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☆ Atlanta police arrest 23 on terrorism charges after protest at training site
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Rich Mckay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ATLANTA, March 6 (Reuters) - Two dozen people face domestic terrorism charges in Atlanta after they were arrested during violent clashes between officers and protesters at a police training center construction site, authorities said on Monday. The 23 people who face charges were part of a group detained on Sunday by police who said they launched bricks, rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at officers after they breached the construction site, where a new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center is being built. Opponents of the site say they want to save an important green space near the greater Atlanta metropolitan area of 6 million people. The site was subject to a protest in January that briefly turned violent as demonstrators set a police car on fire and smashed windows of buildings. Demonstrators at that time gathered to protest the law enforcement killing of an activist during a raid to clear the construction site.

☆ Tennessee takes lead in Republican effort to restrict drag shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Tennessee lawmakers will debate on Thursday whether to restrict drag performances in public or in front of children, one of more than a dozen bills limiting drag advanced by Republican politicians in at least 15 states in recent months. They see the bills as part of a Republican effort to advance laws limiting LGBT people's conduct across the country. Drag performances typically do not involve nudity or stripping. Established in 2015, Drag Story Hour, in which costumed drag performers read to children, has expanded to at least 20 states. Drag performers say they are just as able to tailor their act to their audience as other artists, like an actor who might appear in both a sexually explicit R-rated movie and in a children's movie.

☆ Liberal, conservative advance in Wisconsin Supreme Court race with abortion rights at stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, a staunch conservative who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump when he ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 2020, took second place, the AP projected. With a Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and a Republican-majority legislature often at loggerheads, the state Supreme Court's 4-3 conservative majority has issued a string of decisions that typically favored Republicans. But a conservative justice is leaving the bench this year, putting the political leaning of the court in question. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit claiming the statute is invalid - a case eventually headed for the state Supreme Court. A new liberal majority could also revisit other statutes, such as laws requiring voter identification, permitting concealed carry of firearms and weakening public sector unions.

☆ Abortion rights at stake in Wisconsin Supreme Court election
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Feb 21 (Reuters) - Wisconsin voters on Tuesday will decide which state Supreme Court candidates will advance to an April election that carries profound consequences for abortion rights, control of the state government and the 2024 presidential election. And the justices could issue election law rulings that affect the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, when Wisconsin is expected to be a swing state. The contest already ranks among the most expensive state supreme court races in history, according to Douglas Keith, an attorney at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice who tracks spending on judicial elections. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit claiming the statute is invalid - a case eventually headed for the state Supreme Court. "This is Wisconsin's Roe moment," said Gracie Skogman, a spokesperson for Wisconsin Right to Life, which is backing the conservative candidates.

HALF MOON BAY/MONTEREY PARK, California, Jan 24 (Reuters) - America was supposed to be a place of safety for Jose Romero when he arrived some two years ago to work on a California farm alongside other immigrants from Mexico and China. Romero was killed on Monday, shot dead by a gunman along with six other farm workers in Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. Antonio Perez, who now lives in Half Moon Bay after moving from Mexico in 1983, said he feels stuck between cartel violence in his homeland and gun violence in the United States. “What a tragedy.”People gather for a candlelight vigil after a mass shooting during Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Monterey Park, California, U.S. January 24, 2023. About 9.3% of Asian immigrants keep guns in their homes in California, compared with 5.6% of Latino immigrants and 12% of white immigrants, said Ninez Ponce, the lead researcher on the UCLA study.

One man carried out his attack with a gun banned by the state, while the other used a gun he legally owned, police said. Even in California, a state with some of the country's strictest gun laws, the limits can be sidestepped. The prospects for new federal gun laws are dim. The majority of guns used in mass shootings were obtained legally, according to the nonprofit Violence Project, which maintains a database of attacks. Chunli Zhao legally owned the gun used in the Half Moon Bay attack on Monday, police said.

☆ California shooting upends tranquil community: 'I don't feel safe'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Tim Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Police investigate the scene of a shooting that took place during a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, in Monterey Park, California, U.S. January 22, 2023. On Saturday night, when she heard the gunfire that killed at least 10 people in her newfound home of Monterey Park, California, that dream was shattered. On Sunday morning, after America's latest mass shooting, this time of revelers celebrating Lunar New Year in a Monterey Park ballroom, residents gathered in small groups in stunned disbelief and dismay. The Monterey Park community is close knit, city leaders said. Reporting by Tim Reid in Monterey Park; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Florida schools will not offer AP African American Studies course
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Sharon Bernstein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Florida will not allow high school students to take a new Advanced Placement (AP) class in African American Studies, saying in a letter to College Board, the nonprofit that develops the courses, that the pilot version "lacks educational value." The College Board administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Advanced Placement tests that help students gain college credit while in high school. It is developing its first African American Studies course through a pilot program at 60 high schools. loading"The State of Florida will allow AP European and American studies — but AP African-American studies is 'contrary to Florida law'?" The College Board said in a statement to Reuters that the course aims to "explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans."

☆ U.S. union membership rate falls to all-time low despite organizing efforts, data shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidWASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The United States' union membership rate, or percentage of wage and salary workers who belong to unions, edged down to an all-time low in 2022, data released by a government agency showed. The union membership rate fell from 10.3% in 2021 to 10.1% in 2022, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday. However, the number of wage and salary workers who are members of unions, at 14.3 million last year, increased by 273,000, or 1.9%, from 2021, the data showed. The total number of wage and salary workers grew by 5.3 million, or 3.9%, most of them non-union workers. The data released Thursday shows that while unionization efforts have come into the limelight, they have not translated into greater representation of the workforce.

☆ Walmart gunman railed at co-workers in 'death note' before Virginia store shooting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 25 (Reuters) - A Walmart supervisor who killed six co-workers before turning the gun on himself this week left a rambling note on his cellphone in which he railed against other employees at the Chesapeake, Virginia, store who he felt had mocked and betrayed him. "The gun was legally purchased from a local store on the morning of Tuesday Nov. 22. In his note, Bing made reference to an unspecified work failure on his part and perceived slights from co-workers, who he felt were mocking him. Asked to comment on Bing's note, Walmart said in a statement: "There is nothing that can justify taking innocent lives. The Chesapeake shooting came on the heels of last weekend's massacre in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where a gunman killed five at an LGBTQ nightclub.

WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska both won reelection against opponents backed by Donald Trump on Wednesday, the latest high-profile defeats of candidates supported by the former president. Murkowski, 65, has represented Alaska in the Senate since 2002 and built an independent profile as one of the chamber's few centrists. Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, beat two Republicans: former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and businessman Nick Begich. Tea Party era of politics and helped pave the way for Trump to win the White House. Murkowski and Peltola would have won even under Alaska's old election rules, as they had each won a plurality of votes.

The U.S. Justice Department, which approved Ticketmaster's much-criticized purchase of Live Nation in 2010, is different than it was 12 years ago. A probe is well short of a decision to file a lawsuit asking a judge to break up a company. Ticketmaster previously said in a statement the Swift ticket sale problems were caused by unprecedented demand, much of it by bots trying to buy tickets to resell. "Live Nation was a new entrant, but it had the wherewithal to really compete," he said. A previous Ticketmaster fight with the department culminated in a December 2019 settlement that extended for another five years a consent decree that was part of the deal's initial approval.

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