A man fatally shot 10 people and injured at least 10 others at a ballroom dance hall during a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration late on Saturday near Los Angeles before fleeing the scene, police said.

The shooter, still at large 12 hours after the attack in the city of Monterey Park, was believed to be an Asian man between 30 and 50 years old based on descriptions from eyewitnesses, law enforcement officials said.

“We need to get this person off the street as soon as possible,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters at a Sunday morning news conference in Monterey Park, home to one of the largest Asian American communities in the United States.

Earlier on Sunday morning, the sheriff’s department said it did not know whether the attack was racially motivated. Five of the victims were male and five were female, Luna said. Their identities have not been made public.

Luna later released images of the suspect apparently taken from surveillance camera footage showing him wearing spectacles, dressed in a dark jacket and a dark beanie hat with white stripes. The sheriff’s department said it was releasing the images in an attempt to identify the suspect and that he should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

Late on Sunday morning, police in Torrance, California, were using armored vehicles to surround a white cargo van believed to be connected to the shooting suspect, an ABC News affiliate reported, broadcasting aerial video of the scene.

Officials were investigating whether an incident at another dance venue in the neighboring city of Alhambra about 20 minutes later on Saturday night was connected with the massacre in Monterey Park. At the second venue, witnesses said an Asian man walked in holding a gun that patrons were able to grab. No one was shot and the man fled, Luna said.

When police arrived at the Monterey Park ballroom, people were “pouring out of the location screaming,” department captain Andrew Meyer told reporters at a news briefing.

At least 10 people were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries and at least one was in critical condition. Police have not said what kind of gun was used in the attack.

The shooting took place after 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT on Sunday) around the location of a two-day Chinese Lunar New Year celebration where many downtown streets are closed for festivities that draw thousands of people from across Southern California. Police said the celebrations planned for Sunday were canceled.

Residents stood gazing at the many blocks sealed off with police tape on Sunday in Monterey Park. Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, described the city of about 60,000 people as a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place where everybody knows each other and helps each other.

About 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles, the city has for decades been a destination for immigrants from China. Around 65% of its residents are Asian, according to U.S. Census data, and the city is known for its many Chinese restaurants and groceries.

“People were calling me last night, they were scared this was a hate crime,” Chong said at the scene.

Police have not publicly named the dance club, but were seen going in and out of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, access to which was blocked off by police tape. The club opened in 1990, and its website features many photographs of past Lunar New Year celebrations showing patrons smiling and dancing in party clothes in its large, brightly lit ballroom.

Most of its patrons are middle-aged or elderly, though children also attend youth dance classes, according to a teacher at the studio who asked to not be named.

“Those are normal working people,” the teacher said. “Some are retired and just looking for an exercise or social interaction.”

A flyer posted on the website advertised Saturday night’s new year party, running from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

The gunshots were mistaken by some for new year fireworks, according to Tiffany Chiu, 30, who was celebrating at her parents’ home near the ballroom.

“A lot of older people live here, it’s usually really quiet,” she said. “This is not something you expect here.”

Video taken by local news media showed injured people, many of them appearing to be middle aged, being loaded into ambulances on stretchers.

The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the attack and had directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist local police.

Mass shootings are recurrent in the United States, and the attack in Monterey Park was the deadliest since May 2022, when a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The deadliest shooting in California history was in 1984 when a gunman killed 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, near San Diego.

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• A November lawsuit against the Walt Disney Group has been assigned to a judge.
• The wrongful death suit alleges a disabled died as a result of injuries she received from falling while exiting Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride.
• The late woman’s daughters say Disneyland workers “snickered” at their mother when she fell and broke her leg.

A disabled woman’s family has hit Walt Disney Group with a lawsuit that accuses Disneyland employees of laughing at her after falling on Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride — she died five months later.

The family of Joanne Aguilar, 66, of Ventura County, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney that claims she broke her leg in the August 2021 incident and died in January 2022 as a result of complications, Southern California News Group reported this week.

According to Disney’s official site, the Jungle Cruise ride is a guided tour of the theme park along a river. Earlier this month, the suit was assigned to US District Judge Cormac Carney at the Santa Ana courthouse, local news reported.

Aguilar’s daughters, Andrea Mallul and Zenobia Hernandez, accompanied her to Disneyland on Aug. 22, 2021, and helped her get on the boat. But when she tried to get off the boat, they had trouble getting her up “small unsecured blocks on top of the existing steps inside the boat,” reports said.

Their mother fell and fractured her femur, the lawsuit said, while Disneyland employees laughed at the woman.

“Exiting the boat was more difficult as it required her to propel her body upward with her lower legs, which due to her disability was not possible,” the lawsuit, which was filed in November, said, according to SCNG. “The struggle was apparent and Disney cast members began snickered [sic] and giggling as they watched Ms. Aguilar try to safely exit the boat.”

Aguilar was taken to an Anaheim hospital for surgery to repair the injury. She remained there for 10 days after the fall, then went to a rehabilitation center for five months. But Aguilar eventually went into septic shock due to an infection and died on January 29, the SCNG reported.

In the lawsuit, the family said Disneyland violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when they told the physically disabled Aguilar that a wheelchair-accessible Jungle Cruise boat was unavailable. 

One month after the suit was filed, on Dec. 29, Disney’s lawyers denied the accusations in a written statement and said the company is seeking a jury trial, according to AP News.

Aguilar’s family is seeking monetary damages for pain, mental suffering, humiliation, medical costs and funeral expenses, the report reads.

AP Photo/Chris O’Meara

• A Florida Democratic legislator told The Washington Post of the party’s struggles in the state.
• “We’re very much at the bottom of the bottom,” she said after bruising losses last November.
• A party operative told the paper that the GOP continues to organize in the state, while Democrats have “regressed.”

For decades, Florida has been seen as a must-win state for both Democrats and Republicans.

In 1992, then-President George H.W. Bush carried Florida for the GOP, but in 1996 then-President Bill Clinton flipped the state into the Democratic column in his successful reelection bid. In 2000, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush eked out a 537-vote win over then-Vice President Al Gore — in one of the most contentious presidential contests in US history — while also winning the state four years later.

But in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama — in his first presidential contest and reelection bid, respectively — won the Sunshine State, the most recent high-water mark for Democrats who saw the diverse, growing state as one that was becoming more amenable to backing their candidates.

However, that would not be the case.

Bill Nelson, one of the strongest Democratic vote-getters in Florida over the past 25 years, narrowly lost his bid for a fourth term in the Senate in 2018.

And Republicans, who have held a grip on the Governor’s Mansion since 1999, currently have a national conservative star in Ron DeSantis. The GOP governor, last fall, won reelection in a 19-point landslide over his Democratic rival, former Gov. Charlie Crist.

In the concurrent Senate contest, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio easily defeated then-Democratic Rep. Val Demings by 16 points. And Republicans won every statewide office on the ballot — shutting out Democrats for the first time since Reconstruction — while also gaining a supermajority in the state legislature.

So Democrats are now looking to the future to figure out how to move forward in a state where Republicans have seemingly left them far behind. Some in the party have argued that the party would be better served to focus on retaining its momentum in other Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia, but many believe that Florida — with its 30 electoral votes — remains a winnable state.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Democratic state Rep. Anna AskMen said that the party had to “go back to basics” and overhaul its door-knocking and get-out-the-vote operations. She added that state Democrats simply did not have the sort of infrastructure available where they could readily engage with voters, prompting her to launch a voter registration system of her own.

“We’re very much at the bottom of the bottom,” the Orlando-area lawmaker told the newspaper. “It doesn’t have to be this large-scale sexy program. It just has to be a program.”

“Nothing’s going to happen overnight or in one election cycle, but we need to start building now,” she added.

Vanessa Rolon, a Democratic operative well-versed in Florida Democratic politics, told The Post that the party had to do the work to sustain engagement — arguing that it had taken voters for granted while the GOP has taken the opposite approach.

“They’ve been organizing and we’ve regressed,” Rolon said.

Jacob Zinkula

• Parents are having a difficult time finding and affording childcare.
• They’re turning to a variety of options to get by, including nanny sharing and co-parenting. 
• But most of these options come with their drawbacks.

When 27-year-old Brittany Wilson-DeMarco began looking for daycare for her two-year-old son last year, the most affordable option she could find cost $1,200 per month.

It would have allowed the New York mom to pursue a full-time job, she told Insider, but she was uncertain whether the financial tradeoff was worth it. 

In less than 24 hours, the decision was made for her — the daycare spot filled up. To help pay the bills, she began working roughly 35 hours per week at two part-time remote jobs — running catering sales for a restaurant and an account manager position with an influencer marketing agency. She did all of this while also caring for her son full-time while her fiancé worked and says she started to “suffer physically and mentally from the stress.” 

Wilson-DeMarco began seeking out any lifeline she could find. She turned to her local YMCA, which she says offers $2-per-hour childcare for up to two hours per day, in addition to her monthly family membership cost of $93. She’d spend these couple of hours working at a table in the lobby or bring her laptop to a treadmill.  

“Those 2 hours were my absolute saving grace,” she said. “I would’ve lost my mind without two hours to solely focus on work.” While her fiancé has since persuaded her to work less, she says she still frequently uses the YMCA for a few hours of childcare and a “great mental health break.”

Wilson-DeMarco is among the many US parents agonizing over whether pursuing a career makes financial sense for their families as they struggle to find and afford childcare. In 2018, the left-leaning Center for American Progress found that over half of Americans lived in an area where childcare was sparse, and the shortage only grew worse during the pandemic. When families do find childcare, it’s often expensive. National childcare costs average between $9,000 and $9,600 annually, per the advocacy organization Child Care Aware, and the cost could shoot even higher over the next year.

While many dads are also involved in the struggle to find childcare, the responsibility typically falls on women in heterosexual couples. According to 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average mom with children age 12 and under spends eight hours per day on childcare while also working six hours each weekday. The average dad, meanwhile, spends five hours per day on childcare while working eight-hour days.

Unable to find or afford childcare, many parents are exploring all their options on the table. Here’s how some are getting by.

Many parents are finding ways to get by, but there’s no perfect solution

After getting stuck on three daycare waitlists, Nancy Clancy found a friend-of-a-friend to watch her daughter on the days she works, she previously told Insider. The drop-off adds nearly an hour to her commute, however, and the Michigan mom said the cost almost exceeds the amount she makes while working. 

“It’s almost a wash. I only do it to get out of the house, really,” she said.

Allison Ellsworth, a 28-year-old from Michigan, turned to private part-time care when daycare centers couldn’t accommodate she and her husband’s schedules. While she told Insider this is meeting most of their childcare needs for now, it’s costing them $1,000 to $1,500 per month.

Some families have tried “nanny sharing” — when two or more families hire one nanny to watch their children at one of their homes and split the expense. 

“It seems that it eases the cost a bit,” said Wilson-Demarco, who says she knows some families that have nanny shared. “And the children get to play with other children and still get that socialization aspect a lot of parents are looking for.” 

It isn’t always cheaper, however. Michael Grady and his wife pulled their daughter out of a childcare center last year because they were worried about her being exposed to COVID, he told Axios. They joined a nanny share with one other family and began paying $2,000 a month, up from the $1,200 per month they had spent on daycare. 

There are also less formal childcare sharing options, however. 

Some parents within a community have organized shared childcare with another family or established a parenting co-op — an arrangement of anywhere between three and 20 families — to rotate childcare responsibilities between a group of parents. 

“Talk to other moms and try to work something out with them,” Clancy said. “Maybe watching each other’s kids when you go into work part-time or trading days. I have some friends that do that, and I have also helped out with that.”

There’s no place like home

When all else fails, some families are willing to move for help. 

31-year-old Hannah Cases began motherhood while living in San Diego, where she and her husband had “zero family around,” she previously told Insider. 

Eventually, however, they realized they needed extra help. Last fall, they moved across the country to St. Louis to be closer to her parents. 

“Now that we have family around it makes such a difference,” she said, and she’s far from the only millennial sticking close to home for childcare help.

Roughly 60% of young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up, and 80% live within 100 miles, according to a July study conducted by researchers at the US Census Bureau and Harvard University. The study focused on individuals born between 1984 and 1992. 

Many people are even living with their families. Nearly one in four millennials were living with their parents as of last December, according to a PropertyManagement.com survey. Since the 1970s, the share of Americans living in multigenerational households has more than doubled to nearly 20% as of 2021, per Pew Research data. Financial, as well as childcare needs, have likely contributed to this shift. 

Some people are even moving in with other families. In 2016, Maria Pfefferkorn moved in with her friend and her friend’s two children after her friend got divorced, she previously told Insider. 

“It’s a co-parenting model, it’s a co-economy model, and it’s a really great friendship and support model,” Pfefferkorn said.

She’s not alone in this thinking. According to real-estate analytics firm Attom Data Solution, the number of co-home buyers with different last names grew by 771% from 2014 to 2021. 

Far-left Antifa rioters on Saturday rampaged through downtown Atlanta, smashing storefront windows and torching a police cruiser.

Several agitators were armed with explosive devices, which they used to destroy an Atlanta Police Department vehicle, according to police chief Darin Schierbaum. The anti-police rioters also damaged three businesses and threw rocks and fireworks at the Atlanta Police Foundation building.

Police arrested six rioters, several of whom came from out of state, according to Mayor Andre Dickens.

BREAKING: #COPCITY protesters throw rocks at Atlanta Police Foundation building in downtown Atlanta. They also set off fireworks and spray painted the building. #ATL #BREAKING #NOW @FOX5Atlanta pic.twitter.com/BwF5CzNgIm

— Billy Heath III (@BillyHeathFOX5) January 21, 2023

The chaos broke out after the far-left group Scenes from the Atlanta Forest called for a “Night of Rage” to carry out “reciprocal violence” against police. The group’s members objected to the killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who on Wednesday shot a Georgia State Patrol trooper at the site of a new police training facility. Law enforcement returned fire, killing the 26-year-old assailant.

The violence in Atlanta comes two and half years after Antifa rioters helped lead violent uprisings in cities across the country, causing up to $2 billion in property damage.

Georgia Republican governor Brian Kemp condemned Saturday’s violence, saying the crimes “will not be tolerated in Georgia and will be prosecuted fully.”

Democrats and the media have long defended Antifa. During a 2020 presidential debate, President Joe Biden dismissed concerns about the far-left anarchist movement, calling Antifa “an idea, not an organization, not militias.” Journalists have compared black-clad Antifa rioters to U.S. soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy during World War II.

“Friend points out on D-Day anniversary that the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy were the true and original antifa,” tweeted Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi in June 2020.

The post Antifa Rioters Rampage Through Atlanta, Torch Police Vehicle appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

דעם פֿרילינג וועט איר האָבן אַ געלעגנהייט צו פֿאַרברענגען מיט אַרום 60 ייִדיש־ליבהאָבער אין גאַנצן אויף ייִדיש, אויפֿן צװײטן ייִדיש־סוף־װאָך אינעם פֿאַראײניקטן קיניגרײַך. ווי דער הצלחהדיקער ייִדיש־סוף־וואָך פֿאַראַיאָרן וועט די געשעעניש פֿאָרקומען אין אַ דאָרף אין דרום־יאָרקשיר, ניט װײַט פֿון דער שטאָט שעפֿילד. הײַיאָר װעט מען אױך אײַנאָרדענען אַ פּראָגראַם ספּעציעל פֿאַר קינדער.

דער צוזאַמענפֿאָר וועט פֿאָרקומען פֿונעם 5טן ביזן 7טן מײַ 2023. דערווײַל זענען שוין אַ העלפֿט פֿון די בילעטן פֿאַרקויפט געוואָרן. אַלע װאָס פֿאַרשרײַבן זיך ביזן 26סטן יאַנואַר וועלן באַקומען אַ הנחה. דערצו קענען סטודענטן און אַנדערע וואָס נייטיקן זיך אין פֿינאַנציעלער שטיצע באַקומען אַ סטיפּענדיע.

די באַטייליקטע אויפֿן ייִדיש־סוף־וואָך וועלן זיך טרעפֿן אין װאָרטלי האָל, װאָס איז אַמאָל געװען די אימעניע, די בעל־הבתּישקײט פֿון דער פּריצישער משפּחה װאָרטלי. במשך פֿון די פֿאַרגאַנגענע 60 יאָר איז דער הױף ענג פֿאַרבונדן מיט דער געשיכטע פֿון דער אַרבעטער־באַװעגונג אין ענגלאַנד. אַז מע שפּאַצירט דורך די פֿאַרצװײַגטע קאָרידאָרן פֿונעם קאָלאָסאַלן בנין, זעט מען פּאָרטרעטן ניט נאָר פֿון די פֿירנדיקע פּערזענלעכקײטן אין די בריטישע טרײד־יוניאָנס (פּראָפֿעסיאָנעלע פֿאַראײנען), נאָר אױך פֿון קאַרל מאַרקס, פֿרידריך ענגעלס און וולאַדימיר לענין.

שׂרה קיריטעסקו (פֿון ציריך), אַן אָנטײל־נעמערין בײַם פֿאַראַיאָריקן צונױפֿקום, האָט געזאָגט אַז די געשיכטע פֿונעם בנין — װי אַן אָפּרוהײם פֿאַר די אַרבעטער — איז געװען אײנער פֿון די פּרטים װאָס זײַנען איר באַזונדערס געפֿעלן געװאָרן.

אין אָט דעם פּאַלאַצל װעט מען װױנען צוזאַמען פֿון פֿרײַטיק־צו־נאַכטס ביז זונטיק נאָך מיטאָג. מ׳עט דאָרט עסן אַלע מאָלצײַטן און, דער עיקר, שמועסן אױף ייִדיש. אַוודאי וועט מען אויך שפּאַצירן אין דרױסן, אױף די לאָנקעס און בערגלעך אַרום דעם הױז. אַ מאָל כאַפּט זיך די נאַטור אַפֿילו אַרײַן אין שטוב אַרײַן; אַזױ האָבן פֿאַראַיאָרן אַ צאָל קאַטשקעס אַרײַנגעבלאָנדזשעט אין די גענג און די חדרים פֿון װאָרטלי האָל. זײ זײַנען אַפֿילו בײַגעװען בײַ ייִדיש־סעמינאַרן און דעם קבלת־שבת. שׂרה קיריטעסקו דערצײלט אַז זי האָט טאַקע שטאַרק הנאה געהאַט צו פֿאַרברענגען מיט די קאַטשקעס — און מיט דער חבֿרה.

ס׳איז באמת געװען אַ שײנע געלעגנהײט אױף זיך צו זען מיט אַלטע חבֿרים און צו באַקענען זיך מיט נײַע. אוהבֿי־ייִדיש זײַנען געקומען אַזש פֿון קאַליפֿאָרניע (דער באַקאַנטער און באַליבטער ייִדיש‏־לערער נח באַרעראַ), נאָר אױך פֿון פֿאַרשײדענע אײראָפּעיִשע מדינות, כאָטש דער גרעסטער טײל איז געקומען פֿון גרױס־בריטאַניע.

אױך מײַן װײניקײט האָט אָנטײל גענומען אינעם סוף־װאָך פֿאַראַיאָרן. בײַ מיר האָט דעמאָלט שטאַרק אױסגענומען אַ מין רונדער טיש מיט מײשקע אַלפּערט (פֿון שאָטלאַנד), חיהלע ביר און סימע בארי (בײדע פֿון לאָנדאָן) װאָס האָבן דערצײלט װעגן זײער באַציִונג צו מאַמע־לשון, זײער ייִדיש־ביאָגראַפֿיע און װעגן װאָסער מין ייִדיש זײ רײדן פּינקטלעך — מיט אַלע פּיטשעװקעס בנוגע צו דיאַלעקט, צו װערטער פֿון אַנדערע לשונות װאָס זײַנען אַרײַן אין דער גערעדטער שפּראַך, און אױך װאָס שײך דעם געזעלשאַפֿטלעכן שיכט.

חיהלע ביר האָט, אַגבֿ, אױך אָנגעפֿירט מיט אַ מחיהדיקן שמועסקרײַז; סימע בארי האָט געהאַלטן אַ לעקציע װעגן טראַדיציאָנעלע מאכלים װאָס מע האָט געקאָכט בײַ איר אין דער הײם; און מײשקע אַלפּערט האָט דורכגעפֿירט אַ געזאַנג־װאַרשטאַט. ס׳זײַנען נאָך געװען אַ סך אינטערעסאַנטע רעפֿעראַטן און סעמינאַרן אַזעלכע. שמואל־לײבל אָלגין, אײנער פֿון די אָרגאַניזאַטאָרן, האָט, למשל, אָפּגעהאַלטן אַ לעקציע װעגן שמערקע קאַטשערגינסקין;, איזי פּאָזען — װעגן ייִדישער קולטור־טעטיקײט בײַ די חסידים; אַני כּהן (ניו־יאָרק) האָט גערעדט װעגן ייִדישע קאָמוניסטן אינעם שפּאַנישן בירגערקריג; און דזשײק שנײַדער (בערלין) האָט אָנגעפֿירט מיט אַ שרײַב־װאַרשטאַט בעת װעלכן מע האָט געפּרוּװט די פּען אױף ייִדישע גראַמען. איידער מע האָט געמאַכט הבֿדלה איז געװען אַן „אָפֿענער מיקראָפֿאָן“, ד״ה אָנטײל־נעמער זײַנען אױפֿגעטראָטן מיט, אַ שטײגער, אַ ליד אָדער אַ סקעטש. צום סוף האָט ראַבינערין בײלע באָרטס געזאָגט „גאָט פֿון אַבֿרהם“ און געמאַכט הבֿדלה.

אױך בעתן צװײטן בריטישן ייִדיש‏־סוף־װאָך װעלן זײַן געלעגנהײטן אױף צו לערנען זיך װעגן אַלערלײ טעמעס, זיך שפּילן אױף ייִדיש, זינגען, שמועסן אאַז״װ; אַ דאַנק דער פֿונדאַציע פֿאַר ייִדישער שפּראַכקולטור א״נ פֿון בנימין שעכטער און דער פֿונדאַציע פֿאַר ייִדישער קולטור א״נ פֿון אַהרן און סאָניע פֿישמאַן זײַנען בנמצא סטיפּענדיעס פֿאַר סטודענטן און אַנדערע אָנטײל־נעמער װאָס זוכן פֿינאַנציעלע שטיצע.

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2023 is shaping up to be an ugly year in the battle for transgender rights and dignity. Already, 11 states have introduced numerous bills attacking transgender and gender-nonconforming healthcare. Interviewed on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday, advocate Laverne Cox explained how Oklahoma’s bill, in particular, reveals the utter hypocrisy of the haters.

If Oklahoma lawmakers pass their proposed law, gender-affirming care would be banned through the age of 26. Anti-trans politicians like to frame their efforts by painting themselves as noble protectors of children. However, Cox pointed out that this bill that covers individuals well into adulthood, succeeds only in putting those politicians’ ugly motives on display. “It’s always been about scapegoating trans people, stigmatizing us, and criminalizing our existence—making us not exist.”

Unfortunately, this anti-trans sentiment in legislatures is not just limited to cruel attempts at curbing healthcare. In West Virginia, Republican State Sen. Michael Azinger introduced a pair of bills purporting to protect children from obscene performances and materials. However, the law’s definitions broadly and unfairly single out “any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances or display to any minor.”

These bills are rightly criticized as presenting transgender people’s mere existence as a threat to children. School and entertainment venue officials who violate the bills, if passed, would face stiff fines as well as months of incarceration. Andrew Schneider, executive director of Fairness West Virginia, warned these bills “are like the ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ but on steroids,” according to a report from NBC News.

In North Dakota, Republican State Sen. David Clemens introduced legislation that would require public schools to use pronouns that match students’ and teachers’ “determined sex at birth, male or female.” The punishment for using the correct pronoun when it doesn’t fit this definition would be $1,500 per violation. Fortunately, this offensive bill received overwhelming criticism and failed on Friday in the North Dakota Senate with a vote of 39-8.

“Trans people have always existed, and we’re not going to stop existing if people don’t teach about us,” Cox explained. Fortunately, while many Republican lawmakers are on the attack, America is also progressing. In the midterm elections, 436 openly LGBTQ candidates won, beating a record of 336 in 2020, and the number of LGBTQ public office holders has surpassed for 1,000 for the first time in U.S. history, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute. The haters may make the battle uglier this year, but they will not win.

The post Uphill battle appeared first on Palmer Report.

The mutilated body of a prominent Cameroonian journalist was found on Sunday near the capital Yaounde five days after he was abducted by unidentified assailants, the press union and a colleague said on Sunday.

Media advocates described Martinez Zogo’s disappearance and death as a further sign of the perils of reporting in the African country.

Zogo, the director of private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped on Jan. 17 by unknown assailants after trying to enter a police station to escape his attackers, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.

Zogo had recently been talking on air about a case of alleged embezzlement involving a media outlet with government connections, RSF said.

“Cameroonian media has just lost one of its members, a victim of hatred and barbarism,” Cameroon’s journalists’ trade union said in a statement. “Where is the freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression in Cameroon when working in the media now entails a mortal risk?”

His colleague, Charlie Amie Tchouemou, editor-in-chief of Amplitude FM, confirmed Zogo’s death and his abduction. The police and the government did not respond to calls for comment.

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks against journalists in Cameroon, which has a vibrant press and which is ruled by President Paul Biya, who has a decades-long record of repressing opposition.

Cameroon is one of many countries across the continent, from Burkina Faso to Ethiopia to Equatorial Guinea, where journalists complain that media freedoms are under threat from authoritarian governments.

“Although Cameroon has one of the richest media landscapes in Africa, it is one of the continent’s most dangerous countries for journalists, who operate in a hostile and precarious environment,” RSF says in its Cameroon country profile.

Radio France Internationale reporter Ahmed Abba was arrested in July 2015 and imprisoned for two years on terrorism charges that rights groups denounced as a sham. Outspoken reporter Paul Chouta, who worked for private news website Cameroon Web, was beaten and stabbed by unknown attackers in 2019.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will name former COVID policy coordinator Jeff Zients as his next chief of staff, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday, refreshing a key role as Biden readies a likely re-election bid and faces a probe of his handling of classified documents.

Ron Klain, Biden’s current chief of staff, plans to leave his post in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. He is expected to stay in the role after his successor starts to ease the transition, according to the source.

The appointment could be announced on Monday, the source said. The White House had no immediate comment.

Zients, who has spent much of his career in the private sector rather than politics, served as the White House COVID coordinator from the start of the Biden administration in early 2021 through April of last year. He was credited with overseeing and implementing Biden’s efforts to get Americans vaccinated, but also faced criticism that the administration did not do enough early on to boost testing capacity.

Zients also served as an economic adviser to President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Biden served as vice president.

Zients’ return to the White House would come at a critical moment for Biden, as he prepares to seek a second four-year term in 2024, a move anticipated after the State of the Union address next month.

It also comes at the early stages of a special counsel investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents, which has emboldened congressional Republicans, who have pledged their own probes.

The chief of staff position, considered one of the most important at the White House, is the senior political appointee responsible for driving the president’s policy agenda and ensuring appropriate staff members are hired.

The job can have a high burnout rate as the long days pile up. Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, went through four chiefs of staff in four years.

The Washington Post first reported Zients’ appointment.

Islamist fighters set off a bomb then stormed a government building in Somalia’s capital on Sunday, killing at least five civilians, the ministry of information said.

Attackers from the al Shabaab group charged into the block that houses the office of Mogadishu’s mayor around noon and got caught in a firefight with security forces, the ministry and witnesses said.

Security killed six of the militants and cleared the area by about 6 p.m., the ministry said on its Facebook page.

Al Shabaab has stepped up attacks in a show of resilience since President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government launched an offensive against the al Qaeda-linked group in August.

“We were in the office and we were deafened by a blast. We ran out. Gunfire followed,” Farah Abdullahi, who works in the mayor’s office, told Reuters.

Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Services, gave a higher estimate of the death count, saying it had transported the bodies of eight civilian victims.

At least another 16 people were injured in the attack, he added.

The mayor’s office is in the local government headquarters building in a well-guarded area of Mogadishu.

Roads in the area have concrete barriers and multiple roadblocks. The building is about 1.5 km (1 mile) away from Villa Somalia, the president’s office.

Al Shabaab said in a statement its suicide bombers struck, “then foot fighters entered the building after killing the building guards”.

The movement, which has been fighting the government since 2006 and seeking to impose its own interpretation of Islamic law, frequently carries out bombings and gun attacks across the country.

In a sign the government was expanding its offensive against the group into the country’s south, state TV for Jubbaland, one of the country’s semi-autonomous states, reported on Sunday that regional and Somalia federal forces had launched attacks on al Shabaab and taken control of the town of Janay Abdale from the militants.

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