Judge considers stopping Phoenix ballot drop box watchers
A federal judge in Arizona says he hopes to decide by Friday whether to order members of a group to stop monitoring outdoor ballot drop boxes in the Phoenix area. The effort by the group Clean Elections USA has sparked allegations of voter intimidation. The groups Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino asked U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi on Wednesday to prevent members of Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of drop boxes in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous. The groups also want the judge to stop Clean Elections USA members from following voters and taking photos and videos of them and their cars. The attorney for Clean Elections USA said such a broad restraining order would be unconstitutional.
Meadows ordered to testify in Georgia election investigation
Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff who was deeply involved in efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in power after the 2020 election, was ordered by a South Carolina judge Wednesday to travel to Atlanta to testify in a criminal investigation into election meddling. Meadows, 63, has been fighting to avoid appearing before a special grand jury that has been investigating election interference in Georgia by Trump and his allies. Meadows’ lawyer, James Bannister, said he would appeal the decision. A subsequent statement from the lawyer’s spokesperson said that Meadows was “weighing all legal options” while awaiting the judge’s final written order.
Garland formally bars Justice Department from seizing reporters’ records
The Justice Department on Wednesday formally banned the use of subpoenas, warrants or court orders to seize reporters’ communications records or demand their notes or testimony in an effort to uncover confidential sources in leak investigations, in what amounts to a major policy shift. The rules institutionalize — and in places expand — a temporary policy that Attorney General Merrick Garland put in place in July 2021, after the revelation that the Justice Department, under Attorney General William Barr, had secretly pursued email records of reporters at The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.
Wisconsin man guilty of killing 6 in Christmas parade attack
Darrell E. Brooks was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of six people he struck with his car on a rampage through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 2021. The verdict, delivered by a jury in Waukesha County, followed a chaotic three-week trial in which Brooks represented himself. Brooks, 40, was found guilty of all 76 criminal charges, including 61 counts of recklessly endangering safety, six counts of hit-and-run causing death, two counts of bail jumping and one count of misdemeanor battery. In Wisconsin, conviction of first-degree intentional homicide carries a mandatory life sentence.
Reports of looting
in Kherson as Ukrainians battle to retake city
With Kherson shaping up to be the site of the next major battle in Ukraine, occupying forces raised the pressure on city residents Wednesday to abandon their homes and leave for Russia. “We live, like, in a dystopian movie here,” Katerina, 38, said by telephone, asking that her full name not be used. She described widespread looting and an increasingly threatening atmosphere. Kherson is caught between Russian forces and the Ukrainian soldiers intent on retaking it. A nearby hydroelectric dam may prove to be a major point of contention, because it is the last major crossing over the Dnieper River available to Russian forces.
Meta fined for campaign finance disclosure violations
A Washington state judge has fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeated, willful violations of campaign finance disclosure laws. The penalty issued by King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North on Wednesday was the maximum allowed. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that the maximum was appropriate considering that he had previously sued Facebook in 2018 for violating the same law. Washington’s transparency law requires ad sellers such as Meta to disclose the names and addresses of those who buy political ads, the target of such ads and the total number of views of each ad. Meta has objected to the requirements. Ferguson described the fine as the largest campaign finance-related penalty ever issued in the U.S.
French leader vows to raise retirement age to 65, from 62
French President Emmanuel Macron is vowing to implement a pension reform that would eventually raise the retirement age by three years to 65 and make younger generations work longer. In an interview on France 2 television, Macron said Wednesday that the changes will start being applied next year and the minimum retirement age to get full pension will be gradually increased from 62 now to 65 by 2031. Yet he says he is “open” to discussion with workers’ union the retirement age and making potential amendments to the proposals. A proposed pension overhaul sparked nationwide strikes and protests at the end of 2019 during Macron’s first term. Macron was reelected for a second term in April.
Jury convicts men accused of supporting plot to kidnap Michigan governor
Jurors in Michigan convicted three men Wednesday of aiding a plot to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor in 2020. The men on trial in state court — Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico — were accused of helping Adam Fox, who was convicted in federal court of conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose COVID-19 restrictions the men considered tyrannical. In a statement after the verdict, Whitmer lamented the growing threats of political violence against both public officials and everyday citizens, saying: “They are the logical, disturbing extension of radicalization, hatred and conspiratorial thinking that festers in America, threatening the foundation of our republic.”
By wire sources
