Local school officials across the United States are being inundated with threats of violence and other hostile messages from anonymous harassers nationwide, fueled by anger over culture-war issues, Reuters reports.
Illinois Governor’s Race Turns Into Battle of Billionaires
Hedge fund executive Ken Griffin, the wealthiest person in Illinois, gave Richard Irvin’s (R) gubernatorial campaign $20 million — the first of what is expected to be several big donations to counter Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), the Chicago Tribune reports.
Pritzker has already poured $125.5 million of his own money into his reelection campaign, after spending $171 million of his own money in the 2018 campaign.
Kentucky Lawmakers Mull Tax Breaks for Private Jets
The Kentucky House is preparing to hear a bill that would exempt personal aircraft from state and local property taxes, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.
The proposal is creating unease among some lawmakers since it comes just days after the House voted to cut unemployment insurance payments for Kentuckians who have lost their jobs.
Newsom’s Approval Lags Over Crime and Homeless
A new UC Berkeley poll in California finds Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) approval rating split at 48% to 47%.
“Concerns about rising crime and California’s seemingly intractable homelessness crisis emerged as the top political undercurrents driving voter dissatisfaction, with most of those surveyed giving Newsom poor marks on how he has handled those issues.”
DeSantis Holds Big Leads In Florida
A new Mason-Dixon poll in Florida shows Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) leading Charlie Crist (D) in the gubernatorial race, 51% to 43%.
DeSantis also leads Nikki Fried (D) in another possible match up, 53% to 42%.
In the Democratic primary, Crist is the clear favorite over Fried, 44% to 27%, with 26% still undecided.
Wholesale Prices Surge Over Last Year
CNBC: “The producer price index, which measures final-demand goods and services, increased 1% for the month, against the Dow Jones estimate for 0.5%. Over the past 12 months the gauge rose an unadjusted 9.7%, close to a record in data going back to 2010.”
The ‘Misinformation Problem’ Seems Like Misinformation
Matthew Yglesias: “Propagandistic media coverage is bad, spreading false information deliberately or carelessly is bad, misleading people is bad, and it’s unfortunate that voters (and, frankly, elite policymakers) often make important decisions operating under misconceptions.”
“That said, I do not think there is much evidence that misinformation has become more widespread, that this increase in misinformation is due to technological change, or that it is at the root of the political trends liberals are most angry about. If anything, people seem to be better-informed than in the past — which is what you would expect because our information technology has gotten better — and it is very hard to think of any cure for misinformation that would not be worse than the disease.”
San Francisco Votes on Recall of 3 School Board Members
“In the final days of an unprecedented school board recall election in San Francisco, supporters and opponents of the effort blanketed the city with flyers, knocked on doors and rallied to make their final case to voters,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“The battle over the possible ouster of board President Gabriela López and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga has been ugly, expensive and divisive — splitting parents, teachers and elected officials — and the vote could to a large degree determine the fate of the school district.”
CNN: “The seeds of the backlash that led to the recall effort were planted early in the coronavirus pandemic, when the board considered changing the names of as many as 44 public schools in a city that was still grappling with how to safely reopen them.”
Pentagon Warns Mergers Have Put Military at Risk
The Pentagon said that decades of mergers in the American defense sector have left the U.S. military less well-equipped and needlessly overburdened taxpayers, the Financial Times reports.
The Department of Defense report, released on Tuesday, detailed the post-Cold War surge in mergers which has shrunk the number of American defence prime contractors from 51 in 1990 to 5 today: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
Democrats Split on Why Agenda Stalled
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 28% of Democrats said their party has lacked resolve or was preoccupied with internal feuds in passing President Biden’s agenda, while 47% blamed Republicans for thwarting Democrats’ plans, and 25% said the party had mostly accomplished its goals.
New York City Terminates 1,430 Unvaccinated Workers
New York City officials say 1,430 unvaccinated employees were terminated, as the city instituted its first round of eliminations of municipal workers who defied the vaccine mandate, WABC reports.
Virtually all of the employees dismissed had been on unpaid leave for more than three months, so residents should not see a disruption in city services.
Djokovic Would Quit Tennis Before Getting Vaccine
Novak Djokovic told the BBC he would “rather miss out on future tennis trophies than be forced to get a Covid vaccine.”
Said Djokovic: “Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay.”
Ukraine Crisis Highlights Russia-China Alignment
“The Ukraine crisis is forcing Washington to grapple with Russia’s increasingly close relationship with China,” Axios reports.
“Russia and China aren’t full-fledged allies, experts say, but they have been coordinating their economic and security interests with greater clarity over the past several years.”
“The two countries have smoothly navigated their competing interests in their shared backyard of Central Asia — and the Chinese government has aligned itself with Russia on Ukraine.”
Tone of Crisis Shifts as Russia Signals Openness to Talk
“The tone of the crisis over Ukraine shifted Monday as Russia’s top diplomat endorsed more talks to resolve its standoff with the West, and Ukrainian officials hinted at offering concessions to avert war — even as Russian warships massed off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and Russian ground troops appeared poised to strike,” the New York Times reports.
“In stage-managed, televised meetings, the Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West rather than launch immediate military action.”
Alexei Navalny Faces 10 Years In Russian Prison
“Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Kremlin critic, appeared in a prison court this morning facing embezzlement charges that could keep him locked up until 2032,” the Times of London reports.
“Navalny, 45, appeared at a special court hearing inside the prison near Moscow where he is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence on fraud charges that he says were trumped up to stifle his opposition to President Putin.”
Democrats Eye Federal Gas Tax Holiday
“The White House and top Democratic lawmakers are beginning to weigh a new push for a federal gas tax holiday, potentially pausing fees at the pump as part of a broader campaign to combat rising prices,” the Washington Post reports.
“The early deliberations come days after a group of vulnerable Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would suspend the gas tax of roughly 18 cents per gallon for the rest of the year, which party lawmakers are expected to discuss at a lunch Tuesday.”
The Los Angeles Times notes gas prices are approaching $5 a gallon in parts of California.
Special Counsel Says Clinton Lawyer Shared Data with CIA
“Special counsel John Durham accused a lawyer for the Democrats of sharing with the CIA in 2017 internet data purported to show Russian-made phones being used in the vicinity of the White House complex, as part of a broader effort to raise the intelligence community’s suspicions of Donald Trump’s ties to Russia shortly after he took office,” CNN reports.
New York Times: “But the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old news — the latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories from Mr. Trump and his allies.”
“Upon close inspection, these narratives are often based on a misleading presentation of the facts or outright misinformation. They also tend to involve dense and obscure issues, so dissecting them requires asking readers to expend significant mental energy and time — raising the question of whether news outlets should even cover such claims. Yet Trump allies portray the news media as engaged in a cover-up if they don’t.”
Philip Bump: Why Trump is once again claiming that he was spied upon in 2016.
How Josh Mandel Became a Right-Wing Warrior
New York Times: “As he runs for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, the 44-year-old politician has become one of the nation’s most strident crusaders for Trumpism, melding conspiracy theories and white grievance politics to amass a following that has made him a leading contender for the G.O.P. nomination in this Republican-leaning state.”
“His political evolution — from a son of suburban Cleveland to warrior for the Make America Great Again movement — isn’t unique. Across the country, rising stars of the pre-Trump era have shed the traditional Republicanism of their past to follow Mr. Trump’s far-right brand of politics, cementing the former president’s influence over the next generation of the party’s leaders.”
