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US Monthly Headline News April 2023 - Page 2
Story by Alex Henderson

Although former President Donald Trump still enjoys considerable support in the Republican Party and the MAGA movement, some far-right anti-vaxxers turned against him when he came out in favor of COVID-19 vaccines. Trump maintained his opposition to vaccine mandates, but he stressed that Americans who were vaccinated had a much better chance of surviving a COVID-19 infection than those who were not.

During a December 2021 interview, Trump told the Daily Wire's Candace Owens, "Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get (COVID-19), it's a very minor form. People aren't dying when they take the vaccine…. The vaccine works. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take their vaccine. But it's still their choice, and if you take the vaccine, you are protected."

One of the anti-vaxxers who views Trump's support of COVID-19 vaccines as a betrayal is Alabama-based QAnon conspiracy theorist Christopher Key. According to Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo, Key is so angry with Trump that he entered a contest in the hope that he would win and have a chance to tell the former president off in person.
Story by Thomas Kika

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "contradicted" the facts of recent allegations made against him in his own explanation, according to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.

Thomas, who was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1991, is accused of taking numerous vacations with his wife, Ginni Thomas, over the past two decades paid for by billionaire Republican donor, Harlan Crow. The revelations, uncovered in an extensive report from ProPublica, prompted alarm from many observers that the gifts and payments from Crow violated Court rules and may have swayed the justice's rulings on some cases.

In a response to the report, Thomas said he had simply been taking trips with Crow as a close personal friend. He added that he was advised early in his time on the Court that the trips did not rise to the level at which he should have reported them, and further pledged that he would do so in the future.
Story by Weston Blasi

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reportedly been accepting lavish gifts from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow for decades without disclosing those gifts, according to a report last Wednesday from ProPublica. Thomas, 74, has reportedly vacationed on Crow’s 162-foot superyacht, used Crow’s private plane and spent time at luxury retreats owned by the wealthy developer.

Thomas, who is viewed as one of the most conservative justices on the Supreme Court, was nominated to the court by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. He is the longest-serving current justice. The following are four key facts about Harlan Crow.

Crow has given gifts to Justice Thomas and his wife
Thomas reportedly spends about a week each year at Topridge, Crow’s private lakeside estate in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Flight records indicate Thomas has used Crow’s plane numerous times.

Crow also donated $500,000 to Thomas’s wife, Virginia, to help start Liberty Central, a now-defunct conservative group established in 2009, according to Politico. In addition, Crow’s foundation gave $105,000 to Yale Law School, Justice Thomas’s alma mater, to be directed to a fund for a portrait of Thomas, according to tax filings.
Story by David K. Li and Andrew Blankstein and Colin Sheeley and Chloe Atkins and Ken Dilanian and Jonathan Dienst

Agunman opened fire at a bank in downtown Louisville on Monday, leaving five dead and wounding eight others, including a responding police officer, authorities said. The attacker was killed not long after the 8:30 a.m. ET shooting unfolded at the Old National Bank on East Main Street, Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said.

Responding officers exchanged gunfire with the gunman, police said, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the shooter died from police gunfire or a self-inflicted wound. Gov. Andy Beshear fought back tears, telling reporters at least one of the dead was a friend of his. "This is awful," Beshear said. "I have a very close friend who didn't make it today, and I have another close friend who didn't either, and one who is at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through."
Republicans protect your 2nd amendment rights while they assault your 1st amendment rights.

Story by Robert McCoy

An LGBTQ student group at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU), Spectrum, began organizing a drag show last fall. With the university’s approval, the students advertised and sold tickets to the event—a fundraiser for The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ suicide prevention nonprofit—and reserved the campus’ Jack B. Kelley Student Center for March 31.

On March 20, three days after the venue approved Spectrum’s music selection, University President Walter Wendler unilaterally banned the show from campus. Wendler provided his rationale in a school-wide email with the subject line “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing.”

In the email later published to Wendler’s blog, the president of the public university attempted to justify banning drag from WTAMU on the pretense that the artform is necessarily “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” and akin to blackface. (In doing so, he cited a 2015 Slate essay by drag queen Miz Cracker, who actually debunks comparisons of drag and blackface, making the obvious clarification that individual cases of misogyny among drag performers do “not make the entire art form inherently misogynistic.”)
Story by Kathy Campbell Feeney

Isit across the exam room from a happy, healthy 16-year old boy. His voice cracks just a little as he tells me about the part-time job he just started. His mom and I laugh at his joke about needing stronger deodorant if he’s going to have to work so hard.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same dejected kid who, when I first met him, wouldn’t make eye contact or speak in sentences of more than three or four words. A few months of gender-affirming hormone therapy have placed this family firmly in the light at the end of the tunnel. And now I sit here, across the exam room, preparing to tell them that Indiana legislators are about to take it all away.

I live and work in Indiana, where our governor, Eric Holcomb, just signed SB 480. This bill bans all gender-affirming care for patients under the age of 18. Indiana’s SB 480, and similar bills in states like Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, are based on misconceptions about what this care entails.
AP

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville officials are poised to vote Monday to reinstate one of the two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican colleagues for their gun control protest on the Tennessee House floor after a deadly school shooting — essentially, sending him back after a long weekend.

Nashville’s metro council has called the meeting to address the vacancy left by the expulsion on Thursday of former Rep. Justin Jones. Many councilmembers have publicly commented that they want to send Jones back to the statehouse. The vote will happen as state lawmakers hold their first floor sessions since last week’s expulsion votes.
Story by Stephen Silver

Did Ron DeSantis bungle his war with Disney? After the Florida governor and probable presidential candidate tried to replace the governing council of Walt Disney World with a board of his own choosing, it appeared that Disney managed to outfox the governor. Does this bode poorly for DeSantis’ endless culture war, not to mention his presidential hopes?

What We Know: Ron DeSantis vs. Disney
Earlier this year, in retaliation for Disney’s decision to speak out against his “Don’t Say Gay” law, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave the state control over the Reedy Creek Improvement District. This special district has long comprised Walt Disney World, and given the Walt Disney Co. an unusual amount of autonomy.
Story by Milla

"It's a vote against girls": Republicans Defeated The Bill To Ban Child Marriage In West Virginia
A bill that could have prevented child marriage was defeated in the West Virginia House. The Republican-dominated Senate Judiciary Committee denied the bill 9:8, a week after it passed the House of Delegates. Kayla Young Was The Bill’s Sponsor The bill’s primary sponsor, a Democrat, Kayla Young of Kanawha County, testified in front of the ...
Story by Tom Boggioni

Citing new polling that shows more and more American believe Donald Trump should be prosecuted for his crimes, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough warned the former president that his incessant complaints that he is the victim of a "witch hunt" are increasingly falling on deaf ears. On Monday, the "Morning Joe" host explained that, less than a week after Trump was slammed with a 34 felony count indictment in Manhattan, his support already cratered.

With co-host Mika Brzezinski prompting that new polling shows, "More Americans agree with the charges," Scarborough interjected, "So with all of these charges, just crazy talk this week -- these Truth Social tweets that he did." "Actually the number of Americans who believe he should be indicted went up 5 percent this week," he continued before admitting he was unimpressed with the Manhattan indictment.
WION

The Department of Justice has launched an inquiry into the recent social media postings of what appears to be a large number of US intelligence documents. The probe takes place as further records that span everything from US help for Ukraine to details about important US allies like Israel surface on Friday, increasing the ramifications of the already concerning leaks. Following social media posts of what appeared to be sensitive information on the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon announced on Thursday that it was investigating the situation.
Story by Oliver Darcy

Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit from a Venezuelan businessman who had accused the network of making false claims about him and the 2020 election, attorneys for the man and Fox News said Saturday in a court filing. The details of the settlement were not made public.

“This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides,” a Fox News spokesperson said Sunday, declining further comment. Following the 2020 election, former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs had accused the businessman, Majed Khalil, of playing a key role in supposedly rigging the election against Donald Trump. In a tweet calling the 2020 election a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” Dobbs named Khalil as one of four people he wanted his audience to “get familiar with” for committing supposed election fraud.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

The "friend" of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, that has been paying for the Thomas couple to go on lavish trips around the world on his pal's private jet and personal yacht, is also known for collecting Nazi memorabilia. While Republicans have excused it away as ensuring the horrors of history are remembered, the reality is a little more disturbing.

GOP donor Harlan Crow has a yard full of statues of dictators on display. He has a signed portrait of Adolf Hitler and an autographed copy of Hitler's book Mein Kampf. One house guest found some of Hitler's linens and place settings hidden away in an upstairs cabinet, hidden away from the public. MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that for the past few weeks, Fox hosts and conservative pundits have collected around the false conspiracy theory that Jewish funder George Soros was behind the prosecution.
Story by Tom Boggioni

Rep. Jim Jordan's (R-OH) relentless complaints that the 34 felony counts levied against Donald Trump by a Manhattan grand jury are based on nothing more than "bookkeeping errors" were brutally slapped aside by a former U.S. attorney in a column for MSNBC.

According to MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, who never passed the bar after graduating from law school, has a basic lack of knowledge of what constitutes white-collar crime and how often it is prosecuted. In her column, she explained that white-collar crime is a serious offense and historically has been treated as such.

"In reality, offenses committed by the business elite can be just as serious as those committed by street criminals," she wrote before adding. "In fact, I would argue that in some cases, white-collar crime is more egregious than crime committed by destitute people desperate for cash. These are crimes often motivated by greed, instead of need."
Story by Maria DeLiberato and Melanie Kalmanson

Despite long-standing Supreme Court precedent directing that the proposal is unconstitutional, Florida legislators this month are seeking to broaden the death penalty to non-homicide crimes. The proposal has Gov. Ron DeSantis’s full support. On Tuesday, the Florida Senate Rules Committee is expected to vote on the bill, which is the bill’s last committee stop before the floor.

Specifically, the bills seek to broaden the death penalty to sexual battery crimes against children. The bills plainly contradict the court’s 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which held that punishing a defendant with death when the crime does not intentionally cause the victim’s death violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Story by Ray Hartmann • Saturday | THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

Gov. Ron DeSantis is planning to introduce legislation banning Floridians from making use of a digital currency under consideration by the federal government – a “crazy” idea that would serve to protect financial crime, economic Paul Krugman writes today in the New York Times.

The United States doesn’t have such a currency today, but the Federal Reserve is studying the idea, Krugman writes. The economist notes there’s a demand for a new system that would provide “virtual equivalents of old-fashioned cash that can be stored and transferred electronically.”
Story by Maya Boddie

Anti-transgender rhetoric is on the rise within the Republican Party, from conservative commentator Michael Knowles' suggesting transgender people should be "eradicated," to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) anti-trans Twitter rant following the recent Nashville school mass shooting.

The latest example of brazen anti-trans language comes from former President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., on an episode of the "Full Send" podcast. Former GOP prosecutor Ron Filipkowski shared a clip of the MAGA heir's rant Sunday, writing, "Junior claims he has trans friends and is pretty liberal on the trans issue but he's tired of rainbow-haired teachers forcing 3-year-olds to become trans."
Story by Ray Hartmann

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) violated state law in New York with his threats to conduct a Congressional investigation of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg over the indictment of Donald Trump, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said Saturday on his “Justice Matters” podcast.

The comments by Kirschner were reported by Newsweek. Here’s part of its account: “Under our law, a person is guilty of Obstructing Governmental Administration in the Second Degree when that person intentionally...prevents or attempts to prevent a public servant from performing an official function by means of intimidation, physical force or interference," Kirschner told his audience. “That is precisely what Jim Jordan has done and is doing.”
Opinion by Ray Hartmann

Two recently published books – one on the Ku Klux Klan, the other on David Koresh – provide timely context for understanding the phenomenon of Donald Trump, writes journalist Bill Lueders at The Bulwark. The books are: “Koresh: The True Story of David Koresh and the Tragedy at Waco” by Stephan Talty; and “A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over American and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan.

Along with favorably reviewing the new titles, Lueders offers them up as context for understanding Trump. “Part of what makes these two books about terrible episodes in U.S. history relevant is the insight they offer on an important contemporary subject—namely, the persona and phenomenon of Donald Trump and other authoritarians who continue to find their way onto the world stage,” writes Lueders.
The right is the kings of cancel culture. The right is canceling 1st amendment rights, books, people rights, business rights, voter’s rights and each other

Story by Alice Cattley

Trump's blacklist
Donald Trump isn’t a fan of what he describes as the left’s “woke cancel culture". But in April 2021 – when Republicans in Georgia introduced a restrictive new voting law known as SB 202 – the former president did some canceling all of his own, encouraging Americans to boycott certain brands that spoke out against the state.

This was nothing new. For years, Trump has been enthusiastically blacklisting everything from department store Macy's to his beloved Coca-Cola. But has he put his money where his mouth is? Read on to discover the products and brands he wants people to avoid and, if known, whether he's managed to avoid them himself.
Story by Ray Hartmann

Gov. Ron DeSantis is planning to introduce legislation banning Floridians from making use of a digital currency under consideration by the federal government – a “crazy” idea that would serve to protect financial crime, economic Paul Krugman writes today in the New York Times.

The United States doesn’t have such a currency today, but the Federal Reserve is studying the idea, Krugman writes. The economist notes there’s a demand for a new system that would provide “virtual equivalents of old-fashioned cash that can be stored and transferred electronically.”

But DeSantis' condemnation in advance of the idea as “woke” is irrational, according to Krugman, citing the governor’s claim that a digital currency would “impose an E.S.G. agenda” and, for example, prevent people from spending too much on gas or from buying rifles.”

Here’s Krugman’s take:
Story by LGBTQNation

The Editorial Board of the Orlando Sentinel has published a scathing takedown of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for what it described as his “foolish, petty, and ultimately selfish political vendetta” against Disney. DeSantis has made it clear he is unwilling to relent in his feud with the entertainment company — which all began with Disney’s opposition to DeSantis’s Don’t Say Gay law. Disney outmaneuvered DeSantis, so now expensive lawyers are being hired to figure out what happened.

Most recently, DeSantis has called for an investigation into Disney after it out-maneuvered his attempt to strip the company of its special tax privileges as retaliation for speaking out against him. The Sentinel’s board skewered DeSantis for gearing up to expend even more effort on battling Disney, saying he wants to waste money “on a small army of very expensive attorneys” instead of actually serving the people of Florida.
Republicans claim they support States rights and the separation of the Federal government and States, once again Republicans are showing us they are liars.

Story by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

House Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has invited the Senior Counsel of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to testify despite having no legitimate or constitutional authority to perform oversight of a county elected official’s actions.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is prosecuting Donald Trump for 34 felony violations. Jordan and the House GOP have been warned by Bragg to not interfere. Doing so, Bragg has said, could be illegal. Legal experts also have repeatedly made clear Jordan, and his counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, Jim Comer, have no authority to investigate any state officials.

“The attempt by conservative House Republicans to intimidate Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is an abuse of power and antithetical to our federalist structure of government. Congress has no oversight authority over local district attorneys. Former President Donald Trump’s enablers are engaged in nothing but a shameful attempt to protect him from legal scrutiny,” wrote University of California, Berkeley School of Law dean and professor Erwin Chemerinsky, and Dennis Aftergut a former federal prosecutor who is currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy just last week.
Story by Maya Boddie

Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffarti has filed a lawsuit against the leaders of an ongoing probe into the agency's top watchdog's alleged role in "missing Secret Service text messages from the Jan. 6" insurrection, The Washington Post reports.

The two-year investigation, according to The Post, "has paralyzed" Cuffarti's office," leaving him "alienated from the watchdog community," and has even sparked "calls for President Joe Biden to fire him."

The news outlet reports: "The president has signaled that he intends to stay out of the process until the panel from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) completes its work. When a federal watchdog is accused of misconduct and the organization decides that it warrants attention, another inspector general is assigned to investigate, under a system set up by Congress."
Story by By Kyle Cheney

Prosecutors are seeking nearly 16 years in prison for Patrick McCaughey, a Jan. 6 defendant who pinned a police officer in a Capitol doorway amid some of the most chaotic moments of violence that day.

The Justice Department called for the sentence — which would be more than five years longer than the longest sentence handed down in any Jan. 6 case — to reflect what it called McCaughey’s “heinous” conduct, some of the most egregious of any Jan. 6 defendant.

“McCaughey taunted police officers at the West Front bike racks and joined the mob that threw its weight against the beleaguered line of officers guarding the Capitol,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in the 45-page sentencing memo. “McCaughey used a deadly and dangerous weapon against Officer Hodges, where he spent over two minutes using his body weight to crush the officer in the doorframe.”
Story by Kelly McClure

Harlan Crow, the billionaire benefactor to Justice Clarence Thomas, owns a collection of Hitler artifacts which he keeps on display at his home in Dallas. Word of this came via a report from Washingtonian on Friday, the same week in which Thomas made headlines after it was revealed he'd been accepting lavish trips from Crow — which Thomas failed to disclose, in violation of a law passed after Watergate.

Having been so closely tied to Crow in recent headlines, this latest news of his benefactor's private Hitler collection has brought about further backlash. "Let's normalize Supreme Court Justices (Clarence Thomas) not taking secret gifts from billionaire donors (Harlan Crow) who collect Nazi memorabilia," tweets political commentator, Keith Boykin.
Story by Shirin Ali

Nestled in ProPublica’s investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ undisclosed all-expenses paid vacations, there is a custom portrait featuring Thomas alongside Republican billionaire Harlan Crow and other conservative operatives. The entire scene is truly something else. We were so fascinated with it, we asked an art historian to help us unpack it.

In said portrait, commissioned by Crow and painted by Sharif Tarabay, Thomas is lounging outside, sitting back on a wooden rocker, cigar in hand, surrounded by Crow and others. A statue of a Native American man with its arms outstretched sits behind the five men. The portrait captures a scene from about five years ago during a trip at Camp Topridge, a 105-acre remote enclave of the Adirondacks in upstate New York, owned by Crow.

I spoke with Heather Diack, associate professor of contemporary art and history of photography at the University of Miami, about what she sees in this painting. She’s also written multiple books analyzing the relationship of art and photography. Here’s our conversation, lightly edited and condensed for clarity:
Story by Sky Palma

Jonathan Wohl, a construction worker, was arrested last September as he was recording himself staging a one-man protest against his union in the lobby of its New York City offices. When police were called, they confiscated his phone but, as Gothamist points out, didn't realize it was still recording. As Wohl was in a holding cell in the Midtown South precinct, his phone picked up the conversations of dozens of cops who did not know they were being recorded.

The recording, according to Gothamist, "offers a rare window into the daily work of a police officer behind closed doors – and the ways that a number of recent criminal justice reforms have changed the way officers process arrests and collect overtime."

Wohl’s arresting officer, Shaun Enright told a coworker, “Bail reform sucks. But it's also one of the best things that's ever happened, too,” apparently suggesting that the new law has boosted his paycheck thanks to the additional paperwork.
Story by Helene Cooper, Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt and Thomas Gibbons-Neff

WASHINGTON — A new batch of classified documents that appear to detail American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media sites on Friday, alarming the Pentagon and adding turmoil to a situation that seemed to have caught the Biden administration off guard.

The scale of the leak — analysts say more than 100 documents may have been obtained — along with the sensitivity of the documents themselves, could be hugely damaging, U.S. officials said. A senior intelligence official called the leak “a nightmare for the Five Eyes,” in a reference to the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the so-called Five Eyes nations that broadly share intelligence.

The latest documents were found on Twitter and other sites on Friday, a day after senior Biden administration officials said they were investigating a potential leak of classified Ukrainian war plans, include an alarming assessment of Ukraine’s faltering air defense capabilities. One slide, dated Feb. 23, is labeled “Secret/NoForn,” meaning it was not meant to be shared with foreign countries.
Story by Spencer Hsu

The Proud Boys leader who learned of his upcoming arrest from a D.C. police lieutenant days before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was in regular contact with the officer over the prior 15 months, according to evidence entered in federal court this week.

Enrique Tarrio, then chairman of the far-right extremist group, repeatedly shared outlines of members’ plans in D.C. and elsewhere at the request of Shane Lamond, a 22-year veteran of the D.C. police department, according to text exchanges read by Tarrio’s defense in his trial on seditious conspiracy charges with four other Proud Boys leaders.
Story by By Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants facing obstruction charges — one of the most commonly charged felonies against those who breached the building or confronted police that day — are suddenly in limbo, following a divided appeals court ruling Friday.

The three-judge panel spared the Justice Department an immediate disaster by agreeing to permit three challenged Jan. 6 obstruction cases to continue. But the judges — one liberal and two conservatives — all raised serious questions about whether other Jan. 6 obstruction cases might face legitimate challenges.

At the heart of the conflict is how to measure whether Jan. 6 rioters acted with “corrupt intent,” a central element in the crime of obstructing an official proceeding. The judges noted that the requirement of “corrupt intent” was meant to avoid inadvertently criminalizing traditional protest or lobbying activities that have been a feature of civic engagement throughout American history. Any decision on the meaning of corrupt intent would have to separate those legitimate activities from potential criminal conduct.
DeSantis is a dictator who wants to control what people and businesses say and how they should act in Florida.

Story by kleonard@insider.com (Kimberly Leonard)

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has pledged he isn't done with trying to control Walt Disney World. During a book tour stop in Midland, Michigan, on Thursday, DeSantis acknowledged that Disney had "tried to pull a fast one on their way out the door" by quietly creating a loophole to retain power over its land. He pledged that the company, which had benefitted from a special carve-out for decades, would eventually pay its debts and taxes.

"All I can say is: That story's not over yet," DeSantis said. "Buckle up. There's going to be more coming down the pike." The governor expanded on his remarks on Thursday evening, in a separate event at conservative Hillsdale College. DeSantis said the legislature would void Disney's actions and also consider taxes on hotels, new tolls, and developing properties. He said even more actions would come over the next month or two.
ABC7

A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled to suspend the abortion drug mifepristone, which was approved by regulators 23 years ago and has now become one of the most common methods of abortion in the country. READ MORE: https://abc7.la/3KjBaY4
Story by Nick Mordowanec

A 20-year-old photo of Kid Rock drinking Bud Light next to a drag queen has resurfaced online days after the musician repeatedly shot at Bud Light cases to protest a partnership with a transgender influencer.

Dylan Mulvaney, a trans advocate who has obtained a large following due to her Day 365 Of Girlhood video series on TikTok, shared a personalized Bud Light can with her face on it in commemoration of her one-year anniversary since beginning her gender transition.

It almost immediately drew backlash against the beer brand and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, leading to public figures like Kid Rock—whose real name is Robert James Ritchie—and countless others online to voice their displeasure and call for boycotts.
Story by Tom Boggioni

Appearing on CNN on Friday morning, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expressed dismay that House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) chose to subpoena a former lawyer who worked in the Manhattan district attorney's office as part of his efforts to run interference for Donald Trump. On Thursday. the controversial Jordan subpoenaed former special assistant district attorney Mark Pomerantz who left his position over unhappiness with District Attorney Alvin Bragg's reluctance to indict the former president.

According to Gonzales, who served as attorney general under former President George W. Bush, if there are any problems with Bragg's case, they need to be handled at the state level without the House getting involved. Speaking with CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Gonzales explained that "I worry about it, quite frankly, because it really is an indirect attack on the investigation."
Story by Matthew Chapman

But in a new piece ruthlessly mocking her in The Arizona Republic, E.J. Montini offered her another suggestion for how to take over the state: proclaim herself the Baroness of Arizona. Montini is referring specifically to a bizarre case in the 19th century, of a man who sought to usurp authority over Arizona — under only slightly less absurd legal grounds than Lake has used to try to claim she is the rightful winner of the 2022 gubernatorial election.

"Something like that almost worked here once, back in the late 1800s, when a man named James Reavis manufactured a fake family tree, forged documents, and with audacity, confidence and a knack for public speaking convinced prominent citizens, politicians and celebrities that he was Mexican royalty with legitimate claims to millions of acres of land under the Treaty of Guadalupe," wrote Montini. "The exploits of Reavis were the subject of a movie in 1950 called 'The Baron of Arizona,' and his story is one of many featured in a book by the indispensable Arizona historian Marshall Trimble."
Story by Tommy Christopher

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was stunned by a motion in the $1.6 billion Dominion defamation suit that he says is tantamount to an admission of blame by Fox News for the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

On Friday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the host was commenting on the Republican overreach exemplified by Tennessee’s expulsion of two Black lawmakers that he says is fueled in part by things the base hears on Fox News.

Scarborough then went on a tangent about a motion from Fox News to exclude testimony about Jan. 6 on the grounds that “any reference to the Capitol riot will only unfairly prejudice the jury against Fox, inflame passions, prevent a fair trial, and taint any resulting verdict”:
Economy added 236,000 positions as central bank considers another rate rise
Colby Smith in Washington and Harriet Clarfelt in New York

US jobs growth slowed in March but not enough to deter the Federal Reserve from considering another interest rate increase as the central bank battles high inflation. The world’s largest economy added 236,000 positions last month, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics published on Friday. This was a step down from the upwardly revised 326,000 jobs accrued in February and far below the 472,000 recorded in January. Most economists polled by Bloomberg forecasted job gains of 230,000 in March.

Over the past six months, monthly jobs gains have averaged 334,000, according to the BLS. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.5 per cent, just above a multi-decade low. Wage growth, meanwhile, remained firm, with average hourly earnings up another 0.3 per cent in March following a 0.2 per cent increase the previous period.
Story by Dave Levinthal, Editor-in-Chief

For decades, former President Donald Trump has hated paying bills, be them business or political. He especially hated the kind he felt he didn't have to pay. Notably, these include police and public safety expense invoices — now collectively worth millions of dollars — that many municipal governments fruitlessly sent his presidential campaign after Trump swept into their towns to stage mass political rallies.

So when Trump wanted to conduct an "unprecedented" 2024 presidential campaign rally on March 25 in Waco, Texas, municipal officials there didn't dawdle in ensuring the former president's committee would cover tens of thousands of dollars in unanticipated city expenses, according to government documents obtained by Raw Story through a Texas Public Information Act request. Knowing full well they had legal leverage over Trump — Trump's requested rally venue was the city-owned Waco Regional Airport — the city manager and city attorney's office made the Trump campaign sign a binding 10-page contract eight days before his event.
Opinion by Brandon Gage

Righ-wing Daily Wire commentator Charlie Kirk said at his Turning Points USA Political Action Committee Faith conference on Wednesday that the tens of thousands of annual firearm-related deaths in the United States are an acceptable price to pay in order for Americans to keep their Second Amendment constitutional right to bear arms.

The statistics underlying this uniquely American problem as outlined in this Gun Violence Archive chart are sobering. The statistics underlying this uniquely American problem as outlined in this Gun Violence Archive chart are sobering.
Story by Heather Digby Parton

For as long as I can remember, Democrats have been on the defensive about enacting their agenda because it was assumed that it would engender a backlash among "the silent majority," as former president Richard Nixon called it, or what modern Republicans call "Real America." Reacting to the counter-culture of the 1960s and the massive social changes it engendered, the left wing of the Democratic Party was always admonished by the centrist and conservative wings not to go too far or too fast. The media even blithely asserted that "America is a conservative country" as if it were an act of God. This article of faith hobbled progress for a very long time and empowered the Reagan Revolution through the Tea Party and Donald Trump's MAGA movement.
Story by Patricia Hurtado

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina may have a conflict of interest because Stormy Daniels shared “confidences” with him about her sexual encounter with the former president, a lawyer for the adult-film star said.

Daniels is at the center of a hush-money case against Trump, who pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records at his company related to $130,000 he paid to buy her silence.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg claims Trump wanted to bury damaging information to boost his electoral prospects in 2016 and directed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to pay Daniels. Trump repaid Cohen in installments, which were recorded as legal expenses in his records.
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