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Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pulaski and Izard Counties subject to election integrity review by state board
From left, Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, and commissioners William Luther, Jamie Clemmer and Bilenda Harris-Ritter. (Photo by Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday authorized election integrity reviews for Pulaski and Izard counties. The board also voted unanimously to decertify all three members of an unnamed county's election commission after hearing the results of its staff's investigation of complaints about the 2024 general election. The board doesn't name counties when levying sanctions until the affected county and individuals have an opportunity to respond and either accept or challenge the proposed sanctions. State law allows the board to conduct election integrity reviews in the odd-numbered years following an election. The board can choose the counties randomly or by a two-thirds vote if it has received information a substantial violation of election or voter registration laws has occurred. The board issued a letter of reprimand earlier this month to Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth over violations of state election law during early voting last year. A deputy clerk changed the street addresses of 132 voters in a precinct file without authorization, according to the SBEC letter. Other clerk's office employees caught the changes two days later but not before four voters had cast the wrong ballots. The employee resigned shortly after the incident, the letter says. Unauthorized changes to voter records are considered a felony under A.C.A. 7-1-104, and the SBEC referred the matter to the Pulaski County prosecutor and the attorney general's Election Integrity Unit. The SBEC also issued a letter of warning to the Pulaski County clerk for failing to prevent unauthorized changes to voter records. The election integrity reviews approved by the state board Wednesday will seek to identify errors and any evidence of fraud in voter registration records and absentee voting documents as well as verify the accuracy and integrity of election results, according to ACA 7-4-124. No specific mention was made about the reason Izard County will be the subject of an election integrity review, but the board voted at its December meeting to refer complaints from election monitors to SBEC staff for investigation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate votes by the seven-member SBEC mean the chairman of the unnamed county's election commission won't be able to work in an official election role for 14 years and the other two commissioners for eight years. SBEC Director Chris Madison said it would be up to the respective county political party committees to appoint new members to the election commission if the sanctions are accepted. County election commissions are composed of three members, two from the majority political party and one from the minority party. County election officials were the subject of six complaints to the state board, including two that referred to a hostile environment created by the election commission chair and poll supervisors toward poll watchers. The allegations included 'hostility and [an] overall lack of professionalism in dealing with poll watchers' and a failure by the chair and poll supervisors to 'recognize the rights and responsibilities of the poll watchers, thereby preventing the poll watchers from performing their duties,' SBEC legal counsel Waylan Cooper said. Cooper said the investigation found evidence supporting the allegations, including an incident when the county commission chairman called sheriff's deputies to remove a poll watcher after the poll supervisor tried to prevent the watcher from sitting in a chair that allowed a full view of the voting process. The chairman also raised his voice while telling poll watchers they were being ejected from the location, intimidating at least one potential watcher from participating further, Cooper said. 'The hostility toward poll watchers later spread' to another voting site in the same city on Election Day, Cooper said, when a disagreement between the poll supervisor and a poll watcher led to the supervisor's husband, who was also a poll worker, verbally accosting the watcher with profanity and telling the watcher to leave. 'The backstory is that there's two political factions in this community, and the election officials are on one side of a local issue and the poll watchers on the other,' Madison told the board. Madison made a similar remark about Izard County during the board's December meeting: '[Izard County] has a city that has two very engaged factions, and Hatfields and McCoys kind of comes to mind.' 'They have to be professional and adult enough to put aside that they don't like the people who are poll watchers and allow them to do their jobs,' SBEC member Sharon Brooks said. The law requires it and their training demands it, 'and they're not doing that,' she said. The board voted unanimously to decertify the supervisor and her husband for four years. Madison noted that the couple has since moved to another county and Clemmer's motion applies statewide. Regarding the allegations against the county commission chairman, SBEC member Bilenda Harris-Ritter said, 'I think it's unconscionable that the chair of the election commission is behaving like this … and encouraging other officials to behave like this.' Harris-Ritter offered the motion to decertify the commission chair for seven two-year federal election cycles, the maximum the state board can impose. Madison said the action was appropriate 'to help solve some problems up there.' The SBEC staff will be intimately involved in the county's election processes going forward, he said. The board voted separately to decertify the other two members of that county's election commission over a complaint that the commission didn't deliver provisional ballots to the clerk and secretary of state until a week after the deadline. Unlike in many Arkansas counties, the clerk there is not the election coordinator; another member of the election commission is the coordinator. In another case, the board voted to decertify an election commissioner in a different county for 14 years over his failure to show up on time to open a polling place at the start of early voting. Board members in support of decertification noted similar issues had happened in previous years. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers want to replace all of the state's lead water lines
Drinking water photo from the Ohio Governor's Office. Ohio lawmakers are introducing a bipartisan bill they are hoping will not only improve the state's water quality, but also save lives. Ohio state Reps. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, and Monica Robb Blasdel, R-Columbiana, are introducing the Lead Line Replacement Act. 'This legislation aims to keep our community safe and healthy by implementing a comprehensive regulatory framework to plan, execute, and assist in the replacement of all lead water lines in the state of Ohio,' Robb Blasdel said. 'Lead water lines are a relic of the past. However, despite the danger, we know these are still in use all across our state.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ohio has 745,000 lead service lines and nearly 4,000 Ohio children are tested for high levels of lead poisoning, said Jarrells, who is a survivor of lead poisoning. 'Ohio is in a crisis,' he said. 'The number (of lead poisoning) is likely higher because of the reality that not every child in this state is tested.' The use of lead pipes was banned by Congress in 1986. In 2021, Ohio ranked third in the nation for the most lead pipes, according to the EPA. Lead is able to enter drinking water through the corrosion of lead or lead-contaminated water service lines. No amount of lead exposure is safe for children, the lawmakers said. 'Replacing each of these (lead lines) will be a challenging task, but one we firmly believe is attainable,' Robb Blasdel said. 'This bill would mandate local water providers to work with the state to identify these lines, develop a plan to replace these lines with safe alternatives, and execute this plan over a 15 year time period.' The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency would be responsible for overseeing enacting this mandate if the legislation passes. 'This bill also prohibits partial replacements that can make contamination worse,' Jarrells said. It would cost nearly $5 billion to remediate every single lead line in Ohio, he said. 'I didn't introduce this in the budget because I wanted to do the work to make it bipartisan,' Jarrells said. He put forth a similar bill during the last General Assembly, but it only had sponsor testimony in committee. 'This is necessary,' Jarrells said. 'This is a human issue, and to introduce this bill with bipartisan support, that's how we're going to ultimately see this bill become law.' Lawmakers say replacing Ohio's lead lines would lead to fewer cases of dementia, depression, anemia, coronary heart disease, cardiovascular mortality, infant mortality, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Lead poisoning poses a threat not just to children. Adults exposed to lead are more likely to experience increased risks of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, kidney and nervous system problems, said Annalisa Rocca, the drinking water manager for the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund. 'I grew up turning on the kitchen tap without a second thought, and most Ohioans still do the same, unaware that an unseen lead service line may be supplying their water,' she said. Archie Beasley, lead program director of the Junction Coalition, serves a Toledo neighborhood that has 100-year-old homes with lead lines underneath them that are transporting lead into kitchens and bathrooms. 'We're going to make sure that no child goes to their kitchen sink, that no child goes to their grandmother's kitchen sink and gets water out of the refrigerator, and they're going to be drinking lead water that is going to impact their health,' he said. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Boston Globe
18-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Republicans look to get tax bill back on track with Sunday committee session
'This is the vehicle through which we will deliver on the mandate that the American people gave us in the last election,' he said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday. Advertisement The Republicans who criticized the measure noted that the bill's new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded. For example, they are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid. Those requirements would not kick in until 2029 under the current bill. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We are writing checks we cannot cash, and our children are going to pay the price,' said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the committee. 'Something needs to change, or you're not going to get my support.' Johnson said the start date for the work requirements was designed to give states time to 'retool their systems' and to 'make sure that all the new laws and all the new safeguards that we're placing can actually be enforced.' Advertisement Roy was joined in voting no by Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania switched his vote to no in a procedural step so it could be reconsidered later, saying after the hearing he was confident Republicans would 'get this done.' Johnson said talks to deal with their concerns were continuing Sunday. Remarkably, the vote against advancing the bill came after President Donald Trump had called on Republicans in a social media post to unite behind it. 'We don't need 'GRANDSTANDERS' in the Republican Party,' Trump posted. 'STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!' At its core, the sprawling package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump's first term, in 2017, and adds temporary new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and auto loan interest payments. The measure also proposes big spending increases for border security and defense. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade. Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed to the measure, which Republicans have labeled 'The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.' Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called it, 'one big, beautiful betrayal' in Friday's hearing. 'This spending bill is terrible, and I think the American people know that,' Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNN's 'State of the Union'' on Sunday. 'There is nothing wrong with us bringing the government in balance. But there is a problem when that balance comes on the back of working men and women. And that's what is happening here.' Advertisement Johnson is not just having to address the concerns of the deficit hawks in his conference. He's also facing pressure from centrists who will be warily eyeing the proposed changes to Medicaid, food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits. Republican lawmakers from New York and elsewhere are also demanding a much large state and local tax deduction. As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what's currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the effort to lift the cap, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers. If the bill passes the House this week, it would then move to the Senate, where Republican lawmakers are also eyeing changes that could make final passage in the House more difficult. Johnson said: 'The package that we send over there will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced, and we hope that they don't make many modifications to it because that will ensure its passage quickly.'
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump promised ‘full transparency' over Epstein files. Are more documents coming?
President Donald Trump this week addressed an unexpected question from a reporter about whether he intends to release more information on Jeffrey Epstein. His remarks came just days before Virginia Giuffre, one of the first and most prominent survivors of Epstein's abuse to speak out, died by suicide. Epstein, a sex offender accused of orchestrating a massive child sex trafficking ring with his associates, died by suicide in 2019 while in custody on federal sex trafficking charges. He was associated with dozens of celebrities and powerful politicians, bringing international interest to the case. Much of this interest centered around redacted court documents naming alleged associates and victims known as the 'Epstein files.' Attorney General Pam Bondi moved to release some of these documents in February in what she labeled the 'first phase' of declassified files — but much of the information was already public. Trump, when asked by a reporter on April 22 when the public could expect to see the release of more documents, said he would speak to Bondi. 'I don't know, I'll speak to the attorney general about that, I really don't know,' Trump said. On January 23, Trump signed an executive order directing the declassification of records surrounding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. 'I do know that we've done the RFK, the Kennedy, Martin Luther King is out there very shortly, so we'll find out,' Trump added. 'We've really announced we're doing them in full transparency.' Bondi moved to declassify several documents from Epstein's criminal prosecution, many of which were already published. The files previously published pilot logs related to the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's close associate, who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. The files also included redactions from prosecutors to protect victims. Bondi also published Epstein's 'little black book,' containing names of his alleged associates. However, that too was already published. One never-before-seen document was an "Evidence List," a catalogue of evidence obtained by investigators. Items included a 'LSJ logbook,' believed to refer to his private island Little St. James, and a CD labelled 'girl pics nude book 4.' Several big names had already been linked to Epstein through previously released documents, including Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger. Bondi had invited several prominent right-wing influencers to the White House — including 'Libs of TikTok' owner Chaya Raichik and Republican activist Scott Presler — to see the documents the day they were released. But virtually all of that information was already public, and many Republicans turned to social media to criticize Bondi. 'GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR instead of leaking old info to press,' far-right Representative Anna Paulina Luna wrote on social media at the time. Luna, who chairs a House Republican-led Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, said the Justice Department did not provide her or her committee with the documents. '1) If the Epstein files are out, where do we find them? (2) What's the difference between 'phase 1' and 'phase 2'?' asked Republican Senator Mike Lee. 'Will the Epstein files tell us whether he killed himself?' Far-right influencer Laura Loomer raged that 'THERE ARE NO EPSTEIN FILES!!!' Bondi said releasing the first-phase documents 'sheds light on Epstein's extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.' 'This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump's commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,' she added. Following the release of 'phase one,' Bondi reportedly pushed the FBI and her own agency to urgently review and declassify more files, according to ABC News. The FBI enlisted thousands of agents to help with the effort, the outlet reports. Meanwhile, Trump has vowed to declassify documents in several high-profile cases during his second term. This includes the release of 2,200 files related to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, which critics blasted as 'just another nothing burger' that revealed little new information. Trump also promised to release sealed files about the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Business Journals
22-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Mayor Scott outlines goals for Baltimore in State of City address
By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . Mayor Brandon Scott's State of the City address paints an optimistic picture for Baltimore's future, despite recent economic challenges and federal funding cuts. Story Highlights Mayor Brandon Scott outlines goals to lower property taxes by 2028. Scott aims to tackle vacant housing crisis and attract new businesses. Baltimore's State of the City address moved downtown to highlight investment opportunities. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's ambitious agenda for his second term centers on lowering the property tax rate by 2028, attracting new businesses and tackling the vacant housing crisis amid continued economic uncertainty. Those were among the goals outlined Monday during Scott's fifth State of the City address downtown at the M&T Bank Exchange. The mayor ticked off a list of priorities and ideals during the optimistic, TED Talk-style speech, where he paced the stage in front of a large video screen showing aerial shots of Baltimore, TV news clips and personal testimonies about city life. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Scott, 41, was sworn in for a second term in December after four years of weathering headwinds that include the pandemic, public safety woes, a prolonged battle over the presence of squeegee kids on city streets and declining property values downtown. Lately, that list has included an austere state fiscal crisis and the near collapse of federal aid to local jurisdictions under the Trump administration, from which Baltimore has not been spared. The city filed a lawsuit in early February to try to reverse frozen or cut federal funds. "This city is full of folks who love her, want to make her better, and will check anyone from outside who comes after her," the mayor said in his address. "Baltimore is not going to sit and take it." The annual State of the City address has traditionally been delivered at City Hall. The decision to move the message outside that historic home helped underscore Scott's pledge to rewrite Baltimore's narrative and attract new investment to the city. Some recent momentum on that front includes a $500 million private investment to redevelop Harborplace, the success of upgrades at the newly branded CFG Bank Arena, an overhauled Lexington Market and recently announced plans to reinvent parts of Redwood Street downtown with retail amid a pedestrian-friendly corridor. Among the pledges made by Scott on Monday were: Setting a goal of lowering the city's property tax rate to under $2 per $100 of assessed value by 2028. The current rate is $2.248. This would reverse long-standing criticism of the high cost of living in Baltimore, where the effective tax rate is the highest in the state. Scott gave no details about how he planned to make that happen. Earlier this month, the mayor unveiled a budget that hiked taxes and fees to close an $85 million gap. Ending the city's crisis of blighted, vacant houses, buildings and lots by 2038 under a newly-branded effort called Reframe Baltimore. Pumping some of the nearly $700 million awarded to the city from lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis back into community development. Pushing for major changes to local building and zoning codes to allow for additional multifamily housing options in the city to help create more affordable apartments. Creating a Mayor's Office of Arts, Culture, and Entertainment to help solidify and attract live events, nightlife, the film industry and a cultural workforce to Baltimore. The mayor paced the stage during his address in a blue suit, bright gold tie and tennis shoes. He had the demeanor of a motivational speaker and a clear message: Baltimore's short- and long-term outlook is on the rise, buoyed by a historic decline in the city's homicide rate last year and a slight increase in population. 'We're looking at $7 billion in public and private development downtown through 2028," the mayor said. "Whether you're a Fortune 500 company or a startup, we want you to get in on the action. Consider this a personal invitation from the mayor.'
