Joe.My.God. LGBT News

CNBC reports: A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of former Trump White House senior aide Steve Bannon for refusing to testify and provide documents to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for …

The Washington Post reports: After pleading guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice, Paul Manafort, the globe-trotting political consultant and former campaign chairman for Donald Trump, asked for leniency in his sentencing, telling a federal judge five years ago that he was nearly 70 years old, struggling with health concerns and remorseful for his actions. The judge rejected his …

The Miami Herald reports: Conventional political wisdom would typically advise candidates to steer clear of mentioning their past controversies. But U.S. Sen. Rick Scott went out of his way, quite literally, on Thursday to attend former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan and remind Americans that he once ran a healthcare company that was slapped with the largest Medicare …

Courthouse News reports: A New York appellate court upheld universal mail-in voting for the state Thursday, finding that the state’s constitution places no hard limits on who can cast an absentee ballot. “The fact remains that, in its current form, the NY Constitution contains no requirement — express or implied — mandating that voting occur in-person on election day,” Justice …

Axios reports: House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is making stealthy, aggressive moves to position himself to replace Speaker Mike Johnson as party leader in 2025. The Ohio Republican has been noticed handing out more campaign checks to colleagues, multiple lawmakers told Axios. One GOP lawmaker told Axios that Jordan previously said it was “not his job” to help vulnerable …

Bloomberg News reports: Target Corp. won’t sell LGBTQ-themed merchandise in some stores during Pride Month in June, after a backlash dented revenue last year. Target faced threats from some customers last year over its Pride merchandise. The Minneapolis-based retailer plans to offer the full assortment online but is considering store-level data to decide which physical locations will carry the products, …

The Washington Post reports: Strategists for both major parties expect Democrats to raise and spend more than Republicans over the coming months, a dynamic that has been magnified by the significant legal costs Trump’s fundraising apparatus has absorbed to defend him in state and federal courts. The situation has alarmed GOP officials in key states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, …

Florida Politics reports: Support for legalizing recreation remains high, but is still shy of the threshold needed to amend Florida’s Constitution. That’s according to a poll released by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which found 58% of Floridians ready to support Amendment 3 on the November ballot. About 37% of those polled oppose the measure and only 5% remain undecided. …

USA Today reports: A new set of COVID-19 variants, nicknamed FLiRT, has been detected in wastewater surveillance, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From April 14 through April 27, the variant, labeled KP.2, makes up about 25% of the cases in the United States, according to the CDC. Megan L. Ranney, dean of the Yale …

ABC News reports: The Department of Justice and civil rights groups filed two separate lawsuits on Thursday aiming to block a controversial immigration law — known as SF 2340 — from going into effect in Iowa. SF 2340 authorizes local law enforcement officials to arrest migrants who have previously been deported or removed from the country, or who have been …