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REUTERS/Adrees LatifEAGLE PASS, Texas, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The leafy trees on Magali and Hugo Urbina's 350-acre orchard next to the Rio Grande river in Eagle Pass, Texas, should be bursting with pecans this time of year. Migrants for years have forged the river from Mexico to Eagle Pass, part of increasingly higher numbers of people crossing illegally in recent years. He has accused Biden of failing to enforce migration laws and said he has the authority to "defend" Texas' border. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tasked with securing the border. ENVIRONMENTAL RISKSIn Eagle Pass, sediment falling into the river from the installation of fences and buoys is already altering the water's flow, according to environmentalists.

Persons: Adrees Latif, Hugo Urbina's, Greg Abbott's, Magali, Abbott, Joe Biden, Hugo, breastfed, Biden, Martin Castro, Laiken Jordahl, Daina Beth Solomon, Ted Hesson, Stephen Eisenhammer, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, PASS, Texas, Republican, Star, Democratic, National Guard, Reuters, Watershed, Rio, Customs, Border Protection, of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Center for Biological Diversity, Thomson Locations: United States, Mexico, Eagle Pass , Texas, U.S, Texas, Rio Grande, Eagle, Venezuelan, States, Mexico City

I appreciate the fact that he's going to now oversee the Louisville Metro Police Department," she said. "The DOJ had a completely separate responsibility from what we did in terms of our investigation in Louisville. A year after Taylor's death, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the Louisville police department to look at whether it had a "pattern or practice" of unconstitutional policing. The findings resulted in a "consent decree," an agreement between the Justice Department and the police department on steps the force has to take to rectify those findings. No officers were directly charged with killing Taylor under Kentucky law after Cameron's office presented the case to a grand jury.

☆ Opinion | Turns Out Republicans Don’t Hate Big Government
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the conventional view, American politics is a contest between a party of “big” government and a party of “small” government. A modern state needs a large, active government. It’s about both the scope of government — to whom and for what should it provide? Will the state take a light touch or will it intrude on and control the lives of its citizens? With this in mind, consider one of the most common criticisms of the current Republican Party: that it stands for nothing other than chaos, dysfunction and a cultlike devotion to President Donald Trump.

☆ Trump loyalists decry 'witch hunt' at Waco election rally
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Nathan Layne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WACO, Texas (Reuters) -Die-hard fans of Donald Trump flocked to the ex-president’s election rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, brimming with defiance as their favored candidate faces legal peril from prosecutors and mixed polling ahead of next year’s Republican primary elections. People cheer ahead of the first campaign rally for the re-election campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump at Waco Regional Airport in Waco, Texas, U.S., March 25, 2023. “You have to understand: they are not just coming after President Trump, they are coming after you, and President Trump is just the only one standing in their way,” she said. The former president is seeking to turn the hush money case in New York to his advantage by raising money off it and using it to rally supporters. Schomburg said he thought Trump was trying to send a message by holding the rally in Waco.

☆ Senate GOP populists push Republican colleagues to back railway regulations, arguing 'their voters' are the most affected by disasters
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Vance, Hawley, and Rubio are touting a bill to enact new regulations on the rail industry. They're trying out a new argument for their Republican colleagues: these are your voters. Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Marco Rubio of Florida, are touting the Railway Safety Act of 2023. "When derailments occur, it is predominantly Republican voters—their voters—who bear the brunt and who rush to put out the fires." "Look, I think if the vote were held today, we'd get 65 votes in the Senate," he told Insider.

☆ The SVB fallout has been a wake up call for startup founders. Many are rethinking their VC relationships: 'There's certain people I wouldn't want to take money from now.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Startup founders are wary of some VCs after their actions during the SVB crisis. Some founders were disheartened by investor advice on what to do with their money in SVB. "There's certain people I wouldn't want to take money from now," Sami Khan, cofounder and CEO of mobile games company Atlas Reality told Insider. He adds that it's difficult to blame people, both investors and founders, for the decisions they make in fast-moving situations. Without access to the dependable venture debt SVB offered, more founders may be forced to turn to dilutive venture capital for financing instead.

Greg Becker, who was the longtime CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, pictured last year. "Looks like Silicon Valley Bank is in some deep shit," Uncommon Capital general partner Jamie Quint tweeted. Startup founders scrambled to get their funds out of Silicon Valley Bank after its collapse. Andreessen Horowitz announced this week that it will continue banking with Silicon Valley Bank "for the foreseeable future" but is crafting a longer-term plan to diversify. Even so, he added, "I think we'd be supportive, as they stabilize, for them to be one of many partners that our founders bank with."

☆ Silicon Valley Bank's meltdown shows that tech's elites need the government after all
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Silicon Valley Bank meltdown is teaching the tech industry that regulators are sometimes needed. Tech's relationship with regulation has long been contentiousGovernment regulations, some of tech's most vocal figures contend, can stifle innovation and creativity. "I would suspect that this failure will result in some significant changes to banking regulation," Griffin said. "My logic for that is it isn't sustainable to have a run on a bank triggered mainly on Twitter." Very few in the VC world believe that the move to protect depositors will be bad for the industry's overall health.

☆ GOP presidential contenders cast blame for Silicon Valley Bank collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Employees stand outside of the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. Former President Donald Trump and other 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls spoke out over the weekend on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank , offering early hints of their varied approaches to the markets. Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, was shuttered by financial regulators last week, marking the largest failure of a banking institution since the 2008 financial crisis. Nikki Haley on Saturday night declared, "taxpayers should absolutely not bail our Silicon Valley Bank." "Now depositors at healthy banks are forced to subsidize Silicon Valley Bank's mismanagement.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Becomes Campaign Topic as GOP Warns Against Bailout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( John Mccormick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has set the stage for the latest fight over the role of the federal government in the financial sector, with Republican 2024 presidential hopefuls threatening to make any hint of a taxpayer-funded bailout a campaign issue. “Taxpayers should absolutely not bail out Silicon Valley Bank,” she said in a statement. “Private investors can purchase the bank and its assets. It is not the responsibility of the American taxpayer to step in. “But we are concerned about depositors and are focused on trying to meet their needs.”

☆ How universities became giant piggy banks for hedge-fund billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Catherine Liu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The move also marked the beginning of a new way to manage endowment funds. The arrangement has been a boon for the hedge-fund managers who received university endowment cash, but the benefits for the schools are trickier to parse. As Eaton put it in his book, universities directed funds to "wherever those allocations would generate the largest further investment returns." Eaton estimated in 2017 that tax breaks for university endowments cost federal coffers up to $19 billion a year. As the influence of billionaires and hedge-fund managers has grown, universities have moved further away from their ultimate goal: educating people.

☆ Ukraine yet to make defence a safe investor haven
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

MUNICH, Feb 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The West’s rush to supply weapons to war-torn Ukraine looks like a golden opportunity for defence companies to exit the ESG doghouse. As with air-polluting coal, socially-minded investors including pension funds and insurers - particularly European ones - have long excluded or heavily restricted investment in defence companies on ethical grounds. Risk committees, particularly at domestic banks, are now more frequently assessing the merits of financing defence companies, two senior bankers among the 850 or so conference participants said. Proponents of the approach argue military companies that help Ukraine perform a globally valuable social function by upholding democracy. The Munich Security Index, a global risk perceptions survey conducted before the conference, showed security concerns had replaced climate challenges as the top concern.

☆ Here's how to invest in 3 'tectonic shifts' that will shape markets over the next few years, according to BofA
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The firm walked investors through patterns in interest rates and government spending. From 2008 to last year, ultra-low interest rates and central bank policy made for an era of easy money. They said that will favor value stocks over growth stocks, and will make dividend-paying stocks and alternative investments more appealing. It's also a potential economic challenge, as national debt levels have risen at the same time that interest rates have increased. "We have entered a bull market in state intervention and activism," Quinlan and Sanfilippo wrote.

☆ Abortion, China, big government: Republicans get ready to flex
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

After a weaker-than-expected performance in the November midterm elections, Republicans control the House with a narrow majority of 222-212, giving just a few hardline members outsized leverage to force through their political and legislative goals. A bill that would "prohibit a healthcare practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion" will also get introduced next week. Both applause and caution poured in from Democrats after the election, including from President Joe Biden, who congratulated McCarthy on his win. "Now that the leadership of the House of Representatives has been decided it is time for that process to begin." Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington Editing by Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The chaos unfolding in the new Republican-controlled House shows that analysis, if it was ever true, certainly doesn’t hold today. Since the new Congress began Tuesday, every time Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has called a vote to be elected speaker, he has gotten no closer to the gavel. Though there is no shortage of backroom deal-making going on among House Republicans, either, the public nature of the leadership fight means many of the concessions McCarthy is offering have been announced by his opponents. Back in 1995, Newt Gingrich nudged aside longtime House Republican leader Bob Michel of Illinois to become the first Republican speaker of the House in 40 years after President George H.W. That helped oust House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in 2015 and then his successor, Paul Ryan, R-Wis., once a conservative darling.

Its failure to pass a funding bill on time, which is becoming a norm, meant that the government had to function on temporary extensions of last year's funding levels, which Democrats and Republicans alike say poses threats to national security. House Republicans oppose the bill, arguing it is too bloated and was crafted in secrecy among top congressional leaders. The 4,155-page bill was passed on Thursday in the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 68-29. The legislation would provide the Defense Department with a record $858 billion, up from $740 billion last year. It is an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way," Zelenskiy, told a joint meeting of Congress.

☆ DeSantis' latest education plan targets teachers' unions by ending automatic dues in favor of monthly mailed-in checks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

DeSantis' latest so-called "Freedom Blueprint" proposal appears similar to a measure the Florida legislature considered in 2021 and 2022 that the state's largest teachers' union, the Florida Education Association, called "anti-freedom" and "anti-educator." Even Charlie Crist, a former congressman and DeSantis' failed 2022 challenger, picked Miami-Dade's teachers' union boss, Karla Hernández-Mats, as his running mate. State lawmakers and the governor gave teachers bonuses this past year and increased pay — though largely among new teachers, according to the Florida Education Association. DeSantis acknowledged during his speech that changes to union dues might emaciate the labor groups, but said if teachers aren't paying dues then they should be decertified. The last two versions of the anti-union died in committee under opposition from Florida AFL-CIO and the Florida Education Association.

Another state court then replaced that map with one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wondered whether such broadly worded provisions provide proper "standards and guidelines" for state courts to apply. The Republican lawmakers argued that the state court usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority under that provision to regulate federal elections. Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the "historical practice" that "nearly all state constitutions regulate federal elections in some way." David Thompson, arguing for the North Carolina lawmakers, said the Constitution "requires state legislatures specifically to perform the federal function of prescribing regulations for federal elections.

The position of others including Chief Justice John Roberts was harder to read, raising the possibility of a ruling less broad than the Republican state lawmakers pursuing the appeal seek. The Republican lawmakers are asking the Supreme Court to embrace a once-marginal legal theory that has gained favor among some conservatives called the "independent state legislature" doctrine. The Republican lawmakers have argued that the state court unconstitutionally usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority to regulate federal elections. Thompson also argued that state constitutions cannot impose substantive limits on the actions of legislatures on federal elections. A lower state court subsequently rejected the legislature's redrawn map and adopted one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts.

☆ Supreme Court justices grapple with a Republican challenge that could upend how elections are run: 'This is a theory with big consequences'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court heard three hours of oral arguments on a GOP-led challenge from North Carolina. Barrett said adopting the North Carolina Republicans' approach would mean judges would have "notoriously difficult lines to draw." The state supreme court ruled that the map was a partisan gerrymander that favored Republicans, deeming it a violation of the state constitution. Alito noted that in some places, like North Carolina, state supreme court judges are elected by voters. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision in the case by June.

☆ House election results put McCarthy on track for speaker, and Democrats on track for retribution
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( W. James Antle Iii | W. James Antle Iii Is The Washington Examiner'S Politics Editor | Author Of | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, likely the chamber’s next speaker, is holding firm to his pledge to strip three liberal Democrats of their committee assignments when the new Congress is seated next year. That’s not sitting well with Democrats, as they are about to enter the House minority for the first time in four years. By breaking tradition and meddling with committee assignments across the aisle, they had to know they were triggering years of partisan tit for tat. Republicans considered punishing her by taking her committee assignments, but Greene apologized for some of her worst statements, and her colleagues relented. Many lawmakers are discovering social media and cable news are a better path to influence than committee assignments.

☆ How did Democrats make it so close in the House midterm elections?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +18 min

While the GOP did still take the House, the close margin of victory was a performance well below what was possible. Here are eight perspectives from across the ideological spectrum on why the Democrats were able to make it so close. And this reality was essential given the defection of Black and Latino voters to the Republican Party and its candidates. America can credit Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s obstruction of a democracy bill and an economic bill for the narrow Republican House majority. But now, America needs to deal with a Republican House, thanks in good part to Manchin’s obstruction.

☆ Europe Doubles Down on Big Government
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Tom Fairless | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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As a result, political observers say, public school funding is effectively on the ballot Tuesday. “These groups have been demonizing what is being taught in public schools, and that’s the fastest way to erode faith that public schools work,” Rottinghaus said. (Abbott publicly came out in support of private school vouchers two months after winning the primary with 66.5% of the vote.) Greg Abbott in the GOP primary, campaigned in support of private school vouchers. “I will never support vouchers.”Rep. John Bucy III said he will continue to oppose private school vouchers.

☆ Midterms Are a Time for Choosing for Republicans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Dan Crenshaw | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech “A Time For Choosing” a week before Election Day 1964. Nearly six decades later, the speech remains relevant, and the parallels to the circumstances we face today are striking. The battles against big government and Marxist do-gooders have changed only in the sense that they have intensified. Americans are still debating our role in the world—even as war rages in Europe. The inflationary Inflation Reduction Act and the unconstitutional forgiveness of student loans via executive fiat were shameless attempts to buy votes before a midterm election.

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