Wisconsin court hears case that
could upend state politics
The deep ideological split on the Wisconsin Supreme Court was clear Tuesday as the court heard arguments in a case with the potential to upend political power in the state: a challenge to the state’s legislative district maps. Conservatives on the court accused Democrats of waiting to raise their claim that the maps violate the state constitution until they had secured a 4-3 liberal majority on the court. But the court’s liberal justices signaled they were sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ argument that the existing legislative districts failed the constitutional requirement that districts be compact and contiguous, and that the maps should be entirely redrawn.
DeSantis picks up key endorsement
from Iowa religious leader
Influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, the second major endorsement DeSantis has picked up this month in the state. Kim Reynolds, Iowa’s popular Republican governor, announced her support two weeks ago, giving DeSantis a key surrogate in a state that will hold the first vote of the Republican primary season with its caucuses Jan. 15. Vander Plaats has endorsed the last three Republicans who won contested Iowa caucuses. DeSantis is trailing former President Donald Trump by huge margins in polls in Iowa as well as nationally.
Johnson pays Trump visit as he faces mounting criticism from the Right
Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday night visited former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to a person familiar with the meeting, making his first pilgrimage to see the Republican presidential front-runner since his surprise elevation to the top post in the House. The speaker is facing criticism from hard-right allies livid at him for teaming with Democrats last week to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown. Johnson, who defended the former president in two Senate impeachment trials, is positioning himself as the first speaker to be in complete lockstep with Trump.
Latino business advocate stung
by misconduct claims
resurfaces with ‘No Labels’
No Labels, the centrist organization that is vying to gain ballot access for the 2024 presidential election, has joined forces with Javier Palomarez, an advocate of Hispanic-owned businesses with a history of allegations of workplace financial misconduct and sexual harassment. Palomarez, who voted for Joe Biden in 2020, said his role at No Labels would be as a conduit to the Hispanic community, which he said had been harmed by the Biden administration’s energy policies. Feedback from No Labels supporters, he said, is that it would be better to replace Biden with a Republican.
Animals meant for adoption may
have been turned into reptile food
When the San Diego Humane Society in California shipped more than 300 rabbits, guinea pigs and rats to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in Tucson over the summer, it believed that they would be adopted as pets. According to officials at both humane societies, the 323 animals arrived in Tucson on Aug. 7. The Humane Society of Southern Arizona transferred the animals to a man named Colten Jones, who runs a business that sells live and frozen animals for reptile feed, both humane societies said. Police said they were investigating the case as a “possible fraud.”
Users of Venmo, Cash App and other
digital wallets get a tax reprieve
For the second time in a year, the IRS is delaying enforcement of a contentious tax policy that would require users of digital wallets and e-commerce platforms to start reporting small transactions to the tax collection agency. The IRS said Tuesday that it would slowly phase in the new policy, which would require individuals and small businesses to report digital transactions of as little as $600 to the federal government. The new reporting requirement was originally supposed to take effect late last year. The head of the IRS said the decision to delay the rule again stemmed from concern of higher tax bills among those who used digital wallets.
Electronic warfare confounds civilian
pilots, far from any battlefield
Electronic warfare — intended to disrupt the satellite signals used by rockets, drones and other weaponry — in the Middle East and Ukraine is affecting air travel far from the battlefields, unnerving pilots and exposing an unintended consequence of a tactic that experts say will become more common. Planes are losing satellite signals, flights have been diverted and pilots have received false location reports or inaccurate warnings that they were flying close to terrain, according to European Union safety regulators and an internal airline memo viewed by The New York Times. The Federal Aviation Administration has also warned pilots about GPS jamming in the Middle East.
Satellite imagery shows ship hijacked
by Houthis near Yemen port
A vessel seized by Yemen’s Houthi militia in the Red Sea Sunday was anchored just outside a busy Yemeni port Tuesday, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by The New York Times. A satellite image showed the vessel, the Galaxy Leader, at anchor among other ships off the Red Sea port of Hodeida, about 430 miles southeast from the location broadcast in its last received transmission over the weekend. Hours before the hijacking, the Houthi militia had threatened to target ships flagged, owned and operated by Israel traversing the Red Sea. Israel’s military said the ship was en route to India and had an “international crew, without Israelis.”
U.S. conducts airstrikes
against Iranian proxies in Iraq
The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes — the second in roughly a day — in Iraq Wednesday, destroying two facilities used by Iranian proxies that had been targeting American and coalition troops, U.S. defense officials said. The latest rounds in the tit-for-tat attacks between the United States and Iranian-backed fighters took place in Iraq. The United States struck two facilities south of Baghdad used by Kataib Hezbollah, a militia group in Iraq that is considered a proxy of Iran. Kataib Hezbollah’s political wing is part of the coalition of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq. A defense official said the military could not provide a casualty assessment.
By wire sources
