Today, former vice president Mike Pence announced that he will hold a rally with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on the eve of the state’s contested May 24 GOP gubernatorial primary. The move puts Pence at odds with former president Donald Trump, who pushed David Perdue, a former U.S. senator, to challenge Kemp, whom Trump has lambasted for not doing enough to overturn the 2020 presidential elections results in Georgia. In a statement, Pence called Kemp “one of the most successful conservative governors in America.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is looking to further escalate Republicans' war with Disney. The Republican senator has introduced a bill that would limit new copyright protections to 56 years, a change he said would be "retroactive for the biggest entertainment companies" like "woke" Disney. 

"Under this legislation, Disney would begin to lose protections for some of its oldest and most valuable copyrights," he said.

If passed, the bill would affect Disney's copyright on Mickey Mouse, who was originally introduced in the 1928 short Steamboat Willie.Disney first received 56 years of copyright protection for Mickey Mouse but pushed for Congress to pass new copyright laws in the 1970s and 1990s, under which the character will not become public domain until 2024.

Hawley says, though, he wants to "crack down on copyright monopolies to ensure they only last long enough to encourage innovation."

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Mr Alito also criticized fellow conservative Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch for his opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, which said that federal civil rights laws protect LGBTQ+ employees, calling Mr Gorsuch’s reasoning “in my view indefensible.”

“It is inconceivable that either Congress or voters in 1964 understood discrimination because of sex to mean discrimination because of sexual orientation, much less gender identity,” he said. “If Title VII had been understood at that time to mean what Bostock held it to mean, the prohibition on discrimination because of sex would never have been enacted. In fact, it might not have gotten a single vote in Congress.”

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Friday for the first time since Russia initiated its invasion of Ukraine. According to a readout from the Pentagon, during the conversation with Shoigu, Austin "urged an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication." The call is the first time the two officials have spoken since Feb. 18, before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

A Russian lawmaker is warning Friday that recent comments from Poland’s leaders are encouraging Moscow to "put it in first place in the queue for denazification after Ukraine." Finland is preparing for Russia to cut off gas supplies after leaders in Helsinki backed entering Nato “without delay”.The Kremlin warned it would retaliate with "reciprocal steps, military-technical and other" as it branded Finnish membership to the US-led alliance a risk to Russian security.

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If there’s one thing Justice Samuel Alito got right in his draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, it’s that Roe and later cases upholding it never had the desired effect of settling the issue politically. In its 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision upholding Roe, the Supreme Court had declared that such decisions have “a dimension that the resolution of the normal case does not carry.” The justices added: “It is the dimension present whenever the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution calls the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the Constitution.” Just a year later, however, soon-to-be Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would reflect that Roe had, in fact, “prolonged divisiveness and deferred stable settlement of the issue,” by virtue of how it had been decided. Story continues below advertisement Today, the apparent imminent overturning of Roe has produced a stark indicator of just how irretrievably polarized this issue has become.

Also, As American families deal with a shortage of baby formula across the US, a Florida Republican lawmaker has released images of dozens of boxes of the coveted product at a migrant processing facility near the US-Mexico border. Rep. Kat Cammack shared pictures of “pallets” of infant formula at the Ursula Migrant Processing Center in McAllen, Texas on her Twitter and Facebook pages Wednesday.

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Early last week, after receiving an invitation from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, Rep. Mo Brooks said he had no intention of cooperating with the probe. “I wouldn’t help Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney cross the street — I’m definitely not going to help them and their partisan Witch Hunt Committee,” the Alabama Republican said.

Brooks’ statement added, “[I]f they want to talk, they’re gonna have to send me a subpoena.”

The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol took the unprecedented step Thursday of issuing subpoenas to five Republican congressmen, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The Democratic-controlled committee previously asked the congressmen, which also include Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona, to sit for voluntary interviews, but all had refused.

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Finland must seek immediate membership in NATO, leaders of the Nordic nation said on Thursday, moving to end seven decades outside the Western military bloc in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Finland’s entry would add significant combat power to the alliance while also deepening the East-West divisions that have consumed Europe since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Neighboring Sweden is expected to announce its own NATO bid soon.

Moscow said that Finnish accession, which would add hundreds of miles to NATO’s shared border with Russia, would threaten its security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finnish membership could require new measures by Russia to “balance the situation.”

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For the last hour of the show, John takes a look at a story that he feels isn't getting nearly as much attention as it should. The water crisis in California. With 2 state reservoirs drying up before the summer even starts, concern is high for the supply of H2) in Cali.

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John takes the second hour to dive into the latest on the Roe vs. Wade controversy, as well as what states are reportedly doing about it. Rothmann takes a large amount of callers this hour with a vast array of opinions.

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For the first hour of the program, John looks at a new ruling that may allow 18-22 year olds in California to own guns. Rothmann wants to know what you think. He takes calls and gets a variety of opinions on the topic.

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Citing a list of financial concerns, the City College of San Francisco's Board of Trustees finalized 38 faculty layoffs during a virtual meeting this past Friday. Additionally, a dozen full-time faculty members that were expected to retire this school year will now not be replaced.

The announcement of this massive wave of layoffs comes after years of financial turmoil and a string of budget crises at CCSF — including nearly losing its accreditation“ in 2015 over financial mismanagement. The school was  back on the state’s list for “enhanced monitoring” as of a year and a half ago, and a report released in April  confirmed the college still faces a $33 million budget shortfall for the upcoming academic year. As a result, CCSF's board announced that it would cut 163 full-time faculty and at least 34 administrative positions this year.

During a Friday afternoon board meeting, school employees learned that 38 faculty positions would be immediately cut — with some of those employees having worked for the City College for years, if not decades. Also, at least 150 part-time staff are expected not to be hired back to the college because of a California higher-education rule that requires part-timers not to take the place of laid-off full-time faculty.

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