“The University of Southern California decided to cancel its Tuesday night gubernatorial debate after accusations that it excluded four of the only candidates of color, the Los Angeles Times reported. The private university came under fire when Xavier Becerra, a Mexican American candidate for governor, sent a scathing letter to the university’s president last week accusing it of the blatant exclusion of four candidates from the debate. He called it ‘a chilling and dangerous move.’ The university decided to cancel the event on Monday, less than a day before it was scheduled to take place. Becerra celebrated the news, which was first reported by the Times. ‘We fought. We won! We stood up against an unfair candidate debate set-up that prematurely chose winners and losers,’ he wrote on X on Monday night.” [editor’s note: This should be no surprise to Libertarians, who have seen Ed Clark, Harry Browne, Gary Johnson and others similarly excluded from Presidential debates for low polling and fundraising numbers – SAT] (03/24/26)
“A coalition of leading cultural and architectural preservation organizations has asked the court to stop the Trump administration from carrying through with its quarter-billion-dollar Kennedy Center reconstruction project. The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, along with seven other organizations, filed a lawsuit Monday in a Washington, D.C., federal court seeking injunctive relief prohibiting the Trump administration from starting any construction work at the iconic Potomac River center without completing the required public review and consultation process.” (03/24/26)
“Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) has appointed energy executive Alan Armstrong to represent the state in the Senate, replacing outgoing Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R), who was confirmed Monday to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). … Armstrong will be asked to pledge not to run for a full term after temporarily filling the vacancy — a unique element of Oklahoma law that quickly sparked chatter around potential candidates for this fall, when Mullin was set to seek reelection.” (03/24/26)
“The Taliban has freed an American citizen after more than a year in captivity, amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. Dennis Walter Coyle, 64, who was living in Afghanistan working as a language researcher, according to his family, was arrested in January 2025. In a statement posted online, the Taliban-run Afghan foreign ministry said Coyle’s imprisonment was deemed ‘sufficient’ and that he had been pardoned to mark Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of Ramadan. The US government — which declared Afghanistan a ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’ just weeks ago — welcomed the release, but called for other US citizens being ‘unjustly’ held to be freed, too. According to a family website, Coyle arrived in Afghanistan in the early 2000s to study Afghan linguistics and help communities develop resources in their native languages.” (03/24/26)
“Hong Kong police are now empowered to require anyone suspected of violating the semi-autonomous city’s national security [sic] law to hand over passwords to their mobile phones or computers. Officials will brief lawmakers on the new provisions on Tuesday, a government statement said. The measure, which took effect on Monday, is part of the national security [sic] law imposed by Beijing in 2020 following large, sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests in this Chinese territory. … Refusing to comply could lead to up to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of up to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars ($12,768), while providing false or misleading information could bring up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 500,000 Hong Kong dollars ($63,840).” (03/24/26)
“Scientists in Geneva took some antiprotons out for a spin — a very delicate one — in a truck, in a never-tried-before test drive that has been deemed a success. If this so-called antimatter had come into contact with actual matter, even for a fraction of an instant, it would have been annihilated in a quick flash of energy. So experts at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, had to be extra careful when they took 92 antiprotons on the road for a short ride on Tuesday. The antiprotons were suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets. … The drive on CERN’s campus itself lasted only about a half-hour to test how — if at all — the infinitesimal particles could be transported by road without seeping out.” (03/24/26)
“The chief district judge in New Jersey appointed Robert Frazer, a career prosecutor, to serve as US attorney for the state, ending for now a dispute over the legality of the office’s leadership that threatened to derail criminal investigations. Frazer is a longtime prosecutor who has worked on violent crime and gang organized crime cases, and most recently served as senior trial counsel. … Federal Judge Matthew Brann ruled last summer that Habba was illegally appointed as the acting US attorney in the District of New Jersey. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. Bondi later appointed a trio of attorneys to split Habba’s role: Philip Lamparello, Jordan Fox and Ari Fontecchio. Earlier this month, Brann found Bondi didn’t have the ability to create an alternative leadership structure in that way.” (03/23/26)
“The Philippines has become the world’s first country to declare a state of national energy emergency in response to the conflict in the Middle East. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he had signed an executive order to safeguard energy security, citing the ‘imminent danger posed upon the availability and stability’ of the country’s energy supply. The US-Israel war with Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a key shipping route — have sent shock waves through global energy markets, causing shortages and price rises. The Philippines imports 98% of its oil from the Gulf, and the price of diesel and petrol has more than doubled in the country since the war broke out on 28 February. On Tuesday, Marcos said the move would give the government the legal authority to impose measures to ensure energy stability and protect the broader economy.” (03/24/26)
“European consumer group Euroconsumers along with Football Supporters Europe have filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing FIFA of abusing its monopoly over World Cup ticket sales to impose excessive prices and unfair conditions on fans. The complaint, obtained by POLITICO, alleges breaches of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits abuses of a dominant market position. … The groups point to a range of alleged abusive practices, including limited transparency on ticket categories and seat allocation, a ‘variable pricing’ system that can push prices higher over time, and the actual scarcity of tickets advertised from $60.” (03/24/26)
“A California man has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for attempting to use a drone to deliver balloons stuffed with methamphetamine to people in a state penitentiary, officials announced last week. According to a March 20 news release from the Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office, 28-year-old Jorge Narvaez admitted to using an Autel EVO II Pro V3 drone to attempt to deliver drugs to North Kern State Prison in June 2024. That year, Narvaez packed two balloons with meth and dropped them over a prison yard, the release said. When two prison officers recovered the contraband balloons and sent their contents to a laboratory, they discovered that they contained 21.4 grams of methamphetamine. Officers also discovered that this wouldn’t be Narvaez’s only delivery attempt. That same day, Narvaez launched the drone a second time, equipping it with three ‘similarly packaged balloons’ of meth, the news releases said.” (03/24/26)
