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Year: 2024

This state may decide whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election

This state may decide whether Harris or Trump wins the 2024 presidential election

SAVANNAH, GA. – Vice President Kamala Harris wakes up Thursday in this historic coastal city in Georgia, a crucial presidential election battleground that’s one of seven states that will likely determine the winner of her 2024 face off with former President Trump. The vice president on Wednesday kicked off a two-day bus swing in southeastern Georgia, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visiting with faculty and students at a high school before stopping by a barbecue joint. On Thursday, Harris and Walz will sit for their first major interview before the vice president holds what’s expected to be a large rally in Savannah. By choosing the Peach State for her first campaign trail swing following last week’s Democratic National Convention, Harris is making a statement – that Georgia is once again in play in November’s election. NEW FOX NEWS POLL NUMBERS IN FOUR KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES  Georgia had long been a reliably red state in White House elections until President Biden narrowly edged then-President Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture the state. Fast-forward to this year’s election, and Trump saw his slight edge in the polls in Georgia over Biden jump to a solid single-digit lead after the president’s disastrous performance in their one debate, a late June showdown in Atlanta. THIS POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR SAYS HIS STATE’S A MUST WIN FOR TRUMP But in the 5½ weeks since the vice president replaced her boss atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket, polls indicate that it’s once again a margin-of-error race in the Peach State. A Fox News poll conducted August 23-26 in Georgia and released on Wednesday indicated Harris with a razor-thin 50%-48% edge over Trump among registered voters. The most recent Fox News survey in Georgia before Biden dropped out of the race indicated Trump topping the president by six points, 51%-45%. Georgia’s popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state’s very competitive. “Certainly this is a battleground state,” Gov. Brian Kemp emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday. “I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia,” Kemp said. But he added that Georgia “should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November.” 2024 COUNTDOWN: TRUMP CRISSCROSSING CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH 10 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY So are the Democrats. “The Georgia Democratic coordinated campaign is running the largest in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with over 190 Democratic coordinated campaign staff in 24 coordinated offices across the state,” the Harris campaign touted hours ahead of the vice president’s arrival in Savannah. This is Harris’ second stop in Georgia since taking over for Biden as the party’s standard-bearer. She previously hosted a large rally in downtown Atlanta. But this time around, Harris is barnstorming through the southern part of the state, far from Atlanta and its growing suburbs, which make up nearly 60% of Georgia’s population. The traditional route for Democrats to win statewide in Georgia is to concentrate on metropolitan Atlanta.  But Quentin Fulks, who was principal deputy campaign manager under Biden and has remained in that role with Harris, is following the playbook from two years ago when he steered Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s narrow re-election victory over GOP challenger Hershel Walker. The strategy is to not only win big in Atlanta and its suburbs, but also to stay competitive in the rest of the state. “We have to make sure that we are competing everywhere across the state,” Fulks said Tuesday in an interview on MSNBC. “We’re going to continue to run in rural counties. …. We have to be statewide in that state and even compete in counties that Democrats don’t traditionally go. That is how you win statewide in Georgia.” WASH, RINSE, REPEAT: WHY JD VANCE IS CONCENTRATING ON THESE 3 STATES The Harris campaign noted that “campaigning in Southeast Georgia is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working-class families.” The first stop for Harris and Walz was Liberty County High School in Hinesville, where they met with the school’s administrators, faculty, students and stopped in on the school’s marching band rehearsal. “We wanted to come by just to let you know that our country is counting on you. All of you,” Harris told the students. “We’re so proud of you. Your generation, all that you guys stand for … is what is going to propel our country into the next era of what we can do and what we can be.” The vice president told the students that she was in band when she was in high school, according to a pool report. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee took aim at Harris as her bus tour got underway. “The Trump campaign is fighting and winning in Georgia by building a broad coalition of support from those fed up with her four years of failure in the White House,” senior adviser Brian Hughes told Fox News. And RNC spokesperson Morgan Ackley argued that “while our highly engaged and energetic operation in Georgia is focused on turning out votes across the entire state, Democrats in Georgia are finally learning an important lesson…there is more to Georgia than just Atlanta.” Ackley emphasized that “Republicans from Catoosa to Camden County and everywhere in between are fired up and ready to re-elect President Donald J. Trump because his message of putting America first again resonates with Americans of all backgrounds.” But the Harris campaign appears to enjoy a large organizational advantage over Trump’s team in Georgia.

Washington state’s homeownership program offers loans based solely on race

Washington state’s homeownership program offers loans based solely on race

Washington state launched a new housing program last month that provides loans of up to $150,000 with 0% interest to prospective homeowners solely based on their race. Launched on July 1, 2024, the Covenant Homeownership Program offers home-buying assistance to Washingtonians who were subject to discrimination before 1968, when the Fair Housing Act was passed. To be eligible for the program, a person’s household income must be below 100% of the area median income (AMI) of the county where the home is located; the person must be a first-time homebuyer; the buyer or their parent, grandparent or great-grandparent must have lived in Washington before April 1968; and the person who lived in the state must be Black, Hispanic, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Korean or Asian American. According to the program’s website, applicants or at least one of their family members must have lived in Washington before April 1968 because state officials said discrimination persisted despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act. But because discrimination remained, the state did not have an official or legal role in enforcing or upholding the new law. CALIFORNIA BILL THAT WOULD GIVE UNDOCUMENTED FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS MONEY DESPITE LACK OF FUNDING ADVANCES The program also omits other groups that may have been discriminated against, such as Jews. “The Covenant program’s initial eligibility criteria are intentionally narrowly tailored. While many racial, ethnic and religious groups in Washington were subject to unjust and egregious housing discrimination, the Covenant program considers not only this history but also its current impacts,” the Washington Housing Finance Commission said on its site. “Some of the groups discriminated against continue to show much lower homeownership rates compared with the general white population. These are named in the initial eligibility criteria. However, for other groups (such as Jewish residents), the data is limited when it comes to documenting the lasting impacts of historical discrimination.” For those who are eligible, the program gives homebuyers the opportunity to apply for 0% interest loans through their lenders to help fund down payments and closing costs. CALIFORNIA CLOSE TO APPROVING $150K LOANS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO HELP PURCHASE HOMES If approved, the borrower will receive a loan paid for by a $100 fee on recorded real estate documents. The loan is not required to be paid back until the new homeowner either sells or refinances the property. Homeowners who make less than the AMI must meet a broad definition of first-time homebuyers. For instance, people who have not owned a home in at least three years, may have only owned a mobile home or are single parents who only owned a home while married to a previous spouse are all considered first-time homebuyers. The Seattle Times reported that the program comes as America faces a racial gap in homeownership in places like Seattle. 5 CALIFORNIA TAXES KAMALA HARRIS COULD USE TO CRUSH MIDDLE CLASS A study sponsored by Washington found the federal government as well as state and local authorities in Washington contributed to housing discrimination. Examples include forcing Native Americans from their lands, excluding Black people during the 1800s and incarcerating Japanese Americans and others in the 1900s. While Washington has tried to increase homeownership using other programs, disparities continue to exist throughout the state when it comes to housing. Even though the Covenant Homeownership Program is race-based, the state has other programs in place to help people of all races purchase a home. Still, the paper reported that in 2022, only 32% of Black people in Washington and 48% of Hispanic people owned homes, compared to 68% of White people. US AFFORDABLE HOUSING SHORTAGE SPARKS RESURGENCE OF SINGLE-ROOM ‘MICRO-APARTMENTS’ Fox News Digital has reached out to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. The agency’s executive director, Steve Walker, told the Seattle Times that “race-neutral approaches … aren’t closing the racial homeownership gap.” When the Covenant Homeownership Program was passed last year, lawmakers largely stuck to their party lines, with Republicans voting against the measure and Democrats voting in favor of it. Republicans expressed concerns about the cost of the fee that would fund the Covenant program. The $100 fee on recorded documents goes toward the program, and since January, the state has collected more than $20 million, much less than the $75 to $100 million projected to accrue each year, Walker told the publication. EX-CALIFORNIA RESIDENT SLAMS STATE BILL THAT GIVES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HOUSING LOANS: ‘ASININE’ The lack of funding could be because of an awkward housing market in which many people are not selling and buying homes. Still, with the funding that has built up, the state is only able to fund about 130 down payment loans of $150,000, the paper reported. Washington is not the only state implementing or looking into housing assistance programs to help boost homeownership. In California, lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill through the state Senate that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for their “California Dream for All” first-time homebuyers’ financial assistance program. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The program awards first-time homebuyers up to 20% of a home’s value or up to $150,000 as down payment assistance. It also requires the California Housing Finance Authority’s home purchase assistance program, or California Dream for All Program, to include undocumented applicants. The bill now heads back to the California State Assembly to go over revisions made by the Senate. Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

Las Vegas politician jailed for life for killing investigative journalist

Las Vegas politician jailed for life for killing investigative journalist

Former public administrator Robert Telles sentenced to life after being found guilty of 2022 murder of Jeff German. A Las Vegas politician has been jailed for life for killing an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles detailing wrongdoing in the department he headed. Robert Telles, a former Democratic public administrator, lay in wait outside the suburban home of 69-year-old reporter Jeff German and then stabbed him to death on September 2, 2022. “Justice has been served,” Clark County prosecutor Steve Wolfson told reporters. “Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is a clear message that any attempts to silence the media or to silence or intimidate a journalist will not be tolerated.” Telles, 47, bowed his head as a clerk read the verdict of first-degree murder, which carried a possible life sentence without parole. He was later sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years. In the public gallery, German’s family members wept and hugged one another. Employees from the Clark County public administrator’s office, some of whom had asked German to investigate Telles, embraced and wiped away tears, all wearing red shirts and badges showing the reporter’s face. “Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behaviour and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Glenn Cook, executive editor of German’s newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said in a statement. “In many countries, the killers of journalists go unpunished,” Cook added. “Not so in Las Vegas.” Telles was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years [KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP Photo] DNA evidence ‘insurmountable’ The two-week trial heard how the veteran Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter had spent months investigating allegations that Telles oversaw an abusive workplace and had an inappropriate relationship with a member of staff. The article was published in June 2022, a month before an election in which Telles was running for another term in office. He denied the allegations but lost his re-election bid in the primaries. The jury of seven women and five men heard how an irate Telles had driven to German’s home where he hid in some bushes before launching a frenzied and fatal knife attack. Telles’s DNA was found underneath German’s fingernails and video of the attacker’s car matched a vehicle registered to Telles’s wife. He denied carrying out the murder, arguing that the police had ignored evidence that other people could have been responsible and that he had been framed. Las Vegas defence lawyer Robert Langford, who was not involved in the case, said the DNA evidence under German’s fingernails was “an insurmountable bit of evidence”. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says 15 media workers have been killed in the United States in connection with their work since 1992. German was the only journalist murdered in the US in 2022, among 69 media workers and journalists killed worldwide, according to the press group’s data. “The conviction sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated,” said Katherine Jacobsen, US, Canada and Caribbean coordinator for the CPJ. Adblock test (Why?)

South Korea arrests battery maker CEO over fire that killed 23

South Korea arrests battery maker CEO over fire that killed 23

Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan arrested over alleged violations of industrial safety law. The head of a South Korean lithium battery maker has been arrested over alleged violations of industrial safety law following a factory fire that killed 23 people. Suwon District Court approved a warrant to arrest Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan over his role in the June blaze late on Wednesday, a court spokesperson said. The court also issued a warrant for Park’s son, who is an executive at Aricell, the spokesperson said. South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor said Park had been arrested on charges of “causing the deaths of 23 people” by employing unskilled contract workers to handle materials that posed a serious fire risk. Park’s arrest marks the first time that a company head has been held responsible under legislation introduced in 2022 to penalise management for industrial accidents. The Serious Disasters Punishment Act carries penalties of one year in prison or one billion won ($835,000) in fines for business owners and management for accidents that cause death or serious injury. Police said last week that the fire at the factory in Hwaseong, about 45km south of Seoul, broke out as the company raced to meet a deadline without taking steps to address signs of serious quality failures. South Korea has a long history of deadly incidents blamed on companies cutting corners. In 2014, 476 people, including 325 high school students, died when the Sewol ferry capsized following modifications to the vessel to increase its cargo capacity. In 1995, more than 500 people died following the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store, which subsequent investigations revealed had been built without sufficient support columns. Adblock test (Why?)

Dozens injured, power cut as Typhoon Shanshan hits southern Japan

Dozens injured, power cut as Typhoon Shanshan hits southern Japan

Powerful storm with gusts of up to 216km per hour made landfall near Satsumasendai city in southwestern Kyushu. Dozens of people have been injured and power was cut to a quarter of a million households after Typhoon Shanshan struck southwestern Japan. The typhoon, bringing gusts of up to 252 kilometres (157 miles) per hour and torrential rain, made landfall near Satsumasendai city on Kyushu island at about 8am on Thursday morning (23:00 GMT on Wednesday), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It warned up to 60 centimetres (23.6 inches) of rain could fall in Kyushu over 24 hours. Public broadcaster NHK reported one person was missing and 39 injured in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures. Aoi Nishimoto, who lives in Kyushu’s main city of Fukuoka, said he had called his family back in Miyazaki. “Our home is fine, but there was a tornado in Miyazaki and power went out in some places. It’s worrying,” the 18-year-old student told the AFP news agency. A Level 5 emergency warning was issued for the city of Yufu in Oita Prefecture after the Miyakawa River burst its banks, the Japan Times said. High waves whipped up by Shanshan in Ibusuki in Kagoshima Prefecture [Kyodo/via Reuters] The same warning was in place in the city of Usa, also in Oita Prefecture, because of possible flooding from the Yakkan River. Level 5 alerts are rarely issued and indicate a life-threatening situation. Power supply was cut to more than 250,000 households across seven prefectures on the island, the Kyushu Electric Power Company said. The weather agency expects Shanshan to move through Japan’s central and eastern regions, including the capital Tokyo, in the coming days. Officials have issued evacuation orders for millions of people. “The risk of a disaster due to heavy rain can rapidly escalate in western Japan as Friday approaches,” it warned. Torrential rain brought by Shanshan has drenched large parts of Japan since Tuesday. Japan has been experiencing heavy rain linked to Shanshan since Tuesday. Authorities said three people were killed after a landslide struck their house in Gamagori on Tuesday [JIJI Press via AFP] Three members of a family were killed when a landslide buried their house in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture, late on Tuesday, according to local media. Carmaker Toyota has suspended production at its 14 factories across Japan as a result of the typhoon, while Nissan and Honda have stopped operations at their Kyushu plants. Japan Airlines and ANA have together cancelled hundreds of domestic flights that were scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Some rail services have also been affected. Shanshan is the third major storm system to hit Japan this month. Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released last month. Adblock test (Why?)