TV News LIES

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday he would veto a controversial “buffer zone” bill to restrict protests around educational institutions, calling it an excessive restriction of the First Amendment.

The veto is the first of Mamdani’s administration.

The mayor said he would not veto a similar recent bill restricting protests near houses of worship. City Council Speaker Julie Menin had framed both bills as common-sense safety measures to protect people from harassment.

But Mamdani said the implications of limits on protests at campuses and schools were too broad.

“As the bill is written, everywhere from universities to museums to teaching hospitals could face restrictions,” he said in a statement. “This could impact workers protesting [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”

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For two years, establishment Democrats have led a wide-ranging legal attack on University of Michigan pro-Palestinian student activists, aiming to shut down their protest of Israel. On Sunday, Democratic Party delegates symbolically rebuked the establishment’s draconian campaign. Two pro-Palestinian candidates notched upset wins against pro-Israel-backed opponents in statewide primary races in this critical upper Midwest swing state.

The races, decided by the Michigan Democratic Party’s delegates during a nominating convention, mark material and symbolic victories for pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan (U-M)—some of whom continue to face investigations over their protests of the genocide. And, as more polling shows the extent to which support for Israel has collapsed across the political spectrum, the wins indicate that the pro-Israel playbook is failing even in lower, state-level races.

In the state Attorney General’s race, Ann Arbor’s progressive Jewish prosecutor, Eli Savit, beat Karen McDonald, who was backed by major corporations and pro-Israel donors. And in the race for a seat on the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, defense attorney Amir Makled defeated incumbent regent Jordan Acker, who helped lead the school’s legal attack on the pro-Palestinian students. Makled represented some of the students who beat the U-M prosecutions.

Makled, who is Lebanese-American, overcame an onslaught of allegations that he is antisemitic and supports Hezbollah. He told Drop Site the wins show “the electorate is done with AIPAC-aligned candidates and their smear campaigns.”

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A White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.

The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.

The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.

The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.

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A day after Virginia voters passed a redistricting referendum expected to net Democrats more House seats, a Republican-appointed judge blocked its implementation.

Judge Jack Hurley ruled that the redistricting was unconstitutional and issued an injunction preventing certification of the election. Hurley previously ruled that the referendum should not go to voters, but the state Supreme Court overruled him.

Virginians for Fair Elections, a group that backed the referendum, also slammed the decision.

“Republicans lost,” the group said. “Now they’re trying to overturn the will of the voters in court and trying to relitigate an election they couldn’t win.”

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Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a US appeals court ruled Tuesday in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools.

It sets up a potential clash at the US supreme court over the issue in the future.

The fifth circuit court of appeals said in the decision that the law did not violate either the establishment clause or the free exercise clause of the first amendment.

The law is among the pushes by Republicans, including Donald Trump, to incorporate religion into public schools. Critics say it violates the separation of church and state while backers argue that the Ten Commandments are historical and part of the foundation of US law.

The ruling comes after the full court heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana. The appeals court in February cleared the way for Louisiana’s law, requiring displays of the commandments in public school classrooms. The fifth circuit court of appeals voted 12-6 to lift a block that a lower court had first placed on the law in 2024.

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A watchdog organization has filed a new request for records pertaining to FBI Director Kash Patel, citing new reports of excessive alcohol use from the intelligence chief.

The request from the Democracy Forward Foundation (DFF) cites The Atlantic’s recent report, “The FBI Director is MIA.”

“If the Director of the FBI is a liability – the American people need to know,” DFF President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a press release on Tuesday.

“News reports, including from The Atlantic, suggest that his levels of drinking and absentee leadership are not just unacceptable, but also a threat to the integrity of one of the most important law enforcement agencies in the country,” Perryman continued. “If true, this is not a minor lapse in judgment or a personal issue to brush aside; this goes to whether the FBI is being led with the discipline, reliability, and seriousness the job demands.”

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