California Lawmakers Vote to Increase UC Berkeley Enrollment

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The California Legislature voted unanimously Monday to overturn a recent court ruling that would have forced one of the nation’s most prestigious universities to turn away thousands of students from its incoming freshman class. If signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the bill will ensure that about 2,600 freshmen admissions slots for this that had been eliminated by a judge will be restored for the University of California, Berkeley. Just two weeks ago, the state Supreme Court ordered the school — one of nation’s the top public universities — to reduce its enrollment because it said the college hadmore

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Survey: One in Five US Election Workers May Quit Amid Threats, Politics

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U.S. local election officials are increasingly concerned about threats and political pressure fueled by baseless allegations of voter fraud in the last presidential race, and one in five say they are somewhat or very unlikely to stay in their jobs through the 2024 contest, a national survey showed on Thursday. In the poll of nearly 600 election officials, more than 75% said threats against election administrators and staff have increased in recent years. The percentage saying they are “very worried” about political leaders interfering in future elections has nearly tripled since before 2020. Conducted by the Brennan Center for Justicemore

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Plane Carrying Trump Made Emergency Landing Over Weekend, Source Says

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A plane carrying former U.S. President Donald Trump made an emergency landing in New Orleans on Saturday evening after experiencing engine failure over the Gulf of Mexico, a source familiar with the matter confirmed on Wednesday. The plane, a Dassault Falcon 900, had gone about 75 miles from a New Orleans airport before turning back to the city, the person said. Other passengers included Secret Service agents, support staff and some of Trump’s advisers. A Trump representative did not immediately return a request for comment on the incident. The plane was returning Trump to his home in Palm Beach, Florida,more

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US House Lawmakers Urge Department of Justice to Investigate Amazon

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers has written a letter asking the Department of Justice to determine whether online retailer Amazon engaged in obstruction of Congress during an investigation of the company’s competitive practices.  The letter said the company had “engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct” that suggested it had sought to influence or obstruct an investigation into how it operates.  The House Judiciary Committee conducted a 16-month probe into how Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook operated.  During the investigation, lawmakers focused on Amazon’s use of private-label products and collection of third-party data.  Amazon allegedly copied popular productsmore

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US Lawmakers Reach Agreement on Billions in Ukraine Aid

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U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement Tuesday to send as much as $14 billion in humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. The bipartisan effort to confront Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the independent Eastern European nation follows congressional support for U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement he will ban Russian energy imports into the U.S. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill. …

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Venezuela Frees at Least 2 Americans After Talks With US, Sources Say

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Venezuela released at least two jailed U.S. citizens on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said, in an apparent goodwill gesture toward the Biden administration following a visit to Caracas by a high-level U.S. delegation.  One of the freed prisoners was identified as Gustavo Cardenas, one of six Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017 and convicted on charges the U.S. government says were fabricated, the sources said. The other was a Cuban American detained on unrelated charges, they said.  The weekend meetings focused not only on the fate of Americans held in Venezuela but on possibly easing U.S. oil sanctionsmore

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Biden Won’t Subsidize ‘Putin’s War,’ Bans Russian Energy Imports

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U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and other energy imports on Tuesday in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Poland said it would send its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany, presumably for Ukrainian pilots to use. In exchange, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked that the U.S. send Poland aircraft with similar operational capabilities. Biden, noting that the ban on Russian oil would not come without cost to U.S. residents, said, “We will not be part of subsidizing (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war,” In a tweet Tuesday, Ukraine President Volodymyrmore

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US Banning Russian Energy Imports

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Global oil prices soared Tuesday as President Joe Biden announced that the United States will ban imports of Russian energy — a move that could have a dramatic impact in punishing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime for its invasion of Ukraine. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. …

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US Senate Approves $50 billion Postal Service Relief Bill

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The U.S. Senate voted 79-19 on Tuesday for a bill that would provide the Postal Service (USPS) with about $50 billion in financial relief over a decade and require its future retirees to enroll in a government health insurance plan.  The action, after the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the measure in early February, sends the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature. USPS has reported net losses of more than $90 billion since 2007, and on Tuesday reported a net loss of $1.5 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31.  USPS has been struggling with diminishing mailmore

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US Supreme Court Rejects GOP Redistricting Plans in 2 States

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In a victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans. In separate orders late Monday, the justices are allowing maps selected by each state’s Supreme Court to be in effect for the 2022 elections. Those maps are more favorable to Democrats than the ones drawn by the states’ legislatures. In North Carolina, the map most likely will give Democrats an additional House seat in 2023. The Pennsylvania map also probably will lead to the election of more Democrats, the Republicans say, as the twomore

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Jury to Begin Deliberating in 1st Trial Over Capitol Riot

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An armed Texas militia member led a “vigilante mob” that overwhelmed police officers and became the first group of rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol last year, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the close of the first criminal trial over the riot. A 12-member jury is scheduled to begin deliberating on Tuesday for Guy Wesley Reffitt’s trial on charges that he stormed the Capitol with a holstered handgun strapped to his waist and interfered with police officers guarding the Senate doors. He also is charged with threatening his teenage children if they reported him to law enforcement after themore

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Momentum Grows in US for Russian Oil Ban 

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U.S. lawmakers stepped up calls Monday to ban the import of Russian oil, cutting off Russian President Vladimir Putin from a key source of revenue in retaliation for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. “How can we possibly be importing Russian oil and gas and giving the profits of those transactions to Vladimir Putin to pay for his war machine?” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said on the Senate floor Monday. Dubin introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday along with 11 other senators that would temporarily ban Russian oil imports along with suspending U.S.-Russia trade relations. He said that if passed, the result ofmore

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Republicans Make Headway in Texas’ Booming Latino Communities

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Democrats have long dreamed of flipping Texas from a bedrock Republican state to one that elects more Democrats to Congress and awards its mother lode of electoral votes to a Democratic presidential contender, something that hasn’t happened since 1976. That dream has been buoyed by dramatic demographic changes in Texas, where the population has grown at more than twice the national average for the last 20 years, and people of Latin American descent account for 60% of that growth. But Democrats have a problem. Latino voters, regarded as a key Democratic Party constituency, are showing a greater willingness to votemore

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White House Disavows Senator’s Call for Assassination of Putin 

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The Biden administration is not advocating for regime change in Russia, the White House said Friday, after a U.S. senator called for Russians to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. “That is not the position of the U.S. government and certainly not a statement you’ll hear from — coming from the mouth of — anybody working for the administration,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in response to a question from Voice of America. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, suggested in a televised interview Thursday evening that “somebody in Russia” should assassinate Putin. He repeated hismore

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US Lawmakers Race to Agree on Russia Sanctions Legislation 

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Back at work this week following a holiday recess, U.S. lawmakers are feeling the pressure to agree on legislation sanctioning Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. While Democratic lawmakers praised the executive actions taken by U.S. President Joe Biden to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for bombarding the independent Eastern Europe nation, some Republicans said the actions came too late and suggested harsher additional steps. “It is time we dropped the hammer and completely shut down the economy in Russia and that we do more to assist Ukrainian defenses,” Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreignmore

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Advocates Urge Protected Status for Ukrainians in US 

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As Russian troops march through Ukraine, Ukrainians in the U.S. are anxious about their future and that of their homeland. Roman Korol, a graduate student at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is concerned for his family’s safety here in the U.S. when his visa expires and his extended family in Ukraine. “They’re all in Ukraine. They’re all under fire. They’re all civilians. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying about them every day, every second of this conflict. I’m stressed. I’m checking the news all the time and trying to find ways I can help from abroad,” he toldmore

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Transcript: President Biden’s State of the Union Address

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AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans.   Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again. Tonight, we meet as Democrats Republicans and Independents. But most importantly as Americans. With a duty to one another to the American people to the Constitution. And with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny. Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world thinking he could makemore

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Texas Primary: O’Rourke, Abbott Win Nominations for Governor

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Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott easily bested a group of conservative challengers to lock up his party’s nomination Tuesday and will face Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the November general election.  O’Rourke, who nearly ousted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, will get the chance to try for an even bigger upset in November. He’ll be an underdog against Abbott, who began the campaign with more than $50 million and hardline positions on abortion guns and immigration.  Some of those casting ballots, however, said they were worried that new restrictions on abortion, the toughest in America, go too far.  “That’s wheremore

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Many Capitol Riot Cases Could Hinge on 1st Trial’s Outcome

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The Justice Department launched one of the largest and most complex criminal investigations in its history after a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol over a year ago. Now it’s time for a jury to hear some of the government’s evidence about the unparalleled attack on American democracy. The first trial for one of the hundreds of Capitol riot prosecutions begins this week, with jury selection starting Monday in the case against Guy Wesley Reffitt. The Texas man is charged with bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds, interfering with police officers guarding the building, and threatening hismore

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Capitol Ditches Mask Requirement Ahead of State of the Union

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Face coverings are now optional for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, as Congress is lifting its mask requirement on the House floor after federal regulators eased guidelines last week in a rethinking of the nation’s strategy to adapt to living with a more manageable COVID-19. Congress’ Office of the Attending Physician announced the policy change Sunday, lifting a requirement that has been in place for much of the past two years and had become a partisan flashpoint on Capitol Hill. The change ahead of the speech will avoid a potential disruptive display of national tensions andmore

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