Florida Senate passes voting bill to create election crimes agency
The Florida Senate passed a bill overhauling the state’s electoral process, adding restrictions to the state election code and establishing a law enforcement office dedicated to investigating election crimes. The bill goes to the state’s House of Representatives, where it could pass as soon as next week and land on the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who is expected to sign it. One Republican, state Sen. Jeff Brandes, voted against it. The bill would establish a permanent election crimes office within the Department of State, making Florida one of the first states to have an agency solely dedicated to election crimes and voter fraud.
Supreme Court restores death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber
The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of helping carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and injured hundreds more. The vote was 6-3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The majority ruled that a federal appeals court had erred in overturning the death sentence a jury had handed down for Tsarnaev’s role in the bombings. Friday’s ruling cleared the way for Tsarnaev’s execution, but that is unlikely to happen in the near future in light of a moratorium the Biden administration has imposed on carrying out the federal death penalty.
Judge blocks effort to disqualify Cawthorn from ballot as ‘insurrectionist’
A judge Friday blocked an electoral challenge that sought to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for reelection by labeling him an insurrectionist, issuing a novel order that invoked a post-Civil War law that forgave confederate soldiers and sympathizers. U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, squelched an effort by lawyers and voters who had filed a motion before North Carolina’s Board of Elections declaring Cawthorn ineligible for reelection under the Constitution. They contended that the first-term Republican’s support for rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, made him an “insurrectionist,” and therefore barred him from office.
Ex-Amtrak engineer acquitted in Philadelphia crash that killed 8
A former Amtrak engineer who was operating a speeding train that derailed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight people, was acquitted Friday of involuntary manslaughter and related charges. The jury’s verdict was the culmination of a case filled with twists as the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office tried to prosecute the former engineer, Brandon Bostian, on more than 200 charges. Bostian was operating a Washington-to-New York train on May 12, 2015, when he sped the train to 106 mph as it entered a curved section of track with a 50 mph speed limit. The National Transportation Safety Board identified Bostian’s actions as the probable cause of the crash.
Several Western news organizations suspend operations in Russia
Several Western media organizations moved Friday to suspend their journalistic operations in Russia in the wake of a new crackdown on news and free speech by President Vladimir Putin’s government. Bloomberg News and the BBC said their correspondents in Russia could no longer freely report because of the new censorship law signed by Putin on Friday, which effectively criminalized independent journalism on the invasion of Ukraine. CNN International, the global arm of CNN, said it had stopped airing in Russia, and ABC News said that it would not broadcast from the country Friday.
Islamic State claims deadly bombing of Pakistani mosque
A bomb tore through a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, on Friday, killing at least 57 people and wounding more than 100. The Islamic State group’s regional affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility, according to a translation of an Islamic State statement by the SITE Intelligence Group. The statement said the bombing was carried out by an Afghan suicide bomber. The attack was one of the deadliest in years to hit Peshawar. In 2014, nine Taliban gunmen killed more than 140 people at the Army Public School and Degree College.
China outlines plan to stabilize economy
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday announced a target for the country’s economy to expand “around 5.5%” this year, signaling the government’s emphasis on stabilizing growth in the face of global uncertainty from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Li laid out the goal in his annual policy speech at the opening in Beijing of a weeklong session of China’s Communist Party-controlled legislature. The target appeared aimed at maintaining political and economic stability as Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to secure another five-year term in power at a party meeting this fall.
Paralympics president rebukes Russia at opening ceremony
The president of the International Paralympic Committee broke protocol Friday when he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games. Although the Paralympics are run by a separate nonprofit from the International Olympic Committee, the organization holds the event in parallel with the Olympics and with the same spirit of conduct. The IOC in recent years has reaffirmed its ban on protests and political messages at the Olympics, rules that are generally aimed at athletes. But in this case it was the head of the Paralympics who injected a political tone.
US can’t use health rule to expel migrant families facing persecution, court says
A public health rule that has kept many migrants from entering the country without legal permission during the pandemic suffered a blow Friday, when a federal appeals court said it could no longer be used to expel families to countries where they would face persecution or torture. The ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit applies only to migrant families traveling with minor children. The Biden administration can continue to use the rule for families who do not face persecution and for single adults, who have made up a majority of the migrants expelled under it.
By wire sources
