Morning Headlines - Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024 | Recent News

U.S. and World Headlines

Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Granting Legal Status To Spouses Of U.S. Citizens

A federal judge in Texas on Monday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from granting legal status to unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens, granting a request from 16 Republican-led states who challenged the new policy.

The order by District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker effectively brings to a halt a large immigration program that opened just last week to an estimated half a million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status. While preliminary and temporary, the ruling is also an early blow to one of the two major moves taken by President Biden in June on immigration, a top campaign issue in the 2024 race for president.

Zuckerberg Says He Regrets Not Being More Outspoken About ‘Government Pressure’

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Monday that he regrets not being more outspoken about “government pressure” to take down COVID-19 related content.

Zuckerberg said senior Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to “censor” content in 2021.

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken,” he wrote to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

The Bewildering Politics Of Telegram

When Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested late Saturday at an airport outside Paris, accused of complicity in illegal online behavior and refusing to disclose information to authorities, right-leaning American political figures leapt to his defense, including Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

Left-leaning civil liberties groups also took Telegram’s side — to a point.

Harris Flip-Flops On Building The Border Wall

If she's elected president, Kamala Harris pledges to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along the southern border — a project she once opposed and called "un-American" during the Trump administration.

It's the latest example of Harris flip-flopping on her past liberal positions such as supporting Medicare for All and banning fracking — proposals that aides say she now is against.

Red Lobster Closing Nearly Two Dozen More Restaurants

Red Lobster plans to close nearly two dozen more restaurants in coming days as the bankrupt seafood chain prepares to be acquired.

Known for its affordable seafood and cheddar bay biscuits, the nationwide restaurant chain expects to walk away from the leases of 23 additional locations by August 31, a recent court filing showed. The closures will add to a tally that has seen more than 100 Red Lobster outlets shut down earlier this summer.

Harris Adviser Says Campaign ‘Throwing Everything’ Into Wisconsin

David Plouffe, a top adviser to Kamala Harris’ campaign, says the campaign is “throwing everything” into Wisconsin in the final 10 weeks of the presidential election.

“Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the top of the list in terms of where you want to put your effort,” Plouffe said on WISN’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “And here’s where the excitement matters. She’ll have the financial resources and the people resources. Why? You’re throwing everything you can into Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and I mean everything.”

Wisconsin Seeks To Bring Its PFAS Standards In Line With New Federal Regulations

Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that his administration is proposing to bring the state’s drinking water standards for PFAS in line with new federal regulations unveiled earlier this year.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency set individual limits for two of the most widely studied PFAS chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — at 4 parts per trillion. The agency set levels for three other PFAS, including GenX chemicals, at 10 parts per trillion. It also set levels for a mix of two or more of the following PFAS: PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and “GenX Chemicals. Wisconsin doesn’t currently have standards for those compounds.

Palestinian Americans In Wisconsin Have Felt Isolated From Politics, And The 2024 Election Has Made It Worse

After watching the U.S. fund Israel’s war on Gaza and not feeling represented by their politicians, Palestinian Americans in Wisconsin are finding ways to register their discontent.

Green Party's Jill Stein Will Remain On Wisconsin's 2024 Ballot After State Supreme Court Rejects Hearing Challenge

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided against hearing a challenge brought by an employee of the Democratic National Committee arguing that the Green Party did not meet requirements under the law for its presidential candidate Jill Stein being on the state's 2024 ballot.

Wisconsin Man Sentenced To 20 Years’ Imprisonment For Sex Trafficking

Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on August 22, 2024, Montae D. Jacobs (age: 34) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was sentenced to a term of 20 years imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, after being convicted following a bench trial of two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, one count of sex trafficking of a child, and ten other related charges.