"Why not me?" 11-year-old pens letter asking White House to consider her for the Supreme Court vacan

New poll: 55% of Americans say nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court is not 'important'

Source: Yahoo! News

With President Biden set to announce a nominee to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, most Americans now say they’re lukewarm about his promise to pick a Black woman for the first time in U.S. history, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — while also saying the top three Black women on Biden’s shortlist are “qualified” to sit on the court.

The survey of 1,628 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Feb. 3 to 7, found that a clear majority of those polled (55 percent) say nominating a Black woman is either “not very” (19 percent) or “not at all” (36 percent) important to them. Just 23 percent say it is “very important.”

Predictably, the overall number who say nominating a Black woman is either very or somewhat important is much higher among Democrats (80 percent) and 2020 Biden voters (78 percent) than among independents (35 percent), Republicans (16 percent) or 2020 Donald Trump voters (10 percent).

Likewise, just 36 percent of Americans say Biden’s pledge was a "good idea," while the rest say it was either “a bad idea” (32 percent) or “neither good nor bad” (32 percent). And just a third of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that Biden will select "the right kind of person" to replace Breyer on the court (33 percent), or that they themselves expect to support the nominee Biden puts forward (34 percent) — noticeably lower than the 39 percent who said they expected to support "President Trump's Supreme Court nominee" in September 2020, just before he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/new-poll-55-of-americans-say-nominating-a-black-woman-to-the-supreme-court-is-not-important-100011137.html

5 Phoenix police officers shot, 3 others wounded by shrapnel

Source: ABC News

Five Phoenix police officers were shot during an early morning barricade situation at a house, the department said.

Phoenix police said they were called to a home where a woman was reported shot.

When an officer approached to help, the suspect immediately opened fire, striking the officer multiple times, police said. That officer was able to get away to safety, police said.

Then a man came out of the house holding a baby, police said. The man put the baby on the ground and walked to police where he was detained.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officers-shot-phoenix/story?id=82823799

Three Senate Republicans urge archivist not to certify the Equal Rights Amendment

Source: CNN

(CNN)Three Republican senators are calling on the Archivist of the United States David Ferriero to commit to not certifying the Equal Rights Amendment as part of the Constitution, as ERA advocates demand Ferriero publish the amendment before he retires.

In a letter dated February 8, Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mitt Romney of Utah wrote to Ferriero, seeking his "reassurance" that he won't act on the ERA "until it has been properly ratified and legal questions regarding such ratification have been resolved."

Backers of the ERA have been pressuring Ferriero, who's set to leave office in April, to publish the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution as part of his ministerial duties, arguing that it has satisfied all the necessary constitutional requirements and in fact took effect last month. However, key legal questions remain unresolved such as whether states can rescind ratifications of an amendment and if Congress has the power to lift a deadline retroactively.

"In light of the calls for you to disregard your duty and certify the ERA, we write to ask for your commitment that you, and the acting Archivist who will take over in April, will not certify or publish the ERA," the Republican senators wrote to Ferriero, arguing that the ERA has "failed to achieve ratification by the states and is no longer pending before them."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/politics/senate-republicans-archivist-era/index.html

Senator Manchin Casts More Doubt on Biden's Agenda With Blast on Inflation

Source: Bloomberg News

Senator Joe Manchin threw more cold water on President Joe Biden’s spending plans after inflation spiked to a 7.5% rate in January, the highest rate in four decades.

Manchin for months has been raising alarms about the impact of federal spending on inflation and in December pulled the plug on negotiations over Biden’s economic plans, citing rising prices as among his concerns.

He’s also been urging the Federal Reserve to act more aggressively to stem inflation, which he said is “causing real and severe economic pain that can no longer be ignored.”

“It’s beyond time for the Federal Reserve to tackle this issue head on, and Congress and the Administration must proceed with caution before adding more fuel to an economy already on fire,” the West Virginia Democrat said Thursday in a statement.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/manchin-casts-more-doubt-on-biden-agenda-with-blast-on-inflation

Sens. Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski crossed party lines and endorsed each other during a joint inte

Source: Business Insider

Sens. Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski crossed party lines and endorsed each other during a joint interview

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Sens. Joe Manchin and Lisa Murkowski appeared in a joint TV interview on Sunday and exchanged endorsements.

Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, appeared on CNN's "State of the Union," during which Manchin endorsed her and called her a "dear friend."

"It's hypocritical to work with a person day-in and day-out and then when they're in cycle you're supposed to be against them because they have an R or a D by their name," Manchin said. "If these are good people I've worked with, we've accomplished a lot, why in the world wouldn't I want to continue to work with them?"

Murkowski, who is facing Trump-endorsed primary challenger Kelly Tshibaka this year, also said she would endorse Manchin if he runs for re-election in 2024.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/sens-joe-manchin-and-lisa-murkowski-endorse-each-other-2022-2

Mayor Adams apologizes for calling white NYPD officers 'crackers' in 2019: 'That was inappropriate'

Source: Daily News

Mayor Adams bragged in 2019 about being a better cop than his “cracker” colleagues in the NYPD, the Daily News has learned.

Adams, who was at the time gearing up to launch his campaign for mayor, went on the racially charged diatribe while at a private event in Harlem on Dec. 13, 2019, a video exclusively obtained by The News shows.

“Every day in the Police Department, I kicked those crackers’ a--,” Adams says in the video.

“Man, I was unbelievable in the Police Department with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement,” he continued, referring to a police advocacy group he co-founded in the 1990s. “Became a sergeant, a lieutenant, and a captain. You know the story — some people all of a sudden trying to reinvent me. But the reality is what I was then is who I am now.”

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-mayor-adams-white-nypd-officers-crackers-20220204-ihdjqo33ibcyriszl4uhwdnkum-story.html

5-4 Supreme Court clears the way for Alabama execution

Source: CNN

(CNN)A 5-4 Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for the execution of death row inmate Matthew Reeves by lethal injection, reversing a lower court opinion.

Reeves was executed at Alabama's Holman prison less than two hours later.

The lower court had agreed to block the execution because Reeves sought to be executed by an alternate method: nitrogen gas. But the justices granted Alabama's request to reinstate the execution in an after-hours order Thursday.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by the court's three liberals, would have denied Alabama's request. Justice Elena Kagan, writing only for Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, said in the brief order that the majority should have abided by the lower court's decision.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/politics/supreme-court-death-penalty-matthew-reeves-alabama/index.html

Has Mitch McConnell issued a statement about Breyer's replacement?

I know I know, who cares...I'm just curious for some reason what the worm has to say about this so I can have a good laugh.

Virginia's new Republican governor, who banned critical race theory in schools, is launching a tip l

Source: Business Insider

Virginia's new Republican governor, who banned critical race theory in schools, is launching a tip line for parents to report their kids' teachers

Virginia's newly elected Republican governor, who has banned critical race theory in public schools, is launching a tip line to report teachers of "divisive subjects."

In a Monday interview with the conservative radio host John Fredericks, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said parents could email the state government to report any public-school teachers they believed to be "behaving objectionably."

Youngkin said: "We're asking for folks to send us reports and observations that they have that will help us be aware of things like privilege bingo, be aware of their child being denied their rights that parents have in Virginia. And we're going to make sure we catalog it all.

"This gives us a great insight into what's happening at a school level, and that gives us further ability to make sure we're rooting it out."

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-youngkin-launches-tipline-report-teachers-2022-1