Michigan is poised to replace Iowa as an early Democratic presidential nominating state, upending the current primary lineup and breaking with a half-century of precedent.

President Joe Biden signaled to Michigan Democrats during his trip to the state this week that he’d bless their bid to hold their primary in the early-state window in the future, according to a senior Michigan Democrat.

Separately, White House aides informed state officials of their recommendation to the Democratic National Committee, according to senior party leaders. The DNC’s rules committee is meeting on Friday to discuss the issue.

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West said on Thursday he plans to give Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and right-wing conspiracy monger Alex Jones the keys to his Twitter account, in protest against Elon Musk’s stance that he won’t let Jones back on the platform after a 2018 ban.

“I got a Twitter account and today I’m gonna have Nick and Alex tweet from my account,” Mr West, who now goes by Ye, said on Jones’s Infowars show, part of an antisemitic rant where he praised Hitler and attacked Jewish figures in Hollywood.

“I do find it a little bit hypocritical that Elon Musk said he was purchasing Twitter to create a free speech environment,” Mr Fuentes, West’s 2024 presidential campaign adviser, added.

“He says that free speech is the thing that’s going to save the West and our civilization, but yet he has taken exception to you Alex for some seemingly specific reason, maybe personal to him but certainly not principled.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/kanye-west-slams-elon-musk-and-gives-nick-fuentes-and-alex-jones-power-to-run-his-twitter-in-antisemitic-rant/ar-AA14N3jD

The Senate voted on Thursday to reject a proposal to give railway workers seven days of sick leave, a benefit that was left out of a labor deal brokered by the presidential emergency board between freight rail companies and unionized workers.

The proposal to give workers seven days of sick leave, which was championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other liberal Democrats, failed to pick up enough Republican support to overcome a 60-vote threshold set for adopting the measure.

It passed the House Wednesday with a narrow bipartisan majority, 221 to 207 with only three Republicans voting for it.

The votes in the Senate and House now give Democrats the ability to blame Republicans for imposing a labor deal on rail workers that includes little flexibility for taking time off work due to illness or doctors’ visits.