'Get out': Influx of Russians to Georgia stokes old enmities
Erik Wemple answers your questions on the media
Erik's Q&A with readers is at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, June 12. Submit your questions.
washingtonpost.com
Disgruntled worker hit with 50-years-to-life in prison for fatal NY Stop & Shop shooting
Gabriel deWitt Wilson, 33, stormed into the Long Island Stop & Shop where he was a grocery cart worker and opened fire on co-workers, killing one and leaving two others seriously wounded.
nypost.com
Three sisters killed in horrific crash the day before one of their birthdays
Three sisters died in a horrific head-on collision in North Carolina after a vehicle slammed into them just a day before one of their birthdays, police said. Viola Medlin Singletary, 74, Gloria Medlin McCrimmon, 72, Cheryl Elaine Medlin, 63, were on Highway 690 in Moore County on Wednesday when a 2023 Kia crossed the centerline...
nypost.com
Zoey has the longest tongue of any dog alive: Meet the pup that broke the Guinness World Record
She's friendly, she's slobbery and she has the longest tongue of any dog alive. This is Zoey, a lab mix with a 5-inch tongue.
usatoday.com
Georgia Outcast biker war: Mug shots, alias names released in state's largest motorcycle gang bust
Georgia authorities have released 16 mug shots in connection with the state's largest motorcycle gang bust – following an investigation into a biker turf war.
foxnews.com
Opposition coalition secures majority in Guinea Bissau's parliament in landmark elections
The national electoral commission said Thursday a coalition of opposition parties won 54 seats of Guinea Bissau’s 102 seats in parliamentary elections held Sunday.
foxnews.com
Villagers in the Philippines told to leave as officials raise alert level for nearby volcano
Philippine officials have raised the alert level for Mayon, one of the country’s most active volcanos, after the country recorded escalated conditions of gas and falling debris.
foxnews.com
Florida woman arrested for fatally shooting neighbor after alleged threats
A Florida woman is facing charges after allegedly shooting and killing her African-American neighbor. The woman told investigators she had been threatened by the victim.
foxnews.com
Tom Brady delivers stern gambling warning to NFL players
Sometimes, to get a message across loud and clear, you have to bring in the big guns.
nypost.com
The Bombing of Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam Affects All of Us
Suriya Jayanti explains the devastating global impacts of the Kakhovka Dam bombing.
time.com
Ed Carpenter Racing tabs Ryan Hunter-Reay to replace Conor Daly, will make debut next weekend
Ed Carpenter Racing announced its replacement for Conor Daly on Thursday, naming Ryan Hunter-Reay to take over. Daly was let go due to continued struggles.
foxnews.com
‘Laughing’ Don Lemon won’t return to CNN under ‘any scenario’ despite Chris Licht’s exit: source
Don Lemon has reportedly been "laughing at Chris' mounting failures" that led to his resignation, which "speaks for itself," Lemon's publicist told The Post on behalf of the former CNN anchor.
nypost.com
Deadly shooting erupts in Arab town in northern Israel amid surge in criminal violence
A shooting incident in an Arab town in northern Israel resulted in the death of five individuals, marking the latest episode in a wave of criminal violence in Palestinian communities.
foxnews.com
Haitians in severely overcrowded jails dying of thirst, starvation
Many inmates in Haiti’s overcrowded jails have been dying of thirst and starvation as malnutrition-related diseases strike the area. Gang violence has also lead to shortages of food.
foxnews.com
Marlins' Luis Arraez raises league-leading batting average to .403 in victory over Royals
Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez hit two singles to raise his batting average to a league-leading .403 in Wednesday's victory over the Kansas City Royals.
foxnews.com
Kids’ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Series in Development at Sony
Pretty soon, a new generation will be welcome to solve the puzzle for themselves.
nypost.com
Mark Consuelos takes beatdown in awkward wrestling match on ‘Live with Kelly’
The 52-year-old jumped into the ring with University of Michigan wrestler Mason Parris, considered "the most dominant wrestler in college."
nypost.com
Elliot Page is an unlikely trans hero. His new memoir shows why that’s important.
Elliot Page at the LACMA Art + Film Gala on November 5, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic In his book Pageboy, between all the juicy Hollywood stories, Page invites crucial empathy toward the trans experience. At first glance, you’d think Elliot Page would be the last person to have written an explosive tell-all Hollywood memoir. The 36-year-old Page, who has starred in iconic films like The X-Men series, Juno,and Inception as well as Netflix’s much-loved urban fantasy series The Umbrella Academy, has arguably built his career on a persona of mild-mannered chill. Yet Elliot Page is also queer and trans, coming out as trans in 2020, and his choice to publish a memoir during Pride month amid aggressive anti-trans actions playing out in red states across the US makes Pageboy a surprisingly bold political statement. Page may be an unlikely poster boy for trans rights, but that may be precisely what gives his story such power. Who is Elliot Page again? Originally from Canada, Page had a typical upbringing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, except for his double role as a child star. Page’s first acting job, in Pit Pony (1997), a film-turned-family-drama in which he also starred, netted him critical acclaim before he’d even turned 11, and set him on a swiftly rising career path. A decade later, after critically lauded turns in films like the 2004 dramedy Wilby Wonderful and the 2005 dark thriller Hard Candy, in which his character weaponizes her deceptive innocence to catch a child predator, Page bagged the role of Kitty Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), a part that’s since become iconic queer rep. The following year, he landed the title role in one of the most unexpectedly polarizing films of the decade: Diablo Cody’s comedy about teen pregnancy, Juno (2007). Featuring Page as the titular unwed high schooler who finds herself pregnant by her sometime boyfriend (Michael Cera), the film’s refreshingly casual take on teen pregnancy divided critics and activists across the political spectrum and ushered in a wave of odd takes. Time magazine blamed a nonexistent “Juno effect” for “glamorizing” teen pregnancy and causing a rash of pregnancies at a random high school. The film’s apparent quick rejection of abortion as an option for its protagonist led many viewers to conclude it was anti-abortion, a charge Cody is still quick to refute. In Juno, Page and Cera deftly fling classic Cody zingers at each other (“I still have your underwear.” “I still have your virginity!”) all while embodying the mortifying awkwardness of teenagerdom. Both actors built their personas around such performative normalcy; Page became known for this particular brand of low-key, world-weary innocence. In 2010, he starred as Ariadne, the architect of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, whose mix of wide-eyed wonder and deadpan eye-rolling over her own dreamscapes turns out to be the perfect grounding element the entire story needs. If Page had an identifiable public persona by the 2010s, it was arguably that of weaponized ambivalence. All of that changed in 2014, however, when Page, trembling through an instantly viral speech for the Human Rights Campaign on Valentine’s Day, came out as gay. Page spoke of the “crushing standards” Hollywood pressed upon people, and of his fight to live authentically despite social stigmas and homophobia. “Trying to create that mental picture of your life, of what on earth is going to happen to you, can crush you a little every day,” he said. His coming-out speech made international headlines and turned Page into one of the most-Googled celebrities of 2014; he subsequently filmed a series for Vice, Gaycation, in which he leveraged his new status as a queer icon to explore the queer identities and experiences of average citizens around the world. Though Page had yet to come out as trans, his 2014 coming-out speech is also full of references to Page’s trans identity. A 2015 profile of Page in the New York Times reported that Page, from an early age, had presented as transmasculine and had written a high school paper questioning the existence of a gender binary. That profile, while attempting to be definitive, also seemed to struggle to comprehend Page’s persona; writer Sam Anderson observes Page’s aura of “profound moral seriousness” but then meanders away to fixate on Page’s forehead wrinkles for an entire paragraph, concluding, “That is the essence of Ellen Page: the face like a doll; the gnarled sophistication of the forehead.” It’s a quizzical approach toward an actor who, as Anderson’s profile acknowledges and the memoir later confirms, has spent his entire career steadfastly rejecting the pressure to be more feminine, to perform the role of a feminine sex symbol. Throughout Pageboy — the title a clever reference to Page’s lifetime of androgynous presentation prior to coming out — it seems as if by merely passively rejecting such pressure, Page becomes a confrontational powder keg that provokes responses. “We get it, you’re gay!” a higher-up at his (former) agency allegedly responded when Page got the news about Gaycation. When Jordan Peterson was finally banned from Twitter, it was over, of all things, a tweet deadnaming and mocking Page. But Page, of course, is aware of all this. The memoir makes it clear that despite a career built around an appearance of anodyne waifishness, Page is savvy and streetwise about the mental and emotional toll the celluloid closet — and the process of leaving it — can take. What do we learn about Page in his memoir? Pageboy makes for raw reading, bouncing from emotion-filled personal encounters to the grim realities of Hollywood to the perils of navigating the societally enforced gender binary. Page skims over his rise to Hollywood stardom, picking up the majority of his narrative after his post-Juno success, when the pressure to conform really kicked in. He drops titillating details in the classic tradition of the scandalous Hollywood tell-all: everything from delightful asides (Hugh Jackman is a really nice guy! Page has Catherine Keener’s name tattooed on his shoulder!) to deeper ruminations on his relationships, including with his Juno co-star Olivia Thirlby and an indecisive, arguably manipulative Kate Mara, who refused to choose between Page and her then long-term boyfriend Max Minghella. Simultaneously, Page moves back and forth across time, detailing a lifetime of exploring his sexual and gender identity, and seemingly also a lifetime of encountering gender-based and queerphobic harassment and violence. Page recounts horrifying incidents, including being gay-bashed repeatedly, intensely stalked online and in person, alleged emotional abuse at the hands of his father and stepmother, and the time an unnamed A-lister, still allegedly one of the most famous men in Hollywood, harassed him repeatedly at a party and threatened to rape him to prove that being gay wasn’t real. Along the way, he battles an eating disorder, gender dysphoria, and a string of awful sexual encounters throughout his life. In these encounters he is never giving nor being asked for consent; which is to say he was raped repeatedly. He dissociates completely in such moments, but makes it clear that his passivity is a fear response. That’s not to say that the book is joyless; indeed, it’s because of scenes like this that, later on, once Page has come out and transitioned and developed more affirming relationships, his contrasting descriptions of sex are suffused with joy and delight. Pageboy is ultimately arguably a work not only of trans survival, but of trans euphoria. Though the memoir is rarely explicitly political — despite Page’s openly progressive politics, the book is focused on his personal experiences — it is an act of political activism simply by presenting the reality of queer trans identity. Lurking at the edges is the sense that Page, even at 36, has been just as disenfranchised by the escalating war on transgender rights, and the use of trans people as a target in the culture war, as every other vulnerable trans kid. Witness his heartbreaking description of his estrangement from his father. “To be frank, it is hard to imagine a relationship again,” he writes, noting that his father and stepmother “support those with massive platforms who have attacked and ridiculed me on a global scale.” He goes on to report that after Elon Musk allowed Peterson to rejoin Twitter, his father “liked” Peterson’s first return tweet, which referenced his being “canceled” over Page. “I have no clue what my father thinks of his son at this point,” Page writes. “Regardless of everything before, it’s painful to think that someone who parented you could support those who deny your very existence.” This all makes for heady reading, but it’s already made an impact: On June 6, the day of the memoir’s release, trolls on Twitter trended his name alongside disgraced actor Jussie Smollett, who famously staged a gay-bashing incident, as a way of attempting to discredit one of Page’s more powerful (and by no means isolated) descriptions of being verbally assaulted and threatened with violence while walking down Sunset Boulevard in early 2022. Yet the frothing anger displayed online at Page’s story just served to uphold the veracity of his account — which was, again, one of many that Page experiences throughout the memoir, underscoring just how normalized this violence is for so many queer and trans people just living their lives. That may be the key to understanding Page himself. Beyond the wave of aggressive anti-trans legislation trans people are facing around the country, there’s a broader push to question the validity of trans identity — to challenge the idea that trans people are even real. And while pop culture has a number of prominent trans women who visibly represent transfeminity to the public — Laverne Cox, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Caitlyn Jenner, and Janet Mock, for example — there are far fewer examples of celebrity trans men to look to. So it matters that our most famous transmasc celebrity, Elliot Page, is also an actor who’s arguably always been known for his authenticity. Long before he came out as trans, he performed his trans identity in ways that couldn’t be hidden, in ways that sent cisgender writers scrambling to impose traditionalist gender readings on him. At one point, E! Online published a series of awful, since-deleted pieces questioning why Page dressed like a “hobo” instead of showing off his “petite beauty.” No matter where you are on the gender spectrum, the fact Page has continued to be simply himself in the face of such ridiculous standards makes him universally relatable. And a universally relatable trans celebrity may be exactly what we need right now.
vox.com
Texas mom of three shot in chest after complaining about neighbor’s loud music: reports
The 31-year-old mom's kids, aged between 3 and 8, were heard crying in a 911 call after their shot mom staggered back home in suburban San Antonio, cops said.
nypost.com
Twitter users mock CIA's pride post celebrating ‘rich history’ of 'LGBTQ+ officers': ‘Wildly dystopian’
The CIA received backlash on Twitter for its "wildly dystopian" pride month "WELCO-ME" initiative. "Can’t believe this is real," Sen. JD Vance wrote.
foxnews.com
Asian-American student with 1590 SAT score rejected by 6 elite colleges, blames affirmative action
Jon Wang, an Asian-American who was rejected from multiple elite universities, spoke out on a Fox Nation special 'The Diversity Verdict,' vowing to fight for fair admissions.
foxnews.com
Belmont Stakes could get canceled as Gov. Hochul sets air quality measures due to wildfire smoke
If the air quality index (AQI) reaches above 200 at any horse racing track in the state then “no racing or training may be conducted at that track."
nypost.com
Federal Monitor Overseeing Rikers Takes Aim at Head of N.Y.C. Jails
Louis A. Molina, the jails commissioner, has failed to stop rampant violence, and officials have shut down avenues of information about what happens behind bars, according to a report filed in federal court.
nytimes.com
Several children injured in stabbing rampage in French Alps
Four young children and two adults have been injured after a stabbing in France. French authorities say a suspect is in custody. CBS News foreign correspondent Elaine Cobbe reports.
cbsnews.com
L.A. ports prepare to manage ship traffic as labor disrupts cargo
Most container ships through the biggest import gateway in the U.S. face delays as labor-related disruptions widen on the West Coast and threaten another cargo logjam.
latimes.com
Yes, Your Hay Fever Is Worse This Year. Here's Why
"These trends towards earlier and longer pollen seasons and higher levels of pollen in the air are expected to continue," a biology professor said.
newsweek.com
Biden hosts UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at White House
President Biden will host U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for a bilateral meeting at the White House on Thursday. It will be Sunak's first White House visit since becoming prime minister last fall. CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang discusses what to expect from the meeting and more news from the White House.
cbsnews.com
Photos show how smoke from Canada wildfires changed the view of America's monuments
Before and after photos from across the nation highlight dramatic shifts in scenery due to poor air quality conditions from wildfires.
usatoday.com
Washington girl, 10, shares how she survived 24 hours alone in woods after getting separated from family
Shunghla Mashwani told rescuers in Kittitas County, Washington, that she followed the Cle Elum River and slept between trees before her rescue on Monday.
foxnews.com
Bill Barr rips ‘confused’ Rep. Raskin over scope of Biden bribe probe
Former Attorney General Bill Barr has again disputed repeated claims by House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin that the Justice Department “closed down” an investigation into an alleged $5 million bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Biden. “Mr. Raskin seems confused about the limited scope of Mr. [Scott] Brady’s review,” Barr told The Post Thursday,...
nypost.com
Married ‘Love Is Blind’ couple give fans the finger as they finally move in together
"Love is Blind" couple Colleen Reed and Matt Bolton finally move in together after being wed for nearly two years.
nypost.com
6-year-old shoots baby in face while in bouncy chair: cops
The baby was jumping in his bouncy seat when he was shot once in the cheek and once in the shoulder.
nypost.com
Ojai music director Rhiannon Giddens knows the 2023 festival program sounds risky — that's the point
The recent Pulitzer winner is the music director of this year's Ojai Music Festival. Her programming for the festival, she explains, aims to have people experience the 'powerful' feeling of uncertainty.
latimes.com
Kamala Harris announces plans to invest $100 million to help the Caribbean with crisis, initiatives
Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the U.S. plans to invest millions of dollars to help the Caribbean fight crimes and help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis.
foxnews.com
Surprise! The Supreme Court just handed down a significant victory for voting rights
Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch attend the State of the Union address on February 5, 2019. | Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images The Court’s new voting rights decision is one of the most reassuring opinions it’s handed down in years. The Supreme Court did something genuinely shocking on Thursday. It handed down a 5-4 decision in Allen v. Milligan that preserves longstanding safeguards against racism in US elections, strikes down a gerrymandered congressional map in Alabama, and all but assures that Democrats will gain at least one congressional seat in the next election from that state. Indeed, Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion for the Supreme Court repeatedly chastises Alabama’s lawyers for their aggressive efforts to rewrite longstanding law in order to render much of what remains of the Voting Rights Act an empty husk. As Roberts writes in a particularly pointed swipe at those lawyers, “the heart of these cases is not about the law as it exists. It is about Alabama’s attempt to remake our [Voting Rights Act] jurisprudence anew.” Roberts’s opinion was joined in full by all three of the liberal justices, and was joined almost entirely in full by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Of course, the idea that a court should follow precedent isn’t supposed to be controversial — indeed, it’s supposed to be highly unusual for a court to turn its back on one of its own precedents. But this is the Roberts Court we are talking about here, a Court that, especially after former President Donald Trump remade its membership, has been extraordinarily willing to toss out seminal precedents — and to dismantle the Voting Rights Act. In Shelby County v. Holder(2013), for example, the Court simply made up a new constitutional principle — the so-called “‘fundamental principle of equal sovereignty’ among the States” — and relied on this newly fabricated idea to neutralize the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of racist election practices to “preclear” any new election laws with federal officials. Similarly, in Brnovich v. DNC (2021), the Court invented a slew of additional limits on the Act that appear nowhere in the law’s text, such as a presumption that voting restrictions that were commonplace in 1982 are lawful. Given this history, when this Voting Rights Act concerning Alabama’s congressional maps came onto the Court’s docket, it was reasonable to expect the justices to apply similarly results-driven reasoning — inventing new limits on voting rights at will, without any regard to precedent or statutory or constitutional text. And yet, Roberts’s opinion in Milligan is as much a celebration of stare decisis, the principle that courts should be reluctant to discard precedent, as it is a rebuke to Alabama’s attempt to effectively legalize racial gerrymandering. It is also the current Court’s first suggestion that its crusade against the Voting Rights Act may have limits. What was at stake in Milligan? Milligan involved a racially gerrymandered congressional map in Alabama, which gave Black voters a majority in just one of the state’s seven districts. As a practical matter, that meant that only 14 percent of the state’s delegation to the US House of Representatives would be chosen by Black voters, even though African Americans make up about 27 percent of the state’s population. Several Alabama voters, including a state senator, challenged this law, arguing it violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which forbids states from enacting an election law that “results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” Last year, a three-judge panel that included two Trump appointees agreed, releasing a 225-page opinion explaining why, under the framework the Supreme Court laid out in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), this Alabama map could not stand. Indeed, the lower court found that Milligan involved such a clear-cut violation of the Voting Rights Act that “we do not regard the question whether the Milligan plaintiffs are substantially likely to prevail on the merits of their [Voting Rights Act] claim as a close one.” As Roberts explains in his Milligan opinion, Gingles requires voting rights plaintiffs to clear several hurdles before their case can proceed. Plaintiffs seeking an additional Black majority district, for example, must show that there are enough Black voters, living in a sufficiently geographically “compact” area, that such a district could plausibly be drawn. They must also show that these voters are “politically cohesive,” meaning that they tend to vote together for the same candidates, and that the state’s white voters also tend to vote “sufficiently as a bloc to enable it ... to defeat the [Black voters’] preferred candidate.” And, even if they clear these bars, a voting rights plaintiff can only prevail if a court determines that a myriad of other factors, such as “the extent of any history of official discrimination in the state,” indicate that the political process in the state is not “equally open” to voters of color. Without delving too deep into the weeds of the redistricting process in Alabama, suffice it to say that Roberts seems to agree with the lower court’s conclusion that these plaintiffs meet these conditions, and that this is not a close case. The lower court’s factual determinations that Alabama’s redistricting process violated the various tests laid out in Gingles “have gone unchallenged by Alabama,” Roberts writes, adding that the lower court “faithfully applied our precedents.” Indeed, Alabama’s litigation strategy in this case consisted largely of dreaming up new restrictions that the Court could impose on plaintiffs alleging racial gerrymandering, many of which would have made it virtually impossible for such plaintiffs to prevail. Current law, for example, requires plaintiffs seeking an additional majority Black district to submit sample maps which prove that it is possible to draw such a district — after all, there is no point to moving forward with a voting rights lawsuit if it is literally impossible for a court to give the plaintiffs the relief that they seek. The Milligan plaintiffs submitted several such maps. US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Four maps produced by mathematician Moon Duchin show how Black-majority congressional districts could be drawn in Alabama. Alabama, however, argued that, when drawing these sample maps, a voting rights plaintiff cannot pay too much attention to race. “If Gingles is to serve any gatekeeping role, race cannot predominate in the districts a plaintiff proposes to satisfy that precondition,” the state’s lawyers claimed. But this proposed rule makes absolutely no sense, and seems designed to prevent any racial gerrymandering plaintiff from ever prevailing in court. Again, the purpose of these sample maps is to prove that it is possible to draw two majority Black districts in the state of Alabama. How on earth is a mapmaker supposed to complete this task without paying close attention to race? In any event, Roberts rejects this and similar attempts to impose arbitrary barriers on voting rights plaintiffs. Alabama’s proposed tests, he writes, run “headlong into our precedent,” adding that the purpose of the sample maps is merely to demonstrate that “it is possible that the State’s map has a disparate effect on account of race,” and that other parts of the Gingles framework “determine whether that possibility is reality.” That said, Roberts’s opinion does emphasize one important limit on racial gerrymandering suits — albeit a limit that derives from the Court’s previous decisions. A voting rights plaintiff may not demand that a state draw misshapen districts, which pull together voters of color from disparate communities throughout the state, in order to achieve an additional majority-minority district. To prevail, such a plaintiff must show that they can achieve their goal using reasonably compact districts that comport with “traditional districting criteria” such as keeping culturally similar communities together in the same district. But, as Roberts writes, the Milligan plaintiffs’ proposed maps were not misshapen, and they “satisfied other traditional districting criteria.“ They “contained equal populations, were contiguous, and respected existing political subdivisions, such as counties, cities, and towns.” These plaintiffs, in other words, did exactly what Gingles requires them to do. And a majority of the justices were not in the mood to blow up that precedent. Now, Alabama will have to redraw its maps to ensure that the state has a second majority Black district. So how optimistic should supporters of liberal democracy feel after this decision? Though Roberts’s opinion does not repudiate past attacks on voting rights, such as Shelby County or Brnovich, it does provide a bit of an explanation for why his Court has recently been reluctant to favor Voting Rights Act plaintiffs. He effectively claims that these cases are now less likely to prevail than they were in, say, the 1970s, because America is less racially segregated than it used to be. Recall that Gingles requires racial gerrymandering plaintiffs to prove that voters of color live together in a compact enough geographic area that it is possible to draw additional majority-minority districts. As Roberts writes, this means that “as residential segregation decreases ... satisfying traditional districting criteria such as the compactness requirement ‘becomes more difficult.’” Indeed, Roberts offers this as an optimistic explanation for why “since 2010, plaintiffs nationwide have apparently succeeded in fewer than ten” cases challenging a racial gerrymander under the Voting Rights Act. Even if you take this explanation at face value, it does not explain most of the Court’s recent attacks on the Voting Rights Act. Residential desegregation did not rewrite the Constitution to create a “fundamental principle of equal sovereignty” that appears nowhere in that document. It also did not create Brnovich’s completely fabricated proposition that voting restrictions that were common in 1982 are presumptively legal. But the tone of Roberts’s Milligan decision is also markedly different than the Court’s other recent Voting Rights Act cases. And its repeated emphasis on the fact that Alabama’s proposed rules would require “abandoning” longstanding precedent and “overruling the interpretation of [the Voting Rights Act]’ as set out in nearly a dozen of our cases” suggests that precedent will still play some role in the Court’s voting rights decisions. Milligan should also allay some fears that Supreme Court litigation is now a free-for-all where Republican lawyers can seek virtually any outcome they desire. There’s also one more aspect of Roberts’s opinion worth noting. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed an amendment to the Voting Rights Act, albeit over considerable protest within his administration, which prohibited any state election law that “results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.” This “results” test means that a state law may be struck down if it has negative effects on voters of color, even if the law was not written with racist intent. One of the most vocal opponents of this expansion of the Voting Rights Act was a young Justice Department lawyer named John Roberts. As voting rights journalist Ari Berman writes, “Roberts wrote upwards of 25 memos opposing an effects test for Section 2.” He “drafted talking points, speeches and op-eds for” senior Justice Department officials opposing the amendment, and “prepared administration officials for their testimony before the Senate; attended weekly strategy sessions; and worked closely with like-minded senators on Capitol Hill.” Nor did Roberts abandon this approach after joining the Supreme Court. Indeed, as chief justice, Roberts has at times suggested that any civil rights law that allows plaintiffs to prevail if they can show a disparate racial effect is unconstitutional. On Thursday, Roberts finally hung up an ax he has ground for over four decades — his opinion seems to accept that the “hard-fought compromise that Congress struck” in 1982, which Roberts opposed so vociferously, is legitimate. And he did so in an opinion that bolsters longstanding voting rights laws. And that will, at least in the short term, benefit the Democratic Party. It remains to be seen how the Court will handle future voting rights disputes, including an alarmingly high-stakes case before the Court this very term. But, as someone who has watched the Supreme Court’s voting rights decisions with alarm for more than a decade, my blood pressure dropped considerably when I read the Milligan decision. We now know that there are attacks on the Voting Rights Act that even this Supreme Court will not embrace.
vox.com
Andy Cohen thinks unfazed Raquel Leviss was ‘medicated’ at ‘Vanderpump Rules’ reunion
The former pageant queen, who showed very little emotion while apologizing for her affair with Tom Sandoval, left the "Watch What Happens Live" host stunned by her demeanor.
nypost.com
Kathy Hilton, Kim Richards attend Paris’ concert without Kyle amid family feud
The sisters have been feuding after Kathy allegedly had a meltdown where she talked poorly about Kyle on Season 12 of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."
nypost.com
Nikola Jokic ‘doesn’t care’ about his wild NBA Finals stats
When asked about what this all-time performance means to him, Jokic gave an answer that not too many others would give.
nypost.com
Barcelona’s attempt to diss Lionel Messi’s Miami move totally backfires
Lionel Messi is entering the next stage of his legendary career with Inter Miami in MLS.
nypost.com
A new malicious malware is specifically targeting iPhones
A few ways to combat the new malware that is making its way onto iPhones through the iMessage app is to constantly update your iPhone as soon as possible.
foxnews.com
What is sportswashing? Understanding criticism of Saudi Arabia's investment in sports
Human Rights Watch accused Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the PGA of enabling Saudi Arabia to "sportswash" its human rights record following the PGA Tour's announcement of a merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata has more on what that is.
cbsnews.com
Women directors outnumber men at 2023 Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is underway in New York City and for the first time, a majority of the festival's picks were directed by women. Director Maggie Contreras, whose documentary film "Maestra" is being shown at Tribeca this year, joined CBS News for an interview.
cbsnews.com
Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Why I told Warner Bros. bullies to ‘f–k off’
Louis-Dreyfus had a life-changing moment when she stood up to the studio before she launched to fame in the hit sitcom "Seinfeld."
nypost.com
‘Liberal woman’ goes viral on TikTok for saying it’s hard to find ‘masculine’ man who's not conservative
A TikTok user and self-described "liberal woman" went viral for complaining that she has been having a hard time finding "masculine" men who are "not conservative."
foxnews.com
My ex posted ads saying I was a prostitute and men started turning up at my door
A woman claims strangers were turning up at her door after her ex allegedly posted advertisements selling her as a prostitute.
nypost.com
First team in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's tech-infused golf league is announced
The Los Angeles Golf Club is the first team in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's tech-infused golf league, TGL
usatoday.com
Grand jury considering indicting Trump
A Florida grand jury is considering whether to indict former President Donald Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump's lawyers were informed of the federal criminal probe Wednesday night. The former president has denied doing anything wrong. CBS News political director Fin Gómez has more.
cbsnews.com