Jewish group to deliver 180K letters to White House to mark 180 days since Oct. 7
A major Jewish advocacy group is planning a demonstration at the White House in protest of President Biden’s shifting policy towards the Israeli offensive into Gaza. The Orthodox Union, which represents over 1,000 synagogues in the United States, is gathering 180,000 letters to be dropped off at the White House on April 3 — marking 180 days since the Israel-Hamas conflict began. “180,000 letters will be hand-delivered to the White House urging the President to support Israel without undermining its war effort, take meaningful steps to combat antisemitism and secure the release of Israeli and American hostages,” the Orthodox Union told Fox News Digital. UN TOP COURT ORDERS ISRAEL TO OPEN MORE LAND CROSSINGS FOR AID INTO GAZA The Orthodox Union — one of the largest Jewish advocacy groups in the country — is drawing letters for the demonstration from its network of synagogues across the country. Additionally, Orthodox Union is collaborating with the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), Chabad on Campus, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Olami, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and more to fill the 180,000 quota. “We urge the Biden administration to stay the course and support Israel until the Hamas threat is eliminated,” said Orthodox Union Executive Director of Public Policy Nathan Diament. BIDEN’S SHIFTING SUPPORT OF ISRAEL IN HIS OWN WORDS: FROM ‘UNWAVERING’ TO ‘OVER THE TOP’ CRITICISM He continued, “We trust this initiative will bring much-needed attention to the urgency of ending the suffering of the hostages, bringing them home, and completely removing the threat of Hamas.” The Orthodox Union initially showed support for the Biden administration in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. However, the group has become increasingly concerned about the government’s qualified support for continued offensives in Gaza — which recently led to the U.S. abstaining from a United Nations Security Council vote on demanding an immediate ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his plans to invade the city of Rafah in Gaza despite vehement opposition from the Biden administration on humanitarian grounds. “We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Vice President Kamala Harris told ABC when asked about consequences for invading Rafah. “Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go.” Asked if she was ruling out consequences for initiating the invasion despite U.S. protest, Harris said she was “ruling out nothing.”
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Georgia immigration bill that would compel law enforcement to work with federal officials goes to Gov. Kemp
Georgia’s Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would require local jailers to check the immigration status of inmates and work with federal immigration officials instead of sheltering people who are in the country illegally. The House voted 99-75 to accept changes to House Bill 1105, which was backed by Republicans and now goes to the governor for his signature. It previously passed the state Senate. Under the measure, local law enforcement agencies would risk losing state funding for failing to work with immigration officials. Local officials could also face misdemeanor charges. GEORGIA POISED TO MANDATE PARENTAL PERMISSION FOR CHILDREN UNDER 16 TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA The measure gained traction after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus. Jose Ibarra was arrested last month on murder and assault charges in the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Immigration authorities say Ibarra, 26, unlawfully crossed into the United States in 2022. It is unclear whether he has applied for asylum. Democrats raised concerns it would turn local law enforcement into immigration police, making communities less willing to report crime and work with them. They have also pointed to studies showing immigrants are less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes. House Republican Jesse Petrea said on the floor Thursday that the bill was asking law enforcement only to work with immigration officials when someone has committed a crime and is in the country illegally. “I don’t believe anyone in law enforcement believes that’s too much to ask,” he said.
Speaker Johnson meets Gov Abbott in Texas to talk border action, Mayorkas impeachment
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the latter’s home turf on Thursday, where they discussed the ongoing border crisis and the House GOP’s response to it. The meeting came hours after Johnson revealed that the House of Representatives would send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10. “By opening the border to criminals, traffickers, and cartels, the Biden administration is actively endangering the American people, our families, ranchers, and law enforcement. When the federal government fails to perform its constitutional duty to protect our borders, states have no choice but to fill that role,” Johnson said in a statement after the meeting. CALIFORNIA BORDER OFFICERS FIND THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF METH IN SHIPMENT OF CARROTS “Right now, we’re witnessing a gross abuse of power as Biden’s Department of Justice uses the judicial system to go after the state of Texas for attempting to safeguard its citizens. Texans, and all Americans, deserve better.” Johnson expressed support for Abbott’s efforts to secure the border between Texas and Mexico, the speaker’s office said, and that the two discussed ways to “hold the Biden administration accountable.” The Louisiana Republican also briefed Abbott on the House readying to transmit the impeachment articles to the Senate, Johnson’s office said. Abbott, in turn, urged Johnson to “pass border security legislation that will help stop illegal crossings between ports of entry along the southern border,” the governor’s office said. ICE ARRESTS 216 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS WITH COCAINE, FENTANYL AND HEROIN CONVICTIONS “The Governor also implored Speaker Johnson to support the state’s ongoing fight against President Biden’s attacks on Texas’ historic border mission and his refusal to secure the border,” Abbott’s office said. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the meeting. Abbott has been in a standoff with President Biden for months over differing views on how to handle the migrant crisis at the border. The White House has criticized Abbott and Texas officials for actions carried out under Operation Lone Star, which has included putting up razor wire at the border and transporting migrants to Democrat-run cities like New York and Chicago. Texas officials have accused the White House, however, of not doing enough to stop the migrant crisis on the federal level. MEXICAN PRESIDENT SAYS THE ‘FLOW OF MIGRANTS WILL CONTINUE’ UNLESS THE US MEETS HIS DEMANDS House Republicans have similarly pressured Biden over the border crisis, repeatedly hammering him and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for failing to take up a strict border security bill, H.R.2, which Democrats have dismissed as a nonstarter. Johnson sent a letter to Schumer on Thursday informing him that House impeachment managers would send the impeachment articles to his chamber on April 10 and urged him to hold a trial “expeditiously.” “As Speaker and impeachment managers of the U.S. House of Representatives, we write to inform you that we will present to you upon the Senate’s return, on April 10, 2024, the duly passed articles of impeachment regarding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. We urge you to schedule a trial of the matter expeditiously,” Johnson wrote alongside the 11 Republicans selected as impeachment managers.
Biden cracks down on diesel trucks in bid to fight climate change, reduce emissions
The Biden administration finalized long-awaited regulations targeting emissions generated from heavy-duty vehicles, including trucks and buses, the latest salvo in President Biden’s sweeping climate agenda. The Environmental Protection Agency announced the new regulations Friday morning, and officials said they represent the strongest-ever greenhouse gas emissions standards of their kind. The rules will kick in beginning in 2026 for model year 2027 vehicles and progressively become more stringent through model year 2032, forcing a larger number of trucks and buses to be zero-emissions in that time frame. “EPA’s standards complement President Biden’s unprecedented investment in our workers and communities to reduce harmful emissions, while strengthening our manufacturing capacity for the transportation technologies of the future,” said White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi. “By tackling pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, we can unlock extraordinary public health, climate, and economic gains.” “In finalizing these emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like trucks and buses, EPA is significantly cutting pollution from the hardest working vehicles on the road,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “Building on our recently finalized rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles, EPA’s strong and durable vehicle standards respond to the urgency of the climate crisis by making deep cuts in emissions from the transportation sector.” TRUMP CAMPAIGN UNLEASHES ON BIDEN FOR BACKING CALIFORNIA’S GAS CAR BAN Overall, EPA said the aggressive standards will avoid a billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide $13 billion in annualized net societal benefits related to public health, the climate and business savings. The agency claims that the regulations will set the heavy-duty vehicle industry on a “trajectory for sustained growth.” The new regulations apply to short-haul and long-haul tractor-trailer trucks, in addition to vocational trucks like delivery vehicles, garbage trucks, school and public transit buses, concrete trucks and fire trucks. EPA previously projected the standards could lead to 50% of vocational trucks, 35% of short-haul tractor-trailers, and 25% of long-haul tractor-trailers produced in 2032 being electric. Less than 1% of new truck sales in the U.S. are zero-emissions, according to the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles. VULNERABLE HOUSE DEM BUCKS PARTY ORTHODOXY, BLASTING HIS STATE’S PROPOSED EV MANDATE “With the climate crisis underway and many of our communities facing unprecedented fires, droughts, and floods, it’s crucial that truck manufacturers get into the fast lane with zero-emission trucks to deliver the climate, health, and economic benefits we deserve,” said Katherine Garcia, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign. Garcia and other environmental activists who lauded the regulations have for years called on the federal government to crack down on the trucking industry, pointing to its heavy carbon footprint. The transportation sector accounts for 29% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks account for 23% of those emissions, federal data shows. However, the announcement immediately received pushback from the trucking industry and energy producers, who argued it would lead to higher costs for trucking companies. “Small business truckers, who happen to care about clean air for themselves and their kids as much as anyone, make up 96% of trucking,” said Todd Spencer, president of Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, an organization which represents more than 150,000 members across all 50 states and Canada. “Yet this administration seems dead set on regulating every local mom and pop business out of existence with its flurry of unworkable environmental mandates.” MAINE REJECTS SWEEPING ELECTRIC VEHICLE MANDATE IN BLOW TO GOVERNOR’S CLIMATE AGENDA In comments filed with the EPA last year, the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association warned the administration had overestimated the nearer-term feasible market penetration and adoption rates of electric trucks, and the demand for those electric trucks. And, in a joint statement, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers called on Congress to immediately overturn the regulations. They also said they were prepared to take the administration to court over the rule. “This is yet another example of the Biden administration’s whole-of-government effort to eliminate choices for American consumers, businesses, and industries,” Thompson and Sommers said. “There is significant uncertainty regarding the technological and infrastructure capability to comply with this rule, which may threaten the speed and cost of goods moving throughout the country.” 130+ HOUSE, SENATE REPUBLICANS JOIN FORCES IN OPPOSITION OF BIDEN’S UPCOMING EV MANDATE The regulations are also sure to attract considerable criticism from Republican lawmakers, who have for months warned the Biden administration against targeting the heavy-duty vehicle industry. Last week, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said he would soon introduce a resolution to rescind the standards once they are finalized. “In the midst of sustained, crippling inflation, President Biden is choosing to add more regulatory dead weight onto our economy and our critical supply chains,” Sullivan said. “Hard-working families across the country will pay the price if this rule is allowed to stand. The cost of this rule will be felt in the rising price of gas, bread, eggs and other life essentials.” The final standards are somewhat less stringent than the first proposed standards in April 2023. They come one week after the EPA finalized its multi-pollutant emission standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles, the strongest of their kind to date.
Rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been a prolific supporter of Democrats
Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, whose homes were raided this week as part of a federal human trafficking investigation, has been a staunch supporter of Democrats during his career. Combs’ Los Angeles home was searched Monday by Homeland Security officials, and agents were also seen at his home in Miami. A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the raids were linked to a federal human trafficking investigation. Combs has leveraged his stardom and fame to back Democrats during his career, including President Biden during the 2020 elections, in what looked to be an attempt to persuade Black voters. RAPPER SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS’ HOMES RAIDED BY HOMELAND SECURITY Combs was part of a group of dozens of Black individuals who sent a letter to Biden in August 2020 urging him to select a Black vice presidential candidate, which appeared to reference reports that then-Sen. Kamala Harris was too “ambitious” to be his choice, The Hill reported. “Was Joe Biden ever labeled ‘too ambitious’ because he ran for president three times? Should President Obama not have made him VP because he had to worry about his ‘loyalty’ when he clearly had AMBITIONS to be president himself?” the letter said. “Why does Senator Kamala Harris have to show remorse for questioning Biden’s previous stance on integrated busing during a Democratic primary debate?” SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS LAWSUIT NAMES 50 CENT’S EX-GIRLFRIEND AS ONE OF MUSIC MOGUL’S ALLEGED SEX WORKERS In October 2020, Variety reported that Combs endorsed Biden while saying he “played the game” by endorsing Democrats for their views in the past, but said problems persisted. He added that neither major political party has done enough for Black people and launched the so-called Our Black Party to bring Black voters behind a single agenda, the outlet reported. Combs has also appeared to be friendly with former President Barack Obama. In 2004, he interviewed the then-Illinois state senator for MTV’s “Rock the Vote” campaign and later appeared friendly with him in pictures posted to social media. “This week has been great,” Combs wrote in a September 2017 Facebook post showing a photo of him and Obama. “Shout out to the king Barack Obama!!! #BlackExcellence” Combs also said “white men like [Donald] Trump need to be banished” during a 2020 interview with Charlamagne tha God when he endorsed Biden’s candidacy, CNN reported. Trump has appeared in pictures alongside Combs in the past, primarily at public events. On Tuesday, Combs’ lawyers said that the raids on his homes were “a gross use of military-level force” and maintained his innocence. “Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences,” attorney Aaron Dyer said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.” Dyer said there has been “no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations” and called them a “witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
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Mail-in ballots must have dates on envelopes, Pennsylvania appeals court rules
A Pennsylvania federal appeals court has ruled that mail-in ballots received without accurate handwritten dates on the outside of envelopes are not valid, a ruling that will have a significant impact on this year’s elections in the key battleground state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 on Wednesday, overturning a lower court’s November decision. The lower court had ruled that even without the proper dates, mail-in ballots should be counted if received on time. The court said that “trivial paperwork” errors disenfranchised voters and violated the Materiality Provision of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting. KEY ISSUES AHEAD OF PENNSYLVANIA’S GOP PRIMARY INCLUDE ELECTION INTEGRITY, MAIL-IN VOTING LAW But in Wednesday’s federal appeals court’s opinion, Judge Thomas Ambro wrote that the state legislature passed law and had decided that mail-in voters must write the date on their envelopes to make their vote effective. “The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania unanimously held this ballot-casting rule is mandatory; thus, failure to comply renders a ballot invalid under Pennsylvania law,” Ambro wrote. The Materiality Provision “only applies when the State is determining who may vote,” Ambro wrote. Under a state law passed in 2019, Pennsylvania voters must “fill out, date and sign the declaration printed on [the] envelope” before returning their ballot. Proponents of mail-in ballots argue it makes voting more convenient, as well as being easier for senior citizens and people with disabilities to vote. However, some Republicans say that the process raises serious election integrity issues, while former President Donald Trump has blasted the system as “totally corrupt” and blames it, in part, for his 2020 election loss. In Pennsylvania, Democrats have been far more likely to vote by mail than Republicans. AHEAD OF 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, SWING STATE PENNSYLVANIA SETS UP ELECTION SECURITY TASK FORCE “This is a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence in the Keystone State and nationwide,” Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Committee said in a statement. “Pennsylvanians deserve to feel confident in the security of their mail ballots, and this Third Circuit ruling roundly rejects unlawful left-wing attempts to count undated or incorrectly dated mail ballots.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which helped represent groups and voters who challenged the date mandate, said that voters will lose as a result of the ruling. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “If this ruling stands, thousands of Pennsylvania voters could lose their vote over a meaningless paperwork error,” said Mike Lee, the executive director of the ACLU in Pennsylvania. “The ballots in question in this case come from voters who are eligible and who met the submission deadline. In passing the Civil Rights Act, Congress put a guardrail in place to be sure that states don’t erect unnecessary barriers that disenfranchise voters. It’s unfortunate that the court failed to recognize that principle.” In the 2022 midterms, more than 7,600 mailed ballots in 12 counties were tossed because their outer envelopes lacked dates or had incorrect dates, according to the decision. The Associated Press contributed to this report.