Pennsylvania town grapples with Trump assassination attempt ahead of his return

Por

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02/10/2024

BUTLER, Pa.— Donald Trump is going back to Butler, where the world last saw him pump his fist and beseech followers to “fight,” even as blood streaked his face from a would-be assassin’s bullet.

In announcing his return, the former president and current Republican nominee said he planned to “celebrate a unifying vision for America’s future in an event like the world has never seen before.”

The question is: Is Butler ready?

While many are predicting a large crowd to hear Trump speak back at the very Farm Show property where a bullet grazed his right ear on July 13, there is also apprehension in town, along with a sense that Butler is still healing.

“I’ve consulted with, at least, like 500 people since this has happened,” said registered nurse Shanea Clancy, who runs a mental health consulting service in Butler County and has seen people more anxious since the shooting. Some show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The big theme, if you will, is just, ‘How did something like that happen in our backyard?’” Clancy said. “People don’t expect trauma to show up at their door on any given day.”

The assassination attempt has resonated deeply in the mountainous community north of Pittsburgh. Trump enjoys wide support there, having easily doubled Hillary Clinton’s vote total on his way to winning the White House in 2016. He nearly did so again against Joe Biden in 2020. But Butler County was better for Democrats two years ago, when the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Josh Shapiro, took about 43% of the vote there.

To claim the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania in November, Trump needs to drive up voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community with a record of voting for Republicans.

Banking on better security

On Saturday, the former president will speak where thousands of people, including children, witnessed him and the others get shot. Former Buffalo Township Fire Company Chief Corey Comperatore was killed, while David Dutch and James Copenhaver were both hospitalized with injuries. U.S. Secret Service killed the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Stunned in the aftermath, some rally goers held impromptu prayer groups as they walked back to their cars. It seems just about everyone in Butler County was either at the rally or knows someone who was.

Last weekend, retired food service worker Sally Sarvey was picking up Trump signs and a T-shirt from a Republican Party tent at a street festival in nearby Slippery Rock. She said she will “make it a point” to witness Trump’s return this Saturday, but she’s mindful of what happened in July.

“Hopefully they’ll have more security that acts faster,” Sarvey said.

There are visible signs of the tension left behind. “Fight” graffiti — echoing Trump’s words in the immediate aftermath of the shooting — began showing up around Butler County in the ensuing two weeks. In some places, the word “fight” on roadways was countered by another spray painted message: “love.”

The assassination attempt has been the “No. 1 topic” of conversation since July 13, said Jim Hulings, chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee. He has so many lingering questions about the shooting and consequent investigations that he keeps a running list.

“There’s a lot of activity going on right now, people wanting answers,” Hulings said. “I am not in a minority there at all. There’s a lot of people asking questions.”

The shooting was ‘a burden on all of us’

Police and emergency officials have faced questions from investigators looking into the shootings from the state police, FBI and Congress. The county government has fielded some 300 open records requests, five times what it normally gets in a year. Many are bracing for litigation that could extend for years.

“I’m not going to lie — it’s a burden on all of us,” said Butler Emergency Services Director Steve Bicehouse. “It wears on you. And it’s been a trying time the last several months.”

County Commissioner Kevin Boozel, the only Democrat holding countywide elected office in Butler, said what happened two months ago has some concerned about Saturday’s rally. The previous security failure is the major issue, but authorities at the July event also contended with extreme heat and humidity that kept emergency responders busy treating people in distress even before the shooting. Several people required hospital treatment.

Boozel has fielded “plenty of emails saying, ‘Don’t let him back here,’” he said of Trump. “Because emotionally, we’re not ready for that.”

Retired librarian Kathy Kline, who lives in Butler, said she supports Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race and feels there has been insufficient consideration for those who oppose Trump returning. Kline belongs to a Facebook group, “Butler PA Women for Kamala Harris,» that’s grown to some 1,500 members in recent months.

“I personally am never opposed to any political figure coming into our community and sharing their policies,” Kline said. “That’s the American way. But you know, you need to come in with some respect and integrity and leave all of that chaos and ugliness out of it.”

Barry Cummings’ coffee shop near the Farm Show property where the shooting occurred was closed briefly after the shooting. In the immediate aftermath, he said, he was determined to reach out to people who don’t share his political views.

“I tended to try to listen more than speak,” said Cummings, a registered Democrat. He wanted to hear “the feelings on the other side, you know, and I think that brought us a little closer together.”

Moving forward while memorializing the past

Kim Geyer, a Republican Butler County commissioner, plans to attend the rally Saturday, just as she did in July when she sat behind Trump.

“I kind of have mixed feelings about it, but I’m resolved to moving forward,” Geyer said. “I think that the people that may be affected more negatively are going to just stay home. And the people that want to feel the inspiration and the energy from the Trump movement are going to attend to support President Trump and let him finish what he began.”

Some Trump supporters have been looking for ways to memorialize the attempted assassination. One artist is working on a 9-foot-high sculpture of Trump in Butler, although it’s unclear where it might be installed. Another artist, Butler metal worker and Trump supporter Bill Secunda, spent two weeks reworking an existing life-sized Trump sculpture to better reflect his response after being shot, with his right arm raised and fist clenched.

Secunda and a friend quietly installed it in a tent at the Butler Farm Show in August, where it became popular for selfies. He’s already had a $50,000 offer for the sculpture.

“I don’t even think I saw a sour look, which was kind of surprising because, you know, I’ve lost customers over doing a piece like that,» Secunda said.

Meanwhile, the Butler Historical Society has put on hold until spring, at least, its plans to collect local residents’ stories about the shooting. The organization is looking into how it would keep the stories sealed for 75 years, as had been the plan.

Geyer said she expects Butlerites will find more ways to pay tribute to the victims.

“It was a tragic day and nobody wishes it happened or occurred in their county,” Geyer said. “I believe that the people who live and work here are resilient people. We’re going to move forward.”

Pennsylvania Republican in key swing-state Senate race backs using military to fight fentanyl

Región

Por

Associated Press

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02/10/2024

STEELTON, Pa.— The Republican challenger trying to flip the U.S. Senate seat in swing-state Pennsylvania said he’ll press for U.S. military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks, a controversial and complicated idea that seemed to originate with former President Donald Trump.

David McCormick, who is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, is making the idea part of his plan for fighting the fentanyl scourge, which is playing a big role in the campaign and has been central to dueling TV ads in the race.

The idea of using the military garnered attention in last year’s GOP primaries before Trump emerged as his party’s presidential nominee for the third consecutive time.

But now, McCormick — a decorated Army combat veteran and ex- hedge fund CEO who served on Trump’s Defense Advisory Board — is testing the message of unilateral U.S. military action in Mexico in a state that could be decisive in determining which party wins the White House and a Senate majority in November’s election.

McCormick envisions using the U.S. military’s drones and special operations teams in Mexico to destroy fentanyl trafficking cartels, though he stresses that the military should be used “selectively and thoughtfully.”

“I’m not saying we’re going to send the 82nd Airborne Division to do a jump into Mexico,” McCormick said. “What I’m saying is the combination of special operations and drones, I think, could eradicate the manufacturing facilities, kill the distribution networks and do a real dent in what is a terrorist activity.”

Military action is justified, McCormick says, by what he calls “the biggest killer in our country.” The U.S. shouldn’t wait for a blessing from a Mexican government that has failed to address its problem with fentanyl production and trafficking, he said.

“So the time for negotiating with the Mexican government to get their DEA on this is gone,” McCormick told one audience in September. “We’ve got to get tough on it. And that’s what I would do.”

The idea received high-profile attention when Trump’s former defense secretary, Mark Esper, said in 2022 that Trump had asked him about firing missiles into Mexico, a precedent-setting notion that Esper and other defense officials quickly rejected.

The idea gained cachet among some Republican lawmakers last year and Trump embraced it, saying “it’s now time for America to wage war on the cartels.”

Trump’s then-competitors on the Republican presidential primary campaign trail also embraced the idea, but that talk has quieted. Legislation to provide military authorization hasn’t received a committee vote in the Republican-controlled House and, while McCormick’s proposal lacks specifics and echoes an idea Trump broached, it goes further than what most—if not all—other Senate candidates are saying across the U.S.

Critics of using the U.S. military in Mexico say such operations would do little to hurt the cartels or stem the flow of fentanyl, while raising delicate questions about sovereignty.

They could, for example, destroy the relationship with the U.S.’ largest trade partner, whose just-departed President Andres Manuel López Obrador repeatedly denied Mexico is producing the synthetic opioid despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

Casey has neither criticized nor backed the idea of using the U.S. military in Mexico. Instead. he has pointed to his support for measures in Congress to strengthen screening at border checkpoints.

The vast majority of fentanyl seized is brought into the United States by American citizens at the southern border, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

McCormick and other Republicans compare fentanyl deaths to combat losses in the Vietnam War: Roughly 110,000 drug overdose deaths each of the last two years in which fentanyl was the primary culprit two-thirds of the time, compared to 58,000 reported U.S. casualties in the war.

“What we’re in is unprecedented,” he said. “The numbers are beyond imagination in terms of what we’re experiencing right now.”

McCormick says the closest model for what he has in mind is the U.S. military’s cocaine interdiction work with the cooperation of the Colombian government against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. McCormick called that effort “incredibly successful.”

But Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said the Colombian operation failed to stop the flow of cocaine.

It’s true that Colombia became more stable, its governance improved and cartel activity receded, Logan said. But the price of cocaine in the U.S. dropped significantly, which he called an indication that cocaine had become more widely available.

“And I think that is the first reason to be skeptical of the claim that using the U.S. military against the cartels in Mexico is going to have an effect in the United States on the amount and abundance of fentanyl in the United States,” Logan said.

Analysts say it seems unlikely that Mexico would agree to U.S. military operations on its territory.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Brookings Institution’s Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, said a sustained military and law enforcement effort by Mexico over months or years would be necessary to shut down labs and round up a trafficking network’s management.

But unilateral U.S. military strikes will have little long-term effect, because the labs and cartel commanders that get taken out are easily replaced, she said.

“And meanwhile you would incur very large costs,” she said. “You could imagine the complete rupture in the relationship that has many consequences.”

Mexico, for example, could end its cooperation of stemming the flow of migrants to its border with the United States, she said.

In Congress, bipartisan agreement has revolved around hiring more Customs and Border Patrol personnel at the southern border and expanding the capacity to screen vehicles coming from Mexico.

In April, President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation to expand the use of sanctions to disrupt trafficking networks and money laundering.

Democrats, meanwhile, have accused Trump and Republicans of hypocrisy after they sank a sweeping immigration reform bill this year that carried hundreds of millions of dollars to hire more customs agents and bolster investigations into fentanyl trafficking.

Trump said the attached immigration measures weren’t tough enough.

If he wins in November, congressional authorization may not matter. Trump has said he intends to act with or without congressional approval.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has suggested it already has the legal authority to strike cartels in Mexico, if it wanted to.

Presidents will always assert that they have the inherent authority to use the armed forces to protect the national security of the United States, said Geoffrey S. Corn, director of the Center for Military Law and Policy at Texas Tech’s School of Law.

Congress in 1973 passed a law requiring their approval for taking such action, but presidents have assumed the authority to strike at non-state enemies in other countries that they deem to be either unwilling or unable to rein them in, Corn said.

It’s a gray area of international law that has been tested by presidents of both parties.

“It’s the same rationale that Obama used when he ordered a raid into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden,” Corn said. “As far as we know, we didn’t have consent from the Pakistanis to do that.”

The question, then, may be whether the flow of fentanyl into the United States warrants military action, Corn said.

“It’s a hard question,” Corn said. “It is killing millions of people, but it’s not like they’re flying drones across the border and dropping this stuff.”

Sheinbaum toma el mando en el Zócalo, entre la esperanza y la nostalgia de su predecesor

Por

EFE

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02/10/2024

Fotografía de un cartel con la imagen de la presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, este martes en el Zócalo de la Ciudad de México (México). (Foto: EFE/ Bienvenido Velasco)

María Julia Castañeda

Ciudad de México.- Entre el sueño cumplido de generaciones de mujeres y la sombra omnipresente de su predecesor, la primera presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, tomó el mando este martes en el Zócalo, arropada por miles de personas que vibraban entre la esperanza del cambio histórico y el eco del legado de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, quien aunque ausente, seguía siendo una figura simbólica.

Desde muy temprano, los simpatizantes de distintos estados del país comenzaron a darse cita a las puertas del Palacio Nacional, en la capital mexicana, con la misma expectativa de presenciar un momento histórico.

Lolis Urieta contó a EFE que llegó desde las 07:00 hora local (13:00 GMT), para alcanzar estar en las primeras filas, con la emoción de poder contar a sus próximas generaciones que vivió el momento de un “sueño concedido” para las mujeres.

“Yo creo que era lo que ya necesitábamos las mujeres. Tenemos que seguir rompiendo los techos de cristal”, señaló la empresaria de 52 años.

“No tenemos que ir a buscar, tenemos que ir a que nos entreguen lo que por derecho nos ha correspondido siempre y se nos negó”, agregó.

A unos pasos, Raúl Becerra, maestro de 34 años, reconoció que nunca había imaginado que una mujer llegaría a gobernar el país, lo que consideró un gran logro para “fortalecer a la mujer”.

El maestro originario de Veracruz comentó que llegó desde las 02:00 hora loca del martes (08:00 GMT) junto con unos 5.000 compañeros para “apoyar al cambio de gobierno” y al ahora expresidente López Obrador (2018-2024).

“Es un gusto estar aquí con Obrador. Nos da tristeza que se vaya, pero bueno, nos deja un legado y es un gusto también estar aquí con la doctora (Sheinbaum)”, expresó.

Poco a poco, la plancha del Zócalo se fue llenando de banderas blancas y guindas, colores del oficialismo, con el nombre y rostro de la presidenta, y leyendas como “Claudia es la primera”.

Un hombre escucha el discurso de la presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, este martes en el Zócalo de la Ciudad de México (México). (Foto: EFE/ Bienvenido Velasco)

Agradecimiento a López Obrador

También destacaban algunas pancartas dirigidas a su predecesor, con mensajes como: “Hasta siempre presidente” y “Gracias AMLO”, además de playeras y muñecos “amlitos”, como se les conoce a las figuras de peluche de López Obrador.

La mezcla de nostalgia y esperanza se repitió en Josefina Concepción Calvo, de 69 años, quien dijo sentirse como “un granito de arena” en la lucha de López Obrador por llegar a la presidencia, a quien conoció en 2006.

“Es una forma de agradecerle todo lo que hizo por el pueblo y que hay continuidad con nuestra presidenta, que le abre las puertas a todas las mujeres”, dijo Calvo, mientras sostenía dos figuras de peluche de López Obrador.

Al grito de “¡Presidenta!” y “¡Es un honor estar con Claudia hoy!”, alrededor de las 16:00 hora local (22:00 GMT), Sheinbaum ingresó a la enorme explanada a las puertas del Palacio Nacional, para recibir el bastón de mando de los pueblos indígenas, con un ritual ancestral.

María Antonieta Hernández, de la comunidad mazahua del Estado de México, explicó que la ceremonia es para “aperturar las buenas energías, para que los trabajos que ella haga (Sheinbaum) obviamente los haga bien”.

“En específico con los pueblos indígenas es para atar, ‘amarrar’ los acuerdos, los compromisos”, detalló la mujer de 49 años.

Luego del emotivo ritual en el que participaron representantes de los 70 pueblos originarios y el pueblo afromexicano, Sheinbaum dio su primer mensaje a la nación, comenzando con una mención a su predecesor.

“Allá en tu casa, compañero Andrés Manuel, siempre estás en el corazón del pueblo de México”, dijo Sheinbaum, lo que fue respondido por el público cuando “¡Es un honor estar con Obrador!”.

Mientras enlistaba los 100 puntos de su próximo Gobierno, entre la multitud se alzaban figuras y carteles con mensajes a López Obrador, recordando su legado.

Con la sombra de su predecesor siempre presente, observando desde lejos, invisible, pero influyente, la imagen de Claudia Sheinbaum se levantó como una nueva esperanza en este cambio de era en México, no solo de Gobierno.

El debate de los candidatos a la vicepresidencia de EE. UU. termina con pocas sorpresas

Por

Redacción Impacto

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01/10/2024

Vance y Walz se acusan de que no serían capaces de garantizar la desescalada en O.Medio — El candidato a vicepresidente republicano JD Vance (i) y el gobernador de Minnesota y candidato a vicepresidente demócrata Tim Walz (d) durante el debate vicepresidencial en el Centro de Transmisiones de CBS en Nueva York. EFE/EPA/SARAH YENESEL

Vance y Walz cuestionados sobre si serían capaces de garantizar la desescalada en O.Medio

Los candidatos a vicepresidente de Estados Unidos, el senador republicano por Ohio, JD Vance, y el gobernador demócrata de Minnesota, Tim Walz, se enfrentaron este martes en su primer y único debate programado en Nueva York antes de las elecciones de noviembre, donde ambos defendieron sus posiciones en inmigración, aborto y política exterior.
Los candidatos a vicepresidente en las elecciones de noviembre, el republicano JD Vance y el demócrata Tim Walz, se acusaron mutuamente en el debate televisivo de que ellos y Donald Trump y Kamala Harris, respectivamente, no serían capaces de garantizar la desescalada en Oriente Medio.
Fue la primera pregunta que tuvieron que responder a las dos moderadoras de la cadena CBS, en el debate en sus estudios de Nueva York, y en realidad no mostraron grandes diferencias sobre el fondo: la necesidad de apoyar a Israel, aliado incontestable de EE. UU., y su «derecho a defenderse», en palabras de Walz que recordó el ataque feroz de Hamas a una comunidad Israeli el pasado 7 de octubre en donde masacraron a más de mil personas y secuestraron a cientos.

A falta de diferencias en lo fundamental, se dedicaron a atacar al adversario: Walz acusó a Trump de tener una personalidad impulsiva al que le falta «frialdad», con tendencia a acercarse a líderes de línea dura como el ruso Vladímir Putin o el norcoreano Kim Jong-un.

A eso, Vance contestó que fue la mano dura de Trump la que durante su mandato como presidente (2017-2021) logró que el mundo fuera un lugar mucho más seguro, sin grandes conflictos, gracias a su «diplomacia inteligente y efectiva», y recordó que el mundo es mucho más inseguro durante el mandato de Joe Biden, con varias guerras que se encadenan.

Vance no desaprovechó la oportunidad del debate, casi seguramente el único que celebrarán, para presentarse como un hombre de origen humilde, nacido en clase trabajadora, y que se siente enormemente agradecido con un país que le permitió «cumplir el sueño americano», un sueño que según él solo Trump puede devolver a los estadounidenses.

En todo caso, el tono en la primera parte del debate fue educado y no hubo interrupciones entre ambos, en contraste con el debate que celebraron Trump y Harris.

Para ambos aspirantes, el cara a cara sirvió como carta de presentación ante una amplia porción de votantes estadounidenses. Tanto Vance como Walz son figuras relativamente nuevas en el escenario político nacional, lo que añade un toque de incertidumbre al encuentro, que tiene lugar tres semanas después del primer y posiblemente único debate entre el expresidente Donald Trump y la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris.

Inmigración

La cuestión migratoria, uno de los temas que más preocupa a los estadounidenses, centró una buena parte del debate. El senador republicano evocó las palabras de Trump al insistir en que se debe “frenar la crisis de inmigración” causada por la administración demócrata que, según afirmó, “abrió las puertas a esta oleada” de migrantes que han llegado a EE. UU.

De acuerdo con Vance, esta situación terminaría si “se aplicaran las políticas de Trump” basadas en respaldar una «deportación masiva” y “construir el muro (fronterizo)” con México. “Lo primero que hay que hacer es deportar a casi un millón de inmigrantes que han cometido algún tipo de crimen en EE. UU., … ademas del haber inmigrado iligalmente. propuso.

Su contrincante demócrata subrayó que desde el Congreso se ha estado trabajando para impulsar una legislación que maneje la situación migratoria en el país, un proyecto de ley que no se ha logrado aprobar debido a la presión negativa de Donald Trump sobre el ala legislativa republicana.

“Donald Trump dijo que no, porque sino no sabía de qué iba a hablar (en su campaña contra Harris). Eso tiene que hacerse durante la legislatura, no por orden ejecutiva. Trump tuvo cuatro años para hacerlo, les prometió un muro que México pagaría, y eso no pasó y solo se construyó el 2 %”, dijo Walz al criticar la política migratoria del expresidente.

Según Walz, los republicanos «diabolizan el tema» y lo utilizan en su beneficio, sin importar si dañan a comunidades enteras, dijo en referencia a la polémica en torno a los inmigrantes haitianos en la localidad de Springfield, Ohio.

Ante las críticas de los republicanos, los demócratas afirman que son precisamente las iniciativas impulsadas por la administración Biden-Harris, enfocadas en la migración legal y segura con un endurecimiento de las consecuencias contra las entradas irregulares al país, la razón por la que la frontera suroeste ha registrado una caída reciente en las llegadas de migrantes.

Durante este segmento, ambos candidatos intentaron hacer uso de la palabra más allá de sus tiempos asignados, por lo que las moderadoras del debate decidieron cortar los micrófonos para pasar al siguiente tema.

En el resto del debate, Vance se desvió en varias ocasiones de las preguntas hechas por las periodistas Margaret Brennan y Norah O’Donnell, para continuar sus ataques contra las políticas migratorias de Harris.

Vance llegó a relacionar a la inmigración irregular con la escasez de vivienda asequible, algo que las moderadoras se apresuraron a aclarar sucede debido a una serie de factores entre los que no resalta la migración.

El complejo tema del acceso al aborto

Walz y Vance también abordaron la cuestión de los derechos reproductivos, una de las más divisivas en este ciclo electoral. El gobernador de Minnesota recordó que en su estado se protegió el acceso al aborto legal, después de que la Corte Suprema del país derogara la protección federal a este servicio médico y diera la potestad a los territorios para establecer sus propias regulaciones.

Walz consideró que los derechos reproductivos “son derechos básicos humanos” y que si no se protegen, se seguirán viendo consecuencias muy negativas. “Hemos visto cómo la mortalidad maternal se disparaba en Texas (…) y lo único que está haciendo Trump es tratar de determinar cómo encontrar la parte política de esto”, denunció.

Vance aseguró por su parte que, de ganar, su gobierno no va a crear “una agencia de monitoreo de embarazos” y que como republicano su única intención es “proteger vidas inocentes”.

“Tenemos que hacer las cosas mucho mejor, hay gente que no confía en nosotros y queremos que el partido sea a favor de la familia, quiero apoyar los tratamientos de fertilidad, que las familias jóvenes puedan costear una vivienda y formar una familia, tenemos que dar más opciones”, argumentó.

Control de armas y violencia armada

El gobernador demócrata reconoció que es “cazador” y que posee armas, al igual que su oponente republicano, aunque insistió en que apoya una legislación que endurezca los chequeos de antecedentes, – como la que él mismo implementó en su estado – como algo que puede ser beneficioso para disminuir las cifras de incidentes con armas.

“Ese es un buen punto para empezar la conversación”, explicó Walz, quien contó que su hija fue testigo de un tiroteo en un centro comunitario y remarcó que Kamala Harris ha estado trabajando durante mucho tiempo para impulsar reglas de control de armas dentro de los límites de la Constitución.

“Nadie quiere meter miedo con el hecho de quitar las armas, pero sabemos que hay países alrededor del mundo que no practican los simulacros de ataque”, dijo el gobernador demócrata.

En esa línea, Vance afirmó que “tenemos que hacer las cosas mejor” pero se preguntó “cómo hacerlo”, al denunciar que la mayoría de las armas con las que se realizan los tiroteos masivos son obtenidas de forma ilegal.

“Eso es algo que me molesta y me preocupa. Casi el 90 % son perpetrados con armas adquiridas ilegalmente, por el ingreso de armas ilegales de los carteles de México que han entrado por las políticas migratorias de Harris”, recalcó, aunque registros oficiales muestran que la mayoría de los tiroteos masivos recientes se han producido con rifles de alto calibre comprados de manera legal por los tiradores.

“¿Cómo protegemos a los niños? Creo que tenemos que aumentar la seguridad en las escuelas, con puertas y ventanas más sólidas, con más policías escolares porque no tenemos una varita mágica para quitar las armas de los malhechores”, comentó afirmando que “tenemos que buscar las soluciones bipartidistas”.

El estado de la democracia y el 6 de enero

En la parte final del debate, los candidatos respondieron preguntas sobre “el estado de la democracia”. Las moderadoras preguntaron directamente a Vance _ quien el el 2020 dijo que él no hubiera validado las elecciones como lo hizo el vicepresidente Pence_ sobre qué haría si “se desafían los resultados electorales”, como hizo Donald Trump en las anteriores elecciones de 2020. El candidato presidencial republicano aún desafía los resultados que le dieron la victoria entonces a Joe Biden.

“Lo que dijo el presidente Trump es que hubo problemas en 2020 y pienso deberíamos discutir eso de manera pacífica y públicamente. Él dijo que el 6 de enero que las protestas deberían ser pacíficas, y el 20 de enero Trump se fue de la Casa Blanca y Biden entró”, expuso Vance para justificar que el expresidente no tuvo mayor implicación en los disturbios en el Capitolio de EE.UU.

Con todo, advirtió que hay “una amenaza a la democracia de este país” debido al clima político divisivo. “Es la amenaza de la censura, de estadounidenses que están distanciándose de amigos por temas políticos, esa es una amenaza más grande”, apuntó el candidato republicano.

Walz rebatió las afirmaciones de su contrincante política recordando que Trump “rehusó a reconocer” los resultados electorales. “Claramente perdió la elección, 140 policías fueron golpeados en el Capitolio y, en ese asunto, (el entonces vicepresidente) Mike Pence tomó la decisión correcta” al certificar la victoria de Biden, dijo.

“El ganador tiene que ser el ganador. Esto tiene que parar. (Este clima de división) está destrozando nuestro país”, remarcó Walz, quien le preguntó a Vance si reconocia que Trump perdió las elecciones del 2020, a lo que contestó que quería hablar del futuro no del pasado, rehusandose a aceptarlo.

Carta de presentación para Vance y Walz

Walz ha tenido una larga carrera política, aunque fuera de Minnesota era poco conocido hasta que fue elegido por Harris como candidato vicepresidencial demócrata. Por su parte, Vance ganó notoriedad por su libro Hillbilly Elegy y fue elegido al Senado en 2022, apenas dos años antes de ser seleccionado por Trump como su número dos.

Una de las razones por las que el debate Walz-Vance podría tener más peso que el cara a cara vicepresidencial de hace cuatro años, según los expertos, es que en esta ocasión Harris y Trump compartieron escenario solo una vez como líderes de fórmula. Eso significa que esta puede ser la última oportunidad antes del día de las elecciones para que los votantes vean a las dos duplas enfrentarse directamente.

La sede del debate, Nueva York, es considerada un “bastión” demócrata y además, es el antiguo hogar de Trump, quien allí mismo fue declarado culpable por un jurado de influir ilegalmente en las elecciones de 2016 a través de pagos para silenciar a una actriz porno.

Al término de los 90 minutos de debate, Vance intercambió un saludo con Gwen Walz, esposa del demócrata. Walz hizo lo mismo con Usha Vance, la esposa de J.D. Vance.

Vance and Walz focus their attacks on the top of the ticket — not each other: VP debate takeaways

Por

Associated Press

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01/10/2024

By BILL BARROW, ZEKE MILLER and NICHOLAS RICCARDI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice Presidential hopefuls Tim Walz and JD Vance squared off Tuesday night in what may be the last debate of the 2024 presidential campaign. It was the first encounter between Minnesota’s Democratic governor and Ohio’s Republican senator, following last month’s debate between the tops of their tickets, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

No more debates are on the political calendar before Election Day. Tuesday’s confrontation came as the global stakes of the contest rose again as Iran fired missiles at Israel. The vice presidential hopefuls sparred over the violence in the Middle East, climate change and immigration. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s debate.

With Mideast in turmoil, Walz promises ‘steady leadership” and Vance offers ’peace through strength’

Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel on Tuesday elicited a contrast between the Democratic and Republican tickets on foreign policy: Walz promised “steady leadership” under Harris while Vance pledged a return to “peace through strength” if Trump is returned to the White House.

The differing visions of what American leadership should look like overshadowed the sharp policy differences between the two tickets.

The Iranian threat to the region and U.S. interests around the world opened the debate, with Walz pivoting the topic to criticism of Trump.

“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz said, then referenced the “nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes” and responding to global crises by tweet.

Vance, for his part, promised a return to “effective deterrence” under Trump against Iran, brushing back on Walz’s criticism of Trump by attacking Harris and her role in the Biden administration.

“Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years and the answer is your running mate, not mine,” he said. He pointedly noted that the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, happened “during the administration of Kamala Harris.”

Vance and Walz punch up rather than at each other

Vance and Walz trained the bulk of their attacks not on their on-stage rival, but on the running mates who weren’t in the room.

Both vice presidential nominees sought to convey a genial mien as they lobbed criticism at Harris and Trump, respectively.

It was a reflection of the fact that most voters don’t cast a ballot based on the vice president, and on a vice presidential nominee’s historic role in serving as the attack dog for their running mates.

Walz pointedly attacked Trump for failing to meet his pledge of building a physical barrier across the entire U.S.-Mexico border at the country’s southern neighbor’s expense.

“Less than 2% of that wall got built and Mexico didn’t pay a dime,” Walz said.

Underscoring the focus on the top of the ticket, during a back-and-forth about immigration, Vance said to his opponent: “I think that you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”

Both candidates put a domestic spin on climate change

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Vance took a question about climate change and gave an answer about jobs and manufacturing, taking a detour around Trump’s past claims that global warming is a “hoax.”

Vance contended that the best way to fight climate change was to move more manufacturing to the United States, because the country has the world’s cleanest energy economy. It was a distinctly domestic spin on a global crisis, especially after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international Paris climate accords during his administration.

Walz also kept the climate change focus domestic, touting the Biden administration’s renewable energy investments as well as record levels of oil and natural gas production. “You can see us becoming an energy superpower in the future,” Walz said.

It was a decidedly optimistic take on a pervasive and grim global problem.

Walz, Vance each blame opposing presidential candidate for immigration stalemate

The two running mates agreed that the number of migrants in the U.S. illegally is a problem. But each laid the blame on the opposing presidential nominee.

Vance echoed Trump by repeatedly calling Harris the “border czar” and suggested that she, as vice president, single-handedly rolled back the immigration restrictions Trump had imposed as president. The result, in Vance’s telling, is an unchecked flow of fentanyl, strain on state and local resources and increased housing prices around the country.

Harris was never asked to be the “border czar” and she was never specifically given the responsibility for security on the border. She was tasked by Biden in March 2021 with tackling the “root causes” of migration from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and pushing leaders there and in Mexico to enforce immigration laws. Harris was not empowered to set U.S. immigration policy — only the president can sign executive orders and Harris was not empowered as Biden’s proxy in negotiations with Congress on immigration law.

Walz advanced Democrats’ arguments that Trump single-handedly killed a bipartisan Senate deal to tighten border security and boost the processing system for immigrants and asylum seekers. Republicans backed off the deal, Walz noted, only after Trump said it wasn’t good enough.

Filis aprovechan respiro antes de Serie Divisional, pero no bajan la guardia

Por

Associated Press

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01/10/2024

Filis, Filadelfia— Bryce Harper atrapó una roleta durante una práctica de infield. ”¡Buena jugada, Harp!”, le dijo e. manager Rob Thompson.

Harper, dos veces galardonado como el Jugador Más Valioso de la Liga Nacional, envió más tarde una pelota de la inicial a las butacas del jardín izquierdo.

“Eso no lo logrará”, le gritó el coach de infield Bobby Dickerson. “Ese chico va a anotar”.

Harper y el resto de los Filis, campeones de la División Este de la Nacional, harán lo necesario esta semana para mantenerse en forma antes del primer juego de la Serie Divisional, previsto para el sábado. Filadelfia —que enfrentará a Milwaukee o los Mets— alcanzó la postemporada por tercer año consecutivo y la bandera de campeón divisional 2024 ya ondea en lo alto del asta en el jardín.

Aunque jugar en octubre ya es algo a lo que están acostumbrados en Filadelfia, el descanso de cinco días es nuevo. Los Filis barrieron a San Luis en la Serie de Comodín de 2022 y a los Marlins el año pasado antes de eliminar a Atlanta en la Serie Divisional en esos dos años.

El 12mo título divisional llevó a que los Filis terminaran segundos en la Liga Nacional detrás de los Dodgers —y tendrán un corto respiro en los playoffs.

Pero nadie puede decir que es un descanso.

“No son vacaciones”, aseguró el segunda base Bryson Sott tras la práctica del martes.

Los Filis realizaron una práctica de bateo, ejercicios en el infield y de lanzadores para continuar con el ritmo de la temporada regular.

Esta semana los Filis se enfrentarán en un juego interescuadras liderados por los capitanes Harper y Trea Turner, por un lado, y Kyle Schwarber y J.T. Realmuto por el otro.

Tras considerarlo brevemente, el equipo decidió no abrir el juego al público o la prensa, como lo hicieron los Bravos la campaña pasada.

“Vamos con todo a un alto nivel”, aseguró el presidente de operaciones Dave Dombrowski. “Creo que los jugadores, conociéndolos, lo saben. Saben que necesitan hacerlo. Creo que el nivel de intensidad y el énfasis en eso es importante. El mensaje era, necesitan trabajar con intensidad y no sólo presentarse”.

Ingeniero descubre canción inédita de José José 45 años después

Por

Associated Press

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01/10/2024

El cantante mexicano José José llega a una conferencia de prensa en la Ciudad de México, México, el 24 de agosto de 2006. La canción inédita "Ya no pienso en ti", grabada por José José en 1978, fue lanzada en septiembre de 2024 en el 5to aniversario luctuoso del cantante. (Foto AP/Gregory Bull, archivo)

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO— Hace aproximadamente un año, al trabajar en un proyecto de digitalización de archivo sonoro y en mezclas de audio inmersivo, el ingeniero sonoro mexicano Edson R. Heredia encontró cintas del álbum “Lo pasado, pasado” de José José con un tema titulado “Ya no pienso en ti” que nunca había escuchado antes.

“Pusimos la cinta, le dimos ‘play’”, dijo en una entrevista reciente con The Associated Press. “Se nos erizó la piel”.

No podían creer que en pleno 2023, a cinco años de fallecido José José, tuvieran el privilegio de escuchar algo inédito del astro mexicano. Heredia convocó a ejecutivos de Sony Music México, quienes comenzaron a indagar si realmente era una canción del maestro que no hubiese salido al público antes.

Las cintas tenían datos muy precisos como que habían sido grabadas el 9 de noviembre de 1978 en Inglaterra, bajo la dirección musical está el productor y arreglista Tom Parker y la ingeniería de audio original de David Hunt. Parker también estuvo a cargo de la producción del álbum “Lo pasado pasado”.

“Lo especial de estas grabaciones es que está grabado a la vieja usanza con todos los músicos en vivo”, dijo Heredia, quien lamentó que no tuvieran los datos de los músicos de sesión. “Incluso una de las tomas de José José está hecha con los músicos”.

Los instrumentos son los originales de la grabación, sólo tuvieron que regrabar un poco del bajo por cuestiones de calidad, pero siguieron la línea original. El bajista Francisco Ruiz colaboró con la grabación actual para ese instrumento.

“De todo lo demás no añadimos nada, todo fue como sonó y como lo grabaron en ese entonces”, señaló Heredia.

La gran duda es por qué no salió en su momento a la luz. La principal teoría tiene que ver con el formato de los vinilos.

“El espacio en vinilo era muy limitado, que te permitía cinco canciones por lado, o seis canciones por lado, creemos que se tomó esa decisión de dejarla ahí afuera y la iban a utilizar en algún otro proyecto, pero se pasó por alto”, dijo.

Incluso hubo una oportunidad previa en la que se pudo rescatar la canción cuando hicieron un respaldo de las cintas de José José en los años 1990, pero nadie se percató del material.

“Tuve la fortuna de encontrar esa aguja en el pajar sin querer”, dijo entusiasmado Heredia.

El siguiente paso era contar con la autorización de la familia de José José para publicarla e investigar toda la información posible para los créditos y asuntos legales. El ingeniero y productor galardonado con el Latin Grammy Memo Gil hizo la mezcla de sonido final.

“Fue un trabajo artesanal respetando los estándares de la época, quisimos apegarnos a todo lo análogo de ese entonces”, dijo Heredia. “Podemos escuchar a José José en su mejor época”.

“Ya no pienso en ti”, que fue lanzada la semana pasada como parte de la serie Spotify Singles, es un tema nostálgico tras una ruptura amorosa. Próximamente, estrenarán el video de la canción.

“Justamente el día de ayer se estaba grabando el video en los estudios de 5020 MX de Sony Music”, señaló Heredia. “Va a ser un video muy emotivo porque es como un día a día de todas las personas cantando una canción de José José”.

Heredia es el encargado del archivo sonoro del estudio. Entre los artistas con los que ha colaborado destacan Carlos Rivera y La Sonora Santanera, con la que ganó un Latin Grammy. Desde hace 13 años labora en Sony Music México.

“Creo que con este tema, ‘El triste’ volvió a sonreír desde el cielo y su legado continúa”, dijo. “Lo importante aquí es que la canción la hagan suya”.

José José falleció el 28 de septiembre de 2019 en Florida, Estados Unidos. Es uno de los cantantes más populares de México con temas como “El triste”, “Almohada” y “Volcán”. Recibió el Premio a la Excelencia Musical y a la Persona del Año de la Academia Latina de la Grabación.

Dockworkers may have the negotiating advantage in their strike against US ports

Por

Associated Press

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01/10/2024

PHILADELPHIA— The 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation.

Organized labor enjoys rising public support and has had a string of recent victories in other industries, in addition to the backing of the pro-union administration of President Joe Biden. The dockworkers’ negotiating stand is likely further strengthened by the nation’s supply chain of goods being under pressure in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which has coincided with the peak shipping season for holiday goods.

The union is also pointing to shipping companies’ record profits, which have come in part because of shortages resulting from the pandemic, and to a more generous contract that West Coast dockworkers achieved last year. The longshoremen’s workloads also have increased, and the effects of inflation have eroded their pay in recent years.

In addition, commerce into and out of the United States has been growing, playing to the union’s advantage. Further enhancing its leverage is a still-tight job market, with workers in some industries demanding, and in some cases receiving, a larger share of companies’ outsize profits.

“I think this work group has a lot of bargaining power,” said Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University. “They’re essential workers that can’t be replaced, and also the ports are doing well.”

The dockworkers’ strike, their first since 1977, could snarl supply chains and cause shortages and higher prices if it stretches on for more than a few weeks. Beginning after midnight, the workers walked picket lines Tuesday and carried signs calling for more money and a ban on automation that could cost workers their jobs.

Experts say consumers won’t likely notice shortages for at least a few weeks, if the strike lasts that long, though some perishable items such as bananas could disappear from grocery stores — although at this time of year, most other fruits and vegetables are domestically grown and not processed at ports, according to Alan Siger, president of the Produce Distributors Association.

In anticipation of a strike, most major retailers also stocked up on goods, moving ahead shipments of holiday gift items.

The strike, coming weeks before a tight presidential election, could also become a factor in the race if shortages begin to affect many voters. Pressure could eventually grow for the Biden administration to intervene to try to force a temporary suspension of the strike.

Little progress was reported in the talks until just hours before the strike began at 12:01 a.m. The U.S. Maritime Alliance, the group negotiating for the ports, said both sides did budge from their initial positions. The alliance offered 50% raises over the six-year life of the contract. Comments from the union’s leadership had briefly suggested a move to 61.5%, but the union has since signaled that it’s sticking with its initial demand for a 77% pay increase over six years.

“We have demonstrated a commitment to doing our part to end the completely avoidable ILA strike,” the alliance said Tuesday. The ports’ pay offer is more than every other recent union settlement, the group said.

«We look forward to hearing from the Union about how we can return to the table and actually bargain, which is the only way to reach a resolution,” the statement said.

In early picketing, workers outside the Port of Philadelphia walked in a circle and chanted, “No work without a fair contract.” The union posted message boards on the side of a truck reading: “Automation Hurts Families: ILA Stands For Job Protection.”

Boise Butler, president of the union local, asserted that the workers want a contract that doesn’t allow for the automation of their jobs. The shipping companies, he argued, made billions during the pandemic by charging high prices.

“Now,» Butler said, “we want them to pay back. They’re going to pay back.”

And in New Orleans, Henry Glover Jr., a fourth-generation dockworker who is president of the union local, said he can recall the days when longshoremen unloaded 150-pound sacks of sugar by hand. He acknowledges that machinery has made the job easier, but he worries that the ports need fewer people to handle the equipment.

“Automation could be good, but they’re using it to kill jobs,” Glover said. “We don’t want them to implement anything that would take our jobs out.”

William Brucher, an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, noted that “this is a very opportune time” for striking workers.

The contract agreement reached last year with West Coast dockworkers, who are represented by a different union, shows that “higher wages are definitely possible” for the longshoremen and has enhanced their bargaining power, Brucher said.

Under the Taft-Hartley Act, Biden could seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period that would end the strike at least temporarily, but he has told reporters that he wouldn’t take that step. The administration could risk losing union support if it exercised such power, which experts say could be particularly detrimental for Democrats ahead of next month’s election.

On Tuesday, the White House continued to ask the alliance to negotiate a fair contract that reflects the longshoremen’s contribution to the economy.

“As our nation climbs out of the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,» Biden said in a statement, «dockworkers will play an essential role in getting communities the resources they need. Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits.”

Ben Nolan, a transportation analyst with Stifel, said the administration isn’t likely to intervene until consumers start to see empty shelves or can’t find critical goods like medicines.

“Medications and other things come in on containers,” Nolan said. “I think if the administration wanted to have a reason to get involved, it’s stuff like that.»

Migration is more complex than politics show

Por

Associated Press

-

01/10/2024

For decades politicians in both parties have bemoaned a U.S. immigration system that virtually all call broken. Attempts at comprehensive reform have failed and popular emotion and partisan rancor have it a new high over the last two years as cities and towns struggled to accommodate migrants.

With emotions high, Republican-led states have bussed new arrivals to Democratic-led cities. The presidential election now has shifted the spotlight to a city whose latest residents are legally in the country.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance have jumped on disproven rumors that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating household pets.

The bottom line: Immigrants are coming and staying in this country through a mix of methods and programs that are not easily captured or acknowledged in political rhetoric, but fearmongering over immigration is nearly as old as the country itself.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets members of the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border, Feb. 29, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Photo: AP/Eric Gay/File)

Many ways to come to the United States

The roughly 15,000 Haitians residing in Springfield are in the U.S. legally. Most of them are under Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to stay and work. Trump and Vance have failed to make that distinction, which many critics see as part of Trump’s long history of targeting Black people. Last weekend at a rally in Las Vegas, the Republican presidential nominee said the city has “been taken over by illegal migrants.”

Trump would not be able to legally deport Haitians who have protected status.

His supporters such as Vivek Ramaswamy have falsely stated that the federal government transported Haitians to Springfield’s front doorstep. In reality, migrants with legal status or granted asylum have to foot the bill for their own transportation. The Haitian population there grew largely as migrants who went where they could find family, housing and work.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, attend the 9/11 Memorial ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in New York. (Photo: AP/Yuki Iwamura/File)

The benefits of immigration

Historically, immigrants or people with temporary protected status come to the U.S. to work and often take jobs that Americans reject, filling a need in the workforce as older generations retire and fewer babies are born. And many American cities’ cultural, economic and religious identities were shaped by migrants.

“Most Americans are fundamentally immigrants, and so it’s always just kind of crazy when this gets called into question, and there’s some idea that immigration is not a strength,” said Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

One in five Oklahoma City residents are Latino, Holt said, and the restaurants and small businesses they operate have become an integral part of the city of about 700,000 people. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, thousands of Vietnamese immigrants flocked to the city and today their community a few miles west of the state capitol is known for its bustling markets and many restaurants.

“Their culture and their food are now very much a part of what makes Oklahoma City unique,” Holt said.

After the evacuation of Afghanistan in 2021, Holt welcomed more than 2,000 Afghan refugees to the city. One of them, Feroz Bashari, swore Holt in for his second term as mayor.

Bashari had been the spokesperson for the Afghan government before the U.S. withdrew. He fled with his family when the government was toppled.

“A friend of mine who came before me told me it’s a nice place for living, raising your children,” Bashari said. “It’s a conservative place, they believe in God, they’re very religious. They have almost the same religious culture we have.”

Immigrants can revitalize little populated neighborhoods and decaying streets by setting up businesses and paying taxes. Miami’s Little Havana, San Francisco’s Chinatown or Chicago’s Polish Triangle are fixtures touted to visitors. But migrants also change the fabric and the culture of a city, as well as the country, in ways that longer-term residents find hard.

Migrants wait to be processed by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, on Oct. 19, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Photo: AP/Eric Gay/File)

The complications of immigration

A census survey conducted between July 2022 and July 2023 found that Ohio’s foreign-born population included 5,442 people from Haiti. In comparison, Florida and New York had populations of over 370,000 and 119,000 Haitian-born residents, respectively.

Springfield officials have placed the figure today at between 15,000 and 20,000, and they say the size of the influx combined with the language barrier has created delays in receiving health care, accessing social services and using everyday government services, like getting a license. Traffic accidents involving death or injury also have increased in town, as have pressures on the housing stock.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has deep ties to Haiti, having traveled there with his wife more than 20 times in support of a tuition-free school named after their late daughter. DeWine, who was born in Springfield and is a lifelong resident of the area, said Haitians who have landed in the city are hard workers, and have helped close labor shortages in factories and warehouses.

But he said that a sudden influx of Haitians in a city of 58,000 has also stretched the city’s resources. Some of those frustrations spilled out at a Springfield City Commission meeting last week.

A school-bus driver said he and other bus drivers are forced to take evasive maneuvers every day “avoiding people who can’t drive.” A man spoke of a friend who was kicked out of his home by a landlord who then tripled the rent. Other residents complained about overcrowded schools and an increase in homelessness among longtime residents.

“I feel like there should be a no-vacancy sign right now,” one man said.

DeWine, at a news conference this week, said that, “Yes, we have challenges.”

“But we’re going to meet those challenges,» he said. «We may not meet them overnight, but we’re going to work at those challenges and those problems.”

Earlier this month, DeWine announced the city would get $2.5 million over the next two years for health-care demands.

A church sign is seen at House of Prayer near the First Haitian Church and community center in Springfield, Ohio, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo: AP/Luis Andres Henao)

Long history of fears over immigration

Trump has alleged that migrants have caused skyrocketing crime rates in cities like Springfield and Aurora, Colorado, although authorities in both cities have debunked that. Many studies show that crime is lower among immigrants compared to native-born residents.

Nearly 200 years before Trump and Vance perpetuated unfounded fears that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio abduct and eat dogs and cats, Chinese laborers in California faced similar demonization. Many Chinese men emigrated from the West in the 1850s — first to dig for gold and then build the transcontinental railroad. Propaganda at the time fostered fears that the Chinese were a “yellow peril” who smoked opium and ate strange foods. This sentiment led to Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first law restricting immigration based on ethnicity.

In 1924, the U.S. established a comprehensive immigration law with a quota system based on nation of origin. It heavily favored immigrants from northern and western Europe. The intention was to limit immigrants from Asia as well as Jews and others fleeing Europe.

A monumental change came in 1965 with the Hart-Celler Immigration Act, which abolished the quotas and was intended to help immigrants bring family members with them to the U.S., a practice known as chain migration that first benefited Europeans and now aids prople from Asia and Latin America.

Pennsylvania county manager sued over plans to end use of drop boxes for mail-in ballots

Por

Associated Press

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01/10/2024

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Three residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania county sued Tuesday to overturn a local official’s announcement that she will prevent all four of its drop boxes from being deployed for use by those voting by mail and absentee ballot in the Nov. 5 election.

The lawsuit in Luzerne County argues county manager Romilda Crocamo lacks authority for statements made last month that the county would not use drop boxes “because of purported safety and security concerns.” Drop boxes are used to hand over completed ballots by those who don’t want to put mail-in ballots through the mail.

The voters who sued said the Luzerne County Board of Elections and Registration plans to deploy four drop boxes, as it has in other recent elections. The board in February voted down a proposal to eliminate all drop boxes, their lawsuit states.

The lawsuit accuses Crocamo of violating state election law and it claims her policy will “lead to irreparable harm to the voting rights” in Luzerne. The plaintiffs want a county judge to stop Crocamo from implementing her decision.

In an email seeking comment, Crocamo wrote Tuesday: “I do not engage in public comment during litigation.” Messages seeking comment were left with two of the five members of the Elections and Registration Board, which also is a defendant in the case.

Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement Crocamo had no authority for what he called an «end run around the board of elections’ decision to continue offering Luzerne County county voters a safe and easy option to vote by mail, and we hope the court will quickly restore the four drop boxes.”

The voters and the nonprofit civic group In This Together NEPA Inc., which also is a plaintiff, argued there have been no substantiated cases of abuse or fraud involving drop boxes in Luzerne County. They said the drop boxes have been monitored by camera.

The Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre reported Tuesday that Crocamo has said she does have the authority — as part of her duty to oversee personnel and the security of county-owned properties.

The question is: Is Butler ready?

Banking on better security

The shooting was ‘a burden on all of us’

Moving forward while memorializing the past

Agradecimiento a López Obrador

Vance y Walz cuestionados sobre si serían capaces de garantizar la desescalada en O.Medio

Inmigración

El complejo tema del acceso al aborto

Control de armas y violencia armada

El estado de la democracia y el 6 de enero

Carta de presentación para Vance y Walz

With Mideast in turmoil, Walz promises ‘steady leadership” and Vance offers ’peace through strength’

Vance and Walz punch up rather than at each other

Both candidates put a domestic spin on climate change

Walz, Vance each blame opposing presidential candidate for immigration stalemate

Many ways to come to the United States

The benefits of immigration

The complications of immigration

Long history of fears over immigration

Populares de la Semana

En tendencia