    “We’re going to focus on the issues that you are concerned with,” Robinson said. “While everybody else wants to focus on the garbage, and the trash that tries to besmirch people, we’re out here telling people about what we want to do, how we want to partner with you to make this state better and help North Carolina be better.”

    Robinson earlier denied writing the posts, which include lewd and racist comments, saying Thursday that he wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.”

    He directed his focus on other issues Saturday. “We’re going to work our butts off to make sure that we build an economy in this state that works for everybody,” Robinson said.

    His appearance Saturday came the same day Trump held a presidential campaign event in Wilmington.

    Trump’s campaign has appeared to distance itself from Robinson in the wake of the CNN reporting, which the AP has not independently verified, saying in a statement that Trump “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country” and calling North Carolina “a vital part of that plan” without mentioning Robinson.

    Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump’s North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican presidential nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and has long praised him.

    Robinson has a long history of making inflammatory comments, including suggesting women who sought abortion “weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down” and comparing abortion to slavery.

    Already before CNN’s report, Robinson was trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state attorney general. Robinson has vowed to remain in the race.

    Stein said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Robinson is “utterly unqualified, unfit to be the governor of North Carolina, and we’re going to do everything in our power to keep that from happening.”

    Polls show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a close race in North Carolina and nationally. Democrats have seized on the opportunity to highlight Trump’s ties to Robinson, with billboards showing the two together and a new ad from Harris’ campaign highlighting the Republican candidates’ ties, as well as Robinson’s support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions.

    On Sunday, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Robinson deserves a chance to defend himself against the allegations, which Graham described as “unnerving.” He said Robinson is “a political zombie if he does not offer a defense to this that’s credible,” while arguing the issue wouldn’t hurt Trump.

    “If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office,” Graham said of Robinson and the claims in the CNN report. “If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Trump rallies in N.C. amid fallout from Robinson report

    Trump rallies in N.C. amid fallout from Robinson report

    [ad_1]

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump publicly rejected a debate rematch with Vice President Kamala Harris during his rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, insisting that the proposed date is too close to the election.

    He also later insisted that he would “surge federal law enforcement” to so-called “sanctuary cities” and force them to “turn over criminal aliens” in an expansion of his previous “mass deportation” rhetoric.

    What You Need To Know

    • Donald Trump rejected a debate rematch with Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday, during his rally in North Carolina

    • Trump said that the debate is “just too late” as “voting has already started”; his two 2020 debates with then-candidate Joe Biden both took place after early voting began in at least four states

    • The former president also renewed his attacks on immigrants and so-called “sanctuary cities,” which made it policy to limit cooperation with federal officers seeking to enforce immigration law

    • Trump pledged to “end” sanctuary cities and “surge” federal law enforcement into those cities

    The appearance in North Carolina was Trump’s first following a report from CNN charging that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the state’s Republican nominee for governor, made a series of comments on a pornographic website’s message board which appear to show him referring to himself as a “black NAZI” and saying that “slavery is not bad” and wishing “they would bring it (slavery) back.”

    Robinson denied the report and has vowed to stay in the race. Harris’ campaign launched an ad on Friday seeking to tie Trump to Robinson, juxtaposing Trump’s praise for the North Carolina Republican with his comments in opposition to abortion. Trump did not mention Robinson on Saturday, nor did Robinson attend the rally.

    “The problem with another debate is that it’s just too late. Voting has already started,” Trump said, before arguing that Harris had a “chance” to do another debate on Fox News, but turned it down.

    CNN and the Harris campaign announced earlier Saturday that the Democratic candidate for president agreed to an Oct. 23 debate, about two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 5. Harris was roundly praised for her debate performance against Trump.

    “You know, it’s like a fighter. She sees the poll, she sees what’s happening, she’s losing badly, but it’s like a fighter who goes into the ring and gets knocked out. The first thing he says is, I want a rematch,” Trump said.

    Then-President Trump agreed to late debates in 2020. His first debate against then-candidate Joe Biden took place on Sept. 29, and the second happened on Oct. 22. Both took place after voting had begun in at least four states. 

    FiveThirtyEight’s average of national presidential polls observes that Harris has a 2.8 point polling lead over Trump, and has held a lead of at least 2.4 points since the Sept. 10 debate.

    The former president also offered several new pledges, including a promise to grant full federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, a Native American tribe that has gained partial recognition from the federal government, but isn’t eligible for federal services.

    He also pledged to end “sanctuary cities” under his administration, promising to push Congress to force cities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

    Trump made a similar promise in his 2016 campaign. Soon after winning election, he signed an executive order saying that cities that didn’t cooperate would not receive federal funds, except as required by law. Federal courts largely halted that plan in a series of decisions, though a federal appeals court allowed the Justice Department to use immigration enforcement cooperation to prioritize issuing certain grants.

    As the 2020 election ramped up, Trump again targeted sanctuary cities, suggesting that he would consider withholding federal aid to such cities as they requested help during the pandemic. Within months of entering office, Biden ended the Trump-era policy.

    “As soon as I take office, we will immediately surge federal law enforcement to every city that is failing — which is a lot of them — to turn over criminal aliens, and we will hunt down and capture every single gang member, drug dealer, rapist, murder and migrant criminal that is being illegally harbored,” Trump said.

    Trump has continually attacked immigrants, insisting that undocumented migrants are “taking over our country” and “crushing the jobs and wages of African American workers and Hispanic American workers, and also union members.” The former president has cited no data for this claim, though anti-immigration think tanks like the Center for Immigration Studies have frequently argued that migrants primarily take low-skill jobs, harming the prospects of Black and Latino workers.

    However, the former president cited a comment by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who told reporters Wednesday that “there has been quite an influx across the borders and that has been one of the things that has allowed the unemployment rate to rise.”

    Powell’s remarks came two months after a July Senate committee hearing in which the Fed chair told Sen. JD Vance — days before the Ohio senator became Trump’s running mate — that he believes immigration hasn’t worsened inflation. 

    “My sense is that in the long run, immigration is kind of neutral on inflation; in the short run, it may actually have helped, because the labor market got looser,” Powell said.

    Trump’s claims of immigrants spiking violent crime nationally also are unproven, and conflict with federal violent crime statistics that show crime falling since 2020.

    The GOP ticket is expected to return to the campaign trail on Monday. Trump will campaign in the city of Indiana, Pennsylvania, while Vance will stop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

    [ad_2]

    David Mendez

    Source link

  • Zelenskyy to visit a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers

    Zelenskyy to visit a Pennsylvania ammunition factory to thank workers

    [ad_1]

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday will visit the Pennsylvania ammunition factory that is producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.

    What You Need To Know

    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit the Pennsylvania ammunition factory that’s producing one of the most critically needed munitions of the war, 155 millimeter artillery shells
    • He is expected to go to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Ukraine in the war, officials told the AP
    • He’ll also address the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York and travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
    • With the war now well into its third year, Zelenskyy has been pushing the U.S. for permission to use longer range missile systems to fire deeper inside of Russia



    He is expected to go to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to kick off a busy week in the United States shoring up support for Ukraine in the war, two U.S. officials and a third familiar with Zelenskyy’s schedule confirmed to The Associated Press. He also will address the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering in New York and travel to Washington for talks on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

    The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells. They are used in howitzer systems, which are towed large guns with long barrels that can fire at various angles. Howitzers can strike targets up to 15 miles to 20 miles away and are highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.

    Ukraine has already received more than 3 million of the 155 mm shells from the U.S.

    With the war now well into its third year, Zelenskyy has been pushing the U.S. for permission to use longer range missile systems to fire deeper inside of Russia.

    So far he has not persuaded the Pentagon or White House to loosen those restrictions. The Defense Department has emphasized that Ukraine can already hit Moscow with Ukrainian-produced drones, and there is hesitation on the strategic implications of a U.S.-made missile potentially striking the Russian capital.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its NATO allies if they allow Ukraine to use the long-range weapons.

    At one point in the war, Ukraine was firing between 6,000 and 8,000 of the 155 mm shells per day. That rate started to deplete U.S. stockpiles and drew concern that the level on hand was not enough to sustain U.S. military needs if another major conventional war broke out, such as in a potential conflict over Taiwan.

    In response the U.S. has invested in restarting production lines and is now manufacturing more than 40,000 155 mm rounds a month, with plans to hit 100,000 rounds a month. During his visit, Zelenskyy is expected meet and thank workers who have increased production of the 155 mm rounds over the past year.

    Two of the Pentagon leaders who have pushed that increased production through — Doug Bush, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology and Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer — are also expected to join Zelenskyy at the plant, as is Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa.

    The 155 mm rounds are just one of the scores of ammunition, missile, air defense and advanced weapons systems the U.S. has provided Ukraine — everything from small arms bullets to advanced F-16 fighter jets. The U.S. has been the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than $56 billion of the more than $106 billion NATO and partner countries have collected to aid in its defense.

    Even though Ukraine is not a member of NATO, commitment to its defense is seen by many of the European nations as a must to keep Putin from further military aggression that could threaten bordering NATO-member countries and result in a much larger conflict.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Haitian restaurants in Springfield packed with supporters following false claims

    Haitian restaurants in Springfield packed with supporters following false claims

    [ad_1]

    SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — In the middle of the threats and national attention about the Haitian population in Springfield, something else started happening. Supporters started packing Haitian restaurants.

    What You Need To Know

    • Several Haitian owned restaurants started popping up in Springfield, and after false claims making national headlines, supporters started lining up for a plate 

    • Supporters came from out of state to find a locally owned Haitian restaurant 

    • Workers say they’ve received calls about the false claims but are happy to be getting support

    Mia Perez had no idea when she helped get a Haitian restaurant open in Springfield that she would be taking a different kind of phone call.

    “People would call saying ‘can I get a side order of dogs, dogs or cats?’” she said. “You know, we just kill them with kindness and say ‘well, we don’t serve that, but this is what we can serve you if you come in.’”

    Perez is a Haitian lawyer who’s been volunteering at Keket Bon Gout Caribbean restaurant ever since those false claims became part of the national debate on immigration. 

    “To hear that, to become a reason why somebody is like making fun of us or downgrading us and talking about our cuisine, I was shocked….I felt disrespected,” Perez said.

    That’s when something else unexpected happened. 

    “I thought I would hunt down a locally owned Haitian restaurant just to come in and eat some delicious food and show my support,” said Jenny Smith, who was dining in at the restaurant. 

    Smith came from out of state to grab lunch, and several other supporters started to follow, packing local Haitian restaurants.

    “With all of the craziness and some things being said that, I just think it’s it’s wrong and it’s terrible, and so I wanted to show my support and let these people know that not everybody thinks that way and I, for one, am a believer that the United States of America is made better by immigrants and people from all over coming here,” Smith said.

    Workers say it’s the busiest they’ve been since opening earlier this year in a show of support that, for Perez, now outweighs everything else. 

    “I’m happy for the support because this could have gone another way,” she said. “People could have just stayed away from Haitian food, but they’re embracing it, and they’re making the Haitians feel like, you know what, you’re not by yourself, and we are coming to eat your food.”

    [ad_2]

    Sheena Elzie

    Source link

  • Death toll from Israeli airstrike on Beirut suburb rises to 31

    Death toll from Israeli airstrike on Beirut suburb rises to 31

    [ad_1]

    The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb rose to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah traded fire.

    What You Need To Know

    • Lebanon’s health minister says the death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb the day before has risen to 31, with 68 also wounded

    • The casualties included Ibrahim Akil, a Hezbollah commander who was in charge of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing, as well as about a dozen members of the militant group who were meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed

    • The rare strike hit an apartment block in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home, the deadliest strike targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war

    • Friday’s deadly strike came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites



    Firass Abiad told reporters 68 people were also wounded of whom 15 remained in hospital, adding that search and rescue operations were still ongoing, with the number of casualties likely to rise.

    The rare strike hit an apartment block in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday afternoon during rush hour as people returned home. It was the deadliest strike targeting the Lebanese capital since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

    Among those killed were Ibrahim Akil who was in charge of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another senior commander in the group’s military wing.

    Wahbi was described as a commander who played major roles within the group for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in south Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” of a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead.

    Hezbollah announced overnight Friday that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces, but did not elaborate on the location of these deaths. Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said on Saturday a total of 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the strike.

    Israel earlier said Akil had been meeting with other militants in the basement of the apartment block.

    Lebanese troops cordoned off the area preventing people from reaching the building that was knocked down as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered body from under the rubble. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.

    The Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamie told reporters at the scene that 23 people are still missing.

    The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-story building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it. The missiles destroyed the building and cut through the basement where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.

    In a nearby building, shops were badly damaged including one that sold clothes and had a sign in English that read: “DRESS LIKE YOU’RE ALREADY FAMOUS.”

    Friday’s deadly strike came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.

    The militant group said its latest wave of rocket salvos was a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. However, it came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people — including two children. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.

    The Lebanese health minister said Saturday hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.

    Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack which marked a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.

    On Saturday, Israel renewed an intense wave of airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to an Associated Press journalist in the area. The Israeli military said its air force was attacking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, without providing further details. The militant group responded by firing a large number of rockets, local media reported.

    It remains unclear if there were any casualties in the latest strikes.

    Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks in the country’s north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border.

    The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

    Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.

     

    Five health workers killed in Gaza

     

    The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that five of its workers were killed, and five others injured, by Israeli fire that struck the ministry’s warehouses in the southern Musbah area.

    Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has already killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians.

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    [ad_1]

    North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is not expected to speak or appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Wilmington following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally in the eastern part of his state after a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, sources said

    • Trump has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him

    • CNN reported that Robinson attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms, once referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 and expressed an appreciation of transgender pornography, despite his anti-transgender political stands today

    • With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday; his decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won



    Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump’s North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday’s CNN report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn’t mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign’s efforts.

    With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday. His decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won.

    Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

    “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”

    State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until Thursday night to withdraw as a candidate, the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed. The State Board of Elections is unaware of any such withdrawal notice, spokesperson Pat Gannon said. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred.

    “We are staying in this race,” Robinson said in the video. “We are in it to win it.”

    Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes.

    “The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday.

    Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature.

    CNN, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class. While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense, individual GOP leaders raised concerns and suggested Robinson needed to address the allegations more fully.

    CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN.

    Spectrum News has not verified the report independently. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.

    CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that came up frequently in his public Twitter profile that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website.

    The state GOP said in a statement late Thursday that while Robinson has “categorically denied the allegations” it wouldn’t “stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”

    But U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary — citing Robinson’s lack of legislative and business experience — said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.”

    “If Harris takes NC, she takes the White House,” he added. “We can’t let that happen.”

    Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, using every opportunity to show on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates attempting to tarnish them by association.

    Stein and his allies have highlighted past comments by Robinson, such as a Facebook post from 2019 in which Robinson said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” And there’s a 2021 speech by Robinson in a church in which he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.

    Robinson, 56, was elected lieutenant governor in his first bid for public office in 2020. He tells a life story of childhood poverty, jobs that he blames the North American Free Trade Agreement for ending, and personal bankruptcy.

    Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top surrogate for Harris, said late Thursday on X that Trump and state GOP leaders “embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for … They reap what they sow.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    [ad_1]

    North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is not expected to speak or appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Wilmington following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally in the eastern part of his state after a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, sources said

    • Trump has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him

    • CNN reported that Robinson attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms, once referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 and expressed an appreciation of transgender pornography, despite his anti-transgender political stands today

    • With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday; his decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won



    Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump’s North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday’s CNN report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn’t mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign’s efforts.

    With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday. His decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won.

    Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

    “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”

    State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until Thursday night to withdraw as a candidate, the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed. The State Board of Elections is unaware of any such withdrawal notice, spokesperson Pat Gannon said. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred.

    “We are staying in this race,” Robinson said in the video. “We are in it to win it.”

    Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes.

    “The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday.

    Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature.

    CNN, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class. While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense, individual GOP leaders raised concerns and suggested Robinson needed to address the allegations more fully.

    CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN.

    Spectrum News has not verified the report independently. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.

    CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that came up frequently in his public Twitter profile that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website.

    The state GOP said in a statement late Thursday that while Robinson has “categorically denied the allegations” it wouldn’t “stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”

    But U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary — citing Robinson’s lack of legislative and business experience — said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.”

    “If Harris takes NC, she takes the White House,” he added. “We can’t let that happen.”

    Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, using every opportunity to show on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates attempting to tarnish them by association.

    Stein and his allies have highlighted past comments by Robinson, such as a Facebook post from 2019 in which Robinson said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” And there’s a 2021 speech by Robinson in a church in which he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.

    Robinson, 56, was elected lieutenant governor in his first bid for public office in 2020. He tells a life story of childhood poverty, jobs that he blames the North American Free Trade Agreement for ending, and personal bankruptcy.

    Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top surrogate for Harris, said late Thursday on X that Trump and state GOP leaders “embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for … They reap what they sow.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    Robinson will not appear at Trump’s North Carolina rally

    [ad_1]

    North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is not expected to speak or appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Wilmington following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.

    What You Need To Know

    • North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump’s rally in the eastern part of his state after a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board, sources said

    • Trump has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him

    • CNN reported that Robinson attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms, once referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 and expressed an appreciation of transgender pornography, despite his anti-transgender political stands today

    • With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday; his decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won



    Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump’s North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids” and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday’s CNN report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn’t mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign’s efforts.

    With the deadline now passed for him to withdraw, Robinson remained the Republican candidate for governor on Friday. His decision to keep campaigning could threaten GOP prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he twice won.

    Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.

    “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”

    State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until Thursday night to withdraw as a candidate, the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed. The State Board of Elections is unaware of any such withdrawal notice, spokesperson Pat Gannon said. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred.

    “We are staying in this race,” Robinson said in the video. “We are in it to win it.”

    Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes.

    “The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday.

    Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature.

    CNN, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class. While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense, individual GOP leaders raised concerns and suggested Robinson needed to address the allegations more fully.

    CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN.

    Spectrum News has not verified the report independently. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.

    CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that came up frequently in his public Twitter profile that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website.

    The state GOP said in a statement late Thursday that while Robinson has “categorically denied the allegations” it wouldn’t “stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks.”

    But U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary — citing Robinson’s lack of legislative and business experience — said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.”

    “If Harris takes NC, she takes the White House,” he added. “We can’t let that happen.”

    Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, using every opportunity to show on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates attempting to tarnish them by association.

    Stein and his allies have highlighted past comments by Robinson, such as a Facebook post from 2019 in which Robinson said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” And there’s a 2021 speech by Robinson in a church in which he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.

    Robinson, 56, was elected lieutenant governor in his first bid for public office in 2020. He tells a life story of childhood poverty, jobs that he blames the North American Free Trade Agreement for ending, and personal bankruptcy.

    Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top surrogate for Harris, said late Thursday on X that Trump and state GOP leaders “embraced Mark Robinson for years knowing who he was and what he stood for … They reap what they sow.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • House passes bill to beef up Secret Service for presidential candidates

    House passes bill to beef up Secret Service for presidential candidates

    [ad_1]

    Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation’s presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It’s unclear, though, how much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference.

    What You Need To Know

    • Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation’s presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence

    • It’s unclear, though, how much they can do only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference
    • Days after a gunman was arrested on former President Donald Trump’s golf course, the House on Friday overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation to require the agency to use the same standards when assigning agents to major presidential candidates as they do presidents and vice presidents

    • The agency has told Congress that it has already boosted Trump’s security, but House lawmakers want it put into law

    Days after a gunman was arrested on former President Donald Trump’s golf course, the House on Friday passed bipartisan legislation 405-0 to require the agency use the same standards when assigning agents to major presidential candidates as they do presidents and vice presidents. The agency has told Congress that it has already boosted Trump’s security, but House lawmakers want it put into law.

    The efforts come after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in July, and after Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club over the weekend. The suspect in Florida apparently also sought to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee.

    “In America, elections are determined at the ballot box, not by an assassin’s bullet,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a chief sponsor of the bill, said in floor debate ahead of the vote. “That these incidents were allowed to occur is a stain on our country.”

    With the election rapidly approaching and Congress headed out of town before October, lawmakers are rushing to figure out exactly what might help, hoping to assess the agency’s most pressing needs while ensuring that they are doing everything they can in an era where political violence has become more commonplace and every politician is a target.

    “We have a responsibility here in Congress to get down to the bottom of this to figure out why these things are happening and what we can do about it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday. “This is not a partisan issue. We have both parties working on it.”

    House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that “we’ve got to get the Secret Service into a position where its protectees are shielded in the most maximum way possible.”

    Democrats and Republicans have been in talks with the agency this week to find out whether additional resources are needed. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the Democratic chairman of the spending subcommittee that oversees the Secret Service, said Congress wants to make sure that if it is spending new dollars, “it’s going to help the situation between now and the inauguration.”

    Murphy said new money could go toward technology like drones, partnerships with other agencies that could provide immediate assistance and overtime pay for agents. It would likely be added to a stopgap spending bill that Congress will consider next week to keep the government running, either in the form of allowing the Secret Service to spend money more quickly or providing them with emergency dollars.

    “I’m confident we are going to take care of this one way or the other,” Murphy said.

    After the July shooting, House Republicans created a bipartisan task force focused on investigating the security failures of that day and ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Johnson said this week that the task force would expand its scope to include what happened in Florida, even though the Secret Service successfully apprehended the suspect before anyone was hurt.

    The House could vote soon on expanding the panel’s mandate — potentially ahead of the task force’s first hearing next week. The committee announced Friday that it will examine the Secret Service’s reliance on state and local law enforcement on Sept. 26.

    In a letter earlier this month, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in Trump’s security when when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said this week that the agency had “immediate needs” and that he’s talking to Congress.

    Secret Service officials also told lawmakers behind closed doors that they have already increased Trump’s security to the same level as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

    “There are a handful of specialized assets only the commander in chief gets, but the rest of his protection is at the same level,” Spencer Love, a Democratic spokesperson for the House task force, said after the agency briefed members on Wednesday.

    In the Senate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has also introduced a bill mandating similar protection for presidential candidates. Both bills would also require regular reports to Congress on the status of the candidates’ protection. Senate leaders have not yet said whether they will consider the legislation.

    Some Republicans have argued that an overhaul of the agency, and potentially reallocating agents, should be a higher priority than funding.

    House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who was himself shot at a baseball practice in 2017, noted this week that the Secret Service has received regular budget increases in recent years.

    “It’s not about the money,” Scalise said, but “what they’re doing with the money.”

    Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican on the task force, said he pushed Secret Service officials Wednesday on what new resources they needed and they said they were still evaluating.

    “I think it’s irresponsible to just throw money at it when they’re not even sure what exactly they need and how quickly they can get it,” the Florida lawmaker said, adding that he hopes the agency shifts to a more threat-focused approach to protecting officials and candidates.

    It’s unclear, though, if Republicans would fight a funding boost.

    “It’s been made implicitly clear that they’re stretched pretty thin,” said Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, a member of the task force. “I know that there’s some folks who see a $3 billion budget and think that should be enough. But when you look at where all of the bodies have to go, that’s a problem.”

    [ad_2]

    Associated Press

    Source link