Category: NEWS
Driver of Texas migrant truck was reportedly ‘very high on meth’
Homero Zamorano, 45, was taken into custody in a nearby field after he allegedly abandoned the 18-wheeler with dozens of migrants stashed in the back in a desolate area in San Antonio on Monday. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/06/29/texas-migrant-truck-driver-was-high-on-meth-report/
Abortion doctors’ post-Roe dilemma: Move, stay or straddle state lines
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and clearing the way for roughly half the states to ban abortion is forcing the nation’s providers to upend their lives and could radically alter the reproductive health care landscape.
One clinic in Alabama, for example, is offering its roughly dozen staff members buyouts to give them a couple months’ cushion if they need to search for jobs in other states.
An abortion provider near Cleveland — a single mom who promised her teenage son he wouldn’t have to change schools again — is switching fields to become an addiction specialist. And a Texas doctor, who felt his job had become untenable, just packed up to relocate to Montana, where abortion remains legal, for now.
The National Abortion Federation has set up an online marketplace where doctors who have been shut down or expect to be can sell their ultrasound machines, speculums and other equipment.
“We’re all grappling with the question of, ‘At what point would I move?’” said Ashley Brant, an OB-GYN at an academic facility in Northwestern Ohio and a fellow with the nonprofit group Physicians for Reproductive Health. “What will be my personal line in the sand?”
Though the number of abortion providers in the nearly two dozen states that have banned or are expected to swiftly ban abortion is small — about 10 percent of the national total, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank — their departure will likely have an outsized impact.
Health experts warn that this potential migration could be devastating for patients, leaving them without access to birth control, prenatal care and other reproductive health services. They also fear no provider will be left in some communities to perform emergency abortions in the life-threatening circumstances exempt from most state bans.
“If you see a fleeing of providers from states that have severely restricted their ability to practice in line with their moral compass and medical ethics, it will be a huge loss to public and community health,” said Jamila Perritt, an abortion provider in Washington, D.C., and the president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “We don’t have to guess what’s going to happen. We already see the high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in places like Louisiana and Mississippi. But we’ll see much more of that as these bans continue to sweep the country.”
Among the providers POLITICO spoke with in states with abortion bans on their books, none said they are willing to offer illegal abortions — aware that doing so risks losing their medical license and, in some states, serving a lengthy jail sentence.
Instead, many are planning to travel across state lines a few days a week or month to provide abortions while keeping a practice in their home state in case the bans are reversed. Some intend to use telemedicine to consult with their patients and prescribe abortion pills in states that allow them. And others — especially those whose current work focuses mainly on abortion …read more
India: Tensions high in Udaipur after killing of Hindu man
Authorities shut down internet and restricted gatherings in the western Indian town after a widely-circulated video showed two men slitting a tailor’s throat. It comes amid widespread religious tensions in India. …read more
Trump made 17 endorsements in recent primaries. Here are the winners.
Last week, Georgia dealt former President Donald Trump another set of endorsement losses, while his side-switching act in Alabama came good after Katie Britt won the GOP Senate primary over Rep. Mo Brooks.
This week, Trump filled his endorsement card with a number of safe incumbents, but he also got involved in another hard-fought member-on-member primary in Illinois. The former president awarded an endorsement to Rep. Mary Miller — who has made a number of controversial statements during her year and a half in Congress — against Rep. Rodney Davis, who did not vote to overturn 2020 election results and supported establishing a Jan. 6 investigative commission. Both are conservatives, but Miller’s more consistent alignment with Trump helped win her the nomination in the end.
State Sen. Darren Bailey’s gubernatorial win in Illinois also came after a late Trump endorsement, though Bailey had already climbed atop the polls before then. Bailey beat out moderate candidate Richard Irvin, who was bankrolled by local billionaire Ken Griffin.
In the deep-red Utah, Trump chose to back Reps. Burgess Owens and Chris Stewart, who voted to contest the 2020 election results, and snubbed Reps. John Curtis and Blake Moore, who voted to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks. But no matter — all Utah GOP House incumbents won nominations on Tuesday. Besides Davis, four representatives who voted to create the bipartisan commission survived primary challengers, though Trump avoided getting involved in their races.
Colorado wins
CO03
Rep. Lauren Boebert
Won with 65 percent of the vote. She voted to overturn 2020 election results.
According to witness testimony, Boebert was among those who met with White House aides and Trump campaign officials around Thanksgiving in 2020 to discuss ways former Vice President Mike Pence could delay election certification processes on Jan. 6. She tweeted “Today is 1776” on Jan. 6, but denied playing a role in the day’s riots or planning sessions. In his endorsement, Trump said Boebert was a “fearless leader, a defender of the America First agenda and a fighter against the loser RINOs and radical Democrats.”
Illinois wins
GOVERNOR
Darren Bailey
The state senator aggressively sought Trump’s endorsement among a field of six candidates, including Irvin, whose funding from Griffin made the race one of the most expensive non-presidential primaries ever. Bailey was a nominating delegate for the former president in 2020, and specifically sought Trump’s endorsement. During the weekend rally where he endorsed Bailey, Trump called him an “outstanding warrior in the Illinois state Senate where he’s totally, totally respected by all of them,” while naming current Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker “one of the worst governors in America.”
IL12
Rep. Mike Bost
Unopposed.
IL15
Rep. Mary Miller
Won with 58 percent of the vote. She voted to overturn 2020 election results.
Miller ran against fellow GOP member Rep. Rodney Davis, who voted to create the Jan. 6 commission and drew ire from within the party. The representative has had her own share of controversies while in office: She repeated an Adolf Hitler quote to crowds on January 5, and more recently called …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/28/trump-endorsed-candidates-2022-primary-result-00042767
Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in prison
NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The stiff sentence was the punctuation mark on a trial that explored the sordid rituals of a predator power couple who courted the rich and famous as they lured vulnerable girls as young as 14, and then exploited them.
Prosecutors said Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, and couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion and onetime girlfriend. In December, a jury convicted Maxwell of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges.
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, who also imposed a $750,000 fine, said “a very significant sentence is necessary” and that she wanted to send an “unmistakable message” that these kinds of crimes would be punished. Prosecutors had asked the judge to give her 30 to 55 years in prison, while Maxwell’s defense sought a lenient sentence of just five years.
Maxwell, wearing a blue prison uniform and a white mask to conform with coronavirus rules, sat quietly before the sentencing, looking ahead as Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe recounted how Maxwell subjected girls to “horrifying nightmares” by taking them to Epstein.
“They were partners in crime together and they molested these kids together,” she said, calling Maxwell “a person who was indifferent to the suffering of other human beings.”
When she had a chance to speak, Maxwell said she empathized with the survivors and that it was her “greatest regret of my life that I ever met Jeffrey Epstein.” Maxwell called him “a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life,” echoing her defense attorneys’ assertions, in court filings calling for a lenient sentence, that Epstein was the true mastermind.
Maxwell, who denies abusing anyone, said she hoped that her conviction and her “unusual incarceration” bring some “measure of peace and finality.”
Several survivors described their sexual abuse, including Annie Farmer, whose voice cracked several times as she said “we will continue to live with the harm she caused us.”
Farmer said her sister and herself tried to go public with their stories about Epstein and Maxwell two decades ago, only to be shut down by the powerful couple through threats and influence with authorities.
Inside the crowded courtroom, three of Maxwell’s siblings sat in a row behind her. Most of the others in attendance were members of the media.
Epstein and Maxwell’s associations with some of the world’s most famous people were not a prominent part of the trial, but mentions of friends like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Britain’s Prince Andrew showed how the pair exploited their connections to impress their prey.
Over the past 17 years, scores of women have accused Epstein of abusing them. Many described Maxwell as acting as a madam who recruited them to give massages to Epstein.
The …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/28/ghislaine-maxwell-prison-jeffrey-epstein-00042874
Almost two dozen Ukrainians still missing after Russia hits Kremenchuk mall
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombing was “one of the most daring terrorist attacks in European history.” …read more
Serena Williams’ return to Wimbledon ends with dramatic defeat against Harmony Tan
Serena Williams’ return to singles tennis after a year-long absence ended with a dramatic 7-5 1-6 7-6 first-round defeat against France’s Harmony Tan at Wimbledon.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/tennis/serena-williams-harmony-tan-wimbledon-spt-intl/index.html
US to release at least 1.6 million vaccines to fight monkeypox by end of year, officials say
Health officials are recommending anyone potentially exposed to monkeypox should get vaccinated as the virus spreads throughout the country.
Abcarian: Cassidy Hutchinson is the Jan. 6 witness we’ve been waiting for
Mark Meadows’ former assistant testifies that the White House knew about the planned violence and did nothing to stop it
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-06-28/cassidy-hutchinson-testimonyt-jan-6-committee
Trump lunged at a security chief on Jan. 6, demanded to go to Capitol, aide tells hearing: recap
Cassidy Hutchinson testified about discussions in the White House ahead of Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions on the morning of the Capitol attack.