Guru Ravidas Jayanti 2024: Know date, history and significance
On this day, people gather at the Shri Guru Ravidass Janam Asthan Mandir in Varanasi to celebrate Guru Ravidas’ birth anniversary.
Karnataka temple tax bill fails to pass in Legislative Council amid criticism by BJP
The Hindu Religious and Temple Endowments (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was defeated in Karnataka Legislative Council.
Assam cabinet repeals Muslim marriages and divorces registration Act
In a step towards prohibiting child marriage in the state, Assam Cabinet on Friday repealed the ‘Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935.
Fargo loses challenge to North Dakota’s crackdown on local gun control laws
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by North Dakota’s largest city that challenged a new law banning zoning ordinances related to guns and ammunition. Fargo sued last year, calling the law unconstitutional and a swipe at the city’s home rule powers. State District Judge Cherie Clark on Tuesday granted the state’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the city’s complaint. “While the Court agrees that (the North Dakota Constitution) intends for ‘maximum local self-government,’ the law is not settled that this language alone provides home rule cities the right to legislate on topics the state legislature has limited,” the judge wrote. GOP NORTH DAKOTA SEN. KEVIN CRAMER RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION But she also expressed concerns about the Legislature’s actions: “If the legislature continues to pare home rule powers, home rule cities lack the discretion to address important issues impacting their respective and unique communities.” Fargo has an ordinance banning people from conducting certain businesses out of their homes, including gun and ammunition sales, mortuaries, dog grooming and vehicle repair. In 2020, about 33% of federal firearms licensees operated from residential premises, surpassing all other types of zoned locations, including commercial, according to a report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Massachusetts is the only state where home-based gun dealers are banned, but many local governments may enact zoning laws that prohibit the practice, according to information from Brady, which advocates for gun control. Residential or “kitchen table” dealers present concerns that include the possibility of relatives living in the home where they operate, business records and gun inventories becoming mixed with personal items, and dealers working another job that might hinder them from keeping up with regulations, according to Brady. No federal laws require guns’ safe storage at a dealer, and homes are less likely to have the “robust” security measures against burglary and robbery, according to the group. The ATF St. Paul Field Division couldn’t immediately provide data on home-based dealers, but noted that licensees whose business premises are their residences are relatively common in the area. The agency doesn’t keep a list of cities with ordinances similar to Fargo’s, but said others do exist. Last year, North Dakota’s Republican-led Legislature passed the law restricting the ability of cities and counties to regulate guns and ammunition, including purchase, sales and possession. The law took effect in August. It voids existing ordinances. Previously, Fargo successfully challenged a similar 2021 law. Mayor Tim Mahoney said city officials will meet with their legal team on next steps. “The previous time that we challenged it, it did it come back in our favor, so that’s what we’re going to have to see — what’s changed and do we need to take a different position on it,” he said. In its lawsuit, the city said it doesn’t want residents to use their homes as gun stores but added that the case hits at a larger issue of whether the Legislature can “strip away” Fargo’s home rule powers, which allow the city certain authority, such as zoning public and private property. Republican Rep. Ben Koppelman, the 2023 bill’s sponsor, told a Senate panel last year that the issue came to greater attention in 2016 when, because of the ordinance, the ATF refused to renew the federal firearms licenses of Fargo dealers who sold out of their homes. At issue in the bill was whether gun regulations should be a locally or state-controlled issue, he previously said. Koppelman welcomed the ruling as the right decision upholding that there are “certain things reserved under the jurisdiction of only the state.” Likely less than a dozen dealers were affected when Fargo’s ordinance came to a head, and as few as five or six dealers might remain now, he said. “I think that if the desire is for the city of Fargo to be like a stand-alone kingdom or city-state or whatever they wish they could be, obviously this didn’t go their way,” Koppelman said.
Judge rejects Chicago measure to raise luxury property tax, fund homeless services
A Cook County judge has rejected a Chicago ballot measure that would have raised a one-time tax on luxury properties to fund services for homeless people after objections from real estate and business groups. The ruling Friday by Judge Kathleen Burke came as early voting for Illinois’ March 19 primary has already started. The tax measure appears on the ballot. The measure would have raised what’s called the real estate transfer tax on properties valued at over $1 million, but lower it on properties under that amount. CHICAGO SCHOOL BOARD VOTES TO REMOVE UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICERS FROM SCHOOLS Supporters, including first-term Mayor Brandon Johnson, estimated it would have brought in about $100 million a year, which would be used to fund housing and other services including mental health care. Cities including Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico have adopted similar tax increases. Maxica Williams, board president of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, issued a statement expressing disappointment in the ruling. “We are outraged by the fact that this small minority of wealthy real estate interests would rather spend thousands of dollars on legal fees to preserve a brutally unjust status quo than pay their fair share in taxes,” Williams said. Roughly 68,000 people experience homelessness in Chicago. Business groups, including the Building Owners and Managers Association International, argued the tax would disproportionately hit commercial real estate as Chicago’s downtown is still struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Attorneys for Bring Home Chicago, who championed the ballot measure, have said they would appeal any decision thwarting their efforts to get the question on the ballot.
College DEI crackdown passes Alabama Senate
Alabama lawmakers have advanced legislation aimed at prohibiting universities, schools and public entities from maintaining diversity and inclusion offices or funding initiatives that teach what Republicans labeled as “divisive concepts.” The multi-pronged proposal is one of dozens of bills introduced by Republican lawmakers across the country that would restrict initiatives on diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI. Republican opponents say DEI programs are discriminatory and promote left-wing ideology. Democratic supporters say the programs are necessary for ensuring institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations. INDIANA LAWMAKERS ADVANCE TENURE REFORM BILL FOR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES Alabama state senators approved the bill Thursday on a 26-7 vote that broke down along party lines. The approval came after six hours of debate and attempts — some successful, and some not — to amend the proposal. It now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives. Republican Sen. Will Barfoot, the sponsor of the bill, said the bill is aimed at “removing wedges.” It gives a list of divisive concepts, including that “any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm, or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity, or a need to apologize on the basis of his or her race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.” The proposed legislation said schools could not fund initiatives that teach those concepts or require students and employees to attend “any training, orientation, or course work that advocates for or requires assent to a divisive concept, require students as part of any required curriculum or mandatory professional training.” “This bill is an attempt to pull the divisive languages out of schools, out of the classrooms to teach history accurately, fairly so that everybody can be recognized regardless of color of skin, sex (or) national origin,” Barfoot said. Senate Democrats and others said the bill would hurt the state’s effort to recruit businesses. On the stand Thursday, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said the proposal will ultimately be a “litmus test” for the state’s higher education institutions, al.com reported. He argued that those that want to pursue diversity work will find a way to do so within the confines of the law, while others will now have more reasons not to. Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, a Democrat, said Republicans are pushing the bill as an “agenda piece” and would send the message that Alabama doesn’t welcome diversity. “I could see a doctor who is being recruited to UAB … you don’t want diversity and inclusion so therefore I don’t want to come to your state,” Singleton said. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin issued lengthy statements on social media this week criticizing the bill. “To the State of Alabama: Why would you make it illegal for institutions of higher learning to promote diversity and inclusion among its faculty and staff? Why would you block fair representation and opportunities for all people?” he said. “If supporting inclusion becomes illegal in this state, hell, you might as well stand in front of the school door like Governor Wallace. Mannnn it’s Black History Month. Y’all could have at least waited until March 1.”
Former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre found liable for corruption, cost gun rights group more than $5 million: jury
A Manhattan jury in the civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against the National Rifle Association and its former CEO found the organization liable for financial mismanagement. The jury determined that Wayne LaPierre’s violation of his duties cost the NRA $5,400,000. The decision came at the end of five days of deliberations. James brought forth the lawsuit in 2020, and named the NRA, former CEO Wayne LaPierre, former CFO Wilson “Woody” Philips and general counsel John Frazer as defendants. The attorney general’s office argued the executives used millions in company funds on luxury personal purchases and trips, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on LaPierre’s trips to the Bahamas, according to the AG’s office. NEW YORK AG OFFICE, EX-NRA OFFICIAL REACH SETTLEMENT DAYS BEFORE TRIAL AGAINST GUN ADVOCACY GROUP’S LEADERSHIP The NRA, however, has long said the case was politically motivated by an attorney general who campaigned for the office by vowing to investigate and take on the NRA. James was elected to office in November 2018 and publicly slammed the NRA in the lead-up to her becoming New York’s chief law officer. While on the campaign trail, James called the group “an organ of deadly propaganda” and vowed to investigate whether the NRA could keep its charity status. NEW YORK AG CASE AGAINST NRA LEADER FACES TRIAL AFTER COURT AGAIN REJECTS GUN GROUP’S CLAIM OF POLITICAL PROBE “The NRA is an organ of deadly propaganda masquerading as a charity for public good,” James wrote in a campaign press release back in July 2018. “Its agenda is set by gun-makers who think arming teachers is a better idea than making it harder for kids to get military grade guns.” Weeks before her election, she described the NRA as “a terrorist organization” in comments to Ebony magazine, and “a criminal enterprise” in remarks to local New York media. In August of 2020, she filed a dissolution lawsuit aiming to break up the NRA over alleged corruption. A New York Supreme Court justice ultimately blocked James’ effort to dissolve the organization in a 2022 decision, saying the suit did not meet the requirements of ordering a “corporate death penalty” on the group. The judge did allow the suit against the NRA’s top officials to proceed. James accused officials at the NRA of “years of illegal self-dealing” that provided a “lavish lifestyle.” WAYNE LAPIERRE ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION AS NRA CHIEF At the trial, which began last month, LaPierre and the three other defendants were accused by Assistant Attorney General Monica Connell of getting caught “with their hands in the cookie jar” and argued the four were trying to deflect and downplay the use of the funds. “They’re going to try to get you to think about anything except what happened to those cookies,” she said. “They’re going to blame anyone else but themselves.” State attorneys argued during the trial that LaPierre spent roughly $11 million of NRA funds for private flights, about $500,000 on a handful of trips to the Bahamas, and “appearing to dole out lucrative no-show contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty.” NEW YORK AG CASE AGAINST NRA LEADER FACES TRIAL AFTER COURT AGAIN REJECTS GUN GROUP’S CLAIM OF POLITICAL PROBE LaPierre, who stepped down as NRA CEO and executive vice president last month after serving since 1991, said earlier in the trial he had made governance changes within the organization since 2021 and had paid about $300,000 back to the group. LaPierre’s attorney argued during the trial that the former NRA chief’s use of private flights was necessary for safety reasons due to his prominent national stature amid the acrimonious gun debate. “This is a story made up by a person with an agenda that wanted him off the field,” LaPierre’s attorney Kent Correll said Thursday in closing arguments. “If this case was so important, why wouldn’t she be here?” he added, referring to James’ absence from the courtroom Thursday. JUDGE ORDERS NEW YORK TO DOLE OUT NEARLY HALF A MILLION IN LEGAL FEES TO NRA AFTER SUPREME COURT VICTORY The NRA’s legal team argued during the trial that the organization worked to address any potential corruption when such issues were first raised by internal complaints. “When the fraud was discovered, it dug in. It turned over the rocks it was told not to overturn,” attorney Sarah Rogers said. “The NRA left no stone unturned.” “If this was a case about corruption,”she added, “it wasn’t by the NRA.”
El Paso leaders rally around migrant shelters after Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to shut them down
Paxton’s office demanded records of migrants that Annunciation House has helped and threatened to shut down the Catholic shelter network.
Trump breaks silence on Alabama Supreme Court IVF ruling: ‘Find an immediate solution’
Former President Trump broke his silence on a controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos created during fertility treatments can be considered children under state law. “Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday. “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America.” “Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby,” Trump continued. “Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life – and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies. IVF is an important part of that, and our Great Republican Party will always be with you, in your quest, for the ULTIMATE JOY IN LIFE!” Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled last week that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” AUBURN’S BRUCE PEARL SUPPORTS IVF TREATMENTS AFTER ALABAMA SUPREME COURT RULING: ‘THIS MAKES NO SENSE’ “Unborn children are ‘children’ under the Act, without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the majority ruling. The decision was in response to two wrongful death cases brought by three couples whose frozen embryos had been destroyed in an accident at an Alabama fertility clinic. The Supreme Court decision led to a halt in IVF services at some locations and caused a firestorm between pro-life groups and abortion advocates. UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM PAUSES IN VITRO FERTILIZATION FOLLOWING STATE SUPREME COURT EMBRYO RULING Pro-life advocacy group Live Action reacted to the decision in a statement. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action, said in the statement. President Biden issued a statement that called the Alabama decision a “direct result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.” And Vice President Kamala Harris, in the middle of her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, accused Republicans of hypocrisy. “On the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn’t have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy and, on the other hand, the individual does not have the right to start a family,” she told an audience in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Fox News Digital’s Melissa Rudy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Deadly blaze rips through apartment block in Spain
NewsFeed At least ten people were killed and others are missing after a fire ripped through an apartment block in Spain. Published On 23 Feb 202423 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)