List of All Articles with Tag 'eric'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended a hard-right school curriculum that went into effect in his state this week while on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination. At an event in Utah, Governor DeSantis defended how slavery will now be taught in Florida middle schools. Children will now be taught that enslaved persons picked up skills that they later “parlayed” into profitable crafts after slavery was abolished. “They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” Mr DeSantis told reporters on Friday. However at the same press conference, the GOP candidate also appeared to back away from the specific assertions of the teachings, saying of the curriculum: “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.” He went on to say that the curriculum was “rooted in whatever is factual”. “It was not anything that was done politically,” he added. The Florida governor’s hard-right record will likely be a key talking point on the 2024 campaign trail - potentially presenting both a boon for Mr DeSantis in the GOP primary but also a challenge as he seeks to woo moderates in a general election. Florida Department of Education’s social studies standards for the 2023-2024 school year provide lesson topics for teachers including a “benchmark clarification” which instructs educators to teach students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”. It isn’t clear what “their personal benefit” would be in this scenario. The line is included as part of a broader lesson entitled: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agriculturalwork, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” The majority of polling puts Mr DeSantis second in the crowded GOP primary field, though he trails former president Donald Trump by a wide margin and faces a number of rivals closing in on his position including Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. Read More Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine Florida man pleads guilty over Jan 6 riot as state’s governor Ron DeSantis insists there was no insurrection Trump outstrips nearest Republican rival DeSantis by 30 points in latest poll - live Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine

Donald Trump will face trial for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case on 20 May 2024, just six months before the presidential election. Judge Aileen Cannon gave the order on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the former president has been busy bullying his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, including Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, on Truth Social as he braces for an imminent grand jury indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he had been sent a letter by special prosecutor Jack Smith informing him that he is the “target” of the investigation, citing three statutes under which he could be charged, including conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant. That indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down any day now, The Independent learned. Meanwhile, the latest attorney to join Mr Trump’s legal team says he wants cameras in court when the former president is potentially put on trial over his alleged election interference. Read More What Donald Trump’s trial date means for the 2024 election Trump demands cameras in courtroom for potential election fraud case Trump legal team tries again to block Georgia election interference grand jury probe Trump calls for ‘immediate’ death penalty for child traffickers after watching QAnon-linked movie

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius canceled a trip to Iraq at the last minute, citing security risks in

Wisconsin's Supreme Court will flip from majority conservative to liberal control in August and Democrats have high hopes the change will lead to the state's abortion ban being overturned and its maps redrawn to weaken GOP control of the Legislature and congressional districts. Democrats in the perennial battleground state focused on abortion to elect a liberal majority to the court for the first time in 15 years. The Democratic Party spent $8 million to tilt the court’s 4-3 conservative majority by one seat with the election of Janet Protasiewicz, who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Republican-drawn map in a campaign. Her April victory broke national spending records for a state Supreme Court race. Still, there are no guarantees. Republicans were angered when a conservative candidate they backed in 2019 turned out to sometimes side with liberal justices. While the court is widely expected to weigh in on abortion and redistricting, liberals also are talking about bringing new challenges to school choice, voter ID, the 12-year-old law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers and other laws backed by Republicans. “When you don’t know the extent of the battle you may have to fight, it’s concerning,” said attorney Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. "It’s very concerning.” Some issues could take years to reach the court, said liberal attorney Pester Pines, who like Esenberg has argued numerous times before the state Supreme Court. Unlike under the conservative majority, Pines said the new liberal court will be unlikely to rule on cases before lower courts have heard them. “They're not going to do it," Pines said. There is already a pending case challenging Wisconsin's pre-Civil War era abortion ban, and a circuit court judge ruled earlier this month that it can proceed, while also calling into question whether the law actually bans abortions. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court within months. Protasiewicz all but promised to overturn the ban by repeatedly speaking out for abortion rights, winning support from Planned Parenthood and others. “When you’re a politician and you’re perceived by the voters as making a promise, and you don’t keep it, they get angry,” Esenberg said. There is no current redistricting lawsuit, but Democrats or their allies are expected to file a new challenge this summer seeking new districts before the 2024 election. The state Supreme Court upheld Republican-drawn maps in 2022. Those maps, widely regarded as among the most gerrymandered in the country, have helped Republicans increase their hold on the Legislature to near supermajority levels, even as Democrats have won statewide elections, including Tony Evers as governor in 2018 and 2022 and Joe Biden in 2020. Protasizewicz declared those maps to be “rigged” and said during the campaign they should be given another look. Democrats also hope for new congressional maps improving their chances in the state’s two most competitive House districts, held by Republicans. “What we want to see is maps that are fair and that represent the will of the people and the actual make up of their state," Democratic strategist Melissa Baldauff said. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. The outgoing conservative court came within one vote of overturning Biden's win in 2020. The new court will be in control to hear any challenges leading up to the election and in the months after. That includes voting rules. Courts have repeatedly upheld Wisconsin's voter ID requirement, in place since 2011, but some Democrats see a chance to challenge it again, particularly over what IDs can legally be shown. There is also a looming fight over the state's top elections administrator. “It seems to me that the most consequential topics that could come before the new court would have to do with elections," said Alan Ball, a Marquette University Law School history professor who runs a statistical analysis blog of the court and tendencies of justices. Considering comments Protasiewicz made during the campaign, “it’s really hard for me to imagine she would not side with the liberals on those issues,” Ball said. A national Democratic law firm filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to undo a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling last year banning absentee ballot drop boxes. The case could make its way to the state high court before the 2024 presidential election. Other sticky issues that have garnered bipartisan criticism, including powers of the governor, also could come before the new court. Evers surprised many with a veto this year putting in place a school spending increase for 400 years. Republicans said a challenge was likely. In 2021, the court struck down three of Evers' previous partial vetoes but failed to give clear guidance on what is allowed. A Wisconsin governor's veto power is expansive and used by Republicans and Democrats, but the new court could weigh in on whether it should be scaled back. Esenberg, who brought the previous case challenging Evers' veto powers, said he expected another legal challenge in light of the 400-year veto. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Wisconsin woman's killing, dismemberment trial to begin Monday after jury chosen, judge's ruling Biden is building his reelection bid around an organization Obama shunned What are the 10 largest US lottery jackpots ever won?

A new free agent on the market is expected to draw several interested suitors, including the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers.The Utah Jazz waived veteran forward Rudy Gay, setting him up to pick between several potential contenders in free agency. The 36-year-old is expected to have...

Carlee Russell has been fired from the Alabama beauty spa where she was working on the night she claimed to have been kidnapped, according to a new report. Stuart Rome, the owner of the Woodhouse spa in Birmingham, told the New York Post that Ms Russell was no longer employed there and staff were “pissed” about her abduction claims. The 25-year-old told police she was kidnapped while stopping to help a toddler on Interstate 459 on 13 July. However, Alabama police have expressed doubt over Ms Russell’s abduction claims and revealed she appeared to have made suspicious internet searches about kidnappings prior to the incident. Mr Rome said staff had been devastated by Ms Russell’s disappearance, and had passed out flyers in an effort to help find her. “As the information came out that there were some questionable things, we’ve been a little pissed off, mainly because so many people took so much time out to search,” Mr Rome toldthe New York Post. Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said during a press conference on Wednesday that investigators were “unable to verify” most of the 25-year-old’s statements. Read More Carlee Russell sent several bizarre tweets before disappearing Alabama lawyer says police is using ‘every other synonym for lie except saying she lied’ in Carlee Russell case Boyfriend of Carlee Russell deletes social media posts after police cast doubt over her kidnapping story Police doubt Carlee Russell’s kidnapping claims. Could she face consequences?

Tens of thousands of protesters marched on the main highway into Jerusalem on Saturday evening in a last-ditch show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious judicial overhaul. More than 100 of Israel's former security chiefs signed a letter pleading with the Israeli premier to halt the legislation. The arrival of the marchers turned the city's main entrance into a sea of blue and white Israeli flags as they completed the last leg of a four-day, 70 kilometer (45-mile) trek from Tel Aviv to Israel's parliament. The marchers joined forces with hundreds of other protesters and planned to camp outside the Knesset, or parliament, ahead of Monday's expected vote. Netanyahu and his far-right allies claim the overhaul is needed to curb what they say are the excessive powers of unelected judges. But their critics say the plan will destroy the country's system of checks and balances and put it on the path toward authoritarian rule. The proposed overhaul has drawn harsh criticism from business and medical leaders, and a fast-rising number of military reservists in key units have said they will stop reporting for duty if the plan passes, raising concern that the country's security interests could be threatened. Over 100 top former security chiefs, including retired military commanders, police commissioners and heads of intelligence agencies joined those calls on Saturday, signing a letter to Netanyahu blaming him for compromising Israel’s defense, undermining the Israeli Defense Forces and urging him to halt the legislation. The signatories included Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister. “The legislation is crushing those things shared by Israeli society, is tearing the people apart, disintegrating the IDF and inflicting fatal blows on Israel’s security,” they wrote. “The legislative process violates the social contract that has existed for 75 years between the Israeli government and thousands of reserve officers and soldiers from the land, air, sea, and intelligence branches who have volunteered for many years for the reserves to defend the democratic state of Israel, and now announce with a broken heart that they are suspending their volunteer service,” the letter said. After seven straight months of the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen, the grassroots protest movement has reached a fever pitch. The parliament is expected to vote Monday on a measure that would prevent the Supreme Court judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are “unreasonable.” Proponents say the current “reasonability” standard gives the judges excessive powers over decision making by elected officials. But critics say that removing the standard, which is invoked only in rare cases, would allow the government to pass arbitrary decisions, make improper appointments or firings and open the door to corruption. Protests were also planned on Saturday evening at the central square of the coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel's main hub. Monday's vote would mark the first major piece of legislation to be approved. The overhaul also calls for other sweeping changes aimed at curbing the powers of the judiciary, from limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to challenge parliamentary decisions, to changing the way judges are selected. Protesters, who make up a wide swath of Israeli society, see the overhaul as a power grab fueled by various personal and political grievances by Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, and his partners, who want to deepen Israel’s control of the occupied West Bank and perpetuate controversial draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men. In a speech Thursday, Netanyahu doubled down on the overhaul and dismissed as absurd the accusations that the plan would destroy Israel’s democratic foundations. “This is an attempt to mislead you over something that has no basis in reality,” he said. Alarmed by the growing mass of reservists refusing to serve, the country’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, pushed for a delay in Monday’s vote, according to reports in Israeli media. It was unclear if others would join him. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Fierce protests have been rocking Israel for months. What's fueling them? Thousands march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to protest Israeli government's judicial overhaul plan Ex-Israeli security chief backs reservists' protest as Netanyahu allies advance judicial overhaul

American Airlines agreed to raise its pilot contract offer by more than a billion dollars to bring it on par with the tentative agreement competitor United Airlines reached with its pilots last week.

American Airlines Group Inc on Friday said it raised the value of its contract offer to pilots by

Donald Trump will face trial for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case on 20 May 2024, just six months before the presidential election. Judge Aileen Cannon gave the order on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the former president has been busy bullying his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, including Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, on Truth Social as he braces for an imminent grand jury indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he had been sent a letter by special prosecutor Jack Smith informing him that he is the “target” of the investigation, citing three statutes under which he could be charged, including conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant. That indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down any day now, The Independent learned. Meanwhile, the latest attorney to join Mr Trump’s legal team says he wants cameras in court when the former president is potentially put on trial over his alleged election interference. Read More Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Deadline for Trump to give evidence in Jan 6 probe passes as third indictment looms Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist DeSantis says he’d accept Trump being prosecuted for a ‘traditional crime’ like ‘robbing a bank’

Donald Trump’s new lawyer will ask a judge to allow cameras in a federal courtroom if the one-term president is indicted with January 6 election fraud charges by the Department of Justice. Mr Trump has said that he received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith who could be set to bring criminal charges against the GOP front-runner within days. “I would hope that the Department of Justice would join in that effort so that we can take the curtain away and all Americans can see what’s happening,” attorney John Lauro said in an appearance on Fox News. The problem for Mr Lauro is that courtroom photographing and broadcasting are banned in federal court under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. “Except as otherwise provided by a statute or these rules, the court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom,” the rule states. Mr Lauro also explained to Fox News why Mr Trump declined Mr Smith’s invitation to appear before the grand jury investigating him. “There’s no need to appear in front of a grand jury right now. Because President Trump did nothing wrong. He’s done nothing criminal,” he insisted. Any indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down as soon as this week, The Independent has learned. Mr Trump wrote in a lengthy statement delivered via his Truth Social platform that special counsel Jack Smith had notified him via letter on Sunday about the development. “On Sunday night, while I was with my family...HORRIFYING NEWS for our country was given to me by my attorneys,” said Mr Trump. “Deranged Jack Smith...sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment,” he stated. Read More Trump calls for ‘immediate’ death penalty for child traffickers after watching QAnon-linked movie What Donald Trump’s trial date means for the 2024 election Trump classified documents trial will be six months before 2024 election as Jan 6 cases close in - latest Trump and Michael Cohen reach settlement over $1.3m in unpaid legal bills What charges does Donald Trump face in the classified documents case?

Five members of a neo-fascist hate group that planned to disrupt a Pride event in Idaho last year will spend three days in jail after a jury convicted them of conspiracy to riot. The men – Devin Center, Forrest Rankin, Robert Whitted, James Johnson and Derek Smith – were found guilty by a six-person jury on 20 July after an hour of deliberation following a three-day trial. On 11 June, 2022, police arrested 31 members of Patriot Front blocks away from the annual Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after calls to 911 identified a group of people coming out of a UHaul box truck in a military-like formation. They carried shields, metal flag poles, shin guards and at least one smoke grenade. Paperwork inside the truck appeared to show plans for a riot, according to police, and the men came from more than a dozen states, including some as far as Colorado and Texas. The men were arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor punishable up to one year in prison with fines of $5,000. They pleaded not guilty. Under the sentence imposed on 21 July, the men will spend three days in jail and will have one year of unsupervised probation. They are also not allowed to go within two miles of the Coeur d’Alene City Park in that time. Because the probation is unsupervised, those men are able to leave the state. Despite the mass arrests of its members in Idaho, Patriot Front’s presence across the US has not diminished. The group, which first emerged from the splintering of another white nationalist group in the aftermath of the lethal rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, was responsible for the vast majority of “hateful propaganda” efforts in the years that followed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which designates Patriot Front as a hate group. Over the last few years, Patriot Front have made their physical presence known at demonstrations and rallies across the country. A month after the arrests in Coeur d’Alene, a Black artist was attacked during a Patriot Front march in Boston. This year, members have marched in Indianapolis, protested a drag brunch in Tennessee, and, in a grim display in the nation’s capital, marched in Washington DC. A report from the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD discovered more than 350 targeted threats against LGBT+ people within the last year from a wide array of anti-LGBT+ groups, including online harassment as well as armed protests at drag performances, bomb scares against hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare, and other acts of violence, including a mass shooting inside a Colorado Springs LGBT+ nightclub. Incidents targeting drag performers and the people and venues that host them have accelerated across the US, with similar threats surfacing in the UK, according to a separate recent report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The group collected 203 on- and offline threatening incidents specifically targeting drag events within the last year. Read More Patriot Front planned to disrupt a Pride event in Idaho. One year later, members are on trial Montana LGBT+ advocates sue state over ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ drag ban