“A federal judge in California on Thursday barred the Trump administration from denying or conditioning the use of federal funds to ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions. U.S. Judge William Orrick said a preliminary injunction was appropriate because the executive orders were unconstitutional just as they were in 2017 when President Donald Trump announced a similar order. Orrick issued the injunction sought by San Francisco and more than a dozen other municipalities that sued over a pair of executive orders the Republican president issued targeting local municipalities that limit cooperation with federal immigration efforts. Orrick, based in San Francisco, wrote that defendants are restrained and enjoined ‘from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds’ and the administration must provide written notice of his order to all federal departments and agencies by Monday.” (04/24/25)
“Are electric vehicles better for the planet than gasoline-powered vehicles? This is the question we explore in my new documentary. Whether one agrees with former President Joe Biden, who calls climate change ‘an existential threat,’ or whether one agrees with the late physicist Freeman Dyson, who dismissed Al Gore and his ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ as ‘lousy science,’ this question remains. Are electric vehicles better for planet Earth than ‘gas guzzlers?’ After all, fossil-fuel-generated energy is required to manufacture an electric vehicle and then to transport it to the dealership. The electricity required to charge it comes mostly from fossil-fuel-generated power. Electric vehicles are a triumph of technology, with incredible features. They are quiet, fast and fun to drive. The self-driving feature, while not foolproof, will likely save lives because human driving error is more common.” (04/24/25)
“A 19-year-old man has been charged with arson for allegedly sparking the massive wildfire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens that has torched 15,000 acres, prosecutors said. Joseph Kling, of Ocean Township, allegedly started a bonfire in the vast Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area with wooden pallets that exploded out of control when he did not properly put it out, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. Kling was taken into custody at Ocean Township police headquarters and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he is awaiting his detention hearing. A column of smoke was first spotted from the Cedar Bridge Fire Tower in Barnegat Township around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, officials said. The fire quickly spread out of control, forcing the evacuation of 5,000 residents of Ocean and Lacey townships.” (04/24/25)
“Female bonobos find strength in numbers, teaming up to fend off males in the wild, a new study finds. Along with chimpanzees, bonobos are among humans’ closest relatives. Scientists have long wondered why bonobos live in generally female-dominated societies since the males are physically bigger and stronger. Three decades of observations in Congo — the only place the endangered bonobos are found in the wild — lend support to the idea of a sisterhood where female bonobos band together to assert their power. These girl groups chased male bonobos out of trees, securing food for themselves, and females that grouped more ranked higher in their community’s social ladder, researchers found. ‘It’s very clear that you don’t want to overstep as a male bonobo,’ said study author Martin Surbeck from Harvard University. Findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.” (04/24/25)
“As my colleague Bob Kuttner wrote yesterday, Donald Trump, after starting April like a lion, is going out like a lamb. He has said publicly that tariffs on China will ‘come down substantially’, with an unnamed aide floating rollbacks as high as 65 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a similar story at a closed-door meeting hosted by JPMorganChase (why was he delivering market-moving information in secret to bankers?), and publicly at the Institute of International Finance on Tuesday. ‘There is an opportunity for a big deal here’ with China, Bessent said, and ‘if they want to rebalance [their economy], let’s do it together.’ Wall Street is certainly desperate for any note of conciliation, and Trump saying he has ‘no intention’ of firing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made them even more ebullient. But let’s get real.” [editor’s note: First step: Audit the Fed – SAT] (04/24/25)
“A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked North Carolina election officials from contacting voters whose disputed ballots in an unresolved 2024 state Supreme Court race could be eliminated from the final count. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, granted the stay request of Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs, who has asked federal judges to throw out the recent rulings of state appellate courts that largely favored Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin’s requests to toss ballots that he challenged. Democrats and voting rights groups have raised alarm about Griffin’s effort, calling it an attack on democracy that would serve as a road map for the GOP to reverse future election results in other states. The state Republican Party says Griffin’s efforts are about ensuring that only legal votes are counted.” (04/23/25)
“I’m puzzled by Democratic politicians’ decision to turn Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal [sic] immigrant and alleged member of a violent gang who’s been deported from Maryland to El Salvador, into their latest cause célèbre. Four Democratic House members landed in the capital city of San Salvador on April 21 to appeal for his return to the United Sates … Just days earlier, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland made the same journey to meet with Abrego Garcia, who is being held in a Salvadoran prison. The Supreme Court has ruled that the deportation was illegal, and the Trump administration was instructed to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. But the Justice Department contends that it doesn’t have jurisdiction because he’s being held by a foreign government.” (04/23/25)
“Jelly Roll has gotten one step closer to receiving a full pardon for his previous convictions. The Tennessee Board of Parole officially recommended the 40-year-old musician receive a full pardon following a 45-minute hearing which included statements from a number of witnesses, including Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall, who runs Nashville’s jail. The hearing ended with a vote, in which the board reached a unanimous agreement to recommend the musician be pardoned, with only one board member recusing themselves from voting. ‘This was incredible,’ Jelly Roll, whose real name is Jason DeFord, said after the vote, according to the board’s recording of the meeting. ‘I pray this goes through. But today was special for me, regardless.’ The board’s unanimous vote leaves the final decision in the hands of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.” (04/23/25)
“‘Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.’ ‘I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.’ — James Madison … I just thought I’d throw those two quotes above out there so you’d know what James Madison, the ‘Father’ of our Constitution, the guy who wrote most of it, thought about a government welfare state. There is absolutely nothing in the Constitution that gives the federal government the right to spend one thin dime, much less trillions, on charity, even to their own constituents, much less to foreigners. But, it’s really a moot point; nobody in Washington, D.C., especially in Congress, pays the least bit of attention to what the Constitution authorizes them to do.” (04/23/25)
“The Trump administration would look at lowering tariffs on imported Chinese goods pending talks with Beijing, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, adding that any action would not be made unilaterally. The source’s comments followed a Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering cutting its tariffs on Chinese imports in a bid to de-escalate tensions.” (04/23/25)
