WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday gave a 94-year-old Minneapolis woman a new chance to recoup some money after the county kept the entire $40,000 when it sold her condominium over a small unpaid tax bill.

The justices ruled that Hennepin County, Minnesota violated the constitutional rights of the woman, Geraldine Tyler, by taking her property without paying “just compensation.”

“The County had the power to sell Tyler’s home to recover the unpaid property taxes. But it could not use the toehold of the tax debt to confiscate more property than was due,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

Tyler, who now lives in an apartment building for older people, owed $2,300 in unpaid taxes, plus interest and penalties totalling $15,000, when the county took title to the one-bedroom apartment in 2015. The county said she did nothing to hold onto her one-time residence. The apartment sold the next year.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton teetered on the brink of impeachment Thursday after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations that the state’s Republican majority had largely met with silence until now.

In an unanimous decision, a Republican-led House investigative committee that spent months quietly looking into Paxton recommended impeaching the state’s top lawyer. The state House of Representatives could vote on the recommendation as soon as Friday. If the House impeaches Paxton, he would be forced to leave office immediately.

The move sets set up a remarkably sudden downfall for one of the GOP’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. Only two officials in Texas’ nearly 200-year history have been impeached.

Paxton has been under FBI investigation for years over accusations that he used his office to help a donor and was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, but has yet to stand trial.

Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 new species living on the seabed in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean that has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining, according to a review of the environmental surveys done in the area.

It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and Mexico in the Pacific, has been comprehensively documented. The research will be critical to assessing the risk of extinction of the species, given contracts for deep-sea mining in the near-pristine area appear imminent.

Most of the animals identified by researchers exploring the zone are new to science, and almost all are unique to the region: only six, including a carnivorous sponge and a sea cucumber, have been seen elsewhere.

Contracts for mining exploration in the CCZ have been granted to 17 deep-sea mining contractors in an area covering 745,000 sq miles. The companies, backed by countries including the UK, US and China, want to exploit minerals including cobalt, manganese and nickel, in part to sell to the alternative energy sector.

Wednesday evening’s overthought and underprepared glitch festival on Twitter Spaces was at least a fitting coda to the preceding months. If Ron DeSantis does not win his party’s presidential nomination, his pre-announcement campaign will be remembered for making a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. Beginning with many advantages, the Florida governor spent months diminishing himself by positioning himself as the New Coke of Republican politics. This has been, to say no more, a puzzling strategy.

For those unfamiliar with the most remarkable pratfall in the history of American marketing (DeSantis was 6 years old when it occurred): In April 1985, some Coca-Cola executives who had too much time on their hands decided to fix the world’s most popular soft drink. The company changed the beverage’s famously secret formula. Customers, unamused, wondered why, vociferously. After just 79 days, the original was restored to its throne, rebranded as Coca-Cola Classic. New Coke lingered until euthanized in 2002.

Speaking not for attribution, a Republican who might join the nomination scramble has compared DeSantis to New Coke, with Donald Trump as the original. In 1985, people who liked Coke as it was had no interest in a substitute, and people who did not like the original did not crave a tweaked imitation.

DeSantis has been marketing himself as Trump with the jagged edges filed off. But Trumpkins love their hero because of his jaggedness. And people repelled by Trump are uninterested in a smoother version of him. Besides, DeSantis is sometimes only slightly smoother.

One party’s trash is another party’s treasure.

In the latest chapter of what seems to be a long-running series about Roll Call getting ahold of things people shouldn’t leave behind, a binder from a conference an outside group held for top GOP Senate staffers at a West Virginia resort had some cautionary signs about the 2024 climate.

The generic ballot has shifted toward Democrats, with Republicans losing ground among independents on the abortion issue, according to a new polling memo from a GOP firm that fell into Democratic hands.

“There has been a 6 point swing in the last year on the Generic Senate ballot from R+3 to D+3. This movement is [led] overwhelmingly by Independent and NEW voters that identify abortion as one of their top issues,” according to a “National Issue Study” by co/efficient, which was in the news recently as one of the pollsters for Kentucky Republican gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron.

CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash will moderate a live CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall with former Vice President Mike Pence at 9pmET on Wednesday, June 7th from Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Pence, who served as vice president from 2017-2021, will take questions from Bash and a live audience which is comprised of Iowa Republicans and Iowa voters, who say they will pre-register to participate in the Republican caucuses by the deadline set by the Republican Party of Iowa; and pledge to appear in person at the caucuses.

This Town Hall will be the third in CNN’s robust slate of Republican Presidential Town Halls produced as part of the network’s expansive coverage of the 2024 election.

https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2023/05/25/cnn-to-host-republican-presidential-town-hall-with-former-vice-president-mike-pence/

Not only has Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin told confidants he’s reconsidering a 2024 presidential bid, he also has been privately meeting with prospective donors — telling them he is open to entering the race if he “sees a path,” sources told On The Money.

One source revealed the Republican governor recently met about a possible run with deep-pocketed donors at The Related Companies — the real estate giant that owns Hudson Yards in New York City, and whose billionaire chairman Stephen Ross is a longtime GOP donor.

The Related meeting was “indicative of the private-sector meetings and contributions he could get,” the source said, adding, “Part of keeping his optionality is figuring out if he can line up the funding.”

Related did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/25/glenn-youngkin-talking-to-prospective-donors-about-possible-2024-run-sources/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nypost_sitebuttons

House lawmakers failed to garner enough support Wednesday to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a measure that would have rescinded his two-year moratorium on tariffs for imports of solar equipment from four Southeast Asian countries.

The House voted 214-205 on Wednesday, falling short of the two-thirds majority required to override Biden’s veto of the resolution, H.J. Res. 39 (118). Eight Democrats voted in favor of the veto override and eight Republicans voted against.


“Now is not the time to undermine our efforts in producing a robust supply chain in solar,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Ways and Means trade subcommittee, in floor remarks Wednesday.

Blumenauer had urged his colleagues to reject the push to override the veto, arguing Biden’s two-year pause gives the U.S. solar industry time to “reorient and to catch up.”