Calista241
Calista241's JournalFederal judge upholds Georgia redistricting for 2022 elections
Source: AJC
A federal judge has ruled that Georgia’s redrawn political maps can remain in place for this year’s elections, deciding that it’s too close to the state’s May 24 primary election to make court-ordered redistricting changes.
The decision allows this year’s elections to proceed with new congressional districts designed for Republicans to gain a north metro Atlanta seat.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones’ ruling late Monday denied an effort by plaintiffs who argued that Georgia’s redistricting discriminated against Black voters by weakening their ability to elect candidates who represent them.
“The court finds that the public interest of the state of Georgia would be significantly undermined by altering the election calendar and unwinding the electoral process at this point,” Jones wrote in a 238-page order. “Elections are complex and election calendars are finely calibrated processes, and significant upheaval and voter confusion can result if changes are made late in the process.”
Read more: https://www.ajc.com/politics/federal-judge-upholds-georgia-redistricting-for-2022-elections/I636NTBGMBEOHCI54A6RBXSTNU/
My rep, Lucy McBath, is the one that's going to lose out in this redistricting process.
Youngkin to request emergency funding for Virginia's HBCUs amid bomb threats
Source: Axios
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said Friday that he plans to ask the state's General Assembly to provide emergency funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for campus security purposes amid bomb threats that have continued for weeks.
The big picture: Dozens of HBCUs have received bomb threats since January, leading multiple campuses to issue shelter-in-place orders or shut down entirely. The FBI is investigating the pattern as "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism and hate crimes."
Many HBCUs have had to hire additional police officers as a result.
What he's saying: "I am deeply concerned by the recent pattern of bomb threats plaguing [HBCUs]," Youngkin said in a statement.
He added that he has spoken with the presidents of Virginia's HBCUs to discuss the "disturbing repeated threats on their schools" and that he will ask the General Assembly for the funding next week.
"I am committed to harnessing state resources to support these institutions and will work together with them on a continued coordinated response that ensures the safety of our HBCU students and faculty."
Read more: https://www.axios.com/virginia-youngkinhbcu-bomb-threats-dc3e6e5d-6b3e-42c3-bbe3-1c5d146d86fd.html
Australia demands answers from China over alleged laser incident at sea
Source: CNN
Australia is demanding China investigate the alleged use of a laser to "illuminate" an Australian jet in waters off the country's north coast in an incident that threatens to worsen relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday he'd called on the Chinese government to explain the "dangerous" and "reckless" act allegedly carried out by a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warship last week.
"This was dangerous, it was unprofessional and it was reckless for a professional navy, and we want some answers as to why they did this," Morrison said. "At worst, it was intimidating and bullying."
"They're the ones who need to explain, not just to Australia, but to think of all the countries in our region," he added. "It could occur to anyone else who is just simply doing the normal surveillance of their own Exclusive Economic Zone."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/asia/australia-china-warship-laser-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
Jury in Sarah Palin v. New York Times libel trial learned of judge's plan to throw out suit
Source: Politico
Jurors in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s libel trial against The New York Times became aware during deliberations that the judge overseeing the case had ruled that it should be thrown out, the judge disclosed in an order on Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff said that after the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the Times in the case on Tuesday, one of his law clerks learned that some on the panel had received alerts on their phones on Monday when Rakoff announced, outside the presence of the jury, that he planned to toss out the case because Palin’s lawyers had failed to prove their case to the high standard of evidence required in libel suits against public figures.
“These jurors reported that although they had been assiduously adhering to the Court’s instruction to avoid media coverage of the trial, they had involuntarily received ‘push notifications’ on their smartphones that contained the bottom-line of the ruling,” the Manhattan-based Rakoff wrote in a two-page order.
While rulings by judges to throw out a case at the close of a civil or criminal jury trial are not uncommon, many legal experts faulted Rakoff for revealing his plan in the middle of the jury’s deliberations. Doing so raised the prospect that jurors would learn of his decision and that it might prompt them to side with the Times regardless of their view of the evidence.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/16/jury-in-sarah-palin-v-new-york-times-libel-trial-learned-of-judges-plan-to-throw-suit-out-00009498
Sarah Palin's lawyers: New York Times libeled her amidst pattern of sliming conservatives
Source: Politico
Sarah Palin’s lawyer offered jurors a simple explanation Friday for why The New York Times used a 2017 editorial to link Palin to a deadly shooting in Arizona six years earlier: a long-standing political vendetta against conservatives.
“They just didn’t care. She’s one of them,” attorney Ken Turkel said during closing arguments in the former Alaska governor’s libel suit against the Times
On several occasions during his summation of the evidence in a Manhattan courtroom before jurors began deliberating on the case Friday afternoon, Turkel argued that the Times’ decision to reference Palin’s political action committee in the editorial spurred by a shooting at a GOP congressional baseball practice in Virginia was part of a pattern at the newspaper of slurring Republicans.
“There’s common thread through all the pieces as to how they treat people on the right they don’t agree with,” Palin’s attorney said. “Look at the common thread: how in every single one of them they demonize the right wing or just treated them differently.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/11/sarah-palin-lawyers-new-york-times-libel-conservatives-00008248
While I think Palin is going to lose this particular case, I'm more than a little nervous this case could make its way to the Supreme Court, who could then reverse the NYT v Sullivan case. Both Gorsuch and Thomas have said they need to take a look at press liability and perhaps revise the current standard.
Towing companies on city contracts refuse to move convoy vehicles
Source: CBC
The tow trucks operators on contract to the City of Ottawa are taking a hard pass on requests to haul vehicles out of protest areas, according to the city's top public servant.
"I've contacted them all and they're all refusing, as of today, to provide heavy tow truck work," city manager Steve Kanellakos told reporters Monday evening after a six-hour special council meeting.
"Right now we're reviewing their contracts or standing offer, and reviewing what actions we can take to deal with this unprecedented situation."
More than 400 vehicles are parked illegally in the downtown core, according to Ottawa police, the majority of them heavy trucks (and at least one crane). One of several challenges facing the Ottawa Police Service and the city is how to get them off the streets if protesters refuse to drive them away.
...
"Right now, the consensus seems to be that many of them — or most of them — don't want to do the work because … they rely on on the the heavy truck industry for their livelihood, and they don't want to damage that part of their business. That's the position they're taking, at least."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tow-truck-ottawa-convoy-protest-refuse-1.6343177
Towing semi-trucks is super difficult, and not just any tow truck is capable of it.
The Canadian military does have some armored recovery vehicles that would be capable of moving a semi truck, but we'll see what actually happens. The optics of putting tracked military vehicles (even though these vehicles are generally unarmed) on the streets could be a challenge.
Manhattan District Attorney, Under Fire, Adjusts Lenient Policies
Source: NY Times
The Manhattan district attorney on Friday issued harsher new guidance on the prosecution of gun possession and robbery that revised and in some cases reversed policies in a memo, released in his first week in office, that had been criticized as too lenient.
Within days of taking office on Jan. 1, the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, instructed prosecutors in the memo to avoid seeking jail time for all but the most serious crimes. Its release prompted weeks of pushback from police officers, business owners and public officials and marred the first month of his tenure.
Much of his time since has been devoted to clarifying and modifying the policies outlined in the document, which he has acknowledged was confusing and legalistic.
The memo had instructed prosecutors to avoid seeking jail time for certain crimes including robberies, assaults and gun possession. Mr. Bragg has said in several public appearances that the impact of the changes outlined in the memo had been overstated and misunderstood.
On Friday, in an email to his staff, Mr. Bragg said that the document had been “a source of confusion, rather than clarity,” and emphasized that it was up to the office’s prosecutors to determine how best to handle individual cases.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/nyregion/manhattan-da-alvin-bragg-memo-prosecution.html
OPINION: Take The Hint, John Roberts -- It's Time For You To Retire, Too
“Judges are like umpires,” John Roberts famously said at his confirmation hearing as Chief Justice. “Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them ... They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.”
The analogy is vivid and folksy — and even more starkly at odds with reality today than when Roberts invoked it back in 2005.
One way to hear Roberts’ pious words is as a gesture of respect. He knows the truth is more complicated. But he’s describing an ideal that right-thinking people should honor in theory, and judges and justices should strive at least to approximate in practice.
Another way to hear the words is as a gesture of contempt. Roberts is asking his audience to join him in a cynical exercise of make-believe. It is designed to preserve the fraudulent mystique of the high court as detached and apolitical when anyone can see from a surfeit of narrowly decided cases that justices are fully immersed in questions of politics and power.
...
This surprising act would be most likely to advance what the Chief Justice says he wants — a revival of public faith in the Court’s institutional legitimacy, and that its rulings flow from something other than the personal agendas of individual justices or the partisan machinations that placed them in their jobs.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/03/john-roberts-scotus-justices-00005051
California Has No Idea What Its Going To Do With Millions Of Old EV Batteries
California Governor Gavin Newsom has big EV plans for the state. California is the largest EV market in the country, and on Jan. 26, the governor announced a $10 billion proposal to transition the state to clean energy and get people driving EVs. But as Southern California news outlet the Daily Bulletin reports, when these EVs inevitably get old, no one seems to know how to handle or dispose of the old batteries.
We here at Jalopnik have touched on this looming problem before. Depending on where and who you talk to, there are different solutions. The UK, for instance, wants to recycle batteries using direct recycling, which would use ultrasonic waves to break down the cathode powder without damaging the battery itself so it can be reused. Then VW announced a recycling plan at the beginning of 2021 with a dedicated recycling facility.
...
Meanwhile, the state hasn’t mentioned anything regarding battery recycling since late 2018. Assembly Bill 2832 was signed calling for an advisory group to look into recommendations for battery recycling. A report was done up last December with public comments being taken until mid-Febuary 2022.
California’s own strict environmental legislation may be another hurdle to battery recycling, as batteries have always been deemed hazardous waste. A bigger hurdle is not knowing what happens to out-of-warranty batteries. The advisory group’s report found that there is no good way to track what happens to these batteries after they come out of old vehicles, suggesting that money be used as an incentive to track the batteries:
https://jalopnik.com/california-has-no-idea-what-its-going-to-do-with-millio-1848435371
SALT change likely to be cut from bill, say Senate Democrats
Source: The Hill
Senate Democrats say a proposal to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a top priority of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), is likely to be cut from the revised Build Back Better Act.
Senate Democrats who were involved in negotiations over the bill before Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) blew it up last month say there’s simply not enough room for the expensive tax change, which Republicans argue would benefit wealthy suburban households in blue states.
“Yeah, I think that’s dead,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to summarize early discussions about changing the bill to win Manchin’s support.
A second Democratic senator familiar with negotiations on the tax provisions of the legislation said Manchin has signaled to colleagues that he’s not a fan of changing the tax break.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/591378-salt-change-likely-to-be-cut-from-bill-say-senate-democrats
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