Politics

The Miami Herald reports: In his first term as mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez increased his personal net worth five-fold as he used his public office to court technology and real estate companies eyeing business opportunities in the Magic City. Financial disclosures filed annually with the city and state show Suarez’s net worth increased from $245,015 to $1,338,551 between mid-2017 …

Jacksonville’s CBS affiliate reports: The first official class of the newly established Florida State Guard graduated from boot camp at Camp Blanding Friday morning. A total of 120 men and women earned their patches and certificate of completion, joining the ranks of the Florida State Guard in the first graduation ceremony. Among them, guardsman and State Representative Tom Fabricio (R-Miami), …

ABC News reports: On Thursday, the Supreme Court set new limits on affirmative action programs in cases involving whether public and private colleges and universities can continue to use race as one factor among many in student admissions. A little more than half of Americans – 52% — approve of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on restricting the use of …

Politico reports: Former Vice President Mike Pence endorsed the Supreme Court’s decision to gut affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country, saying he does not believe there is racial inequality in America’s education system. “I really don’t believe there is,” Pence told CBS’s Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face the Nation” broadcast Sunday. “I believe there …

CNN reports: A federal judge late on Friday cleared the way for North Carolina’s 12-week ban on most abortions to take effect Saturday. The law provides exceptions in the case of rape or incest through 20 weeks of pregnancy or in the event of a “life-limiting anomaly” through 24 weeks. The law also prohibits health care providers who object to …

Mediaite reports: Former advisor to President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, announced Friday on social media that he has sent a letter to deans of 200 law schools around the country threatening to sue them if they bypass the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action. The ruling effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions with one of three dissenting justices, Justice …

The Virginia Mercury reports: Virginians will no longer be able to access Pornhub, one of the internet’s most popular pornography websites, after the company disabled access to the site in the commonwealth in response to a new law going into effect this Saturday. The law requires pornography websites to use age verification technology to more stringently determine whether a person …

Semafor reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t run for office before in part because he couldn’t afford it. That’s what Kennedy told then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, when Kennedy was considering running to replace him in 2006, Spitzer, the former New York governor, recalled. In a meeting in Spitzer’s office, Kennedy asked whether he could continue to give paid …

The Hill reports: Indiana’s top court on Friday said the state’s near-total abortion ban is constitutional, and lifted a preliminary injunction that had been blocking the law from taking effect. Writing for three of the five Supreme Court justices, Justice Derek Molter said the Constitution “protects a woman’s right to an abortion that is necessary to protect her life or …

NBC News reports: Congressional Republicans “absolutely should” impeach President Joe Biden over whistleblower allegations that there was improper meddling in the investigation of his son Hunter, Nikki Haley said Friday. “Somebody needs to do it,” said Haley, who’s running for the Republican nomination for president, when asked whether the allegations warranted impeachment on Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s show “Gutfeld!” …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider whether the government may forbid people subject to domestic violence orders from having guns, setting the stage for a major test of its ruling last year vastly expanding people’s right to arm themselves in public. The case will turn on the scope of a new legal standard …

Bloomberg News reports: A majority of Brazil’s electoral court voted to bar Jair Bolsonaro from public office for eight years in what amounts to the first major legal rebuke of the former president, whose efforts to sow doubt about the 2022 election have now put his political future at risk. Four of the court’s seven judges said that the right-wing …

NPR reports: At the heart of the question is the 2003 HEROES Act, which passed in the wake of 9/11 and gave the education secretary broad power to “modify or waive” provisions of student loan programs in times of emergency. The Biden administration argues that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted one such emergency. Conservative opponents of the plan, however, argue that …

“Disloyal to who? I mean, you know, politicians have to earn support. They’re not entitled to support. I did a lot for him in 2016 and 2020. By the way, I was happy to do it. But at the end of the day, you know, I’m loyal to my family, to our Constitution, and to the good lord. “And I …

Florida Politics reports: Voters will soon have little say in how the areas around them change through construction large and small, due to legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis just approved. The measure (SB 718), which goes into effect Saturday, prohibits voter referendums or ballot initiatives on land development regulation. That means all decisions over zoning, building approval, annexations and various other …

CNN reports: House Republicans are preparing to let the push for potential impeachment proceedings dominate their agenda over the next few months, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces growing pressure from an increasingly restive right flank eager to take aim at President Joe Biden and his Cabinet. The increased focus on impeachment — with Biden’s attorney general and homeland security secretary …

The New York Times reports: The political network established by the conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch has raised more than $70 million for political races as it looks to help Republicans move past Donald J. Trump, according to an official with the group. With some of this large sum to start, the network, Americans for Prosperity Action, plans to …

The Birmingham Herald reports: Gov. Kay Ivey has called a special session of the Legislature to redraw Alabama’s congressional district map. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 8 that the current map, with one majority Black district out of seven, likely violates the Voting Rights Act. A three-judge federal court has given the state until July 21 to draw …

The Guardian reports: A Russian general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine has not been seen in public since Saturday, with US intelligence reportedly claiming he had prior knowledge of the uprising led by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Gen Sergei Surovikin is the head of the Russian aerospace forces and formerly Moscow’s supreme commander in Ukraine. Prigozhin …

The Huffington Post reports: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared that there was no need for Jared Kushner’s trips to the Middle East as a White House adviser to father-in-law Donald Trump, adding that he “cashed in” on his work in the administration. “Jared Kushner, six months after he leaves the White House, gets $2 billion from the Saudi …