Politics

The groups noted that after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, California approved Senate Bill 98, which stipulated press rights amid protests.

Additionally, press groups noted that LAPD officers were given training following the 2020 protests on how to work safely with journalists.

"The investment in the training was in the millions, and some of the training has indeed been put to use by officers. But recent events have made it clear that the need for re-training is high," the National Press Club said.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the LAPD from engaging in unconstitutional acts against journalists.

Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, tells 11Alive that Chance, a baby boy, was born prematurely last week by emergency cesarean section. The infant weighs about 1 pound 13 ounces and is in the NICU.

Smith has been kept medically alive since February 19, when she was declared brain dead at eight weeks pregnant due to blood clots in her brain. Her family says doctors kept her on life support due to Georgia’s abortion law, the LIFE Act, which doesn’t clearly address cases of brain death, but causes confusion in medical environments. News of her condition made national headlines as she was kept on life-support while pregnant, and her family railed against the decision.

“I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. But I’m saying we should have had a choice,” she told 11Alive in a previous interview.

The lies ignore overwhelming evidence of Boelter’s actual politics: his roommate David Carlson told reporters Boelter voted for Trump and “was a strong supporter”. Other longtime friends told local media Boelter was right-leaning. While Minnesota voters don’t list party affiliation, he was registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004.

Boelter’s own recorded sermons expose his extremist views. Preaching in Congo in 2023, he is recorded as saying: “The churches are so messed up, they don’t know abortion is wrong.” He ranted against LGBTQ people as “confused,” claiming “the enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul”. His alleged hit list included abortion providers and pro-choice advocates.

The scientist responsible for overseeing the CDC team that collects data on Covid and RSV hospitalizations resigned on Monday.

Dr Fiona Havers told colleagues in an email that she no longer had confidence the data would be used “objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions”, according to Reuters.

She resigned before a planned meeting of a new vaccine panel put in place by Robert Kennedy Jr after he fired all 17 members of the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory panel. Kennedy also dropped a recommendation to get the Covid shot for healthy children and pregnant women.

CNN confirmed that Boelter works for Praetorian Guard Security where he serves as director of security patrols and has received training from U.S. military personnel.

On the company website, Boelter's wife is listed as president and CEO, while he serves as director of security patrols. The homepage advertises armed security for property and events, featuring photos of an SUV painted in a two-tone black and silver pattern similar to a police vehicle, with a light bar across the roof and "Praetorian" painted across the doors. Another photo shows a man in black tactical gear with a military-style helmet and ballistic vest.

According to Minnesota Africans United (MAU), he holds a doctorate in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service from Cardinal Stritch University and has worked for major corporations including Nestle, Del Monte, and Marathon Speedway.

Corporate records obtained by AP show Boelter's wife filed to create Praetorian Guard Security Services LLC with the same Green Isle mailing address listed for the couple.

David Carlson, a friend of Boelter, is quoted as telling CNN affiliate KARE that Boelter texted his friends in the lead-up to the shootings.

According to Carlson, Boelter worked at a funeral home, owned guns, and voted for President Donald Trump last year.

A secretive group inside the FDA gave the global manufacturer a special pass to continue shipping more than a dozen drugs to the United States even though they were made at the same substandard factory that the agency had officially sanctioned. Pills and injectable medications that otherwise would have been banned went to unsuspecting patients across the country, including those with cancer and epilepsy.

The FDA didn’t routinely test the medications for quality problems or use its vast repository of drug-related complaints to proactively track whether they were harming the people who relied on them.

And the agency kept the exemptions largely hidden from the public and from Congress. Even others inside the FDA were unaware of the details.

One of the places that Jeff Bezos lives is a man-made island off the coast of Florida called Indian Creek Village. The island is predominantly populated by other billionaires and is colloquially known as the “Billionaire Bunker.” In fact, if you’re not a billionaire, it’s quite difficult to get in. The bridge from the mainland to the island is closed to the public and protected by armed guards and a sophisticated security system. However, if the island is almost entirely cut off from the rest of humanity, the island’s inhabitants still seem intent on sharing one thing with members of the outside world: their piss and shit.

Indian Creek doesn’t have the underground infrastructure to deal with its own poop, so the solution it came up with was to funnel it through Surfside into a wider regional sewage system. Unfortunately, Surfside didn’t want the poop unless Indian Creek was willing to contribute $10 million to the community for future sewer system improvements. Indian Creek has referred to this request as “extortion.”

Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.

The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.

Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.

The motives of the attack are still unknown. According to Boelter's roommate and friend, David Carlson, he was a "strong supporter" of President Donald Trump. Videos are making their rounds of Boelter preaching about sexuality in Central Africa. Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Minnesota declined to share Boelter's voter data in the presidential primary, citing privacy concerns.

President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities, a move that comes after large protests erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Trump in a social media posting called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”

Trump's declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.

What Happened: A monitor appointed by a federal court has found that a New York City Police Department unit has been unjustly stopping and searching New Yorkers, almost all of them Black and Hispanic men. The report on the NYPD’s Community Response Team echoes a recent ProPublica investigation that found the unit, championed by Mayor Eric Adams, has been ridden with abuses.

The federal monitor found that while the CRT was initially created in the early days of the Adams’ administration to focus on so-called quality-of-life issues such as illegal motorbikes, its officers have more recently been “stopping, frisking, and searching unconstitutionally.”

What They Said: In a sample of body-worn camera footage, the monitor found that 41% of stops, searches, and frisks by CRT officers were unlawful, a far higher percentage than with other NYPD units. What’s more, while officers are required to document such stops, which the department then releases as public data, the report found that officers often failed to do so, and even when they did there was a “lack of meaningful review” by supervisors.

ALLYN: Sahil had joined DOGE, in part to learn how Elon Musk works and sees the world. And during this meeting, there was an E Q&A session-- time to ask Elon questions.

LAVINGIA: So I asked him. I said, like, what have you learned last week? Like, what-- you know, what are you learning about how the federal government works, basically? And he basically just sort of said, like, it's just-- it's just like a fractal of terribleness. And you just can't believe how terrible it is until you peel back the next layer, and it's even more terrible. And I just-- I just was kind of like, that's cool, I guess. But, like, that doesn't help me do my job. I was expecting a little bit more of a concrete answer.

ALLYN: Sahil was unimpressed. He'd gone into the meeting looking for a clear mission, hoping to get energized.

LAVINGIA: And I was like, honestly, I was super disappointed. I was expecting, like, a lot more of a plan of attack, like a sort of war room where we're like, this is what we're trying to get done. This is where we've failed. This is where we've succeeded. You know, a little bit more of, like, a team effort.

LAVINGIA: But when you join and you realize, oh, they're actually trying to do the thing that I already wanted them to do, that is sort of like-- it's good, in a sense, right? It's great that they're already focused on modernization, 100%. But also, it means that, like, you're no longer the hero, you know? Like, you're just an employee of this big organization.

Feel free to add more in the comments and cross-post them everywhere.

Reminder that there are a lot of bots and trolls in the chats. Sometimes what they say is identical to other stream chats. I'd advise to not take the bait for your own mental health.

A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to overhaul elections in the U.S., siding with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who challenged the effort as unconstitutional.

The Republican president’s March 25 executive order sought to compel officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections, accept only mailed ballots received by Election Day and condition federal election grant funding on states adhering to the new ballot deadline.

Judge Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts said in Friday's order that the states had a likelihood of success as to their legal challenges.

“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Casper wrote.

Video footage released by Padilla’s office shows the Democratic Senator approaching the podium during Noem’s remarks: “I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the Secretary,” he said before several men, including officers wearing FBI insignia, physically pushed him back. Moments later, Padilla was shoved to the floor face-down in a hallway outside the briefing room, handcuffed, and temporarily detained in an adjoining room.

“Sir! Sir! Hands off!” Padilla shouted during the scuffle, which unfolded in front of reporters and staff in a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where protests have raged for nearly a week over a Trump-ordered crackdown involving ICE, National Guard troops, and U.S. Marines.

Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being drawn into a domestic policing operation outside their normal field of operations. The groups said they have heard no countervailing opinions.

“The sentiment across the board right now is that deploying military force against our own communities isn’t the kind of national security we signed up for,” said Sarah Streyder of the Secure Families Initiative, which represents the interests of military spouses, children and veterans. people hold signs that read 'ice out of LA' Families arrested in LA Ice raids held in basements with little food or water, lawyers say Read more

“Families are scared not just for their loved ones’ safety, although that’s a big concern, but also for what their service is being used to justify.”

"Senate Republicans have finally said the quiet part out loud: They want to put millions of acres of our public lands up in a fire sale, destroy the investments that have created thousands of manufacturing and clean energy jobs—including in their home states—and obliterate programs that lower energy costs for everyday Americans," said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“In the days ahead, you'll hear a lot of excuses from Republicans trying to cover for what they're doing. Do not believe it," Heinrich continued. "This isn't about building more housing or energy dominance. It's about giving their billionaire buddies YOUR land and YOUR money."

Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, warned that the Senate legislation "is just open season on public lands."

Gov. Greg Abbott is deploying Texas National Guard troops ahead of planned anti-Trump protests this weekend, but he won’t say how many or where they are going — only that they are ready to provide the “most robust response where needed.”

“You break the law, you cross the line, you'll be arrested,” Abbott said at a press conference on Wednesday. “There is freedom of speech. However, if in your protest, you damage somebody's property, or you harm an individual, that's violating the law, and you will be arrested for it.”

Local officials in San Antonio and Austin have said they expect state soldiers to be in those cities ahead of the protests this weekend. The so-called “No Kings” demonstration is billed as a “nationwide day of defiance” to counter President Donald Trump's planned military parade in Washington, D.C. Events are set to take place on Saturday in dozens of cities all over the state, according to the website.

A new, ultra-private, super-exclusive club for the Trump oligarchy has opened in Washington, DC. Dubbed the Executive Branch and offering memberships that cost up to $500,000, the club, located in a spot beneath a Georgetown mall, aims to be a safe space for the Trump clan as well as hangers-on, who are likely to include big shots with interests before the federal government and desires to sway the administration. The initial media coverage of the club has noted the president may become a regular visitor.

Founding members reportedly include David Sacks, the tech tycoon who is now Trump’s crypto and AI czar and the chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; the Winklevoss twins, whose crypto firm was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission; Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist and podcaster; and Jeff Miller, a prominent Trump fundraiser and mega-lobbyist. On the list of owners are Donald Trump Jr.; Zach and Alex Witkoff, the sons of the president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff; Omeed Malik, a venture capitalist and business associate of Trump Jr.; and Chris Buskirk, a close ally of Vice President JD Vance and cofounder of an influential conservative donor group.

Hunger Free America, a New York-based nonprofit, ran an “information clearinghouse” for USDA that connected tens of thousands of users annually with government-funded food aid programs — including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the Summer Food Service Program. The nonprofit also helped users find private food aid programs in their communities.

But a federal lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claims USDA declined to renew the contract, despite a legal mandate to do so. The complaint states USDA officials notified Hunger Free America that it wouldn’t renew the contract weeks before it was set to expire.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday warned Americans in a televised address that the country is witnessing the initial phases of American democracy’s slide toward authoritarianism with the president’s deployment of the military to respond to peaceful protests in Los Angeles.

“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here,” Newsom said. “Other states are next. Democracy is next.”

“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” he continued. “The moment we’ve feared has arrived.”

The speech, which many remarked resembled that of a wartime president, further appeared to cement Newsom’s role as the Democratic Party’s primary voice of opposition, after repeatedly blasting Trump’s actions in LA.

Video of speech (excerpt): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DKmottFCc

Video of full speech (about 9 minutes long): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRSuavRzOo

Just a couple hours after a federal judge had ordered President Trump to relinquish control of the California National Guard saying he had violated the U.S. Constitution, an appeals court put the order on hold until a hearing on an appeal can be held Tuesday.

The appeals court did not address the merits of the case or the judge's ruling earlier in the day. But it was a stunning turnaround in northern California courts that will play out on Los Angeles streets.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had said he planned to return the 4,000 Guard Friday to their regular duties protecting the border, working on wildfire prevention or returning to their day jobs. Instead, it looked as if they will continue under the command of Trump, facing off with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.

“We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “The FEMA thing has not been a very successful experiment. Very, very expensive and it doesn’t get the job done.”

Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, said, “We all know from the past that FEMA has failed thousands, if not millions, of people. And President Trump does not want to see that continue into the future. So this agency fundamentally needs to go away as it exists.”

Trump explained on Tuesday how he recently gave $71 million “to a certain state” despite the fact that they wanted $120 million. Trump appeared to be talking about the $71 million sent to Missouri after the recent severe storms and tornadoes there in April and May. Missouri’s governor, Mike Kehoe, is a Republican, and he released a statement Monday saying the state appreciated Trump and was “grateful for the President’s leadership.”

It’s obvious where this is all headed. Trump wants to set up a system where those who show fealty get money, and those who don’t will have funds withheld. That’s not how the U.S. system is supposed to operate, but it’s clearly where we’re headed.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a temporary restraining order on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from deploying the military in Los Angeles.

The order asked a district court to block Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from mobilizing Marines and National Guard members in response to ongoing protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Southern California.

“Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens. The courts must immediately block these illegal actions,” Newsom said in a post to X.

Newsom filed the temporary restraining order on Monday, arguing that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marine Corps without the state’s consent is “unlawful” and “unprecedented.” The lawsuit argues that, unchallenged, these actions could set a precedent for the rest of the country with “devastating consequences.”

The "Trump Card" is a $5 million visa that would grant foreign nationals the right to live and work permanently in the U.S.

Such a program would be similar to the existing EB-5 visa program, which the U.S. began in 1990 to encourage job creation by foreign investors. That program requires a $1.8 million investment from foreign nationals, and that they plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

Lutnick has said the "gold card" system would replace the EB-5 visa program. Lutnick emphasized that all applicants would receive thorough vetting, and suggested the proceeds of the program could go toward reducing the national debt.