School district fires Marine vet over medical marijuana use

 

OCALA, Fla. -- A Florida high school dean has been fired after he tested positive for marijuana, even though it had been prescribed for him by a doctor to treat post-traumatic stress disorder he incurred in the Marines.

The Marion County School Board voted 5-0 Wednesday to fire Mike Hickman, saying that while medical marijuana is legal in Florida, it is illegal under federal law, its use violates district policy and he failed to notify his supervisor he was using it.

The central Florida district offered to suspend Hickman, 51, if he agreed not to use medical marijuana in the future, but the 10-year employee refused. After an administrative judge upheld a previous superintendent's recommendation that he be fired, the board acted.

Mark Levitt, an attorney who represents current Superintendent Diane Gullett, told the board Gullett agrees with her predecessor's decision and Hickman's military service should not cloud their judgment. Hickman fought in Iraq during Gulf Storm 30 years ago.

“He was given the opportunity to stop using it,” Levitt said.

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Democrats keep House majority but 'Republicans defied the odds'

 

The Democrats will keep their majority in the House of Representatives, but after all the votes are counted, they could wind up with the slimmest House majority in 20 years.

The Democrats gained a majority in the House following the 2018 election in which they won 41 seats. This was the largest gain for the political party since the 1974 election, in which they gained 49.

Some of the popular freshman Democrats who came into office in 2018, including New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota's Ilhan Omar, have been elected for a second term.

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Alabama approves bid to cut racist phrases from Constitution

 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Alabama voters have approved an amendment that would begin the process of deleting racist language from the state's 119-year-old constitution, which was approved to entrench white supremacy as state law during the Jim Crow era.

Voters in the majority white, conservative state rejected similar proposals twice since 2000, but the measure passed easily in balloting Tuesday.

Glenn Crowell, a retired restaurateur and registered Republican who is Black, said he voted to strip away the old phrasing, which the amendment's sponsors viewed as an embarrassment and potential roadblock to economic development.

“I just want to get rid of that language. It just doesn’t make any sense nowadays,” said Crowell, 63, of Montgomery.

Courts have long since struck down the legalized segregation that was enshrined in the 1901 Alabama Constitution, but language banning mixed-race marriage, allowing poll taxes and mandating school segregation remains.

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Why Pennsylvania is still counting votes after Election Day

 

Pennsylvania, one of the most important presidential battlegrounds, is among the handful of states that did not begin processing absentee ballots until Election Day morning.

That abridged timeline is one of the reasons the state isn’t expected to have every vote counted until Friday, at the earliest.

 

It’s the result of deadlocked negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republicans who control of the state legislature.

When Pennsylvania approved so-called "no-excuse" absentee mail ballots last fall -- meaning any voter can request one without citing a reason -- the law didn’t allow officials to begin canvassing mail ballots until polls close on election night, according to Lisa Schaefer, the executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

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‘State of readiness:’ Governors across the country place National Guard troops on standby for election aftermath

 

AUSTIN, Texas — A nonscalable fence around the White House and boarded-up storefronts are signs of the tension surrounding Election Day and the fear that some Americans will react to voting results with protests, riots and violence that could spur the deployment of National Guard troops.

“We are hopeful, as are most Illinoisans and Americans, that we will not be needed and will not have any missions, but better to be there and ready,” said Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, spokesman for the Illinois National Guard.

National Guard officials in Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Oregon and New Jersey have confirmed troops are on standby for potential deployment to quell civil unrest.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charles Baker announced an executive order Monday to allow up to 1,000 troops available to support local law enforcement agencies in the state, though most officials have declined to discuss exact numbers.

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Voter momentum could make West Virginia election historic

 

 

West Virginia voters continued to participate in this frenzied election at a historic pace.

With Election Day now here, the continued surge of voters reflected the hotly-contested presidential race, emotional investment and defiance of pandemic conditions.

“Are we in for higher turnout? I think there are more and more signs we’re in for a higher turnout election,” said Erik Herron, the Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University.

“It does seem like it’s not just about voters adjusting to the pandemic.”

 

In the 2016 General Election, 732,362 West Virginians cast ballots — 57 percent turnout.

In 2012, there were 685,099 voters — 55 percent turnout.

In 2008, it was 702,109 — 57.9 percent turnout.

By Monday morning, the Secretary of State’s Office was already reporting 389,248 votes cast in this election, reflecting 30.7 percent turnout.

“That is remarkable,” said Marybeth Beller, a political science professor at Marshall University. “It looks like West Virginia is on target to meet or exceed our normal 50 percent turnout.”

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Cities nationwide bracing for potential violence on Election Day that's peaceful -- so far

 

From Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, police and store owners said they're preparing for Election Day unrest despite authorities coast to coast saying they've received no credible threats.

 

As voters, most wearing face masks and braving the anxiety associated with a global pandemic, flocked to the polls on Election Day, some cities were bracing for the type of violence and looting that occurred earlier this year during protests that followed police-involved killings of Black Americans.

Beverly Hills has even called in a SWAT team from another community to be at the ready, officials said.

 

Stores along Rodeo Drive were seen with boarded up windows in the waning hours of the presidential election, with the mayor saying the street would be closed to vehicular traffic as an extra precaution.

In New York City, the sound of buzzsaws and hammers drowned out honking cars and sirens as work crews with truckloads of plywood swooped in. Along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, near Trump Tower, workers spent Monday night boarding up the windows of some of the nation's most expensive stores, including Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avene and nearly every shop in Rockefeller Center.

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'Non-scalable' fencing erected around White House, stores boarded up in anticipation of election protests

 

Non-scalable fencing was being temporarily installed around the White House perimeter on Monday in advance of potential Election Day protests.

 

Additional fencing already has been erected around Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, the location of protests over racial equality in June.

The fencing will be temporary, and is among other measures being taken in Washington, D.C., and other cities ahead of expected demonstrations.

 Many businesses in downtown Washington have boarded up windows in anticipation of violence as have some in New York City.

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Bail set at $2M for teen accused in Wisconsin shootings

 

MADISON, Wis. -- Bail was set at $2 million on Monday for a 17-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two men during an August protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the father of one victim told the court the teen “thinks he's above the law" and would disappear if freed before the trial.

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, is charged with fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber during a protest over a police shooting in August. He is also charged with wounding a third man, Gaige Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse turned himself in to police in Antioch the morning after the Aug. 25 shootings. He was extradited to Wisconsin on Friday and made his initial court appearance in Kenosha County on Monday afternoon.

In addition to the homicide charges, Rittenhouse faces counts of attempted homicide, reckless endangerment and being a minor in possession of a firearm.

His attorney, Mark Richards, asked Court Commissioner Loren Keating to set bail at $750,000 and place Rittenhouse on electronic monitoring, arguing that the protesters had attacked the teen that night and that Rittenhouse had fired in self-defense.

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Trump suggests he might fire Fauci after the election

 This came after the White House blasted the infectious disease expert for saying the U.S. is in a terrible position heading into winter.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested during a campaign rally in Florida on Sunday night that he might fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election.

The comment came during his fifth and final rally of the day in Opa-Locka, when he promised that a vaccine is coming and the country is "rounding the turn" on the pandemic.

His crowd of supporters then began chanting, "Fire Fauci!"

"Don't tell anybody but let me wait 'til a little bit after the election," Trump said in response, leading to cheers from the audience.

Read more at NBC News:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-suggests-he-might-fire-fauci-after-election-n1245735

More conservative Supreme Court faces major dispute pitting religious freedom against LGBTQ rights

 

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has been very, very good for the cause of religious freedom in recent years. This summer alone, it sided with religious students, parents and employers in a trifecta of major rulings.

The high court has been kind to the cause of LGBTQ rights as well, granting same-sex marriage rights in 2015 and protection against employment discrimination this past June.

On Wednesday, both of those winning streaks will be on the line. Hours after the polls close on Election Day and with a new justice on the bench, the court will be confronted by a case in which one side has to lose.

At issue is the city of Philadelphia's decision to stop referring children in need of foster care to Catholic Social Services, for decades one of its most reliable contract agencies, after discovering that it would not place kids with same-sex couples.

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Judge postpones Trump's TikTok ban in suit brought by users

 

A federal judge has postponed President Donald Trump's threatened shutdown of the popular short-form video app TikTok, siding with a Pennsylvania comedian and two other TikTok creators who say Trump's order hampers their free speech.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone on Friday blocked an upcoming Commerce Department action that would have effectively banned TikTok in the U.S. by cutting it off from vital technical services.

The Trump administration has said TikTok is a security threat, citing its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and the possibility that the Chinese government could spy on users. Trump's executive order was set to take effect Nov. 12, but is now on hold as the lawsuit proceeds.

This is not the first court challenge to Trump's attempted crackdown on TikTok. Another federal judge in September postponed a Trump administration order that would have banned TikTok from smartphone app stores. In that case, lawyers for TikTok argued that the administration’s app-store ban would infringe on First Amendment rights and do irreparable harm to the business.

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Biden staff call 911 after bus swarmed by Trump supporters on Texas highway

 

AUSTIN, Texas – A caravan of vehicles displaying Trump campaign flags and signs swarmed a Biden campaign bus between San Antonio and Austin on Friday afternoon, leading the Democrats on board to call 911 and cancel the Austin close of their “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” tour.

According to the Biden campaign, the vehicles surrounded the bus, trying to slow it down in the middle of the highway or run it off the road. Biden staff notified 911 and local law enforcement, and, they reported, local law enforcement helped the bus to reach its Austin destination.

Neither Former Vice President Joe Biden nor California Sen. Kamala Harris were on the bus, CNN reports.

“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Tariq Thowfeek, Texas communications director of the Biden campaign, said in a statement Saturday.

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