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Inflation expected to have cooled in October

November 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Economists expect fresh data on Tuesday to show that inflation cooled last month, in large part due to a decline in gasoline prices.

The data, set to be released by the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, would cheer policymakers and households bedeviled by inflation that stands well above the Federal Reserve’s target rate.

The consumer price index will have increased 3.3% over the year ending in October, forecasters predicted. The results would mark a nearly half-percentage-point decline from the annual increase shown the previous month.

While inflation has fallen significantly from a peak of about 9% last summer, progress in the fight against rapid price increases has stalled in recent months.

Economists attribute the anticipated decline in inflation last month largely to a fall in gas prices as the busy summer travel season gave way to an autumn slowdown.

Over a four-week period beginning at the start of October, gas prices fell nearly 8%, according to AAA data reviewed by ABC News.

Progress shown in the price-hike data, however, is expected to lag for a separate key metric: core inflation, which omits volatile food and energy prices.

Core inflation is expected to have risen 4.1% in October compared to a year ago, matching the rate demonstrated over the previous month.

The latest data is set to arrive roughly two weeks after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. The central bank left open the possibility of an additional rate hike this year but opted to first assess the economy as previous rate increases take greater hold.

“Inflation has been coming down but it’s still running well above our 2% target,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a Nov. 1 press conference in Washington, D.C. “Given how far we have come, along with the uncertainties and risks we face, the committee is proceeding carefully.”

Once bemoaned as a source of recession worries, the U.S. economy has become a wellspring of good news, with blistering growth, robust hiring and consumers more readily opening their wallets for everything from concert tickets to bar tabs.

The strong performance, however, complicates the fight to dial back inflation, posing a quandary for the Fed.

Since last year, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate at the fastest pace in more than two decades, seeking to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and reducing consumer demand. In theory, the economy should eventually falter as it becomes more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow. But the economy has so far resisted a cooldown.

Gross domestic product data released late last month showed that the U.S. economy expanded at a 4.9% annualized rate over three months ending in September. That breakneck pace more than doubled growth over the previous quarter and reinforced other recent indicators of sturdy performance.

The U.S. economy’s resilience, and consumer spending over the past year amid a decline of inflation, suggest that rapid price increases had resulted from the insufficient supply of goods and the disruption of the Russia-Ukraine war, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said Sunday on X.

“As these supply shocks fade, so does inflation, without a recession,” Zandi said.

However, a rapid rise in U.S. government bond yields over recent weeks has elevated long-term borrowing costs for consumers seeking mortgage loans, and for corporations pursuing funds to expand their businesses.

Those added borrowing expenses could slow the economy, Powell said at the press conference earlier this month.

“Higher treasury yields are showing through to higher borrowing costs for households and businesses, and those higher costs are going to weigh on economic activity,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, credit card debt climbed to a record high in the third quarter of 2023, surging nearly 5% from the previous quarter and suggesting that some of the economic growth may have been driven by consumer debt, economists previously told ABC News.

The mixed economic picture creates significant uncertainty but the status of the Fed’s inflation fight remains clear, Powell said, noting that the task will require a further slowdown in price increases.

“The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go,” Powell said. “We remain strongly committed.”

Paul Pelosi takes the stand in trial against man charged in 2022 home invasion, attack

November 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Paul Pelosi, the husband of Democratic Rep. and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, took the stand Monday in the trial against the man accused of breaking into the couple’s home last year and striking him in the head with a hammer.

Pelosi, 83, suffered a skull fracture when the suspect, David DePape, attacked him after they struggled over the hammer when police arrived during the Oct. 28, 2022, incident at Pelosi’s California home.

DePape, 43, was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official with intent to retaliate against the official for performance of their duties. He has pleaded not guilty.

Pelosi came and faced his alleged attacker in court and provided clear details about the incident.

He said he was alone in the home while Rep. Pelosi was in Washington when DePape burst through his bedroom door holding a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other, repeatedly asking, “Where’s Nancy?”

“I recognized I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” Pelosi testified.

After Pelosi testified that his wife wasn’t in the home, he said DePape responded, “Well, then we’re going to have to wait for her. I’m going to have to tie you up and we’ll wait for her.”

Pelosi said that he tried to leave the room and head to an elevator that led to the ground floor, but was blocked by the defendant and ultimately got to his bathroom, where he called 911. DePape followed him into the bathroom, according to Pelosi.

“He told me he was going to take me out. I had to try to convey to the 911 person I was in trouble,” he testified. “I thought I had a very difficult time trying to let them know.”

DePape took the phone, Pelosi testified. Pelosi said he and the defendant made their way down to the first floor.

“I’m thinking, ‘I hope the police come,’ but what I knew was my only shot was going to be if we were downstairs and the police came, it would be so much easier to arrest him,” Pelosi testified. “God knows what he would have done if we were still on the third floor.”

When they reached the ground floor, Pelosi said he saw the broken entryway and DePape’s backpacks.

A short while later, officers showed up at the front door. DePape and Pelosi fought over the hammer while officers tried to get the defendant to stand down, and Pelosi was struck.

Pelosi said he doesn’t remember a lot of the details after the attack, which was captured on a police body camera, but did remember the “pool of blood.”

“I know that I was put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital. I knew there was some kind of conversation with the medics,” Pelosi said.

He was hospitalized for six days and returned home to recover.

Pelosi said the doctors advised him not to watch any coverage of the investigation.

“I’ve tried putting it out of my mind,” he said. “I made the best effort possible to not relive it.”

When asked about his recovery, Pelosi said he had to learn how to walk and be mobile again. He said he still gets a little lightheaded and has some headaches but not as much as immediately after the attack.

The defense did not have questions for Pelosi.

The judge said he aims to present the case to the jury by Wednesday.

DHS designates March for Israel in Washington a ‘Level 1’ security event: Sources

November 14, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security has designated Tuesday’s March for Israel in Washington, D.C., as a “Level 1” security event, the highest rating of risk assessment, sources tell ABC News.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas signed off on the designation earlier Monday, the sources said. For comparison, the Super Bowl is routinely designated a “Level 1,” which DHS says is “defined as having such significant national and/or international importance that it may require extensive federal interagency security and incident management preparedness.”

As part of the designation, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued a “Joint Special Threat Assessment” to other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies ahead of Tuesday’s event.

The assessment, which ABC News has obtained a copy of, indicates no “specific, actionable threat to the March for Israel,” but it also echoes previous warnings from the DHS and the FBI, saying: “DHS and FBI assess that lone actors inspired by, or reacting to, the ongoing Israel–HAMAS conflict pose the most likely threat to Americans, especially Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities in the United States.”

“Since the 7 October attacks in Israel, we have observed an increase in threats to these communities, including reports of physical assaults, bomb threats, and online calls for mass casualty attacks. Tensions related to the ongoing Israel–HAMAS conflict, coupled with the widespread sharing of graphic and disturbing content related to this conflict, increase the prospects for violence in the United States with little to no warning,” the assessment read.

The assessment notes that “[s]pecial events with significant attendance and media coverage, like the March for Israel, remain an attractive target for foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), homegrown violent extremists (HVEs), and domestic violent extremists (DVEs).”

And the assessment says: “High-profile events can draw individuals and groups wanting to engage in First Amendment-protected activities. These individuals, groups, law enforcement, and security elements may be targeted by malicious actors looking for targets of opportunity to perpetrate targeted violence and criminal schemes. Lone actors interested in targeted violence remain a concern.”

Semaglutide helps reduce risk of heart attack, stroke in people without diabetes, study finds

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Taking semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic used for weight loss, can help boost heart health in people without diabetes, according to new research.

In a study of over 17,000 people, semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist medication, was found to lower the risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes by 20% in people who have pre-existing cardiovascular disease and who are overweight, but do not have Type 2 diabetes.

The research, published Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine, is significant because semaglutide was initially prescribed for adults with Type 2 diabetes, a condition in which cells don’t respond normally to insulin, the hormone made by the pancreas. It is a condition that affects tens of millions of people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interest in semaglutide has surged over the past year for its role in helping people lose weight.

Novo Nordisk, the company that funded the most recent study, makes both Wegovy and Ozempic, the two most popular drugs that have semaglutide as the active ingredient.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Ozempic as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes alongside diet and exercise if other medications cannot control blood sugar levels well enough.

Although Ozempic is not explicitly approved for chronic weight management, it can be prescribed off-label and used safely for people who are obese.

Wegovy is essentially the same injectable drug as Ozempic prescribed at a higher dosage. The FDA has specifically approved Wegovy for patients with severe obesity, or who are overweight and have one or more weight-associated conditions like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Both drugs work by slowing down movement of food through the stomach and curbing appetite, thereby causing weight loss.

ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OB-GYN, who was not involved in the study, said there are different theories on why semaglutide can help lower the risk of cardiovascular events.

“What’s really interesting about this drug is the more it’s studied, the more we’re finding possible other theories,” Ashton said Monday on “Good Morning America.” “Data has shown in lab animals that semaglutide can reduce inflammation, so … it can promote what’s called plaque stability in those arteries, making the plaque less likely to break off and close off that artery, and then it almost works like a blood thinner in lab animals in terms of reducing platelet clumping.”

She added, “When you combine that with weight loss, [there are] significant cardio protective effects.”

Los Angeles commuters bracing for traffic nightmare as fire closes major freeway

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Commuters in Los Angeles are bracing for an all-day traffic nightmare after one of the nation’s busiest freeways was shut down indefinitely by a massive fire that erupted over the weekend in a storage yard underneath the normally congested artery.

The 10 Freeway, traversed by more than 300,000 drivers daily, remained closed in both directions as authorities suggested a series of detours and announced there is no timeline on when the thoroughfare through downtown Los Angeles will reopen.

“As we made clear yesterday, this was a huge fire and the damage will not be fixed in an instant,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday morning. “Engineers have worked all night and are working right now to determine our path forward.”

On Sunday, Bass said, “There’s no reason to think this is going to be over in a couple of days.”

“We cannot give you an estimate of time right now,” Bass said of when the freeway might reopen.

Bass told commuters to expect epic traffic jams akin to what was seen after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, a 6.7 magnitude shaker that collapsed several freeways in the Los Angeles area.

“For those of you who remember the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Caltrans [the California Department of Transportation] worked around the clock to complete emergency repairs to the freeways — and this structural damage calls for the same level of urgency and effort,” Bass said.

The fire broke out underneath the 10 Freeway just after midnight Saturday, ripping through numerous wooden pallets, trailers and vehicles stored below the raised interstate, officials said. The fire sent thick smoke and towering flames into the sky and dealt a challenge to more than 160 firefighters who responded to put out the blaze.

The out-of-control fire burned for three hours and spread over what authorities described as the equivalent of six football fields before it was extinguished. About 16 homeless people living underneath the highway were evacuated to shelters, officials said.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Caltrans officials said crews are still assessing the damage caused to columns and support beams under the freeway, but could not say when it would be cleared to reopen. Hazardous materials teams are also clearing burned material from the site.

“We’re seeing a lot of … concrete that’s flaked off the columns. The underside of the bridge deck may be compromised,” said Lauren Wonder, a Caltrans spokesperson. “It’s sort of a waiting situation right now. We don’t have an estimated time of opening, but Caltrans wants to ensure that this bridge is safe to put traffic back on it.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to help facilitate cleanup and repairs to the freeway.

“Remember, this is an investigation as to the cause of how this occurred, as well as a hazmat and structural engineering question,” Newsom said. “Can you open a few lanes? Can you retrofit the columns? Is the bridge deck intact to allow for a few lanes to remain open again?”

Los Angeles transportation officials are warning drivers to expect gridlock and suggested they work from home, take public transportation or adhere to suggested alternate routes to other major freeways, including Interstate 5 and Highway 101, to maneuver around the closed section of the 10 Freeway. Transportation officials are requesting drivers to not detour to surface streets and clog neighborhoods along the closed freeway.

Rafael Molina, deputy district director for the division of traffic at the California Department of Transporation, said Monday morning that there are early indications that commuters are heeding the warnings.

“In looking at the traffic data earlier this morning, I am somewhat pleased to say that the congestion was a little bit lighter than normal,” Molina said. “However, please, if you don’t need to be in downtown Los Angeles, please avoid those trips.”

Transportation officials said the storage area that caught fire is leased by a private company.

California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin said officials are reevaluating whether to continue allowing storage yards under highways, but noted that such places are common across the state and nation.

Trump compares political opponents to ‘vermin’ who he will ‘root out,’ alarming historians

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump vowed this weekend to “root out” his political opponents, who he said “live like vermin” as he warned supporters that America’s greatest threats come “from within” — extreme rhetoric that echoes the words of fascist dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, experts and Trump’s critics said.

A Trump campaign spokesman dismissed the backlash to his speech, at a Veterans Day rally in New Hampshire, but some historians said the parallels were alarming.

“To call your opponent ‘vermin,’ to dehumanize them, is to not only open the door but to walk through the door toward the most ghastly kinds of crimes,” writer and historian Jon Meacham said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Speaking to a packed crowd inside Stevens High School auditorium in Claremont, New Hampshire, on Saturday, Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, said: “We will put America first and today, especially in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

He accused these groups of doing anything “to destroy America and to destroy the American dream” and he went on to repeat his baseless claims of election fraud.

A major theme of the rally was “peace through strength,” and Trump boasted of his own leadership on the world stage in comparison to President Joe Biden.

“The real threat is not from the radical right. The real threat is from the radical left,” he told attendees, drawing shouts of agreement. “It’s growing every day, every single day. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within. Because if you have a capable, competent, smart, tough leader — Russia, China, North Korea, they’re not gonna want to play with us.”

Just before he took the stage on Saturday afternoon, Trump posted a similar message on his social media platform.

The comments received immediate pushback, both from critics who have long challenged Trump’s habit of attacking others with hyperbolic insults and from historians who said his latest remarks had an unsettling resemblance to those of infamous authoritarians.

“Please tell us if this reminds you of any earlier historical figure,” NBC’s presidential historian Michael Beschloss wrote on X.

“It doesn’t echo ‘Mein Kampf.’ This is textbook ‘Mein Kampf,'” Yale University professor Jason Stanley, author of “How Fascism Works,” said about Trump’s comments on MSNBC. Stanley was referring to a book published by Hitler before his rise to power.

“Trump’s comments are remarkably evocative particularly of Hitler’s rants against Marxists and socialists — Hitler also decried pro-democratic forces as Marxist,” Stanley told ABC News.

“In another regard, this is worse than Nazi propaganda,” he said. “Bear in mind that there was actually a communist anti-democratic threat in Europe in the 1920s and ’30s, and there is none in America today.”

In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung rejected the comparisons to Hitler and Mussolini.

“Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House,” Cheung said.

At the Veterans Day rally, while talking about legal challenges he’s facing, Trump also floated the possibility of retribution against his political enemies if he returns to the White House, though he said, “I don’t want to do that.”

He again suggested that the charges he faces in four criminal cases were brought for political reasons, though prosecutors have defended their work. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies all wrongdoing.

The Biden campaign, which has been ramping up their responses to Trump’s campaign trail activities, slammed his “vermin” rhetoric as championing “un-American ideas.”

“On a weekend when most Americans were honoring our nation’s heroes, Donald Trump parroted the autocratic language of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini – two dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting, in order to defeat exactly the kind of un-American ideas Trump now champions,” said campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa.

“Donald Trump thinks he can win by dividing our country. He’s wrong, and he’ll find out just how wrong next November,” Moussa said.

Last month, Trump faced outcry from critics when he said during an interview with The National Pulse, a right-wing website, that immigrants who are in the country without documentation are “poisoning the blood” of America. He repeated his longstanding claim that terrorists, criminals and those with mental illness are coming in through the borders.

A White House spokesperson in a statement to The Daily Beast at the time called the comment “abhorrent” and “dangerous,” saying, “The role of leaders is to bring people together; never to turn them against one another with divisive, self-serving poison.”

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel repeatedly refused to weigh in on Trump’s “vermin” comments when asked during her appearances on NBC and CNN’s Sunday news shows.

“I will say this: I know President Trump supports our veterans,” McDaniel said on “Meet the Press.”

Mom with double uterus expecting two babies in ‘1 in a million’ pregnancy

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Kelsey Hatcher, a 32-year-old mom of three, and her husband Caleb said they were very surprised to learn earlier this year that Kelsey was pregnant.

The couple was even more surprised to learn at Kelsey Hatcher’s eight-week ultrasound appointment that she was expecting two babies.

Hatcher and her husband described themselves as completely shocked to learn that the babies are each in their own uterus, a result of Hatcher being born with a rare condition known as uterine didelphys, or double uterus, meaning she was born with two uteruses and two cervixes.

While uterine didelphys is rare on its own, the odds of being pregnant at the same time in each uterus are about “1 in a million,” according to Dr. Richard Davis, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Women & Infants Center, where Hatcher is being treated.

“When I first found out, I was like, ‘I wonder if there’s anybody I can reach out to just to, you know, see what their experiences were,'” Hatcher told “Good Morning America.” “But I think I’ve only read of two other cases [in which] they’ve had [pregnancies] in completely separate uteruses, and no one that I’ve been able to reach out to.”

Hatcher said she learned she had a double uterus at age 17, but with each of her three previous pregnancies, she had a single baby carried in one uterus. She said each of her pregnancies with her kids — now ages 7, 4, and 23 months — also went full-term, with no complications.

Knowing there was still a chance she could be carrying twins with this fourth pregnancy, Hatcher said that was one of the first questions she asked at her eight-week ultrasound appointment.

“I said, ‘There’s only one right?,’ and the [nurse] said, ‘Yeah, there’s only one,'” she recalled. “So, I just kind of laid back and was relaxing. Everything looked good. There was only one.”

Hatcher said that as she was telling the nurse to not be alarmed if she saw a second uterus on the ultrasound, both she and the nurse saw a second baby on the scan.

“Before she could say anything, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s another one,'” Hatcher said, adding of her reaction, “Probably all I did was laugh for 30 minutes or so because it was just like, this is not happening.”

Caleb, Hatcher’s husband, said when his wife called to tell him they were expecting two more babies, his reaction was, “I don’t know what happened differently this time, but it’s wild.”

According to both Davis and Dr. Shweta Petal, the OB-GYN caring for Hatcher, the two babies are considered fraternal twins.

“There are lots of different types of twin pregnancies out there,” Petal told “GMA,” adding of Hatcher’s specific case, “Most likely what happened is that she ovulated separately and had one egg come down each fallopian tube, meaning coming down on each side of the uterus, and then sperm traveled up on each separate uterus and fertilization occurred separately.”

Petal and Davis are both part of a team at UAB that has spent the last several months planning for Hatcher’s delivery. Neither of the doctors, nor anyone else at the university’s medical center, has ever cared for a patient carrying two pregnancies in two uteruses.

“There’s no true expert out there who knows how to manage a patient with two uteruses and two babies, with one in each uterus,” Petal said. “So we really are relying on our baseline teaching and our baseline knowledge and the normal physiology of pregnancy that we understand, and applying it in her scenario.”

Hatcher is currently around 34 weeks pregnant and her due date is Dec. 25 — Christmas Day.

Davis said the plan is to allow Hatcher to carry her pregnancy as long as both she and the babies are healthy.

She could deliver each baby individually in two vaginal births, which could happen over the span of a few minutes or a few days, or if there are complications, Davis said they could deliver the babies via cesarean section.

“Each uterus can contract on its own at different times,” Davis said. “It could be that one side contracts, and the other side is not doing anything.

Petal noted there are a “lot of different scenarios” for which the medical team is working with Hatcher to prepare ahead of her delivery.

“They could be born minutes apart, or they can be born days apart,” Petal said. “It’s so unpredictable, and that’s why we’ve had a lot of conversations with Kelsey kind of talking about the different scenarios that could happen, where she could have a vaginal delivery with both babies, she could have a vaginal delivery with one and a C-section with the other, or maybe end up having a C-section for both of them as well.”

Hatcher said that despite the rarity of her pregnancy, it has been a smooth one so far, with just more fatigue in the first trimester than she had experienced in her previous pregnancies.

“Past the first trimester, a lot of things have been very similar, other than just feeling the movement of two,” she said, adding that in the last two weeks she has been able to see the two pregnancies separate when she lays down. “There’s like a divet in between my stomach so that you can see that each uterus has one on each side. It is pretty wild.”

GOP candidates on why party keeps losing, Tim Scott exits race and more takeaways you may have missed

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Some of the major Republican candidates not named Trump saw an opportunity in their party’s poor election performances last week: Blame the former president, their biggest rival in the 2024 race.

Elsewhere on the trail, Joe Biden sought to build some reelection buzz in South Carolina and Tim Scott brought his girlfriend, briefly, into the spotlight — and then promptly ended his White House bid.

Here are the campaign updates you may have missed.

GOP primary candidates weigh in on abortion, Tuesday’s results

Tuesday’s elections proved largely dismal for Republicans, continuing an off-year trend for conservatives since the Supreme Court struck down the abortion protections of Roe v. Wade. As Democrats won big in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the Republican candidates for president sought to explain why.

For a few of them, there was one answer.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was frank in her assessment. Her campaign released a memo on Wednesday that rattled off the defeats and then concluded, in part: “Trump is a loser.”

Unsurprisingly, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, perhaps the primary’s loudest Trump critic, shared this sentiment. He blamed the GOP loss in the Kentucky gubernatorial race solely on Trump, insisting that state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the GOP candidate, was a “rising star” until he embraced the former president.

“Let’s face it, Donald Trump is political and electoral poison down-ballot,” Christie said on CNN.

“And the voters of Kentucky — very red state as you noted — gave their verdict on politicians who sell their soul to Donald Trump,” he said.

Trump, who has long boasted about the power of his endorsement, tried to distance himself from Cameron following the loss to Gov. Andy Beshear.

“Daniel Cameron lost because he couldn’t alleviate the stench of Mitch McConnell,” he posted on social media, referring to the Senate minority leader, who is not close with Trump.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats and advocates were saying that abortion rights were fueling Republicans’ continued losses. Some GOP candidates agreed, though for a different reason.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at Wednesday’s primary debate that Republicans have not been effectively handling referenda in various states on abortion.

“You’ve got to be strategic about how you’re doing it, know the landscape that you’re dealing with,” he told NBC News in a post-debate interview. “But they’ve been getting their clock cleaned on the referenda. I think that’s a big problem.”

Haley, for her part, has reiterated that she is anti-abortion but has tried to offer what she calls a more pragmatic approach on the issue, acknowledging a federal ban is unlikely to pass Congress and that there should be compromise rather than division between the anti- and pro-abortion access sides.

Minn. Supreme Court dismisses Trump eligibility challenge

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Trump can remain on the state’s primary ballot after his eligibility was challenged under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

In the ruling, the court wrote: “We reach a different conclusion regarding petitioners’ claim that it would be error for the Secretary of State to place former President Trump’s name on the ballot for the 2024 general election ballot. That claim is neither ripe, nor is it ‘about to occur’ as section 204B.44(a) requires.”

The former president has harshly criticized the push by some advocates and voters to bar him from the 2024 election because of the 14th Amendment. Supporters of that theory claim he violated Section 3 of the amendment because of his actions around Jan. 6 and in attacking the 2020 election results. He denies all wrongdoing.

Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, released a statement following the court’s ruling, calling it “further validation of the Trump Campaign’s consistent argument that the 14th Amendment ballot challenges are nothing more than strategic, un-Constitutional attempts to interfere with the election by desperate Democrats who see the writing on the wall: President Trump is dominating the polls and has never been in a stronger position to end the failed Biden presidency next November.”

Sen. Tim Scott’s mystery girlfriend revealed at GOP debate

Sen. Scott spent part of his presidential campaign fielding questions on his relationship status, given that he was the only unmarried candidate in the race and would have been the first never-married president in nearly 150 years.

In September, he opened up — a bit — about the “smart, Christian woman” he has been dating, whom he said was introduced through a friend.

But Scott was also vocal about his reluctance to bringing his girlfriend on the campaign with him. He told The Washington Post in September that he wouldn’t want to take her on the trail “unless I have the intention of marrying her.”

However, on Wednesday night, immediately following the debate, there she was: Scott’s girlfriend, Mindy Noce, appeared alongside him on stage. He said that the two have been dating for about a year.

The relatively silly headlines she made were soon dwarfed by more serious news: On Sunday, in a move that surprised even some of his campaign staffers, Scott said on Fox News that he was leaving the 2024 race. “I think I was called to run. I was not called to win,” he said.

The well-liked South Carolina senator had been struggling and he was last in 538’s average of national polls among the five people at the Wednesday debate, for which he barely qualified despite his high profile in his party and a significant amount of money raised.

With Scott’s exit, there are now four major candidates vying to be the Trump alternative.

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, to file on President Biden’s behalf for the Democrats’ first-in-the nation 2024 primary.

Harris spoke to voters alongside South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary is seen as having helped change the course of that race because Biden rallied to win a decisive victory in the state.

In her remarks, Harris emphasized the role of South Carolina in helping choose Biden as the party’s nominee the first time and encouraged the state to stick with him. He currently faces two long shot primary challengers, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, a former member of Democratic leadership, who has vowed to mount a serious run against the president.

“We have momentum. The wind is at our back,” Harris told attendees on Friday. “And so let us continue to do what we know how to do. This is a fight for, not against, and it is a fight born out of our sincere and deep love for our country and understanding what is at stake.”

The Democratic National Committee previously approved a new primary schedule for this election, making South Carolina the first election in the country — over New Hampshire, sparking controversy there — in an effort, officials said, to spotlight parts of the country that are more representative of their diverse base.

ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Libby Cathey, Julia Cherner Abby Cruz, Hannah Demissie, Fritz Farrow, Lalee Ibssa, Nicholas Kerr, Soo Rin Kim, Will McDuffie and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.

With GOP opposition, Speaker Mike Johnson would need Democratic votes to pass plan to avert shutdown

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The House is set to vote Tuesday on a plan newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson has pitched to avert a looming government shutdown — yet enough of his Republican hard-liners have now said they’ll oppose the funding measure that he’ll have to rely on Democratic votes to pass it.

Johnson told his GOP conference over the weekend that he is moving forward with a two-step government plan that he has described as a “laddered CR” or continuing resolution that would keep the government funded at 2023 levels.

Now it looks as if Johnson will have to look across the aisle to pass his plan since six Republicans have publicly said they won’t vote for it. Reps. Bob Good of Virginia, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Chip Roy of Texas, George Santos of New York and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania have all indicated they will not support Johnson’s plan on the floor.

With a slim GOP majority, Johnson can afford to lose only a handful of Republican votes if all members are present. Democratic leaders are not taking an official position just yet on Johnson’s government funding plan, saying in a letter Monday that they are “carefully evaluating” it.

On Monday, Senate leadership seemed to back Johnson’s short-term funding plan. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the floor in separate but similar speeches about Johnson’s proposal.

“For now, I am pleased that Speaker Johnson seems to be moving in our direction by advancing a CR that does not include the highly partisan cuts that Democrats have warned against,” Schumer said Monday on the Senate floor. “The speaker’s proposal is far from perfect, but the most important thing is that it refrains from making steep cuts, while also extending funding for defense in the second tranche of bills.”

Schumer warned Johnson to hold firm against conservatives in his conference who will surely complain that the short-term funding bill does not include budget cuts.

“I hope Speaker Johnson recognizes that he will need support from Democrats in both chambers if he wants to … avoid causing a shutdown. He needs to stay away from poison pills and steep hard right cuts for that to happen,” Schumer added.

McConnell also spoke on the Senate floor, saying he backs the proposal and will urge his Republican colleagues to vote for it.

“House Republicans have produced a responsible measure that will keep the lights on, avoid harmful left in government funding, and provide the time and space to finish their important work. I’ll support their continuing resolution and encourage my colleagues to do the same,” McConnell said.

Johnson’s financial plan is his first major test as speaker since he was elected last month after the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Johnson is facing a similar challenge as McCarthy: working to pass a clean CR while carefully maneuvering between moderates and hard-liners in his conference. He also finds himself, like McCarthy, needing Democratic votes to help keep the government open.

It’s possible Johnson won’t face the same fate as McCarthy as Republicans have repeatedly said they hope to give Johnson some leeway to find his footing.

The laddered CR has two different deadlines to keep different parts of the government functioning: Jan. 19 and Feb. 2. If the House passes the plan, the Senate would then have to act by Friday night to avert a shutdown.

“The bill will stop the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess,” Johnson said in a statement. “Separating out the CR from the supplemental funding debates places our conference in the best position to fight for fiscal responsibility, oversight over Ukraine aid, and meaningful policy changes at our Southern border.”

The proposal has been panned by several from his own party.

“I am opposed to the CR that has been proposed, because it contains no spending reductions, no border security, & no policy wins for the American people,” Good posted to X.
Davidson said the plan Johnson proposed has “status quo policies, and status quo funding levels.”

“Disappointing is as polite as I can muster. I will be voting NO,” Davidson posted to X. “Hopefully, the consensus will result in a more reasonable bill.”

Several Democrats — including Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — have indicated they will vote no on Johnson’s plan. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has not yet said how the conference is being instructed to vote.

A letter from Democratic leaders, Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar on Monday said House Democrats have reservations about the laddered CR.

“While House Republicans have abandoned a laddered funding approach with multiple expiration dates, we remain concerned with the bifurcation of the continuing resolution in January and February 2024,” the letter states.

“We will proceed this week through the lens of making progress for everyday Americans by continuing to put people over politics,” the leaders continued in the letter.

Last week, Jeffries threw cold water on the idea of laddered CR, but has made it clear the government shutdown must be averted.

“We must keep the government open and stop the extremists from hurting America’s economy,” Jeffries posted to X on Friday.

Police and protesters clash near so-called ‘Cop City’ construction site

November 13, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(ATLANTA) — Police and protesters clashed on Monday near the construction site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training facility that has been dubbed “Cop City” by critics.

Protesters began marching toward the site this morning after a weekend of preparations to “bring construction to a halt,” organizers say.

In an online statement, DeKalb County police protesters “began an unpermitted march …blocking two of four lanes of traffic” at 10:30 a.m.

“We were part of the way there on a road when we encountered a large line of police. We tried to non-violently get past them, and they responded with violence,” said Block Cop City spokesperson Jamie Peck.

DeKalb County officials say they informed protesters that they were obstructing the road and would not be permitted to move forward.

“The protesters ignored the commands by DeKalb County Police & began to force their way through a line of 30 DeKalb County Police officers,” the police department said in a statement.

Peck said that protesters were then beaten, sprayed with pepper spray and that medics helping others were targeted by police. Peck added that flashbang grenades were also used against the crowd.

“They shot us with flashbang grenades, which are designed to terrify people as if they are in a war zone,” said Peck.

Police confirmed that tear gas canisters were used to disperse the protesters.

No injuries have been reported and no arrests have been made as of noon, said the department.

One of the critiques held against the new training center is that it could lead to greater police militarization.

Protesters argue today’s incident proves it, pointing to past claims from the police department officials “claiming that the cops would protect peaceful protesters who were exercising their First Amendment right to protest and they showed us that is patently untrue,” said Peck.

Construction of the 85-acre, $90 million facility is ongoing, and is set to be completed by December 2024.

The center will include an “auditorium for police/fire and public use,” a “mock city for burn building training and urban police training,” an “Emergency Vehicle Operator Course for emergency vehicle driver training,” a K-9 unit kennel and training, according to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center’s website.

The larger movement against the center, called Stop Cop City, has been ongoing for the last two years, arguing that the center will both militarize the police force and impact the South River Forest.

Controversy around the center escalated when a protester, Manuel Esteban Páez Terán, who used they/them pronouns, was shot and killed by police as they raided the campground occupied by demonstrators in January. Officials say the protester fired the first shot at a state trooper, and the officer responded with the fatal shot.

The Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit that’s supporting the center’s construction, has said the center will promote “first-rate training.”

“Policing and firefighting are continually evolving,” a statement on their website reads. “In late 2024, Atlanta’s citizens will have law enforcement agencies whose cultural, operational and community training regimens will be the best in the nation.”

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