Pro-Palestine protesters disrupt Pomona College graduation

Pro-Palestine student protesters briefly interrupted Pomona College’s graduation at a venue in downtown Los Angeles, United States, demanding their school divest from companies and weapons manufacturers linked to Israel, according to local media.

The protesters attempted to block the entrance to the venue, the Los Angeles Police Department said on X, adding that one person at the rally tried to “strike an officer”.

The protest resulted in the University of Southern California announcing that it would close its University Park Campus, which is located next to the venue hosting the Pomona graduation.


https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/International/1445295/pro-palestine-protesters-disrupt-pomona-college-graduation

AZ-SEN: Kari Lake pushes 'great replacement theory'

U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake claimed without evidence Sunday that Democrats are allowing undocumented immigrants to flood across the border as part of a nationwide plot to pad voter rolls while registering that group for Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

The Republican front-runner echoed the "great replacement theory" favored by white nationalists as she mixed accusations of election fraud with welfare fraud to a credulous Maria Bartiromo on her “Sunday Morning Futures” show on Fox News.

Lake has repeatedly employed these themes, in part to explain her 2022 gubernatorial loss. Lake is currently running for the U.S. Senate seat held by U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has urged Lake to focus on matters such as inflation and the rising number of illegal immigrant entries, not election denialism. On Sunday, Lake seemed to again conflate the border situation with election outcomes.





https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/12/kari-lake-pushes-replacement-theory-favored-by-white-nationalists/73664349007/

MT-SEN: Montana's Tribal Voters Could Determine the Makeup of the Senate

Native Americans are always an important voting bloc in Montana, where they make up 6.5 percent of the population, per U.S. Census data. But this November, their involvement could potentially impact the entire nation.

Control of the Senate may hang on the outcome of the Montana Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up for reelection in this reliably red state, likely facing off against Republican Tim Sheehy, whom former President Donald Trump has endorsed. Trump won Montana by nearly 17 percentage points in 2020, and Tester won by 3.5 percentage points — or nearly 18,000 votes — in 2018. Montana’s tribes comprise about five percent of the voting bloc, nearly twice the margin by which Tester won his last race.

Native voters are “hugely important to the Democratic base,” says Jim Messina, an Obama White House alum and former adviser to Tester with deep political roots in Montana. Tester ousted Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in 2006 in part by siphoning off some of Burns’ support among Native Americans. “Tester was able to cut into that bloc and really move them towards him,” Messina says.

Tribal leaders say Tester has a good track record of pushing policies that are important to Native Americans. As an example, they point to the Little Shell Tribe, which lobbied Congress for more than 150 years for federal recognition — crucial for tribal sovereignty and access to federal resources such as health care, education and economic development. But it wasn’t until 2019 that the tribe earned much-coveted federal recognition as part of the National Defense Authorization Act — thanks largely to Tester’s efforts, according to Tribal Chair Gerald Gray.




https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/12/letter-from-montana-00155737

Arkansas groups with ballot initiatives nearing finish line for required signatures

ROGERS, Ark. — Groups looking to get ballot initiatives on the November 2024 ballot have until July 5 to get the required number of signatures.

Arkansans for Limited Government is looking to get the state's abortion law on the ballot.

We have a lot of momentum, we have 700-plus trained volunteers on the ground who are working across the state to make sure that all Arkansans can make their voice voices heard," Arkansans for Limited Government Director of Strategy Rebecca Bobrow said.

The group needs more than 90,000 signatures to get the amendment onto the ballot.




https://www.4029tv.com/article/arkansas-groups-with-ballot-initiatives-nearing-finish-line-for-required-signatures/60769886

Columbia student ripped up her diploma on stage as a form of protest against Columbia University.

Fighting Flares Anew in Gaza as Hamas Reconstitutes

As the Israeli military stepped up pressure on what it calls Hamas’s last stronghold in Gaza, fighting elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave on Sunday led to warnings that the militants might remain a force for a long time to come.

Close-quarters ground combat between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of northern Gaza over the weekend, both sides said on Sunday, even as the world’s attention was largely focused on the southern city of Rafah, where Israel escalated military operations last week.

It has become a familiar scenario in the Gaza Strip over the course of the seven-month war: After pitched battles, Israel declares an area clear of Hamas, only to return after the militants reconstitute their forces.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he was concerned that Israel’s failure to lay down a template for the governance of Gaza meant that its victories might not be “sustainable” and would be followed by “chaos, by anarchy and ultimately by Hamas again.”




https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/12/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-gaza.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

WV-SEN: Jim Justice (R) is a national security risk.

Jim Justice, the businessman-turned-politician governor of West Virginia, has been pursued in court for years by banks, governments, business partners and former employees for millions of dollars in unmet obligations.

And for a long time, Mr. Justice and his family’s companies have managed to stave off one threat after another with wily legal tactics notably at odds with the aw-shucks persona that has endeared him to so many West Virginians. On Tuesday, he is heavily favored to win the Republican Senate primary and cruise to victory in the general election, especially after the departure of the Democratic incumbent, Joe Manchin III.

But now, as he wraps up his second term as governor and campaigns for a seat in the U.S. Senate, things are looking dicier. Much like Donald J. Trump, with whom he is often compared — with whom he often compares himself — Mr. Justice has faced a barrage of costly judgments and legal setbacks.

And this time, there may be too many, some suspect, for Mr. Justice, 73, and his family to fend them all off.



https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/12/us/jim-justice-west-virginia-senate.html

Tweet of the Day

Oral arguments in the case challenging the Montana Public Service Commission map

Oral arguments have now concluded in the appeal challenging the New York City Council map