South Koreans' Support for Liberal Lee Rises Ahead of Election
Support for South Korea's presidential race frontrunner Lee Jae-myung has risen to a three-month high as he extends his lead over conservative candidates, in a sign the opposition Democratic Party could grab power in nationwide polls on June 3.
The latest Gallup Poll released Friday showed that the left-leaning Lee's support has risen to 37%, up 3 percentage points from last week's survey. It was the first poll conducted since former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over his martial law gamble and showed that support for Lee's party rose to 41% while that of the ruling People Power Party slipped to 30%.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lake County GOP chair alleges Dems set up for caucus during work hours
Lake County Republican Party Chairman and county councilman Randy Niemeyer raised concerns Tuesday about Democratic employees setting up for the party's caucus during work hours and paying student election workers for training they didn't attend. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman said the set-up for the caucus took place over the weekend, and that student election workers have a different training sign-in and payment process compared to other election workers. Niemeyer, R-Cedar Lake, said during the council's Tuesday meeting five or six Democratic employees spent three hours setting up for the county Democratic Party caucus, which was held Saturday, March 1, at the Lake County Government Center auditorium, during work hours Friday, February 28. The county's employee handbook says 'that activity is deemed improper,' Niemeyer said, so he'd like to look into why the employees set up the caucus during work hours, what has been done to correct the action, and who paid for the workers' time. 'That is not allowed to happen on government time even if there is someone else paying for it,' Niemeyer said. 'I don't think it's ever good practice for government workers to be participating in political work during their work hours.' Lake County has a history of employees doing political work in the office, Niemeyer said, like former Lake County Surveyor George Van Til who was convicted in federal court for using county resources to run his campaign. 'We've had situations here in the past where people have faced legal consequences for those sorts of things, and I sure as heck don't want to see another black eye on Lake County.' Employees did not spend three hours setting up for the caucus during business hours. The voting machines and tables were delivered that Friday, Fajman said, but all set up was done Saturday morning. Fajman said some employees could've walked into the auditorium to see if the equipment was in the room ready to be set up the next day. Employees like to walk the government campus during their breaks, so it's possible some employees could've walked by the auditorium, she said, but no set-up was done. During the May special Crown Point and Hobart school referendum elections, Niemeyer said he was concerned about inspectors and students being paid for training, which they have to attend by law, but records indicate that some didn't receive training. 'We've got some discrepancies there in processes and systems that need to be looked into,' Niemeyer said. Fajman said that special elections are paid for by the entity holding the election, so all payments of election workers would be paid for by the school districts. Initially, the money comes out of the county's general fund, and then the schools reimburse the county for the elections. Under Indiana law, clerks and judges can complete election training online or in person, Fajman said. Inspectors have to do training in person, she said. Further, Indiana law dictates that students have to attend training, Fajman said, so they can pick in person or online. Fajman said when election workers go to training, they show their driver's license and check in on a poll pad against voter registration data. Because some students aren't old enough to vote yet, Fajman said they are checked in manually. To get paid, students on Election Day sign a pay claim and mark on the claim that they attend training. Inspectors could have a discrepancy in training attendance because there could be situations where an inspector had to back out of working the election – but remains on the record – and another inspector fills in, Fajman said. The election office has been working toward coming up with a system to better track attendance and payments, Fajman said, and hopes to launch it by the next general election. 'Right now, there's no foolproof method that we have, but we're looking into it right now,' Fajman said. Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said he supports Niemeyer raising questions about what occurred in the election office and during the special election. But there's 'agencies out there to police that,' Bilski said. Bilski said the situations should be looked into and see what the investigations find. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said since Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, was in the audience of the meeting, maybe the legislature could look into election training criteria to make it more clear who can and can't do which type of training. akukulka@
Atlantic
an hour ago
- Atlantic
The Protests Are Just Starting
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. For months, as Donald Trump has hollowed out the executive branch, defied courts, and worked to suppress dissent, his critics have rightly worried about the lack of visible public opposition. Democratic Party leaders are still obsessing over the 2024 election; outside organizations are fatigued; and mass protests such as those seen in the early months of Trump's first term have been missing. That began to change over the past few days, as demonstrations arose in Los Angeles over immigration-enforcement operations by federal agents. As they begin to spread to other cities, these protests look like the first mass movement against the second Trump administration. And with events scheduled this weekend to serve as counterprogramming to Trump's birthday military parade, they have the potential to grow. Yet as this moment begins, some members of the anti-Trump coalition worry that these demonstrations will bring about disaster. Protests are messy; even when the majority of participants are peaceful, just a few bad actors can produce instances of violence, and big protests always draw a few bad actors. Observers have also worried about the optics of protesters carrying Mexican flags, lest the protests be seen as unpatriotic or anti-American. One overriding concern is that even minor missteps by Trump's critics will give him an excuse to overreach further. 'Trump is expecting resistance,' my colleague Tom Nichols wrote over the weekend. 'You will not be heroes. You will be the pretext.' These concerns are understandable, and they are offered in good faith by dyed-in-the-wool Trump critics, who don't hesitate to call him a budding authoritarian. They're correct that Trump is welcoming confrontation. Trying to convince anti-Trump allies about the most effective tactics can feel much more productive than appealing to Trump to respect protests or the rule of law, especially because his actions are frequently erratic and irrational. But the focus on specific tactics, or on trying to predict how the president will respond, overlooks how effective large protests have been—not just historically, but also during Trump's first term. The same could be true now. None of this is to excuse violent protests, which are dangerous and destructive, and also usually politically counterproductive in America. Actual violence in Los Angeles appears to be limited and small in scale, and Trump's decision to federalize thousands of National Guard members and deploy hundreds of U.S. Marines is, as I wrote yesterday, both legally dubious and wildly disproportionate. The most heralded victims so far have been some Waymo driverless taxis, and local authorities blamed scattered violence on provocateurs who are tangential to the protests. Most protesters appear to be on the streets simply to witness and to speak out against the administration's immigration raids. Take the president's word for it: Even Trump says the situation is ' very well under control.' The existence of large demonstrations, which are spreading into other cities, is itself a sign of Trump's vulnerability. His turn to the military to try to enforce his will, less than six months into his term, is a gesture of authoritarianism, but it's also an indication of his weak sway over the public. Plenty of experience shows that Trump almost always folds. Besides, Trump definitely wins if people disperse because they don't want to provoke him. Peaceful protests can be very effective at changing policy and public opinion, and the biggest win for Trump might be for people to be so scared of what he'll do next that they do nothing at all. As the journalist Asawin Suebsaeng noted on Sunday, you would be hard-pressed to find Americans counseling protesters in repressive nations—such as Iran or Burma or Hungary—to stop protesting just because their leaders might be spoiling for a fight. Furthermore, gaming out strategy and predicting how things might end here (or anywhere) is very difficult. This applies to everyone involved. Some advising caution are worried that protests will give Trump cover to intensify a crackdown, but he hardly needs an excuse, and his reactions are unpredictable. Meanwhile, people around Trump are very confident that they're in a winning position on immigration. 'We couldn't script this any better,' someone 'close to the White House' told Politico. 'Democrats are again on the '20' side of an 80–20 issue.' But why should anyone believe them? The story of Trump's career is overreach followed by public opposition—including on immigration—and sometimes that opposition sways him. During his first term, Trump reversed his family-separation policy in summer 2018 because of widespread horror. Trump and his advisers were also convinced that protests against police brutality, which turned violent in cities such as Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, were going to win them the 2020 election, and they were proved wrong about that. The backlash has come even faster this term. Although Trump won the election with a campaign that focused intensely on immigration enforcement, Americans have been less enthusiastic about the results now that they're experiencing their effects. Lots of people support deporting criminals, but they don't like it when beloved community members such as Carol Hui, the woman whose story became a rallying point for a conservative Missouri town, are removed. (She has since been released. TACO.) In April, a Washington Post / ABC News / Ipsos poll found that a majority of people disapproved of Trump's immigration policies. A CBS News / YouGov poll taken before the L.A. protests found him slightly higher—but at just 50 percent approval. The data journalist G. Elliott Morris finds that coverage of the improper deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador hurt Trump's approval ratings. YouGov polls conducted since the protests began have found that pluralities of Americans disapprove of Trump deploying both the National Guard and the Marines. None of these polls should be taken as gospel, but they should give pause about drawing conclusions as to how the public at large will view what's happening in Los Angeles. They are also a reminder that public opinion is not immutable—it's dynamic and can be shaped. The anti-Trump movement can much more easily figure out what it stands for than it can predict what Trump might do next, or how other people will react. Today's News The Pentagon doubled the number of California National Guard members in Los Angeles and deployed about 700 Marines to the city's protests yesterday. A shooter killed at least 10 people at a high school in Graz, Austria, according to police. The State Department ordered diplomatic missions on Friday to resume processing visas for Harvard University students and exchange visitors. Evening Read The Wyoming Hospital Upending the Logic of Private Equity By Megan Greenwell After years of trying to improve his hospital in Riverton, Wyoming—first as a doctor, then as a board member and volunteer activist—Roger Gose was ready to give up … 'You want to leave a place better than you found it,' he told me. And for a long time, he felt like he had. But that was before LifePoint Health, one of the biggest rural-hospital chains in the country, saw his hospital as a distressed asset in need of saving through a ruthless search for efficiencies, and before executives at Apollo Global Management, a private-equity firm whose headquarters looms above the Plaza Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, began calling the shots. That was before Gose realized that, in the private-equity world, a hospital was just another widget, a tool to make money and nothing more. More From The Atlantic Culture Break Watch (or skip). Ballerina, the new John Wick spin-off (in theaters now), succeeds as a piece of junky fun —but it also shows the trap of the cinematic side quest, David Sims writes. Examine. As Donald Trump prepares to host the musical Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, a Victor Hugo scholar explores the real message behind the novel.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Republican attorneys general accuse California of excusing 'lawlessness'
FIRST ON FOX: Nearly all Republican attorneys general blasted California's Democratic leaders on Tuesday in a joint statement, accusing them of condoning criminal behavior and saying they left President Donald Trump with no choice but to activate thousands of National Guard soldiers. "In California, we're seeing the results of leadership that excuses lawlessness and undermines law enforcement," 26 attorneys general wrote in the statement, first provided to Fox News Digital. "When local and state officials won't act, the federal government must." The attorneys general said Trump's decision to federalize the National Guard to address anti-immigration enforcement riots and protests that broke out in parts of Los Angeles County over the weekend was the "right response." Their remarks stand in direct contrast to those of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats across the country, who widely condemned Trump's decision to send the military into California as an unnecessary escalation. Newsom sued Trump over the move and accused the president of stripping California of its sovereignty. Presidents federalizing the National Guard, which is a state-based military force that falls under the dual control of governors and presidents, is rarely carried out without the consent of a governor. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who led the attorneys general in issuing the statement, told Fox News Digital in a brief interview he felt Newsom was "gaslighting" the public by saying California's local and state law enforcement had the unrest under control and did not need Trump to intervene. "We all saw what was happening," Carr said. "There were federal law enforcement officers that were being attacked by mobs. And in fact, I read articles where local law enforcement were saying they were overwhelmed and they needed help. My question is, why in the world would he not accept the help of the federal government at a time where there was mob rule, where there was arson that was taking place, where assaults were occurring, instead of coddling the criminals that are doing this again?" Carr said those opposed to the Trump administration's immigration raids could "peacefully disagree with what the federal government is doing." Newsom, for his part, alleged that Trump exacerbated the riots, echoing a position some criminal justice advocates take that an immediate show of force in response to intensifying protests is an ineffective approach. In Newsom's lawsuit, attorneys wrote that Trump's decision was not only unwise but also an unlawful and "unprecedented usurpation of state authority and resources." Fox News Digital reached out to the California Attorney General's Office for comment.
