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Monday, March 4, 2024

3/4 WAKE-UP CALL: Nikki Haley Notches First Win


Nikki Haley defeated Donald Trump in Sunday's Republican primary in Washington, D.C., her first win in what remains an uphill battle to somehow overtake the former president for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, claimed all 19 convention delegates and carried more than 62% of the vote among the small pool of DC Republicans who participated in the three-day primary. She now takes her challenge to Trump to more than a dozen primaries being held on "Super Tuesday" — Trump is favored to win those contests, but the surprising result in Washington could augur better days for her campaign. "Let’s do it," Haley said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. "Thank you, DC! We fight for every inch."

➤TRUMP RULING EXPECTED TODAY: The Supreme Court has indicated it will issue at least one opinion on Monday, raising speculation that it will decide on the eve of Super Tuesday if Colorado and other states can use an anti-insurrectionist provision of the Constitution to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot. Colorado and Maine, two of the three states where the validity of votes for Trump is waiting for a decision from the high court, are among the many states holding primaries Tuesday. The court heard oral arguments Feb. 8 on Trump's challenge to the Colorado Supreme Court's decision that Trump is ineligible to return to the White House because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

➤POLLING..BIDEN STRUGGLING: President Biden is struggling to overcome doubts about his leadership inside his own party and broad dissatisfaction over the nation’s direction, leaving him trailing behind Donald J. Trump just as their general-election contest is about to begin, a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College has found. With eight months left until the November election, Mr. Biden’s 43 percent support lags behind Mr. Trump’s 48 percent in the national survey of registered voters.

Only one in four voters think the country is moving in the right direction. More than twice as many voters believe Mr. Biden’s policies have personally hurt them as believe his policies have helped them. A majority of voters think the economy is in poor condition. And the share of voters who strongly disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of his job has reached 47 percent, higher than in Times/Siena polls at any point in his presidency. The poll offers an array of warning signs for the president about weaknesses within the Democratic coalition, including among women, Black and Latino voters. So far, it is Mr. Trump who has better unified his party, even amid an ongoing primary contest.

➤TRUMP CALLS OUT BIDEN 'CONSPIRACY': Republican frontrunner Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden on Saturday of engaging in a "conspiracy to overthrow the United States" through lax security policies that have allowed millions of migrants to stream across the U.S. border with Mexico. Speaking at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump appeared to be suggesting, as he has in the past, that Democrats are hoping to convert migrants who enter the country illegally into reliable voters. Biden’s administration, Trump contended, seeks “to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations.” Trump elaborated at an evening rally in Richmond, Virginia, after repeating the allegations. Referring to the Biden White House, he said, "They're trying to sign (migrants) up to get them to vote in the next election."



➤VEEP HARRIS CALLS FOR CEASE-FIRE: Vice President Kamala Harris called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Sunday, citing the "humanitarian catastrophe" caused by the Israel-Hamas War. “Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire, at least for the next six weeks,” Harris said in Selma, Ala. Harris' remarks were the most pointed statement yet by a member of the Biden administration on the need for an immediate pause in the fighting in Gaza. President Joe Biden has been under immense pressure to demand a ceasefire in the five-month war, which started after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. Over 30,000 Palestinians have died in the war.

➤CEASE-FIRE TALKS CONTINUE: Negotiators believe Hamas and Israel are close to being able to strike a Gaza truce deal over the next few days. Hamas officials are in Cairo, aiming to reach a deal in the next 48 hours that would see the release of hostages in exchange for a temporary cease-fire in Gaza, according to Egyptian officials, a push to stop the fighting before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But in an early setback, Israel decided not to send a senior delegation to the talks after it was told that Hamas officials had arrived without answers to several of Israel’s main demands. Even if the two negotiating teams come to an agreement, another major challenge remains: Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, hasn’t been in contact for at least a week, raising concerns that the man who can implement a deal won’t be reachable, Egyptian and Qatari officials say.

➤FORMER BORDER CHIEF SAYS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION NEVER TALKED TO HIM: The former Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol told 60 Minutes that President Biden never spoke to him during his two years on the job. Neither did Vice President Kamala Harris, tapped as the administration's "border czar" by President Biden in May 2021.

Raul Ortiz served as the U.S. Chief of Border Patrol under President Biden and deputy chief under former President Trump before retiring in May 2023. 

➤BRUTAL EXECUTIONS SURGE IN SAUDI ARABIA: Brutal executions are on the rise in Saudi Arabia under the reign of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with human rights activists calling the score of beheadings and crucifixions a 'relentless killing spree'. The Saudi authorities have killed hundreds in capital punishments since the Crown Prince's tenure started in 2015, hitting a new milestone that Amnesty International said reveals the kingdom's 'chilling disregard for the right to life'.  Despite bin Salman promising he would limit the use of capital punishments, the number nearly doubled since he took the throne, according to NGO Reprieve. From 2010 to 2014 there was an average of 70.8 executions per year but from 2015 to 2022 there was an average of 129.5 executions per year – a rise of 82 per cent. 

🔥DRY WINDS FUELS TEXAS WILDFIRES: The largest wildfire in Texas history has burned more than 1.1 million acres in nearly a week as dry winds and high temperatures on Sunday fueled the blaze, destroying hundreds of homes and killing at least two people in the state's Panhandle. Several wildfires that sparked on Feb. 26 across the Texas Panhandle remained active on Sunday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. While a cold front is expected to move across the state's rural Panhandle early Monday, the National Weather Service in Amarillo said critical fire weather conditions will carry through Sunday as temperatures will peak — hitting the 70s to low 80s — in the evening in some areas.

Winds out of the southwest were predicted to gust up to 50 mph with humidity dropping below 15% and grass at very dry levels, according to the weather service. Authorities urged residents to avoid activities that could cause fires and the Texas A&M Forest Service said 65 counties currently have burn bans in place.  

🏀CLARK ALL-TIME NCAA SCORER: With her favorite player looking on and another great women’s scorer in attendance, Caitlin Clark became the leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball Sunday over Ohio State. 

The record was expected – Clark started the game just 18 points from passing Pete Maravich – but caused a celebration all the same. When Clark hit two free throws with .3 seconds to play in the first half, Iowa fans went crazy, in the arena and online. Included in the crowd was former WNBA MVP Maya Moore, Clark’s childhood idol, and Lynette Woodard, previously the best scorer in the history of women’s major-college basketball.  It was a fitting moment for the homegrown superstar who said last week that this would be her last college season and she will enter the 2024 WNBA Draft. 

🏔BLIZZARD CONDITIONS BATTERING U-S: Hundreds of miles of California highways were shut down Sunday as a powerful blizzard pounded parts of the Golden State and Mountain West dumping heavy snow and bringing howling winds with gusts that hit 190 mph − well above the 157 mph threshold for a Category 5 hurricane. National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill warned of “life-threatening concern” for residents near Lake Tahoe, calling the storm, now in its third day, an "extreme blizzard." Areas of Nevada, Utah and Colorado were also affected.

"Moderate to heavy snow has persisted overnight across the northern Sierra Nevada," the National Weather Service in Sacramento said in a social media post Sunday. "Wind gusts ... are continuing to result in blizzard conditions."

More than 100 miles of I-80 remained closed Sunday from the Nevada border to Colfax, California, and there was "no estimated time of reopening the freeway," the California Highway Patrol warned. Hundreds of travelers were trapped in their vehicles for hours, and more than 300 vehicles were stranded. By Sunday night, more than 7,800 homes and businesses in California still had not regained power after the storm knocked it out, according to poweroutage.us.

➤MONDAY'S WEATHER MAP:



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