Wednesday, March 20, 2024

3/20 WAKE-UP CALL: Texas Border Law On Hold Again

A federal appeals court has again blocked a law that makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority allowed the law to take effect while challenges to it continue through the court system. Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked enforcement of the law, known as S.B. 4, ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Two justices in the majority had said the Supreme Court may again consider intervening after a lower court weighs the merits of the case. Their statement appeared to have an immediate effect, as the lower court quickly scheduled a hearing and later moved to block the law from implementation. The law makes it a state crime for migrants to illegally cross the border and allows Texas officials to deport undocumented individuals, though Mexico said Tuesday that it would not accept anyone sent back by the state and condemned the law as “encouraging the separation of families, discrimination and racial profiling that violate the human rights of the migrant community.”

➤BIDEN, LAWMAKERS MAKE DEAL AVOIDING SHUTDOWN: President Joe Biden and congressional leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached a government funding deal, signaling the close of a saga that featured numerous shutdown threats. With a tight window left to consider funding bills, it is possible that there will still be a brief government shutdown over the weekend. However, it will likely have little impact on services or federal workers unless it stretches into next week. If lawmakers aren't able to pass the bills in time, a longer funding gap would lead to a government shutdown that could have real effects for many Americans.

➤GAZA TRUCE TALKS CONTINUE:  Israel and Hamas are locked in Gaza truce talks with goals that seem impossible to reconcile. Israel wants the release of dozens of hostages taken on Oct. 7 and the freedom to resume a military campaign to crush Hamas after any cease-fire ends, said mediators at the talks in Qatar. On the other side, Hamas is essentially negotiating for its survival, pushing for a lasting truce and ways to remain influential in postwar Gaza, if no longer its ruler. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would travel to the Middle East this week in the hope of making a concerted push for a cease-fire deal amid signs that both sides hardened their positions at the beginning of talks.

➤ISRAEL TO HUDDLE WITH U-S:  Israel is sending a "senior interagency team" to Washington to discuss targeting Hamas elements in Rafah. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send the team of military, intelligence and humanitarian officials. The agreement comes as the White House lobbies for alternatives to Israel's ground invasion plan. Sullivan said Biden stressed that more than 1 million Palestinians taking refuge in Rafah "have nowhere else to go (because) Gaza’s other major cities have largely been destroyed." Invading the city would further complicate efforts to provide food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians, Sullivan said.

➤AIR ATTACKS REPELLED IN UKRAINE: Russia and Ukraine said they repelled numerous air attacks late Tuesday and early Wednesday, with intensified pounding of border regions forcing evacuations of civilians on both sides. Russian officials said air defenSe systems destroyed Ukraine-launched missiles and drones over Belgorod, Kursk and Voronezh regions bordering Ukraine. Drones were also downed deeper in Russia in the Saratov region.

Intense Russian bombing of Ukraine's northeastern border region of Sumy meanwhile has prompted Kyiv to order evacuations of civilians. Russia's Defence Ministry, posting on the Telegram messaging app, said air defenSe units had intercepted a dozen rockets and missiles over the Belgorod region by 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) Tuesday. Soon after, it said it had intercepted two more missiles, including a U.S.-made Patriot, over neighboring Kursk region. Early Wednesday, Governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said that two Ukraine-launched drones were intercepted near the city of Engels. Russia has a strategic bomber military base near the city.

➤CUBAN DEFENDS TRUMP: Mark Cuban defended Donald Trump Tuesday after a Democratic lawmaker accused the former president of lying about his net worth.  Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) used the hashtag “TrumpIsBroke” in a post on X after the former president’s lawyers told a New York court that the 77-year-old failed to secure the nine-figure bond sum in his civil fraud case despite approaching more than 30 firms.  “Trump claims he is a billionaire. But he can’t pay a $464 million judgment. That means he is lying. How do I know? Math,” Lieu wrote. Lieu accused Trump of lying about his net worth.


Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and former “Shark Tank” host, came to Trump’s defense In a lengthy response to the Democratic congressman, arguing that “Net worth is completely different than cash in the bank.” 

➤TRUMP BACKED CANDIDATE WINS IN OHIO: All eyes were on Ohio on Tuesday as Trumped-back businessman Bernie Moreno notched a major victory in the Buckeye State's Republican Senate primary, setting up a pivotal contest against Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in November. Moreno received the presumptive GOP nominee's endorsement ahead of the contest, giving him an important boost before he defeated Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan.

But Ohio wasn't the only state holding a high-profile election on Tuesday. In California, Assemblyman Vince Fong advanced in the election for the 20th congressional district to replace his former boss, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. And in Illinois, three lawmakers faced competitive challengers. Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio also held presidential contests, and unsurprisingly, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won their respective primaries, having already clinched their party's nominations last week.

🏠SEISMIC CHANGE IN REAL ESTATE: Real-estate agents are reckoning with a seismic shift to how they get paid. Some deny the business will change much, while others predict workarounds will protect their commissions, such as a fee-for-service model or advertising commission splits on agencies’ websites. Another approach is to change careers. Last week’s National Association of Realtors settlement addressing legal claims that the industry conspired to keep commissions artificially high will likely change how much of a home sale’s price an agent will earn.

🍨HERE'S THE SCOOP: The owner of Ben & Jerry’s announced plans to separate its ice-cream division into a stand-alone business. Unilever, which has sold the sweet treat since 1922, would also consider a sale. Its brands include Magnum, Breyers, Talenti, Popsicle and Klondike. Also cooling down? The world’s nearly 12-year experiment with negative interest rates—a.k.a. depositors paying to store money at a bank instead of being paid. The last holdout, the Bank of Japan, moved its key policy rate back to at least zero. Negative rates weren’t enough to salvage economies, but some countries found them better than nothing. Now to what’s heating up: Non-tech companies say associating with Nvidia helps them attract in-demand artificial-intelligence talent, and U.S. stocks rose ahead of the Fed’s interest-rate decision tomorrow. The central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady.

➤CHARGES AGAINST GOLD STAR FATHER DROPPED: Brian Schwalb, the Democratic attorney general in Washington, D.C., has dropped charges against Gold Star father Steve Nikoui for disrupting Congress during President Biden's State of the Union speech earlier this month. Nikoui is the father of Kareem Nikoui who was killed during the Biden Administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.  Fox News learned of the decision Tuesday evening. The decision to drop the charges was confirmed by the Speaker’s Office.  The DC AG’s office told Fox News that it decided not to prosecute in this case just as they have in the cases of protesters in the past.

🏀FIRST FOUR SCORES (Tuesday, March 19)
  • (16) Wagner 71, (16) Howard 68
  • (10) Colorado State 67, (10) Virginia 42
➤WEDNESDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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