After a grueling process that lasted two and a half weeks, a jury was selected on Wednesday in the trial of the three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man who was chased through a suburban Georgia neighborhood before being fatally shot by one of his pursuers in February 2020.

The jury, which is made up of residents from Glynn County, where more than a quarter of the population is Black, includes 11 white people and one Black person. Anxiety over what the jury’s racial makeup would be had been palpable among observers and participants in recent days.

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More than 40 countries pledged to phase out coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in a deal announced Thursday at the United Nations climate summit that prompted Alok Sharma, the head of the conference, to proclaim “the end of coal is in sight.” 

But several of the biggest coal consumers were notably absent from the accord, including China and India, which together burn roughly two-thirds of the world’s coal, as well as Australia, the world’s 11th-biggest user of coal and a major exporter. 

The United States, which still generates about one-fifth of its electricity from coal, also did not sign the pledge. 

The new pact includes 23 countries that for the first time have promised to stop building and issuing permits for new coal plants at home and to eventually shift away from using the fuel. Among them are five of the world’s top 20 power-generating countries: Poland, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Ukraine.

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When former President Donald Trump fired off a letter in September demanding that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger decertify the election, investigators in Georgia were paying attention.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis made clear to her staff she wanted that letter -- the original copy, complete with the envelope -- as part of her probe into Trump's efforts to upend Georgia's 2020 election results, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Trump, still stewing over his 2020 loss and eying a run in 2024, has continued to bellow complaints about the results of the last presidential election and insert himself into Peach State politics. And his antics have provided new fodder for Fulton County investigators as they examine whether his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were criminal.

At a recent campaign stop in the state, Trump also offered investigators more insight into his interactions with another potentially relevant witness: Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

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John takes us through the process of a bill becoming law, with sound bites from former Presidents.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Friday on the social policy and climate-change bill and a bipartisan infrastructure bill that form the centerpiece of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda, a senior Democratic aide said on Thursday.

Democrats have missed previous self-imposed deadlines to vote on the legislation, but their leadership feels confident they can finish on Friday, the aide said.

Earlier on Thursday night, Biden was calling various House members and urging them to approve the $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill, a White House official said.

Democrats want to pass that bill and the $1 trillion infrastructure measure, which has already been approved by the Senate, by Thanksgiving later this month.

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At the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative majority seemed ready Wednesday to broaden gun rights by striking down a New York law that limits the right to carry concealed handguns.

At issue was New York's law restricting licenses to carry a concealed gun to people going hunting or shooting, or to those who can demonstrate a special need for self protection, like a bank messenger carrying cash.

Do we want to modify police departments?

Minneapolis residents on Tuesday voted against a proposed amendment that would have removed the city’s police department from the city charter and replaced it with a Department of Public Safety.

Supporters of the proposal said a complete overhaul of policing was necessary to stop police violence. Opponents said the proposal had no concrete plan for how to move forward and could make communities already affected by violence more vulnerable as crime is on the rise.

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Bernie Sanders is slamming Democrats

On Tuesday, it was reported that a new provision was being added to the stalled $1.75 trillion social-spending plan that would overwhelmingly benefit wealthier Americans. The repeal of the SALT provision - which caps federal deductions for state and local tax at $10,000 - has long been championed by some Democratic lawmakers, who believe that the Trump-era law unfairly impacted those in high tax blue states, like New Jersey or California.

The repeal of the cap could end up costing the federal government far more than any proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and would result in a $30 billion net direct tax cut for the top 5%.

“That is beyond unacceptable. I will not support more tax breaks for billionaires," tweeted Sanders on Tuesday, linking to a CNN report on the analysis.

"Democrats campaigned and won on an agenda that demands that the very wealthy finally pay their fair share, not one that gives them more tax breaks," Sanders said in a statement. "I am open to a compromise approach which protects the middle class in high-tax states."

 

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In Virginia, the McAuliffe campaign had relentlessly tried to make the race about Trump, Trump, Trump — in its television ads and on the stump.

It didn’t work.

Mr. Youngkin pulled off something of a surprise and rare feat: He drove up the Republican margins in white and rural parts of the state further than Mr. Trump had, cutting into the edge of the Democratic nominee, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in suburban areas. He even flipped some key counties entirely.

Strategists in both parties said that the Virginia race was heavily shaped by Mr. Biden’s falling approval rating, and that the downward Democratic trajectory had begun when the president stumbled through the troubled pullout of American troops from Afghanistan.

Mr. McAuliffe and the Democrats never recovered.

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Open The Great Highway Alliance is a nonprofit benefit corporation whose purpose is to educate the public about the safety of our streets, especially issues concerning the Great Highway. The GH has not had a death on it since 2005, and the last time the SFFD was called to a vehicular collision on it was in 2017. It is a safe, wide, divided highway with painted, lighted, paved crosswalks, without any cross traffic, with timed traffic lights so vehicles at 35 mph drive nonstop on its 2 miles emitting far less greenhouse gasses than stop-and-go traffic in gridlock by homes and small businesses. The highway must be free of pedestrians in its traffic lanes so emergency vehicles can drive in those lanes, unobstructed without delay, when they are responding to beach and ocean rescues, and driving through the neighborhood to get to emergencies and hospitals. Many people working in San Francisco live south of the Great Highway, and many who live here work south of here, and use the GH as the fastest easiest way to commute to work. It is a scenic drive and relieves traffic from traveling through the inner city. It was promised it would be temporarily closed to enable social distancing during the COVID pandemic, and would be restored to its original use after the danger passed. If any changes are to be made, they should be considered only after an Environmental Impact Report has been done, after the highway has been restored to its original pre-emergency state. A temporary pilot project is a way around CEQA and the California Coastal Act, and a loophole for the City of SF to avoid doing an Environmental Impact Report which would normally be required for the closing of a Coastal Road. What are they afraid of? The Sierra Club has urged them to do it and they should welcome the information it will provide. 

openthegreat highway.com

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If Youngkin wins, what does that mean for the Democrats...and President BIden?

Eric Adams, a former police officer and Brooklyn borough president, will be the city’s second Black mayor, and Alvin Bragg will be Manhattan’s first Black district attorney. Those and other races centered on concern over public safety and the recovery from the pandemic.

The Associated Press declared victory for Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, 10 minutes after the polls closed at 9 p.m. At his campaign celebration, held at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, just around the corner from his office at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Mr. Adams urged unity.

“Today we take off the intramural jersey and we put on one jersey, Team New York,” he told supporters. Mr. Adams, who will take office as mayor on Jan. 1, faces a staggering set of challenges as the nation’s largest city grapples with the enduring consequences of the pandemic, including a precarious and unequal economic recovery and continuing concerns about crime and the quality of city life.

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For months as he campaigned for governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin tried to sound a lot like the kind of Republican who dominated the party back in 2009 — the last time a Republican was elected to statewide office.

He avoided discussion of divisive social issues in favor of praise of free markets and job creators, and conservative activists knew very little about him or what he believed as a result.

“He was on nobody’s radar screen,” said John Fredericks, a radio host who was chairman of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaigns in Virginia in 2016 and 2020.

In the final days before the election today, many Republicans say they still have no idea what Mr. Youngkin really believes. But they have cheered him on regardless, after he took a hard-right turn and began promoting the causes that are animating conservatives and supporters of the former president, from the debate over teaching the impact of racism to transgender rights in schools.

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