Category: Politics

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Governor Gavin Newsom has spent the past few days away from California doing something California governors rarely do.

On Wednesday, he was in Sarasota, Florida to meet students at Florida's new college . It has become a symbol of the nation's culture wars as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tries to take over progressive campuses with conservative administrators . .

"I can't believe what you're doing. This is an unbelievable attack," Newsom told the gathering of students and faculty, adding that DeSantis' view "is masquerading as a weakness as a strength."

It was the latest attack in the ongoing rivalry between Newsom and DeSantis , two governors who were easily elected last year after positioning their states as ideological opposites . DeSantis , who is expected to be the Republican nominee in next year's presidential election, has become Newsom's favorite foil. He mentions DeSantis every chance he gets — in media interviews, on the Bills and, of course, on Twitter. Newsom's visit to the Sunshine State took his tour a step further.

A few days ago, Newsom visited Central High School in Little Rock, Truck. It commemorates one of the most famous developments in the civil rights movement, the nine black students who broke up the school in 1957. Newsom attended a fundraiser for the Arkansas Democratic Party.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Newsom met and videotaped prominent civil rights attorney Brian Stevenson in front of his church. Pastor Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. spent time with Jackson Mississippi Newsom Mayor Chokwe Lumumba , a Democrat who has accused the state's Republican legislature of apartheid-like policies and "plant politics," and attended Sunday services at Palms Baptist Church.

Newsom's move with his wife and children is part of a new national campaign he announced last week to fight "authoritarian leaders" and promote progressive values. With $10 million left over from last year's re-election campaign, he formed a new political action committee called the Democracy Campaign, which plans to rally Democrats in red states and push the GOP agenda on abortion, guns, gay rights and more. Strengthening anti-immigration. .

(Side note: Because Newsom used campaign funds for the trip, not taxpayer money, California's 23-state ban on state-sponsored trips is not in effect, although lawmakers are considering legislation this year to lift the ban. Newsom aides and the state Senate Leader Tony Atkins (D-San Diego) (Both tell me it's a coincidence that Newsom announced going on the ban list in his red state the day before they announced legislation to lift the ban. )

Newsom's new campaign is expanding its strategy to take its message beyond California . These include Florida ads reminding Floridians "Come to California, we still believe in freedom." She told the women there that California "protects the right to make decisions about your own health."

So what are we to make of Newsom's latest foray into the Deep South?

Newsom has said he is not interested in running for president next year and supports President Biden's re-election. This year she said she wants to play a role in the statewide fight against the GOP, which was attacked by national Republicans during a failed recall campaign against her in 2021, and what she sees as their agenda to protect the rights of women and people of color. Rejection, and the LGBTQ community has suffered for decades.

The campaign is consistent with those two messages, and will help Newsom build his national profile as Democrats seek the presidential nomination while Biden is not running for re-election.

But the new campaign may say more about Newsom's prospects after 2026, when he leaves the governor's office due to term limits. This allowed him to build a national network of donors and activists and put him in a formative role for the Democratic Party. This year is good preparation if he decides to run for president — or any other political office — in 2028.

Newsom has been saying for years that he is a "future ex-governor." It's unclear what comes next, but Newsome seems to be doing everything he can to make sure his solo title doesn't slip away.

I'm Laurel Rosenhal, Sacramento bureau chief for The Times. Here's what else happened in California politics this week:

The boy hit the ballot

According to Times political reporter Seema Mehta, clicking on BoyMeetsCongress.com will take you to the campaign website of Ben Savage, the same 1990s network sitcom star who is now running to represent the Los Angeles County portion of Congress.

The baby-faced, 42-year-old Democrat is among a dozen candidates vying for the seat of Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), hoping to replace the outgoing U.S. senator. Replaced Dianne Feinstein. Opponents include a member of the board of trustees of the nation's second-largest school district, a state legislator, a West Hollywood council member and a former Los Angeles city attorney — who won and are running for office.

But none of that got Savage any attention — a television interview on Good Morning America 3, articles in the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN — even though he finished seventh in his only previous run for public office. The candidacy of Savage, whose coming-of-age series Boy Meets World is particularly popular among millennials, is the latest test of the importance of celebrity in American politics.

In this fascinating article, Mehta meets Savage and describes the long history of celebrity running for office, particularly in California.

Latin Caucus at 50

When Marta Escutia was elected to the convention this year in 1992, she was one of seven Latinos in California's 120 seats, part of a small but growing Latino bloc that has become a powerful force in the state capital.

"We used to tease each other about how [the Latino caucus] would fit in a phone booth," Escutia told Times reporter Vanessa Arredondo .

This year in 1996, California's Latino legislative caucus doubled to 14. Today it has 38 members.

Formed this year in 1973 as an all-Democratic group, the Latino Caucus has proposed policies that improve access to health care for immigrants, allow enrolled students to pay in-state tuition , and end ethnic studies requirements from high school through retirement. Other new policies in 50 years.

Now an established force in the Legislature, Arredondo reports that the caucus is under pressure to make its priorities appeal to a new generation of voters .

Follow political news from California

The once indomitable Harris embraced his multiracial identity in Africa.
Vice President Kamala Harris has always felt more comfortable talking about politics than identity. As a woman of many races in the United States, she refused to define herself by family traditions, making her choice a historical place. But in Africa — a continent known for its first black vice president, where 3 million Indians of Indian origin call home — he was open about his identity not just as a product of the African diaspora, but as a result of his ancestry. Native American ancestors who lived there.

Skelton: California's attack battery has a silver lining — hydroelectric power and clean groundwater
After three years of drought, we're getting an unexpected abundance of water this spring, writes Times columnist George Skelton . Now the government and public services should use this opportunity.

'Resign immediately': San Diego district attorney accused of sexual misconduct asks to resign
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond is the first board member to call for Nathan Fletcher's immediate resignation, saying sexual misconduct allegations against the embattled supervisor are hurting vital county businesses. Fletcher announced last week that he would step down on May 15 .

The Taiwanese president's meeting with McCarthy caused a rift among local refugees
A highly anticipated meeting between President Tai Ying-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, is a separatist territory effectively owned by Beijing.

This was Kevin McCarthy's Bakersfield response to Trump's allegations.
For Republicans here — many of whom have long supported House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and believe the 15 elections he's had to endure for the presidency have strengthened him — the allegations, as Trump said last week, have pushed him out of office. Should be given as a politically motivated witch hunt.

Skelton: California's evolution into big oil – in the state capital and in my own family
Gov. Gavin Newsom's legislation to legalize Big Oil's greed marks a sea change in California politics. Listener George Skelton writes that his own family has seen dramatic changes in public policy and attitudes toward oil

Jerry Brown found a rare species of beetle named after him
Scientists are naming a rare species of insect after former California governor Jerry Brown found it on his farm. Bembidion brownorum was last seen in 1966, but was not named or described until it was collected near a creek on Brown's farm in Colusa County .

Commentary: Jerry Brown's Beatle legacy
At his insistence, nothing mentions the name of California's top governor. Until now. In Brown's honor , Bembidion brunorum is the beetle's correct name, writes Brown biographer Miriam Powell .

California lawmakers are introducing an "Ebony Alert" law to encourage reporting of missing black children and young women.
The senator spoke out, citing the overrepresentation and under-reporting of missing black children and young women in California. Steven Bradford has introduced legislation to introduce an "Ebony Alert" system that alerts people when they go missing – similar to the Amber Alert.

A new law offers hope to victims of violent crime in domestic violence cases
Rep. Legislation by Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) would allow victims of human trafficking or domestic violence to present evidence of their alleged abuse as an affirmative defense in criminal trials. The law allows survivors to use evidence of abuse to request that their cases be dismissed after they have been convicted of a violent crime.

'Heartbreaking day for Los Angeles': Community leaders speak out over Ridley-Thomas sentencing
The sentencing of Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas on federal bribery charges has sparked widespread backlash, with some calling the sentence unfair and others expressing disappointment at the outcome.

Column: Why Mark Ridley-Thomas' sentence doesn't seem like justice for black L.A
Times columnist Erica D. স্মিথ লিখেছেন, কালো অ্যাঞ্জেলেনোসকে তহবিল, প্রোগ্রাম এবং পরিকাঠামো প্রদানে সফল হয়েছে এমন কাউকে স্থায়ীভাবে বাদ দেওয়া গুরুতর অবিচারের দরজা খুলে দেয়।

ভাষ্য: মার্ক রিডলি-থমাসের দ্বারা ব্ল্যাক অ্যাঞ্জেলেনোস কেন পাগল হওয়া উচিত।
এটা দুর্ভাগ্যজনক যে রিডলি-থমাসকে ঘুষের জন্য দোষী সাব্যস্ত করা হয়েছিল বর্ণবাদের কারণে নয়, বরং তিনি একটি পছন্দ করেছিলেন বলে। তিনি তার ছেলের চাকরির নিরাপত্তা রক্ষা করতে এবং তার ছেলের অলাভজনক প্রতিষ্ঠানে $100,000 দান করার জন্য আমাদের পুরো সংস্থাকে ঝুঁকিতে ফেলেছেন। আমরা কম দামে বিক্রি করেছি। টাইমসের মতামত লেখক এরিন অব্রে কাপলান বলেছেন, এটি আমাদের ক্ষুব্ধ করে।

কলাম: রিচার্ড অ্যালারকন তার রাজনৈতিক উত্তরাধিকার নিয়ে ঠিক আছে – কিন্তু সর্বশেষ LA কেলেঙ্কারি তাকে ক্ষুব্ধ করেছে।
প্রাক্তন এলএ বৈদ্যুতিক ঠিকাদার চ্যাটসওয়ার্থের একটি অ্যাপার্টমেন্টে থাকেন এবং একজন রিয়েল এস্টেট এজেন্ট, পরামর্শদাতা এবং ভ্যান ড্রাইভার হিসাবে কাজ করেন, বাচ্চাদের ডাক্তারের অ্যাপয়েন্টমেন্টে নিয়ে যান। 1993 সালে লস এঞ্জেলেস সিটি কাউন্সিলে সান ফার্নান্দো উপত্যকার প্রতিনিধিত্বকারী প্রথম ল্যাটিনো হিসাবে একটি নতুন মেয়াদ শুরু করা থেকে দূরে, তিনি 1998 সালে এই অঞ্চলের প্রথম ল্যাটিনো রাজ্য সিনেটর হিসাবে দায়িত্ব পালন করেছিলেন ।

সম্পাদকীয়: নথিভুক্ত কর্মীদের ছাঁটাই করা হলে বেকারত্বের সুবিধা দাবি করতে সক্ষম হওয়া উচিত
টাইমস সম্পাদকীয় বোর্ড সিনেটরকে অনুমোদন করে। মারিয়া এলেনা ডুরাজোর বিলটি এমন একটি আইন যা নথিভুক্ত কর্মীদের বেকারত্বের সুবিধা প্রদানের জন্য একটি তহবিল তৈরি করবে যারা মার্কিন নাগরিক বা অন্যথায় দেশে কাজ করার জন্য অনুমোদিত শ্রমিকদের মতো একই মানদণ্ড পূরণ করে।

সান দিয়েগো করোনাভাইরাস বিকেলের আপডেট, এপ্রিল 13

Donald Trump may get all the headlines, but partisan battles in state capitols across the country may change America more than the drama surrounding the first former president to be indicted for crimes.

A clash between Democrats and Republicans over issues like abortion and guns could also shape election laws and future electoral maps, signaling important debates ahead of the 2024 presidential campaign and showing how small shifts in political identity and the balance of power can sometimes have big consequences.

A liberal judge from Wisconsin, one of the most competitive states in recent presidential elections, won a race for a state Supreme Court seat on Tuesday in a victory that could restore abortion rights in the state and reshape the Republican Party. own map. designed for your benefit. The magnitude of his victory, about 200 thousand votes, will sound some alarms for the Republican Party.

Republicans in North Carolina have been celebrating after a nearly 20-point majority in the Democratic state a few months ago flipped to the GOP this week, giving the party veto power in both chambers of the state legislature. they ask new abortion restrictions and tougher election laws;

The American heavy artillery division led to major battles in Tennessee. After last week's mass shooting in Nashville, Republican state lawmakers want to remove three Democrats who joined anti-gun protests.

Meanwhile, national Democrats have targeted Chicago, where Bernie Sanders-backed Brandon Johnson won Tuesday's mayoral election. He won over moderates with his tough-on-crime message, which took on more nuance than his previous support for calls to "abolish the police." (Johnson said on the campaign trail that he did not want to defund the police.)

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has said before his potential run for the White House that his state is a laboratory for a more conservative America, signed a law earlier this week allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The state Senate also passed a very strict 6-week abortion ban on Monday.

This remarkable series of infighting is not always visible in Washington, where lawmakers are bracing for the debt ceiling crisis and debating whether to provide aid to Ukraine.

But political conflicts that begin in the states can then escalate at the national level and determine future electoral clashes. For example, it's clear that gender and transgender issues will dominate in 2024, as Republicans criticize Democrats for what they describe as "insensitive" policies.

The intensity of exchanges around topics such as abortion, sex and guns raises another possibility. Despite Trump's appeal to all Republican voters, he has run a campaign fueled almost entirely by worsening legal problems and anger at being politically manipulated into removing him from the White House. The ongoing battles in the state show that many voters have something else in mind.

A result that will surprise the entire political world.

In 2010, when Republican Scott Walker was elected governor for the first time, Wisconsin experienced a conservative surge, followed by a liberal backlash. It was crucial to the victories of Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, and it remains a political razor's edge. a new era of presidential elections.

In the state's latest political coup, liberal Judge Janet Protasiewicz easily defeated conservative Daniel Kelly in a nonpartisan election where the parties remained clear favorites. The race attracted significant out-of-state spending, making it the most expensive state judicial race in history, with Protasiewicz's margin of victory nearly 10 times that of Trump and Biden's respective seats by nearly 20,000 votes.

Every election is unique, but the Wisconsin judge's win underscored the power of abortion as a mobilizing issue and could raise concerns among Republican strategists that the issue could hurt his 2024 re-election bid. Battlegrounds Midwest on Wednesday. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a law that repealed the state's 1931 abortion ban, which was made possible after voters removed Democratic control of both houses of the legislature last fall.

Now the liberal majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade: A victory for Protasevic would be a glimmer of hope for Democrats disheartened by the loss of federal abortion rights last year.

Sean Eldridge, the founder and president of the progressive advocacy group, said Protasevich would act as a catalyst for conservative efforts to "take away reproductive liberties, disenfranchise voters through impeachment deals, and undo the consequences." they don't make choices. how". His victory helped lay the foundation for our democracy and freedom of choice until 2024.

But the lesson of Wisconsin's tumultuous political decade is that local Republicans, some of whom are slaves to Trumpism, are likely to put up a serious fight. In fact, the GOP also won an open Senate seat in Tuesday's election, giving it a huge advantage in impeaching top officials, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. In an interview with WISN in Wisconsin last month, Republican Dan Knodle, who won Tuesday, said he would consider impeaching Protasevich. At the time, he was serving as a circuit court judge in Milwaukee. It is unclear whether the legislature will be able to remove him from the Supreme Court.

An angry twist on the gun debate

In another stark example of political polarization, Tennessee's GOP-led legislature wants to remove three fellow Democrats who led violent protests at the state capitol after the mass shooting of three nine-year-olds and three adults at a Tennessee Christian church. .. School. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Cameron Sexton, considered the protest unacceptable indecency, and the deputy was removed from his position in the committee. The Republican president said the protest was "at least equal, if not worse" than the January 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the United States Capitol.

Member of the Democratic Party, representative. Justin Pearson explained on CNN that he supports gun reform advocates protesting in public galleries because he believes voices are not being heard when it comes to taking action against red flag laws and other gun safety measures. Polls show that most Americans support stricter gun restrictions, but support varies depending on the measure in question.

Pearson told CNN's Jake Tepper that the three knew they were breaking house etiquette. "But we didn't know and we didn't think we'd be banned from exercising our First Amendment rights and encouraging protesters, children, adults and grieving parents to do the same in the House of Representatives."

Drama in the Nashville state legislature this week in the North Carolina Republic. "The modern Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me," said state Democrat Tricia Cottam of the Republican Party. Cotham plays on the Republican arrogance that the other side has gone so far on cultural and economic issues that it has alienated mainstream America, even as the Republican Party has gone to extremes. Cotham's move has major implications for Democrats because it gives the GOP enough votes in each chamber to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto.

Democrats accuse Cotham of betraying his constituents, and Cooper warns that his actions will have dire consequences. "Fame. "Cotham's vote for women's reproductive freedom, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and strong public schools will determine the direction of the country we love," Cooper said in a statement to CNN.

Meanwhile, the blowback for Democrats continues in Florida, where DeSantis' re-election victory last November and Republican control of the state legislature have widened the all-conservative lead. In an effort to appeal to Republican voters ahead of a possible presidential election, DeSantis further relaxed Florida's already lax gun laws this week. After signing a 15-week abortion bill last year, the state Senate recently passed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks or about four weeks of pregnancy.

His hard-line abortion policy allowed DeSantis to reinforce his message that he would be a more effective conservative leader than Trump. But it's also a position that would give a Democrat the chance to become the Republican nominee.

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[CLASSIFIED] "Few on earth know it"

Isabella Hammad's second novel, Entering the Ghost, opens, as the title suggests, with an essay. London-based Palestinian actress Sonia Nasser got through security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport more easily than she expected with a quick strip search.

© Grove

He travels to Haifa for the first time since childhood, heartbroken and wanting to confide in his older sister. However, due to the strained relationship between the siblings, Sonia lives in the apartment almost immediately, unsure if she will be welcome inside and brooding over the discovery that their uncle has sold his family home to an Israeli buyer and moved out. . When Mary's close friend turns up and reveals that he needs Queen Gertrude to produce Hamlet on the West Coast, Sonia gets involved. As he begins to confront his complicated guilt over his political life in England, a production of Hamlet thrusts him into the epicenter of political tension in the region, culminating in a production of Bethlehem.

Hamlet plays a central role in the novel in several ways. The title "The Entry of the Ghosts" is from William Shakespeare's play, when the ghost of King Hamlet orders his son to seek justice for their corrupt kingdom. The novel's plot is filled with such conflicts—between lovers, family members, and Israelis "in" and "outside" the West Bank—and presents a ghostly third mode that Hammad describes through the central motif of intersections between the two worlds. Sonia brings her transitional role to life with the keen sense of nuance of a seasoned storyteller and actor. Her body is often the subject of detailed descriptions of intimacy and freedom—her struggles with lovers, pregnancy, and misogyny intertwine with the struggles spread throughout the novel.

Hammad is a rigorous scholar, and in The Ghost's Entry he provides a compelling and straightforward account of the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The story takes place in 2017 amid tensions in the wake of the real-life shooting and killing of two Israeli policemen on what Muslims call the Holy of Holies and Jews call the Temple Mount, and the resulting civil unrest that relentlessly surrounds the novel's plot. . But don't keep it. than her. When the actors try to rehearse Shakespeare in classical Arabic on their lavish outdoor stage near the separation wall in Bethlehem, the Israeli government cowers, restricts funding and allows its army to interfere with the project.

The "Parisian" Isabella Hammad takes us to the brink of unrest in the Ottoman Empire.

Fiction has an uneasy relationship with politics, and American writers in particular tend to shy away from the Palestinian issue, an issue the text describes as "largely tone-deaf and group preaching." It's a hurdle that Hammad overcame in his 2019 debut in Le Parisien (on the British mandate in Palestine), which makes him a writer with an odd mix of skills. He can simultaneously trace vast social and historical fields without losing his sense of detail, which gives a surgical precision to his writings on man. His style is often described as "polished". These skills connected him with postcolonial writers such as Ahdaf Soueif and Abraham Varghese. Like In the Eye of the Sun and Cut to Stone, Le Parisien is nearly 600 pages long. But thanks to Hammadi's adaptation of the Western drama, something different and smarter is happening with The Phantom.

© Elizabeth Van Loon Author Isabella Hammad is a rigorous researcher.

The structure of the plot is built around the main activities of a theater production: acting, rehearsals and acting, as well as parallel drama between the actors. From this relatively simple setting, similarities between Hamlet and the novel emerge through themes such as betrayal, the drama within a drama, the divided family, and turmoil in the kingdom. However, you don't have to be a Shakespeare fan to enjoy this re-imagined classic – Miriam and her team candidly discuss the play's resilience in its West Coast setting. The novel is aware of its fourth wall but doesn't feel shy, and the written format is sometimes unpredictable and exciting. It also manages to rise beyond concrete ekphrasis to a broader reflection of the exchange between the artwork and its context. As tens of thousands of Muslims, including the atheist Sonia, gather to protest security measures at the Haram al-Sharif, praying in the streets, Sonia believes: “We should have protested the show, but we didn't need to play the protest. .

The central theatrical ideas of catharsis, audience, comedy, and tragedy (expressed as absurdity) explain what it means for Sonya to be truly involved in something that seems bigger than herself. In a brief but memorably funny scene, the novel tries to get to the bottom of what Israel represents to its soldiers when Sonya encounters a British Israeli teenager manning a checkpoint. His English temperament took him from an IDF soldier "protecting his people" to a teenager defending himself against Manchester charges. Mixed identities are everywhere, as are everyday presentations, and add a new dimension that defies easy categorization.

Although Enter Ghost sometimes seems preoccupied with its own morality, such as its focus on the Palestinians, when other conflicts like Yemen are vying for international attention, it thrives on such a rare fantasy project that it holds the attention of some viewers. Or, in Hamlet's words, "a play by which I know the king's conscience."

Sarah Cypher is a freelance editor and author of Skin and Her Girl , which comes out this month

Enter the ghost

Isabelle Hamad

Al Bustan Press. 336 p. 28 dollars

Learn more about the world of books

News & Announcements | | Talk show Banglavision 15_December_2019

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2021 tax return will focus heavily on what they do behind the Archwell Foundation. The sources of her investments are being investigated, and now her lavish payments to PR manager Michelle Obama have everyone wondering if the Duchess of Sussex is involved in US politics.

She received $109,870 from Cathy McCormick's Llyveld advertising firm in 2021, according to tax records obtained by The Sun. She served as the former First Lady from 2007 to 2011 and is therefore well known in political circles. Obama isn't his only Democratic client: Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have used his services. Their list of awards does not include politics, but mentions "strategic public relations support with social impact."

More at SheKnows

Meghan has said she is considering running later in her career. He plunged into social issues for full political gain — from a visit to Uvalde, Texas, to calls for Congress to pass a federal law on paid parental leave. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what she wants to do – and the Duchess of Sussex has not shied away from discussing some of these issues publicly.

Last year she did interviews with Vogue and Gloria Steinem about Roe v. Wade is designed for women. Meghan said she felt "excited and motivated" to push equality reform through Congress, "because that's (not only) what we want as women, but what we want as people." It may not have been his campaign statement, but it was definitely the start of a great political speech.

Click here to read the full article.

Before you go, click here to see highlights of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry since they left the royal family.

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Presentation gallery: 11 times Meghan Markle reminds us of Princess Diana

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Did Prince Harry lie about his visa? The Heritage Foundation questioned whether Harry lied about his drug use on his visa

Elvin Bragg may bring Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024 (“Trump's Pandora Chases,” Review and Outlook, March 31). Mr. Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, did the world no favors by giving President Trump another forum to speak out and strengthen his base. The lawsuit will be very expensive, and Mr. Trump would be happy to reveal the obvious political motivation of the lawsuit.

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In Manhattan, Trump became the first former president to be indicted by the Special Crime Report.

On the last day of February, Lori Lightfoot became the first female mayor of Chicago in 34 years to lose an election. The polarizing Democrat was one of the few big-city leaders in America to govern during the pandemic and once again clashed with voters by finishing third and failing to advance. His defeat, sharply rejected by the voters who gave him a huge lead four years ago, served as a warning to mayors around the world: your position will not save you.

Two opposing candidates are vying to replace him in the April 4 runoff: Paul Wallace, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, and Brandon Johnson, Commissioner of Cook County and former public school teacher. The rivalry, of course, could be racial—Johnson was black and Wallace was white—but the biggest difference between the two men, both Democrats, was ideology. Just as the party has undergone major changes nationally, moving leftward from the Clinton consensus of the 1990s when strong moderates struggled to resist progressive dominance, Chicago is now the scene of a fierce battle of the center-left – or even the middle ground. . – Right, depending on your point of view.

Wallas, 69, who has run three school systems besides Chicago, emerged as the clear, if undefeated, favourite. In the first ballot, Wallace received 33% to Johnson's 22%, an excellent result for a man who had finished ninth in a race against Lightfoot four years earlier. He slowly built a powerful coalition that transcended his white base of moderate liberal law reformers, disillusioned and crime-weary black voters who wanted to run as the candidate backed by the president of the right-wing local police union Permeet.

The Obama world, which still influences Chicago politics and is suspicious of the progressive left, also supports Wallas. Dick Durbin, a senior Illinois senator and close associate of the former president, supported Wallace over the weekend and received a sharp rebuke from the Chicago chapter of the Indivisible. Arne Duncan, the Obama administration's education secretary who served in Chicago schools under Wallace, wrote an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune in support of Wallace's mayoral office and drew support from David Axelrod on Twitter. The business elite also supported Wallas, who criticized Johnson for wanting to raise taxes to fill the city's coffers. Billionaire Kenneth Griffin, one of the GOP's most prolific donors, is a supporter of Wallace, and a coalition of business leaders, including the Chicago Board of Trade, recently released a joint statement denouncing Johnson's "tax cut plans."

Johnson, 47, is the candidate for Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Jesse Jackson, and is a member of the local Working Families Party. (At least one influential negotiator from the institutional wing of the Democratic Party, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, also endorsed Johnson.) The Chicago Teachers' Union, arguably the most powerful union in the city, invested heavily in Johnson and donated more than a dollar. Million. to the campaign. Perhaps more important to the union leadership, they scolded Wallas. "The fact that he even claims to run this city is a disgusting display of privilege that can be a disincentive for someone like him," said teachers union president Stacey Davis Gates. “He did not provide proof of his competence. He showed no signs of a unifying force." If County Commissioner Cook found a way to beat Wallace, he would become one of the brightest stars on the Democratic Left, an outspoken progressive in charge of a leading city in America.

On a recent forum, the two men made fun of each other in a very personal way, but the animosity is rooted in ideology. Every Democrat has very different ideas about how America's third-largest city, struggling with a post-pandemic future, should be governed over the next four years. “You build an economy on sand, and once the economy crashes, you run away,” Johnson told Wallace of his experiences as a director in four cities. "The number of killings committed by school-aged students has skyrocketed," Wallas said, recalling the pandemic school closures that Johnson supported. "You must answer yourself.

So far, the race has been tilted slightly towards Wallace, who has waged a disciplined campaign to portray Johnson as too anti-police and business-minded to run Chicago, a city still struggling to fully recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. “Ultimately he supports defunding the police,” Wallas told me. “Him and the union leadership, the impact on schools has been disastrous. I think that would be bad not only for public safety, but also for public education."

Johnson replied that the former principal would ruin education. “The point here is that the conditions we live in, created and managed by my opponent's financial system, are rearing its ugly head once again to destroy the hopes and dreams of workers and middle managers. Class families and those living in poverty,” he told me. “Fully funded ward schools are ready to take over; he is a privatizer. Affordable housing is at stake; He was part of a government that closed public housing."

Johnson should, in theory at least, be able to make a big difference in Chicago's working-class black community, but Wallas was not without support there. Bobby Rush, a recently retired veteran congressman, announced his support for Wallace, as did Willie Wilson, a long-rumoured businessman and wealthy candidate. In the first ballot, southern and western counties favored Lightfoot, the city's first black woman mayor, and both campaigns vied block by block not only for the black Democrat vote, but for the Hispanic vote of progressive Jesus. "Chui" Garcia in the first round of voting. "I stand with Paul because if you look at what Brandon stood for, Brandon's policies are going to basically destroy this town," said Anthony Beal, a black councilor from far Southside. “Brandon was never in charge of anything; he never led anything.

In 2020, as widespread protests over the police killing of George Floyd rocked Chicago and across America, Johnson introduced a non-binding resolution calling for Cook County to "shift funds from police and detention to third-party public services." redirect law enforcement. . Since then, Johnson has, rhetorically at least, abandoned the Protect the Police movement, which remains popular on the left but has found little popularity elsewhere. Johnson, who has continued to push for more mental health services, jobs and a stronger social safety net to fight violent crime, also said he wants to hire more police detectives and stop slashing the Chicago Police Department's nearly depleted budget. 2 billion dollars.

“If you want to make Chicago better, stronger and safer, you have to invest and spend money. There are no shortcuts to public safety,” Johnson told me. “I understand how some people try to describe me. I understand. When you grow up in America, you really understand a lot more than people think."

As the pandemic, for all its horrors, subsides, bitterness remains in Chicago over the closing of public schools. Unlike New York City, which partially reopened public schools in the fall of 2020, Chicago is not reopening in-person classes until the end of April 2021, a shutdown that lasted more than a year. Union members, as well as many students and parents, feared for their lives, and the hybrid approach adopted by New York City that school year was condemned by teachers and parents alike. But Chicago's long-standing school closures — and the power CTU wielded in negotiations with the city — have been major discussion topics for Wallas, who criticized Johnson for supporting a year without gym classes in the city.

"He was responsible for shutting down the school system for 15 straight months and shutting down systems long after other school districts across the country and state reopened," Wallas said. He argued that school closures had caused "a historic brain drain on students and a dramatic decline in academic achievement." Wallas claims that this has contributed to what he says is a "record increase in homicides and other violent crimes, such as car thefts, being committed by young people outside of school."

In a lull with some Democrats across the country, Johnson has staunchly defended the extended shutdown. “If there is a pandemic 100 years from now, we need to think about how to keep people alive. Most of the people who died during the pandemic were black and brown and saving lives is very important.”

Education, of course, is at the forefront of mayoral elections, with the leader earning his reputation through his tenure as head of a large and complex system of public schools. Wallas has been a longtime proponent of publicly funded private charter schools. "Both President Clinton and President Obama were strong advocates of charter schools," Wallas said. "Why don't we let existing charter schools, which serve 56,000 children in Chicago, 96 percent of whom are black and Hispanic, use vacant buildings that the city has closed down and teachers' unions are barred from occupying charter schools?" Think about it for a moment."

By the 2020s, the charter had lost some of its luster due to falling out of favor with Democrats, who saw it as a covert attempt to destroy unions, and ignored by Trump's Republican Party, which was intrigued by then-education reforms. In New Orleans, where Wallas was tasked with rebuilding the school system after Hurricane Katrina, he quickly closed neighborhood schools and opened start-ups, earning praise and scrutiny. According to the Times-Picayune, "a lack of transparency, a lack of concern for the most disadvantaged students" was criticized. In Philadelphia, Wallas was hired after the state took over the public school system. He made big changes, but left a deficit and a lot of noise. When speaking of Chicago, his supporters, including former labor leaders and veterans of the Obama administration, describe him as a gifted leader with the ability to revive ailing schools. He improved test scores and opened nearly 80 new schools. In the 1990s, he became the first CEO of Chicago Public Schools to receive Bill Clinton's endorsement.

However, there were plenty of detractors in Chicago. Wallas decided to relinquish pension payments to the teacher pension scheme, which had become an enemy of unions and fueled Johnson's campaign. Wallas has been criticized for poor financial management, poor academic growth, and harsh penalties for underperforming schools. For critics of Wallas, then-mayor Rahm Emanuel's divisive attempts to close schools in the neighborhood were rooted in his tenure as principal.

Wallas is better known than Johnson for his high school leadership and previous presidential elections, but neither candidate particularly impressed. Arguments in favor of one inevitably turn to arguments against: Wallas, a predatory neoliberal, against Johnson, an upstart activist politician. As Alderman Beal said, Johnson never did anything right. And when Wallace came to power, controversy inevitably followed. The question remains whether more voters will see Wallas or Johnson as too dangerous for Chicago.

Magic in Romania

One in four high school students dropped out of college because of political, policy, or legal conditions in the states where the colleges are located. That's one of the key findings of a new study by higher education consulting firm Art & Science Group.

The February survey was based on responses from 1,865 high school seniors, of whom 778 said they planned to attend college. The sample was 62% female, 62% white, and came from households with a median annual income of $93,000.

This is true for students of all political persuasions, depending on the political and social policies of the states in which they shared colleges. Among liberals, 31% disapprove of institutions for this reason, conservatives 28% and moderate politicians 22%. Unsurprisingly, among students with no political views, only 12% said politics and government policy would influence where they would go to university.

A model of policy choices affecting college attendance is independent of most individual characteristics. Respondents' gender, race, income, and region did not produce statistically significant differences.

Two features changed the results:

• A higher proportion of LGBTQ+ students (32%) than straight students reported withdrawing from educational institutions for political reasons.
• Non-first-generation college students are more likely to connect their college choice to public policy (26%) than first-generation students (19%).

The four states where liberal arts students are most likely to be rejected are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. California and New York were the most upset by conservative students.

A third of respondents said they had turned down colleges in their country because of their political or social policies.

The political issues most cited by liberal students when choosing a college were "too Republican," too conservative on abortion laws, too indifferent to racial equality, too conservative, and too soft on LGBTQ laws. . He was circumspect and showed sufficient concern for mental health issues.

When it came to college choices, conservative students chose states that were "more Democratic," more lenient toward LGBTQ laws, with "overwhelming" conservative votes and more liberal laws on abortion and reproductive rights.

These new findings are consistent with previous research showing that the US Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson decision on women's health has influenced college students' decision making.

Last year's BestColleges poll asked respondents about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe. Wade will affect your decision to stay in the state where you currently attend college, or to attend college for an undergraduate/degree program in a particular state.

• 43% of current students answered yes to this question, 45% answered no, and 12% could not answer. Among current graduate students, 42% answered yes, 40% answered no, and 17% could not answer.
• Although less likely than enrolled students, the overturning of Roe v. Wade will influence their decision to attend college in a particular state: 39% of undergraduates and 35% of alumni say so.

The survey results highlight another challenge for colleges as they compete to meet shrinking enrollment numbers. The report concludes: "As political changes permeate campus life, legislators and campus administrators will consider student input. Most importantly, as regional student markets change, universities must pay close attention. Individuality and uniqueness to attract students to their markets despite the problems of the social policy of the state".

Strong woman fights off male attacker alone at gym USA Today # Summary

WWE's brand of sports entertainment has always existed on its own, sometimes downright exotic and other times, like our own brutal opportunity, cropping up. This is a world where one can be in two places at once, especially someone like Vince McMahon. He had the final say in the company for four decades and also played Lynch's bad boss character, "Mr. McMahon," whose on-screen appeal was based on McMahon's real-life reputation as bad boss Lynch. He lied about the wrestler's match. He was embroiled in a small business dispute and accused of abusing power behind the scenes. Faced with allegations of sexual harassment last summer, he tweeted his resignation in July but returned to the presidency in January. But despite all of this, we still know very little about the real Vince: his youth, his personal struggles.

For his new book, Ringmaster. Vince McMahon and The Annihilation of America Abraham Josephine Raisman spent the past three years in the North Carolina area where the young McMahon lived and interviewed his childhood friends (many of whom did not know they were "Vinny." "Lupton"). I also interviewed dozens of people who knew him in WWE and compiled a comprehensive history of how "Mr. McMahon" operated. Entrepreneur Raisman McMahon, WWE Rights Roles, and American Democracy in an Edited Interview. in length and clarity. He spoke to The Times about the role he could play in the Trump-era threat.

You mentioned in the book that you didn't watch WWE until you started doing it about 20 years ago. Is there any news that inspired you to review it?

The origin of this book was a conversation with my wife about what I should do with the second book. "Vince McMahon," one of us said, and that was a really good idea. A lot of it is just instinct, and then figure out why you have that instinct. When I came up with this idea in 2020, Vince wasn't in the news. As soon as I started digging, I realized that no one actually does this. I don't have to dig too hard to find out that Vince has a lot of interesting stories in his life. There is no shortage of controversy.

I've been in touch with a lot of people since Vince's first day. Has anyone called them before?

No. No one has ever asked about Vince, and certainly no one has seen Vince recently. Vince left North Carolina and never looked back. He decided that his childhood was something he wanted to bury, except for this brief period at the end of the millennium when he talked about it. But it turns out that all this has been distorted. It must serve a purpose. He wanted to create the image of Mr. McMahon, which was one of his top priorities at the time. He revealed this alter ego to be a complete ass from day one. But everyone I spoke to who knew Vince from sixth grade through high school said he was a sweet kid. Friendly, excels in school. He said that he was the first member of his military academy to appear before a court-martial. I can't find confirmation of this.

This is a very good dichotomy. his professional wrestling career started in military school. He is very proud of his professional wrestling career and the reason he hides it is because he cares about his professional wrestling career. He wanted people to believe that he fought at a young age and never stopped instead presenting the fight as a "stage fight".

I've studied mainstream WWE coverage for decades. Have you noticed any changes in his corporate presentation?

However, he delivers his communications in different ways at different times. The surprising thing is that the mass media speculated about it. Wrestling's problem is that because the end result is deemed "silly", people assume the process itself must be funny. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The wrestling training process is so brutal and unfair that no one wants to learn this part. There were times when the media turned on WWE, but it didn't last long.

Vince has fed them many different dishes over the years. In the early 1990s, when faced with doping and other scandals, his response was not very helpful. Today was very different with Vince. But in 1995, after he [the Justice Department] lost a federal case over steroids, there was real change because he described WWF as a brave and proud organization that would no longer be criticized. He began to "spear propaganda" in the media, saying that they were "corrupt" and "want to throw us out", and this changed public opinion somewhat.

At the turn of the millennium, WWE popularized the concept of "we don't care, we do something." It was when that conflict occurred, that was when they became even more famous. Vince, as a wrestler, has repeatedly turned his company's moral parity upside down and usually succeeded.

Were you surprised when Vince returned as a hairstylist in January?

I'm not surprised, no. I thought something like that would happen. In my book it's not at all clear that "it's never coming back". In the Vince McMahon era, Vince still had a very long healthy life left; his mother lived to be 101 years old. But he is the highest authority there. I know he'll be back.

The two interviews in your book really struck me, one with 1980s WWF Women's Champion Wendy Richter and the other with WWF Gulf War era villain (and true friend of Saddam Hussein) General Adnan . In the book, their feelings for Vince are much warmer than anyone could imagine. Kayfabe – Is it difficult for you to separate reality from staged wrestling ?

Of course. This is a fight. I do everything. If anything, it's helpful to have a basic knowledge of what everyone is trying to "work" with you in wrestling. I hope that people will take my research version and expand on it. I am a journalist, I give my best and I have good intelligence when I work hard. I try to avoid everything that is not mentioned. It's a unique environment where lies are baked into simple shapes.

It's also surprising to see how many politicians appear in the book. We know about Vince's longtime friendship with Donald Trump, as well as Ron DeSantis and Rick Santorum. It reminds me of the parallels between modern WWE and modern politics. Does the struggle influence modern politics or is it a reflection of it?

This is a good question. I'm not trying to say "wrestling makes politics like that". It was "Vince McMahon didn't build America" ​​but "Vince McMahon didn't build America". His experience with Vince has taught Trump to talk about rallies, and he has alternate reality techniques. But I'm not trying to say the so-called political struggle. What I'm trying to say is that the model Vince used to seize power is the same model used to seize power in politics and business. The point of this book is that you can't understand today's politics if you don't understand kayfabe.

I don't think anyone can argue after reading this book that struggle is not a useful model for understanding what happens to other societies. When you say, "I am a liar and a bad person," today's society doesn't have the means to punish that person. I wish these people would stop, but it's a lot harder than just checking the facts and saying: Unfortunately, this is still a hoax for a lot of people. I think understanding how Vince succeeded is one of the first steps to understanding how those who want to reform this society can address the challenge.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

The feud between the WWE jewel box and Vince McMahon Corporate

© Contributed by The Boston Globe Pastor Defort Floresen of Total Health Christian Ministries in Boston (pictured in December) is an ardent activist for Haitian rights.

Those who remain at home in Haiti are often alone—thinking of them, praying for them, and calling when they can.

For Soraya, her cousin is Jean-Baptiste, a young mother who recently accompanied her husband to the hospital for more than three hours while she gave birth because of the gangs that patrol the streets in her Port-au neighborhood. – Prince.

"No one was allowed to drive. No one could drive. They threatened to kill people and she was walking the whole time," Jean-Baptiste, 32, said of Randolph. "Just hearing that story … it really touched me. I think people have a right to move around their country and not feel like they're in jail."

The conflict in Haiti, which has steadily escalated since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise by mercenaries, continues to resonate with Haitians in Greater Boston, which has long had the third-largest Haitian population. in the country, according to the US Census Bureau. . Many watch week after week as violence escalates and law and order breaks down, helping where they can and calling for more action both locally and nationally.

"You can't get tired if it's a place you're connected to, a place where you still have family," said Ruci Luigon, a Boston City Council member who spent much of her childhood downtown. Matapan is a densely populated Haitian community.

Luijin, whose family is in the heart of the conflict zone in Port-au-Prince, called on the local community to sponsor Haitians who want to settle in the United States. She also called on the Biden administration to end deportations and make it easier for immigrants to obtain work visas.

"It's about taking in as many people as possible who are fleeing conflict … and getting anti-black people out of our immigration system," she said.

Recent weeks have seen a new wave of killings and kidnappings, with at least 208 people killed, 164 injured and 101 kidnapped in the first two weeks of March alone, according to Marta Hurtado, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner of. Human rights. .

A Haitian couple from South Florida made headlines last week when they were pulled over by a bus while visiting relatives in Haiti. A couple is being held for ransom.

Hurtado's statement said another 323 people were killed in the first two months of the year, most of them by snipers shooting at random people in their homes or on the streets.

Schools have been closed in recent weeks and, without classrooms as shelter, many children have been forcibly recruited by the gangs that control much of the capital Port-au-Prince and block major roads.

We've seen these gangs get their hands on the latest weapons, and do you know where these weapons come from? United States, said Rev. Defort Florissen, 61, an outspoken human rights activist from Haiti and pastor of Total Health Christian Ministries in Boston.

Floresen's sister, who lives near the capital, is one of many parents whose children have been out of school since the new wave of violence in 2018. Time, not days, and children who "just stay at home, waiting ” opening classes for fear of being exposed for kidnapping.

"All schools are completely closed [in many areas]," he said. "It was closed two weeks ago because parents and children were kidnapped on the way to school," she added.

Also, by mid-March, at least 160,000 people had been displaced since the conflict began, including about 40,000 living in makeshift settlements with limited access to drinking water, according to the United Nations, leading to an increase in cases of cholera. As conditions worsen, many Haitians dream of fleeing the country but face obstacles when trying to obtain a passport.

"The pastor called me yesterday and said, 'I have three kids here and I don't want them to join gangs. I want to send them to Chile, Mexico, but I can't get a passport for them!”. said Floresen, who also called on the Biden administration to step in and support efforts to restore localization.

If the United States wants to help, it can help. They have the largest embassy in Haiti. They have [USAID] in all the different [geographical] departments of Haiti. "They can make sure our government issues passports to Haitian voters who want to leave this chaos," he added.

Mikalu Simon, a taxi driver and security guard from Somerville who has eight siblings in Haiti, said he sees no way to stop gang violence other than military force, noting that few gang members can return to traditional ways of working after kidnappings. And the blockade. It turned out to be very profitable.

"How are you going to convince them to put down their guns and join $10-an-hour work programs?" 56-year-old Simon asked. "We don't have an effective justice system to bring them to justice."

Others, however, see a greater role for Haitian immigrants in restoring political stability to their country of origin, using their financial power to more actively protect family interests back home.

There is a lot of money that people outside of Haiti bring into Haiti. From decentralizing capital to diversification, said Jean-Baptiste, who considers himself part of a group of millennials who would like to see a political rally in support of new ideas in Haiti, a parliament historically dominated by older men.

She said that if the government tried ideas "different from the solutions we've been hearing about since the 1990s, I think we would see a different Haiti."

Secret Service agents rush to podium to protect Donald Trump at rally | BNK news

Gov. Ron DeSantis has finally spoken out against Donald Trump's harassment after months of trying to suppress criticism of the former president.

It represents a more aggressive repositioning for the Florida governor, who skipped the 2024 contest but remains Trump's front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

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Doubt spread on Capitol Hill as the Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates to fight inflation amid the collapse of Silicon Valley banks.

The country continues to raise questions after the SVB suffered a $1.8 billion loss and a bipartisan campaign began against the Fed for not seeing the problem.

TikTok continues to be the subject of controversy as its CEO lashed out at lawmakers this week. But the foreign-owned app is frowned upon by supporters who see it as a free speech issue and oppose a potential ban.

President Joe Biden has faced Republicans in Congress with arguably his most powerful weapon: the veto pen.

The Supreme Court has captured national attention, but this time it untied a legal knot for Americans with disabilities with a unanimous decision.

What happened in politics this week?

• The Federal Reserve continued its relentless efforts to contain inflation, including the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis is no longer ignoring former President Donald Trump's attacks
• A joint White House and congressional review of the Chinese app TikTok has drawn opposition from one of the country's most staunchly liberal legislatures.
• President Biden vetoed it the first time and plunged into one of the GOP's most massive culture wars.
• The Supreme Court has warned after the judges unanimously sided with the deaf students

Fed raises interest rates after SVB bankruptcy

Many wondered if the Fed would back down from the collapse of Silicon Valley banks by raising interest rates.

But the agency ended up raising it by a quarter of a percentage point, pushing the federal funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%.

© Jacqueline Martin, AP Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, at the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DC.

The president of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said in a press conference that they must show how serious they are about inflation, which last June reached a 40-year high of 9.1%.

Economy: Federal Reserve raises interest rates 0.25 basis points to curb inflation, despite bank jitters

"It's important to keep that confidence in our actions and our words," he said.

But Powell is not without favor with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, who, along with Sen. Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, introduced bipartisan legislation to create a new position to oversee the Federal Reserve.

"The Fed made a mistake by not stopping aggressive rate hikes under Chairman Powell," Warren said this week.

"I have been warning for months that the Fed's current policy threatens to put millions of Americans out of work," he added. "We have many tools to fight inflation without destroying the economy."

DeSantis finally responded to Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has brushed off criticism of former President Donald Trump for months, but brightened it up with an interview with British media personality Piers Morgan.

Trump regularly uses his social media platform to bash the Florida governor, considered his biggest challenger in 2024, with names like "Ron de Sanctumonios" and "Ron with Meatballs."

© Phil Sears, AP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media after addressing the State of Florida Cabinet during a session of the Senate and House of Representatives, Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida.

But as long as people call DeSantis a "winner," it doesn't matter.

Politics: DeSanti's stance on Ukraine differs from that of the Republican presidential nominee

Read more: Despite calls for Trump to protest, little effort has been shown as supporters fear it's a 'trap'.

"I'm not interested in arguing with people on social media," he said. "It does nothing for the people I represent."

Bowman: Follow me on Tik Tok

TikTok CEO Show Zi Chook's speech to Congress was one of the highlights on Capitol Hill this week.

Both parties are trying to limit or block the popular social media app on national security grounds, but diametrically opposed lawmakers have opposed the plans.

Rep. Jamal Bowman, an avid TikTok user and outspoken congressional leader, introduced the ban on the grounds that it went against the country's values ​​of free speech.

The New York Democrat told USA TODAY that the app is "a place where people can express themselves however they want."

Technology: Will TikTok be banned? The CEO faces an "uphill battle" to protect China's holdings on Capitol Hill.

Read more: TikTok CEO gets fired on Capitol Hill

"The ban is an attack on those who prefer freedom of expression on this platform," he said.

Similarly, Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, opposes the ban on TikTok, saying it is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.

"TikTok is currently banned in China," said Libertarian Senator Paul. "We will act like the Chinese government if we ban TikTok here."

Biden's first veto was related to environmental, social and institutional governance.

President Joe Biden used his veto on the new pension plan rule for the first time this week.

Congress voted to block Labor Department policies that would allow these plans to balance environmental, social and governance structures, or ESG in short, when making investments.

© USA TODAY President Biden defies GOP with first veto of Climate Retirement Investment Act.

For months, Republicans have criticized the "wake-up" clause as caring more about an ideological program than retirees' pockets.

Money: Republican Party vs. ESG. Why Republicans Fight ESG Investments

The measure passed the Democratic-led Senate in 2024 thanks to Senators John Tester, Democrat Mont and Joe Manchin, Deutsche Welle.

By the way, Trump has vetoed 10 bills during his tenure, and former President Barack Obama vetoed 12 bills.

House Republicans tried to override Biden's veto in Thursday's vote, but fell short of the required two-thirds majority.

Supreme Court accepts deaf student

The Supreme Court makes headlines with its controversial cases, but the 9-0 decision captured America's attention this week.

Such is the case of Miguel Perez, who is deaf and is suing his school in Michigan for damages for the mistakes made in his upbringing. For example, he claimed that the teaching assistants assigned to him did not know sign language.

© by the Luna Perez family. Miguel Luna Perez, who is deaf and pictured here in 2016, filed a lawsuit in the US Supreme Court that would have allowed him to be suspended from school in Sturgis, Michigan to seek damages for failing to provide adequate guidance.

Others: Discussion of special education. Supreme Court unanimously elevates students with disabilities

The key question was whether a person could seek compensation under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they sought assistance under the IDEA.

All nine justices agreed that Perez was not required to exhaust the due process requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) before bringing damages under the ADA.

Legal experts tell USA TODAY that untangling this knotty federal law could give parents of children with disabilities more power to negotiate their education.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: This Week in Politics: DeSantis Opposes Trump; Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates; TikTok stands out for its freedom of expression

Friday Live: Trump vs. DeSantis vs. Tiktok Ban? Juggin', French National Strike etc. (Superchat)