O.J. Simpson dies after battle with cancer
NewsFeed Former NFL star, actor, and acquitted murder suspect, O.J. Simpson has died. Simpson was found not guilty in the 1994 murder of of ex-wife and her friend in a sensational trial, watched by millions of Americans. His family said Simpson died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 76. Published On 11 Apr 202411 Apr 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
California’s stifling environmental policies harming Latino workers as White middle class flees state: study
A new study shows that California’s Latinos are economically stifled by the state’s progressive climate policies, which affect industries like agriculture, construction, trucking and manufacturing. Lead researchers at Chapman University’s Demographics & Policy department, including former Democratic state Sen. Majority Leader Gloria Romero, released the “El Futuro es Latino” report this week, first obtained by Fox News Digital. Researchers identified several areas where Latinos — classified by the state’s census data — face hardship in the state. Soledad Ursua, the lead researcher of the project and member of the Venice Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles County, told Fox News Digital that her findings revealed that Latinos are “California’s youngest and fastest growing workforce, yet the state’s progressive policies have disadvantaged this group by reducing opportunities” because of the state’s regulations to achieve its zero carbon goals. Housing affordability and failures in California’s public school system were also included in the report. DOZEN STATE GOP AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONERS LAUNCH PROBE OF US BANKS OVER ESG INVESTING: ‘IT MUST BE STOPPED’ “These industries are commonly associated with what can be best described as a heavily Latino ‘carbon economy,’ where employment is impacted by such regulations,” Soledad said. According to the report, California’s policies have “systematically weakened crucial blue-collar sectors” (like construction and agriculture) which mainly consist of Latino workers, “resulting in stagnation or decline” of businesses. At the same time, environmental regulations — which affect most middle-class Californians — also have contributed to soaring home prices in California, reaching the highest levels in the nation, in turn contributing to California’s exodus. “As more of California’s historically white middle class depart to other states, Latinos are now primed to occupy that void,” the report said. FEWER AMERICANS WANT TO BUY AN EV — EVEN AS BIDEN PUSHES FOR STRONGEST-EVER CLIMATE CHANGE RULES For example, one obstacle for Latino workers is California’s truck ban, which requires that about 55% of delivery vans and small trucks, 75% of buses and larger trucks and 40% of tractor-trailers and other big rigs be fully electric by 2035. By 2045, gas and diesel trucks will be outright banned from being sold in California. “With about 30,000 trucks registered with the ports, it is the large companies — with deep pockets and big facilities — that are able to make the transition while smaller companies struggle,” Ursua said. “Electric trucks, with their huge batteries, can cost over $400,000, and they cannot do long hauls without stopping for long charging periods, undermining the economics of a trucking fleet.” While the state’s environmental regulations affect Latino workers, they also heavily impact small farmowners and businesses. In January, a coalition of business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a federal lawsuit against the State of California over its two recently enacted laws forcing companies to disclose climate data. The Chamber of Commerce — and co-plaintiffs American Farm Bureau Federation, California Chamber of Commerce, Central Valley Business Federation, Los Angeles County Business Federation and Western Growers Association — alleged in the lawsuit that the state laws will force companies to disclose direct and indirect emissions, which can be “nearly impossible for a company to accurately calculate.” Other states have already followed California’s truck ban, including Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Connecticut, Maine and North Carolina. NEW CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT BILL WOULD BAN ALL PLASTIC BAGS AT GROCERY STORES Meanwhile, Republican states are failing in the courts to push back. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked an attempt by Ohio, Alabama, Texas and other Republican-led states to revoke California’s authority to set vehicle emission standards that are stricter than rules set by the federal government. The court ruled this week that the states had failed to prove how California’s emissions standards would drive up costs for gas-powered vehicles in their states. “The clean vehicle transition is already here – it’s where the industry is going, the major automakers support our standards, and California is hitting our goals years ahead of schedule,” Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Tuesday. “We won’t stop fighting to protect our communities from pollution and the climate crisis.” The Associated Press and Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
House GOP campaign arm rakes in over $33 million to kick off 2024 election battles
FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans’ campaign arm is announcing that it raised more than $33 million in the first three months of 2024. It comes as GOP leaders brace for battle to keep and even expand their razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives this November. “In a game of inches for the House majority where every seat matters, Republicans are out-recruiting, out-messaging, and out-hustling extreme Democrats,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We are building momentum to grow our House Republican majority – this outstanding fundraising is proof we will have the resources we need to make extreme Democrats pay a price for failing America.” GOP SET TO GAIN 3 US HOUSE SEATS UNDER MAP ADVANCED IN NC SENATE The NRCC raised $33.4 million in the first three months of 2024, according to an early press release obtained by Fox News Digital. Nearly half that total – $16.2 million – was raised in March alone. It brings the NRCC’s total fundraising for the 2024 election cycle, which began in January 2023, to $124.7 million. The total is significantly higher than the $25.8 million the NRCC raised in the first quarter of last year, which is not a shocking data point given that it’s an election year. LIBERAL GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK NEW ALABAMA VOTING LAW BANNING BALLOT HARVESTING It comes as the House has spent much of this Congress grappling with a majority of just a few votes. The margin is expected to be whittled down to just one after the April 19 departure of Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis. The cash will have to be used to defend their swing-district incumbents in places like New York and California, in addition to winning new seats. GOING, GOING, GONE: COULD REPUBLICANS’ SLIM HOUSE MAJORITY SLIP AWAY BEFORE NOVEMBER? But in a brief interview with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., this week, the No. 2 House Republican said there are vulnerable Democrat seats across the country where Republicans could expand their majority. He named Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Ohio and even California as places with seats that could flip from blue to red. “There’s about 20-plus seats right now that are held by Democrats today that have a very real chance of flipping for Republican candidates,” he said. “The top issue you hear about everywhere you go is border security. People are furious that we had over 8 million people come across the border illegally and Joe Biden won’t do anything to stop it,” Scalise said. “And then there’s just the high cost of everything – energy, of course, being at the top of the list, but also groceries – you know, just people talking about sharing their stories about how expensive things are because of the inflation caused by all of the spending in D.C. and all of the policies coming out of Washington.”
Catholic voters respond after ‘devout’ Biden once again sides against his Church
Catholic Americans expressed frustration after President Biden publicly broke with the teachings of the Catholic Church once again on Monday. Biden has faced accusations of being a “cafeteria Catholic” throughout his tenure, and that criticism resurfaced this week after the Vatican released a declaration reaffirming its opposition to “gender theory,” surrogacy and other progressive social movements. In response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asserted Biden’s support for the transgender community and all it entails. “Pope Francis is right to remind the world that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God and because of that each of us has inherent dignity that can’t be swept away,” Joshau Mercer, the vice president of Catholic Vote told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Francis reaffirmed that God made us male and female. And the pope didn’t dodge the tough questions. Despite what loud voices in our culture say, the answer to gender dysphoria is not to mutilate our bodies,” he added. DONALD TRUMP IS SELLING $60 ‘GOD BLESS THE USA’ BIBLES AHEAD OF EASTER The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital regarding the White House’s pushback on the Vatican’s declaration. Meg Kilgannon, a Catholic and senior fellow for education studies at the Family Research Council, told Fox News that Biden’s transformation on social issues has been disturbing. CHRISTIAN LEADERS REACT TO TRUMP’S ‘GOD BLESS THE USA’ BIBLES: ‘MORE TRUMP THAN BIBLE?’ As a key example, she cited Biden’s position on the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding federal rule banning taxpayer funds from directly paying for abortions. Biden was in favor of the rule for decades, arguing in 2007 that allowing such payments forcibly imposes a contrary view on the issue for pro-life Americans. Biden abandoned that position in 2019, however, and his 2021 budget proposal did not include the provision. “He is not in line with the Church’s teachings, and he knows it. They know it, and I think they’re proud of it,” Kligannon said of the administration’s position on abortion and gender issues. She added that her bishop in Arlington, Virginia, Bishop Michael Burbidge, has been actively encouraging parishes to teach on the Vatican’s declaration, titled “Dignitas Infinita.” GOP ATTEMPTS TO DEFINE POSITION ON DISCARDING IVF EMBRYOS AMID PRO-LIFE STANCES Biden also faced a wave of criticism from Catholics on social media following the Vatican’s announcement. “Does Biden think he’s more Catholic than the pope? Of course he does,” wrote Shane Schaetzel, a religious influence on X. Arch Kennedy, another Christian influence on the platform, declared that “Biden proved once again that he is not saved by disagreeing with the Pope, who formally reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s assertion that attempts to alter gender are ultimately misguided attempts to play God.” The Catholic Church in America has struggled with how to handle prominent, self-avowed Catholics who publicly reject the teachings of the Church in recent years. Both Biden and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have faced questions about whether they should be refused communion. “They are old, and it concerns me that they are out of line with Church teachings,” Kilgannon said of both Biden and Pelosi. “I’m certainly not just concerned about this in a political sense. I don’t wish hell on anyone. I’m concerned for their immortal souls, and I’m especially concerned for the children who are harmed by the movements they support.” She added that Catholics need to pray for their leaders, “especially the president.”
California lawmakers vote for $17B deficit reduction plan
California lawmakers don’t know for sure how big their budget deficit is, but on Thursday they decided it’s big enough to go ahead and reduce spending by about $17 billion. The vote represents a preemptive strike from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is trying to get ahead of a stubborn shortfall that has been increasing every month and will likely extend into next year and beyond — when the second-term governor could be eyeing a campaign for the White House. In his first term in office, Newsom enjoyed a series of historic surpluses and oversaw a vast expansion of government services. But that growth ended last year, when the state had a shortfall of nearly $32 billion. CA SHERIFF BLASTS NEWSOM’S ‘FAILED LEADERSHIP’ ON CRIME, PROPOSES SOLUTION TO FIX ‘DISASTER’: ‘HAD ENOUGH’ Things got worse in January when Newsom announced another deficit of $38 billion. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said the shortfall was actually $58 billion because they said Newsom should have included some reductions in public education spending. Then in February the LAO updated its deficit estimate to $73 billion after state revenues continued to come in below projections. Since then, Newsom and his Democratic allies in the state Legislature have been doing everything they can to make that deficit smaller. Last month, they raised a tax on the companies that manage the state’s Medicaid program to bring in an extra $1.5 billion. There were no headline-grabbing cuts in the reductions lawmakers approved on Thursday. Despite California’s recent budget woes, the Democrats in charge have refused to raise income taxes or impose steep cuts to the most expensive programs, including health care and public education. Instead, most of the savings comes from either cancelling or delaying spending that was approved in previous years but hasn’t yet been spent. It also relies on a number of accounting tricks to make the shortfall appear smaller, including shifting paychecks for state workers by one day from June 30 to July 1 so the state can count $1.6 billion in salaries for the next fiscal year. By doing this, Democrats are betting California’s budget problems are only temporary. The state is known for wild swings in revenue, especially given its overreliance on wealthy taxpayers who make most of their money from the stock market. “We’re trying to make thoughtful choices here,” said Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat and chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. “At the same time, from my perspective one of the worst outcomes here would be to make a cut to a critical program that serves our most vulnerable folks and to later realize that you didn’t need to make that cut.” Republicans have long complained about Democrats’ approach to the budget deficits, arguing lawmakers should make structural changes to the state’s spending to better align with the reality of the state’s revenues. On Thursday, Republican Assemblymember Vince Fong declared it “only pushes this crisis into the future.” Still, Democrats have been saying for months they will likely be forced to make “tough decisions” on the budget later this year. The LAO has projected a deficit of $30 billion next year, which would be the third consecutive year of a multibillion-dollar shortfall. “We’re not going to solve this problem anymore by just stopping one-time spending,” Democratic Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris said.
Suspect in Bernie Sanders office fire has troubling legal past: prosecutors
The man accused of starting a fire outside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office a week ago has had past brushes with the law involving guns and a history of traveling from place to place, prosecutors say in court filings arguing that he should remain detained. Security video shows Shant Michael Soghomonian throwing liquid at the bottom of a door opening into Sanders’ third-floor office in Burlington and setting it on fire with a lighter last Friday, according to an affidavit filed by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Seven employees working in the office at the time were unharmed and able to evacuate. The building’s interior suffered some damage from the fire and water sprinklers. Sanders, an independent, was not in the office at the time. MAN ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY SETTING BERNIE SANDERS’ OFFICE ON FIRE Soghomonian, 35, who was previously from Northridge, California, had been staying at a South Burlington hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to the special agent’s report. He is facing a charge of maliciously damaging by means of fire a building used in interstate commerce and as a place of activity affecting interstate commerce. Soghomonian is currently in custody. He was scheduled for a detention hearing on Thursday but it was postponed until next week. The Associated Press left a telephone message seeking comment with his public defender. Prosecutors argue that Soghomonian is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain detained. “The risk to the structure and the lives of the building’s occupants was substantial, showing the defendant’s disregard for the safety of the building’s occupants and the community at large,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher wrote in his court petition. “The defendant then fled the area to avoid detection and apprehension.” In August, Illinois State Police who had stopped Soghomonian for a possible traffic violation seized an AK-47 rifle and two magazines from his vehicle, along with 11.5 grams of cannabis and a book titled “How to Blow up a Pipeline,” prosecutors say. The book makes “an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse.” During the traffic stop, Soghomonian produced an invalid Oregon driver’s license, prosecutors say. He told police he was traveling to the West Coast. In August alone, his vehicle had been in New York, then Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, Lasher wrote in his petition. When Soghomonian was in his mid-teens, he was detained for an assault with a firearm in Glendale, California, in 2005, according to prosecutors, who say the case appears to have been later dismissed. “In other words, defendant has a history of itinerancy, firearms possession, and lack of candor with law enforcement, all exacerbating his risk of flight,” Lasher wrote.
Biden’s bogus college claim is just latest in decades-long pattern of embellishment
President Biden falsely claimed earlier this week that he was the “first” person in his family to “go to college,” continuing a decades-long habit of making false or embellished claims about his life. Biden has been scrutinized several times over the years for fabricating tales, including claiming to have been arrested in apartheid-era South Africa, being in a helicopter that was “forced down” by Al-Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan, and even trivial events involving an Amtrak conductor who had passed away before his alleged story took place. Biden continued the trend on Monday while speaking in the battleground state of Wisconsin as he outlined his plan to provide “life-changing” relief to student loan debt. TRUMP RIPS BIDEN ON KEY ISSUE IMPACTING VOTERS AFTER DAMAGING REPORT: ‘TOTALLY LOST CONTROL’ “I, like an awful lot of people in this audience, was the first in my family to go to college and watched by dad struggled to help me get there,” Biden told the crowd. However, less than two years ago, during a speech in Pennsylvania, Biden told an audience that his grandfather played college football. “My grandfather Finnegan from Scranton would really be proud of me right now,’ Biden said in Pittsburgh in October 2022. “No, I’m not joking. He would. By the way, he was an All-American football player [inaudible] in Santa Clara.” When asked about his recent comments and his embellishments throughout the years, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that President Biden “is proud to have restored honesty, integrity, and respect for the rule of law to the Oval Office.” He added that Biden is also proud “to be the first Biden to graduate college.” Biden’s exaggerations regarding colleges also extend to a previous claim that he taught “political theory” at the University of Pennsylvania, which he mentioned in Maryland in September 2023. “Democracy is at stake, folks. Our democracy is under attack. And we gotta fight for it,” Biden said. “I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years. And I used to teach political theory. And folks, you always hear every generation has to fight for democracy. And I found myself – it’s automatic, we didn’t have to believe it – but we do. We do.” BIDEN ADMIN FACING LEGAL CHALLENGES AFTER DECLARING WAR ON CHEMICAL INDUSTRY There is little to no evidence that Biden ever taught “political theory” at the University of Pennsylvania. While the university’s website notes that the president was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor of Practice from 2017 to 2021, a Snopes.com fact-check on his previous but similar claim – that he was a “full professor at the University of Pennsylvania” for four years – found that “he did not teach a semester’s worth of courses” while in this role. Snopes noted that this “role was honorary” and that he “gave lectures and talks to students on campus but did not teach a full semester’s course load during that time.” Years before, when he ran for president in 1987, Biden exaggerated his academic record by bragging that he graduated “in the top half” of his class while berating a reporter on the campaign trail. “I think I have a much higher I.Q. than you do, I suspect,” Biden told the reporter in New Hampshire at the time. “I went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship.” “In the first year of law school, I decided I didn’t want to be in law school and ended up in the bottom two-thirds of my class,” he said. “And then I decided to stay, went back to law school, and in fact ended up in the top half of my class.” He later admitted that he graduated 76th in a class of 85. “I did not graduate in the top half of my class at law school, and my recollection of this was inaccurate,” he told the New York Times. “I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science,” he said. “My reference to degrees at the Claremont event was intended to refer to these majors -—I said ‘three’ and should have said ‘two.’” The outlet pointed out that Biden received a single B.A. degree in history and political science. REPUBLICAN STATE SUES BIDEN ADMIN OVER ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIONS: ‘DYSTOPIAN NIGHTMARE’ Since then, Biden has told numerous stories that have also been deemed exaggerations. Mainstream outlets, including the Washington Post, have even called him out on them, including the publication’s top fact-checker Glenn Kessler. In September 2023, Kessler penned an article about how “Biden loves to retell certain stories” and how some lack credibility. His report assembled several of Biden’s accounts, including one about an Amtrak conductor he claimed hailed him on having traveled more than two million miles on the railroad, exceeding the 1.2 million miles traveled on Air Force planes as vice president as of 2016. However, the conductor retired in 1993 and passed away two years before Biden reached that milestone in the air. Other stories Kessler addressed include Biden’s claim that he and his father saw two men in suits kissing each other in public when he was a teenager, that he was arrested for trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and how, as vice president, he arranged for his uncle to be presented a Purple Heart that he was owed and never received, except the uncle died in 1999, long before Biden was vice president. Biden has also been repeatedly called out for his claims of being very close with Somali cab drivers in Wilmington, Delaware. “Somalis have made my city of Wilmington, Del. (their home) on a smaller scale. There is a very identifiable Somali community,” then-Vice President Biden said. “I might add if you come to the train station with me you’ll notice I have great relationships with them because there’s an awful lot driving cabs and are friends of mine. For real. I’m not being solicitous. I’m being serious.” Politifact, a liberal fact
Sen Ernst cites Jewish student discrimination in bid to protect free speech on campuses
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is looking to crack down on universities that receive federal funding but discriminate against students based on viewpoint in a new attempt to protect free speech on college campuses. The Iowa Republican will introduce a new bill on Thursday, the Students Bill of Rights Act of 2024, which would safeguard free speech on public campuses. ‘EXPECT NPR TO SUFFER’ UNDER GOP ADMIN: REPUBLICANS RENEW CALL TO DEFUND OUTLET AMID BIAS SCANDAL “Freedom of speech is a core American value that our heroes fought and died to secure – we must protect it for future generations,” Ernst said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital. “I want college students in Iowa and across America to engage in debates, challenge their ideas, and express their viewpoints freely, without facing discrimination or abuse. Echo chambers only serve to stunt the developing mind.” MORE THAN 40 SENATE REPUBLICANS CALL FOR MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IN LETTER TO SCHUMER According to Ernst’s office, the measure was prompted in part by concerns over the free expression of Jewish and pro-Israel students at various schools across the country amid the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas. HANDFUL OF VULNERABLE DEMS WILL DECIDE FATE OF MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL The goal of the Iowa Republican’s bill is to push back on “left-wing activists on college campuses,” who she accuses of eroding First Amendment rights, as well as attacks on Jewish students, her office said. Ernst’s bill proposes a universal speech and association protection standard for any public universities and colleges that receive funding through Title IV. BIPARTISAN SENATORS PUSH BACK AS KEY DEM SIGNALS DOOM FOR TIKTOK BILL It addresses four areas to protect students from viewpoint discrimination. The measure specifically carves out provisions to assure students are assisted in finding faculty sponsors or otherwise gaining recognition at their schools, mandating institutions to disclose fund distribution and security fee charges to student organizations, mandating they similarly disclose policies in place to protect guest speakers, and requiring that they implement disciplinary measures for any students who threaten the safety of speakers invited to campuses. Since the onset of the Israel war in Gaza, higher education institutions have become hotbeds for anti-Israel demonstrations. Prestigious schools have been accused of allowing threats and attacks against Jewish students to occur, even prompting a congressional hearing. At the same time, a group created to express support for Israel recently faced difficulty in its quest to gain recognition at Columbia University Law School, illustrating the obstacles for some students to organize.
Liberal justice’s retirement puts Wisconsin Supreme Court majority back on ballot
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced Thursday that she will not seek another term, setting up a high-stakes fight for control of the battleground state’s highest court. Bradley, who is part of the court’s 4-3 liberal majority, said she felt confident she could win a fourth 10-year term but that it was time to “pass the torch.” Her term will end July 31, 2025. LONGEST-SERVING WISCONSIN STATE SENATOR TO RETIRE The election for the open seat will be held next April. Brad Schimel, the former Republican attorney general, announced in November that he plans to run. The race was already expected to be heated, but Bradley’s departure makes it an open race. “My decision has not come lightly,” Bradley said in a statement. “It is made after careful consideration and reflection.” Liberals hold a majority thanks to Janet Protasiewicz’s victory in 2023 over former Justice Dan Kelly. The court has made several key rulings since liberals gained control, including a December decision overturning Republican-drawn maps of the state’s legislative districts. Abortion was also a central topic during Protasiewicz’s race and the court has since been asked to consider two challenges to a decades-old state law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion.
Florida judge rules school has to temporarily allow transgender teacher to use preferred pronouns
A Florida judge temporarily blocked a pronoun law from being enforced against one nonbinary and two transgender teachers this week. “Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote in the temporary injunction. “Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it.” “This time, the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school,” the opinion, released Tuesday, continued. “So, the question before this Court is whether the First Amendment permits the State to dictate, without limitation, how public-school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’” 3 MONTHS AND 28 DAYS: LGBTQ EVENTS CLOG CALENDAR AS WHITE HOUSE FACES BACKLASH OVER EASTER ANNOUNCEMENT Two trans teachers and one nonbinary teacher filed a lawsuit in December over the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act – which opponents have called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill – that restricts teachers and educators from using pronouns that don’t align with their biological sex. Walker granted Katie Wood, one of the trans teachers, a temporary injunction, arguing in the legal opinion that the law violates the First Amendment. The injunction does not reverse the law for everyone completely. Only Wood will be allowed an exception to the rule, since students called the teacher “Ms.” prior to the 2023 law. After the law went into effect, students called Wood “Teacher Wood,” instead of “Mr.,” which Wood claimed was stigmatizing. “Katie Wood is a transgender woman who is known at school – indeed, in every aspect of her life – as ‘Ms. Wood.’ She uses she/her pronouns to refer to herself and would prefer that others do as well,” Walker wrote. “AV Schwandes is nonbinary and is known as ‘Mx. Schwandes.’ Mx. Schwandes uses they/them pronouns to refer to themself and would prefer that others do as well.” However, the judge did not conclude the other two teachers “demonstrated a likelihood of success” in their allegations that the law violated their rights. BIDEN SLAMMED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER ANNOUNCING TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY ON EASTER SUNDAY “In short, Mx. Schwandes has not come forward with any evidence showing that they intend to engage in speech in the foreseeable future that would violate” the law, Walker wrote. Woods argued in the lawsuit that the law is discrimanatory on the basis of sex and violates the equal protection clause, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX of the education amendments of 1972. “I am hopeful that this ruling will encourage those who feel powerless to stand up for themselves,” Wood said in a statement. “Where there is pain, there is power. And anything can happen when good people stand up together.” The three plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a statement the ruling “sends a strong, positive message to trans and nonbinary educators that their title and their identity are not mutually exclusive.” CALIFORNIA CITY BANS NON-GOVERNMENT FLAGS, ANGERING LGTBQ GROUPS At the time, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a 2022 educational law that prohibited LGBTQ+ curriculum to include a ban on teachers and students using their preferred pronouns that do not align with their sex, saying the Sunshine State will not be doing “the pronoun Olympics.” DeSantis added teachers and students in Florida will “never be forced to declare pronouns in school or be forced to use pronouns not based on biological sex.”