UT-Austin investigates students amid tensions over Israel-Hamas war
Administrators are weighing possible disciplinary action against four students who criticized the university’s response to the Middle East conflict.
Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear Gov. Evers’ suit against GOP Legislature for blocking ‘basic functions’
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ lawsuit against the Republican-controlled Legislature arguing that it is obstructing basic government functions. The court’s liberal majority agreed to hear the case, with the three conservative justices dissenting. It set oral arguments for April 17. The court only agreed to immediately hear one of the three issues Evers brought forward in the complaint. That issue relates to the Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget committee blocking funding for state conservation programs. WISCONSIN CONSULTANTS LABEL GOP’S REDISTRICTING MAP PROPOSALS AS GERRYMANDERS Evers had also challenged a committee made up of legislative leaders not approving pay raises for University of Wisconsin employees. But after the lawsuit was filed, the panel did approve the raises. Evers had also challenged a legislative committee blocking updates to the state’s commercial building standards and ethics standards for licensed professionals. The court said it was keeping both of those issues on hold pending a future order. Liberal justices Janet Protasiewicz, Rebecca Dallet, Jill Karofsky and Ann Walsh Bradley agreed to take the case. Conservative Chief Justice Annette Ziegler and justices Brian Hagedorn and Rebecca Bradley dissented. Rebecca Bradley, in her dissent, accused the majority of “needlessly engulfing this court in the morass of politics.” “By accepting only one of the issues raised by the Governor and holding the other two issues in abeyance, the majority refashions this court as the Governor’s avenue for imposing policy changes without the consent of the governed,” she wrote. “When the majority’s political allies say jump, the new majority responds: ‘How high?’ “ Hagedorn, who dissented separately, said the case was consequential and questioned taking it directly rather than have facts established through proceedings in lower courts first. “A decision in this case could occasion a historic shift — both in the operation of state government, and in how this court interprets the boundary lines between the branches of government,” Hagedorn wrote. “Thoughtful lower court decisions usually improve the clarity of our work by framing the arguments and telling the parties what worked and what didn’t.” Evers and the Republican legislative leaders Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not return messages seeking comment. Evers argued in the lawsuit that committees controlled by a few Republican lawmakers are being used by the Legislature to “reach far beyond its proper zone of constitutional lawmaking authority.” Evers cites the Legislature’s budget-writing committee’s rejection of dozens of conservation projects selected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources under the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Republicans have long been critics of the program, which protects land from development. LeMahieu dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous at the time it was filed, saying in a statement that Evers was “working to diminish the voice of Wisconsinites by limiting the authority of the legislature and unduly strengthening his own administration.” Evers and the GOP-controlled Legislature have been at odds from the moment Evers was elected in November 2018. He has issued more vetoes than any other Wisconsin governor, including blocking numerous bills changing how elections would be run in the key presidential battleground state. The Legislature convened a lame duck session just weeks before Evers took office to weaken the incoming governor’s powers. They have repeatedly rejected appointees Evers has made to boards and commissions, including firing a majority of the Natural Resources Board in October. In another sign of their strained relationship, Evers has rarely met with Republican legislative leaders. Evers is in the second year of his second term. The Wisconsin Supreme Court flipped to majority liberal control in August. In December, it struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps on a 4-3 decision. The Evers lawsuit is one of several high-profile cases filed by Democrats since the court’s majority changed
With presidential race on horizon, New Mexico lawmakers look to outlaw fake electors
New Mexico Democrats who control the Legislature want to make it a crime to pose as a fake presidential elector in one of the few states where Republicans signed certificates in 2020 falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner. Legislators advanced a bill Friday on a party-line committee vote that would make it a felony starting in the 2024 presidential election to submit a fake elector certificate “knowingly or recklessly.” The Legislature’s Republican minority would need Democratic support to vote down the legislation, which carries criminal penalties like those being considered in a handful of other states. Republican electors signed certificates in seven states — mostly with battleground contests — indicating falsely that Trump had won the 2020 election, a strategy at the center of criminal charges against Trump and his associates. FORMER NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR ON THE BORDER CRISIS: THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS In New Mexico, President Joe Biden won by 11 percentage points, or about 100,000 votes — the largest margin among the states where so-called fake electors have been implicated. Last year, Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed a bill that would have made it a crime to sign certificates falsely stating that a losing political candidate has won, with penalties of between four and 10 years in prison. In Colorado, where there were no false elector certificates in 2020, the Democratic-led Legislature is considering a bill that would make participating in a fake elector scheme a crime and ban people who do from office. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat, in January announced his decision not to prosecute local Republicans who signed the elector certificates — while urging lawmakers to provide legal authority for prosecuting similar conduct in the future and enhance the security of the state’s electoral process. “We should recognize the seriousness of this conduct,” he told a state Senate panel in January. On Friday in Santa Fe, Republican state Rep. Bill Rehm of Albuquerque said the legislation is “politically motivated against a different party.” He voted against it, noting that felony provisions are especially stiff. Violations would be punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Fake electors didn’t change Biden’s win in 2020, he said. “I do not think there was any intent in New Mexico to change the outcome,” he said. “I think that if we could remove the politics that is the undertone of this, it would be a different situation.” In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake electors added a caveat saying the certificate was submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors. That would only have been possible if Trump had won any of several dozen legal battles he waged against states in the weeks after the election. Democratic officials have launched separate investigations in some states, resulting in indictments against GOP electors. In December, a Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans with felony charges in connection with false election certificates. They have pleaded not guilty. Michigan’s Attorney General filed felony charges in July 2023 against 16 Republican fake electors, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. For one of them, charges were dropped after reaching a cooperation deal. The top charge carried a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Three fake electors also have been charged in Georgia alongside Trump and others in a sweeping indictment accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the results of the presidential election. They have pleaded not guilty. The New Mexico bill, from Democrats including Majority House Floor Leader Gail Chasey of Albuquerque, also would establish felony penalties for disrupting election results — defined as knowingly or recklessly suppressing, defacing, altering, forging or otherwise falsifying election documents, or preparing or submitting false election documents. Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce has accused the state attorney general of trying to criminalize a process “used by both Democrats and Republicans,” referring to the 1960 presidential election. Democratic electors in Hawaii cast votes for John F. Kennedy despite that state initially being called for Republican Richard Nixon. But the outcome of the Hawaii election was unclear, requiring a recount, and Nixon would end up losing the state. After the 2020 election, every court challenge the Trump campaign and its allies filed to contest his loss has failed.
New Hampshire lawmakers weigh half-dozen gun laws following hospital shooting
The associate medical director of New Hampshire Hospital urged lawmakers to pass gun control legislation Friday, describing the anguish that followed the fatal shooting of a security officer in the facility’s lobby last year. “A coworker was murdered 100 feet from my office,” Dr. Samanta Swetter told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “Then I had to sit there while other people I loved were in danger, and I could do very little to help them.” The committee was holding public hearings on half a dozen bills seeking to either restrict or expand access to firearms, including one drafted in response to the death of Bradley Haas, who was killed in November by a former patient at the psychiatric hospital in Concord. NEW HAMPSHIRE HOUSE REJECTS FURTHER EXPANSION, OR RESTRICTION OF ABORTION ACCESS While federal law prohibits those who have been involuntarily committed to psychiatric institutions from purchasing guns, New Hampshire currently does not submit mental health records to the database that gun dealers use for background checks. “Bradley’s Law,” which has bipartisan support, would require those records to be submitted. It also creates a process by which someone could have their gun ownership rights restored when they are no longer a danger to themselves or others. Swetter, speaking on behalf of the New Hampshire Psychiatric Society, described hearing a scream and then being told about the shooting by a worker who ran into her office and hid behind the door. She then spent an hour trying to call different departments because the hospital’s paging system wasn’t working. “These people aren’t just people I work with, they’re my family, and I couldn’t tell them that they were in danger,” she said. “It was genuinely one of the worst moments of my life, just not being able to protect people. I’m a health care professional to help people, and I couldn’t.” The gunman who killed Haas was shot to death by a state trooper assigned to the hospital. Haas was unarmed, and opponents of the bill argued having such workers carrying guns would save more lives than restricting others’ access. One opponent suggested that the bill could apply to those hospitalized for bulimia or other mental health conditions, while others argued it would do nothing to stop criminals from getting guns. “If someone is violently mentally ill, why would they be even released from a secure mental health facility?” said Kimberly Morin of the Women’s Defense League. “Rather than pushing more discriminatory gun confiscation bills, why don’t we actually do something to address the serious mental health issues we have?” The committee also held public hearings on a bill that would make it easier for gun owners to store their guns in their cars at work and another that could make it easier for those who are subject to domestic violence protective orders to get their weapons back. It also heard testimony on a bill to create a process by which gun owners could voluntarily add themselves to the federal background check database. Supporters said it could help someone who had considered suicide in the past and wants to protect themselves going forward. “By taking this simple step, we can take the quickest, the deadliest in our state and the most common form of suicide off the table for people who simply go the extra step of asking us to take it off the table,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Mueuse, D-Portsmouth. Donna Morin, whose 21-year-old son died by suicide in 2022, told the committee the bill would not have saved his life, but it could save her own. “The pain that I feel every single day, it has brought me to thoughts of suicide,” said Morin, of Manchester. “I’m speaking publicly about this, even though it’s terrifying, because I really feel that this bill is that important. The goal of this bill is to allow a person like myself to make a decision when they are in a calm mind and not in emotional distress.” Morin compared it to creating a living will to outline treatment preferences in end-of-life situations when you can’t speak for yourself. “You’re asking what kind of person would do it? It would be me,” she said. “I don’t want to have a moment of weakness where I can’t see that life’s not worth living, because it is.
Abrams-founded group to appeal ruling saying Georgia voter eligibility challenges were legal
A group trying to stop voter challenges in Georgia says it will appeal a trial court ruling that such challenges don’t violate federal voting rights law. Fair Fight Action on Friday filed notice that it would ask the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the lower court’s ruling. Democratic lawyer Mark Elias said his firm would handle the appeal without charging Fair Fight. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled last month that Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act when it announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 Georgia voters just before a 2021 runoff election for two pivotal U.S. Senate seats. STACEY ABRAMS’ ONCE-POWERFUL VOTING RIGHTS GROUP FACES MASSIVE LAYOFFS AS IT STRUGGLES WITH MILLIONS IN DEBT Fair Fight, a voting rights group founded by former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, had sued True the Vote and several individuals, alleging that their actions violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. Although Jones ruled that True the Vote didn’t intimidate or attempt to intimidate any particular voter, he expressed concerns about the group’s methods. Jones wrote that its list of voters to be challenged “utterly lacked reliability” and “verges on recklessness.” In the weeks after the November 2020 general election, then-President Donald Trump and his supporters were promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud that had cost him the election. In Georgia, two U.S. Senate races that would ultimately decide control of the Senate were headed for an early January runoff election. True the Vote announced the voter challenges saying it believed voters no longer lived in districts where they were registered and were ineligible to vote there. Georgia election officials rejected only a few dozen ballots cast in the runoff, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock went on to beat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler by tens of thousands of votes, securing Senate control for their party.
Texas attracted more relocating businesses than any other state, report finds
From 2010 to 2019, the state generated more jobs than any other from transferring businesses, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found.
US ‘not looking for a war with Iran,’ White House says, strikes designed to ‘put an end’ to attacks on troops
The White House stressed Friday evening that the United States is “not looking for a war with Iran,” saying the retaliatory strikes carried out in Syria and Iraq were designed to “de-escalate” tensions and “put an end” to attacks on U.S. troops in the region. The United States began retaliatory strikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups and proxies. US BEGINS MIDDLE EAST AIRSTRIKES IN RESPONSE TO DEATHS OF THREE SOLDIERS The strikes come in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members last Sunday on a U.S. base in Jordan. White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stressed that the United States is not seeking conflict with Iran or in the Middle East, but explained that the strikes that began Friday evening “will not end” tonight. Kirby said the targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and based on irrefutable evidence they were connected to attacks on U.S. troops in the region, adding that the Iraqi government was informed before the strikes were launched. Kirby and Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II said the strikes were initiated Friday, and not sooner, due to weather, explaining that U.S. officials have been “waiting for the weather to cooperate,” and saying that Friday posed “the best opportunity” with regard to conditions. “We feel really confident about the precision of those targets,” Sims said during a call with reporters. “We hit exactly what we meant to hit.” Sims explained that waiting for the right timing with the weather allowed the U.S. to avoid “any unnecessary casualties.” “The weather did turn today to allow us to conduct these strikes and as a result, we’re very confident in the targets that we struck today,” Sims said. When asked if the timing of the strikes had anything to do with Friday’s dignified transfer of the remains of three troops killed in the Iran-backed militia attack in Jordan at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Kirby said no. “It had no connection whatsoever with the dignified transfer at Dover,” Kirby said. BIDEN ATTENDS DIGNIFIED TRANSFER OF FALLEN TROOPS KILLED IN JORDAN DRONE ATTACK But Kirby explained the strikes were meant to “send a signal,” and that signal was to those who “seek to bring Americans harm.” “We do not seek a conflict with Iran,” Kirby said. “These targets were chosen to degrade and disrupt capabilities of IRGC and groups they sponsor and support.” Kirby said “the goal” of the strikes is “to get these attacks” on U.S. service members in the region “to stop.” “The signal is the attacks have to stop,” he continued. “These facilities were being used by IRGC and their proxy groups to conduct attacks on U.S. personnel in the region.” He added: “These responses began tonight—they are not going to end tonight. There will be additional responses, additional action we will take, all designed to put an end to these attacks.” US FORCES ATTACKED AT LEAST 160 TIMES IN THE MIDDLE EAST SINCE MID-OCTOBER AFTER SUNDAY’S DRONE STRIKE When pressed, Kirby said: “We are not looking for a war with Iran.” “If you are taking away capability of an adversary who is trying to kill your troops and act against your interest in the region—if you are trying to take away their capability then, you are, by default, working to de-escalate tensions and that is our approach here,” Kirby explained. Meanwhile, Kirby said he would not “telegraph future operations,” but stressed that there will be “additional response actions taken in coming days.” “Today, we saw the first set of responses,” he said. “It will not be the last set of responses that you see.” Kirby again stressed that the United States “does not want to see a single more attack on U.S. troops or facilities in the region. We don’t want to see a single one more.” “We want attacks to stop,” he said. “We want them to stop right now.” There have been at least 160 attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East since mid-October. President Biden previously said that he holds Iran responsible for the most recent attack last week because they supplied the weapons to the people who perpetrated it, but he also noted that he does not wish to escalate tensions with the Islamic Republic. The 85 targets included command and control operations, intelligence centers, militia group’s rockets, missiles, unmanned vehicle storages and supply chain facilities, CENTCOM said. The fallen troops after last weekend’s attacks were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46; Spc. Kennedy Landon Sanders, 24; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, all of whom were from Georgia.
Supreme Court refuses to block West Point from considering race in admissions decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined a request to block the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from using race as a factor in admissions decisions. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that colleges and universities can no longer use the affirmative action practice, except for the U.S. military academies. The group Students for Fair Admission had previously prevailed earlier at SCOTUS, which struck down affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina last year. “The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied. The record before this Court is underdeveloped, and this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question,” Friday’s order read.
US launches strikes in response to attack that killed troops in Jordan
The US warned it would strike back against Iran-linked targets after three US soldiers were killed on Sunday. The United States military has launched dozens of airstrikes against targets in Syria and Iraq in the first retaliation for a drone attack that killed three soldiers at a remote US base in Jordan. “This afternoon, at my direction, US military forces struck targets at facilities in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack US forces,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Friday, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” he added. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its military forces struck more than 85 targets in the two countries “with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States”. “The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions,” it added in a statement. CENTCOM said the facilities that were struck included command and control operations centres, intelligence centres, weapons storage sites and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of groups linked to attacks against US forces. CENTCOM Statement on U.S. Strikes in Iraq and Syria At 4:00 p.m. (EST) Feb. 02, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. U.S. military forces… pic.twitter.com/HeLMFDx9zY — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 2, 2024 Three US soldiers were killed and about 40 others injured in a drone attack on the military base known as Tower 22 near the Jordan-Syria border on Sunday. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iran-linked groups, claimed responsibility for the drone attack. “The US had said since the moment that attack happened that there would be a military response and US officials like Joe Biden and Lloyd Austin said the response would come in multiple fashions. So this could very well be the first phase, but those retaliatory US airstrikes have now begun,” said Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from the Pentagon. “This is the first step, I don’t think that it will be the last one,” she added. On Friday, Syrian state media said that an “American aggression” on number of sites on Syria’s desert areas and the Syrian and Iraqi border resulted in a number of casualties and injuries. Iraqi security sources told Al Jazeera that six air strikes targeted a number of locations in the country. ‘Dignified transfer’ of bodies While the US strikes did not target any locations inside Iran, they are likely to increase concern about tensions in the Middle East spiralling from Israel’s more than three-month-old war on Gaza. The strikes come hours after President Biden met with the families of the three troops who were killed on Sunday – identified as William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett – as the service members’ remains arrived in the US. Biden and his wife Jill visited the Dover air base in the US state of Delaware on Friday to honour the soldiers during the “dignified transfer” of their bodies. US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown, also attended – their presence highlighting the importance, as well as relative rarity, of returning dead service members in the wake of US exits from major foreign conflicts. On Friday, Biden’s statement said the US “does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world”. But the US president added: “Let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.” Earlier this week, when Biden was asked whether he holds Iran responsible for the drone attack, he said, “I do hold them responsible, in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.” US Republicans have been calling for a powerful response, including directly against Iran. The Biden administration has suggested that the US response to the drone attack would be prolonged, not a single strike. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that it “will be a multi-tiered approach” over a period of time. “The first thing you see will not be the last thing you see,” he told reporters. Adblock test (Why?)
On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring in the US
More than 40,000 people gathered to see the Pennsylvania prognosticator as part of a tradition dating back to 1887. Pennsylvania’s primo prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow during annual Groundhog Day celebrations on Friday, meaning that, according to legend, there will be an early spring. The US state’s tradition of using a large rodent to predict the seasons dates back to the Pennsylvania Dutch belief that if a groundhog left its burrow and saw its shadow, it would scurry back inside and winter would go on for six more weeks. Groundhog Day is now a major yearly event in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, complete with top-hatted comperes, cheering crowds and a full-court press. Phil and his predecessors, also called Phil, have been forecasting since 1887, and this year more than 40,000 people camped out in a festival atmosphere to wait for sunrise and the groundhog’s emergence. “Another winter slumber paused so I could meet the crowd, it’s hard to sleep anyway when the party is this loud,” said Dan McGinley, vice president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, reading from a scroll “selected” by the groundhog. A crowd watches the festivities while waiting for Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, to come out and make his prediction [Barry Reeger/AP Photo] McGinley even raised the prospect of voters writing in Punxsutawney Phil’s name on ballots as the US enters a presidential election year. In the past 10 years, Phil has been accurate only 30 percent of the time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 2023, Phil saw his shadow but temperatures that February were above average and in March only slightly below, leading the NOAA to declare that the furry forecaster had got it wrong. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro took the stage before Phil to urge people around the world watching the festivities to come to Punxsutawney next year. Shapiro also announced the famed groundhog is the new official meteorologist for Pennsylvania. “Punxsutawney is the centre of the universe right now and I love that you’re all here,” Shapiro said. Eager to cash in on the craze of animal forecasters, other states have adopted their own meteorological soothsayers, including Wisconsin’s Sun Prairie Jimmy, Woody the Woodchuck in Michigan, and Scramble the Duck in Connecticut. Businesses did not miss a trick, with potato chip maker Frito Lay preparing to air advertisements showing actor Stephen Tobolowsky enduring a scenario similar to the plot of the popular movie, Groundhog Day. The cult 1993 film, in which Tobolowsky played a relentlessly upbeat salesman, saw leading man Bill Murray stuck in a never-ending 24-hour loop after Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. Adblock test (Why?)