Sen. Hagan Pushes Paid Family Leave

Barron Trump, who will graduate from high school next week and has largely been kept out of the political spotlight, was picked by the Republican Party of Florida as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, NBC News reports.

President Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there, the AP reports.

The House resoundingly defeated a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, Punchbowl News reports. The vote was 359 to 43. Eleven Republicans voted against tabling the resolution, effectively voting to oust Johnson. Seven lawmakers voted present.

Through her work with American Farmland Trust (AFT), Megan Faller was introduced to a cattle farmer who had inherited land in Louisiana that his grandfather had purchased after being emancipated from slavery. Faller met the farmer in 2022, not long after Hurricane Ida had cut a path of destruction through the farm, destroying barns and uprooting trees.

Shortly after dozens of New York City police officers gathered to clear out student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza last week, the city’s police force published something peculiar on social media: a highly produced sizzle reel of the raids. One of the videos—posted less than 12 hours after the police raids on encampments at New York University and the New School last Friday—showed officers standing at attention as John Chell, chief of patrol for the NYPD, instructs them to remain “professional” and “firm, but fair.” Chell reminds them, “You’re dealing with children or teenagers slash young adults that aren’t at the mental capacity that you are at as professional police officers—keep that in mind.” Ominous music plays in the background as scenes of protesters wearing keffiyehs flicker across the screen.

Colorado lawmakers have agreed on a compromise measure to combat distracted driving on roadways, solidifying a ban on the hand-held use of cellphones behind the wheel that is moving toward passage in the final hours of this year’s legislative session. Negotiators faced pressure from law enforcement officials to make sure the ban was enforceable — and from defense attorneys and some lawmakers to include limits so police couldn’t pull over practically anybody. Transportation officials see distracted driving as a rising peril on the road.