Bonus Tweet of the Day

Bonus Tweet of the Day

Tweet of the Day

Appeals Court ruling harmonizes Arizona abortion laws

An Arizona Appeals Court provided a ruling to harmonize Arizona's abortion laws Friday.

The ruling does not repeal the territory-era abortion law, but instead adds the 15-week abortion ban approved by Governor Doug Ducey earlier this year to the law.

"Arizona's original statute outlawing most abortions, § 13-3603, itself contains an exception permitting abortions when necessary to save the life of the mother," the ruling states. "Arizona’s more specific subsequent laws, including the most recent 15-week law, may be read in harmony with that provision, by understanding them as merely adding further exceptions to the general prohibition on abortion."

The full ruling can be read below. If you do not see the PDF below, click here.

Congressman ruben Gallego released the following statement on the ruling:

“Today's ruling blocking Arizona's territorial-era abortion ban is a blow to the extremist legacy of Attorney General Brnovich. But make no mistake, this ruling is not a comprehensive solution, and I will do everything I can on the federal level to support the right to abortion.”



https://www.abc15.com/news/state/appeals-court-ruling-harmonizes-arizona-abortion-laws

Just flew round trip between SF-Detroit via DELTA and here is my experience.

Flights on time, even on snowy Christmas Eve. Our bags arrived with us each way. Smooth as silk. They costs more than Southwest, but they function.

Last year, George Santos called Joe Biden "a pathological liar".

GOP Elections Official Charged For Fraudulently Submitting Ballots & Pleading Guilty

A Republican official helping lead the handling of local elections in a county along New York’s Atlantic coast was caught fraudulently obtaining and submitting mail-in ballots in the names of more than half a dozen local voters and was set to plead guilty, reports indicated.

The official is Jason T. Schofield, an elections commissioner in Rensselaer County, and he would also be resigning from his leadership post in connection with his guilty plea, per reports. Schofield’s attorney Danielle Neroni confirmed the news, saying Schofield is “scheduled for a change of plea and with his change of plea he will be resigning from his position,” according to the Albany Times Union. He will also be cooperating in the ongoing FBI investigation. He’s not the only official currently or recently involved in local politics who was accused of ballot fraud. Kimberly Ashe-McPherson, a now past city council member in the city of Troy, also pleaded guilty to similar charges after submitting fraudulent ballots in elections last year.

Ashe-McPherson may have committed her criminal acts in cooperation with or at least connection to Schofield. She “received guidance from an unnamed official at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections,” The New York Times summarized in a September report based on earlier info. There is also an investigation into the county’s handling of absentee ballots by New York state Attorney General Letitia James.

A press release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York specified that voters whose personal details Schofield used for the fraudulent ballots in local elections were unaware of the nature of what he was doing. That earlier press release, which was last updated in September of this year, adds that Schofield repeatedly visited victimized local voters to obtain their signatures for submission back to election authorities with the ballots, presumably using a mix of just outright deception and the air of authority to get those targeted to put pen to page. Early reports didn’t specify the charges to which Schofield would be admitting, although he was originally charged with a dozen felonies involving fraudulently possessing and using a means of identification.





https://bipartisanreport.com/2022/12/30/gop-elections-official-charged-for-fraudulently-submitting-ballots-pleading-guilty/

Santos, a Suburban House and $11,000 in Campaign Payments for 'Rent'

The company was called Cleaner 123, and over the course of four months, it received nearly $11,000 from the campaign of George Santos, the representative-elect from New York who appears to have invented whole swaths of his life story.

The expenditures were listed as “apartment rental for staff” on Mr. Santos’s campaign disclosure forms and gave the address of a modest suburban house on Long Island. But one neighbor said Mr. Santos himself had been living there for months, and two others said that they had seen Mr. Santos and his husband coming and going, a possible violation of the rule prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal expenses.

The payments to Cleaner 123 were among a litany of unusual disbursements documented in Mr. Santos’s campaign filings that experts say could warrant further scrutiny. There are also dozens of expenses pegged at $199.99 — one cent below the threshold at which federal law requires receipts.

The travel expenses include more than $40,000 for air travel, a number so exorbitant that it resembles the campaign filings of party leaders in Congress, as opposed to a newly elected congressman who is still introducing himself to local voters.




https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/nyregion/george-santos-campaign-finance.html

Santos posted racist anti-Obama Instagram picture. (Warning)

NY-03: State Senator Anna Kaplan Calls for Investigation into George Santos

MINEOLA, NY (December 29, 2022) - Today, New York State Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-Port Washington) joined hundreds of community members from the district of Congressman-Elect George Santos (NY-03) for a "Hold Santos Accountable" press conference and rally to call for investigations into George Santos following the news that his entire personal biography is a fabrication, and that there are significant concerns he potentially engaged in illegal conduct.

During the press conference, Senator Kaplan delivered the following remarks calling for accountability: “George Santos has perpetrated a complete and total fraud on our community, but we cannot forget that for the last three years, he was enabled and supported by the entire Nassau County Republican machine and his Republican running mates, many of whom sit in elected office today and others who will soon take office.

The questions about exactly who George Santos is are not new, but they were brushed aside and minimized by local Republicans desperate to flip this congressional seat at any cost.

Our entire community has been victimized, and we demand accountability. George Santos must be investigated by all appropriate authorities, particularly surrounding his shady business dealings and mystery millions that seem to have appeared overnight despite having no legitimate career to speak of.

The outstanding criminal charges against George Santos in Brazil must be answered for.

And we all deserve an apology for his reprehensible lies about his nonexistent Jewish faith and his completely fake connection to the Holocaust.

To allow George Santos to be seated as a member of Congress would be a further knife in the heart of this community, and I’m urging Congressional Republican leadership to stop that from happening while investigations are ongoing.

I’m also calling on every Republican in Nassau County who stood with this man over the course of the last three years to apologize to the voters, and renounce their support, along with every organization who endorsed his candidacy.

We all deserve answers, and we all deserve a chance to heal from this dark chapter. It’s time for George Santos and the Republicans who enabled him to do the right thing and allow that process to move forward.”



https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/anna-m-kaplan/senator-anna-kaplan-calls-investigation-george-santos