| Sports | #Saints ; #Broncos ; #GreenWave ; #Greenies |
| Carnival | #FunkyTucks (last four floats of #Tucks ) |
| Geo-location | #Tchoupitoulas ; #EastBank ; #NOLA ; #Louisiana ; #USA ; #Earth ; #ThirdRock |
| Status | #Retired ; fan of #FrenchQuarterFest ; fan of #JazzFest |
President Donald Trump, who returned to office Jan. 20, has wasted no time setting a new agenda, relying on false and misleading information to support several of his initiatives. He told attendees at the World Economic in Davos he had a massive mandate from the American people because he had millions of votes. While the electoral vote was 312 for Trump and 226 for Vice President Kamala Harris, he won the popular vote by only about 2.3 million votes, 49.9% to 48.4%. Pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, he falsely claimed there were only a few minor incidents with police. He once again greatly inflated the number of people who entered the country illegally during President Joe Biden's administration and misrepresented water issues in California while discussing recent wildfires.
President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, are celebrating gains in the anti-abortion movement with activists in the annual March for Life. Thousands came to Washington for the event Friday. After decades of fighting to overturn Roe v. Wade, organizers now are focusing on the multiple state-by-state battles taking place over abortion rights. Trump spoke to the marchers in a prerecorded video address. Vance attended the event. He said the president “delivered on his promise of ending Roe” and appointed hundreds of anti-abortion-rights judges.
Oklahoma's Republican attorney general is dismissing a felony assault charge against a police officer who slammed a 71-year-old man to the ground, breaking his neck. The use of force came during an argument over a traffic ticket in late October. Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced late Friday that he had intervened in the case and dismissed the charge against Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Joseph Gibson. Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna had filed the charge against Gibson earlier this month. Drummond said in a statement that he would not permit Oklahoma officers to be charged for conduct that complies with their training. He said he didn't believe Gibson exhibited criminal intent.
A nearly two-year investigation by Democratic senators of Supreme Court ethics details more luxury travel by Justice Clarence Thomas and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a new code of conduct. Any movement on the issue appears unlikely as Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate in January, underscoring the hurdles in imposing restrictions on the court, which has seen its public confidence plunge to record lows. Republicans have said ethics investigations are a way to undermine the conservative majority court.
No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. Best Western, Bama Budweiser and Burger King are among the more than 500 businesses to lease incarcerated workers from one of the most violent, overcrowded and unruly prison systems in the U.S. in the past five years alone, The Associated Press found as part of a two-year investigation into prison labor. The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 — money garnished from prisoners’ paychecks. Kelly Betts of the corrections department defended the work programs, calling them crucial to the success of inmates preparing to leave prison, though she added some of the incarcerated workers are serving life without parole.
Scholars are hailing the discovery of a fossilized mastodon jaw discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his upstate New York home this year. Officials from the New York State Museum say the mastodon jaw and some other bone fragments were found in late September in a backyard near the hamlet of Scotchtown, about 70 miles northwest of New York City. Museum officials say the owner of the backyard does not want to be identified. Further excavation at the site yielded a well-preserved jaw of an adult mastodon as well as a piece of a toe bone and a rib fragment.
President-elect Donald Trump has delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations. He's rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats. Billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition. Trump’s joint statement Wednesday with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the budget legislation as full of excessive spending. “Kill the Bill!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own.
President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. The White House says it’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.
Boise State advanced to the semifinals of the Mountain West women's volleyball tournament by beating Utah State on Wednesday night. But the Broncos announced later they would not play Friday against San Jose State. San Jose State received six forfeit victories because of boycotts from Mountain West opponents. The Spartans are seeded second in the conference tournament and received a first-round bye. No. 6 seed Boise State forfeited both of its regular-season matches to the Spartans.