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Texas AG Ken Paxton sues school district after principals accused of violating election laws

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues school district after principals accused of violating election laws

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has filed a lawsuit against a school district in the state after two principals allegedly violated election laws by encouraging school staff, using school accounts, to vote in the GOP primary and recommending candidates who oppose school vouchers. Two leaked emails allegedly sent on Denton Independent School District accounts encouraged school staff to vote in the Republican primary and directed them to a scorecard showing candidates’ stances on public education funding. One email from Alexander Elementary School Principal Lindsey Lujan, dated Feb. 5, urged teachers and staff at a school in the district to vote in the Republican primary and included a link to a list of recommended state candidates who support public education and school funding while opposing school voucher programs. “The Texas Legislature has not increased the public school allotment per student since 2019, even with inflation going up! No school in Texas, including Denton ISD will NOT [sic] be able to provide raises next year if legislation doesn’t change,” the email reads in part. “We need to do our part for our Texas Public School! Here is a list of all candidates and whether or not [they] SUPPORT or OPPOSE Public School Education.” TEXAS LAW ENFORCEMENT WHO RESPONDED TO UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING ORDERED TO TESTIFY BEFORE A GRAND JURY In response to the email, Paxton sued Denton ISD for illegal electioneering by use of public tax money, according to Fox 4. The attorney general’s office accuses Lujan of using her district email account to draft and send the message. It cites the Texas Election Code’s banning the use of “state or local funds or other resources of the district to electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party.” The lawsuit also takes issue with a second email allegedly sent by Borman Elementary Principal Jesus Lujan, who is the husband of Lindsey Lujan, to staff members at that school. “Voting in Republican Primaries is especially important because the votes cast in primaries inform the issues that the party will prioritize,” that email reads in part. “Since TX tends to always elect a Republican, we want to inform the party through our primary votes which issues we care about and how we feel about them. Thus, vote for candidates who support public education and school funding in the Republican primaries, no matter what your party affiliation is, Republican or Democrat. Consider thinking from a ‘purple’ mindset in future elections, voting for the candidate that will support public ed and funding in the future, despite their party affiliation.” TEXAS GIRL AUDRII CUNNINGHAM, 11, DIED FROM BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA The email added, “Please know that historically, 85% of PRIMARY voters in TX want vouchers. That’s why it’s so important that teachers and public school and funding advocates show up in the primaries.” Texas claims that both principals “egregiously overstepped what is legal.” The district told CBS News Texas it has not received any communication from the Texas Ethics Commission about the emails and that it cannot comment publicly on matters regarding personnel. However, the district did say it has been in communication with the attorney general’s office following the lawsuit and agrees that election laws should be followed. “Our Board of School Trustees adopted board policies in 2018 and 2021 regarding elections and campaign ethics, and we train all trustees and administrators on these policies annually. It is our expectation that these policies be followed,” the district said in a statement. “Our employees’ passion for serving our students and community is undeniable. The current primary elections on March 5 are especially significant for public education. These elected officials will make crucial decisions that impact our students, teachers, families and our district as a whole.” The district also encourages all registered voters to “do their homework and learn about the candidates and their positions before they vote in the primary of their choosing.” The attorney general’s office cannot file a criminal suit, but it says it will “seek civil injunctive relief to attain a court order prohibiting school districts from engaging in unlawful attempts to influence elections.”

Trump expected to move closer to clinching GOP presidential nomination with likely big win over Haley in SC

Trump expected to move closer to clinching GOP presidential nomination with likely big win over Haley in SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump predicts the end is near for rival Nikki Haley. “She’s getting clobbered,” Trump emphasized at a recent rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, as he touted his formidable lead over Haley in Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in the Palmetto State. “She’s finished.” “You’re not supposed to lose your home state. It shouldn’t happen,” Trump added Tuesday at a Fox News town hall in Greenville. “She’s losing it bigly.” The expected win in South Carolina would move Trump a step closer to clinching the Republican nomination, and his campaign, in a memo earlier this week, argued that Haley’s White House bid will end “fittingly, in her home state.” HALEY ON WHETHER TRUMP WILL WIN THE NOMINATION NEXT MONTH: ‘LET’S SEE IF IT HAPPENS’ The Trump campaign predicted an “a**-kicking in the making in South Carolina” for Haley, and that “the end is near” for her presidential run due to “a very serious math problem” she has in the race to lock up enough delegates to win the 2024 GOP nomination. TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREDICTS ‘A**-KICKING’ FOR HALEY IN HER HOME STATE, BUT SHE SAYS ‘I REFUSE TO QUIT’ But Haley, the last major Trump challenger for the nomination left standing, remains defiant. “Some of you — perhaps a few of you in the media — came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it,” the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration said in a major speech minutes after the release of the Trump campaign memo. “I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley emphasized. And she added that “I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.” On the campaign trail in the closing days, Haley told her supporters, “I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts. This is going to be messy and I’ll take the hurt, because I believe nothing good comes easy. Sometimes we have to feel pain to appreciate the blessing.” Haley has also turned up the volume this month in her verbal attacks on Trump, from his legal entanglements to his controversial comments on NATO and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as well as his mocking of her husband, who is overseas on a military tour of duty. Trump grabbed a majority of the votes in Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary victories in January, and won by a landslide earlier this month in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses, as he moves toward locking up the nomination. HALEY ACCUSES TRUMP OF SIDING WITH ‘A DICTATOR AND A TYRANT’ AS SHE BLASTS HIM OVER LACK OF PUTIN CRITICISM Trump has only made a handful of stops in South Carolina this month, while he has campaigned relentlessly. But the final polls indicate the former president maintains a very large double-digit lead. While South Carolina is home to Haley, the former president enjoys the backing of the state’s governor, nearly the entire congressional delegation and scores of state lawmakers and local officials. Veteran South Carolina-based Republican consultant Dave Wilson pointed to Trump’s “groundswell” in the state and highlighted the former president’s “ground forces.” Wilson, who remains neutral in the primary, also noted that “Nikki Haley is reintroducing herself to South Carolina” because “almost a million people have moved into the state since she was governor.” But pointing to her undefeated electoral record, Wilson said, “Never underestimate Nikki Haley. Never count Nikki Haley out.” South Carolina holds an open primary, which means Republicans, independents and even Democrats can vote in the GOP presidential nominating contest, as long as they didn’t cast a ballot in the Feb. 3 Democratic presidential primary. TRUMP RUNNING MATE AUDITIONS ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN TRAIL Independents helped fuel Haley’s 43% showing in New Hampshire, where she lost to Trump by 11 points.  But while independent voters have long played a crucial and influential role in the first-in-the-nation primary, they are much less of a factor in South Carolina’s more conservative electorate, where evangelical voters enjoy prominence in GOP contests. Regardless of the results in South Carolina, Haley has repeatedly pledged to stay in the Republican presidential nomination race at least through March 5, when 15 states hold contests on Super Tuesday. “We are focused on every state before us. Now it’s South Carolina on Saturday. Then it will be Michigan [which will hold its primary on Tuesday], then it will be Super Tuesday states and we’ll take it from there,” Haley told Fox News Digital in an interview on Wednesday in North Augusta, S.C. “Our goal is that we’re giving voices a chance to be heard.” On Friday, Haley’s campaign announced it was going up with a national cable ad blitz ahead of Super Tuesday. Nearly 800 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday, with over 150 at stake over the following two weeks. Among the states holding contests on Super Tuesday are delegate-rich California and Texas, while other big states like Florida, Illinois and Ohio will hold winner-take-all primaries on March 19. Polling in many of those states indicates Trump holding large leads over Haley. The Trump campaign predicted in its memo that the former president would secure the nomination on March 19, even under a “most-generous model” for Haley. “Let’s see if it happens,” Haley quickly responded when asked by Fox News what she would do if Trump clinches the nomination next month. Fox News’ Kirill Clark and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Haley courts independents, Democrats as she aims to avoid a blowout to Trump on her home turf

Haley courts independents, Democrats as she aims to avoid a blowout to Trump on her home turf

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley is looking to prevent what Donald Trump’s presidential campaign predicts will be an “a– kicking” in her home state of South Carolina Saturday by courting independent voters. “This is an open primary,” Haley emphasized in a “Fox and Friends” interview this week. The former two-term Palmetto State governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the former president’s administration notes that “anybody can vote in the primary, as long as you didn’t vote in the Democrat primary on February 3rd in South Carolina.” Trump is the 2024 GOP frontrunner as he bids a third straight time for the White House. He grabbed a majority of the votes last month in Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary victories and won by a landslide earlier this month in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses to close in on locking up the nomination. HALEY ON WHETHER TRUMP WILL WIN THE NOMINATION NEXT MONTH: ‘LET’S SEE IF IT HAPPENS’ The final polls in South Carolina showed Trump maintaining a large double-digit lead over Haley, the last remaining major rival challenging the former president. Independents helped fuel Haley’s 43% showing in New Hampshire, where she lost to Trump by 11 points. But while independent voters have long played a crucial and influential role in the first-in-the-nation primary, they are much less of a factor in South Carolina’s more conservative electorate, where evangelical voters enjoy prominence in GOP contests. TRUMP CAMPAIGN PREDICTS ‘A**-KICKING’ FOR HALEY IN HER HOME STATE, BUT SHE SAYS ‘I REFUSE TO QUIT’ A Monmouth University poll about South Carolina’s primary conducted last weekend had Trump with a 72%-to-25% lead among Republicans questioned, similar to how he performed with GOP voters in New Hampshire. Haley, meanwhile, held a narrow 53%-46% advantage among independents. The problem for Haley is nearly two-thirds of those sampled by the survey indicated they were Republicans, with only 28% identifying as independents. Longtime South Carolina-based Republican consultant Dave Wilson, who remains neutral in the primary, noted “there is no party registration in this state.” “They’re targeting what would be considered independent or swing voters. There’s just not that many in South Carolina. You’re either an R or a D in this state,” Wilson said, addressing Haley’s campaign efforts.  He added the Haley campaign and aligned groups are “trying to find people who are so against Donald Trump that they’re willing to step into a Republican booth and choose her name just to vote against Trump.” Haley’s allies are also making a pitch for Democrats who didn’t cast a ballot in the party’s relatively low turnout presidential primary earlier this month to vote in the GOP contest. HALEY ACCUSES TRUMP OF SIDING WITH A DICTATOR AND TYRANT’ “If you did not vote in the February 3rd Democratic primary, you are eligible to vote on February 24th.” a mailer sent to Democratic voters by the Haley-aligned super PAC SFA Fund states. “Your vote can make a difference,” the mailer emphasized. “Please participate by voting for Nikki Haley and make your voice heard.” Haley has repeatedly vowed to march on regardless of her finish on Saturday. Michigan, on Tuesday, holds the next contest, and it’s also an open primary. In early March, nearly 800 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday, and over 150 will be at stake over the ensuing two weeks. Among the states holding contests on Super Tuesday are delegate-rich California and Texas, and other big states like Florida, Illinois and Ohio will hold winner-take-all primaries March 19. Polling in many of those states indicates Trump holding large leads over Haley. But Haley’s campaign notes that 11 of the 16 Super Tuesday contests aren’t limited to registered Republicans.  Campaign manager Betsy Ankeny in a recent memo highlighted that the upcoming open primaries contain “significant fertile ground for Nikki.” Trump and his allies have repeatedly blasted Haley over the courting of independents and even some Democrats. “The Democrats are giving her money, and she’s playing into the game. And I think she just can’t get, she just can’t get herself to get out. She is doing poorly in the polls. Look, if she was doing well, I’d understand it, but she’s doing very poorly,” Trump said Tuesday in a Fox News town hall in Greenville, South Carolina. Haley, in an interview the next morning on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” fired back. TRUMP RUNNING MATE AUDITIONS ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN TRAIL “He can keep saying I have big Democrat donors. At the same time, look at his disclosures. But I don’t ask donors whether they’re Republican, Democrat or independent,” she said. “We’re fighting for the Republican primary, but there are a lot of independents who left the Republican Party because of Donald Trump. We are pulling them back. … We’re pulling Reagan Democrats back. And Republicans need to remember this is not about pushing people out of our party. And that’s why I do well with everybody, not just Republicans, not just independents.” Seasoned Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams pointed out that “it’s up to each state to choose its process. … That’s generally been a principle of states’ rights that Republicans have long supported.” Williams, a veteran of Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, noted that when Romney won the nomination a dozen years ago “we were essentially the establishment and tried to draw in independents to offset what seemed to be a rotation of conservative challengers. “We courted independent voters, and we had an eye on the general election too,” Williams recalled. “We wanted to make sure we were drawing independents to vote for us in the primary who would hopefully stick around for the general election.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

At least 15 killed in fire at apartment block in China’s Nanjing

At least 15 killed in fire at apartment block in China’s Nanjing

Residential building fire is the latest in a series of blazes that have killed dozens across China. At least 15 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a fire at an apartment block in eastern China’s Nanjing, local authorities have said. The blaze in the Yuhuatai district of Nanjing appears to have started on Friday on the residential building’s first floor, where electric bikes were stored, officials said at a press conference, citing the results of a preliminary investigation. The fire was put out by about 6am and a search and rescue operation was wrapped up at about 2pm on Friday, authorities said. Forty-four people were sent to hospital for treatment, according to authorities, with one person in a “critical condition”. Twenty-five fire trucks were deployed to fight the blaze, emergency services said. Footage shared on Chinese social media sites showed a skyscraper on fire at night, with black smoke emitting from the structure. Fires and other disasters are a common occurrence in China, where safety standards have lagged behind the country’s break-neck development. After a fire in central China’s Xinyu that killed at least 39 people last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for “deep reflection” and greater efforts to “curb the frequent occurrence of safety accidents”. Xi’s call came just days after 13 children were killed in another inferno at a school dormitory in central China’s Henan province. The incident sparked outrage among social media users, who called for those responsible to be punished. In November, 26 people were killed and dozens of people were injured after a fire broke out at the office of a coal company in northern Shanxi province. In October, 31 people were killed in an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwestern Ningxia region. Adblock test (Why?)

Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 141

Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 141

EXPLAINER UN agency for Palestinian refugees say it can no longer provide services in northern Gaza, citing staff shortages and a ‘collapse of social order’. Here’s how things stand on Saturday, February 24, 2024: Humanitarian crisis, fighting on the ground: A UNRWA official says the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees can no longer provide services in north Gaza, citing staff shortages and a “collapse of social order” amid Israeli attacks on civilians and restrictions on food aid access that have left the population starving. An Israeli strike on a home housing displaced Palestinians killed at least 24 people in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah on Friday. Staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital say they are still receiving wounded people, and the death toll is expected to rise. Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported that 104 people were killed and 160 injured in Israeli attacks between Thursday and Friday afternoon, according to the latest situation report from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Israeli forces have raided villages, towns and cities across the occupied West Bank, searching homes and clashing with locals resisting the incursions, Palestine’s state news agency, Wafa, reports. Diplomacy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released his most detailed vision yet for a post-war Gaza. It includes maintaining indefinite military control over the Strip; ceding the enclave’s civilian administration to Palestinians with no link to Hamas – he didn’t cite the Palestinian Authority (PA) – and creating a buffer zone along Gaza’s border with Egypt that Israel will control. The PA has criticised the plan, saying security can only be obtained through the establishment of a Palestinian state. The UN’s top court has completed its fifth day of hearings following a request by the UN General Assembly to issue an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has repeated his criticism of Israel’s attack on Gaza, saying it “is not war, it is genocide”. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, has warned that states that transfer weapons to Israel amid its war on Gaza could be complicit in “atrocity crimes”. Reuters news agency has reported that talks are under way in Paris in what appears to be the most serious push in weeks to halt the fighting in Gaza. Singapore has iterated its calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at G20 meetings in Brazil, local media have reported. Regional tensions The United States military says it has destroyed seven antiship cruise missiles that Yemen’s Houthi rebel group planned to launch at targets in the Red Sea. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the UK-owned bulk carrier MV Rubymar, which was attacked by Houthi forces last weekend in the Red Sea, is slowly taking on water, leaking oil and it poses an environmental hazard in the region. Adblock test (Why?)

Iran unveils plan for tighter internet rules to promote local platforms

Iran unveils plan for tighter internet rules to promote local platforms

Tehran, Iran – A new regulatory directive from Iran’s top internet governing body shows how authorities hope to steer Iranians away from foreign platforms and turn them towards local ones. Iran’s top internet policymaking body released a directive earlier this week that stipulates new rules with potentially wide-ranging ramifications for the country’s already constrained internet landscape, which the agency says were approved by Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei. The Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) asserted that using “refinement-breaking tools” is now “forbidden” unless the user has obtained a legal permit. That is the new word Iranian authorities have come up with for virtual private networks (VPNs), online privacy tools that mask the user’s IP (internet protocol), which most Iranians use regularly to circumvent heavy internet restrictions. All major social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram, are banned in Iran but along with thousands of websites, remain highly popular with tens of millions of users – for years prompting users to resort to circumvention tools. Iran had made the purchase and sale of VPNs illegal in 2022, but news that using them, even without any commercial transaction involved, would also be banned prompted a backlash online. Many pointed out that an overwhelming majority of Iranians have no choice but to use them if they wish to access the free internet, so making the use of VPNs illegal would effectively include most people in the country. SCC Secretary Mohammad Amin Aghamiri told state television a day after the uproar that the regulations do not include the general public, and are only directed at top state entities – the office of the supreme leader, the presidency, the judiciary and the parliament, among others. Pushing foreign platforms away But regardless of whom the VPN ban covers, the SCC directive contains other regulations that call for large-scale changes in Iran’s internet landscape. For one, it asks the culture ministry to collaborate with the economy and information and communications technology (ICT) ministries to come up with a plan in one month that would incentivise content creators and businesses active on foreign platforms to stay “strictly on local platforms”. The goal: to bring at least half of the target audience to local platforms within six months. This effectively means that the SCC wants much of the content created by people inside Iran on the likes of wildly popular Instagram and YouTube to move to local platforms. It is unclear how the government expects to make this happen within months. “Any advertisement by legal entities on foreign platforms is illegal,” asserts the directive, which tasks the culture ministry, state television, law enforcement, the economy ministry and the judiciary to monitor this and report back every quarter. Moreover, the ICT ministry has been tasked with offering “comprehensive and essential government services” on local platforms “exclusively”, with at least two services ready within six months. Some of this has been in the works for several years. The Iranian state has been working on a “National Information Network”, obligating websites and services to position their servers inside Iran, limiting some government services only to local platforms, and making global internet traffic cost twice as much as local traffic to incentivise using local services. Unblocked ‘shells’ of foreign platforms Another part of the SCC directive could also have a significant impact on how social media platforms are used in Iran. It stipulates that authorities must provide technical capabilities that would allow Iranians to access “useful foreign services” in the form of “governable formats”. This, it said, could include negotiations for foreign platforms to establish representative offices inside Iran, in addition to “windows of access” baked into local platforms, and “shells” of foreign platforms that would not be blocked like the main versions. No foreign companies running social media platforms have agreed to place representatives in Iran – that would need to be accountable to the Iranian state – and major brands like United States-based Meta have said they are not interested. As for the so-called shells, Iranians have experienced them before, and have been exposed to breaches of privacy as a result. In 2018, after Iran blocked the massively popular messaging app Telegram, citing its alleged use in inciting and enabling “riots” during a period of protests and unrest, unfiltered shells of the app started being used by Iranians. Iran also underwent an almost total internet blackout that lasted for nearly a week during the November 2019 protests that started after the government significantly increased petrol prices. These shells would allow unblocked access, but would have access to users’ data as it was passed through them before reaching the servers of the original app. This exposed millions of Iranians to data leaks and fraud before people became aware of the dangers. Now, the Iranian state wishes to officially endorse such shells, essentially inviting people to use them instead of the main apps which will remain blocked. Internet restrictions in Iran reached new levels after nationwide protests began in September 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. Adblock test (Why?)