Arizona governor caps off quarrelsome legislative session with budget approval
The first-term Democrat broke her veto record, sparred with Republicans over agency leadership nominations and got on board with bipartisan proposals that ruffled the feathers of some members of her party. The session unfolded while Hobbs' 2026 bid to hold the reins of the battleground state loomed large.
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Global News
30 minutes ago
- Global News
Texas approves redistricting as California moves to counter with new maps
The national redistricting battle enters its next phase Thursday as California Democrats are scheduled to pass a new congressional map that creates five winnable seats for their party, a direct counter to the Texas House's approval of a new map to create more conservative-leaning seats in that state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has engineered the high-risk strategy in response to President Donald Trump's own brinkmanship. Trump pushed Texas Republicans to reopen the legislative maps they passed in 2021 to squeeze out up to five new GOP seats to help the party stave off a midterm defeat. View image in full screen California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about the 'Election Rigging Response Act' at a press conference at the Democracy Center, Japanese American National Museum on August 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. Mario Tama / Getty Images Unlike in Texas, where passage by the Republican-controlled state Senate and signature by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott are now all that's needed to make the maps official, California faces a more uncertain route. Democrats must use their legislative supermajority to pass the map by a two-third margin. Then they must schedule a special election in November for voters to approve the map that Newsom must sign by Friday to meet ballot deadlines. Story continues below advertisement The added complexity is because California has a voter-approved independent commission that Newsom himself backed before Trump's latest redistricting maneuver. Only the state's voters can override the map that the commission approved in 2021. But Newsom said extraordinary steps are required to counter Texas and other Republican-led states that Trump is pushing to revise maps. 'This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country,' Newsom said Wednesday on a call with reporters. 'And we're going to fight fire with fire.' Texas Democratic lawmakers, vastly outnumbered in that state's legislature, delayed approval of the new map by 15 days by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest. They were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy That session ended with an 88-52 party-line vote approving the map after more than eight hours of debate. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. Story continues below advertisement A battle for the US House control waged via redistricting In a sign of Democrats' stiffening redistricting resolve, former President Barack Obama on Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,' Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. Over the long term, we shouldn't have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who's got better ideas. But since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and… — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 20, 2025 The incumbent president's party usually loses congressional seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. Story continues below advertisement View image in full screen Texas Republican Rep. Marc LaHood views a map during a House meeting in the State Capitol on August 20, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell / Getty Images However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. The struggle for — and against — Texas redistricting Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. There was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Story continues below advertisement House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable during the Wednesday vote. View image in full screen State Representative Charles Cunningham, a Republican from Texas, and State Representative Mano DeAyala, a Republican from Texas, in the House Chamber during a special session at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, US, on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. Eli Hartman / Getty Images House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
Toronto Star
30 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Lawyers ask judge to order ICE to free Spanish-language journalist from immigration detention
Mario Guevara, the metro Atlanta-based Spanish-language reporter, covers a protest against immigration enforcement on Buford Highway, Ga., on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Winnipeg Free Press
30 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Lawyers ask judge to order ICE to free Spanish-language journalist from immigration detention
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyers for a Spanish-language journalist who has been held in federal immigration detention since June argue in a court filing that the government is retaliating against him for his news coverage and is holding him in violation of his constitutional rights. Local police in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta, arrested Mario Guevara while he was covering a protest June 14, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him a few days later. He is being held in an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia, a five-hour drive from his family in suburban Atlanta. A petition filed in federal court late Wednesday says the government is violating Guevara's constitutional rights to free speech and due process. It argues that he is being punished for filming police, which is legal, and that he is being subjected to unlawful prior restraint because he's unable to report while in custody. The filing asks the court to order his release 'so that he may rejoin his family and community and pursue his constitutionally protected journalistic activities.' The filing names Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and top ICE officials. DHS, ICE and the attorney general's office did not immediately respond to messages Thursday seeking comment. Guevara's work as a journalist Guevara, 47, fled his native El Salvador two decades ago because he had suffered violence and harassment there for his work as a journalist. He has continued to work as a journalist since arriving in the Atlanta area. He attracted a large following while working for years for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, before starting a digital news outlet called MG News a year ago. He frequently arrives on the scene where ICE or other law enforcement agencies are active, often acting on tips from community members. He regularly livestreams what he's seeing on social media. His lawyers have said he is authorized to work and remain in the U.S. A previous immigration case against him was administratively closed more than a decade ago. He has a pending visa petition and is eligible for a green card, the court filing says. He was livestreaming video on social media from a 'No Kings' rally protesting President Donald Trump's administration when Doraville police arrested him. Video from his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with 'PRESS' printed across his chest. He could be heard telling a police officer, 'I'm a member of the media, officer.' He was standing on a sidewalk with other journalists, with no sign of big crowds or confrontations around him, moments before he was taken away. Police charged Guevara with unlawful assembly, obstruction of police and being a pedestrian on or along the roadway. His lawyers worked to get him released and he was granted bond in DeKalb County, but ICE had put a hold on him and he was held until they came to pick him up. DeKalb County Solicitor-General Donna Coleman-Stribling on June 25 dismissed the charges, saying video showed Guevara was 'generally in compliance and does not demonstrate the intent to disregard law enforcement directives.' The sheriff's office in neighboring Gwinnett County announced June 20, once Guevara was already in ICE custody, that it had secured warrants against him on charges of distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving. Gwinnett County Solicitor-General Lisamarie Bristol announced July 10 that she would not pursue those charges. An immigration judge last month set a $7,500 bond for Guevara, but that order has been put on hold while the government appeals it. Criticism of Guevara's arrest and detention His arrest and continued detention have been decried by journalism and press freedom groups, as well as by some public officials in Georgia. His adult children have been vocal in calling for his release. 'Mr. Guevara is a pillar of the Hispanic community in the Atlanta area, and his relationships with the Hispanic community, law enforcement, and civic and religious organizations allow him to serve as a bridge between various stakeholders in his community,' Wednesday's court filing says. The government's arguments during his bond hearing in immigration court and subsequent filings in that case have relied 'almost exclusively on Mr. Guevara's reporting as justification for his continued detention,' the filing says. The government's filings detailed several occasions when Guevara had recorded or livestreamed law enforcement activities and posted videos that included undercover agents and their vehicles online, arguing that he's a danger to the community. His lawyers counter that livestreaming, recording and publishing videos of law enforcement activity in public — even if those videos identify officers and their vehicles — is protected by the First Amendment. They also note that all charges against Guevara had been dismissed and he hasn't been convicted of any crimes during his two decades in the U.S. The petition was filed in Brunswick by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the University of Georgia law school's First Amendment Clinic and Guevara's individual attorneys.
