Ohio governor, lieutenant governor ordered to appear in court in connection to FirstEnergy bribery scandal
Ohio’s governor and lieutenant governor have been drawn into a FirstEnergy Corp. investors lawsuit connected to the $60 million bribery scheme concocted by the Akron-based energy giant and a now-incarcerated House speaker. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine received a subpoena for documents in the case dated Nov. 17, according to a copy provided to The Associated Press by his office on Tuesday and first reported by cleveland.com. His spokesperson, Dan Tierney, said the governor’s lawyers are reviewing the order. It seeks any communications DeWine might have had with FirstEnergy, executives named in the lawsuit or Sam Randazzo, the state’s former top utility regulator, that related to former House Speaker Larry Householder’s efforts to secure power, to the tainted $1 billion nuclear bailout legislation Householder championed in exchange for the bribes, and to a host of other related topics. OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON ABORTION GOES ‘WAY, WAY TOO FAR,’ EVEN FARTHER THAN ROE: GOV. DEWINE OHIO JUDGE PUTS MASSIVE GOP-BACKED EDUCATION OVERHAUL ON HOLD Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, also a Republican, received a similar subpoena on the same date — and, according to a court filing Monday, is scheduled to be deposed in the case sometime between Feb. 28 and March 19. “We’re aware of the civil investor lawsuit against FirstEnergy,” Husted spokesperson Hayley Carducci said in an email. “The Lt. Governor has already provided public records pertaining to this, and we will continue to comply as we have done in the past. There’s no new information to disclose.” The civil lawsuit is distinct from a separate, ongoing criminal case, in which Householder, lobbyist Matt Borges and two others have been convicted. A fifth man charged died by suicide in 2021. Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Borges received five. Tierney said no one in the DeWine administration has ever been subpoenaed or identified as under investigation in the criminal probe. Nor has Randazzo, the governor’s pick for the powerful chairmanship of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, whose Columbus townhome was searched by the FBI in November 2020. As chair of the commission, Randazzo held immense sway over the fortunes of FirstEnergy and other investor-owned utilities. OHIO LT. GOV BLASTS MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER FOR ‘UNREASONABLE, IRRESPONSIBLE’ EFFORT TO SHUT DOWN OIL PIPELINE During his confirmation hearing for the job, he testified before a state Senate committee that he was asked before DeWine and Husted took office on Jan. 14, 2019, to forgo plans to retire to Naples, Florida, where he owned an expensive waterfront home, and to return to government at the utility commission. He specified during the confirmation hearing that Husted and Laurel Dawson, DeWine’s then-chief of staff, were among those who helped recruit him. DeWine disregarded cries of alarm from consumer and environmental advocates at the time, as well as pleas from GOP insiders concerned about Randazzo’s selection, the AP first reported in December 2020. When he was Ohio House speaker in 2007, Husted appointed Randazzo to the Public Utilities Commission Nominating Council and the two were allies in thwarting renewable and alternative energy mandates proposed by then-Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and opposed by a coalition of utilities led by FirstEnergy.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court debates future of impeachment trial for Philadelphia Prosecutor Larry Krasner
Pennsylvania’s highest court on Tuesday weighed whether the Legislature can proceed with an impeachment trial against Philadelphia’s elected progressive prosecutor and whether the court or lawmakers should determine what qualifies as misbehavior in office. What the justices decide after oral arguments in the Supreme Court chambers in Harrisburg will determine the future of efforts to remove District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, on claims he should have prosecuted some minor crimes, his bail policies and how he has managed his office. Krasner was impeached by the state House in November 2022, a year after he was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term, sending the matter to the state Senate for trial. PHILADELPHIA DA LARRY KRASNER IMPEACHED BY PENNSYLVANIA LAWMAKERS IN GOP-LED EFFORT: ‘CRISIS OF CRIME’ PROGRESSIVE DA WILL INVESTIGATE IF PHILLY RIOTERS ARE ‘FUNDAMENTALLY LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE’ BEFORE PROSECUTION Justice Kevin Brobson, one of the two Republicans on the bench Tuesday, questioned why the court should get involved at this point and suggested the Senate may not get the two-thirds majority necessary to convict and remove Krasner from office. “Just as I would not want the General Assembly to stick its nose into a court proceeding, I am shy about whether it makes sense, constitutionally, jurisprudentially, for us at this stage to stick our noses” into the impeachment process, he said. Justice Christine Donohue, among the four Democratic justices at the hearing, said she was not comfortable delving “into the weeds” of what the impeachable offenses were, but indicated it should be up to the Supreme Court to define misbehavior in office, the grounds for removal. “It would go through the Senate once we define what misbehavior in office means, whatever that is, and then it would never come back again because then there would be a definition of what misbehavior in office is,” she said. Another Democrat, Justice David Wecht, seemed to chafe at an argument by lawyers for the two Republican House members managing the impeachment trial that lawmakers should determine what constitutes misbehavior. “It’s not just akin to indicting a ham sandwich,” Wecht said. He went on to say, “They could have totally different ham sandwiches in mind.” “I mean, it’s whatever the House wakes up to today and what they have for breakfast and then they bring impeachment. And then tomorrow the Senate wakes up and they think of the polar opposite as what any misbehavior means,” Wecht said. PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE REPUBLICANS ANNOUNCE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST PHILADELPHIA DA LARRY KRASNER Krasner has dismissed the House Republicans’ claims as targeting his policies, and a lower court issued a split ruling in the matter. A panel of lower-court judges rejected two of Krasner’s challenges — that the opportunity for a trial died along with the end last year’s session and that as a local official he could not be impeached by the General Assembly. But it agreed with him that the impeachment articles do not meet the state constitution’s definition of misbehavior in office. Krasner’s appeal seeks reconsideration of the Commonwealth Court’s decision. The Republican representatives who spearheaded the impeachment and the GOP-controlled Senate leadership also appealed, arguing that impeachment proceedings exist outside of the rules of lawmaking and could continue into a new legislative session. Krasner, as a district attorney, gets state funding and that distinguishes him from purely local officials, they argued.
Top Oversight Democrat slams GOP for keeping Hunter Biden hearing out of public view
House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., slammed committee Republicans for refusing Hunter Biden’s request for a public hearing on Dec. 13, when Biden will appear for a closed-door deposition. In a statement Tuesday, Raskin called the Republicans’ actions an “epic humiliation” and said their hesitancy to let the president’s son give public testimony is “a frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it. “Let me get this straight,” Raskin said. “After wailing and moaning for ten months about Hunter Biden and alluding to some vast unproven family conspiracy, after sending Hunter Biden a subpoena to appear and testify, Chairman Comer and the Oversight Republicans now reject his offer to appear before the full Committee and the eyes of the world and to answer any questions that they pose?” HUNTER BIDEN AGREES TO HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE TESTIMONY Earlier Tuesday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and offered to let the president’s son appear before the committee, with C-SPAN cameras rolling, and answer lawmakers’ questions about his family’s business dealings. The letter came in answer to a subpoena issued by Comer for Hunter Biden and his family members and business associates to sit for a closed-door deposition as part of the GOP-led investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings. “We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Lowell wrote. “If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let light shine on the proceedings.” HOUSE GOP SUBPOENAS DOJ PROSECUTOR WHO ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO SHIELD BIDEN DURING FEDERAL PROBE INTO SON HUNTER In reply, Comer accused Biden of “trying to play by his own rules” and rejected his request to testify publicly on Dec. 13. However, the chairman agreed that Biden “should have the opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date.” No future hearing has yet been scheduled. BIDEN’S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN House Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden to examine evidence and allegations that Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s positions in government to make unethical business deals with foreign partners, from which President Biden allegedly received payouts. But at the first public inquiry hearing, GOP witnesses said there was not yet enough evidence to prove the president committed an impeachable offense. Raskin said Republicans won’t schedule a public hearing for Hunter Biden to testify because it would expose how their case against his father is weak. “After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in,” he said. “The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense. Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again. What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.” Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
Pennsylvania Rep. Craig Williams enters 2024 race for attorney general
A state lawmaker who is helping lead the effort to impeach Philadelphia’s elected prosecutor on Tuesday became the newest candidate for Pennsylvania attorney general, an office that played a critical role in court defending Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential battleground. Rep. Craig Williams, a Republican who represents part of suburban Philadelphia, has said for months that he planned to run for the state’s top law enforcement office in 2024. Williams, a former federal prosecutor and former U.S. Marine Corps pilot and prosecutor, is the third Republican to declare his candidacy. REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS FILE APPEAL REGARDING THE LEGALITY OF THE PA LEGISLATURE’S IMPEACHMENT OF LARRY KRASNER COURT REJECTS PENNSYLVANIA TOWNSHIP’S BAN OF ‘THIN BLUE LINE’ FLAG AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL In an announcement video, Williams says, “I’m running for attorney general because I know how to deal with violence. … I fought the bad guys on the battlefield and I beat them in the courtroom.” Democrats are facing a five-way primary for an office that will be open after next year. Williams is a second-term member of the state House who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008, losing by 20 percentage points to then-U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak. He spent about a decade as a lawyer for Philadelphia-area electric and gas utility Peco Energy Co., an Exelon Corp. subsidiary, before running for the Legislature. As a freshman lawmaker, he became one of two House Republicans tapped to lead the impeachment of Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney, Larry Krasner. The process is tied up in court, with Krasner challenging it as a political impeachment based on policy disagreements, not credible evidence of wrongdoing in office. Williams, 58, born in Alabama, got his law degree at the University of Florida. The attorney general’s office has a budget of about $140 million annually and plays a prominent role in arresting drug traffickers, fighting gun trafficking, defending state laws in court and protecting consumers from predatory practices. The office also defended the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election against repeated attempts to overturn it in state and federal courts by Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican allies. The two other Republicans who have announced their candidacies are York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and former federal prosecutor Katayoun Copeland. The Democrats running are Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, state Rep. Jared Solomon of Philadelphia, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers. No Republican has been elected attorney general since 2008. Candidates must file paperwork by Feb. 13 to appear on the April 23 primary ballot. The current officeholder, Michelle Henry, is filling the last two years of Gov. Josh Shapiro ‘s second term as attorney general and doesn’t plan to run for the office. Shapiro nominated Henry, his top deputy, in January when he was sworn in as governor.
How one man’s open records obsession sparked a fight over transparency and power in East Texas
Once a tool of journalists and concerned citizens to hold government accountable, open records requests have been increasingly used by political opponents and conspiracy theorists to slow down the pace of government.
Despite strong economy, Texas cities grapple with excess office space
As remote and hybrid working become the new normal, major Texas cities are facing a decline in office tenants. It’s too soon to tell what that means for the vitality of downtowns.
Sen. Rick Scott says Schumer likely doesn’t have votes to pass supplemental without tighter border security
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., likely doesn’t have the votes to pass President Biden’s $106 billion national security supplemental package as is, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday evening. Senate Republicans have been rallying behind adding stricter border security provisions in the package, such as more border patrol agents and tougher asylum processing standards. But Democrats have signaled they’re not interested in changing border policies. “There’s going to have to be significant border security,” Scott, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said. “The border is a clear and present danger to the security of every American, and I think every Republican and hopefully some Democrats understand that.” The question, Scott said, revolves around whether Republicans will opt for straightforward modifications, expecting Biden to adhere to the law, or whether Ukraine aid could be contingent upon a decrease in border crossings. SCHUMER TO SEND BIDEN’S $106 BILLION SUPPLEMENTAL PACKAGE REQUEST TO SENATE FLOOR AS EARLY AS NEXT WEEK “We will have to have something that is really tied to really reducing the number of people crossing the border, and this can’t be a small reduction. We need to reduce it the way Trump was able to reduce it,” Scott said. “The only way we’re going to get a result is if we will not give Ukraine money unless it’s completely tied on a month-to-month basis to a reduction in number of people crossing the border. That’s the only way it’s going to work, and I believe that’s where everybody’s going to be.” BIDEN ADMIN URGES MAJOR FUNDING INCREASES FOR AID TO UKRAINE, ISRAEL AND GAZA CIVILIANS Schumer would need nine Republicans to vote alongside Democrats for the package to make it out of the Senate. Scott said no one is objecting to stronger border measures among the GOP. The package could get a vote as early as next week. Democrats in the upper chamber have a 51-49 majority, and any legislation will need at least 60 votes to advance. Any agreement will need to pass the GOP-controlled House before it makes it to Biden’s desk. Schumer will bring the Biden administration’s $106 billion national security funding request to the floor for a vote as early as next week, Schumer said in a Dear Colleague letter Sunday night. The White House’s supplemental request, which was sent to Congress in October, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel (with $10.6 billion allocated for military aid), $13.6 billion for some border security provisions and significant investments in Indo-Pacific security assistance totaling around $7.4 billion. Additionally, there’s $9 billion earmarked for humanitarian aid in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza. The supplemental request only proposes more money to speed up processing of migrants but no policy reforms. In a press conference Tuesday, Schumer deflected blame and said “a handful of Republicans have dangerously tried to link Ukraine aid” to border security. Negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators continued over the Thanksgiving recess, and Schumer told reporters, “Republicans are making it difficult” for a bipartisan aid bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have both signaled the GOP will pass more Ukraine funding if a deal is struck for tighter immigration laws. Fox News Digital has reached out to Schumer’s office and the White House for comment.
Congress feeling heat from groups demanding ban on contracts with Chinese firm taking Americans’ DNA
Congress is feeling the heat from more than a dozen conservative groups that are calling for the passage of a National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) amendment to government contracts with a Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked biotech firm. Sixteen conservative groups sent a letter to senators and House lawmakers, calling on them to pass the NDAA provision to ban contracts with “adversarial biotech companies,” specifically China’s Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI). The amendments are led by Republicans Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. CONGRESS WEIGHS BAN ON GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS FOR ‘ADVERSARIAL BIOTECH COMPANIES’ LIKE CHINA’S BGI Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told Fox News Digital that BGI “collects genetic data on people all over the world, to include that of pregnant women, and uses it for research with the Chinese military.” “The CCP will undoubtedly use the genetic data collected by BGI to further its malign aggression, potentially even to develop a bioweapon used to target the American people,” Gallagher warned. “The good news is that Congress can do something about it.” “Senator Hagerty and I are working to prohibit the U.S. government and those that contract with the U.S. government from acquiring genetic sequencing equipment from BGI and its subsidiaries in this year’s National Defense Authorization Amendment (NDAA),” he continued. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress to protect Americans’ sensitive health information and include this critical provision in the final bill,” Gallagher added. The groups who signed onto the letter include Heritage Action, Americans for Limited Government, the Benjamin Rush Institute, and Frontiers of Freedom, among many others. In their Nov. 17 letter, the groups say the provisions “would establish necessary safeguards to ensure that Americans’ genomic information is protected from potentially malign actors seeking to amass and leverage this sensitive personal information to achieve economic and national security goals.” “U.S. leadership in the area of biotechnology and genomic data is critical,” the groups wrote. “The power of the genome is only just now beginning to be fully understood, with its applications for population level healthcare, targeted therapies for oncology and other conditions, agriculture, and biodefense growing each day.” “Genomic data is important on an individual level, where it is among the most personal data a person has, and on a population level, where it can provide information on an entire race, or sub-race of individuals in a way that can explain why [populations] are susceptible to certain viruses and respond to certain environmental factors.” “In the wrong hands, genomic data can also be used for genetic surveillance or societal control of minority populations,” the groups warned. The conservative groups noted the “important economic and national security implications of leadership in biotechnology and genomic data” and that the CCP has “prioritized it for state support, including in its Made in China 2025 Plan.” The groups also wrote that “there is ample evidence that the CCP and its biotechnology national champions like” BGI and WuXi Biologics “are engaged in a systematic campaign to collect as much personal genomic data as possible to achieve the Party’s objectives.” “As recently reported by the Washington Post, China has been engaged in a genomic data collection effort for the past decade, ‘with a vast and growing government-owned repository that now includes genetic data drawn from millions of people around the world,’” the letter reads. “These efforts received a major boost from the COVID-19 pandemic when Chinese companies and institutes provided free or low-cost COVID-19 testing kits, laboratories, or gene-sequencing machines around the world to facilitate their efforts,” it continues. The groups also wrote that the U.S. government “has long recognized the threat posed by BGI and other Chinese biotech champions” and that the Trump administration’s Department of Commerce “placed BGI-controlled companies on the entity list” in 2020 because “they were ‘conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the [Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region].’” Additionally, the groups noted the Biden administration added “more BGI affiliates to the entity list for posing a significant risk of contribution to Chinese government surveillance and risk of diversion to China’s military programs.” The groups said the NDAA provisions from Gallagher and Hagerty “takes an important step to protect American biotechnology by prohibiting the U.S. government and those that contract with the U.S. government from acquiring genetic sequencing equipment” from BGI and its subsidiaries. “This is critical to thwart China’s broad data collection efforts, which threaten U.S. economic and national security leadership,” they wrote.
Internal docs show Biden admin waived taxpayer safeguards to boost offshore wind project
EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration quietly granted a request from an energy firm developing an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts to waive development fees designed to safeguard taxpayers, according to internal documents reviewed by Fox News Digital. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) informed Vineyard Wind that it had waived a financial assurance for decommissioning costs fee in a June 15, 2021, letter obtained by watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT). Federal statute mandates that developers pay that fee prior to construction on their lease, a potentially hefty fee designed to guarantee federal property is returned to its original state after a lessee departs its lease. “At the same time the Department of the Interior was looking at forcing greater and more expensive bonding requirements on holders of long-standing oil and gas leases, they were relaxing these requirements on the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind energy producer, one that just coincidentally happened to be a client of their incoming #2,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told Fox News Digital. “If you want to talk about bad optics, I don’t see how they could be any worse than right here,” he said. “For an administration touting itself as the most ethical in history, this represents yet another incident in which Secretary Haaland’s Interior appears to have a tough time living up to that standard.” BIDEN’S WAR ON OIL DRILLING THREATENS TO KILL HIS OWN GREEN ENERGY GOALS: ‘A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY’ Chamberlain noted that former Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beadreau, the second-highest ranked official at the Department of the Interior (DOI) which houses BOEM, had, according to his 2021 financial disclosure form, previously represented Vineyard Wind on legal matters while serving as a partner at the firm Latham & Watkins. Just one week after BOEM approved Vineyard Wind’s request to waive the development fee, Beaudreau departed Latham & Watkins and was sworn in at DOI. In an email to Fox News Digital, Beadreau, who left DOI in late October for another firm, said he wasn’t involved in the request to waive the fee and that a question about his past role posing a conflict of interest was therefore not applicable. BIDEN ADMIN IS RUSHING TO INDUSTRIALIZE US OCEANS TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘ENVIRONMENTAL WRECKING BALL’ According to the documents obtained by PPT, BOEM said Vineyard Wind wouldn’t be required to pay the development fee until 15 years after the project enters operations under its 20-year power purchase agreements. The documents indicate that Vineyard Wind first submitted the request in December 2017, but that the Trump administration rejected it, forcing the developer to resubmit it in March 2021. In its June 2021 letter to Vineyard Wind, BOEM explained it would waive the fee because the project included risk reduction factors including insurance policies to cover any catastrophic event that damages operations, use of proven wind turbine technology, and the use of power purchase agreements “with guaranteed electricity sales prices that, coupled with the consistent supply of wind energy, ensure a predictable income over the life of the project.” The letter also stated that the “regulatory departure” would reduce Vineyard Wind’s financial assurance burden, enabling the developer to invest freed-up capital in construction and enabling the project to enter operations sooner. In addition, it explained the fee was waived also because it “promotes the production and transmission of energy from a source other than oil and gas.” And Meredith Lilley, an energy program specialist at BOEM, acknowledged in an internal email at the time, also obtained by PPT, that waiving the fee by August 2021 was vital to ensure Vineyard Wind could “secure financing and achieve financial close.” The 800-megawatt Massachusetts project — a joint venture between Danish energy developer Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and New England utility services company Avangrid — was first proposed years ago, but was fast-tracked once President Biden entered office. In May 2021, the DOI formally approved the project, marking the first utility-scale offshore wind farm to receive federal approval. Then, in July 2021, BOEM approved Vineyard Wind’s construction and operations plan and, four months later, DOI Secretary Deb Haaland joined then-Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials for the commemorative groundbreaking of the project in Barnstable, Massachusetts. APPEALS COURT FORCES BIDEN ADMIN TO HOLD OFFSHORE OIL LEASE SALE WITHOUT ECO RESTRICTIONS “Vineyard Wind 1 represents a historic milestone for advancing our nation’s clean energy production. This project and others across the country will create robust and sustainable economies that lift up communities and support good-paying jobs, while also ensuring future generations have a livable planet,” Haaland said during the ceremony on Nov. 18, 2021. “The Interior Department is committed to responsibly accelerating our nation’s transition to a clean energy future, and doing so in coordination with our partners, stakeholders, Tribes and ocean users to avoid and reduce potential impacts as much as we can,” she continued. Since BOEM’s approval of Vineyard Wind, it has green-lit five other utility-scale offshore wind farms as part of Biden’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. However, one of those projects, the offshore New Jersey project Ocean Wind 1, was axed by its developer in October due to various economic factors. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has taken aim at the oil and gas industry. Despite waiving development fees associated with green energy production, the DOI unveiled a plan in July to revise bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids for onshore fossil fuel leasing, an action that will raise costs for developers. “Amidst a global energy crisis, this action from the Department of the Interior is yet another attempt to add even more barriers to future energy production, increases uncertainty for producers and may further discourage oil and natural gas investment,” Holly Hopkins, the vice president of upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement at the time. “This is a concerning approach from an administration that has repeatedly acted to restrict essential energy development.” BOEM and Vineyard Wind didn’t respond to requests
Former NFL player launches bid for newly drawn Alabama congressional district in potential blow to Dems
FIRST ON FOX: An Alabama football star who went on to play in the National Football League (NFL) is looking to earn support from voters in Alabama’s newly drawn 2nd Congressional District as he seeks election to the U.S. House. Wallace Gilberry, a Republican, will formally announce his candidacy in the race Wednesday morning. A native of Bay Minette, Alabama, Gilberry told Fox News Digital he’s looking to “fire” President Biden and push back against liberal Democrats’ hold on Black Americans as a voting bloc. “I’m running because Joe Biden and the liberal politicians have let down my community and failed Alabama. Folks here at home are hurting and too many politicians don’t understand that – I see it every day,” he said. “My mission is simple: we’ve got to fire Joe Biden, beat back the liberals who have held down the Black community for too long, put the people of Alabama first, and help President Donald J. Trump Make America Great Again.” ALABAMA REJECTED CCP-TIED EV COMPANY’S PROJECT THAT BLUE STATES EVENTUALLY GREEN-LIT Alabama’s Second Congressional District, which previously covered southeast Alabama, now extends across the lower portion of the state from the Georgia line to the Mississippi line. Montgomery County and a northwest portion of Mobile County are included in the majority-Black district, which has a Black voting age population of nearly 50%. Black voters remain a strong Democratic constituency in the Yellowhammer State, and the new district will favor Democrats as both parties battle for control of the House in 2024. However, Gilberry, an All-SEC standout at the University of Alabama who spent nine seasons in the NFL with various teams as a defensive end, believes he’s the candidate who’s got what it takes to defeat his challengers and come out on top. “Out-of-touch, out-of-state Democrats wasted all kinds of time and money trying to buy themselves another seat in Congress because they take Black folks for granted and think we will all just vote Democrat. Problem for them is that Alabama can’t be bought,” he said. “A Black man is going to win this race – but it’ll be me, a conservative Republican who puts Alabama first.” Recognizing the current state of the economy and financial issues that have plagued thousands of American families, Gilberry, one of five children who was raised by his great-grandmother and a single mom, said he’s focused on “lifting up” Alabamians and providing opportunities for minority children “that go beyond sports.” FEDERAL COURT SELECTS NEW ALABAMA CONGRESSIONAL MAP, LIKELY HANDING DEMOCRATS A SEAT AT NEXT HOUSE ELECTION “My focus is on lifting up the people of Alabama. I’ve been blessed with incredible success, success that came from playing football. I’m running to have a platform to help create opportunities for young men who look like me that go beyond sports,” he said. “More jobs at local businesses, helping entrepreneurs thrive, keeping our communities safe. In order to do that we have to get rid of career politicians, get rid of Joe Biden, and elect people focused on putting the people of Alabama first.” “I’m going to win this race by telling the truth and doing what’s right for Alabama, it’s pretty simple,” added Gilberry. Gilberry, who spent nine seasons playing in the NFL before returning home to Alabama and reinvesting in his community, has seen his fair share of cultural and social issues on the national stage. Highlighting two issues that have arisen in recent history, Gilberry slammed the attempted eradication of female sports, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement over its protest of kneeling during the national anthem. “BLM has way more in common with the KKK than they do MLK,” Gilberry said. “While others were kneeling during the national anthem, my team was standing. We were united as a team, while others were focused on media attention and self-promotion – it was wrong then and it’s wrong now. I’ll always stand to honor those who keep us free.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Allowing men to compete against women, that’s ‘abolishment’ of women’s sports, plain and simple. And we should never allow men into girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. We have to protect women and girls; we can’t let a sex offender put on a wig and lipstick and say he’s a female,” he added. Gilberry, who grew up a Democrat before establishing his own beliefs about the political system, joins a crowded field of nearly two dozen challengers. All in all, 13 Democrats and eight Republicans have qualified to run for the seat.